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NRP1 is a transmembrane glycoprotein that is highly expressed in a variety of tumors. There is evidence that NRP1 can enhance the stem cell properties of tumor cells, which are thought to be resistant to radiotherapy. This study aims to elucidate the potential mechanism of NRP1 in radiation resistance. We transfected NRP1 siRNA and plasmid in breast cancer cells to detect the expression of cancer stem cell markers by western blot and qRT-PCR. The effect of NRP1 on radiotherapy resistance was assesses by immunofluorescence and flow cytometry. In vivo, we established xenograft tumor model treating with shRNA-NRP1 to assess radiotherapy sensitivity. We found that NRP1 could enhance the stem cell properties and confer radioresistance of breast cancer cells. Mechanistically, we proved that NRP1 reduced IR-induced apoptosis by downregulation of Bcl-2 via methyltransferase WTAP in m6A-depentent way. It is suggested that these molecules may be the therapeutic targets for improving the efficacy of radiotherapy for breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eimeria spp. and Blastocystis are the common parasites that parasitize the intestinal tract of rabbits, which can seriously threaten the health of rabbits and lead to economic losses to the rabbit industry. However, information about the prevalence and transmission of these two parasites in rabbits is limited in China. The objective of this study was to survey the prevalence of Eimeria spp. and Blastocystis in rabbits in Shandong Province. A total of 616 rabbit fecal samples were collected from two cities (Rizhao and Weihai) in Shandong Province, eastern China, and Eimeria spp. and Blastocystis were identified by polymerase chain reaction based on species-specific markers. The prevalence of Eimeria spp. was 20% (123/616) and the Blastocystis prevalence was 0.97% (6/616). Five different Eimeria species (Eimeria intestinalis, E. perforans, E. magna, E. media, and E. irresidua) and the ST4 subtype of Blastocystis were identified in rabbits by sequence analysis. This is the first report of Blastocystis prevalence and subtype ST4 in rabbits in Shandong Province. The findings provide baseline data for the prevention and control of Eimeria spp. and Blastocystis in rabbits in Shandong Province, China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of nitrogen on the characteristics and evolutions of M2C eutectic carbides in the Fe-Mo-W-Co-Cr-V-C alloy were investigated in both as-cast and wrought states. Microstructural observation, electrolytic extraction method, and x-ray diffraction analysis were conducted on the specimens. The results showed that, in the case of low nitrogen concentration (w[N]% = 0.006) in the as-cast alloy, lamellar M2C carbides were found to be the dominant precipitate. Nitrogen addition resulted in M2C carbide precipitate as a fibrous structure rather than a lamellar structure. Fibrous M2C were more likely to decompose into fine spherical M6C and V(C,N) during the forging process compared to lamellar M2C. Accordingly, it was suggested that adding nitrogen to Fe-Mo-W-Co-Cr-V-C alloy was required to achieve small dimensions and homogeneous distribution of carbides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to characterize the primary carbides formed in as-cast H13 steel. The composition, morphology, type, and size of primary carbides in as-cast H13 steel were investigated by optical microscope (OM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The number of primary carbides was investigated by ASPEX automated inclusion analysis system. The results indicated that primary carbides in as-cast H13 steel are mainly composed of Cr, Mo, V, and Ti, and there exist four kinds of primary carbides in the interdendritic zones of H13 steel, which are stripy Mo–Cr-rich M2C, eutectic Mo–Cr-rich M2C, V-rich MC, and V-rich MC with Ti and N. Thermodynamic calculation indicated that M2C precipitates in liquid phase at solid fractions larger than 0.99, while MC precipitates in liquid phase at solid fractions larger than 0.96. Statistical results indicated that the number of M2C is much greater than the number of other kinds of primary carbides. Most primary carbides are blocky, with lengths of no more than 10 μm and a length/width ratio of no more than 3. The large primary carbides in as-cast H13 steel are mainly M2C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AISI M42 high-speed steel is prone to fracture as a result of its brittle martensitic microstructure together with abundant carbides located at the grain boundaries. In this study, a series of property tests including hardness, impact toughness, and wear loss were performed to study the effect of tempering conditions on the mechanical properties of AISI M42 high-speed steel over holding time ranging from 1 to 20 hours. The effects of the tempering time on the characteristics and growth of carbides were also investigated. The results indicated that carbides in the experimental steels were obviously coarsened when the tempering time exceeded 4 hours. The dimension of the carbides increased, while the volume