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This study analyzed learning curve and the surgical outcome of robotic assisted colorectal surgery with ERAS program. The study results serve as a reference for future robotic colorectal surgeon who applied ERAS in clinical practice. This was a retrospective case-control study to analyze the learning curve of 141 robotic assisted colorectal surgery (RAS) by Da Vinci Xi (Xi) system and compare the surgical outcomes with 147 conventional laparoscopic (LSC) surgery in the same team. Evaluation for maturation was performed by operation time and the CUSUM plot. Patients were recruited from 1st February 2019 to 9th January 2022; follow-up was conducted at 30 days, and the final follow-up was conducted on 9th February 2022. It both took 31 cases for colon and rectal robotic surgeries to reach the maturation phase. Teamwork maturation was achieved after 60 cases. In the maturation stage, RAS required a longer operation time (mean: colon: 249.5 ± 46.5 vs. 190.3 ± 57.3 p < 0.001; rectum 314.9 ± 59.6 vs. 223.6 ± 63.5 p < 0.001). After propensity score matching, robotic surgery with ERAS program resulted in significant shorter length of hospital stay (mean: colon: 5.5 ± 4.5 vs. 10.0 ± 11.9, p < 0.001; rectum: 5.4 ± 3.5 vs. 10.1 ± 7.0, p < 0.001), lower minor complication rate (colon: 6.0% vs 20.0%, p = 0.074 ; rectum: 11.1% vs 33.3%, p = 0.102), and no significant different major complication rate (colon: 2.0% vs 6.0%, p = 0.617; rectum: 7.4% cs 7.4%, p = 1.0) to conventional LSC. Learning curve for robotic assisted colorectal surgery takes 31 cases. Robotic surgery with ERAS program brings significant faster recovery and fewer complication rate compared to laparoscopy in colorectal surgery., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

This study reports the effect of cardiac-specific insulin-like growth factor-II receptor α (IGF-IIRα) overexpression on the development of liver dysfunction in transgenic rats via STZ-induced diabetic hepatocyte damage. The cardio-hepatic syndrome comprises a number of heart and liver illnesses in which an acute or chronic disease in one organ can lead to acute or chronic disease in the other. However, the molecular mechanism involved in such a set of conditions is unclear. In this study, we developed a transgenic rat model with cardiac-specific overexpression of IGF-IIRα, which is a supplementary splicing variant of insulin-like growth factor-II receptor (IGF-IIR), expressed in pathological hearts, to investigate the relationship between late fetal gene expression in diabetic hearts and their influence on diabetic hepatopathy. STZ (55 mg/kg) was intraperitoneally delivered into IGF-IIR overexpressed transgenic (TG) and non-transgenic (NTG) animal models developed in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats after an overnight fast. The relationship among IGF-IIRα overexpression and hepatocyte damages have been determined based on the complexity of damage in the liver. Our findings revealed that overexpression of the cardiac-specific IGF-IIRα enhances diabetes-induced morphological alterations and hepatic inflammation in the livers. The diabetic transgenic rats demonstrated the development of pathological conditions such as thick collagen fiber deposition, bridging fibrosis, and elevation of α-SMA and MMP1 related liver fibrosis mechanisms. Our data suggest that IGF-IIRα overexpression in the heart during a pathological state may worsen diabetic hepatopathy in rats., (© 2022 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Plants accumulate reactive oxygen species (ROS) that may damage the cells under prolonged stress conditions. Reduction of the excessive ROS production can alleviate oxidative damage and enhance the survival rates under stress. TLDc-containing protein (TLD) was reported to confer tolerance to oxidative stress, but the regulatory mechanism of TLD remains unclear. In this study, we ectopically overexpressed the Ipomoea batatas TLDc gene (IbTLD) in tobacco and characterized its functions. RNA-sequencing analysis and Gene Ontology term enrichment analysis revealed that IbTLD up-regulates auxin-responsive genes in response to oxidative stress. Under salinity stress, the IbTLD transgenic lines showed higher germination rates, chlorophyll contents, and root lengths than wild type (W38). In addition, the IbTLD transgenic lines showed higher expression of ROS scavenging genes, nudix hydrolases, ROS scavenging enzyme activity, and lesser DNA damage compared to W38 under salinity stress. Therefore, our results suggest that IbTLD activates the expression of ROS scavenging genes and confers tolerance to salinity stress in planta., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Quantum mechanics is commonly formulated in a complex, rather than real, Hilbert space. However, whether quantum theory really needs the participation of complex numbers has been debated ever since its birth. Recently, a Bell-like test in an entanglement-swapping scenario has been proposed to distinguish standard quantum mechanics from its real-valued analog. Previous experiments have conceptually demonstrated, yet not satisfied, the central requirement of independent state preparation and measurements and leave several loopholes. Here, we implement such a Bell-like test with two separated independent sources delivering entangled photons to three separated parties under strict locality conditions that are enforced by spacelike separation of the relevant events, rapid random setting generation, and fast measurement. With the fair-sampling assumption and closed loopholes of independent source, locality, and measurement independence simultaneously, we violate the constraints of real-valued quantum mechanics by 5.30 standard deviations. Our results disprove the real-valued quantum theory to describe nature and ensure the indispensable role of complex numbers in quantum mechanics.

