LINC00632 relates to milder Th1/Th2 imbalance, attenuated nasal symptoms, and better response to therapy in allergic rhinitis patients.

OBJECTIVE: Long intergenic noncoding RNA 00632 (LINC00632) regulates nasal inflammation and CD4+ T cell differentiation into T helper (Th) 2 cells in allergic rhinitis (AR). This study aimed to explore the relationship between LINC00632 and Th1/Th2 balance, and the clinical value of LINC00632 in AR patients. METHODS: In total, 120 AR patients, 20 non-atopic obstructive snoring patients as disease controls (DCs), and 20 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. Their LINC00632 expressions in peripheral blood mononuclear cells were detected by RT-qPCR. RESULTS: LINC00632 expression was declined in AR patients compared with DCs and HCs (both P ˂ 0.001). Moreover, LINC00632 could distinguish AR patients from DCs with an area under curve (AUC) of 0.795 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.701-0.889), and from HCs with an AUC of 0.895 (95%CI: 0.831-0.960). LINC00632 was positively related to Th1 cells (P = 0.037) and Th1/Th2 axis (P ˂ 0.001) in AR patients. In addition, LINC00632 was inversely associated with Th2 cells (P ˂ 0.001) and interleukin (IL)-4 (P = 0.010) in AR patients. Besides, LINC00632 was negatively related to rhinorrhea score (P = 0.019), itching score (P = 0.008), sneezing score (P = 0.004), and total nasal symptom score (TNSS) (P ˂ 0.001), but no correlation between LINC00632 and congestion score was observed (P = 0.093). During treatment, LINC00632 was elevated, while TNSS score was reduced (both P ˂ 0.001). Furthermore, LINC00632 increment was associated with the reduction of TNSS score during the therapy (P = 0.005). CONCLUSION: LINC00632 relates to milder Th1/Th2 imbalance, attenuated nasal symptoms, and better response during 4-week therapy in AR patients.

LINC00632 relates to milder Th1/Th2 imbalance, attenuated nasal symptoms, and better response to therapy in allergic rhinitis patients

Objective: Long intergenic noncoding RNA 00632 (LINC00632) regulates nasal inflammation and CD4+ T cell differentiation into T helper (Th) 2 cells in allergic rhinitis (AR). This study aimed to explore the relationship between LINC00632 and Th1/Th2 balance, and the clinical value of LINC00632 in AR patients. Methods: In total, 120 AR patients, 20 non-atopic obstructive snoring patients as disease controls (DCs), and 20 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. Their LINC00632 expressions in peripheral blood mononuclear cells were detected by RT-qPCR. Results: LINC00632 expression was declined in AR patients compared with DCs and HCs (both P ˂ 0.001). Moreover, LINC00632 could distinguish AR patients from DCs with an area under curve (AUC) of 0.795 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.701–0.889), and from HCs with an AUC of 0.895 (95%CI: 0.831–0.960). LINC00632 was positively related to Th1 cells (P = 0.037) and Th1/Th2 axis (P ˂ 0.001) in AR patients. In addition, LINC00632 was inversely associated with Th2 cells (P ˂ 0.001) and interleukin (IL)-4 (P = 0.010) in AR patients. Besides, LINC00632 was negatively related to rhinorrhea score (P = 0.019), itching score (P = 0.008), sneezing score (P = 0.004), and total nasal symptom score (TNSS) (P ˂ 0.001), but no correlation between LINC00632 and congestion score was observed (P = 0.093). During treatment, LINC00632 was elevated, while TNSS score was reduced (both P ˂ 0.001). Furthermore, LINC00632 increment was associated with the reduction of TNSS score during the therapy (P = 0.005). Conclusion: LINC00632 relates to milder Th1/Th2 imbalance, attenuated nasal symptoms, and better response during 4-week therapy in AR patients (AU)

Prediction of placenta accreta spectrum with nomogram combining radiomic and clinical factors: A novel developed and validated integrative model.

