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Background. Thyroid carcinoma (TC) is an increasingly common malignancy of endocrine organs, and its most frequently encountered histotype is papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). Identifying new potential gene alterations is important for completely elucidating the mechanism of PTC initiation and progression. Thus, we performed whole transcriptome sequence analysis (RNA-seq) on 79 PTC tissue samples and paired adjacent nontumor tissue samples to study the molecular mechanism of TC tumorigenesis and progression further. The results of RNA-seq analysis showed that spectrin beta, nonerythrocytic 2 (SPTBN2), was markedly overexpressed in PTC tissues relative to that in the paired nontumor tissues. Additionally, the analysis results for 502 PTC samples and 58 nontumor thyroid samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas dataset were consistent with our RNA-seq results. However, the molecular mechanisms and function of SPTBN2 in TC progression remain unknown. Methods. We examined SPTBN2 gene expression in 48 papillary thyroid tumor tissues and paired adjacent normal thyroid tissues by using qRT-PCR. SPTBN2 expression in the TC cell lines was silenced by small interfering RNA. Then, the transfected TC cells were used to investigate the in vitro function of SPTBN2. Result. The expression of SPTBN2 was significantly upregulated in our RNA-seq cohort, our local validated cohort, and TCGA RNA-seq cohort. The results of the in vitro experiment revealed that in TC cell lines, SPTBN2 downregulation considerably suppressed tumor cell proliferation, the cell cycle, migration, colony formation, and invasion and induced cell apoptosis. Furthermore, the protein levels of CCNE2, CDK2, CDK4, and Bcl-2 were downregulated, and those of P21, Bax, cleaved caspase-8, and cleaved caspase-3 had increased in transfected TC cells relative to in control TC cells. Conclusion. The downregulation of SPTBN2 caused apoptosis and retarded G1/S cell cycle transition in TC cells. Thus, SPTBN2 may be a good candidate gene for TC diagnosis and therapy.

Acute viral myocarditis (AVMC), most often caused by coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) infection, is characterized by myocardial inflammation associated with high morbidity and mortality. A pathogenic role for T helper (Th) 17 cells in AVMC is well established. Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) has been shown to play a key role in various inflammatory diseases. However, the expression of MALAT1 and its impact on Th17 cells differentiation in AVMC remain unclear. In the present study, we found that MALAT1 was highly expressed in mice with AVMC, and the expression was correlated positively with cardiac pathological scores, cardiac IL-17 mRNA expression, and the percentages of splenic Th17 cells. We further demonstrated that MALAT1 knockdown could significantly alleviate the severity of disease and inhibit the differentiation of Th17 cells, accompanying the reduced mRNA expression of RORγt and productions of Th17-related pro-inflammatory cytokines in vivo. Additionally, in vitro analysis showed that MALAT1 knockdown suppressed naïve CD4

Background Sepsis is a severe organ dysfunction caused by infection, which is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients. We developed a novel risk-predicted nomogram of hospitalized mortality for this retrospective study. Methods The study involved a retrospective analysis of sepsis patients diagnosed between January 2013 and December 2019. Based on clinical outcomes, patients were categorized into a survival group and a death group. Using logistic regression analysis, a predictive model with a nomogram was formulated in the training set, after which internal validation and sensitivity analysis were performed. C-index and calibration curves were used in the training and validation cohorts to evaluate nomogram discrimination and calibration. Utilizing decision curve analysis, an assessment of the clinical utility of the final nomogram was conducted. Results A total of 494 patients were enrolled for analysis. In the multivariate analysis, cardiac function (OR: 1.58, P = 0.039) stood out as an independent sepsis risk factor, whereas hemoglobin (OR: 0.98, P = 0.025) served as a protective factor. Although the multivariate regression analysis did not detect any significant differences in AKI staging, in light of the previous studies, a nomogram for the prediction of hospitalized sepsis mortality was constructed by taking into account these three factors. Based on this model's C-index of 0.626, it suggested moderate predictive power. Conclusions Our study indicates that patients with sepsis in combination with anemia, cardiac dysfunction, and AKI are associated with significantly high mortality. To some extent, this may contribute to the determination of risk assessments and treatment strategies.

