A new survival model based on ferroptosis-related genes for prognostic prediction in clear cell renal cell carcinoma

In this study, we analyzed the clinical significance of ferroptosis-related genes (FRGs) in 32 cancer types in the GSCA database. We detected a 2-82% mutation rate among 36 FRGs. In clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC; n=539) tissues from the The Cancer Genome Atlas database, 30 of 36 FRGs were differentially expressed (up- or down-regulated) compared to normal kidney tissues (n=72). Consensus clustering analysis identified two clusters of FRGs based on similar co-expression in ccRCC tissues. We then used LASSO regression analysis to build a new survival model based on five risk-related FRGs (CARS, NCOA4, FANCD2, HMGCR, and SLC7A11). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis confirmed good prognostic performance of the new survival model with an area under the curve of 0.73. High FANCD2, CARS, and SLC7A11 expression and low HMGCR and NCOA4 expression were associated with high-risk ccRCC patients. Multivariate analysis showed that risk score, age, stage, and grade were independent risk factors associated with prognosis in ccRCC. These findings demonstrate that this five risk-related FRG-based survival model accurately predicts prognosis in ccRCC patients, and suggest FRGs are potential prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets in several cancer types

Observation of non-Hermitian antichiral edge currents

Non-Hermitian topological photonics is of great interest in bridging topological matter with gain/dissipation engineering in optics. A key problem in this direction is the interplay between the effective gauge potential and the non-Hermiticity. Here we tackle this problem in a synthetic non-Hermitian Hall ladder and experimentally observe antichiral edge currents (ACECs) of photons, by tuning the locally uniform effective magnetic flux and the on-site gain/loss. Such ACECs provide a topological method to probe the signatures of the non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) from steady-state bulk dynamics. The universality of this method is verified by its generalization to three dimensions. This study paves a way to investigate exotic non-Hermitian topological physics and has potential applications in topological photonics engineering

Exploring the Relationship between Police Stress and Police Integrity

While many studies have studied police integrity, most studies have examined the contours of police integrity across countries, whereas few studies have explored the factors that shape police integrity. Notably, there is also a profound lack of research examining the potential impact of stress on police integrity. This study expands the study of police stress and police integrity based on the context of China and examines the influence of police stress on police integrity as reflected by officers evaluating the seriousness of misconduct and their willingness to report it, as well as controlling for other factors theoretically linked to police integrity. By using a questionnaire survey, data was collected from 608 police officers receiving in-service training in a national police university of China. The findings indicated an increase in anxiety was associated with a decrease in willingness to report, and an increase in depression was associated with a decrease in evaluating the seriousness of misconduct. Regarding control variables, gender, police rank, the route joining the police, compliance with extra work requests, agency location (urban/rural), personal income, and police type were found to be significant predictors of how the officers evaluate the seriousness of misconduct and their willingness to report. In addition, this study also found that the years of experience, agency location, the route joining the police, and pressure to do extra work were significantly associated with police stress. Findings highlight the presence of a strong code of silence among Chinese officers and the influence of police stress on police integrity. To improve police integrity, Chinese police administrators should take police stress seriously and address the issue of police stress by reducing the sources of police stress, of which reducing excessive work demand is one important part, and providing programs of mental health counselling and peer assistance to alleviate the symptoms of stress

An Important Component of Tumor Progression: Fatty Acids

Fatty acids (FAs) are complex and essential biomolecules in the human body and are critical to the formation of cell membranes, energy metabolism, and signaling. FAs are the major components of several lipids including phospholipids, sphingolipids, and triglycerides, and consist of carboxylic acid groups and hydrocarbon chains of different carbon lengths and degrees of desaturation. They can synthesize more complex lipids, including acylglycerides (DAG) and triacylglycerides (TAG). Saturated fatty acids (SFA), polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) can be classified according to whether the hydrocarbon chain is saturated or not. Normal cells are commonly supplied with energy by the tricarboxylic acid cycle. On the contrary, to obtain energy, tumor cells usually use aerobic glycolysis (Warburg effect) and produce large amounts of FAs to maintain membrane structure to support cell proliferation. In addition, cancer migration, immune escape, development of drug resistance, and fatty acids are very closely related. In conclusion, a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms of fatty acid metabolism could provide a more plausible explanation for the progression of cancer cells and provide new potential targets for therapy

