RUNX2 prompts triple negative breast cancer drug resistance through TGF-ß pathway regulating breast cancer stem cells.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) stands out as the most aggressive subtype within the spectrum of breast cancer. The current clinical guidelines propose treatment strategies involving cytotoxic agents like epirubicin or paclitaxel. However, the emergence of acquired resistance frequently precipitates secondary tumor recurrence or the spread of metastasis. In recent times, significant attention has been directed toward the transcription factor RUNX2, due to its pivotal role in both tumorigenesis and the progression of cancer. Previous researches suggest that RUNX2 might be intricately linked to the development of resistance against chemotherapy, with its mechanism of action possibly intertwined with the signaling of TGF-ß. Nevertheless, the precise interplay between their effects and the exact molecular mechanisms underpinning chemoresistance in TNBC remain elusive. Therefore, we have taken a multifaceted approach from in vitro and in vivo experiments to validate the relationship between RUNX2 and TGF-ß and to search for their pathogenic mechanisms in chemoresistance. In conclusion, we found that RUNX2 affects chemoresistance by regulating cancer cell stemness through direct binding to TGF-ß, and that TGF-ß dually regulates RUNX2 expression. The important finding will provide a new reference for clinical reversal of the development of chemoresistance in breast cancer.

Role of RUNX2 in breast cancer development and drug resistance (Review).

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy and ranks second among the causes of tumor-associated death in females. The recurrence and drug resistance of breast cancer are intractable due to the presence of breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs), which are adequate to initiate tumor formation and refractory to conventional remedies. Runt-related transcription factor 2 (RUNX2), a pivotal transcription factor in mammary gland and bone development, has also been related to metastatic cancer and BCSCs. State-of-the-art research has indicated the retention of RUNX2 expression in a more invasive subtype of breast cancer, and in particular, triple-negative breast cancer development and drug resistance are associated with estrogen receptor signaling pathways. The present review mainly focused on the latest updates on RUNX2 in BCSCs and their roles in breast cancer progression and drug resistance, providing insight that may aid the development of RUNX2-based diagnostics and treatments for breast cancer in clinical practice.

RUNX2 facilitates aggressiveness and chemoresistance of triple negative breast cancer cells via activating MMP1.

Breast cancer remains the most common malignancy in women and constantly threatens the lives of patients worldwide. State-of-the-art renewal has indicated the involvement of RUNX-associated transcription factor 2 (RUNX2) in tumorigenesis and cancer progression, yet the detailed information during breast cancer is largely obscure. Herein, we took advantage of breast cancer cell lines and in vivo tumorigenicity test as well as multifaceted phenotypic analyses (e.g., RNA-sequencing, ChIP and qRT-PCR assay) to verify the pathogenic mechanism of RUNX2 in triple negative breast cancer aggressiveness and chemoresistance. Strikingly, the proliferation, migration, invasion and chemoresistance of resistant cell lines in triple negative breast cancer was effectively suppressed by RUNX2 silencing, and the in vivo tumorigenicity was significantly weakened as well. Furthermore, with the aid of transcriptomic and bioinformatic analyses, we found MMP1 was highly expressed in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) and showed a strong correlation with the poor prognosis of the patients, which was consistent with the expression pattern of RUNX2. Finally, by conducting ChIP and qRT-PCR assessment, we verified that RUNX2 functioned via directly binding to the specific motifs in the promoter of MMP1 and thus activating the transcriptional process. Collectively, our data demonstrated the facilitating effect of RUNX2 during triple negative breast cancer progression by directly orchestrating the expression of MMP1, which supplied overwhelming new references for RUNX2-MMP1 axis serving as a novel candidate for breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.

The Driving Mechanism of Urban Land Expansion from 2005 to 2018: The Case of Yangzhou, China.

The driving mechanism of expansion is the basis for policymaking in urban land management and control. In this study, Yangzhou city in China was used as an example. Based on the supply and demand theory of land, a framework was constructed to analyze the driving factors behind urban land expansion. Path analysis was used to determine the direct and indirect factors driving urban land expansion. The results showed the following: (1) Urban land in Yangzhou city expanded 32,831.10 hm2 from 2005 to 2018, mainly in terms of farmland. This rapid expansion arose from the contraction of rural residential areas, threatening ecological spaces such as water bodies. (2) Path analysis indicated that fixed-asset investment, the added value of secondary and tertiary industries, urban population, distance to the city center, and farmland area are the direct factors driving urban land expansion. Land finance, technology input, and transportation ability indirectly influence urban land by affecting other driving factors. (3) Increasing the level of urban land-use intensification, properly adjusting economic development goals, reasonably controlling the population, exploring the retention of construction land in city centers, and optimizing farmland and basic farmland plans need to be considered in the management and control of urban land expansion. Furthermore, to guide the orderly expansion of urban land, improving land management systems, promoting scientific and technological progress, and scientifically designing transportation land are necessary strategies.

Pro-Environmental Behavior: Examining the Role of Ecological Value Cognition, Environmental Attitude, and Place Attachment among Rural Farmers in China.

