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In many types of cancer, the expression of the immunoregulatory protein B7-H3 has been associated with poor prognosis. Previously, we observed a link between B7-H3 and tumor cell migration and invasion, and in present study, we have investigated the role of B7-H3 in chemoresistance in breast cancer. We observed that silencing of B7-H3, via stable short hairpin RNA or transient short interfering RNA transfection, increased the sensitivity of multiple human breast cancer cell lines to paclitaxel as a result of enhanced drug-induced apoptosis. Overexpression of B7-H3 made the cancer cells more resistant to the drug. Next, we investigated the mechanisms behind B7-H3–mediated paclitaxel resistance and found that the level of Stat3 Tyr705 phosphorylation was decreased in B7-H3 knockdown cells along with the expression of its direct downstream targets Mcl-1 and survivin. The phosphorylation of Janus kinase 2 (Jak2), an upstream molecule of Stat3, was also significantly decreased. In contrast, reexpression of B7-H3 in B7-H3 knockdown and low B7-H3 expressing cells increased the phosphorylation of Jak2 and Stat3. In vivo animal experiments showed that B7-H3 knockdown tumors displayed a slower growth rate than the control xenografts. Importantly, paclitaxel treatment showed a strong antitumor activity in the mice with B7-H3 knockdown tumors, but only a marginal effect in the control group. Taken together, our data show that in breast cancer cells, B7-H3 induces paclitaxel resistance, at least partially by interfering with Jak2/Stat3 pathway. These results provide novel insight into the function of B7-H3 and encourage the design and testing of approaches targeting this protein and its partners. Mol Cancer Ther; 10(6); 960–71. ©2011 AACR.

Supplementary Figures 1-4 from B7-H3 Silencing Increases Paclitaxel Sensitivity by Abrogating Jak2/Stat3 Phosphorylation

Supplementary Figure Legends 1-4 from B7-H3 Silencing Increases Paclitaxel Sensitivity by Abrogating Jak2/Stat3 Phosphorylation

B7-H3 is a member of B7 family of immunoregulatory transmembrane glycoproteins expressed by T cells. While B7-H3 overexpression is associated with poor outcomes in multiple cancers, it also has immune-independent roles outside T cells and its precise mechanistic contributions to cancer are unclear. In this study, we investigated the role of B7-H3 in metabolic reprogramming of cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. We found that B7-H3 promoted the Warburg effect, evidenced by increased glucose uptake and lactate production in B7-H3–expressing cells. B7-H3 also increased the protein levels of HIF1α and its downstream targets, LDHA and PDK1, key enzymes in the glycolytic pathway. Furthermore, B7-H3 promoted reactive oxygen species–dependent stabilization of HIF1α by suppressing the activity of the stress-activated transcription factor Nrf2 and its target genes, including the antioxidants SOD1, SOD2, and PRX3. Metabolic imaging of human breast cancer xenografts in mice confirmed that B7-H3 enhanced tumor glucose uptake and tumor growth. Together, our results illuminate the critical immune-independent contributions of B7-H3 to cancer metabolism, presenting a radically new perspective on B7 family immunoregulatory proteins in malignant progression. Cancer Res; 76(8); 2231–42. ©2016 AACR.

Fig. S1: Glucose uptake and lactate production in B7-H3 knockdown Fig. S2: Growth inhibition W/O B7-H3 Fig S3: Proliferation assay in glucose deprivation. Fig. S4: Expression in B7-H3 knockdown w/o CoCl2. Fig. S5: mRNA levels. Fig. S6: Reduction of ROS by ROS scavenger in B7-H3 overexpression. Fig. S7: G6PD and SOD activity. Fig. S8: Growth Inhibition by ROS scavenger. Fig. S9: Immunohistochemistry analysis of xenograft tumors.

