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Lightweight aerogels with elastic performance and tunable surface properties have made them a good alternative for smart electornic skin. However, the aerogels remain a great barrier for sensing ap...

We retrospectively compared the efficacy and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of (1) first-line haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (haplo-HSCT, n = 146) combined with unrelated cord blood (UCB) infusion and (2) first-line immunosuppressive therapy (IST, n = 219) in acquired severe aplastic anemia (SAA) patients. At 6 months post treatment, 90.30% patients in the haplo-HSCT group and 18.78% patients in the IST group achieved normal blood routine (P

Silicon is expected to become the ideal anode material for the next generation of high energy density lithium battery because of its high theoretical capacity (4200 mAh g

Myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) with PCM1-JAK2 rearrangement is a rare disease with poor prognosis and lacks uniform treatment guidelines. Several studies confirmed the efficacy of ruxolitinib in hematological malignancies with PCM1-JAK2 fusion, but the efficacy is variable. Here, we report two patients diagnosed with MPN with PCM1-JAK2 fusion who were treated with ruxolitinib-based regimen, including the first case of ruxolitinib combined with pegylated interferon (Peg-IFN), and we conduct a literature review. We found that ruxolitinib combined with Peg-IFN is an effective treatment option in the case of poor efficacy of ruxolitinib monotherapy.

Background and AimsThis study aimed at comparing the efficacy and safety of severe aplastic anemia (SAA) cases that had met the criteria for SAA at the time of diagnosis (group A) with SAA that had progressed from non-SAA (NSAA) (group B), both undergoing first-line immunosuppressive therapy (IST). Additionally, group B was compared with SAA that had progressed from NSAA and who had been treated by allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) (group C).MethodsWe retrospectively compared 608 consecutive patients in group A (n = 232), group B (n = 229) and group C (n = 147) between June 2002 and December 2019. Six months after treatment, the rate of overall response and the fraction of patients who had achieved normal blood values, treatment-related mortality (TRM), secondary clonal disease, 5-year overall survival (OS) and failure-free survival (FFS) were indirectly compared between group A and group B, group B and group C.ResultsSix months after treatment, the rate of overall response and the fraction of patients who had achieved normal blood values in group A was higher than in group B (65.24% vs. 40.54%, P < 0.0001; 23.33% vs. 2.25%, P < 0.0001); the same was true for group C (92.50% vs. 2.25%, P < 0.0001). The rate of relapse in group B was higher than in group C (P < 0.0001), but there were no differences in TRM and secondary clonal disease (P > 0.05). There were no differences in estimated 5-year OS between groups A and B (83.8% ± 2.6% vs. 85.8% ± 2.6%, P = 0.837), or between B and C (85.8% ± 2.6% vs. 77.9% ± 3.4%, P = 0.051). The estimated 5-year FFS in groups A and C was higher than for group B (57.1% ± 3.3% vs. 39.7% ± 3.4%, P < 0.001; 76.7% ± 3.5% vs. 39.7% ± 3.4%, P < 0.0001).ConclusionThese results indicate that IST is less effective in SAA progressing from non-SAA but allo-HSCT can improve outcomes.

Background: Although some improvements in the management of pancreatic cancer (PC) have been made, no major breakthroughs in terms of biomarker discovery or effective treatment have emerged. Here, we applied artificial intelligence (AI)-based methods to develop a model to diagnose PC and predict survival outcome.Methods: Multiple bioinformatics methods, including RankProd, were performed to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in PC. A Back Propagation (BP) model was constructed, followed by Genetic Algorithm (GA) filtering and verification of its prognosis capacity in the TCGA cohort. Furthermore, we validated the protein expression of the selected DEGs in 92 clinical PC tissues using immunohistochemistry.Results: Four candidate genes (LCN2, SLC6A14, SPOCK1, and VCAN) were selected to establish a four-gene signature for PC. The gene signature was validated in the TCGA PC cohort, and found to show satisfactory discrimination and prognostic power. Areas under the curve (AUC) values of overall survival were both greater than 0.60 in the TCGA training cohort, test cohort, and the entire cohort. Kaplan-Meier analyses showed that high-risk group had a significantly shorter overall survival and disease-free survival than the low-risk group. Further, the elevated expression of SLC6A14 and SPOCK1 in PC tissues was validated in the TCGA+GETx datasets and 92 clinical PC tissues, and was significantly associated with poor survival in PC.Conclusions: Using RankProd and GA-ANN, we developed and validated a diagnostic and prognostic gene signature that yielded excellent predictive capacity for PC patients’ survival.

