Endoscopic Bilateral Nipple-sparing Mastectomy via a Single Axillary Incision with Immediate Pre-pectoral Implant-based Breast Reconstruction.

Oncoplastic breast surgery, with its focus on improving cosmetic outcomes while maintaining oncological safety, has fundamentally transformed the landscape of breast cancer surgical treatment, giving rise to an array of techniques for breast reconstruction. Nipple-sparing mastectomy (NSM) with immediate implant-based breast reconstruction (IBBR) has emerged as a cornerstone in managing early breast cancer. Aligned with the principles of minimally invasive surgery, recent years have witnessed the widespread integration of endoscopic approaches in breast surgery, encompassing procedures like endoscopic breast-conserving surgery (E-BCS) and endoscopic nipple-sparing mastectomy (E-NSM), among others. Capitalizing on the advantages of inconspicuous and shorter incisions, improved visibility, and the avoidance of radiation therapy, the popularity of E-NSM with IBBR is on the rise. However, conventional E-NSM with IBBR often requires two or more incisions, which can result in suboptimal cosmetic outcomes and even prosthesis loss.This paper presents a comprehensive account of the intricate surgical procedures involved in endoscopic bilateral nipple-sparing mastectomy with immediate pre-pectoral implant-based breast reconstruction. The insights shared are drawn from the collective experience of our institution. Notable benefits associated with the described surgical approach encompass enhanced cosmetic outcomes, improved postoperative quality of life, and enhanced physiological functions attributable to the application of pre-pectoral implant-based breast reconstruction through a single incision.

A Survey on Deep Active Learning: Recent Advances and New Frontiers.

Active learning seeks to achieve strong performance with fewer training samples. It does this by iteratively asking an oracle to label newly selected samples in a human-in-the-loop manner. This technique has gained increasing popularity due to its broad applicability, yet its survey papers, especially for deep active learning (DAL), remain scarce. Therefore, we conduct an advanced and comprehensive survey on DAL. We first introduce reviewed paper collection and filtering. Second, we formally define the DAL task and summarize the most influential baselines and widely used datasets. Third, we systematically provide a taxonomy of DAL methods from five perspectives, including annotation types, query strategies, deep model architectures, learning paradigms, and training processes, and objectively analyze their strengths and weaknesses. Then, we comprehensively summarize the main applications of DAL in natural language processing (NLP), computer vision (CV), data mining (DM), and so on. Finally, we discuss challenges and perspectives after a detailed analysis of current studies. This work aims to serve as a useful and quick guide for researchers in overcoming difficulties in DAL. We hope that this survey will spur further progress in this burgeoning field.

Insights into the complexity and functionality of plant virus protein phosphorylation.

Phosphorylation, the most extensive and pleiotropic form of protein post-translation modification, is central to cellular signal transduction. Throughout the extensive co-evolution of plant hosts and viruses, modifications to phosphorylation have served multiple purposes. Such modifications highlight the evolutionary trajectories of viruses and their hosts, with pivotal roles in regulation and refinement of host-virus interactions. In plant hosts, protein phosphorylation orchestrates immune responses, enhancing the activities of defense-related proteins such as kinases and transcription factors, thereby strengthening pathogen resistance in plants. Moreover, phosphorylation influences the interactions between host and viral proteins, altering viral spread and replication within host plants. In the context of plant viruses, protein phosphorylation controls key aspects of the infection cycle, including viral protein functionality and the interplay between viruses and host plant cells, leading to effects on viral accumulation and dissemination within plant tissues. Explorations of the nuances of protein phosphorylation in plant hosts and their interactions with viruses are particularly important. This review provides a systematic summary of the biological roles of the proteins of plant viruses carrying diverse genomes in regulating infection and host responses through changes in the phosphorylation status.