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Supplementary Figure Legends 1-3 from Overcoming Trastuzumab Resistance in Breast Cancer by Targeting Dysregulated Glucose Metabolism

Supplementary Figure 1 from Overcoming Trastuzumab Resistance in Breast Cancer by Targeting Dysregulated Glucose Metabolism

Supplementary Figure 2 from Overcoming Trastuzumab Resistance in Breast Cancer by Targeting Dysregulated Glucose Metabolism

Supplementary Figure 3 from Overcoming Trastuzumab Resistance in Breast Cancer by Targeting Dysregulated Glucose Metabolism

With the development of industry, sustainable use of natural resources has become a worldwide hot topic. Heavy metal–containing sludge (HMS) is a hazardous waste after wastewater treatment. At present, HMS is still treated by landfill or landfill after incineration. Considering the components, HMS usually contains various heavy metals and organic compounds, which is potentially used as a raw resource for catalyst production. This review thus concludes recent reports and developments in this field. First, basic technologies are summarized as component regulation, precursor formation, and structure transformations. Second, prepared materials are applied in various catalytic fields, such as gas purification, photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, and Fenton catalysis. During these processes, key factors are multi-metallic components, metal doping, temperature, and pH. They not only influence the formation of HMS-derived catalyst but also the catalytic activity. Furthermore, catalytic activities of HMS-derived catalysts are compared with those synthesized by pure reagents. An assessment and accounting are also supplied if raw resources are substituted by HMS. Finally, in order to apply HMS in a real application, more works must be devoted to the influence of trace metal doping on catalytic activities and stabilities. Besides, more pilot experiments are urgently necessary.

For solving the problem of fault diagnosis for systems with unknown but bounded noises, a directional expansion-based fault diagnosis algorithm using orthotopic and ellipsoidal filtering is proposed in this study. In this fault diagnosis process, whether the system is faulty or not is checked by detecting whether the ellipsoidal feasible set is empty. When the ellipsoidal feasible set is empty, the specific faulty components are isolated based on the empty state of the test ellipsoidal sets. The orthotopic set is expanded in the faulty directions alone to minimise the set containing the fault parameter vector. Finally, comparative analyses of the proposed fault diagnosis algorithm and global expansion-based fault diagnosis algorithm using the orthotopic and ellipsoidal filtering in both numerical and case simulations prove the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed algorithm and show the advantages of this algorithm in view of convergence rate and fault identification speed.

A novel nonlinear fault diagnosis method for detecting various slowly varying faults is proposed. The idea of linear programming binding constraints is adopted and the orthotopic spaces are recursively calculated to approximate the exact feasible parameter set, and a parameter global expansion filtering fault diagnosis algorithm is derived. Moreover, to reduce the amount of calculation and improve the efficiency of fault diagnosis, a parameter directional expansion filtering fault diagnosis algorithm is proposed based on the spatial dimension reduction. Finally, various simulation examples are provided to demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.

Policy is a powerful tool determining solid-waste treatment and disposal. In 2019, China carried out the "garbage-classification policy" in 46 cities. So-called dry garbage is then separated from municipal solid waste and treated alone by incineration. This work investigated the influence of the policy on contents and leaching characterizations of municipal solid waste incineration fly ash. Median value of Cl was significantly increased from 17.43 wt% to 28.63 wt%. Median content of CaO maintained a similar value (51.21 wt% and 47.27 wt%). Ten year ago, CaClOH was not generally observed in fly ash. However, this phase was widely detected nowadays. Median value of heavy-metal (Zn, Pb, Cu, Cd, Cr, and Ni) was decreased from 9007.69 mg/kg to 7652.72 mg/kg. Thus, the policy also positively affected hazardous-waste collection. Heavy-metal leaching concentrations were decreased and chemical speciation became more stable because CaClOH supplied more alkalinity and binding ability for heavy metals. Therefore, fly-ash treatment technologies and their running parameters should be regulated to adapt above new characterizations after the garbage-classification policy.

Droop control is one of the basic control methods to solve the problem of load sharing in DC microgrids. However, the conventional droop control cannot balance the current sharing accuracy and bus voltage regulation between micro-sources(MSs). To tackle this problem, the ideal output current of each MS can be obtained based on the dynamic consensus algorithm. Then an improved droop control method that changes the droop coefficient by fuzzy control is proposed to improve the robustness of the system. The bus voltage can be effectively controlled while the currents are accurately shared. Finally, the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed droop control strategy are verified by MATLB/SIMULINK simulation.

