K-doping effect of the superconductivity in K2xFeTe1-xSx (0.07 ≤ x ≤ 0.3)

Cheng Cheng,Zhenjie Feng,Qing Li,Tao Li,Qiang Hou,Fei Chen,Zhongmin Ou,Jun-Yi Ge,Shixun Cao,Jincang Zhang 한국물리학회 2019 Current Applied Physics Vol.19 No.4

Bulk samples of K doping K2xFeTe1-xSx with x=0.07, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 are successfully prepared by using easy-to-use stable compound K2S as the reactant. The lattice constant calculated from X-ray diffraction patterns indicate that K ions enter the Fe-Te-S layers. K doping is beneficial enhance the superconductivity transition temperature from the R-T curves. The apparent diamagnetic signal is observed in M-T curves when the content of K is smaller than 0.1. However, differential curves (dM/dT) in K-rich samples appear sharp slope mutations, which means that the Meissner effect signal is covered by the increased excess ferromagnetic ions. The number of excess Fe magnetic ions is proportional to K content, which may play an important role in determining the superconductivity.

Silencing of long noncoding RNA HOXA11-AS inhibits the Wnt signaling pathway via the upregulation of HOXA11 and thereby inhibits the proliferation, invasion, and self-renewal of hepatocellular carcinoma stem cells

Jun-Cheng Guo,Yi-Jun Yang,Jin-Fang Zheng,Jian-Quan Zhang,Min Guo,Xiang Yang,Xiang-Ling Jiang,Li Xiang,You Li,Huang Ping,Liu Zhuo 생화학분자생물학회 2019 Experimental and molecular medicine Vol.51 No.-

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major cause of cancer-related deaths, but its molecular mechanisms are not yet well characterized. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play crucial roles in tumorigenesis, including that of HCC. However, the role of homeobox A11 antisense (HOXA11-AS) in determining HCC stem cell characteristics remains to be explained; hence, this study aimed to investigate the effects of HOXA11-AS on HCC stem cell characteristics. Initially, the expression patterns of HOXA11-AS and HOXA11 in HCC tissues, cells, and stem cells were determined. HCC stem cells, successfully sorted from Hep3B and Huh7 cells, were transfected with short hairpin or overexpression plasmids for HOXA11-AS or HOXA11 overexpression and depletion, with an aim to study the influences of these mediators on the self-renewal, proliferation, migration, and tumorigenicity of HCC stem cells in vivo. Additionally, the potential relationship and the regulatory mechanisms that link HOXA11-AS, HOXA11, and the Wnt signaling pathway were explored through treatment with Dickkopf-1 (a Wnt signaling pathway inhibitor). HCC stem cells showed high expression of HOXA11-AS and low expression of HOXA11. Both HOXA11-AS silencing and HOXA11 overexpression suppressed the self-renewal, proliferation, migration, and tumorigenicity of HCC stem cells in vivo, as evidenced by the decreased expression of cancer stem cell surface markers (CD133 and CD44) and stemness-related transcription factors (Nanog, Sox2, and Oct4). Moreover, silencing HOXA11-AS inactivated the Wnt signaling pathway by decreasing the methylation level of the HOXA11 promoter, thereby inhibiting HCC stem cell characteristics. Collectively, this study suggested that HOXA11-AS silencing exerts an antitumor effect, suppressing HCC development via Wnt signaling pathway inactivation by decreasing the methylation level of the HOXA11 promoter.

