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Esophageal cancer is a malignant tumor of the digestive system that is prone to metastasis. Chemokines and their receptors act an essential role in the occurrence and development of tumors. Here, we investigated the regulatory mechanism of CXCL12/CXCR7 in the growth and metastasis of esophageal cancer. CXCR7 was found highly expressed in clinical tissues and cells of esophageal cancer. Knockdown of CXCR7 inhibited the proliferation, migration, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process of esophageal cancer cells. The knockdown of chemokine CXCL12 also inhibited the expression of EMT-related proteins and the mesenchymal morphology changes of esophageal cancer cells, but the knockdown of C-X-C motif chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) had no such effect. Furthermore, the knockdown of CXCR7 attenuated the enhanced EMT process induced by CXCL12 overexpression, while the knockdown of CXCR4 cannot inhibit this process. In addition, overexpressed CXCL12/CXCR7 activated the downstream STAT3 pathway, but had little effect on the extracellular regulated protein kinase (ERK) or serine-threonine kinase (AKT) pathways. Inhibition of the STAT3 pathway using AZD9150 weakened the accelerated effects of CXCL12/CXCR7 on the growth and metastasis of esophageal cancer in vitro and in vivo. In conclusion, our research revealed that CXCL12/CXCR7 regulates EMT and other malignant processes by activating the STAT3 pathway to accelerate the growth and metastasis of esophageal cancer.

Supplementary Tables 1-3 from Serglycin Is a Theranostic Target in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma that Promotes Metastasis

Supplementary Figures 1-2 from Serglycin Is a Theranostic Target in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma that Promotes Metastasis

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is known for its high-metastatic potential. Here we report the identification of the proteoglycan serglycin as a functionally significant regulator of metastasis in this setting. Comparative genomic expression profiling of NPC cell line clones with high- and low-metastatic potential revealed the serglycin gene (SRGN) as one of the most upregulated genes in highly metastatic cells. RNAi-mediated inhibition of serglycin expression blocked serglycin secretion and the invasive motility of highly metastatic cells, reducing metastatic capacity in vivo. Conversely, serglycin overexpression in poorly metastatic cells increased their motile behavior and metastatic capacity in vivo. Growth rate was not influenced by serglycin in either highly or poorly metastatic cells. Secreted but not bacterial recombinant serglycin promoted motile behavior, suggesting a critical role for glycosylation in serglycin activity. Serglycin inhibition was associated with reduced expression of vimentin but not other epithelial–mesenchymal transition proteins. In clinical specimens, serglycin expression was elevated significantly in liver metastases from NPC relative to primary NPC tumors. We evaluated the prognostic value of serglycin by immunohistochemical staining of tissue microarrays from 263 NPC patients followed by multivariate analyses. High serglycin expression in primary NPC was found to be an unfavorable independent indicator of distant metastasis-free and disease-free survival. Our findings establish that glycosylated serglycin regulates NPC metastasis via autocrine and paracrine routes, and that it serves as an independent prognostic indicator of metastasis-free survival and disease-free survival in NPC patients. Cancer Res; 71(8); 3162–72. ©2011 AACR.

Supplementary Materials and Methods from Serglycin Is a Theranostic Target in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma that Promotes Metastasis

Being capable of sensing broadband infrared (IR) light is vitally important for wide-ranging applications from fundamental science to industrial purposes. Two-dimensional (2D) topological semimetals are being extensively explored for broadband IR detection due to their gapless electronic structure and the linear energy dispersion relation. However, the low charge separation efficiency, high noise level, and on-chip integration difficulty of these semimetals significantly hinder their further technological applications. Here, we demonstrate a facile thermal-assisted tellurization route for the van der Waals (vdW) growth of wafer-scale phase-controlled 2D MoTe

Background:Since initially detected in late December 2019, the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak rapidly swept the world, which has profoundly affected healthcare system and clinical practice in the management of gastrointestinal diseases.Objectives:We aimed to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the pattern of hospital admissions and healthcare services for acute pancreatitis (AP).Design:We conducted a retrospective observational cohort study using the anonymized electronic medical records.Methods:This single-center, retrospective observational study from a regional medical center in the northeast of China included all consecutively admitted patients with AP from 23 January to 10 June 2020 (during the COVID-19 outbreak in Harbin), compared with the equivalent period of the previous year, in terms of demographics, clinical characteristics, and in-hospital outcomes.Results:In this article, we observed a reduction in AP admissions after the beginning of COVID-19 outbreak. With the prolonged time from symptom onset to hospitalization [32.0 (22.0–72.0) versus 18.0 (12.0–24.0) h; p Conclusion:This study preliminarily demonstrated the descending trend and delay in hospital presentations for AP during the outbreak of COVID-19. Given that the pandemic may persist for several years, adjustments of medical services according to the varying degrees of local breakouts are imperative to provide appropriate care for AP patients and diminish the risk of viral transmission.Registration:ClincialTrials.gov number ChiCTR2100043350.

