Modeling the effects of land use/land cover changes on river runoff using SWAT models: A case study of the Danjiang River source area, China.

Land use/land cover (LULC) is a crucial factor that directly influences the hydrology and water resources of a watershed. In order to assess the impacts of LULC changes on river runoff in the Danjiang River source area, we analyzed the characteristics of LULC data for three time periods (2000, 2010, and 2020). The LULC changes during these periods were quantified, and three Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) models were established and combined with eight LULC scenarios to quantitatively analyze the effects of LULC changes on river runoff. The results revealed a decrease in the cropland area and an increase in the forest, grassland, and urban land areas from 2000 to 2020. Grassland, forest, and cropland collectively accounted for over 94% of the total area, and conversions among these land types were frequent. The SWAT models constructed based on the LULC data demonstrated good calibration and validation results. Based on the LULC data in three periods, the area of each LULC type changed slightly, so the simulation results were not significantly different. In the subsequent LULC scenarios, we found that the expansion of cropland, grassland, and urban areas was associated with increased river runoff, while an increase in forest area led to a decrease in river runoff. Among the various LULC types, urban land exerted the greatest influence on changes in river runoff. This study establishes three SWAT models and combines multiple LULC scenarios, which is novel and innovative. It can provide scientific basis for the rational allocation of water resources and the optimization of LULC structure in the Danjiang River source area.

Spatial distribution, source apportionment and potential ecological risk assessment of trace metals in surface soils in the upstream region of the Guanzhong Basin, China.

The health of ecosystems and safety of agricultural products are correlated with trace metal pollutionin in the soil, which eventually affects mankind. For this research, topsoil (0-20 cm) was sampled from 51 locations in the upstream area of the Guanzhong Basin to determine the level of pollution, spatial distribution characteristics and origins of 15 trace metals (V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Rb, Sr, Y, Zr, Cd, Pb). The pollution index and potential ecological risk index were adopted for the accurate analyses of contamination degree and ecological risk that trace elements cause. The identification of potential sources of trace metals pollution was carried out using the APCS-MLR model and multivariate statistical analysis. Findings demonstrated that the most contaminated elements in the topsoil of the designated areas were Cr, Cu, Cd and Pb, and the average levels of all trace metal elements exceeded their respective local background values. However, most of the sampling points showed slight pollution, and a few demonstrated moderate and severe pollution. The southern, south-western and eastern parts in the research zone were relatively seriously contaminated, especially near Baoji City and Wugong County. Fe, Cu, Zn, Ni, Se were mainly caused by combination of agricultural and industrial production, the primary sources of Mn, Y, and Zr were the process of mining and industrial production, Cd and Pb originated mainly from traffic emission and agricultural pollution, and Cr mainly came from mining and metal smelting processes. Meanwhlie, some unknown pollution sources were also disclosed. This study has a reliable reference value for determining the source of trace metals in this region. To further determine the pollution sources of trace elements, long-term monitoring and management is necessary.

Harnessing the Power of Multi-GPU Acceleration into the Quantum Interaction Computational Kernel Program.

We report a new multi-GPU capable ab initio Hartree-Fock/density functional theory implementation integrated into the open source QUantum Interaction Computational Kernel (QUICK) program. Details on the load balancing algorithms for electron repulsion integrals and exchange correlation quadrature across multiple GPUs are described. Benchmarking studies carried out on up to four GPU nodes, each containing four NVIDIA V100-SXM2 type GPUs demonstrate that our implementation is capable of achieving excellent load balancing and high parallel efficiency. For representative medium to large size protein/organic molecular systems, the observed parallel efficiencies remained above 82% for the Kohn-Sham matrix formation and above 90% for nuclear gradient calculations. The accelerations on NVIDIA A100, P100, and K80 platforms also have realized parallel efficiencies higher than 68% in all tested cases, paving the way for large-scale ab initio electronic structure calculations with QUICK.

