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Biomarkers of bone and cartilage metabolism were proposed as early diagnosis indicators for knee osteoarthritis (OA), however, which were influenced by disease stage, age, and menopause state. Accurate diagnosis indicators are eagerly awaited. The current study aims to investigate associations of joint metabolism biomarkers and bone mineral density (BMD) with early knee OA in males and premenopausal females before age 50 years.A total of 189 patients aged before 50 years with early knee OA and 152 healthy participants were enrolled. Levels of bone biomarkers (PINP, OC, and CTX-I) and cartilage biomarkers (PIIANP, COMP, CTX-II, and MMP-3) were assessed. BMD was measured at the lumbar, femoral neck, and hip. Multivariate regression analyses were performed to evaluate the relationship between biomarkers, BMD, and early knee OA.Serum COMP, urine CTX-II and BMD at femoral neck and hip were increased in premenopausal patients as compared to control; with serum PINP and OC reduced. Meanwhile, serum COMP, urine CTX-II, and BMD at femoral neck and hip showed positive associations with premenopausal early knee OA, while serum PINP had negative association. However, in male patients, only serum COMP was higher than control, and no association of biomarkers or BMD was found with early knee OA.The joint metabolism biomarkers and BMD showed multiple associations with early knee OA in premenopausal females, but not in males aged before 50 years. It was suggested that sex differences should be taken into account when evaluating cartilage and bone metabolism in early knee OA. Key Points • The joint metabolism biomarkers and BMD are associated with early knee OA in premenopausal females, but not in males aged before 50 years. • Sex differences should be taken into account when evaluating cartilage and bone metabolism in early knee OA.

After the planetary spacecraft landed on the surface, the rovers carried on the spacecraft will be powered up and arrived to the planetary surface after complex self-testing procedures. In order to validation of these procedures, the test conditions should be built in the proving ground. The technical systems of field validation for egress process of planetary rover are shown in this paper. Firstly, the Chinese rover egress procedures are described. The typical procedures include several steps such as the unlocked the fixed mechanisms of the rover body, powered up the rover through the lander, unlocked the rover typical mechanism (mast, manipulator), communicated with the earth or relay orbiter, etc. After the rover performance were reviewed, the rover can be controlled and walked to the planetary surface. Secondly, the field validation systems are given including such as the low gravity system, the integrated testing system, the rover model with its assistant equipment, the simulated lander, etc. Thirdly, the conditions of field tests are described including the slope of terrain surface, the obstacle distribution, the position of simulated lander, etc. The test results of Chinese lunar and Martian rover were shown. Finally, the egress process of Chinese rovers on Moon and Mars are described. The technical systems of field validation wear built firstly for Chinese lunar rover Chang’e-3 Yutu and improved for Chinese Martian rover Zhurong. The technical systems work well and can be used for the development of planetary rover in the future.

Objective: To explore the effect of cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) on papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Methods: COMP expression levels in PTC tissues and matched adjacent normal tissues were measured using tissue microarrays. Human PTC cells were cultured and transduced with lentiviral short hairpin RNA against COMP (COMP-shRNA), a negative control (NC) shRNA, or mock transfected (Control). We used the Cell Counting Kit-8, performed colony formation assays, wound healing assays, Transwell invasion assays, flow cytometry, and measured the expression of apoptosis-related proteins at the mRNA and protein levels to explore the effects of COMP on the biological behavior of PTC cells and to discover the specific signaling pathway involved in these processes. Results: COMP expression was significantly higher in PTC tissues than in adjacent normal tissues. At the cellular level, COMP promoted cell migration, increased the invasiveness of PTC cells, and inhibited apoptosis. However, differences in cell proliferation were only observed within 72 hours. At the same time, colony formation assays showed that silencing COMP inhibited the proliferation of PTC cells. We also found that COMP regulated the behavior of PTC cells by activating the PI3K/AKT/Bcl-2 pathway. Conclusions: COMP is upregulated in PTC, which enhances cancer cell invasion and inhibits apoptosis, contributing to the development and progression of PTC. Thus, COMP may serve as a new biomarker for PTC.

