Dysfunctional miRNA-Mediated Regulation in Chromophobe Renal Cell Carcinoma

<div><p>Past research on pathogenesis of a complex disease suggests that differentially expressed message RNAs (mRNAs) can be noted as biomarkers of a disease. However, significant miRNA-mediated regulation change might also be more deep underlying cause of a disease. In this study, a miRNA-mediated regulation module is defined based on GO terms (Gene Ontology terms) from which dysfunctional modules are identified as the suspected cause of a disease. A miRNA-mediated regulation module contains mRNAs annotated to a GO term and MicroRNAs (miRNAs) which regulate the mRNAs. Based on the miRNA-mediated regulation coefficients estimated from the expression profiles of the mRNA and the miRNAs, a SW (single regulation-weight) value is then designed to evaluate the miRNA-mediated regulation change of an mRNA, and the modules with significantly differential SW values are thus identified as dysfunctional modules. The approach is applied to Chromophobe renal cell carcinoma and it identifies 70 dysfunctional miRNA-mediated regulation modules from initial 4381 modules. The identified dysfunctional modules are detected to be comprehensive reflection of chromophobe renal cell carcinoma. The proposed approach suggests that accumulated alteration in miRNA-mediated regulation might cause functional alterations, which further cause a disease. Moreover, this approach can also be used to identify diffentially miRNA-mediated regulated mRNAs showing more comprehensive underlying association with a disease than differentially expressed mRNAs.</p></div

Identified Dysfunctional MMRMs.

<p>Identified Dysfunctional MMRMs.</p

Flowchart of the approach.

<p>(1) Regulation relationship between a miRNA and an mRNA is predicated. (2) Regulation coefficients are estimated, and SW values are computed. (3) MMRMs are created and dysfunctional ones are identified.</p

Regulation coefficients estimation between multiple miRNAs and a target mRNA.

<p>The dependent variable is an m-by-1 vector (m is the number of samples), in which each value is the expression of an mRNA sample. The explanatory variables is a m-by-n matrix, in which each column is the expression values of a miRNA across all the samples, and n is the number of miRNAs which regulate the mRNA. A n-by-1 vector [<i>w</i>₁₁ <i>w</i>₂₁ ⋯ <i>w</i>_<i>n</i>1]^<i>T</i> is then returned, and each value in the vector is a regulation coefficient.</p

Quantile-adaptive variable screening in ultra-high dimensional varying coefficient models

<div><p>The varying-coefficient model is an important nonparametric statistical model since it allows appreciable flexibility on the structure of fitted model. For ultra-high dimensional heterogeneous data it is very necessary to examine how the effects of covariates vary with exposure variables at different quantile level of interest. In this paper, we extended the marginal screening methods to examine and select variables by ranking a measure of nonparametric marginal contributions of each covariate given the exposure variable. Spline approximations are employed to model marginal effects and select the set of active variables in quantile-adaptive framework. This ensures the sure screening property in quantile-adaptive varying-coefficient model. Numerical studies demonstrate that the proposed procedure works well for heteroscedastic data.</p></div

Photochemical Removal of SO₂ over TiO₂‑Based Nanofibers by a Dry Photocatalytic Oxidation Process

Efficient and economical technologies are essential to the control of SO₂, the emission of which poses serious health concerns and environmental risks. Photocatalysis is an attractive method for reducing SO₂ emissions. To reduce energy consumption for excess moisture evaporation, a dry photocatalytic oxidation (DPCO) system was used instead of a traditional gas–liquid process in this study. Considering that TiO₂ is a widely applied photocatalyst for the purification of gaseous pollutants, this study investigated the photocatalytic removal of SO₂ over different TiO₂-based nanofibers. Results show that the reduction of SO₂ was mainly due to oxidation. Under ultraviolet irradiation, the removal of SO₂ was enhanced by the presence of NO₂, which was formed by the oxidation of NO. More interestingly, the SO₂ removal efficiency remains 100% over cerium-based titania nanofibers with an increase in gas humidity, indicating that this sample has excellent resistance to H₂O. This is very beneficial for application in an actual flue gas atmosphere, where H₂O is inevitable. In contrast, H₂O played a bifacial effect in the photocatalytic removal of SO₂ over copper-based titania nanofibers. Under low levels of H₂O (<4%), competitive adsorption for active sites leads to the deactivation of photocatalytic activity, while addition of 8% H₂O resulted in more SO₂ dissolution. Nevertheless, the promoting effect was limited; competitive adsorption was the major factor. Accordingly, the main reaction products are H₂SO₄ and H₂SO₃. These indicate that combining photocatalysis technology with TiO₂-based nanofibers is a promising strategy for oxidizing SO₂ during a DPCO process

Two Branched Silicone Resins with Different Reactive Groups: A Comparative Evaluation

