Application of Microwave Transmission Sensors for Water Cut Metering under Varying Salinity Conditions: Device, Algorithm and Uncertainty Analysis.

The measurement of water cut in crude oil is an essential procedure in petroleum production and it is desirable to obtain these data through an automatic and real-time method. Microwave sensors can be used for the task, and they are safe, robust and can cover the whole water cut range. However, they are relatively susceptible to the water conductivity and temperature, and the algorithms for addressing these problems are still rare in the literature. In this paper, a microwave transmission sensor that can measure the water cut under varying salinity conditions is proposed, and the algorithm for solving the water cut and salinity simultaneously with the measured amplitude and phase is described in detail. Experiments under different water cut and salinity conditions are conducted, and the results are used to verify the model and algorithm. Finally, a simplified and fast method for uncertainty analysis is proposed and applied to the iteration algorithm under test conditions. It can be concluded that accuracy higher than 95% in the water cut measurements can be expected under the 0~100% water cut range, and an error of about 10% in the water conductivity is achievable under water-continuous flow conditions. The uncertainty analysis shows that the calculated water cut and salinity results are negatively correlated, and the water salinity uncertainty tends to be larger than the water cut uncertainty. When the water salinity is high, the water cut uncertainty tends to be high whereas the water salinity uncertainty tends to be low.

Effect of magnetic field on electroosmotic flow of viscoelastic fluids in a microchannel.

Electroosmotic flow is an efficient transportation technology driven by applying an external electric field across the microchannel, which has a great potential for future application. This work is presented to study the unsteady electroosmotic flow of viscoelastic fluids combined with a constant pressure gradient and a vertical magnetic field through a parallel plate microchannel. For the reason that the upper and bottom walls of the parallel plate microchannel in microfluidic devices can be made of different materials, this leads to different hydrophobic properties, asymmetric zeta wall potentials, and different slip boundary conditions. The Navier slip model with different slip coefficients at walls is considered. The generalized Maxwell fluid with fractional derivative is adopted for the constitutive equation of the fluid. The analytical and numerical solutions of velocity are derived by employing the integral transform method and finite difference method, respectively. Excellent agreement is found between the numerical solutions and analytical solutions. Finally, the effects of fractional parameter α , relaxation time λ , slip coefficients a and b , the ratio of wall zeta potentials Rξ , Hartmann number Ha , and electrical field strength parameter S on velocity profiles are interpreted graphically in detail.

Numerical study of electroosmotic slip flow of fractional Oldroyd-B fluids at high zeta potentials.

In this paper, an investigation of the electroosmotic flow of fractional Oldroyd-B fluids in a narrow circular tube with high zeta potential is presented. The Navier linear slip law at the walls is considered. The potential field is applied along the walls described by the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation. It's worth noting here that the linear Debye-Hückel approximation can't be used at the condition of high zeta potential and the exact solution of potential in cylindrical coordinates can't be obtained. Therefore, the Matlab bvp4c solver method and the finite difference method are employed to numerically solve the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation and the governing equations of the velocity distribution, respectively. To verify the validity of our numerical approach, a comparison has been made with the previous work in the case of low zeta potential and the excellent agreement between the solutions is clear. Then, in view of the obtained numerical solution for the velocity distribution, the numerical solutions of the flow rate and the shear stress are derived. Furthermore, based on numerical analysis, the influence of pertinent parameters on the potential distribution and the generation of flow is presented graphically.

Complete Genome Sequence of a Novel Avian-Like H3N2 Swine Influenza Virus Discovered in Southern China.

We report here the complete genomic sequence of a novel avian-like H3N2 swine influenza virus containing an H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus segment that was obtained from swine in southern China. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that this virus might originate from domestic aquatic birds. The sequence information provided herein suggests that continuing study is required to determine if this virus can be established in the swine population and pose potential threats to public health.

Expression and Antibody Preparation of GP5a Gene of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus.

