Breast cancer is a high-risk disease with a high mortality rate among women. Chemotherapy plays an important role in the treatment of breast cancer. However, chemotherapy eventually results in tumours that are resistant to drugs. In recent years, many studies have revealed that the activation of Wnt/β-catenin signalling is crucial for the emergence and growth of breast tumours as well as the development of drug resistance. Additionally, drugs that target this pathway can reverse drug resistance in breast cancer therapy. Traditional Chinese medicine has the properties of multi-target and tenderness. Therefore, integrating traditional Chinese medicine and modern medicine into chemotherapy provides a new strategy for reversing the drug resistance of breast tumours. This paper mainly reviews the possible mechanism of Wnt/β-catenin in promoting the process of breast tumour drug resistance, and the progress of alkaloids extracted from traditional Chinese medicine in the targeting of this pathway in order to reverse the drug resistance of breast cancer.

The rearrangement of drainage basins provides critical insight into crustal deformation and geodynamic mechanisms. Near the southeastern boundary of the Tibetan Plateau, the Dadu River abruptly shifts from south- to east-flowing, providing important implications for regional tectonogeomorphic development since the mid-Pleistocene. South of the bend, the headwaters of the Anning River occupy an unusually wide valley. Field investigations show that large quantities of fluvial/lacustrine sediments are widespread along the Dadu and Anning rivers and are exposed at their drainage divide. Detrital zircon U-Pb age patterns confirm that these fluvial/lacustrine sediments are the remnants of the paleo-Dadu River, which strongly suggests that the paleo-Dadu River originally flowed southward into the Anning River. The cosmogenic nuclide burial ages of the lacustrine sediments along the Dadu and Anning rivers suggest deposition of these sediments from separate dammed lakes ca. 1.2 Ma ago, ca. 0.6 Ma ago, and ca. 0.9 Ma ago from north to south, respectively. Provenance and burial-age studies indicate that reorganization of the Dadu drainage occurred within the last 0.6 Ma. We propose that this drainage reorganization in southeastern Tibet resulted from progressive convergence between the India and Eurasian plates during the Pleistocene.

Coastal eutrophication and hypoxia remain a persistent environmental crisis despite the great efforts to reduce nutrient loading and mitigate associated environmental damages. Symptoms of this crisis have appeared to spread rapidly, reaching developing countries in Asia with emergences in Southern America and Africa. The pace of changes and the underlying drivers remain not so clear. To address the gap, we review the up-to-date status and mechanisms of eutrophication and hypoxia in global coastal oceans, upon which we examine the trajectories of changes over the 40 years or longer in six model coastal systems with varying socio-economic development statuses and different levels and histories of eutrophication. Although these coastal systems share common features of eutrophication, site-specific characteristics are also substantial, depending on the regional environmental setting and level of social-economic development along with policy implementation and management. Nevertheless, ecosystem recovery generally needs greater reduction in pressures compared to that initiated degradation and becomes less feasible to achieve past norms with a longer time anthropogenic pressures on the ecosystems. While the qualitative causality between drivers and consequences is well established, quantitative attribution of these drivers to eutrophication and hypoxia remains difficult especially when we consider the social economic drivers because the changes in coastal ecosystems are subject to multiple influences and the cause–effect relationship is often non-linear. Such relationships are further complicated by climate changes that have been accelerating over the past few decades. The knowledge gaps that limit our quantitative and mechanistic understanding of the human-coastal ocean nexus are identified, which is essential for science-based policy making. Recognizing lessons from past management practices, we advocate for a better, more efficient indexing system of coastal eutrophication and an advanced regional earth system modeling framework with optimal modules of human dimensions to facilitate the development and evaluation of effective policy and restoration actions.

