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Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive neuromodulation technique that applies a stable, low-intensity (1–2 mA) direct current to modulate neuronal activity in the cerebral cortex. This technique is effective, simple to operate, affordable, and widely employed across various fields. tDCS has been extensively used in clinical and translational research, with growing applications in military and competitive sports domains. In recent years, the use of tDCS in sports science has garnered significant attention from researchers. Numerous studies have demonstrated that tDCS can enhance muscle strength, explosive power, and aerobic metabolism, reduce fatigue, and improve cognition, thereby serving as a valuable tool for enhancing athletic performance. Additionally, recent research has shed light on the physiological mechanisms underlying tDCS, including its modulation of neuronal resting membrane potential to alter cortical excitability, enhancement of synaptic plasticity to regulate long-term potentiation, modulation of neurovascular coupling to improve regional cerebral blood flow, and improvement of cerebral network functional connectivity, which activates and reinforces specific brain regions. tDCS also enhances the release of excitatory neurotransmitters, further regulating brain function. This article, after outlining the role of tDCS in improving physical performance, delves into its mechanisms of action to provide a deeper understanding of how tDCS enhances athletic performance and offers novel approaches and perspectives for physical performance enhancement.

Cervical cancer continues to be a concern, and the prognosis of locally advanced cervical cancer remains poor. IMPA2 was previously identified as a potential oncogene and regulator of tumor apoptosis. In this study, we aim to further elucidate the underlying mechanisms of IMPA2 gene in the regulation of cervical cancer apoptosis. First, we identify AIFM2 as an upregulated gene in IMPA2-silenced cervical cancer cells, and inhibition of AIFM2 reverses IMPA2 knockdown-induced apoptosis. Further study reveals that AIFM2 regulates cell apoptosis in a mitochondrial-dependent manner with a redistribution of mitochondrial membrane potential and intracellular Ca 2+ levels. However, the analysis of the STRING database and our experimental results show that AIFM2 has little effect on cervical cancer progression and survival. Further mechanistic study demonstrates that IMPA2 and AIFM2 silencing inhibits apoptosis by activating p53. Meanwhile, the knockdown of IMPA2 enhances the chemosensitivity of cervical cancer cells by strengthening paclitaxel-induced apoptosis. Based on the above results, the IMPA2/AIFM2/p53 pathway may be a new molecular mechanism for paclitaxel treatment of cervical cancer and an effective strategy to enhance the sensitivity of cervical cancer cells to paclitaxel. Our findings display a novel function of IMPA2 in regulating cell apoptosis and paclitaxel resistance mediated by a disturbance of AIFM2 and p53 expression, potentially making it a novel therapeutic target for cervical cancer treatment.

IntroductionCognition decline is associated with aging and certain diseases, such as neurodegenerative or neuropsychiatric disorders, diabetes and chronic kidney disease. Inflammation/neuroinflammation is considered an important causal factor, and experimental evidence suggests that anti-inflammatory natural compounds may effectively prevent cognitive decline. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of two natural bioactive agents, oligo-lactic acid (LAP) and fermented soy extract (ImmunBalance, IMB), on cognition in an adenine-induced cognitive impairment mouse model and to investigate the modulation of related biomarkers.MethodsMale C57 black mice were randomly assigned into the following experimental groups and received the corresponding treatments for 2 weeks before the use of adenine for model development: (1) negative control; (2) model control: injection of adenine at 50 mg/kg daily for 4 weeks; (3, 4) IMB groups: adenine injection and IMB oral gavage at 250 and 1,000 mg/kg BW, respectively; and (5) LAP group: adenine injection and LAP oral gavage at 1,000 mg/kg BW. One week after the model was developed, mice were evaluated for cognitive performances by using Y maze test, novel object recognition test, open field test, and Barnes maze tests. At the end of the experiment, brain tissues and cecum fecal samples were collected for analysis of gene expression and gut microbiota.ResultsMice treated with LAP or IMB had significantly improved spatial working memory, spatial recognition memory (LAP only), novel object recognition, and spatial learning and memory, compared with those in the model group. Gene expression analysis showed that, among a panel of cognition related genes, six of them (ELOVL2, GLUT4, Nestein, SNCA, TGFB1, and TGFB2) were significantly altered in the model group. LAP treatment significantly reversed expression levels of inflammatory/neuroinflammatory genes (SNCA, TGFB1), and IMB significantly reversed expression levels of genes related to inflammation/neuroinflammation, neurogenesis, and energy metabolism (ELOVL2, GLUT4, Nestin, TGFB1, and TGFB2). The altered microbiome was attenuated only by IMB.DiscussionIn conclusion, our data showed that LAP improved cognition associated with regulating biomarkers related to neuroinflammation and energy metabolism, whereas IMB improved cognition associated with regulating biomarkers related to neuroinflammation, energy metabolism, and neurogenesis, and modulating gut microbiota. Our results suggest that LAP and IMB may improve cognitive performance in mice via distinct mechanisms of action.

