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This paper focuses on the rotor thermal design of the axial flux permanent magnet synchronous machine (AFPMSM) with housing water-cooling. By adapting the effect of disc rotor self-ventilation, an enhanced cooling method has been innovated to optimize the temperature distribution of the rotor in AFPMSM. Two scenarios will be created to compare their influence on cooling enhancement of rotor with the diverse types of fins, the annular fin and the rectangular fin, each will be installed separately to the internal surface of housing. There is a significant effect by using this method in all types of AFPMSM with housing cooling, especially for multi-rotor ones. The results of CFD show that the effectiveness of annular fins is essentially enhanced, with 25% more heat dissipation achieved.

Background: MicroRNA-101 is a tumor inhibitor that stimulates tumor progression by reducing or inhibiting the expression of certain oncogenes. Some studies presented that cox-2 is target of MicroRNA 101 in prostate cancer process. Methods: MicroRNA-101 expression was detected by RT-PCR in PC3 cell lines. A and to determine cell proliferation we used MTT assays. Cell would heal and Flow cytometry assays were also used to detect cellular migratory ability and apoptosis, respectively. To assess cox-2 protein expression, Immunohistochemistry was used and data analyzed by data analysis by SPSS 20. Results: PC3 cells treated by MicroRNA-101 mimics displayed a 24% elevation in growth rate compared with blank (P < 0.01) at 48 h, and a 12% increase (P < 0.01) at 72 h. On the other hand, at 48 and 72 h after the MicroRNA-101 inhibitor transfection, proliferation of PC3 cell was decreased significantly. The early apoptosis rate in transfected PC3 cells with MicroRNA-101 mimic (74.4%) and inhibitor (22.8%) were significantly different at 72 h after transfection (P < 0.05), MicroRNA-101 mimics inhibited cell migration, adhesion, and spread was wider relative to the group of control and inhibitor for the PC3 cells. Expression of Cox-2 in transfected PC3 with the MicroRNA-101 inhibitor was higher than the mimic and control groups significantly (P < 0.01). Conclusion: MicroRNA-101 by Cox-2 can play key roles in the prostate cancer pathogenesis.

A rapid, on-site, and accurate SARS-CoV-2 detection method is crucial for the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic. However, such an ideal screening technology has not yet been developed for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2. Here, we have developed a deep learning-based surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy technique for the sensitive, rapid, and on-site detection of the SARS-CoV-2 antigen in the throat swabs or sputum from 30 confirmed COVID-19 patients. A Raman database based on the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 was established from experiments and theoretical calculations. The corresponding biochemical foundation for this method is also discussed. The deep learning model could predict the SARS-CoV-2 antigen with an identification accuracy of 87.7%. These results suggested that this method has great potential for the diagnosis, monitoring, and control of SARS-CoV-2 worldwide.

Given the event-driven and framework-based architecture of Android apps, finding the ordering of callbacks executed by the framework remains a problem that affects every tool that requires inter-callback reasoning. Previous work has focused on the ordering of callbacks related to the Android components and GUI events. But the execution of callbacks can also come from direct calls of the framework (API calls). This paper defines a novel program representation, called Callback Control Flow Automata (CCFA) , that specifies the control flow of callbacks invoked via a variety of sources. We present an analysis to automatically construct CCFAs by combining two callback control flow representations developed from the previous research, namely, Window Transition Graphs (WTGs) and Predicate Callback Summaries (PCSs) . To demonstrate the usefulness of our representation, we integrated CCFAs into two client analyses: a taint analysis using FLOWDROID, and a value-flow analysis that computes source and sink pairs of a program. Our evaluation shows that we can compute CCFAs efficiently and that CCFAs improved the callback coverages over WTGs. As a result of using CCFAs, we obtained 33 more true positive security leaks than FLOWDROID over a total of 55 apps we have run. With a low false positive rate, we found that 22.76 percent of source-sink pairs we computed are located in different callbacks and that 31 out of 55 apps contain source-sink pairs spreading across components. Thus, callback control flow graphs and inter-callback analysis are indeed important. Although this paper mainly uses Android, we believe that CCFAs can be useful for modeling control flow of callbacks for other event-driven, framework-based systems.

Objective ROS1 fusions have been identified in 1-2% of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients; they are validated as a driver of carcinogenesis and could be subjected to inhibition by crizotinib. However, previous studies suggested a variable progression-free survival (PFS) ranging from 9.1 to 20.0 months for crizotinib treatment in ROS1-rearranged NSCLC. Here, we reported a 45-year-old female diagnosed with stage IVB lung adenocarcinoma with multiple lymph nodes and bone metastasis carrying a novel MPRIP-ROS1 fusion, which was identified by RNA-based NGS (next-generation sequencing) and was sensitive to crizotinib treatment. Materials and methods A targeted NGS panel was used to analyze genomic DNA and total RNA isolated from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue block of the patient. An RNA fusion panel based on amplicon sequencing was designed for detection fusion variation. Fusion results were validated using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and Sanger sequencing. Results We reported a novel MPRIP-ROS1 fusion identified in this advanced lung adenocarcinoma case. The rearrangement was generated by exons 1-21 of MPRIP at chr17: p11.2 joined to exons 35-43 of ROS1 at chr6: q22.1, which retained an intact kinase domain of ROS1. The primary tumor and metastatic lymph nodes were eliminated on computed tomographic (CT) scan imaging after 2 months' crizotinib treatment, and the multiple bone metastatic lesions were significantly relieved according to bone scintigraphy images. To date, the treatment has lasted 16 months, and the patient is still in follow-up showing sustained response to crizotinib. Conclusion The study identified a novel MPRIP-ROS1 fusion that was sensitive to crizotinib, which provided a new driver of lung adenocarcinoma and potential therapeutic target for crizotinib. It also expanded NSCLC treatment of ROS1 rearrangement and highlighted the importance of genetic testing for precise treatment decision-making.

