SKA3 Up-regulation Promotes Lung Adenocarcinoma Growth and is a Predictor of Poor Prognosis.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this research is to investigate the expression and function of SKA3 in lung adenocarcinoma. METHODS: The mRNA expression level of SKA3 in lung adenocarcinoma and its association with clinic-pathological factors were analyzed using data obtained from the TCGA database. Small interfering RNA (siRNA) for SKA3 (si-SKA3) was used to down-regulate SKA3 in A549 cells. pcDNA3.1- SKA3 was used to overexpress SKA3 in A549 cells. The proliferation ability of A549 cells was determined via MTT assay and colony formation assay. A wound healing assay was performed to examine the migration ability of A549 cells. The protein expression of p-MEK, MEK, p-ERK and ERK were determined by western blot. RESULTS: We found that SKA3 is up-regulated in lung adenocarcinoma compared to the normal lung tissues. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that high SKA3 expression is markedly associated with poor prognosis in lung adenocarcinoma patients. SKA3 expression is significantly correlated with age, gender, pathologic-stage, pathologic-N and pathologic-M. Moreover, depleting SKA3 obviously inhibited A549 cell proliferation and migration in vitro, while overexpression of SKA3 notably increased A549 cell proliferation and migration. Western blot analysis showed that the protein expression ratio of p-MEK/MEK and p-ERK/ERK decreased noticeably after depleting SKA3. CONCLUSION: SKA3 expression was enhanced and associated with poor prognosis in lung adenocarcinoma patients, and it might play a facilitating role in cell growth and motility by regulating the MAPK signaling pathway.

[Structural and optical characterization of ZnO thin films grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy].

High-quality ZnO thin films were grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (P-MBE) on Al2 O3 (0001) substrate with a low temperature ZnO buffer layer. Structural and optical characterization were studied for ZnO thin films. Only a peak at (0002) were observed in the X-ray reflectivity (XRD) spectra with the full-width at half maximum (FWHM) value 0.18 degrees, and two peaks 1LO (579 cm(-1)) and 2LO (1 152 cm(-1)) were detected in the resonance Raman scattering spectra at room temperature. These results indicated that ZnO thin films had single orientation of c axis and high-quality of crystal wurtzite structure. The absorption of free-exciton and exciton-LO phonon appeared in the absorption spectra, which confirmed that the exciton state in the ZnO thin films were stable even at room temperature. And the energy spacing between these two peaks is 71.2 meV, corresponds to the longitudinal optical phonon energy of 71 meV of ZnO. Besides, from the photoluminescence spectra, no defect-related deep emission were observed, but just a remarkable free-exciton emission located at 376nm were obtained at room temperature, it proved that the ZnO thin films had high-quality but low density of defect.

Design of label-free, homogeneous biosensing platform based on plasmonic coupling and surface-enhanced Raman scattering using unmodified gold nanoparticles.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has emerged as a promising spectroscopic technique for biosensing. However, to design a SERS-based biosensor, almost all currently used methods involve the time-consuming and complicated modification of the metallic nanoparticles with the Raman active dye and biorecognition element, which restricts their widespread applications. Herein, we report a label-free, homogeneous and easy-to-operate biosensing platform for the rapid, simple and sensitive SERS detection by using the unmodified gold nanoparticles (Au NPs). This strategy utilizes the difference in adsorption property of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) and double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) on citrate-coated Au NPs. In the presence of dsDNA, the aggregation of Au NPs takes place after adding salt solution because the dsDNA cannot adsorb on the Au NPs to protect them from salt-induced aggregation. Such aggregation gives rise to the plasmonic coupling of adjacent metallic NPs and turns on the enhancement of the Raman scattering, displaying a strong SERS signal. In contrast, the ssDNA can adsorb on the Au NPs surface through strong electrostatic attraction and protect them from salt-induced aggregation, showing a weak SERS signal. This approach is not only straightforward and simple in design but also rapid and convenient in operation. The feasibility and universality of the design have been demonstrated successfully by the detection of DNA and Hg(2+), and the assay possesses the superior signal-to-background ratio as high as ∼30 and excellent selectivity. The method can be extended to detect various analytes, such as other metal ions, proteins and small molecules by using the oligonucleotides that can selectively bind the analytes.

[Development of a presenteeism questionnaire for skilled workers at high-technology enterprises].

OBJECTIVE: To develop a presenteeism questionnaire for Chinese high-technology skilled workers. METHODS: Methods being used would include literature review, face-to-face in depth interview, experts' consultation in developing the questionnaire. RESULTS: The presenteeism questionnaire includes two sections;one on employee's general health condition and the second one is a survey on the influences of employees'health conditions on their productivity. The first section includes 55 terms and 8 dimensionalities as below: Ache, Symptoms, Sleeping problem, Attention, Bad emotion, Pressure, Fatigue, Social adapting. These dimensionalities Cronbach's alpha are 0.79, 0.83, 0.75, 0.69, 0.83, 0.86, 0.80, 0.88 respectively and their half Spearman-Browns are 0.78, 0.75, 0.61, 0.62, 0.82, 0.81, 0.77, 0.88, respectively. Goodness of fit test model indices are as below: chi(2)/df -3.68, normed fit index 0.95, non-normed fit index 0.96, compatative fit index 0.96, standardized root mean residual 0.05, root mean square error of approximation 0.05. The relate-coefficient with SF-36 is 0.55. 42.77% of employees having received the survey, claim that their health problem do not influence their productivity, and 55.72% of them claiming that their productivity are reduced to 50%-90% because of their health problems while another 1.51% of them claim that their productivity reduced more than 50%. 84.5% of the interviewees claim that they have never been absent at work because of health problems, and 15.3% of them claim that their total hours of absence are between 0 and 100. Only 0.2% of the workers claim that the total hours of absence are more than 100. CONCLUSION: The developed presenteeism shows good reliability and higher validity, so can be used to measure the presenteeism of skilled workers working at high-technology enterprises.