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Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) are indispensable in anti-tumor immunity. Although CTLs are prone to exhaustion in patients with advanced cancer, T cell resiliency explains the presence of tumor-reactive CTLs that are less exhausted, capable of cytolytic function, expansion, and rebound in response to immunotherapy to reject metastatic malignances. However, the features of resilient T cells have not been clearly defined. In this report, we demonstrate that peripheral CX3CR1+CD8+T cells with low mitochondrial membrane potential rebounded CTL function quickly after radiation therapy in patients with large tumor burden portraying their functional resiliency. Furthermore, CX3CR1+CD8+T cell with low, but not high, mitochondrial membrane potential are highly cytotoxic, accumulate less reactive oxygen species (ROS), and express more Malic enzyme 1 (ME1). ME1 overexpression increases ATP production in a glycolysisindependent manner while concurrently curtailing excessive ROS in activated CD8+T cells; and expands CX3CR1+NKG7+effector CD8+T cells with enhanced cytotoxicity. Importantly, transfection ofME1mRNA promotes tumoricidal activity in CD8+T cells from patients with advanced cancers. Our study reveals a mechanism used by CTLs to balance excessive ROS via ME1 to maintain a metabolic and functional resiliency. Modification of ME1 expression in CTLs may be a novel method to improve the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy by preventing T cell exhaustion.Graphical abstractHighlightsCX3CR1+and low Dy m identify functional resilient CD8+T cells.Resilient CD8+T cells are highly cytotoxic and have less ROS.Resilient CD8+T cells express more ME1 that can balance extra ROS.ME1 overexpression can promote CTL function of CD8+T cells.

Background: Primary dysmenorrhea (PD) is a common gynecological disease characterized by lower abdominal pain. Moxibustion as a traditional Chinese treatment, can effectively treat PD with few adverse reactions. Nowadays, there is still no standard guideline for moxibustion treatment of PD, so related clinical practice guidelines need to be developed. Methods: This guideline will be developed in line with the latest guideline definition from Institute of Medicine, and that applies the GRADE system as well as the World Health Organization handbook to appraise the quality of evidence and develop recommendations. We will set up a Guideline working group, put forward the corresponding problems based on the principle of Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes (PICO), and complete the literature retrieval. After achieving consensus through evidence syntheses and 2 to 3 rounds of Delphi process, we will also consider patients values and preferences and implement peer review in the guideline. Result: We will put forward evidence-based best practice recommendations and moxibustion standard to improve the symptoms caused by primary dysmenorrhea in a more efficient way. At present, the research is still in progress, and there is no result to report. Conclusions: This guideline will be helpful to clinical acupuncturists and other professionals to further improve clinical efficacy in treating PD with moxibustion. Moreover, we will also constantly update and evaluate the evidence to both support recommendations and identify gap areas for future research. Systematic Review registrations: registration number: IPGRP-2020CN021

A lithium–oxygen battery of double-gas-path structure and porous anode is presented in this work. Different from traditional structure battery, porous anode and the gas channel of anode side are used to provide argon gas for the battery. In order to protect the anode from corrosion of oxygen which penetrates from the cathode to the anode by dynamic gas-phase equilibrium. The improvement of the battery performance is attributed to the novel structure that can protect lithium metal from the corrosion of oxygen and it also reduces the growth of dendrite. The lithium–oxygen battery based on double-gas-path structure shows long cycle life (38 cycles), high discharge specific capacity (2510 mAh g−1) and specific energy density (7200 W h kg−1). More importantly, this work will also provide new ideas and methods for the research of other metal-air battery.

The dynamic response of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) under mechanical vibration is an important criterion in the application to automotive systems. The effect of mechanical vibration on dynamic response was investigated on an automobile vibrating platform. The PEMFC voltage was acquired according to the current density change under a variety of amplitude, frequency and air stoichiometry. Furthermore, liquid water formation and transport were investigated under the mechanical vibration by employing a transparent PEMFC. The results show that a new steady-state of the voltage under vibration and no vibration take about 50s and 20s respectively after the current density step. The PEMFC dynamic performance was slightly improved under amplitude at 4 mm, compared to operation at no vibration. Also, the voltage fluctuation was detected under the vibration, the small droplets merged into larger droplets is due to the sudden vibration. These larger droplets interfere with the mass-transfer process in the gas channels.

Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) is a key component of direct methanol fuel cell. In order to improve the power generation performance of the MEA, it is necessary to reduce polarization losses. The cathode and anode activation polarization, proton exchange membrane ohmic polarization and gas diffusion layer mass transfer polarization were studied under different methanol concentration and operation temperature conditions respectively. A theoretical study of the various polarization fitting and distribution losses was conducted. The polarization distribution results indicated that the activation polarization of cathode and anode are the main over potential contribution and accounted for more than 80%. The ohmic resistance accounted for approximately 10%. By studying the distribution of polarization loss, we got a variety of distribution of polarization losses under different operating conditions, these results provide a theoretical basis for efficient ways to optimize the MEA.

