The aim of liquid biopsies is to obtain tumor information via the molecular interrogation of liquid samples, including blood and urine. As a minimally invasive procedure, liquid biopsies have ...attracted attention. A series of studies have reported associations of biomarkers such as circulating tumor DNA, cell-free DNA and extracellular vesicles with urological cancers, especially prostate cancer (PCa), and demonstrated the promising potential of liquid biopsies. In this review, we summarize recent clinical translational studies of liquid biopsies in PCa and other urological cancers, including bladder cancer and renal cell carcinoma. The number of translational studies was limited, and most of the studies focused on PCa. Biomarkers isolated from blood by different detection methods could be applied in clinical practice to predict prognosis and treatment response in advanced PCa. The other applications in urological cancers identified in previous studies remain to be explored further. Current studies are limited due to the lack of ideal standard detection methods for biomarkers. In the future, with advances in methodology, more translational studies will be conducted to identify potential applications of liquid biopsies in urological cancers.
Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) and regular human-piloted vehicles (RVs) will coexist in the near future. Research has indicated the feasibility of using CAVs to stabilize traffic flow and ...eliminate stop-and-go waves. In light of this, we develop distributed control schemes to stabilize mixed vehicular platoons by using CAV as the leading vehicle. We address several challenges, such as limited information perception capabilities of RVs, the uncertain actuation of human drivers, and external disturbances. Only local information from the preceding vehicle is used in the controllers. Modifications of the input-to-state string stability (ISSS) are established to cope with the uncertainty and disturbance characteristics while conditions for stability are derived. The proposed control schemes can attenuate the effect of disturbances while maintaining the ISSS property. The relationships between ISSS and other string stability concepts are clarified. Finally, numerical experiments are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed platoon control schemes.
To improve the understanding of the influence of hydraulic properties and rainfall conditions on rainfall infiltration mechanism and hence on the pore-water pressure distributions in single and ...two-layer unsaturated soil systems, an analytical parametric study has been carried out. Parameters considered in this study include saturated permeability (ks), desaturation coefficient (α), water storage capacity (θs-θr), and antecedent and subsequent rainfall infiltration rate (qA and qB). Moreover, the influence of soil profile heterogeneity is also investigated. The calculated results demonstrate that the infiltration process and pore-water pressure response are primarily controlled by both qα/ks and ks/α. Generally the larger the value of qα/ks , the greater the reduction of negative pore-water pressure in shallow soil layer. The larger the ratio of ks/α, the faster is the advancement of wetting front. Among the three hydraulic parameters, the effects of α and ks on pore-water pressure response are much more significant than that of (θs-θr). However, the relative importance of ks and α depends on the initial negative pore-water pressure range in the ground. In addition, the influence of antecedent infiltration rate (qA) on pore-water pressure response appears to be much more significant than that of subsequent infiltration rate (qB).
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, FGGLJ, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Rainfall is the most relevant factor for the triggering of landslides and it is characterized by an extreme variability. Rainfall analysis is the most frequently adopted approach for predicting ...landslides. But predicting deep-seated landslides by means of rainfall thresholds is sometimes inadequate due to the complexity of such slopes. In this paper, further study of the loading
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unloading response ratio theory applied in landslides prediction was carried out. As the aforementioned effect and character of rainfall was concerned, a prediction for the known Xintan landslide was carried out by means of the loading
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unloading response ratio method, in which the action of water was regarded as loading/unloading measures. The results show that it is an effective method for landslides prediction, and it has an advantage over conventional rainfall thresholds or time sequences analysis method.
