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Methanol generally needs a steam reforming process before being used in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). This paper calculated and tested the composition of methanol reforming gas under different steam-to-carbon ratio (S/C ratio) and temperature. Results show that when the temperature is between 720°C and 820°C, experiment results are almost consistent with calculation results. When the temperature is around 620°C, a significant deviation exists between the experiment and calculation results, indicating that methanol conversion is incomplete. When the S/C ratio needs to be higher than 1.2 due to the equipment's limit, the appropriate reaction condition is 725°C and S/C ratio of 1.2. Methanol reforming gas under this condition was tested on a commercial SOFC. The peak power is 39.31W under 750°C and 46.97W under 800°C. The highest electrical efficiency reaches 52.4% when fuel utilization is 80%. These results provide a research basis for the future application of methanol in SOFCs.

Jiaoping Mi,1,2,&ast; Yijie Fang,3,&ast; Jianzhong Xian,4 Guojie Wang,3 Yuanqing Guo,5 Haiyu Hong,2 Mengshi Chi,2 Yong-Fang Li,2 Peng He,2 Jiebing Gao,3 Wei Liao2 1Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Radiology, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Ultrasound, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Spinal Surgery, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Wei Liao, Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, Guangdong, 519020, People’s Republic of China, Email liaowei23@mail.sysu.edu.cn Jiebing Gao, Department of Radiology, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China, Email Gaojb@mail.sysu.edu.cnObjective: Accurate preoperative localization of abnormal parathyroid glands is crucial for successful surgical management of secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT). This study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of preoperative MRI, 4D-CT, and ultrasonography (US) in localizing parathyroid lesions in patients with SHPT.Methods: We performed a retrospective review of prospectively collected data from a tertiary-care hospital and identified 52 patients who received preoperative MRI and/or 4D-CT and/or US and/or 99mTc-MIBI and subsequently underwent surgery for SHPT between May 2013 and March 2020. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of each imaging modality to accurately detect enlarged parathyroid glands were determined using histopathology as the criterion standard with confirmation using the postoperative biochemical response.Results: A total of 198 lesions were identified intraoperatively among the 52 patients included in this investigation. MRI outperformed 4D-CT and US in terms of sensitivity (P < 0.01), specificity (P = 0.455), PPV (P = 0.753), and NPV (P = 0.185). The sensitivity and specificity for MRI, 4D-CT, and US were 90.91%, 88.95%, and 66.23% and 58.33%, 63.64%, and 50.00%, respectively. The PPV of combined MRI and 4D-CT (96.52%) was the highest among the combined 2 modalities. The smallest diameter of the parathyroid gland precisely localized by MRI was 8× 3 mm, 5× 5 mm by 4D-CT, and 5× 3 mm by US.Conclusion: MRI has superior diagnostic performance compared with other modalities as a first-line imaging study for patients undergoing renal hyperparathyroidism, especially for ectopic or small parathyroid lesions. We suggest performing US first for diagnosis and then MRI to make a precise localization, and MRI proved to be very helpful in achieving a high success rate in the surgical treatment of renal hyperparathyroidism in our own experience.Keywords: MRI, 4D-CT, ultrasonography, SHPT, preoperative localization, parathyroidectomy

