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Background: Research reported exercise could reduce Alzheimer’s disease (AD) symptoms in human and animals. However, the molecular mechanism of exercise training via transcriptomic analysis was unclear especially in AD in the cortex area. Objective: Investigate potential significant pathways in the cortex area that were affected by exercise during AD. Methods: RNA-seq analysis, differential expressed genes, functional enrichment analysis, and GSOAP clustering analysis were performed in the isolated cerebral cortex from eight 3xTg AD mice (12 weeks old) randomly and equally divided into control (AD) and exercise training (AD-EX) group. Swimming exercise training in AD-EX group was conducted 30 min/day for 1 month. Results: There were 412 genes significant differentially expressed in AD-EX group compared to AD group. Top 10 upregulated genes in AD-EX group against AD group mostly correlated with neuroinflammation, while top 10 downregulated genes mostly had connection with vascularization, membrane transport, learning memory, and chemokine signal. Pathway analysis revealed the upregulated interferon alpha beta signaling in AD-EX had association with cytokines delivery in microglia cells compared to AD and top 10 upregulated genes involved in interferon alpha beta were Usp18, Isg15, Mx1, Mx2, Stat1, Oas1a, and Irf9; The downregulated extracellular matrix organization in AD-EX had correlation with Aβ and neuron cells interaction and Vtn was one of the top 10 downregulated genes involved in this pathway. Conclusion: Exercise training influenced 3xTg mice cortex through interferon alpha beta signaling upregulation and extracellular matrix organization downregulation based on transcriptomics analysis.

Purpose: Metastasis is the main cause of mortality in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Genes that can discriminate the invasion ability of cancer cells may become useful candidates for clinical outcome prediction. We identify invasion-associated genes through computational and laboratorial approach that supported this idea in NSCLC.Experimental Design: We first conducted invasion assay to characterize the invasion abilities of NCI-60 lung cancer cell lines. We then systematically exploited NCI-60 microarray databases to identify invasion-associated genes that showed differential expression between the high and the low invasion cell line groups. Furthermore, using the microarray data of Duke lung cancer cohort (GSE 3141), invasion-associated genes with good survival prediction potentials were obtained. Finally, we validated the findings by conducting quantitative PCR assay on an in-house collected patient group (n = 69) and by using microarray data from two public western cohorts (n = 257 and 186).Results: The invasion-associated four-gene signature (ANKRD49, LPHN1, RABAC1, and EGLN2) had significant prediction in three validation cohorts (P = 0.0184, 0.002, and 0.017, log-rank test). Moreover, we showed that four-gene signature was an independent prognostic factor (hazard ratio, 2.354, 1.480, and 1.670; P = 0.028, 0.014, and 0.033), independent of other clinical covariates, such as age, gender, and stage.Conclusion: The invasion-associated four-gene signature derived from NCI-60 lung cancer cell lines had good survival prediction power for NSCLC patients. (Clin Cancer Res 2009;15(23):7309–15)

Supplementary Data from A Four-Gene Signature from NCI-60 Cell Line for Survival Prediction in Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer

Escherichiacoli has become the prominent cause of nosocomial pneumonia in recent years. In the meantime, some strains of E. coli have developed resistance to commonly used antibacterial drugs. The urinary bladder matrix (UBM) is a biologically derived scaffold material that has been used to promote site-appropriate tissue remodeling in a variety of body systems, partially through the modulation of the innate immune response. In this study, we seek to determine UBM efficacy in preventing bacterial pneumonia in mouse lungs using the Gram-negative bacterial strain E. coli. Our results show that the UBM prevented bacterial biofilm formation in both abiotic and biotic conditions through experimentation on polystyrene plates and culture on the apical surface of differentiated airway epithelial cells. Intratracheal treatment with UBM led to host protection from E. coli-induced respiratory infection in a murine pneumonia model. Transcriptomic analysis revealed the involvement of the enhanced host immune response in UBM-treated mice. Additionally, UBM-treated macrophages had an increased iNOS expression and enhanced phagocytosis activity. Therefore, the protection against E. coli-induced infection and the antibacterial function observed by UBM is potentially through both the anti-biofilm activity and enhanced host immunity following UBM treatment. Taken together, our results support further investigation of UBM as an alternative treatment to attenuate bacterial-induced respiratory infection.

