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DPP4 (dipeptidyl peptidase 4) is expressed in many cancers, but the relationship between DPP4 and thyroid carcinoma (THCA) is incompletely understood. We aim to explore the expression of DPP4 in THCA and the correlation between DPP4 expression with the prognosis of THCA and antitumor immunity. We systematically analyzed data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx), and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases and explored DPP4 expression, its impact on prognosis, and its relationship with antitumor immunity in THCA. Next, we collected 18 pairs of fresh THCA and adjacent paracancerous tissues and performed RT-qPCR to validate the DPP4 mRNA level. Concurrently, immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis was performed on 12 pairs of paraffin-embedded tissues of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) and paracancerous tissues to validate the DPP4 protein level. Bioinformatics analysis showed that DPP4 mRNA expression in THCA was significantly higher than that in paracancerous tissues ( p < 0.01 ). DPP4 was expressed at the highest levels in MTC than in other pathological types. The DPP4 expression level was different between groups with different clinical characteristics. The higher the DPP4 expressed in THCA, the lower the disease-free survival (DFS) was (HR = 1.8, p = 0.048 ). DPP4 was significantly correlated with immune cell infiltration and immune response and was positively associated with 21 immune checkpoint genes (ICGs) in THCA ( p < 0.05 ). The results of RT-qPCR showed that the relative mRNA expression of DPP4 was significantly upregulated in 18 THCA tissues compared to that in paracancerous tissues ( p = 0.011 ). IHC results showed that the DPP4 protein level was higher in 12 MTC tissues than in paracancerous tissues ( p = 0.011 ). In conclusion, DPP4 is a potential prognostic marker of THCA and may become an effective target for immunotherapy.

Background: S100 calcium-binding protein A11 (S100A11) has important roles in tumorigenesis and multiple cancer progression. In this study, we aimed to analyze the expression and prognostic value of S100A11 across cancers and further explore the relationship between S100A11 and the tumor immune microenvironment. Methods: We analyzed the differential expression of S100A11 in the TIMER, GEPIA, and BioGPS databases and searched for its prognostic impact in the GEPIA and Kaplan-Meier plotter databases. We used the SangerBox database to investigate the relationship between S100A11 expression and the tumor immune microenvironment. The TIMER database explored the relationship between S100A11 expression and tumor immune-infiltrated cells (TILs). Correlation analysis of S100A11 expression with clinical parameters in thyroid carcinoma (THCA) was performed using the UALCAN database. The co-expression network of S100A11 in THCA was explored through the LinkedOmics database. RT‒qPCR and immunohistochemical (IHC) staining were used to analyze the expression level of S100A11 in THCA. Results: S100A11 expression was higher in many tumors than in paired normal tissues, and increased expression was associated with poor prognosis, including overall survival (OS), recurrence-free survival (RFS), and disease-free survival (DFS). S100A11 was differentially expressed in immune subtypes and molecular subtypes of some cancers. The expression of S100A11 was correlated with immune checkpoints (ICP), tumor mutational burden (TMB), microsatellite instability (MSI), neoantigens, and TILs. The methylation level of S100A11 was negatively correlated with mRNA expression. S100A11 expression had a specific correlation with the clinical parameters of THCA. In THCA, the coexpression network of S100A11 was mainly involved in regulating inflammation and immune responses. RT‒qPCR and IHC staining confirmed that S100A11 was upregulated in THCA. Conclusion: S100A11 may be related to the regulation of the tumor microenvironment. S100A11 may serve as a potential pan-cancer biomarker for prognosis. S100A11 could be a potential target for THCA immunotherapy.

