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To investigate the effects of long-term freeze–thaw cycles on the physical and mechanical properties as well as the attenuation trend of rocks, this study conducted saturated freeze–thaw tests on coarse sandstone and fine sandstone samples collected from the slopes of Muli Coal Mine in Qinghai Province. The samples underwent different numbers of freeze–thaw cycles, and their porosity, longitudinal wave velocity, and uniaxial compression strength were studied. The variations in the physical and mechanical properties of the two types of sandstone with respect to the number of freeze–thaw cycles were analyzed. Take uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) as the integrity index, and decay laws of rock integrity were analyzed based on the decay equation suggested in previous studies. We found that the decay index λ, which is commonly assumed to be constant, varies with the number of freeze–thaw cycles. Furthermore, the λ values varied between different rock types. For fine sandstone, the λ decreases with an increase in the number of freeze–thaw cycles, ranging from 0.00385 to 0.005. However, for coarse sandstone, the λ initially decreases and then increases with an increase in the number of freeze–thaw cycles. The range of λ for coarse sandstone is between 0.00376 and 0.00481. Finally, we established a relationship between the decay index, porosity, and longitudinal wave velocity in the fine sandstones. This relationship provides a more straightforward way to evaluate the integrity of fine sandstones subjected to different numbers of freeze–thaw cycles.

Flowering time is strongly related to the environment, while the genotype-by-environment interaction study for flowering time is lacking in Brassica napus. Here, a total of 11,700,689 single nucleotide polymorphisms in 490 B. napus accessions were used to associate with the flowering time and related climatic index in eight environments using a compressed variance-component mixed model, 3VmrMLM. As a result, 19 stable main-effect quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) and 32 QTN-by-environment interactions (QEIs) for flowering time were detected. Four windows of daily average temperature and precipitation were found to be climatic factors highly correlated with flowering time. Ten main-effect QTNs were found to be associated with these flowering-time-related climatic indexes. Using differentially expressed gene (DEG) analysis in semi-winter and spring oilseed rapes, 5,850 and 5,511 DEGs were found to be significantly expressed before and after vernalization. Twelve and 14 DEGs, including 7 and 9 known homologs in Arabidopsis, were found to be candidate genes for stable QTNs and QEIs for flowering time, respectively. Five DEGs were found to be candidate genes for main-effect QTNs for flowering-time-related climatic index. These candidate genes, such as BnaFLCs, BnaFTs, BnaA02.VIN3, and BnaC09.PRR7, were further validated by the haplotype, selective sweep, and co-expression networks analysis. The candidate genes identified in this study will be helpful to breed B. napus varieties adapted to particular environments with optimized flowering time.

The coin-tap method performs nondestructive testing by measuring the width of the tapping response pulse on the surface of the material. Existing studies have shown that defects in the material will cause the width of the tapping response pulse to increase. However, experiments have confirmed that different detection positions in the defective area will show different values of the width of the tapping response pulse, and the physical laws behind it have not been studied yet. To discuss its physical meaning, a mathematical model of the defective area is established, a method for calculating the width of the tapping response pulse is proposed, and a composite honeycomb structure with preset defects is used for data testing. Both the test results and the calculation results show that the pulse width of the tapping response will decrease with the increase of the defect depth and the deviation of the tapping position from the defect center. The consistency between the calculated results and the experimental results shows that the established defect model and pulse width calculation method can better explain the distribution law of the pulse width of the tapping response in the defective area.

The glacier mass balance (GMB) is an important link between climate and water re-sources and has remarkable regulatory functions in river runoff. To simulate changes of the GMB and to analyze the recharge rates of glacier meltwater to runoff in the Manas River Basin (MRB) during 2000-2016, MOD11C3, TRMM 3B43 and other multi-source remote sensing data were used to drive the degree-day model. The results showed that: (1) the accuracy of the remote sensing meteorological data can be corrected effectively by constructing the temperature and precipitation inversion models, and the characteristics of glacial climate can be finely described through downscaling. The average annual temperature was −7.57 °C and the annual precipitation was 410.71 mm in the glacier area of the MRB. The zone at an altitude of about 4200 m was a severe climate change zone, and above and below that zone, the temperature drop rates were −0.03°C/100 m and −0.57°C/100 m, respectively, while precipitation gradients were −2.66 mm/100 m and 4.89 mm/100 m, respectively. (2) The overall GMB was negative with a cumulative GMB of up to −9811.19 mm w.e. and the average annual GMB fluctuated between −464.85 and −632.19 mm w.e. Besides, the glacier melted slowly during 2000–2002 and 2008-2010, but rapidly for 2002–2008 Sand 2010–2016, while the most serious loss of the glacier occurred in 2005-2009. Moreover, the vertical changes of the GMB increased at 244.83 mm w.e./100 m in the ablation zone but only at 18.77 mm w.e./100 m in the accumulation zone. (3) The intraannual runoff strongly responded to the change of the GMB especially in July and August when the loss of the GMB accounted for 75.4% of the annual loss, and when runoff accounted for 55.1% of the annual total. Due to differences in the annual precipitation and snow meltwater outside the glacier, the interannual glacier meltwater recharge rates fluctuated between 19% and 31%. The recharge rate of glacier meltwater to runoff in the MRB was close to that for other basins in the Tianshan Mountains, which may be used as a basis to confirm the reliability of the estimated GMB results. Furthermore, based on the present findings, it is recommended that the research community pursue studies on the GMB in other alpine river basins.

