Search

Phenanthrenequinone-doped poly(methyl methacrylate) (PQ/PMMA) photopolymers are potential holographic storage media owing to their high-density storage capacities, low costs, high stability, and negligible shrinkage in volume holographic permanent memory. However, because of the limitations of the substrate, conventional Plexiglas materials do not exhibit a good performance in terms of photosensitivity and molding. In this study, the crosslinked structure of PMMA was modified by introducing a dendrimer monomer, pentaerythritol tetraacrylate (PETA), which increases the photosensitivity of the material 2 times (from ~0.58 cm/J to ~1.18 cm/J), and the diffraction efficiency is increased 1.6 times (from ~50% to ~80%). In addition, the modified material has a superior ability to mold compared to conventional materials. Moreover, the holographic performance enhancement was evaluated in conjunction with a quantum chemical analysis. The doping of PETA resulted in an overall decrease in the energy required for the reaction system of the material, and the activation energy decreased by ~0.5 KJ/mol in the photoreaction stage.

In the era of marine big data, making full use of multi-source satellite observations to accurately retrieve and predict the temperature structure of the ocean subsurface layer is very significant in advancing the understanding of oceanic processes and their dynamics. Considering the time dependence and spatial correlation of marine characteristics, this study employed the convolutional long short-term memory (ConvLSTM) method to retrieve the subsurface temperature in the Western Pacific Ocean from several types of satellite observations. Furthermore, considering the temperature’s vertical distribution, the retrieved results for the upper layer were iteratively used in the calculation for the deeper layer as input data to improve the algorithm. The results show that the retrieved results for the 100 to 500 m depth temperature using the 50 m layer in the calculation resulted in higher accuracy than those retrieved from the standard ConvLSTM method. The largest improvement was in the calculation for the 100 m layer, where the thermocline was located. The results indicate that our improved ConvLSTM method can increase the accuracy of subsurface temperature retrieval without additional input data.

Abstract The mid-depth ocean circulation is critically linked to actual changes in the long-term global climate system. However, in the past few decades, predictions based on ocean circulation models highlight the lack of data, knowledge, and long-term implications in climate change assessment. Here, using 842,421 observations produced by Argo floats from 2001-2020, and Lagrangian simulations, we show that only 3.8% of the mid-depth oceans, including part of the equatorial Pacific Ocean and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, can be regarded as accurately modelled, while other regions exhibit significant underestimations in mean current velocity. Knowledge of ocean circulation is generally more complete in the low-latitude oceans but is especially poor in high latitude regions. Accordingly, we propose improvements in forecasting, model representation of stochasticity, and enhancement of observations of ocean currents. The study demonstrates that knowledge and model representations of global circulation are substantially compromised by inaccuracies of significant magnitude and direction, with important implications for modelled predictions of currents, temperature, carbon dioxide sequestration, and sea-level rise trends.

In order to adhere to the consolidation of household contracted management, innovate and improve the dual management system combining centralization and decentralization (DMS), and give full play to the function and role of rural collective organizations in the centralization of small farmers, the status of economic development of 47 rural collective organizations and 4 practical models that can be copied and promoted in Guangxi were studied by adopting methods such as literature combing, field survey, case demonstration and clustering and comparison and statistical analysis. The research found that in recent years, although the village collectives in Guangxi have completed the equity reform of collective assets, and the collective incomes have increased, the overall operation vitality is still relatively weak, the organization and service degree for small farmers is relatively low, and the adhesion between village and household in production and operation is small. The 4 practical models analyzed show that, compared with capital-oriented business entities such as enterprises, village collective economic organizations have stronger adaptability to the management of small farmers, being important new business entities to organize and serve small farmers. Therefore, it is suggest that it should be made good use of the results of the "three transformations" reform of rural collective assets, to carry out the pilot of the innovative development of the DMS, to speed up the supply of laws and regulations of village collective economic organizations, to establish a mechanism of financial investment to cover village collectives and to extend to small farmers preferentially, and to develop the village collective economy with the support of village-equity economic cooperatives so as to organize and drive small farmers to integrate into the development of modern agricultural industrialization.

IntroductionObsessive-compulsive symptoms is a common psychological phenomenon among early adulthood college students, which are closely related to their parents’ parenting styles. Theoretical and some empirical studies have suggested the mediating role of perfectionism in this process, but this has not been confirmed, and the binary perspective of positive-negative perfectionism has not been addressed in this issue.MethodsThis study aimed to investigate the mediating role of perfectionism in the relationship between parenting styles and obsessive-compulsive symptoms among college students. A total of 661 college students participated in this study.ResultsNegative perfectionism mediated the relationship between negative parenting style and obsessive-compulsive symptoms among college students. Negative parenting style predicted obsessive-compulsive symptoms through its positive predictive effect on negative perfectionism. However, the mediating effect of positive perfectionism was not significant in this process.DiscussionThis study provides further evidence of the mechanisms underlying the occurrence of obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and offers new ideas for interventions for OCD.

Traditional Chinese herbal (TCH) medicines have emerged as a prospective and affordable method to treat various diseases with a broad range of biological activity; however, traditional preparations, like decoctions, are often associated with low bioavailability, thus resulting in limited efficacy against cancer. The drawbacks of active TCH components, including instability, poor permeability, high hydrophilicity or hydrophobicity, undesirable pharmacokinetic profiles, and off-target toxicity, also exist. Most TCH medicines are thus limited to a clinical alternative for the treatment of chronic diseases. A liposomal delivery system is the most common class of FDA-approved nanomedicines, which has improved pharmacokinetics, enhanced targetability, and reduced side effects. Therefore, we anticipate that liposomal delivery technology will help concentrate drugs inside tumors, and fully release the therapeutic potential and reduce the side effects of TCH medicines. The review provides a brief overview of several representative TCH components and related liposome delivery strategies for enhanced cancer therapy. Current challenges associated with liposomal targeting of TCH medicines are also discussed for interested researchers.

