CD26 Induces Colorectal Cancer Angiogenesis and Metastasis through CAV1/MMP1 Signaling

CD26 has been reported as a marker for colorectal cancer stem cells endowed with tumor-initiating properties and capable of colorectal cancer (CRC) metastasis. In this study, we investigated the functional effect of CD26 on CRC angiogenesis and metastasis, and the potential underlying mechanism. The functional effects of CD26 overexpression or repression were determined by a wound healing experiment, and cell migration and invasion assays in vitro and in mouse models. Differentially expressed genes regulated by CD26 were identified by genome-wide mRNA expression array and validated by quantitative PCR. CD26 functionally regulated CRC cell migration and invasion in vitro and angiogenesis and metastasis in vivo. Genome-wide mRNA expression array and qPCR showed that MMP1 was up-regulated in CD26+ subpopulation, and a subsequent experiment demonstrated the regulatory effect of CD26 on MMP1 in CRC cell lines with CD26 repression or overexpression. Furthermore, overexpression of CAV1 abrogated the CD26-regulated MMP1 induction in CRC cell lines. This study demonstrated the functional roles of CD26 in inducing CRC migration, invasion, angiogenesis and metastasis and identified the potential involvement of MMP1 and CAV1 in such process. CD26 is an attractive therapeutic target for combating tumor progression to improve the prognosis of CRC patients.     

A conflict-based priority dispatching rule and operation-based approaches to job shops

Job shop scheduling (JSS) problems consist of a set of machines and a collection of jobs to be scheduled. Each job consists of several operations with a specified processing order. In this paper, a job shop model problem is scheduled with the help of the Giffler and Thompson algorithm using a priority dispatching rule (PDR). A conflict based PDR is used to schedule the job shop model by using Genetic Algorithms (GAs). An iterative method is applied to the job model to find the optimal conflict-based PDR order and the operation sequence. The same job shop model is also scheduled based on an operation using simulated annealing (SA) and hybrid simulated annealing (HSA). A makespan of the job model is used as an objective. These four methods are considered as different solutions for each problem. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) is applied to test its significance.     

The JDTDOA algorithm applied to signal recovery: a performance analysis

This article suggests a novel method to retrieve a narrowband signal sent in a multipath environment with a delay spread considering ISI between symbols. The proposed method does not require any preamble nor known signal. Using the joint direction and time delay of arrivals estimation algorithm developed in prior work, the directions and time delays of arrival in the multipath channel are jointly estimated and associated while keeping a low computational cost. In this process, a MVDR beamformed copy of each arriving signal is created. The quality of these “pseudo copies” is evaluated and compared to the original direct and reflected signals in this work. Another beamforming method, the Moore–Penrose pseudoinverse, with better retrieval of the direct and reflected signals is also proposed. Using a simple delay-and-sum operation on the previously beamformed copies, it is possible to substantially improve the the system’s performance in terms of bit error rate. An approach using oversampling on the array antenna is introduced to improve performance. Numerical simulations are discussed to support theory.     

Polymer-based fabrication techniques for enclosed microchannels in biomedical applications

Investigations and analyses of body fluids like serum or whole blood are essential tasks in biomedical research in order to understand and diagnose diseases, to conduct pharmacological tests or to culture cells. Therefore, microfluidic systems provide a favorable tool for processing fluid samples as they allow downscaling of sample volumes and handling of single fluid components such as cells or proteins. For this reason, we present simple fabrication techniques for microchannel systems using polymer materials only. The demonstrated fabrication procedures are based on combinations of acrylic glass and the photo resists SU-8 and PerMX3020. On the one hand, these materials are low-priced compared to conventional silicon or glass. On the other hand, they have not shown any interaction with blood or other cell suspensions within the frame of our study. Furthermore, their transparency guarantees an easy observability of all processes within the system. Depending on the channel dimensions, different adhesion bonding techniques for closing of the systems are applied, whereas the fluidic interfaces are included by mechanical drilling. Summing up, we provide complete fabrication processes for fluidic systems which are simpler and more cost-effective than conventional methods and yet cope with all essential requirements for microfluidic applications.     

North–South divide: contrasting impacts of climate change on crop yields in Scotland and England

Effects of climate change on productivity of agricultural crops in relation to diseases that attack them are difficult to predict because they are complex and nonlinear. To investigate these crop–disease–climate interactions, UKCIP02 scenarios predicting UK temperature and rainfall under high- and low-CO₂ emission scenarios for the 2020s and 2050s were combined with a crop-simulation model predicting yield of fungicide-treated winter oilseed rape and with a weather-based regression model predicting severity of phoma stem canker epidemics. The combination of climate scenarios and crop model predicted that climate change will increase yield of fungicide-treated oilseed rape crops in Scotland by up to 0.5 t ha⁻¹ (15%). In contrast, in southern England the combination of climate scenarios, crop, disease and yield loss models predicted that climate change will increase yield losses from phoma stem canker epidemics to up to 50 per cent (1.5 t ha⁻¹) and greatly decrease yield of untreated winter oilseed rape. The size of losses is predicted to be greater for winter oilseed rape cultivars that are susceptible than for those that are resistant to the phoma stem canker pathogen Leptosphaeria maculans. Such predictions illustrate the unexpected, contrasting impacts of aspects of climate change on crop–disease interactions in agricultural systems in different regions.     