A robotic system for transthoracic puncture of pulmonary nodules based on gated respiratory compensation.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: With the urgent demands for rapid and precise localization of pulmonary nodules in procedures such as transthoracic puncture biopsy and thoracoscopic surgery, many surgical navigation and robotic systems are applied in the clinical practice of thoracic operation. However, current available positioning methods have certain limitations, including high radiation exposure, large errors from respiratory, complicated and time-consuming procedures, etc. METHODS: To address these issues, a preoperative computed tomography (CT) image-guided robotic system for transthoracic puncture was proposed in this study. Firstly, an algorithm for puncture path planning based on constraints from clinical knowledge was developed. This algorithm enables the calculation of Pareto optimal solutions for multiple clinical targets concerning puncture angle, puncture length, and distance from hazardous areas. Secondly, to eradicate intraoperative radiation exposure, a fast registration method based on preoperative CT and gated respiration compensation was proposed. The registration process could be completed by the direct selection of points on the skin near the sternum using a hand-held probe. Gating detection and joint optimization algorithms are then performed on the collected point cloud data to compensate for errors from respiratory motion. Thirdly, to enhance accuracy and intraoperative safety, the puncture guide was utilized as an end effector to restrict the movement of the optically tracked needle, then risky actions with patient contact would be strictly limited. RESULTS: The proposed system was evaluated through phantom experiments on our custom-designed simulation test platform for patient respiratory motion to assess its accuracy and feasibility. The results demonstrated an average target point error (TPE) of 2.46 ± 0.68 mm and an angle error (AE) of 1.49 ± 0.45° for the robotic system. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, our proposed system ensures accuracy, surgical efficiency, and safety while also reducing needle insertions and radiation exposure in transthoracic puncture procedures, thus offering substantial potential for clinical application.

Representational geometry of incomplete faces in macaque face patches.

The neural code of faces has been intensively studied in the macaque face patch system. Although the majority of previous studies used complete faces as stimuli, faces are often seen partially in daily life. Here, we investigated how face-selective cells represent two types of incomplete faces: face fragments and occluded faces, with the location of the fragment/occluder and the facial features systematically varied. Contrary to popular belief, we found that the preferred face regions identified with two stimulus types are dissociated in many face cells. This dissociation can be explained by the nonlinear integration of information from different face parts and is closely related to a curved representation of face completeness in the state space, which allows a clear discrimination between different stimulus types. Furthermore, identity-related facial features are represented in a subspace orthogonal to the nonlinear dimension of face completeness, supporting a condition-general code of facial identity.

Gene expression of TRPMLs and its regulation by pathogen stimulation.

The transient receptor potential mucolipin (TRPML) subfamily in mammalian has three members, namely TRPML1, TRPML2, and TRPML3, who play key roles in regulating intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis, endosomal pH, membrane trafficking and autophagy. Previous studies had shown that three TRPMLs are closely related to the occurrence of pathogen invasion and immune regulation in some immune tissues or cells, but the relationship between TRPMLs expression and pathogen invasion in lung tissue or cell remains elusive. Here, we investigated the expression distribution of three TRPML channels in mouse different tissues by qRT-PCR, and then found that all three TRPMLs were highly expressed in the mouse lung tissue, as well as mouse spleen and kidney tissues. The expression of TRPML1 or TRPML3 in all three mouse tissues had a significant down-regulation after the treatment of Salmonella or LPS, but TRPML2 expression showed a remarkable increase. Consistently, TRPML1 or TRPML3 but not TRPML2 in A549 cells also displayed a decreased expression induced by LPS stimulation, which shared a similar regulation pattern in the mouse lung tissue. Furthermore, the treatment of the TRPML1 or TRPML3 specific activator induced a dose-dependent up-regulation of inflammatory factors IL-1ß, IL-6 and TNFα, suggesting that TRPML1 and TRPML3 are likely to play an important role in immune and inflammatory regulation. Together, our study identified the gene expression of TRPMLs induced by pathogen stimulation in vivo and in vitro, which may provide novel targets for innate immunity or pathogen regulation.

Effective linewidth compression of a single-longitudinal-mode fiber laser with randomly distributed high scattering centers in the fiber induced by femtosecond laser pulses.