BACKGROUND: Esophageal adenocarcinoma with liver metastasis (EACLM) at the time of diagnosis has a poor prognosis and few therapeutic options. The best treatment options and prognostic factors for EACLM patients are unclear. The present study sought to explore the optimal treatment modalities for and the prognosis of these patients. METHODS: Patients diagnosed with EACLM at the time of diagnosis were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database between 2010 and 2015. The last follow-up date was December 31, 2018. Treatment patterns were divided into four groups: local therapy (surgery/radiation), systemic therapy [chemotherapy (CT)], combination therapy (surgery/radiation + CT), and no treatment. The Kaplan-Meier (K-M) method and log-rank test were used for overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS). Univariable and multivariable Cox regression were performed to identify the prognostic factors. Propensity score-matching (PSM) analyses were performed for sensitive analyses. RESULTS: A total of 925 patients diagnosed with EACLM were included in the study. The median OS was 12, 10, 3, and 2 months for combination therapy, systemic therapy, local therapy, and no treatment, respectively (P

Backfat thickness (BF) is an important indicator of fat deposition capacity and lean meat rate in pigs and is very important in porcine genetics and breeding. Intestinal microbiota plays a key role in nutrient digestion and utilization with a profound impact on fat deposition of livestock animals. To investigate the relationship between the pig gut microbiome and BF, 20 low-BF (L-BF) and 20 high-BF (H-BF) pigs were selected as two groups from Yunong Black pigs in the present study. Fecal samples from pigs were analyzed for microbial diversity, composition, and predicted functionality using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The results showed that there were significant differences in microbial β diversity between the two groups. LEfSe analysis revealed a number of bacterial features being differentially enriched in either L-BF or H-BF pigs. Spearman correlation analysis identified the abundance of Oscillospira, Peptococcus, and Bulleidia were significantly positive correlations with BF (P0.05), while Sutterella and Bifidobacterium were significantly negatively correlated with BF (P0.05). Importantly, the bacteria significantly positively correlated with BF mainly belong to Clostridium, which can ferment host-indigestible plant polysaccharides into short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) and promote fat synthesis and deposition. Predictive functional analysis indicated that the pathway abundance of cell motility and glycan biosynthesis were significantly widespread in the microbiota of the H-BF group. The results of this study will be useful for the development of microbial biomarkers for predicting and improving porcine BF, as well as for the investigation of targets for dietary strategies.

Body traits are important economic factors in the pig industry. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have been widely applied using high-density genotype data to detect QTL in pigs. The aim of the present study was to detect the genetic variants significantly associated with body traits in crossbred pigs using the Illumina Porcine SNP50 BeadChip and imputed whole-genome sequence data. A set of seven body traits - body length, body height, chest circumference, cannon bone circumference, leg buttock circumference, back fat thickness and loin muscle depth - were measured. Moderate to high heritabilities were obtained for most traits (from 0.14 to 0.46), and significant genetic and phenotypic correlations among them were observed. GWAS identified 714 significantly associated SNPs located at 39 regions on all autosomes for body traits, and a total of seven functionally related candidate genes: PIK3CD, HOXA, PCGF2, CHST11, COL2A1, BMI1 and OSR2. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that candidate genes were enriched in the estrogen signaling pathway, embryonic skeletal system morphogenesis and embryonic skeletal system development. These results aim to uncover the genetic mechanisms underlying body development and marker-assisted selection programs focusing on body traits in pigs.

Silicon (Si) based gallium nitride (GaN) possesses great development potential in fabricating integrated photodetectors. Nevertheless, the large lattice and thermal mismatch between Si and GaN usually brings about high-density dislocations and other line defects, which as a whole will seriously affect the responsiveness, working stability and service life of Si-based GaN (GaN/Si) devices. In this paper, we report that a GaN/Si ultraviolet photodetector (UV PD) with a metal-semiconductor-metal structure was prepared, using silicon nanoporous pillar array (Si-NPA) as nonplanar substrates. It will be shown that high-quality GaN/Si can be prepared and further improved by subsequent annealing treatment, by means of a three-dimensional stress release process brought about by using patterned Si substrates. Under a bias voltage of 1 V, the responsivity, specific detectivity, external quantum efficiency and rise/decay time of the detector were 71.4 mA·W−1, 7.1 × 108 Jones, 24.3% and 0.2/7.6 s, respectively. The results demonstrate that growing GaN on patterned Si substrates might be an effect route for constructing high-performance GaN/Si UV PDs.

