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This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of brachytherapy in post-operative cervical cancer patients with risk factors other than positive stump, and to identify the candidates most likely to benefit.Newly diagnosed, non-metastatic cervical cancer patients treated in our hospital between January 2012 and November 2015 were retrospectively reviewed. Early stage patients receiving radical surgery and needing adjuvant external radiotherapy were included, but those with positive stump were excluded. All patients received external radiotherapy. They were divided into two groups: one group received vaginal brachytherapy and the other did not. The 5-year local-regional recurrence free survival (LRRFS) and overall survival (OS) rates in the two groups were compared.Two hundred and twenty-five patients were included in this study; while 99 received brachytherapy, 126 did not. The brachytherapy group had significantly superior 5-year LRRFS (87.7% vs. 72.5%, p = 0.004), but did not show a significant overall survival benefit (78.4% vs. 75.3%, p = 0.055). In multivariate analysis, brachytherapy, pathological type, high-risk factors, duration of radiotherapy, and transfusion were independent prognostic factors for 5-year LRRFS. In stratified analysis, the brachytherapy group showed superior LRRFS in those meeting Sedlis criteria (p = 0.017).The combination of external beam radiation therapy and brachytherapy can improve LRRFS in post-operative cervical cancer patients with risk factors other than positive stump. Therefore, brachytherapy should be considered for these patients.

To identify the significant prognostic factors of overall survival (OS) for patients living with meningiomas (MM), and establish a novel graphical nomogram and an online dynamic nomogram.Patients diagnosed with meningiomas were identified retrospectively from SEER database. The cohort was split into training (70%) and test (30%) groups randomly. Uni- and multi-variable COX models were successively used to screen the significant prognostic factors. After then, the independent predictors were used as items to establish the graphic and dynamic nomogram model. To assess the accuracy of the model, calibration curve was plotted. To assess the discrimination performance, C-index and time-dependent AUC (area under ROC curve) were selected. Additionally, the decision curve was generated to evaluate the clinical net benefit of the model.899 patients were involved, of which 629 and 270 were split into training group and test group respectively. Age, sex, radiotherapy, tumor size and tumor histology were identified as the significant prognostic factors. Basing on these factors, graphical nomogram and online nomogram (website: https://helloshinyweb.shinyapps.io/dynamic_nomogram/) were developed. The calibration curve showed favorable consistence between predicted and actual survival rate. C-index and time-dependent AUC showed well discrimination ability, and the decision curve analysis showed positive net benefit of the model in clinical practice.Age of diagnosis, sex, tumor size, tumor histology and radiotherapy were independent predictors for OS, while extent of resection had a borderline significant. A nomogram model was successfully developed and validated to dynamically predict the long-term OS for MM patients, expecting to help neurosurgeons optimize clinical management and treatment strategies.

Although new generation carbon fibre reinforced thermoplastic (CFRTP) such as carbon fibre reinforced polyetherketoneketone (CF/PEKK) is a promising sustainable alternative to the conventional thermoset carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP), there is a lack of literature regarding its machining performance. This is the first study unveiling the machining temperature evolution during drilling of CF/PEKK and its potential impact on the associated material damages. Through a comparative study with the thermoset CF/epoxy, the disparate drilling performance of the two composites has been uncovered, and the results were found to be closely related to the materials' thermal/mechanical properties. Specifically, CF/PEKK produces continuous chips due to its excellent ductility and thermal sensitivity, whereas CF/epoxy produces segmented chips due to its brittle nature. CF/PEKK generates up to 40 N (50.5 %) higher thrust force, 87.6 °C (98.9 %) higher hole wall temperature and 61.1 °C (48.8 %) higher chip temperature than that of CF/epoxy. This has been correlated to the longer tool-chip contact length of CF/PEKK and its unique chip morphology. Despite the greater thrust force/temperature generation, CF/PEKK shows 55.7 % lower delamination damage as compared to CF/epoxy, and this is owning to its excellent interlaminar toughness. This study establishes a more in-depth understanding into the drilling performance of thermoplastic CF/PEKK and thermoset CF/epoxy and also provides guidance on the high performance manufacturing of next generation composites.

