Investigation of the Effect of Graphene Oxide on the Properties and Microstructure of Clay-Cement Composite Grouting Materials.

Reductions in bleeding rates and bulk shrinkage of grouting repair materials comprise the key to solving the leakage of earth-rock dams. In this paper, an anti-seepage grouting material for earth-rock dam was developed by introducing mineral admixtures and graphene oxide (GO) nano sheets into low-cost clay-cement grouting materials and by adding polycarboxylate superplasticizers (PCs) to improve slurry viscosity. The experimental results show that the shear stress and viscosity of the slurry increase with the increase in GO concentration, and the slurry has a certain thixotropy. GO can provide a platform to promote the formation of hydration products and fill the pores of clay particles due to its high specific surface area and low volume; in this paper, the microstructure of clay-cement-graphene oxide (CCGO) grouting materials were improved. Therefore, the bleeding rate, bulk shrinkage rate, setting time and unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of the sample were macroscopically improved. In particular, the bleeding rate and bulk shrinkage rate were shown to be 0% when the content of GO reached 1.08 g/kg. Thus, the grouting anti-seepage and reinforcement performance of CCGO grouting materials were improved.

Impact of Oral Hygiene on Prognosis in Patients With Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Lower Gingiva.

Objective: We aimed to analyze the significance of oral hygiene in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the lower gingiva. Methods: Oral hygiene was assessed using a questionnaire by calculating the oral health (OH) score and the dental care (DC) score. The association of oral hygiene with clinical pathologic variables, disease free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS) was analyzed. Results: Four out of 53 non-smokers and 19 out of 90 current or former smokers had an OH score of 6 (statistically significant difference, p = 0.036). Fifteen out of 63 patients with a T3/T4 tumor and 8 out of 80 patients with a T1/T2 tumor had an OH score of 6 (statistically significant difference, p = 0.026). Similar statistically significant findings were noted with respect to the DC scores, smoking status, and tumor stage. Among patients with an OH score of 0-5, the 5-year DFS and OS rates were 55 and 50%, respectively, and among patients with an OH score >5, they were 46 and 43%, respectively (both differences statistically significant, p < 0.05). Among patients with a DC score of 0-2, the 5-year DFS and OS rates were 69 and 51%, respectively and among patients with a DC score >2, they were 50 and 47%, respectively (both differences statistically significant, p < 0.05). Cox model confirmed OH and DC scores as independent factors affecting the DFS and OS. Conclusion: Poor oral hygiene was associated with decreased DFS and OS.

lncRNA LINC01296 Promotes Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Development by Binding with SRSF1.

OBJECTIVE: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common malignant tumor of the head and neck, with strong local invasiveness and cervical lymph node metastasis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of LINC01296 in oral squamous cell carcinoma and its possible mechanism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: GEPAI database analysis and clinical samples were used to detect the expression of LINC01296 in head and neck cancer. In vivo experiment, MTT, clone formation assay, and transwell were used to detect the proliferation, migration, and invasion of oral squamous cell carcinoma. The effect of LINC01296 on EMT was detected by western blot and qRT-PCR to measure the expression of epithelial and mesenchymal phenotypic markers. BALB/c nude mice were used to carry out in vitro treatment experiment. In terms of mechanism, the binding relationship between LINC01296 and SRSF1 was predicted and verified by the RBPDB database and RNA pull-down assay. RESULTS: LINC01296 was highly expressed in clinical samples and cell lines of oral squamous cell carcinoma. Overexpression of LINC01296 promoted the proliferation, invasion, and migration of oral squamous cell carcinoma cells and accelerated the formation of xenografts, while silencing LINC01296 inhibited tumor progression. In mechanism, LINC01296 plays a tumor-promoting role by binding to SRSF1 protein. CONCLUSION: LINC01296 promotes malignant lesions in oral squamous cell carcinoma by binding to SRSF1 protein, which provides important experimental data and theoretical basis for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Exosomal miR-200c suppresses chemoresistance of docetaxel in tongue squamous cell carcinoma by suppressing TUBB3 and PPP2R1B.