Purpose – This study is to explore a way to retain the strengths and eliminate the weaknesses of the existing architecture of local OS and cloud OS, then create an innovative one, which is referred to as semi-network OS architecture. Method – The elements of semi-network OS architecture includes network resources, local resources, and semi-mobile hardware resources; among them, network resources are the expanded portion of OS, which is used to ensure the scalability of OS; local resources are the base portion of OS, which is used to ensure the stability of local computing, as well as the autonomy of user operations; the semi-mobile hardware resource is OSPU, which is used to ensure the positioning and security of data flow. Results – The fat client OS relies on the network shared resources, local exclusive resources, and semi-mobile hardware resources (OSPU), not relies solely on a single resource, to perform its tasks on a fat client, in this architecture, most of the system files of OS on a fat client is derived from OS server, which is a network shared resources, and the rest of system files of OS is derived from OSPU of a fat client, which is a non-network resource, so the architecture of OS has "semi-network" attribute, wherein the OSPU is a key subordinate component for data processing and security verification, the OS server is a storage place rather than operating a place of system files, and system files that stored on a server can only be downloaded to a fat client to carry out their mission. Conclusion – A complete OS is divided into base portion and expanded portion, and this "portion" division of OS enables a fat client to be dually supported by remote network resources and local non-network resources, therefore, it is expected to make a fat client more flexible, safer and more reliable, and more convenient to be operated.

To solve the problems of poor permeability and low leaching rate in ore heap leaching, solid surface physical chemistry, seepage mechanics theory for porous media, CT scanning and SEM were used to carry out column leaching tests with a homemade segmented removable plexiglass column; the variation law for the permeability coefficients of each segment of the leaching column before and after leaching was analyzed. The experimental results showed that there was little difference in the permeability coefficient of ore at different heights before leaching. After leaching, the permeability coefficients were unevenly distributed along the column height, and the lowest value was located at the bottom of the leaching column. The addition of surfactant provided an obvious improvement in the permeability of the leaching column. The permeability coefficient at the bottom of the leaching column was 6% higher than that of the control group. At the same time, the addition of surfactant increased the leaching rate of ore by nearly 10%. A theoretical analysis showed that the surfactant improved the permeability of ore heaps mainly by preventing physical blockage by fine particles and inhibiting deposition of chemical products.

Under vasculogenic conditioning, pro-inflammatory cell subsets of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) shift their phenotype to pro-regenerative cells such as vasculogenic endothelial progenitor cells, M2 macrophages, and regulatory T cells, collectively designated as regeneration-associated cells (RACs). In this study, we evaluated the therapeutic efficacy of RAC-derived extracellular vesicles (RACev) compared to mesenchymal stem cell-derived EVs (MSCev) in the context of myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury (M-IRI). Human PBMCs were cultured with defined growth factors for seven days to harvest RACs. RACev and MSCev were isolated via serial centrifugation and ultracentrifugation. EV quantity and size were characterized by nanoparticle tracking analysis. In vitro, RACev markedly enhanced the viability, and proliferation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells in a dose-dependent manner compared to MSCev. Notably, systemic injection of RACev improved cardiac functions at 4 weeks, such as fractional shortening, and protection from mitral regurgitation than the MSCev-treated group. Histologically, the RACev-transplanted group showed less interstitial fibrosis and enhanced capillary densities compared to the MSCev group. These beneficial effects were coupled with significant expression of angiogenesis, anti-fibrosis, anti-inflammatory, and cardiomyogenesis-related miRs in RACev, while modestly in MSCev. In vivo bioluminescence analysis showed preferential accumulation of RACev in the IR-injured myocardium, while MSCev accumulation was limited. Immune phenotyping analysis confirmed the immunomodulatory effect of MSCev and RACev. Overall, repetitive systemic transplantation of RACev is superior to MSCev in terms of cardiac function enhancements via crucial angiogenesis, anti-fibrosis, anti-inflammation miR delivery to the ischemic tissue.

