Ischemic conditioning by short periods of reperfusion attenuates renal ischemia/reperfusion induced apoptosis and autophagy in the rat

Prolonged ischemia amplified iscehemia/reperfusion (IR) induced renal apoptosis and autophagy. We hypothesize that ischemic conditioning (IC) by a briefly intermittent reperfusion during a prolonged ischemic phase may ameliorate IR induced renal dysfunction. We evaluated the antioxidant/oxidant mechanism, autophagy and apoptosis in the uninephrectomized Wistar rats subjected to sham control, 4 stages of 15-min IC (I15 × 4), 2 stages of 30-min IC (I30 × 2), and total 60-min ischema (I60) in the kidney followed by 4 or 24 hours of reperfusion. By use of ATP assay, monitoring O2-. amounts, autophagy and apoptosis analysis of rat kidneys, I60 followed by 4 hours of reperfusion decreased renal ATP and enhanced reactive oxygen species (ROS) level and proapoptotic and autophagic mechanisms, including enhanced Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, cytochrome C release, active caspase 3, poly-(ADP-ribose)-polymerase (PARP) degradation fragments, microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC3) and Beclin-1 expression and subsequently tubular apoptosis and autophagy associated with elevated blood urea nitrogen and creatinine level. I30 × 2, not I15 × 4 decreased ROS production and cytochrome C release, increased Manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), Copper-Zn superoxide dismutase (CuZnSOD) and catalase expression and provided a more efficient protection than I60 against IR induced tubular apoptosis and autophagy and blood urea nitrogen and creatinine level. We conclude that 60-min renal ischemia enhanced renal tubular oxidative stress, proapoptosis and autophagy in the rat kidneys. Two stages of 30-min ischemia with 3-min reperfusion significantly preserved renal ATP content, increased antioxidant defense mechanisms and decreased ischemia/reperfusion enhanced renal tubular oxidative stress, cytosolic cytochrome C release, proapoptosis and autophagy in rat kidneys

SIMD Everywhere Optimization from ARM NEON to RISC-V Vector Extensions

Many libraries, such as OpenCV, FFmpeg, XNNPACK, and Eigen, utilize Arm or x86 SIMD Intrinsics to optimize programs for performance. With the emergence of RISC-V Vector Extensions (RVV), there is a need to migrate these performance legacy codes for RVV. Currently, the migration of NEON code to RVV code requires manual rewriting, which is a time-consuming and error-prone process. In this work, we use the open source tool, "SIMD Everywhere" (SIMDe), to automate the migration. Our primary task is to enhance SIMDe to enable the conversion of ARM NEON Intrinsics types and functions to their corresponding RVV Intrinsics types and functions. For type conversion, we devise strategies to convert Neon Intrinsics types to RVV Intrinsics by considering the vector length agnostic (vla) architectures. With function conversions, we analyze commonly used conversion methods in SIMDe and develop customized conversions for each function based on the results of RVV code generations. In our experiments with Google XNNPACK library, our enhanced SIMDe achieves speedup ranging from 1.51x to 5.13x compared to the original SIMDe, which does not utilize customized RVV implementations for the conversions

Cadmium burden and the risk and phenotype of prostate cancer

© 2009 Chen et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Oncologic Outcomes of Asian Men with Clinically Localized Prostate Cancer after Extraperitoneal Laparoscopic Radical Prostatectomy: A Single-Institution Experience

Purpose. To evaluate the midterm oncologic results of extraperitoneal laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (EPLRP) for Asian men with localized prostate cancer. Methods. Between 2004 and 2009, 218 men underwent EPLRP at an Asian tertiary hospital. The mean preoperative prostate-specific antigen (PSA) was 15.5 ng/ml and mean Gleason score was 6.6. Stage distributions were cT1a-b in 21 cases, cT1c in 139, cT2 in 48 and cT3 in 10. Disease recurrence was defined as PSA ≥ 0.2 ng/mL in 2 consecutive measurements or initiation of secondary therapy. Results. Postoperative pathological stage was pT2a-b in 33 patients, pT2cN0 in 10, pT3a in 27, pT3b in 36, pT4 in 9 and pN1 in 10. Positive surgical margins occurred in 14.6% and 48.6% for pT2 and pT3 diseases, respectively (P < .001). The overall PSA recurrence-free survival at 3 and 5 years was 82.1% and 74.5%. By the pathological stages, 3-year recurrence-free survival was 92.4% (pT2), 81.1% (pT3a), 62.6% (pT3b-4) and 55.6% (pN1), respectively (P < .001). Conclusions. EPLRP is curative even for some locally advanced prostate cancers in a midterm follow-up. Even at an Asian center of low volume of radical prostatectomy EPLRP still provides oncologic outcomes similar to that of high volume centers

Development of a Game-Based e-Learning System with Augmented Reality for Improving Students’ Learning Performance

Currently, the school children usually spend a lot of time on the games in their recreational activities and some of them are even addicted to the games. Compared with other extracurricular activities, the e-Learning system reflects the fact that school children are very interested in the games. As a result, educators have lately craved to develop effective teaching activities that allow the school children to learn some subjects and to play the games simultaneously.  Therefore, this study is based on an e-Learning system which combines the serious game by Unity3D Game Engine with augmented reality (AR). Students are able to acquire their knowledge and to foster logical skills via this game-based e-Learning system.  According to its efficacy and utilities, this study has assessed and compared the game-based e-Learning system with the traditional learning and other e-Learning systems. The experimental results have indicated that the proposed game-based e-Learning system can outperform other existing systems

