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The dropper is one of the core components of the high speed railway catenary and dropper failure will lead to serious transportation accidents. It is very important to carry out dropper failure and defect detection. There are a large number of droppers installed in the catenary. The dropper images are collected by the high-definition camera installed on the top of the moving catenary inspection vehicles. The image quality and image consistency are poor, and it is very difficult to identify dropper defects automatically. The railway department and companies lack efficient and intelligent detection methods. This article innovatively proposes a multialgorithm fusion image processing technology, and builds a dropper recognition and failure–defect detection model based on a deep learning algorithm and subpixel level dropper defect detection model, and achieves high accuracy dropper failure and defect detection. The detection model based on the Faster R-CNN algorithm is studied to realize the positioning and recognition of the dropper and the failure detection of bending slack and broken dropper. The subpixel level dropper defect detection algorithm is based on the fusion of the image preprocessing, dropper fine positioning algorithm, edge fitting and bending zoom algorithms, the Hough transform algorithm, and so on. These can be used to realize detection of defects, such as microdeformation, dropper-strands loosened, dropper-strands broken, and foreign body adhesions. The test is verified by the catenary images taken from a practical high speed railway. The detection accuracy, real-time performance, and stability of the algorithm meet the needs of inspection and maintenance for a high speed railway.

Objective To investigate the application and safety of mobile extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in inter-hospital transport of pediatric patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (pARDS). Methods Data were retrospectively collected of children with pARDS transported by mobile ECMO from Jan. 1, 2019 to Nov. 25, 2019. All children suffered from severe ARDS, and the curative effect in their local hospital was not good, the disease was still progressing after traditional conservative treatments such as mechanical ventilation (MV), small tidal volume protective ventilation, prone position ventilation, and fluid restriction, and the severity of the disease reached the applicable ECMO indications. The age, sex, clinical manifestations, ECMO transfer time, ECMO transfer distance, ECMO duration, MV duration, length of hospital stay, prognosis and complications were collected and analyzed. Results Seven pediatric patients were included in present study including 6 males and 1 female, aged (43.3±42.9) months, body weight (18.4±17.7) kg, ECMO travel distance (9.4±8.9) km, and ECMO travel time (5.7±17.2) min. After arriving in the Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, 6 pediatric patients (4 were cured and 2 died) were discharged and 1 pediatric patient was still being treated. The MV duration was (17±11) d, ECMO duration was (307.4±233.6) h, and the length of hospital stay was (23±15) d. Of the 7 pediatric patients, 4 were caused by adenovirus infection, and the other 3 cases were infected by unclear pathogenic bacteria. The cause for death was severe sepsis shock combined with severe heart dysfunction and severe pulmonary hemorrhage. Conclusions With a skilled ECMO teams, mobile ECMO may provide a safe and effective inter-hospital transport of pARDS patients. Mobile ECMO provides a good way to treat children patients with respiratory critical condition. DOI: 10.11855/j.issn.0577-7402.2020.04.15

Insulators are the key components of high speed railway catenaries. Insulator failures can cause outages and affect the safe operation of high speed railways. It is important to perform insulator defect detection. Due to the collection of insulator images by moving catenary inspection vehicles, the consistency of the images is poor, and the number of insulator defect samples is very small. An algorithm of deep learning and conventional template matching cannot meet the requirements of insulator defect detection. This paper proposes a fusion algorithm based on the shed contour features and gray similarity matching. High accuracy and consistency of contour extraction and precise separation of each insulator shed were realized. An insulator defect detection model based on the spacing distance of the sheds and the gray similarity was constructed. Experiments show that the method based on the contour features and gray similarity matching can effectively classify normal insulators and defective insulators. Recall of 99.50% and high precision of 91.71% were achieved in the test of the image data set, and this can meet the requirements for the reliability and high precision of a detection algorithm for catenary insulators.