Since the subprime crisis, financial stress has been subjected to increased attention. However, related research of emerging economics is still in its infancy. Considering that the financial market is quite interconnected due to its complexity, we measure the stress dynamics of the Chinese financial market from an interconnectedness perspective. Multiple manifestations of interconnectedness are first investigated in this paper. It is found that the interbank and bond market are highly connected and play a central role in stress transmission. Then, financial stress is measured with the consideration of the interconnectedness. Finally, the asymmetric and nonlinear economic effects of financial stress are investigated, and thresholds are determined to distinguish between periods of financial stress and normal periods. The Financial Stress Index constructed in this paper effectively captures real-time status and identifies stressed periods, thus contributing to the early warnings and subsequent risk management in China. A systemic but focused strategy is suggested to deal with financial stress.

Weedy rice ( Oryza sativa f. spontanea ) presumably originated from rice but has weedy characteristics. It is one of the malignant weeds in rice field that decreases rice production and grain quality severely. In this study, the biological characteristics of weedy rice were described from morphology, shattering, dormancy and stress tolerance. The process of weedy rice origination from de-domestication of cultivated rice was summarized briefly. We also introduced the worldwide distribution of weedy rice as well as its non-uniform distribution in China with the most severe occurrence in middle-south area of Jiangsu province and Zhanjiang of Guangzhou province. In addition, we analyzed the agricultural damage on rice yield, rice quality and paddy field ecology environment by weedy rice. To control the occurrence and spread of weedy rice, we further proposed comprehensive measures, including prevention and controlling measures, reasonable cultivation system, and scientific use of chemical herbicides.

This study employed CiteSpace to analyse service quality literature to determine its research fields, development context, and hotspots to assess the trending of literature and the development of p...

Understanding viral tropism is an essential step toward reducing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission, decreasing mortality from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and limiting opportunities for mutant strains to arise. Currently, little is known about the extent to which distinct tissue sites in the human head and neck region and proximal respiratory tract selectively permit SARS-CoV-2 infection and replication. In this translational study, we discover key variabilities in expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2), essential SARS-CoV-2 entry factors, among the mucosal tissues of the human proximal airways. We show that SARS-CoV-2 infection is present in all examined head and neck tissues, with a notable tropism for the nasal cavity and tracheal mucosa. Finally, we uncover an association between smoking and higher SARS-CoV-2 viral infection in the human proximal airway, which may explain the increased susceptibility of smokers to developing severe COVID-19. This is at least partially explained by differences in interferon (IFN)-β1 levels between smokers and non-smokers., Graphical Abstract, Nakayama et al. discover key variabilities in expression of SARS-CoV-2 entry factors among human head and neck mucosal tissues. They demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 preferentially infects the nasal cavity and trachea. They uncover an association between smoking and higher SARS-CoV-2 in the human proximal airway, in part because of differences in IFN-β1 expression.

The yokeless and segmented armature axial flux machine is considered an excellent topology for electric vehicles application. However, its performance is severely limited by the stator cooling system. The heat pipe, as the small size, lightweight, but highly efficient passive phase-change cooling element, has been attracting more and more attention in the thermal management methods of electric motors. Therefore, the relationship between the thermal performance of the heat pipe with temperature is measured in detail through an experimental test platform in this paper. Further, a novel stator cooling structure that combines the heat pipe with the housing water-cooling method is introduced to improve the temperature distribution of the stator. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation verifies that the proposed cooling structure can accelerate the release of heat from the stator and reduce the temperature of the stator significantly.

Static analysis is an important approach for finding bugs and vulnerabilities in software. However, inspecting and confirming static warnings are challenging and time-consuming. In this paper, we present a novel solution that automatically generates test cases based on static warnings to validate true and false positives. We designed a syntactic patching algorithm that can generate syntactically valid, semantic preserving executable code fragments from static warnings. We developed a build and testing system to automatically test code fragments using fuzzers, KLEE and Valgrind. We evaluated our techniques using 12 real-world C projects and 1955 warnings from two commercial static analysis tools. We successfully built 68.5% code fragments and generated 1003 test cases. Through automatic testing, we identified 48 true positives and 27 false positives, and 205 likely false positives. We matched 4 CVE and real-world bugs using Helium, and they are only triggered by our tool but not other baseline tools. We found that testing code fragments is scalable and useful; it can trigger bugs that testing entire programs or testing procedures failed to trigger., In Proceedings of the 30th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis July 11 to 17, 2021, Denmark. 13 pages

The feasibility of using chip-based RFID designs as wireless sensor tags open a wide range of application possibilities in the field of robotics. However, multi-step lithography manufacturing and/or MEMS techniques are often required for the industrial-grade fabrication of such sensors. In this paper, we present a simple, home-based, two-step fabrication process to produce chipless RF-based wireless sensors. We use an office-based inkjet printer to produce the antenna traces using silver conductive ink. Kirigami-inspired designs are used to produce four sensors responsive to various mechanical stimuli commonly used for DIY robotic projects (contact, compression, extension, and bend). We demonstrate sensing and wireless transmission of the detected mechanical stimuli through the proposed chipless sensor tags with reliable consistency. The tags can be replicated quickly with the inkjet-printing method. This paper also contains analyses on the effects of varying the dimensions and electrical parameters of the tags. The developed antennas in this work can be used as wireless mechano-responsive sensors for robotic applications.

Deep neural networks (DNNs) are becoming an integral part of most software systems. Previous work has shown that DNNs have bugs. Unfortunately, existing debugging techniques do not support localizing DNN bugs because of the lack of understanding of model behaviors. The entire DNN model appears as a black box. To address these problems, we propose an approach that automatically determines whether the model is buggy or not, and identifies the root causes. Our key insight is that historic trends in values propagated between layers can be analyzed to identify faults, and localize faults. To that end, we first enable dynamic analysis of deep learning applications: by converting it into an imperative representation and alternatively using a callback mechanism. Both mechanisms allows us to insert probes that enable dynamic analysis over the traces produced by the DNN while it is being trained on the training data. We then conduct dynamic analysis over the traces to identify the faulty layer that causes the error. We propose an algorithm for identifying root causes by capturing any numerical error and monitoring the model during training and finding the relevance of every layer on the DNN outcome. We have collected a benchmark containing 40 buggy models and patches that contain real errors in deep learning applications from Stack Overflow and GitHub. Our benchmark can be used to evaluate automated debugging tools and repair techniques. We have evaluated our approach using this DNN bug-and-patch benchmark, and the results showed that our approach is much more effective than the existing debugging approach used in the state of the practice Keras library. For 34 out of 40 cases, our approach was able to detect faults whereas the best debugging approach provided by Keras detected 32 out of 40 faults. Our approach was able to localize 21 out of 40 bugs whereas Keras did not localize any faults., Comment: Accepted at ICSE 2021

