Technology Development Plan Research Articles

A Logical Relationship for Schizophrenia, Bipolar and Major Depressive Disorder Part 9: Evidence from Chromosome 9 High Density Association Screen

Background: Familial clustering of schizophrenia (SCZ), bipolar disorder (BPD), and major depressive disorder (MDD) was systematically investigated (Aukes et al, Genet Med 2012, 14, 338-341), and any two or even three of these disorder could co-existe in some families. Moreover, convergent evidence from symptomatology and psychopharmacology also imply intrinsic connections between these three major disorders. Methods: A total of 41,521 SNPs on chromosome 9 were genotyped by Affymetrix Genome-Wide Human SNP array 6.0 on 119 SCZ, 253 BPD(type-1), 177 MDD patients, and 1000 controls. Results: Associated SNPs and outstanding susceptibility genes ( APBA1, DBC1, FREM1, GABBR2, GRIN3A, PTPRD and TLE1) were systematically screen out. Unexpectedly, all flanking genes of the associated SNPs distinctive for bipolar and/or major depressive disorder were replicated in an enlarged cohort of 986 SCZ patients. Conclusions:: Our chromosome 9 result implies that bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder might be subtypes of schizophrenia rather than independence disease entity. Furthermore, evidence was constantly emerged from other chromosomes such as chr3, chr4, chr5, chr6, chr7 and chr8 (J Comp Neurol 2018; 526(1):59-79; J Comp Neurol 2019;527(2): 392-405. Am J Transl Res 2017; 9(5):2473-91; Curr Mol Med 2016; 16(9):840-54; Behav Brain Res 2015; 293:241-51; Mol Neurobiol 2017; 54(8):5868-82). Funding Statement: This study supported by grants from the Shandong Medical and Health Science and Technology Development project (Grant No. 2015WS0256), Key research and development Program of Shandong Province (Grant No. 2016GSF201076 ), Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (Grant No. ZR2013HM078, Z2008C11, Z2004C10), Shandong Province Science and Technology Development Plan (Grant No. 2011GSF11821), National High-tech R&D Program of China (863 Program Grant No. 2002AA223021), The National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 30770780, 30440042), Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of China (Grant No. 2009.416), Department of Science & Technology of Shandong Province (Grant No. 2008GG27C01011-8), National Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs (Grant No.CG2006370002), Shandong Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs (Grant No. L20063700407), Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences (Grant No. 2012-25, 2009-15), The Innovation Project of Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences. Declaration of Interests: The author(s) declare that they have no conflicts of interest. Ethics Approval Statement: Written consent was obtained from all subjects, and this study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Institute of Basic Medicine of Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences.

Identification of an Exosomal Long Non-Coding RNAs Panel for Predicting Recurrence Risk in Patients with Colorectal Cancer

Background: Recurrence is a major cause of cancer-related deaths in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, but the current strategies are limited to predict this clinical behavior. Our aim is to develop a recurrence prediction model based on long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in exosomes of serum to improve the prediction accuracy. Methods: High-throughput lncRNAs microarray and reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR were used to identify the recurrence-associated lncRNAs in 30 matched CRC tissues and sera. The recurrence prediction model was built with multivariable Cox analysis in 150-patient training set, and evaluated in an independent 203-patient test set using ROC, Kaplan-Meier, and COX analysis. Findings: In discovery phase, 11 lncRNAs were found to be associated with CRC recurrence in tissues, and 9 of them were correlated with their expression levels of serum exosomes. In training phase, a model based on 5-exosomal lncRNAs (exolncRNAs) panel was constructed, and showed high distinguish capability for recurrent CRC patients. ROC showed the panel was superior to serum CEA and CA19-9 in prediction of CRC recurrence. In both training and test sets, high-risk patients defined by the 5-exolncRNAs panel had poor recurrence free and overall survival. And, it was an independent factor for CRC prognosis. Interpretation: The 5-exolncRNAs panel robustly stratifies CRC patients' risk of recurrence, enabling more accurate prediction of prognosis. Funding Statement: Jinan Science and Technology Development Plan (201805003, 201805061), Shandong Medical and Health Technology Development Project (2018WSB20002), Shandong Key Research and Development Program (2018GSF118104), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (81301506). Declaration of Interests: The authors declared: There are no relevant conflicts of interest. Ethics Approval Statement: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Shandong Provincial Third Hospital and Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, and written informed consent was obtained from each patient.

