TMEM25 inhibits monomeric EGFR-mediated STAT3 activation in basal state to suppress triple-negative breast cancer progression.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a subtype of breast cancer with poor outcome and lacks of approved targeted therapy. Overexpression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is found in more than 50% TNBC and is suggested as a driving force in progression of TNBC; however, targeting EGFR using antibodies to prevent its dimerization and activation shows no significant benefits for TNBC patients. Here we report that EGFR monomer may activate signal transducer activator of transcription-3 (STAT3) in the absence of transmembrane protein TMEM25, whose expression is frequently decreased in human TNBC. Deficiency of TMEM25 allows EGFR monomer to phosphorylate STAT3 independent of ligand binding, and thus enhances basal STAT3 activation to promote TNBC progression in female mice. Moreover, supplying TMEM25 by adeno-associated virus strongly suppresses STAT3 activation and TNBC progression. Hence, our study reveals a role of monomeric-EGFR/STAT3 signaling pathway in TNBC progression and points out a potential targeted therapy for TNBC.

Simulation and experimental investigation on the temperature-induced distortion characteristics of the hybrid connection structure deformable mirror.

The stacked array piezoelectric deformable mirror (DM) used in adaptive optics (AO) systems usually has actuator-corresponding high-frequency temperature-induced distortion (TID) on its mirror surface when the working temperature is different from the design temperature, which is harmful to beam quality. To effectively eliminate the actuator-corresponding high-frequency TID, we introduce a hybrid connection structure deformable mirror (H-DM), which adopts a magnetic connection structure besides the conventional adhesive connection structure. The TID characteristics of the H-DM are analyzed using the finite element method, and the wavefront compensation capability of the novel H-DM is also investigated in simulation. In the experiment, the initial surface shape and the TID characteristics of a lab-manufactured H-DM are measured. The experimental results show that the H-DM has a good initial surface shape, and no actuator-corresponding high-frequency distortion exists in the surface shape of the H-DM when the environment temperature changes. Thus it can be seen the TID could be well corrected by the H-DM itself, and thereby the environmental adaptability of the DM could be improved substantially.

Deformable mirror resolution-matching-based two-stage wavefront sensorless adaptive optics method.

In high-power laser facilities, the application of a traditional wavefront control method is limited under the influence of a continuous phase plate (CPP). In order to obtain a satisfactory far-field intensity distribution at the target of the beamline with the CPP, a novel deformable mirror (DM) resolution-matching-based two-stage wavefront sensorless adaptive optics method is proposed and demonstrated. The principles of the DM resolution-matching method and two-stage wavefront sensorless adaptive optics method are introduced, respectively. Based on the numerical model, the matching relationship between the actuator space of the DM and the spatial period of the CPP is investigated. By using the resolution-matched DM, the feasibility of the two-stage wavefront sensorless adaptive optics method is numerically and experimentally verified. Both the numerical and the experimental results show that the presented DM resolution-matching-based two-stage wavefront sensorless adaptive optics method could achieve the target focal spot control under the influence of the CPP, and the profile and the intensity uniformity of the corrected focal spot are optimized close to the designed ideal focal spot.

Simultaneous measurement of displacement, pitch, and yaw angles of a cavity output mirror based on phase measuring deflectometry.

Accurate and high dynamic range measurement of the three attitude variations (i.e., displacement, pitch, yaw angles) has been widely researched based on various approaches to meet different application requirements. However, none of the existing methods can detect these three attitude variations at the same time. This paper proposes a method based on a classical phase measuring deflectometry (PMD) system and a double iteration algorithm to simultaneously measure the three variations of the output mirror in a laser resonator. The relationship between the attitude variations and the lateral displacement parameters (LDP) of the imaged structural fringes is derived in the PMD system. Through the established relationship, the attitude variations could be calculated once the LDP are detected. Furthermore, a two-step measuring scheme combining the four-step shifting phase and the color-coded fringe is proposed to effectively detect the LDP. Finally, an experiment is conducted to verify the feasibility of the proposed method.

High precision wavefront correction using an influence function optimization method based on a hybrid adaptive optics system.

A hybrid adaptive optics (AO) system with an influence function (IF) optimization method is presented for high precision wavefront correction of a traditional Shack-Hartmann AO system. The hybrid AO system consists of a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (SHWFS) and a deflectometry system (DS) to measure the wavefront of the laser beam and the IF of the deformable mirror, respectively. An IF optimization method is used to generate a hybrid IF (H-IF) through a position-calibration algorithm and a resolution-conversion algorithm by use of the original IFs measured by the SHWFS (S-IF) and the DS (D-IF). Configuration of the hybrid AO system is introduced. Principles and calculation results of the IF optimization method are presented. Comparison of the wavefront correction ability between the H-IF and the original IF is carried out in simulation. Closed-loop performance of the hybrid AO system using the H-IF is investigated in experiment. Simulation and experiment results show that for a traditional Shack-Hartmann AO system, the H-IF has better correction ability than the original S-IF and the IF optimization method could help improve closed-loop performance without sacrificing the simplicity of the system structure and the rapidity of the closed-loop correction.

Association of biobehavioral factors with non-coding RNAs in cervical cancer.

