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PM2.5 (particulate matter ≤2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter) is a major urban air pollutant worldwide. Its effects on the respiratory system of the susceptible population have been less characterized. This study aimed to estimate the association of short-term PM2.5 exposure with respiratory outcomes of the retired adults, and to examine whether these associations were stronger among the subjects with GSTT-null genotype. 32 healthy subjects (55–77 years) were recruited for five follow-up examinations. Ambient concentrations of PM2.5 were monitored consecutively for 7 days prior to physical examination. Pulmonary outcomes including forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), peak expiratory flow (PEF), and fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO), and nasal fluid concentrations of 8-epi-prostaglandin F2 alpha (8-epi-PGF2α), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-8 (IL-8) and IL-1β were measured. A linear mixed-effect model was introduced to evaluate the associations of PM2.5 concentrations with respiratory outcomes. Additionally, GSTT1 genotype-based stratification was performed to characterize modification on PM2.5-related respiratory outcomes. We found that a 10 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 was associated with decreases of 0.52 L (95% confidence interval [CI]: -1.04, -0.002), 0.64 L (95% CI: -1.13, -0.16), 0.1 (95% CI: -0.23, 0.04) and 2.87 L/s (95% CI: -5.09, -0.64) in FVC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC ratio and PEF at lag 2, respectively. Meanwhile, marked increases of 80.82% (95% CI: 5.13%, 156.50%) in IL-8, 77.14% (95% CI: 1.88%, 152.40%) in IL-1β and 67.87% (95% CI: 14.85%, 120.88%) in 8-epi-PGF2α were observed as PM2.5 concentration increased by 10 μg/m3 at lag 2. Notably, PM2.5-associated decreases in FVC and PEF and increase in FeNO were stronger among the subjects with GSTT1-null genotype. In summary, short-term exposure to PM2.5 is associated with nasal inflammation, oxidative stress and lung function reduction in the retired subjects. Lung function reduction and inflammation are stronger among the subjects with GSTT1-null genotype.

Use of hand-held sanding machines can cause excessive vibrations, which may induce various diseases, so the vibrations should be suppressed in the design process. This work focuses on the vibration optimization of an orbital sander based on a surrogate model. Housing vibrations along three axes of this machine are tested at four different points, and the experimental results are in good agreement with the acceleration values obtained from the simulated model established in ADAMS, which demonstrates the higher accuracy of the dynamic model. In order to reduce the vibrations, an automatic optimization strategy is presented by integrating four pieces of software in ISIGHT platform. Thus, the geometrical parameters of the soft nylon posts and the counterbalance in this machine are selected as design variables, housing accelerations of six separated directions as criteria. To improve the optimization efficiency, a surrogate model is set up based on Elliptical Basis Functions by selecting sample points with the Optimal Latin Hypercube DOE technique; and the influence distribution analysis of the design variables on the housing vibrations is performed according to these DOE data, which suggests that the counterbalance parameters are the key factors to the housing vibrations. Furthermore, error analysis of this approximate model shows that it is precise enough to conduct the following optimization. Consequently, the optimization results show that housing vibrations are reduced by 48%, 37% and 36% in three different directions, respectively, with the better design variables of the orbital sander.

The tissue distribution and depletion of sulfamethoxazole (SMZ) and trimethoprim (TMP) were studied in Pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei, after single-dose and multiple-dose oral administration of SMZ-TMP (5:1) via medicated feed. In single-dose oral administration, shrimps were fed once at a dose of 100 mg/kg (drug weight/body weight). In multiple-dose oral administration, shrimps were fed three times a day for three consecutive days at a dose of 100mg/kg. The results showed the kinetic characteristic of SMZ was different from TMP in Pacific white shrimp. In the single-dose administration, the SMZ was widely distributed in the tissues, while TMP was highly concentrated in the hepatopancreas. The t1/2z values of SMZ were larger and persist longer than TMP in Pacific white shrimp. In the multiple-dose administration, SMZ accumulated well in the tissues, and reached steady state level after successive administrations, while TMP did not. TMP concentration even appeared the downward trend with the increase of drug times. Compared with the single dose, the t1/2z values of SMZ in hepatopancreas (8.22-11.33h) and muscle (6.53-10.92h) of Pacific white shrimps rose, but the haemolymph dropped (13.76-11.03) in the multiple-dose oral administration. Meanwhile, the corresponding values of TMP also rose in hepatopancreas (4.53-9.65h) and muscle (2.12-2.71h), and declined in haemolymph (7.38-5.25h) following single-dose and multiple-dose oral administration in Pacific white shrimps. In addition, it is worth mentioning that the ratios of SMZ and TMP were unusually larger than the general aim ratio.

This study sought to reveal the effect of angiotensin II (Ang II)-induced atherosclerotic vulnerability in rabbits and to determine whether in vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can determine the effect of Ang II on atherosclerotic development over time. In total, 24 elderly male New Zealand white rabbits underwent an intravascular balloon injury in the left common carotid artery (LCCA) and were subsequently fed a high cholesterol diet for 12 weeks. At 8 weeks, rabbits were randomly assigned to receive either Ang II (1.4 mg/kg/d, Ang II group) or vehicle (phosphate-buffered saline, control) via a subcutaneous osmotic minipump for 4 weeks. The rabbits were imaged three times: at baseline and at 8 and 12 weeks. After the 12-week MRI scanning, rabbits were euthanized to obtain pathological and histological data. Atherosclerotic plaques were identified in the 21 rabbits that survived the 12-week trial. Typical feature of vulnerable plaques (VP), intraplaque hemorrhage, were observed in 6 of 10 animals (60.0%) in the Ang II group. The Cohen K value of MR imaging between the AHA classifications was 0.82 (0.73–0.91; P

Background and Aims Closure of gastric wall defects after endoscopic full-thickness resection remains a clinical challenge. We aimed to introduce an endoscopic puncture-suture device (EPSD) for the closure of such defects. We evaluated the safety, efficacy, and outcomes of the EPSD for closure of gastric wall defects after endoscopic full-thickness resection (EFTR), compared with the metallic clips closure method. Methods Twenty-four Bama mini pigs (20–25 kg) were randomly divided into 2 groups. The EPSD was used in the experimental group and metallic clips were used in the control group. Twelve pigs were randomly assigned to each group. Six pigs underwent EFTR on the anterior wall of the gastric body, whereas the other 6 pigs underwent the same procedure on the posterior wall. The diameter of the resection margin was 2 cm. Either EPSD or metallic clips were applied to close the defects. The duration of the resection and closure, incidence of operative adverse events, and wound recovery were compared and analyzed according to the method of closure. Results For defects at the same sites, EPSD significantly reduced closure time compared with the metallic clips method (anterior wall, 8 min vs 27.5 min; posterior wall, 7.8 min vs 26.8 min). Conclusion EPSD is a quick, simple, safe, and effective method to close gastric wall defects after EFTR.

