Comparison of novel flexible and traditional ureteral access sheath in retrograde intrarenal surgery.

OBJECTIVES: To compare the efficiency and safety of a novel flexible ureteral access sheath (f-UAS) and traditional ureteral access sheath (UAS) during retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between January 2022 and September 2022, a total of 152 consecutive cases with renal stones underwent RIRS with the f-UAS. Their outcomes were compared with those of another 152 consecutive cases undergoing RIRS with traditional UAS using a 1:1 scenario matched-pair analysis, with matching parameters including age and stone size. The f-UAS is a novel UAS with a 10-cm-long tube at the tip that can follow the bends of flexible ureteroscope (f-URS). RESULTS: Baseline characteristics were found to be similar between the two groups. The f-UAS group demonstrated significantly higher SFR (76.3% vs. 7.2%; P < 0.001) at 1 day postoperatively and a higher clearance rate of stone volume (98.11% vs. 91.78%; P < 0.001). The f-UAS group also had lower total complications rate (9.9% vs. 22.4%; P = 0.003), lower incidence of fever (5.9% vs 11.9%; P = 0.001), shorter operative times (56.5 min vs. 59.9 min; P = 0.047), and lower usage rate of baskets (17.1% vs. 100%; P < 0.001). There was no significant difference in SFR at 1 month postoperatively (P = 0.627) and in the length of postoperative hospital stay between the two groups (P = 0.225). CONCLUSION: Compared to the traditional UAS during RIRS, the f-UAS showed several advantages, including higher SFR at 1 day postoperatively, shorter operative times, lower incidence of complications, and less use of basket.

Flexible ureteroscopy with novel flexible ureteral access sheath versus mini-percutaneous nephrolithotomy for treatment of 2-3 cm renal stones.

OBJECTIVES: To assess and compare the effectiveness and safety of flexible ureteroscopy (f-URS) with a novel flexible ureteral access sheath (f-UAS) versus mini-percutaneous nephrolithotripsy (mini-PCNL) in treating 2-3 cm renal stones. METHODS: Retrospectively analyzed consecutive cases that underwent f-URS with f-UAS (12/14 Fr) from January 29, 2022, to November 30, 2022. Consecutive cases that underwent mini-PCNL (18 Fr) from June 5, 2021, to January 26, 2022, were selected as controls. The f-UAS is a novel device with a 10 cm anterior tip that passively bends along with the f-URS to enter the renal calyx. We analyzed demographic characteristics, stone parameters, operative time, stone-free rates (SFR), hospitalization time, and complication. RESULTS: A total of 96 consecutive cases that underwent f-URS with f-UAS and 96 consecutive cases that underwent mini-PCNL were included in the study. There were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of operative time (p = 0.06), stone volume clearance (p = 0.533) and complete SFR (p = 0.266) on the first postoperative day or residual Stone after 1 month (p = 0.407). We observed a significantly shorter postoperative hospital stay (1.4 days vs. 2.1 days; p < 0.001) and a lower decrease in hemoglobin levels (0.39 g/dL vs. 0.68 g/dL; p < 0.001) in the f-UAS group. The mini-PCNL group had a significantly higher overall complication rate (13.5%) compared with the f-UAS group (5.2%; p = 0.048). CONCLUSIONS: In the treatment of 2-3 cm renal stones, f-URS with a novel f-UAS may provide a superior alternative to mini-PCNL, potentially challenging its established status.

[Analysis of a child with DIGFAN syndrome due to variant of MORC2 gene].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the clinical features and genetic etiology for a child with developmental delay, impaired growth, facial dysmorphism, and axonal neuropathy (DIGFAN). METHODS: A child who was admitted to the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University on March 22, 2021 was selected the study subject. Clinical data of the child was collected. Following extraction of genomic DNA, the child and his parents were subjected to whole exome sequencing (WES), and candidate variant was verified by Sanger sequencing and bioinformatic analysis. RESULTS: The child, a 10-year-and-9-month-old boy, had manifested with short stature, intellectual disability, delayed speech, motor and language development, and facial dysmorphism. WES and Sanger sequencing revealed that he has harbored a novel de novo c.800T>C (p.Leu267Pro) variant of the MORC2 gene. The Leucine at position 267, which is highly conserved among various species, is located in the S5 domain of ribosome protein in the ATPase binding region of MORC2. And the Leu267Pro may affect the function of MORC2 by altering the spatial conformation and activity of ATPase. Based on the guidelines from the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics, the c.800T>C variant was classified as likely pathogenic (PS2+PM2_Supporting+PP2+PP3). CONCLUSION: The MORC2: c.800T>C (p.Leu267Pro) variant probably underlay the pathogenesis of DIGFAN syndrome in this child.

