MicroRNA miR-103a-3p targets NPAS3 to regulate progression of Alzheimer’s disease

Purpose: This study aimed at investigating miR-103a-3p expression, functional roles and underlying mechanism in regulating Alzheimer’s progression.Methods: RT-qPCR was used to assessed miR-103a-3p and NPAS3 expression in human neuroblastoma cells. Cell transfection of overexpressed or knocked down genes and CCK-8 assay measured cell viability while RT-qPCR was used to detect proliferation and apoptosis in biomarkers, Ki87 and PCNA, caspase-8 and caspase-3, respectively. Furthermore, luciferase assay was used to evaluate the luciferase activity while western blotting  analysis was applied to determine protein biomarkers regarding proliferation and apoptosis.Results: Expression of miR-103a-3p decreased but NPAS3 increased in AD cell lines. Overexpressed miR-103a-3p attenuated cell viability and NPAS3 bound miR-103a-3p to regulate AD progression. The inhibitory effect of miRNA on cell viability in AD was reversed by NPAS3.Conclusion: miR-103a-3p/NPAS3 might help to enrich knowledge on treatment of AD. Keywords: Alzheimer’s development, cell growth, cell proliferatio

Photooxidation stability of phytosterols with different relative spatial positions in different particles

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of relative spatial position of stigmasterol on its photooxidation stability in different particles. Phytosterol oxidation products (POPs) from phytosterol oxidation were successfully isolated and studied using solid phase extraction (SPE) technology in conjunction with GC-MS. The photooxidation stability of stigmasterol in four particles was as follows: zein stabilized particles (ZPs) ≈ zein-pectin stabilized particles (ZPPs) > soy protein isolate (SPI)-pectin stabilized particles (SPPs) > SPI stabilized particles (SPs). 7β-Hydroxy and 5β, 6β-epoxy was the main POPs in the first and second oxidation stages, respectively, which reached 8,945 ± 43 μg/g and 6,010 ± 289 μg/g after 240 min UV light exposure treatment in SPs. When stigmasterol was hydrophobically adsorbed on the surface of SPs, the network gel generated by pectin outside SPPs prevented photooxidation of stigmasterol. When stigmasterol was encapsulated in the interior of ZPs, the blocking effect of pectin in ZPPs became insignificant. The study provided a feasible development direction for the storage and quality control of phytosterols as dietary supplements

Statistical Analysis of High-Resolution Coherent Monopulse Radar Sea Clutter

A statistical analysis that properly characterizes sea clutter processes is indispensable both for optimum detection algorithm design and for performance prediction problems in maritime surveillance applications. In this paper, we present the statistical analysis of experimental sea clutter data collected by a high-resolution coherent monopulse radar. First, we present the amplitude statistical analyses for these clutter data. The results show that the K, Pareto, and CIG distributions can each provide good fits to the clutter data for three channels of monopulse radar. The analyses on the variations of the K distribution parameters with range suggest that the scale parameter is closely associated with the clutter powers and that the shape parameter is influenced by the sea state. Then, we focus on the correlation properties. The averaged results suggest that the temporal and spatial correlation properties are similar for the clutter of all three channels. Moreover, the clutter between the sum and difference channels is almost completely correlated in elevation and is lowly correlated in azimuth. Finally, we perform a spectral analysis, highlighting the temporal and spatial variabilities of Doppler spectra. It is found that the individual Doppler spectra in all three channels can be represented by Gaussian-shaped power spectral densities, and their centroid and width can be modeled as two separate stage linear functions of spectrum intensity

Overnutrition-induced gout: An immune response to NLRP3 inflammasome dysregulation by XOD activity increased in quail

