catena-Poly[[bis­(nitrato-κO)cadmium]bis­[μ-1,4-bis­(pyridin-3-yl­meth­oxy)benzene-κ2 N:N′]]

In the title compound, [Cd(NO3)2(C18H16N2O2)2]n, the six-coordinated CdII ion is located on an inversion center and has a distorted octa­hedral environment defined by four N atoms from four 1,4-bis­(pyridin-3-ylmeth­oxy)benzene ligands and two O atoms from two nitrate anions. The ligands link the CdII ions into a ribbon-like structure running along [201]. One O atom of the nitrate anion is disordered over two positions with site-occupancy factors of 0.59 (2) and 0.41 (2)

Lysine-5 Acetylation Negatively Regulates Lactate Dehydrogenase A and Is Decreased in Pancreatic Cancer

SummaryTumor cells commonly have increased glucose uptake and lactate accumulation. Lactate is produced from pyruvate by lactate dehydrogenase A (LDH-A), which is frequently overexpressed in tumor cells and is important for cell growth. Elevated transcription by c-Myc or HIF1α may contribute to increased LDH-A in some cancer types. Here, we show that LDH-A is acetylated at lysine 5 (K5) and that this acetylation inhibits LDH-A activity. Furthermore, the K5-acetylated LDH-A is recognized by the HSC70 chaperone and delivered to lysosomes for degradation. Replacement of endogenous LDH-A with an acetylation mimetic mutant decreases cell proliferation and migration. Importantly, K5 acetylation of LDH-A is reduced in human pancreatic cancers. Our study reveals a mechanism of LDH-A upregulation in pancreatic cancers

Rapid Identification of Asteraceae

Plants from Asteraceae family are widely used as herbal medicines and food ingredients, especially in Asian area. Therefore, authentication and quality control of these different Asteraceae plants are important for ensuring consumers’ safety and efficacy. In recent decades, electronic nose (E-nose) has been studied as an alternative approach. In this paper, we aim to develop a novel discriminative model by improving radial basis function artificial neural network (RBF-ANN) classification model. Feature selection algorithms, including principal component analysis (PCA) and BestFirst + CfsSubsetEval (BC), were applied in the improvement of RBF-ANN models. Results illustrate that in the improved RBF-ANN models with lower dimension data classification accuracies (100%) remained the same as in the original model with higher-dimension data. It is the first time to introduce feature selection methods to get valuable information on how to attribute more relevant MOS sensors; namely, in this case, S1, S3, S4, S6, and S7 show better capability to distinguish these Asteraceae plants. This paper also gives insights to further research in this area, for instance, sensor array optimization and performance improvement of classification model

DavarOCR: A Toolbox for OCR and Multi-Modal Document Understanding

This paper presents DavarOCR, an open-source toolbox for OCR and document understanding tasks. DavarOCR currently implements 19 advanced algorithms, covering 9 different task forms. DavarOCR provides detailed usage instructions and the trained models for each algorithm. Compared with the previous opensource OCR toolbox, DavarOCR has relatively more complete support for the sub-tasks of the cutting-edge technology of document understanding. In order to promote the development and application of OCR technology in academia and industry, we pay more attention to the use of modules that different sub-domains of technology can share. DavarOCR is publicly released at https://github.com/hikopensource/Davar-Lab-OCR.Comment: Short paper, Accept by ACM MM202

Fibrosis progression in interferon treatment-naive Chinese plasma donors with chronic hepatitis C for 20 years: a cohort study

SummaryObjectivesTo evaluate the progression of fibrosis and factors influencing this in interferon (IFN) treatment-naive Chinese plasma donors infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) for approximately 20 years.MethodsFrom July 2010 to June 2011, we investigated 122 IFN treatment-naive chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients infected by plasma donation in 1992–1995. Liver fibrosis stage and inflammation grade were evaluated by Metavir and Scheuer scoring systems, respectively.ResultsOne hundred and twenty patients underwent liver biopsy. Liver biopsy was not performed in one patient with cirrhosis due to ascites, and another patient was excluded because of an invalid biopsy specimen. Cirrhosis was observed in three patients (fibrosis stage F4 in two patients revealed by biopsy, and one patient with ascites confirmed by physical and Doppler ultrasound examination). Fibrosis stages F1 and F2 were present in 55 and 50 patients, respectively. The severity of liver inflammation was independently related to moderate to severe fibrosis (F ≥2). Older age and male sex showed an increasing tendency for more severe fibrosis (F3/F4) in the present cohort.ConclusionsBased on histopathology results, the progression of fibrosis in patients with CHC infected by repeated plasma donation is slow after HCV infection of approximately 20 years. Liver inflammation is closely related to the development of moderate to severe liver fibrosis

