Energy optimisation for the combination of turning and drilling features using differential evolution.

Cutting parameter optimisation is an effective way to realise energy-efficient machining. In previous studies, the cutting parameters of machining features of turning, milling, grinding, drilling, hobbing, and threading were optimised to decrease energy consumed by machine tools, and considerable energy savings were achieved. However, the energy consumption (EC) for each feature was separately optimised without systematic consideration of the negative effects on the EC for other features. The total EC for all features together probably increases. Hence, the trade-off amongst the reductions of EC for each feature needs to be jointly optimised. In our study, the external turning and drilling features are selected as examples to be combined. As a key novel contribution, we propose the integrated dimensional and cutting parameter optimisation problem about minimising the EC of Machine Tools for the combination of Turning and Drilling features (EMT-TD). In terms of optimisation, differential evolution (DE) is adopted to minimise the EMT-TD. According to case studies, DE obtained the optimal solutions within a computation time of 1 second. The optimal solutions achieved savings of 5.41%, 10.85%, and 7.19% of EMT-TD and savings of 2.23%, 5.90%, and 2.73% of machining time for three typical cases, respectively.

Evaluating vehicular exhaust and evaporative emissions via VOC measurement in an underground parking garage.

Vehicular emissions, including both tailpipe exhaust and evaporative emissions, are major anthropogenic sources of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in urban cities. Current knowledge on vehicle tailpipe and evaporative emissions was mainly obtained via laboratory tests on very few vehicles under experimental conditions. Information on fleet gasoline vehicles emission features under real-world conditions is lacking. Here, VOC measurement was conducted in a large residential underground parking garage in Tianjin, China, to reveal the feature of the exhaust and evaporative emissions from real-world gasoline vehicle fleets. The VOC concentration in the parking garage was on average 362.7 ± 87.7 µg m-3, significantly higher than that in the ambient atmosphere at the same period (63.2 µg m-3). Aromatics and alkanes were the mainly contributors on both weekdays and weekends. A positive correlation between VOCs and traffic flow was observed, especially in the daytime. Source apportionment through the positive matrix factorization model (PMF) revealed that the tailpipe and evaporative emissions accounted for 43.2% and 33.7% of VOCs, respectively. Evaporative emission contributed 69.3% to the VOCs at night due to diurnal breathing loss from numerous parked cars. In contrast, tailpipe emission was most remarkable during morning rush hours. Based on the PMF results, we reconstructed a vehicle-related VOCs profile representing the combination of the tailpipe exhaust and evaporative emission from fleet-average gasoline vehicles, which could benefit future source apportionment studies.

Efficacy of synchronous stereotactic radiotherapy with temozolomide combined with whole brain radiotherapy in treating brain metastases originating from non-small cell lung cancer.

PURPOSE: To investigate the efficacy and safety of synchronous stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) with temozolomide (TMZ) combined with whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) in treating brain metastases originating from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS: The clinical data of 128 patients with brain metastases originating from NSCLC treated in the hospital from August 2015 to August 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. Among these patients, 64 received synchronous SRT with TMZ+WBRT (TMZ group), and 64 underwent SRT+WBRT (radiotherapy group). The clinical data of all patients were collected, and the short-term responses and adverse reactions after treatment were compared between the two groups. Additionally, the patients were followed up to record the overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS), and the factors probably affecting the prognosis of patients were analyzed. RESULTS: The incidence rate of nausea & vomiting was overtly higher in the TMZ group than that in the radiotherapy group (67.2% vs. 43.8%, p=0.008), while the incidence rate of other treatment-related adverse reactions showed no remarkable difference between the two groups (p>0.05). The follow-up results revealed that the median OS and PFS were (13.1±4.6) and (11.2±4.2) months in the TMZ group and (10.6±3.8) and (8.3±3.4) months in the radiotherapy group, respectively. According to log-rank test, the OS and PFS of patients in the TMZ group were evidently better than those in the radiotherapy group (p=0.041, p=0.025). Univariate and multivariate regression analyses suggested that the absence of extracranial metastasis, recursive partitioning analysis (RPA) class I, mini mental status examination (MMSE) score ≥27 points before radiotherapy, and treatment with TMZ were protective factors affecting the prognosis of patients. CONCLUSIONS: Synchronous SRT with TMZ combined with WBRT is effective in treating patients with brain metastases originating from NSCLC, which can effectively improve the survival of patients and has tolerable adverse reactions. The absence of extracranial metastases, RPA class I, MMSE score ≥27 points before radiotherapy and treatment with TMZ are protective factors affecting the prognosis of patients.

