Diagnostic Value of ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT in Comparison to Bone Scintigraphy, CT and ¹⁸F-FDG PET for the Detection of Bone Metastasis

Liu, Ning-Bo,Zhu, Lei,Li, Ming-Huan,Sun, Xiao-Rong,Hu, Man,Huo, Zong-Wei,Xu, Wen-Gui,Yu, Jin-Ming Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.6

Purpose: To evaluate the diagnostic value of $^{18}F$-FDG PET/CT for detection of bone metastasis in comparison with the efficacies of $^{18}F$-FDG PET/CT, CT, $^{18}F$-FDG PET and conventional planar bone scintigraphy in a series of cancer patients. Methods: Five hundred and thirty patients who underwent both $^{18}F$-FDG PET/CT and bone scintigraphy within 1 month were retrospectively analyzed. The skeletal system was classified into 10 anatomic segments and interpreted blindly and separately. For each modality, the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, PPV and NPV were calculated and the results were statistically analyzed. Results: Bone metastases were confirmed in 117 patients with 459 positive segments. On patient-based analysis, the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, PPV and NPV of $^{18}F$-FDG PET/CT were significantly higher than bone scintigraphy, CT and $^{18}F$-FDG PET (P<0.05). On segment-based analysis, the sensitivity of CT, bone scintigraphy, $^{18}F$-FDG PET and $^{18}F$-FDG PET/CT were 70.4%, 89.5%, 89.1% and 97.8%, respectively (P<0.05, compared with $^{18}F$-FDG PET/CT). The overall specificity and accuracy of the four modalities were 89.1%, 91.8%, 90.3%, 98.2% and 90.3%, 90.9%, 89.8%, 98.0%, respectively (P<0.05, compared with $^{18}F$-FDG PET/CT). The PPV and NPV were 89.8%, 87.6%, 85.6%, 97.2% and 85.6%, 93.2%, 92.8%, 98.6%, respectively. Three hundred and twelve lesions or segments were presented as lytic or sclerotic changes on CT images at the corresponding sites of increased $^{18}F$-FDG uptake. In lytic or mixed lesions, the sensitivity of $^{18}F$-FDG PET/CT and $^{18}F$-FDG PET were better than bone scintigraphy, while in osteoblastic lesions bone scintigraphy had a similar performance with $^{18}F$-FDG PET/CT but better than $^{18}F$-FDG PET alone. Conclusion: Our data allow the conclusion that $^{18}F$-FDG PET/CT is superior to planar bone scintigraphy, CT or $^{18}F$-FDG PET in detecting bone metastasis. $^{18}F$-FDG PET/CT may enhance our diagnosis of tumor bone metastasis and provide more information for cancer treatment.

The complete mitochondrial genome of fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera:Noctuidae)

Bo-Ping Tang,Qiu-Ning Liu,Xin-Yue Chai,Dan-Dan Bian,Bao-Ming Ge,Chun-Lin Zhou 한국유전학회 2016 Genes & Genomics Vol.38 No.2

The mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) can provide important information for understanding molecular evolution and phylogenetic analyses. The complete mitogenome of Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera:Noctuidae) was determined to be 15,365 bp in length and has the typical gene order found in Noctuidae mitogenomes, it includes 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), two rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes and a A?T-rich region. The nucleotide composition was biased toward A?T nucleotides (81.09 %) and the AT skew of this mitogenome was slightly positive (0.004). All PCGs were initiated by ATN codons, except for cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) gene which was initiated by CGA. Eight of the 13 PCGs have the incomplete termination codon, T or TA. All the tRNA genes displayed the typical clover-leaf structure of mitochondrial tRNAs, with the exception of trnS1 (AGN). The A?T-rich region was 328 bp in length and consisted of several features common to the Noctuidae insects. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the S. frugiperda was within the Noctuidae.

A Novel Method for Thermal Analysis of MF Transformers with Hollow Windings

Bo Zhang,Ning Yan,Naisheng Liu 전력전자학회 2019 ICPE(ISPE)논문집 Vol.2019 No.5

One of the key problems in the research and development of high-power electronic transformer is the thermal analysis of high-frequency or medium frequency transformer under non-sinusoidal load. At present, there is a lack of a convenient and effective method. Taking the thermal problem of an medium frequency transformer with a hollow conductor structure as an example, this paper presents an analysis method suitable for researchers. Firstly, based on the finite element model, the loss of hollow winding is studied by numerical analysis. Then, based on the similarity principle, the equivalent reduction method for calculating the core loss of medium frequency transformer is presented. Finally, the measurement data of the magnetic properties of the transformer core and the measurement data of the transformer loss under the medium frequency excitation are given. The complete research work can provide a method for the thermal analysis of high frequency or medium frequency transformer.

