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Although antithymocyte globulin (ATG) had been widely used in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation from unrelated donor due to its ability to prevent acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), the comparative efficacy and safety of ATG-Thymoglobulin (ATG-T) and ATG-Fresenius (ATG-F) in patients undergoing HLA-mismatched allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation from unrelated donors (UR-PBSCT) has not been evaluated. Retrospective analysis of patients who underwent HLA-mismatched UR-PBSCT between January 2003 and December 2013 and received pre-transplant ATG-T at a total dose of 10 mg/kg or ATG-F at a total dose of 20 mg/kg was performed. Patients who received ATG-T (n = 23) or ATG-F (n = 28) had similar baseline demographic, disease, and transplant characteristics. There were no significant between-groups differences in the probability of acute GVHD (P = 0.721) and chronic GVHD (P = 0.439). ATG-F was associated with nonsignificant trends toward higher disease-free survival at 3-year follow-up compared with ATG-T (45.7 ± 11.1 vs 61.3 ± 9.7 %, respectively, P = 0.07). A significantly greater proportion of ATG-T patients experienced high fever than ATG-F patients (P

A series of laboratory experiments was conducted using electrical penetration graph, salivary flange, and honeydew measurement to study the effects of feeding-induced intra- and interspecific interactions on feeding behavior and honeydew excretion between planthoppers Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) and Sogatela furcifera (Horváth). Feeding-induced intra- and interspecific interactions affected many measures of feeding behavior. The number of salivary flanges, mean duration of pathway activities per insect, and mean duration from first probe to first sustained phloem ingestion for both N. lugens and S. furcifera were significantly shorter on rice plants with feeding-induced conspecific and heterospecific effects than those for planthoppers fed on control plants. Feeding-induced intra- and interspecific interactions also affected the duration per insect of phloem ingestion for both N. lugens and S. furcifera. The durations per insect of phloem ingestion on host plants with feeding-induced conspecific and heterospecific effects were significantly longer than those on control plants. An asymmetric facilitative effect of induced interspecific interactions on the weight of honeydew excreted was detected, because only the honeydew weights of S. furcifera were significantly increased by the induced heterospecific effect on both varieties. The results demonstrated that the facilitative effects on honeydew excretion were consistent with previously documented effects on performance. Both facilitative effects on honeydew excretion and performance were asymmetrical, with more benefits to S. furcifera from N. lugens. Such facilitative effects might be mainly related to altered nutrient status and induced allelochemistry in rice.

This work reports on the first study of thermally induced effect on energy transport in single filaments of silkworm (Bombyx mori) fibroin degummed mild (type 1), moderate (type 2), to strong (type 3). After heat treatment from 140 to 220°C, the thermal diffusivity of silk fibroin type 1, 2, and 3 increases up to 37.9, 20.9, and 21.5%, respectively. Our detailed scanning electron microscopy study confirms that the sample diameter change is almost negligible before and after heat treatment. Raman analysis is performed on the original and heat-treated (at 147°C) samples. After heat treatment at 147°C, the Raman peaks at 1081, 1230, and 1665 cm(-1) become stronger and narrower, indicating structural transformation from amorphous to crystalline. A structure model composed of amorphous, crystalline, and laterally ordered regions is proposed to explain the structural change by heat treatment. Owing to the close packing of more adjacent laterally ordered regions, the number and size of the crystalline regions of Bombyx mori silk fibroin increase by heat treatment. This structure change gives the observed significant thermal diffusivity increase by heat treatment.

The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical characteristics and prognosis of acute erythroleukemia (AEL, AML-M6). The clinical features and results of morphologic, immunophenotypic, cytogenetic and molecular biologic detections were retrospectively analyzed in 13 cases of AEL from 305 acute leukemia patients hospitalized between October 2007 and October 2012. The results showed that the expression of erythroid and non-erythroid cells increased at the same time. The myeloid antigens mainly expressed CD13/CD33/CD117/CD34, while the erythroid antigens expressed Gly and CD71. The karyotypic detection indicated that there were 1 case with normal karyotype, 3 cases with simple karyotypic abnormality and 2 cases with complex karyotypic abnormality, the other cases were not detected. The molecular biological detection found that the poor prognosis gene existed in 5 cases [38.5% (5/13)], including 3 cases with MLL-MLL fusion gene, 1 case with MLL mutation, and 1 cases with NRAS gene mutation, the abnormal genes were not detected in remainder 8 cases. After chemotherapy with decitabine, the complete remission (CR) rate achieved 53.5% (7/13), partial remission (DR) rate achieved 15.4% (2/13). Finally, 8 patients received allo-HSCT, the median overall survival (OS) was 20.7 months, 3 year survival rate was 79%, 3 year disease-free survival rate was 78%. It is concluded that the acute erythroleukemia is a rare subtype of AML, which is transformed from MDS and has harmful genes and poor prognosis. Allo-HSCT and treatment with decitabine may enhance the survival rate of AEL.

