Comprehensive kinetic modeling and product distribution for pyrolysis of pulp and paper mill sludge.

Pyrolysis holds immense potential for clean treatment of pulp and paper mill sludge (PPMS), enabling efficient energy and chemical recovery. However, current understanding of PPMS pyrolysis kinetics and product characteristics remains incomplete. This study conducted detailed modeling of pyrolysis kinetics for two typical PPMSs from a wastepaper pulp and paper mill, namely, deinking sludge (PPMS-DS) and sewage sludge (PPMS-SS), and analyzed comprehensively pyrolysis products. The results show that apparent activation energy of PPMS-DS (169.25-226.82 kJ/mol) and PPMS-SS (189.29-411.21 kJ/mol) pyrolysis undergoes significant change, with numerous parallel reactions present. A distributed activation energy model with dual logistic distributions proves to be suitable for modeling thermal decomposition kinetics of both PPMS-DS and PPMS-SS, with coefficient of determination >0.999 and relative root mean square error <1.99 %. High temperature promotes decomposition of solid organic materials in PPMS, and maximum tar yield for both PPMS-DS (53.90 wt%, daf) and PPMS-SS (56.48 wt%, daf) is achieved at around 500 °C. Higher levels of styrene (24.45 % for PPMS-DS and 14.71 % for PPMS-SS) and ethylbenzene (8.61 % for PPMS-DS and 8.33 % for PPMS-SS) are detected in tar and could be used as chemicals. This work shows great potential to propel development of PPMS pyrolysis technology, enabling green and sustainable production in pulp and paper industry.

First-principles study of phase transition in theα-In2Se3/metal heterostructures.

With the discovery of two-dimensional (2D) ferroelectric materials such as CuInP2S6andα-In2Se3, the ferroelectric field effect transistors (Fe-FETs) based on these materials have entered a rapid-development period. The metal/semiconductor contact is an unavoidable topic in the construction of devices. In this paper, heterostructuresα-In2Se3/metals (Pd, Pt, Cu, Ag and Au) are discussed. According to different stacking types, the structures and energy of 160 heterostructures are calculated and compared. Whenα-In2Se3contacts with the Pd, Pt and Cu, theα-In2Se3may transforms intoß-In2Se3. This phenomenon has hardly been mentioned or analyzed in previous reports. Contacting with the Au and Ag, theα-In2Se3maintains the original structure. The internal physical mechanism of phase transition is explained from the binding energy and the charge transfer. The paper provides sufficient theoretical support for research and development of the Fe-FETs based onα-In2Se3.

Autologous bone marrow infusion via portal vein combined with splenectomy for decompensated liver cirrhosis: A retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: In a previous study, autologous bone marrow infusion (ABMI) was performed in patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis (DLC) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and achieved good results, but whether splenectomy affected outcome was unclear. AIM: To investigate the efficacy of ABMI combined with splenectomy for treatment of DLC. METHODS: Eighty-three patients with DLC were divided into an intervention group (43 cases) and control group (40 cases) according to whether splenectomy was performed. The control group was treated with ABMI through the right omental vein, and the intervention group was additionally treated with splenectomy. RESULTS: After ABMI, the prothrombin time, serum total bilirubin levels, ascites volume and model for end-stage liver disease score in both groups were significantly lower, while the albumin levels were significantly higher than before ABMI (P < 0.01), but there were no significant differences between the groups (P > 0.05). After ABMI, the white blood cell and platelets counts in both groups were significantly higher than before ABMI (P < 0.01), and the counts in the intervention group were significantly higher than in the control group (P < 0.01). After ABMI the CD4+ and CD8+ T cell counts in both groups were significantly higher than before ABMI (P < 0.01). The CD8+ T cell counts in the intervention group increased continuously and the increase had a shorter duration compared with control group. CONCLUSION: ABMI through the portal vein in patients with DLC can significantly improve liver synthetic and secretory functions, and splenectomy promotes improvement of bone marrow hematopoietic and cellular immune functions.

Mechanical Properties of GFRP Bolts and Its Application in Tunnel Face Reinforcement.

