Research on fire resistance and economy of basalt fiber insulation mortar.

The construction sector has become the most critical source of carbon emissions, but the existing thermal insulation materials such as thermal insulation mortar have obvious limitations, so it is urgent to develop building thermal insulation materials with superior performance and low cost. Aiming at the problem of poor bond strength of foam thermal insulation mortar, this research team selected basalt fiber as admixture to verify the influence of basalt fiber content on its performance and the economic feasibility of thermal insulation mortar. The main finding is that basalt fiber as an additive can obviously improve the crack resistance of thermal insulation mortar. When the content of basalt fiber increases from 0 to 2.5%, the compressive strength of mortar increases at first and then decreases, and the bond strength increases nonlinearly, but the thermal conductivity and dry density also increase. Therefore, the optimal content of basalt fiber is 1.5%. The improvement effect of fire resistance of thermal insulation mortar with 1.5% basalt fiber content is better. After curing for 28 days, the mass loss rate of the sample is reduced by about 11.1% after high temperature, and the relative compressive strength is increased by about 9.71% after high temperature. The raw material cost of the new fireproof thermal insulation mortar improved by basalt fiber is lower, and the cost of the finished product is reduced by 16.98%, 28.18%, 33.05% and 38.96%, respectively, compared with the four types of thermal insulation mortar already used in the market. More importantly, the economic recovery period of the new fireproof and thermal insulation mortar is undoubtedly shorter than that of alternative thermal insulation or energy storage materials, which not only achieves low emission and environmental protection, but also satisfies the economic feasibility.

Quartet protein reference materials and datasets for multi-platform assessment of label-free proteomics.

BACKGROUND: Quantitative proteomics is an indispensable tool in life science research. However, there is a lack of reference materials for evaluating the reproducibility of label-free liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)-based measurements among different instruments and laboratories. RESULTS: Here, we develop the Quartet standard as a proteome reference material with built-in truths, and distribute the same aliquots to 15 laboratories with nine conventional LC-MS/MS platforms across six cities in China. Relative abundance of over 12,000 proteins on 816 mass spectrometry files are obtained and compared for reproducibility among the instruments and laboratories to ultimately generate proteomics benchmark datasets. There is a wide dynamic range of proteomes spanning about 7 orders of magnitude, and the injection order has marked effects on quantitative instead of qualitative characteristics. CONCLUSION: Overall, the Quartet offers valuable standard materials and data resources for improving the quality control of proteomic analyses as well as the reproducibility and reliability of research findings.

Identification and assessment of pulmonary Cryptococcus neoformans infection by blood serum surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.

Cryptococcus neoformans (C. neoformans) is a causative agent for acute pulmonary infection, which can further develop to lethal meningoencephalitis if untreated. The meningoencephalitis infection can be prevented, if timely treatment on pulmonary cryptococcal infection can be implemented based on its early diagnosis and accurate assessment. In this study, blood serum surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) method was investigated on identification and assessment of pulmonary C. neoformans infection. The serum SERS measurements were collected from the mice infected with C. neoformans and the healthy mice, in which the infected mice were further divided into four subgroups according to the duration of infection. Based on those SRES measurements, biochemical differences were analyzed among those different groups to investigate the potential biomarkers for identifying and assessing the pulmonary C. neoformans infection. Furthermore, partial least square (PLS) analysis followed by linear discriminant analysis (LDA) model was employed to identify pulmonary cryptococcal infection and to assess the degrees of infection with the accuracies of 96.7% and 85.3%, respectively. Therefore, our study has demonstrated the great clinical potential of using serum SERS technique for an accurate identification and assessment of pulmonary cryptococcal infection.

Assessment of the self-reported dysphagia in patients undergoing one-level versus two-level cervical disc replacement with the Prestige-LP prosthesis.

OBJECTIVES: Cervical disc replacement (CDR) has been established as an alternative to anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) for treating cervical degenerative pathologies over the past decade. However, swallowing difficulties challenge patient safety due to the increased risk of malnutrition, dehydration and aspiration pneumonia after CDR. Currently, there are limited studies focusing on the incidences, severity and associated risk factors for dysphagia after CDR. This paucity, therefore, necessitated this retrospective study on post-operative dysphagia after one- and two-level CDR. PATIENTS AND METHODS: One hundred and fourteen patients underwent one-level CDR and forty eight patients underwent two-level CDR were recruited with a mean follow-up of 21 months (ranging from 14 to 30 months). The prevalence and severity of dysphagia was evaluated by the Bazaz grading system during the follow-up time. Regression analyses were done to identify risk factors associated with post-operative dysphagia after CDR. RESULTS: The overall dysphagia occurrences in the one- and two-level CDR groups were 17.54% and 35.41% at week one, 12.28% and 25% after one month, 9.65% and 18.75% after three months, 6.14% and 14.58% after six months, 4.39% and 6.25% after one year, and 3.51% and 4.17% at the final follow-up, respectively. The identified risk factors for dysphagia after CDR were advanced age, C4/5 surgery, two-level surgery, dC2-C7 angle ≥ - 5° and ≥ 6 mm changes in the prevertebral soft tissue swelling (dPSTS). CONCLUSION: The patients who experienced two-level CDR may have poor swallowing functions in the early post-operative term. However, these patients also can recover well with increasing length of follow-up. In addition, patients with advanced age, C4/5 surgery, dC2-C7 angle ≥ - 5° and ≥ 6 mm changes in dPSTS may prone to occur dysphagia after CDR.