A Ringed Dwarf LINER 1 Galaxy Hosting an Intermediate-mass Black Hole with Large-scale Rotation-like ${\rm{H}}\alpha $ Emission

Liu, Wen-Juan,Qian, Lei,Dong, Xiao-Bo,Jiang, Ning,Lira, Paulina,Cai, Zheng,Wang, Feige,Yang, Jinyi,Xiao, Ting,Kim, Minjin American Astronomical Society 2017 The Astrophysical journal Vol.837 No.2

<P>We report the discovery of a 20 kpc sized H alpha emission in SDSS J083803.68+540642.0, a ringed dwarf galaxy (M-V = -17.89 mag) hosting an accreting intermediate-mass black hole at z = 0.02957. Analysis of the Hubble Space Telescope images indicates that it is an early-type galaxy with a featureless low-surface brightness disk (mu(0) = 20.39 mag arcsec(-2) in the V band) and a prominent, relatively red bulge (V - I = 2.03, R-e = 0.28 kpc or 0 48) that accounts for approximate to 81% of the total light in the I band. A circumgalactic ring of a diameter 16 kpc is also detected, with a disperse shape on its south side. The optical emission lines reveal the nucleus to be a broad-line LINER. Our MMT longslit observation indicates that the kinematics of the extended H alpha emission is consistent with a rotational gaseous disk, with a mean blueshifted velocity of 162 km s(-1) and mean redshifted velocity of 86 km s(-1). According to our photoionization calculations, the large-scale H alpha emission is unlikely to be powered by the central nucleus or by hot evolved (post-AGB) stars interspersed in the old stellar populations, but by in situ star formation; this is vindicated by the line-ratio diagnostic of the extended emission. We propose that both the ring and large-scale H alpha-emitting gas are created by the tidal accretion in a collision-and then merger-with a gas-rich galaxy of a comparable mass.</P>

Genome-wide analyses of the NAC transcription factor family to reveal the potential candidate genes responding to powdery mildew in balsam pear

Ning Yu,Liu Jing,Song Bo,Xu Hai,Liu Zhiyang,Chen Longzheng 한국식물생명공학회 2023 Plant biotechnology reports Vol.17 No.6

Powdery mildew (PM) is the most serious disease in balsam pear and usually causes severe yield and quality decreases. Although NAC transcription factors involved in the growth, development, and regulation of biotic and abiotic stress responses have been published for many crops, comprehensive data regarding the structure, evolution, and functions of the NAC family in balsam pear are still unavailable. In this study, a comprehensive analysis of the NAC transcription factor family in balsam pear was performed, and 90 NAC genes of balsam pear (McNAC) were identified and divided into 18 subfamilies. Gene structure and protein motif analyses revealed that the functions of McNAC proteins exhibit diversity during evolution and are mainly involved in the response to light, growth, development, and abiotic and biotic stresses. Fifteen McNAC genes (McNAC03, McNAC09, McNAC15, McNAC19, McNAC25, McNAC29, McNAC34, McNAC47, McNAC55, McNAC59, McNAC61, McNAC69, McNAC71, McNAC73, and McNAC78) were differentially expressed after PM pathogen infection. Moreover, the predicted interacting proteins of 7 genes (McNAC09, McNAC15, McNAC25, McNAC29, McNAC34, McNAC73, and McNAC78) were related to the plant hormone signal transduction, betalain biosynthesis, and sphingolipid metabolism pathways by transcriptomic data, implying that the 7 genes participated in PM pathogen infection through these pathways. Metabolome data showed that nine metabolites in the same pathways were changed after PM infection, which suggests that these 7 McNAC genes could regulate these metabolites through the pathways mentioned above to respond to PM infection. The expression levels of McNAC09, McNAC15, McNAC25 and McNAC34 were further confirmed by qPCR to show the reliability of the obtained RNA-seq data. Interestingly, McNAC34 was predicted to be targeted by miRNA164, indicating that McNAC34 might be involved in the response to PM infection by the miRNA-regulated pathway. This study will provide deep insight into NAC gene family evolution and functions, especially in the response to PM pathogen infection in balsam pear.

