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Shasha Zhao, Xinyuan Gao, Chunlei Zhong, Yunxia Li, Ming Wang, Shuzhi Zang Department of Respiratory Medicine, The First Hospital Affiliated to the Xinxiang Medical College, Weihui, Henan 453100, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Shasha Zhao Department of Respiratory MedicineThe First Hospital Affiliated to the Xinxiang Medical College, No. 88 Jiankang Road, Weihui, Henan 453100, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-0373-4403114Email zhaossxxyxy06@163.comBackground: Tumour growth and development are dependent on many factors including long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs). However, limited information is available on the involvement of lncRNAs in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the molecular mechanisms have not been defined. Here, we examined the expression of small nucleolar RNA host gene 3 (SNHG3) and its contribution to the development of NSCLC.Methods: We detected SNHG3, miR-216a, and ZEB1 expression in tissues from NSCLC patients and lung adenocarcinoma cell lines using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Proliferation, migrations, invasion, and apoptosis of tumour cells were assessed using cell counting kit-8, transwell experiments, and flow cytometry after SNHG3 knockdown by small interfering RNAs. Bioinformatics and luciferase reporter assays were employed for analysing the interactions between SNHG3, miR-216a, and ZEB1.Results: We found highly upregulated SNHG3 in tissues and cells from NSCLC patients, which was linked to poor prognosis. SNHG3 silencing diminished the ability of NSCLC cells to proliferate, migrate, and invade and promoted apoptosis. Furthermore, SNHG3 competed with endogenous RNA and enhanced the expression of ZEB1 by interfering with miR-216a. ZEB1 overexpression or miR-216a blockade reversed SNHG3-induced tumour inhibition. Similar effects were observed in vivo where SNHG3 knockdown inhibited NSCLC tumour growth by reducing expression of miR-216a while increasing that of ZEB1.Conclusion: Knockdown of SNHG3 inhibits NSCLC tumour development and progression by upregulation of ZEB1 and interference with miR-216a, revealing an attractive alternative target for patients with NSCLC.Keywords: lncRNA SNHG3, competing endogenous RNA, NSCLC, tumour proliferation, tumour migration, tumour invasion, tumour apoptosis

Both observer age and size of stimulus as characterized using the field of view (FOV) are two important parameters to affect the color matching functions (CMFs) of human observers. They are also included in the cone fundamental and CMFs models that were recently proposed by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) in 2006. In contrast to the great number of studies investigating the performance of CMFs in characterizing color matches and mismatches using different primary sets, few study investigated the effect of CMFs in characterizing these two factors. In this study, we carefully designed a series of test stimuli in five colors, which had different magnitudes of calculated color difference to the corresponding reference stimulus using the CIE 2006 CMFs model. The stimuli were presented in two FOVs (i.e., 8.6° and 2.9°). A group of young and senior observers were asked to judge which of the two test stimuli appeared to be similar to the reference stimulus, which was a forced choice. The color differences calculated using the CIE 1931 2° and 1964 10° CMFs were found to have higher correlations to the visual color differences judged by the senior and young observers respectively, regardless of the actual FOVs used in the experiment. In addition, though the CIE 2006 CMFs with the different parameter settings always had better performance in predicting the perceived color differences, they failed to characterize the effect of observer age and stimulus size. Also, the experiment results did not support the CIE’s recommendation of using the 10° CMFs for stimuli with an FOV greater than 4° and the 2° CMFs for those smaller than 4°.

Background: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is significant public concern. Clinical practice indicates that Chinese medicine has certain therapeutic advantages, while there is a lack of evidence-based medicine support. The aim of this study is to synthesize related data to explore efficacy and safety of Chinese medicine for OSA. Methods: Data in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, CNKI, WanFang, VIP databases were comprehensively searched. All the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in OSA children were identified, in which the effects of Chinese medicine on a range of outcomes were compared. The search had a deadline of January 1, 2020. Two investigators independently conducted data extraction and assessed the literature quality of the included studies. The Revman5.3 software was used for meta-analysis of the included literature. Results: The efficacy and safety of Chinese medicine for OSA were evaluated in terms of apnea hypopnea index (AHI, the average and lowest blood oxygen, the Epworth Sleep Scale [ESS], and adverse effects). Conclusions: This study provides reliable evidence-based support for the clinical application of Chinese medicine for OSA. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42020154864.