BACKGROUND: Immune-related hemocytopenia (IRH) is a type of autoimmune disease that targets bone marrow hematopoietic cells. This study investigated the influence of atorvastatin on the functional aspects of bone marrow endothelial progenitor cells (BM EPCs) in IRH patients. METHODS: BM EPCs were isolated from 15 patients with IRH and 20 normal controls. The isolated BM EPCs were characterized by flow cytometry. Cell counting kit-8, flow cytometry, and Transwell migration assays were used to determine the proliferation, apoptosis, and migration of BM EPCs, respectively. Protein levels were determined by western blot assay. RESULTS: The BM EPCs isolated from IRH patients showed reduced proliferation, increased apoptosis, and attenuated migratory ability compared to those from normal controls. Western blot analysis showed that the protein level of p-p38 was significantly increased, while that of Phosphorylated protein kinase B (p-AKT) was significantly decreased in the BM EPCs from IRH patients, compared to BM EPCs from healthy subjects. Cell proliferation and migration were significantly enhanced by atorvastatin, recombinant human thrombopoietin, and SB20358 compared to the untreated BM EPCs from IRH patients. Atorvastatin, Recombinant human thrombopoietin (TPO), and SB20358 treatment significantly suppressed the protein levels of p-p38 protein, but increased those of p-AKT in BM EPCS from IRH patients. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, atorvastatin increases the number and function of BM EPCs in IRH patients by regulating the p38 and AKT signaling pathways.

Dynamic bonding is a key factor for self-healing and stimuli-response polymeric materials. However, a detailed molecular-level understanding on effects from dynamic bond break and reform from inter...

The present study aimed to investigate the effect and possible mechanism of recombinant human thrombopoietin (rhTPO) on mouse 32D cells (a mouse myeloid progenitor cell line) treated with serum from patients with aplastic anemia and to elucidate the potential mechanism of rhTPO in the treatment of aplastic anemia. After treatment with aplastic anemia serum, the apoptotic rate of 32D cells was increased and the proliferation of 32D cells was significantly inhibited. rhTPO reduced the apoptotic rate and promoted the proliferation of 32D cells, while rhTPO failed to restore the cell proliferation of 32D cells from aplastic anemia serum group to the normal level as compared to that from the normal serum group. The phosphorylation level of STAT3 protein was higher, and the phosphorylation level of STAT5 protein was lower in 32D cells from aplastic anemia serum group than that in normal serum group. After rhTPO treatment, the phosphorylation level of STAT3 protein in aplastic anemia serum group was decreased and the phosphorylation level of STAT5 protein was increased. The expression levels of Survivin and Bcl-2 were significantly decreased in 32D cells from aplastic anemia serum group, which were significantly increased after rhTPO treatment. The expression level of Bax protein in 32D cells from the normal serum group after rhTPO treatment was significantly decreased; while the mRNA expression level of Bax was not affected by rhTPO. The expression levels of Bax mRNA and protein were significantly up-regulated in 32D cells from aplastic anemia serum group, which was significantly decreased by rhTPO treatment. In conclusion, our results indicated that aplastic anemia serum impaired proliferative potential and enhanced apoptosis of 32D cells. Further mechanistic studies revealed that rhTPO promoted cell proliferation and attenuated apoptosis of aplastic anemia serum-treated 32D cells via activating STAT3/STAT5 signaling pathway and modulating apoptosis-related mediators.

