Phase transitions in rotating neutron stars: Effects of stellar crusts

As a rapidly rotating neutron star spins down due to the loss of its angular momentum, its central density increases and the nuclear matter in its core converts to quark matter, which leads to a drastic decrease of the stellar moment of inertia, and even results in an era of spin-up of the pulsar (Glendenning, Pei, & Weber 1997). We find that given a certain equation of state in the liquid core, even if the backbending of the moment of inertia as a function of the rotating frequency occurs, an increase of the total moment of inertia by only 1% could carry adequate angular momentum and stop the star spin-up. This small discrepancy in the total moment of inertia might be due to the different properties of subnuclear matter in the crust, especially to different transition density and pressure at the inner boundary of the solid crust between various models. The strong dependence of the phenomenon of back-bending on the physical state of the crust provides, in principle, a new observational approach to check and constrain theories on subnuclear matter.published_or_final_versio

Clinical significance of CHD1L in hepatocellular carcinoma and therapeutic potentials of virus-mediated CHD1L depletion

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is among the most lethal of human malignancies. It is difficult to detect early, has a high recurrence rate and is refractory to chemotherapies. Amplification of 1q21 is one of the most frequent genetic alterations in HCC. CHD1L is a newly identified oncogene responsible for 1q21 amplification. This study aims to investigate the role of CHD1L in predicting prognosis and chemotherapy response of patients with HCC, its chemoresistant mechanism and whether virus-mediated CHD1L silencing has therapeutic potentials for HCC treatment. Methods: The clinical significance of CHD1L in a cohort of 109 HCC cases including 50 cases who received transarterial chemoembolisation treatment was assessed by clinical correlation and Kaplan-Meier analyses. A CHD1L-overexpressing cell model was generated and the mechanism of chemoresistance involving CHD1L was investigated. An adenovirus-mediated silencing method was used to knockdown CHD1L, and its effects on tumorigenicity and chemoresistance were investigated in vivo and in vitro. Results: Overexpression of CHD1L was significantly associated with tumour microsatellite formation (p=0.045), advanced tumour stage (p=0.018), overall survival time (p=0.002), overall survival time of patients who received transarterial chemoembolisation treatment (p=0.028) and chemoresistance (p=0.020) in HCC. Interestingly, CHD1L could inhibit apoptosis induced by 5-fluorourail (5-FU) but not doxorubicin. The mechanistic study revealed that the involvement of the Nur77-mediated pathway in chemotherapeutic agent-induced apoptosis can dictate if CHD1L could confer resistance to chemotherapy. Furthermore, an adenoviral vector containing short hairpin RNAs against CHD1L (CHD1L-shRNAs) could suppress cell growth, clonogenicity and chemoresistance to 5-FU. An in vivo study found that CHD1L-shRNAs could inhibit xenograft tumour growth and increase the sensitivity of tumour cells to 5-FU in nude mice. Conclusions: This study highlighted for the first time the prognostic value of CHD1L in HCC and the potential application of virus-mediated CHD1L silencing in HCC treatment.published_or_final_versio

Interleukin 23 promotes hepatocellular carcinoma metastasis via NF-kappa B induced matrix metalloproteinase 9 expression

published_or_final_versio

Entropy Projection Curved Gabor with Random Forest and SVM for Face Recognition

In this work, we propose a workflow for face recognition under occlusion using the entropy projection from the curved Gabor filter, and create a representative and compact features vector that describes a face. Despite the reduced vector obtained by the entropy projection, it still presents opportunity for further dimensionality reduction. Therefore, we use a Random Forest classifier as an attribute selector, providing a 97% reduction of the original vector while keeping suitable accuracy. A set of experiments using three public image databases: AR Face, Extended Yale B with occlusion and FERET illustrates the proposed methodology, evaluated using the SVM classifier. The results obtained in the experiments show promising results when compared to the available approaches in the literature, obtaining 98.05% accuracy for the complete AR Face, 97.26% for FERET and 81.66% with Yale with 50% occlusion

Regulatory role of miR-142-3p on the functional hepatic cancer stem cell marker CD133

Tumor relapse after therapy typifies hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and is believed to be attributable to residual cancer stem cells (CSCs) that survive treatment. We have previously identified a CSC population derived from HCC that is characterized by CD133. Despite our growing knowledge of the importance of this subset of cells in driving HCC, the regulatory mechanism of CD133 is not known. Epigenetic changes are believed to be essential in the control of cancer and stem cells. Here, we report the epigenetic regulation of CD133 by miR-142-3p. The interaction between CD133 and miR-142-3p was identified by in silico prediction and substantiated by luciferase reporter analysis. Expression of CD133 was found to be inversely correlated with miR-142-3p in HCC clinical samples as well as in cell lines. Importantly, lower miR-142-3p expression in HCC was significantly associated with worst survival. Functional studies with miR-142-3p stably transduced in HCC cells demonstrated a diminished ability to self-renew, initiate tumor growth, invade, migrate, induce angiogenesis and resist chemotherapy. Rescue experiments whereby CD133 and miR-142-3p is simultaneously overexpressed compensated the deregulated ability of the cells to confer these features. Thus, miR-142-3p directly targets CD133 to regulate its ability to confer cancer and stem cell-like features in HCC.published_or_final_versio