OBJECTIVES:. The aim was to evaluate the effect of dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker on the prognosis for moderate-severe pulmonary acute respiratory distress syndrome in hypertension patients. DESIGN:. A retrospective, observational, multicenter cohort study. SETTING:. A total of 307 patients without propensity score matching and 186 adult inpatients with propensity score matching diagnosed with hypertension and moderate-severe pulmonary acute respiratory distress syndrome in five teaching hospitals in Jiangsu province, China, from December 2015 to December 2020 were enrolled. PATIENTS:. A total of 307 patients without propensity score matching and 186 patients with propensity score matching diagnosed with hypertension and moderate-severe pulmonary acute respiratory distress syndrome were included in the final analysis. INTERVENTIONS:. None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS:. Demographic characteristics and clinical characteristics were recorded. The propensity score matching method was used to eliminate the difference between group with dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker and group without dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. We used univariate and multivariate regression analyses for both patients with or without propensity score matching to assess the effect of these variables on mortality. In the subset of 186 patients with propensity score matching, in-hospital mortality was 53.2%. Inpatient mortality was significantly higher in patients treated with dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker than in those not treated with dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker of patients without propensity score matching (65.4% vs 40.4%; p < 0.01). Multivariate analysis for patients without propensity score matching showed that dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker (hazard ratio, 1.954; 95% CI, 1.415–2.699), lactate dehydrogenase greater than or equal to 600 U/L (hazard ratio, 3.809; 95% CI, 2.106–4.531), and lactate greater than or equal to 2 mmol/L (hazard ratio, 1.454; 95% CI, 1.041–2.029) were independently associated with in-hospital mortality. Based on univariate analysis for patients with propensity score matching, dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker (hazard ratio, 2.021; 95% CI, 1.333–3.064), lactate dehydrogenase greater than or equal to 600 U/L (hazard ratio, 4.379; 95% CI, 2.642–7.257), and lactate greater than or equal to 2 mmol/L (hazard ratio, 2.461; 95% CI, 1.534–3.951) were independently associated with in-hospital mortality. In contrast, patients not treated with dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker had a significant survival advantage over those treated with dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker in both patients without or with propensity score matching (p < 0.001; p = 0.001 by Kaplan-Meier analysis). CONCLUSIONS:. Dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker, lactate dehydrogenase greater than or equal to 600 U/L, and lactate greater than or equal to 2 mmol/L at admission were independent risk factors for patients with hypertension and moderate-severe pulmonary acute respiratory distress syndrome.

The presence of a large amount of fine particles and muddy ore during the heap leaching process leads the occurrence of low leaching rate. Herein, agglomeration experiments using low-grade secondary copper sulfide ore were conducted to enhance the poor heap permeability and low leaching rate caused by the presence of a large amount of fine particles during the heap leaching process. The optimum binder, agglomeration technology, and agglomeration method were selected after investigating the bonding effects of different binders on mineral particles. The effect of single factor, including the binder mass fraction, acid quality, and bulk of water spraying on agglomeration experiments were conducted before the orthogonal experiment. The key factors that have a considerable effect on agglomeration were identified through the orthogonal experiment. According to the experimental results, the order of bonding effect of different granulation binders is as follows: SFS-2 > SFS-3 > cement > hemihydrate gypsum > SFS-1 > SFS-0 > sodium silicate > cationic polyacrylamide. The effect of agglomeration is the best when SFS-2 is selected as a binder, the acid quality is measured as 25 kg·t-1, and the mass fraction of spraying water is 30% during the agglomeration process. The wet strength and compressive strength reaches up to 94.62% and 417.44 N, respectively, after drying. The acid leaching time of agglomerations is maintained for more than 25 d, during which the shape of agglomerations remains unchanged and is without obvious fracture. According to the orthogonal experiment, the factors affecting the agglomeration in the descending order are as follows: binder mass fraction, acid quality, and bulk of water spraying. The bacterial inoculation experiment in the presence of binder was conducted, but it shows no considerable effect of binder on the bacterial community. The bacterial number of experiment in the presence of binder reaches 8.79×107 mL-1, while that in the absence of binder is 8.86×107 mL-1. The leaching experiments results show that the copper leaching rate increases by 12.74% after agglomeration because agglomeration increases the porosity between the minerals and improves the contact between leaching solution and minerals.

