No Association Between the USP7 Gene Polymorphisms and Colorectal Cancer in the Chinese Han Population

Li, Xin,Wang, Yang,Li, Xing-Wang,Liu, Bao-Cheng,Zhao, Qing-Zhu,Li, Wei-Dong,Chen, Shi-Qing,Huang, Xiao-Ye,Yang, Feng-Ping,Wang, Quan,Wang, Jin-Fen,Xiao, Yan-Zeng,Xu, Yi-Feng,Feng, Guo-Yin,Peng, Zhi-Ha Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2012 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.13 No.5

Colorectal cancer (CRC), now the third most common cancer across the world, is known to aggregate in families. USP7 is a very important protein with an important role in regulating the p53 pathway, which is critical for genomic stability and tumor suppression. We here genotyped eight SNPs within the USP7 gene and conducted a case-control study in 312 CRC patients and 270 healthy subjects in the Chinese Han population. No significant associations were found for any single SNP and CRC risk. Our data eliminate USP7 as a potential candidate gene towards for CRC in the Han Chinese population.

Understanding transport simulations of heavy-ion collisions at100Aand400AMeV: Comparison of heavy-ion transport codes under controlled conditions

Xu, Jun,Chen, Lie-Wen,Tsang, ManYee Betty,Wolter, Hermann,Zhang, Ying-Xun,Aichelin, Joerg,Colonna, Maria,Cozma, Dan,Danielewicz, Pawel,Feng, Zhao-Qing,Le Fè,vre, Arnaud,Gaitanos, Theodoros,Hartn American Physical Society 2016 Physical Review C Vol.93 No.4

<P>Transport simulations are very valuable for extracting physics information from heavy-ion-collision experiments. With the emergence of many different transport codes in recent years, it becomes important to estimate their robustness in extracting physics information from experiments. We report on the results of a transport-code-comparison project. Eighteen commonly used transport codes were included in this comparison: nine Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck-type codes and nine quantum-molecular-dynamics-type codes. These codes have been asked to simulate Au + Au collisions using the same physics input for mean fields and for in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross sections, as well as the same impact parameter, the similar initialization setup, and other calculational parameters at 100 A and 400 A MeV incident energy. Among the codes we compare one-body observables such as rapidity and transverse flow distributions. We also monitor nonobservables such as the initialization of the internal states of colliding nuclei and their stability, the collision rates, and the Pauli blocking. We find that not completely identical initializations may have contributed partly to different evolutions. Different strategies to determine the collision probabilities and to enforce the Pauli blocking also produce considerably different results. There is a substantial spread in the predictions for the observables, which is much smaller at the higher incident energy. We quantify the uncertainties in the collective flow resulting from the simulation alone as about 30% at 100 A MeV and 13% at 400 A MeV, respectively. We propose further steps within the code comparison project to test the different aspects of transport simulations in a box calculation of infinite nuclear matter. This should, in particular, improve the robustness of transport model predictions at lower incident energies, where abundant amounts of data are available.</P>

Influence of Preparation Conditions on the Formation of Copper (II) Architectures with Pyrazine-2,3,5-tricarboxylic Acid

Feng-Qin Wang,Shu Lin,Ming-Lin Guo,Jun-Jian Xu,Xiao-Qing Wang,Yong-Nan Zhao 대한화학회 2011 Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society Vol.32 No.7

Three new metal-organic copper(II) complexes, [Cu(H_2PZTC)_2]_n·2nH_2O (1), [Cu(HPZTC)·2H_2O]_n·2nH_2O (2),and Cu_2[(PZHD)(OH)(H_2O)_2]_n (3) (H_3PZTC = pyrazine-2,3,5-tricarboxylic acid, PZHD^3− = 2-hydroxypyrazine-3,5-dicarboxylate), have been synthesized from Cu(II)/H3PZTC system under different synthetic conditions, and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, elemental analysis, IR spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. In complexes 1 and 2, H_3PZTC ligands loose one and two protons, which were transformed into H_2PZTC− anion and HPZTC^2− dianion under different preparation condition, respectively. Furthermore, two ligands coordinate with Cu(II) cations in different modes, leading to the formation of the different chain structures. In complex 3, H_3PZTC ligand was converted into a new ligand-PZHD by in situ decarboxylation and hydroxylation under a higher pH value than that for complexes 1 and 2. PZHD ligands link the Cu(II) cations to form a 2D layer structure. These results demonstrate that the preparation conditions,including pH value and reaction temperature etc, play an important role in the construction of complexes based on H_3PZTC ligand.