Induction of G0/G1 Phase Cell Cycle Arrest and Apoptosis by <i>Aegiceras corniculatum</i> in Human Colorectal Cancer via Activation of FoxO Signalling

Background: Aegiceras corniculatum (Linn.) Blanco, commonly known as black mangrove, river mangrove, kacang-kacang, and Narikandam, is a mangrove plant, found from India through Southeast Asia to southern China and Australia. Aegiceras corniculatum is known to exhibit anticancer effects against different types of cancer; however, the anticancer activity and underlying mechanisms of action of A. corniculatum leaf extract on colorectal cancer (CRC) have not been elucidated. Methods: In the present study, a colony-forming assay, western blot, flow cytometry and a xenografts model were applied to investigate the effects of n-butanol extract of A. corniculatum leaves (NACL) on CRC in vitro and in vivo. Findings: The results showed that NACL inhibits the viability and proliferation of CRC cells in a dose-dependent manner. Besides, NACL also induces cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest by activating Forkhead box proteins and controlling the cell cycle checkpoint pathways, which are associated with the caspase-dependent mitochondrial apoptotic cascades and Bcl-2 family proteins. More importantly, the tumour sizes in HT-29 xenograft nude mice decreased after treatment with NACL in vivo. Significance: These findings demonstrate that A. corniculatum leaf extracts have potent anti-cancer activities across different colorectal and other solid tumor cell lines, via regulating cell cycle and apoptosis pathway, thus it has the potential to be developed as an anticancer therapy to enhance other standard of cares in the clinic for patients with CRC. Funding Statement: The work was supported by Guangxi scientific research and technology development plan project (No. GKH15104001-11), Guangxi Science and Technology Plan Projects (No. GKAD17195025), and Guangxi Key Laboratory Construction Project (No.17-259-20). Declaration of Interests: All authors state there are no conflicts of interest to disclose. Ethics Approval Statement: Experimental conditions and procedures involving animals were approved by the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee (IAEC) of Guangxi Medical University (Nanning, Guangxi, China). The experiments were carried out in accordance with the Laboratory Animal Use Guidelines of IAEC. Animal handling followed the National Animal Welfare Law of China.

Technology Development Trends Analysis and Development Plan of Unmanned Underwater Vehicle

Technology Development Trends Analysis and Development Plan of Unmanned Underwater Vehicle

Miniature Pigs Carrying <i>DMD</i> Exon51 Deletion Suffered from Severe Myocardial Damage, Accelerated Muscle Atrophy and Malabsorption

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), inherited in an X-linked recessive manner, is a lethal disease affecting about 1/3600 males at birth. Mutations in the DMD gene have been shown to be the key determinant of the occurrence of DMD disease. Nowadays, removal of DMD exon 51 has been used as a common therapeutic intervention in disease animal models. Despite all these efforts, the clinical significance of DMD exon 51 has hardly been explored in large animals. Our study aimed to investigate the role of DMD exon 51 in the pathogenesis of DMD disease. We generated cell clones and miniature pigs lacking DMD exon 51 by CRISPR-Cas9 system. Significant changes in cell membrane integrity and apoptosis were found in genetically modified cell clones. All DMD pigs showed the accelerated pathological process of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. In addition, the ability of the small intestine of DMD pigs to digest and absorb nutrients was significantly reduced, compared to wild-type littermates. To conclude, this research could assist in our understanding of the pathological process of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The findings of our investigation complemented those of earlier studies and might provide new insights into slow down the progression of this disease. Funding: This work was supported by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31572345 and 31472053), the Program for JLU Science and Technology Innovative Research Team (2017TD-28), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, the Humanized IAPP gene preparation of human diabetes miniature swine model. Jilin Province Science and Technology Development Plan Project (No.20170623035TC) and the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University in China (No. IRT16R32). Declaration of Interest: The authors declare no competing interest. Ethical Approval: All animal studies were approved by the Animal Welfare and Research Ethics Committee at Jilin University, and all procedures were conducted strictly in accordance with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. All surgeries were performed under anesthesia, and every effort was made to minimize animal suffering.

