This letter applies Han-Kobayashi (H-K) superposition signaling to a network of a multi-antenna transmitter serving two multi-antenna users. By making the rate of the common message for both users ...contribute to user individual rate, it shows that H-K superposition signaling clearly outperforms both state-of-the-art orthogonal multiaccess and nonorthogonal multiaccess schemes (NOMA) in terms of the worst user rate. More importantly, unlike NOMA, H-K superposition signaling does not require the user channels to be differentiated for efficient implementation.
Ciprofloxacin antibiotic (CIP) is one of the antibiotics with the highest rate of antibiotic resistance, if used and managed improperly, can have a negative impact on the ecosystem. In this research, ...ZnO modified g-C3N4 photocatalyst was prepared and applied for the decomposition of CIP antibiotic compounds in water. The removal performance of CIP by using ZnO/g-C3N4 reached 93.8% under pH 8.0 and an increasing amount of catalyst could improve the degradation performance of the pollutant. The modified ZnO/g-C3N4 completely oxidized CIP at a low concentration of 1 mg L−1 and the CIP removal efficiency slightly decreases (around 13%) at a high level of pollutant (20 mg L−1). The degradation rate of CIP by doped sample ZnO/g-C3N4 was 4.9 times faster than that of undoped g-C3N4. The doped catalyst ZnO/g-C3N4 also displayed high reusability for decomposition of CIP with 89.8% efficiency remaining after 3 cycles. The radical species including ·OH, ·O2− and h+ are important in the CIP degradation process. In addition, the proposed mechanism for CIP degradation by visible light-assisted ZnO/g-C3N4 was claimed.
•ZnO doped g-C3N4 photocatalyst could enhance photodegradation of Ciprofloxacin.•ZnO/g-C3N4 completely decomposition of Ciprofloxacin at low concentration.•ZnO/g-C3N4 can reuse for 6 cycles with high removal efficiency of CIP.
Red mud modified by chitosan (RM/CS) was utilized as an adsorbent to effectively remove Pb(II) from aqueous solution. The surface area of RM/CS was found to significantly increase by more than 50% ...compared to that of original red mud. Different factors that affected the Pb(II) removal on this material, such as initial Pb(II) concentration, pH, and contact time, were investigated. The pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, and intra-diffusion models were used to fit the experimental data to investigate the Pb(II)'s removal kinetics. The Pb(II) removal followed the intra-diffusion model. Additionally, the non-zero C value obtained from this model indicates that the removal was controlled by many different mechanisms. We also found that the interaction of Pb(II) and carbonate group on the material's surface played a primary role once the adsorption equilibrium was reached. Finally, the maximum adsorptive capacity was found to be about 209 mg/g. This obtained value is higher than those obtained for some other materials. Therefore, the present RM/CS should be a potential material for removing Pb(II) from aqueous solution.
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•Red mud modified by chitosan (RM/CS), a novel adsorbent, was used to remove Pb(II).•Characteristics of RM/CS were investigated by XRD, SEM, BET, FT-IR, and TGA-DSC.•The adsorption capacity is 208.48 mg g−1 higher than some other materials.•Several different mechanisms of the uptake of Pb(II) onto RM/CS were proposed.