Excellent predictive-performances of photonic reservoir computers for chaotic time-series using the fusion-prediction approach.

In this work, based on two parallel reservoir computers realized by the two polarization components of the optically pumped spin-VCSEL with double optical feedbacks, we propose the fusion-prediction scheme for the Mackey-Glass (MG) and Lorenz (LZ) chaotic time series. Here, the direct prediction and iterative prediction results are fused in a weighted average way. Compared with the direct-prediction errors, the fusion-prediction errors appear great decrease. Their values are far less than the values of the direct-prediction errors when the iteration step-size are no more than 15. By the optimization of the temporal interval and the sampling period, under the iteration step-size of 3, the fusion-prediction errors for the MG and LZ chaotic time-series can be reduced to 0.00178 and 0.004627, which become 8.1% of the corresponding direct-prediction error and 28.68% of one, respectively. Even though the iteration step-size reaches to 15, the fusion-prediction errors for the MG and LZ chaotic time-series can be reduced to 55.61% of the corresponding direct-prediction error and 77.28% of one, respectively. In addition, the fusion-prediction errors have strong robustness on the perturbations of the system parameters. Our studied results can potentially apply in the improvement of prediction accuracy for some complex nonlinear time series.

Optical cascaded reservoir computing for realization of dual-channel high-speed OTDM chaotic secure communication via four optically pumped VCSEL.

In this work, we propose a chaotic secure communication system with optical time division multiplexing (OTDM), using two cascaded reservoir computing systems based on multi beams of chaotic polarization components emitted by four optically pumped VCSELs. Here, each level of reservoir layer includes four parallel reservoirs, and each parallel reservoir contains two sub-reservoirs. When the reservoirs in the first-level reservoir layer are well trained and the training errors are far less than 0.1, each group of chaotic masking signals can be effectively separated. When the reservoirs in the second reservoir layer are effectively trained and the training errors are far less than 0.1, the output for each reservoir can be well synchronized with the corresponding original delay chaotic carrier-wave. Here, the synchronization quality between them can be characterized by the correlation coefficients of more than 0.97 in different parameter spaces of the system. Under these high-quality synchronization conditions, we further discuss the performances of dual-channel OTDM with a rate of 4×60 Gb/s. By observing the eye diagram, bit error rate and time-waveform of each decoded message in detail, we find that there is a large eye-openings in the eye diagrams, low bit error rate and higher quality time-waveform for each decoded message. Except that the bit error rate of one decoded message is lower than 7 × 10-3 in different parameter spaces, and those of the other decoded messages are close to 0, indicating that high-quality data transmissions are expected to be realized in the system. The research results show that the multi-cascaded reservoir computing systems based on multiple optically pumped VCSELs provide an effective method for the realization of multi-channel OTDM chaotic secure communications with high-speed.

Novel cuproptosis-related long non-coding RNA signature to predict prognosis in prostate carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Cuproptosis, an emerging form of programmed cell death, has recently been identified. However, the association between cuproptosis-related long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) signature and the prognosis in prostate carcinoma remains elusive. This study aims to develop the novel cuproptosis-related lncRNA signature in prostate cancer and explore its latent molecular function. METHODS: RNA-seq data and clinical information were downloaded from the TCGA datasets. Then, cuproptosis-related gene was identified from the previous literature and further applied to screen the cuproptosis-related differentially expressed lncRNAs. Patients were randomly assigned to the training cohort or the validation cohort with a 1:1 ratio. Subsequently, the machine learning algorithms (Lasso and stepwise Cox (direction = both)) were used to construct a novel prognostic signature in the training cohorts, which was validated by the validation and the entire TCGA cohorts. The nomogram base on the lncRNA signature and several clinicopathological traits were constructed to predict the prognosis. Functional enrichment and immune analysis were performed to evaluate its potential mechanism. Furthermore, differences in the landscape of gene mutation, tumour mutational burden (TMB), microsatellite instability (MSI), drug sensitivity between both risk groups were also assessed to explicit their relationships. RESULTS: The cuproptosis-related lncRNA signature was constructed based on the differentially expressed cuproptosis-related lncRNAs, including AC005790.1, AC011472.4, AC099791.2, AC144450.1, LIPE-AS1, and STPG3-AS1. Kaplan-Meier survival and ROC curves demonstrate that the prognosis signature as an independent risk indicator had excellent potential to predict the prognosis in prostate cancer. The signature was closely associated with age, T stage, N stage, and the Gleason score. Immune analysis shows that the high-risk group was in an immunosuppressive microenvironment. Additionally, the significant difference in landscape of gene mutation, tumour mutational burden, microsatellite instability, and drug sensitivity between both risk groups was observed. CONCLUSIONS: A novel cuproptosis-related lncRNA signature was constructed using machine learning algorithms to predict the prognosis of prostate cancer. It was closely with associated with several common clinical traits, immune cell infiltration, immune-related functions, immune checkpoints, gene mutation, TMB, MSI, and the drug sensitivity, which may be useful to improve the clinical outcome.