長者學習研究計劃2011-2012 : 計劃介紹及教材冊

有見長者的學歷及學習能力日高，長者的需求亦有所不同，對長者需求的研究實是需要的。加上部份長者表示希望參與較高層次的學習活動及貢獻社會，故嶺南大學服務研習處舉辦長者學習研究計劃2011-2012，培訓長者成為研究人員，期望由長者的角度出發，為長者學習 的長遠發展作出研究及提出建議。 計劃目標： • 培養長者對學術研究的興趣； • 提供研究技巧培訓課程； • 分析學苑現有課程的成效； • 探討長者學習的政策及制定長遠發展方向； • 透過長幼參與研究計劃，增加兩代溝通，促進跨代共融。 本手冊收錄了有關計劃詳情以及課程教材。https://commons.ln.edu.hk/osl_book/1002/thumbnail.jp

Characterization of membranous and cytoplasmic EGFR expression in human normal renal cortex and renal cell carcinoma

Metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is highly resistant to conventional systemic treatments, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormonal therapies. Previous studies have shown over-expression of EGFR is associated with high grade tumors and a worse prognosis. Recent studies suggest anticancer therapies targeting the EGFR pathway have shown promising results in clinical trials of RCC patients. Therefore, characterization of the level and localization of EGFR expression in RCC is important for target-dependent therapy. In this study, we investigated the clinical significance of cellular localization of EGFR in human normal renal cortex and RCC. RCC and adjacent normal kidney tissues of 63 patients were obtained for characterization of EGFR expression. EGFR protein expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry on a scale from 0 to 300 (percentage of positive cells × staining intensity) and Western blotting. EGFR membranous staining was significantly stronger in RCC tumors than in normal tissues (P < 0.001). In contrast, EGFR cytoplasmic staining was significantly higher in normal than in tumor tissues (P < 0.001). The levels of membranous or cytoplasmic EGFR expression in RCC tissues were not correlated with sex, tumor grade, TNM stage or overall survival (P > 0.05). These results showed abundant expression of membranous EGFR in RCC, and abundant expression of cytoplasmic EGFR in normal tissues. EGFR expression in RCC was mostly located in the cell membrane, whereas the EGFR expression in normal renal tissues was chiefly seen in cytoplasm. Our results suggest different locations of EGFR expression may be associated with human renal tumorigenesis

Down-regulation of PKCζ in renal cell carcinoma and its clinicopathological implications

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is highly resistant to systemic chemotherapy. Unfortunately, nearly all patients die of the metastatic and chemoresistant RCC. Recent studies have shown the atypical PKCζ is an important regulator of tumorigenesis. However, the correlation between PKC<b>ζ </b>expression and the clinical outcome in RCC patients is unclear. We examined the level of PKCζ expression in human RCC.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>PKCζ mRNA and protein expressions were examined by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) respectively in RCC tissues of 144 patients. Cellular cytotoxicity and proliferation were assessed by MTT.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>PKCζ expression was significantly higher in normal than in cancerous tissues (<it>P </it>< 0.0001) by real-time PCR and IHC. Similarly, PKCζ expression was down-regulated in four renal cancer cell lines compared to immortalized benign renal tubular cells. Interestingly, an increase of PKCζ expression was associated with the elevated tumor grade (<it>P </it>= 0.04), but no such association was found in TNM stage (<it>P </it>= 0.13). Tumors with higher PKCζ expression were associated with tumor size (<it>P </it>= 0.048). Expression of higher PKCζ found a poor survival in patients with high tumor grade. Down-regulation of PKCζ showed the significant chemoresistance in RCC cell lines. Inactivation of PKCζ expression enhanced cellular resistance to cisplatin and paclitaxel, and proliferation in HK-2 cells by specific PKC<b>ζ </b>siRNA and inhibitor.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>PKCζ expression was associated with tumorigenesis and chemoresistance in RCC.</p

Clinical Study Oncologic Outcomes of Asian Men with Clinically Localized Prostate Cancer after Extraperitoneal Laparoscopic Radical Prostatectomy: A Single-Institution Experience

properly cited. Purpose. To evaluate the midterm oncologic results of extraperitoneal laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (EPLRP) for Asian men with localized prostate cancer. Methods. Between 2004 and 2009, 218 men underwent EPLRP at an Asian tertiary hospital. The mean preoperative prostate-specific antigen (PSA) was 15.5 ng/ml and mean Gleason score was 6.6. Stage distributions were cT1a-b in 21 cases, cT1c in 139, cT2 in 48 and cT3 in 10. Disease recurrence was defined as PSA ≥ 0.2 ng/mL in 2 consecutive measurements or initiation of secondary therapy. Results. Postoperative pathological stage was pT2a-b in 33 patients, pT2cN0 in 10, pT3a in 27, pT3b in 36, pT4 in 9 and pN1 in 10. Positive surgical margins occurred in 14.6% and 48.6% for pT2 and pT3 diseases, respectively (P &lt; .001). The overall PSA recurrence-free survival at 3 and 5 years was 82.1% and 74.5%. By the pathological stages, 3-year recurrence-free survival was 92.4% (pT2), 81.1% (pT3a), 62.6% (pT3b-4) and 55.6% (pN1), respectively (P &lt; .001). Conclusions. EPLRP is curative even for some locally advanced prostate cancers in a midterm follow-up. Even at an Asian center of low volume of radical prostatectomy EPLRP still provides oncologic outcomes similar to that of high volume centers