Cancer cells reprogram their metabolism to meet the requirement for survival and rapid growth. One hallmark of cancer metabolism is elevated aerobic glycolysis and reduced oxidative phosphorylation. ...Emerging evidence showed that most glycolytic enzymes are deregulated in cancer cells and play important roles in tumorigenesis. Recent studies revealed that all essential glycolytic enzymes can be translocated into nucleus where they participate in tumor progression independent of their canonical metabolic roles. These noncanonical functions include anti-apoptosis, regulation of epigenetic modifications, modulation of transcription factors and co-factors, extracellular cytokine, protein kinase activity and mTORC1 signaling pathway, suggesting that these multifaceted glycolytic enzymes not only function in canonical metabolism but also directly link metabolism to epigenetic and transcription programs implicated in tumorigenesis. These findings underscore our understanding about how tumor cells adapt to nutrient and fuel availability in the environment and most importantly, provide insights into development of cancer therapy.
The enhancement of the functional properties of materials at reduced dimensions is crucial for continuous advancements in nanoelectronic applications. Here, we report that the scale reduction leads ...to the emergence of an important functional property, ferroelectricity, challenging the long-standing notion that ferroelectricity is inevitably suppressed at the scale of a few nanometers. A combination of theoretical calculations, electrical measurements, and structural analyses provides evidence of room-temperature ferroelectricity in strain-free epitaxial nanometer-thick films of otherwise nonferroelectric strontium titanate (SrTiO3). We show that electrically induced alignment of naturally existing polar nanoregions is responsible for the appearance of a stable net ferroelectric polarization in these films. This finding can be useful for the development of low-dimensional material systems with enhanced functional properties relevant to emerging nanoelectronic devices.
We present a lattice-QCD-based determination of the chiral phase transition temperature in QCD with two degenerate, massless quarks and a physical strange quark mass using lattice QCD calculations ...with the highly improved staggered quarks action. We propose and calculate two novel estimators for the chiral transition temperature for several values of the light quark masses, corresponding to Goldstone pion masses in the range of 58 MeV≲m_{π}≲163 MeV. The chiral phase transition temperature is determined by extrapolating to vanishing pion mass using universal scaling analysis. Finite-volume effects are controlled by extrapolating to the thermodynamic limit using spatial lattice extents in the range of 2.8-4.5 times the inverse of the pion mass. Continuum extrapolations are carried out by using three different values of the lattice cutoff, corresponding to lattices with temporal extents N_{τ}=6, 8, and 12. After thermodynamic, continuum, and chiral extrapolations, we find the chiral phase transition temperature T_{c}^{0}=132_{-6}^{+3} MeV.
Cephalopods such as octopuses have a combination of a stretchable skin and color-tuning organs to control both posture and color for visual communication and disguise. We present an ...electroluminescent material that is capable of large uniaxial stretching and surface area changes while actively emitting light. Layers of transparent hydrogel electrodes sandwich a ZnS phosphor-doped dielectric elastomer layer, creating thin rubber sheets that change illuminance and capacitance under deformation. Arrays of individually controllable pixels in thin rubber sheets were fabricated using replica molding and were subjected to stretching, folding, and rolling to demonstrate their use as stretchable displays. These sheets were then integrated into the skin of a soft robot, providing it with dynamic coloration and sensory feedback from external and internal stimuli.
► In spring maize growing period of a sub-humid area, fallow field with wheat straw mulch had a fallow efficiency of 35%. ► Fallow field mulched with plastic sheets had a fallow efficiency of 46.1%. ...► Largest water loss by evaporation occurred during the hottest part of summer. ► Maize plant canopy significantly reduced evaporation due to uptake of soil water and shading of the soil surface.
A field experiment was conducted in a dry sub-humid area to study the effect of plastic sheet mulch and wheat straw mulch on water loss by evaporation (E) under fallow and cropped conditions and water use by transpiration (T) under cropped conditions. Results showed that during the entire spring maize (Zea mays L.) growing period with 305.1mm water of precipitation and irrigation from April 22 to August 28, fallow plots mulched with wheat straw conserved 106.9mm water in the 0–200cm soil layer with a fallow efficiency of 35% while those mulched with plastic sheets conserved 140.6mm water with a fallow efficiency of 46.1%. Although plastic film and wheat straw mulch significantly reduced water loss by E compared to non-mulch that had typically a fallow efficiency of 10–15%, water loss by E was still serious, with the largest water losses occurring during the hottest part of summer (July and August). During this period, it was difficult to reduce E, even when mulch was properly applied. In contrast, water losses due to E were much lower when maize plants were grown on the plots. In this case, maize plants continuously took up water from soil, leading to a reduction in the amount of soil water available for E. The large canopy shaded the soil surface and reduced water loss by evaporation. Only 20mm, or 6.3% water was estimated lost by evaporation for maize grown on plots covered with plastic mulch. We developed a regression equation between shoot dry matter and transpiration amounts from plastic sheet mulched plots to estimate water loss by E in non-mulched and wheat straw mulched plots. Results showed that non-mulched plots lost 30.2% and wheat straw mulched plots lost 24.5% of the water received during the maize-growing season to E.