In the recent decade, the importance of DNA damage repair (DDR) and its clinical application have been firmly recognized in prostate cancer (PC). For example, olaparib was just approved in May 2020 to treat metastatic castration-resistant PC with homologous recombination repair-mutated genes, however, not all patients can benefit from olaparib, and the treatment response depends on patient-specific mutations. This highlights the need to understand the detailed DDR biology further and develop DDR-based biomarkers. In this study, we establish a four-gene panel of which the expression is significantly associated with overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in PC patients from the TCGA-PRAD database. This panel includes DNTT, EXO1, NEIL3, and EME2 genes. Patients with higher expression of the four identified genes have significantly worse OS and PFS. This significance also exists in a multivariate Cox regression model adjusting for age, PSA, TNM stages, and Gleason scores. Moreover, the expression of the four-gene panel is highly correlated with aggressiveness based on well-known PAM50 and PCS subtyping classifiers. Using publicly available databases, we successfully validate the four-gene panel as having the potential to serve as a prognostic and predictive biomarker for PC specifically based on DDR biology.

We describe a case of human herpes virus‐8‐associated primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) in a patient initially presented with fever, non‐productive cough and exertional dyspnoea. Physical examination revealed oral thrush, diminished breath sounds and dullness on percussion over the left hemithorax. A thoracic computed tomography (CT) revealed left‐sided massive pleural effusion without tumour masses or lymphadenopathy. The effusion was drained and cytology showed medium to large lymphoid cells, with prominent nucleoli and irregular nuclear contours. Meanwhile, his HIV was tested positive. Cell block immunostaining of the pleural effusion revealed these cells were CD45 (+), CD30 (+), MUM1 (melanoma‐associated antigen [mutated] 1) (+), LANA (latency‐associated nuclear antigen) (+) and EBER (Epstein–Barr virus‐encoded small RNAs) in situ hybridization (−). This case highlights the learning point that PEL in the setting of HIV/AIDS should be added in the differential diagnosis of patients with unexplained oropharyngeal candidiasis and malignant lymphomatous pleural effusion without a clear primary site., Here, we report a rare case of human herpes virus‐8‐associated primary effusion lymphoma in the setting of HIV/AIDS presenting with fever, oral thrush and malignant lymphomatous pleural effusion.

As reservoirs subject to sedimentation, the dam gradually loses its ability to store water. The identification of the sources of deposited sediments is an effective and efficient means of tackling sedimentation problems. A state-of-the-art Lagrangian stochastic particle tracking model with backward–forward tracking methods is applied to identify the probable source regions of deposited sediments. An influence function is introduced into the models to represent the influence of a particular upstream area on the sediment deposition area. One can then verify if a specific area might be a probable source by cross-checking the values of influence functions calculated backward and forward, respectively. In these models, the probable sources of the deposited sediments are considered to be in a grid instead of at a point for derivation of the values of influence functions. The sediment concentrations in upstream regions must be known a priori to determine the influence functions. In addition, the accuracy of the different types of diffusivity at the water surface is discussed in the study. According to the results of the case study of source identification, the regions with higher sediment concentrations computed by only backward simulations do not necessarily imply a higher likelihood of sources. It is also shown that from the ensemble results when the ensemble mean of the concentration is higher, the ensemble standard deviation of the concentration is also increased.