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a group of abnormalities which includes abdominal obesity, hypertension, insulin resistance, and dyslipidemia. Many clinical studies showed that Huanglian Wendan Decoction(HWD) is effective in the treatment of MetS.Methods: In this study, the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP) database, STITCH database and Swisstargetpredicition database were used to excavate the active components of HWD and to predict the potential targets. The key targets of MetS are screened through GeneCards database and DisGeNET database. Moreover, we obtained the overlapping target of HWD and MetS based on venndiagram of "R program". Next, we performed enrichment analysis for common-target network and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. Afterwards, Cytoscape was used to construct the components-targets core network for HWD in treating MetS, and R program was used to perform GO-BP and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis on these core targets. Last, we further investigated our predictions of crucial targets by performing molecular docking studies with components of HWD.Results: The component-target core network of HWD against MetS was screened to contain 22 active components, which corresponded to 77 core targets. Additionally, enrichment analysis suggested that targets of HWD against MetS were mainly clustered into multiple biological processes (response to nutrient levels, gland development, response to steroid hormone, cellular response to oxidative stress, reproductive structure development etc and related pathways (AGE-RAGE, AMPK, JAK-STAT, MAPK), indicating the underlying mechanisms of HWD on MetS. The results of molecular docking showed that beta-sitost, naringenin, berberine and baicalein bound well to IL6 and AKT1.Conclusion: The network pharmacological strategy integrated molecular docking to explore the mechanism of HWD against MetS. Our present outcomes might shed light on the further clinical application of HWD on MetS treatment.

Water huff-n-puff (WHP) is an effective means of improving the recovery factor (RF) of the tight sedimentary tuff oil reservoir. In this study, through the tight oil WHP experimental platform monitored by online nuclear magnetic resonance, the liquid production law, oil recovery mechanism, and influencing factors of tight sedimentary tuff WHP were investigated. The results show that the optimal cut-off pressure and depletion rate of core natural energy depletion are 5 MPa and 0.3 ml/min, respectively. WHP can effectively improve the RF of the tight sedimentary tuff, and the core RF increased by 23.04% after five cycles of the WHP. In multiple cycles of the WHP, the volume of the injected water and produced liquid of each cycle is relatively stable, but the oil production gradually decreases. The first three cycles of the WHP are high-efficiency stage, the fourth and fifth cycles are low-efficiency stage, and there is no WHP value after the fifth cycle. The range of the WHP oil production gradually extends from the injection end to the far end with increasing huff-n-puff cycles, and the oil comes mainly from the medium pores of the core. Both elastic and imbibition displacements are important mechanisms for WHP oil recovery. In five cycles of the WHP, the proportion of elastic displacement oil production to the total oil production of each cycle was 89%, 88.22%, 85.92%, 22.78%, and 0%. When the water injection pressure of each cycle is fixed, the elastic displacement oil production of the WHP is mainly affected by the water shielding, multiphase flows resistance, carrying and scouring, and capillary resistance. Meanwhile, imbibition displacement oil production is mainly affected by the contact area of oil and water. The RF of the WHP has a parabolic relationship with the water injection and reinjection pressures, and a positive correction relationship with the well soaking time.

The dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) non-thermal plasma was used to modify the phosphoric acid activated carbon (AC) for enhancing its adsorption performance of Cu(II). The BET, SEM-EDX, FT-IR, elemental analysis and XPS techniques were employed to determine the textural structure and surface chemistry of the raw and plasma modified ACs. The results indicate that the ACs after using plasma modification have much higher Cu(II) adsorption capacity, irrespective of different adsorption conditions, such as solution pH, temperature, dosage and agitation speed. Importantly, the adsorption capacity of Cu(II) on AC has a non-monotonic variation (increasing at first and then decreasing) with the plasma modification time. The optimum modification time was 7.5 min in this study and the Cu(II) adsorption capacity of the modified AC could be improved by about 150% compared to that of the raw AC. Interestingly, the Cu(II) adsorption capacity showed good exponential relationship with the content of carboxylic groups, while it showed significant linear relation with the quantity of phosphates and pyrophosphates groups, indicating that these functional groups play key roles on Cu(II) adsorption. Furthermore, plasma modification improved Cu(II) removal regeneration performance of AC.

Two kinds of pinewood sawdust activated carbon adsorbents were prepared by fast activation with H3PO4 in a spouted bed, and the application in adsorption of copper ions was investigated. With only 3 min of activation time, the BET surface area of activated carbons reached 1537.5 m2/g for impregnation mass ratio of H3PO4 to sawdust at 1:1 and activation temperature of 500 °C (IR1-500), whereas it was 1750.7 m2/g for the impregnation ratio at 4:1 and activation temperature of 800 °C (IR4-800). The pseudo second-order reaction kinetics well describes the experimental adsorption of copper ion in this study, indicating chemisorption dominated in the process. By the C1s spectrum, activated carbons from IR1-500 contained more carboxyl groups (-COOH) and carbonyl groups (C=O), which played an important role in copper ions adsorption. In addition, it was found that the P-containing groups (metaphosphates) also involved in the adsorption of copper ion.

Activated carbons were produced from waste pine wood sawdust using fast activation with H3PO4 in a spouted bed. In this study, activation temperature was set as 800 °C, and activation time ranged from 1 to 15 min. Experimental results show that sawdust impregnated with higher mass ratio of H3PO4 would be agglomerated in spouted bed, and difficult to fluidize. Therefore, an amount of quartz sand was added to assist for good fluidization. Fluidization of particle can improve the BET surface area or micropore volume of activated carbons. High BET surface area activated carbons can be obtained with activation time of only 1–5 min by combining the fluidization and H3PO4 fast activation. The obtained activated carbons contained developed pore structure and abundant surface functional groups (carboxyl, carbonyl and P-containing groups) by SEM–EDS, FTIR and XPS techniques. The particles of impregnation ratio of 1:1 can achieve fluidization without adding the quartz sand, which was convenient for experimental operation and even industrial production, and the BET surface area can reach more than 1000 m2/g in activation time of only 5 min.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-associated mortality worldwide. MicroRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) serve a role in the occurrence and development of lung cancer. The aim of the present study was to analyze the expression and function of the proliferation-associated miR-383-5p in lung adenocarcinoma (LAC). Samples of human LAC and matched adjacent normal lung tissues were surgically removed, and miR-383-5p expression and the pathological characteristics of lung adenocarcinoma were investigated. The present study revealed that miR-383-5p expression level was significantly decreased in LAC tissues and its expression levels were markedly associated with tumor size and differentiation. Overexpression of miR-383-5p in A549 and H1299 LAC cell lines inhibited cell proliferation by G1 cell cycle phase arrest and induction of apoptosis. Cancerous inhibitor of protein phosphatase 2A (CIP2A), a potential target gene of miR-383-5p, was inversely associated with miR-383-5p expression level in LAC tissues and cell lines. Furthermore, the results of the present study demonstrated that CIP2A was directly regulated by miR-383-5p and the restoration of CIP2A expression reversed the inhibitory effects of miR-383-5p on LAC cell proliferation. In conclusion, the results of the present study demonstrated that miR-383-5p was downregulated in LAC tissues. By targeting CIP2A, miR-383-5p exerts its anti-proliferative function in LAC, suggesting its use a potential novel potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for LAC.