A Study of the Distribution between Each Province about China Style Innovation

Since publishing its “National Mid- and Long-Term Science Technology Development Plan” in 2006, China has continued to publicly recognize the importance of innovation. The present study aims to both index and evaluate the progress of innovation within all the provinces of China, including provincial cities and autonomous regions (province hereafter). Innovation, as defined in this study, encompassed not only the development of previously unseen cutting-edge technology, but also the technical improvement or introduction of methods which lead to increased production and market expansion. This paper examines the distribution of innovation achieved in Chinese provinces utilizing the Aggregate Demand-Aggregate Supply model, and moreover, considers the intensive area of innovation occurrence. In existing literature, such innovation is recognized as the China Style Innovation; however, as the methodology of this study provides information relative to effective innovation, meaning the innovation with market expansion for objective area, it can be applied to nations other than China.

Technology Development Plan for Agricultural and Rural Development

Technology Development Plan for Agricultural and Rural Development

Trends in Multimorbidity of Multiple Noncommunicable Diseases Among Adults in the United States, 1999-2016

Background: Multimorbidity of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) has brought enormous challenges to public health and become the main medical burden since last century. However, changes in multimorbidity of multiple NCDs over time have not been well described in the United States. Methods: A serial, cross-sectional analysis of the US nationally representative data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) was applied. 49,512 non-institutionalized US participants, who were 20 years and older, were involved in the study. Nine NHANES cycles were included (1999-2000 to 2015-2016), and the sample size per cycle ranged from 4,880 to 6,218. Findings: Data on 49,512 individuals were analyzed from 1999-2016 NHANES data, including 17,142 youths, 19,819 middle-aged and 12,551 elders. The overall estimated prevalence of multimorbidity of NCDs was 52.69% [95%CI: 49.14% to 56.22%] in the 2015-2016, where it was 24.82% [95%CI: 21.97% to 27.93%] in the youths, 59.68% [95%CI: 55.20% to 64.02%] in the middle-aged and 87.25% [95%CI: 83.66% to 90.14%] in the old, respectively. From 1999 to 2016, the trends of multimorbidity of NCDs increased among the whole population over time (difference, 10.05% [95%CI, 6.60% to 13.51%]; P for trend <0.001), especially in the old males (difference, 13.93% [95%CI, 3.75% to 24.11%]; P for trend <0.001) and old females (difference, 8.54% [95%CI, -0.54% to 17.61%]; P for trend = 0.004). The estimated prevalence of hypertension & hyperlipidemia was 21.09% [95%CI, 18.95% to 23.40%] in 2015-2016, which was the highest among all pairs of multimorbidity, and the trend was also increased from 1999 to 2016 (difference, 10.54% [95%CI, 7.88% to 13.20%]; P for trend <0.001). Besides, the estimated prevalence of multimorbidity in the middle-aged population whose annual household income lower than $25,000 was high and noteworthily increased (difference, 13.94% [95%CI, 6.82% to 21.06%]; P for trend <0.001). Interpretation: Among the US adults, multimorbidity of multiple NCDs generally remained high and increased from 1999 through 2016. Funding Statement: This work was supported by the Science and Technology Development Plan Project of Jilin Province, China (grant number: 20180418083FG), the Natural Science Foundation of Science and Technology Department of Jilin Province, China (grant number: 20180101129JC), the Outstanding Youth Foundation of Science and Technology Department of Jilin Province, China (grant number: 20170520049JH), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number: 11301213 and 11571068), the Scientific Research Foundation of the Health Bureau of Jilin Province, China (grant number: 2011Z116) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant number: 2016YFC1303800). Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethics Approval Statement: The NHANES obtained approval from the National Center for Health Statistics Research Ethics Review Board, and participants provided written consent.

