Co-expression of KLK6 and KLK10 as prognostic factors for survival in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Kallikreins play an important role in tumour microenvironment and as cancer biomarkers in different cancer entities. Previous studies suggested an upregulation of KLK10 and KLK6 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Therefore, we evaluated the clinicopathological role of these kallikreins and their value as biomarkers in PDAC

Human Cancer Protein-Protein Interaction Network: A Structural Perspective

Protein-protein interaction networks provide a global picture of cellular function and biological processes. Some proteins act as hub proteins, highly connected to others, whereas some others have few interactions. The dysfunction of some interactions causes many diseases, including cancer. Proteins interact through their interfaces. Therefore, studying the interface properties of cancer-related proteins will help explain their role in the interaction networks. Similar or overlapping binding sites should be used repeatedly in single interface hub proteins, making them promiscuous. Alternatively, multi-interface hub proteins make use of several distinct binding sites to bind to different partners. We propose a methodology to integrate protein interfaces into cancer interaction networks (ciSPIN, cancer structural protein interface network). The interactions in the human protein interaction network are replaced by interfaces, coming from either known or predicted complexes. We provide a detailed analysis of cancer related human protein-protein interfaces and the topological properties of the cancer network. The results reveal that cancer-related proteins have smaller, more planar, more charged and less hydrophobic binding sites than non-cancer proteins, which may indicate low affinity and high specificity of the cancer-related interactions. We also classified the genes in ciSPIN according to phenotypes. Within phenotypes, for breast cancer, colorectal cancer and leukemia, interface properties were found to be discriminating from non-cancer interfaces with an accuracy of 71%, 67%, 61%, respectively. In addition, cancer-related proteins tend to interact with their partners through distinct interfaces, corresponding mostly to multi-interface hubs, which comprise 56% of cancer-related proteins, and constituting the nodes with higher essentiality in the network (76%). We illustrate the interface related affinity properties of two cancer-related hub proteins: Erbb3, a multi interface, and Raf1, a single interface hub. The results reveal that affinity of interactions of the multi-interface hub tends to be higher than that of the single-interface hub. These findings might be important in obtaining new targets in cancer as well as finding the details of specific binding regions of putative cancer drug candidates

Relationship Between Vegetation Coverage and Rural Settlements and Anti-desertification Strategies in Horqin Left Back Banner, Inner Mongolia, China

International audienceThis paper investigated the relationship between vegetation coverage and rural settlements in Horqin Left Back Banner. There are 4 spatial patterns about the relationship between vegetation coverage and rural settlements, including high region-low region, high region-low region-high region, high region-low region-high region-low region, and high region. Around rural settlements, land is used as cultivated land and vegetation coverage is high. The overlap effect of overgrazing and extensive cultivation creates the first low region of vegetation coverage. With increasing distance from rural settlements, human disturbance to vegetation growth decreases, vegetation coverage increases, and the high region appears again. The second low region of vegetation coverage is caused by the overgrazing of another rural settlement. At the border region of 2 adjacent villages, 3 different conditions are presented with the vegetation coverage and rural settlements. In the first condition, vegetation coverage is low and is located at the intersection of both low regions of the 2 rural settlements. In the second condition, the vegetation coverage is high and is located at the intersection of both high regions of the 2 rural settlements. In the third condition, vegetation coverage is low and is located at the intersection of both low regions of the 2 rural settlements. According to the changing patterns and reasons for such patterns, we present strategies for anti-desertification, including banning grazing, stopping extensive cultivation, promoting optimal choice of sand-fixation plant, and clarifying land property rights

Sand Dune Encroachment and Desertification Processes of the Rigboland Sand Sea, Central Iran

Early studies on sand dune movement and desertification in Iran have not always been convincingly demonstrated because of problems with the field-based measurements. In some areas where various land uses have been engulfed by aeolian sand dunes, desertification is clear, but in other less settled areas, it may not be so obvious. The objective of this study is to demonstrate encroachments of the Rigboland sand sea, central Iran, in its different directions and variable magnitude rates. Determining the rate and direction of the sand sea movements is critical for specifying which lands should be prioritized and quickly protected. The study has trialed a change detection technique which uses a Cross-Tabulation module to compare two available LandsatTM images over the Rigboland sand sea. This indicates that within a ten-year span (from 1988 to 1998) more than 200 ha/yr were added to the Rigboland sand sea, from the alluvial fan landforms in the eastern upstream, outer margins of the Rigboland sand sea. Coupled with GIS techniques, this type of analysis of the remote sensing (RS) images provides an effective tool for the monitoring and prognostication of sand dune movement and sand sea change.</p

Historical grassland desertification changes in the Horqin Sandy Land, Northern China (1985–2013)

Since rural reforms in the 1980s, both the state and local governments of China have devoted great efforts to combating desertification through a number of eco-environmental restoration campaigns, resulting in burgeoning contention at all levels of government and sparking public concern. Monitoring and accurately assessing the statuses and trends of grassland desertification are important for developing effective restoration strategies. The Horqin Sandy Land (HSL), a very typical desertified grassland (DG) with better hydrothermal conditions among sandy lands in north China, was recently selected (1985-2013) to assess the spatiotemporal dynamic performances of grassland desertification before and after implementing restoration projects. Landsat images (TM/ETM+/OLI), field investigations and expert review were integrated to form a classification scheme for the HSL. Then, spectral mixture analysis and the decision-tree method were used to extract bare-sand ratios and vegetation cover fraction dynamics. A favourable phenomenon of DG was seen to be reversed in an accelerated pace during 2001-2013, despite challenge from both climatic and anthropogenic factors. However, overexploitation of grassland (especially for farming) and ground water for irrigation has led to remarkable decreases in the ground water level in recent decades, which should be highly concerning regarding the formulation of restoration campaigns in the sandy land