BackgroundGout is a progressive metabolic disease closely related to hyperuricemia and urate deposition, with an increasing prevalence and incidence across the globe. Recent studies have shown that the pathological process of gout includes two stages: asymptomatic hyperuricemia and MSU crystal deposition. However, the immune response during the development of hyperuricemia to gouty arthritis is not fully elucidated.MethodsThus, an overnutrition-induced whole-course gout model was established to clarify the immune response and pathological changes in the development from hyperuricemia to gouty arthritis. The quails without urate oxidase were used as experimental animals. And we confirmed that uric acid metabolic targets were changed when quails were in the asymptomatic hyperuricemia stage. ResultsWhen the quail showed gout symptoms, the NLRP3 inflammasome was activated, and the expressions of IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-8, and IL-18 were significantly increased. The relationship between the uric acid metabolism target and the NLRP3 inflammasome may be the critical immune response between hyperuricemia and gouty arthritis. Our data showed that, in the process of gout disease, the expression of xanthine oxidase (XOD) has been increasing, which increases the level of uric acid, disrupts the balance of oxidative stress, generates a large amount of ROS, activates the NLRP3 inflammasome, and release IL-1β. Treatment with the XOD inhibitor can reduce uric acid, restore the body’s degree of peroxidative damage and antioxidant capacity, and inhibit NLRP3 inflammasome and IL-1β. In vitro, we extracted and identified primary fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) from quail for the first time. Stimulating FLS with uric acid also caused ROS release and NLRP3 inflammasome activation. However, treatment with an XOD inhibitor prevented all these responses in FLS. ConclusionOur results indicate that the immune response between the uric acid metabolism target XOD and NLRP3 inflammasomes plays a crucial role in developing hyperuricemia to gouty arthritis, and inhibition of both XOD and NLRP3 inflammasomes may be an effective treatment for avoiding the development of asymptomatic hyperuricemia to MSU crystal deposition. Meanwhile, this study also provides an advantageous animal model for pathological mechanisms and research and development drugs for gout

Identifying the Species of Seeds in Traditional Chinese Medicine Using DNA Barcoding

Seed is not only the main reproductive organ of most of herbal plants but also an important part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Seed TCMs possess important medicinal properties and have been widely used as components of pharmaceutical products. In parallel with the increasing popularity and accessibility of seeds as medicinal products in recent years, numerous substitutes and adulterants have also appeared on the market. Due to the small volume and similar appearances of many seed TCMs, they are very difficult to accurately identify the constituent plant species through organoleptic methods. Usage of the wrong herb may be ineffective or may worsen the condition and even cause death. Correct identification of seed herbal medicines is therefore essential for their safe use. Here, we acquired 177 ITS2 sequences and 15 psbA-trnH sequences from 51 kinds of seed TCMs belonging to 64 species that have been described in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. Tree-building analysis showed that the ITS2 sequences of 48 seed TCMs can be differentiated from each other, and they formed distinct, non-overlapping groups in the maximum-likelihood tree. Furthermore, all of the sequences acquired in this study have been submitted to the public DNA barcoding system for herbal medicine, and this integrated database was used to identify 400 seed TCM samples purchased from medicinal markets, drug stores, and the Internet, enabling the identification of 7.5% of the samples as containing non-declared species. This study provides a brief operating procedure for the identification of seed TCMs found in herbal medicine. In the future, researchers and traditional herbal medicine enterprises can use this system to test their herbal materials

Role of cell surface oligosaccharides of mouse mammary tumor cell lines in cancer metastasis

145-151Malignant transformation is associated with changes in the glycosylation of cell surface proteins and lipids. In tumor cells, alterations in cellular glycosylation may play a key role in their metastatic behaviour. In the present study, we have assessed the relationship between cell surface oligosaccharides and the metastasis ability of mouse mammary tumor cell lines 67NR and 4TO7. The cell surface oligosaccharides have been analyzed using specific binding assays with some plant lectins and the metastasis ability has been studied using transwell migration and invasion assays. In addition, we investigated the role of terminal sialic acids in the metastatic potential (cell adhesion on fibronectin, cell migration and invasion) in the 4TO7 cells on treatment with neuraminidase. The cell lines used in study have different metastasis abilities in vivo — the 67NR form primary tumors, but no tumor cells are detectable in any distant tissues, while cells of the 4TO7 line are able to spread to lung. In vitro metastasis experiments have revealed higher ability of adhesion, cell migration and invasion in the 4TO7 cells than the 67NR cells. Specific lectins binding assays show that the 4TO7 cells expressed more high-mannose type, multi-antennary complex-type N-glycans, β-1,6-GlcNAc-branching, ⍺-2,6-linked sialic acids, N-acetylgalactosamine and galactosyl(β-1,3)-N-acetylgalactosamine. Removal of sialic acids on treatment with neuraminidase decreases adhesion, but increases the migration and has shown no significant change in the invasion ability of the 4TO7 cells. The study suggests that the sialic acids are not crucial for the cell migration and invasion in the 4TO7 cells. The findings provide the new insights in understanding the role of cell surface oligosaccharides in cancer metastasis

