Nuclei micro-array FISH, a desirable alternative for MCL diagnosis

Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is a rare, specific lymphoma subtype. Though the morphologic and immunophenotypic features of MCL have been well described in recent literatures, it is still a diagnostic dilemma because of its frequent confusion with other small B cell lymphomas (SBCLs). In the present study, we primarily focus on establishing a sensitive and specific method for the diagnosis of MCL, which is efficient to distinguish this disease from other SBCLs. We carried out our investigation for MCL and other SBCLs (including SLL, FL, MZL, and MALT) on their feature of morphology, immunophenotype, and t(11;14)(q13;q32) translocation analysis based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and interphase nuclei micro-array fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). The morphologic and immunologic analysis showed the positive rate of cyclin D1 was 76.47% in MCL, which was significantly higher than that in other SBCLs. The positive rate of t(11;14) translocation was 25.81% and 35.48%, respectively, tested by general and semi-nested PCR, while 93.10% positive rate was shown with low background and strong signals pattern when tested by Nuclei micro-array FISH. Our research shows that t(11;14) translocation is a special and useful diagnostic marker for MCL, and detection of the marker by nuclei micro-array FISH is convenient and economic, especially more sensitive and specific than other methods for the diagnosis of MCL

A simple strain sensor using polymer fibre Bragg grating and long period fibre grating

We develop a simple strain sensor using polymer optical fibre Bragg grating and long period fibre grating. The sensor head is formed by a polymer optical fiber Bragg grating. A long period fibre grating is used for strain related wavelength shift demodulation. This particular combination of two quite different gratings could offer very large dynamic, up to tens of thousands micro-strains, for strain sensing. The preliminary experimental results have demonstrated that this sensing scheme provides good linearity, high resolution and large dynamic range

Evaluation of HER2 Gene Amplification in Breast Cancer Using Nuclei Microarray in Situ Hybridization

Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assay is considered the “gold standard” in evaluating HER2/neu (HER2) gene status. However, FISH detection is costly and time consuming. Thus, we established nuclei microarray with extracted intact nuclei from paraffin embedded breast cancer tissues for FISH detection. The nuclei microarray FISH (NMFISH) technology serves as a useful platform for analyzing HER2 gene/chromosome 17 centromere ratio. We examined HER2 gene status in 152 cases of invasive ductal carcinomas of the breast that were resected surgically with FISH and NMFISH. HER2 gene amplification status was classified according to the guidelines of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and College of American Pathologists (ASCO/CAP). Comparison of the cut-off values for HER2/chromosome 17 centromere copy number ratio obtained by NMFISH and FISH showed that there was almost perfect agreement between the two methods (κ coefficient 0.920). The results of the two methods were almost consistent for the evaluation of HER2 gene counts. The present study proved that NMFISH is comparable with FISH for evaluating HER2 gene status. The use of nuclei microarray technology is highly efficient, time and reagent conserving and inexpensive

The Relationship Between Observers' Self-Attractiveness and Preference for Physical Dimorphism: A Meta-Analysis

Background: Many studies have reported an association between observers' self-attractiveness and their preference for sexual dimorphism across different physical domains, including the face, voice, and body. However, the results of these studies are inconsistent. Here, a meta-analysis was conducted to estimate the association between observers' own attractiveness and their dimorphic preference.Methods: Major electronic databases including PsycINFO, Web of Science, PubMed, ProQuest, and Google Scholar were searched during April 2017 (the first time) and April 2018 (the second time). The effect size computation and moderating effect analyses were conducted separately for masculine and feminine preferences.Results: We identified 5,359 references, of which we included 25 studies (x = 55, x = number of the effect size) with 6,853 participants in the meta-analysis. Across these studies, the correlation between observers' own attractiveness and their sexual dimorphic preference was 0.095 (x = 55) and that for preference for masculinity (x = 39) and femininity (x = 16) were 0.102 and 0.076, respectively. The results of the funnel plot, Egger's regression method, and fail-safe number suggested that there was no obvious publication bias. The relationship depended on the relationship context (short or long-term), opposite or same sex (the gender of the observer and host), measures of observers' self-attractiveness (subject or objective), and preference task (e.g., attractiveness rating, forced-choice, and face sequence test). Furthermore, for female participants, using a hormonal contraceptive also influenced their masculinity preference. The effect size for the preference for a masculine body and voice was larger than that for facial masculinity.Conclusion: We found a small but significant correlation between self-attractiveness and physical dimorphic preference, the relationship was moderated by the relationship context, same/opposite-sex, and contraceptive using. These three moderating effects represented the observer's trade-off on good genes, good provider and good father (3Gs) consistent with the life history strategies. Besides, measurement of observers' attractiveness, type of preference task and stimuli may also involve the relationship