Cigarette smoking is the major culprit of chronic lung diseases and the most dominant risk factor for the development of both lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In addition, chronic inflammation has been shown to increase the risk of lung cancer and COPD in clinical and epidemiological studies. For pulmonary disease-related research, mice are the most commonly used model system. Multiple lung cancer mouse models driven by targeted genetic alterations are used to evaluate the critical roles of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. These models are useful in addressing lung tumorigenesis associated with specific genetic changes, but they are not able to provide a global insight into cigarette smoke-induced carcinogenesis. To fill this knowledge gap, we developed a lung cancer model by treating mice with cigarette smoke carcinogen nitrosamine 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) with/without repeated lipopolysaccharides (LPS) exposure in order to determine the role of chronic inflammation in lung tumorigenesis. Notably, combined LPS/NNK treatment increased tumor number, tumor incidence, and tumor area compared to NNK treatment alone. Therefore, this model offers a feasible approach to investigate lung cancer development on a more global level, determine the role of inflammation in carcinogenesis, and provide a tool for evaluating chemoprevention and immunotherapy.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an inflammatory disease that is associated with increased risk of lung cancer. Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) infections are frequent in patients with COPD, which increase lung inflammation and acute exacerbations. However, the influences of PA-induced inflammation on lung tumorigenesis and the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade remain unknown. In this study, we initiated a murine model of lung cancer by treating FVB/NJ female mice with tobacco carcinogen nitrosamine 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) alone or in combination with PA-lipopolysaccharide (LPS). LPS-mediated chronic inflammation induced T-cell exhaustion, increased the programmed cell death-1 (PD-1)/programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1) axis, and enhanced NNK-induced lung tumorigenesis through an immunosuppressive microenvironment characterized by accumulation of myeloid-derived suppressive cells (MDSC) and regulatory T cells. Anti–PD-1 antibody treatment reduced tumors in NNK/LPS-treated mice with a 10-week LPS treatment but failed to inhibit tumor growth when LPS exposure was prolonged to 16 weeks. Anti-Ly6G antibody treatment coupled with depletion of MDSC alone reduced tumor growth; when combined with anti–PD-1 antibody, this treatment further enhanced antitumor activity in 16-week NNK/LPS-treated mice. Immune gene signatures from a human lung cancer dataset of PD-1 blockade were identified, which predicted treatment responses and survival outcome and overlapped with those from the mouse model. This study demonstrated that LPS-mediated chronic inflammation creates a favorable immunosuppressive microenvironment for tumor progression and correlates with the efficacy of anti–PD-1 treatment in mice. Immune gene signatures overlap with human and mouse lung tumors, providing potentially predictive markers for patients undergoing immunotherapy. Significance: This study identifies an immune gene signature that predicts treatment responses and survival in patients with tobacco carcinogen–induced lung cancer receiving immune checkpoint blockade therapy.

PURPOSE Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) show efficacy in treating patients with lung adenocarcinoma with EGFR-activating mutations. However, a significant subset of targeted patients fail to respond. Unlike acquired resistance (AR), intrinsic resistance (IR) remains poorly understood. We investigated whether epigenomic factors contribute to patient-to-patient heterogeneity in the EGFR-TKI response and aimed to characterize the IR subpopulation that obtains no benefit from EGFR-TKIs. PATIENTS AND METHODS We conducted genome-wide DNA methylation profiling of 79 tumors sampled from patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma before they received EGFR-TKI treatment and analyzed the patient responses. Pyrosequencing was performed in a validation cohort of 163 patients with EGFR-activating mutations. RESULTS A DNA methylation landscape of 216 CpG sites with differential methylation was established to elucidate the association of DNA methylation with the characteristics and EGFR-TKI response status of the patients. Functional analysis of 37 transcription-repressive sites identified the enrichment of transcription factors, notably homeobox ( HOX) genes. DNA methylation of HOXB9 (cg13643585) in the enhancer region yielded 88% sensitivity for predicting drug response (odds ratio [OR], 6.64; 95% CI, 1.98 to 25.23; P = .0009). Pyrosequencing validated that HOXB9 gained methylation in patients with a poor EGFR-TKI response (OR, 3.06; 95% CI, 1.13 to 8.19; P = .019). CONCLUSION Our data suggest that homeobox DNA methylation could be a novel tumor cellular state that can aid the precise categorization of tumor heterogeneity in the study of IR to EGFR-TKIs. We identified, for the first time, an epigenomic factor that can potentially complement DNA mutation status in discriminating patients with lung adenocarcinoma who are less likely to benefit from EGFR-TKI treatment, thereby leading to improved patient management in precision medicine.

RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is a recently developed approach to perform transcriptome profiling using next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies. Studies have shown that RNA-seq provides accurate measurement of transcript levels as well as their isoforms, which is useful to address complex transcriptomes. In addition, the increasing publicly available sequencing datasets and decreasing sequencing cost promote the use of RNA-seq for hypothesis-generating studies. In this chapter, we demonstrate how to analyze RNA-seq data and generate interpretable results using CLC genomic workbench software and perform the downstream pathway analysis using ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA).

RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is a recently developed approach to perform transcriptome profiling using next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies. Studies have shown that RNA-seq provides accurate measurement of transcript levels as well as their isoforms, which is useful to address complex transcriptomes. In addition, the increasing publicly available sequencing datasets and decreasing sequencing cost promote the use of RNA-seq for hypothesis-generating studies. In this chapter, we demonstrate how to analyze RNA-seq data and generate interpretable results using CLC genomic workbench software and perform the downstream pathway analysis using ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA).

At present, greenhouses are used to grow a variety of crops around the world. However, with the change of climate, the increasingly harsh weather makes it more and more disadvantageous for people to work inside, and plants are difficult to grow. Previous research has illustrated that radiative cooling can be realized by using certain nonmetal oxide particles created for emission in an infrared atmospheric transparency window, which is an environmentally friendly cooling method due to reducing energy consumption. Polyethylene (PE)-based formulations with a UV stabilizer and nonmetal oxide particles (NOP) were first granulated and then formed a monolayer film by co-injection molding. The experimental results show that due to passive radiative cooling, under the environmental conditions of 35 &deg, C, and only considering the natural convection heat transfer, the net cooling power of the greenhouse film developed in this study is 28 W&middot, m&minus, 2 higher than that of the conventional PE film. The temperature inside the simulated greenhouse cladded with the new greenhouse covering was on average 2.2 &deg, C less than that of the greenhouse with the conventional PE film.

Controlling the hydration rate of cement can influence the properties of cement hydrates. Many commercial cement retarders are mainly adopted for slowing down the rate of cement hydration. In this study, the surface of the cement particles was modified by an organic sulfoxide to retard the rate of cement hydration. The organic sulfoxide, octyl phenyl sulfoxide (OPS), was firstly synthesized by mixing 1-dodecanethiol with aryl iodide to produce organic sulfide, and then organic sulfide was oxidized to the corresponding sulfoxide. The organic sulfoxide was identified by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR). Hydrates of cement and cement modified with OPS were characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR), Optical Microscope (OM), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and powder X-Ray Diffraction (pXRD). Experimental results showed that OPS successfully reduced the rate of cement hydration and had positive effect on the long term microstructures of the harden cement paste.

Owning to the booming of social media, making comments or expressing opinions about merchandises online becomes easier than before. Data from social media might be one of the essential inputs for forecasting sales of vehicles. Besides, some other effects, such as stock market values, have influences on purchasing power of vehicles. In this paper, both multivariate regression models with social media data and stock market values and time series models are employed to predict monthly total vehicle sales. The least squares support vector regression (LSSVR) models are used to deal with multivariate regression data. Three types of data, namely sentiment scores of tweets, stock market values, and hybrid data, are employed in this paper to forecast monthly total vehicle sales in USA. The hybrid data contain both sentiment scores of tweets and stock market values. In addition, seasonal factors of monthly total vehicle sales are employed to deseasonalizing both monthly total vehicle sales and three types of input data. The time series models include the naïve model, the exponential smoothing model, the autoregressive integrated moving average model, the seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average model, and backpropagation neural networks and LSSVR with time series models. The numerical results indicate that using hybrid data with deseasonalizing procedures by the LSSVR models can obtain more accurate results than other models with different data. Thus, both social media data and stock values are essential to forecast monthly total vehicle sales; and deseasonalizing procedures can improve forecasting accuracy in predicting monthly total vehicle sales.

The advance purchase behaviors of air passengers are essential to develop revenue management strategies of airlines, which should be carefully studied. Based on this, this study aims to empirically investigate the advance purchase behaviors for airline tickets based on the airline transaction data of Taipei-Macau (TPEMFM) route in 2011. In order to model the advance purchase behaviors, multinomial logit models are used. To facilitate model development, the advance purchase horizon is divided into five time periods by three segmentation methods, including equal time periods, time periods with equal number of purchases and time periods according to professional judgment. Several factors contributing to advance purchase behaviors are examined, including price, flight schedule (time of day, day of week, and months of year) and fare class preferences. The estimation results show that the model with segmentation of equal time periods performs best in terms of adjusted rho-square and AIC indices. It is also found that air passengers tend to purchase tickets earlier for the flights in the morning and in hot season, suggesting the fare and seat inventory control should be varied for different flights.

