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Lin Wang,1 Yan Wang,1 Tongqiang Ma,2 Jianwei Yuan,1 Hongxia Wang,1 Yuan Ren,3 Jianwei Zhang1 1Department of Infection, Third Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Academy of Medical Sciences, Tongji Shanxi Hospital, Taiyuan, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Vascular Surgery, Third Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Academy of Medical Sciences, Tongji Shanxi Hospital, Taiyuan, People’s Republic of China; 3School of Public Health, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Yan Wang, Department of Infection, Third Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Academy of Medical Sciences, Tongji Shanxi Hospital, Taiyuan, People’s Republic of China, Tel +8613513635015, Email sxbqeyywy@163.comObjective: To analyze the clinical characteristics and treatment process of 14 patients with aneurysm due to brucellosis, summarize the morbidity characteristics, and improve the knowledge and diagnosis of the disease.Methods: The clinical data of patients with aneurysms who were diagnosed to have brucellosis through Rose Bengal Test (RBT), Serum Agglutination Test (SAT), blood culture, and computed tomography angiography from January 2012 to November 2022 in Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Province, China, were retrospectively analyzed, and their clinical characteristics and disease regression findings were summarized.Results: Of the 14 patients, 13 were men, and 1 was a woman; the youngest patient was 48-year-old, and the oldest patient was of 74 years. All had a history of smoking. The sites of lesion occurrence included the abdominal aorta (5 patients), abdominal aorta +iliac artery (5 patients), iliac artery (2 patients), thoracic aorta and brachial artery were less common (1 case each). Symptoms in the patients mostly began with abdominal pain, which was accompanied by fever, nausea, and vomiting. Six patients had a clear history of livestock exposure. Fourteen patients showed elevated D-dimer and C-reactive protein levels and decreased hemoglobin and albumin levels. Thirteen of the 14 cases were treated surgically, there were no complications of surgery, and 3 patients were readmitted with recurrence of brucellosis, it is related to the treatment that did not reach the early stage, combination, full dose and full course of treatment, with a mean recurrence time of 8 months. In the telephone follow-up, the patient’s recovery proceeded well.Conclusion: The present study revealed that the recurrence in male gender, advanced age, smoking and irregular treatment is higher. On the contrast, early intervention, a combination of adequate course of anti-infection treatment and timely surgery can improve the prognosis.Keywords: Brucella, brucellosis-related aneurysm, clinical features, retrospective analysis, case series

Objective The combination of two or more drugs with different mechanisms is a promising strategy for cancer treatment, and radioimmunotherapy (RIT) is a trending antitumor strategy. Radiotherapy (RT) can promote and activate antitumor immune effects, and immunotherapy can strengthen the effects of selective internal radiotherapy (SIRT); the RIT combination is synergistic and can overcome the adverse side effects of monotherapy. In this study, we developed a radioimmunoconjugate (RIC)—the iodine-131 (131I)-labeled caerin 1.1 peptide—to treat human anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC). Methods Antitumor activity of caerin 1.1 peptide was determined by MTT assay, plate colony formation and cell wound scratch assays, and the mechanism of the inhibition of carein 1.1 peptide on the growth of CAL-62 cells was identified by cell cycle and western blot. Then, we investigated the efficacy of the caerin 1.1 peptide as a single drug and the 131I-labeled caerin 1.1 peptide for ATC. H&E and TUNEL staining was performed to detect dead cells in the tumor tissue sections. Results We found that caerin 1.1 arrested cells in the S phase to induce apoptosis and inhibited tumor growth to inhibit phosphorylation of Akt. In vivo, the iodine-131 (131I)-labeled caerin 1.1 peptide achieved better antitumor efficacy than radiotherapy alone and showed a good biosafety profile. Conclusions Our study demonstrates for the first time that the iodine-131 (131I)-labeled caerin 1.1 peptide can inhibit CAL-62 tumor growth and migration. The iodine-131 (131I)-labeled caerin 1.1 peptide, which represents a radioimmunotherapy strategy based on the combination of SIRT with a peptide–drug conjugate, could provide a treatment means for the radical cure of ATC.