Analyses of Sustainable Development Related Learning Contents in the High School Technology and Home-Economics Textbooks of the 2015 Revised Curriculu

지속 가능한 개발은 인류와 환경을 고려한 기술 발전이라는 측면에서 기술교육 분야에서 중요한 학습 주제로 인식되어 왔다. 이 연구의 목적은 2015 개정 교육과정 고등학교 기술·가정 교과서에서 지속 가능발전관련 단원을 분석하는 데 있다. 이 연구의 목적을 이루기 위하여 2015 개정 교육과정 기술·가정교과서 12종을 대상으로 지속 가능발전과 관련된 단원을 분석하였다. 주요 분석 항목은 단원의 구성, 학습내용(동기유발 자료, 읽기 자료, 지속 가능한 개발의 개념), 그리고 체험활동이다. 이 연구의 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 고등학교 기술·가정 교과서에서 지속가능발전 관련 단원은 대단원 또는 중단원에서 ‘지속 가능’이라는 용어를 포함하고 있었다. 단원명은 주로 지속 가능과 관련된 영역, 일반화된 지식, 핵심 개념과 연관성을 가지고 만들어졌다. 둘째, 교과서에서 동기 유발 내용은 기술의 발전으로 인한 부정적인 영향과 관련된 주제에 기반으로 하고 있으며 학생들의 적극적인 참여와 몰입을 유도하였다. 셋째, 교과서에서 읽기 자료는 지속 가능 및 적정기술을 실천하고 있는 사례를 주로 제시하고 있다. 넷째, 교과서에서 지속 가능발전은 대부분 ‘우리 공동의 미래’ (UNESCO, 2008)의 정의와 같은 맥락에서 정의되었다. 마지막으로, 지속 가능 관련 문제 해결 활동은 에너지 관련 활동, 적정기술, 지속 가능발전 방안 찾기 활동으로 이루어져 있다. 문제해결활동은 대부분 기술적 문제 해결의 과정을 따라 이루어졌다. 2015 개정 교육과정을 반영한 고등학교 기술·가정 교과서에는 주요 핵심 개념인 지속 가능을 포함하고 학생들의 적극적인 참여와 활동을 강조하고 있다. 이 연구는 다른 학교급의 교과서 분석, 학생 관련 효과성 검증 연구, 그리고 교사들의 전문성 신장과 관련된 후속 연구로 확장될 수 있다.Sustainable Development has been perceived as a key learning topic in the field of Technology Education considering human and environment for technological development. The goal of this study was to analyze sustainable development related learning contents in the high school technology and home-economics textbooks of the 2015 revised curriculum. To accomplish the research goal, this study concentrated on the twelve types of high school textbooks. Key analysis items were unit composition, learning contents (motivational materials, reading materials, concept of sustainable development), and problem solving hands-on activities. The findings of this study were as follows. First, the sustainable development related learning contents were included in the high school textbooks. The titles were named in connections with technological application area, core concepts, and generalized knowledge. Second, motivational learning materials were based on the contents of the negative impacts of technological development and encouraged students’ engagement and involvement. Third, reading materials were presented in the cases of sustainable or appropriate technologies. Fourth, the concept of sustainable development was defined in the same context of Our Common Future (UNESCO, 2008)’s definition. Lastly, key hands-on activities associated with the sustainable development presented in textbooks were energy related activities, appropriate technology, and sustainable development planning and followed a process of technological problem solving. High school textbooks of the 2015 revised curriculum included sustainability as a core concept and emphasized students’ active participation and activities. This study could be extended into further studies such as analyses of textbooks in different school grades, students related effectiveness study, and teachers’ professional development.

