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Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is one of the most serious cancers. The circular RNA_0078767 (circ_0078767) expression was decreased in NSCLC tissues. However, the molecular mechanism of circ_0078767 remains unknown. The expression of circ_0078767, microRNA-665 (miR-665), and glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPX3) was detected by quantitative real-time fluorescence polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Cell proliferation, migration, and invasion were detected by colony formation assay and transwell assay, respectively. The lactate production and glucose consumption were tested by glycolysis. Western blot examined the protein levels of hexokinase-2 (HK2), matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP9), and GPX3 cells. Circinteractome predicted the relationship between miR-665 and circ_0078767 or GPX3 and was verified by dual luciferase reporter assays. The xenotransplantation model was established to study the role of circ_0078767 in vivo. The expression of circ_0078767 and GPX3 was decreased in NSCLC tissues, while the expression of miR-665 was increased. Circ_0078767 can sponge miR-665, and GPX3 is the target of miR-665. In vitro complement experiments showed that knockdown of circ_0078767 significantly promoted malignant behavior of NSCLC, while cotransfection of miR-665 inhibitor partially reduced this change. In addition, the GPX3 overexpression decreased the promoting effects of miR-665 upregulation on proliferation, migration, and invasion of NSCLC cells. Mechanically, circ_0078767 regulates the GPX3 expression in NSCLC cells by spongy miR-665. In addition, in vivo studies have shown that downregulation of circ_0078767 promotes tumor growth. Circ_0078767 silencing promotes proliferation, migration, invasion, and glycolysis of NSCLC cells by regulating the miR-665/GPX3 axis, suggesting that circ_0078767/miR-665/GPX3 axis may be a potential regulatory mechanism for the treatment of NSCLC.

Core OKI-152 is one of the best-dated late Holocene cores from the middle Okinawa Trough. The chronological framework and high resolution of this core can help better interpret the paleoclimatology and paleoceanography at centennial-millennial timescales. This core has been analyzed using the alkenone unsaturation index (UK′37) to determine the sea surface temperatures over the last 3.6 kyr. Temperatures obtained from the core-top sample and the 3.6-kyr-averaged temperatures correspond well to the mean annual sea surface temperature (SST) at this location. The SSTs were lower during three periods in 3.6–2.7, 2.0–1.0, and 0.6–0 cal kyr BP, which corresponded to the Neoglacial Period, Dark Age Cold Period, and Little Ice Age, respectively. The variations in the UK′37-derived SSTs in core OKI-152 were not correlated with the high-latitude North Atlantic climate but were synchronous with those of the western Pacific and the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability at low latitudes. When compared with SST signals from the southern Okinawa Trough, the differences in the SST (ΔSST) between the southern and middle Okinawa Trough over the past 3.6 kyr were mainly controlled by the input of freshwater from Taiwan. This result indicates that the East Asian monsoon could influence the SSTs in the Okinawa Trough by modulating precipitation. Modern observations, paleoceanographic proxies, and modeling studies are needed to further understand the interactions among the Okinawa Trough, Pacific Ocean, and East Asian monsoon system.

In South China, the Datangpo Formation was deposited during the Cryogenian interglacial stage between the Sturtian and Marinoan glaciations. The variations in paleoocean chemistry recorded in the Datangpo Formation are important to understand the formation of Mn ore as well as the early evolution of animals, which are not well constrained. Based on lithological observation and multi-geochemical proxies (iron speciation, Mo, U, V, Mn, Al and pyrite sulfur isotope) from drill core ZK43-6 from southeastern Chongqing, South China, the results indicate an anoxic (mostly euxinic) water condition for the lower black shales of the Datangpo Formation, which can be further divided into four intervals (I, II, III, IV). Among of them, very high Mn content and manganese metallogenesis is related to the suboxic Interval II between two euxinic depositions (Interval I and Interval III). Thus, our new findings suggest that the general euxinic condition at the basal Datangpo Formation is interrupted by a suboxic deposition (Interval II) where the manganese deposits formed. An updated model is proposed to shed light on the evolution in redox conditions of the Datangpo Formation as a function of sea-level and terrigenous input, and the genesis of “Datangpo-type” manganese in light of the temporal seawater redox conditions and microbial activity.