Genomic and Transcriptome Analysis to Identify the Role of the mTOR Pathway in Kidney Renal Clear Cell Carcinoma and Its Potential Therapeutic Significance

The mTOR pathway, a major signaling pathway, regulates cell growth and protein synthesis by activating itself in response to upstream signals. Overactivation of the mTOR pathway may affect the occurrence and development of cancer, but no specific treatment has been proposed for targeting the mTOR pathway. In this study, we explored the expression of mTOR pathway genes in a variety of cancers and the potential compounds that target the mTOR pathway and focused on an abnormal type of cancer, kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC). Based on the mRNA expression of the mTOR pathway gene, we divided KIRC patient samples into three clusters. We explored possible therapeutic targets of the mTOR pathway in KIRC. We predicted the IC50 of some classical targeted drugs to analyze their correlation with the mTOR pathway. Subsequently, we investigated the correlation of the mTOR pathway with histone modification and immune infiltration, as well as the response to anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4 therapy. Finally, we used a LASSO regression analysis to construct a model to predict the survival of patients with KIRC. This study shows that mTOR scores can be used as tools to study various treatments targeting the mTOR pathway and that we can predict the recovery of KIRC patients through the expression of mTOR pathway genes. These research results can provide a reference for future research on KIRC patient treatment strategies

Statin use and the overall survival of renal cell carcinoma: A meta-analysis

Purpose: Statins are commonly prescribed drugs that reduce cholesterol levels and the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events. Clinical studies have shown that statins also possess cancer-preventive properties. Two studies have reported that statins also possess cancer-preventive properties; however, whether statins improve the prognosis of patients with renal cell carcinoma is still unclear. In this study, we used meta-analysis to evaluate the association between statin use and overall survival risk in patients with renal cell carcinoma. Methods: Published studies on statin-treated renal cell carcinoma were retrieved from PubMed, Embase, The Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wanfang databases from inception to July 2019. The relevant data were extracted and a meta-analysis was performed using Cochrane Review Manager (RevMan 5.3) software. Results: Data from five studies, which reported on 5,299 patients, were analysed. The application of statins showed no effects on the overall survival of patients with renal cell carcinoma compared with the control group (OR = 1.07, 95% CI:0.77 to 1.49, P = 0.68). Conclusions: The findings of this meta-analysis suggest that statin application does not affect the overall survival of patients with renal cell carcinoma

Progress in the Study of Vortex Pinning Centers in High-Temperature Superconducting Films

Since the discovery of high-temperature superconductors (HTSs), significant progress in the fabrication of HTS films has been achieved. In this review, we intend to provide an overview of recent progress in how and why superconductivity can be enhanced by introducing nanoscale vortex pinning centers. The comprehensive control of morphology, dimension, orientation and concentration of artificial pinning centers (APCs) and the principle of vortex pinning are the focus of this review. According to the existing literature, HTSs with the best superconductivity can be obtained when one-dimensional (1D) and three-dimensional (3D) nanoscale APCs are combined for vortex pinning

APF-IRRT*: An Improved Informed Rapidly-Exploring Random Trees-Star Algorithm by Introducing Artificial Potential Field Method for Mobile Robot Path Planning

An Informed RRT* (IRRT*) algorithm is one of the optimized versions of a Rapidly-exploring Random Trees (RRT) algorithm which finds near-optimal solutions faster than RRT and RRT* algorithms by restricting the search area to an ellipsoidal subset of the state space. However, IRRT* algorithm has the disadvantage of randomness of sampling and a non-real time process, which has a negative impact on the convergence rate and search efficiency in path planning applications. In this paper, we report a hybrid algorithm by combining the Artificial Potential Field Method (APF) with an IRRT* algorithm for mobile robot path planning. By introducing the virtual force field of APF into the search tree expansion stage of the IRRT* algorithm, the guidance of the algorithm increases, which greatly improves the convergence rate and search efficiency of the IRRT* algorithm. The proposed algorithm was validated in simulations and proven to be superior to some other RRT-based algorithms in search time and path length. It also was performed in a real robotic platform, which shows that the proposed algorithm can be well executed in real scenarios