ZEB2 drives intra-tumor heterogeneity and skin squamous cell carcinoma formation with distinct EMP transition states.

About 5% of patients with cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) have a poor prognosis which is associated with a loss of tumor differentiation, invasion and metastasis, all of which are linked to the process of epithelial-to-mesenchymal plasticity (EMP). Here, we showed that the EMP-associated transcription factor ZEB2 drives cSCC heterogeneity which resembles biphasic carcinosarcoma-like tumors. Single cell RNA sequencing revealed distinct subpopulations ranging from fully epithelial (E) to intermediate (EM) to fully mesenchymal (M), associated with the gradual loss of cell surface markers EPCAM, CDH1, ITGB4, and CD200.

A nanoscale view of the origin of boiling and its dynamics.

In this work, we present a dynamical theory of boiling based on fluctuating hydrodynamics and the diffuse interface approach. The model is able to describe boiling from the stochastic nucleation up to the macroscopic bubble dynamics. It covers, with a modest computational cost, the mesoscale area from nano to micrometers, where most of the controversial observations related to the phenomenon originate.

Dynamic wetting of various liquids: Theoretical models, experiments, simulations and applications.

Dynamic wetting is a ubiquitous phenomenon and frequently observed in our daily life, as exemplified by the famous lotus effect. It is also an interfacial process of upmost importance involving many cutting-edge applications and has hence received significantly increasing academic and industrial attention for several decades. However, we are still far away to completely understand and predict wetting dynamics for a given system due to the complexity of this dynamic process.

A novel method to assess heat transfer and impact of relevant physicochemical parameters for the scaling up of solid state fermentation systems.

Heat production during fermentation is undesirable. It can affect the growth of biomass, sporulation, products formation and the scaling-up. Physico-chemical properties of substrates influence heat and mass transfer in Solid State Fermentation.

A possible way to extract the dynamic contact angle at the molecular scale from that measured experimentally.

Hypothesis: The maximum velocity of dewetting encodes sufficient information on the hydrodynamics of the wetting process to enable the local dynamic contact angle at the molecular scale, θ, to be determined from the apparent contact angle measured experimentally at much larger scales, θ.

Methods: Effective models of wetting dynamics need to account for differing channels of dissipation. One such model was recently verified by large-scale molecular dynamics (MD).

Thermography as an aid for the complementary diagnosis of nodules in the thyroid gland.

Background: Considering the estimate that thyroid cancer will become the fourth most prevalent type of tumor, improving its diagnosis is a necessity. The gold standard for evaluating thyroid nodules is ultrasound followed by biopsy. These tests, however, have limitations, especially in nodules smaller than 0.

Distinct Transcriptional Programs in Ascitic and Solid Cancer Cells Induce Different Responses to Chemotherapy in High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer.

Unlabelled: High-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) is responsible for the largest number of ovarian cancer deaths. The frequent therapy-resistant relapses necessitate a better understanding of mechanisms driving therapy resistance. Therefore, we mapped more than a hundred thousand cells of HGSOC patients in different phases of the disease, using single-cell RNA sequencing.

Green strategies to control redox potential in the fermented food industry.

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are important microorganisms in the food industry as functional starters for the manufacture of fermented food products and as probiotics. Redox potential (E) is a parameter of the physicochemical environment of foods that influences key oxidation-reduction reactions involved in process performances and product quality. E can be modified by different methods, using redox molecules, catalytic activity of enzymes or LAB themselves, technological treatments like electroreduction or heating, and finally gases.

Executioner caspases 3 and 7 are dispensable for intestinal epithelium turnover and homeostasis at steady state.

Apoptosis is widely believed to be crucial for epithelial cell death and shedding in the intestine, thereby shaping the overall architecture of the gastrointestinal tract, but also regulating tolerance induction, pinpointing a role of apoptosis intestinal epithelial cell (IEC) turnover and maintenance of barrier function, and in maintaining immune homeostasis. To experimentally address this concept, we generated IEC-specific knockout mice that lack both executioner caspase-3 and caspase-7 (), which are the converging point of the extrinsic and intrinsic apoptotic pathway. Surprisingly, the overall architecture, cellular landscape, and proliferation rate remained unchanged in these mice.