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) CASC11 is an oncogenic lncRNA in gastric cancer and colorectal cancer. Our study aimed to investigate the role of lncRNA CASC11 in bladder cancer. In this study we showed that plasma lncRNA CASC11 was upregulated, while plasma miRNA‐150 was downregulated in patients with early‐stage bladder cancer than in healthy controls. Altered expression of plasma lncRNA CASC11 and miRNA‐150 separated patients with bladder cancer from healthy controls. lncRNA CASC11 expression was inversely correlated with miRNA‐150 expression in patients with bladder cance but not in healthy controls. Overexpression of lncRNA CASC11 mediated the inhibition of miRNA‐150 expression in cancer cells, while miRNA‐150 overexpression did not significantly alter lncRNA CASC11 expression. lncRNA CASC11 overexpression promoted, while miRNA‐150 overexpression inhibited cancer cell proliferation. miRNA‐150 also attenuated the enhancing effects of lncRNA CASC11 overexpression on cancer cell proliferation. However, overexpression of lncRNA CASC11 showed no significant effects on cancer cell migration and invasion. Therefore, lncRNA CASC11 may promote cancer cell proliferation in bladder cancer, and the actions of lncRNA CASC11 are likely through miRNA‐150.

Androgens are essential for prostate cancer development. However, steroidogenesis has mainly been investigated in a limited number of prostate cancer cell lines, leading to varied conclusions and elusive clinical significance. Here, we established an ex vivo research platform with fresh biopsy samples transiently cultured with tritium- labelled androgens to trace steroidogenesis in prostate tissues and investigate its potential clinical application. DHEA was confirmed as the major precursor for androgen synthesis in the prostate. Significant amounts of oxidized DHEA and 5α-androstanedione were generated from DHEA in prostate biopsy samples. Prostatic steroidogenesis was independent of other clinical factors. Furthermore, prostatic steroidogenesis was suppressed after androgen deprivation therapy but increased upon treatment resistance, indicating that prostatic steroidogenesis was affected by clinical treatments. Overall, we provide an accessible research platform to characterize steroidogenesis in prostate tissue and indicate the correlation between prostatic steroidogenesis and disease progression.

Neural networks can be repurposed via adversarial reprogramming to perform new tasks, which are different from the tasks they were originally trained for. In this paper, we introduce new and improved reprogramming technique that, compared to prior works, achieves better accuracy, scalability, and can be successfully applied to more complex tasks. While prior literature focuses on potential malicious uses of reprogramming, we argue that reprogramming can be viewed as an efficient training method. Our reprogramming method allows for re-using existing pre-trained models and easily reprogramming them to perform new tasks. This technique requires a lot less effort and hyperparameter tuning compared training new models from scratch. Therefore, we believe that our improved and scalable reprogramming method has potential to become a new method for creating neural network models.

This paper studies the effect of rotor structure on the electromagnetic performances of a dual-rotor single-stator (DRSS) axial flux permanent magnet (AFPM) machine with segmented stator and concentrated winding. Consequent-pole PM (CPM) and Halbach array PM (HPM) are introduced in the rotor structure to improve the PM material utilization ratio and output torque, and the sensitivity analysis of some rotor geometrical structural parameters that have significant impact on the key performances is conducted. For the AFPM machine with SPM, CPM, CP-HPM and CP-IPM, several key electromagnetic characteristics including open-circuit airgap flux density, back-EMF, average torque, torque ripple, PM eddy current loss and PM demagnetization are compared under the same operating condition by using the finite-element method. It is demonstrated that compared with SPM, the AFPM with CPM has significant advantages in PM utilization and loss, although its performance in terms of torque and PM demagnetization is slightly sacrificed.

Online healthcare services are growing rapidly. Patients can receive health support through communication with online health professionals. However, previous research on eHealth has focused on patients&rsquo, online behavioral intentions. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of online patient&ndash, doctor communication on offline behavioral intentions and to propose a conceptual model for eHealth. We integrate fairness theory and band extension theory to develop a research model. This is further tested by structural equation modeling (SEM), with 279 valid sets of data from patients on the online health platform. Using partial least squares analysis (PLS), the results show that perceived fairness is an important factor affecting online satisfaction and the willingness to ask online doctors, which in turn has a positive impact on the willingness to go to offline doctors. These findings shed light on the research model for eHealth and offer suggestions for improving patients&rsquo, online satisfaction, as well as both online and offline behavioral intentions.

We introduce AIR, a new ant-based routing protocol for ad hoc wireless networks. AIR incorporates recent technology advances in ad hoc routing protocols, such as ring-based searching and third-party reply, while retaining the characteristics and benefits of ant-based routing protocols, including probabilistic routing tables and pheromone evaporation. In addition, we combine the best features of previous ant-based routing protocols with new features like update ants and two-way route establishment, to further improve performance. We compare the performance of AIR against AODV and DSR using appropriately chosen simulations, the results of which are presented and discussed. We find that AIR is especially useful for ad hoc networks requiring low end-to-end delay where mobility rates are high.

Background: The future in flexor tendon surgery involves tissue engineering approaches directed toward increasing early repair strength to accelerate tendon healing and to allow for earlier onset of rehabilitation. Previous work has shown that pluripotential mesenchymal stem cells may be successfully delivered to a tendon repair site using a suture carrier. The current work describes the use of Myostatin (GDF-8) to help guide these delivered pluripotential stem cells to differentiate down a tenocyte lineage to potentially maximize the reparative effects of these cells at the tendon repair site.Methods: Primary rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells isolated from the long bones of male Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with 500 ng/ml myostatin for 24 h, 48 h, and 72 h. Collagen 1 A, scleraxis (Scx), and tenomodulin (Tnmd) expression, indicative of tenogenesis, was analyzed using real time PCR and immunohistochemistry staining. A migration assay was performed to assess the functional activity of BMSCs after they were treated with myostatin.Results: Compared to the control cells (without treatment), the cells treated with 500 ng/ml myostatin for 72 h exhibited higher expression of Col 1A, Scx, and Tnmd. The mRNA expression of Col1A, Scx, Tnmd increased 15.3, 13 and 7 times respectively. Immunohistochemistry staining showed Scx and Tnmd were expressed in the cellular cytoplasm. In response to myostatin, the cells also showed a tendency to proliferate and migrate more than the control cells.Conclusions: Myostatin (GDF-8) has the ability to increase rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell growth and differentiation toward a tenocyte lineage. This information could be useful for future studies regarding tendon repair.