As a new type of pre-reinforcement material for tunnel faces, glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bolts can effectively and safely improve the stability of tunnel faces in soft surrounding rocks and speed up excavation. Therefore, in this paper, systematic research is carried out on the bond strength of GFRP bolts in tunnel faces and their relative pre-reinforcement parameters. Firstly, the effects of rebar diameter, anchorage length, and mortar strength on the bonding properties of GFRP bars were studied by indoor pull-out tests. The bond strength-slip curves under different working conditions were obtained, and the curves showed that the ultimate bond strength between GFRP bars and mortar was negatively correlated with the diameter of GFRP bars but positively correlated with the strength of the mortar. In addition, the increase in anchorage length led to a reduction in bonding strength. Secondly, inverse analysis was used to analyse the mechanical parameters of the bond performance of the anchor bars by the finite difference software FLAC3D, and the results indicated that 1/5 of the compressive strength of the GFRP bar grouting body can be taken as the ultimate bond strength to calculate the cohesive strength of the grout. Additionally, the formula of GFRP bar grouting body stiffness was revised. Finally, based on the results of laboratory tests and the inverse analysis, the numerical simulation analysis results showed that the optimal reinforcement configuration for a shallow buried tunnel face surrounded by weak rock is to use GFRP bars with a length of 17 m arranged in the center circle of the tunnel face with a reasonable reinforcement density of 1.0 bolt/m2. The calculation formula of the stiffness and cohesion strength of the GFRP bar grouting body and the reinforcement scheme proposed in this paper can provide a reference for the construction of shallowly buried rock tunnels in soft surrounding rock.

A Novel Method to Describe Large-Range Stress-Strain Relations of Elastic-Plastic Materials Based on Energy Equivalence Principle.

Due to the unique structure of tensile sheet specimens with a circular hole (CHS specimen), a novel method is proposed to predict the large-range uniaxial stress-strain relations of elastic-plastic materials analytically. Based on the energy equivalence principle, a load-displacement semi-analytical model of the CHS specimen is proposed. Subsequently, a semi-analytical model of constitutive parameters of elastic-plastic materials is developed by virtue of the load-displacement relation of the CHS specimen, and the prediction of the material's stress-strain relations is obtained. To examine the validity of the models, numerical simulations with a series of materials were performed. The results demonstrated that the dimensionless load-displacement curves and stress-strain relations obtained using the proposed models correspond well with those obtained using finite element analysis. In addition, tensile tests were performed on the CHS specimen for four elastic-plastic materials (T225 titanium alloy, 6061 aluminum alloy, Q345 steel, and 3Cr13 steel), and the validity of the models is also verified by the experimental results. Compared with the conventional uniaxial tensile tests, the stress-strain relation of elastic-plastic material captured by the novel method corresponds to a larger strain, which is of great importance for engineering design and safety assessment.

Status of fungal sepsis among preterm infants in 25 neonatal intensive care units of tertiary hospitals in China / 中华儿科杂志

