Sea surface currents observed by high-frequency (HF) radars have been widely used in ocean circulation research. In this study, hourly sea surface currents observed by the Taiwan Coastal Ocean ...Dynamics Applications Radar (CODAR) system from 2015 to 2019 were analyzed by the empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis to reveal the characteristics of the sea surface currents around Taiwan Island. The study area is divided into two regions, the Kuroshio region east of Taiwan Island and the Taiwan Strait west of Taiwan Island. In the Kuroshio region, the first EOF mode shows that the Kuroshio is characterized by higher current speeds with greater variability in summer. The second and third EOF modes present a dipole eddy pair and single eddy impingement on the Kuroshio during different periods. The seasonal variation of the dipole eddy pair indicates that the cyclonic/anticyclonic eddy on the north/south side appears more frequently in summer. Single eddy impingement occurs at multiple periods, including daily, intraseasonal, interseasonal, and annual periods. For the Taiwan Strait, the first EOF mode displays the tide signals. The tides enter the Taiwan Strait from the north and south, forming strong sea surface currents around the northern tip of Taiwan Island and the Penghu Archipelago. The second EOF mode exhibits the seasonal changes of the sea surface currents driven by the monsoon winds. The sea surface currents in the northern Taiwan Strait are relatively strong, possibly due to the narrow and shallow terrain there. The high spatiotemporal resolution of sea surface currents derived from CODAR observations provide more detailed characteristics of sea surface circulation around Taiwan Island.
TG‐interacting factor 1 (TGIF1) contributes to the differentiation of murine white preadipocyte and human adipose tissue‐derived stem cells; however, its regulation is not well elucidated. Insulin is ...a component of the adipogenic cocktail that induces ERK signaling. TGIF1 phosphorylation and sustained stability in response to insulin were reduced through the use of specific MEK inhibitor U0126. Mutagenesis at T235 or T239 residue of TGIF1 in preadipocytes led to dephosphorylation of TGIF1. The reduced TGIF1 stability resulted in an increase in p27kip1 expression, a decrease in phosphorylated Rb expression and cellular proliferation, and a reduced accumulation of lipids compared to the TGIF1‐overexpressed cells. These findings highlight that insulin/ERK‐driven phosphorylation of the T235 or T239 residue at TGIF1 is crucial for adipocyte differentiation.
TG‐interacting factor 1 (TGIF1) contributes to the differentiation of white preadipocytes; however, its regulation is not well elucidated. We highlight that the insulin‐induced ERK activation phosphorylates the T235 or T239 residue of TGIF1, which is crucial for the promotion of mitotic clonal expansion and adipocyte differentiation.
Background
Radiation‐induced sarcoma of the head and neck (RISHN) is a rare yet devastating potential complication of radiotherapy treatment. We aimed to evaluate the clinicopathological ...characteristics and molecular signatures of RISHN in patients who underwent radiotherapy for head and neck cancer (HNC) to identify high‐risk patients and enable earlier cancer detection.
Methods
This study retrospectively evaluated 24 sarcoma patients who received radiotherapy for HNC between 1994 and 2019. Patients were divided into two groups based on RISHN latency period. Patient demographics, initial tumor staging, risk factors, and survival between groups were analyzed, and whole‐exome sequencing (WES) of selected samples was performed.
Results
The median age at diagnosis of RISHN was 54 years, and the male‐to‐female ratio was 2:1. The latency period ranged from 0.8 to 64.4 years (median 6.5 years), with a median survival of 21.5 months. Primary cancer in the oral cavity, treatment with alkylating agents, alcohol consumption, betel nut chewing, and smoking were identified as risk factors for short (<5 years) latency periods. The majority of RISHN cases occurred in the oral cavity (58.3%). WES analysis showed that tumor necrosis factor and cell cycle checkpoint pathways were differentially involved in both patient groups.
Conclusions
Although case numbers were small, our cohort represents the largest case series of RISHN from a single institution to date. Clinicians must be aware of factors affecting RISHN development and latency, and risk factor identification may lead to earlier detection and prevention in the future.
Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) have gained a lot of interests in research communities for the infrastructure-less self-organizing nature. A MANET with fleet cyclists using smartphones forms a ...two-tier mobile long-thin network (MLTN) along a common cycling route, where the high-tier network is composed of 3G/LTE interfaces and the low-tier network is composed of IEEE 802.11 interfaces. The low-tier network may consist of several path-like networks. This work investigates cooperative sensing data collection and distribution with packet collision avoidance in a two-tier MLTN. As numbers of cyclists upload their sensing data and download global fleet information frequently, serious bandwidth and latency problems may result if all members rely on their high-tier interfaces. We designed and analyzed a cooperative framework consisting of a distributed grouping mechanism, a group merging and splitting method, and a sensing data aggregation scheme. Through cooperation between the two tiers, the proposed framework outperforms existing works by significantly reducing the 3G/LTE data transmission and the number of 3G/LTE connections.
