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Dysregulation of long non-coding RNA papillary thyroid carcinoma susceptibility candidate 3 (lncRNA PTCSC3) has been found to correlate with various types of cancers. Quantitative RT-PCR showed a down-regulation of PTCSC3 in cervical cancer tissues compared with normal cervical tissues. The present study aimed to investigate the role of lncRNA PTCSC3 in cervical cancer and the underlying mechanisms. PTCSC3 was overexpressed in cervical cancer cell lines C-33A and Hela by transfection with pcDNA3.1-lncRNA PTCSC3 expressing plasmid. Overexpression of lncRNA PTCSC3 inhibited cell proliferation, induced cell cycle arrest, and suppressed cell invasion and migration using CCK8 assay, flow cytometry, Transwell assay and wound healing examination, respectively. Western blotting analysis showed that PTCSC3 overexpression decreased the expression of cyclinD1, matrix metalloproteinases 9 (MMP9), N-cadherin and β-catenin and increased E-cadherin expression. Further, PTCSC3 negatively regulated miR-574-5p expression and dual-luciferase assay verified the binding activity between miR-574-5p and lncRNA PTCSC3. Enforced up-regulation of miR-574-5p abolished the inhibitory effect of lncRNA PTCSC3 on cervical cancer cell proliferation, invasiveness and mobility. Taken together, lncRNA PTCSC3 inhibited cell growth and metastasis via sponging miR-574-5p in cervical cancer. Therefore, we demonstrate the tumour-suppressive function of lncRNA PTCSC3 in cervical cancer and suggest that PTCSC3 is a potential therapeutic target for cervical cancer.

Point-of-care detection for pathogen is of critical need for wide epidemic warning and medical diagnosis. In this work, we have designed and developed a fully portable and integrated microchip based real-time polymerase chain reaction machine for rapid pathogen detection. The instrument consists of three functional components including heating, optical, and electrical modules, which are integrated into a portable compact box. The microchip is consumable material replaceable to meet various detection needs. Consequently, we demonstrated the outstanding performance of this portable machine for rapid detection of Salmonella and Escherichia coli O157:H7 with the advantage of time-saving (∼25 min), less samples consumption, portability, and user-friendly operation.

Exploring efficient, abundant, cheap and stable materials for the electrolysis of water and supercapacitor is a challenging task. Here, Ni1−xMox nanosheets are obtained on carbon cloth (CC), which can be multi-functional electrodes for electrochemical applications. Impressively, we find that the electrochemical abilities can be optimized by constructing network-like nanosheets and tuning the ratio of Ni and Mo in the alloy. To acquire a current density of 10 mA cm−2 (j10), Ni0.75Mo0.25/CC shows the lowest overpotentials (79 mV for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and 330 mV for oxygen evolution reaction (OER)) in 1 M KOH. Using Ni0.75Mo0.25/CC as both positive and negative poles, the cell only requires a potential of 1.74 V to reach j10 and shows long-term durability. We further show that Ni0.75Mo0.25 electrode exhibits a superior specific capacitance (422 F g−1 at 1 A g−1) and high capacitance retention (108.2 % after 1000 cycles) in 1 M KOH. The super-electrochemical performances of Ni0.75Mo0.25/CC is attributed to its high electronic conductivity, rich active sites, and large surface area. We believe that the Ni0.75Mo0.25/CC electrode with extraordinary electrochemical performances is a hopeful material for practical applications in both electrocatalysis and supercapacitors (SC).

A new kind of fast near-infrared (NIR) light-responsive shape-memory polymer composites was prepared by introducing polydopamine particles (PDAPs) into commercial shape-memory polyurethane (SMPU). The toughness and strength of the polydopamine-particle-filled polyurethane composites (SMPU-PDAPs) were significantly enhanced with the addition of PDAPs due to the strong interface interaction between PDAPs and polyurethane segments. Owing to the outstanding photothermal effect of PDAPs, the composites exhibit a rapid light-responsive shape-memory process in 60 s with a PDAPs content of 0.01 wt%. Due to the excellent dispersion and convenient preparation method, PDAPs have great potential to be used as high-efficiency and environmentally friendly fillers to obtain novel photoactive functional polymer composites.