Sedimentary responses to the cross-shelf transport on the East China Sea continental shelf are ascertained based on analyses of the sediment grain size and detrital mineral components of surficial sediments. Sedimentological data show that fine-grained sediments can be transported across the continental shelf and have formed a tongue-shaped zone with an axis located near 29°N that extends from the coast to 124°40′E or beyond. The sediments in this tongue-shaped zone are rich in very fine silt and clay, as are the dominant sediment fractions discharged by the modern Yangtze River indicating a modern terrigenous source. Sediment with grain sizes 7–9 Φ is the main fraction that is transported across the continental shelf. In contrast to the regions in the same longitude, in the tongue-shaped zone the relatively low heavy mineral content, high schistose mineral content and high dolomite content and the mixture of fresh and weathered minerals show that modern Yangtze River sediment has been widely transported to this region. Meanwhile, the simultaneous existence of the fine-grained tongue and a coarse-grained area immediately south of the base of the tongue coincident with the nearshore Kuroshio branch current intrusion area indicate that the Kuroshio intrusion plays an important role in triggering the cross-shelf flows.

Isotopic compositions of coeval sulfide and sulfate have been widely employed to reconstruct the seawater chemistry evolution over geologic time; however, these signals can be modulated by other factors, such as the sedimentation rate. Here, we present a data set of pyrite sulfur isotopes (δ34Spy) derived from 60-m drilled core sediments deposited on the inner shelf of the East China Sea since 16.5 ka. The resulting δ34Spy values range from −38.2 to 15.0‰ (Vienna Canyon Diablo Troilite; V-CDT), representing a range of 53.2‰. Freshwater deposition before 12.3 ka produced a limited pyrite abundance and δ34Spy values that fall within the typical range of freshwater environments. After the marine incursion in the study area at 12.3 ka, variations in the δ34Spy values become significantly correlated with sedimentation rates (SRs; r = 0.78, p 0‰), suggesting that SRs exert controls on δ34Spy values. We propose that these sedimentary controls are expressed by modulating the connectivity between porewaters and the overlying seawater. Low SRs tend to form an open diagenetic system, in which the pyrites are able to preserve the large biological fractionations associated with microbial sulfate reduction (and disproportionation). In contrast, high SRs favour a restricted diagenetic system, in which the distillation of porewater sulfate produces pyrites enriched in 34S, masking the magnitude of biological fractionation during microbial sulfur cycling. These findings highlight the critical effect of the local sedimentation regime on pyrite sulfur isotopic compositions, especially within shallow depositional environments, over geologic time.

The sea-level curve during the last deglaciation is characterized by two episodes of rapid sea-level rise, termed Meltwater Pulses (MWPs) 1A (14.6–14.3 kyr BP) and 1B (11.45–11.1 kyr BP), as well as an episode of relatively slow sea-level rise during the Younger Dryas stadial (YD; 12.85–11.65 kyr BP). However, the relative sea-level changes during the YD and MWP-1B periods are still not well defined. Here, we use precisely dated intertidal sediments derived from 6 sediment cores on the tectonically stable continental shelf of the East China Sea (ECS) to reconstruct a high-resolution sea-level curve between 14.0 kyr BP and 10.0 kyr BP. Although linear regression analysis suggests that the sea level rose continuously, with an average rate of 10.6 ± 0.6 mm/yr (r = −0.87, p(a)

Quick response (QR) codes are usually scanned in different environments, so they must be robust to variations in illumination, scale, coverage, and camera angles. Aesthetic QR codes improve the visual quality, but subtle changes in their appearance may cause scanning failure. In this article, a new method to generate scanning-robust aesthetic QR codes is proposed, which is based on a module-based scanning probability estimation model that can effectively balance the tradeoff between visual quality and scanning robustness. Our method locally adjusts the luminance of each module by estimating the probability of successful sampling. The approach adopts the hierarchical, coarse-to-fine strategy to enhance the visual quality of aesthetic QR codes, which sequentially generate the following three codes: a binary aesthetic QR code, a grayscale aesthetic QR code, and the final color aesthetic QR code. Our approach also can be used to create QR codes with different visual styles by adjusting some initialization parameters. User surveys and decoding experiments were adopted for evaluating our method compared with state-of-the-art algorithms, which indicates that the proposed approach has excellent performance in terms of both visual quality and scanning robustness.

