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Background: Acute lung injury(ALI) is a complicated disease with high morbidity and mortality for pediatric after living donor liver transplant (LDLT), the identification of effective prediction model involved in ALI is urgent and highly demanded. Methods: Perioperative data of patients were obtained through the electronic medical records system. Patients were divided into non-ALI group and ALI group according according to whether ALI occurred in the first week after surgery.The main measure was serum miR-122 and miR-21 levels after anesthesia induction(T1), 10min of anhepatic phase(T2), 30min of neohepatic phase (T3) and directly after surgery(T4). Lung ultrasound examination was performed three times at 24 h before LDLT, 24h and 72h after LDLT. Multiple logistic regression analysis of preoperative factors was conducted to screen the risk factors of ALI, and the predictive value of risk factors was evaluated by ROC curve.Lung ultrasound score(LUS) after LDLT was used to compare the pulmonary complications between two groups. Results: A total of 90 patients were included, including 53 in the non-ALI group and 37 in the ALI group. Increased intraoperative blood transfusion volume,TNF-α at T3, miR-122 at T4 and miR-21 at T4 were related factors for the occurrence of ALI.( PConclusion: Increased intraoperative blood transfusion, TNF-α, miR-122 and miR-21 levels are independent risk factors for ALI after LDLT, the LUS of pulmonary complications was higher in ALI group, paying attention to these indicators can improve the efficacy of pediatric respiratory management after LDLT. Trial registration: www.chictr.org.cn/ identifier: ChiCTR2200059722.

The micro-grinding of complex meso/micro-components of hard and brittle materials have attracted much attention in recent years. However, little related knowledge was accumulated, and there is a lack of quantitative evaluation of edge chipping damage, which is a major drawback. A theoretical model was established to further analyze the material removal mechanism under the action of single grain, considering the pressure phase transition, dislocation nucleation, and crack growth. An evaluation factor Fr of edge chipping damage was proposed to provide a reference for evaluating micro-grinding quality. Besides, the theoretical results were verified using the nano-scratch test. The experimental results proved that the proposed evaluation factor was an efficient tool to describe and predict micro-grinding quality.

A magnetorheological shear thickening fluid (MSTF) is prepared through adding carbonyl iron particles and Al2O3 abrasives into the traditional shear thickening fluid (STF) to improve low shear stress characteristic of STF in this work. To select the optimal sample as base fluid for MSTF, a series of STFs was pre-prepared and its rheological characteristics were further tested, which contained different concentrations of starch polymer and abrasive. Furthermore, different character parameters of MSTFs, such as magnetic field intensity and carbonyl iron particle’s concentration, were experimentally tested to explore its rheological characteristics. Then, the magnetorheological effect on shear thickening formation of MSTFs was furtherly discussed. Experimental results show that with the same base fluid the viscosity and the shear stress of MSTFs are both higher than of STFs under the action of magnetic field. Moreover, the MSTF exhibits a good shear thickening effect under the weak magnetic field intensity and at low level of iron particle concentration, because the existence of hydrogen bonds and magnetic particle chains makes the shear thickening effect of MSTF enhanced by particle clusters. The results indicate that the MSTFs as polishing fluid contribute to develop a higher efficiency polishing method in the future.

High-speed micromilling can be used to fabricate 3D complex miniature components. The regenerative chatter, which is closely related to machining geometric accuracy, surface quality and tool wear, is a very important topic in micromachining research. In order to predict the high-speed micromilling stability more comprehensively, a micromilling force model was developed, which took into account the nonlinear change of cutting coefficients caused by feed rate, and the process damping effect in the shearing-dominant regimes. The relationship between micromilling force coefficients and feed rate were researched by using the least square and regression analysis method which are suitable to fit the relationship between related variables through experimental data, and ignore the complex internal relationships. The dynamic parameters of tool-machine system were obtained by performing FEM simulation on the entire spindle-holder-tool system. The continuous change of feed rate was first considered into micromilling 3D stability model by analyzing the influence of feed rate on milling force coefficients. Finally, micromilling tests were performed on AL7075 to verify the accuracy of the stability prediction model.