To develop a novel ultrasound (US) plane to diagnose palatine tonsillar hypertrophy objectively in children.Tonsillar ultrasonography of children (age 2-14 years) who had a clinical diagnosis of tonsillar hypertrophy or not were analyzed retrospectively. Clinical data (including gender, age, body mass index (BMI)), and volume (V) of tonsils measured by the US, were recorded. Furthermore, we found a new US plane to diagnose tonsillar hypertrophy and named it the submental oblique cross-section. In this plane, diameters of the left tonsil, right tonsil, and central oropharynx were designated as T1, T2, and O. Then, we calculated the ratio by the formula (T1 + T2)/O.A total of 172 cases (85 hypertrophy and 87 non-hypertrophy) were included in this study. There were no significant differences in gender (P = .844), age (P = .666), and BMI (P = .089) between the groups. In the non-hypertrophy group, the V of both sides had a positive linear correlation with age or BMI. In contrast, there was no linear correlation between ratio and age or BMI. The area under the curve (AUC) of ratio and V was 0.970 (95%CI: 0.947-0.993) and 0.835 (95%CI: 0.778-0.893) by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, respectively. The optimal cutoff value of ratio for diagnosis of tonsillar hypertrophy was 2.293 (sensitivity = 88.2%, specificity = 95.4%).We established a new US section to evaluate tonsillar hypertrophy. This approach could be easily acquired and provide a reference value to guide clinical practice.

The pandemic of acute respiratory disease in 2019 caused by highly pathogenic and infectious SARS-CoV-2 has seriously endangered human public safety. The 6-HB (HR1-HR2 complex) formation occurring in the process of spike protein-mediated membrane fusion could serve as a conserved and potential target for the design of fusion inhibitors. Based on the HR2 domain of 6-HB, we designed and synthesized 32 stapled peptides using an all-hydrocarbon peptide stapling strategy. Owing to the improved proteolytic stability and higher helical contents, the optimized stapled peptides termed SCH2-1-20 and SCH2-1-27 showed better inhibitory activities against pseudo and authentic SARS-CoV-2 compared to the linear counterpart. Of note, SCH2-1-20 and SCH2-1-27 were proved to interfere with S protein-mediated membrane fusion. Structural modeling indicated similar binding modes between SCH2-1-20 and the linear peptide. These optimized stapled peptides could serve as potent fusion inhibitors in treating and preventing SARS-CoV-2, and the corresponding SAR could facilitate further optimization.

Background Breast cancer is a malignant tumor with the highest incidence among women in the world. GREB1L is a protein coding gene. Previous studies have shown that GREB1L played an important role in lung adenocarcinoma and gastric adenocarcinoma. Currently, there is no relevant report about its role in breast cancer. Methods The Cancer Genome Atlas database was used to compare the expression level of GREB1L; TISIDB website was used for prognosis analysis; LinkedOmics database was used to predict the potential biological mechanism of GREB1L in breast cancer; Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the GREB1L expression level in breast tissue; Western blot was used to detect the GREB1L expression level in cell lines; Transwell assays, CCK8 cell proliferation assays and clone formation assays were used to detect the migration, invasion and proliferation and clone formation abilities of cells. Results GREB1L was highly expressed in breast cancer tissues and breast cancer cells; KEGG enrichment analysis suggested that GREB1L might participate in the regulation of Hedgehog signaling pathway; GREB1L affected the migration and invasion abilities of MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cells, but not affected their proliferation and clone formation abilities. The overexpression of GREB1L in breast cancer predicted a favorable prognosis. Conclusion These results showed that GREB1L was involved in the development of breast cancer, and it may be a potential molecular marker to predict the prognosis of breast cancer.

Dynamic thermal management materials attract fast-increasing interest due to their adaptability to changing environments and greater energy savings as compared to static materials. However, the high transition temperature and the low emittance tunability of the vanadium dioxide (VO

Objective To identify risk factors related to structural incomplete response (SIR) in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and develop a nomogram for PTC patients. Methods In this respective study, clinical, ultrasonic, and pathological data of PTC patients treated at our institute between 2016 and 2020 were analyzed. Patients were randomly split into training and validation sets at a ratio of 7:3. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was conducted to determine independent prognostic factors. On the basis of these factors, a nomogram was built to predict SIR. P value, concordance index, calibration plots and decision curve analysis were used to evaluate the model. Results Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that BRAF V600E status, lymph node metastasis, sex, tumor size, margin, and surgical procedure were independent prognostic factors. In the validation set, the concordance index of the nomogram was 0.774 (95% confidence interval: 0.703–0.845). Calibration plots at 3 and 5 years showed no apparent difference between predicted SIR probability and the actual SIR proportion. Additionally, the nomogram had good net clinical benefit according to the decision curve analysis compared with cases that were treat-all or treat-none. Conclusion We build a nomogram to predict individualized outcomes and help postoperative surveillance in PTC patients.