Surrogate model based optimization method is widely-used to accelerate the design and optimization process~\cite{marler2004survey}. The input of regression model used in the surrogate model are numbers, which requires users to parametrize the geometries. In this paper, a new parameterization-free surrogate model is introduced and its corresponding uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis method are discussed. The input of new surrogate model methods is surface mesh of simulation domain. \Gls{gnns} is used to extract geometric information, and \Gls{cnns} is used to predict contours. This framework bypasses parameterization,as a consequence, uncertainties introduced by manual parameterization is reduced. However, such changes compared with conventional surrogate model methods impose great challenge on uncertainties quantification and sensitivity analysis. Uncertainties quantification in this paper means the error bar of prediction results, which is calculated by Gaussian Process Regression method in current surrogate method. In this paper, a new quantification method achieved by Kullback-Leibler divergence (KLD) is introduced. And the sensitivity analysis is conducted by Automatic Differentiation, which gives a Jacobian matrix of inputs. The method and analysis mentioned above are demonstrated by a low-pressure steam turbine rotator and its exhaust system.

Additional file 1: Table S1. Average intracellular pHi in control and CA-IX expressing MCF-7 cells as a function of extracellular pH. n=158-438 cells , standard deviation shown. Table S2. Effect of PMA1 expression on experimental and spontaneous metastasis in MCF-7 cells. (Two-tailed Fisher’s exact t-test p

Additional file 1: Figure S1. The targeting sites of the selected 12 miRNAs and their 15 target genes predicted by TargetFinder v1.6 software. When the score of miRNA that matches the mRNA is less than or equal to 3, the transcript sequence is considered as the miRNA target gene. Range represents the interval of mRNA used for alignment. Black lines indicate matched RNA base pairs, and two dots show a GU mismatch whereas none dot represents other types of mismatch. The gene ID follows the name of miRNAs and their target genes. Figure S2. The original image of PCR products of the three candidate sugarcane pre-miRNAs detected by electrophoresis. M, DNA marker 15,000 + 2,000 bp; 1, pre-nov_3741; 2, pre-nov_22650; and 3, pre_nov_40875.

In this paper, a novel "non-parametric" surrogate model method is introduced. The method extracts geometric information from surface mesh of fluid domain using Graph Neural Network (GNN) and predicts the two-dimensional distributions of flow variables (in forms of contours) using Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). This method can extract relevant geometric information from surface mesh automatically, while existing data-driven surrogate model methods need manual parameterisation, which may generates a lot of uncertainties. Existing methods can only process geometries defined by their own parameterisation methods because the inputs of existing surrogate models are human-defined geometric parameters, while new methods can process any geometries with the same topology because its input is the surface mesh, which could potentially access more designs from different sources to create a larger database. In addition, this novel surrogate model is able to predict the contour of variables, not only several performance metrics. Predicting contours can also prevent over-fitting problem by balancing the data size of input and output. In this paper, this novel surrogate model method will be demonstrated with an example: low pressure steam turbine exhaust system. The new surrogate model uses 10 surface meshes of the system as input and predicts the power flux contour at the outlet of the last rotor. To build the surrogate model, altogether 582 numerical simulations have been created, which contains two types of geometries defined by different methods. Among them, 550 cases are used for training, and 32 cases are used for testing. The power output of the last two stages predicted by the surrogate model has 0.86 $\%$ difference compared with those of numerical simulations. The similarity score that measures the differences between the simulated and predicted contours is 0.9594 (1.0 being identical).

In this work, based on the Reynolds stress model (RSM) of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software Fluent and experimental method, the velocity field, pressure characteristics, split ratio, and separation efficiency of the hydrocyclone are analyzed under different gas-liquid ratios (GLRs). For the inlet velocity, the lower limit is ascertained by the flow field stability, the upper limit is largely determined by the energy consumption, and the optimum range is 4 m/s to 10 m/s. Within the optimum range, the peak value of tangential velocity increases while the GLR increases, whereas the pressure and pressure drop decrease. With the increase in the GLR, the axial velocity decreases, and the locus of zero vertical velocity shifts inward. The increase in the GLR causes more gas to collect at the vortex finder, which hinders the discharge of the solid-liquid mixture from the overflow, and the larger the GLR, the faster the decrease in the split ratio. The separation efficiency of particles with a particle size of 15 μm is increased by 6.75%, and the separation efficiency of particles with a particle size of 30 μm is increased by 0.57%. Meanwhile, the separation efficiency is increased by 2.43%, and the cut size d50 is reduced as the GLR increases.

