Tao Jin - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Tao Jin

European Journal of Neurology, 2007

Increased protein level in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is a characteristic of patients with Gui... more Increased protein level in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is a characteristic of patients with Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS), an acute inflammatory autoimmune disorder in the peripheral nervous system (PNS). However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the disease remain poorly understood and so far no reliable disease-related markers are available. By comparing the CSF proteome of GBS patients with control subjects suffering from other neurological disorders, it may be possible to identify proteins that involve in the disease process and thus to study the pathogenesis of GBS. We used two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis (2D DIGE) technique, in combination with matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS), to determine the abnormal CSF proteins in GBS patients. Our data showed that the levels of six proteins and their isoforms in CSF were significantly altered in GBS patients compared with controls. Haptoglobin, apolipoprotein A-IV and PRO2044 (unnamed protein) were considerably increased in the CSF of GBS patients, whereas transthyretin, apolipoprotein E and fibrinogen were considerably decreased. We concluded that these six proteins may be involved in the pathogenesis of GBS and call for further studying the role of these proteins in the pathogenesis of the disease.

Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2006

Stimulation-induced changes in transverse relaxation rates can provide important insight into und... more Stimulation-induced changes in transverse relaxation rates can provide important insight into underlying physiological changes in blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) contrast. It is often assumed that BOLD fractional signal change (⌬S/S) is linearly dependent on echo time (TE). This relationship was evaluated at 9.4 T during visual stimulation in cats with gradient-echo (GE) and spin-echo (SE) echo-planar imaging (EPI). The TE dependence of GE ⌬S/S is close to linear in both the parenchyma and large vessel area at the cortical surface for TEs of 6 -20 ms. However, this dependence is nonlinear for SE studies in the TE range of 16 -70 ms unless a diffusion-weighting of b ‫؍‬ 200 s/mm 2 is applied. This behavior is not caused by inflow effects, T 2 * decay during data acquisition in SE-EPI, or extravascular spin density changes. Our results are explained by a two-compartment model in which the extravascular contribution to ⌬S/S vs. TE is linear, while the intravascular contribution can be nonlinear depending on the magnetic field strength and TE. At 9.4 T, the large-vessel IV signal can be minimized by using long TE and/or moderate diffusion weighting. Thus, stimulation-induced relaxation rate changes should be carefully determined, and their physiological meanings should be interpreted with caution. Magn Reson Med 55: 1281-1290, 2006.

Neuroimage, 2008

The spatiotemporal characteristics of cerebral blood volume (CBV) and flow (CBF) responses are im... more The spatiotemporal characteristics of cerebral blood volume (CBV) and flow (CBF) responses are important for understanding neurovascular coupling mechanisms and blood oxygenation leveldependent (BOLD) signals. For this, cortical layer-dependent BOLD, CBV and CBF responses were measured at the cat visual cortex using fMRI. Major findings are: (i) The time-dependent fMRI cortical profile is dependent on imaging modality. Overall, the peak across the cortex occurs at the cortical surface for BOLD, but at the middle cortical layer for CBV and CBF. Compared to an initial stimulation period (4-10 s), the spatial specificity of CBV to the middle cortical layer increases significantly at a later time, while the specificity of BOLD and CBF slightly changes. (ii) The CBV response at the upper cortical area containing large pial vessels has a faster onset time and time to peak than the BOLD response at the same area, and a faster time to peak than CBV at the middle cortical area with microvessels. This suggests that the dilation of microvessels at the middle cortical area follows arterial volume increase at the surface of the cortex. (iii) For all three modalities, the post-stimulus undershoot was observed with the 60-s stimulation paradigm, indicating that the poststimulus BOLD undershoot cannot be explained by the delayed venous CBV recovery theory under our experimental conditions. (iv) The relationship between CBV and CBF responses is both spatially and temporally dependent. Thus, a single power-law scaling constant (gamma value) may not be applicable for high-resolution study.

Cryogenics, 1999

Experiments have been made on the onset and damping behavior of the oscillation in a thermoacoust... more Experiments have been made on the onset and damping behavior of the oscillation in a thermoacoustic prime mover with nitrogen as the working fluids. In contrast to the traditions indicating that the damping point coincide with the onset one, we find lags between the onset temperature and the damping temperature in the thermoacoustic oscillation. A hysteretic loop, due to the temperature difference, is recognized for the first time. It is confirmed by all results of the nitrogen of 0.4–2.4 MPa. Some interesting phenomena observed in the experiments are also presented.