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is considered one of the most important infectious diseases to affect the swine industry and characterized by reproductive failure in late term gestation in sows and respiratory disease in pigs of all ages. The GP5a gene, encoding RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, is generally regarded as fairly conserved when compared to other viral proteins. It plays an important role in the process of duplication and transcription carried out by Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV). We firstly expressed and purified the GP5a protein of PRRSV. This provides a good method for the purification of expressed proteins and the preparation of the corresponding antibodies.

Microbiological identification and analysis of Swine lungs collected from carcasses in Swine farms, china.

The primary objective of this 3 years study was to determine the prevalence of porcine pathogens of the lungs of swine in swine farms in southern China. A total of 5,420 samples were collected from 200 swine farms. The bacterium that was most commonly isolated was Streptococcus suis, with 10.24 % of the samples being positive, 114 lungs (2.1 %) were positive for pseudorabies virus and 263 (4.85 %) were positive for classical swine fever virus; much lower than positive for PRRSV (15.1 %, p = 0.023) and PCV2 (13.8 %, p = 0.038). lungs that were positive for PRRSV and/or PCV-2 have significantly increased odds of being positive for any of the S. suis (9.79 vs. 0.44 %, p = 0.003).

Simple and rapid detection of swine hepatitis E virus by reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification.

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an enteric pathogen of humans and animals, and pigs have been considered an important reservoir of this virus. Recent evidence has indicated the cross-species transmission of hepatitis E virus (HEV) from pigs to humans, causing zoonosis, mostly via consumption of uncooked or undercooked animal meat/viscera. In this study, we have developed a one-step RT-LAMP assay for rapid detection of swine HEV. Specific primer sets targeting the ORF3 gene were designed. The sensitivity of the RT-LAMP assay was 10(1) copies/µl of RNA template, which was tenfold higher than that of RT-nPCR. The specificity of this assay was demonstrated by the lack of amplification of DNA/RNA from other swine viruses. Furthermore, a total of 41 bile samples were subjected to RT-LAMP and RT-nPCR. Eighteen positive samples were detected by RT-nPCR, while 36 positive samples were detected by RT-LAMP, indicating that the sensitivity of the RT-LAMP assay was higher than that of the conventional RT-nPCR assay. The RT-LAMP assay reported here may be used for diagnosis of swine HEV, not only in laboratories but also under field conditions.

Correlation of Complex Impacted Mandibular Teeth with Pericoronitis and Effect of Minimally Invasive Tooth Extraction on Patients' Long-term Outcome of Masticatory Ability.

Objective: To explore the correlation of complex impacted mandibular teeth and pericoronitis, as well as the effect of minimally invasive tooth extraction on patients' long-term outcomes of masticatory ability. Methods: A total of 101 patients with complex impacted teeth who were treated in our hospital from March 2019 to June 2021 were selected and divided into the control group (n = 55) and the observation group (n = 46) according to the different treatment methods. The patients in the control group were given conventional extraction treatment, and the patients in the observation group were given minimally invasive extraction treatment. The clinicopathological features of patients complicated by pericoronitis were observed and the relationship between complex impacted mandibular teeth and pericoronitis was discussed. Additionally, we made statistics on operative time (OT), intraoperative blood loss (IBL), dental socket integrity score, and adverse reactions (ARs) and compared the clinical efficacy between the observation group and control group. The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Oral Health Impact Profile scale (OHIP-14) were utilized for pain assessment and oral health status evaluation, respectively. Bite force (BF) and masticatory efficiency were also measured. Results: OG showed less OT and IBL than CG, with a higher dental socket integrity score (P < 0.05). In addition, OG outperformed CG with a higher overall response rate and a lower incidence of ARs (P < 0.05). The pretreatment VAS score, mouth-opening degree, and OHIP-14 score differed insignificantly between groups (P > 0.05). After treatment, the VAS score of OG decreased, while the mouth-opening degree and OHIP-14 score increased (P < 0.05). Finally, the mastication ability was higher in OG at 7 days postoperatively, but there was no difference between groups at 6 months postoperatively (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Complex mandibular impacted teeth can easily induce pericoronitis, so clinicians should pay attention to the influencing factors of pericoronitis. Minimally invasive surgery for complex impacted mandibular teeth can effectively improve treatment outcomes, accelerate patient rehabilitation, and provide more effective protection for patients' oral health and masticatory ability, which is worth promoting in clinical use.

