Research and Development of Environmental Monitoring Alarm and Automatic Flag Control System for Barracks

This paper proposes a real-time flag alarm system that can monitor air quality and automatically plant colored flags to inform the people in the barracks. This system automatically measures the local PM 2.5 concentrations with PM sensors; and automatically measures the temperature and humidity with temperature and humidity sensors, then converts the measured values into the grades of danger coefficients and the grades of AQI to plant or replace flags by automatic control. The danger coefficient grades are represented by four colored flags, namely, green, blue, yellow, and red; meanwhile, the AQI grades are represented by six colored flags, namely, green, yellow, orange, red, purple, and maroon. Moreover, this system displays all measured data and related information with electronic billboards to provide a reference for people participating in outdoor activities

Kinome-Wide siRNA Screening Identifies Src-Enhanced Resistance of Chemotherapeutic Drugs in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cells

Background: Chemotherapy is the main treatment for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), which lack molecular markers for diagnosis and therapy. Cancer cells activate chemoresistant pathways and lead to therapeutic failure for patients with TNBC. Several kinases have been identified as chemoresistant genes. However, the involvement of kinases in the chemoresistance in TNBC cells is not fully understood.Methods: We employed a kinome siRNA library to screen whether targeting any kinases could increase the chemosensitivity of TNBC cell lines. The effects of kinase on cell viability in various breast cancer cells were validated with ATP level and colony formation. Protein expression and phosphorylation were determined by immunoblotting. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset was collected to analyze the correlation of Src expression with prognosis of TNBC patients.Results: Primary screening and validation for the initial hits showed that Src kinase was a potential doxorubicin-resistant kinase in the TNBC cell lines MDA-MB-231 and Hs578T. Both siRNA against Src and the Src inhibitor dasatinib enhanced the cytotoxic effects of doxorubicin in TNBC cells. Moreover, phosphorylation of AKT and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), downstream effectors of Src, were accordingly decreased in Src-silenced or -inhibited TNBC cells. Additionally, TCGA data analysis indicated that Src expression levels in tumor tissues were higher than those in tumor-adjacent normal tissues in patients with TNBC. High co-expression level of Src and STAT3 was also significantly correlated with poor prognosis in patients.Conclusion: Our results showed that Src-STAT3 axis might be involved in chemoresistance of TNBC cells

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition)

In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. For example, a key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process versus those that measure fl ux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process including the amount and rate of cargo sequestered and degraded). In particular, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation must be differentiated from stimuli that increase autophagic activity, defi ned as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (inmost higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium ) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the fi eld understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. It is worth emphasizing here that lysosomal digestion is a stage of autophagy and evaluating its competence is a crucial part of the evaluation of autophagic flux, or complete autophagy. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. Along these lines, because of the potential for pleiotropic effects due to blocking autophagy through genetic manipulation it is imperative to delete or knock down more than one autophagy-related gene. In addition, some individual Atg proteins, or groups of proteins, are involved in other cellular pathways so not all Atg proteins can be used as a specific marker for an autophagic process. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field

Effects of Local Atmospheric Circulation on the Formation of High Ozone Concentration in Confined Area - A Case Study in Southern Taiwan

[[abstract]]This study aimed to investigate an air pollution episode case in southern Taiwan associated with high ozone concentration in the ambient air occurring on 25 October 2001. The relationships between local circulation and accumulation of ozone in confined area were investigated. The synoptic pattern during the investigated period was weak northeasterly. A local circulation was formed on west side of the mountains which had an average height of about 2000 m. During that period, it was dominated by a low pressure circulation. The wind system blew southwesterly at daytime but it turned to northwesterly at night. For determining the formation of local circulation in the atmosphere, the vertical structure of the atmosphere was established by collecting vertical meteorological information through intensive observation with sounding and pible in this study. Investigation results show that the ozone reached its maximum concentration around mid-noon and afternoon. The high-ozone area was confined at the place where low pressure circulation formed. The field results also indicated that the diurnal variation in wind and temperature was significant. Based on the estimated Froude number equal to 0.2 while the weak approaching to the mountains from the northeast, it indicated the weak flow northeasterly was unable to climb over the Mountains and a low pressure circulation formed behind the mountain. The weak wind and fare weather was favored for accumulating ozone within the are

Eight-Day Typhoon Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts in Taiwan by the 2.5 km CReSS Model, Part II: Reduced Control of Track Errors on Rainfall Prediction Quality for Typhoons Associated with Southwesterly Flow