Studies on the factors that influence farmers' pro-environmental behavior could promote environmental management in rural areas. Jinan of China was selected as the case study area in this study. A structural equation model and multiple hierarchical regression analysis were applied to analyze the influence mechanism of ecological value cognition on pro-environmental behavior. Environmental attitudes were set as the mediating variable and place attachment was selected as the moderating variable. The results showed that (1) ecological value cognition exhibited a positive influence on pro-environmental behavior in both direct and indirect ways. The indirect influence was mediated by environmental attitude. (2) Place identity and place dependence showed a positive direct influence on pro-environmental behavior. (3) It is suggested that in order to improve pro-environmental behavior, enhancing ecological value cognition, cultivating farmers' positive environmental attitude, increasing farmers' place attachment, and releasing reward and punishment measures are good strategies. The findings in this study are important to the improvement of the rural ecological environment and the quality of life of farmers. Meanwhile, the findings shed light on the construction process of ecological civilization and the improvement of public welfare.

Comparative Study on International Research Hotspots and National-Level Policy Keywords of Dynamic Disaster Monitoring and Early Warning in China (2000-2021).

For more than 20 years, disaster dynamic monitoring and early warning have achieved orderly and sustainable development in China, forming a systematic academic research system and top-down policy design, which are inseparable from the research of China's scientific community and the promotion of government departments. In the past, most of the research on dynamic disaster monitoring and early warning focused on specific research in a certain field, scene, and discipline, while a few studies focused on research review or policy analysis, and few studies combined macro and meso research reviews in academia with national policy analysis for comparative analysis. It is necessary and urgent to explore the interaction between scholars' research and policy deployment, which can bring theoretical contributions and policy references to the top-down design, implementation promotion, and academic research of China's dynamic disaster monitoring and early warning. Based on 608 international research articles on dynamic disaster monitoring and early warning published by Chinese scholars from 2000-2021 and 187 national policy documents published during this period, this paper conducts a comparative analysis between the knowledge maps of international research hotspots and the co-occurrence maps of policy keywords on dynamic disaster monitoring and early warning. The research shows that in the stage of initial development (2000-2007), international research articles are few and focused, and research hotspots are somewhat alienated from policy keywords. In the stage of rising development (2008-2015), after the Wenchuan earthquake, research hotspots are closely related to policy keywords, mainly in the fields of geology, engineering disasters, meteorological disasters, natural disasters, etc. Meanwhile, research hotspots also focus on cutting-edge technologies and theories, while national-level policy keywords focus more on overall governance and macro promotion, but the two are gradually closely integrated. In the stage of rapid development (2016-2021), with the continuous attention and policy promotion of the national government, the establishment of the Ministry of Emergency Management, and the gradual establishment and improvement of the disaster early warning and monitoring system, research hotspots and policy keywords are integrated and overlapped with each other, realizing the organic linkage and mutual promotion between academic research and political deployment. The motivation, innovation, integration, and transformation of dynamic disaster monitoring and early warning are promoted by both policy and academic research. The institutions that issue policies at the national level include the State Council and relevant departments, the Ministry of Emergency Management, the Ministry of Water Resources, and other national ministries and commissions. The leading affiliated institutions of scholars' international research include China University of Mining and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan University, Shandong University of Science and Technology, and other institutions. The disciplines involved are mainly multidisciplinary geosciences, environmental sciences, electrical and electronic engineering, remote sensing, etc. It is worth noting that in the past two to three years, research and policies focusing on COVID-19, public health, epidemic prevention, environmental governance, and emergency management have gradually increased.

The Relationship between Environmental Awareness, Habitat Quality, and Community Residents' Pro-Environmental Behavior-Mediated Effects Model Analysis Based on Social Capital.

Pro-environmental behavior can promote the optimization of the living environment and sustainable social development. This paper constructs a theoretical analysis framework of "environmental consciousness, habitat environment-social capital- pro-environmental behavior". By using structural equation modeling and 1005 instances of microscopic research data, we analyzed the influence of environmental awareness and habitat environment on the pro-environmental behavior of community residents. The results of the analysis were combined with the Bootstrap method to verify the mediating role of social capital dimensions in the influence of environmental awareness and habitat quality on the pro-environmental behavior of community residents. The results show that: Firstly, environmental awareness, habitat quality, and social capital have positive effects on the pro-environmental behavior of community residents. Secondly, environmental awareness and habitat quality have positive effects on the five dimensions of social capital. Thirdly, among the five dimensions of social capital, four dimensions of social trust, social norms, sense of community belonging, and community voluntarism play a partially mediating role between environmental awareness, habitat quality, and pro-environmental behavior. This paper enriches the research on the influence of environmental awareness and habitat environment on pro-environmental behavior, reveals the mediating effect of each dimension of social capital, and broadens the horizon for the study of pro-environmental behavior. The results of the study can provide a reference for decision making to promote the implementation of pro-environmental behavior among community residents.

Research on the Influence of Non-Cognitive Ability and Social Support Perception on College Students' Entrepreneurial Intention.

