Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major cause of death worldwide. Sensitive, non-invasive diagnostic screen methods are urgently needed to improve its survival rates. Stable circulating microRNA offers ...unique opportunities for the early diagnosis of several diseases, including cancers. Our aim has been to find new plasma miRNAs that can be used as biomarkers for the detection of CRC.
According to the results of miRNA profiling performed on pooling plasma samples form 10 CRC patients or 10 healthy controls, a panel of miRNAs (hsa-miR-10a, -19a, -22*, -24, -92a, 125a-5p, -141, -150, -188-3p, -192, -210, -221, -224*, -376a, -425*, -495, -572, -601, -720, -760 and hsa-let-7a, -7e) were deregulated in CRC plasma with fold changes >5. After large scale validation by qRT-PCR performed on another 191 independent individuals (90 CRC, 43 advanced adenoma and 58 healthy participants), we found that the levels of plasma miR-601 and miR-760 were significantly decreased in colorectal neoplasia (carcinomas and advanced adenomas) compared with healthy controls. ROC curve analysis showed that plasma miR-601 and miR-760 were of significant diagnostic value for advanced neoplasia. These two miRNAs together yield an AUC of 0.792 with 83.3% sensitivity and 69.1% specificity for separating CRC from normal controls, and yield an AUC of 0.683 with 72.1% sensitivity and 62.1% specificity in discriminating advanced adenomas from normal controls.
Plasma miR-601 and miR-760 can potentially serve as promising non-invasive biomarkers for the early detection of CRC.
Calcium phosphate (CaP) was engineered as a drug delivery nanocarrier nearly 50 years ago due to its biocompatibility and biodegradability. In recent years, several approaches have been developed for ...the preparation of size-controllable, stable and multifunctional CaP nanocarriers, and several targeting moieties have also been decorated on the surface of these nanocarriers for active targeting. The CaP nanocarriers have been utilized for loading probes, nucleic acids, anticancer drugs and photosensitizers for cancer imaging, therapy and theranostics. Herein, we reviewed the recent advances in the preparation strategies of CaP nanocarriers and the applications of these nanocarriers in tumor diagnosis, gene delivery, drug delivery and theranostics and finally provided perspectives.
•Ultrasonic assisted far infrared drying of ginger slices was studied the first time.•Three infrared drying methods of ginger slices were evaluated and compared.•Infrared convection drying was the ...fastest, but energy consumption was the highest.•Increasing ultrasonic power was more effective than prolonging the pretreatment time.
Three drying methods, including far infrared drying, infrared convection drying, and ultrasonic pretreatment assisted far infrared drying, were adopted in the drying of ginger slices. The effects of main parameters (ultrasonic pretreatment power and time, far infrared temperature and power, sample thickness, infrared convection temperature) on the drying kinetics, energy consumption, and color change were investigated and discussed in detail. The results showed that the drying process of ginger slices was controlled by falling rate period. For far infrared drying, the drying rate increased with the increase of infrared temperature and decrease of sample thickness, while the infrared power had no obvious effect on the drying process. The infrared convection drying showed the fastest drying rate and the smallest color change, however, the energy consumption was the highest. For ultrasonic pretreatment assisted far infrared drying, an appropriate ultrasonic pretreatment time and power would promote the far infrared drying process and the energy consumption was only slightly increased. However, the color change was relatively large. The ultrasound technology showed its greatest potential to enhance the drying rate at the early stage of drying and increasing ultrasonic power was more effective than prolonging the pretreatment time in promoting far infrared drying.
Precipitation, which is the predominant component of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM), may have large uncertainties among reanalysis datasets. We comprehensively evaluate the performance of five ...reanalysis datasets in reproducing the EASM precipitation. These datasets are NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis 1 project (NCEP1), NCEP/US Department of Energy Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project II reanalysis (NCEP2), Japanese 25‐year Reanalysis project (JRA‐25), Interim ECMWF Reanalysis (ERA‐Interim), and Modern Era Retrospective‐analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA). Results show that the five reanalysis datasets can generally reproduce the climatology and interannual variability of EASM precipitation. Especially, MERRA and ERA‐Interim have the highest skills. Considering different‐class precipitation, large uncertainties exist in the category of non‐rainfall and heavy rainfall. The five reanalysis datasets overestimate the non‐rainfall frequency, and JRA‐25 and NCEP2 overestimate the heavy rainfall frequency. The well‐known interdecadal variation around the mid‐1990s can also be better depicted by ERA‐Interim and MERRA. For the linear trend of precipitation, only MERRA can reasonably reproduce the increasing tendency over southern China and the western Pacific and the decreasing tendency over the Indo‐China Peninsula. Based on EOF analysis, the spatial–temporal structure of EASM precipitation has been examined. MERRA, NCEP1 and ERA‐Interim can better capture both the spatial patterns and principle components of the first two EOF modes. Based on our evaluation, the preferential reanalysis datasets for investigating the EASM precipitation are ERA‐Interim and MERRA, which also permit the more precise investigation of interannual to decadal variability.
