The Relationship Between Psychological Conditions and Gastrointestinal Symptoms of Medical Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objective: This study aims to explore the nexus between students' psychological well-being and the manifestation of gastrointestinal symptoms (GISs) amid the health lockdown enforced in Xi'an, focusing on the student populace of Xi'an Medical College and Shaanxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Materials and methods: A survey encompassing psychological parameters and GISs was administered to a randomized cohort of 1327 college students drawn from Xi'an Medical College and Shaanxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The survey instrument was developed utilizing the Questionnaire Star platform. Subsequent to data collection, analysis was performed using GraphPad Prism 9 and SPSS 22.0. Results: Comparative analysis revealed statistically significant disparities (P < 0.05) in various GISs between the periods during and preceding the health lockdown, encompassing symptoms such as nausea/vomiting, acid reflux, postprandial fullness/early satiety, anorexia, decreased appetite, bloating, abdominal discomfort, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and constipation. Notably, the mean score for Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7) was 3.31±3.92, indicating mild anxiety, while the mean score for Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2) was 1.15±1.28, suggesting mild depression. Detailed evaluation of anxiety revealed prevalence rates of 34% among respondents, with 34.2% of these individuals reporting concurrent GISs, while among those evaluated for depression (38.8% of the sample), 44.2% reported concurrent GISs. Furthermore, multiple linear regression analysis unveiled a negative correlation between GISs during the health lockdown and lifestyle scores, while positive correlations were observed with GISs preceding the lockdown, anxiety, and depression. The formulated multiple linear regression equation for GISs during the health lockdown is delineated as follows: 14.693-0.342 life style + 0.725GISs before health lockdown + 0.218anxiety + 0.564 depression. Conclusion: This investigation underscores the substantial impact of anxiety and depression on the student body, accentuating their role in precipitating GISs during health lockdown situations. The psychological well-being of medical students during exigent circumstances such as natural disasters warrants heightened attention, necessitating proactive measures aimed at emotional regulation to mitigate the onset of GISs.

Oral Administration of Platinum Nanoparticles with SOD/CAT Cascade Catalytic Activity to Alleviate Ulcerative Colitis.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a refractory chronic inflammatory disease involving the colon and rectum, falling under the category of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in local tissues has been identified as a crucial contributor to the escalation of inflammatory responses. Therefore, eliminating ROS in the inflamed colon is a promising approach to treating UC. Nanomaterials with intrinsic enzyme-like activities (nanozymes) have shown significant therapeutic potential in UC. In this study, we found that platinum nanoparticles (Pt NPs) exhibited remarkable superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) cascade catalytic activities, as well as effective hydroxyl radical (•OH) scavenging ability. The in vitro experiments showed that Pt NPs could eliminate excessive ROS to protect cells against oxidative stress. In the colitis model, oral administration of Pt NPs (loaded in chitosan/alginate hydrogel) could significantly alleviate UC, including reducing the colon length, the damaged epithelium, and the infiltration of inflammatory cells. Without appreciable systemic toxicity, Pt NPs represent a novel therapeutic approach to UC and are expected to achieve long-term inflammatory remission.

A Study on the Role of Intelligent Medical Simulation Systems in Teaching First Aid Competence in Anesthesiology.

Anesthesiology is a subject with strong practicality and application. Undergraduate anesthesiology teaching needs to strike a balance between theoretical knowledge, clinical skill training, and clinical thinking development. Clinical probation and practice are an important part of undergraduate anesthesia teaching. Traditional clinical teaching uses real patients for demonstration and training, but as patients become more self-protective and less cooperative, there are not enough patients for clinical skill training. Simulation is to teach medical scenes in real life under the control of standardized technical guidelines and parameters. Since then, with the rapid development of computer technology, simulation technology and simulation teaching have been greatly developed and are more and more used in clinical teaching, skill evaluation, and scientific research. This study explores the effective methods of clinical teaching in anesthesiology by comparing the effectiveness of traditional teaching methods and simulation teaching methods in undergraduate clinical teaching. It is difficult to combine theory and practice in first aid, which does not allow them to directly receive and deal with emergency medical treatment and resuscitation. In China's current medical environment and patients' high demand for medical services, it is imperative to vigorously carry out simulated medical education. In the eastern part of Inner Mongolia, according to the advantages of teaching hospitals, our hospital took the lead in carrying out the simulation education project, which is still in the exploratory stage and not systematic enough. This study will help us to better carry out simulation teaching and improve the clinical skills of medical students in the future. Methods. The student group and class took the advanced simulator training as the experimental group, applied the advanced integrated simulator and other systems of the Norwegian company, referred to the international guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and cardiovascular first aid in 2005, and practiced in the emergency department during the clinical internship and "emergency clinical simulation training" course. The course includes basic life support, advanced life support, and comprehensive training of CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and endotracheal intubation. Results. The passing rate of simulated first aid practice was 94.4%; 100% of the students think it is necessary to set up the course, 91% of the students think it is practical, 91% of the students think the course content is reasonable and perfect, and 77%-100% of the students think the course has improved their first aid operation ability, comprehensive application of knowledge, and clinical thinking ability. Conclusion. Carrying out the course of "clinical simulated first aid training" through the advanced simulator system can effectively improve the interns' clinical first aid operation ability, teamwork ability, and self-confidence, improve the students' clinical thinking and judgment ability, and improve the service level to patients.

