MiR-379 inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis in multiple myeloma by targeting Y-box binding protein 1

Purpose: To determine the effect of miR-379 in multiple myeloma.Methods: Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to evaluate the expression of miR-379 in multiple myeloma cells. The effect of miR-379 on multiple myeloma progression was investigated by cell counting, bromodeoxyuridine staining, flow cytometry and Western blot analysis. A potential target for miR-379 was determined using a luciferase reporter assay.Results: MiR-379 expression was reduced in multiple myeloma cells, while over-expression of miR-379 increased both cell viability and proliferation of these cells (p < 0.05). Moreover, miR-379 blocked cell cycle multiple myeloma cells and promoted apoptosis by decreasing Bcl-2 expression, and increasing the expression of cleaved caspase-3 and Bax. MiR-379 bound to Y-box binding protein 1 (YBX1) and reduced YBX1 mRNA and protein expression in multiple myeloma cells (p < 0.05).Conclusion: A YBX1-mediated tumor-suppressive role for miR-379 in multiple myeloma cells has been identified, suggesting a potential strategy for the treatment of multiple myeloma. Keywords: MiR-379, Y-box binding protein 1, Multiple myeloma, Proliferation, Apoptosi

Construction of lncRNA and mRNA co-expression network associated with nasopharyngeal carcinoma progression

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a type of head and neck cancer with a high incidence in men. In the past decades, the survival rate of NPC has remained around 70%, but it often leads to treatment failure due to its distant metastasis or recurrence. The lncRNA-mRNA regulatory network has not been fully elucidated. We downloaded the NPC-related gene expression datasets GSE53819 and GSE12452 from the Gene Expression Omnibus database; GSE53819 included 18 NPC tissues and 18 normal tissues, and GSE12452 included 31 NPC tissues and 10 normal tissues. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis was performed on mRNA and lncRNA to screen out modules that were highly correlated with tumor progression. The two datasets were subjected to differential analysis after removing batch effects, and then Venn diagrams were used to screen for overlapping genes in the module genes and differential genes. The lncRNA-mRNA co-expression network was then constructed, and key mRNAs were identified by MCODE analysis and expression analysis. GSEA analysis and qRT-PCR were performed on key mRNAs. Through a series of analyses, we speculated that BTK, CD72, PTPN6, and VAV1 may be independent predictors of the prognosis of NPC patients.Taken together, our study provides potential candidate biomarkers for NPC diagnosis, prognosis, or precise treatment

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Quantitative Retrieval of Organic Soil Properties from Visible Near-Infrared Shortwave Infrared (Vis-NIR-SWIR) Spectroscopy Using Fractal-Based Feature Extraction.

Visible and near-infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy has been demonstrated to be a fast and cheap tool for estimating a large number of chemical and physical soil properties, and effective features extracted from spectra are crucial to correlating with these properties. We adopt a novel methodology for feature extraction of soil spectroscopy based on fractal geometry. The spectrum can be divided into multiple segments with different step–window pairs. For each segmented spectral curve, the fractal dimension value was calculated using variation estimators with power indices 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0. Thus, the fractal feature can be generated by multiplying the fractal dimension value with spectral energy. To assess and compare the performance of new generated features, we took advantage of organic soil samples from the large-scale European Land Use/Land Cover Area Frame Survey (LUCAS). Gradient-boosting regression models built using XGBoost library with soil spectral library were developed to estimate N, pH and soil organic carbon (SOC) contents. Features generated by a variogram estimator performed better than two other estimators and the principal component analysis (PCA). The estimation results for SOC were coefficient of determination (R2) = 0.85, root mean square error (RMSE) = 56.7 g/kg, the ratio of percent deviation (RPD) = 2.59; for pH: R2 = 0.82, RMSE = 0.49 g/kg, RPD = 2.31; and for N: R2 = 0.77, RMSE = 3.01 g/kg, RPD = 2.09. Even better results could be achieved when fractal features were combined with PCA components. Fractal features generated by the proposed method can improve estimation accuracies of soil properties and simultaneously maintain the original spectral curve shape

Design and investigation of a novel lens-walled compound parabolic concentrator with air gap

