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In this research, the anti-cancer activity of the Populus euphratica extract was evaluated with Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay. The inhibitory activity of the Populus euphratica extract on the activation levels of VEGF signaling pathway in the cancer cells was measured with real time RT-PCR. Next, the highthroughput Illumina pair-end sequencing was performed to detect the chloroplast (cp) genome of Populus euphratica for genome evolution assessment. The CCK-8 results indicated that the extract of Populus euphratica exhibited the significantly suppression effect on the viability of the cancer cells, and the data of the real time RT-PCR showed the activation levels of VEGF signaling pathway in the cancer cells was also reduced obviously by the Populus euphratica extract. The circular cp genome of the Populus euphratica is 157,806 bp, encoding 131 genes, containing 8 Ribosomal RNA genes (rRNAs), 37 Transfer RNA genes (tRNAs) and 86 Protein coding genes (PCGs). And the results of the phylogenetic analysis indicated that the Populus euphratica. Furthermore, phylogenetic analysis revealed that Populus euphratica has the closest relationship with Populus pruinosa. In addition to Populus pruinosa, Populus ilicifolia also has closely relationship with Populus euphratica. These three species could be clustered on the same clade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium sulfur batteries (LSBs) are promising next-generation rechargeable batteries due to the high gravimetric energy, low cost, abundance, nontoxicity, and high sustainability of sulfur. However, the dissolution of high-order polysulfide in electrolytes and low Coulombic efficiency of Li anode require excess electrolytes and Li metal, which significantly reduce the energy density of LSBs. Quasi-solid-state LSBs, where sulfur is encapsulated in the micropores of carbon matrix and sealed by solid electrolyte interphase, can operate under lean electrolyte conditions, but a low sulfur loading in carbon matrix (<40 wt %) and low sulfur unitization (<70%) still limit the energy density in a cell level. Here, we significantly increase the sulfur loading in carbon to 60 wt % and sulfur utilization to ~87% by dispersing sulfur in an oxygen-rich dense carbon host at a molecular level through strong chemical interactions of C-S and O-S. In an all-fluorinated organic lean electrolyte, the C/S cathode experiences a solid-state lithiation/delithiation reaction after the formation of solid electrolyte interphase in the first deep lithiation, completely avoiding the shuttle reaction. The chemically stabilized C/S composite retains a high reversible capacity of 541 mAh·g-1 (based on the total weight of the C/S composite) for 200 cycles under lean electrolyte conditions, corresponding to a high energy density of 974 Wh·kg-1. The superior electrochemical performance of the chemical bonding-stabilized C/S composite renders it a promising cathode material for highenergy and long-cycle-life LSBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rechargeable sodium-ion batteries with earth-abundant Fe/Mn based cathodes are a promising choice for grid-scale applications. However, the key candidate, P2-type Fe-based materials, suffers from severe voltage decay during battery operation due to Fe3+ migration to the neighboring tetrahedral sites. In this study, two Fe-based layered oxides, Na0.7[Cu0.15Fe0.3Mn0.55]O2 and Na0.7[Cu0.2Fe0.2Mn0.6]O2, were prepared. With a combination of in situ XRD, X-ray PDF, and hard and soft X-ray absorption, we demonstrate that the voltage decay in Fe-based layered oxides has dynamic origins. Drastic phase transition can be triggered by higher upper voltage limit, while partially irreversible Fe migration leads to voltage fading. With excess Cu doped into the crystal lattice, Fe migration can be considerably mitigated and therefore, structural stability can be maintained. Furthermore, Cu introduction brings about extra capacity via the correlation between transition metal elements and ligand oxygen, which may well compensate for capacity loss from inert impurity doping. Possible strategies for suppressing the detrimental voltage decay in battery cathodes can be proposed accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iron fluoride, an intercalation-conversion cathode for lithium ion batteries, promises a high theoretical energy density of 1922 Wh kg−1 . However, poor electrochemical reversibility due to repeated breaking/reformation of metal fluoride bonds poses a grand challenge for its practical application. Here we report that both a high reversibility over 1000 cycles and a high capacity of 420 mAh g−1 can be realized by concerted doping of cobalt and oxygen into iron fluoride. In the doped nanorods, an energy density of ~1000 Wh kg−1 with a decay rate of 0.03% per cycle is achieved. The anion’s and cation’s co-substitutions thermodynamically reduce conversion reaction potential and shift the reaction from less-reversible intercalationconversion reaction in iron fluoride to a highly reversible intercalation-extrusion reaction in doped material. The co-substitution strategy to tune the thermodynamic features of the reactions could be extended to other high energy conversion materials for improved performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intercalation compounds with various electrochemically active or inactive