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Background/aim: Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the principal agent of cancer deaths globally. The goal of this study was to determine how circular RNA_0000518 (circ_0000518) regulates tumor progression. Materials/Methods. circ_0000518 was selected as a study target involved in NSCLC from GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus) database. circ_0000518 level was gauged by qRT-PCR. It was confirmed as circRNA by actinomycin D inhibition and RNase R assay. Subcellular localization of circ_0000518 was identified by FISH. Cell function was determined by CCK-8, Transwell, and western blot. Glutamine metabolic factors were detected by ELISA. The target regulation relationship between genes was clarified by dual-luciferase reporter assay. In vivo models were established to evaluate the impact of circ_0000518 on tumor growth. Immunohistochemical staining for Ki67, vimentin, and E-cadherin was used to detect cell proliferation and metastasis, respectively.Results: circ_0000518 expression was enhanced in NSCLC. si-circ_0000518 inhibited cell proliferation, invasion, and glutamine metabolism. circ_0000518 functioned as a molecular sponge for miR-330-3p, and inhibition of miR-330-3p in cells markedly reversed circ_0000518 interference-mediated antitumor effects. miR-330-3p interacted with 3'-UTR of SLC1A5. miR-330-3p inhibitor-mediated protumor effect was remarkably reversed in cells after the knockdown of SLC1A5. circ_0000518 knockdown reduced glutamine, glutamate, and α-KG by targeting miR-330-3p. Intertumoral injection of circ_0000518 shRNA adeno-associated virus effectively halted xenograft tumor growth.Conclusion: The current study revealed that circ_0000518 may have a prooncogenic function in the formation and progression of NSCLC, which might be achieved through moderating the miR-330-3p/SLC1A5 axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Annual atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition in China increased approximately 8 kg N ha−1 from the 1980s to the 2000s, which may have greatly affected soil respiration (R s) and its temperature sensitivity (Q 10). Although numerous individual studies have been conducted, the responses of R s to simulated N deposition remain controversial. To reconcile the conflicting results of R s and expand our knowledge about the response of Q 10 to N addition, a dataset with 333 independent observations in China was compiled, and a meta-analysis was performed. Our results showed that N addition increased R s by 7.1% (P < 0.05) across all biomes. The positive response degree of R s in croplands (27.0%, P < 0.05) was significantly greater than those in the grassland and forest biomes, which indicated that R s in anthropogenic ecosystems might be more sensitive to N enrichment. In contrast to low and medium N levels (≤20 g m−2 yr−1), high N addition levels (>20 g m−2 yr−1) inhibited R s due to a decrease in plant fine root biomass (RB). Compared with ammonium nitrate, urea is more likely to stimulate the release of soil C. Regression models showed that the R s response ratio (RR) was positively correlated with pH and the RR s of microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and RB. Increases in both plant roots and microbial biomass induced by N addition directly promoted R s , and N enrichment likely increases R s in soil with a high pH. The temperature sensitivity parameter, Q 10 , decreased by 3.7% (P < 0.05) across all biomes and showed an overall negative response for different biomes (except wetlands and deserts), N addition levels and N types. The Q 10 response ratio was positively correlated with the RR of pH. Soil acidification induced by proton release during N fertilizer transformation might accelerate the decomposition of recalcitrant organic matter and further decrease the Q 10 value. Our study provides valuable information to Chinese environmental policy- and decision-makers in their attempts to evaluate the effects of N deposition on terrestrial ecosystem C cycle. • N addition increased R s by 7.1% and decreased Q 10 by 3.7% across all biomes. • Relative to grassland and forest, R s of cropland was more sensitive to N addition. • Contrary to low and medium N addition levels, high N addition levels inhibited R s. • Soil acidification induced by N addition increased R s and decreased the Q 10 value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Pro-protein convertase subtilisin/kexin 9 (PCSK9) decreases the clearance of the pathogenic lipids, supporting the potential role of PCSK9 in the prognosis of sepsis. Methods: In this prospective cohort study, patients with sepsis were consecutively recruited from 1 to 2020 to 30 September 2021 at