Decreased expression of dual-specificity phosphatase 9 is associated with poor prognosis in clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Background: The molecular mechanisms involved in the development and progression of clear cell renal cell carcinomas (ccRCCs) are poorly understood. The objective of this study was to analyze the expression of dual-specificity phosphatase 9 (DUSP-9) and determine its clinical significance in human ccRCCs. Methods: The expression of DUSP-9 mRNA was determined in 46 paired samples of ccRCCs and adjacent normal tissues by using real-time qPCR. The expression of the DUSP-9 was determined in 211 samples of ccRCCs and 107 paired samples of adjacent normal tissues by immunohistochemical analysis. Statistical analysis was performed to define the relationship between the expression of DUSP-9 and the clinical features of ccRCC. Results: The mRNA level of DUSP-9, which was determined by real-time RT-PCR, was found to be significantly lower in tumorous tissues than in the adjacent non-tumorous tissues (p < 0.001). An immunohistochemical analysis of 107 paired tissue specimens showed that the DUSP-9 expression was lower in tumorous tissues than in the adjacent non-tumorous tissues (p < 0.001). Moreover, there was a significant correlation between the DUSP-9 expression in ccRCCs and gender (p = 0.031), tumor size (p = 0.001), pathologic stage (p = 0.001), Fuhrman grade (p = 0.002), T stage (p = 0.001), N classification (p = 0.012), metastasis (p = 0.005), and recurrence (p < 0.001). Patients with lower DUSP-9 expression had shorter overall survival time than those with higher DUSP-9 expression (p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis indicated that low expression of the DUSP-9 was an independent predictor for poor survival of ccRCC patients. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first study that determines the relationship between DUSP-9 expression and prognosis in ccRCC. We found that decreased expression of DUSP-9 is associated with poor prognosis in ccRCC. DUSP-9 may represent a novel and useful prognostic marker for ccRCC

The United States COVID-19 Forecast Hub dataset

Academic researchers, government agencies, industry groups, and individuals have produced forecasts at an unprecedented scale during the COVID-19 pandemic. To leverage these forecasts, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) partnered with an academic research lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to create the US COVID-19 Forecast Hub. Launched in April 2020, the Forecast Hub is a dataset with point and probabilistic forecasts of incident cases, incident hospitalizations, incident deaths, and cumulative deaths due to COVID-19 at county, state, and national, levels in the United States. Included forecasts represent a variety of modeling approaches, data sources, and assumptions regarding the spread of COVID-19. The goal of this dataset is to establish a standardized and comparable set of short-term forecasts from modeling teams. These data can be used to develop ensemble models, communicate forecasts to the public, create visualizations, compare models, and inform policies regarding COVID-19 mitigation. These open-source data are available via download from GitHub, through an online API, and through R packages

Discutindo a educação ambiental no cotidiano escolar: desenvolvimento de projetos na escola formação inicial e continuada de professores

A presente pesquisa buscou discutir como a Educação Ambiental (EA) vem sendo trabalhada, no Ensino Fundamental e como os docentes desta escola compreendem e vem inserindo a EA no cotidiano escolar., em uma escola estadual do município de Tangará da Serra/MT, Brasil. Para tanto, realizou-se entrevistas com os professores que fazem parte de um projeto interdisciplinar de EA na escola pesquisada. Verificou-se que o projeto da escola não vem conseguindo alcançar os objetivos propostos por: desconhecimento do mesmo, pelos professores; formação deficiente dos professores, não entendimento da EA como processo de ensino-aprendizagem, falta de recursos didáticos, planejamento inadequado das atividades. A partir dessa constatação, procurou-se debater a impossibilidade de tratar do tema fora do trabalho interdisciplinar, bem como, e principalmente, a importância de um estudo mais aprofundado de EA, vinculando teoria e prática, tanto na formação docente, como em projetos escolares, a fim de fugir do tradicional vínculo “EA e ecologia, lixo e horta”.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Notice of Violation of IEEE Publication Principles: Single-Phase Common-Ground-Type Transformerless PV Grid-Connected Inverters

This paper presents a family of novel common-ground-type transformerless photovoltaic (PV) grid-connected inverters, which requires only five power switches, one capacitor, and one filter. A simple dual-closed led-loop control is used to improve control stabilization and accuracy. The main advantages of proposed inverters are: 1) the leakage current is completely eliminated (unlike traditional topologies, which can only suppress leakage current); 2) the devices used are a few and the cost is low; 3) low loss and high efficiency; 4) the ability of realizing reactive power; and 5) there is no need for high DC input voltage compared with half-bridge-type topologies. The operating principle, modulation mode, and control strategy are introduced in detail. The performance of the proposed topology is compared with that of several traditional topologies. The leakage current suppression ability and efficiency of the proposed topology are superior to those of the traditional topologies. The model predictive control (MPC) is applied in the proposed topology, which is easy to realize and can accelerate the dynamic response. Finally, the simulation and experimental results of a 1-kVA prototype are given, which proves the validity of the proposed topology in PV grid-connected system