A novel actinomycete, designated TRM68295T, was isolated from the sediments of the Tailan River, Xinjiang, northwest China. The study of the polyphasic approach showed that the characteristics of the strain were consistent with the genus Streptomyces. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the strain had a high sequence similarity with Streptomyces phaeochromogenes ATCC 3338T (97.9%). The diagnostic diamino acid of cell walls was identified as ll-diaminopimelic acid. The whole cell sugars were identified as ribose, xylose, glucose and galactose. The major fatty acids were iso-C14:0, iso-C15:0, anteiso-C15:0, iso-C16:0, C16:1ω9c, C16:0 and anteiso-C17:0. The major menaquinones were MK-9 (H10), MK-9 (H6) and MK-9 (H2). The polar lipids were composed of diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylglycerol (PG), phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylinositol (PI) and phosphatidylinositol mannoside (PIM). The G+C content in the draft genome sequence of the strain was identified as 70.0 mol%. The average nucleotide identity (ANI) between strains TRM68295T and S. phaeochromogenes ATCC 3338T was 88.1%. Digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) value between strain TRM68295T and S. phaeochromogenes ATCC 3338T was 40.7%. The multilocus sequence analysis of five house-keeping genes (atpD, gyrB, recA, rpoB, and trpB) indicated that the MLSA distances between the strain and similar species were greater than the threshold of 0.007. Based on the above studies, strain TRM68295T is considered as a novel species of the genus Streptomyces, for which the name Streptomyces albicerus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is TRM68295T (= CCTCC AA 2018085T = KCTC 49272T).

In this paper, a semi-analytical method for acoustic black hole cantilever beams is presented. Based on Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, the governing equation of the free vibration of the variable section beam is derived. The finite difference method (FDM) is used to solve the equation. The mode shape and nature frequency of the one-dimensional acoustic black hole (ABH) cantilever beam is obtained, and the error between the result and the finite element result is within 1%, which proves that the method has high precision. The effects of various parameters of ABH beam on natural frequency and mode shape are studied. The results show that as the exponent m increases, the natural frequency decreases. The higher the order, the lower the percentage. The thickness of the free end h n increases, the natural frequency increases, and the higher the order, the greater the increase. Moreover, m and h n have a certain influence on the node and amplitude of the mode. The semi-analytical method in this paper is simple and efficient, with good accuracy and convergence. The parameterization is convenient, and its good programmability is very convenient, which means that it provides a simple and efficient new method for parameterization and optimization design of the acoustic black hole beams.

Chronic inflammation has been linked to promotion of tumorigenesis and metastasis in lung. However, due to lack of a relevant animal model for characterization, the underlying mechanism remains elusive. Lung tumor suppressor gene Gprc5a-knockout (ko) mice are susceptible to lung inflammation, tumorigenesis and metastasis, which resembles the pathological features in human patients. Here, we showed that PTGES/PGE2 signaling was highly associated with lung tumorigenesis and metastasis in Gprc5a-ko mice. Interestingly, Ptges-knockout in mouse lung tumor cells, although reduced their stemness and EMT-like features, still formed tumors and lung metastasis in immune-deficient nude mice, but not in immune-competent mice. This suggests that the major role of PTGES/PGE2 signaling in tumorigenicity and lung metastasis is through immunosuppression. Mechanistically, PTGES/PGE2 signaling intrinsically endows tumor cells resistant to T-cell cytotoxicity, and induces cytokines extrinsically for MDSC recruitment, which is crucial for suppression of T-cell immunity. Importantly, targeting PGE2 signaling in Gprc5a-ko mice by PTGES inhibitor suppressed MDSC recruitment, restored T cells, and significantly repressed lung metastasis. Thus, PTGES/PGE2 signaling links immunosuppression and metastasis in an inflammatory lung microenvironment of Gprc5a-ko mouse model.

Objective Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocols help optimize inpatient care and minimize discomfort. This study was performed to explore the safety, feasibility, and clinical and social value of ERAS in pediatric gastrointestinal surgery. Methods This study included all children (n = 125) who underwent appendectomy, pyloromyotomy, transabdominal Soave’s procedure, Meckel’s diverticulum resection, or reduction of intussusception in our institution from January to September 2018. We compared surgical outcomes between children who underwent surgery under conventional perioperative regimens (control group, n = 57) and those who were treated with ERAS protocols (ERAS group, n = 68). Results There were no significant intergroup differences in demographic or surgical data. However, the bowel function recovery time, postoperative intravenous nutrition time, duration of postoperative hospital stay, and hospital costs were significantly lower in the ERAS group than control group. There was no significant intergroup difference in the complication rate. Conclusions Our results indicate that implementation of ERAS protocols is safe and feasible in pediatric gastrointestinal surgery. They can improve patient comfort, shorten the duration of the postoperative hospital stay, reduce hospital costs, and accelerate postoperative rehabilitation without increasing the risk of postoperative complications. Therefore, ERAS protocols deserve wider implementation and promotion.

Early diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma requires effective risk predictors. TNFRII was reported to be related to tumorigenesis, but remained unclear in lung cancer. This research set out to investigate the relationship between the sTNFRII (serum TNFRII) level and the risk of lung adenocarcinoma less than 1 cm in diameter. Seventy‐one pairs of subcentimetre lung adenocarcinoma patients and healthy controls were analysed through multiplex bead‐based Luminex assay and found a significantly lower expression of sTNFRII in patients with subcentimetre lung adenocarcinoma than that in the healthy controls (P

Considering an energy crisis and serious environmental problems, demand respond (DR) programs, including price-based DR and incentive-based DR, are designed to improve the stability of the power system. Direct load control (DLC) is one of effective incentive-based control methods relying on directly triggering the load reduction, which is relatively easy and inexpensive to implement. Due to the large electricity consumption and good heat storage capability, air conditioners are the important demand response resources. The accurate thermodynamic model of air conditioner can directly influence the effectiveness of control strategy. In this paper, an air conditioner control method based on the second-order equivalent thermal parameter (ETP) model is proposed, and the load-shifting potential by the DLC of air conditioning load is discussed. The reference signal is calculated for the air conditioners based on the peak-load-shifting requirement. Then an adaptive hill climbing (AHC) control method is designed for tracking the air conditioning load to the reference signal. The simulation results indicate that the proposed approach can achieve a guaranteed load curtailment by the DLC of the air conditioning load.