Mitochondrial NDUFA4L2 attenuates the apoptosis of nucleus pulposus cells induced by oxidative stress via the inhibition of mitophagy

Wen-Ning Xu,Huo-Liang Zheng,Run-Ze Yang,Tao Liu,Wei Yu,Xin-Feng Zheng,Bo Li,Sheng-Dan Jiang,Lei-Sheng Jiang 생화학분자생물학회 2019 Experimental and molecular medicine Vol.51 No.-

The main pathological mechanism of intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) is the programmed apoptosis of nucleus pulposus (NP) cells. Oxidative stress is a significant cause of IVDD. Whether mitophagy is induced by strong oxidative stress in IVDD remains to be determined. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between oxidative stress and mitophagy and to better understand the mechanism of IVDD in vivo and in vitro. To this end, we obtained primary NP cells from the human NP and subsequently exposed them to TBHP. We observed that oxidative stress induced mitophagy to cause apoptosis in NP cells, and we suppressed mitophagy and found that NP cells were protected against apoptosis. Interestingly, TBHP resulted in mitophagy through the inhibition of the HIF-1α/NDUFA4L2 pathway. Therefore, the upregulation of mitochondrial NDUFA4L2 restricted mitophagy induced by oxidative stress. Furthermore, the expression levels of HIF-1α and NDUFA4L2 were decreased in human IVDD. In conclusion, these results demonstrated that the upregulation of NDUFA4L2 ameliorated the apoptosis of NP cells by repressing excessive mitophagy, which ultimately alleviated IVDD. These findings show for the first time that NDUFA4L2 and mitophagy may be potential therapeutic targets for IVDD.

Hepatic microRNAome reveals potential microRNA-mRNA pairs association with lipid metabolism in pigs

Jingge Liu,Caibo Ning,Bo-jiang Li,Rongyang Li,Wang Jun Wu,Honglin Liu 아세아·태평양축산학회 2019 Animal Bioscience Vol.32 No.9

Objective: As one of the most important metabolic organs, the liver plays vital roles in modulating the lipid metabolism. This study was to compare miRNA expression profiles of the Large White liver between two different developmental periods and to identify candidate miRNAs for lipid metabolism. Methods: Eight liver samples were collected from White Large of 70-day fetus (P70) and of 70-day piglets (D70) (with 4 biological repeats at each development period) to construct sRNA libraries. Then the eight prepared sRNA libraries were sequenced using Illumina next-generation sequencing technology on HiSeq 2500 platform. Results: As a result, we obtained 346 known and 187 novel miRNAs. Compared with the D70, 55 down- and 61 up-regulated miRNAs were shown to be significantly differentially expressed (DE). Gene ontology and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes enrichment analysis indicated that these DE miRNAs were mainly involved in growth, development and diverse metabolic processes. They were predicted to regulate lipid metabolism through adipocytokine signaling pathway, mitogen-activated protein kinase, AMP-activated protein kinase, cyclic adenosine monophosphate, phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase/protein kinase B, and Notch signaling pathway. The four most abundantly expressed miRNAs were miR-122, miR-26a and miR-30a-5p (miR-122 only in P70), which play important roles in lipid metabolism. Integration analysis (details of mRNAs sequencing data were shown in another unpublished paper) revealed that many target genes of the DE miRNAs (miR-181b, miR-145-5p, miR-199a-5p, and miR-98) might be critical regulators in lipid metabolic process, including acyl-CoA synthetase long chain family member 4, ATP-binding casette A4, and stearyl-CoA desaturase. Thus, these miRNAs were the promising candidates for lipid metabolism. Conclusion: Our study provides the main differences in the Large White at miRNA level between two different developmental stages. It supplies a valuable database for the further function and mechanism elucidation of miRNAs in porcine liver development and lipid metabolism.