Ebola virus disease (EVD) is an acute viral hemorrhagic fever disease causing thousands of deaths. The large Ebola outbreak in 2014–2016 posed significant threats to global public health, requiring the development of multiple medical measures for disease control. Sudan virus (SUDV) and Zaire virus (EBOV) are responsible for severe disease and occasional deadly outbreaks in West Africa and Middle Africa. This study shows that bivalent bacterium-like particles (BLPs)-based vaccine, SUDV-EBOV BLPs (S/ZBLP + 2 + P), generated by mixing SUDV-BLPs and EBOV-BLPs at a 1 : 1 ratio, is immunogenic in mice. The SUDV-EBOV BLPs induced potent immune responses against SUDV and EBOV and elicited both T-helper 1 (Th1) and T-helper 2 (Th2) immune responses. The results indicated that SUDV-EBOV BLPs-based vaccine has the potential to be a promising candidate against SUDV and EBOV infections and provide a strategy to develop universal vaccines for EVD.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reveal the solute segregation behavior in the molten and solidified regions during direct chill (DC) casting of a large-size magnesium alloy slab under no magnetic field (NMF), harmonic magnetic field (HMF), pulsed magnetic field (PMF) and two types of out-of-phase pulsed magnetic field (OPMF). Design/methodology/approach A 3-D multiphysical coupling mathematical model is used to evaluate the corresponding physical fields. The coupling issue is addressed using the method of separating step and result inheritance. Findings The results suggest that the solute deficiency tends to occur in the central part, while the solute-enriched area appears near the fillet in the molten and solidified regions. Applying magnetic field could greatly homogenize the solute field in the two-phase region. The variance of relative segregation level in the solidified cross-section under NMF is 38.1%, while it is 21.9%, 18.6%, 16.4% and 12.4% under OPMF2 (the current phase in the upper coil is ahead of the lower coil), HMF, PMF and OPMF1 (the current phase in the upper coil lags behind the lower coil), respectively, indicating that OPMF1 is more effective to reduce the macrosegregation level. Originality/value There are few reports on the solute segregation degree in rectangle slab under magnetic field, especially for magnesium alloy slab. This paper can act a reference to make clear the solute transport behavior and help reduce the macrosegregation level during DC casting.

Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is a common cause of hair loss in adults. We aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of topical generic 5% new minoxidil foam (NMF) versus 5% minoxidil Rogaine® foam in male patients with AGA. A randomized, double-blind, controlled, phase III, equivalence trial in 10 centers in China between December 25, 2019, and June 28, 2021, was performed. In total, 417 men patients (≥18 years) with AGA were randomized to receive 5% NMF (211 patients) or 5% Rogaine® foam (206 patients) 1 g two times daily for 24 weeks. The primary outcome was the changes in nonvellus target area hair counts (TAHC) from baseline to week 24. Equivalence was concluded if the 95% confidence interval (CI) for the treatment difference between the 5% NMF and Rogaine® groups was within (−8.00, 8.00). After 24 weeks of treatment, the mean difference in the change of nonvellus TAHC between the 5% NMF group and the Rogaine® group was −3.85 ± 1.62 hair/cm2 in full-analysis set (FAS) and −3.96 ± 1.68 hair/cm2 in per-protocol set (PPS), and the 95% CI of mean difference was (−7.03, −0.67) in FAS and (−7.26, −0.66) in PPS. No significant differences were found between the two groups in hair diameter, the ratio of terminal hair to vellus hair, the global photographic assessment by investigators, and adverse events (all P > 0.05). 5% NMF is as effective as Rogaine® in increasing hair density and hair diameter in AGA patients and was found to be safe. This trial is registered with CTR20191708.

We report high-precision K isotopes, apatite U–Pb ages, whole-rock elements and Sr–Nd isotopes for the Saima nephelite syenite in the North China Craton. Trace-element and Sr–Nd–Hf–O isotope data indicate the presence of subducting sediments in the source region, while K isotopic compositions show a narrow range between –0.54 ‰ and –0.28 ‰, with an average of –0.41 ± 0.06 ‰, identical to the value of the asthenosphere. The nearly identical K isotopic compositions are low probability events compared with the K isotopic compositions of island arc lavas reported previously (–1.55 ‰ to +0.2 ‰). Although crustal contamination is consistent with the Sr–Nd–K isotopic data, alternatively we propose that the isotopic data also reconcile with the interaction between cratonic roots and the underlying convective asthenosphere, if this interaction is over prolonged periods of time. Numerical simulations successfully reproduced the observed data, if the metasomatism of the lithospheric mantle root, the source of the Saima alkaline rocks, occurred 500 Ma ago. Our study reveals that the isotopic compositions of fast-diffusion components in a lithospheric mantle metasomatized by ancient subducting melts can be effectively homogenized by convective asthenosphere through diffusion over a long time interval.

