Is cloud computing the digital solution to the future of banking?

Acknowledgment: We express our thanks to the editors and anonymous referees for their constructive comments and suggestions, which have helped us significantly improve this paper. We have benefitted from discussions with colleagues and participants of different seminars/workshops in China and the UK. All remaining errors are our own. This research is financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (72173036, 71973148) and the Chinese National Funding of Social Sciences (19CJY065).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Interval Oscillation Criteria for a Class of Fractional Differential Equations with Damping Term

Some new interval oscillation criteria are established based on the certain Riccati transformation and inequality technique for a class of fractional differential equations with damping term. For illustrating the validity of the established results, we also present some applications for them

Detection of various fusion genes by one-step RT-PCR and the association with clinicopathological features in 242 cases of soft tissue tumor

Introduction: Over the past decades, an increasing number of chromosomal translocations have been found in different STSs, which not only has value for clinical diagnosis but also suggests the pathogenesis of STS. Fusion genes can be detected by FISH, RT-PCR, and next-generation sequencing. One-step RT-PCR is a convenient method to detect fusion genes with higher sensitivity and lower cost.Method: In this study, 242 cases of soft tissue tumors were included, which were detected by one-step RT-PCR in multicenter with seven types of tumors: rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), peripheral primitive neuroectodermal tumor (pPNET), synovial sarcoma (SS), myxoid liposarcomas (MLPS), alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS), dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP), and soft tissue angiofibroma (AFST). 18 cases detected by one-step RT-PCR were further tested by FISH. One case with novel fusion gene detected by RNA-sequencing was further validated by one-step RT-PCR.Results: The total positive rate of fusion genes was 60% (133/213) in the 242 samples detected by one-step RT-PCR, in which 29 samples could not be evaluated because of poor RNA quality. The positive rate of PAX3–FOXO1 was 88.6% (31/35) in alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, EWSR1–FLI1 was 63% (17/27) in pPNET, SYT–SSX was 95.4% in SS (62/65), ASPSCR1–TFE3 was 100% in ASPS (10/10), FUS–DDIT3 was 80% in MLPS (4/5), and COL1A1–PDGFB was 66.7% in DFSP (8/12). For clinicopathological parameters, fusion gene status was correlated with age and location in 213 cases. The PAX3–FOXO1 fusion gene status was correlated with lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis in RMS. Furthermore, RMS patients with positive PAX3–FOXO1 fusion gene had a significantly shorter overall survival time than those patients with the negative fusion gene. Among them, the FISH result of 18 cases was concordant with one-step RT-PCR. As detected as the most common fusion types of AHRR–NCOA2 in one case of AFST were detected as negative by one-step RT-PCR. RNA-sequencing was used to determine the fusion genes, and a novel fusion gene PTCH1–PLAG1 was found. Moreover, the fusion gene was confirmed by one-step RT-PCR.Conclusion: Our study indicates that one-step RT-PCR displays a reliable tool to detect fusion genes with the advantage of high accuracy and low cost. Moreover, it is a great tool to identify novel fusion genes. Overall, it provides useful information for molecular pathological diagnosis and improves the diagnosis rate of STSs

The establishment and application of a dual Nano-PCR detection method for feline calicivirus and feline herpesvirus type I

Feline calicivirus (FCV) and Feline herpesvirus type I (FHV-I) are the main pathogens causing upper respiratory tract infections in cats, and some wild animals. These two viruses always coinfection and cause serious harm to pet industry and wild animals protection. Established a rapid and accurate differential diagnosis method is crucial for prevention and control of disease, however, the current main detection method for these two viruses, either is low sensitivity (immunochromatographic strip), or is time-consuming and cannot differential diagnosis (conventional single PCR). Nanoparticle-assisted polymerase chain reaction (Nano-PCR) is a recently developed technique for rapid detection method of virus and bacteria. In this study, we described a dual Nano-PCR assay through combining the nanotechnology and PCR technology, which for the clinical simultaneous detection of FCV and FHV-I and differential diagnosis of upper respiratory tract infections in cats or other animals. Under optimized conditions, the optimal annealing temperature for dual Nano-PCR was 51.5°C, and specificity test results showed it had no cross reactivity to related virus, such as feline panleukopenia virus (FPV), feline Infectious peritonitis virus (FIPV) and rabies virus (RABV). Furthermore, the detection limit of dual Nano-PCR for FCV and FHV-I both were 1 × 10−8 ng/μL, convert to number of copies of virus DNA was 6.22 × 103copies/μL (FCV) and 2.81 × 103copies/μL (FHV-I), respectively. The dual Nano-PCR detected result of 52 cat clinical samples, including ocular, nasal and faecal swabs, and (3 FCV-positive samples), was consistent with ordinary PCR and the clinical detection results. The dual Nano-PCR method established in this study with strong specificity and high sensitivity can be used for virus nucleic acid (FCV and FHV-I) detection of clinical samples of feline upper respiratory tract infections feline calicivirus and feline herpesvirus while providing support for the early diagnosis of cats that infected by FCV and FHV-I

A two years longitudinal study of a transgenic Huntington disease monkey

BACKGROUND: A two-year longitudinal study composed of morphometric MRI measures and cognitive behavioral evaluation was performed on a transgenic Huntington’s disease (HD) monkey. rHD1, a transgenic HD monkey expressing exon 1 of the human gene encoding huntingtin (HTT) with 29 CAG repeats regulated by a human polyubiquitin C promoter was used together with four age-matched wild-type control monkeys. This is the first study on a primate model of human HD based on longitudinal clinical measurements. RESULTS: Changes in striatal and hippocampal volumes in rHD1 were observed with progressive impairment in motor functions and cognitive decline, including deficits in learning stimulus-reward associations, recognition memory and spatial memory. The results demonstrate a progressive cognitive decline and morphometric changes in the striatum and hippocampus in a transgenic HD monkey. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study on a primate model of human HD based on longitudinal clinical measurements. While this study is based a single HD monkey, an ongoing longitudinal study with additional HD monkeys will be important for the confirmation of our findings. A nonhuman primate model of HD could complement other animal models of HD to better understand the pathogenesis of HD and future development of diagnostics and therapeutics through longitudinal assessment

NudC L279P Mutation Destabilizes Filamin A by Inhibiting the Hsp90 Chaperoning Pathway and Suppresses Cell Migration

Filamin A, the first discovered non-muscle actin filament cross-linking protein, plays a crucial role in regulating cell migration that participates in diverse cellular and developmental processes. However, the regulatory mechanism of filamin A stability remains unclear. Here, we find that nuclear distribution gene C (NudC), a cochaperone of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90), is required to stabilize filamin A in mammalian cells. Immunoprecipitation-mass spectrometry and western blotting analyses reveal that NudC interacts with filamin A. Overexpression of human NudC-L279P (an evolutionarily conserved mutation in NudC that impairs its chaperone activity) not only decreases the protein level of filamin A but also results in actin disorganization and the suppression of cell migration. Ectopic expression of filamin A is able to reverse these defects induced by the overexpression of NudC-L279P. Furthermore, Hsp90 forms a complex with filamin A. The inhibition of Hsp90 ATPase activity by either geldanamycin or radicicol decreases the protein stability of filamin A. In addition, ectopic expression of Hsp90 efficiently restores NudC-L279P overexpression-induced protein stability and functional defects of filamin A. Taken together, these data suggest NudC L279P mutation destabilizes filamin A by inhibiting the Hsp90 chaperoning pathway and suppresses cell migration