the First People's Hospital of Huaihua, China. All the eligible patients were categorized into low-PCSK9 and high-PCSK9 groups, based on their PCSK9 levels at admission. Time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curves and Cox proportional hazards regression were used to evaluate the association between PCSK9 level and 28-day mortality of sepsis. Results: Of the 203 enrolled patients, 56 (27.59%) died during the 28-day follow-up. The PCSK9 level was positively related to the C-reactive protein level. The cut-off point of PCSK9 levels for 28-day mortality risk was 370 ng/ml. Through comparison between high-PCSK9 (> 370 ng/ml) with low-PCSK9 (≤ 370 ng/ml) groups, the adjusted HR for mortality was 2.56 (95% CI: 1.25–5.23, p = 0.01). Conclusions: The 28-day mortality of sepsis increased significantly as the baseline circulating PCSK9 level exceeded 370 ng/ml, indicating circulating PCSK9 levels may be a potential biomarker to predict the prognosis of sepsis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the scarcity of fresh water resources and the increase in labor prices, rice cultivation is changing from transplanting to direct seeding. Weedy rice is a malignant weed with strong drought tolerance in seed germination in direct-seeding rice fields. As the same species of cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.), weedy rice (Oryza sativa f. spontanea) has the potential of domestication into direct-seeding rice with strong drought tolerance in seed germination by changing a few unfavorable traits. The red pericarp, one of the harmful traits of weedy rice, seriously affects the quality and commercial value of cultivated rice. The recently developed CRISPR/Cas9 (Clustered Regular Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) technology can accurately edit the function of genes, providing a possibility for the directed evolution. Weedy rice (WRL-162) with red pericarp was used as a mutant material. Two mutation sites, upstream and downstream of the 14 bp differential fragment of exon 6 of Rc gene, were designed using the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique. Consequently, three mutant types in T1 generation weedy rice with CRISPR-Cas9 vector changed from red to white pericarp. One mutant type in T1 generation weedy rice with CRISPR-Cas9 vector maintained red pericarp. Comparing the wild type of weedy rice and rice variety control (Nipponbare), mutant types in T3 generation weedy rice without CRISPR-Cas9 vector significantly improved the drought resistance in seed germination. In addition, there was no significant difference in panicle number, seed setting rate per plant, grain length and width between wild type and T3 generation mutant weedy rice without CRISPR-Cas9 vector. Comparing the wild type, some mutant types in T3 generation weedy rice without CRISPR-Cas9 vector significantly decreased plant height, decreased spikelet number per main panicle, decreased plump seed number per main panicle, and increased 1000-grain weight. Our results showed that the Rc gene editing using CRISPR/Cas9 technology can not only remove the harmful pericarp character of weedy rice, but also improve drought tolerance in seed germination. This study might provide new insights for the utilization of weedy rice as germplasm resources for direct-seeding rice by precisely editing genes to remove unfavorable traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Integrase inhibitors (INIs)-based antiretroviral therapies (ART) are more recommended than efavirenz (EFV)-based ART for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Yet, the advantage of integrase inhibitors in treating TB/HIV coinfection is uncertain. Therefore, the objective of this systematic review is to evaluate the effects and safety of INIs- versus EFV-based ART in TB/HIV coinfection, and demonstrate the feasibility of the regimens. Methods: Four electronic databases were systematically searched through September 2020. Fixed-effects models were used to calculate pooled effect size for all outcomes. The primary outcomes were virologic suppression and bacteriology suppression for INIs- versus EFV-based ART. Secondary outcomes included CD4+ cell counts change from baseline, adherence and safety. Results: Three trials (including 672 TB/HIV patients) were eligible. ART combining INIs and EFV had similar effects for all outcomes, with none of the point estimates argued against the INIs-based ART on TB/HIV patients. Compared to EFV-based ART as the reference group, the RR was 0.94 (95% CI 0.85 to 1.05) for virologic suppression, 1.00 (95% CI 0.95 to 1.05) for bacteriology suppression, 0.98 (95% CI 0.95 to 1.01) for adherence. The mean difference in CD4+ cell counts increase between the two groups was 14.23 