piR-hsa-211106 Inhibits the Progression of Lung Adenocarcinoma Through Pyruvate Carboxylase and Enhances Chemotherapy Sensitivity

Although the importance of PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) in cancer has recently been recognized, studies on the role and functional mechanism of piRNAs in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) development and progression are limited. In this study, we identified 10 differently expressed piRNAs in LUAD tissues compared to normal tissues, among which, piR-hsa-211106 expression levels were downregulated in LUAD tissues and cell lines. Furthermore, the effects of piR-hsa-211106 on the malignant phenotypes and chemosensitivity of LUAD cells were detected by gain- and loss-of-function analyses in vitro and in vivo, which showed that piR-hsa-211106 inhibited LUAD cell proliferation, tumor growth, and migration, but promoted apoptosis. Moreover, our finding indicated that piR-hsa-211106 is a potential therapeutic target that synergistically imparts anticancer effects with a chemotherapeutic agent for LUAD-cisplatin. Further mechanistic investigation indicated that piR-hsa-211106 could bind to pyruvate carboxylase (PC) by RNA pull down and RNA immunoprecipitation assays and inhibited PC mRNA and protein expression. Our study demonstrates that piR-hsa-211106 inhibits LUAD progression by hindering the expression and function of PC and enhances chemotherapy sensitivity, suggesting that piR-hsa-211106 is a novel diagnostic and therapeutic target for LUAD

Research progress of gut microbiota in neuropathic pain

The mechanism of neuropathic pain (NP) is extremely complicated, and current pharmacological treatments for NP are still unsatisfactory. The gut microbiota plays important roles in inducing NP. The changes of gut microbiota and gut microbiota-dependent metabolite could promote the immune cells and glial cells releasing pro-inflammatory cytokines, initiating the innate immune response and inflammation by activating Toll-like receptors (TLRs), which is believed to be a potential candidate to alleviate NP

A high-accuracy indoor positioning system based on UWB

In this paper, a high-accuracy indoor positioning system based on the ultra-wideband (UWB) technique is proposed. The proposed system uses a simple ranging process to obtain the distance between the mobile node and the fixed base stations. Besides, an improved time of arrival (ToA) algorithm with Kalman filtering is proposed to improve the positioning accuracy. Measurements have been performed in the real indoor 13m*7.6m environment with many obstacles and the root-mean-square error (RMSE) is less than 0.3m. The proposed system offers a wide range of application in robotics, industrial automation, post-sorting system and so on

Gut bioengineering promotes gut repair and pharmaceutical research: a review

The gastrointestinal (GI) tract has a diverse set of physiological functions, including peristalsis, immune defense, and nutrient absorptions. These functions are mediated by various intestinal cells such as epithelial cells, interstitial cells, smooth muscle cells, and neurocytes. The loss or dysfunction of specific cells directly results in GI disease, while supplementation of normal cells promotes gut healing. Gut bioengineering has been developing for this purpose to reconstruct the damaged tissues. Moreover, GI tract provides an accessible route for drug delivery, but the collateral damages induced by side effects cannot be ignored. Bioengineered intestinal tissues provide three-dimensional platforms that mimic the in vivo environment to study drug functions. Given the importance of gut bioengineering in current research, in this review, we summarize the advances in the technologies of gut bioengineering and their applications. We were able to identify several ground-breaking discoveries in our review, while more work is needed to promote the clinical translation of gut bioengineering

Melting Curve of Potassium Chloride from in situ Ionic Conduction Measurements

We report experimental constraints on the melting curve of potassium chloride (KCl) between 3.2 and 9 GPa from in situ ionic conduction measurements using a multi-anvil apparatus. On the basis of concurrent measurements of KCl and sodium chloride (NaCl) at 1 bar using the differential thermal analysis (DTA) method and Pt sphere marker, we show that the peak rate of increase in ionic current with temperature upon heating coincides with latent heat ledge and fall of Pt sphere, thus establishing the criterion for melting detection from ionic conduction measurements. Applying this criterion to high pressures, we found that the melting point of KCl rose steeply with increasing pressure to exceed 2443 ± 100 K at 9 GPa. Fitting the results of this study together with existing data at pressures below 4 GPa and above 20 GPa, we obtained the Simon’s melting equation for KCl in the simple cubic B2 structure between 1.8 and 50 GPa: T m = 1323 ( P − 1.87 2.2 ( 1 ) + 1 ) 1 2.7 ( 1 ) , where T is in K and P is in GPa. Starting at 1 bar, the melting point of KCl increases at an average rate of ~150 K/GPa to cross that of Pt near 9 GPa. The highly refractory nature of KCl makes it a sensitive pressure calibrant for the large-volume pressure at moderate pressures and a potential sample container for experiments at moderate pressures and very high temperatures

Does Self-Control Promote Prosocial Behavior? Evidence from a Longitudinal Tracking Study

