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SMARCE1 gene, encoding a core subunit of SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex, is situated on chromosome 17q21-ter region that is frequently gained in neuroblastoma. However, its role in the tumorigenesis remains unknown. Here, we showed that high expression of SMARCE1 was associated with poor prognosis of patients with neuroblastoma, especially those with MYCN amplification. Knockdown of SMARCE1 reduced proliferation, colony formation, and tumorigenicity of neuroblastoma cells. Mechanistically, SMARCE1 directly interacted with MYCN, which was necessary for MYCN-mediated transcriptional activation of downstream target genes including PLK1, ODC1, and E2F2. Overexpression of PLK1, ODC1 or E2F2 significantly reversed the inhibiting effect of SMARCE1 knockdown on the proliferation, colony formation, and tumorigenicity of MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma cells. Moreover, we revealed that MYCN directly regulated SMARCE1 transcription through binding to a non-canonical E-box of SMARCE1 promoter, thus enhancing SMARCE1-MYCN cooperativity. These findings establish SMARCE1 is a critical oncogenic factor in neuroblastoma and provide a new potential target for treatment of neuroblastoma with 17q21-ter gain and MYCN amplification.

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most familiar malignancy in the digestive system. Demethylzeylasteral (Dem), a natural functional monomer extracted from Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F, shows anti‐tumor effects in a variety of cancers, including GC, however, with the underlying mechanism poorly understood. In our study, we show that Dem inhibits the proliferation, migration, and invasion of GC cells, which are mediated by down‐regulating c‐Myc protein levels. Mechanistically, Dem reduces the stability of c‐Myc by up‐regulating FBXW7, an E3 ubiquitin ligase. Moreover, in xenograft tumor model experiment, Dem also inhibits GC, which depends on suppressing c‐Myc expression. Finally, Dem enhances GC cell chemosensitivity to the combination treatment of 5‐Fluorouracil (5‐Fu) and doxorubicin (DOX) in vitro. Together, Dem exerts anti‐neoplastic activities through destabilizing and suppressing c‐Myc, establishing a theory foundation for using it in future treatment of GC., Schematic diagram of mechanism of demethylzeylasteral (a natural functional monomer) treatment in gastric cancer. Demethylzeylasteral promotes the degradation of c‐Myc through up‐regulating the expression level of FBXW7 (an E3 ubiquitin ligase) and consequent ubiquitylization of c‐Myc, which in turn inhibits cell proliferation, migration and invasion, and therefore, depresses the growth of gastric cancer.

Background/Aims: The mineral-dust-induced gene mdig is a lung-cancer-associated oncogene. The focus of this study is to evaluate the expression status of mdig in lung cancer and to assess its influence in predicting the patient’s overall survival. Methods: Using high-density tissue microarrays and clinical samples of synchronous multiple primary lung cancer (SMPLC), we investigated the expression of mdig through immunohistochemistry and utilized the open-access lung cancer patient databases containing genomic and transcriptomic data from the UCSC Xena and TCGA web platforms to determine the prognostic values of mdig expression status among different subtypes of lung cancer. Results: mdig is upregulated in smokers and in lung squamous cell carcinoma. High mdig expression predicted poor overall survival in lung squamous cell carcinoma and female smokers. Among tumor tissues from SMPLC patients, we not only unraveled the highest positive rate of mdig expression, but also revealed a unique cytoplasmic, rather than nuclear localization of mdig protein. Furthermore, by inspecting some pathological but not cancerous lung tissues, we believe that mdig is required for the transformation of non-cancerous lung cells to the fully-fledged cancer cells. Conclusion: These data suggested that mdig is involved in various stages of lung carcinogenesis, possibly through the epigenetic regulation on some critical cancer-associated genes, and increased mdig expression is an important prognostic factor for some types of lung cancer.