cells/μl (95% CI 0− 6.40 to 34.86). With regard to safety (adverse events, drug-related adverse events, discontinuation for drugs, grade 3–4 adverse events, IRIS (grade 3–4), and death), INIs-based regimen was broadly similar to EFV-based regimens. The analytical results in all sub-analyses of raltegravir- (RAL) and dolutegravir (DTG) -based ART were valid. Conclusion: This meta-analysis demonstrates similar efficacy and safety of INIs-based ART compared with EFV-based ART. This finding supports INIs-based ART as a first-line treatment in TB/HIV patients. The conclusions presented here still await further validation owing to insufficient data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Controlling soil hydrological processes and combating soil erosion on agricultural fields are high priorities for crop production and ecological environments. In this research, the effect of land application of rock fragments on surface runoff, subsurface runoff, infiltration and soil loss on Regosols had been investigated under field conditions using a portable rainfall simulator. Experimental twin-plot (two subplot with 1-m wide by 2-m long, 32% slope) with different rock fragment covers ranging from 0–40% were exposed to three rainfall intensities, low (57±2mmh-1), medium (91±3mmh-1), and high (122±5mmh-1). Fifteen treatments were conducted in the experiments in duplicates. Surface runoff, subsurface runoff, soil moisture and sediment were measured. Results show that surface rock fragment cover retarded surface runoff, increased infiltration and subsurface runoff, and diminished sediment concentration and soil loss. The final infiltration rates, which increased with increasing rock fragment covers, were 16.5–42.7mmh-1 at low intensity, 19.7–50.8mmh-1 at medium intensity and 23.8–56.4mmh-1 at high intensity. Compared with bare soils, surface runoff rates were reduced to 24%, 51% and 64% in soils with 40% rock fragment cover at low, medium and high intensity rainfall, respectively. Subsurface runoff volume was significantly higher and time to start subsurface runoff was shorter as surface rock fragment cover increased. Compared with bare soils, subsurface runoff coefficients increased to 3.5, 3.3 and 2.9 times in soils with 40% rock fragment cover at low, medium and high intensity, respectively. Sediment concentrations increased from 9.8gL-1 for 40% rock fragment cover under high intensity rainfall to 51.5gL-1 for bare soils with rain falling at high intensity. The erosion rate was <12gm-2 min-1 for soils with 40% rock fragment cover, even when rainfall intensity was high, while it was >15gm-2 min-1 for bare soils under low intensity. The relationship between rock fragment cover and soil loss ratio can be expressed by an exponential function with a high degree of reliability, regardless of rainfall intensities. Overall, results indicate the surface rock fragments can be influential in shaping hydrological processes and soil loss from sloping farmland. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In normal adult retinas, NGF receptor TrkA is expressed in retinal ganglion cells (RGC), whereas glia express p75NTR During retinal injury, endogenous NGF, TrkA, and p75NTR are up-regulated. Paradoxically, neither endogenous NGF nor exogenous administration of wild type NGF can protect degenerating RGCs, even when administered at high frequency. Here we elucidate the relative contribution of NGF and each of its receptors to RGC degeneration in vivo. During retinal degeneration due to glaucoma or optic nerve transection, treatment with a mutant NGF that only activates TrkA, or with a biological response modifier that prevents endogenous NGF and pro-NGF from binding to p75NTR affords significant neuroprotection. Treatment of normal eyes with an NGF mutant-selective p75NTR agonist causes progressive RGC death, and in injured eyes it accelerates RGC death. The mechanism of p75NTR action during retinal degeneration due to glaucoma is paracrine, by increasing production of neurotoxic proteins TNF-αand α2-macroglobulin. Antagonists of p75NTR inhibit TNF-α and α2-macroglobulin up-regulation during disease, and afford neuroprotection. These data reveal a balance of neuroprotective and neurotoxic mechanisms in normal and diseased retinas, and validate each neurotrophin receptor as a pharmacological target for neuroprotection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The collapse of the plastic waste trade (PWT) amplifies the threats of mismanaged plastic waste to the ecological system and human health, posing a risk as well as an opportunity to the global circular economy. Although trade barriers in the PWT continue to impact waste management systems, there are few analyses that propose global mitigation strategies