Roles of VE-Cadherin in Hypoxia Induced Injury of Pulmonary Microvascular Endothelial Barrier.

BACKGROUND: Hypoxia induced injury of pulmonary microvascular endothelial barrier is closely related to the pathogenesis of acute lung injury after lung transplantation. VE-cadherin is an important structural molecule for pulmonary microvascular endothelial barrier. In this study, we aim to investigate the roles of VE-cadherin in hypoxia induced injury of pulmonary microvascular endothelial barrier. METHODS: Rat model of hypoxia and cultured pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (PMVECs) were utilized. Determination of PMVECs apoptosis, skeleton combination was conducted to verify the effects of hypoxia on injury of pulmonary microvascular endothelial barrier. In addition, VE-cadherin expression was modulated by administration of siRNA in order to investigate the roles of VE-cadherin in hypoxia induced PMVECs apoptosis and skeleton recombination. RESULTS: Our data indicated that expression of VE-cadherin was down-regulated in hypoxia-exposed PMVECs. Whereas, in the cells treated using siRNA, down-regulation of VE-cadherin did not trigger PMVECs apoptosis, but it increased the sensitivity of PMVECs to the hypoxia induced apoptosis. In cases of hypoxia, the expression of VE-cadherin was significantly down-regulated, together with endothelial skeleton recombination and increase of permeability, which then triggered endothelial barrier dysfunction. CONCLUSIONS: These data verify that VE-cadherin expression played an important role in hypoxia induced PMVECs apoptosis and cellular skeletal recombination.

Application of Propofol in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Anesthesia Based on Smart Medical Blockchain Technology.

The rapid development of intelligent computer technology has promoted the improvement of people's living standards and the application of the entire intelligent system. In modern medicine, doctors use their accumulated experience and medical knowledge to diagnose diseases and draw conclusions. In order to effectively inherit the diagnosis experience accumulated by doctors, R&D personnel put forward the idea of using artificial intelligence technology to develop an intelligent auxiliary medical diagnosis system. Aiming at the abovementioned machine-learning problems in the medical field, this article mainly introduces the application research of propofol in oral and maxillofacial surgery anesthesia based on smart medical blockchain technology. This paper proposes a research method based on smart medical blockchain technology to assist propofol in oral and maxillofacial surgery anesthesia, including support vector machine data classification algorithm, decision tree data classification algorithm, and machine-learning-based LSTM neural network. Research experiments on the application of intelligent medical aid propofol in oral and maxillofacial surgery anesthesia are conducted. The experimental results in this paper show that the response time of the general business logic interface of the application system of propofol in oral and maxillofacial surgery anesthesia based on smart medical blockchain technology is about 41 milliseconds, which can better help doctors in anesthesia and related treatments.

Diabetes Risk Data Mining Method Based on Electronic Medical Record Analysis.

In today's society, the development of information technology is very rapid, and the transmission and sharing of information has become a development trend. The results of data analysis and research are gradually applied to various fields of social development, structured analysis, and research. Data mining of electronic medical records in the medical field is gradually valued by researchers and has become a major work in the medical field. In the course of clinical treatment, electronic medical records are edited, including all personal health and treatment information. This paper mainly introduces the research of diabetes risk data mining method based on electronic medical record analysis and intends to provide some ideas and directions for the research of diabetes risk data mining method. This paper proposes a research strategy of diabetes risk data mining method based on electronic medical record analysis, including data mining and classification rule mining based on electronic medical record analysis, which are used in the research experiment of diabetes risk data mining method based on electronic medical record analysis. The experimental results in this paper show that the average prediction accuracy of the decision tree is 91.21%, and the results of the training set and the test set are similar, indicating that there is no overfitting of the training set.