elements in the layered structure have been the subject of increasing interest due to their high capacities, good reversibility, simple structures, and ease of synthesis. However, their reversible intercalation/deintercalation redox chemistries in previous compounds involve a single cationic redox reaction or a cumulative cationic and anionic redox reaction. Here we report an anionic redox chemistry and structural stabilization of layered sodium chromium sulfide. It was discovered that the sulfur in sodium chromium sulfide is electrochemically active, undergoing oxidation/reduction rather than chromium. Significantly, sodium ions can successfully move out and into without changing its lattice parameter c, which is explained in terms of the occurrence of chromium/sodium vacancy antisite during desodiation and sodiation processes. Our present work not only enriches the electrochemistry of layered intercalation compounds, but also extends the scope of investigation on high-capacity electrodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The secretory small guanosine-5'-triphosphate-binding enzyme, Rab27B, has been identified to be an oncogene that is involved in the progression of certain tumors. The current study was designed to evaluate the expression pattern of Rab27B in ovarian cancer (OC), borderline tumors and benign ovarian adenoid tumors, as well as its association with survival prognosis and clinical parameters. The expression of Rab27B protein was examined by immunohistochemistry in 204 patients who had undergone ovarian resection without preoperative systemic chemotherapy at the Surgical Department of the Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University (Nantong, China), including 57 benign ovarian adenoid tumors, 44 borderline tumors and 103 malignant tumors. Rab27B expression and clinicopathological features were analyzed with the χ2 test. Patient survival rate was analyzed with the Kaplan-Meier method. Univariate and multivariate analysis of the prognostic factors was performed using the Cox regression model. Increased expression of Rab27B was positively correlated with histological type (P=0.012), level of differentiation (P=0.015), lymph node metastasis (P=0.024), distant metastasis (P<0.001) and International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage (P=0.001). Survival analysis revealed an association between Rab27B-positivity and poor overall survival rate. Multivariate analysis indicated that Rab27B (P<0.031) and distant metastases (P=0.031) were independent prognostic factors for OC patients' survival. The results of the present study supported the hypothesis that Rab27B may be a valuable prognostic indicator in patients with OC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To evaluate the expression and clinical significance of hepatoma-derived growth factor (HDGF) in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Background: Recent studies have demonstrated that HDGF overexpression correlates to the progression and poor prognosis in several kinds of cancers. However, the clinical significance and prognostic value of HDGF in EOC have not been investigated. Methods: Expression of HDGF was visualized by immunohistology and then the cohort was divided into higher- and lower-expression groups. The correlation between HDGF and clinicopathologic factors was analyzed by χ2 test. The prognostic value of HDGF was assessed by univariate analysis with Kaplan-Meier method, and by multivariate analysis with Cox-regression model. With experiments in vitro, HDGF expression in ovarian cancer cell lines was detected by immunoblotting. Results: Higher HDGF expression rate was 52.76% in EOC. HDGF expression was significantly associated with lymphatic metastasis (P=0.006). Higher HDGF expression was closely correlated to poorer 5-year overall survival rate with univariate analysis (P=0.003), and was identified as an independent prognostic factor with multivariate analysis (P=0.007). With experiments in vitro, HDGF was proved to exist in all ovarian cancer cell lines with different expression levels. Conclusion: HDGF expression correlates to unfavorable prognosis and can be considered as an independent prognostic factor, indicating that HDGF may be a promising potential molecular drug target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microwave assisted chemical reaction is increasingly studied in recent years by using the modified domestic microwave oven to heating on chemical reaction in the laboratory scale study. But the problems of temperature distribution non-uniformity and low power efficiency in the heating process are becoming a new obstacle in the application of microwave chemistry. An optimized microwave oven with two sources is proposed in this paper from the view of feeding system to overcome these disadvantages. As water is usually concerned as important solvent and reactant, a beaker of water is used as heating load in this study. By modeling the process of heating water for 180 s, the standard deviation and the average temperature are compared between the domestic microwave oven and the optimized microwave oven with two sources. As a result, the power is utilized more efficiently as a 20.14% increase can be seen by using the optimized microwave oven under the same microwave power and more uniformity is obtained as a 11.23% increase is performed by the use of the optimized microwave oven under the same heating conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tracking thermally induced reactions has always been challenging for electrode materials of electrochemical battery systems. Traditionally, a variety of calorimetric techniques and in situ XRD at elevated temperatures has been used to evaluate the thermal stability of electrode materials. These techniques are capable of providing variations in heat capacity, mass and average bulk composition of materials only. Herein, we report investigation of thermal characteristics of Li 0.33 Ni 0.8 Co 0.15 Al 0.05 O2 by using in situ soft XAS measurements in combination with XRD. Fluorescence yield and partial electron yield measurements are used simultaneously to obtain element selective surface and bulk information. Fluorescence yield measurements reveal no energy change of the absorption peak and thus no valence state change in the bulk. However, electron yield measurements indicate that NiO-type rock salt structure is formed at the surface at temperatures above 200°C while no evidence for a surface reaction near Co sites in investigated temperature range is found. These results clearly show that in situ soft XAS can give a unique understanding of the role of each element in the structural transformation under thermal abuse offering a useful guidance in developing new battery system with improved safety performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The different expression level of Dickkopf-1 (DKK-1) in different cancers shows that the function of DKK-1 depends on the histological type of the cancer cells and the tissue microenvironment. To our knowledge, the serum expression level of DKK-1 in breast cancer is little known. Methods Blood samples from 125 consecutive patients diagnosed with breast cancer and 53 control subjects from March 2008 to August 2013 were investigated. Serum DKK-1 expression levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS) analyzed by log-rank test, and survival curves were plotted according to Kaplan-Meier. Results The mean serum level of DKK-1 in patients with breast cancer was 4.99 ± 1.50 ng/mL, and was significantly higher than that in healthy individuals (1.88 ± 0.81 ng/mL, P < 0.001). DKK-1 level correlated significantly with TNM stage (P = 0.009), tumor grade (P = 0.02), lymph node metastasis (P = 0.001), and expression of HER2 (P = 0.002). The DKK-1 expression level was classified as high or low in relation to the median value, and patients with breast cancer (n = 125) were divided into a high expression group (n = 63) and a low expression group (n = 62). The Kaplan-Meier method for survival analysis showed that the patients with a high serum DKK-1 level had a poorer OS (48.7% vs. 81.3%, p = 0.01) and RFS (24.3% vs. 71.6%, p = 0.003) than those with a low expression level. The multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that serum DKK-1 level was independent prognostic factors for OS and RFS. Conclusions Serum DKK-1 level can be used as a noninvasive biomarker for the prognosis of breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the dielectric properties of water-N,N dimethylformamide (DMF) mixtures over the whole composition range using a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The static and microwave frequency-dependent dielectric properties of the mixtures are calculated from MD trajectories of at least 2 ns length and compared to those of available measurements. We find that the short-ranged structural correlation between neighboring water and DMF molecules strongly influences the static dielectric properties of mixtures. In terms of the dynamics, we report time correlation functions for the dipole densities of mixtures and find that their long-time behavior can be reasonably described by biexponential decays, which means the dielectric relaxations of these mixtures are governed by complex multitimescale mechanisms of rotational diffusion. The dipole density relaxation time is a non-monotonic function of composition passing through a maximum around 0.5 mole fraction DMF, in agreement with the measured main dielectric relaxation time of mixtures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the dielectric properties of water-dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) mixtures with different mole ratios have been investigated in the range of 1 GHz to 40 GHz at 298 K by using a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Only one dielectric loss peak was observed in the frequency range and the relaxation in these mixtures can be described by a single relaxation time of the Davidson-Cole. It was observed that within experimental error the dielectric relaxation can be described by the Debye-like model (β ≈ 1, S.M. Puranik, et al. J. Chem. Soc. Faraday Trans. 1992, 88, 433 - 435). In general, the results are very consistent with the experimental measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

