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Although the global market for wind energy is growing rapidly, leading-edge erosion is a critical issue hindering the development of wind power. The impact force of a droplet colliding with flat surfaces has been investigated in previous studies. However, the impact force exerted on curved surfaces, such as that experienced by eroded wind turbine blades, is not well understood. This study discusses the relationship between the impact force generated on a solid surface by a water droplet and the radius of curvature of the impacting surface. The impact force by a droplet was measured using a force sensor mounted on semi-cylindrical caps with different radii of curvature. The measurement results showed that the impact force decreased as the radius of curvature decreased. A computational fluid dynamics model solving incompressible flows showed that, unlike the case of a curved surface, the initial momentum of the droplet was mostly transferred to the flat surface. This resulted in a high impulse for an impact with a flat surface. The falling droplet was blocked by the surface, and the lateral jet was accelerated sideward. This acceleration was moderate for curved surfaces. When colliding with a flat surface, a higher impact force was generated owing to the wider area of the excited surface pressure compared with that of the curved surface. Finally, the relationship between the peak of the impact force and the surface curvature was derived, suggesting that the force peak is inversely proportional to the curvature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diels-Alder chemistry was exploited to develop a remote-controllable drug release platform on magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). For this purpose, MNPs were decorated with anionic poly(styrenesulfonic acid- co -furfuryl methacrylate) (poly(SS- co -FMA)) and cationic poly(allylamine hydrochloride) by layer-by-layer assembly. The decorated MNPs successfully underwent DA reaction to produce covalent bonding between FMA (diene) and maleimide (dienophile)-terminated model drug. Thermal treatment above 80 °C caused the retro Diels-Alder reaction (rDA) between FMA and the drug, resulting in drug release. The retro DA could be also achieved by applying an alternating-current (AC) magnetic field to the decorated MNPs. This could spatially limit the heat generation around MNP without heating entire system. Drug release could be also accelerated with the irradiation time when a threshold temperature was met or exceeded the required energy for rDA reaction. Our results highlight the potential of DA chemistry as a new strategy to provide a remote controllable drug release platform for improving the therapeutic efficiency.

A 68-year-old woman with follicular lymphoma was treated with chemotherapy, including the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody obinutuzumab, and achieved remission. A month after the administration of obinutuzumab, the patient contracted coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and various antiviral drugs were administered. However, the infection had not been eliminated. One year and three months after chemotherapy, peripheral B cell recovery was achieved, and the infection had resolved. This report provides insight into the course of COVID-19 in patients with impaired humoral immunity., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (© 2024 The Authors.)

Background: Patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) have a higher risk of requiring target vessel revascularisation after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) than patients with stable angina. Neoatherosclerosis is a significant risk factor for very late stent thrombosis, and the presence of neoatherosclerosis is independently associated with major adverse cardiac events., Aims: In this study, we used optical coherence tomography (OCT) to investigate the impact of ACS on neoatherosclerosis within 1 year after PCI., Methods: We investigated 102 patients (122 lesions) who had undergone PCI using a second-generation drug-eluting stent (DES) from March 2017 to November 2020 and were followed up with OCT within 1 year. The patients were categorised into the ACS group or non-ACS group according to their clinical findings at the time of target lesion treatment. We used OCT to investigate the presence of neoatherosclerosis., Results: The ACS group comprised 23 (22.5%) patients. There were no differences in the patients' clinical characteristics between the groups. The total stent length tended to be shorter in the ACS group than in the non-ACS group (24 mm vs 32 mm, respectively; p=0.09), but this difference was not statistically significant. The median duration from PCI was 290 days. Neoatherosclerosis was more frequent in ACS lesions (39% vs 4%; p<0.01), and implantation of a DES in ACS lesions was an independent predictor of neoatherosclerosis occurrence (odds ratio 9.70; p<0.01)., Conclusions: This observational study using OCT indicates that stenting for ACS lesions is associated with early in-stent neoatherosclerosis., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: None declared.

Animals frequently eat less after a test-article treatment in nonclinical toxicological studies, and it can be difficult to distinguish test article-derived toxicities from secondary changes related to this reduced food intake. Therefore, in this study, we restricted the food intake of cynomolgus monkeys (Cambodian, male, n=2 or 3, 48 ± 3 months old) to 25% of the control for two weeks and evaluated the effects on toxicological parameters (general conditions, body weight, electrocardiography, urinalysis, hematology, blood chemistry, bone marrow analysis, pathological examination). After 2 weeks, the monkeys exhibited decreases in bone marrow erythropoiesis (e.g., decreases in reticulocytes and bone marrow erythrocytes), as well as glycogenesis induction (e.g., increase in aspartate aminotransferase (AST)) and malnutrition (e.g., decrease in triglyceride and systemic adipocytes atrophy). Additionally, histopathological analysis revealed granuloma and inflammatory cell infiltration in coronary fat, which had never been found in previous food restriction studies using other animal species. These findings will enable researchers to more accurately evaluate the toxicological risks of test articles that simultaneously induce food intake reduction.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a cancer of plasma cells. Normal (NL) cells are considered to pass through a precancerous state, such as monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), before transitioning to MM. In the present study, we acquired Raman spectra at three stages-834 NL, 711 MGUS, and 970 MM spectra-and applied the dynamical network biomarker (DNB) theory to these spectra. The DNB analysis identified MGUS as the unstable pre-disease state of MM and extracted Raman shifts at 1149 and 1527-1530 cm-1 as DNB variables. The distribution of DNB scores for each patient showed a significant difference between the mean values for MGUS and MM patients. Furthermore, an energy landscape (EL) analysis showed that the NL and MM stages were likely to become stable states. Raman spectroscopy, the DNB theory, and, complementarily, the EL analysis will be applicable to the identification of the pre-disease state in clinical samples.

To demonstrate the transmission cycle of Shimokoshi-type Orientia tsutsugamushi in Shimane Prefecture, field rodents were captured from areas where four human infections caused by the pathogen have been reported. The rodents were investigated for the transmission cycle of the pathogen based on the pathogen's genome, antibodies against the pathogen, and the vector of the pathogen (Leptotrombidium palpale). In addition, the vector was captured from the soil in the study area. A total of 44 rodents were captured. No O. tsutsugamushi DNA was detected in the blood or spleen samples by real-time polymerase chain reaction. However, a specific antibody against the pathogen was detected in 2 out of 44 (4.5%) rodents using the indirect immunoperoxidase method, indicating the presence of the pathogen in the study area. Although 29 L. palpale were identified, DNA detection was not performed because of the insufficient number of vectors, based on the DNA detection rate in previous studies. However, the identification of the vector, as well as the specific antibody in rodents, suggests the presence of the transmission cycle of Shimokoshi-type O. tsutsugamushi in Shimane Prefecture.