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The controllable growth of semiconductor heterostructures with suitable band alignment and morphology is crucial to construct high-performance optoelectronic devices, which is limited to the traditional semiconductor families. Here, high-quality CsPbBr3/CdS heterostructures with the unique 1D morphology and type-II band alignment have been obtained through a 2-step physical vapor deposition (PVD) strategy, in which CsPbBr3 microcubes were grown on the side wall of the pre-grown free-standing CdS microwires. Owing to the effective separation and transportation of photogenerated carriers at the CsPbBr3/CdS heterojunction with type-II band alignment, the photodetector based on a single CsPbBr3/CdS 1D heterostructure showed high self-powered performances (without additional bias supplies), including Ion/Ioff ratio of 3×103, photoresponsivity of 24.5 mA/W, detectivity of 1.09×1012 Jones, detectable spectral ranging from 350 nm to 530 nm and respond speeds of 1.5 ms (rise time) and 14.9 ms (decay time) at the bias of 0 V. This work provides an effective way to the controllable growth of high-quality CsPbX3-based 1D heterostructures, which promotes their practical applications in optoelectronic devices without power consumption.

Cesium copper (I) halides, as a lead-free halide material system, have shown great potential in optoelectronic devices due to their environmental friendliness, high quantum efficiency, and extraord...

BACKGROUND Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) can be clustered into three subtypes according to epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers: CTCs with epithelial markers (E-CTCs), CTCs with mesenchymal markers (M-CTCs), and CTCs with both markers (E&M-CTCs). CTC detection has clinical implications in the diagnosis of lung cancer (LC). AIM To clarify the diagnostic value of CTCs categorized by EMT markers in LC. METHODS The study included 106 patients with lung adenocarcinoma, including 42 ground-glass opacities (GGO) and 64 solid lesions, who underwent surgery between July 2015 and December 2019. Eleven patients with benign tumors and seventeen healthy controls were included. CTCs in peripheral blood and associated EMT markers were detected preoperatively using the CanPatrolTM technique. The diagnostic power of CTCs for discriminating LC cases from controls was analyzed by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The CytoploRare technique was used in 20 cases and 18 controls for validation, and Kappa values were calculated to evaluate consistency between techniques. RESULTS Of the 106 LC cases, 94 (89.6%) had at least one CTC. CTCs were detectable in 35 (83.3%) of 42 GGO cases. Total CTCs and E&M-CTCs were significantly more frequent in LC cases than in benign or healthy controls. The proportion of M-CTCs plus E&M-CTCs increased gradually from healthy controls, to benign controls, to LC cases. The area under the ROC curve of total CTCs and E&M-CTCs was > 0.8 and > 10.75, respectively. The combined sensitivity of total-CTCs and E&M-CTCs was 85.85% for LC patients (80.95% for GGO patients) and the specificity was 78.57%. The Kappa value was 0.415, indicating relative consistency between CanPatrolTM and CytoploRare. CONCLUSION CTC detection is valuable for distinguishing LC from controls, and particularly E&M-CTC detection warrants further study.

Using data from Population Censuses, 1% National Population Sample Surveys of China and the Human Mortality Database, this article adopts robust percentile-based methods to analyze the changing trend of life expectancy of the Chinese elderly especially the young–old and rural–urban disparity from 1989 to 2015, and attempt to explain the disadvantage of old-age mortality improvement in China compared to developed countries. We find that life expectancy at age 65 in China has increased continuously in recent decades, but at a lower speed than in developed countries, leading to a widening gap between China and developed countries, and the increase in e65 has not shown a clear catch-up trend that has been observed in the life expectancy at birth. Similar patterns are found when we explore the rural–urban disparity of China. Based on the age-at-death distribution, we find that the old-age deaths in rural areas are more concentrated at relatively younger ages compared to urban areas due to the higher death risks and slower improvement in mortality of the young–old in rural China. Our findings describe the age-patterns underlying the rural–urban disparity in life expectancy of the elderly within China, and also the main reason for the slower improvement of life expectancy among the Chinese elderly compared with those in developed countries. Survival improvement of the young–old and equalization of available health services are key to reducing the rural–urban bias and achieving accelerated increase in life expectancy among the elderly in China.

Highly effective photothermal conversion performance coupled with high resolution temperature detection in real time is urgently needed for photothermal therapy (PTT). Herein, ultra-small Cu2S nanoparticles (NPs) were designed to absorb on the surface of NaScF4: Yb3+/Er3+/Mn2+@NaScF4@SiO2 NPs to form a central-satellite system, in which the Cu2S NPs play the role of providing significant light-to-heat conversion ability and the Er3+ ions in the NaScF4: Yb3+/Er3+/Mn2+ cores act as a thermometric probe based on the fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) technology operating in the biological windows. A wavelength of 915 nm is used instead of the conventional 980 nm excitation wavelength to eliminate the laser induced overheating effect for the bio-tissues, by which Yb3+ can also be effectively excited. The temperature resolution of the FIR-based optical thermometer is determined to be better than 0.08 K over the biophysical temperature range with a minimal value of 0.06 K at 298 K, perfectly satisfying the requirements of biomedicine. Under the radiation of 915 nm light, the Cu2S NPs exhibit remarkable light-to-heat conversion capacity, which is proved by photothermal ablation testing of E. coli. The results reveal the enormous potential of the present NPs for PTT integrated with real-time temperature sensing with high resolution.

