Superelastic conducting fibers with improved properties and functionalities are needed for diverse applications. Here we report the fabrication of highly stretchable (up to 1320%) sheath-core ...conducting fibers created by wrapping carbon nanotube sheets oriented in the fiber direction on stretched rubber fiber cores. The resulting structure exhibited distinct short- and long-period sheath buckling that occurred reversibly out of phase in the axial and belt directions, enabling a resistance change of less than 5% for a 1000% stretch. By including other rubber and carbon nanotube sheath layers, we demonstrated strain sensors generating an 860% capacitance change and electrically powered torsional muscles operating reversibly by a coupled tension-to-torsion actuation mechanism. Using theory, we quantitatively explain the complementary effects of an increase in muscle length and a large positive Poisson's ratio on torsional actuation and electronic properties.
Cell-free DNA (cf-DNA)-based liquid biopsy is emerging as a revolutionary new method in individualized cancer treatment and prognosis monitoring, although detecting early-stage cancers using cf-DNA ...remains challenging, partially because of the undefined biological background of cf-DNA.
We investigated somatic mutations in the cf-DNA of 259 cancer-free individuals with a median age of 47 years using an endogenous barcoding duplex method with an ultralow base error rate (2 × 10−7) and compared the variant allele frequencies (VAFs) of these mutations between the cf-DNA and the corresponding blood cell DNA.
Sixty percent (155/259) of the samples showed at least one nonsynonymous mutation on either of two similar target panels covering 508 and 559 cancer-related genes. For individuals older than 50 years of age, the positive rate increased to 76%. Most cf-DNA mutations were also present at similar VAFs in the paired blood cell DNA. The most frequently mutated genes were driver genes of hematologic malignancies, including DNMT3A, TET2, AXSL1, and JAK2. However, the other 58.4% (192/329) of the mutations were likely ‘passenger mutations’ of clonal hematopoiesis, including mutations in NOTCH2, FAT3, EXT2, ERBB4, and ARID2, which are driver genes of solid tumors.
Hematopoietic clone-derived mutations, including ‘driver mutations’ and ‘passenger mutations’, are prevalent in the cf-DNA of both healthy individuals and cancer patients and may be a potential source of false positives in the liquid biopsy. Our results also suggest the ineffectiveness for distinguishing clonal hematopoietic mutations of low VAF (≤0.1%) from tumor-derived mutations using conventional next-generation sequencing of blood cell DNA. However, an error correction model with an ultralow error rate and high coverage depth is required for blood cell DNA sequencing, which is difficult and costly to achieve with current technologies.
•Characteristics of MSW from new town are different from urban and rural waste.•1st industrial utilization of garage-type dry fermentation for treating MSW to biogas in China.•The specific biogas ...yield of the feedstock was about 270m3CH4tVS−1.•The volumetric biogas production of the digesters and percolate tank was 0.72 and 2.22m3 (m3d)−1, respectively.
The objectives of this study was to through monitoring the 1st industrial scale garage-type dry fermentation (GTDF) MSW biogas plant in Bin County, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, China, to investigate its anaerobic digestion (AD) performance and the stability of process. After a monitoring period of 180days, the results showed that the volumetric biogas production of the digesters and percolate tank was 0.72 and 2.22m3 (m3d)−1, respectively, and the specific biogas yield of the feedstock was about 270m3CH4tVS−1, which indicated that the GTDF is appropriate for the Chinese MSW. This paper also raised some problems aimed at improving the process stability and AD efficiency.