The codling moth Cydia pomonella is a major pest of global significance impacting pome fruits and walnuts. It threatens the apple industry in the Loess Plateau and Bohai Bay in China. Sterile insect technique (SIT) could overcome the limitations set by environmentally compatible area-wide integrated pest management (AW-IPM) approaches such as mating disruption and attract-kill that are difficult to suppress in a high-density pest population, as well as the development of insecticide resistance. In this study, we investigated the effects of X-ray irradiation (183, 366, 549 Gy) on the fecundity and fertility of a laboratory strain of C. pomonella, using a newly developed irradiator, to evaluate the possibility of X-rays as a replacement for Cobalt60 (60Co-γ) and the expanded future role of this approach in codling moth control. Results show that the 8th-day is the optimal age for irradiation of male pupae. The fecundity decreased significantly as the dosage of radiation increased. The mating ratio and mating number were not influenced. However, treated females were sub-sterile at a radiation dose of 183 Gy (20.93%), and were almost 100% sterile at a radiation dose of 366 Gy or higher. Although exposure to a radiation dose of 366 Gy resulted in a significant reduction in the mating competitiveness of male moths, our radiation biology results suggest that this new generation of X-ray irradiator has potential applications in SIT programs for future codling moth control.

The gut microbiota plays an important role in animals’ survival in their local environments. The intertidal rocky shore is a key interface of oceanic, atmospheric and terrestrial environments, and the transmission modes of microbes between an intertidal host and the environment are complex and largely ignored. In the present study, we characterized the gut microbiota of the intertidal snail Nerita yoldii, which is experiencing a northward range shift under the combined impacts of climate change and anthropogenic seascape transformation, and also determined the nearby environmental microbiota on the rock and in the seawater at five locations along the snail's distribution range in China. The gut microbial communities were significantly different from the environmental microbial communities, and the dominant phyla were Tenericutes, Cyanobacteria and Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria in the gut, rock and seawater microbial communities, respectively. At the genus level, Mycoplasma, with a relative abundance of 48.0 ± 10.2%, was the dominant genus in the gut microbial community, however, the relative abundances of this genus on the rock and in the water were low. These results imply that the gut microbial community of the intertidal snail N. yoldii is relatively independent from the environmental microbial community, and the dominant genus Mycoplasma in the gut, that is rare in the environment, can potentially assist the snail living in the harsh intertidal environment, especially at its northernmost distribution range edge.

Athetis lepigone Möschler (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae) is a common maize pest in Europe and Asia. However, there is no long-term effective management strategy is available yet to suppress its population. Adults rely heavily on olfactory cues to locate their optimal host plants and oviposition sites. Pheromone-binding proteins (PBPs) are believed to be responsible for recognizing and transporting different odorant molecules to interact with receptor membrane proteins. In this study, the ligand-binding specificities of two AlepPBPs (AlepPBP2 and AlepPBP3) for sex pheromone components and host plant (maize) volatiles were measured by fluorescence ligand-binding assay. The results demonstrated that AlepPBP2 had a high affinity with two pheromones [(Z)-7-dodecenyl acetate, Ki = 1.11 ± 0.1 μM, (Z)-9-tetradecenyl acetate, Ki = 1.32 ± 0.15 μM] and ten plant volatiles, including (-)-limonene, α-pinene, myrcene, linalool, benzaldehyde, nonanal, 2-hexanone, 3-hexanone, 2-heptanone and 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one. In contrast, we found that none of these chemicals could bind to AlepPBP3. Our results clearly show no significant differences in the functional characterization of the binding properties between AlepPBP2 and AlepPBP3 to sex pheromones and host plant volatiles. Furthermore, molecular docking was employed for further detail on some crucial amino acid residues involved in the ligand-binding of AlepPBP2. These findings will provide valuable information about the potential protein binding sites necessary for protein-ligand interactions which appear as attractive targets for the development of novel technologies and management strategies for insect pests.