OBJECTIVE: To develop and validate a clinicoradiomic nomogram based on sagittal T2WI images to predict placenta accreta spectrum (PAS). METHODS: Between October 2016 and April 2022, women suspected of PAS by ultrasound were enrolled. After taking into account exclusion criteria, 132 women were retrospectively included in the study. The variance threshold SelectKBest and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator were applied to select radiomic features, which was further used to calculate the Rad-score. Multivariable logistic regression was used to screen clinical factor. RESULTS: Based on 13 radiomic features, five radiomic models were constructed. A clinical factor of intraplacental T2-hypointense bands was obtained by multivariate logistic regression. The area under the curve (AUC) value of the stochastic gradient descent (SGD) radiomic model was 0.82 in the training cohort and 0.78 in the test cohort. After adding clinical factors to the SGD radiomic model, the AUC value of the clinicoradiomic model was significantly increased from 0.82 and 0.78 to 0.84 in both the training and test cohorts. The nomogram of the clinicoradiomic model was constructed, which had good performance verified by calibration and a decision curve. CONCLUSION: The presented nomogram could be useful for predicting PAS.

Bilateral motion prediction and control for teleoperation under long time-varying delays.

Bilateral controller design for the teleoperation system is studied in this paper based on a motion prediction approach. To compensate the known long time-varying delays, novel predictors are presented to reconstruct the positions and velocities of robots on both sides through using the delayed measurements. The proposed predictors consist of several sub-predictors in a cascade structure, each of which is to predict the states of the previous one. The estimations of the actual states can be obtained from the last sub-predictor. New prediction horizons of each sub-observers are designed to cope with the time-varying fractions of the time delay. Then through applying the predicted results, bilateral predictive controller is designed for the teleoperation. The errors of both position tracking and prediction can converge into the bounded regions under several sufficient conditions of the control gains, which are obtained by using the Lyapunov-Krasovskii approach. The effective capacity of the presented method can be verified through comparative simulations.

Novel green manufacture of metallic aluminum coatings on carbon steel by sol-gel method.

Industrial processes for fabricating hot-dipping aluminum coatings on carbon steels involve problems related to equipment complexity, environmental issues and high energy consumption. To address these problems, a novel method for manufacturing metallic aluminum coating on carbon steel Q235 at room temperature by sol-gel method was developed in this work. Both the single-layer coating (47 µm) and the double-layer coating (97 µm) specimens were prepared by spraying some aqueous silica sol slurries containing spherical and flaky micro metallic aluminum powders on the steel surface at room temperature and then drying them at 50 °C. When the two coating specimens were heated at 500 °C for 10 h, heated double-layer specimens were thus obtained. It was found that the double-layer and the heated double-layer specimens didn't rust at all after being soaked in aerated 3.5 wt% NaCl for 30 days. The shielding effect of the compact top coating was the main anticorrosion mechanism of the double-layer coating based on some electrochemical impedence spectroscopies and potentiodynamic polarization curves. Both coatings comprised only one metallic Al phase based on XRD. A very small quantity of Al2O3 phase appeared only after heating both coating specimens at 500 °C in the air for 10 h. In both cases the coatings didn't crack at all after being heated at 500 °C in the air for 15 h by SEM observation and the oxidation rates of the steel substrates under these conditions were reduced by over 72% owing to the presence of the coatings. The average adhesive strengths of the single-layer and double-layer Al coatings were 12.06 MPa and 11.23 MPa, respectively, which were much larger than the corresponding value (max 8 MPa) of an ordinary anti-rusting epoxy coating on Q235 steel. Compared to the conventional hot-dipping aluminum or aluminized process, this novel method eliminates all the high temperature processes and thus saves a lot of energy, eliminates the use of all hazardous fluorides or chlorides and explosive H2, avoids the formation of the voids inside aluminized coating, reduces the hot-dipped Al coating defects, can be applied for the steel plates with over 0.8 mm thickness, and can be applied in situ to repair damaged Al or Zn coatings.

Novel Adaptive Finite-Time Control of Teleoperation System With Time-Varying Delays and Input Saturation.