Climate change affects the species spatio-temporal distribution deeply. However, how climate affects the spatio-temporal distribution pattern of related species on the large scale remains largely unclear. Here, we selected two closely related species in Taxus genus Taxus chinensis and Taxus mairei to explore their distribution pattern. Four environmental variables were employed to simulate the distribution patterns using the optimized Maxent model. The results showed that the highly suitable area of T. chinensis and T. mairei in current period was 1.964×105km2 and 3.074×105km2, respectively. The distribution area of T. chinensis was smaller than that of T. mairei in different periods. Temperature and precipitation were the main climate factors that determined the potential distribution of the two species. The centroids of T. chinensis and T. mairei were in Sichuan and Hunan province in current period, respectively. In the future, the centroid migration direction of two species was almost opposite. T. chinensis would shift towards southwest, while T. mairei towards northeast. Our results revealed that the average elevation distribution of T. chinensis was higher than that of T. mairei. This study sheds new insights into the habitat preference and limiting environment factors of the two related species and provides a valuable reference for the conservation of these two endangered species.

Climate change affects the species spatio-temporal distribution deeply. However, how climate affects the spatio-temporal distribution pattern of related species on the large scale remains largely unclear. Here, we selected two closely related species in

Purpose: Aldo-keto reductase family 1, member C2 (AKR1C2) gene encodes for a member of the AKR superfamily and participates in the metabolism of various drugs. Moreover, tumor and normal tissues exhibit an evident difference in the expression level of this gene. Methods: We downloaded and analyzed AKR1C2 expression level and the data consisting of the clinicopathological features of 490 papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) tumor tissues and 59 normal thyroid tissues from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort. Diverse statistical methods, such Chi-square test, univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses, and Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used. We down-/up-regulated the expression of AKR1C2 and explored its specific role in thyroid cancer cell lines by utilizing the si-RNA and plasmid. Results: We divided all patients who were collected in TCGA data sets into under-expressed (n = 245) and over-expressed groups (n = 245). We subsequently analyzed the data and obtained the following findings: (a) AKR1C2 is down-regulated in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) (p

Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is the most frequent type of malignant thyroid cancer, but its molecular mechanisms remain unknown. To better understand the tumorigenesis and progression of PTC, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of the whole-transcriptome resequencing of paired PTC and normal thyroid tissues. Nectin cell adhesion molecule 4 (NECTIN4) was significantly overexpressed in thyroid carcinoma compared with that in matched normal tissue. We also assessed the relation between the expression level of NECTIN4 and the clinicopathological features of PTC in The Cancer Genome Atlas database, and results showed that upregulated NECTIN4 is associated with lymph node metastasis (P

The outbreak of COVID-19 has accelerated the development of educational informatization in China. This paper uses the CiteSpace to analyzes the statistical results of the educational information. The results show that: from the perspective of research venations, the research content, perspective and topic selection of educational informatization are gradually deepening; from the perspective of research hotspots, artificial intelligence and educational modernization, educational equity and digital divide, educational governance and educational quality evaluation system, information-based teaching and higher education are the hot issues in the field of educational informatization research; The frontier trends of research are manifested in five aspects: research on the coordination of education poverty alleviation and regional education development, research on the coupling of online teaching and information literacy, discussion on the relationship between education governance system and governance capabilities, digital education and the optimal supply of educational resources, research on the relationship between artificial intelligence and smart education. Research conclusions can provide reference for subsequent related research.

