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In melt electrospinning, accurate control of jet evolution and Taylor cone process parameters helps to control the final fiber properties. High-speed photography was employed to observe the jet's formation process and the Taylor cone's morphology. A multi-physics model of nonisothermal heat transfer was used to predict the fluid flow direction and velocity change. In addition, we investigated the relationships between the process parameters of the Taylor cone and the diameter of melt electrospun fiber. The results show an excellent linear relationship between the process parameters (cone angle, curvature, and Taylor cone height) and fiber diameter. According to the simulation results, the axial fluid flow keeps the maximum and accelerates continuously until the collector captures it. In addition, with the increase of voltage, the fiber strength is lower, and the crystallinity is improved. This work analyzes diameter and process parameters and offers a fresh perspective on electrostatic-fluid interaction and a method to forecast fiber diameter.

This research examined the influence of solution concentration on Taylor cone morphology, jet behavior, fiber surface morphology, and the impact of spinning voltage on the microbead shape of the beaded fiber. The straight jet length, envelope cone, whipping frequency of the electrospun jet, and Taylor cone morphology were studied using the images captured by a high-speed photography camera. According to the findings, higher solution concentrations result in longer straight jet lengths, smaller envelope cones, and lower whipping frequencies. Scanning electron microscopy was used to ascertain the diameter and surface morphology of polystyrene fibers, revealing that fibers spun with higher solution concentrations had larger diameters. In contrast, low concentration solutions receive more electric field forces due to higher conductivity. The jet tends to break, and fibers with the beads-on-a-string morphology form. Furthermore, the influence of voltage on microbead shape has been further examined using the simulation software COMSOL. As the spinning voltage increases, the jet’s stretching impact is more prominent, and the bead shape gradually changes from nearly circular to spindle-shaped.

Melt electrospinning has been recognized as an attractive solvent-free process over the past few decades to alleviate the solvent-related problems generated by traditional electrospinning techniques. In melt spinning, the drawing process of molten jets occurs in the liquid phase region before the phase transformation. Besides, the insufficient chain flow in the solid phase results in the non-stretchable properties of the jet in this state. This analysis predicted the phase transition displacement in the polymer jet during the melting process using a two-dimensional non-isothermal flow model integrated with an electric field. High-speed photography was employed to collect photographs of the phase transition point of the jet to verify the simulation results. Additionally, we evaluated the diameters of fibers manufactured with various phase transition displacements induced by different applied voltages. The findings of the experiments reveal that as the applied voltage is enhanced, the freezing point of the jet becomes gradually closer to the nozzle side, and the solidification length significantly reduces, resulting in smaller fiber diameter. Moreover, the results mentioned above are consistent with the law predicted by the simulation, proving the feasibility and accuracy of the model. This work will provide potential guidance for the study of nanoscale melt fibers from the perspective of fluid phase transformation.

Electrospun porous beaded fibers show great potential in the industrial application of many different fields; in addition, the processing parameters play an extremely important role in producing the required porous beaded fibers. In this study, polystyrene porous beaded fibers were fabricated via the electrospinning method. To further research into the formation mechanism of the electrospun porous beaded fiber, the influences of both flow rate and applied voltage on the jet motion and surface morphology of polystyrene porous beaded fibers were investigated in a systematic and comprehensive way. Images of jet trajectories and fiber morphologies under selected parameters were captured by high-speed photography and scanning electron microscopy, respectively, to explore the formation mechanism of porous beaded fibers. The experimental results showed that both flow rate and applied voltage have tremendous influence on the jet pattern and resultant fiber morphology, namely, the higher flow rate results in a multi-jet pattern and larger bead diameter, and the larger applied voltage leads to multi-jet trajectory and a reduction in the number and diameter of beads.

In this study, the effect of the heating temperature of the spinneret on the melt electrospinning process under the condition of application of auxiliary heating was investigated, in a systematical and comprehensive way. The temperature distribution of the melt jet during the melt electrospinning process was simulated by finite element software in order to provide a good deal of insight into the experimental results. In addition, high-speed photography was adopted to capture images of jet formation and jet motion during the melt electrospinning process. The experimental results indicated that the cooling rate of the polypropylene jet decreases obviously under the condition of auxiliary heating; in addition, the higher spinneret temperature leads to greater drafting force, a drawing fiber drafting rate, and greater jet whipping motion, which is conducive to secondary drawing and refinement of the jet.