in response to trade fluctuations. Here, we show that most countries have been overloaded with plastic waste compared to their ordinary capacity since China's import ban in 2017. We apply a cascading failure model to quantify the collapse process worldwide and find that 183 countries become overloaded as this collapse cascades, with nearly 6% of countries experiencing over 1.5 times their ordinary load. However, this overload could be greatly alleviated if leading countries were to sharply increase their capacity to treat plastic waste based on scenario analysis. Although waste exporters should take more responsibility and scenario analysis results show that top exporters could effectively mitigate global plastic waste levels by increasing their treatment capacity, cooperation between key exporters, importers, and intermediators has the best mitigation effects. Our analysis suggests that key countries should as soon as possible take responsibility for and cooperate in mitigating potential plastic waste pollution related to trade fluctuations. • Many countries show plastic waste overloading due to China's import ban. • Structural change of plastic waste trade could lead cascading failure worldwide. • Overload situation will be greatly alleviated, if leading countries work for it. • The cooperation strategy has the best mitigation effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil erosion on cropland is a result of the interaction between nature and human activities. The socioeconomic influencing factors of soil erosion have been less studied than the biophysical processes and previous studies have mainly focused on the impacts of local socioeconomic factors on soil erosion in the same region. However, since agricultural activities are densely connected to other socio-economic activities, the need for agricultural products from distant regions could potentially drive local soil erosion accompanying agricultural production. To the best of our knowledge, these telecoupling effects have not been studied. Here, we combined the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and multiregional input-output analysis (MRIO) models to quantify the contribution of China's cross-provincial economic demand to local soil erosion at the provincial, sectoral, and supply chain levels. Our results show that a large amount of soil erosion in the southwest, northeast, and central regions is linked to the economic needs across provinces. Agriculture and food processing are the most important distant driving sectors. The driving effect of household consumption on soil erosion mainly occurs on shorter supply chains, while exports and capital formation drive soil erosion through longer chains. Our results indicate that local soil erosion management must consider the impact of distant agricultural product needs and coordinate food production and supply on a national scale to protect the ecological function of the land. [Display omitted] • Cropland soil erosion was linked to a multi-regional input-output table. • 28.19% of cropland soil erosion was driven by distant final demand. • Ten provinces had more than 1/4 of their soil erosion driven by other provinces' consumption. • Agriculture, Food Processing, and Construction contributed 72.28% telecouped erosion. • The telecoupled share increases along supply chains from 19.60% (tier 0) to 33.70% (tier 6). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) emissions cause non-negligible damage to human health and well-being. Effective regional cooperation is urgently required to mitigate PAHs emissions to maintain satisfactory air quality. This study quantified and tracked China's PAHs emissions flows embodied in interprovincial trade. A production-based emissions inventory of 16 U.S. EPA priority PAHs based on commercial energy consumption in China in 2012 was compiled using the emissions factor approach. Then, a multiregional input-output model was constructed to reveal consumption-based emissions and to track the PAHs emissions embodied in the trade of 27 major sectors across 30 regions in China. Key structural paths were also identified using structural path analysis (SPA). In 2012, the total industrial energy-derived PAHs emissions were estimated to be 47.7 tons of BaP-toxic equivalents (8032.7 tons of mass). Shandong, Hebei, and Hubei accounted for more than 24.0% of the production-side PAHs emissions in the whole country. Approximately 30.8% of China's PAHs emissions were embodied in goods consumed outside of the province in which they were produced. PAHs flow tended to start in the western regions and ended in the eastern regions along the coast. The results of the SPA showed that critical paths, such as from the Metallurgy sector to the Construction