Comparative genomic analysis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma among different geographic regions

IntroductionEsophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) shows remarkable variation in incidence, survival, and risk factors. Although the genomic characteristics of ESCC have been extensively characterized, the genomic differences between different geographic regions remain unclear.MethodsIn this study, we sequenced 111 patients with ESCC from northern (NC) and southern (SC) China, combined their data with those of 1081 cases from previous reports, and performed a comparative analysis among different regions. In total, 644 ESCC cases were collected from six geographic regions (NC, SC, Xinjiang, China [XJC], Japan [JP], Vietnam [VN], and Europe & America [EA]) as the discovery cohort. Validation cohort 1 included 437 patients with ESCC from the NC region. Validation cohort 2 included 54 and 57 patients from the NC and SC regions, respectively.ResultsPatients with ESCC in different regions had different genomic characteristics, including DNA signatures, tumor mutation burdens, significantly mutated genes (SMGs), altered signaling pathways, and genes associated with clinical features. Based on both the DNA mutation signature and the mutation profile of the most common genes, the NC and SC groups were clustered close together, followed by the JP, XJC, EA, and VN groups. Compared to patients with ESCC from SC, SMGs, including KMT2D, FAT1, and NOTCH1 were more frequently identified in patients with ESCC from NC. Furthermore, some genes (TDG and DNAH8) correlated with overall survival in completely opposite ways in patients with ESCC from different geographical regions.ConclusionsOur study provides insights into genomic differences in ESCC among different regions. These differences may be related to differences in environmental carcinogens, incidence, and survival

Relationship between elevated circulating thrombospondin‐1 levels and vascular complications in diabetes mellitus

Abstract Aims/Introduction Thrombospondin‐1 (TSP‐1) participates in a series of physiological and pathological processes by binding to various receptors regulating cell proliferation, adhesion and apoptosis. Elevated circulating TSP‐1 is linked with diabetic vascular complications (DVC). This study aimed to determine the relationship between circulating TSP‐1 levels and DVC. Materials and Methods A comprehensive search of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and CNKI databases was carried out. A meta‐analysis was carried out to compare circulating TSP‐1 levels between diabetes patients without vascular complications (DNVC), diabetes patients with DVC and non‐diabetes patients. The correlation between TSP‐1 and metabolic parameters was also analyzed. Subgroup analysis was carried out according to complication type, defined as diabetic retinopathy, diabetic nephropathy and diabetic cardiovascular disease (DCVD). Results A total of eight studies were included. Compared with non‐diabetes patients, diabetic patients, including DNVC and DVC, had significantly higher circulating TSP‐1 levels (standardized mean difference [SMD] 2.660, 95% CI 1.17–4.145, P = 0.000). DNVC had significantly higher circulating TSP‐1 levels than non‐diabetes patients (SMD 3.613, 95% CI 1.607–5.619, P = 0.000). DVC had significantly higher TSP‐1 levels than DNVC (SMD 0.568, 95% CI 0.100–1.036, P = 0.017). TSP‐1 was significantly positively correlated with fasting plasma glucose (overall Fisher's z = 0.696, 95% CI 0.559–0.833) and HbA1c (overall Fisher's z = 0.849, 95% CI 0.776–0.923). Conclusions Elevated circulating TSP‐1 levels are closely related to DVC, especially in diabetic nephropathy and diabetic cardiovascular disease. Circulating TSP‐1 detection might be helpful in the timely diagnosis and treatment of DVC

Development of Electromagnetic Current Meter for Marine Environment

Ocean current is one of the most important parameters in ocean observation, and ocean current measurement based on electromagnetic induction is becoming more and more important because of its advantages such as simple structure and high measurement accuracy. However, it is difficult to detect weak current signals in a complex marine environment. In this paper, an electromagnetic induction current measurement scheme based on lock-in amplification technology is proposed. Key technologies such as the evaluation of induced current intensity, overall design, circuit design, and orientation design of the current meter were studied. The prototype of the electromagnetic current meter was developed and tested in the laboratory and at sea. The repeatability of current velocity and current direction was higher than 1.5 cm/s and 1.5°, respectively. A comparison test between the electromagnetic current meter prototype and Nortek ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) installed on a buoy at sea was carried out, and the correlation coefficients of the current velocity and current direction datum were 0.90 and 0.96, respectively. Through continuous on-site and fault-free operations at sea, the experimental data show that the electromagnetic current meter has good adaptability at sea, which provides feasible technical and equipment support for ocean current observation

