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This paper identifies a trend factor that exploits the short-, intermediate-, and long-run moving averages of settlement prices in commodity futures markets. The trend factor generates statistically and economically large returns during the post-financialization period 2004-2020. It outperforms the well-known momentum factor by more than nine times the Sharpe ratio and has less downside risk. The trend factor cannot be explained by the existing factor models and is priced cross-sectionally. Finally, we find that the trend factor is correlated with funding liquidity measured by the TED spread. Overall, the results indicate that there are significant economic gains from using the information on historical prices in commodity futures markets.

Extragastrointestinal stromal tumors (EGIST) primarily arising from the female genital tract are extremely rare. We report a case of EGIST presenting as a recurrent vulvar mass with genetic analyses. A 59-year-old woman was found to have a 4-cm recurrent mass in the right vulva after 6 months of the first resection. Histological findings showed that the uniform spindle cells formed interlacing bundles, with high cellular density and mild to moderate atypia. Mitotic activity averaged 10 mitoses per 50 high-power fields. Immunohistochemical evaluation revealed that the tumor cells exhibited strong and diffuse staining for CD117, CD34 and DOG1. Ki67 labeling was approximately 15%. Molecular analysis showed an in-frame protein deletion (P551_Q556del) at exon 11 of c-KIT. The tumor was diagnosed as an EGIST. The patient was treated with imatinib, and was healthy at 12-month follow-up. EGIST should be considered in the differential diagnosis of vulvar mesenchymal tumors.

Chitin synthase (CHS) is the key regulatory enzyme in chitin synthesis and excretion in insects, and a specific target of insecticides. We cloned a CHS B gene of Bombyx mori (BmChsB) and showed it to be midgut specific, highly expressed during the feeding process in the larva. Knockdown of BmChsB expression in the third-instar larvae increased the number of nonmolting and abnormally molting larvae. Exposure to nikkomycin Z, a CHS inhibitor, reduced the amount of chitin in the peritrophic membrane of molted larvae, whereas abnormally elevated BmChsB mRNA levels were readily detected from the end of molting and in the newly molted larvae. Exogenous 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) and methoprene, a juvenile hormone analogue, significantly upregulated the expression of BmChsB when the levels of endogenous molting hormone (MH) were low and the levels of endogenous juvenile hormone (JH) were high immediately after molting. When levels of endogenous MH were high and those of endogenous JH were low during the molting stage, exogenous 20E did not upregulate BmChsB expression and exogenous methoprene upregulated it negligibly. When the endogenous hormone levels were low during the mulberry-leaf intake process, BmChsB expression was upregulated by exogenous methoprene. We conclude that the expression of BmChsB is regulated by insect hormones, and directly affects the chitin-synthesis-dependent form of the peritrophic membrane and protects the food intake and molting process of silkworm larvae.

Local invasion of tumor cells is characteristic of most human glioma invasions. It is associated with increased motility and a potential to degrade the extracellular matrix. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) have been proved to be a main process in local invasion of brain tumor. PRL-3 is a new protein tyrosine phosphatase which would also degrade the extracellular matrix and has been proved to be expressed in liver metastases derived from colorectal cancer. In this study, we sought to investigate the expression of PRL-3 in glioma tissues and investigate the relationship between MMPs (MMP2, MMP9, membrane-type matrix metalloproteinase 1 [MT1-MMP]) activity and expression in gliomas. The modifications of in situ hybridization of mRNA phosphatase of regenerating liver-3 (PRL-3) methods are preformed in the study of paraffin-embedded slides. The immunohistochemistry and gelatin zymography are used to detect the expression of PRL-3 and activity of MMPs. The results show that PRL-3 mRNA and antibody of PRL-3 are detected in glioma tissues mainly in grades IV and III, only a little in grade II, but not in normal brain tissue and glioma grade I. MMP2 and MMP9 are observed mainly in glioma tissues of grades IV and III in activity and expression. MT1-MMP protein is located in glioma tissues and vessel endothelial cells. This is the first report of detecting PRL-3 expression in gliomas, especially in grades III and IV, which may play an important role in progression of gliomas. PRL-3, MMP2 and MT1-MMP cooperatively contribute to gliomas invasion. Intermediate MMP2 (MT1-MMP, TIMP-2, MMP2 trimeric complex) is detected in high grades of glioma tissues by gelatin zymography and may be a marker indicating latent malignance of gliomas.