The Graves' disease is an autoimmune disease highly associated with thyroid cancer. The Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO) is a special Graves' disease with inflammatory ophthalmopathy being a typical extrathymic complication. GO is caused by the formation of orbital fat and extraocular muscle fibrosis due to the inflammation of orbital connective tissues. Thus, controlling extraocular muscle fibrosis is critical for the prognosis of GO. The objective of this study is to identify and experimentally validate key genes associated with GO and explore their potential function mechanisms especially on extraocular muscle fibrosis. Specifically, we first created a GO mouse model, and performed RNA sequencing on the extraocular muscles of fibrotic GO mice and controls. SRC was identified as the most significant unstudied differentially expressed gene between GO mice and controls. Thus, we conducted a few in vitro analyses to explore the roles and functions of SRC in GO, for which we selected primary cultured orbital fibroblast (OF) as the in vitro cell line model. It is known that myofibroblast (MFB), which expresses α-SMA, is an important target cell in the process of fibrosis. Our experiment suggests that TGF-β can induce the transformation from OF to MFB, however, the transformation was inhibited by silencing the SRC gene in OF. In addition, we also inhibited TGF-β/Smad, NF-κB, and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways to analyze the interaction between these pathways and SRC. In conclusion, the silence of SRC in OF can inhibit the transformation from OF to MFB, which might be associated with the interaction between SRC and a few pathways such as TGF-β/Smad, NF-κB, and PI3K/Akt.

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) remote sensing and deep learning provide a practical approach to object detection. However, most of the current approaches for processing UAV remote-sensing data cannot carry out object detection in real time for emergencies, such as firefighting. This study proposes a new approach for integrating UAV remote sensing and deep learning for the real-time detection of ground objects. Excavators, which usually threaten pipeline safety, are selected as the target object. A widely used deep-learning algorithm, namely You Only Look Once V3, is first used to train the excavator detection model on a workstation and then deployed on an embedded board that is carried by a UAV. The recall rate of the trained excavator detection model is 99.4%, demonstrating that the trained model has a very high accuracy. Then, the UAV for an excavator detection system (UAV-ED) is further constructed for operational application. UAV-ED is composed of a UAV Control Module, a UAV Module, and a Warning Module. A UAV experiment with different scenarios was conducted to evaluate the performance of the UAV-ED. The whole process from the UAV observation of an excavator to the Warning Module (350 km away from the testing area) receiving the detection results only lasted about 1.15 s. Thus, the UAV-ED system has good performance and would benefit the management of pipeline safety., Remote Sensing, 12 (1), ISSN:2072-4292

Homography estimation is a basic image alignment method in many applications. It is usually conducted by extracting and matching sparse feature points, which are error-prone in low-light and low-texture images. On the other hand, previous deep homography approaches use either synthetic images for supervised learning or aerial images for unsupervised learning, both ignoring the importance of handling depth disparities and moving objects in real world applications. To overcome these problems, in this work we propose an unsupervised deep homography method with a new architecture design. In the spirit of the RANSAC procedure in traditional methods, we specifically learn an outlier mask to only select reliable regions for homography estimation. We calculate loss with respect to our learned deep features instead of directly comparing image content as did previously. To achieve the unsupervised training, we also formulate a novel triplet loss customized for our network. We verify our method by conducting comprehensive comparisons on a new dataset that covers a wide range of scenes with varying degrees of difficulties for the task. Experimental results reveal that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art including deep solutions and feature-based solutions.

Automatically registration of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) multispectral images is fundamental for subsequent applications. Although many studies exist for visible camera images and satellite multispectral image registration, studies for UAV are still rare. Under this context, this study firstly evaluates the performance of several widely used traditional methods (i.e., SIFT, SURF, ORB, and CFOG) for visible camera and satellite images in UAV multispectral image registration. This study further proposes an unsupervised and end-to-end deep learning network (i.e., DSIM) for multispectral image registration. An evident feature of DSIM is to regress the homography parameters with convolutional neural networks and to use the pyramid structural similarity loss to optimize the network. 1200 groups of UAV multispectral images acquired over three different sites in four months are used to comprehensively test the aforementioned five methods. Results show that CFOG achieves the highest correct matching rate in the test set, followed by DSIM and SIFT. Nevertheless, DSIM is more robust in images with weak or repeated texture than CFOG and SIFT. In addition, performance of CFOG and SIFT is closely related to the number of the found matching points. Based on the findings, we propose a multi-method ensemble strategy to combine CFOG, DSIM, and SIFT according to the number of the found matching points. This strategy outperforms the individual methods with a correct matching rate of 96.2%. Lower correct matching rate of CFOG + SIFT confirms that DSIM and traditional methods are very complementary in UAV multispectral image registrations.

