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Lung adenocarcinoma is a common histologic type of lung cancer with a high death rate globally. Increasing evidence shows that long non‐coding RNA H19 (lncRNA H19) and CDH1 methylation are involved in multiple tumours. Here, we tried to investigate whether lncRNA H19 or CDH1 methylation could affect the development of lung adenocarcinoma. First, lung adenocarcinoma tissues were collected to detect CDH1 methylation. Then, the regulatory mechanisms of lncRNA H19 were detected mainly in concert with the treatment of overexpression of lncRNA H19, siRNA against lncRNA H19, overexpression of CDH1 and demethylating agent A‐5az in lung adenocarcinoma A549 cell. The expression of lncRNA H19 and epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT)‐related factors as well as cell proliferation, sphere‐forming ability, apoptosis, migration and invasion were detected. Finally, we observed xenograft tumour in nude mice so as to ascertain tumorigenicity of lung adenocarcinoma cells. LncRNA H19 and methylation of CDH1 were highly expressed in lung adenocarcinoma tissues. A549 cells with silencing of lncRNA H19, overexpression of CDH1 or reduced CDH1 methylation by demethylating agent 5‐Az had suppressed cell proliferation, sphere‐forming ability, apoptosis, migration and invasion, in addition to inhibited EMT process. Silencing lncRNA H19 could reduce methylation level of CDH1. In vivo, A549 cells with silencing lncRNA H19, overexpression of CDH1 or reduced CDH1 methylation exhibited low tumorigenicity, reflected by the smaller tumour size and lighter tumour weight. Taken together, this study demonstrates that silencing of lncRNA H19 inhibits EMT and proliferation while promoting apoptosis of lung adenocarcinoma cells by inhibiting methylation of CDH1 promoter.

Background Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a common type of lung cancer. Extracellular vehicles (EVs) are nano-sized particles containing proteins, lipids, and miRNAs secreted by various cells, which play important roles in the development of lung cancer by regulating a wide range of signaling pathways. This study focused on elucidating a potential mechanism by which EVs promote the development of NSCLC. Methods Expression levels of miR-744, SUV39H1, Smad9, and BMP4 in clinical tissue samples of NSCLC patients and cell lines were quantified by RT-qPCR and/or western blot analysis. The interaction between SUV39H1 and miR-744 was identified by dual-luciferase reporter assay. miR-744, SUV39H1, and BMP4 expression levels were modulated in A549 and H460 cells, in order to evaluate their effects on cell proliferation, colony formation and cell cycle. A NSCLC xenograft mouse model was used to verify the in vitro findings. NSCLC cell-derived EVs and normal bronchial epithelial cell-derived EVs were isolated and their roles in NSCLC development were evaluated in vivo and in vitro. Results miR-744 expression was lower in cancer cell-derived derived EVs than in normal lung epithelial cell-derived EVs. Reduced miR-744 expression in EVs upregulated SUV39H1 in NSCLC cells and further increased BMP4 levels to promote NSCLC development. BMP4 was upregulated in NSCLC cells upon suppression of Smad9 mediated by SUV39H1. Reduced miR-744 expression transferred from cancer cell-derived EVs into NSCLC cells enhanced cancer development. Conclusion Overall, our findings unveiled a mechanism whereby miR-744 delivered by NSCLC-derived EVs upregulated SUV39H1, activating the Smad9/BMP9 axis and thus promoted cancer development.

Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) exerts a vital part in accurately diagnosing pulmonary infection. However, the diagnostic value of different samples obtained by virtual bronchoscopic navigation (VBN) combined with mNGS for pathogen detection in infections located in the peripheral lung field (PLF) is still unclear.Patients infected from July 2018 to February of the following year were carefully analyzed and divided into two parts, namely, non-infectious disease group and the infectious disease group. Then bronchial expansion tests were performed for each subject, collected liquid specimens and tissue standards, and conducted regular mNGS and microbiological detection and analysis. The value of mNGS and culture in pathogen detection was compared, at the same time, the performance of tissue mNGS and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) mNGS in the diagnosis process was compared. When discrete variables were processed, Pearson χ2 and Fisher's exact test could be used to perform categorical variables analysis. Continuous variables were analyzed and compared by Mann-Whitney U test.After mNGS diagnosis, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Rothia mucilaginosa were the bacterial species showing the highest abundances. In addition, mNGS achieved the sensitivities in the detection of pathogens in tissues and BALF of 72.9% and 81.4%, respectively, and it is higher than conventional culture. Bacterial diagnostic sensitivity was significantly different between BALF and tissue using mNGS (95.0% vs. 62.5%, P=0.03). The sensitivity and specificity of BALF in detecting fungal infections were not significantly different from those of mNGS. A consistency test showed that these two methods had some degree of consistency (k=0.673, P=0.000).This study showed that the mNGS in BALF samples and the mNGS in tissue samples which could be used to test for pathogens in the lungs. The sensitivity will increase when mNGS is combined with culture. Also, mNGS of BALF and tissues had some degree of consistency to detect fungal infections, whereas mNGS of BALF had better sensitivity to detect bacterial infection than mNGS of tissues.

This brief presents a new algorithm optimized for radix-2 real-valued fast Fourier transform (RFFT) through rigorous formula derivation. Based on that, a novel two-parallel pipelined radix-2 RFFT architecture is proposed with only real datapaths instead of hybrid datapaths. The architecture takes advantage of saving the arithmetic resource in the time-division multiplexing approach to achieve 100% hardware resource utilization. Thereby, it reduces the required number of complex multipliers from log 2 N-2 to (1/2)(log 2 N -3), in contrast with existing two-parallel pipelined architectures. The experimental result shows that the proposed two-parallel architecture can reduce the slice and power consumption by a factor of 30% compared with a recently published work for a 64-point CFFT. Furthermore, a systematic method is also explicated to generalize the architecture to higher level of parallelism and higher radix.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as key regulators of cellular progress in lung adenocarcinoma. In this study, to identify cancer-related lncRNAs and genes, we screened for those lncRNAs that were differentially expressed in lung adenocarcinoma, which revealed LINC00628 overexpression and low expression of laminin subunit alpha 3 (LAMA3). This was further validated in the cancerous tissues from patients diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma. Thereafter, we explored the functional relevance of LINC00628 and LAMA3 in lung adenocarcinoma by analyzing the recruitment of DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) and the cellular processes of lung adenocarcinoma cells following treatments that induced LINC00628 overexpression or LINC00628 silencing or with 5-azacytidine (5-Aza, a DNMT inhibitor). The results showed that LINC00628 silencing decreased cell proliferation, migration, and invasion as well as the drug resistance of lung adenocarcinoma cells to vincristine (VCR). The results were opposite in the cells with LAMA3 demethylation induced by 5-Aza treatment. Further research indicated that LINC00628 recruited DNMT1, DNMT3A, and DNMT3B to promote the methylation of LAMA3 promoter, thereby decreasing its expression. Moreover, an in vivo experiment was performed in nude mice to assess the tumor growth ability and drug resistance of human lung adenocarcinoma cells. It was observed that LINC00628 silencing or 5-Aza treatment inhibited the in vivo tumor growth ability of the human lung adenocarcinoma cells and reduced their resistance to VCR. Altogether, our results provide evidence of a mechanism by which LINC00628 silencing exerts an inhibitory role in lung adenocarcinoma by modulating the DNA methylation of LAMA3, indicative of a novel molecular target for treatment of lung adenocarcinoma patients showing resistance to VCR. Keywords: lung adenocarcinoma, long non-coding RNA LINC00628, LAMA3, methylation, migration, invasion, vincristine, drug resistance

