Overcoming resistance to radiation is a great challenge in cancer therapy. Here, we highlight that targeting valosin‐containing protein (VCP) improves radiation sensitivity in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cell lines and show the potential of using VCP as a prognosis marker in locally advanced ESCC treated with radiation therapy. Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cell lines with high VCP expression were treated with VCP inhibitor combined with radiotherapy. Cell proliferation, colony formation, cell death, and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress signaling were evaluated. Moreover, patients with newly diagnosed locally advanced ESCC who were treated with radiotherapy were analyzed. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of VCP. The correlation between overall survival and VCP was investigated. Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cells treated with VCP inhibitor and radiotherapy showed attenuated cell proliferation and colony formation and enhanced apoptosis. Further investigation showed this combined strategy activated the ER stress signaling involved in unfolded protein response, and inhibited the ER‐associated degradation (ERAD) pathway. Clinical analysis revealed a significant survival benefit in the low VCP expression group. Targeting VCP resulted in antitumor activity and enhanced the efficacy of radiation therapy in ESCC cells in vitro. Valosin‐containing protein is a promising and novel target. In patients with locally advanced ESCC who received radiotherapy, VCP can be considered as a useful prognostic indicator of overall survival. Valosin‐containing protein inhibitors could be developed for use as effective cancer therapies, in combination with radiation therapy.

No abstract

Nondestructive testing of substation grounding grids is an issue that has increasing importance. The traditional EMI method transforms the condition of the undergrounding conductors to the surficial induced electric signal in the sensing coil. However, The EMI signals excited by multiple coexisted faults combining with other unknown noises surrounding the substation often cause the failure of detection. Therefore, the observed EMI signals rather complex and cannot be used directly. To address this problem, the separation of individual signatures from the mixture is posed as an SCBSS problem. To extract the induced signal, an EEMD-based EMI method is proposed. The desired signal is then reconstructed to visualize the structure of the grounding grids by a virtual instrument that consists of DAQ and digital signal processing modules. The numerical simulation and practical experiments are employed. The results show the proposed method can be used to effectively detect the topological structure of grounding grid in real substations' electromagnetic environment.INDEX TERMS Grounding grid, electromagnetic induction (EMI), ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD), single channel blind source separation (SCBSS), nondestructive testing (NDT).

When attempting to detect faults in grounding grids, the electromagnetic induction method is hampered by the failure of fault diagnosis based on magnetic flux density detection. An electromagnetic induction impedance method is proposed to diagnose corrosion faults by detecting the induced impedance. A non-destructive testing prototype was developed. The sensor of the prototype consists of biaxial sensing coils, a frequency selection module, and a dual-channel synchronous demodulator. The biaxial sensing coils are configured as four identical coils forming a cross. This symmetrical structure realizes the detection of unknown topological structures in grounding grids. The frequency selection module improves the signal-to-noise ratio of the system. The digital demodulator synchronously extracts the phase information in two orthogonal directions. The key technical indicators of the prototype, such as the frequency characteristics, the amplitude accuracy, the phase accuracy, the interference resistance, and the amplitude consistency between channels are tested. Experiments were carried out on a real-size physical model, corroded samples, and an actual operating substation. The results confirm the feasibility of the method and the prototype for the detection of topological structures, disconnections, and faults in grounding grids.

No abstract