A miRNA-HERC4 pathway promotes breast tumorigenesis by inactivating tumor suppressor LATS1.

The E3 ligase HERC4 is overexpressed in human breast cancer and its expression levels correlated with the prognosis of breast cancer patients. However, the roles of HERC4 in mammary tumorigenesis remain unclear. Here we demonstrate that the knockdown of HERC4 in human breast cancer cells dramatically suppressed their proliferation, survival, migration, and tumor growth in vivo, while the overexpression of HERC4 promoted their aggressive tumorigenic activities. HERC4 is a new E3 ligase for the tumor suppressor LATS1 and destabilizes LATS1 by promoting the ubiquitination of LATS1. miRNA-136-5p and miRNA-1285-5p, expression of which is decreased in human breast cancers and is inversely correlated with the prognosis of breast cancer patients, are directly involved in suppressing the expression of HERC4. In summary, we discover a miRNA-HERC4-LATS1 pathway that plays important roles in the pathogenesis of breast cancer and represents new therapeutic targets for human breast cancer

Effects of pool size and spacing on burning rate and flame height of two square heptane pool fires

The interaction of multiple pool fires might lead to higher burning rate and flame height than single pool fire, raising the possibility of fire ignition and flame spread and increasing the risks to people, buildings and environment. To quantify the burning rate and flame height of multiple pool fires from the view of physical mechanism, this paper presents an experimental study on two identical square pool fires. Heptane was used as fuel. The pool size and spacing were varied. Results showed that both the burning rate and flame height change non-monotonically with spacing. From the view of air entrainment, a correlation for the flame height of two pool fires is developed involving pool size, spacing and the flame height of zero spacing. The comparison with experimental results shows that the developed correlation is suitable for two heptane or propane fires. A theoretical study based on energy balance at one of the pool surfaces is performed to evaluate the burning rate of two fires, which is finally expressed as a function of pool size, spacing, burning rate and the flame height of single fire. The proposed model is validated using the experimental and literature data, which presents a reasonable reliability

Functional Role of Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 5 in the Regulation of Melanogenesis and Epidermal Structure

The mammalian integumentary system plays important roles in body homeostasis, and dysfunction of melanogenesis or epidermal development may lead to a variety of skin diseases, including melanoma. Skin pigmentation in humans and coat color in fleece-producing animals are regulated by many genes. Among them, microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) and paired-box 3 (PAX3) are at the top of the cascade and regulate activities of many important melanogenic enzymes. Here, we report for the first time that cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) is an essential regulator of MITF and PAX3. Cdk5 knockdown in mice causes a lightened coat color, a polarized distribution of melanin and hyperproliferation of basal keratinocytes. Reduced expression of Keratin 10 (K10) resulting from Cdk5knockdown may be responsible for an abnormal epidermal structure. In contrast, overexpression of Cdk5 in sheep (Ovis aries) only produces brown patches on a white background, with no other observable abnormalities. Collectively, our findings show that Cdk5 has an important functional role in the regulation of melanin production and transportation and in normal development of the integumentary system

Supplementary figure: Types of circRNA

Supplementary figure: Types of circRNA in Identification of CircRNA-miRNA-mRNA Network in Myometrial Contractile Activity during Labor.</p

Experimental investigation on influence of smoke venting velocity and vent height on mechanical smoke exhaust efficiency

A set of burning experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of smoke vent height and exhausting velocity on mechanical smoke exhausting efficiency. Results have shown that the smoke exhausting process becomes more efficient due to the increased smoke vent height and the decreased exhausting velocity, which eliminate the plug-holing issue with fewer disturbances on the smoke layer interface. For each certain exhausting velocity, there is a critical value of distance between the vent and the bottom of the smoke layer. When the distance is less than the critical value, the smoke exhausting is inefficient, and the efficiency decreases sharply as the distance decreases. Contrarily, when the distance is greater than the critical value, a good efficiency can be acquired and the exhausted smoke increased relatively slowly as the distance increases. A critical Froude number, proposed by Hinkley to predict the onset of plug-holing effect in gravity venting systems, was validated in the experiments. However, the experimental results indicate that in the tests without the plug-holing, the fresh air entrained due to smoke exhausting is up to 48% of the mechanical exhausting rate

Incompatibility as a Resource for Programmable Quantum Instruments

Quantum instruments represent the most general type of quantum measurement, as they incorporate processes with both classical and quantum outputs. In many scenarios, it may be desirable to have some “on-demand” device that is capable of implementing one of many possible instruments whenever the experimenter desires. We refer to such objects as programmable instrument devices (PIDs), and this paper studies PIDs from a resource-theoretic perspective. A physically important class of PIDs are those that do not require quantum memories to implement, and these are naturally “free” in this resource theory. Additionally, these free objects correspond precisely to the class of unsteerable channel assemblages in the study of channel steering. The traditional notion of measurement incompatibility emerges as a resource in this theory since any PID controlling an incompatible family of instruments requires a quantum memory to build. We identify an incompatibility preorder between PIDs based on whether one can be transformed into another using processes that do not require additional quantum memories. Necessary and sufficient conditions are derived for when such transformations are possible based on how well certain guessing games can be played using a given PID. Ultimately our results provide an operational characterization of incompatibility, and they offer semi-device-independent tests for incompatibility in the most general types of quantum instruments

Incompatibility as a resource for programmable quantum instruments

Quantum instruments represent the most general type of quantum measurement, as they incorporate processes with both classical and quantum outputs. In many scenarios, it may be desirable to have some "on-demand" device that is capable of implementing one of many possible instruments whenever the experimenter desires. We refer to such objects as programmable instrument devices (PIDs), and this paper studies PIDs from a resource-theoretic perspective. A physically important class of PIDs are those that do not require quantum memory to implement, and these are naturally "free" in this resource theory. The traditional notion of measurement incompatibility emerges as a resource in this theory since any PID controlling an incompatible family of instruments requires quantum memory to build. We identify an incompatibility partial ordering of PIDs based on whether one can be transformed into another using processes that do not require additional quantum memory. Necessary and sufficient conditions are derived for when such transformations are possible based on how well certain guessing games can be played using a given PID. Ultimately our results provide an operational characterization of incompatibility, and they offer device-independent tests for incompatibility in the most general types of quantum instruments. Since channel steerability is equivalent to PID incompatibility, this work can also be seen as a resource theory of channel steering.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figure

Multi-Time Scale Optimal Dispatch for AC/DC Distribution Networks Based on a Markov Chain Dynamic Scenario Method and MPC

A multi-time scale optimal dispatch model based on the scenario method and model predictive control (MPC) in the AC/DC distribution network is established due to the uncertainty of wind and load. A Markov chain dynamic scenario method is proposed, which generates scenarios by characterizing the forecast error via empirical distribution. Considering the time correlation of the forecast error, Markov chain is adopted in the Markov chain dynamic method to simulate the uncertainty and variability in wind and load with time. A multi-time scale optimal dispatch strategy based on MPC is proposed. The operation scheduling of operation units is solved in day-ahead and intraday optimal dispatch by minimizing the expected value of total cost in each scenario. In the real-time optimal dispatch, the stability and robustness of system operation are considered. MPC is adopted in the real-time optimal dispatch, taking the intraday scheduling as reference and using the roll optimization method to compute real-time optimal dispatch scheduling to smooth the output power. The simulation results in a 50-node system with uncontrollable distributed energy demonstrate that the proposed model and strategy can effectively eliminate fluctuations in wind and load in AC/DC distribution networks