Identification of mountain-cultivated ginseng and cultivated ginseng using UPLC/oa-TOF MSE with a multivariate statistical sample-profiling strategy

Xu, Xin-fang,Cheng, Xian-long,Lin, Qing-hua,Li, Sha-sha,Jia, Zhe,Han, Ting,Lin, Rui-chao,Wang, Dan,Wei, Feng,Li, Xiang-ri The Korean Society of Ginseng 2016 Journal of Ginseng Research Vol.40 No.4

Background: Mountain-cultivated ginseng (MCG) and cultivated ginseng (CG) both belong to Panax ginseng and have similar ingredients. However, their pharmacological activities are different due to their significantly different growth environments. Methods: An ultra-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS)-based approach was developed to distinguish MCG and CG. Multivariate statistical methods, such as principal component analysis and supervised orthogonal partial-least-squares discrimination analysis were used to select the influential components. Results: Under optimized UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS conditions, 40 ginsenosides in both MCG and CG were unambiguously identified and tentatively assigned. The results showed that the characteristic components of CG and MCG included ginsenoside Ra3/isomer, gypenoside XVII, quinquenoside R1, ginsenoside Ra7, notoginsenoside Fe, ginsenoside Ra2, ginsenoside Rs6/Rs7, malonyl ginsenoside Rc, malonyl ginsenoside Rb1, malonyl ginsenoside Rb2, palmitoleic acid, and ethyl linoleate. The malony ginsenosides are abundant in CG, but higher levels of the minor ginsenosides were detected in MCG. Conclusion: This is the first time that the differences between CG and MCG have been observed systematically at the chemical level. Our results suggested that using the identified characteristic components as chemical markers to identify different ginseng products is effective and viable.

Targeting EGFL7 Expression through RNA Interference Suppresses Renal Cell Carcinoma Growth by Inhibiting Angiogenesis

Xu, Han-Feng,Chen, Lei,Liu, Xian-Dong,Zhan, Yun-Hong,Zhang, Hui-Hui,Li, Qing,Wu, Bin Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.7

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most lethal of all urological cancers and tumor angiogenesis is closely related with its growth, invasion, and metastasis. Recent studies have suggested that epidermal growth factor-like domain multiple 7 (EGFL7) is overexpressed by many tumors, such as colorectal cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma; it is also correlated with progression, metastasis, and a poor prognosis. However, the role of EGFL7 in RCC is not clear. In this study, we examined how EGFL7 contributes to the growth of RCC using a co-culture system in vitro and a xenograft model in vivo. Downregulated EGFL7 expression in RCC cells affected the migration and tubule formation of HMEC-1 cells, but not their growth and apoptosis in vitro. The level of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) phosphorylation in HMEC-1 cells decreased significantly when co-cultured with 786-0/iEGFL7 cells compared with 786-0 cells. After adding rhEGFL7, the level of FAK phosphorylation in HMEC-1 cells was significantly elevated compared with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) control. However, FAK phosphorylation was abrogated by EGFR inhibition. The average size of RCC local tumors in the 786-0/iEGFL7 group was noticeably smaller than those in the 786-0 cell group and their vascular density was also significantly decreased. These data suggest that EGFL7 has an important function in the growth of RCC by facilitating angiogenesis.