After introducing the demand response strategy, a game strategy of multiple subjects is proposed in this article. Firstly, based on the Stackelberg theory, the game model including three subjects, the utility company, the ordinary sales company and the load aggregator, was built. A piece-wise utility function of the aggregator based on the demand response characteristics was also proposed. Then, a two-level game system was established, which not only the game between the sales side and the user side, but also the internal game mechanism of the sales side is established. Finally, a dynamic objective particle swarm optimization algorithm based the backward recursive theory was put forward to solve the model. The result showed that after introducing competition into the sales side, the electric price has obviously decreased, and the game between sales companies made the electric price come to steady faster. The two-level game model decreased the load difference between peak and valley and optimized the load curve.

With the development of industry, sustainable use of natural resources has become a worldwide hot topic. Heavy metal-containing sludge (HMS) is a hazardous waste after wastewater treatment. At present, HMS is still treated by landfill or landfill after incineration. Considering the components, HMS usually contains various heavy metals and organic compounds, which is potentially used as a raw resource for catalyst production. This review thus concludes recent reports and developments in this field. First, basic technologies are summarized as component regulation, precursor formation, and structure transformations. Second, prepared materials are applied in various catalytic fields, such as gas purification, photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, and Fenton catalysis. During these processes, key factors are multi-metallic components, metal doping, temperature, and pH. They not only influence the formation of HMS-derived catalyst but also the catalytic activity. Furthermore, catalytic activities of HMS-derived catalysts are compared with those synthesized by pure reagents. An assessment and accounting are also supplied if raw resources are substituted by HMS. Finally, in order to apply HMS in a real application, more works must be devoted to the influence of trace metal doping on catalytic activities and stabilities. Besides, more pilot experiments are urgently necessary.

In particulate matter, organic precursors generate environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFRs) on metal oxides and attract worldwide attentions in health risk assessment and environmental protection. For the first time, we determined characteristics and formation processes of EPFRs evolved from different organic precursors on PbO particulate. As a result, phenol resulted in phenoxyl radical at 230 °C by releasing one H atom. One Cl atom was eliminated from monochlorobenzene and 1,2-dichlorobenzene, producing phenyl and chlorobenzene radicals, respectively. The decays of these radicals had an order of chlorobenzene radical (4 d) > phenyl radical (3 d) > phenoxyl radical (2 d). Density functional theory calculations indicated that the long decay of chlorobenzene radical was contributed to the high adsorption energy of 1,2-dichlorobenzene on PbO particulate. Furthermore, chlorobenzene radical produced more reactive oxygen species than the other two radicals in oxidative-stress investigations. Therefore, 1,2-dichlorobenzene creates more persistent EPFR, which will cause more dangerous health impact. The main results of this article provide a new insight into the health risk assessment of organic and oxide-containing particulate matter.

A novel power converter modeling and fault diagnosis algorithm is proposed in this paper. The equivalent schematic diagram of Boost converter is formed, before adopting the recursive least squares principle to build the converter system. To reduce the data fluctuations in the process of modeling and fault diagnosis, the innovations in fixed steps are stacked into the multi-innovation vectors and a multi-innovation least squares based modeling algorithm is studied for the power converter system modeling. By detecting the sudden change on the parameters, the given fault diagnosis algorithm based on the multi-innovation least squares law can find the faulty component in the power converter system. The simulations can illustrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed modeling and fault diagnosis algorithm under different innovation lengths and series resistances.

The inclusion of multi-scale hybrid fibers in cement-based materials exhibits excellent crack resistance performance at multi-level than that of single type or size of fiber. Multi-scale hybrid fiber reinforced cementitious composites (MHFRCCs) can be served as a building material with stringent crack resistance requirements for civil structure such as pipeline, river levee, nuclear reactor, water tower, and sewage treatment sedimentation tank. The tensile strength (ft) and fracture toughness (KIC) are two important size independent material parameters for guiding structural safety design and stability assessment. In this study, the real ft and KIC of MHFRCCs were determined by three-point bending test based on the boundary effect model. The average aggregate particle size with a large proportion was chosen as the “representative aggregate (d1 = 0.45 mm)" by using grading curve. The fiber long axis dimensions that appear most frequently on the cross section were selected as the “representative fiber (d2 = 0.28 mm for steel fiber and d3 = 0.0794 mm for polyvinyl alcohol fiber)" according to the statistical analysis of backscattered electron imaging. The fracture failure behaviors of MHFRCC structure were predicted based on the determined ft and KIC values, and the structural fracture failure bands with ±15% variations were established. In addition, the microstructure analysis of MHFRCC revealed multi-scale enhancement mechanism in the cement matrix. Finally, the complete fracture process images and P-CMOD curve were divided into three stages: pre-cracking stage, crack stable propagation stage, and unstable failure stage. This analysis would be helpful to understand the fracture crack resistance effect of multi-scale hybrid fibers at multi-level within cement matrix.

