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The gyromagnetic nonlinear transmission line (GNLTL) is a special kind of coaxial transmission line partially loaded with the ferrite material. A GNLTL system can modulate the input high-power pulses into wideband high-power microwaves without relying on the electron beam and confining magnetic field. The unique working mechanism gives the GNLTL system the potential to be a small portable wideband high-power microwave radiation source. In this study, a wideband high-power microwave radiation source based on a GNLTL system is designed and constructed. In order to effectively radiate the wideband microwaves into the air, a high-power wideband Vlasov antenna and a special absorption high-pass filter are developed. The designs of key subsystems and high-power radiation experiments have been introduced and discussed in detail. In the test experiments, a radiated pulse with a peak electric field strength of 23 kV/m was measured at 20 m away from the transmitting antenna and the effective potential of radiation is 460 kV/m. The pulse width of the radiation pulse is about 4 ns, the center frequency is about 2.25 GHz, and the highest repetition rate can reach 25 Hz.

The instrumented indentation test (IIT) is an attractive non-destructive testing technique. Determining accurate strength properties of steel using IIT is still challenging. In this paper, a new methodology is proposed to acquire the yield and ultimate tensile strength from a single IIT. This method extracts true stress-strain curves from IIT results. Acquired stress-strain curves indicate that the initial yield stress is not repeatable. This is caused by the inhomogeneous deformation of IIT specimens. Based on the obtained true stress-stain curves, corresponding yield strength, and ultimate tensile strength are calculated through theoretical derivation. The results show that the strength has a convergent tendency. On basis of this phenomenon, the strength is determined with an extrapolating method. Finally, the strength properties of Q345R are investigated to verify the reliability of this method. It is found that the strength determined from IIT and conventional tensile tests shows good agreement. The proposed method is effective in predicting strength properties from a single instrumented indentation test.

In this research, a surface-residual-based nonlocal stress was introduced into nonlocal damage theory to describe the long-range actions among microstructures that were excluded in the definition of Cauchy stress. By using the surface-residual-based nonlocal stress tensor, a thermodynamically consistent nonlocal integral damage model was established to simulate the strain localization behavior for elastic-brittle damage problems. In this model, both the strain and the damage were taken as nonlocal variables in the free energy function, and the integral-type damage constitutive relationships and the evolution equation were derived via thermodynamic laws in order to ensure the self-consistency within the thermodynamic framework. Based on the nonlocal damage formulations using a real nonlocal stress concept, we simulated the strain localization phenomenon in an elastic bar subjected to uniaxial tension. The results showed clear localizing and softening features of strain in the damage zone, and the boundary effects arising from the nonlocal surface residual were illuminated. Furthermore, the strain localization behaviors for different internal characteristic lengths were simulated, through which we found that the characteristic length was comparable to the size of the strain localization zone.

This article focuses on the bidirectional return-stroke propagation phenomenon in the initiation process of lightning return stroke. Different from the conventional return-stroke model, the return-stroke current waves in the bidirectional return-stroke model are considered to propagate simultaneously in both the upward and downward directions at two different speeds from the junction point, where the downward and upward leaders connect with each other. The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method in the two-dimensional cylindrical coordinate is employed for the calculation. From the simulation results of the bidirectional return-stroke model, it can be found that compared with the conventional return-stroke model, initial peaks will appear at the rising edges both for the vertical electric field and azimuthal magnetic field at the certain conditions. The influences of characteristic parameters, including the height of junction point, the propagation velocities of downward return strokes, and the ground conductivity, on the computed results are analyzed. To accurately reproduce the radiated electromagnetic fields, the bidirectional propagation model should be taken into consideration.

The gyromagnetic nonlinear transmission line (GNLTL) is a compact and solid-state high-power microwave source, which can be treated as a special coaxial transmission line partially filled with the ferrite material. Due to the complex interaction process of the electromagnetic fields with the dynamic damped precessional motion of the magnetization vector in the ferrite, it is of great challenge to theoretically predict the output of the GNLTL. Here, we present a novel field-line coupling simulation method to predict the output waveform of the GNLTL by simultaneously solving the coupled system of the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation and Maxwell’s equations in the 2-D cylindrical coordinate system. In particular, the simulation model is validated by comparing the computation results with the experimental results obtained by Bragg et al. in the HPM experiment. The influences of the GNLTL length and bias magnetic field are analyzed. The proposed computation method can provide a solution for improving the performance of the GNLTL.

A large amount of experimental data indicates that a typical butterfly-shaped failure interface will appear in the recovered armature. In order to reveal the mechanisms and their influence on transition, an electromagnetic-thermal-mechanical coupling analysis is carried out on the C type armature and the rectangular section rails. The contact properties subjected to both pretightening force and Lorentz force, transient temperature field, and variation of Lorentz body force density on the interface of armature and rails are discussed by using the 3-D finite method. The results show that the nonuniform distribution of current density, heat flux, and Lorentz force density, which is caused by the pulse current, is the main cause of the butterfly-shaped failure interface.

The breakdown current, current impulse velocity, and E-field in air gap discharge are of interest among researchers on high-voltage engineering and lightning study. It is the breakdown current and current impulse velocity that govern the radiated E-field property. The current impulse velocity, however, is not well addressed in the literature. In this paper, we use a self-developed high-speed observation system, a Rogowski coil, and a transient E-field sensor to measure the current impulse propagation velocity, breakdown current, and vertical E-field in the rod-to-plane discharge after the air gap breakdown under dc voltage. From the time difference of arrival of light signals in different receiving channels, the resultant current impulse propagation velocity is measured as 6.81 ± 0.57 × 106 m/s. Meanwhile, the breakdown current at the bottom of the grounded rod electrode has a peak value of approximately 1.3 kA and 10%–90% rise time of 40 ns, and the transient vertical E-field at ground level has an amplitude of approximately 15 kV/m and 10%–90% rise time of 64 ns. In addition, according to the measured breakdown current and resultant current impulse velocity, the vertical E-field is computed by using the finite-difference time-domain method in the two-dimensional cylindrical coordinate system. The computed vertical E-field agrees well with the measured E-field, validating our measured current impulse velocity. Besides, the computed horizontal E-field and azimuthal H-field are also analyzed. Finally, the influence of current impulse velocity on the vertical and horizontal E-field and azimuthal H-field is discussed.

The characteristics of the air gap discharge are of interest among researchers on high voltage and lightning study. This letter uses a self-developed high-speed observation system to measure the propagation velocity of the current impulse after the air gap breakdown in the rod-to-plane discharge with dc voltage. In addition, the discharge channel is captured by a still camera. From the time difference of arrival of light signals in different receiving channels of high-speed observation system, it shows that the propagation velocity of the current impulse is in the range from 4.3 ± 0.36 × 106 to 1.1 ± 0.09 × 107 m/s.

To study the lightning return-stroke process, this paper proposed a new inversion algorithm for evaluating the average return-stroke velocity. As the Gaussian function covers a frequency range wider than the typical channel-base current, the main step of this method was to treat the channel-base current representing using the Gaussian function and the corresponding azimuthal magnetic field at close distance as the inputs and outputs, respectively, to establish the transfer functions. We have verified the proposed method using the azimuthal magnetic field with/without noises at different distances from the lightning channel. In addition, we compared the evaluated results using different return-stroke models including the transmission line (TL) model, the modified TL model with linear (MTLL) current decay with height, and the modified TL model with exponential (MTLE) current decay with height. The evaluated results are in agreement with the simulated return-stroke velocity, indicating the effectiveness and robustness of this method for predicting the return-stroke velocity. The proposed inversion method is effective in estimating the return-stroke velocity, which can be applied in lightning physics research.

Droplet-related functional surfaces attract considerable research interests due to many potential applications, including water harvesting, heat dissipation, and drug transport. The dynamic behavio...

The enhancement of surface functional groups of biochar is essential to improving the biochar contaminant adsorption. Current pyrolysis methods that are accompanied by activation are energy consuming and costly. Herein, a novel wet-pyrolysis system that was carried out in open air, with simultaneous conversion and modification to produce an effective biochar adsorbent, is described. Within this system, the surface of the biochar was oxidized partially to produce sufficient functional groups at the surface, whereas carbonization of the biomass (miscanthus sacchariflora) occurs under an acidic catalyst. The characteristic results confirmed the attachment of abundant surface functional groups, including hydroxyl and carboxyl groups, which increased in content with the ongoing reaction time. Neutralization with sodium carbonate removed the hydrogen bonds and enhanced the adsorption properties. The biochar that was obtained by using this technique exhibited an excellent cadmium adsorption capacity of 197 mg .g−1 and a high removal efficiency of 99%. Analysis of the Cd-loaded biochar indicated that adsorption occurred via ion exchange, and formed cadmium complexes. It could be concluded that this novel wet-pyrolysis system is a promising approach to produce biochar efficiently and cost-effectively for heavy-metal remediation.

Surface modification of biochar is significant to obtain more functionalized material for contaminants immobilization. In situ modification, modifying the biochar while the conversion process, was applied by a novel wet pyrolysis system. By using phosphoric acid as working medium, liquid/air interface was created to introduce low content of oxygen, under the control of appropriately settled reaction temperature. Followed with the addition of sodium carbonate to neutralize the system and increase mineral species, effective biochar adsorbent attached with large quantity of acidic oxygenic and phosphoric groups, and carbonate anions was finally produced. The biochar showed excellent decontamination performance of lead with a high adsorption capacity of 316 mg·g−1 and removal efficiency larger than 95%. The alteration of the characteristics after the adsorption confirmed the adsorption mechanism is the bi-function of surface coordination and precipitation. This novel route is easy handling and energy saving, promising it to be a reliable way to produce biochars with attractive surface properties for environmental decontamination.

Microwave is widely used in the inactivation of microorganisms, but its low energy efficiency and high heating temperature limit its application scenarios. This paper hopes to solve this problem by preparing microwave non-thermal effect enhancer. In this study, the inactivation performance of nano-Ag, TiO 2 and Ag@TiO 2 on bacteria under microwave radiation were compared. The results show that Ag@TiO 2 has a unique enhancement effect on microwave sterilization.

Temperature affects the metabolism of animals. Various physiological processes in animals must be carried out within a certain temperature range in order to function properly. In this paper, electromagnetic field simulations based on the finite difference of time domain (FDTD) method is used to obtain the specific absorption rate (SAR) of microwave irradiated rats at different environmental temperatures, and then the accuracy is verified through experiments.

The wideband High-Power Microwave (HPM) sources, which combine the advantages of narrowband and ultrawideband sources, have drawn much attention. As a kind of wideband source, the gyromagnetic nonlinear transmission lines (GNLTLs) can directly modulate the incident pulses into radio frequency pulses without relying on the interaction between e-beam and microwaves. Due to the special working mechanism of gyromagnetic precession, the center frequency of the GNLTL can also be adjusted in a certain range. Based on classical magnetism and a simplified model of the GNLTL, this paper semi-quantitatively and theoretically analyzed the generation mechanism of HPM and illustrated the influences of the variations of parameters on the output microwaves. Then, a simple simulation based on 1-dimensional transmission line modeling method was carried out to study the performance of the GNLTL quantitatively, with the coupling of 1D telegraphist equations and the 3D Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation. Simulation results preliminarily verified the conclusions derived from the theoretical analysis, and some working characteristics of the GNLTL were also obtained. This paper may help to understand the special working mechanism of the GNLTL and provide certain guidance for related simulations and experiments.

Superhydrophobic surfaces with a monostable Cassie state possess numerous interesting applications in many fields, such as microfluidics, oil-water separation, drag reduction, self-cleaning, heat dissipation, and so on. How to guarantee a monostable Cassie state of a superhydrophobic surface is still an interesting problem. In this paper, considering the influence of external interferences that may induce the possible wettability transition, the whole wetting process of a droplet on a trapezoidal micropillar-arrayed superhydrophobic surface is divided into six possible stages. Both the Gibbs-free energy in each stage and the energy barrier between adjacent stages are obtained and analyzed theoretically. It is interesting to find that the finally stable wettability of a trapezoidal micropillar-arrayed superhydrophobic surface significantly depends on the apparent contact angle of the lateral surface of a single micropillar, which can be divided into three regions from 0 to 180°, corresponding to the Wenzel state, metastable Cassie state, and monostable Cassie state. Furthermore, the size of each region is explicitly related to and can be well-tuned by the geometry of microstructures. Such a wettability classification is well verified by a number of existing experimental results and our numerical simulations. As a relatively general case, such a trapezoidal micropillar-arrayed superhydrophobic surface can also be conveniently degenerated to the triangular or rectangular micropillar-arrayed surface. All the results should be useful for the precise design of functional surfaces of different wettabilities.

Picoeukaryotes are an essential component of microbial communities and play key roles in marine ecosystems. In this study, surface water picoeukaryotes were investigated at 32 stations along a latitudinal cross-section of the Western Pacific (WP) in 2015. Multivariate analyses demonstrated that there were clear spatial patterns in picoeukaryotic community structures which were consistent with the distributions of environmental variables. The spatial patterns of community structures and diversity indices were all significantly correlated with multiple environmental parameters, especially nutrients. Co-occurrence networks linked community variability to environmental heterogeneity. In summary, the construction of picoeukaryotic communities in the WP was significantly affected by numerous environmental variables, and certain variables were revealed as key forcing factors responsible for the main similarities between picoeukaryotic communities. This study details the relationships between the picoeukaryotes and environmental parameters in the WP, and provides insight for application of using picoeukaryotes as indicator in future bioassessment for open waters.

To study the lightning attachment process of cloud-to-ground lightning flash, we develop a high-speed optical system of photodiodes array named Lightning Leader Progression Feature Photic Observation System (LiPOS) for lightning flash observation. It consists of power supply, signal capture, noise suppression, signal conditioning and collection, and electromagnetic shielding modules. The designed observation circuit mounted at the camera’s film plane of a 50 mm lens contains eight light receiving channels of photodiodes which are arranged in a vertical array. The system can use time difference of arrival of light signals in different receiving channels to determine the velocity. Besides, the specially designed T-type feedback network of the conditioning module can improve the stability of the amplifying circuit, while the noise suppression and electromagnetic shielding modules can provide the anti-interference ability for the LiPOS. In particular, we design and make a laser source with fast rise time to test the temporal resolution. It shows that the waveforms with rise time over 39.6 ns can be measured by the designed LiPOS. Moreover, the observation of the spark gap experiment is carried out to validate the LiPOS. The experimental results show that the observed 1-D velocities are 1.53 × 107 and 4.32 × 106 m/s, respectively.

To achieve both a low surface adhesion function and a high anti-wetting function, it is generally necessary to introduce multi-level micro-nano-structures on a surface. However, this will bring the difficulty of preparation technology, and the functions will fail due to the fact that the nanostructures can easily be damaged. In this research, the surface adhesion and anti-wetting properties of several typically one-level microstructure-arrayed hydrophobic surfaces are analyzed with the dynamics theory, including a square pillar-arrayed three-dimensional microstructure, a conical table-arrayed microstructure, and square frustum-arrayed microstructure. It is found that the anti-adhesion performance and anti-wetting property cannot achieve the best performance simultaneously on the one-level microstructure arrayed surfaces. Either the critical pressure of anti-wetting is finite when the surface adhesion is the lowest, or both the anti-adhesion and anti-wetting capacities are finite. However, an interesting phenomenon is found in that the square frustum-arrayed surface can not only achieve an almost infinite anti-wetting capacity when the distance between neighboring microstructures vanishes, but also reach near-zero adhesion when the square frustum reduces to a square pyramid. All the theoretical predictions are further verified by precise numerical simulations. The results of this paper should be helpful for the design of surfaces with low surface adhesion and strong anti-wetting functions in practical engineering.

When lightning strikes an aircraft, the electromagnetic (EM) field penetrates inside the aircraft, and induces currents and voltages on the onboard cables, resulting in the risk of equipment failure, which is a serious safety hazard to the flight safety. With the wide use of low-conductivity composite materials in aircraft manufacturing, the EM shielding effectiveness of the aircraft is weakened. As for the helicopter, the proportion of windows and doors is relatively larger than the fixed-wing aircraft, thus the EM shielding effectiveness is much weaker. Proper lightning protection design must be validated to eliminate the risk of electrical and electronic equipment failure. This paper describes the lightning indirect effects related to the modeling and simulation process of the composite UH-60 helicopter. The external and internal EM field environment together with the induced currents and voltages on cables are discussed. Moreover, in order to validate the simulation, an iron helicopter model was tested and the comparison between simulated and measured waveforms was carried out.