Flag-like CdS microstructures were achieved via a physical vapor deposition (PVD) route. A CdS flag was grown from a wire by changing, in situ, the position of the Pb catalyst from the tip to the sidewall of the wire, which was achieved by controlling the radius of a Pb droplet in the growth process to break the Nebol'sin inequality criteria. The microstructure characterization further reveals that the growth of the flag is assisted by the template of the CdS wire sidewall. By investigating the morphology evolution of the sample at different growth stages, the growth mechanism is well understood. Additionally, the power-dependent photoluminescence (PL) shows that the CdS flag possesses a higher defect density than the CdS wire, which may result in the wider optoelectronic response range of the former compared to the latter.

Background This study was designed to investigate the effects of a novel carcinogenetic molecule, p130cas (breast cancer antiestrogen resistance protein 1 or BCAR1) on proliferation and cell growth in lung adenocarcinoma. The study also aimed to identify the possible underlying signal networks of BCAR1. Methods First, we evaluated proliferation, cell colony formation, apoptosis, and cell cycle after BCAR1 was knocked out (KO) using CRISPR‐Cas9 technology in H1975 and H1299 human lung adenocarcinoma cells. Subsequently, BCAR1 was upregulated in 293T cells and immunoprecipitation‐mass spectrometry (IP‐MS) was used with bioinformatics analysis to screen for potential networks of BCAR1 interacting proteins. Ultimately, we validated the correlated expressions of BCAR1 and a selected hub gene, RNA polymerase II subunit A (POLR2A), in 54 lung adenocarcinoma tissues, as well as in H1975 and H1299 cells. Results Cell proliferation of H1975 and H1299 was significantly inhibited following BCAR1‐KO. Colony formation of H1975 cells was also significantly decreased following BCAR1‐KO. IP‐MS demonstrated 419 potential proteins that may interact with BCAR1. Among them, 68 genes were significantly positively correlated to BCAR1 expression, as verified by TCGA. Six hub genes were revealed by PPI String. High expression of POLR2A, MAPK3, MOV10, and XAB2 predicted poor prognosis in lung adenocarcinoma, as verified by the K‐M plotter database. POLR2A and MAPK3 are involved in both catalytic activity and transferase activity. POLR2A and BCAR1 were significantly increased in lung cancer tissues as compared with matched normal tissues. High expression of POLR2A was significantly positively correlated to BCAR1 overexpression and predicted poor prognosis in 54 lung cancer cases. POLR2A expression was significantly decreased following BCAR1‐KO in H1975 and H1299 cells. Conclusions BCAR1 promotes proliferation and cell growth, probably via upregulation of POLR2A and subsequent enhancement of catalytic and transferase activities. However, additional robust studies are required to elucidate the mechanisms involved., In this work, we elaborated the enhancement effect of a novel carcinogenetic molecule, ie, p130cas (breast cancer antiestrogen resistance 1, BCAR1) on proliferation and cell growth of lung cancer cells,and to explore the possible networks of interacting proteins of BCAR1. We found BCAR1 can promote proliferation and cell growth, probably via upregulation of POLR2A and subsequent enhancement of catalytic activity and transferase activity.

In this paper, BaY2O4:Yb3+/Er3+, a high efficient red upconversion (UC) material, is first utilized as an optical thermometer in the biological window, accomplished through the fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) of thermally coupled Stark sublevels of 4F9/2 (FIR(654/663)). The maximum absolute sensitivity of FIR(654/663)) is 0.19% K-1 at 298 K, which is much higher than most previous reports about FIR-based temperature sensors located in the biological windows. More importantly, the groove of FIR(654/663) for thermometry is nicely located in the physiological temperature range, indicating its potential thermometry application value in biomedicine. Furthermore, a simply ex vivo experiment is implemented to evaluate the penetration depth of the red emission in biological tissues, revealing that a detection depth of 6 mm can be achieved without any effect on the FIR values of I654 to I663. Beyond that, the temperature sensing behaviors of the thermally coupled levels 2H11/2 and 4S3/2 (FIR(523/550)) are also investigated in detail. In the studied temperature range, the absolute sensitivity of FIR(523/550) monotonously increases with the rising temperature and reaches its maximum value 0.31% K-1 at 573 K. All the results imply that BaY2O4:Yb3+/Er3+ is a promising candidate for deep-tissue optical thermometry with high sensitivity.