In this study, α-Fe2O3/rGO was smoothly synthesized by a one-step method and employed to activate persulfate (PS) for the degradation of Bisphenol A (BPA) under sunlight. During the degradation experiment, the degradation rates of BPA for PS, α-Fe2O3/8% rGO, and α-Fe2O3/8% rGO/PS were 6.6%, 47.6%, and 99.1%, respectively, indicating that the introduction of α-Fe2O3/rGO and PS significantly enhanced the photocatalytic efficiency because that photocatalytic process and PS activation coupling system not only inhibited the recombination of photo-induced carrier pairs, but also reduced the energy consumption of PS activation. Moreover, electron spin resonance spectroscopy (ESR) and trapping experiments were utilized to explore the active species generated during the reaction. The results showed that •OH and •SO42- were the principal oxidative species in this reaction system. These results showed that Fe-loaded rGO has great potential for activating PS to decompose pollutants in water.

Objective: To investigate the protective effect of teprenone on gastric mucosal injury induced by dual antiplatelet therapy in rats. Methods: Healthy, specifically pathogen free SD, rats were selected and divided into 4 groups: Normal group (normal rats, without any treatment), Model group (rats received dual antiplatelet therapy: aspirin and clopidogrel), Teprenone group (rats received dual antiplatelet therapy and teprenone) and Pantoprazole group (rats received dual antiplatelet therapy and pantoprazole). The gastric mucosal blood flow, ulcer index, gastric gel mucus thickness, the levels of gastrin (Gas), prostaglandin (PG), prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)), endothelin-1 (ET-1) tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6 and IL-10 in serum, the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) in the gastric mucosa, as well as the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the rat’s stomach were measured. Results: Compared with the Normal group, the other groups showed more severe gastric injury, elevated levels of inflammatory factors (TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-10), elevated levels of MDA and MPO, as well as reduced levels of GSH, SOD and VEGF (all P

For sandstone-type uranium deposits, an unobstructed recharge-runoff-discharge (RRD) groundwater system strongly constrained by tectonic events is one of the most important cornerstones for uranium mineralization. Junggar Basin, located in NW China, is proposed to be an intracontinental Mesozoic basin with great sandstone-type uranium metallogenic potential but no large uranium deposits so far. Compared with other uranium-bearing basins in Northern China, the Junggar Basin experienced episodic strong tectonic events in the Meso-Cenozoic era, resulting in more intense stratigraphic deformation and dislocation, so the detailed analysis of tectonic evolution and ore-controlling structures is indispensable to deciphering the uranium mineralization process in the region. This study interprets the seismic profiles and analyzes the apatite fission track (AFT) thermochronological signatures of the Jurassic Toutunhe Formation detrital sediments in the eastern Junggar Basin, which reveals that the Junggar Basin experienced four tectonic events: the Middle Triassic-Early Jurassic episodic uplift of basin margin (ca. 240–180 Ma), the Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous modest deformation and uplift within the basin (ca. 140 Ma), the Late Cretaceous-Paleocene rapid uplift (ca. 100–60 Ma), the Eocene-Present episodic rapid uplift (ca. 38–0 Ma). On this basis, the tectonic couples comprising tectonic window and structural pattern is dissected. The ore-controlling structures that can build the good RRD system are identified, such as Jurassic slope in the eastern Luliang Uplift, Jurassic hanging wall of fault propagation fold, Neogene foredeep of the foreland basin, and so on. Meanwhile, the rapid uplifts in ca.100–60 Ma and ca.38–0 Ma are ascertained as the key tectonic events constrained uranium mineralization. Afterward, a uranium metallogenic model based on the thread of basin tectonic evolution is established, which is of great significance for further deployment of uranium exploration in the basin.