The study was aimed to investigate the clinical characteristics of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with CBFB-MYH11 gene. The clinical data of 12 cases were analyzed retrospectively, including age, clinical characteristics, immunophenotype, treatment protocols and efficacy as well as the prognosis. The results indicated that 12 patients with CBFB-MYH11 were detected in 293 AML patients. The median age of the 12 patients was 32.5 (21 - 57) years old. According to French-American-British (FAB) classification, 66.7% (8/12) patients was diagnosed as M4Eo and 33.3% patients was diagnosed as M4. At new diagnosis, the median WBC count was 19.8×10(9)/L (2.46 - 164.30×10(9)/L). The WBC count100×10(9) was found in 16.7% patients (2/12). The complete remission (CR) rate after 1 and 2 cycles of induction chemotherapy were 83.3% and 16.7% respectively, so the total CR rate was 100%. Estimated 5-year relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) were 80% and 83%, respectively. It is concluded that patients with CBFB-MYH11 are usually M4Eo and M4. Patients with this fusion gene are often associated with high frequency of CD33, CD34, CD117, HLA-DR, CD15, CD64 and CD14 expression. Patients with CBFB-MYH11 have a tendency of higher CR rate, longer RFS and OS.

Deletion of the short arm of chromosome 3 is one of the most frequent genetic alterations in many solid tumors including nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), suggesting the existence of one or more tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) within the frequently deleted region. A putative TSG RBMS3 (RNA binding motif, single stranded interacting protein 3), located at 3p24-p23, has been identified in our previous study. Here, we reported that downregulation of RBMS3 was detected in 3/3 NPC cell lines and 13/15 (86.7%) primary NPC tissues. Functional studies using both overexpression and suppression systems demonstrated that RBMS3 has a strong tumor suppressive role in NPC. The tumor suppressive mechanism of RBMS3 was associated with its role in cell cycle arrest at the G1/S checkpoint by upregulating p53 and p21, downregulating cyclin E and CDK2, and the subsequent inhibition of Rb-ser780. Further analysis demonstrated that RBMS3 had a pro-apoptotic role in a mitochondrial-dependent manner via activation of caspase-9 and PARP. Finally, RBMS3 inhibited microvessel formation, which may be mediated by down-regulation of MMP2 and β-catenin and inactivation of its downstream targets, including cyclin-D1, c-Myc, MMP7, and MMP9. Taken together, our findings define a function for RBMS3 as an important tumor suppressor gene in NPC., published_or_final_version

A new cyano-bridged Tb(III)-Cr(III) heterometallic complex [Tb(H(2)O)(2)(DMF)(4){Cr(CN)(6)}]·H(2)O (DMF = dimethylformamide) (1), assembled from paramagnetic hexacyanochromium(III) [Cr(CN)(6)](3-) building block and highly anisotropic terbium(III) ion has been prepared and structurally and magnetically characterized. Complex 1 shows one-dimensional (1D) zig-zag chain-like structural motif which is further extended into three-dimensional network through hydrogen-bonding interactions. The long-range magnetic ordering observed in complex 1, which is possibly due to interchain magnetic dipolar interactions, illuminates that this complex is a molecule-based magnet with critical temperature of about 5 K. This higher critical temperature among those of Ln(III)-Cr(III) heterometallic complexes exhibiting long-range magnetic ordering is probably due to the introduction of highly anisotropic terbium(III) ion.

To explore the effects of oncogene protein v-akt-siRNA on the sensitivity of human lung cancer cell line NCI-H446 to cisplatin and drug resistance proteins in human lung cancer cells.The small interfering siRNA expression vector targeting Akt2 gene (siAkt2) was constructed. And the NCI-H446 cells were transfected with negative control vector or siRNA vector. The expressions of Akt2-mRNA and lung resistance-related protein (LRP) and P-glycoprotein (P-gp) were detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and immunocytochemistry respectively. NCI-H446 and transfected cells were treated by cisplatin for 24 h. The cell proliferation was measured by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay and cell apoptotic rate detected by flow cytometry.Akt2-mRNA decreased significantly in the transfected NCI-H446 cells versus the non-transfection group. And the expressions of LRP and P-gp proteins decreased significantly in the transfection group versus the control group (P0.01). The cell proliferation rate decreased from (60.2 ± 2.8)% to (34.7 ± 2.6)% (P0.01). The cell apoptotic rate increased from (19.3 ± 1.6)% to (38.8 ± 1.2)% after a therapy of cisplatin (P0.01).The siRNA targeting Akt2 can decrease the Akt2 expression, increase the chemotherapeutic sensitivity to cisplatin and partially reverse the cisplatin resistance of NCI-H446. The mechanism may be through the lowered expressions of LRP and P-gp.

The multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication systems can provide high data rate. Since channel estimation is an integral part of the receiver designs in coherent MIMO-OFDM systems, it is important to understand the basis of the channel estimation technologies. The basic system models are constructed for the MIMO-OFDM communication systems in this paper. Several non-blind channel estimation technologies, such as the Least Square (LS) algorithm, the Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) algorithm and the Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) algorithm are comparatively studied on the MIMO-OFDM communication systems. The simulation results are also provided for the MIMO-OFDM communication systems with different non-blind channel estimation technologies.

Layered space-time code technique is a good scheme to improve the wireless transmission rate and reliability. The paper discusses four detection algorithms for the Vertical-Bell Laboratories Layered Space-Time (V-BLAST) system. Then, it analyzes the process of algorithms in detail and simulates them. The bit error rate (BER) for the four detection algorithms in different channel situations are compared.

Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) are the intelligent systems which physical and engineered systems are closely integrated. This paper first introduced the concept of CPS, summarized the status of CPS and analyzed the differences between CPS and popular “The Internet of Things”. Followed list the CPS applications of smart grid, water distributed networks and assistive devices, described the efforts that CPS pay for to constructed the wise earth and the far-reaching impacts on society and economy. Finally, this paper dissected the great challenges on the CPS research and looked ahead the prospects of it.

A novel approach to retrieving atmosphere NO2 slant column density is described, in which the sunlight scattered in the zenith direction and the skylight are used as the light sources. The slant column density of the same azimuth but different obliquities, which are between 0.5 x 10(16) and 11 x 10(16) molecule x cm(-2), with the angle from 85 degrees to 10 degrees, as well as that of the same obliquity but different azimuths, which are between 10(16) and 10(17) molecule cm(-2), were calculated. The study indicates that the results have good correlation with real atmosphere status. The angle spatial distribution could be embodied by the difference of NO2 slant column density in different azimuths and obliquities. The reference spectrum and sample spectrum were collected with the same instrument at the same time, so the measurement accuracy has been improved. This method favored not only real-time monitoring NO2 content of space arbitrary direction, especially near the ground NO2 pollution emergencies, but also overcast and rainy areas where it is very difficult to collect good direct solar spectrum.

We report the first large genome-wide association study (GWAS) in a Chinese population to identify susceptibility variants for psoriasis using a two-stage case-control design. In the first stage, we carried out a genome-wide association analysis in 1,139 cases and 1,132 controls of Chinese Han ancestry using Illumina Human 610-Quad BeadChips. In the second stage, we took top SNPs forward for replication in two independent samples of 5,182 cases and 6,516 controls of Chinese Han ancestry, and 539 cases and 824 controls of Chinese Uygur ancestry. In addition to the strong replication for two known susceptibility loci MHC (rs1265181, P = 1.93 x 10(-208), OR = 22.62) and IL12B (rs3213094, P(combined) = 2.58 x 10(-26), OR = 0.78), we identified a new susceptibility locus within the LCE gene cluster on 1q21 (rs4085613, P(combined) = 6.69 x 10(-30), OR = 0.76).

Purpose : To demonstrate the effect of histone deacetylase-inhibitor, vorinostat, on antitumour activity of grape seed proanthocyanidins (GSPs) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells. Methods : Expression of thymidine phosphorlase (TP) and thymidylate synthase (TS) was measured by real-time PCR and western blotting. TP knockdown was performed using specific small interfering RNA. Antitumour activity of combination of vorinostat and GSPs was assessed according to Chou and Talay method and by evaluating apoptosis. Results : Vorinostat treatment led to a significant increase in TP expression but decrease in TS expression in NSCLC cells. In H157 cells, increase in the concentration of vorinostat from 0.34 to 0.4 μM increased TP expression 3- to 6-fold. In H1299 cells, there was 7-fold reduction of TS transcript and 30-fold increase of TP transcript at 48 h. Vorinostat, when used in combination with GSPs, resulted in a synergistic anti-proliferative effect and increased apoptotic cell death. However, cells with TP knockdown did not exhibit vorinostat- and GSPs-mediated anti-proliferative effect and apoptotic cell death. Conclusion : The combination of vorinostat and GSPs can be an effective and innovative antitumour therapy for the treatment of NSCLC. Keywords : Histone deacetylase-inhibitor, Synergism, Apoptosis, Antitumor

