Fast Low-Sidelobe Pattern Synthesis Using the Symmetry of Array Geometry.

Array pattern synthesis with low sidelobe levels is widely used in practice. An effective way to incorporate sensor patterns in the design procedure is to use numerical optimization methods. However, the dimension of the optimization variables is very high for large-scale arrays, leading to high computational complexity. Fortunately, sensor arrays used in practice usually have symmetric structures that can be utilized to accelerate the optimization algorithms. This paper studies a fast pattern synthesis method by using the symmetry of array geometry. In this method, the problem of amplitude weighting is formulated as a second-order cone programming (SOCP) problem, in which the dynamic range of the weighting coefficients can also be taken into account. Then, by utilizing the symmetric property of array geometry, the dimension of the optimization problem as well as the number of constraints can be reduced significantly. As a consequence, the computational efficiency is greatly improved. Numerical experiments show that, for a uniform rectangular array (URA) with 1024 sensors, the computational efficiency is improved by a factor of 158, while for a uniform hexagonal array (UHA) with 1261 sensors, the improvement factor is 284.

Two Chinese Patients of Auriculocondylar Syndrome 2: A Novel PLCB4 Splicing Variant and 5-Year Follow-up.

OBJECTIVE: Auriculocondylar syndrome (ARCND) is a set of rare craniofacial malformations characterized by variable micrognathia, ear malformations, and mandibular condyle hypoplasia, and other accompanying features with phenotypic complexity. ARCND2 caused by pathogenic variants in the PLCB4 gene is a very rare disease with less than 50 patients reported and only 36 different variants of the PLCB4 gene recorded in HGMD. This study aims to enrich the patient resources, clinical data and mutational spectrum of ARCND2. DESIGN: Case series study. SETTING: Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center and Guangdong Women and Children Hospital. PATIENTS: Two Chinese patients with ARCND2. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Clinical, radiological and molecular findings. RESULTS: Both the two patients presented with craniofacial and ear malformations, and feeding difficulties. Whole exome sequencing identified two different variants of the PLCB4 gene in these two patients with a heterozygous allele and a de novo mode of inheritance respectively. Patient 1 carried a known pathogenic c.1861C > T(p.Arg621Cys) missense variant, whereas Patient 2 had a novel c.225 + 1G > A splicing variant. Sanger sequencing confirmed the presence of PLCB4 variants in the proband and absence in the unaffected parents. These two PLCB4 variants were suggested as disease-causing candidates for these two patients. During a 5-year follow-up, Patient 2 gradually manifested crowded teeth, underweight, motor delay and intellectual disability. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we report two Chinese patients with ARCND2, describe their clinical and mutational features, and share a 5-year follow-up of one patient. Our study adds two additional patients to ARCND2, reveals a novel PLCB4 variant, and expands the phenotypic and genotypic spectrum.

Associations between blood antioxidant levels and femoral neck strength.

BACKGROUND: Studies have confirmed that antioxidants contribute to a lower risk of osteoporosis, which is an independent factor for femoral neck fracture (FNF). However, the associations between blood antioxidant levels and femoral neck strength remain unclear. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to test the hypothesis that levels of blood antioxidants are positively associated with composite indices of bone strength in femoral neck, which integrate the bending strength index (BSI), compressive strength index (CSI), and impact strength index (ISI), in a population of middle-aged and elderly individuals. METHODS: This cross-sectional study utilized data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study. Blood levels of antioxidants were measured and analyzed. RESULTS: In total, data from 878 participants were analyzed. Results of Spearman correlation analyses indicated that blood levels of 6 antioxidants (total lutein, zeaxanthin, alpha-carotene, 13-cis-beta-carotene, trans-beta-carotene and total lycopene) were positively associated with CSI, BSI, or ISI in middle-aged and elderly individuals. Conversely, blood gamma-tocopherol and alpha-tocopherol levels were negatively associated with CSI, BSI, or ISI scores. Furthermore, linear regression analyses suggested that only blood zeaxanthin levels remained positively associated with CSI (odds ratio, OR 1.27; 95% CI: 0.03, 2.50; p = 0.045), BSI (OR, 0.54; 95% CI: 0.03-1.06; p = 0.037), and ISI (OR, 0.06; 95% CI: 0.00, 0.13; p = 0.045) scores in the study population after adjusting for age and sex. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicated that elevated blood zeaxanthin levels were significantly and positively associated with femoral neck strength (CSI, BSI, or ISI) in a population of middle-aged and elderly individuals. These findings suggest that zeaxanthin supplementation may reduce FNF risk independently.

Additive value of texture analysis based on breast MRI for distinguishing between benign and malignant non-mass enhancement in premenopausal women.