Background Dysregulation of microRNAs has been reported to be responsible for drug resistance of cancers. However, the association between aberrant expression of miR-26b and cisplatin resistance in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains unclear. Methods PC9 and A549 were used to establish the cisplatin resistance models on NSCLC. Expression of miR-26b in cisplatin-resistant PC9 and A549 cells (PC9/R and A549/R) was detected by quantitative real-time PCR assays. Drug sensitivity and mitochondrial apoptosis were detected by Cell Counting Kit-8 assay and flow cytometry assay, respectively. The target relationship between miR-26b and tafazzin (TAZ) was validated by dual-luciferase reporter assay. Results Obvious downregulation of miR-26b was observed in PC9/R and A549/R cells. Restoration of miR-26b partially reversed the cisplatin resistance of PC9/R and A549/R cells. Expression of TAZ was increased in PC9/R and A549/R cells compared to the parental PC9 and A549 cells. Results of dual-luciferase reporter assays verified that TAZ was targeted by miR-26b. We showed that restoration of miR-26b expression inhibited the TAZ expression and thus expanded the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis induced by cisplatin in PC9/R and A549/R cells. Conclusion Restoration of miR-26b expression partially reverses the cisplatin resistance of NSCLC by targeting TAZ. miR-26b/TAZ axis may represent a potential strategy to reverse the cisplatin in NSCLC.

Background: Pediatric obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is significant public concern. Clinical practice indicates that montelukast has certain therapeutic advantages, while there is a lack of evidence-based medicine support. The aim of this study is to synthesize related data to explore efficacy and safety of montelukast for pediatric OSAS. Methods: Data in Pubmed, EMBASE, CENTRAL, CBM, CNKI, WanFang, VIP databases were comprehensively searched. All the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in OSAS children were identified, in which the effects of montelukast on a range of outcomes were compared. The search had a deadline of January 1, 2020. Two investigators independently conducted data extraction and assessed the literature quality of the included studies. The Revman5.3 software was used for meta-analysis of the included literature. Results: The efficacy and safety of montelukast in the treatment of pediatric OSAS were evaluated in terms of apnea hypopnea index (AHI), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Epworth Sleep Scale (ESS), neck circumference, important index in Polysomnography: sleep efficiency, desaturation index, total sleep time. Conclusions: This study provides reliable evidence-based support for the clinical application of montelukast in the treatment of pediatric OSAS. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42020146940.

Low-cost activated carbons were prepared from poplar wood by chemical activation with KOH as a chemical activating agent. The thermal behavior of KOH-impregnated poplar wood was analyzed in detail via the Thermogravimetric analysis (TG, DTG and DSC). Moreover, the effects of impregnation ratio, activation temperature and activation time on the porous structure were investigated. Results showed that KOH has catalytic effect which could promote the pyrolysis of poplar wood at lower activation temperature. The activated carbons from poplar wood with KOH activation could be formed at 550–700 °C. The specific surface area and pore volume of activated carbon increased with increasing the impregnation ratio, activation temperature and activation time. Moreover, influence of increasing impregnation ratio on the porosity of activated carbon is sensitive to activation time. The maximum specific surface area (1551 m2/g) activated carbon with uniform micropores distribution was obtained at activation temperature of 700 °C, impregnation ratio of 3/1 and activation time of 30 min. Carbon skeleton could break seriously when activation temperature is higher than 750 °C.

Lung cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer-related death all over the world. In recent years, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been reported to play critical roles in the development and progression of human malignancies. In the present study, we aimed to study the role and mechanism of FLVCR1-AS1 in human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Results revealed that FLVCR1-AS1 was markedly upregulated in NSCLC tissues and cell lines. Knockdown of FLVCR1-AS1 significantly inhibited the proliferation, migration, invasion and promoted apoptosis of NSCLC cells, and suppressed tumor growth of NSCLC in vivo. Moreover, we explored regulatory mechanism, and found that FLVCR1-AS1 functioned as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) by directly binding to miRNA-573, and E2F transcription factor 3 (E2F3) was identified as a down-stream target of miR-573. FLVCR1-AS1 positively regulated E2F3 expression through inhibiting miR-573 in NSCLC cells. Our findings suggested that FLVCR1-AS1/miR-573/E2F3 axis was an important signaling pathway in mediating tumorigenesis and progression of NSCLC, and further indicated that FLVCR1-AS1 could be a novel diagnostic biomarker and therapeutic target for NSCLC.

