The occurrence of chlorate (ClO 3 − ) and perchlorate (ClO 4 − ) in the terrestrial and extraterrestrial environments has been partly attributed to ozone (O 3 )-mediated oxidation of chlorine-bearing compounds. This is based on varying elevated Δ 17 O values in all measured terrestrial natural ClO 4 − as well as the nearly universal co-equal occurrence of ClO 3 − and ClO 4 − , which has only been reported to occur for dry oxidation of Cl − , a process for which little information is available. In this study, we examine possible factors influencing ClO 4 − and ClO 3 − formation by O 3 oxidation of sodium chloride (NaCl) salt and hydrochloric acid (HCl) gas in glass reactor vessels. We show that longer reaction times increase production of ClO 4 − and ClO 3 − , with ClO 3 − production generally being lower than ClO 4 − by 1−2 orders of magnitude. For 1 day oxidation periods, ClO 4 − /ClO 3 − ratios were relatively constant (∼50) for low Cl − masses and decreased over 3 orders of magnitude for higher (∼100×) Cl − masses. Perchlorate mass increased with increasing glass reactor surface areas but not the salt surface area. Increasing the relative humidity (RH) from 2 to 67% increased ClO 3 − production but did not affect the amount of ClO 4 − produced, confirming previous reports that free water will promote additional ClO 3 − but not ClO 4 − production pathways. Additionally, oxidation of HCl (g) produced ClO 4 − at higher yields than oxidation of NaCl but produced less ClO 3 − . Our findings suggest that sufficient O 3 saturation and availability of active sites are essential for heterogeneous formation of ClO 4 − and ClO 3 − . While glass surfaces per se are not relevant to environmental production, catalytic surfaces (silicate or others) abound in terrestrial and extraterrestrial environments. The Cl − form oxidized and amount of water vapor present will also significantly impact the ClO 4 − /ClO 3 − ratio, which could be helpful in evaluating the sources of ClO 4 − and ClO 3 − in extraterrestrial material, with important implications on the availability of water during formation.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second frequently newly diagnosed cancer in men. Androgen deprivation therapy has been widely used to inhibit PCa growth but eventually fails in many patients. Androgen receptor and its downstream molecules like microRNAs could be promising therapeutic targets. We aimed to investigate the involvement of miR-21 in PCa tumorigenesis. We found that miR-21 was an unfavorable factor and correlated positively with tumor grade in PCa patients from TCGA database. MiR-21 was more highly expressed in androgen-independent PCa cells than in androgen-dependent PCa cells. Overexpression of miR-21 promoted androgen-dependent and-independent PCa cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and resistance to apoptosis. Furthermore, increased miR-21 expression promoted mouse xenograft growth. We identified nine genes differentially expressed in PCa tumors and normal tissue which could be potential targets of miR-21 by bioinformatic analyses. We demonstrate that miR-21 directly targeted KLF5 and inhibited KLF5 mRNA and protein levels in PCa. STRING and functional enrichment analysis results suggest that GSK3B might be regulated by KLF5. Our findings demonstrate that miR-21 promotes the tumorigenesis of PCa cells by directly targeting KLF5. These biological effects are mediated through upregulation of GSK3B and activation of the AKT signaling pathway.

Nowadays, numerous Computer-aided Design (CAD) software packages support Building Information Modeling (BIM). BIM software can benefit of advanced simulation in the pre-design phase of construction projects. In this case, we show focus on models of the emergency evacuation regarding the security and safety. We analyze the evacuation simulation of a model based on DEVS (Discrete Event systems Specification) for BIM authoring tools. The idea is to automate to extraction of building information that can be subsequently used in a simulation. Our case study uses a Cell-DEVS model of the evacuation of a multi-floor building. We also show how to obtain a 3D visualization by transforming the simulation results, facilitating the work of architects, contractors and fabricators. This kind of application could be used to analyze bottlenecks and the maximum occupation for determining an optical evacuation plan.

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Crowd modeling and simulation (M&S) has been used to support the analysis of the behavior of crowds, in order to predict the impact of pedestrian movement and to test design alternatives. In recent years, crowd M&S has become more complex, and new technologies such as CAD (computer-aided design) and BIM (building information modeling) authoring tools are being used to support the process. There are challenges in adopting these technologies due to the lack of automation and integration of these tools for crowd M&S. We propose a method based on a distributed architecture with simulation in the cloud, and composition using workflows. In particular, we adopt a model-driven engineering approach to extract data from CAD/BIM authoring tools, Cell-DEVS theory for crowd modeling, simulation as a service to execute simulation remotely, and three-dimensional visualization. Finally, we present a case study for crowd evacuation, discussing the advantages of the proposed architecture. We show the advantages obtained when using distributed deployment, simulation-based design and collaborative development and we discuss how this facilitates the crowd behavior study and improves reusability in crowd M&S.