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The energy system of solar town is a comprehensive energy system with the photovoltaic as the main body, combined with other local energy sources. To fully utilize the solar energy and geothermal energy in such system, a two-stage robust optimization method considering uncertainties of both energy supply and demand is proposed. Uncertainty adjustment parameters are introduced to avoid sacrificing economic efficiency in order to ensure power supply reliability. A max-min-max two-stage robust optimization configuration model is established with the objective of minimizing the overall system cost. The optimization includes the allocation of photovoltaics, combined heat and power, ground source heat pumps and storage in the integrated energy system of the solar town. The uncertainty of photovoltaic and load data is described by a box-type uncertainty set independent of probability distribution. The upper and lower boundary interval as robust constraints represents the fluctuation range of photovoltaic and load. The column and constraint generation algorithm and strong duality transformation are employed to reduce the complexity level of solving the problem. A case study is conducted on a solar town located in northern China. By adjusting the uncertainty adjustment parameters, the conservatism of the configuration plan can be effectively controlled. The scheme has strong applicability, mainly embodied in not only ensuring the reliability of power supply, reducing the load power loss rate, but also reducing the configuration cost and improving the light rejection rate.

Obesity is a main risk factor for diabetes and cardiovascular disorders and is closely linked to preadipocyte differentiation or adipogenesis. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) is an indispensable transcription factor in adipogenesis. A newly identified long noncoding RNA, Acart, exerts a protective effect against cardiomyocyte injury by transactivating PPARγ signaling. However, the function of Acart in preadipocyte differentiation is unclear. To investigate the function of Acart in adipogenesis, a well-established preadipocyte, the 3T3-L1 cell line, was induced to differentiate, and Acart level was assessed during differentiation using quantitative real-time PCR. The biological role of Acart in adipogenesis was analyzed by assessing lipid droplet accumulation, PPARγ and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein α (C/EBPα) expression, and 3T3-L1 cell proliferation and apoptosis after Acart silencing. We found that Acart level was promptly increased during preadipocyte differentiation in vitro. Acart was also significantly upregulated in obese mouse-derived subcutaneous, perirenal, and epididymal fat tissues compared with nonobese mouse-derived adipose tissues. Functionally, Acart depletion inhibited preadipocyte differentiation, as evidenced by a significant decrease in lipid accumulation and PPARγ and C/EBPα expression levels. Acart silencing also inhibited 3T3-L1 cell proliferation, whereas Acart overexpression accelerated 3T3-L1 cell proliferation and decreased cell apoptosis. Taken together, the current results reveal a novel function of Acart in regulating preadipocyte proliferation and differentiation.

Objective To summarize the clinical features and management of intestinal stricture following neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 79 infants with intestinal stricture following NEC treated in our hospital between April, 2014 and June, 2018. Of the 79 infants, 20 were diagnosed to have Bell stage I NEC, 52 were in Bell stage Ⅱ and 7 in Bell stage Ⅲ. All the infants underwent preoperative X-Ray examination, 73 had gastrointestinal contrast study and 69 had rectal mucosal biopsy. Results In these infants, the clinical signs of intestinal stricture occurred at a mean of 46.5 d following NEC. Among the 73 infants receiving gastrointestinal contrast study, 58 were found to have intestinal stenosis and 6 had fetal colon. Rectal mucosal biopsy in 69 infants revealed Hirschsprung disease in 3 cases. Intraoperative exploration showed that intestinal stenosis occurred mostly in the ascending colon, transverse colon and descending colon, and multiple stenosis was detected in 32 cases. Surgical resection of stricture and primary end-to-end anastomosis were performed in 71 cases, and the remaining 8 cases underwent staged surgeries. In the 73 cases with complete follow-up data, 3 had postoperative adhesions, and 2 of them received conservative treatment and the other underwent a second operation. Eight infants were hospitalized for 1 to 3 times for malnutrition and dehydration due to repeated diarrhea, and eventually recovered and were discharged smoothly; all the other infants had uneventful recovery without stricture recurrence. Conclusion Intestinal stenosis following NEC occurs most frequently in the colon, and some cases may have multiple strictures. Gastrointestinal contrast study is the primary option for examination. Surgical resection of the stricture and primary end-to-end anastomosis can achieve good therapeutic effect with favorable prognoses in the patients.

In this paper simulated rainfall experiments in laboratory were conducted to quantify the effects oƒ patchy distributed Artemisia capillaris on spatial and temporal variations oƒ the Darcy-Weisbach friction coefficient (f). Different intensities oƒ 60, 90, 120, and 150 mm h-1 were applied on a bare plot (CK) and four different patched patterns: a checkerboard pattern (CP), a banded pattern perpendicular to slope direction (BP), a single long strip parallel to slope direction (LP), and a pattern with small patches distributed like the letter ‘X’ (XP). Each plot underwent two sets oƒ experiments, intact plant and root plots (the above-ground parts were removed). Results showed that mean ƒ for A. capillaris patterned treatments was 1.25-13.0 times oƒ that for CK. BP, CP, and XP performed more effectively than LP in increasing hydraulic roughness. The removal oƒ grass shoots significantly reduced f. A negative relationship was found between mean ƒ for the bare plot and rainfall intensity, whereas for grass patterned plots fr (mean ƒ in patterned plots divided by that for CK) increased exponentially with rainfall intensity. The ƒ -Re relation was best fitted by a power function. Soil erosion rate can be well described using ƒ by a power-law relationship