Fragaria nilgerrensis Schlecht. (wild strawberry) is widely distributed in Southwest China, characterized by stress tolerance and the fruits of a notable peach aroma. So far there is only limited knowledge of variability and genetic structure in this species. Using AFLP markers, we investigated the genetic variability of 37 plants of F. nilgerrensis sampled in six main mountain areas of Sichuan Province and analyzed their genetic structure. Genetic similarity according to Nei and Li was used for cluster analysis based on UPGMA method and Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering. Stratification of plants into more distinctive genetic groups was determined using Bayesian structure analysis. Six primer combinations produced a total of 1302 fragments of which 818 (62.8%) were polymorphic. Bayesian analysis showed the 37 plants of F. nilgerrensis grouped into five distinctive genetic groups. Most of the plants from the same mountain area clustered into the same genetic group, indicating each area as an area with the unique genetic profile. The genetic parameters analyzed here indicate a huge genetic variability of F. nilgerrensis in Sichuan Province. Our results provide reference data for surveying and protecting the germplasm resources of F. nilgerrensis that could be used in strawberry breeding programs.

Pipes with insulation are widely used in the industrial field. The traditional nondestructive testing technology for on-line pipes with insulation often requires the removal of a large number of insulation layers and the forcing of the owner to stop for testing. The traditional testing mode not only has low detection efficiency, but also forces the owner to spend a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources. In recent years, a series of new nondestructive testing (NDT) technologies have different advantages for in-service pipeline testing with coated layers. However, Digital radiographic (DR) testing can satisfy the integrity inspection of on-line pipeline with insulation well. In this paper, the basic principle of DR testing and the configuration of instrument parameters are introduced. Based on the analysis and discussion of the actual testing cases, it is proved that digital ray testing can effectively solve the quality testing of on-line insulation pipeline, and it is a new nondestructive testing technology worthy of further study and popularization.

Gas steam boilers are special equipment subjected to high temperature and pressure, it is particularly important to detect and deal with operation faults in time. Against the 4 types of common fault of gas steam boilers, the fault diagnosis model was established based on deep neural networks (DNN), and the model parameters were optimized and verified by experiments. The results show that the fault diagnosis model performs the best as Tanh of the activation function, 100 of Batch_Size, Adam of Optimizer, 10-5 of learning rate and 0.2 of Dropout since the output accuracy is above 92% and the model begins to converge with iterative times of 12. The accuracy of fault identification of reaches 100% in verification experiments and the model can still effectively recognize the dataset from the early stage which suggests that the fault diagnosis based on deep neural networks has high accuracy and provides a reliable solution for the safety supervision of special equipments.

Screening and preliminary identification of high DNMT1 expression-related lncRNA, which is involved in various interrelated signaling pathways, has led to the development of a theoretical basis for various types of disease mechanisms. Differential expression profiles of lncRNA and mRNA were identified in a microarray. Ten lncRNAs with high levels of variation were identified by qRT-PCR. KEGG and GO analyses were used to identify differentially expressed mRNAs. Six signaling pathways were selected based on the KEGG results of the lncRNA-mRNA expression network analysis. From the microarrays in the experimental and control groups, we found a total of 6987 differentially expressed lncRNAs, and 7421 differentially expressed mRNAs were obtained ( P < 0.05 ; fold change > 2.0 x ). GO analysis and KEGG pathway analysis showed high expression of DNMT1 in esophageal epithelial cells. Nine pathways were involved in mRNA upregulation, including natural killer cell-mediated cytotoxicity and many other prominent biochemical pathways. Forty-six pathways were associated with downregulated mRNAs and ribosomes involving multiple biological pathways. Coexpression network analysis showed that 8 mRNAs and 16 lncRNAs were linked to the p53 signaling pathway. In Helicobacter pylori infections, interactions occurred between 22 lncRNAs and 11 mRNAs in the ErbB signaling pathway and between 19 lncRNAs and 8 mRNAs in epithelial cell signal transduction. Interactions were present between 19 lncRNAs and 5 mRNAs in the sphingolipid signaling pathway, along with interactions between 21 lncRNAs and 12 mRNAs in the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. Cytotoxicity interactions occurred between 22 lncRNAs and 9 mRNAs in natural killer cells.