Modeling the advance purchase behaviors of air passengers is essential when airlines develop revenue management strategies. Therefore, this study empirically investigates advance purchase behaviors based on the air ticket transaction data by using a continuous logit model. The estimation results show that advance purchase behaviors are significantly affected by price, price uncertainty, time of day (morning, afternoon and evening flight), days of week (flight on Friday), months of year (peak or off-peak seasons), and consecutive holiday. Accordingly, different pricing strategies should be used for different flights to maximize revenue.

// Poyin Huang 1, 2, 3, 4 , Chiou-Ling Cheng 5 , Ya-Hsuan Chang 6 , Chia-Hsin Liu 6 , Yi-Chiung Hsu 6 , Jin-Shing Chen 7 , Gee-Chen Chang 8, 9, 10 , Bing-Ching Ho 5 , Kang-Yi Su 5 , Hsuan-Yu Chen 6 , Sung-Liang Yu 5, 11, 12, 13, 14 1 Department of Neurology, Kaohsiung Municipal Hsiao-Kang Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 2 Department of Neurology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 3 Ph.D. Program in Translational Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University and Academia Sinica, Taiwan 4 Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 5 Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Medical Biotechnology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan 6 Institute of Statistical Science, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan 7 Department of Traumatology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan 8 Faculty of Medicine, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan 9 Division of Chest Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan 10 Comprehensive Cancer Center, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan 11 Center of Genomic Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan 12 Center for Optoelectronic Biomedicine, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan 13 Graduate Institute of Pathology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan 14 Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan Correspondence to: Hsuan-Yu Chen, email: hychen@stat.sinica.edu.tw Sung-Liang Yu, email: slyu@ntu.edu.tw Keywords: non–small cell lung cancer, TaqMan Low-Density Array, risk score, gene signature, prognosis Received: March 28, 2016 Accepted: June 30, 2016 Published: July 16, 2016 ABSTRACT The current staging system for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is inadequate for predicting outcome. Risk score, a linear combination of the values for the expression of each gene multiplied by a weighting value which was estimated from univariate Cox proportional hazard regression, can be useful. The aim of this study is to analyze survival-related genes with TaqMan Low-Density Array (TLDA) and risk score to explore gene-signature in lung cancer. A total of 96 NSCLC specimens were collected and randomly assigned to a training ( n = 48) or a testing cohort ( n = 48). A panel of 219 survival-associated genes from published studies were used to develop a 6-gene risk score. The risk score was used to classify patients into high or low-risk signature and survival analysis was performed. Cox models were used to evaluate independent prognostic factors. A 6-gene signature including ABCC4, ADRBK2, KLHL23, PDS5A, UHRF1 and ZNF551 was identified. The risk score in both training (HR = 3.14, 95% CI: 1.14–8.67, p = 0.03) and testing cohorts (HR = 5.42, 95% CI: 1.56–18.84, p = 0.01) was the independent prognostic factor. In merged public datasets including GSE50081, GSE30219, GSE31210, GSE19188, GSE37745, GSE3141 and GSE31908, the risk score (HR = 1.50, 95% CI: 1.25–1.80, p < 0.0001) was also the independent prognostic factor. The risk score generated from expression of a small number of genes did perform well in predicting overall survival and may be useful in routine clinical practice.

We classify two types of finite groups with certain normality conditions, namely SSN groups and groups with all noncyclic subgroups normal. These conditions are key ingredients in the study of the multiplicative Jordan decomposition problem for group rings.