Background After pre-operative concurrent long course chemoradiotherapy (CRT), pathologic complete response (pCR) has been reported with better oncologic outcomes in many articles, whether a moderate response (TRG1) can translate into good clinical outcome remains uncertain. Methods A total of 132 locally advanced rectal cancer patients with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by radical surgery were recruited. Their clinicopathologic characteristics and clinical records were retrospectively reviewed. The association between clinicopathologic parameters and pathological response was conducted, and the multivariable analysis of the association between pathologic response and survival was performed. Results With a median follow-up of 21.5 months, gender was the only factor associated with pCR (TRG0), while dual-agent chemotherapy regimen was linked with a lower likelihood of good response (TRG0-1). Good response (TGR0-1) remained significant associated with overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) after multivariate adjustment. TRG1 was linked with better DFS compared with TRG2-3. Conclusions Patients with post-CRT good response (TRG0-1) demonstrate an excellent local and remote control, especially with those non-pCR patients (TRG1) getting better outcomes.

Yongfei You,1 Panpan Wang,1 Xi Wan,2 Liping Xu,3 Yi Gong,4 Weihua Zhang1 1Department of Oncology, The First Hospital of Nanchang, Nanchang, Jiangxi, 330008, People’s Republic of China; 2Operating Room, The First Hospital of Nanchang, Nanchang, Jiangxi, 330008, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Pathology, The First Hospital of Nanchang, Nanchang, Jiangxi, 330008, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Imaging, The First Hospital of Nanchang, Nanchang, Jiangxi, 330008, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Yongfei YouDepartment of Oncology, The First Hospital of Nanchang, Xiangshan North Road, Donghu District, Nanchang, Jiangxi, 330008, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 15070836919Email 59185325@qq.comAbstract: Salivary duct carcinoma (SDC) is a rare and aggressive malignancy with high rates of recurrence and metastasis. There are no standard treatment options available for patients with recurrence and metastases. The case of a 61-year-old male with SDC of the left parotid gland is presented in this study. The results revealed that the patient’s tumour had strong positive staining for androgen receptor (AR) expression, mutations in HRAS and PIK3CA but not in other related genes, and no gene amplification of HER-2. After the primary therapy of parotidectomy with neck dissection and postoperative radiation, bone metastases were found in the ribs, pelvis and spine. Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) involving combined androgen blockade (CAB) was effective as the first-line therapy for the patient’s metastases and resulted in a progression-free survival (PFS) of over 7 months to date. In conclusion, androgen deprivation therapy is recommended for patients with recurrent or metastatic SDC positive for androgen receptor expression.Keywords: salivary duct carcinoma, androgen receptor, androgen deprivation therapy, case report

Additional file 1: Figure S1 General characteristic features of the CaCA superfamily proteins in S. spontaneum, R570, and S. bicolor. Red triangles filled with white represent outliers, black diamonds filled with white represent the average, and different colored dots filled with black represent specific values. The detailed information in shown in Supplemental Table S1 and Table S2.Figure S2 Phylogenetic evolutionary tree of the CaCA superfamily members. (a) An ML phylogenetic tree was constructed using the full-length sequence alignments of 47 CAX proteins. (b) An ML phylogenetic tree was constructed using the full-length sequence alignments of 43 CCX proteins. (c) An ML phylogenetic tree was constructed using the full-length sequence alignments of 28 EFCAX proteins. (d) An ML phylogenetic tree was constructed using the full-length sequence alignments of 12 MHX proteins. All the corresponding reference numbers are listed in Supplemental Table S1 and Table S3.Figure S3 Phylogenetic relationship, architecture of conserved protein motifs, and structure of CaCA genes from S. spontaneum, R570, and S. bicolor. The phylogenetic tree was constructed based on the full-length sequences of CaCA proteins using MEGA X software. The motifs, numbers 1–10, are displayed in different colored boxes. The sequence information for each motif is provided in Supplemental Table S4. Green boxes indicate untranslated 5′- and 3′-regions, yellow boxes indicate exons, and black lines indicate introns. The length of the protein can be estimated using the scale at the bottom.Figure S4 Sankey diagram showing the miRNA–mRNA network. Each rectangle represents a gene, and the connection of each gene is visualized based on the size of the rectangle.Figure S5 Functional annotation of identified CaCA genes. The enrichment gene ontology analysis of CaCAs shows significantly enriched GO terms involved in biological processes (BP), molecular functions (MF), and cellular components (CC). Figure S6 The melt curve plots of primers in this study.

Additional file 1: Primer and chimeric promoter sequences.