N, N' -(p-phenyl)-bis-(p-nitro)benzoylthiourea was synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis as well as IR and 1H NMR spectroscopy. The crystal structure of the title compound was determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. It was crystallized in triclinic space group of P-1, a = 8.1084(12), b = 11.9185(13), c = 12.6061(15) Å, α = 62.213(2)°, β = 71.266(2)°, γ = 88.014(3)°, Z = 1, V = 1011.0(2)Å3. The intramolecular N-H · · · O hydrogen bonding interactions between the N-H and the oxygen atom of C═ O groups suport N, N' -(p-phenyl)-bis-(p-nitro)benzoylthiourea framework. the solvent DMF molecules are accommodated in the framework by intermolecular N-H · · O hydrogen bonds between N-H and the oxygen atom of DMF in the title compound, which help to assemble into supramolecular structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  A novel Salen-type bisoxime ligand, 6,6′-dimethoxy-2,2′-[(1,4-butylene)dioxybis(nitrilomethylidyne)]diphenol (H2L) and its tetranuclear Cu(II) complex, [Cu4L2(pic)4(H2O)2]�2H2O, have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analyses, IR, TG-DTA and 1H-NMR etc. The X-ray crystal structure of the complex reveals that formation of a tetranuclear structure, which consists of four copper(II) atoms, two pentadentate L2−units, four picratols, two coordinated water molecules and two crystallizing water molecules. Around four copper ions are all octahedral geometries. It was demonstrated that the picratols in the tetranuclear copper(II) complex show a novel tridentate coordination mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During cell division, cessation of transcription is coupled with mitotic chromosome condensation. A fundamental biological question is how gene expression patterns are retained during mitosis to ensure the phenotype of progeny cells. We suggest that cell fate-determining transcription factors provide an epigenetic mechanism for the retention of gene expression patterns during cell division. Runx proteins are lineage-specific transcription factors that are essential for hematopoietic, neuronal. gastrointestinal, and osteogenic cell fates. Here we show that Runx2 protein is stable during cell division and remains associated with chromosomes during mitosis through sequence-specific DNA binding. Using siRNA-mediated silencing, mitotic cell synchronization, and expression profiling, we identify Runx2-regulated genes that are modulated postmitotically. Novel target genes involved in cell growth and differentiation were validated by chromatin immunoprecipitation. Importantly, we find that during mitosis, when transcription is shut down, Runx2 selectively occupies target gene promoters, and Runx2 deficiency alters mitotic histone modifications. We conclude that Runx proteins have an active role in retaining phenotype during cell division to support lineage-specific control of gene expression in progeny cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the principle, “The failure data is the basis of software reliabilityanalysis”, we built a software reliability expert system (SRES) by adopting the artificialtechnology. By reasoning out the conclusion from the fitting results of failure data of asoftware project, the SRES can recommend users “the most suitable model” as a softwarereliability measurement model. We believe that the SRES can overcome the inconsistency inapplications of software reliability models well. We report investigation results of singularity and parameter estimation methods of models, LVLM and LVQM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the principle, “The failure data is the basis of software reliability analysis”, we built a software reliability expert system (SRES) by adopting the artificial intelligence technology. By reasoning out the conclusion from the fitting results of failure data of a software project, the SRES can recommend users “the most suitable model” as a software reliability measurement model. We believe that the SRES can overcome the inconsistency in applications of software reliability models well. We report investigation results of singularity and parameter estimation methods of experimental models in SRES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2010 in Portland, Oregon, USA, August 1 – August 5, 2010. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Structural transformation behaviors of several typical oxide cathode materials during a heating process are reviewed in detail to provide in-depth understanding of the key factors governing the thermal stability of these materials. We also discuss applying the information about heat induced structural evolution in the study of electrochemically induced structural changes. All these discussions are expected to provide valuable insights for designing oxide cathode materials with significantly improved structural stability for safe, long-life lithium ion batteries, as the safety of lithium-ion batteries is a critical issue; it is widely accepted that the thermal instability of the cathodes is one of the most critical factors in thermal runaway and related safety problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, acetone iodation was carried out and the Huang method based on experimental results was employed to calculate the effective permittivity of acetone iodation system as a function of temperature and reaction time. The coupled electromagnetic field equations, reaction kinetics equations, and heat transport equation were solved to simulate the microwave heating on chemical reaction. Here, the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method was used. Finally, the calculated results were compared with the measured results to verify this calculation. This method offers high potential applications in the explanation of some specific phenomena in the microwave heating on chemical reactions and instructs the design of microwave chemistry reactor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]