sector, embodied a large amount of emissions and had the potential to affect the performance of the entire system. By paying attention to the consumption-based accounting as well as the production-based accounting of emissions and by focusing on vital transfer paths, policymakers can devise effective and targeted environmental protection and sustainable development policies in China. • PBA and CBA of PAHs emissions were constructed to show a geographical disparity. • Construction and Other Service were key sectors driving embodied emissions. • Metallurgy, Transportation and Coal Mining were key sectors in production. • The coastal region was important sink. • Central and northern China was the most important source for PAHs flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socioeconomic factors are key driving forces for the occurrence and development of soil erosion, but their effects are not well understood. To analyse the relationship between the socioeconomic system and soil erosion, a framework was proposed and validated with structural equation modelling. Population pressure, economic development, agricultural inputs and outputs and soil erosion are latent variables of the framework. A case study was conducted in Jiangxi Province. The results showed that economic development was the key controlling factor and that agricultural output was the main promoting factor for soil erosion, with path coefficients of −1.321 and 1.609 in 1995 and -0.624 and 0.453 in 2010, respectively. This implied that the contradiction between socioeconomic development and ecological protection was alleviated during the study period. Agricultural input controlled severe soil erosion (-‍0.322) while promoting mild soil erosion (0.095), which indicated that more attention should be paid to the adverse impact of excessive agricultural inputs on soil erosion control. The identification of the socioeconomic driving forces of regional soil erosion could help adjust the development strategy and mitigate the negative effects of economic development on soil erosion control and ecological conservation. • Latent socio-economic variables have considerable influences on soil erosion. • Economic development is the most important driving force of soil erosion. • The promotional effect of surplus inputs on mild soil erosion should be of concern. • Structural equation modelling is a suitable framework to decouple this relationship.. • Contradiction between socio-economy and soil erosion have been alleviated in Jiangxi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural production in China is mainly decentralized, small in size, and involved by independent single households. Farmers are the main implementers of soil erosion control projects. Their willingness and abilities, which are crucial to the effectiveness of these projects, are closely related to their social networks. However, the relationship between farmers' social networks and soil erosion control remains unclear. Hengxi, a typical village in Jiangxi Province, China, was used as a case study. Traditional- and new-type of farmers' social networks were built according to the planting structures based on survey data. The results showed that both types of networks had the characteristics of small-world network and scale-free network. The ability to obtain and dispense information was the significant distinction between the two networks. The dealer was an influential key node in both networks. The government agencies were key nodes in the new-type network but not in the traditional-type network, which made it difficult for traditional farmers to obtain indispensable information about soil erosion control. The characteristics of farmers and their corresponding networks had significant influences on their awareness of soil erosion. Soil erosion management projects could be deployed smoothly by the key farmers and government agencies in the new-type social network, but difficultly in the traditional-type social network. To improve the effectiveness of soil erosion control projects, cooperation with dealers is important for government agencies. • Characteristics of farmers' social networks are distinct based on planting structure. • Information diffusion is more efficient in new-type social network. • Betweenness centrality affects farmers' awareness of soil and water conservation. • Government agencies should undertake proper roles in traditional-type social network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with spectral sensors have become useful in the fast and non-destructive assessment of crop growth, endurance and resource dynamics. This study is intended to inspect the capabilities of UAV-onboard multispectral sensors for non-destructive phenotype variables, including