In the design of oilfield development plans, specific productivity index plays a vital role. Especially for offshore oilfields, affected by development costs and time limits, there are shortcomings of shorter test time and fewer test sampling points. Therefore, it is very necessary to predict specific productivity index. In this study, a prediction model of the specific productivity index is established by combining the principle of least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) with the calculation method of the specific productivity index. The model uses logging parameters, crude oil experimental parameters and the specific productivity index of a large number of test well samples as input and output items respectively, and finally predicts the specific productivity index of non-test wells. It reduces the errors caused by short training time, randomness of training results and insufficient learning. A large number of sample data from the Huanghekou Sag in Bohai Oilfield were used to verify the prediction model. Comparing the specific productivity index prediction results of LS-SVM and artificial neural networks (ANNs) with actual well data respectively, the LS-SVM model has a better fitting effect, with an error of only 3.2%, which is 12.1% lower than ANNs. This study can better reflect the impact of different factors on specific productivity index, and it has important guiding significance for the evaluation of offshore oilfield productivity. Cited as : Wu, C., Wang, S., Yuan, J., Li, C., Zhang, Q. A prediction model of specific productivity index using least square support vector machine method. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2020, 4(4): 460-467, doi: 10.46690/ager.2020.04.10

Interleukin 10 (IL-10) belongs to IL-10 family cytokines that are critical for maintaining the integrity of epithelial tissues, protecting pathogenic infection, and preventing excessive immune responses to damage self. Temporal IL-10 signaling blockade enhances vaccine-induced tumor regression by CD8 + T cells. IL-10, especially pegylated IL-10, mediates tumor regression by expanding tumor-infiltrating CD8 + T cells. Moreover, targeting IL-10 enhances immune checkpoint inhibitor mediated tumor regression. In the current paper, we will review recent advances in this area and discuss the complexity of IL-10 manipulation for cancer therapy.

Traditional histological grading for predicting adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) outcomes is challenging and unreliable. We explored the relationship between dominant cell type (DCT) and outcomes for ACC of the head and neck to develop a new approach to predicting prognosis. Clinicopathological data were obtained from a retrospective cohort of 167 patients with primary ACC of the head and neck. Using immunohistochemistry markers to determine DCT, tumors were subclassified into three distinct subtypes, epithelial-predominant (E-ACC), myoepithelial-predominant (M-ACC), and conventional (C-ACC). Differences in clinicopathological parameters and clinical outcomes among these subtypes were then analyzed. Compared to that of M-ACC and C-ACC, E-ACC exhibited more aggressive clinicopathological features with predominantly solid components, high-grade transformation, lymphovascular invasion, tumor necrosis (TN), Ki-67 ≥ 30%, and advanced stage of disease. Both E-ACC and M-ACC could present as solid morphological forms, but E-ACC had a significantly worse prognosis than M-ACC. DCT, TN, and disease stage were independent predictors of recurrence-free survival. DCT, TN, age ≥ 50 years, and disease stage were independent predictors for overall survival. In conclusion, DCT was an independent prognostic indicator for both recurrence-free and overall survival for ACC. Our results provide a new approach to predicting prognosis in ACC and a strong pathological basis for clinically optimizing treatment.

Recently, shale gas is a hot spot of research as an unconventional resource. Advances in horizontal well drilling technology and fracturing technology have contributed to increased shale gas recovery. Different from conventional gas reservoirs, the adsorption gas content is as high as 85%, so the amount of adsorbed gas liberated from the matrix surface is very helpful for ultimately improving the recovery of shale gas. Recently, some progress has been made in the process of hydraulic fracture heating technology. The event that temperature variation promotes the release of adsorbed gas and thus enhances oil recovery has not been fully studied. In addition, during shale gas production, stress sensitivity, adsorption desorption and temperature will all have a significant effect on rock deformation, which will change the permeability of the matrix and fractures. To study the effect of thermal recovery based on coupled geomechanical effects and fluid flow. A numerical model of shale gas thermal recovery considering Knudsen diffusion, adsorption desorption and stress sensitivity was established to reflect the production process of shale gas. Moreover, discrete fracture is employed to describe hydraulic fractures and natural fractures. The influence of thermal expansion on rock deformation is considered in the geomechanical effect, and the permeability formula suitable for shale gas thermal recovery is developed. Finally, the effects of different parameters on thermal recovery were studied separately. It is obvious that heating hydraulic fractures improves the recovery of shale gas by promoting the liberate of adsorbed gas. A large amount of adsorbed gas is produced as the stimulation temperature increases. Considering the stress-sensitive permeability can more accurately reflect the change of permeability in the shale gas thermal recovery process, so as to more accurately predict the production of shale gas. The increase in recovery rate of shale gas thermal recovery depends on the stimulation temperature, bottom hole pressure, matrix heat capacity, thermal conductivity, Langmuir volume and matrix permeability. The larger the Langmuir volume and the higher the bottom hole pressure, the better the thermal recovery effect for improving shale gas recovery.

Mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) were fabricated by incorporating synthesized titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles into polyether block amide (PEBA) matrix to fabricate TiO2/PBEA MMMs for CO2/N2 separation. The mesoporous channels of TiO2 increased the density of active sites with high accessibility and also facilitate the diffusion of CO2 in the gas separation process. Furthermore, amine groups are grafted onto the TiO2 fillers via one step reaction with dopamine (DA) and polyethyleneimine (PEI). The modified TiO2 fillers with abundant amine groups are conductive to transfer CO2 owing to the reversible reaction occurred between CO2 and amine groups. The effects of TiO2 loading, DA/PEI modification on the morphology and CO2/N2 separation performance of the resulting TiO2/PBEA MMMs were systematically studied. The results showed that the MMMs filled with 3 wt% DA-PEI-TiO2 synthesized with DA/PEI mass ratio of 1/1 and PEI molecular weight of 1800 exhibited optimal separation performance with CO2 permeability of 67 Barrer and CO2/N2 selectivity of 101, surpassing the 2008 Robeson upper-bound.

Background. AnaerobicClostridialspores (CG) cause significant oncolysis in hypoxic tumour microenvironment and result in tumour regression in both animal models and clinical trials. The immune mediated response plays a critical role in the antitumour effect by the anaerobic spore treatment.Method. Human papillomavirus 16 E6/E7 transformed TC-1 tumour bearing mice were intravenously administered with low (1 × 108CFU/kg) or high dosage (3 × 108CFU/kg) of DerivativeClostridialspore (DCG).Results. Intravenous administration of the derivative ofClostridial ghonii(DCG) spores leads to both tumour and systemic inflammatory responses characterized by increased IFNγ/IL-9 secreting T cells in the spleen and the tumour. Low numbers of antigen specific T cells (6spleen cells) in the spleen of the tumour bearing mice are also detected after intravenous DCG delivery. Interestingly, our results showed that a mixed IL-9/IFNγsecreting T cell response was induced when the tumour bearing mice received a low dose of DCG spore (1 × 108CFU/kg), while a strong IFNγresponse was elicited with a high dosage of DCG spore (3 × 108CFU/kg).Conclusion. The dosage of DCG spore will determine the types of the DCG induced immune responses.

Membrane technology is an energy-efficient approach for purification of wastewater. In this work, for the first time, a novel pure zeolite imidazolate framework-300 (ZIF-300) MOF membrane was fabricated and applied for removing heavy metal ions from wastewater. The fine structure of ZIF-300 layer was characterized by positron annihilation spectroscopy technique. Cross-flow and long-term operation test was also carried out to investigate the membrane stability. The obtained ZIF-300 membrane exhibited a high and stable performance with the water permeance of 39.2 L/m2 h bar and rejection rate of 99.21% for CuSO4. This high separation performance combined the extraordinary stability demonstrated that the as-prepared pure ZIF-300 MOF membrane could be a potential candidate for the water treatment.

