The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of hedgehog-interacting protein (HHIP) overexpression on the proliferation, migration and invasion of non-small cell lung cancer ...(NSCLC).
Firstly, HHIP gene expression data of NSCLC tissues and normal tissues were obtained from GSE18842/GSE19804/GSE43458 databases of the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and then validated by TCGA NSCLC database in a cohort of 1027 cases of NSCLC patients and 108 cases of normal people. A chi-square test was used to analyze the relationship between HHIP expression and clinicopathological characteristics of NSCLC. The expression levels of HHIP in NSCLC cells were detected by quantitative-real time PCR. The function of HHIP was investigated by a series of in vitro assays. CCK-8, wounding healing, Transwell invasion assay were utilized to explore the mechanisms of HHIP.
HHIP mRNA were significantly down-regulated in NSCLC in three GEO databases and TCGA database (P<0.05). This result was confirmed in NSCLC cell lines by qRT-PCR analysis, its expression in normal NSCLC cell line BEAS-2B was significantly higher than that in NSCLC cells. Chi-square test results showed that the low expression of HHIP was correlated with gender, cancer type, TNM stage and tumor size. Functional experimental results showed that over-expressing HHIP significantly decreased the ability of cell proliferation, migration and invasion in NSCLC cells (P<0.05).
Overall, the above results indicated that HHIP could regulate proliferation, migration and invasion, and could be used as a judging criterion for identifying NSCLC classification and stage.
Ternary blends containing one major and two minor components are a common type of polymer blends, however, they have never been used to improve the electrical conductivity of polymer composites. ...Herein, polycarbonate (PC)/nylon‐poly(m‐xylene adipamide) (MXD6)/poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) (70/15/15) ternary blend is used to improve the conductivity of PC by forming sea‐island type interfacial carbon black (CB) networks. The phase change of PET from island to continuous structure, caused by the formation of CB networks at PET/MXD6 interface, is the key of success. The electrical percolation threshold of CB is much smaller than that in neat PC (only a ninth). Rheological investigation is carried out to confirm the formation of CB networks. The static mechanical properties of PC/MXD6/PET (70/15/15)‐2 vol% CB composite are evaluated by tensile testing, showing improved stiffness and strength, compared with the corresponding ternary blend, neat PC, and PC‐2 vol% CB composite.
Background
Malignant liver tumors seriously endanger human health. Among different therapeutic approaches, high‐frequency irreversible electroporation (H‐FIRE) is a recently emerging tumor ablation ...technique. The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and safety of ultrasound‐guided percutaneous H‐FIRE using four electrode needles in porcine livers.
Methods
Twelve experimental pigs underwent percutaneous H‐FIRE ablation using a compound steep‐pulse therapeutic device. Liver tissues adjacent to the gallbladder, blood vessels, and bile ducts were selected as the ablation targets. Pigs were randomly divided into three groups: (1) immediately after ablation (N = 4), (2) 2 days after ablation (N = 4), and (3) 7 days after ablation (N = 4). Blood routine, liver and kidney function, and myocardial enzyme levels were measured before and after ablation. Ultrasound, contrast‐enhanced ultrasound (CEUS), contrast‐enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and hematoxylin–eosin staining were performed to evaluate the ablation performance.
Results
Ultrasound‐guided percutaneous H‐FIRE ablations using four electrode needles were successfully performed in all 12 experimental pigs. The general conditions of the pigs, including postoperative activities and feeding behaviors, were normal, with no significant changes compared with the preoperative conditions. The imaging features of ultrasound, CEUS, and MRI demonstrated no significant changes in the gallbladder walls, bile ducts, or blood vessels close to the ablation areas. Laboratory tests showed that liver function indices and myocardial enzymes increased temporarily after H‐FIRE ablation, but decreased to normal levels at 7 days after ablation. Histopathological examinations of porcine liver specimens showed that this technique could effectively ablate the target areas without damaging the surrounding or internal vascular systems and gallbladder.
Conclusions
This study demonstrated the feasibility and safety of ultrasound‐guided percutaneous H‐FIRE ablation in porcine livers in vivo, and proposed a four‐needle method to optimize its clinical application.
