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The effect of barium ions on the biomineralization of calcium and magnesium ions is often overlooked when utilizing microbial-induced carbonate precipitation technology for removing barium, calcium, and magnesium ions from oilfield wastewater. In this study, Bacillus licheniformis was used to bio-precipitate calcium, magnesium, and barium ions. The effects of barium ions on the physiological and biochemical characteristics of bacteria, as well as the components of extracellular polymers and mineral characteristics, were also studied in systems containing coexisting barium, calcium, and magnesium ions. The results show that the increasing concentrations of barium ions decreased pH, carbonic anhydrase activity, and concentrations of bicarbonate and carbonate ions, while it increased the contents of humic acids, proteins, polysaccharides, and DNA in extracellular polymers in the systems containing all three types of ions. With increasing concentrations of barium ions, the content of magnesium within magnesium-rich calcite and the size of minerals precipitated decreased, while the full width at half maximum of magnesium-rich calcite, the content of O-C=O and N–C=O, and the diversity of protein secondary structures in the minerals increased in systems containing all three coexisting ions. Barium ions does inhibit the precipitation of calcium and magnesium ions, but the immobilized bacteria can mitigate the inhibitory effect. The precipitation ratios of calcium, magnesium, and barium ions reached 81–94%, 68–82%, and 90–97%. This research provides insights into the formation of barium-enriched carbonate minerals and offers improvements for treating oilfield wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the oxidation resistance of carbon/carbon (C/C) composites in 1473–1973 K, a HfSi 2 -HfB 2 -SiC coating was prepared on the surface of SiC-coated C/C composites by a combined method of slurry dipping and oxidation sintering at low temperature (below 1473 K). The Hf-Si-O multiphase layer generated by the oxidation of the coating acted as oxygen barriers at 1473–1973 K in air. The in-situ formed HfSiO 4 particles enhanced the thermal stability of the SiO 2 glass, terminated propagation of the crack, and relieved CTE mismatch between the inner and outer coating. Besides, B 2 O 3 filled pores in the early stage of oxidation and then SiO 2 took the place of the B 2 O 3 as a new filler with the increase time of oxidation. As a result, the coating can protect C/C composites for 516 h at 1473 K, 744 h at 1773 K, and 64 h at 1973 K with a mass gain of 0.63 wt%, 1.41 wt% and −1.91 wt%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the oxidation resistance of carbon/carbon (C/C) composites in a wide temperature range (1173–1773 K), a composite coating containing rich B 2 O 3 glass was prepared on SiC-coated C/C composites by slurry dipping-densifying at low temperature. Borosilicate and SiO 2 glasses acted as oxygen barriers at low and medium-high temperatures, respectively. Besides, Hf-oxides (HfO 2 , HfSiO 4) ceramic particles improved the thermal stability of the glass and enhanced the crack resistance of glass layer. Therefore, the composite coating can effectively protect C/C composites against oxidation for 403 h at 1173 K, 723 h at 1473 K and 403 h at 1773 K with the mass gain of 3.77 g·m−2, 21.41 g·m−2 and 0.42 g·m−2, respectively. After 50 times thermal cycles between room temperature and 1773 K, the mass gain of the coated sample was 3.95 g·m−2 and the mass retention rate was up to 98.19 % during the thermos-gravimetric test from room temperature to 1773 K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HfB 2 -SiC coatings with 30–60 wt% HfB 2 additions were prepared by slurry-dipping on SiC-coated C/C composites for investigating their oxidation behavior at low (1173 K) and high (1773 K) temperatures. With the increase of HfB 2 content, more B 2 O 3 glass was produced in the coating and the coating became denser during oxidation at 1173 K. 50 wt% HfB 2 -SiC coating can protect C/C composites for 494 h against oxidation, which was attributed to the formation of the dense borosilicate glass with high thermal stability as an oxygen barrier layer. After oxidation at 1773 K, 30 wt% HfB 2 -SiC coating provided the longest protection time (460 h) for C/C composites among 30–60 wt% HfB 2 -SiC coatings. A few Hf-oxides inhibited the volatilization of SiO 2 glass as the main phase in the 30 wt% HfB 2 -SiC coating after oxidation. As for other coatings with higher content of HfB 2 , the violent oxidation of HfB 2 particles made more bubbles produced, resulting in the poor oxidation resistance at 1773 K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage have been an effective way to deal with global climate issues. Injecting CO2 into depleted oil reservoirs can reach the dual goal of carbon storage and enhanced oil recovery. To optimize the gas injection strategy, it is necessary to understand the underlying mechanisms of three-phase fluid flow of oil, water, and gas. In this study, a lattice Boltzmann color gradient model is used to investigate the pore-scale three-phase displacement process in porous media. Gas is injected into the porous domain initially occupied by water and oil. Typical microscopic behaviors, including coalescence and split-up, pinch-off, double and multiple displacement, as well as parallel flow, are identified and discussed. Effects of water content (ϕ), capillary number (Ca), wettability and viscosity ratio (M) on the flow pattern, and oil recovery rate are explored. The oil ganglia inhibit the development of gas fingers, causing stronger viscous fingering characteristics with increasing ϕ. The fingering pattern is located in the crossover zone for the Ca from 5 × 10−5 to 5 × 10−4. As ϕ increases, the oil recovery rate reduces. The oil ganglia tend to occupy small pores as oil wettability enhanced, making it more difficult to be drained out. The reduction of oil viscosity is beneficial to improve connectivity, thereby effectively enhancing the oil recovery. Finally, the CO2 storage rate is also evaluated. It is found that the storage rate is very sensitive to the initial oil–water distributions. In general, the storage rate increases as ϕ decreases, Ca increases, and oil wettability enhances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the heterogeneous and homogeneous reaction characteristics of the Mg/CO 2 and coexisting Mg/CO systems using thermal analysis kinetics and quantum chemical calculation methods, respectively. The corresponding kinetic parameters are subsequently obtained using detailed theoretical calculations. The Mg/CO 2 power system is a very promising propulsion mode for future Mars exploration due to the abundant carbon dioxide resources in the atmosphere of Mars. At present, much of the research on Mg combustion in CO 2 has focused on the ignition and combustion characteristics at the macro level and few databases exist for microreaction characteristics. Three sets of thermal analysis experiments at different temperature rise rates are carried out in CO 2 and CO atmospheres to extract the kinetic parameters. The results show that the heterogeneous reactions between Mg and CO 2 /CO are controlled by the first-order reaction model (F1), that is, by linear kinetics. There are two intermediate transition states in the homogeneous reaction between Mg and CO 2. However, a suitable transition state structure is not observed in the homogeneous reaction between Mg and CO. The total energy barrier of this reaction is significantly higher than that of the Mg/CO 2 reaction system. In addition, the rate constant of the Mg/CO 2 homogeneous reaction is 10–17 orders of magnitude higher than that of the Mg/CO homogeneous reaction in the temperature range between the boiling point of Mg and 2000 K. The conclusions of this study are valuable for the combustion models of Mg/CO 2 systems, which are expected to contribute to the structural design and optimisation of Mg/CO 2 rocket engines or burners for Mars exploration. • Heterogeneous and homogeneous reaction characteristics of Mg/CO 2 and Mg/CO systems. • Heterogeneous reactions controlled by the first-order reaction model (linear kinetics). • Thermal analysis kinetics and quantum chemical calculation methods for analysis. • Results can enrich basic combustion science, structural design, and optimisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is paucity of investigations into immunotherapy or targeted therapy for postoperative locally recurrent pancreatic cancer. We aimed to assess the efficacy of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) plus pembrolizumab and trametinib in these patients.Methods: In this open-label, randomised, controlled, phase 2 study, participants were recruited from Changhai Hospital affiliated to the Naval Medical University, Shanghai, China. Eligible patients were aged 18 years or older with histologically confirmed pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma characterised by mutant KRAS and positive immunohistochemical staining of PD-L1, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 or 1, and documented local recurrence after surgery followed by chemotherapy (mFOLFIRINOX [ie, 5-fluorouracil, oxaliplatin, irinotecan, and folinic acid] or 5-fluorouracil). Eligible participants were randomly assigned (1:1) using an interactive voice or web response system, without stratification, to receive SBRT with doses ranging from 35-40 Gy in five fractions, intravenous pembrolizumab 200 mg once every 3 weeks, and oral trametinib 2 mg once daily or SBRT (same regimen) and intravenous gemcitabine (1000 mg/m2) on day 1 and 8 of a 21-day cycle for eight cycles until disease progression, death, unacceptable toxicity, or consent withdrawal. The primary endpoint was overall survival in the intention-to-treat population. Safety was assessed in the as-treated population in all participants who received at least one dose of study treatment. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02704156, and is now complete.Findings: Between Oct 10, 2016, and Oct 28, 2017, 198 patients were screened, of whom 170 patients were enrolled and randomly assigned to receive SBRT plus pembrolizumab and trametinib (n=85) or SBRT plus gemcitabine (n=85). As of the clinical cutoff date (Nov 30, 2020), median follow-up was 13·1 months (IQR 10·2-17·1). Median overall survival was 14·9 months (12·7-17·1) with SBRT plus pembrolizumab and trametinib and 12·8 months (95% CI 11·2-14·4) with SBRT plus gemcitabine (hazard ratio [HR] 0·69 [95% CI 0·51-0·95]; p=0·021). The most common grade 3 or 4 adverse effects were increased alanine aminotransferase or aspartate aminotransferase (ten [12%] of 85 in SBRT plus pembrolizumab and trametinib group vs six [7%] of 85 in SBRT plus gemcitabine group), increased blood bilirubin (four [5%] vs none), neutropenia (one [1%] vs nine [11%]), and thrombocytopenia (one [1%] vs four [5%]). Serious adverse events were reported by 19 (22%) participants in the SBRT plus pembrolizumab and trametinib group and 12 (14%) in the SBRT plus gemcitabine group. No treatment-related deaths occurred.Interpretation: The combination of SBRT plus pembrolizumab and trametinib could be a novel treatment option for patients with locally recurrent pancreatic cancer after surgery. Phase 3 trials are needed to confirm our findings.Funding: Shanghai Shenkang Center and Changhai Hospital.Translation: For the Chinese translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the co-precipitation of calcium and barium ions in hypersaline wastewater under the action of Bacillus licheniformis using microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) technology, as well as the bactericidal properties of the biomineralized product vaterite. The changes in carbonic anhydrase activity, pH, carbonate and bicarbonate concentrations in different biomineralization systems were negatively correlated with variations in metal ion concentrations, while the changes in polysaccharides and protein contents in bacterial extracellular polymers were positively correlated with variations in barium concentrations. In the mixed calcium and barium systems, the harvested minerals were vaterite containing barium. The increasing concentrations of calcium promoted the incorporation and adsorption of barium onto vaterite. The presence of barium significantly increased the contents of O-C O, N-C O, and Ba-O in vaterite. Calcium promoted barium precipitation, but barium inhibited calcium precipitation. After being treated by immobilized bacteria, the concentrations of calcium and barium ions decreased from 400 and 274 to 1.72 and 0 mg/L (GB/T15454–2009 and GB8978–1996). Intracellular minerals were also vaterite containing barium. Extracellular vaterite exhibited bactericidal properties. This research presents a promising technique for simultaneously removing and recycling hazardous heavy metals and calcium in hypersaline wastewater. [Display omitted] • Probiotic B. licheniformis simultaneously removed Ba2+ and Ca2+ in hypersaline fluid. • Ca2+ promoted Ba2+ precipitation, but Ba2+ inhibited Ca2+ precipitation. • Hydrochemical index and EPS components changed greatly in Ba2+-Ca2+ fluid. • Intracelluar vaterite containing Ba was also beneficial to the Ba2+ and Ca2+ removal. • Ba-vaterite exhibited bactericidal activity against E.coli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protein-protein interaction (PPI) plays an important role in various biological processes of organisms, and is beneficial for the development of relevant drugs, the diagnosis of diseases, etc. On this account, an increasing number of studies on PPI have been proposed. However, existing works neither construct the model with respect to the characteristics of downstream tasks (e.g. the potential relation between labels) nor fully explore the raw data (e.g. the confidence of interactions between proteins). To address this issue, we propose a novel Label-aware Dual-view Graph Neural Network for Protein-Protein Interaction Classification (LADV-PPI) method. Specifically, we construct a multi-head feature similarity graph by exploiting the rich information within the node features, which will be combined with the topology graph to generate the consensus graph. Based on this, we design a dual-view graph neural network with parameter sharing to learn PPI representations jointly from both topology graph and consensus graph. In addition, we introduce a self-adaptive label relation graph aggregation module to generate effective label representations, which will be incorporated into the dual-channel label-aware multi-layer perceptrons to guide the learning process of PPI representations. Extensive experimental results on three real-world datasets demonstrate that the proposed LADV-PPI achieves superior performance as compared to eight state-of-the-art baseline methods. • Propose to learn PPI representations jointly from both topology and consensus views. • Introduce label signal to guide the learning process of PPI representations. • Enforce a constraint to maintain consistency between topology and consensus views. • Conduct extensive experiments to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management of avulsed teeth after replantation often leads to an unfavorable outcome. Damage to the thin and vulnerable periodontal ligament is the key reason for failure. Cell- or stem cell-based regenerative medicine has emerged in the past two decades as a promising clinical treatment modality to improve treatment outcomes. This concept has also been tested for the management of avulsed teeth in animal models. This review focuses on the discussion of limitation of current management protocols for avulsed teeth, cell-based therapy for periodontal ligament (PDL) regeneration in small and large animals, the challenges of de novo regeneration of PDL on denuded root in the edentulous region using a mini-swine model, and establishing a prospective new clinical protocol to manage avulsed teeth based on the current progress of cell-based PDL regeneration studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• SiO 2 gradient distribution in the gradient composite coating reduces CTE mismatch between the coating and SiC coating to inhibit cracking. • The outer dense layer and the inner microporous layer in the gradient composite coating play a synergistic antioxidant role. • The coating can protect C/C composites against oxidation at mid and high temperature for long-life service. To improve the oxidation resistance of carbon/carbon (C/C) composites at mid and high temperature, a gradient composite coating was designed and prepared on SiC-coated C/C composites by in situ formed-SiO 2 densifying the porous SiC-ZrSi 2 pre-coating. SiO 2 gradient distribution was conducive to inhibiting the cracking of the coating. A dual-layer structure with the outer dense layer and the inner microporous layer was formed in the coating during densifying. The dense layer had excellent oxygen diffusion resistance and the microporous layer alleviated CTE mismatch between SiC inner coating and dense layer. Moreover, ZrSiO 4 particles inhibited crack propagation and stabilized SiO 2 glass. Therefore, the coating can protect the C/C composites from oxidation at 1473 K, 1573 K and 1773 K for 810 h, 815 h and 901 h, respectively. The coated samples underwent 30 thermal cycles between room temperature and 1773 K without mass loss, exhibiting good thermal shock resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a key and difficult problem to find the optimal powder-feeding technique in the study of powdered engines. In this paper, the feeding of powder in powder engines at different gas-solid ratios was experimentally investigated. Working characteristics of the classic piston-driven powder feeding system were obtained. A high linear tendency between powder mass flow rate and the minimum throttle channel area is observed from the experiment. The solid-gas mass ratio to maintain a stable powder feeding is approximately valued in range of 34.4–54.6 under different throttle channel areas. The least deviation in the relative powder mass flow rate for the tests is −15% to +8%. Due to the high uncertainty of the gas-solid flow structures at different gas-solid ratios, obvious low-frequency oscillations and high-frequency oscillations exist during the powder feeding process. The frequencies of low-frequency oscillations are mainly 1–3 Hz, while those of high-frequency oscillations are 20–30 Hz and 30–45 Hz in different tests. • The feeding process in a powder engine under different gas-solid ratios was experimentally investigated. • The oscillation phenomenon may be an inherent defect in the classic piston-driven powder-feeding system. • The deviation in the relative powder mass flow rate for the most smooth and steady test is −15% to +8%. • A high linear tendency between powder mass flow rate and the minimum throttle channel area is observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Involving user's historical semantic and sentiment preferences into the loop of microblog sentiment analysis to alleviate the sparsity issue. • Proposing a unified model which consists of a micropost encoder to learn representative micropost representation, a user sentiment state encoder to capture user-specific historical emotion states, as well as a user semantic state encoder to capture user-specific historical semantic states. • Creating a new dataset with user's contextual information by collecting data from Sina Weibo https://github.com/zhucqut/UHSE. Microblog text is usually very short, thereby challenging existing sentiment classification methods by providing models with little