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Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Recurrence and metastasis after curative resection remain critical obstacles in HCC treatment. CD146 predicted poor prognosis of a variety of cancers including melanoma, breast tumors, prostate cancer, and gastric cancer. However, the role of CD146 in HCC has not yet been systematically explored. Methods: To investigate the role of CD146 in HCC, we evaluated its expression in HCC tissues and HCC cell lines using real-time PCR and western blotting (WB). Second, we established HCC cell lines that stably overexpressed and interfered CD146 and explored the function of CD146 in HCC in vitro and in vivo. Third, we conducted microarray analysis to investigate the potential mechanism by identifying differentially expressed genes. Last, follow ups were conducted to help uncover the connection of CD146 expression and the prognosis of HCC patients. Results: We found that CD146 was overexpressed in HCC tissues and that high CD146 expression predicted poor overall survival time and shorter recurrence period in HCC patients. In vitro and in vivo experiments indicated that CD146 promoted migration and invasion of HCC cell lines. Further study indicated that CD146 promoted epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT), IL-8 upregulation, and STAT1 downregulation. CD146 was upregulated in HCC tissues and cell lines. Conclusions: CD146 promoted metastasis of HCC cells and predicted poor prognosis of HCC patients. CD146 induced EMT, and IL-8 upregulation and STAT1 downregulation may be the potential underlying mechanism. The exact mechanism still needs further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the first time, a tetrahedral water tetramer was observed in a zeolite-like metal−organic framework constructed from {(H3NH2[D'6O{(OCH2)3CCH3}4Cl6]·6 2O}, in which the host plays an important role in stabilization of this unstable species predicted by theoretical calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, in order to find novel biologically active pyrazole oxime derivatives, twenty-eight new pyrazole oxime compounds containing a substituted isoxazole ring were synthesized and evaluated for their acaricidaland insecticidal activities. Bioassays exhibited that some target compounds indicated good acaricidal and insecticidal activities against Tetranychus cinnabarinus, Aphis medicaginis, Mythimna separata, and Nilaparvata lugens. Especially, compounds 9c, 9h, 9u, and 9v showed 100.00%, 90.56%, 90.78%, and 90.62% insecticidal activities against A. medicaginis at the concentration of 20 μg/mL, respectively, compounds 9k and 9u had 70.86% and 100.00% insecticidal activities against M. separata at 20 μg/mL, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novel yolk-shell ZnWO4 microspheres have been fabricated via a one-pot hydrothermal process in the presence of L-aspartic acid (L-Asp). The as-obtained products were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, nitrogen adsorption-desorption experimentation and UV-vis absorption spectroscopy. The effects of the reaction conditions on the morphology and crystallinity of the products were studied, as well as the amount of L-Asp, reaction time and reaction temperature. As the chelating agent and shape modifier, L-Asp plays a key role in the crystal growth of the yolk-shell ZnWO4 microspheres. A possible formation mechanism for the yolk-shell microspheres is proposed. The photocatalytic properties of the yolk-shell ZnWO4 microspheres were investigated by the decomposition of Rhodamine B (RhB) and methylene blue (MB) under UV light irradiation and the results show that they have excellent photocatalytic activities. Furthermore, the obtained yolk-shell ZnWO4 microspheres are chemically stable and the efficiency remained almost the same after being recycled five times, suggesting that the yolk-shell ZnWO4 microspheres are promising photocatalysts for practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hierarchical YVO4 microspheres have been prepared via L-aspartic acid (L-Asp) assisted hydrothermal route. X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to characterize the crystalline phase and morphologies of the products. The SEM results from different reaction stages indicate that YVO4 microspheres are self-assembled by numerous nanowires with diameter of 30-50 nm. It is found that the amount of L-Asp and reaction time play crucial roles in the formation of hierarchical nanowires-assembled YVO4 microspheres. The photocatalytic properties of YVO4 were investigated by the decomposition of Rhodamine B (RhB) under UV light irradiation and exhibit good photocatalytic activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underground displacement monitoring is an effective method to explore deep into rock and soil masses for execution of subsurface displacement measurements. It is not only an important means of geological hazards prediction and forecasting, but also a forefront, hot and sophisticated subject in current geological disaster monitoring. In previous research, the authors had designed a novel electromagnetic underground horizontal displacement sensor (called the H-type sensor) by combining basic electromagnetic induction principles with modern sensing techniques and established a mutual voltage measurement theoretical model called the Equation-based Equivalent Loop Approach (EELA). Based on that work, this paper presents an underground displacement inversion approach named "EELA forward modeling-approximate inversion method". Combining the EELA forward simulation approach with the approximate optimization inversion theory, it can deduce the underground horizontal displacement through parameter inversion of the H-type sensor. Comprehensive and comparative studies have been conducted between the experimentally measured and theoretically inversed values of horizontal displacement under counterpart conditions. The results show when the measured horizontal displacements are in the 0-100 mm range, the horizontal displacement inversion discrepancy is generally tested to be less than 3 mm under varied tilt angles and initial axial distances conditions, which indicates that our proposed parameter inversion method can predict underground horizontal displacement measurements effectively and robustly for the H-type sensor and the technique is applicable for practical geo-engineering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are rare reports of high-nuclear transition metal clusters with thiol groups in their periphery. In this work, a novel cluster, [Fe6O2(OH)2(O2CC6H4SCH3)10(hep)2]·CH3CN.CH2Cl2 (Fe6) has been constructed by coordinating an octahedral Fe(III) ion with 4-mercaptobenzoate and hepH (hepH = 2-(2-hydroxyethyl) pyridine). The functionalized thiomethyl groups around the periphery of the Fe6 cluster may provide binding sites for the surfaces of some specific materials, such as noble metals. Therefore, silver nanoparticle coated Fe6 (Ag@Fe6) complexes have been prepared by spontaneous self-assembly reactions. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) images show that the Fe6 cluster layer is formed on the surface of the silver nanoparticles and the diameter of the Fe6 cluster is about 2 nm. In addition, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-vis spectroscopy, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), and cyclic voltammetry of the Fe6 and Ag@Fe6 complexes were also investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]