Uterine artery pseudoaneurysm (UAP) is rare but can cause life-threatening postpartum hemorrhage (PPH). To evaluate a novel sandwich embolization technique as a treatment for PPH caused by UAP. This retrospective study included 10 patients with PPH caused by UAP who were treated using a modified sandwich embolization technique at the Radiology Department, Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University between April 2009 and September 2018. Baseline clinical characteristics, intraoperative data (including treatment effectiveness) and postoperative data (including re-bleeding events and complications) were extracted from the medical records. Uterine arterial angiography showed cystic shadowing of the vascular wall during the arterial phase in all patients. Spraying of contrast agent into the pseudoaneurysm was observed for large UAPs, and the pseudoaneurysm disappeared in the venous phase. The pseudoaneurysm blood supply was from the uterine artery in 9 patients (90%) and the uterine, superior vesical, internal pudendal and nameless little arteries in 1 patient (10%). Bleeding symptoms were completely relieved in all patients after sandwich embolization. Eight patients experienced painful contractions in the perioperative period, but there were no other postoperative complications. During the 1-year postoperative follow-up, 9 patients (90%) had no re-bleeding symptoms/signs. One patient (10%), who had a pseudoaneurysm supplied by the uterine, superior vesical, internal pudendal and nameless little arteries, experienced re-bleeding 20 days after surgery and was treated by hysterectomy. Modified sandwich embolization is an effective treatment for PPH caused by UAP.

NUSAP1, which is a microtubule-associated protein involved in mitosis, plays essential roles in diverse biological processes, especially in cancer biology. In this study, NUSAP1 was found to be overexpressed in GBM tissues in a grade-dependent manner compared with normal brain tissues. NUSAP1 was also highly expressed in GBM patients, dead patients, and GBM cells. In addition, NUSAP1 was found to participate in cell proliferation, apoptosis, and DNA damage in GBM cells. Ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related protein (ATR) are a primary sensor of DNA damage, and ATR is also a promising target in cancer therapy. Here, we found that NUSAP1 positively regulated the expression of ATR. Mechanistically, NUSAP1 suppressed the ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis of ATR. The SAP (SAF-A/B, Acinus, and PIAS) domain is a common motif of many SUMO (small ubiquitin-like modifier) E3 ligases, and this domain is involved in substrate recognition and ligase activity. This study further demonstrated that the SAP domain of NUSAP1 promoted the sumoylation of ATR, and thereby antagonized the ubiquitination of ATR. These results suggest that NUSAP1 stabilizes ATR by sumoylation. Moreover, NUSAP1 potentiated chemotherapeutic resistance to temozolomide (TMZ) and doxorubicin (DOX) through its SAP domain. Overall, this study indicates that NUSAP1 is a promising therapeutic target in GBM.

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-imr-10.1177_0300060520979218 for Factors affecting the success of fallopian tube recanalization in treatment of tubal obstructive infertility by Huawei Shen, Mingjin Cai, Tingwei Chen, Duzhou Zheng, Shikuan Huang, Mimi Zhou, Wanling He, Yongsen Li and Qianyan Tan in Journal of International Medical Research

PHF14 is a new member belonging to PHD finger proteins. PHF14 is involved in multiple biologic processes including Dandy–Walker syndrome, mesenchyme growth, lung fibrosis, renal fibrosis, persistent pulmonary hypertension, and tumor development. This study aims to explore whether PHF14 plays an important role in gastric cancer. Here, PHF14 is indicated as a tumor promoter. The expression of PHF14 enhances no matter in clinical samples or in gastric cancer cells. High expression of PHF14 impairs survival of patients. Attenuation of PHF14 inhibits cell proliferation in gastric cancer cells. PHF14 downregulation inhibits the expression of cell cycle-related proteins, CDK6 and cyclin D1. Furthermore, silencing of PHF14 reduces the level of phosphorylated AKT as well as phosphorylated ERK1/2. Finally, downregulation of PHF14 in gastric cancer cells inhibits colony formation in vitro and tumorigenesis in vivo. These results indicate that PHF14 promotes tumor development in gastric cancer, so PHF14 thereby acts as a potential target for gastric cancer therapy.

Objective To examine potential risk factors associated with the success rate following fallopian tube recanalization (FTR) in infertile women with obstruction of the proximal fallopian tube. Methods We retrospectively studied patients who underwent FTR for tubal obstructive infertility between January 2016 and December 2018 at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University. FTR was performed using a catheter and guidewire system to clear tubal obstruction. Predictive factors potentially associated with the success rate were assessed by logistic regression. Results A total of 762 patients were included. Multivariable analysis showed that age (odds ratio [OR] = 2.38, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.24–4.58), infertility type (OR = 2.82, 95% CI: 1.36–6.21), history of ectopic pregnancy (OR = 7.87, 95% CI: 4.05–15.81), history of abdominal surgery (OR = 4.30, 95% CI: 2.22–8.60), history of artificial abortion curettage (OR = 4.08, 95% CI: 2.12–8.03), and duration of infertility (OR = 2.03, 95% CI: 1.06–3.85) were independently associated with postoperative tubal patency. Conclusions Our findings suggest that risk factors, such as age ≥35 years, secondary infertility, duration of infertility ≥5 years, and histories of ectopic pregnancy, abdominal surgery, and artificial abortion curettage, affect the success rate of FTR. These factors may also predict surgical success in treating tubal obstructive infertility.

