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Background: In observational and experimental studies, allergic diseases have been reported to be associated with some types of cardiovascular diseases. They share a typical pathophysiological process, including inflammatory and metabolism disorders. However, the direction of the causal association between them remains unclear. This Mendelian randomization (MR) study aims to examine the bidirectional causality between allergic diseases and cardiovascular diseases. Methods:We used publicly available GWAS summary statistics data only, including European participants from UK Biobank or on the IEU Open GWAS database. We identified genetic variants associated with allergic diseases, asthma, or cardiovascular diseases as instrumental variables to investigate the genetically causal association between allergic diseases and asthma and the risk of 12 kinds of cardiovascular diseases. MR was performed using analytical methods including the inverse variance weighted (IVW), MR-Egger and, weighted median. Sensitivity tests were also performed in the MR to assess the validity of the casualty. Results: Genetically predicted allergic diseases was associated with essential hypertension [odds ratio (OR)=0.9987, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.9976-0.9998, P=0.024], and asthma was associated with atherosclerosis (OR=1.0006, 95% CI: 1.0001-1.0012, P=0.02) in the MR analysis with the IVW method. In the reverse MR analyses, we found that essential hypertension was associated with allergic diseases (OR=8.16E-03, 95% CI: 7.55E-05 - 8,82E-01, P=0.044) and asthma (OR=8.16E-03, 95% CI: 7.55E-05 - 8,82E-01, P=0.044), and stroke was associated with allergic diseases (OR=3.59E-02, 95% CI: 1.34E-03 - 9.62E-01, P=0.047). However, no causal effect has been detected bidirectionally after the Bonferroni correction. Conclusion: The MR study found that patients with AD or asthma might have a decreased risk of essential hypertension and an increased risk of atherosclerosis in European individuals. In reverse analysis, essential hypertension, AD, and asthma are negatively correlated, and stroke may decrease the risk of AD. However, after a Bonferroni correction, our evidence did not suggest a significant causal between them, which means that the evidence is weak. Whether AD exerts effects on CVD needs further investigation.

Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) has received great attention due to its extremely high incidence. Our team screened LAPTM5 associated with NASH progression through extensive bioinformatics analysis. We found protein LAPTM5 markedly decreased in response to lipotoxicity both in liver tissues from human and mouse NASH groups, and protein level of LAPTM5 was negatively correlated with NAS score. Then, we found LAPTM5 degradation was mediated through its ubiquitination modification by the E3 ubquitin ligase NEDD4L. Hepatocyte specific depleting LAPTM5 exacerbated hepatic steatosis, inflammation and fibrosis in mouse NASH models. In contrast, LAPTM5 overexpression in hepatocyte exerted opposite effects. Mechanistically, LAPTM5 interacted with CDC42 and promoted its degradation through a lysosomal dependent manner, thus inhibited activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway. Finally, adenovirus-mediated hepatic LAPTM5 overexpression ameliorated above symptoms in NASH models. These findings proved LAPTM5 as effective treatment in NASH and a potential biological marker for detecting NASH progression.

Drought is a multifaceted natural disaster that can impact the ecological environment, crop yield, and social economy through the hydrological cycle process. Meteorological drought occurs first, which then propagates to other forms. This study presents the propagation characteristics of meteorological to hydrological drought in different river basins of China. The main drivers of drought propagation are also quantitatively analyzed in this study. The standardized precipitation index (SPI) and standardized runoff index (SRI) were used to describe meteorological and hydrological drought, respectively. The Songhua and Liaohe River Basin (SLRB), Haihe River Basin (HARB), Huaihe River Basin (HURB), Yellow River Basin (YRB), Yangtze River Basin (YARB), Pearl River Basin (PRB), Southeast Basin (SEB), Southwest Basin (SWB), and Continental Basin (CB) were analyzed in this study. The precipitation and runoff datasets were used to compute the SPI and SRI, respectively. The results showed that the drought propagation time was mainly 1–3 months in China. In general, drought propagation had a stronger relationship in the central and eastern river basins of China than in the western river basins (SWB and CB). Spring and winter had a weaker drought propagation relationship than autumn and winter. Drought propagation was driven by precipitation in the HURB, YARB, SEB, and PRB; soil moisture and precipitation were drivers in the HARB and YRB; moreover, soil moisture and potential evapotranspiration were drivers in the SLRB and CB. This study improves the understanding of the characteristics and drivers of drought propagation in droughts in river basins. Therefore, this study might provide a reference to reveal the mechanism of drought.