Room-temperature infrared photodetectors are in great demand because of their vitally important applications in the military and civilian fields, which has inspired intensive studies in recent decades. Here, we present the fabrication of a large-size PdSe

The paclitaxel-loaded and folic acid-modified poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nano-micelles(PTX@FA-PLGA-NMs) were prepared by the emulsion solvent evaporation method, and the parameters of paclitaxel-loaded nano-micelles were optimized with the particle size and PDI as evaluation indexes. The morphology of the nano-micelles was observed by transmission electron microscopy(TEM), and the stability, drug loading and encapsulation efficiency were systematically investigated. In vitro experiments were performed to study the cytotoxic effects of nano-micelles, apoptosis, and cellular uptake. Under the optimal parameters, the nano-micelles showed the particle size of(125.3±1.2) nm, the PDI of 0.086±0.026, the zeta potential of(-20.0±3.8) mV, the drug loading of 7.2%±0.75%, and the encapsulation efficiency of 50.7%±1.0%. The nano-micelles were in regular spherical shape as observed by TEM. The blank FA-PLGA-NMs exhibited almost no inhibitory effect on the proliferation and growth of tumor cells, while the drug-loaded nano-micelles and free PTX exhibited significant inhibitory effects. The IC_(50) of PTX@FA-PLGA-NMs and PTX was 0.56 μg·mL~(-1) and 0.66 μg·mL~(-1), respectively. The paclitaxel-loaded nano-micelles were potent in inhibiting cell migration as assessed by the scratch assay. PTX@FA-PLGA-NMs had good pro-apoptotic effect on cervical cancer HeLa cells and significantly promoted the uptake of HeLa cells. The results of in vitro experiments suggested that PTX@FA-PLGA-NMs could target and treat cervical cancer HeLa cells. Therefore, as nanodrug carriers, PTX@FA-PLGA-NMs with anti-cancer activity are a promising nano-system for improving the-rapeutic effects on tumors.

Broadband photodetectors are of great importance for numerous optoelectronic applications. Two-dimensional (2D) tungsten disulfide (WS

Compared with a traditional heterojunction, a nonplanar-structure heterojunction can reduce the problems caused by a lattice mismatch through a three-dimensional stress release mechanism, which will be helpful for promoting the performance and stability of related devices. In this paper, we report our study on the electron transport behavior of a gallium nitride (GaN)/silicon (Si) heterojunction with nonplanar-structure interface, which was prepared through growing GaN on a hierarchical structure, Si nanoporous pillar array (Si-NPA). To clarify the electron transport mechanism and promote the device performance, annealing treatment in ammonia atmosphere was carried out to as-prepared GaN/Si-NPA. The formation of the heterojunction was verified by the typical rectification behavior observed in both as-prepared and annealed samples. After annealing treatment, a lower turn-on voltage, a smaller reverse saturation current density, a larger forward current density and a higher reverse breakdown voltage were obtained, which indicate the promotion of the heterojunction performance. By comparatively studying the spectrum evolution of photoluminescence before and after annealing treatment, the underlying mechanism is clarified as the variation of the type and density of point defects such as gallium vacancy (V Ga), oxygen substitutional impurity (ON), and their complex defect V Ga−ON in GaN. The results illustrate an effective defect-control strategy for optimizing the performance of GaN/Si heterojunction optoelectronic devices.

Intestinal microorganisms have been shown to be important factors that affect the growth performance of pigs. Therefore, to investigate the effect of the intestinal microflora structure on the growth performance of pigs, samples from Duroc (n = 10), Landrace (n = 9) and Yorkshire (n = 21) pigs under the same diet and feeding conditions were collected. The fecal microbial composition was profiled via 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing. And we also analyzed their growth performance. We found that Duroc and Landrace had significant differences in average daily gain (ADG), feed efficiency ratio (FER), growth index (GI), and 100 kg daily age (P ). Moreover, through the analysis of the intestinal flora, we also identified that there were 18 species of intestinal flora with significant differences between Duroc and Landrace (P ). In order to eliminate the influence of genetic background, the intestinal differential flora of 21 Yorkshire pigs with different growth performance was analyzed. The results showed that there were significant correlations between Barnesiella, Dorea, Clostridium and Lactobacillus and pig growth performance. To explore the effect of intestinal flora on the growth performance of pigs at the molecular level, Lactobacillus, which has the highest content in the intestine, was selected for isolation and purification, and co-cultured with intestinal epithelial cells. The qPCR was used to determine the effect of Lactobacillus on MC4R gene expression in intestinal epithelial cells. The results showed that Lactobacillus inhibited MC4R gene expression in intestinal epithelial cells. The results provided useful reference for the further study on the relationship between intestinal flora and pig growth performance.

