The rotation curve (RC) of the Milky Way out to ~100 kpc has been constructed using ~16,000 primary red clump giants (PRCGs) in the outer disc selected from the LAMOST Spectroscopic Survey of the ...Galactic Anti-centre (LSS-GAC) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)-III/APOGEE survey, combined with ~5700 halo K giants (HKGs) selected from the SDSS/SEGUE survey. To derive the RC, the PRCG sample of the warm disc population and the HKG sample of halo stellar population are, respectively, analysed using a kinematical model allowing for the asymmetric drift corrections and re-analysed using the spherical Jeans equation along with measurements of the anisotropic parameter beta currently available. The typical uncertainties of RC derived from the PRCG and HKG samples are, respectively, 5-7 km s super( -1) and several tens km s super( -1). We determine a circular velocity at the solar position, ... and an azimuthal peculiar speed of the Sun, ..., both in good agreement with the previous determinations. The newly constructed RC has a generally flat value of 240 km s super( -1) within a Galactocentric distance rof 25 kpc and then decreases steadily to 150 km s super( -1) at r ~ 100 kpc. On top of this overall trend, the RC exhibits two prominent localized dips, one at r ~ 11 kpc and another at r ~ 19 kpc. From the newly constructed RC, combined with other constraints, we have built a parametrized mass model for the Galaxy, yielding a virial mass of the Milky Way's dark matter halo of ... and a local dark matter density, ... (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
MicroRNAs (miRs) are small noncoding RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression by binding to the three untranslated regions of their target mRNAs. Deregulations of miRs were shown to play pivotal ...roles in tumorigenesis and progression. Recent research efforts have been devoted to translating these basic discoveries into applications that could improve the therapeutic outcome of patients with cancer. MiR-34a is a highly conserved miR throughout many different species. In humans, there are three homologs (hsa-miR34a, hsa-miR-34b and hsa-miR-34c). Early studies have shown that miR-34a acts as a tumor-suppressor gene by targeting many oncogenes related to proliferation, apoptosis and invasion. In this review, we provide a complex overview of miR-34a, including regulating its expression, its known functions in cancer and future challenges as a potential therapeutic target in human cancers.
We present a catalog of 5290 RR Lyrae stars (RRLs) with metallicities estimated from spectra of the LAMOST Experiment for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (LEGUE) and the Sloan Extension for ...Galactic Understanding and Exploration (SEGUE) surveys. Nearly 70% of them (3642 objects) also have systemic radial velocities measured. Given the pulsating nature of RRLs, metallicity estimates are based on spectra of individual exposures that have been matched with their synthetic templates. The systemic radial velocities are measured by fitting the observed velocity as a function of phase assuming an empirical pulsating velocity template curve. Various tests show that our analyses yield metallicities with a typical precision of 0.20 dex and systemic radial velocities with uncertainties ranging from 5 to 21 km s−1 (depending on the number of radial-velocity measurements available for a given star). Based on the well-calibrated near-infrared PMW1Z or , and MV-Fe/H relations, precise distances are derived for these RRLs. Finally, we include Gaia DR2 proper motions in our catalog. The catalog should be very useful for various Galactic studies, especially of the Galactic halo.
Background
While the majority of studies report that a raised serum α‐fetoprotein (AFP) level before operation is associated with a high risk of recurrence and death in patients who undergo ...hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), results are conflicting. The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic value of AFP.
Methods
Serum AFP levels were measured in patients with hepatitis‐associated HCC who underwent hepatectomy between 1995 and 2012. Kaplan–Meier and multivariable analyses were performed to identify risk factors for overall and disease‐free survival. Univariable and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression was used to evaluate the predictive value of AFP. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated to identify the AFP level that had the highest accuracy in discriminating between survivors and non‐survivors.
Results
Some 376 patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)‐associated HCC were included in the study. The overall survival rate was 58·8 per cent in patients with an AFP level of 400 ng/ml or less compared with 40·4 per cent for those with a level exceeding 400 ng/ml (P = 0·001). AFP concentration above 400 ng/ml was an independent risk factor for shorter disease‐free and overall survival after surgery. ROC analysis indicated that the optimal cut‐off values for AFP varied for different subtypes of HCC. The sensitivity and specificity were lower with areas under the ROC curve of less than 0·600. An AFP level greater than 400 ng/ml was not sensitive enough to predict the prognosis in patients with an HCC diameter smaller than 3 cm.
Conclusion
A serum AFP level above 400 ng/ml predicts poor overall and recurrence‐free survival after hepatectomy in patients with HBV‐associated HCC. AFP is not a strong prognostic marker given its poor discriminatory power, with low sensitivity and specificity.
