Evaluation of Renal Pathophysiological Processes Induced by an Iodinated Contrast Agent in a Diabetic Rabbit Model Using Intravoxel Incoherent Motion and Blood Oxygenation Level-Dependent Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Yongfang Wang,Xin Zhang,Bin Wang,Yang Xie,Yi Wang,Xuan Jiang,Rongjia Wang,Ke Ren 대한영상의학회 2019 Korean Journal of Radiology Vol.20 No.5

Objective: To examine the potential of intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) and blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) magnetic resonance imaging for detecting renal changes after iodinated contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) development in a diabetic rabbit model. Materials and Methods: Sixty-two rabbits were randomized into 2 groups: diabetic rabbits with the contrast agent (DCA) and healthy rabbits with the contrast agent (NCA). In each group, 6 rabbits underwent IVIM and BOLD imaging at 1 hour, 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, and 4 days after an iohexol injection while 5 rabbits were selected to undergo blood and histological examinations at these specific time points. Iohexol was administrated at a dose of 2.5 g I/kg of body weight. Further, the apparent transverse relaxation rate (R2*), average pure molecular diffusion coefficient (D), pseudo-diffusion coefficient (D*), and perfusion fraction (f) were calculated. Results: The D and f values of the renal cortex (CO) and outer medulla (OM) were significantly decreased compared to baseline values in the 2 groups 1 day after the iohexol injection (p < 0.05). A marked reduction in the D* values for both the CO and OM was also observed after 1 hour in each group (p < 0.05). In the OM, a persistent elevation of the R2* was detected for 4 days in the DCA group (p < 0.05). Histopathological changes were prominent, and the pathological features of CI-AKI aggravated in the DCA group until day 4. The D, f, and R2* values significantly correlated with the histological damage scores, hypoxiainducible transcription factor-1α expression scores, and serum creatinine levels. Conclusion: A combination of IVIM and BOLD imaging may serve as a noninvasive method for detecting and monitoring CIAKI in the early stages in the diabetic kidney.

SURF4 maintains stem-like properties via BIRC3 in ovarian cancer cells

Yongfang Yue,Lili Xia,Shanshan Xu,Conghui Wang,Xinyu Wang,Weiguo Lu,Xing Xie 대한부인종양학회 2020 Journal of Gynecologic Oncology Vol.31 No.4

Objective: As cancer stem cells (CSCs) are considered as the origin of tumor development,recurrence, and drug resistance, we aimed to explore the mechanism related to modulatingstemness in CSCs, thus facilitating to search for new therapeutic strategy for ovarian cancer. Methods: In this study, ovarian cancer stem cells (OCSCs) induced from cell line 3AOand A2780 were enriched in serum-free medium (SFM). The effect of SURF4 on CSC-likeproperties was evaluated by sphere-forming assays, re-differentiation assays, quantitativereal-time polymerase chain reaction, flow cytometry, Western blotting, cell viability assaysand in vivo xenograft experiments. The downstream molecule participating in SURF4maintaining stemness was screened by RNA-sequencing and identified by the experiments ofgene function. Results: SURF4 was upregulated expressed in OCSCs. Knockdown of SURF4 reduced theexpression of the related stem markers (SOX2 and c-MYC), inhibited self-renewal ability,and improved the sensitivity to chemotherapeutic drugs (paclitaxel and cisplatin) in OCSCs. SURF4 knockdown also inhibited tumorigenesis in nonobese diabetic/severe combinedimmunodeficiency mice. BIRC3 expression was controlled by SURF4, and BIRC3 showedthe similar effect as SURF4 did, and BIRC3 overexpression partially recovered stem-likeproperties abolished by SURF4 knockdown. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that SURF4 possesses the ability to maintain stemness ofOCSCs via BIRC3, and may serve as a potential target in stem cell-targeted therapy forovarian cancer.