Femtosecond lasers can be used to create many functional devices in silica optical fibers with high designability. In this work, a femtosecond laser-induced high scattering fiber (HSF) with randomly distributed high scattering centers is used to effectively compress the linewidth of a fiber laser for the first time. A dual-wavelength, single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) is constructed for the demonstration, which is capable of switching among two single-wavelength operations and one dual-wavelength operation. We find that the delayed self-heterodyne beating linewidth of the laser can be reduced from >1 kHz to <150 Hz when the length of the HSF in the laser cavity increases from 0 m to 20 m. We also find that the intrinsic Lorentzian linewidth of the laser can be compressed to several Hz using the HSF. The efficiency and effectiveness of linewidth reduction are also validated for the case that the laser operates in simultaneous dual-wavelength lasing mode. In addition to the linewidth compression, the EDFL shows outstanding overall performance after the HSF is incorporated. In particular, the optical spectrum and SLM lasing state are stable over long periods of time. The relative intensity noise is as low as <-150 dB/Hz@>3 MHz, which is very close to the shot noise limit. The optical signal-to-noise ratios of >85 dB for single-wavelength operation and >83 dB for dual-wavelength operation are unprecedented over numerous SLM fiber lasers reported previously. This novel method for laser linewidth reduction is applicable across gain-medium-type fiber lasers, which enables low-cost, high-performance, ultra-narrow linewidth fiber laser sources for many applications.

Joint Learning of Feature Extraction and Clustering for Large-Scale Temporal Networks.

Temporal networks are ubiquitous in nature and society, and tracking the dynamics of networks is fundamental for investigating the mechanisms of systems. Dynamic communities in temporal networks simultaneously reflect the topology of the current snapshot (clustering accuracy) and historical ones (clustering drift). Current algorithms are criticized for their inability to characterize the dynamics of networks at the vertex level, independence of feature extraction and clustering, and high time complexity. In this study, we solve these problems by proposing a novel joint learning model for dynamic community detection in temporal networks (also known as jLMDC) via joining feature extraction and clustering. This model is formulated as a constrained optimization problem. Vertices are classified into dynamic and static groups by exploring the topological structure of temporal networks to fully exploit their dynamics at each time step. Then, jLMDC updates the features of dynamic vertices by preserving features of static ones during optimization. The advantage of jLMDC is that features are extracted under the guidance of clustering, promoting performance, and saving the running time of the algorithm. Finally, we extend jLMDC to detect the overlapping dynamic community in temporal networks. The experimental results on 11 temporal networks demonstrate that jLMDC improves accuracy up to 8.23% and saves 24.89% of running time on average compared to state-of-the-art methods.

A rotation invariant template matching algorithm based on Sub-NCC.

This paper proposes an anti-rotation template matching method based on a portion of the whole pixels. To solve the problem that the speed of the original template matching method based on NCC (Normalized cross correlation) is too slow for the rotated image, a template matching method based on Sub-NCC is proposed, which improves the anti-jamming ability of the algorithm. At the same time, in order to improve the matching speed, the rotation invariant edge points are selected from the rotation invariant pixels, and the selected points are used for rough matching to quickly screen out the unmatched areas. The theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the accuracy of this method is more than 95%. For the search map at any angle with the resolution at the level of 300,000 pixel, after selecting the appropriate pyramid series and threshold, the matching time can be controlled to within 0.1 s.

Investigation on Pulverized Coal Control Using Calcium Sulfoaluminate Cementitious Proppants in Coalbed Methane Fracturing.