BackgroundMetabolic bone disease (MBD) is a complication of multifactorial aetiology in preterm infants. Several risk factors have been identified in general. Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD) infants present an increased incidence of MBD, but it is unknown which factors contribute to this. The aim of this study was to determine the risk factors for developing MBD in BPD infants.MethodsA retrospective review of the medical records of BPD infants admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Zhangzhou Hospital between Jun 2016 and May 2020. BPD infants with MBD were identified, two contemporaneous without MBD matched by gestational age and gender were randomly selected as control infants for each case of MBD. The association between putative risk factors and MBD was estimated with ORs and 95% CIs. A P-value threshold ≤0.2 was used in univariate analysis for inclusion into a multivariate (adjusted) model with a P-value of < 0.05 as statistically significant.ResultsA total of 156 BPD infants were enrolled with 52 cases of MBD and 104 controls. Fetal growth restriction (OR 5.60, 95% CI, 1.77–17.72), extremely low birth weight (OR 3.70, 95% CI, 1.35–10.10), feeding volume ＜80 mL/kg/day at the end of the 4th week after birth (OR 12.21, 95% CI, 3.89–38.33), cholestasis (OR 4.29, 95% CI, 1.65–11.15), and late onset sepsis (OR 3.79, 95% CI, 1.12–12.77) were found to be statistically significant risk factors for MBD in BPD infants.ConclusionIn gestational age homogeneous BPD infants, fetal growth restriction, extremely low birth weight, feeding volume＜80 mL/kg/day at the end of the 4th week after birth and late onset sepsis are significant risk factors for MBD. These findings provide potential predictive factors for MBD in BPD infants but still warrant prospective validation.

We consider the Kac stochastic particle system associated to the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation for true hard potentials. We establish a rate of propagation of chaos of the particle system to the unique solution of the Boltzmann equation. We use a probabilistic coupling method and give, under suitable assumptions on the initial condition, a rate of convergence of the empirical measure of the particle system to the solution of the Boltzmann equation for this singular interaction.

Shengliang Sun,1,* Lei Fu,1,* Gen Wang,1 Jianli Wang,1 Liping Xu2 1Department of Orthopedic Trauma, The 89th Army Hospital of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Weifang, Shandong, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Oncology, The 89th Army Hospital of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Weifang, Shandong, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Liping Xu Tel +86 536-5019053Email xuliping1680@163.comPurpose: This study aimed to evaluate the regulatory role of miR-431-5p on the tumorigenesis of osteosarcoma (OS) and the underlying mechanism involving pannexin 3 (PANX3).Methods: qRT-PCR was applied to measure the expression of miR-431-5p in OS tissues and cells. PANX3 and miR-431-5p were overexpressed in U2OS and HOS cells. The cell viability and apoptosis were determined by MTT and FITC/PI double staining assay, respectively. Transwell assay was performed to detect cell migration and invasion. The protein expression of cleave-caspase-3 and MMP-2/-9 was detected by Western blot. The target relationship between miR-431-5p and PANX3 was predicated by ENCORI and identified by DLR assay. The anti-tumor effect of miR-431-5p was further analyzed in a xenograft tumor model in mice.Results: MiR-431-5p expression was down-regulated in OS tissues and negatively correlated with lymph node metastasis and TNM stage. Over-expression of miR-431-5p induced cell apoptosis, inhibited cell proliferation, migration and invasion, up-regulated cleave-caspase-3, and down-regulated MMP-2 and -9 in OS cells. Over-expression of miR-431-5p also inhibited the growth of tumor xenografts in mice. In addition, PANX3 was a target of miR-431-5p. Over-expression of PANX3 reversed the anti-tumor effect of miR-431-5p mimics on U2OS and HOS cells.Conclusion: Up-regulation of miR-431-5p suppressed the tumorigenesis of OS via targeting PANX3.Keywords: osteosarcoma, microRNA-431-5p, pannexin 3, proliferation, migration

In this paper, we consider the Kac stochastic particle system associated to the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation for true hard potentials. We establish a rate of propagation of chaos of the particle system to the unique solution of the Boltzmann equation. We use a probabilistic coupling method and give, under suitable assumptions on the initial condition, a rate of convergence of the empirical measure of the particle system to the solution of the Boltzmann equation for this singular interaction., Comment: There are too much mistakes in the paper which we cannot fix them in a short time. There is no replacement available

Background. The cell cycle pathway genes are comprised of 113 members which are critical to the maintenance of cell cycle and survival of tumor cells. This study was performed to investigate the diagnostic and prognostic values of cell cycle gene expression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. Methods. Clinical features and cell cycle pathway gene expression data were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus and The Cancer Genome Atlas databases. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were determined by the student t-test between HCC and noncancerous samples. Kaplan-Meier survival, univariate, and multivariate survival analyses and validation analysis were performed to characterize the associations between cell cycle gene expression and patients’ overall survival and recurrence-free survival. Results. 47 and 5 genes were significantly upregulated and downregulated genes in HCC samples, respectively. The high expression of BUB3, CDK1, and CHEK1 was associated with increased mortality (adjusted P value = 0.04, odds ratio (OR): 1.89 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.04-3.46); adjusted P value = 0.02, OR: 2.06 (95% CI:1.15-3.75); and adjusted P value = 0.04, OR: 1.84 (%95 CI: 1.03-3.32), respectively). The expression of PTTG2 and RAD21 was significantly associated with cancer recurrence (adjusted P value = 0.01, OR: 2.17 (95% CI: 1.24-3.86); adjusted P value = 0.03, OR: 1.88[95% CI:1.08-3.28], respectively), while the low expression of MAD1L1 was associated with cancer recurrence (adjusted P value = 0.03, OR: 0.53 (%95 CI: 0.3-0.93)). Conclusions. The present study demonstrated that BUB3, CDK1, and CHEK1 may serve as a prognostic biomarker for HCC patients. PTTG2, RAD21, and MAD1L1 expression is a major factor affecting the recurrence of HCC patients.