AbstractA mathematical model for calculating gas pressure profiles in layered landfill systems is presented. Solutions to scenarios considering a zero-pressure top boundary condition and a zero gas ...flux or fixed gas pressure bottom boundary condition are presented. Two cases, specified gas pressure and specified inward gas flux, are addressed for scenarios involving horizontal gas collection systems. A series of application examples demonstrate how the proposed model can be used to investigate the influences of (1) variation of gas generation rate with respect to depth and time, (2) soil covers, (3) horizontal collection layers, and (4) geomembrane and geosynthetic clay liner covers on gas pressure distribution in landfills. The proposed model provides a useful tool to landfill engineers in designing landfill gas management systems and in particular when selecting and specifying gas collection system spacing and pumps.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, FGGLJ, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Sm-doped ceria is a candidate electrolyte for SOFCs. The electrical conductivity of sintered samples of (CeO2)1-x(SmO1.5)x (x = 0.10-0.40) in air was investigated as a function of temperature between ...240 and 1000 C. The relative contribution of the grain interior (lattice) and grain boundaries to the overall resistance, is discussed in relation to the grain boundary effect. The maximum lattice conductivity observed (at 600 C) was 2 S/m for Ce0.9Sm0.1O1.95. With an increase in Sm concentration, the grain interior conductivity decreases gradually, but the grain boundary conductivity increases dramatically. The two opposite effects lead to a maximum (sigma(t,600 C) = 1 S/cm) in the overall conductivity at x = 0.2. A linear relationship between the association enthalpy of the defect cluster and x exp(1/3) was proposed. 24 refs.
It is generally thought that vegetation has a stabilization effect on a slope; however, very limited quantitative field data are available for verifying this perception. In order to improve our ...understanding on the vegetation effect on rainfall infiltration and hence on slope stability, a well-instrumented field study was carried out on an unsaturated expansive soil slope in China. The field program consisted of two neighboring monitoring areas (both 16 m wide by about 30 m long): namely a bare area and a naturally grassed area (real slope). Artificial rainfall events were produced in succession in the two areas with a specially-designed sprinkler system. In this paper, the relevant monitored results from the two areas are directly compared and discussed. Prior to the artificial rainfall, the measured higher initial soil suction in the grassed area than that in the bare areas was attributed to the evapo-transpiration effect of the grass. During the rainfall, the presence of the grass greatly increased the infiltrability of the upper soil layer and delayed the onset of surface runoff. The observed delayed responses (i.e., about 3 days) of surface runoff, soil suction and water content to the rainfall in the grassed area was about twice the duration of the delayed response in the bare area (i.e., about 1.5 days). The influence of the simulated rainfall on the changes of soil suction and water content in the grassed area was found to be more significant and about 1.5 m deeper than that in the bare area. The greater depth of influence observed in the grassed area may be attributable to the greater depth of open cracks due to the evapo-transpiration effect of grass.
A real-coded genetic algorithm is employed to develop a search approach for locating the noncircular critical slip surface in slope stability analyses. Limit equilibrium methods and the ...finite-element-based method are incorporated with the proposed search approach to calculate the factor of safety. Geometrical and kinematical compatibility constraints are established based on the features of slope problems to prevent slip surfaces from being unreasonable. A dynamic bound technique is presented to improve the search performance with more effective exploration within the solution domain. A number of examples are investigated that demonstrate the proposed search approach to be efficient in yielding accurate solutions to practical slope stability problems. The proposed search approach is stable and highly correlated with the results of independent analyses. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates the successful application of a real-coded genetic algorithm to noncircular critical slip surface search problems.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) and computed tomography (CT) are useful imaging modalities for evaluating tumor progression and treatment responses in genetically ...engineered mouse models of solid human cancers, but the potential of integrated FDG-PET/CT for assessing tumor development and new interventions in transgenic mouse models of human blood cancers such as multiple myeloma (MM) has not been demonstrated. Here we use BALB/c mice that contain the newly developed iMyc ΔEμ gene insertion and the widely expressed H2-Ld -IL6 transgene to demonstrate that FDG-PET/CT affords an excellent research tool for assessing interleukin-6- and MYC-driven plasma cell tumor (PCT) development in a serial, reproducible and stage- and lesion-specific manner. We also show that FDG-PET/CT permits determination of objective drug responses in PCT-bearing mice treated with the investigational proteasome inhibitor ixazomib (MLN2238), the biologically active form of ixazomib citrate (MLN9708), that is currently in phase 3 clinical trials in MM. Overall survival of 5 of 6 ixazomib-treated mice doubled compared with mice left untreated. One outlier mouse presented with primary refractory disease. Our findings demonstrate the utility of FDG-PET/CT for preclinical MM research and suggest that this method will play an important role in the design and testing of new approaches to treat myeloma.
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