Abstract Atropine is an anticholinergic drug widely used in the field of ophthalmology, but its abuse can cause cytotoxicity to the cornea, resulting in blurred vision. This study used cultured human corneal epithelial cells (HCECs) to investigate the mechanism of high‐concentration atropine‐induced cytotoxicity. HCECs were treated with different concentrations of atropine. The expression levels of microRNA (miR)‐30c‐1 and suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) were manipulated in HCECs treated with 0.1% atropine. Cell counting kit‐8 assay and flow cytometry were used to assess the viability and apoptosis of HCECs. The relationship between miR‐30c‐1 and SOCS3 was obtained from an online database and validated using a dual‐luciferase reporter assay and RNA immunoprecipitation method. The effect of atropine on the Janus kinase 2 (JAK2)/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling pathway was also investigated. High‐concentration atropine inhibited the viability of HCECs and promoted their apoptosis. Moreover, atropine reduced miR‐30c‐1 expression and increased SOCS3 expression in a dose‐dependent manner. It was found that miR‐30c‐1 targeted SOCS3. Overexpression of miR‐30c‐1‐reduced atropine‐induced HCEC cytotoxicity, whereas upregulation of SOCS3 reversed the effects of miR‐30c‐1 overexpression. High‐concentration atropine inhibited activation of the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway via miR‐30c‐1/SOCS3. High‐concentration atropine induces HCEC apoptosis by regulating the miR‐30c‐1/SOCS3 axis and JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway.

Objective Circulating tumor cells are complete tumor cells with multi-scale analysis values that present a high potential for lung cancer diagnosis. To enhance the accuracy of lung cancer diagnosis, we detected circulating tumor cells by the innovated conical micro filter integrated microfluidic system. Methods We recruited 45 subjects of study, including 22 lung cancer patients, 2 precancerous patients, the control group including 14 healthy participants, and 7 patients with lung benign lesions in this prospective study. We calculated the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of circulating tumor cells, cytokeratin19 fragment, carcinoma embryonic antigen, squamous cell carcinoma, neuron-specific enolase, and their combination, respectively, while compared the circulating tumor cells levels between vein blood and arterial blood. A conical shape filter embedded in a microfluidic chip was used to improve the detection capability of circulating tumor cells. Results The study indicated that the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of circulating tumor cells detection were 81.8%, 90.5%, 90.0%, and 82.6%, respectively. The circulating tumor cells level of lung cancer patient was significantly higher than that of the control group ( P

Introduction: Heat pipe cooled traveling wave reactor (HPTWR) is a newly proposed heat pipe reactor. The HPTWR can achieve the low enrichment of loaded fuel, small reactivity swing, and long-term continuous operation for the power supply of decentralized electricity markets. Due to the excellent breeding capability of the HPTWR, the Th fuel is also added into the breeding fuel region of the reactor to achieve the Th-U fuel cycle in this work.Methods: The Monte Carlo code RMC is used to obtain the reactivity swing, propagation of axial power peak, burnup, and productions of bred fissile nuclides for the HPTWR with Th and U fuels.Results and Discussion: The results indicate that the HPTWR with 13.6% 235U enrichment of ignition fuel and 20% 235U enrichment of breeding fuel can continuously operate for 18.1 years without refueling when the mass fraction of 232Th in heavy metals of breeding fuel region is 33%. The propagation velocity of axial power peak and total burnup for the HPTWR with Th and U fuels is about 0.5525 cm/years and 24.72 GWd/THM during the 18.1 years operation respectively. The corresponding productions of bred 239Pu, 241Pu and 233U are about 212.99 kg of 239Pu, 0.19 kg of 241Pu and 81.58 kg of 233U at the end of cycle (EOC) respectively. The obtained results in this study demonstrate that the HPTWR can achieve the Th fuel breeding in the case of the low 235U enrichment loading (≤ 20%).

Polarized holographic properties play an important role in the holographic data storage of traditional organic recording materials. In this study, reduced graphene oxide (RGO) was introduced into a phenanthraquinone-doped polymethylmethacrylate (PQ/PMMA) photopolymer to effectively improve the orthogonal polarization holographic properties of the material. Importantly, the lateral size of RGO nanosheets has an important influence on the polymerization of MMA monomers. To some extent, a larger RGO diameter is more conducive to promoting the polymerization of MMA monomers and can induce more PMMA polymers to be grafted on its surface, thus obtaining a higher PMMA molecular weight. However, too large of a RGO will lead to too much grafting of the PMMA chain to shorten the length of a single PMMA chain, which will lead to the degradation of PQ/PMMA holographic performance. Compared with the original PQ/PMMA, the diffraction efficiency of the RGO-doped PQ/PMMA photopolymer can reach more than 11.4% (more than 3.5 times higher than the original PQ/PMMA), and its photosensitivity is significantly improved by 4.6 times. This study successfully synthesized RGO-doped PQ/PMMA high-performance photopolymer functional materials for multi-dimensional holographic storage by introducing RGO nanoparticles. Furthermore, the polarization holographic properties of PQ/PMMA photopolymer materials can be further accurately improved to a new level.

Abstract Background Unlike N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), which have been extensively studied, little is known about the role of N-terminal pro-C-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proCNP) for predicting survival post transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Methods A total of 309 patients were included in the analysis. Patients were grouped into quartiles (Q1–4) according to the baseline NT-proCNP value. Blood for NT-proCNP analysis was obtained prior to TAVR procedure. The primary endpoint was mortality after a median follow-up of 32 months. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models analyzed prognostic factors. The predictive capability was compared between NT-proBNP and NT-proCNP using receiver operator curve (ROC) analysis. Results A total of 309 subjects with the mean age of 76.8 ± 6.3 years, among whom 58.6% were male, were included in the analysis. A total of 58 (18.8%) patients died during follow-up. Cox multivariable analyses indicated society of thoracic surgeons (STS)-score was a strong independent predictor for mortality (hazard ratio (HR) 1.08, 95% confidential interval (CI) 1.05–1.12, P

Abstract Background T cell malignancies proliferate vigorously, are highly dependent on lysosomal function, with limited therapeutic options. Deregulation of lysosomal structure and function has been confirmed to be a key role in the treatment of hematologic malignant disease. Methods Cell counting kit 8 and Annexin V/PI staining were used to assess the cell viability and apoptosis rate. Flow cytometry, liquid chromatography mass spectrometry, immunofluorescence and western blot were performed to detect the effect on lysosomes. Drug affinity responsive target stability, molecular docking and cellular thermal shift assay were employed to confirm the target protein of V8 on lysosomes. A xenograft model was constructed in NOD/SCID mice to assess the effect and mechanism. Results V8, a new lysosomotropic compound, could be rapidly trapped by lysosomes and accumulation in lysosomes, contributing to lysosomal‐dependent cell death by evoking lysosomal membrane permeabilization (LMP), accompanied with disrupted lysosome and autophagic flux. Mechanistically, heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) was identified as the binding target of V8 in lysosome. As a downstream effect of targeting HSP70, enzymatic activity of acid sphingomyelinase (ASM) was inhibited, which induced disturbance of lipid metabolism, instability of lysosomal membrane, and leakage of cathepsin B and D, leading to LMP‐mediated cell death. In vivo study showed V8 well controlled the growth of the tumour and confirmed lysosomal cell death induced by V8. Conclusions Collectively, this study suggests targeting lysosomal HSP70‐ASM axis by V8 illustrates the great value of drug therapy for T cell malignancies and the unlimited potential of lysosomal targeting for cancer therapy.