Objective: To analyze the prevalence and the risk factors of fungal sepsis in 25 neonatal intensive care units (NICU) among preterm infants in China, and to provide a basis for preventive strategies of fungal sepsis. Methods: This was a second-analysis of the data from the "reduction of infection in neonatal intensive care units using the evidence-based practice for improving quality" study. The current status of fungal sepsis of the 24 731 preterm infants with the gestational age of <34+0 weeks, who were admitted to 25 participating NICU within 7 days of birth between May 2015 and April 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. These preterm infants were divided into the fungal sepsis group and the without fungal sepsis group according to whether they developed fungal sepsis to analyze the incidences and the microbiology of fungal sepsis. Chi-square test was used to compare the incidences of fungal sepsis in preterm infants with different gestational ages and birth weights and in different NICU. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was used to study the outcomes of preterm infants with fungal sepsis, which were further compared with those of preterm infants without fungal sepsis. The 144 preterm infants in the fungal sepsis group were matched with 288 preterm infants in the non-fungal sepsis group by propensity score-matched method. Univariate and multivariate Logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the risk factors of fungal sepsis. Results: In all, 166 (0.7%) of the 24 731 preterm infants developed fungal sepsis, with the gestational age of (29.7±2.0) weeks and the birth weight of (1 300±293) g. The incidence of fungal sepsis increased with decreasing gestational age and birth weight (both P<0.001). The preterm infants with gestational age of <32 weeks accounted for 87.3% (145/166). The incidence of fungal sepsis was 1.0% (117/11 438) in very preterm infants and 2.0% (28/1 401) in extremely preterm infants, and was 1.3% (103/8 060) in very low birth weight infants and 1.7% (21/1 211) in extremely low birth weight infants, respectively. There was no fungal sepsis in 3 NICU, and the incidences in the other 22 NICU ranged from 0.7% (10/1 397) to 2.9% (21/724), with significant statistical difference (P<0.001). The pathogens were mainly Candida (150/166, 90.4%), including 59 cases of Candida albicans and 91 cases of non-Candida albicans, of which Candida parapsilosis was the most common (41 cases). Fungal sepsis was independently associated with increased risk of moderate to severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) (adjusted OR 1.52, 95%CI 1.04-2.22, P=0.030) and severe retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) (adjusted OR 2.55, 95%CI 1.12-5.80, P=0.025). Previous broad spectrum antibiotics exposure (adjusted OR=2.50, 95%CI 1.50-4.17, P<0.001), prolonged use of central line (adjusted OR=1.05, 95%CI 1.03-1.08, P<0.001) and previous total parenteral nutrition (TPN) duration (adjusted OR=1.04, 95%CI 1.02-1.06, P<0.001) were all independently associated with increasing risk of fungal sepsis. Conclusions: Candida albicans and Candida parapsilosis are the main pathogens of fungal sepsis among preterm infants in Chinese NICU. Preterm infants with fungal sepsis are at increased risk of moderate to severe BPD and severe ROP. Previous broad spectrum antibiotics exposure, prolonged use of central line and prolonged duration of TPN will increase the risk of fungal sepsis. Ongoing initiatives are needed to reduce fungal sepsis based on these risk factors.

Therapeutic effect of autologous bone marrow cells injected into the liver under the guidance of B­ultrasound in the treatment of HBV­related decompensated liver cirrhosis.

The 5-year mortality rates associated with decompensated liver cirrhosis (DLC) can reach 50%, which suggests that this condition poses a serious health risk. In previous studies conducted by our group, autologous bone marrow nucleated cells (ABMNCs) were used to treat HIV-positive patients with DLC through the right omental vein; however, trauma and poor compliance were encountered. In the present study, the percutaneous liver approach to inject ABMNCs under the guidance of B-ultrasound was employed for the treatment of DLC. A total of 108 patients with DLC were retrospectively divided into the routine drug treatment group (control group; 30 cases), the right omental vein infusion of ABMNCs group (observation group 1; 38 cases) and the B-ultrasound-guided liver injection of ABMNCs group (observation group 2; 40 cases). After treatment, the liver synthesis (prothrombin time, albumin and ascites) and secretion functions (total bilirubin) in observation groups 1 and 2 were significantly improved compared with those of the control group (P<0.01) and the bone marrow function was also significantly improved compared with that of the control group (P<0.01). While, the bone marrow function (white blood cell, platelet, and hemoglobin) in observation group 1 was significantly improved compared with that of observation group 2 at the end of treatment (P<0.01). After a 1-year follow-up, the case fatality rate was 2.5% (1/40) in observation group 2, which was significantly lower than the 20% fatality rate (6/30) recorded in the control group (P<0.05). The injection of ABMNCs into the liver under the guidance of B-ultrasound was significantly better than conventional drug therapy in treating DLC. This approach has obvious advantages such as no hospitalization, minimal trauma, rapid recovery and good compliance, all of which make it worthy of application in primary hospitals.

An Adaptive Filtering Method for Cooperative Localization in Leader-Follower AUVs.

