Research on a Non-Contact Multi-Electrode Voltage Sensor and Signal Processing Algorithm.

Traditional contact voltage measurement requires a direct electrical connection to the system, which is not easy to install and maintain. The voltage measurement based on the electric field coupling plate capacitance structure does not need to be in contact with the measured object or the ground, which can avoid the above problems. However, most of the existing flat-plate structure voltage measurement sensors are not only expensive to manufacture, but also bulky, and when the relative position between the wire under test and the sensor changes, it will bring great measurement errors, making it difficult to meet actual needs. Aiming to address the above problems, this paper proposes a multi-electrode array structure non-contact voltage sensor and signal processing algorithm. The sensor is manufactured by the PCB process, which effectively reduces the manufacturing cost and process difficulty. The experimental and simulation results show that, when the relative position of the wire and the sensor is offset by 10 mm in the 45° direction, the relative error of the traditional single-electrode voltage sensor is 17.62%, while the relative error of the multi-electrode voltage sensor designed in this paper is only 0.38%. In addition, the ratio error of the sensor under the condition of power frequency of 50 Hz is less than ±1% and the phase difference is less than 4°. The experimental results show that the sensor has good accuracy and linearity.

Co-Benefits of Pollutant Removal, Water, and Heat Recovery from Flue Gas through Phase Transition Enhanced by Corona Discharge.

Pollutant removal and resource recovery from high-humidity flue gas after desulfurization in a thermal power plant are crucial for improving air quality and saving energy. This study developed a flue gas treatment method involving phase transition enhanced by corona discharge based on laboratory research and established a field-scale unit for demonstration. The results indicate that an adequate increase in size will improve the ease of particle capture. A wet electrostatic precipitator is applied before the condensing heat exchangers to enhance the particle growth and capture processes. This results in an increase of 58% in the particle median diameter in the heat exchanger and an emission concentration below 1 mg/m3. Other pollutants, such as SO3 and Hg, can also be removed with emission concentrations of 0.13 mg/m3 and 1.10 µg/m3, respectively. Under the condensation enhancement of the method, it is possible to recover up to 3.26 t/h of water from 200 000 m3/h saturated flue gas (323 K), and the quality of the recovered water meets the standards stipulated in China. Additionally, charge-induced condensation is shown to improve heat recovery, resulting in the recovery of more than 43.34 kJ/h·m3 of heat from the flue gas. This method is expected to save 2628 t of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emission by 2% annually, contributing to environmental protection and global-warming mitigation.

TBC1D16 predicts chemosensitivity and prognosis in adult acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a hematopoietic disease with poor survival. Chemotherapy resistance is one of the determinant factors influencing AML prognosis. To identify genes possibly affecting the drug responses in AML, the Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC (850K) was used to screen for differential DNA methylation loci between patients achieved complete remission (CR) or not (non-CR) after induction therapy in 37 AML patients. Then, 32 differentially methylated sites (DMS) were selected for replication in another 86 AML patients by next-generation sequencing. Nine sites including cg03988660, cg16804603, cg18166936, cg11308319, cg09095403, cg18493214, cg01443536, cg16030878 and cg10143426 were replicated. Analysis of the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database showed that mRNA expression of TBC1D16 and HDAC4 was associated with AML prognosis. Methylation level of the cg16030878 in TBC1D16 3'-UTR correlated positively with TBC1D16 mRNA expression in samples both in the TCGA database and clinically collected in the study. Both higher cg16030878 methylation and higher TBC1D16 mRNA expression were associated with increased risk of non-CR and worse overall survival (OS) in AML patients. In AML cells, knockdown of TBC1D16 decreased cell proliferation and ERK phosphorylation levels, as well as increased sensitivity to mitoxantrone and decitabine indicated by IC50. In patients with combined use of decitabine, those patients with CR showed significantly lower TBC1D16 mRNA expression. On the contrary, knockdown of TBC1D16 resulted in decreased sensitivity to cytarabine in U937 cells. Our findings implicated that TBC1D16 is a potential predictor for chemosensitivity and prognosis in adult AML patients.

Identification of gene expression and DNA methylation of SERPINA5 and TIMP1 as novel prognostic markers in lower-grade gliomas.