Background:Screening and preliminary identification of DNMT1 high expression related LncRNA, which is involved in various inter-related signaling pathways, has revealed a theoretical basis for various types of disease mechanisms. Methods:LncRNA and mRNA differential expression profiles were identified on a microarray. The 10 LncRNAs with high levels of variation were identified by qRT-PCR. KEGG and GO analyses were used to dissect out differentially expressed mRNAs. Results and Conclusions:Six signal pathways were selected based on the KEGG results of the LncRNA-mRNAs expression network analysis.We found a total of 6987 differentially expressed LncRNAs and 7421 differentially expressed mRNAs were obtained from the microarrays in experimental and control groups (P2.0x). GO analysis KEGG pathway analysis showed high expression of DNMT1 in esophageal epithelial cells. Nine pathways involved mRNA up-regulation including natural killer cell mediated cytotoxicity and many other prominent biochemical pathways. Forty six pathways were associated with down regulated mRNAs and ribosomes involving multiple biological pathways. Co-expression network analysis showed that the 8 mRNA and 16 LncRNA were linked to the P53 signaling pathway. Interactions occurred between 22 LncRNA and 11 mRNA in the ErbB signaling pathway, between 19 LncRNA and 8 mRNA in epithelial cell signal transduction of Helicobacter pylori infection. Interactions were present in 19 LncRNAs and 5 mRNAs in the sphingolipid signaling pathway along with 21 with LncRNA and 12 with mRNAs in the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. Cytotoxicity interactions occurred with 22 LncRNAs and 9 mRNAs in natural killer cells.

The paper shows the determination of the transmission of one dimensional metal-dielectric photonic band gap materials (1D-MD PBG) theoretically and experimentally. It has been found that the location and bandwidth of transmission can be tailored by initiatively adopting a suitable structure. We proposed a special 1D-MD PBG obtained by magnetron sputtering, in which each layer of metal film is not continuous. These structures have a number of advantages such as high transmittance (55% or better), broad bandwidth (the full width at half of maximum ranges from 400 nm to 780 nm) and high electrical conductivity (the sheet resistance can be lower than 0.98 Ω /square). Meanwhile, it has been also theoretically and experimental indicated that both the light transmittance and electrical conductivity could be improved effectively by using the (pqp)N structure.

An optical refractive index (RI) sensor, possessing excellent sensing characteristics in sensitivity, resolution and SNR, is proposed by using a composite subwavelength grating (CSG). The CSG has a sandwich structure: the interlayer is a low-RI grating layer (LRGL), and the two sides are arranged with a high-RI grating layer. The light-coupling condition of the CSG is sensitive to RI changes of the liquid sample. The calculated results indicate that the sensitivity mainly depends on the CSG period, and the resolution and SNR can be improved by regulating the thickness and position of the LRGL. By optimizing these parameters, finally, an averaged sensitivity of ∼273°/RIU and resolution ranging from 0.1° to 0.15° are given by this CSG, and there is a minimal reflectance of ∼1% adjacent to the resonant peak.

EPB41L3 may play a role as a metastasis suppressor by supporting regular arrangements of actin stress fibres and alleviating the increase in cell motility associated with enhanced metastatic potential. Downregulation of epb41l3 has been observed in many cancers, but the role of this gene in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains unclear. Our study aimed to determine the effect of epb41l3 on ESCC cell migration and invasion. We investigated epb41l3 protein expression in tumour and non-tumour tissues by immunohistochemical staining. Expression in the non-neoplastic human esophageal cell line Het-1a and four ESCC cell lines - Kyse150, Kyse510, Kyse450 and Caes17 - was assessed by quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) and Western blotting. Furthermore, an EPB41L3 overexpression plasmid and EPB41L3-specific small interfering RNA were used to upregulate EPB41L3 expression in Kyse150 cells and to downregulate EPB41L3 expression in Kyse450 cells, respectively. Cell migration and invasion were evaluated by wound healing and transwell assays, respectively. The expression levels of p-AKT, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)2 and MMP9 were evaluated. Expression of epb41l3 was significantly lower in tumour tissues than in non-tumour tissues and in ESCC cell lines compared with the Het-1a cell line. Kyse450 and Caes17 cells exhibited higher expression of epb41l3 than Kyse150 and Kyse510 cells. Overexpressing epb41l3 decreased Kyse150 cell migration and invasion, whereas EPB41L3-specific small interfering RNA silencing increased these functions in Kyse450 cells. Furthermore, overexpressing epb41l3 led to downregulation of MMP2 and MMP9 in Kyse150 and Kyse510 cells. Our findings reveal that EPB41L3 suppresses tumour cell invasion and inhibits MMP2 and MMP9 expression in ESCC cells.