In the complex and variable marine environment, the navigation and localization of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are very important and challenging. When the conventional Kalman filter (KF) is applied to the cooperative localization of leader-follower AUVs, the outliers in the sensor observations will have a substantial adverse effect on the localization accuracy of the AUVs. Meanwhile, inaccurate noise covariance matrices may result in significant estimation errors. In this paper, we proposed an improved Sage-Husa adaptive extended Kalman filter (improved SHAEKF) for the cooperative localization of multi-AUVs. Firstly, the measurement anomalies were evaluated by calculating the Chi-square test statistics based on the innovation. The detection threshold was determined according to the confidence level of the Chi-square test, and the Chi-square test statistics exceeding the threshold were regarded as measurement abnormalities. When measurement anomalies occurred, the Sage-Husa adaptive extended Kalman filter algorithm was improved by suboptimal maximum a posterior estimation using weighted exponential fading memory, and the measurement noise covariance matrix was adjusted online. The numerical simulation of leader-follower multi-AUV cooperative localization verified the effectiveness of the improved SHAEKF and demonstrated that the average root mean square and the average standard deviation of the localization errors based on the improved SHAEKF were significantly reduced in the case of the presence of measurement abnormalities.

The role of endocervical curettage in detection and treatment of cervical canal lesions.

OBJECTIVE: To screen out high-risk groups of endocervical lesions, explore the effect of length of excision on margin status in women with abnormal endocervical curettage (ECC) and explore the role of ECC in the additional detection of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion or worse (HSIL+) under colposcopy and lesion-targeted biopsies. METHODS: The study included 936 patients who underwent loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP) for cervical lesions which were diagnosed by cervical biopsy and ECC at the cervical clinic of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University from January 2014 and December 2018. The correlations among abnormal ECC, human papillomavirus (HPV) type, cytology, margin of excision, and age were analyzed by Pearson's χ² test and multivariate logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Abnormal ECC was associated with HPV-16 infection (P<0.001), or HSIL cervical cytology or worse (P<0.001), or aged 50 years old or older (P<0.001). Abnormal ECC was associated with positive margin of excision (P<0.001). For patients with abnormal ECC, the length of excision was independent of margin status (P=0.762). Among all the 491 patients with HSIL+ diagnosed by either cervical biopsy or ECC, the additional detection rate of HSIL+ by ECC was only 8.76% (43/491). CONCLUSION: In our study, ECC was recommended in women with HPV16 infection, HSIL cervical cytology or worse, aged 50 or older, or invisible transformation zone in colposcopy. At the same time, our results suggested that ECC abnormalities were associated with positive margin of excision. The data did not support performing a longer length of excision in patients with abnormal ECC, especially in women with fertility needs. In summary, patients with abnormal ECC should be given more attention and follow-up to avoid missing residual lesions.orse prognostic factor in breast cancer patients.

Value of metagenomic next-generation sequencing in children with severe infectious diseases / 中国当代儿科杂志

OBJECTIVES@#To study the application value of metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) in children with severe infectious diseases.@*METHODS@#An analysis was performed on the clinical data and laboratory test results of 29 children with severe infection who were admitted to the Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University from June 2018 to December 2020. Conventional pathogen culture was performed for the 29 specimens (27 peripheral blood specimens and 2 pleural effusion specimens) from the 29 children, and mNGS pathogen detection was performed at the same time.@*RESULTS@#Among the 29 children, 2 tested positive by conventional pathogen culture with 2 strains of pathogen, and the detection rate was 7% (2/29); however, 20 children tested positive by mNGS with 38 strains of pathogen, and the detection rate was 69% (20/29). The pathogen detection rate of mNGS was significantly higher than that of conventional pathogen culture (P<0.05), and mNGS could detect the viruses, fungi, and other special pathogens that conventional pathogen culture failed to detect, such as Orientia tsutsugamushi. The univariate analysis showed that gender, routine blood test results, C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, D-dimer, radiological findings, and whether antibiotics were used before admission did not affect the results of mNGS (P>0.05).@*CONCLUSIONS@#Compared with conventional pathogen culture, mNGS is more sensitive for pathogen detection, with fewer interference factors. Therefore, it is a better pathogenic diagnosis method for severe infectious diseases in children.

Prevalence and genotype distribution of high-risk human papillomavirus infection among women with cervical cytological abnormalities in Chongqing, China, 2014-2020.

