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Environmental exposure to cadmium (Cd) contributes to a decline in the quality of human semen. Although the testis is sensitive to Cd exposure, the mechanism underlying how cadmium affects the testis remains to be defined. In this study, male mice were treated with intraperitoneal injections of 0, 0.5, 1.5 and 2.5 mg CdCl2/kg/day for 10 days, respectively. Both the testicular weight and the 3β-HSD activity of Leydig cells were significantly reduced with the administration of 2.5 mg CdCl2/kg/day. The height of endothelial cells in the interstitial blood vessels significantly increased with the use of 2.5 mg CdCl2/kg/day compared with the control. Western blot data showed that the protein levels of CD31, αSMA, caveolin and Ng2 increased with cadmium exposure, and this increase was particularly significant with the administration of 2.5 mg CdCl2/kg/day. CD31, αSMA, caveolin and Ng2 are related to angiogenesis. Based on our data, cadmium exposure may stimulate the proliferation of the mural cells and endothelial cells of blood vessels, which may lead to abnormal function of the testis.

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) are two predominant histological types of nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC), lacking effective early diagnostic markers. In this study, we assessed the diagnostic value of autoantibodies against p53, MMP-7, and Hsp70 in skin SCC and BCC. ELISA was performed to detect levels of autoantibodies in sera from 101 NMSC patients and 102 normal controls, who were recruited from the Cancer Hospital of Shantou University Medical College. A receiver operator characteristic curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic value. The serum levels of autoantibodies against p53, MMP-7, and Hsp70 were higher in NMSCs than those in the normal controls (all P < 0.01 ). The AUC of the three-autoantibody panel was 0.841 (95% CI: 0.788-0.894) with the sensitivity and specificity of 60.40% and 91.20% when differentiating NMSCs from normal controls. Furthermore, measurement of this panel could differentiate early-stage skin cancer patients from normal controls (AUC: 0.851; 95% CI: 0.793-0.908). Data from Oncomine showed that the level of p53 mRNA was elevated in BCC ( P < 0.05 ), and the Hsp70 mRNA was upregulated in SCC ( P < 0.001 ). This serum three-autoantibody panel might function in assisting the early diagnosis of NMSC.

Esophageal squamous cell cancer (ESCC) is one of the leading malignant cancer in the world and especially in China with high incidence and mortality. The exploration of novel serum biomarkers is required for early detection of ESCC. We investigated the diagnostic value of serum insulin like growth factor binding protein 7 (IGFBP7) in ESCC, evaluating its potential to improve the diagnosis of ESCC. The serum samples of 106 patients with ESCC and 107 normal controls were tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The levels of IGFBP7 in ESCC group were significantly higher than that in normal controls, compared by the Mann-Whitney U test (P0.05). Thus, we supposed that serum IGFBP7 might be a potential biomarker in the diagnosis of ESCC.