CD160 is a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily with a pattern of expression mainly restricted to cytotoxic cells. To assess the functional relevance of the HVEM/CD160 signaling pathway in ...allogeneic cytotoxic responses, exon 2 of the CD160 gene was targeted by CRISPR/Cas9 to generate CD160 deficient mice. Next, we evaluated the impact of CD160 deficiency in the course of an alloreactive response. To that aim, parental donor WT (wild-type) or CD160 KO (knock-out) T cells were adoptively transferred into non-irradiated semiallogeneic F1 recipients, in which donor alloreactive CD160 KO CD4 T cells and CD8 T cells clonally expanded less vigorously than in WT T cell counterparts. This differential proliferative response rate at the early phase of T cell expansion influenced the course of CD8 T cell differentiation and the composition of the effector T cell pool that led to a significant decreased of the memory precursor effector cells (MPECs) / short-lived effector cells (SLECs) ratio in CD160 KO CD8 T cells compared to WT CD8 T cells. Despite these differences in T cell proliferation and differentiation, allogeneic MHC class I mismatched (bm1) skin allograft survival in CD160 KO recipients was comparable to that of WT recipients. However, the administration of CTLA-4.Ig showed an enhanced survival trend of bm1 skin allografts in CD160 KO with respect to WT recipients. Finally, CD160 deficient NK cells were as proficient as CD160 WT NK cells in rejecting allogeneic cellular allografts or MHC class I deficient tumor cells. CD160 may represent a CD28 alternative costimulatory molecule for the modulation of allogeneic CD8 T cell responses either in combination with costimulation blockade or by direct targeting of alloreactive CD8 T cells that upregulate CD160 expression in response to alloantigen stimulation.
Immunodeficient mice are invaluable tools to analyze the long-term effects of potentially immunogenic molecules in the absence of adaptive immune responses. Nevertheless, there are models and ...experimental situations that would beneficiate of larger immunodeficient recipients. Rats are ideally suited to perform experiments in which larger size is needed and are still a small animal model suitable for rodent facilities. Additionally, rats reproduce certain human diseases better than mice, such as ankylosing spondylitis and Duchenne disease, and these disease models would greatly benefit from immunodeficient rats to test different immunogenic treatments.
We describe the generation of Il2rg-deficient rats and their crossing with previously described Rag1-deficient rats to generate double-mutant RRG animals.
As compared with Rag1-deficient rats, Il2rg-deficient rats were more immunodeficient because they partially lacked not only T and B cells but also NK cells. RRG animals showed a more profound immunossuppressed phenotype because they displayed undetectable levels of T, B, and NK cells. Similarly, all immunoglobulin isotypes in sera were decreased in Rag1- or Il2rg-deficient rats and undetectable in Rats Rag1 and Il2rg (RRG) animals. Rag1- or Il2rg-deficient rats rejected allogeneic skin transplants and human tumors, whereas animals not only accepted allogeneic rat skin but also xenogeneic human tumors, skin, and hepatocytes. Immune humanization of RRG animals was unsuccessful.
Thus, immunodeficient RRG animals are useful recipients for long-term studies in which immune responses could be an obstacle, including tissue humanization of different tissues.
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Carbonation using CO2 appears as an attractive solution for disposing of red mud suspensions, an aluminum industry hazardous waste since it also offers an option for CO2 ...sequestration. Here we report the novel findings that CO32− together with Ca2+ can significantly affect the surface properties and settling of goethite, a major component of red mud. Specifically, their effects on the goethite surface chemistry, colloidal interaction forces and settling in alkaline solutions are investigated. The surface potential becomes more negative by the formation of carbonate inner-sphere complexes on goethite surface. It is consistent with the strong repulsion, decreased particle size and settling velocity with increased carbonate concentrations as measured by atomic force microscopy, particle size analysis, and particle settling. Adding Ca2+ that forms outer-sphere complexes with pre-adsorbed carbonate changes goethite surface charge negligibly. Changing repulsion to the attraction between goethite surfaces by increasing calcium dosage indicates the surface bridging, in accordance with the increased settling velocity. The adverse effect of carbonate on goethite flocculation is probably due to its specific chemisorption and competition with flocculants. By forming outer-sphere complexes together with the flocculant-calcium bridging effect, calcium ions can eliminate the negative influence of carbonate and improve the flocculation of goethite particles. These findings contribute to a better understanding of goethite particle interaction with salt ions and flocculants in controlling the particle behavior in the handling processes, including the red mud carbonation.