Objectives: G protein-coupled receptor 137 (GPR137) was reported to be associated with several cancers, but its role in bladder cancer has not been reported. The purpose of this study was to evaluate clinical significance of GPR137 in bladder cancer. Methods: The expressions of GPR137 in pathological tissues and corresponding normal tissues from bladder cancer patients were detected via quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Western blot was performed to detect GPR137 expression in bladder cancer tissues and adjacent normal tissues. Chi-Squared test analyzed the relationship between GPR137 expression and clinical features of bladder cancer patients. Additionally, Kaplan–Meier method was adopted in estimating overall survival of bladder cancer patients. Prognostic value of GPR137 was evaluated through Cox regression analysis. Results: The expression of GPR137 mRNA and protein in pathological tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent normal tissues (P

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a common chronic inflammatory arthritis, causing lasting back pain with progressive loss of spinal mobility. However, the exact pathogenesis of AS remains unclear. We aim to use the metabolomics analysis to characterize the metabolic profile of AS, in order to better understand the pathogenesis of AS and monitor disease activity and progression.The ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (UPLC-TQ-MS) was used for investigating the serum amino acid metabolomic profiling of 30 AS patients, in comparison with 32 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and 30 healthy controls, combined with multivariate statistical analysis. Metabolite association analysis with disease activity was performed using generalized linear regression. The metabolic pathway analysis for the important metabolites was performed using MetPA and the metabolic network was constructed.A total of 29 amino acids and biogenic amines were detected in all participants by UPLC-TQ-MS. It showed significant amino acid differences between the AS/RA patients and control subjects. Additionally, 4-hydroxy-L-proline, alanine, γ-aminobutyric acid, glutamine, and taurine were identified as candidate markers shared by AS/RA groups. Specifically, lysine, proline, serine, and alanine were found correlated with disease activity of AS. Furthermore, the most significant metabolic pathway identified were alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism, arginine and proline metabolism, aminoacyl tRNA biosynthesis and glycine, serine, and threonine metabolism.These preliminary results demonstrate that UPLC-TQ-MS analysis method is a powerful tool to identify metabolite profiles of AS. Research in identified disease activity-associated metabolites and biological pathways may provide assistance for clinical diagnosis and pathological mechanism of AS. Key Points • There are perturbations of serum amino acid metabolism in AS, compared with RA and healthy controls, determined by UPLC-TQ-MS. • Metabolomics pathway is used to analysis for the differential metabolites of AS. • The altered serum amino acid could monitor disease activity of AS.

Early metastasis and local recurrence are the major causes of mortality and poor prognosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the underlying mechanisms of these processes are poorly understood. In this study, we aimed to investigate the roles of the PTGES/PGE(2) pathway in lung cancer progression. We found that prostaglandin E synthase (PTGES), a key enzyme for PGE(2) synthesis in the arachidonic acid pathway, was highly dysregulated in NSCLC. Dysregulated PTGES was essential for the promotion of tumor migration and metastasis of NSCLC cells. Knockdown of PTGES in lung cancer cells resulted in suppressed cell migration, which was reversed by exogenous PGE(2). Consistent with this, PTGES knockdown also reduced the expression of CSC markers, tumor sphere formation, colony forming activity, tumorigenicity, and lung metastasis in vivo. Dysregulated PTGES is mainly attributed to protein stabilization by USP9X, a deubiquitination enzyme. USP9X physically interacted with PTGES and prevented it from proteasome-directed degradation via deubiquitination. Consistent with this, USP9X expression was highly correlated with PTGES expression in NSCLC tumor tissues. Taken together, our results show that the upregulated USP9X-PTGES-PGE(2) axis contributes significantly to the metastatic features of NSCLC.

Aberrant expression of sperm-associated antigen 5 (SPAG5) is implicated to play oncogenic roles in several types of cancers. However, the functions of SPAG5 in lung adenocarcinoma remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the role of SPAG5 in lung adenocarcinoma. We found that SPAG5 was upregulated in most of the lung adenocarcinoma cell lines as compared to normal lung epithelial cells. SPAG5 knockdown suppressed proliferation, colony forming, and migration of lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells in vitro and inhibited tumor growth in vivo. These suggest that upregulated SPAG5 promotes lung tumor progression. Importantly, treatment with MDM2 inhibitor, Nutlin-3a, restored p53 and p21 expression and suppressed SPAG5 expression in wild-type p53 lung adenocarcinoma cells, A549 and H460, but not in p53-null lung cancer cells, H1299. This suggests that the p53 signal pathway is essential for SPAG5 suppression. In addition, knocking-down p53 or p21 in A549 and H460 cells attenuated Nutlin-3a-induced repression of SPAG5, which further supports that the p53-p21 axis is required for SPAG5 repression. Thus, SPAG5 can serve as a prognostic marker, and therapeutic strategy targeting the p53-p21-SPAG5 axis may have important clinical implications.

In order to improve the shape accuracy of the space-borne antenna reflector under the interference of uncertain load, the active control method of the reflector shape was studied. First, a finite element model of the thermal and mechanical coupling of the space-borne antenna reflector was established. Taking the uncertain load into account, the radial basis function (RBF) neural network was used to estimate the error, and the adaptive controller was designed according to the estimation error. Based on the Lyapunov stability theory, the stability of the controller was analyzed. Finally, the adaptive control of the space-borne antenna reflector was simulated numerically. The simulation results show that the method of RBF neural network adaptive control is effective by reducing the shape error of the reflector in a short time when considering the uncertain load.

The digital twin of CNC machine tools has become one of the important technical means to realize intelligent manufacturing. To reflect the real conditions of the whole life cycle of the machine tools, an adaptive modification method of the digital twin model of CNC machine tools coordinately driven by mechanism model and data model is proposed. Taking the dynamic stiffness of the CNC machine tool as the combined object, firstly the finite element method is used to establish the initial digital twin mechanism model, then the simulation data of the mechanism model is used to generate enough samples to establish a surrogate model to realize the construction of the initial data model. At different stages of the life cycle of CNC machine tools, the minimum deviation between the dynamic response obtained by the simulation of the digital twin model and the measured response is set as the objective function, and intelligent optimization algorithm is adopted to adaptively modify the digital twin model to ensure the consistency between the digital twin model and the physical object. The established digital twin model is used to predict the dynamic performance of CNC machine tools, which lays the foundation for the whole life cycle management decision of CNC machine tools.