Herein, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) combined with principal component analysis (PCA) has been successfully applied in the evaluation of cigarette flavoring quality using monolayer films of Au nanoparticles as substrates. With such a method, even a slight difference in the formula of the essence that cannot be directly identified by SERS can be distinguished.

Based on the actual bus operation data, energy consumption data, space-time data of bus operation dada and energy consumption data was integrated through Access database and ArcGIS software. Through the classification statistical analysis, the space-time characteristics of bus operation and energy consumption were concluded, and the relationship between bus operation and energy consumption was also discussed. All the work provides a scientific method for quantitative assessment of bus energy consumption.

Background Accumulated evidences have demonstrated that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are dysregulated and correlate with the pathophysiological basis of malignant tumors. The objective of this research is to uncover the possible molecular mechanism of MACC1-AS1 regarding the regulation of pancreatic carcinoma (PC) metastasis. Methods lncRNA microarray and qRT-PCR were applied to identify differentially expressed lncRNA profile in PC. The function and role of MACC1-AS1 in PC were assessed via in vitro as well as in vivo assays. Luciferase analyses, RNA immunoprecipitation, and RNA pull-down were performed to determined the underlying MACC1-AS1 mechanisms. Results Numbers of differentially expressed lncRNAs in PC were identified via lncRNA microarrays, among which MACC1-AS1 was revealed as the most abundant lncRNA. The upregulation of MACC1-AS1 in PC was further confirmed in two expanded PC cohorts, which showed that MACC1-AS1 expression was upregulated in those PC patients with poor survival. Functionally, knockdown of MACC1-AS1 inhibited the proliferation as well as metastasis of PC cells. Meanwhile, MACC1-AS1 upregulated the expression of PAX8 protein, which promoted aerobic glycolysis and activated NOTCH1 signaling. Additionally, PAX8 was upregulated in PC tissues, which was correlated with the expression of MACC1-AS1 and the overall survival of PC patients. Conclusions Together, our findings indicate a critical role of MACC1-AS1/PAX8/NOTCH1 signaling, which may be an alternative treatment target in PC therapy. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13046-019-1332-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Six Sec14-like PITP genes from sugarcane were identified, two of them were cloned, and their biological functions were characterized indicating their involvement in plant defense against biotic and abiotic stresses. Sec14, a phosphatidylinositol transfer protein (PITP) is widely present in eukaryotes. In this study, the structure and expression patterns of six Sec14-like PITP genes (ScSEC14-1, ScSEC14p, ScSFH1, ScSFH2, ScPATL1, and ScPATL2) from sugarcane were analyzed, and two of them (ScSEC14-1 and ScSEC14p) were cloned and functionally verified. Phylogenetic analysis divided these genes into four groups, including group I (ScSFH1 and ScSFH2), group II (ScPATL1 and ScPATL2), Group III (ScSEC14p), and group V (ScSEC14-1). qRT-PCR analysis showed tissue-specific expression of these genes, primarily in the root, leaf, and bud tissues. They responded differently to SA, MeJA, and ABA stresses. ScSEC14-1, ScSEC14p, and ScSFH2 were upregulated by CuCl2 and CdCl2, while ScSEC14-1, ScSFH1, ScSFH2, and ScPATL1 were upregulated by PEG and NaCl. When infected by Sporisorium scitamineum, the transcripts of ScSFH1, ScSFH2, ScPATL1, and ScPATL2 were upregulated in the resistant genotype Yacheng 05-179, while those of ScSEC14-1 and ScSEC14p were upregulated in the susceptible genotype ROC22. Subcellular localization showed that ScSEC14-1 and ScSEC14p were mainly localized in the plasma membrane and cytoplasm. Enhanced growth of Escherichia coli BL21 cells expressing ScSEC14-1 and ScSEC14p showed high tolerance to NaCl and mannitol stresses. The transient overexpression of ScSEC14-1 and ScSEC14p in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves enhanced its resistance to the infection of tobacco pathogens Ralstonia solanacearum and Fusarium solani var. coeruleum. We can conclude the involvement of ScSEC14-1 and ScSEC14p in the defense against biotic and abiotic stresses, which should facilitate further research on Sec14-like PITP gene family, especially its regulatory mechanisms in sugarcane.