BACKGROUND: Chemoresistance is the main challenge for treating tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC). MiR-200c is an important regulator of chemoresistance. Exosomes are a promising molecule-delivery system for cancer treatment. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the role of miR-200c in chemoresistance of TSCC and whether exosomes could effectively deliver miR-200c to chemo-resistant cells and regulate cellular activities. RESULTS: The results showed that the downregulation of miR-200c increased resistance to DTX, migration, and invasion and decreased apoptosis, which was reversed by the overexpression of miR-200c. The NTECs-derived exosomes transported miR-200c to HSC-3DR, increasing the sensitivity to DTX in vitro and in vivo. Also, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and DNA damage responses were involved in DTX resistance. Furthermore, miR-200c regulated DTX resistance by targeting TUBB3 and PPP2R1B. CONCLUSION: Exosome-mediated miR-200c delivery may be an effective and promising strategy to treat chemoresistance in TSCC. METHODS: Docetaxel (DTX) resistant HSC-3 cells (HSC-3DR) were transfected with miR-200c lentivirus and cocultured with exosomes derived from normal tongue epithelial cells (NTECs) that were overexpressed with miR-200c. The roles of miR-200c and exosomal miR-200c in vitro and in vivo were determined by RNA-Seq, qRT-PCR, western blots, transmission electron microscopy, and flow cytometry, fluorescence, CCK8, Transwell, and wound healing assays.

Study on gene expression patterns and functional pathways of peripheral blood monocytes reveals potential molecular mechanism of surgical treatment for periodontitis.

BACKGROUND: Periodontitis is a chronic inflammation of periodontal supporting tissue caused by local factors. Periodontal surgery can change the gene expression of peripheral blood mononuclear cells. However, little is known about the potential mechanism of surgical treatment for periodontitis. AIM: To explore the potential molecular mechanism of surgical treatment for periodontitis. METHODS: First, based on the expression profiles of genes related to surgical treatment for periodontitis, a set of expression disorder modules related to surgical treatment for periodontitis were obtained by enrichment analysis. Subsequently, based on crosstalk analysis, we proved that there was a significant crosstalk relationship between module 3 and module 5. Finally, based on predictive analysis of multidimensional regulators, we identified a series of regulatory factors, such as endogenous genes, non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), and transcription factors, which have potential regulatory effects on periodontitis. RESULTS: A total of 337 genes related to surgical treatment for periodontitis were obtained, and 3896 genes related to periodontitis were amplified. Eight expression modules of periodontitis were obtained, involving the aggregation of 2672 gene modules. These modules are mainly involved in G-protein coupled receptor signaling pathway, coupled to cyclic nucleotide second messenger, and adenylate cyclase-modulating G-protein coupled receptor signaling pathway. In addition, eight endogenous genes (including EGF, RPS27A, and GNB3) were screened by network connectivity analysis. Finally, based on this set of potential dysfunction modules, 94 transcription factors (including NFKB1, SP1, and STAT3) and 1198 ncRNAs (including MALAT1, CRNDE, and ANCR) were revealed. These core regulators are thought to be involved in the potential molecular mechanism of periodontitis after surgical treatment. CONCLUSION: Based on the results of this study, we can show biologists and pharmacists a new idea to reveal the potential molecular mechanism of surgical treatment for periodontitis, and provide valuable reference for follow-up treatment programs.

Effects of the shape distribution of aerosol particles on their volumetric scattering properties and the radiative transfer through the atmosphere that includes polarization.

In this paper, we investigate the effects of shape distribution of aerosol particles on the volumetric scattering properties, as well as the radiance and polarization distributions of skylight, by numerical simulations. The results demonstrate that the shape distribution indeed exerts a significant influence on the skylight degree of linear polarization. The skylight polarization calculated assuming the microscope-measured shape distributions is distinct from that using the inversion-based shape distributions. The significant effects will influence the retrieval of the sphericity of aerosols based on the sun-sky radiometer measurements. Our results suggest that using representative shape distributions obtained by direct microscopic observations of aerosol samples captured in the natural atmosphere has a high potential to improve the retrieval of the aerosol shape parameter.

[Study of the effect of surface reflectance on atmospheric CO2 retrieval and ratio spectrometry].

Retrieving atmospheric CO2 concentration from space-based infrared measurements is an ill-posed problem, and the uncertainty of ground properties is an important impacting factor. For the requirement of high precision retrieval of atmospheric CO2, the effects of surface reflectance must be corrected. Thus a surface reflectance correction method is proposed. In this correction method, the selection of non-CO2 absorption (off-line) channel is an important part, so several different types of off-line channels were compared and analyzed. We finally found that averaging all data of multi-channels as off-line channel is the best way, in which the retrieval precision is highest and dispersion is lowest, because the advantage is that averaging many data can reduce random error. The effects of surface reflectance on CO2 retrieval decreased significantly after correction using ratio spectrometry combined with the selected off-line channel, and CO2 retrieval precision improved greatly.