MicroRNA-181a Functions as an Oncogene in Gastric Cancer by Targeting Caprin-1

MicroRNA-181a (miRNA-181a) is a multifaceted miRNA implicated in various cellular processes, particularly in cell fate determination and cellular invasion. It is frequently expressed aberrantly in human tumors and shows opposing functions in different types of cancers. In this study, we found that miRNA-181a is overexpressed in Gastric cancer (GC) tissues. Clinical and pathological analyses revealed that the expression of miRNA-181a is correlated with tumor size, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and TNM stage. Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that overexpression of miRNA-181a is associated with poor overall survival of patients with GC. Moreover, miRNA-181a is overexpressed in GC cells, and downregulation of miRNA-181a induced cell apoptosis and suppressed the proliferation, invasion, and metastasis of GC cells both in vitro and in vivo. Target prediction and luciferase reporter assay showed that caprin-1 was a direct target of miRNA-181a. Downregulation of caprin-1 expression resulted in a converse change with miRNA-181a in GC. Spearman’s correlation test confirmed that the expression of miRNA-181a expression was inversely correlated with that of caprin-1 in GC cells. Furthermore, the expression of caprin-1 increased after downregulation of miRNA-181a in the GC cells. Caprin-1 siRNA can rescue the oncogenic effect of miRNA-181a on GC cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration, and invasion. These findings suggest that miRNA-181a directly inhibits caprin-1 and promotes GC development. miRNA-181a could be a target for anticancer drug development

Optimal Semiactive Damping Control for a Nonlinear Energy Sink Used to Stabilize Milling

Improving product quality of machining components has always met with problems due to the vibration of the milling machine’s spindle, which can be reduced by adding a vibration absorber. The tuned vibration absorber (TVA) has been studied extensively and found to have a narrow bandwidth, but the cutting force possesses wide bandwidth in the process of machining parts. Introducing nonlinearity into the dynamic vibration absorber can effectively increase the bandwidth of vibration suppression and can significantly improve the robustness of the vibration absorber. In addition, a semiactive TVA has proved to be more effective than a passive TVA for many applications, so the main purpose of this study is to find some appropriate semiactive control methods for a nonlinear energy sink (NES), a nonlinear vibration absorber, in structural vibration applications. Two semiactive control methods are considered in this study: continuous groundhook damping control based on velocity and on-off groundhook damping control based on velocity. To fairly compare these vibration absorbers, the optimal parameters of a passive TVA, a passive NES, and two semiactive NESs are designed using numerical optimization techniques to minimize the root-mean-square acceleration. Two cutting forces are introduced in this study, a periodic force and an aperiodic force, and the four vibration absorbers are compared. When the primary structure is excited with aperiodic cutting force, the amplitude of the primary structure decreased by 17.73% with the passive TVA, by 72.29% with the passive NES, by 73.54% with the on-off NES, and by 87.54% with the continuous NES. When the primary structure is excited with periodic cutting force, the amplitude of the primary structure decreased by 49.01% with a passive TVA, by 86.93% with a passive NES, by 96.38% with an on-off NES, and by 99.23% with a continuous NES. The results show that the passive NES is better than the passive TVA; the semiactive NES provides more effective vibration attenuation than the passive NES, and the continuous control is more effective than the on-off control

Interior Sound Field Subjective Evaluation Based on the 3D Distribution of Sound Quality Objective Parameters and Sound Source Localization

Controlling low frequency noise in an interior sound field is always a challenge in engineering, because it is hard to accurately localize the sound source. Spherical acoustic holography can reconstruct the 3D distributions of acoustic quantities in the interior sound field, and identify low-frequency sound sources, but the ultimate goal of controlling the interior noise is to improve the sound quality in the interior sound field. It is essential to know the contributions of sound sources to the sound quality objective parameters. This paper presents the mapping methodology from sound pressure to sound quality objective parameters, where sound quality objective parameters are calculated from sound pressure at each specific point. The 3D distributions of the loudness and sharpness are obtained by calculating each point in the entire interior sound field. The reconstruction errors of those quantities varying with reconstruction distance, sound frequency, and intersection angle are analyzed in numerical simulation for one- and two-monopole source sound fields. Verification experiments have been conducted in an anechoic chamber. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the sound source localization results based on 3D distributions of sound quality objective parameters are different from those based on sound pressure

Interior Sound Field Subjective Evaluation Based on the 3D Distribution of Sound Quality Objective Parameters and Sound Source Localization

Controlling low frequency noise in an interior sound field is always a challenge in engineering, because it is hard to accurately localize the sound source. Spherical acoustic holography can reconstruct the 3D distributions of acoustic quantities in the interior sound field, and identify low-frequency sound sources, but the ultimate goal of controlling the interior noise is to improve the sound quality in the interior sound field. It is essential to know the contributions of sound sources to the sound quality objective parameters. This paper presents the mapping methodology from sound pressure to sound quality objective parameters, where sound quality objective parameters are calculated from sound pressure at each specific point. The 3D distributions of the loudness and sharpness are obtained by calculating each point in the entire interior sound field. The reconstruction errors of those quantities varying with reconstruction distance, sound frequency, and intersection angle are analyzed in numerical simulation for one- and two-monopole source sound fields. Verification experiments have been conducted in an anechoic chamber. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the sound source localization results based on 3D distributions of sound quality objective parameters are different from those based on sound pressure

Heavy metals in drinking water and periodontitis: evidence from the national oral health survey from China

Abstract Background Periodontitis has become an increasingly important public health issue, coupled with a high economic burden for prevention and treatment. Exposure to essential trace heavy metals has been associated with various diseases; however, the relationships between essential trace heavy metals and periodontitis remain inconclusive. Objectives To investigate the association between essential trace heavy metals in tap water and periodontitis in a nationally representative sample in China. Methods We conducted a nationwide study including 1348 participants from the Fourth National Oral Health Survey in the 2015–2016 period. The trace heavy metals concentration was measured in the local pipeline terminal tap water. Periodontitis was diagnosed according to the classification scheme proposed at the 2018 world workshop on the classification of periodontal and peri-implant diseases and conditions. We used weighted multivariable logistic regression to estimate the association between essential trace heavy metals and the risk of periodontitis. We additionally used spline analysis to explore the possible nonlinear dose-response associations. Results Periodontitis patients were exposed to higher concentrations of essential trace heavy metals. In adjusted models, for 1 SD increase in the concentration of iron, manganese, and copper in tap water, the risk of periodontitis increased by 30% (OR: 1.30, 95%CI: 1.12–1.50), 20% (OR: 1.20, 95%CI: 1.03–1.41), and 20% (OR: 1.20, 95%CI: 1.04–1.39), respectively. Stratified analyses demonstrated that the associations between essential trace heavy metals and periodontitis were higher in females, elders, and rural residents. Spline analysis revealed nonlinear exposure-response relationships between periodontitis and exposure to iron, manganese, and copper in tap water. Conclusions Exposures to essential trace heavy metals in drinking water were associated with greater odds of periodontitis. Given the growing burden of periodontitis, our study sheds light on tailored public health policies for improving drinking water standards to alleviate periodontitis impairment