In this paper, two novel adaptive finite-time control schemes are proposed for position tracking of nonlinear teleoperation system, which dynamic uncertainties, actuator saturation, and time-varying communication delays are considered. First, a novel auxiliary variable is designed to provide more stable performance. The radial basis function (RBF) neural network is introduced to estimate dynamic uncertainties. Second, two adaptive finite-time control schemes are investigated. In control scheme I, the RBF neural network and the gain switching strategy are applied to compensate the actuator saturation. In control scheme II, an auxiliary compensation filter and the compensation adaptive update laws, which contain the finite-time structure, are developed for dealing with saturation. Third, the finite-time adaptive controller is designed in each of these two control schemes. Based on the multiple Lyapunov function method, the closed-loop teleoperation system with these two control methods is proved to be bounded and finite-time stability. Finally, the simulation experiments are performed and the comparisons with other control methods are shown. The effectiveness of the proposed control schemes is demonstrated.

Hot Chlorination Corrosion of Metallic Nickel by Chlorine Catalyzed by Sodium Chloride.

Reducing chlorine corrosion to metals at high temperatures is a big problem for many industrial processes. Some high Ni alloys such as Hastelloy C-276 (Ni > 50 wt %) have been widely used for this purpose. Chlorine and chlorides often coexisted in many industrial processes at high temperatures, such as some industrial incinerators and metallurgical furnaces. Thus, a comprehensive experimental investigation regarding the effect of NaCl on the chlorination corrosion of metallic nickel powder by chlorine at a high temperature was performed. It was more convenient to investigate the intrinsic chlorination mechanisms and kinetics of metallic Ni if Ni powder was used instead of a Ni plate. It was found that there existed a critical chlorination temperature of 450 °C for relative safe use of Ni-based alloy in the presence NaCl. The Ni chlorination in the presence of NaCl was increased with increasing temperature and reached a maximum of 97% at 700 °C, which was about 21% higher than that in the absence of NaCl. An anhydrous NiCl2 was initially formed at about 700 °C during the chlorination process and then immediately reacted with NaCl to form a novel eutectic complex with a flaky shape, a melting point of 585 °C, and a simplified molecular formula of NiNa0.33Cl2.33 based on X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential thermal analysis (DTA), scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), and chemical analysis with inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). As a result, only the complex of NiNa0.33Cl2.33 and NaCl was left in the chlorinated product. At 700 °C, the chlorinated product evaporated only in the form of complex NiNa0.33Cl2.33 instead of individual NiCl2 or NaCl. The chlorination mechanisms of metallic Ni at a high temperature, for example, 700 °C, in the presence of NaCl were as follows. Step 1: Formation of initial chlorinated solid product NiCl2 (mp 1001 °C) at a high temperature; step 2: The NiCl2 reacted with solid additive NaCl (mp 801 °C) to form a final liquid product NiNa0.33Cl2.33 (mp 585 °C); step 3: External Cl2(g) was dissolved in the liquid product layer; step 4: The chlorine dissolved in the liquid product of NiNa0.33Cl2.33 reacted with the unreacted Ni core. The external Cl2(g) passed through the liquid product NiNa0.33Cl2.33 layer faster than the solid product NiCl2 layer formed in the absence of NaCl. This resulted in 21% more chlorination corrosion of metallic Ni powder with NaCl addition than that without NaCl addition.

Effective adsorption of phosphate from wastewaters by big composite pellets made of reduced steel slag and iron ore concentrate.

In order to remove phosphate from wastewater, a large plastic adsorption column filled with big phosphate-adsorbing pellets with diameters of 10 mm, heated by electromagnetic induction coils, was conceived. It was found that the prepared big pellets, which were made of reduced steel slag and iron ore concentrate, contain magnetic Fe and Fe3O4. The thermodynamics and kinetics of adsorption of phosphate from synthetic wastewaters on the pellets were studied in this work. The phosphate adsorption on the pellets followed three models of Freundlich, Langmuir and Dubinin-Kaganer-Radushkevick. The maximum phosphate adsorption capacity Qmax of the pellets were 2.46, 2.74 and 2.77 mg/g for the three temperatures of 20°C, 30°C and 40°C, respectively, based on the Langmuir model. The apparent adsorption energies were -12.9 kJ/mol for the three temperatures. It implied that ion exchange was the main mechanism involved in the adsorption processes. The adsorbed phosphate existed on the pellet surface mainly in the form of Fe3(PO4)2. A reduction pre-treatment of the pellet precursor with H2 greatly enhanced pellet adsorption for phosphate. The adsorption kinetics is better represented by a pseudo-first-order model. The adsorbed phosphate amounts were similar for both real and synthetic wastewaters under similar adsorption conditions. The percentage of adsorbed phosphate for a real wastewater increased with increasing pellet concentration and reached 99.2% at a pellet concentration of 64 (g/L). Some specific phosphate adsorption mechanisms for the pellets were revealed and the pellets showed the potential to efficiently adsorb phosphate from a huge amount of real wastewaters in an industrial scale.