BackgroundThere are only limited reports on the trends of NT-proBNP after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in aortic stenosis (AS) and even fewer report on the prognostic value of the NT-proBNP trajectory following TAVR.ObjectivesThis study aims to investigate short-term NT-proBNP trajectory following TAVR and explore its association with clinical outcomes in TAVR recipients.MethodsAortic stenosis patients undergoing TAVR were included if they had NT-proBNP levels recorded at baseline, prior to discharge, and within 30 days after TAVR. We used latent class trajectory models to identify NT-proBNP trajectories based on their trends over time.ResultsThree distinct NT-proBNP trajectories were identified from 798 TAVR recipients, which were named class 1 (N = 661), class 2 (N = 102), and class 3 (N = 35). Compared to those with trajectory class 1, patients with trajectory class 2 had a more than 2.3-fold risk of 5-year all-cause death and 3.4-fold risk of cardiac death, while patients with trajectory class 3 had a more than 6.6-fold risk of all-cause death and 8.8-fold risk of cardiac death. By contrast, the groups had no differences in 5-year hospitalization rates. In multivariable analyses, the risk of 5-year all-cause mortality was significantly higher in patients with trajectory class 2 (HR 1.90, 95% CI 1.03–3.52, P = 0.04) and class 3 (HR 5.70, 95% CI 2.45–13.23, P < 0.01).ConclusionOur findings implied different short-term evolution of NT-proBNP levels in TAVR recipients and its prognostic value for AS patients following TAVR. NT-proBNP trajectory may have further prognostic value, in addition to its baseline level. This may aid clinicians with regards to patient selection and risk prediction in TAVR recipients.

Industrial robots are gradually being employed in machining processes, particularly the cutting process, owing to their flexibility, mobility, and economic efficiency. However, it is difficult to make the manufacturing process intelligent owing to the complexity of robot machining process information handling and programming. In this paper, the architecture of a STEP-NC compliant closed-loop robot machining system was designed, including its function model and information stream. A methodology based on STEP-NC was established to enable the analysis of high-level information directly and automatically generating robot program according to the actual machining conditions. The STEP-NC Application Activity Model (AAM) and Application Reference Model (ARM) of closed-loop robot machining system is built to integrate the machining process data, monitoring and inspection data, mechanical equipment data, machining status data and inspection result data within a unified data flow, making it possible to realize intelligent manufacturing and adaptively adjusting the robot machining process. The proposed closed-loop robot machining system was implemented based on an open STEP-NC interpreter that interprets the high-level information in STEP-NC directly to reduce machining robot programming time. An industrial camera was integrated with the robot for rawpiece positioning, then the STEP-NC interpreter can generate robot path rapidly according to the parameters of manufacturing features and position of rawpiece. The STEP-NC interpreter can generate a robot control program or communicate with a software controller using an application program interface, so it can be integrated with both existing industrial robot controllers and future open robot controllers. Finally, case studies are conducted for the functional verification of the proposed STEP-NC compliant closed-loop robot machining system.

Storm surge and concomitant waves induced by extreme weather systems can significantly modulate the marine dynamic environment. In this study, we used the Advanced Circulation-Simulating Waves Nearshore (ADCIRC-SWAN) coupled model to analyze spatiotemporal variation in dynamic processes during two types of weather systems, i.e., typhoons and extratropical storms, in the sea area near the Shandong Peninsula. The effects of waves on water level, water level change on wave height, and currents on wave height were investigated and quantified separately by performing sensitivity experiments. Our results showed that the interaction between water level change and waves occurred mainly in the nearshore zone. The wave-induced surge accounted for about 10–15% of the total storm surge. The water level change-induced significant wave height reached up to 0.9–1.3 m. Wave–current interaction occurred mainly in the offshore zone and was related to the relative angle between wave and current directions. The modulations of water level and wave height were strongly dependent on not only storm track and intensity but also topography and coastline shapes.

The integrity of lysosomes is of vital importance to survival of tumor cells. We demonstrated that LW-218, a synthetic flavonoid, induced rapid lysosomal enlargement accompanied with lysosomal membrane permeabilization in hematological malignancy. LW-218-induced lysosomal damage and lysosome-dependent cell death were mediated by cathepsin D, as the lysosomal damage and cell apoptosis could be suppressed by depletion of cathepsin D or lysosome alkalization agents, which can alter the activity of cathepsins. Lysophagy, was initiated for cell self-rescue after LW-218 treatment and correlated with calcium release and nuclei translocation of transcription factor EB. LW-218 treatment enhanced the expression of autophagy-related genes which could be inhibited by intracellular calcium chelator. Sustained exposure to LW-218 exhausted the lysosomal capacity so as to repress the normal autophagy. LW-218-induced enlargement and damage of lysosomes were triggered by abnormal cholesterol deposition on lysosome membrane which caused by interaction between LW-218 and NPC intracellular cholesterol transporter 1. Moreover, LW-218 inhibited the leukemia cell growth in vivo. Thus, the necessary impact of integral lysosomal function in cell rescue and death were illustrated.

Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. is an aquatic plant in the family Nelumbonaceae, and almost every part has medicinal uses. It has been established that alkaloids are one of the main components in N. nucifera. This review focuses on the traditional uses of N. nucifera, the alkaloid constituents in each part of the plant and their structural classification, providing a comprehensive overview of the profiles of alkaloids isolated from N. nucifera and their antitumor activities. The efficiency and molecular mechanism of the alkaloids against specific tumors are reported, and their effects are discussed according to the hallmarks of cancer, highlighting their significance during cancer treatment. Furthermore, with the discovery of a new structural type of tribenzylisoquinolines alkaloid, neoliensinine, the antitumor effect of alkaloids in N. nucifera can be inferred from the structure of isoquinolines. This review aims to provide a theoretical basis for further development of natural products and new therapeutic agents in clinical practice and research on the mechanism of alkaloids in N. nucifera.