context. Recently, historical user information has been widely used in many real-world applications, such as recommender systems. However, few research works consider user historical states in the loop of microblog sentiment analysis. In this work, we propose to involve historical user information for microblog sentiment analysis to alleviate the context sparsity problem. In particular, we propose a novel neural microblog sentiment classification method which learns informative representations of microblog posts by exploiting both a user's contextual information and his/her historical state information. The proposed method consists of four components, i.e., a micropost encoder, a user historical sentiment encoder, a User Historical Semantic Encoder, and a micropost sentiment classification component. Extensive experiments are conducted on real-world data collected from Weibo, and experimental results show that the proposed approach achieves superior performance as compared to state-of-the-art baselines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• No studies about optimal treatment for patients with LAPC and poor performance status. • SBRT and S-1 showed favorable outcomes and acceptable toxicity in those patients. • Improvement of quality of life and significant pain relief were found after treatment. The optimal treatment for a particularly neglected group of patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) and poor performance status, who are usually excluded from most clinical trials, is required. Therefore, we aim to investigate the efficacy and safety of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) with sequential S-1 for those patients. Eligible patients had histologically and radiographically confirmed LAPC and ECOG performance status of 2 or more points determined by two independent physicians. Radiation doses ranged from 35-40 Gy/5f. S-1 was taken orally, twice daily, at a dose of 80 mg/m2 for 28 days, followed by a 14-day interval, which repeated for 6 cycles and was initiated one month after SBRT. The primary endpoint was 1-year overall survival (OS). The secondary endpoints were OS, progression free survival (PFS), treatment-related toxicity and quality of life. The study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02704143. Sixty-three patients were enrolled. At the time of data cut-off, all patients died. No patients were lost to follow-up. Median follow-up was 15.8 months (95%CI 12.9–18.7 months). One-year OS was noted in 46 of 63 patients (73.0%, 95%CI 67.4%-78.6%). The median OS and PFS was 14.4 (95%CI 13.2–15.6 months) and 10.1 months (95%CI 9.7–10.5 months) respectively. Eighteen patients (28.6%) had grade 3 toxicity. According to Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core 30, significant improvements of abdominal pain were found, and patients with poorer baseline global health status had greater improvement of health status and pain relief after treatment. SBRT with sequential S-1 shows promising efficacy and acceptable toxicity in poor performance status patients with LAPC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In this study, whey protein isolate (WPI) and polydextrose (PDX) were used to produce WPI‐PDX covalent conjugates via dry‐heating Maillard reaction, and their characteristics and functional properties including abilities to emulsify and stabilise the corn germ oil/water emulsions were measured. Compared with WPI alone, the WPI‐PDX conjugates had higher water solubility and DPPH radical scavenging ability, and the derived emulsions exhibited good storage stability over 60 days prepared under these conditions: reaction time 24 h, conjugate concentration 4–6%, oil fraction ratio 0.6 and emulsion system pH 3–8. Further, we found that the emulsion possessed the best storage stability under the condition of 4% WPI‐PDX conjugates and 0.6% oil fraction. These results provide a potent to prepare a beneficial Maillard conjugation following an optimised reaction condition and highlight the potential use of WPI‐PDX conjugates as the emulsifier in food industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is paucity of investigations into immunotherapy or targeted therapy for postoperative locally recurrent pancreatic cancer. We aimed to assess the efficacy of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) plus pembrolizumab and trametinib in these patients.Methods: In this open-label, randomised, controlled, phase 2 study, participants were recruited from Changhai Hospital affiliated to Naval Medical University, Shanghai, China. Eligible patients were aged 18 years or older with histologically confirmed pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma characterised by mutant KRAS and positive immunohistochemical staining of PD-L1, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 or 1, and documented local recurrence after surgery followed by chemotherapy (mFOLFIRINOX or 5-fluorouracil). Eligible participants were randomly assigned (1:1) using an interactive voice or web response system, without stratification, to receive SBRT with doses ranging from 35-40 Gy in five fractions, intravenous pembrolizumab 200 mg once every 3 weeks, and oral trametinib 2 mg once daily or SBRT (same regimen) and intravenous gemcitabine (1000 mg/m2) on day 1 and 8 of a 21-day cycle for eight cycles until disease progression, death, unacceptable toxicity, or consent withdrawal. The primary endpoint was overall survival in the intention-to-treat population. Safety was assessed in the as-treated population in all participants who received at least one dose of study treatment. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02704156, and is now complete.Findings: Between Oct 10, 2016, and Oct 28, 2017, 198 patients were screen, of whom 170 patients were enrolled and randomly assigned to receive SBRT plus pembrolizumab and trametinib (n=85) or SBRT plus gemcitabine (n=85). As of the clinical cutoff date (Nov 30, 2020), median follow-up was 23·3 months (IQR 20·5-27·4). Median overall survival was 24·9 months (23·3-26·5) with SBRT plus pembrolizumab and trametinib and 22·4 months (95% CI 21·2-23·6) with SBRT plus gemcitabine (hazard ratio [HR] 0·60 [95% CI 0·44-0·82]; p=0·0012). The most common grade 3 or 4 adverse effects were increased alanine aminotransferase or aspartate aminotransferase (ten [12%] of 85 in SBRT plus pembrolizumab and trametinib group vs six [7%] of 85 in SBRT plus gemcitabine group), increased blood bilirubin (four [5%] vs none), neutropenia (one [1%] vs nine [11%]), and thrombocytopenia (one [1%] vs four [5%]). Serious adverse events were reported by 19 (22%) participants in the SBRT plus pembrolizumab and trametinib group and 12 (14%) in the SBRT plus gemcitabine group. No treatment-related deaths occurred.Interpretation: The combination of SBRT plus pembrolizumab and trametinib could be a novel treatment option for patients with locally recurrent pancreatic cancer after surgery. Phase 3 trials are needed to confirm our findings.Funding: Shanghai Shenkang Center and Changhai Hospital.Translation: For the Chinese translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Longer survival in patients with PD-L1+/TIL + having immunotherapy-based regimens. • Similar outcomes in PD-L1+/TIL + and PD-L1+/TIL- groups regarding chemoradiotherapy. • No increased toxicity in PD-L1+/TIL + compared with PD-L1+/TIL- group in two regimens. Immunotherapy alone offered limited survival benefits in pancreatic cancer, while the role of immunotherapy-centric combined therapy remains controversial. Therefore, it is required to develop biomarkers to precisely deliver immunotherapy-based multimodality for pancreatic cancer. This is a secondary analysis of an open label, randomized, phase 2 trial, whereas patients with locally recurrent pancreatic cancer after surgery were enrolled. Eligible patients with mutant KRAS and positive immunohistochemical staining of PD-L1 were randomly assigned to receive stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) plus pembrolizumab and trametinib (SBRT + K + M) or SBRT and gemcitabine (SBRT + G). Meanwhile, patients were classified into PD-L1+/tumor infiltrating lymphocytes [TIL(s)]- and PD-L1+/TIL + group for each arm. A total of 170 patients were enrolled and randomly assigned to receive SBRT + K + M (n = 85) or SBRT + G (n = 85). The improved outcomes have been reported in patients with SBRT + K + M in the previous study. In this secondary analysis, the median overall survival (OS) was 17.2 months (95% CI 14.6–19.8 months) in patients with PD-L1+/TIL + and 12.7 months (95% CI 10.8–14.6 months) in patients with PD-L1+/TIL- (HR 0.62, 95% CI 0.39–0.97, p = 0.036) receiving SBRT + K + M. In SBRT + G group, the median OS was 13.1 months (95% CI 10.9–15.3 months) in patients with PD-L1+/TIL- and 12.7 months (95% CI 9.2–16.2 months) in patients with PD-L1+/TIL+ (HR 0.97, 95% CI 0.62–1.52, p = 0.896). Grade 3 or 4 adverse events were found in 16 patients (30.8%) and 10 patients (30.3%) with PD-L1+/TIL- and PD-L1+/TIL + in SBRT + K + M group respectively; whereas 9 (16.7%) and 8 patients (25.8%) with PD-L1+/TIL- and PD-L1+/TIL + in SBRT + G group. PD-L1, TILs and mutant KRAS may be a biomarker to guide clinical practice of radiotherapy and immunotherapy-based regimens in pancreatic cancer if further combined with MEK inhibitors as targeted therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• More SiO 2 can be produced in the porous coating than the dense coating. • The SiO 2 -SiC inlay structure are formed during the oxidation process. • The SiO 2 -SiC inlay structure can inhibit the cracking of SiO 2 glass. • The crack propagation is prevented by the micro-pores of the coating. To improve the oxidation resistance of carbon/carbon (C/C) composites at high temperatures, a SiC-Si coating with micro-pores was prepared by slurry and heat-treatment on the surface of C/C composites with SiC-Si inner coating acquired by pack cementation (PC). The microstructure, phase composition, element distribution, and anti-oxidation properties of the dual-layer SiC-Si coating were investigated. The results show that a SiO 2 -SiC inlay structure was formed during the oxidation process, due to a large amount of SiO 2 rapidly generated by the oxidation of SiC particles in the porous coating. The coating with this structure could inhibit the cracking of SiO 2 glass and had a good resistance to oxygen diffusion. Moreover, the crack propagation was blocked by the remaining micro-pores of the coating. The coating could protect C/C composites against oxidation for 846 h only with the mass loss of 0.16 % at 1773 K in air. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-view clustering has received an increasing attention in many applications, where different views of objects can provide complementary information to each other. Existing approaches on multi-view clustering mainly focus on extending Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) by enforcing the constraint over the coefficient matrices from different views in order to preserve their consensus. In this paper, we argue that it is more reasonable to utilize the high-level manifold consensus rather than the low-level coefficient matrix consensus (as conducted in state-of-the-art approaches) to better capture the underlying clustering structure of the data. For this purpose, we propose MMRSC (Multiple Manifold Regularized Sparse Coding), which aims to preserve the consensus over multiple manifold structures from different views. Experimental results on two publicly available real-world image datasets demonstrate that our proposed approach can significantly outperform the state-of-the-art approaches for the multi-view image clustering task. Moreover, we also conduct computational complexity analysis and the result shows that MMRSC can effective handle the multi-view clustering problem without increasing the computational cost as compared to GraphSC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The passive targeting via nanomedicine to pancreatic tumor microenvironment (TME) is identified as an optimized therapeutic strategy for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) because lacking specific biomarkers and the intractable anatomical position. Herein, an in vitro 3D PDAC model was set up to evaluate the regulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) by an intelligent gemcitabine@nanogel system (GEM@NGH). This GEM@NGH system consisting of a reduction-sensitive core, the payloads of gemcitabine, and the coronal of hyaluronidase arrayed on the cationic surface was fabricated to improve intratumoral penetration and antitumor efficacy. The physicochemical properties, reduction sensitivity, cellular biocompatibility and cytotoxicity, intracellular distribution and therapeutic effects were all evaluated. Particularly, the GEM@NGH system showed excellent ECM eradication and in vitro/vivo solid tumor penetration ability as evaluated by home-built equipment and in vitro 3D PDAC model, which confirmed that GEM@NGH could be disintegrated in the tumoral reductive cytoplasm after internalization and release gemcitabine to exhibit promoted cytotoxicity. In the in vivo therapy, GEM@NGH displayed the highest tumor growth inhibition in PANC-1 tumor-bearing mice with the remarkably increased tumor penetration ability by TME regulation. The results obtained in this study indicate that specifically regulating TME by a well-designed intelligent gemcitabine@nanogel is promising way for the pancreatic cancer therapy. Unlabelled Image • An in vitro 3D model successfully set-up for evaluation of TME regulation. • Intelligent nanogel responsive to the TEM with high tumor penetration ability. • The reduction sensitive property synergistically promoted PDAC therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few databases exist for the research on the ignition or combustion of moving micron-sized Mg particles in CO 2. In this study, the ignition and combustion characteristics of moving micron-sized Mg particles in CO 2 were examined with a closed high-temperature furnace and a pneumatic ejection device. The ignition and combustion processes were captured and recorded with a high-speed camera. The condensed products were collected with a water-cooled probe and analyzed with a transmission electron microscope (TEM) or scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results showed that an uneven protective shell forms around a particle because of the heterogeneous reaction during the ignition stage. Ignition occurs when the weakest point of the shell ruptures because of the large pressure difference. The partial ejection of Mg vapor on the particle surface leads to a skewed distribution of the flame around the burning Mg particle in CO 2. During the combustion process, the particle may spin at speeds of 0.4–1.5 rotations per millisecond. Empirical formulas were derived for the ignition delay and burning time. No bright flame was observed around the particles when the ambient pressure dropped below 0.025 MPa, which was concluded to be the ignition pressure limit of Mg in CO 2. These results should be useful for the structural design and optimization of Mg/CO 2 powder rocket engines intended for Mars exploration. • Ignition and combustion mechanisms of Mg powder in CO 2 experimentally determined. • Micron-sized and moving particles considered to mimic actual operating conditions. • Mg particles may spin during combustion. • Equations derived for the ignition delay and burning time at varying temperatures. • Ignition pressure limit for Mg in CO 2 determined to be 0.025 MPa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fatigue–creep behaviors of 15CrNbTi and 15Cr0.5MoNbTi steels in the simulated automotive exhaust gas and in argon at 800 °C were investigated. The fatigue–creep tests were conducted under stress-controlled mode with a stress ratio of 0.1 at 800 °C in the simulated automotive exhaust gas and in argon on an electrohydraulic servo fatigue testing machine. A trapezoidal waveform was adopted, and when the cyclic stress reached the maximum tension stress, a 10-s hold time was introduced. The tests results show that 15Cr0.5MoNbTi steel has higher cyclic deformation resistance and fatigue life than 15CrNbTi steel in two atmospheres. Compared with the simulated automotive exhaust gas, both experimental materials possess higher cyclic deformation resistance and fatigue life in argon. The cracks of two experimental materials in two atmospheres were both transgranularly initiated from the free surfaces of the steels and propagated in a transgranular manner. The main substructures of two experimental materials after fractured in two atmospheres were sub-grain structures which formed during fatigue–creep tests. The synergistic effects of solid solution strengthening of Mo and precipitation strengthening of fine Fe2Nb phases increased the cyclic deformation resistance and the fatigue life of 15Cr0.5MoNbTi steel at 800 °C in two atmospheres. In addition, Mo element improved the oxidation resistance of 15Cr0.5MoNbTi steel in the simulated automotive exhaust gas, which has a beneficial effect on the prolongation of fatigue life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It was well-known that Berberine, a major bioactive compound extracted from natural plants Coptis chinensis, has anti-diabetic effects for decades in china. Other types of pharmacological activities, such as anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, hypolipidemic, and anti-cancer effects, have also been examined. At cellular level, these pharmacological activities were mostly an inhibitory effect. However, the cytoprotective effect of berberine was also observed in various types of cells, such as neurons, endothelial cells, fibroblasts, and β-cells. The paradoxical result may be closely associated with characteristics and distribution of berberine within cells, and they can be explained mechanically by mitohormesis, one particular form of hormesis. Here, we reviewed the mitohormetic response and assessed the berberine-induced effects and the possible signaling pathway involved. These findings may contribute to better clinical applications of berberine and indicate that some mitochondria-targeted conventional drugs should be considered carefully in clinical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Device-associated infection is becoming a major threat to patient health associated with the extensive use of indwelling medical devices. Bacterial biofilms formed on the surfaces of indwelling devices act as physical and biochemical barriers to protect bacterial cells from being killed by antibiotics and host-immune mediators. Although ultrasound (US) alone cannot destroy mature biofilms, it can sensitize Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) to gentamicin and disrupt the expression of genes associated with bacterial metabolism, motility, antibiotic resistance, virulence and quorum sensing involved in biofilm formation. Furthermore, by evaluating levels of reactive oxygen species in neutrophils, we showed that US may promote neutrophil phagocytosis of bacteria. Therefore, in addition to preventing the formation of P. aeruginosa biofilms in an amplitude-dependent manner, US can effectively destroy mature biofilms in combination with gentamicin and neutrophils. These results may have great potential for the treatment of device-associated infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the working conditions of a Mg/CO 2 rocket engine for Mars exploration, an experimental investigation was carried out to study the breakup and atomization properties of a liquid CO 2 jet in a high-pressure environment. It is shown that the pressure ratio has a significant