Thermal Evaluation to Identify Nodules Using Semivariogram Curves.

Thermography can contribute to the early diagnosis of tumors by identifying nodules that need to be analyzed. The objective of this paper was to verify possible semivariogram curves to identify the possible spatial behavior centered in the region with the nodule and capture the thermal behavioral information surroundings of this point. For this, we used the resources of R-Studio and theoretical basis in semivariogram models.

XIAP restrains TNF-driven intestinal inflammation and dysbiosis by promoting innate immune responses of Paneth and dendritic cells.

Deficiency in X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP) is the cause for X-linked lymphoproliferative syndrome 2 (XLP2). About one-third of these patients suffer from severe and therapy-refractory inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but the exact cause of this pathogenesis remains undefined. Here, we used XIAP-deficient mice to characterize the mechanisms underlying intestinal inflammation.

EVALUATION OF THE RADIATION EXPOSURE IN SEQUENTIAL HEAD TOMOGRAPHIC EXAMS OF PATIENTS WITH TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY AND DECOMPRESSIVE CRANIECTOMY.

Brain trauma patients who underwent decompressive craniectomy make several computed tomography (CT) scans until cranioplasty. Despite several recommendations to avoid unnecessary radiological exposure, few studies systematically analyzed the technical parameters employed. CT exams of 14 patients were retrospectively analyzed to find display field of view (DFOV), dose length product (DLP), volume computed tomography dose index (CTDIvol) and effective dose (ED).

Taking a closer look: A molecular-dynamics investigation of microscopic and apparent dynamic contact angles.

Hypothesis: Molecular dynamics (MD) may be used to investigate the velocity dependence of both the microscopic and apparent dynamic contact angles (θ and θ).

Methods: We use large-scale MD to explore the steady displacement of a water-like liquid bridge between two molecularly-smooth solid plates under the influence of an external force F. A coarse-grained model of water reduces the computational demand and the solid-liquid affinity is varied to adjust the equilibrium contact angle θ.

A generalized examination of capillary force balance at contact line: On rough surfaces or in two-liquid systems.

We investigate the capillary force balance at the contact line on rough solid surfaces and in two-liquid systems. Our results confirm that solid-liquid interactions perpendicular to the interface have a significant influence on the lateral component of the capillary force exerted on the contact line. Surface roughness of the solid substrate reduces the mobility of liquid and alters how the perpendicular solid-liquid interactions transfer into a force acting parallel to the interface.

Bulk and Surface Wettability Characteristics of Probiotic Powders in Their Compressed Disc and Packed-Bed Column Forms.

Most probiotic-based products are available in powder particles under different solid-state forms. Such diversity can affect the probiotic stability, viability, and performance at different stages of processing, storage, and use. Here, we apply complementary physical chemistry techniques to characterize the bulk and surface properties of probiotic powder particles under different forms and report quantitative results of a highly concentrated multistrain reference product.

How Wettability Controls Nanoprinting.

Using large scale molecular dynamics simulations, we study in detail the impact of nanometer droplets of low viscosity on flat substrates versus the wettability of the solid plate. The comparison between the molecular dynamics simulations and different macroscopic models reveals that most of these models do not correspond to the simulation results at the nanoscale, in particular for the maximal contact diameter during the nanodroplet impact (D_{max}). We have developed a new model for D_{max} that is in agreement with the simulation data and also takes into account the effects of the liquid-solid wettability.

The EMT Transcription Factor ZEB2 Promotes Proliferation of Primary and Metastatic Melanoma While Suppressing an Invasive, Mesenchymal-Like Phenotype.

Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-inducing transcription factors (TF) are well known for their ability to induce mesenchymal states associated with increased migratory and invasive properties. Unexpectedly, nuclear expression of the EMT-TF ZEB2 in human primary melanoma has been shown to correlate with reduced invasion. We report here that ZEB2 is required for outgrowth for primary melanomas and metastases at secondary sites.

Microscopic Origin of Capillary Force Balance at Contact Line.

We investigate the underlying mechanism of capillary force balance at the contact line. In particular, we offer a novel approach to describe and quantify the capillary force on the liquid in coexistence with its vapor phase, which is crucial in wetting and spreading dynamics. Its relation with the interface tension is elucidated.

Controlling the pinning time of a receding contact line under forced wetting conditions.

Hypothesis: The contact line pinning that appears in a flow coating process over substrates patterned with chemical or physical heterogeneities has been recently applied to deposit micro- and nanoparticles with great precision. However, the mechanism underlying pinning of a receding contact line at the nanoscale is not yet well understood. In the case of a contact line pinned at a chemical heterogeneity, we hypothesise that it is possible to establish a relation between the pinning time, the contact line velocity and the liquid/plate/heterogeneity affinity that can help to optimize particle deposition.

Moving contact lines and Langevin formalism.

Hypothesis: In previous work [J.-C. Fernández-Toledano, T.

Superhydrophobicity of composite surfaces created from polymer blends.

Hypothesis: When they are used alone, some polymers, such as polypropylene, Carnauba wax or polycarbonate allow the creation of superhydrophobic surfaces by spin coating or casting. On the other hand, some other polymers, such as polystyrene, polyvinylacetate or polychloroprene, are unable to render a superhydrophobic surface by these techniques. Using binary mixtures of these two types of polymers in a single common solvent, superhydrophobic composite surfaces can be created.

A molecular-dynamics study of sliding liquid nanodrops: Dynamic contact angles and the pearling transition.

Hypothesis: That the behavior of sliding drops at the nanoscale mirrors that seen in macroscopic experiments, that the local microscopic contact angle is velocity dependent in a way that is consistent with the molecular-kinetic theory (MKT), and that observations at this scale shed light on the pearling transition seen with larger drops.

Methods: We use large-scale molecular dynamics (MD) to model a nanodrop of liquid sliding across a solid surface under the influence of an external force. The simulations enable us to extract the shape of the drop, details of flow within the drop and the local dynamic contact angle at all points around its periphery.

Contact-line fluctuations and dynamic wetting.

Hypothesis: The thermal fluctuations of the three-phase contact line formed between a liquid and a solid at equilibrium can be used to determine key parameters that control dynamic wetting.

Methods: We use large-scale molecular dynamics simulations and Lennard-Jones potentials to model a liquid bridge between two molecularly smooth solid surfaces and study the positional fluctuations of the contact lines so formed as a function of the solid-liquid interaction.

Findings: We show that the fluctuations have a Gaussian distribution and may be modelled as an overdamped one-dimensional Langevin oscillator.

Capillary rise of polydimethylsiloxane around a poly(ethylene terephthalate) fiber versus viscosity: Existence of a sharp transition in the dynamic wetting behavior.

Hypothesis: Since the emergence of the molecular-kinetic theory and the hydrodynamic approach, it is generally accepted that the displacement of the contact line is controlled by the viscous or frictional channel of energy dissipation for respectively high-viscosity and low-viscosity liquids. However, how the dissipation switches from one channel to another is still unknown. We therefore hypothesized that, by progressively changing the viscosity of a liquid, a better understanding of the underlying mechanism driving this wetting dynamic transition would be obtained.

Aroma compounds production by solid state fermentation, importance of in situ gas-phase recovery systems.

Flavour and fragrance compounds are extremely important for food, feed, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. In the last decades, due to the consumer's increased trend towards natural products, a great interest in natural aroma compounds has arisen to the detriment of chemically synthesised ones. Recently, solid state fermentation (SSF) has been applied in the production of many metabolites.