This study examined the influence of welded depth and CuCl2 pretreated dowels on wood dowel welding. In untreated group without pretreatment (group A), test results indicated that welded depth 40 mm exhibited higher pullout resistance than the other welded depths. In the same welded depth of 30 mm, specimens with dowels immersed in CuCl2 solution for 30 min (group B) exhibited the highest pullout resistance than the other specimens. According to the failure behavior, the pullout resistance of group B was considered to be the maximum theory pullout resistance in the welded depth of 30 mm. Weibull distribution could be applied reasonably to analyze pullout resistance of different welded depth. The linear simulation and Eckelman formula could not fit the relation of pullout resistance and welded depth. While the nonlinear simulation of sine function could fit the relation accurately. Based on the Weibull distribution, 95% reliability pullout resistance was calculated. The nonlinear simulation of sine function also existed between 95% reliability pullout resistance and welded depth. The temperature difference of group A-30 and group B was tested to study the reason of different pullout resistance. Both of the two groups, the temperature of point 1 was the highest, and the point 3 was the lowest. The pullout resistance was affected significantly by the temperature of point 2 and 3. For point 1, 260 °C was an excessive temperature, while 224.3 °C was the better choice for welding in this study.

This study examined the mechanics and pyrolysis analyses of rotation welding with treated dowels. Test results indicated that welding specimens with dowels immersed in CuCl2 solution exhibited higher pullout resistance than untreated specimens. Scanning electron microscopy was used to observe and analyze the welding interface. Wood dowels immersed in CuCl2 solution provided more flowing molten polymer to obtain better connection than untreated wood dowels. Based on the chemical analyses of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analyses, the hydrolysis of cellulose and hemicellulose was detected after immersion of the dowels in a CuCl2 solution. Pyrolysis of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin occurred during the welding process. The hydrolysis of cellulose and hemicellulose may promote the pyrolysis and efficient connection of wood components during the welding process.

The Graves’ disease is an autoimmune disease highly associated with thyroid cancer. The Graves’ ophthalmopathy (GO) is a special Graves’ disease with inflammatory ophthalmopathy being a typical extrathymic complication. GO is caused by the formation of orbital fat and extraocular muscle fibrosis due to the inflammation of orbital connective tissues. Thus, controlling extraocular muscle fibrosis is critical for the prognosis of GO. The objective of this study is to identify and experimentally validate key genes associated with GO and explore their potential function mechanisms especially on extraocular muscle fibrosis. Specifically, we first created a GO mouse model, and performed RNA sequencing on the extraocular muscles of fibrotic GO mice and controls. SRC was identified as the most significant unstudied differentially expressed gene between GO mice and controls. Thus, we conducted a few in vitro analyses to explore the roles and functions of SRC in GO, for which we selected primary cultured orbital fibroblast (OF) as the in vitro cell line model. It is known that myofibroblast (MFB), which expresses α-SMA, is an important target cell in the process of fibrosis. Our experiment suggests that TGF-β can induce the transformation from OF to MFB, however, the transformation was inhibited by silencing the SRC gene in OF. In addition, we also inhibited TGF-β/Smad, NF-κB, and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways to analyze the interaction between these pathways and SRC. In conclusion, the silence of SRC in OF can inhibit the transformation from OF to MFB, which might be associated with the interaction between SRC and a few pathways such as TGF-β/Smad, NF-κB, and PI3K/Akt.