Development of Capacitive Rain Gauge for Marine Environment

At present, the methods and instruments for measuring the precipitation on land may not effectively work in the offshore corrosion environment which is characterized by salt and humid. The research look at investigating the reliable and precision approach of measuring rainfall and a capacitive rain gauge for the marine environment is developed. Firstly, according to the working principle and performance requirements of the capacitive rain gauge, the modular mechanical structure and capacitance voltage conversion circuit of the rain gauge are designed, and the calibration and stability experiments of the prototype are tested to evaluate the measurement error and exam the accuracy of the rain gauge measurement results changing over time. Then, environmental adaptability experiment is carried out on the capacitive rain gauge to explore its performance in the environment of temperature and humidity changes as well as salt spray. Finally, the feasibility of the rain gauge used in the marine environment is verified by the sea test of the prototype. The measurement error of the developed capacitive rain gauge is less than 1 mm, which provides a realization method for the measurement of precipitation in the marine environment

Porous multifunctional fluoropolymer composite foams prepared via humic acid modified Fe3O4 nanoparticles stabilized Pickering high internal phase emulsion using cationic fluorosurfactant as co-stabilizer

Fluoropolymers are very important owing to their excellent application performances, especially in extreme conditions. On the other hand, the preparation of porous fluoropolymers is a difficult task due to unavailability of suitable surfactants as well as tedious synthesis steps. Here we prepared multifunctional porous fluoropolymer composite foams with a simple process of “high internal phase emulsion (HIPE)” by using humic acid modified iron oxide nanoparticles (HA-Fe3O4 NPs) and cationic fluorosurfactant (CFS) (PDMAEMA-b-PHFBA) as co-stabilizer. The inclusion of HA-Fe3O4 NPs in the system made fluoro-HIPE more stable than the emulsion prepared using only CFS or other conventional stabilizers. Morphology of the prepared polyHIPE was easily controlled by altering the concentration of HA-Fe3O4 and/or CFS in the original formulation. Adjustment of the porous structure with open/close cells was performed and the average diameter of the pores tuned between 4.9 and 23 μm. With the increase in specific surface area by using nanoparticles (NPs) and CFS as co-surfactants, Pickering HIPE monoliths adsorbed double amount of oil compared to foams based solely on HIPE template. Multiple functional groups were bound onto Fe3O4 NPs through HA modification that made the fluoro-monolith capable of adsorbing dye, i.e. methylene blue, from water. A simple centrifugation enabled regeneration of the oil soaked foams and adsorption capacity was not decreased after 10 adsorption/regeneration cycles. Keywords: HIPE, Co-stabilization, Fluoropolymer, Adsorption, Hydrophobic, Functional porous polyme

Satellite-Derived Estimation of Grassland Aboveground Biomass in the Three-River Headwaters Region of China during 1982–2018

The long-term estimation of grassland aboveground biomass (AGB) is important for grassland resource management in the Three-River Headwaters Region (TRHR) of China. Due to the lack of reliable grassland AGB datasets since the 1980s, the long-term spatiotemporal variation in grassland AGB in the TRHR remains unclear. In this study, we estimated AGB in the grassland of 209,897 km2 using advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR), MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), meteorological, ancillary data during 1982–2018, and 75 AGB ground observations in the growth period of 2009 in the TRHR. To enhance the spatial representativeness of ground observations, we firstly upscaled the grassland AGB using a gradient boosting regression tree (GBRT) model from ground observations to a 1 km spatial resolution via MODIS normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), meteorological and ancillary data, and the model produced validation results with a coefficient of determination (R2) equal to 0.76, a relative mean square error (RMSE) equal to 88.8 g C m−2, and a bias equal to −1.6 g C m−2 between the ground-observed and MODIS-derived upscaled AGB. Then, we upscaled grassland AGB using the same model from a 1 km to 5 km spatial resolution via AVHRR NDVI and the same data as previously mentioned with the validation accuracy (R2 = 0.74, RMSE = 57.8 g C m−2, and bias = −0.1 g C m−2) between the MODIS-derived reference and AVHRR-derived upscaled AGB. The annual trend of grassland AGB in the TRHR increased by 0.37 g C m−2 (p < 0.05) on average per year during 1982–2018, which was mainly caused by vegetation greening and increased precipitation. This study provided reliable long-term (1982–2018) grassland AGB datasets to monitor the spatiotemporal variation in grassland AGB in the TRHR

Li ion intercalation charactersitic of gas coke

锂离子电池的研究与开发具有诱人的商业前景．以金属锂为负极的锂二次电池存在着充放电循环寿命短和使用安全性能差等诸多问题，解决的途径之一是采用嵌锂化合物替代金属锂作为负极材料．其中，以具有贮锂功能的碳素材料作为负极的锂离子电池，不仅具有较高的电容量和较长...A novel of carbon gas coke prepared from natural gas by thermoplasma technology has been studied. The cyclic voltametry and charge discharge test for the Li/gas coke cell demonstrated that this gas coke material has a good performance of the Li ion intercalation characteristic. X ray diffraction pattern of the gas cokeis showed that the structure of gas coke is similar to the graphite and collapsed from order to disorder during the charge discharge cycles. The gas coke electrode give rise to a new diffraction peak at a low angle after intercalating Li ion and a reversible capacity with 235 mAh/g is showed. The first charge discharge efficiency was about 58.3%.作者联系地址：中国科学院成都有机化学所Author's Address: Chengdu Institute of Organic Chem., Chinese Academy of Sciences,Chengdu 61004