Annexin V, a protein with high affinity to phosphatidylserine (PS) in a calcium dependent manner, has been widely used to probe apoptosis. Annexin V in inhibiting engulfment of apoptotic cells by macrophages had been reported to increase the immunogenicity of tumor cells undergoing apoptosis. However, far less is known about its multiple properties, especially in cancer therapies. Here we found that Annexin V had a good anti-tumor activity in murine melanomaxenograft model. Treatment with Annexin V showed significant reduction in tumor size and remarkable tumor necrosis areas. The serum level of VEGF was downregualted by Annexin V both in normal mice and mice bearing tumor, suggesting that its new role on impeding tumor angiogenesis. In Silico analysis using Oncomine database, we also found the negative correlation of AnnexinV and VEGF both in skin and melanoma. The decreased Annexin V expression shows linearity relation with the elevated VEGF expression. These data provided a possibility that Annexin V can be used as a novel angiogenesis inhibitor in tumor therapy.

We investigated the relative ratios of collagen composition of periarticular tissue of the elbow, wrist, metacarpophalangeal, proximal and distal interphalangeal joints. Periarticulat tissue, which we defined as the ligaments, palmar plate and capsule, was harvested from ten fresh-frozen cadaveric upper limbs, yielding 50 samples. The mean paired differences (95% confidence interval) of the relative ratios of collagen between the five different joints were estimated using mRNA expression of collagen in the periarticular tissue. We found that the relative collagen composition of the elbow was not significantly different to that of the proximal interphalangeal joint, nor between the proximal interphalangeal joint and distal interphalangeal joint, whereas the differences in collagen composition between all the other paired comparisons of the joints had confidence intervals that did not include zero.

The relationship between the sales volume of differently efficiency vehicle and purchase subsidy was analyzed using the PVAR model based on panel data of 35 vehicles’ types of 6 enterprises in 33 months from 2016 to 2018. The study showed that purchase subsidies have a positive impact on the sales of high-efficiency vehicles continuously and the effect on low-efficiency vehicles changes from positive to negative over time. The result of variance decomposition also shows that subsidies contribute highly rate to the sales of high-efficiency vehicles. National subsidy policy should be adjusted to focus on high-efficiency vehicles and encourage the product with high technical level, such as long driving range and great battery system quality vehicles. And vehicles with inefficient power and poor quality should be phase out. Through these measures, the goals that purchase subsidies can promote enterprise’s core technical ability and the effect of the “quantity” to “quality” can be achieved.

A photonic approach to realizing anti-chromatic dispersion transmission for a frequency and bandwidth-doubling dual-chirp microwave waveform is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The system has no requirement on polarization devices or optical filters for only the integrated dual-drive dual-parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator employed. To overcome chromatic dispersion, the carrier frequency suppression approach is proposed. The anti-chromatic dispersion process is accomplished in a central station and independent to carrier frequency, fiber length, and dispersion coefficients. An experiment is conducted to verify the analysis. Dual-chirp waveforms at 13 GHz with a bandwidth of 0.8 GHz and time duration of 1 μs are obtained. After 25 km fiber transmission, the proposed approach shows a relatively flat curve in a frequency-power diagram, while the normally carrier-suppressed double-sideband modulation method experiences a significant power fading for fiber dispersion.

A novel high step-up converter is presented for Distributed PV Generation Systems, which combines with a hybrid asymmetrical voltage multiplier cell (HAVMC) and a coupled inductor. HAVMC is made up of an inductor, three diodes and three capacitors. Compared with the classical voltage multiplier cell, two couple capacitors in the cell operate in asynchronous manner to charging or discharging when main switch is turned on or turned off in a switching cycle. A novel passive lossless clamped circuit (PLCC) which is composed of a diode and two capacitors is combined into the novel converter to absorb the energy stored in leakage inductor of coupled inductor, allow a continuous input current, decrease the current ripple of the input source and realize the switch turn-on naturally. Furthermore, the reverse-recovery problem of diodes is alleviated owing to the leakage inductor. Its operating principles are analyzed in detail. Then, the analysis and performance have been fully validated experimentally on a 46V/430V prototype circuit at 50 kHz switching frequency.

Black swan is prevalent in emerging markets, leading to affect long-term returns. These outliers have stronger power to determine the performance. This paper from the perspective of big data by using these 9 emerging markets from the belt and road countries and about 60000 daily returns presents that the small outliers have a significant massive effect on long-term performance. Compared with some Asia countries, the Central and Eastern Europe countries' analysis results have some irreplaceable advantages, such as low risk, stable returns, and diversified advantages. From the data analysis, we draw the conclusion that black swans are caused by a cause which means it can be predicted in the forward investment market. For the long-term investment of emerging markets, in good and bad times, maintaining a certain degree of passivity and diversification of investment plays a crucial role.

Background Topical corticosteroids are currently employed to reduce established airway inflammation; their prophylactic use might help limit cellular damage against harmful stimuli. Objectives To determine the effects of a prophylactic topical application of budesonide (BD) on an in vivo nasal epithelium injury model induced by trichloroacetic acid (TCA). Methods C57Bl/6 mice were exposed to intranasal TCA topical application. Three groups received topical intranasal BD, saline solution, or no intervention prior to a single topical exposure to TCA. Controls were not exposed to TCA. Whole nasal cavity coronal sections were analyzed at 1, 3, and 6 days postinjury at tissue and cellular levels using histopathological analysis, immunofluorescent staining, and fresh tissue RNA microarray analysis. Results Prophylactic topical corticosteroid exposure protected the nasal epithelium from acute damage, maintaining epithelial thickness and cell survival. Six days following TCA exposure, epithelial and cellular changes were less pronounced on the BD-treated group compared to all exposure groups. The microarray analysis was used to evaluate the gene transcripts in all treatment groups. Ciliary tip protein, Sentan, and submucosal protein S100b were identified as potential factors in epithelial airway protection; immunofluorescent staining corroborated their presence and location within the respiratory epithelium. Conclusion Topical corticosteroid treatment to the nasal epithelium can mitigate several of the early deleterious effects of acute epithelial damage in experimental airway injuries caused by TCA. These findings suggest a novel, direct cytoprotective effect of corticosteroids on the nasal epithelium, and the potential of expanding the use of prophylactic periprocedural topical corticosteroids for respiratory epithelial tissues.