Background Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common thyroid cancer. While many patients survive, a portion of PTC cases display high aggressiveness and even develop into refractory differentiated thyroid carcinoma. This may be alleviated by developing a novel model to predict the risk of recurrence. Ferroptosis is an iron-dependent form of regulated cell death (RCD) driven by lethal accumulation of lipid peroxides, is regulated by a set of genes and shows a variety of metabolic changes. To elucidate whether ferroptosis occurs in PTC, we analyse the gene expression profiles of the disease and established a new model for the correlation. Methods The thyroid carcinoma (THCA) datasets were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), UCSC Xena and MisgDB, and included 502 tumour samples and 56 normal samples. A total of 60 ferroptosis related genes were summarised from MisgDB database. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and Gene set variation analysis (GSVA) were used to analyse pathways potentially involving PTC subtypes. Single sample GSEA (ssGSEA) algorithm was used to analyse the proportion of 28 types of immune cells in the tumour immune infiltration microenvironment in THCA and the hclust algorithm was used to conduct immune typing according to the proportion of immune cells. Spearman correlation analysis was performed on the ferroptosis gene expression and the correlation between immune infiltrating cells proportion. We established the WGCNA to identify genes modules that are highly correlated with the microenvironment of immune invasion. DEseq2 algorithm was further used for differential analysis of sequencing data to analyse the functions and pathways potentially involving hub genes. GO and KEGG enrichment analysis was performed using Clusterprofiler to explore the clinical efficacy of hub genes. Univariate Cox analysis was performed for hub genes combined with clinical prognostic data, and the results was included for lasso regression and constructed the risk regression model. ROC curve and survival curve were used for evaluating the model. Univariate Cox analysis and multivariate Cox analysis were performed in combination with the clinical data of THCA and the risk score value, the clinical efficacy of the model was further evaluated. Results We identify two subtypes in PTC based on the expression of ferroptosis related genes, with the proportion of cluster 1 significantly higher than cluster 2 in ferroptosis signature genes that are positively associated. The mutations of Braf and Nras are detected as the major mutations of cluster 1 and 2, respectively. Subsequent analyses of TME immune cells infiltration indicated cluster 1 is remarkably richer than cluster 2. The risk score of THCA is in good performance evaluated by ROC curve and survival curve, in conjunction with univariate Cox analysis and multivariate Cox analysis results based on the clinical data shows that the risk score of the proposed model could be used as an independent prognostic indicator to predict the prognosis of patients with papillary thyroid cancer. Conclusions Our study finds seven crucial genes, including Ac008063.2, Apoe, Bcl3, Acap3, Alox5ap, Atxn2l and B2m, and regulation of apoptosis by parathyroid hormone-related proteins significantly associated with ferroptosis and immune cells in PTC, and we construct the risk score model which can be used as an independent prognostic index to predict the prognosis of patients with PTC.

International audience; Inspired by fast and selective water transport in natural Aquaporin (AQP), imidazole-quartet water channels (IQWC) constructed by imidazole-ureido (IU) molecular scaffolds, are excellent candidates to design membranes with fast and selective water transport properties. In this work, a water binding IU bola-amphiphile-imidazole compound was embedded with the hydrophilic and laminated graphene oxide (GO) to prepare IU-GO membrane. H NMR, TG, XRD, SEM, AFM and FTIR were conducted to characterize physicochemical properties of IU and IU-GO membrane. It was demonstrated that IU could well interact with GO to generate a robust membrane structure. The resulting IU-GO membranes were applied for pervaporation dehydration of n-butanol-water. The total flux and the separation factor of the optimized IU-GO membrane were 3506 g⋅m-2 ⋅h-1 and 4454 respectively when the membrane was measured at 343 K with butanol content of 80 wt%. Furthermore, the membrane exhibited good stability and separation performance during 120 h continuous operation test, showing great potential in application of solvent dehydration.

Hydraulic fracturing generally leads to highly complex hydraulic networks for tight oil reservoirs. It is significant to understand the hydraulic fracture effect on well performance. As an effective tool, semi-analytical solution for well pressure transient analysis (PTA) and rate transient analysis (RTA) is used in large amount because of higher calculation efficiency than numerical solution. In this paper, the PTA and RTA methods and result of composite formation system (CFS) are shown comprehensively. Firstly, a mathematical model of multistage fractured horizontal well (MsFHW) in CFS was proposed for tight oil reservoir with different regions and formation properties. In the model, two regions with different formation parameters were distinguished. This assumption of two regions, i.e. CFS is a composite tight reservoir formed after hydraulic fracturing. Difference of finite hydraulic fracture conductivity, inclined angle of hydraulic fracture, different shapes of multi-wing fractures in perforating point are considered to make this model powerful to analyze production performance of different MsFHW types. The inner and outer regions were assumed as dual porosity medium but single porosity medium model can also be solved by simplification. Then, the solution of MsFHW performance analysis model is obtained by source function method and the source function superposition principle which are common used in PTA and RTA. PTA for well producing at a constant production rate and RTA for well producing at a constant wellbore pressure were obtained and discussed. Different flow regimes were divided for different fracture geometry situations. The effects of different MsFHW types on PTA and RTA were analyzed. The inflow performance for different hydraulic fractures were presented. Cited as : Yuan, J., Jiang, R., Zhang, W. The workflow to analyze hydraulic fracture effect on hydraulic fractured horizontal well production in composite formation system. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2018, 2(3): 319-342, doi: 10.26804/ager.2018.03.09

