Objective
Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder. Its prevalence appears inconsistent in different regions of China; thus, we conducted this meta‐analysis to estimate the prevalence of ...schizophrenia in mainland China.
Method
Studies on the prevalence of schizophrenia in mainland China were identified from electronic databases up to July 2013. Meta‐analysis was used for prevalence of schizophrenia estimate.
Results
For lifetime prevalence of schizophrenia, prevalence of 5.44 per 1000 (overall), 5.33 per 1000 (males), 5.51 per 1000 (females), 6.60 per 1000 (urban) and 4.73 per 1000 (rural) were estimated; there was no significant difference between males and females, while prevalence for urban dwellers was higher than for rural (OR = 1.44, 95%CI: 1.30–1.59). For point prevalence of schizophrenia, prevalence of 4.62 per 1000 (overall), 4.63 per 1000 (males), 4.95 per 1000 (females), 5.15 per 1000 (urban) and 4.44 per 1000 (rural) were estimated; no statistical difference was found in males and females, but prevalence for urban dwellers was higher than for rural (OR = 1.20; 95%CI: 1.02–1.41).
Conclusion
The prevalence estimate results were consistent with the international prevalence estimate of schizophrenia in mainland China. There was no significant difference between males and females, while prevalence for urban dwellers was higher than for rural.
Unique single‐crystalline octahedral Cu2O nanocages (see Figure) are synthesized in solution by the catalytic reduction of copper tartrate complex into octahedral Cu2O nanocrystals and a subsequent ...spontaneous hollowing process. A wealth of colorful nanostructures with widely tunable bandgaps in the range 2.6–2.2 eV are obtained. The obtained nanocages may find potential use in solar‐energy conversion, catalysis, and as model systems for fundamental research.
The use of nanomaterials has raised safety concerns, as their small size facilitates accumulation in and interaction with biological tissues. Here we show that exposure of endothelial cells to TiO₂ ...nanomaterials causes endothelial cell leakiness. This effect is caused by the physical interaction between TiO₂ nanomaterials and endothelial cells' adherens junction protein VE-cadherin. As a result, VE-cadherin is phosphorylated at intracellular residues (Y658 and Y731), and the interaction between VE-cadherin and p120 as well as β-catenin is lost. The resulting signalling cascade promotes actin remodelling, as well as internalization and degradation of VE-cadherin. We show that injections of TiO₂ nanomaterials cause leakiness of subcutaneous blood vessels in mice and, in a melanoma-lung metastasis mouse model, increase the number of pulmonary metastases. Our findings uncover a novel non-receptor-mediated mechanism by which nanomaterials trigger intracellular signalling cascades via specific interaction with VE-cadherin, resulting in nanomaterial-induced endothelial cell leakiness.
Purpose
The current study aims to explore the effects of CDKN2A on cell proliferation and cycle, and investigate the underlying mechanisms.
Methods
Expression of CDKN2A in cervical cancer cell lines ...was evaluated by real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) and western blotting. Apoptotic rate was detected by Annexin V assay. MTT assay, Transwell assay and cell cycle assay kit were applied to examine the effect of CDKN2A on cell viability, invasion and cell cycle. Co-immunoprecipitation and western blotting were devoted to explore the mechanism by which CDKN2A contributes to cell function.
Results
CDKN2A was expressed at a low level in cervical cancer cell lines. Overexpression of CDKN2A inhibited cell proliferation and invasion, and caused cell cycle arrest in the G1 phase. CDKN2A mediates the AKT–mTOR signaling pathway by suppressing lactate dehydrogenase (LDHA). Taken together, our data revealed that CDKN2A can be applied as a therapeutic target for the treatment of cervical cancer in future.
Conclusions
CDKN2A inhibits cell proliferation and invasion in cervical cancer through LDHA-mediated AKT–mTOR pathway.
