Invisible emotion magnification algorithm (IEMA) for real-time micro-expression recognition with graph-based features

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The interest in real-time micro-expression recognition has increased with the current trend in human-computer interaction applications. Presently, there are...     

Adaptation to Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Enhances Resistance of Oral Cancer Cells to Cisplatin by Up-Regulating Polymerase η and Increasing DNA Repair Efficiency

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response is an adaptive program to cope with cellular stress that disturbs the function and homeostasis of ER, which commonly occurs during cancer progression to late stage. Late-stage cancers, mostly requiring chemotherapy, often develop treatment resistance. Chemoresistance has been linked to ER stress response; however, most of the evidence has come from studies that correlate the expression of stress markers with poor prognosis or demonstrate proapoptosis by the knockdown of stress-responsive genes. Since ER stress in cancers usually persists and is essentially not induced by genetic manipulations, we used low doses of ER stress inducers at levels that allowed cell adaptation to occur in order to investigate the effect of stress response on chemoresistance. We found that prolonged tolerable ER stress promotes mesenchymal–epithelial transition, slows cell-cycle progression, and delays the S-phase exit. Consequently, cisplatin-induced apoptosis was significantly decreased in stress-adapted cells, implying their acquisition of cisplatin resistance. Molecularly, we found that proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) ubiquitination and the expression of polymerase η, the main polymerase responsible for translesion synthesis across cisplatin-DNA damage, were up-regulated in ER stress-adaptive cells, and their enhanced cisplatin resistance was abrogated by the knockout of polymerase η. We also found that a fraction of p53 in stress-adapted cells was translocated to the nucleus, and that these cells exhibited a significant decline in the level of cisplatin-DNA damage. Consistently, we showed that the nuclear p53 coincided with strong positivity of glucose-related protein 78 (GRP78) on immunostaining of clinical biopsies, and the cisplatin-based chemotherapy was less effective for patients with high levels of ER stress. Taken together, this study uncovers that adaptation to ER stress enhances DNA repair and damage tolerance, with which stressed cells gain resistance to chemotherapeutics.     

Optimal Water Allocation of Surface and Ground Water Resources Under Climate Change with WEAP and IWOA Modeling

Water Resources Management - The water evaluation and planning (WEAP) approach and the invasive weed optimization algorithm (IWOA) are herein employed to determine the optimal operating policies in...     

The Role of Cell Cycle Regulators in Cell Survival—Dual Functions of Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 20 and p21Cip1/Waf1

The mammalian cell cycle is important in controlling normal cell proliferation and the development of various diseases. Cell cycle checkpoints are well regulated by both activators and inhibitors to avoid cell growth disorder and cancerogenesis. Cyclin dependent kinase 20 (CDK20) and p21^Cip1/Waf1 are widely recognized as key regulators of cell cycle checkpoints controlling cell proliferation/growth and involving in developing multiple cancers. Emerging evidence demonstrates that these two cell cycle regulators also play an essential role in promoting cell survival independent of the cell cycle, particularly in those cells with a limited capability of proliferation, such as cardiomyocytes. These findings bring new insights into understanding cytoprotection in these tissues. Here, we summarize the new progress of the studies on these two molecules in regulating cell cycle/growth, and their new roles in cell survival by inhibiting various cell death mechanisms. We also outline their potential implications in cancerogenesis and protection in heart diseases. This information renews the knowledge in molecular natures and cellular functions of these regulators, leading to a better understanding of the pathogenesis of the associated diseases and the discovery of new therapeutic strategies.     

Toward optimization of a robust low-cost sulfonated-polyethersulfone containing layered double hydroxide for PEM fuel cells

Polyethersulphone (PES) is an aromatic thermoplastic, at low environmental impact, evaluated in this work as a promising candidate for new polymer electrolytes in the PEMFCs technology. A sulfonation procedure has been tuned in order to graft sulfonic acid groups on the polymer chains (sPES) and to make it hydrophilic. Homogeneous membranes with different polymer's sulfonation degrees (SD%) have demonstrated excellent mechanical properties and very low permeability toward methanol (important in the DMFCs), even if low proton conductivity. Nanocomposite sPES membranes were prepared by dispersion of highly hydrophilic lamellar particles such as layered double hydroxide (LDH) in the polymer. Deep investigations performed by a combination of PFG-NMR, EIS, XRD, DMA, and scanning electron microscopy have evidenced the exfoliation of the lamellae in polymer matrix. However, a certain anisotropy was evidenced both in the morphology and molecular diffusion, favored in the longitudinal direction (parallel to surface), while completely inhibited in the cross-section. This finding is most likely induced by the polymer structure, therefore particular attention must be paid to the choice of the filler and preparation of the composites. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47884.     