With the economic progress and scientific development since the 1980s, research on deserts in China has advanced remarkably. Many research outputs have been published, especially in recent years. However, a systematic review and quantitative analysis of these publications has been lacking. Here, we conducted a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the main deserts in China in order to characterize the trends and temporal changes in publications. Because the first publication was found in 1986, we searched all publications from 1986 to 2020. We found that annual publication output increased exponentially, especially after 2012, and that the Tengger Desert, the Taklimakan Desert, and the Horqin Sandy Land were the most intensively studied areas. Earth science, involving environmental science and ecology, geology, and agriculture were the major research fields. In addition, Journal of Arid Land, Chinese Science Bulletin, and Catena were the journals with the largest number of publications. The Chinese Academy of Sciences produced the largest number of publications, wherein, Li X R, Zhao X Y, and Zhang Y M were the three most productive authors. Noticeably, “climate change” has become a frequent topic since 2010, indicating that more attention has been paid to climate change and alleviating anthropogenic disturbances in desert areas in China. Although Chinese authors contributed the most publications, the average number of citations per publication for Chinese authors was relatively low. Our results highlight that authors should continue to improve the number of citations of their publications and pay more attention to the interactions between climate change and desertification in the deserts research of Northern China in the futures.

Background Our study aimed to verify the prognostic value of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) prior to initial treatment on survival of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by using meta-analysis and system review of published studies. Materials and methods The PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane Library were searched, respectively, to identify all studies that addressed the issues of CTCs prior to initial treatment and progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Finally, ten citations were included for analysis and assessment of publication bias by using review manager 5.3 statistical software and STATA 15.0. Results Randomized model analyzing multivariate Cox Proportional Hazards Regression indicated that higher abundance of CTCs significantly predicts poorer prognosis of lung cancer cases basing both on PFS (Z = 2.31, P = 0.02) and OS of advanced cases (Z = 2.44, P = 0.01), and systematic study aslo indicated the similar results. Conclusion High CTCs prior to initial treatment can predict shorter PFS and OS in NSCLC, and further studies are warranted in the future.

The optical thermometry properties of LuVO4:Yb3+/Er3+@SiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) are studied in detail. In order to avoid the overheating effect for biological tissue caused by 980 nm radiation, 915 ...

As an irreversible and perennial process, aging is accompanied by functional and morphological declines in organs. Generally, aging liver exhibits a decline in volume and hepatic blood flow. Even with a preeminent regenerative capacity to restore its functions after liver cell loss, its biosynthesis and metabolism abilities decline, and these are difficult to restore to previous standards. Apoptosis is a programmed death process via intrinsic and extrinsic pathways, in which Bcl-2 family proteins and apoptosis-related genes, such as p21 and p53, are involved. Apoptosis inflicts both favorable and adverse influences on liver aging. Apoptosis eliminates transformed abnormal cells but promotes age-related liver diseases, such as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, and liver cancer. We summarize the roles of apoptosis in liver aging and age-related liver diseases.

Rare earth-doped Ba3La(VO4)3 phosphors with tunable emitting colors were firstly explored and their photoluminescence properties were systematically investigated. The experimental results show that the Ba3La(VO4)3 phosphors exhibit high-brightness self-activated emission and enable us to sensitize the luminescence of rare earth activators. Under near-ultraviolet (UV) excitation, both the broadband emission from VO43− groups and the sharp peak emissions from Eu3+ ions are observed in Ba3La(VO4)3:Eu3+ phosphors. Modulation of the emitting color from green to red can be realized by adjusting the Eu3+ doping concentration, which is assigned to an efficient energy transfer from VO43− to Eu3+ ions. Notably, the optical thermometry of Ba3La(VO4)3:Eu3+ was characterized based on the fluorescence intensity ratio of VO43− and Eu3+ emissions in the 298–573 K range, with the maximum absolute and relative sensitivities of 0.0515 K−1 and 1.77% K−1 at 298 K. In addition, similar phenomena were observed in Sm3+ and Dy3+-doped Ba3La(VO4)3 phosphors. These results verify a feasible strategy for varying the emission color and realizing optical thermometry in the single-component phosphors by adjusting the energy transfer between the host and the activator. It provides new possibilities for the design of multifunctional materials for white light-emitting diodes and non-contact thermometry.

Altered visual experience during monocular deprivation (MD) profoundly changes in ocular dominance (OD) in the developing primary visual cortex (V1). MD-driven changes in OD are an experimental model of amblyopia, where early-life alterations in vision lead visual disruption in adulthood. Current treatments for amblyopia include patching of the dominant eye, and more recently-developed binocular therapies. However, the relative impact of monocular vs. binocular recovery experiences on recovery of function in V1 is not well understood. Using single-unit recording, we compared how binocular recovery [BR] or reverse occlusion [RO] of identical duration and content affects OD and visual response recovery in mouse binocular V1 after a period of MD. We also tested how BR and RO affected MD-driven alterations of parvalbumin expression, and visually-driven expression of cFos in parvalbumin-positive and negative neurons. Finally, we tested how BR and RO affected recovery of normal visual acuity for the two eyes in the context of visually-driven behavior. We find that BR is quantitatively superior with respect to normalization of V1 neurons’ OD, visually-driven cFos expression, and visual acuity for the two eyes. However, MD-driven changes in the firing rate and response properties of V1 principal neuron and fast-spiking interneuron populations do not recover fully after either BR or RO. Binocular matching of orientation preference also remains disrupted in V1 neurons after both forms of recovery experience. Thus BR and RO, analogs of differing treatment regimens for amblyopia, differentially impact various aspects of visual recovery in a mouse model for amblyopia.Significance StatementAmblyopia resulting from altered childhood eye function is a leading cause of lifelong vision loss. Treatment typically involves patching of the dominant eye (forcing monocular visual experience), and produces only partial recovery of vision. Using a well-established mouse model of amblyopia, we directly compared how two types of visual experiences influence recovery of visual function. Our findings suggest that binocular vs. monocular visual experience differentially effect restoration of normal visual responses in cortical neurons, visually-driven neuronal gene expression, and visual acuity. Understanding how the quality of recovery experience impacts visual system recovery in amblyopia should provide critical insights for clinical strategies for its treatment.