Biomedical question answering (QA) represents a growing concern among industry and academia due to the crucial impact of biomedical information. When mapping and ranking candidate snippet answers within relevant literature, current QA systems typically refer to information retrieval (IR) techniques: specifically, query processing approaches and ranking models. However, these IR-based approaches are insufficient to consider both syntactic and semantic relatedness and thus cannot formulate accurate natural language answers. Recently, deep learning approaches have become well-known for learning optimal semantic feature representations in natural language processing tasks. In this paper, we present a deep ranking recursive autoencoders (rankingRAE) architecture for ranking question-candidate snippet answer pairs (Q-S) to obtain the most relevant candidate answers for biomedical questions extracted from the potentially relevant documents. In particular, we convert the task of ranking candidate answers to several simultaneous binary classification tasks for determining whether a question and a candidate answer are relevant. The compositional words and their random initialized vectors of concatenated Q-S pairs are fed into recursive autoencoders to learn the optimal semantic representations in an unsupervised way, and their semantic relatedness is classified through supervised learning. Unlike several existing methods to directly choose the top-K candidates with highest probabilities, we take the influence of different ranking results into consideration. Consequently, we define a listwise “ranking error” for loss function computation to penalize inappropriate answer ranking for each question and to eliminate their influence. The proposed architecture is evaluated with respect to the BioASQ 2013-2018 Six-year Biomedical Question Answering benchmarks. Compared with classical IR models, other deep representation models, as well as some state-of-the-art systems for these tasks, the experimental results demonstrate the robustness and effectiveness of rankingRAE.

The force performance of semi-rigid nodes connection between rigid connection and hinged connection ,which has very high strength and rigidity, good ductility and energy dissipation capacity. At present, it is one of the hot topics in the study of steel structure. This article will study about type T and cross-shaped frame plane frame node characteristics by some experiments. And we will observe the deflection of the two kinds of nodes, the force transmission mechanism and the failure pattern under low reversed cyclic loading test.And then compare the failure mechanism of failure mode and ultimate deformation state and hysteretic performance of the two kinds of nodes, The test results show that the yield load and the yield displacement and energy dissipation coefficient and the equivalent viscous damping ratio of Cross nodes are all greater than type T nodes’. So in the design of steel structure, increasing the component’s constraint can help to improve the seismic performance and stability of the whole structure.

PDGI-PAAm gels with well oriented lipid bilayers show a quasi-unidirectional shrinkage upon uniaxial stretching along the bilayers. They shrink largely parallel to the bilayer but slightly perpendicular to it in order not to increase the bilayer area and its interfacial energy. Such an anisotropic deformation can be well-modelled based on classical theories for gel networks and lipid layers.

Recently, we have reported that polyampholytes, synthesized from free radical copolymerization of anionic monomer and cationic monomer, form physical hydrogels of high toughness and self-healing. The random distribution of the opposite charges forms ionic bonds of a wide distribution of strength. The strong bonds serve as permanent cross-links, imparting elasticity, whereas the weak bonds serves as reversible sacrificial bonds by breaking and reforming to dissipate energy. In this work, we focus on the rupture behaviors of the polyampholyte physical hydrogel, P(NaSS-co-MPTC), copolymerized from sodium p-styrenesulfonate (NaSS) and 3-(methacryloylamino)propyltrimethylammonium chloride (MPTC). Tensile test and pure shear test were performed at various stretch rates in the viscoelastic responses region of the material. Tensile test showed yielding, strain softening, and strain hardening, revealing the dually cross-linked feature of the gel. Pure shear test showed crack blunting at the notched tip and a large yielding zone with butterfly shaped birefringence pattern ahead of the crack tip. After blunting, crack advanced at steady-state velocity with a constant angle. The conditions for the occurrence of crack blunting and variables governing the crack advancing angle are discussed. We found that even for these highly stretchable samples, significant blunting only occurs when the tensile fracture stress σf is larger than modulus E by a factor of about 2, in consistent with Hui’s theoretical prediction for elastic materials. The crack advancing angle θ was found to be proportional to σy/E over a wide stretch rate range, where σy is the yielding stress. In addition, the fracture energy was correlated to small strain modulus by a power law in the viscoelastic response region. This systematic study will merit revealing the fracture mechanism of tough viscoelastic materials including biological tissues and recently developed tough and highly stretchable hydrogels.

Taking crop Acoustic emission (AE) signals as the main monitoring index for plant diseases or dehydration, the crop AE wireless sensor network monitoring system was established based on DSP and ZigBee network. Crop AE signals were conducted on A/D transformation and data processing and then sent to the monitoring center based on wireless communication module SZ05. AE signals received at the monitoring center were demonstrated in waveform display. Based on the variation of AE signal’s frequency the system can diagnose disease and prevent dehydration for crops.