Background Mannose-binding lectin (MBL) is a key component of innate immunity. The expression of cortical MBL is up-regulated after clinical and experimental head trauma. This study aimed to assess the association of serum MBL levels with injury severity and long-term clinical outcomes after severe traumatic brain injury (STBI). Methods Serum MBL levels were measured in 122 patients and 100 healthy controls. Multivariate analyses were used to analyze the relationship between serum MBL levels and trauma severity reflected by Glasgow Coma Scale scores as well as between serum MBL levels and 6-month mortality and unfavorable outcome (Glasgow Outcome Scale score: 1–3). A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was structured to evaluate the prognostic predictive performance of serum MBL levels. Results Compared with healthy controls, serum MBL levels of patients were markedly elevated. Using multivariate analyses, serum MBL levels were found to be associated closely with Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) scores and MBL emerged as an independent predictor for 6-month mortality and unfavorable outcome. Under ROC curve, serum MBL levels and GCS scores possessed similar prognostic predictive values. Conclusion Increased serum level of MBL was independently associated with head trauma severity and long-term clinical outcomes of STBI.

Background: We have reported that bioactive sutures coated with bone marrow–derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) enhance tendon repair strength in an in vivo rat model. We have additionally shown that growth differentiation factor 8 (GDF-8, also known as myostatin) simulates tenogenesis in BMSCs in vitro. The purpose of this study was to determine the possibility of BMSC-coated bioactive sutures treated with GDF-8 to increase tendon repair strength in an in vivo rabbit tendon repair model. Methods: Rabbit BMSCs were grown and seeded on to 4-0 Ethibond sutures and treated with GDF-8. New Zealand white rabbits’ bilateral Achilles tendons were transected and randomized to experimental (BMSC-coated bioactive sutures treated with GDF-8) or plain suture repaired control groups. Tendons were harvested at 4 and 7 days after the surgery and subjected to tensile mechanical testing and quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Results: There were distinguishing differences of collagen and matrix metalloproteinase RNA level between the control and experimental groups in the early repair periods (day 4 and day 7). However, there were no significant differences between the experimental and control groups in force to 1-mm or 2-mm gap formation or stiffness at 4 or 7 days following surgery. Conclusions: BMSC-coated bioactive sutures with GDF-8 do not appear to affect in vivo rabbit tendon healing within the first week following repair despite an increased presence of quantifiable RNA level of collagen. GDF-8’s treatment efficacy of the early tendon repair remains to be defined.

Background: To investigate the effect of myostatin (GDF-8) stimulation of bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) on tenogenesis in the setting of tendon repair. GDF-8 has demonstrated the ability to augment tenogenesis and we sought to identify if this effect could lead to the focused differentiation of pluripotential stem cells down a tenocyte lineage ex vivo.Methods: Cadaveric upper limb flexor tendons were harvested, decellularized and divided into 1 cm segments. Sutures seeded with stem cells were passed through tendon segments to simulate repair. The repaired tendons were then cultured either with or without myostatin for 3, 5, and 7 days. The experiment was also repeated with non-decellularized tendons for a total of 4 groups. The tendons were then evaluated for the expression of scleraxis and tenomodulin, two biomarkers for tendon.Results: Myostatin stimulation led to an increase in expression of tenomodulin and scleraxis at 5 and 7 days in both the decellularized and non-decellularized tendons. Myostatin increased the differentiation of BMSCs into tenocytes and/or led to the upregulation of tenomodulin and scleraxis production by the native tenocytes present within the non-decellularized tendons.Conclusions: The addition of myostatin to BMSCs leads to tenocyte differentiation as evidenced by the expression of tenocyte biomarkers, scleraxis and tenomodulin. This effect is maintained in an ex vivo tendon repair model suggestive that these cells survive the passage through tendon tissue and remain metabolically active.

Background A component of primary innate defense of the nasal mucosa against inhaled pathogens includes continuous, low-level release of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) into luminal secretions. Epidemiologically, an association exists between poor air quality and increased prevalence of sinonasal disease. To understand the effects of particulate matter (PM) in nasal mucosa, we studied the release of H2O2 and interleukin 8 (IL-8) after PM exposure. Methods Human nasal specimens were collected from surgery and cultured in serum-free growth medium. Cell integrity and recovery during culture was monitored by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release into the medium. Cultures were exposed to PM for 24 hours in the presence/absence of diphenyleneiodonium sulfate (DPI; a nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate [NADPH] oxidase inhibitor). Luminex cytokine and Amplex-Red H2O2 assays were performed. Results LDH levels dropped rapidly within 2 days, indicative of stabilization and cell recovery after harvest. All cultures released H2O2 into the medium. Exposure to PM (20 μg/cm2) increased H2O2 levels significantly (94.6 ± 7.7 nM) compared to untreated controls (55.8 ± 4.0 nM; p = 0.001). PM-induced H2O2 production was partially inhibited by DPI (80.1 ± 3.8nM), indicating that cellular NADPH oxidase may be a primary source of H2O2 production. Exposure to PM increased IL-8 levels in a dose-dependent fashion (control = 2301 ± 412 MFI; 20 μg/cm2 = 5002 ± 1327 MFI; 40 μg/cm2 = 8219 ± 1090 MFI; p = 0.022). Conclusion PM increases the quantity of H2O2 released by nasal epithelial cells, indicating that PM can contribute to oxidative stress in part by activating a normal cellular defense mechanism. Exposure to PM resulted in elevated IL-8 levels and mucin production in explants. Efforts to reduce airborne PM may lead to reduced H2O2 and mucin production in sinonasal epithelium.