It is well known that the electric field has great influence on the diameter and properties of fibers during melt-electrospinning. This study introduces the influences of three types of collectors on the electric field distribution. An auxiliary electrode was used to enhance the electric field strength. Numerical simulation was used to understand the electric field distribution. Simulation and experimental results show that the electric field strength had an important influence on fiber properties. A more uniform electric field distribution capable of steadily controlling the jet behavior was obtained using the disc-shaped collector, thus effectively reducing the fiber diameter and improving fiber strength.

Metformin has been found to have inhibitory effects on a variety of tumors. However, its effects on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remain unclear. We demonstrated that metformin could inhibit the proliferation of A549 and H1299 cells. RNA transcriptome sequencing revealed that PDL1 was significantly downregulated in both cell types following treatment with metformin (P

Background The prognostic significance of ALK rearrangement is still contradictory. Here, we aimed to investigate the clinical characteristics and outcomes of lung adenocarcinoma patients with ALK rearrangement, and analyze whether these patients benefited from targeted therapy. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study of 80 ALK‐rearranged lung adenocarcinoma patients who had undergone radical surgery and another 3031 ALK mutation‐negative patients were retrospectively reviewed for inclusion in this case‐controlled analyses. Overall survival (OS) was evaluated using the Kaplan‐–Meier method. Univariate analysis (UVA) and multivariate analysis (MVA) by the Cox proportional hazards regression identified risk factors that predicted OS. Results Compared to ALK‐negative patients, the ALK rearranged patients were younger, with more non‐smokers, more females, a larger primary tumor was demonstrated, and were a higher pathological stage. In particular, the risk of lymph node metastasis was higher. For patients with surgically‐resected tumors, the prognosis was better for ALK rearranged patients (HR = 0.503; 95% CI: 0.259–0.974, p = 0.041). In addition, for stage II–III patients, targeted therapy was an independent prognostic factor of better OS (HR = 0.159; 95% CI: 0.032–0.801, p = 0.026). Conclusions ALK rearranged lung adenocarcinoma patients who have undergone radical surgery have distinct clinical features. Patients with ALK rearrangement may have a favorable prognosis, and stage II–III patients may benefit from targeted treatment., The article compared 80 ALK+ and 3031 ALK‐ lung adenocarcinoma patients after surgery, explored the clinicopathological characteristics and prognostic features of ALK+ lung adenocarcinoma patients, and analyzed the impact of targeted drugs on the survival of ALK+ lung adenocarcinoma patients after surgery.

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) accounts for 90% of all cases of esophageal cancers worldwide. Although neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT-ESCC) improves the survival of ESCC patients, the five-year survival rate of these patients is dismal. The tumor microenvironment (TME) and tumor heterogeneity decrease the efficacy of ESCC therapy. In our study, 113,581 cells obtained from five ESCC patients who underwent surgery alone (SA-ESCC) and five patients who underwent preoperative paclitaxel plus platinum chemotherapy (NACT-ESCC), were used for scRNA-seq analysis to explore molecular and cellular reprogramming patterns. The results showed samples from NACT-ESCC patients exhibited the characteristics of malignant cells and TME unlike samples from SA-ESCC patients. Cancer cells from NACT-ESCC samples were mainly at the ‘intermediate transient stage’. Stromal cell dynamics showed molecular and functional shifts that formed the immune-activation microenvironment. APOE, APOC1, and SPP1 were highly expressed in tumor-associated macrophages resulting in anti-inflammatory macrophage phenotypes. Levels of CD8+ T cells between SA-ESCC and NACT-ESCC tissues were significantly different. Immune checkpoints analysis revealed that LAG3 is a potential immunotherapeutic target for both NACT-ESCC and SA-ESCC patients. Cell–cell interactions analysis showed the complex cell-cell communication networks in the TME. In summary, our findings elucidate on the molecular and cellular reprogramming of NACT-ESCC and ESCC patients. These findings provide information on the potential diagnostic and therapeutic targets for ESCC patients.