The Al2O3 is synthesized by detonation of mixed explosive, prepared by mixing RDX and aluminum hydroxide named as precursor of thermal decomposition. The production of detonation is analysed by XRD, TEM and DTA/TG. The curve of XRD indicates that the production are (α+γ)-Al2O3. The average crystal size of Al2O3 is 126nm calculated by the Scherrer equation. The photographs of TEM show that all granules of Al2O3 are spherical, and the average size of granule is 1000nm. The visible exothermic or endothermic peak does not appear on the curve of DTA from 50 to 1300 degree Centigrade. The curve of TG indicates that the production of detonation generates 12% weight loss from 50 to 1300 degree Centigrade.

This work reports the gold-coated self-organized silicon nanopyramidal array prepared by a wet etching and magnetron sputtering process at room temperature. Scanning electron microscopy was used to detect the morphology of gold films. The surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra of the rhodamine 6G (R6G) molecules adsorbed on a nanoscale gold film were recorded. Experimental results show the relationships between gold film thickness and SERS intensity. A full three-dimensional finite difference time domain calculations were carried out, which compare the experimental results and show agreement with ratios of the SERS enhancement for the different thicknesses of gold films. Furthermore, numerical simulations of the array were conducted for both a real gold metal coating and a perfect electrical conductor to determine whether the SERS enhancement was due to diffraction or plasmonic effects. The sample with the fast fabrication process used in this work could provide a new way to obtain a uniform enhancement and low cost SERS substrate.

This study examines nanomeshed Pt and Pt(Au) thin films formed by a dewetting process on a p-GaN surface. With prolonged annealing, the Pt(Au) layer shows more stable contact resistance to p-GaN and lower sheet resistance than the Pt layer. L–I curves show that the GaN light-emitting diode (LED) with the Pt(Au) transparent conducting layer (TCL) produces more light output power than the GaN LED with the Pt TCL. The higher light output of the LED with the Pt(Au) TCL is attributed to the lower sheet resistance, which improves current spreading in the active region.

In this paper, we report a characteristic transmission control property of a nano-optical system by introducing an antenna over the input opening of a bowtie aperture. The transmission process through the system is investigated quantitatively by the coupling and transmission efficiencies, and an optical switch effect is found as the antenna length varies. To understand the physical mechanism, we then investigate the electrical field distribution of the antenna over a rectangle aperture as a simplified model. It is discovered that the "on" state of the system is due to Fabry–Perot resonances in the horizontal cavity formed by antenna, dielectric layer, and metal film. On the other hand, a cutoff occurs for the characteristic rectangle length shorter than the diffraction limit to turn the device to the "off" state. Such a phenomenon can thus provide a promising candidate for application in manipulating light in large-scale optoelectronic device integration.

Explosive welding technology has been widely used in industrial production. However, there is always a controversy on the mechanism of explosive bonding, whether explosive welding should belong to a kind of mature welding such as a fusion welding or a solid phase welding. Based on the observation and analysis of the metallographs at interfaces, various opinions are proposed by different authors. This paper investigated the various mechanisms of the wavy interface formation in explosive welding and tried to determine a more reasonable one by using smoothed particle hydrodynamics method. The numerical analysis results show that explosive welding is a unique and complex kind of welding. In general cases, high pressure and melted particles can be found in the collision area at the interface. A version, in which explosive welding is a combination of diffusion bonding, fusion bonding and pressure welding, is considered as a more reasonable one.

Pyrethroid pesticides, produced and used worldwide, have been reported to impair male reproductive function by reducing sperm count and sperm motility. They are divided into two types: type I pyrethroids including permethrin, etc. and type II pyrethroids including cypermethrin, fenvalerate, cyfluthrin, etc. Our previous study showed that fenvalerate and cypermethrin could reduce sperm motility in vitro. However, it is not clear whether permethrin and 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (3-PBA, the major metabolite of pyrethroids) affect sperm motility directly or indirectly by affecting spermatogenesis via interaction with androgens and/or their receptors. In this study, rat sperm suspensions were treated respectively with permethrin, cypermethrin and 3-PBA, at various concentrations (0, 1, 4, 16, or 64mmol/L) for various times (1, 2, or 4h). The motility parameters of sperm were analyzed with a computer-assisted sperm analysis (CASA) system. The differential effects of permethrin and cypermethrin on sperm motility patterns in vitro were also compared. Our study revealed that permethrin and cypermethrin could reduce sperm motility in vitro in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. Marked differences between the two pyrethroids were not found in this study. Moreover, 3-PBA did not reduce sperm motility directly at all concentrations and treatment periods. These results provide further evidence that permethrin and cypermethrin can directly affect mature rat sperm motility.