Machine learning algorithms were used to analyze the odds and predictors of complications of thyroid damage after radiation therapy in patients with head and neck cancer. This study used decision ...tree (DT), random forest (RF), and support vector machine (SVM) algorithms to evaluate predictors for the data of 137 head and neck cancer patients. Candidate factors included gender, age, thyroid volume, minimum dose, average dose, maximum dose, number of treatments, and relative volume of the organ receiving X dose (X: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 Gy). The algorithm was optimized according to these factors and tenfold cross-validation to analyze the state of thyroid damage and select the predictors of thyroid dysfunction. The importance of the predictors identified by the three machine learning algorithms was ranked: the top five predictors were age, thyroid volume, average dose, V50 and V60. Of these, age and volume were negatively correlated with thyroid damage, indicating that the greater the age and thyroid volume, the lower the risk of thyroid damage; the average dose, V50 and V60 were positively correlated with thyroid damage, indicating that the larger the average dose, V50 and V60, the higher the risk of thyroid damage. The RF algorithm was most accurate in predicting the probability of thyroid damage among the three algorithms optimized using the above factors. The Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was 0.827 and the accuracy (ACC) was 0.824. This study found that five predictors (age, thyroid volume, mean dose, V50 and V60) are important factors affecting the chance that patients with head and neck cancer who received radiation therapy will develop hypothyroidism. Using these factors as the prediction basis of the algorithm and using RF to predict the occurrence of hypothyroidism had the highest ACC, which was 82.4%. This algorithm is quite helpful in predicting the probability of radiotherapy complications. It also provides references for assisting medical decision-making in the future.
Nano-scale zero-valent iron (NZVI) has been shown to be suitable for remediating contaminated aquifers. However, they usually aggregate rapidly and result in a very limited migration distance that ...inhibits their usefulness. This study employed poly acrylic acid (PAA) and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) to synthesize two types of stabilized styles of NZVI with finer sizes (namely PNZVI and CNZVI). The mobility of stabilized NZVI was also demonstrated on the basis of transport in porous media. The results show that the PNZVI has a uniform particle size of 12
nm. However, tens of CNZVI particles with diameters of 1–3
nm were packed into secondary particles. Both the PNZVI and the CNZVI exhibited amorphous structures, and the stabilizer was bound to particle surfaces in the form of bidentate bridging via the carboxylic group, which could provide both electrostatic and steric repulsion to prevent particle aggregation. This study also proposes presumed stabilized configurations of PNZVI and CNZVI to reasonably illustrate their different dispersed suspension types. On the basis of the breakthrough curves and mass recovery, this study observed that the mobility of PNZVI in classic Ca
2+ concentration of groundwater was superior to CNZVI. Nonetheless, the mobility of CNZVI would be decreased less significantly than PNZVI when encountering high Ca
2+ concentrations (40
mM). Presumably, increasing the pore flow velocity would enhance the mobility of stabilized NZVI. Overall, the results of this study indicate that PNZVI has the potential to become an effective reactive material for in situ groundwater remediation.
In this paper, the optical frequency response of gallium nitride-based blue micro-LEDs with different quantum well numbers in the active region is presented. Single quantum well (SQW) blue micro-LEDs ...have about 1.6 times higher modulation bandwidth (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">f_{-3\,\text {dB}} </tex-math></inline-formula>) by comparison with triple quantum well blue micro-LEDs. The larger bandwidth enhancement of the SQW micro-LEDs can be attributed to more carriers stored in a quantum well leading to higher recombination rate and lower recombination lifetime. The high <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">f_{-3\,\text {dB}} </tex-math></inline-formula> up to 752 MHz is demonstrated in the SQW micro-LED with a light-emitting area of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">10\,\,\mu \text {m} \times 10\,\,\mu \text{m} </tex-math></inline-formula>. It suggests that micro-LEDs designed with fewer quantum well numbers may have the potential for the application of visible light communication (VLC) technology.
