The cracking resistance performance, impermeability, strength and deformation characteristics of improved clay were systematically evaluated by cracking test, water permeability test, unconfined ...compression test and shear test, respectively. The cracking test suggested a high resistance of the improved clay by straw fiber against cracking. With the increase of fiber content (FC), the cracking intensity factor (CIF) i.e. the ratio of the crack area to the total area, decreased at low fiber contents and then turned to increase at higher fiber contents. However, the effect of fiber additive on the surface shrinkage was not significant. The improved clay with FC=0.3% was found to have the highest resistance to cracking. After 25days of desiccation, CIF and surface shrinkage of compacted clay were determined to be 0.015 and 12.1% respectively. However, CIF of the improved clay with FC=0.3% was only 0.0013 and surface shrinkage was 10.31%. Cracking was propagated by wetting–drying cycles. After four wetting–drying cycles, the CIF of the compacted clay was 0.032 and the CIF of the improved clay with FC=0.3% was 0.0081. The result of water permeability test for cracked clay indicated that a traditional landfill cover system merely consisting of compacted clay would not be sufficient to serve as an effective barrier against rainwater permeation into the landfill. At a rainfall intensity of 10mm/d, the rainwater penetrated to a 15cm depth of the clay liners. The improved clay with FC=0.3% had the least permeability. The rainwater had not penetrated to the 15cm depth of clay liners even if the rainfall intensity reached 50mm/d. The results of unconfined compression tests and shear tests indicated that with the increase of FC, the unconfined compressive strength and shear strength increased firstly and then decreased. At FC=0.3%, the unconfined compressive strength peaked at 459.15kPa, and c, φ peaked at 80.9kPa and 21.06°, respectively. The improved clay with straw fiber additive could be used in landfill cover system to enhance the anti-seepage ability and strength of landfill liners.
•The cracking resistance of improved clay by straw fiber was evaluated.•The improved clay had higher resistance to cracking than traditional clay.•The improved clay with fiber content 0.3% had the highest resistance to cracking.•The unconfined compressive strength increased firstly and then decreased.•The improved clay had the higher anti-seepage ability than traditional clay.
AT‐rich interaction domain 4A (ARID4A) and AT‐rich interaction domain 4B (ARID4B), which are both the AT‐rich interaction domain (ARID) family, have been reported to be oncogene or tumor suppressor ...gene in various human malignances, but there is no involvement about their functions in prostate cancer (PCa). Our previous study has reported that microRNA‐30d (miR‐30d) expression can predicted poor clinical prognosis in PCa, however, the underlying mechanisms of miR‐30d have not been fully described. The aim of our study is to investigate the expression relevance between miR‐30d and ARID4A or ARID4B, and examine the clinical significance and biological function of ARID4A and AIRD4B in PCa. In this study, both ARID4A and ARID4B were identified as the target genes of miR‐30d. In addition, the mRNA expression of miR‐30d in PCa tissues were significantly negative correlated with ARID4A (Pearson correlation coefficient = −0.313, P = 0.001) and ARID4B (Pearson correlation coefficient = −0.349, P < 0.001), while there was a positive correlation between ARID4A and ARID4B (Pearson correlation coefficient = 0.865, P < 0.001). Moreover, both ARID4A and ARID4B were significantly downregulated in PCa tissues with high Gleason scores (P = 0.005, P = 0.033), PSA failure (P = 0.012, P = 0.05) and short biochemical recurrent‐free survival (P = 0.033, P = 0.031). Furthermore, the knockout expression of ARID4A and ARID4B promoted PCa cell proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro. In conclusion, our results indicated that ARID4A and ARID4B may serve as tumor suppressor in PCa progression, suggesting that they might be the potential therapeutic targets in prostate cancer.
This article is mainly focused on discussed the phenotype of ARID4A and ARID4B in prostate cancer and suggesting it might be a promising therapeutic target for PCa therapy.
Femtosecond laser-induced deep-subwavelength structures have attracted much attention as a nanoscale surface texturization technique. A better understanding of the formation conditions and period ...control is required. Herein, we report a method of non-reciprocal writing via a tailored optical far-field exposure, where the period of ripples varies along different scanning directions, and achieve a continuous manipulation of the period from 47 to 112 nm (±4 nm) for a 100-nm-thick indium tin oxide (ITO) on glass. A full electromagnetic model was developed to demonstrate the redistributed localized near-field at different stages of ablation with nanoscale precision. It explains the formation of ripples and the asymmetry of the focal spot determines the non-reciprocity of ripple writing. Combined with beam shaping techniques, we achieved non-reciprocal writing (regarding scanning direction) using an aperture-shaped beam. The non-reciprocal writing is expected to open new paths for precise and controllable nanoscale surface texturing.