With the continuous pursuit of mineral resources and the development of mineral processing technology, ore is being ground more and more finely, which has resulted in large volumes of ultrafine tailings. However, ultrafine tailings are more difficult to separate from water than coarse tailings, which also makes the safe and efficient disposal of these tailings difficult. Normally, flocculation is an essential part of solid-liquid separation to improve the settling rate, and a polymer flocculant is widely used in treating ultrafine tailings. To study the influence of flocculation conditions on the flocculation effect, ultra-flocculation theory and the UltraflocTester UFT-TFS-029 were used. The relative flocculation rate was applied to characterize the flocculation behavior of artificial ultrafine tailings under the conditions of pH 9-12, flocculant dosage fd=2 g·t-1-20 g·t-1, shear rate γ=100 s-1-2000 s-1, and solid volume fraction φ=2%-14%. The results indicate that the flocculation rate increases first and then decreases with pH, flocculant dosage, and shear rate. However, this rate decreases gradually with an increase in the solid volume fraction. The optimal flocculation conditions are: pH 11, fd=12 g·t-1, γ=500 s-1, and φ=4%. Also, to achieve the optimal flocculation rate, the dependence of the optimal shear rate on the solid volume fraction also increases with the solid volume fraction. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the operating parameters such as pH, flocculant dosage, shear rate, and solid volume fraction to achieve optimal flocculation. A satisfactory flocculation rate of ultrafine tailings is easily achieved in a very short time using the ultra-flocculation theory, which provides a reference for the design of feed wells based on shear rate and residence time.

Purpose–This research aims to supplement or replace the existing embedded OS with architecture of semi-network OS, so as to form a co-mobile computing system and to create a new type of networked mobile devices.Method–Co-mobile computing system can only be realized by combining network resources with local resources, then this combination of resources is used to promote intelligent mobile devices to integrate into modern network environment more quickly and comprehensively, and then intelligent mobile devices become real networked one.Result–Under co-mobile computing system, networked mobile devices can not only safely use local resources to maintain the stability and reliability of devices operation, which is mainly attributed to the base portion of semi-network OS(similar to existing embedded OS), but also make full use of network resources to remedy the defect of existing embedded OS,which is mainly attributed to the expanded portion of semi-network OS. Conclusion–The concept of co-mobile computing mentioned here is defined as a data computing system specially designed for networked mobile devices, which is based on semi-network resources and formed by the merging of multiple networked mobile devices with different embedded OS and functions, now, the semi-network OS architecture will pave a new way for advancement of co-mobile computing system.The semi-network OS refers to that a complete operating system is divided into an expanded portion and a base portion,where the expanded portion of OS is stored on network server, which is ready to be downloaded at any time (similar to a supplement to embedded OS), and the base portion of OS is stored in OSPU located on local platform(similar to embedded OS); wherein the OSPU is a key hardware component in semi-network OS architecture and is movably installed on different local platforms by users.

Mineral resources are the mainstay industries supporting the development of the national economy. Due to its excellent ductility, electrical and thermal conductivity, copper is widely used in construction, power, transportation, and manufacturing as an important strategic metal resource. According to statistics, in terms of output and consumption of ten kinds of non-ferrous metals such as copper, aluminum, and zinc, China has ranked first in the world for more than ten consecutive years. China's copper resources are poorly endowed, being low grade, highly ore-deficient, and of poor ore floatability; the use of conventional separation methods has been costly and caused serious environmental pollution due to difficulties with residue disposal. Bioleaching is a special mining technology that leaches and yields valuable metal elements from inside ores using leaching bacteria. Copper metal resources inside low-grade ores, waste ores, and boundary ores are recycled efficiently using bioleaching technology, which is efficient, and both environmentally-friendly and economical. Currently, more than a quarter of the world's copper production depends on this technology. However, the microbial copper leaching process has always been regarded as a "black box", being difficult to effectively monitor and regulate. This paper reviews the history of bioleaching technology in China, reviews those copper mines that have carried out exploration into or application of bioleaching technology, and introduces two typical copper bioleaching industrial cases, the Zijinshan and Dexing Copper Mines. This paper explores (a) the main process of isolation, identification and enrichment of leaching bacteria, (b) the bioleaching mechanism and interface reaction, (c) the multistage seepage behavior of leaching systems, (d) the reconstruction and quantification of pore structures, (e) the multi-field coupling and process simulation of leaching systems, and (f) copper metal recycling from waste printed circuit boards. Finally, along with the current status of copper bioleaching, major challenges such as environmental protection, security, and future trends in copper bioleaching are discussed as a basis for further research.

