336 research outputs found
Breaking through permeability–selectivity trade-off of thin-film composite membranes assisted with crown ethers
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Functional variant of the carboxypeptidase M (CPM) gene may affect silica-related pneumoconiosis susceptibility by its expression: a multistage case-control study.
ObjectivesIn a genome-wide association study, we discovered chromosome 12q15 (defined as rs73329476) as a silica-related pneumoconiosis susceptibility region. However, the causal variants in this region have not yet been reported.MethodsWe systematically screened eight potentially functional single-neucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) in the genes near rs73329476 (carboxypeptidase M (CPM) and cleavage and polyadenylation specific factor 6 (CPSF6)) in a case-control study including 177 cases with silicosis and 204 healthy controls, matched to cases with years of silica dust exposure. We evaluated the associations between these eight SNPs and the development of silicosis. Luciferase reporter gene assays were performed to test the effects of selected SNP on the activity of CPM in the promoter. In addition, a two-stage case-control study was performed to investigate the expression differences of the two genes in peripheral blood leucocytes from a total of 64 cases with silicosis and 64 healthy controls with similar years of silica dust exposure as the cases.ResultsWe found a strong association between the mutant rs12812500 G allele and the susceptibility of silicosis (OR=1.45, 95% CI 1.03 to 2.04, p=0.034), while luciferase reporter gene assays indicated that the mutant G allele of rs12812500 is strongly associated with increased luciferase levels compared with the wild-type C allele (p<0.01). Moreover, the mRNA (peripheral blood leucocytes) expression of the CPM gene was significantly higher in subjects with silicosis compared with healthy controls.ConclusionsThe rs12812500 variant of the CPM gene may increase silicosis susceptibility by affecting the expression of CPM, which may contribute to silicosis susceptibility with biological plausibility
Towards Better Entity Linking with Multi-View Enhanced Distillation
Dense retrieval is widely used for entity linking to retrieve entities from
large-scale knowledge bases. Mainstream techniques are based on a dual-encoder
framework, which encodes mentions and entities independently and calculates
their relevances via rough interaction metrics, resulting in difficulty in
explicitly modeling multiple mention-relevant parts within entities to match
divergent mentions. Aiming at learning entity representations that can match
divergent mentions, this paper proposes a Multi-View Enhanced Distillation
(MVD) framework, which can effectively transfer knowledge of multiple
fine-grained and mention-relevant parts within entities from cross-encoders to
dual-encoders. Each entity is split into multiple views to avoid irrelevant
information being over-squashed into the mention-relevant view. We further
design cross-alignment and self-alignment mechanisms for this framework to
facilitate fine-grained knowledge distillation from the teacher model to the
student model. Meanwhile, we reserve a global-view that embeds the entity as a
whole to prevent dispersal of uniform information. Experiments show our method
achieves state-of-the-art performance on several entity linking benchmarks.Comment: Accepted by ACL 2023 Main Conferenc
Influence of particle shape on the microstructure evolution and the mechanical properties of granular materials
Modeling realistic Earth matter density for CP violation in neutrino oscillation
We examine the effect of a more realistic Earth matter density model which
takes into account of the local density variations along the baseline of a
possi ble 2100 km very long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. Its
influence to the measurement of CP violation is investigated and a comparison
with the commonly used global density models made. Significant differences are
found in the comparison of the results of the different density models.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figure
Twelve-year outcomes of bedside laser photocoagulation for severe retinopathy of prematurity