PANI/BaFe12O19@Halloysite ternary composites as novel microwave absorbent.

A three-phase PANI/BaFe12O19@Hal heterostructure was designed and fabricated in this paper as efficient lightweight electromagnetic wave absorbing material through the combination of citrate assisted sol-gel self-propagating combustion and in-situ oxidative polymerization of aniline. In addition, the effects of the weight ratio of different PANI to BF@Hal on the microwave absorption properties of the materials were studied. The results show that when the weight ratio of PANI is 40%, the material has the best microwave absorption performance. The frequency bandwidth below -5 dB reached 9.60 GHz and the minimum absorption peak at 11.92 GHz was -14.77 dB. The combination of the PANI and BF@Hal nanosheets take advantage of the interfacial polarization, natural resonance, dielectric polarization and trapping of EM waves by internal reflection in PANI/BaFe12O19@Hal. Taking advantage of the unique microscopic morphology and interface characteristics, halloysite was introduced to improve the microwave absorption performance and enrich the absorbing mechanism of the composite materials. This work may provide a reliable candidate for the synthesis of electromagnetic attenuation materials with fairly good performances.

Parallel Implementation of Density Functional Theory Methods in the Quantum Interaction Computational Kernel Program.

We present the details of a graphics processing unit (GPU) capable exchange correlation (XC) scheme integrated into the open source QUantum Interaction Computational Kernel (QUICK) program. Our implementation features an octree based numerical grid point partitioning scheme, GPU enabled grid pruning and basis and primitive function prescreening, and fully GPU capable XC energy and gradient algorithms. Benchmarking against the CPU version demonstrated that the GPU implementation is capable of delivering an impressive performance while retaining excellent accuracy. For small to medium size protein/organic molecular systems, the realized speedups in double precision XC energy and gradient computation on a NVIDIA V100 GPU were 60-80-fold and 140-500-fold, respectively, as compared to the serial CPU implementation. The acceleration gained in density functional theory calculations from a single V100 GPU significantly exceeds that of a modern CPU with 40 cores running in parallel.

Application of fluorescence in situ hybridization in the detection of bladder transitional-cell carcinoma: A multi-center clinical study based on Chinese population.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the diagnostic value of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) in bladder cancer. METHODS: We enrolled healthy volunteers and patients who were clinically suspected to have bladder cancer and conducted FISH tests and cytology examinations from August 2007 to December 2008. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed and the area under curve (AUC) values were calculated for both the FISH and urine cytology tests. RESULTS: A cohort of 988 healthy volunteers was enrolled to establish a reference range for the normal population. A total of 4807 patients with hematuria were prospectively, randomly enrolled for the simultaneous analysis of urine cytology, FISH testing, and a final diagnosis as determined by the pathologic findings of a biopsy or a surgically-excised specimen. Overall, the sensitivity of FISH in detecting transitional-cell carcinoma was 82.7%, while that of cytology was 33.4% (p < 0.001). The sensitivity values of FISH for non-muscle invasive and muscle invasive bladder transitional-cell carcinoma were 81.7% and 89.6%, respectively (p = 0.004). The sensitivity values of FISH for low and high grade bladder cancer were 82.6% and 90.1%, respectively (p = 0.002). CONCLUSION: FISH is significantly more sensitive than voided urine cytology for detecting bladder cancer in patients evaluated for gross hematuria at all cancer grades and stages. Higher sensitivity using FISH was obtained in high grade and muscle invasive tumors.

Ursolic acid activates the apoptosis of prostate cancer via ROCK/PTEN mediated mitochondrial translocation of cofilin-1.