The involvement of several microRNAs (miRs) in the initiation and development of tumors through the suppression of the target gene expression has been highlighted. The aberrant expression of miR-181d-5p and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 3 (CDKN3) in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was then screened by microarray analysis. In the present study, we performed a series of in vivo and in vitro experiments for the purpose of investigating their roles in NSCLC and the underlying mechanism. There was a high expression of CDKN3, whereas miR-181d-5p was downregulated in NSCLC. Quantitative RT-PCR, Western blot analysis, and dual-luciferase reporter gene assay further identified that CDKN3 could be negatively regulated by miR-181d-5p. Moreover, the upregulation of miR-181d-5p or silencing of CDKN3 could inactivate the Akt signaling pathway. A549 with the lowest miR-181d-5p and H1975 with the highest CDKN3 among the five NSCLC cell lines (H1299, A549, H1975, NCI-H157, and GLC-82) were adopted for in vitro experiments, in which expression of miR-181d-5p and CDKN3 was altered by transfection of miR-181d-5p mimic/inhibitor or siRNA-targeting CDKN3. Afterwards, cell proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, migration, and angiogenesis, as well as epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), were evaluated, and tumorigenicity was assessed. In addition, an elevation in miR-181d-5p or depletion in CDKN3 led to significant reductions in proliferation, invasion, migration, angiogenesis, EMT, and tumorigenicity of NSCLC cells, coupling with increased cell apoptosis. In conclusion, this study highlights the tumor-suppressive effects of miR-181d-5p on NSCLC via Akt signaling pathway inactivation by suppressing CDKN3, thus providing a promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of NSCLC.

This brief proposes an efficient radix-2 single-path delay commutator (SDC) pipelined architecture to implement the fast Walsh–Hadamard–Fourier transform (FWFT) algorithm. The proposed architecture includes $(\log_{2}N-1)$ SDC stages, which are implemented by merged half-butterfly. The merged half-butterfly is proposed to achieve 100% hardware utilization and minimum buffer usage by sharing common merged half-butterflies in the time-multiplexed approach. Compared with the conventional pipelined radix-2 FFT+Walsh–Hadamard Transform (WHT) designs, the proposed architecture reduces the number of buffers by 50% and of adders by 25%. The required number of complex multipliers is decreased to $0.5\log_{2}N-0.5$ , which is roughly the minimum number. Moreover, the proposed architecture can be applied to FFT/WHT/sequence-ordered complex Hadamard transform (SCHT).

This brief presents a novel architecture for memory-based fast Fourier transform (FFT) computation for real-valued signals based on radix-2 decimation-in-frequency algorithm. A superior strategy of stage partition for the real FFT (RFFT) is proposed to minimize the computation clock cycles and maximize the utilization of the processing element (PE). The PE employed in our RFFT architecture can process four inputs in parallel by using two radix-2 butterflies and only two multiplexers. The proposed memory-addressing scheme and control of the multiplexers can be expressed in terms of a counter according to the RFFT computation stage. Furthermore, the proposed RFFT architecture can support more PEs in two dimensions as well. Compared with prior works, the proposed RFFT processors have the advantages of fewer computation cycles and lower hardware usage. The experiment shows that the proposed processor reduces the computation cycles by a factor of 17.5% for a 32-point RFFT computation compared with a recently presented work while maintaining lower hardware usage and complexity in the PE design.

Full thickness cold recycling subgrade materials were prepared by cement-emulsified asphalt solidified RAP and stabilized soil.The effect of adding amount of emulsified asphalts change on unconfined compressive strength, indirect tensile strength and water stability of cold recycled mixtures with different ratios was studied,and the mechanism of action of cement and emulsified asphalt in the mixtures was analysised via microscopic test. The results show that a proper addition of emulsified asphalt can improve the performance of cold recycled mixtures and the best emulsified asphalt mixing content is 3%. Microscopic test indicate that the cement hydration products space network structure interfinger with the emulsified asphalt network structure, so the cold recycled mixture tightly coupled to a semi-rigid whole, and the mixtures strength can form and develop.