The circadian clock is closely associated with inflammatory reactions. Increased inflammatory cytokine levels have been detected in the airways of nocturnal asthma. However, the mechanisms that contribute to the nocturnal increase in inflammatory responses and the relationship with circadian clock remain unknown.MethodsInflammatory cytokine levels were measured in asthma patients with and without nocturnal symptoms. Allergic airway disease was induced in mice by ovalbumin (OVA), and different periods of light/dark cycles were used to induce circadian rhythm disorders. Serum shock was used to stimulate the rhythmic expression in human bronchial epidermal cells (16HBE). The expression and oscillation of circadian clock genes and inflammatory cytokines in 16HBE cells subjected to brain and muscle ARNT-like protein-1 (BMAL1) and Forkhead Box A2 (FOXA2) knockdown and treatment with a FOXA2 overexpression plasmid were assessed.ResultsSerum IL-6 was found to be significantly higher in asthmatic patients with nocturnal symptoms than those without nocturnal symptoms. The OVA-induced asthma model with a circadian rhythm disorder and 16HBE cells treated with serum shock showed an increase in IL-6 levels and a negative correlation with BMAL1 and FOXA2. The knockdown of BMAL1 resulted in a lower correlation between IL-6 and other rhythm clock genes. Furthermore, knockdown of the BMAL1 and FOXA2 in 16HBE cells reduced the expression and rhythmic fluctuations of IL-6.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that there are increased IL-6 levels in nocturnal asthma resulting from inhibition of the BMAL1/FOXA2 signalling pathway in airway epithelial cells.

Background: Decreased length of stay in the index hospitalization is a tendency in transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) era. In this study, we aim to evaluate the feasibility and safety of next-day discharge (NDD) in bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) patients following TAVR. Methods: The study analyzed patients who received TAVR in 2019 to 2022. Thirty-day mortality and readmission rate were compared between BAV and tricuspid aortic valve (TAV) patients. Results: The proportion of NDD was similar between the BAV and TAV group (45.3 % vs 41.3 %, p = 0.487). In NDD patients, the lower age (72.0 [67.0, 77.0] yrs vs 74.0 [70.0, 80.0] yrs, p = 0.011) and STS score (2.33 [1.56, 3.54] % vs 3.82 [2.38, 5.70] %, p

Abstract Background The positive transcription elongation factor b (P-TEFb) kinase activity is involved in the process of transcription. Cyclin-dependent kinase 9 (CDK9), a core component of P-TEFb, regulates the process of transcription elongation, which is associated with differentiation and apoptosis in many cancer types. Wogonin, a natural CDK9 inhibitor isolated from Scutellaria baicalensis. This study aimed to investigate the involved molecular mechanisms of wogonin on anti- chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) cells. Materials and methods mRNA and protein levels were analysed by RT-qPCR and western blot. Flow cytometry was used to assess cell differentiation and apoptosis. Cell transfection, immunofluorescence analysis and co-immunoprecipitation (co-IP) assays were applied to address the potential regulatory mechanism of wogonin. KU-812 cells xenograft NOD/SCID mice model was used to assess and verify the mechanism in vivo. Results We reported that the anti-CML effects in K562, KU-812 and primary CML cells induced by wogonin were regulated by P-TEFb complex. We also confirmed the relationship between CDK9 and erythroid differentiation via knockdown the expression of CDK9. For further study the mechanism of erythroid differentiation induced by wogonin, co-IP experiments were used to demonstrate that wogonin increased the binding between GATA-1 and FOG-1 but decreased the binding between GATA-1 and RUNX1, which were depended on P-TEFb. Also, wogonin induced apoptosis and decreased the mRNA and protein levels of MCL-1 in KU-812 cells, which is the downstream of P-TEFb. In vivo studies showed wogonin had good anti-tumor effects in KU-812 xenografts NOD/ SCID mice model and decreased the proportion of human CD45+ cells in spleens of mice. We also verified that wogonin exhibited anti-CML effects through modulating P-TEFb activity in vivo. Conclusions Our study indicated a special mechanism involving the regulation of P-TEFb kinase activity in CML cells, providing evidences for further application of wogonin in CML clinical treatment. Video Abstract

Storm surge inundation can induce great disasters in coastal regions, and Laizhou Bay (LZB), located in the Bohai Sea, is a bay that frequently experiences coastal storm flooding. In this study, we perform a numerical study of the effects of wind and waves on the storm surge-induced coastal inundation in the LZB using the coupled model ADCIRC+SWAN. Two historical typhoons (No. 9216 Typhoon Polly (TY9216) and No. 1909 Typhoon Lekima (TY1909)) are considered, wave effects in terms of wind-wave-induced surface stress and radiation stress are included, and two widely used wind data sources (CFS and ERA5) are used. The results indicate that the total inundation area and average inundation depth in the LZB during TY1909 are 10.70%-19.16% larger than during TY9216, and the CFS wind field reproduces a 14.31%-23.05% more intense inundation simulation than does the ERA5 wind field. The wave-induced surface stress plays the primary role in increasing the inundation area and average depth by up to 11.42%-18.50% and 5.82%-8.75%, respectively, and the wave-induced radiation stress also increases the inundation area and average depth by 3.80%-6.60% and 3.70%-4.57%, respectively. The results highlight the importance of considering wave effects in storm surge-induced coastal inundation simulations, and we demonstrate that the wave effects on the inundation area can be quite sensitive to the choice of wind field source.

Liver cancer continues to be a focus of scientific research due to its low five-year survival rate. One of its main core issues is the high metastasis of cells, for which there is no effective treatment. Neferine was originally isolated from Plumula nelumbinis and demonstrated to have a good antitumor effect. In order to extract high-purity Neferine in a more efficient and environmentally friendly manner, response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize the isolation and purification procedures in this study. The extract conditions of a 7:3 ratio for the eluent of dichloromethane: methanol, 1:60 for the mass ratio of the extract amount: silica gel, and 3 mL/min of the elution flow rate were shown to be the optimal conditions. These conditions resulted in the highest yield of 6.13 mg per 66.60 mg of starting material, with productivity of 8.76% and purity of 87.04%. Compared with the previous methods, this method can prepare Neferine in large quantities more quickly. We subsequently evaluated the antitumor activity of the purified Neferine against HepG2 hepatic cancer cells. The purified Neferine was found to inhibit the proliferation of HepG2 cells through the CCK-8 assay, with an IC50 of 33.80 μM in 24 h, 29.47 μM in 48 h, 24.35 μM in 72 h and 2.78 μM in 96 h of treatment. Neferine at a concentration of 3 μM could significantly inhibit the migration and invasion abilities of the HepG2 cells in vitro. We also explored the mechanism of action of Neferine via Western blot. We showed that Neferine could reduce RhoA expression by effectively inhibiting the phosphorylation of MYPT1, thereby effectively exerting anti-metastasis activity against HepG2 cells. Thus, we have optimized the isolation procedures for highly pure Neferine by response surface methodology (RSM) in this study, and purified Neferine is shown to play an essential role in the anti-metastasis process of liver cancer cells. The Neferine purification procedure may make a wide contribution to the follow-up development of other anti-metastasis lead compounds.

