This paper aims to study the effects of altitude and the size of smoke outlet on fire smoke diffusion and discharge in semi-lateral smoke exhaust highway tunnels. At first, simulations of ...semi-lateral smoke exhaust highway tunnels were carried out in FDS (Fire Dynamics Simulator), then the distribution laws of temperature, CO concentration, smoke mass flow, and visibility in the tunnel under the conditions of different altitudes and smoke outlet areas were analyzed to figure out the effects of altitude and size of smoke outlet on fire smoke diffusion and discharge in the said tunnels. The results suggest that, in case of the same fire source power, the velocity of smoke diffusion increases with the altitude; for curves of different altitudes, the tunnel roof temperature features are basically the same, that is, the higher the altitude, the higher the temperature at the tunnel roof. When the fire source power is 20 MW, the smoke mass flow at the smoke outlet decreases with the increase of altitude, but the CO concentration grows with it, indicating that the smoke exhaust efficiency is higher in high-altitude areas. When the altitude reaches 4200 m and the fire source power is 20 MW, with the increase of smoke outlet area, the smoke discharge effect of the tunnel shows an upward trend, taking both the smoke discharge effect and economy into consideration; the smoke outlet should take a size of 4 * 3 m. Keywords: altitude; size of smoke outlet; smoke control; tunnel fire simulation
Background
Lymph vascular invasion (LVI) is an unfavorable prognostic indicator in gastric cancer (GC). However, there are no reliable clinical techniques for preoperative predictions of LVI. The aim ...of this study was to develop and validate PET/CT-based radiomics signatures for predicting LVI of GC preoperatively. Radiomics nomograms were also established to predict patient survival outcomes.
Methods
This retrospective study registered 148 GC patients with histopathological confirmation for LVI status, who underwent pre-operative PET/CT scans (Discovery VCT 64 PET/CT system) from December 2014 to June 2019. Clinic-pathological factors (age, gender, and tumor grade, etc.) and metabolic PET data (maximum and mean standardized uptake value, total lesion glycolysis and metabolic tumor volume) were analyzed to identify independent LVI predictors. The dataset was randomly assigned to either the training set or test set in a 7:3 ratios. Three-dimensional (3D) radiomics features were extracted from each PET- and CT-volume of interests (VOI) singularly, and then a radiomics signature (RS) associated with LVI status is built by feature selection. Four models with different modalities (PET-RS: only PET radiomics features; CT-RS: only CT radiomics features; PET/CT-RS: both PET and CT radiomics features; PET/CT-RS plus clinical data) were developed to predict LVI. Patients were postoperatively followed up with PET/CT every 6-12 months for the first two years and then annually up to five years after surgery. The PET/CT radiomics score (Rad-scores) was calculated to assess survival outcome, and corresponding nomograms with radiomics (NWR) or without radiomics (NWOR) were established.
Results
Tumor grade and maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) were the independent LVI predictor. 1037 CT and PET 3D radiomics features were extracted separately and reduced to 4 and 5 features to build CT-RS and PET-RS, respectively. PET/CT-RS and PET/CT-RS plus clinical data (tumor grade and SUVmax) were also developed. The ROC analysis demonstrated clinical usefulness of PET/CT-RS plus clinical data (AUC values for training and validation, respectively 0.936 and 0.914) and PET/CT-RS (AUC values for training and validation, respectively 0.881 and 0.854), which both are superior to CT-RS (0.838 and 0.824) and PET-RS (0.821 and 0.812). SUVmax and LVI were independent prognostic indicators of both OS and PFS. Decision curve analysis (DCA) demonstrated NWR outperformed NWOR and was established to assess survival outcomes. For estimation of OS and PFS, the C-indexes of the NWR were 0. 88 and 0.88 in the training set, respectively, while the C-indexes of the NWOR were 0. 82 and 0.85 in the training set, respectively.
Conclusions
The PET/CT-based radiomics analysis might serve as a non-invasive approach to predict LVI status in GC patients and provide effective predictors of patient survival outcomes.
Current immune checkpoint blockade strategies have been successful in treating certain types of solid cancer. However, checkpoint blockade monotherapies have not been successful against most ...hematological malignancies including multiple myeloma and leukemia. There is an urgent need to identify new targets for development of cancer immunotherapy. LILRB1, an immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motif-containing receptor, is widely expressed on human immune cells, including B cells, monocytes and macrophages, dendritic cells and subsets of natural killer (NK) cells and T cells. The ligands of LILRB1, such as major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules, activate LILRB1 and transduce a suppressive signal, which inhibits the immune responses. However, it is not clear whether LILRB1 blockade can be effectively used for cancer treatment.
