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Potential role and associated mechanisms of Annexin A8 (ANXA8), a member of the Annexins family, in cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CESC) are still unclear, despite being upregulated in various malignant tumors. Here, we observed a notably elevated expression of ANXA8 in CESC cells. The inhibition of ANXA8 amplified the susceptibility of CESC cells to Erastin and sorafenib-induced ferroptosis, whereas it exerted minimal influence on DPI7 and DPI10-induced ferroptosis. The results from the Fe2+ concentration assay showed no significant correlation between ANXA8 gene knockdown and intracellular Fe2+ concentration induced by ferroptosis inducers. Western blot analysis demonstrated that the knockdown of ANXA8 did not alter ACSL4 and LPCAT levels under ferroptosis-inducing conditions, but it did result in a reduction in intracellular GSH levels induced by the ferroptosis inducer. Subsequently, we identified TFAP2A as an upstream transcription factor of ANXA8, which plays a role in regulating cell ferroptosis. The knockdown of TFAP2A significantly elevated MDA levels and depressed GSH levels in the presence of a ferroptosis inducer, thereby inhibiting cell ferroptosis. However, this inhibitory effect could be reversed by ANXA8 overexpression. Therefore, our research suggests that the TFAP2A/ANXA8 axis exerts regulatory control over ferroptosis in CESC cells by mediating GSH synthesis in System Xc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rock bolts are widely employed as an effective and efficient reinforcement method in geotechnical engineering. Sandwich composite structures formed by hard rock and weak rock are often encountered in practical projects. Furthermore, the spatial structure of the rock mass has a direct influence on the effect of the anchorage support. To investigate the impact of rock mass structure on the mechanical characteristics of anchorage interfaces, pull-out tests on reinforced specimens with different mudstone thicknesses and fracture dip angles are conducted. The experimental results indicate that the percentage of mudstone content and fracture dip angle have a significant influence on the pullout load of the samples. A weaker surrounding rock results in a lower peak load and a longer critical anchorage length, and vice versa. The results also show that 70% mudstone content can be considered a critical condition for impacting the peak load. Specifically, the percentage of mudstone content has a limited influence on the variation in the peak load when it exceeds 70%. Optical fiber deformation results show that compared to the rock mass with fracture dip angles of 0° and 60°, the rock mass with a fracture dip angle of 30° has a more uniformly distributed force at the anchorage interface. When the fracture dip angle exceeds 60°, the dip angle is no longer a key indicator of peak load. The accuracy of the experimentally obtained load-displacement curves is further verified although numerical simulation using the discrete element method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess the capacity of support vector machine (SVM) algorithms that are developed based on platelet RNA-seq data in identifying thyroid neoplasm patients and differentiating patients with thyroid adenomas, papillary thyroid cancer and metastasized papillary thyroid cancer. Methods: Platelets were collected and isolated from 109 patients and 63 healthy controls. RNA-seq was performed to find transcripts with differential levels. Genes corresponding to these altered transcripts were identified using R packages. All samples were subsampled into a training set and a validation set. Two SVM algorithms were developed and trained with the training set, using the genes with differential transcript levels (GDTLs) as classifiers, and validated with the validation set. GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis were performed using the R package clusterProfiler. Results: We detected 765 GDTLs (442 up-regulated and 323 down-regulated) in platelets of patients and healthy controls. The algorithm identifying thyroid neoplasm patients achieved an accuracy of 97%, with an AUC (area under curve) of 0.998. The other algorithm differentiating patients with multiclass thyroid neoplasms had an average accuracy of 80.5%. GO analysis showed that GDTLs were strongly involved in biological processes such as neutrophil degranulation, neutrophil activation, autophagy and regulation of multi-organism process. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis revealed that GDTLs were mainly enriched in NOD-like receptor signaling pathway and pathways in endocytosis, osteoclast differentiation, human cytomegalovirus infection and tuberculosis. Conclusion: Our results indicated that the combination of SVM algorithms and platelet RNA-seq data allowed for thyroid neoplasm diagnostics and multiclass thyroid neoplasm classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psoriasis-2 (PSORS2) is caused by the heterozygous mutation of the caspase recruitment domain 14 (CARD14) gene on chromosome 17q25. To evaluate the contribution of CARD14 variants in psoriasis of the Chinese Han population, we performed deep sequencing of the CARD14 gene in 372 Chinese Han patients with psoriasis. The exonic nucleotide variants were confirmed by Sanger sequencing in the affected individuals and 1114 controls. In 27 patients with psoriasis, we identified 15 variations, including three novel variants: c.381C>G (p.Cys127Trp), c.712A>G (p.Met238Val) and c.2260_2261delinsGG (p.Gln754Gly). These findings could enrich and update the Human Gene Mutation Database of CARD14 variants for psoriasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personalized ventilation (PV) is aimed to improve the quality of inhaled air by delivering clean, humidified and temperature-controlled air directly to occupants' breathing zone. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of PV devices on the concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from carpet and the temperature around an occupant in an office. Numerical simulations were conducted using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) commercial software FLUENT 6.3 for solving the continuity, momentum, energy, turbulence and concentration equations, and the simulation results were validated against the existing experimental data [1]. Personal exposure effectiveness (PEE) and manikin-based equivalent temperature change (ΔT) were used as indices to evaluate the performance of the PV. The results showed that the existence of the PV device greatly influenced the temperature and VOCs distributions around the occupant, but had little effect on those in the other parts of the office. Two evaluation indices increased with an increase of air flow rate. However, PV's airflow rate had larger influence on Manikin-based equivalent temperature change than that on personalized exposure effectiveness. The ventilation strategies had a great influence on the two evaluation indices, and both of them decreased with an increase of ventilation rate. The findings of this research could contribute to the reduction of energy consumption and the improvement of utilization of PV devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was carried out to investigate the protective role of taurine (2-aminoethanesulphonicacid) against morphine-induced neurotoxicity in C6 cells. It was found that taurine significantly increased the viability of C6 cells treated by morphine, showing the neuroprotective role against morphine-induced neurotoxicity. However, such neuroprotective effect of taurine could not be blocked by bicuculline, an antagonist of gamma-amino butyrate (GABA) receptor. To determine the oxidative damage induced by morphine, the superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) were measured in C6 cells. The decreased activities of SOD, CAT, and GPx in C6 cells were observed after morphine treatment for 48 h. However, taurine administration effectively ameliorated morphine-induced oxidative insult. To estimate anti-apoptosis effect of taurine, flow cytometry analysis as well as detection for caspase-3 and Bcl-2 expressions was performed after morphine exposure for 48 h. It was found that Bcl-2 expression was down regulated by morphine, whereas taurine could reverse morphine-induced decrease in Bcl-2 expression. Taurine showed no effect on caspase-3 expression. Collectively, the results show that taurine possesses the capability to ameliorate morphine-induced oxidative insult and apoptosis in C6 cells, probably due to its antioxidant activity rather than activation of GABA receptors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]