Aorta Fluorescence Imaging by Using Confocal Microscopy

The activated leukocyte attacked the vascular endothelium and the associated increase in VEcadherin number was observed in experiments. The confocal microscopic system with a prism-based wavelength filter was used for multiwavelength fluorescence measurement. Multiwavelength fluorescence imaging based on the VEcadherin within the aorta segment of a rat was achieved. The confocal microscopic system capable of fluorescence detection of cardiovascular tissue is a useful tool for measuring the biological properties in clinical applications

Fabrication of multianalyte CeO2 nanograin electrolyte–insulator–semiconductor biosensors by using CF4 plasma treatment

Multianalyte CeO2 biosensors have been demonstrated to detect pH, glucose, and urine concentrations. To enhance the multianalyte sensing capability of these biosensors, CF4 plasma treatment was applied to create nanograin structures on the CeO2 membrane surface and thereby increase the contact surface area. Multiple material analyses indicated that crystallization or grainization caused by the incorporation of flourine atoms during plasma treatment might be related to the formation of the nanograins. Because of the changes in surface morphology and crystalline structures, the multianalyte sensing performance was considerably enhanced. Multianalyte CeO2 nanograin electrolyte–insulator–semiconductor biosensors exhibit potential for use in future biomedical sensing device applications

A Reinforcement Learning Badminton Environment for Simulating Player Tactics (Student Abstract)

Recent techniques for analyzing sports precisely has stimulated various approaches to improve player performance and fan engagement. However, existing approaches are only able to evaluate offline performance since testing in real-time matches requires exhaustive costs and cannot be replicated. To test in a safe and reproducible simulator, we focus on turn-based sports and introduce a badminton environment by simulating rallies with different angles of view and designing the states, actions, and training procedures. This benefits not only coaches and players by simulating past matches for tactic investigation, but also researchers from rapidly evaluating their novel algorithms.Comment: Accepted by AAAI 2023 Student Abstract, code is available at https://github.com/wywyWang/CoachAI-Projects/tree/main/Strategic%20Environmen

Functional Effects of let-7g Expression in Colon Cancer Metastasis.

MicroRNA regulation is crucial for gene expression and cell functions. It has been linked to tumorigenesis, development and metastasis in colorectal cancer (CRC). Recently, the let-7 family has been identified as a tumor suppressor in different types of cancers. However, the function of the let-7 family in CRC metastasis has not been fully investigated. Here, we focused on analyzing the role of let-7g in CRC. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) genomic datasets of CRC and detailed data from a Taiwanese CRC cohort were applied to study the expression pattern of let-7g. In addition, in vitro as well as in vivo studies have been performed to uncover the effects of let-7g on CRC. We found that the expression of let-7g was significantly lower in CRC specimens. Our results further supported the inhibitory effects of let-7g on CRC cell migration, invasion and extracellular calcium influx through store-operated calcium channels. We report a critical role for let-7g in the pathogenesis of CRC and suggest let-7g as a potential therapeutic target for CRC treatment

Void Structures in Regularly Patterned ZnO Nanorods Grown with the Hydrothermal Method

The void structures and related optical properties after thermal annealing with ambient oxygen in regularly patterned ZnO nanrorod (NR) arrays grown with the hydrothermal method are studied. In increasing the thermal annealing temperature, void distribution starts from the bottom and extends to the top of an NR in the vertical (c-axis) growth region. When the annealing temperature is higher than 400°C, void distribution spreads into the lateral (m-axis) growth region. Photoluminescence measurement shows that the ZnO band-edge emission, in contrast to defect emission in the yellow-red range, is the strongest under the n-ZnO NR process conditions of 0.003 M in Ga-doping concentration and 300°C in thermal annealing temperature with ambient oxygen. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy data indicate that the concentration of hydroxyl groups in the vertical growth region is significantly higher than that in the lateral growth region. During thermal annealing, hydroxyl groups are desorbed from the NR leaving anion vacancies for reacting with cation vacancies to form voids

CpG-binding protein CFP1 promotes ovarian cancer cell proliferation by regulating BST2 transcription

