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A new and highly efficient enzymatic aminolysis approach for kinetic resolution of aromatic a-hydroxy acid in non-aqueous media has been developed. The corresponding alpha-hydroxyl acid ester was e ...

Materials and Methods. Table S1. Relationship between EZH2 expression and clinicopathologic parameters of gastric cancer patients. Table S2. Univariate and multivariate analysis of clinicopathological factors for disease-free survival in gastric cancer (qRT-PCR cohort). Table S3. Univariate and multivariate analysis of clinicopathological factors for overall survival in gastric cancer (qRT-PCR cohort). Table S4. Univariate and multivariate analysis of clinicopathological factors for overall survival in gastric cancer (IHC cohort). Table S5. Correlation analysis of expression of stem cell related factors with EZH2. Table S6. Primers and siRNA sequences used in this study. (DOCX 67Â kb)

The monocytic MDSC (M‐MDSC) is one of the major types of MDSCs, which play important roles in suppression of antitumor immunity. However, the mechanisms underlying how M‐MDSCs so heavily accumulate in patients with cancer are still poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to identify miRNAs that regulate the proliferation and differentiation of M‐MDSCs. Microarray analysis was performed to identify differentially expressed miRNAs between tumor‐induced M‐MDSCs (TM‐MDSCs) and their counterparts from tumor‐free mice. The miRNAs and their target genes that regulate the proliferation and differentiation of myeloid cells were predicted by bioinformatics analysis and validated by RT‐qPCR. Luciferase reporter assays were used to analyze the relationships between miRNAs and target genes. Overexpression of candidate miRNAs and target genes in myeloid cells was conducted to verify their functions in cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. Our data showed that miR‐486 was overexpressed in TM‐MDSCs. Cebpa was predicted to be one of the target genes of miR‐486 that regulates the proliferation of myeloid cells. Expression of Cebpa was inversely correlated with miR‐486 in TM‐MDSCs, and we found that overexpression of miR‐486 suppressed the expression of Cebpa in both 293T cells determined by luciferase reporter assays and in myeloid cells determined by RT‐qPCR. Overexpression of miR‐486 promoted proliferation and suppressed apoptosis in myeloid cells, as opposed to overexpression of Cebpa, which promoted the opposing phenotype. Overexpression of either miR‐486 or Cebpa inhibited differentiation of myeloid cells. This study indicates that miR‐486 promotes proliferation and suppresses apoptosis in myeloid cells by targeting Cebpa in vitro, suggesting that miR‐486 and Cebpa might be involved in the expansion of TM‐MDSCs in tumor‐bearing mice.

Heavy metal pollution of agricultural soils is an important issue around the world. To understand the overall pollution process, accurate determination of every input and output pathway of heavy metals to and from soils is essential. Hence, input and output inventory, a quantitative analysis method of heavy metals balance in agricultural soils, has been widely used. However, due to differences in geography, climate, socioeconomic factors, industrial and agricultural production, substantial variation exists among existing input and output inventories for different countries and regions. In this study, we systematically analyzed these differences and the findings will improve the compilation of inventories worldwide.

Purpose: We explored the influence of age on clinicopathologic features and survival of patients with M0 gastric cancer (GC). Methods: 16856 GC patients from Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database and 1037 GC patients from Chinese multiple centers were enrolled in the U.S. and Chinese cohort, respectively. 50-year-old was treated as cutoff age. Propensity score method was used to carry out a 1:1 paired match. Results: In the U.S. cohort, we found that younger patients presented poor tumor behavior. However, in spite of worse outcome in stage I~IV cohort, young group showed better 3-year survival in M0 patients, especially for those who underwent a total gastrectomy. In a matched analysis, a better prognosis was still observed in younger group. The prognostic value of age was also validated in M0 GC patients with gastrectomy in Chinese cohort. Conclusions: In spite of the worse outcome in survival curve of stage I~IV GC cohort, young patients with gastrectomy presented favorable survival in M0 subgroup. It is also applicable in China. Early diagnosis and treatment should be taken seriously in young GC patients since they often possess poorer characteristics but benefited more from gastrectomy.