The inflammatory cytokine IL-6 induces FRA1 deacetylation promoting colorectal cancer stem-like properties

Colorectal cancer (CRC) has long been known for its tight association with chronic inflammation, thought to play a key role in tumor onset and malignant progression through the modulation of cancer stemness. However, the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms are still largely elusive. Here we show that the IL-6/STAT3 inflammatory signaling axis induces the deacetylation of FRA1 at the Lys-116 residue located within its DNA-binding domain. The HDAC6 deacetylase underlies this key modification leading to the increase of FRA1 transcriptional activity, the subsequent transactivation of NANOG expression, and the acquisition of stem-like cellular features. As validated in a large (n = 123) CRC cohort, IL-6 secretion was invariably accompanied by increased FRA1 deacetylation at K116 and an overall increase in its protein levels, coincident with malignant progression and poor prognosis. Of note, combined treatment with the conventional cytotoxic drug 5-FU together with Tubastatin A, a HDAC6-specific inhibitor, resulted in a significant in vivo synergistic inhibitory effect on tumor growth through suppression of CRC stemness. Our results reveal a novel transcriptional and posttranslational regulatory cross-talk between inflammation and stemness signaling pathways that underlie self-renewal and maintenance of CRC stem cells and promote their malignant behavior. Combinatorial treatment aimed at the core regulatory mechanisms downstream of IL-6 may offer a novel promising approach for CRC treatment

The Lysosomal v-ATPase-Ragulator Complex Is a Common Activator for AMPK and mTORC1, Acting as a Switch between Catabolism and Anabolism

林圣彩教授课题组长期致力于细胞信号转导的研究。近年来，该课题组潜心研究，不断攻关，取得了一系列重大成果，如揭示细胞如何应对生长因子缺乏的内在机理，发现了细胞自噬“路线图”、还发现了细胞如何感应“饥饿”信号AMP的信号传导通路等。其中，“发现细胞自噬‘路线图’”成果曾登上《科学》杂志，并入选2012年度“中国科学十大进展”。AMPK and mTOR play principal roles in governing metabolic programs; however, mechanisms underlying the coordination of the two inversely regulated kinases remain unclear. In this study we found, most surprisingly, that the late endosomal/lysosomal protein complex v-ATPase-Ragulator, essential for activation of mTORC1, is also required for AMPK activation. We also uncovered that AMPK is a residential protein of late endosome/lysosome. Under glucose starvation, the v-ATPase-Ragulator complex is accessible to AXIN/LKB1 for AMPK activation. Concurrently, the guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) activity of Ragulator toward RAG is inhibited by AXIN, causing dissociation from endosome and inactivation of mTORC1. We have thus revealed that the v-ATPase-Ragulator complex is also an initiating sensor for energy stress and meanwhile serves as an endosomal docking site for LKB1-mediated AMPK activation by forming the v-ATPase-Ragulator-AXIN/LKB1-AMPK complex, thereby providing a switch between catabolism and anabolism. Our current study also emphasizes a general role of late endosome/lysosome in controlling metabolic programs

Association between bone mineral density and type 2 diabetes mellitus: a meta-analysis of observational studies

