Inhibitory effect of microRNA34a on retinal pigment epithelial cell proliferation and migration,”

Citation: Hou Q, Tang J, Wang Z, et al. Inhibitory effect of microRNA-34a on retinal pigment epithelial cell proliferation and migration. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2013;54:6481-6488. DOI:10.1167/iovs.13-11873 PURPOSE. Retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells play important roles in ophthalmologic diseases such as proliferative vitreoretinopathy, AMD, and diabetic retinopathy. MicroRNA34a (miR-34a) has been reported to be important in the regulation of cell proliferation, migration, differentiation, and apoptosis. In this study, we explored the effects of miR-34a on RPE cells. METHODS. The expression level of miR-34a in subconfluent and postconfluent ARPE-19 cells was investigated with quantitative real-time PCR. MicroRNA mimic and small interfering RNA (siRNA) were transiently transfected into RPE cells. Transfected RPE cells were analyzed with WST-1 proliferation assay, and their migration was analyzed with transwell assay and in vitro scratch study. The expression or activation of target proteins was detected by Western blotting. RESULTS. MicroRNA-34a was significantly downregulated in subconfluent ARPE-19 cells compared with postconfluent cells. Introduction of miR-34a inhibited the proliferation and migratory ability of RPE cells without obvious cell apoptosis. In miR-34a transfected cells, many important proliferation and/or migration related molecules such as c-Met, CDK2, CDK4, CDK6, E2F1, and phosphorylated-Cdc2 (p-Cdc2) were downregulated. Small interfering RNA designed to target c-Met also inhibited the proliferation and migration of RPE cells and downregulated CDK2, CDK6, E2F1, and p-Cdc2. CONCLUSIONS. MicroRNA-34a is downregulated in subconfluent RPE cells. MicroRNA-34a can inhibit the proliferation and migration of RPE cells through downregulation of its targets c-Met and other cell cycle-related molecules. Our results indicated that miR-34a is involved in the regulation of RPE cells

Nacre-like surface nanolaminates enhance fatigue resistance of pure titanium.

Fatigue failure is invariably the most crucial failure mode for metallic structural components. Most microstructural strategies for enhancing fatigue resistance are effective in suppressing either crack initiation or propagation, but often do not work for both synergistically. Here, we demonstrate that this challenge can be overcome by architecting a gradient structure featuring a surface layer of nacre-like nanolaminates followed by multi-variant twinned structure in pure titanium. The polarized accommodation of highly regulated grain boundaries in the nanolaminated layer to cyclic loading enhances the structural stability against lamellar thickening and microstructure softening, thereby delaying surface roughening and thus crack nucleation. The decohesion of the nanolaminated grains along horizonal high-angle grain boundaries gives rise to an extraordinarily high frequency (≈1.7 × 103 times per mm) of fatigue crack deflection, effectively reducing fatigue crack propagation rate (by 2 orders of magnitude lower than the homogeneous coarse-grained counterpart). These intriguing features of the surface nanolaminates, along with the various toughening mechanisms activated in the subsurface twinned structure, result in a fatigue resistance that significantly exceeds those of the homogeneous and gradient structures with equiaxed grains. Our work on architecting the surface nanolaminates in gradient structure provides a scalable and sustainable strategy for designing more fatigue-resistant alloys

Artificial intelligence-aided rapid and accurate identification of clinical fungal infections by single-cell Raman spectroscopy

Integrating artificial intelligence and new diagnostic platforms into routine clinical microbiology laboratory procedures has grown increasingly intriguing, holding promises of reducing turnaround time and cost and maximizing efficiency. At least one billion people are suffering from fungal infections, leading to over 1.6 million mortality every year. Despite the increasing demand for fungal diagnosis, current approaches suffer from manual bias, long cultivation time (from days to months), and low sensitivity (only 50% produce positive fungal cultures). Delayed and inaccurate treatments consequently lead to higher hospital costs, mobility and mortality rates. Here, we developed single-cell Raman spectroscopy and artificial intelligence to achieve rapid identification of infectious fungi. The classification between fungi and bacteria infections was initially achieved with 100% sensitivity and specificity using single-cell Raman spectra (SCRS). Then, we constructed a Raman dataset from clinical fungal isolates obtained from 94 patients, consisting of 115,129 SCRS. By training a classification model with an optimized clinical feedback loop, just 5 cells per patient (acquisition time 2 s per cell) made the most accurate classification. This protocol has achieved 100% accuracies for fungal identification at the species level. This protocol was transformed to assessing clinical samples of urinary tract infection, obtaining the correct diagnosis from raw sample-to-result within 1 h

Dynamic Effect and Control of Key Strata Break of Immediate Roof in Fully Mechanized Mining with Large Mining Height

This paper puts forward the concept of key strata in immediate roof (KSIF) and studied the dynamic effect and control mechanism of KSIF. The results show that KSIR controls the caving of its upper immediate roof strata; the break of KSIR has direct dynamic impact on its lower strata and this impact increases along with the increase of the thickness and hardness of the KSIR and the decrease of the distance to the working seam. The KSIR and main roof can easily form the bilayer structure “Cantilever-Masonry beam.” Support work load is affected by the position, thickness, and hardness of KSIR. The support work load increased on the condition of increase of the thickness and hardness of KSIR and the decrease of the distance to the face

Shape and appearance context modeling

In this work we develop appearance models for computing the similarity between image regions containing deformable objects of a given class in realtime. We introduce the concept of shape and appearance context. The main idea is to model the spatial distribution of the appearance relative to each of the object parts. Estimating the model entails computing occurrence matrices. We introduce a generalization of the integral image and integral histogram frameworks, and prove that it can be used to dramatically speed up occurrence computation. We demonstrate the ability of this framework to recognize an individual walking across a network of cameras. Finally, we show that the proposed approach outperforms several other methods. 1

Effects of Supply Parameters of Stratum Ventilation on Energy Utilization Efficiency and Indoor Thermal Comfort: A Computational Approach

Stratum ventilation shows the significant potential on energy conservation and indoor thermal comfort under cooling applications. Yet, only limited researches focus on the thermal performance of stratum ventilation under heating condition. The heating and cooling operation characteristic of stratum ventilation is different due to the distinct airflow characteristics. Therefore, this paper investigated the parameters that affect energy utilization efficiency and indoor thermal comfort under heating condition served by stratum ventilation via CFD simulations approach. The supply air parameters included temperature, airflow rate, angle, and return air outlet positions. The evaluation indicators adopt ventilation effectiveness and effective draft temperature (EDT) for assessing the energy utilization efficiency and indoor thermal comfort served by stratum ventilation under heating condition. The results demonstrated that, under the heating mode of stratum ventilation, different effects on the thermal performance were made by the mentioned parameters. The ventilation effectiveness was higher when the air supply temperature is 26°C, airflow rate is 7 air change per hour (ACH), and the air supply angle is 45°. The EDT range of the occupied zone is closest to zero K when the air supply temperature is 28°C, airflow rate is 12 (ACH), and the air supply angle is 60°. The related conclusions obtained from this study provide the theoretical basis for the stratum ventilation design and promote its heating application