MALICIOUS URL RECOGNITION AND DETECTION USING ATTENTION-BASED CNN-LSTM

( Yongfang Peng ),( Shengwei Tian ),( Long Yu ),( Yalong Lv ),( Ruijin Wang ) 한국인터넷정보학회 2019 KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Syst Vol.13 No.11

A malicious Uniform Resource Locator (URL) recognition and detection method based on the combination of Attention mechanism with Convolutional Neural Network and Long Short-Term Memory Network (Attention-Based CNN-LSTM), is proposed. Firstly, the WHOIS check method is used to extract and filter features, including the URL texture information, the URL string statistical information of attributes and the WHOIS information, and the features are subsequently encoded and pre-processed followed by inputting them to the constructed Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) convolution layer to extract local features. Secondly, in accordance with the weights from the Attention mechanism, the generated local features are input into the Long-Short Term Memory (LSTM) model, and subsequently pooled to calculate the global features of the URLs. Finally, the URLs are detected and classified by the SoftMax function using global features. The results demonstrate that compared with the existing methods, the Attention-based CNN-LSTM mechanism has higher accuracy for malicious URL detection.

Effect of male inflorescence of Castanea mollissima on the reproductive development and lifetime of Bactrocera minax

He Zhangzhang,Gui Lianyou,Wang Fulian,Shi Yongfang,Liang Peng,Yang Xuan,Hua Dengke,Du Tainhua 한국응용곤충학회 2020 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.23 No.4

Previous work reveals that newly emerged adult Chinese citrus flies, Bactrocera minax (Enderlein), emerges from the ground in the mosaic-type citrus orchard of the hilly terrain landform dispersed into adjacent forest, and the newly emerged adult flies fed on male inflorescence of the Chinese chestnut, Castanea mollissima Blume (Fagaceae). The potential impact of male inflorescence of C. mollissima on the longevity, and survival of adult females and males, the ovarian development of adult females, and the abdominal index, ovarian index, and egg length of the fourth ovarian grade of living females, as well as the flowering process of the male inflorescence of the Chinese chestnut, were studied with the three methods of rearing (normal rearing, hungry rearing, and bagging rearing). For all three rearing treatments, the longevity of all adults could live up to 38 days, there were similar time dynamics for the average survival of female and male adult flies. Of the total females, 32.1%–100% females with bagging rearing could attain the fourth ovarian grade like those in rearing and hunger rearing. The abdominal index, ovarian index, and egg length of the fourth ovarian grade of 27–39 days’ old living females with bagging rearing (it corresponds to the late flower withering period), were 75.1%, 49.8% and 89.6% of those with normal rearing, and 73.2%, 60.6% and 90.8% of those with hungry rearing, respectively. The male inflorescence of C. mollissima can satisfy the nutritional requirements of adult B. minax, enabling their survival and normal reproduction. This study can provide references for development and application of artificial feed and food attractants of adult B. minax.

The Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Signal Transduction Pathways in Alternaria Species

Xu, Houjuan,Xu, Xiaoxue,Wang, Yu-Jun,Bajpai, Vivek K.,Huang, Lisha,Chen, Yongfang,Baek, Kwang-Hyun The Korean Society of Plant Pathology 2012 Plant Pathology Journal Vol.28 No.3

Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades are conserved signaling modules in the eukaryotic cells. They are involved in many major cell processes in fungi such as stress responses, vegetative growth, pathogenicity, secondary metabolism and cell wall integrity. In this review, we summarized the advances of research on the MAPK signaling pathways in Alternaria species. As major phytopathogenic fungi, Alternaria species reduce crop production. In contrast to the five MAPK pathways known in yeast, only three MAPK pathways as Fus3/Kss1-type, Hog1-type, and Slt2-type have been characterized in Alternaria. The Fus3/Kss1-type MAPK pathway participates in regulation of vegetative growth, conidiation, production of some cell-wall-degrading enzymes and pathogenicity. The Hog1-type pathway is involved in osmotic and oxidative stress, fungicides susceptibility and pathogenicity. The Slt2-type MAP kinases play an important role on maintaining cell wall integrity, pathogenicity and conidiation. Although recent advances on the MAPK pathways in Alternaria spp. reveal many important features on the pathogenicity, there are many unsolved problems regarding to the unknown MAP kinase cascade components and network among other major signal transduction. Considering the economic loss induced by Alternaria spp., more researches on the MAPK pathways will need to control the Alternaria diseases.