Evidence of couples’ BMI and its influence on birth weight is limited and contradictory. Therefore, this study aims to assess the association between couple’s preconception BMI and the risk of small for gestational age (SGA)/large for gestational age (LGA) infant, among over 4·7 million couples in a retrospective cohort study based on the National Free Pre-pregnancy Checkups Project between 1 December 2013 and 30 November 2016 in China. Among the live births, 256 718 (5·44 %) SGA events and 506 495 (10·73 %) LGA events were documented, respectively. After adjusting for confounders, underweight men had significantly higher risk (OR 1·17 (95 % CI 1·15, 1·19)) of SGA infants compared with men with normal BMI, while a significant and increased risk of LGA infants was obtained for overweight and obese men (OR 1·08 (95 % CI 1·06, 1·09); OR 1·19 (95 % CI 1·17, 1·20)), respectively. The restricted cubic spline result revealed a non-linear decreasing dose–response relationship of paternal BMI (less than 22·64) with SGA. Meanwhile, a non-linear increasing dose–response relationship of paternal BMI (more than 22·92) with LGA infants was observed. Moreover, similar results about the association between maternal preconception BMI and SGA/LGA infants were obtained. Abnormal preconception BMI in either women or men were associated with increased risk of SGA/LGA infants, respectively. Overall, couple’s abnormal weight before pregnancy may be an important preventable risk factor for SGA/LGA infants.

Primitive lamprophyres in orogenic belts can provide crucial insights into the nature of the subcontinental lithosphere and the relevant deep crust–mantle interactions. This paper reports a suite of relatively primitive lamprophyre dykes from the North Qiangtang, central Tibetan Plateau. Zircon U–Pb ages of the lamprophyre dykes range from 214 Ma to 218 Ma, with a weighted mean age of 216 ± 1 Ma. Most of the lamprophyre samples are similar in geochemical compositions to typical primitive magmas (e.g. high MgO contents, Mg no. values and Cr, with low FeOt/MgO ratios), although they might have experienced a slightly low degree of olivine crystallization, and they show arc-like trace-element patterns and enriched Sr–Nd isotopic composition ((87Sr/86Sr)i = 0.70538–0.70540, ϵNd(t) = −2.96 to −1.65). Those geochemical and isotopic variations indicate that the lamprophyre dykes originated from partial melting of a phlogopite- and spinel-bearing peridotite mantle modified by subduction-related aqueous fluids. Combining with the other regional studies, we propose that slab subduction might have occurred during Late Triassic time, and the rollback of the oceanic lithosphere induced the lamprophyre magmatism in the central Tibetan Plateau.

The Dazl (deleted in azoospermia-like) gene encodes an RNA-binding protein containing an RNA recognition motif (RRM) and a DAZ motif. Dazl is essential for gametogenesis in vertebrates. In this study, we report the cloning of Dazl cDNA from Cynops cyanurus. Ccdazl mRNA showed a germline-specific expression pattern as expected. Ccdazl expression gradually decreased during oogenesis, suggesting that it may be involved in oocyte development. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the Ccdazl protein shares conserved motifs/domains with Dazl proteins from other species. Cloning of Ccdazl provides a new tool to carry out comparative studies of germ cell development in amphibians.

Anaemia is a global public health problem affecting women worldwide, and reproductive-age women are at increased risk. We conducted a population-based cross-sectional study analysing the prevalence of overall anaemia and anaemia according to severity in Chinese pre-pregnant women to update current knowledge on anaemia epidemiology. Based on the National Free Preconception Check-up Projects supported by the Chinese government, 5 679 782 women participating in this project in 2017 were included in the present study. The cyanmethemoglobin method was applied to assess Hb concentrations. Univariate and multivariate logistic regressions were applied for associated factors. The prevalence of anaemia among Chinese pre-pregnant women was 21·64 % (mild: 14·10 %, moderate: 7·17 % and severe : 0·37 %). The prevalence of overall and severe anaemia was the highest in Tibet and the lowest in Beijing among thirty-one provinces. Women’s age, region, ethnic origin, educational level, occupation and pregnancy history were all correlated with anaemia. Women with B blood type (adjusted OR (aOR) = 0·89), higher BMI (overweight: aOR = 0·84; obesity: aOR = 0·70) and alcohol consumption (aOR = 0·69) were less likely to have anaemia, while those with rhesus negative blood type (aOR = 1·10), history of anaemia (aOR = 2·60), older age at menarche (aOR = 1·19), heavy menstrual blood loss (aOR = 1·39), longer menstrual period (aOR = 1·09) and shorter menstrual cycle (aOR = 1·08) were more likely to suffer from anaemia. Meat or egg eaters were not significantly associated with severe anaemia. Anaemia is of moderate public health significance among Chinese pre-pregnant women. Interventions should be considered to prevent anaemia to the greatest extent possible to avoid potential harm in this population.

