22 research outputs found
Case report: Sarcomatoid urothelial carcinoma of the renal pelvis masquerading as a renal abscess
Sarcomatoid urothelial carcinoma (SUC), a rare tumor of the urinary tract epithelium, exhibits a high degree of malignancy and therefore a poor prognosis. Due to the absence of specific clinical presentations and imaging findings, SUC of the renal pelvis masquerades as a renal abscess is frequently under-recognized or misdiagnosed as benign inflammatory disease, resulting in delayed or erroneous treatment. Here, we report a patient with SUC of the renal pelvis who presented with a renal abscess. Repeated anti-inflammatory treatment was ineffective. Unexpectedly, cancerous cells were detected in subsequent exfoliative cytology of nephrostomy drainage fluid. In accordance with this, radical surgery and postoperative chemotherapy were conducted. Fortunately, neither recurrence nor metastasis occurred during a one-year follow-up
Determination of incommensurate modulated structure in Bi2Sr1.6La0.4CuO6+{\delta} by aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy
Incommensurate modulated structure (IMS) in Bi2Sr1.6La0.4CuO6+{\delta}
(BSLCO) has been studied by aberration corrected transmission electron
microscopy in combination with high-dimensional (HD) space description. Two
images in the negative Cs imaging (NCSI) and passive Cs imaging (PCSI) modes
were deconvoluted, respectively. Similar results as to IMS have been obtained
from two corresponding projected potential maps (PPMs), but meanwhile the size
of dots representing atoms in the NCSI PPM is found to be smaller than that in
PCSI one. Considering that size is one of influencing factors of precision,
modulation functions for all unoverlapped atoms in BSLCO were determined based
on the PPM obtained from the NCSI image in combination with HD space
description
Multi-Band Exotic Superconductivity in the New Superconductor Bi4O4S3
Resistivity, Hall effect and magnetization have been investigated on the new
superconductor Bi4O4S3. A weak insulating behavior has been induced in the
normal state when the superconductivity is suppressed. Hall effect measurements
illustrate clearly a multiband feature dominated by electron charge carriers,
which is further supported by the magnetoresistance data. Interestingly, a kink
appears on the temperature dependence of resistivity at about 4 K at all high
magnetic fields when the bulk superconductivity is completely suppressed. This
kink can be well traced back to the upper critical field Hc2(T) in the low
field region, and is explained as the possible evidence of residual Cooper
pairs on the one dimensional chains.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Superconducting properties of SmO1-xFxFeAs wires with Tc = 52 K prepared by the powder-in-tube method
We demonstrate that Ta sheathed SmO1-xFxFeAs wires were successfully
fabricated by the powder-in-tube (PIT) method for the first time. Structural
analysis by mean of x-ray diffraction shows that the main phase of SmO1-xFxFeAs
was obtained by this synthesis method. The transition temperature of the
SmO0.65F0.35FeAs wires was confirmed to be as high as 52 K. Based on
magnetization measurements, it is found that a globe current can flow on
macroscopic sample dimensions with Jc of ~3.9x10^3 A/cm^2 at 5 K and self
field, while a high Jc about 2x10^5 A/cm^2 is observed within the grains,
suggesting that a significant improvement in the globle Jc is possible. It
should be noted that the Jc exhibits a very weak field dependence behavior.
Furthermore, the upper critical fields (Hc2) determined according to the
Werthamer-Helfand-Hohenberg formula are (T= 0 K) = 120 T, indicating a very
encouraging application of the new superconductors.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure
A fast iterative scheme for the linearized Boltzmann equation
An iterative scheme can be used to find a steady-state solution to the
Boltzmann equation, however, it is very slow to converge in the near-continuum
flow regime. In this paper, a synthetic iterative scheme is developed to speed
up the solution of the linearized Boltzmann equation. The velocity distribution
function is first solved by the conventional iterative scheme, then it is
corrected such that the macroscopic flow velocity is governed by a diffusion
equation which is asymptotic-preserving in the Navier-Stokes limit. The
efficiency of the new scheme is verified by calculating the eigenvalue of the
iteration, as well as solving for Poiseuille and thermal transpiration flows.
The synthetic iterative scheme is significantly faster than the conventional
iterative scheme in both the transition and the near-continuum flow regimes.
