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Objective This study aimed to investigate the association between body mass index (BMI)-related DNA methylation alterations and lung cancer risk. Methods We conducted a case–control study involving 250 patients with lung cancer and 250 healthy controls. The Illumina 450 K methylation array was used to assess DNA methylation levels in peripheral blood samples. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed. Gene Ontology and pathway enrichment analyses were conducted to explore the biological functions of related genes. Results Among the 15,000 CpG sites that passed quality control, 1,200 sites showed significant correlation with BMI. We identified 15 CpG sites as being significantly associated with lung cancer risk, with the most significant being hypermethylation of PARK2 (cg00012345; odds ratio [OR] = 2.5, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.7–3.6) and hypomethylation of TP53 (cg04236487; OR = 1.8, 95%CI: 1.3–2.5). Moreover, BMI stratification analysis revealed stronger associations between DNA methylation and lung cancer risk in overweight and obese groups, with PARK2 methylation showing increased risk in the overweight group (OR = 2.2, 95%CI: 1.6–3.0) and ADIPOQ methylation in the obese group (OR = 1.8, 95%CI: 1.3–2.5). Pathway analysis identified significant enrichment in p53 signalling, MAPK signalling, apoptosis and immune response pathways ( p  < 0.05). The associations of PARK2 and TP53 methylation with lung cancer risk were confirmed in two independent validation cohorts with similar effect sizes. Conclusions This study provides the first systematic evidence for the key role of BMI-related DNA methylation alterations in lung cancer development, particularly in overweight and obese populations. Methylation changes in genes may serve as potential biomarkers for lung cancer risk prediction, offering new strategies for early screening and prevention of lung cancer.

MYB transcription factors have been demonstrated to play key regulatory roles in plant growth, development and abiotic stress response. However, knowledge concerning the involvement of rice genes in salinity and drought stress resistance are largely unknown. In the present study, we cloned and characterized the gene, which was induced by drought and salinity stress. Subcellular localization of OsMYB6-YFP fusion protein in protoplast cells indicated that OsMYB6 was localized in the nucleus. Overexpression of in rice did not suggest a negative effect on the growth and development of transgenic plants, but -overexpressing plants showed increased tolerance to drought and salt stress compared with wild-type plants, as are evaluated by higher proline content, higher CAT and SOD activities, lower REL and MDA content in transgenic plants under drought and salt stress conditions. In addition, the expression of abiotic stress-responsive genes were significantly higher in transgenic plants than that in wild-type plants under drought and salt stress conditions. These results indicate that gene functions as a stress-responsive transcription factor which plays a positive regulatory role in response to drought and salt stress resistance, and may be used as a candidate gene for molecular breeding of salt-tolerant and drought-tolerant crop varieties.

Nonsyndromic orofacial cleft (NSOFC) is a severe birth defect that occurs early in embryonic development and includes the subtypes cleft palate only (CPO), cleft lip only (CLO) and cleft lip with cleft palate (CLP). Given a lack of specific genetic factor analysis for CPO and CLO, the present study aimed to dissect the landscape of genetic factors underlying the pathogenesis of these two subtypes using 6,986 cases and 10,165 controls. By combining a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for specific subtypes of CPO and CLO, as well as functional gene network and ontology pathway analysis, we identified 18 genes/loci that surpassed genome-wide significance (P < 5 × 10-8) responsible for NSOFC, including nine for CPO, seven for CLO, two for both conditions and four that contribute to the CLP subtype. Among these 18 genes/loci, 14 are novel and identified in this study and 12 contain developmental transcription factors (TFs), suggesting that TFs are the key factors for the pathogenesis of NSOFC subtypes. Interestingly, we observed an opposite effect of the genetic variants in the IRF6 gene for CPO and CLO. Moreover, the gene expression dosage effect of IRF6 with two different alleles at the same single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) plays important roles in driving CPO or CLO. In addition, PAX9 is a key TF for CPO. Our findings define subtypes of NSOFC using genetic factors and their functional ontologies and provide a clue to improve their diagnosis and treatment in the future.