Flue gas desulphurization (FGD) gypsum samples were collected from 12 power plants in Shanxi province in China. The total concentrations of Zn, Mn, Pb, Cr, Cd and Ni in FGD gypsum were determined. The chemical speciation and leaching toxicity were also analyzed. The total concentration ranges of Zn, Cr and Mn were at 40.1–96.1 mg/kg, 12.9–61.1 mg/kg and 2.1–56.1 mg/kg respectively. While the concentrations of Ni, Pb and Cd were relatively lower, with total concentration fell into the ranges of 0.7–31.7 mg/kg, 0.01–13.3 mg/kg and ND-1.6 mg/kg respectively. The average values appeared to follow the order of Zn > Cr > Mn > Ni > Pb > Cd. Synthetic Precipitation Leaching Procedure (SPLP) test results were all below the China’s regulation level of leaching toxicity for heavy metals, while exceeded environmental quality standards for different classes of surface water in China. Selective sequential extraction (SSE) used for chemical speciation analysis showed that different heavy metals distributed variously in each extraction fraction. The bioavailability of major heavy metals for FGD decreased in the order of Mn > Zn > Cd > Cr > Pb > Ni, while their mobility decreased in the order of Cd > Mn > Ni > Pb > Zn > Cr. Risk assessment code (RAC) analysis suggested that heavy metals in all samples from Shanxi province posed risks to the environment. Especially, elements of Zn and Mn posed a very high risk. Estimation of annually leaching amount of heavy metals from FGD gypsum was calculated.

Abrasion resistance is a critical parameter in the durability of cement-based materials. Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) whiskers are added into the mortar to enhance the abrasion resistance. Herein, two standards (GB/T 16925-1997 and JC/T 421-2004) were employed to evaluate the abrasion resistance of the mortar modified with CaCO3 whiskers (MMCW). The mortar abrasion resistance was characterized using the abrasion parameters such as abrasion resistance depth (D), abrasion loss ( G ), mass loss (ML), and abrasion resistance indices ( I α ). These results indicate that the abrasion resistance of MMCW was markedly improved, and the abrasion resistance of MMCW increased with the rise in CaCO3 whiskers content. By adding different content of CaCO3 whiskers into mortar, the compressive strength (fcu) enhanced from 2.4% to 10.2%, as compared to that of the plain mortar. The bridging effect of CaCO3 whiskers prevented the cracks development, while the filling effect of CaCO3 whiskers refined the large pores. The calcium hydroxide (CH) orientation improvement effect and the dilution effect of CaCO3 whiskers limited the growth of CH hydration product of mortar, enhanced the compactness of mortar, and ultimately, improved the abrasion resistance of MMCW. An excellent linear relationship was established between the abrasion resistance and compressive strength. By comparing the experimental data with the data from the literature, the prediction model of the relative abrasion resistance parameters was obtained, which can provide a reference for studying the abrasion resistance of different cementitious materials.

A novel recursive average triangulation modeling algorithm is proposed for the unknown but bounded noise systems. Since no priori knowledge can be used to denote the bounded noise term, the noise signal at each recursive step is warped in a strip with the hyperplanes obtained by the samples of input and output signals. The average triangulation idea is adopted and the minimum variance in the geometric space is defined as the criterion. In each recursive step, the number of simplexes changes with the variational triangulations that contain the true parameter values. The given simulations illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

The reliability of microgrid running in island mode with wind farm is evaluated in this paper. The concept of equivalent power characteristic of wind turbine is proposed to obtain the actual available output of the whole wind farm. And then its probability distribution is modeled by using Gauss mixture model (GMM), of which the superiority is proved by comparing with other distribution function models. The working state of the power components is sampled by using Monte Carlo simulation method to study the variation trend of the reliability index of microgrid running in island mode with wind farm. And then the probability distribution of reliability index is obtained. Meanwhile, the indicators value at risk (VaR) and conditional value at risk (CVaR) are introduced to analyze the microgrid reliability, which can fully reflect the influence of the probabilistic fluctuation of wind farm output on microgrid operation reliability.