In recent years, intracranial thrombectomy stent has been an important method to treat ischemic stroke caused by acute thrombosis. In this paper, a new intracranial thrombectomy stent with a fish scale-like structure was designed and its mechanical properties were studied by a finite element method. The porosity of all stents was more than 80%. The space occupation ratio (SOR) of the stents increased linearly with the increase of strut thickness, while the strut width had little effect on SOR. The maximum equivalent stress and strain, the directional deformation and overall radial load of the stent decreased with the increase of strut thickness, however, the strut width has little impact on these parameters. The stents with 0.2 mm strut width and the thickness of 0.15 and 0.20 mm had better radial load performance, and the stent with 0.2 mm strut width and 0.15 mm strut thickness had better contact performance with the vessel wall and displayed better flexibility. Therefore, the present study provides a theoretical basis for the design of new intracranial thrombectomy stent.

This research involves a compact wideband circularly-polarized antenna array, which consists of a sequential rotating phase feed network, 2 × 2 mushroom-type metamaterial (MTM) unit, and so on. Each antenna array unit contains a microstrip feedline, an L-shaped slot antenna, and so on. The MTM-based antennas were incorporated with a sequential-phase network of sequentially rotated series-parallel feed to achieve wideband operation. The operational bandwidth and the radiation model in the high-frequency area were improved through the adjustment of spacing between the L-shaped slots while maintaining the size and structure of the MTM. The proposed design had dimensions of 80 mm × 80 mm × 3.5 mm (~1.64 λ0 × 1.64 λ0 × 0.072 λ0 at 6.15 GHz), and it was simulated, fabricated, and tested.

There is growing evidence that suggests the association of vitamin D status with the development and progression of heart failure (HF). The objective of the present study is to assess the impact of concentration of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) on cardiac prognosis in patients with HF. Between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2016, we consecutively recruited patients with HF. Patients were followed prospectively for a median duration of 1 year. Serum concentration of 25(OH)D was measured with competitive chemiluminescent immunoassay. The endpoints were cardiac events, including CVD death and rehospitalisation for worsening HF. Univariate and multivariable adjustments were performed with Cox proportional-hazard regression analyses. The 25(OH)D concentration was obtained in 343 patients with a median value of 17·4 (interquartile range 12·6–23·4) ng/ml. There were 102 cardiac events, including forty-three deaths and fifty-nine rehospitalisations. Multivariate Cox hazard analysis found that the serum concentration 25(OH)D was independently associated with cardiac events (hazard ratio 0·93, 95 % CI 0·88, 0·97) and CVD mortality (hazard ratio 0·83; 95 % CI 0·77, 0·89) after adjustment for confounding factors. We divided the HF patients into four groups according to the 25(OH)D quartiles. Kaplan–Meier analysis found that the patients with lower serum 25(OH)D concentration had a higher risk of cardiac events or CVD mortality than those with high serum 25(OH)D concentration (log-rank test P < 0·001 and P = 0·032). Decreased serum concentrations of 25(OH)D were associated with cardiac prognosis and CVD mortality in a Chinese population with HF independent of other baseline HF markers.

