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Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy has been actively applied in veterinary regenerative medicine to treat various canine and feline diseases. With increasing emphasis on safe cell-based therapies, evaluations of their tumorigenic potential are in great demand. However, a direct confirmation of whether tumors originate from stem cells or host cells is not easily achievable. Additionally, previous studies evaluating injections of high doses of MSCs into nude mice did not demonstrate tumor formation. Recent research focused on optimizing MSC-based therapies for veterinary patients, such as MSC-derived extracellular vesicles in treating different diseases. This progress also signifies a broader shift towards personalized veterinary medicine, where treatments can be tailored to individual pets based on their unique genetic profiles. These findings related to different treatments using MSCs emphasize their future potential for veterinary clinical applications. In summary, because of lower tumor-associated risk of MSCs as compared to embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells, MSCs are considered a suitable source for treating various canine and feline diseases.

This study analyzes the residual demand curves of 42 countries under five scenarios with varying variable renewable energy (VRE) levels to observe how replacing coal with VRE can alter the demand curve. Using 2018 demand data, the residual demand was calculated and analyzed by subtracting the VRE supply curve from the demand curve. The operational requirements for low-carbon load-following sources amid high VRE penetration are examined. Key findings indicate that substantial peak residual demand persists even with 70% energy from VREs, emphasizing the need for significant load-following resources. Transitioning to a 70% VRE scenario could reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 16.799 billion tons, advancing towards carbon neutrality. However, this benefit depends on maintaining grid stability, highlighting the importance of adequate load-following plants to manage VRE intermittency. Countries like Malaysia, South Korea, Tunisia, the UK, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, and Libya face higher load-following demands due to specific renewable energy contexts. This study reveals varying renewable energy environments across countries, suggesting that a universal strategy for carbon neutrality and replacing coal may not be feasible. Each nation must develop its own approach to emission reduction, considering its unique conditions. This research emphasizes the urgent need for developing cost-effective, flexible, low-carbon load-following sources to enhance decarbonization potential globally.

Fenbendazole (FZ) is a benzimidazole carbamate drug with broad-spectrum antiparasitic activity in humans and animals. The mechanism of action of FZ is associated with microtubular polymerization inhibition and glucose uptake blockade resulting in reduced glycogen stores and decreased ATP formation in the adult stages of susceptible parasites. A completely cured case of lung cancer became known globally and greatly influenced the cancer community in South Korea. Desperate Korean patients with cancer began self-administering FZ without their physician’s knowledge, which interfered with the outcome of the cancer treatment planned by their oncologists. On the basis of presented evidence, this review provides valuable information from PubMed, Naver, Google Scholar, and Social Network Services (SNS) on the effects of FZ in a broad range of preclinical studies on cancer. In addition, we suggest investigating the self-administration of products, including supplements, herbs, or bioactive compounds, by patients to circumvent waiting for long and costly FZ clinical trials.

A supercritical CO2 (S-CO2) Brayton cycle is a compact and simple power conversion system with competitive efficiency. However, the strong real gas effects of S-CO2 pose challenges to the design of a cycle and its components. In particular, designing turbomachinery for expansion and compression processes has to accurately reflect real gas effects. Windage loss is one of the major losses that affects the motor load and heat generation in turbomachinery. The windage loss has a substantial impact on the overall turbomachinery efficiency especially in an S-CO2 power cycle since the windage loss is reported to be the dominant loss mechanism due to high fluid density and high rotational speed. Therefore, an accurate windage loss model reflecting the real gas effect of S-CO2 is essential to obtaining an optimal design of turbomachinery as well as maximizing the performance of an S-CO2 power cycle. In this study, existing windage loss models are first compared to the recently obtained data from S-CO2 windage loss experiments conducted by the KAIST research team under S-CO2 conditions in order to understand the turbomachinery performance uncertainty caused by the windage loss models. This is followed by proposing a new windage model which explains data better.

Gas Brayton cycles have been considered the next promising power cycles for microreactors. Especially the open-air and closed supercritical CO2 (S-CO2) Brayton cycles have received attention due to their high thermal efficiency and compact component sizes when compared to the steam Rankine cycle. In this research, the performances of the open-air and closed S-CO2 Brayton cycle at microreactor power range are compared with polytropic turbomachinery efficiency. When optimizing the cycle, three different optimization parameters are considered in this paper: maximum efficiency, maximum cycle specific work, and maximum of the product of both indicators. For the air Brayton cycle, the maximum of the product of both indicators allows to consider both efficiency and specific work while optimizing the cycle. However, for the S-CO2 Brayton cycle, the best performing conditions follow either maximum efficiency or the maximum cycle specific work conditions. In general, the S-CO2 power cycle should be designed and optimized to maximize the cycle specific work for commercial-scale application. The results show that the air Brayton cycle can achieve near 45% efficiency when it can couple with a microreactor with a core outlet temperature higher than 700 °C. However, the S-CO2 power cycle can still achieve above 30% efficiency when it is coupled with a microreactor with a core outlet temperature higher than 500 °C, whereas the air Brayton cycle cannot even reach breakeven condition.