BACKGROUND: Non-mass enhancement (NME) is a diagnostic dilemma and highly reliant on the experience of the radiologists. Texture analysis (TA) could serve as an objective method to quantify lesion characteristics. However, it remains unclear what role TA plays in a predictive model based on routine MRI characteristics. The purpose of this study was to explore the value of TA in distinguishing between benign and malignant NME in premenopausal women. METHODS: Women in whom NME was histologically proven (n = 147) were enrolled (benign: 58; malignant: 89) was retrospective. Then, 102 and 45 patients were classified as the training and validation groups, respectively. Scanning sequences included Fat-suppressed T2-weighted and fat-suppressed contrast-enhanced T1-weighted which were acquired on a 1.5T MRI system. Clinical and routine MR characteristics (CRMC) were evaluated by two radiologists according to the Breast Imaging and Reporting and Data system (2013). Texture features were extracted from all post-contrast sequences in the training group. The combination model was built and then assessed in the validation group. Pearson's chi-square test and Mann-Whitney U test were used to compare categorical variables and continuous variables, respectively. Logistic regression analysis and receiver operating characteristic curve were employed to assess the diagnostic performance of CRMC, TA, and their combination model in NME diagnosis. RESULTS: The combination model showed superior diagnostic performance in differentiating between benign and malignant NME compared to that of CRMC or TA alone (AUC, 0.887 vs 0.832 vs 0.74). Moreover, compared to CRMC, the model showed high specificity (72.5% vs 80%). The results obtained in the validation group confirmed the model was promising. CONCLUSIONS: With the combined use of TA and CRMC could afford an improved diagnostic performance in differentiating between benign and malignant NME.

LncRNA Linc00511 promotes osteosarcoma cell proliferation and migration through sponging miR-765.

Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) Linc00511 is a novel lncRNA, and it was reported to play important roles in the progression and carcinogenesis of several tumors. However, the expression and biological roles of Linc00511 in osteosarcoma were still unknown. In this research, we showed that the expression of Linc00511 was upregulated in osteosarcoma samples and cell lines. Ectopic expression of Linc00511 promoted osteosarcoma cell growth, colony formation, and migration. Moreover, overexpression of Linc00511 enhanced the epithelial-mesenchymal transition progression in osteosarcoma cell. In addition, we showed that elevated expression of Linc00511 suppressed microRNA-765 (miR-765) expression and promoted apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE1) expression in osteosarcoma cell. The expression of miR-765 was downregulated in osteosarcoma cells and samples and was negatively related to Linc00511 expression in osteosarcoma tissues. Ectopic expression of miR-765 inhibited osteosarcoma cell growth and migration. Furthermore, we showed that Linc00511 overexpression promoted MG-63 cells proliferation, colony formation, and migration via downregulation of miR-765. These results suggested that Linc00511 played as an oncogene in the development of osteosarcoma.

LncRNA CCAT2 promoted osteosarcoma cell proliferation and invasion.

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) plays important roles in tumour progression. Accumulating studies demonstrated that lncRNA colon cancer-associated transcript 2 (CCAT2) acted as an oncogene in many tumours. However, the role of CCAT2 in the development of osteosarcoma has not been elucidated. In our study, we indicated that CCAT2 expression was up-regulated in osteosarcoma tissues and cell lines (SOSP-9607, MG-63, U2OS and SAOS-2). In addition, osteosarcoma cases with higher CCAT2 expression had a poorer disease-free survival and shorter the overall survival time compared to those with lower expression. Overexpression of CCAT2 promoted osteosarcoma cell proliferation, invasion and cell cycle. Furthermore, ectopic expression of CCAT2 increased the expression of mesenchymal markers N-cadherin, vimentin and snail and reduced the expression of N-cadherin marker E-cadherin. CCAT2 overexpression promoted the LATS2 and c-Myc expression in osteosarcoma cell. These data indicated that CCAT2 served as an oncogene in osteosarcoma and promoted osteosarcoma cell proliferation, cell cycle and invasion.

Green tea catechins: a fresh flavor to anticancer therapy.

Green tea catechins have been extensively studied for their cancer preventive effects. Accumulating evidence has shown that green tea catechins, like (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate, have strong anti-oxidant activity and affect several signal transduction pathways relevant to cancer development. Here, we review the biological properties of green tea catechins and the molecular mechanisms of their anticancer effects, including the suppression of cancer cell proliferation, induction of apoptosis, and inhibition of tumor metastasis and angiogenesis. We summarize the efficacy of a single catechin and the synergetic effects of multiple catechins. We also discuss the enhanced anticancer effects of green tea catechins when they are combined with anticancer drugs. The information present in this review might promote the development of strategy for the co-administration of green tea catechins with other anticancer drugs to increase the potency of currently available anticancer medicine. This new strategy should in turn lower the cytotoxicity and cost of anticancer treatment.