Dense oxygen transport membranes (OTMs) made from mixed oxygen ionic and electronic conductors (MIEC) have attracted intense research interest owing to their unmatched advantages on pure oxygen production, oxygen-fuel combustion and oxygen-related catalytic processes over traditional techniques. As one kind of the most-studied membranes, cobalt-containing membranes have unsatisfied thermal stability, though the oxygen permeability of these membranes is generally excellent due to the existence of cobalt. However, in situ forming CoO phase which were observed in the cobalt-containing membranes prepared by low pressure plasma spraying-thin film technology (LPPS-TF), were found to exhibit a remarkable stabilizing effect in the preliminary work. As one of the main premises to reveal the stabilization mechanism of these island CoO phase, their formation mechanism were studied in the first place in the paper.

Gastric cancer is a serious threat to human health, and its pathogenesis may be regulated by a variety of mRNAs. Abnormal expression of microRNA-340 has been frequently reported in many malignant neoplasms, while the molecular mechanism of miR-340 has not been explored in gastric cancer. In this study, the mRNA level of miR-340 was determined by real-time PCR in GC cell lines. The miR-340 mimic was transiently transfected into GC cells by using Lipofectamine™ 2000 reagent. The BrdU-ELISA results showed that introduction of miR-340 inhibited cell proliferation. It was demonstrated that miR-340 mimic arrested cell cycle progression and promoted apoptosis of MKN-45 and BGC-823 cells. In addition, the overexpression of miR-340 could inhibit invasion and EMT of MKN-45 and BGC-823 cells. The expression of NF-κB1 was evidently reduced by up-regulation of miR-340. Luciferase reporter assay further confirmed that miR-340 could directly target the 3'UTR of NF-κB1. Moreover, overexpression of NF-κB1 transfected with miR-340 mimic partially reversed the inhibitory of miR-340 mimic in MKN-45 and BGC-823 cells. In conclusion, miR-340 induced cell apoptosis and inhibited invasion by down-regulation of NF-κB1, which might be a potential target in treatment and prevention of gastric cancer.

Human apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) is a major risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and can greatly increase the morbidity. In this work, an ultrasensitive sandwich-type electrochemical immunosensor for the quantitative detection of APOE4 was designed based on fractal gold (FracAu) nanostructures and enzyme amplification. The FracAu nanostructures were directly electrodeposited by hydrogen tetrachloroaurate (HAuCl4) on polyelectrolytes modified indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode. The sensing performances of the modified interface were investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV). After functionalization with HRP-labeled APOE4 antibody, the human APOE4 could be detected quantitatively by current response. The current response has a linear relationship with the logarithm of human APOE4 concentrations in a range from 1.0 to 10,000.0 ng/mL, with a detection limit of 0.3 ng/mL. The fabricated APOE4 electrochemical immunosensor exhibits strong specificity, high sensitivity, low detection limit and wide linear range. The detection of human APOE4 provides a strong support for the prevention of AD and early-stage warning for those susceptible populations.

One-dimensional Pt nanostructures are of considerable interest for the development of highly stable and sensitive electrochemical sensors. This paper describes a self-interconnecting Pt nanowire network electrode (PtNNE) for the detection of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and glucose with ultrahigh sensitivity and stability. The as-prepared PtNNE consists of polycrystalline nanowires with high-index facets along the side surface which provides more active surface atoms on kinks and steps, those ultralong nanowires being interconnected with each other to form a free-standing network membrane. The excellent structural features of the PtNNE promoted its performance as a Pt-based electrochemical sensor both in terms of electrocatalytic activity and stability. Amperometric measurements towards hydrogen peroxide were performed; the PtNNE sensor showed an extremely high sensitivity of 1360 μA mM(-1) cm(-2). This excellent sensitivity is mainly attributed to the high-index facets of the nanowires resulting in their superior electrocatalytic activity towards H2O2, and the interconnected nanowire network forming an "electron freeway" transport model, which could provide multiple electron pathways and fast electron transport on the electrode, leading to rapid reaction and sensitive signal detection. The as-prepared PtNNE also holds promise as an oxidase-based biosensor. As a proof of concept, a PtNNE-based glucose biosensor also showed an outstanding sensitivity as high as 114 μA mM(-1) cm(-2), a low detection limit of 1.5 μM, and an impressive detection range from 5 μM to 30 mM.