Exposed rebar is an essential factor affecting the safety of the dam. In the past, manual inspection is a significant way to monitor exposed rebar risk. However, it is time-consuming, inefficient and difficult to quantitative evaluate, such as the exposed rebar area. A semantic segmentation method based on the Unet is proposed to replace the manual inspection for the dam exposed rebar automatic detection. Thirty-eight high-resolution images of dam exposed rebar are collected. Unet and the VGG16 backbone are adopted. The results indicated that Unet’s mIoU on the test set reaches 0.94, which proves to be an efficient way to detect the dam exposed rebar.

Recently, CaCO3 whiskers (CW) are used as new-type micro-fibers for achieving reinforcing and toughening of cement-based materials due to their cracking resistance ability at micro-scale. In this paper, the combination of steel-polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers are added into CW reinforced cement mortar (CWRCM) to further enhance the reinforcing and toughening effects at meso- and macro-scales. In addition, four analytical models of fiber reinforced cementitious composites (FRCC) were developed to describe the compressive stress-strain response. The cylindrical specimens are tested under uniaxial compressive loading to investigate the effect of different volume fractions of steel-PVA hybrid fibers in CWRCM. The test results indicated that the incorporation of steel-PVA hybrid fibers could significantly improve the stress-strain behavior of CWRCM, as compared to that of the CWRCM. The highest ultimate compressive strength (fc), elasticity modulus (Ec) and total compressive strain energy (ED) were observed in SF1.8PF0.2, but SF1.5PF0.5 showed a greater peak strain (eu). Moreover, the prediction models of compressive parameters were proposed by simultaneously considering the reinforcing index (RI) of steel and PVA fibers. The obtained parameters in four models were evaluated according to their essential requirements. It was found that only Model III met its essential requirements and parameters were closely associated with RI values of steel and PVA fibers.

Introduction: As the incidence of human papillomavirus-positive (HPV +) oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) continues to increase, it is important to optimize treatment regimens. There is growing evidence demonstrating the efficacy and safety of anti-PD-1 immunotherapy, either as monotherapy or in combination with chemotherapy, for patients with programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) positive head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Greater PD-L1 expression has been associated with greater treatment response and improved overall survival independent of treatment modality. Prior studies have observed increased PD-L1 expression and improved treatment response in HPV(+) as compared to HPV(-) tumors. In contrast, HPV(-) disease, in which smoking is causative in most cases, is typically associated with unfavorable outcomes and lower rates of PD-L1 expression. In the present study, we sought to explore the effects of smoking on PD-L1 expression in HPV(+) tumors based on smoking status. We hypothesized that smokers would demonstrate lower levels of PD-L1 expression as compared to non-smokers. Methods: Using an existing tissue bank, we identified a cohort of 52 HPV(+) tumors from patients with available smoking data. A tissue microarray was constructed with cores taken from the paraffin embedded tumor blocks. A single 0.5 micron slide was created and we examined PDL-1 expression by immunohistochemistry in 47 intact cores. Visiopharm software was used for quantitative analysis of area stained per total cellular area (Figure 2). Mann-Whitney U test was then performed to compare PD-L1 expression between current smokers and former/never smokers (Figure 1). Forty-four of the patients in the cohort had RNA-based Nanostring immuno-oncology assay data available. We were able to obtain paired quantitative IHC and Nanostring based PD-L1 (CD274) gene expression values for 40 patients and Spearman's correlation was performed (Figure 3). Results: The primary tumor site was tonsil in 29 (56%) patients, 22 (42%) base of tongue, and 1 (2%) soft palate. Females made up 10% of the cohort. There were 9 (17%) current smokers, 20 (38%) former, and 23 (44%) never smokers. Pack-years was available for 22 (76%) of the current and former smokers (median: 30, range: 1-75 pack years). There were 5 patient deaths, and 10 patients experienced recurrence. PD-L1 expression on IHC was not predictive of death or recurrence (p=0.39 and p=0.07, respectively). Median follow up time was 20.5 months (range: 2.7 to 83 months). There was a significant difference in PD-L1 expression on IHC between current smokers and the former/never group (Figure 1). Relative gene expression of CD274 measured by the Nanostring assay was lower in current smokers as compared to former/never smokers, however this trend did not meet significance. There was a strong positive linear correlation between Nanostring based CD274 gene expression and PD-L1 expression on IHC (r=0.68, p &lt 0.0001). Conclusion: Current smoking status at the time of diagnosis is associated with decreased PD-L1 expression as compared to former and never smokers. These results may have implications when considering immune checkpoint inhibition therapy in smokers with HPV(+) OPSCC. Citation Format: Ricardo J. Ramirez, Benjamin Wahle, Zixing Liu, Angela Mazul, Paul Zolkind, Mena Mansour, Krzysztof Hyrc, Jose P. Zevallos. Differences in PD-L1 expression by smoking status in HPV positive oropharyngeal cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 5241.