Due to the enhancement by its steep mesoscale topography, the overall rainfall amount and distribution in Taiwan from typhoons, to a first degree, are determined by the storm track relative to the island. Therefore, the quality of typhoon quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPFs) from numerical models is often controlled by track errors, with better quality from those with smaller track errors. However, the present work demonstrates that in daily QPFs over Taiwan made by a cloud-resolving model during five seasons of 2012–2016, targeted for 84 days during 27 typhoons and at ranges of day one (0–24 h) to day eight (168–192 h), the control of track errors on QPF quality is reduced for typhoons associated with southwesterly flow, compared to those without, and decent QPFs could still be obtained with large track errors in some cases. Subsequently, the circumstances and reasons for good (or bad) QPFs in selected examples are further investigated to deepen our understanding of typhoon QPFs in Taiwan. Some common ingredients are found in three cases where good QPFs were produced at a longer range (day 7 or 8) without a good track: these typhoons passed near northern Taiwan and the southwesterly flow prevailed over much of the island during the accumulation period. Responsible for much of the rainfall in Taiwan, the southwesterly flow was reasonably captured, resulting in good QPFs. In another example where the typhoon moved across southern Taiwan, on the contrary, the rainfall was produced by the storm’s circulation, and the QPF was degraded without a good enough track prediction

RelA-Mediated BECN1 Expression Is Required for Reactive Oxygen Species-Induced Autophagy in Oral Cancer Cells Exposed to Low-Power Laser Irradiation

<div><p>Low-power laser irradiation (LPLI) is a non-invasive and safe method for cancer treatment that alters a variety of physiological processes in the cells. Autophagy can play either a cytoprotective role or a detrimental role in cancer cells exposed to stress. The detailed mechanisms of autophagy and its role on cytotoxicity in oral cancer cells exposed to LPLI remain unclear. In this study, we showed that LPLI at 810 nm with energy density 60 J/cm² increased the number of microtubule associated protein 1 light chain 3 (MAP1LC3) puncta and increased autophagic flux in oral cancer cells. Moreover, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production was induced, which increased RelA transcriptional activity and beclin 1 (BECN1) expression in oral cancer cells irradiated with LPLI. Furthermore, ROS scavenger or knockdown of RelA diminished LPLI-induced BECN1 expression and MAP1LC3-II conversion. In addition, pharmacological and genetic ablation of autophagy significantly enhanced the effects of LPLI-induced apoptosis in oral cancer cells. These results suggest that autophagy may be a resistant mechanism for LPLI-induced apoptosis in oral cancer cells.</p></div

LPLI reduced tumor viability in spheroid culture.

<p>(A) OECM-1 or Ca9-22 cells were sphere cultured and then exposed to LPLI (810 nm, 60 J/cm²) in the presence or absence of CQ (20 μM) for 48 h. The spheres were lysed to measure ATP level for cell viability. (B) The viable and dead spheres as cultured and treated as (A) were imaged with LIVE (green)/DEAD (red) staining kit. Representative data are shown. Scale bar: 400 μm. (C) The green and (D) red fluorescence of the spheres as (B) was quantitated with a reader for the viable and dead cell population, respectively (n = 6). The quantified results are expressed as the mean ± SEM from 3 individual experiments. n.s., p > 0.05; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.</p

LPLI-induced apoptosis is elevated in autophagy-deficient oral cancer cells.

<p>(A) OECM-1 cells stably harboring shRNA against ATG7 or SQSTM1 were treated without (-) or with (+) 20 μM CQ prior to harvest. The harvested cells were used for immunoblotting to determine the protein levels of ATG7, SQSTM1 and MAP1LC3-II. (B) The knockdown efficiency of ATG7 and SQSTM1 in the cells was quantified using ACTB as a normalization control (left panel). The net protein levels of MAP1LC3-II between cells treated with or without CQ were used to determine autophagic flux as quantitated results in the right panel. (C) The recovered cells were accessed for cell viability with CellTiter-Glo. (D) The LPLI-treated cells were irradiated with LPLI and cultured for 14 days. Colony formation was accessed by staining with crystal violet. (E) The irradiated cells were fixed and stained with Hoechst 33342 to determine the number of apoptotic cells. Scale bar: 100 μm. The number of apoptotic cells is shown in the right panel. (F) The cells treated as panel E were lysed to measured caspase-3/7 activity with Caspase-Glo 3/7 luminescent assay. The results are expressed as the mean ± SEM from three independent experiments.</p