Stationary solar concentrators can be integrated with building façade and roof, which can reduce the area of solar cells and attain higher temperature heat resource, especially in winter for building application. In this paper, a stationary lens-walled compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) with air gap was designed and investigated to meet the application requirements. The lens-walled CPC with air gap differs from the original lens-walled CPC in that it has an air gap between the lens structure and the reflector that maximizes total internal reflection and improves optical efficiency by reducing the optical losses of the specular reflection. The simulation and experiment verified the function of the new structure, and the results indicated that the lens-walled CPC with air gap increases optical efficiency by more than 10% compared with the original lens-walled CPC. In addition, the flux distribution of the lens-walled CPC with air gap is more uniform than that of the common mirror CPC. Thus, the lens-walled CPC with air gap not only has a larger half acceptance angle and a more uniform flux distribution than the common mirror CPC but also operates at a higher optical efficiency than the original lens-walled CPC. Thus, the lens-walled CPC with air gap provides a realistic and valid solution to Building Integrated with Concentrating Photovoltaic (BICPV) as a stationary concentrator and has good prospects for several applications

Experimental study of the effect of inclination angle on the thermal performance of heat pipe photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) systems with wickless heat pipe and wire-meshed heat pipe

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd Two different heat pipe photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) systems, namely, wickless heat pipe PV/T system and wire-meshed heat pipe PV/T system, were proposed. In this paper, the thermal performances of the two systems working on different inclination angles were experimentally investigated in an Enthalpy Difference Laboratory with a solar simulator. The thermal performance of the wire-meshed heat pipe is not as sensitive to the inclination angle as that of the wickless heat pipe. The wickless heat pipe PV/T system is recommended at latitudes higher than 20° whereas wire-meshed heat pipe PV/T system is suggested at latitudes lower than 20°. Moreover, the thermal performances of both PV/T collectors at an inclination angle of 40° were further investigated, in which case both heat pipes worked at optimum conditions. The thermal efficiency of the wickless heat pipe PV/T system and wire-meshed heat pipe PV/T system at zero reduced temperature was 52.8% and 51.5%, respectively

Field test and preliminary analysis of a combined diurnal solar heating and nocturnal radiative cooling system

© 2016 A type of composite surface was manufactured for trial to achieve integrated solar heating and radiative cooling functions. The spectral properties of the composite surface present a relatively clear selectivity in the spectra of solar heating and radiation cooling wavelengths. A combined system for both solar heating and radiative cooling (named SH-RC system) based on the composite surface was mounted together with a traditional flat-plate solar heating system. Comparative experiments were carried out to investigate their thermal performances both at daytime and nighttime. Results showed that the composite surface has a relatively evident spectral selectivity. In diurnal collector testing mode, the thermal efficiency of the SH-RC collector was 62.7% at zero-reduced temperature, which was about 86.4% of that of the traditional flat-plate solar heating collector. In nocturnal collector testing mode, the SH-RC collector had net radiative cooling powers of 50.3 W/m2 on a clear night and 23.4 W/m2 on an overcast night; by contrast, the traditional flat-plate solar heating collector exhibited very little radiative cooling capacity. In diurnal system testing mode, the daily average thermal efficiency of the SH-RC system and the traditional flat-plate solar heating system at zero-reduced temperature was 38.6% and 48.4%, respectively. Based on experimental results, the SH-RC system showed a considerable performance for both diurnal solar heating and nocturnal radiative cooling

Terahertz Spin‐Conjugate Symmetry Breaking for Nonreciprocal Chirality and One‐Way Transmission Based on Magneto‐Optical Moiré Metasurface

Abstract In this work, the gyrotropic semiconductor InSb into the twisted bilayer metasurface to form a magneto‐optical moiré metasurface is introduced. Through the theoretical analysis, the “moiré angle” is developed in which case the nonreciprocity and chirality with the spin‐conjugate asymmetric transmission are obtained due to the simultaneous breaking of both time‐reversal symmetry and spatial mirror symmetry. The experiments confirm that the chirality can be actively manipulated by rotating the twisted angle and the external magnetic field, realizing spin‐conjugate asymmetric transmission. Meanwhile, the two spin states also realize the nonreciprocal one‐way transmission, and their isolation spectra are also spin‐conjugate asymmetric: one is enhanced up to 48 dB, and the other's bandwidth is widened to over 730 GHz. This spin‐conjugate symmetry‐breaking effect in the MOMM brings a combination of time‐space asymmetric transmission, and it also provides a new scheme for the implementation of high‐performance THz chirality controllers and isolators