Ore particle segregation commonly occurs during dump leaching because of the differences of particle size, surface roughness, and relative density. The presence of a fine interlayer is key factor of the uneven erosion of the ore surface during leaching, which seriously limits the bioleaching efficiency of copper extraction. To explore the interaction effects of fine interlayers on leaching behavior, the surface morphology and passivation occurrence during the leaching process was studied, where coarse ore particles (4 mm < d < 6 mm) and fine ore particles (2 mm < d < 4 mm) were selected, and a bioleaching experiment of secondary copper sulfide with fine interlayers located at different positions was carried out. Analysis were carried out using computed tomography (CT) scanning technology and field-emission scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectrometry (FE SEM-EDS) technology in the macro, meso, and micro scales. As a result, the macro leaching dynamics, meso-scale ore particle agglomeration, and micro surface morphology characteristics as well as passivation were studied. The results show that fine interlayer leads to a lower copper extraction rate, which is lower than when the fine interlayers are mixed with homogeneous coarse granular medium. The effects of fine interlayers on ore extraction depend on their location. In the experiment, the fine interlayers located at the top results in the highest copper extraction rate (71.3%) after leaching for 60 days; the degrees of evolution of the ore surface pore structure are different at different heights inside the same fine interlayers. The copper extraction rate reaches its peak after leaching for 60 days. The ore particle agglomerations and passivation phenomenon are significant. Passivation layers, such as of jarosite, polysulfide, extracellular polymeric substances, sulfur film, are formed on the ore surface.

Block caving mining has the advantages of large production capacity, safe operation, low mining cost, and easy organization and management. Therefore, it is considered as one of the natural alternatives to the current open cut mining. The migration law of ore-rock and the design of ore drawing parameters during ore drawing are the key to block caving mining. The caving rocks usually contain pore water between the fine particles, therefore, the caving rock in an unsaturated state is a solid-liquid-gas three-phase coupling field. The electric double layer force as well as the ionic hydration force, electrostatic force, and Van der Waals force result in the interaction between adjacent particles on a molecular scale. However, the interaction is also resulted in the force of the liquid bridge. To explore the influence of moisture content on the shape of an isolated movement zone in block caving method under ore drawing in mesoscale, the stress between unsaturated ore particles was analyzed. The fine particles flow and discrete bulks of ore-rocks were investigated using lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) and discrete element method (DEM), respectively. Based on the LBM-DEM coupling algorithm, the ore-drawing models of the block caving method were constructed, and the relationship between the moisture content and the shape of the isolated movement zone was obtained. The accuracy and reliability of the ore-drawing models based on the LBM——DEM coupling algorithm were verified by comparing the simulation results with the existing research results. The results indicate that the moisture content of ore-rock has significant effects on the shape of the isolated movement zone. When the same ore-rock mass fraction is discharged, with an increase of moisture content, the height of isolated movement zone increases and then decreases, and the shape of isolated movement zone becomes slender and then is restored gradually. The critical value of moisture content during the change of isolated movement zone shape is about 10%.

The porosity ration of weathered crust elution-deposited rare earth ores is the main factor that affects the leaching results and the stability of the ore body. To determine the strength characteristics of weathered crust elution-deposited rare earth ores under different porosity ratios, six groups of rare earth minerals were reconstituted, and direct shear tests were performed for different samples. The effect of pore evolution on the shear strength of the orebody was studied, and the mechanism of the influence of porosity ratio on cohesion and internal friction angle was revealed. The results show that the unsaturated rare earth ores with different porosity ratios correspond to different shear strengths. The relation between shear stress and shear displacement was summarized as parabolic type based on the experimental data, and the relation between the porosity ratio and the shear strength index was established. The mechanism analysis shows that with an increase in the porosity ratio, the effect of the bonded water film effect gradually weakens, the number of the contact points reduces, and the shear strength of the minerals reduces.

The cemented backfill body with sulphide-containing tailings exhibits a swelling phenomenon with an extension of curing age. The test results from the uniaxial compressive strength test of the backfill specimen with an obvious fracture are very discrete, and the mechanical parameters of the filling body will not be obtained effectively. The fractured surface image of the backfill were binarized by the digital image processing technology. Additionally, its fractal dimension was calculated and analyzed. Then, the relationship between fractal dimension and uniaxial compressive strength was established. The results indicate that the cracks on the surface of the backfill specimen exhibite self-similarity. The fractal dimension increases with the development of surface cracks. There is a negative correlation between fractal dimension and uniaxial compressive strength for the sulphide-containing backfill. It is of practical significance to determine the research value of the compression test using the fractal dimension. When the fractal dimension of the surface cracks is less than a certain threshold, the results of the specimen strength tests would be reliable.