effect on the location and process of jet evaporation, resulting in significant difference in jet morphology and breakup characteristic. Two dividing points were identified, one near the CO 2 triple point and the other near the saturation point. As the pressure ratio increases, the thermodynamic driving force for jet breakup weakens, leading to larger droplet sizes. The breakup length of the free round jet and Sauter mean diameter are functions of the Weber number and Jacob number, which are influenced by vapor content, injection velocity, and gas-liquid density ratio, in the mass flowrate range of 5.9–9.1 g/(mm2·s). A thermodynamic mechanism dominates when the ambient pressure in the atomize room is low enough, resulting in an unimodal distribution of droplet sizes. When the ambient pressure is in the range of 1–2.5 MPa, both thermodynamic and mechanical breakup mechanisms are active, resulting in a bimodal distribution of droplet sizes. • Liquid CO2 atomization in high-pressure rocket engine conditions is firstly studied through experiments. • Cavitation effects on jet morphology are observed in wide range of ambient pressure. • Semi-empirical predictions for jet breakup length and SMD are derived based on Weber and Jacob numbers. • Unimodal and bimodal droplet size distributions are observed under dual atomization mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An efficient NiFe binary alloy catalyst has been fabricated by simple electro-deposition. • The reaction site and electron distribution of NiFe are changed greatly due to introduction Fe. • The NiFe catalyst exhibits excellent activity, selectivity, and stability to BOR. • The DBFC with NiFe catalyst anode can deliver the peak power density of 540 mW cm−2 at 298 K. The NiFe-x binary alloy catalysts have been prepared by one-step potentiostatic electrodeposition, while the effects of the introduction of Fe on the morphology, structure, and electrochemical properties have been also investigated sufficiently. The research results indicate that because of the introduction appropriate amount of Fe, the size of the catalyst particles is refined, which is beneficial to increase effective catalytic active sites and enhancement catalytic activity. At the same time, it changes the electron distribution of Ni thereby improving the adsorption to reactants. Moreover, it can also inhibit hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) thus to heighten the catalytic selectivity. When assembled with the NiFe-2 catalyst anode, the direct borohydride fuel cell (DBFC) can provide a peak power density of 540 mW cm−2 and the open circuit voltage (OCV) of 1.87 V at 298 K. We believe that this study may enlighten a new idea for the design and development of efficient noble metal-free anode catalysts of DBFC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Node classification plays a critical role in numerous network applications, and has attracted increasing attention in recent years. Existing state-of-the-art studies aim at maintaining common information between the topology graph and the feature graph in an implicit way, i.e., adopting a common convolution with parameter sharing strategy to preserve common information between the two graphs. Despite their effectiveness, these studies are still far from satisfactory due to the complex correlation information between the two spaces. To address this issue, we present a novel method named Consensus Neighbor Interaction-based Multi-channel Graph Convolutional Networks (CNIM-GCN). CNIM-GCN preserves the common information between the feature space and topology space in an explicit way by introducing a consensus graph for information propagation. A multi-channel graph convolutional networks is developed for effectively fusing information from different graphs. In addition, we further incorporate two types of consistency constraints, i.e., structural consistency constraint and reconstruction consistency constraint, to maintain the consistency between different channels. The former is leveraged to keep the consistency between different spaces at the structural relationship level, while the latter is used to preserve a consistency between the final node representation and the original node feature representation. We carry out extensive experiments on five real-world datasets, including ACM, BlogCatalog, CiteSeer, Flickr and UAI2010. Experimental results show that our proposed approach CNIM-GCN is superior to the state-of-the-art baselines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To identify patterns of local failure in patients with pancreatic cancer receiving stereotactic body radiation therapy plus chemotherapy as initial treatment, for the optimal design of target volumes encompassing a majority of local recurrences.Methods and Materials: Consecutive patients with resectable or borderline resectable but medically inoperable cancer owing to comorbidities and locally advanced pancreatic cancer undergoing stereotactic body radiation therapy and chemotherapy were reviewed. Local recurrences were plotted with respect to the celiac trunk (CT), superior mesenteric artery (SMA), and splenic artery on 1 computed tomographic scan of a template patient.Results: Five hundred and ten patients were included. Median follow-up of the entire group was 21.8 months (range, 3.1-54.9 months). Two hundred and seventeen patients had locoregional recurrences, whereas local and distant progressions were found in 293 patients. One hundred and sixty-nine (33.2%) and 144 (28.2%) patients had recurrences closer to the CT and SMA, respectively, whereas both invasions of the CT and SMA were found in 115 patients (22.5%). In addition, 33 patients (6.5%) and 49 patients (9.6%) had recurrences at the hepatic hilum and the splenic artery, respectively. Besides these patterns of failure, 138 patients (27.1%) also experienced retroperitoneal progressions. The mean distance to the CT, SMA, and retroperitoneal recurrence was 9.0, 8.3, and 11.7 mm, respectively. Multivariable analysis demonstrated that advanced pancreatic cancer, recurrences at both the CT and SMA and the hepatic hilum, CA19-9 nonresponders, and BED10 <60 Gy were predictive of worse survival.Conclusions: Areas closer to the CT, SMA, and retroperitoneal space were at a high risk of local recurrences. Nonuniform and sufficient expansions from the gross tumor volume might be necessary, and the splenic vessels abutting the tumor might also be included in the target volume without compromise of dose constraints of organs at risk. In addition, at least BED10 ≥60 Gy might be required to achieve better outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Non-enzymatic electrochemical glucose sensor based on bronze which was installed on a smart toothbrush. • Good selectivity and high sensitivity towards glucose oxidation in the presence of interfering species. • This sensor can be regenerated simply by mechanically polishing for long-term uses. Abstract Bronze is one of copper alloy materials that have been widely used not only in the Bronze Age, but also nowadays because they are hard, easy to cast and resistant against corrosion. For bronze, tin is commonly used as the major non-copper ingredient of bronze because of many highly desirable characteristics including the fact that metallic tin is not toxic. We find that the tin bronze is a suitable electrode material for non-enzymatic electrochemical glucose sensing in saliva. For electrocatalytic oxidation of glucose on the bronze electrode, a negative potential is applied for proton reduction which creates a temporary alkaline condition. The sensor has a linear range from 0 to 320 μM with the regression equation: i = 11 + 0.015 C (i is the current in μA and C is the concentration in μM) with a correlation coefficient of 0.994. The sensitivity is found to be 480 μA mM−1 cm-2, and the detection limit is 6.6 μM with a signal-to-noise ratio of 3. The electrode is found to be highly selective towards glucose oxidation in the presence of interfering species such as ascorbic acid and uric acid. The electrochemical senor is integrated into a smart toothbrush for monitoring of saliva glucose, which is potentially useful for non-invasive screening of diabetes. Compared with other electrochemical glucose sensors, a naked bronze electrode is used as the working electrode to ensure the robustness of the sensor. No additional reagent is involved for the electrochemical determination of saliva glucose and the electrode can be regenerated simply by mechanically polishing for long-term uses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • This study focuses on the re-irradiation for pancreatic cancer, which is rarely investigated, yet an important treatment option for recurrence of pancreatic cancer. Besides, it is the largest series of two courses of stereotactic body radiation therapy for pancreatic cancer. • To the best of our knowledge, a novel prognostic score was firstly developed for selecting patients amenable to re-irradiation for pancreatic cancer. • This scoring system may provide insights for individualized treatment. Abstract Purpose To develop a predictive model for stratification of patients with pancreatic cancer who may achieve survival benefits from re-irradiation with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). Methods The score was developed based on clinical predictors of OS in 31 patients receiving two courses of SBRT with Cox proportional hazards model. Results were then validated in another cohort with 11 participants to assess the performance of the score. Results In the training cohort, the median BED 10 of the first and second SBRT was 59.5 Gy (48–85.5 Gy) and 50.2 Gy (43.7–66.9 Gy) in 5–8 fractions, while in the validation cohort, the median BED 10 of the first and second SBRT was 59.5 Gy (52.5–66.9 Gy) and 47.7 Gy (40.6–54.8 Gy) in 5–8 fractions. The interval