In this study, vinyl-terminated polysiloxane (abbreviated VISR) and allyl-terminated polysiloxane (abbreviated ALSR) were synthesized and characterized. The curing behaviors and viscoelastic and thermal properties of VISR/PHSR and ALSR/PHSR were comparatively investigated. DSC and in situ FT-IR spectroscopy can be adopted to study the influence of molecular structures on reactivity. The results prove that ALSR/PHSR shows higher reactivity including a higher reaction rate constant and cure degree than VISR/PHSR. Moreover, it is found that the Šesták-Berggren equation can adequately depict the cure kinetic model of silicone resin in hydrosilylation comparing the calculated results with experimental data. Additionally, DMA exhibits that the glass transition temperature and cross-linking density of ALSR/PHSR are much lower than those of VISR/PHSR, TGA data reveal that they have similar thermal stability as well as high char yield, and the decomposition energy ranges from 100 to 270 kJ/mol with increment of degree of mass conversion (α_d) (α_d = 0.15–0.85)

Comprehensive Evaluation of Mercury Photocatalytic Oxidation by Cerium-Based TiO₂ Nanofibers

Efficient and economical technologies are essential to the control of mercury, the emission of which imposes serious health concerns and environmental risks. Photocatalysis is an attractive method for reducing mercury emissions. Considering that titania is widely applied in the photodegradation of toxic contaminants, this study investigated the removal of mercury over cerium-based titania nanofibers (CBTs) at low temperature. According to the results, in the atmosphere containing SO₂, both catalyst and UV proposed adverse effect on Hg⁰ oxidation. The competition between SO₂ and Hg⁰ for active sites and the formation of cerium sulfate are responsible for the deactivation of Hg⁰ removal capacity. More interestingly, without O₂, NO and HCl still exerted a superior promoting effect on mercury removal. Entirely different from the properties under SO₂, UV and catalyst both facilitated Hg⁰ oxidation with the existence of HCl. Meanwhile, effects of the copresence of NO and SO₂ on Hg⁰ removal were further investigated. NO was the most dominant gas component enhancing the removal capacity. Considerable high removal efficiency (>80%) was observed in the presence of 300 ppm of NO and 400 ppm of SO₂. These indicate that combining photocatalysis technology with CBTs is a promising strategy to oxidize mercury under low-rank coal combustion flue gas in which the concentration of HCl is relatively low

Defect Engineering of Air-Treated WO₃ and Its Enhanced Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalytic and Electrochemical Performance

In this paper, we reported that oxygen vacancies could be introduced in tungsten oxide hierarchical nanostructures through air treatment at certain temperatures. The production of oxygen vacancies may be due to two mechanisms, i.e., critical phase transition and nanoscale inhomogeneous deformation, depending on the annealing temperature or time and the size of the building block. The oxygen vacancies can be introduced at 300 and 350 °C when critical phase transformation from orthorhombic WO₃·0.33H₂O to hexagonal WO₃ takes place or 350 and 400 °C when nanoscale inhomogeneous deformation occurs in the nanobelts. Moreover, the oxygen vacancy concentration is also influenced by the annealing time. For comparison, the oxygen vacancies are also introduced by hydrogen treatment. It is found that a certain amount of oxygen vacancies introduced by air treatment could trap and transfer electrons, thus decreasing the electron–hole recombination rate and improving the conductivity, while an abundance of oxygen vacancies introduced by hydrogen treatment could facilitate the electron–hole pair recombination and destroy the hexagonal tunnel structure, resulting in lower photocatalytic activity and electrochemical performance. Through air treatment, the constant rate of photocatalytic performance in degrading rhodamine B under visible light irradiation can reach 0.0300 min^–1, and the specific capacitance can improve to 166.7 F/g. It is suggested that both photocatalytic activity and electrochemical performance can be greatly improved by introducing a proper concentration of oxygen vacancies through air treatment

Cross-Linked Polyamides Synthesized through a Michael Addition Reaction Coupled with Bulk Polycondensation

A simple route is described to synthesize cross-linked polyamides (cPAs) with excellent mechanical properties at mild conditions through a Michael addition reaction coupled with bulk polycondensation. A Michael addition of methyl acrylate with 1,6-hexanediamine was conducted in a bulk state at a N–H/CC molar ratio of 1:1 under normal pressure at 50 °C, and a hexanediamine-tetraester was prepared. Bulk polycondensation of the hexanediamine-tetraester with 1,6-hexanediamine and isophoronediamine was conducted at 170 °C for 1 h and then in tetrafluoroethylene mold under reduced pressure for another 8 h. A series of cPA films were prepared. The Michael addition and the polycondensation were monitored by Fourier transform infrared, ¹H NMR, and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry spectra. The cPA films were characterized with differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, dynamic mechanical analysis, and a tensile test. These cPAs exhibited <i>T</i>_g ranging from 37 to 61 °C, tensile strength up to 71 MPa, and strain at break of about 11%