To alleviate the fire hazard of epoxy resin (EP), layered ammonium vanadium oxalate-phosphate (AVOPh) with the structural formula of (NH4)2[VO(HPO4)]2(C2O4)·5H2O is synthesized using the hydrothermal method and mixed into an EP matrix to prepare EP/AVOPh composites. The thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results show that AVOPh exhibits a similar thermal decomposition temperature to EP, which is suitable for flame retardancy for EP. The incorporation of AVOPh nanosheets greatly improves the thermal stability and residual yield of EP/AVOPh composites at high temperatures. The residue of pure EP is 15.3% at 700 °C. In comparison, the residue of EP/AVOPh composites is increased to 23.0% with 8 wt% AVOPh loading. Simultaneously, EP/6 wt% AVOPh composites reach UL-94 V1 rating (t1 + t2 =16 s) and LOI value of 32.8%. The improved flame retardancy of EP/ AVOPh composites is also proven by the cone calorimeter test (CCT). The results of CCT of EP/8 wt% AVOPh composites show that the peak heat release rate (PHHR), total smoke production (TSP), peak of CO production (PCOP), and peak of CO2 production (PCO2P) decrease by 32.7%, 20.4%, 37.1%, and 33.3% compared with those of EP, respectively. This can be attributed to the lamellar barrier, gas phase quenching effect of phosphorus-containing volatiles, the catalytic charring effect of transition metal vanadium, and the synergistic decomposition of oxalic acid structure and charring effect of phosphorus phase, which can insulate heat and inhibit smoke release. Based on the experimental data, AVOPh is expected to serve as a new high-efficiency flame retardant for EP.

Background In the recent decades, the development of novel digital health technologies enables doctors to monitor ECG and vital signs remotely. But the data on applying the noninvasive wearable smartwatch on patients with transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) are unknown. Methods and Results We performed a prospective, observational cohort study to evaluate the feasibility of a novel, virtual, and remote health care strategy for patients with TAVR discharged to home with smart wearable devices. A total of 100 consecutive patients with severe aortic stenosis who underwent elective transfemoral TAVR were enrolled and received the Huawei smartwatch at least 1 day before TAVR. Vital signs, including heart rate, rhythm, oxygen saturation, and activity, were continuously recorded. Single‐lead ECG was recorded twice per day in the week following TAVR discharge and at least 2 days a week for the subsequent month after TAVR discharge. A designated heart team member provided remote health care with the data from the smartwatch when the patient had a need. Thirty‐eight cardiac events were reported in 34 patients after discharge, with most of the events (76.0%) detected and confirmed by the smartwatch. Six patients were advised and readmitted to the hospital for arrhythmia events detected by the smartwatch, of whom 4 patients received pacemaker implantation. The remaining 28 (82.4%) patients received telemedicine monitoring instead of face‐to‐face clinical visits, and 3 of them received new medication treatment under the online guidance of doctors. New‐onset left branch bundle block was found in 48 patients, with transient characteristics, and recovered spontaneously in 30 patients, and new‐onset atrial fibrillation was detected in 4 patients. There were no significant differences in the average weekly heart rates or the ratio of abnormal or low oxygen saturation when compared with the baseline. The average daily steps increased over time significantly (baseline, 870±1353 steps; first week, 1986±2406 steps; second week, 2707±2716 steps; third week, 3059±3036 steps; fourth week, 3678±3485 steps, P

Abstract It is widely accepted that lysosomes are essential for cell homeostasis, and autophagy plays an important role in tumor development. Here, we found FV-429, a synthetic flavonoid compound, inhibited autophagy flux, promoted autophagosomes accumulation, and inhibited lysosomal degradation in T-cell malignancies. These effects were likely to be achieved by lysosomal dysregulation. The destructive effects of FV-429 on lysosomes resulted in blockage of lysosome-associated membrane fusion, lysosomal membrane permeabilization (LMP), and cathepsin-mediated caspase-independent cell death (CICD). Moreover, we initially investigated the effects of autophagy inhibition by FV-429 on the therapeutic efficacy of chemotherapy and found that FV-429 sensitized cancer cells to chemotherapy agents. Our findings suggest that FV-429 could be a potential novel autophagy inhibitor with notable antitumor efficacy as a single agent.

Conventional reservoir drill-in fluids used for drilling reservoirs in Weizhou Oilfield encounter rheological problems that result in technical problems such as hole-cleaning in openhole horizontal intervals. Hence, novel drill-in fluid was developed by optimizing the additive quantity and particle size distribution. Lab tests showed that novel drill-in fluids boast high low shearing rate viscosity, and provide promising cutting, carrying, and suspension capabilities. Furthermore, the novel drill-in fluids performed well in reservoir protection, with a permeability recovery rate of more than 90%. The novel drill-in fluids also have high inhibition capabilities with a linear expansion rate of mud shale as low as 10%, with a rolling recovery rate of up to 96.48%. Field application results showed no pipe-stuck was encountered during tripping in the horizontal interval when using the novel drill-in fluid. Moreover, by using the novel drill-in fluids, skin factor was reduced from 20.0 to −3.0, and daily oil production was double what was expected. It was concluded that novel drill-in fluids meets the demand of horizontal drilling intervals in Weizhou Oilfield and improves hole-cleaning and reservoir protection in the horizontal well.

