Electricity load forecasting is an important task for enhancing energy efficiency and operation reliability of the power system. Forecasting the hourly electricity load of the next day assists in ...optimizing the resources and minimizing the energy wastage. The main motivation of this study was to improve the robustness of short-term load forecasting (STLF) by utilizing long short- term memory (LSTM) and genetic algorithm (GA). The proposed method is novel: LSTM networks are designed to avoid the problem of long-term dependencies, and GA is used to obtain the optimal LSTM’s parameters, which are then applied to predict the hourly electricity load for the next day. The proposed method was trained using actual load and weather data, and the performance results showed that it yielded small mean absolute percentage error on the test data.
Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is a cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase that plays critical roles in integrin-mediated signal transductions and also participates in signaling by other cell surface receptors. In ...integrin-mediated cell adhesion, FAK is activated via disruption of an auto-inhibitory intra-molecular interaction between its amino terminal FERM domain and the central kinase domain. The activated FAK forms a complex with Src family kinases, which initiates multiple downstream signaling pathways through phosphorylation of other proteins to regulate different cellular functions. Multiple downstream signaling pathways are identified to mediate FAK regulation of migration of various normal and cancer cells. Extensive studies in cultured cells as well as conditional FAK knockout mouse models indicated a critical role of FAK in angiogenesis during embryonic development and cancer progression. More recent studies also revealed kinase-independent functions for FAK in endothelial cells and fibroblasts. Consistent with its roles in cell migration and angiogenesis, increased expression and/or activation of FAK are found in a variety of human cancers. Therefore, small molecular inhibitors for FAK kinase activity as well as future development of novel therapies targeting the potentially kinase-independent functions of FAK are promising treatments for metastatic cancer as well as other diseases.
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Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are activated fibroblasts that constitute the major components of tumor microenvironment (TME) and play crucial roles in tumor development and metastasis. Here, ...we generated fibroblast-specific inducible focal adhesion kinase (FAK) knockout (cKO) mice in a breast cancer model to study potential role and mechanisms of FAK signaling in CAF to promote breast cancer metastasis in vivo. While not affecting primary tumor development and growth, FAK deletion significantly suppressed breast cancer metastasis in vivo. Analyses of CAFs derived from cKO mice as well as human CAFs showed that FAK is required for their activity to promote mammary tumor cell migration. We further showed that FAK ablation in CAFs decreased exosome functions to promote tumor cell migration and other activities, which could contribute to the reduced metastasis observed in cKO mice. Lastly, profiling of miRs from CAF exosomes showed alterations of several exosomal miRs in FAK-null CAFs, and further analysis suggested that miR-16 and miR-148a enriched in exosomes from FAK-null CAFs contribute to the reduced tumor cell activities and metastasis. Together, these results identify a new role for FAK signaling in CAFs that regulate their intercellular communication with tumor cells to promote breast cancer metastasis.
Searching over a sorted list is a classical problem in computer science. Binary Search takes at most log2n+1 tries to find an item in a sorted list of size n. Interpolation Search achieves an ...average time complexity of O(loglogn) for uniformly distributed data. Hybrids of Binary Search and Interpolation Search are also available to handle data with unknown distributions. This paper analyzes the computation cost of these methods and shows that interpolation can significantly affect their performance—accordingly, a new method, Interpolation Once Binary Search (IOBS), is proposed. The experimental results show that IOBS outperforms the hybrids of Binary Search and Interpolation Search for nonuniformly distributed data.
Ultrasound (US)‐triggered sonodynamic therapy (SDT), as a promising noninvasive therapeutic modality, has received ever‐increasing attention in recent years. Its specialized chemical agents, named ...sonosensitizers, are activated by low‐intensity US to produce lethal reactive oxygen species (ROS) for oncotherapy. Compared with phototherapeutic strategies, SDT provides many noteworthy opportunities and benefits, such as deeper penetration depth, absence of phototoxicity, and fewer side effects. Nevertheless, previous studies have also demonstrated its intrinsic limitations. Thanks to the facile engineering nature of nanotechnology, numerous novel nanoplatforms are being applied in this emerging field to tackle these intrinsic barriers and achieve continuous innovations. In particular, the combination of SDT with other treatment strategies has demonstrated a superior efficacy in improving anticancer activity relative to that of monotherapies alone. Therefore, it is necessary to summarize the nanomaterial‐assisted combinational sonodynamic cancer therapy applications. Herein, the design principles in achieving synergistic therapeutic effects based on nanomaterial engineering methods are highlighted. The ultimate goals are to stimulate the design of better‐quality combined sonodynamic treatment schemes and provide innovative ideas for the perspectives of SDT in promoting its future transformation to clinical application.
Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) is becoming a rising star on the horizon of nanomedicine and has received ever‐increasing attention in recent years. In particular, SDT‐involved combination therapy opens up new therapeutic possibilities and is developing into an exciting tide. An overview on nanomaterial‐assisted combinational sonodynamic cancer therapy is given, with the hope of advancing SDT toward the stage of clinical trials.
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a malignant epithelial tumor originating in the nasopharynx and has a high incidence in Southeast Asia and North Africa. To develop these comprehensive guidelines ...for the diagnosis and management of NPC, the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO) arranged a multi‐disciplinary team comprising of experts from all sub‐specialties of NPC to write, discuss, and revise the guidelines. Based on the findings of evidence‐based medicine in China and abroad, domestic experts have iteratively developed these guidelines to provide proper management of NPC. Overall, the guidelines describe the screening, clinical and pathological diagnosis, staging and risk assessment, therapies, and follow‐up of NPC, which aim to improve the management of NPC.
Gai et al examine the recent progress in rare earth micro/nanocrystals with regard to soft chemical synthesis, luminescent properties, and biomedical applications.
Despite the comprehensive applications in bioimaging, biosensing, drug/gene delivery, and tumor therapy of manganese oxide nanomaterials (MONs including MnO2, MnO, Mn2O3, Mn3O4, and MnOx) and their ...derivatives, a review article focusing on MON‐based nanoplatforms has not been reported yet. Herein, the representative progresses of MONs on synthesis, heterogene, properties, surface modification, toxicity, imaging, biodetection, and therapy are mainly introduced. First, five kinds of primary synthetic methods of MONs are presented, including thermal decomposition method, exfoliation strategy, permanganates reduction method, adsorption–oxidation method, and hydro/solvothermal. Second, the preparations of hollow MONs and MON‐based composite materials are summarized specially. Then, the chemical properties, surface modification, and toxicity of MONs are discussed. Next, the diagnostic applications including imaging and sensing are outlined. Finally, some representative rational designs of MONs in photodynamic therapy, photothermal therapy, chemodynamic therapy, sonodynamic therapy, radiotherapy, magnetic hyperthermia, chemotherapy, gene therapy, starvation therapy, ferroptosis, immunotherapy, and various combination therapy are highlighted.
The representative progress of manganese oxide nanomaterials (MONs) and their derivatives over the past two decades is summarized, including the preparation of MONs, hollow MONs, as well as MON‐based composite materials, and their chemical properties and theranostic applications, such as bioimaging, biodetection, and tumor therapy.
Combining luminescent transition metal complex with super‐resolution microscopy is an excellent strategy for the long‐term visualization of the dynamics of subcellular structures in living cells. ...However, it remains unclear whether iridium(III) complexes are applicable for a particular type of super‐resolution technique, structured illumination microscopy (SIM), to image subcellular structures. Herein, an iridium(III) dye, to track mitochondrial dynamics in living cells under SIM is described. The dye demonstrates excellent specificity and photostability and satisfactory cell permeability. While using SIM to image mitochondria, an ≈80 nm resolution is achieved that allows the clear observation of the structure of mitochondrial cristae. The dye is used to monitor and quantify mitochondrial dynamics relative to lysosomes, including fusion involved in mitophagy, and newly discovered mitochondria–lysosome contact (MLC) under different conditions. The MLC remains intact and fusion vanishes when five receptors, p62, NDP52, OPTN, NBR1, and TAX1BP1, are knocked out, suggesting that these two processes are independent.
A novel iridium(III) luminophore can track mitochondrial dynamics under structured illumination microscopy up to ≈80 nm resolution. This luminophore can assist researchers in quantifying and understanding the formation and function of the interactive behavior between mitochondria and lysosomes.