Deoxyschizandrin ameliorates obesity and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: Involvement of dual Farnesyl X receptor/G protein-coupled bile acid receptor 1 activation and leptin sensitization.

Natural dual farnesyl X receptor (FXR)/G protein-coupled bile acid receptor 1 (TGR5) activators have received little attention in the management of metabolic diseases. Deoxyschizandrin (DS), a natural lignan, occurs in S. chinensis fruit and has potent hepatoprotective effects, whereas its protective roles and mechanisms against obesity and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are largely elusive. Here, we identified DS as a dual FXR/TGR5 agonist using luciferase reporter and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) assays. DS was orally or intracerebroventricularly administrated to high-fat diet-induced obesity (DIO) mice, and methionine and choline-deficient L-amino acid diet (MCD diet)-induced non-alcoholic steatohepatitis to evaluate its protective effects. Exogenous leptin treatment was employed to investigate the sensitization effect of DS on leptin. The molecular mechanism of DS was explored by Western blot, quantitative real-time PCR analysis, and ELISA. The results showed that DS activated FXR/TGR5 signaling and effectively reduced NAFLD in DIO and MCD diet-fed mice. DS countered obesity in DIO mice by promoting anorexia and energy expenditure and reversing leptin resistance, involving both peripheral and central TGR5 activation and leptin sensitization. Our findings indicate that DS may be a novel therapeutic approach for alleviating obesity and NAFLD through regulating FXR and TGR5 activities and leptin signaling.

An Outbreak of Coxsackievirus A6 Infection in Adults of a Collective Unit, China, 2019.

Outbreaks/epidemics caused by coxsackievirus A6 (CVA6) have been reported continuously since 2008. However, outbreaks of ocular conjunctival hemorrhage caused by CVA6 in adults in a collective unit have not been reported. Methods. The epidemiological investigations were carried out according to the monitoring program, and the clinical data were collected from the treated hospitals. The nasopharyngeal swab specimens were collected to extract the total nucleic acid (DNA/RNA). The pathogen was determined using nucleic acid detection kits for 22 respiratory pathogens. The VP1 gene of this pathogen was amplified and sequenced. Sequence alignment and analysis were performed using BioEdit 7.0. The gene phylogenetic tree was constructed with MEGA4.0. Results. The factory emerged patients in succession from February 14 and reached the peak on the 18th. A total of 19 workers had symptoms in this factory up to March 31, 2019, giving an attack rate of 8.26%. The main symptoms were rash, ocular conjunctival hemorrhage, fever, and sore throat. The laboratory results showed that coxsackievirus A6 was the main pathogen causing this outbreak. The risk of taking a bath in the bathroom was 7.37 times higher than that of not taking a bath (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.67-32.79). Conclusion. This manuscript further enriched the infection-related information of CVA6, which was helpful to better identify and deal with the epidemic in the future.