Living Caprini are dominant bovids in the pan-Tibetan area that are strongly adapted to dry steppe and high-mountain meadow habitats. Some taxa with Holarctic distributions, e.g., Ovis Linnaeus, 1758, were thought to originate on the Tibetan Plateau and subsequently dispersed elsewhere, which was depicted as an ‘out of Tibet’ story. However, except for some information on a stem caprine assemblage from the Qaidam Basin, the early evolution of Caprini around the Tibetan Plateau is poorly known. Here, we report new material of Olonbulukia tsaidamensis Bohlin, 1937, which was a member of this stem caprine assemblage, from the Wuzhong region, northern China, confirming the similarity of the Wuzhong Fauna and ‘Qaidam Fauna.’ Based on a biometric study of horncores from the ‘Qaidam’ and Wuzhong faunas, we recognize six taxa from this stem caprine assemblage: O. tsaidamensis, O. sp., Qurliqnoria cheni Bohlin, 1937, Tossunnoria pseudibex Bohlin, 1937, ?Protoryx cf. P. enanus Köhler, 1987, and cf. Pachytragus sp. Among these taxa, Q. cheni and T. pseudibex are probably related to some extant Tibetan endemic species, e.g., the Tibetan antelope, Pantholops hodgsonii (Abel, 1826), and the Himalayan tahr, Hemitragus jemlahicus (Smith, 1826). Others might be ancestral to the Turolian caprine assemblages and even possibly gave rise to the extant Caprina. This work reveals an early radiation of stem caprines along the northern side of the rising Tibetan Plateau and indicates a mixed pattern of pan-Tibetan stem caprine evolution prior to their dispersal out of the Tibetan Plateau.

This paper summarizes our recent works of studying AGN feedback in an isolated elliptical galaxy by performing high-resolution hydrodynamical numerical simulations. Bondi radius is resolved and the mass accretion rate of the black hole is calculated. The most updated AGN physics, namely the discrimination of cold and hot accretion modes and the exact descriptions of the AGN radiation and wind for a given accretion rate are adopted and their interaction with the gas in the host galaxy is calculated. Physical processes such as star formation and SNe feedback are taken into account. Consistent with observation, we find the AGN spends most of the time in the low-luminosity regime. AGN feedback overall suppresses the star formation; but depending on location in the galaxy and time, it can also enhance it. The light curve of specific star formation rate is not synchronous with the AGN light curve. These results put a serious challenge to the observational test of the relation between AGN activity and star formation. We find that wind usually plays a dominant role in controlling the AGN luminosity and star formation, but radiation also cannot be neglected.

This paper is devoted to time domain numerical solutions of two-dimensional (2D) material interface problems governed by the transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) Maxwell's equations with discontinuous electromagnetic solutions. Due to the discontinuity in wave solutions across the interface, the usual numerical methods will converge slowly or even fail to converge. This calls for the development of advanced interface treatments for popular Maxwell solvers. We will investigate such interface treatments by considering two typical Maxwell solvers – one based on collocation formulation and another based on Galerkin formulation. To restore the accuracy reduction of the collocation finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) algorithm near an interface, the physical jump conditions relating discontinuous wave solutions on both sides of the interface must be rigorously enforced. For this purpose, a novel matched interface and boundary (MIB) scheme is proposed in this work, in which new jump conditions are derived so that the discontinuous and staggered features of electric and magnetic field components can be accommodated. The resulting MIB time-domain (MIBTD) scheme satisfies the jump conditions locally and suppresses the staircase approximation errors completely over the Yee lattices. In the discontinuous Galerkin time-domain (DGTD) algorithm – a popular GalerkinMaxwell solver, a proper numerical flux can be designed to accurately capture the jumps in the electromagnetic waves across the interface and automatically preserves the discontinuity in the explicit time integration. The DGTD solution to Maxwell interface problems is explored in this work, by considering a nodal based high order discontinuous Galerkin method. In benchmark TM and TE tests with analytical solutions, both MIBTD and DGTD schemes achieve the second order of accuracy in solving circular interfaces. In comparison, the numerical convergence of the MIBTD method is slightly more uniform, while the DGTD method is more flexible and robust.

Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) have attracted much interest owing to their unique optical properties. In this paper, a facile process has been successfully developed to synthesize the SiO2/Au hybrid microspheres with a diameter of 200 nm via the galvanic replacement of SiO2/Ag hybrid microspheres and chlorauric acid (HAuCl4) solution. The as-prepared products were investigated by x-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM, JEOL-6700F), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM, JEOL 3010), respectively. As expected, the as-prepared SiO2/Au hybrid microspheres show strong chemical stability and superior catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP). The SiO2/Au hybrid microspheres would be found widely used in wastewater treatment, catalytic reaction, bacteriostatic and bactericidal applications.