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The sustainable development of urban communities has attracted widespread attention from all sectors. So, the question regarding how to promote sustainable development in communities has become an important issue that warrants consideration and research. Sustainable development thinking can help create more effective strategies, enhance the ability to organize information, and build a preferred future. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the nucleic acid testing booths in China played an important role in providing fast screening to determine community outbreaks and effectively prevent the spread of the virus. However, with the overall relaxation of the zero COVID-19 policy, many nucleic acid testing booths are currently largely idle. The question regarding how to leverage these testing booths scientifically and reasonably by redesigning them for local conditions is a ready-to-research topic. Based on theories such as future design and sustainable development construction of future urban communities, we focused on old urban communities in China and explored how to use idle testing booths by conducting field research and resident interviews. We thus aimed to explore how to redesign idle nucleic acid testing booths and transform them into products or smart mobile convenience service stations by applying the study's qualitative results. Through a case analysis, we constructed design models for intelligent mobile convenience service stations in old communities that met the needs of the future urban community residents and promoted the sustainable development of the community. We hope that our results will be further verified via the design of intelligent convenience service stations in other cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bronze wares make up some of the most important bronze artifacts in ancient China's Xia, Shang and Western Zhou dynasties. They carry rich historical, cultural and artistic information. In order to enable modern people to reflect on the ancient through products, an important research topic that must be considered is how to carry out innovative designs with bronze ware and how to add value to the development of cultural creative industries so as to promote sustainable cultural development. This study puts forward a research framework for the innovative design of bronze ware. Based on analysis of relevant cases, such as a purple copper antique wine vessel, the "Qing Niao" ("Blue Bird") asking love wine cup and the HIBIKI ware wine glass, the study summarizes the innovative design strategy of modern transformation design of bronze ware. From the perspectives of functional attributes, cultural symbols, cultural identity and emotional resonance, the study finally proposes three design ideas: antiqued design, simplified design and reconstructed design. The study presents a research model which still needs to be verified in future studies. We hope that the model can integrate the principles of sustainability into the modern transformation design of cultural relics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring the interaction between water, land, and food (WLF) is a premise guaranteeing to ease resource restrictions and achieve sustainable development in major agricultural production areas. We chose 26 indicators to build a WLF nexus evaluation index system. We used the coupling coordination model to measure the coupling coordination degree of the WLF nexus in 15 prefecture-level cities and 151 counties under the jurisdiction of Hebei Province in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020. Then, the spatial correlation was analyzed using the global and local Moran's I. Finally, the regional differences and spatiotemporal patterns were analyzed using a spatial gravity center model and kernel density estimation. The results are as follows: (1) In 11 cities, the comprehensive evaluation index of the WLF and of each subsystem shows a fluctuating upward trend. More than 95% of the counties' comprehensive evaluation indices improved, and the difference between counties in the north and south narrowed after 2010. (2) The spatial pattern of the WLF in counties has evolved from a pattern of "high in the south and low in the north" to "high in the north and low in the south", with the development speed of the north being higher than that of the south. (3) The coupling coordination degree of the WLF has a positive spatial autocorrelation relationship in different counties; however, the spatial connection eventually deteriorates, and the geographic pattern exhibits "agglomeration decrease" characteristics. In Hebei Province, the WLF coupling coordination rate slowly improves, and there is a significant development gap between counties. Therefore, local conditions should be taken into consideration when implementing measures to reduce the conflict between water, land, and food in actual regional conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing a low-price, high catalytic activity, and strong durability electrocatalyst for alkaline oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is significantly important for anion exchange membrane fuel cell (AEMFC). Herein, Co and Mn salts were added into ZIF-8 to obtain CoMn-ZIF-Ac-2. Co and Mn embedded in nitrogen-doped microporous carbon (CoMn-N-C-Ac-2-Ts, T = 700 , 800, 900, and 1000°C) were obtained by carbonizing CoMn-ZIF-Ac-2 at various temperature. The influence of various pyrolysis temperature and molar ratios