The impact of weather condition and social activity on COVID-19 transmission in the United States.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been first reported in December 2019 and rapidly spread worldwide. As other severe acute respiratory syndromes, it is a widely discussed topic whether seasonality affects the COVID-19 infection spreading. This study presents two different approaches to analyse the impact of social activity factors and weather variables on daily COVID-19 cases at county level over the Continental U.S. (CONUS). The first one is a traditional statistical method, i.e., Pearson correlation coefficient, whereas the second one is a machine learning algorithm, i.e., random forest regression model. The Pearson correlation is analysed to roughly test the relationship between COVID-19 cases and the weather variables or the social activity factor (i.e. social distance index). The random forest regression model investigates the feasibility of estimating the number of county-level daily confirmed COVID-19 cases by using different combinations of eight factors (county population, county population density, county social distance index, air temperature, specific humidity, shortwave radiation, precipitation, and wind speed). Results show that the number of daily confirmed COVID-19 cases is weakly correlated with the social distance index, air temperature and specific humidity through the Pearson correlation method. The random forest model shows that the estimation of COVID-19 cases is more accurate with adding weather variables as input data. Specifically, the most important factors for estimating daily COVID-19 cases are the population and population density, followed by the social distance index and the five weather variables, with temperature and specific humidity being more critical than shortwave radiation, wind speed, and precipitation. The validation process shows that the general values of correlation coefficients between the daily COVID-19 cases estimated by the random forest model and the observed ones are around 0.85.

Assessment of Evaporative Demand Drought Index for drought analysis in Peninsular Malaysia.

An effective drought monitoring tool is essential for the development of timely drought early warning system. This study evaluates Evaporative Demand Drought Index (EDDI) as a drought indicator in measuring spatiotemporal evolution of droughts over Peninsular Malaysia during 1989-2018. The modified Mann-Kendall and Sen's slope tests were performed to detect the presence of monotonic trends in EDDI, Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and their related climate variables. The performance of EDDI in capturing the drought onset, evolutions and demise of historical severe droughts was also compared with SPI and SPEI at multiple timescales. EDDI demonstrates strong spatiotemporal correlations with SPI and SPEI and comparable performance in historical drought events identification. At sub-monthly timescale, 2-week EDDI displays equivalent drought severities and durations for all historical severe droughts corresponding to the monthly EDDI. In the case when rainfall deficits are normalized in an otherwise warm and dry month, EDDI may serve as a great alternative to SPI and SPEI due to it being sensitive to the changes in prevalent atmospheric conditions. Collectively, the results fill in the knowledge gaps on drought evolutions from the evaporative perspective and highlight the efficacy of EDDI as a valuable drought early warning tool for Peninsular Malaysia. Future study should explore the physical mechanisms behind the development of flash drought and the role of evaporation in the drought propagation processes.

Histone lactylation-related genes correlate with the molecular patterns and functions of cancer-associated fibroblasts and have significant clinical implications in clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

Recent research emphasised the indispensable role of histone lactylation in the activation of hepatic stellate cells. The VHL mutation is extremely common in clear cell renal cell carcinoma, which normally causes a metabolic shift in cancer cells and increases lactate production, eventually creating a lactate-enriched tumour microenvironment. Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) promote tumour progression, which is also vital in clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Therefore, this study investigated histone lactylation in CAFs and its impact on patient survival. Multiomics technology was employed to determine the role of histone lactylation-related genes in the evolution of CAFs which correlated with the function and molecular signatures of CAFs. The results suggested that TIMP1 was the hub gene of histone lactylation-related genes in clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

SHMT2 regulates serine metabolism to promote the progression and immunosuppression of papillary renal cell carcinoma.