// Hsuan-Yu Chen 1, 2, 3 , Chia-Hsin Liu 1, 4, 5, * , Ya-Hsuan Chang 1, * , Sung-Liang Yu 6 , Bing-Ching Ho 6 , Chung-Ping Hsu 7 , Tsung-Ying Yang 7 , Kun-Chieh Chen 7 , Kuo-Hsuan Hsu 7 , Jeng-Sen Tseng 7 , Jiun-Yi Hsia 7 , Cheng-Yen Chuang 7 , Chi-Sheng Chang 6 , Yu-Cheng Li 1 , Ker-Chau Li 1 , Gee-Chen Chang 7, 8, 9 , Pan-Chyr Yang 6, 10, 11 1 Institute of Statistical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan 2 College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan 3 College of Life Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan 4 Bioinformatics Program, Taiwan International Graduate Program, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan 5 Institute of Biomedical Informatics, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan 6 Center of Genomic Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan 7 Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan 8 Faculty of Medicine, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan 9 Comprehensive Cancer Center, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan 10 Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan 11 Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan * Chia-Hsin Liu and Ya-Hsuan Chang contributed equally as the first author Correspondence to: Hsuan-Yu Chen, e-mail: hychen@stat.sinica.edu.tw Gee-Chen Chang, e-mail: august@vghtc.gov.tw Keywords: lung adenocarcinoma, DNA copy number abundance, ErbB family, EGFR-activating mutation, prognosis Received: July 07, 2015 Accepted: January 12, 2016 Published: January 27, 2016 ABSTRACT In this study, EGFR -activating mutation status and DNA copy number abundances of members of ErbB family were measured in 261 lung adenocarcinomas. The associations between DNA copy number abundances of ErbB family, EGFR -activating mutation status, and prognosis were explored. Results showed that DNA copy number abundances of EGFR , ERBB2 , ERBB3 , and ERBB4 had associations with overall survival in lung adenocarcinoma with EGFR -activating mutations. In the stratification analysis, only ERBB2 showed significant discrepancy in patients carrying wild type EGFR and other members of ErbB family in patients carrying EGFR -activating mutation. This indicated that CNAs of ErbB family had effect modifications of EGFR -activating mutation status. Findings of this study demonstrate potential molecular guidance of patient management of lung adenocarcinoma with or without EGFR -activating mutations.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic lung inflammatory disease with an increased risk of lung cancer. Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) are opportunistic bacteria frequently found in patients with COPD, and associated with increased lung inflammation and acute exacerbations. The impacts of COPD-related inflammation, especially those induced by the PA-produced lipopolysaccharides (LPS), on lung tumorigenesis and the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockades remain poorly understood. In this study, we established a novel murine lung cancer model by treating mice with cigarette smoke carcinogen nitrosamine (NNK) combined with recurrent LPS exposure. LPS-mediated chronic inflammation in NNK-treated mice generates an immunosuppressive microenvironment characterized by the accumulation of myeloid-derived suppressive cells (MDSCs) and regulatory T cells, induced T-cell exhaustion, and enhanced PD-1/PD-L1 activity that resulted in synergistic increases of lung tumorigenesis than NNK treatment alone (>8-fold increase in tumor numbers, P

Currently, the greenhouse is widely used for the cultivation of various crops. Solar radiation transmits into the greenhouse through the cladding to afford the crops for photosynthesis. However, nearly half of the solar radiation energy is the near-infrared radiation (MR, 780–2500 nm), a direct source of heat. In tropical and subtropical regions, the undesired MR raises the temperature inside the greenhouse. Therefore, developing suitable covering materials to reduce the transmittance of MR into the greenhouse is a critical problem to be solved. The purpose of this study is to improve the plastic greenhouse cladding to reduce the transmittance of MR and keep enough photosynthetically active radiation (PAR, 400–700 nm). The low-density polyethylene (LDPE) was chosen as the matrix Additives made of UV stabilizer and inorganic particles were blended with LDPE to produce the plastic greenhouse covering material. Experimental results showed that under a 35°C ambient condition, the inner temperature of the simulated greenhouse with the new-developed cladding was 2–3°C less than that of the greenhouse with the commercial agricultural polyethylene (PE) film.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a complex endocrine disorder and one of the most common causes of anovulatory infertility. In addition, insulin resistance is commonly associated with PCOS and contributed to pathophysiology connected to dietary minerals including chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), and zinc (Zn). The aims of this study were to explore whether PCOS in mice alters levels of these elements and determine if Cr supplementation resolves changes. Twenty-four female BALB/c mice were divided into three groups of eight mice [normal control (NC), PCOS+placebo milk (PP), and PCOS+Cr-containing milk (PCr)]. Each group received a high-fat diet for 4 weeks. Our results show significantly higher levels of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) (p