3D finite element simulation model of a chemiresistor gas sensor based on ZnO and graft comb copolymer integrated in a gas chamber

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - In this paper, chemiresistor sensor based on conductive polymer (regio-regular poly(3- hexyltiophene) (rr-P3HT) and zinc oxide (ZnO)...     

Effects of iron surface pretreatment on sorption and reduction kinetics of trichloroethylene in a closed batch system

The decline of trichloroethylene (TCE) in a metallic iron-water system results from the combination of reduction reaction and sorption onto iron surfaces. Sorption, particularly by highly impure iron, accelerates the removal of TCE from the aqueous phase, but delays the prevalence of steady-state conditions. In this case, an overly high value of reaction rate constant in the design of a treatment system would be used. In this work, the effects of an iron surface with 8.0% C, 6.1% O and 0.8% Si separately following HCl-washing and H2-reducing pretreatment on sorption and reduction rates were examined. The amounts of both aqueous and sorbed TCE were measured using a modified solvent-extraction method. TCE sorption onto an iron surface, as quantified by the Langmuir sorption maximum, followed the trend H2-reduced Fe0 > HCl-washed Fe0 > untreated Fe0 (0.887, 0.365 and 0.311 mg/g, respectively). Measurements of the concentration of sorbed TCE revealed that about 34-37% of the initial mass of TCE in the aqueous phase was removed by sorption by H2-reduced Fe0, 16-19% was removed by HCl-washed Fe0 and 13-16% was removed by untreated Fe0. A combination of new and previously reported data on cast iron's capacity to sorb TCE revealed a linear relationship between this capacity and the C fraction in the surface of the iron, with the coefficient of determination (r2) exceeding 0.99. The first-order observed rate constants (k(obs)) of the reduction of TCE in contact with Fe0 were obtained from the slope of a plot of total TCE loss rate (-dC(T)/dt) versus the amount of TCE in the aqueous phase (C(w)) using linear least-squares analysis. The k(obs) values were 0.080, 0.148 and 0.191 h(-1) for untreated, HCl-washed and H2-reduced Fe0, respectively. Normalized to iron surface area concentration, the specific rate constants (k(SA)) were 2.3 7x 10(-3) , 2.31 x 10(-3) and 5.62 x 10(-3) h(-1) m(-2) L, respectively. The results indicated that HCl-washing approximately doubled k(obs), primarily because of the increase in the surface area of the iron, and it slightly decreased k(SA) due to rapid corrosion during the rinsing process. Both the number of reactive sites and the sorption capacity per unit iron surface area through the H2-reducing pretreatment were increased due to the reduction of iron oxide layer and the carbonization of carbon-containing subjects on the iron's surface. Hence, the H2 reduction of cast iron promotes the removal of TCE from contaminated water by the concurrent sorption and reduction.     

Analysis of bacterial diversity in river biofilms using 16S rDNA PCR-DGGE: methodological settings and fingerprints interpretation

Reliability of bacterial diversity assessment using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis of 16S rDNA fragments was evaluated for a particular complex microbial assemblage: river epilithic biofilm. By comparing 3 routine protocols on replicates of one river biofilm sample, we found that common DNA extraction procedures gave comparable diversity (from 28.0 to 30.7 bands detected) and community composition (> 75% of homology) despite differences in the total amount of extracted DNA (from 0.9 to 4.2 microg). Therefore methodological improvements only concerned electrophoretic separation of DNA fragments (range of denaturing gradient from 35% to 70% and migration time=18h) and standardisation of DNA amounts used (PCR-template=50 ng, gel loading=700 ng). Using such a standardised methodology we found a good reproducibility of all steps of the procedure. When an Escherichia coli strain was introduced as a contaminant in a biofilm sample, we were able to recover ribotypes from the strain. As concerns fields sampling, a satisfactory repeatability of banding patterns from neighbouring pebbles (sampling point) allowed discriminating between the biofilm intrasite variability (various points from a cross-profile). These trials confirmed that PCR-DGGE is suitable to assess a reliable genetic fingerprint of epilithic biofilms in the river. Phylogenetic analysis of 40 partial sequences of 16S rDNA from DGGE gels of two sets of river biofilms samples proved evidences for the retrieval of DNA fragments related to phototroph Eukarya. However, in both cases plastidial 16S rDNA represented less than 25% of the analysed operational taxonomic units. Taking into account that Cyanobacteria, as members of the Bacteria, were also detected, sequence analysis of relevant bands from the pattern is required to target "bacteria", i.e. the functional group of prokaryotic microorganisms to which one commonly refers as a key component in sustaining the nutrient turnover.