This thesis mainly studies the 3D homogeneous Boltzmann equation for hard potentials and moderately soft potentials and the equivalence between some jumping SDE and the corresponding PDE. In particular, we compute the multifractal spectrum of some stochastic processes, study the well-posedness and the propagation of chaos for the Boltzmann equation. The purpose of the first chapter is to study the pathwise properties of the stochastic process (Vt)t≥0, representing the time-evolution of the velocity of a typical particle in a gas modeled by the Boltzmann equation for hard or moderately potentials. We show that this process is multifractal and has a deterministic spectrum. For hard potentials, we also give the multifractal spectrum of the process Xt = ∫_0^T▒Vsds, representing the time-evolution of the position of the typical particle. The second chapter is devoted to study the uniqueness of the weak solution to the Boltzmann equation in the class of all measure solutions, in the case of moderately soft potentials. This allows us to obtain a quantitive rate of propagation of chaos for Nanbu particle system for this singular interaction. Finally in the third chapter, we extend Figalli’s work [19] to study the relation between some jumping SDE and the corresponding Fokker-Planck equation. We prove that for any weak solution (ft) ∈ [0;T ] of the PDE, there exists a weak solution to the SDE of which the time-marginals are given by the family (ft) ∈ [0;T ]., Dans cette thèse, on étudie principalement l’équation de Boltzmann homogène 3D pour les potentiels durs et les potentiels modérément mous et l’équivalence entre une EDS à sauts et l’EDP correspondante. En particulier, on calcule le spectremultifractal de certains processus stochastiques, on étudie le caractère bien-posé et la propagation du chaos pour l’équation de Boltzmann. Dans le premier chapitre, on étudie les propriétés trajectorielles pathologiques du processus stochastique (Vt)t≥0 représentant l’évolution de la vitesse d’une particule typique dans un gaz modélisé par l’équation de Boltzmann pour les potentiels durs ou modérément mous. Nous montrons que ce processus est multifractal et qu’il a un spectre déterministe. Pour les potentiels durs, nous donnons aussi le spectre multifractal du processus Xt = ∫_0^T▒Vsds , représentant l’évolution de la position de la particule typique. Dans le deuxième chapitre, nous étudions l’unicité de la solution faible à l’équation de Boltzmann dans la classe de toutes les solutions mesures, pour les potentiels modérément mous. Ceci nous permet aussi d’obtenir un taux quantitatif de propagation du chaos pour le système de particules de Nanbu.Enfin, dans le troisième chapitre, nous étendons le travail de Figalli [22] pour étudier la relation entre une EDS à sauts et l’équation de Fokker-Planck correspondante. On montre que pour toute solution faible (ft) ∈ [0;T ] de l’EDP, il existe une solution faible de l’EDS dont les marginales temporelles sont données par la famille (ft) ∈ [0;T ].

In order to find effective ways to control atmospheric environment, this paper mainly studies the Spatial-temporal features of atmospheric pollutant distribution in the past 2014-2017 years. The particulate matter concentration was retrieved by remote sensing data and all data would be processed by Kriging method. The results show that most pollutant concentration decreased, especially SO2, PM2.5 and PM10, though the ozone problem is beginning to stand out; In addition, CO concentration in different regions varies in different seasons, meanwhile other pollutants do not like this.

In this paper, to elucidate the hydrogen bond effect on the assembly behavior, we studied the assembly structures of two carboxylic substituted thiophene derivatives on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) by scanning tunneling microscopy. Here thiophene-2-carboxylic acid (TCA) and thiophene-2,5-dicarboxylic acid (TDA) were employed. TDA molecules spontaneously adsorb on the HOPG surface and self-organize into a two-dimensional (2D) assembly with well-defined structure. Two types of domain could be observed. Each TDA molecule appears as a round circle with two small faint dots and forms hydrogen bonds with neighbours. Besides monolayer structure, a bilayer structure of TDA adlayer on HOPG was also observed in this research. Remnant TDA molecules adsorb on the monolayer of TDA and bilayer structure is formed. In contrast to TDA, no ordered structure of TCA on HOPG can be observed. TCA molecules have high propensity to form dimers through H-bond between carboxylic groups. But TCA dimer is not stable enough for either adsorption or imaging. Our result provides a new example for understanding hydrogen effect on stabilizing and controlling two-dimensional assembly structure and is helpful for surface nanofabrication and development of electric nanodevices.

Dirigent and dirigent-like family proteins contain a number of proteins involved in lignification or in the response to pathogen infection and abiotic stress in plants. In the present study, a full-length cDNA sequence of a dirigent-like gene designated ScDir (GenBank Accession Number JQ622282) was obtained from sugarcane based on the stem full-length cDNA library. The ScDir gene was 819-bp long, including a 564-bp ORF encoding 187 amino acid residues. The protein N-terminus contained signal peptides at amino acid residues of 1-25 and transmembrane regions at 7-26 aa. A his-tagged ScDir protein with an estimated molecular mass of 27.4 kDa was expressed in Escherichia coli system. The expressed ScDir protein had increased the host cell's tolerance to PEG and NaCl. When an endogenous GAPDH gene was used as internal control, results from real-time qPCR demonstrated that the ScDir mRNA amount in sugarcane stems was significantly higher than that in the roots, leaves and buds by 18.64 ± 0.48, 25,635.16 ± 2,966.03 and 721.50 ± 8.17-fold, respectively. The ScDir transcript levels in sugarcane seedling increased under H(2)O(2), PEG or NaCl stress. The expression level of ScDir was significantly upregulated under PEG stress, and the highest level was observed at 12 h after stress. Thus, both the ScDir-hosted cell performance and the enhanced expressions in sugarcane imply that the ScDir gene is involved in the response to abiotic stresses of drought, salts and oxidation. The transcription of the ScDir gene is highly stem-specific, as revealed by real-time qPCR. Key message A novel sugarcane Sc-Dir gene, DIRd subfamily, which is highly stalk-specific expression and involved in the response to artificial stresses of drought, salts, and oxidatives.