In this study, the jet formation progress, jet motion, resultant fiber diameter, fiber mat morphology, inner structures and mechanical properties of the fibers prepared at different heating temperatures via melt electrospinning system were studied, in a comprehensive and systematic manner. The temperature distribution of the melt electrospinning configuration was simulated, in order to provide a good deal of insight into the experimental results. High-speed photography was adopted to capture the images of jet formation process and jet motion during melt electrospinning. The experimental results showed that higher heating temperature at the spinneret results in shorter jet formation time, smaller fiber diameter, more disordered fiber mat, lower degree of crystallinity and strength. The simulation works was carried out, aimed at facilitating to deeply understand the experimental results.

Background Tumor invasiveness reflects many biological changes associated with tumorigenesis, progression, metastasis, and drug resistance. Therefore, we performed a systematic assessment of invasiveness-related molecular features across multiple human cancers. Materials and methods Multi-omics data, including gene expression, miRNA, DNA methylation, and somatic mutation, in approximately 10,000 patients across 30 cancer types from The Cancer Genome Atlas, Gene Expression Omnibus, PRECOG, and our institution were enrolled in this study. Results Based on a robust gene signature, we established an invasiveness score and found that the score was significantly associated with worse prognosis in almost all cancers. Then, we identified common invasiveness-associated dysregulated molecular features between high- and low-invasiveness score group across multiple cancers, as well as investigated their mutual interfering relationships thus determining whether the dysregulation of invasiveness-related genes was caused by abnormal promoter methylation or miRNA expression. We also analyzed the correlations between the drug sensitivity data from cancer cell lines and the expression level of 685 invasiveness-related genes differentially expressed in at least ten cancer types. An integrated analysis of the correlations among invasiveness-related genetic features and drug response were conducted in esophageal carcinoma patients to outline the complicated regulatory mechanism of tumor invasiveness status in multiple dimensions. Moreover, functional enrichment suggests the invasiveness score might serve as a predictive biomarker for cancer patients receiving immunotherapy. Conclusion Our pan-cancer study provides a comprehensive atlas of tumor invasiveness and may guide more precise therapeutic strategies for tumor patients.

The tumor microenvironment (TME) plays an essential role in the occurrence and progression of malignancy. The potential prognostic TME-related biomarkers of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) remained unclear, which were investigated in this research. The RNA-sequencing profiles and corresponding clinical parameters were extracted from TCGA and GEO databases, based on which the stromal and immune scores were calculated through the ESTIMATE algorithm. Overlapping differentially expressed genes between stromal and immune score group were analyzed by the LASSO and Random Forrest algorithms and validated in cases from our center. And a prognostic 8-gene signature was constructed using Cox regression. The infiltration of 22 hematopoietic cell phenotypes was assessed by the CIBERSORT algorithms. We found that female, elder patients, and solid predominant subtype had obviously higher stromal and immune scores. And patients with early stage LUAD received a prominently higher immune score. A high stromal or immune score meant a good prognosis. Subsequently, eight TME-related prognostic genes (ATAD5, CYP4F3, CYP4F12, ESPNL, FXYD2, GPX2, NLGN4Y, and SERPINC1) were identified by both LASSO regression and Radom Forest algorithms. High 8-gene signature group exhibited worse overall survival. Furthermore, B cell naïve, plasma cells, T cell follicular helper, and macrophages M1 were prominently more in high signature group. Nevertheless, fewer T cells CD4 memory resting, monocytes, and dendritic cell resting were identified in the high signature group. The composition of the tumor microenvironment significantly affected the prognosis of LUAD patients. We provided a new strategy for the exploration of prognostic TME-related biomarkers and immunotherapy.

At present, there exists a widely-held view that electric field plays an extremely important role in the electrospray process. Aimed at investigating into the effects of electric field distribution and intensity on the electrospray process and resultant microsphere diameter, a variety of necessary and relevant tests were performed in this study by inviting an auxiliary electrode ring. The three-dimensional electric fields of the electrospray system were simulated, in addition, high-speed photography was adopted to recognize the electrospray modes. The results of a series of electrospray experiments demonstrated that not only electrospray mode but also resultant microsphere diameters are influenced, to a considerable degree, by the electric field. Such simulation results were verified by above-mentioned experiments that from higher electric field intensity comes smaller microsphere diameter, due to the fission caused by the surface charge, and besides, more uniform electric field distribution produces more uniform microsphere diameter.