The crystal structure and photoluminescence properties of undoped and Ce3+-doped CaAlSiN3 as well as the application of white-light LEDs are reported. CaAlSiN3 and CaAlSiN3:Ce3+ have been ...synthesized, starting from Ca3N2, AlN, Si3N4, and CeN or CeO2 with and without Li3N, by a solid state reaction at 1700 °C for 4 h under high purity nitrogen atmosphere. Instead of an ideal CaAlSiN3, a more appropriate formula is proposed to be CaAl1−4δ/3Si1+δN3 (δ ≈ 0.3−0.4) with an Al/Si ratio of about 1:2 on the basis of the bond valence sum calculations, in which Al/Si is disorderly occupied on the 8b site within Cmc21 space group. Ce3+ can be incorporated into the host lattice of CaAlSiN3, and the estimated maximum solubility of Ce3+ is about x = 0.02 (e.g., 2.0 mol % with respect to Ca) of Ca1−2x Ce x Li x AlSiN3. CaAlSiN3:Ce3+ can be efficiently excited by blue light (450−480 nm) and yields yellow-orange emission with a broadband peaking in the range of 570−603 nm, originating from the 5d1 → 4f1 transition of Ce3+. With an increase of Ce concentration, the emission band of Ce3+ shifts to longer wavelengths due to the increased Stokes shift corresponding to structural relaxation and energy transfer of Ce3+. Upon excitation in blue light range (450−480 nm), the absorption and external quantum efficiency are about 70% and 56%, respectively, for both Ca1−2x CexLixAlSiN3 and Ca1−x CexAlSiN3−2x/3O3x/2 at x = 0.01. In addition, Ca1−2x Ce x Li x AlSiN3 and Ca1−x Ce x AlSiN3−2x/3O3x/2 show high thermal stability in air with the quenching temperature above 300 °C for x = 0.01. Using single CaAlSiN3:Ce3+ as the wavelength conversion phosphor combined with a blue InGaN LED-chip (450 nm), warm white-light LEDs can be generated, yielding the luminous efficacy of about 50 lm/W at color temperature 3722 K and the color rendering index (Ra) of 70, which demonstrates that CaAlSiN3:Ce3+ is a highly promising yellow-orange phosphor for use in white-light LEDs.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Despite progress in diagnostics and treatment of HCC, its prognosis remains poor. Emerging studies ...showed that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have crucial regulatory roles in cancer biology. In the current study, differentially expressed lncRNAs between HCC and paired non-tumor tissues were identified using microarrays. The effects of a specific differentially expressed lncRNA (termed ZEB1-AS1) on tumor progression were investigated in vitro and in vivo. We found that ZEB1-AS1 is frequently upregulated in HCC samples, especially in metastatic tumor tissues. DNA methylation analysis shows a tumor-specific ZEB1-AS1 promoter hypomethylation. Aberrant methylation is tightly correlated with overexpression of ZEB1-AS1 in HCC. Patients with ZEB1-AS1 hypomethylation or with high ZEB1-AS1 expression have poor recurrence-free survival. Functionally, ZEB1-AS1 promotes tumor growth and metastasis, acts as an oncogene in HCC. The ZEB1-AS1 gene is located in physical contiguity with ZEB1 and positively regulates the ZEB1 expression. ZEB1 inhibition partially abrogates ZEB1-AS1-induced epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and cancer metastasis. Our results provide novel insights into the function of lncRNA-driven hepatocarcinogenesis, highlight the important role of ZEB1-AS1 and ZEB1 in HCC progression, and indicate that ZEB1-AS1 may be served as a valuable prognostic biomarker for HCC.
Abstract The corona is a structure possessed by stars, including the Sun. The abnormal heating of the solar corona and chromosphere is one of the greatest mysteries in modern astronomy. While ...state-of-the-art observations have identified some candidates of magnetic activity events that could be responsible for this abnormal heating, and theoretical studies have proposed various heating modes, a complete physical picture of how they are heated as a whole remains elusive. In this study, the characteristics of the heated corona and chromosphere are investigated, and for the first time, the question of how they are abnormally heated is explicitly answered by analyzing the long-term observations of the global chromosphere in the Ca ii K line and the global corona in the coronal green line. The findings reveal that both the quiet chromosphere and corona are in antiphase with the solar cycle, whereas the active chromosphere and corona are in phase with it. Different parts of the solar corona and chromosphere exhibit significantly different variation characteristics and are found to be heated by different magnetic categories and probably in different modes. This study posits that unraveling the heating mystery is best approached through the lens of magnetic categories, rather than magnetic activity events.