Earth's magnetotail contains magnetic energy derived from the kinetic energy of the solar wind. Conversion of that energy back to particle energy ultimately powers Earth's auroras, heats the ...magnetospheric plasma, and energizes the Van Allen radiation belts. Where and how such electromagnetic energy conversion occurs has been unclear. Using a conjunction between eight spacecraft, we show that this conversion takes place within fronts of recently reconnected magnetic flux, predominantly at 1-to 10-electron inertial length scale, intense electrical current sheets (tens to hundreds of nanoamperes per square meter). Launched continually during intervals of geomagnetic activity, these reconnection outflow flux fronts convert ~10 to 100 gigawatts per square Earth radius of power, consistent with local magnetic flux transport, and a few times 10¹⁵ joules of magnetic energy, consistent with global magnetotail flux reduction.
Methylation of Lys and Arg residues on non-histone proteins has emerged as a prevalent post-translational modification and as an important regulator of cellular signal transduction mediated by the ...MAPK, WNT, BMP, Hippo and JAK-STAT signalling pathways. Crosstalk between methylation and other types of post-translational modifications, and between histone and non-histone protein methylation frequently occurs and affects cellular functions such as chromatin remodelling, gene transcription, protein synthesis, signal transduction and DNA repair. With recent advances in proteomic techniques, in particular mass spectrometry, the stage is now set to decode the methylproteome and define its functions in health and disease.
Although surgery remains the mainstay of curative treatment for colorectal cancer (CRC), many patients still have high chance to experience disease relapse. It is therefore imperative to identify ...prognostic markers that can help predict the clinical outcomes of CRC. Aberrant microRNA expression holds great potential as diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for CRC. Here we aimed to investigate clinical potential of miR-34a-5p as a prognostic marker for CRC recurrence and its functional significance. First, we validated that miR-34a-5p was downregulated in CRC tumour tissues (P<0.05). The expression level of tissue miR-34a-5p was then evaluated in two independent cohorts of 268 CRC patients. miR-34a-5p expression was positively correlated with disease-free survival in two independent cohorts (cohort I: n=205, P<0.001; cohort II: n=63, P=0.006). Moreover, the expression of miR-34a-5p was an independent prognostic factor for CRC recurrence by multivariate analysis (P<0.001 for cohort I, P=0.007 for cohort II). Ectopic expression of miR-34a-5p in p53 wild-type colon cancer cell HCT116 significantly inhibited cell growth, migration, invasion and metastasis. miR-34a-5p induced cell apoptosis, cell cycle arrest at G1 phase and p53 transcription activity in HCT116 cells, but not in the HCT116 p53 knockout (p53(-/-)) cells. miR-34a-5p significantly suppressed the HCT116 growth in vivo, whereas it showed no effect on the HCT116 p53(-/-) xenograft, indicating that the growth-inhibiting effect by miR-34a-5p was dependent on p53. In addition, the expression level of miR-34a-5p in patients with p53-positive expression was higher than that in patients with p53-negative expression (P<0.01). In conclusion, miR-34a-5p inhibits recurrence of CRC through inhibiting cell growth, migration and invasion, inducing cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in a p53-dependent manner.
We present results for pseudo-critical temperatures of QCD chiral crossovers at zero and non-zero values of baryon (B), strangeness (S), electric charge (Q), and isospin (I) chemical potentials ...μX=B,Q,S,I. The results were obtained using lattice QCD calculations carried out with two degenerate up and down dynamical quarks and a dynamical strange quark, with quark masses corresponding to physical values of pion and kaon masses in the continuum limit. By parameterizing pseudo-critical temperatures as Tc(μX)=Tc(0)1−κ2X(μX/Tc(0))2−κ4X(μX/Tc(0))4, we determined κ2X and κ4X from Taylor expansions of chiral observables in μX. We obtained a precise result for Tc(0)=(156.5±1.5) MeV. For analogous thermal conditions at the chemical freeze-out of relativistic heavy-ion collisions, i.e., μS(T,μB) and μQ(T,μB) fixed from strangeness-neutrality and isospin-imbalance, we found κ2B=0.012(4) and κ4B=0.000(4). For μB≲300 MeV, the chemical freeze-out takes place in the vicinity of the QCD phase boundary, which coincides with the lines of constant energy density of 0.42(6)GeV/fm3 and constant entropy density of 3.7(5)fm−3.
To evaluate a reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) assay for detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and compare it with RT-PCR.
...We designed primers specific to the orf1ab and S genes of SARS-CoV-2. Total viral RNA was extracted using the QIAamp Viral RNA Mini Kit. We optimized the RT-LAMP assay, and evaluated it for its sensitivity and specificity of detection using real-time turbidity monitoring and visual observation.
The primer sets orf1ab-4 and S-123 amplified the genes in the shortest times, the mean (±SD) times were 18 ± 1.32 min and 20 ± 1.80 min, respectively, and 63°C was the optimum reaction temperature. The sensitivities were 2 × 101 copies and 2 × 102 copies per reaction with primer sets orf1ab-4 and S-123, respectively. This assay showed no cross-reactivity with 60 other respiratory pathogens. To describe the availability of this method in clinical diagnosis, we collected 130 specimens from patients with clinically suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection. Among them, 58 were confirmed to be positive and 72 were negative by RT-LAMP. The sensitivity was 100% (95% CI 92.3%–100%), specificity 100% (95% CI 93.7%–100%). This assay detected SARS-CoV-2 in a mean (±SD) time of 26.28 ± 4.48 min and the results can be identified with visual observation.
These results demonstrate that we developed a rapid, simple, specific and sensitive RT-LAMP assay for SARS-CoV-2 detection among clinical samples. It will be a powerful tool for SARS-CoV-2 identification, and for monitoring suspected patients, close contacts and high-risk groups.
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