BACKGROUND: Lower-grade gliomas (LGGs) is characteristic with great difference in prognosis. Due to limited prognostic biomarkers, it is urgent to identify more molecular markers to provide a more objective and accurate tumor classification system for LGGs. METHODS: In the current study, we performed an integrated analysis of gene expression data and genome-wide methylation data to determine novel prognostic genes and methylation sites in LGGs. RESULTS: To determine genes that differentially expressed between 44 short-term survivors (<2 years) and 48 long-term survivors (≥2 years), we searched LGGs TCGA RNA-seq dataset and identified 106 differentially expressed genes. SERPINA5 and TIMP1 were selected for further study. Kaplan-Meier plots showed that SERPINA5 and TIMP1 expression were significantly correlated with overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS) in TCGA LGGs patients. We next validated the correlation between the candidate genes expression and clinical outcome in CGGA LGGs patients. Multivariate analysis showed that TIMP1 mRNA expression had a significant prognostic value independent of other variables (HR = 4.825, 95% CI = 1.370-17.000, P = 0.014). Then, differential methylation sites were identified from differentially candidate gene expression groups, and all four methylation sites were significantly negatively correlated with gene expression (spearman r <  - 0.5, P < 0.0001). Moreover, hyper-methylation of four methylation sites indicated better OS (P < 0.05), and three of them also shown statistical significantly association with better RFS, except for SERPINA5 cg15509705 (P = 0.0762). CONCLUSION: Taken together, these findings indicated that the gene expression and methylation of SERPINA5 and TIMP1 may serve as prognostic predictors in LGGs and may help to precise the current histology-based tumors classification system and to provide better stratification for future clinical trials.

Integrative Analysis of DNA Methylation and Gene Expression Identify a Three-Gene Signature for Predicting Prognosis in Lower-Grade Gliomas.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: In the current study, we performed an integrated analysis of genome-wide methylation and gene expression data to find novel prognostic genes for lower-grade gliomas (LGGs). METHODS: First, TCGA methylation data were used to identify prognostic genes associated with promoter methylation. Second, candidate genes that were stably regulated by promoter methylation were explored. Third, Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used to generate a prognostic signature, and the signature genes were used to construct a survival risk score system. RESULTS: Three genes (EMP3, GSX2 and EMILIN3) were selected as signature genes. These three signature genes were used to construct a survival risk score system. The high-risk group exhibited significantly worse overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS) as compared to the low-risk group in the TCGA dataset. The association of the three-gene prognostic signature with patient' survival was then validated using the CGGA dataset. Moreover, Kaplan-Meier plots showed that the three-gene prognostic signature risk remarkably stratified grade II and grade III patients in terms of both OS and RFS in the TCGA cohort. There was also a significant difference between the low- and high-risk groups in IDH wild-type glioma patients, indicating that the three-gene signature may be able to help in predicting prognosis for patients with IDH wild-type gliomas. CONCLUSION: We identified and validated a three-gene (EMP3, GSX2 and EMILIN3) prognostic signature in LGGs by integrating multidimensional genomic data from the TCGA and CGGA datasets, which may help in fine-tuning the current histology-based tumors classification system and providing better stratification for future clinical trials.

Identification of Common Genes Refers to Colorectal Carcinogenesis with Paired Cancer and Noncancer Samples.

Colorectal cancer is a malignant tumor which harmed human beings' health. The aim of this study was to explore common biomarkers associated with colorectal carcinogenesis in paired cancer and noncancer samples. At first, fifty-nine pairs of colorectal cancer and noncancer samples from three gene expression datasets were collected and analyzed. Then, 181 upregulation and 282 downregulation common differential expression genes (DEGs) were found. Next, functional annotation was performed in the DAVID database with the DEGs. Finally, real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay was conducted to verify the analyses in sixteen colorectal cancer and individual-matched adjacent mucosa samples. Real-time PCR showed that MCM2, RNASEH2A, and TOP2A were upregulated in colorectal cancer compared with adjacent mucosa samples (MCM2, P < 0.001; RNASEH2A, P < 0.001; TOP2A, P = 0.001). These suggested that 463 DEGs might contribute to colorectal carcinogenesis.

lncRNAs PVT1 and HAR1A are prognosis biomarkers and indicate therapy outcome for diffuse glioma patients.

Diffuse gliomas are well known malignant brain tumors. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), a type of RNA transcript with more than 200 nucleotides, involve in tumorigenesis and development of various cancers. This study focused on identifying differentially expressed lncRNAs in gliomas based on gene expression profiling, and chose certain lncRNAs PVT1, CYTOR, HAR1A and MIAT, which changed with significant differences. Further analysis of TCGA and GEO data revealed that the expressions of PVT1 and CYTOR were up-regulated, while HAR1A and MIAT expressions were down-regulated in gliomas. Their expression patterns were validated in an independent cohort containing 98 glioma specimens and 12 non-tumor tissue controls. High expression of PVT1 and CYTOR as well as low HAR1A and MIAT expression were associated with high Ki-67 level and more TP53 mutation. Kaplan-Meier survival curve and Cox regression analyses showed that glioma patients with high PVT1 expression or low HAR1A expression had poor survival outcome, aberrantly expressed PVT1 and HAR1A could be the independent prognosis biomarkers for glioma patients. Moreover, down-regulation of PVT1 and up-regulation of HAR1A contributed to improve the survival of patients who received chemotherapy and radiotherapy. These results implied that these four lncRNAs might play important role in diffuse gliomas progression, particularly, PVT1 and HAR1A could be explored as promising biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and target therapy of diffuse gliomas.

