[Diagnostic value of different detection methods for Mycobacterium tuberculosis in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from pulmonary tuberculosis patients].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the diagnostic value of different detection methods for Mycobacterium tuberculosis in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.
 Methods: BALF from100 patients in Changsha Central Hospital from January 2013 to December 2015 was collected. Among 100 patients, 65 cases were clinically diagnosed as tuberculosis, and 35 cases served as control. BALF smear method, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and membrane reverse dot blot (RDB) were used for synchronous detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
 Results: The positive rates by BALF smear method, PCR and RDB were 43.08%, 73.84% and 92.31%, respectively (P<0.05). Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and negative predictive value for BALF smear were 43.08%, 88.57%, 59.00%, and 45.59%, respectively; for PCR were 73.85%, 100%, 83.00%, and 67.31%, respectively; for RDB were 92.31%, 100.00%, 95.00%, and 87.50%, respectively.
 Conclusion: The technique of membrane RDB can not only accurately diagnose Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but also can rapidly and easily identify the resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to streptomycin (SM), rifampicin (RFP) and isoniazid (INH) genotypes. It possesses high clinical value.

Initial Subsurface Incorporation of Oxygen into Ru(0001): A Density Functional Theory Study.

The adsorption and diffusion of oxygen on Ru(0001) surfaces as a function of coverage are systematically investigated by using density functional theory. A high incorporation barrier of low-coverage adsorbed oxygen into the subsurface is discovered. Calculations show that the adsorption of additional on-surface oxygen can lower the penetration barrier dramatically. The minimum penetration barrier obtained is 1.81 eV for a path starting with oxygen in mixed on-surface hcp and fcc sites at an oxygen coverage of 0.75 ML, which should be regarded as close to 1 ML. Energy diagrams show that oxygen-diffusion barriers on the surface and in the subsurface are much lower than the penetration barrier. Oxygen diffusion on the surface is an indispensable step for its initial incorporation into the subsurface.

Promoter hypermethylation of p14 (ARF) , RB, and INK4 gene family in hepatocellular carcinoma with hepatitis B virus infection.

Both hepatitis B virus (HBV) and gene methylation play important roles in hepatocarcinogenesis. However, their association between HBV infection and gene methylation is not fully understood. Cell cycle control involving RB1 gene-related cell inhibitors is one of the main regulatory pathways were reported to be altered in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The purpose of this research is to assess the methylation status of p14 (ARF) and INK4 gene family (p14 (ARF) , p15 (INK4B) , p16 (INK4A) , and p18 (INK4C) ) in HCC with HBV infection and HCC without it, and discuss possible role of HBV-induced hypermethylation in the mechanism of hepatocarcinogenesis. Methylation status of RB, p14 (ARF) , and INK4 gene family in 64 case of HCC with HBV infection and 24 cases without it were detected by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction, and HBV-DNA of the plasma were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. p14 (ARF) , p15 (INK4B) , p16 (INK4A) , and RB hypermethylation were observed in 30 (34.1%), 50 (56.8%), 62 (70.5%), and 24(27.3%) of 88 hepatocellular carcinomas, respectively. Methylation frequencies of them between HCC with HBV infection and HCC without it were 43.8% versus 8.3 % (p14 (ARF) ), 68.9% versus 25% (p15 (INK4B) ), 90.6% versus 16.7% ( p16 (INK4A) ), and 28.1 % versus 25% (RB), respectively. In HBV-associated HCC, the numbers of methylated genes were also more than HCC without virus infection, more than two methylated genes were seen in 48 of 64 (75 %) cases; more than three methylated genes were found in 32 of 64 (50%); correspondently, no one case has more than two genes methylated. p18 (INK4C) methylation product was not found in cancerous or non-cancerous tissues of 88 HCC. HBV infection is associated with p14 (ARF) , p15 (INK4B) , p16 (INK4A) , and RB gene methylation (P = 0.048, 0.035, 0.02); HBV-DNA replication is associated with p14 (ARF) , p15 (INK4B) , p16 (INK4A) , and RB gene methylation (P = 0.048, 0.035, 0.02); high rate of p14 (ARF) , p15 (INK4B) , and p16 (INK4A) in HCC with HBV infection suggests that HBV-induced hypermethylation may be one of the mechanisms of HBV involved in hepatocellular carcinogenesis.

F-Box Protein 43, Stabilized by N6-Methyladenosine Methylation, Enhances Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cell Growth and Invasion via Promoting p53 Degradation in a Ubiquitin Conjugating Enzyme E2 C-Dependent Manner.

