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Abstract Objective Hemodialysis catheter-related right atrial thrombus (CRAT) is a rare and fatal complication related with catheter. Treatment recommendations are controversial. We reported our institution’s recent three cases in managing CRAT and review and analyze the reported cases of CRAT in hemodialysis patients. Methods A systematic search of the PubMed, Embase and Web of Science databases was conducted to identify the therapy and outcome data in hemodialysis CRAT patients. Results From 1975 to November 2023, a total of previous 144 cases which reported in the literatures and three new cases in our institution of CRAT in hemodialysis were included and analyzed. Overall mortality was 18.1% (26/144). Most of cases can be detected by echocardiography. Thirty-three patients had no treatment, except for catheter removal, replacement or antibiotics, but eleven of them have died. Thrombolytic therapy was adopted in 14 cases but only nine cases was successful, the remaining cases need to further therapy. Eventually, 71 cases have been treated by anticoagulation and 34 cases received thrombectomy. Conclusions We recommend that the replacement of the catheter and anticoagulation combined with thrombolysis is a preferred therapy. Thrombectomy should be considered when other methods fail or new complication happened. Thrombolysis alone has a low success rate but may be useful in combination with anticoagulant therapy.

Damage to the substrate hinders the application of laser paint stripping (LPS) on carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP), but the damage mechanism is currently unknown. In this paper, the LPS characteristics of CFRP, such as paint stripping depth, surface morphology and dynamic behavior, are firstly obtained. Subsequently, the surface damage mechanism of CFRP is discussed in detail by theoretical analysis and finite element method, and the effect of substrate damage on adhesive properties is investigated. The results show that it is difficult for LPS to obtain a complete surface free of paint residue. The strong laser plasma impact and resin pyrolysis pressure cause the resin to crack and flake before the paint is fully ablated. The carbon fiber then breaks and are thrown outward by heat and forces, and the surface with slightly fracture of the fiber will facilitate bonding with the paint.

As an environmentally friendly new method for coating removal, laser cleaning has been widely used in aircraft skin paint removal recently. However, due to the thermal damage sensitivity of composite materials, current laser cleaning is still mainly used in aluminum alloy skins. In this work, we demonstrate a method for cleaning the surface paint of honeycomb sandwich structures by ultraviolet picosecond laser. The method achieves layer-by-layer and non-destructive removal of paint from composite surfaces. The results show that the top coat is selectively removed when the laser power is 8 W and the scanning speed is 1750 mm/s. When the laser power is 8 W and the scanning speed is 750 mm/s, both top coat and primer are completely removed without any morphological damage for the glass fiber. The temperature monitoring results show that the UV picosecond laser exhibits low-temperature paint removal. The paint removal mechanism of UV picoseconds is dominated by photochemical effects.

The molecular structure of a van der Waals-bonded complex involving 2,6-di-tert-butylphenol and a single argon atom has been determined through rotational spectroscopy. The experimentally derived structural parameters were compared to the outcomes of quantum chemical calculations that can accurately account for dispersive interactions in the cluster. The findings revealed a π-bound configuration for the complex, with the argon atom engaging the aromatic ring. The microwave spectrum reveals both fine and hyperfine tunneling components. The main spectral doubling is evident as two distinct clusters of lines, with an approximate separation of 179 MHz, attributed to the torsional motion associated with the hydroxyl group. Additionally, each component of this doublet further splits into three components, each with separations measuring less than 1 MHz. Investigation into intramolecular dynamics using a one-dimensional flexible model suggests that the main tunneling phenomenon originates from equivalent positions of the hydroxyl group. A double-minimum potential function with a barrier of 1000 (100) cm−1 effectively describes this extensive amplitude motion. However, the three-fold fine structure, potentially linked to internal motions within the tert-butyl group, requires additional scrutiny for a comprehensive understanding.