Simple Summary It is a long-held notion that loss-of-function mutations in negative regulators of the Hippo-YAP pathway, such as NF2, LATS1/2, have a similar potential to promote nuclear YAP activity, which is thought to play an essential role in the pathogenesis of MPM. Whether loss-of-function in these individual regulators uniformly affects the Hippo-YAP activity and contributes to a similar disease phenotype has not yet been revealed in MPM. Surprisingly and interestingly, we found in this study that loss-of-function in the upstream regulator NF2 of the Hippo pathway is linked to the aberrant activation of Hippo-YAP-independent signaling. More importantly, our work showed NF2 loss-of-function and dysregulated Hippo-YAP pathway define distinct MPM subsets that differ in molecular features, therapeutic implications, patients’ prognosis, and in particular, infiltrative immune signatures. Our findings in this study may be instrumental for the precise management of immunotherapy and/or targeted therapy for MPM patients. Abstract (1) Inactivation of the tumor suppressor NF2 is believed to play a major role in the pathogenesis of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) by deregulating the Hippo-YAP signaling pathway. However, NF2 has functions beyond regulation of the Hippo pathway, raising the possibility that NF2 contributes to MPM via Hippo-independent mechanisms. (2) We performed weighted gene co-expression analysis (WGCNA) in transcriptomic and proteomic datasets obtained from The Cancer Gene Atlas (TCGA) MPM cohort to identify clusters of co-expressed genes highly correlated with NF2 and phospho (p)-YAP protein, surrogate markers of active Hippo signaling and YAP inactivation. The potential targets are experimentally validated using a cell viability assay. (3) MPM tumors with NF2 loss-of-function are not associated with changes in p-YAP level nor YAP/TAZ activity score, but are characterized by a deficient B-cell receptor (BCR) signaling pathway. Conversely, MPM tumors with YAP activation display exhausted CD8 T-cell-mediated immunity together with significantly upregulated PD-L1, which is validated in an independent MPM cohort, suggesting a potential benefit of immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) in this patient subset. In support of this, mutations in core Hippo signaling components including LATS2, but not NF2, are independently associated with better overall survival in response to ICI in patients. Additionally, based on cancer cell line models, we show that MPM cells with a high Hippo-YAP activity are particularly sensitive to inhibitors of BCR-ABL/SRC, stratifying a unique MPM patient subset that may benefit from BCR-ABL/SRC therapies. Furthermore, we observe that NF2 physically interacts with a considerable number of proteins that are not involved in the canonical Hippo-YAP pathway, providing a possible explanation for its Hippo-independent role in MPM. Finally, survival analyses show that YAP/TAZ scores together with p-YAP protein level, but not NF2, predict the prognosis of MPM patients. (4) NF2 loss-of-function and dysregulated Hippo-YAP pathway define distinct MPM subsets that differ in their molecular features and prognosis, which has important clinical implications for precision oncology in MPM patients.

Purpose To noninvasively monitor carotid plaque vulnerability by exploring the relationship between pharmacokinetic parameters (PPs) of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) and plaque types based on MRI-modified American Heart Association (AHA) classification, as well as to assess the ability of PPs in discrimination between stable and vulnerable plaques suspected on MRI. Materials and Methods Of 70 consecutive patients with carotid plaques who volunteered for 3.0T MRI (3D time-of-flight [TOF], T1-weighted, T2-weighted, 3D magnetization-prepared rapid acquisition gradient-echo [MP-RAGE] and DCE-MRI), 66 participants were available for analysis. After plaque classification according to MRI-modified AHA Lesion-Type (LT), PPs (Ktrans, kep, ve, and vp) of DCE-MRI were measured. The Extended Tofts model was used for calculation of PPs. For participants with multiple carotid plaques, the plaque with the worst MRI-modified AHA LT was chosen for analysis. Correlations between PPs and plaque types and the ability of these parameters to distinguish stable and vulnerable plaques suspected on MRI were assessed. Results Significant positive correlation between Ktrans and LT III to VI was found (ρ = 0.532, P < 0.001), as was the correlation between kep and LT III to VI (ρ = 0.409, P < 0.001). Stable and vulnerable plaques suspected on MRI could potentially be distinguished by Ktrans (sensitivity 83%, specificity 100%) and kep (sensitivity 77%, specificity 91%). Conclusion Ktrans and kep from DCE-MRI can provide quantitative information to monitor plaque vulnerability in vivo and differentiate vulnerable plaques suspected on MRI from stable ones. These two parameters could be adopted as imaging biomarkers for plaque characterization and risk stratification. Level of Evidence: 1 Technical Efficacy: Stage 2 J. MAGN. RESON. IMAGING 2017;46:870–876

The mechanism and effects of ligands and reagents in Rh-catalyzed C(sp2)–H bond carboxylation with CO2 were investigated using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The catalytic cycle involves sequential C–H oxidative addition, CO2 insertion into the Rh–C(aryl) bond and transmetalation. Among these steps, CO2 insertion is the rate-determining step. In addition to its role as a methylation reagent, AlMe2(OMe) can also serve as a Lewis acid to promote the CO2 insertion step. The greater reactivity of the catalyst with the bulkier P(Mes)3 ligand than that with PPh3 benefits from the favorable agostic interaction between the Rh center and the ortho-methyl group in the P(Mes)3 ligand, which can stabilize the transition state of CO2 insertion.

For survival from severe natural conditions, plants have evolved powerful regenerative abilities, conferring specific cells with totipotency or pluripotency. The regenerative abilities have been widely exploited in agricultural production, and the commonly used technologies include cuttage, engraft and the propagation through plant tissue culture. In seed plants, regeneration usually results in two different consequences. Firstly, damaged tissues can be repaired by tissue regeneration; Secondly, certain somatic cells can be used as a source to regenerate a whole plant via de novo organogenesis or somatic embryogenesis. In this review, we mainly summarize the recent advances in de novo organogenesis and somatic embryogenesis in seed plants, and intend to provide useful information to the plant scientists, especially those who are interested in the improvement of agricultural applications of plant regeneration. De novo organogenesis refers to the formation of adventitious roots or shoots from the regeneration-competent cells in wounded or detached plant organs. During de novo organogenesis, the regeneration-competent cells, such as procambium, pericycle or other parenchyma cells in the vasculature of various plant tissues, do not experience a dedifferentiation process backward to the embryo-stage state. De novo organogenesis may occur directly from the regeneration-competent cells in cultured explants, or progress indirectly from the non-embryonic callus. Interestingly, non-embryonic callus formation from different plant organs follows a common mechanism and appears to be the ectopic activation of a root development program. Therefore, unlike previously believed, non-embryonic callus consists of a group of root primordium-like cells. During somatic embryogenesis, differentiated cells change their fates to become embryonic cells via dedifferentiation. The somatic embryos can be formed either directly from somatic cells or indirectly from embryonic callus. Plant hormones, genes involved in embryo development and shoot apical meristem maintenance, and some epigenetic factors play key roles in either direct or indirect somatic embryogenesis. The underlying theme of plant regeneration is the cell fate transition upon wounding or stress. In recent years, our knowledge about cell lineage during the fate transition in plant regeneration and molecular mechanism that directs the cell fate transition has been greatly improved. These benefit our understanding of the plant cell flexibility significantly. Wound and stress signals, actions of phytohormones and functions of transcription factors and epigenetic factors were explored in different types of plant regeneration. It becomes clear that wound and stress signals induce phytohormone actions at the earliest stage of regeneration. While auxin is required for de novo root organogenesis and callus formation, cytokinin triggers de novo shoot organogenesis. In somatic embryogenesis, auxin and abscisic acid play key roles in cell dedifferentiation. The phytohormone actions usually result in expressional changes of many key transcriptions factors, which act together or coordinate with epigenetic factors to control changes of transcriptomes in the cells for their fate transition. Despite the very rapidly progresses, many questions still remained unanswered in the regulation of plant regeneration. What is the molecular basis of wound and stress signals? Can any kind of cells in the plant undergo dedifferentiation to form somatic embryo? What is the common molecular basis for cells to acquire the regeneration competence? What are the molecular mechanisms guiding actions of phytohormones, transcription factors and epigenetic factors? What is the cell lineage during fate transition of different plant cells in regeneration? All these questions need to be further addressed in the future.