In order to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the biobehavioral factors responsible for cervical cancer from the perspective of lncRNAs. Tumor samples were obtained from patients with stage Ib-IIb squamous cervical cancer, which were divided into high- and low-risk groups according to biobehavioral risk factors. A lncRNA + mRNA microarray was performed, and the results were validated using qRT-PCR. Gene ontology (GO), pathway, and lncRNA-mRNA co-expression analysis were performed to predict the potential functions of the differentially expressed transcripts. 1,621 lncRNAs and 1,345 mRNAs were found to be differentially expressed between the high-risk and low-risk groups. The results of the qR-TPCR validation were in 100% agreement with the microarray analysis results. GO analysis revealed that the transcripts showing significantly different expression were mainly associated with various aspects of immune response. Pathway analysis indicated that systemic lupus erythematosus signaling was the most significantly down-regulated pathway in the high-risk group. Co-expression analysis indicated NONHSAT002712, NONHSAT095060, and TCONS_00026535 had significant correlations with ZNF683 and BTLA, which were found to be associated with the GO term "adaptive immune response". The levels of genome-wide lncRNAs are significantly altered in cervical tumors from patients with higher biobehavioral risk factors.

Beam alignment based on two-dimensional power spectral density of a near-field image.

Beam alignment is crucial to high-power laser facilities and is used to adjust the laser beams quickly and accurately to meet stringent requirements of pointing and centering. In this paper, a novel alignment method is presented, which employs data processing of the two-dimensional power spectral density (2D-PSD) for a near-field image and resolves the beam pointing error relative to the spatial filter pinhole directly. Combining this with a near-field fiducial mark, the operation of beam alignment is achieved. It is experimentally demonstrated that this scheme realizes a far-field alignment precision of approximately 3% of the pinhole size. This scheme adopts only one near-field camera to construct the alignment system, which provides a simple, efficient, and low-cost way to align lasers.

Process-oriented adaptive optics control method in the multi-pass amplifiers.

In this talk, we propose and demonstrate the process-oriented adaptive optics (AO) wavefront control method, for optimizing the beam quality in the multi-pass amplifiers. Different from the conventional target-oriented wavefront control approach, the novel method divides the aberration correction process into several steps, to optimize the wavefront quality in time during the courses of the beam's transport and amplification. The experimental results show that the proposed method can effectively prevent the beam quality from worsening and ensure the successful reality of multi-pass amplification, so it has obvious advantages both in efficiency and accuracy over the traditional target-oriented method.

Optical zooming based on focusing grating in direct drive ICF.

In direct drive ICF, optical zooming is an effective way to mitigate cross-beam energy transfer and increase the hydrodynamic efficiency, by reducing the spot size of the laser beams while target compressing. In this paper, a novel optical zooming scheme is proposed, which employs a focusing grating to focus the broadband laser pulse, changing the spot size on the target within single beamlet. Experimentally, a focusing grating with clean aperture of 40-mm × 40-mm placed after the collimated light successfully realized the peak-valley of defocusing wavefront distribution of 0.73 µm as the wavelength ranging from 1052.43 nm to 1053.23 nm. Extended to the full-sized focusing grating with laser beam of 360-mm × 360-mm, it is derived that the focal spot reduction reaches to 21.8% with the 3rd harmonic light ranging from 350.81 nm to 351.08 nm, decreasing from 375 µm to 294 µm with 300 µm shaping continuous phase plate.

Shannon entropy method of small-scale self-focusing assessment in high-power laser systems.

Through analysis of near-field beam profiles, we propose a method using Shannon entropy to assess the development of small-scale self-focusing during laser propagation and amplification in high-power laser systems. In this method, the entropy curve that corresponds to increasing B integral displays an evident turning point at which small-scale self-focusing starts to rapidly develop. In contrast to classical methods using contrast, modulation, or power spectral density, the proposed method provides the B integral criterion more clearly and objectively. This approach is an optimization method that can be utilized in the design and operation of high-power laser systems.

Plasma genistein and risk of prostate cancer in Chinese population.

OBJECTIVES: Genistein is one of the main soy isoflavones in our daily diet. There were studies proving that high-dietary intake of genistein may relate to the low morbidity and mortality of prostate cancer (PCa) in the Asian population. Since there were few studies of plasma genistein level in the Chinese population, we performed this study to preliminarily evaluate the associations among plasma genistein, epidemiologic factors and PCa in a Chinese population. METHODS: Between 2012 and 2013, 100 men over the age of 40 underwent prostate biopsy for PCa at Huashan Hospital, Shanghai, China. Clinical information, epidemiologic information and blood samples were collected prior to biopsy for each patient. All patients underwent 10-core ultrasound-guided transperineal prostate biopsy, and the pathology results were collected after biopsy. We measured the plasma genistein concentration of the blood samples and analyzed the results along with the clinical and epidemiologic information. RESULTS: Among the 100 patients, 46 (46.0 %) were diagnosed with PCa. The median plasma genistein concentration of non-PCa patients (728.6 ng/ml) was significantly higher than that of PCa patients (513.0 ng/ml) (P < 0.05). In the univariate analysis, we found that age and smoking history were related to PCa (P < 0.05). In the multivariate analysis, we found that age, smoking history and plasma genistein were related to PCa (P < 0.05). The age-adjusted odds ratio of PCa risk comparing plasma genistein level above median to that below median was 0.31 (95 % CI 0.13-0.71). CONCLUSION: Our study suggested that high concentration of plasma genistein level may contribute to the low incidence of prostate cancer in Chinese population.