Glucocorticoids are widely used in conjunction with chemotherapy for ovarian cancer to prevent hypersensitivity reactions. Here we reveal a novel role for glucocorticoids in the inhibition of ovarian cancer metastasis. Glucocorticoid treatments induce the expression of miR-708, leading to the suppression of Rap1B, which result in the reduction of integrin-mediated focal adhesion formation, inhibition of ovarian cancer cell migration/invasion and impaired abdominal metastasis in an orthotopic xenograft mouse model. Restoring Rap1B expression reverts glucocorticoid-miR-708 cascade-mediated suppression of ovarian cancer cell invasion and metastasis. Clinically, low miR-708 and high Rap1B are found in late-state ovarian tumours, as compared with normal, and patients with high miR-708 show significantly better survival. Overall, our findings reveal an opportunity for glucocorticoids and their downstream mediators, miR-708 or Rap1B, as therapeutic modalities against metastatic ovarian epithelial cancer.

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Due to limited budgets and manpower, most elementary schools in Taiwan do not plan or provide library instruction for students. Although students can use libraries, they typically lack the knowledge needed to use library resources effectively. Consequently, students have difficulty finding the books they need and can easily become overwhelmed by the massive amount of information in libraries. Computer-assisted instruction for teaching basic library skills to large numbers of students is an appealing method. Particularly, game-based learning has garnered considerable attention in education research. Many researchers and scholars believe that integrating teaching and games enhances student learning performance and motivation. This work develops an educational gaming system based on situated learning theory, and applies innovative augmented reality interactive technology to a library's learning environment. Student library knowledge can be enhanced via the proposed game-based augmented reality library instruction system (GARLIS). Experimental results demonstrate that student learning performance is improved significantly by using the proposed GARLIS. Moreover, this work demonstrates that using the proposed GARLIS for library instruction results in the same learning performance as conventional librarian instruction. The proposed library instruction system overcomes shortcomings of personal teaching skills of librarians that may adversely affect student learning performance by conveying the same learning content to all students. Additionally, the proposed system results in better learning performance for learners with the field-dependent cognitive style than learners with the field-independent cognitive style. Further, the proposed system provides more benefits in terms of library skills training than conventional librarian instruction.