ANGPTL4 Negatively Regulate the Progression of Osteosarcoma by Remodeling Branched-Chain Amino Acid Metabolism

BackgroundAngiopoietin-like-4 (ANGPTL4), a secreted glycoprotein that is mainly recognized as a regulator in lipid metabolism, now, is implied in the regulation of the growth and metastasis of various carcinomas. However, less is known about its functions in the progression of sarcomas, let alone osteosarcoma (OS), which is the most common malignant diagnosed in musculoskeletal system.MethodsThe expression of ANGPTL4 in clinical OS samples and cell lines paired with their controls were analyzed in both mRNA and protein levels. Cell functional analysis including proliferation and colony formation were carried out to detect the roles ANGPTL4 takes in the progress of OS using stable ANGPTL4 overexpression and knockdown HOS/MNNG cell lines. The RNA-Seq and bioinformatics analysis were then employed to discover the BCAA metabolism related signaling which is involved in ANGPTL4 functioning on HOS/MNNG cell growth. Furthermore, BCAAs content measurement, and BCATs rescue experiments were performed to confirm the BCAA/mTOR signaling axis that ANGPTL4 triggered in HOS/MNNG cells. Finally, a xenograft mouse model was carried out to further verify the ANGPTL4 /BCAA/mTOR signaling axis discovered. ResultsWe found that the expression of ANGPTL4 is reduced in clinical OS tissues and cell lines compared to cancellous bone tissues and BMSCs, respectively. The knockdown of ANGPTL4 in HOS/MNNG cells results in enhanced cell growth and clone formation. Moreover, BCAA/mTOR signaling axis were discovered to be triggered by ANGPTL4 down regulation in HOS/MNNG cell using RNA-seq. It was also verified that the accumulation of BCAAs activates the mTOR signaling pathway, and in turn promotes HOS/MNNG cell growth using BCAAs content measurement, and BCAT inhibition. Finally, the IHC results of xenograft mouse model also confirmed this ANGPTL4/BCAA/mTOR signaling axis in vivo.ConclusionsTaken together, our results demonstrate that the expression of ANGPTL4 were negatively related to OS progress. Moreover, it was found the down-regulation of ANGPTL4 promoted OS cell growth via BCAAs/mTOR axis.

Coal Ash Content Measurement Based on Pseudo-Dual Energy X-ray Transmission

The real-time ash content measurement is the fundamental condition for the timely adjustment and intelligent control of operation parameters in coal production and utilization industry. In the present work, a real-time ash content analyzer based on the pseudo-dual energy X-ray transmission was developed. The feasibility of this X-ray ash content analyzer was validated by the linear relationship between ash content and five characteristic parameters of X-ray. The conditions of wave filter, tube voltage, and tube current were optimized. The comparison between the ash contents measured by muffle furnace and the X-ray ash content analyzer was conducted in laboratory and industry. It was found that the absolute error was smaller than 1% for clean coal with ash content of approximately 10%, and the possibility of the absolute error smaller than 0.5% was higher than 85%.

Wood Moisture-Content Measurement Accuracy of Impregnated and Nonimpregnated Wood

The influence of the impregnation process of pine wood (Pinus sylvestris L.) samples on the electrical resistance changes and the moisture-content measurement accuracy is presented in this paper. In this study, the resistances of impregnated and nonimpregnated green pine timber harvested from northern Poland were compared. An impregnation method based on a vacuum-pressure chamber was used. Copper salts were applied as the impregnated solutions. The obtained results of the electrical resistance comparison showed a dependence of wood resistance on the moisture content. Higher conductivity occurred in impregnated wood samples filled with copper salt compared with wood samples without impregnation. Noticeable differences in the electrical resistance values were observed when the wood moisture content was significantly above the Fibre Saturation Point (FSP).

Capacitive Online Corn Moisture Content Sensor Considering Porosity Distributions: Modeling, Design, and Experiments

An online corn moisture content measurement device would be a key technology for providing accurate feedback information for industrial drying processes to enable the dynamic tracking and closed-loop control of the process. To overcome the problem of large measurement error caused by the characteristics of the corn flow state and the pore distribution when a parallel plate capacitor is applied to the online moisture content measurement process, in this study, we summarized the constraint conditions of the sensor’s structure parameters by mathematical modeling and calculated the optimal sensor design size. Moreover, the influence of porosity variation on moisture content measurement was studied by using the designed sensor. In addition, a mathematical model for calculating corn moisture content was obtained for the moisture content range of 14.7% to 26.4% w.b., temperature of 5 °C to 35 °C, and porosity of 38.4% to 44.6%. The results indicated that the fluctuation in the online moisture content measurement value was obviously reduced after the porosity compensation. The absolute error of the measured moisture content value was −0.62 to 0.67% w.b., and the average of absolute values of error was 0.32% w.b. The main results provide a theoretical basis and technical support for the development of intelligent industrial grain–drying equipment.