[Risk factors for metabolic bone disease of prematurity in very/extremely low birth weight infants: a multicenter investigation in China].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the incidence rate and risk factors for metabolic bone disease of prematurity (MBDP) in very low birth weight/extremely low birth weight (VLBW/ELBW) infants. METHODS: The medical data of 61 786 neonates from multiple centers of China between September 1, 2013 and August 31, 2016 were retrospectively investigated, including 504 VLBW/ELBW preterm infants who met the inclusion criteria. Among the 504 infants, 108 infants diagnosed with MBDP were enrolled as the MBDP group and the remaining 396 infants were enrolled as the non-MBDP group. The two groups were compared in terms of general information of mothers and preterm infants, major diseases during hospitalization, nutritional support strategies, and other treatment conditions. The multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the risk factors for MBDP. RESULTS: The incidence rate of MBDP was 19.4% (88/452) in VLBW preterm infants and 38.5% (20/52) in ELBW preterm infants. The incidence rate of MBDP was 21.7% in preterm infants with a gestational age of < 32 weeks and 45.5% in those with a gestational age of < 28 weeks. The univariate analysis showed that compared with the non-MBDP group, the MBDP group had significantly lower gestational age and birth weight, a significantly longer length of hospital stay, and a significantly higher incidence rate of extrauterine growth retardation (P < 0.05). Compared with the non-MBDP group, the MBDP group had significantly higher incidence rates of neonatal sepsis, anemia, hypocalcemia, and retinopathy of prematurity (P < 0.05). The MBDP group had a significantly lower mean feeding speed, a significantly higher age when reaching total enteral feeding, and a significantly longer duration of parenteral nutrition (P < 0.05). The use rate of caffeine citrate in the MBDP group was significantly higher, but the use rate of erythropoietin was significantly lower than that in the non-MBDP group (P < 0.05). The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that gestational age < 32 weeks, hypocalcemia, extrauterine growth retardation at discharge, and neonatal sepsis were risk factors for MBDP (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: A lower gestational age, hypocalcemia, extrauterine growth retardation at discharge, and neonatal sepsis may be associated an increased risk of MBDP in VLBW/ELBW preterm infants. It is necessary to strengthen perinatal healthcare, avoid premature delivery, improve the awareness of the prevention and treatment of MBDP among neonatal pediatricians, and adopt positive and reasonable nutrition strategies and comprehensive management measures for preterm infants.

MicroRNA-206 regulates cell proliferation by targeting G6PD in skeletal muscle.

Skeletal muscle is a major component of body mass and plays a central role in the control of whole-body metabolism in humans and animals. Therefore, elucidation of the underlying mechanisms of skeletal growth and development are expected to lead to the discovery of novel genes and pathways related to muscle disease. miR-206, a skeletal muscle-specific microRNA, plays a crucial role in myogenesis; however, miR-206 is known to function in myogenic differentiation, whether or not it affects muscle cells' proliferation, and the underlying mechanisms are unknown. In this study, we investigated the effect of miR-206 on muscle cell proliferation and differentiation, as well as its effect on myofiber type conversion using mouse C2C12 myoblasts. The results showed that overexpression of miR-206 inhibited cell proliferation and promoted muscle cell differentiation, but it did not affect myofiber type conversion. Intriguingly, we found that overexpression of miR-206 suppressed muscle cell proliferation and induced cell cycle arrest in G0/G1 phase by inhibiting the glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) gene. Taken together, we demonstrated that the miR-206-G6PD pathway suppresses muscle cell proliferation, and these findings may facilitate the treatment of muscle diseases.-Jiang, A., Dong, C., Li, B., Zhang, Z., Chen, Y., Ning, C., Wu, W., Liu, H. MicroRNA-206 regulates cell proliferation by targeting G6PD in skeletal muscle.

Topically applicated curcumin/gelatin-blended nanofibrous mat inhibits pancreatic adenocarcinoma by increasing ROS production and endoplasmic reticulum stress mediated apoptosis.

BACKGROUND: Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most fatal malignancies. Surgical resection supplemented by chemotherapy remains the major therapeutic regimen, but with unavoidable resistance and systemic toxic reaction. Curcumin is a known safe natural compound that can effectively eliminate pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells in vitro, making it a promising candidate for substitution in subsequent chemotherapy. However, due to its extremely low bioavailability caused by its insolubility and circular elimination, curcumin had an unexpectedly modest therapeutic effect in clinical trials. RESULTS: Here, we electrospun curcumin/gelatin-blended nanofibrous mat to largely improve curcumin's bioavailability by local controlled-release. With characterization by scanning electron microscopy, fluorescence microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and high-performance liquid chromatography, it was revealed that curcumin was uniformly dispersed in the fiber of the mats with nanoscopic dimensions and could be continuously released into the surrounding medium for days. The cancer inhibitory effects of nano-curcumin and underlying mechanisms were further explored by assays using pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell and experiments using xenograft model. The results showed the released nano-curcumin could effectively inhibit pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell proliferation not only in vitro, but more importantly in vivo. This cytotoxic effect of nano-curcumin against pancreatic adenocarcinoma was achieved through provoking the production of intracellular reactive oxygen species and activating endoplasmic reticulum stress, which leads to enhanced cell apoptosis via decreased phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3. CONCLUSIONS: Clinically, curcumin/gelatin-blended nanofibrous mat could be a promising, secure, efficient and affordable substitutional agent for the elimination of residual cancer cells after tumor resection. Moreover, our strategy to obtain curcumin released from nanofibrous mat may provide a universally applicable approach for the study of the therapeutic effects and molecular mechanisms of other potential medicines with low bioavailability.