Ursolic acid has various pharmacological activities, and can reduce blood fat as well as having antihepatic, antitumoral, anti-inflammatory and antiviral properties. However, the pro-apoptotic mechanism by which ursolic acid influences human prostate cancer requires additional study. The aim of the present study was to assess whether ursolic acid activates the apoptosis of prostate cancer and to investigate the mechanism by which the Rho-associated protein kinase 1 (ROCK1)/phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) signaling pathway performs a role in ursolic acid-mediated cofilin-1 to induce apoptosis in human prostate cancer. Firstly, the present study determined the pro-apoptotic mechanism by which ursolic acid influences the cell proliferation and apoptosis of human prostate LNCaP cancer cells. Caspase-3/9 activities and ROCK1, PTEN, Cofilin-1 and cytochrome c protein expression levels were also analyzed. In the present study, it is reported that the pro-apoptotic mechanism of ursolic acid potently suppressed the cell proliferation of human prostate LNCaP cancer cells. The present study revealed that the mediation of ROCK1/PTEN-cofilin-1/cytochrome c protein expression activates caspase-3/9 activities which subsequently induced the apoptosis of human prostate cancer cells. In conclusion, these findings demonstrated that ursolic acid activates the apoptosis of prostate cancer via ROCK/PTEN mediated cofilin-1/cytochrome c which mediated caspase-3/9 activities.

Aurora-A regulates autophagy through the Akt pathway in human prostate cancer.

BACKGROUND: Aurora A kinase is frequently overexpressed in a variety of tumor types, including the prostate. However, the function of Aurora A in autophagy in prostate cancer has not been investigated. Here, we aimed to study the functioning mechanism and autophagy associated signaling pathways of Aurora A in prostate cancer. METHODS: To investigate the biological function of Aurora A, down-regulation of Aurora A was performed followed by functional testing assays. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of Aurora A in human prostate cancer specimens. CCK8, Transwell, flow cytometric analysis and measurement of tumor formation in nude mice were performed to test the effects of Aurora A down-regulation in vivo and in vitro. Signaling pathway analysis was performed by using Western blot. Autophagy activity was measured by monitoring the expression levels of LC3-II. RESULTS: Aurora A overexpression was significantly higher in human prostate cancer specimens than in BPH. Furthermore, Aurora A knockdown inhibited the proliferation of prostate cancer cells by suppressing the Akt pathway, indicating that Akt is a novel Aurora A substrate in prostate cancer. Additionally, Aurora A down-regulation prompts autophagy in prostate cancer cells. Most importantly, Aurora A ablation almost fully abrogates tumorigenesis in nude mice, suggesting that Aurora A is a key oncogenic effector in prostate cancer. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our data suggest that Aurora-A plays an important role in the suppression of autophagy by inhibiting the phosphorylation of Akt, which in turn prevents autophagy-induced apoptosis in prostate cancer.

Increased expression of ESCO1 is correlated with poor patient survival and its role in human bladder cancer.

There is increasing evidence suggesting that establishment of sister chromatid cohesion N-acetyltransferase 1 (ESCO1) was involved in tumorigenesis. However, its role in bladder cancer remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to study the clinical correlation and biological significance of ESCO1 in bladder cancer. Our results showed that ESCO1 was significantly over-expressed in bladder cancer tissues compared with that in adjacent normal tissues. And, increased ESCO1 expression was significantly associated with higher grade (P < 0.001), higher tumor stage (P = 0.014), and multifocality (P = 0.042). Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards model were performed to determine the prognostic significance of ESCO1, and the results showed that ESCO1 is a useful prognostic marker for bladder cancer patients. Moreover, we found that ESCO1 knockdown inhibited the growth, migration, and invasion of bladder cancer cells. In conclusion, our findings indicated that ESCO1 may play an important role in human bladder cancer, and ESCO1 might serve as a novel target and prognosis factor for human bladder cancer.

PACE4 regulates apoptosis in human prostate cancer cells via endoplasmic reticulum stress and mitochondrial signaling pathways.