As an important part of the large-scale ecological restoration project of “Grain for Green”, the planting area of jujube (Ziziphus jujuba) trees has increased significantly in the hilly region on the Loess Plateau of China, which aims to improve water and soil conservation and develop economic prospects of the region. Understanding the long-term effects of expanding orchards and the responses of soil water dynamics to drought are important for orchard management. Therefore, we use a space-for-time substitution to investigate the variations of plant-available water storage in returning cropland to orchards with different stand ages (2, 6, 10, and 15 years) in a normal year (NY2014, 442.1 mm rainfall) and the next year with low annual precipitation (DY2015, 388 mm rainfall). The results showed that the plant-available water storage in jujube orchards decreased with increasing stand age, and the trend was most obvious in the 60–180 cm layer. The mature stands (10 and 15 years) primarily absorbed soil water from the deep layer (180–300 cm) in DY2015, leading to negative values of plant-available water storage. The whole soil profiles were all subjected to severe water deficits in our study. The findings will help guide rain-fed orchard management in the loess hilly region of China and similar dryland regions.

Background: MIR155HG is a long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) that has been shown to be dysregulated in a range of tumor types, but the functions of this lncRNA in melanoma remain to be explored. Objectives: We explored the functions of lncRNA MIR155HG in melanoma progression. Methods: The expression of miR155HG was analyzed in clinical melanoma. Bioinformatics analysis was performed to assess the potential tumor-related functions of miR155HG. The interaction of miR155HG and SP1 and the inhibition of PSIP1 by miR-485-3p were analyzed by ChIP, luciferase reporter experiments, and the biological effects in melanoma were explored by colony formation assays, EdU cell proliferation assays, Transwell analysis, and intracranial melanoma mouse model. Results: Herein, we found that MIR155HG was markedly upregulated in melanoma cell lines and tissues. We further determined that the SP1 transcription factor was responsible for driving MIR155HG upregulation in melanoma. Elevated MIR155HG levels were linked to decreased overall survival (OS) in melanoma patients, and we further determined that MIR155HG expression was an independent predictor of melanoma patient prognosis. When MIR155HG was knocked down in melanoma cells, this impaired their proliferative, migratory, and invasive activity. By using predictive bioinformatics analyses, we identified miR-485-3p as a microRNA (miRNA) capable of binding to both MIR155HG and the 3’ UTR of PSIP1. Conclusion: Together, these results suggest that MIR155HG is capable of promoting melanoma cell proliferation via the miR-485-3p/PSIP1 axis. These novel findings provide new insights into the development of melanoma, potentially highlighting future avenues for therapeutic intervention.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a main cause of cancer‐related deaths globally. Long non‐coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in diverse cancers. Our previous microarray‐based lncRNA profiling showed that LINC00467 was highly expressed in HCC. Here, we further explored the expression, role and functional mechanism of lncRNA LINC00467 in HCC. Our findings revealed that LINC00467 was up‐regulated in HCC tissues and HCC cell lines. Increased expression of LINC00467 was positively associated with tumour size and vascular invasion. In vitro functional experiments revealed that LINC00467 accelerated HCC cell proliferation, cell cycle progression and migration and reduced HCC cell apoptosis. In vivo functional assays revealed that LINC00467 drove HCC xenograft growth and HCC cell proliferation and repressed HCC cell apoptosis in vivo. Moreover, LINC00467 inhibited NR4A3 post‐transcriptionally via interacting with NR4A3 mRNA to form double‐stranded RNA, which was further degraded by Dicer. The expression of NR4A3 was inversely associated with LINC00467 in HCC tissues. Functional rescue assays found that restore of NR4A3 expression blocked the oncogenic roles of LINC00467 in HCC. Taken together, our results demonstrated that lncRNA LINC00467 was a novel highly expressed and oncogenic lncRNA in HCC via inhibiting NR4A3. Targeting LINC00467 or enhancing NR4A3 may be potential therapeutic strategies against HCC.

