Reticulocalbin 2 promotes the prolifer ation and migration of oral squamous cell carcinoma by regulating the EGFR ERK pathway

Purpose: To investigate the expression of reticulocalbin-2 (RCN2) in human oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) tissues and cell lines and its effects on the proliferation and migration of OSCC cells.Methods: Immunohistochemical (IHC) assays were performed to evaluate the expression of RCN2 in 30 histologically-confirmed OSCC patient tissues and adjacent tissues. Immunoblot assays were performed to examine the expression of RCN2 in an oral mucosal keratinocyte cell line and OSCC cell lines, while the effects of RCN2 on OSCC cell proliferation were assessed by CCK-8 and colony formation assays. The effects of RCN2 on OSCC cell motility were determined using wound closure and Transwell assays. Furthermore, the effect of RCN2 on EGFR/ERK pathway in OSCC cells was evaluated by immunoblot assay.Results: Overexpression of RCN2 occurred in OSCC tissues and cells (p < 0.01). RCN2 also increased the proliferation of OSCC cells and stimulated the motility of OSCC cells in vitro (p < 0.01). These effects occurred as a result of the regulation of EGFR/ERK signaling pathway by RCN2.Conclusion: RCN2 is a potential therapeutic target for OSCC treatment. However, further in vivo studies are required to validate these findings

Estimate of Saturation Pressures of Crude Oil by Using Ensemble-Smoother-Assisted Equation of State

The equation of state (EOS) has been extensively used to evaluate the saturation pressures of petroleum fluids. However, the accurate determination of empirical parameters in the EOS is challenging and time-consuming, especially when multiple measurements are involved in the regression process. In this work, an ensemble smoother (ES) -assisted EOS method has been proposed to compute the saturation pressure by intelligently optimizing the to-be-tuned parameters. To be specific, the to-be-tuned parameters for the Peng–Robinson EOS (PR EOS) are integrated into a model input matrix and the measured saturation pressures are collected into a model output matrix. The model input matrix is then integrally and iteratively updated with respect to the model output matrix by using the iterative ES algorithm. For convenience, an in-house module is compiled to implement the ES-assisted EOS for determining the saturation pressures of crude oils. Subsequently, the experimentally measured saturation pressures of 45 mixtures of heavy oil and solvents are used to validate the performance of the in-house module. In addition, 130 measured saturation pressures of worldwide light oil samples are collected to verify the applicability of the developed ES-assisted EOS method. The in-house module is found to be competent by not only matching 45 measured saturation pressures with a better agreement than a commercial simulator but also providing a quantitative means to analyze the uncertainties associated with the estimated model parameters and the saturation pressure. Moreover, the application of the ES-assisted EOS to 130 light oil samples distinctly demonstrates that the new method greatly improves the accuracy and reliability of the EOS regression. Consequently, the in-house module representing the ES-assisted EOS is proven as an efficient and flexible tool to determine the saturation pressure under various conditions and implement uncertain analyses associated with the saturation pressure

Rare case of magnetic Ag3+^{3+} ion: double perovskite Cs2_{2}KAgF6_{6}

Normally $4d$ or $5d$ transition metals are in a low-spin state. Here using first-principles calculations, we report on a rare case of a high-spin $S$=1 magnetic state for the Ag$^{3+}$ ion in the double perovskite Cs$_{2}$KAgF$_{6}$. We also explored a possibility of a conventional low-spin $S$=0 ground state and find an associated tetragonal distortion to be 0.29 {\AA}. However, the lattice elastic energy cost and the Hund exchange loss exceed the e$_{g}$ crystal-field energy gain, thus making the low-spin tetragonal structure less favorable than the high-spin cubic structure. We conclude that the compact perovskite structure of Cs$_{2}$KAgF$_{6}$ is an important factor in stabilizing the unusual high-spin ground state of Ag$^{3+}$.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in PR

Mechanisms of Enhanced Thermal Stability of Polarization in Lead-Free (Bi 1/2Na 1/2) 0.94Ba 0.06TiO 3/ZnO Ceramic Composites

(Bi 1/2Na 1/2)TiO 3-based solid solutions, one of the major systems of lead-free piezoelectric ceramics, exhibit a low thermal depolarization temperature ( T d~100°C). It was reported that by incorporating 30 mol% ZnO particles to form a ceramic composite of (Bi 1/2Na 1/2) 0.94Ba 0.06TiO 3/ZnO, the depolarization process can be shifted up to ~250 °C. In the present work, a variety of advanced transmission electron microscopy techniques, including in situ heating, annular bright-field, high-angle annular dark-field, geometric phase analysis, energy-dispersive spectrum and electron energy-loss spectroscopy, are employed to investigate the underlying mechanisms for the enhanced thermal stability of polarization in the composite. Furthermore, it is found that the abrupt depolarization in (Bi 1/2Na 1/2) 0.94Ba 0.06TiO 3 at T d becomes diffused over a wide temperature window up to the temperature at maximum dielectric constant ( T m) under the combined actions of the incorporation of Zn into the perovskite lattice, the presence of residual stresses, and the pinning effect on micron-sized domains provided by ZnO particles

Energy Synchronized Transmission Control for Energy-harvesting Sensor Networks

Energy harvesting and recharging techniques have been regarded as a promising solution to ensure sustained operations of wireless sensor networks for longterm applications. To deal with the diversity of energy harvesting and constrained energy storage capability, sensor nodes in such applications usually work in a duty-cycled mode. Consequently, the sleep latency brought by duty-cycled operation is becoming the main challenge. In this work, we study the energy synchronization control problem for such sustainable sensor networks. Intuitively, energy-rich nodes can increase their transmission power in order to improve network performance, while energy-poor nodes can lower transmission power to conserve its precious energy resource. In particular, we propose an energy synchronized transmission control scheme (ESTC) by which each node adaptively selects suitable power levels and data forwarders according to its available energy and traffic load. Based on the large-scale simulations, we validate that our design can improve system performance under different network settings comparing with common uniform transmission power control strategy. Specially, ESTC can enable the perpetual operations of nodes without sacrificing the network lifetime