Transcriptional regulation of Bcl-2 gene by the PR/SET domain family member PRDM10

Bcl-2 (B-cell lymphoma 2) protein is localized in the outer membrane of mitochondria, where it plays an important role in promoting cellular survival and inhibiting the actions of pro-apoptotic proteins. PRDM10 is a member of the PR/SET family of epigenetic regulators and may play a role in development and cell differentiation. Here we show that human PRDM10 contributes to the transcriptional regulation of human Bcl-2 gene. We found that PRDM10-depletion in human cells reduced the expression of Bcl-2 protein and over-expression of PRDM10 promoted Bcl-2 protein expression. Furthermore, luciferase reporter activity of Bcl-2 gene P1 promoter was significantly increased in cells co-transfected with PRDM10, and PRDM10 was able to bind to the Bcl-2 P1 promoter in vivo. Using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data set, we found weak positive correlation between PRDM10 and Bcl-2 in several cancer types including cancers of the breast, colon, and lung tissues. These data identify a novel function for PRDM10 protein and provide insights on the transcriptional control of Bcl-2 expression

Retrospective evaluation of whole exome and genome mutation calls in 746 cancer samples

Funder: NCI U24CA211006Abstract: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) curated consensus somatic mutation calls using whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), respectively. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumour types, we compare WES and WGS side-by-side from 746 TCGA samples, finding that ~80% of mutations overlap in covered exonic regions. We estimate that low variant allele fraction (VAF < 15%) and clonal heterogeneity contribute up to 68% of private WGS mutations and 71% of private WES mutations. We observe that ~30% of private WGS mutations trace to mutations identified by a single variant caller in WES consensus efforts. WGS captures both ~50% more variation in exonic regions and un-observed mutations in loci with variable GC-content. Together, our analysis highlights technological divergences between two reproducible somatic variant detection efforts

Removal of 17β-Estradiol by Activated Charcoal Supported Titanate Nanotubes (TNTs@AC) through Initial Adsorption and Subsequent Photo-Degradation: Intermediates, DFT calculation, and Mechanisms

A low-cost composite of activated charcoal supported titanate nanotubes (TNTs@AC) was developed via the facile hydrothermal method to remove the 17&beta;-estradiol (E2, a model of pharmaceutical and personal care products) in water matrix by initial adsorption and subsequent photo-degradation. Characterizations indicated that the modification occurred, i.e., the titanate nanotubes would be grafted onto the activated charcoal (AC) surface, and the micro-carbon could modify the tubular structure of TNTs. E2 was rapidly adsorbed onto TNTs@AC, and the uptake reached 1.87 mg/g from the dual-mode model fitting. Subsequently, the adsorbed E2 could be degraded 99.8% within 2 h under ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation. TNTs@AC was attributed with a unique hybrid structure, providing the hydrophobic effect, &pi;&minus;&pi; interaction, and capillary condensation for E2 adsorption, and facilitating the electron transfer and then enhancing photocatalytic ability for E2-degradation. In addition, the removal mechanism of E2 was elucidated through the density functional theory calculation. Our study is expected to provide a promising material for environmental application

Investigation of hydrodynamics and mass transfer in an internal loop airlift slurry reactor integrating mixing and separation

Based on newly invented internal loop airlift slurry reactor integrating mixing and separation, hydrodynamics and mass transfer under different solid loadings and superficial gas velocities were systematically investigated, and mixing and mass transfer characteristics were studied. Additionally, some empirical models for these critical parameters are proposed. A phenomenon of internal fluid relay circulations in the riser of the internal loop airlift reactor at the high superficial gas velocity was firstly discovered by visual observation and was then verified both by the picture sequences and theoretical analysis, and some new thoughts for structural optimization were also proposed. It was found that the axial solid concentration deviation can be more than 30% and the solid particles were inclined to exist near the wall. Surprisingly, the particle size distributions were found to be the same in the whole reactor. This slurry reactor will be popular in industry with a further structural optimization

Bubble formation in continuous liquid phase under industrial jetting conditions

Accurate prediction of bubble diameter is crucial for the proper design, optimization, and scale-up of gas-liquid apparatuses. Bubble formation at submerged multiple orifices in a gas-liquid apparatus under industrial conditions is systematically investigated in this work. It is found that the bubble diameter firstly increases and then approaches to a relatively constant value in the low viscous liquid when increasing the orifice superficial gas velocity. Parametric studies demonstrate that large orifice diameter and high liquid viscosity lead to larger bubble diameter, and the inflection point in the curve of bubble diameter versus orifice superficial gas velocity is also affected. With surfactant added in solutions, the bubble diameter decreases markedly. Based on the experimental data, a semi-empirical correlation for predicting the bubble diameter is proposed using nonlinear least square optimization. The new correlation, containing the influence of orifice diameter, orifice superficial gas velocity and liquid properties on the bubble diameter, is further validated by comparing prediction results with experimental data over a wide range of operating conditions and working systems from the literature. Therefore, it is thought useful for the industrial design of gas-liquid apparatus. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

The Case Against Intermediate Owner Liability Under CERCLA for Passive Migration of Hazardous Waste

This Note argues that Congress intended disposal to have an active meaning and therefore that courts should not hold prior intermediate owners liable for the passive migration of hazardous waste under section 107(a)(2). Part I examines CERCLA\u27s definition of disposal. This Part concludes that the language of the definition, though somewhat ambiguous, supports the active defuiition. Part II considers the history of both CERCLA and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), which CERCLA amended, in order to determine whether Congress intended to require affirmative conduct on the part of intermediate owners as a prerequisite to liability. Part II concludes that although the history of CERCLA sheds little direct light on the meaning of disposal, the analogous controversy under RCRA indicates that Congress understood disposal to have an active meaning in the CERCLA statute. Part III confirms this interpretation, concluding that the structure of CERCLA supports the active reading of the definition. Finally, Part IV demonstrates that the active reading of disposal is consistent with CERCLA\u27s purposes. Courts should therefore interpret the word disposal to require a showing of affirmative human conduct before imposing liability on intermediate owners under section 107(a)(2)

BM-Net: CNN-Based MobileNet-V3 and Bilinear Structure for Breast Cancer Detection in Whole Slide Images

Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer and is the leading cause of cancer-related death. Diagnosis of breast cancer is based on the evaluation of pathology slides. In the era of digital pathology, these slides can be converted into digital whole slide images (WSIs) for further analysis. However, due to their sheer size, digital WSIs diagnoses are time consuming and challenging. In this study, we present a lightweight architecture that consists of a bilinear structure and MobileNet-V3 network, bilinear MobileNet-V3 (BM-Net), to analyze breast cancer WSIs. We utilized the WSI dataset from the ICIAR2018 Grand Challenge on Breast Cancer Histology Images (BACH) competition, which contains four classes: normal, benign, in situ carcinoma, and invasive carcinoma. We adopted data augmentation techniques to increase diversity and utilized focal loss to remove class imbalance. We achieved high performance, with 0.88 accuracy in patch classification and an average 0.71 score, which surpassed state-of-the-art models. Our BM-Net shows great potential in detecting cancer in WSIs and is a promising clinical tool