Rise of the Planet of Serverless Computing: A Systematic Review

Serverless computing is an emerging cloud computing paradigm, being adopted to develop a wide range of software applications. It allows developers to focus on the application logic in the granularity of function, thereby freeing developers from tedious and error-prone infrastructure management. Meanwhile, its unique characteristic poses new challenges to the development and deployment of serverless-based applications. To tackle these challenges, enormous research efforts have been devoted. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review to characterize the current research state of serverless computing. Specifically, this paper covers 164 papers on 17 research directions of serverless computing, including performance optimization, programming framework, application migration, multi-cloud development, testing and debugging, etc. It also derives research trends, focus, and commonly-used platforms for serverless computing, as well as promising research opportunities

Expression of Placenta growth factor (PlGF) in non-Small cell Lung cancer (NSCLC) and the clinical and prognostic significance

BACKGROUND: Placenta growth factor (PlGF) is a member of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family. Over-expression of PlGF is known to be associated with pathological angiogenesis. This study examined PlGF expression at protein and message levels in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), in which no reports on the significance of PlGF expression is available to date. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We used immunohistochemistry to assess the PlGF protein and correlated PlGF with microvessel density (MVD), as well as clinical outcome in patients with NSCLC tumours (n = 91). In addition, we applied a real time quantitative PCR assay using SYBR Green chemistry to measure PlGF mRNA in normal lung tissues and NSCLC tumours. RESULTS: PlGF was positively stained mainly in cytoplasm of lung cancer cells. High level staining of PlGF was found in 38.5% NSCLC patients. A high level of MVD in NSCLC was found in 42.9% of cases. Tumours with high level and low level PlGF staining had a significantly different MVD (26.69 vs. 20.79, respectively, p = 0.003). Using both univariate and multivariate analyses, PlGF was found to be an independent prognostic factor. Real time PCR analysis revealed that PlGF mRNA was higher in the cancer tissue than normal tissue (0.95 ± 0.19 vs. 0.57 ± 0.24; p < 0.005) and that PlGF mRNA was significant higher in III-IV stage patients than in I-II stage patients (1.03 ± 0.20 vs. 0.80 ± 0.17; p = 0.011). CONCLUSION: PlGF expression is significantly more in NSCLC tumour tissues than in matched normal tissues. It has a significant positive association with MVD and is an independent factor for NSCLC patients. PlGF may have a pivotal role in NSCLC development and disease progression

Reduced expression of RanBPM Is associated with poorer survival from lung cancer and increased proliferation and invasion of lung cancer cells in vitro

Background/Aim: Ran binding protein microtubule-organizing centre (RanBPM), also known as RanBP9, is a scaffold protein conserved through evolution. We investigated the role of RanBPM in human lung cancer. Materials and Methods: Transcripts of RanBPM were determined in 56 human lung cancers along with paired normal lung tissues using real-time PCR. Association with prognosis was analyzed by online Kaplan–Meier survival analysis. In vitro lung cancer cell functional assays examined the impact of RanBPM-knockdown on cellular growth and invasion. Results: Higher expression of RanBPM was observed in tumor when compared to paired normal lung tissues. Increased RanBPM expression was seen in patients with longer overall and disease-free survival. Knockdown of RanBPM in lung cancer cell lines resulted in increased growth and invasion in vitro. Conclusion: Increased expression of RanBPM associates with postponed disease progression and better prognosis. RanBPM plays an inhibitory role in regulating proliferation and invasion of lung cancer cells

The impact of Metastasis Suppressor-1, MTSS1, on oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma and its clinical significance

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Metastasis suppressor-1 (MTSS1) has been proposed to function as a cytoskeletal protein with a role in cancer metastasis. Recent studies have demonstrated the clinical significance of MTSS1 in certain type of cancers, yet the clinical relevance of MTSS1 in oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has not been reported.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this study, we assessed the expression levels of MTSS1 in tumours and its matched adjacent non-tumour tissues obtained from 105 ESCC patients. We also used ESCC cells with differing MTSS1 expression and assessed the influence of MTSS1 on ESCC cells.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Down-regulation of MTSS1 expression was observed both in oesophageal tumour tissues and ESCC cancer cell lines. We also reported that MTSS1 expression was associated with tumour grade (p = 0.024), lymph node metastasis (p = 0.010) and overall survival (p = 0.035). Patients with high levels of MTSS1 transcripts had a favorable prognosis in comparison with those who had reduced or absent expression levels. Using over-expression and knockdown approach, we created sublines from ESCC cells and further demonstrated that MTSS1 expression in ESCC cells significantly influenced the aggressiveness of the oesophageal cancer cells, by reducing their cellular migration and in vitro invasiveness.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>MTSS1 serves as a potential prognostic indicator in human ESCC and may be an important target for cancer therapy.</p

The molecular impact of pigment epithelium-derived factor, PEDF, on lung cancer cells and the clinical significance

Pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) is an endogenous protein factor that has been shown to act as anti-angiognesis factor. The present study aimed to determine the direct biological effects of PEDF on lung cancer cells and deduce a clinical relevance in patients with lung cancer, major cause of death worldwide in which the knowledge of PEDF remains poor. We constructed a mammalian expression system for human PEDF produced recombinant PEDF (rhPEDF) protein from 3T3 cells. The expression of PEDF was examined using SDS-PAGE and Western blot analysis. Using the rhPEDF protein, we investigated the biological function of PEDF in the lung cancer cells as well as endothelial cells. PEDF expression levels were assessed in a cohort of human lung cancer specimen (77 pairs of matched normal and tumour tissues), in association with patient clinical variables and survival, using quantitative analysis of PEDF. In vitro, we found that administration of rhPEDF on two lung cancer cell lines (A549 and SK-MES1) significantly reduced tumour cell growth (P<0.05) with no significant effect on the growth of vascular cell line (HECV). We also found that rhPEDF significantly decreased lung cancer motility and adhesion to extracellular matrix (Matrigel) when compared with the control cells (P<0.05). We showed that reduced PEDF levels in lung cancer tissues significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis and an overall poor prognosis in the lung cancer patients. PEDF suppresses the growth and motility of lung cancer cells and has a significant correlation with the clinical outcome of the patients. These results contribute to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of PEDF and indicates a potential prognostic and therapeutic impact of PEDF in lung cancer