To explore the significance of multimodal monitoring in the monitoring and treatment of neurocritical care patients.104 neurocritical care patients admitted to the department of Critical Care Medicine of Fujian Provincial Hospital from March 2019 to January 2020 were enrolled. Patients were randomly assigned into two groups, with 52 in each group. In the routine monitoring treatment group, heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate and the changes in consciousness and pupils were monitored after operation. The patients were treated with routine medicine to reduce intracranial pressure (ICP), maintain proper cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP), balance fluid intake and output, and maintain the airway clear. Patients in the multimodal monitoring treatment group were treated with invasive ICP monitoring, ultrasound to assess brain structure, ultrasound to measure optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD), transcranial color doppler (TCCD), internal jugular venous blood oxygen saturation monitoring, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), non-invasive cerebral blood oxygen saturation monitoring and quantitative electroencephalogram monitoring. According to the monitoring results, the patients were given targeted treatment with the goal of controlling ICP and improving brain metabolism. The length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay, the incidences of neurological complications (secondary cerebral infarction, cerebral hemorrhage, high intracranial pressure, etc.), and the incidences of poor prognosis [6 months after the onset of Glasgow outcome score (GOS) 1 to 3] were compared between the two groups. Spearman rank correlation analysis of the correlation between invasive ICP and the ICP value which was calculated by TCCD. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of invasive ICP and pulsatility index of middle cerebral artery (PIThe length of ICU stay in the multimodal monitoring treatment group was significantly shorter than that of the routine monitoring treatment group (days: 6.27±3.81 vs. 9.61±5.09, P0.01), and the incidence of neurological complications was significantly lower than that in the routine monitoring treatment group (9.62% vs. 25.00%, P0.05). In the multimodal monitoring treatment group, 37 cases had a good prognosis and 15 cases had a poor prognosis, while the routine monitoring treatment group had a good prognosis in 27 cases and a poor prognosis in 25 cases. The incidence of poor prognosis in the multimodal monitoring treatment group was lower than that of the routine monitoring treatment group (28.85% vs. 48.08%, P0.05). In the multimodal monitoring treatment group, the invasive ICP and PIComprehensive analysis of multimodal monitoring indicators for neurocritical care patients to guide clinical treatment can reduce the length of hospital stay, and reduce the risk of neurosurgery complications and disability; invasive ICP can predict poor prognosis of neurocritical care patients.

Based on the theories of employee entrepreneurship and team climate, the influencing factors of the aspiration to use the information system are studied, and a structural equation research model including two dimensions of individual and team is constructed. And 201 valid questionnaires were used to verify the model. The research found that the enterprising spirit in the entrepreneurial spirit of employees can directly affect the individual’s aspiration to use it continuously, while pioneering spirit and cooperation can indirectly affect the aspiration to innovation through the mediating effect of attitude to innovations. In addition, the stronger the support for innovation and task orientation in the team, the more it can stimulate employees’ innovation willingness. On this basis, the paper puts forward effective suggestions for the cultivation of employees’ sustainable innovation willingness. Enterprises should create more team atmosphere, cultivate employees’ innovative attitude and the characteristics of entrepreneurship, give employees autonomy in their work, and maximize the influence of employees.

The incidence of thyroid cancer is staying at a high level. Claudin family is a skelemin contacting with the intercellular junction and can keep a dynamic balance between cells. Recently, many types of research indicated that the expression level of claudins is closely related to various cancer types and they can be novel diagnostic markers. For instance, Claudin-10(CLDN10) is the high expression in primary hepatocellular carcinoma, papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) and so on. But the biological role and function of CLDN10 in PTC are unclear. In our study, we measured the expression of CLDN10 in human normal tissues and matched PTC tissues by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and this observation was consistent with that in the TCGA cohort. We discovered that high expression of CLDN10 was correlated with lymph node metastasis, age and Histological type in TCGA cohorts. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that patients with higher CLDN10 expression had a worse overall survival. In vitro, CLDN10 could promote cellular proliferation, migration, and invasion in PTC cell lines. In a word, CLDN10 is a functionally gene facilitating tumorgenesis in PTC and acts as an oncogene in PTC.