leaf area index (LAI), leaf mass per area (LMA) and specific leaf area (SLA) of rapeseed oil at different growth stages. In addition, the raw image data with high ground resolution (20 cm) were resampled to 30, 50 and 100 cm to determine the influence of resolution on the estimation of phenotype variables by using vegetation indices (VIs). Quadratic polynomial regression was applied to the quantitative analysis at different resolutions and growth stages. The coefficient of determination (R2) and root mean square error results indicated the significant accuracy of the LAI estimation, wherein the highest R2 values were attained by RVI = 0.93 and MTVI2 = 0.89 at the elongation stage. The noise equivalent of sensitivity and uncertainty analyses at the different growth stages accounted for the sensitivity of VIs, which revealed the optimal VIs of RVI, MTVI2 and MSAVI in the LAI estimation. LMA and SLA, which showed significant accuracies at (R2 = 0.85, 0.81) and (R2 = 0.85, 0.71), were estimated on the basis of the predicted leaf dry weight and LAI at the elongation and flowering stages, respectively. No significant variations were observed in the measured regression coefficients using different resolution images. Results demonstrated the significant potential of UAV-onboard multispectral sensor and empirical method for the non-destructive retrieval of crop canopy variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Baricitinib, an oral-administrated selective inhibitor of the JAK1 and JAK2, is recently approved for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment. With the aim to provide some insights on the clinical safety, the current study mainly focused on the effect of baricitinib on low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels and cardiovascular risk. Methods: The net change scores [least squares mean (LSM) and mean change] of LDL-C and HDL-C levels from baseline with the comparison of baricitinib versus placebo were pooled, respectively. Risk rations (RR) of major cardiovascular events (MACEs) and differences of cardiovascular risk scores at the end of treatment across groups were compared. Results: Six trials with randomized 3552 patients were finally included in summary analysis. Results showed that baricitinib significantly increased LDL-C levels, the net mean change was 13.15 mg/dl with 95% CI 8.89~17.42 (I2 = 0) and the net LSM was 11.94 mg/dl with 95% CI 7.52~16.37 (I2 = 84%). HDL-C also increased obviously with the net LSM change was 7.19 mg/dl (95% CI, 6.05~8.33, I2 = 47%) and net mean change was 5.40 mg/dl (95% CI, 3.07~7.74, I2 = 10%). Subgroup and meta-regression analysis demonstrated baricitinib induced LDL-C and HDL-C increases in a dose-response manner. However, both the pooled RRs of MACEs and differences of cardiovascular risk scores were not statistically significant across groups. Conclusion: This study confirmed that baricitinib induced a stable dose-response increase in LDL-C and HDL-C levels. Since the causality association between altered lipids and cardiovascular risk was not identified yet, this issue cannot be completely dismissed. Future research is needed to fully dissect the implications of these lipid changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-user multi-antenna technologies are well upported in current standard specifications like LTE Release 8/9. Further development of the specification (LTE-Advanced) is expected to conform to the requirements for IMT-Advanced systems. One of the key enabling features of LTE-Advanced to meet IMT-Advanced downlink performance requirements is multi-user MIMO, where a transmitter serves multiple users simultaneously on the same frequency resource, primarily relying on spatial separation. In general, multi-user MIMO is beneficial for improving average user spectral efficiency. However, cell edge user spectral efficiency may be reduced if multi-user MIMO is used exclusively, due to residual inter-user interference arising from practical multi-user beamforming and reduced transmit power allocated to each user. Therefore, it should be possible to configure the UE-specific transmission mode to support dynamic switching between single-user MIMO and multi-user MIMO to balance the cell edge user spectral efficiency as well as the average cell user spectral efficiency. In this article, we study various aspects of multi-user MIMO including design philosophy, multi-user precoding, and control signaling. The associated feedback schemes, including those that facilitate dynamic switching, are discussed. Performance evaluation is conducted to demonstrate the gain of dynamically switched single-user and multiuser MIMO as opposed to traditional single-user MIMO. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]