Downregulation of lncRNA-HEIH curbs esophageal squamous cell carcinoma progression by modulating miR-4458/PBX3.

BACKGROUND: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been found to play a specific part in the development of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), except for lncRNA HEIH. Here, we aimed to discover the molecular mechanisms of HEIH in ESCC. METHODS: We detected the expression level of HEIH and miR-4458 in ESCC tissues and cells using qRT-PCR assay. A dual luciferase reporter assay was used to check the relationship between HEIH, miR-4458 or PBX3. Counting Clock Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and transwell assay were used to detect ESCC cell proliferation and invasion capability. Western blot analysis was used to measure the protein expression level of PBX3. RESULTS: HEIH was confirmed to be upregulated in both ESCC tissues and cell lines. Inversely, there was a downregulation of miR-4458 in ESCC tissues and cell lines. Functionally, we noticed that depletion of HEIH restrained ESCC cell viability, and invasion capability. Moreover, PBX silencing was found to restrain ESCC cell progression, while miR-4458 or HEIH vector both could alleviate its suppressive effect. CONCLUSIONS: The present study clarified that HEIH regulated ESCC progression by suppressing miR-4458 and upregulating PBX3. Our findings suggested that HEIH could be a possible therapeutic target for ESCC treatment.

MicroRNA-498 inhibits the proliferation, migration and invasion of gastric cancer through targeting BMI-1 and suppressing AKT pathway.

Recently, microRNA-498 (miR-498) plays important effect in human cancers. Nonetheless, the role of miR-498 is still unclear in gastric cancer (GC). Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the function of miR-498 in GC tissues and cell lines (SGC-7901, BGC-823, MGC-803). The expressions of miR-498 and BMI-1 were examined in GC tissues via the RT-qPCR assay. The function of miR-498 was investigated through MTT and transwell assays. The relationship between miR-498 and BMI-1 was testified by dual luciferase assay. The protein expression of EMT markers, AKT pathway markers and BMI-1 was measured through western blot. The expression of miR-498 was decreased in GC tissues which predicted poor prognosis of GC patients. Moreover, functional analyses show that the overexpression of miR-498 inhibited the progression of GC. Furthermore, BMI-1 was a direct target of miR-498 which was upregulated in GC. Especially, the upregulation of BMI-1 recovered the suppressive effect of miR-498 in GC. In addition, miR-498 inhibited the metastasis and proliferation of GC cells through blocking EMT and AKT pathway. MiR-498, by targeting BMI-1, presents a plethora of tumor suppressor activities in GC cells.

Antimicrobial potential of endophytic fungi from Astragalus chinensis.

The purpose of the present study was to discover antimicrobial endophytic fungi from Astragalus chinensis. Three fungal endophytes with antibacterial activity were isolated and determined as Chaetomium sp. HQ-1, Fusarium sp. HQ-7 and Fusarium sp. HQ-9 based on the neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree. Chaetomium sp. HQ-1 showed the best antibiotic potential and was thus selected for large-scale fermentation. Bioactivity-directed separation of ME fermentation of strain HQ-1 led to the discovery of three compounds, which were identified as differanisole A (1), 2,6-dichloro-4-propylphenol (2) and 4,5-dimethylresorcinol (3), from the HR-ESI-MS and NMR data analysis. All three compounds exhibited moderate antibacterial activity against Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, and methicillin-resistant S. aureus, with MIC values ranging from 16 to 128 µg/mL. Compounds 1 and 3 also displayed promising antifungal activity against Selerotium rolfsii with IC50 values of less than 16 and 32 µg/mL, respectively, which were comparable to that of actidione (8 µg/mL). The findings of the present study suggest that the endophytic fungi from A. chinensis have the potential to be used as bactericides and fungicides.

Optical Surface Management System for Patient Positioning in Interfractional Breast Cancer Radiotherapy.

