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Although preclinical and clinical studies have shown that exercise can inhibit bone metastasis progression, the mechanism remains poorly understood. Here, we found that non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells adjacent to bone tissue had a much lower proliferative capacity than the surrounding tumor cells in patients and mice. Subsequently, it was demonstrated that osteocytes, sensing mechanical stimulation generated by exercise, inhibit NSCLC cell proliferation and sustain the dormancy thereof by releasing small extracellular vesicles with tumor suppressor micro-RNAs, such as miR-99b-3p. Furthermore, we evaluated the effects of mechanical loading and treadmill exercise on the bone metastasis progression of NSCLC in mice. As expected, mechanical loading of the tibia inhibited the bone metastasis progression of NSCLC. Notably, bone metastasis progression of NSCLC was inhibited by moderate exercise, and combinations with zoledronic acid had additive effects. Moreover, exercise preconditioning effectively suppressed bone metastasis progression. This study significantly advances the understanding of the mechanism underlying exercise-afforded protection against bone metastasis progression.

The quantitative relationship between land use/cover change (LUCC) within basins, lake water environmental factors, and water quality has long been a popular research area. In this study, we investigated three typical basins (Ulansuhai Basin, Daihai Basin, and Dalinor Basin) in arid and semi-arid areas of China. The assessment was based on the China Land Cover Dataset (CLCD), which was used to calculate the land use dynamic degree index and Markov transfer matrix. Moreover, an econometric analysis model and a hybrid evolutionary algorithm (HEA) model were used to explore the quantitative relationship between LUCC and environmental factors on the lake water quality. The results showed that the LUCC of the three lake basins was dominated by cultivated land and grassland over the past 20 years. In all of the basins, grassland and water area were converted into cultivated land, water area decreased to varying degrees, and impervious surface area increased continuously. Moreover, the concentration of TN and TP were generally proportional to chemical oxygen demand concentration (COD), biochemical oxygen demand concentration (BOD5), and dissolved oxygen concentration (DO), but inversely proportional to water depth and transparency; the relationship between Nutrient concentration and pH was usually related to the ecological threshold. On the basin scale, the grassland and forestland played positive roles in improving water quality, while cultivated land and impervious surface were the main factors contributing to water pollution. Overall, this study provides a scientific theoretical basis for the rational utilization of land resources, improvement of lake water quality, and ecological protection of typical lake basins in arid and semi-arid regions.

Abstract Soil freeze–thaw processes lead to high nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions and exacerbate the greenhouse effect. The wetlands of the Inner Mongolia Plateau are in the pronounced seasonal freeze–thaw zone, but the effect of spring thaw on N2O emissions and related microbial mechanisms is still unclear. We investigated the effects of different periods (freeze, freeze–thaw, and thaw) on soil bacterial community diversity and composition and greenhouse gas emissions during the spring freeze–thaw in the XiLin River riparian wetlands in China by amplicon sequencing and static dark box methods. The results showed that the freeze–thaw periods predominantly impact on the diversity and composition of the bacterial communities. The phyla composition of the soil bacteria communities of the three periods is similar in level, with Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Actinobacteria, and Acidobacteria dominating the microbial communities. The alpha‐diversity of bacterial communities in different periods varies that the freezing period is higher than that of the freeze–thaw period (p

The spatial distribution and heterogeneity of soil and vegetation, as the root of the maintenance of ecosystem services in the riparian zone, play a decisive role in the ecological functions of the riverscape. In this study, a field survey of wetland plant communities and soil sampling were conducted in both longitudinal and lateral dimensions from the perspective of the riverscape of the Ulgai River, a typical inland river on the Mongolian Plateau. The diversity of wetland plant communities, soil physicochemical properties, and the correlations between them were systematically analyzed. The results showed that a total of 87 species belonging to 65 genera and 24 families of plants were present, with Asteraceae, Poaceae, and Cyperaceae as the main families. The plant composition and species diversity in the riparian zone at different dimensions showed obvious spatial patterns of succession. Although the correlation coefficient and significance of the physicochemical properties of river length and river width in the study area were different, most correlations remained consistent, among which soil moisture, soil pH, and total carbon were correlated with many physicochemical factors. The soil ammonium and nitrate nitrogen along the river length direction and electrical conductivity and organic carbon content along the river width direction were the main limiting factors affecting the diversity and distribution of plant species in the riparian zone based on the redundancy analysis. This study provides a theoretical basis for the continuous improvement of the current soil quality and the restoration of the degraded wetland ecosystems of inland rivers in arid and semi-arid regions, as well as a new perspective for the study of riverscape ecology.

Lake Ulansuhai, a typical shallow lake in an arid area that is economically and ecologically important along the Yellow River, is currently eutrophic. Long-term (2010–2020) data on chlorophyll-a, nutrient, and environmental factors were obtained from three Lake Ulansuhai monitoring stations. The temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of Chl-a were analyzed. Additionally, a hybrid evolutionary algorithm was established to simulate and predict Chl-a, and sensitivity analysis revealed the interaction between environmental factors and eutrophication. The results indicated that (1) the seasonal variation of eutrophication showed an obvious trend of spring > summer > autumn > winter, and the concentration of Chl-a in the inlet was significantly higher than that in the outlet; (2) The inlet, center, and outlet of Ulansuhai Lake are satisfactorily affected by HEA in the best suited method. The fitting coefficients (R2) of the optimal models were 0.58, 0.59, and 0.62 for the three monitoring stations, and the root mean square errors (RMSE) were 3.89, 3.21, and 3.56, respectively; (3) under certain range and threshold conditions, Chl-a increased with the increase of permanganate index, water temperature, dissolved oxygen concentration, and ammonia nitrogen concentration, but decreased with the increase of water depth, Secchi disk depth, pH, and fluoride concentration. The results indicate that the HEA can simulate and predict the dynamics of Chl-a, and identify and quantify the relationships between eutrophication and the threshold data. The research results provide theoretical basis and technical support for the prediction and have great significance for the improvement of water quality and environmental protection in arid and semi-arid inland lakes.