A novel cellulose membrane used for isopropanol (IPA) dehydration was prepared by using N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide monohydrate (NMMO·H 2 O) as the solvent that can dissolve cellulose through a purely physical process. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images show that the prepared membrane had a homogeneously dense structure after natural drying. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and mechanical properties characterizations show that the prepared cellulose membrane owned much higher crystallization degree and better mechanical strength compared with traditional cellulose acetate (CA) or cellophane membranes coming from chemical process. The effects of operation conditions including feed concentration and operation temperature on pervaporation (PV) performance were investigated systemically. The results indicate that the permeation flux increased obviously with the increase of either water concentration in feed or operation temperature. Under the condition of 20 wt.% water-containing IPA feed and at 65 °C, a highest total flux of 349 g/m 2 h was achieved with a lowest water content in permeate of 99.50 wt.% (with a separation factor of 972) among all the tested conditions. Water content in permeate reached 99.97 wt.% (with a separation factor of 61,271) with a total flux of 13.4 g/m 2 h at the condition of 5 wt.% water in feed at 25 °C. Compared with other pure polymer membranes such as chitosan and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), the prepared novel cellulose membranes exhibited acceptable fluxes and much higher separation factors. All these results demonstrate that cellulose membrane has great application potential in IPA dehydration process.

In twin-spool engines, rotating stall cell or wake of the upstream compressor will impose a rotating inlet distortion on the downstream compressor, thus affecting its aerodynamic stability. The configuration of the stall cell or the wake complicates the rotating distortion. This means the distortions may have different circumferential extent and more distorted regions. In this paper experiments are described to present the effects of complicated rotating inlet distortion on compressor aerodynamic stability. The measurements are complemented by, and compared with, a two-dimensional incompressible model. The research suggests that the “dangerous speed” is an inherent character of the compressor and has no relationship with the configuration of the distortion. For the multi-cell rotating distortion, the compressor experiences most severe loss in its stall margin when the rotating speed of each cell matches the “dangerous speed.” These results are useful in the design of the speed difference between the upstream and downstream compressors. Based on the analysis of stall inception under different rotating distortions, an explanation is given to try to interpret the mechanism of the “dangerous speed. ” It is associated with the propagating speed of stall inception. When the distortion rotates at this speed, it will accelerate the development of rotating stall.

In twin-spool engines, there will be a rotating disturbance at the inlet of the downstream compressor when rotating stall occurs in the upstream compressor. It will lead the downstream compressor to aerodynamic instability if the speed difference between the two spools is not designed reasonably. In order to investigate how the rotating disturbance affects, a two-stage compressor is operated with a newly designed rotating disturbance generator running upstream. The generator is able to produce disturbances with different circumferential extent. It can also produce a disturbance with more than one cell. The rotating speed of the generated disturbances is designed up to 100 percent of the compressor speed. The experiments show that the compressor experiences significant degradation in its stall margin when the disturbance rotates at the “dangerous speed”. The circumferential extent of the rotating disturbance also has an influence on the stall margin. Rotating disturbances with larger circumferential extent lead to severer loss of stall margin. However, it does not affect the “dangerous speed”. The twin-cell disturbance affects the stall boundary of the compressor in a similar manner as the single-cell disturbance does. It is the rotating speed of each cell acts on the stall boundary. Based on the analysis of stall inception under different rotating disturbances, an explanation is given to interpret the mechanism of the “dangerous speed”. The “dangerous speed” is associated with the propagating speed of stall inception. When the disturbance is rotating at this speed, it will intensify the flow separation and accelerate the growth of rotating stall, thus aggravates the compressor aerodynamic stability.Copyright © 2014 by ASME

To clearly clarify how it affects the detailed tip clearance flow and flow mechanism by varying the upstream boundary layer thickness and tip clearance size, numerical studies were performed on a subsonic rotor, which is used for low-speed model testing of one rear stage embedded in a modern high-pressure compressor. Firstly, available experimental data were adopted to validate the numerical method. Second, comparisons were made for tip leakage vortex structure, the interface of leakage flow/mainflow, endwall loss, isentropic efficiency and pressure-rise between different operating conditions. Then, effects of different clearance sizes and inlet boundary layer thicknesses were investigated. At last, the self-induced unsteadiness at one near-stall operating condition was studied for different cases. Results show that increasing the tip clearance size has a deleterious effect on rotor efficiency and pressure-rise performance over the whole operating range, while thickening the inflow boundary layer is almost the same except that its pressure-rise performance will be increased at mass flow rate larger than design operating condition. Self-induced unsteadiness occurs at near-stall operating conditions, and its appearance depends largely on tip clearance size, while upstream boundary layer thickness has little effect.Copyright © 2014 by ASME