A Study on the Cultivation of Primary School Students’ Cross-cultural Awareness—Based on the Schema Theory

The cultivation of cross-cultural awareness for primary students is a key point in the English class. Apart from the traditional method, schema theory will be a new way for it. This paper investigates the current situation of primary school and analyses the problems in class. It explores the effective methods under the schema theory and provides relevant suggestions

Vasculogenic mimicry contributes to lymph node metastasis of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Survival of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) patients has remained unchanged over recent years due to its uncontrolled recurrence and local lymph node metastasis. Vasculogenic mimicry (VM) is an alternative type of blood supplement related to more aggressive tumor biology and increased tumor-related mortality. This study aimed to investigate the unique role of VM in the progression of LSCC.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We reviewed clinical pathological data of 203 cases of LSCC both prospectively and retrospectively. VM and endothelium-dependent vessel (EDV) were detected by immunohistochemistry and double staining to compare their different clinical pathological significance in LSCC. Survival analyses were performed to assess their prognostic significance as well.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Both VM and EDV existed in LSCC type of blood supply. VM is related to pTNM stage, lymph node metastasis and pathology grade. In contrust, EDV related to location, pTNM stage, T stage and distant metastasis. Univariate analysis showed VM, pTNM stage, T classification, nodal status, histopathological grade, tumor size, and radiotherapy to be related to overall survival (OS). While, VM, location, tumor size and radiotherapy were found to relate to disease free survival (DFS). Multivariate analysis indicated that VM, but not EDV, was an adverse predictor for both OS and DFS.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>VM existed in LSCC. It contributed to the progression of LSCC by promoting lymph node metastasis. It is an independent predictors of a poor prognosis of LSCC.</p

Effects of Anacetrapib in Patients with Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease

BACKGROUND: Patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease remain at high risk for cardiovascular events despite effective statin-based treatment of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. The inhibition of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) by anacetrapib reduces LDL cholesterol levels and increases high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels. However, trials of other CETP inhibitors have shown neutral or adverse effects on cardiovascular outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 30,449 adults with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive atorvastatin therapy and who had a mean LDL cholesterol level of 61 mg per deciliter (1.58 mmol per liter), a mean non-HDL cholesterol level of 92 mg per deciliter (2.38 mmol per liter), and a mean HDL cholesterol level of 40 mg per deciliter (1.03 mmol per liter). The patients were assigned to receive either 100 mg of anacetrapib once daily (15,225 patients) or matching placebo (15,224 patients). The primary outcome was the first major coronary event, a composite of coronary death, myocardial infarction, or coronary revascularization. RESULTS: During the median follow-up period of 4.1 years, the primary outcome occurred in significantly fewer patients in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (1640 of 15,225 patients [10.8%] vs. 1803 of 15,224 patients [11.8%]; rate ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval, 0.85 to 0.97; P=0.004). The relative difference in risk was similar across multiple prespecified subgroups. At the trial midpoint, the mean level of HDL cholesterol was higher by 43 mg per deciliter (1.12 mmol per liter) in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (a relative difference of 104%), and the mean level of non-HDL cholesterol was lower by 17 mg per deciliter (0.44 mmol per liter), a relative difference of -18%. There were no significant between-group differences in the risk of death, cancer, or other serious adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive statin therapy, the use of anacetrapib resulted in a lower incidence of major coronary events than the use of placebo. (Funded by Merck and others; Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN48678192 ; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01252953 ; and EudraCT number, 2010-023467-18 .)

DETECTION AND EMPHATIC REALIZATION OF CONTRASTIVE WORD PAIRS FOR EXPRESSIVE TEXT-TO-SPEECH SYNTHESIS

This paper addresses the problem of automatic detection of contrastive word pairs and their acoustic realization in emphasis for expressive text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis in English. Support vector machines (SVMs) have been used to automatically detect contrastive word pairs from lexical features, syntactic dependencies and semantic relations. A much better performance is achieved by adding accent ratio and word identity features. Hidden Markov model (HMM) based speech synthesis is then used to generate emphatic speeches by putting emphasis on the detected contrastive word pairs. Subjective experiments show that most of the listeners consider putting emphasis on contrastive word pairs is more acceptable than on non-contrastive word pairs. This indicates the importance of the accurate detection of contrastive word pairs. Index Terms — contrast, expressive text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis, support vector machines (SVMs), hidden Markov model (HMM) based speech synthesis 1

Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition Regulated by EphA2 Contributes to Vasculogenic Mimicry Formation of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Purpose. Vasculogenic mimicry (VM) was related to invasion and metastasis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients. This study was designed to investigate the role of EphA2 in VM formation of HNSCC. Methods. The SiRNA technique was used to knock down the expression of EphA2 in vitro. The ability of cell migration and invasion were measured by transwell and wound healing assays; three-dimensional culture was used to detect the ability of channel-like structure formation; Western blot was used to detect the expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition- (EMT-) related molecules in vitro. Further semiquantitative real-time RT-PCR assays and immunohistochemistry were used to demonstrate expression of EphA2 and EMT-related molecules according to VM presence or not in human tissue. Results. Knocking down EphA2 in vitro leads to disabled channel-like structure formation, reduction of invasion and migration ability, and reverse of EMT-related markers. Both semiquantitative real-time RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry showed that expressions of EphA2, Twist, and Vimentin were higher in the VM-positive group than in the VM-negative group significantly, while expressions of E-cadherin, claudin4, and DSG-3 were reverse. Conclusions. EphA2 played a key role in VM formation of HNSCC through regulation of EMT

Gene expression in developmental stages of Schistosoma japonicum provides further insight into the importance of the Schistosome insulin-like peptide

We showed previously that the Schistosoma japonicum insulin-like peptide (SjILP) binds the worm insulin receptors, thereby, activating the parasite's insulin pathway and emphasizing its important role in regulating uptake of glucose, a nutrient essential for parasite survival. Here we show that SjILP is differentially expressed in the schistosome life cycle and is especially highly transcribed in eggs, miracidia, and adult female worms. RNA inference was employed to knockdown SjILP in adults in vitro, with suppression confirmed by significantly reduced protein production, declined adenosine diphosphate levels, and reduction in glucose consumption. Immunolocalization showed that SjILP is located to lateral gland cells of mature intra-ovular miracidia in the schistosome egg, and is distributed on the ciliated epithelium and internal cell masses of newly transformed miracidia. In schistosomula, SjILP is present on the tegument in two antero-lateral points, indicating highly polarized expression during cercarial transformation. Analysis of serum from S. japonicum-infected mice by ELISA using a recombinant form of SjILP as an antigen revealed IgG immunoreactivity to this molecule at 7 weeks post-infection indicating it is likely secreted from mature eggs into the host circulation. These findings provide further insights on ILP function in schistosomes and its essential roles in parasite survival and growth in different development stages