A novel facile method for the detection of the phosphodiesterase type 5 enzyme inhibitors added illegally into health products was established using thin-layer chromatography and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy combined with BP neural network. When the detecting conditions were optimized in detail, a repetitive adding procedure of silver colloids with the total amount keeping constant was used to improve the enhancement effect of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy. According to the main Raman peaks and the retention factor of analyte, the data predictive model was established. Under the optimized experimental conditions, this method was successful to apply to detect the artificially produced model samples, and the limit of detection less than 5 mg/kg was obtained. Base on the better sensitivity of this method, the real samples have been detected accurately and the detection results were confirmed by high-performance liquid chromatography. In addition, the developed method was suitable for the detection of other adulterants, especially those that have similar chromatographic or spectroscopic behaviors. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Promoting the separation of photo-generated carriers is significantly important to improve the efficiency of photocatalytic hydrogen production. Therefore, we prepared g-C3N4/CeCO3OH/CeO2 (CeCeCN) ternary nanocomposite via an easy synthetic way using g-C3N4 and CeO2 as reactants. A CeCO3OH layer was formed and resulted in the novel ternary photocatalyst. The CeCeCN composite shows superior photocatalytic (PC) H2 generation performance in sunlight excitation. The H2 evolution rate is about 764 μmol h−1 g−1, which is over 11 times larger than those of g-C3N4 and CeO2. Compared with g-C3N4 and CeO2, CeCeCN further shows a larger photo-response current density and a lower charge-transfer resistance. The remarkably increased photocatalytic property of CeCeCN is because of the efficient charge migration induced by the formed heterojunction. Our findings demonstrate that building multi-heterostructures can liberate more excited electrons for efficient hydrogen production under sunlight.

A growth-temperature-mediated two-step chemical vapor deposition strategy is designed to synthesize MoS2 /WS2 and WS2 /MoS2 stacks on Au foils. Predominantly A-A stacked MoS2 /WS2 and A-B stacked WS2 /MoS2 are selectively achieved and confirmed. Relative enhancements or reductions in photocatalytic activities of MoS2 /WS2 or WS2 /MoS2 are observed under illumination, because the type-II band alignment enables directional electron flow from electrode to active site.

This study was conducted to develop a method for improving tenderness and inhibiting oxidative change of yak meat by ginger extract (GE) treatment. Uniform-sized 3 cm × 3 cm × 3 cm yak meat chunks (Longissimus dorsi muscles) were marinated with distilled water, 3%, 5%, 7% GE and 0.2% sodium ascorbate, respectively. The samples stored for 24 h, 48 h and 72 h, and 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 days at 4C ± 1C. The shear force values and cooking yield of the GE-treated samples were compared with that of the control groups, and thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) value was compared with both the control group and the 0.2% sodium ascorbate-treated group. Significantly lower shear force values and TBARS value (P

Fullerenation of polycarbonate (PC), a commercially important optical polymer, was achieved by direct reaction of C60 and PC in the presence of azo-bis-isobutyronitrile (AIBN), using 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane as the solvent under microwave irradiation (MI). Compared with conventional heating process, MI could significantly enhance the rate of the fullerenation under identical reaction conditions. The C60 content of the fullerene-functionalized polycarbonate (C60-PC) could be controlled via varying the C60/PC feed ratio and the reaction time. The C60-PCs are soluble in common organic solvents such as THF and chloroform. The products were characterized by gel permeation chromatography, UV–vis, FTIR, TGA, DSC, 1H NMR, and 13C NMR. The reaction of C60 with PC under MI was monitored by electron spin resonance spectra, the fullerene radicals were detected in reaction solutions and also in the solid product polymers, indicating the radical mechanism of the reaction. The nonlinear optical property of C60-PCs in THF was investigated by the open-aperture z-scan technique at 527 nm, and its nonlinear absorption coefficient was found to be in the same order as that of C60. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 46:399–405, 2006. © 2006 Society of Plastics Engineers