Flue gas desulphurization (FGD) gypsum had broad application prospects in soil, but the trace heavy metals in FGD gypsum directly determine the severity of secondary pollution. In this work, we focused on arsenic in FGD gypsum for 70 samples from Chinese 20 provinces, investigating the characteristics of distribution and leaching by total contents, fractions, leaching tests, and species, and identifying arsenic mode of occurrence and possible risk for FGD gypsum applications. The result showed arsenic was generally approximately 15 mg/kg in Chinese FGD gypsum, and had an obvious geographical distribution by samples from different areas. Leaching tests showed a lower ability of arsenic release in short-term leaching as well as a large potential leaching risk by the sustained release of arsenic in long-term leaching for high-level arsenic FGD gypsum. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed arsenic in FGD gypsum was mainly present as As(III), which has a higher toxicity. Based on our results, with regard of arsenic, most FGD gypsum is a safe material for soil application, but we did notice the potential risk of arsenic release due to long-term leaching and the content of arsenite.

Background: Human papilloma virus (HPV)-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) is an increasingly common malignancy and public health challenge. HPV-associated OPSCCs typically respond to treatment, and there is an increasing focus on deintensification trials to minimize treatment related morbidity. However, treatment failure rates in locally advanced HPV-associated OPSCC range from 14%-32%, and there is a need to interrogate potential biomarkers of treatment response and resistance to guide patient stratification for deintensification trials and to identify novel treatment targets for high-risk patients. Methods: We prospectively identified a cohort of 8 patients with HPV-associated OPSCC who subsequently developed a biopsy-proven tumor recurrence. We also identified 8 patients with HPV-associated OPSCC matched to the above cohort by gender, smoking history, TNM stage, and treatment modality who developed a complete response to treatment. The primary samples of each cohort were interrogated with an RNA-based Nanostring immuno-oncology assay. Results: We identified that treatment-responsive tumors had significantly higher expression of NK cell markers than nonresponders (KIR3DL2, q=0.003, KIR2DL3, q=0.04). These data may indicate a potential role of the innate immune system in tumor eradication. We also identified increased expression of CCL21 in treatment-resistant tumors (q=0.04), a biomarker that has been explored in colorectal cancer due to its association with cancer stem cell-like properties. Interrogation of the tumors by smoking status demonstrated that smokers had significantly higher expression of FGF18 (q=0.003), a fibroblast growth factor linked to epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and cisplatin resistance. We also looked at the immune checkpoint B7-H3 (CD276), a novel immunotherapeutic target associated with worse outcomes in head and neck cancer. We demonstrate that B7-H3 expression is associated with expression of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition markers such as TWIST1 (q= 0.01), SOX11 (q= 0.006), COL5A1 (q=0.0001), and CXCL8 (q=0.02). Interestingly, low expression of B7-H3 is associated with increased CD8B expression. Conclusion: In this genomic analysis of HPV-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas, we identify an association between presence of NK cells in the tumor microenvironment and treatment responsiveness. We also identify CCL21 as a potential biomarker of treatment resistance. Further studies are needed to confirm these biomarkers and examine the link between smoking status and immune microenvironment. Finally, we demonstrate that the immune checkpoint B7-H3 is associated with markers of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and warrants further exploration as a novel therapeutic target. Citation Format: Zixing Liu, Angela Mazul, Malachi Griffith, Paul Zolkind. Interrogation of HPV-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas with RNA-based Nanostring assay demonstrates expression profile associated with treatment resistance [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-AHNS Head and Neck Cancer Conference: Optimizing Survival and Quality of Life through Basic, Clinical, and Translational Research; 2019 Apr 29-30; Austin, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2020;26(12_Suppl_2):Abstract nr A06.