Moreover, due to the asymptotic-preserving properties, the SIS needs less
spatial resolution in the near-continuum flow regimes, which makes it even
faster than the conventional iterative scheme. Using this synthetic iterative
scheme, and the fast spectral approximation of the linearized Boltzmann
collision operator, Poiseuille and thermal transpiration flows between two
parallel plates, through channels of circular/rectangular cross sections, and
various porous media are calculated over the whole range of gas rarefaction.
Finally, the flow of a Ne-Ar gas mixture is solved based on the linearized
Boltzmann equation with the Lennard-Jones potential for the first time, and the
difference between these results and those using hard-sphere intermolecular
potential is discussed.Comment: 13 figs, 5 table
S100a9 inhibits Atg9a transcription and participates in suppression of autophagy in cardiomyocytes induced by β1-adrenoceptor autoantibodies
Abstract Background Cardiomyocyte death induced by autophagy inhibition is an important cause of cardiac dysfunction. In-depth exploration of its mechanism may help to improve cardiac dysfunction. In our previous study, we found that β1-adrenergic receptor autoantibodies (β1-AAs) induced a decrease in myocardial autophagy and caused cardiomyocyte death, thus resulting in cardiac dysfunction. Through tandem mass tag (TMT)-based quantitative proteomics, autophagy-related S100a9 protein was found to be significantly upregulated in the myocardial tissue of actively immunized mice. However, whether S100a9 affects the cardiac function in the presence of β1-AAs through autophagy and the specific mechanism are currently unclear. Methods In this study, the active immunity method was used to establish a β1-AA-induced mouse cardiac dysfunction model, and RT-PCR and western blot were used to detect changes in gene and protein expression in cardiomyocytes. We used siRNA to knockdown S100a9 in cardiomyocytes. An autophagy PCR array was performed to screen differentially expressed autophagy-related genes in cells transfected with S100a9 siRNA and negative control siRNA. Cytoplasmic nuclear separation, co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP), and immunofluorescence were used to detect the binding of S100a9 and hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α). Finally, AAV9-S100a9-RNAi was injected into mice via the tail vein to knockdown S100a9 in cardiomyocytes. Cardiac function was detected via ultrasonography. Results The results showed that β1-AAs induced S100a9 expression. The PCR array indicated that Atg9a changed significantly in S100a9siRNA cells and that β1-AAs increased the binding of S100a9 and HIF-1α in cytoplasm. Knockdown of S100a9 significantly improved autophagy levels and cardiac dysfunction. Conclusion Our research showed that β1-AAs increased S100a9 expression in cardiomyocytes and that S100a9 interacted with HIF-1α, which prevented HIF-1α from entering the nucleus normally, thus inhibiting the transcription of Atg9a. This resulted in autophagy inhibition and cardiac dysfunction
Synthesis and Characterization of Unsaturated Thermotropic Polyesters Prepared via Acyclic Diene Metathesis Polymerization
A modeling approach to droplet contact-line motion dynamics in high-density-ratio two-phase flow
The present study is to investigate the contact line dynamics in high-density-ratio two-phase flow. A two-dimensional lattice Boltzmann model for immiscible fluids flow with gravity is developed, which combines the stabilized numerical discretization for the continuous Boltzmann equation and the diffuse-interface theory. The model is developed on the basis of previous work. However, some significant modifications are made to suit the purpose of the present study, including direct calculation of macroscopic variables without post-collision process and consideration of gravity. The model and numerical method are firstly validated by various flow problems with analytical solutions. It is then used to investigate the contact line motion of a droplet attached on a substrate in shear flow. The influences of a series of flow parameters are systematically investigated and some conclusions are obtained. Above the critical Capillary number, the droplet motion exhibits break-up characteristics. In steady-slip mode, the receding contact angle, θR, decreases and advancing contact angle, θA, increases linearly with the Capillary number, Ca, while the normalized droplet velocity nearly holds constant with different values of Ca. The contact line motion is not sensitive to Reynolds number, Re. When Bond number Bo > 1, both the dynamic contact angles and the droplet velocity decrease significantly with increasing Bo. The obtained results are partially compared with those reported by other investigators, and a good agreement has been reached in several aspects, such as break-up characteristics and Bond number effect