Xiang-lian pill, consisting of Coptis chinensis Franch. coprocessed with Tetradium ruticarpum (A.Juss.) T.G.Hartley (Yu-huang-lian) and Aucklandia lappa DC. (Mu-xiang), is traditionally used to relieve fever, abdominal pain, and gastrointestinal inflammatory symptoms observed in patients with malignancies of the gastrointestinal tract. Each of the three herbs contained in Xiang-lian pill has been indicated to have anticancer effects on a variety of cancers, but its effects on pancreatic cancer remain unexplored. The main extracts of these herbs have anti-pancreatic cancer effects, but the comprehensive mechanism of this compound prescription of Xiang-lian pill in pancreatic cancer remains to be revealed.To explore the main active ingredients, potential anti-pancreatic cancer targets, and related mechanisms of the Xiang-lian pill and to determine its therapeutic value in vivo.Network pharmacology and bioinformatics analysis were applied to screen the potential effective ingredients and key targets. Liquid/gas-mass spectrometry was performed for ingredients validation. Molecular docking and the cellular thermal shift assay were performed to test the binding efficiency between ingredients and targets. A murine pancreatic cancer model was established and administered different doses of the Xiang-lian pill. Hematoxylin-eosin staining was used for histopathological observation. Immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting were conducted for target validation. In vitro studies (cell viability and clonogenicity assays) were conducted to investigate the impact of three main ingredients in Xiang-lian pill on pancreatic cancer cells. PTGS2 overexpression was performed to reversely confirm the antitumor mechanisms of rutaecarpine as a specific PTGS2 inhibitor.Xiang-lian pill suppressed pancreatic cancer growth in the dose range of 0.78-2.34g/kg with no significant toxicity. Sixteen potentially active ingredients and 26 corresponding therapeutic targets for pancreatic cancer were identified. PTGS2, PTGS1, KCNH2, PRSS1, and HSP90AA1 were the top 5 significant genes targeted by the Xiang-lian pill. Evodiamine, rutaecarpine and stigmasterol bound to PTGS2 and PTGS1 with different affinities and inhibited pancreatic cancer cell proliferation. The PTGS2-associated metabolic pathway MEK/ERK was downregulated by rutaecarpine in vitro and the Xiang-lian pill in vivo.Xiang-lian pill mainly regulates inflammation, apoptosis, metastasis, and metabolism to exert an antitumor effect. The main active ingredients in Xiang-lian pill exhibit antitumor roles through directly binding to key targets in pancreatic cancer. PTGS2 mediated MEK/ERK inhibition by rutaecarpine represents a key therapeutic mechanism of Xiang-lian pill.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is an ubiquitous disease that exists across a wide spectrum ranging from steatosis, steatohepatitis, advanced fibrosis, and liver cirrhosis. Hallmarks of NAFLD are lipid accumulation, insulin resistance, and chronic low-grade inflammation. However, there currently are no medications approved for NAFLD. B-cell lymphoma 6 (BCL6) is a transcriptional inhibitor that is vital for germinal center B-cell formation. Our study identified BCL6 as a critical modulator of hepatic lipid metabolism and appears to contribute to the initiation and progression of NAFLD. In our research, we induced hepatic BCL6 overexpression using adeno-associated virus (AAV), as well as conditional liver-specific BCL6 knockout mice (BCL6-CKO). With these models, we noted that BCL6 overexpression improved insulin resistance and hepatic steatosis in mice models maintained on a HFD diet. Conversely, these parameters worsened in the livers of mice with downregulated BCL6 levels. Mechanistically, the translocase fatty acid CD36 was determined to be a transcriptional target of BCL6 that influences its role in hepatic steatosis. BCL6 bound directly to the CD36 promoter region, restraining CD36 transcription under physiological conditions. We conclude that the hepatocyte BCL6 inhibits the NAFLD progression in mice, including deranged lipid accumulation and glucose metabolism, through a CD36-dependent manner. These results indicate that BCL6 may potentially be targeted in NAFLD treatment.