The degree of π orbital overlap (DPO) model has been demonstrated to be an excellent quantitative structure–property relationship (QSPR) that can map two-dimensional structural information of ...polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and thienoacenes to their electronic properties, namely, band gaps, electron affinities, and ionization potentials. However, the model suffers from significant limitations that narrow its applications due to inefficient manual procedures in parameter optimization and descriptor formulation. In this work, we developed a machine learning (ML)-based method for efficiently optimizing DPO parameters and proposed a truncated DPO descriptor, which is simple enough that can be automatically extracted from simplified molecular-input line-entry system strings of PAHs and thienoacenes. Compared with the result from our previous studies, the ML-based methodology can optimize DPO parameters with four times fewer data, while it can achieve the same level of accuracy in predictions of the mentioned electronic properties to within 0.1 eV. The truncated DPO model also has similar accuracy to the full DPO model. Consequently, the ML-based DPO approach coupled with the truncated DPO model enables new possibilities for developing automatic pipelines for high-throughput screening and investigating new QSPR for new chemical classes.
In this paper, a quasi-brittle damage model for micro-architectural materials is presented within the framework of isogeometric analysis to exploit the high-order continuity of the non-uniform ...B-spline basis functions. The constitutive relation depends not only on the strain field, but also on their first and second strain gradient terms. The simplified second-gradient elasticity formulation from Mindlin’s theory is employed with corresponding micro-architecture-related length scales to capture the material nonlocality and size effects. The strain-based damage is modelled by a nonlocal independent field coupled to the displacement field. Influences of the two types of nonlocalities (manufactured micro-architectures and damage-induced micro-defects) on the response of structures, as well as the damage initiation and propagation, are analysed through numerical experiments. A formula to determine the micro-defect-related length scale from macroscopic measurements is proposed, boosting the accuracy and applicability of the model. In addition, relevant open problems and further developments of this damage model are discussed.
This paper explores the computational modeling of nonlocal strain, damage, and fracture in concrete, considering the isolated contribution of two random, spatially variable properties related to the ...fracture process: Young’s modulus (E) and tensile strength (ft). Applying a continuum damage model, heterogeneous specimens of concrete with random and spatially varying E or ft were found to produce substantial differences when contrasted with traditional homogeneous (non-random) specimens. These differences include variable and uncertain strain and damage, wandering of the failure paths, and differing (sometimes lower) peak forces, i.e. increased probabilities of failure in the heterogeneous specimens. It is found that ft variability contributes more (from 1.7 to up to 4 times more, depending on the parameter) to the overall performance variability of the concrete than E variability, which has a comparatively lower contribution. Performance is evaluated using (1) force-displacement response, (2) individual, average, and standard deviation maps of non-local strain and damage, (3) fracture paths and strain and damage values along the fractures. The modeling methodology is illustrated for two specimen geometries: a square plate with a circular hole, and an L-shaped plate. The computational results correlate well with reported experimental data of fracture in concrete specimens.
The transformation of the liquid menisci at pore throats is of great importance for mitigating the liquid-blocking effect of condensate reservoirs. Here, we reported a super gas-wetting peanut-like ...nanoparticle which can facilitate the liquid menisci to transform from concave shape to convex shape by coating a super gas-wetting adsorption with high surface roughness. The morphology and surface chemistry of gas-wetting nanoparticles were investigated by SEM, AFM, and XPS analysis. The mechanism of surface modification was further explored by TEM; the adsorption layer coated on the nanoparticle surface can be recognized as monolayer absorption. The gas-wetting model is recommended as the combination of the Wenzel model and Cassie–Baxter model, which is in close agreement with the results of AFM and contact-angle measurements. Core flooding visualization was performed to identify the effect of gas-wetting alteration on the transformation of liquid menisci in porous media. Results showed that the addition of gas-wetting nanoparticles could decrease the liquid saturations by inducing the transformation of liquid menisci in the pore throat. Additionally, a unique “amoeba effect” and miscibility effect can synergistically improve the mobility of the oil phase, further enhancing the oil recovery.
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