Association of Genetic Variants in Complement Factor H and Factor H-Related Genes with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Susceptibility

Zhao, Jian,Wu, Hui,Khosravi, Melanie,Cui, Huijuan,Qian, Xiaoxia,Kelly, Jennifer A.,Kaufman, Kenneth M.,Langefeld, Carl D.,Williams, Adrienne H.,Comeau, Mary E.,Ziegler, Julie T.,Marion, Miranda C.,Adl Public Library of Science 2011 PLoS genetics Vol.7 No.5

<▼1><P>Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a complex polygenic autoimmune disease, is associated with increased complement activation. Variants of genes encoding complement regulator factor H (CFH) and five CFH-related proteins (CFHR1-CFHR5) within the chromosome 1q32 locus linked to SLE, have been associated with multiple human diseases and may contribute to dysregulated complement activation predisposing to SLE. We assessed 60 SNPs covering the <I>CFH</I>-<I>CFHRs</I> region for association with SLE in 15,864 case-control subjects derived from four ethnic groups. Significant allelic associations with SLE were detected in European Americans (EA) and African Americans (AA), which could be attributed to an intronic <I>CFH</I> SNP (rs6677604, in intron 11, <I>P</I><SUB>meta</SUB> = 6.6×10<SUP>−8</SUP>, OR = 1.18) and an intergenic SNP between <I>CFHR1</I> and <I>CFHR4</I> (rs16840639, <I>P</I><SUB>meta</SUB> = 2.9×10<SUP>−7</SUP>, OR = 1.17) rather than to previously identified disease-associated <I>CFH</I> exonic SNPs, including I62V, Y402H, A474A, and D936E. In addition, allelic association of rs6677604 with SLE was subsequently confirmed in Asians (AS). Haplotype analysis revealed that the underlying causal variant, tagged by rs6677604 and rs16840639, was localized to a ∼146 kb block extending from intron 9 of <I>CFH</I> to downstream of <I>CFHR1</I>. Within this block, the deletion of <I>CFHR3</I> and <I>CFHR1</I> (<I>CFHR3-1</I>Δ), a likely causal variant measured using multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification, was tagged by rs6677604 in EA and AS and rs16840639 in AA, respectively. Deduced from genotypic associations of tag SNPs in EA, AA, and AS, homozygous deletion of <I>CFHR3-1</I>Δ (<I>P</I><SUB>meta</SUB> = 3.2×10<SUP>−7</SUP>, OR = 1.47) conferred a higher risk of SLE than heterozygous deletion (<I>P</I><SUB>meta</SUB> = 3.5×10<SUP>−4</SUP>, OR = 1.14). These results suggested that the <I>CFHR3-1</I>Δ deletion within the SLE-associated block, but not the previously described exonic SNPs of <I>CFH</I>, might contribute to the development of SLE in EA, AA, and AS, providing new insights into the role of complement regulators in the pathogenesis of SLE.</P></▼1><▼2><P><B>Author Summary</B></P><P>Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex autoimmune disease, associated with increased complement activation. Previous studies have provided evidence for the presence of SLE susceptibility gene(s) in the chromosome 1q31-32 locus. Within 1q32, genes encoding complement regulator factor H (CFH) and five CFH-related proteins (CFHR1-CFHR5) may contribute to the development of SLE, because genetic variants of these genes impair complement regulation and predispose to various human diseases. In this study, we tested association of genetic variants in the region containing <I>CFH</I> and <I>CFHRs</I> with SLE. We identified genetic variants predisposing to SLE in European American, African American, and Asian populations, which might be attributed to the deletion of <I>CFHR3</I> and <I>CFHR1</I> genes but not previously identified disease-associated exonic variants of <I>CFH</I>. This study provides the first evidence for consistent association between <I>CFH/CFHRs</I> and SLE across multi-ancestral SLE datasets, providing new insights into the role of complement regulators in the pathogenesis of SLE.</P></▼2>

Risk Factors for Lung Cancer Mortality in a Referral Center

Jamaati, H,Baghaei, P,Sharifianfard, M,Emami, H,Najmi, K,Seifi, S,Salimi, B,Pourabdollah, M,Kiani, A,Hashemian, M,Khosravi, A Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2016 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.17 No.6

Background: Lung cancer is one of the most common causes of death that is rising in many countries including Iran. This study aimed to determine the impact of factors on survival of lung cancer patients at a referral center of lung diseases in Tehran, Iran. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on adult lung cancer cases admitted to a referral center for lung diseases from 2011 to 2015. Multivariate analysis was performed to determine the risk factors for all-cause mortality. Results: Of a total 933 patients with lung cancer, 53.4% died, 49.3% of them at the hospital. Overall median follow-up time was 7 months. The most common histological type of cancer was adenocarcinoma with a 13 month median survival time. Age ${\geq}55$ and smoking remained significant for all-cause mortality on Cox analysis, whereas gender was not. Conclusions: The survival of lung cancer patients is poor and the patients with history of smoking and age${\geq}55$ are at increased risk of death. Having a large hospital-based registry provides a good measurement of prognostic statistics for lung cancer. Further investigations are necessary to establish reasons for mortality.