Based on the actual structure and work conditions of wet multi-disc clutch,a finite element analysis model of wet clutch is established by using Abaqus. The Mises stress field of friction pairs in wet clutch is analyzed by the direct thermal structure coupling method,and the influence of the applied load way of piston in wet clutch on the Mises stress field of friction pairs is studied. The results show that the applied load way has an important effect on the maximum stress distribution and axial stress transfer velocity of separator plate. And the bandwidth of high stress area and the velocity of stress transfer along axial direction under uniform load are larger than those in partial load. In addition,the maximum stress and radial stress gradient of separator plate under the partial load way is greater than that under uniform load way.

In order to study the comprehensive performance of shift tower in the manual transmission,a performance test system for the shift tower is designed. The test system adopts the selection and shift motor to drive the shift tower to realize the operating function of the gear selection and shift. According to the measurement and control requirements of the test system,the hardware and software of the measurement and control system are designed. Finally,taking the test system as the test platform,the performance test of the selection force-displacement characteristic and shift force-displacement characteristic of a certain shift mechanism are carried out. The test results show that the test system can really-time and accurately measure the performance parameters such as selection force,selection displacement,shift force and shift displacement,which provides experimental support for the research and development of the shift tower.

Bioleaching is one of the most effective methods of extracting valuable elements from low-grade, refractory secondary copper sulfide. In this research, Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans was used to leach refractory secondary copper sulfide from Fujian Province. The bioleaching microorganisms were added to the culture, domesticated, and column leaching experiments. These were based on different particle size ratios and carried out sequentially. Based on this experiments, the evolution disciplinarians of bacterial concentration, pH values and copper extraction rates were obtained at different stages. Using computed tomography (CT) technology, ore heap slumping inside the columns, cross section porosity evolution and leaching mechanisms were studied. The results indicate that bacterial concentration and pH values present trends that increase first and then stabilize. The proliferation of bacteria in the leaching columns is slower and the bacterial concentration is only 5×107 per mL after 480 h. During the leaching process, fine particles tend to move to the bottom of columns and the ore heap slump phenomenon appears. On the top surface of the column the porosity tends to be greater with increase rate of 6.65%, conversely, this tends to be smaller at the column bottom, and its decreases rate is 8.29%. The slump degree is proportional to the fines content; the minimum slump is 1.7 mm and the maximum 6.15 mm. Ore particle size is the key factor in the leaching process; column B (with particle size r < 1 mm accounted for 28.41% of whole ores quality) shows the best copper extraction rate of 47.23% after 480 h.

Abstract Background We investigated the functional status of adult supratentorial superficial low-grade glioma (ASS-LGG) after surgery and analyzed its relevant factors to guide the therapeutic strategy and improve the life quality of these patients. Methods Clinical materials from January 2008 to December 2010 in 104 adults with ASS-LGG were analyzed retrospectively. The follow-up period ranged from 6 months to 1.5 years. The logistic regression was used to evaluate the preoperative and postoperative variation of functional status in patients to disclose the relevant factors affecting postoperative functional status, such as age, gender, the duration of symptom, size and location of the tumor, hemisphere, resection degree, and tumor pathologic grade and preoperative Karnofsky performance status (Pre-KPS). Results Four out of nine candidate factors are related to the postoperative functional status. They are age less than 40 years, the size of tumor less than 5 cm in diameter, tumor located in the right hemisphere, and limited resection of tumor in the eloquent area. Conclusions It seems more meaningful to evaluate the functional status of the patients with ASS-LGG on the basis of these clinical features, involving age, tumor size, location, and extent of resection.

To investigate the leaching characteristic of alkaline copper dioxide ore by ammonia producing bacteria, the influence of the ammonia producing bacteria on the ore during the process was analyzed. To expose the possible influence factor, the shaking flask leaching test was carried out by putting alkaline cupric oxide ore from Yunnan separately into five kinds of leaching solutions, such as bacteria-containing, bacteria-removing inoculums and ammonia solution. Experimental results indicate that the bacteria have a strong ability at producing ammonia and the highest ammonia mass concentration reaches 8. 93 g·L-1. Ammonia production is positively correlated with the content of bacteria. The bacteria leach mineral mainly through producing ammonia, besides, the bacteria and their metabolites can also effect. The leaching capacity is in the order of bacteria ammonia > bacteria > bacterial metabolites, and the ratio of the three is 12:5:4.