•Effect of wetting-drying cycles on leaching behavior.•Wetting-drying cycles accelerated lead leached in solidified specimens.•Increase of cement addition resisted the corrosion of solution.•Leached ...lead concentration increased with acidity of solution.•pH of leachate decreased with wetting-drying cycles.
Lead contaminated soil was treated by different concentration of ordinary Portland cement (OPC). Solidified cylindrical samples were dried at 40°C in oven for 48h subsequent to 24h of immersing in different solution for one drying-wetting. 10 cycles were conducted on specimens. The changes in mass loss of specimens, as well as leaching concentration and pH of filtered leachates were studied after each cycle. Results indicated that drying-wetting cycles could accelerate the leaching and deterioration of solidified specimens. The cumulative leached lead with acetic acid (pH=2.88) in this study was 109, 83 and 71mg respectively for solidified specimens of cement-to-dry soil (C/Sd) ratios 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4, compared to 37, 30, and 25mg for a semi-dynamic leaching test. With the increase of cycle times, the cumulative mass loss of specimens increased linearly, but pH of filtered leachates decreased. The leachability and deterioration of solidified specimens increased with acidity of solution. Increases of C/Sd clearly reduced the leachability and deterioration behavior.
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•Calcification was identified in Randall's plaque.•Calcification-related proteins were up-regulated in animal and cell models.•HCA reduces calcification-induced apoptosis and ...oxidative damage.•HCA inhibits cellular calcification and deposition of calcium salts in animals.
Ectopic calcification of the renal interstitium as an important cause of renal stone formation. Hydroxycitric acid (HCA), a derivative of citric acid, has antioxidant properties and inhibits the crystallisation of calcium salts.The study found that HCA has an inhibitory effect on calcification and calcium salt deposition in fibroblasts. Additionally, HCA was found to reduce calcification-induced oxidative damage and apoptosis.Animal experiments also showed that HCA reduced calcium salt deposition and expression of calcification-related proteins. Cellular transcriptomic analysis demonstrated that HCA can regulate the changes in cellular transcriptome caused by calcification in culture. HCA can effectively inhibit the calcification of renal interstitial fibroblasts, reducing the risk of stone formation by inhibiting calcification culture-induced apoptosis and calcium salt deposition. Therefore, HCA is a promising alternative drug for inhibiting renal stone formation.
Accumulating studies reported that 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA synthase 2 (HMGCS2) may function as either an oncogene or a tumor suppressor in various human cancers. However, its involvement in ...prostate cancer (PCa) remains unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the clinical significance of HMGCS2 expression and its functions in PCa.
Expression levels of HMGCS2 mRNA and protein were detected by quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR), Western blot and immunohistochemistry, respectively. Associations of HMGCS2 expression with various clinicopathological features and patients' prognosis of PCa were statistically evaluated. Roles of HMGCS2 dysregulation in cell proliferation, invasion and migration of PCa cell lines were also determined.
HMGCS2 protein expression was significantly reduced in PCa tissues compared to adjacent benign prostate tissues at protein levels (P < 0.05). Clinically, low HMGCS2 mRNA expression was dramatically associated with high Gleason score (GS) and pathological grade, as well as the presence of distant metastasis of PCa patients. In addition, PCa patients with low HMGCS2 mRNA expression more frequently had shorter disease-free survival and biochemical recurrence-free survival (all P < 0.05). HMGCS2 expression was identified as an independent factor to predict both disease-free and biochemical recurrence-free survivals of PCa patients. Moreover, loss-of-function experiments demonstrated that HMGCS2 knockdown-expression promotes cell proliferation, colony formation, invasion and migration of PCa cells in vitro and lower the apoptotic rate of PCa cells in vitro.
Our data indicate that HMGCS2 may be capable of predicting the risk of biochemical recurrence in PCa patients after radical prostatectomy and functions as a tumor suppressor in PCa cancer, implying its related pathway potential as a drug candidate in anti-PCa therapy.
Purpose
Abnormal spindle microtubule assembly (ASPM) gene was known to be linked with poor clinical prognosis in various tumors. However, the clinical significance of ASPM in prostate cancer (PCa) ...has not yet been understood. The purpose of this study was to determine the association of ASPM with tumor progression and prognosis in PCa patients.
Methods
The expression of ASPM at protein level in human PCa and non-cancerous prostate tissue was detected by immunohistochemical analysis, which was further validated by using microarray-based dataset (NCBI GEO: GSE21032 and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset) at mRNA level. Subsequently, the association of ASPM expression with the clinicopathological characteristics of patients with PCa was then statistically analyzed.