Aim To evaluate the accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and combined 2-18 F-fluoro-2-deoxy- d -glucose (FDG) positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) for N staging of breast ...cancer. Materials and methods A search for relevant diagnostic studies published between January 2008 and October 2015 was conducted in the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases. The quality of the studies was assessed using Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS) criteria. Sensitivity and specificity were analysed using the random-effect model and fixed effect model for MRI and PET/CT, respectively. Results A total of 21 eligible studies were evaluated for the efficacy of MRI or PET/CT for diagnosing axillary lymph node status in breast cancer patients. The pooled specificities of MRI and PET/CT were similar at 0.93 (95% confidence interval CI: 0.92–0.94) and 0.93 (95% CI: 0.90–0.95), respectively; however, the pooled sensitivity of MRI was (0.82; 95% CI: 0.78–0.85) significantly greater than PET/CT (0.64; 95% CI: 0.59–0.69). Further analysis revealed that MRI had a significantly higher diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) value of 51.28 (95% CI: 22.44–117.17) compared to PET/CT at 18.84 (95% CI: 11.71–31.76). Conclusion The present meta-analysis suggests that MRI not only has the higher sensitivity for lymph node metastasis diagnosis compared to PET/CT, but also has high potential for being used as a non-invasive imaging diagnostic technique. Furthermore, the ultra-small super paramagnetic iron oxide (USPIO)-enhanced MRI showed high diagnostic accuracy for identifying axillary lymph node metastases in early-stage breast cancer patients.
Catalysts are often added to solid propellant formulations to tailor burning rates. Nanocatalysts can increase propellant burning rates over standard catalyst sizes due to the increase in surface ...area per unit weight. However, the increased surface area that the binder must wet can be prohibitive if large amounts of nanocatalysts are used. Additionally, agglomeration of the nanocatalyst can result in micron-scale particles, reducing catalyst effectiveness. In this study a nanoscale iron oxide catalyst has been used to decorate graphene. By decorating graphene with the catalyst, nanoscale features are kept but the catalyst is stabilized to reduce agglomeration. Changes in burning rate between the catalyzed and uncatalyzed propellants are investigated. The effect on burning rate of encapsulating the catalyst inside the fine AP crystals compared to propellants where it is added to the binder is also investigated. We also compare propellants with decorated graphene and propellants with undecorated graphene catalysts. The three comparisons are made for two different graphene preparation methods. It is found that the highest burning rates occur in propellants where the graphene is decorated with catalyst and encapsulated in the fine AP. The next highest burning rates occur in propellants with decorated graphene that is physically mixed into the propellant. The lowest burning rates are found in propellants where the graphene is undecorated, where there is little difference between encapsulated or physically mixed graphene blanks, or compared to a baseline propellant. Burning rates are found to be similar between graphene preparation methods considered.
Noninvasive neuromodulatory techniques such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) are attracting increasing interest as potential therapies for a wide range of neurological and ...psychiatric conditions. When targeted to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), anodal, facilitatory tDCS has been shown to improve symptoms in a range of domains including working memory, mood, and pain perception (Boggio et al., 2008a; Dockery et al., 2009; Kalu et al., 2012). However, the mechanisms underlying these promising behavioral effects are not well understood. Here, we investigated brain perfusion changes, as assessed using whole-brain arterial spin labeling (ASL), during tDCS applied to the left DLPFC in healthy humans. We demonstrated increased perfusion in regions closely anatomically connected to the DLPFC during anodal tDCS in conjunction with a decreased functional coupling between the left DLPFC and the thalami bilaterally. Despite highly similar effects on cortical excitability during and after stimulation (Nitsche and Paulus, 2000, 2001), cortical perfusion changes were markedly different during these two time periods, with widespread decreases in cortical perfusion being demonstrated after both anodal and cathodal tDCS compared to the period during stimulation. These findings may at least partially explain the different effects on behavior in these time periods described previously in the motor system (Stagg et al., 2011). In addition, the data presented here provide mechanistic explanations for the behavioral effects of anodal tDCS applied to the left DLPFC in terms of modulating functional connectivity between the DLPFC and thalami, as has been hypothesized previously (Lorenz et al., 2003).
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