Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are one type of non-coding RNA. They act as important role in regulating various biological processes in the malignant progression. But we don't clearly know the specific mechanism of the majority circRNAs in papillary thyroid tumor progression. In the current study, we explored circKIF4A and the result showed that it had high expression in papillary thyroid cancer. The functions of circKIF4A were explored by CCK-8, transwell, and mouse xenograft experiments. Knockdown of circKIF4A could suppress papillary thyroid cell growth and migration. In addition, RIP assays and dual luciferase vector reporter assays were further conducted. Our consequence showed circKIF4A facilitated the malignant progress of papillary thyroid tumor by sponging miR-1231 and upregulating GPX4 expression. In conclusion, our study proved that circKIF4A-miR-1231-GPX4 axis played a vital role in cancer proliferation and ferroptosis by competing endogenous RNAs. Therefore, targeting circKIF4A is very likely to be a potential method for treatment of papillary thyroid cancer in the future.

This study attempts to assess the relationship between risk perception, risk knowledge, and travel intentions of Chinese leisure travelers during the COVID-19 pandemic in the framework of social contagion and risk communication theories by analyzing a sample of 1,209 travelers through structural equation modeling (SEM) and path analysis. We used the process macro of Hayes to analyze the moderation effects of age, gender, and education between risk perception, media and interpersonal communication, and risk knowledge. It was found that travelers were more concerned about self-efficacy than severity. Risk perception of travelers predicts the information-seeking process of tourists. This process helps travelers to accumulate risk information that influences their travel intentions. Travelers give more importance to interpersonal (contagion) communication in making a traveling decision. Demographic factors influence traveling decision-making; women travelers were found to be more risk resilient than men. Young travelers seek information at low- and old travelers at high-risk levels. Marketing implications also provided.

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The agricultural ecosystem has dual attributes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and absorption, which both influence the net amount of GHG. To have a clearer understanding of the net GHG effect, we linked up the emission and absorption of the agricultural ecosystem, estimated the net emissions of 30 provinces in China from 2007 to 2016, then explored the spatial correlation from global and local perspectives by Moran’s I, and finally tested the convergence of the net emissions by α convergence test, conditional β convergence test and spatial econometric methods. The results were: (1) The average of provincial agricultural net GHG emissions was around 4999.916 × 104 t, showing a fluctuating trend in the 10 years. Meanwhile, the gaps among provinces were gradually widening, as the provinces with high emissions were mainly agglomerated in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, while those with less emissions mainly sat in the northwest. (2) The net emissions correlated spatially in close provinces. The agglomeration centers were located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the northern coastal region, showing “high–high” and “low–low” agglomeration, respectively. (3) The net emissions did not achieve α convergence or conditional β convergence in the whole country, but the growth rate had a significant positive spillover effect among adjacent provinces, and two factors, the quantity of the labor force and the level of agricultural economy, had a negative impact on the rate. It is suggested that all provinces could strengthen regional cooperation to reduce agricultural net GHG emissions.

Purpose Whether or not young patients with squamous cell carcinoma of oral cavity (OC-SCC) have a difference in prognosis remains a controversy. This study aimed to analyze the clinical characteristics and difference of survival rates between adult patients less than 40 years of age and those 40 years of age and older. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted using the database of patients diagnosed with OC-SCC between 1990 and 2013 in the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, but patients older than 85 years, younger than 18 years, or died within 6 months of diagnosis were excluded. Patients were categorized into two groups: the young group (< 40 years of age) and the older group (≥ 40 years of age). Cox regression, survival and subgroups analyses were performed. The primary endpoints included the rates of 5-year overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS). Results A total of 1902 OC-SCC patients were identified. The percentage of female in the young group was significantly higher than that in the older group (40.27% vs 31.03%, p < 0.001). This study failed to find the difference in TNM classification or tumor stage between the two groups (p > 0.05). The young group was more likely to receive adjuvant radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy (42.48% vs 26.91%, p < 0.001). The 5-year OS rate (71% vs. 57%, p < 0.001) and DSS rate (72% vs 58%, p < 0.001) in patients under 40 years were significantly higher than those for the older group. Conclusion Our findings suggested that OC-SCC in younger patients did not present at a more advanced stage. In addition, young age is an independent predictor for better survival.Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This study aims to evaluate the crowdfunding alternatives regarding new service development process pathways of clean energy investment projects. In this framework, a new model has been generated by considering the consensus-based group decision-making with incomplete preferences, Pythagorean fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). Moreover, a comparative evaluation has been performed with Vise Kriterijumska Optimizacija I. Kompromisno Resenje methodology and sensitivity analysis has been made by considering 4 different cases. The main contribution is to identify appropriate crowdfunding-based funding alternatives for the improvement of the clean energy investments with a novel MCDM model. By considering the iteration technique and consensus-based analysis, the missing parts in the evaluations can be completed and opposite opinion problems can be reduced. Furthermore, with the help of hybrid MCDM model by combining DEMATEL and TOPSIS, more objective results can be reached. It is concluded that the analysis results are coherent and reliable. The findings indicate that the full launch is the most significant criterion for equity and debt-based crowdfunding alternatives. On the other side, the analysis has the highest weight for reward and donation-based alternatives whereas design is the most essential item regarding the royalty-based alternative. Additionally, it is also defined that equity-based crowdfunding alternative is the most significant for the service development process of clean energy investment projects. In this way, it will be possible to provide a continuous resource for clean energy investment projects. On the other hand, by providing financing with equity, there will be no fixed financing cost for clean energy investors. If these investors make a profit, they distribute dividends with the decision of their authorized bodies.