In recent years, the organization of open source software development has evolved rapidly. Analyzing the behaviors of contributors helps us understand the development process of open source software and explore the general and special rules of it. Agent based model is a type of computing model that can simulate the behaviors and interactions between autonomous entities. With agent based models, we can simulate the self-organization process of open source software development by simulating contributors' behaviors. Therefore, we design an agent-based simulation system for open source software development, which are implemented with the Java Agent Development framework. In experiments, we obtain the simulation results by inputting historical behavior information of open source repositories on GitHub. Then we compare the results of various models. Finally, by adjusting input parameters for issue resolution process, we analyze the impact of these parameters, which shows this system also helps understand how to control the open source software development process.

Bi2O2Se has been proved to be a promising candidate for electronic and optoelectronic devices due to their unique physical properties. However, it is still a great challenge to construct the heterostructures with direct epitaxy of hetero semiconductor materials on Bi2O2Se nanosheets. Here, a two-step chemical vapor deposition (CVD) route was used to directly grow the CsPbBr3 nanoplate-Bi2O2Se nanosheet heterostructures. The CsPbBr3 nanoplates were selectively grown on the Bi2O2Se nanosheet along the edges, where the dangling bonds provide the nucleation sites. The epitaxial relationships between CsPbBr3 and Bi2O2Se were determined as [200]Bi2O2Se||[110]CsPbBr3 and [110]Bi2O2Se||[200]CsPbBr3 by transmission electron microscopy characterization. The photoluminescence (PL) results reveal that the formation of heterostructures results in the remarkable PL quenching due to the type-I band arrangement at CsPbBr3/Bi2O2Se interface, which was confirmed by ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) and Kelvin probe measurements, and makes the photogenerated carriers transfer from CsPbBr3 to Bi2O2Se. Importantly, the photodetectors based on the heterostructures exhibit a 4-time increase in the responsivity compared to those based on the pristine Bi2O2Se sheets, and the fast rise and decay time in microsecond. These results indicate that the direct epitaxy of the CsPbBr3 plates on the Bi2O2Se sheet may improve the optoelectronic performance of Bi2O2Se based devices.

Discovery of novel multifunctional fluorescent materials are of great concern to the development of disciplinary crossing and integration. In this work, we prepared a broad-band Eu 3+ -activated Lu 2 MoO 6 multifunctional material for potential warm white light-emitting diodes ( w -LEDs) and temperature sensor applications. Lu 1.9 MoO 6 :0.1Eu 3+ phosphor was synthesized by high-temperature solid-state reaction method, and the structure characterization was investigated for the first time. The excitation spectrum of this phosphor exhibits the intense broad band ranging from 250 nm to 440 nm assigned to the O 2− -Mo 6+ charge transfer band (CTB) transition, and a strong red emission centered at 610 nm corresponding to the 5 D 0 → 7 F 2 transition of Eu 3+ ions were detected under 365 nm excitation. Importantly, warm white light composite material was hybridized via blending commercial green, blue and the present red phosphors, which under 365 nm excitation exhibited a high color rendering index (CRI) of 78 at a correlated color temperature of 4271 K with CIE coordinates of x = 0.351, y = 0.308. Furthermore, a strong temperature sensitization phenomenon was found, where the results show that the emission intensities and chromaticity coordinates are sensitive to the temperature, which can provide guidance for the potential application in temperature sensing.

Various changes in the liver during aging can reduce hepatic function and promote liver injury. Aging is associated with high morbidity and a poor prognosis in patients with various liver diseases, including nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, hepatitis C and liver cancer, as well as with surgeries such as partial hepatectomy and liver transplantation. In addition, apoptosis increases with liver aging. Because apoptosis is involved in regeneration, fibrosis and cancer prevention during liver aging, and restoration of the appropriate level of apoptosis can alleviate the adverse effects of liver aging, it is important to understand the mechanisms underlying this process. Herein, we elaborate on the causes of apoptosis during liver aging, with a focus on oxidative stress, genomic instability, lipotoxicity, endoplasmic reticulum stress, dysregulation of nutrient sensing, and liver stem/progenitor cell activity.

