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BACKGROUND: Gastric cancer (GC) remains a huge challenge to the heathy of human beings, largely due to lacking of effective therapeutic measures. Though an oncogenic role for circular RNAs (circRNAs) circ_0067997 in the progression of GC has been described recently, the molecular modulatory mechanism of it still remains to be further explored. The aim of present study is to examine the molecular network of circ_0067997 in GC. METHODS: qRT-PCR was carried out to determine the mRNA levels of circ_0067997, miR-615-5p and AKT1 in cisplatin (DDP)-insensitive or sensitive GC tumor tissues and cells, while the correlations among the contents of these molecules were determined by statistical analysis. The expression of circ_0067997 was manipulated by short-hairpin RNA and lentiviral-mediated approaches, while that of miR-615-5p was achieved by the application of its inhibitor or mimic. The in vivo action of circ_0067997 on tumor formation was determined by measuring tumor weight/volume/size and analyzing tumor apoptosis through TUNEL staining in mouse xenograft model and, while the in vitro effects of this circRNA and its target miR-615-5p on the cell survival and death were separately evaluated by CCK-8 assay and flow cytometry. Additionally, luciferase reporter assays were executed to determine the sequentially regulatory relationships of circ_0067997, miR-615-5p, and AKT1. RESULTS: Our data demonstrated that the level of circ_0067997 level was increased in DDP-insensitive GC tissues and cell line, while miR-615-5p presented the opposite results. Moreover, the relationships between circ_0067997 and miR-615-5p levels, circ_0067997 and AKT1 contents presented negative and positive correlations in clinic samples, respectively. Importantly, circ_0067997 was found to repress miR-615-5p expression, consequently leading to increased growth while reduced apoptosis of GC cells in the presence of DDP. Furthermore, the validated sequential regulation was circ_0067997 modulating miR-615-5p adjusting AKT1. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that circ_0067997 functioned as a sponge of miR-615-5p to target AKT1 expression, thereby enhancing the growth and restricting the apoptosis of DDP-insensitive GC cells. These new findings offered a valuable target for the detection and management of GC.

In this study, a 3D + 1D (three-plus-one dimensional) multiphase PEM (proton exchange membrane) fuel cell model is developed, in which the detailed channel two-phase flow is also considered based on the two-phase Darcy’s law. Compared with conventional 3D fuel cell models, the 3D + 1D model improves calculation efficiency and stability. Utilizing this model, the simulation work is conducted on an automobile PEM fuel cell (309.12 cm2) with the full flow field morphology considered. Its accuracy is comprehensively validated at this scale against the experimentally measured polarization curves and HFR (high frequency resistance) under different anode and cathode stoichiometric ratios and pressures and operating temperatures, indicating the model reliability. Subsequently, we numerically investigate the influence of four flow field configurations on cell performance characteristics, including the wave-like, dotted, baffled, and straight flow fields. It is found that the dotted and baffled configuration effectively improved cell performance, but the wave-like flow field has little influence on cell performance compared with straight flow field. Moreover, it is found that decreasing the channel/rib width decreases the concentration loss, but it also increases the ionic ohmic loss, resulting in an optimal channel/rib width for cell performance improvement.

Autonomous navigation of Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) in dynamic and unknown environments is a complex and challenging task. Current works rely on assumptions to solve the problem. The MAV's pose is precisely known, the dynamic obstacles can be explicitly segmented from static ones, their number is known and fixed, or they can be modeled with given shapes. In this paper, we present a method for MAV navigation in dynamic uncertain environments without making any of these assumptions. The method employs a particle-based dynamic map to represent the local environment and predicts it to the near future. Collision risk is defined based on the predicted maps and a series of risk-aware spatio-temporal (RAST) safety corridors are constructed, which are finally used to optimize a dynamically-feasible collision-free trajectory for the MAV. We compared our method with several state-of-the-art works in 12000 simulation tests in Gazebo with the physical engine enabled. The results show that our method has the highest success rate at different uncertainty levels. Finally, we validated the proposed method in real experiments.

Sulfide solid electrolytes modified by CO2/O2 deliver enhanced moisture resistance and superior cathodic interfacial stability.

Porous flow fields distribute fuel and oxygen for the electrochemical reactions of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells through their pore network instead of conventional flow channels. This type of flow fields has showed great promises in enhancing reactant supply, heat removal, and electrical conduction, reducing the concentration performance loss and improving operational stability for fuel cells. This review presents the research and development progress of porous flow fields with insights for next-generation PEM fuel cells of high power density (e.g., ∼9.0 kW L

This paper examines the twenty-one letters from a Chinese scholar Gu Hongming to a German Sinologist Richard Wilhelm. It is essential to empower the right of speech on the side of Wilhelm by restoring a dialogic discourse from the epistolary space and revealing the innate nature of polemic in Gu’s internally dialogized publications. Their interconnected cultural and social activities represented in these letters may all be regarded as concrete rejoinders that signify their meanings and are signified by their previous context. The interaction between Gu and Wilhelm has cast a far-reaching impact on their developments in either academic thoughts or cultural identities, so much so that only by perceiving their reciprocally infiltrated ideas and related activities in coexistence are we able to understand their richer and fuller personalities developing along a mutual reference line and in a context of an unfinalized dialogue.

For the petrochemical industry, the spontaneous burning of iron sulfide compounds has been a major issue. In this study, XRD characterization of samples of iron sulfide compounds with spontaneous combustion tendency revealed that amorphous FeS was the primary constituent of the samples. A molecular simulation was used to build an amorphous FeS cluster model, and the density functional theory was used to examine the adsorption and reactivity characteristics of Fe4S4 clusters with O2. Different adsorption structures are generated by considering different adsorption sites and the electronic characteristics of each adsorption structure are evaluated. The results show that O2 prefers to adsorb around Fe atoms and has repulsion with S atoms, and the adsorption energy is maximum when two O atoms are co-adsorbed around Fe atoms, which is 198.13 kJ/mol. After adsorption charge, oxygen is in the superoxide state. The calculation of the reaction path divides the reaction process into different stages and considers different reaction routes. A thorough evaluation of the energy barriers and reaction energies of the two exothermic reactions leads to the conclusion that reaction path 1 is the optimal reaction path, and the reaction can release a total of 582.76 kJ/mol of heat. According to calculations, dimeric sulfur S2 must absorb a large part amount of energy in order to conduct the oxidation process. However, because S2 is present in the Fe4S4 reaction system, it may start the oxidation reaction by absorbing heat from the system and releasing 470.94 kJ/mol of heat. As a result, we conclude that this spontaneous exothermic reaction is a major cause of iron sulfide compounds spontaneous combustion. The thermal oxidation of the dimeric sulfur S2 generated in the reaction system releases heat that aggregates with the heat from the Fe4S4 cluster’s oxidation reaction system, eventually causing spontaneous combustion as a result of the heat’s continual buildup. In this study, we explore the reason for the extremely easy oxidation and spontaneous burning of iron sulfide compounds from a microscopic perspective to provide a theoretical foundation for the prevention and control of iron sulfide compound spontaneous combustion in the petrochemical sector.

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most lethal cancers worldwide. The high morbidity and mortality of OSCC are a great burden to global health-care systems. Therefore it is important to understand the underlying molecular mechanisms of OSCC initiation and progression. This study aimed to investigate the role of circMAT2B in OSCC progression and its molecular mechanisms. First, the expression and circularization of circMAT2B in OSCC cells were verified. Subsequently, knockdown of circMAT2B was shown to inhibit OSCC cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and the Warburg effect. Bioinformatics prediction, RNA-pull down, and luciferase reporter gene assays led to the identification of a novel TEAD1/circMAT2B/miR-942-5p/HSPD1 axis in OSCC progression. In conclusion, the novel TEAD1/circMAT2B/miR-942-5p/HSPD1 axis is a potential target for OSCC.

BACKGROUND: Psoriasis is associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Methotrexate (MTX) is often used as a first-line system therapy and there is a need to determine its effect on whole blood viscosity (WBV) and plasma viscosity (PV) in psoriasis. METHODS A prospective, single-center, interventional study with a total of 111 psoriatic patients who received MTX therapy from October 22, 2018, to December 28, 2019, and 111 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Changes in WBV, PV, blood counts, liver and renal function were evaluated. RESULTS Psoriatic patients had significantly higher levels of WBV and relative viscosity (RV) at low shear rate (LSR), erythrocyte aggregation index (EAI), and PV than sex and age-matched healthy controls. PV was positively correlated with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), ESR was positively correlated with high sensitive C-reactive protein (hCRP). But only hCRP was positively associated with psoriasis area severity index (PASI) score. MTX significantly decreased the levels of PV, ESR, hCRP, and blood pressure (BP) in male patients, and the level of WBV in female patients. CONCLUSION: Sex-specific downregulation of MTX on WBV, PV, hCRP, and BP, indicating that the effect of MTX on the risk of cardiovascular disease was related with sex.