Vanillin (VL), a phenolic aromatic carbonyl abundant in biomass burning emissions, forms triplet excited states (3VL∗) under simulated sunlight leading to aqueous secondary organic aerosol (aqSOA) ...formation. Nitrate and ammonium are among the main components of biomass burning aerosols and cloud or fog water. Under atmospherically relevant cloud and fog conditions, solutions composed of either VL only or VL with ammonium nitrate were subjected to simulated sunlight irradiation to compare aqSOA formation via the direct photosensitized oxidation of VL in the absence and presence of ammonium nitrate. The reactions were characterized by examining the VL decay kinetics, product compositions, and light absorbance changes. Both conditions generated oligomers, functionalized monomers, and oxygenated ring-opening products, and ammonium nitrate promoted functionalization and nitration, likely due to its photolysis products (⚫OH, ⚫NO2, and NO2- or HONO). Moreover, a potential imidazole derivative observed in the presence of ammonium nitrate suggested that ammonium participated in the reactions. The majority of the most abundant products from both conditions were potential brown carbon (BrC) chromophores. The effects of oxygen (O2), pH, and reactants concentration and molar ratios on the reactions were also explored. Our findings show that O2 plays an essential role in the reactions, and oligomer formation was enhanced at pH <4. Also, functionalization was dominant at low VL concentrations, whereas oligomerization was favored at high VL concentrations. Furthermore, oligomers and hydroxylated products were detected from the oxidation of guaiacol (a non-carbonyl phenol) via VL photosensitized reactions. Last, potential aqSOA formation pathways via the direct photosensitized oxidation of VL in the absence and presence of ammonium nitrate were proposed. This study indicates that the direct photosensitized oxidation of VL may be an important aqSOA source in areas influenced by biomass burning and underscores the importance of nitrate in the aqueous-phase processing of aromatic carbonyls.
This article proposes a predictive position control method of planar motors using trajectory gradient soft constraint with attenuation coefficients in the weighting matrix to achieve high-precision, ...time-varying, and long-stroke positioning. Based on a built dynamics model of a planar motor developed in the laboratory, a predictive model is established to predict the future positions of the motor. To improve the positioning precision, a soft constraint defined by a trajectory gradient difference between the gradients of the reference position and predictive position sequences is introduced to the cost function. Then, an explicitly analytical solution of the optimal control is obtained by minimizing the cost function. To highlight the stronger effects of the trajectory gradients closer to the current time, the attenuation coefficients are applied to the weighting matrix of the added soft constraint. The stability of the control system is proved employing the linear quadratic optimal control method and the Lyapunov stability theory. Moreover, the time complexity is discussed based on the analytical control action to show low computational burden of the proposed method. Finally, the given simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method to achieve high-precision time-varying positioning for planar motors.
Soil salinization extensively hampers the growth, yield, and quality of crops worldwide. The most effective strategies to counter this problem are a) development of crop cultivars with high salt ...tolerance and b) the plantation of salt-tolerant crops. Glycyrrhiza inflata, a traditional Chinese medicinal and primitive plant with salt tolerance and economic value, is among the most promising crops for improving saline-alkali wasteland. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms for the adaptive response of G. inflata to salinity stress remain largely unknown.
G. inflata retained a high concentration of Na
in roots and maintained the absorption of K
, Ca
, and Mg
under 150 mM NaCl induced salt stress. Transcriptomic analysis of G. inflata roots at different time points of salt stress (0 min, 30 min, and 24 h) was performed, which resulted in 70.77 Gb of clean data. Compared with the control, we detected 2645 and 574 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) at 30 min and 24 h post-salt-stress induction, respectively. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses revealed that G. inflata response to salt stress post 30 min and 24 h was remarkably distinct. Genes that were differentially expressed at 30 min post-salt stress induction were enriched in signal transduction, secondary metabolite synthesis, and ion transport. However, genes that were differentially expressed at 24 h post-salt-stress induction were enriched in phenylpropane biosynthesis and metabolism, fatty acid metabolism, glycerol metabolism, hormone signal transduction, wax, cutin, and cork biosynthesis. Besides, a total of 334 transcription factors (TFs) were altered in response to 30 min and 24 h of salt stress. Most of these TFs belonged to the MYB, WRKY, AP2-EREBP, C2H2, bHLH, bZIP, and NAC families.