AGXT2 rs37369 polymorphism predicts the renal function in patients with chronic heart failure.

Patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) are often accompanied with varying degrees of renal diseases. The purpose of this study was to identify rs37369 polymorphism of AGXT2 specific to the renal function of CHF patients. A total of 1012 southern Chinese participants, including 487 CHF patients without history of renal diseases and 525 healthy volunteers, were recruited for this study. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was used to determine the genotypes of AGXT2 rs37369 polymorphism. Levels of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and serum creatinine (SCr) were detected to indicate the renal function of the participants. BUN level was significantly higher in CHF patients without history of renal diseases compared with healthy volunteers (p=0.000). And the similar result was also obtained for SCr (p=0.000). Besides, our results indicated that the level of BUN correlated significantly with SCr in both the CHF patients without renal diseases (r=0.4533, p<0.0001) and volunteers (r=0.2489, p<0.0001). Furthermore, we found that the AGXT2 rs37369 polymorphism could significantly affect the level of BUN in CHF patients without history of renal diseases (p=0.036, AA+AG vs GG). Patients with rs37369 GG genotype showed a significantly reduced level of BUN compared to those with the AA genotype (p=0.024), and the significant difference was still observed in the smokers of CHF patients without renal diseases (p=0.023). In conclusion, we found that CHF might induce the impairment of kidney and cause deterioration of renal function. AGXT2 rs37369 polymorphism might affect the renal function of CHF patients free from renal diseases, especially in patients with cigarette smoking.

High Expression of AHSP, EPB42, GYPC and HEMGN Predicts Favorable Prognosis in FLT3-ITD-Negative Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous clonal disease and patients with AML who harbor an FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) mutation present several dilemmas for the clinician. This study aims to identify novel targets for explaining the dilemmas. METHODS: We analyzed four microarray gene expression profiles to investigate changes in whole genome expression associated with FLT3-ITD mutation. RESULTS: We identified 22 differentially expressed genes which are commonly expressed among all four profiles. Kaplan-Meier analysis of the dataset GSE12417 revealed that low expression of AHSP, EPB42, GYPC and HEMGN predicted poor prognosis (AHSP: P=0.0317, HR=1.894; EPB42: P=0.0382, HR=1.859; GYPC: P=0.0015, HR=2.051; HEMGN: P=0.0418, HR=1.838 in GSE12417 test cohort; AHSP: P=0.0279, HR=1.548; EPB42: P=0.0398, HR=1.505; GYPC: P=0.0408, HR=1.501; HEMGN: P=0.0143, HR=1.630 in GSE12417 validation cohort). When patients were FLT3-ITD positive, the expression of FLT3 was significantly increased (all P<0.05 in four profiles), and correleation analysis of four profiles revealed that the expression of the four candidate genes negatively correlated with FLT3 expression. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that AHSP, EPB42, GYPC and HEMGN may be suitable biomarkers for diagnostic or therapeutic strategies for FLT3-ITD-positive AML patients.

Association of CKIP-1 P21A polymorphism with risk of chronic heart failure in a Chinese population.

Pathological cardiac hypertrophy is an independent risk factor for chronic heart failure. Casein kinase-2 interacting protein-1 (CKIP-1) can inhibit pathological cardiac hypertrophy. Therefore, we investigated whether CKIP-1 nonsynonymous polymorphism rs2306235 (Pro21Ala) contributes to risk and prognosis of chronic heart failure in a Chinese population.A total of 923 adult patients with chronic heart failure and 1020 age- and gender-matched healthy controls were recruited. CKIP-1 rs2306235 polymorphism was genotyped using PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Additional follow-up data for 140 chronic heart failure patients was evaluated. The rs2306235 G allele was associated with an increased risk of chronic heart failure (OR = 1.38, 95% CI = 1.09-1.75, p = 0.007), especially in patients with hypertension (OR = 1.45, 95% CI = 1.09-1.75, p = 0.006) and coronary heart disease (OR = 1.41, 95% CI = 1.09-1.83, p = 0.010) after adjustment for multiple cardiovascular risk factors. However, rs2306235 polymorphism was not associated with cardiovascular mortality in chronic heart failure (p = 0.875). CKIP-1 rs2306235 polymorphism may be a risk factor for chronic heart failure in a Chinese Han population.