between Co and Mn toward ORR catalytic activity was researched. For CoMn-N-C-Ac-2-Ts, CoMn-N-C-Ac-2-800 had the highest ORR catalytic activity with the half-wave potential of 0.875 V in 0.1 M KOH, only 5 mV lower than that of 20 wt % Pt/C. Besides, high 4e- selectivity, excellent stability (retaining 100% for 20 h at 0.6 V vs. RHE), and methanol tolerance are also exhibited. In addition, CoMn-N-C-Ac-2-800 exhibited better ORR activity than Mn-N-C-Ac-800 and Co-N-C-Ac-800, which was attributed to more Co-N4, more MnIII species, and higher surface area. Moreover, the AEMFC based on the CoMn-N-C-Ac-2-800 cathode catalyst obtained a maximal power density of 291 mW·cm-2, which was 78% of the P max achieved with 20 wt % Pt/C (375 mW·cm-2). The highest ORR performance for CoMn-N-C-Ac-2-800 was contributed by the highest defect degree, the most amounts of Co/Mn-N4 active site, the maximum BET surface area, and micropore structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of high-performance nonprecious metal catalysts for oxygen reduction reactions is critical for the commercialization of fuel cells. In this paper, we report a non-precious catalyst with high-performance, in which Fe and Fe3C is embedded in nitrogen-doped carbon nanofibers (MIL-N-CNFs) by co-electrospinning Fe-MIL and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and pyrolyzing. The mass ratio of Fe-MIL to PAN in the precursors and the pyrolysis temperature were optimized to be 1.5 and treated at 800 °C, respectively. The optimized catalyst exhibited an onset potential of 0.950 V and a half-wave potential of 0.830 V in alkaline electrolytes, thanks to the improved mass transfer kinetics in a meso-porous structure and enhanced reaction kinetics by confined Fe and Fe3C particles. Additionally, the optimized catalyst showed a better methanol tolerance than the commercial 20 wt.% Pt/C, indicating a potential application in direct methanol fuel cells. Serving as the cathode in CCM, the anion-exchange membrane fuel cell reaches a power density of 192 mW cm−2 at 428 mA cm−2 and 80 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skeletal muscle satellite cells are a class of undifferentiated mononuclear myogenic stem cells distributed between the myofibroblast and membrane basement. Since their development determines the development of skeletal muscles, knowledge of their proliferation, differentiation, and fate is vital for understanding skeletal muscle development. Increasing evidence have shown that long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) plays an important role in regulating the development process of satellite cells. Based on the results of our previous studies, we screened lncRNA MSTRG.59589, which is highly expressed in skeletal muscle tissue. In the present study, knockdown of MSTRG.59589 significantly inhibited satellite cell differentiation at various time points, whereas overexpression of MSTRG.59589 demonstrated opposite effects. An MSTRG.59589 knockdown cell model was constructed for transcriptome sequencing, and RNA sequencing analysis screened out a large number of differentially expressed genes. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analyses of these differentially expressed genes revealed that they are mainly enriched in actin cytoskeleton, muscle contraction, and other pathways related to muscle development. Mechanistic analyses showed that MSTRG.59589 could promote the differentiation process of skeletal muscle satellite cells by positively regulating the expression level of the target gene PALLD. This experiment lays a theoretical foundation for deeper studies on the mechanism of MSTRG.59589 in the differentiation of porcine skeletal muscle satellite cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vitamin A is an essential nutrient in animals, playing important roles in animal health. In the pig industry, proper supplementation of vitamin A in the feed can improve pork production performance, while deficiency or excessive intake can lead to growth retardation or disease. However, the specific molecular mechanisms through which vitamin A operates on pig skeletal muscle growth as well as muscle stem cell function remain unexplored. Therefore, in this study, we isolated the pig primary skeletal muscle stem cells (pMuSCs) and treated with retinoic acid (RA), the natural metabolite of vitamin A, and then examined the myogenic capacity of pMuSCs via immunostaining, real-time PCR, CCK8 and western-blot analysis. Unexpectedly, the RA caused a significant decrease in the proliferation and differentiation of pMuSCs. Mechanistically, the RA addition induced the activation of retinoic acid receptor gamma (RARγ), which inhibited the myogenesis through the blockage of protein translation of the master myogenic regulator myogenic differentiation 1 gene (MYOD). Specifically, RARγ inactivate AKT kinase (AKT) signalling and lead to dephosphorylation of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E binding protein 1 (eIF4EBP1), which in turn repress the eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) complex and block mRNA translation of MYOD. Inhibition of AKT could rescue the myogenic defects of RA-treated pMuSCs. Our findings revealed that retinoid acid signalling inhibits the skeletal muscle stem cell proliferation and differentiation in pigs. Therefore, the vitamin A supplement in the feedstuff should be cautiously optimized to avoid the potential adverse consequences on muscle development associated with the excessive levels of retinoic acid.