between the first and second SBRT of the training cohort and validation cohort was 10.5 months (6.1–24.3 months) and 12.8 months (6.5–29.1 months), respectively. Multivariable analysis showed that tumor stage (P = 0.005), BED 10 (P = 0.006) and CA19-9 response (P = 0.04) were significantly predictive of overall survival, which formed SCAD score (named after the initials of factors). Patients with the score < 3 points had a superior OS compared with those with the score ≥ 3 points in the validation cohort (median OS has not been reached vs. 15.9 months, P = 0.032). Conclusions The SCAD score may have the potential to identify individuals benefiting from re-SBRT and be a step toward more personalized medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep bed filtration is commonly used to remove oil from oily wastewater. The wettability of the filter media greatly influences the oil removal efficiency. A filter with a strong hydrophobicity and oleophilicity results in a higher oil removal efficiency. To improve the hydrophobicity and oleophilicity, ZnO nanoparticles and octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) were coated on quartz sand filter media. SEM, FTIR and XPS were used to study the morphology and chemical composition of the filters, and adsorption capacity and oil removal efficiency experiments were performed to assess the oil removal performance. The results show that the OTS molecules are grafted onto the surface of the quartz sand filter through chemical bonding, and the OTS/ZnO-coated quartz sand filter is superhydrophobic and oleophilic, with a water contact angle of 154.1° and an oil contact angle of 0°. The OTS/ZnO-coated quartz sand filter has very high mechanical stability and acid resistance. The oily wastewater treatment performance is greatly improved after application of the OTS/ZnO coating, and the superhydrophobic quartz sand filter media can potentially be used to filter oily wastewater and achieve high oil removal efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To provide a modified formula consistent with the Monte Carlo (MC) algorithm for dose calculations during stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy for non–small cell lung cancer. Seventy CyberKnife treatment plans were calculated and analyzed by MC and ray-tracing (RT) algorithms, separately. Parameters of treatment plans were compared, and those associated with differences of dose distributions were analyzed to establish a modified formula. Gross tumor volume and tumor tracking volume (TTV) were defined as the evident disease on the sequences of the window width and level of the lung and the mediastinum. Additionally, the formula was validated by another 20 plans. The prescription dose of the 90 patients was 60 Gy/5f. The RT algorithm overestimated the planning target volume (PTV) D 95 by an average of 8.59 Gy and the gross tumor volume D 99 by an average of 5.84 Gy. The homogeneity index of PTV was underestimated by 0.11 on average, whereas the conformity index and new conformity index was underestimated by 0.05. The RT algorithm overestimated the dose distribution to the spinal cord by 2.23 Gy, the esophagus by 1.96 Gy, the trachea by 1.89 Gy, the left-sided bronchus by 1.77 Gy, the right-sided bronchus by 1.64 Gy, and the heart by 2.16 Gy. The average whole-lung dose volumes of lung tissues and dose volumes of V 5 were overestimated by 2.69 Gy and 7.52%, respectively. A power function distribution ( R 2  = 0.8626) was confirmed between PTV D 95 and TTV volumes. PTV D 95 calculated by the MC algorithm could be computed easily with TTV and PTV D 95 calculated by the RT algorithm based on the formula. The modified equation was more consistent with MC algorithm than with other formula, which could be a reference to those not accessible to the MC algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pleural effusion (PE) is a common manifestation associated with certain chest diseases. However, there is no effective diagnostic marker with high sensitivity and specificity. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of several biomarkers in the use of detecting malignant pleural disorder. One hundred and fifty patients with a specific diagnosis of exudative PE were enrolled in this study and were divided into the benign PE group (n=93) and the malignant PE group (n=57). Thoracoscopy was conducted to identify the reasons for the PE. Biomarkers in pleural fluid and in sera were determined either by microparticle enzyme immunoassay [carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)], fluorescence immunoassay [procalcitonin (PCT)] or light-scattering turbidimetric immunoassay [C-reaction protein (CRP)]. Then, correlation analysis and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis individually or in combination were performed. The CRP and PCT levels were higher in benign PE than they were in malignant PE (PCT: P=0.017, P=0.032; CRP: P=0.001, P<0.001, respectively), while CEA levels were lower in benign PE than in malignant PE (CEA: P=0.001, P=0.001, respectively). During the ROC curve analysis, an optimal discrimination was identified by combining pleural CRP, pleural CEA and serum (s)PCT with an area under the curve of 0.973 (sensitivity, 98.9%; specificity, 89.5%). In the diagnosis of PE, there was no single biomarker that appeared to be adequately accurate. The combination of pleural CRP, pleural CEA and sPCT may represent an efficient diagnostic procedure for guiding the patient towards follow-up clinical treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cathode materials play a crucial role in enabling the widespread adoption of intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFC) for commercial applications. This study utilized the sol-gel method to prepare a range of perovskite oxides, specifically Sc-doped La 2 Ni 1-x Sc x O 4+δ (x = 0, 0.05, 0.10, and 0.15), without the use of cobalt. The investigation focused on making a study of how the introduction of Sc doping affected the thermal stability, electrochemical properties, and structure of cathode materials. XRD, FE-SEM, and electrochemical workstations were subjected to structural characterization and performance testing of materials. The findings indicate that all the prepared materials have a typical Ruddlesden-Popper structure, and an abundance of additional oxygen can be generated in close proximity to the interstitial by incorporating Sc into the cathode of La 2 Ni 1-x Sc x O 4+δ to increase the oxygen vacancy and improve the catalytic activity of ORR. La 2 Ni 0.9 Sc 0.1 O 4+δ has the highest oxygen surface exchange kinetics, the dissociative adsorption of oxygen is the rate-limiting step at the cathode. At a temperature of 700 °C, the lowest polarization resistance of La 2 Ni 0.9 Sc 0.1 O 4+δ is 0.1298 Ω cm2, while the single cell with La 2 Ni 0.9 Sc 0.1 O 4+δ as the cathode achieves an impressive peak power density of 0.462 W cm−2, thus demonstrating exceptional long-term stability. La 2 Ni 0.9 Sc 0.1 O 4+δ is expected to be a potential high-performance IT-SOFC cathode material. • B‐Site Sc‐doped of cobalt-free La 2 Ni 1-x Sc x O 4+δ cathodes. • Sc-doped creates plentiful oxygen vacancies and increasing oxygen permeability. • Sc-doped improves the ORR activity of La 2 Ni 1-x Sc x O 4+δ cathode. • The TEC of La 2 Ni 0.9 Sc 0.1 O 4+δ cathode is close to conventional electrolyte GDC. • ThePPD of La 2 Ni 0.9 Sc 0.1 O 4+δ cathode at 700 °C is 0.462 W cm−2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is considered promising technology that directly converts the chemical energy stored in the fuel into electrical energy. However, the undesired oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity and stability of the cathode have hindered its commercialization. In this work, a series of Pr-doped Pr x Ba 1-x Fe 0.8 Co 0.2 O 3-δ (x = 0∼0.3) nanofibers and powder cathode materials with excellent performance are synthesized by electrospinning and sol-gel methods, respectively. The influence of different Pr doping amounts on the nanofiber morphology, phase structure, thermal stability and electrochemical properties of BaFe 0.8 Co 0.2 O 3-δ (BFCO) nanofibers cathode materials were investigated. Compared the microstructures and electrochemical performance of Pr 0.1 Ba 0.9 Fe 0.8 Co 0.2 O 3-δ nanofiber and powders prepared by different methods. The partial substitution of Pr for Ba (doping of a few of Pr) can effectively eliminate the BFCO hexagonal phase and induce the transformation to the cubic phase. The content of oxygen vacancies was significantly increased as well as the cathode ORR activity was well enhanced. In addition, we demonstrated by DRT that oxygen adsorption is the rate-limiting step at the cathode. Among them, Pr 0.1 Ba 0.9 Fe 0.8 Co 0.2 O 3-δ nanofiber has the best electrochemical performance and the highest oxygen surface exchange kinetics performance. The area-specific resistance (ASR) of Pr 0.1 Ba 0.9 Fe 0.8 Co 0.2 O 3-δ nanofiber is 0.1416 Ω cm2 at 700 °C. When the peak power density (PPD) of the YSZ-NiO/YSZ/GDC/PBCF1–F single cell shows 0.787 W cm−2, an anode-supported fuel cell with Pr 0.1 Ba 0.9 Fe 0.8 Co 0.2 O 3-δ nanofiber demonstrates excellent stability after 100 h of long-term stability test. Electrospinning technology is an effective method to prepare high-performance cathodes, and Pr 0.1 Ba 0.9 Fe 0.8 Co 0.2 O 3-δ nanofiber cathodes are expected to be high-performance cathode materials for IT-SOFCs. • Pr3+ and Co co-doped of BaFeO 3-δ (BFO). • Pr3+ and Co co-doped improves BaFeO 3-δ ORR activity and electrical properties. • DRT analysis of the cathodic oxygen reduction reaction process. • Pr 0.1 Ba 0.9 Fe 0.8 Co 0.2 O 3-δ nanofiber as high-performance solid oxide fuel cathode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: To identify impacts of different combined regimens of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) and