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) influences bone metabolism, but the relation of T2DM with bone mineral density (BMD) remains inconsistent across studies. The objective of this study was to perform a meta-analysis and meta-regression of the literature to estimate the difference in BMD (g/cm2) between diabetic and non-diabetic populations, and to investigate potential underlying mechanisms. A literature search was performed in PubMed and Ovid extracting data from articles prior to May 2010. Eligible studies were those where the association between T2DM and BMD measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry was evaluated using a cross-sectional, cohort or case–control design, including both healthy controls and subjects with T2DM. The analysis was done on 15 observational studies (3,437 diabetics and 19,139 controls). Meta-analysis showed that BMD in diabetics was significantly higher, with pooled mean differences of 0.04 (95% CI: 0.02, 0.05) at the femoral neck, 0.06 (95% CI: 0.04, 0.08) at the hip and 0.06 (95% CI: 0.04, 0.07) at the spine. The differences for forearm BMD were not significantly different between diabetics and non-diabetics. Sex-stratified analyses showed similar results in both genders. Substantial heterogeneity was found to originate from differences in study design and possibly diabetes definition. Also, by applying meta-regression we could establish that younger age, male gender, higher body mass index and higher HbA1C were positively associated with higher BMD levels in diabetic individuals. We conclude that individuals with T2DM from both genders have higher BMD levels, but that multiple factors influence BMD in individuals with T2DM

Use of nanomaterials in the pretreatment of water samples for environmental analysis

The challenge of providing clean drinking water is of enormous relevance in today’s human civilization, being essential for human consumption, but also for agriculture, livestock and several industrial applications. In addition to remediation strategies, the accurate monitoring of pollutants in water sup-plies, which most of the times are present at low concentrations, is a critical challenge. The usual low concentration of target analytes, the presence of in-terferents and the incompatibility of the sample matrix with instrumental techniques and detectors are the main reasons that renders sample preparation a relevant part of environmental monitoring strategies. The discovery and ap-plication of new nanomaterials allowed improvements on the pretreatment of water samples, with benefits in terms of speed, reliability and sensitivity in analysis. In this chapter, the use of nanomaterials in solid-phase extraction (SPE) protocols for water samples pretreatment for environmental monitoring is addressed. The most used nanomaterials, including metallic nanoparticles, metal organic frameworks, molecularly imprinted polymers, carbon-based nanomaterials, silica-based nanoparticles and nanocomposites are described, and their applications and advantages overviewed. Main gaps are identified and new directions on the field are suggested.publishe

Reflection Reduction on DDR3 High-Speed Bus by Improved PSO

The signal integrity of the circuit, as one of the important design issues in high-speed digital system, is usually seriously affected by the signal reflection due to impedance mismatch in the DDR3 bus. In this paper, a novel optimization method is proposed to optimize impedance mismatch and reduce the signal refection. Specifically, by applying the via parasitic, an equivalent model of DDR3 high-speed signal transmission, which bases on the match between the on-die-termination (ODT) value of DDR3 and the characteristic impedance of the transmission line, is established. Additionally, an improved particle swarm optimization algorithm with adaptive perturbation is presented to solve the impedance mismatch problem (IPSO-IMp) based on the above model. The algorithm dynamically judges particles’ state and introduces perturbation strategy for local aggregation, from which the local optimum is avoided and the ability of optimization-searching is activated. IPSO-IMp achieves higher accuracy than the standard algorithm, and the speed increases nearly 33% as well. Finally, the simulation results verify that the solution obviously decreases the signal reflection, with the signal transmission quality increasing by 1.3 dB compared with the existing method

Near-field error sensing of multi-channel active noise control using virtual sensing technique

This paper proposes a near-field error sensing method for multi-channel feedforward active noise control (MCFFANC). The proposed method is particularly useful in applications such as the active noise canceling window that can mitigate noise passing through an open window. In MCFFANC, the classic multiple-error LMS algorithm is derived for minimizing the sum of the squared errors, which is an appropriate approximation of the noise power when the error microphones are placed in the far field. However, owing to the room reverberation, the error microphones are preferably placed in the near field. Therefore, there is a mismatch between the algorithms and applications of MCFFANC. Near-field error sensing methods are desired in MCFFANC. For such purposes, this paper extends the single-channel virtual sensing technique to the multiple-channel case. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by an experimental setup of the active noise canceling window. An improved global reduction of noise is confirmed at far-field observation points