Petrology and geochemistry of Upper Jurassic Weimei Formation sandstones in southern Tibet: implications for provenance and tectonic setting

Kunzhi Xu,Feng Ding,Qing Li,Xiangang Xie,Lei Yang,Ying Li,Binbin Dong 한국지질과학협의회 2019 Geosciences Journal Vol.23 No.5

Located within the centre of the Tethys Himalayas, the Weimei Formation of the Rongbu area in southern Tibet is a littoral-neritic sedimentary association composed of clastic rocks and a few shales. Petrologic characteristics and detrital component statistics indicate that sandstone types include lithic quartz sandstones, with the average content of quartz, feldspar and debris being 77%, 9% and 14%, respectively. The provenance of the Weimei Formation is a recycled orogeny, and the aforementioned sandstones generally have high SiO2 levels, low CaO, K2O and Na2O levels and wide ranges of CIA and CIW values. The primitive mantle-normalised trace element spider diagrams showed unstable content of some elements and losses of Ba, P, Sr, K, Ti and other elements in partial samples. Chondrite-normalised rare-earth element (REE) patterns indicate that the sandstones are characterised by an enrichment of LREE, significant fractionation of LREE and HREE and negative Eu anomalies. Further, ratios of Sm/Nd and Cr/Zr and discriminant diagrams (i.e., La/Yb versus ΣREE, ΣREE versus SiO2/Al2O3, La/Th versus Hf and function discrimination diagrams) reveal that sandstones from the Weimei Formation were derived from ancient quartzose sedimentary rocks and volcanic rocks of continental island arc. Many important parameters (i.e., La, Ce, Pb, Th, Hf, Zr, ΣREE, La/Yb, (La/Yb)N, ΣLREE/ΣHREE, Eu/Eu*, Rb/Sr and Zr/Hf) of samples and tectonic setting discriminant diagrams (i.e., Th versus Co versus Zr/10, La versus Th versus Sc, La versus Th and function discriminant diagrams) indicate that the tectonic setting of the Weimei Formation sandstones from the Tethys Himalayas has both characteristics of a passive margin and continental island arc. By comparing the detrital zircon U-Pb ages and Hf isotopic characteristics of the Weimei Formation with the strata whose provenances have been identified and analysing the weathering, petrography and geochemistry characteristics of Weimei Formation sandstones and the paleogeography conditions of the northern margin of the India craton within the Late Jurassic epoch, we inferred that Weimei Formation sandstones were mainly sourced from the Precambrian metamorphic rocks of the India craton, simultaneously, the sandstones also received minor sedimentary materials from earlier Tethys Himalaya strata whose provenances contained volcanic rocks of the nearby Gangdese volcanic belt. After experiencing weak to moderate weathering, denudation and long-distance transport, the sedimentary materials eventually migrated to the shelf and the top of the continental slope on the northern margin of the Indian continent, where the materials later participated in diagenesis.

Multiple damage detection of maglev rail joints using time-frequency spectrogram and convolutional neural network

Yi-Qing Ni,Su-Mei Wang,Gao-Feng Jiang,Yang Lu,Guobin Lin,Hong-Liang Pan,Junqi Xu,Shuo Hao 국제구조공학회 2022 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.29 No.4

Maglev rail joints are vital components serving as connections between the adjacent F-type rail sections in maglev guideway. Damage to maglev rail joints such as bolt looseness may result in rough suspension gap fluctuation, failure of suspension control, and even sudden clash between the electromagnets and F-type rail. The condition monitoring of maglev rail joints is therefore highly desirable to maintain safe operation of maglev. In this connection, an online damage detection approach based on three-dimensional (3D) convolutional neural network (CNN) and time-frequency characterization is developed for simultaneous detection of multiple damage of maglev rail joints in this paper. The training and testing data used for condition evaluation of maglev rail joints consist of two months of acceleration recordings, which were acquired in-situ from different rail joints by an integrated online monitoring system during a maglev train running on a test line. Short-time Fourier transform (STFT) method is applied to transform the raw monitoring data into time-frequency spectrograms (TFS). Three CNN architectures, i.e., small-sized CNN (S-CNN), middle-sized CNN (M-CNN), and large-sized CNN (L-CNN), are configured for trial calculation and the M-CNN model with excellent prediction accuracy and high computational efficiency is finally optioned for multiple damage detection of maglev rail joints. Results show that the rail joints in three different conditions (bolt-loosenesscaused rail step, misalignment-caused lateral dislocation, and normal condition) are successfully identified by the proposed approach, even when using data collected from rail joints from which no data were used in the CNN training. The capability of the proposed method is further examined by using the data collected after the loosed bolts have been replaced. In addition, by comparison with the results of CNN using frequency spectrum and traditional neural network using TFS, the proposed TFSCNN framework is proven more accurate and robust for multiple damage detection of maglev rail joints.