Autophagy modulation as a target for anticancer drug discovery.

Autophagy, an evolutionarily conserved catabolic process involving the engulfment and degradation of non-essential or abnormal cellular organelles and proteins, is crucial for homeostatic maintenance in living cells. This highly regulated, multi-step process has been implicated in diverse diseases including cancer. Autophagy can function as either a promoter or a suppressor of cancer, which makes it a promising and challenging therapeutic target. Herein, we overview the regulatory mechanisms and dual roles of autophagy in cancer. We also describe some of the representative agents that exert their anticancer effects by regulating autophagy. Additionally, some emerging strategies aimed at modulating autophagy are discussed as having the potential for future anticancer drug discovery. In summary, these findings will provide valuable information to better utilize autophagy in the future development of anticancer therapeutics that meet clinical requirements.

[Experimental study on spectra of compressed air microwave plasma].

Using a microwave plasma generator, compressed air microwave plasma was excited under 1 - 5 atm pressures. Under different pressures and different incident microwave power, the emission spectra of compressed air microwave plasma were studied with a spectra measuring system. The results show that continuum is significant at atmospheric pressure and the characteristic will be weakened as the pressure increases. The band spectra intensity will be reduced with the falling of the incident microwave power and the band spectra were still significant. The experimental results are valuable to studying the characteristics of compressed air microwave plasma and the generating conditions of NO active groups.

lncRNA DLEU1 Modulates Proliferation, Inflammation, and Extracellular Matrix Degradation of Chondrocytes through Regulating miR-671-5p.

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to be involved in the development of osteoarthritis. However, the expression, function, and mechanism of DLEU1 in OA development remain largely unclear. The present reference demonstrates that DLEU1 is overexpressed in OA specimens compared to control cartilages. Inflammatory cytokines IL-1ß, TNF-α, and IL-6 induce DLEU1 expression in chondrocytes. Ectopic expression of DLEU1 induces chondrocyte proliferation, degradation of ECM, and inflammation mediators such as IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α secretion. Moreover, we demonstrated that DLEU1 targets miR-671-5p expression in chondrocytes. Overexpression of DLEU1 suppresses miR-671-5p expression in chondrocytes. The expression of miR-671-5p is decreased in OA specimens compared to control cartilages. There is a negative correlation between the expression of miR-671-5p and DLEU1 in OA specimens. Inflammatory mediators IL-1ß, TNF-α, and IL-6 suppress miR-671-5p expression in OA specimens. Elevated expression of miR-671-5p suppresses chondrocyte proliferation, degradation of ECM, and secretion of inflammation mediators. DLEU1 overexpression promotes chondrocytes proliferation, degradation of ECM, and secretion of inflammation mediators via regulating miR-671-5p. These results suggested that DLEU1 acts as one destructive role in OA development via regulating miR-671-5p.

Circ_0000527 promotes osteosarcoma cell progression through modulating miR-646/ARL2 axis.

Accumulating evidence shows that circRNAs play critical roles in the development of human tumors. We observed that circ_0000527 was overexpressed in osteosarcoma cells (SAOS-2, HOS, MG-63 and U2OS) compared in hFOB1.19 cells. We demonstrated that the circ_0000527 level was higher in osteosarcoma specimens than in non-tumor specimens. The ectopic expression of circ_0000527 was shown to induce cell growth, cell cycle progression and the secretion of inflammatory mediators, including IL-1ß, IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α. We demonstrated that circ_0000527 sponges miR-646 in osteosarcoma cells and that ARL2 is a target gene of miR-646. MiR-646 expression was decreased and ARL2 was overexpressed in osteosarcoma cells (SAOS-2, HOS, MG-63 and U2OS) compared to hFOB1.19 cells. Overexpression of circ_0000527 was demonstrated to induce ARL2 expression in MG-63 cells. We showed that miR-646 was downregulated in osteosarcoma specimens compared to that of non-tumor specimens and that the level of circ_0000527 was negatively correlated with miR-646 expression in osteosarcoma specimens. The elevated expression of circ_0000527 was shown to promote cell growth and cell cycle progression by modulating miR-646 expression. The ectopic expression of circ_0000527 was shown to promote cell growth, cell cycle progression and the secretion of inflammatory mediators by modulating ARL2. The present study suggested that the circ_0000527/miR-646/ARL2 axis may be a potential treatment target for osteosarcoma.