Spoof surface plasmons (SSPs) play crucial roles in terahertz (THz) near‐field photonics. However, both high‐efficiency excitation and wavefront engineering of SSPs remain great challenges, which hinder their wide applications in practice. Here, a scheme is proposed to simultaneously achieve these two goals efficiently using a single ultracompact device. First, it is shown that a gradient meta‐coupler constructed by high‐efficiency Pancharatnam–Berry (PB) meta‐atoms can convert circularly polarized (CP) THz beams into SSPs with absolute efficiency up to 60%. Encoding a parabolic phase profile into the meta‐coupler based on the PB mechanism, it is demonstrated that the device can covert CP beams into SSPs with focusing or defocusing wavefronts, dictated by the chirality of the incident wave. Finally, two distinct chirality‐dependent phase distributions are encoded into the meta‐coupler design by combining the PB and resonance phase mechanisms, and it is demonstrated that the resulting meta‐device can achieve SSP excitations with chirality‐delinked bifunctional wavefront engineering. THz near‐field experiments are performed to characterize all three devices, in excellent agreement with full‐wave simulations. The results pave the road to realize ultracompact devices integrating different functionalities on near‐field manipulations, which can find many applications (e.g., optical sensing, imaging, on‐chip photonics, etc.) in different frequency domains. High‐efficiency bifunctional manipulations on surface‐plasmon wavefronts are enabled by a single ultracompact meta‐device. Constructed with meta‐atoms possessing both geometric and resonant phases, the meta‐device exhibits distinct phase profiles for impinging lights with different spins, thus generating independent surface‐plasmon profiles. These findings may find many applications in integration photonics, such as coupling on‐chip optical devices and enhancing light–matter interactions.

Recent studies have reported worldwide vegetation suppression in response to increasing atmospheric vapor pressure deficit (VPD). Here, we integrate multisource datasets to show that increasing VPD caused by warming alone does not suppress vegetation growth in northern peatlands. A site-level manipulation experiment and a multiple-site synthesis find a neutral impact of rising VPD on vegetation growth; regional analysis manifests a strong declining gradient of VPD suppression impacts from sparsely distributed peatland to densely distributed peatland. The major mechanism adopted by plants in response to rising VPD is the “open” water-use strategy, where stomatal regulation is relaxed to maximize carbon uptake. These unique surface characteristics evolve in the wet soil‒air environment in the northern peatlands. The neutral VPD impacts observed in northern peatlands contrast with the vegetation suppression reported in global nonpeatland areas under rising VPD caused by concurrent warming and decreasing relative humidity, suggesting model improvement for representing VPD impacts in northern peatlands remains necessary. Growing vapor pressure deficit inhibits vegetation growth. Here, Chen et al. combine satellite and eddy covariance data with field experiments showing that plant growth in northern peatlands is not constrained by water even in the presence of a warming-induced water pressure deficit.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been reported to enhance explosive strength in lower limb skeletal muscles. Nevertheless, findings regarding the impact of tDCS on jump performance remain inconclusive, potentially due to variations in stimulation montage and current intensity. Therefore, we aimed to elucidate the effects of multifocal tDCS on lower limb jump kinetics and neuromuscular adaptation. Fourteen female collegiate basketball players were enrolled in a randomized, crossover, controlled trial. Each participant underwent three intervention sessions in a randomized sequence: 2 mA tDCS, 4 mA tDCS, and sham tDCS, all targeting the primary motor cortex (M1). After each stimulation session, countermovement jump (CMJ), squat jump (SJ), drop jump (DJ), and surface electromyography (EMG) data were collected. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way repeated measures ANOVA. The 4 mA multifocal tDCS condition produced a significant increase in jump height compared to baseline, sham, and the 2 mA condition. Similarly, the concentric impulse was markedly higher in the 4 mA group relative to all other conditions. Relative peak force was significantly improved in the 4 mA group versus baseline, and relative peak power was significantly greater under 4 mA tDCS compared to sham stimulation. The modified reactive strength index (RSImod) was also enhanced considerably following 4 mA tDCS, relative to both baseline and sham conditions. However, EMG analysis indicated that none of the tDCS interventions significantly affected the root mean square (RMS) values of lower limb muscle activation, including the rectus femoris (RF), vastus lateralis (VL), vastus medialis (VM), biceps femoris (BF), semitendinosus/semimembranosus (SEM), medial gastrocnemius (MG), lateral gastrocnemius (GL), and tibialis anterior (TA). Multifocal anodal tDCS at an intensity of 4 mA significantly improves lower limb jump performance in female collegiate basketball athletes. Integrating multifocal anodal tDCS into routine training regimens may serve as a practical and effective adjunct for enhancing performance in this population.