Clinical Significance of SH2B1 Adaptor Protein Expression in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Zhang, Hang,Duan, Chao-Jun,Chen, Wei,Wang, Shao-Qiang,Zhang, Sheng-Kang,Dong, Shuo,Cheng, Yuan-Da,Zhang, Chun-Fang Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2012 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.13 No.5

The SH2B1 adaptor protein is recruited to multiple ligand-activated receptor tyrosine kinases that play important role in the physiologic and pathologic features of many cancers. The purpose of this study was to assess SH2B1 expression and to explore its contribution to the non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: SH2B1 expression in 114 primary NSCLC tissue specimens was analyzed by immunohistochemistry and correlated with clinicopathological parameters and patients' outcome. Additionally, 15 paired NSCLC background tissues, 5 NSCLC cell lines and a normal HBE cell line were evaluated for SH2B1 expression by RT-PCR and immunoblotting, immunofluorescence being applied for the cell lines. Results: SH2B1 was found to be overexpressed in NSCLC tissues and NSCLC cell lines. More importantly, high SH2B1 expression was significantly associated with tumor grade, tumor size, clinical stage, lymph node metastasis, and recurrence respectively. Survival analysis demonstrated that patients with high SH2B1 expression had both poorer disease-free survival and overall survival than other patients. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that SH2B1 overexpression was an independent prognostic factor for patients with NSCLC. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the SH2B1 protein may contribute to the malignant progression of NSCLC and could offer a novel prognostic indicator for patients with NSCLC.

Expression and Clinical Significance of REPS2 in Human Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Zhang, Hang,Duan, Chao-Jun,Zhang, Heng,Cheng, Yuan-Da,Zhang, Chun-Fang Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.5

Objective: REPS2 plays important roles in inhibiting cell proliferation, migration and in inducing apoptosis of cancer cells, now being identified as a useful biomarker for favorable prognosis in prostate and breast cancers. The purpose of this study was to assess REPS2 expression and to explore its role in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods: Protein expression of REPS2 in ESCCs and adjacent non-cancerous tissues from 120 patients was analyzed by immunohistochemistry and correlated with clinicopathological parameters and patient outcome. Additionally, thirty paired ESCC tissues and four ESCC cell lines and one normal human esophageal epithelial cell line were evaluated for REPS2 mRNA and protein expression levels by quantitative RT-PCR and Western blotting. Results: REPS2 mRNA and protein expression levels were down-regulated in ESCC tissues and cell lines. Low protein levels were significantly associated with primary tumour, TNM stage, lymph node metastasis and recurrence (all, P < 0.05). Survival analysis demonstrated that decreased REPS2 expression was significantly associated with shorter overall survival and disease-free survival (both, P < 0.001), especially in early stage ESCC patients. When REPS2 expression and lymph node metastasis status were combined, patients with low REPS2 expression/lymph node (+) had both poorer overall and disease-free survival than others (both, P < 0.001). Cox multivariate regression analysis further revealed REPS2 to be an independent prognostic factor for ESCC patients. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that downregulation of REPS2 may contribute to malignant progression of ESCC and represent a novel prognostic marker and a potential therapeutic target for ESCC patients.

Performance evaluation of soil-embedded plastic optical fiber sensors for geotechnical monitoring

Cheng-Cheng Zhang,Hong-Hu Zhu,Bin Shi,Jun-Kuan She,Dan Zhang 국제구조공학회 2016 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.17 No.2

Based on the distributed fiber optic sensing (DFOS) technique, plastic optical fibers (POFs) are attractive candidates to measure deformations of geotechnical structures because they can withstand large strains before rupture. Understanding the mechanical interaction between an embedded POF and the surrounding soil or rock is a necessary step towards establishing an effective POF-based sensing system for geotechnical monitoring. This paper describes a first attempt to evaluate the feasibility of POF-based soil deformation monitoring considering the POF–soil interfacial properties. A series of pullout tests were performed under various confining pressures (CPs) on a jacketed polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) POF embedded in soil specimens. The test results were interpreted using a fiber–soil interaction model, and were compared with previous test data of silica optical fibers (SOFs). The results showed that the range of CP in this study did not induce plastic deformation of the POF; therefore, the POF–soil and the SOF–soil interfaces had similar behavior. CP was found to play an important role in controlling the fiber–soil interfacial bond and the fiber measurement range. Moreover, an expression was formulated to determine whether a POF would undergo plastic deformation when measuring soil deformation. The plasticity of POF may influence the reliability of measurements, especially for monitored geo-structures whose deformation would alternately increase and decrease. Taken together, these results indicate that in terms of the interfacial parameters studied here the POF is feasible for monitoring soil deformation as long as the plastic deformation issue is carefully addressed.