Dysregulation of cell proliferation and death is considered the foundation of the malignant biological characteristics of cancer. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of a massively parallel whole transcriptome resequencing of paired papillary thyroid cancer and normal thyroid tissues from 19 patients. In addition, we found that LRP4, a member of the low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein family, is significantly overexpressed in thyroid carcinoma. We demonstrated through quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) that LRP4 is upregulated in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) tissues. This observation was also consistent with data analyzed from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort. Thus, the biological role of LRP4 in the thyroid cancer in the present study was investigated using the PTC cell lines TPC1, BCPAP and KTC-1. In these cell lines, the mRNA level of LRP4 was higher than normal thyroid cancer cell named HTORI3. In vitro experiments demonstrated that LRP4 downregulation significantly inhibited the colony formation, proliferation, migration, and invasion of the three PTC cell lines. Knockdown of LRP4 by small interfering RNA (siRNA) in those cell lines decreased the protein expression of N-cadherin, Enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2), and Zinc finger E-box-binding home-box 1 (ZEB1). Furthermore, LRP4 knockdown significantly reduced the levels of phosphorylated PI3K in the PTC cell lines. In conclusion, the present study indicated that LRP4 is a gene associated with PTC and might become a potential therapeutic target.

Wen-Xu Jin,1,2,* Dan-Rong Ye,2,* Yi-Han Sun,2,* Xiao-Fen Zhou,2 Ou-Chen Wang,2 Xiao-Hua Zhang,2 Ye-Feng Cai2 1Department of Vascular Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, 325000, China; 2Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, 325000, China *These authors contributed equally to this work Background: Preoperative diagnosis of central lymph node metastasis (CLNM) poses to be a challenge in clinical node-negative papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC). This research work aims at investigating the association existing between BRAF mutation, clinicopathological factors, ultrasound characteristics, and CLNM, in addition to establishing a predictive model for CLNM in PTMC.Materials and methods: The study included 673 PTMC patients, already undergone total thyroidectomy or lobectomy with prophylactic central lymph node dissection. The predictor factors were identified through univariate and multivariate analyses. The support vector machine was put to use to develop statistical models, which could predict CLNM on the basis of independent predictors.Results: Tumor size (>5 mm), lower location, no well-defined margin, contact of >25% with the adjacent capsule, display of enlarged lymph nodes, and BRAF mutation were independent predictors of CLNM. Through the use of the predictive model, 79.6% of the patients were classified accurately, the sensitivity and specificity amounted to be 85.1% and 75.8%, respectively, and the positive predictive value and negative predictive value stood at 71.6% and 87.6%, respectively.Conclusions: We established a predictive model in order to predict CLNM preoperatively in PTMC when preoperative diagnosis of CLNM was not clear. Keywords: papillary thyroid microcarcinoma, central lymph node, predictive factor, support vector machine

Objective To investigate the correlation of octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (OCT4) expression with clinicopathological features and its predictive value for treatment response as well as survival profiles in de novo acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) patients. Method One hundred fifty-two de novo AML patients and 52 non-hematologic malignancy patients were recruited in this prospective cohort study. OCT4 expression was determined in bone marrow sample collected before treatment. Complete response (CR), event free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated. Results Compared with the controls, OCT4 mRNA expression was higher in AML patients (P

Erjie Xia,* Xiaofen Zhou,* Adheesh Bhandari, Xiaohua Zhang, Ouchen Wang Department of Thyroid & Breast Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work Introduction: Synaptopodin 2 (SYNPO2) is a functioning protein. It has been detected in many malignancies. But the relation between SYNPO2 and breast cancer (BC) is unclear. Materials and methods: In this study, we explored the expression and function of SYNPO2 in BC. We found that SYNPO2 gene in BC was downregulated at the transcriptional level in both validated and TCGA cohorts. Results: The results revealed that age, lymph node metastasis, and clinical stage in the validated cohort were related to the expression of SYNPO2 negatively. Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that patients with lower SYNPO2 expression had a worse overall survival. Discussion: We found that migration and invasion were promoted after knocking down SYNPO2 in MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, BT-549, and MDA-MB-468. Meanwhile, knockdown of SYNPO2 could enhance PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway, which may induce migration and invasion. Our findings reveal that SYNPO2 was associated with BC. Keywords: breast cancer, SYNPO2, metastasis, PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway

BACKGROUND Skip metastasis is defined as metastasis incident to the lateral compartment without involvement of the central compartment, and is generally unpredictable in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). The present study aimed to investigate the frequency and predictor value of skip metastasis in PTC patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 355 patients diagnosed with thyroid cancer who had received a prior complete thyroidectomy with bilateral central neck and ipsilateral lateral neck lymph node dissection were enrolled in this study. The clinicopathological and ultrasound features were analyzed. A univariate and multivariate analysis were performed to identify the risk factors of skip metastasis. RESULTS The frequency of skip metastasis was 12.4% (44/355). The PTC patients with skip metastasis exhibited fewer lymph node metastasis, which was more commonly detected in tumor size ≤1 cm (OR 9.354; p=0.001; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.865-26.735), tumors located in upper pole (OR 3.822; p

In decades, a lot of long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) have been proven to exert influences on tumorigenesis in vitro and in vivo. Many lncRNAs have been reported as effective therapeutic targets and biomarkers in various cancers. However, whether LncRNAs are associated with the progression of PTC remains largely unknown. In this study, we measured the expression of CCND2-AS1 in PTC cell lines by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR).We found that CCND2-AS1 expression was significantly over-expressed in PTC cell lines compared to normal thyroid epithelial cells. Gain-and loss-of-function experiments were performed to investigate the role of CCND2-AS1 in PTC cells. In vitro experiments, we proved that CCND2-AS1 knockdown in TPC1 significantly suppressed cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, while CCND2-AS1 overexpression in BCPAP had the opposite effects. Meanwhile, we also found that CCND2-AS1 could regulate N-cadherin and Vimentin expression, which may influence invasion and migration. Our findings indicate that the lncRNA CCND2-AS1 is a gene associated with PTC and might become a potential therapeutic target.

Under the background of educational informationization, educational information system and various informationized teaching tools are changing people’s learning methods and lifestyles. However, as one of the important carriers or tools of educational informationization, the effect of educational APP in practical application is not as good as the designer expected. Therefore, how to exert the value of educational APP has become a problem urgently to be solved. This problem, based on the theory of social influence and 241 data collected from the survey as samples, constructs a research model for empirical research. The results show that the individual’s exploratory behavior towards educational APP can significantly affect their willingness to continue exploring. Subjective norms and social identity in social influence theory can affect the individual’s willingness to explore APP, while group norms have no significant impact. In addition, the results also show that perceived usefulness partially mediates the relationship between exploratory behavior and sustained exploratory willingness. The research in this paper is used for reference in the development and design of educational APP.

The goal of running a school in colleges and universities is to train applied talents who meet the needs of society in an all-round way, with solid basic theory, strong practical ability, high comprehensive quality, facing the needs of talent market, adapting to the needs of production, construction, management and service. The continuous changes of learning methods and learning processes in the information age require that the learning evaluation of students should not be a single examination paper, but a diversified evaluation oriented to the learning process. In this paper, on the basis of analyzing on the problems existed in the traditional examination way, combined with the development of local colleges and universities, by the course of logistics management, to explore diversified evaluation method of teaching design, achieving the goal of improve the teaching quality and effect.

The transformation and upgrading development of logistics industry put forward higher requirements for intelligent logistics talents. However, the current training effect of intelligent logistics talents is not satisfactory, and corporate satisfaction is not high. Therefore, based on the integration of industry and education, the author establishes a "three-dimensional" teaching staff; establishes a curriculum system of intelligent logistics based on social needs; innovates classroom teaching mode guided by thinking inspiration; launches a special plan for training intelligent logistics talents according to industrial planning; Integrate industry resources and establish a talent training Alliance for intelligent logistics.

Logistics resources will be concentrated in the same space by logistics park, to provide intensive logistics services and enhance the efficiency of logistics, thereby, a large number of logistics parks emerged in China for a period of time, and the park vacancy rate caused by high attention. Logistics Park construction should be matched with the demand. Calculation of logistics park carrying capacity is one of those problems should be solved. This paper uses the analogy method, the standard reference method and the space-time consumption method to calculate the comprehensive carrying capacity of “one port, six parks”, which is planned in Wuhan. The results show that although the space-time consumption method is more complicated than the other two, but its calculation results can better reflect the carrying capacity of Logistics Park.

