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The continuing discoveries of novel classes of RNA modifications in various organisms have raised the need for improving sensitive, convenient, and reliable methods for quantifying RNA modifications. In particular, a subset of small RNAs, including microRNAs (miRNAs) and Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs), are modified at their 3'-terminal nucleotides via 2'-O-methylation. However, quantifying the levels of these small RNAs is difficult because 2'-O-methylation at the RNA 3'-terminus inhibits the activity of polyadenylate polymerase and T4 RNA ligase. These two enzymes are indispensable for RNA labeling or ligation in conventional miRNA quantification assays. In this study, we profiled 3'-terminal 2'-O-methyl plant miRNAs in the livers of rice-fed mice by oxidative deep sequencing and detected increasing amounts of plant miRNAs with prolonged oxidation treatment. We further compared the efficiency of stem-loop and poly(A)-tailed RT-qPCR in quantifying plant miRNAs in animal tissues and identified stem-loop RT-qPCR as the only suitable approach. Likewise, stem-loop RT-qPCR was superior to poly(A)-tailed RT-qPCR in quantifying 3'-terminal 2'-O-methyl piRNAs in human seminal plasma. In summary, this study established a standard procedure for quantifying the levels of 3'-terminal 2'-O-methyl miRNAs in plants and piRNAs. Accurate measurement of the 3'-terminal 2'-O-methylation of small RNAs has profound implications for understanding their pathophysiologic roles in biological systems.

Organic light-emitting device (OLED) is an attractive technology for display application in high-end electronics. Tetradentate Pt(II) complexes are phosphorescent emitters of great importance for OLED fabrications. A novel series of N-Heterocyclic carbene (NHC), benzocarbene (Ph/NHC) and pyridinocarbene (Py/NHC)-based tetradentate Pt(II) complexes with fused 5/6/6 metallocycles was designed and developed. Their electrochemical and photophysical properties were systematically studied through experimental and theoretical investigations, which greatly affected by the NHC, Ph/NHC and Py/NHC. Pt(NHC-1) shows dominant emission peak at 509 nm with a quantum efficiency of 40% and excited lifetime of 1.8 µs in 5 wt% doped PMMA film at room temperature. Pt(NHC-1)-doped green OLED using 26mCPy as host material demonstrated a very high Lmax of 64416 cd/m2, which was a record-high value for the reported Pt(II) complexes-based phosphorescent OLEDs. The OLED also achieved a peak EQE of 13.1% with small efficiency roll-off, which yet maintained EQEs of 12.8%, 11.6% and 8.6% at a high brightness of 100, 1000 and 10000 cd/m2.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between breast white adipose tissue (WAT) inflammation and being overweight or obese, menopausal status, and metabolic syndrome-related indicators in breast cancer patients as well as the association between adipocyte size and the severity of WAT inflammation and body mass index (BMI). The crown-like structures (CLS-B) formed by macrophages surrounding dying or dead adipocytes can be used to identify breast WAT inflammation. In this study, breast WAT and fasting blood from 136 Chinese women with breast cancer were collected for analysis. Cluster of differentiation 68 (CD68) immunohistochemical staining was performed to identify CLS-B, and the adipocyte size was measured by hematoxylin and eosin staining. The results showed that breast WAT inflammation usually occurs in overweight/obese breast cancer patients, and the severity of inflammation is positively correlated with adipocyte hypertrophy. We did not observe a direct association between WAT inflammation and menopausal status. In addition, the presence of WAT inflammation is associated with abnormalities in circulating factors associated with metabolic syndrome such as higher serum lipid, glucose, and C-reactive protein levels. Overweight/obese breast cancer patients may be more prone to breast WAT inflammation and may be associated with abnormalities in circulatory markers associated with metabolic syndrome.

Loess Plateau is a new rapidly developing wine region in China, but wine style from this region is rarely studied. The aroma typicalies and differences of Cabernet Sauvignon wines between Loess Plateau and other three main regions (Shandong, Ningxia and Xinjiang) in China were comprehensively analyzed by Quantitative Descriptive Analysis (QDA®), Napping® and Gas Chromatography–Olfactometry (GC–O) analysis. Results showed that differences existed between wines from Loess Plateau and other three regions in China based on their aroma characteristics. The results of QDA® and Napping® revealed that wines from Loess Plateau had richer fruity aroma, especially the typical hawthorn aroma. A similar result showed that the fruity compounds had higher flavor dilution factors in wines from Loess Plateau by aroma extract dilution analysis. Identified by GC–O and gas chromatography–mass spectrometric, ethyl butanoate, isoamyl formate and butyl acetate were key compounds for the fruity aroma of wines from Loess Plateau.

