Welchlaw7143

Historic references, such as those documented here, are invaluable for providing conservation targets and for contextualizing disturbance and broad scale ecosystem change.In the era of intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), it is important to analyse the prognostic value of deficient mismatch repair (dMMR) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). In this study, in pretreatment biopsies of 69 patients with stage II-IVa NPC, the expression levels of MMR proteins, including MLH1, MSH2, MSH6 and PMS2, were assessed by immunohistochemistry (IHC). The median follow-up time was 37.5 months (3.1-87.4 months). 50.7% of cases (35/69) showed preserved expression of all 4 MMR proteins, which was interpreted as proficient mismatch repair (pMMR). Only 1.5% of cases (1/69) lost expression of all 4 MMR proteins, 26.1% of cases (18/69) have PMS2 loss alone and 21.7% of cases (15/69) lost expression of both PMS2 and MLH1. Thus, 49.3% of cases (34/69) lost expression of one or more MMR proteins, which was interpreted as dMMR. There was no significant difference (P > 0.05) in terms of sex, age, clinical stage, T category, N category or therapy regimens between the dMMR and pMMR groups. The multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that dMMR was an independent significant prognostic factor for distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) (dMMR vs pMMR P = 0.01, HR = 0.25, 95% CI 0.09~0.75). Therefore, NPC patients with dMMR had significantly superior DMFS compared with patients with pMMR. It can be expected that dMMR will become a new independent prognostic factor for NPC.Despite successful clinical application of non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure plasma (APP), the details of the molecular mechanisms underlying APP-inducible biological responses remain ill-defined. We previously reported that exposure of 3T3L1 cells to APP-irradiated buffer raised the cytoplasmic free Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) concentration by eliciting Ca2+ influx in a manner sensitive to transient receptor potential (TRP) channel inhibitors. However, the precise identity of the APP-responsive channel molecule(s) remains unclear. In the present study, we aimed to clarify channel molecule(s) responsible for indirect APP-responsive [Ca2+]i rises. siRNA-mediated silencing experiments revealed that TRPA1 and TRPV1 serve as the major APP-responsive Ca2+ channels in 3T3L1 cells. Conversely, ectopic expression of either TRPA1 or TRPV1 in APP-unresponsive C2C12 cells actually triggered [Ca2+]i elevation in response to indirect APP exposure. Desensitization experiments using 3T3L1 cells revealed APP responsiveness to be markedly suppressed after pretreatment with allyl isothiocyanate or capsaicin, TRPA1 and TRPV1 agonists, respectively. APP exposure also desensitized the cells to these chemical agonists, indicating the existence of a bi-directional heterologous desensitization property of APP-responsive [Ca2+]i transients mediated through these TRP channels. Mutational analyses of key cysteine residues in TRPA1 (Cys421, Cys621, Cys641, and Cys665) and in TRPV1 (Cys258, Cys363, and Cys742) have suggested that multiple reactive oxygen and nitrogen species are intricately involved in activation of the channels via a broad range of modifications involving these cysteine residues. Taken together, these observations allow us to conclude that both TRPA1 and TRPV1 channels play a pivotal role in evoking indirect APP-dependent [Ca2+]i responses.Applications of correlated vanadium dioxides VO2(A) and VO2(B) in electrical devices are limited due to the lack of effective methods for tuning their fundamental properties. We find that the resistivity of VO2(A) and VO2(B) is widely tunable by doping them with tungsten ions. When x less then 0.1 in V1-xWxO2(A), the resistivity decreases drastically by four orders of magnitude with increasing x, while that of V1-xWxO2(B) shows the opposite behaviour. Using spectroscopic ellipsometry and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, we propose that correlation effects are modulated by either chemical-strain-induced redistribution of V-V distances or electron-doping-induced band filling in V1-xWxO2(A), while electron scattering induced by disorder plays a more dominant role in V1-xWxO2(B). The tunable resistivity makes correlated VO2(A) and VO2(B) appealing for next-generation electronic devices.The toxicity of lead perovskite hampers the commercialization of perovskite-based photovoltaics. While tin perovskite is a promising alternative, the facile oxidation of tin(II) to tin(IV) causes a high density of defects, resulting in lower solar cell efficiencies. Here, we show that tin(0) nanoparticles in the precursor solution can scavenge tin(IV) impurities, and demonstrate that this treatment leads to effectively tin(IV)-free perovskite films with strong photoluminescence and prolonged decay lifetimes. These nanoparticles are generated by the selective reaction of a dihydropyrazine derivative with the tin(II) fluoride additive already present in the precursor solution. Using this nanoparticle treatment, the power conversion efficiency of tin-based solar cells reaches 11.5%, with an open-circuit voltage of 0.76 V. Our nanoparticle treatment is a simple and broadly effective method that improves the purity and electrical performance of tin perovskite films.Feature selection is demanded in many modern scientific research problems that use high-dimensional data. A typical example is to identify gene signatures that are related to a certain disease from high-dimensional gene expression data. The expression of genes may have grouping structures, for example, a group of co-regulated genes that have similar biological functions tend to have similar expressions. Thus it is preferable to take the grouping structure into consideration to select features. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian Robit regression method with Hyper-LASSO priors (shortened by BayesHL) for feature selection in high dimensional genomic data with grouping structure. The main features of BayesHL include that it discards more aggressively unrelated features than LASSO, and it makes feature selection within groups automatically without a pre-specified grouping structure. We apply BayesHL in gene expression analysis to identify subsets of genes that contribute to the 5-year survival outcome of endometrial cancer (EC) patients. Results show that BayesHL outperforms alternative methods (including LASSO, group LASSO, supervised group LASSO, penalized logistic regression, random forest, neural network, XGBoost and knockoff) in terms of predictive power, sparsity and the ability to uncover grouping structure, and provides insight into the mechanisms of multiple genetic pathways leading to differentiated EC survival outcome.An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.Programmed ribosomal frameshifting (PRF) is the controlled slippage of the translating ribosome to an alternative frame. This process is widely employed by human viruses such as HIV and SARS coronavirus and is critical for their replication. Here, we developed a high-throughput approach to assess the frameshifting potential of a sequence. We designed and tested >12,000 sequences based on 15 viral and human PRF events, allowing us to systematically dissect the rules governing ribosomal frameshifting and discover novel regulatory inputs based on amino acid properties and tRNA availability. We assessed the natural variation in HIV gag-pol frameshifting rates by testing >500 clinical isolates and identified subtype-specific differences and associations between viral load in patients and the optimality of PRF rates. We devised computational models that accurately predict frameshifting potential and frameshifting rates, including subtle differences between HIV isolates. This approach can contribute to the development of antiviral agents targeting PRF.An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.Nanostructure, chemical composition and size distribution of aerosols have prime important effects on their efficiency in heterogeneous ice nucleation (HIN). The ice nucleation usually requires active sites in the aerosols in order to act as ice nuclei (IN). In this study, HIN and probable active sites of the graphene-graphene oxide nanoparticles (GGON), obtained from graphite oxide by low temperature thermal shock (LTTS), were investigated. Characteristics and size distribution of the GGON were identified using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and image processing of the results, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectra and X-ray diffraction (XRD) of their sheets. The FTIR spectra indicate stronger carbon-oxygen bonds in the samples obtained by LTTS. In addition, maximum size distribution of the GGON was ranged around 160-180 nm. After introducing these particles in the cloud chamber, HIN has occurred and ice crystals were formed. Size distribution of crystals were obtained from image processing of the plates, where covered by a thin layer of Formvar, showed the number of ice crystals in the GGON were increased as temperature increased from -20 °C to -10 °C. In addition, two possible mechanisms of asymmetry and deformation in ice crystals of the GGON were described.The stoichiometric photocatalytic reaction of CO2 with H2O is one of the great challenges in photocatalysis. Here, we construct a Cu2O-Pt/SiC/IrOx composite by a controlled photodeposition and then an artificial photosynthetic system with Nafion membrane as diaphragm separating reduction and oxidation half-reactions. The artificial system exhibits excellent photocatalytic performance for CO2 reduction to HCOOH and H2O oxidation to O2 under visible light irradiation. DNA Methyltransferase inhibitor The yields of HCOOH and O2 meet almost stoichiometric ratio and are as high as 896.7 and 440.7 μmol g-1 h-1, respectively. The high efficiencies of CO2 reduction and H2O oxidation in the artificial system are attributed to both the direct Z-scheme electronic structure of Cu2O-Pt/SiC/IrOx and the indirect Z-scheme spatially separated reduction and oxidation units, which greatly prolong lifetime of photogenerated electrons and holes and prevent the backward reaction of products. This work provides an effective and feasible strategy to increase the efficiency of artificial photosynthesis.Infections are a common complication in patients with many hematologic malignancies, however, whether patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) also are at an increased risk of infections is largely unknown. To assess the risk of serious infections, we performed a large population-based matched cohort study in Sweden including 8 363 MPN patients and 32,405 controls using high-quality registers between the years 1992-2013 with follow-up until 2015. The hazard ratio (HR) of any infection was 2.0 (95% confidence interval 1.9-2.0), of bacterial infections 1.9 (1.8-2.0), and of viral infections 2.1 (1.9-2.3). One of the largest risk increases was that of sepsis, HR 2.6 (2.4-2.9). The HR of any infection was highest in primary myelofibrosis 3.7 (3.2-4.1), and significantly elevated in all MPN subtypes; 1.7 (1.6-1.8) in polycythemia vera and 1.7 (1.5-1.8) in essential thrombocythemia. There was no significant difference in risk of infections between untreated patients and patients treated with hydroxyurea or interferon-α during the years 2006-2013.