Yuefeng Li,1,2,* Xiaofen Zhou,2,* Qiongying Zhang,3 Endong Chen,2 Yihan Sun,2 Danrong Ye,2 Ouchen Wang,2 Xiaohua Zhang,2 Jianxin Lyu1 1Key Laboratory of Laboratory Medicine, Ministry of Education, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, College of Laboratory Medicine and Life Sciences, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China; 2Department of Thyroid and Breast Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China; 3Pathology Department, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China *These authors contributed equally to this work Background: Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common type of thyroid carcinoma, which is associated with a high incidence of lymph-node metastasis. Multiple biomarkers have been identified for the precise diagnosis of PTC at an early stage. However, their role in PTC remains poorly elucidated. Previously, we reported that lipase H (LIPH), a membrane-bound protein, was highly expressed in PTC. This study aimed to fully elucidate the causal role of LIPH in the development of PTC and investigated its relationship with lymph-node metastasis in PTC. Materials and methods: Quantitative reverse transcription PCR and immunohistochemistry were used to measure the mRNA and protein expression levels of LIPH in 45 and 6 pairs of PTC tissues and adjacent normal tissues, respectively. Clinical tissue data of 504 PTC tissues and 60 normal thyroid tissues from The Cancer Genome Atlas database were used to analyze the correlation between LIPH expression level and clinical features in PTC. siRNAs were used to knock down genes, while plasmids were used to overexpress genes. Two PTC cell lines (KTC-1 and BCPAP) were used in subsequent cytological function studies. In addition, a hypoxia stress model was constructed using cobaltous chloride hexahydrate reagent, and the protein expression level of the corresponding biomarkers was measured by Western blotting. Results: This study revealed that high expression of LIPH in PTC was closely associated with lymph-node metastasis. Our cellular function experiments indicated that LIPH positively correlated with the malignant behavior of PTC cell lines. We further confirmed the role of LIPH in hypoxia and its relationship with the epithelial–mesenchymal transition pathway in PTC. Conclusion: LIPH plays an important role in PTC oncogenesis and development, especially in lymph-node metastasis. It can be regarded as a biomarker for the diagnosis and treatment of PTC in the near future. Keywords: papillary thyroid carcinoma, hypoxia, metastasis, epithelial–mesenchymal transition

Thyroid carcinoma is the most common malignancy of the endocrine system worldwide, but its molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Some diseases are associated with TEKT4 gene. However, its role in thyroid carcinoma has yet to be fully examined. This study was designed to investigate the function of TEKT4 in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). The effect of TEKT4 on aggressive behavior of PTC cell lines, namely, TPC1 and BCPAP, transfected with small interfering RNA was identified through cell proliferation, colony formation, migration, and invasion. Our previous study revealed that TEKT4 may be vital in PTC. In in vitro experiments, TEKT4 downregulation suppressed cell proliferation, colony formation, cell migration, and invasion. Our data also indicated that tumor-suppressing role of TEKT4 knockdown in PTC cell lines was associated with the silence of the PI3K/Akt pathway. Our study revealed that TEKT4 shows important biological implications and is worthy of further study.