A Vibration Signal Analysis Method based on Enforced De-Noising and Modified EMD

He jun,Qinghua Zhang,Guoxi Sun,Ji-cheng Yang,Jianbin Xiong 보안공학연구지원센터(IJSIP) 2015 International Journal of Signal Processing, Image Vol.8 No.1

To deal with the noise from rotating machinery vibration signal and analysis the fault signal, a rotating machinery fault diagnosis method based on enforced de-noising and modified EMD is proposed. Firstly, fault signals were de-noised by the wavelet with enforced threshold in order to filter the noises in the high frequency, and then the EMD method used to decompose the fault signals into a finite number of stationary intrinsic mode function (IMFs), then the linear correlation coefficient between two sets of data is proposed to select the useful IMF. In order to restrain the endpoint effect of EMD, in this paper, the cosine window function is employ to the fault signals, and then the envelope error of the fault signals is controlled at the both endpoints of the vibration signals. Experimental results shows: this proposed method can extract the fault information effectively, with overcoming the drawbacks of EMD well.

Minimization of Surface Roughness and Machining Deformation in Milling of Al Alloy Thin-Walled Parts

De-Jun Cheng,Feng Xu,Sheng-Hao Xu,Chun-Yan Zhang,Sheng-Wen Zhang,Su-Jin Kim 한국정밀공학회 2020 International Journal of Precision Engineering and Vol.21 No.9

This study focused on investigating the surface roughness in the feed direction (R a -Fd), surface roughness in the transversedirection (R a -Td), and thin-walled parts deformation (TWD) during milling of Al alloy 5083. The response surface method(RSM) was used to conduct experiments and establish the models of R a -Fd , R a -Td , and TWD under various cutting parameters. The significance of cutting parameters on R a -Fd , R a -Td , and TWD was analyzed by analysis of variance. It was observedthat the R a -Fd and R a -Td are mainly influenced by the spindle speed, depth of cut, transverse size and feed rate, while the TWD is mainly influenced by the depth of cut. A comparison of RSM-optimum function and artificial bee colony (ABC)algorithm optimum programming was conducted to obtain the best cutting conditions leading to minimum R a -Fd, R a -Td and TWD simultaneously. From the presented results, ABC algorithm was able to obtain the better cutting strategy. Finally, theperformance of the proposed cutting strategy was verified by confirmation experiments.

Elevated expression of WSB2 degrades p53 and activates the IGFBP3-AKT-mTOR-dependent pathway to drive hepatocellular carcinoma

Li Xun,Zhang Cheng-Cheng,Lin Xiao-Tong,Zhang Jie,Zhang Yu-Jun,Yu Hong-Qiang,Liu Ze-Yu,Gong Yi,Zhang Lei-Da,Xie Chuan-Ming 생화학분자생물학회 2024 Experimental and molecular medicine Vol.56 No.-

Dysregulation of wild-type p53 turnover is a key cause of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), yet its mechanism remains poorly understood. Here, we report that WD repeat and SOCS box containing protein 2 (WSB2), an E3 ubiquitin ligase, is an independent adverse prognostic factor in HCC patients. WSB2 drives HCC tumorigenesis and lung metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, WSB2 is a new p53 destabilizer that promotes K48-linked p53 polyubiquitination at the Lys291 and Lys292 sites in HCC cells, leading to p53 proteasomal degradation. Degradation of p53 causes IGFBP3-dependent AKT/mTOR signaling activation. Furthermore, WSB2 was found to bind to the p53 tetramerization domain via its SOCS box domain. Targeting mTOR with everolimus, an oral drug, significantly blocked WSB2-triggered HCC tumorigenesis and metastasis in vivo. In clinical samples, high expression of WSB2 was associated with low wild-type p53 expression and high p-mTOR expression. These findings demonstrate that WSB2 is overexpressed and degrades wild-type p53 and then activates the IGFBP3-AKT/mTOR axis, leading to HCC tumorigenesis and lung metastasis, which indicates that targeting mTOR could be a new therapeutic strategy for HCC patients with high WSB2 expression and wild-type p53.