Building fire disasters may cause large economic loss and casualties. To improve the fire resistance ability of concrete and repair the fire-damaged concrete structures using an in-situ repairing technique (such as post-fire-curing) can greatly offset these adverse effects. Thus, the present study employed fly ash (FA) to form a CW-FA-cement system which was proved to enhance the high-temperature resistance of cement and CW blended cement and was also favorable for recovery of compressive strength and microstructure induced by water re-curing. In details, incorporation of FA was effective to reduce the deterioration of cement and CW blended cement and was favorable for recovery of compressive strength and microstructure after water re-curing. Incorporation of CW was favorable to increase the restorability of compressive strength re-cured after 400 °C and performed a combined effect with FA to improve the recovery of compressive strength re-cured after 800 °C. Through the microstructural tests, the deterioration of compressive strength was due to the decomposition of hydration products. The recovery of compressive strength was due to the rehydration of dehydrated cement, further hydration of unhydrated cement particles, pozzolanic effect of FA and combined effect of CW and FA. Furthermore, the cement blends containing CW and FA had a good high temperature resistance and restorability.

Generally, load sharing among paralleled sources in DC microgrid can be achieved by droop control. However, the traditional droop control strategy fails to achieve both current sharing accuracy and voltage regulation. To tackle this problem, an improved nonlinear droop control method is proposed in this paper. This method adopts a piecewise quadratic polynomial type droop curve, which guarantees accurate current sharing. And the voltage offset is also controlled by a voltage compensation method. Moreover, since the method does not require communication channel, the reliability and flexibility of the system are improved. Finally, different droop control methods are compared and the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method are verified by simulation.

Retinoic acid inducible gene I (RIG-I) senses viral RNAs and triggers innate antiviral responses through induction of type I IFNs and inflammatory cytokines. However, whether RIG-I interacts with host cellular RNA remains undetermined. Here we report that Rig-I interacts with multiple cellular mRNAs, especially Nf-κb1 . Rig-I is required for NF-κB activity via regulating Nf-κb1 expression at posttranscriptional levels. It interacts with the multiple binding sites within 3′-UTR of Nf-κb1 mRNA. Further analyses reveal that three distinct tandem motifs enriched in the 3′-UTR fragments can be recognized by Rig-I. The 3′-UTR binding with Rig-I plays a critical role in normal translation of Nf-κb1 by recruiting the ribosomal proteins [ribosomal protein L13 (Rpl13) and Rpl8] and rRNAs (18S and 28S). Down-regulation of Rig-I or Rpl13 significantly reduces Nf-κb1 and 3′-UTR–mediated luciferase expression levels. These findings indicate that Rig-I functions as a positive regulator for NF-κB signaling and is involved in multiple biological processes in addition to host antivirus immunity.

Heat shock factor 1 (HSF1), a master regulator of heat shock responses, plays an important role in tumorigenesis. In this study we demonstrated that HSF1 is required for chemotherapeutic agent-induced cytoprotective autophagy through transcriptional up-regulation of autophagy-related gene ATG7. Interestingly, this is independent of the HSF1 heat shock response function. Treatment of cancer cells with the FDA-approved chemotherapeutic agent carboplatin induced autophagy and growth inhibition, which were significantly increased upon knockdown of HSF1. Mechanistic studies revealed that HSF1 regulates autophagy by directly binding to ATG7 promoter and transcriptionally up-regulating its expression. Significantly, breast cancer patient sample study revealed that a higher ATG7 expression level is associated with poor patient survival. This novel finding was further confirmed by analysis of two independent patient databases, demonstrating a prognostic value of ATG7. Furthermore, a strong positive correlation was observed between levels of HSF1 and ATG7 in triple-negative breast cancer patient samples, thus validating our in vitro findings. This is the first study identifying a critical role for HSF1 in controlling cytoprotective autophagy through regulation of ATG7, which is distinct from the HSF1 function in the heat shock response. This is also the first study demonstrating a prognostic value of ATG7 in breast cancer patients. These findings strongly argue that combining chemotherapeutic agents with autophagy inhibition by repressing HSF1/ATG7 axis represents a promising strategy for future cancer treatment.