Application of indigenous sulfur-oxidizing bacteria from municipal wastewater to selectively bioleach phosphorus from high-phosphorus iron ore: effect of particle size.

The effects of ore particle size on selectively bioleaching phosphorus (P) from high-phosphorus iron ore were studied. The average contents of P and Fe in the iron ore were 1.06 and 47.90% (w/w), respectively. The particle sizes of the ores used ranged from 58 to 3350 microm. It was found that the indigenous sulfur-oxidizing bacteria from municipal wastewater could grow well in the slurries of solid high-phosphorus iron ore and municipal wastewater. The minimum bioleaching pH reached for the current work was 0.33. The P content in bioleached iron ore reduced slightly with decreasing particle size, while the removal percentage of Fe decreased appreciably with decreasing particle size. The optimal particle size fraction was 58-75 microm, because the P content in bioleached iron ore reached a minimum of 0.16% (w/w), the removal percentage of P attained a maximum of 86.7%, while the removal percentage of Fe dropped to a minimum of 1.3% and the Fe content in bioleached iron ore was a maximum of 56.4% (w/w) in this case. The iron ores thus obtained were suitable to be used in the iron-making process. The removal percentage of ore solid decreased with decreasing particle size at particle size range of 106-3350 microm. The possible reasons resulting in above phenomena were explored in the current work. It was inferred that the particle sizes of the iron ore used in this work have no significant effect on the viability of the sulfur-oxidizing bacteria.

Effective removal of sulfur from high-sulfur coal prior to use by dry chlorination at low temperature.

Desulfurization of high-sulfur coal prior to use by dry chlorination under various conditions was investigated. The contents of total carbon, total sulfur, pyritic sulfur, sulfate and organic sulfur of the coal were 72.48, 5.95, 1.08, 0.66 and 4.22 wt.%, respectively. It was found that the chlorination temperature and particle size had a great influence on sulfur removal. The optimal chlorination temperature and particle size for sulfur removal was 350°C and 48-75 µm, respectively. Under optimal conditions, sulfur content in the chlorinated coal was 1.12 wt.%. The removal percentages of total sulfur, pyritic sulfur, sulfate and organic sulfur were 67.7, 93.0, 65.6 and 61.6, respectively, indicating that a high proportion of organic sulfur, pyritic sulfur and inorganic sulfur were removed by dry chlorination. Meanwhile, the fixed carbon did not lose appreciably. It was speculated that the removal of organic sulfur by dry chlorination at 350°C proceeded mainly based on the equation 2RS+Cl(2)=2RCl+S(2)Cl(2). The chlorinated coal thus obtained could be used in production of various carbon-containing materials such as metallurgical coke after a complete dechlorination pretreatment at 500-600°C.

Selective adsorption of Pt ions from chloride solutions obtained by leaching chlorinated spent automotive catalysts on ion exchange resin Diaion WA21J.