Yujing Zhang, Jianzhong Zhang, Cheng Zhou Department of Dermatology, Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Cheng Zhou, Department of Dermatology, Peking University People’s Hospital, No. 11 Xizhimen South Street, Xicheng District, Beijing, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-10-88325472, Fax +86 10-68318386, Email chengzhou@live.cnAbstract: Perinevoid alopecia (PA) is a rare variant of alopecia areata (AA) associated with a central pigmented nevus. In this study, we reported two cases of PA and reviewed 14 cases from 11 studies in the literature. In one of our cases, PA was combined with a halo nevus and white terminal hairs were spared in the hair loss patch, which was rarely reported in the literature. It is implicated that antigens from melanocytes might be involved in the development of AA in PA.Keywords: alopecia areata, hair loss, nevus, halo nevus

The appearance of Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) successfully solves the bottlenecks of traditional Cloud based networks. Since mobile edges, e.g. base stations, and mobile devices have certain data processing capabilities, it is not necessary to offload all the tasks to the cloud for handling. Therefore, it is quite important to decide the optimal task assignment in MEC systems, and a series of algorithms have been proposed. However, the existing algorithms ignored the data distribution during task assignment, so that their applied ranges are quite limit. Considering the data sharing is quite important in a MEC system, this paper studies task assignment algorithms in Data Shared Mobile Edge Computing Systems in detail. Specifically, three algorithms are proposed to deal with the unordered and ordered holistic tasks respectively. Meanwhile, the situation that the tasks are divisible is also considered, and two algorithms for rearranging the divisible tasks are proposed for different optimization goals. The hardness of the problem, the correctness, complexities, and ratio bounds of the proposed algorithms are analyzed theoretically. Finally, extensive experimental results are carried out. Both theoretical analysis and experiment results show that all the proposed algorithms have high performance in terms of latency, satisfied rate, and energy consumption.

Hang Xu,1,2,&ast; Tianhai Lin,1,2,&ast; Jianzhong Ai,1,2,&ast; Jiapeng Zhang,1,2 Shiyu Zhang,1,2 Yifan Li,1,2 Xiaonan Zheng,1,2 Peng Zhang,1,2 Qiang Wei,1,2 Ping Tan,1,2 Lu Yang1,2 1Department of Urology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China; 2Institute of Urology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Ping Tan; Lu Yang, Department of Urology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 18980606829 ; +86 15208212056, Email uro_tanping@163.com; wycleflue@scu.edu.cnPurpose: Previous studies have suggested that the preoperative lactate dehydrogenase-to-albumin ratio (LAR) is correlated with survival in several cancers except bladder cancer (BCa). This study aimed to determine the prognostic value of the LAR in patients with urothelial carcinoma of the bladder (UCB) after radical cystectomy (RC).Patients and Methods: A total of 595 UCB patients with RC in West China Hospital from December 2010 to May 2020 were enrolled. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine the optimal cutoff value of the LAR. Kaplan–Meier curves and Cox regression analyses were applied to evaluate the association of the LAR with overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival. Independent factors in multivariate analyses were selected to construct nomograms. Calibration curves, ROC curves, concordance index (C-index) and decision curve analyses were used to evaluate the performance of the nomograms.Results: The optimal cutoff value of the LAR was determined to be 3.8. Preoperative low LAR was associated with decreased OS (P < 0.001) and RFS (P < 0.001), especially in patients with ≥ pT2 disease. LAR was an independent factor for OS (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.719; P < 0.001) and RFS (HR: 1.429; P = 0.012). The addition of the LAR into nomograms could result in better prediction performance. The areas under the curves of the nomograms were 0.821 and 0.801 for the prediction of 3-year OS and RFS, respectively. The C-indexes of the nomograms were 0.760 and 0.741 for the prediction of OS and RFS, respectively.Conclusion: The preoperative LAR is a novel and reliable independent prognostic biomarker for survival in UCB after RC.Keywords: lactate dehydrogenase, albumin, lactate dehydrogenase to albumin ratio, bladder cancer, prognosis

In this paper, a general type-2 fuzzy controller is proposed. The proposed general type-2 fuzzy controller is based on α-plane representation, which converts the centroid of general type-2 fuzzy sets to centroids of several interval type-2 fuzzy sets. Also, the mathematical expression of general type-2 fuzzy controller is derived by fuzzy product operate and NT type reduction. By the mathematical expression, the relation between general type-2 fuzzy controller output with parameter of triangular secondary membership function is discussed. Finally, the control performances of proposed general type-2 fuzzy controller are compared with conventional PID controller, tradition type-1 fuzzy controller, and interval type-2 fuzzy controller. Furthermore, to show the effective and practical of the proposed controller, a nonlinear inverted pendulum system is tested. The simulation results show that general type-2 fuzzy controller achieves better control efforts than other compared controllers.