A series of reddish orange light-emitting NaBaLa2(PO4)3: Sm3+(NBLP:Sm3+) phosphors are designed and synthesized in this work for the first time. The crystal structure of NaBaLa2(PO4)3(NBLP) has been studied by the Rietveld refinement analysis, which shows that the NBLP belongs to eulytite-type orthophosphate. Luminescence properties of NBLP:Sm3+ phosphors were investigated in detail, including excitation and emission spectra, concentration quenching, fluorescence decay, Inokuti-Hirayama (I-H) model analysis, etc. The Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates exhibited a shift slightly from reddish-orange (0.5782, 0.4171) to orange (0.5605, 0.4312) with the increase of Sm3+ concentration. In addition, the NBLP:Sm3+ phosphor shows good thermal stability and acceptable quantum efficiency. From the obtained results, the prepared phosphor NBLP: Sm3+ can be demonstrated as a potential orange-red luminescent material.

Optical thermometry based on trivalent rare earth doped materials has attracted much attention recently. This article reported the temperature dependent near infrared luminescence of Ho 3+ doped in CaWO 4 phosphors. A series of CaWO 4 :Ho 3+ powders have been synthesized by high temperature solid state reaction. The XRD patterns showed that the Ho 3+ ions have occupied the lattice sites of Ca 2+ ions in the phosphors. The thermometry effect was demonstrated by different spectroscopic parameters through the emission intensity of Ho 3+ : 5 I 6 → 5 I 8 transition at ∼1190 nm, the spectral shift of the charge transfer band of W-O and the lifetime of Ho 3+ : 5 F 4 , 5 S 2 excited state. These three optical parameters present a simple linear relation with the temperature in the range of 30–300 °C. This allows for accurate thermal sensing based on simultaneous measurement of these parameters. Results show that CaWO 4 :Ho 3+ phosphors might be served as a potential candidate for thermometry.

© 2019, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. As open-source software (OSS) development is becoming a trend, an increasing number of businesses and developers are joining OSS projects. For project managers, developers and users, understanding the current health status of a project is very important to manage a development process, select the open-source projects to development or to adopt the software packages developed by projects. Therefore, an efficient approach to evaluate the health status of the open-source project is needed. Unfortunately, although many approaches including metrics have been proposed, they are designed in arbitrary ways. In this paper, a math ematical tool, i.e., factor analysis, is used to build a health evaluation model for OSS projects. As far as we know, this is the first time that factor analysis has been applied to evaluate OSS projects. This model is based on GitHub data and uses the basic indexes that are closely related to the health status of the projects as the input. Then, six new synthetic metrics, namely community activity, project popularity, development activity, completeness, responsiveness and persistence are obtained through factor analysis, which can be used to calculate the overall health score of a project. Moreover, in order to verify the effectiveness of this model, it is applied to some real projects and the results show that the overall scores achieved by this model can reflect the health status of the projects.

Deep-red-emitting Mn4+ activated oxide phosphors are the hot research topic due to their potential applications in indoor plant cultivation LEDs. In this paper, a novel double-perovskite LiLaMgTeO6:Mn4+ phosphor was firstly prepared by high-temperature solid-state reaction method and its structure of the phosphor was determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Rietveld refinement. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations using VASP provide an insight into the bandgap and electronic structures of the LiLaMgTeO6 host. Under UV or blue excitation, LiLaMgTeO6:Mn4+ shows a good stability and bright far-red light in the 540–800 nm range with the maximum at 708 nm, which matches well with the absorption band of phytochrome PFR, indicating its potential application in improving plant growth. The optimal Mn4+ doping concentration was approximately 0.6 mol%. Furthermore, a white-LEDs device made of a 365 nm chip coated with present phosphor and commercial green, blue phosphors was designed for indoor plant cultivation. The results indicate that the LiLaMgTeO6: Mn4+ phosphor possesses great application prospect in white-LEDs for plant cultivation.

Optical thermometry has been developed as a promising temperature-sensing technique. We propose a new, to the best of our knowledge, strategy of fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR), based on an abnormal thermal quenching effect. In the phosphors of S r 3 L u ( V O 4 ) 3 : E u 3 + and C a W O 4 : N d 3 + , the f-f emission intensity of the doped lanthanide ions increases with raising temperature upon the excitation of the charge transfer band (CTB) of the host. The abnormal thermal quenching is caused by the thermally activated absorption, which is proved by temperature-dependent diffuse reflectance spectra. The opposite change tendency of M-O ( M = V 5 + or W 6 + ) CTB and L n 3 + ( L n = E u 3 + or N d 3 + ) f-f transitions has been observed in the temperature-dependent excitation spectra and employed as the thermometric probe in ratiometric luminescent thermometry. The strategy applies to the FIR technique in lanthanide singly doped phosphors and eliminates the limitation of thermal-coupled levels. It opens up new possibilities of ratiometric optical thermometry. In addition, the derived maximum relative sensitivity is larger than the value obtained via thermal-coupled levels in the same sample. This illustrates that optical thermometry based on abnormal thermal quenching might be a feasible and effective method.

