Chromosome X-encoded Cancer/Testis antigens are less frequently expressed in non-seminomatous germ cell tumors than in seminomas

Cancer/Testis (CT) antigens are normally only expressed in germ cells and yet are aberrantly activated in a wide variety of human cancers. Most chromosome X-encoded CT antigens (CT-X) show restricted expression in pre-meiotic germ cells in adult testis, except for the expression of SPANX in post-meiotic germ cells. In the present study, the expression of eight CT-X antigens (MAGE-A, NY-ESO-1, GAGE, MAGE-C1/CT7, MAGE-C2/CT10, CT45, SAGE1, and SPANX) in non-seminomatous germ cell tumors was evaluated immunohistochemically, including 24 embryonal carcinomas, 20 yolk sac tumors, 9 teratomas, and 3 choriocarcinomas, and the results were compared to our previous study of 77 classic seminomas and 2 spermatocytic seminomas. SPANX was not detected in any germ cell tumors tested. Spermatocytic seminoma showed strong expression of all CT-X antigens tested (except SPANX), reflecting their origin from adult CT-Xpositive pre-meiotic germ cells. Classic seminomas, originating from prenatal gonocytes, showed widely variable frequency of CT-X antigen expression, ranging from > 80% (CT7, CT10, CT45, and GAGE), 63% (MAGE-A), 18% (NY-ESO-1) to only 4% (SAGE1). In comparison, non-seminomatous germ cell tumors expressed CT-X antigens much less frequently and usually only in small subsets of tumor cells. Intratubular germ cell neoplasia (ITGCN) were mostly CT-X-negative, even in CT-X positive classic seminomas. These findings indicate that CT-X antigens are not expressed in the fetal precursor cells for germ cell tumors, and their expression likely reflects germ cell differentiation of the neoplastic cells (in seminomas) or aberrant gene activation as cancer antigens (in non-seminomatous tumors)

Targeted next-generation sequencing of dedifferentiated chondrosarcoma in the skull base reveals combined TP53 and PTEN mutations with increased proliferation index, an implication for pathogenesis

Dedifferentiated chondrosarcoma (DDCS) is a rare disease with a dismal prognosis. DDCS consists of two morphologically distinct components: the cartilaginous and noncartilaginous components. Whether the two components originate from the same progenitor cells has been controversial. Recurrent DDCS commonly displays increased proliferation compared with the primary tumor. However, there is no conclusive explanation for this mechanism. In this paper, we present two DDCSs in the sellar region. Patient 1 exclusively exhibited a noncartilaginous component with a TP53 frameshift mutation in the pathological specimens from the first surgery. The tumor recurred after radiation therapy with an exceedingly increased proliferation index. Targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) revealed the presence of both a TP53 mutation and a PTEN deletion in the cartilaginous and the noncartilaginous components of the recurrent tumor. Fluorescence in situ hybridization and immunostaining confirmed reduced DNA copy number and protein levels of the PTEN gene as a result of the PTEN deletion. Patient 2 exhibited both cartilaginous and noncartilaginous components in the surgical specimens. Targeted NGS of cells from both components showed neither TP53 nor PTEN mutations, making Patient 2 a naïve TP53 and PTEN control for comparison. In conclusion, additional PTEN loss in the background of the TP53 mutation could be the cause of increased proliferation capacity in the recurrent tumor

Ancillary Service Capacity Optimization for Both Electric Power Suppliers and Independent System Operator

Ancillary Services (AS) in electric power industry are critical to support the transmission of energy from generators to load demands while maintaining reliable operation of transmission systems in accordance with good utility practice. The ancillary services are procured by the independent system operator (ISO) through a process called the market clearing process which can be modeled by the partial equilibrium from the ends of ISO. There are two capacity optimization problems for both Market participants (MP) and Independent System Operator (ISO). For a market participant, the firm needs to determine the capacity allocation plan for various AS to pursue operating revenue under various uncertainties which can never be accurately estimated. We thereby employ a heuristic named “resource reservation” to suggest two types of bids, the regular and the must-win for a market participant to pursue higher expected revenue and satisfactory performance in terms of revenue under the worst case scenario. Meanwhile, the ISO, needs to determine the total amount of capacity required to guarantee the overall reliability of the transmission system. Our numerical experiment is based on our industrial partner’s operational data and the simulation result suggests that our proposed methods would greatly outperform the deterministic methods in terms of the profitability for a market participant and the ISO’s entire system’s reliability