Objective: Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), a pathological microbial metabolite, is demonstrated to be related to cardiovascular diseases. This study was (1) to investigate the association between TMAO and aortic stenosis and (2) to determine the prognostic value of TMAO for predicting mortality after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Methods: 299 consecutive patients (77 (72–81) years, 58.2% male, Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) score 5.8 (4.9–9.3)) with severe aortic stenosis and 711 patients (59 (52–66) years, 51.9% male) without aortic stenosis were included in this retrospective study. A total of 126 pairs of patients were assembled by Propensity Score Matching. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality using survival analyses stratified by TMAO quartiles. Results: Patients with severe aortic stenosis had higher TMAO levels (3.18 (1.77–6.91) μmol/L vs. 1.78 (1.14–2.68) μmol/L, p < 0.001), and TMAO remained significantly higher after adjusting for baseline characteristics. Higher TMAO level was associated with higher 2-year all-cause mortality (19.2% vs. 9.5%, log-rank p = 0.028) and higher late cumulative mortality (34.2% vs. 19.1%, log-rank p = 0.004). In Cox regression multivariate analysis, higher TMAO level remained an independent predictor (hazard ratio 1.788; 95% CI 1.064–3.005, p = 0.028) of all-cause mortality after adjusting for STS score, N-terminal pro b-type natriuretic peptide, and maximum velocity. Conclusions: The TMAO level was higher in aortic stenosis patients. Elevated TMAO was associated with poor adverse outcome after TAVR.

Phenanthraquinone-doped polymethyl methacrylate (PQ/PMMA) photopolymers are considered to be the most promising holographic storage media due to their unique properties, such as high stability, a simple preparation process, low price, and volumetric shrinkage. This paper reviews the development process of PQ/PMMA photopolymers from inception to the present, summarizes the process, and looks at the development potential of PQ/PMMA in practical applications.

In the passive containment cooling system of AP1000, the condensed water is expected to flow down on the inner surface of the steel wall of the containment, and recover to the in-containment refueling water storage tank (IRWST), therefore, to maintain the long-term coolability of the passive residual heat removal system. However, there are attached bulging plates on the inner surface for various engineering needs, such as supporting, and the impingement of condensed water film on these bulging plates can reduce the amount of the recovered water. In this article, a 3-D Eulerian wall film model in FLUENT was used to study a series of flow behaviors when a water film impinged on the bulging plate on a plane surface. The loss ratio of falling film impinging on attached plates of different sizes under different flow rates were calculated and in good agreement with the experiment results. Four stages of the film behavior during the impingement were identified and analyzed; in addition, the influences of the bulging height of attached plate and flow rate were studied. And a correlation between the loss ratio of impinging water film, the bulging height of the attached plate, and the Weber number was obtained.

AGO2 is a core component of the RNAi machinery and contributes to plant immunity during bacterial infection. Here the authors show that AGO2 activity is suppressed by arginine methylation which not only promotes AGO2 degradation but also recruits TSN proteins to degrade AGO2-associated small RNAs.

Accurate wave prediction can help avoid disasters. In this study, the significant wave height (SWH) prediction performances of the recurrent neural network (RNN), long short-term memory network (LSTM), and gated recurrent unit network (GRU) were compared. The 10 m u-component of wind (U10), 10 m v-component of wind (V10), and SWH of the previous 24 h were used as input parameters to predict the SWHs of the future 1, 3, 6, 12, and 24 h. The SWH prediction model was established at three different sites located in the Bohai Sea, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea, separately. The experimental results show that the performance of LSTM and GRU networks based on the gating mechanism was better than that of traditional RNNs, and the performances of the LSTM and GRU networks were comparable. The EMD method was found to be useful in the improvement of the LSTM network to forecast the significant wave heights of 12 and 24 h.

Hydraulic manipulators play an irreplaceable role in many heavy-duty applications. Currently, there are stronger demands for the hydraulic manipulator to achieve high precision, as well as high force/power. However, due to the inherent nonlinearities of its high-order dynamics, the precision of the manipulator has been a common weakness compared with electrically driven ones. Thus, in this paper, a nonlinear adaptive robust control method for the hydraulic manipulator is proposed. To make the controller more applicable to practical engineering projects, this study tried to control each joint independently instead of directly based on the complicated multi-degree high-order dynamics, while guaranteeing the control precision by the adaptive nonlinear model compensation, as well as a robust feedback design. The closed-loop control performance was theoretically verified. Besides, several sets of comparative motion tracking experiments were conducted, and the proposed closed-loop system achieved high precision under different trajectories and postures.

The semidiurnal internal tides (ITs) on the continental slope of the southeastern East China Sea (ECS) exhibited abrupt enhancement in November of 2017. This enhancement resulted from the intensification of the coherent semidiurnal ITs. Coherent and incoherent semidiurnal ITs had a comparative energy contribution in October; however, coherent semidiurnal ITs dominated with a variance contribution of 90% in November. The variance contribution of vertical modes of the semidiurnal ITs varied between October and November, and the mode with most variance contribution changed from the second mode to the first mode. Altimeter data and the observed background currents indicated that the Kuroshio mainstream meandered and abruptly intruded into the ECS in November. The upper layer background currents were significantly related to the kinetic energy of the semidiurnal ITs, and the correlation coefficient between them reached 0.81. The frequent occurrences of the Kuroshio intrusion have suggested that the ITs in the ECS are susceptible to the modulation of the Kuroshio current. Numerical modeling and predication of ITs should consider the meander of the Kuroshio mainstream.

Abstract Background Although targeting histone deacetylases (HDACs) may be an effective strategy for core binding factor‐acute myeloid leukemia (CBF‐AML) harboring t(8;21) or inv(16), HDAC inhibitors are reported to be limited by drug‐resistant characteristic. Our purpose is to evaluate the anti‐leukemia effects of Baicalein on CBF‐AML and clarify its underlying mechanism. Methods Enzyme activity assay was used to measure the activity inhibition of HDACs. Rhodamine123 and RT‐qPCR were employed to evaluate the distribution of drugs and the change of ATP‐binding cassette (ABC) transporter genes. CCK8, Annexin V/PI, and FACS staining certified the effects of Baicalein on cell growth, apoptosis, and differentiation. Duolink and IP assay assessed the interaction between HDAC‐1 and ubiquitin, HSP90 and AML1‐ETO, and Ac‐p53 and CBFβ‐MYH11. AML cell lines and primary AML cells‐bearing NOD/SCID mice models were used to evaluate the anti‐leukemic efficiency and potential mechanism of Baicalein in vivo. Results Baicalein showed HDAC‐1/8 inhibition to trigger growth suppression and differentiation induction of AML cell lines and primary AML cells. Although the inhibitory action on HDAC‐1 was mild, Baicalein could induce the degradation of HDAC‐1 via ubiquitin proteasome pathway, thereby upregulating the acetylation of Histone H3 without promoting ABC transporter genes expression. Meanwhile, Baicalein increased the acetylation of HSP90 and lessened its connection to AML1/ETO, consequently leading to degradation of AML1‐ETO in t(8;21)q(22;22) AML cells. In inv(16) AML cells, Baicalein possessed the capacity of apoptosis induction accompanied with p53‐mediated apoptosis genes expression. Moreover, CBFβ‐MYH11‐bound p53 acetylation was restored via HDAC‐8 inhibition induced by Baicalein contributing the diminishing of survival of CD34+ inv(16) AML cells. Conclusions These findings improved the understanding of the epigenetic regulation of Baicalein, and warrant therapeutic potential of Baicalein for CBF‐AML.

