Description: This paper presents a typical study regarding the creep interaction behavior between prestressed glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) bar and concrete when this GFRP bar is subjected to a constant external pullout force. A number of optical fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors were mounted on GFRP bar surface by using an innovative installation method to measure strain distributions. Test results indicate that the complicated interaction at GFRP bar-concrete interface can be evaluated using a transitional factor. Variation trends of this transitional factor indicate three typical zones characterized by different strain/stress variation trends of the GFRP bar when prestress values are sustained at specific levels. These three typical zones include stress release zone, stress transition zone, and continuous tension zone. Test results also suggest that the instant stress loss at the interaction interface between concrete and GFRP bar was quite limited (less than 5%) in present test. Contributed proportion of each GFRP bar section was obtained to represent the creep behavior of the GFRP bar embedded in concrete. This investigation improved the understanding of the short-term interaction behavior between prestressed GFRP bar and concrete.

Description: Cancers, Vol. 10, Pages 13: Translocation Breakpoints Preferentially Occur in Euchromatin and Acrocentric Chromosomes Cancers doi: 10.3390/cancers10010013 Authors: Cheng-Yu Lin Ankit Shukla John Grady J. Fink Eloise Dray Pascal Duijf Chromosomal translocations drive the development of many hematological and some solid cancers. Several factors have been identified to explain the non-random occurrence of translocation breakpoints in the genome. These include chromatin density, gene density and CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF)/cohesin binding site density. However, such factors are at least partially interdependent. Using 13,844 and 1563 karyotypes from human blood and solid cancers, respectively, our multiple regression analysis only identified chromatin density as the primary statistically significant predictor. Specifically, translocation breakpoints preferentially occur in open chromatin. Also, blood and solid tumors show markedly distinct translocation signatures. Strikingly, translocation breakpoints occur significantly more frequently in acrocentric chromosomes than in non-acrocentric chromosomes. Thus, translocations are probably often generated around nucleoli in the inner nucleoplasm, away from the nuclear envelope. Importantly, our findings remain true both in multivariate analyses and after removal of highly recurrent translocations. Finally, we applied pairwise probabilistic co-occurrence modeling. In addition to well-known highly prevalent translocations, such as those resulting in BCR-ABL1 (BCR-ABL) and RUNX1-RUNX1T1 (AML1-ETO) fusion genes, we identified significantly underrepresented translocations with putative fusion genes, which are probably subject to strong negative selection during tumor evolution. Taken together, our findings provide novel insights into the generation and selection of translocations during cancer development.

Description: This study aimed at the implementation and synchronization control of cardiac circuit. First, the MATLAB-Simulink was used to simulate the dynamic behavior of cardiac chaotic circuit, and simple electronic modules were used to implement the cardiac system. Then the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) was used to seek for the proportional, integral, and derivative gains of optimal PID controller, and the PID controller which could synchronize the slave cardiac circuit and the master cardiac circuit was obtained, in order to synchronize the master/slave chaotic cardiac circuits. This method can be provided for cardiac doctors to diagnose and medicate cardiac abnormality.

Description: Glucuronidation is a major metabolism process of detoxification for carcinogens, 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridy)-1-butanone (NNK) and 1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH), of reactive oxygen species (ROS). However, intestinal E. coli   -glucuronidase (eG) has been considered pivotal to colorectal carcinogenesis. Specific inhibition of eG may prevent reactivating the glucuronide-carcinogen and protect the intestine from ROS-mediated carcinogenesis. In order to develop specific eG inhibitors, we found that 59 candidate compounds obtained from the initial virtual screening had high inhibition specificity against eG but not human G. In particular, we found that compounds 7145 and 4041 with naphthalenylidene-benzenesulfonamide (NYBS) are highly effective and selective to inhibit eG activity. Compound 4041  (μM) shows a higher inhibiting ability than compound 7145  (μM) against eG. Furthermore, the molecular docking analysis indicates that compound 4041 has two hydrophobic contacts to residues L361 and I363 in the bacterial loop, but 7145 has one contact to L361. Only compound 4041 can bind to key residue (E413) at active site of eG via hydrogen-bonding interactions. These novel NYBS-based eG specific inhibitors may provide as novel candidate compounds, which specifically inhibit eG to reduce eG-based carcinogenesis and intestinal injury.

Description: RRM2B is a critical ribonucleotide reductase (RR) subunit that exists as p53-inducible and p53-dependent molecule. The p53-independent regulation of RRM2B has been recently studied, and FOXO3 was identified as a novel regulator of RRM2B. However, the p53-independent regulation of RRM2B, particularly under oxidative stress, remains largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the role of RRM2B underoxidative stress-induced DNA damage and further examined the regulation of mitochondrial and inflammatory genes by RRM2B. Our study is the first to report the critical role of RRM2B in mitochondrial homeostasis and the inflammation signaling pathway in a p53-independent manner. Furthermore, our study provides novel insights into the role of the RR in inflammatory diseases.