BACKGROUND: PACE4 is a proprotein convertase capable of processing numerous substrates involved in tumor growth, invasion, and metastasis. However, the precise role of PACE4 during prostate cancer cell apoptosis has not been reported. METHODS: In the present study, human prostate cancer cell lines DU145, LNCaP, and PC3 were transfected with PACE4 small interfering (si)RNA to investigate the underlying mechanisms of apoptosis. RESULTS: We revealed that PACE4 siRNA exhibited antitumor activity by inducing apoptosis, as determined by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltet-razolium bromide (MTT) assay, cell cycle analysis, Hoechst staining, caspase-3/7 activity, and western blot analysis. In addition, PACE4 siRNA significantly increased the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2, which led to the release of cytochrome c. Moreover, PACE4 siRNA also induced endoplasmic reticulum stress by increasing the expression of GRP78, GRP94, p-PERK, and p-eIF2α. The ratio of Bax/Bcl-2 and GRP78 were also increased in PACE4 gene knockdown prostate cancer cells compared with the control cells. CONCLUSION: These data demonstrate that PACE4 siRNA may exert its antitumor activity through mitochondrial and endoplasmic reticulum stress signaling pathways, indicating it may be a novel therapeutic target for prostate cancer.

The role of tumor suppressor gene SOX11 in prostate cancer.

SOX genes play an important role in a number of developmental processes. The transcription factor SOX11 is one of the members of the SOX family emerging as important transcriptional regulators. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of SOX11 in prostate cancer (PCa) and its expression pattern and clinical significance. The gene expression of SOX11 in human PCa tissues compared with benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) tissues was detected using real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (QRT-PCR) analysis and immunohositochemistry. SOX11 overexpression cell model was used to examine the role of SOX11 in cell growth and metastasis in vitro. The results showed that the positive rate of SOX11 staining was 16.67 % (10/60) in cases of prostatic carcinoma and 81.67 % (49/60) in cases of BPH, and the difference of SOX11 expression between PCa and BPH was statistically significant (P < 0.001). SOX11 mRNA level was lowly expressed in PCa cell lines compared to RWPE-1. SOX11 overexpression suppresses PCa cell migration and invasion. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate that SOX11 could suppress cell proliferation, migration, and invasion of PCa in vitro.

Oleanolic acid suppresses the proliferation of human bladder cancer by Akt/mTOR/S6K and ERK1/2 signaling.

Oleanolic acid has significant pharmacological activities, such as anti-tumor, regulating blood sugar level and liver protection, which are more effective compared with free aglyconeoleanolic acid. However, it is still unknown if oleanolic acid affects the proliferation of human bladder cancer. We utilized T24 cells to study the effect of oleanolic acid on the proliferation and apoptosis of human bladder cancer. In this study, we found that the anti-cancer effect of oleanolic acid significantly suppressed cell proliferation and increased apoptosis and caspase-3 activity of T24 cells. Furthermore, Akt, mTOR and S6K protein expression was greatly inhibited in T24 cells under oleanolic acid treatment. Meanwhile, ERK1/2 of phosphorylation protein expression was significantly promoted by oleanolic acid treatment. Taken together, we provided evidences that oleanolic acid was Akt/mTOR/S6K and ERK1/2 signaling-targeting anti-tumor agent. These findings represent new evidences that oleanolic acid suppresses the proliferation of human bladder cancer by Akt/mTOR/S6K and ERK1/2 signaling, and oleanolic acid may be used to prevent human bladder cancer.

Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Treatment by Transurethral Enucleation of the Prostate Using a 2-µm Laser.

This study investigates the efficacy of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) treatment by prostate transurethral enucleation using a 2-µm laser. A total of 107 patients with BPH were treated by prostate transurethral enucleation using a RevoLix 2-µm laser surgery system. Bleeding volume, operation time, catheterization time, voiding situation, maximum urinary flow rate, and hospital stay were observed. The mean operation time was 74 min ± 12 min (range 45 to 150 min), the mean follow-up period was 2 to 6 months, the mean catheter time was 5 days, and the mean peak urinary flow rate increased from 6.3 ± 0.6 to 17.5 ± 1.5 mL/s. The International Prostate Symptom Score and quality of life significantly declined (p < 0.01). No significant differences were observed in the hemoglobin and blood electrolytes before and after operation. Prostate transurethral enucleation using a 2-µm laser is safe and efficient for BPH treatment.