Utilizing the heat energy of exhaust gases is a promising application of thermoelectric generator (TEG), which can convert low grade thermal energy into electricity. The annular thermoelectric generator (ATEG) is thought to be much more feasible for cylindrical heat source compared to the flat-plate thermoelectric generator (FTEG) in reference to the compatibility. Nevertheless, the quantitative comparison is lacking to clarify the prevalent geometry of TEG for cylindrical heat source. In this work, the performances of ATEG and FTEG are compared in detail with varying inlet temperature, velocity and the convective heat transfer coefficient when cylindrical heat source is applied. The turbulent heat source is described by the standard κ-ɛ functions together with the two-equation heat transfer model, while the output power and conversion efficiency of the ATEG and FTEG are calculated by solving the coupled thermo-electric equations. Our results showed that the output powers and the conversion efficiencies of ATEG and FTEG both increase with the increase of the inlet velocity, temperature, and the convective heat transfer coefficient. The conversion efficiency of ATEG is always higher than that of FTEG. The conversion efficiency of ATEG becomes even larger than that of FTEG when inlet temperature and/or convective heat transfer coefficient are relatively larger. In contrast, the output power of ATEG has no obvious difference with that of FTEG. This study addressed the condition when the ATEG has obvious advantage compared to the FTEG with cylindrical heat source applied. Our results suggest the annular TEG is better choice for cylindrical hot source especially when the inlet temperature and/or convective heat transfer coefficient are relatively larger. It could be a helpful guide for choosing suitable geometry of TEGs for energy harvesting in complex condition.

Understanding the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 is dependent on being able to distinguish COVID-19 immune responses from cross-reactive immune responses to other coronaviruses. Here the authors show that choice of antigens and whether an ICS, ELISPOT or T cell proliferation assay is used has a major effect on this discriminatory ability.

Recently, social Q&A communities have grown increasingly popular, serving as a primary platform for people to learn and share information. Nonetheless, fewer knowledge producers in these communities are significant than knowledge consumers. Thus, promoting users’ participation in knowledge sharing is a challenge for managers of social Q&A communities. Even though many scholars have studied factors influencing willingness to share knowledge, they tend to start with one theory and ignore the impact of several factors on behaviors. Thus, this manuscript presents a multi-factor model based on three dimensions of technology, cognition, and security to explore the effects of the six factors of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, perceived behavioral control and subjective norms, perceived security, and perceived privacy in terms of the three knowledge sharing methods of browsing including like and favorite, publishing and replying, and to compare users’ willingness to use the three knowledge sharing methods. A total of 482 questionnaires were collected online, and the hypotheses were tested and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). According to the results, the factors affecting different sharing methods are not the same. Perceived behavioral control and perceived security can have a significant influence on their willingness to browse, users’ willingness to publish and reply to posts is significantly influenced by their perception of behavioral control and subjective norms, while perceived usefulness also affects their willingness to respond, it can be seen that cognition is the most important factor affecting users’ knowledge sharing among the three dimensions. In addition, users’ willingness to browse is significantly greater than their willingness to reply, and their willingness to post is the lowest.