Passive containment cooling system (PCCS) is an important passive safety facility in the large advanced pressurized water reactor. Using the physical laws, such as gravity and buoyancy, the water film/air countercurrent flow is formed in the external annular channel to keep inside temperature and pressure below the maximum design values. Due to the large curvature radius of the annular channel, one of the short arc segments is taken out, as a rectangular channel, to analyze the main water film evaporation heat transfer characteristics. Two numerical methods are used to predict the water film evaporative mass flow rate during the heat transfer process in the large-scale rectangular channel with asymmetric heating when the water film temperature is not saturated. At the same time, these numerical simulation results are validated by the experiment which is set up to study water film/air countercurrent flow heat transfer on a vertical back heating plate with 5 m in length and 1.2 m in width. It is shown that the maximum deviation between numerical simulation and experiment is 30%. In addition, the influences on these parameters, such as heat flux, evaporative mass flow rate, and water film thickness, are evaluated under the different tilted angles of the rectangular channel and horizontal plane, water/air inlet flow rates, water/air inlet temperatures, heating surface temperatures, and air inlet relative humidities. All these results can provide a good guidance for the design of PCCS in the future.

Based on in situ observations, six episodes of near-inertial internal waves (NIWs) were detected on the East China Sea (ECS) continental slope, and the mechanisms and characteristics of them were examined. The generation mechanisms of the observed NIWs included typhoon, wind burst, lateral propagation, and energy transfer from low-frequency flow. The depth-integrated near-inertial kinetic energy (NIKE) showed no significant seasonal variation, and the annual mean NIKE and near-inertial currents were 400 J/m2 and 3.50 cm/s, respectively. Downward propagation of NIKE was evident in the small wavenumber band according to the rotary vertical wavenumber spectra. The NIKE was subsurface-intensified, and the near-inertial vertical shear reached 0.01 s−1. The vertical phase speeds of the NIWs ranged from 5 to 19 m/h. The frequencies of the NIWs were mostly red-shifted, however, blue-shift also existed. One episode had both blue- and red-shifted frequencies vertically, and had both upward and downward propagating vertical phase speeds. The e-folding times of the observed NIWs ranged from 4 to 11 days, which were influenced by successive wind bursts and background vorticity. On the left-hand side of Kuroshio, the background vorticity is usually positive; however, the NIWs were almost red-shifted, which resulted from the Doppler shift of the Kuroshio.

Characteristics of near-inertial waves (NIWs) induced by the tropical storm Noul in the South China Sea are analyzed based on in situ observations, remote sensing, and analysis data. Remote sensing sea level anomaly data suggests that the NIWs were influenced by a southwestward moving anticyclonic eddy. The NIWs had comparable spectral density with internal tides, with a horizontal velocity of 0.14–0.21 m/s. The near-inertial kinetic energy had a maximum value of 7.5 J/m3 and propagated downward with vertical group speed of 10 m/day. Downward propagation of near-inertial energy concentrated in smaller wavenumber bands overwhelmed upward propagation energy. The e-folding time of NIWs ranged from 4 to 11 days, and the larger e-folding time resulted from the mesoscale eddies with negative vorticity. Modified by background relative vorticity, the observed NIWs had both red-shifted and blue-shifted frequencies. The upward propagating NIWs had larger vertical phase speeds and wavelengths than downward propagating NIWs. There was energy transfer from the mesoscale field to NIWs with a maximum value of 8.5 × 10−9 m2 s−3 when total shear and relative vorticity of geostrophic currents were commensurate. Our results suggest that mesoscale eddies are a significant factor influencing the generation and propagation of NIWs in the South China Sea.

A coastal inundation simulation system was developed for the coast of the Pearl River estuary (PRE), which consists of an assimilation typhoon model and the coupled ADCIRC (Advanced Circulation) + SWAN (Simulating Waves Nearshore) model. The assimilation typhoon model consists of the Holland model and the analysis products of satellite images. This is the first time an assimilation typhoon model has been implemented and tested for coastal inundation via case studies. The simulation results of the system agree well with the real measurements. Three observed typhoon paths (Hope, Nida, and Hato) were chosen to be the studied paths based on their positions relative to the PRE, China. By comparing the results of experiments with different forcing fields, we determined that the storm surge and the coastal inundation were mainly induced by wind forcing. By simulating coastal inundation for different typhoon center speeds, the Hato3 path most easily causes coastal inundation in the PRE. Moreover, the moving speed of the typhoon’s center significantly affects the coastal inundation in the PRE. The inundation becomes very serious as the movement of the typhoon center was slow down. This study provides a new reference for future predictions of coastal inundations.

Based on satellite and analysis data and in situ observations acquired during May 23, 2017 to May 19, 2018, the spatiotemporal variations of the along-slope counter-flow off northeastern Taiwan were investigated. It was observed that the along-slope counter-flow in the subsurface layer was uplifted and lowered significantly during the study period. The counter-flow was significantly uplifted (lowered) while the sea surface was during an interval of positive (negative) geostrophic velocity anomaly (GVA) curl. The vertical migration of the counter-flow was also found closely linked with the Kuroshio intrusion (KI) to the northeast of Taiwan. The depths of both the upper boundary and the axis of the counter-flow were found proportional to the KI variance along the western continental slope off northeastern Taiwan. More importantly, it was established that the variation of the KI to the northeast of Taiwan had better correlation with the counter-flow than the Kuroshio derived from altimetry data. Thus, further study of the variation and mechanism of the along-slope counter-flow is needed to improve the understanding and prediction of the KI in the area of northeastern Taiwan, as well as the biochemical systems and marine economy in the East China Sea in the future.