To identify the significant predictors of overall survival for patients living with diffused large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) in the central nervous system and establish a novel decision tree model to help predict survival status at several time points.Patients diagnosed with DLBCL were identified from the SEER database and randomly divided into training and test samples (6:4). Dichotomous decision trees were developed for survival status at 3, 12, 24, and 60 months. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, accuracy rate, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve were calculated to evaluate the model performance.A total of 2998 patients were included, with 1799 and 1199 patients divided into the training and testing groups. Decision trees for 3, 12, 24, and 60 months survival status were generated. Chemotherapy and patient's age were of the primary importance for prognosis in the novel models. Favorable consistency between the predicted and actual survival status was presented. The accuracy rates were 0.79, 0.71, 0.68, and 0.86 for training sample at 3, 12, 24, and 60 months, respectively, and 0.75, 0.69, 0.58, and 0.84 for test sample at 3, 12, 24, and 60 months, respectively. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve values ranged between 0.645 and 0.721 for the training sample and between 0.607 and 0.712 for the test sample.Novel decision tree models were established for predicting the 3, 12, 24, and 60 months survival status of patients with DLBCL. The newly developed models were verified using training and test samples, showing favorable accuracy and predictive value on overall survival.

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a life-threatening disease caused by the severe and acute response of the lungs to a variety of direct and indirect insults. Patients with ALI are currently treated mainly with respiratory support due to inadequate understanding of ALI progression. Alveolar epithelial cells produced thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) has been proved to worsen ALI by triggering airway inflammation. However, the regulation mechanism of TSLP expression remains unclear. In this study, we identified the crucial role played by circNCLN in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ALI. We demonstrated for the first time that miR-291a-3p could directly bind to the 3'UTR of TSLP and suppress TSLP expression in alveolar epithelial cells. Mechanistically, our data identified that circNCLN acts as a molecular sponge to antagonize miR-291a-3p and thereby maintaining the expression of TSLP in alveolar epithelial cells. Importantly, targeting circNCLN by its antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) markedly alleviated LPS-induced ALI. Therefore, our results suggested that circNCLN/miR-291a-3p/TSLP axis may be an important signaling in LPS-induced ALI and circNCLN inhibition may serve as a potential treatment of ALI.

The sonographic appearance of benign and malignant breast nodules overlaps to some extent, and we aimed to assess the performance of the Gail model as an adjunctive tool to ultrasound (US) Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) for predicting the malignancy of nodules.From 2018 to 2019, 2607 patients were prospectively enrolled by 35 health care facilities. An individual breast cancer risk was assessed by the Gail model. Based on B-mode US, color Doppler, and elastography, all nodules were evaluated according to the fifth edition of BI-RADS, and these nodules were all confirmed later by pathology.We demonstrated that the Gail model, age, tumor size, tumor shape, growth orientation, margin, contour, acoustic shadowing, microcalcification, presence of duct ectasia, presence of architectural distortion, color Doppler flow, BI-RADS, and elastography score were significantly related to breast cancer (all p0.001). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, accuracy, and area under the curve (AUC) for combining the Gail model with the BI-RADS category were 95.6%, 91.3%, 85.0%, 97.6%, 92.8%, and 0.98, respectively. Combining the Gail model with the BI-RADS showed better diagnostic efficiency than the BI-RADS and Gail model alone (AUC 0.98 vs 0.80, p0.001; AUC 0.98 vs 0.55, p0.001) and demonstrated a higher specificity than the BI-RADS (91.3% vs 59.4%, p0.001).The Gail model could be used to differentiate malignant and benign breast lesions. Combined with the BI-RADS category, the Gail model was adjunctive to US for predicting breast lesions for malignancy. For the diagnosis of malignancy, more attention should be paid to high-risk patients with breast lesions.

The mechanism of melatonin (MT) induced chilling tolerance in harvested cucumber fruit was investigated at commercial maturity. In this study, cucumber fruits were treated with 100 µmol L–1 MT at 4°C and 90% relative humidity for 15 d of storage. In comparison with the control, cucumber treatment with MT resulted in reduced chilling injury (CI), decreased electrolyte leakage and enhanced firmness. The fruits treated with MT showed higher chlorophyll contents in storage conditions with suppressed chlorophyllase enzyme activity. MT treatment increased arginine decarboxylase (ADC) and ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) enzyme activities. Moreover, enhanced expression of the Cucumis sativus ADC (CsADC) and C. sativus ODC (CsODC) genes resulted in the accumulation of polyamine contents. Similarly, proline levels exhibited higher levels among treated fruits. Meanwhile, the proline synthesizing enzymes △1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate syntheses (P5CS) and ornithine aminotransferase (OAT) were significantly increased, while a catabolic enzyme of proline dehydrogenase (PDH) activity was inhibited by treatment. In addition, MT induced expression of C. sativus OAT (CsOAT) and C. sativus P5CS (CsP5CS) genes. Cucumber fruits treated with MT also exhibited higher γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) content by enhanced GABA transaminase (GABA-T) and glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) enzyme activities and a higher C. sativus GAD (CsGAD) gene expression. To sum up, the results show that MT treatment enhanced chilling tolerance, which was associated with the regulation of polyamines, as well as proline and γ-aminobutyric acid.