Light and force-sensitive waterborne polyurethane in multiple states was firstly synthesized and its responsive behaviors were investigated. Di-hydroxyl spiropyran (SP) was prepared and embedded in waterborne polyurethane (WPU) as a chain extender. The SP-WPU showed photo-sensitive properties in both emulsion state and solid state (bulk polymer). The intensity of absorbance at λmax increased as UV (365 nm) irradiation time increased, and decayed when exposed in visible light or in the dark. The SP-WPU emulsion showed a little slower UV activation rate but a much faster decay rate compared with that of SP-WPU film. The SP-WPU emulsion did not show ultrasonic sensitive properties, however, the SP-WPU in the THF/water mixed dispersion showed increasing ultrasonic sensitive properties as water content increased. Moreover, the absorption at λmax of SP-WPU in the solid state increased as elongation increased, especially in the stress stiffening region. The photo-responsive and mechanical responsive waterborne polyurethane could be used as a multi-responsive probe from the solution to the bulk state. It could also provide an environmentally friendly alternative to extend their application in smart coatings and textiles in industry.

In this study, we investigated the mechanistic role of the long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) AC092171.4 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). AC092171.4 was significantly upregulated in HCC tumor tissues compared to normal liver tissues. HCC patients with high AC092171.4 expression showed poorer overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) than those with low AC092171.4 expression. In vitro cell proliferation, migration and invasiveness were all higher in AC092171.4-overexpressing HCC cells, but lower in AC092171.4-silenced HCC cells, than in controls. Balb/c nude mice injected with AC092171.4-silenced HCC cells had smaller xenograft tumors, which showed less growth and pulmonary metastasis than control tumors. Bioinformatics analyses and dual luciferase reporter assays confirmed that AC092171.4 binds directly to miR-1271, which targets the 3'UTR of GRB2 mRNA. AC092171.4 expression correlates negatively with miR1271 expression and correlates positively with GRB2 mRNA expression in HCC tissues from patients. HCC cells co-transfected with miR-1271 mimics and sh-AC092171.4 show less proliferation, migration, invasiveness, GRB2 protein, and epithelial to mesencyhmal transition (EMT) than sh-AC092171.4-transfected HCC cells. These findings demonstrate that AC092171.4 promotes growth and progression of HCC by sponging miR-1271 and upregulating GRB2. This makes AC092171.4 a potential prognostic indicator and therapeutic target for HCC patients.

Cognitive sharing of objects is fundamental in a heterogeneous robot system composed of a Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and a ground robot. Since the viewpoint of a UAV is greatly different from a ground robot, they may have different perceptions about the same objects. That makes it difficult to realize cognitive sharing. In this paper, we proposed a cognitive sharing method which is based on Geometric Relation-based Triangle Representations. The method is able to make a UAV and a ground robot identify the same object from similar objects without sharing appearance information in unstructured environment. To copy with the problem of increasing computational cost for the recognition of objects in the Region of Interest, entropy evaluation is employed to evaluate and select unique representations. We illustrated the proposed method with robots in real world.

Harvesting energy from ambient vibrations with piezoelectric transducers is an alternative solution for the surging needs of self-powered devices, such as IoT devices, condition and structural monitoring devices, or biomedical implants. A limiting factor for piezoelectric transducer is the narrow bandwidth due to the high mechanical quality factor. Therefore, the output power drops significantly when the excitation frequency deviates from the resonant frequency in a real environment. One solution is to introduce time delays into active harvesting-interface concepts such as Synchronous Electric-Charge Extraction (SECE) or Synchronized Switch Harvesting on Inductor (SSHI). This emulates conjugate impedance, which matches that of the transducer, resulting in higher power from vibrations at non-resonant frequencies.

Cognitive radio networks allow opportunistic spectrum access and can significantly improve spectral efficiency. To achieve higher sensing accuracy, cognitive radio systems often require cooperation among secondary users. One of the most important aspects in collaborative spectrum sensing is the data fusion algorithm which combines the sensing results from secondary users to produce the final channel status hypothesis. However, plenty of factors may affect the performance of certain data fusion rule, for example, the individual sensing node's sensing accuracy, the number of involved nodes, and the like. If Spectrum Sensing Data Falsification (SSDF) attack exists, it will become more challenging to make proper data fusion. In this article, we first introduce framework, and then evaluate the data fusion rules in different scenarios through simulation examples. Finally, a Genetic Algorithm based optimal scheme is proposed to achieve better performance in all scenarios.