Neuroendocrine markers insulinoma-associated protein 1, chromogranin, synaptophysin, and CD56 show rare positivity in adenocarcinoma ex-goblet cell carcinoids

Background: Adenocarcinoma ex-goblet cell carcinoid (AdexGCC) was considered a neuroendocrine adenocarcinoma, despite majority of tumor cells being negative for conventional neuroendocrine markers such as chromogranin and synaptophysin. Recently, insulinoma-associated protein 1 (INSM1) has been identified as a novel neuroendocrine marker that is more sensitive than chromogranin, synaptophysin, and CD56 in pulmonary neuroendocrine tumors. Methods: We studied this marker in conjunction with chromogranin, synaptophysin, and CD56 in 36 appendiceal AdexGCCs (21 primaries, 15 metastatic). Results: Primary AdexGCCs showed staining for INSM1, chromogranin, synaptophysin, and CD56 in 13/21 (62%), 18/21 (86%), 18/21 (86%), and 9/19 (47%) cases, respectively. However, the mean proportion of tumor cells stained for INSM1, chromogranin, synaptophysin, and CD56 was only 8.0% (median 1%, range 0-70%), 15.7% (median 2%, range 0-70%), 19.9% (median 5%, range 0-90%), and 5.6% (median 0%, range 0-50%), respectively. Metastatic AdexGCCs showed staining for INSM1, chromogranin, synaptophysin, and CD56 in 8/15 (53%), 11/15 (73%), 12/15 (80%), and 3/14 (21%) cases. The mean proportion of tumor cells stained for INSM1, chromogranin, synaptophysin, and CD56 in metastatic tumors was 1% (median 1%, range 0-3%), 12% (median 1%, range 0-85%), 17% (median 5%, range 0-85%), and 2% (median 0%, range 0-20%), respectively. Conclusions: Primary and metastatic AdexGCCs showed no difference in INSM1, chromogranin, synaptophysin, or CD56 staining. INSM1 exhibits low expression in AdexGCCs and is expressed by a lower proportion of tumor cells compared to chromogranin and synaptophysin

Tunable Thermal Conduction in Graphane Nanoribbons

Graphane and graphene are both two-dimensional materials but of different bonding configurations, which can result in distinct thermal conduction properties. We simulate thermal conduction in graphane nanoribbons (GANRs) using the nonequilibrium Green's function method. It is found that GANRs have lower ballistic thermal conductance and stronger thermal conductance anisotropy than the graphene counterparts. Furthermore, hydrogen vacancies of GANRs considerably suppress thermal conduction, accompanied by enhanced thermal conductance anisotropy. The tunable thermal conduction, realized by controlling the width, edge shape and hydrogen vacancy concentration of GANRs, could be useful for thermal management and thermoelectric applications

Passively Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser using evanescent field interaction with gold-nanosphere based saturable absorber

We demonstrate an all-fiber passively Q-switched erbiumdoped fiber laser (EDFL) using a gold-nanosphere (GNS) based saturable absorber (SA) with evanescent field interaction. Using the interaction of evanescent field for fabricating SAs, long nonlinear interaction length of evanescent wave and GNSs can be achieved. The GNSs are synthesized from mixing solution of chloroauricacid (HAuCl4) and sodium citrate by the heating effects of the microfiber's evanescent field radiation. The proposed passively Q-switched EDFL could give output pulses at 1562 nm with pulse width of 1.78 μs, a repetition rate of 58.1 kHz, a pulse energy of 133 nJ and a output power of 7.7 mWwhen pumped by a 980 nm laser diode of 237 mW

TL-nvSRAM-CIM: Ultra-High-Density Three-Level ReRAM-Assisted Computing-in-nvSRAM with DC-Power Free Restore and Ternary MAC Operations