For lack of laboratory and field performance data on stabilization of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) aggregate and stabilized soil (S) for road bases and subbases construction, the influences of RAP/S ratio, cement and fly ash content, modifying agent (MA) on the compact, unconfined compressive strength, indirect tensile strength and water stability of the CIR mixtures were investigated. The experimental results showed that the maximum dry density and the optimum moisture content of the mixture changed significantly with the RAP/S ratio and cement-fly ash content. Unconfined compressive strength, indirect tensile strength and water stability were improved significantly by the addition of MA, and the water stability was improved by nearly 20% on average. Scanning electron microscopy(SEM) images indicated that MA accelerated the hydration of cement-fly ash system. Needle-like AFt and fibrous C-S-H gel were observed in the mixtures, which resulted in the cementation effect among the CIR mixture particles and a more compact microstructure. All these could be the cause of high strength of the CIR mixtures with MA.

Dihydroartemisinin (DHA), a kind of artemisinin derivatives, its activity in anti-cancer was extensively studied in recent years. There is not yet related research about dihydroartemisinin puls cisplatinum (Cis) in treatment of a human lung adenocarcinoma cancer cell line (H1299 cells) so far. This experiment is designed to study the apoptotic effect induced by DHA and Cis to H1299 cells. MTT assays, nuclear staining with Hoechst 33258 and flow cytometry were used to evaluate the apoptosis status. The expression of apoptotic-associated proteins was assessed by Western blotting and RT-qPCR. DHA and Cis pro-apoptotic activity of alone and combined administration enhanced as drug concentration increased or elongation of time. Flow cytometry revealed that the apoptosis rate of the singnal medicine group and the combined medicine group were higher than the control group. The result of RT-qPCR reveal that drug combination of Ct value about caspase-3,-8,-9 are significantly higher than monotherapy. The combined treatment with two drugs significantly enhanced caspase-8,-9,-3,-6,-7 and PARP activation, indicating that the caspase-8 participated extrinsic apoptosis pathway and the caspase-9 participated intrinsic apoptosis pathway played improtant roles respectively in the synergistic effect. In general, this study reveals the obvious synergistic action of the combined treatment with DHA and Cis in inducing apoptosis of H1299 cells by the extrinsic and intrinsic apoptosis pathway.

The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of application of municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) bottom ash as a supplementary cementitious material for the preparation of blended cement. The water demand for normal consistency, setting time, strength and hydration characteristics of MSWI bottom ash–cement compound matrices were investigated. The results show that the MSWI bottom ash has some cementitious activity, but the reactivity is relatively lower than Portland cement and its addition to cement may lead to retardation of cement hydration. The incorporation content of MSWI bottom ash in blended cements was controlled below 30%, which resulted in blended cement of strength class 32.5 according to GB 175-2007 (Chinese National Standard). It is also evident that heavy metal concentrations in leachates of the blended cements with MSWI bottom ash are far lower than recommended in the GB5085.3-2007.

Compressive strength, setting time, hydration heat and hydration product were investigated to evaluate the effects of Zn2+ ion concentrations and the anion of zinc salts on the hydration characteristics of Portland cement paste. The results show that the hydration characteristics of zinc-doped cement pastes depend on Zn2+ ion concentrations and the anion of salts. With the incorporation of ZnCl2, the hydration heat, exothermic rate and the early-age strength of cement pastes were reduced, the arrival time of the highest temperature was delayed, and little negative influences on the compressive strength at 28 days were observed. The total hydration did not decrease incorporating ZnSO4; the hydration exothermic process was delayed. There were little negative influences on the compressive strength of the samples at 3 days and 28 days. Moreover, for the samples with the same Zn concentration, the retardation effect of ZnCl2 samples was stronger than that of ZnSO4 samples.

According to the system of asphalt pavement cold in-place recycling(APCIR), added proper Na2SO4 into different designed reclaimed asphalt pavement(RAP), the mechanical property effect of Na2SO4 on cement-reclaimed asphalt pavement mixture was studied. It showed that early strength of RAP rose with adding more Na2SO4. After adding Na2SO4, the strength of RAP in 5d would increase 12% than that RAP without adding Na2SO4, this technology will play the important role in asphalt pavement repairment.

