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In China, it has been well recognized that some female patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) have different overall survival (OS) time, even with the same tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage, challenging the prognostic value of the TNM system alone. An effective predictive model is needed to accurately evaluate the prognosis of female ESCC patients.To construct a novel prognostic model with clinical and reproductive data for Chinese female patients with ESCC, and to assess the incremental prognostic value of the full model compared with the clinical model and TNM stage.A new prognostic nomogram incorporating clinical and reproductive features was constructed based on univariatie and Cox proportional hazards survival analysis from a training cohort (A clinical-reproductive model including incidence area, age, tumor differentiation, lymph node metastasis (N) stage, estrogen receptor alpha (ESR1) and beta (ESR2) expression, menopausal age, and pregnancy number was constructed to predict OS in female ESCC patients. Compared to the clinical model and TNM stage, the time-dependent ROC and C-index of the clinical-reproductive model showed a good discriminative ability for predicting 1-, 3-, and 5-years OS in the primary training, internal and external validation sets. Based on the optimal cut-off value of total prognostic scores, patients were classified into high- and low-risk groups with significantly different OS. The estrogen response was significantly associated with p53 and apoptosis pathways in esophageal cancer.The clinical-reproductive prognostic nomogram has an incremental prognostic value compared with the clinical model and TNM stage in predicting OS in Chinese female ESCC patients.

Purpose Some studies indicated that gender is associated with prognostic of cancer, However, currently the prognostic value of gender for gastric cardia adenocarcinoma (GCA) survival is unclear. The aim of our study is to reveal the influence of gender on the prognosis of patients with GCA. Patients and methods A total of 42,345 cases Chinese GCA patients were enrolled from our previously established GCA and esophageal cancer databases. The clinicopathological characteristics were retrieved from medical records in hospital. The follow-up was performed through letter, telephone or home interview. Among GCA patients, there were 32,544 (76.9%) male patients with the median age 62 years (range 17–97) and 9,801 (23.1%) female patients with the median age 61 years (range 17–95 years). The Chi-square test and Kaplan–Meier method were used to compare the continuous variables and survival. Cox proportional hazards model was used for competing risk analyses, hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were evaluated. Results Men had shorter GCA-specific survival than women by multivariate analysis (HR 1.114; 95% CI 1.061 to 1.169; P vs. male, P vs. male, P vs. male, P = 0.035). It was worth noting that in patients with stages I, II, III, and IV, female patients survive longer than male patients (P = 0.049; P = 0.011; P P = 0.044, respectively). Conclusion Gender is an independent prognostic factor for patients with GCA. In comparison with men, women have a significantly better outcome. Smoking and drinking may be protective factors for male GCA patients.

Metal doping is an effective method for improving the toughness of ceramic materials and reducing coating fractures. In this study, first-principle calculations based on density functional theory were performed to study the formation energy, elastic constant, and electronic structure of Cu-doped TiN. The results reveal that Cu tends to replace the Ti sites in TiN crystal cells; with an increase in Cu concentration, the formation energy of the Cu-doped TiN system decreases. This indicates that the structural stability of Cu-doped TiN decreases. From the calculated elastic constant and the Voigt-Reuss-Hill approximation, it is evident that the bulk modulus B and shear modulus G decrease as the Cu concentration increases. However, G decreases more rapidly, thus increasing the B/G ratio. According to Paugh's ratio, the increase in B/G indicates an increase in the ductility of TiN. The results of the band structure, density of states, charge density, and Mulliken bond population analysis reveal that Cu doping reduces the covalent bond strength of TiN, enhances metallicity, and reduces the structural stability of the system, enhancing the toughness of TiN. The results of this study will provide theoretical and experimental guidance for improving the toughness of TiN coatings.