Systemic delivery of microRNA-101 potently inhibits hepatocellular carcinoma in vivo by repressing multiple targets

Targeted therapy based on adjustment of microRNA (miRNA)s activity takes great promise due to the ability of these small RNAs to modulate cellular behavior. However, the efficacy of miR-101 replacement therapy to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear. In the current study, we first observed that plasma levels of miR-101 were significantly lower in distant metastatic HCC patients than in HCCs without distant metastasis, and down-regulation of plasma miR-101 predicted a worse disease-free survival (DFS, P<0.05). In an animal model of HCC, we demonstrated that systemic delivery of lentivirus-mediated miR-101 abrogated HCC growth in the liver, intrahepatic metastasis and distant metastasis to the lung and to the mediastinum, resulting in a dramatic suppression of HCC development and metastasis in mice without toxicity and extending life expectancy. Furthermore, enforced overexpression of miR-101 in HCC cells not only decreased EZH2, COX2 and STMN1, but also directly down-regulated a novel target ROCK2, inhibited Rho/Rac GTPase activation, and blocked HCC cells epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and angiogenesis, inducing a strong abrogation of HCC tumorigenesis and aggressiveness both in vitro and in vivo. These results provide proof-of-concept support for systemic delivery of lentivirus-mediated miR-101 as a powerful anti-HCC therapeutic modality by repressing multiple molecular targets. © 2015 Zheng et al.published_or_final_versio

ANXA3/JNK Signaling Promotes Self-Renewal and Tumor Growth, and Its Blockade Provides a Therapeutic Target for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Frequent tumor relapse in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been commonly attributed to the presence of residual cancer stem cells (CSCs) after conventional treatments. We have previously identified and characterized CD133 to mark a specific CSC subset in HCC. In the present study, we found endogenous and secretory annexin A3 (ANXA3) to play pivotal roles in promoting cancer and stem cell-like features in CD133+ liver CSCs through a dysregulated JNK pathway. Blockade of ANXA3 with an anti-ANXA3 monoclonal antibody in vitro as well as in human HCC xenograft models resulted in a significant reduction in tumor growth and self-renewal. Clinically, ANXA3 expression in HCC patient sera closely associated with aggressive clinical features. Our results suggest that ANXA3 can serve as a novel diagnostic biomarker and that the inhibition of ANXA3 may be a viable therapeutic option for the treatment of CD133+ liver-CSC-driven HCC. © 2015 The Authors.published_or_final_versio

Live Bird Exposure among the General Public, Guangzhou, China, May 2013

Background A novel avian-origin influenza A(H7N9) caused a major outbreak in Mainland China in early 2013. Exposure to live poultry was believed to be the major route of infection. There are limited data on how the general public changes their practices regarding live poultry exposure in response to the early outbreak of this novel influenza and the frequency of population exposure to live poultry in different areas of China. Methodology This study investigated population exposures to live birds from various sources during the outbreak of H7N9 in Guangzhou city, China in 2013 and compared them with those observed during the 2006 influenza A(H5N1) outbreak. Adults were telephone-interviewed using two-stage sampling, stratified by three residential areas of Guangzhou: urban areas and two semi-rural areas in one of which (Zengcheng) A(H7N9) virus was detected in a chicken from wet markets. Logistic regression models were built to describe practices protecting against avian influenza, weighted by age and gender, and then compare these practices across residential areas in 2013 with those from a comparable 2006 survey. Principal Findings Of 1196 respondents, 45% visited wet markets at least daily and 22.0% reported buying live birds from wet markets at least weekly in April-May, 2013, after the H7N9 epidemic was officially declared in late March 2013. Of those buying live birds, 32.3% reported touching birds when buying and 13.7% would slaughter the poultry at home. Although only 10.1% of the respondents reported raising backyard birds, 92.1% of those who did so had physical contact with the birds they raised. Zengcheng respondents were less likely to report buying live birds from wet markets, but more likely to buy from other sources when compared to urban respondents. Compared with the 2006 survey, the prevalence of buying live birds from wet markets, touching when buying and slaughtering birds at home had substantially declined in the 2013 survey. Conclusion/Significance Although population exposures to live poultry were substantially fewer in 2013 compared to 2006, wet markets and backyard poultry remained the two major sources of live bird exposures for the public in Guangzhou in 2013. Zengcheng residents seemed to have reduced buying live birds from wet markets but not from other sources in response to the detection of H7N9 virus in wet markets.published_or_final_versio