BACKGROUND: Persistent infection with high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) is the main leading cause of cervical precancerous lesions and cervical cancer. This study aims to explore the epidemiological characteristics of HR-HPV genotypes and their correlation with the ThinPrep cytological test (TCT) results among women in Chongqing, in China. METHODS: In this retrospective study, cervical exfoliations of 14,548 women who visited Chongqing university cancer hospital were collected for detecting HR-HPV genotypes and TCT. RESULTS: Overall, the rate of HR-HPV infection was 14.26%. The three most common HR-HPV genotypes are HPV52 (4.39%), HPV58 (2.21%), and HPV16 (1.94%). In this study, the positive rate of cervical TCT was 4.54%. Atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US), atypical squamous cells that could not exclude high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (ASU-H), low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL), high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL), and atypical glandular cells of undetermined significance (AGC) were 2.99%, 0.20%, 0.92%, 0.29%, and 0.14%, respectively. Among the several types of cytological lesions, the HR-HPV infection rates of ASC-US, ASC-H, LSIL, HSIL, and (AGC) were 24.82%, 41.38%, 64.18%, 95.24%, and 23.81%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: HPV52, HPV 58, and HPV16 are the most common infection subtypes in Chongqing. When implementing HPV vaccine programs in Chongqing, HPV58 and HPV52 should be attached importance as HPV16 and HPV18.

Diabetic wound healing: The impact of diabetes on myofibroblast activity and its potential therapeutic treatments.

Diabetes is a systemic disease in which the body cannot regulate the amount of sugar, namely glucose, in the blood. High glucose toxicity has been implicated in the dysfunction of diabetic wound healing, following insufficient production (Type 1) or inadequate usage (Type 2) of insulin. Chronic non-healing diabetic wounds are one of the major complications of both types of diabetes, which are serious concerns for public health and can impact the life quality of patients significantly. In general, diabetic wounds are characterized by deficient chemokine production, an unusual inflammatory response, lack of angiogenesis and epithelialization, and dysfunction of fibroblasts. Increasing scientific evidence from available experimental studies on animal and cell models strongly associates impaired wound healing in diabetes with dysregulated fibroblast differentiation to myofibroblasts, interrupted myofibroblast activity, and inadequate extracellular matrix production. Myofibroblasts play an important role in tissue repair by producing and organizing extracellular matrix and subsequently promoting wound contraction. Based on these studies, hyperglycaemic conditions can interfere with cytokine signalling pathways (such as growth factor-ß pathway) affecting fibroblast differentiation, alter fibroblast apoptosis, dysregulate dermal lipolysis, and enhance hypoxia damage, thus leading to damaged microenvironment for myofibroblast formation, inappropriate extracellular matrix modulation, and weakened wound contraction. In this review, we will focus on the current available studies on the impact of diabetes on fibroblast differentiation and myofibroblast function, as well as potential treatments related to the affected pathways.

Poor sleep quality and its related risk factors among university students.

BACKGROUND: Poor sleep quality is a major health problem worldwide. In universities, poor sleep quality can effect student's ability to study and have a serious impact on their psychological and physical well-being. The aim of this study was to explore the quality of sleep among university students and identify risk factors associated with poor sleep quality. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted and the Pittsburgh sleep quality index scale was used to measure sleep quality. The overall score of the PSQI ranges from 0 to 21, with a score of 4 or less indicating good sleep quality, a score of 5-10 indicating fairly good sleep quality, 11-15 indicating fairly bad sleep quality, and a score of 16-21 indicating poor sleep quality. RESULTS: A total of 1,317 subjects were enrolled in the study. Most subjects were female (64.6%) and rural based (69.2%). Low intensity sports activity more than once per week was reported by 81.9% of subjects and 59.8% reported they participated in high-intensity sports more than once a week. In addition, 72.8% of subjects took a nap more than three times per week. CONCLUSIONS: We found that physical activity and taking a nap may be important factors in improving sleep quality and preventing sleep disorders among university students.

Atomic structure evolutions and mechanisms of the crystallization pathway of liquid Al during rapid cooling.