Background Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are an essential component of tumor microenvironment. They are attracting increasing attentions due to their crucial role in tumor growth, drug-resistance and metastasis. Cisplatin is a first-line chemotherapy drug applying in various types of cancer. There are intensive studies on cisplatin's effect on tumor cells, however, its effect on CAFs remains poorly understood. In the present study, we investigated the effect of cisplatin on CAFs. Methods Cell migration was detected by wound healing assay. Cell invasion was performed by the transwell assay. mRNA expression was detected by quantitative PCR, and protein expression was detected by Western blotting. Tumor growth was measured using BALB/c nude mice tumor models. Results Cisplatin attenuated the promoting capacity of CAFs on lung cancer cell migration and invasion, via suppressing CAFs' effect on metastasis-related genes including Twist1, vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR), MMP2, and AKT signaling pathway. Keratin 8 (KRT8) was identified as a target of cisplatin. KRT8 upregulation in CAFs is responsible for the inhibitory effect of cisplatin on lung cancer cells metastasis potential through AKT pathway suppression. The stimulation of AKT by AKT activator SC79 reversed KRT8's effect on cell migration. Importantly, in vivo study also showed that CAFs enhanced tumor growth significantly, and cisplatin effectively abrogated the promoting effect of CAFs on tumor growth. Conclusion Our results revealed a novel mechanism that cisplatin attenuated the metastasis promoting effect of CAFs via KRT8/AKT signaling pathway. This finding highlights KRT8 in CAFs as a potential therapeutic candidate for metastasis treatment.

Nano/micro-scaled suspensions used in damping systems, bulletproof materials and flexible machining regions are developing towards external energy field control and multi-type and multi-scale dispersed phase particles. However, the above-mentioned changes make the rheological properties of the fluid more complex, which cannot be characterized efficiently with high quality by traditional constitutive equations. In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, based on the multi-peak fitting characterization method of the Gaussian function, the field-induced rheological constitutive equation of a multi-scale particle suspension turbidity system (MRSTPF as an example) was established. Under the condition of shear distribution and external magnetic field affection, the rheological characteristic curves of the dispersion system were measured using an Antompa MCR301 rheometer. The Origin software was used to fit and characterize the above-mentioned rheological data. The results indicate that the method can effectively establish field-induced constitutive equations of different dispersed systems, and the fitting goodness evaluation parameters are above 95% (

To resolve the high attenuation issue in terahertz (THz) wave propagation in air, we propose a split ring resonator (SRR) structure, consisting of a subwavelength slit and a circular cavity in the wavelength size, which can support coupling resonant modes and achieve a remarkable omnidirectional electromagnetic signals gain (∼40 dB) at 0.4 THz. Based on the Bruijn method, we also develop and numerically confirm a new analytic approach which successfully predicts the dependence of field enhancement on key geometric parameters of the SRR. Compared to the typical LC resonance, the enhanced field at the coupling resonance exhibits a high-quality waveguide mode in the circular cavity, paving a way for direct detection and transmission of the enhanced THz signals in future communication systems.

The wear of micro-grinding tools less than 1 mm in diameter is crucial for achieving acceptable surface quality and accurate dimension of the workpiece. To control wear behavior of the micro-grinding tools, an investigation through experiments was conducted on the machining and wear performance of various (D-shaped PCD, CVD, electroless plated, and electroplated) diamond micro-grinding tools on monocrystalline silicon workpiece in this study. The experiments showed that a CVD diamond micro-grinding tool had excellent machining performance, but its relatively large diameter limited its application range. An electroplated diamond micro-grinding tool had a good machining performance but displayed severe wear. To comprehensively understand its wear mechanism, a series of grinding experiments were further done. Its mechanism was analyzed through investigating the tool and machining process parameters. In order to accurately evaluate tool wear, the ratio of tool radius loss to average grain diameter (δ) and the ratio of the lost grain number to the total grain number (η) were proposed. The δ-ratio and η-ratio related to the wear limit of 600 mesh size micro-grinding tools having a diameter of 0.5 mm were 0.16–0.18 and 11.50–13.88%, respectively.

The machining quality of the blade tip has a great influence on the service performance and life of the aero-engine blade. The recent paper investigates the effect of vibration during the grinding process of the GH4169 nickel-based superalloy blade tip. Moreover, this paper proposes a theoretical model to link the unbalance of the grinding wheel, the vibration, and the surface topography characteristics of the blade. The results show that the blade vibration during grinding and the resulting non-linear change of the grinding depth could reduce the surface quality of the blade tip, and lead to differences in the surface quality of the blade tip in different areas, where the surface roughness in the entry area zone I is the largest, in the exit area zone III is the second largest, and the intermediate area zone III is the smallest. Grinding depth has a greater impact on the difference of the surface quality in the blade tip grinding process, especially when the grinding depth is greater than 4 μm, the difference of surface roughness increases significantly. On the other hand, the feed rate has little effect on the difference in surface quality. Adding damping block can reduce the surface roughness of the blade tip, however, it does not reduce the difference in surface quality.