The roles of F-box protein 43 (FBXO43) in carcinogenesis have been rarely revealed. The present study investigates the expression, function, and underlying mechanism of FBXO43 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Firstly, the expression and clinical significance of FBXO43 in HCC were investigated bioinformatically and experimentally using online omics data and local tissue samples. The role of N6-methyladenosine modification (m6A) of mRNA in regulating FBXO43 expression and the effects of m6A/FBXO43 axis alteration on cell proliferation and invasion were investigated further. Moreover, the underlying mechanism of the oncogenic FBXO43 was also explored. The results demonstrated that FBXO43 was significantly upregulated in HCC and was positively correlated with advanced progression and poor prognosis in patients. METTL3 and IGF2BP2 expressions were positively correlated with FBXO43 expression and served as the writer and reader of FBXO43 m6A, respectively, which stabilized and upregulated FBXO43 mRNA in HCC. FBXO43 silencing significantly reduced cell proliferation and invasion, and ectopic expression of FBXO43 could significantly restore the inhibitory effects caused by METTL3 and IGF2BP2 depletion in HCC cells. Mechanistically, FBXO43 depletion reduced the expression of UBE2C, a p53 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme, suppressed proteasomal degradation of p53, and thus inhibited cell proliferation and invasion in HCC. In summary, the present study revealed that METTL3/IGF2BP2 mediated m6A contributed to the upregulation of FBXO43 that promoted the malignant progression of HCC by stimulating p53 degradation in a UBE2C-dependent manner, highlighting the promising application of FBXO43 as a target in HCC treatment.

FLOT1, stabilized by WTAP/IGF2BP2 mediated N6-methyladenosine modification, predicts poor prognosis and promotes growth and invasion in gliomas.

The expression, function, and mechanism of FLOT1 (flotillin-1) remains unknown in gliomas. Here, the expression and clinical value of FLOT1 in gliomas was bioinformatically and experimentally analyzed via online omics data and local tissues. Moreover, the effects of FLOT1 depletion on cell proliferation and invasion were also detected. Besides, the underlying roles of N6-methyladenosine modification (m6A) in FLOT1 upregulation was further explored. The results demonstrated that FLOT1 was significantly upregulated in gliomas and positively correlated with advanced progression and poor prognosis of patients. FLOT1 silencing notably suppressed the cell proliferation and invasion in gliomas. The expression of WTAP and IGF2BP2was positively correlated with FLOT1 expression and served as the writer and reader of FLOT1 m6A, respectively, which stabilized FLOT1 mRNA and maintained its upregulation in gliomas. Lastly, ectopic expression of FLOT1 could notably restore the inhibitory effects caused by WTAP and IGF2BP2 depletion in glioma cells. Collectively, our results originally confirmed the upregulation and oncogenic roles of FLOT1, and revealed that WTAP/IGF2BP2 mediated m6A contributed to the upregulation of FLOT1 in gliomas, highlighting the promising application of WTAP/IGF2BP2/FLOT1 axis in target treatment of gliomas.

Modeling of the Phase Inversion Point of Crude Oil Emulsion by Characterization of Crude Oil Physical Properties.

Accurate prediction of the phase inversion point (PIP) of crude oil emulsion (COE) will give important guiding significance to the mixed transportation technology during the crude oil mining process. The influence of water cut of a system on viscosity characteristics of the COE was studied by emulsification experiments with 16 kinds of crude oils having significant differences in physical properties. The results showed that under the condition of low water cut of a system, the crude oils can emulsify all the water to form stable W/O emulsions with apparent viscosities much higher than those of pure crude oils. When the water cut of a system exceeds a certain critical value, the crude oils have no ability to emulsify all water; instead, they are wrapped by a water phase and form unstable O/W emulsions, and their apparent viscosities decrease sharply compared with those of pure crude oils. The critical water cut of a system corresponding to the abrupt change of apparent viscosity of the COE is the PIP of the COE changing from the type of W/O to O/W. Furthermore, the apparent viscosities of stable W/O emulsions decrease with increasing shear rate and temperature and meanwhile increase dramatically with the increasing water cut of a system. The apparent viscosities of unstable O/W emulsions decrease with increasing shear rate, water cut of a system, and temperature and are far lower than those of pure crude oils. Four typical parameters were chose as the representation to describe the crude oil physical properties (COPPs), that is, the content of saturates, the content of aromatics, the content of surfactants, and the crude oil acid number. On the basis of the quantitative description of COPPs, a prediction model for the PIP of the COE was established. The results of model verification showed that the mean relative deviation of prediction results was 2.9%.

Ultra-fast and ultra-efficient removal of Cr (VI) by the aqueous solutions of monolayer MXene (Ti3C2Tx).