First, we measured the LILRB1 expression on NK cells from cancer patients to determine whether LILRB1 upregulated on NK cells from patients with cancer, compared with NK cells from healthy donors. Then, we developed specific antagonistic anti-LILRB1 monoclonal antibodies and studied the effects of LILRB1 blockade on the antitumor immune function of NK cells, especially in multiple myeloma models,
and
xenograft model using non-obese diabetic (NOD)-SCID interleukin-2Rγ-null mice.
We demonstrate that percentage of LILRB1
NK cells is significantly higher in patients with persistent multiple myeloma after treatment than that in healthy donors. Further, the percentage of LILRB1
NK cells is also significantly higher in patients with late-stage prostate cancer than that in healthy donors. Significantly, we showed that LILRB1 blockade by our antagonistic LILRB1 antibody increased the tumoricidal activity of NK cells against several types of cancer cells, including multiple myeloma, leukemia, lymphoma and solid tumors,
and
.
Our results indicate that blocking LILRB1 signaling on immune effector cells such as NK cells may represent a novel strategy for the development of anticancer immunotherapy.
BACKGROUND: In the process of hepatic fibrosis, hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) can be activated by many inflammatory cytokines. The transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) is one of the main ...profibrogenic mediators. Recently, some studies have also shown that microRNAs (miRNAs) play essential roles in the progress of liver fibrosis by being involved in the differentiation, fat metabolism and ECM production of HSCs. METHODS: The expression of miR-454 in LX-2 cells treated with TGF-β1 and in the fibrotic livers with Schistosoma japonicum infection was detected by qRT-PCR. The role of miR-454 on LX-2 cells was then analyzed by Western blot, flow cytometry and luciferase assay. RESULTS: The results showed that the expression of miR-454 was down-regulated in the TGF-β1-treated LX-2 cells and miR-454 could inhibit the activation of HSCs by directly targeting Smad4. However, we found that miR-454 had no effect on cell cycle and cell proliferation in TGF-β1-treated LX-2. Besides these, miR-454 was found to be regulated in the process of Schistosoma japonicum infection. CONCLUSIONS: All the results suggested that miR-454 could provide a novel therapeutic approach for treating liver fibrosis, especially the liver fibrosis induced by Schistosoma japonicum.
•Formation of interface between stainless steel 316L and Inconel 718 during metal powder bed fusion of was examined.•The interface shapes is appear to determine by the surface tension driven flow ...during solidification.•The wider Ni-Cr rich interface region, exceeding the typical diffusion lengths, were recognised as a result of melt pool flow.
Additive manufactured dissimilar metal constructs of alternating Inconel 718 and Stainless Steel 316L layers were fabricated by using selective laser melting. The solidified interfaces between two materials were examined to understand the interface characteristics. No distinct horizontal layers have been observed and undulating dissimilar interfaces at meso-scale. The undulations of the interfacing are understood a result of the melt pool surface oscillations driven by forces such as surface tension. The shape of the interface and the chemical distribution across the interface implied that the mass transport by the flow can significantly influence the interface morphology.
▶ Two operations are introduced into the basic PSO algorithm, and an improved algorithm called PSOEC is proposed. ▶ BP neural network is used to establish a soft sensor for estimating the ammonia ...concentration at the ammonia converter outlet in a real-world plant. ▶ The proposed PSOEC algorithm is employed as the learning method of the weights and thresholds of BP neural network.
Ammonia synthesis production is a critical chemical industry around the world. As the key process variable, the ammonia concentration at the ammonia converter outlet reflects the production status and provides good advices for the operators. However, it cannot be easily measured because of high expenditure and deficient reliability of online sensors in a real-world ammonia synthesis process. Due to this, a soft sensor, which is used to predict the outlet ammonia concentration, is developed using BP neural network (BPNN). An improved particle swarm optimization with expansion and constriction operation (PSOEC) is proposed to optimize the weights and thresholds of BPNN. The PSOEC and BPNN based soft-sensing model (PSOEC-NN) is applied to inferring the outlet ammonia concentration in a fertilizer plant. Results using other modeling methods (BPNN and PSO-NN) are presented for comparison purpose. The proposed PSOEC-NN based soft sensor shows high precision and good generalization capability. PSOEC-NN model would offer great help for further work like advanced control and operational optimization in the ammonia synthesis process.
Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is a group of hematopoietic disorders with limited treatment options. Anemia is a common symptom in MDS, and although erythropoiesis-stimulating agents such as ...erythropoietin, lenalidomide, and luspatercept are available to treat anemia, many MDS patients do not respond to these first-line therapies. Therefore, alternative drug development strategies are needed to improve therapeutic efficacy. Splicing modulators to correct splicing-related defects have shown promising results in clinical trials. Targeting differentiation of early erythroid progenitors to increase the erythroid output in MDS is another novel approach, which has shown encouraging results at the pre-clinical stage. Together, these therapeutic strategies provide new avenues to target MDS symptoms untreatable previously.
Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis arising from mutations in hematopoietic stem cells.Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents are the first choice of drugs for low-risk MDS patients but are often ineffective.Splicing factor mutations are the major class of mutation in MDS and recently developed splicing modulators can specifically target these mutations.Enhancing differentiation of early erythroid progenitors via inhibition of cholinergic receptor muscarinic 4 (CHRM4), a newly identified negative regulator of burst-forming unit erythroid (BFU-E) differentiation, has shown promising results in pre-clinical testing.Detailed investigation of nervous system regulation of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSPC) differentiation could unravel novel regulatory mechanisms of hematopoiesis.
BACKGROUND: Septin4 (SEPT4) exists widely in human tissues and is related to mechanical stability, actin dynamics, membrane trafficking, viral replication and apoptosis. Data from many studies have ...suggested that SEPT4 plays a significant role in liver fibrosis. SEPT4 is down-regulated in the model of CCl₄and BDL treated liver fibrosis. However, it is up-regulated and peaked at 12 weeks post-infection (p.i.), and then decreased subsequently in Schistosoma japonicum (S. japonicum) egg-induced liver fibrosis. The aim of this study was to observe the dynamic alteration of SEPT4 after the treatment of praziquantel (PZQ) in ICR mice infected with S. japonicum. METHODS: Expression of SEPT4 was determined by western blot, immunofluorescence and qRT-PCR. And pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and TNF-α were detected by qRT-PCR. The number of eggs, the diameter of egg granulomas and fibrosis-associated genes were also measured. RESULTS: Our results showed that the granulomatous inflammation was reduced, whereafter the expression of SEPT4 on hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) was decreased after PZQ anti-schistosome therapy. And the variation tendency of SEPT4 had positive correlation with the inflammatory response in the area of S. japonicum egg granulomas. CONCLUSIONS: Based on these findings, the inhibition of the expression of the SEPT4 by PZQ might be due to alleviation of the inflammatory response at the chronic and advanced stage of S. japonicum infection.
To confront with energy crisis, microalgae as the promising feedstock have a great potential in exploring renewable energy field, whereas the high costs related to medium preparation and biomass ...harvesting are the main bottleneck to hinder the development on a large scale. Though cultivation of filamentous fungi for microalgae harvesting is an efficient, sustainable and emerging method, and the studies on specific mechanisms and spent medium recycling for efficiency improvement as well as resource saving through a co-pelletization mode are urgently needed. Hence, in this study, the harvesting process of autotrophic microalgae Chlorella vulgaris by pre-cultured Aspergillus oryzae pellets was investigated systematically. The highest efficiency (99.23%) was obtained within 5 h under the optimized conditions of 30 °C, 130 rpm and fungi:algae ratio of 1:1 on a dry weight basis without demand for pH adjustment (initial value on 9.68). Charge neutralization was not the main mechanisms involved in fungi-algae aggregations, and the functional group changes on cell surfaces as well as secreted metabolites in medium could be mainly responsible for inducing the bioflocculation process. After harvesting, separated water could also effectively support microalgae re-growth. The biomass concentration in medium with 50% recycling was higher than that in fresh medium, while lipid content was increased from 24.37% to 33.97% in fully recycled medium. These results indicated that the pellet-assisted mode for algal harvesting is a promising way to promote biofuel production and resource recycling.
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•Filamentous fungi A. oryzae could form co-pellets with microalgae C. vulgaris•The maximum efficiency of 99.23% was obtained without pH adjustment•Secreted metabolites in medium facilitated bioflocculation•Recycled medium could support biomass accumulation•Lipid content of C. vulgaris was improved after reusing
The novel ion-imprinted montmorillonite nanosheets/chitosan (IIMNC) gel beads were prepared for selective adsorption of Cu2+. The IIMNC gel beads were characterized by scanning electron microscope ...(SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results showed that IIMNC was successfully assembled and rich in honeycombed pores, which performed well in the removal of Cu2+ through the synergistic effect of montmorillonite nanosheets and chitosan. The elimination of copper was followed by pseudo-second-order model and was enhanced by introduced montmorillonite nanosheets (MMTNS) because MMTNS attracted Cu(Ⅱ) by its negative charge and provided active adsorption sites through its high performance of cation exchange. This composite gel also showed excellent reusability, performing well in the removal of Cu2+ after undergoing adsorption-desorption in five cycles, because the adsorption sites of MMTNS can be continually reactivated by NaOH solution. More importantly, its high selectivity for Cu2+ provides a feasible way to recover Cu2+ from wastewater containing various cations.
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•IIMNC were abundant in honeycombed pores and performed well in the removal of Cu2+.•The negative charge and cation exchange played a synergistic role.•The adsorption was followed by pseudo-second-order and was enhanced by MMTNS.•IIMNC provided a feasible way for recovery of Cu2+ from heavy metal wastewater.
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