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EVA1A (also known as transmembrane protein 166) is a transmembrane protein involved in the regulation of autophagy that acts as an adaptor protein to recruit or bind proteins in the lysosome or endoplasmic reticulum. In the present study, we identified EVA1A as a target of microRNA-125b (miR-125b), a member of a highly conserved family of miRNAs that has been proposed as a biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Analysis of oxaliplatin-sensitive and oxaliplatin-resistant HCC cell lines showed that miR-125b is downregulated in resistant cells and its overexpression in sensitive cells decreased resistance to oxaliplatin by inhibiting cell proliferation, migration and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT). EVA1A expression was shown to be upregulated in tissue samples from oxaliplatin-resistant HCC patients, and its ectopic expression partially induced autophagy and reversed the effect of miR-125b on inhibiting the growth of oxaliplatin-resistant cell lines and xenograft tumors. Taken together, our results suggest that miR-125b plays a role in the resistance of HCC cells to chemotherapy via a mechanism involving the downregulation of EVA1A-mediated autophagy.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential diagnostic performance of acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) elastography in identifying malignancy in nodules that do not appear highly suspicious on conventional ultrasound (US). Methods: 330 pathologically confirmed thyroid nodules (40 malignant and 290 benign; mean size, 22.0±11.6 mm) not suspicious of malignancy on conventional US in 330 patients (mean age 52.8±11.7 years) underwent ARFI elastography before surgery. ARFI elastography included qualitative ARFI-induced strain elastography (SE) and quantitative point shear wave elastography (p-SWE). ARFI-induced SE image was assessed by SE score, while p-SWE was denoted with shear wave velocity (SWV, m/s). The diagnostic performance of four criteria sets was evaluated: criteria set 1 (ARFI-induced SE), criteria set 2 (p-SWE), criteria set 3 (either set 1 or 2), criteria set 4 (both set 1 and 2). Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analyses were performed to assess the diagnostic performance. Results: SE score ≥4 was more frequently found in malignant nodules (32/40) than in benign nodules (30/290, P

The study was to explore diagnostic value of the virtual touch tissue imaging quantification (VTIQ) in distinguishing benign and malignant breast lesions of variable sizes. We performed conventional ultrasound and VTIQ in 139 breast lesions. The lesions were categorized into three groups according to size (group 1, ≤ 10 mm; group 2, 10-20 mm; and group 3, > 20 mm), and their mean, min, and max shear wave velocities (SWVs) were measured. Diagnoses were confirmed by pathological examination after surgery or needle biopsy. Receiver-operating characteristic curves (ROC) were constructed to determine the optimum cut-off values, calculate the area under curve (AUC), the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy for each velocity. For all groups, the mean, min, and max SWVs of malignant lesions were significantly higher than those of benign lesions (P < 0.05). The cut-off values of mean, min, and max SWVs were not significantly different among the three groups. In addition, the diagnostic performance of mean, min, and max SWV values is analogous, regardless of lesion size. In conclusion, VTIQ is a strong complement to conventional ultrasound, which is a promising method in the differential diagnosis of the breast lesions with different sizes. Further studies validate our results as well as reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies, regardless of size is warranted.

Objectives: To investigate the clinical, pathological, and sonographic characteristics of unexpected gallbladder carcinoma (UGC). Methods: Of 5424 patients who had undergone cholecystectomy from December 2006 to October 2013, 54 patients with primary gallbladder carcinomas confirmed by pathological diagnosis were identified. The patients were divided into two groups: diagnosed before operation (n=34) and UGC groups (n=20), of whom the clinical, pathological, and sonographic characteristics were compared. Results: No significant differences in age, gender, location of lesion, histological type, length of the gallbladder, existence of biliary sludge, and intestinal gas interference between the two groups were found (all P>0.05). The clinical symptoms, laboratory abnormalities, tumor markers, coexisting gallbladder stones, lesion size, lesion type, degree of differentiation, and tumor staging showed statistically significant differences between the two groups (all P

