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Environmental sustainability constitutes an important part of the political and educational context in China as it strives to move toward an ecological civilization. However, there is limited literature documenting the ways in which sustainability is embedded in higher education (HE) teaching. This qualitative research involves interviews and focus groups with 30 faculty in Business and Economics disciplines at three high-ranked Chinese Universities and offers an original exploration of how they include environmental sustainability in their teaching, and the opportunities and challenges they encounter. The findings are significant in suggesting that a broad range of sustainability concepts and aligned pedagogies are incorporated but that political and institutional culture, limitations on obtaining research data, constraints on curriculum design, and individual beliefs are significant barriers to implementation. Strategies employed by faculty to embed sustainability are investigated and reviewed in the context of the 'theory of the second best', previously used in UK research.

We report the pulsed-laser deposition of epitaxial double-perovskite Bi2FeCrO6(BFCO) films on the (001)-, (110), and (111)-oriented single-crystal SrTiO3 substrates. All of the BFCO films with various orientations show the 1/2 1/2 1/2 and 3/2 3/2 3/2 superlattice-diffraction peaks. The intensity ratios between the 1/2 1/2 1/2-superlattice and the main 111-diffraction peak can be tailored by simply adjusting the laser repetition rate and substrate temperature, reaching up to 4.4%. However, both optical absorption spectra and magnetic measurements evidence that the strong superlattice peaks are not correlated with the B-site Fe3+/Cr3+ cation ordering. Instead, the epitaxial (111)-oriented Bi2FeCrO6 films show an enhanced remanent polarization of 92 μC/cm2 at 10 K, much larger than the predicted values by density-functional theory calculations. Positive-up-negative-down (PUND) measurements with a time interval of 10 μs further support these observations. Therefore, our experimental results reveal that the strong superlattice peaks may come from A- or B-site cation shifts along the pseudo-cubic [111] direction, which further enhance the ferroelectric polarization of the BFCO thin films.

Shallow meridional overturning circulations are superimposed on the deep circulations that produce precipitation in nearly all monsoon regions, and these shallow circulations transport subtropical, mid-tropospheric dry air into the tropical monsoon precipitation maxima. Here horizontal moisture advection produced by shallow meridional circulations is characterized in the monsoon regions of West Africa, South Asia, Australia, and southern Africa during local summer. Horizontal flow in the upper and lower branches of the shallow meridional circulations consistently dries and moistens air, respectively, in the continental precipitation maxima of each region. The peak drying by horizontal advection occurs at a lower altitude than peak winds in the upper branch of the shallow circulations, consistent with the small scale height of water vapour. Advection of time-mean moisture by time-mean wind dominates horizontal moisture advection in South Asia and West Africa, while most horizontal moisture advection in Australia and southern Africa is produced by transient eddies. Much of the transient eddy advection can be accurately represented as a first-order horizontal diffusion with a constant, globally uniform diffusivity. These results suggest that horizontal moisture advection in theoretical and conceptual models of seasonal mean monsoons can be adequately represented in terms of time-mean winds plus a simple horizontal moisture diffusion. Finally, interannual variations in the summer mean regional averages of monsoon precipitation and horizontal advective drying in the lower free troposphere are shown to be negatively correlated in most regions, consistent with the hypothesis that advective drying by shallow meridional circulations inhibits monsoon precipitation.

Observed nonlinearities in the seasonal evolution of monsoons have been previously explained using theories for Hadley circulations driven by zonally symmetric thermal forcings, even though monsoonal forcings deviate strongly from the assumption of zonal symmetry. Here, an idealized model of a dry, three-dimensional atmosphere is used to compare the response to zonally symmetric and asymmetric off-equatorial thermal forcings. For symmetric forcings, the zonal-mean, cross-equatorial mass flux increases more rapidly with the amplitude of the forcing once the forcing becomes strong enough to reduce the upper-tropospheric absolute vorticity to near zero, consistent with previous studies of the transition to angular momentum-conserving flow. For zonally asymmetric forcings, the zonal-mean cross-equatorial flow exhibits a similar dependence on forcing strength and a similar reduction of the zonal-mean upper-level vorticity, but asymmetric forcings also produce strong zonal overturnings with subsidence west of the heating, as in the well-known linear response to off-equatorial heatings. The mass flux in these zonal overturnings increases linearly with forcing strength until its rate of increase tapers off for the strongest forcings; the total upward mass flux (i.e., the zonal-mean plus zonally asymmetric components) increases linearly with the strength of zonally asymmetric forcings and exhibits no abrupt or nonlinear dependence on forcing amplitude. These results indicate the importance of considering the zonally asymmetric part of the divergent response to off-equatorial forcings and suggest that theories based on zonally symmetric forcings need further examination before they can be assumed to describe observed monsoons.

Decision making ability has been reported to be impaired in schizophrenia patients, but no research has examined the genetic bases of this impairment. This study investigated how decision making was affected by the genetic variants in the serotonin transporter gene (triallelic 5- HTTLPR) and serotonin receptor 1A gene (rs6295) and their interaction in 465 schizophrenia patients and 448 healthy controls. The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) was used to evaluate decision making under ambiguity (the first 40 trials) and decision making under risk (the last 60 trials). Results showed that, among the patients, the main effects of 5- HTTLPR (F(2) (,16) = 6.54, P = 0.002) and HTR1A rs6295 (F(2) (,16) = 3.87, P = 0.021) polymorphisms and their interaction effect (F(4) (,16) = 3.32, P = 0.005) were significant for the first 40 trials, with the GG genotype of HTR1A rs6295, the L'L' genotype of 5- HTTLPR and the GG-L'L' combination showing poorer IGT performance than their counterparts. Results for the healthy controls showed a similar pattern but did not reach statistical significance. No significant effects were found for the last 60 trials. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for our understanding of the genetic mechanisms of decision making in schizophrenia patients as well as healthy adults.

OBJECTIVE: Abnormal DNA methylation plays a critical role in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) pathogenesis and hypomethylating agents (HMAs) such as decitabine (5-aza-29-deoxycytidine) and azacitidine (5-azacytidine) are considered efficacious for treating AML. This study aimed to identify if HMAs have therapeutic advantages compared with conventional care regimens (CCR) or placebo in elderly AML patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We systematically searched PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials from inception to November July 15, 2020. Randomized controlled trials that compared the efficacy and adverse events associated with HMAs, CCR, or placebo were searched. RevMan 5.3 software was used to calculate the hazard ratio (HR) and risk ratio (RR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). RESULTS: Seven trials with a total of 1966 participants were included. Meta-analyses showed that the overall survival of HMAs was better than that of CCR [HR=0.76, 95% CI (0.69-0.85), (p<0.01)], and the complete remission rate of elderly AML patients was increased by HMAs compared with CCR [RR=1.46, 95%CI (1.08-1.99), p=0.01)]. HMA treatment showed higher incidence of neutropenia [RR=1.30 (95%CI 1.07-1.59, p=0.008)], thrombocytopenia [RR=1.14 (95%CI 1.01-1.59, p=0.04)], and pneumonia [RR=1.37 (95%CI 1.06-1.76, p=0.02)] compared with CCR. CONCLUSIONS: Although HMAs cause a higher incidence of adverse events such as neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, and pneumonia, demethylation drugs are well-tolerated and effective for treating AML in the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: Kaempferol has been reported to play an anti-tumor role in various human cancers, while its role in gallbladder cancer (GBC) is unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We found that kaempferol significantly inhibited the growth, invasion and migration, meanwhile induced apoptosis through cells arrested at G0/G1 phase of GBC cell lines, including GBC-SD and SGC996 cells in vitro. RESULTS: Kaempferol promoted the release of cytochrome C from the mitochondria to cytoplasm, the activation of c-caspase-3 and c-caspase-9 and increased the expression levels of pro-apoptotic factor Bax, meanwhile decreased the expression levels of anti-apoptotic factor Bcl-2. In addition, the expression levels of CDK4, CDK6 and cyclin D1, which are members of the CDK4/CDK6/cyclin D1 signaling pathway, were also decreased by kaempferol. Moreover, kaempferol could efficiently prevent tumor progression of GBC in the xenograft in vivo. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrated that kaempferol suppressed GBC progression through activation of the CDK4/CDK6/cyclin D1 signaling pathway, suggesting that it might be a potential anti-tumor agent for clinical treatment of GBC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the world and microRNAs (miRNA) have been found to be involved in the initiation and development of cancer by acting as potential oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this study, we investigated the expression of miR-34b in nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and discussed the molecular mechanism of miR-34b in the invasion and migration of A549 cells in vitro. RESULTS: Our results showed that miR-34b was significantly down-regulated in primary cancer tissues when compared with the normal lung tissues. The over-expression of miR-34b inhibited migration and invasion, and promoted apoptosis of A549 lung cancer cells. Furthermore, Luciferase reporter assay validated YY1-associated factor 2 (YAF2) as a direct target of miR-34b and YAF2 expression was significantly increased in clinical NSCLC tissue samples. In addition, the over-expression of miR-34b inhibited YAF2, p-Jak2, p-STAT3 and MMP2 protein expression and promoted caspase 3 protein expression in cancer cells. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that miR- 34b may inhibit migration and invasion of NSCLC cells by targeting YAF2. Thus, our findings provide new insight into the molecular mechanisms of lung cancer metastasis and miR-34b may serve as a potential target in the treatment of human lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: We conducted this study to analyze the psychological characteristics of obese children. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We selected 60 cases of obese children as obesity group and according to 1:1 matching principle, we selected 60 normal weight children as the control group. We investigated and analyzed children’s family behavior, mental health, temperament, self-consciousness and social adaptability. RESULTS: The proportion of children with adverse behavior in the obesity group was significantly higher than that in the control group (p < 0.05). In the psychological health assessment, we compared the emotional disorder, social adjustment disorder, bad habits and behavior disorder score of both groups, and the differences were statistically significant (p < 0.05). We compared the temperament dimension score of both groups in avoidance, emotional nature, distractibility and threshold of reaction; the differences were statistically significant (p < 0.05). The proportion of negative temperament types in the obesity group were significantly higher than that in the control group (p < 0.05). We compared the self-awareness levels of both groups with regards to body appearance and properties such as gregariousness, happiness, satisfaction and total scores of self-concept aspects; the differences were statistically significant (p < 0.05). The level of social adaptive ability of the obesity group was significantly lower than that of the control group (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Children that demonstrate bad family behavior and that have a temperament which makes them difficult to raise are important factors related to obesity. Obese children often have mental and behavioral disorders, aversion, high emotional nature, low distractibility and threshold of reaction, damaged self-awareness, low self-evaluation, are not gregarious, demonstrate unhappiness and satisfaction and have poor social adaptation ability. Obesity is a cause for social concern. We need to strengthen the mental health education of obesity and promote the healthy development of children both physically and mentally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVES: Increasing evidence shows that microRNA involves in the development of several types of cancers, however, the role of microRNA-132 (miR-132) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) metastasis remains largely unknown. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of miR-132 on the epithelialmesenchymal transition (EMT) and the potential mechanisms in NSCLC. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The Quantitative real-time PCR (QRT-PCR) was used to detect the miR-132 levels in 15 NSCLC tissues and cell lines. Transwell and wound healing assays were used to evaluate the function of miR-132 in NSCLC cell metastasis. EMT-related markers were determined by using qRT-PCR. EMT-related TGFβ1/Smad2 signaling pathway was explored using Western blot. RESULTS: MiR-132 expression level was lower in NSCLC tissues compared with the matched adjacent normal tissues. It was also downregulated in A549 cell lines compared to normal lung epithelial cell BEAS-2B. MiR-132 overexpression obviously inhibited migration and invasion capacities in A549 cells while miR-132 down-regulation would enhance such capacities. Expression of EMT-related markers and TGFβ1/Smad2 was higher in A549 cells transfected with miR- 132 inhibitor compared with those transfected with miR-132 mimic. Moreover, expression of EMT-related markers and Smad2 was increased in NSCLC tissues compared to in the adjacent normal tissues and the reverse expression of miR-132 and Smad2 was observed. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that miR-132 may play a suppressive role in the metastasis of NSCLC cells by promoting EMT via TGFβ1/Smad2 signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]