The cathode channel of air-cooled open-cathode proton exchange membrane fuel cell (AO-PEMFC) is both a reactant supply channel and a cooling and heat dissipation channel, and its structural design is a key factor affecting its output performance. Firstly, the numerical study of AO-PEMFC with different cathode channel bending angles was carried out, and the results showed that the output performance of a single cell with a cathode bending angle of 2.5° was improved by 3.88% compared with that of a single cell with a cathode straight channel at rated point-density electricity, and the cathode voltage drop increased by only 1.5%. In addition, in order to further improve the power density of the fuel cell, two agent models, support vector regression and Gaussian process regression, are constructed and trained, and a genetic algorithm is used to find the parameter optimization for the bending angle, width and height of the cathode channel. Finally, the proposed ranges of width, height and bending angle of the optimal flow channel are obtained, which are w = 1.1–1.2 mm, d = 1.3–1.5 mm and θ = 2.23°–2.99°, respectively, and the output power density of a single cell within this range will be no less than 0.489 W/cm 2 .

KIN17, well known as a DNA and RNA binding protein, is highly involved in the regulation of tumorigenesis of diverse human cancers, but its function in the cancer progression and metastasis of Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC) remains unclear. The aims of this study were to identify the role of KIN17 in RCC. We performed the study with the PI3K/mTOR inhibitor PF-04691502 in vivo and vitro, detected the tumor invasion and migration dysfunction by using Bioinformatics Analysis, IHC, Scratch Wound Healing Assay, Cell Viability Assay, Colony Formation Assays, EdU-647 Labeling, Cell Cycle and Apoptosis Detection by flow cytometer, Western Blotting, Animal Experiment. These findings suggest that the ability of KIN17 is to promote RCC cell proliferation, cycle progression, reduce cell apoptosis, increase cell clone formation, invasion, and increase cell migration and so on. As expected, PI3K/mTOR pathway inhibitor can reverse the ability of KIN17 in vivo and vitro. Meanwhile, PI3K/mTOR pathway inhibitor can reverse the activation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. Overall, our findings provide preliminary data which suggests KIN17 could be a promising migration and invasion prognostic biomarker, as well as a potential therapeutic target in RCC.

This paper investigates how foreign ownership shapes bank information environments. Using a sample of listed banks from 60 countries over 1997–2012, we show that foreign ownership is significantly associated with greater (lower) informativeness (synchronicity) in bank stock prices. We also find that stock returns of foreign-owned banks reflect more information about future earnings. In addition, the positive association between price informativeness and foreign ownership is stronger for foreign-owned banks in countries with stronger governance, stronger banking supervision, and lower monitoring costs. Overall, our evidence suggests that foreign ownership reduces bank opacity by exporting governance, yielding important implications for regulators and governments.

In the context of high penetration of distributed energy resources and new load integration, existing research primarily focuses on capacity optimization under pre-established interconnection structures, addressing issues such as uneven spatiotemporal distribution of loads and low equipment utilization in distribution transformer areas. However, these studies lack a planning-stage interconnection object selection mechanism. To address this, this paper proposes a planning-oriented flexible interconnection potential assessment and optimization configuration method for distribution transformer areas. First, a quantitative interconnection potential assessment model is developed, integrating load rate improvement after interconnection and geographical connection costs, enabling the ranking and selection of candidate transformer area combinations. On this basis, a flexible interconnection system optimization configuration model is established, aiming to minimize the overall system cost, and collaboratively optimizing converter and energy storage capacities. A case study of 20 distribution transformer areas in a certain city shows that the optimal transformer area combination increases the load factor from 64.6% to 79.4%, an improvement of 22.9%; when considering energy storage configuration, the total economic cost of the interconnection system is reduced by approximately 20.2% compared to the independent operation mode. The results validate the effectiveness of the proposed method in improving equipment utilization and reducing the system’s total lifecycle cost, providing decision support for flexible planning of urban distribution networks.