Amidst the global concerns in sustainable development and climate change mitigation, the demand for heat-insulating materials has been increasing in which the research objects mostly attracting ...attention are those from agricultural and industrial wastes due to their abundance. Aerogels have been studied for practical applications in construction because of their lightweight and super-porous properties as well as remarkable thermal insulation. An attempt has been made to create novel silica aerogel composites via in situ synthesis of rice husk ash-derived silica aerogels on the recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) fiber framework and cost-effective ambient drying. Replacing expensive and toxic organosiloxane precursors with low-cost waste materials to synthesize the aerogel composites is a more economical, feasible, and user-friendly approach compared with the previous works. The fabricated aerogel composites exhibit characteristic features of aerogels, the low thermal conductivity of 0.040–0.056 W/(m·K), and a flame propagation speed of approx. 0.27 mm/s due to the adhesion of silica aerogels on the rPET fibers. The durability of the silica aerogel composites is enhanced with a structure of 4 layers of rPET fibers stacked on top of each other and alternating layers of silica aerogels, thus the as-fabricated aerogel composites show a high Young’s modulus of 84.099 kPa and can withstand 695 times their weight. The as-fabricated silica aerogel composites having both thermal insulation and flame retardancy exhibit great potential in eco-friendly and energy-efficient design for construction purposes.
Neoantigen delivery using extracellular vesicles (EVs) has gained extensive interest in recent years. EVs derived from tumour cells or immune cells have been used to deliver tumour antigens or ...antitumor stimulation signals. However, potential DNA contamination from the host cell and the cost of large‐scale EV production hinder their therapeutic applications in clinical settings. Here, we develop an antigen delivery platform for cancer vaccines from red blood cell‐derived EVs (RBCEVs) targeting splenic DEC‐205+ dendritic cells (DCs) to boost the antitumor effect. By loading ovalbumin (OVA) protein onto RBCEVs and delivering the protein to DCs, we were able to stimulate and present antigenic OVA peptide onto major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I, subsequently priming activated antigen‐reactive T cells. Importantly, targeted delivery of OVA using RBCEVs engineered with anti‐DEC‐205 antibody robustly enhanced antigen presentation of DCs and T cell activation. This platform is potentially useful for producing personalised cancer vaccines in clinical settings.
Red blood cell‐derived extracellular vesicles (RBCEVs) are loaded with protein antigen and are surface‐modified with DEC205‐targeting antibodies. The antigen‐loaded, DEC205‐targeting RBCEVs are taken up by dendritic cells and antigens are processed. Via DEC205‐mediated endocytosis, the antigens are digested and presented on MHC class I, which, in turn, activate CD8+ T cells. This mode of action improves T cell proliferation and activation while providing targeting effect towards secondary lymphoid organs in mice.
A facultative anaerobic bacterium was isolated from a mediator-less microbial fuel cell fed with artificial wastewater containing acetate and designated as PA3. The isolate was identified as a strain ...of
Aeromonas hydrophila based on its biochemical, physiological and morphological characteristics as well as 16S rDNA sequence analysis and DNA–DNA hybridization. PA3 used glucose, glycerol, pyruvate and hydrogen to reduce Fe(III), nitrate and sulfate. Cyclic voltammetry showed that PA3 was electrochemically active and was the culture collection strain
A. hydrophila KCTC 2358. Electricity was generated from a fuel cell-type reactor, the anode compartment of which was inoculated with cell suspensions of the isolate or
A. hydrophila KCTC 2358. The electrochemical activities are novel characteristics of
A. hydrophila.
Abstract
Numerical models for calculating bottom morphology are increasingly popular because of their long-term forecasting capabilities as well as their ability to identify causes. However, the ...simulation of bottom morphology, in addition to natural factors, is also governed by economic activities, especially sand mining. In this paper, we propose the development of the numerical model in curvilinear coordinates combined with a sand mining component that simulates the bottom morphology of the Tien river segment in the Mekong Delta as a study area. The modeling theory relies on the Reynolds equation system, which is combined with the suspended sediment transport equation in a two-dimensional curvilinear coordinate system. The process of averaging is performed over the depth. The suspended sediment transport equation incorporates a source function that describes the upward or downward movement of particles. In the model for bottom morphology, a component for sand mining is included, which accounts for the rate at which sand is extracted from the riverbed. This component is integrated into the equation governing the continuity of the bed load. The findings demonstrate that the numerical model effectively captures the changes in the river’s bottom morphology resulting from sand mining. Specifically, when the sand mining component is employed, the model accurately represents the actual development of the bottom morphology in river segments where sand mining occurs. Furthermore, the downstream bed alterations are significantly influenced by sand mining activities. By incorporating the sand mining component into the model, it becomes a valuable tool for simulating the bottom morphology in river segments subjected to sand mining, thus aiding in sand mining planning and the management of disaster risks associated with bank erosion.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a large number of fatalities and, at present, lacks a readily available curative treatment for patients. Here, we demonstrate that unmodified red blood ...cell-derived extracellular vesicles (RBCEVs) can inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection in a phosphatidylserine (PS) dependent manner. Using T cell immunoglobulin mucin domain-1 (TIM-1) as an example, we demonstrate that PS receptors on cells can significantly increase the adsorption and infection of authentic and pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 viruses. RBCEVs competitively inhibit this interaction and block TIM-1-mediated viral entry into cells. We further extend the therapeutic efficacy of this antiviral treatment by loading antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) designed to target conserved regions of key SARS-CoV-2 genes into RBCEVs. We establish that ASO-loaded RBCEVs are efficiently taken up by cells in vitro and in vivo to suppress SARS-CoV-2 replication. Our findings indicate that this RBCEV-based SARS-CoV-2 therapeutic displays promise as a potential treatment capable of inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 entry and replication.
Traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) negatively impacts children's health. Self-protective measures are available, but population uptake is variable. It is essential to understand human beliefs and ...behaviours related to air pollution in order to understand the lack of self-protection in communities.
As a prelude to undertaking a comprehensive assessment of children's attitudes and beliefs on the health effects of TRAP exposure, we sought to develop and validate an appropriate instrument.
This study used exploratory sequential mixed methods.
This instrument, based on the constructs of the health belief model (HBM), aimed to determine factors predicting wearing a mask to protect against TRAP exposure. An initial literature-based questionnaire was modified using in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and a quantitative survey pilot. This study included 121 school students and nine professional experts in Vietnam. The questionnaire was tested for content validity, agreement, test-retest reliability, and internal consistency.
The concordance of questionnaire items between two repeated assessments ranged from 47.2% to 78.3%, intraclass correlation coefficients ranged from 0.16 to 0.87 and Cronbach's internal reliability coefficient for the instrument was 0.60.
The self-administered instrument, based on the HBM, is suitable to understand health attitudes and beliefs related to self-protective behaviours to reduce TRAP exposure.
This paper proposes a method of load ranking and load shedding in a power system based on the calculation of the priority weighting continuity of the power supply of loads and the improved AHP ...algorithm. The proposed method applies the theories of covariance between objects, correlation, and fuzzy preference to develop a fuzzy preference correlation matrix based on the percentage of Vital Load, Semi Vital Load, and Non-Vital Load at each load bus. This matrix replaces the judgment matrix of the traditional AHP algorithm to form the criteria layers and scheme layers of the problem. The priority weighting continuity of the power supply of loads is continuously calculated and updated according to the load profile and is used to distribute the load shedding power to each load bus. This distribution optimizes the objective function and maximizes the load benefits, thereby minimizing the damages due to load shedding. The traditional AHP method and the proposed method are applied to the IEEE 30 bus system and the result comparison demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Cellulose–chitosan (CECS) aerogels are novel, green, biodegradable materials with many applications in water treatment, food packing, and thermal insulation. Using cellulose (CE) from biomass wastes ...can be regarded as one of the best ways to prepare CECS aerogel due to its low cost, sustainability, and environmentally friendly properties. However, most current procedures have harsh conditions and use many chemicals; thus, releasing waste is inevitable. Here, we developed a green and facile approach for fabricating cellulose–chitosan (CECS) aerogel from rice straw and shrimp waste-based chitosan (CS). The rice straw treatment step without using organic solvents and oxidants was, respectively, conducted with sodium hydroxide 1 wt.% and sulfuric acid 2 wt.% for cellulose preparation. The CECS aerogel was created by the freeze–thaw process without using a cross-linker. The aerogels have high porosity (98%), low density (18.65 mg/cm
3
), and low thermal conductivity (0.035 W/m.K), which could be used as an insulator. The characterization of aerogel was determined by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) for elucidating the chemical structure. In addition, wastewater obtained from alkaline treatment and acid hydrolysis processes was used to produce lignin/silica hybrid material. The lignin/silica hybrid material has an amorphous structure with a lignin/silica ratio of 0.936.
Osteosarcoma (OS) is a rare malignant bone tumor. It affects mostly young persons and has poor outcome with the present treatment. No improvement was observed since the introduction of chemotherapy. ...The better understanding of osteosarcoma development could indicate better management strategy. Repetitive DNA elements were found to play a role in cancer mechanism especially in epithelial tumors but not yet analyzed in osteosarcoma. We conducted the study to analyse the expression profile of repetitive elements (RE) in osteosarcoma.
Fresh bone paired (tumor and normal bone) samples were obtained from excised parts of tumors of 18 patients with osteosarcoma. We performed sequencing of RNA extracted from 36 samples (18 tumor tissues and 18 normal bone for controls), mapped raw reads to the human genome and identified the REs. EdgeR package was used to analyse the difference in expression of REs between osteosarcoma and normal bone.
82 REs were found differentially expressed (FDR < 0.05) between osteosarcoma and normal bone. Out of all significantly changed REs, 35 were upregulated and 47 were downregulated. HERVs (
and
) and satellite elements (
) were the most significantly differential expressed elements between osteosarcoma and normal tissues. These results suggest significant impact of REs in the osteosarcoma. The role of REs should be further studied to understand the mechanism they have in the genesis of osteosarcoma.
Molecular ecological techniques were applied to analyze the bacterial diversity of two oligotrophic microbial fuel cells (MFCs) enriched using river water or artificial wastewater (AWW) as fuel. ...Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of the PCR amplified 16S rDNA showed that different microbial communities were present in the two MFCs and these were different from the river sediment used to initiate the enrichment. Nearly complete 16S rDNA was amplified and sequenced. Over 80% of the clones were
Proteobacteria.
Betaproteobacteria were the dominant clones (46.2%) in MFCs fed with river water, and about 64.4% of the clones in MFCs fed with AWW were
Alphaproteobacteria.
Actinobacteria were found only in the MFC fed with AWW, and
Deltaproteobacteria,
Acidobacteria,
Chloroflexi and
Verrucomicrobia in the MFC fed with river water. Many clones were related to uncultured bacteria, some with homology less than 95%, indicating that many novel bacteria were enriched in the oligotrophic MFCs.
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