Search

Objective To investigate the expression level of RING finger protein 187 （RNF187） and its effect on the proliferation and invasion of prostate cancer （PCa） cells. Methods The differences in the expression of RNF187 between PCa and normal tissues was mined through TCGA and GEO databases. Normal prostate epithelial cell line RWPE-1， and human PCa cell lines LNCaP， C4-2， DU145 and PC-3 cell lines were cultured in vitro. The expression levels of RNF187 mRNA in RWPE-1， LNCaP， C4-2， DU145 and PC-3 were determined by quantitative fluorescent real-time PCR （RT-qPCR）. The expression level of RNF187 protein was determined by Western blot. DU145， PC-3 cells were transfected with RNF187-siRNA1 and RNF187-siRNA2. The relative expression level of RNF187 mRNA was determined by RT-qPCR. Cell viability was detected by CCK-8 assay. Cell proliferation was measured by 5-ethynyl-2´-deoxyuridine （EdU） labeling. Cell migration and invasion were measured by Transwell chamber. The expression levels of RNF187， epithelial-mesenchymal transition （EMT） marker proteins and matrix metalloproteinase-9 （MMP-9） were determined by Western blot. Results In TCGA and GEO datasets， the expression level of RNF187 in the PCa tissues was significantly up-regulated than that in the normal prostate tissues. Patients with higher Gleason scores and higher staging had higher expression levels of RNF187 （all P < 0.05）. The expression levels of RNF187 mRNA and protein in PC-3， LNCaP， C4-2 and DU145 cells were significantly up-regulated than those in RWPE-1 cells （all P < 0.01）. The relative expression levels of RNF187 mRNA in DU145 and PC-3 cells in the RNF187-si1 and RNF187-si2 groups were significantly down-regulated than those in the control group （all P < 0.001）. After RNF187 knock-down， the viability， proliferation， invasion and migration capabilities of DU145 and PC-3 cells were significantly decreased， the relative expression levels of RNF187， N-cadherin， Vimentin and MMP-9 proteins were significantly down-regulated， whereas the relative expression levels of E-cadherin were significantly up-regulated （all P < 0.05）. Conclusion RNF187 is over-expressed in PCa tissues. Knock-down of RNF187 can reduce the cell viability， proliferation， invasion and migration of DU145 and PC-3 cells.

Dry devolatilization is a promising method for saving energy, but understanding the devolatilization process has been challenging. A static devolatilizer was designed to study the devolatilization process of a Styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) block copolymer solution at different temperatures using visualization technology. The study found that temperature, Reynolds number, and heat flux are key factors influencing the devolatilization process. The optimal residence time was determined to be 196 s and the suitable feed coefficient is 0.17. Additionally, a new dimensionless parameter (the LZ number) was introduced. A value closer to 1 indicated a more effective devolatilization process. The obtained thermodynamic parameters and LZ number can guide the design of industrial devolatilization devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high spatial search complexity of the direct positioning method in passive positioning systems leads to long positioning time and high computational resource consumption. In response to this issue, this article proposes a fast localization scheme based on composite convolutional neural networks (CCNN), which can effectively explore the correlation between the position of the radiation source and the characteristics of the received signal. CCNN is a 20‐layer composite network based on fully convolutional network layer, which is composed of convolutional layers, batch normalization (BN) layers, and ReLU activation function layers with unidirectional connections. Then, CCNNs are adjusted and trained for positioning single and multiple radiation sources, respectively. Simulation results show that the computational time of the proposed method can be reduced by nearly 98% compared with the direct positioning scheme. Meanwhile, about 71.2% of positioning error's reduction is achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Src homolog and collagen homolog binding protein 1 (SHCBP1) binds to the SH2 domain of SHC‐transforming protein 1 (SHC1) and is involved in midbody organization and cytokinesis completion. SHCBP1 has been reported to be a cancer driver gene, promoting cancer progression. However, the functional role and underlying mechanism of SHCBP1 in regulating lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) cell proliferation and migration are incompletely understood. Here, we discovered that SHCBP1 is overexpressed in LUAD tissues and is associated with a poor prognosis. SHCBP1 knockdown inhibited LUAD cell proliferation and migration by arresting the cell cycle and preventing epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) via decreasing cyclin‐dependent kinase 1 (CDK1) expression. Mechanistically, CDK1 overexpression reversed SHCBP1 knockdown‐induced inhibition of proliferation and migration, confirming CDK1 as a key downstream target of SHCBP1. In addition, we proposed that rucaparib may be a small‐molecule inhibitor of SHCBP1 and validated both in vitro and in vivo that rucaparib inhibits cell proliferation and migration via suppression of the SHCBP1/CDK1 pathway in LUAD. Our study elucidates a newly identified role of SHCBP1 in promoting cell proliferation and migration in LUAD, and suggests rucaparib as a potential inhibitor for LUAD treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper primarily proposes a deterioration model of reinforced concrete (RC) beams under marine atmospheric environment. Considering factors including corrosion initiation time, corrosion rate, corrosion non-uniformity and its effects on mechanical performances of steel bars, a comprehensive model was developed for the assessment of mechanical behaviour of RC beams under marine atmospheric environment. Also, to avoid the shortages brought by the classical truss theory, a modified compression field theory (MCFT) was applied to evaluate the effects of stirrups corrosion on the shear capacity of an RC beam. Then, according to a virtual case, the life-cycle performance of an RC beam was predicted through probability density evolution method (PDEM). Results approved the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed model. Finally, further study work was pointed out.

