Geochemistry of Late Permian coals from the Yueliangtian coal deposit, Guizhou: Evidence of sediment source and evaluation on critical elements.

The enrichment of rare, scattered, rare earth, and noble elements, such as Li, Ga, Ge, rare earth elements and yttrium (REY), platinum group elements (PGE), Au, and Ag, have been discovered in the Late Permian coals from southwestern China. With the gradual depletion of traditional ore deposits, the geochemistry and resource utilization of critical metals in coals have received considerable attention. The geochemistry of associated elements in the Late Permian coals from the No. 10 coal profile of the Yueliangtian (YLT) underground mine, Liupanshui coalfield in Guizhou, were investigated to reveal the sediment source of inorganic components, as well as utilization prospects and controlling factors of critical metals. Silver and Pb were slightly enriched in the Yueliangtian coals, while Be, Rb, Sr, Mo, Cs, Ba, Tl, Bi, and U were significantly lower than that of world hard coals. The concentrations of total REY and individual elements in the Yueliangtian coals were similar to those of world hard coals. The minerals kaolinite, pyrite, calcite, and quartz predominated in coals, with trace amounts of anatase, gypsum, and apatite. High anatase proportion was identified in the floor and roof rock samples. Based on the Al2O3/TiO2 and Zr/TiO2 versus Nb/Y ratios, elemental assemblages, REY distribution, and paleogeography, the sediment source of mineral matter in the Yueliangtian coals dominated by felsic-intermediate rocks that from a distal volcanic arc or orogens was inferred. The terrigenous debris in the roof and floor rocks primarily originated from the high-Ti basalt of the Emeishan Large Igneous Province (ELIP). The relatively low elemental concentrations in these coals were primarily determined by their sediment sources. Although most critical metals in this coal were not enriched, the concentration of REY in coal ash was high enough to be considered as a potential resource for REY recovery given the extremely low ash yields of this coal.

A Machine Learning Method to Trace Cancer Primary Lesion Using Microarray-Based Gene Expression Data.

Cancer of unknown primary site (CUP) is a heterogeneous group of cancers whose tissue of origin remains unknown after detailed investigation by conventional clinical methods. The number of CUP accounts for roughly 3%-5% of all human malignancies. CUP patients are usually treated with broad-spectrum chemotherapy, which often leads to a poor prognosis. Recent studies suggest that the treatment targeting the primary lesion of CUP will significantly improve the prognosis of the patient. Therefore, it is urgent to develop an efficient method to accurately detect tissue of origin of CUP in clinical cancer research. In this work, we developed a novel framework that uses Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) to trace the primary site of CUP based on microarray-based gene expression data. First, we downloaded the microarray-based gene expression profiles of 59,385 genes for 57,08 samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and 6,364 genes for 3,101 samples from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Both data were divided into training and independent testing data with a ratio of 4:1. Then, we obtained in the training data 200 and 290 genes from TCGA and the GEO datasets, respectively, to train XGBoost models for the identification of the primary site of CUP. The overall 5-fold cross-validation accuracies of our methods were 96.9% and 95.3% on TCGA and GEO training datasets, respectively. Meanwhile, the macro-precision for the independent dataset reached 96.75% and 98.8% on, respectively, TCGA and GEO. Experimental results demonstrated that the XGBoost framework not only can reduce the cost of clinical cancer traceability but also has high efficiency, which might be useful in clinical usage.

Geological Characteristics and Control Mechanism of Uranium Enrichment in Coal-Bearing Strata in the Yili Basin, Northwest China-Implications for Resource Development and Environmental Protection.

Uranium enrichment is considerably prevalent in Jurassic coal-bearing strata in the Yili Basin. A large amount of uranium deposits (occurrences) have been discovered in recent decades. Previous studies have found that uranium deposits and coal seam have a certain correlation in their genesis and spatial distribution or sometimes uranium deposits develop directly in the coal seam. What are the geological characteristics of uranium enrichment? How is uranium enriched? How to strengthen the cooperative development of uranium and coal and environmental protection? In order to explain the aforementioned questions, the characteristics of uranium deposits, rock minerals, and geochemical and metallogenic chronology are summarized herein, and the geological control mechanism of uranium enrichment in coal-bearing strata is discussed. It is found that uranium enrichment (including sandstone uranium deposits and coal uranium deposits) has multistage genetic characteristics and is mainly spread over the gentle slope of the southern margin of the Yili basin, with its host rock possibly being sandstone, coal, and sometimes even mudstone. The uranium concentration has a considerable correlation with the reductant, and the occurrence state of uranium has both inorganic and organic affinities. In addition, uranium enrichment is believed to be a comprehensive effect of high uranium source rocks, tectonic activity, sedimentary facies, hydrogeology conditions, paleoclimate, and reductant. The difference is that uranium enrichment in sandstone is often generated in a mud-sand-mud stratigraphic structure, while uranium enrichment in coal usually develops as coal-sand-mud. What is more, strengthening the study of physical and chemical properties of the host rock, strengthening the study of uranium occurrence state, and sharing geological data are important ways for the cooperative development of coal and uranium resources and environmental protection.

Maceral and Organic Geochemical Characteristics of the Late Permian Coals from Yueliangtian Mine, Guizhou, Southwestern China.

Compositional characteristics of maceral and extractable organic matter (EOM) of the No. 10 coal from the Yueliangtian mine, Guizhou, Southwestern China, were analyzed by optical microscopy, gas chromatography (GC), and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The depositional conditions, thermodynamic effect, type and maturity of organic matter, and possible health hazards were evaluated. The random vitrinite reflectance (R o) is 1.01%, and the macerals are dominated by collodetrinite, inertodetrinite, collotelinite, and fusinite. The coal seam is a terrestrial sedimentary environment of the lower delta plain through the analysis of coal facies. Additionally, the extracted yield of EOM is 1.01%. The low ratio of saturated to aromatic fraction and the distribution of n-alkanes indicate that the coal-forming plants are primarily terrestrial higher plants. Typical isoprenoid biomarker parameters, including pristane/phytane (Pr/Ph), Pr/n-C17, and Ph/n-C18, reflect a weak oxidizing environment of coal. The hopanoid biomarkers, odd-even predominance index (OEP), and carbon preference index (CPI) reveal that the organic matter was mature. More than one hundred polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) were eluted and identified, and the phenanthrenes and naphthalenes account for a higher proportion. Thermodynamic stabilities play an essential role in the conversion of molecular structures, which support the relatively high contents of 2-methylnaphthalene, 2- and 3-methylphenanthrenes, and 2,6- and 2,7-dimethylphenanthrenes compared to their respective isomers. The oxygen-containing and sulfur-containing aromatic compounds also indicate the weak oxidization of the coal-formation environment, which is consistent with the results of isoprenoid biomarkers. Because of the carcinogenicity and mutagenicity of PACs, the distribution and toxic equivalency of PACs are briefly summarized.

LncRNA PTCSC3 Is a Biomarker for the Treatment and Prognosis of Gastric Cancer.

Background: Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) papillary thyroid carcinoma susceptibility candidate 3 (PTCSC3) inhibits several types of cancer, whereas its role in gastric cancer is unknown. Materials and Methods: From May 2010 to May 2015, this study included 68 (36 males and 32 females, 35-69 years, 48.3 ± 7.1 years) gastric cancer patients and 60 healthy volunteers (32 males and 28 females, 34-67 years, 48.8 ± 6.5 years). Transient transfections, QPCR, CCK-8, transwell cell migration, and invasion assay were used for carrying out the research. Results: The authors found that plasma PTCSC3 was downregulated in gastric cancer patients. Downregulation of PTCSC3 distinguished early stage gastric cancer patients from healthy controls. LncRNA PTCSC3 expression levels were increased on the day of discharge in gastric cancer patients compared with pretreatment levels. During follow-up, patients with low plasma levels of PTCSC3 showed a significantly lower overall survival rate. PTCSC3 negatively regulated proliferation, invasion, and migration of gastric cancer cells. Conclusions: Therefore, lncRNA PTCSC3 may serve as a biomarker for the treatment and prognosis of gastric cancer.

The complete mitochondrial genome sequence and mutations of the lung cancer model inbred rat strain (Muridae; Rattus).

We reported the complete mitochondrial genome sequencing of an important Lung cancer model inbred rat strain for the first time. The total length of the mitogenome was 16,312 bp. It harbored 13 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes, 22 transfer RNA genes and 1 non-coding control region. The mutation sites were analyzed by comparing with the reference BN strain.