Uncontrolled pathogenic genome mutations in germline cells might impair adult fertility, lead to birth defects or even affect the adaptability of a species. Understanding the sources of DNA damage, as well as the features of damage response in germline cells are the overarching tasks to reduce the mutations in germline cells. With the accumulation of human genome data and genetic reports, genome variants formed in germline cells are being extensively explored. However, the sources of DNA damage, the damage repair mechanisms, and the effects of DNA damage or mutations on the development of germline cells are still unclear. Besides exogenous triggers of DNA damage such as irradiation and genotoxic chemicals, endogenous exposure to inflammation may also contribute to the genome instability of germline cells. In this review, we summarized the features of de novo mutations and the specific DNA damage responses in germline cells and explored the possible roles of inflammation on the genome stability of germline cells.

This paper addresses the realization of almost sure synchronization problem for a new array of stochastic networks associated with delay and Lévy noise via event-triggered control. The coupling structure of the network is governed by a continuous-time homogeneous Markov chain. The nodes in the networks communicate with each other and update their information only at discrete-time instants so that the network workload can be minimized. Under the framework of stochastic process including Markov chain and Lévy process, and the convergence theorem of non-negative semi-martingales, we show that the Markovian coupled networks can achieve the almost sure synchronization by event-triggered control methodology. The results are further extended to the directed topology, where the coupling structure can be asymmetric. Furthermore, we also proved that the Zeno behavior can be excluded under our proposed approach, indicating that our framework is practically feasible. Numerical simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results.

In the chemical looping with oxygen uncoupling (CLOU) process, CuO is a promising material due to the high oxygen carrier capacity and exothermic reaction in fuel reactor but limited by the low melting point. The combustion rate of carbon is faster than the decoupling rate of oxygen carrier (OC). Hence, high temperature tolerance and rapid oxygen release rate of CuO modified by three different ores were investigated in this study. The kinetics analysis of oxygen decoupling with Cu-based oxygen carriers was also evaluated. Results showed that CuO modified by chrysolite had faster oxygen release rate than that of CuO. Limestone showed obvious positive effect on the oxidization process. The selected OCs could keep stable in at least 20 cycles, for about 1200 min. Shrinking core model (SCM) fitted well for the decoupling process in the temperature range of 1123–1223 K. Reduction rate kinetic information may aid in the development of chemical looping with oxygen uncoupling (CLOU) technologies during reactor design and process modeling. Ternary doped copper oxide with chrysolite and limestone could improve the reactivity of CuO in decoupling and coupling process and also improve the high temperature tolerance.

Improving machining performance of thin-walled parts is of great significance in aviation industry, since most aviation parts are characterized by large size, complex shape, and thin-walled structure. Machining process monitoring is the essential premise to improve the machining performance. In order to improve the machining quality and efficiency, this paper presents a position-oriented process monitoring model based on multiple data during milling process, and corresponding solution is provided. Through obtaining the internal data set of the numerical control (NC) system during machining, it is possible to correlate the cutting position with monitoring signals including cutting force, acceleration, and spindle power. Then, process optimization is realized to improve the machining quality and efficiency based on the monitoring results. Machining tests are conducted on aircraft structural part as well as blade part, and the experimental results show this method provides a significant insight into the machining process of thin-walled part and contributes to the process optimization. By using feedrate optimization, time consumption for the rough milling process of one titanium alloy part reduced from 19.1 h to 14.4 h and the number of cutter consumption dropped from 5 to 3. And according to the result of position-oriented process monitoring, the machining strategies were optimized to reduce vibration and avoid chatter, thereby improving the machining quality.