Evidence suggests that increased microRNA-155 (miR-155) expression in immune cells enhances antitumor immune responses. However, given the reported association of miR-155 with tumorigenesis in various cancers, a debate is provoked on whether miR-155 is oncogenic or tumor suppressive. We aimed to interrogate the impact of tumor miR-155 expression, particularly that of cancer cell-derived miR-155, on antitumor immunity in breast cancer. We performed bioinformatic analysis of human breast cancer databases, murine experiments, and human specimen examination. We revealed that higher tumor miR-155 levels correlate with a favorable antitumor immune profile and better patient outcomes. Murine experiments demonstrated that miR-155 overexpression in breast cancer cells enhanced T cell influx, delayed tumor growth, and sensitized the tumors to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy. Mechanistically, miR-155 overexpression in breast cancer cells upregulated their CXCL9/10/11 production, which was mediated by SOCS1 inhibition and increased phosphorylated STAT1 (p-STAT1)/p-STAT3 ratios. We further found that serum miR-155 levels in breast cancer patients correlated with tumor miR-155 levels and tumor immune status. Our findings suggest that high serum and tumor miR-155 levels may be a favorable prognostic marker for breast cancer patients and that therapeutic elevation of miR-155 in breast tumors may improve the efficacy of ICB therapy via remodeling the antitumor immune landscape.

Sweetness is an important Baijiu quality marker, but there is limited research on it. In this study, the main contributors to Baijiu sweetness were identified by “sensomics” combined with “flavoromics”. A total of 43 volatile compounds (mostly esters) were found that appeared to contribute to Baijiu sweetness, through sensory-guided fractionation and compositional analysis. Correlation analysis between the volatile composition and perceived sweetness of 18 Baijiu samples with different sweet intensities identified 14 potential contributors. Additional testing verified that combining the 14 compounds reproduced Baijiu sweetness exactly, and omission testing identified ethyl hexanoate, hexyl hexanoate and ethyl 3-methylbutanoate as the major contributors to Baijiu sweetness. These findings not only broadened our understanding of Baijiu sweetness, but also highlighted the major contribution of volatile compounds to sweetness perception, knowledge which may facilitate future flavor modification of a wide variety of foods and beverages.

The aim of this study is to comprehensively investigate the aroma composition and sensory attributes of Vidal icewine fermented with four yeast strains (ST, K1, EC1118, and R2). A total of 485 kinds of volatile components were identified by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-time of flight mass spectrometry, among which 347 kinds of volatile compounds were the same in four kinds of sample. The heat map was conducted with 156 volatile compounds, which have aroma contributions, and the analysis results identified the characteristics of the aroma composition of icewine fermented with different yeasts. Quantitative descriptive analysis was performed with a trained panel to obtain the sensory profiles. The aroma attributes of honey and nut of the icewine fermented by R2 were much higher than others. Partial least squares discriminant analysis further provided 40 compounds that were mainly responsible for the differences of the aroma characteristics of the icewines fermented by four yeasts. This study provides more data on the current status of Vidal icewines by main commercial yeasts.

The calibration accuracy of the camera largely affects the accuracy of 3D measurement, so this paper researches on the calibration error of the binocular stereo camera, introduces the imaging model of the camera, conducts the experiment of calibration according to the principle of Zhang Zhengyou's calibration, and responds to the calibration accuracy by the reprojection error, the experimental results show that the calibration meets the requirements and the average error can reach 0.05pixels.

Nowadays, the influence of machine learning algorithms on our lives is booming gradually, and gradient descent (GD) method is a typical big data analysis method that can be applied to various machine learning algorithms. Traditional GD method has its advantages in dealing with the optimal parameter finding issue for partial loss functions, but the optimal parameter finding process may be trapped into local minimum sometimes if the loss function with certain convexity; moreover, traditional GD cannot meet the requirement of high accuracy. Fractional order GD, which is the core of fixed memory step GD, has better performance by comparing with traditional GD, but still have some problems in the aspect of convergence. On the other hand, t-distributed machine learning algorithm for dimensionality reduction, can reduce the dimensionality of data in high-dimensional space to two-dimensional or three-dimensional space, and can convert the original data into more comprehensible images. In order to solve the problem mentioned above reasonably, in this paper, a fixed-memory step GD method combined with t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) is employed to replace the traditional GD method, so as to keep the consistency of low-dimensional data being mapped from high-dimensional data, and to achieve efficient data visualization. The effectiveness of proposed t-SNE algorithm based on fixed memory step gradient descent method has been verified finally via numerical experiment.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) may act as oncogenes in small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). Exosomes containing lncRNAs released from cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF) accelerate tumorigenesis and confer chemoresistance. This study aimed to explore the action mechanism of the CAF-derived lncRNA maternally expressed gene 3 (MEG3) on cisplatin (DDP) chemoresistance and cell processes in SCLC.Quantitative real-time PCR was conducted to determine the expression levels of MEG3, miR-15a-5p, and CCNE1. Cell viability and metastasis were measured by 3-(4, 5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2, 5-diphenyl-2-h-tetrazolium bromide and invasion assays, respectively. A xenograft tumor model was developed to confirm the effect of MEG3 overexpression on SCLC progression in vivo. Relationships between miR-15a-5p and MEG3/CCNE1 were predicted using StarBase software and validated by dual luciferase reporter assay. Western blotting was used to determine protein levels. A co-culture model was established to explore the effects of exosomes on MEG3 expression in SCLC cell lines.MEG3 was overexpressed in SCLC tissues and cells. MEG3 silencing significantly repressed cell viability and metastasis in SCLC. High expression of MEG3 was observed in CAF-derived conditioned medium (CM) and exosomes, and promoted chemoresistance and cancer progression. Additionally, MEG3 was found to serve as a sponge of miR-15a-5p to mediate CCNE1 expression. Overexpression of miR-15a-5p and knockout of CCNE1 reversed the effects of MEG3 overexpression on cell viability and metastasis.MEG3 lncRNA released from CAF-derived exosomes promotes DDP chemoresistance via regulation of a miR-15a-5p/CCNE1 axis. These findings may provide insight into SCLC therapy.

