Highly frequent promoter methylation and PIK3CA amplification in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Genetic and epigenetic alterations have been identified frequently in lung cancer, such as promoter methylation, gene mutations and genomic amplification. However, the interaction between genetic and epigenetic events and their significance in lung tumorigenesis remains poorly understood.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We determined the promoter methylation of 6 genes and <it>PIK3CA </it>amplification using quantitative methylation-specific PCR (Q-MSP) and real-time quantitative PCR, respectively, and explore the association of promoter methylation with <it>PIK3CA </it>amplification in a large cohort of clinically well-characterized non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Highly frequent promoter methylation was observed in NSCLC. With 100% diagnostic specificity, excellent sensitivity, ranging from 45.8 to 84.1%, was found for each of the 6 genes. The promoter methylation was associated with histologic type. Methylation of <it>CALCA, CDH1, DAPK1</it>, and <it>EVX2 </it>was more common in squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) compared to adenocarcinomas (ADC). Conversely, there was a trend toward a higher frequency of <it>RASSF1A </it>methylation in ADC than SCC. In addition, <it>PIK3CA </it>amplification was frequently found in NSCLC, and was associated with certain clinicopathologic features, such as smoking history, histologic type and pleural indentation. Importantly, aberrant promoter methylation of certain genes was significantly associated with <it>PIK3CA </it>amplification.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our data showed highly frequent promoter methylation and <it>PIK3CA </it>amplification in Chinese NSCLC population, and first demonstrated the associations of gene methylation with <it>PIK3CA </it>amplification, suggesting that these epigenetic events may be a consequence of overactivation of PI3K/Akt pathway.</p

Study on rapid detection of degree of freshness of paddy rice in China: Poster

This paper describes research results and progress of rapid detection of the degree of freshness of paddy. We studied the changes of degree of freshness, fat acidity value and taste evaluated value of paddy under different storage conditions in the laboratory. The correlations between the degree of freshness, fat acidity value and taste evaluated value were analyzed. The results showed that there was a significant negative correlation (p &lt; 0.01) between the degree of freshnessand fat acidity value. The correlation coefficient was -0.845. The degree of freshness was significantly positively correlated with the taste evaluated value, and most of the correlation coefficients were above 0.9. The nationwide investigation result of paddy’s degree of freshness showed that there was an obvious distinction in the degree of freshness between newly harvested rice and rice harvested in previous years. The degree of distinction of indica rice achieved 85%. Due to its special reasons, japonica rice had a lower degree of distinction, but it also reached 75%.This paper describes research results and progress of rapid detection of the degree of freshness of paddy. We studied the changes of degree of freshness, fat acidity value and taste evaluated value of paddy under different storage conditions in the laboratory. The correlations between the degree of freshness, fat acidity value and taste evaluated value were analyzed. The results showed that there was a significant negative correlation (p &lt; 0.01) between the degree of freshnessand fat acidity value. The correlation coefficient was -0.845. The degree of freshness was significantly positively correlated with the taste evaluated value, and most of the correlation coefficients were above 0.9. The nationwide investigation result of paddy’s degree of freshness showed that there was an obvious distinction in the degree of freshness between newly harvested rice and rice harvested in previous years. The degree of distinction of indica rice achieved 85%. Due to its special reasons, japonica rice had a lower degree of distinction, but it also reached 75%

Transcriptomics of Gabra4 knockout mice reveals common NMDAR pathways underlying autism, memory, and epilepsy

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neuronal developmental disorder with impaired social interaction and communication, often with abnormal intelligence and comorbidity with epilepsy. Disturbances in synaptic transmission, including the GABAergic, glutamatergic, and serotonergic systems, are known to be involved in the pathogenesis of this disorder, yet we do not know if there is a common molecular mechanism. As mutations in the GABAergic receptor subunit gene GABRA4 are reported in patients with ASD, we eliminated the Gabra4 gene in mice and found that the Gabra4 knockout mice showed autistic-like behavior, enhanced spatial memory, and attenuated susceptibility to pentylenetetrazol-induced seizures, a constellation of symptoms resembling human high-functioning autism. To search for potential molecular pathways involved in these phenotypes, we performed a hippocampal transcriptome profiling, constructed a hippocampal interactome network, and revealed an upregulation of the NMDAR system at the center of the converged pathways underlying high-functioning autism-like and anti-epilepsy phenotypes

Mitigation Effect of Carbon Emission Tax in Dairy Farming: An Empirical Study of Heilongjiang Province in China

From a production perspective, this study evaluates the mitigation effect of a carbon emission tax (CET) on dairy farming in Heilongjiang Province. The marginal analysis method is used in the paper. The total cost and operation cost are respectively considered in the long and short run. We have five types of CETs and four scales of dairy farming. A CET is levied on milk, the main dairy product. We investigate the marginal costs and benefits of different scales and simulate the exit rates and mitigations. We conclude that 30 yuan/t CO2e is the suitable CET, leading to the mitigation of 0.79% with the cost of 0.17% revenue loss. The heterogeneity of marginal cost (MC) of each scale is a major factor affecting the exit rate, rather than the average MC. We also find there is a larger mitigation response in long run, and economies of scale are effective in resisting the CET. The revenue of CET can subsidize low-carbon dairy farms and silage, which will promote biogas digester engineering and harmless treatment of manure

On the \textit{WM} points of Orlicz function spaces endowed with Orlicz norm

In this paper, we introduce the concept of \textit{WM} point and obtain the criterion of \textit{WM} points for Orlicz function spaces endowed with Orlicz norm and the criterion of \textit{WM} property for Orlicz space