Law-making is inextricably bound up with the developments of e-government. Yet translating legislation into administrative processes and services has been extremely complex, taking a long time and involving many manual tasks. This problem is further complicated by the increasing amount of legislation and the frequent changes of legislation. Recent technology innovations enable a shift from implementation and maintenance of e-government services by software configuration and engineering towards implementation and maintenance based on knowledge representation. Despite the many benefits such as faster, cheaper and easier implementation, adoption has been limited. In this paper we describe these developments and compare software-based with knowledge-based implementation and maintenance. Based on a case study, we identify success factors and challenges from moving towards knowledge-based implementation and maintenance in the aspects of motivation, architecture, technique, expertise and finance.

This study aimed to investigate the optimal degree of weight gain across the gestational spectrum in 1971 children enrolled at birth and followed up to age 7 years. Weight gain in infancy was categorized into four groups based on weight gain z-scores: slow (1.28). Underweight and overweight or obesity (OWO) were defined as a body mass index ≤5th and ≥85th percentile, respectively, for age and gender. In our population, OWO was far more common than underweight (39.7% vs. 3.6%). Weight gain tracked strongly from age 4 to 24 months, and was positively associated with OWO and an unfavorable pattern of metabolic biomarkers, although the degree of weight gain for the risk was different across gestational categories. Extremely rapid weight gain led to a particularly high risk of OWO among children born early term and late preterm: odds ratio: 3.3 (95% confidence interval: 1.9 to 5.5) and 3.7 (1.8 to 7.5), respectively, as compared to those with on track weight gain. Our findings suggest that monitoring and ensuring optimal weight gain across the entire gestational spectrum beginning from birth represents a first step towards primary prevention of childhood obesity.

There is an emerging hypothesis that exposure to cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), and selenium (Se) in utero and early childhood could have long-term health consequences. However, there are sparse data on early life exposures to these elements in US populations, particularly in urban minority samples. This study measured levels of Cd, Hg, Pb, and Se in 50 paired maternal, umbilical cord, and postnatal blood samples from the Boston Birth Cohort (BBC). Maternal exposure to Cd, Hg, Pb, and Se was 100% detectable in red blood cells (RBCs), and there was a high degree of maternal-fetal transfer of Hg, Pb, and Se. In particular, we found that Hg levels in cord RBCs were 1.5 times higher than those found in the mothers. This study also investigated changes in concentrations of Cd, Hg, Pb, and Se during the first few years of life. We found decreased levels of Hg and Se but elevated Pb levels in early childhood. Finally, this study investigated the association between metal burden and preterm birth and low birthweight. We found significantly higher levels of Hg in maternal and cord plasma and RBCs in preterm or low birthweight births, compared with term or normal birthweight births. In conclusion, this study showed that maternal exposure to these elements was widespread in the BBC, and maternal-fetal transfer was a major source of early life exposure to Hg, Pb, and Se. Our results also suggest that RBCs are better than plasma at reflecting the trans-placental transfer of Hg, Pb, and Se from the mother to the fetus. Our study findings remain to be confirmed in larger studies, and the implications for early screening and interventions of preconception and pregnant mothers and newborns warrant further investigation.

For decades, information systems have been designed for controlling and managing business processes. In the past, these systems were often monolithic in nature and not made for interacting and communicating with other systems. Today, departments and organizations must collaborate, which requires distributed Web-based systems to support the enactment of flexible business processes. In this paper, four architectures of process management systems are investigated by studying the components and the relationships with the tasks that make up the business processes. These different architectures support automation of non-repetitive, customized processes, and are compared based on dimensions of flexibility. This evaluation showed that the process orchestration architecture scored best, but still has its shortcomings. The results from the comparison are used for developing a research agenda that includes the suggestion to develop reference architecture for connecting individual architectural components.

Software agents and rules are both used for creating flexibility. Exchanging rules between Semantic Web and agents can ensure consistency in rules and support easy updating and changing of rules. The Rule Interchange Format (RIF) is a new W3C recommendation Semantic Web standard for exchanging rules among disparate systems. Yet, the contribution of RIF in rules exchange between Semantic Web and software agents is unclear. The BDI architectural style is regarded as the predominant approach for the implementation of intelligent agents. This paper proposes a development for integrating RIF and BDI agents to enhance agent reasoning capabilities. This approach consists of an integration architecture and equivalence principles for rule translation. The equivalence principles are demonstrated using examples. The results show that the approach allows the integration of RIF with BDI agent programming and realize the translation between the two systems.