Construction of Internal Market of R&D Achievements transformation of Large-scale SOE

The transformation of R&D achievements is a key link for large SOE (State-owned enterprise) to implement national innovation and development strategies and accelerate R&D innovation.Large-scale SOE have accumulated a large number of R&D achievements. But most of the achievements have not successfully transformed into industrial products. The transformation channels amid R&D, industrial and application units within the SOE group have not been built efficiently, which is mainly due to the fewer high-potential achievements, the narrower transformation channels and the weak motivation of transformation.Based on an in-depth analysis of the status and problems of SOEs’R&D achievements transformation, this paper introduces the concept of “market transactions”, proposes an internal market construction plan and organization system for the transformation of SOEs’ R&D achievements which contain a total of 2 types of 3 conversion modes. Also, this paper clearly defines the function orientation and main work of each units, which provides channels for the transformation of its R&D, industrial and application units, promotes the realization of the value of R&D achievements, and improve its R&D efficiency.This paper contributes to the improvements of the large-scale SOEs’R&D achievements transformation mechanism, to the acceleration the implementation of science and technology development planning, and to the strategic management of R&D innovation.

Mapping the Brazilian microscopy landscape: A bibliometric and network analysis

Understanding how a technology is introduced and shared in a society has a strategic value for the planning of technological development and assessing new market opportunities. Among other technologies, microscopy has had a significant role in advancing different fields of science. In Brazil, its use spans from biomedical to engineering areas. Here, we used social network analysis (SNA) to map and quantify the flow of interaction between Brazilian researchers involved in microscopy techniques. The analysis examines co-occurrence of thematic networks and scientific co-authorship in articles published in a ten years window, as retrieved from Scopus database. The results showed an increasing volume of publications using microscopy in Brazil. The two major areas of interest are material and life sciences, which present significant intra-regional interaction. USA, Spain, Germany, Portugal and the United Kingdom are the main partner countries for international scientific collaborations. The share of Brazilian publications applying microscopy follows the global trends, with a slight predominance in health and life sciences. Our results provide a context of the strengths and gaps of the field in Brazil and may help to inform researchers and policy makers for further advancing the field.

Study on the Technology Trends and Development Plan of Bioimaging for New Drug Development

With change of medical paradigm toward patient-focused and personalized medication, the focus has changed from treatment of diseases to prevention of diseases. Owing to the increase in chronic diseases and population aging, the Korean pharmaceutical market size has rapidly increased, making the pharmaceutical industry the next-generation strategic sector. However, when considering the scale of investments, has indicated very low success rate. In addition, it took very long time to develop a new drug, leading to such undesirable outcomes (approval of small number of new drugs and decreased productivity, compared to R&D investment). Therefore, the need for development of new drug development strategies and introduction of new concept to increase the efficiency of the new drug development and to reduce the devel-opment cost has been highlighted. Accordingly, it is necessary to assure paradigm shift and coherent linking of pre-clinical and clinical studies, in order to correctly select candidate drugs for clinical studies. In order to overcome limitations of clin-ical studies, developed countries have expanded supports and investments in development of techniques for clinical eval-uation and improvement of clinical program. Techniques obtained from such activities will be primarily used in establishing regulatory requirements as well as international standards. One of such alternative techniques for clinical evaluations is “bioimaging technique”. The bioimaging technique is a non-invasive technique to show living organism s structural and functional images. It can visualize normal biological processes, pathological processes and pharmacological responses to treatments and enable objective measurement and evaluation. It includes X-ray, CT, MRI, PET and others widely used in medical examinations. In this study, the bioimaging technique and its utilization are carefully investigated and regulatory trends in foreign countries are analyzed to identify current status in Korea. In addition, suggestions have provided to activate research of bioimaging technique in Korea and improve the system for review and evaluation of medicinal products.

Phase Sensitive Photonic Flash**Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under Grant Nos. 11404021, 11534002, 11674049, Jilin Province Science and Technology Development Plan under Grant No. 20170520132JH, and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant Nos. 2412016KJ015 and 2412016KJ004

We theoretically propose a photonic flash based on a linearly coupled cavity system. Via driving the two side cavities by external fields, it forms a cyclic energy-level diagram and therefore the phase difference between the driving fields acts as a controller of the steady state due to the quantum interference effect. In the optical trimer structure, we show that the perfect photonic flash can be realized in the situation of resonant driving. The perfect photonic flash scheme is furthermore generalized to multiple coupled cavity system, where the cavities with odd and even number turn bright and dark alternatively. Our proposal may be applied for designing the quantum neon and realizing a controllable photonic localization.