As a non-contact and non-destructive technology, laser cleaning provides an alternative method for the paint stripping of aircraft skins. Herein, the particular multi-layer paint on the aluminum alloy aircraft skin surface was stripped by adjusting laser parameters. Beyond expectation, multi-layer paint led to a highly complex surface as opposed to the ordinary single-layer paint after laser cleaning. The surface morphology, chemical compositions, and surface functional groups of the samples were analyzed, and the successful depaint parameters were found in this experiment with damage free of the aluminum substrate, i.e., laser energy density of 5.09 J/cm2 and scanning speed of 700 mm/s. More importantly, this paper revealed that the mechanisms of laser paint stripping from Al alloy aircraft skin are thermal decomposition, evaporation, and spallation. After laser cleaning, the surface nanoindentation hardness with paint completely stripped and undamaged was increased by 3.587% relative to that of the conventional mechanical lapping sample. The improvement of nanoindentation hardness was also confirmed by the microstructure characterized with electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) in which plastic deformation led to strain hardening of the substrate surface. This study lays a solid foundation for large-scale, high-efficiency, and low-pollution removal of more complex paint layers on aircraft surfaces in the future.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most aggressive solid tumors in the digestive system. A greater understanding of the pathogenesis of PDAC may facilitate the search for new therapeutic targets. Guanine nucleotide‐binding protein subunit gamma‐12 (GNG12) belongs to the G protein family and participates in the modulation of the inflammatory signaling cascade. However, the cancer‐related function and clinical relevance of GNG12 in PDAC have not previously been reported. Here, we investigated the clinical significance of GNG12 in PDAC using the Oncomine web tool, the gene expression profiling interactive analysis tool and tissue microarray (TMA). GNG12 expression was observed to be higher in PDAC patient specimens than in nontumor pancreatic tissues, and high expression of GNG12 was associated with poor prognosis. We subsequently show that GNG12 promotes pancreatic cancer cell growth in vivo and in vitro, as evaluated using 3‐(4,5‐dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl)‐5‐(3‐carboxymethoxyphenyl)‐2‐(4‐sulfophenyl)‐2H‐tetrazolium, inner salt assays, colony formation assays and a xenograft mouse model. Furthermore, our results suggest that GNG12 activates nuclear factor‐κB signaling and modulates the immune response. Collectively, our findings suggest that GNG12 may be suitable as a new prognosis‐related biomarker and a promising target for treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Micromilling is an extremely important advanced manufacturing technology in the micromanufacturing industry. Compared with the traditional milling process, micromilling has stricter requirements on the surface roughness of the workpiece, and the roughness of the microcurved surface is not easy to measure. In order to more accurately characterize the curved surface morphology of the microgrooves obtained by micromilling, this paper proposes a method to extract the reference plane of the curved surface based on the bidimensional empirical mode decomposition algorithm and characterize the three-dimensional surface roughness of the curved surface. First, we synthesize the morphologies of the microgrooves by simulated non-Gaussian rough surfaces and models of textures. Second, the bidimensional empirical mode decomposition algorithm was used to extract the reference planes of the simulated microgrooves. Third, the three-dimensional roughness parameters suitable for the curved surfaces of microgrooves were selected to establish an evaluation system. The results show that the mean squared errors of the reference planes are below 1%, so bidimensional empirical mode decomposition can effectively extract reference planes, and the evaluation system of three-dimensional surface roughness proposed in this paper reflects morphological characteristics of the curved surfaces of microgrooves more thoroughly than that of two-dimensional surface roughness parameters.

Hybrid integration of silicon photonics with lithium niobate (LN) devices provides a promising route to enable an excellent modulation performance in silicon photonic integrated circuits. To realize this purpose, a substrate containing a Si film on an LNOI substrate, called Si on the LNOI structure, was analyzed and fabricated. The mode propagation properties in the Si-on-LNOI structure were simulated in detail and a vertical adiabatic coupler (VAC) between the Si waveguide and LN waveguide was simulated to help in the determination of the dimension of this structure. A 4-inch wafer-scale Si on an LNOI hybrid structure was fabricated through the ion-cut process. This structure has a single-crystalline quality, high thickness uniformity, smooth surface, and sharp bonding interface, which are practical for realizing low loss and high coupling efficiency.

