Role of HAND2-AS1 in human tumors.

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are molecules more than 200 nucleotides in length. They play roles in various cells, mainly regulating cell growth, differentiation, and apoptosis. They also participate in the pathogenesis of many diseases. In fact, several studies have shown that lncRNAs function as cancer or tumor suppressor genes and play important roles in the occurrence and development of cancer in humans. New evidence has shown that lncRNA heart and neural crest derivatives expressed 2-antisense RNA 1 (lncRNA HAND2-AS1) hinders the occurrence and development of various tumors. Overexpression of HAND2-AS1 was found to be significantly related to the clinical and pathological characteristics of cancer patients, as well as the regulation of cell proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, metastasis, and energy metabolism through several possible mechanisms. Therefore, HAND2-AS1 may be a promising tumor biomarker and therapeutic target. Here, we review the biological functions, mechanisms, and potential clinical significance of HAND2-AS1 in numerous human tumors.

In-air and underwater performance and finite element analysis of a flextensional device having electrostrictive poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) polymers as the active driving element.

A flextensional transducer, in which the electrostrictive poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)] copolymer was used as the active driving element, was fabricated and characterized. The results show that transducers of several millimeters thick can produce an axial displacement of more than 1 mm in air along the thickness direction, and a transmitting voltage response of 123 dB re 1 microPa/V at 1 m in water at frequencies of several kilohertz. A finite element code (ANSYS, Inc., Canonsburg, PA) was used to model the in-air and underwater responses of the flextensional transducer over a broad frequency range. The calculated resonance frequencies and transmitting voltage response spectra show good agreement with the experimental data. In addition, the performance of both the in-air actuator and underwater transducer was analyzed for different design parameters of the flextensional structure. These results show that the performance of the flextensional transducer could be tailored readily by adjusting the parameters of the flextensional metal shell.