To characteristic tensile behavior of woven fabric and identify tensile failure mechanism is still a challenging work. In this paper, a new acoustic emission-based method is applied for the charact...

Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Traditional RNA sequencing data fails to detect the exact cellular and molecular changes in tumor cells as they make up only a small proportion of tumor tissue. 10× genomics single-cell RNA sequencing (10× scRNA-seq) and gene expression data of LUAD patients was obtained from the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, ArrayExpress, TCGA, and GEO databases. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in LUAD and alveolar cells (DEGs-scRNA-cancer_cell), tumor- and normal tissue-derived cells (DEGs-scRNA-sample), and normal and LUAD patients (DEGs-Bulk). Flow cytometry and qRT-PCR were performed to validate the significantly differentially expressed ligand-receptor pairs. We selected 159,219 cells and 594 samples in the scRNA-seq data and traditional RNA sequencing, respectively. A total of 1042 DEGs-scRNA-cancer_cell, 788 DEGs-scRNA-sample, and 2510 DEGs-Bulk were identified in this study. We also identified 57 DEGs that were only detected in DEGs-scRNA-cancer_cell (only-DEGs-scRNA-cancer_cell). To explore the relationship between only-DEGs-scRNA-cancer_cell and survival in LUAD, 14 and 22 only-DEGs-scRNA-cancer_cell, which were closely related with survival in TCGA and GEO cohorts were identified. Functional enrichment analyses showed these DEGs-scRNA-cancer_cells were mainly related to cell proliferation and immunoregulation. Our study detected and compared DEGs at different levels and revealed genes that may regulate tumor development. Our results provide a potential new protocol to determine the contribution of DEGs to cancer progression and to help identify potential therapeutic targets.

Yuansheng Zheng,1,* Yiwei Huang,1,* Guoshu Bi,1,* Zhencong Chen,1 Tao Lu,1 Songtao Xu,1,2 Cheng Zhan,1 Qun Wang1 1Department of Thoracic Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai City, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Thoracic Surgery, Xiamen Branch, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Xiamen City, Fujian Province, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Cheng Zhan; Qun WangDepartment of Thoracic Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, No. 180, Fenglin Road, Shanghai 200032, People’s Republic of ChinaTel/Fax +86-21-64041990Email czhan10@fudan.edu.cn; wang.qun@zs-hospital.sh.cnBackground: Most non-small cell lung cancer patients with enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes (LN) in preoperative computer tomography (CT) images are diagnosed with N0 in the pathological examination after surgery. However, these patients seem to have worse survival than those without enlarged mediastinal LN in our clinical practice. This study aimed to investigate whether the size of mediastinal LN is correlated with the prognosis in pathological N0 patients, which could help us to predict the prognoses further.Methods: The retrospective cohort study involved 758 N0 patients with a thin layer CT scan. We have measured the size of mediastinal LN, including long diameter, short diameter, and volume on CT image, and classified patients by X-tile. Next, we explored the risk factors of enlarged LN by univariate and multivariate logistic analysis. Then, we have compared the 5-year cancer-specific survival by Kaplan–Meier and log-rank method. Multivariate Cox analysis was utilized to further survival analysis. Finally, we have constructed the prediction model by nomogram.Results: A total of 150 N0 patients (19.8%) had mediastinal LN enlargement in our study. After multivariate logistic analysis, we found the LN enlargement was significantly correlated with age (p=0.001), pathology (p < 0.001) and tumor recurrence (p < 0.001). The patients with LN enlargement had a worse 5-year cancer-specific survival (75.3% vs 92.8%, p < 0.001) after Kaplan–Meier analysis. Patients with a larger volume had increased risk of tumor-associated death when compared with the normal group (p < 0.001) by multivariate Cox analyses.Conclusion: N0 patients with larger mediastinal LN had a worse 5-year cancer-specific survival and a higher risk of recurrence. The volume of LN was the most valuable prognostic factor in N0 patients.Keywords: mediastinal lymph nodes, enlarged, prognosis, computed tomography