The incidence of thyroid cancer has increased in the past decades; however, the underlying molecular mechanisms of thyroid cancer tumorigenesis remain unknown. Using sequencing technology, long intergenic non-protein coding RNA 673 (LINC00673) was identified to be upregulated in several tumor tissues. However, the biological role of LINC00673 in thyroid carcinoma has yet to be determined. In this study, 60 matched pairs of thyroid tumor tissue and normal tissue were selected for study using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) to validate previous findings; then, clinicopathologic features of the tissues were analyzed. Proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion assays were performed, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)- associated phenotypes were investigated following transfection with small interfering RNA to determine the specific role of LINC00673 in thyroid carcinoma cell lines (TPC1, KTC-1 and BCPAP). The study revealed that long non-coding RNA LINC00673 was significantly upregulated in thyroid cancer tissues compared with paired adjacent non-tumor tissues using RT-qPCR and that high expression of LINC00673 is was associated with larger tumor size and lymph node metastasis in the validated cohort. Knockdown of LINC00673 inhibited cell proliferation and metastasis, whereas, LINC00673 overexpression had the opposite effect. The results showed that LINC00673 may influence EMT and the expression of Kruppel-like factor 2 (KLF2). Notably, KLF2 is considered a tumor suppressor gene in a variety of tumors. Finally, knock down of KLF2 enhanced thyroid carcinoma cell proliferation, and invasion and migration. In this study, the function of LINC00673 in promoting the proliferation and metastasis of thyroid carcinoma cell lines was identified, and LINC00673 may act as a novel therapeutic target for treating thyroid carcinoma.

Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China [2012J01049]; Chinese National Natural Science Foundation [41176111]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [2013121029]

A simplified assay platform was developed to measure the activities of the key oxidoreductases in central carbon metabolism of various marine bacteria. Based on microplate assay, the platform was low-cost and simplified by unifying the reaction conditions of enzymes including temperature, buffers, and ionic strength. The central carbon metabolism of 16 marine bacteria, involving Pseudomonas, Exiguobacterium, Marinobacter, Citreicella, and Novosphingobium were studied. Six key oxidoreductases of central carbon metabolism, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, pyruvate dehydrogenase, 2-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase, malate dehydrogenase, malic enzyme, and isocitrate dehydrogenase were investigated by testing their activities in the pathway. High activity of malate dehydrogenase was found in Citreicella marina, and the specific activity achieved 22 U/mg in cell crude extract. The results also suggested that there was a considerable variability on key enzymes' activities of central carbon metabolism in some strains which have close evolutionary relationship while they adapted to the requirements of the niche they (try to) occupy.

Topoisomerase IIβ (topoIIβ) is a nuclear enzyme specifically expressed in neurons, and plays an important role in the development of the cerebellum. To date, the expression of topoIIβ protein in medulloblastoma (MB) has not been investigated. In this study, 16 MB specimens including 10 classical subtypes of MB and 6 desmoplastic subtypes of MB (DMB), along with 5 normal cerebellum samples, were obtained from clinics. With immunohistochemical staining, prominently expressed topoIIβ was seen in normal cerebellar tissues, while there was no or less pronounced staining in classical MB cells. Interestingly, on comparing topoIIβ expression in different regions of DMB samples, relatively high levels of topoIIβ were revealed within nodules composed of differentiated neurocytic cells, which are known to predict a favorable clinical outcome for MB. We also examined the expression of two epigenetic factors, H3K27me3 and JMJD3 in the different tissues. Very high levels of H3K27me3 were found in all MB samples, except the intranodules of DMB, where JMJD3 expression was more prominent. Furthermore, a negative correlation between topoIIβ and H3K27me3 in MB was revealed in this study. Thus, our data primarily indicate that topoIIβ can be used to estimate neuronal differentiation in MB, and may serve as a target for improving the survival rates for this condition. We speculate that H3K27me3 repression of topoIIβ at the transcriptional level may occur, although this needs to be verified using larger numbers of MB samples in future experiments.

Potassium (K) deficiency can affect cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L) growth but sodium (Na) can share some functions with K. This study examined the effects of replacing K with Na at different ratios on cotton growth, nutrition uptake, and yield under greenhouse and field conditions. The results indicated that cotton germination rate, total dry weight, and nutrition absorption were affected by the replacement of K with Na. Increased early development appeared when replacing 1/3 K with Na. However, replacing K with 2/3 Na or completely with Na restrained cotton seedling growth and nutrition uptake. Furthermore, dry weights and levels of K and Na varied among the selected treatments at the different growth stages of seedling, first square, and peak bloom. Consequently, the highest final cottonseed yield appeared when K and Na were added at rates of 115 and 65 mg kg−1, respectively, in the top 20 cm of soil. The results of this study imply that cotton growth and yield could be improved by adding approp...