Background: To obtain a thorough comprehension of the profile and prognosis of activating transcription factor (ATF) family members in breast cancer.Method: We searched Oncomine, GEPIA, cBioPortal, Kaplan-Meier plotter, and CancerSEA databases to assess expression level, prognostic value, and functions of ATFs in breast cancer. Results: In breast cancer, we found that the expression levels of genes like ATF1, ATF5, and ATF6, were higher than in normal tissues. While the expression levels of ATF3, ATF4, ATF7 were lower in the former than in the latter. Similarly, the ATFs protein expressions were consistent with this in the Human Protein Atlas database. High expressions of ATF2, ATF4, and ATF6-7 were associated with good relapse-free survival. Increased expressions of ATF4 and ATF7 had high overall survival. Conversely, the mRNA expression of ATF1 was negatively correlated with distant metastasis-free survival. Similarly, high expression of ATF2 had reduced post-progression survival. Conclusions: ATF1 was a target of potential therapeutic interest for breast cancer, and ATF4 and ATF6-7 were potential prognostic factors in evaluating breast cancer.

High-performance vanadium dioxide (VO2) thin films with high luminous transmittance and solar modulation ability were successfully fabricated on ZrxOy/glass substrate by pulsed laser deposition. By controlling the growth temperature of the buffer layer, the stoichiometry and crystal structure of ZrxOy buffer layer can be converted from cubic Zr2O phase to monoclinic ZrO2 phase. Through such a transformation, the luminous transmittance (Tlum), solar modulation ability (ΔTsol), the transition temperature and the width of thermal hysteresis loop have been tuned without diminishing the thermochromic property. It is found that the insertion of ZrO2 layer results in a remarkable enhancement of the luminous transmittance and the solar modulation ability when compared to single-layer VO2 film. The findings in the present work may provide some new strategies for the commercialization of VO2 films in the field of smart energy-efficient windows.

Vanadium dioxide (VO2) with reversible metal–insulator transition (MIT) is a promising energy-saving material for next-generation smart windows and infrared devices. However, the specific applications are largely limited by controllable preparation with different polymorphs on common glass substrates. Herein, VO2 thin films were prepared on transparent amorphous glass substrates by inserting TiO2 buffer layers using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. The results showed that B-VO2 film would be formed on the amorphous glass substrate at 400 °C. While after inserting TiO2 buffer layer, pure M-VO2 films with clear phase transition properties were obtained. Based on the analysis of X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS) characterization, the crystalline transformation was attributed to the template effect of TiO2 layer and Ti ions diffusion. The characteristics of VO2/TiO2/glass thin films were closely associated with the thickness of TiO2 buffer layer. With 60 nm TiO2 buffer layer, the VO2/TiO2/glass film showed the sharpest resistance change with more than 2.5-order of magnitude across the MIT, and the T-vis value is as high as 53% with the ΔTsol up to 5.2%. Our current results demonstrated the importance of TiO2 buffer layer to the formation of M-VO2 film on amorphous glass substrate, which was very meaningful for the production of energy efficient smart windows in the future.

A metal layer with high reflectance is widely used as the bottom mirror of smart radiation devices. Reduced solar absorption and enhanced emittance tunability are required for smart radiation devices applied in aerospace. Thus, reducing the absorption in the metal is also necessary. Here, Al films have been prepared by direct current magnetron sputtering on the fused silica substrate. The structure, morphology, and optical properties of the films have been analyzed at various deposition temperatures and deposition times. The spectrum absorption tends to increase with the increase of surface roughness due to the agglomeration and size increase of Al particles, which has been further demonstrated by the simulated results. The optimized Al film exhibits small solar absorption of 0.14 and low emittance of 0.02, which benefits the application for smart radiation devices and solar reflectors.