The solidification of pure aluminum has been studied by a large-scale molecular dynamic simulation. The potential energy, position D, height H, and width W of the first peak and valley of PDF curves, and the local structures were investigated. It was found that the FCC-crystallization ability of pure Al is so strong that still local crystal regions exist in the amorphized solid. As the temperature decreases, besides the counter-intuitive increase in D p (D of the first peak), H p increases monotonically; W p, D v, and H v decrease monotonically; only W v first decreases and then increases. They all change critically when phase transition happens. After the nucleation, orientation-disordered HCP-regions, as the grain boundaries or defects of FCC crystals, rapidly transform into FCC structures, and then the surviving HCP-regions regularize into few parallel layers or orientation-disordered HCP-regions. If parallel layers result in dislocation pinning, structural evolution terminates; otherwise, it continues. These findings will have a positive impact on the development of the solidification and nucleation theory.

Autologous Bone Marrow Cell Infusion for the Treatment of Decompensated Liver Cirrhosis Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

This study aimed to indicate whether autologous bone marrow cell infusion (ABMI) via the right omental vein (ROV) could have a regulatory effect on decompensated liver cirrhosis (DLC) patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). For this purpose, 24 DLC patients with T2DM were divided into observation group (n=14) and control group (n=10). Patients in the observation group were given ABMI through the ROV and right omental artery (ROA), and cases in the control group received ABMI through the ROV. At 1, 3, 6, and 12months after ABMI, it was revealed that the prothrombin time, the total bilirubin levels, and the amount of ascites were significantly lower, while the serum albumin levels in the two groups were markedly higher compared with those before ABMI (p<0.01), and there was no significant difference between the two groups at each time point (p>0.05). The fasting blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin levels at 6 and 12months after ABMI in the two groups significantly decreased compared with those before ABMI (p<0.05 or p<0.01), while the decreased levels in the observation group were more obvious than those in the control group at each time point (p<0.01). The amount of insulin in the observation group at 3, 6, and 12months after ABMI was significantly less than that before ABMI in the control group (p<0.01). In summary, ABMI showed a significant therapeutic efficacy for DLC patients with T2DM through ROV and ROA.

Clinicopathological features of children with lupus nephritis with positive antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody / 中国当代儿科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To study the clinicopathological features of children with lupus nephritis (LN) with positive anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA).@*METHODS@#A retrospective analysis was performed for the children who were diagnosed with LN in the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University from January 2003 to December 2019. According to the results of serum ANCA, they were divided into two groups: ANCA-positive group (@*RESULTS@#Compared with the ANCA-negative group, the ANCA-positive group had a significant reduction in leukocytes and a significant increase in erythrocyte sedimentation rate (@*CONCLUSIONS@#Children with ANCA-positive LN tend to have more severe renal pathological injury, which is not exactly parallel with clinical manifestations, suggesting that timely renal biopsy is of great importance.

Different structural transitions of rapidly supercooled tantalum melt under pressure.

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have been performed to study the effects of pressure (P) on the crystallization of tantalum (Ta) under different pressures from [0, 100] GPa. The average potential energy of atoms in the system, the pair distribution function and largest standard cluster analysis (LSCA) have been employed to analyze the structure evolution. It was found that the solidified state at 100 K changes from the complex crystal (ß-Ta) through the body-centered cubic (bcc) crystal (α-Ta) to the hexagonal close-packed (hcp) crystal with increasing pressure. At P ≤ 3 GPa, the favorable state is ß-Ta, which is composed of Z12, Z14 and Z15 atoms, and crystallization starts at the same temperature of crystallization (Tc = 1897 K), while there is a stochastic relationship between the crystallinity and pressure. At P ∈ [3, 57.5] GPa, the melt is always crystallized into rather perfect α-Ta, and Tc is nearly linear to pressure. However, when P > 57.5 GPa, a quite perfect bcc crystal is first formed and then transforms to a hcp crystal via a solid-solid (bcc-hcp) phase transition. Moreover, if the new hcp atoms formed in the bcc stage are arranged in regular grains, the bcc-hcp transition would take a multiple-intermediate-state pathway else, a single-intermediate-state pathway is the possibilty. Additionaly, the parameter δs readily reflects the crystallinity of the ß-Ta, and smaller the value of δs, higher is the crystallinity of the ß-Ta. Finally, during the bcc-hcp transition under high pressure, the volume reduction is due to the rearrangement of atoms rather than the reduction in the atomic radius; a slight increase in the number of nearest neighboring pairs results in a significant increase of the system energy.

