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N7‐methylguanosine (m7G) modification is closely related to the occurrence of tumors. However, the m7G modification of circRNAs in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) remains to be investigated. Methylated RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (MeRIP‐seq) was used to measure the methylation levels of m7G and identify m7G sites in circRNAs in human OSCC and normal tissues. The host genes of differentially methylated and differentially expressed circRNAs were analyzed by Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses, and circRNA–miRNA–mRNA networks were predicted using the miRanda and miRDB databases. The analysis identified 2348 m7G peaks in 624 circRNAs in OSCC tissues. In addition, the source of m7G‐methylated circRNAs in OSCC was mainly the sense overlap region compared with normal tissues. The most conserved m7G motif in OSCC tissues was CCUGU, whereas the most conserved motif in normal tissues was RCCUG (R = G/A). Importantly, GO enrichment and KEGG pathway analysis showed that the host genes of differentially methylated and differentially expressed circRNAs were involved in many cellular biological functions. Furthermore, the significantly differentially expressed circRNAs were analyzed to predict the circRNA–miRNA–mRNA networks. This study revealed the whole profile of circRNAs of differential m7G methylation in OSCC and suggests that m7G‐modified circRNAs may impact the development of OSCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variations in runoff and sediment discharge are important characteristic variables for revealing the coupled effects of climate change (including both the natural variability of climate and anthropogenic climate change) and human activities (including soil and water conservation measures, land use changes, and hydraulic engineering construction). Based on the meteorological data from 19 meteorological stations and the hydrological data from the watershed control station of Hongqi Station, the temporal and spatial evolution of runoff and sediment discharge and the water–sand relationship were analyzed, and the response mechanisms of runoff and sediment discharge changes were clarified using Mikhail Budyko's theory and other qualitative and quantitative methods. The results determined that: (1) The runoff and sediment discharge showed significant downward trends, with linear change rates of −0.28 × 108 m3/a and −46.10 × 104 t/a, respectively. The change points of the runoff and sediment discharge occurred in 1987 and 1996, respectively. (2) The spatial distribution of water and sediment was different, and the upper and middle reaches produced water, while the downstream produced sediment. (3) Comparing potential evapotranspiration and rainfall based on Budyko theory and the regression relationship, runoff is more closely related to rainfall, and runoff changes are more affected by it. The change in sediment discharge is most closely related to sediment concentration, followed by rainfall and potential evaporation. (4) The contribution rates of runoff and sediment discharge changes influenced by climate change were 24% and 3%, respectively, and the contribution rates by human activities were 76% and 97%, respectively. Human activities, including soil and water conservation measures, land use changes, and hydraulic engineering construction were the main influencing factors, and the impacts of human activities increased from 1960 to 2019. The research results are of great significance for erosion control and ecological restoration in the Tao River Basin under the conditions of the changing environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We aimed to demonstrate the regulatory effect of long non‐coding RNA (lncRNA) ENAH‐202 on oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) development as well as its molecular mechanism. Methods: We detected ENAH‐202 expression in OSCC tissues and cell lines by quantitative real‐time PCR (qPCR). The biological function of ENAH‐202 was assessed in vitro and in vivo using CCK‐8, colony formation assays, transwell assays, xenograft formation, and tail vein injection. The further molecular mechanism by which ENAH‐202 promoted OSCC progression was identified using RNA pull‐down, LS‐MS/MS analysis, RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP), and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays. Results: ENAH‐202 was significantly upregulated in OSCC tissues and cells. ENAH‐202 promoted OSCC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro and in vivo. The expression of enabled homolog (ENAH) and epithelial‐to‐mesenchymal transition (EMT)‐related proteins was changed with the expression of ENAH‐202. Moreover, ENAH‐202 promoted the transcription of Vimentin (VIM) by binding with ZNF502, which can help ENAH‐202 promote OSCC progression. Conclusions: ENAH‐202 facilitated OSCC cell proliferation and metastasis by regulating ZNF502/VIM axis, which played an important role in OSCC progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Groundwater is widely recognized as the most significant water resource for irrigation and drinking purposes in the extremely-arid inland river region. However, land use is a major force altering the hydrological processes over a range of temporal and spatial scales. Therefore, understanding the interaction between land use and groundwater processes will definitely contribute to formulate a regional sustainable development strategy and recognize the impact of land use on the groundwater flow regime in the Tailan River basin. A numerical simulation of groundwater level for the inland river basin and scenario analysis under land use using FEFLOW is