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Accelerating urbanization has led to shrinkage of natural habitats, intensification of landscape fragmentation, reduction of cropland and forest areas, and degradation of biodiversity. Against this background, considering ecological corridors are important linear structures connected habitat patches, thereby helping to enhance urban ecological resilience and protect biodiversity. A growing number of researches focus on the identification of potential ecological corridors and evaluate the relative importance of such corridors on the effects of connected habitat patches. However, among the evaluation process, previous studies ignored the linear structures of corridors, didn’t explore corridor width and construction form differences. Accordingly, this study used minimum cumulative resistance model (MCRM) to identify potential ecological corridors. After that, we designed the construction feasibility evaluation system for evaluating the relative importance of such corridors with different widths, and applied it with the rapidly expanding city of Chengdu in western China. The results show that internal characteristics of potential ecological corridors vary greatly under different widths. Using the construction feasibility evaluation system, we found that more than 75% of corridors in Chengdu are difficult to construct, and construction sequence has obvious differences under different widths, besides provided a reference for construction and the selection of width for potential corridors in Chengdu. This research highlights the importance of width selection in corridor evaluation, the construction feasibility evaluation provided reference information on identification, analysis, construction sequence and construction practices for urban ecological network spatial planning.

In order to develop

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) is a key enzyme in the DNA repair process, and the overexpression of PARP-1 in several tumours makes this enzyme a promising molecular target. Recently, several PARP-1 inhibitors, such as olaparib, rucaparib, niraparib and talazoparib, have been clinically approved as anticancer drugs. Several of these inhibitors have been radiolabelled for noninvasive imaging of PARP-1 expression in several types of tumours. In this review, the background and progress for using various radiolabelled PARP-1 inhibitors for cancer diagnosis are discussed and future development directions are proposed.

Objective. To study the mechanism of curcumol affecting the proliferation and apoptosis of liver cancer cells through the DJ-1/PTEN/PI3K/AKT pathway. Method. HepG2 cells were cultured in vitro, treated with curcumol at concentrations of 10, 30, and 100 μg/mL, and DMSO was used as a control. The levels of cell proliferation and apoptosis were measured by CCK-8 and flow cytometry, respectively. RT-PCR and western blot were used to detect PTEN, p-AKT, DJ-1, and PI3K gene and protein expression changes. Result. (1) Compared with the DMSO blank control group, the proliferation level of liver cancer cells in the 10 μg/mL curcumol group decreased, and the proportion of apoptosis increased (p p < 0.05 ). (3) Curcumol can significantly increase the expression of PTEN gene and protein in liver cancer cells and reduce the expression of DJ-1 and PI3K genes and protein in liver cancer cells ( p < 0.05 ). Conclusion. Curcumol can regulate DJ-1, PTEN, PI3K, and AKT signal transduction pathways, inhibit cell proliferation, and cause a significant increase in the proportion of cell apoptosis, and the pharmacodynamic effect of curcumol is dependent on the time and dose of action.

Image inpainting techniques are widely applied to repair distorted or missing regions in the image. However, unreasonable results are usually generated due to lack of structural information. In order to repair the structure rationally, we propose a model based on edge and structure information for medical image inpainting (ESMII). In addition, for overcoming the degradation problem of the deep network, multi-scale residual blocks (MRB) are used to extract features from the image at three scales. Meanwhile, the multi-level loss is proposed to motivate the network synthesizing more significant structural textures. Experimental results on COVID CT, Abdominal CT and Abdominal MRI datasets indicate that ESMII can generate more reasonable structures and fine textures compared to other models. Furthermore, ablation studies for justification verify the effectiveness of different modules in the network. We show that our approach can effectively solve the distortion of medical images.

A highly sensitive colorimetric assay is described for the determination of glutathione (GSH). It is based on the use of tungsten disulfide (WS2) which is a peroxidase mimic. It catalyzes the oxidation of 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) by hydrogen peroxide to form a blue-colored product (oxTMB) at near neutral pH values. In the presence of the analyte GSH, it is transformed to its oxidized form (GSSG), while the blue oxTMB is increasingly reduced and eventually is converted to colorless TMB. This can readily be detected with bare eyes. GSH can be determined spectroscopically (at 652 nm) by this method at concentrations down to 61 pM, and the response is linear in the 100 pM to 10 nM GSH concentration range. The assay is cost-effective and simple. Conceivably, it provides a promising tool for the determination of GSH in food and medical samples.