Relative efficiency of energy technologies in the Korean mid-term strategic energy technology development plan

Korea is vulnerable to oil price volatility due to its significant energy import dependence, which accounts for almost 97% of the primary energy consumption. Korea ranked eighth worldwide in terms of the volume of oil consumption in 2014 according to the BP statistical review 2015. Consequently, the best way to address the energy problem in Korea and enhance its national energy security is to implement a mid-term strategic energy technology development plan supported by the Korean Research Council for Public Science and Technology, along with well-focused research and development (R&D). We thus established a mid-term strategic energy technology development plan for the five years from 2007 to 2011, which serves as a guide for producing focused R&D outputs and outcomes, and provides a continuous energy technology development policy for coping with the significant government scientific and technology policy shift toward a world class research institute. This paper applies data envelopment analysis (DEA), a multi-criteria decision-making approach, to measure the relative efficiency of nine selected energy technologies included in the mid-term strategic energy technology development plan, from an economic viewpoint, from 2007 to 2008. As policymakers, we need to analyze and determine whether nine energy technologies have to be carried out continuously or not by considering the R&D performance of the nine selected energy technologies is competitive under limited R&D investment and resources. Using the DEA approach, energy technology R&D programs can be thus effectively assessed in relation to the relative efficiency of the nine selected energy technologies. Two core technologies, namely redox flow battery (RFB) and combined heat and power plant (CHP), need to enhance their R&D outputs and outcomes to become relatively efficient technologies from an economic viewpoint. The government and energy policymakers can re-evaluate their status and enhance any weak points towards strategically shifting to a world-class research institute within five years.

Phase transition and near-zero thermal expansion of Zr0.5Hf0.5VPO7**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11574276, U173112, and 41401384), the Project of Shandong Provincial Higher Educational Science and Technology Program, China (Grant No. J17KB127), the Science and Technology Development Plans of Binzhou City, China (Grant Nos. 2014ZC0307 and 2015ZC0210), and Binzhou University Research Fund Project, China

The Zr0.5Hf0.5VPO7 is successfully synthesized by the solid-state method with near-zero thermal expansion. Powder x-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, thermal dilatometry, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) are used to investigate the structure, the phase transition, and the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of Zr0.5Hf0.5VPO7. The investigation results show that the samples are of the single cubic type with a space group of at room temperature (RT). It can be inferred that the superstructure is transformed from the 3 × 3 × 3 superstructure to the 1 × 1 × 1 ideal crystal in a temperature range between 310 K and 323 K. The CTE is measured by a dilatometer to be 0.59 × 10−6 K−1 (310 K–673 K). The values of intrinsic (XRD) and extrinsic (dilatometric) thermal expansion are both near zero. The results show that Zr0.5Hf0.5VPO7 has near-zero thermal expansion behavior over a wide temperature range.

Endometriosis induces gut microbiota alterations in mice.

