Functions of deleted in liver cancer (DLC1) in cell dynamics

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

The metaphoric nature of the ordinal position effect

Serial orders are thought to be spatially represented in working memory: The beginning items in the memorised sequence are associated with the left side of space and the ending items are associated with the right side of space. However, the origin of this ordinal position effect has remained unclear. It was suggested that the direction of serial order–space interaction is related to the reading/writing experience. An alternative hypothesis is that it originates from the “more is right”/“more is up” spatial metaphors we use in daily life. We can adjudicate between the two viewpoints in Chinese readers; they read left-to-right but also have a culturally ancient top-to-bottom reading/writing direction. Thus, the reading/writing viewpoint predicts no or a top-to-bottom effect in serial order–space interaction; whereas the spatial metaphor theory predicts a clear bottom-to-top effect. We designed four experiments to investigate this issue. First, we found a left-to-right ordinal position effect, replicating results obtained in Western populations. However, the vertical ordinal position effect was in the bottom-to-top direction; moreover, it was modulated by hand position (e.g., left hand bottom or up). We suggest that order–space interactions may originate from different sources and are driven by metaphoric comprehension, which itself may ground cognitive processing

“Diminishing returns” and leaf area-biomass scaling of ferns in subtropical ecosystems

Foliage leaves are the primary photosynthetic organ of the majority of vascular plants, and their area vs. biomass scaling relationships provide valuable insights into the capacity and investment in light interception, which is critical to plant growth and performance. The “diminishing returns” hypothesis (DRH), which is based primarily on data from gymnosperms and angiosperms, posits that leaf (lamina) area scales with leaf dry mass. on average with a scaling exponent less than 1.0. However, it remains uncertain whether DRH applies to ferns or whether ecological factors affect the scaling exponents governing fern leaf morphometrics. To address this issue, 182 individuals of 28 subtropical ferns species were studied at low, medium, and high elevations (i.e., 600 m, 900 m, and 1200 m, respectively) in Mount Wuyi National Park, Jiangxi Province, China. The scaling relationships between leaf area and leaf biomass for individual and total leaf of ferns at different elevations were examined by using standardized major axis regression protocols. Analyses of the 28 fern species (using Blomberg K-value protocols) indicated no phylogenetic biases among the species compositions of the three different elevations. In addition, at the individual plant level, individual leaf area (ILA) did not differ significantly among the three different elevations (P > 0.05). However, individual leaf mass (ILM) was significantly higher at 900m than at 1200m (P < 0.05), resulting in a significantly higher leaf mass per area (LMA) at the 900m elevation than at the 600m and 1200m elevations (P < 0.05). The ILA and ILM at the 900m elevation were significantly higher than at the 600m elevation (P < 0.05). At the species level, ILA and ILM did not differ significantly among the three elevations (P > 0.05). The total leaf area per individual (TLA) did not differ significantly across the different elevations (P > 0.05). However, total leaf mass per individual (TLM) did differ significantly (P < 0.05). At the individual plant level, the scaling exponents for ILA vs. ILM and TLA vs. TLM at the three different elevations were all significantly less than 1.0 (P < 0.05), which was consistent with the DRH. At the species level, the scaling exponents for the ILA vs. ILM were significantly less than 1.0 at the middle and high elevations, but not at the low elevation. The scaling exponents of the TLA and TLM were numerically highest in the middle elevation, and all were less than 1.0 for the three elevations. These results indicate that the scaling relationships of leaf area versus mass of subtropical ferns at different elevations support the DRH hypothesis. The study further informs our understanding of the resource allocation strategies of an ancient and diverse plant lineage

Temperature-controlled electrospinning of EVOH nanofibre mats encapsulated with Ag, CuO, and ZnO particles for skin wound dressing

To treat skin burns, a new wound dressing, nanofibre mats with metal or metal oxide nanoparticles (Ag, CuO, and ZnO), was fabricated using the electrospinning technique. During a therapeutic process, the antibacterial ability and bio-compatibility of a new dressing material are of major concern. To expound the characteristics of ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) nanofibre mats encapsulated with metal or metal oxide nanoparticles, denoted as Ag-EVOH, CuO-EVOH, and ZnO-EVOH, for use as new wound dressing materials, we investigated the suitable processing parameters to fabricate these materials, such as the voltage, tip-to-collector distance, concentration of the solution, and effect of environmental temperature. The antibacterial ability and bio-compatibility of Ag-EVOH, CuO-EVOH, and ZnO-EVOH were then tested and quantified. The outcomes show that the most suitable temperature for the fabrication of the materials is 40 °C (±3 °C). The antibacterial experiment results indicate that 0.08 g/ml of metal/metallic oxide shows the highest antibacterial ability toward Staphylococcus aureus. Furthermore, the largest diameters of the bacteriostatic loops of the three types of nanofibre mats, i.e. Ag-EVOH, CuO-EVOH, and ZnO-EVOH, are 5.89, 5.21, and 4.12 mm, respectively. Finally, the cell proliferations on the three nanofibre mats show a similar growth trend