Chromium (VI) removal is crucial to the safety of water resources, but there is still a lack of effective and fast dislodge methods, especially the on-site rapid remediation and emergency removal technology. Herein, the monolayer (ML) Ti3C2Tx nanosheets (NSs) were prepared to remove Cr (VI) from water. The solution sample of the two-dimensional (2D) Ti3C2Tx NSs demonstrate ultrafast adsorption kinetics (the concentration decreasing from 300 to 3 mg L-1 in 10 min) and impressively high capacity (1483 mg g-1), which is several times higher than that of the most reported Cr (VI) adsorption by Ti3C2Tx. The analysis of the adsorption kinetics and isotherm models indicates that the adsorption reaction is endothermic, with physical and chemical adsorption coexisting (mainly monolayer chemical adsorption). The joint study of the experimental analysis and theoretical calculation based on the density functional theory (DFT) demonstrates that the extraordinary removal performance of Cr (VI) is due to the synergetic effect of reduction reaction removal and electrostatic adsorption. It is found that the Cr (VI) is mainly reduced by the OH- terminals on Ti3C2, and the detoxified Cr (III) is anchored on the surface of Ti3C2Tx through complexation reaction with O terminal. The advantages of ultrafast adsorption kinetics and extra-high adsorption capacity of the single-layered Ti3C2Tx for Cr (VI) removal make it a remarkable candidate for rapid and urgent removal of Cr (VI) wastewater.

A New Method of Haemorrhagic Stroke Detection Via Deep Magnetic Induction Tomography.

Hemorrhage imaging is one of the most common applications of magnetic induction tomography (MIT). Depth and the mass of stroke stimulated (MSS) are the most important issues that need to be solved for this application. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a technique belonging to the deep brain stimulation (DBS) field, which aims at overcoming human diseases such as depression. TMS coils, namely, circular, figure-8, and H-coils, play an important role in TMS. Among these, H-coils individually focus on the issues of achieving effective stimulation of deep region. MIT and TMS mechanisms are similar. Herein, for the first time, improved TMS coils, including figure-8 and H-coils, are applied as MIT excitation coils to study the possibility of achieving the mass of stroke stimulated and deep detection through MIT. In addition, the configurations of the detection coils are varied to analyze their influence and determine the optimal coils array. Finally, MIT is used to detect haemorrhagic stroke occurring in humans, and the application of deep MIT to the haemorrhagic stroke problem is computationally explored. Results show that among the various coils, the improved H-coils have MSS and depth characteristics that enable the detection of deep strokes through MIT. Although the detecting depth of the figure-8 coil is weaker, its surface signal is good. The deep MIT technique can be applied to haemorrhagic detection, providing a critical base for deeper research.

Prediction Model between Emulsified Water Fractions and Physicochemical Properties of Crude Oil Based on the Exergy Loss Rate.

The quantitative calculation of emulsified water fractions of crude oil-water systems is of great significance for the study of flow characteristics of multiphase flow pipelines. For a crude oil-water system with a high water fraction, the emulsified water fraction under different influencing factors was determined by emulsification experiments. It was found that the emulsified water fraction under different shearing conditions correlated well with the exergy loss rate and could be described by a power-law equation, in which two undetermined parameters relate to the crude oil physicochemical properties. Six representative parameters were selected to describe the crude oil physicochemical properties, i.e., the sum of asphaltene and resin contents, wax content, mechanical impurity content, crude oil acid number, crude oil average carbon number, and crude oil viscosity. Further, the correlations between the two undetermined parameters and the crude oil physicochemical properties were derived by regression analysis. Thus, the prediction model of emulsified water fraction was determined, which could be conveniently adopted to predict the emulsified water fraction with different crude oils and shearing conditions. The validation results showed that the mean relative deviation of the model prediction is 4.5%.

Novel lncRNA XLOC_032768 alleviates cisplatin-induced apoptosis and inflammatory response of renal tubular epithelial cells through TNF-α.

The cellular and molecular mechanisms through which cisplatin induces nephrotoxicity have been investigated extensively. However, the role of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity is not well known. We explored the functions and underlying mechanisms of a novel lncRNA XLOC_032768 in cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity. Cisplatin treatment resulted in the apoptosis of the renal tubular epithelial cells and inflammatory response in a mouse model and human renal proximal tubular epithelial cells (HK-2). The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of the transcriptome data were determined, and the results showed that lncRNA XLOC_032768 expression was significantly repressed by cisplatin treatment. This result was validated by an RT-qPCR experiment on in vivo and in vitro models. The overexpression of XLOC_032768 significantly inhibited the cisplatin-induced apoptosis and inflammatory response in HK-2 cells and mouse exposed to cisplatin. RNA sequencing analysis further confirmed that XLOC_032768 could regulate tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α in the cisplatin-induced apoptosis of HK-2 cells in trans-manner. TNF-α inhibition also ameliorated cisplatin-induced apoptosis of renal tubular epithelial cells and renal structural damage. As such, XLOC_032768 suppressed cisplatin-induced apoptosis and inflammatory response of renal tubular epithelial cells through TNF-α. LncRNA XLOC_032768 is a potential novel agent to reduce cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity.

