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Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a disease with high morbidity and mortality rates globally. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play a fundamental role in tumor progression, and increasing attention has been paid to their role in CRC. This study aimed to determine the function of lncRNA DICER1 antisense RNA 1 (DICER1‐AS1) in CRC and confirm its potential regulatory mechanisms in CRC. Methods: The publicly available dataset was used to assess DICER1‐AS1 function and expression in CRC. RT–qPCR or western blot assays were performed to verify DICER1‐AS1, miR‐650, and mitogen‐activated protein kinase 1 (MAPK1) expression in CRC cells or tissues. To determine the function of DICER1‐AS1, we performed CCK‐8, colony formation, transwell, cell cycle, and in vivo animal assays. Using RNA sequence analysis, luciferase reporter assays, and bioinformatics analysis, the connection between DICER1‐AS1, MAPK1, and miR‐650 was investigated. Results: DICER1‐AS1 was significantly upregulated in CRC tissue compared to normal colon tissue. High DICER1‐AS1 expression suggested a poor prognosis in CRC patients. Functionally, upregulation of DICER1‐AS1 effectively promoted CRC proliferation, migration, and invasion ex vivo and tumor progression in vivo. Mechanistically, DICER1‐AS1 functions as a competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) that sponges miR‐650 to upregulate MAPK1, promotes ERK1/2 phosphorylation, and sequentially activates the MAPK/ERK signaling pathway. Conclusion: Our investigations found that upregulation of DICER1‐AS1 activates the MAPK/ERK signaling pathway by sponging miR‐650 to promote CRC progression, revealing a possible clinically significant biomarker and therapeutic target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence mechanism of colorants, admixtures and mix parameters on the surface color and workability of concrete were studied. In addition, the distribution of colorants in hydration products and the effects on the formation of hydration products were studied by means of microscopic measurement. The results show that iron oxide pigments have little effect on slurry fluidity, but high content of iron oxide pigments causes complex problems such as white surface of concrete and deterioration of mechanical durability. Carbon black pigments have higher coloring ability than iron black pigments, but it significantly deteriorates the fluidity of fresh concrete paste. Carbon black pigment particles mainly adhere to hydrated calcium hydroxide and matrix pore through adhesion, which is conducive to the nucleation and crystallization of hydrated products: iron black pigment particles consolidate in concrete structure through mechanical and electrostatic action, but it inhibits the formation of calcium hydroxide to a certain extent: Considering the slurry fluidity and color, the concrete can meet the requirements of fluidity, color and excellent performance by choosing the complex colorant scheme of carbon black and iron black pigments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ruminal microbiota of 15 dairy buffalo was characterized using high‐throughput 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Results showed that Bacteroidetes was the dominant bacterial phylum in all rumen samples, followed by Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Tenericutes and Verrucomicrobia. Butyrivibrio was positively correlated with average milk fat yield (R = 0.55; p = 0.03), average milk total solid yield (R = 0.56; p = 0.03) and standard milk yield (R = 0.52; p = 0.05). Acinetobacter were positively correlated with average milk protein yield (R = 0.56; p = 0.03), average milk total solid yield (R = 0.60; p = 0.02) and standard milk yield (R = 0.57; p = 0.03). Acetobacter was positively correlated with acetate (R = 0.63; p = 0.01), propionate content (R = 0.55; p = 0.03), butyrate content (R = 0.61; p = 0.02) and total VFA (R = 0.62; p = 0.01). The phyla Proteobacteria (R = 0.53; p = 0.04) and genus Prevotella (R = 0.52; p = 0.05) were positively correlated with butyrate content. Correlation analysis suggested that increased Butyrivibrio and Acinetobacter residing in the buffalo rumen could improve milk performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compared the milk protein, fat, lactose, total solids and amino acids (AA) profiles of Murrah buffalo, Nili-Ravi buffalo and crossbreed buffalo. Buffalo milk samples of Murrah (n = 25), Nili-Ravi (n = 20) and Triple-crossbred (n = 23) were collected and milk protein, fat, lactose, total solids and 17 AA profiles were determined. Milk protein and total solids contents of Murrah buffalo were higher than those of Nili-Ravi buffalo (p < .05). The average milk protein, fat, lactose and total solids contents of all buffalo samples were 4.76, 7.31, 5.19 and 18.40 g/100 g of milk, respectively. The AA composition of all three kinds of milk samples was rich in glutamic acid (0.89-0.96 g/100 g of milk) and poor in cysteine (0.01-0.02 g/100 g of milk). Leucine, lysine, valine and isoleucine were the most prevalent essential amino acids; while glutamic acid, proline, aspartic acid and serine were the most prevalent non-essential amino acids in the three kinds of milk samples. Significant differences (p < .05) were observed for concentrations of Lys, Ile, Leu, Phe, Cys and His, while the other 11 amino acids had no significant differences (p > .05). Conclusively, the milk of Murrah buffalo, Nili-Ravi buffalo and crossbreed buffalo was all rich in glutamic acid while poor in cysteine contents. After crossbreeding, the milk production of Triple-crossbred buffalo was higher than the local Chinese buffalo and its milk composition was in between those of Murrah and Nili-Ravi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Understanding the doping behavior of impurity ions in clinker phases is crucial for controlling the doping effect on clinker compounds, which, however, has not yet been fully demonstrated due to the composition complexity. Herein, we employ the state‐of‐the‐art ab initio calculation to uncover the substitution mechanism of Cu ions in 4 dominant clinker crystals. The defect formation energies indicate Cu ions energetically prefer to substitute Fe ions in ferrite, which is in accord with the experiments. The bond order difference is innovatively postulated to interpret the energy barriers of Cu substitution in comparison with the ionic radius criterion. The high potential barriers of Cu substituting Ca, Si, and Al ions are ascribed to their bond order mismatch, while the tendency of Cu replacing Fe is due to their bond order similarity. Namely, the Cu doping in clinker phases follows the “bond order conformity” principle. In‐depth electronic structure analysis reveals that the bond order is more effective than the ionic radius to estimate potential barriers of Cu substitution in complex clinker system mainly because the latter underestimates the influence of electronic structure differences while the bond order directly measures the bonding structure related to interatomic charge transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The objectives of the present study were to evaluate fasting metabolism (FM) of water buffalo ( Bubalus, Bubalis) at three stages of growth (12, 18 and 24 months) in Guangxi, China. Five female water buffalo were used for each age group and their live weight was on average 254, 326 and 338 kg, respectively. All animals were of average body condition, healthy and de-wormed before start of the study. Prior to a 6-day fasting period, buffalo were offered a mixed diet of forage and concentrates (70% and 30%, dry matter basis) on a restricted nutritional level (419 kJ/kg0.75 of metabolizable energy, ME) for 15 days. Gas exchanges for each animal were determined for 3 days from day 4 of starvation, using open-circuit respiratory head hoods. Fasting body weight was 0.918 of live weight ( P < 0.001, r2 = 0.99). Both fasting heat production (FHP) and FM (MJ/day) increased significantly with increased age of animals ( P < 0.05). Linear regression analysis indicated a positive relationship between fasting body weight (kg0.75) and FHP (MJ/day, P < 0.01, r2 = 0.49) or FM (MJ/day P < 0.01, r2 = 0.52) when using individual animal data across three groups. However, when expressed as kJ/kg0.75 of fasting body weight, the differences in FHP or FM between three groups of animals were not significant. The present average FHP and FM (322 and 347 kJ/kg0.75 of fasting body weight) were compatible to those published in the literature for water buffalo, beef and dairy cattle. The present FM data were also used to estimate net energy (NEm) and ME (MEm) requirements for maintenance for water buffalo. The results for these two parameters were similar to those for FHP and FM. There was no significant difference between three groups of buffalo in NEm or MEm when expressed as kJ/kg0.75 of live weight. The present average NEm and MEm values (347 and 506 kJ/kg0.75 of live weight) are close to those proposed by the Agricultural and Food Research Council adopted in UK for beef and dairy cattle. The results indicate that the present FM data can be used as a basis for rationing water buffalo in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]