Browsing by Author "Xu, X."

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    Expression, assembly and function of novel C-terminal truncated variants of the mouse P2X7 receptor: re-evaluation of P2X7 knockouts
    (Wiley, 2011-07) Masin, M.; Lim, K.; Young, Christopher N. J.; Barnes, S.; Xu, X.; Marschall, V.; Brutkowski, W.; Mooney, E.; Murrell-Lagnado, R.; Gorecki, Dariusz
    BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Splice variants of P2X7 receptor transcripts contribute to the diversity of receptor-mediated responses. Here, we investigated expression and function of C-terminal truncated (DC) variants of the mP2X7 receptor, which are predicted to escape inactivation in one strain of P2X7-/- mice (Pfizer KO). EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH Expression in wild-type (WT) and Pfizer KO tissue was investigated by reverse transcription (RT)-PCR and Western blot analysis. DC variants were also cloned and expressed in HEK293 cells to investigate their assembly, trafficking and function. KEY RESULTS RT-PCR indicates expression of a DC splice variant in brain, salivary gland (SG) and spleen from WT and Pfizer KO mice. An additional DC hybrid transcript, containing sequences of P2X7 upstream of exon 12, part of exon 13 followed in-frame by the sequence of the vector used to disrupt the P2X7 gene, was also identified in the KO mice. By blue native (BN) PAGE analysis and the use of cross linking reagents followed by SDS-PAGE, P2X7 trimers, dimers and monomers were detected in the spleen and SG of Pfizer KO mice. The molecular mass was reduced compared with P2X7 in WT mice tissue, consistent with a DC variant. When expressed in HEK293 cells the DC variants were inefficiently trafficked to the cell surface and agonist-evoked whole cell currents were small. Co-expressed with P2X7A, the DC splice variant acted in a dominant negative fashion to inhibit function. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS Pfizer KO mice are not null for P2X7 receptor expression but express DC variants with reduced function.
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    An optimization model of the acceptable consensus and its economic significance
    (Emerald, 2016) Gong, Z. W.; Xu, X.; Forrest, J.; Yang, Yingjie
    Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to construct an optimal resource reallocation model of the limited resource by a moderator for reaching the greatest consensus, and show how to reallocate the limited resources by using optimization methodology once the consensus opinion is reached. Moreover, this paper also devotes to theoretically exploring when or what is the condition that the group decision-making (GDM) system is stable; and when new opinions enter into the GDM, how the level of consensus changes. Design/methodology/approach – By minimizing the differences between the individuals’ opinions and the collective consensus opinion, this paper constructs a consensus optimization model and shows that the objective weights of the individuals are actually the optimal solution to this model. Findings – If all individual deviations of the decision makers (DMs) from the consensus balance each other out, the information entropy theorem shows this GDM is most stable, and economically each individual DM gets the same optimal unit of compensation. Once the consensus opinion is determined and each individual opinion of the DMs is under an acceptable consensus level, the consensus is still acceptable even if additional DMs are added, and the moderator’s cost is still no more than a fixed upper limitation. Originality/value – The optimization model based on acceptable consensus is constructed in this paper, and its economic significance, including the theoretical and practical significance, is emphatically analyzed: it is shown that the weight information of the optimization model carries important economic significance. Besides, some properties of the proposed model are discussed by analyzing its particular solutions: the stability of the consensus system is explored by introducing information entropy theory and variance distribution; in addition, the effect of adding new DMs on the stability of the acceptable consensus system is discussed by analyzing the convergence of consensus level: it is also built up the condition that once the consensus opinion is determined, the consensus degree will not decrease even when additional DMs are added to the GDM.
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    The sphereical distance for intuitionistic fuzzy sets and its application in decision analysis
    (Taylor and Francis, 2016) Gong, Zaiwu; Xu, X.; Yang, Yingjie; Zhou, Yi; Zhang, H.
    Different from traditional distances between Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets (IFS), the spherical distance between two IFSs relies not only on their relative differences but also their absolute values. In this paper, we generalize the properties of spherical distance measures between IFSs, and investigate the applications of spherical distance measures in group decision making, pattern recognition and medical diagnosis. We develop an optimization spherical distance model with IFS preference in group decision making, and demonstrate that this model is feasible and practical with an evaluation model of drought risk. By using comparative analysis method, we show that this new spherical distance can also be applied in other fields such as pattern recognition and medical diagnosis.