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Bone metastasis is one of the main complications of lung cancer and most important factors that lead to poor life quality and low survival rate in lung cancer patients. However, the regulatory mechanisms underlying lung cancer bone metastasis are still poor understood. Here, we report that microRNA-182 (miR-182) plays a critical role in regulating osteoclastic metastasis of lung cancer cells. We found that miR-182 was significantly upregulated in both bone-metastatic human non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell line and tumor specimens. We further demonstrated that miR-182 markedly enhanced the ability of NSCLC cells for osteolytic bone metastasis in nude mice. Mechanistically, miR-182 promotes NSCLC cells to secrete Interleukin-8 (IL-8) and in turn facilitates osteoclastogenesis via activating STAT3 signaling in osteoclast progenitor cells. Importantly, systemically delivered IL-8 neutralizing antibody inhibits NSCLC bone metastasis in nude mice. Collectively, our findings identify the miR-182/IL-8/STAT3 axis as a key regulatory pathway in controlling lung cancer cell-induced osteolytic bone metastasis and suggest a promising therapeutic strategy that targets this regulatory axis to interrupt lung cancer bone metastasis.

Objective To investigate the predictive value of preoperative neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) on acute kidney injury (AKI) after on-pump coronary artery bypass (ONCAB). Methods Patients who underwent elective ONCAB for coronary heart disease were included. NLR was calculated according to the results of preoperative routine blood test, patients were divided into non-AKI and AKI groups, and the differences in clinical baseline data between the two groups were compared. Results A total of 154 patients were included in this study, including 57 (37%) with postoperative AKI and 97 (63%) without AKI. Compared with the patients in non-AKI group, those in AKI group had higher NLR (2.63 (1.83, 3.505) vs. 2.06 (1.7, 2.56), p = 0.002), higher serum creatinine (78 (67, 98.5) vs. 70.9 ± 16.8 umol/L, p p for trend = 0.003). Patients in Tertile2 and Tertile3 had higher NLR compared to those in Tertile1 (p Conclusion Elevated preoperative NLR is associated with AKI after ONCAB, and had prognostic utility independent of other recognized risk factors.

Introduction Due to the lack of clear direction (evidence) on the duration of viral shedding and thus potential for transmission, this retrospective study aimed to come up with a prediction model of prolonged coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) transmission or infection-spreading potential. Methods A total of 1211 non-severe patients with COVID-19 were retrospectively enrolled. Multivariate Cox regression was performed to identify the risk factors associated with long-term SARS-CoV-2 RNA shedding, and a prediction model was established. Results In the training set, 796 patients were divided into the long-term (> 21 days) group (n = 116, 14.6%) and the short-term (≤ 21 days) group (n = 680, 85.4%) based on their viral shedding duration. Multivariate analysis identified that age > 50 years, comorbidity, CD4-positive T-lymphocytes count (CD4 + T cell) ≤ 410 cells/ul, C-reactive protein (CRP) > 10 mg/L, and the corticosteroid use were independent risk factors for long-term SARS-CoV-2 RNA shedding. Incorporating the five risk factors, a prediction model, named as the CCCCA score, was established, and its area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUROC) was 0.87 in the training set and 0.83 in the validation set, respectively. In the validation set, using a cut-off of 8 points, we found sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of 51.7%, 92.2%, 33.3%, and 96.2%, respectively. Long-term SARS-CoV-2 RNA shedding increased from 14/370 (3.8%) in patients with CCCCA

Polyglycolic acid (PGA), a linear aliphatic polyester with excellent biodegradability and biocompatibility, is widely used as a medical material. However, the inherent brittleness of this material may limit its use in many other industrial applications. This study explored the toughening effect of physically blending PGA with polyethylene oxide (PEO). Standard tensile samples of different PGA/PEO blends were prepared by a torque rheometer and a microinjection molding machine. The thermodynamic properties, mechanical properties, and microstructure of the PGA/PEO samples were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), a universal tensile testing machine, a cantilever impact tester, and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The experiment ultimately found that the addition of 15 wt% PEO greatly improved the toughness of the blended PGA/PEO. A yielding process could be observed in the tensile tests, and the elongation-at-break increased from 3.67% for pure PGA to 54.14% for PGA/PEO 85:15, which shows an increase of 1475.2%. It can be concluded that the addition of PEO is a good way to increase the PGA toughness. The mechanism of PGA toughening by PEO was further analyzed, and the increase in toughness could be attributed to the existence of a continuous PEO phase that facilitated the formation and evolution of cavities between the partially compatible PGA and PEO phases.