Molecular cloning and expression analysis of a myosin light chain 1 (MLC‐1) gene from Indian meal moth Plodia interpunctella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

Qiu‐Ning Liu,Dan-Dan Bian,Chun-Lin Zhou,Bo-Ping Tang 한국곤충학회 2015 Entomological Research Vol.45 No.6

Myosin light chain 1 (MLC‐1) protein acts in the organization, dynamics and transport processes associated with the cytoskeleton. In this work, an MLC‐1 gene was cloned and characterized from the Indian meal moth, Plodia interpunctella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae). The isolated PiMLC‐1 cDNA is 913 bp, including a 5′‐untranslated region (UTR) of 79 bp, 3′‐UTR of 381 bp and an open reading frame (ORF) of 453 bp encoding a polypeptide of 150 amino acids, which contains two calcium binding domains (EF‐hands). The deduced PiMLC‐1 protein sequence has 39–94% comparison with other individuals. The qPCR analysis revealed that PiMLC‐1 was expressed in the four developmental stages (egg, larva, pupa and adult) and in all tissues tested, suggesting that it plays an important role in development of P. interpunctella. Based on the MLC‐1 amino acids, phylogenetic analysis showed a similar topology with the traditional classification, suggesting the potential value of the MLC‐1 protein in phylogenetic inference.

Liver Shear-Wave Velocity and Serum Fibrosis Markers to Diagnose Hepatic Fibrosis in Patients with Chronic Viral Hepatitis B

Jianxue Liu,Yonghao Ji,Hong Ai,Bo Ning,Junzhi Zhao,Yaoren Zhang,Guoliang Dun 대한영상의학회 2016 Korean Journal of Radiology Vol.17 No.3

Objective: To compare several noninvasive indices of fibrosis in chronic viral hepatitis B, including liver shear-wave velocity (SWV), hyaluronic acid (HA), collagen type IV (CIV), procollagen type III (PCIII), and laminin (LN). Materials and Methods: Acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) was performed in 157 patients with chronic viral hepatitis B and in 30 healthy volunteers to measure hepatic SWV (m/s) in a prospective study. Serum markers were acquired on the morning of the same day of the ARFI evaluation. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to evaluate and compare the accuracies of SWV and serum markers using METAVIR scoring from liver biopsy as a reference standard. Results: The most accurate test for diagnosing fibrosis F ≥ 1 was SWV with the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.913, followed by LN (0.744), HA (0.701), CIV (0.690), and PCIII (0.524). The best test for diagnosing F ≥ 2 was SWV (AUC of 0.851), followed by CIV (0.671), HA (0.668), LN (0.562), and PCIII (0.550). The best test for diagnosing F ≥ 3 was SWV (0.854), followed by CIV (0.693), HA (0.675), PCIII (0.591), and LN (0.548). The best test for diagnosing F = 4 was SWV (0.965), followed by CIV (0.804), PCIII (0.752), HA (0.744), and LN (0.662). SWV combined with HA and CIV did not improve diagnostic accuracy (AUC = 0.931 for F ≥ 1, 0.863 for F ≥ 2, 0.855 for F ≥ 3, 0.960 for F = 4). Conclusion: The performance of SWV in diagnosing liver fibrosis is superior to that of serum markers. However, the combination of SWV, HA, and CIV does not increase the accuracy of diagnosing liver fibrosis and cirrhosis.

Excellent Strengthening of Low-Carbon Steel by Severe Free-End Torsion

Shijun Tan,Bo Song,Hongbing Chen,Xiaodong Tan,Risheng Qiu,Tingting Liu,Ning Guo,Shengfeng Guo 대한금속·재료학회 2023 METALS AND MATERIALS International Vol.29 No.8

In this work, the effects of free-end torsion on microstructure and tensile property of low-carbon steel were investigated indetail. Low-carbon steels exhibited exceptionally high yield strength through severe torsion deformation. Such high hardeningeffect was mainly attributed to the severe lattice distortion, high density of dislocations and the change in grain shape. Moreover, a gradient deformation structure can be introduced by torsion deformation. The gradient-structure can generate ahigh hetero-deformation induced strengthening, which can increase the strain hardening capacity and remain high plasticity/toughness. Therefore, with increasing torsion angle from 700 to 2800 deg., the uniform elongation and the peak strength werelargely enhanced. After twisting 2800 deg., yield strength and peak strength can achieve 524 MPa and 675 MPa, respectively,and good tensile elongations (εf = 9.6%, εu = 7.4%) are remained.