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This retrospective study compared the effects of different extraction sockets when using flapless ridge preservation during dental implant therapy. The extraction sockets were divided into four groups: Class I, intact soft tissue wall and bone walls; Class II, intact soft tissue wall with the destruction of at least one bone wall; Class III, the recession of all soft tissue walls by ≤5 mm; and Class IV, the recession of at least one soft tissue wall by >5 mm. We compared clinical parameters of dental implant therapy using flapless ridge preservation among these groups. Seventy patients with 92 dental implants, including 53 maxillary and 39 mandibular implants, involving flapless ridge preservation were enrolled. The implant survival rate was not affected by socket morphology. Total treatment time from extraction to final prosthesis placement was significantly longer in Class II and III than in Class I, among the maxillary sockets. However, there was no significant difference in the total treatment time among the different groups in the mandible. Therefore, implant survival rates did not differ according to socket morphology; however, total treatment time was significantly affected by socket morphology in the maxilla and was longer in socket classes associated with periodontitis.

Although elliptical tubes are stronger and more stable than circular tubes, few studies have fully considered the behavior of elliptical tubes under cyclic bending loads. This study experimentally investigated the response and failure of SUS304 stainless steel elliptical tubes with four different ratios of long and short axes (1.5, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0) under cyclic bending along four different orientation angles (0°, 30°, 60°, and 90°). The wall thickness was 0.7 mm, and cyclic bending was applied until buckling failure occurred. The moment–curvature curves exhibited cyclic hardening, and stable loops were formed for all long–short axis ratios and orientation angles. Increasing the long–short axis ratio slightly decreased the peak bending moment while increasing the orientation angle increased the peak bending moment. For a given orientation angle, the curves relating the short-axis variation (i.e., change in length divided by the original length of the short axis) and curvature demonstrated symmetry, serrations, and a growth pattern as the number of cycles increased regardless of the long–short axis ratio. At long–short axis ratios of 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, these curves even exhibited a butterfly-like trend. Increasing the long–short axis ratio increased the short-axis variation, while increasing the orientation angle decreased the short-axis variation. Regarding the curves relating the curvature and number of cycles required to initiate buckling, for each orientation angle, the four long–short axis ratios corresponded to four straight lines when plotted on double-logarithmic co-ordinates. Based on the experimental results, empirical equations are proposed to describe the above relationships. The empirical equations were applied to predicting experimental data and showed close agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sorafenib (SF), a multi‐kinase inhibitor, is the first FDA‐approved systemic chemotherapy drug for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, its clinical application is limited by severe toxicity and side effects associated with high applied doses. Sophora alopecuroides L. is traditionally used as Chinese herbal medicine for treating gastrointestinal diseases, bacillary dysentery, viral hepatitis, and other diseases, and exerts an important role in anti‐tumor. Hence, we investigated the synergistic actions of seventeen flavonoids from this herb combined with SF against HCC cell lines and their primary mechanism. In the experiment, most compounds were found to prominently enhance the inhibitory effects of SF on HCC cells than their alone treatment. Among them, three compounds leachianone A (1), sophoraflavanone G (3), and trifolirhizin (17) exhibited significantly synergistic anticancer activities against MHCC97H cells at low concentration with IC50 of SF reduced by 5.8‐fold, 3.6‐fold, and 3.5‐fold corresponding their CI values of 0.49, 0.66, and 0.46 respectively. Importantly, compounds 3 or 17 combined with SF could synergistically induce MHCC97H cells apoptosis via the endogenously mitochondrial‐mediated apoptotic pathway, involving higher Bax/Bcl‐2 expressions with the activation of caspase‐9 and ‐3, and arrest the cell cycle in G1 phases. Strikingly, this synergistic effect was also closely related to the co‐suppression of ERK and AKT signaling pathways. Furthermore, compound 3 significantly enhanced the suppression of SF on tumor growth in the HepG2 xenograft model, with a 79.3% inhibition ratio at high concentration, without systemic toxicity, compared to either agent alone. These results demonstrate that the combination treatment of flavonoid 3 and SF at