Many differentiated plant organs have the ability to regenerate into a new plant after detachment via de novo organogenesis. During de novo root organogenesis from Arabidopsis thaliana leaf explants, wounding first induces endogenous auxin production in mesophyll cells. Auxin is then polar transported to, and accumulates in, regeneration-competent cells near the wound to trigger the cell-fate transition. The TRYPTOPHAN AMINOTRANSFERASE OF ARABIDOPSIS (TAA) family proteins and the YUCCA (YUC) family proteins catalyze two successive biochemical steps in auxin biogenesis, and YUCs have been shown to be involved in auxin production in mesophyll cells during de novo root organogenesis. In this study, we show that the TAA family is also required for adventitious rooting. Inhibition of TAA blocked adventitious root formation from leaf explants. Intriguingly, whereas YUC1 and YUC4 have been shown to be highly induced by wounding, TAA genes retained consistent expression levels before and after leaf detachment. Therefore, we suggest that TAAs and YUCs are both required for auxin biogenesis in leaf explants, but they play different roles in regeneration. While YUC1 and YUC4 function in response to wounding to catalyze the rate-limiting step in auxin biosynthesis, TAAs probably serve as abiding and basal enzymes during de novo root organogenesis from leaf explants.

Laboratory tests were conducted to evaluate the performance of Portland cement pervious concrete (PCPC) with a particular focus on freeze–thaw durability. The admixtures and modifiers such as air-entraining agent (AEA), ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) latex, and polypropylene (PP) fibers were considered in various mixtures to explore their influences on the performances of PCPC. In order to address the different behaviors of PCPC produced in field and laboratory, field specimens cored from experimental pavement sections were compared to the specimens molded in the laboratory, and appropriate quantification indicators were proposed in the study for the comparison. The test results showed that even with high porosities, a proper content of AEA added in the PCPC mixture could still improve its strength and increase its freeze–thaw durability to some extent. The mixture with latex modified could achieve much higher strength and better freeze–thaw durability due to the enhancement of interfacial bonding on the cementitious matrix. Apparent improvements on tensile strength and freeze–thaw durability were also observed for the mixture reinforced by PP fibers with various nominal lengths. In addition, the analysis of the relationship between field and laboratory produced PCPC showed that the pervious pavement paved in the actual field usually presented inferior overall mechanical performances than the PCPC produced in the laboratory, especially on the freeze–thaw durability. Therefore, a reduction coefficient should be considered when design a PCPC pavement and predict its performance with the standard laboratory methods that commonly used for ordinary concrete.

Analyzing the history of design is helpful in creating the computer numerical control turret design. Knowledge acquired from reasonably organizing and reusing designs may contribute to establishing computer numerical control turret design tasks. This article presents the results of our study on the representation and reuse of computer numerical control turret design knowledge and highlights the application of a case-based reasoning method in the structure design of a computer numerical control turret. The primary step in case-based reasoning systems is case retrieval where the similarity measure plays a significant role. The objective of this study is to develop a new method for a hybrid similarity measure with five formats of attribute values: crisp symbols, crisp numbers, fuzzy numbers, fuzzy linguistic variables, and fuzzy intervals. First, a hybrid similarity measure for a mixture of crisp and fuzzy sets is proposed for retrieving cases. Subsequently, a synthesis weight is formed through the combination of the subjective weight and objective weight. The calculation formula of the global similarity, which can retrieve the proper historical case, can be established by combining the hybrid similarity measure and the synthesis weight measure accordingly. Finally, the hybrid similarity measure and weight assignment method were applied in a computer numerical control turret conceptual design case-based reasoning system. The results showed that the global similarity of these five attribute types and the distribution of weight coefficients could improve the accuracy of case retrieval, which would help designers achieve the goal of rapid design.

The dynamic range captured by ordinary digital cameras is much smaller than that in natural scenes, so a single image cannot fully capture the real scene details when shooting high dynamic scenes. Traditional multi-exposure image fusion algorithms often cause inconsistencies in local brightness and corresponding scenes, which easily leads to problems such as color distortion and loss of details. Based on this, a novel multi-scale exposure fusion approach based on physical features is presented in this paper. Specifically, we first employ a novel Retinex model to get the illumination maps of original images and adopt the obtained illuminations map to construct the exposure maps. Then, a feature descriptor named patterns of oriented edge magnitudes (POEM) is introduced to extract local contrast from source images. Moreover, the extracted feature is combined to construct a weight map, and the weight term is integrated with the Laplacian pyramid algorithm to obtain an initial fusion image. Finally, simple detail enhancement and color compensation operations are performed to get the final fusion result. The numerous experiments have revealed that the proposed approach yields comparative and even better results in comparison with some state-of-the-art techniques both in subjective and objective evaluation.

The winter wheat&ndash, summer maize double cropping system caused overexploitation of groundwater in the North China Plain, it is unsustainable and threatens food security and the overall wellbeing of humankind in the region. Finding water-saving cropping systems without compromising food security is a more likely solution. In this study, six alternative cropping systems&rsquo, water conservation and food supply capacity were compared simultaneously. A combined water footprint method was applied to analyze the cropping systems&rsquo, water consumption. The winter wheat&ndash, summer maize system had the largest water consumption (16,585 m3/ha on average), followed by the potato/spring maize, spinach&ndash, spring maize, rye&ndash, spring maize, vetch&ndash, spring maize, pea/spring maize, soybean||spring maize and mono-spring maize cropping systems. For the groundwater, the spinach&ndash, spring maize, pea/spring maize, soybean||spring maize systems showed a higher degree of synchronization between crop growth period and rainfall, which could reduce use of groundwater by 36.8%, 54.4% and 57.6%, respectively. For food supply capacity, the values for spinach&ndash, spring maize, pea/spring maize, soybean||spring maize systems were 73.0%, 60.8% and 48.4% of winter wheat&ndash, summer maize, respectively, but they showed a better feeding efficiency than the winter wheat&ndash, summer maize system. On the whole, spinach&ndash, spring maize may be a good option to prevent further decline in groundwater level and to ensure food security in a sustainable way.

