Pistia stratiotes L. in Nigerian waters

Summary Pistia stratiotes L., a perennial water weed found in natural water bodies in Nigeria, removes organic and inorganic nutrients as it grows and spreads in the waters. In a lake which received a variety of pollutants, the plant reduced oxidizable organic matter (4-h permanganate value) by 61%, the biochemical oxygen demand by 85.3%, ammonia nitrogen by 95.3% and water soluble phosphorus by 85%. The plant also removed other mineral matter.     

The melanocyte differentiation program predisposes to metastasis after neoplastic transformation

The aggressive clinical behavior of melanoma suggests that the developmental origins of melanocytes in the neural crest might be relevant to their metastatic propensity. Here we show that primary human melanocytes, transformed using a specific set of introduced genes, form melanomas that frequently metastasize to multiple secondary sites, whereas human fibroblasts and epithelial cells transformed using an identical set of genes generate primary tumors that rarely do so. Notably, these melanomas have a metastasis spectrum similar to that observed in humans with melanoma. These observations indicate that part of the metastatic proclivity of melanoma is attributable to lineage-specific factors expressed in melanocytes and not in other cell types analyzed. Analysis of microarray data from human nevi shows that the expression pattern of Slug, a master regulator of neural crest cell specification and migration, correlates with those of other genes that are important for neural crest cell migrations during development. Moreover, Slug is required for the metastasis of the transformed melanoma cells. These findings indicate that melanocyte-specific factors present before neoplastic transformation can have a pivotal role in governing melanoma progression.     

纳米金属和复合物在肿瘤诊断和治疗中的应用（英文）

本文讨论利用三类纳米材料对癌症进行诊断和治疗(简称诊治学)。这三类材料包含纳米金属、过渡金属氧化物和金属有机配合物,它们可通过化学湿法来制备。纳米技术具有精确构建细小材料的优越性,所以纳米材料被用来从细胞和基因水平上靶向攻击癌细胞,其精确度高、副作用小。目前的挑战在于对转移性癌症、抗药性癌症和肿瘤干细胞的治疗,通过有效设计作为载体的纳米材料,可以实现药物定向传递,进而实现对成体干细胞、胸腺T细胞的免疫治疗。作者讨论了上述纳米材料以及它们在癌症诊治中的应用,重点讨论了纳米材料的湿化学合成、性能及应用,该类材料具有独特的拓扑结构和孔隙度,因而具有高效靶向药物输送功能。另外,该类材料(特别是金属有机配合物)具有可调的颗粒大小、形状及组成,在靶向癌症治疗中,显示出循环半衰期长的优点。该文也就材料对肿瘤的诊治效率及纳米材料运作机制进行了探讨,以期克服目前所使用纳米材料的局限性。     

改质钢渣中铁/磷富集相形核与长大行为研究

回收钢渣中的铁（Fe）和磷（P）,不仅可以减轻钢渣堆积带来的环境负担,而且是钢铁工业发展循环经济、实现可持续发展的必由之路。本文旨在通过研究B2O3改质钢渣中富铁相（Fe3O4）和富磷相（Ca10P6O25）的结晶动力学规律确定Fe3O4与Ca10P6O25晶体可控生长的温度制度。本研究采用高温激光共聚焦扫描显微镜（CLSM）在线观测CaO–SiO2–FeO–P2O5–B2O3熔体的结晶行为,使用经典的结晶动力学理论计算Fe3O4与Ca10P6O25晶体的形核和长大速率。研究结果表明,CaO–SiO2–FeO–P2O5–B2O3熔体在冷却过程中初晶相Fe3O4析出温度范围为1300–1150°C,棒状的第二相Ca10P6O25在1150–1000°C温度区间内析出,且Fe3O4相的结晶能力大于Ca10P6O25相。综合考虑Fe3O4相与Ca10P6O25相的形核与长大速率,最终确定两相选择性结晶长大的最佳温度区间为(1055 ± 25)°C,即在1080–1030°C温度范围内对CaO–SiO2–FeO–P2O5–B2O3熔体进行缓慢冷却有利于Fe3O4与Ca10P6O25晶体的结晶长大,从而为后续从渣中选择性分离Fe3O4相与Ca10P6O25相创造了必要条件。     