Results
Immunohistochemistry and dataset analyses revealed that ASPM expression was significantly increased in the PCa tissues with high Gleason score. Additionally, as showed by two datasets, ASPM expression was significantly high expressed in the PCa tissues when compared with the non-cancerous tissues, especially in advanced PCa pathological stage. The upregulation of ASPM mRNA expression in the PCa tissues significantly correlated with the presence of tumor metastasis, shorter overall survival and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) failure. Furthermore, both univariate and multivariate analyses showed that the upregulation of ASPM was a potential predictor of poor biochemical recurrence (BCR)-free survival.
Conclusions
Our data suggest that ASPM may play an important role in the progression of PCa. More importantly, the increased expression of ASPM may potentially predict poor BCR-free survival in patients with PCa.
The aim of the present study was to use the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR‑associated (Cas) 9‑mediated gene knockout technology for the rapid ...classification of the differential function of micro (mi)RNAs screened using miRNA expression profiling by microarray. The rational design of single guide RNAs for the CRISPR/Cas9 system was verified to function in human LNCaP cells with rapid and efficient target gene editing. miRNA (miR)‑205, miR‑221, miR‑222, miR‑30c, miR‑224, miR‑455‑3p, miR‑23b and miR‑505 were downregulated in patients with prostate cancer (PCa) and were experimentally validated to function as tumor suppressors in prostate cancer cells, affecting tumor proliferation, invasion and aerobic glycolysis. In addition, the data of the present study suggested that miR‑663a and mfiR‑1225‑5p were upregulated in prostate cancer tissues and cell proliferation of miR‑663a and miR‑1225‑5p knockout PCa cells was significantly lower compared with miR‑NC cells. Furthermore, knockout of miR‑1225‑5p and miR‑663a significantly decreased the lactate production in LNCaP cells in vitro. In conclusion, the present study offered a simple and efficient method for rapidly classifying miRNA function by applying CRISPR/Cas9 in LNCaP cells. The present study suggested, for the first time to the best of the authors' knowledge, that the aberrant expression of miR‑663a and miR‑1225‑5p may be involved with the progression of prostate cancer, implying their potential as candidate markers for this type of cancer. However, the precise role of miR‑663a and miR‑1225‑5p in accelerating the development of prostate cancer and promoting tumor progression remains to be elucidated.
Immunotherapy has made great breakthroughs in the field of cancer. However, the immunotherapeutic effect of prostate cancer is unsatisfactory. We found that the expression of TRIB1 was significantly ...correlated with the infiltration of CD163+ macrophages in prostate cancer. This study focused on the effects of TRIB1 on macrophage polarization in the immune microenvironment of prostate cancer. RNA sequencing analysis demonstrated that TRIB1 has significant effects on the regulation of the nuclear factor (NF)-κB signaling pathway and downstream cytokines. Flow cytometry and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were used to examine THP-1 cells cultured in conditioned medium from prostate cancer cells overexpressing TRIB1 and showed that overexpression of TRIB1 promoted the secretion of CXCL2 and interleukin (IL)8 by PC3 cells, which increased the secretion of IL12 by THP-1 cells as well as the expression of CD163 on THP-1 cells. IKB-zeta, regulated by TRIB1, was expressed in PC3 cells but was barely detectable in DU145 cells. The reductions in CXCL2 and IL8 by the inhibition of TRIB1 were rescued by the deletion of IKB-zeta. Here we showed that TRIB1 promoted the secretion of cytokines from prostate cancer cells and induced the differentiation of monocytes/macrophages into M2 macrophages.
•In Prostate Cancer, the Expression of TRIB1 was Positively Correlated with the Amount of CD163+ Macrophage Infiltration.•TRIB1 promotes the secretion of CXCL2/IL8 by regulating IKB-zeta.•TRIB1 plays an important role in PC3-induced THP-1 to M2 phenotype.
Abstract
In nonlinear optical systems, the optical superposition principle breaks down. The system’s response (including electric polarization, current density, etc) is not proportional to the ...stimulus it receives. Over the past half century, nonlinear optics has grown from an individual frequency doubling experiment into a broad academic field. The nonlinear optics has not only brought new physics and phenomena, but also has become an enabling technology for numerous areas that are vital to our lives, such as communications, health, advanced manufacturing,
et al
. This Roadmap surveys some of the recent emerging fields of the nonlinear optics, with a special attention to studies in China. Each section provides an overview of the current and future challenges within a part of the field, highlighting the most exciting opportunities for future research and developments.
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