chemotherapy on survival of patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) and factors correlated with determinations of different combinations. Four hundred and nineteen patients with radiographically and biopsy‐proven LAPC were prospectively enrolled. Factors associated with different strategies were analyzed with Chi‐square test and contingency coefficients. Cox regression was used to identify factors predictive of survival. Prognostic values of different multimodality were further analyzed by propensity score‐matched analysis. Median overall survival (OS) and progression‐free survival (PFS) of all patients was 13.2 and 8.2 months, respectively. Baseline ECOG correlated with induction chemotherapy, while tumor stage, lymph node invasion, and toxicity after SBRT associated with adjuvant chemotherapy. Patients with induction chemotherapy alone (12.2 months), adjuvant chemotherapy alone (13.6 months), and induction and adjuvant chemotherapy (13.3 months) had longer OS than those without chemotherapy (11.2 months; P < .001), while adjuvant chemotherapy alone and induction and adjuvant chemotherapy increased PFS. An adjusted overall survival benefit was gained with adjuvant chemotherapy compared with induction and adjuvant chemotherapy (OS: 14.7 months [95% CI: 14.2‐15.2 months] vs 13.1 months [95% CI: 12.3‐13.9 months]; P < .001) (PFS: 8.8 months [95% CI: 8.4‐9.2 months] vs 8.1 months [95% CI: 7.4‐8.8 months]; P = .053). Induction and adjuvant chemotherapy, especially adjuvant chemotherapy, plus SBRT may improve OS and PFS. Baseline performance status, tumor stage, lymph node involvement, and toxicity after SBRT influenced determinations of upfront multimodality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To identify optimization of dose distributions of target volumes and decrease of radiation doses to normal tissues during stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for pancreatic cancer with dose-limiting auto-shells.Methods: With the same prescription dose, dose constraints of normal organs and calculation algorithm, treatment plans of each eligible patient were re-generated with 3 shells, 5 shells and 7 shells, respectively. The prescription isodose line and beam number of each patient in 3-shell, 5-shell and 7-shell plan remained the same. Hence, a triplet data set of dosimetric parameters was generated and analyzed.Results: As the increase of shell number, the conformal index, volumes encompassed by 100% prescription isodose line and 30% prescription isodose line significantly decreased. The new conformal index was higher in 3-shell group than that in 5-shell and 7-shell group. A sharper dose fall-off was found in 5-shell and 7-shell group compared to 3-shell group. And the tumor coverage in 7-shell was better than that of 3-shell and 5-shell. Lower D5cc of the intestine, D10cc of the stomach, Dmax of the spinal cord and smaller V10 of the spleen was confirmed in 7-shell group compared to 3-shell group.Conclusions: More conformal dose distributions of target volumes and lower radiation doses to normal organs could be performed with the increase of dose-limiting auto-shells, which may be more beneficial to potential critical organs without established dose constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adipocytokine leptin promotes hepatic stellate cell (HSC) activation (a key step in liver fibrogenesis) and liver fibrosis. microRNA-122 (miR-122) is the most abundant liver-specific miRNA and was demonstrated to inhibit liver fibrosis and reduced HSC proliferation. Our previous study revealed that leptin reduced miR-122 level in HSCs. This study was aimed to investigate whether leptin affected miR-122 promoter and the underlying mechanisms in HSCs. Results showed that leptin inhibited miR-122 promoter activity. Forkhead box protein O1(FoxO1) bound to miR-122 promoter at a site around – 56 and thus promoted miR-122 promoter activity, which could be suppressed by leptin-induced phosphorylation of FoxO1 at serine 256. The PI3K/Akt signaling pathway was involved in leptin-induced phosphorylation of FoxO1 and the effect of leptin on miR-122 expression. Furthermore, FoxO1 increased miR-122 and pri-miR-122 (primary miR-122) levels in HSCs in vivo, and reduced leptin-induced HSC activation and liver fibrosis in ob/ob mouse (leptin deficient) model. In conclusion, leptin suppressed microRNA-122 expression by PI3K/Akt/foxO1 axis in HSCs. These results have potential implications for clarifying the mechanisms for liver fibrogenesis in obese patients with hyperleptinaemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A calixarene-based compound {[Co 4 (H 2 O) (TC4A-SO 2 )] 4 (DTB) 8 } (H 4 TC4A-SO 2 = p-tert -butylsulfonylcalix[4]arene; H 2 DTB = 1,3-bis(2H-tetrazol-5-yl)benzene) was obtained under solvothermal condition. The compound was characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction, elemental analysis, TG analysis and FT-IR spectroscopy. In the structure, the Co 4 -(TC4A-SO 2 ) shuttlecock-like secondary building units (SBUs) are bridged by the DTB ligands into some window frame-like squares, which are further stacked into an extended structure by supramolecular interactions. The results of magnetic measurements indicated an antiferromagnetic interaction between the metal centers. In order to evaluate its porosity, the gas sorption measurement was carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims Peroxisome-proliferator activated receptor γ (PPARγ) plays a pivotal role in inhibition of hepatic stellate cell (HSC) activation, a key step for liver fibrogenesis. Adipocyte-derived hormone leptin has been shown to promote liver fibrosis in murine and human. PPARγ includes two subtypes, PPARγ1 and PPARγ2. Our previous study indicated that leptin down-regulated PPARγ1 expression in HSCs. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of leptin on PPARγ2 expression and the underlying mechanisms in HSCs. Main methods Real-time PCR and western blot analyses were used to examine gene expression. The promoter activities were detected by luciferase assay. Key findings Leptin reduced PPARγ2 expressions at promoter level, mRNA level, and protein level in HSCs, which required β-catenin, p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase, and delta-like homolog1 (DLK1) signaling pathways. Leptin induced GATA binding protein 2 (GATA2) expression through DLK1 pathway and GATA2 reduced PPARγ2 expression. Ectopic expression of PPARγ2 reduced the protein levels of α-smooth muscle actin and α1(I)collagen in HSCs. Significance Since obese patients, often accompanied by hyperleptinemia, are more prone to liver fibrosis, the data from this study might have potential implications for clarifying the mechanisms for liver fibrogenesis in obese patients with hyperleptinemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of stereotactic body radiation therapy for the elderly with advanced or medically inoperable pancreatic cancer was still debated. Therefore, we evaluated the value of stereotactic body radiation therapy and its association with survival of those patients. A total of 417 elderly patients were retrospectively reviewed from 2012 to 2015. Overall survival ( OS), progression-free survival ( PFS), local recurrence-free survival ( LRFS), distant metastasis-free survival ( DMFS), and toxicities were analyzed. Prescription doses ranged from 30-46.8 Gy in 5-8 fractions. Median age was 73 years old. Median OS, PFS, LRFS, and DMFS were 10, 8, 10, and 9.5 months, respectively. One-year OS, PFS, LRFS, and DMFS rate were 35.5%, 18.2%, 26.6%, and 27.1%, respectively. Tumor stage and tumor response at 6 months and CA19-9 levels normalization at 3 months after treatment were independent predictors of OS, PFS, LRFS, and DMFS. Patients with early-stage cancer, better tumor response, and normalization of CA19-9 levels had significantly longer OS, PFS, LRFS, and DMFS. Patients with the prodrug of 5- FU and radiotherapy had longer survival than those with gemcitabine-based chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Patients who received BED10 ≥ 60 Gy achieved better tumor response compared with those who received BED10 < 60 Gy. Two patients had grade 4 intestinal strictures. No grade 3 or higher hematologic toxicities occurred. Stereotactic body radiation therapy is safe and effective for elderly patients with advanced or medically inoperable pancreatic cancer. Early efficacy could be predictive of prognosis. Higher doses may be associated with efficacy but need further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ferric oxide has demonstrated as a promising anode candidate for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) due to large charge storage capacity, but its high cost, low Coulombic efficiency, and unstable solid-electrolyte interphase remain to be a technical challenge. Here, we report a flexible interleaved hybrid in which Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles were encapsulated by graphene oxide layers (Fe 2 O 3 /GO) using facile freeze-drying approach as anode for LIBs. Within this flexible interleaved structure, GO layers act as flexible but mechanically strong buffer to accommodate volume expansion and reduce associated stress in Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles, thereby maintaining mechanical integrity and increasing the cycling life of batteries. With the synergistic effects from Fe 2 O 3 and GO, this hybrid not only promotes fast mass transfer and shortens the diffusion path of the Li ions but also forms a stable solid electrolyte interface, contributing improved Coulombic efficiency in the first few cycles. The Fe 2 O 3 /GO hybrid as anode for LIBs exhibited a reversible specific capacity of ca. 890 mAh g −1 after 50 cycles at 1 C (1005 mA g −1 ) and 405 mAh g −1 after 1000 cycles at 10 C rate. Furthermore, a full-cell battery