Proprotein convertases (PCs) are serine proteases with an active role in the post-translational processing of numerous inactive proteins to active proteins including many substrates of paramount importance in cancer development and progression. Furin (PCSKC3), a well-studied member of this family, is overexpressed in numerous human and experimental malignancies. In the present communication, we treated two furin-overexpressing non-small cell carcinoma (NSCLC) cell lines (Calu-6 and HOP-62) with the PC inhibitor CMK (Decanoyl-Arg-Val-Lys-Arg-chloromethylketone). This resulted in a diminished IGF-1R processing and a simultaneous decrease in cell proliferation of two NSCLC lines. Similarly, growth of subcutaneous xenografts of both cell lines, were partially inhibited by an in vivo treatment with the same drug. These observations point to a potential role of PC inhibitors in cancer therapy. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PACE4 (PCSK6) is a proprotein convertase (PC) capable of processing numerous substrates involved in tumor growth, invasion, and metastasis. Because of the human relevancy of the tobacco-associated carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene (B(a)P) we investigated whether transgenic mice in which this PC is targeted to the epidermis (K5-PACE4) may be more susceptible to B(a)P complete carcinogenesis than wild type (WT) mice. In an in vitro experiment, using cell lines derived from skin tumors obtained after B(a)P treatment, we observed that PACE4 overexpression and activity accounts for an increased proliferation rate, exaggerated sensitivity to the PC inhibitor CMK, and interference with IGF-1R autophosphorylation. Squamous cell carcinomas, obtained from K5-PACE4 mice subjected to complete chemical carcinogenesis, were characterized by a 50% increase in cell proliferation, when compared with similar tumors from WT mice. In addition, tumors from K5-PACE4 mice showed deeper invasion into the underlying dermis. Thus, mice overexpressing PACE4 exhibited tumors of increased growth rate and invasive potential when exposed to the human carcinogen B(a)P, further supporting the significance of PCs in tumor growth and progression.

Proprotein convertases (PC), a family of serine proteases, process cancer-related substrates such as growth factors, growth factor receptors, cell adhesion molecules, metalloproteinases, etc. HIF-1α is a major transcription factor involved in tumorigenesis by sensing intratumoral hypoxia. Furin (PCSK3) is one of the numerous target genes regulated by HIF-1α transactivation and its distribution into endosomal compartments and onto the cell surface can be triggered by hypoxia via HIF-1α. siRNAs to knockdown PCs were transfected into cells alone or in combination with different drug treatments. Protein and RNA expression levels were analyzed by Western blotting or RT-PCR respectively. PC7 (PCSK7) and furin siRNAs upregulated HIF-1α protein under normoxic condition to a level similar to that obtained by cobalt chloride treatment, eventually leading to activation of VEGF-A synthesis in two human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cell lines. The unchanged levels of HIF-1α mRNA expression under siRNA treatment and the additive HIF-1α induction of PC siRNAs and either cobalt chloride or the 26S ribosome inhibitor, MG-132, suggested a post-transcriptional PC-mediated regulation. Furthermore, cycloheximide chase showed that PC7/furin siRNA regulation occurred at the level of HIF-1α translation. A specific IGF-1R signaling inhibitor was able to attenuate the PC siRNA induction of HIF-1α, suggesting the involvement of the IGF-1R pathway. Thus, the data show that PCs regulate HIF-1α. Furin and PC7 siRNAs induced HIF-1α protein by increasing its translation, resulting in upregulation of VEGF-A. This finding may provide insight into intricate PC functions that seem to be independent from their substrate-processing activity.

Gynecological cancers include neoplasias of internal female genital organs, mainly ovarian, endometrial and cervical tumors, and cancers of the external female genital structures. Current scientific evidence indicates that both up- and down-regulation of the expression of PCs are part of the multiple changes occurring in these gynecological tumors. Nevertheless, the physiological significance of this puzzling pattern of PC expression remains elusive. The fact that PCs can activate both pro- and anticarcinogenic substrates may indicate that the nature of the overexpressed substrates in certain cancer types could determine the final outcome; i.e., slowing or accelerating cancer development. The expression of PCs in gynecological cancers and the correlation of this expression with other markers may facilitate preventive and therapeutic interventions in at-risk populations. Several studies single out furin as the main PC overexpressed in ovarian and endometrial cancers. For instance, furin expression...