Coalbed methane is a type of high-quality clean energy. The development of coalbed methane helps protect the living environment of humans and solves the safety problems in coal mining. However, a large amount of pulverized coal is generated after coalbed methane fracturing, which reduces the production of coalbed methane. Reduction of pulverized coal generation and prevention of pulverized coal migration are important for the development of coalbed methane. This study innovatively mixed calcium sulfoaluminate particles and sand to create a new fracturing proppant. The new proppant was carried by the fracturing fluid into the formation cracks and cured to form a permeable cement stone with a certain compressive strength and permeability at formation temperature and pressure. The permeability and compressive strength of the permeable cement stone were measured at different curing temperatures. Results showed that when the compressive strength of the permeable cement stone was 5.46 MPa, the gas and water permeabilities could reach 2.06 and 0.57 D, respectively. The pore diameter distribution was measured with the semi-permeable diaphragm method. The distribution curve was bimodal, and the range of the variation in pore size was 0.6-300 µm. Blocked pulverized coal size was determined using the seepage theory of particles in porous media and verified through a pulverized coal control experiment. Pulverized coal with a diameter larger than 7.67 µm was blocked by the permeable cement stone. The efficiency of the permeable cement stone in controlling pulverized coal could reach 96%. This study proved that calcium sulfoaluminate cementitious proppants can fix pulverized coal and prevent its migration. It also provided the compressive strength of propping fractures and the high permeability needed for drainage under formation conditions.

Ultrasound Image Guided and Mixed Reality-Based Surgical System With Real-Time Soft Tissue Deformation Computing for Robotic Cervical Pedicle Screw Placement.

OBJECTIVE: Cervical pedicle screw (CPS) placement surgery remains technically demanding due to the complicated anatomy with neurovascular structures. State-of-the-art surgical navigation or robotic systems still suffer from the problem of hand-eye coordination and soft tissue deformation. In this study, we aim at tracking the intraoperative soft tissue deformation and constructing a virtual-physical fusion surgical scene, and integrating them into the robotic system for CPS placement surgery. METHODS: Firstly, we propose a real-time deformation computation method based on the prior shape model and intraoperative partial information acquired from ultrasound images. According to the generated posterior shape, the structure representation of deformed target tissue gets updated continuously. Secondly, a hand tremble compensation method is proposed to improve the accuracy and robustness of the virtual-physical calibration procedure, and a mixed reality based surgical scene is further constructed for CPS placement surgery. Thirdly, we integrate the soft tissue deformation method and virtual-physical fusion method into our previously proposed surgical robotic system, and the surgical workflow for CPS placement surgery is introduced. RESULTS: We conducted phantom and animal experiments to evaluate the feasibility and accuracy of the proposed system. Our system yielded a mean surface distance error of 1.52 ± 0.43 mm for soft tissue deformation computing, and an average distance deviation of 1.04 ± 0.27 mm for CPS placement. CONCLUSION: Results demonstrate that our system involves tremendous clinical application potential. SIGNIFICANCE: Our proposed system promotes the efficiency and safety of the CPS placement surgery.

Dynamic Module Detection in Temporal Attributed Networks of Cancers.

Tracking the dynamic modules (modules change over time) during cancer progression is essential for studying cancer pathogenesis, diagnosis, and therapy. However, current algorithms only focus on detecting dynamic modules from temporal cancer networks without integrating the heterogeneous genomic data, thereby resulting in undesirable performance. To attack this issue, we propose a novel algorithm (aka TANMF) to detect dynamic modules in cancer temporal attributed networks, which integrates the temporal networks and gene attributes. To obtain the dynamic modules, the temporality and gene attributed are incorporated into an overall objective function, which transforms the dynamic module detection into an optimization problem. TANMF jointly decomposes the snapshots at two subsequent time steps to obtain the latent features of dynamic modules, where the attributes are fused via regulations. Furthermore, the L1 constraint is imposed to improve the robustness. Experimental results demonstrate that TANMF is more accurate than state-of-the-art methods in terms of accuracy. By applying TANMF to breast cancer data, the obtained dynamic modules are more enriched by the known pathways and associated with patients' survival time. The proposed model and algorithm provide an effective way for the integrative analysis of heterogeneous omics.