Chemical looping combustion (CLC) is an energy conversion technology with high efficiency and inherent separation of CO2. The existence of sulfur in coal may affect the CO2 purity and the performance of oxygen carrier due to the interactions between sulfur contaminants and oxygen carrier. The migration of sulfur in Beisu coal during the in-situ gasification chemical looping combustion (iG-CLC) process using two oxygen carriers (iron ore and CuO/SiO2) was investigated respectively. The thermodynamic analysis results showed the formation of metal sulfides was thermodynamically favored at low temperatures and low oxygen excess coefficients, while they were obviously inhibited and the production of SO2 was significantly promoted with an increase in temperature and oxygen excess coefficient. Moreover, part of sulfur was captured and fixed in the forms of alkali/alkaline earth metal sulfate due to the high amount of alkali/alkaline earth metal oxides in the coal ash or/and oxygen carrier. The experimental results showed that the sulfur in coal mainly released in the form of SO2, and the sulfur conversion efficiency (XS) in the reduction stage were 51.04% and 48.24% when using iron ore and CuO/SiO2 respectively. The existence of metal sulfides was observed in the reduced oxygen carriers. The values of XS in the reoxidation process reached 3.80% and 7.64% when using iron ore and CuO/SiO2 respectively. The residue and accumulation of sulfur were also found on the surfaces of two oxygen carriers.

Chemical looping combustion of coal has attracted great attention due to its advantage in carbon capture. Sulfur in coal may have negative impacts on this process including deteriorating the reactivity of oxygen carrier and generating gaseous sulfur species. In this research, the release and migration characteristics of sulfur in the chemical looping combustion of Xinzhou coal with two synthetic oxygen carriers, CuO/SiO2 and NiO/Al2O3, were investigated by experiments and thermodynamic simulation. The thermodynamic analysis showed that sulfur in coal mainly migrated to metal sulfides at lower temperatures and peroxide coefficients, but the formation of SO2 was favored at higher temperatures and peroxide coefficients. Experimental results showed that the sulfur conversion efficiencies (XS,g) during the reduction stage reached 62.34 % and 61.25 % under Cu- and Ni-based oxygen carriers, respectively, and XS,g during the reoxidation stage were 6.25 % and 7.44 %, respectively. For both oxygen carriers, the share of H2S and SO2 in the sulfurous gases exceeded 96 % during the reduction stage, while SO2 was the only sulfurous gas when air was introduced. Even though the metal sulfides (Cu2S, Ni3S2 and NiS) were observed in the reduced samples, those two oxygen carriers showed satisfactory regeneration performance after one redox process.

Carbon-fibre-reinforced-polyetherketonketone (CF/PEKK) has attracted increasing interest in the aviation industry due to its self-healing properties and ease of recycle and repair. However, the machining performance of CF/PEKK is not well understood and there is a lack of optimization study for minimizing its hole damage and improving the production efficiency. Here, we report the first multi-objective optimization study for CF/PEKK drilling. A hybrid optimization algorithm integrating Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II (NSGA-II) and Techniques for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is deployed to obtain the Pareto solutions and rank the multiple solutions based on closeness to ideal solutions. To highlight the impact of different matrix properties on the optimization outcome, comparative study with conventional thermoset carbon fibre reinforced epoxy composite (CF/epoxy) is carried out for the first time. Experimental validation shows the proposed method can achieve 91.5–95.7% prediction accuracy and the Pareto solutions effectively controlled the delamination and thermal damage within permissible tolerance. The vastly different optimal drilling parameters identified for CF/PEKK as compared to CF/epoxy is attributed to the thermoplastic nature of CF/PEKK and the unique thermal/mechanical interaction characteristics displayed during the machining process.

Calcium‒based chemical looping gasification (calcium‒based CLG) shows promise for as a solution for waste problems. There has, however, been little discussion about dioxin emissions and heavy metal contamination in calcium‒based CLG. Herein, a thermodynamic equilibrium analysis was investigated to determine the characterization of copper (II) chemical forms (a main catalytic metal for the formation of dioxins) and heavy metal distribution in calcium‒based CLG of municipal solid waste (MSW). Results demonstrate that the high hydrogen concentration in calcium‒based CLG could promote the formation of HCl (g) instead of CuCl2 (g); therefore, it was beneficial in suppressing formation of dioxins. Furthermore, during the operating temperature of gasifier in calcium‒based CLG (600–750 °C), some heavy metals (Pb, Cr, Cu) could be stabilized as solid compounds except for Pb. The valences of heavy metals decreased in the calcium‒based CLG. If sulfur was present, some heavy metals, such as Pb, could convert into solid sulfides; sulfur, therefore, has a positive effect on the stabilization of heavy metals. Consequently, this study may provide information useful in restricting dioxin emissions and heavy metal contamination in calcium‒based CLG.