Local field surface plasmon excitation of pair arrays of silver nanospheres was studied using three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain method. The near-field enhancement was associated with the radius of nanosphere and the incident wavelength, the highest of which always appeared in the penultimate gaps, regardless of the number of the pairs. The surface plasmon resonance could be controlled and tuned by radius of nanosphere and incident wavelength.

Tandem repeats (TRs) are associated with dis-ease genes, play an important role in evolution and are important in genomic organization and function. Much research has been done on de-scriptions of properties of tandem repeats, such as copy-number, period, etc, and correlation be-tween mutations within tandem repeats and dis-ease. This project aims to detect some differ-ences which may exist within the features of dif-ferent tandem repeats associated with disease in human whole-genome. The features of tandem repeats associated with diabetes genes were compared to the counterparts of non-diabetes disease genes.

The tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) ceramic ultra-dense target is the crucial material in spurting preparation of optical-electric films. The difficulty in target fabrication is due to ITO decomposing at high temperatures. In this paper, commercial ITO nanometer powders are used and are explosively shock consolidated with two different sets and different explosives. Experiment data indicate that the shock velocity should be less than 4000 m/sec, and the shock pressure should be more than 6 and even 12 GPa for obtaining good consolidation. The samples are rapidly sintered at a high temperature after shock treatment. A suitable sinter temperature of ITO nanopowders compacted via explosive consolidation (≈1000°C) is determined by a differential thermal analysis. Scanning electron microscope images show that ITO ceramic decomposes and sublimates at a high temperature. The expansion factors of the samples from our experiments and commercial targets obtained by high isostatic pressing (HIP) are measured: α l = 7.81 → 10−6 K−1 for samples sintered at 1000°C, α l = 8.8 → 10−6 K−1 for samples sintered at 900°C, and α l = 6.89 · 10−6 K−1 for HIP samples.

EPB41L3 may play a role as a metastasis suppressor by supporting regular arrangements of actin stress fibres and alleviating the increase in cell motility associated with enhanced metastatic potential. Downregulation of epb41l3 has been observed in many cancers, but the role of this gene in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains unclear. Our study aimed to determine the effect of epb41l3 on ESCC cell migration and invasion. We investigated epb41l3 protein expression in tumour and non-tumour tissues by immunohistochemical staining. Expression in the non-neoplastic human esophageal cell line Het-1a and four ESCC cell lines - Kyse150, Kyse510, Kyse450 and Caes17 - was assessed by quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) and Western blotting. Furthermore, an EPB41L3 overexpression plasmid and EPB41L3-specific small interfering RNA were used to upregulate EPB41L3 expression in Kyse150 cells and to downregulate EPB41L3 expression in Kyse450 cells, respectively. Cell migration and invasion were evaluated by wound healing and transwell assays, respectively. The expression levels of p-AKT, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)2 and MMP9 were evaluated. Expression of epb41l3 was significantly lower in tumour tissues than in non-tumour tissues and in ESCC cell lines compared with the Het-1a cell line. Kyse450 and Caes17 cells exhibited higher expression of epb41l3 than Kyse150 and Kyse510 cells. Overexpressing epb41l3 decreased Kyse150 cell migration and invasion, whereas EPB41L3-specific small interfering RNA silencing increased these functions in Kyse450 cells. Furthermore, overexpressing epb41l3 led to downregulation of MMP2 and MMP9 in Kyse150 and Kyse510 cells. Our findings reveal that EPB41L3 suppresses tumour cell invasion and inhibits MMP2 and MMP9 expression in ESCC cells.

In this paper, a subwavelength metal-grating assisted sensor of Kretschmann style that is capable of detecting the sample with a refractive index higher than that of the substrate is proposed. The sensor configuration is similar to the traditional Kretschmann structure, but the metal film is pattered into a grating. As a TM-polarized laser beam impinges from the substrate, a resonant dip point in reflectance curve is produced at a certain incident angle. Our studies indicate that the sensing sensitivity and resolution are affected by the grating's gap and period, and after these parameters have been optimized, a sensing sensitivity of 51.484°/RIU is obtained with a slightly changing resolution.