Research Highlights: Soil carbon storage (SOC) decreased due to forest fragmentation through lower proportion of macroaggregate distribution, higher storage of fine roots and litter falls, and lower fine root production rate. Background and Objectives: Globally, forest fragmentation processes lead to enormous losses of SOC in forests. We investigated SOC and its determinants in forest fragments experiencing edge disturbances in south China. Materials and Methods: Soil aggregate characteristics, dynamics of fine roots, and litter fall were studied from forest edges to interiors. Generalized linear mixed models were used to model the contributions of fine root and litter fall dynamics to carbon concentration in aggregates. Results: Large and small macroaggregates had higher proportion of aggregate distribution and contributed more carbon to SOC in all types of plots in the present study. SOC significantly increased from forest edges to interiors due to carbon concentration of these two aggregate types increasing from edges to interiors, while the proportion of different aggregate distributions was similar within each plot. The same trend was found with increasing forest patch size. Fine root biomass storage had the strongest impact on carbon concentration in large macroaggregates and microaggregates, with higher fine root biomass storage associated with lower carbon concentration. In addition, biomass storage and production rates of both fine roots and litter falls decreased from forest interiors to edges. Our results showed that SOC was significantly decreased due to the lower proportion of large and small macroaggregate distribution, and lower fine root production rate in forest fragments. Conclusions: SOC loss due to effects of forest fragmentation and forest edges occurred through decreased concentrations of soil aggregates and fine root production rates. Results from this study will enhance our ability to evaluate soil aggregate, fine root, and leaf litter fall contributions to SOC within forest fragments, and to suggest basic recommendations for the management and conservation of these forest fragments.

Cyanophages, which play a significant role in food web and global biochemical cycle, are one of the main causes of microbial death in aquatic environment. A novel cyanophage S-B68 was isolated from the surface water of the Bohai Sea, northern China. It can infect marine Synechococcus sp. (strain WH7803). The transmission electron microscopy results demonstrate that this cyanophage has an icosahedral head (51 nm in diameter) and a long tail (110 nm in length) and belongs to family Siphophages. The complete genome sequence of cyanophage S-B68 contains a linear, double-stranded 163,982 bp DNA molecule with a 51.7% G+C content. Except for four tRNAs, the genome contains 229 open reading frames (ORFs) which were grouped into six functional modules as follows: structure, hypothetical protein, DNA replication and expression, lysis, packaging, and some additional functions. It was found in one-step growth curve that the latent period of the S-B68 was about 49 h after infection with Synechococcus, and then it entered the rising period, and tended to stable after 61 h. Using the BLASTN tool in the NCBI database for genome comparison, there was no significant similarity between S-B68 and other known cyanophages. Present study adds a novel Siphoviridae genome to marine cyanophage dataset and provides useful basic information for its further research.

A novel Alteromonas phage JH01, with the host strain identified to be Alteromonas marina SW-47(T), was isolated from the Qingdao coast during the summer of 2017. Transmission electron microscopy analysis showed that phage JH01 can be categorized into the Siphoviridae family, with an icosahedral head of 62 ± 5 nm and a long contractile tail of 254 ± 10 nm. The bioinformatic analysis shows that this phage consists of a linear, double-stranded 46,500 bp DNA molecule with a GC content of 44.39%, and 58 ORFs with no tRNA genes. The ORFs are classified into four groups, including phage packaging, phage structure, DNA replication and regulation, and hypothetical protein. The phylogenetic tree, constructed using neighbor-joining analysis, shows that phage JH01 has altitudinal homology with some Vibrio and Pseudoalteromonas phage B8b. Comparative analysis reveals the high similarity between phage JH01 and phage B8b. Additionally, our study of phage JH01 provides useful information for further research on the interaction between Alteromonas phages and their hosts.

In this paper, the finite-difference time-domain method (FDTD) with convolutional perfectly matched layer (CPML) in 2-D cylindrical coordinate system is derived for the calculating of the lightning electromagnetic pulse (LEMP). The LEMP radiated from channel-base current propagating along the lightning return-stroke channel has been calculated with the proposed methods. The computed waveforms are in good agreement with the waveforms computed by Uman.