Caerin is a family of peptides isolated from the glandular secretion of Australian tree frogs, the genusLitoria, and has been previously shown to have anticancer activity against several cancer cells. In this work, we used two host-defence peptides, caerin 1.1 and caerin 1.9, to investigate their ability to inhibit a murine derived TC-1 cell transformed with human papillomavirus 16 E6 and E7 growthin vitro. Caerin 1.9 inhibits TC-1 cell proliferation, although inhibition is more pronounced when applied in conjunction with caerin 1.1. To gain further insights into the antiproliferative mechanisms of caerin 1.9 and its additive effect with caerin 1.1, we used a proteomics strategy to quantitatively examine (i) the changes in the protein profiles of TC-1 cells and (ii) the excretory-secretory products of TC-1 cells following caerin peptides treatment. Caerin 1.9 treatment significantly altered the abundance of several immune-related proteins and related pathways, such as the Tec kinase and ILK signalling pathways, as well as the levels of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines. In conclusion, caerin peptides inhibit TC-1 cell proliferation, associated with modification in signalling pathways that would change the tumour microenvironment which is normally immune suppressive.

Compared with traditional separation methods, membrane-based technology shows advantages in energy efficiency for natural gas purification. To overcome the performance trade-off of conventional polymeric membranes, in this study, ZIF-301 MOF was employed as novel filler to fabricate 6FDA-DAM polyimide mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs) for CO2/CH4 separation. A solvent exchange approach was proposed to remove the high-boiling-point solvent used for fabricating the MMMs. The microstructures and physico-chemical properties of the ZIF-301 fillers and ZIF-301/6FDA-DAM MMMs were characterized by SEM, EDX, XRD, IR, TGA, DSC and high-pressure sorption isotherms. The CO2/CH4 transport properties through the MMMs were evaluated by permeation measurement at various feed pressures and analyzed by solution-diffusion model. The results showed that the incorporation of ZIF-301 into 6FDA-DAM enhanced both the CO2 permeability and CO2/CH4 selectivity, attributing to the preferential CO2 sorption and aperture molecular sieving effect of the ZIF-301 filler. The MMM with optimal ZIF-301 loading of 20 wt% exhibited CO2 permeability of 891 barrer and CO2/CH4 of 29.3 that surpassed the 2008 Robeson upper-bound, suggesting that ZIF-301 based membrane could be a potential candidate for natural gas purification.

Because of the high separation performance and easy preparation, mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs) consisting of metal–organic frameworks have received much attention. In this article, we report a novel ZIF-300/PEBA MMM consisting of zeolite imidazolate framework (ZIF-300) crystals and polyether block amide (PEBA) matrix. The ZIF-300 crystal size was effectively reduced by optimizing the hydrothermal reaction condition from ∼15 to ∼1 μm. The morphology and physicochemical and sorption properties of the synthesized ZIF-300 crystals and as-prepared ZIF-300/PEBA MMMs were systematically studied. The results showed that ZIF-300 crystals with a size of ∼1 μm maintained excellent preferential CO2 sorption over N2 without degradation of the crystal structure in the MMMs. As a result, uniformly incorporated ZIF-300 crystals highly enhanced both the CO2 permeability and the CO2/N2 selectivity of pure PEBA membrane. The optimized ZIF-300-PEBA MMMs with a ZIF-300 loading of 30 wt % exhibited a high and stable CO2 permea...

The special channels and intrinsic defects within GO laminates make it a very potential candidate for gas separation in recent years. Herein, the gas separation performance of GO membranes prepared on the surface of ceramic α-Al 2 O 3 hollow fibre was investigated systematically. The microstructures of ceramic hollow fibre supported GO membranes were optimized by adjusting operation conditions. And, the GO membrane fabricated at 30 min exhibited great promising H 2 recovery ability from H 2 /CO 2 mixture. At room temperature, the H 2 permeance was over 1.00 × 10 − 7 mol·m − 2 ·s − 1 ·Pa − 1 for both single gas and binary mixture. The corresponding ideal selectivity and mixture separation factor reached around 15 and 10, respectively. In addition, humility, operation temperature, H 2 concentration in the feed and the reproducibility were also studied in this work.