Our study seeks to obtain data which help to assess the impacts and related mechanisms of microRNA miR-509-3p in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We found that the expression of miR-509-3p was down-regulated and Twist was up-regulated in HCC tissues and cell lines (HepG2, HCCLM3, Bel7402, and SMMC7721) compared with the adjacent normal tissues and normal human hepatocyte (L02). Moreover, cell proliferation, invasion, migration and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in HepG2 and HCCLM3 cells were appeared to be markedly suppressed by overexpressed miR-509-3p. Overexpression of miR-509-3p also performed inhibition of the growth and metastasis in vivo. In addition, miR-509-3p could target and inhibit Twist expression, and it could further reverse the tumor promotion by Twist in HCC. All in all, miR-509-3p overexpression causes inhibition of the proliferation, migration, invasion and EMT of HCC cells by negatively regulating Twist, thereby suppressing HCC development and metastasis.

The H19 gene promotes skeletal muscle differentiation in mice, but the regulatory models and mechanisms of myogenesis regulated by H19 are largely unknown in pigs. Therefore, the regulatory modes of H19 in the differentiation of porcine skeletal muscle satellite cells (PSCs) need to be determined. We observed that H19 gene silencing could decrease the expressions of the myogenin ( MYOG ) gene, myogenic differentiation ( MYOD ), and myosin heavy chain ( MYHC ) in PSCs. Therefore, we constructed and sequenced 12 cDNA libraries of PSCs after knockdown of H19 at two differentiation time points to analyze the transcriptome differences. A total of 11,419 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Among these DEGs, we found through bioinformatics analysis and protein interaction experiment that SRY-box transcription factor 4 ( SOX4 ) and Drebrin 1 ( DBN1 ) were the key genes in H19 -regulated PSC differentiation. Functional analysis shows that SOX4 and DBN1 promote PSC differentiation. Mechanistically, H19 regulates PSC differentiation through two different pathways. On the one hand, H19 functions as a molecular sponge of miR-140-5p , which inhibits the differentiation of PSCs, thereby modulating the derepression of SOX4 . On the other hand, H19 regulates PSC differentiation through directly binding with DBN1. Furthermore, MYOD binds to the promoters of H19 and DBN1 . The knockdown of MYOD inhibits the expression of H19 and DBN1 . We determined the function of H19 and provided a molecular model to elucidate H19 's role in regulating PSC differentiation., (Copyright © 2020 Li, Su, Zou, Luo, Shi, Chen, Fang and Li.)

Long intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) play essential roles in numerous biological processes and are widely studied. The skeletal muscle is an important tissue that plays an essential role in individual movement ability. However, lincRNAs in pig skeletal muscles are largely undiscovered and their biological functions remain elusive. In this study, we assembled transcriptomes using RNA-seq data published in previous studies of our laboratory group and identified 323 lincRNAs in porcine leg muscle. We found that these lincRNAs have shorter transcript length, fewer exons and lower expression level than protein-coding genes. Gene ontology and pathway analyses indicated that many potential target genes (PTGs) of lincRNAs were involved in skeletal-muscle-related processes, such as muscle contraction and muscle system process. Combined our previous studies, we found a potential regulatory mechanism in which the promoter methylation of lincRNAs can negatively regulate lincRNA expression and then positively regulate PTG expression, which can finally result in abnormal phenotypes of cloned piglets through a certain unknown pathway. This work detailed a number of lincRNAs and their target genes involved in skeletal muscle growth and development and can facilitate future studies on their roles in skeletal muscle growth and development.