Nonlocality captures one of the counterintuitive features of nature that defies classical intuition. Recent investigations reveal that our physical world's nonlocality is at least tripartite; i.e., genuinely tripartite nonlocal correlations in nature cannot be reproduced by any causal theory involving bipartite nonclassical resources and unlimited shared randomness. Here, by allowing the fair sampling assumption and postselection, we experimentally demonstrate such genuine tripartite nonlocality in a network under strict locality constraints that are ensured by spacelike separating all relevant events and employing fast quantum random number generators and high-speed polarization measurements. In particular, for a photonic quantum triangular network we observe a locality-loophole-free violation of the Bell-type inequality by 7.57 standard deviations for a postselected tripartite Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state of fidelity (93.13±0.24)%, which convincingly disproves the possibility of simulating genuine tripartite nonlocality by bipartite nonlocal resources with globally shared randomness.

First proposed by Mayers and Yao, self-testing provides a certification method to infer the underlying physics of quantum experiments in a black-box scenario. Numerous demonstrations have been reported to self-test various types of entangled states. However, all the multiparticle self-testing experiments reported so far suffer from both detection and locality loopholes. Here, we report the first experimental realization of multiparticle entanglement self-testing closing the locality loophole in a photonic system, and the detection loophole in a superconducting system, respectively. We certify three-party and four-party GHZ states with at least 0.84(1) and 0.86(3) fidelities in a device-independent way. These results can be viewed as a meaningful advance in multiparticle loophole-free self-testing, and also significant progress on the foundations of quantum entanglement certification.

Calreticulin (CRT) is located in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), it helps proteins fold correctly inside the ER, and acts as a modulator of Ca 2+ homeostasis. Aberrant expression of CRT is implicated in several cancer types, qualifying CRT as a potential therapeutic target. However, it remains unclear how CRT affects specific oncogenic pathways. In this study, we used histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis) to establish drug-resistant liver cancer cells and further analyzed the molecular mechanism of development of drug resistance in those cells. The 2D gel electrophoresis and RT-PCR data showed that CRT was downregulated in HDACis-resistant cells by comparing with HA22T parental cells. We previously elucidated the development of drug-resistance in HCC cells via activation of PP1-eIF2α pathway, but not via ER stress pathway. Here, we show that thapsigargin induced ER stress through mechanism other than ER stress downstream protein GRP78-PERK to regulate CRT expression in HDACis-R cells. Moreover, the expression level of CRT was not the main cause of apoptosis in HDACis-resistant cells. Mechanistic studies identified the apoptosis factors in the nucleus-the HDACis-mediated overexpression of CRT, CRT translocation to the cell nucleus, and reduced CaM/CaMKII/CREB pathway-that led to chemosensitivity in HDACis-R HCC cells.