Attenuation of Peripheral Regulatory T-Cell Suppression of Skin-Homing CD8+T Cells in Atopic Dermatitis

Bao-Xiang Zhang,Gang Ding,Jun-Cheng Lyu,Hai-Bo Liu,Dian-Cai Zhang,Dian-Cai Zhang,Xing-Jie Bi,Zhi-Wu Duan 연세대학교의과대학 2015 Yonsei medical journal Vol.56 No.1

Purpose: Cutaneous lymphocyte-associated antigen (CLA)-expressing CD8+T cells have been known to play an important role in the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis(AD). However, the mechanisms underlying the loss of self-tolerance remainunclear. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) play a key role in the development of homeostasisin the immune system. We, therefore, hypothesized that a reduced ability of Tregs to inhibit autologous CD8+CLA+T cells might be underlying mechanism in AD. Materials and Methods: CD8+CLA+T cells and Tregs were obtained from the peripheral blood of AD patients and control volunteers. The frequenciesof CD8+CLA+T cells were evaluated. The proliferative responses of CD8+CLA+T cells were assessed by flow cytometry, and the levels of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) in culture supernatants were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: Our results revealed higher frequency and increased expression of perforin and granzyme-B in peripheralCD8+CLA+T cells in AD, and lower inhibitory ability of Tregs on proliferation of CD8+CLA+T cells in AD. Meanwhile, the levels of TGF-β1 produced by Tregs were significantly lower in AD, and anti-TGF-β1 abolished such suppression. Conclusion: The attenuated inhibitory ability of Tregs on hyper-activated autologousCD8+CLA+T cells, mediated by TGF-β1, plays an important role in the pathogenesis of AD.

Impact of Latrogenic Biliary Injury during Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy on Surgeon’s Mental Distress A Nationwide Survey from China

( Tian Yang ),( Hai-su Dai ),( Lei Liang ),( Cheng-cheng Zhang ),( Zhang-jun Cheng ),( Yong-hai Peng ),( Yao-ming Zhang ),( Zhi-yu Chen ) 대한간학회 2020 춘·추계 학술대회 (KASL) Vol.2020 No.1

Aims: Iatrogenic biliary injury (IBI) following laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is the most common and recognized iatrogenic complications. Little is known whether LC-IBI would lead to surgeon’s mental distress. This study reports the incidence of surgeon’s mental distress who have caused LC-IBI and risk factors of surgeon’s severe mental distress (SMD). Methods: A cross-sectional survey in the form of electronic questionnaire was conducted among Chinese general surgeons who have caused LC-IBI. The six collected clinical features relating to mental distress included: 1) feeling burnout, anxiety, or depression, 2) avoiding performing LC, 3) having physical reactions when recalling the incidence, 4) having the urge to quit surgery, 5) taking psychiatric medications, and 6) seeking professional psychological counseling. Univariable and multivariable analyses were performed to identify risk factors of SMD, which was defined as meeting ≥3 of the above-mentioned clinical features. Results: Among 1,466 surveyed surgeons, 1,236(84.3%) experienced mental distress following LC-IBI, and nearly half (49.7%, 614/1236) had SMD. Multivariable analyses demonstrated that surgeons from non-university affiliated hospitals (OR:1.873), patients who required multiple repair operations (OR:4.075), patients who required hepaticojejunostomy/partial hepatectomy (OR:1.859), existing lawsuit litigation (OR:10.491), existing violent doctor-patient conflicts (OR:4.995), needing surgeons’ personal compensation (OR:2.531), and additional administrative punishment by hospitals (OR:2.324) were independent risk factors of surgeon’s SMD. Conclusions: Four out of five surgeons experienced mental distress following LC-IBI, and nearly half had SMD. Several independent risk factors of SMD were identified, which could help to make strategies to improve mental well-being of these surgeons.