•Summarized the crucial issues affecting the development of vanadium redox flow battery.•Comprehensively analyzes the importance and necessity of flow field design and flow rate ...optimization.•Systematic analyzes the attributes and performance metrics of the battery for evaluating the flow field performance of the vanadium redox flow battery.•Comparative study and analysis of existing flow field design and flow rate optimization methods, looking forward to new ideas in the future flow field design.
Vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) has attracted much attention because it can effectively solve the intermittent problem of renewable energy power generation. However, the low energy density of VRFBs leads to high cost, which will severely restrict the development in the field of energy storage. VRFB flow field design and flow rate optimization is an effective way to improve battery performance without huge improvement costs. This review summarizes the crucial issues of VRFB development, describing the working principle, electrochemical reaction process and system model of VRFB. The process of flow field design and flow rate optimization is analyzed, and the battery attributes and metrics for evaluating VRFB performance are summarized. The focus of the research is the methods of flow field design and flow rate optimization, and the comprehensive comparison of battery performance between different flow field designs. Literature analysis shows that reasonable flow field design can improve the uniformity of electrolyte, improve battery attributes and metrics, and thus improve the overall performance of VRFB and reduce the cost.
The differential expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) in plasma of pancreatic cancer (PC) patients may act as a diagnostic biomarker. A four-stage study was performed to identify plasma miRNAs with ...potential in detecting PC. Exiqon panels (20 PC vs. 10 normal controls (NCs)) were applied in the screening phase to obtain miRNA profiling. The identified miRNAs were further assessed in the training (40 PC vs. 40 NCs) and testing stages (112 PC vs. 116 NCs) with qRT-PCR assays. A six-miRNA signature including up-regulated miR-122-5p, miR-125b-5p, miR-192-5p, miR-193b-3p, miR-221-3p and miR-27b-3p was identified. The signature could accurately discriminate PC patients from NCs with areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.848, 0.833 and 0.937 for the training, testing and the external validation stage (41 PC vs. 50 NCs), respectively. The multivariate Cox regression analyses showed that down-regulated plasma miR-125b-5p could predict worse OS independent from late tumor stage and high CA19-9. All the six miRNAs except miR-122-5p showed high expression levels in PC tissues than those in matched normal tissues. MiR-122-5p and miR-193b-3p were up-regulated, while miR-221-3p was down-regulated in plasma exosomes from PC patients. Bioinformatics analysis demonstrated that the miRNAs might involve in several molecular pathways closely related with PC such as p53 signaling pathway, pancreatic cancer, TGF-beta signaling pathway and so on. In conclusion, we identified a six-miRNA signature in plasma which could act as a non-invasive biomarker in diagnosis and prognosis of PC. Plasma miR-125b-5p might act as an independent biomarker in predicting OS of PC patients.
Vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) are one of the emerging energy storage techniques that have been developed with the purpose of effectively storing renewable energy. Due to the lower energy ...density, it limits its promotion and application. A flow channel is a significant factor determining the performance of VRFBs. Performance excellent flow field to ensure uniform distribution of electrolytes and increases the overall performance of the battery. In order to better explore the influence of the flow field on the transmission characteristics of the electrolyte, novel variable cross-section flow field is designed to analyze its impact on battery performance. The influence of flow field with and without flow field, different flow field configurations, and variable cross-section on battery performance was analyzed emphatically. The main contribution of this study are to make a comparative analysis of the existing channel design methods and analyze the advantages and disadvantages of different design methods and existing problems. It provides reference for the design and optimization of VRFBs in the future.
Recently, more and more studies investigated the association of inflammation parameters such as the Platelet Lymphocyte Ratio (PLR) and the prognosis of various cancers. However, the prognostic role ...of PLR in cancer remains controversial.
We conducted a meta-analysis of published studies to evaluate the prognostic value of PLR in various cancers. In order to investigate the association between PLR and overall survival (OS), the hazard ratio (HR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated.
A total of 13,964 patients from 26 studies were included in the analysis. The summary results showed that elevated PLR was a negative predictor for OS with HR of 1.60 (95%CI: 1.35-1.90; Pheterogeneity <0.001). Subgroup analysis revealed that increased PLR was a negative prognostic marker in patients with gastric cancer (HR = 1.35, 95%CI: 0.80-2.25, Pheterogeneity = 0.011), colorectal cancer (HR = 1.65, 95%CI: 1.33-2.05, Pheterogeneity = 0.995), hepatocellular carcinoma (HR = 3.07, 95% CI: 2.04-4.62, Pheterogeneity = 0.133), ovarian cancer (HR = 1.57, 95%CI: 1.07-2.31, Pheterogeneity = 0.641) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (HR = 1.85, 95% CI: 1.42-2.41, Pheterogeneity = 0.451) except for pancreatic cancer (HR = 1.00, 95%CI: 0.92-1.09, Pheterogeneity = 0.388).
The meta-analysis demonstrated that PLR could act as a significant biomarker in the prognosis of various cancers.
•miR-145, miR-133a and miR-133b were down-regulated in gastric cancer cell lines and tissues.•miR-145, miR-133a and miR-133b induced G1 cell cycle arrest and inhibited cell proliferation, migration ...and invasion in gastric cancer cells.•SP1 was identified as target of miR-145, miR-133a and miR-133b and negatively regulated by miR-145, miR-133a and miR-133b.•MiR-145, miR-133a and miR-133b down-regulate the expression of MMP-9 and Cyclin D1 via decreasing Sp1 expression in gastric cancer cells.