High‐frequency irreversible electroporation (H‐FIRE) ablation is a novel ablation technique for liver malignancies. It can reduce the destruction of extracellular matrix and maintain the potential of cell regeneration. However, in the treatment of liver malignancies, four‐needle electrodes are recommended in order to achieve complete ablation. Besides, it is superior to promote the application of ultrasound‐guided percutaneous H‐FIRE ablation in clinical practice. The objective of this study was to investigate the safety and efficacy of ultrasound‐guided percutaneous H‐FIRE ablation using four electrode needles in porcine livers in vivo. We believe that the findings of this study can optimize and simplify the clinical application of H‐FIRE ablation.
•Elevated the average power of linearly polarized supercontinuum to over 300 watts, while preserving good beam quality.•A spectral subtraction method is introduced in detail and demonstrate that it ...can measure the polarization extinction ratio of hundred-watt level linearly-polarized supercontinuum and accurately reflect the polarization state at each wavelength range.•An interesting four-wave mixing phenomenon between the two orthogonal polarization states is observed.
We report an all-fiber linearly-polarized supercontinuum laser source with 322.5 W average output power and spectrum covering 800 nm to 2200 nm. A spectral subtraction method is utilized to measure the polarization extinction ratio (PER) of the laser source, which can directly measure the PER of each single wavelength within a wide spectral range. Through detail observation of the PER distribution along wavelengths, an interesting four-wave mixing (FWM) phenomenon between the two orthogonal polarization states is found in the laser system.
Endophytic actinobacteria colonize internal tissues of their host plants and are considered as a rich and reliable source of diverse species and functional microorganisms. In this study, endophytic ...actinobacterial strain YIM 63111 was isolated from surface-sterilized tissue of the medicinal plant Artemisia annua. We identified strain YIM 63111 as a member of the genus Pseudonocardia. A. annua seedlings grown under both sterile and greenhouse conditions were inoculated with strain YIM 63111. The growth of A. annua seedlings was strongly reduced when YIM 63111 was inoculated at higher concentrations under sterile conditions. However, no growth inhibition was observed when A. annua was grown under greenhouse conditions. Using an enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) expressing YIM 63111 strain, we also observed the endophytic colonization of A. annua seedling using confocal laser-scanning microscopy. The transcription levels of the key genes involved in artemisinin biosynthesis were investigated using real time RT-PCR, revealing that cytochrome P450 monooxygenase (CYP71AV1) and cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase (CPR) expression were up-regulated in A. annua upon inoculation with strain YIM 63111 under certain conditions. The up-regulation of these genes was associated with the increased accumulation of artemisinin. These results suggest that endophytic actinobacteria effectively stimulate certain plant defense responses. Our data also demonstrate the use of Pseudonocardia sp. strain YIM 63111 as a promising means to enhance artemisinin production in plants.
In large heterogeneous areas the relationship between soil organic carbon (SOC) and environmental covariates may vary throughout the area, bringing about difficulty for accurate modeling of the ...regional SOC variation. The benefit of local, geographically weighted regression (GWR) coefficients was tested in a case study on soil organic carbon mapping across a 50,810km2 area in northwestern China. This area is composed of an alpine ecosystem in the upper reaches and oases in the middle reaches. The benefit was quantified by comparing the quality of the maps obtained by GWR and geographically weighted ridge regression (GWRR) on the one side and multiple linear regression (MLR) on the other side. In these methods spatial dependence of model residuals is ignored. The root mean squared error (RMSE) of predictions of natural log-transformed SOC obtained with GWR was smaller than with MLR: 0.565 versus 0.618g/kg. The use of a local ridge parameter in GWRR did not lead to an increase in accuracy. Besides we compared the quality of maps obtained by geographically weighted regression followed by simple kriging of model residuals (GWRSK) and kriging with an external drift (KED) with global regression coefficients. In these methods the spatial dependence of model residuals is incorporated in the model. The RMSE with KED was smaller than with GWRSK: 0.515 versus 0.546g/kg. We conclude that fitting regression coefficients locally as in GWR only paid when no spatial random effect was included in the model. When a spatial random effect was included, the flexibility of local, geographically weighted regression coefficients was not needed and even undesirable as it led to less accurate predictions than KED with global regression coefficients. In comparing the accuracy of prediction methods by leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) of a non-probability sample it is important to account for possible autocorrelation of pairwise differences in the prediction errors. The effective sample sizes were substantially smaller than the total number of sampling points, so that most pairwise differences in MSE were not significant at a significance level of 10% in a two-sided paired t-test.
•Global and local regressions were compared assuming spatially independent and dependent model residuals.•KED with global regression coefficients outperformed GWR.•The effective sample size of paired t-test was smaller than the number of sampling points.
This brief focuses on modeling and neural-network-based control of a novel compliant differential shape memory alloy (SMA) actuator characterized by reduced total stiffness and increased compliance. ...A fourth-order strict-feedback nonlinear model with an internal dynamics is derived to fully describe the SMA actuator. Due to nonlinearity, parametric uncertainty, and state-measurement difficulty of the SMA actuator, an adaptive observer-based output-feedback adaptive neural control method is developed to rigorously guarantee closed-loop stability. An experimental device is constructed to test the performance of the SMA actuation control system, where load changes and control tasks with various frequencies are considered during experiments. Experimental results have demonstrated effectiveness and superiority of the proposed approach.
Silicosis caused by inhalation of silica particles leads to more than ten thousand new occupational exposure-related deaths yearly. Exacerbating this issue, there are currently few drugs reported to ...effectively treat silicosis. Tetrandrine is the only drug approved for silicosis treatment in China, and despite more than decades of use, its efficacy and mechanisms of action remain largely unknown. Here, in this study, we established silicosis mouse models to investigate the effectiveness of tetrandrine of early and late therapeutic administration. To this end, we used multiple cardiopulmonary function test, as well as markers for inflammation and fibrosis. Moreover, using single cell RNA sequencing and transcriptomics of lung tissue and quantitative microarray analysis of serum from silicosis and control mice, our results provide a novel description of the target pathways for tetrandrine. Specifically, we found that tetrandrine attenuated silicosis by inhibiting both the canonical and non-canonical NLRP3 inflammasome pathways in lung macrophages. Taken together, our work showed that tetrandrine yielded promising results against silicosis-associated inflammation and fibrosis and further lied the groundwork for understanding its molecular targets. Our results also facilitated the wider adoption and development of tetrandirne, potentially accelerating a globally accepted therapeutic strategy for silicosis.
Four linear polyurea elastomers synthesized from two different diisocyanates, two different chain extenders and a common aliphatic amine-terminated polyether were used as models to investigate the ...effects of both diisocyanate structure and aromatic disulfide chain extender on hard segmental packing and self-healing ability. Both direct investigation on hard segments and indirect investigation on chain mobility and soft segmental dynamics were carried out to compare the levels of hard segmental packing, leading to agreed conclusions that correlated well with the self-healing abilities of the polyureas. Both diisocyanate structure and disulfide bonds had significant effects on hard segmental packing and self-healing property. Diisocyanate structure had more pronounced effect than disulfide bonds. Bulky alicyclic isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) resulted in looser hard segmental packing than linear aliphatic hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI), whereas a disulfide chain extender also promoted self-healing ability through loosening of hard segmental packing compared to its C-C counterpart. The polyurea synthesized from IPDI and the disulfide chain extender exhibited the best self-healing ability among the four polyureas because it had the highest chain mobility ascribed to the loosest hard segmental packing. Therefore, a combination of bulky alicyclic diisocyanate and disulfide chain extender is recommended for the design of self-healing polyurea elastomers.
Background
Robotic surgery is increasingly being used in hepatectomy. Previous studies comparing the robotic and laparoscopic minor hepatectomy have been documented, but comparative studies on ...robotic and laparoscopic hemihepatectomy (LH) involving a large patient cohort are rare. The objective of this study was to compare perioperative outcomes between robotic and LH.
Methods
Data on the demographics, clinicopathologic characteristics, and perioperative outcomes of consecutive patients who underwent robotic or LH in a single center between November 2011 and July 2017 were analyzed.
Results
A total of 92 patients underwent robotic and 48 LH. Multiple linear regression analysis showed no significant difference in perioperative outcomes including operative time, postoperative hospital stay, postoperative complications, and mortality between the groups. Compared to the laparoscopic cohort, the robotic cohort had a significantly less estimated blood loss (120.24 mL; 95% confidence interval, 53.72‐186.76) and a significantly lower conversation rate (1.09% vs 10.42%; P = .034). Stratified and interaction analyses demonstrated that disease type had an interaction effect on the association between the operative approach and the estimated blood loss.
Conclusions
Robotic hemihepatectomy was safe and feasible in selected patients. It had similar perioperative outcomes as LH and was better than LH regarding estimated blood loss and open conversion.
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