Efficient analysis and experimental verification of substrate‐integrated slab waveguides for wideband microwave applications

This article presents a substrate integrated waveguide, named the substrate‐integrated slab waveguide (SISW), which exhibits a wide operation bandwidth. It consists of an integrated rectangular waveguide filled with a periodically perforated dielectric medium. An efficient procedure has been developed for the calculation of the dispersion diagram of SISWs, based on the Floquet theorem, in conjunction with the segmentation technique and the boundary‐integral–resonant‐mode‐expansion (BI‐RME) method. Numerical and experimental results confirm the performance of these waveguides and the efficiency of the analysis method. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2005.     

A yang-mills type minimal coupling theory for materials with dislocations and disclinations

Noting that the group $\text{S0(3) ? T(3)}$ may be viewed as a 6-parameter gauge group that leaves the Lagrangian of elasticity theory invariant, the Yang-Mills universal gauge theory construction is used to erect a complete continuum theory of material bodies with dislocation and disclination fields. Breaking of the homogeneity of the action of $\text{S0(3)}$ is shown to give rise to disclinations and rotational dislocations while homogeneity breaking of $\text{T(3)}$ gives rise to translational dislocations. A rigorous justification for replacing displacement gradients by the components of the distortion tensor and Newtonian kinematic velocity by distortional velocity is obtained. Exact determinations are made of the elastic excess forces, the forces on dislocations and the forces on disclinations, and these forces are shown to be totally equilibrating in all instances. Implications of the theory are given and an analysis is made of the field equations and associated dispersion relations that obtain in a disclination free material in the linear elasticity approximation.     

Optical properties of Zitex in the infrared to submillimeter

The results of measurements of the refractive index and power attenuation coefficient of Zitex at 290, 77, and 4 K in the spectral region from 1 to 1000 microm are presented. Zitex is a porous Teflon sheet with a filling factor of approximately 50% and is manufactured in several varieties as a filter paper. Zitex is found to be an effective IR block, with thin (200-microm) sheets transmitting less than 1% in the 1-50-microm range while attenuating < or = 10% at wavelengths longer than 200 microm. Some variation in the cutoff wavelength is seen, tending to be a shorter-wavelength cutoff for a smaller pore size. In addition, the thermal conductivity of Zitex at cryogenic temperatures has been measured and is found to be roughly one half that of bulk Teflon. Finally, its dielectric constant has been measured in the submillimeter as n = 1.20, resulting in extremely low dielectric reflection losses. As a result, Zitex is particularly useful as an IR blocking filter in low-noise heterodyne receivers; in the millimeter-wave range (lambda > or = 850 microm or nu < or = 350 GHz) the attenuation of alpha < or = 0.01 cm(-1) for a 3.5-mm thickness filter of Zitex G125 would raise receiver noise temperatures by <1 K.     

Drinking Water Treatment Plant Design Incorporating Variability and Uncertainty

Both inherent natural variability and model parameter uncertainty must be considered in the development of robust and reliable designs for drinking water treatment. This study presents an optimization framework for investigating the effects of five variable influent parameters and three uncertain model parameters on the least-cost treatment plant configuration (contact, direct, or nonsweep conventional filtration) that reliably satisfies an effluent particulate matter concentration constraint. Incorporating variability and uncertainty within the decision-making framework generates information for investigating: (1) impacts on total cost and treatment reliability; (2) shifts on the least-cost treatment configuration for providing reliable treatment; and (3) the importance of the individual variable and uncertain parameter distributions for reliably satisfying an effluent water quality constraint. Increasing the magnitude of influent variability and model parameter uncertainty results in a greater expected design cost due, generally, to increases in process sizing required to reliably satisfy the effluent concentration constraint. The inclusion of variability and uncertainty can also produce a shift in the locations of the least-cost configuration regions, which are dependent on the expected influent water quality and the magnitude of variability and uncertainty. The additional information provided by incorporating the variable and uncertain parameters illustrates that parameter distributions related to the primary removal mechanism are critical, and that contact and direct filtration are more sensitive to variability and uncertainty than conventional filtration.     

基带SoC的系统解决方案

SoC设计的复杂度在不断增加,同时,市场的压力对产品的质量和交付时间都提出了更加苛刻的要求。本文将以TTPCom公司的CBEmacro3G调制解调器为例,介绍ARM公司在面对当今无线SoC芯片平台设计挑战时的解决方案。