Chimeric RNA ASTN2-PAPPA(as) aggravates tumor progression and metastasis in human esophageal cancer

Transcription-induced chimeric RNAs are an emerging area of research into molecular signatures for disease biomarker and therapeutic target development. Despite their importance, little is known for chimeric RNAs-relevant roles and the underlying mechanisms for cancer pathogenesis and progression. Here we describe a unique ASTN2-PAPPA(antisense) chimeric RNA (A-P-as chiRNA) that could be the first reported chimeric RNA derived from the splicing of exons and intron antisense of two neighboring genes, respectively. Aberrant A-P-as chiRNA level in ESCC tissues was associated with tumor progression and patients' outcome. In vitro and in vivo studies demonstrated that A-P-as chiRNA aggravated ESCC metastasis and enhanced stemness through modulating OCT4. Mechanistic studies demonstrated that ERK5-mediated non-canonical PAF1 activity was required for A-P-as chiRNA-induced cancer malignancy. The study defined an undocumented function of chimeric RNAs in aggravating cancer stemness and metastasis

Table_1_Comparative genomic analysis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma among different geographic regions.csv

IntroductionEsophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) shows remarkable variation in incidence, survival, and risk factors. Although the genomic characteristics of ESCC have been extensively characterized, the genomic differences between different geographic regions remain unclear.MethodsIn this study, we sequenced 111 patients with ESCC from northern (NC) and southern (SC) China, combined their data with those of 1081 cases from previous reports, and performed a comparative analysis among different regions. In total, 644 ESCC cases were collected from six geographic regions (NC, SC, Xinjiang, China [XJC], Japan [JP], Vietnam [VN], and Europe & America [EA]) as the discovery cohort. Validation cohort 1 included 437 patients with ESCC from the NC region. Validation cohort 2 included 54 and 57 patients from the NC and SC regions, respectively.ResultsPatients with ESCC in different regions had different genomic characteristics, including DNA signatures, tumor mutation burdens, significantly mutated genes (SMGs), altered signaling pathways, and genes associated with clinical features. Based on both the DNA mutation signature and the mutation profile of the most common genes, the NC and SC groups were clustered close together, followed by the JP, XJC, EA, and VN groups. Compared to patients with ESCC from SC, SMGs, including KMT2D, FAT1, and NOTCH1 were more frequently identified in patients with ESCC from NC. Furthermore, some genes (TDG and DNAH8) correlated with overall survival in completely opposite ways in patients with ESCC from different geographical regions.ConclusionsOur study provides insights into genomic differences in ESCC among different regions. These differences may be related to differences in environmental carcinogens, incidence, and survival.</p

DataSheet_1_Comparative genomic analysis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma among different geographic regions.docx

IntroductionEsophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) shows remarkable variation in incidence, survival, and risk factors. Although the genomic characteristics of ESCC have been extensively characterized, the genomic differences between different geographic regions remain unclear.MethodsIn this study, we sequenced 111 patients with ESCC from northern (NC) and southern (SC) China, combined their data with those of 1081 cases from previous reports, and performed a comparative analysis among different regions. In total, 644 ESCC cases were collected from six geographic regions (NC, SC, Xinjiang, China [XJC], Japan [JP], Vietnam [VN], and Europe & America [EA]) as the discovery cohort. Validation cohort 1 included 437 patients with ESCC from the NC region. Validation cohort 2 included 54 and 57 patients from the NC and SC regions, respectively.ResultsPatients with ESCC in different regions had different genomic characteristics, including DNA signatures, tumor mutation burdens, significantly mutated genes (SMGs), altered signaling pathways, and genes associated with clinical features. Based on both the DNA mutation signature and the mutation profile of the most common genes, the NC and SC groups were clustered close together, followed by the JP, XJC, EA, and VN groups. Compared to patients with ESCC from SC, SMGs, including KMT2D, FAT1, and NOTCH1 were more frequently identified in patients with ESCC from NC. Furthermore, some genes (TDG and DNAH8) correlated with overall survival in completely opposite ways in patients with ESCC from different geographical regions.ConclusionsOur study provides insights into genomic differences in ESCC among different regions. These differences may be related to differences in environmental carcinogens, incidence, and survival.</p