Based on the model of the diffusion flux ratio of Cu and Sn at the Cu/Cu3Sn/Cu6Sn5/Sn interface, the evolution of microstructures, the behavior of formation and growth of intermetallic compound (IMC) for Sn95.5Ag3.8Cu0.7 solder aged at 150 °C were studied. The nano indentation was applied to measure the hardness and elastic modulus of the IMC. The tensile strength and the low cyclic fatigue properties of the weld joint were also measured. The results showed that the thickness increments of Cu3Sn and Cu6Sn5 phases of IMC are mainly controlled by diffusion mechanism. The growth rates of Cu3Sn and Cu6Sn5 are 7.86×10-19 m2/s and 7.80×10-17 m2/s, respectively. The hardness and elastic modulus of IMC enhance with increasing aging time. For 24h aging time, the microstructure of the Cu6Sn5 keeps scalloped shape and the elastic modulus of IMC layer are similar to the copper substrate, which result in high fatigue resistance of the welded joint and its tensile strength of 69.50 MPa. With the mechanical hardening cumulative effects resulting from aging and cyclic strain, the fatigue performance and tensile strength of the welded joint gradually worse with the further increase of the aging time.

e14027 Background: A commercial liquid biopsy test was included as an exploratory component of an integrated immunotherapy clinical trial in previously refractory metastatic TNBC patients, combining innate, high-affinity natural killer cell (haNK) therapy with adenoviral and yeast-based vaccines and an IL-15 superagonist (NCT 03387085). The purpose of the study was to assess the utility of cell-free circulating RNA (cfRNA) as a predictor of treatment response. Methods: Blood was drawn from trial participants at baseline and at 2-6 week intervals throughout the treatment protocol. cfRNA and cfDNA were extracted from plasma and tested for analytes by quantitative PCR (qPCR) in a CLIA and CAP certified laboratory. This study is based on the analysis of 18 the cfRNA analytes (AR, PD-L1, CTLA-4, LAG-3, EGFR, HER2, ERCC1, TIM-3, MGMT, RRM1, SLC29A1, TOP1, TOP2A, TOP2B, TUBB3, TYMP, TYMS, XRCC1) in six patients that had at least three testing time points; new patient recruitment and serial testing are ongoing. The relative expression of each RNA analyte was normalized by beta-actin. Tumor size was evaluated by imaging using the RECIST criteria. Results: The amount and variability of cfRNA was positively correlated with the tumor size. As cfRNA quantity and variability increased or decreased, a corresponding increase or decrease in tumor size was observed, respectively. Not all 18 genes showed consistent patterns of change across the six patients, however the average expression and variability of the 18 genes showed evidence of a correlation with tumor size change from baseline (p-values = 0.08 and 0.03, respectively). Only trace levels of PD-L1 expression were observed in all 6 patients at baseline, prior to the initiation of the combination immunotherapy. Among the 5 patients that showed a reduction in tumor size of at least 10%, 4 also showed an associated increase in cfRNA PD-L1 expression from nearly 0 to normalized values between 2.1 and 6.8. Conclusions: Exploratory analysis in an ongoing combination immunotherapy clinical trial for TNBC showed that increasing and decreasing cfRNA levels are correlated with increasing and decreasing tumor size, respectively. Increased PD-L1 cfRNA levels are correlated with beneficial treatment response. Liquid biopsy of cfRNA could provide an effective biomarker of treatment response. Clinical trial information: NCT03387085.