Tumor progression requires the communication between tumor cells and tumor microenvironment (TME). Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are major components of stromal cells. CAFs contribute to metastasis process through direct or indirect interaction with tumor cells; however, the underlying mechanism is largely unknown. Here, we reported that autophagy was upregulated in lung cancer-associated CAFs compared to normal fibroblasts (NFs), and autophagy was responsible for the promoting effect of CAFs on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell migration and invasion. Inhibition of CAFs autophagy attenuated their regulation on epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) and metastasis-related genes of NSCLC cells. High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) secreted by CAFs mediated CAFs’ effect on lung cancer cell invasion, demonstrated by using recombinant HMGB1, HMGB1 neutralizing antibody, and HMGB1 inhibitor glycyrrhizin (GA). Importantly, the autophagy blockade of CAFs revealed that HMGB1 release was dependent on autophagy. We also found HMGB1 was responsible, at least in part, for autophagy activation of CAFs, suggesting CAFs remain active through an autocrine HMGB1 loop. Further study demonstrated that HMGB1 facilitated lung cancer cell invasion by activating the NFκB pathway. In a mouse xenograft model, the autophagy specific inhibitor chloroquine abolished the stimulating effect of CAFs on tumor growth. These results elucidated an oncogenic function for secretory autophagy in lung cancer-associated CAFs that promotes metastasis potential, and suggested HMGB1 as a novel therapeutic target.

Micro-grinding has a wide application for machining meso/micro parts using hard and brittle materials with high precision. In order to investigate the effect of grinding parameters and various micro-grinding tools on micro-grinding quality, experimental trials on side grinding of single crystal silicon (100 lattice orientation) were carried out using electroplated diamond micro-grinding tools. Based on experimental results, the effects of grinding parameters involving spindle speed, grinding depth and feed rate, together with various micro-grinding tools including different grain size and tip diameter on micro-grinding quality were discussed. The micro-grinding quality was mainly evaluated in terms of surface roughness and the average edge-chipping width. The wear condition of micro-grinding tools under different tip diameter and grain size was analyzed. In addition, the effect of tool wear on micro-grinding quality was also discussed. From the experimental results, feed rate showed significant effect on micro-grinding quality. The wear of micro-grinding tools could be divided into initially fast wear stage and steady wear stage, which was crucial to influence the grinding quality.

Muscle redox disturbances and oxidative stress have emerged as a common pathogenetic mechanism and potential therapeutic intervention in some muscle diseases. Parthenolide (PTL), a sesquiterpene lactone found in large amounts in the leaves of feverfew, possesses anti-inflammatory, anti-migraine, and anticancer properties. Although PTL was reported to alleviate cancer cachexia and improve skeletal muscle characteristics in a cancer cachexia model, its actions on oxidative stress-induced damage in C2C12 myoblasts have not been reported and the regulatory mechanisms have not yet been defined. In our study, PTL attenuated H2 O2 -induced growth inhibition and morphological changes. Furthermore, PTL exhibited scavenging activity against reactive oxygen species and protected C2C12 cells from apoptosis in response to H2 O2 . Meanwhile, PTL suppressed collapse of the mitochondrial membrane potential, thereby contributing to normalizing H2 O2 -induced autophagy flux and mitophagy, correlating with inhibiting degradation of mitochondrial marker protein TIM23, the increase in LC3-II expression and the reduction of mitochondria DNA. Besides its protective effect on mitochondria, PTL also prevented H2 O2 -induced lysosomes damage in C2C12 cells. In addition, the phosphorylation of p53, cathepsin B, and Bax/Bcl-2 protein levels, and the translocation of Bax from the cytosol to mitochondria induced by H2 O2 in C2C12 cells was significantly reduced by PTL. In conclusion, PTL modulates oxidative stress-induced mitophagy and protects C2C12 myoblasts against apoptosis, suggesting a potential protective effect against oxidative stress-associated skeletal muscle diseases.