Materials Science and Engineering A-structural Materials Properties Microstructure and Processing, 2003

Creep tests of a nickel–base single crystal superalloy with minor C addition and non-carbon were ... more Creep tests of a nickel–base single crystal superalloy with minor C addition and non-carbon were carried out at different temperatures and stresses. Correlations between microstructural change and testing temperature and stress were enabled through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), detailing the rafting microstucture and carbides precipitation. The results showed that minor carbon addition prolonged the second stage of creep strain curves and improved creep properties. Some carbide was precipitated during creep tests in modified alloy. M23C6 carbide precipitated at lower temperature (871–982 °C), while (M6C)2 carbide precipitated at higher temperature (>1000 °C), all of which was considered to be beneficial to creep properties. A small amount of MC carbide formed during solidification and its decomposition product (M6C)1 were detrimental to mechanical properties, which together with micropores provided the site of initiation of cracks and led to the final fracture.

Global Telecommunications Conference, . GLOBECOM . IEEE, 2006

Abstract― Ubiquitous wireless networking calls for efficient dynamic spectrum allocation (DSA) am... more Abstract― Ubiquitous wireless networking calls for efficient dynamic spectrum allocation (DSA) among heterogeneous users with diverse transmission types and bandwidth demands. To meet user-specific quality-of-service (QoS) requirements, the power and ...

International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology, 2006

Staphylokinase is a 136 aa long bacteriophage encoded protein expressed by lysogenic strains of S... more Staphylokinase is a 136 aa long bacteriophage encoded protein expressed by lysogenic strains of Staphylococcus aureus. Present understanding of the role of staphylokinase during bacterial infection is based on its interaction with the host proteins, α-defensins and plasminogen. α-Defensins are bactericidal peptides originating from human neutrophils. Binding of staphylokinase to α-defensins abolishes their bactericidal properties, which makes staphylokinase a vital tool for staphylococcal resistance to host innate immunity. Complex binding between staphylokinase and plasminogen results in the formation of active plasmin, a broad-spectrum proteolytic enzyme facilitating bacterial penetration into the surrounding tissues. We have recently shown high levels of staphylokinase expression in clinical isolates of skin and mucosal origin and relative low levels in isolates invading internal organs. These findings are supported by sepsis studies using isogenic S. aureus strains demonstrating increased bacterial load in the absence of staphylokinase production. Our observations indicate that staphylokinase favours symbiosis of staphylococci with the host that makes it an important colonization factor.

Cryogenics, 2002

Frequency matching is of great importance to a thermoacoustically driven pulse tube refrigeration... more Frequency matching is of great importance to a thermoacoustically driven pulse tube refrigeration system. To compute the resonance frequency of thermoacoustic engines, the fluid impedance method is introduced. The calculations of the thermoacoustic engines with different arrangements of buffer have been carried out. The influence of the buffer arrangements and the volume on the resonance frequency as well as the acoustic power of thermoacoustic engines is also discussed.

IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 2002

The etching effect on the bandwidth of acoustooptic coupling between core and cladding modes in a... more The etching effect on the bandwidth of acoustooptic coupling between core and cladding modes in a single-mode (SM) fiber was investigated experimentally and theoretically. It was found that when the fiber diameter is etched down to a critical value, extremely broadband acoustooptic tunable filter (AOTF) could be achieved. We demonstrated an ultra-broadband acoustooptic filter with 3-dB bandwidth of 362 nm and dynamic range of 14 dB, which is the broadest bandwidth of AOTF on SMF up to now. The results point to potential realization of a new class of high efficient, fast, all-fiber variable optical attenuator.