MicroRNAs have recently emerged as key regulators of gastric cancers. Here we found that miR-145, miR-133a and miR-133b were down-regulated in gastric cancer tissues and cell lines. Overexpression of miR-145, miR-133a and miR-133b induced G1 cell cycle arrest and inhibited cell proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro. MiR-145, miR-133a and miR-133b targeted the transcription factor SP1, knockdown of which reduced the expression of MMP-9 and Cyclin D1 that were involved in cell growth and invasion. Thus, our findings demonstrated for the first time that miR-145, miR-133a and miR-133b suppressed the proliferation, migration, invasion and cell cycle progression of gastric cancer cells through decreasing expression of Sp1 and its downstream proteins.
Pancreatic cancer (PC) has posed a great health threat to a growing number of people all over the world. Detection of serum miRNAs, being sensitive, noninvasive, and easy to obtain, has a great ...potential of being a novel screening method for PC patients. In this study, we investigated miRNA expression levels in serum by qRT‐PCR. The study was divided into four phases: the screening, training, testing, and external validation stage. We firstly chose candidate miRNAs using Exiqon panels in the screening phase. Then, a total of 129 PC serum samples and 107 normal controls (NCs) were further analyzed in the following training and testing phases to identify differently expressed miRNAs. A cohort of 30 PC serum samples vs 30 NCs was used to confirm the diagnostic value of the identified miRNAs in the external validation phase. Moreover, miRNA expressions in additional 44 PC tumor tissue samples and the matched adjacent normal tissue samples as well as 32 pairs of serum‐derived exosomes samples were also further explored. As a result, we identified six significantly upregulated miRNAs in the serum of PC: let‐7b‐5p, miR‐192‐5p, miR‐19a‐3p, miR‐19b‐3p, miR‐223‐3p, and miR‐25‐3p. A six‐miRNA panel in serum was then established. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC) for the panel was 0.910 for the combined training and testing phases, which showed higher diagnostic value than the individual miRNA. Prognostic value prediction using Cox's proportional hazards model and Kaplan‐Meier curves showed that increased serum miR‐19a‐3p was closely related to worse overall survival (OS). In addition, significant upregulation of miR‐192‐5p, miR‐19a‐3p, and miR‐19b‐3p was observed in both PC tissue and serum‐derived exosomes samples. In conclusion, we identified a six‐miRNA (let‐7b‐5p, miR‐192‐5p, miR‐19a‐3p, miR‐19b‐3p, miR‐223‐3p, and miR‐25‐3p) panel in the serum for PC early and noninvasive diagnosis.
We identified a six‐miRNA (let‐7b‐5p, miR‐192‐5p, miR‐19a‐3p, miR‐19b‐3p, miR‐223‐3p, and miR‐25‐3p) panel in the serum by multiple‐phase validation using qRT‐PCR for PC early and noninvasive diagnosis.
Oxidative stress is known to impair architecture and function of cells, which may lead to various chronic diseases, and therefore therapeutic and nutritional interventions to reduce oxidative damages ...represent a viable strategy in the amelioration of oxidative stress-related disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases. Over the past decade, a variety of natural polysaccharides from functional and medicinal foods have attracted great interest due to their antioxidant functions such as scavenging free radicals and reducing oxidative damages. Interestingly, these antioxidant polysaccharides are also found to attenuate neuronal damages and alleviate cognitive and motor decline in a range of neurodegenerative models. It has recently been established that the neuroprotective mechanisms of polysaccharides are related to oxidative stress-related pathways, including mitochondrial function, antioxidant defense system and pathogenic protein aggregation. Here, we first summarize the current status of antioxidant function of food-derived polysaccharides and then attempt to appraise their anti-neurodegeneration activities.
Vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) are the best choice for large-scale stationary energy storage because of its unique energy storage advantages. However, low energy density and high cost are the ...main obstacles to the development of VRFB. The flow field design and operation optimization of VRFB is an effective means to improve battery performance and reduce cost. A novel convection-enhanced serpentine flow field (CESFF) is proposed, which can improve the uniformity of electrolyte transport and reduce local concentration polarization. Overpotential, pressure drop, pump power, capacity fade and efficiency are selected for analysis under the two flow field designs. The results show that compared with SFF, CESFF has better mass transfer performance, reduces polarization phenomenon during charging and discharging, and improves efficiency. The results of this method show that it is of great significance to design the flow field structure with excellent performance to improve the battery performance.
Dysregulated expression of specific microRNAs (miRNAs) in serum has been recognised as promising diagnostic biomarkers for colorectal cancer (CRC). In the initial screening phase, a total of 32 ...differentially expressed miRNAs were selected by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) based Exiqon panel with 3 CRC pool samples and 1 normal control (NC) pool. Using qRT-PCR, selected serum miRNAs were further confirmed in training (30 CRC VS. 30 NCs) and testing stages (136 CRC VS. 90 NCs). We identified that serum levels of miR-19a-3p, miR-21-5p and miR-425-5p were significantly higher in patients with CRC than in NCs. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of the three-miRNA panel were 0.86, 0.74 and 0.87 for the training, testing and the external validation stages (30 CRC VS. 18 NCs), respectively. Significantly, elevated expression of the three miRNAs was also observed in CRC tissues (n = 24). Furthermore, the expression levels of the three miRNAs were significantly elevated in exosomes from CRC serum samples (n = 10). In conclusion, we identified a serum three-miRNA panel for the diagnosis of CRC.
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