A highly sensitive colorimetric assay is described for the determination of glutathione (GSH). It is based on the use of tungsten disulfide (WS

The use of Renewable Energy (RE) is becoming popular for its clean and safe characteristics. The development of RE is also one of the crucial steps for the future sustainable development of energy resources. Nowadays, rural areas are facing issues such as depopulation and economic decline. How to find solutions to these issues while aiming to achieve sustainable development is a challenging task. Rural areas with RE in Japan and China have been established recently, and there are a few practical cases worth referencing. To identify key factors for RE promotion and its sustainability values in rural areas, this study presents two pioneer cases: Kuzumakicho in Japan and Chongming Island in China. Each of them stands for strong RE advancement in their home country and bears specific characteristics. Instead of a comparative study, this study examines the two cases as parallel case studies using a review of the literature, local plans, policy documents, and a questionnaire sheet with a SWOT analysis approach integrated in the methods. Key factors included municipal planning concepts and subsidies from national or regional governments among others, while contributions to sustainability include environmental education, local tourism, disaster prevention/mitigation, and waste re-use among others. In conclusion, the lessons learned and recommendations for future RE promotion in Japanese and Chinese rural areas are given.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) often display different expression in many cancers and other diseases in current research studies. miR-223 expression is upregulated in rheumatoid arthritis. Also, miR-223 expression has been demonstrated to be highly expressed in pancreatic cancer and gastric cancer in comparison with normal tissue. However, whether miR-223 displays different expression in ovarian cancer and what its underlying functions are in ovarian cancer have remained unclear. In this study, we demonstrated that miR-223-3p was upregulated in ovarian cancer tissue. Next, we explored the functional role of miR-223-3p in ovarian cancer using SKOV3 and OVCAR3 cell lines. Our results suggested that miR-223-3p mimic promoted ovarian cancer cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro. However, miR-223-3p inhibitor displayed the opposite effects. In addition, we demonstrated that miR-223-3p mimic promoted tumor growth in vivo. Furthermore, we found SOX11 (sex determining region Y-box 11) was inversely expressed with miR-223-3p in ovarian cancer (OC) cell lines and tissue specimens. miR-223-3p mimic decreased SOX11 expression. Overexpressing SOX11 inhibited ovarian cancer cell proliferation and invasion, which indicated that miR-223-3p regulated OC cell proliferation and invasion through targeting SOX11 expression. In conclusion, the findings of the present study demonstrated that miR-223-3p could be a potential therapeutic for ovarian cancer.

This paper presents an approach in support of spatial planning for renewable energy at the regional level. It aims to establish an elaborate and informative procedure, as well as integrated quantification and visualization, to support decision making. The proposed approach is composed of a set of sequential steps that include primary energy consumption estimation, renewable energy potential estimation, energy self-sufficiency analysis, and composite map preparation using Geographic Information System (GIS). GIS is used to analyze solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, and hydro-power potential within Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. Potential sites are determined based on geographic, topographic, and land use constraints. Evacuees’ population and forest radiation levels are specifically considered in the context of consequent issues emanating from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis. Energy self-sufficiency analysis has been conducted for years 2020 and 2030. A composite map showing potential sites and their interrelation to the above renewable energy resources has also been presented. These results may support decision making in regional renewable energy planning, by providing information on regional potentials and restrictions to different energy stakeholders. This can help to build an energy developmental vision, which can drive regional energy development towards sustainability. The proposed approach can also be applied to other Japanese municipalities or regions. It provides an example on how to establish local GIS databases through the utilization of various online open GIS resources in Japan.

Following a regional-level study conducted in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan (Wang et al., 2014 [1]), this paper presents an approach for municipal renewable energy planning and its experimental application in a Japanese municipality using a Geographic Information System (GIS). The proposed approach is comprised of local issue identification, renewable energy potential evaluation and visualization, site comparison and scenario analysis. GIS was used to analyze and visualize solar, wind and biomass (forest and agriculture residue) potential within Kawamata Town, Fukushima, Japan. According to local conditions, all potential sites were coded and then compared based on different criteria, such as solar radiation, wind speed, slope and land uses, among others. In the scenario analysis section, two scenarios, “renewable energy prioritized” and ”evacuation area prioritized”, were adopted and compared. The scenarios are altered in terms of placement and the number of renewable energy facilities inside and outside evacuation areas within the town. The results generated through the proposed approach can provide information on local potentials of renewable energy resources, as well as renewable energy development alternatives at the municipal level. They can be used in the interactive dialogue for the municipal renewable energy planning process, to help to fulfill the municipality’s post-earthquake energy developmental vision.