Furin, one of the members of the family of proprotein convertases (PCs), ubiquitously expressed as a type I membrane-bound proteinase, activates several proteins that contribute to tumor progression. In vitro studies using cancer cell lines and clinical specimens demonstrated that furin processes important substrates such as insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) and transforming growth factor β, leading to increased tumor growth and progression. Despite the numerous studies associating furin with tumor development, its effects in preclinical models has not been comprehensively studied. In this study, we sought to determine the protumorigenic role of furin in vivo after a two-stage chemical carcinogenesis protocol in transgenic mice in which furin expression was targeted to the epidermal basal layer. We found that processing of the PC substrate IGF-1R and the proliferation rate of mouse epidermis was enhanced in transgenic mice when compared with their WT counterparts. Histopathologic diagnoses of the tumors demonstrated that furin transgenic mice (line F47) developed twice as many squamous carcinomas as the control, WT mice (P < .002). Similarly, tumors cells from transgenic mice were able to process PC substrates more efficiently than tumor cells from WT mice. Furthermore, furin expression resulted in a higher SCC volume in transgenic mice as well as an increase in the percentage of high-grade SCC, including poorly differentiated and spindle cell carcinomas. In conclusion, expression of furin in the basal layer of the epidermis increased tumor development and enhanced tumor growth, supporting the consideration of furin as a potential target for cancer treatment.

In the present study, we used nucleotide and protein sequences of avian influenza virus H5N1, which were obtained in Asia and Africa, analyzed HA proteins using ClustalX1.83 and MEGA4.0, and built a genetic evolutionary tree of HA nucleotides. The analysis revealed that the receptor specificity amino acid of A/HK/213/2003, A/Turkey/65596/2006 and etc mutated into QNG, which could bind with á-2, 3 galactose and á-2, 6 galactose. A mutation might thus take place and lead to an outbreak of human infections of avian influenza virus. The mutations of HA protein amino acids from 2004 to 2009 coincided with human infections provided by the World Health Organization, indicating a "low-high-highest-high-low" pattern. We also found out that virus strains in Asia are from different origins: strains from Southeast Asia and East Asia are of the same origin, whereas those from West Asia, South Asia and Africa descend from one ancestor. The composition of the phylogenetic tree and mutations of key site amino acids in HA proteins reflected the fact that the majority of strains are regional and long term, and virus diffusions exist between China, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iraq. We would advise that pertinent vaccines be developed and due attention be paid to the spread of viruses between neighboring countries and the dangers of virus mutation and evolution.

Purpose : To investigate whether and how peptide 17 affects lung cancer cells. Methods : Human lung carcinoma cells, LLC and PC-9, were employed to study the therapeutic effect of peptide 17 on lung cancer. After exogenous expression of peptide 17, a co-immunoprecipitation experiment was used to examine the inhibitory effect of peptide 17. CCK8 assay was employed to assess the lung cancer cells’ viability while clone formation assays were used to assess lung cancer cell proliferation. Colony number was also determined. The stimulatory effect of peptide 17 on lung cancer cell apoptosis was assessed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). Results : Peptide 17 efficiently disrupted the interaction between YAP and TEAD4 (p < 0.001), and decreased the expression of CTGF and Cyr61. In addition, lung cancer cell viability and proliferation significantly decreased (p < 0.001) in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. On the other hand, the proportion of apoptotic cells was significantly elevated with rising concentration of peptide 17. Conclusion : Exogenous expression of peptide 17 activates Bcl2/Bax/caspase-9 signal and is responsible for its inhibitory effects on lung cancer cells. Thus, peptide 17 is a promising target drug in lung cancer treatment. Keywords : Lung cancer, Yes-associate protein, Transcriptional enhancer activation domain 4 (TEAD4), Peptide 17, Apoptosis

Japanese Chinese literature is a Literature written by overseas Chinese in Japan using Chinese characters. Its emergence and development are related to the Chinese newspapers and periodicals. The Chinese newspapers and periodicals in Japan, represented by the Chinese Review Weekly, provided a platform for the publication of literary works and a spiritual home to the overseas Chinese in Japan. Chinese journals in the Mainland of China, represented by the Fiction World, have played a decisive role in the construction and dissemination of Japanese Chinese literature in Chinese Mainland. Both of them played an important role in the emergence, development, and dissemination of Japanese Chinese literature.