Comparative Anesthesia Effect of Brachial Plexus Block Based on Smart Electronic Medical Ultrasound-Guided Positioning and Traditional Anatomical Positioning.

With the intensification of population aging, the improvement of visualization technology, and the concept of accelerated rehabilitation surgery, the anesthesia method of upper extremity surgery is gradually changing. However, these methods are often caused by anatomical variations and often have low block success rates and patient satisfaction. The neuroanatomical position should be accurately located so that the puncture needle is right next to the nerve bundle or in the nerve sheath. This is very important for implementing accurate brachial plexus anesthesia. This article uses ultrasound-guided positioning technology and traditional anatomical positioning technology for brachial plexus block treatment, aiming to explore the anesthesia effect of brachial plexus block with different techniques. This article selects 120 patients undergoing brachial plexus block surgery for forearm or hand surgery and divides these 120 patients into 6 groups with 20 people in each group. The first 3 groups were treated with brachial plexus block using ultrasound-guided positioning technology. The latter 3 groups were treated with brachial plexus block using traditional anatomical positioning technology. Experiments proved that during anesthesia, compared with the ultrasound group, the heart rate of the traditional anatomy group was significantly decreased (P < 0.05), and the average arterial pressure of the six groups of patients at each time point had no statistical difference (P > 0.05). This shows that whether it is ultrasound-guided positioning technology or traditional anatomical positioning technology, it has no effect on the average arterial pressure of the patient at each time point. In addition to intuitive and accurate viewing of needle and nerve contact, ultrasound real-time guidance allows intuitive viewing of anesthesia. This is a special advantage of nerve block under ultrasound guidance.

Treatment Effect of Type 2 Diabetes Patients in Outpatient Department Based on Blockchain Electronic Mobile Medical App.

As the pace of people's lives accelerates, there are more and more diabetic patients. This research mainly explores the treatment effect of type 2 diabetic patients based on blockchain electronic mobile medical app. Considering that it is more realistic to adopt an off-chain storage solution, the blockchain-based medical data sharing platform in this study adopts an off-chain storage solution. Only key information is stored in the blockchain network, and all medical data will be in the cloud space. For storage, cloud storage uses Aliyun's OSS storage service, which can be expanded infinitely. The cloud operation module is responsible for all operations that interact with cloud storage. The chain code can call the cloud operation module to upload the user's encrypted medical data and user ID to Alibaba Cloud's OSS. The chain code will return the storage address of the medical data and the authorized access address is sent to the blockchain network for consensus on the chain. The message processing module provides information processing functions such as chat information processing, APP use reminders, and health tips. The indicator recording module includes indicator recording functions including 6 indicators of blood sugar, medication, diet, weight, exercise, and sleep. The main function of the indicator analysis module is to display the curve trends of the 6 indicators recorded by the patient in three days, one week, and one month. Comparing the change range of the mean value of glycosylated hemoglobin at the beginning and end of the two groups of patients, it can be found that the change range of glycosylated hemoglobin in the intervention group is -6.04%, while the change range of the control group is only -3.26%. The impact of the mobile medical app designed in this study will indeed be reflected in the patient's blood sugar control and help patients to better control blood sugar.

Prediction Method of Gestational Diabetes Based on Electronic Medical Record Data.

At present, the secondary application of electronic medical records is focused on auxiliary medical diagnosis to improve the accuracy of clinical diagnosis. The main research in this article is the prediction method of gestational diabetes based on electronic medical record data. In the original data, the ID number of the medical examiner did not match the medical examination record. In order to ensure the accuracy of the data, this part of the record was removed. First, the preparation stage before building the model is to determine the baseline accuracy of the original data, test the effectiveness of the machine learning algorithm, and then balance the target data set to solve the bias caused by the imbalance between data classes and the illusion of excessive model prediction results. Then, the disease prediction model is constructed by dividing the data set, selecting parameters and algorithms, and visualizing the model. Finally, the effect of predictive model construction is comprehensively judged based on multiple evaluation indicators and control experimental models. In this paper, the RF model can be used to rank the importance of the feature importance of the output feature on the importance of the classification result of the input feature. In order to test the accuracy of regression prediction, the experiment uses absolute mean error and root mean square error to evaluate the accuracy of fasting blood glucose prediction. A logistic regression model is constructed through the training set, and the test set data are brought into the prediction model for prediction. Experimental data show that when the features filtered by WBFS are used, the accuracy, F1 value, and AUC value of logistic regression are 0.809, 0.881, and 0.825, respectively, which is an increase of about 12% compared with when the feature is not used. The results show that the electronic medical record data drive can effectively improve the accuracy of predicting gestational diabetes.