The entrepreneurship of college students is an important issue related to the harmony and sustainable development of society as a whole. At present, the existing research in the industry pays less attention to the influence mechanism of non-cognitive ability and social support perception on college students' entrepreneurial intention. Using 450 survey data, this paper examines the relationship between non-cognitive ability and college students' entrepreneurial intention in terms of five dimensions: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability. At the same time, it focuses on the role of social environmental factors, namely, social support perception in the relationship between the non-cognitive ability and entrepreneurial intention, and explores the influence path. The results show that openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, and emotional stability have significant positive effects on entrepreneurial intention; agreeableness has no significant effect on entrepreneurial intention; openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability have significant positive effects on social support perception. The mediating effect of social support perception is as follows-it is part of the intermediary effect between openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and emotional stability on entrepreneurial intention; within the influence of agreeableness on entrepreneurial intention, it plays a complete intermediary role. This paper enriches the research results on the impact of non-cognitive ability on entrepreneurial intention, reveals the intermediary effect of social support perception on the impact of non-cognitive ability on college students' entrepreneurial intention, and broadens the field of vision for the study of college students' entrepreneurial intention. The research results can provide a decision-making reference for the promotion of the entrepreneurial intention of college students, alleviating the employment pressure of college graduates in China and promoting sustainable economic development.

Leaving the Homestead: Examining the Role of Relative Deprivation, Social Trust, and Urban Integration among Rural Farmers in China.

Actively promoting the orderly and voluntary withdrawal of idle rural house bases and effectively activating "sleeping" land assets are considered important measures to accelerate the modernization of agriculture and rural areas, as well as promoting the integrated development of urban and rural areas. However, few studies have focused on the superimposed effects of negative psychological and social environmental factors on the willingness of farmers to withdraw from their homestead. Therefore, we conducted this study in order to clarify the logical ideas of rural home base withdrawal, analyze the factors that influence the decision of home base withdrawal behavior of interest subjects, and provide a scientific decision basis for promoting rural home base withdrawal and accelerating the process of transferring citizens of agricultural population in terms of policies, measures, and paths, so as to design and develop an incentive mechanism for home base withdrawal of citizens of agricultural transfer population. The results of the study show that: (1) the findings indicate that social deprivation, economic deprivation, and emotional deprivation all significantly and negatively affect farmers' willingness to withdraw from their homesteads; (2) social trust plays a mediating role between relative deprivation and farmer homestead withdrawal behavior; and (3) urban integration plays a moderating role between social and emotional deprivation and the social trust of farmers, but does not have a significant moderating role in the relationship between economic deprivation and social trust. Furthermore, it plays a moderating role between all deprivation factors (i.e., economic, social, and emotional deprivation) and farmer homestead withdrawal behavior. This study aims to provide useful guidance and policy suggestions for optimizing policies related to farmer homestead withdrawal behaviors, and for scientifically designing the homestead withdrawal mechanism and policy system.

Small-target judging method based on the effective image pixels for measuring infrared radiation characteristics.

When measuring infrared radiation characteristics, it is necessary to judge whether the target is a small target or a surface target. This paper proposes a judging method based on the effective imaging pixels of the target that takes into account the influence of the diffusing effect of the imaging system as well as that of the signal-to-noise ratio on the imaging process. The method employs a discrete imaging process model to simulate images of small targets and implements an algorithm for estimating the effective imaging pixels. Characteristic curves for judgment are obtained, and judgment criteria are, in turn, established based on the definition of a threshold number of effective imaging pixels. Targets with a number of effective imaging pixels less than this threshold are defined as small targets. Experimental results validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.

MiR-34a Inhibits Breast Cancer Proliferation and Progression by Targeting Wnt1 in Wnt/ß-Catenin Signaling Pathway.

BACKGROUND: As microRNA-34a (miR-34a) has been suggested to be associated with breast cancer (BC), this study was proposed to explore the underlying mechanism of miR-34a in suppressing BC progression. METHODS: A total of 123 pairs of tumor tissues and matched nontumor tissues were obtained from patients. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and in situ hybridization were used to detect the differences in miR-34a expression in tissues and cells. Whether Wnt1 is a direct downstream target of miR-34a was confirmed by both bioinformatics target gene prediction and dual-luciferase report assay. Wnt1 and other gene expressions that are related to Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway were assessed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and western blot when MCF-7A cells were transfected with miR-34a mimic or miR-34a inhibitor. The proliferation, invasion and migration status of MCF-7 cells after transfection were assessed by MTT assay, wound healing assay and transwell assays, respectively. Breast tumor xenograft models on mice were also constructed to determine the effect of miR-34a on breast tumor growth in vivo. RESULTS: MiR-34a expression was remarkably down-regulated in BC tissues and cell lines compared with normal tissues and cell lines. Wnt1 was a direct downstream target of miR-34a and low expression of miR-34a contributed to the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway activation in MCF-7A cells. MiR-34a inhibited the proliferation, invasion and migration of BC in vitro and breast tumor growth in vivo through deactivating the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway. CONCLUSION: MiR-34a may suppress the proliferation and progression of BC via mediating the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway.