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Despite improvements in surgical resection and adjuvant chemotherapy, the prognosis and outcomes of patients with osteosarcoma remains poor due to the occurrence of metastasis or relapse. Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1-induced protein-1 (MCPIP1), a zinc-finger RNA-binding protein, is known to regulate inflammatory responses and repress breast cancer growth. However, the regulation of MCPIP1 by microRNAs has not been clearly elucidated in osteosarcoma. In this study, we found that miR-421 expression was upregulated and MCPIP1 expression was downregulated in the osteosarcoma specimens from patients. Moreover, MCPIP1 expression was inversely correlated with miR-421 expression in the clinical samples. Furthermore, the upregulation of miR-421 and downregulation of MCPIP1 resulted in poor overall survival and severe disease progression, respectively, in the patients with osteosarcoma. Bioinformatics analysis and luciferase reporter gene assays confirmed that miR-421 specifically targets and binds to the 3ʹ-UTR of MCPIP1. The overexpression of miR-421 induced cell proliferation, invasion, and migration, and the release of pro-inflammatory IL-6 in cultured human osteosarcoma cells. Additionally, the administration of miR-421 to tumor-bearing mice facilitated osteosarcoma growth by downregulating MCPIP1 expression. Taken together, these findings indicate that miR-421 is able to promote the development of osteosarcoma by regulating MCPIP1 expression, and can be a potential therapeutic target for osteosarcoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Quality assessment of the prevalence and distribution of human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes could support additional targeted HPV vaccinations. However, the characteristics of HPV infection in Wuhan city are limited in the past decade. We aimed to assess the epidemiology of HPV infection among women and provide a reference for the prevention and treatment of cervical cancer in this region. Methods: A retrospective study employing 105,679 women attending Wuhan Medical and Health Center for Women and Children for cervical cancer screening from January 2015 to December 2022 was conducted. The HPV genotype was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and diversion hybridization. The overall incidence and age-specific type distribution of HPV infection and the relationship between HPV infection and cervical cytology were analyzed. Results: The overall HPV infection rate was 16.87% in Wuhan city, and the prevalence rates of high-risk, low-risk and mixed high- and low-risk HPV infections were 13.64%, 1.77% and 1.46%, respectively. The five most prevalent genotypes were HPV52 (4.24%), HPV58 (2.42%), HPV16 (2.34%), HPV53 (1.87%), and HPV39 (1.66%). The prevalence of HPV in women exhibited a "two-peak" pattern, the peaks of which were observed in the < 21 years group (37.4%) and the 61–65 years group (41.72%). Logistic regression analysis revealed no significant difference in the rate of high-grade lesion positivity between single and multiple high-risk HPV infections. Among patients with a high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion+ (HSIL+) ThinPrep cytologic test (TCT) diagnosis, HPV58 was the most common type, followed by HPV52, HPV16, HPV39 and HPV53. Conclusions: HPV types 52, 58, 16, 53, and 39 were the most common types in the general female population in Wuhan, and the prevalence of HPV infection varied among different age groups. This study provides a comprehensive overview of the epidemiological characteristics of HPV infection in women, which could support the development of targeted prevention and control strategies for cervical cancer in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Germline heterozygous gain-of-function (GOF) mutations in the PIK3CD gene lead to a rare primary immunodeficiency disease known as activated phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) δ syndrome type 1(APDS1). Affected patients present a spectrum of clinical manifestations, particularly recurrent respiratory infections and lymphoproliferation, increased levels of serum immunoglobulin (Ig) M, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and cytomegalovirus (CMV) viremia. Due to highly heterogeneous phenotypes of APDS1, it is very likely that suspected cases may be misdiagnosed. Methods: Herein we reported three patients with different clinical presentations but harboring pathogenic variants in PIK3CD gene detected by trio whole-exome sequencing (trio-WES) and confirmed by subsequent Sanger sequencing. Results: Two heterozygous mutations (c.3061G > A, p.E1021K and c.1574 A > G, p.E525G) in PIK3CD (NM_005026.3) were identified by whole exome sequencing (WES) in the three patients. One of two patients with the mutation (c.3061G > A) presented with abdominal pain and diarrhea as the first symptoms, which was due to intussusception caused by multiple polyps of colon. The patient with mutation (c.1574 A > G) had an anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV)-like clinical manifestations, including multisystemic inflammation, acute nephritic syndrome, and positive perinuclear ANCA (p-ANCA), thus the diagnosis of ANCA-AAV was considered. Conclusions: Our study expands the spectrums of clinical phenotype and genotype of APDS, and demonstrates that WES has a high molecular diagnostic yield for patients with immunodeficiency related symptoms, such as respiratory infections, multiple ecchymosis, ANCA-associated vasculitis, multiple ileocecal polyps, hepatosplenomegaly, and lymphoid hyperplasia. Trial registration: Retrospectively registered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complexity of retrieving paleoenvironmental variability from hemipelagic sedimentary archives in the marginal seas has been exacerbated by intricate interactions between sedimentary sources and climatic fluctuations, modulated by sea-level shifts and oceanic currents. These challenges are particularly pronounced in the northern South China Sea (SCS). This study introduces new data, incorporating Sr Nd isotopic, clay minerals, grain-size, and calcareous nannofossil proxies, to assess the sedimentary provenance and paleoenvironmental changes in the northwestern SCS since the Last Glacial Maximum. The sedimentary provenance highlights the primary source from the northern SCS, particularly the Red River drainage system, with potential contributions from the Indochina drainage systems. The combined analysis of multiple proxies suggests that sedimentary processes and biotic activity in the examined core were mainly influenced by sea-level fluctuations, concerning global ice dynamics. Variations of grain sizes and kaolinite / (illite + chlorite) (K/(I + C)) ratio largely correspond to the terrestrial flux variation from northern SCS associated with sea-level changes during glacial-interglacial cycles. Furthermore, the smectite / (illite + chlorite) (S/(I + C)) ratio in this study appears to have been primarily influenced by the activity of the Kuroshio current in the northern SCS. The possible interference of intensified northeastward warm currents during relatively warm intervals caused the depletion of the S/(I +C) ratio and was responsible for the depletion of soluble calcareous nannofossils. Additionally, this study deduces that sedimentary processes and biotic activity in the northern SCS, in response to mainly sea-level changes and surface currents, were largely controlled by global ice dynamics and solar radiation. This study also underscores the need for further interdisciplinary research, combining various proxies, to enhance our understanding of paleoenvironmental assessments in hemipelagic sediments in marginal seas. • The study contributes a multiproxy analysis to assess marine sedimentary processes. • Sedimentary processes were mainly influenced by sea-level fluctuations. • The Kuroshio activity might significantly influence the clay mineral distribution. • This study suggests the polar-ice controlling of the paleoenvironment in the northern SCS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A huge production of waste activated sludge (WAS) has been a burden for wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) with high disposal cost and little benefit back to wastewater purification. The short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) produced by a short-term acidogenic fermentation of WAS before methane production have been proven to be a high-quality carbon source available for microbial denitrification process. The dual purpose of full recovery of fermentation liquid products and facilitating disposal of residual solid waste necessitate an efficient solid-liquid separation process of short-term fermentation liquid. The transformation and loss of various soluble carbon sources between solid and liquid are very important issues for carbon recovery efficiency when combining short-term fermentation and sludge dewatering in WWTPs. Here we testified the three conventional preconditioning coagulants, Polyferric Sulfate (PFS), Poly Aluminum Chloride (PAC) and Polyacrylamide (PAM), to improve the efficiency of subsequent solid-liquid separation. The results show that conversion yield of SCFAs in the liquid phase of sludge after short-term fermentation was 195 mg COD/g VSS, when using the coagulants PFS, PAC, and PAM for recovery, the recovery ratio was 79.5%, 82.0%, and 85.9%, respectively, while the dewaterability could be improved after preconditioning short-term fermentation sludge. The complexation of Al3+/Fe3+ in metal coagulants with carboxyl groups of SCFA demonstrated by Density Functional Theory calculation led to small part of soluble carbons co-migration to the solid phase, mainly a loss of high molecular weight organic compounds (carbohydrate, proteins, humic acids), while the application of PAM had little impact on carbon recovery. Economic calculations further showed PAM preconditioning short-term fermentation liquid of WAS could achieve higher recovery benefits. [Display omitted] • Soluble carbon recovery for denitrification is carried out from waste activated sludge. • The technology is optimized by combining short-term fermentation and sludge dewatering in WWTPs. • Conventional coagulants were applied for carbon source recovery. • The transformation and loss of various soluble carbon sources were evaluated. • Potential mechanism of the loss of Short-chain fatty acids was revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catalytic destruction is an ascendant technology for the abatement of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) originating from solvent-based industrial processes. The varied composition tends to influence each VOC's catalytic behavior in the reaction mixture. We investigated the catalytic destruction of multi-component VOCs including dichloromethane (DCM) and ethyl acetate (EA), as representatives from pharmaceutical waste gases, over co-supported H x PO 4 -RuO x /CeO 2 catalyst. A mutual inhibitory effect relating to concentrations because of competitive adsorption was verified in the binary VOCs oxidation and EA posed a more negative effect on DCM oxidation owing to EA's superior adsorption capacity. Preferential adsorption of EA on acidic sites (H x PO 4 /CeO 2 ) promoted DCM activation on basic sites (O 2- ) and the dominating EA oxidation blocked DCM's access to oxidation centers (RuO x /CeO 2 ), resulting in boosted monochloromethane yield and increased chlorine deposition for DCM oxidation. The impaired redox ability of Ru species owing to chlorine deposition in turn jeopardized deep oxidation of EA and its by-products, leading to increased gaseous by-products such as acetic acid originating from EA pyrolysis. Notably, DCM at low concentration slightly promoted EA conversion at low temperatures with or without water, consistent with the enhanced EA adsorption in co-adsorption analyses. This was mainly due to that DCM impeded the shielding effect of hydrolysate deposition from rapid EA hydrolysis depending on the decreased acidity. Moreover, water benefited EA hydrolysis but decreased CO 2 selectivity while the generated water derived from EA was likely to affect DCM transformation. This work may provide theoretical guidance for the promotion of applied catalysts toward industrial applications., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Immunodeficiency 11B with atopic dermatitis (IMD11B, OMIM:617638) is rare primary immunodeficiency disease caused by germline dominant negative (DN) mutations in the CARD11 gene. Affected patients present with immune dysfunction, recurrent infections and atopic dermatitis. In this study, we sought to identify and characterize the genetic variant in one patient with periodic fever, recurrent infections, and eczema. Trio whole-exome sequencing (WES) was employed in this patient and her parents, and Sanger sequencing validated the potential pathogenic variant. In vitro functional study was performed to evaluate the pathogenicity of genetic variant identified. A very rare missense mutation (c.2324C > T, p.S775L) in CARD11 gene (NM&#95;032415) was identified by WES in the patient but not her parents. Luciferase reporter assays and co-immunoprecipitation demonstrated mutation exerts a dominant-interfering effect on wild-type CARD11, inhibiting the activity of NF-κB. RNA sequencing analysis also confirmed that mutant CARD11 inhibited down-stream transcriptional activity of NF-κB. A review of literature doesn't found significant genotype-phenotype correlation. We identified a vary rare DN CARD11 mutation, expanding the genetic and phenotypic spectrum of CARD11., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Secondary pollution remains a critical challenge for the catalytic destruction of chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs). By employing experimental studies and theoretical calculations, we provide valuable insights into the catalytic behaviors exhibited by ceria rods, cubes, and octahedra for monochloromethane (MCM) destruction, shedding light on the elementary reactions over facet-dependent CeO 2 . Our findings demonstrate that CeO 2 nanorods with the (110) facet exhibit the best performance in MCM destruction, and the role of vacancies is mainly to form a longer distance (4.63 Å) of frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) compared to the stoichiometric surface, thereby enhancing the activation of MCM molecules. Subsequent molecular orbital analysis showed that the adsorption of MCM mainly transferred electrons from the 3 σ and 4 π * orbitals to the Ce 4f orbitals, and the activation was mainly caused by weakening of the 3 σ bonding orbitals. Furthermore, isotopic experiments and theoretical calculations demonstrated that the hydrogen chloride generated is mainly derived from methyl in MCM rather than from water, and the primary function of water is to form excess saturated H on the surface, facilitating the desorption of generated hydrogen chloride.

The development of oxidation catalysts that are resistant to sulfur poisoning is crucial for extending the lifespan of catalysts in real-working conditions. Herein, we describe the design and synthesis of oxide-metal interaction (OMI) catalyst under oxidative atmospheres. By using organic coated TiO 2 , an oxide/metal inverse catalyst with non-classical oxygen-saturated TiO 2 overlayers were obtained at relatively low temperature. These catalysts were found to incorporate ultra-small Pd metal and support particles with exceptional reactivity and stability for CO oxidation (under 21 vol % O 2 and 10 vol % H 2 O). In particular, the core (Pd)-shell (TiO 2 ) structured OMI catalyst exhibited excellent resistance to SO 2 poisoning, yielding robust CO oxidation performance at 120 °C for 240 h (at 100 ppm SO 2 and 10 vol % H 2 O). The stability of this new OMI catalyst was explained through density functional theory (DFT) calculations that interfacial oxygen atoms at Pd-O-Ti sites (of oxygen-saturated overlayers) serve as non-metal active sites for low-temperature CO oxidation, and change the SO 2 adsorption from metal(d)-to-SO 2 (π*) back-bonding to much weaker σ(Ti-S) bonding., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

CNOT3 is the central component of the CCR4-NOT protein complex, which is a global regulator of RNA polymerase II transcription. Loss of function mutations in CNOT3 lead to intellectual developmental disorder with speech delay, autism, and dysmorphic facies (IDDSADF), which is very rare. Herein, we reported two novel heterozygous frameshift mutations (c.1058&#95;1059insT and c.724delT) and one novel splice site variant (c.387 + 2 T > C) in CNOT3 (NM&#95;014516.3) gene in three Chinese patients with dysmorphic features, developmental delay, and behavior anomalies. The functional study showed that the CNOT3 mRNA levels were significantly decreased in the peripheral blood of two patients with c.1058&#95;1059insT and c.387 + 2 T > C variants, respectively, and minigene assay demonstrated that the splice variant (c.387 + 2 T > C) resulted in exon skipping. We also found that CNOT3 deficiency was linked to alterations of expression levels of other CCR4-NOT complex subunits in mRNA level in the peripheral blood. By analyzing the clinical manifestations of all these patients with CNOT3 variants, including our three cases and 22 patients previously reported, we did not observe a correlation between genotypes and phenotypes. In summary, this is the first time to report cases with IDDSADF in the Chinese population, and three novel CNOT3 variants in these patients expand its mutational spectrum., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Data-driven approaches that make timely predictions about pollutant concentrations in the effluent of constructed wetlands are essential for improving the treatment performance of constructed wetlands. However, the effect of the meteorological condition and flow changes in a real scenario are generally neglected in water quality prediction. To address this problem, in this study, we propose an approach based on multi-source data fusion that considers the following indicators: water quality indicators, water quantity indicators, and meteorological indicators. In this study, we establish four representative methods to simultaneously predict the concentrations of three representative pollutants in the effluent of a practical large-scale constructed wetland: (1) multiple linear regression; (2) backpropagation neural network (BPNN); (3) genetic algorithm combined with the BPNN to solve the local minima problem; and (4) long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network to consider the influence of past results on the present. The results suggest that the LSTM-predicting model performed considerably better than the other deep neural network-based model or linear method, with a satisfactory R 2 . Additionally, given the huge fluctuation of different pollutant concentrations in the effluent, we used a moving average method to smooth the original data, which successfully improved the accuracy of traditional neural networks and hybrid neural networks. The results of this study indicate that the hybrid modeling concept that combines intelligent and scientific data preprocessing methods with deep learning algorithms is a feasible approach for forecasting water quality in the effluent of actual engineering., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2022 The Authors.)

Ru-based catalysts have been extensively employed for the catalytic destruction of chlorinated volatile organic compounds (VOCs), but their versatility for other routine VOCs' destruction has been less explored. Herein, we show that Ru-decorated SnO 2 /CeO 2 mixed oxides can sustain H 2 O and HCl poisonings and are endowed with extraordinary versatility for a wide range of VOCs' destruction. Selective adsorption of Ru on the cassiterite SnO 2 and CeO 2 nanorods through a Coulomb force can rationally tune the oxidation and dechlorination centers on decorated catalysts, where the epitaxial growth of RuO x on top of SnO 2 is endowed with excellent dechlorination ability and that on CeO 2 is functional as an oxidation center; the latter could also activate H 2 O to provide sufficient H protons for HCl formation. Our developed Ru/SnO 2 /CeO 2 catalyst can steadily destruct mono-chlorobenzene, ortho-dichlorobenzene, trichloroethylene, dichloromethane, epichlorohydrin, N -hexane, ethyl acetate, toluene, and their mixtures at an optimum temperature of 300 °C, and its monolithic form is also functional at this temperature with few dioxins being detected in the off-gas. Our results imply that the Ru-decorated SnO 2 /CeO 2 catalyst can meet the demands of regenerative catalytic oxidation for the treatment of a wide range of VOCs from industrial exhausts.

Industrial-use catalysts usually encounter severe deactivation after long-term operation for catalytic oxidation of chlorinate volatile organic compounds (CVOCs), which becomes a "bottleneck" for large-scale application of catalytic combustion technology. In this work, typical acidic solid-supported catalysts of Mn x Ce 1-x O 2 /HZSM-5 were investigated for the catalytic oxidation of chlorobenzene (CB). The activation energy (E a ), Brønsted and Lewis acidities, CB adsorption and activation behaviors, long-term stabilities, and surficial accumulation compounds (after aging) were studied using a range of analytical techniques, including XPS, H 2 -TPR, pyridine-IR, DRIFT, and O 2 -TP-Ms. Experimental results revealed that the Brønsted/Lewis (B/L) ratio of Mn x Ce 1-x O 2 /HZSM-5 catalysts could be adjusted by ion exchange of H• (in HZSM-5) with Mn n+ (where the exchange with Ce 4+ did not distinctly affect the acidity); the long-term aged catalysts could accumulate ca. 14 organic compounds at surface, including highly toxic tetrachloromethane, trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, o-dichlorobenzene, etc.; high humid operational environment could ensure a stable performance for Mn x Ce 1-x O 2 /HZSM-5 catalysts; this was due to the effective removal of Cl• and coke accumulations by H 2 O washing, and the distinct increase of Lewis acidity by the interaction of H 2 O with HZSM-5. This work gives an in-depth view into the CB oxidation over acidic solid-supported catalysts and could provide practical guidelines for the rational design of reliable catalysts for industrial applications.

We performed a meta-analysis of 2 genome-wide association studies of coronary artery disease comprising 1,515 cases and 5,019 controls followed by replication studies in 15,460 cases and 11,472 controls, all of Chinese Han ancestry. We identify four new loci for coronary artery disease that reached the threshold of genome-wide significance (P < 5 × 10(-8)). These loci mapped in or near TTC32-WDR35, GUCY1A3, C6orf10-BTNL2 and ATP2B1. We also replicated four loci previously identified in European populations (in or near PHACTR1, TCF21, CDKN2A-CDKN2B and C12orf51). These findings provide new insights into pathways contributing to the susceptibility for coronary artery disease in the Chinese Han population.