No evidence of clonal somatic genetic alterations in cancer-associated fibroblasts from human breast and ovarian carcinomas

There is increasing evidence showing that the stromal cells surrounding cancer epithelial cells, rather than being passive bystanders, might have a role in modifying tumor outgrowth. The molecular basis of this aspect of carcinoma etiology is controversial. Some studies have reported a high frequency of genetic aberrations in carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), whereas other studies have reported very low or zero mutation rates. Resolution of this contentious area is of critical importance in terms of understanding both the basic biology of cancer as well as the potential clinical implications of CAF somatic alterations. We undertook genome-wide copy number and loss of heterozygosity (LOH) analysis of CAFs derived from breast and ovarian carcinomas using a 500K SNP array platform. Our data show conclusively that LOH and copy number alterations are extremely rare in CAFs and cannot be the basis of the carcinoma-promoting phenotypes of breast and ovarian CAFs.     

RNA sequencing of pancreatic circulating tumour cells implicates WNT signalling in metastasis

Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) shed into blood from primary cancers include putative precursors that initiate distal metastases. Although these cells are extraordinarily rare, they may identify cellular pathways contributing to the blood-borne dissemination of cancer. Here, we adapted a microfluidic device for efficient capture of CTCs from an endogenous mouse pancreatic cancer model and subjected CTCs to single-molecule RNA sequencing, identifying Wnt2 as a candidate gene enriched in CTCs. Expression of WNT2 in pancreatic cancer cells suppresses anoikis, enhances anchorage-independent sphere formation, and increases metastatic propensity in vivo. This effect is correlated with fibronectin upregulation and suppressed by inhibition of MAP3K7 (also known as TAK1) kinase. In humans, formation of non-adherent tumour spheres by pancreatic cancer cells is associated with upregulation of multiple WNT genes, and pancreatic CTCs revealed enrichment for WNT signalling in 5 out of 11 cases. Thus, molecular analysis of CTCs may identify candidate therapeutic targets to prevent the distal spread of cancer.     

Photonic crystals: imaging by flat lens using negative refraction

The positive refractive index of conventional optical lenses means that they need curved surfaces to form an image, whereas a negative index of refraction allows a flat slab of a material to behave as a lens and focus electromagnetic waves to produce a real image. Here we demonstrate this unique feature of imaging by a flat lens, using the phenomenon of negative refraction in a photonic crystalline material. The key advance that enabled us to make this observation lies in the design of a photonic crystal with suitable dispersion characteristics to achieve negative refraction over a wide range of angles.     

Palaeotemperature trend for Precambrian life inferred from resurrected proteins

Biosignatures and structures in the geological record indicate that microbial life has inhabited Earth for the past 3.5 billion years or so. Research in the physical sciences has been able to generate statements about the ancient environment that hosted this life. These include the chemical compositions and temperatures of the early ocean and atmosphere. Only recently have the natural sciences been able to provide experimental results describing the environments of ancient life. Our previous work with resurrected proteins indicated that ancient life lived in a hot environment. Here we expand the timescale of resurrected proteins to provide a palaeotemperature trend of the environments that hosted life from 3.5 to 0.5 billion years ago. The thermostability of more than 25 phylogenetically dispersed ancestral elongation factors suggest that the environment supporting ancient life cooled progressively by 30 degrees C during that period. Here we show that our results are robust to potential statistical bias associated with the posterior distribution of inferred character states, phylogenetic ambiguity, and uncertainties in the amino-acid equilibrium frequencies used by evolutionary models. Our results are further supported by a nearly identical cooling trend for the ancient ocean as inferred from the deposition of oxygen isotopes. The convergence of results from natural and physical sciences suggest that ancient life has continually adapted to changes in environmental temperatures throughout its evolutionary history.