Background We previously found that autoantibodies against a panel of six tumor-associated antigens (p53, NY-ESO-1, MMP-7, Hsp70, PRDX6 and Bmi-1) may aid in early detection of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Here we aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value of this autoantibody panel in esophagogastric junction adenocarcinoma (EJA) patients. Methods Serum autoantibody levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in a training cohort and a validation cohort. We used receiver-operating characteristics (ROC) to calculate diagnostic accuracy. Results We recruited 169 normal controls and 122 EJA patients to the training cohort, and 80 normal controls and 70 EJA patients to the validation cohort. Detection of the autoantibody panel demonstrated an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.818, sensitivity 59.0% and specificity 90.5% in training cohort, and AUC 0.815, sensitivity 61.4% and specificity 90.0% in validation cohort in the diagnosis of EJA. Measurement of the autoantibody panel could distinguish early stage EJA patients from normal controls (AUC 0.786 and 0.786, sensitivity 50.0% and 56.0%, and specificity 90.5% and 90.0%, for training and validation cohorts, respectively). Moreover, a restricted panel consisting of autoantibodies against p53, NY-ESO-1 and Bmi-1 exhibited similar diagnostic performance for EJA (AUC 0.814 and 0.823, sensitivity 53.5% and 60.0%, and specificity 90.5% and 93.7%, for training and validation cohorts, respectively) and early stage EJA (AUC 0.744 and 0.773, sensitivity 55.6% and 52.0%, and specificity 90.5% and 93.7%, for training and validation cohorts, respectively). Conclusions Autoantibodies against an optimized TAA panel as serum biomarkers appear to help identify the present of early stage EJA. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s10120-018-0894-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Objective Realgar – Indigo Naturalis formula (RIF) is a well-known arsenic-containing preparation that is used to treat acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) in China. In recent multicenter clinical trials, complete remission rates in APL patients have ranged from 96.08% to 100%. RIF has a satisfactory therapeutic effect, but its safety is a widespread concern, since the preparation contains arsenic, a wide-ranging and naturally occurring toxicant. In this study, in order to determine the toxic potential of RIF, acute toxicity and sub chronic toxicity assays were performed to evaluate the toxic potential of Realgar and the adjuvant components of RIF in addition to Realgar 's synergy with these adjuvant components. Methods KM mice and Wistar rats were selected for these experiments. To evaluate acute toxicity, the toxic effects of a single dose of a gradient of concentrations of Realgar were firstly determined. Then, the toxic effects of combinations of gradient doses of Realgar and fixed doses of Indigo naturalis and Salvia miltiorrhiza were evaluated. Results The results showed that when Realgar was used alone, the LD 50 was 2756.73 mg/kg (equivalent to 23.6 mg/kg As 2 O 3 ). However, the LD 50 dropped to 936.90 mg/kg when Realgar was used with I. naturalis . By contrast, the LD 50 increased to 7538.86 mg/kg when Realgar was used with S. miltiorrhiza . Hence, I. naturalis strengthened the toxicity of Realgar , whereas S. miltiorrhiza displayed the opposite effect. The sub chronic toxicity assessment results revealed a trend that was consistent with acute toxicity. Changes in the levels of different valence states of arsenic were also taken into account. The test results of the effects of in vitro combinations of Realgar and adjuvant components on soluble arsenic dissolution showed that I. naturalis increased the level of soluble arsenic in Realgar extracts and I. naturalis suspensions when the Realgar / I. naturalis ratio was 2, 1.5, and 1.0. However, S. miltiorrhiza did not affect it. Conclusion Based on the collective experimental results presented here, it can be concluded that the toxicity of RIF is the result of the soluble arsenic in Realgar and that the I. naturalis and S. miltiorrhiza in the RIF exert completely opposite effects on the toxicity of Realgar . This maybe an intelligent explanation for the compatibility of this formula, and this RIF study may therefore be viewed as a classic case of traditional Chinese medicine research on compatibility.

We study the evolution of cooperation in public goods games on various graphs, focusing on the effects that are brought by different kinds of strategy donors. This highlights a basic feature of a public good game, for which there exists a remarkable difference between the interactive players and the players who are imitated. A player can learn from all the groups where the player is a member or from the typically local nearest neighbors, and the results show that the group learning rules have better performance in promoting cooperation on many networks than the local learning rules. The heterogeneity of networks’ degree may be an effective mechanism for harvesting the cooperation expectation in many cases, however, we find that heterogeneity does not definitely mean the high frequency of cooperators in a population under group learning rules. It was shown that cooperators always hardly evolve whenever the interaction and the replacement do not coincide for evolutionary pairwise dilemmas on graphs, while for PG games we find that breaking the symmetry is conducive to the survival of cooperators.

Background: Early detection would improve upper gastrointestinal cancer prognosis. We aimed to identify serum protein biomarker for the detection of early-stage upper gastrointestinal cancer. Methods: We performed a three-tiered study including 2028 participants from three medical centres. First, we applied two different antibody arrays to screen candidate serum proteins that increased in 20 patients with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) compared with 20 normal controls. We then evaluated the selected protein by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 1064 participants including 731 upper gastrointestinal cancer patients (287 ESCCs, 237 oesophagogastric junction adenocarcinomas (EJAs), and 207 stomach cancers) and 333 normal controls. The diagnostic value of the selected protein was finally validated in two independent cohorts of ESCC patients and controls (n=472 and 452, respectively). The receiver operating characteristic was used to calculate diagnostic accuracy. Findings: Serum insulin-like growth factor binding protein-1 (IGFBP-1) identified in both antibody arrays showed significantly elevated levels in upper gastrointestinal cancers, compared with normal controls. Serum IGFBP-1 provided high diagnostic accuracy of early-stage ESCC, EJA, stomach and cancer (areas under the curve: 0·898, 0·936 and 0·864, respectively). This protein maintained diagnostic performance for early-stage ESCC in independent cohorts 1 and 2 (0·849 and 0·911, respectively). Additionally, serum levels of IGFBP-1 dropped significantly after surgical resection of primary tumours, compared with the corresponding pre-operative ESCC samples (p < 0·05). Interpretation: Serum IGFBP-1 represents a promising diagnostic biomarker to detect early-stage upper gastrointestinal cancer. Keywords: Upper gastrointestinal cancer, IGFBP-1, Early diagnosis, Sensitivity, Specificity