Objective: To clarify the clinical significance of breast cancer anti-estrogen resistance protein 1 (BCAR1) expression in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the peripheral blood and tumor tissues in patients with early stage lung adenocarcinoma (ES-LUAD). Methods: The study cohort included 60 patients with stage I LUAD (50 IA and 10 IB) who underwent surgery from November 2015 to November 2018 and 31 healthy controls. The expression levels of BCAR1 and markers of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in peripheral blood CTCs were detected using CanPatrolTM technology before surgery, and immunohistochemical analysis was used to detect BCAR1 expression in tumor tissues collected from 40 patients. The predictive power of BCAR1 expression in CTCs and tumor tissues on disease-free survival (DFS) was analyzed. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database was used to study BCAR1 expression and overall survival as validation. The Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis online tool was used to analyze the correlations between the expression levels of BCAR1 and EMT molecular markers. Results: Both the number and detection rates of BCAR1-negative CTCs and BCAR1-positive CTCs in peripheral blood of lung cancer patients were significantly higher as compared with healthy controls ( p < 0.05). BCAR1-positive CTCs more commonly co-expressed both epithelial and mesenchymal markers. Kaplan–Meier analysis demonstrated that patients with BCAR1(++) CTCs in peripheral blood before surgery were more prone to recurrence or metastasis after 2 years. COX analysis showed that patients with higher abundance of BCAR1(++) CTCs had a poorer prognosis (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.712, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.077–2.272, p = 0.023). Furthermore, high BCAR1 expression in tumor tissues was predictive of a poor prognosis (HR = 2.654, 95% CI = 1.239–5.686, p = 0.012), as validated by TCGA database (HR = 2.217, 95% CI = 1.069–4.595, p = 0.032). In addition, BCAR1 expression in LUAD tissues from TCGA was significantly positively correlated with the expression of both epithelial markers (e.g., ck8/18/19) and mesenchymal markers (e.g., vimentin and twist). Conclusion: BCAR1 may have a “dual impact” on EMT markers in tumor tissues and CTCs due to micro-environmental disparities, resulting in important clinical significance, which can potentially guide accurate treatment of LUAD.

With aging, various factors deteriorate the normal sleep process that is essential for the restoration of functional and physical performance. Due to aging-related diseases, life changes, or aging itself, disturbances in normal sleep cycles can profoundly affect healthy aging. To understand the interconnections between aging and the factors influencing sleep, with emerging evidence accumulated in recent years, this study elaborates on the roles of aging in sleep from four perspectives: cortical thinning, white matter degeneration, neurotransmitter dysregulation, and circadian disorganization. In brief, with aging, cortical thinning can be induced by the deposition of neurotoxic substances, and white matter degeneration can be induced by vascular abnormalities. These alterations emerging in the brain jointly disrupt sleep spindles and slow waves, leading to sleep disturbances. Age-related dysregulation in neurotransmitters (including galanin, orexin, serotonin, and adenosine) directly impairs the sleep modulation system. Disorganization in the circadian system consisting of suprachiasmatic nucleus dysfunction, reduced light transmission, and local circadian clock disruption collectively interrupts circadian rhythms, also causing sleep disturbances in the older. Of note is the bidirectional relationship between aging and sleep, which required us to examine this issue from different perspectives.

Yb3+ singly doped tellurite as-prepared glasses and glass ceramics were synthesized by high-temperature melt-quenching method. The excitation and emission spectra have shown that there is an efficient near-infrared (NIR) down-shifting due to the sensitization of a novel Yb3+–O2− charge-transfer (CT) band. The CT band in the present host is located at around 320 nm at room temperature, which is much lower than that in other oxide hosts reported before. The possible energy-transfer mechanism from the Yb3+–O2− CT band to the 2F5/2 multiplet of Yb3+ ions is discussed in detail. The concentration quenching is not observed even when the Yb3+-doped concentration is increased up to 40 mol%. The excitation of this strong broad CT band causes intense NIR emission of Yb3+:2F5/2→2F7/2 from 920 to 1120 nm, making the tellurite glasses suitable for efficient photovoltaic (PV) application as a spectral conversion material for the crystalline Si (c-Si) solar cells.

Yb 3+ /Er 3+ co-doped transparent oxyfluoride glass ceramics (GC) have been successfully fabricated and characterized for the purpose of optical thermometry by measuring the green upconverted fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) between the two thermally coupled levels ( 2 H 11/2 and 4 S 3/2 ). The green upconverted emissions in the GC are enhanced by 15 times compared to that of the precursor glass. The dependence of the FIR on temperature ranging from 298 K to 693 K is well fitted with an exponential function by using an effective energy difference of 775 cm −1 . Owing to its low phonon energy and high thermal stability, an improved measurement accuracy and widened operating temperature range can be achieved with the GC sample, suggesting that transparent glass ceramics containing NaYF4:Yb 3+ /Er 3+ nanocrystals are promising for application as optical-fiber temperature sensors.