Background: For minimally invasive colorectal surgery, preoperative localization is a typical procedure. We here aimed to analyze compared 2 different localization methods in terms of short-term outcomes, like the operative outcome and postoperative complication rates based on real-world data., Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective analysis study conducted at a medical center. We enrolled patients who were presented with colonic tumor between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2019, and they had undergone laparoscopic anterior resection in a single institution. Data included patient characteristics, operative outcome, length of hospital stay, and postoperative complications., Results: The preoperative localization group had a better resection margin (4 vs. 3 cm; P<0.001) and fewer procedures of intraoperative colonoscopy (4.67% vs. 18.22%; P=0.002). Lymph node harvest occurred more in patients with endoscopic tattooing procedures than with metallic clip procedures (25 vs. 20; P=0.031). No significant difference was found regarding postoperative complications and the length of hospital stay., Conclusions: Preoperative localization in a laparoscopic anterior resection led to better surgical planning and resection margin. The metallic clip placement was helpful in the preoperative localization and setting. The endoscopic tattooing method had a larger lymph node harvest and with fewer intraoperative colonoscopy., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Background: Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium is a nontyphoidal and common foodborne pathogen that causes serious threat to humans. There is no licensed vaccine to prevent the nontyphoid bacterial infection caused by S. Typhimurium., Methods: To develop conjugate vaccines, the bacterial lipid-A free lipopolysaccharide (LFPS) is prepared as the immunogen and used to synthesize the LFPS-linker-protein conjugates 6a-9b. The designed bifunctional linkers 1-5 comprising either an o-phenylenediamine or amine moiety are specifically attached to the exposed 3-deoxy-D-manno-octulosonic acid (Kdo), an α-ketoacid saccharide of LFPS, via condensation reaction or decarboxylative amidation. In addition to bovine serum albumin and ovalbumin, the S. Typhimurium flagellin (FliC) is also used as a self-adjuvanting protein carrier., Results: The synthesized conjugate vaccines are characterized by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and fast performance liquid chromatography (FPLC), and their contents of polysaccharides and protein are determined by phenol-sulfuric acid assay and bicinchoninic acid assay, respectively. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) shows that immunization of mouse with the LFPS-linker-protein vaccines at a dosage of 2.5 μg is sufficient to elicit serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) specific to S. Typhimurium lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The straight-chain amide linkers in conjugates 7a-9b do not interfere with the desired immune response. Vaccines 7a and 7b derived from either unfractionated LFPS or the high-mass portion show equal efficacy in induction of IgG antibodies. The challenge experiments are performed by oral gavage of S. Typhimurium pathogen, and vaccine 7c having FliC as the self-adjuvanting protein carrier exhibits a high vaccine efficacy of 74% with 80% mice survival rate at day 28 post the pathogen challenge., Conclusions: This study demonstrates that lipid-A free lipopolysaccharide prepared from Gram-negative bacteria is an appropriate immunogen, in which the exposed Kdo is connected to bifunctional linkers to form conjugate vaccines. The decarboxylative amidation of Kdo is a novel and useful method to construct a relatively robust and low immunogenic straight-chain amide linkage. The vaccine efficacy is enhanced by using bacterial flagellin as the self-adjuvanting carrier protein.

Quantum computing experiments are moving into a new realm of increasing size and complexity, with the short-term goal of demonstrating an advantage over classical computers. Boson sampling is a promising platform for such a goal; however, the number of detected single photons is up to five so far, limiting these small-scale implementations to a proof-of-principle stage. Here, we develop solid-state sources of highly efficient, pure, and indistinguishable single photons and 3D integration of ultralow-loss optical circuits. We perform experiments with 20 pure single photons fed into a 60-mode interferometer. In the output, we detect up to 14 photons and sample over Hilbert spaces with a size up to 3.7×10^{14}, over 10 orders of magnitude larger than all previous experiments, which for the first time enters into a genuine sampling regime where it becomes impossible to exhaust all possible output combinations. The results are validated against distinguishable samplers and uniform samplers with a confidence level of 99.9%.

Quantum-to-classical transition is a fundamental open question in physics frontier. Quantum decoherence theory points out that the inevitable interaction with environment is a sink carrying away quantum coherence, which is responsible for the suppression of quantum superposition in open quantum system. Recently, quantum Darwinism theory further extends the role of environment, serving as communication channel, to explain the classical objectivity emerging in quantum measurement process. Here, we used a six-photon quantum simulator to investigate classical and quantum information proliferation in quantum Darwinism process. In the simulation, many environmental photons are scattered from an observed quantum system and they are collected and used to infer the system's state. We observed redundancy of system's classical information and suppression of quantum correlation in the fragments of environmental photons. Our results experimentally show that the classical objectivity of quantum system can be established through quantum Darwinism mechanism., (Copyright © 2019 Science China Press. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