Predicting Chemo-Radiotherapy Sensitivity With Concordant Survival Benefit in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer via Computed Tomography Derived Radiomic Features.

Background: To identify a computed tomography (CT) derived radiomic signature for the options of concurrent chemo-radiotherapy (CCR) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: A total of 226 patients with NSCLC receiving CCR were enrolled from public dataset, and allocated to discovery and validation sets based on patient identification number. Using CT images of 153 patients in the discovery dataset, we pre-selected a list of radiomic features significantly associated with 5-year survival rate and adopted the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression to establish a predictive radiomic signature for CCR treatment. We performed transcriptomic analyzes of the signature, and evaluated its association with molecular lesions and immune landscapes in a dataset with matched CT images and transcriptome data. Furthermore, we identified CCR resistant genes positively correlated with resistant scores of radiomic signature and screened essential resistant genes for NSCLC using genome-scale CRIPSR data. Finally, we combined DrugBank and Genomics of Drug Sensitivity in Cancer databases to excavate candidate therapeutic agents for patients with CCR resistance, and validated them using the Connectivity Map dataset. Results: The radiomic signature consisting of nine features was established, and then validated in the dataset of 73 patients receiving CCR log-rank P = 0.0005, which could distinguish patients into resistance and sensitivity groups, respectively, with significantly different 5-year survival rate. Furthermore, the novel proposed radiomic nomogram significantly improved the predictive performance (concordance indexes) of clinicopathological factors. Transcriptomic analyzes linked our signature with important tumor biological processes (e.g. glycolysis/glucoseogenesis, ribosome). Then, we identified 36 essential resistant genes, and constructed a gene-agent network including 10 essential resistant genes and 35 candidate therapeutic agents, and excavated AT-7519 as the therapeutic agent for patients with CCR resistance. The therapeutic efficacy of AT-7519 was validated that significantly more resistant genes were down-regulated induced by AT-7519, and the degree gradually increased with the enhanced doses. Conclusions: This study illustrated that radiomic signature could non-invasively predict therapeutic efficacy of patients with NSCLC receiving CCR, and indicated that patients with CCR resistance might benefit from AT-7519 or CCR treatment combined with AT-7519.

Identification of mutational signature for lung adenocarcinoma prognosis and immunotherapy prediction.

There is no robust genomic signature to predict the prognosis of patients with early-stage lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). It was known that clonal heterogeneity was closely associated to tumour progression and prognosis prediction. Herein, using stage I patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas, we identified the clonal/subclonal events of each gene and preselected a set of genes with prognosis-specific mutation patterns based on a robust published transcriptomic prognostic signature. Subsequently, we constructed a mutational prognostic signature (MPS), whose prognostic performance was independently validated in two datasets of stage I samples. The predicted high-risk patients had significantly higher immune cell infiltration, along with higher expression of cytotoxic and immune checkpoint genes, and an integrated dataset with 88 samples confirmed that high-risk patients could benefit from immunotherapy. The developed MPS can identify the high-risk patients with stage I LUAD and improve individualised treatment planning of high-risk patients who might benefit from immunotherapy. KEY MESSAGES: We creatively developed a prognostic signature (57-MPS) based on clonal diversity. The high-risk samples displayed an underlying immunosuppressive mechanism. 57-MPS improved the predictive performance of PD-L1 for immunotherapy.

Hierarchical identification of a transcriptional panel for the histological diagnosis of lung neuroendocrine tumors.