Yb 3+ /Er 3+ co-doped transparent glass ceramics (GC) containing GdPO 4 nanocrystals have been successfully fabricated using a conventional melt-quenching method with subsequent heat treatment. The structural and the luminescence properties were investigated by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and upconverted emission spectra. Under the excitation of a 980 nm diode laser, the total upconverted emission in GC as well as the Green/Red emission intensity ratio in the GC670 sample was enhanced compared to that in the precursor glass, indicating that Er 3+ ions have entered into GdPO 4 nanocrystals after crystallization. Our results also show that the Green/Red emission intensity ratio of GC is closely related to crystallinity of the samples. The outstanding properties of GdPO 4 -based transparent GC provide a promising candidate for wide application fields, such as in all-solid-state upconversion lasers and optical fibers.

Aliskiren (ALK) is a renin inhibitor that has been used in the treatment of hypertension. The aim of this study was to determine whether ALK could ameliorate pressure overload-induced heart hypertrophy and fibrosis, and to elucidate the mechanisms of action.Transverse aortic constriction (TAC) was performed in mice to induce heart pressure overload. ALK (150 mg·kg(-1)·d(-1), po), the autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine (10 mg·kg(-1) per week, ip) or the PKCβI inhibitor LY333531 (1 mg·kg(-1)·d-(1), po) was administered to the mice for 4 weeks. Heart hypertrophy, fibrosis and function were evaluated based on echocardiography, histological and biochemical measurements. Mechanically stretched cardiomyocytes of rats were used for in vitro experiments. The levels of signaling proteins were measured using Western blotting, while the expression of the relevant genes was analyzed using real-time QRT-PCR.TAC induced marked heart hypertrophy and fibrosis, accompanied by high levels of Ang II in plasma and heart, and by PKCβI/α and ERK1/2 phosphorylation in heart. Meanwhile, TAC induced autophagic responses in heart, i.e. increases in autophagic structures, expression of Atg5 and Atg16 L1 mRNAs and LC3-II and Beclin-1 proteins. These pathological alterations in TAC-mice were significantly ameliorated or blocked by ALK administration. In TAC-mice, 3-methyladenine administration also ameliorated heart hypertrophy, fibrosis and dysfunction, while LY333531 administration inhibited ERK phosphorylation and autophagy in heart. In mechanically stretched cardiomyocytes, CGP53353 (a PKCβI inhibitor) prevented ERK phosphorylation and autophagic responses, while U0126 (an ERK inhibitor) blocked autophagic responses.ALK ameliorates heart hypertrophy, fibrosis and dysfunction in the mouse model in setting of chronic pressure overload, via suppressing Ang II-PKCβI-ERK1/2-regulated autophagy.

With the rising user number of mobile smart terminal and the rapid development of Internet in our country, the demand of resources sharing between mobile terminal and the Internet becomes more and more urgent. However, the mobile banking based on mobile smart terminal is facing increasingly serious security threatens. On the basis of a comprehensive analysis of the development and present situation of mobile banking, this paper describes the related security mechanism and potential security threatens of mobile banking. Furthermore, information security technology and development trend of mobile banking are comparised and summarized in this paper, and the security assessment demand for mobile banking is proposed.

In recent years, the accidents of house collapse during the decoration process often occur which resulted in the loss of a great social impact and economic value. According to a housing collapse instance, a comprehensive computational analysis is given in terms of carrying capacity of components and urban housing safety management issues and some references are made for the engineers, technicians and housing safety management.

In order to analysis modal characteristic of bearing with pre-tightening force on main spindle of numerical control lathe, this paper proposes a model of spindle modality analysis. This model is used to simulate the preloaded bearing shaft system modal, and the simulation results are verified by modal experiment. This paper takes 7005c as the research object to establish the equivalent-spring model based on the Hertz theory considering the pre-tightening force, whose focus is dealing with the contact between bearings rolling element and raceway. Then the model will be used to get the bearing stiffness for finite element simulation analysis. The shafting modal with preloaded bearing test platform is structured to get the shaft system modal parameters, which is compared with and verified the simulation analysis.

In order to develop a new high-efficient but low-cost sewage treatment technology, sewage treatment experiments have been accomplished in a new type sequencing batch reactor with concrete bio-films. During experiments, simulation sewage was taken as raw water, and the operation sequence of the reactor was taken as 1.25h for water input and hypoxia, 1.25h for aeration, 0.5h for precipitation and 0.5h for water discharge successively. It has been shown by the experimental results that the reactor has optimal sewage purification effects, such as its average pollutant removal rate can arrive at about 95% for COD and BOD5, near 70% for ammonia hydrogen and about 40% for total phosphorus under the experimental condition. Main factors influencing the reactor purification effect have been discovered as pollutant volume load, ratio C/N, water temperature and amount of bio-films installed in the reactor. The mechanism of their influences has been also discussed in this paper.