Effects of ß-Lactam Antibiotics on Gut Microbiota Colonization and Metabolites in Late Preterm Infants.

We usually refer to the critical period for intestinal flora establishment as infancy because the infant gut microbiota is characterized by low diversity and poor stability compared with that of adults. Moreover, it is also vulnerable to interference from a variety of factors. As ß-lactam antibiotics are typically used in newborn infants with infectious diseases, we used 16S rDNA sequencing and LC-MS metabolomics to analyze fecal microbes and metabolites in 16 late preterm infants with or without ß-lactam antibiotic treatment. The subjects were assigned to two groups: one not treated with antibiotics and another receiving ß-lactam antibiotic treatment for less than seven days. Significant changes in fecal microbes and metabolites were observed in the late preterm infants treated with antibiotics, including a reduction in the diversity of the gut microbiota overall and some beneficial bacteria such as Bacteroides, whereas some opportunistic pathogenic bacteria such as Enterococcus showed an overgrowth trend. In addition, significant changes in some crucial metabolites were observed, such as amino acids and bile acids. These findings show that treatment with ß-lactam antibiotics might affect the intestinal flora and its metabolites in late preterm infants in a short time period.

Development and Validation of a Novel Diagnostic Nomogram to Differentiate Between Intestinal Tuberculosis and Crohn's Disease: A 6-year Prospective Multicenter Study.

OBJECTIVES: Differentiating Crohn's disease (CD) from intestinal tuberculosis (ITB) remains a diagnostic challenge. Misdiagnosis carries potential grave implications. We aimed to develop and validate a novel diagnostic nomogram for differentiating them. METHODS: In total, 310 eligible patients were recruited from 6 tertiary inflammatory bowel disease centers. Among them, 212 consecutive patients (143 CD and 69 ITB) were used in the derivation cohort for the establishment of diagnostic equation and nomogram; 7 investigative modalities including clinical manifestations, laboratory results, endoscopic findings, computed tomography enterography features, and histology results were used to derive the diagnostic model and nomogram. Ninety-eight consecutive patients (76 CD and 22 ITB) were included for validation of the diagnostic model. RESULTS: Eight out of total 79 parameters were identified as valuable parameters used for establishing diagnostic equations. Two regression models were built based on 7 differential variables: age, transverse ulcer, rectum involvement, skipped involvement of the small bowel, target sign, comb sign, and interferon-gamma release assays (for model 1) or purified protein derivative (for model 2), respectively. Accordingly, 2 nomograms of the above 2 models were developed for clinical practical use, respectively. Further validation test verified the efficacy of the nomogram 1 with 90.9% specificity, 86.8% sensitivity, 97.1% PPV, 66.7% negative predictive value (NPV), and 87.8% accuracy for identifying CD, and the efficacy of the nomogram 2 with 100% specificity, 84.2% sensitivity, 100% positive predictive value, 64.7% NPV, and 87.8% accuracy for diagnosing CD. CONCLUSIONS: The derivation and validation cohorts identified and validated 2 highly accurate and practical diagnostic nomograms for differentiating CD from ITB. These diagnostic nomograms can be conveniently used to identify some difficult CD or ITB cases, allowing for decision-making in a clinical setting.

Characterization of Degree of Intestinal Fibrosis in Patients with Crohn Disease by Using Magnetization Transfer MR Imaging.