MADS-box transcription factors are essential mediators of the vegetative and reproductive development of seed plants. Although MADS-box genes have been extensively characterized in angiosperms, their functions are not well-understood in gymnosperms, especially the Gnetales, due to an ambiguous phylogeny of seed plants. Here, we performed a genome-wide search for MADS-box genes in Gnetum luofuense and found 11 Type I and 38 Type II MADS-box members (i.e. three MIKC* and 35 MIKCc genes). The relative abundance of the Type I Mα and Type II MIKCC subgroups (including the DEF/GLO and TM8-like genes) were mainly contributed by tandem duplications. Comparisons of the gene expression levels among members of the MIKCc subgroup reveal that the DEF/GLO-like genes and several TM8-like genes were exclusively expressed in reproductive organs, whereas TM3-like, StMADS11-like and other TM8-like genes exhibited a broad expression pattern in both vegetative and reproductive organs in G. luofuense. In addition, 14 Type II MIKCc genes were found in the stem transcriptome of Ephedra equisetina and we made an attempt to assess the homology to the MIKCc genes within Gnetales. The results of this study provide valuable information for understanding the phylogenies and functions of MADS-box genes in seed plants.

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the predictive factors of central lymph node metastasis (CLNM) and BRAFV600E mutation in Chinese patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Methods A total of 943 PTC patients who underwent thyroidectomy from 2014 to 2016 at our hospital were enrolled. Those patients were divided into PTC > 10 mm and papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) groups by tumor size. The BRAFV600E mutation was examined by quantitative real-time PCR. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to examine risk factors associated with CLNM and the BRAFV600E mutation. Results The frequency of CLNM was 53% (505/943). Both univariate and multivariate analyses suggested that the risk factors for CLNM in PTC patients were male, younger age, and larger tumor size (P < 0.05). Coexistent Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT) was an independent protective factor against CLNM when the tumor was > 10 mm (P = 0.006). Stratified analysis revealed that male, age ≤ 30 years, and tumor size > 5 mm were independent risk factors for CLNM. The BRAFV600E mutation rate was 85%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that age (P < 0.001) and coexistent HT (P = 0.005) were independent predictive factors of BRAFV600E mutation in PTC patients. Only age was a risk factor for the BRAFV600E mutation when the tumor was > 10 mm (P = 0.004). In the PTMC group, the BRAFV600E mutation was significantly correlated with tumor size (P < 0.001) and coexistent HT (P = 0.03). Stratified analysis revealed that age > 30 years and tumor size > 5 mm were independent predictive factors of BRAFV600E mutation. Furthermore, the incidence of CLNM was significantly higher in BRAFV600E mutation-positive patients (P = 0.009) when the tumor was ≤ 5 mm. Conclusion The factors male, younger age (≤ 30 years), large tumor size (> 5 mm), and coexistent HT are independent predicative factors for CLNM. The BRAFV600E mutation is associated with both large size and without HT in PTMC patients, age > 30 years in the PTC > 10 mm group. The BRAFV600E mutation was an independent risk factor for CLNM when the tumor was ≤ 5 mm. For optimal management, these features should be comprehensively evaluated to determine the initial surgical approach for PTC patients.

We consider revenue maximization in viral marketing of competitive and collaborative products through social networks, focusing on the word-of-mouth effect on personal decisions in adopting products, technologies, or Internet applications. In our model, each advertiser submits its value per consumer, and its total budget. The publisher pays a selected set of users on social networks as seed nodes. It demands a payment (equal to its value) from an advertiser for each influenced node in social networks. The publisher’s revenue equals to the total payment from the influenced users minus its cost of seed nodes. In this paper, we study the efficient allocation problem of the publisher to maximize its revenue. Our work is motivated by recent extensive studies on influence models for social networks. It has been noted that the promoted products could either be competitive or complementary such as Kindle versus Nook e-reader or Kindle cover with Kindle, respectively. Our models evaluate the revenue/cost effect of marketing those types of products through a social network, focusing on the issues of revenue maximization and complementary and competitive effects of products on each other. We take the algorithmic complexity approach for revenue maximization under those models and prove NP-hardness, non-approximability results for general structures, and polynomial time algorithms and applications for special classes of networks.

The dual-emissive N, S co-doped carbon dots (N, S-CDs) with a long emission wavelength were synthesized via solvothermal method. The N, S-CDs possess relatively high photoluminescence (PL) quantum yield (QY) (35.7%) towards near-infrared fluorescent peak up to 648 nm. With the advanced characterization techniques including X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), etc. It is found that the doped N, S elements play an important role in the formation of high QY CDs. The N, S-CDs exist distinct pH-sensitive feature with reversible fluorescence in a good linear relationship with pH values in the range of 1.0–13.0. What is more, N, S-CDs can be used as an ultrasensitive Ag+ probe sensor with the resolution up to 0.4 μM. This finding will expand the application of as prepared N, S-CDs in sensing and environmental fields.