Background: Mitochondrial fusion and fission are critical for the morphology and function of cells. DNM1L encodes dynamin-related protein 1 (DRP1), a key protein mediating mitochondrial fission, which is upregulated in a variety of cancers and is strongly associated with tumorigenesis. We aim to investigate the relationship between DNM1L and the prognosis of gastric cancer, as well as to explore the function and mechanism of DNM1L in gastric cancer (GC). Materials and methods: In this study, we analyzed the expression differences of DNM1L in gastric cancer tissues and paracancerous tissues using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. This was followed by validation through tissue microarrays. We then utilized the cohort information from these microarrays to explore the relationship between DNM1L expression and gastric cancer prognosis. Furthermore, we conducted enrichment analysis to investigate the function and mechanisms of DNM1L in gastric cancer, and lastly, we performed immune cell infiltration analysis using the CIBERSORT algorithm. Results: We discovered that the expression of DNM1L is elevated in GC tissues. TCGA data showed that the overexpression of DNM1L was positively correlated with the T-stage of GC but not with lymph node metastasis, which was also corroborated by our immunohistochemistry experiments. Based on the Kaplan–Meier curves, the high DNM1L expression was remarkably correlated with poor overall survival in patients with GC. In addition, results of COX regression analysis indicated that high DNM1L expression was an independent prognostic factor in patients with GC. Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) showed that DNM1L was closely associated with multiple signaling pathways and immune responses. CIBERSORT analysis indicated that increased DNM1L expression may affect the infiltration of immune cells in the tumor microenvironment. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that DNM1L is upregulated in gastric cancer (GC) and positively correlates with the T-stage and poor prognosis of GC patients, and it plays an important role in tumor immune infiltration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate warming and high-intensity human activities threaten the stability of alpine meadow ecosystems. The stability of the soil microbial community is crucial for maintaining ecological service function. However, the effects of warming and litter removal on microbial interactions, community-building processes, and species coexistence strategies remain unclear. In this study, we used a fiberglass open-top chamber to simulate global change, and moderate grazing in winter was simulated by removing above-ground litter from all plants in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, China, to investigate the effects of warming, litter removal, and interactions on soil microbial communities. The treatments included (1) warming treatment (W); (2) litter removal treatment (L); (3) the combined treatment (WL); and (4) control (CK). The results show that compared with the control treatment, warming, litter removal, and the combined treatments increased bacterial Shannon diversity but reduced fungal Shannon diversity, and warming treatment significantly changed the bacterial community composition. Warming, litter removal, and the combined treatments reduced the colinear network connectivity among microorganisms but increased the modularity of the network, and the average path distance and average clustering coefficient were higher than those in the control group. Stochastic processes played a more important role in shaping the microbial community composition, and soil–available phosphorus and soil ammonium contributed more to the βNTI of the bacterial community, while total phosphorus and NAG enzyme in the soil contributed more to the βNTI of the fungal community. Notably, litter removal counteracts the effects of warming on bacterial communities. These results suggest that litter removal may enhance bacterial community stability under warming conditions, providing insights for managing alpine meadow ecosystems in the context of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meadow degradation is often accompanied by significant changes in nitrogen (N)-cycling and nitrous oxide ([N.sub.2]O) emission potential, and leads to challenges in meadow management. However, the mechanisms of soil N-cycling and [N.sub.2]O emissions remain poorly understood, especially in alpine ecosystems. In this study, we investigated the soil N-cycling process in four alpine meadows on the Tibetan Plateau along a degradation gradient using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction and amplicon sequencing to elucidate the mechanisms. Compared to non-degraded meadows, meadow degradation reduced [N.sub.2]O emissions by 38.5-140.2%. Meadow degradation reduced the abundance of amoA of ammonia-oxidising archaea (AOA) and ammonia-oxidising bacteria (AOB), whereas light and moderate degradation increased the abundance of genes nirS, nirK, and nosZ. Lightly degraded meadow exhibited the highest a-diversity of both nitrifiers and denitrifiers, but this higher diversity was not accompanied by higher [N.sub.2]O emissions, with only 32.3% of the microbial taxa identified as predictors of [N.sub.2]O emissions, suggesting that functional redundancy exists in the N-cycling process in meadow ecosystems. Nitrosospira and Mesorhizobium from the AOB and nirK communities, respectively, were identified as the key taxa that may contribute to [N.sub.2]O emissions. Soil properties, especially N reaction substrates, including ammonium-N, nitrate-N, dissolved organic N, and total N, were the primary drivers for [N.sub.2]O emissions via mediation of the N-cycling community, especially nitrifiers. Our results emphasised the importance of environmental factors in shaping nitrifying, denitrifying, and [N.sub.2]O emissions, providing insights for the restoration of degraded meadow ecosystems. Keywords: alpine meadow, denitrification, functional genes, functional microbial diversity, meadow degradation gradient, [N.sub.2]O emissions, N-cycling, nitrification, partial least squares path model., Introduction Grasslands account for approximately one-fourth to one-third of the terrestrial surface of the earth, and support several functions such as carbon sequestration, animal husbandry, and support for the survival [...]