With the advantage of high dielectric strength and low cost, capacitive voltage transformers (CVTs) have been applied to measure the voltage in power grid widely. Recently, CVTs own the problem of big error, insulation performance degradation and high failure rate due to the complicated environment. Secondary load is an important factor to impact CVT's accuracy by analysis. Consequently, we established a simplified analysis model of CVT to research the influence mechanism of secondary load and a test platform of 220kV CVT to research its error characteristic with different load capacity and power factors. The experimental results showed secondary load capacity and power factors should be kept in a reasonable range. Moreover, it should be paid particular attention to the light load, no load and the situation when the power factor was less than 0.8, because the CVT of which faced the risk of exceeding error.

Phononic band structure with periodic elliptic inclusions for the square lattice is investigated based on the plane wave expansion method. The numerical results show the systems composed of tungsten ( W ) elliptic rods embedded in a silicon (Si) matrix can exhibit a larger complete band gap than the conventional circular phononic crystal (PC) slabs. The phononic band structure of the plate-mode waves and the width of the first complete band gap can be tuned by varying the ratio of the minor axis and the major axis, the orientation angle of the elliptic rods and the thickness of the PC slabs. We also study the band structure of plate-mode waves propagating in two-dimensional (2D) slabs with periodic elliptic inclusions coated on uniform substrate.

Spatial clustering is very relevant to its sample distribution, clustering geometry configuration and spatial structure. Hierarchy dividing of spatial clustering and its optimization has been studied based on K-means algorithm in this paper. It recommends a classical method of hierarchy dividing of spatial clustering and a new rule to optimize the k value of spatial clustering. The rule and its expansibility have also been studied in this paper. Examples show it is rational.

A novel and compact near-infrared (NIR) Raman system is developed using 785-nm diode laser, volume-phase technology holographic system, and NIR intensified charge-coupled device (CCD). Raman spectra and first derivative spectra of Rhizoma Dioscoreae are obtained. Raman spectra of Rhizoma Dioscoreae showed three strong characteristic peaks at 477.4cm-1, 863.9cm-1, and 936.0cm-1. The major ingredients are protein, amino acid, starch, polysaccharides and so on, matched with the known basic biochemical composition of Rhizoma Dioscoreae. In the first derivative spectra of Rhizoma Dioscoreae, distinguishing characteristic peaks appeared at 467.674cm-1, 484.603cm-1, 870.37cm-1, 943.368cm-1. Contrasted with Rhizoma Dioscoreae Raman spectra, in 600cm-1 to 800cm-1, 1000cm-1 to 1400cm-1 regions, changes in Rhizoma Dioscoreae Raman first derivative spectra are represented more clearly than Rhizoma Dioscoreae Raman spectra. So Rhizoma Dioscoreae raman first derivative spectra can be an accurate supplementary analysis method to Rhizoma Dioscoreae Raman spectra.© (2007) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Spatial data usually show as vector maps or raster images. The vector maps are composed of points, lines and polygons, while raster images are composed of grids. Spatial data have different character from common data, which makes it difficult to find knowledge from spatial database than from common database. Spatial Data Mining and Knowledge discovery (SDMKD) is considered as an advanced process to extract novel and interesting models from spatial database. However, visualization is a technique which can deal with substantive data and show this process as figures, images and charts by computers. But, SDMKD and visualization always keep separate and develop independently. A basic and important problem about visualization supporting SDMKD is seldom concerned. To make the process of SDMKD efficient and intuitional, this paper has a preliminary study on visualization of SDMKD through a mutual operation between the human and the computer. It realizes the visualization of data rebuilding and the process of data mining. Some techniques of visualization are used such as charts, maps, figures and images.

Autofluorescence of the tumor and surrounding tissue is the largest background source in fluorescence diagnosis. A new system which applied computer image processing technique to lung cancer localization by laser fluorescence bronchoscopy has been developed to subtract the autofluorescence background. The results of our trial tests in tissue- simulating phantom and the porcine thigh muscle models are satisfied. There is great hope that this computer-assisted image processing system will significantly enhance the contrast of fluorescence image and drop false results for early human lung cancer examination.© (1996) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.