Cytotoxic necrotizing factor 1 promotes bladder cancer angiogenesis through activating RhoC

Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC), a leading cause of urinary tract infections, is associated with prostate and bladder cancers. Cytotoxic necrotizing factor 1 (CNF1) is a key UPEC toxin; however, its role in bladder cancer is unknown. In the present study, we found CNF1 induced bladder cancer cells to secrete vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) through activating Ras homolog family member C (RhoC), leading to subsequent angiogenesis in the bladder cancer microenvironment. We then investigated that CNF1- mediated RhoC activation modulated the stabilization of hypoxia- inducible factor 1α (HIF1α) to upregulate the VEGF. We demonstrated in vitro that active RhoC increased heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) phosphorylation, which induced the heat shock protein 90α (HSP90α) expression, leading to stabilization of HIF1α. Active RhoC elevated HSP90α, HIF1α, VEGF expression, and angiogenesis in the human bladder cancer xenografts. In addition, HSP90α, HIF1α, and VEGF expression were also found positively correlated with the human bladder cancer development. These results provide a potential mechanism through which UPEC contributes to bladder cancer progression, and may provide potential therapeutic targets for bladder cancer.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155984/1/fsb220522.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155984/2/fsb220522-sup-0001-Supinfo.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155984/3/fsb220522_am.pd

Applications of Single-Cell Omics in Tumor Immunology

The tumor microenvironment (TME) is an ecosystem that contains various cell types, including cancer cells, immune cells, stromal cells, and many others. In the TME, cancer cells aggressively proliferate, evolve, transmigrate to the circulation system and other organs, and frequently communicate with adjacent immune cells to suppress local tumor immunity. It is essential to delineate this ecosystem’s complex cellular compositions and their dynamic intercellular interactions to understand cancer biology and tumor immunology and to benefit tumor immunotherapy. But technically, this is extremely challenging due to the high complexities of the TME. The rapid developments of single-cell techniques provide us powerful means to systemically profile the multiple omics status of the TME at a single-cell resolution, shedding light on the pathogenic mechanisms of cancers and dysfunctions of tumor immunity in an unprecedently resolution. Furthermore, more advanced techniques have been developed to simultaneously characterize multi-omics and even spatial information at the single-cell level, helping us reveal the phenotypes and functionalities of disease-specific cell populations more comprehensively. Meanwhile, the connections between single-cell data and clinical characteristics are also intensively interrogated to achieve better clinical diagnosis and prognosis. In this review, we summarize recent progress in single-cell techniques, discuss their technical advantages, limitations, and applications, particularly in tumor biology and immunology, aiming to promote the research of cancer pathogenesis, clinically relevant cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and immunotherapy design with the help of single-cell techniques

Respiratory Monitoring by a Field Ionization Sensor Based on Trichel Pulses

In this paper, a novel method for respiratory monitoring is presented. The method is based on Trichel pulses (TPs) using a simple field ionization sensor which consists of a needle electrode and a plate electrode. Experiments have been conducted to demonstrate that different respiratory patterns, including normal, ultra-fast, deep breaths, and apnea could be easily monitored in real time by detecting the changes in the TP frequency. The vital capacity could also be assessed by calculating the variation of TP frequency. It is found that the operation principle of the proposed sensor is based on the effects of breath airflow and the atomized water in exhaled air on the TP frequency by changing the ionization process and the dynamics of charged particles in the short gap. The influences of applied voltage and ambient parameters have also been investigated

A Fast in-Motion Alignment Algorithm for DVL Aided SINS

Doppler velocity log (DVL) aided strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS) is a common navigation method for underwater applications. Owing to the in-motion condition and the lack of the GPS, it is a challenge to align a SINS under water. This paper proposed a complete in-motion alignment solution for both attitude and position. The velocity update equation and its integral form in the body frame are studied, and the attitude coarse alignment becomes an optimization-based attitude determination problem between the body frame velocity and the integral form of gravity. The body frame velocity and the Earth frame position are separately treated, and the position alignment problem turns into an equation solving problem. Simulation and on-lake tests are carried out to examine the algorithm. The heading could reach around 10 deg accuracy and the pitch and roll could be aligned up to 0.05 deg in 60 s. With attitude error of this level, the heading could reach 1 deg accuracy in 240 s using unscented Kalman filter (UKF) based fine alignment. The final position error could achieve 1.5% of the voyage distance. This scheme can also be applied to other body frame velocity aided SINS alignments

Attitude Heading Reference System Using MEMS Inertial Sensors with Dual-Axis Rotation

This paper proposes a low cost and small size attitude and heading reference system based on MEMS inertial sensors. A dual-axis rotation structure with a proper rotary scheme according to the design principles is applied in the system to compensate for the attitude and heading drift caused by the large gyroscope biases. An optimization algorithm is applied to compensate for the installation angle error between the body frame and the rotation table’s frame. Simulations and experiments are carried out to evaluate the performance of the AHRS. The results show that the proper rotation could significantly reduce the attitude and heading drifts. Moreover, the new AHRS is not affected by magnetic interference. After the rotation, the attitude and heading are almost just oscillating in a range. The attitude error is about 3° and the heading error is less than 3° which are at least 5 times better than the non-rotation condition

Intensity Equalization of Bidirectional Fiber Laser Based on a Non-Reciprocal Optical Attenuator

The application of a bidirectional laser requires the laser intensity in both directions to be balanced. However, the CW and CCW light intensities in current bidirectional erbium-doped fiber laser experiments differ due to the gain competition effect. There is no report on equalizing the intensity in the CW and CCW directions. This paper proposes a bidirectional non-reciprocal optical attenuator using the Faraday optical rotation effect. Continuous attenuation adjustment is realized by changing the angle between the polarizer’s transmission axis and the linear polarized light. In this study, we analyzed the influence of different parameters on the device’s performance, built a non-reciprocal attenuator, and tested the bidirectional attenuation curve, which was consistent with the simulation results. The device was integrated into a bidirectional fiber laser, and the light intensity in both directions was balanced through non-reciprocal adjustment. Combined with closed-loop control, the average intensity difference fluctuation between the two directions was controlled at 0.28% relative to the average power, realizing stable long-term bidirectional fiber laser intensity equalization

Bidirectional Single Longitudinal Mode Er-Doped Fiber Ring Laser Using a Bandpass Filter and Cascaded Fiber Ring Filter

Bidirectional single longitudinal mode fiber ring laser have advantages and potential in optical sensing, especially angular velocity sensing. The current methods for implementing bidirectional single longitudinal mode fiber ring laser cannot ensure complete reciprocity in the optical path, and the side mode suppression ratio needs to be increased, while the laser linewidth is relatively wide. This paper proposes a combined filtering structure using a bandpass filter and a cascaded add-drop type fiber ring filter. When realizing bidirectional single longitudinal mode output, the optical path structure is fully reciprocal including polarization state reciprocity, while the side mode suppression ratio is relatively high. The linewidth of the bidirectional laser is around 1.1 kHz, far lower than the previous report of tens of kHz. The fully reciprocal combined filter structure proposed in this paper does not require special devices, and its theoretical system is mature, which is conducive to the subsequent application and improvement of bidirectional single longitudinal mode fiber ring laser