Long Non-Coding RNA-TMPO-AS1 as ceRNA Binding to let-7c-5p Upregulates STRIP2 Expression and Predicts Poor Prognosis in Lung Adenocarcinoma

Background: Striatin-interacting protein 2 (STRIP2), also called Fam40b, has been reported to regulate tumor cell growth. But the role of STRIP2 in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) has not been discovered clearly. Thus, the aim of our study is to explore the function and underlying mechanism of STRIP2 in LUAD. Methods: Expression of STRIP2 was determined using the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), GTEx, Ualcan, and the Human Protein Altas databases. The Correlation of STRIP2 and survival was detected by PrognoScan and Kaplan–Meier plotter databases. Besides, the correlation between STRIP2 expression and tumor immune infiltration as well as immune checkpoints were analyzed by the ssGSEA method. The biological function of STRIP2 and its co-expression genes was determined by gene ontology (GO) and Genes and Genomes (KEGG), respectively. Finally, the expression level and biological function of STRIP2 in LUAD were determined by qPCR, CCK8, transwell, and wound healing assays. Results: This manuscript revealed a significantly increased expression of mRNA and protein of STRIP2 in lung adenocarcinoma compared with the adjacent normal tissues. GEO and Kaplan–Meier plotter databases showed higher STRIP2 expression levels were correlated with poor prognosis survival of LUAD. Moreover, Cox regression analysis suggested that a higher STRIP2 level served as an independent risk factor in predicting deteriorative overall survival (OS) for LUAD patients. SsGSEA results showed STRIP2 expression level was positively correlated with infiltrating levels of Th2 cells in LUAD. Lastly, GO analysis indicated the biological processes were enriched in nuclear division and positive regulation of the cell cycle. KEGG signaling pathway analysis showed STRIP2 was correlated with the MAPK signaling pathway and the TNF signaling pathway. The GSEA database showed that STRIP2 was positively associated with the epithelial–mesenchymal transition, cell cycle, and TNF signaling pathway. The QRT-PCR assay showed that STRIP2 was upregulated in LUAD cell lines. Cell proliferation and migration were inhibited in LUAD by knockdown of STRIP2. Moreover, we confirmed that the TMPO-AS1/let-7c-5p/STRIP2 network regulates STRIP2 overexpression in LUAD and is associated with poor prognosis. Conclusion: Our findings indicated that STRIP2 acted as a crucial oncogene in LUAD and was correlated with unfavorable survival and tumor infiltration inflation

MR-YOLO: An Improved YOLOv5 Network for Detecting Magnetic Ring Surface Defects

Magnetic rings are widely used in automotive, home appliances, and consumer electronics. Due to the materials used, processing techniques, and other factors, there will be top cracks, internal cracks, adhesion, and other defects on individual magnetic rings during the manufacturing process. To find such defects, the most sophisticated YOLOv5 target identification algorithm is frequently utilized. However, it has problems such as high computation, sluggish detection, and a large model size. This work suggests an enhanced lightweight YOLOv5 (MR-YOLO) approach for the identification of magnetic ring surface defects to address these issues. To decrease the floating-point operation (FLOP) in the feature channel fusion process and enhance the performance of feature expression, the YOLOv5 neck network was added to the Mobilenetv3 module. To improve the robustness of the algorithm, a Mosaic data enhancement technique was applied. Moreover, in order to increase the network’s interest in minor defects, the SE attention module is inserted into the backbone network to replace the SPPF module with substantially more calculations. Finally, to further increase the new network’s accuracy and training speed, we substituted the original CIoU-Ioss for SIoU-Loss. According to the test, the FLOP and Params of the modified network model decreased by 59.4% and 47.9%, respectively; the reasoning speed increased by 16.6%, the model’s size decreased by 48.1%, and the mAP only lost by 0.3%. The effectiveness and superiority of this method are proved by an analysis and comparison of examples