We aimed to investigate whether geniposide, a main component extracted from Gardenia jasminoides Ellis fruit, could exert neuroprotective functions against traumatic brain injury (TBI). Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used for detection of plasma cytokines. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was employed for measurements of mRNA levels of cytokines. Neurological outcomes were evaluated by modified neurological severity score (mNSS) and Rota-Rod. Blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity and brain edema were assessed. Protein expression was tested by Western blot. The plasma levels of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-8 and IL-10 were all elevated in patients with TBI compared to those of healthy controls. TBI rats treated with geniposide showed lower mNSS and longer fall latency time than untreated TBI rats. BBB integrity was maintained and brain edema was reduced by geniposide treatment in TBI rats. Plasma levels of IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-8 were significantly repressed by geniposide treatment in TBI rats, whereas IL-10 level was upregulated. mRNA expression levels of these cytokines in the brain tissues of TBI rats exhibited the same trends of changes. By testing p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase and NF-κB p65 activities, it was observed that phosphorylated (p)-p38 and p-p65 were dramatically inhibited by geniposide. In conclusion, geniposide exerts neuroprotective functions against TBI by inhibiting p-p38 and p-p65.

Background Therapeutic vaccines against cervical cancer remain ineffective. Previously, we demonstrated that blocking the signalling of a cytokine, interleukin 10, at the time of immunisation elicited significantly higher numbers of antigen specific T cells and inhibited tumour growth in mice. Results In the current paper, we demonstrate, in a HPV16 E6/E7 transformed TC-1 tumour mouse model, that despite increased antigen specific T cell numbers, blocking IL-10 signalling at the time of immunisation does not increase the survival time of the TC-1 tumour bearing mice compared to mice receiving the same immunisation with no IL-10 signalling blockade. Moreover, the function of tumour infiltrating T cells isolated 3 weeks post TC-1 transplantation is more suppressed than those isolated 2 weeks after tumour inoculation. We demonstrate that synthesized caerin peptides, derived from amphibian skin secretions, 1) were able to inhibit TC-1 tumour growth both in vitro and in vivo; 2) are environmentally stable; and 3) promote the secretion of pro-inflammatory interlukine-6 by TC-1 cells. Notably caerin peptides were able to increase the survival time of TC-1 tumour bearing mice after therapeutic vaccination with a HPV16E7 peptide-based vaccine containing IL-10 inhibitor, via recruiting increased levels of T cells to the tumour site. Conclusion Caerin peptides increase the efficacy of a therapeutic vaccine by recruiting more T cells to the tumour site.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) related tumours account for a significant proportion of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) in developed countries. They respond better to chemo- and radio-therapy, and have a better stage specific prognosis. To establish their prevalence in China, we assessed a series of histology confirmed HNSCCs collected in Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces by PCR for HPV DNA and by immunohistochemistry for p16 protein status. Among 303 HNSCCs, HPV DNA was detected in 26.4%, with HPV16 DNA in 71% of these. Of HNSCC located in the oropharynx, 38.55% (32/83) were HPV+ve. In this series, p16 status was a relatively poor predictor of HPV status as detected by PCR. The stage specific survival time of HPV+ HNSCCs was significantly longer than for HPV- HNSCC. HPV status should be assessed for oropharyngeal cancers in China to assist with appropriate management, and prophylaxis against HPV infection should be considered to reduce the incidence of this disease.

It is still a great challenge to prepare high performance mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) because of the difficulty in finely tuning the compatibility between filler and organic phases. In this work, ZIF-8 nanoparticles hydrophobically functionalized by 5, 6-dimethylbenzimidazole (DMBIM) via shell ligand exchange (SLE) reaction were incorporated into polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix to fabricate defect-free MMMs. Organic-–inorganic interface compatibility was realized because of more abundant organic ligands from DMBIM. The effects of different loadings on membrane microstructure and gas separation performance were investigated systematically. A significantly enhanced C3H8/N2 separation performance with C3H8 permeability over 2.10 × 104 Barrer (91 % higher than that of pure PDMS membrane) and C3H8/N2 selectivity of 99.5 (116 % higher than that of pure PDMS membrane) were achieved. Additionally, the as-prepared membrane also exhibited excellent stability during long term operation. © 2016 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