Background Lung large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (L-LCNEC) is a rare and rapidly progressing lung cancer. We aimed to formulate a nomogram model to predict the survival of L-LCNEC patients. Methods Clinical data of patients with L-LCNEC, lung large cell cancer (L-LCC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC) were derived from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. The characteristics and prognosis of L-LCNEC were investigated by comparing with that of L-LCC and SCLC, respectively. All L-LCNEC patients were randomly assigned into training group and validation group. A prognostic nomogram model was established for the overall survival (OS) in L-LCNEC patients. Furthermore, we enrolled 112 L-LCNEC patients from our department to validate the nomogram model. Result 3,076 L-LCNEC, 11,163 L-LCC, and 78,097 SCLC patients were collected and enrolled in our analyses. Compared with L-LCC and SCLC, differences were observed in L-LCNEC in age, sex, race, marital status, SEER registry, TNM stage, and treatment. Furthermore, higher proportions of L-LCNEC were located at the upper lobe and unilateral lung compared with SCLC. L-LCNEC has similar survival to L-LCC, but better than SCLC. We identified that the age, gender, T, N, and M classification, and treatment were the independent prognostic predictors. A nomogram model was formulated to predict the OS. Calibration curves were performed to show optimal coherence between predicted probability of survival and actual survival, with a concordance index of 0.775. The external cohort included 112 patients and all of them underwent surgical treatment. The external validation demonstrated the reliability of this model. Conclusions The nomogram demonstrated its discrimination capability to predict the OS for L-LCNEC patients.

In this study, a novel polyvinylbutyral (PVB) bonded polypropylene (PP) composite fibrous mat was fabricated via melt-electrospinning. In order to enhance the structure stability and mechanical properties of pristine PP fibrous mat system, preparation and characterization of the composite fibrous material by mixing different percentages of PVB and PP was designed. The PVB can form bonding point between the PP fibers, which can ease the slip phenomenon between strained fibers. The structure, morphology, tensile and tearing stress were measured systematically. The resultants exhibited that the tensile stress and tearing strength of composite fibrous mats were increased from 30.13 to 43.73 kPa and from 0.07 to 0.5 N, respectively. Meanwhile, the straight jet length and whipping range of each electrospun jets were analyzed via the images captured by a high-speed photography system during the spinning process. The experimental resultants depicted that composite system can lead to longer straight jet length and smaller whipping range.

Energy release usually accompanies the single-fiber tensile fracture, and can be monitored using acoustic emission technology. Generated during the process of molecular structure fracture of various fibers, the acoustic emission signals can be extracted to identify different fracture types of fiber, which is especially important to the yarn formation process. In this study, a low-noise fiber-stretching device was employed to process the weak-intensity signal generated during fiber tensile fracture; in addition, the Hilbert–Huang transform (HHT), principal component analysis (PCA) and least squares support vector machine (LSSVM) algorithms were combined to identify the collected acoustic emission signals of polyester and cotton fibers. At the same time, it was verified that compared with the single-fiber breaking acoustic emission signal obtained by the electronic single-fiber strength tester, the signal acquisition device based on pneumatic components proposed in this paper can significantly improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the signal. According to the algorithm recognition results, the recognition rate of the two fibers increased from 74% to 95%.The experimental results indicate successful measurements of different fractures of two types of fiber.

Electrospun membranes have potential applications in the field of waterproof and breathable textile products. However, challenges still exist to improve the breathability, and waterproof and mechanical properties of these microporous membranes. In this paper, a novel hydrophobic microporous nanofiber membrane was prepared via side-by-side electrospinning of fluorosilane-modified silica nanoparticles (F–SiO2) blended with synthesized polyurethane (PU) solution and composited with the polyacrylonitrile (PAN) solution. To prepare F–SiO2, SiO2 nanoparticles were hydrophobically modified by fluorosilane. Composite nanofiber membranes with different blending ratios of PU(F–SiO2)/PAN were fabricated via side-by-side electrospinning by controlling the extruding speed of two spinnerets. Experimental results indicated that regarding F–SiO2 as hydrophobic inorganic particle can improve the hydrophobic properties of PU nanofiber membrane. The prepared PAN/(F–SiO2/PU) nanofiber microporous membranes exhibit relatively excellent waterproof and mechanical properties as that robust tensile strength (19.5 MPa), preferable water vapor permeability [10.3 kg/(m2 d)], favorable water contact angle (137.2°), and superior mechanical properties. It was believed that the reinforced PAN/(F–SiO2/PU) nanofibrous composite membranes have potential applications in chemical protective clothing, army combat uniforms, self-cleaning materials, and other medical products.

via the acoustic emission technology, a method used for investigating the single fiber fracture sequence during tensile fracture process of blended yarn, which is made of different kinds of fiber w...