There are three-phase imbalance, voltage deviation, frequency fluctuation and other power quality problems in the traditional AC distribution network, which are difficult to meet the demand of power users for high power quality. The AC-DC hybrid distribution network is superior to the AC distribution system in terms of reducing power loss and improving power supply quality. Based on the research status of energy-saving indexes of distribution network, considering the characteristics of AC-DC hybrid distribution network, this paper analyzes the factors that affect the energy efficiency level of AC-DC hybrid distribution system, constructs the evaluation index system, determines the classification evaluation standards of different indexes according to the relevant standards, and puts forward the quantitative evaluation method of the energy efficiency level of AC-DC hybrid distribution network.

Studying the genetic diversity of parasite is important for understanding their biogeography and molecular epidemiology, as well as for establishing disease prevention and control strategies. Clonorchis sinensis is an important foodborne parasite worldwide. However, despite its epidemiological significance, the genetic diversity of C. sinensis has not been well studied from human in northeastern China. In this study, a total of 342 fecal specimens were collected from residents living in five villages in Heilongjiang Province and analyzed for the presence of C. sinensis by PCR amplification and sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) and ITS2 regions of nuclear ribosomal DNA. 21.64% (74/342) of fecal samples were found to be positive for C. sinensis by PCR. The sequences of the ITS1 region in 34 of the 74 samples (45.95%) matched that of MK179278, Genetic polymorphisms were observed at six nucleotide sites. The ITS2 gene sequence of 37 of the 74 samples (50%) matched that of MK179281. In conclusion, a low degree of genetic diversity between C. sinensis isolates from China and different geographical regions was found at ITS loci. Despite this conservation, sequencing of the rDNA region has provided important data that will be useful for future studies addressing the molecular evolution, biology, medical implications and ecology of C. sinensis.

Induction of cancer stem cell (CSC) characters and epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) features are crucial in tumor initiation, progression and metastasis. However, underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Here, we showed that ENPP1 plays an important role in inducing and maintaining EMT phenotypes and CSC features in lung cancer. ENPP1 is upregulated in lung cancer cells. ENPP1-knockdown in lung cancer HCC827 cells and A549 cells resulted in suppressed colonogenic formation, anchorage-independent growth in vitro, and tumorigenicity in vivo. ENPP1-knockdown also reduced expression of CSC makers, including ABCG2, SOX2, NANOG, and CD44. Moreover, ENPP1-knockdown reversed TGFβ-induced EMT phenotypes, including cell migration, E-cadherin repression and vimentin induction. Finally, upregulated ENPP1 was identified in majority of human lung tumor tissues compared to adjacent normal lung tissues. Taken together, our study demonstrates that dysregulated ENPP1 contributes to increased malignancy of human lung cancer by inducing CSC-features, and EMT-like phenotypes.

Sleeping scheduling has been widely employed in target tracking due to its energy conservation. However, the randomness of target's trajectory makes it difficult to implement with accuracy and real time guarantee. We propose TTVT, a novel, simple and efficient tracking technique. TTVT first constructs a Voronoi based network model, then makes nodes in the Voronoi polygon that the target is in work and others sleep. The target is hence detected by nodes closest to it. TTVT further presents a weighted centriod based algorithm to locate the target with the chosen nodes and reduce the influence of data noise on localization accuracy. We have implemented TTVT, and our extensive simulation show that it outperforms similar schemes with much lower location error.

Rubber bush is used in dynamic vibration absorber as dissipating devices in damping boring bar. These devices actually have to support radial load in compression when chattering occurs. Mastering the behavior of the radial stiffness of the rubber bush implies an accurate understanding of dynamic vibration absorber. The behavior is, however, complex due to the changeable cross-sectional shape and boundary conditions of the rubber bush. By using artificial neural network, the radial stiffness can be predicted efficiently. According to the authors’ knowledge, simulations and tests on radial stiffness of the rubber bush under combined different cross-sectional shape and boundary conditions by using artificial neural network have not been performed yet. The purpose of this study is thus to find the law of radial stiffness of rubber bush under different cross-section shapes and axial pre-compression conditions. In order to achieve this aim, simulations and tests under different chamfering sizes and axial pre-compression by using artificial neural network were first carried out.

Prospective observation of hemodynamic changes before and after the formation of atherosclerotic stenosis in the carotid artery is difficult. Thus, a vessel surface repairing method was used for retrospective hemodynamic study before and after atherosclerotic stenosis formation in carotid artery. The three-dimensional geometry of sixteen sinus atherosclerotic stenosis carotid arteries were repaired and restored as normal arteries. Computational fluid dynamics analysis was performed to estimate wall shear stress (WSS), velocity and vortex in atherosclerosis-free areas and sinus in stenosis-repaired carotid artery. The analysis was also performed in the stenotic segment and upstream and downstream of stenosis in stenotic carotid artery. Compared to the atherosclerosis-free areas in stenosis-repaired carotid artery, sinus presented significantly lower WSS (P P P P = 0.87), both upstream and downstream of stenosis demonstrated similar velocity to sinus (P = 0.76 and P = 0.36, respectively) and apparent vortex. Atherosclerosis-prone areas including normal carotid sinus and upstream and downstream of stenosis in stenotic carotid artery were subjected to lower WSS and velocity as well as apparent vortex, thereby might be associated with the formation and progress of atherosclerosis.

BACKGROUND The present study aimed to compare the expression of liver kinase B1 (LKB1) in prostate cancer (PCa) tissues and the paired adjacent tissues, then to evaluate the statistical relationship between LKB1 expression and prognosis of PCa patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS The relative expression of LKB1 at mRNA level was detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The expression of LKB1 at protein level was measured by immunohistochemistry (IHC) method. The relationship between LKB1 expression and clinicopathologic characteristics was estimated by chi-square test. Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the overall survival of PCa patients with different LKB1 expression. Cox regression analysis was performed to estimate the significance of LKB1 expression and clinicopathologic characteristics in the prognosis of PCa patients. RESULTS The relative expression of LKB1 at mRNA level was significantly lower in PCa tissues than in the normal tissues (P