One of the challenges to analyze, test and debug Android apps is that the potential execution orders of callbacks are missing from the apps' source code, however, bugs, vulnerabilities and refactoring transformations have been found to be related to callback sequences. Existing work on control flow analysis of Android apps focuses on analyzing GUI behaviors. Our observation is that orthogonal to GUI, the Android API methods also play an important role in determining the order of callbacks, and previously, the APIs were modeled manually in an ad-hoc way. This paper presents a complementary solution of constructing program paths for Android apps. We proposed a specification called Predicate Callback Summary (PCS) that represents the callback control flow information (including callback sequences as well as the conditions the callbacks are invoked) in Android API methods. Our experiments show we can compute PCSs with reasonable accuracy and scalability and use them to build inter-callback control flow graphs for apps. Our detailed experimental data are available at: http://www.cs.iastate.edu/~weile/toolsdata/SummarizeAndroidFramework/lithium.html.

One of the challenges of analyzing, testing and debugging Android apps is that the potential execution orders of callbacks are missing from the apps' source code. However, bugs, vulnerabilities and refactoring transformations have been found to be related to callback sequences. Existing work on control flow analysis of Android apps have mainly focused on analyzing GUI events. GUI events, although being a key part of determining control flow of Android apps, do not offer a complete picture. Our observation is that orthogonal to GUI events, the Android API calls also play an important role in determining the order of callbacks. In the past, such control flow information has been modeled manually. This paper presents a complementary solution of constructing program paths for Android apps. We proposed a specification technique, called Predicate Callback Summary (PCS), that represents the callback control flow information (including callback sequences as well as the conditions under which the callbacks are invoked) in Android API methods and developed static analysis techniques to automatically compute and apply such summaries to construct apps' callback sequences. Our experiments show that by applying PCSs, we are able to construct Android apps' control flow graphs, including inter-callback relations, and also to detect infeasible paths involving multiple callbacks. Such control flow information can help program analysis and testing tools to report more precise results. Our detailed experimental data is available at: http://goo.gl/NBPrKs, 11 pages

The Eu 3+ /Ag co-doped rare earth disilicate Y 2 Si 2 O 7 microcrystal was synthesized by sol-gel method. Through controlling the thermal treatment process of Y 2 Si 2 O 7 :Eu 3+ /Ag precursor, various phases (amorphous, α, β, γ, δ) were prepared. White light emission was observed under UV light excitation in the samples heavily doped with Ag. The white light was realized by combining the intense red emission of Eu 3+ , the green emission attributed to the very small molecule-like, non-plasmonic Ag particles (ML-Ag-particles), and the blue emission due to Ag ions. Results demonstrated that Eu 3+ /Ag co-doped Y 2 Si 2 O 7 microcrystal could be potentially applied as white light emission phosphors for UV LED chips.

The Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome or t(9;22) results in the generation of a fusion gene, namely BCR/ABL1, which encodes a chimeric protein with aberrant tyrosine kinase activity that drives leukemia cell growth and survival. This molecular/cytogenetic aberration occurs in ~20%-30% of ALL cases and confers poor prognosis. Ph+ ALL patients (pts) are often referred for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloHCT), although more recently BCR-ABL-specific tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and immunotherapeutic approaches seemingly induced long-term remission in some patients. Nevertheless, it is still a challenge to determine which Ph+ ALL of the pts could be treated more conservatively without alloHCT. Thus identification of new prognostic biomarkers and/or therapeutic targets may be helpful. Regulation of short non-coding microRNAs(miRNAs) associated with initiation and progression of acute leukemia has been reported. miR-142(both miR-142-3p and miR-142-5p) is expressed at a relatively high level in hematopoietic tissue, and plays a role in myeloid lineage differentiation. In fact, low miR-142-3p expression was associated with myeloid differentiation failure, and miR-142 mutations was reported to promote acute myeloid leukemia (AML). More recently, Kramer et al demonstrated a role of miR-142 in lymphopoiesis by showing that miR-142 deficiency impaired B cell production in a miR-142 knock-out(ko) mouse model (Blood. 2015). Here, we first investigated if miR-142 levels were altered in ALL pts. Analysis of a publically available miRNA expression dataset(GSE23024) showed lower level of miR-142-3p, but not miR-142-5p in Ph+ ALL pts(n=10) vs. healthy donors(n=7;p=0.0093); while no significant differences were observed in Ph- pre-B ALL pts(n=61) vs. healthy donors (n=7). In ALL Tg(P190-BCR/ABL) transgenic mice(Ph+ ALL; Nature. 1990), we found bone marrow (BM) miR-142-3p level to be ~2.3-fold lower than those in the wild-type (wt) controls(p=0.036). Compared to wt mice, Ph+ ALL mice showed significantly lower miR-142-3p level in all the immunophenotypically identified BM lymphoid subpopulations, including progenitor B (pro-B, B220+CD19+CD43+IgM-,~19.1-fold lower,p Disclosures Stein: Celgene: Speakers Bureau; Amgen Inc.: Speakers Bureau. Jin:The National Natural Science Foundation of China: Research Funding; College of Medicine, Zhejiang University: Employment.

The research object is transformation the deep orebody of jinning phosphate which belong to Yunnan Phosphorus Group Co from pit to underground mining. Through the mine-site field trips, on the basis of the existing mine geological occurrence conditions, proposed a stope roof fall disaster prevention technology which suitable for mining actual project overview. And related research results can provide theoretical guidance and advice of roof fall disaster for mining of Yunnan Phosphate Group or other similar conditions mines which are in transformed from open pit to underground mining.

Purpose To describe histologic evidence of nerve trauma during the creation and use of the 3-4 portal. Methods Fourteen fresh-frozen cadaveric wrists were mounted on a custom-built frame that simulated a wrist arthroscopy traction tower. After the 3-4 portal was created in the usual manner, the skin was dissected off to identify possible trauma to the posterior interosseous nerve (PIN). Specimens were categorized into those where there was clearly no trauma to the PIN and those where trauma was possible. In the cases where trauma was possible, we harvested the PIN with a cuff of the proximal edge of the portal and examined the cross-sectional histology of the most distal sections for the presence of neural tissue. Results There was clearly no trauma to the PIN in 3 of the wrists during the creation of the 3-4 portal. In the remaining 11 wrists with possible trauma to the PIN, we identified axonal tissue on histologic examination at the proximal edge of the 3-4 portal in 7 of these specimens. In summary, 50% (7 of 14) of our specimens had visual and histologic evidence of trauma to the PIN. Conclusions Based on the findings of this study, there may be more instances of trauma to the PIN during routine wrist arthroscopy than have been previously reported. Clinical Relevance Findings suggest that transection or injury to this nerve may not lead to any clinical sequelae. However, if there is an instance where a patient has persistent, otherwise unexplained, dorsal wrist pain after a wrist arthroscopy procedure, iatrogenic neuroma of the PIN may be responsible and should be considered.