Abstract
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common cancer in children. TCF3-PBX1 fusion defines a common molecular subtype of ALL with unique clinical features, but the molecular basis of ...its inherited susceptibility is unknown. In a genome-wide association study of 1494 ALL cases and 2057 non-ALL controls, we identified a germline risk locus located in an intergenic region between BCL11A and PAPOLG: rs2665658, P = 1.88 × 10–8 for TCF3-PBX1 ALL vs non-ALL, and P = 1.70 × 10–8 for TCF3-PBX1 ALL vs other-ALL. The lead variant was validated in a replication cohort, and conditional analyses pointed to a single causal variant with subtype-specific effect. The risk variant is located in a regulatory DNA element uniquely activated in ALL cells with the TCF3-PBX1 fusion and may distally modulate the transcription of the adjacent gene REL. Our results expand the understanding of subtype-specific ALL susceptibility and highlight plausible interplay between germline variants and somatic genomic abnormalities in ALL pathogenesis.
First principles calculation is conducted to systematically investigate the effects of alloying elements (Mo, Re, Os, Ta, Ti, and V) on phase stability, stacking fault energy, ductility, and ...restoring force of W. It is found that the addition of Mo, Re and Os would decrease the generalized stacking fault energy (GSFE) of W and increase the ductility of W, while the alloying elements of Ti, Ta, and V could enhance its GSFE and reduce its ductility. The different effects of alloying elements would be mainly attributed to the intrinsic interaction between W and the alloying element, i.e., the repulsive interaction of W-Mo, W-Re, and W-Os with positive heats of formation would increase the interlayer distance of W and facilitate its slip, whereas the attractive interaction of W-Ti, W-Ta, and W-V with negative heats of formation would reduce the interlayer distance of W and impede the slip. The derived results are in good agreement with available observations in the literature, and could provide a deep understanding of the effects of alloying elements on various properties of W.
•Alloying of Mo, Re, and Os decreases GSFE of W and increases ductility of W.•Alloying of Ti, Ta, and V increases GSFE of W and decreases ductility of W.•Different alloying effects are due to repulsive/attractive interaction.•It provides a deep understanding of alloying effects on properties of W.•Results clarify a controversy regarding ductility of W alloys in literature.
We report on the analysis of the 10-1000 TeV large-scale sidereal anisotropy of Galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) with the data collected by the Tibet Air Shower Array from 1995 October to 2010 February. ...In this analysis, we improve the energy estimate and extend the decl. range down to −30°. We find that the anisotropy maps above 100 TeV are distinct from that at a multi-TeV band. The so-called tail-in and loss-cone features identified at low energies get less significant, and a new component appears at ∼100 TeV. The spatial distribution of the GCR intensity with an excess (7.2 pre-trial, 5.2 post-trial) and a deficit (−5.8 pre-trial) are observed in the 300 TeV anisotropy map, in close agreement with IceCube's results at 400 TeV. Combining the Tibet results in the northern sky with IceCube's results in the southern sky, we establish a full-sky picture of the anisotropy in hundreds of TeV band. We further find that the amplitude of the first order anisotropy increases sharply above ∼100 TeV, indicating a new component of the anisotropy. All these results may shed new light on understanding the origin and propagation of GCRs.
A novel alkaline xylanase gene (
xyn
AI) from
Bacillus amyloliquefaciens
was highly expressed in
Pichia pastoris
, and the enzyme was purified and characterized. Sequence analysis indicated that ...XynAI belongs to xylanases family GH11 with 5 potential N-glycosylation sites and 3 salt bridges. The purified XynAI had molecular weight of 22 kDa, the optima temperature and pH of 55°C and pH 8.6, respectively. Furthermore, XynAI has high thermal (30–70°C) and pH (pH 5.0–10.0) stability.Mg
2+
, Ni
2+
, Ca
2+
and Fe
2+
at concentration of 1 mM enhanced the xylanase activity by 6.2, 6.5, 7.9 and 202.6%, respectively. Under optimal conditions, the
K
M
and
V
max
values of XynAI for beechwood xylan were 8 mg/mL and 83.3 µmol min
–1
mg of protein
–1
, respectively. In the culture supernatant, the maximal protein concentration and xylanase activity of XynAI reached 3.98 mg/mL and 292 U/mg, respectively. The biochemical properties of XynAI showed that it may be a promising candidate for industrial applications.
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