FPIA: A database for gene fusion profiling and interactive analyses.

As one of the hallmarks of cancer, gene fusions play an important role in tumorigenesis, and have been established as biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Although recent years have witnessed the development of gene fusion databases, a tool with interactive analytic functions remains lacking. Here, we introduce fusion profiling interactive analysis (FPIA), a web server to perform interactive and customizable analysis on fusion genes. With this platform, researchers can easily explore fusion-associated biological and molecular differences including gene expression, tumor purity and ploidy, mutation, copy number variations, protein expression, immune cell infiltration, stemness, telomere length, microsatellite instability, survival and novel peptides based on 33 cancer types from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data. Currently, it contains 31 633 fusion events from 6910 patients. FPIA complements the existing gene fusion annotation databases with its multiomics analytic capacity, integrated analysis features, customized analysis selection and user-friendly design. The comprehensive data analyses by FPIA will greatly facilitate data mining, hypothesis generation and therapeutic target discovery. FPIA is available at http://bioinfo-sysu.com/fpia.

A Study on the Efficiency of Tourism Poverty Alleviation in Ethnic Regions Based on the Staged DEA Model.

Poverty alleviation through tourism is an important way for China to achieve targeted poverty alleviation and win the battle of poverty alleviation. As a region with deep poverty and great difficulty in poverty alleviation, whether tourism development has injected key impetus into ethnic minority areas needs to be tested by both qualitative analysis and quantitative measurement. This paper takes eight ethnic provinces (regions) in China as an example to conduct an empirical study. Based on the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)-BCC model and Malmquist index, it evaluates the tourism investment and tourism poverty alleviation efficiency of the ethnic regions in the two stages of tourism poverty alleviation, and analyzes them by classification. The results of the study show: (1) The pure technical efficiency in the first stage is relatively high, but the total factor productivity of each region is declining; (2) The pure technical efficiency in the second stage is also relatively high, but the scale efficiency is low, and the change rate of total factor productivity of the provinces in China has increased significantly; (3) The "double high" type includes Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, and Guizhou, and the "double low" type includes Qinghai, Yunnan, Tibet, Xinjiang, and Ningxia. The results of the study generally show that tourism poverty alleviation has brought about the improvement of the living standards of residents and the development of local economy, but the efficiency of tourism poverty alleviation needs to be improved. On this basis, the article puts forward corresponding improvement measures, in order to further help the ethnic minority areas get rid of poverty in a comprehensive way by promoting the efficient and sustainable development of tourism.

Macrophages activate mesenchymal stem cells to acquire cancer-associated fibroblast-like features resulting in gastric epithelial cell lesions and malignant transformation in vitro.

The majority of premalignant gastric lesions develop in the mucosa that has been modified by chronic inflammation. As components of the gastritis microenvironment, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and macrophages are critically involved in the initiation and development of the chronic gastritis-associated gastric epithelial lesions/malignancy process. However, in this process, the underlying mechanism of macrophages interacting with MSCs, particularly the effect of macrophages on MSCs phenotype and function remains to be elucidated. The present study revealed that human umbilical cord-derived MSCs were induced to differentiate into cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) phenotype by co-culture with macrophages (THP-1 cells) in vitro, and which resulted in gastric epithelial lesions/potential malignancy via epithelial-mesenchymal transition-like changes. The results of the present study indicated that macrophages could induce MSCs to acquire CAF-like features and a pro-inflammatory phenotype to remodel the inflammatory microenvironment, which could potentiate oncogenic transformation of gastric epithelium cells. The present study provides potential targets and options for inflammation-associated gastric cancer prevention and intervention.

Exposure to fluoride in drinking water and hip fracture risk: a meta-analysis of observational studies.

BACKGROUND: Many observational studies have shown that exposure to fluoride in drinking water is associated with hip fracture risk. However, the findings are varied or even contradictory. In this work, we performed a meta-analysis to assess the relationship between fluoride exposure and hip fracture risk. METHODS: PubMed and EMBASE databases were searched to identify relevant observational studies from the time of inception until March 2014 without restrictions. Data from the included studies were extracted and analyzed by two authors. Summary relative risks (RRs) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were pooled using random- or fixed-effects models as appropriate. Sensitivity analyses and meta-regression were conducted to explore possible explanations for heterogeneity. Finally, publication bias was assessed. RESULTS: Fourteen observational studies involving thirteen cohort studies and one case-control study were included in the meta-analysis. Exposure to fluoride in drinking water does not significantly increase the incidence of hip fracture (RRs, 1.05; 95% CIs, 0.96-1.15). Sensitivity analyses based on adjustment for covariates, effect measure, country, sex, sample size, quality of Newcastle-Ottawa Scale scores, and follow-up period validated the strength of the results. Meta-regression showed that country, gender, quality of Newcastle-Ottawa Scale scores, adjustment for covariates and sample size were not sources of heterogeneity. Little evidence of publication bias was observed. CONCLUSION: The present meta-analysis suggests that chronic fluoride exposure from drinking water does not significantly increase the risk of hip fracture. Given the potential confounding factors and exposure misclassification, further large-scale, high-quality studies are needed to evaluate the association between exposure to fluoride in drinking water and hip fracture risk.