Pharmacological relevance Paclitaxel (PTX) is currently the only botanical drug that can control the growth of cancer cells. Paclitaxel is widely used in the treatment of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, uterine cancer, non-small cell lung cancer and other cancers. Aim Folate receptor and integrin α v β 3 are highly expressed on the surface of human breast cancer cells MCF-7. Folic acid and arginine-glycine-aspartate (Arg-Gly-Asp, RGD) tripeptide sequence have a high affinity for folate receptor and integrin α v β 3, respectively. To enhance the effect on breast cancer, we constructed the folate acid and RGD peptide dual-targeted (MSNs-NH2-FA-RGD) drug-carrier based on mesoporous silica nanoparticles. Methods The structure of mesoporous nanocarriers was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, nitrogen adsorption-desorption analysis, transmission electron microscopy, laser particle size analyzer, and thermogravimetric analysis. Paclitaxel was chosen as the model drug. The targeting-ability was verified by observing the uptake of mesoporous carriers loaded with rhodamine in MCF-7, MCF-10A, and HeLa cells using a fluorescence microscope. The cytotoxicity of the blank carrier MSNs-NH2-FA-RGD and the efficacy of the drug carrier PTX@MSNs-NH2-FA-RGD were assessed by cell experiments. Results The characterization showed successful construction of a dual-targeted mesoporous silica nanocarrier. Obvious differences were detected in the fluorescence intensity of the three cell lines. The results of the pharmacological tests indicated that the blank nanoparticles do not cause any apparent toxicity on these cells. The IC50 of free PTX and PTX@MSNs-NH2-FA-RGD on MCF-7 cells line treated for 48 h were 35.25±2.57 ng·ml-1 and 22.21±3.4 ng·ml-1 respectively, which indicated that the inhibitory efficacy of PTX@MSNs-NH2-FA-RGD on MCF-7 was 1.6 times than that of free PTX. Conclusions The dual-targeted nanocarrier MSNs-NH2-FA-RGD could target breast cancer cells, and sever as a potential candidate in future of drug development.

Polarization-sensitive photodetection in a broad spectrum range is highly desired due to the great significance in military and civilian applications. Palladium diselenide (PdSe

Objective: To observe the effect of bifidobacteria combined with sulfasalazine on serum inflammatory factors and immune functions in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC). Methods: A total of 126 UC patients were selected and randomly divided into observation group (66 cases) and control group (60 cases). The control group was given sulfasalazine, and the observation group was given bifidobacteria based on the control group. After treatment for 2 months, the differences of serum inflammatory factors (TNF-α, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10) and immune function (T lymphocyte subsets CD3, CD4, CD8, CD4/CD8 and immunoglobulins IgG, IgA, IgM) between the two groups were observed. Results: After treatment, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-8 in the two groups significantly decreased but IL-10 significantly increased (P

T-Gate fabrication processes for InP-based High electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) are described using PMMA/Al/UVIII. The single-step and two-step Electron beam lithography (EBL) methods are proposed contrastively without dielectric support layer. The opti- mal gate-foot length is 196nm for 50nm geometry path by single-step EBL technique. Since the gate-foot and gate-head are defined independently, the two-step EBL process minimizes forward scattering and enables smaller gate-foot length, which improves to be 141nm for 50nm geometry path and also 88nm for 30nm geometry path. Both EBL methods have been incorporated into InP- based HEMTs fabrication. With the gate-foot length de- creases from 196nm to 141nm, the current-gain cutoff fre- quency (fT) is improved from 125GHz to 164GHz, and also the maximum oscillation frequency (fmax )i ncreases from 305GHz to 375GHz.