Recent research has demonstrated the diverse relationship between tumour metabolism and the tumour microenvironment (TME), for example, abnormal serine metabolism. This study investigated the role of serine metabolism in papillary renal cell carcinoma (pRCC) focusing on the prognostic value and regulatory mechanisms. Gene expression profiles and clinical data of patients with pRCC were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Kaplan-Meier curves were used for survival analysis and consensus clustering for tumour serine metabolic signatures extraction. Functional analysis, including the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), was applied to explore the biological characteristics. The gene set variation analysis (GSVA), single-sample GSEA (ssGSEA), and Estimation of Stromal and Immune cells in Malignant Tumour tissues using Expression data (ESTIMATE) methods were utilised to estimate the immune infiltration in the various subtypes. Five serine metabolic genes (SMGs) were used to classify patients with pRCC, with four clusters identified with diverse prognoses and immune features based on these survival-related SMGs. Further analysis of the best and worst clusters (B and D clusters) revealed variations in survival, clinical progression, oncogenic pathways, and TME, which included immune infiltration scores, immunosuppressive cell infiltration, and expression of immune checkpoints. In addition, SMGs, especially SHMT2, exacerbated the carcinogenesis and immunosuppressive cells in pRCC, thus promoting tumour proliferation. In conclusion, higher SHMT2 gene expression and higher serine metabolism in tumour cells are associated with poorer clinical outcomes in pRCC. SHMT2 is a potential novel target gene for targeted therapy and immunotherapy in pRCC.

Thrombospondin-2 promotes the proliferation and migration of glioma cells and contributes to the progression of glioma.

BACKGROUND: Gliomas, especially high-grade gliomas, are highly malignant with a poor prognosis. Although existing treatments have improved the survival rate of patients with glioma, the recurrence and mortality rates are still not ideal. The molecular mechanisms involved in the occurrence and development of glioma are still poorly understood. We previously reported that thrombospondin-2 (TSP2) expression was increased in tumor specimens from rat models, promoting excitatory synapse formation. However, little is known about the effect of TSP2 on the biological characteristics of glioma. METHODS: Glioma and cerebral cortex tissues were collected from 33 patients, and the expression of TSP2 in them was analyzed. Next, the proliferation and migration of TSP2 on glioma cells were analyzed in vitro. At last, a glioma transplantation model was constructed to explore the growth of TSP2 on glioma in vivo. RESULTS: The expression of TSP2 in surgical glioma specimens was increased compared to that in the normal cortex. Interestingly, the TSP2 protein level was higher in high-grade glioma (HGG, World Health Organization (WHO) grades 3-4) than in low-grade glioma (LGG, WHO grades 1-2) tissues. Exogenous addition of the TSP2 protein at an appropriate concentration promoted the migration of glioma cells but did not significantly affect their proliferation. Surprisingly, overexpression of TSP2 promoted both the migration and proliferation of cultured glioma cells. Moreover, in vivo experimental data implied that overexpression of TSP2 in C6 cells promoted the malignant growth of gliomas, while knockout of TSP2 slowed glioma growth. CONCLUSIONS: TSP2 promotes the migration and proliferation of glioma cells, which may provide new ideas for blocking glioma progression.

HMGB1-RAGE Pathway Contributes to the Abnormal Migration of Endogenous Subventricular Zone Neural Progenitors in an Experimental Model of Focal Microgyria.

Abnormal migration of subventricular zone (SVZ)-derived neural progenitor cells (SDNPs) is involved in the pathological and epileptic processes of focal cortical dysplasias (FCDs), but the underlying mechanisms are not clear. Recent studies indicated that high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1)/receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) are widely expressed in epileptic specimens of FCDs, which suggests that the HMGB1-RAGE pathway is involved in the pathological and/or epileptic processes of FCDs. The present study used Nestin-GFPtg/+ transgenic mice, and we established a model of freezing lesion (FL), as described in our previous report. A "migrating stream" composed of GFP-Nestin+ SDNPs was derived from the SVZ region and migrated to the cortical FL area. We found that translocated HMGB1 and RAGE were expressed in cortical lesion in a clustered distribution pattern, which was especially obvious in the early stage of FL compared to the sham group. Notably, the number of GFP-Nestin+ SDNPs within the "migrating stream" was significantly decreased when the HMGB1-RAGE pathway was blocked by a RAGE antagonist or deletion of the RAGE gene. The absence of RAGE also decreased the activity of pentylenetetrazol-induced cortical epileptiform discharge. In summary, this study provided experimental evidence that the levels of extranuclear HMGB1 and its receptor RAGE were increased in cortical lesion in the early stage of the FL model. Activation of the HMGB1-RAGE pathway may contribute to the abnormal migration of SDNPs and the hyperexcitability of cortical lesion in the FL model.

Assimilation of Satellite-Based Snow Cover and Freeze/Thaw Observations Over High Mountain Asia.