The role of Th17 cells and Th17-associated cytokines in the development of acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) in clinical allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) recipients is not well established. In the current study, a cohort of 69 allo-HSCT patients was examined for the percentages of Th17 and FoxP3+ Treg cells and the expressions of RORγt and FoxP3 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). The Th17 percentage and RORγt expression were significantly higher, whereas Treg percentage and FoxP3 expression were significantly lower in severe aGVHD (grade 3 to 4) and mild aGVHD (grade 1 to 2) patients than in patients without aGVHD (grade 0) and healthy donors. We then investigated the expressions of Th17-associated cytokines, including TGF-β, IL-6, IL-1β, IL-17, IL-21, IL-22, IL-23, as well as IL-23R in the PBMCs of patients after allo-HSCT. The expressions of IL-17 and IL-22 in CD4+ T cells were also examined. The results showed that the expressions of IL-6, IL-1β, IL-17, IL-21, IL-23, and IL-23R were all increased, whereas IL-22 expression was decreased in aGVHD patients. The changes were also correlated with the severity of aGVHD. We also investigated the dynamic changes of Th17/Treg cells and Th17-associated cytokines in patients during the onset and resolution of aGVHD. The results demonstrated a reciprocal relationship between Treg and Th17 cells. Th17-associated cytokine expressions, namely IL-17 and IL-23, were closely related to the occurrence and resolution of aGVHD. We conclude that the dynamic balance between the Th17 and FoxP3+ Treg cells and the changes of Th17-associated cytokines could be the indicators of the disease progression and promising candidates of prognostic biomarkers of aGVHD.

The role of IL-17 and IL-17-producing CD4(+) T cells in acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) has been controversial in recent mouse and human studies. We carried out studies in a murine acute GVHD model of fully major histocompatibility complex-mismatched myeloablative bone marrow transplantation. We showed that donor wild-type CD4(+) T cells exacerbated acute GVHD compared with IL-17(−/−) CD4(+) T cells, while IL-17 reduced the severity of acute GVHD. The augmentation of acute GVHD by transferred donor IL-17-producing CD4(+) T cells was associated with increased Th1 responses, while IL-17 decreased the percentages of Th1 cells in the GVHD target organs. Furthermore, IL-17 reduced the infiltration of macrophages into the GVHD tissues. In vitro study showed that IL-17 could downregulate Th1 responses, possibly through inhibiting IL-12 production by donor macrophages. Depletion of macrophages in vivo diminished the protective effect of IL-17. Our results demonstrated the differential roles of adoptively transferred donor IL-17-producing CD4(+) T cells and IL-17 in the same acute GVHD model.

In this paper, we propose a novel and robust cognitive sharing method based on edge-label subgraph matching for ROI sharing and object recognition. This method enhances a vision based cooperation for UAV and ground robot system under an unknown environment where GPS is not available. The proposed subgraph matching method is an extension of Nema in that only edge-label graph is assumed and hence it can be applied to the situation where the node-labels are hard to distinguish. This method is applied to the navigation system where a UAV navigates a ground robot to the target position via ROI sharing. We test the method through a series of simulations and confirm a stable and good performance in different situations.