Epigenetic alterations have been functionally linked to ovarian cancer development and occurrence. The CXXC zinc finger protein 1 (CFP1) is an epigenetic regulator involved in DNA methylation and histone modification in mammalian cells. However, its role in ovarian cancer cells is unknown. Here, we show that CFP1 protein is highly expressed in human ovarian cancer tissues. Loss of CFP1 inhibited the growth of human ovarian cancer cells, promoted apoptosis, and increased senescence. CFP1 knockdown resulted in reduced levels of SETD1 (a CFP1 partner) and histone H3 trimethylation at the fourth lysine residue (H3K4me3). RNA-sequencing revealed that deletion of CFP1 resulted in mRNA reduction of bone marrow stromal cell antigen 2 (BST2). Bioinformatics analysis and chromatin immunoprecipitation showed that CFP1 binds to the promoter of BST2 and regulates its transcription directly. Overexpression of BST2 rescued the growth inhibitory effect of CFP1 loss. Furthermore, depletion of cullin-RING ubiquitin ligases 4 (CRL4) components ROC1 or CUL4A had significantly inhibited the expression of CFP1 and BST2 similar to MLN4924 treatment that blocked cullin neddylation and inactivated CRL4s. In conclusion, CFP1 promotes ovarian cancer cell proliferation and apoptosis by regulating the transcription of BST2, and the expression of CFP1 was affected by CRL4 ubiquitin ligase complex

Characterization of Aniline Tetramer by MALDI TOF Mass Spectrometry upon Oxidative and Reductive Cycling.

By combining electrochemical experiments with mass spectrometric analysis, it is found that using short chain oligomers to improve the cycling stability of conducting polymers in supercapacitors is still problematic. Cycling tests via cyclic voltammetry over a potential window of 0 to 1.0 V or 0 to 1.2 V in a two-electrode device configuration resulted in solid-state electropolymerization and chain scission. Electropolymerization of the aniline tetramer to generate long chain oligomers is shown to be possible despite the suggested decrease in reactivity and increase in intermediate stability with longer oligomers. Because aniline oligomers are more stable towards reductive cycling when compared to oxidative cycling, future conducting polymer/oligomer-based pseudocapacitors should consider using an asymmetric electrode configuration

The effect of internal pressure on the tetragonal to monoclinic structural phase transition in ReOFeAs: the case of NdOFeAs

We report the temperature dependent x-ray powder diffraction of the quaternary compound NdOFeAs (also called NdFeAsO) in the range between 300 K and 95 K. We have detected the structural phase transition from the tetragonal phase, with P4/nmm space group, to the orthorhombic or monoclinic phase, with Cmma or P112/a1 (or P2/c) space group, over a broad temperature range from 150 K to 120 K, centered at T0 ~137 K. Therefore the temperature of this structural phase transition is strongly reduced, by about ~30K, by increasing the internal chemical pressure going from LaOFeAs to NdOFeAs. In contrast the superconducting critical temperature increases from 27 K to 51 K going from LaOFeAs to NdOFeAs doped samples. This result shows that the normal striped orthorhombic Cmma phase competes with the superconducting tetragonal phase. Therefore by controlling the internal chemical pressure in new materials it should be possible to push toward zero the critical temperature T0 of the structural phase transition, giving the striped phase, in order to get superconductors with higher Tc.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

Targeting glutaminase is therapeutically effective in ibrutinib-resistant mantle cell lymphoma

Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is an incurable B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma characterized by frequent relapses. The development of resistance to ibrutinib therapy remains a major challenge in MCL. We previously showed that glutaminolysis is associated with resistance to ibrutinib. In this study, we confirmed that glutaminase (GLS), the first enzyme in glutaminolysis, is overexpressed in ibrutinib-resistant MCL cells, and that its expression correlates well with elevated glutamine dependency and glutaminolysis. Furthermore, we discovered that GLS expression correlates with MYC expression and the functioning of the glutamine transporter ASCT2. Depletion of glutamine or GLS significantly reduced cell growth, while GLS overexpression enhanced glutamine dependency and ibrutinib resistance. Consistent with this, GLS inhibition by its specific inhibitor telaglenastat suppressed MCL cell growth both in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, telaglenastat showed anti-MCL synergy when combined with ibrutinib or venetoclax in vitro, which was confirmed using an MCL patient-derived xenograft model. Our study provides the first evidence that targeting GLS with telaglenastat, alone or in combination with ibrutinib or venetoclax, is a promising strategy to overcome ibrutinib resistance in MCL