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In this research, long-term monitoring data from 2020 to 2023 were used to characterize O3 pollution in a typical inland city in northwest China (34°21′ N 109°30′ E), which indicated that ozone pollution yielded typical regular fluctuations and high ozone concentrations from April to September were observed. Ozone varied in the range of 16–176 μg/m3, and maximum peaks were found usually at 14:00–17:00 in June and July. Correlation analysis showed a significant positive relationship between ozone and temperature, with correlation coefficients of 0.93. The wind speed exhibits a similar variation as ozone. Meanwhile, negative correlations were not so notably observed among ozone, humidity, VOCs, and NOx. Finally, the empirical kinetic model OZIPR (Ozone Isopleth Plotting Program for Research) was employed to analyze the sensitivity relationship among ozone and precursor compounds by calculating EMKA (Empirical Kinetics Modeling Approach) curves. The EKMA analysis results showed that during the whole ozone pollution period, ozone formation is mainly dominated by VOCs due to all the ratios of VOCs/NOx which fell in the VOCs control region. Therefore, VOCs should be priority controlled and more measures should be taken for better ozone pollution control abatement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let H and M be two connected subgraphs of an interconnection network G. If the removal of any minimum H-structure-cut (respectively, minimum H-substructure-cut) splits G into exactly two components, one of which is isomorphic to M, then G is said to be hyper H | M -connected (respectively, hyper sub- H | M -connected). The hierarchical star network H S n is one of alternative interconnection networks for multiprocessor systems. Let n ≥ 4 , 1 ≤ t ≤ n − 2 and 2 ≤ r ≤ n − 2. In this paper, we prove that (i) both the K 1 , 1 -structure connectivity and the sub- K 1 , 1 -structure connectivity of H S n are n; and (ii) both the K 1 , r -structure connectivity and the sub- K 1 , r -structure connectivity of H S n are n − 1 ; and (iii) H S n is hyper K 1 , t | K 1 -connected and hyper sub- K 1 , t | K 1 -connected, where K 1 is the complete graph with one vertex and K 1 , t is a star with 1 + t vertices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although basal muscle-invasive bladder cancers (MIBCs) are predominant, are more aggressive, and have bad prognoses, molecular mechanisms underlying how basal MIBC formation/progression have been barely explored. In the present study, SNHG1, a long non-coding RNA, was shown to be expressed at higher levels in basal MIBC cells than in other types of bladder BC cells, and its presence could promote basal MIBC cell invasion. The results revealed that SNHG1 specifically induced MMP2 expression via increasing its transcription and mRNA stability. In one mechanism, SNHG1 directly bound with PP2A catalytic subunit (PP2A-c) to inhibit interactions of PP2A-c with c-Jun and then promoted c-Jun phosphorylation that, in turn, mediated MMP2 transcription. In another mechanism, SNHG1 markedly induced autophagy in the cells via induction of increases in the abundance of autophagy-related proteins. The latter initiated autophagy and further abolished miR-34a stability, which reduced overall miR-34a binding directly to the 3' UTR of MMP2 mRNA, thereby promoting MMP2 mRNA stabilization. These results provided novel insight into understanding the specific functions of SNHG1 in basal MIBC. Such findings may ultimately prove highly significant for the design/synthesis of new SNHG1-based compounds for the treatment of basal MIBC patients., (Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

We have successfully prepared iron oxide and nickel oxide on carbon nanotubes on carbon cloth for the use in supercapacitors via a simple aqueous reduction method. The obtained carbon cloth-carbon nanotube@metal oxide (CC-CNT@MO) three-dimensional structures combine the high specific capacitance and rich redox sites of metal oxides with the large specific area and high electrical conductivity of carbon nanotubes. The prepared CC-CNT@Fe 2 O 3 anode reaches a high capacity of 226 mAh·g -1 at 2 A·g -1 with a capacitance retention of 40% at 40 A·g -1 . The obtained CC-CNT@NiO cathode exhibits a high capacity of 527 mAh·g -1 at 2 A·g -1 and an excellent rate capability with a capacitance retention of 78% even at 40 A·g -1 . The all-solid-state asymmetric supercapacitor fabricated with these two electrodes delivers a high energy density of 63.3 Wh·kg -1 at 1.6 kW·kg -1 and retains 83% of its initial capacitance after 5000 cycles. These results demonstrate that our simple aqueous reduction method to combine CNT and metal oxides reveals an exciting future in constructing high-performance supercapacitors., (Copyright © 2019, Zhang et al.; licensee Beilstein-Institut.)

Although several previous studies have reported the implication of various microRNAs (miRNAs) in regulation of human bladder cancer (BC) development, alterations and function of many miRNAs in bladder cancer growth are not explored yet at present. Here, we screened 1,900 known miRNAs and first discovered that miR-411 was one of the major miRNAs, which was down-regulated in n-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl)-nitrosamine (BBN)-induced BCs. This miR-411 down-regulation was also observed in human BC tissues and cell lines. The results from evaluating the relationship between miR-411 and patient survival in BC using the TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) database indicated that miR-411 was positively correlated with DFS (disease-free survival). Our studies also showed that miR-411 inhibited tumor growth of human BC cells in a xenograft animal model. Mechanistic studies revealed that overexpression of miR-411 repressed the expression of ALL1-fused gene from the chromosome 1q (AF1q) (MLLT11) by binding to the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of mllt11 mRNA and in turn induced p21 expression and caused cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase, further inhibiting BC tumor growth. Collectively, our results improve our understanding of the role of miR-411 in BC tumor growth and suggest miR-411 and MLLT11 as potential new targets for the treatment of BC patients., (Copyright © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Human bladder cancer (BC) is the fourth most common cancer in the United States. Investigation of the strategies aiming to elucidate the tumor growth and metastatic pathways in BC is critical for the management of this disease. Here we found that ATG7 expression was remarkably elevated in human bladder urothelial carcinoma and N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl)nitrosamine (BBN)-induced mouse invasive BC. Knockdown of ATG7 resulted in a significant inhibitory effect on tumorigenic growth of human BC cells both in vitro and in vivo by promoting p27 expression and inducing cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase. We further demonstrated that knockdown of ATG7 upregulated FOXO1 (forkhead box protein O 1) expression, which specifically promoted p27 transcription. Moreover, mechanistic studies revealed that inhibition of ATG7 stabilized ETS2 mRNA and, in turn, reduced miR-196b transcription and expression of miR-196b, which was able to bind to the 3' UTR of FOXO1 mRNA, consequently stabilizing FOXO1 mRNA and finally promoting p27 transcription and attenuating BC tumorigenic growth. The identification of the ATG7/FOXO1/p27 mechanism for promoting BC cell growth provides significant insights into understanding the nature of BC tumorigenesis. Together with our most recent discovery of the crucial role of ATG7 in promoting BC invasion, it raises the potential for developing an ATG7-based specific therapeutic strategy for treatment of human BC patients., (Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)