Background: Layilin (LAYN) is a critical gene that regulates T cell function. However, the correlations of LAYN to prognosis and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in different cancers remain unclear.Methods: LAYN expression was analyzed via the Oncomine database and Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) site. We evaluated the influence of LAYN on clinical prognosis using Kaplan-Meier plotter, the PrognoScan database and Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA). The correlations between LAYN and cancer immune infiltrates was investigated via TIMER. In addition, correlations between LAYN expression and gene marker sets of immune infiltrates were analyzed by TIMER and GEPIA.Results: A cohort (GSE17536) of colorectal cancer patients showed that high LAYN expression was associated with poorer overall survival (OS), disease-specific survival (DSS), and disease-free survival (DFS). In addition, high LAYN expression was significantly correlated with poor OS and progression-free survival (PFS) in gastric cancers (OS HR = 1.97, P = 3.6e-10; PFS HR = 2.12, P = 2.3e-10). Moreover, LAYN significantly impacts the prognosis of diverse cancers via The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Specifically, high LAYN expression was correlated with worse OS and PFS in stage 2 to 4 but not stage 1 and stage N0 gastric cancer patients (P = 0.28, 0.34; P = 0.073, 0.092). LAYN expression was positively correlated with infiltrating levels of CD4+ T and CD8+ T cells, macrophages, neutrophils, and dendritic cells (DCs) in colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) and stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD). LAYN expression showed strong correlations with diverse immune marker sets in COAD and STAD.Conclusions: These findings suggest that LAYN is correlated with prognosis and immune infiltrating levels of, including those of CD8+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, macrophages, neutrophils, and DCs in multiple cancers, especially in colon and gastric cancer patients. In addition, LAYN expression potentially contributes to regulation of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), DCs, T cell exhaustion and Tregs in colon and gastric cancer. These findings suggest that LAYN can be used as a prognostic biomarker for determining prognosis and immune infiltration in gastric and colon cancers.

No abstract

No abstract

Pervious concrete is an environmentally friendly material that improves water permeability, skid resistance, and sound absorption characteristics. Permeability is the most important functional performance for the pervious concrete while limited studies have been conducted to predict permeability based on mix-design parameters. This study proposed a method to combine the beetle antennae search (BAS) and random forest (RF) algorithm to predict the permeability of pervious concrete. Based on the 36 samples designed in the laboratory and 4 key influencing variables, the permeability of pervious concrete can be obtained by varying mix-design parameters by RF. BAS algorithm was used to tune the hyperparameters of RF, which were then verified by the so-called 10-fold cross-validation. Furthermore, the model to combine the BAS and RF was validated by the correlation parameters. The results showed that the hyperparameters of RF can be tuned by the BAS efficiently; the BAS can combine the conventional RF algorithm to construct the evolved model to predict the permeability of pervious concrete; the cement/aggregate ratio was the most significant variable to determine the permeability, followed by the coarse aggregate proportions.

New waterborne polyurethane (WPU)-based nanocomposites were prepared by incorporating low loading levels of chitin whiskers (ChWs) as the nanophase. The resultant WPU/ChW nanocomposites exhibited prominent enhancement in both strength and Young's modulus, and maintained an elongation of greater than ca. 500%. The ChW loading level of 3 wt% showed the maximum tensile strength (28.8 MPa) and enhanced Young's modulus (6.5 MPa), ca.1.8- and 2.2-fold over those of neat WPU. The active surface and rigidity of ChW facilitated formation of the interface for stress transferring and contributed to higher stress-endurance. As the ChW loading level increased, self-aggregation of ChWs resulted in a decrease in strength; however, the rigidity of ChW still supported the increase in Young's modulus, and the nanocompositescontaining 5 wt% ChWs had the highest Young's modulus (9.6 MPa). This work enriches the research into achieving high mechanical performance of waterborne polyurethane-based nanocomposites by introducing a natural nanofiller, and this high performance 'green' bionanocomposites will likely have promising prospects

No abstract

Tumor vascular normalization has been proposed as a new concept in anti-tumor angiogenesis, and the normalization window is considered as an opportunity to increase the effect of chemoradiotherapy. However, there is still a lack of a non-invasive method for monitoring the process of tumor vascular normalization. Intravoxel incoherent motion diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (IVIM DW-MRI) is an emerging approach which can effectively assess microperfusion in tumors, without the need for exogenous contrast agents. However, its role in monitoring tumor vascular normalization still needs further study. In this study, we established a tumor vascular normalization model of CT26 colon-carcinoma-bearing mice by means of Endostar treatment. We then employed IVIM DW-MRI and immunofluorescence to detect the process of tumor vascular normalization at different times after treatment. We found that the D* values of the Endostar group were significantly higher than those of the control group on days 4, 6, 8, and 10 after treatment, and the f values of the Endostar group were significantly higher than those of the control group on days 6 and 8. Furthermore, we confirmed through analysis of histologic parameters that Endostar treatment induced the CT26 tumor vascular normalization window starting from day 4 after treatment, and this window lasted for 6 days. Moreover, we found that D* and f values were well correlated with pericyte coverage (r = 0.469 and 0.504, respectively; P < 0.001, both) and relative perfusion (r = 0.424 and 0.457, respectively; P < 0.001, both). Taken together, our findings suggest that IVIM DW-MRI has the potential to serve as a non-invasive approach for monitoring Endostar-induced tumor vascular normalization.

No abstract