Solid-state batteries offering both high energy density and safety have aroused widespread interest as promising power sources for electric vehicles. However, the interfacial mechanical stability of inorganic electrolyte is inferior to that of organic electrolytes and the high stack pressure (several to hundreds of megapascals) is required to maintain the intimate contact with electrodes. Here we report a class of inorganic glass solid electrolytes with polymer-like viscoelasticity, which possess both advantages of inorganic and polymer electrolytes and can enable pressure-less Li- and Na-based solid-state batteries (< 0.1 MPa). These electrolytes are synthesized by simply replacing chlorine of tetrachloroaluminates with oxygen, demonstrating high ionic conductivity of ~1 mS cm-1 at 30℃ for both Li+ and Na+. They can also exhibit superior chemo-mechanical compatibility with 4.3 V cathodes without additional stack pressure. Moreover, the inorganic glass solid electrolytes are feasible for scale-up, not only enabling to be made into thin films through a rolling process owing to its polymer-like flexibility but also facilitating the complete infiltration of the electrode materials like a liquid battery due to the low melting temperature below 160℃. We believe that these viscoelastic inorganic solid electrolytes will inspire us to design new solid electrolytes and accelerate practical application of pressure-less solid-state batteries.

This study aims to create a novel prognosis-related risk signature for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) based on the PPAR signaling pathway. TCGA and GEO data were respectively evaluated and verified. For the purpose of identifying OSCC prognostic genes, LASSO regression, univariate Cox, and multivariate Cox analyses were conducted. The predictive characteristic of OSCC was determined to be a combination of four genes (ACAA1, PCK1, APOA2, and OLR1) that were involved in the PPAR signaling pathway. On the basis of the multivariate Cox regression coefficients, the risk score was established, which was equal to (-0.378×ACAA1 value)+(1.023×PCK1 value)+(0.301×APOA2 value)+(0.142×OLR1 value). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis demonstrated that risk score had strong prognostic capability in both TCGA dataset and GEO dataset. Moreover, we constructed a nomogram utilizing clinical factors and risk score to estimate the likelihood of OSCC patient survival. In addition, the patterns of cellular immune infiltration in the tumor samples varied considerably between groups with different risk scores. In conclusion, the four-gene signature could accurately and independently predict OSCC prognosis. These genes may possibly be therapeutic targets for OSCC and bring new insights into the prognosis of OSCC.

A common task in research work is to survey research work in bioliographic databases. Scientists are finding the survey task notably difficult as the volume of the databases has been increased considerably over the past few decades. Making a good use of a survey paper can vastly lower the difficulty but there may be no such paper existed in some emerging research topics. In this work, we propose a novel Literature Evolution Discovery (LED) process that aims to provide an explainable evolution structure of literature. The explain- ability is based on co-citation analysis and latent relationship extraction, which are done by Steiner tree and context-consistent factor graph model, respectively. The experiments show the superiority of our context-consistent factor graph model, compared with the state-of-the-art baselines. Our case studies and visualization results demonstrate the effectiveness and interpretability of our proposed algorithms in practice.

Emerging studies indicate that long non-coding RNAs play important roles in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). However, the function of the majority of long non-coding RNAs is still unclear. Recently, LINC00472 has been reported to play crucial roles in multiple cancers. However, the role of LINC00472 in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is still not clear. This study found that LncRNA LINC00472 was significantly down-regulated in several squamous cell carcinoma cancer tissues and OSCC cell lines. Over-expression of LINC00472 in OSCC cells inhibited OSCC progression and alleviated OSCC immune responses. Additionally, we confirmed that LINC00472 functioned as an hsa-miR-4311 sponge and regulated the expression of GNG7 (guanine nucleotide-binding protein, gamma 7). Also, we found that LINC00472 over-expression could suppress xenograft tumor growth in

We analyze the relationship between cations and anion groups and take LiBF4/Li2BF5 as an example. The smaller distance between Li atoms in Li2BF5 indicates that it has little dependence on the rotation of anion groups while LiBF4 needs a larger rotation angle.