Toward qualifying hydrologic changes in the High Mountain Asia (HMA) region, this study explores the use of a hyper-resolution (1 km) land data assimilation (DA) framework developed within the NASA Land Information System using the Noah Multi-parameterization Land Surface Model (Noah-MP) forced by the meteorological boundary conditions from Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 data. Two different sets of DA experiments are conducted: (1) the assimilation of a satellite-derived snow cover map (MOD10A1) and (2) the assimilation of the NASA MEaSUREs landscape freeze/thaw product from 2007 to 2008. The performance of the snow cover assimilation is evaluated via comparisons with available remote sensing-based snow water equivalent product and ground-based snow depth measurements. For example, in the comparison against ground-based snow depth measurements, the majority of the stations (13 of 14) show slightly improved goodness-of-fit statistics as a result of the snow DA, but only four are statistically significant. In addition, comparisons to the satellite-based land surface temperature products (MOD11A1 and MYD11A1) show that freeze/thaw DA yields improvements (at certain grid cells) of up to 0.58 K in the root-mean-square error (RMSE) and 0.77 K in the absolute bias (relative to model-only simulations). In the comparison against three ground-based soil temperature measurements along the Himalayas, the bias and the RMSE in the 0-10 cm soil temperature are reduced (on average) by 10 and 7%, respectively. The improvements in the top layer of soil estimates also propagate through the deeper soil layers, where the bias and the RMSE in the 10-40 cm soil temperature are reduced (on average) by 9 and 6%, respectively. However, no statistically significant skill differences are observed for the freeze/thaw DA system in the comparisons against ground-based surface temperature measurements at mid-to-low altitude. Therefore, the two proposed DA schemes show the potential of improving the predictability of snow mass, surface temperature, and soil temperature states across HMA, but more ground-based measurements are still required, especially at high-altitudes, in order to document a more statistically significant improvement as a result of the two DA schemes.

A global distributed basin morphometric dataset.

Basin morphometry is vital information for relating storms to hydrologic hazards, such as landslides and floods. In this paper we present the first comprehensive global dataset of distributed basin morphometry at 30 arc seconds resolution. The dataset includes nine prime morphometric variables; in addition we present formulas for generating twenty-one additional morphometric variables based on combination of the prime variables. The dataset can aid different applications including studies of land-atmosphere interaction, and modelling of floods and droughts for sustainable water management. The validity of the dataset has been consolidated by successfully repeating the Hack's law.

[Construction of acid-sensitive potassium channel-3 eukaryotic expression plasmid and its express in SH-SY5Y cells].

OBJECTIVE: To construct the acid-sensitive potassium hannel-3(TASK3) eukaryotic expression plasmid and to establish a stable SH-SY5Y cell line expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP)-tagged TASK3. METHODS: TASK3 coding region was subcloned into pEGFP-N1 plasmid to construct a recombinant vector alled pEGFP-TASK3. The correct recombinant expressing plasmid was transfected with X-feet transfection reagent to SH-SY5Y cells. The cell line stably expressiing EGFP tagged-TASK3 gene was established by screening with antibiotic G418 and fluorescence microscope. The expression and localization of the EGFP tagged-TASK3 fusion protein was detected by Western blot and confocal microscope. Exposure of the SH-SY5Y cell line expressing stably TASK3-eGFP fusion proteins was exposed to different pH media (7.0, 6.7, 6.4, 6.1) for 24 h, the cell viability was assessed with cell counting Kit-8 (CCK-8). RESULTS: All the results of identification by PCR, digestion with restriction endonuclease and sequencing indicated that the recombinant eukaryotic expression plasmid pEGFP-TASK3 was constructed correctly. The stable SH-SY5Y cell line expressing EGFP tagged-TASK3 fusion protein was successfully established. Exposure of the wild type SH-SY5Y cells and the stable SH-SY5Y-GFP tag-TASK3 cell line to different pH media (7.0, 6.7, 6.4, 6.1) for 24 h, the cell viability of two group cells significantly reduced with pH declining, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Compared with wild type SH-SY5Y cells, the cell viability of stable SH-SYSY-GFP tag-TASK3 cell line increased significantly with the same pH media, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The eukaryotic expression vector pEGFP-TASK3 is successfully constructed and the cell line stably expressing TASK3-eGFP fusion is established which is important for their fundamental research and potential applications.