In this work, the signal recovery problem regarding incomplete and noisy spatio‐temporal signals is studied. A spatio‐temporal signal is considered as a time‐varying graph signal and a diffusion‐induced first‐order Markov signal model is developed to incorporate both the spatial structure and temporal correlation into the underlying graph. With this model, prior knowledge on spatial smoothness and temporal correlation is revisited, and the connections between the graph structure and differential temporal smoothness are revealed. The authors then accordingly formulate a spatio‐temporal signal recovery method by jointly exploiting the spatial smoothness, low rank and refined differential temporal smoothness. The formulated recovery problem is solved by a block coordinate descent‐based algorithm, which iteratively optimises the recovery accuracy and temporal correlation matrix. The experiments on three real‐world datasets reveal the high signal recovery accuracy of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novel core−shell nanostructure electrodes benefit from the excellent properties of their constituent materials, as well as the synergy between them. However, it is challenging to fabricate such structures efficiently. In this study, NiSe nanorods were fabricated using Ni foam as the conductive substrate and reactant via a one-step hydrothermal process, and Ni(OH)2 nanosheets were coated on the surface of the nanorods via one-step electrodeposition. The effect of the structure and morphology on the properties of the material was explored using scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and electrochemical technology. The obtained core−shell NiSe/Ni(OH)2 exhibited an areal capacity of 1.89 mAh cm−2 at a current density of 5 mA cm−2. The assembled NiSe/Ni(OH)2//AC hybrid supercapacitor exhibited excellent energy and power densities, indicating that NiSe/Ni(OH)2 has great potential for use as a battery-type electrode in energy storage systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this letter, a deep Q-learning network (DQN) based resource allocation (RA) scheme is proposed for the massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)- nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) systems. The reinforcement learning (RL) frame is developed to build an iterative optimization structure for user clustering, power allocation and beamforming. Specifically, a DQN is designed to group the users based on the reward item calculated after power allocation and beamforming. The objective is to maximize the reward item, i.e., the system throughput. Then, a back propagation neural network (BPNN) is used to realize the power allocation. During the training of BPNN, the exhaustive search results in the quantized power set are taken as the output labels. Simulation experiments show that the proposed scheme can achieve high system spectrum efficiency approximating to the exhaustive search based on user clustering and power allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Massive user activity detection is a challenging task for massive Internet of things (mIoT). In this paper, we propose a new deep neural network, named concentrated layers convolutional neural network (CLCNN), for user activity detection in mIoT. We firstly propose three basic rules in the design of residual network specifically for mIoT scenarios. Secondly, with the rules above we develop a new improved residual network block which includes integrated convolutional layers with activation functions, by which the residual convolutional network is constructed. Moreover, the regularization and its corresponding hyperparameter for the proposed network are also investigated against overfitting. Simulation results show that the proposed CLCNN network outperforms the existing deep learning algorithm and conventional compressive sensing solutions in user activity detection and corresponding channel estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the most prominent microvascular complications of diabetes, which remains the leading cause of legal blindness in the world. Arctiin, a bioactive compound from Arctium lappa L., has been reported to have antidiabetic activity. In this study, we investigated the effect of arctiin on a human retinal capillary endothelial cell (HRCEC) line and how arctiin inhibits cell proliferation in high glucose (HG)‐induced HRCECs. Results showed that arctiin decreased HG‐induced HRCECs proliferation in a dose‐dependent manner by inducing cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase. Tube formation assay and immunofluorescence staining indicated that arctiin abrogated tube formation induced by HG‐induced HRCECs in a dose‐dependent manner via down‐regulation of VEGF expression. Mechanistic study indicated that perturbation of the ROCK1/PTEN/PI3K/Akt signalling pathway plays a vital role in the arctiin‐mediated anti‐proliferative effect. Furthermore, pre‐incubation of HRCECs with Y‐27632 attenuated arctiin‐induced cell cycle arrest, cell proliferation and tube formation inhibition. Y‐27632 also reversed the activation of PTEN, the inactivation/dephosphorylation of PI3K/Akt and down‐regulation of VEGF. Taken together, the