British Journal of Haematology, 2007

The myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) represent a heterogeneous group of disorders. Low-risk MDS re... more The myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) represent a heterogeneous group of disorders. Low-risk MDS represent a subgroup with a relatively good prognosis, but with few trials evaluating outcomes. A pooled analysis based upon a MEDLINE search identified 162 original articles describing patient characteristics and effect of therapy on 2592 individuals with pathologically confirmed refractory anaemia or refractory anaemia with ringed sideroblasts with <5% bone marrow blasts. Treatments were categorised as growth factors (GF) or non-growth factors (NGF). International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS) score was documented or calculated when possible. Responses and outcomes were standardised according to the International Working Group MDS criteria. Growth factors produced higher overall response rates (39·5% vs. 31·4% for NGF, P = 0·019), while NGF yielded better CR/PR rates (25·6% vs. 9·1% for GF, P = 0·03). Over 2 years of follow-up, those receiving GF demonstrated greater overall and progression-free survival than NGF, after controlling for baseline patient characteristics. Decision tools need to be developed to determine which therapy to choose for patients with low-risk MDS.

The Web services paradigm is an opportunity for a universal programmatic interface to the Interne... more The Web services paradigm is an opportunity for a universal programmatic interface to the Internet, one that could parallel the web-browser, human user-centered interface, in scope and adoption. However, there remains a great challenge in being able to reliably perform transactions in the loosely coupled Web services environment, hosted by independent Web service providers, running on heterogeneous systems. The ACID properties in traditional transaction models cannot be guaranteed in this environment, due to unreliable communication, the uncertain duration of individual services and the decentralized nature of server management. We draw lessons from the long history of research into distributed transactional systems. The recent WS-Coordinate protocol draws upon some but not all of those lessons. Unlike WS-Coordinate, we are interested in being able to incorporate independent take-it or leave-it Web services, into orchestrated systems — not just those that agree at the outset, to provide a particular service, with a mutually agreed quality-of-service regime. To address these issues, we call upon the flexibility of the agent-oriented paradigm, and propose an agent-based transactional model (ABT) that orchestrates multiple, often independent Web services, into new robust services. We assert that the use of multi-agent technology to manage and orchestrate transactions is the right choice in the Web services environment — the choice most-likely to propel the Web services paradigm to levels of adoption that approach those of the web-browser interface.

Fems Microbiology Letters, 2002

Interactions between staphylococci and the joint tissues of the host lead typically to rapidly pr... more Interactions between staphylococci and the joint tissues of the host lead typically to rapidly progressing and highly destructive processes. Staphylococci possess a vast arsenal of components and products that contribute to the pathogenesis of joint infection. Occasionally these compounds have overlapping activities and act either in concert or alone. Host responsiveness to staphylococcal infection displays an even more complex pattern. Most of the cells and molecules that participate in the innate immune system protect the host against bacteria. However, the staphylococci have developed systems that counteract endogenous protective mechanisms. Interestingly, certain cells and molecules of the acquired immune system potentiate the severity of infection by triggering exaggerated responses to the staphylococcal danger signals. This review deals with the intricate host–bacterium interactions that occur during experimental septic arthritis, and outlines potential preventive and treatment modalities.

Journal of Controlled Release, 2007

Novel thermomechanical hydrogel scaffolds containing our previously prepared microspheres loaded ... more Novel thermomechanical hydrogel scaffolds containing our previously prepared microspheres loaded with bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP) were successfully generated by radical crosslinking and low dose γ-irradiation from combination of two kind of biomaterials: glycidyl methacrylated dextran (Dex-GMA) and gelatin. The structure of those resulting smart hybrid hydrogels was evaluated by mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses, and as a function of the degree of Dex-GMA's substitution (DS), the proportion between Dex-GMA and gelatin, and the initial polyethyleneglycol (PEG) concentration used in the preparation of the hydrogels. The swelling and degradation properties and the temperature-sensitive drug release manner were determined by dynamic evaluation methods in vitro, and the gel content was also calculated. MIP analysis showed that by systematically altering the preparation parameters, the overall networks were clearly macroporous with pore sizes ranging from 5.6 ± 4.2 to 37.7 ± 13.7 μm. As expected, the pore size decreased as DS and initial PEG concentration increased, whereas the opposite was found for the gel content. Moreover, the porosity values ranged from 73.7 ± 12.4% up to 89.6 ±6.3%. The SEM results also showed the inter-connective pores as well as microspheres encased into their porous structure of those hydrogels. The swelling and degradation properties of the resultant hydrogels varied according to the DS of Dex-GMA and initial PEG concentration, while the proportion between Dex-GMA and gelatin had no significant influence on those characterizations. By changing the composition ratio of the two precursors, the phase transition temperature (lower critical solution temperature, LSCT) of the hydrogel scaffolds could also be adjusted to be or near the body temperature, so BMP release from microsphere–hydrogel compounds could be accordingly controlled and the release period could be varied from 18 to more than 28 days. These results demonstrated that a novel temperature-sensitive and biodegradable Dex-GMA/gelatin scaffold containing microspheres loaded with BMP could be successfully developed from both dextran- and gelatin-based biomaterials, which could promisingly satisfy the need, desire, and expectation of both self-regulated drug delivery and tissue-engineering applications.