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most common cancer types of head and neck cancer, accounting for 95% of all cases. However, the mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of OSCC remain unclear. Circular RNA (CircRNA) has been extensively studied in the past decades and is a promising direction for the development of OSCC therapeutic targets. In this study, we aimed to investigate the role of circMTO1 in OSCC progression. First, we validated the characterization and expression of circMTO1 in OSCC. It was found that circMTO1 was upregulated in OSCC tumor tissues and cells. Subsequently, we conducted biological experiments. It was found that circMTO1 knockdown inhibited OSCC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Furthermore, we conducted a series of experiments to elucidate the underlying mechanisms. A novel circMTO1/miR-320a/ATRX axis was identified. Our results suggest that circMTO1 modulates ATRX expression to accelerate OSCC progression by sponging miR-320a. Moreover, we found that circMTO1 expression in OSCC was transcriptionally regulated by Zinc Finger Protein 460 (ZNF460). Our study showed a novel ZNF460/circMTO1/miR-320a/ATRX signaling in OSCC development.

The emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an urgent and complex public health challenge worldwide. As a sub-problem of AMR, antibacterial resistance (ABR) is of particular concern due to inadequacy of alternative medication. Earlier studies have shown that ABR is not only impacted by antibiotics, but also affected by the interactions between bacteria and their environments. Therefore, to combat ABR in a specific region, local environmental conditions must be investigated to comprehensively understand which environmental factors might contribute to ABR and propose more tailored solutions. This study surveyed environmental contributors of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), the parameter for measuring ABR, in the Yangtze Delta. A high abundance of ARGs was detected, despite low antibiotic and heavy metal concentrations. Phosphorus, chromium, manganese, calcium, and strontium were identified as potential key contributors of ARGs. Suppression of ARGs could be realized through decreasing the concentration of phosphorus in surface water. Group 2A light metals (e.g., magnesium and calcium) could be developed as eco-friendly reagents for controlling antibiotic resistance in the future.

Background. Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common type of oral cancer, which remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with head and neck cancers. However, the critical immune-related signatures and their prognostic values have rarely been investigated. Materials and Methods. Gene differential analysis was used to measure the differences of gene expression between the groups. Correlation analysis was used to assess the association between the gene expression levels and immune-related risk score/DNA methylation levels. The gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to identify the pathways or cell types enriched by those identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Results. In this study, we identified four immune-related gene signatures, including CTSG, TNFRSF4, LCORL, and PLAU, that were significantly associated with the overall survival in OSCC patients from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) OSCC cohort. Moreover, these four immune-related signatures were differentially expressed between the OSCC and nontumor tissues. The two groups (high and low risk) stratified by the immune-related risk scores had significantly different OS and mortality rates. The gene expression patterns and prognostic values of these immune-related signatures were also verified in two independent validation cohorts. Furthermore, the downregulated genes in the high-risk group (which were also upregulated in the low-risk group) were significantly enriched in the cell type-specific signatures of type 2 T helper cell (Th2), plasmacytoid dendritic cell (pDC), and memory B cell. In contrast, the upregulated genes in the high-score group were enriched in growth factor receptor-related signaling pathways, such as the VEGFA-VEGFR2 signaling pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, focal adhesion-PI3K-Akt-mTOR signaling pathway, and PDGF pathway, suggesting that those pathways were inversely correlated with immune cell infiltration. Conclusion. In summary, the immune-related signatures had the potential for predicting the risk of OSCC patients. Moreover, the present study also improved our understanding of the association between the growth factor receptor pathways and immune cell infiltration in OSCC.

The reactivity of garnet solid electrolytes toward humid air hinders their practical application despite their attractive, superior properties such as high Li+ conductivity and wide electrochemical window. Sealing garnets with organic solvents can not only prevent them from reacting with humid air but also render them compatible with other processing technologies. Therefore, the chemical and structural stability of garnets in organic solvents must be studied. In this study, we selected several commonly used organic solvents with different representative functional groups to investigate their stability with garnets and reaction mechanisms. The experiments and theoretical calculations revealed that all of the solvents reacted with garnets through Li-H exchange, and solvent acidity determined the reaction strength. Furthermore, the solvent acidity was closely correlated to the functional groups connected to H atoms, which can affect charge distribution. Solvents or the tautomer of the solvents with hydroxyl groups such as alcohol, acetone, and N-methyl pyrrolidone, which are relatively more acidic, can lead to a violent reaction with changes in the lattice parameters of garnets. Ether compounds and saturated aliphatic hydrocarbons with relatively low acidity are highly stable against garnets. The proposed reaction mechanisms and rules may help in selecting appropriate solvents for different applications of garnets.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been widely reported to participate in progression of various cancers, including oral cancer. Previous study showed circ_0001461 was aberrantly expressed in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), while its role in tumorigenesis of OSCC remains largely unclear. In this study, we confirmed that circ_0001461 was highly expressed in OSCC cell lines and tumor tissues. Knocking down of circ_0001461 suppressed cell proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro, and repress xenograft tumor growth in vivo. Mechanistically, we found circ_0001461 regulates OSCC cell proliferation, migration and invasion through sponging miR-145. Furthermore, circ_0001461 promotes the resistance of TNF-α-induced apoptosis of OSCC cells by modulating miR-145/TLR4/NF-κB pathway. In general, our study demonstrated a novel regulatory mechanism that circ_0001461/miR-145/TLR4/NF-κB axis modulates oral squamous cell carcinoma progression.