Objective The objective of this study was to explore the association between perceived organizational support (POS) and depressive symptoms, and to further explore whether self-efficacy can act as a moderator between POS and depressive symptoms among Chinese petroleum workers. Methods There was a cross-sectional study conducted at a petrochemical enterprise in Liaoning Province, China, from July to August 2018. A series of questionnaires were accomplished by 1836 petroleum workers, including the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), the Survey of Perceived Organizational Support (SPOS), and the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES). Hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the relationship of SPOS score, GSES score, and SPOS score×GSES score interaction with CES-D score. A simple slope analysis will be carried out if the interaction has statistical significance. Results Hierarchical regression analysis showed that SPOS score (β=−0.538, P

In this numerical work, a Mach–Zehnder interferometer device with sample and reference arms composed of microstructured chalcogenide optical fibres with AsSe2 core and As2S5 cladding is presented to generate single and double pulses. An unchirped hyperbolic secant-shaped pulse with enough high peak power centered at 1958 nm wavelength and a continuous wave with a very weak power level at 2070 nm wavelength are simultaneously introduced into the sample arm, in which stimulated Raman scattering and strong cross-phase modulation induced by two co-propagating waves give rise to a significant phase shift for a continuous wave. In the reference arm, the continuous wave directly passes through the fibre, where the transmitted wave has a slight phase shift due to the influence of self-phase modulation. Therefore, at the output port of the configuration, the re-combined optical fields at 2070 nm wavelength have a significant phase difference. As a result, both single and double pulses caused by the optical interference at the output port are achieved by judiciously adjusting the phase difference which is mainly controlled by the peak power and temporal width of the input optical pulse, as well as the length of a microstructured optical fibre. In addition, both widths of the single pulse and spacing of the double pulses are directly dependent on the temporal width of the input pulse and the fibre length of the arm.

Natural deep eutectic solvents (DESs) were investigated as potential green extraction solvents in the ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) of flavonoids from Rubia truppeliana and R. cordifolia fruit. Lactic acid was selected as the optimal hydrogen bond donor for five solvents in the screening of DESs. To optimize the extraction of Rubia fruit flavonoids using DES and UAE, a Box–Behnken experimental design was developed. The optimal conditions were: liquid–solid ratio, 30; extraction temperature, 70 °C; and extraction time, 40 min. The corresponding yields were 49.41 mg/g for total flavonoids from Rubia truppeliana (TFT) and 55.15 mg/g for that of Rubia cordifolia (TFC). The extracts obtained under the optimum extraction conditions showed excellent antioxidant activities in DPPH, ABTS, and FRAP assays. The results demonstrated that the extraction using DES and UAE is an eco-friendly method for the extraction of flavonoids from Rubia fruit.

BACKGROUND The affecting factors of mucocutaneous manifestations in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients remain unclear in China. METHODS A retrospective analysis was conducted among HIV/AIDS patients in Yunnan, China. The demographic data, mucocutaneous manifestations, CD4 cell counts, and antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimens were collected. The effects of CD4 cell count and ART on the spectrum of mucocutaneous manifestations were evaluated. RESULTS Among 508 HIV/AIDS patients, 86.0% of cases showed mucocutaneous manifestations. The average CD4 cell count (176 cells/μl) of the patients with manifestations was significantly lower than those without manifestations (328 cells/μl) (P

