Search

The susceptibility evaluation of debris flow has excellent significance for people's life and property safety. The game theory combination weighting-normal cloud model is applied to evaluate its susceptibility in the paper. Firstly, the length ratio of the supply segment (X1), the longitudinal slope of the main ditch (X2), the slope of the mountain (X3), watershed area (X4), the relative difference (X5), the vegetation coverage (X6), as well as the daily maximum rainfall (X7) are adopted as the assessment index; the game theory combination weighting-normal cloud model is introduced. Secondly, the normal cloud model of specific debris flow hazards is established; the weight coefficient of each index is calculated using the game theory combination weighting method, and the membership degree of each index is determined using the cloud model; finally, conclusions are drawn that the results obtained by the suggested method are consistent with the actual investigation for eight different gullies. Its accuracy reaches 100% for the proposed method, which is higher than the results from the gray extension model (62.5%); its assessment results predict the susceptibility level of debris flow hazards accurately and further determine the susceptibility grade ranking for different gullies at the same level. Therefore, it can provide a new method and thought for the susceptibility assessment of debris flow hazards in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transgenic soybean, cotton, and maize tolerant to protoporphyrinogen IX oxidase (PPO)-inhibiting herbicides have been developed by introduction of a bacterial-derived PPO targeted into the chloroplast. PPO is a membrane-associated protein with an intrinsic tendency for aggregation, making expression, purification, and formulation at high concentrations difficult. In this study, transgenic PPO expressed in three crops was demonstrated to exhibit up to a 13 amino acid sequence difference in the N-terminus due to differential processing of the chloroplast transit peptide (CTP). Five PPO protein variants were produced in and purified from E. coli, each displaying equivalent immunoreactivity and functional activity, with values ranging from 193 to 266 nmol min-1 mg-1. Inclusion of an N-terminal 6xHis-tag or differential processing of the CTP peptide does not impact PPO functional activity. Additionally, structural modeling by Alphafold, ESMfold, and Openfold indicates that these short N-terminal extensions are disordered and predicted to not interfere with the mature PPO structure. These results support the view that safety studies on PPO from various crops can be performed from a single representative variant. Herein, we report a novel and robust method for large-scale production of PPO, enabling rapid production of more than 200 g of highly active PPO protein at 99% purity and low endotoxin contamination. We also present a formulation that allows for concentration of active PPO to > 75 mg/mL in a buffer suitable for mammalian toxicity studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Galectin-3 has a relatively high level of expression in triple-negative breast cancers and is a potential marker for this disease. However, the clinical and prognostic implications of galectin-3 expression in breast cancer remain unclear. We examined mastectomy specimens from 1086 breast cancer cases and matching, adjacent non-cancerous tissues using immunohistochemistry. Overall, triple-negative breast cancers expressed galectin-3 more strongly than did other breast cancers types (63.59% vs 21.36%, P = 0.001). Galectin-3 expression was not found to be an independent prognostic factor for breast cancer by Cox regression analysis, but was associated with chemotherapeutic resistance. Apoptosis was only weakly induced by arsenic trioxide (ATO) treatment in galectin-3-positive breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7), although ATO treatment up-regulated galectin-3 expression. Knockdown of galectin-3 in MDA-MB-231 cells sensitized them to killing by ATO. These findings support a possible role for galectin-3 as a marker for triple-negative breast cancer progression and as a therapeutic target in combination with ATO treatment, although the mechanisms that underlie this synergy require further investigation.