results demonstrated that arctiin inhibits the proliferation of HG‐induced HRCECs through the activation of ROCK1 and PTEN and inactivation of PI3K and Akt, resulting in down‐regulation of VEGF, which inhibits endothelial cell proliferation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ultrathin, defect-free ferroelectric films of vinylidene fluoride oligomer were fabricated by vapor deposition. A narrow substrate temperature window was found to get high quality ferroelectric films. Ferroelectric phase was obtained when the substrate temperature was -90 °C. The ferroelectric phase is stable at room temperature, even after annealing at 120 °C for 30 min. A full memory stack based on the ferroelectric VDF oligomer may work as nonvolatile random access memory with superhigh density due to the smaller crystal grain comparing with that of poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)] copolymers. The cell shows prominent ferroelectric properties even as the thickness of VDF oligomer film is down to 60 nm with a coercive field of 95 MV/m and a remnant polarization of 125 mC/m2. After 1×105 cycles of switching, no ferroelectric degradation was observed, the ratio of polarization before and after fatigue is close to 1, which is in contrast to P(VDF-TrFE) thin film where the ferroelectric degradation starts after 1×104 times of switching. The pulse polarization test shows that switching takes place as fast as a few microseconds to reach 90% of the saturated polarization. At 60 °C and 8 V operating voltage, the cell still shows excellent fatigue property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A charge injection material, poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythioohene)-poly(styrene sulfonic) acid, is introduced as a buffer layer between metal electrodes and a ferroelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)] copolymer ultrathin film. The buffer layer not only prevents the reactions between P(VDF-TrFE) layer and the top electrode during metallization process, which leads to the loss of polarization, but also supplies the amount of charges needed for compensation of the ferroelectric dipoles to stabilize the domain during switching process so that the fatigue property was improved tremendously. The sandwiched structure shows prominent ferroelectric properties in a 50 nm P(VDF/TrFE) film. A coercive electric field of 52 MV/m and a remnant polarization of 88 mC/m2 are recorded. With two additional organic interlayers, 33 nm thick in total, the coercive field decreases. After more than 1×107 cycles of switching, the polarization remains as high as 68 mC/m2. Moreover, the cell still has good ferroelectric properties at 60 °C. Even as the thickness of P(VDF/TrFE) film is down to 25 nm, a remnant polarization of 54 mC/m2 is obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proliferation and metastasis are significantly malignant characteristics of human lung cancer, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are poorly understood. Chromobox 4 (CBX4), a member of the Polycomb group (PcG) family of epigenetic regulatory factors, enhances cellular proliferation and promotes cancer cell migration. However, the effect of CBX4 in the progression of lung cancer is not fully understood. We found that CBX4 is highly expressed in lung tumours compared with adjacent normal tissues. Overexpression of CBX4 significantly promotes cell proliferation and migration in human lung cancer cell lines. The knockdown of CBX4 obviously suppresses the cell growth and migration of human lung cancer cells in vitro. Also, the proliferation and metastasis in vivo are blocked by CBX4 knockdown. Furthermore, CBX4 knockdown effectively arrests cell cycle at the G0/G1 phase through suppressing the expression of CDK2 and Cyclin E and decreases the formation of filopodia through suppressing MMP2, MMP9 and CXCR4. Additionally, CBX4 promotes proliferation and metastasis via regulating the expression of BMI‐1 which is a significant regulator of proliferation and migration in lung cancer cells. Taken together, these data suggest that CBX4 is not only a novel prognostic marker but also may be a potential therapeutic target in lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To confirm Cu2-xSe nanoparticles (NPs) could inhibit autophagic degradation and based on this property to develop a novel therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment. Materials & methods: Transmission electronic microscopy and confocal laser-scanning microscope were used to observe the accumulation of autophagosome. Western blot was used to investigate the expression of autophagy-associated proteins. Chemotherapeutic drug oxaliplatin was cotreatment with Cu2-xSe in vivo and in vitro to study therapeutic efficacy of autophagy caused by Cu2-xSe NPs. Results & conclusion: Cu2-xSe NPs significantly induce autophagosome accumulation in hepatocellular carcinoma cells, and they mainly inhibit the late-stage autophagy degradation through reducing lysosomal cathepsin activity. Moreover, Cu2-xSe NPs enhance the anticancer activity of oxaliplatin in vivo and in vitro through blocking autophagosome degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]