Obesity is one of the significant health challenges in the world and is highly associated with abnormal adipogenesis. TG-interacting factor 1 (TGIF1) is essential for differentiating murine ...adipocytes and human adipose tissue-derived stem cells. However, the mode of action needs to be better elucidated. To investigate the roles of TGIF1 in differentiation in-depth, CRISPR/Cas9 knockout technology was performed to generate TGIF1-silenced preadipocytes. The absence of TGIF1 in 3 T3-F442A preadipocytes abolished lipid accumulation throughout the differentiation using Oil Red O staining. Conversely, we established 3 T3-F442A preadipocytes stably expressing TGIF1 and doxycycline-inducible TGIF1 in TGIF1-silenced 3 T3-F442A preadipocytes. Remarkably, the induction of TGIF1 by doxycycline during the initial differentiation phase successfully promoted lipid accumulation in TGIF1-silenced 3 T3-F442A cells. We further explored the mechanisms of TGIF1 in early differentiation. We demonstrated that TGIF1 promoted the mitotic clonal expansion via upregulation of CCAAT/enhancer-binding proteins β expression, interruption with peroxisome proliferators activated receptor γ downstream regulation, and inhibition of p27kip1 expression. In conclusion, we strengthen the pivotal roles of TGIF1 in early differentiation, which might contribute to resolving obesity-associated metabolic syndromes.
•We demonstrated that TGIF1 was essential for early differentiation by using several advanced techniques in preadipocytes, including enforced overexpression, CRISPR/Cas9 knockout, and Tet-inducible gene expression.•TGIF1 contributes to the early differentiation through novel mechanisms, including upregulation of C/EBPβ expression, interference in PPARγ downstream regulation, and inhibition of p27kip1 expression, thereby promoting mitotic clonal expansion in the early differentiation.•We conclude that p27kip1, a PPARγ-regulated gene, is suppressed by TGIF1 in early differentiation until the endogenous PPARγ ligands production which is tightly linked to mitotic clonal expansion to strengthen the binding ability of PPARγ to the promoter of p27kip1 and stop the cell cycle to proceed to differentiation.
Periodontitis involves the inflammation of the periodontal tissue, leading to tissue loss, while coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly transmissible respiratory disease caused by the severe ...acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is amplified by poor systemic health. Key facilitators of SARS-CoV-2’s entry into host cells are angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2). This review reveals that periodontal pockets can serve as a hotspot for virus accumulation, rendering surrounding epithelia more susceptible to infection. Given that ACE2 is expressed in oral mucosa, it is reasonable to suggest that poor periodontal health could increase the risk of COVID-19 infection. However, recent studies have not provided sufficient evidence to imply a significant effect of COVID-19 on periodontal health, necessitating further and more long-term investigations. Nevertheless, there are hypotheses linking the mechanisms of the two diseases, such as the involvement of interleukin-17 (IL-17). Elevated IL-17 levels are observed in both COVID-19 and periodontitis, leading to increased osteoclast activity and bone resorption. Lastly, bidirectional relationships between periodontitis and systemic diseases like diabetes are acknowledged. Given that COVID-19 symptoms may worsen with these conditions, maintaining good oral health and managing systemic diseases are suggested as potential ways to protect against COVID-19.
Developing bifunctional catalysts for the ORR and OER, along with a unique cathode structure, is essential for advancing rechargeable zinc-air batteries (ZABs) and aluminum-air batteries (AABs). Our ...catalyst (NiFe LDH A-FeSACoSA-FeCoAlloy-CNT/NC) integrates nickel-iron layered double hydroxide (NiFe LDH), iron-cobalt dual single atoms (FeSACoSA), and iron-cobalt nanoalloy (FeCoAlloy) within carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on a nitrogen-doped carbon framework (NC). Due to its distinctive features, this catalyst excels, achieving an ORR half-wave potential of 0.84 V and an OER potential of 1.56 V (Ej=10mAcm−2). In ZABs, it outperforms the Pt/C+RuO2, reaching a power density of 266 mWcm−2 and demonstrating impressive rechargeability over 495 h (1484 cycles). Flexible ZABs achieve 173 mWcm−2 and over 270 cycles (90 h), while flexible AABs reach 145 mWcm−2, surpassing Pt/C+RuO2. Exceptional performance in terms of capacity, power density, rechargeability, and lifespan is attributed to the catalyst's design and the cathode configuration's unique attributes.
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•The catalyst was synthesized via Schiff reaction, carbonization and NH3 processes.•The catalyst shows an excellent bifunctional characteristics of ORR and OER.•The ZAB demonstrates 809 mAh g−1 at 50 mA cm−2 and 266 mW cm−2 at 381 mA cm−2.•The flexible ZAB shows 710.8 mAh g−1 at 1 mA cm−2 and 173 mW cm−2 at 182 mA cm−2.•The flexible AABs reach 120.7 mAh g−1 at 1 mA cm−2 and 145 mW cm−2 at 157 mA cm−2.
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