Combination of High Specific Activity Carbon-14 Labeling and High Resolution Mass Spectrometry to Study Pesticide Metabolism in Crops: Metabolism of Cycloxaprid in Rice

The study of pesticide metabolism in crops is critical for assessing the mode of action and environmental risks of pesticides. However, the study of pesticide metabolism in crops is usually complicated and it is often a daunting challenge to accurately screen the metabolites of novel pesticides in complex matrices. This study demonstrated a combined use of high-specific activity carbon-14 labeling and high-resolution mass spectrometry (HSA-14C-HRMS) for metabolism profiling of a novel neonicotinoid cycloxaprid in rice. By generating the characteristic radioactive peaks on the liquid chromatogram, the use of 14C can eliminate the severe interference of complex matrices and quickly probe target compounds; by producing ion pairs with unique abundance ratios on HRMS, high-specific activity labeling can effectively exclude false matrix positives and promote the elucidation of metabolite structure. The structures of 15 metabolites were identified, three of which were further confirmed by authentic standards. Based on these metabolites, a metabolic profile of cycloxaprid was established, which includes denitrification, demethylation, imidazolidine hydroxylation and ring cleavage olefin formation, oxidation and carboxylation reactions. The strategy of combining high-specific activity 14C labeling and HRMS offers unique advantages and provides a powerful solution for profiling unknown metabolites of novel pesticides in complex matrices, especially when traditional non-labeling methods are not feasible

Polypropylene Composites with Ultrahigh Low-Temperature Toughness by Tuning the Phase Morphology

To broaden the potential application of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) in low-temperature conditions, iPP/0.1 wt % β-nucleated agent/30 wt % ethylene–octene multiblock copolymer (iPP/0.1 wt % β-NAs/30 wt % olefin block copolymer (OBC)) blends were endowed with ultrahigh low-temperature impact toughness by adjusting the nanotube (CNT) content. In comparison with pure iPP, the low-temperature impact toughness of iPP/0.1 wt % β-NAs/30 wt % OBC composites with only the addition of 0.5 wt % CNTs reached as high as 52.2 kJ/m2 at −20 °C, of which the increment of impact strength was about 2386%. This optimum content of CNTs gave rise to a co-continuous phase morphology in β-nucleated iPP composites, which turned out to be the key to greatly enhanced stress dissipation, even in a low-temperature environment. In addition, the distribution of CNTs between iPP and OBC phase and the presence of self-toughened β-crystals that were induced by β-NAs and OBC contributed to improving the low-temperature impact strength of iPP-based composites. A feasible strategy is developed to substantially reinforce the low-temperature toughness of iPP-based composites, which expands their potential applications in industrial sectors

Manganese Slag Amendment Reduces Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Paddy Soil

Increasing crop productivity and minimizing greenhouse gas emissions from paddy fields are increasingly receiving attention. Slag application not only can maximize the use of solid wastes as beneficial resources for agricultural production, but it also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. In order to determine the most effective slags as soil amendments for greenhouse gas emission reduction, three major slags, i.e., steel, titanium and manganese slags, were applied as soil amendments to paddy soils; correspondingly, the greenhouse gas emissions, cumulative emissions and global warming potential of the soils during one growing season were measured. It was found that applying all these three slags could reduce the methane emission rates and the cumulative methane emissions. Manganese slag significantly decreased methane emissions by 55% compared with the control. Carbon dioxide caused no significant changes among different slag treatments; however, the cumulative carbon dioxide emissions from fields treated with steel and manganese slags were lower than those from control fields. The global warming potential of paddy soil with manganese application was 63% lower than that of the control. Finally, manganese oxide was found to have a negative relation with greenhouse gas emissions. It was inferred that the electron acceptors and the photocatalysis of manganese oxide minerals might have been the main reasons for greenhouse gas reduction. This preliminary result could be further applied to utilizing solid wastes as beneficial resources and to developing carbon fixation and greenhouse gas reduction fertilizers