In object detection, multiscale features are necessary to deal with objects with different size. Using Feature Pyramid Network (FPN) as the backbone network is a very popular paradigm in existing object detectors, we call this paradigm FPN+. However, feature fusion of FPN is insufficient to express object of similar size but different appearance due to the unidirectional feature fusion. We motivate and present Adaptive Multiscale Feature (AMF), a new multiscale feature fusion method with bidirectional feature fusion, using to solve the one-direction fusion of FPN. AMF module fuses multiscale features from two aspects: (1) shattering features by the way of CLSM; (2) fusing features by the way of channel-wise attention. The proposed AMF improves the expression ability of multiscale features of the backbone network, and effectively improves the performance of the object detector. The proposed feature fusion method can be added to all object detector, such as the one-stage detector, the two-stage detector, anchor-based detector and anchor-free based detector. Experimental results on the COCO 2014 dataset show that the proposed AMF module performs the popular FPN based detector. Whether anchored-free based detectors or anchored based detectors, performance of detector can be improved through AMF. And the resulting best model can achieve a very competitive mAP on COCO 2014 dataset.

The reflection-by-sheath mechanism of 5 kHz narrowband emissions (NB) at Saturn is confirmed by Cassini observations during several crossings of the magnetopause, which show that the 5 kHz NB can be prevented from escaping Saturn's magnetosphere. The L-O mode 5 kHz NB remained visible in areas of low plasma density but disappeared in regions of high plasma density. In three cases, NB disappeared immediately after the crossings of Saturn's magnetopause. A possible reflected NB event observed near the magnetosheath is discussed. This mechanism can help explain the 5 kHz NB observed at low latitudes outside the Enceladus plasma torus and their upper frequency limit variations. This mechanism significantly improves the current understanding of the 5 kHz NB.

Tritium contributes majority to the total airborne radioactive effluents from the nuclear facility because of its considerable production and difficulty in separation. Tritium inventory in the fusion reactor would reach an unprecedented magnitude which brings new safety concern. After being released into the atmosphere, inconsistent atmospheric dispersion behaviors might appear regarding different physicochemical forms such as gaseous state HT, gaseous-aerosol-droplet state HTO. In this study, atmospheric dispersion characteristics of multi-form tritium were investigated based on the computational fluid dynamics method validated by multi-fan type wind tunnel experiments. Species transport model and discrete phase model were used to describe atmospheric dispersion of gaseous and aerosol-droplet state tritium, respectively. Deposition velocity was predicted for gaseous and aerosol-droplet state tritium with different particle sizes. Conditions for describing the changes of particle diameter and its influencing on near-surface tritium distribution due to condensation were provided. The results show that buoyancy effect would strengthen along with the increasing gaseous tritium mass fraction in the airborne effluents. We also indicated that obvious gravitational deposition would appear once gaseous HTO was transformed into droplet state HTO with the particle diameter larger than 20 μm. Both the atmospheric buoyancy and deposition phenomenon would result in a quite different near-surface tritium distribution.

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a life-threatening disease of the digestive system that occurs in the neonatal period. NEC is difficult to diagnose early and the prognosis is poor. Previous studies have reported that abnormalities can be detected before the presentation of clinical symptoms. Based on an analysis of literature related to the early prediction of NEC, we provide a detailed review on the early prediction and diagnosis methods of NEC, including ultrasound, near-infrared spectroscopy, biomarkers, and intestinal microbiota. This review aimed to provide a reference for further research and clinical practice.