A combined method of thermal and vibratory stress relief

A combined method of thermal and vibratory stress relief (TVSR) to extend effects of vibratory stress relief (VSR) is presented. TVSR was implemented by imposing vibratory load on a workpiece at an assisted temperature. Residual stresses before and after treatment were measured using the modified layer removal method (MLRM) to evaluate the stress variations. A finite element (FE) model was developed to investigate and compare TVSR and VSR treatment on workpieces cut from a 7075 aluminum alloy plate. Thermal influence on TVSR equipment and vibratory treatment of the workpiece was analyzed using this model. Experiments were conducted to validate simulation results. Significant residual stress relief was observed in TVSR, however, effects of VSR were limited

Protective effect of Camellia oleifera Abel. on silica-induced pulmonary fibrosis in rats

Background:  Camellia oleifera Abel. belongs to the family Theaceae and genus Camellia. It is commonly cultivated in southern China. The seeds of C. oleifera have been reported to exhibit a diversity of pharmacological activities which include, but are not limited to, antioxidant, anti-cancer and antimicrobial. Pulmonary fibrosis is one of lethal causes of mortality across the globe and accretion of considerable amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in lungs have been implicated in the onset of this disease. Given the known antioxidant activity of C. oleifera seed extract (CSE), the present study was designed to evaluate the influence of CSE on the silica-induced pulmonary fibrosis rat models.Materials and Methods: Protective effect of CSE was determined in silica-induced pulmonary fibrosis rat models. Malondialdehyde (MDA), hydroxyproline (HP) and superoxide dismutase 2 (SOD-2) activity were determined by standard biochemical assays. Histopathological analysis was carried out by H and E staining. Phyto-constituents of CSE were identified by LC/MS analysis.Results: The results of this study indicated that CSE lowered the MDA and hydroxyproline content in silica-treated rats. Additionally, CSE also caused a significant increase in the expression of SOD-2 leading to scavenging of ROS. Hematoxylin and eosin (H and E) staining of lung tissue sections revealed that CSE maintained the integrity of parenchymatous cells of lungs and prevented the development of pulmonary fibrosis. To gain insights about the phytochemical constituents of CSE, LC/MS analysis was carried out and several antioxidant phenolics and flavonoids were tentatively identified.Conclusion: Taken together, we conclude that CSE prevents development of pulmonary fibrosis and the protective effect of CSE may be due to its ability to induce SOD-2 expression and due to the presence antioxidant phytoconstituents.Keywords: Pulmonary fibrosis, Silica, Camellia oleifera, Reactive oxygen species, Superoxide dismutas

LHX1 as a potential biomarker regulates EMT induction and cellular behaviors in uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma

Objectives: To investigate the expression of LHX1 and its role as a biomarker in the diagnosis and prognosis of Uterine Corpus Endometrial Carcinoma (UCEC). Methods: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database was used to detect the expression level of LHX1 in UCEC cells and tissues, and to find out the effect of LHX1 on prognosis. Co-expressed genes were then identified by Spearman correlation analysis, and the protein-protein interaction network was constructed using Cytoscape software. The R “clusterProfiler” package was used to conduct Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses. A series of in vitro experiments were performed to evaluate LHX1 expression and detect UCEC cell proliferation, invasion, and migration. Western blotting was used to determine the effect of LHX1 on expression levels of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT)-related proteins. Results: LHX1 was upregulated in UCEC tissues and correlated with poor overall survival and disease-specific survival outcomes. Functional enrichment analysis suggested that genes co-expressed with LHX1 were enriched in cell adhesion. The expression of LHX1 was positively correlated with the expression levels of genes related to EMT induction and invasion. LHX1 can enhance the proliferation, migration, and invasion activities of UCEC cells in vitro, and alter the expression levels of EMT-related proteins. Conclusion: LHX1 expression was highly upregulated in UCEC cells and tissues, which was correlated with the prognosis of patients with UCEC. LHX1 may regulate UCEC progression at least in part by modulating EMT induction

Experimental Study on Bioluminescence Tomography with Multimodality Fusion

To verify the influence of a priori information on the nonuniqueness problem of bioluminescence tomography (BLT), the multimodality imaging fusion based BLT experiment is performed by multiview noncontact detection mode, which incorporates the anatomical information obtained by the microCT scanner and the background optical properties based on diffuse reflectance measurements. In the reconstruction procedure, the utilization of adaptive finite element methods (FEMs) and a priori permissible source region refines the reconstructed results and improves numerical robustness and efficiency. The comparison between the absence and employment of a priori information shows that multimodality imaging fusion is essential to quantitative BLT reconstruction