Recent scientific evidence has suggested that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an important part in tumorigenesis as an important member of competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs). Hundreds of RNA sequence data and relevant clinic information are freely accessible in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) datasets. However, the role of cancer‐related lncRNAs in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is not fully understood yet. In this study, we identified 461 RNA sequencing data from TCGA. Subsequently, 45 lncRNAs, 21 miRNAs, and 78 mRNAs were chosen to construct a ceRNA network of PTC. Then, we analyzed the correlation between these 45 PTC‐specific lncRNAs and clinic features and patient outcome. Thirty‐seven of these lncRNAs were found to be closely related to age, race, gender, lymph node metastasis, TNM staging system, and patient outcome. Additionally, three of them were linked to PTC patient overall survival. Eventually, we selected eight lncRNAs randomly and performed quantificational real‐time polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR) in 28 newly diagnosed patients with PTC to verify the reliability of the above results. The results of qRT‐PCR are totally in agreement with the bioinformatics analysis. Additionally, it was found that HAND2‐AS1 was negatively related to tumor size (P

This paper proposes a path planning method for grinding excess material after PDC bit repair using industrial robots. Firstly, a 3D scanning instrument is used to obtain point cloud data of the bit to be ground, secondly, this data are imported into Geomagic Studio for processing to obtain the triangular sheet file of the area to be ground. Finally, the software based on MATLAB is used to process the file and calculate the motion path of the robot end-effector. The generated path is imported into ROS for simulation. By comparing the generated path with the grinding area, it was verified that the generated path could be used in actual operation.

Breast cancer has been identified as the most common malignant tumors among women and the morbidity of breast cancer is still increasing rapidly. MEX3A possesses important functions in the regulation of mRNAs and may be involved in a variety of human diseases including cancer, whose relationship with breast cancer is still not clear. In this study, MEX3A was identified as a potential promotor in breast cancer, whose expression was strongly higher in breast cancer tissues than normal tissues. The in vitro experiments showed that MEX3A is capable of promoting the development of breast cancer through stimulating cell proliferation, inhibiting cell apoptosis, arresting cell cycle and promoting cell migration. The functions of MEX3A were also verified in vivo. Furthermore, a combination of genechip analysis and Ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA) identified PIK3CA as a potential downstream target of MEX3A, knockdown of which executes similar inhibitory effects on breast cancer and could alleviate MEX3A-induced progression of breast cancer. In conclusion, our study unveiled, as the first time, MEX3A as a tumor promotor for breast cancer, whose function was carried out probably through the regulation of PIK3CA.

Anoectochilus roxburghii was grown under different shade treatments-50%, 30%, 20%, and 5% of natural irradiance-to evaluate its photosynthetic characteristics, chloroplast ultrastructure, and physiology. The highest net photosynthetic rates and stomatal conductance were observed under 30% irradiance, followed in descending order by 20%, 5%, and 50% treatments. As irradiance decreased from 50% to 30%, electron transport rate and photochemical quenching increased, while non-photochemical quenching indexes declined. Reductions in irradiance significantly increased Chl a and Chl b contents and decreased Chl a/b ratios. Chloroplast ultrastructure generally displayed the best development in leaves subjected to 30% irradiance. Under 50% irradiance, leaf protein content remained relatively stable during the first 20 days of treatment, and then increased rapidly. The highest peroxidase and superoxide dismutase levels, and the lowest catalase activities, were observed in plants subjected to the 50% irradiance treatment. Soluble sugar and malondialdehyde contents were positively correlated with irradiance levels. Modulation of chloroplast development, accomplished by increasing the number of thylakoids and grana containing photosynthetic pigments, is an important shade tolerance mechanism in A. roxburghii.