Stem cell factor SALL4, a potential prognostic marker for myelodysplastic syndromes

Background: Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a group of heterogeneous diseases with variable clinical course. Predicting disease progression is difficult due to lack of specific molecular marker(s). SALL4 plays important roles in normal hematopoiesis and leukemogenesis. SALL4 transgenic mice develop MDS prior to acute myeloid leukemia (AML) transformation. However, the role of SALL4 in human MDS has not been extensively investigated. In this study, we evaluate the diagnostic/prognostic value of SALL4 in MDS by examining its expression levels in a cohort of MDS patients. Methods: Fifty-five newly diagnosed MDS, twenty MDS-AML, and sixteen post-treatment MDS patients were selected for our study along with ten healthy donors. Results: We demonstrated that SALL4 was over-expressed in MDS patients and proportionally increased in MDS patients with high grade/IPSS scores. This expression pattern was similar to that of Bmi-1, an important marker in predicting MDS/AML progression. In addition, the level of SALL4 was positively correlated with increased blast counts, high-risk keryotypes and increased significantly in MDS-AML transformation. Furthermore, higher level of SALL4 expression was associated with worse survival rates and SALL4 level decreased following effective therapy. Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest series and the first to report the expression pattern of SALL4 in detail in various subtypes of MDS in comparison to that of Bmi-1. We conclude that SALL4 is a potential molecular marker in predicting the prognosis of MDS

Graphite-anchored lithium vanadium oxide as anode of lithium ion battery

Graphite-anchored lithium vanadium oxide (Li1.1V0.9O2) has been synthesized via a “one-pot” in situ method. The effects of the synthesis conditions, such as the ratio of reaction components and calcination temperature, on the electrochemical performance are systematically investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), galvanostatic discharge/charge tests and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Compared with the simple mixture of graphite and lithium vanadium oxide, the graphite-anchored lithium vanadium oxide delivers an enhanced reversible capacity, rate capability and cyclic stability. It also shows better thermal stability.Web of Scienc

flavonoidbiosynthesisandantioxidantactivitiesinthesuspensioncultureofsaussureamedusacells

对水母雪莲细胞悬浮培养过程中细胞生长、黄酮积累和底物消耗的动力学过程进行了研究。经15d液体培养可获得最大生物量干重和黄酮产量分别为17．2g·L^-1和607．8mg·L^-1，通过调控基本培养基种类和有机添加物可提高雪莲细胞的生长和黄酮积累。获得的水母雪莲细胞培养物具有明显的抗氧化活性，其抗氧化活性与雪莲细胞中的黄酮含量相关

flavonoidbiosynthesisandantioxidantactivitiesinthesuspensioncultureofsaussureamedusacells

对水母雪莲细胞悬浮培养过程中细胞生长、黄酮积累和底物消耗的动力学过程进行了研究。经15d液体培养可获得最大生物量干重和黄酮产量分别为17．2g·L^-1和607．8mg·L^-1，通过调控基本培养基种类和有机添加物可提高雪莲细胞的生长和黄酮积累。获得的水母雪莲细胞培养物具有明显的抗氧化活性，其抗氧化活性与雪莲细胞中的黄酮含量相关

Pan‐cancer analyses of immunogenic cell death‐derived gene signatures: Potential biomarkers for prognosis and immunotherapy

Abstract Background Immunogenic cell death (ICD) is a type of regulated cell death that is capable of initiating an adaptive immune response. Induction of ICD may be a potential treatment strategy, as it has been demonstrated to activate the tumor‐specific immune response. Aims The biomarkers of ICD and their relationships with the tumor microenvironment, clinical features, and immunotherapy response are not fully understood in a clinical context. Therefore, we conducted pan‐cancer analyses of ICD gene signatures across 33 cancer types from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. Methods and Results We identified key genes that had strong relationships with survival and the tumor microenvironment, contributing to a better understanding of the role of ICD genes in cancer therapy. In addition, we predicted therapeutic agents that target ICD genes and explored the potential mechanisms by which gemcitabine induce ICD. Moreover, we developed an ICD score based on the ICD genes and found it to be associated with patient prognosis, clinical features, tumor microenvironment, radiotherapy access, and immunotherapy response. A high ICD score was linked to the immune‐hot phenotype, while a low ICD score was linked to the immune‐cold phenotype. Conclusion We uncovered the potential of ICD gene signatures as comprehensive biomarkers for ICD in pan‐cancer. Our research provides novel insights into immuno‐phenotypic assessment and cancer therapeutic strategies, which could help to broaden the application of immunotherapy to benefit more patients

Compound Faults Feature Extraction for Rolling Bearings Based on Parallel Dual-Q-Factors and the Improved Maximum Correlated Kurtosis Deconvolution

Vibration analysis is one of the main effective ways for rolling bearing fault diagnosis, and a challenge is how to accurately separate the inner and outer race fault features from noisy compound faults signals. Therefore, a novel compound fault separation algorithm based on parallel dual-Q-factors and improved maximum correlation kurtosis deconvolution (IMCKD) is proposed. First, the compound fault signal is sparse-decomposed by the parallel dual-Q-factor, and the low-resonance components of the signal (compound fault impact component and small amount of noise) are obtained, but it can only highlight the impact of compound faults, and failed to separate the inner and outer race compound fault signal. Then, the MCKD is improved (IMCKD) by optimizing the selection of parameters (the shift order M and the filter length L) based on the iterative calculation method with the Teager envelope spectral kurtosis (TEK) index. Finally, after the composite fault signal is filtered and de-noised by the proposed method, the inner and outer race fault signals are obtained respectively. The fault characteristic frequency is consistent with the theoretical calculation value. The results show that the proposed method can efficiently separate the mixed fault information and avoid the mutual interference between the components of the compound fault

Scour Induced by Single and Twin Propeller Jets

Single and twin ship propeller jets produce scour holes with deposition dune. The scour hole has a maximum depth at a particular length downstream within the propeller jet. Existing equations are available to predict maximum scour depth and the corresponding scour length downstream. Experiments conducted with various physical propeller models, rotational speeds, propeller-to-propeller distances and bed clearances are presented. The measurements allowed a better understanding of the mechanism of temporal scour and deposition formation for scour caused by single-propeller and twin-propeller. Results show that the propeller jet scour profiles can be divided into three zones, which are the small scour hole, primary scour hole and deposition dune. An empirical 2D scour model is proposed to predict the scour profile for both a single-propeller and twin-propeller using a Gaussian normal distribution