Objective: Ultrasound (US) features of solidity, hypoechogenicity or marked hypoechogenicity, microlobulated or irregular margins, microcalcifications, and taller-than-wide shape are suspicious characteristics for thyroid nodules. An US based Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (TI-RADS) is classified based on the number of aforesaid features. TI-RADS category 3 included nodules without any suspicious features, and categories 4a, 4b, 4c, and 5 included nodules with one, two, three or four, or five suspicious US features. The purpose of the study was to prospectively validate the effectiveness of the TI-RADS. Methods: From October 2011 to June 2013, we prospectively categorized 3980 thyroid nodules (3752 benign and 228 malignant lesions) in 2921 patients using TI-RADS classification. TI-RADS categories 2 and 3 were considered as benign whereas TI-RADS categories 4 and 5 as malignant. The sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value (NPV), positive predictive value (PPV) and accuracy were calculated. Results: Of the 3980 nodules, 2953 nodules were TI-RADS category 2 (0% malignancy), 466 nodules TI-RADS category 3 (1.3% malignancy), 186 nodules TI-RADS category 4a (4.8% malignancy), 165 nodules TI-RADS category 4b (30.3% malignancy), 188 nodules TI-RADS category 4c (75.5% malignancy), and 22 nodules TI-RADS category 5 (95.5% malignancy). The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and accuracy were 97%, 90%, 40%, 99%, and 91%, respectively. Conclusions: TI-RADS classification had great diagnostic value in diagnosing thyroid nodules. The actual probability of malignancy was in accord with the theory risk of malignancy.

A structure of logical hierarchical cluster for the distributed multimedia on demand server is proposed. The architecture is mainly composed of the network topology and the resource management of all server nodes. Instead of the physical network hierarchy or the independent management hierarchy, the nodes are organized into a logically hierarchical cluster according to the multimedia block they caches in the midderware layer. The process of a member joining/leaving or the structure adjustment cooperatively implemented by all members is concerned with decentralized maintenance of the logical cluster hierarchy. As the root of each logically hierarchical cluster is randomly mapped into the system, the logical structure of a multimedia block is dynamically expanded across some regions by the two replication policies in different load state respectively. The local load diversion is applied to fine-tune the load of nodes within a local region but belongs to different logical hierarchies. Guaranteed by the dynamic expansion of a logical structure and the load diversion of a local region, the users always select a closest idle node from the logical hierarchy under the condition of topology integration with resource management.

In this paper, we propose the structure of the logical hierarchical cluster for the distributed multimedia on demand according to block the nodes cache. The structure of the logical hierarchy is lazily maintained by all members in the decentralized manner. The global load balance is achieved as the root of each LHC is mapped into the system randomly. The LHC is expanded dynamically with the two application policies. The local load balance is applied to fine-tune the load of nodes of different LHCs within a local region. The integration of topology with resource management simplifies the server selection largely.

Under magnetic resonance (MR) guidance, high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is capable of precise and accurate delivery of thermal dose to tissues. Given the excellent soft tissue imaging capabilities of MRI, but the lack of data on the correlation of MRI findings to histology following HIFU, we sought to examine tumor response to HIFU ablation to determine whether there was a correlation between histological findings and common MR imaging protocols in the assessment of the extent of thermal damage. Female FVB mice (n = 34), bearing bilateral neu deletion tumors, were unilaterally insonated under MR guidance, with the contralateral tumor as a control. Between one and five spots (focal size 0.5 × 0.5 × 2.5 mm3) were insonated per tumor with each spot receiving approximately 74.2 J of acoustic energy over a period of 7 seconds. Animals were then imaged on a 7T MR scanner with several protocols. T1 weighted images (with and without gadolinium contrast) were collected in addition to a series of T2 weighted and diffusion weighted images (for later reconstruction into T2 and apparent diffusion coefficient maps), immediately following ablation and at 6, 24, and 48 hours post treatment. Animals were sacrificed at each time point and both insonated/treated and contralateral tumors removed and stained for NADH-diaphorase, caspase 3, or with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E). We found the area of non-enhancement on contrast enhanced T1 weighted imaging immediately post ablation correlated with the region of tissue receiving a thermal dose CEM43 ≥ 240 min. Moreover, while both tumor T2 and apparent diffusion coefficient values changed from pre-ablation values, contrast enhanced T1 weighted images appeared to be more senstive to changes in tissue viability following HIFU ablation.