There is growing evidence showing that the oil phase seepage in tight matrix obeys the low-velocity Pre-Darcy flow because of the boundary effect between pore wall and fluid. However, most Pre-Darcy flow model may cause inaccuracy in simulating the reduction of non-linear degree, because of oil properties improvement caused by CO2 injection. In this paper, we propose a newly Pre-Darcy model with dynamic non-Darcy parameter c 1 to characterize the tight-oil non-linear flow behavior in CO2 Huff-n-Puff process. Firstly, based on the high accurate experimental data in flow velocity testing with representative cores in Fuyu reservoir, non-linear parameter c 1 is modified as a two-parameter function of tight oil flow capability. Then, the validated self-developed compositional simulator with embedded-discrete-fracture model (EDFM) and unstructured perpendicular bisection (PEBI) grid system is applied in field-scale cases to compare this proposed newly Pre-Darcy flow model with other previously presented flow models. Based on the comprehensive simulation comparison, the results show when the oil properties improvement occurs in injected-CO2 swept and diffusion area, the proposed Pre-Darcy flow model can properly describe the reduction of non-linear degree, leading to additional 0.45% oil recovery in three-cycle Huff-Puff operation. Additionally, in this newly dynamic flow model, capillary pressure in nanopores could degrade the non-linear degree of oil phase, which exhibits typical advantages on production well performance. Finally, this Pre-Darcy flow model is successfully applied in history matching of Fuyu Oilfield to validate its reliability.

Background Anaerobic Clostridial spores (CG) cause significant oncolysis in hypoxic tumour microenvironment and result in tumour regression in both animal models and clinical trials. The immune mediated response plays a critical role in the antitumour effect by the anaerobic spore treatment. Method Human papillomavirus 16 E6/E7 transformed TC-1 tumour bearing mice were intravenously administered with low (1 × 108 CFU/kg) or high dosage (3 × 108 CFU/kg) of Derivative Clostridial spore (DCG). Results Intravenous administration of the derivative of Clostridial ghonii (DCG) spores leads to both tumour and systemic inflammatory responses characterized by increased IFNγ/IL-9 secreting T cells in the spleen and the tumour. Low numbers of antigen specific T cells (

Pervaporation (PV) membranes have been attracted increasing attention in biofuels recovery owing to the higher separation efficiency and less harmful effect on microbes. Herein, we reported polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane coated on the inner surface of ceramic tube to in-situ recover bio-butanol from glycerol fermentation through PV process. The effects of butanol concentration, intermediates, raw material, inorganic salts and microbes on PV separation property of the PDMS/ceramic composite membranes were systematically discussed. After integrating with the membrane, bio-butanol was successively extracted from the fermentor, thereby remarkably reducing the butanol inhibition effect on microbial growth and thus greatly enhancing the yield and productivity of bio-butanol, from 0.35 to 0.40 g g−1 and 0.09 to 0.17 g L−1 h−1, respectively. Meanwhile, the PDMS composite membrane presented an excellent separation property during the coupled process with 509 g/m2 h for average total flux and 24.7 for butanol/water separation factor. In addition, the membrane fouling behavior was studied by characterizing the membrane microstructure and chemical property before and after using in the coupled process. Compared with the-state-of-the-arts, the PDMS composite membrane coupled with the process of glycerol fermentation presented here shows great potential in application of bio-butanol production.

Genital warts are one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases worldwide. The disease is a result of infection with low-risk types of human papillomaviruses, mostly type 6 and 11. Current therapies for genital warts are mainly ablative, or alternatively topical application of imiquimod cream and sinecatechin (polyphenon E) ointment to the warts. However, low patient compliance and high recurrence rate are significant problems for the treatment of genital warts by imiquimod and ablative therapies. We summarise recent literature in this area and propose combining imiquimod with other therapies to increase the efficacy of imiquimod.