Background: Lung cancer is a complex disease composed of neuroendocrine (NE) and non-NE tumors. Accurate diagnosis of lung cancer is essential in guiding therapeutic management. Several transcriptional signatures have been reported to distinguish between adenocarcinoma (ADC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) belonging to non-NE tumors. This study aims to identify a transcriptional panel that could distinguish the histological subtypes of NE tumors to complement the morphology-based classification of an individual. Methods: A public dataset with NE subtypes, including 21 small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), 56 large-cell NE carcinomas (LCNECs), and 24 carcinoids (CARCIs), and non-NE subtypes, including 85 ADC and 61 SCC, was used as a training set. In the training set, consensus clustering was first used to filter out the samples whose expression patterns disagreed with their histological subtypes. Then, a rank-based method was proposed to develop a panel of transcriptional signatures for determining the NE subtype for an individual, based on the within-sample relative gene expression orderings of gene pairs. Twenty-three public datasets with a total of 3,454 samples, which were derived from fresh-frozen, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded, biopsies, and single cells, were used for validation. Clinical feasibility was tested in 10 SCLC biopsy specimens collected from cancer hospitals via bronchoscopy. Results: The NEsubtype-panel was composed of three signatures that could distinguish NE from non-NE, CARCI from non-CARCI, and SCLC from LCNEC step by step and ultimately determine the histological subtype for each NE sample. The three signatures achieved high average concordance rates with 97.31%, 98.11%, and 90.63%, respectively, in the 23 public validation datasets. It is worth noting that the 10 clinic-derived SCLC samples diagnosed via immunohistochemical staining were also accurately predicted by the NEsubtype-panel. Furthermore, the subtype-specific gene expression patterns and survival analyses provided evidence for the rationality of the reclassification by the NEsubtype-panel. Conclusion: The rank-based NEsubtype-panel could accurately distinguish lung NE from non-NE tumors and determine NE subtypes even in clinically challenging samples (such as biopsy). The panel together with our previously reported signature (KRT5-AGR2) for SCC and ADC would be an auxiliary test for the histological diagnosis of lung cancer.

Identifying metabolic reprogramming phenotypes with glycolysis-lipid metabolism discoordination and intercellular communication for lung adenocarcinoma metastasis.

Tumor metastasis imposes metabolic requirements for escaping from primary tissues, producing vulnerability in treatment. This study aimed to explore the metabolic reprogramming relevant to lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) metastasis and decode the underlying intercellular alterations. Using the gene expression profiles of 394 LUAD samples derived from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), we identified 11 metastasis-related metabolic genes involved in glycolysis and lipid metabolism, and defined three metabolic reprogramming phenotypes (MP-I, -II, and -III) using unsupervised clustering. MP-III with the highest glycolytic and lowest lipid metabolic levels exhibited the highest metastatic potency and poorest survival in TCGA and six independent cohorts totaling 1,235 samples. Genomic analyses showed that mutations in TP53 and KEAP1, and deletions in SETD2 and PBRM1 might drive metabolic reprogramming in MP-III. Single-cell RNA-sequencing data from LUAD validated a metabolic evolutionary trajectory from normal to MP-II and MP-III, through MP-I. The further intercellular communications revealed that MP-III interacted uniquely with endothelial cells and fibroblasts in the ANGPTL pathway, and had stronger interactions with endothelial cells in the VEGF pathway. Herein, glycolysis-lipid dysregulation patterns suggested metabolic reprogramming phenotypes relevant to metastasis. Further insights into the oncogenic drivers and microenvironmental interactions would facilitate the treatment of LUAD metastasis in the future.

Simultaneous quantification of three major triterpenoids in radix asteris by high-performance liquid chromatography with evaporative light scattering detection.

INTRODUCTION: Radix asteris, with triterpenoids as its main pharmacological effective compounds, has been widely used for moistening the lung, dispersing phlegm and relieving cough. Quantification of the triterpenoids is important for the quality control of Radix asteris. OBJECTIVE: To establish a high-performance liquid chromatography method with evaporative light scattering detection for simultaneous determination of three major triterpenoids, shionone, friedelin and epi-friedelinol, in Radix asteris. METHODOLOGY: The optimal chromatographic conditions were achieved on an RP(18) column with gradient elution by acetonitrile and 0.05% acetic acid in 22 min with ELSD set at an evaporating temperature of 40 degrees C. Validation of the method included tests of linearity, sensitivity, precision, repeatability, stability and accuracy. RESULTS: All calibration curves showed good linear regression (r(2) > 0.9991) within test ranges. The established method showed good precision and accuracy with overall intra-day and inter-day variations of 1.61-2.97 and 1.74-2.42%, respectively, and overall recoveries of 97.35-101.13% for the three compounds analysed. CONCLUSION: The method developed was successfully applied to quantify the main triterpenoids in 14 Radix asteris samples.