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) plays a pivotal role in inflammation-related osteoporosis through the promotion of bone resorption and suppression of bone formation. Numerous drugs have been produced to treat osteoporosis by inhibiting bone resorption, but they offer few benefits to bone formation, which is what is needed by patients with severe bone loss. Melatonin, which can exert both anti-inflammatory and pro-osteogenic effects, shows promise in overcoming TNFα-inhibited osteogenesis and deserves further research. This study demonstrated that melatonin rescued TNFα-inhibited osteogenesis of human mesenchymal stem cells and that the interactions between SMURF1 and SMAD1 mediated the crosstalk between melatonin signaling and TNFα signaling. Additionally, melatonin treatment was found to downregulate TNFα-induced SMURF1 expression and then decrease SMURF1-mediated ubiquitination and degradation of SMAD1 protein, leading to steady bone morphogenetic protein-SMAD1 signaling activity and restoration of TNFα-impaired osteogenesis. Thus, melatonin has prospects for treating osteoporosis caused by inflammatory factors due to its multifaceted functions on regulation of bone formation, bone resorption, and inflammation. Further studies will focus on unveiling the specific mechanisms by which melatonin downregulates SMURF1 expression and confirming the clinical therapeutic value of melatonin in the prevention and therapy of bone loss associated with inflammation.

Adopting self-healing, robust, and stretchable materials is a promising method to enable next-generation wearable electronic devices, touch screens, and soft robotics. Both elasticity and self-healing are important qualities for substrate materials as they comprise the majority of device components. However, most autonomous self-healing materials reported to date have poor elastic properties, i.e., they possess only modest mechanical strength and recoverability. Here, a substrate material designed is reported based on a combination of dynamic metal-coordinated bonds (β-diketone-europium interaction) and hydrogen bonds together in a multiphase separated network. Importantly, this material is able to undergo self-healing and exhibits excellent elasticity. The polymer network forms a microphase-separated structure and exhibits a high stress at break (≈1.8 MPa) and high fracture strain (≈900%). Additionally, it is observed that the substrate can achieve up to 98% self-healing efficiency after 48 h at 25 °C, without the need of any external stimuli. A stretchable and self-healable dielectric layer is fabricated with a dual-dynamic bonding polymer system and self-healable conductive layers are created using polymer as a matrix for a silver composite. These materials are employed to prepare capacitive sensors to demonstrate a stretchable and self-healable touch pad.

Rationale To investigate the clinical features of treatment-related acute granulocyte-monocytic leukemia (t-AML) from multiple myeloma (MM) thereby improving the understanding of this disease. Patient concerns A 72-year-old woman patient was initially diagnosed as MM. Two years and 7 months after treatment, this patient developed AML M4 as confirmed by the analyses from clinical features, bone marrow morphology, flow cytometry, and cytogenetic examination. Diagnosis Treatment-related acute myeloid leukaemia (t-AML). Interventions Due to lack of the ability to pay the cost, she declined our recommendation to accept therapy as an inpatient and was discharged. Lessons The reported case was a rare t-AML, which is resistant to currently available treatments and has a poor prognosis.

Our aim is to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of interspinous spacers versus posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) for degenerative lumbar spinal diseases.A comprehensive literature search was performed using PubMed, Web of Science and Cochrane Library through September 2015. Included studies were performed according to eligibility criteria. Data of complication rate, post-operative back visual analogue scale (VAS) score, Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) score, estimated blood loss (EBL), operative time, length of hospital stay (LOS), range of motion (ROM) at the surgical, proximal and distal segments were extracted and analyzed.Ten studies were selected from 177 citations. The pooled data demonstrated the interspinous spacers group had a lower estimated blood loss (weighted mean difference [WMD]: -175.66 ml; 95 % confidence interval [CI], -241.03 to -110.30; p 0.00001), shorter operative time (WMD: -55.47 min; 95%CI, -74.29 to -36.65; p 0.00001), larger range of motion (ROM) at the surgical segment (WMD: 3.97 degree; 95%CI, -3.24 to -1.91; p 0.00001) and more limited ROM at the proximal segment (WMD: -2.58 degree; 95%CI, 2.48 to 5.47; p 0.00001) after operation. Post-operative back VAS score, ODI score, length of hospital stay, complication rate and ROM at the distal segment showed no difference between the two groups.Our meta-analysis suggested that interspinous spacers appear to be a safe and effective alternative to PLIF for selective patients with degenerative lumbar spinal diseases. However, more randomized controlled trials (RCT) are still needed to further confirm our results.