Eclipsing Binaries From the CSTAR Project at Dome A, Antarctica

The Chinese Small Telescope ARray (CSTAR) has observed an area around the Celestial South Pole at Dome A since 2008. About $20,000$ light curves in the i band were obtained lasting from March to July, 2008. The photometric precision achieves about 4 mmag at i = 7.5 and 20 mmag at i = 12 within a 30 s exposure time. These light curves are analyzed using Lomb--Scargle, Phase Dispersion Minimization, and Box Least Squares methods to search for periodic signals. False positives may appear as a variable signature caused by contaminating stars and the observation mode of CSTAR. Therefore the period and position of each variable candidate are checked to eliminate false positives. Eclipsing binaries are removed by visual inspection, frequency spectrum analysis and locally linear embedding technique. We identify 53 eclipsing binaries in the field of view of CSTAR, containing 24 detached binaries, 8 semi-detached binaries, 18 contact binaries, and 3 ellipsoidal variables. To derive the parameters of these binaries, we use the Eclipsing Binaries via Artificial Intelligence (EBAI) method. The primary and the secondary eclipse timing variations (ETVs) for semi-detached and contact systems are analyzed. Correlated primary and secondary ETVs confirmed by false alarm tests may indicate an unseen perturbing companion. Through ETV analysis, we identify two triple systems (CSTAR J084612.64-883342.9 and CSTAR J220502.55-895206.7). The orbital parameters of the third body in CSTAR J220502.55-895206.7 are derived using a simple dynamical model.Comment: 41 pages, 12 figures; published online in ApJ

Glucocorticoid Receptor β Acts As a Co-activator of T-Cell Factor 4 and Enhances Glioma Cell Proliferation

We previously reported that glucocorticoid receptor β (GRβ) regulates injury-mediated astrocyte activation and contributes to glioma pathogenesis via modulation of β-catenin/T-cell factor/lymphoid enhancer factor (TCF/LEF) transcriptional activity. The aim of this study was to characterize the mechanism behind cross-talk between GRβ and β-catenin/TCF in the progression of glioma. Here, we reported that GRβ knockdown reduced U118 and Shg44 glioma cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, we found that GRβ knockdown decreased TCF/LEF transcriptional activity without affecting β-catenin/TCF complex. Both GRα and GRβ directly interact with TCF-4, while only GRβ is required for sustaining TCF/LEF activity under hormone-free condition. GRβ bound to the N-terminus domain of TCF-4 its influence on Wnt signaling required both ligand- and DNA-binding domains (LBD and DBD, respectively). GRβ and TCF-4 interaction is enough to maintain the TCF/LEF activity at a high level in the absence of β-catenin stabilization. Taken together, these results suggest a novel cross-talk between GRβ and TCF-4 which regulates Wnt signaling and the proliferation in gliomas

Hotspots and frontiers of genetic research on pediatric cataracts from 2013 to 2022: a scientometric analysis

AIM: To explore the hotspots and frontiers of genetic research on pediatric cataracts. METHODS: Global publications from 2013 to 2022 related to genes in pediatric cataracts were extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection, and were analyzed in terms of the publication counts, countries, journals, authors, keywords, cited references, subject categories, and the underlying hotspots and frontiers. RESULTS: Totally 699 publications were included in the final analysis. The predominant actors were identified, with China (n=240) and PLoS One (n=33) being the most productive country and journal respectively. The research hotspots extracted from keywords were crystallin gene mutations, pathogenicity evaluation, phenotypes of ocular and neurodevelopmental abnormalities, genes encoding membrane proteins, and diagnosis of multisystemic disorders. The co-cited articles formed 10 clusters of research topics, including FYCO1 (56 items), mutation screening (43 items), gap junction (29 items), the Warburg Micro syndrome (29 items), ephrin-A5 (28 items), novel mutation (24 items), eye development and function (22 items), cholestanol (7 items), OCRL (6 items), and pathogenicity prediction (3 items). The research frontiers were FYCO1, ephrin-A5, and cholestanol. Cell biology showed the strongest bridging effects among different disciplines in the field (betweenness centrality=0.44). CONCLUSION: With the progress in next-generation sequencing and multidisciplinary collaboration, genetic research on pediatric cataracts broadens the knowledge scope of the crystalline lens, as well as other organs and systems, shedding light on the molecular mechanisms of systemic diseases. Cell biology may integrate multidisciplinary content to address cutting-edge issues in the field

Analysis of Genes Related to Angiotensin II-Induced Arterial Injury Using a Time Series Microarray

Background/Aims: Angiotensin II (Ang II)-mediated hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Ang II induces changes in vessel structure and function through the activation of genes related to signaling pathways. However, the changes in the gene expression profiles of blood vessels in response to Ang II remain unclear. Methods: Wild-type C57BL/6 mice were infused with Ang II (1500 ng/kg/min) using an osmotic pump for 1, 3, and 7 days. Vascular wall inflammation and remodeling were evaluated by pathological examination. Time-series microarray and quantitative PCR analyses were performed. Bioinformatics analyses were conducted to identify key genes, pathways, and biological processes. Results: After Ang II infusion, blood pressure and aortic remodeling were increased over time. Microarray analysis identified a totally of 3631 differentially expressed genes in aortas at days 1, 3, and 7 of Ang II infusion. These genes were involved in multiple biological processes, including cell adhesion, angiogenesis, cell migration, protein phosphorylation, immune system, and cell cycle, which may play important roles in regulating Ang II-induced arterial injury during hypertension. The genes were classified into 50 profiles by hierarchical cluster analysis, and finally, 14 significant profiles were identified. Among these genes, protein kinase cAMP-activated catalytic subunit alpha (Prkaca), a gene that directly regulated 137 neighboring genes, was located at the center of the gene network in Ang II-infused aortas. Further, Prkaca protein expression and cAMP level were downregulated in a time-dependent manner in Ang II-infused aortas. Conclusions: The combined use of DNA microarrays and cluster and gene network analyses identified Prkaca as a key Ang II-responsive gene that may mediate early vascular injury and hypertension