Purpose To evaluate the role of magnetization transfer (MT) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging for the characterization of intestinal fibrosis compared with contrast material-enhanced and diffusion-weighted MR imaging and its capability for differentiating fibrotic from inflammatory strictures in humans with Crohn disease (CD) by using surgical histopathologic analysis as the reference standard. Materials and Methods Institutional review board approval and informed consent were obtained for this prospective study. Abdominal MT imaging, contrast-enhanced imaging, and diffusion-weighted imaging of 31 consecutive patients with CD were analyzed before elective surgery. The bowel wall MT ratio normalized to skeletal muscle, the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), and the percentage of enhancement gain were calculated; region-by-region correlations with the surgical specimen were performed to determine the histologic degree of fibrosis and inflammation. The performance of MT imaging was validated in five new patients. One-way analysis of variance test, Spearman rank correlation, and receiver operating characteristic curve were used for statistical analysis. Results Normalized MT ratios strongly correlated with fibrosis scores (r = 0.769; P = .000) but did not correlate with inflammation scores (r = -0.034; P = .740). Significant differences (F = 49.002; P = .000) in normalized MT ratios were found among nonfibrotic, mildly, moderately, and severely fibrotic walls. The normalized MT ratios of mixed fibrotic and inflammatory bowel walls were significantly higher than those of bowel walls with only inflammation present (t = -8.52; P = .000). A high accuracy of normalized MT ratios was shown with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.919 (P = .000) for differentiating moderately to severely fibrotic bowel walls from nonfibrotic and mildly fibrotic bowel walls, followed by ADC (AUC, 0.747; P = .001) and the percentage of enhancement gain (AUC, 0.592; P = .209). The sensitivity, specificity, and AUC of MT imaging for diagnosing moderate to severe fibrosis in the validation data set were 80% (12 of 15), 100% (three of three), and 0.9 (P = .033), respectively. Conclusion MT imaging outperforms ADC and contrast-enhanced imaging in detecting and distinguishing varying degrees of bowel fibrosis with or without coexisting inflammation. MT imaging could potentially be used as a method to differentiate fibrotic from inflammatory intestinal strictures in patients with CD. © RSNA, 2018 Online supplemental material is available for this article.

Pelle Modulates dFoxO-Mediated Cell Death in Drosophila.

Interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinases (IRAKs) are crucial mediators of the IL-1R/TLR signaling pathways that regulate the immune and inflammation response in mammals. Recent studies also suggest a critical role of IRAKs in tumor development, though the underlying mechanism remains elusive. Pelle is the sole Drosophila IRAK homolog implicated in the conserved Toll pathway that regulates Dorsal/Ventral patterning, innate immune response, muscle development and axon guidance. Here we report a novel function of pll in modulating apoptotic cell death, which is independent of the Toll pathway. We found that loss of pll results in reduced size in wing tissue, which is caused by a reduction in cell number but not cell size. Depletion of pll up-regulates the transcription of pro-apoptotic genes, and triggers caspase activation and cell death. The transcription factor dFoxO is required for loss-of-pll induced cell death. Furthermore, loss of pll activates dFoxO, promotes its translocation from cytoplasm to nucleus, and up-regulates the transcription of its target gene Thor/4E-BP. Finally, Pll physically interacts with dFoxO and phosphorylates dFoxO directly. This study not only identifies a previously unknown physiological function of pll in cell death, but also shed light on the mechanism of IRAKs in cell survival/death during tumorigenesis.

Impaired Hippo signaling promotes Rho1-JNK-dependent growth.

The Hippo and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway both regulate growth and contribute to tumorigenesis when dysregulated. Whereas the Hippo pathway acts via the transcription coactivator Yki/YAP to regulate target gene expression, JNK signaling, triggered by various modulators including Rho GTPases, activates the transcription factors Jun and Fos. Here, we show that impaired Hippo signaling induces JNK activation through Rho1. Blocking Rho1-JNK signaling suppresses Yki-induced overgrowth in the wing disk, whereas ectopic Rho1 expression promotes tissue growth when apoptosis is prohibited. Furthermore, Yki directly regulates Rho1 transcription via the transcription factor Sd. Thus, our results have identified a novel molecular link between the Hippo and JNK pathways and implicated the essential role of the JNK pathway in Hippo signaling-related tumorigenesis.

[Discussion on the Monitoring of Medical Device Adverse Event].

Objective: Analyzing the status of medical device adverse events, the function of the clinical medical engineers in medical device adverse event monitoring was investigated. Methods: Through introducing the functions of the various departments in the medical device adverse event monitoring, the technical requirements and management responsibilities of clinical medical engineer and medical staff were defined. Results: Enhancing the function of clinical medical engineers in medical device adverse event monitoring,which is an effective measure to prevent medical device adverse events. Conclusion: Play the functions of clinical engineers in the medical device adverse event monitoring, which is significant to improve the using quality of medical devices and to ensure patient safety.