We experimentally demonstrate that when three single photons transmit through two polarization channels, in a well-defined pre- and postselected ensemble, there are no two photons in the same polarization channel by weak-strength measurement, a counterintuitive quantum counting effect called the quantum pigeonhole paradox. We further show that this effect breaks down in second-order measurement. These results indicate the existence of the quantum pigeonhole paradox and its operating regime., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α (PPARα) is a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily involved in hepatocarcinogenesis in rodents. In previous studies on liver tumor tissues, PPARα mRNA expression was found to be significantly higher and overexpression of ERα inhibited the PPARα expression, cell-proliferation and also induced apoptosis in Hep3B cell. However, the role of ERβ is not known yet. Therefore, the aim of this study is to define the role of ERβ on PPARα in Hep3B cells. The effect of PPARα signaling cascade were monitored by inducing Hep3B cells by fenofibrate. Further the cells were transfected with pCMV-ERβ and the consequences of ERβ-overexpression on the PPARα induced changes such as enhanced cell-proliferation and suppressed apoptosis were determined using western blot analysis and TUNEL assay. The EMSA was used to identify whether ERβ modulates PPARα expression by binding to PPARα promoter region to repress PPARα promoter activity. In addition, the direct interaction between ERβ and PPARα proteins was verified by co-immunoprecipitation assay. Our results show that the overexpressed ERβ not only attenuated the effects of fenofibrate to induce the levels of apoptosis protein such as Cyt.c, Caspase 9 and Caspase 3 but also inhibited the levels of survival protein such Bcl-xL, p-Bad, cyclin A and cyclin E. All these effects of E 2 /ERβ resulted in the enhancement of mitochondria dependent apoptotic pathway and the attenuation of cell proliferation. Moreover, the overexpressed ERβ reduced the mRNA and protein levels of PPARα and its downstream Acyl-CoA oxidase (ACO). EMSA results show that ERβ directly binds to PPRE and inhibit PPARα gene expression and according to immunoprecipitation assay ERβ also binds strongly with PPARα. The E 2 /ERβ further inhibited the fenofibrate-induced nuclear translocation of PPARα. Taken together, ERβ might directly downregulate PPARα gene expression and inhibit the nuclear translocation to suppress the proliferation and induce the apoptosis of Hep3B cells.

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) accounts for almost a sixth of all reported cancers. Arecoline, from areca nut is known to enhance carcinogenesis in oral squamous cells. The objective of this study is to determine the effect of Taiwanin C, from Taiwania cryptomerioides Hayata against Arecoline-associated carcinogenesis. An OSCC model was created in C57BL/6J Narl mice by administrating 0.5 mg mL -1 arecoline with 0.2 mg mL -1 4-NQO carcinogen for 8 and 28 wk to mimic the etiology of oral cancer patients in Asia. Mice were sacrificed and two cell lines, T28 from the tumor and N28 cancerous cell line from the surrounding non tumor area, were established. Taiwanin C showed effective anti-tumor activity in nude mice models. Taiwanin C significantly inhibited the cell viability of T28 cells in a dose dependent manner, but did not inflict any effect on N28 normal cells. Taiwanin C treatment inhibited the migration ability of T28 cells in a dose dependent manner as determined by wound healing and migration assays. Taiwanin C also reduced the levels of β-catenin and its downstream metastatic proteins, Tbx3 and c-Myc. Besides, Taiwanin C inhibited the nuclear accumulation of β-catenin and induced β-catenin degradation via proteasome-mediated pathway. Moreover, Taiwanin C enhanced GSK-3β and reduced the p-ser 9 GSK-3β protein level to inactivate Wnt signaling. Taken together, Taiwanin C blocked the cell migration effects of T28 cells mediated through the activation of GSK-3β to enhance protein degradation and reduce nuclear accumulation of β-catenin. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., (© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

The in vitro sperm quality parameters (motility, M; viability, V; normal morphology, NM; plasma membrane integrity, PMI; mitochondrial function, MF) in Muscovy drakes ( Cairina moschata ) were evaluated by using microscopy and flow cytometry, the correlation among sperm quality parameters and results of artificial insemination was also assessed in present study. M, V and NM were detected by phase contrast microscopy assisted with eosinnigrosin staining, and PMI and MF were detected by using flow cytometry within appropriate fluorescence staining (SYBR-14/PI and R123/PI, respectively). Fertility (F), early embryonic mortality (EEM) and the survival embryo rate (SER) were assessed after the artificial insemination of Muscovy or Kaiya duck ( Anas platyrhynchos ) females. Sperm PMI and MF, the parameters detected by flow cytometry were positively correlated with sperm M, V, and NM, those were detected by phase contrast microscopy ( P <0.05). Sperm V and PMI were negatively correlated with the percentage of early embryo mortality of Muscovy duck fertile eggs ( P <0.05). The results of the present study showed the relationships among the AI results and the sperm quality parameters detected by microscopy as well as flow cytometry. In conclusion, flow cytometry assisted with microscopy can be an effective tool to evaluate in vitro sperm quality and may contribute to predict the reproductive performances of individual Muscovy drakes, which helps to improve duck production efficiency., (2016, Japan Poultry Science Association.)