Dimethylated sulfur compounds play an important role in global sulfur cycle. We investigated the seasonality of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), dimethylsulfide (DMS) and associated processes in two north China marginal seas during 2014 and 2016. High concentrations of DMS, DMSP and DMSO occurred in summer/spring, while the lowest were observed in winter. This clear seasonality was primarily driven by biomass abundance and phytoplankton communities, reflected in chlorophyll a concentrations and the composition/ratios of diatoms and dinoflagellates. The spring maximum was attributed to the annual occurrence of algal bloom. The sea-to-air fluxes of DMS also varied largely between seasons, with an average of 8.84, 11.87, 10.50 and 2.14 μmol m−2 day−1 in spring, summer, autumn and winter, respectively. Given the seasonal uncertainty of sea-to-air flux, the seasonality or situations where specific blooms occur regularly should be considered for accurate estimation of annual global DMS emission.

The spatial distributions, fluxes, and environmental effects of non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) were investigated in the Yellow Sea (YS) and the East China Sea (ECS) in spring. The average concentrations of ethane, propane, i-/n-butane, ethylene, propylene and isoprene in the seawater were 18.1 ± 6.4, 15.4 ± 4.7, 6.8 ± 2.9, 6.4 ± 3.2, 67.1 ± 26.7, 20.5 ± 8.7 and 17.1 ± 11.1 pmol L−1, respectively. The alkenes in the surface seawater were more abundant than their saturated homologs and NMHCs concentrations (with the exception of isoprene) decreased with carbon number. The spatial variations of isoprene were consistent with the distributions of chlorophyll a (Chl-a) and Chaetoceros, Skeletonema, Nitzschia mainly contributed to the production of isoprene, while the others’ distributions might be related to their photochemical production. Observations in atmospheric NMHCs indicated alkanes in the marine atmosphere decreased from inshore to offshore due to influence of the continental emissions, while alkenes were largely derived from the oceanic source. In addition, no apparent diurnal discrepancy of atmospheric NMHCs (except for isoprene) were found between daytime and night. As the main sink of NMHCs in seawater, the average sea-to-air fluxes of ethane, propane, i-/n-butane, ethylene and propylene were 31.70, 29.75, 18.49, 15.89, 239.6, 67.94 and 52.41 nmol m−2 d−1, respectively. The average annual emissions of isoprene accounted for 0.1–1.3% of the global ocean emissions, which indicated that the coastal and shelf areas might be significant sources of isoprene. Furthermore, this study represents the first effort to estimate the environmental effects caused by NMHCs over the YS and the ECS and the results demonstrated contributions of alkanes to ozone and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation were lower than those of the alkenes and the largest contributor was isoprene.

Pervasively implemented IoT systems are introducing unprecedented threats to our society. In this article, aiming to explore the security impact from the emerging and anarchistic IoT systems, we survey the state of the art of the security and privacy issues in the smart IoT world from a networking perspective. We predict that IoT systems will be extensively used by hackers to commit malicious actions given the features of IoT devices and systems. We also discuss the privacy issue caused by IoT systems. Finally, we present our understanding of counterattacks from both the application and theoretical aspects. We hope this article will shed light on the research field for interested readers.

We present X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) Scanner measurements from a 6 m long sediment core (GeoB12624-1) on the upper slope of Tanzania to reconstruct the climatic evolution in East Africa since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Log-ratios of Fe/Ca and Ti/Ca are indicative for sediment discharge of the Rufiji River, which is controlled by climatic conditions in the Rufiji catchment area. The most significant changes in major elemental composition occurred at 15.1 and 7.4 ka highlighted by the regime shift index values. The data set records distinct precipitation peaks during the early Holocene. This corresponds a maximum in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) summer insolation and results in a transition from the arid LGM to the humid early Holocene. Our geochemical record also indicates that this climatic transition was interrupted by two severe droughts that occurred during NH cold intervals: the Heinrich stadial 1 (HS1) and the Younger Dryas (YD). Through a comparison with other nearby paleoclimatic records, we suggest that arid climatic conditions only occurred in East Africa north of 8–10°S, whereas in southern East Africa around 15–20°S increased humidity during the HS1 and YD prevailed. We thus conclude that these two drought events were caused by a southward migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) which was fostered by the NH cooling during the HS1 and YD. Hence, our new geochemical record clearly documents that the East African climate not only responded to low-latitude insolation forcing on sub-orbital time scales, but also, was strongly influenced by high-latitude cooling during the HS1 and YD periods.