This study aims to investigate the effect of non-transecting anastomotic urethroplasty for treatment of posterior urethral stricture. A total of 23 patients with traumatic posterior urethral stricture were enrolled and then divided into two groups. In one group, 12 patients underwent non-transecting anastomotic urethroplasty. In the other group, 11 patients underwent conventional posterior urethra end-to-end anastomosis. The effect of operation was evaluated using the following parameters: the bleeding amount during operation, operation time, IIEF-5 scores after operation, maximum flow rate (Qmax), and rating scale of quality of life (QoL). The comparison between the conventional posterior urethra end-to-end anastomosis group and the non-transecting anastomotic urethroplasty group showed no significant difference with regard to average operation time. However, a significant difference was observed between the groups with regard to the bleeding amount during operation. The patients in the group of non-transecting anastomotic urethroplasty urinated smoothly after the removal of catheter. Meanwhile, one patient from the group of conventional posterior urethra end-to-end anastomosis had difficulty urinating after the removal of catheter. Furthermore, significant differences in the operation time, bleeding amount during operation, IIEF-5 scores after operation, and rating scale of QoL were observed, whereas no significant difference was observed between urine flow rates of the two groups after operation. Overall, nontransecting anastomotic urethroplasty is effective for posterior urethra reconstruction, and it can reduce the occurrence rate of erectile dysfunction after operation.

Thioredoxin (TRX), a potent anti-oxidant, is released during inflammation and oxidative stress. The purpose of this study was to establish the relationship between serum TRX concentrations and trauma severity and outcome in severe traumatic brain injury (STBI).We determined serum TRX concentrations in 112 patients and 112 controls. Multivariate analyses were performed to analyze the predictive factors of 1-week mortality, 6-month mortality and 6-month unfavorable outcome. The predictive values were investigated under receiver operating characteristic curves.Serum TRX concentrations were markedly higher in patients than in controls (19.1±7.8ng/ml vs. 8.0±2.3ng/ml, P0.001). There was a significant negative association between serum TRX concentrations and Glasgow coma scale (GCS) scores (r=-0.543, P0.001). Increased TRX was identified as an independent prognostic marker of 1-week mortality [Odds ratio (OR), 1.220; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.101-1.367; P0.001], 6-month mortality (OR, 1.201; 95% CI, 1.097-1.324; P0.001) and 6-month unfavorable outcome (OR, 1.189; 95% CI, 1.090-1.311; P0.001). TRX concentrations improved area under curve of GCS scores for 6-month unfavorable outcome, but not for 1-week mortality and 6-month mortality.Increased serum TRX concentration, associated highly with trauma severity and poor outcome, might be a novel prognostic marker in patients with STBI.

To determine if statins induce anti-inflammatory effects in upper airway inflammation. Mediators of innate and adaptive immunity regulate airway inflammation. Release of these mediators involves enzymatic conversion of polyunsaturated fatty acids into biologically active mediators, which can be blocked by statins. Although upper airway inflammation and chronic sinusitis occur in millions of patients with asthma worldwide, the anti-inflammatory effects of statins in upper airway inflammation have not been previously studied.Laboratory research.Tertiary referral center.Analysis of sinus tissues collected from patients with chronic rhinosinusitis revealed suppression of highly expressed inflammatory mediators in patients who were found to be on statins, suggesting that statins may induce anti-inflammatory effects. Therefore, the authors performed an in vitro study to determine if these anti-inflammatory effects were induced by statins. Cultured primary human airway epithelial cells were exposed to ambient air pollution particulates (PM) to trigger the inflammation, with and without statins, and the expression of inflammatory mediators was analyzed.The authors found that expression of CCL5, CCL11, and IL13RA was suppressed in patients on statins. In vitro exposure to PM enhanced the expression of these mediators, while pretreatment with statins completely blocked these effects. Furthermore, the effects of statins were blocked by inhibition of the statin pathway using isopentenyl-5-pyrophosphate. Statins did not have any significant effect on the viability of normal cells.Statins induce anti-inflammatory effects in human airway epithelial inflammation. Statins may play a role in the treatment and prevention of chronic rhinosinusitis and pulmonary exacerbation of obstructive airway diseases.

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text, Osteoporosis or osteopenia is a common complication in patients with cirrhosis, but little is known about the risk factors for the occurrence of osteoporosis. Patients with liver cirrhosis due to chronic virus infection and alcoholic abuse were enrolled. Bone mineral density (BMD) was determined using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Osteoporosis was diagnosed according to WHO criteria. The severity of liver stiffness was measured by Fibroscan. Demographic data, such as age, gender, weight, height, and body mass index (BMI), were collected. Logistic regression analysis was used to recognize the risk factors of osteoporosis in patients with cirrhosis. A total of 446 patients were included in this study: 217 had liver cirrhosis (male, 74.2%; mean age, 57.2 ± 10.27) and 229 were matched controls (male, 69%, mean age, 56.69 ± 9.37). Osteoporosis was found in 44 patients (44/217, 20.3%). The spine and hip BMD in cirrhotic patients were significantly lower than that in controls. When the cirrhotic and control subjects were stratified by age, gender, and BMI, the significant difference was also observed in women patients, patients older than 60, and patients with BMI

Overweight and obese males might exhibit a great risk of infertility. However, according to the current studies, the association between elevated male body mass index (BMI) and the clinical adverse results after assisted reproductive technology (ART) remains controversial. Hence, we conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the effects of raised male BMI on clinical outcomes following ART. PubMed, EMBASE and three Chinese databases were used to identify relevant studies. The primary outcome was clinical pregnancy rate. Secondary outcomes included live birth rate and sperm parameters. A total of 5262 male participants from 10 cohort studies were subjected to meta-analysis. Results indicated that overweight or obese had no significant impact on clinical pregnancy rate [in vitro fertilisation (IVF): odds ratio (OR), 0.73; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.39-1.39; intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI): OR, 1.03; 95% CI, 0.92-1.15], live birth rate (IVF: OR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.78-1.06; ICSI: OR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.50-1.99) and sperm concentration (SMD, -0.28; 95% CI, -0.65 to 0.08) compared with normal weight following IVF/ICSI treatments. Exclusion of any single study and almost all the sensitivity analyses showed that our results were reliable. At present, the role of male BMI in the process of ART is only partly understood and should be further investigated.