Postsynthetic Modification of ZIF-8 Membranes via Membrane Surface Ligand Exchange for Light Hydrocarbon Gas Separation Enhancement.

The ability to tailor the pore structure of metal-organic framework (MOF) membranes enables synthesis of new or modified MOF membranes with enhanced separation characteristics. This work employs a modified version of solvent-assisted ligand exchange, termed membrane surface ligand exchange (MSLE), to modify the pore structure of zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) membranes. This paper is the first to perform a time-based, ex situ characterization and gas permeation study of ZIF-8 MSLE with 5,6-DBIM (DBIM, dimethylbenzimidazole) to effectively narrow the ZIF-8 pores, enhance light hydrocarbon gas-phase separations, and give insight into the exchange mechanism with respect to time and temperature. The results show that relatively fast exchange kinetics occur mainly at the outer surface of the ZIF-8 membrane during the initial 30 min of exchange and enables significant (40-70%) increases in propylene/propane selectivity with minimal (10-20%) propylene permeance losses for the modified ZIF-8 membranes. We postulate as the reaction time proceeds, the ligand-exchange rate slows as the DBIM linker diffuses into the ZIF-8 membrane beyond the external surface, exchanges with the original linker, disrupts the original framework's crystallinity, and then increases long-range order/crystallinity as the reaction proceeds. The H2/C2 separation factor increases with increased 5,6-DBIM content in the ZIF-8 framework which is facilitated by increased MSLE time and reaction temperature.

Effects of small nucleolar Ribonuclei Acid host gene 1 on the proliferation of fibroblastlike synoviocytes in rheumatoid arthritis / 中华风湿病学杂志

Objective:To preliminary study the effects of long noncoding Ribonuclei Acid (RNA) small nucleolar RNA host gene 1 (SNHG1) on proliferation of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) and the possible mechanism.Methods:The FLS from RA and trauma group were primarily cultured by the explant culture, and the expression of SNHG1 were detected by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Transfection of siRNA was used to interfere the expression of SNHG1. Cell viability was measured using CCK-8 assay and cell cycle distribution was detected by flow cytometry. And the protein level of cyclinD1 was detected by Western blotting. Independent sample t test was used for the comparison between two groups, and the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) analysis was used to compare the samples of multiple groups. Results:Compared with FLS from trauma group, SNHG1 expression in RA-FLS was up-regulated [(2.13 ±0.55) vs (1.00 ±0.01)] ( t=-5.87, P=0.004). In RA-FLS, after silencing the expression of SNHG1, the cell viability of SNHG1-siRNA treatment group was down-regulated [(0.930 ±0.033) vs (0.759 ±0.027)]( t=6.879, P=0.002), the proportion of G 2/M+S cells was down-regulated [(28.2 ±1.5)% vs (9.7 ±2.6)%]( t=10.715, P<0.01), and thelevelof cyclinD1 protein was down-regulated ( t=6.168, P=0.004) compared with the negative control group. Conclusion:The SNHG1 is abnormally expressed in RA-FLS, and SNHG1 may participate in the regulation of FLS proliferation by affecting the expression of cyclinD1 protein, thereby contributing to synovial hyperplasia.

Updates and advancements in the management of hepatocellular carcinoma patients after hepatectomy.

Introduction: The 5-year recurrence rate of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after hepatic resection or local ablation is up to 70%. Adjuvant therapies to prevent HCC recurrence have been reported but are not currently recommended by EASL or AASLD guidelines. This review examined evidence from randomized controlled trials, meta-analyses and systematic reviews on the safety and efficacy of adjuvant therapies and chemotherapies in HCC patients after resection or local ablation.Areas covered: PubMed was searched through 15 June 2019. Available evidence was assessed based on the GRADE system.Expert commentary: Transarterial chemoembolization is the best adjuvant therapy for HCC patients at high risk of recurrence, antiviral therapy with nucleoside analogs is effective for preventing recurrence of HBV-related HCC, and interferon-α is effective for preventing recurrence of HCV-related HCC. Further studies are needed to clarify the efficacy of adjuvant immune checkpoint inhibitors. Adjuvant sorafenib appears to offer negligible clinical benefit and high risk of adverse effects.