Background: Early detection would significantly improve cancer prognosis. We aimed to identify serum protein biomarker for early cancer detection and assess the diagnostic value in various types of cancers. Methods: We performed a three-stage study, and recruited participants of normal controls and seven different types of cancer patients (oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), oesophagogastric junction adenocarcinoma (EJA), stomach cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer and breast cancer) from two medical centres. We applied two different antibody arrays to screen candidate serum protein which were increased in 20 ESCC patients compared with 20 matched normal controls. In biomarker assessment stage, the diagnostic value of the selected protein measured by ELISA was evaluated in seven cancer types, and was validated in two independent cohorts of ESCC patients and controls (cohorts 1 and 2). Receiver operating characteristics (ROCs) with the sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were used to calculate diagnostic accuracy. Findings: We recruited 1628 participants to biomarker assessment stage: 287 with ESCC, 237 with EJA, 207 with stomach cancer, 138 with colorectal cancer, 126 with lung cancer, 150 with nasopharyngeal cancer, 150 with breast cancer and 333 normal controls, and 472 and 452 participants comprised of ESCC patients and controls to the two independent validation cohorts. Serum IGFBP-1 showed elevated level for ESCC in both antibody arrays. A significant increase in the serum IGFBP-1 level on all cancer types except breast cancer was confirmed by ELISA, compared with normal controls. Serum IGFBP-1 provided a high diagnostic accuracy of gastrointestinal tumours (AUC 0·880-0·938, sensitivity 65·22-77·22%, and specificity 90·39%). Similar results were noted for early-stage gastrointestinal tumours (0·858-0·936, 60·29-83·93%, and 90·39%). In two validation cohorts, serum IGFBP-1 maintained diagnostic performance for early stage ESCC (0·849, 68·04%, and 89·09% in cohort 1, and 0·911, 72·34% and 87·37% in cohort 2). Furthermore, when compared with CEA, Cyfra21-1 and SCCA tested alone or together, serum IGFBP-1 had significantly improved diagnostic accuracy for ESCC and early stage ESCC. Interpretation: Serum IGFBP-1 is a potential biomarker with high diagnostic value for the early detection of gastrointestinal cancer. Funding Statement: This work was supported by funding from the Natural Science Foundation of China (31600632, 81772532 and 81872372), the Population-based prospective cohort study of esophageal cancer and precancerous lesions in high risk areas (2016YFC0901404), the National Cohort of Esophageal Cancer of China (2016YFC0901400), and the Guangdong Esophageal Cancer Institute Science and Technology Program (M201713), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (2018A030307079) and the Shantou University Medical College Clinical Research Enhancement Initiative (201428). Declaration of Interests: We declare that we have no conflicts of interest. Ethics Approval Statement: The study was approved by the Institutional Review Boards for Human Research at each hospital, and informed consent was obtained from all participants.

In this paper, the spectral properties of temporal double pulses centred at the same central wavelength and two different central wavelengths are numerically presented based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon core optical fibre. In order to characterise the output spectra of double pulses, the group velocity dispersion and various nonlinear processes including self-phase modulation, cross-phase modulation, two-photon absorption, free carrier absorption and free carrier dispersion are considered in the theoretical model. Numerical results show that, under fixed fibre length condition, the widths of the outcome spectra are strongly dependent on the delay times, peak powers and initial chirps of input double pulses, i.e. widths of the output spectra are proportional to the launched peak powers, and the delay times control the separation between two pulses, resulting in the spectral change within a proper delay time, and the spectral widths are compressed or extended by judiciously adjusting the initial chirps imposed on the input pulses.

L1 cell adhesion molecule (L1CAM) has been found to be dysregulated in several types of human cancers. Here, we aimed to determine the level of soluble L1CAM in serum of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).Serum levels of L1CAM were determined by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 191 patients with ESCC and 94 normal controls. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) was employed to calculate diagnostic accuracy. Cumulative survival time was calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method and analyzed by the logrank test.Levels of L1CAM were significantly lower in all ESCC patients than in normal controls (P 0.001). Detection of serum L1CAM provided a sensitivity of 28.3%, a specificity of 90.4% and an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.644 (95% CI: 0.579-0.710) in diagnosing ESCC. Similar results were observed in the diagnosis of early-stage ESCC (26.2% sensitivity, 90.4% specificity, and an AUC of 0.629). Moreover, decreased level of L1CAM was correlated with depth of tumor invasion (P 0.05). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that lower serum L1CAM level was significantly related to shorter overall survival time (P = 0.036) and disease-free survival time (P = 0.021) of ESCC patients.Our study demonstrated that serum L1CAM might serve as a potential biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of ESCC.