PurposeThe purpose of this study is to evaluate the 12-year outcomes of bedside laser photocoagulation (LP) for severe retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) under sedation combined with ocular surface anesthesia in neonatal intensive care units (NICU).DesignThe study is a retrospective case series.MethodsInfants treated with bedside LP for severe ROP from April 2009 to September 2021 were included. All LP treatments were performed under sedation and surface anesthesia at the bedside in NICU. Data were recorded for clinical and demographic characteristics, total laser spots, duration of treatment, proportion of total regression of ROP, proportion of recurrence, and adverse events.ResultsA total of 364 infants (715 eyes) were included, with a mean gestational age of 28.6 ± 2.4 weeks (range: 22.6–36.6 weeks) and a mean birth weight of 1,156.0 ± 339.0 g (range: 480–2,200 g). The mean number of laser spots was 832 ± 469, and the mean duration of treatment was 23.5 ± 5.3 min per eye. Of all the eyes, 98.3% responded to LP with complete regression of ROP. ROP recurred in 15 (2.1%) eyes after the initial LP. Additional LP was performed in seven (1.0%) eyes. No patient exhibited mistaken LP of other ocular tissues, and there were no serious ocular adverse effects. None of them needed endotracheal intubation.ConclusionsBedside LP treatment is effective and safe for premature infants with severe ROP under sedation and surface anesthesia in NICU, especially for infants whose general condition is unstable and not suitable for transport
Detection of a superconducting phase in a two-atom layer of hexagonal Ga film grown on semiconducting GaN(0001)
The recent observation of superconducting state at atomic scale has motivated
the pursuit of exotic condensed phases in two-dimensional (2D) systems. Here we
report on a superconducting phase in two-monolayer crystalline Ga films
epitaxially grown on wide band-gap semiconductor GaN(0001). This phase exhibits
a hexagonal structure and only 0.552 nm in thickness, nevertheless, brings
about a superconducting transition temperature Tc as high as 5.4 K, confirmed
by in situ scanning tunneling spectroscopy, and ex situ electrical
magneto-transport and magnetization measurements. The anisotropy of critical
magnetic field and Berezinski-Kosterlitz-Thouless-like transition are observed,
typical for the 2D superconductivity. Our results demonstrate a novel platform
for exploring atomic-scale 2D superconductor, with great potential for
understanding of the interface superconductivity
Association Between c-Myc and Colorectal Cancer Prognosis: A Meta-Analysis
Background: There is debate as to whether c-Myc predicts prognosis in colorectal cancer (CRC). In this study, we aimed to review the association between c-Myc and CRC prognosis.Methods: Pertinent studies were identified by searching electronic databases and carefully reviewing the reference lists of pertinent studies until March 2016. The summary hazard ratio (HR) and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated to study the association between c-Myc and CRC prognosis.Results: Eight cohort studies (including seven studies about overall survival [OS] and one study about disease free survival [DFS]) were included. The pooled HR of OS was 1.13 (95% CI: 0.66–1.95). In subgroup analysis, no significant association between c-Myc and CRC prognosis was found in the studies either from Western countries (HR: 0.87, 95% CI: 0.68–1.10) or Asian countries (HR: 1.89, 95% CI: 0.62–5.77). HRs were 0.86 (95% CI: 0.38–1.94) and 1.57 (95% CI: 0.73–3.39) for the studies using univariate analysis and multivariate analysis, respectively. HR from the studies that examined DNA level was significantly different (HR: 2.05, 95% CI: 1.22–3.46); while that about RNA level or protein level was not significantly different.Conclusion: c-Myc was not associated with CRC prognosis in this meta-analysis. However, the conclusion is preliminary and should be examined in future studies
Genetic Polymorphisms: A Novel Perspective on Acute Pancreatitis
Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a complex disease that results in significant morbidity and mortality. For many decades, it has compelled researchers to explore the exact pathogenesis and the understanding of the pathogenesis of AP has progressed dramatically. Currently, premature trypsinogen activation and NF-κB activation for inflammation are two remarkable hypotheses for the mechanism of AP. Meanwhile, understanding of the influence of genetic polymorphisms has resulted in tremendous development in the understanding of the advancement of complex diseases. Now, genetic polymorphisms of AP have been noted gradually and many researchers devote themselves to this emerging area. In this review, we comprehensively describe genetic polymorphisms combined with the latest hypothesis of pathogenesis associated with AP
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