Because of the high separation performance and easy preparation, mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs) consisting of metal-organic frameworks have received much attention. In this article, we report a novel ZIF-300/PEBA MMM consisting of zeolite imidazolate framework (ZIF-300) crystals and polyether block amide (PEBA) matrix. The ZIF-300 crystal size was effectively reduced by optimizing the hydrothermal reaction condition from ∼15 to ∼1 μm. The morphology and physicochemical and sorption properties of the synthesized ZIF-300 crystals and as-prepared ZIF-300/PEBA MMMs were systematically studied. The results showed that ZIF-300 crystals with a size of ∼1 μm maintained excellent preferential CO

S2 and S3 Blocking IL-10 at the time of immunization with OVA increases vaccine induced antigen specific CD8+ and CD4+ IFNγ and IL-10 secreting CD4+ T cell responses but does not increase the numbers of CD4 + Foxp3+ T cells. (PDF 547 kb)

Energy-efficient capture of CO2 from power-plant flue gas is one of the grand challenges to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Current CO2-capture technologies are limited by parasitic energy loss, inefficient capture, and unfavorable process economics. We present a novel electrochemical method for CO2 capture from coal-fired power-plant flue gas. The method utilizes in-situ electrochemical pH control with a resin wafer electrodeionization (RW-EDI) device that continuously shifts the pH of the process fluid between basic and acidic in sequential chambers (pH swing). This pH swing enables capture of CO2 from flue gas in the basic chamber followed by release (recovery) of the captured CO2 (purified) in the acidic chamber of the same device. The approach is based on the sensitivity of the thermodynamic equilibrium of CO2 hydration/dehydration reactions over a narrow pH range. The method enables simultaneous absorption (capture) of CO2 from flue gas and desorption (release) at atmospheric pressure without...

Data capture system gathers network packets, documents and operation records generated in training and experimental process of information system, which provides data support for the simulation of the information systems, analysis and experimental evaluation. This paper first analyzes and compares existing data acquisition technologies, then proposes a data acquisition technique using API intercepted, the dynamic library hijacked and database triggers. This method has the advantages of high efficiency and no packet loss, and has been successfully applied to data capture in the training of a large information system.

It is difficult for an air source heat pump (ASHP) system to provide enough heat for heating buildings with high working efficiency when it runs at low ambient temperature. An advanced ASHP system that, in the paper, composes a main refrigerant circle and a bypass circle would supply a lot of heat for the buildings in Beijing at same working condition. In the system, the bypass refrigerant can be used to increase the density of refrigerant at the inlet of the hermetic compressor employed in refrigeration cycle, and so, the advanced ASHP could appear relative high efficiency even when it runs at low ambient temperature. The assistant throttle apparatus in the bypass circle is a part of capillary that was enlaced tightly around to the compressor. The capillary can be used to reuse the heat from surface of the compressor. Compared with a traditional system, the advanced ASHP system could provide three times heat capacity and more than 35% of efficiency at the working condition −10 °C.

article i nfo The receptor-binding domain (RBD) on spike protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is the main region interacting with the viral receptor-ACE2 and is a useful target for induction of neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV infection. Here we generated two monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), targeting RBD, with marked virus neutralizing activity. The mAbs recognize a new conformational epitope which consists of several discontinuous peptides (aa. 343-367, 373-390 and 411-428) and is spatially located neighboring the receptor-binding motif (RPM) region of the RBD. Importantly, W423 and N424 residues are essential for mAb recognition and are highly conserved among 107 different strains of SARS, indicating that the residues are the most critical in the epitope which is a novel potential target for therapeutic mAbs. A human-mouse chimeric antibody, based upon the original murine mAb, was also constructed and shown to possess good neutralizing activity and high affinity.

Purpose: This study aimed to develop an efficient and safe strategy to introduce suicide genes into colon cancer cells. Experimental Design: In this study, we fused an enhanced carcinoembryonic antigen promoter (CEA) to a suicide gene, cytosine deaminase (CD). This construct was delivered into colon cancer cells using calcium phosphate nanoparticles (CPNP). The cells were then treated with the prodrug 5-FC. The therapeutic effect was evaluated in vitro and in vivo. Results: Our study showed that the CEA promoter–driven, CPNP-delivered suicide gene was only expressed in CEA-positive colon cancer cells, and resulted in significant cytotoxicity after administration of the prodrug 5-FC in vitro. Moreover, our in vivo study showed that CPNP-mediated CEA-CD delivery, together with 5-FC treatment, resulted in significant tumor growth delay in xenograft human colon carcinoma. Conclusions: Our study indicates that the combination of CPNP and CEA-CD gene expression represents a novel approach for CEA-positive tumor gene therapy.