Sintered aluminium heat pipe (SAHP)

This work is the product of an ongoing PhD project in the School of the Built and Natural Environment of Northumbria University in collaboration with the University of Liverpool and Thermacore Europe Ltd. The achievements at the end of the first year are summarized. The main objective of the project is to develop an aluminum ammonia heat pipe with a sintered wick structure. Currently available ammonia heat pipes mainly use extruded axially grooved aluminum tubes as a capillary wick. There have been a few attempts of employing porous steel or nickel wicks in steel tubes with ammonia as the working fluid (Bai, Lin et al. 2009)although it is a common practice in loop heat pipes but there is no report of aluminum-ammonia heat pipes porous aluminium wick structures. The main barrier is the difficulty of sintering aluminum powders to manufacture porous wicks. So far during this project promising sintered aluminum heat pipe samples have been manufactured using the Selective Laser Melting (SLM) technique with various wick characteristics. This SLM method has proven to be capable of manufacturing very complicated wick structures with different thickness, porosity, permeability and pore sizes in different regions of a heat pipe. In addition the entire heat pipe including the end cap, outer tube wall, wick and the fill tube can be generated in a single process

Direct in-gel fluorescence detection and cellular imaging of O-GlcNAc-modified proteins

We report an advanced chemoenzymatic strategy for the direct fluorescence detection, proteomic analysis, and cellular imaging of O-GlcNAc-modified proteins. O-GlcNAc residues are selectively labeled with fluorescent or biotin tags using an engineered galactosyltransferase enzyme and [3 + 2] azide−alkyne cycloaddition chemistry. We demonstrate that this approach can be used for direct in-gel detection and mass spectrometric identification of O-GlcNAc proteins, identifying 146 novel glycoproteins from the mammalian brain. Furthermore, we show that the method can be exploited to quantify dynamic changes in cellular O-GlcNAc levels and to image O-GlcNAc-glycosylated proteins within cells. As such, this strategy enables studies of O-GlcNAc glycosylation that were previously inaccessible and provides a new tool for uncovering the physiological functions of O-GlcNAc

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin

Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas

Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN

Spatial Organization and Molecular Correlation of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes Using Deep Learning on Pathology Images

Beyond sample curation and basic pathologic characterization, the digitized H&E-stained images of TCGA samples remain underutilized. To highlight this resource, we present mappings of tumorinfiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) based on H&E images from 13 TCGA tumor types. These TIL maps are derived through computational staining using a convolutional neural network trained to classify patches of images. Affinity propagation revealed local spatial structure in TIL patterns and correlation with overall survival. TIL map structural patterns were grouped using standard histopathological parameters. These patterns are enriched in particular T cell subpopulations derived from molecular measures. TIL densities and spatial structure were differentially enriched among tumor types, immune subtypes, and tumor molecular subtypes, implying that spatial infiltrate state could reflect particular tumor cell aberration states. Obtaining spatial lymphocytic patterns linked to the rich genomic characterization of TCGA samples demonstrates one use for the TCGA image archives with insights into the tumor-immune microenvironment

The Early Royal Society and Visual Culture

Recent studies have fruitfully examined the intersection between early modern science and visual culture by elucidating the functions of images in shaping and disseminating scientific knowledge. Given its rich archival sources, it is possible to extend this line of research in the case of the Royal Society to an examination of attitudes towards images as artefacts –manufactured objects worth commissioning, collecting and studying. Drawing on existing scholarship and material from the Royal Society Archives, I discuss Fellows’ interests in prints, drawings, varnishes, colorants, images made out of unusual materials, and methods of identifying the painter from a painting. Knowledge of production processes of images was important to members of the Royal Society, not only as connoisseurs and collectors, but also as those interested in a Baconian mastery of material processes, including a “history of trades”. Their antiquarian interests led to discussion of painters’ styles, and they gradually developed a visual memorial to an institution through portraits and other visual records.AH/M001938/1 (AHRC