Drug repositioning, the approach of discovering different uses for existing drugs, has gained enormous popularity in recent years in the anticancer drug discovery field due to the increasing demand for anticancer drugs. Additionally, the repurposing of veterinary antiparasitic drugs for the treatment of cancer is gaining traction, as supported by existing literature. A prominent example is the proposal to implement the use of veterinary antiparasitics such as benzimidazole carbamates and halogenated salicylanilides as novel anticancer drugs. These agents have revealed pronounced anti-tumor activities and gained special attention for “double repositioning”, as they are repurposed for different species and diseases simultaneously, acting via different mechanisms depending on their target. As anticancer agents, these compounds employ several mechanisms, including the inhibition of oncogenic signal transduction pathways of mitochondrial respiration and the inhibition of cellular stress responses. In this review, we summarize and provide valuable information about the experimental, preclinical, and clinical trials of veterinary antiparasitic drugs available for the treatment of various cancers in humans. This review suggests the possibility of new treatment options that could improve the quality of life and outcomes for cancer patients in comparison to the currently used treatments.

In this paper, recent advances in Ocean Nuclear Power Plants (ONPPs) are reviewed, including their general arrangement, design parameters, and safety features. The development of ONPP concepts have continued due to initiatives taking place in France, Russia, South Korea, and the United States. Russia’s first floating nuclear power stations utilizing the PWR technology (KLT-40S) and the spar-type offshore floating nuclear power plant designed by a research group in United States are considered herein. The APR1400 and SMART mounted Gravity Based Structure (GBS)-type ONPPs proposed by a research group in South Korea are also considered. In addition, a submerged-type ONPP designed by DCNS of France is taken into account. Last, issues and challenges related to ONPPs are discussed and summarized.

The supercritical CO2 (S-CO2) power cycle is an emerging energy technology that has potential to revolutionize the conversion process of heat to mechanical or electric power [...]

To overcome the degradation of the cycle efficiency of a supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) Brayton cycle with dry cooling, this study proposes an improved design of an S-CO2 centrifugal compressor. The conventional air centrifugal compressor can achieve higher efficiency as backsweep angle increases. However, the structural issue restricts the maximum allowable angle (−50~−56°). In this study, an S-CO2 centrifugal compressor performance was examined while changing the backward sweep angle at impeller exit to study if the previous optimum backsweep angle for an air centrifugal compressor is still valid when the fluid has changed. It is shown through an analysis that an S-CO2 centrifugal compressor can achieve the highest efficiency at −70° backsweep angle, which is greater than the typical design value. The S-CO2 centrifugal compressor is less restricted from a structural integrity issue because it has low relative Mach number regardless of the low sound speed near critical point (Tc = 304.11 K, Pc = 7377 kPa). It is also shown in the paper that the variation of compressibility factor does not impact on its total to total efficiency since its Mach number is still lower than unity. Finally, it is also shown that a backward sweep impeller can achieve higher pressure ratio and operate stably in wider range as the mass flow rate is decreased. As further works, the suggested concept will be validated by the structural analysis and the compressor performance test.

Gintonin, a novel ginseng-derived glycolipoprotein complex, has an exogenous ligand for lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) receptors. However, recent lipid analysis of gintonin has shown that gintonin also contains other bioactive lipids besides LPAs, including linoleic acid and lysophosphatidylinositol (LPI). Linoleic acid, a free fatty acid, and LPI are known as ligands for the G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR), GPR40, and GPR55, respectively. We, herein, investigated whether gintonin could serve as a ligand for GPR40 and GPR55, using the insulin-secreting beta cell-derived cell line INS-1 and the human prostate cancer cell line PC-3, respectively. Gintonin dose-dependently enhanced insulin secretion from INS-1 cells. Gintonin-stimulated insulin secretion was partially inhibited by a GPR40 receptor antagonist but not an LPA1/3 receptor antagonist and was down-regulated by small interfering RNA (siRNA) against GPR40. Gintonin dose-dependently induced [Ca2+]i transients and Ca2+-dependent cell migration in PC-3 cells. Gintonin actions in PC-3 cells were attenuated by pretreatment with a GPR55 antagonist and an LPA1/3 receptor antagonist or by down-regulating GPR55 with siRNA. Taken together, these results demonstrated that gintonin-mediated insulin secretion by INS-1 cells and PC-3 cell migration were regulated by the respective activation of GPR40 and GPR55 receptors. These findings indicated that gintonin could function as a ligand for both receptors. Finally, we demonstrated that gintonin contained two more GPCR ligands, in addition to that for LPA receptors. Gintonin, with its multiple GPCR ligands, might provide the molecular basis for the multiple pharmacological actions of ginseng.