Characteristics of wind loading on internal surface and its effect on wind-induced responses of a super-large natural-draught cooling tower

Yun-feng Zou,Zheng-yi Fu,Xu-hui He,Hai-quan Jing,Ling-yao Li,Hua-wei Niu,Zheng-qing Chen 한국풍공학회 2019 Wind and Structures, An International Journal (WAS Vol.29 No.4

Wind loading is one of important loadings that should be considered in the design of large hyperbolic natural-draught cooling towers. Both external and internal surfaces of cooling tower are under the action of wind loading for cooling circulating water. In the previous studies, the wind loads on the external surface attracted concernedly attention, while the study on the internal surface was relatively ware. In the present study, the wind pressure on the internal surface of a 220 m high cooling tower is measured through wind tunnel testing, and the effect of ventilation rate of the packing layer on internal pressure is a major concern. The characteristics of internal wind pressure distribution and its effect on wind-induced responses calculated by finite element method are investigated. The results indicate that the wind loading on internal surface of the cooling tower behaves remarkable three-dimensional effect, and the pressure coefficient varies along both of height and circumferential directions. The non-uniformity is particularly strong during the construction stage. Analysis results of the effect of internal pressure on wind-induced responses show that the size and distribution characteristics of internal pressure will have some influence on wind-induced response, however, the outer pressure plays a dominant role in the wind-induced response of cooling tower, and the contribution of internal pressure to the response is small.

H∞ Filtering Problem of Singular Systems with Uncertainties in the Difference Matrix

Tianbo Xu,Qing-Ling Zhang,Feng Zhao 제어·로봇·시스템학회 2018 International Journal of Control, Automation, and Vol.16 No.3

This study considers H∞ filtering problems for continuous-time singular systems with norm-boundeduncertainties in the difference matrix. Under the condition that the difference matrix is rank-variant for all admissibleuncertainties, the robustness analysis problem under consideration falls into two cases: right-singular case andleft-singular case. By using a state augmentation technique, Based on two cases, H∞ filtering problem is considered,and a new H∞ filter design result is summarized in this paper. Finally, illustrative examples show that the proposedconditions are effective for the singular systems with norm-bounded uncertainties in the difference matrix.

Transcription changes of a putative trehalose-6-phosphate synthase gene in response to hormone stimulation in Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say)

Ji-Feng Shi,Qing-Yu Xu,Wen-Chao Guo,Guo-Qing Li 한국응용곤충학회 2016 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.19 No.3

Trehalosemetabolism is critical for production of ATP, provision of carbon source, and facilitation of carbohydrate absorption. Trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (TPS) is a rate-limiting enzyme in trehalose biosynthesis. In the present paper, a TPS gene (LdTPS)was cloned inLeptinotarsa decemlineata. At young larval instars, the expression levels of LdTPS were high just before and right after ecdysis, and were low at the mid instar stages. In the fourthinstar larvae, two peaks occurred at 24 h after ecdysis and at the wandering stage. In vitro midgut culture and an in vivo bioassay revealed that 20E stimulated LdTPS transcription. Conversely, a reduction of 20E by RNA interference (RNAi) of a prothoracicotropic hormone receptor gene LdTorso and an ecdysteroidogenesis gene LdSHD repressed LdTPS expression. Moreover, disruption of 20E signaling by knockdown of LdEcR, LdE75 and LdFTZ-F1 reduced LdTPS transcript levels. Similarly, in vitro culture and an in vivo bioassay showed that exogenous JH or JH analog methoprene and pyriproxyfen activated LdTPS expression. An increase in endogenous JH by RNAi of an allatostatin gene LdAS-C enhanced the transcription. In contrast, a decrease in JH by silencing of a JH biosynthesis gene LdJHAMT downregulated LdTPS expression. Moreover, knockdown of LdILP2 repressed LdTPS transcription. Therefore, LdTPS transcription is tuned by 20E, JH and ILP signaling pathways in L. decemlineata.