Journal of Medical Microbiology, 2003

Staphylokinase (SAK) is a plasminogen-activator protein produced by Staphylococcus aureus. SAK pr... more Staphylokinase (SAK) is a plasminogen-activator protein produced by Staphylococcus aureus. SAK production was evaluated in vitro in S. aureus isolates from the bloodstream of patients with lethal (n ¼ 56) and non-lethal (n ¼ 57) bacteraemia and from anterior nares of healthy subjects (n ¼ 48). Most isolates (93/161) produced SAK, and 68 % of SAK-producing isolates expressed both surface-bound and secreted types of SAK. SAK production was significantly less common among isolates from patients with lethal bacteraemia (39 %) than isolates from patients with non-lethal bacteraemia (68 %) or nasal carriage isolates (67 %) (P , 0·01). After adjusting for infection with methicillin-resistant S. aureus and APACHE II score, patients infected with SAK-deficient isolates were 4·3 times more likely to have lethal bacteraemia than patients whose infecting isolate produced high levels of SAK (>5 ìg ml À1 ), suggesting that in vitro SAK production was inversely associated with clinical outcome among patients with S. aureus bacteraemia. The high frequency of SAK production in nasal isolates and in cases with uncomplicated bacteraemia suggests that SAK may be one of the adaptive mechanisms of S. aureus symbiosis with the host.

Mobile Ad Hoc Networking and Computing, 2009

We consider the problem of key establishment over a wireless radio channel in the presence of a c... more We consider the problem of key establishment over a wireless radio channel in the presence of a communication jammer, initially introduced in [14]. The communicating nodes are not assumed to pre-share any secret. The established key can later be used by a conventional spread-spectrum communication system. We introduce new communication concepts called intractable forward-decoding and efficient backwarddecoding. Decoding under our mechanism requires at most twice the computation cost of the conventional SS decoding and one packet worth of signal storage. We introduce techniques that apply a key schedule to packet spreading and develop a provably optimal key schedule to minimize the bit-despreading cost. We also use efficient FFT-based algorithms for packet detection. We evaluate our techniques and show that they are efficient both in terms of resiliency against jammers and computation. Finally, our technique has additional features such as the inability to detect packet transmission until the last few bits are being transmitted, and transmissions being destination-specific. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first solution that is optimal in terms of communication energy cost with very little storage and computation overhead.

Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2007

Phase changes in blood oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) fMRI have been observed in humans; howe... more Phase changes in blood oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) fMRI have been observed in humans; however, their exact origin has not yet been fully elucidated. To investigate this issue, we acquired gradient-echo (GE) BOLD and cerebral blood volume (CBV)-weighted fMRI data in anesthetized cats during visual stimulation at 4.7T and 9.4T, before and after injection of a superparamagnetic contrast agent (monocrystalline iron oxide nanoparticles, MION), respectively. In BOLD fMRI, large positive changes in both magnitude and phase were observed predominantly in the cortical surface area, where the large draining veins reside. In CBV-weighted fMRI, large negative changes in both magnitude and phase were detected mainly in the middle cortical area, where the greatest CBV change takes place. Additionally, the phase change was temporally correlated with the magnitude response and was linearly dependent on the echo time (TE), which cannot be explained by the intravascular (IV) contribution and functional temperature change. Phase changes with the opposite polarity were also observed in the regions around the dominant phase changes. These phase changes can be explained by the application of the “Lorentz sphere” theory in the presence of relevant activation-induced changes in vessels. The volume-averaged magnetization and its demagnetization are the main sources of fMRI signal phase change. Magn Reson Med 57:520–527, 2007. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Cryogenics, 2005