The existing ultra-precision micro-spindles fail to achieve the machining requirement of sub-micron precision because of its large radial error. In this study, the calculation model of radial offse...

This paper analyzes the grinding force variation of grind-hardening process and proposes a simulation model to predict the residual stress profile based on the variable grinding forces. Time-dependent grinding force is discretized to calculate the heat flux intensity, which is applied on the actual contact length for the grinding temperature field, and the harden layer depth along the workpiece length is predicted. After that, the mechanical and thermal stress field is calculated with the results of variable grinding forces and grinding temperature, respectively. The loading stresses are coupled into an elastic-plastic structural analysis to estimate the residual stresses by defining indicator variables. Experimental results on the residual stress and the harden layer profile have validated the theoretical model.

Mechanical micro-machining has significant advantages in compassion with other machining techniques in terms of workpiece complexity, material diversity, energy consumption, and cost. The existing micro-spindles, as the key fundamental equipment, cannot simultaneously guarantee ultra-high rotational speed, high rotational accuracy, and compact structure. This study discussed the details in designing of high-speed precision micro-spindles, and a new micro-spindle was proposed, which is driven by an air turbine. To enhance its stiffness and rotational accuracy, the porous ceramic aerostatic bearings are used. The key structural parameters were selected based on theoretical calculation and simulation analysis. More importantly, the theoretical models for its static error and dynamic response predictions were established and combined to optimize the size of micro-spindle. The prototype micro-spindle has a radial motion error of approximately 6.0 μm and no heating problem. The micro-grinding experiment of micro-channel shows its good feasibility and potential application in mechanical micro-machining. And it has very simple and compact structure (28 mm in diameter × 45 mm in length) and low manufacturing difficulty and cost.

This research analyzes the field enhancement properties of a subwavelength metallic groove working at [Formula: see text] terahertz (THz), which is potentially applicable as a receiver to enhance THz signals in integrated circuits. We derive the analytic formulation of the field magnification by utilizing the distinctive characteristics of the electromagnetic (EM) field inside and above the groove with the EM field continuity on the upper and lower surfaces of the groove. This method, known as the Bruijn theory, has been applied in acoustics and optics to obtain reflection and absorption coefficients. Then, the dependence of these field enhancement properties on both the groove width and depth is examined by theoretical analysis and numerical simulations consistently. Results show that the field enhancement varies periodically with the groove depth in a period of [Formula: see text], featuring the typical Fabry–Perot resonance. The field enhancement is inversely proportional to the groove width due to the cavity effect. Besides, the field intensity can be further enhanced by [Formula: see text] via appropriately rounding the sharp vertices at the inlet of the groove. Moreover, the incident angle effect on the field enhancing property is explored. An enhancement of >32 dB can be realized at any incident angle with a groove of dimensions [Formula: see text]. These results are helpful for understanding the field enhancement mechanism and designing novel THz plasmonic devices, such as an easily manufactured antenna receiver or sensor with simple and compact configuration, as well as offering a feasible solution for the high attenuation problem of THz communications.

We theoretically demonstrate a Dirac fermion metagrating which is an artificially engineered material in graphene. Although its physics mechanism is different from that of optical metagrating, both of them can deliver waves to one desired diffraction order. Here we design the metagrating as a linear array of bias-tunable quantum dots to engineer electron beams to travel along the -1st-order transmission direction with unity efficiency. Equivalently, electron waves are deflected by an arbitrary large-angle ranging from 90° to 180° by controlling the bias. The propagation direction changes abruptly without the necessity of a large transition distance. This effect is irrelevant to complete band gaps and thus the advantages of graphene with high mobility are not destroyed. This can be attributed to the whispering-gallery modes, which evolve with the angle of incidence to completely suppress the other diffraction orders supported by the metagrating and produce unity-efficiency beam deflection by enhancing the -1st transmitted diffraction order. The concept of Dirac fermion metagratings opens up a new paradigm in electron beam steering and could be applied to achieve two-dimensional electronic holography.