The enhanced extended phenomenological kinetics method to deal with timescale disparity problem among different reaction pathways.

Kinetic Monte Carlo method can provide valuable mechanistic insights for catalytic systems. Nonetheless, it suffers from the notorious problem of timescale disparity due to the existence of the complex catalytic network that consists of fast events and slow events. Previously, we have proposed the extended phenomenological kinetics (XPK) method that effectively deals with the timescale disparity problem between diffusion and reaction. However, it remains a great challenge to simulate systems with timescale disparity among different reaction pathways, which is important when selectivity is the major concern. In this study, we implement the enhanced XPK method to address this problem. The new algorithm works by identifying states connected through fast transitions and compressing them into a "superstate" when the chosen states satisfy a local steadystate condition. This state compression algorithm simplifies the reaction network by concealing the fast transitions. The accuracy and efficiency of the algorithm are demonstrated by two model systems: selective catalytic hydrogenation and selective catalytic decomposition. The enhanced XPK method is expected to be beneficial to the kinetic simulations of catalytic systems, especially those with complex reaction networks.

Assessment of lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 level and its changes in the early stages as predictors of delayed cerebral ischemia in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage.

OBJECTIVE: The relationship between lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) and various cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases is inconsistent. However, the connection between Lp-PLA2 level and delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) following aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) remains unclear. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationships between the Lp-PLA2 levels in the early stages of aSAH and the occurrence of DCI. METHODS: The authors evaluated 114 patients with aSAH who were enrolled into a prospective observational cohort study. Serum Lp-PLA2 level at admission (D0), on the first morning (D1), and on the second morning of hospitalization (D2) were determined using commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits. The relationship between Lp-PLA2 levels and DCI was analyzed. RESULTS: Forty-three patients with aSAH (37.72%) experienced DCI. Mean serum Lp-PLA2 level decreased from 183.06 ± 61.36 µg/L at D0 (D0 vs D1, p = 0.303), to 175.32 ± 51.49 µg/L at D1 and 167.24 ± 54.10 µg/L at D2 (D0 vs D2, p = 0.040). The Lp-PLA2 level changes (D0-D1 and D0-D2) were comparable between patients with and without DCI. Multivariate model analysis revealed Lp-PLA2 level (D0) > 200 µg/L was a more significant factor of DCI compared with Lp-PLA2 (D1) and Lp-PLA2 (D2), and was a strong predictor of DCI (odds ratio [OR] 6.24, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.05-18.94, p = 0.001) after controlling for World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS) grade (OR 3.35, 95% CI 1.18-9.51, p = 0.023) and modified Fisher grade (OR 6.07, 95% CI 2.03-18.14, p = 0.001). WFNS grade (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.792), modified Fisher grade (AUC = 0.731), and Lp-PLA2 level (D0; AUC = 0.710) were all strong predictors of DCI. The predictive powers of WFNS grade, modified Fisher grade, and Lp-PLA2 (D0) were comparable (WFNS grade vs Lp-PLA2: p = 0.233; modified Fisher grade vs Lp-PLA2: p = 0.771). The poor-grade patients with Lp-PLA2 (D0) > 200 µg/L had significantly worse DCI survival rate than poor-grade patients with Lp-PLA2 (D0) ≤ 200 µg/L (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The serum level of Lp-PLA2 was significantly elevated in patients with DCI, and decreased within the first 2 days after admission. Lp-PLA2 in the early stages of aSAH might be a novel predictive biomarker for the occurrence of DCI.

The effects of COST on the differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes and the mechanism of action.

The objectives of this study were to explore the effect of COST (one thousand Da molecular weight chitosan oligosaccharide) on the differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes and to determine the mechanism of action. 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were used as the target cells, and the induction of the methods for the differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes was based on classic cocktails. The MTT assay was used to filtrate the concentration of COST. On the 6th day of induced-differentiation, the differentiation of 3T3-L1 cells was detected by Oil Red O staining. The expression of PPARγ and C/EBPα mRNA was determined using real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (Q-PCR). COST inhibited 3T3-L1 preadipocyte differentiation in a dose-dependent manner and decreased lipid accumulation. At the molecular level, the expression of the transcription factors, PPARγ and C/EBPα, was reduced by COST during adipogenesis. These results indicate that COST effectively inhibited the differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. The mechanism is related to the down-regulation expression of PPARγ and C/EBPα.

The roles of spatial pattern and size variation in shaping height inequality of plant population.

Game-theoretic models predict that there is an ESS height for the plant population to which all individual plants should converge. To attain this conclusion, the neighborhood factors were assumed to be equal for all the individual plants, and the spatial pattern and size variation of population were left without consideration, which is clearly not right for the scenario of plant competition. We constructed a spatially-explicit, individual-based model to explore the impacts of spatial structure and size variation on individual plant's height and population's height hierarchies under the light competition. The monomorphic equilibrium of height that all the individual plants will converge to only exists for a population growing in a strictly uniform spatial pattern with no size variation. When the spatial pattern of the population is non-uniform or there's size variation among individual plants, the critical heights that individual plants will finally reach are different from each other, and the height inequality at the end of population growth will increase when the population's spatial pattern's degree of deviation from uniform and population's size variation increase. Our results argue strongly for the importance of spatial pattern and neighborhood effects in generating the diversity of population's height growth pattern.