A multi-channel magnetic induction tomography measurement system for human brain model imaging.

This paper proposes a multi-channel magnetic induction tomography measurement system for biological conductivity imaging in a human brain model. A hemispherical glass bowl filled with a salt solution is used as the human brain model; meanwhile, agar blocks of different conductivity are placed in the solution to simulate the intracerebral hemorrhage. The excitation and detection coils are fixed co-axially, and the axial gradiometer is used as the detection coil in order to cancel the primary field. On the outer surface of the glass bowl, 15 sensor units are arrayed in two circles as measurement parts, and a single sensor unit for cancelling the phase drift is placed beside the glass bowl. The phase sensitivity of our system is 0.204 degrees /S m(-1) with the excitation frequency of 120 kHz and the phase noise is in the range of -0.03 degrees to +0.05 degrees . Only the coaxial detection coil is available for each excitation coil; therefore, 15 phase data are collected in each measurement turn. Finally, the two-dimensional images of conductivity distribution are obtained using an interpolation algorithm. The frequency-varying experiment indicates that the imaging quality becomes better as the excitation frequency is increased.

Hydrogen sensing characteristics from carbon nanotube field emissions.

An innovative hydrogen sensing concept is demonstrated based on the field emission from multi-walled carbon nanotubes, where the low emission currents rise in proportion to hydrogen partial pressures above 10(-9) Torr. Experimental and first principles studies reveal that the sensing mechanism is attributed to the effective work function reduction from dissociative hydrogen chemisorption. The embedded Ni catalyst would assist both the hydrogen dissociation and work function reduction. This technique is promising to build miniature low cost hydrogen sensors for multiple applications. This work is valuable for studies of nanocarbon-gas reaction mechanisms and the work function properties in adsorption related applications, including field emission, hydrogen storage, energy cells, and gas sensing.

[Rapid screen of 15 basic artificial dyes in fishery products by ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry].

A new method was established for the simultaneous determination of 15 basic artificial dyes in fishery products by ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF MS). The analytes in fishery products were extracted with acetonitrile containing 10% (v/v) acetic acid, then purified by dispersive solid phase extraction with C18-silicone adsorbent. The compounds were separated by a C18 column with acetonitrile and 0.1% (v/v) formic acid-5 mmol/L ammonium acetate solution as the mobile phases, and measured by UPLC-Q-TOF MS with electrospray ionization in positive mode. As a result, the limits of quantification (LOQs, S/N = 10) of the 15 target compounds were 0.1-100 µg/kg in fishery products. The 15 analytes behaved linearly in their respective ranges with the correlation coefficients no less than 0.993. The average recoveries of the 15 analytes spiked at three levels were ranged from 80.60% to 107.37% with the RSDs of 3.33%-6. 69% (n = 6). This method is suitable for routine qualitative and quantitative analyses of the 15 basic artificial dyes in fishery products due to its fastness, simplicity and relatively high sensitivity.

Relationship between the expression of MDR1 in hepatocellular cancer and its biological behaviors.

OBJECTIVE: By the detection of HBV infection, AFP and AST, the targets of biological behavior and the gene expression of multi-drug resistance gene 1 (MDR1) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), we investigate characteristics of the expression of MDR1 in HCC and its relationship with HCC biological behavior. METHODS: Using real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (FQ-PCR) to detect the expressions of MDR1 in 102 samples of HCC tissue and 20 samples of non-cancerous tissue, we analyze the relationship between expressions of MDR1 and biological characteristics of HCC. RESULTS: The expression of MDR1 in HCC is 0.55 ± 0.27, and in normal liver tissues is 0.23 ± 0.10, respectively. The expression in HCC is higher than it in normal liver tissue, the difference is statistically significant (P<0.05) and the difference between the expression and the HCC envelopes is statistically significant, and the expression increases along with the increase of Edmondson classification (P<0.05). HBV infection, AFP positive, the rise of AST, all these factors have positive correlations with the expression (r=0.463, 0.473, 0.299). In MDR1 expressions of HCC patients, the survival curve of the negative is higher than that of the positive, but the difference is not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: There are drug resistance phenomena in HCC, MDR1 expression may play an important role in primary HCC drug resistance. HBV infection can be detected as a reference indicator of HCC chemotherapy resistance, plasma levels of AFP, AST can be used as a reference index change dynamic monitoring of MDR1 expression.