What happens to the gut microbiota during development of murine endometriosis? Mice with the persistence of endometrial lesions for 42 days develop a distinct composition of gut microbiota. Disorders in the immune system play fundamental roles in changing the intestinal microbiota. No study has used high-throughput DNA sequencing to show how endometriosis changes the gut microbiota, although endometriosis is accompanied by abnormal cytokine expression and immune cell dysfunction. This study includes a prospective and randomized experiment on an animal endometriosis model induced via the intraperitoneal injection of endometrial tissues. The mice were divided into endometriosis and mock groups and were sacrificed at four different time points for model confirmation and fecal sample collection. To detect gut microbiota, 16S ribosomal-RNA gene sequencing was performed. Alpha diversity was used to analyze the complexity and species diversity of the samples through six indices. Beta diversity analysis was utilized to evaluate the differences in species complexity. Principal coordinate analysis and unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic means clustering were performed to determine the clustering features. The microbial features differentiating the fecal microbiota were characterized by linear discriminant analysis effect size method. The endometriosis and mock mice shared similar diversity and richness of gut microbiota. However, different compositions of gut microbiota were detected 42 days after the modeling. Among the discriminative concrete features, the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio was elevated in mice with endometriosis, indicating that endometriosis may induce dysbiosis. Bifidobacterium, which is known as a commonly used probiotic, was also increased in mice with endometriosis. N/A. More control groups should be further studied to clarify the specificity of the dysbiosis induced by endometriosis. This study was performed only on mice. Thus, additional data acquired from patients with endometriosis are needed in future research. We only detected the changes of gut microbiota at 42 days after the modeling, while the long-term effect of endometriosis on gut microbiota remains poorly understood. Moreover, we only revealed a single effect of endometriosis on gut microbiota. This study provided the first comprehensive data on the association of endometriosis and gut microbiota from high-throughput sequencing technology. The gut microbiota changed with the development of endometriosis in a murine model. The communication between the host and the gut microbiota is bidirectional, and further studies should be performed to clarify their relationship. This research was supported by Grant (81571417) from the National Science Foundation of China and Grant (2015GSF118092) from the Technology Development Plan of Shandong Province. The authors report no conflict of interest.

Total-Factor Energy Efficiency in BRI Countries: An Estimation Based on Three-Stage DEA Model

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is showing its great influence and leadership on the international energy cooperation. Based on the three-stage DEA model, total-factor energy efficiency (TFEE) in 35 BRI countries in 2015 was measured in this article. It shows that the three-stage DEA model could eliminate errors of environment variable and random, which made the result better than traditional DEA model. When environment variable errors and random errors were eliminated, the mean value of TFEE was declined. It demonstrated that TFEE of the whole sample group was overestimated because of external environment impacts and random errors. The TFEE indicators of high-income countries like South Korea, Singapore, Israel and Turkey are 1, which is in the efficiency frontier. The TFEE indicators of Russia, Saudi Arabia, Poland and China are over 0.8. And the indicators of Uzbekistan, Ukraine, South Africa and Bulgaria are in a low level. The potential of energy-saving and emissions reduction is great in countries with low TFEE indicators. Because of the gap in energy efficiency, it is necessary to distinguish different countries in the energy technology options, development planning and regulation in BRI countries.

All polymer asymmetric Mach–Zehnder interferometer waveguide sensor by imprinting bonding and laser polishing**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61605057, 61475061, and 61575076), the Science and Technology Development Plan of Jilin Province, China (Grant No. 20140519006JH), and the Excellent Youth Foundation of Jilin Province, China (Grant No. 20170520158JH).

We present an all polymer asymmetric Mach–Zehnder interferometer (AMZI) waveguide sensor based on imprinting bonding and laser polishing method. The fabrication methods are compatible with high accuracy waveguide sensing structure. The rectangle waveguide structure of this sensor has three sensing surfaces contacting the test media, and its sensing accuracy can be increased 5 times compared with that of one surface sensing structure. An AMZI device structure is designed. The single mode condition, the length of the sensing arm, and the length deviation between the sensing arm and the reference arm are optimized. The length deviation is optimized to be in a refractive index range between 1.470 and 1.545. We fabricate the AMZI waveguide by lithography and wet etching method. The imprinting bonding and laser polishing method is proposed and investigated. The insertion loss is between −80.36 dB and −10.63 dB. The average and linear sensitivity are 768.1 dB/RIU and 548.95 dB/RIU, respectively. And the average and linear detection resolution of the sensor are 1.30 × 10−6 RIU (RIU: refractive index unit) and 1.82 × 10−5 RIU, respectively. This sensor has a fast and cost-effective fabrication process which can be used in the cases of requiring portability and disposability.