The characteristics of photonic band gap(PBG) of a one-dimensional(1-D) photonic crystal(PC) with dual-periodical heterostructures were studied by transfer matrix method.The results show that a PBG range from 512 nm to 960 nm appeared in the PC and five very narrow transmittance peaks exhibited in this gap.The authors put emphasis on the case of the PC with complex refractive index layers,as well as the meso-piezooptic effect of the strained PC.We found that the transmittance peaks gain when the imaginary part is negative.And with the increase of the absolute of the imaginary part,the transmittance peaks increase firstly then decrease even occur attenuation lastly.However,the transmittance peaks change into absorption if the imaginary part is positive.On the case of the strained PC,the variation of transmittance peaks presents a shape of L as the stain increases.

The optical transmission of one dimensional photonic crystal(PC) containing TiO2 and SiO2 material with triply-periodical heterostructures was investigated by transfer matrix method.The results show that there are seven photonic band gap(PBG) in the range of 200~2 000 nm in PC,and the band gap width increases with the wavelength.The authors put emphasis on the relationship between the optical transmissionof this kind PCs and incident angle,layers of dielectric,as well as dielectric layer thickness.It is found that the width and position of band gap are sensitive to incident angle and dielectric layer thickness,but not periodic numbers.

Maize emergence speed and the emergence rate relate to soil moisture and air temperature,and they largely determine the corn growth and yield.In order to obtain the relationships between seedling emergence speed,seedling rate of spring maize(Zea mays) and soil moisture and air temperature respectively,the experiments of water stress and by-stage sowing for spring maize were conducted at an agro-meteorological experiment station in the central part of Northeastern China.In an artificial rain-proof cover,4 water treatments(not drought,light drought,drought and severity drought) and 3 sowing treatments(early,middle and late) were set to create soil moisture variation and air temperature difference during the period from sowing to germination.And soil moisture,water amount for irrigation,rainfall,air temperature,the seedling stage and emergence rate were observed.The results showed that the relationships between soil moisture and emergence rate,period of emergence both were significantly quadratic function during the periods of sowing and emerging.Below field capacity,the greater soil moisture was,the faster the corn came out and the higher the emergence rate was.Soil drought delayed the period of emergence and decreased emergence rate.Low temperature slowed down the emergence,but had little effect on emergence rate.The equation of relationship between days from sowing to emerging(D),soil moisture(S) at a depth of 0 to 20 cm and average air temperature(T) was D=63.450—1.194S-1.442T.The equation of relationship between emergence rate(P),S and T was P=5.107 S +1.857 T-56.5.Combinational influence indexes of average soil moisture,effective soil water(H) and air temperature on maize emergence speed were that corn emerged quickly when 25%S21%,70 mmH45 mm and T18 ℃;it would emerge normally when 21%S18%,45 mmH 35 mm and 18 ℃T16.5 ℃;and it would emerge slowly when 18%S16%,35 mmH 25 mm and 16.5 ℃T15.5 ℃;and the emergence was postponed remarkably when S16%,H25 mm and T15.5 ℃.Germination rate depended mainly on soil moisture in this study.The highest germination rate(more than 95%) occurred when S85% and H50mm;the higher one(about 90%) when relative humidity was about 80% and 50 mmH40 mm;and the lower one when relative humidity was less than 70% and 50 mmH40 mm;and the one was less than 65% when relative humidity was less than 60% and H30 mm,and the serious drought happened.

Plant disease resistance genes (R-genes) encode some conserved motifs. According to the conserved motifs present in the known NBS-LRR R-gene sequences and R gene analogs (RGAs), several degenerate primers were designed and applied in the RGA isolation from Erianthus arundinaceus using PCR approach. In total, 6 RGAs were successfully obtained, with GenBank accession numbers of EU685835, EU685836, EU685837, EU685838, EU685839, and EU685840. Multiple alignments showed that the encoding sequences of the six clones were highly conserved and strikingly similar to the eleven most typical NBS-LRR type R-gene peptide sequences, especially at the four NES motifs of P-loop. kinase-2, kinase-3a, and HD. The identity percentage at the amino-acid level ranged from 8.3% to 93.0% among all 17 sequences tested and from 30.5% to 45.6% among the six RGAs cloned in this study. The results of cluster analysis and the existence of an aspartic acid residue (D) at the final residue position of the kinase-2 motif also indicated that all of E. arundinaceus RGAs might belong to non-TIR group. The Real-time PCR results showed that all of the RGAs were constitutively expressed in roots, stalks and leaves of E. arundinaceus, and their expression could be up-regulated in leaves by the exogenous signal molecules SA and H2O2. Therefore, it suggested that E. arundinaceus RGAs might play important roles in disease resistance in an SA- and H2O2-dependent defense response pathway. Further studies should aim to clone full-length R-genes in E. arundinaceus and characterize their functions in defense responses.