The co-gasification of refuse derived fuel (RDF) and biomass is a promising technology for environmentally friendly municipal solid waste (MSW) utilization. Herein, we investigated the co-gasification of RDF and straw mixtures. The development of syngas suggested that higher temperature and equivalence ratio (ER) values promote syngas yield during gasification and co-gasification. Temperature plays a positive key role in gas yield and carbon conversion efficiency once the ER is higher than 0.3 during co-gasification. Except for an ER of 0.3, synergistic enhancements in carbon conversion efficiency, gas yield, and cold gas efficiency were observed for co-gasification. The positive synergistic effects of co-gasification mainly appeared in lower ER (0.1−0.2) and higher temperatures (800−900 °C); however, the negative synergistic effects more tend to appear in higher ER (0.3−0.4). From the development of bottom ash in co-gasification, at higher temperature and ER values, potassium in the bottom ash was favored to stay in sulfur-containing compounds; whereas at lower temperature and ER values, potassium preferred to exist in potassium chloride. A higher calcium content more easily enriched in small particles that were integrated into aluminosilicate led to the formation of sticking ash particles, which could promote significant melting agglomeration. However, these melting agglomerations could be suppressed by adding straw into the RDF. These results provide a feasible method for the resource utilization of MSW.

The moving-grate gasifier has some significant advantages over other types of gasifiers. This is because the residue time of the biomass waste in a moving-grate gasifier can be controlled in a suitable range for optimizing thermochemical conversion efficiency. In addition, the moving-grate gasifier is more suitable for having biomass waste fed into it. This study investigated the gasification behaviours of biomass waste in the moving-grate gasifier with the addition of all air being done in the oxidizing stage. In the experimental samples, the average cold gas efficiency in the moving-grate gasifier was 64.79 %, and the high temperature region in the moving-grate gasifier was converted to the pyrolysis. The lower heating value (LHV) of flue gas in the large-scale moving-grate gasifier was 5570 kJ/m3 and the cold gas efficiency was 67.50 %. From this observation, it can be concluded that the gasification performance of the large-scale moving-grate gasifier was better than that of the small-scale.

To obtain the lightweight, high strength, and high damping capacity porous NiTi alloys, the microwave sintering coupled with the Mg space holder technique was employed to prepare the porous NiTi alloys. The microstructure, mechanical properties, phase transformation behavior, superelasticity, and damping capacity of the porous NiTi alloys were investigated. The results show that the porous NiTi alloys are mainly composed of the B2 NiTi phase with a few B19′ NiTi phase as the sintering temperature is lower than or equal to 900 °C. With increasing the sintering temperature, the porosities of the porous NiTi alloys gradually decrease and the compressive strength increases first, reaching the maximum value at 900 °C, and then decreases. With increasing the Mg content from 1 wt.% to 7 wt.%, the porosities of the porous NiTi alloys increase from 37.8% to 47.1%, while the compressive strength decreases from 2058 to 1146 MPa. Compared with the NH4HCO3 space holder, the phase transformation behavior of the porous NiTi alloys prepared with Mg space holder changes, and all of the compressive strength, superelasticity, shape memory effect and damping capacity are greatly improved.

Digital twin takes Industrial Internet as a carrier deeply coordinating and integrating virtual spaces with physical spaces, which effectively promotes smart factory development. Digital twin-based big data learning and analysis (BDLA) deepens virtual and real fusion, interaction and closed-loop iterative optimization in smart factories. This paper proposes a digital twin-based big data virtual and real fusion (DT-BDVRL) reference framework supported by Industrial Internet towards smart manufacturing. The reference framework is synthetically designed from three perspectives. The first one is an overall framework of DT-BDVRL supported by Industrial Internet. The second one is the establishment method and flow of BDLA models based on digital twin. The final one is digital thread of DT-BDVRL in virtual and real fusion analysis, iteration and closed-loop feedback in product full life cycle processes. For different virtual scenes, iterative optimization and verification methods and processes of BDLA models in virtual spaces are established. Moreover, the BDLA results can drive digital twin running in virtual spaces. By this, the BDLA results can be validated iteratively multiple times in virtual spaces. At same time, the BDLA results that run in virtual spaces are synchronized and executed in physical spaces through Industrial Internet platforms, effectively improving the physical execution effect of BDLA models. Finally, the above contents were applied and verified in the actual production case study of power switchgear equipment.