γδ T Cells Promote a Th1 Response during Coxsackievirus B3 Infection In Vivo: Role of Fas and Fas Ligand

Fas/Fas ligand (FasL) interactions regulate disease outcome in coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3)-induced myocarditis. MRL(+/+) mice infected with CVB3 develop severe myocarditis, a dominant CD4(+) Th1 (gamma interferon [IFN-γ(+)]) response to the virus, and a predominance of γδ T cells in the myocardial infiltrates. MRL lpr/lpr and MRL gld/gld mice, which lack normal expression of Fas and express a mutated FasL, respectively, have minimal myocarditis and show a dominant CD4(+) Th2 (interleukin-4 [IL-4(+)]) phenotype to CVB3. Spleen cells from virus-infected wild-type, lpr, and gld animals proliferate equally to virus in vitro. Adoptive transfer of γδ T cells from hearts of CVB3-infected MRL(+/+) mice (FasL(+)) into infected MRL gld/gld recipients (FasL(−)/Fas(+)) restores both disease susceptibility and Th1 cell phenotype. However, transfer of these cells into MRL lpr/lpr recipients (FasL(+)/Fas(−)) did not promote myocarditis and the viral response remained Th2 biased. This paralleled the expression of very high surface levels of FasL by myocardial γδ T cells, as well as their propensity to selectively lyse Th2 virus-specific CD4(+) T cells. These results demonstrate that Fas/FasL interactions conferred by γδ Τ cells on lymphocyte subpopulations may regulate the cytokine response to CVB3 infection and pathogenicity

IC-SNN: Optimal ANN2SNN Conversion at Low Latency

The spiking neural network (SNN) has attracted the attention of many researchers because of its low energy consumption and strong bionics. However, when the network conversion method is used to solve the difficulty of network training caused by its discrete, too-long inference time, it may hinder the practical application of SNN. This paper proposes a novel model named the SNN with Initialized Membrane Potential and Coding Compensation (IC-SNN) to solve this problem. The model focuses on the effect of residual membrane potential and rate encoding on the target SNN. After analyzing the conversion error and the information loss caused by the encoding method under the low time step, we propose a new initial membrane potential setting method and coding compensation scheme. The model can enable the network to still achieve high accuracy under a low number of time steps by eliminating residual membrane potential and encoding errors in the SNN. Finally, experimental results based on public datasets CIFAR10 and CIFAR100 also demonstrate that the model can still achieve competitive classification accuracy in 32 time steps

PTRNet: Global Feature and Local Feature Encoding for Point Cloud Registration

Existing end-to-end cloud registration methods are often inefficient and susceptible to noise. We propose an end-to-end point cloud registration network model, Point Transformer for Registration Network (PTRNet), that considers local and global features to improve this behavior. Our model uses point clouds as inputs and applies a Transformer method to extract their global features. Using a K-Nearest Neighbor (K-NN) topology, our method then encodes the local features of a point cloud and integrates them with the global features to obtain the point cloud’s strong global features. Comparative experiments using the ModelNet40 data set show that our method offers better results than other methods, with a mean square error (MSE), root mean square error (RMSE), and mean absolute error (MAE) between the ground truth and predicted values lower than those of competing methods. In the case of multi-object class without noise, the rotation average absolute error of PTRNet is reduced to 1.601 degrees and the translation average absolute error is reduced to 0.005 units. Compared to other recent end-to-end registration methods and traditional point cloud registration methods, the PTRNet method has less error, higher registration accuracy, and better robustness

Effect of the smartphone application on caesarean section in women with overweight and obesity: a randomized controlled trial in China

Abstract Background The rate of caesarean section (CS) is increasing worldwide. While a CS can be life-saving when medically indicated, it can cause adverse health effects for both women and children. This trial aims to evaluate the effect of the smartphone application, which aims to control the gestational weight gain, on the rate of CS in overweight and obese women. Methods Overweight and obese primiparas (BMI ≥ 24 kg/m2) with age between 20 and 40 years old were recruited at Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, and randomly assigned into the intervention group (143 cases) and the control group (138 cases). The intervention group applied the smartphone application (App) to control gestational weight gain in addition to the usual care, and the control group received the usual care. Primary outcome was cesarean section (CS) rate. Secondary outcomes included gestational hypertension, preeclampsia and eclampsia, gestational diabetes mellitus, postpartum hemorrhage, neonatal asphyxia, and macrosomia. Results There was a significant difference in CS rate, with 53.3% in the intervention group and 65.4% in the control group (P = 0.044). The difference still exists in the overweight subgroup (32.6% vs. 55.6%, P = 0.04), but disappears in the obesity subgroup (63.0% vs. 69.1%, P = 0.381). The median of gestational weight gain (GWG) of the intervention group is 8.5 kg (IQR 5.5, 11.0), which is significantly less than that of the control group (median 10.0 kg, IQR [6.0, 14.0], P = 0.008). The intervention group has significantly lower rate of postpartum hemorrhage (5.19%) than the control group (12%) (P = 0.045). There were no significant differences between the groups in gestational hypertension, gestational diabetes mellitus, neonatal asphyxia, and macrosomia. Conclusion The smartphone assisted weight control may help reduce CS rate. The effects of the smartphone application might be via the management of gestational weight gain. Trail registration This trial was registered at Chinese Clinical Trial Registry. Registration number is ChiCTR2300068845 (retrospectively registered, 01/03/2023)