BRD8, which is negatively regulated by miR-876-3p, promotes the proliferation and apoptosis resistance of hepatocellular carcinoma cells via KAT5.

Bromodomain-containing 8 (BRD8), which belongs to the histone acetyl transferase (HAT) complex, functions as a driver in colorectal cancer. However, the role of BRD8 and its related regulatory mechanisms in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain unexplored. In this study, we found that the level of BRD8 mRNA in HCC was prominently higher than that in nontumor tissues. Furthermore, immunohistochemistry analysis indicated that BRD8 protein expression was upregulated in HCC compared to noncancerous tissues. The positive expression of BRD8 was closely associated with HBV infection, a tumor size ≥5 cm and an advanced TNM stage. Moreover, HCC patients with an elevated expression of BRD8 had an obvious poorer survival rate. Functionally, BRD8 knockdown markedly reduced the proliferation of Hep3B and Huh7 cells. Depletion of BRD8 obviously induced the apoptosis of HCC cells. Conversely, BRD8 overexpression promoted the proliferation and apoptosis resistance of Huh7 cells. Lysine acetyltransferase 5 (KAT5) expression was significantly upregulated in HCC tissues. In addition, BRD8 knockdown obviously reduced the level of KAT5 protein and the mRNA expression of KAT5-induced genes in both Hep3B and Huh7 cells. KAT5 knockdown showed similar effects as BRD8 silencing on HCC cell proliferation and apoptosis. The expression of miR-876-3p was downregulated and inversely correlated with the BRD8 mRNA level in HCC tissues. The expression of BRD8 protein in HCC cells was reduced by the overexpression of miR-876-3p and enhanced by the knockdown of miR-876-3p. A luciferase reporter assay demonstrated that BRD8 was a direct target of miR-876-3p. Notably, in HCC cells, the ectopic expression of miR-876-3p inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis. In conclusion, BRD8, which was negatively regulated by miR-876-3p, facilitated proliferation and inhibited apoptosis in HCC cells by modulating KAT5.

Manipulation of autophagy: a novelly potential therapeutic strategy for retinal neovascularization.

BACKGROUND: The relationship between the role of VEGF and autophagy in the process of retinal angiogenesis is still unclear. In this study, we explored this issue by using the mouse retinal vascular endothelial cell (RVEC) as a model. METHODS: RVECs were divided into the following groups: control, hypoxia (H), 3-methyladenine (3-MA) + H, VEGF + H, 3-MA + VEGF+H, anti-VEGF antibody + H, 3-MA+ anti-VEGF antibody + H. We then examined activation of autophagy by detecting formation of autophagosomes with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and by counting the number of green fluorescent protein-positive (GFP+) puncta in RVECs. The turnover of microtubule associated protein 1 light chain 3 B (LC3B) and VEGF were examined by western blot. Cell migratory capacity was measured with wound healing assay and transwell assay. The capillary formation assay was performed to investigate the angiogenic capacity. RESULTS: Hypoxia led to an increased number of autophagosome and of the GFP+ puncta, an increased ratio of LC3B-II/I and enhanced migratory and capillary-formation capacities of RVECs. Pre-treatment with 3-MA attenuated activation of autophagy and abrogated the enhanced cell migration and capillary formation under hypoxia. Exposure to VEGF significantly increased migratory and capillary formation capacities of RVECs under hypoxia and 3-MA decreased VEGF-induced angiogenesis without its expression. Formation of autophagosome, the number of GFP+ puncta of RVECs and expression of LC3B-II/I were both elevated in cells treated with anti-VEGF antibody and these effects were partially inhibited by 3-MA pretreatment. CONCLUSION: Our present data may identify autophagic response as a novel target for enhancing the therapeutic efficacy of angiogenesis inhibitors.