Gypsum (CaSO4 center dot 2H(2)O) precipitated in nonevaporative marine environments is rarely reported, and the related diagenetic process and its implications for the sulfur cycle (e.g., sulfide reoxidation) are still not well known. We employ coupled sulfur and oxygen isotopes of authigenic gypsum, as well as sulfur isotopic compositions of pyrite, from core EC2005, which is drilled on the inner shelf of the East China Sea, to constrain the sulfur and oxygen sources for gypsum precipitation. The delta S-34(gypsum) values range from -24.8 to -12.2 parts per thousand, which are much more depleted in S-34 than modem seawater sulfate, suggesting additional S-34-depleted sulfur sources, i.e., coexisting pyrites produced by microbial sulfate reduction. According to a mixing model for paired sulfur isotopes of gypsum and pyrite, > 70% of gypsum sulfur is derived from pyrite reoxidation. The delta O-18(gypsum) values, ranging from 1.1 to 4.6 parts per thousand, suggest that the oxygen isotopes of porewater sulfate should fall between -2.4 and 1.1 parts per thousand, which are more depleted than seawater sulfate in O-18. Two mechanisms are proposed to explain the reoxidation of pyrite at different depths: in the lower section (10-4 m; Unit II), pyrite is oxidized by metal oxides under anaerobic conditions, producing O-18-depleted oxygen from seawater; while in the upper section (4-0 m; Unit I), pyrite reoxidation may occur under aerobic conditions, involving atmospheric oxygen. Either the aerobic or anaerobic mechanisms could cause drops in the porewater pH, leading to carbonate dissolution. These processes could therefore elevate the concentrations of sulfate and calcium ions in porewater, in which authigenic gypsum crystals are precipitated. In addition, both sulfur and oxygen isotopic signals of gypsum indicate a possible influence of methane on sulfate reduction in the mud sediments of core EC2005, which may be related to biogenic gas (dominated by CH4) in this region. Our new findings thus indicate that sulfide reoxidation in marine sediments plays an important role in the biogeochemical sulfur cycle on the continental margin.

In the past decade, the 800 km elongated mud belt off Zhejiang-Fujian coast, East China Sea (ECS), has been extensively studied for understanding the source to sink processes on the East Asian continental margin in the context of the Asian monsoon. However, to better understand the sediment source and dispersal pattern, the existing mineralogical and geochemical data of adjacent river systems, including the Changjiang River (CJR) and local rivers in Zhejiang, Fujian and Taiwan, need to be systematically reviewed. Therefore, various indicators from published literatures for the provenance discrimination in the mud belt have been summarised in this article. The results show that high diversity of clay mineral assemblages in fluvial sediments being supplied into the mud belt, e.g., dominant illite and chlorite in the CJR, absence of smectite in Taiwan rivers, similar amounts of the four clay mineral species in Zhejiang rivers, and dominant kaolinite in Fujian rivers. On heavy mineralogy, the CJR is dominated by dolomite, hornblende, and flaky minerals; and among of them, dolomite is distinctive for the CJR. For geochemical approaches, elemental compositions, combined with strontium and neodymium isotopes, reflect strong provenance control. However, geochemical and mineralogical compositions are found to vary with grain size, and thus extra caution should be taken when using these parameters as provenance indicator to discriminate the marine sediments with variety of grain-size fractions. In addition, pyrrhotite, occurred in fluvial sediments from western Taiwan, has not been found in sediments derived from mainland China, indicating that magnetic parameters could be used to discriminate sediment provenance. The mud belt formed during sea-level highstand, when modern current system in the ECS has been established, resulting in sediments derived from the CJR have been transported southward since 8 ka. In addition, sediment provenances have not been constant since initiation of the mud belt in response to climatic and oceanographic changes during the Holocene, which has been documented by mineral and geochemical signals. Nevertheless significant studies have been carried out, to better understand the formation mechanism for the mud belt and its implications for environmental changes, further studies on sediment provenance throughout the Holocene, in situ observation, and sedimentation dynamical modelling are required.

As an important product of methane seepage, pyrite contains abundant methane seepage information. It is right that the formation mechanisms of authigenic pyrite at methane seepage is still not so clear. We aim to reveal the importance of authigenic pyrite in methane seepage activity through different analytical methods. To this end, the morphological and geochemical characteristics of pyrite in a core obtained from the ‘Haima seep’ sedimentary area were analyzed. The results show that compared with pyrite formed under normal marine sedimentary environments, the pyrite content, degree of pyritization, and sulfur isotope value are higher in the sulfate-methane transition zone (SMTZ), and pyrite has larger mean diameters and standard deviations. These geochemical anomalies suggest four major changes in methane flux at site Q6, focusing anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) for extended periods of time in four subsequent layers termed paleo-SMTZ. Here, changes in methane flux to the SMTZ is mainly due to dissociation of subsurface methane hydrates. Therefore, this study can help us better understand the formation of pyrite under methane seepage activity and provide a scientific basis for identification of methane seepage activity.