Purpose To evaluate the effect of thermal treatment on neural tissue in the triangular fibrocartilage complex (TFCC), scapholunate interosseous ligament (SLIL), and lunotriquetral interosseous ligament (LTIL). Methods The intact TFCC, SLIL, and LTIL were harvested from cadaveric specimens and treated with a radiofrequency probe as would be performed intraoperatively. Slides were stained using a triple-stain technique for neurotrophin receptor p75, pan-neuronal marker protein gene product 9.5 (PGP 9.5), and 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole for neural identification. Five TFCC, 5 SLIL, and 4 LTIL specimens were imaged with fluorescence microscopy. Imaging software was used to measure fluorescence signals and compare thermally treated areas with adjacent untreated areas. A paired t test was used to compare treated versus untreated areas. P Results For the TFCC, a mean of 94.9% ± 2.7% of PGP 9.5–positive neural tissue was ablated within a mean area of 11.7 ± 2.5 mm 2 ( P = .02). For the SLIL treated from the radiocarpal surface, 97.4% ± 1.0% was ablated to a mean depth of 2.4 ± 0.3 mm from the surface and a mean horizontal spread of 3.4 ± 0.5 mm ( P = .01). For the LTIL, 96.0% ± 1.5% was ablated to a mean depth of 1.7 ± 0.7 mm and a mean horizontal spread of 2.6 ± 1.0 mm ( P = .02). Differences in the presence of neural tissue between treated areas and adjacent untreated areas were statistically significant for all specimens. Conclusions Our study confirms elimination of neuronal markers after thermal treatment of the TFCC, SLIL, and LTIL in cadaveric specimens. This effect penetrates below the surface to innervated collagen tissue that is left structurally intact after treatment. Clinical Relevance Electrothermal treatment as commonly performed to treat symptomatic SLIL, LTIL, and TFCC tears eliminates neuronal tissue in treated areas and may function to relieve pain through a denervation effect.

Code clones are functionally equivalent code segments. De- tecting code clones is important for determining bugs, fixes and software reuse. Code clone detection is also essential for developing fast and precise code search algorithms. How- ever, the challenge of such research is to evaluate that the clones detected are indeed functionally equivalent, consider- ing the majority of clones are not textual or even syntacti- cally identical. The goal of this work is to generate a set of method level code clones with a high confidence to help to evaluate future code clone detection and code search tools to evaluate their techniques. We selected three open source programs, Apache, Python and PostgreSQL, and randomly sampled a total of 1536 function pairs. To confirm whether or not these function pairs indicate a clone and what types of clones they belong to, we recruited three experts who have experience in code clone research and four students who have experience in programming for manual inspection. For confi- dence of the data, the experts consulted multiple code clone detection tools to make the consensus. To assist manual inspection, we built a tool to automatically load function pairs of interest and record the manual inspection results. We found that none of the 66 pairs are textual identical type- 1 clones, and 9 pairs are type-4 clones. Our data is available at: http://phd.gccis.rit.edu/weile/data/cloneoracle/.

Software development is inherently incremental; however, it is challenging to correctly introduce changes on top of existing code. Recent studies show that 15%-24% of the bug fixes are incorrect, and the most important yet hard-to-acquire information for programming changes is whether this change breaks any code elsewhere. This paper presents a framework, called Hydrogen, for patch verification. Hydrogen aims to automatically determine whether a patch correctly fixes a bug, a new bug is introduced in the change, a bug can impact multiple software releases, and the patch is applicable for all the impacted releases. Hydrogen consists of a novel program representation, namely multiversion interprocedural control flow graph (MVICFG), that integrates and compares control flow of multiple versions of programs, and a demand-driven, path-sensitive symbolic analysis that traverses the MVICFG for detecting bugs related to software changes and versions. In this paper, we present the definition, construction and applications of MVICFGs. Our experimental results show that Hydrogen correctly builds desired MVICFGs and is scalable to real-life programs such as libpng, tightvnc and putty. We experimentally demonstrate that MVICFGs can enable efficient patch verification. Using the results generated by Hydrogen, we have found a few documentation errors related to patches for a set of open-source programs.

Bugs that cause reduced battery life in smartphones have been classified as energy bugs. The majority of previous research on energy bugs focused on the Android platform. The goal of this work is to identify the similarities and differences of energy bugs for the Android, iOS and Windows platforms, based on which, we can then determine whether the techniques of managing energy bugs developed for one platform can be potentially applicable in other platforms. Our results show that applications in Android and Windows share similar root causes for leading to battery drain, but energy bugs in iOS applications are produced differently. Our conclusions are drawn based on a comparison of power models for the three platforms and an analysis of the bugs from 6 applications common to Android, iOS and Windows.

In this paper, a new blind channel estimation method for Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems is presented. The proposed method is based on the Amplitude-Phase constraints (APC) of channel frequency response (CFR), and the finite alphabet property of information symbols. Unlike existing statistical blind channel estimators, the proposed method requires short data records especially for PSK modulation.

Objective: Accumulating studies show the role of microRNAs in multiple human cancers. However, little is known about the role of microRNAs in nasopharyngeal cancers (NPC). Given the role of microRNAs in survival and death pathways in cancers, we hypothesized that the microRNAs may regulate the effects of cancer therapeutic agents.Method: Tumor specific MicroRNA expressions were studied in vitro in primary human NC cells (CCL-30) treated with statins. The effects on cell survival, cell cycle, and apoptosis were examined.Results: Recently, we showed the promising antitumor effects of statins in NPC via HMG Co-A pathway. Our new study examines the novel role of microRNAs in mediating the effects of statin in the inhibition of survival in NPC. Statins induced apoptosis and decreased survival of NPC. The regulation of tumor suppressor Let-7a was enhanced in cells treated with statins associated with decrease in the cell viability and proliferation, and increase in apoptosis in these cells. Further, we found th...