Basigin rs8259 Polymorphism Confers Decreased Risk of Chronic Heart Failure in a Chinese Population.

Left ventricular remodeling is an essential risk factor contributing to the pathogenesis of chronic heart failure (CHF). Basigin (BSG) promotes cardiovascular inflammation and myocardial remodeling processes by induction of extracellular matrix metalloproteinases and inflammatory cytokines. BSG rs8259 polymorphism was associated with BSG expression and risk of acute coronary syndrome. Therefore, we investigated whether rs8259 polymorphism contributes to risk and prognosis of CHF in Chinese patients. In total 922 adult patients with CHF and 1107 matched healthy controls were enrolled. BSG rs8259 polymorphism was genotyped using PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Whole blood BSG mRNA expression data from Genotype-Tissue Expression project was accessed. Evaluation of follow-up data was performed in only 15.2% (140) of the patients with CHF. BSG rs8259 TT genotype was associated with a decreased risk of CHF (OR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.72-0.96, p = 0.010), especially in patients with hypertension (OR = 0.80, 95% CI = 0.68-0.95, p = 0.011) and coronary heart disease (OR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.69-0.96, p = 0.013) after adjustment for multiple cardiovascular risk factors. Rs8259 T allele was associated with decreased BSG mRNA in whole blood from 338 healthy normal donors (p = 1.31 × 10-6). However, rs8259 polymorphism failed to exhibit an association with cardiovascular mortality (p = 0.283). BSG rs8259 polymorphism may contribute to decreased risk of CHF in a Chinese Han population.

Long non-coding RNA GAS5 polymorphism predicts a poor prognosis of acute myeloid leukemia in Chinese patients via affecting hematopoietic reconstitution.

Whether long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) affect prognosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains unknown. To search the association between lncRNA SNPs and AML outcomes, thirty tagSNPs in five lncRNAs were genotyped in 313 AML patients. Survival analysis indicated that GAS5 rs55829688 (T > C) was significantly associated with prognosis of AML (p = 0.018). Patients with rs55829688 CC genotype showed higher GAS5 expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) (p = 0.025) and harbored a longer platelets recovery (p = 0.040) than carriers of rs55829688T allele. In vitro study indicated that GAS5 promoter harboring the rs55829688C allele showed marginally increased reporter gene activity (p = 0.019), and the promoter activity was increased by TP63 in a dose-dependent manner (P = 0.001). Moreover, GAS5 higher expression predict shorter AML overall survival (OS), which validated in GEO GSE12417 dataset (p = 0.011). In conclusion, rs55829688 polymorphism could increase GAS5 expression by interacting with TP63, which might aggravate the myelosuppression and in turn lead to poor prognosis in AML. Trail registration number: ChiCTR-PPC-14005297.

MiRNAs and miRNA Polymorphisms Modify Drug Response.

Differences in expression of drug response-related genes contribute to inter-individual variation in drugs' biological effects. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs emerging as new players in epigenetic regulation of gene expression at post-transcriptional level. MiRNAs regulate the expression of genes involved in drug metabolism, drug transportation, drug targets and downstream signal molecules directly or indirectly. MiRNA polymorphisms, the genetic variations affecting miRNA expression and/or miRNA-mRNA interaction, provide a new insight into the understanding of inter-individual difference in drug response. Here, we provide an overview of the recent progress in miRNAs mediated regulation of biotransformation enzymes, drug transporters, and nuclear receptors. We also describe the implications of miRNA polymorphisms in cancer chemotherapy response.

Evaluation of DNMT3A genetic polymorphisms as outcome predictors in AML patients.

DNMT3A mutation is known as a recurrent event in acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) patients. However, association between DNMT3A genetic polymorphisms and AML patients' outcomes is unknown. DNMT3A 11 SNPs (rs11695471, rs2289195, rs734693, rs2276598, rs1465825, rs7590760, rs13401241, rs7581217, rs749131, rs41284843 and rs7560488) were genotyped in 344 diagnostic non-FAB-M3 AML patients from southern China. Patients underwent combined chemotherapy with cytarabine and anthracyclines. DNMT3A mRNA expression was analyzed in PBMCs from randomly selected AML patients. Multivariate analysis and combined genotype analysis showed that rs2276598 was associated with increased while rs11695471 and rs734693 were associated with decreased chemosensitivity (P<0.05), while rs11695471 (worse for OS), rs2289195 (favorable for OS and DFS) and rs2276598 (favorable for DFS) were significantly associated with disease prognosis (P<0.05). In conclusion, DNMT3A polymorphisms may be potential predictive markers for AML patients' outcomes, which might improve prognostic stratification of AML.