Although numerous researches have shown that self-control is a significant promoter of prosocial behavior, the mechanism behind this relationship is still unclear. According to the organism–environment interaction model and self-control model, this study researched whether life satisfaction played a mediating role between self-control and adolescents’ prosocial behavior and if friendship quality played a moderating role between self-control and prosocial behavior. This study used a longitudinal tracking research (T1&T2; and the interval between T1&T2 is 6 months). A total of 1182 Chinese middle school students participated the survey. They were between 12 and 15 years old (average age: 14.16 years old, SD = 1.29). Results indicated that life satisfaction played a mediating role between self-control and adolescents’ prosocial behavior. Furthermore, this direct relationship in the link between self-control and prosocial behavior was significant when adolescents had a good-quality friendship. These results highlight that life satisfaction plays an important role in the relationship between self-control and prosocial behavior. The present study further determined that a high-quality friendship was an important factor that amplified this direct effect

A 672-nW, 670-n<italic>Vrms</italic> ECG Acquisition AFE With Noise-Tolerant Heartbeat Detector

This paper presents an electrocardiogram acquisition analog front-end (AFE) with a noise tolerant heartbeat (HB) detector. Source degradation and transconductance bootstrap techniques are incorporated into the AFE to reduce the 1/f noise of the amplifier. Furthermore, the chopper modulation, DC-servo loop (DSL) and pre-charge technology are combined to reduce interference from the environment. A mixed-signal implementation of HB detector with the symmetric-comparison loop is proposed to reduce the power consumption and area, which also suppresses motion artifact interference by adaptive thresholds. Implemented in $0.18 ~\mu \text{m}$ CMOS process, the circuit only occupies an area of $0.122 mm^{2}$ and consumes $0.62 ~\mu \text{W}$ at a 1.2-V supply, of which AFE and HB detector consume 507 nW and 110 nW, respectively. Simulation results show that the gain and the CMRR of AFE range from 30&#x2013;45 dB and 65&#x2013;105 dB, respectively. The input-referred noise is 670 nVrms with a mid-band gain of 42 dB and a bandwidth ranging from 0.5 Hz to 1 kHz

FRDD-Net: Automated Carotid Plaque Ultrasound Images Segmentation Using Feature Remapping and Dense Decoding

Automated segmentation and evaluation of carotid plaques ultrasound images is of great significance for the diagnosis and early intervention of high-risk groups of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. However, it remains challenging to develop such solutions due to the relatively low quality of ultrasound images and heterogenous characteristics of carotid plaques. To address those problems, in this paper, we propose a novel deep convolutional neural network, FRDD-Net, with an encoder&ndash;decoder architecture to automatically segment carotid plaques. We propose the feature remapping modules (FRMs) and incorporate them into the encoding and decoding blocks to ameliorate the reliability of acquired features. We also propose a new dense decoding mechanism as part of the decoder, thus promoting the utilization efficiency of encoded features. Additionally, we construct a compound loss function to train our network to further enhance its robustness in the face of numerous cases. We train and test our network in multiple carotid plaque ultrasound datasets and our method yields the best performance compared to other state-of-the-art methods. Further ablation studies consistently show the advancement of our proposed architecture

To Angulate or Not to Angulate the Ulna during the Progressive Distraction Period Performed with a Monolateral External Fixator in Paediatric Patients with a Chronic Monteggia Fracture?

Background and Objectives: The purpose of this study was to compare the clinical and radiographic evolution of chronic Monteggia fractures (CMFs) treated by ulnar osteotomy and monolateral external fixators (MEFs) with or without angulation of the ulna during the distraction period. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study evaluated 20 children (14 boys and 6 girls) with CMFs. According to the strategy of ulnar lengthening, two groups of patients were identified: patients undergoing gradual lengthening with (Group A, n = 11) or without ulna angulation (Group B, n = 9). The mean age at the time of surgery was 7.7 years old (range, 5.4&ndash;12.9). The mean time from initial trauma to surgery was 26.3 months (range, 1&ndash;96), and the mean follow-up was 24.6 months (range, 5.5&ndash;45.4). Clinical outcomes were evaluated by Kim et al.&rsquo;s Elbow Performance Score, while radiographic outcomes were assessed on plain radiographs. Results: Age at surgery, sex, laterality, time between trauma and surgery, and time of follow up in the two groups of patients showed no significant differences. The radial head was successfully reduced in 9 of 9 and 10 of 11 patients in Groups B and A, respectively (p = 1.00). The mean time to achieve radial head reduction was shorter in Group B (18.1 &plusmn; 5.3 days) than in Group A (39.2 &plusmn; 18.7 days; p = 0.004). The mean angulation of the ulna at the end of treatment was significantly lower in Group B (0.6&deg; &plusmn; 1.1&deg;) than in Group A (25.9&deg; &plusmn; 6.3&deg;; p &lt; 0.0001). The average ulnar lengthening at the end of treatment in Group B (14.1 &plusmn; 5.8 mm) was, on average, 7.7 mm less than that in Group A (21.8 &plusmn; 9.7 mm; p = 0.05). The Kim et al. Elbow Performance Score at the last follow-up visit was comparable between the two groups of patients (p = 1.00). Conclusions: A shorter time to achieve radial head reduction and less deformity of the ulna can be expected in paediatric patients with CMFs undergoing intraoperative restoration of ulnar alignment and gradual lengthening without angulation postoperatively