Coal dust exposure induces proliferation and migration of human bronchial epithelial cells

Li Amin,Zhang Yinci,Wang Ruikai,Xu Ruyue,Ma Yongfang,Song Li,Cao Weiya,Xiaolong Tang 대한독성 유전단백체 학회 2023 Molecular & cellular toxicology Vol.19 No.2

Background Coal dust exposure has caused a variety of lung diseases. In addition to genotoxicity and cytotoxicity, other biological changes caused by coal dust (CD) exposure need further study. Objective To observe the cellular transformation eff ects of CD exposure and explore its underlying molecular mechanism, human bronchial epithelial cells (BEAS-2B) were cultured with continuous CD exposure. Methylthiazolyldiphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, colony formation assay, wound healing assay, next-generation sequencing (NGS) and western blotting were performed to observe the cell proliferation, migration, genomic transcription and pathological signaling pathways. Results We demonstrated that BEAS-2B cells with long-term chronic CD exposure show accelerated proliferation rate and enhanced migration ability, and have altered gene expression profi les and aberrant activation of EGFR/Raf/ERK and PI3K/ AKT/mTOR pathways. Conclusions The results indicate that chronic CD exposure could induce abnormal proliferation and migration of BEAS-2B cells, lead to the transformation potential of human bronchial epithelial cells.

Feasible D1-A-D2-A Random Copolymers for Simultaneous High-Performance Fullerene and Nonfullerene Solar Cells

Jeong, Mingyu,Chen, Shanshan,Lee, Sang Myeon,Wang, Zhiwei,Yang, Yankang,Zhang, Zhi-Guo,Zhang, Chunfeng,Xiao, Min,Li, Yongfang,Yang, Changduk Wiley (John WileySons) 2018 Advanced energy materials Vol.8 No.7

The Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Signal Transduction Pathways in Alternaria Species

Houjuan Xu,Xiaoxue Xu,Yujun Wang,비벡바지파이,Lisha Huang,Yongfang Chen,백광현 한국식물병리학회 2012 Plant Pathology Journal Vol.28 No.3

Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades are conserved signaling modules in the eukaryotic cells. They are involved in many major cell processes in fungi such as stress responses, vegetative growth, pathogenicity,secondary metabolism and cell wall integrity. In this review, we summarized the advances of research on the MAPK signaling pathways in Alternaria species. As major phytopathogenic fungi, Alternaria species reduce crop production. In contrast to the five MAPK pathways known in yeast, only three MAPK pathways as Fus3/Kss1-type, Hog1-type, and Slt2-type have been characterized in Alternaria. The Fus3/Kss1-type MAPK pathway participates in regulation of vegetative growth,conidiation, production of some cell-wall-degrading enzymes and pathogenicity. The Hog1-type pathway is involved in osmotic and oxidative stress, fungicides susceptibility and pathogenicity. The Slt2-type MAP kinases play an important role on maintaining cell wall integrity, pathogenicity and conidiation. Although recent advances on the MAPK pathways in Alternaria spp. reveal many important features on the pathogenicity,there are many unsolved problems regarding to the unknown MAP kinase cascade components and network among other major signal transduction. Considering the economic loss induced by Alternaria spp., more researches on the MAPK pathways will need to control the Alternaria diseases.

Oviposition preference and offspring performance of Apoderus dimidiatus (Coleoptera: Atelabidae) between Rosa multiflora and Rubus ichangensis

Xie Meng,Du Jinying,Yang Kunqi,Song Shaoting,Lv Zonghui,Xu Huailiang,Wen An Xiang,Wang Qin,Jiang Yanzhi,Zhu Guangxiang,Wu Jiayun,Yao Yongfang,Ni Qingyong 한국곤충학회 2021 Entomological Research Vol.51 No.2

Leaf-rolling weevils (Coleoptera: Atelabidae) are considered to be specialists that oviposit only on one or two plant species. However, Apoderus dimidiatus can oviposit on at least five species. We aimed to determine whether A. dimidiatus females have different preferences for oviposition substrates, and whether differences in physical factors, nutrition and parasitism affected their choices. We observed the number of cradles, hatched larvae, pupae, emerging adults and parasitism rate during one breeding season. Weevils were given access to two host plant species, Rosa multiflora and Rubus ichangensis, and the leaf size and nutrient contents of the two plant species were investigated. We found that nutritional content, especially soluble carbohydrate, correlated with oviposition preference of weevils, and the more nutritious plant species, R. multiflora, was the preferred host in our experiment. Weevils can also use Ru. ichangensis and other plant species as hosts, likely to relieve the high parasitic pressure when laying eggs on a single host species.