Exposure to crystalline silica is suggested to increase the risk for a variety of lung diseases, including fibrosis and lung cancer. However, epidemiological evidences for the exposure-risk relationship are ambiguous and conflicting, and experimental study from a reliable animal model to explore the relationship is lacking. We reasoned that a mouse model that is sensitive to both lung injury and tumorigenesis would be appropriate to evaluate the exposure-risk relationship. Previously, we showed that, Gprc5a-/- mice are susceptible to both lung tumorigenesis and endotoxin-induced acute lung injury. In this study, we investigated the biological consequences in Gprc5a-/- mouse model following silica exposure. Intra-tracheal administration of fine silica particles in Gprc5a-/- mice resulted in more severe lung injury and pulmonary inflammation than in wild-type mice. Moreover, an enhanced fibrogenic response, including EMT-like characteristics, was induced in the lungs of Gprc5a-/- mice compared to those from wild-type ones. Importantly, increased hyperplasia or neoplasia coincided with silica-induced tissue injury and fibrogenic response in lungs from Gprc5a-/- mice. Consistently, expression of MMP9, TGFβ1 and EGFR was significantly increased in lungs from silica-treated Gprc5a-/- mice compared to those untreated or wild-type ones. These results suggest that, the process of tissue repair coincides with tissue damages; whereas persistent tissue damages leads to abnormal repair or neoplasia. Thus, silica-induced pulmonary inflammation and injury contribute to increased neoplasia development in lungs from Gprc5a-/- mouse model.

GPRC5A, a retinoic acid induced gene, is preferentially expressed in lung tissue. Gprc5a gene deletion leads to spontaneous lung tumor development. However, the mechanism of Gprc5a-mediated lung tumor suppression is not fully understood. Here we showed that MDM2, a p53-negative regulator, was dysregulated in Gprc5a-knockout (ko) mouse tracheal epithelial cells (KO-MTEC) compared to wild type ones. Targeting MDM2 in 1601-a Gprc5a-ko mouse derived lung tumor cell line-and A549-human lung cancer cells, by MDM2 inhibitor Nutlin-3a or small hairpin RNA (sh-RNA)-restored p53 signaling pathway, reduced cancer stem cell markers, and inhibited tumorigenicity. This suggests that dysregulated MDM2 pathway is essential for the oncogenic activities of these cells. MDM2 was found to be stabilized mainly by activated EGFR signaling as targeting EGFR by Erlotinib or sh-RNA repressed MDM2 in a transcription-independent manner. Importantly, overexpression of MDM2 and reduced GPRC5A expression at both protein and mRNA levels were frequently found in clinical human lung cancer tissues. Taken together, GPRC5A deficiency contributes to dysregulated MDM2 via activated EGFR signaling, which promotes lung tumor development.

"This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Scientometrics. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-018-2853-0”., This study explores the characteristics of scientific activity patterns through co-author affiliations to obtain new insights into interdisciplinary research. To classify the interdisciplinarity in research, we explored and compared two different approaches: the diversity of disciplines reflected in the listed affiliations of the authors and the diversity of the subject categories reflected in the reference list. To assess the diversity in departmental affiliations, we developed an explorative methodology that retrieves feature words from a combination of manual work and the thesaurus function in the Thomson Data Analyzer text mining tool. To assess the diversity in references, we followed the conventional approach applied in previous work. With both approaches, we relied on diversity as the measure for assessing interdisciplinarity of 157,710 articles published in PloS One (2007–2016). Based on a comparison between the results of both approaches, our study confirms that different methodologies and indicators can produce seriously inconsistent, and even contradictory results. In addition, different indicators may capture different understandings of such a multi-faceted concept as interdisciplinarity. Our results are summarized in a schematic representation of this twofold perspective as a method of indexing the different types of interdisciplinarity commonly found in research studies., The present study is an extended version of an article presented at the 16th International Conference on Scientometrics and Informetrics, Wuhan (China), 16–20 October 2017 (Zhang et al. 2017). The authors would like to acknowledge support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71573085), the Innovation Talents of Science and Technology in HeNan Province (Grant Nos. 16HASTIT038, 2015GGJS-108), and the Excellent Scholarship in Social Science in HeNan Province (No. 2018-YXXZ-10). We thank Giovanni Abramo and Ronald Rousseau for inspiring discussions.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a particularly aggressive cancer with poor prognosis, largely due to lymph node metastasis and local recurrence. Emerging evidence suggests that epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is important for cancer metastasis, and correlated with increased cancer stem cells (CSCs) characteristics. However, the mechanisms underlying metastasis to lymph nodes in HNSCC is poorly defined. In this study, we show that E-cadherin repression correlates with cancer metastasis and poor prognosis in HNSCC. We found that G9a, a histone methyltransferase, interacts with Snail and mediates Snail-induced transcriptional repression of E-cadherin and EMT, through methylation of histone H3 lysine-9 (H3K9). Moreover, G9a is required for both lymph node-related metastasis and TGF-β-induced EMT in HNSCC cells since knockdown of G9a reversed EMT, inhibited cell migration and tumorsphere formation, and suppressed the expression of CSC markers. Our study demonstrates that the G9a protein is essential for the induction of EMT and CSC-like properties in HNSCC. Thus, targeting the G9a-Snail axis may represent a novel strategy for treatment of metastatic HNSCC.

Wind speed/power has received increasing attention around the earth due to its renewable nature as well as environmental friendliness. With the global installed wind power capacity rapidly increasing, wind industry is growing into a large-scale business. Reliable short-term wind speed forecasts play a practical and crucial role in wind energy conversion systems, such as the dynamic control of wind turbines and power system scheduling. In this paper, an intelligent hybrid model for short-term wind speed prediction is examined; the model is based on cross correlation (CC) analysis and a support vector regression (SVR) model that is coupled with brainstorm optimization (BSO) and cuckoo search (CS) algorithms, which are successfully utilized for parameter determination. The proposed hybrid models were used to forecast short-term wind speeds collected from four wind turbines located on a wind farm in China. The forecasting results demonstrate that the intelligent hybrid models outperform single models for short-term wind speed forecasting, which mainly results from the superiority of BSO and CS for parameter optimization.

Object To investigate the effects of sulforaphane (SFN) and vitamin E (VE) on spatial learning and memory ability and oxidative damage of hippocampus in lead-exposed mice at lactation. Methods A total of 18 adult Kunming mice, all 12 female mice were divided into two groups by body weight randomly, 10 mice drank water containing 0.2% lead acetate at lactation, the other 2 mice drank lead free deionized water named as the normal group. Then, they were mated at a 1:2 ratio of male to female. After weaning, the pups were divided into 5 groups by weight randomly (10 each group): normal saline (NS) group, corn oil (CO) group, SFN group, VE group and SFN + VE group. They were subject to gavage daily for four weeks. Gavage doses of SFN and VE were 25 mg/kg and 30 IU/kg respectively. Meanwhile, 10 pups of the normal group were selected randomly as the control (C) group. The C group was normally raised for 4 weeks. The spatial learning and memory ability of them were evaluated by the Morris water maze test, and the lead level in the blood was determined by polarography. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and malondialdehyde (MDA) level in hippocampus were measured by the kits. Results Compared with the NS and CO groups, the lead level in the blood of SFN and SFN + VE group had a significant decrease. In water maze test, the mice treated with SFN or/and VE performed better than mice of the NS and CO groups. In addition, a remarkable decrease in MDA level was found in mice treated with SFN or/and VE than those in NS and CO groups. What’s more, there was no statistical distinction of SOD activity in SFN group than that of NS group. SOD activity significantly increased was observed in VE and SFN + VE groups than that of CO group. Conclusion Sulforaphane and vitamin E could ameliorate cognitive decline and oxidative damage in pups with lead exposure at lactation from maternal milk.