In this work, the conventional combustion in O2/Ar and O2/CO2 atmospheres at temperatures of 700–1000 °C and isotopic tracing experiments at 700–800 °C were conducted respectively in a micro fluidized bed reactor to clarify the conversion characteristics of lignite char and influence mechanism of elevated CO2 concentrations. The isotopic method employing C18O18O provides an intuitive insight into the CO2 gasification behavior by tracking the evolution of the 18O atom throughout the oxy-fuel combustion. The results reveal that char conversion rate significantly reduces when the atmosphere is switched from O2/Ar to O2/CO2 at low temperature range (e.g. 700–800 °C), primarily caused by thermo-physical properties of CO2. However, at higher temperature range (e.g. 950–1000 °C), the C-O2 reaction is limited by the external O2 diffusion and the C-CO2 reaction contributes to the carbon consumption, resulting in a higher combustion rate, especially at O2-deficient conditions. The presence of the atomic 18O in the product C18O16O originating from C18O18O confirms that CO2 is indeed involved in the whole oxy-fuel combustion process and the overall reaction could be described as C + C18O18O+16O16O → 2C18O16O. Besides, total contributions to carbon conversion by the C-CO2 reaction decrease as O2 concentrations and particle sizes increasing.

Objective To evaluate the clinical significance of preoperative ultrasound diagnosis and classification of ovarian pregnancy (OP). Methods The ultrasonographic reports, medical records, and operative summaries were reviewed for twelve women with a confirmed diagnosis of OP. According to the ultrasonographic appearance, OP was classified into two types. For every type, we analyzed the possibility and clinical significance of preoperative ultrasound diagnosis, combining with its clinical manifestations and treatments. Results According to sonographic features, twelve cases of OP can be classified into ruptured type (n = 6) and unruptured type (n = 6), the latter was subclassified into embryo sac type (n = 2) and non-homogeneous mass type (n = 4). All the unruptured OP have the characteristic solid hyperechoic rings or masses, and 66.7% (4/6) were correctvly diagnosed by preoperative ultrasound. No characteristic ultrasonogram was detected in ruptured OP which were all diagnosed as ruptured ectopic pregnancy (EP) or corpus luteum by preoperative ultrasound. The diagnostic and surgical procedures of four cases diagnosed by preoperative ultrasound were all laparoscopy and removal of the gestational products, and their average hemoperitoneum, operation time, hospital days was 313 ± 278 ml, 57 ± 9 min, and 4.25 ± 0.5days, respectively. While ruptured OP cases (6 cases diagnosed at first visit and 1 underdiagnosed but ruptured after 6 days), the diagnostic procedures was laparoscopy(3/7) or laparotomy(4/7), the surgical procedure was removal of the gestational products(2/7), wedge resection(3/7), or adenexectomy(2/7), and their average hemoperitoneum, operation time, and hospital days was 1914 ± 1059 ml, 93 ± 17 min, and 5.9 ± 1.3days, respectively. Conclusions Ultrasound plays a significant role in diagnosis of OP, and part of the unruptured OP based on the typical sonographic characteristics could be correctly diagnosed by an experienced sonographer, this is beneficial and effective in terms of the risk of patient's operation and life. Whereas ruptured OP were generally diagnosed as ruptured EP or corpus luteum because there were no characteristic ultrasound manifestations.

In this study, high-quality thermochromic vanadium dioxide (VO2) thin films were grown on ZrO2/glass by pulsed laser deposition and were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), double beam spectrophotometry and Hall Effect measurement system. Based on XRD results, it can be inferred that the crystal structure of ZrO2 buffer layer can be transformed between monoclinic and tetragonal structures with the increase of buffer layer thickness. Photoelectric performance tests showed that the introduction of ZrO2 buffer layer considerably reduced the phase transition temperature (Tc) and hysteresis loop width (ΔH) of the VO2 films and allowed the visible light transmittance (Tlum) and solar modulation ability (ΔTsol) of the films to be tuned effectively. Especially, when the thickness of the ZrO2 buffer layer was 50 nm, the Tc of the VO2 films reached the minimum value of 48 °C. When the ZrO2 buffer layer thickness increased to 125 nm, the sheet resistance change of the VO2 film attained two orders of magnitude, and their Tlum-90°C and ΔTsol were as high as 50.01% and 7.88%, respectively. These results showed that the ZrO2 buffer layer considerably affected the growth of VO2 films on amorphous glass substrates and was beneficial for the application of VO2 in energy-saving smart windows.