To simulate the sandstone ore leaching process, some specimens with different grades were made with river sand, cement and salt as the raw materials. On the basis of the monitoring of leaching solution concentration in a water-solution mining experiment, the time evolution of leaching solution concentration and leaching rate was examined. Through phase space reconstruction from the time series of leaching solution concentration, the distance evolution of points of specimens with different grades in the phase space was revealed by the chaotic theory. A prediction model of the distance evolution of phase points was established by using the grey theory, and a reasonable leaching period was ascertained. The results show that the leaching solution concentration holds chaotic characteristics. After the phase space reconstruction, the delicate changes of leaching solution concentration are enlarged, and the internal rules are fully demonstrated. The ores of different grades have different nonlinear dynamic behaviors. Based on the phase space reconstruction, the leaching period has been predicted by means of the residual modification grey model, which provides a new research method and theory to solution mining.

Metabolic syndrome (MS), overlapping type 2 diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and/or hypertension, owing to high-fat diet, poses risk for cardiovascular disease. A critical feature associated with such risk is the functional impairment of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs). Dipeptidyl dipeptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP-4 i) not only inhibit degradation of incretins to control blood glucose levels, but also improve EPC bioactivity and induce anti-inflammatory effects in tissues. In the present study, we investigated the effects of such an inhibitor, MK-06266, in an ischemia model of MS using diet-induced obese (DIO) mice. EPC bioactivity was examined in MK-0626-administered DIO mice and a non-treated control group, using an EPC colony-forming assay and bone marrow cKit+ Sca-1+ lineage-cells, and peripheral blood-mononuclear cells. Our results showed that, in vitro, the effect of MK-0626 treatment on EPC bioactivities and differentiation was superior compared to the control. Furthermore, microvascular density and pericyte-recruited arteriole number increased in MK-0626-administered mice, but not in the control group. Lineage profiling of isolated cells from ischemic tissues revealed that MK-0626 administration has an inhibitory effect on unproductive inflammation. This occurred via a decrease in the influx of total blood cells and pro-inflammatory cells such as neutrophils, total macrophages, M1, total T-cells, cytotoxic T-cells, and B-cells, with a concomitant increase in number of regeneration-associated cells, such as M2/M ratio and Treg/T-helper. Laser Doppler analysis revealed that at day 14 after ischemic injury, blood perfusion in hindlimb was greater in MK-0626-treated DIO mice, but not in control. In conclusion, the DPP-4 i had a positive effect on EPC differentiation in MS model of DIO mice. Following ischemic injury, DPP-4 i sharply reduced recruitment of pro-inflammatory cells into ischemic tissue and triggered regeneration and reparation, making it a promising therapeutic agent for MS treatment.

To explore the characteristics of the effect of ore particle size on the capillary flow of solution in an ore heap, solution capillary rise experiments of two groups of ore particles, mono-size and non-uniform, were performed with an established capillary rise experimental device. The relationship of solution capillary rise height with time and the corresponding fitting equations were obtained. The regularity of solution rise velocity with time was analyzed. It is found that at the beginning of the experiment, the ore heap solution rises quickly; with the increase of time, the solution rise velocity decreases and eventually drops to zero; the maximum solution rise height and velocity have negative correlation with ore particle size. Immobile solution content inside the ore heap formed by capillary action increases with the decreasing of average particle size, and a wide range area of immobile solution will form when the content of fine particles in the ore heap is too much, which can influence the solution seepage of the ore heap.

Column leaching seepage processes were detected in a non-contact and non-destructive way by magnetic resonance imaging. Column leaching images were obtained when the flow was stationary and running. Mesoscopic seepage velocity field distribution characteristics and velocity field evolution rules inside pores were studied by analyzing the velocity value distribution, flow velocity distribution uniformity, and relationship between evenness index and spray intensity. The research shows that the velocity distribution has obvious inhomogeneity, and the flow velocity value is not in accordance with the pore size strictly. The flow velocity distribution is similar for different spray intensities. There is a positive correlation between the maximum velocity and spray intensity. A spray intensity threshold can he obtained by analyzing the relationship between velocity field uniformity and spray intensity. The value of 0.7 L·cm-2 h-1 is the intensity threshold of the designated graded distribution. Field applications of dynamic spray intensity can obviously improve the permeability of dumps and the leaching rate of copper.

