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Background: Increased activity of the transcription factor FOXC1 leads to elevated transcription of target genes, ultimately facilitating the progression of various cancer types. However, there are currently no literature reports on the role of FOXC1 in renal cell carcinoma. Methods: By using RT-qPCR, immunohistochemistry and Western blotting, FOXC1 mRNA and protein expression was evaluated. Gain of function experiments were utilized to assess the proliferation and metastasis ability of cells. A nude mouse model was created for transplanting tumors and establishing a lung metastasis model to observe cell proliferation and spread in a living organism. Various techniques including biological analysis, CHIP assay, luciferase assay, RT-qRCR and Western blotting experiments were utilized to investigate how FOXC1 contributes to the transcription of ABHD5 on a molecular level. FOXC1 was assessed by Western blot for its impact on AMPK/mTOR signaling pathway. Results: FOXC1 is down-regulated in RCC, causing unfavorable prognosis of patients with RCC. Further experiments showed that forced FOXC1 expression significantly restrains RCC cell growth and cell metastasis. Mechanically, FOXC1 promotes the transcription of ABHD5 to activate AMPK signal pathway to inhibit mTOR signal pathway. Finally, knockdown of ABHD5 recovered the inhibitory role of FOXC1 overexpression induced cell growth and metastasis suppression. Conclusion: In general, our study demonstrates that FOXC1 exerts its tumor suppressor role by promoting ABHD5 transcription to regulating AMPK/mTOR signal pathway. FOXC1 could serve as both a diagnostic indicator and potential treatment focus for RCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs) are formed through the combination of anaerobic digestion and membrane technology. The upgraded technology separates SRT from HRT in the anaerobic digester, shortening the treatment period, reducing the digester's volume and improving effluent quality. Furthermore, AnMBRs have a strong tolerance for the existing forms of objects and can handle liquids, high-solid materials and gases. Up to now, AnMBRs have been utilized in the treatment of various types of industrial and municipal wastewater, organic solid waste and also biogas upgrading, and they have achieved excellent performance. However, there are few studies which have discussed their multiple utilization, especially following the flow of wastewater treatment. This study summarizes the application of AnMBRs in their diverse roles in the municipal wastewater treatment process. The discussion revolves around energy generation and the fouling issue of AnMBRs in the treatment of municipal wastewater, the digestion of sewage sludge generated in conventional municipal wastewater treatment and the upgrading of biogas after anaerobic digestion. In addition to controlling operating parameters, strategies used to improve the treatment effectiveness are also introduced. Lastly, online methods for preventing membrane fouling, which is the main operational obstacle to AnMBRs' wider spread, are also discussed. This review aims to provide a fresh perspective on how AnMBRs are utilized in waste treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs) require biogas recycling to stir the mixed liquid and flush particles away from the membrane surfaces for stable operation. With the fixed gas cycling rate, gas diffuser configuration is an important factor that affects stirring and flushing performance. This study investigated the effect of different outlet diameters on biogas diffusers in AnMBR by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to analyze gas–liquid flow in a numerical model constructed based on an experimental AnMBR. According to the CFD results, as the outlet diameter increased from 2.5 to 5.0 mm, the average velocity increased from 0.15 to 0.31 m/s and the average wall shear stress (WSS) increased from 0.21 to 1.10 Pa on the membrane surface. The increase in gas velocity enhances the stirring effect, and the increase in WSS improves the flushing performance. However, when it was further increased to 10.0 mm, the average velocity and average WSS was 0.27 m/s and 0.22 Pa, respectively, indicating that too large an outlet diameter leads to a concentrated gas distribution, which reduces the performance of stirring and flushing. Furthermore, these results provide a basis for optimizing diffuser configuration, which is significant for promoting the practical application of AnMBR in wastewater treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing low-carbon advanced processes for sustainable wastewater treatment is of great importance to increase bioenergy recovery and to reduce the greenhouse gas effect. In this study, the influence of adding 25 g/L of granular activated carbon (GAC) on the process performance was studied with a lab-scale GAC amended anaerobic dynamic membrane (G-AnDMBR) used to treat real domestic wastewater, which was compared to a control bioreactor without the GAC addition (C-AnDMBR). Due to the initial adsorption effect of GAC and the high microbial activity of the attached biomass of GAC, the G-AnDMBR achieved a better removal of the total chemical oxygen demand (TCOD) and turbidity compared to the C-AnDMBR, with the average removal rate increasing from 82.1% to 86.7% and from 88.7% to 93.2%. The gaseous methane production increased from 0.08 ± 0.05 to 0.14 ± 0.04 L/d, and the total methane production rate was enhanced from 0.21 ± 0.11 to 0.23 ± 0.09 LCH4/gCOD. Thus, the treatment performance of the G-AnDMBR was superior to that of the C-AnDMBR, and the addition of GAC could improve the effluent quality during the initial dynamic membrane formation process. In addition, the buffering effect of GAC made the G-AnDMBR maintain a relatively stable solution environment. The G-AnDMBR showed a transmembrane pressure (TMP) increasing rate of 0.045 kPa/d, which was obviously lower than that of the C-AnDMBR (0.057 kPa/d) because the nonfluidized GAC could trap fine sludge particles and adsorb soluble extracellular polymer substances (SEPSs), thus inhibiting the over formation of the dynamic membrane layer. A microbial property analysis indicated that GAC induced a change in the microbial community and enhanced the gene abundance of type IV pili and that it also potentially accelerated the direct interspecific electron transfer (DIET) among syntrophic bacteria and methanogens by enriching specific functional microorganisms. The results indicated that the integration of GAC and the AnDMBR process can be a cost-effective and promising alternative for domestic wastewater treatment and bioenergy recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interventional treatment of cerebral aneurysm requires hemodynamics to provide proper guidance. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is gradually used in calculating cerebral aneurysm hemodynamics before and after flow-diverting (FD) stent placement. However, the complex operation (such as the construction and placement simulation of fully resolved or porous-medium FD stent) and high computational cost of CFD hinder its application. To solve these problems, we applied aneurysm hemodynamics point cloud data sets and a deep learning network with double input and sampling channels. The flexible point cloud format can represent the geometry and flow distribution of different aneurysms before and after FD stent (represented by porous medium layer) placement with high resolution. The proposed network can directly analyze the relationship between aneurysm geometry and internal hemodynamics, to further realize the flow field prediction and avoid the complex operation of CFD. Statistical analysis shows that the prediction results of hemodynamics by our deep learning method are consistent with the CFD method (error function <13%), but the calculation time is significantly reduced 1,800 times. This study develops a novel deep learning method that can accurately predict the hemodynamics of different cerebral aneurysms before and after FD stent placement with low computational cost and simple operation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]