c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase activation is essential for up-regulation of LC3 during ceramide-induced autophagy in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Autophagy is a dynamic catabolic process characterized by the formation of double membrane vacuoles termed autophagosomes. LC3, a homologue of yeast Atg8, takes part in autophagosome formation, but the exact regulation mechanism of LC3 still needs to be elucidated.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Ceramide-induced autophagy was determined by detecting LC3 expression with Western blotting and confocal microscopy in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell lines CNE2 and SUNE1. The activation of JNK pathway was assessed by Western blotting for phospho-specific forms of JNK and c-Jun. The JNK activity specific inhibitor, SP600125, and siRNA directed against JNK were used to block JNK/c-Jun pathway. ChIP and luciferase reporter analysis were applied to determine whether c-Jun was involved in the regulation of LC3 transcription.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Ceramide-treated cells exhibited the characteristics of autophagy and JNK pathway activation. Inhibition of JNK pathway could block the ceramide-induced autophagy and the up-regulation of LC3 expression. Transcription factor c-Jun was involved in LC3 transcription regulation in response to ceramide treatment.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Ceramide could induce autophagy in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells, and activation of JNK pathway was involved in ceramide-induced autophagy and LC3 expression.</p

Micro-object pose estimation with sim-to-real transfer learning using small dataset

International audience<span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"&gtThree-dimensional (3D) pose estimation of micro/nano-objects isessential for the implementation of automatic manipulation inmicro/nano-robotic systems. However, out-of-plane pose estimationof a micro/nano-object is challenging, since the images aretypically obtained in 2D using a scanning electron microscope (SEM)or an optical microscope (OM). Traditional deep learning basedmethods require the collection of a large amount of labeled datafor model training to estimate the 3D pose of an object from amonocular image. Here we present a sim-to-real learning-to-matchapproach for 3D pose estimation of micro/nano-objects. Instead ofcollecting large training datasets, simulated data is generated toenlarge the limited experimental data obtained in practice, whilethe domain gap between the generated and experimental data isminimized via image translation based on a generative adversarialnetwork (GAN) model. A learning-to-match approach is used to mapthe generated data and the experimental data to a low-dimensionalspace with the same data distribution for different pose labels,which ensures effective feature embedding. Combining the labeleddata obtained from experiments and simulations, a new trainingdataset is constructed for robust pose estimation. The proposedmethod is validated with images from both SEM and OM, facilitatingthe development of closed-loop control of micro/nano-objects withcomplex shapes in micro/nano-robotic systems.</span&g

Multi-Factor Analysis of Single-Center Asthma Control in Xiamen, China.

We evaluated the effects of air pollutants, age, allergic history, family allergic history, treatment, treatment steps, and compliance on uncontrolled childhood asthma in Xiamen, China. The clinical data of children with asthma in the pediatric outpatient department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University from January 2016 to June 2018 were analyzed retrospectively. According to the assessment of the patients’ outcome including well-controlled, partly-controlled and uncontrolled, 7,211 cases of 3,268 patients were selected. Rank sum test and ordered multi-class logistic regression analysis were used. In the rank sum test, age, allergic history, family allergic history, season, treatment, treatment steps and compliance were found associated with uncontrolled rate (all P < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis showed that PM10, NO2, and SO2 raised uncontrolled-asthma rate (aOR 1.311, aOR 1.281, aOR 1.252, respectively). Older children had lower uncontrolled rate (OR = 0.849, 95% CI: 0.758-0.950), children with higher treatment steps had higher uncontrolled rate (OR = 1.227, 95%CI: 1.040-1.448), and children with better treatment compliance have lower uncontrolled rate (OR = 0.374 95% CI: 0.331-0.424). The order of the uncontrolled rate of asthma from high to low was winter, spring, autumn, and summer. PM10, NO2, SO2, age, season, treatment steps, and treatment compliance have significance for predicting the control rate of childhood asthma in Xiamen, China

The morphology and nutrient content drive the leaf carbon capture and economic trait variations in subtropical bamboo forest

Carbon absorption capability and morphological traits are crucial for plant leaf function performance. Here, we investigated the five bamboos at different elevations in Wuyi Mountain to clarify how the leaf trait responds to the elevational gradient and drives the photosynthetic capacity variations. The Standardized Major Axis Regression (SMA) analyses and the Structural Equation Model (SEM) are applied to identify how the bamboo leaf trait, including the ratio of leaf width to length (W/L), leaf mass per area (LMA), photosynthesis rates (Pn), leaf nitrogen, and phosphorus concentration (Leaf N and Leaf P) response to elevation environment, and the driving mechanism of Pn changes. Across the five bamboo species, our results revealed that leaf P scaled isometrically with respect to W/L, leaf N scaled allometrically as the 0.80-power of leaf P, and leaf N and leaf P scaled allometrically to Pn, with the exponents of 0.58 and 0.73, respectively. Besides, the SEM result showed altitude, morphological trait (W/L and LMA), and chemical trait (leaf N and leaf P) could together explain the 44% variations of Pn, with a standard total effect value of 70.0%, 38.5%, 23.6% to leaf P, leaf N, and W/L, respectively. The five bamboo species along the different elevational share an isometric scaling relationship between their leaf P and W/L, providing partial support for the general rule and operating between morphological and chemical traits. More importantly, the leaf W/L and leaf P as the main trait that affects leaf area and P utilization in growth and thus drives bamboo leaf photosynthetic capacity variations in different elevations