Background: α-ketoglutarate (α-KG) is the substrate to hydoxylate collagen and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), which are important for cancer metastasis. Previous studies showed that upregulation of collagen prolyl 4-hydroxylase in breast cancer cells stabilizes HIF-1α via depleting α-KG in breast cancer cells. We propose that mitochondrial malate enzyme 2 (ME2) may also affect HIF-1α via modulating α-KG level in breast cancer cells. Methods: ME2 protein expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry on 100 breast cancer patients and correlated with clinicopathological indicators. The effect of ME2 knockout on cancer metastasis was evaluated by an orthotopic breast cancer model. The effect of ME2 knockout or knockdown on the levels of α-KG and HIF-1α protein in breast cancer cell lines (4T1 and MDA-MB-231) was determined in vitro and in vivo.Results: The high expression of ME2 was observed in the human breast cancerous tissues compared to the matched precancerous tissues (P=0.000). The breast cancer patients with a high expression of ME2 had an inferior survival than the patients with low expression of ME2 (P=0.019). ME2 high expression in breast cancer tissues was also related with lymph node metastasis (P=0.016), pathological staging (P=0.033) and vascular cancer embolus (P=0.014). In a 4T1 orthotopic breast cancer model, ME2 knockout significantly inhibited lung metastasis. In the tumors formed by ME2 knockout 4T1 cells, α-KG level significantly increased, collagen hydroxylation level did not change significantly, but HIF-1α protein level significantly decreased, in comparison to control. In cell culture, ME2 knockout or knockdown cells demonstrated a significantly higher α-KG level but significantly lower HIF-1α protein level than control cells under hypoxia. Exogenous malate and α-KG exerted similar effect on HIF-1α in breast cancer cells to ME2 knockout or knockdown. Treatment with malate significantly decreased 4T1 breast cancer lung metastasis. ME2 expression was associated with HIF-1α level in human breast cancer samples (P=0.027).Conclusion: We provide evidence that upregulation of ME2 is associated with a poor prognosis of breast cancer patients and propose a mechanistic understanding of a link between ME2 and breast cancer metastasis.

Purpose: While malic enzymes 1 (ME1) was correlated with breast cancer progression and prognosis, the association of ME3 (a homologue of ME1) with breast cancer is not known. The aim of this study is to explore the potential of ME3 as a biomarker in breast cancer carcinogenesis and prognosis.Methods: A total of 107 patients confirmed with breast cancer were enrolled. The ME3 expression was evaluated by IHC and correlated with clinicopathological indicators.Results: The ME3 positive immunostaining rate was higher in normal breast tissues and decreased stepwise from normal (97.60%) to usual ductal hyperplasia (91.1%), atypical ductal hyperplasia (64.2%), carcinoma in situ (62.5%) and invasive carcinoma (45.5%). Similarly, the decreasing tendency was observed for ME3 positive immunostaining rate from Tis (75.0%) through T1 (62.5%) and T2 (37.5%) to T3 (33.3%) and from stag 0 (75.0%) through I (72.0%), II (44.4%) to III (24.1%). ME3 expression was related with negative lymph node metastasis. Patients with positive expression of ME3 had better outcome. By incorporating ME3 into tumor TNM staging, the area under receiver operating characteristic curve for the 5-year survival was increased from 84.0% to 87.5%. Conclusions: ME3 may be a promising biomarker for better prognosis for breast cancer patients.

Phosphorous slag is an industrial waste which potentially pollutes environments. The aim of the present work is to use phosphorous slag as a raw material to produce alkali-activated cement. The influence of mix proportion of phosphorous slag and fly ash, alkali content and modulus of water glass on the properties of alkali-activated phosphorous slag and fly ash cement (AA-PS-FA-C) was studied. The results show that AA-PS-FA-C with normal setting performance and desirable mechanical properties can be prepared using water glass as the activator. Changing the fly ash content in the range of 0-40 wt% has only a small influence on the setting time of AA-PS-FA-C. The strengths significantly decrease when the fly ash content exceeds 30 wt%. The carbonation resistance of AA-PS-FA-C is similar to that of ordinary Portland cement (OPC), while the frost resistance is much better. The hardened paste of AA-PS-FA-C is much more compact than OPC paste.

This work experimentally investigated the effects of curing temperatures (7, 15, 20 and 30 °C) on the setting time, strength development, shrinkage, and microstructure of alkali activated slag (AAS). The results indicated that the impact of the curing temperature was much more significant on the setting time of AAS than on that of ordinary Portland cement (OPC), and 7 °C curing could prolong the initial and final setting times of AAS without significant decrease of later strength, and increase the long-term strengths. The shrinkage of AAS were slightly reduced or retarded by curing at below normal temperature. There is no significant difference in the types of hydration products in the AAS pastes cured at 7–30 °C for 28 days, whereas the paste cured for same ages became more compact with lower porosity and finer pore size distribution as the curing temperature was increased.