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Objective: To establish a new QuEChERS-ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method for the detection of chlorantraniliprole and penoxsulam residues in rice. Methods: After the sample was extracted with 0.2% formic acid-acetonitrile, purified with N-propylethylenediamine (PSA) and graphitized carbon black (GCB) packing, 0.2% formic acid water and acetonitrile were used as mobile phases for gradient elution, and then subjected to C18 chromatography. UPLC-MS/MS was used to column separation and determination. Results: The limits of quantification (LOQ) of chlorantraniliprole and penoxsulam were both 0.004 mg/kg, and the method detection limits (LOD) were both 0.001 mg/kg. Chlorantraniliprole and penoxsulam had a good linear relationship in the range of 0.002~0.5 mg/L, and their coefficient was greater than 0.993. At the addition levels of 0.05, 0.1, and 0.5 mg/kg, the average recovery rates of chlorantraniliprole and penoxsulam were 86% to 110% with the relative standard deviations (RSD) of 1.5% to 6.1%. Conclusion: This method is efficient and simple, has good stability and high sensitivity, and is suitable for the detection of chlorantraniliprole and penoxsulam in rice.

The thermal behavior and kinetic study of lignocellulosic biomass (rice straw (RS)) and linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) pyrolysis over modified ZSM-5 catalyst were investigated using thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA). Cellulose and lignin were used as model compounds of biomass in order to investigate the reaction mechanism of lignocellulosic biomass and polyethylene co-pyrolysis. Results showed that RS&LLDPE co-pyrolysis was more complicated than that of the individual components. The activation energy (E) of RS, and RS&LLDPE pyrolysis were 79.61 kJ/mol and 59.70 kJ/mol respectively, suggesting that there was a positive synergistic interaction between RS and LLDPE. The addition of LLDPE with lignin co-pyrolysis obtained a lower apparent activation energy (33.39 kJ/mol) compared to raw lignin pyrolysis (53.10 kJ/mol). Results indicated that the Cobalt modified ZSM-5 catalyst was able to improve the reaction rate of RS and LLDPE co-pyrolysis; also the addition of Co/ZSM-5 catalyst resulted in a lower apparent activation energy during cellulose and LLDPE co-pyrolysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/aims: Maternally expressed gene 3 (MEG3) is an imprinted gene with maternal expression, which may function as a tumor suppressor by inhibiting angiogenesis. To identify the prognostic value of MEG3 in breast cancer, systematic analysis was performed in this study., Methods: To evaluate gene alteration during breast carcinogenesis, we explored MEG3 expression using the Serial Analysis of Gene Expression Genie suite and Oncomine analysis. The prognostic roles of MEG3 in breast cancer were investigated using the PrognoScan database. The heat map and methylation status of MEG3 were determined using the UCSC Genome Browser., Results: We found that MEG3 was more frequently downregulated in breast cancer than in normal tissues and this correlated with prognosis. However, estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor status were found to be positively correlated with MEG3 expression. Conversely, basal-like status, triple-negative breast cancer status, and Scarff Bloom & Richardson grade criterion were negatively correlated with MEG3 expression. Following data mining in multiple big data databases, we confirmed a positive correlation between MEG3 and heparan sulfate proteoglycan 2 (HSPG2) expression in breast cancer tissues., Conclusion: MEG3 could be adopted as a marker to predict the prognosis of breast cancer with HSPG2. However, large-scale and comprehensive research is needed to clarify our results., (© 2018 The Author(s). Published by S. Karger AG, Basel.)

Accumulated studies have provided controversial evidences of prognostic value for signal transducer and activator of transcription proteins 3 (STAT3) in cancers. To address this inconsistency, we performed a systematic analysis to determine whether STAT3 can serve as a prognostic marker in human cancers. STAT3 expression was assessed using Oncomine analysis. cBioPortal, Kaplan-Meier Plotter, and Prognoscan were performed to identify the prognostic roles of STAT3 in human cancers. The copy number alteration, mutation, interactive analysis, and visualize the altered networks were performed by cBioPortal. We found that STAT3 was more frequently overexpressed in lung, ovarian, gastric, blood and brain cancers than their normal tissues and its expression might be negatively related with the prognosis. In addition, STAT3 mutation mainly occurred in uterine cancer and existed in a hotspot in SH2 domain. Those findings suggest that STAT3 might serve as a diagnostic and therapeutic target for certain types of cancer, such as lung, ovarian, gastric, blood and brain cancers. However, future research is required to validate our findings and thus promote the clinical utility of STAT3 in those cancers prognosis evaluation., Competing Interests: CONFLICTS OF INTEREST None.