presented. Spatial data of the regional land use were processed using GIS, and the effects of land use on groundwater level were simulated. The amount of irrigation water and pumped groundwater have the most remarkable influences on groundwater level as main source/sink factors. Their variations were simulated according to the irrigation systems with different crops. Other factors including percolation and evapotranspiration of precipitation and condensed water jointly exerted influences on groundwater level. Changes to farmlands had the greatest impact on Tailan River basin for groundwater level, and unused land and Gobi had the least impact on groundwater level. Groundwater level maintained a decreasing trend in the irrigated zone, and increasing groundwater pumping would further intensify the water shortage in Tailan river basin. This coupled effects resulted from land use and extensive groundwater pumping were considered as the major human-induced factors influencing the groundwater system in the extremely-arid inland river basins. The results can provide useful support for land use. Understanding hydrological processes at the watershed level is essential in land use and water resource planning and management, and the proposed approach can be used as a management and planning tool for evaluating the local and overall impacts of land use management on the surface and groundwater flow regimes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The selective catalytic reduction and non-selective catalytic reduction (SCR/SNCR) are the most popular de-NOx processes for coal-fired power plant, where the real-time temperature is a significant parameter. A new developed tunable diode laser spectroscopy used for measuring the temperature of ammonia (NH3) in the process of SCR/SNCR influenced by strong exhaust gas matrices CO2 and H2O was presented in this paper. Two lines near 6605 cm−1 were selected, with rather weak temperature dependency and minimal interface from CO2 and H2O according to HITRAN12 database. A homemade heating equipment for high temperature laser spectroscopy measurement was developed based on an ARM microcontroller. The temperature calibration experiments of absorption lines were carried out at variable concentrations under different temperatures. The spectral signals of 2.5%, 3.5% and 4.5% NH3 were observed for validation of the generalization and robustness of the sensor. The calibration and validation experimental results show that the maximum measurement error and global average error of the temperature sensor with the temperature ranging from 453 to 653 K are less than 2% and 1.38%, respectively. It demonstrates that our proposed sensor with high accuracy and linearity, and can be utilized to measure the temperature in SNCR/SCR process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this two-year study was to evaluate the histocompatibility and osteogenic properties of a composite material consisting of poly(l - co - d, l lactide) (PLDLA) and silica-based bioactive glass fibers in vivo. PLDLA and PLDLA/silica-based bioactive glass fibers pins were implanted into the erector spinae muscles and femurs of beagles. Muscle and bone tissue samples were harvested 6, 12, 16, 26, 52, 78, and 104 weeks after implantation. Histology analysis was used to assess the histocompatibility, angiogenesis, and bone-implant contact. Micro-computed tomography was used to evaluate bone formation around the pins. Immunohistochemistry and western blotting revealed the expression level of the osteogenesis-related proteins. Addition of bioactive glass was demonstrated to possess better histocompatibility and reduce the inflammatory reactions in vivo. Moreover, PLDLA/silica-based bioactive glass fibers pins were demonstrated to promote angiogenesis and increase osteogenesis-related proteins expression, and thus played a positive role in osteogenesis and osseointegration after implantation. Our findings indicated that a composite of PLDLA and silica-based bioactive glass fiber is a promising biodegradable material for clinical use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fire poses a significant risk to the safety, health, and property of people around the world. However, traditional ‘‘point sensor’’ fire detection techniques for indoor buildings based on air particles, air temperatures, and smoke have a low sensitivity, long response time, and poor stability. Therefore, video-based fire detection has become a particularly efficient and important method for detecting the early signs of a fire. Due to image blur, low illumination, flame-like interference and other factors, there is a certain error rate of fire recognition using video flame recognition methods. According to our previous study of a multi-feature flame recognition algorithm, a novel flame recognition algorithm based on free radical emission spectroscopy during combustion is investigated in this paper. First, multiple features are extracted from the video images by employing our proposed processing scheme. Then, the features are post-processed by a temporal smoothing algorithm to eliminate the error recognition rate, which is caused by the similar characteristics of objects between flame-like and real flame areas. In the temporal smoothing experiments, the proposed method achieves the true positive rates of 0.965 and 0.937 for butane flames and forest fire, respectively. Additionally, the spectral signals of OH, CH, C2 and other free radicals in the combustion objects were acquired by the spectrometer. The vibrational temperature and rotational temperature are calculated after identification of the A2Δ → X2Π transition of the CH (410-440 nm). The flames-like are completely rejected by the proposed method in the validation