Background: To investigate pharmacokinetics and potency of antitumor activity of a novel 5-fluorouracil carrier erythrocyte (RBC-FU) in mice bearing malignant ascites. Methods: RBC-FU was synthesized with a hyperosmotic technique. The entrapment efficiency of targeted carrier erythrocytes was determined by reverse dialysis method with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for analyzing the quantity of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). After a H22 hepatocarcinoma malignant ascites model was established in Kunming mice, 5-FU encapsulated by carrier erythrocytes (for Group A) and 5-FU solution (for Group B) at 20 mg per kg were injected into the peritoneal cavity of the mice, respectively. Blood and ascites samples were collected at different times to detect 5-FU quantity by HPLC. Body weight and survival time of mice were recorded in Group A, B and the Control Group in which mice were injected with normal saline only. Results: 5-FU was effectively encapsulated into erythrocytes, with an encapsulating effect as 55 ± 0.50%. In Group A, the maximum concentration (Cmax) and the area under curve (AUC) in peritoneal exudates were significantly higher than those of Group B (P

The balanced relationship between the industrial structure and the employment structure is a crucial factor for the development of the regional economy. This study was conducted based on a descriptive analysis of the industrial structure and employment structure trends in Hunan Province. Through the methods of Co-integration Test and Granger Causality Test, Pulse Response Analysis and Variance Decomposition Analysis, this research examines the dynamic relationship between industrial structure and employment structure and proposes relevant suggestions. KEYWORD: Industrial structure; Employment structure; Dynamic relationship

Wayfinding is a kind of question we have to face when we going out every day. A great deal of research on path analysis algorithms have been performed and applied in wayfinding, however most algorithms on minimal path, optimal path are carried out from the mathematical point of view, neglecting the consideration of geographical knowledge. This paper tries to find the factors affecting people's satisfaction with the optimal path between origin and destination on the basis of cognitive experiment. It is found that the importance of each factor is extraordinarily different in different circumstances. Research results can be applied to path analysis system development in the future. By introducing the customer's own cognitive situation additionally, it is more efficient to find out the habits of people's cognitive-based optimal path.

Most traditional epidemiological studies are based on the statistical analysis rather than spatial information. Therefore, the study combining spatial analysis with epidemiology is a promising and perspective field. This paper, based on the technology of GIS, the method of disease mapping and traditional statistics, is focus on the spatial data of influenza A virus subtype H1N1. A spatial database of H1N1 flu in Changsha and the map of incidence rate are established to analyze the cause formation of accumulation areas combining with the spread characteristics. After spatial risk factors are explored, results show that these risk factors are correlated to incidence rate of H1N1 flu in Changsha. It has a huge significance to check out specific situation about Changsha region so as to provide more effective and protective measures though the scientific research method.

Angiogenesis plays an important role in the growth of solid tumors. To date, no information has been acquired on the effectiveness of gene therapy in the orthotopic lung cancer model of syngeneic immunocompetent mice treated with an angiogenesis inhibitor. Here, we report the establishment of such a model in which Lewis lung carcinoma (LL/2) cell suspensions were orthotopically inoculated into the lung parenchyma of C57BL/6 mice, which were also injected with a recombinant adenoviral vector delivering the human endostatin gene (Ad-hE). We found that orthotopic implantation of LL/2 cells into the lung parenchyma produced a solitary tumor nodule in the lung followed by remote mediastinal lymph node metastasis. Conditioned medium from Ad-hE-transfected LL/2 cells apparently inhibited proliferation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). The level of endostatin protein in serum could be identified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Treatment with Ad-hE resulted in inhibition of tumor growth and prolongation of survival time of tumor-bearing mice. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that intratumoral angiogenesis was significantly suppressed. Furthermore, the finding of angiogenesis inhibition was also supported by measuring the number of circulating endothelial cells (CECs). Apoptotic cells were found to be increased within tumor tissues from mice treated with Ad-hE. In addition, treatment with Ad-hE combined with cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II) (cisplatin) enhanced antitumor activity. These observations provide further evidence of the antitumor effect of endostatin gene therapy, and may be of importance for further exploration of potential application of this combined approach in the treatment of human lung cancer as well as other solid tumors.

Optical thermometers usually make use of the fluorescence intensity ratio of two thermally coupled energy levels, with the relative sensitivity constrained by the limited energy gap. Here we develop a strategy by using the upconversion (UC) emissions originating from two multiplets with opposite temperature dependences to achieve higher relative temperature sensitivity. We show that the intensity ratio of the two UC emissions, ³F(2,3) and ¹G₄, of Tm³⁺ in β-NaYF₄:20%Yb³⁺, 0.5%Tm³⁺/NaYF₄:1%Pr³⁺ core-shell nanoparticles under 980 nm laser excitation exhibits high relative temperature sensitivity between 350 and 510 K, with a maximum of 1.53% K⁻¹ at 417 K. This demonstrates the validity of the strategy, and that the studied material has the potential for high-performance optical thermometry.

In order to discriminate between the two macroscopic models for the dependence of the spontaneous emission rates of emitters on the refractive indices of the surrounding optical dielectric media, i.e., the local-field effect, Eu3+ activated glass samples with a range of different refractive indices were prepared for the measurements of photoluminescence emission spectrum, luminescent decay rate and refractive index. Detail analyses indicate that the local-field effect on the spontaneous emission rates follows the virtual-cavity model derived by assuming the doped luminescent ions do not disturb the optical dielectric media.