Background: Fractional flow reserve (FFR) is currently considered as the gold standard for evaluating the functional significance of coronary stenosis. However, its potential benefits in real-world practice remain unknown in China. This study aimed to test the hypothesis that the use of FFR is associated with improved outcome and reduced cost in Chinese real-world clinical practice. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was carried out using the database of Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, a tertiary and high-volume center in China. Clinical events were compared using the Cox proportional hazards model during a median follow-up of 13 months. Results: The study cohort consisted of 366 consecutive patients referred for coronary revascularization with adjunct FFR and 366 matched controls, from 2010 to 2014. Major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) (death, myocardial infarction, repeated revascularization, or hospitalization for angina) at 4 years were found in 12.0% of angiography-guided patients and 4.9% in the FFR-guided group (P < 0.001). The mean number of implanted stents was significantly lower in FFR treated subjects (0.52 ± 0.82 stents) compared with the angiography-guided group (0.93 ± 0.96 stents) (P < 0.001). No difference in overall costs at initial hospitalization was observed between angiography-guided percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) compared with FFR-guided PCI (RMB 33,000 Yuan, range: RMB 7393-44,700 Yuan) versus RMB 21,200 Yuan (RMB 19,100-47,100 Yuan) (P = 0.54). However, costs for MACEs during follow-up were significantly reduced in the FFR-guided arm (P < 0.001). Conclusions: In the contemporary clinical practice, FFR-guided PCI is associated with decreased use of stents, improved clinical outcome, and reduced costs, compared with angiography-guided PCI.

How to identify protein complex is an important and challenging task in proteomics. It would make great contribution to our knowledge of molecular mechanism in cell life activities. However, the inherent organization and dynamic characteristic of cell system have rarely been incorporated into the existing algorithms for detecting protein complexes because of the limitation of protein-protein interaction (PPI) data produced by high throughput techniques. The availability of time course gene expression profile enables us to uncover the dynamics of molecular networks and improve the detection of protein complexes. In order to achieve this goal, this paper proposes a novel algorithm DCA (Dynamic Core-Attachment). It detects protein-complex core comprising of continually expressed and highly connected proteins in dynamic PPI network, and then the protein complex is formed by including the attachments with high adhesion into the core. The integration of core-attachment feature into the dynamic PPI network is responsible for the superiority of our algorithm. DCA has been applied on two different yeast dynamic PPI networks and the experimental results show that it performs significantly better than the state-of-the-art techniques in terms of prediction accuracy, hF-measure and statistical significance in biology. In addition, the identified complexes with strong biological significance provide potential candidate complexes for biologists to validate.

We are delighted to share with you our seventh Journal Club and highlight some of the most interesting papers published recently [...]

Rotating machinery usually suffers from a type of fault, where the fault feature extracted in the frequency domain is significant, while the fault feature extracted in the time domain is insignificant. For this type of fault, a deep learning-based fault diagnosis method developed in the frequency domain can reach high accuracy performance without real-time performance, whereas a deep learning-based fault diagnosis method developed in the time domain obtains real-time diagnosis with lower diagnosis accuracy. In this paper, a multimodal feature fusion-based deep learning method for accurate and real-time online diagnosis of rotating machinery is proposed. The proposed method can directly extract the potential frequency of abnormal features involved in the time domain data. Firstly, multimodal features corresponding to the original data, the slope data, and the curvature data are firstly extracted by three separate deep neural networks. Then, a multimodal feature fusion is developed to obtain a new fused feature that can characterize the potential frequency feature involved in the time domain data. Lastly, the fused new feature is used as the input of the Softmax classifier to achieve a real-time online diagnosis result from the frequency-type fault data. A simulation experiment and a case study of the bearing fault diagnosis confirm the high efficiency of the method proposed in this paper.

Early detection of slowly varying small faults is an essential step for fault prognosis. In this paper, we first propose an average accumulative (AA) based time varying principal component analysis (PCA) model for early detection of slowly varying faults. The AA based method can increase the fault size as well as decrease the noise energy. Then, designated component analysis (DCA) is introduced for developing an AA-DCA method to diagnose the root cause of the fault, which is helpful for the operator to make maintenance decisions. Combining the advantage of the cumulative sum (CUSUM) based method and the AA based method, a CUSUM-AA based method is developed to detect faults at earlier times. Finally, the remaining useful life (RUL) prediction model with error correction is established by nonlinear fitting. Once online fault size defined by detection statistics is obtained by an early diagnosis algorithm, real-time RUL prediction can be directly estimated without extra recursive regression.

An experiment simulating coal seam under forced vibration conditions was conducted. Acceleration response and microseism signal during the experiment were collected and analyzed. It is found that, with an increasing amount of vibration, the natural frequency of the specimen decreases, and this phenomenon reflects fractures appearing in the specimen. Acceleration response signals show that peaks in shock excitation frequency and shock excitation acceleration affect the acceleration response, which reflects damage to the specimen. When shock excitation frequency nears natural frequency, the acceleration response first decreases and then increases. When resonance occurs, it reaches its maximum value. As shock excitation acceleration peaks increase, the acceleration response peak of the specimen also increases. We conclude that destruction is mainly concentrated in the coal seam evidenced by specimen destruction situation. Then shock excitation frequency and shock excitation acceleration influence on microseism signals were analyzed by Hilbert-Huang transform. By receiving these signals and analyzing their characteristics, it is beneficial to develop new methods to predict disasters underground dynamically in the future.

This paper introduces an extended code package PARCS/RELAP5 to analyze steady state of SCWR US reference design. An 8 × 8 quarter core model in PARCS and a reactor core model in RELAP5 are used to study the core flow distribution under various steady state conditions. The possibility of moderator flow reversal is found in some hot moderator channels. Different moderator flow orifice strategies, both uniform across the core and nonuniform based on the power distribution, are explored with the goal of preventing the reversal.

The new capability is added to the existing coupled code package PARCS/RELAP5, in order to analyze SCWR design under supercritical pressure with the separated water coolant and moderator channels. This expansion is carried out on both codes. In PARCS, modification is focused on extending the water property tables to supercritical pressure, modifying the variable mapping input file and related code module for processing thermal-hydraulic information from separated coolant/moderator channels, and modifying neutronics feedback module to deal with the separated coolant/moderator channels. In RELAP5, modification is focused on incorporating more accurate water properties near SCWR operation/transient pressure and temperature in the code. Confirming tests of the modifications is presented and the major analyzing results from the extended codes package are summarized.