Strategies to remove carbon from the atmosphere are needed to meet global climate goals. Promising strategies include the conversion of waste biomass to hydrogen, methane, liquid fuels, or electricity coupled with CO2 capture and storage (CCS). A key challenge for these projects is the need to connect geographically dispersed biomass supplies with geologic storage sites by either transporting biomass or CO2. We assess the cost of transport for biomass conversion projects with CCS using publicly available cost data for trucking, rail, and CO2 pipelines in the United States. We find that for large projects (order of 1 Mt/yr CO2 or greater), CO2 by pipeline is the lowest cost option. However, for projects that send most of the biomass carbon to storage, such as gasification to hydrogen or electricity production, biomass by rail is a competitive option. For smaller projects and lower fractions of carbon sent to storage, such as for pyrolysis to liquid fuels, CO2 by rail is the lowest cost option. Assessing three plausible example projects in the United States, we estimate that total transport costs range from $24/t-CO2 stored for a gasification to hydrogen project traversing 670 km to $36/t for a gasification to renewable natural gas project traversing 530 km. In general, if developers have flexibility in choosing transport mode and project type, biomass sources and storage sites can be connected across hundreds of kilometers for transport costs in the range of $20-40/t-CO2 stored. Truck and rail are often viable modes when pipelines cannot be constructed. Distances of 1,000 km or more can be connected in the same cost range when shared CO2 pipelines are employed.

Bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells based on small molecules have attracted potential attention due to their promise of conveniently defined structures, high absorption coefficients, solution process-ability and easy fabrication. Three DâAâDâA type organic semiconductors (WS-31, WS-32 and WS-52) are synthesized, based on the indoline donor and benzotriazole auxiliary acceptor core, along with either bare thiophene or rigid cyclopentadithiophene as Ï bridge, rhodanine or carbonocyanidate as end-group. Their HOMO orbitals are delocalized throughout the whole molecules. Whereas the LUMOs are mainly localized on the acceptor part of structure, which reach up to benzothiadiazole, but no distribution on indoline donor. The first excitations for WS-31 and WS-32 are mainly originated by electron transition from HOMO to LUMO level, while for WS-52, partly related to transition between HOMO and LUMO+1 level. The small organic molecules are applied as donor components in bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells, using PC61BM as acceptor material to check their photovoltaic performances. The BHJ solar cells based on blended layer of WS-31:PC61BM and WS-32:PC61BM processed with chloroform show overall photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE) of 0.56% and 1.02%, respectively. WS-32 based BHJ solar cells show a higher current density originated by its relatively larger driving force of photo-induced carrier in photo-active layer to LUMO of PC61BM. Keywords: Indoline donor, Unsymmetrical organic semiconductors, BHJ solar cells, Photovoltaic performances

Ion-cutting of piezoelectric LiNbO3 (LN) thin film provides a material platform for the design and fabrication of novel integrated photonics and RF MEMS devices. In this paper, the ion-slicing mechanisms of He-implanted LN with different orientations are investigated. The anisotropy of film exfoliation is observed on LN wafers with different orientations. The Z-cut LN shows regular surface blistering and “plate-like” exfoliation, while the Y-cut LN shows the unique “rolled-up” exfoliation. Two types of defect, i.e. the pressure-related plateau defect and the stress-related crack defect, are observed to contribute to the film exfoliation. Moreover, the defect evolution in H-implanted LN is investigated. In comparison with the He-implanted LN, implanted H ions are mainly trapped by O-H bond and the implantation-induced strain is not strong enough, which are inadequate to form the continuous crack. Therefore the H ions are not favorable for the mass production of LNOI substrates.

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Abstract Ovarian cancer continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality in women, with immune regulation playing a critical role in its progression and treatment response. This review explores the interplay between sex hormones, particularly estrogen and progesterone, and immune regulation in ovarian cancer. We delve into the mechanisms by which these hormones influence immune cell function, modulate immune checkpoints, and alter the tumor microenvironment. Key pathways involving estrogen and progesterone receptors are examined, highlighting their impact on tumor growth and immune evasion. The review also discusses the therapeutic implications of these interactions, including the potential for combining hormone-based therapies with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Personalized medicine approaches, leveraging biomarkers for predicting treatment response, are considered essential for optimizing patient outcomes. Finally, we address current research gaps and future directions, emphasizing the need for advanced research technologies and novel therapeutic strategies to improve the treatment of ovarian cancer through a better understanding of hormone-immune interactions.