with a LiFePO 4 cathode also showed high Coulombic efficiency and good capacity retention capability. Mechanical properties and impedance spectroscopy tests were performed to confirm the mechanism in superior rate and electrochemical stability. The conclusions are considered to be very useful for design of Li batteries with improved mechanical performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The over proliferation of harmful cyanobacteria and their cyanotoxins resulted in damaged aquatic ecosystem, polluted drinking water and threatened human health. Cyanophages are a kind of viruses that exclusively infect cyanobacteria, which is considered as a potential strategy to deal with cyanobacterial blooms. Nevertheless, the infecting host range and/or lysis efficiency of natural cyanophages is limited, rising the necessity of constructing non-natural cyanophages via artificial modification, design and synthesis to expand their host range and/or efficiency. The paper firstly reviewed representative cyanophages such as P60 with a short latent period of 1.5 h and S-CBS1 having a burst size up to 200 PFU/cell. To explore the in-silico design principles, we critically summarized the interactions between cyanophages and the hosts, indicating modifying the recognized receptors, enhancing the adsorption ability, changing the lysogeny and excluding the defense of hosts are important for artificial cyanophages. The research progress of synthesizing artificial cyanophages were summarized subsequently, raising the importance of developing genetic manipulation technologies and their rescue strategies in the future. Meanwhile, Large-scale preparation of cyanophages for bloom control is a big challenge. The application prospects of artificial cyanophages besides cyanobacteria bloom control like adaptive evolution and phage therapy were discussed at last. The review will promote the design, synthesis and application of cyanophages for cyanobacteria blooms, which may provide new insights for the related water pollution control and ensuring hydrosphere security. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sentiment classification aims to predict the sentiment label for a given text. Recently, several research efforts have been devoted to incorporate matching clues between text words and class labels into the learning process of text representation. However, these methods heavily rely on the availability of label content. Moreover, they simply capture the label-specific signals to measure each word's contribution by either implicitly employing a learnable label representation or explicitly leveraging the interaction between text words and labels via the interaction mechanism. To deal with these issues, in this paper, we propose a novel framework called Label-Guided Dual-view Sentiment Classifier (LGDSC). We first introduce a new strategy for generating an effective label description and then design a novel Dual-Channel Label-guided Attention Network (DLAN) to learn a text representation via two different channels. DLAN will be further leveraged to learn label-guided text representations from two different views. Extensive experimental results on four real-world datasets demonstrate that LGDSC consistently outperforms the state-of-the-art baseline methods. • Propose an inverse label entropy based strategy for generating effective label descriptions. • Design a dual-channel label-guided attention network to learn text representation via two different channels. • Extensive experiments conducted on four widely used datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commercialization of the Co-free solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) cathode was hindered due to its insufficient oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity. In this paper, the ORR activity of the cathode material is effectively increased by doping a small amount of low-valence Ln3+ (Nd3+, Sm3+) ions at the B-site of Fe-based perovskite Bi 0.5 Sr 0.5 FeO 3-δ (BSF). Nd3+ increases the free volume (V free) per unit cell of perovskite due to its larger ionic radius, thus increasing the oxygen vacancy concentration of Bi 0.5 Sr 0.5 Fe 0.95 Nd 0.05 O 3-δ (BSFN). Compared with BSF, BSFN has greatly improved the surface oxygen exchange and volume diffusion rate through the electronic conductivity relaxation (ECR) method. At 700 °C, the area-specific resistance (ASR) of BSFN reached 0.062 Ω cm2, which was 65% lower than that of BSF (0.177 Ω cm2), and the peak power density (PDD) of BSFN-based single cell reached 1.10 W cm−2, which was 1.7 times higher than that of BSF-based single cell (0.64 W cm−2). Through DRT analysis, it is concluded that BSFN can accelerate the adsorption/dissociation process of oxygen due to its higher oxygen vacancy concentration compared with BSF, so that ORR is not limited to the three-phase interface but extends to the entire cathode surface. In addition, in the 80 h long-term stability test at 600 °C, the BSFN-based single cell has better long-term stability because the thermal expansion coefficient of BSFN (14.1 × 10−6 K−1) is lower than that of BSF (14.4 × 10−6 K−1). In general, BSFN is expected to become a Co-free base high-performance intermediate temperature SOFC cathode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obtaining coatings with excellent ablation resistance is a longstanding challenge for the ablation protection of carbon/carbon (C/C) composites. In this work, a single phase Hf 0.75 Zr 0.25 N solid solution ultra-high temperature ceramic (UHTC) coating was proposed, and prepared on the surface of C/C composites by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) for the first time. The results revealed that the hardness and Young's modulus of Hf 0.75 Zr 0.25 N coating are higher than those of HfN and ZrN coatings, reaching 33.35 GPa and 316.42 GPa, respectively. After ablation for 180 s under oxygen acetylene flame with a temperature exceeding 2200 °C, the Hf 0.75 Zr 0.25 N coating retained its structural integrity and exhibited lower ablation (R m : 0.26 mg/s; R h : 0.32 μm/s). This is mainly attributed to the formation of the dense Hf-Zr-O oxide scale promoted by the oxidation sintering reaction during ablation. The above results indicate the nitride solid solution UHTC has great potential as ablation resistance coating at ultra-high temperatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human pathogen Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is one of the most important healthcare-associated infections. The Wood-Ljungdahl pathway, which is responsible for Acetyl-CoA biosynthesis, is essential for the survival of the pathogen and is absent in humans. The key proteins and enzymes involved in the pathway are attractive targets for the treatment of CDI. Corrinoid iron-sulfur protein (CoFeSP) is a key protein and acts as a methyl transformer in the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway. In this study, CoFeSP from Clostridium difficile (CoFeSP Cd ) was cloned, expressed in E. coli and characterized for the first time. The structure and function of CoFeSP Cd were investigated using homology structure modeling, spectroscopy, electrochemistry, steady state/pre-steady state kinetics and molecular docking. The two metal centers of CoFeSP Cd , corrinoid cofactor and [4Fe-4S] cluster, were characterized using metal analysis, structural modeling, UV–Vis, EPR and direct electrochemistry. The methyl transfer activity between CH 3 -H 4 folate (CH 3 -THF) and CoFeSP Cd catalyzed by methyl transferase (MeTr Cd ) was determined by kinetic studies. These results provide a molecular basis for innovative drug design and development to treat human CDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Query recommendation has long been considered a key feature of search engines, which can improve users' search experience by providing useful query suggestions for their search tasks. Most existing approaches on query recommendation aim to recommend relevant queries, i.e., alternative queries similar to a user's initial query. However, the ultimate goal of query recommendation is to assist users to reformulate queries so that they can accomplish their search task successfully and quickly. Only considering relevance in query recommendation is apparently not directly toward this goal. In this paper, we argue that it is more important to directly recommend queries with high utility, i.e., queries that can better satisfy users' information needs. For this purpose, we attempt to infer query utility from users' sequential search behaviors recorded in their search sessions. Specifically, we propose a dynamic Bayesian network, referred as Query Utility Model (QUM), to capture query utility by simultaneously modeling users' reformulation and click behaviors. We then recommend queries with high utility to help users better accomplish their search tasks. We empirically evaluated the performance of our approach on a publicly released query log by comparing with the state-of-the-art methods. The experimental results show that, by recommending high utility queries, our approach is far more effective in helping users find relevant search results and thus satisfying their information needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The α-[P2W18O62]6--based coordination polymer [Cu2(phen)3(H2O)3(P2W18O62)][Cu(phen)2(H2O)] ·5H2O ( 1) (phen = phenanthroline), was hydrothermally synthesized and characterized by single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction, IR and UV/Vis diffuse reflection spectroscopy, and elemental analysis. Structural studies reveal that compound 1 exhibits a three-dimensional (3D) supramolecular structure based on π-π and hydrogen bonding interactions. In addition, visible light driven photocatalytic experiments of compound 1 were also studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]