experiment. In the subsequent butane combustion experiment, the vibrational temperature of the butane was 4896 K, and the rotational temperature was 2290 K. The experimental results show that real fires can be precisely recognized and that the combustion temperature can be determined from the CH emission spectroscopy. This novel method provides a new viewpoint for fire detection and recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long non‐coding RNAs (LncRNAs), which are more than 200 nucleotides in length and with limited protein‐coding potential, play vital roles in the pathogenesis, tumorigenesis, and angiogenesis of cancers. Aberrant expression of lncRNAs has been detected in various carcinomas and may be correlated with oncogenesis by affecting related genes expression. Recently, an increasing number of studies have reported on long intergenic non‐protein coding RNA 460 (LINC00460) in human tumor fields. LINC00460 is upregulated in diverse cancer tissues and cells. The upregulated expression level of LINC00460 is correlated with larger tumor size, tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage, lymph node metastasis, and shorter overall survival. The regulatory mechanism of LINC00460 was complex and diverse. LINC00460 could act as a competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA), directly bind with proteins or regulate multiple pathways, which affected tumor progression. Moreover, LINC00460 was also identified to increase drug resistance, and therefore, weaken the effectiveness of tumor treatment. It has become increasingly important to investigate the roles of LINC00460 in various cancers by different mechanisms. Therefore, a more comprehensive understanding of LINC00460 is crucial to expound on the cellular function and molecular mechanism of human cancers. In this review, we refer to studies concerning LINC00460 and provide the basis for the evaluation of LINC00460 as a predicted biomarker or potential therapeutic target in malignancies, and also provide ideas for the future research of lncRNAs similar to LINC00460. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conjunctive use of surface and groundwater is an effective approach to relief water resources shortages and its uneven temporal and spatial distribution in arid inland regions of central Asia. In this paper, 16 characteristic factors of water resources and related systems which are sensitive to different types of conjunctive use were selected in order to develop an index system for evaluation impact of conjunctive use, based on the fundamental types of water resources conjunctive use in inland basins. In an attempt to address the issue of spring drought and summer floods in Tailan River Basin in Xinjiang, three scenarios of conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater, well-canal combination, piedmont reservoirs and groundwater reservoirs were investigated. The utilization of water resources and the response of its related systems were evaluated and analyzed quantitatively using the groundwater numerical simulation model (Visual MODFLOW). Furthermore, the impacts of conjunctive use were assessed using the method of multi-level fuzzy comprehensive assessment. The results show that the scheme of combination of Laolongkou piedmont reservoir regulation-groundwater development, is the best in terms of the evaluation of water conjunctive use effects, followed by the well-canal combination. The comprehensive effect of well-canal combination along with groundwater reservoir wouldn't be better than the former both. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farming-pastoral Ecotones in China (FPEC) is one of the most fragile ecological area in China. Landscape ecological risk assessment of FPEC based on terrain gradients has important strategic significance for ensuring national ecological security and the sustainable development of social economy. Based on the 30 × 30 m land use data and DEM data of FPEC in 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2020, this paper constructs a landscape ecological risk assessment model, and uses the methods of spatial autocorrelation analysis and terrain distribution index to appraise the dynamic change law and influential factors of FPEC landscape ecological risk on various terrain gradients. The results showed that: (1) In recent 40 years, land use/land cover changes (LUCC) has significantly changed, and the farmland area has increased continuously, mainly transferred from grassland, forest and bare land, particularly the bare land converted into grassland in recent 10 years, which leads to substantial increase in grassland area. (2) The overall ecological risk of the study area showed an upward trend, and the area of highest risk regions has increased more than twice during the study period, mainly distributed in the regions of "interference of human activities in low terrain" and "change of natural high terrain environment," these regions showed a high spatial concentration. (3) Ecological risk along with terrain gradient distribution is mainly limited by climate and terrain factors, the interference of human activities and natural environment change are the main influential factors of ecological risk increase in low and high terrain, respectively. Therefore, it is necessary to adapt to local conditions, and low terrain should rationally develop and utilize natural resources to reduce the interference of unreasonable production and human activities. In order to promote the sustainable and healthy development of FPEC, the policy of closing hillsides to facilitate afforestation should be adopted in the high terrain to reduce the impact of natural environment changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]