The electric field and temperature are the two important factors that influence the diameter and properties of fiber in the melt electrospinning process. It is commonly known that the polymer jet behavior is governed by the electric field within spinning area. In present work, a comprehensively-designed and properly-conducted analysis was carried out to investigate into the effects of electric field on the jet behaviors, diameters, crystalline structure and mechanical properties of the resultant fibers. An auxiliary electrode was invited to enhance the electric field strength. The high-speed photography was adopted to capture the jet motion, and also, the numerical simulation was used to understand the electric field distribution. By making use of the whipping amplitude and whipping frequency, the characteristics of jet behavior were described. It was found that by applying an auxiliary electrode, the average fiber diameter reduced from 61.01 µm to 9.06 µm, and the crystallinity and strength of the fiber was improved with the help of the higher electric filed intensity. In addition, the more uniform electric field would produce finer and more uniform fiber because of the more stable jet motion.

BACKGROUND: Adenosquamous carcinoma (ASC) of the lung is an infrequent variant of lung cancer. This study aimed to identify independent risk factors and to develop a predictive model for the prognosis of ASC patients. METHODS: Patient data were extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database (2004 to 2016) and database in our department (2010 to 2014). Overall survival (OS) was evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier method. Significant prognostic factors were identified by univariate analysis (UVA) and multivariate analysis (MVA) using the Cox proportional hazards regression. Competing risk model analyses were performed using cancer-specific survival outcomes. A nomogram was developed to predict patient 3-year and 5-year OS and was validated using data from the two databases. RESULTS: A total of 4,600 patients with ASC were included and divided into a training cohort (n=3,202) and two validation cohorts (n=1,372, n=26). Patients with ASC had significantly older age, lower grades of tumor differentiation or incidences of nodal, and distant invasions than adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the lung (P

Polyurethane is a thermoplastic elastomer with excellent physical and chemical properties, the hydrophilicity of PU limits the wide application in the waterproof and breathable materials market. In this study, SiO2 nanoparticles were hydrophobically modified by fluorosilane to prepare the fluorosilane-modified silica (F-SiO2), then it was added into the synthesized polyurethane to prepare waterproof and breathable film (F-SiO2/PU) by electrospinning. Compared with polyurethane membranes, F-SiO2/PU composite membranes could form rough morphological surface through the blending of F-SiO2. The experimental results showed that the water contact angle of the composite nanofiber membranes increase with the addition of the amount of modified silica, and the water contact angle reached 135 o when the dosage of F-SiO2 was 5 wt%. The composite nanofiber membranes could be endowed with excellent waterproof performance, hydrophobicity (50 kPa) and moisture permeability (10.4 kg/m2•h). Besides, the prepared membrane can remain the hydrophobic property stability under the dynamic tensile of large-scale deformation.

Two core–shell-structured polystyrene/poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PS/PVP) and PVP/PS composite fibers were prepared via coaxial electrospinning in this study. Different concentrations of PVP solutions...

A series of membranes, made from polystyrene microfibers and with different morphologies, were fabricated via electrospinning method in this study. In addition, not only porous fibers but also beaded fibers were obtained by adjusting the experimental temperature in a reasonable and appropriate way. Assisted by a high-speed camera, the images of jet behaviors at different experimental temperatures were captured for the purpose of in-depth and comprehensive understanding of formation mechanism of different fiber morphologies. Mono-disperse sodium chloride aerosol particles with different sizes and cigarette smoke were used, for the attainment of the objective of evaluation on the filtration performance of fabricated membranes. The experimental results showed that straight fiber with narrow pores on its surface can be obtained at 20°C spinning temperature because of the rapid jet motion and solvent evaporation, and also, beaded fibers can be fabricated in the situation of spinning temperature higher than 25°C due to the sudden change of surface tension resulted from the fast solvent evaporation. The porous straight fibers exhibited excellent filtration performance to cigarette smoke and aerosol containing particles of all sizes (99.76%, 99.92%, and 99.99% filtration efficiency for particles with sizes of 0.3 µm, 0.5 µm, and 1 µm, respectively).