Abstract LB-082: Targeted inactivation of STAT3 inhibits proliferation and invasion of breast cancer cells and enhances antitumor activity of doxorubicin through reversion of EMT

Abstract Breast cancer is one of the most common malignant diseases in women. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been documented to play an important role in proliferation, invasion and metastasis of tumor cells as well as drug resistance. Even though the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is not a master transcription factor of EMT, STAT3 is involved in the regulation of EMT-related gene expression. However, it remains unclear whether targeted inhibitors of STAT3 affect EMT-mediated proliferation, migration, invasion and drug resistance of tumor cells. In this paper, we investigated the effects of STAT3 and its interaction with Twist, a master transcription factor, in EMT program and subsequent changes in proliferation, migration and invasion of breast cancer cells by interfering STAT3 signaling pathway with different strategies such as STAT3 inactivation and STAT3 silencing. Furthermore, we explored the role of inhibiting STAT3 phosphorylation in the EMT regulation of the sensitivity of tumor cells response to doxorubicin. The results showed that the expression and activation of STAT3 correlated with cell phenotype and invasive ability of breast cancer cells. IL-6 induced phosphorylation of STAT3 can promote the EMT of breast cancer cells. WP1066 completely inhibited STAT3 autophosphorylation and IL-6-induced phosphorylation in breast cancer cells. WP1066 reversed EMT to MET through inhibiting the phosphorylation of STAT3 in breast cancer cells and significantly inhibited the proliferation and invasion in breast cancer cells. Silence STAT3 with siRNA also reversed EMT to MET in breast cancer cells. The expression of EMT transcription factor Twist1 was positively correlated with the activation of STAT3 but not with the expression of STAT3. WP1066 increased doxorubicin antitumor activity through inhibiting the STAT3 phosphorylation. These data provide a proof of concept that targeted inactivation of STAT3 can inhibit proliferation and invasion of breast cancer cells and reduce the resistance of Doxorubicin through reversion of EMT. Support by Natural Science Foundation of China (No.81472489) and Science and Technology Development Plan of Shandong (No.2014GSF118040) Citation Format: Yi Ding, Yu Jiang, Wenqing Li, Shurong Liu, Zhong Lu, Lihong Shi, Xuejian Wang, Jian Zhang, Lihua Wang. Targeted inactivation of STAT3 inhibits proliferation and invasion of breast cancer cells and enhances antitumor activity of doxorubicin through reversion of EMT [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-082. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-LB-082

Participatory diagnosis and development of climate change adaptive capacity in the groundnut basin of Senegal: building a climate-smart village model

BackgroundUp to now, efforts to help local communities out of the food-insecurity trap were guided by researcher (or other actors)-led decisions on technologies to be implemented by the communities. This approach has proved inefficient because of low adoption of the so-called improved technologies. This paper describes the strategic approaches to the development of a climate-smart village (CSV) model in the groundnut basin of Senegal. A CSV model is a participatory integrated approach using climate information, improved context-based technologies/practices aiming at reaching improved productivity (food and nutrition security), climate resilient people and ecosystem and climate mitigation. In this study, participatory vulnerability analysis, planning adaptation capacity and participatory communication for development were implemented, putting people affected by the impacts of climate change (CC) at the center of the approach. Four interdependent groups of activities/domains, namely—local and institutional knowledge, use of climate information services, development of climate-smart technology and local development plans, were covered. It was emphasized, how all this taken together could create improved livelihoods for women, men and vulnerable groups.ResultsThe approach made it possible to involve local people in the decision-making process for the development of their adaptation capacity to CC. It also helped to set up an overall land management process by identifying and addressing environmental (sustainable resource management, ecosystem resilience) and socioeconomic (institutional organization, empowerment, poverty alleviation and food security) challenges. A monitoring survey revealed that farmers appreciate well this participatory approach compared to previous top-down approach in that the former allow them to own the process. Also determinant drivers of adoption of the technologies were identified.ConclusionScaling this community development model in sites with similar climatic and socioeconomic conditions could help in contributing toward achieving food security in rural areas at wider scale because of better enthusiasm and engagement from rural farmers to pursue solution to their constraints taking into consideration constraints posed by climate and more need based and tailored advisory services.