Quantum teleportation provides a 'disembodied' way to transfer quantum states from one object to another at a distant location, assisted by previously shared entangled states and a classical communication channel. As well as being of fundamental interest, teleportation has been recognized as an important element in long-distance quantum communication, distributed quantum networks and measurement-based quantum computation. There have been numerous demonstrations of teleportation in different physical systems such as photons, atoms, ions, electrons and superconducting circuits. All the previous experiments were limited to the teleportation of one degree of freedom only. However, a single quantum particle can naturally possess various degrees of freedom--internal and external--and with coherent coupling among them. A fundamental open challenge is to teleport multiple degrees of freedom simultaneously, which is necessary to describe a quantum particle fully and, therefore, to teleport it intact. Here we demonstrate quantum teleportation of the composite quantum states of a single photon encoded in both spin and orbital angular momentum. We use photon pairs entangled in both degrees of freedom (that is, hyper-entangled) as the quantum channel for teleportation, and develop a method to project and discriminate hyper-entangled Bell states by exploiting probabilistic quantum non-demolition measurement, which can be extended to more degrees of freedom. We verify the teleportation for both spin-orbit product states and hybrid entangled states, and achieve a teleportation fidelity ranging from 0.57 to 0.68, above the classical limit. Our work is a step towards the teleportation of more complex quantum systems, and demonstrates an increase in our technical control of scalable quantum technologies.

Chemotherapy is usually applied to treat colon cancer but leads to chemoresistance, and increased metastasis and invasion. The main focus of this study is to observe effects of resistance to irinotecan (CPT-11) on metastasis, invasion and autophagy in CPT-11 resistant (CPT-11-R) LoVo colon cancer cells. CPT-11, a topoisomerase I inhibitor and a first-line chemotherapeutic drug, is used to treat colon cancer. CPT-11-R cells were constructed in a step-wise fashion with increasing CPT-11 doses. The CPT-11-R strain had a significantly lower expression of Wnt/β-catenin pathway, but induced an EGFR/IKKα/β/NF-κB pathway with elevated cell cycle, metastasis and basal autophagy., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The molecular and phenotypic associations between chemo- or radio-resistance and the acquisition of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-like phenotype are tightly related in cancer cells. Wnt/β- catenin and NF-κB signaling pathways play crucial roles in EMT induction. Apicidin-resistant (Apicidin- R) HA22T cells are known to activate the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway and MMP-2 expression via the IGF-IR/PI3K/Akt signaling pathway to enhance metastatic effects of cancer cells. In this study, we further investigated if Apicidin-R HA22T cells actually underwent EMT. In Apicidin-R HA22T cells, E-cadherin protein level was reduced but Vimentin, Snail and Twist were significantly activated. Activation of p-IKKαβ and p-IκBα was also observed in Apicidin-R HA22T cells. Apicidin-R HA22T cells displayed even higher NF-κB nuclear accumulation. Snail was enhanced but GSK3-β was reduced. However, unphosphorylated GSK3-β protein level was totally reversed when the Snail-specific siRNA was applied in a knockdown experiment. Taken together, Apicidin-R HA22T cells could potentiate aggressive metastasis behavior due to up-regulation of Snail expression and promoted EMT effects via the IKKαβ/NF-κB pathway. In addition, Snail might decrease the GSK3-β level resulting in extraordinarily activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.

The effects of preservation media for ovaries on in vitro maturation of porcine oocytes was studied. The cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) obtained from ovaries that had been preserved in three different media at various temperatures for different time intervals were cultured in the M199 maturation medium. The preservation media used were 0.9% saline solution, BCS (Braun-Collins solution) and Dulbecco's phosphate buffered saline solution (PBS). Mature oocytes obtained from the ovaries preserved in three preservation media for 8 h were electrically activated. The activated oocytes were then cultured in the NCSU23 embryo culture medium for 16 h to observe activation, or for 144 h to observe embryo development. It was found that the preservation temperature significantly affected maturation of the porcine oocytes. A preservation temperature of about 25 degrees C showed an optimal maturation rate for a preservation time of 8 h for the three preservation media. Although the preservation temperature was a major factor influencing the maturation rate, different preservation media at 25 degrees C for 8 h also significantly affected the maturation rate, activation rate and embryo development. Among these three preservation media, PBS exhibited the highest cleavage rate indicating that PBS should be a better preservation medium for porcine ovaries at 25 degrees C for 8 h or longer periods.