Effects of protein hydrolysates supplementation in low fish meal diets on growth performance, innate immunity and disease resistance of red sea bream Pagrus major

Khosravi, S.,Rahimnejad, S.,Herault, M.,Fournier, V.,Lee, C.R.,Dio Bui, H.T.,Jeong, J.B.,Lee, K.J. Academic Press 2015 Fish & Shellfish Immunology Vol.45 No.2

This study was conducted to evaluate the supplemental effects of three different types of protein hydrolysates in a low fish meal (FM) diet on growth performance, feed utilization, intestinal morphology, innate immunity and disease resistance of juvenile red sea bream. A FM-based diet was used as a high fish meal diet (HFM) and a low fish meal (LFM) diet was prepared by replacing 50% of FM by soy protein concentrate. Three other diets were prepared by supplementing shrimp, tilapia or krill hydrolysate to the LFM diet (designated as SH, TH and KH, respectively). Triplicate groups of fish (4.9 +/- 0.1 g) were fed one of the test diets to apparent satiation twice daily for 13 weeks and then challenged by Edwardsiella tarda. At the end of the feeding trial, significantly (P < 0.05) higher growth performance was obtained in fish fed HFM and hydrolysate treated groups compared to those fed the LFM diet. Significant improvements in feed conversion and protein efficiency ratios were obtained in fish fed the hydrolysates compared to those fed the LFM diet. Significant enhancement in digestibility of protein was found in fish fed SH and KH diets and dry matter digestibility was increased in the group fed SH diet in comparison to LFM group. Fish fed the LFM diet showed significantly higher glucose level than all the other treatments. Whole-body and dorsal muscle compositions were not significantly influenced by dietary treatments. Histological analysis revealed significant reductions in goblet cell numbers and enterocyte length in the proximal intestine of fish fed the LFM diet. Superoxide dismutase activity and total immunoglobulin level were significantly increased in fish fed the diets containing protein hydrolysates compared to the LFM group. Also, significantly higher lysozyme and antiprotease activities were found in fish fed the hydrolysates and HFM diets compared to those offered LFM diet. Fish fed the LFM diet exhibited the lowest disease resistance against E. tarda and dietary inclusion of the hydrolysates resulted in significant enhancement of survival rate. The results of the current study indicated that the inclusion of the tested protein hydrolysates, particularly SH, in a LFM diet can improve growth performance, feed utilization, digestibility, innate immunity and disease resistance of juvenile red sea bream.

NN-based Prediction Interval for Nonlinear Processes Controller

Mohammad Anwar Hosen,Abbas Khosravi,H. M. Dipu Kabir,Michael Johnstone,Douglas Creighton,Saeid Nahavandi,Peng Shi 제어·로봇·시스템학회 2021 International Journal of Control, Automation, and Vol.19 No.9

Neural networks (NNs) are extensively used in modelling, optimization, and control of nonlinear plants. NN-based inverse type point prediction models are commonly used for nonlinear process control. However, prediction errors (root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) etc.) significantly increase in the presence of disturbances and uncertainties. In contrast to point forecast, prediction interval (PI)-based forecast bears extra information such as the prediction accuracy. The PI provides tighter upper and lower bounds with considering uncertainties due to the model mismatch and time dependent or time independent noises for a given confidence level. The use of PIs in the NN controller (NNC) as additional inputs can improve the controller performance. In the present work, the PIs are utilized in control applications, in particular PIs are integrated in the NN internal model-based control framework. A PI-based model that developed using lower upper bound estimation method (LUBE) is used as an online estimator of PIs for the proposed PI-based controller (PIC). PIs along with other inputs for a traditional NN are used to train the PIC to predict the control signal. The proposed controller is tested for two case studies. These include, a chemical reactor, which is a continuous stirred tank reactor (case 1) and a numerical nonlinear plant model (case 2). Simulation results reveal that the tracking performance of the proposed controller is superior to the traditional NNC in terms of setpoint tracking and disturbance rejections. More precisely, 36% and 15% improvements can be achieved using the proposed PIC over the NNC in terms of IAE for case 1 and case 2, respectively for setpoint tracking with step changes.

