Life cycle assessment of carbon footprint in dual-phase automotive strip steel production.

As the demand for automotive materials grows more stringent in environmental considerations, it becomes imperative to conduct thorough environmental impact assessments of dual-phase automotive strip steel (DP steel). However, the absence of detailed and comparable studies has left the carbon footprint of DP steel and its sources largely unknown. This study addresses this gap by establishing a cradle-to-gate life cycle model for DP steel, encompassing on-site production, energy systems, and upstream processes. The analysis identifies and scrutinizes key factors influencing the carbon footprint, with a focus on upstream mining, transportation, and on-site production processes. The results indicate that the carbon footprint of DP steel is 2.721 kgCO2-eq/kgDP, with on-site processes contributing significantly at 88.1%. Sensitivity analysis is employed to assess the impact of changes in resource structure, on-site energy, CO2 emission factors, and byproduct recovery on the carbon footprint. Proposals for mitigating carbon emissions in DP steel production include enhancing process gas recovery, transitioning to cleaner energy sources, and reducing the hot metal-to-steel ratio. These findings offer valuable insights for steering steel production towards environmentally sustainable practices.

Review of the Flight Control Method of a Bird-like Flapping-Wing Air Vehicle.

The Bird-like Flapping-wing Air Vehicle (BFAV) is a robotic innovation that emulates the flight patterns of birds. In comparison to fixed-wing and rotary-wing air vehicles, the BFAV offers superior attributes such as stealth, enhanced maneuverability, strong adaptability, and low noise, which render the BFAV a promising prospect for numerous applications. Consequently, it represents a crucial direction of research in the field of air vehicles for the foreseeable future. However, the flapping-wing vehicle is a nonlinear and unsteady system, posing significant challenges for BFAV to achieve autonomous flying since it is difficult to analyze and characterize using traditional methods and aerodynamics. Hence, flight control as a major key for flapping-wing air vehicles to achieve autonomous flight garners considerable attention from scholars. This paper presents an exposition of the flight principles of BFAV, followed by a comprehensive analysis of various significant factors that impact bird flight. Subsequently, a review of the existing literature on flight control in BFAV is conducted, and the flight control of BFAV is categorized into three distinct components: position control, trajectory tracking control, and formation control. Additionally, the latest advancements in control algorithms for each component are deliberated and analyzed. Ultimately, a projection on forthcoming directions of research is presented.

MicroRNA-204 inhibits the proliferation and metastasis of breast cancer cells by targeting PI3K/AKT pathway.

PURPOSE: Breast cancer is one of the deadliest malignancies in women. Lack of biomarkers and the unavailability of reliable therapeutic targets are main hurdles in the treatment of breast cancer. The present study was therefore designed to assess the role and therapeutic potential of miR-204 in the treatment of breast cancer. METHODS: The expression of miR-204 was checked by qRT-PCR. The transfections were performed by Lipofectamine 2000 reagent. Cell viability was determined by WST-1 colorimetric assay. The effect of miR-204 was evaluated on the breast cancer metastasis by cell migration and invasion transwell assays. Immunoblotting was used to determine the protein expression in breast cancer cells. RESULTS: The results revealed that the expression of miR-204 was downregulated in all the tested breast cancer cell lines. Overexpression of miR-204 in the MCF7 breast cancer cell line suppressed the proliferation of these cells by triggering apoptotic cell death and G2/M cell cycle arrest. Furthermore, miR-204 overexpression inhibited the migration and invasion of the MCF7 breast cancer cells. Bioinformatic analysis revealed PTEN to be the target of miR-204. Since, PTEN regulates the PI3K/AKT signalling pathway, the effect of miR-204 overexpression was also assessed on this pathway and showed that miR-204 overexpression inhibits the expression of p-AKT and p-PI3K significantly in MCF7 breast cancer cells. CONCLUSION: We conclude that miR-204 regulates the proliferation and metastasis of the breast cancer cells and as such may prove to be an important therapeutic target.