Hua Chun, a Chinese Japanese female writer, embodies cross-border and cross-cultural characteristics in her creation. She pays attention to the ecological environment, chooses the theme of environmental protection, and chooses the “Earth Man” perspective to narrate. She shuttles between Japanese and Chinese cultures, transcends the embarrassment of personal and national sentiments and faces human nature directly. On the one hand, she actively integrates Japanese culture. On the other hand, she mourns the traditional Chinese culture. She creates a third space with mixed culture in her works through the cultural experience of crossing the border.

In this paper we present the capacity enhancement investigations of passive repeater for the tri-polarized MIMO channel. The tri-polarized MIMO channel are measured in different indoor environments such as corridor, conference room and anechoic chamber. The measurement results show that it has a great capacity enhancement depends on different repeater scenarios including the sizes, heights, angles and positions both in NLOS and LOS MIMO channels.

The 5th generation mobile communication system (5G) is oriented towards a new generation of mobile communication system to the year of 2020 and beyond, and its development is still at the exploratory stage. Combining the latest trends in mobile communication development at home and abroad, in this article, we describe the key technologies of driving the 5G research direction. Furthermore, the technical innovation of 5G comes from both wireless and network technologies. In the field of wireless technologies, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), ultra-wideband spectral, ultra-dense heterogeneous networks, have already become the focus of global industry. In the field of network technologies, a new network architecture based on software-defined networking (SDN) becomes the prevailing view worldwide. Additionally, there are some other potential technologies for 5G, such as NOMA, FBMC, mm Waves, and Multi-carrier technology aggregation.

The solidification of strontium-containing stripping solutions from the Chinese high-level liquid waste partitioning process was studied. After being concentrated and denitrated, the strontium-containing solution was immobilized in titanate ceramic waste forms in which strontium was hosted in tausonite (SrTiO 3 ) and sodium and potassium in Na 2 TiO 3 and KTi 8 O 16 . The results show that the titanate ceramics fabricated in this work have high physical and chemical stability. The maximum waste loading, as oxide of the ceramic waste forms is about 21 wt%.

PACE4 (PCSK6) is a pro-protein convertase (PC) capable of processing numerous substrates involved in tumor growth, invasion, and metastasis. Because of the human relevancy of the tobacco-associated carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene (B(a)P) we investigated whether transgenic mice in which this PC is targeted to the epidermis (K5-PACE4) may be more susceptible to B(a)P complete carcinogenesis than wild type (WT) mice. In an in vitro experiment, using cell lines derived from skin tumors obtained after B(a)P treatment, we observed that PACE4 overexpression and activity accounts for an increased proliferation rate, exaggerated sensitivity to the PC inhibitor CMK, and interference with IGF-1R autophosphorylation. Squamous cell carcinomas, obtained from K5-PACE4 mice subjected to complete chemical carcinogenesis, were characterized by a 50 % increase in cell proliferation, when compared with similar tumors from WT mice. In addition, tumors from K5-PACE4 mice showed deeper invasion into the underlying dermis. Thus, mice overexpressing PACE4 exhibited tumors of increased growth rate and invasive potential when exposed to the human carcinogen B(a)P, further supporting the significance of PCs in tumor growth and progression.

The authors would like to provide a clarification in relation to Figure 1 in the article. Although all the cell lines/lanes were exposed together (see accompanying original raw blots), most site panels were not run in adjacent lanes but were cut and pasted to fit the figure format. We provide a revised Figure 1 where a dividing vertical line indicates which lanes were not adjacent in the raw blot. Furthermore, the bands for the breast cancer panel are slightly overcropped and a band for the CNS panel (present in the original raw blot) was cut off. In part, this is due to the fact that cell line SF295 was ran together with the positive control lung cell line H-520 (see figure 2) that is not a member of the NIH-60 cell panel and was cropped out from the original raw blot to fit the description of this figure dedicated to the NCI-60 cell panel. Raw Blots: (1) Figure 1