A method for somatic embryogenesis and plant regeneration from immature nucellus (30–40 days old after pollination) of Mangifera persiciforma C.Y. Wu & T.L. Ming has been developed. Browning and necrosis of the nucellar explants were effectively controlled by pre-treating in an antioxidant solution and by pre-culturing in liquid medium in a constant temperature shaker. The explants were cultured for 2 weeks in the dark at 23 ± 2°C on induction medium and then moved to the light for 4 weeks at 25 ± 2°C Pro-embryonic masses have gradually been generated from the explants. The pro-embryogenic masses were subcultured on appropriate proliferation medium in the light for 5 weeks at 25 ± 2°C, secondary embryogenesis and organogenesis was observed. Entire plantlets have been produced. Plantlets developed in 3-4 weeks, were acclimatized and transplanted to the greenhouse. Morphogenic competence was sustained for more than one year.Key words: Mangifera persiciform, nucellus, browning, pro-embryogenic masses, somatic embryogenesis, organogenesis.

Arabidopsis thaliana WRKY28, which is strongly induced by H2O2 stress, is one of the group II WRKY proteins and responds to Botrytis cinerea. In this study, we successfully generated up and down-regulating WRKY28 transgenic A. thaliana lines. Our investigationinto the action of WRKY28 demonstrated that the down-regulation of WRKY28 resulted in susceptible of plants. The enhanced susceptible in down-regulating plants was associated with the suppression of jasmonate (JA) and ethylene (ET) regulated PDF1.2gene by the necrotrophic fungal pathogen B. cinerea. In contrast, disease resistance and the expressions of JA and ET regulated PDF1.2 genes are slightly enhanced in WRKY28 over-expressing plants. Thus, pathogen-induced WRKY28 transcription factor plays a key role in JA and ET mediated defense responses to B. cinerea. These results provide a genetic evidence of WRKY28 in plant defense. Key words: Transcription factor, Botrytis cinerea, necrotroph fungus.

To construct and identify blood type B antigen mimetic polypeptide-macrophage inflammatory protein 3beta (Mip3beta) double expression recombinant plasmid.The positive phage clone P1 was obtained using phage random 12-mer peptide library. Specific primers were designed to amplify the phage DNA of P1 and transmembrane domain and inner segment of PBluscript-Fas gene. The products of the amplification were linked into Mip3betav21 to construct blood type B antigen mimetic polypeptide-Mip3beta double expression recombinant plasmid. The recombinant plasmid was transfected into human melanoma cell line B16 to identify its expression.Blood type B antigen mimetic polypeptide-Mip3beta double expression recombinant plasmid is successfully obtained and expressed in human melanoma cell line B16.

To investigate the efficacy of cryoablation combined with CpG ODN in the treatment of murine transplanted colon carcinoma.Colon carcinoma model was established by subcutaneously inoculating CT26 cells into the right flank in BALB/c mice. The tumor-bearing mice were randomly divided into 4 groups:the group of PBS injected in peritumoral area, the group of cryoablation, the group of cryoablation combined with CpG ODN, the group of CpG ODN injected in peritumoral area. The tumor size changes were measured. Serum levels of interleukin (IL)-12 and interferon-gamma(IFN-gamma) were assayed by ELISA. The rates of CD3(+)CD4(+)T, CD3(+)CD8(+)T lymphocytes in serum were counted with flow cytometry. Mice in the cryoablation group and the combined group with tumor regression were re-challenged with CT26 cells.The survival time of cryoablation group and combined therapy group were (80.3 + or - 5.4) days and (83.8 + or - 5.5) days, respectively, longer than (53.7 + or - 3.7) days in PBS group and (51.5 + or - 6.8) days in CpG ODN group(all P0.05). The suppress rates of tumor cells in cryoablation group and combined therapy group were 83.8% and 86.2% respectively. After 20 days following treatment, CD3(+)CD4(+)T/CD3(+)CD8(+)T ratio and the concentrations of IL-12 and IFN-gamma in mice serum of cryoablation group and combined therapy group were higher than those in PBS group and CpG ODN group(all P0.05). No significant difference was found in CD3(+)CD4(+)T/CD3(+)CD8(+)T ratio between cryoablation group and combined therapy group(P0.05). However, the concentrations of IL-12 and IFN-gamma in combined therapy group were higher than those of cryoablation group(all P0.05). After re-challenging, tumor formation rate in the cryoablation combined with CpG ODN group was 16.7%, significantly lower than that in the cryoablation group(83.8%)(P0.05).Cryoablation combined with CpG ODN can increase antitumor immune response in mice, and therefore can decrease the tumor formation when re-challenged with CT26 cells.