The analysis and forecasting of PM concentrations play a significant role in regulatory planning on the reduction and control of PM emission and precautionary strategies. However, accurate PM forecasting, which is needed to establish an early warning system, is still a huge challenge and a critical issue. Determining how to address the accurate forecasting problem becomes an even more significant and urgent task. Based on gray correlation analysis (GCA), Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD), Cuckoo search (CS) and Back-propagation artificial neutral networks (BPANN), this paper proposes the CS-EEMD-BPANN model for forecasting PM concentrations. Prior to establishing this model, gray correlation has been uniquely used to search for possible predictors of PM among other air pollutants (CO, NO2, O3 and SO2) and meteorological environments (wind speed, wind direction, temperature, humidity and pressure). The proposed method was investigated in four major cities of China (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Lanzhou) with different characteristics of climatic, terrain and emission sources. The results of the gray correlation analysis indicate that CO, NO2 and SO2 are more related to PM and that the incorporation of these predictors can significantly improve the model performance predictability, suggesting the effectiveness of our developed method.

Since medical records play an irreplaceable role in many fields, the medical record copying is particularly important. The contents of a medical record are confidential, so it cannot be copied without identity check; some patients and agents cannot copy the medical record because they may forget to take the valid identity documents. This article refers to the password service concept in service industries, and by applying the password services, the patients can set up service passwords for the medical records through the short message service (SMS) platform, so that in the ordinary application check, if the agents do not carry the valid identity documents of patients, the workers in the medical record room can prompt the agents to enter the known service passwords into the medical record management system, and the workers check the passwords with the service passwords pre-stored in the server of the hospital. If the agents enter the correct password, the identity check is successful. The purpose i...

The aim of this work is to analyze the function of natural teeth’s periodontal ligament and the effects of periodontal ligament on implants by the finite element method (FEM), when static functional loads occur. The finite element analysis models are established, which consist of fragment of mandible, natural teeth, periodontal ligament, and implant. Finite element software Abaqus is used to analyze the stress transfer in models with or without periodontal ligament, and mandibular first molar is implant. The implant obtained the maximum stress value of 87.71MPa when periodontal ligament of natural tooth is absent, but the maximum value reduces to 38.43 MPa with the action of periodontal ligament. It illustrates that periodontal ligament has significant effects on stress transfer. When the finite element model of single natural tooth or dentition with implant is generated, periodontal ligament should be taken into account.

// Beibei Sun 1, * , Wenzheng Guo 2, 3, * , Song Hu 1 , Feng Yao 4 , Keke Yu 5 , Jie Xing 5 , Ronghua Wang 1 , Hongyong Song 2, 3 , Yueling Liao 2, 3 , Tong Wang 2, 3 , Pengfei Jiang 6 , Baohui Han 1, 7 , Jiong Deng 1, 2, 3 1 Translation Medicine Center, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China 2 Key Laboratory of Cell Differentiation and Apoptosis of Chinese Minister of Education, Department of Pathophysiology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China 3 Shanghai Key Laboratory for Tumor Microenvironment and Inflammation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China 4 Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China 5 Department of Biobank, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China 6 Department of Laboratory Medicine, East Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China 7 Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Baohui Han, email: xkyyhan@gmail.com Jiong Deng, email: jiongdeng@shsmu.edu.cn Keywords: lung cancer, biomarker, ceruloplasmin, Gprc5a Received: November 15, 2016 Accepted: December 31, 2016 Published: January 10, 2017 ABSTRACT Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death. As most of lung cancer patients were diagnosed with the advanced stage, early detection is considered as the most effective strategy to reduce high mortality. Thus, it is desirable to identify specific biomarkers at early stages of lung tumorigenesis. GPRC5A is a lung tumor suppressor gene. GPRC5A deficiency is linked to lung cancer development. We hyposthesized that, dysregulated gene expression that results from Gprc5a deficiency may provide potential biomarkers at early stages of lung tumorigenesis. By analysis of top 20 upregulated genes in mouse tracheal epithelial cells (MTEC) of Gprc5a knockout (KO) vs wild-type (WT), we found that ceruloplasmin, lipocalin-2, and periostin are not only upregulated in lung epithelial cells of Gprc5a-ko mice, but also expressed at high levels in lung tumor tissues of Gprc5a-ko mice. This suggests that increased expression of these genes is associated with lung tumorigenesis. Importantly, expression of ceruloplasmin, lipocalin-2, and periostin has also been found to be significantly increased, both at mRNA and protein levels, in the lung tissues from NSCLC patients, which is correlated with repressed GPRC5A. Thus, dysregulated ceruloplasmin, lipocalin-2, and periostin may be used as potential biomarkers at early stages of lung tumorigenesis.

To noninvasively monitor carotid plaque vulnerability by exploring the relationship between pharmacokinetic parameters (PPs) of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) and plaque types based on MRI-modified American Heart Association (AHA) classification, as well as to assess the ability of PPs in discrimination between stable and vulnerable plaques suspected on MRI.Of 70 consecutive patients with carotid plaques who volunteered for 3.0T MRI (3D time-of-flight [TOF], TSignificant positive correlation between KK1 Technical Efficacy: Stage 2 J. MAGN. RESON. IMAGING 2017;46:870-876.

Wounding is the first event that occurs in plant regeneration. However, wound signaling in plant regeneration is barely understood. Using a simple system of de novo root organogenesis from Arabidopsis thaliana leaf explants, we analyzed the genes downstream of wound signaling. Leaf explants may produce at least two kinds of wound signals to trigger short-term and long-term wound signaling. Short-term wound signaling is primarily involved in controlling auxin behavior and the fate transition of regeneration-competent cells, while long-term wound signaling mainly modulates the cellular environment at the wound site and maintains the auxin level in regeneration-competent cells. YUCCA (YUC) genes, which are involved in auxin biogenesis, are targets of short-term wound signaling in mesophyll cells and of long-term wound signaling in regeneration-competent cells. The expression patterns of YUCs provide important information about the molecular basis of wound signaling in plant regeneration.