Association Between HDL-C and Bone Mineral Density: An Cross-Sectional Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Dyslipidemia has been found to contribute to increased risk of osteoporosis and its association with bone mineral density (BMD) remains controversial. We determined whether blood lipid levels are linked with change of BMD. METHODS: In a large sample from the MIDUS II study, we sought to evaluate the relationship between blood lipid levels and BMD. Multivariate linear regression models and smooth curve analysis were constructed by controlling a great range of confounding factors. RESULTS: The median age of them was 52.5 years, and the number of males was 176 (40%). Univariate analysis showed that blood high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) level was negatively related to lunar total femur (r = -0.266, P < 0.001), lunar radius ultradistal (UD) (r = -0.297, P < 0.001), lunar radius 1/3 (r = -0.307, P = 0.001) and femoral neck (r = -0.172, P = 0.001). In multivariate linear analysis, except for blood triglyceride, total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), we found that blood HDL-C level was still negatively related to lunar total femur [B = -0.002, B 95% CI (-0.002, -0.001), P < 0.001], lunar radius UD [B = -0.001, 95% CI (-0.001, 0), P = 0.002], lunar radius 1/3 [B = -0.001, 95% CI (-0.001, 0), P = 0.003] and femoral neck [B = -0.001, 95% CI (-0.002, 0), P = 0.039] after adjustments of demographic characteristics, lifestyle, disease history were made. Furthermore, we found that age, sex, and body mass index (BMI) had modifying effects on this negative association. CONCLUSION: This study confirmed the negative association between HDL-C and BMD in the observational analysis from (MIDUS) study and provides high-quality evidence that age, sex and BMI had modifying effects on this negative association.

LncRNA ROR1-AS1 accelerates osteosarcoma invasion and proliferation through modulating miR-504.

Long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) play vital roles in the progression and development of tumors. However, the functional role of ROR1-AS1 in osteosarcoma has not been investigated. We found that ROR1-AS1 was upregulated in osteosarcoma tissues compared to non-tumor samples. Elevated expression of ROR1-AS1 promoted cyclin D1, PCNA and ki-67 expression and increased cell cycle and growth in MG-63 cell. Moreover, overexpression of ROR1-AS1 induced cell migration in MG-63 cell, promoting N-cadherin and vimentin expression and inhibiting E-cadherin expression. Dual-luciferase assay proved that ROR1-AS1 served as one sponge for miR-504 and ROR1-AS1 overexpression suppressed miR-504 expression in MG-63 cell. ROR1-AS1 expression was lower in osteosarcoma tissues compared to non-tumor samples. Pearson's correlation assay showed a negative correlation between miR-504 and ROR1-AS1 expression. MiR-504 overexpression partly abrogated ROR1-AS1-induced effects on osteosarcoma cell migration and proliferation. These data implied that ROR1-AS1 played as an oncogene and might be a new treatment target for osteosarcoma.

MicroRNA-448 suppresses osteosarcoma cell proliferation and invasion through targeting EPHA7.

Osteosarcoma is the most common type of malignant bone tumor, often affecting adolescents and children. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a group of small, non-protein coding, endogenous RNAs that play critical roles in osteosarcoma tumorigenesis. In our study, we demonstrated that miR-448 expression was downregulated in osteosarcoma tissues and cell lines. Overexpression of miR-448 suppressed osteosarcoma cell proliferation, colony formation and migration. Moreover, we found that EPHA7 was a direct target gene of miR-448 in osteosarcoma cells. We further demonstrated that the EPHA7 expression level was upregulated in osteosarcoma tissues. Interestingly, the expression level of EPHA7 was inversely correlated with the expression level of miR-448 in osteosarcoma tissues. In addition, elevated expression of miR-448 suppressed osteosarcoma cell proliferation and invasion through targeting EPHA7. Taken together, these findings suggest that miR-448 functioned as a tumor suppressor gene in the development of osteosarcoma through targeting EPHA7.

A systems biology analysis of autophagy in cancer therapy.

Autophagy, which degrades redundant or damaged cellular constituents, is intricately relevant to a variety of human diseases, most notably cancer. Autophagy exerts distinct effects on cancer initiation and progression, due to the intrinsic overlapping of autophagic and cancer signalling pathways. However, due to the complexity of cancer as a systemic disease, the fate of cancer cells is not decided by any one signalling pathway. Numerous autophagic inter-connectivity and cross-talk pathways need to be further clarified at a systems level. In this review, we propose a systems biology perspective for the comprehensive analysis of the autophagy-cancer network, focusing on systems biology analysis in autophagy and cancer therapy. Together, these analyses may not only improve our understanding on autophagy-cancer relationships, but also facilitate cancer drug discovery.