Exact solution for dynamic response of size dependent torsional vibration of CNT subjected to linear and harmonic loadings

Hosseini, Seyyed A.H.,Khosravi, Farshad Techno-Press 2020 Advances in nano research Vol.8 No.1

Rotating systems concern with torsional vibration, and it should be considered in vibration analysis. To do this, the time-dependent torsional vibrations in a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) under the linear and harmonic external torque, are investigated in this paper. Eringen's nonlocal elasticity theory is considered to demonstrate the nonlocality and constitutive relations. Hamilton's principle is established to derive the governing equation of motion and consequently related boundary conditions. An analytical method, called the Galerkin method, is utilized to discretize the driven differential equations. Linear and harmonic torsional loads, along with determined amplitude, are applied to the SWCNT as the external torques. SWCNT is considered under the clamped-clamped end supports. In free vibration, analysis of small scale effect reveals the capability of natural frequencies in different modes, and this results desirably are in coincidence with another study. The forced torsional vibration in the time domain, especially for carbon nanotubes, has not been done before in the previous works. The previous forced studies were devoted to the transverse vibrations. It should be emphasized that the dynamical analysis of torsion is novel, workable, and at the beginning of the path. The variations of nonlocal parameter, CNT's thickness, and the influence of excitation frequency on time-dependent angular displacement and nondimensional angular displacement are investigated in the context.

Effect of the height of SCSW on the optimal position of the stiffening beam considering axial force effect

B. Farahmand Azar,A. Hadidi,H. Khosravi 국제구조공학회 2012 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.41 No.2

Stiffened coupled shear walls (SCSW) are under axial load resulting from their weight and this axial load affects the behavior of walls because of their excessive height. In this paper, based on the continuum approach, the optimal position of the stiffening beam on the stiffened coupled shear walls is investigated considering the effect of uniformly distributed axial loads. Moreover, the effect of the height of stiffened coupled shear walls on the optimal position of the stiffening beam has been studied with and without considering the axial force effect. A computer program has been developed in MATLAB and numerical examples have been solved to demonstrate the reliability of this method. The effects of the various flexural rigidities of the stiffening beam on the internal forces and the lateral deflection of the structure considering axial force effect have also been investigated.

Analysis of shallow footings rested on tensionless foundations using a mixed finite element model

M. Lezgy-Nazargah,A. Mamazizi,H. Khosravi 국제구조공학회 2022 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.81 No.3

Shallow footings usually belonged to the category of thick plate structures. For accurate analysis of thick plates, the contribution of out-of-plane components of the stress tensor should be considered in the formulation. Most of the available shallow footing models are based on the classical plate theories, which usually neglect the effects of the out-of-plane stresses. In this study, a mixed-field plate finite element model (FEM) is developed for the analysis of shallow footings rested on soil foundations. In addition to displacement field variables, the out-of-plane components of the stress tensor are also assumed as a priori unknown variables. For modeling the interaction effect of the soil under and outside of the shallow footings, the modified Vlasov theory is used. The tensionless nature of the supporting soil foundation is taken into account by adopting an incremental, iterative procedure. The equality requirement of displacements at the interface between the shallow footing and soil is fulfilled using the penalty approach. For validation of the present mixed FEM, the obtained results are compared with the results of 3D FEM and previous results published in the literature. The comparisons show the present mixed FEM is an efficient and accurate tool for solving the problems of shallow footings rested on subsoil.

Effect of the height of SCSW on the optimal position of the stiffening beam considering axial force effect

Azar, B. Farahmand,Hadidi, A.,Khosravi, H. Techno-Press 2012 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.41 No.2

Stiffened coupled shear walls (SCSW) are under axial load resulting from their weight and this axial load affects the behavior of walls because of their excessive height. In this paper, based on the continuum approach, the optimal position of the stiffening beam on the stiffened coupled shear walls is investigated considering the effect of uniformly distributed axial loads. Moreover, the effect of the height of stiffened coupled shear walls on the optimal position of the stiffening beam has been studied with and without considering the axial force effect. A computer program has been developed in MATLAB and numerical examples have been solved to demonstrate the reliability of this method. The effects of the various flexural rigidities of the stiffening beam on the internal forces and the lateral deflection of the structure considering axial force effect have also been investigated.

The Effect of Stiffener on Behavior of Reduced Beam Section Connections in Steel Moment-Resisting Frames

M. Tahamouli Roudsari,F. Abdollahi,H. Salimi,S. Azizi,A. R. Khosravi 한국강구조학회 2015 International Journal of Steel Structures Vol.15 No.4

Reduced Beam Section (RBS) connections are a new type of connection which have been used in steel moment-resisting frames since the 1994 Northridge earthquake. This study is primarily aimed at analyzing the effects of suitable web stiffeners on preventing the deterioration effect of the hysteresis curve for RBS connections. Results of more than 183 nonlinear finite element analyses on different IPE sections with radius cut, straight cut, and drilled-flange RBS connection showed that different web stiffeners considerably contribute to the enhancement of seismic performance of RBS connections. In this research, the effects of factors such as the geometry and the number of the stiffeners, the distance between the stiffener and column side, and the length and thickness of the stiffener on the seismic performance of RBS connections were also studied.