Deep-sea sediments are ideal recorders for studying the provenances and relevant chemical and physical weathering of adjacent lands. Major, trace (Fe, K, Al, Ti, V, Rb, Th, and Cr), and rare earth elements (REEs), grain size, and AMS 14C ages were studied on a 4-m-long core CS11 collected from a deep basin in the northern South China Sea (SCS). Core CS11 sediments were mainly derived from southwestern Taiwan Island and transported by the southward bottom current during most of the study periods, except from 37 to 35 kyr BP, when northern Luzon inputs temporarily had influence. For the past 35 kyr, the stacked chemical weathering index (SCWI) correlated well with the worldwide Younger Dryas (YD), Heinrich 1 (H1), Heinrich 2 (H2), and Heinrich 3 (H3) events, indicating global climate control on weathering intensity in this area. However, the SCWI showed the strongest chemical weathering intensity during the low sea level at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) when Taiwan-derived sediments were subaerially exposed on the shelf, chemically weathered and increasingly transported to the deep basin of the SCS. The major factors influencing chemical weathering intensities for sediments in the deep basin of the northern SCS varied on different geological time scales, with climate changes on millennial scales and sea-level changes on orbital scales.

The heavy mineral composition and sensitive grain size changes from core SS4 retrieved from the mud wedge on the East China Sea inner shelf have been studied for better understanding provenance variations in the sediment and climate changes during the last ~1500 yr. High dolomite content and occurrence of ubiquitous polysynthetic mica indicate that the sediments in core SS4 were mainly derived from the Yangtze River, while the relatively high epidote content represent the contribution of small local rivers from Zhejiang and Fujian provinces. The substantial decrease in the epidote/hornblende ratio since ~730 yr BP manifests a decline in the relative contribution of sediment from the small local rivers to the core. We propose that the changes in drought/flood conditions in response to the East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) and human activities might have been mainly responsible for changes in sedimentary characteristics. During 1400–730 yr BP, the core sediments were characterized by relatively finer sensitive grain size and high epidote/hornblende ratio, due to a possibly weaker EAWM (i.e., less Yangtze River-derived sediment transported by the southward coast current). This time interval coincides with the Sui-Tang Warm Period (1400–1130 yr BP) in China and the Medieval Warm Period (1000–730 yr BP) on a broader regional scale. The prolonged warm periods were, however, interrupted by three short cold phases at 1350–1280 yr BP, 1130–1000 yr BP and 870–750 yr BP, characterized by coarse sensitive grain size and decreased epidote/hornblende ratio. Between 360 and 150 yr BP, the sensitive grain size significantly coarsened, which corresponded to the Little Ice Age. Our new findings suggest that sedimentation processes of mud wedge formation are responsive to natural environmental change and human activity.

Both the East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) and El Nino (EN) activities are vital climate modes that regulate the Pacific hydrologic cycle. However, the Holocene interactions among the EAWM, EN activities, and tropical Pacific precipitation remain unclear due to the lack of appropriate EAWM proxies. Here, we present high-resolution grain size records from the East China Sea shelf along with a transient climate model simulation to study the Holocene EAWM evolution and compare the findings with paleo-EN precipitation-related proxies records. The millennial-scale oscillations of grain size records, which are indicative of the intensity of the EAWM-driven coastal current, reveal an anti-phase coupling between the EAWM and EN-related tropical Pacific precipitation on a millennial timescale since 5.8 ka. These results, which are consistent with simulation results, indicate that the intensified EAWM could not only reduce equatorial western Pacific precipitation by reducing the sea surface temperature but also likely change boundary conditions in the tropical Pacific (i.e., the east-west Pacific temperature gradient and westerly anomaly) to favor the formation of subsequent intensive EN activities. The enhanced EN activities, inferred by the positive tropical eastern Pacific precipitation anomalies, could subsequently suppress the EAWM through anomalous low-level anticyclones and associated southerly anomalies, thereby generating intensified tropical western Pacific (mainly tropical monsoon areas) precipitation. Our study highlights these intrinsic interactions during the mid- to late Holocene and has useful implications for understanding this millennial-scale climate oscillation, which may represent periodic atmospheric exchange between high- and low-latitude climate systems by mediating the EAWM.

Human–environment interactions across historical periods in China have been well reconstructed over the past decade; however, few studies have focused on southern China, particularly Hainan Island....