low doses exert synergistic anticancer effects on HCC cells in vitro and in vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a class of regulatory RNAs with complex roles in healthy and diseased tissues. However, the oncogenic role of circRNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains poorly understood, including the mechanisms by which the circular ubiquitin-binding associated protein 2 (circUBAP2) contributes to tumorigenesis. We analyzed the expression of circUBAP2 in 20 paired samples of HCC and healthy tissue as well as in seven HCC cell lines via quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Functional experiments, such as CCK8 viability assays, colony formation assays, wound healing, transwell assays and flow cytometry, were conducted to assess the effects of circUBAP2 in vitro. To further elucidate the mechanisms by which circUBAP2 acts, we conducted dual-luciferase assays, western blots, RNA pull-down assays and rescue experiments. CircUBAP2 was highly upregulated in most HCC tissues and was associated with poor prognosis. HCC patients with high circUBAP2 expression had greater vascular invasion and worse differentiation. Functionally, circUBAP2 overexpression enhanced HCC cell proliferation, migration and invasion and inhibited apoptosis. Furthermore, we found that circUBAP2 upregulated c-Myc expression by sponging miR-1294, thus contributing to hepatocarcinogenesis. Inhibiting circUBAP2 expression in HCC attenuated the oncogenic effects of c-Myc. These findings suggest that circUBAP2 promotes HCC growth and metastasis. CircUBAP2 may have value as an independent prognostic biomarker or as a new target for the treatment of HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background & Aims: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a fatal disease characterized by vast molecular heterogeneity. Although major advances in tumour genetics has led to the identification of new biomarkers, the prognosis of patients with HCC remains dismal. Methods: Quantitative reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR) and western blot (WB) were used to evaluate meiosis‐specific nuclear structural 1 (MNS1) expression in HCC cells. Immunohistochemistry staining was used to evaluate MNS1 expression in HCC tissues. Clinical significance of MNS1 was evaluated by Cox regression analysis. Transwell assays were conducted to assess cells migration ability. Cell counting kit‐8 and colony formation assays were performed to detect cells proliferation ability. NOD/SCID/γc(null) (NOG) mice model was adopted to investigate functions of MNS1 in vivo. Results: The expression of MNS1, which is elevated in most HCC tissues, correlated with poor survival in HCC patients. Functional experiments revealed the oncogenic role of MNS1, which promotes HCC growth and metastasis through AKT‐dependent modulation of β‐catenin. β‐Catenin expression was crucial for MNS1's oncogenic effects. MNS1 indirectly translocated β‐catenin from the cytoplasm to the nucleus via the MNS1‐GSK3β axis. Conclusions: MNS1 promotes HCC growth and metastasis via activating PI3K/AKT signalling and may serve as an important prognostic biomarker as well as potential novel therapeutic target for HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research suggests that far upstream element-binding protein 1 (FUBP1) plays an important role in various tumors including epatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the role of FUBP1 in liver cancer remains controversial, and the regulatory pathway by FUBP1 awaits to be determined. This study aims to identify the role of FUBP1 in HCC progression. Our result shows that the high level of FUBP1 expression in HCC predicts poor prognosis after surgery. Overexpression of FUBP1 promotes HCC proliferation, invasion, and metastasis by activating transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β)/Smad pathway and enhancing epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in vitro and in vivo. Inhibitor of Thrombospondin-1 (LSKL) could inhibit HCC proliferation and invasion in vitro and in vivo by blocking the activation of TGF-β/Smad pathway mediated by thrombospondin-1 (THBS1). Our study identified the critical role of FUBP1-THBS1-TGF-β signaling axis in HCC and provides potentially new therapeutic modalities in HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To elucidate the integrative combinational gene regulatory network landscape of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) molecular carcinogenesis from diverse background. Materials & methods: Modified gene regulatory network analysis was used to prioritize differentially regulated genes and links. Integrative comparisons using bioinformatics methods were applied to identify potential critical molecules and pathways in HCC with different backgrounds. Results: E2F1 with its surrounding regulatory links were identified to play different key roles in the HCC risk factor dysregulation mechanisms. Hsa-mir-19a was identified as showed different effects in the three HCC differential