Accommodating all the weights on-chip for large-scale NNs remains a great challenge for SRAM based computing-in-memory (SRAM-CIM) with limited on-chip capacity. Previous non-volatile SRAM-CIM (nvSRAM-CIM) addresses this issue by integrating high-density single-level ReRAMs on the top of high-efficiency SRAM-CIM for weight storage to eliminate the off-chip memory access. However, previous SL-nvSRAM-CIM suffers from poor scalability for an increased number of SL-ReRAMs and limited computing efficiency. To overcome these challenges, this work proposes an ultra-high-density three-level ReRAMs-assisted computing-in-nonvolatile-SRAM (TL-nvSRAM-CIM) scheme for large NN models. The clustered n-selector-n-ReRAM (cluster-nSnRs) is employed for reliable weight-restore with eliminated DC power. Furthermore, a ternary SRAM-CIM mechanism with differential computing scheme is proposed for energy-efficient ternary MAC operations while preserving high NN accuracy. The proposed TL-nvSRAM-CIM achieves 7.8x higher storage density, compared with the state-of-art works. Moreover, TL-nvSRAM-CIM shows up to 2.9x and 1.9x enhanced energy-efficiency, respectively, compared to the baseline designs of SRAM-CIM and ReRAM-CIM, respectively

SP-8356 (A Verbenone Derivative) Inhibits Proliferation, Suppresses Cell Migration and Invasion and Decreases Tumor Growth of Osteosarcoma: Role of PGC-1α/TFAM and AMPK-Activation

Objective: Osteosarcoma (OS) is an uncommon sarcoma with osteoid formation in conjunction with malignantmesenchymal cells on histological examination. SP-8356 has been reported to exhibit anti-cancer properties in humancancers. However the impact of SP-8356 on OS is largely unknown. The metabolic pathways are coordinated by AMPactivatedprotein kinase (AMPK), which maintains a balance between the supply and demand of nutrients and energy.This study aimed to investigate effect of SP-8356 on proliferation and apoptosis of OS cells and tumor growth in mice.Furthermore, involvement of PGC-1α/TFAM and AMPK-activation was studied.Materials and Methods: In the experimental study, Saos-2 and MG63 cells were cultured with SP-8356 for 24hours and analysed for cellular proliferation using MTT assay. DNA fragmentation was studied using ELISA basedkit. Furthermore, transwell chambers assay was used to determine cell migration and cell invasion. Targeted proteinexpression levels were assessed using western blotting. For in vivo studies, mice (5-6 weeks old) were implanted witheither Saos-2 or MG63 cells on dorsal surface subcutaneously and they were administered with SP-8356 (10 mg/kg)for two weeks prior to bone tumor induction.Results: We found that SP-8356 exerted anti-proliferative effects on Saos-2 and MG63 cells. Furthermore, SP-8356treatment significantly restricted migration and invasion of Saos-2 and MG63 cells. Compared to the control, SP-8356significantly reduced apoptotic cell death, while it increased PGC-1α and TFAM expressions. Without affecting bodyweight, SP-8356 significantly reduced tumor development in mice, as compared to the control group.Conclusion: SP-8356 was found to inhibit proliferation, suppressed cells migration and invasion and decreased OStumor growth. Furthermore, SP-8356 was found to act through PGC-1α/TFAM and AMPK activations. SP-8356 can betherefore used as therapeutic agent for OS treatment

Stabilisation of highly nonlinear hybrid systems by feedback control based on discrete-time state observations

Given an unstable hybrid stochastic differential equation (SDE), can we design a feedback control, based on the discrete-time observations of the state at times 0, τ, 2τ, · · · , so that the controlled hybrid SDE becomes asymptotically stable? It has been proved that this is possible if the drift and diffusion coefficients of the given hybrid SDE satisfy the linear growth condition. However, many hybrid SDEs in the real world do not satisfy this condition (namely, they are highly nonlinear) and there is no answer to the question yet if the given SDE is highly nonlinear. The aim of this paper is to tackle the stabilization problem for a class of highly nonlinear hybrid SDEs. Under some reasonable conditions on the drift and diffusion coefficients, we show how to design the feedback control function and give an explicit bound on τ (the time duration between two consecutive state observations), whence the new theory established in this paper is implementable