Thermodynamic and kinetics studies for adsorption of Pt ions complexes from the chloride solutions obtained by leaching chlorinated spent automotive catalysts on anionic exchange resin Diaion WA21J were carried out. It was found that only Si, Pt, Rh and Pd from the solution were selectively adsorbed on the resin Diaion WA21J more strongly. The adsorption equilibrium time for Pt ions was about 20 h. The isothermal adsorption of Pt ions was found to fit Langmuir, Freundlich and DKR models. The maximum monolayer adsorption capacities Q(max) and X(m) of Pt ions on the resin based on Langmuir and DKR model were 4.85, 5.36 and 5.69 mg/g as well as 5.01, 5.63 and 5.98 mg/g for temperatures 18°C, 28°C and 40°C, respectively. The apparent adsorption energy E(ad) based on DKR model were -11.79, -11.04 and -11.04 kJ/mol for the temperatures 18°C, 28°C and 40°C, respectively. Ion exchange was the mechanism involved in the adsorption process. The adsorption of Pt ions on the resin underwent pseudo-first-order kinetic process, and the apparent adsorption activation energy E(a,1) was 12.6 kJ/mol. The intraparticle diffusion of Pt ions was a main rate-controlling step in most of time of adsorption process.

Adsorption of Rh(III) complexes from chloride solutions obtained by leaching chlorinated spent automotive catalysts on ion-exchange resin Diaion WA21J.

It was found that Rh, Pd and Pt contained in the spent ceramic automotive catalysts could be effectively extracted by dry chlorination with chlorine. In order to concentrate Rh(III) ions contained in the chloride solutions obtained, thermodynamic and kinetics studies for adsorption of Rh(III) complexes from the chloride solutions on an anionic exchange resin Diaion WA21J were carried out. Rh, Pd, Pt, Al, Fe, Si, Zn and Pb from the chloride solution could be adsorbed on the resin. The distribution coefficients (K(d)) of Rh(III) decreased with the increase in initial Rh(III) concentration or in adsorption temperature. The isothermal adsorption of Rh(III) was found to fit Langmuir, Freundlich and Dubinin-Kaganer-Radushkevich models under the adsorption conditions. The maximum monolayer adsorption capacities Q(max) based on Langmuir adsorption isotherms were 6.39, 6.61 and 5.81 mg/g for temperatures 18, 28 and 40 degrees C, respectively. The apparent adsorption energy of Rh was about -7.6 kJ/mol and thus Rh(III) adsorption was a physical type. The experimental data obtained could be better simulated by pseudo-first-order kinetic model and the activation energy obtained was 6.54 J/mol. The adsorption rate of Rh(III) was controlled by intraparticle diffusion in most of time of adsorption process.

Adsorption of Pd(II) complexes from chloride solutions obtained by leaching chlorinated spent automotive catalysts on ion exchange resin Diaion WA21J.

It was found that Rh, Pd and Pt contained in the spent ceramic automotive catalysts could be effectively extracted by dry chlorination with chlorine. In order to concentrate Pd(II) contained in the chloride solution obtained from the dry chlorination process, thermodynamic and kinetics studies for adsorption of Pd(II) complexes from the chloride solutions on anionic exchange resin Diaion WA21J were carried out. It was found that Pd, Pt, Rh, Al, Fe, Si, Zn and Pb from the chloride solution could be adsorbed on the resin. The isothermal adsorption of Pd(II) was found to fit Freundlich, Langmuir and Dubinin-Kaganer-Radushkevich models under the adsorption conditions. The adsorption of Pd(II) on the resin was favorable according to the values of 1/n and R(L) from Freundlich and Langmuir adsorption isotherms, respectively. The maximum monolayer adsorption capacities Q(max) based on Langmuir adsorption isotherms were 5.70, 4.84 and 4.05 mg/g and the corresponding value X(m) based on Dubinin-Kaganer-Radushkevich were 5.55, 4.69 and 4.01 mg/g at temperatures 18 degrees C, 28 degrees C and 40 degrees C, respectively. The apparent adsorption energies (E(ad)) based on Dubinin-Kaganer-Radushkevich isotherm were -15.43, -16.22 and -23.57 kJ/mol for the temperatures 18 degrees C, 28 degrees C and 40 degrees C, respectively. Chemical adsorption was a main mechanism involved in the adsorption process. Pd(II) adsorption on the resin could be accelerated by increasing the adsorption temperature. The adsorption of Pd(II) from the chloride solution on the resin underwent pseudo-first order kinetic process and the apparent adsorption activation energy E(a) was 15.0 kJ/mol. The intra-particle diffusion was a main rate controlling step in the Pd(II) adsorption process under the adsorption conditions.