This paper presents a novel system design of an adaptive time-controlled energy harvesting interface circuit for broadening the bandwidth of piezoelectric transducers. The proposed system monitors the excitation frequency and delays the switching activity accordingly to achieve optimal impedance matching. The system and the theory for calculating the time delay values are described in detail. Simulation result shows that the proposed system is able to generate nearly as much power as the theoretical limitation over a large range of excitation frequency, and the bandwidth increases from 3.7 Hz to more than 70 Hz.

One of the most crucial functionalities of cognitive radio networks is spectrum sensing. Completing this task in an accurate manner requires opportunistic spectrum access. Traditionally, sensing has been performed through energy detection by each individual secondary user. In order to increase accuracy, individual measurements are aggregated using different fusion functions. However, even though collaborative spectrum sensing can increase accuracy under benign settings, it is prone to falsification attacks, where malicious secondary users report fake sensings. Previous studies have designed trust (reputation) based systems to contain the effect of the adversaries, ignoring to a large extent the wireless channel irregularities when performing the computation. In this paper, we decouple the reasons behind an incorrect sensing report and propose the Decoupling Trust and Capability Spectrum Sensing System (DTCS3). DTCS3 is a collaborative spectrum sensing system that takes into account both a secondary sensor node's trust and its capability to sense the channel. Through thorough evaluations that consider a large variety of attack strategies, we show that by accounting for wireless induced effects while calculating the reporting trust of a secondary user, we can significantly improve the performance of a collaborative spectrum sensing system as compared to existing schemes in the literature. In particular, the true positive/negative rates can be improved by as much as 38%, while DTCS3 is able to track and respond to dynamic changes in the adversaries' behavior.

Interleukin (IL)-17A is expressed in the tumor microenvironment where it appears to contribute to tumor development, but its precise role in tumor immunity remains controversial. Here, we report mouse genetic evidence that IL-17A is critical for tumor growth. IL-17A–deficient mice exhibited reduced tumor growth, whereas systemic administration of recombinant mouse IL-17A promoted the growth of hepatocellular carcinoma. The tumor-promoting effect of IL-17A was mediated through suppression of antitumor responses, especially CD8+ T-cell responses. Furthermore, we found that IL-17A was produced mainly by Vγ4 γδ T cells, insofar as depleting Vγ4 γδ T cells reduced tumor growth, whereas adoptive transfer of Vγ4 γδ T cells promoted tumor growth. Mechanistic investigations showed that IL-17A induced CXCL5 production by tumor cells to enhance the infiltration of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) to tumor sites in a CXCL5/CXCR2–dependent manner. IL-17A also promoted the suppressive activity of MDSC to reinforce suppression of tumoral immunity. Moreover, we found that MDSC could induce IL-17A–producing γδ T cells via production of IL-1β and IL-23. Conversely, IL-17A could also enhance production of IL-1β and IL-23 in MDSC as a positive feedback. Together, our results revealed a novel mechanism involving cross-talk among γδ T cells, MDSCs, and tumor cells through IL-17A production. These findings offer new insights into how IL-17A influences tumor immunity, with potential implications for the development of tumor immunotherapy. Cancer Res; 74(7); 1969–82. ©2014 AACR.

In the area of performance analysis of wireless networks, one critical issue is the hidden terminal problem, which is considered as one of the severest reasons for the degradation of network performance. In this paper, we incorporate reactive jamming scheme with distributed coordination function (DCF) in IEEE 802.11 based wireless local area networks (WLANs) to improve network throughput in the presence of hidden terminals. In the proposed protocol, we schedule access point (AP) to broadcast jamming signal reactively to hinder the simultaneous transmission of hidden terminals. Both analytical and numerical results show that our reactive jamming based protocol can constantly improve WLAN throughput for a wide range of conditions, compared with the traditional RTS/CTS.