A resonance tube is an important component of a thermoacoustic engine, which has great influence ... more A resonance tube is an important component of a thermoacoustic engine, which has great influence on the performance of the thermoacoustically driven pulse tube refrigerator. A standing wave thermoacoustic engine is simulated with linear thermoacoustics. Computed results show that an appropriate accretion of the resonance tube length may lead to a decrease of the working frequency and an increase of the pressure amplitude, which will improve the match between the thermoacoustic engine and the pulse tube refrigerator. The theoretical prediction is verified by experiments. A refrigeration temperature as low as 88.6 K has been achieved with an optimized length of the resonance tube, helium as working gas, and 2200 W of heating power.

Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology, 2013

ABSTRACT Background The anode material is considered a key factor influencing the energy conversi... more ABSTRACT Background The anode material is considered a key factor influencing the energy conversion in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) because it links microbiology and electrochemistry. To further improve power generation, carbon mesh anodes modified by hydrazine hydrate chemical reduction were applied in air-cathode MFCs. ResultsThe power densities of MFCs using hydrazine-treated anodes were all higher than the untreated control, among which a 30% hydrazine hydrate-modified anode (CM-30%) showed the best performance. The maximum power density reached 865 mW m−2, which was 31% higher than the unmodified control (CM-0%, 662 mW m−2). The Coulombic efficiency (CE) increased from 10.7% to 13.3% (improved by 24.3%). Furthermore, the acclimation time was reduced from 142 h to 95 h, shortened by 32% compared with the control. Such improvement in MFCs performance was correlated with the increased surface area revealed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and the change of surface functional groups revealed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. This enhancement in MFCs performance was also proved feasible when using real swine wastewater as substrate. Conclusions The results indicated that hydrazine hydrate chemical reduction was an effective method for anode modification to improve the performance of MFCs. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry

Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China - TRANS NONFERROUS METAL SOC CH, 2011

Based on a 5% (mass fraction) Re-containing single crystal nickel-based superalloy with 3% (mass ... more Based on a 5% (mass fraction) Re-containing single crystal nickel-based superalloy with 3% (mass fraction) Cr, the microstructural variation with Cr addition was investigated. The experimental results show that segregation of alloying elements was enhanced in as-cast microstructure with Cr addition; and the volume fraction of eutectic is increased. However, the solidus and liquidus temperatures are remarkably reduced. With the increase of Cr content, the average γ′ size and volume fraction are decreased in the fully heat treated microstructure. X-ray diffraction results indicate that γ/γ′ lattice misfit becomes more negative. According to the energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) results, Cr is mainly distributed in the γ matrix; and more γ-forming elements, such as Re and W, enter the γ matrix, while the γ/γ′ partition ratio of Cr is inversely decreased.

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2014

CuO has been considered as a promising photocathodic material for photoelectrochemical (PEC) hydr... more CuO has been considered as a promising photocathodic material for photoelectrochemical (PEC) hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In this work, CuO films were prepared by a facile and cost-effective method that involves solution synthesis, spin-coating and thermal treatment processes. The resulting CuO films had a monoclinic crystal structure with bandgap energy of 1.56 eV and a conduction band position of 3.73 eV below the vacuum level in borate buffer solution. The CuO films exhibited good PEC activity toward HER and the preparation conditions had great effect on the activity. The photoactivity of the CuO film decayed to approximately 19% of its original value after reaction for 10 h under illumination. The reduction of CuO to Cu 2 O has been confirmed to be a parallel competitive reaction against HER. The mismatched band structure of the resulting CuO/Cu 2 O heterojunction was believed to be the main cause of the decay of photoactivity. The photoassisted electrodeposition method was developed to prepare CuO/Pd composite photocathode. The presence of Pd on CuO greatly increased the photocurrent especially at low overpotentials. In addition, the CuO/Pd composite exhibited significantly improved photostability compared to CuO. This work demonstrates the feasibility of increasing PEC activity and stability of CuO-based photocathodes by combining CuO with noble metal nanoparticles.