Augmented reality based navigation for distal interlocking of intramedullary nails utilizing Microsoft HoloLens 2.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The distal interlocking of intramedullary nail remains a technically demanding procedure. Existing augmented reality based solutions still suffer from hand-eye coordination problem, prolonged operation time, and inadequate resolution. In this study, an augmented reality based navigation system for distal interlocking of intramedullary nail is developed using Microsoft HoloLens 2, the state-of-the-art optical see-through head-mounted display. METHODS: A customized registration cube is designed to assist surgeons with better depth perception when performing registration procedures. During drilling, surgeons can obtain accurate and in-situ visualization of intramedullary nail and drilling path, and dynamic navigation is enabled. An intraoperative warning system is proposed to provide intuitive feedback of real-time deviations and electromagnetic disturbances. RESULTS: The preclinical phantom experiment showed that the reprojection errors along the X, Y, and Z axes were 1.55 ± 0.27 mm, 1.71 ± 0.40 mm, and 2.84 ± 0.78 mm, respectively. The end-to-end evaluation method indicated the distance error was 1.61 ± 0.44 mm, and the 3D angle error was 1.46 ± 0.46°. A cadaver experiment was also conducted to evaluate the feasibility of the system. CONCLUSION: Our system has potential advantages over the 2D-screen based navigation system and the pointing device based navigation system in terms of accuracy and time consumption, and has tremendous application prospects.

The development of computer-aided patient-specific template design software for 3D printing in cranio-maxillofacial surgery.

BACKGROUND: The patient-specific templates for osteotomy often have complex surface features. Using current commercial software to design such templates is quite complicated, tedious and unrepeatable. AIMS: In this study, a novel surgical planning system for oral and maxillofacial surgery named EasyTemplate is developed, aiming to help doctors shorten the modelling time and assure the reliability in template design. MATERIALS & METHODS: In the simplified design process of an osteotomy guide, the main template can be formed efficiently using a surface offsetting algorithm, which is based on isosurface extraction and oriented bounding box. Thereafter, the cutting grooves can be generated automatically. RESULTS: A complicated surgical guide could be built accurately in about 10 min. Clinical orthognathic cases were conducted successfully using osteotomy and repositioning templates designed by EasyTemplate. DISCUSSION: Compared with commercially available softwares, higher efficiency and simpler design process were achieved, moreover, the time cost is one-third or even less. CONCLUSION: EasyTemplate can be a useful alternative to traditional softwares. This software allows the auto-generation algorithm which helps avoid a tedious modeling process while providing basic shapes for designers.

[Application of intraoral ultrasonic imaging in diagnosis and treatment of 18 patients with oral leukoplakia in non-masticatory mucosa].

PURPOSE: To explore the sonographic appearance of leukoplakia in non-masticatory oral mucosa, classifying mucosal leukoplakia according to the characteristics of sonogram, and providing reference for clinical diagnosis and treatment. METHODS: Eighteen patients (24 lesions) were diagnosed as oral leukoplakia at the Department of Oral Mucosal Diseases, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital. The lesions were located in the tongue, floor of mouth, buccal mucosa and libial mucosa. Before the biopsy was taken, intra-oral path ultrasound was performed at the Department of Ultrasound to observe the lesion's extent, continuity, presence or absence of keratinization, the thickness of each layer in the epithelium, and color doppler flow imaging of the lesions. Quantitative analysis software 'Qontraxt' was used to randomly measure the relative echo intensity of the mucosal surface in leukoplakia areas, and summarize the keratinization type. SPSS 25.0 software package was used for statistical analysis of the data, and paired t test was used for inter-group comparison of the data. RESULTS: Oral leukoplakia sonograms showed that the epithelial layer appeared keratinization, the epithelial was thickened, and the echo was enhanced. The stratum intermedium showed a low echo thickening band, and the echo of partial lesions' surface decreased or the blood flow signal in oral mucosa increased. The hyperechoic band in the leukoplakia area was significantly thickened (P<0.001), and the echo was enhanced, with the tongue and buccal mucosa being the most significant. The hypoechoic band was significantly thicker (P<0.001), with the buccal mucosa and labial mucosa being the most significant. The surface and stratum corneum echo intensity values were determined by Qontraxt quantitative analysis software to determine whether there were keratinization and the keratinization types. The echo intensity values was 43.28±9.33 in non-OLK area, 92.88±3.12 in OLK with orthokeratosis, and 84.75±5.76 in OLK with parakeratosis. CONCLUSIONS: Ultrasound imaging can effectively define mucosal leukoplakia and measure the thickness of each layer in the epithelium. In addition, special adjoint changes such as ulcers, infections and cancerous changes can be detected. Intraoral ultrasonic imaging can provide imaging evidence for clinical diagnosis, treatment planning and post-treatment follow-up and contribute to avoid unnecessary mucosal iatrogenic injury or recurrence of disease after treatment.