Concomitant traumatic brain injury accelerates bone healing, but the mechanism is unclear. Here, the authors show that injured neurons, mainly those in the hippocampus, release osteogenic miRNA-enriched small extracellular vesicles, which targete osteoprogenitors to stimulate bone formation.

Increasing evidence indicates that the Aquaporin1 (AQP1) aberrant expression may be related to a wide variety of human cancers, including breast cancer (BC). In the present study, we explore the effects and possible mechanism of miR-3194-3p on the biological behaviors of BC. At first, miR-3194-3p is found to modulate AQP1 expression targeting the 3′-UTR using miRNA target prediction algorithms. MiR-3194-3p expression is markedly downregulated, and AQP1 expression is upregulated in BC tissues compared with adjacent normal breast tissues. Moreover, the differential expression of miR-3194-3p and AQP1 are observed in four BC cells with different malignancy degree. Meanwhile, a significant negative correlation between AQP1 and miR-3194-3p expressions in tumor tissues from 30 BC patients is revealed. miR-3194-3p mimic remarkably inhibits cell proliferation, migration, and invasion as well as promotes apoptosis in MDA-MB-231 cells while miR-3194-3p inhibitors exert an opposite role in MCF-7 cells. Dual-luciferase reporter system demonstrates that AQP1 is a direct target gene of miR-3194-3p. Overexpression of AQP1 by pBABE-puro-AQP1 vector partially abrogates the effect of miR-3194-3p mimic in MDA-MB-231 cells. In short, our results suggest that miR-3194-3p suppresses BC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion by targeting AQP1, providing a novel insight into BC tumorigenesis and treatment.

It is vital to develop high-throughput methods to determine transgene copy numbers initially and zygosity during subsequent breeding. In this study, the target sequence of the previously reported endogenous reference gene hmg was analyzed using 633 maize inbred lines, and two SNPs were observed. These SNPs significantly increased the PCR efficiency, while the newly developed hmg gene assay (hmg-taq-F2/R2) excluding these SNPs reduced the efficiency into normal ranges. The TaqMan amplification efficiency of bar and hmg with newly developed primers was calculated as 0.993 and 1.000, respectively. The inter-assay coefficient of variation (CV) values for the bar and hmg genes varied from 1.18 to 2.94%. The copy numbers of the transgene bar using new TaqMan assays were identical to those using dPCR. Significantly, the precision of one repetition reached 96.7% of that of three repetitions of single-copy plants analyzed by simple random sampling, and the actual accuracy reached 95.8%, confirmed by T1 and T2 progeny. With the high-throughput DNA extraction and automated data analysis procedures developed in this study, nearly 2700 samples could be analyzed within eight hours by two persons. The combined results suggested that the new hmg gene assay developed here could be a universal maize reference gene system, and the new assay has high throughput and high accuracy for large-scale screening of maize varieties around the world.

Case teaching method is a common teaching method in teaching. In recent years, the case teaching method is widely applied in the teaching of ideological and political courses, but in the actual operational process, the case teaching also has a series of problems. This paper aims to illustrate the important role of fit cases in improving the teaching effectiveness of ideological and political courses by sorting out various problems emerging when using cases during the teaching of ideological and political courses. In the end, the paper points out how to use the computer software technology and informationbased teaching method to precisely apply the fit cases into the teaching process of ideological and political courses in the background of information-based teaching, to make case teaching alive really and realize the true effectiveness of case teaching in the teaching of ideological and political courses.

This study blended five types of beans—florid kidney bean, red adzuki bean, chickpea, black bean, and white kidney bean—with glutinous rice flour (GRF) to create a synergistic heat–moisture treatment (HMT). We investigated the effects of this combination on the digestibility of the glutinous rice mixture and the quality of sweet dumplings. The inclusion of beans, along with HMT, altered the granular morphology, adhesive qualities, thermal characteristics, crystallinity, and protein secondary structure of the blended powders compared to GRF. Notably, the starch granules in the glutinous rice flour with red adzuki bean (R‐GRF) were more complete in morphology, compact in structure, and exhibited higher heat stabilization and crystallinity, with significant changes in protein secondary structure. These modifications resulted in a low expected glycemic index (eGI) value of 52.01. Additionally, the quality assessment of the fast‐frozen sweet dumplings showed that those made with red adzuki bean mixed with glutinous rice flour (R‐SD) had superior texture, reduced cracking, and less water loss compared to those made with GRF (G‐SD), while maintaining similar color and odor to G‐SD. The eGI value of 52.21 for R‐SD also fell within the low eGI range, indicating its potential for developing low‐eGI foods for patients with T2DM and other special populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: To map risk of exposure to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in an urban area and assess the ability of traditional interventions to control dispersion of the disease. METHODS: Data on the Beijing SARS epidemic were used to map spatial clusters of identified contacts and to estimate transmission of SARS using a model with a time-dependent transmission rate. RESULTS: The estimated transmission rate decreased dramatically from 20 to 30 April 2003. The total number of cases in the epidemic in Beijing was estimated to be 2521. Hierarchical clustering revealed that risk-exposures were widespread, but clustered in a pattern that is distinctly related to the Beijing urban ring roads. CONCLUSION: Traditional control measures can be very effective at reducing transmission of SARS. Spatial patterns of risk-exposures can inform disease surveillance, prediction and control by identifying spatial target areas on which interventions should be focused.