Not useful
Accurate determination of stellar atmospheric parameters and elemental abundances is crucial for Galactic archaeology via large-scale spectroscopic surveys. In this paper, we estimate stellar ...atmospheric parameters -- effective temperature T sub( eff), surface gravity log g and metallicity Fe/H, absolute magnitudes M sub( V) and M sub( Ks), ...-element to metal (and iron) abundance ratio .../M (and .../Fe), as well as carbon and nitrogen abundances C/H and N/H from the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fibre Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) spectra with a multivariate regression method based on kernel-based principal component analysis, using stars in common with other surveys (Hipparcos, Kepler, Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment) as training data sets. Both internal and external examinations indicate that given a spectral signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) better than 50, our method is capable of delivering stellar parameters with a precision of ~100 K for T sub( eff), ~0.1 dex for log g, 0.3-0.4 mag for M sub( V) and M sub( Ks), 0.1 dex for Fe/H, C/H and N/H, and better than 0.05 dex for .../M (.../Fe). The results are satisfactory even for a spectral SNR of 20. The work presents first determinations of C/H and N/H abundances from a vast data set of LAMOST, and, to our knowledge, the first reported implementation of absolute magnitude estimation directly based on a vast data set of observed spectra. The derived stellar parameters for millions of stars from the LAMOST surveys will be publicly available in the form of value-added catalogues. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
A Li-ion capacitor (LIC), typically composed of a pre-lithiated negative electrode and an activated-carbon positive electrode, can provide high energy and power density. In this work, we compare the ...electrochemical performances of pre-lithiated graphene nanosheets and conventional graphite as negative electrode materials for LICs. The LICs employing pre-lithiated graphene nanosheets show a specific capacitance of 168.5 F g−1 with 74% capacitance retention at 400 mA g−1 after 300 cycles. Moreover, the capacitors deliver a maximum power density of 222.2 W kg−1 at an energy density of 61.7 Wh kg−1, operated in the voltage range of 2.0–4.0 V. Therefore, pre-lithiated graphene nanosheets are promising negative electrode materials for high power LICs.
Display omitted
•Pre-lithiated graphene nanosheets are explored for Li-ion capacitors.•The Li-ion capacitors exhibit high energy and power density at high voltages.•Pre-lithiated graphene nanosheets are promising for high power Li-ion capacitors.
Dissipative self‐assembly processes in nature rely on chemical fuels that activate proteins for assembly through the formation of a noncovalent complex. The catalytic activity of the assemblies ...causes fuel degradation, resulting in the formation of an assembly in a high‐energy, out‐of‐equilibrium state. Herein, we apply this concept to a synthetic system and demonstrate that a substrate can induce the formation of vesicular assemblies, which act as cooperative catalysts for cleavage of the same substrate.
Self‐destruction for good: A substrate is shown to induce the self‐assembly of a cooperative catalyst, leading to its own destruction. Nature exploits the same strategy to obtain high‐energy structures such as microtubules and to drive non‐equilibrium phenomena.
The obese gene product, leptin, plays a central role in food intake and energy metabolism. The physiological roles of leptin in human bodily function have been broadened over the past decade since ...leptin was first discovered in 1994. Evidence has suggested that leptin plays a specific role in the intricate cascade of cardiovascular events, in addition to its well-established metabolic effects. Leptin, a hormone linking adiposity and central nervous circuits to reduce appetite and enhance energy expenditure, has been shown to increase overall sympathetic nerve activity, facilitate glucose utilization and improve insulin sensitivity. In addition, leptin is capable of regulating cardiac and vascular contractility through a local nitric oxide-dependent mechanism. However, elevated plasma leptin levels or hyperleptinemia, have been demonstrated to correlate with hyperphagia, insulin resistance and other markers of the metabolic syndrome including obesity, hyperlipidemia and hypertension, independent of total adiposity. Elevated plasma leptin levels may be an independent risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease. Although mechanisms leading to hyperleptinemia have not been well described, factors such as increased food intake and insulin resistance have been shown to rapidly enhance plasma leptin levels and subsequently tissue leptin resistance. These findings have prompted the speculation that leptin in the physiological range may serve as a physiological regulator of cardiovascular function whereas elevated plasma leptin levels may act as a pathophysiological trigger and/or marker for cardiovascular diseases due to tissue leptin resistance.
Abstract
We present a three-dimensional (3D) extinction analysis in the region towards the supernova remnant (SNR) S147 (G180.0–1.7) using multiband photometric data from the Xuyi Schmidt Telescope ...Photometric Survey of the Galactic Anticentre (XSTPS-GAC), 2MASS and WISE. We isolate a previously unrecognized dust structure likely to be associated with SNR S147. The structure, which we term as ‘S147 dust cloud’, is estimated to have a distance d = 1.22 ± 0.21 kpc, consistent with the conjecture that S147 is associated with pulsar PSR J0538 + 2817. The cloud includes several dense clumps of relatively high extinction that locate on the radio shell of S147 and coincide spatially with the CO and gamma-ray emission features. We conclude that the usage of CO measurements to trace the SNR associated MCs is unavoidably limited by the detection threshold, dust depletion and the difficulty of distance estimates in the outer Galaxy. 3D dust extinction mapping may provide a better way to identify and study SNR–MC interactions.
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