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LincRNA-H19 ( H19 ), an imprinted oncofetal gene, plays a central role in carcinogenesis. Hitherto, the mechanism by which H19 regulates cancer stem cells (CSCs) remains elusive. Here, we show that breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) express high levels of H19 , and ectopic overexpression of H19 significantly promotes breast cancer cell clonogenicity, migration and ma mmosphere-forming ability. Conversely, silencing of H19 represses these BCSC properties. In concordance, knockdown of H19 dramatically inhibits tumor growth an d suppresses tumorigenesis in nude mice. Mechanistically, we found that H19 functions as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) to sponge miRNA let-7, leading to an increase in expression of a let-7 target, the core pluripotency factor LIN28, wh ich is enriched in BCSC populations and breast patient samples. Intriguingly, this gain of LIN28 expression can also feedback to reverse the H19 loss-mediated suppre ssion of BCSC properties. Our data also reveal that LIN28 blocks mature let- 7 production and thereby, de-represses H19 expression in breast cancer cells. Appropriately, H19 and LIN28 expression exhibits strong correlations in primary breast carcino mas. Collectively, these findings reveal that lincRNA H19, miRNA let-7 and transcriptional factor LIN28 form a double negative feedback loop, which plays a cr itical role in the maintenance of BCSCs. Consequently, disrupting this pathway provid es a novel therapeutic strategy for breast cancer.

The superfluous application and low use efficiency of chemical nitrate nitrogen fertilizer account for the nitrogen pollution of soil and water, threatening human’s health. In order to raise the fertilizer use efficiency, prevent from non- point pollution and nitrogen pollution of groundwater, and select superior material, five different kinds of super absorbent polymer (SAP) were selected as the objects. Through the analysis of the characteristics change of water and fertilizer absorbing of the five SAPs within different concentration of NO3--N, and the discussion of interactive effects between the SAPs and NO3--N, it is showed that: the water absorbent ability of all kinds of SAP exhibits a negative relationship with the concentration of KNO3 by decreasing of more than 50%. For all the five types of SAPs, the type of polyacrylate shows the strongest ability of water absorbing in all kinds of KNO3 concentration and the type of humic acid- polyacrylate is least affected by saline solution. The type of PAM- inorganic mineral SAP does well in nitrogen absorbing, whose absorbing amount linearly increases with the KNO3 concentration increasing, while the other types of SAP shows no obvious ability for nitrogen absorbing.

Two kinds of Three-dimensional Quantitative Structure-activity Relationship (3D-QSAR) methods, comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) and comparative molecular similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA), were applied to analyze the structure-activity relationship of a series of 63 butenolide ETA selective antagonists with respect to their inhibition against human ETA receptor. The CoMFA and CoMSIA models were developed for the conceivable alignment of the molecules based on a template structure from the crystallized data. The statistical results from the initial orientation of the aligned molecules show that the 3D-QSAR model from CoMFA (q2 = 0.543) is obviously superior to that from the conventional CoMSIA (q2 = 0.407). In order to refine the model, all-space search (ASS) was applied to minimize the field sampling process. By rotating and translating the molecular aggregate within the grid systematically, all the possible samplings of the molecular fields were tested and subsequently the one with the highest q2 was picked out. The comparison of the sensitivity of CoMFA and CoMSIA to different space orientation shows that the CoMFA q2 values are more sensitive to the translations and rotations of the aligned molecules with respect to the lattice than those of CoMSIA. The best CoMFA model from ASS was further refined by the region focused technique. The high quality of the best model is indicated by the high cross-validated correlation and the prediction on the external test set. The CoMFA coefficient contour plots identify several key features that explain the wide range of activities, which may help us to design new effective ETA selective antagonists.

This paper investigates the influence on energy consumption by economic structure in China using panel cointegration and Granger causal test with panel vector error correction (VEC) model. The panel cointegration test reveals the long equilibrium relationship between energy consumption and economic structure in China. The Granger causal test with panel VEC model reveals the unidirectional causality from economic structure to energy consumption and the bidirectional causality between energy consumption and economic growth in the short and long run. The influence on energy consumption by economic growth is greater in the short run and the influence by economic structure is greater in the long run. Thus when the “energy saving and emission reduction” are in work in China, more attention should be paid to the measures involving the economic structure adjustment. The measures include decreasing the proportion of the high energy consumption industries and supporting the development of the service industries. Thus the target of “energy saving and emission reduction” will be achieved without influencing the economic growth.

This study conducts three types of relational embedded configuration based on the relational embedded ties between the focal firm and its partners—customer, supplier, competitor and research institution. The effects of configurations on service innovation are contingent on service innovation types. From internal perspective, the network competence of a firm can enhance the performance of service innovation. The study also deals with the effect of the interaction between network competence and relational embedded configurations on service innovation performance. We verify the proposed model based on 182 companies as effective samples in Jiangsu University of Science and Technology Park and high-tech development zone into the conduct of empirical research and analysis.