To investigate the therapeutic and immunological effects of microwave ablation (MA) combined with CpG ODN in mice bearing transplanted colon carcinoma.A mouse model bearing colon carcinoma was established by subcutaneously inoculating CT26 cells into the right flank of Balb/c mice. The tumor-bearing mice were randomized into control group with PBS injection in the peritumoral area, MA group, MA combinated with CpG ODN group, and CpG ODN group with CpG ODN injection in the peritumoral area. The tumor volume changes were observed, and serum CD3(+)CD4(+) and CD3(+)CD8(+) T lmyphocytes were analyzed by flow cytometry after the treatments. Serum levels of interleukin (IL)-2, IL-12 and IFN-gamma were detected by ELISA. The mice in the MA group and the combined treatment group showing tumor regression were rechallenged with CT26 cells.No significant difference was found in the number of serum CD3(+), CD3(+)CD4(+), or CD3(+)CD8(+) T lymphocytes between the 4 groups. The ratio of CD3(+)CD4(+)/CD3(+)CD8(+) T lymphocytes in the combined treatment group and MA group were 1.58-/+0.10 and 1.53-/+0.13, respectively, significantly higher than that in PBS group and CpG ODN group (P0.05). The serum concentration of IL-2, IL-12 and IFN-gamma in the combined treatment group were 64.6-/+7.4 pg/ml, 314.1-/+26.9 pg/ml and 61.9-/+7.3 pg/ml, respectively, significantly higher than those in the other 3 groups (P0.05). The tumor formation rate in the combined treatment group was significantly lower than that in MA group (25.0% vs 75.0%, P0.05).CpG ODN can enhance the immunity and decrease the tumor formation rate following a rechallenge with CT26 cells in mice treated with MA.

The optical properties of silver spherical nanoparticle dimer arrays with various incident wavelength are investigated by using the finite difference time domain method. Due to surface plasmon resonance, in the arrays of strongly coupled Ag nanoparticles, the energy of incident light is effectively confined in the gap of penultimate dimer under the influence of surface plasmonic reflection at the end of array structure. Furthermore, the suitable radius of the nanoparticles can be chosen to obtain the resonant peak at the optional position in the range of visible-nearinfrared wavelength. The above effects can be utilized to design effective functional end-structures in integrated optics.

Metal nanostrip array for light transmission enhancement in the nanoslit is studied using a finite-difference time-domain method (FDTD). The strips with uniform shape are placed on upper side of a metal film with the nanoslit fabricated in it. It is found that the transmission efficiency can be promoted with an optimization of the strip. Effects of the single strip on the promotion are discussed in detail, a Fabry-Perot resonance model is competent for well understanding the phenomena.

Optical properties of bowtie antennas are investigated using a numerical method of finite-difference time-domain (FDTD). The optical response in the antenna feed gap is simulated as functions of its geometry parameters (flare angle, arm length, apex width, thickness, gap dimension, as well as the index of substrate), which provide a clear guideline to exploit such antenna structures in practice.

Concanavalin A (ConA), a mannose/glucose-binding legume lectin, has been reported to induce tumor cell death via a mitochondria-mediated autophagic pathway; however, the precise mechanism by which induces cell death remains to be discovered. In this study, we simulated the three-dimensional structure of ConA monomer, its dimer, and tetramer forms and reported its molecular dynamics simulations and phylogenetic analysis. Subsequently, we showed that ConA possessed remarkable antiproliferative effects on HepG2 cells. Further data showed that there was a link among its hemagglutinating, sugar-binding, and antiproliferative activities. In addition, we found that ConA induced apoptosis in HepG2 cells. Then, we demonstrated that the treatment of ConA caused mitochondrial transmembrane potential (MMP) collapse, cytochrome c release, and activation of caspase. In conclusion, we demonstrate that there is a positive correlation between carbohydrate-binding activity and antiproliferative activity of ConA. In addition, we confirm that ConA induces HepG2 cell death through a mitochondrial apoptotic pathway.