Oakleaf butterflies in the genus Kallima have a polymorphic wing phenotype, enabling these insects to masquerade as dead leaves. This iconic example of protective resemblance provides an interesting evolutionary paradigm that can be employed to study biodiversity. We integrated multi-omic data analyses and functional validation to infer the evolutionary history of Kallima species and investigate the genetic basis of their variable leaf wing patterns. We find that Kallima butterflies diversified in the eastern Himalayas and dispersed to East and Southeast Asia. Moreover, we find that leaf wing polymorphism is controlled by the wing patterning gene cortex, which has been maintained in Kallima by long-term balancing selection. Our results provide macroevolutionary and microevolutionary insights into a model species originating from a mountain ecosystem.

Leaf mimicry is a fascinating phenomenon in nature. Among the widespread leaf mimics, Kallima butterflies display cryptic dead leaf-like wing patterns and have served as a classic case of protective resemblance supporting the theory of natural selection. Here, we integrated multi-omics data analyses and functional validation to uncover the evolutionary history of Kallima butterflies and investigated the genetic basis of their leaf mimicry. We found evidence for the differentiation and radiation of Kallima butterflies from Eastern Himalaya to East Asia and Southeast Asia. Moreover, we show that the leaf wing polymorphism is controlled by the wing patterning gene, cortex, which has been maintained in the Kallima genus due to balancing selection. Further, we demonstrate the involvement of another wing toolkit gene, WntA, in main leaf vein patterning resulting from a shared ancestral character. Our results reveal that the Kallima leaf wing formation is a typical case of Darwinian gradualism.

BackgroundThe scoring system for human blastocysts is traditionally based on morphology; however, there are controversies on the effect of morphology parameters on pregnancy outcomes. The aim of this study is to evaluate the predicting value of each morphology parameter on pregnancy outcomes in a setting of single embryo transfer.MethodsThis is a retrospective cohort study on patients undergoing frozen-thawed single blastocyst transfer at our center, between Jan. 2009 and Dec. 2018. A total of 10,482 cycles were analyzed. The blastocysts were scored according to the expansion and hatching status, morphology of inner cell mass (ICM), and cells of trophectoderm (TE). The primary outcome measure was live birth rate. One-way analysis of variance, chi-square test, and multiple logistic regression were used for statistical analysis.ResultsThe clinical pregnancy rate was lower in the blastocysts of stage 3 (48.15%), compared with those of stage 4 (56.15%), stage 5 (54.91%), and stage 6 (53.37%). The live birth rate was lower in the blastocysts of stage 3 (37.07%), compared with those of stage 4 (44.21%) and stage 5 (41.67%). The rates of clinical pregnancy (A: 66.60%, B: 53.25%, C: 39.33%) and live birth (A: 54.62%, B: 41.29%, C: 28.45%) were both decreased with decreasing grade of ICM morphology, and these differences were pairwise significant. The miscarriage rate of blastocysts with ICM grade A was lower, compared with ICM grade C (17.53 vs. 27.66%). Blastocysts with TE morphology of C had lower rates of clinical pregnancy (43.53%) and live birth (32.57%), compared with those with TE morphology of A and B (clinical pregnancy rate: 64.26% for A, 58.11% for B; live birth rate: 52.74% for A, 45.64% for B). There were no significant differences in rates of clinical pregnancy, live birth, and miscarriage between the blastocysts with TE grade A and B.ConclusionsThe blastocyst expansion stage, ICM grade, and TE grade are all associated with pregnancy outcomes. ICM grade is the strongest predictor of live birth. A blastocyst with stage 4–5, ICM grade A, and TE grade A/B should be given priority for single embryo transfer.

Purpose The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the effect of growth hormone (GH) supplementation in poor responders undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Methods PubMed, MEDLINE and Cochrane Library databases were searched for the identification of relevant randomized controlled trials. Outcome measures were live birth rate, clinical pregnancy rate, miscarriage rate, cycle cancelation rate, number of retrieved oocytes and total dose of gonadotropin. Results Fifteen randomized controlled trails (RCTs) involving 1448 patients were eligible for the analysis. GH supplementation improved live birth rate (RR, 1.74; 95% CI, 1.19–2.54), clinical pregnancy rate (RR, 1.65; 95% CI, 1.31–2.08) and retrieved oocytes number (SMD, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.28–1.16), while reducing cancelled cycles rate (RR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.44–0.85) and dose of Gonadotropin (SMD,-1.05 95% CI, − 1.62 - -0.49) for poor ovarian response patients. Besides, there was no significant difference in the miscarriage rate between GH group and control group. Conclusions Based on the limited available evidence, growth hormone supplementation seems to improve IVF/ICSI outcomes for poor ovarian responders. Further randomized controlled trials with large sample sizes are required to clarify the effect of GH adjuvant therapy in the treatment of women with poor ovarian response.

MIR155HG is a long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) that has been shown to be dysregulated in a range of tumor types, but the functions of this lncRNA in melanoma remain to be explored.We explored the functions of lncRNA MIR155HG in melanoma progression.The expression of miR155HG was analyzed in clinical melanoma. Bioinformatics analysis was performed to assess the potential tumor-related functions of miR155HG. The interaction of miR155HG and SP1 and the inhibition of PSIP1 by miR-485-3p were analyzed by ChIP, luciferase reporter experiments, and the biological effects in melanoma were explored by colony formation assays, EdU cell proliferation assays, Transwell analysis, and intracranial melanoma mouse model.Herein, we found that MIR155HG was markedly upregulated in melanoma cell lines and tissues. We further determined that the SP1 transcription factor was responsible for driving MIR155HG upregulation in melanoma. Elevated MIR155HG levels were linked to decreased overall survival (OS) in melanoma patients, and we further determined that MIR155HG expression was an independent predictor of melanoma patient prognosis. When MIR155HG was knocked down in melanoma cells, this impaired their proliferative, migratory, and invasive activity. By using predictive bioinformatics analyses, we identified miR-485-3p as a microRNA (miRNA) capable of binding to both MIR155HG and the 3' UTR of PSIP1.Together, these results suggest that MIR155HG is capable of promoting melanoma cell proliferation via the miR-485-3p/PSIP1 axis. These novel findings provide new insights into the development of melanoma, potentially highlighting future avenues for therapeutic intervention.

Based on the future development trend of the Internet of Things, this article proposes a business model for the electrical household appliance enterprises to deploy IoT+AI and IoT+5G. The business model proposes that electrical household appliance enterprises should cooperate with high-tech companies that research AI and 5G, add online live on their official online website and use AI+ IoT and 5G + IoT technologies to improve online platforms, improve total quality management and warranty of smart home appliances in AI+IoT system and create new brands and products to expand the market of smart home appliances based on customers' feedback. This paper aims at providing new ideas of reform and innovation for electrical household appliances enterprises to seize the opportunity of Internet of Things in E-commerce era.

Demand-side resources play a significant role in enhancing energy efficiency and decarbonization. Performing demand curtailment will psychologically disturb end-customers' comfort and affect decision-making. The penetration of battery energy storage systems (BESSs) in electricity grids introduces another response resource to the grid operator (GO). Therefore, it's important to investigate the effect of different customer psychological factors (CPFs) on incentive-based demand response (IBDR) strategy in the system with diversified response resources including BESSs. Behavioral economics (BE) interprets individual behavior from psychology and provides insights to behavior modeling. Therefore, this paper applied BE to incorporate CPFs, such as the endowment effect and time-discounting effect. Furthermore, to bring the value of CPFs to the system level, an IBDR model considering CPFs and BESSs (CE-IBDR) is proposed by following the Stackelberg game theory. Upon the participation of load aggregators (LAs) and BESSs operator (EO) in IBDR, the model extends two-party hierarchical levels to four-party spinning from the GO, EOs, LAs and end-customers by extending the two-party Stackelberg game to a two-loop Stackelberg game. Results show that without incorporating CPFs into the model will result deviation in interpreting customer behavior. BESSs is preferred reponse resource than load reduction due to the pressure to incentive end-customers with high endowment valuation.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an invasive malignant tumour and the second major cause of cancer‐related deaths over the world. CRNDE and miR‐217 are non‐coding RNAs which play critical roles in cell growth, proliferation, migration. Mitogen‐activated protein kinase 1 (MAPK1) also participates in cancer cell process. Hence, this study aimed at investigating the effect of CRNDE on migration and invasion of HCC and figuring out the role of miR‐217 and MAPK1 in this process. The overexpression of CRNDE was demonstrated by a microarray‐based lncRNA profiling study. CRNDE expression in HCC was verified by qRT‐PCR. MTT assay and BrdU staining were applied to detect cell proliferation level. Transwell assay was utilized to examine cell migration and invasiveness abilities. Wound healing assay was performed for further exploration of cell migration capacity. MiR‐217 was predicted by bioinformatics. The dual luciferase reporter assay was performed to corroborate the targeting relationship between CRNDE, miR‐217 and MAPK1. MAPK1, the downstream target of miR‐217, was predicted using bioinformatics and was further confirmed by qRT‐PCR and Western blot. The interaction between CRNDE, miR‐217 and MAPK1 was studied by qRT‐PCR, Western blot, MTT, BrdU, transwell assay and wound healing assay. CRNDE was up‐regulated in HCC tissues and HCC cell lines. The high expression of CRNDE facilitated cell proliferation, migration and invasion, while the inhibited one affected on the contrary. MiR‐217, negatively correlated with CRNDE expression, was the target of CRNDE and was more lowly expressed in HCC. With the high expression of miR‐217, HCC cell proliferation, migration and invasion were suppressed. MAPK1, the possible target of miR‐217, was negatively correlated with miR‐217 but positively correlated with CRNDE and had the same effect in HCC formation process as CRNDE. Long non‐coding RNA CRNDE promotes the proliferation, migration and invasion of HCC cells through miR‐217/MAPK1 axis.

Psoriasis is a chronic, relapsing inflammatory skin disease. The pathogenesis of psoriasis is complex and has not been fully understood. C10orf99 was a recently identified human antimicrobial peptide whose mRNA expression is elevated in psoriatic human skin samples. In this study, we investigated the functional roles of C10orf99 in epidermal proliferation under inflammatory condition. We showed that C10orf99 protein was significantly up-regulated in psoriatic skin samples from patients and the ortholog gene expression levels were up-regulated in imiquimod (IMQ)-induced psoriasis-like skin lesions in mice. Using M5-stimulated HaCaT cell line model of inflammation and a combinational approach of knockdown and overexpression of C10orf99, we demonstrated that C10orf99 could promote keratinocyte proliferation by facilitating the G1/S transition, and the pro-proliferation effect of C10orf99 was associated with the activation of the ERK1/2 and NF-κB but not the AKT pathways. Local depletion of C10orf99 by lentiviral vectors expressing C10orf99 shRNA effectively ameliorated IMQ-induced dermatitis. Taken together, these results indicate that C10orf99 plays a contributive role in psoriasis pathogenesis and may serve as a new target for psoriasis treatment.

Integrated energy systems (IESs) as the widely concerned multi-energy systems have significant contributions to enhancing energy utilization efficiency and renewable energy (RE) consumption. With the increasing proportion of RE, integrated energy aggregators (IEAs), who coordinate IESs with multiple generators, will have more important roles in the future smart grid. This paper presents a Bayesian evolutionary game (BEG) method to study the optimal supply strategy for generating units of different energy types to maximize their own profits in an unregulated power market. The competition among IEAs lowers their willingness to share their information and restricts the profit themselves. Given this information asymmetry, the interaction of three types of generators in IESs is captured by the Bayesian game to transform the incomplete game into a complete game with imperfect information. Given the dynamic of the spot market, this paper combines the Evolutionary game theory with Bayesian theory to study the symbiotic evolution among them. Simulations are introduced to examine the asymptotic stability of various evolutionary stabilization strategies. The results verify the effectiveness of the proposed model. Finally, the implications of different renewable energy penetration, market-clearing rules, market share, and the market supply-demand ratio on IEAs’ offering behavior are explored by applying the experimental economics principle.

// Ruxing Wu 1, * , Tao Liu 2, * , Peiwen Yang 1 , Xiyou Liu 3 , Fei Liu 3 , Ya Wang 1 , Huihua Xiong 3 , Shiying Yu 3 , Xiaoyuan Huang 1 , Liang Zhuang 3 1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China 2 Department of Pediatrics, Aflac Cancer Center and Blood Disorders Service, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA 3 Cancer Center, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Liang Zhuang, email: mrzhuangliang@126.com Keywords: HPGD, breast cancer, obese, prognosis Received: August 02, 2016 Accepted: January 27, 2017 Published: February 11, 2017 ABSTRACT In order to explore the new mechanism that obesity worsens the prognosis of breast cancer, we reanalyzed the data about gene expression of normal, overweight, and obese breast cancer patients to explore potential genes and validate its function by clinical and experimental data. The fold change of 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenate (HPGD) gene which displayed declining trend with BMI increase was 0.46 in obese versus normal weight patients. HPGD protein was highest expressed in normal weight group and lowest expressed in obese group. The rate of positive lymph nodes was 67% in low expression of HPGD group and 35% in high expression of HPGD group. The recurrence-free survival (RFS) rate and overall survival (OS) rate of 5 years had significant difference between low expression of HPGD group and high expression of HPGD group. Obesity dramatically decreased the RFS rate and OS rate of 5 years. Down regulation of HPGD expression could increase the migration and proliferation ability of breast cancer cell line MCF-7. Taken together, our results indicate that low expression of HPGD may be a reason for poor prognosis of obese breast cancer patients.

Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) is a highly aggressive T-cell malignancy. This study was designed to explore the expression and functional significance of microRNA (miR)-212 in ATL. The expression of miR-212 in human ATL tissues and cell lines were investigated. Gain-of-function experiments were carried out to determine the roles of miR-212 in cell proliferation, tumorigenesis, cell cycle progression, and apoptosis. We also identified and functionally characterized the target genes of miR-212 in ATL cells. Compared with normal lymph node biopsies, lymphoma samples from ATL patients displayed underexpression of miR-212 (p=0.0032). Consistently, miR-212 was downregulated in human ATL cell lines, compared with normal T lymphocytes. Restoration of miR-212 significantly (p

Today, wind power is becoming an important energy source for the future development of electric energy due to its clean and environmentally friendly characteristics. However, due to the uncertainty of incoming wind, the utilization efficiency of wind energy is extremely low, which means the problem of wind curtailment becomes more and more serious. To solve the issue of wind power large-scale consumption, a two-stage stochastic optimization model is established in this paper. Different from other research frameworks, a novel two-side reserve capacity mechanism, which simultaneously takes into account supply side and demand side, is designed to ensure the stable consumption of wind power in the real-time market stage. Specifically, the reserve capacity of thermal power units is considered on the supply side, and the demand response is introduced as the reserve capacity on the demand side. At the same time, the compensation mechanism of reserve capacity is introduced to encourage generation companies (GENCOs) to actively participate in the power balance process of the real-time market. In terms of solution method, compared with the traditional k-means clustering method, this paper uses the K-means classification based on numerical weather prediction (K-means-NWP) scenario clustering method to better describe the fluctuation of wind power output. Finally, an example simulation is conducted to analyze the influence of reserve capacity compensation mechanism and system parameters on wind power consumption results. The results demonstrate that with the introduction of reserve capacity compensation mechanism, the wind curtailment quantity of the power system has a significant reduction. Besides, the income of GENCOs is gradually increasing, which motivates their enthusiasm to provide reserve capacity. Furthermore, the reserve capacity mechanism designed in this paper promotes the consumption of wind power and the sustainable development of renewable energy.

Accurate calibration of amplitude and phase inconsistency is a necessary condition for radar system to track the measurement target accurately. In radar system, the amplitude-phase inconsistency of receiver's sum and difference channels will lead to the decrease of sensitivity of angle measurement, the decrease of angle measurement accuracy which will eventually lead to the instability of target tracking or even the failure to track the target. The traditional calibration methods of radar system mainly include tower calibration and standard balloon calibration, in which tower calibration is difficult to meet the far-field conditions, and both of them are susceptible to external environment.For the beam waveguide(BWG) antenna system, the Coordinates Conversion between the angular error coordinates of feed and the angular error coordinates of antenna should be considered in the process of moving targets tracking.Satellite calibration meets the requirements of far-field conditions and all-day, all-weather work. In this paper, a calibration method based on satellite calibration for amplitude-phase inconsistency of beam waveguide antenna pulse measurement radar is proposed. The method uses joint estimation of elevation and cross-elevation channels, which has high calibration accuracy, strong applicability and is easy to implement in engineering. The simulation and outfield test results verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Renewable energy resources (RESs) play an important role in the upgrading and transformation of the global energy structure. However, the question of how to improve the utilization efficiency of RESs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions is still a challenge. Combined heating and power (CHP) is one effective solution and has experienced rapid development. Nevertheless, with the large scale of RESs penetrating into the power system, CHP microgrid economic operation faces great challenges. This paper proposes a CHP microgrid system that contains renewable energy with considering economy, the environment, and system flexibility, and the ultimate goal is to minimize system operation cost and carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) cost. Due to the volatility of renewable energy output, the fuzzy C-means (FCM) and clustering comprehensive quality (CCQ) models were first introduced to generate clustering scenarios of the renewable energy output and evaluate the clustering results. In addition, for the sake of improving the flexibility and reliability of the CHP microgrid, this paper considers the battery and integrated energy demand response (IEDR). Moreover, the strategy choices of microgrid operators under the condition of grid-connected and islanded based on environment and interest aspects are also developed, which have rarely been involved in previous studies. Finally, this stochastic optimization problem is transformed into a mixed integer linear programming (MILP), which simplifies the calculation process, and the results show that the operation mode under different conditions will have a great impact on microgrid economic and environmental benefits.

With renewable energy sources (RESs) highly penetrating into the power system, new problems emerge for the independent system operator (ISO) to maintain and keep the power system safe and reliable in the day-ahead dispatching process under the fluctuation caused by renewable energy. In this paper, considering the small hydropower with no reservoir, different from the other hydro optimization research and wind power uncertain circumstances, a day-ahead scheduling model is proposed for a distributed power grid system which contains several distributed generators, such as small hydropower and wind power, and energy storage systems. To solve this model, a two-stage stochastic robust optimization approach is presented to smooth out hydro power and wind power output fluctuation with the aim of minimizing the total expected system operation cost under multiple cluster water inflow scenarios, and the worst case of wind power output uncertainty. More specifically, before dispatching and clearing, it is necessary to cluster the historical inflow scenarios of small hydropower into several typical scenarios via the Fuzzy C-means (FCM) clustering method, and then the clustering comprehensive quality (CCQ) method is also presented to evaluate whether these scenarios are representative, which has previously been ignored by cluster research. It can be found through numerical examples that FCM-CCQ can explain the classification more reasonably than the common clustering method. Then we optimize the two stage scheduling, which contain the pre-clearing stage and the rescheduling stage under each typical inflow scenario after clustering, and then calculate the final operating cost under the worst wind power output scenario. To conduct the proposed model, the day-ahead scheduling procedure on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 30-bus test system is simulated with real hydropower and wind power data. Compared with traditional deterministic optimization, the results of two-stage stochastic robust optimization structured in this paper, increases the total cost of the system, but enhances the conservative scheduling strategy, improves the stability and reliability of the power system, and reduces the risk of decision-making simultaneously.