Modeling of particulate or thin-layer drying of materials is necessary to understand the fundamental transport mechanism and a prerequisite to successfully simulate or scale up the whole process for optimization or control of the operating conditions. Simple models with a reasonable physical meaning are effective for engineering purposes. Thin-layer drying of green peas was carried out in a fluidized bed with a newly developed slotted gas distributor. Based on the reaction engineering approach, a drying model of green peas was well established, in which relative activation energy (ΔEv/ΔEv,b) was correlated with reduced moisture content (X − Xb) at a drying air temperature of 80°C. The drying kinetics of green peas was discussed in terms of activation energy. In addition, activation energy based on a simplified material surface temperature profile was recalculated to evaluate the temperature sensitivity to the model establishment.

Activated carbons were produced from walnut shell by fast activation with H3PO4in a spouted bed, and the influence of particles fluidization had been investigated. Experimental results showed that walnut shell particles with higher H3PO4impregnation ratios would be agglomerated in spouted bed, and difficult to fluidize. Therefore, an amount of quartz sands were added to assist fluidization of H3PO4impregnated walnut shell particles. The BET surface area of activated carbon prepared under fluidization would be obviously increased with H3PO4impregnation ratio, reaching 1549.6 m2/g for the mass ratio of H3PO4to walnut shell particles of 2 and activation temperature of 700°C. Meanwhile, both of the micro- and meso- pore volumes were increased. In addition, fluidization of particles had very little influence on activated carbon surface functional groups forming. It was found that the activated carbons contained more carbonyl groups (C = O), carboxyl groups (COOH) and some P-containing functional group.

Two kinds of pinewood sawdust activated carbon adsorbents were prepared by fast activation with H

Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), which exist in the inner retina, are the retinal neurons which can be damaged in the early stage of diabetic retinopathy (DR). Liraglutide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analog, exerts biological functions by binding the receptor (GLP-1R), the expression of which in RGC-5 cells was first shown by our team in 2012. It was reported that liraglutide prevented retinal neurodegeneration in diabetic subjects. However, the involvement of mechanisms such as autophagy and mitochondrial balance in liraglutide-induced retinal protection is unknown. Here, we aimed to investigate the protective effects of liraglutide and explore the potential mechanisms of liraglutide-induced retinal RGC protection. RGC-5 cells were treated with H

During drying, hydrodynamics of fluidized beds can vary due to moisture evaporation. It is of practical importance to quantify the fluidized bed hydrodynamics by analysis of pressure fluctuations, especially when drying cohesive materials. In this study, spent liquor from a fermentation process for the production of yeast was mixed with corn bran at different mass ratios, and used as the fluidizing material of various stickiness levels. Local bed pressure fluctuations and the dryer exhaust air temperature as well as relative humidity were monitored over the course of drying. The pressure fluctuation data were analyzed using statistical methods. The bed hydrodynamic behavior was interpreted in terms of the time-averaged bed-pressure drop and its standard deviation. The transition from channeling to uniform fluidization occurs when both the average pressure drop and the standard deviation vary little with time. Also, the average values of the bed-pressure drop within short periods in reference to the ideal ...

Retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) is a newly discovered adipokine, which is reported to be correlated with insulin resistance (IR) and type 2 diabetes (T2DM). The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of menopausal status on RBP4 concentration and to investigate serum RBP4 with IR and the prevalence of T2DM in postmenopausal women. We conducted a cross-sectional study and enrolled 34 healthy premenopausal women, 41 healthy postmenopausal women and 37 postmenopausal women with T2DM. Serum RBP4 concentration was measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Anthropometric parameters, plasma glucose, insulin and sex hormones concentrations were measured, and IR was assessed by HOMA2-IR. We found RBP4 was significantly elevated after menopause, even after adjustment for age and BMI. In postmenopausal women, RBP4 correlated positively with BMI, WHR, FPI, HOMA2-IR, TG and FAI, while negatively with SHBG (p