BACKGROUND: The Optical Surface Management System (OSMS) is a simple, fast, reproducible, and accurate solution for patient set-up and can minimize random day-to-day set-up errors. However, studies in breast cancer patients are rare. OBJECTIVE: To analyze 200 patient set-ups in 20 patients with breast cancer by comparing the OSMS with the conventional cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). METHOD: Displacements from concurrent OSMS and CBCT registrations were compared in a total of 200 setups of 20 patients to analyze the interfractional displacement and positioning displacement in three dimensions (lateral, longitudinal, and vertical directions). RESULTS: The interfractional displacement on the lateral, longitudinal, and vertical directions for OSMS versus CBCT was 0.049 ± 0.254 versus 0.041 ± 0.244 centimeters (cm); 0.018 ± 0.261 versus 0.040 ± 0.242 cm; 0.062 ± 0.254 versus 0.065 ± 0.240 cm, respectively, without any significant difference (all P > 0.05). The duration for CBCT scan was about 60 seconds (s), while that for image processing, matching, and couch displacement was at least 5 minutes (min). The average scanning time with OSMS was less than 20 s, and the total duration for positioning was less than 1 min. CONCLUSION: OSMS is an efficient tool to improve the accuracy and increase the speed for verifying the patient positioning in radiotherapy for breast cancer.

Modified Glasgow Prognostic Score at Recurrence Predicts Poor Survival in Resected Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) Patients.

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the modified Glasgow Prognostic Score (GPS) at the time of recurrence on post-recurrence survival (PRS) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients after surgical resection. MATERIAL AND METHODS The clinicopathologic characteristics and outcome data of 266 patients with recurrent NSCLC were collected and reviewed retrospectively. The prognostic impact of mGPS at recurrence in patients with recurrent NSCLC was investigated in univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS A total of 266 patients were analyzed. The mGPS at the time of recurrence of 0, 1, and 2 was assigned to 60.9%, 33.1%, and 6.0% of total patients, respectively. In univariate analyses, the median post-recurrence survival times for those with mGPS 0, 1, and 2 were 19, 14, and 4 months, respectively (log-rank test; P=0.005). No statistically significant difference in post-recurrence survival was observed among the patients with different mGPS before surgery (log-rank test; P=0.064). Age at surgery, histological type, C-reactive protein (CRP), albumin, and mGPS at recurrence significantly predicted PRS. After adjusting for confounding variables in the model, age (hazard ratio 1.59, P=0.003) as well as disease-free interval (DFI) (hazard ratio 1.40, P=0.023), and mGPS at recurrence (hazard ratio 1.47, P=0.002) remained independent predictors of PRS. CONCLUSIONS mGPS at the time of recurrence might be an independent adverse prognostic factor in recurrent NSCLC.

Small interfering RNA (siRNA) against Slug induces apoptosis and sensitizes human anaplastic thyroid carcinoma cells to doxorubicin.

OBJECTIVE: Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is one of the most aggressive human cancers and often shows resistance to multimodal therapeutic approaches. It has been shown that the transcriptional repressor Slug inhibits the chemotherapeutic agent-induced apoptosis of cancer cells. We evaluated whether targeting of Slug could augment doxorubicin (DOX)-induced apoptosis of ATC cells. We also determined changes in PUMA (p53-upregulated modulator of apoptosis) expression levels to identify possible mechanisms of their combined actions. METHODS: SW1736 cells were transfected with Slug siRNA or/and PUMA siRNA and then exposed to DOX (0.1, 1, and 5 µ M) for selected times. Scrambled siRNA was used as a control. The effects on cell viability were determined via MTT assay. Apoptosis was assessed using TUNEL assays and annexin V staining, and was confirmed by flow cytometry analyses. Slug and PUMA levels were determined using western blotting, RT-PCR and immunofluorescence analyses. We used a subcutaneous implanted tumor model of SW1736 cells in nude mice to assess the effects of Slug silencing in combination with DOX on tumor development. Apoptosis was assessed via TUNEL assay. RESULTS: Targeting of Slug using siRNA inhibits growth of SW1736 cells and sensitizes SW1736 cells to DOX in vitro and vivo. Targeting of Slug combined with DOX led to lower cell viability than treatment with DOX alone in SW1736 cells. TUNEL and flow cytometry analyses showed that targeting of Slug enhanced DOX-induced apoptosis of SW1736 cells. In addition, targeting of Slug increased PUMA expression, and targeting of PUMA restored the chemoresistance of SW1736/Slug siRNA cells to DOX. CONCLUSIONS: Knockdown of Slug enhanced the antitumor activity of DOX in SW1736 cells via induction of PUMA upregulation. Our results suggest that targeting of Slug has good potential for the development of new therapeutic strategies for ATC.