Diagnosis and treatment of ureteral endometriosis: study of 23 cases.

PURPOSE: To describe our experience in the diagnosis and treatment of 23 patients with ureteral endometriosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of 23 cases of ureteral endometriosis with histopathological results from 2002 to 2011. RESULTS: In patients with ureteral endometriosis, 23 cases were diagnosed by ultrasound, 21 by intravenous urography, 11 by retrograde urography, 16 by computed tomography, and 8 with magnetic resonance imaging. All cases were treated by operative treatment. The treatments included ureterolysis in 3 cases, partial ureteral resection and ureteroneocystostomy in 6 cases, partial ureteral resection and end-to-end ureteral anastomosis in 12 cases, and endoscopic resection of ureteral endometriosis lesion in 2 cases. All of the pathologic exam­ination results were endometriosis. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that surgery is an effective treatment option in most patients with ureteral endometriosis exhibiting mild or moderate to severe hydronephrosis. The type of technique depends on the location and depth of the lesion.

Sodium butyrate induces growth inhibition and apoptosis in human prostate cancer DU145 cells by up-regulation of the expression of annexin A1.

BACKGROUND: Sodium butyrate, a histone deacetylase inhibitor, has emerged as a promising anticancer drug for multiple cancers. Recent studies have indicated that sodium butyrate could inhibit the progression of prostate cancer; however, the exact mechanism is still unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanism of sodium butyrate action in prostate cancer DU145 cells. METHODS: The inhibitory effects of NaB on cell growth were detected by the 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrrazolium bromide assay. Cell apoptosis was determined by flow cytometric analysis of DU145 cells stained with annexin V and PI. Hoechst 33258 and fluorescence microscopes were used to observe the nuclear morphology of DU145 cells after treatment with NaB. ANXA1 knockdown cells were established through transfection with ANXA1 siRNA. ANXA1 mRNA levels were measured by qRT-PCR. Bcl-2, Bax, ANXA1, ERK1/2 and pERK1/2 were detected by western blot. RESULTS: NaB significantly inhibited the growth and induction apoptosis of DU145 and PC3 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Expression of the anti-apoptosis gene Bcl-xl and Bcl-2 in DU145 cells are decreased and expression of the pro-apoptosis gene Bax and Bak increased after NaB treatment. Further studies have demonstrated that NaB up-regulated the expression of ANXA1 and that the tumor inhibition action of NaB was reduced markedly through knockdown of the ANXA1 gene in DU145 cells. Moreover, the siANXA1 cells showed that cell proliferation increased and cell apoptosis was induced by the inactivation of extracellular regulated kinase (ERK). CONCLUSION: Our results support a significant correlation between NaB functions and ANXA1 expression in prostate cancer, and pave the way for further studying the molecular mechanism of NaB actions in cancers.