The results of a toxicity analysis showed differences from those of the existing experimental data. Therefore, HPLC-ICP-MS was used to analyze the soluble arsenic content at different valences in realgar prepared with water grind processing, which were collected from 3 companies. The results showed that the free arsenic of the 3 companies did not exceed the limit of Chinese Pharmacopoeia. However, if the free arsenic was calculated based on the total value of As(Ⅲ) + As(Ⅴ), free arsenic of 1 company exceeded the limit of Chinese Pharmacopoeia. The method of determining free arsenic in Chinese Pharmacopoeia. was ancient Cai's arsenic detection method, which had a certain limitation and failed to effectively avoid the toxicity of remaining arsenics except for trivalent arsenic. Then, we examined the effects of water and temperature on the content and form of soluble arsenic in realgar. The results showed that the content of soluble arsenic increased with the rise of water content, and the form of soluble arsenic did not change, there were only As (Ⅲ) and As (Ⅴ); With the simple temperature factor, there was an increasing trend in the content of soluble arsenic in the samples, the maximum increment was As (Ⅲ) 2.489 mg•g⁻¹ and As (Ⅴ) 0.546 mg•g⁻¹; When water and temperature played an synergistic effect, the increase of soluble arsenic in the samples significantly changed, the maximum increment was As (Ⅲ) 23.690 mg•g⁻¹, As (Ⅴ) 0.468 mg•g⁻¹, respectively. Through comprehensive analysis, we believed that the quality of realgar was susceptible to water content and temperature. Both of the single effect of water content and the synergistic effect of water and temperature can significantly change the content of soluble arsenic in realgar, and the water content was a high-risk factor. In the current Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2015 version, the free arsenic detection method had limitations, hence new techniques shall be introduced; At the same time, realgar does not have a water content inspection item in the current pharmacopoeia, which shall be added. However, due to the limit of water content, more in-depth studies are required.

The bend waveguide is one of the key components of photonic integration. In this paper, by using tightly focused femtosecond laser pulses with repetition rate of 76 MHz, pulse duration of 50 fs, average output power about 270mW, and the focus lens NA=0.65, we put forward a structure of waveguide that bent it to be 1/4 round, and research its mechanism by performing experiments. Under the above conditions, when the vertical scanning speed of the laser system is 0.8 mm / s, the width of the bend optical waveguide is about 10μm, the loss reaches a minimum value about 1dB/cm when the bend way’s radius is about 5mm. Based on the experimental results of the above parameters, we can fabricate a 1/4 round vertical bend fiber coupler, which can be applied to the connection between the chips or inter-level optical .The results showed that the bend lithium niobate waveguides can be applied in the field of optical communication and has important implications for the production of low loss, low cost and small size optical waveguide gratings , vertical fiber coupler, optical switches and other devices .

We used a commercially available 75 MHz regeneratively amplified laser system emitting 50 femtosecond pulses of energies up to 3nJ at a wavelength of 800 nm. All waveguides were fabricated by focussing the femotsecond pulse train polarised parallel to the x-axis to a distance of approximately 125 μm below the sample surface using a 0.65 NA, ×40 microscope objective and translating the sample along the y axis. To find the optimum waveguide fabrication parameters the translation speed was varied from 2 to 100 μm/s. We introduces a method of measuring the refractive index of optical waveguide in ten micrometer. Useing CCD to measure the two-dimensional near-field light intensity distribution of the output cross-section of the waveguide, by measuring the two-dimensional near-field light intensity distribution of the output cross-section of the waveguide can be calculated the two-dimensional distribution of refractive index of waveguides. The context detailedly gives measurement results about femtosecond laser inducing the near-field intensity of lithium niobate optical waveguide cross-section and calculations of refractive index of optical waveguide. The results show that the refractive index of waveguides showed a large central, gradually reduce and the change of refractive index in the range of 0.001. This method is of great significance to measure the optical waveguide refractive index distribution.