To study the expressions of scavenger receptor class B type I(SR-BI) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) in atherosclerotic mini swine and provide a new mechanism for investigating the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.Chinese mini swine were fed by a normal control diet or a high fat/high cholesterol diet for 12 months after common carotid artery injury induced by balloon denudation. Plasma total cholesterol(TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and triglycerides (TG) were determined by commercially enzymatic methods every two months. The sections, which were taken from liver and abdominal aorta, were stained with hematoxylin eosin. The expressions of SR-BI and PPARgamma mRNA and protein in liver and aorta tissue were detected by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), Western blot and immunohistochemistry respectively.At the end of 12 months, plasma TC, HDL-C and TG in HFHC mini swine were increased. There were fatty liver and atherosclerotic plaque in mini swine live and aorta respectively. The expression of SR-BI was upregulated in HFHC mini swine liver and aorta tissue.HFHC may induce atherosclerosis and the expression of SR-BI and PPARgamma. Upregulating SR-BI expression may inhibit atherosclerosis. Increasing SR-BI expression in liver and aorta may accelerate SR-BI-mediated reverse cholesterol transport and develop a new anti-atherogenic strategy.

Three strictly anaerobic, thermophilic methanogens (ZC-2T, ZC-3 and ZC-6) were isolated from Shengli oil field, China. The 16S rRNA gene sequences of the three strains were nearly identical, possessing99.8% sequence similarity. They also possessed high sequence similarity, 97.4%, to Methanoculleus palmolei strain INSLUZ(T) (97.4% and 97.5%, respectively), indicating that they represented a novel species within the genus Methanoculleus. Cells of strain ZC-2T were nonmotile cocci, 0.8-1.7 microm in diameter, and always occurred singly or in pairs. The three strains used H2/CO2 or sodium formate as substrates for methanogenesis but not sodium acetate, trimethylamine, monomethylamine, ethanol, dimethyl sulfide, isopropanol, isobutanol, butan-2-ol or H2/CO. Optimum growth of strain ZC-2T occurred in the presence of 0.2 M NaCl, pH 7.5-7.8 and temperature 50-55 degrees C with a specific growth rate of 0.084 h(-1). The mol% G+C content of the genomic DNA was 55.2 mol%. Based on these phenotypic and phylogenetic characteristics, strains ZC-2T, ZC-3 and ZC-6 are proposed to represent a novel species in the genus Methanoculleus and named Methanoculleus receptaculi sp. nov. The type strain is ZC-2T (CGMCC 1.5087T=DSM 18860T).

A thermophilic, methylotrophic methanogen, strain ZC-1T, was isolated from the Shengli oilfield, China. Cells of strain ZC-1T were motile cocci, 0.7–1.0 μm in diameter and always occurred in clusters of two to four cells. Lysis-susceptibility experiments and analysis of transmission electron micrographs of strain ZC-1T suggested the presence of a proteinaceous cell wall. Strain ZC-1T used methanol, methylamine and trimethylamine as substrates for methanogenesis. Optimal growth, with a doubling time of around 5 h, occurred at pH 6.0–6.5, 65 °C, 0.3–0.5 M NaCl and 0.05–0.20 M MgCl2. The DNA G+C content of this organism was 56 mol%. Analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequence and the inferred amino acid sequence of the mcrA gene of strain ZC-1T indicated that it is related specifically to members of the family Methanosaetaceae (90.6 and 76.6 % sequence similarity, respectively). However, strain ZC-1T failed to grow with acetate as substrate for methanogenesis, which is a special characteristic of the family Methanosaetaceae. Based on these phenotypic and phylogenic characteristics, strain ZC-1T is proposed to represent a novel genus and species, for which the name Methermicoccus shengliensis gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is ZC-1T (=CGMCC 1.5056T=DSM 18856T). Methermicoccaceae fam. nov. is also proposed.