High and low frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) are both used to treat major depressive disorder(MDD). However, the physiological mechanisms underlying the therapeutic benefit and the effect of the stimulation frequency are unclear. Twelve healthy participants received 1Hz, 2Hz, and 5Hz active rTMS. Twenty 5 second trains were delivered at left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex at 110% of resting motor threshold with a 25 second inter-train interval. Blood oxygenation (HbO) was significantly reduced following the 1Hz trains compared to the HbO increases observed in both the 2Hz and 5Hz conditions. There was no significant inter-hemispheric difference in response. These results suggest that short trains of high and low frequency rTMS delivered to prefrontal cortex evoke a differential HbO response and provide additional evidence that high frequency trains result in increased neural activity. The findings may provide further explanation for the improved symptoms observed in MDD patients treated with high frequency rTMS.

Background & Aims Solid tumors often become hypoxic, leading to activation of hypoxia-response genes. We investigated the effects of overexpression of the hypoxia response genes eIF5A2 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods We used quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry analyses to compare expression of eIF5A2 between paired ESCC samples and nontumor esophageal tissues, and fluorescence in situ hybridization to detect gene copy-number alterations. Luciferase reporter and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays were used to study interactions between eIF5A2 and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α ( HIF1α ). We determined the effects of eIF5A2 overexpression and knockdown in ESCC cell lines and growth of ESCC xenograft tumors in nude mice. Results Levels of eIF5A2 messenger RNA and protein were increased in >40% of ESCC samples compared with matched nontumor tissues, along with levels of HIF1α and vascular endothelial growth factor. Increased levels of EIF5A2 were significantly associated with ESCC metastasis to lymph nodes ( P P = .037), and shorter survival times of patients ( P eIF5A2 was detected in 35.14% of ESCC samples that overexpressed eIF5A2. Hypoxia increased expression of eIF5A2 4- to 8-fold in ESCC cell lines; we observed bidirectional regulation between eIF5A2 and HIF1α . Transient transfection of ESCC cell lines with eIF5A2 increased their migratory and invasive abilities and markers of the epithelial to mesenchymal transition, and eIF5A2 knockdown or HIFα inhibition reduced these. In mice, xenograft tumors grown from ESCC cells that expressed eIF5A2 formed tumors more rapidly than cells that expressed only vector (controls); they also expressed higher levels of HIF1α and vascular endothelial growth factor, and formed more microvessels than controls. Knockdown of eIF5A2 in ESCC cells with interfering RNAs reduced their growth as xenograft tumors in mice, particularly when mice were given docetaxel or cisplatin. Conclusions eIF5A2 is overexpressed by gene amplification or hypoxia in ESCCs, and associated with up-regulation of HIF1α, metastasis, and shorter survival times of patients. Increased expression of eIF5A2 increases metastasis and angiogenesis in ESCC via the HIF1α -mediated signaling pathway.

Strongly alkaline electrolyzed water (SAEW) was prepared by electrolysis of tap water in a laboratory-made water electrolyzer. The pH of stored SAEW was stable for more than one month. The hardness of the electrolyzed water was 30% lower and the Na(+) concentration was 18% higher than those of the tap water. Silkworm cocoon shells were boiled in pH 11.50 SAEW at a ratio of 1∶40∼80 (W/V) for 20 min and the sericin layers around the silk fibroin fibers were removed completely. The tensile properties and thermal decomposition temperature of a single filament of silk fibroin obtained by the SAEW method were almost the same as those for the fiber obtained by the neutral soap, and much higher than those for the fiber obtained by Na2CO3 degumming. The results demonstrate that SAEW is an environmentally friendly and pollution-free silk degumming agent that allows highly efficient, low cost recovery of sericin.