regulation networks, and showed vital regulatory role in HBV-related HCC. Conclusion: We describe in detail the regulatory networks involved in HCC with different backgrounds. E2F1 may serve as a universal target for HCC treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the improved interpolating moving least-squares (IIMLS) method and the Galerkin weak form, an improved interpolating element-free Galerkin (IIEFG) method is presented for two-dimensional elasticity problems in this paper. Compared with the interpolating moving least-squares (IMLS) method presented by Lancaster, the IIMLS method uses the nonsingular weight function. The number of unknown coefficients in the trial function of the IIMLS method is less than that of the MLS approximation and the shape function of the IIMLS method satisfies the property of Kronecker δ function. Thus in the IIEFG method, the essential boundary conditions can be applied directly and easily, then the numerical solutions can be obtained with higher precision than those obtained by the interpolating element-free Galerkin (IEFG) method. For the purposes of demonstration, four numerical examples are solved using the IIEFG method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complex variable reproducing kernel particle method (CVRKPM) of solving two-dimensional variable coefficient advection—diffusion problems is presented in this paper. The advantage of the CVRKPM is that the shape function of a two-dimensional problem is formed with a one-dimensional basis function. The Galerkin weak form is employed to obtain the discretized system equation, and the penalty method is used to apply the essential boundary conditions. Then the corresponding formulae of the CVRKPM for two-dimensional variable coefficient advection—diffusion problems are obtained. Two numerical examples are given to show that the method in this paper has greater accuracy and computational efficiency than the conventional meshless method such as reproducing the kernel particle method (RKPM) and the elementfree Galerkin (EFG) method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The improved element-free Galerkin (IEFG) method of elasticity is used to solve the topology optimization problems. In this method, the improved moving least-squares approximation is used to form the shape function. In a topology optimization process, the entire structure volume is considered as the constraint. From the solid isotropic microstructures with penalization, we select relative node density as a design variable. Then we choose the minimization of compliance to be an objective function, and compute its sensitivity with the adjoint method. The IEFG method in this paper can overcome the disadvantages of the singular matrices that sometimes appear in conventional element-free Galerkin (EFG) method. The central processing unit (CPU) time of each example is given to show that the IEFG method is more efficient than the EFG method under the same precision, and the advantage that the IEFG method does not form singular matrices is also shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By employing the improved moving least-square (IMLS) approximation, the improved element-free Galerkin (IEFG) method is presented for the unsteady Schrödinger equation. In the IEFG method, the two-dimensional (2D) trial function is approximated by the IMLS approximation, the variation method is used to obtain the discrete equations, and the essential boundary conditions are imposed by the penalty method. Because the number of coefficients in the IMLS approximation is less than in the moving least-square (MLS) approximation, fewer nodes are needed in the entire domain when the IMLS approximation is used than when the MLS approximation is adopted. Then the IEFG method has high computational efficiency and accuracy. Several numerical examples are given to verify the accuracy and efficiency of the IEFG method in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are some controversies about the involvement of microRNA (miR)-19a-3p in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) biology, even though many studies have shown that it plays an important role in cancer. In this study, we found that miR-19a-3p is usually overexpressed in HCC tissues compared with corresponding peritumorous tissues, and its expression was associated with tumor size and poor overall survival. MiR-19a-3p promoted cell proliferation significantly, and more cells were found in the S phase. In vivo, miR-19a-3p promoted liver tumor growth, and more HCC cells were found in the active cell cycle. Sequencing and bioinformatics analysis predicted that PIK3IP1 is a likely target gene of miR-19a-3p, and we next confirmed it by luciferase and rescue assays. Altogether, our data showed an important role of PIK3IP1 downregulation by miR-19a-3p in HCC progression, and the miR-19a-3p-PIK3IP1-AKT pathway may be a potential therapeutic target., Competing Interests: Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interest exists., (© The author(s).)