Cortical bones are semi-brittle and anisotropic, this brings the challenge to suppress vibration and avoid undesired fracture in precise cutting processes in surgeries. In this paper, we proposed a novel analytical model to represent cutting processes of cortical bones, and we used to evaluate cutting forces and fracture toughness, and investigate the formations of chips and cracks under varying bone osteon cutting angles and depths. To validate the proposed model, the experiments are conducted on orthogonal cuttings over cortical bones to investigate the impact of bone osteon cutting angle and depth on cutting force, crack initialization and growth, and fracture toughness of cortical bone microstructure. The experimental results highly agreed with the prediction by the proposed model in sense that (1) curly, serrated, grainy and powdery chips were formed when the cutting angle was set as 0°, 60°, 90°, and 120°, respectively. (2) Bone materials were removed dominantly by shearing at a small depth of cut from 10 to 50 µm, and by a mixture of pealing, shearing, and bending at a large depth of cut over 100 µm at different cutting orientations. Moreover, it was found that a cutting path along the direction of crack initialization and propagation benefited to suppress the fluctuation of cutting force thus reduce the vibration. The presented model has theoretical and practical significance in optimizing cutting tools and operational parameters in surgeries.

We study the response of ballistic electron waves in graphene to a square array composed of gate-defined quantum dots when the incident energy is at the neutral point of the Dirac conical dispersion. The effective medium theory shows that the array will behave as a zero-refractive-index medium. Our simulations based on the rigorous multiple scattering theory corroborate that it can indeed exhibit various typical applications of zero-refractive-index media, such as the focusing effect of electron waves, the control over the propagation direction, and directional emission. The array is usually about one-wavelength thick so that the incident wave can penetrate it and the wave front can be tailored by engineering the geometrical shape of the emergent surface. The wave-manipulating behaviors based on zero-index metamaterials could open unprecedented opportunities to steer the flow of graphene electrons in novel manners and shape the wave front of electron beams at will.

We demonstrate a new electromagnetic mode which is formed by the dynamic interaction between a magnetic quadrupole mode and an electric monopole mode in a two-dimensional electromagnetic Helmholtz cavity. It is termed a magnetic symmetric dipole mode since it shares similarity with a magnetic dipole mode in the sense that their radiation is both overwhelmingly dominant in the forward and backward directions with respect to the incident wave. However, the phase distribution in the two radiation directions is symmetric, in stark contrast to the antisymmetry of magnetic dipole modes. When the Helmholtz cavities are arranged in a line, the incident wave will be reflected back to the source, in other words, retroreflection occurs because of the peculiar properties of magnetic symmetric dipole modes. We show that the retroreflection is quite robust against the disorder of the orientation angle of Helmholtz cavities and there exists a wide tolerance for wavelength and the outer radius of the cavity. With low fabrication demands, this might offer a feasible solution for the design of ultrathin retroreflectors towards device miniaturization and the realization of multiplexing holography.

To carry out G-banded chromosomal karyotyping and chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) for a fetus featuring multiple malformations.The fetus was found to have increased nuchal thickness, generalized edema, asymmetric lower limbs, tetralogy of Fallot, nasal bone anomaly and cleft palate. Following amniocentesis, G-band karyotyping and CMA were carried out.The fetus had a karyotype of 47,XX,+i(12)(p10) [14]/46,XX[6]. CMA has identified a 33.9 Mb duplication at 12p13.33-p11.1, which was suggestive of tetrasomy 12p.Combined chromosomal karyotyping and CMA can delineate the origin of abnormal chromosomal fragments during prenatal diagnosis. The fetus was diagnosed with Pallister-Killian syndrome.

Microglia are innate immune cells in the central nervous system (CNS), that supplies neurons with key factors for executing autophagosomal/lysosomal functions. Macroautophagy/autophagy is a cellular catabolic process that maintains cell balance in response to stress-related stimulation. Abnormal autophagy occurs with many pathologies, such as cancer, and autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases. Hence, clarification of the mechanisms of autophagy regulation is of utmost importance. Recently, researchers presented microRNAs (miRNAs) as novel and potent modulators of autophagic activity. Here, we found that Mir223 deficiency significantly ameliorated CNS inflammation, demyelination and the clinical symptoms of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) and increased resting microglia and autophagy in brain microglial cells. In contrast, the autophagy inhibitor 3-methylademine (3-MA) aggravated the clinical symptoms of EAE in wild-type (WT) and Mir223-deficienct mice. Furthermore, it was confirmed that Mir223 deficiency in mice increased the protein expression of ATG16L1 (autophagy related 16-like 1 [S. cerevisiae]) and LC3-II in bone marrow-derived macrophage cells compared with cells from WT mice. Indeed, the cellular level of Atg16l1 was decreased in BV2 cells upon Mir223 overexpression and increased following the introduction of antagomirs. We also showed that the 3’ UTR of Atg16l1 contained functional Mir223-responsive sequences and that overexpression of ATG16L1 returned autophagy to normal levels even in the presence of Mir223 mimics. Collectively, these data indicate that Mir223 is a novel and important regulator of autophagy and that Atg16l1 is a Mir223 target in this process, which may have implications for improving our understanding of the neuroinflammatory process of EAE. Abbreviations: 3-MA: 3-methylademine; ACTB/β-actin: actin, beta; ATG: autophagy related; ATG16L1: autophagy related 16-like 1 (S. cerevisiae); BECN1: beclin 1, autophagy related; CNR2: cannabinoid receptor 2 (macrophage); CNS: central nervous system; CQ: chloroquine; EAE: experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis; FOXO3: forkhead box O3; GAPDH: glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; H&E: hematoxylin and eosin; ITGAM: integrin alpha M; LPS: lipoplysaccharide; MAP1LC3/LC3: microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3; miRNAs: microRNAs; MS: multiple sclerosis; PPARG: peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma; PTPRC: protein tyrosine phosphatase, receptor type, C; RA: rheumatoid arthritis; SQSTM1: sequestosome 1; TB: tuberculosis; TIMM23: translocase of inner mitochondrial membrane 23; TLR: toll-like receptor.

The existing micro-spindle systems equipped with micro-tools compromise micro-machining accuracy and efficiency due to their large error. In this study, the radial error of micro-tool tip was classified into static mechanical offset, thermally induced error, and radial motion error. The micro-tool tip, having the smallest stiffness, was the major error source of radial mechanical offset. A stiffness-based error model was proposed to predict the radial mechanical offset of micro-tool tip, and the predictions were well consistent with the measured values. The front bearing, due to its large thermal loss, had lower temperature than the rear bearing at nearly all rotational speeds. The difference of thermal growths between the two ball bearings resulted in the thermally induced error. The thermally induced error increased rapidly with running time within the first hour and then entered into a relative stable state, which was modeled by the least square method. The proposed model of thermally induced error also considered exponential characteristic of spindle thermal growth in nature. It agreed well with the measured values. The radial motion error increased with the over-hang length of micro-tool, but decreased with the rotational speed. It was modeled by the least square method and validated by the measurements. The micro-grinding tests were conducted to further verify the proposed predictive models of static mechanical offset, thermally induced error, and radial motion error. With the error compensation, the micro-grinding thickness was close to the required value, which showed the error predictive models and compensation scheme were effective.

Adiponectin (APN), also known as apM1, Acrp30, GBP28 and adipoQ, is a circulating hormone that is predominantly produced by adipose tissue. Many pharmacological studies have demonstrated that this protein possesses potent anti-diabetic, anti-atherogenic and anti-inflammatory properties. Although several studies have demonstrated the antioxidative activity of this protein, the regulatory mechanisms have not yet been defined in skeletal muscles. The aim of the present study was to examine the cytoprotective effects of APN against damage induced by oxidative stress in mouse-derived C2C12 myoblasts. APN attenuated H2O2-induced growth inhibition and exhibited scavenging activity against intracellular reactive oxygen species that were induced by H2O2. Furthermore, treating C2C12 cells with APN significantly induced heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and nuclear factor-erythroid 2 related factor 2 (Nrf2). APN also suppressed H2O2-induced mitophagy and partially inhibited the colocalization of mitochondria with autophagosomes/lysosomes, correlating with the expression of Pink1 and Parkin and mtDNA. Moreover, APN protected C2C12 myoblasts against oxidative stress-induced apoptosis. Furthermore, APN significantly reduced the mRNA and protein expression levels of Bax. These data suggest that APN has a moderate regulatory role in oxidative stress-induced mitophagy and suppresses apoptosis. These findings demonstrate the antioxidant potential of APN in oxidative stress-associated skeletal muscle diseases.