microRNA­196b promotes cell migration and invasion by targeting FOXP2 in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Accumulating evidence indicates that microRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in tumorigenesis and metastasis. Recent research has shown that miR­196b is implicated in metastasis by regulating the migration and invasion of cancer cells. However, the clinical significance of miR­196b and its role as well as the underlying mechanisms in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain largely unknown. Here, we detected miR­196b expression in HCC and matched non-tumor tissues with qRT­PCR. We found that miR­196b displayed higher expression in HCC patient tissues and cells. Clinical analysis revealed that high miR­196 expression was correlated with venous infiltration, advanced TNM stage and poor prognosis. Functionally, we demonstrated that miR­196b promoted the migration and invasion of HCC cells in vitro. Moreover, miR­196b knockdown restrained pulmonary metastasis in vivo. Mechanistically, we confirmed that miR­196b could directly bind to 3'UTR of forkhead box P2 (FOXP2) mRNA and repress its expression. miR­196b and FOXP2 showed a negative correlation in HCC tissues. More importantly, upregulation of FOXP2 antagonized miR­196b­mediated migration and invasion in Hep3B cells. Furthermore, FOXP2 knockdown partially reversed the anti­metastatic function of the miR­196b inhibitor on HCCLM3 cells. Taken together, we demonstrated that miR­196b may function as a prognostic biomarker and suppressed FOXP2 expression, subsequently leading to the metastasis of HCC. Our findings highlight a novel mechanism of miR­196b in the progression of HCC and identify miR­196b/FOXP2 axis as a promising target for HCC.

Immature colon carcinoma transcript-1 promotes cell growth of hepatocellular carcinoma via facilitating cell cycle progression and apoptosis resistance.

Immature colon carcinoma transcript-1 (ICT1) is a newly identified oncogene, which regulates proliferation, cell cycle progression and apoptosis of cancer cells. However, the clinical significance, biological function and underlying mechanisms of ICT1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain poorly known. In the present study, we showed that the expression of ICT1 in HCC tissues were notably overexpressed compared to corresponding non-tumor tissues. Accordingly, the relative levels of ICT1 were upregulated in HCC cell lines compared with LO2 cells. The positive expression of ICT1 was correlated with large tumor size and advanced TNM tumor stage. Kaplan-Meier plots indicated that ICT1-positive expression in HCC patients showed a prominent shorter survival. In addition, ICT1 knockdown inhibited proliferation and cell cycle progression, and induced apoptosis in HepG2 cells. While, ICT1 overexpression showed opposite effects on these cellular processes of Hep3B cells. In vivo experiments demonstrated that ICT1 deficiency reduced the growth of subcutaneous HCC in nude mice. Notably, ICT1 knockdown reduced the levels of CDK1, cyclin B1 and Bcl-2 and increased the expression of Bax in HepG2 cells. ICT1 overexpression resulted in upregulation of CDK1, cyclin B1 and Bcl-2, and downregulation of Bax in Hep3B cells. Furthermore, microRNA-134 (miR-134) was recognized as a direct upstream regulator and inversely modulated ICT1 abundance in HCC cells. Altogether, our data support that miR-134 regulation of ICT1 facilitates malignant phenotype of HCC cells probably via cell cycle and apoptosis-associated proteins including CDK1, cyclin B1, Bcl-2 and Bax.

SRPX2, an independent prognostic marker, promotes cell migration and invasion in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Sushi repeat-containing protein X-linked 2 (SRPX2), a novel chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan, is overexpressed in human cancer. Recent studies have reported that SRPX2 overexpression is observed in gastrointestinal cancer, and promotes migration and invasion of cancer cells. While, the clinical significance and biological function of SRPX2 remain rarely known in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here, we found that the levels of SRPX2 in HCC tissues were notably overexpressed compared to non-cancerous specimens. Accordingly, the levels of SRPX2 were obviously up-regulated in HCC cells compared with LO2 cells. The positive expression of SRPX2 was prominently correlated with venous infiltration and advanced TNM tumor stage. Furthermore, SRPX2 expression acted as an independent prognostic marker for HCC patients. SRPX2 knockdown prominently inhibited the invasion and migration of HCCLM3 cells, while SRPX2 restoration enhanced these cellular biological behaviors of Hep3B cells in vitro. Moreover, SRPX2 knockdown suppressed pulmonary metastasis of HCCLM3 cells in nude mice. Mechanically, SRPX2 knockdown reduced the levels of phosphorylated focal adhesion kinase (p-FAK), p-AKT, matrix metallopeptidase 2 (MMP2) and MMP9 in HCCLM3 cells. In turn, SRPX2 overexpression promoted the activation of FAK/AKT pathway and increased MMP2/9 expression in Hep3B cells. Thus, SRPX2 contributes to migration and invasion of HCC cells probably by targeting FAK/AKT pathway-mediated MMP2/9 expression. SRPX2 potentially acts as an independent prognostic predictor and a drug-target for HCC patients.