Electric fields play a key role in producing required fibers during the electrospinning process. The effects of electric fields on the jet motion, resultant fiber diameter, fiber membrane thickness...

Purpose: Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Although tumor cell-T cell interactions are known to play a fundamental role in promoting tumor progression, these interactions have not been explored in LUAD. Methods: The 10x genomics single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and gene expression data of LUAD patients were obtained from ArrayExpress, TCGA, and GEO databases. scRNA-seq data were analyzed and infiltrating tumor cells, epithelial cells, and T cells were identified in the tumor microenvironment. Differentially expressed ligand-receptor pairs were identified in tumor cells/normal epithelial cells and tumor T cells/non-tumor T cells based on corresponding scRNA-seq and gene expression data, respectively. These important interactions inside/across cancer cells and T cells in LUAD were systematically analyzed. Furthermore, a valid prognostic machine-learning model based on ligand-receptor interactions was built to predict the prognosis of LUAD patients. Flow cytometry and qRT-PCR were performed to validate the significantly differently expressed ligand-receptor pairs. Results: Overall, 39,692 cells in scRNA-seq data were included in our study after quality filtering. A total of 65 ligand-receptor pairs (17 upregulated and 48 downregulated), including LAMB1-ITGB1, CD70-CD27, and HLA-B-LILRB2, and 96 ligand-receptor pairs (41 upregulated and 55 downregulated), including CCL5-CCR5, SELPLG-ITGB2, and CXCL13-CXCR5, were identified in LUAD cancer cells and T cells, respectively. To explore the crosstalk between cancer cells and T cells, 114 ligand-receptor pairs, including 11 ligand-receptor pair genes that could significantly affect survival outcomes, were identified in our research. A machine-learning model was established to accurately predict the prognosis of LUAD patients and ITGB4, CXCR5, and MET were found to play an important role in prognosis in our model. Flow cytometry and qRT-PCR analyses indicated the reliability of our study. Conclusion: Our study revealed functionally significant interactions within and between cancer cells and T cells. We believe these observations will improve our understanding of potential mechanisms of tumor microenvironment contributions to cancer progression and help identify potential targets for immunotherapy in the future.

Background This study used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data to investigate clinicopathological characteristics and prognoses of patients with esophageal cancer as a second primary cancer from 2000 to 2015. Methods Esophageal cancer as the second primary cancer (SEPC) patient information collected from the SEER database were extracted, evaluated, and compared with only primary esophageal cancer (OPEC) patient data. Overall survival (OS) was evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier method. Univariate analysis (UVA) and multivariate analysis (MVA) by the Cox proportional hazards regression identified risk factors that predicted OS and the results were used to construct a nomogram to predict OS in SEPC patients. Results A total of 7,161 esophageal cancer patients were identified from the SEER registry, which included 813 patients (11.4%) with SEPC in the patient history. The most common cancer for the first primary cancer prior to esophageal cancer (FPC) was genital system cancer (43.5%). The median OS was 7 (95% CI: 6.69–11.31) months and was not significantly different from that of patients with OPEC. The patients with SEPC appeared with unique clinical pathological features compared with OPEC, including older age, more squamous cell carcinoma, and early stage esophageal cancer, and less lower third of esophageal cancer (P

Compared with previous textiles possessing a hierarchical roughness structure for accelerating moisture evaporation, the use of Joule-heating to prepare heatable textiles is a more novel and useful way to achieve ultra-fast evaporation. Herein, we report an assembly strategy to create a functional non-woven (NW) fabric for directional moisture transportation and ultra-fast evaporation, ameliorating previous shortcomings. The resulting functional NW fabric reaches a sheet resistance of 1.116 Ω □−1, and the increased surface temperature (76.1 °C) induced by a low voltage (5 V) further results in an excellent ultra-fast evaporation rate (3.42 g h−1). Also, the moisture is transported to the outer surface of the designed fabric and spreads onto this surface. This desirable property can expand the contact area between sweat and the heatable fabric, further improving the evaporation efficiency, while maintaining the dry state of human skin. Generally, this functional textile with remarkable moisture management capabilities could be applied in winter outdoor sportswear to maintain human comfort.