Primary and secondary isotope effect on tunnelling in malonaldehyde is investigated with reduced-dimensional quantum mechanical models in the saddle-point normal coordinates, where the Hamiltonian takes the imaginary-frequency normal model as the reaction coordinate and uses the relaxed potentials to approximate the normal modes not explicitly included. Our two-dimensional (2D) results of the ground-state tunnelling splitting (Δ0), as well as the ratio of the Δ0 in malonaldehyde to that in its isotopologues, are in reasonably good agreement with available experimental data. The experimental deduction about the appreciable impact of secondary isotope effect on tunnelling is further confirmed. Moreover, we find that in most isotopologues, the fundamental excitation of the ring-deformation normal mode, explicitly included in the 2D model, shows a large enhancement of tunnelling relative to the Δ0.

Currently, dry grind-hardening has been studied to achieve a deep grinding harden layer. For dry grind-hardening process, the ground surface may have a poor surface quality. In our previous research, minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) has been proved as an effective way to improve the surface quality in grind-hardening process. Unfortunately, the relationship between the surface quality and parameters of MQL is still not clear. In this paper, different spraying parameters (fluid flow, air pressure, nozzle location, spraying distance) are investigated in surface grinding experiments of annealed steel AISI 5140. Grind-hardening performances are analyzed for grinding force and surface quality, such as surface roughness, micro-hardness, and grinding harden layer depth. Consequently, the results show that MQL can improve the grinding surface roughness and the micro-hardness of the grinding harden layer. The surface roughness can be improved with a better lubrication, which can be achieved with the appr...

Isothiocyanates (ITCs) are natural compounds abundant in cruciferous vegetables. Numerous studies have shown that ITCs exhibit anticancer activity by affecting multiple pathways including apoptosis and oxidative stress, and are expected to be developed into novel anticancer drugs. In our previous studies, we demonstrated that ITCs effectively inhibit the proliferation of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells, also induce apoptosis and autophagy. In the present study, we found that phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC) had significant synergistic effects with epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor Gefitinib in NSCLC cell lines NCI-H1299 and SK-MES-1; and the degradation of antiapoptotic factor myeloid cell leukemia 1 (Mcl-1) caused by PEITC treatment played key roles in the sensitivity of NSCLC cells to Gefitinib. We further illustrated that PEITC regulated the expression of Mcl-1 through protein kinase RNA-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK)-eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2α-CHOP-Noxa pathway by a posttranscriptional modulation. Pretreatment with endoplasmic reticulum stress (ER stress) inhibitor tauroursodeoxycholic acid and knockdown of PERK expression attenuated the degradation of Mcl-1 caused by PEITC. In in vivo study, nude mice bearing NCI-H1299 xenograft were administrated with PEITC (50 mg/kg, ip) and Gefitinib (50 mg/kg, ig) for 15 days, the PEITC-Gefitinib combination treatment resulted in a significant synergistic reduction in tumor growth, and significantly induced both ER stress and Mcl-1 degradation in tumor tissues. In conclusion, we explored the prospect of PEITC in improving the efficacy of targeted drug therapy and demonstrated the synergistic effects and underlined mechanisms of PEITC combined with Gefitinib in NSCLC cells treatment. This study provided useful information for developing novel therapy strategies by combination treatment of PEITC with targeted drugs.

[Su(var)3‑9, enhancer of zeste, Trithorax] domain‑​containing protein 7 (SETD7) is a protein lysine methyltransferase that methylates both histone H3K4 and non‑histone proteins, such as transcription factors. The methylation on proteins alters their activity and affects a series of biological processes. Recent studies have demonstrated that SETD7 contributes to tumor progression and may play different roles in tumor development. However, the effect of SETD7 on lung cancer cell migration and invasion has not been fully elucidated. The present study demonstrated that the expression of SETD7 was significantly downregulated in lung cancer tissues in comparison with that in matched non‑cancer tissues, and lung cancer cell lines also exhibited lower SETD7 levels compared with normal human bronchial epithelial cells. Overexpression of SETD7 inhibited the migration and invasion of lung cancer cells, whereas decreased SETD7 expression promoted cell migration and invasion. Further study revealed that SETD7 regulated the expression of the metastasis‑related genes metalloproteinase 2, Twist1 and vascular endothelial growth factor. Furthermore, SETD7 knockdown activated the Janus kinase 2/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling pathway and enhanced lung cancer cell migration, whereas the STAT3‑specific inhibitor Stattic abrogated the effect of SETD7 on cell migration. Taken together, these data indicated that SETD7 acts as a tumor suppressor, and the reduced expression of SETD7 may contribute to lung cancer progression. The findings of the present study suggest that SETD7 may be a novel candidate for the treatment of metastatic lung cancer.