Continuous supercritical water oxidation treatment of oil-based drill cuttings using municipal sewage sludge as diluent.

Oil-based drill cuttings (OBDC) is a characteristic hazardous waste that is generated in oil and gas exploration. In this study, two typical OBDCs from shale gas fields were treated in a continuous supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) for the first time. Because both heat value and ash content (AC) in the OBDCs were well beyond the capacity of continuous operation, municipal sewage sludge (MSS) was innovatively adapted as the diluent. A mixed sludge with OBDC addition levels of 10%, 20%, and 30% was tested using a novel SCWO reactor. Mean residence times of reactants in different reaction zones were specifically calculated. Results indicated the organic carbon removal efficiency could reach up to 98.44%. Eight detected heavy metals were found to be almost completely removed into solid products, and the concentrations in liquid products were all below the discharge limits. It was also found that the SCWO reactor exhibited good anti-plugging and anti-corrosion performance. The AC in the feedstock was up to 28.58%. To the best of our knowledge, this has, hitherto, not been achieved in a continuous SCWO operation. This study provides a new approach for harmlessly and completely degrading OBDC, and is also helpful for the industrialization of SCWO technology.

Memristive synapses with high reproducibility for flexible neuromorphic networks based on biological nanocomposites.

Memristive synapses from biomaterials are promising for building flexible and implantable artificial neuromorphic systems due to their remarkable mechanical and biological properties. However, these biological devices have relatively poor memristive switching characteristics, and thus fail to meet the requirement of neuromorphic networks for high learning accuracy. Here, memristive synapses based on carrageenan nanocomposites that possess desirable characteristics are demonstrated. These devices show highly reproducible analog resistive switching behaviors with 250 conductance states, low write noise, good write linearity, high retention of more than 104 s and endurance for at least 106 pulses. The enhanced switching properties are attributed to controllable and confined conductive filament growth, owing to the synergistic effect of self-assembled silver nanocluster doping and nanocone-shaped electrode contact. Moreover, the devices exhibit excellent reliability after 1000 bending cycles. Simulations including the non-ideal factors prove that the synaptic device array can operate with an online learning accuracy of 94.3%. These findings enable broader applications of biomaterials in flexible memristive devices and neuromorphic systems.

Rapid degradation of long-chain crude oil in soil by indigenous bacteria using fermented food waste supernatant.

The objective of this study is to explore how to stimulate soil indigenous bacteria for the degradation of long-chain crude oil by adding fermented food waste supernatant (FS). Four concentrations of FS (0 mL, 0.1 mL, 1 mL, and 3 mL) were added to two oil-contaminated soils S1 and S2 for 30 days of bioremediation experiments. The results showed that the biodegradation of long-chain alkanes (C29 - C24) could reach up to 1756 mg/kg (49.3%, S1) and 3937 mg/kg (43.9%, S2), which were 3.1 and 3.2 times that of the non-nutrient system. In addition, the logarithmic growth rate of the indigenous hydrocarbon degraders (IHD) reached 41.5%. The long-chain crude oil can be rapidly degraded by indigenous bacteria with FS added in a short time. The glucose and acetic acid accelerated the consumption of ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N) in the prophase of bioremediation and the molar ratio of consumed carbon (contained in glucose and acetic acid) to consumed NH4+-N (C/N) was high by adding FS. Thus, the IHD can multiply rapidly. The analysis of microbial diversity revealed that the IHD (genera Acinetobacter and Aquabacterium) became the dominant bacteria. Long-chain alkanes became the main carbon sources for IHD after 14 days in soil S1 and 16 days in soil S2. Thus, the rapid biodegradation of long-chain crude oil was achieved. The genus Aquabacterium which was uncultivable on crude oil medium became the dominant bacteria. This study provides an environment-friendly and sustainable remediation technology for bioremediation of oil-contaminated soils.