e14567 Background: Levels of cell-free circulating RNA (cfRNA) in cancer patients (pts) indicate tumor gene expressions and thus may provide a means, not only of evaluating response, but also for monitoring and predicting outcome to therapy. Methods: Blood was drawn every 6-8 weeks from pts undergoing various treatments (tx). CfRNA was extracted from resulting plasma and generated random-primed cDNA. Total cfRNA was quantitated by qPCR of β-actin, and correlated with pts response (CR/PR/SD/PD) determined by CT scans. Changes in PD-L1 expression were used to monitor response to immunotherapy in lung cancer pts. 125 pts (50 lung, 51 breast, 24 colon) were enrolled. Among the three tumor types, a total of 84 pts completed 1-3 lines of tx with an average of 5 blood draws per pt. Results: Changes in total levels of cfRNA over time correlated with pts outcomes in all three tumor types and were independent of the specific therapies. Increasing (INC) levels of cfRNA were predictive of disease progression and decreasing (DEC) levels with benefit from therapy, with an overall concordance of 81% (68/84 pts). Changes in relative PD-L1 expression were associated with immunotherapy outcomes in lung cancer (INC associated with progression, DEC associated with benefit). Lung: There was a 79% (23/29) concordance between changes in cfRNA levels and pts response. Changes in relative PD-L1 expression were predictive of outcome to immunotherapy in 9/10 pts. Breast: There was an 83% (30/36) concordance between cfRNA levels and pts response. Colon: There was a 79% (15/19) concordance between cfRNA levels and pts response. Conclusions: A noteworthy concordance was observed between clinical response and changes in cfRNA levels in lung, breast and colon cancer pts, independent of chemotherapy regimen. Changes in relative PD-L1 gene expression correlated specifically with outcome to immunotherapy (90%). We conclude that changing cfRNA levels can indicate tx response, and PD- L1 could be used to monitor response to immunotherapy.

The insulin-like signaling (IIS) pathway is considered to be significant in regulating fat metabolism, dauer formation, stress response and longevity in Caenorhabditis elegans. "Dauer hypothesis" indicates that similar IIS transduction mechanism regulates dauer development in free-living nematode C. elegans and the development of infective third-stage larvae (iL3) in parasitic nematodes, and this is bolstered by a few researches on structures and functions of the homologous genes in the IIS pathway cloned from several parasitic nematodes. In this study, we identified the insulin-like receptor encoding gene, Acan-daf-2, from the parasitic nematode Angiostrongylus cantonensis, and determined the genomic structures, transcripts and functions far more thorough in longevity, stress resistance and dauer formation. The sequence of Acan-DAF-2, consisting of 1413 amino acids, contained all of the characteristic domains of insulin-like receptors from other taxa. The expression patterns of Acan-daf-2 in the C. elegans surrogate system showed that pAcan-daf-2:gfp was only expressed in intestine, compared with the orthologue in C. elegans, Ce-daf-2 in both intestine and neurons. In addition to the similar genomic organization to Ce-daf-2, Acan-DAF-2 could also negatively regulate Ce-DAF-16A through nuclear/cytosolic translocation and partially restore the C. elegans daf-2(e1370) mutation in longevity, dauer formation and stress resistance. These findings provided further evidence of the functional conservation of DAF-2 between parasitic nematodes and the free-living nematode C. elegans, and might be significant in understanding the developmental biology of nematode parasites, particularly in the infective process and the host-specificity.

To improve the protection performance of helicopter against lightning, this paper presents a full-wave electromagnetic transient simulation based on the Transmission-line Matrix (TLM) to simulate helicopter struck by high current pulse and study its lightning indirect effects according to the SAE-ARP 5416A. The distributions of the electromagnetic field of the helicopter stroke by the lightning are discussed. The results indicate that this simulation method can effectively analyze the helicopter indirect effects stroke by lightning and guide the lightning protection design of the helicopter without the condition to develop the full-scale helicopter experiment.

Background Anopheles anthropophagus is one of the major vectors of malaria in Asia. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in cell development and differentiation as well as in the cellular response to stress and infection. In a former study, we have investigated the global miRNA profiles in relation to sex in An. anthropophagus. However, the miRNAs contributing to the blood-feeding and infection with Plasmodium are still unknown. Methods High-throughput sequencing was performed to identify miRNA profiles of An. anthropophagus midguts after blood-feeding and Plasmodium infection. The expression patterns of miRNA in different midgut libraries were compared based on transcripts per million reads (TPM), and further confirmed by Northern blots. Target prediction and pathway analysis were carried out to investigate the role of regulated miRNAs in blood-feeding and Plasmodium infection. Results We identified 67 known and 21 novel miRNAs in all three libraries (sugar-feeding, blood-feeding and Plasmodium infection) in An. anthropophagus midguts. Comparing with the sugar-feeding, the experssion of nine (6 known and 3 novel) and ten (9 known and 1 novel) miRNAs were significantly upregulated and downregulated respectively after blood-feeding (P