DOA estimation of LFM sources based on time-frequency interferometer in UCA

Based on the time-frequency (t-f) interferometer of the uniform circular array (UCA), a new direction of arrival (DOA) estimation algorithm of multiple linear frequency modulation (LFM) sources is proposed. Firstly, the cross smoothed pseudo Wigner-Ville distribution (SPWVD) of the elements’ output is calculated and the single source t-f points are selected by using a “noise threshold” procedure and cluster based algorithm. Then, by selecting different groups of sensor pairs, the proposed algorithm can solve the phase ambiguity of the t-f points by using a focusing based algorithm. And a lookup table based ambiguity resolution algorithm is also presented to reduce the computational complexity. The simulation results illustrate that the proposed t-f interferometer can be applied to multiple wideband LFM sources and it also can improve the DOA estimation precision compared with the traditional phase interferometer and sub-band interferometer. Especially in the low signal to noise ratio (SNR) and limited snapshots situations, the estimation root mean square errors (RMSEs) of the proposed algorithm are also within 3°

PSDSD-A Superpixel Generating Method Based on Pixel Saliency Difference and Spatial Distance for SAR Images

Superpixel methods are widely used in the processing of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. In recent years, a number of superpixel algorithms for SAR images have been proposed, and have achieved acceptable results despite the inherent speckle noise of SAR images. However, it is still difficult for existing algorithms to obtain satisfactory results in the inhomogeneous edge and texture areas. To overcome those problems, we propose a superpixel generating method based on pixel saliency difference and spatial distance for SAR images in this article. Firstly, a saliency map is calculated based on the Gaussian kernel function weighted local contrast measure, which can not only effectively suppress the speckle noise, but also enhance the fuzzy edges and regions with intensity inhomogeneity. Secondly, superpixels are generated by the local k-means clustering method based on the proposed distance measure, which can efficiently sort pixels to different clusters. In this step, the distance measure is calculated by combining the saliency difference and spatial distance with a proposed adaptive local compactness parameter. Thirdly, post-processing is utilized to clean up small segments. The evaluation experiments on the simulated SAR image demonstrate that our proposed method dramatically outperforms four state-of-the-art methods in terms of boundary recall, under-segmentation error, and achievable segmentation accuracy under almost all of the experimental parameters at a moderate segment speed. The experiments on real-world SAR images of different sceneries validate the superiority of our method. The superpixel results of the proposed method adhere well to the contour of targets, and correctly reflect the boundaries of texture details for the inhomogeneous regions

Source Symbol Purging-Based Distributed Conditional Arithmetic Coding

A distributed arithmetic coding algorithm based on source symbol purging and using the context model is proposed to solve the asymmetric Slepian–Wolf problem. The proposed scheme is to make better use of both the correlation between adjacent symbols in the source sequence and the correlation between the corresponding symbols of the source and the side information sequences to improve the coding performance of the source. Since the encoder purges a part of symbols from the source sequence, a shorter codeword length can be obtained. Those purged symbols are still used as the context of the subsequent symbols to be encoded. An improved calculation method for the posterior probability is also proposed based on the purging feature, such that the decoder can utilize the correlation within the source sequence to improve the decoding performance. In addition, this scheme achieves better error performance at the decoder by adding a forbidden symbol in the encoding process. The simulation results show that the encoding complexity and the minimum code rate required for lossless decoding are lower than that of the traditional distributed arithmetic coding. When the internal correlation strength of the source is strong, compared with other DSC schemes, the proposed scheme exhibits a better decoding performance under the same code rate