Static decontamination of oil-based drill cuttings with pressurized hot water using response surface methodology.

Separating organic pollutants from oil-based drill cuttings (OBDC) is the current trend for its safe disposal. In this study, pressurized hot water extraction (PHWE) was adapted to decontaminate OBDC for the first time. Two typical OBDC samples, i.e., diesel-based drill cuttings (OBDC-A) and white oil-based drill cuttings (OBDC-B), were statically extracted in a homemade batch autoclave. Response surface methodology (RSM) with a central composite design (CCD) was applied to investigate the effects and interactive effects of three independent operating parameters (temperature, extraction time, and water volume) and to ultimately optimize the PHWE process. The results suggested that temperature is the dominant parameter, followed by water volume and extraction time. Interactive effects among the three parameters are present in the PHWE of OBDC-A but absent in the PHWE of OBDC-B. The suitable conditions for the effective PHWE of OBDC-A were found to be a temperature of 284-300 °C, water volume of 15-35 ml, and extraction time of 20-60 min. The corresponding conditions were 237-300 °C, 15-35 ml, and 20-60 min for the PHWE of OBDC-B. These different phenomena are caused by the different characteristics of the two OBDC samples. All of the polynomial models obtained from the RSM experiments are very valid and can adequately describe the relationship among the three independent operating parameters and responses. The experimental results also confirmed that PHWE is a more efficient separation technique for decontaminating OBDC than single organic solvent extraction or low-temperature thermal desorption because PHWE integrates the advantages of both these processes.

Retracted: Long noncoding RNA MEG3 inhibits proliferation and migration but induces autophagy by regulation of Sirt7 and PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway in glioma cells.

Glioma is a common primary brain tumor with high mortality rate and poor prognosis. Long noncoding RNA maternally expressed gene 3 (MEG3) is a tumor suppressor in diverse cancer types. However, the role of MEG3 in glioma remains unclear. We aimed to explore the effects of MEG3 on U251 cells as well as the underlying mechanisms. U251 cells were stably transfected with different recombined plasmids to overexpress or silence MEG3. Effects of aberrantly expressed MEG3 on cell viability, migration, apoptosis, expressions of apoptosis-associated and autophagy-associated proteins, and phosphorylated levels of key kinases in the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway were all evaluated. Then, messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein expression of Sirt7 in cells abnormally expressing MEG3 were estimated. In addition, effects of abnormally expressed MEG3 and Sirt7 on U251 cells were determined to reveal the underlying mechanism of MEG3-associated modulation. Cell viability and migration were significantly reduced by MEG3 overexpression whereas cell apoptosis as well as Bax and cleaved caspase-3/-9 proteins were obviously induced. Beclin-1 and LC3-II/LC3-I were upregulated and p62 was downregulated in MEG3 overexpressed cells. In addition, the autophagy pharmacological inhibitor (3-methyladenine, 3-MA) affected the effect of MEG3 overexpression on cell proliferation. Furthermore, the phosphorylated levels of key kinases in the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway were all reduced by MEG3 overexpression. Sirt7 was positively regulated by MEG3 expression, and effects of MEG3 overexpression on U251 cells were ameliorated by Sirt7 silence. MEG3 suppressed cell proliferation and migration but promoted autophagy in U251 cells through positively regulating Sirt7, involving in the inhibition of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway.