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In order to clarify the fates of fertilizer N in coastal saline soil-wheat systems with different salinization degrees, this study was conducted to determine the 15N uptake rates in various parts of wheat plant at maturity stage and the residual 15N in three different saline soils and the 15N loss of soil-wheat systems by using the 15N-labeled urea N tracing method in the Yellow River Delta. The results showed that: (1) The increase of soil salinity from 0.2% to 1% promoted the wheat plant to absorb N from soil and not from fertilizer and significantly inhibited the dry matter mass accumulation and 15N uptakes of each wheat parts and whole plant, but especially increased the total N concentration of wheat roots, stems, leaves, and grains. The aggravation of soil salinity significantly enhanced the distribution ratios of 15N uptakes and Ndffs in the wheat roots, stems, and leaves to depress the salt stress. (2) The 15N residues were mainly concentrated in the 0~20 cm saline soil layer and decreased as the soil profile deepened from 0 to 100 cm; the 15N residues decreased in the 0~40 cm soil profile layer and accumulated in the 40~100 cm with the increase of soil salinization degrees significantly. (3) The fates of 15N applied to the coastal saline soil-wheat system were wheat uptakes 1.53~13.96%, soil residues 10.05~48.69%, losses 37.35~88.42%, with the lowest 15N uptake and utilization in the three saline soils, the highest residual rate in lightly saline soils, and the highest loss in moderately and heavily saline soils. The increase of soil salinity inhibits wheat uptakes and soil residues and intensifies the losses from fertilizer 15N. Therefore, the fate of fertilizer N losses significantly increased as the degree of soil salinity increased. The conventional N management that was extremely inefficient for more N loss should be optimized to enhance the N efficiency and wheat yield of the coastal saline soil-wheat system in the Yellow River Delta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autophagy, a lysosome-mediated cellular degradation pathway, recycles intracellular components to maintain metabolic balance and survival. Autophagy plays an important role in tumor immunotherapy as a "double-edged sword" that can both promote and inhibit tumor progression. Autophagy acts on innate and adaptive immunity and interacts with immune cells to modulate tumor immunotherapy. The discovery of autophagy inducers and autophagy inhibitors also provides new insights for clinical anti-tumor therapy. However, there are also difficulties in the application of autophagy-related regulators, such as low bioavailability and the lack of efficient selectivity. This review focuses on autophagy-related immunogenic regulation and its application in cancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Distant metastasis, especially bone metastasis, is the major cause of death in breast cancer patients. However, breast cancer patients with bone metastasis are frequently complicated by delayed intervention as clinically bone metastasis cannot be detected early enough. Here, we report that CTNND1 is downregulated in both primary tumors and metastatic bone lesions of patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Decreased CTNND1 is a crucial intrinsic contributor to homing to the bones and the survival of the breast cancer cells in the bone microenvironment. Thus, CTNND1 may be a novel biomarker for early predicting bone metastasis of triple-negative breast cancer. Bone metastasis from triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) frequently results in poorer prognosis than other types of breast cancer due to the delay in diagnosis and intervention, lack of effective treatments and more skeletal-related complications. In the present study, we identified CTNND1 as a most reduced molecule in metastatic bone lesion from TNBC by way of high throughput sequencing of TNBC samples. In vivo experiments revealed that knockdown of CTNND1 enhanced tumor cells metastasis to bones and also increased neutrophils infiltration in bones. In vitro, we demonstrated that knockdown of CTNND1 accelerated epithelial–mesenchymal transformation (EMT) of tumor cells and their recruitment to bones. The involvement by CTNND1 in EMT and bone homing was achieved by upregulating CXCR4 via activating the PI3K/AKT/HIF-1αpathway. Moreover, TNBC cells with reduced expression of CTNND1 elicited cytotoxic T-cells responses through accelerating neutrophils infiltration by secreting more GM-CSF and IL-8. Clinically, patients with triple-negative breast cancer and lower level of CTNND1 had shorter overall survival (OS) and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS). It was concluded that downregulation of CTNND1 played a critical role in facilitating bone metastasis of TNBC and that CTNND1 might be a potential biomarker for predicting the risk of bone metastases in TNBC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphatidylinositol transfer protein membrane-associated 1 (PITPNM1) contains a highly conserved phosphatidylinositol transfer domain which is involved in phosphoinositide trafficking and signaling transduction under physiological conditions. However, the functional role of PITPNM1 in cancer progression remains unknown. Here, by integrating datasets of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Molecular Taxonomy of Breast Cancer (METABRIC), we found that the expression of PITPNM1 is much higher in breast cancer tissues than in normal breast tissues, and a high expression of PITPNM1 predicts a poor prognosis for breast cancer patients. Through gene set variation analysis (GSEA) and gene ontology (GO) analysis, we found PITPNM1 is mainly associated with carcinogenesis and cell-to-cell signaling ontology. Silencing of PITPNM1, in vitro, significantly abrogates proliferation and colony formation of breast cancer cells. Collectively, PITPNM1 is an important prognostic indicator and a potential therapeutic target for breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the discovery of the first microRNA (miRNA), the exploration of miRNA biology has come to a new era in recent decades. Monumental studies have proven that miRNAs can be dysregulated in different types of cancers and the roles of miRNAs turn out to function to either tumor promoters or tumor suppressors. The interplay between miRNAs and the development of cancers has grabbed attention of miRNAs as novel tools and targets for therapeutic attempts. Moreover, the development of miRNA delivery system accelerates miRNA preclinical implications. In this review, we depict recent advances of miRNAs in cancer and discuss the potential diagnostic or therapeutic approaches of miRNAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial parks have various sources and conversion forms of energy. The many uncertainties in the planning of industrial park integrated energy systems (IPIES) pose a great risk of regret in planning schemes; thus, an expansion planning method for an IPIES, considering regret aversion, is proposed. Based on comprehensive regret value consisting of min–max regret aversion and the min average regret value, the method optimizes the comprehensive cost of the expansion planning scheme in IPIES under different natural gas price fluctuation scenarios, including costs of construction, operation and maintenance, and environmental protection. A multi-stage expansion planning scheme and typical daily operation plans under multiple natural gas price fluctuation scenarios of the IPIES in an economic and technological development zone in southeast China are used to demonstrate the validity of the method. The results show that, compared with a traditional planning method based on expectation, the proposed expansion planning method could reduce the maximum regret value by 14% on average, and greatly reduces the risk of decision-making regret by up to 18%. At the same time, the influence of natural gas price on expansion planning of the IPIES is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The risk of marine disasters based on flooding is one of the most significant natural disasters in coastal zones. It can be said that flooding in coastal zones has typical sea–land characteristics. Yet, relatively little research has been done in this area. Thus, by using the characteristics of marine disaster risk based on flooding in Qingdao and combining marine science and land science methods, this paper constructs a targeted indicator system for the flooding risk from marine disasters from the perspectives of the disaster natural chain and flooding process. According to the results, the Integrated Risk Index of marine disasters based on flooding in Qingdao is 0.3694, which represents a medium risk level for natural disasters in China's major coastal areas. The first- and third-level indicators with large contribution rates are almost all natural indicators. This indicates that the natural disaster process and disaster chain greatly affect the flooding disaster risk in Qingdao. However, although natural factors play large roles in the risk of disaster, preventive methods implemented by humans can still have a positive effect on disaster reduction. Therefore, human society should still proceed with understanding disasters from natural processes, change their passive response to active adaptation, and actively strengthen preventive measures to alleviate the adverse impacts of increasingly serious natural disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]