Introduction: The mortality of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and its associated risk factors among clinically definite PD patients in China has been rarely investigated. Our study aimed to identify the mortality rates and predictors of death in PD patients in China. Methods: 157 consecutive, clinically definite PD patients from the urban area of Shanghai were recruited from a central hospital based movement disorder clinic in 2006. All patients were regularly followed up at the clinic until December 31, 2011, or death. Mortality and associations with baseline demographics, health and medical factors were then determined within the cohort. Results: After 5 years, 11(7%) patients had died. The standardised mortality ratio was 0.62 (95% CI 0.32 to 1.07, P=0.104). The main causes of death were pneumonia (54.5%, 6/11) and digestive disorders (18.2%, 2/11), respectively. Age at onset, independent living, the mini mental state examination score, the Parkinson’s disease sleep scale score and the Epworth sleepiness scale score at baseline were statistically significantly different between the survival group and the deceased group (PConclusions: This study confirms the similar survival of patients with PD to the control population up to a follow-up of 5 years. Interventions tailored to potential risk factors associated with death may offer further benefits.

In this research, the DC and RF characteristics for our own InAlAs/InGaAs InP-based high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) with 0-nm, 50-nm, and 200-nm silicon-nitride (Si3N4) passivation films have been investigated comprehensively and systematically. With increasing Si3N4 passivation film thickness, the device exhibits an apparent improvement in the output conductance and a distinct drift of the pinch-off voltage toward a positive value. Especially, the device passivated by using a 50-nm Si3N4 film demonstrates the highest extrinsic transconductance and channel current. The appeared changes of the DC properties can be interpreted as due to the passivationinduced positively-charged surface state increasing the sheet carrier density with the carrier mobility and parasitic resistance of device being deteriorated by long-time high-stress-intensity ion bombardment. Additionally, the degradations of the current-gain cutoff frequency (f T) and maximum oscillation frequency (f max) can be attributed to the drastically-increased parasitic capacitance and resistance induced by the passivation process. This work will be of great importance in fabricating InP HEMTs with high performances.

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is an important product of oxidase-based enzymatic reactions, such as glucose/glucose oxidase (GOD) reaction. Therefore, the probing of generated H2O2 for achieving the detection of various carbohydrates and their oxidases is very significative. Herein, we report one kind of dual-emission carbon nanodots (CDs) that can serve as novel dual-mode nanosensors with both fluorometric and colorimetric output for the selective detection of H2O2. The dual-model nanosensors are established only by the undecorated dual-emission CDs, where significant fluorometric and colorimetric changes are observed with the addition of different concentrations of H2O2 in the CD solution, which benefit to the achievement of the naked-eye detection for H2O2. The mechanism of the nanosensors can be attributed to the fact that the external chemical stimuli like hydroxyl radicals from H2O2 bring about the change of surface properties and the aggregation of CDs, which dominate the emission and absorption of CDs. The constructed dual-mode nanosensors exhibit good biocompatibility and high selectivity toward H2O2 with a linear detection range spanning from 0.05 to 0.5 M and allow the detection of H2O2 as low as 14 mM. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s11671-017-2214-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

This study aims to explore the prevalence and determinations of physical inactivity among hospital employees in Shanghai, China. A cross-sectional study of 4612 employees aged 19 to 68 years was conducted through stratified cluster sampling from different classes of Shanghai hospitals in 2011. The total physical activity was evaluated using the metabolic equivalent according to the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire. Among the participants, 38.5%, 32.3%, and 64.6% of the employees are inactive at work, commuting, and taking leisure time, respectively. Up to 41.8% of the men and 37.8% of the women (P = 0.012) are physically inactive. When the age and educational level are adjusted, male doctors and medical technicians show a higher percentage of physical inactivity than male workers in logistics (P = 0.001). Among females, employees who are working in second- and third-class hospitals show a higher proportion of physical inactivity than those who are working in community health care centers. Logistic regression analyses show that the odds ratios (ORs) of leisure-time physical inactivity associated with the intensity of physical activity at work are 2.259, 2.897, and 4.266 for men (P < 0.001) and 2.456, 3.259, and 3.587 for women (P < 0.001), respectively. The time during commuting activities is significantly associated with leisure-time physical inactivity in either sex (OR = 2.116 for men and 2.173 for women, P < 0.001). Hospital employees, particularly doctors and medical technicians, show a higher proportion of physical inactivity than other inhabitants in Shanghai. The time and intensity of activity at work and commuting are associated with leisure-time activities.

In this paper, the data mining technology and the mining process was explained; and several common methods of data mining were described. Based on the characteristics of the target value, application of text classification and textual association in the target value mining were discussed, and the process model of data mining concerning target value was also expressed.