[Prognostic and long term follow-up analysis of sporadic bilateral renal cell carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the pathological feature, therapy and prognosis of bilateral sporadic renal cell carcinoma. METHODS: The data of 59 bilateral sporadic renal cell carcinoma patients diagnosed from Apr. 1986 to Dec. 2009 were collected. We retrospectively analyzed the treatment, pathological features, long term survival and prognosis factors of the disease. RESULTS: We found 59 patients with bilateral sporadic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in the database diagnosed from Apr. 1986 to Dec. 2009. The median age was 56 years. Of all the cases, 37 were bilateral synchronous sporadic renal cell carcinoma and 22 bilateral metachronous sporadic renal cell carcinoma. Forty-three patients underwent bilateral surgeries, 11 unilateral surgery, and 5 no treatment. There were 122 masses in the 59 patients and 109 masses had pathological reports. All the 59 cases were RCC, and clear cell carcinomas was the main subtype (96.6%). The median follow-up time was 62.1 months (range 4-277 months). Thirty-nine patients (66.1%) survived without tumor recurrence, 4 survived with tumors recurrence, and 16 (27.1%) died. Kaplan-Meier curve revealed that the 3-year and 5-year overall survival rates were 83.5% and 81.1%, respectively; the 3-year and 5-year cancer special survival rates were 73.1% and 64.8%, respectively. The disease-free survival rates of bilateral synchronous and bilateral metachronous RCC were similar. Multivariate regression suggested that post-operative application of interferon-α and bilateral surgeries were related with a better prognosis. CONCLUSION: The main subtype of bilateral sporadic renal cell carcinoma was clear cell carcinoma (96.6%). Bilateral synchronous and bilateral metachronous RCC both had a long time disease-free survival. Interferon-α application after surgery and bilateral surgeries were related with a better prognosis.

[Adenocarcinoma of the prostate in patients under 50 years of age: analysis of 10 cases].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the clinicopathologic features of 10 Chinese prostate adenocarcinoma patients under 50 years. METHODS: Between January 2007 and April 2012, 10 cases of prostate adenocarcinoma patients under 50 years (age: 36-49) were diagnosed at our institution through prostate biopsy. The indications of biopsy were abnormal digital rectal examination (7 cases) and/or a total prostate specific antigen (PSA) over 4.0 µg/L (4 cases). The clinicopathological data of these patients were reviewed. The results of biopsy were 1 case with Gleason score (GS) 6, 4 cases with GS 7 and 5 cases with GS 9. In the study, 7 patients were diagnosed with cT4. Lymph node metastasis and bone metastasis were found in 5 and 4 cases, respectively. The treatments were hormonal therapy in 5 cases, radical prostatectomy in 2 cases and combination therapy in 3 cases. RESULTS: During the follow-up, 6 patients were in progression within 3 to 7 months, 1 patient died after 3 years, and 4 patients were lost of the follow-up. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that the Chinese prostate adenocarcinoma patients with age under 50 years are likely to have more aggressive tumor and combination therapy might be appropriate.

[Clinical utility of fluorescence in situ hybridization improves the sensitivity in the diagnosis of upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To assess the clinical utility of a fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assay as a non-invasive method for diagnosing and monitoring urothelial carcinoma (UC) in the upper urinary tract (UUT). METHODS: Urine specimens from 63 consecutive patients with UUT-UC and 69 controls with benign disease were analyzed by means of cytology and FISH. For FISH analysis, labeled probes specific for chromosomes 3, 7, and 17 and for the p16 (9p21) gene were used to assess chromosomal abnormalities indicative of malignancy.Sensitivity and specificity of both techniques were determined and compared. The frequency of chromosomal aberrations of malignant cells from UUT-UC was also determined. RESULTS: Of 63 patients with UUT-UC, FISH affords an overall sensitivity of 84.1% (53/63), the figure being 71.4% (20/28) for PTa and PT1 tumors,94.3% (33/35) for PT2-4 tumors. The sensitivities of urine cytology were 35.7% (10/28) for PTa and PT1 tumor,45.7% (16/35)for PT2-4 tumors,with an overall sensitivity of 41.3% (26/63). The sensitivities of the two methods for the low grade tumors were 80% (20/25) and 44% (11/25), and for high grade tumors were 86.8% (33/38) and 39.5% (15/38), respectively. Specificities for FISH and urine cytology were 91.3% (63/69) and 94.2% (65/69)respectively. CONCLUSION: According to the results,the sensitivity of FISH for the detection of UUT-UC is superior to that of urine cytology and the specificities of FISH and urine cytology are not significantly different. FISH can promote the diagnosis of UUT-UC, especially for the low stage and low grade cases,it may be a new promising non-invasive method for the diagnosis of UUT-UC.