Lung cancer remains incurable in many cases despite current chemotherapies. We explored an approach combining a recently described antiangiogenic drug, rapamycin, with standard docetaxel cytotoxic therapy on the growth of non-small-cell lung cancer. Rapamycin alone inhibited tumor growth and upregulated apoptosis, with more pronounced effects when rapamycin and docetaxel were combined. Tumor vessel endothelium damage and thrombosis was evident with rapamycin treatment; this was concomitant with decreased microvessel density. In contrast, docetaxel was not antiangiogenic and did not reduce proliferation in tumors, despite its known cytotoxicity. Our data represent a new promising therapeutic regimen against non-small-cell lung cancer.

A 67-year-old woman presented with fever, purpura, and confusion. A preliminary diagnosis of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) was made on the basis of clinical presentation and lab findings, such as reduced platelet count, increased bilirubin, and so on. She was treated with therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) and methylprednisolone. During the treatment, peripheral blood monocytosis (monocyte 4 × 10(9)/L) was noticed. The monocytes were CD56 positive. A putative diagnosis of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) was proposed. Three months later, the diagnosis of CMML was established on the basis of persistent monocytosis. All other potential causes were considered (e.g., quinine exposure, diarrhea) and excluded. This case highlights the needs to consider hematological malignancy such as CMML in patients with TTP.

Indoor localization is important to many location based applications and services. Many indoor localization methods have been proposed and they can be roughly categorized into two groups: One is based on the distance estimation between a target point and the Access Points (APs); and the other is based on the Received Signal Strength (RSS) fingerprint map. However, the two approaches all assume that the locations of Access Points (APs) are known beforehand. In this paper, we consider a scenario that the locations of APs are not known, and we use measured RSS (Received Signal Strength) at some location-known reference points and their geographical information to estimate virtual APs' parameters. Then those parameters are used to locate new user by optimization method. Experiments show that the position accuracy of the proposed method approaches that of RADAR with less effort.

In this paper, we proposed a method to fuse data from radar and IR sensor in Extend Kalman probability hypothesis density (EK-GMPHD) filter. Firstly the multi-target is estimated with infrared (IR) sensor using EK-GMPHD filter, and then the filtering results are fused with measurements from radar through sequential filter, in this way, the multi-target state is updated at the tracking system. Under false alarms, missed detections and dense targets environment, this method has a high reliability when tracking multi-target. Simulation experiments are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method.

CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) are believed to control the development and progression of autoimmunity by suppressing autoreactive T cells and decreased numbers of these cells are associated with impaired immune homeostasis and development of aplastic anemia (AA). We have developed a novel mouse model of severe aplastic anemia (SAA) induced by interferon-gamma in combination with Busulphan, in which excessive apoptotic CD4+CD25+ Treg cells was found in our previous experiments. It might be one of the reasons for reduction of CD4+CD25+ Treg cells in patients with AA. Rapamycin (RAPA) is a macrolide antibiotic produced by streptomyces hygroscopicus and is considered as a potential immunosuppressant in the treatment of AA, while the effect of RAPA on apoptosis of CD4+CD25+ Tregs from patients with AA is not clear. In this study, the SAA model female mice were intraperitoneal injection with RAPA at daily dose of 0.5 mg/kg for 5 days (the RAPA-treated group, n=60), the SAA group (n=60) and the un-treated group (n=60) were as control. All mice selected to set up the SAA model developed the typical clinical and pathological patterns of SAA from day 10 post dosing. Most of them presented bleedings in association with anemia and infections. In order to explore the effect of RAPA on apoptosis of CD4+CD25+ Tregs from the novel mouse SAA model, the mononuclear cells of the peripheral blood and spleen were subjected to assess the intracellular Foxp3 expression in CD4+CD25+ Tregs by flow cytometry (FCM). In the SAA group, the FCM analysis showed down-expression of Foxp3 in CD4+CD25+ Tregs compared with the un-treated group (P Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.