fraction decreased with the increasing tempering time, and the grain sizes were significantly augmented due to the reducing of small carbides. Moreover, the dislocation density decreased with the increasing tempering time, which led to the reducing of the yield stress of high-speed steel. An appropriate holding time (4 hours) resulted in fine-scale secondary carbides and a smaller grain size, which efficiently improved the impact toughness and wear resistance simultaneously. Nevertheless, a prolonged tempering time (> 4 hours) promoted the coarsening and coalescence of carbides, which were detrimental to the impact toughness and wear resistance. Consequently, the formation of fine-scale secondary carbides is the major influential factor to improve both the wear resistance and impact toughness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information on the spatial distribution of soil particle-size fractions (psf) is required for a wide range of applications. Geostatistics is often used to map spatial distribution from point observations; however, for compositional data such as soil psf, conventional multivariate geostatistics are not optimal. Several solutions have been proposed, including compositional kriging and transformation to a composition followed by cokriging. These have been shown to perform differently in different situations, so that there is no procedure to choose an optimal method. To address this, two case studies of soil psf mapping were carried out using compositional kriging, log-ratio cokriging, cokriging, and additive log-ratio cokriging; and the performance of Mahalanobis distance as a criterion for choosing an optimal mapping method was tested. All methods generated very similar results. However, the compositional kriging and cokriging results were slightly more similar to each other than to the other pair, as were log-ratio cokriging and additive log-ratio cokriging. The similar results of the two methods within each pair were due to similarities of the methods themselves, for example, the same variogram models and prediction techniques, and the similar results between the two pairs were due to the mathematical relationship between original and log-ratio transformed data. Mahalanobis distance did not prove to be a good indicator for selecting an optimal method to map soil psf. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of calcium treatment and/or aluminum-based deoxidant addition on the oxygen control and modification of MgO·AlO spinel inclusions during protective gas electroslag remelting (P-ESR) of H13 die steel with low oxygen content was experimentally studied. It is found that all the inclusions in the consumable electrode are MgO·AlO spinels, besides a few MgO·AlO spinels surrounded by an outer (Ti,V)N or MnS layer. After P-ESR refining combined with proper calcium treatment, all the original MgO·AlO spinels in the electrode (except for the original MgO·AlO spinels having been removed in the P-ESR process) were modified to mainly CaO-MgO-AlO and some CaO-AlO inclusions, both of which have a low melting point and homogeneous compositions. In the case of only Al-based deoxidant addition, all the oxide inclusions remaining in ESR ingots are MgO·AlO spinels. The operation of Al-based deoxidant addition and/or calcium treatment during P-ESR of electrode steel containing low oxygen content is invalid to further reduce the oxygen content and oxide inclusions amount compared with remelting only under protective gas atmosphere. All the original sulfide inclusions were removed after the P-ESR process. Most of the inclusions in ESR ingots are about 2 μm in size. The mechanisms of non-metallic inclusions evolution and modification of MgO·AlO spinels by calcium treatment during the P-ESR process were proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over-expression of chloroplast glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase gene ( LeGPAT) in tomato increased cis-unsaturated fatty acid content in phosphatidylglycerol (PG) of the thylakoid membrane. Under chilling stress, the oxygen evolving activity, the maximal photochemical efficiency of PSII ( F/ F), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activities decreased less in sense lines than in antisense lines compared to wild-type (WT) plants. Consistently, the relative electric conductivity, $${\text{O}}_{2} ^{{. - }} $$ and HO contents in sense lines were lower than those of WT and antisense lines. The antisense lines with low level of unsaturated fatty acids in PG were extremely susceptible to photoinhibition of PSII and had a significant reduction in the D1 protein content of PSII reaction center under chilling stress. However, in the presence of streptomycin (SM), the degradation of D1 protein was faster in sense lines than in WT and antisense plants. These results suggested that, under chilling stress conditions, increasing cis-unsaturated fatty acids in PG through over-expression of LeGPAT can alleviate PSII photoinhibition by accelerating the repair of D1 protein and improving the activities of antioxidant enzymes in chloroplasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]