Hypoxia is often happened in solid tumors, which activates hypoxia response genes such as hypoxia-inducible transcription factors to keep tumor growth under the stress. Here we report that expression of EIF5A2, a frequently overexpressed oncogene in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), can be induced by hypoxia. Expression of EIF5A2 increased significantly in all five tested ESCC cell lines under hypoxic stress (P Citation Format: Tingting CAO, Yan Li, Li Fu, Xinyuan GUAN. Overexpression of EIF5A2 induced by gene amplification or hypoxia plays a pivotal role in tumor metastasis and angiogenesis. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-110. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-LB-110

Based on northern largemouth bass and florida largemouth bass, four populations including selfing of N(Micropterus salmoides salmoides ♀×M. s. salmoides♂) and F(M. s. floridanus ♀×M. s. flori-danus♂), direct cross NF(M. s. salmoides♀×M. s. floridanus♂) and FN(M. s. floridanus♀×M. s. sal-moides♂) were established. Further comparative analysis of growth and morphological characteristics were carried out between parents and their reciprocal hybrids. The results were as follows. The growth rates had no difference between N, NF and FN on 152nd day. After 152 days the northern largemouth bass grew more rapidly than two hybrids. As meristic characters, the numbers of soft ray of pelvic, spine of anal fin, gill raker and vertebra were consistent in these four populations, and the chi-square analysis of meristic characters showed highly significant differences between parents and hybrids in soft ray of dorsal, soft ray of pectoral, soft ray of anal fin, soft ray of tail fin, scales above lateral line and scales below lateral line. The results of cluster analysis have revealed that the morph metric characters of N and F were much closer, the same to the reciprocal hybrids groups. Three principal components with accumulative variance per-centage 71.44% were summarized in principal component analysis. The principal components 1, 2 and 3 reflected the morphological variations of frame, head and caudal peduncle, with the variance percentage being 54.90%, 11.20% and 5.33%. In discriminant analysis, 11 parameters were selected from 35 measured parameters to establish discriminant functioned of the populations. Discriminant accuracy was 83.90%—100.00%. This study would be beneficial to the identification, breeding and aquaculture of largemouth bass.

Aldolase is a glycolytic enzyme,which plays a key and pivotal role in glycolysis and glucose metabolism.And compared to aldolase A and aldolase C,aldolase B is involved in both glycolysis and gluconeogenesis.In this research,the two genomic sequence fragments are amplified according to two contigs cDNA fragments of ALDOB gene from EST database of grass carp(Ctenopharyngodon idellus).Then three nucleotides mutations were identified by using directly sequencing and blasting.The polymor-phisms are C+687G,A117C and C+1042A,which are in exon 6,intron 7 and exon 8 respectively.C+687G is synonymous mutation and-A63C is non-synonymous mutation.296 grass carps were used to genotype polymorphisms and then calculate the genotype and gene frequency by SnaPshot method.Frequencies of the AA genotype were 42.9%,32.8% and 32.8% respectively,the AB genotype were 42.9%,45.9% and 45.6% respectively,the BB genotype were 14.2%,21.3% and 21.6% respectively.A general linear model was used to statistically analyze the relationship between ALDOB gene polymorphisms and major growth traits.The result indicated that the three different genotypes of C+687G site only showed significant association at body length/caudal peduncle ratio(P0.05),while they showed no significant association at body weight.The three different genotypes of A117C andC+1042A sites showed significant association at body weight and so on(P0.05).Three combinations of seven,three and seven diplotypes,with the minor allelic frequencies of above 3%,were constructed based on three SNPs in the experiment population.As-sociation analysis indicated that three combinations of diplotypes were all significant association between diplotypes and body weight(P0.05): the seven diplotypes of C+687G,A117C and C+687G,C+1042A showed significant association at body weight,body width and so on(P0.05).And the three diplotypes of A117C and-43C,C+1042A showed significant association at body weight and space.Not only different genotypes of three SNPs sites,but also diplotypes showed significant association in major growth traits in grass carp.And the homozygous genotypes were higher than heterozygote genotypes in the main growth traits.As a result,ALDO B gene could be a candidate modifier gene for grass carp growth traits which could be useful for grass carp molecular breeding.

Background The neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) plays a crucial role in transporting IgG and associated antigens across polarized epithelial barriers in mucosal immunity. However, it was not clear that FcRn expression in aggregated lymphoid nodules area (ALNA) in abomasum, a unique and important mucosal immune structure discovered only in Bactrian camels. In the present study, 27 Alashan Bactrian camels were divided into the following five age groups: fetus (10–13 months of gestation), young (1–2 years), pubertal (3–5 years), middle-aged (6–16 years) and old (17–20 years). The FcRn expressions were observed and analyzed in detail with histology, immunohistochemistry, micro-image analysis and statistical methods. Results The results showed that the FcRn was expressed in mucosal epithelial cells of ALNA from the fetus to the old group, although the expression level rapidly declined in old group; moreover, after the ALNA maturated, the FcRn expression level in the non-follicle-associated epithelium (non-FAE) was significantly higher than that in FAE (P