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Surface harmless storage of concentrated full tailings (CFTs) involves the technology of adding a curing agent to the tailings slurry discharged from the thickener to realize the modification of the tailings and centralized storage of the tailings on the surface to realize the harmless treatment of the tailings. High water content of tailings is still the key technical problem that restricts the harmless storage of piles at present. Regarding the above problems, we implemented the consolidation test and numerical simulation of seepage-stress coupling consolidation of CFT, clarified the consolidation characteristics and parameters of CFT under different curing ages, and conducted a comparative analysis of pore water pressure in the whole cross-section of piles with different drainage schemes based on the results of the test. In addition, we also clarified the drainage effect of interlayer drainage on reducing the excess pore water pressure of piles and compared the simulation results of the pore water pressure of piles under different permeability coefficients. The results show that as the permeability coefficient of the concentrated tailings material decreases, the pore pressure accumulation inside piles under the same drainage scheme is more serious, and the length of time for consolidation and stabilization becomes longer. Therefore, it is recommended that the excess porous water pressure be relieved by means of increased drainage facilities under a small permeability coefficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The setting of rainfall warning threshold in the design of online monitoring and early warning system of tailings ponds is an important issue related to the flood control safety of tailings ponds. The threshold value calculated by the commonly used rainfall threshold determination method at present has a high rate of missing and false alarms, which cannot meet the actual needs. Based on comparing commonly used methods, this study proposes a method for determining the threshold value of rainfall early warning based on regional hydrological characteristics. This method fully considers the characteristics of soil moisture and regional runoff generation and confluence and greatly improves the accuracy of early warning. It provides a reference for the setting of rainfall warning threshold for online monitoring and early warning system of the tailings pond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Choriocarcinoma is a highly malignant trophoblastic tumor that occurs mostly in women of childbearing age. The main mode of metastasis is hematogenous metastasis. The most common sites of metastasis are the lung, vagina and brain, while splenic metastasis is rare. Because of its rapid development, extensive metastasis can occur in a short period, and some patients only show metastatic symptoms, which are often missed or misdiagnosed as ectopic pregnancy or other diseases. We describe a rare case of splenic metastatic choriocarcinoma with acute abdominal pain caused by nontraumatic splenic rupture. In addition, we review the previous literature on splenic metastasis of choriocarcinoma and summarize the clinical manifestations, management measures and prognoses. Our case and literature review indicate that splenic metastatic choriocarcinoma is rare and difficult to distinguish from splenic ectopic pregnancy and other diseases. Clinicians should strengthen their understanding of this disease and avoid misdiagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The barrier dams are loose accumulation bodies formed by collapse, landslide, debris flow or moraine, and most of them are composed of loosely and widely graded cohesionless soil. The barrier dams are susceptible to internal erosion during the rapid rising of upstream water level, and threaten the downstream residents' property and life safety. CFD--DEM coupling approach is often used to model the internal erosion of barrier dam, but it often costs lots of time due to the coupling counting and corresponding data processing. Based on the encountered forces of cohesionless soils of barrier dams during the process of seepage failure, the fluid force applied to the particles was analyzed and a simplified method to modeling the internal erosion process with the discrete element method was suggested. Utilizing this method, the encountered fluid force of a particle in the flow field was applied to the DEM module in the form of an acceleration field. Then, the amount of calculation required for the dual-module interactive iteration in the traditional CFD--DEM coupling method could be reduced, and it could effectively improve the calculation efficiency based on retaining the calculation effect of the CFD--DEM coupling method. Finally, pointing at the wide-graded non-cohesive dam soil materials, the simplified ideal gap-graded sized particle model was used to compare the CFD--DEM coupling calculation results to verify the rationality and effectiveness of the fast calculation method proposed in this paper. It showed that the relative error was within 3.4%, which proved the reliability of the simplified simulation method. When a simplified simulation method was adopted to simulate specific cases, the specific magnitude of the error might change. In terms of calculation speed, the running speed of the fast simulation method in this simulation was approximately 3.5 times than that of the CFD--DEM coupled simulation method, and when the number of particles increased, the calculation speed of the simplified simulation method increased significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an indispensable factor in preventing the recirculation of tissue lymphocytes to the lymphatic and blood systems, the integrin CD103 has enabled the characterization of lymphocyte populations in non-lymphoid tissues and organs. However, the expression, distribution, and clinical significance of CD103 + tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remain unclear. In the present study, we included tumor and adjacent non-tumor tissue specimens from 198 patients with ESCC who had undergone surgical resection. Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence were used to detect CD103 + TIL distribution, as well as the co-expression of CD103 and T cell markers and functional molecules. Kaplan-Meier analysis and the Cox proportional hazards model were used to estimate the prognostic value of CD103 + TILs. The results showed that CD103 + TILs were predominantly located in adjacent non-tumor tissues compared with tumor tissues ( P < 0.0001). Immunofluorescence double staining revealed that CD8 + T cells, but not CD4 + T cells, comprised the majority of CD103-expressing cells. Most of these CD103-expressing cells co-expressed CTLA-4 and granzyme B rather than the exhaustion marker PD-1. High density of intratumoral CD103 + TIL is associated with longer overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in both the internal (OS, P = 0.0004 and DFS, P = 0.0002) and external (OS, P = 0.038 and DFS, P = 0.12) cohorts. Multivariate Cox analysis showed the density of CD103 + TILs was an independent positive prognostic factor for OS (hazards ratio [HR] = 0.406; P = 0.0003 in the internal cohort; HR = 0.328, P = 0.01, in the external cohort) and DFS (HR = 0.385; P = 0.0002 in the internal cohort; HR = 0.270, P = 0.003, in the external cohort). Our findings indicate that CD103 + TILs might play an important role in the tumor microenvironment, and intratumoral CD103 + TILs could serve as a promising prognostic marker in ESCC., Competing Interests: Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interest exists., (© The author(s).)

Objective To down-regulate the expression of zinc-finger E-box binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1) gene by shRNA, and investigate its effect on invasion, migration and proliferation, as well as the related gene expressions of lncRNA HOTAIR and E-cadherin in human gastric cancer BGC823 cells. Methods RNA interfering (RNAi) was used to knock down ZEB1 in gastric cancer BGC823 cells. The recombinant plasmid shZEB1 was constructed and transfected into the gastric cancer BGC823 cells by Lipofectamine TM 2000, and the stably transfected cells were isolated by G418 selection and limited dilution. The expression of ZEB1 mRNA and protein was detected by real-time quantitative PCR and Western blot analysis. Cell proliferation was determined by MTT assay, and the invasion and migration abilities of BGC823 cells were monitored by Transwell TM invasion assay and wound healing assay, respectively. The expressions of lncRNA HOTAIR and E-cadherin mRNA were detected by real-time quantitative PCR. Results After ZEB1 expression was successfully down-regulated in BGC823 cells by siRNA, the proliferation, invasion and migration rates in shZEB1 transfection group were significantly lower than those in control group; meanwhile, the expression of lncRNA HOTAIR was reduced and E-cadherin expression was enhanced. Conclusion Knock-down of ZEB1 expression by RNA interference can decease lncRNA HOTAIR expression and restrain cell proliferation, invasion and migration in gastric cancer BGC823 cells.