[Quality assessment for Coptis chinensis with different cultivating system].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the quality of Coptis chinensis planted with four kinds of cultivating system. METHOD: The samples, which were planted below the artificial shading, the forest of Chinese ceder wood, Mmulbery wood, Magnolia officinal wood were chosen respectivley, UV and HPLC were used to determine of total alkaloids and berberine of samples. RESULT: There was no significant difference among four kinds of cultivating system on the contents of total alkaloids and berberine. The contents of total alkaloids and berberine were obviously higher than in the criterion of Chinese Pharmacopoeia. CONCLUSION: The roots of C. chinensis planted in the four kinds of planting system can be used as medicinal material of high quality.

Analytical Solution of Electro-Osmotic Peristalsis of Fractional Jeffreys Fluid in a Micro-Channel.

The electro-osmotic peristaltic flow of a viscoelastic fluid through a cylindrical micro-channel is studied in this paper. The fractional Jeffreys constitutive model, including the relaxation time and retardation time, is utilized to describe the viscoelasticity of the fluid. Under the assumptions of long wavelength, low Reynolds number, and Debye-Hückel linearization, the analytical solutions of pressure gradient, stream function and axial velocity are explored in terms of Mittag-Leffler function by Laplace transform method. The corresponding solutions of fractional Maxwell fluid and generalized second grade fluid are also obtained as special cases. The numerical analysis of the results are depicted graphically, and the effects of electro-osmotic parameter, external electric field, fractional parameters and viscoelastic parameters on the peristaltic flow are discussed.

Can the positive aromatic ring be as π-electron donor in π-halogen bond? A MP2 theoretical investigation on the unusual π-halogen bond interaction between three-membered ring (BNN)3⁺ and X1X2 (X1, X2 = F, Cl, Br).

The unusual π-halogen bond interactions are investigated between (BNN)3⁺ and X1X2 (X1, X2 = F, Cl, Br) employing MP2 at 6-311 + G(2d) and aug-cc-pVDZ levels according to the "CP (counterpoise) corrected potential energy surface (PES)" method. The order of the π-halogen bond interactions and stabilities of the complexes are obtained to be (BNN)3⁺... F2 < (BNN)3⁺... ClF < (BNN)3⁺... Cl2 < (BNN)3⁺... BrCl < (BNN)3⁺... Br2 < (BNN)3⁺ ... BrF. at MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ level. The analyses of the Mulliken charge transfer, natural bond orbital (NBO), atoms in molecules (AIM) theory and electron density shifts reveal that the nature of the π-halogen bond interaction in the complexes of ClF, BrF and BrCl might partly be charge transfer from the delocalized π-HOMO orbital of (BNN)3⁺ to X1X2. This result suggests that the positive aromatic ring (BNN)3⁺ might act as a π-electron donor to form the π-halogen bond.

Isolation and Phylogenetic Analysis of H1N1 Swine Influenza Virus from Sick Pigs in Southern China.

Two swine influenza (SI) H1N1 virus was isolated from a pig during a severe outbreak of respiratory disease in south China. The two H1N1 influenza viruses were classical SI virus. A/swine/Guangdong/L6/09 is classical SI virus of recent years, which is of the main SI virus in China. Howere, A/swine/Guangdong/L3/09 was closet to A/swine/Iowa/1931, which was the first isolated SI virus and had demonstrated significant pathogenicity in animal models. The results of phylogenetic analysis of A/swine/Guangdong/L3/09 showed a close relationship with the 1918 pandemic virus. The results suggested that the previous SI virus appeared again. Whether, it brought a new pandemic to pigs deserves more attention.

Identification of an H6N6 swine influenza virus in southern China.

This is the first report of avian-like H6N6 swine influenza virus from swine in southern China. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that this virus might originate from domestic ducks. Serological surveillance suggested there had been sporadic H6 swine influenza infections in this area. Continuing study is required to determine if this virus could be established in the swine population and pose potential threats to public health.