MicroRNA-33a promotes cell proliferation and inhibits apoptosis by targeting PPARα in human hepatocellular carcinoma.

MicroRNA-33a (miR-33a) is dysregulated in a number of human cancers, where it functions as an oncogenic miRNA. However, the clinical significance of miR-33a and its underlying molecular pathways regarding the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are currently unknown. In the present study, it was observed that the level of miR-33a expression was significantly increased in HCC tissues, relative to adjacent non-tumor tissues. Increased miR-33a expression was significantly correlated with poor prognostic features of HCC, including larger tumor size, higher Edmondson-Steiner grading and higher tumor-node-metastasis tumor stage. Furthermore, high levels of miR-33a expression were associated with decreases in the 5-year overall survival rate and recurrence-free survival of patients with HCC. In addition, functional experiments indicated that overexpression of miR-33a led to increased proliferation and reduced apoptosis of the HCC cell line Huh7, while knockdown of miR-33a decreased proliferation and induced apoptosis in the HCC cell line HepG2. Furthermore, peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha (PPARα) was identified as a direct target of miR-33a in HCC. Upregulation of miR-33a was found to reduce the levels of PPARα expression in Huh7 cells, while inhibition of miR-33a lead to a downregulation in PPARα expression in HepG2 cells. Collectively, these results suggest that miR-33a regulates the proliferation and apoptosis of HCC cells, and is a potential prognostic marker of HCC.

microRNA-497 inhibits cell proliferation and induces apoptosis by targeting YAP1 in human hepatocellular carcinoma.

microRNAs (miRNAs) function as oncogenes or tumor suppressors in human cancers by targeting mRNAs for degradation and/or translational repression. miR-497 has been proposed as a tumor suppressive miRNA and its deregulation is observed in human cancers. However, the prognostic value of miR-497 and its underlying molecular pathways involved in the initiation and development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are poorly investigated. In the present study, we found that the mean level of miR-497 in HCC tissues was lower than that in adjacent nontumor tissues. Clinical data indicated that low expression of miR-497 was prominently associated with adverse prognostic features of HCC including high serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level, large tumor size, high Edmondson-Steiner grading and advanced tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage. Furthermore, miR-497 was an independent prognostic factor for indicating both 5-year overall survival and disease-free survival of HCC patients. Gain- and loss-of-function studies showed that miR-497 reduced cell proliferation and induced apoptosis in HCC cells. Yes-associated protein 1 (YAP1) was identified as a direct target of miR-497 in HCC. An inverse correlation between YAP1 and miR-497 expression was observed in HCC tissues. Notably, YAP1 knockdown abrogated the effects of miR-497 deletion on HCC cells with decreased cell proliferation and increased apoptosis. In conclusion, we report that miR-497 is a potent prognostic indicator and may suppress tumor growth of HCC by targeting YAP1.

Treatment of coke plant wastewater by SND fixed biofilm hybrid system.

In this article, coke plant wastewater was treated by a simultaneous nitrifying and denitrifying (SND) fixed biofilm hybrid system. The results showed that suitable parameters of the system were important for the performance of the bio-degradation system. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency in this system was satisfactory, higher than 94%, and ammonia nitrogen was higher than 95%. The effluent COD concentration could meet the discharge standard, except for very few situations. The results showed that a sufficient carbon source was important for making ammonia nitrogen concentration meet the discharge standard. Then the TN removal efficiency in this system can be brought higher than 94%. Dissolved oxygen (DO) is very important to the performance of the SND bio-degradation system, and the suitable DO is about 3.5-4.0 mg/L at the forepart of reactor. In addition, the performance of the system was almost not affected by pH value. The results show that the system is feasible to treat coke plant wastewater.