Nuclear transporter importin-β1 is emerging as an attractive target by virtue of its prevalence in many cancers. However, the lack of druggable inhibitors restricts its therapeutic proof of concept. In the present work, we optimized a natural importin-β1 inhibitor DD1 to afford an improved analog DD1-Br with better tolerability (>25 folds) and oral bioavailability. DD1-Br inhibited the survival of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) cells with sub-nanomolar potency and completely prevented tumor growth in resistant CRPC models both in monotherapy (0.5 mg/kg) and in enzalutamide-combination therapy. Mechanistic study revealed that by targeting importin-β1, DD1-Br markedly inhibited the nuclear accumulation of multiple CRPC drivers, particularly AR-V7, a main contributor to enzalutamide resistance, leading to the integral suppression of downstream oncogenic signaling. This study provides a promising lead for CRPC and demonstrates the potential of overcoming drug resistance in advanced CRPC via targeting importin-β1.

A new pipe loop test platform was built to study the influence factors and levels of pressure loss in slurry pipe transportation. The influences of pipe inner-diameter, flow velocity, slurry concentration and particle size on the pressure loss were investigated. It is found that the influence of flow velocity on the pressure loss can be divided into two stages:when the flow velocity is less than the viscous transition flow rate, the pressure loss increases linearly with the increasing of flow velocity;but when the flow velocity is greater than the viscous transition velocity, the pressure loss increases in linear to quadratic polynomials with the increase of flow velocity, and the increasing rate is greater than that of flow velocity. The pressure loss negative-power decreases with the increasing of pipe diameter, but it exponentially increases with increasing slurry concentration. Under the same working condition, the pressure loss of fine-grained slurry is greater than coarse-grained slurry, the viscous transition velocity of fine-grained slurry is larger, but the in-crease in pressure loss of fine-grained slurry with flow velocity is relatively slow.

The extraordinary work hardening ability and fracture toughness of the face-centered cubic (fcc) high-entropy alloys render them ideal candidates for many structural applications. Here, the deformation and failure mechanisms of an equiatomic CrCoNi medium-entropyalloy (MEA) were investigated by powerful laser-driven shock experiments. Multiscale characterization demonstrates that profuse planar defects including stacking faults, nanotwins, and hexagonal nanolamella were generated during shock compression, forming a three-dimensional network. During shock release, the MEA fractured by strong tensile deformation and numerous voids was observed in the vicinity of the fracture plane. High defect populations, nanorecrystallization, and amorphization were found adjacent to these areas of localized deformation. Molecular dynamics simulations corroborate the experimental results and suggest that deformation-induced defects formed before void nucleation govern the geometry of void growth and delay their coalescence. Our results indicate that the CrCoNi-based alloys are impact resistant, damage tolerant, and potentially suitable in applications under extreme conditions.

The reachable set estimation problem for discrete-time systems with delay-range-dependent and bounded disturbances is investigated. A triple-summation term, the upper bound, and the lower bound of time-varying delay are introduced into the Lyapunov function. In this case, an improved delay-range-dependent criterion is established for the addressed problem by constructing the appropriate Lyapunov functional, which guarantees that the reachable set of discrete-time systems with time-varying delay and bounded peak inputs is contained in the ellipsoid. It is worth mentioning that the initial value of the system does not need to be zero. Then, the reachable set estimation problem for time-delay systems with polytopic uncertainties is investigated. The effectiveness and the reduced conservatism of the derived results are demonstrated by an illustrative example.

Corrosion is a ubiquitous failure mode of materials. Often, the progression of localized corrosion is accompanied by the evolution of porosity in materials previously reported to be either three-dimensional or two-dimensional. However, using new tools and analysis techniques, we have realized that a more localized form of corrosion, which we call 1D wormhole corrosion, has previously been miscategorized in some situations. Using electron tomography, we show multiple examples of this 1D and percolating morphology. To understand the origin of this mechanism in a Ni-Cr alloy corroded by molten salt, we combined energy-filtered four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy and ab initio density functional theory calculations to develop a vacancy mapping method with nanometer-resolution, identifying a remarkably high vacancy concentration in the diffusion-induced grain boundary migration zone, up to 100 times the equilibrium value at the melting point. Deciphering the origins of 1D corrosion is an important step towards designing structural materials with enhanced corrosion resistance.