For the first time, this study elucidated the salt tolerance in G. inflata at the molecular level, including the activation of signaling pathways and genes that regulate the absorption and distribution of ions and root growth in G. inflata under salt stress conditions. These findings enhanced our understanding of the G. inflata salt tolerance and provided a theoretical basis for cultivating salt-tolerant crop varieties.
In the field of welding robotics, visual sensors, which are mainly composed of a camera and a laser, have proven to be promising devices because of their high precision, good stability, and high ...safety factor. In real welding environments, there are various kinds of weld joints due to the diversity of the workpieces. The location algorithms for different weld joint types are different, and the welding parameters applied in welding are also different. It is very inefficient to manually change the image processing algorithm and welding parameters according to the weld joint type before each welding task. Therefore, it will greatly improve the efficiency and automation of the welding system if a visual sensor can automatically identify the weld joint before welding. However, there are few studies regarding these problems and the accuracy and applicability of existing methods are not strong. Therefore, a weld joint identification method for visual sensor based on image features and support vector machine (SVM) is proposed in this paper. The deformation of laser around a weld joint is taken as recognition information. Two kinds of features are extracted as feature vectors to enrich the identification information. Subsequently, based on the extracted feature vectors, the optimal SVM model for weld joint type identification is established. A comparative study of proposed and conventional strategies for weld joint identification is carried out via a contrast experiment and a robustness testing experiment. The experimental results show that the identification accuracy rate achieves 98.4%. The validity and robustness of the proposed method are verified.
To investigate the concurrent impacts of the East Asian polar front jet (EAPJ) and subtropical jet (EASJ) on the summer rainfall over eastern China, positive (strengthened EAPJ with weakened EASJ) ...and negative (weakened EAPJ with strengthened EASJ) configurations are identified. In the positive configuration, rainfall decreases in the northern part of eastern China and increases in the southern part, vice versa in the negative configuration. The possible mechanisms maintaining the two jet configurations are further proposed from the perspectives of sea surface temperature (SST) and synoptic-scale transient eddy activities (STEA). In the positive configuration, meridional distributed cold–warm SST anomalies over the eastern North Pacific may induce regional circulation and meridional temperature gradient anomalies, which can strengthen the EAPJ and weaken the EASJ. The central Pacific La Niña–like SST anomalies are related with the Arctic vortexlike anomalies in the stratosphere, which may strengthen the EAPJ. Furthermore, the divergence of Eliassen–Palm vectors and the conversion from eddy kinetic energy to mean kinetic energy over the active region of the EAPJ may strengthen the EAPJ, vice versa for the weakened EASJ. In the negative configuration, associated with the warm SST anomalies over the western North Pacific, the enhanced convective activities may lead to a strengthened EASJ via meridional teleconnection. The teleconnection may be intensified by the strengthened easterly vertical shear. Additionally, eastern Pacific La Niña–like SST anomalies may intensify the Walker circulation, which may strengthen the EASJ via the Hadley circulation. The STEA-related anomalies are almost opposite those in the positive configuration, especially for the weakened EAPJ.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease with increased M1 macrophages. The classical activated M1 macrophages produce various cytokines to control inflammation. Wilforlide A is a natural ...product that displays anti-inflammatory activities. However, the effect of Wilforlide A on RA progression and the potential mechanisms are unclear. Herein, the collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) mouse was used as an experimental model of RA. The administration of Wilforlide A reduced clinical scores, joint swelling and histological damage in ankle joints of RA mice. The secreted pro-inflammatory factors (MCP1, GM-CSF and M-CSF) and M1 biomarker iNOS in synovium were inhibited by Wilforlide A. In vitro, macrophages deriving from THP-1 cells were stimulated with LPS/IFN-γ to mimic M1 polarization. Similarly, Wilforlide A blocked macrophages polarizing towards M1 subsets. The in vitro results demonstrated that Wilforlide A suppressed LPS/IFN-γ-induced TLR4 upregulation, IκBα degradation and NF-κB p65 activation. In addition, TAK242 (a TLR4 inhibitor) treatment caused a similar inhibitory effect on M1 polarization with Wilforlide A, whereas it was less than the combination of TAK242 and Wilforlide A. Therefore, this work supports that Wilforlide A ameliorates M1 macrophage polarization in RA, which is partially mediated by TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway inactivation.
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