Effect of the impurities O2 or NO present in non-purified flue gas from oxy-fuel combustion processes for carbon capture and storage technology

CO2/impurities cocapture in CCS technology allows reducing the purification costs and avoiding the emission of pollutants into the atmosphere. The viability of the transport by pipeline and the geological storage of the non-purified flue gas from oxy-fuel combustion of biomass and other processes, keeping the impurities O2 or NO in the stream along with CO2, is assessed considering thermodynamic and hydraulic aspects. For this, we experimentally determined, under CCS conditions, the density, vapor-liquid equilibrium, and speed of sound of three CO2 + O2 and CO2 + NO mixtures as binary models of the gas, and we calculated their Joule-Thomson coefficients from the experimental data. Additionally, we compared the values calculated for the determined properties using the equations of state EOS-CG, GERG-2008 and PC-SAFT to our results of CO2 + O2, validating all three equations for this system. For the CO2 + NO mixtures, only PC-SAFT could be applied, which was also validated using the parameters obtained in this work. Finally, we calculated several selected CCS parameters from our data and concluded that both O2 and NO have negative effects on the transport and storage steps of this technology, which are negligible in the case of NO with the investigated concentrations

Influence of SO2 on CO2 Transport by Pipeline for Carbon Capture and Storage Technology: Evaluation of CO2/SO2 Cocapture

CO2 capture and storage (CCS) is an important technology for avoiding atmospheric CO2 emissions, which are principally originated from fossil fuels combustion. Anthropogenic CO2 contains impurities that can strongly modify the properties of the stream. Several authors have shown that some of these impurities, such as SO2 present in emissions from sulfur-containing fuels, could be favorable for some steps of the process, and the possibility of cocapture has been proposed. To assess this possibility with regard to the transport stage of CCS, we determined the influence of SO2 on selected parameters of transport by pipeline (minimal operational pressure, pressure and density drops, distance between boosters, booster power, and inner diameter of the pipeline, and the Joule-Thomson coefficient). For this purpose, we obtained new and accurate experimental data for the density and vapor–liquid equilibrium of five CO2 + SO2 mixtures under conditions of interest for CCS and speed of sound data for four of them. We compared our results to those found in the literature and to the values calculated using two equations of state for their validation: perturbed-chain statistical associating fluid theory (PC-SAFT) and an extended version of equation of state for combustion gases (EOS-CG) that includes a binary model for the CO2 + SO2 mixture. Allowing for the fact that chemical effects due to the presence of SO2, such as pipeline corrosion, have not been considered, we conclude that CO2/SO2 cocapture might favor and decrease the costs of the transport step of this technology, helping to avoid emissions of a highly toxic gas to the atmosphere without high desulfuration expenses

GARP promotes the proliferation and therapeutic resistance of bone sarcoma cancer cells through the activation of TGF-β

Sarcomas are mesenchymal cancers with poor prognosis, representing about 20% of all solid malignancies in children, adolescents, and young adults. Radio- and chemoresistance are common features of sarcomas warranting the search for novel prognostic and predictive markers. GARP/LRRC32 is a TGF-β-activating protein that promotes immune escape and dissemination in various cancers. However, if GARP affects the tumorigenicity and treatment resistance of sarcomas is not known. We show that GARP is expressed by human osteo-, chondro-, and undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcomas and is associated with a significantly worse clinical prognosis. Silencing of GARP in bone sarcoma cell lines blocked their proliferation and induced apoptosis. In contrast, overexpression of GARP promoted their growth in vitro and in vivo and increased their resistance to DNA damage and cell death induced by etoposide, doxorubicin, and irradiation. Our data suggest that GARP could serve as a marker with therapeutic, prognostic, and predictive value in sarcoma. We propose that targeting GARP in bone sarcomas could reduce tumour burden while simultaneously improving the efficacy of chemo- and radiotherapy.Instituto de Salud Carlos IIIEuropean Union (EU) PI15/00794 PI18/00826 CPII15/00032 PI15/02015Junta de Andalucía C-0013-2018Spanish Government PEJ-2014-A-46314Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) [MICINN/Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER)] SAF-2016-75286-RISCIII/FEDER [Miguel Servet Program] CPII16/00049ISCIII/FEDER [Sara Borrell Program] CD16/00103Servicio de Salud del Principado de Asturias, Instituto de Salud Carlos III PT17/0015/0023Fundación Bancaria Cajastur PT17/0015/0023ISCIII/FEDER [Consorcio CIBERONC] CB16/12/0039

Feasibility and short-term outcomes in liver-first approach: a Spanish snapshot study (the RENACI project)

Producción CientíficaSimple Summary: Current evidence does not provide enough information for selecting a tailored approach pathway in patients with colorectal cancer and synchronous liver metastases. There are no randomized clinical trials or prospective series comparing the classical approach with the liver-first approach. In addition, information on the proportion of patients who actually complete the therapeutic regimen is limited. The RENACI Project was a prospective National Registry performed on patients with colorectal cancer and synchronous liver metastases undergoing the liver-first approach. This study aimed to present the data of feasibility and short-term outcomes of the Spanish National Registry of Liver First Approach (the RENACI Project).(1) Background: The liver-first approach may be indicated for colorectal cancer patients with synchronous liver metastases to whom preoperative chemotherapy opens a potential window in which liver resection may be undertaken. This study aims to present the data of feasibility and short-term outcomes in the liver-first approach. (2) Methods: A prospective observational study was performed in Spanish hospitals that had a medium/high-volume of HPB surgeries from 1 June 2019 to 31 August 2020. (3) Results: In total, 40 hospitals participated, including a total of 2288 hepatectomies, 1350 for colorectal liver metastases, 150 of them (11.1%) using the liver-first approach, 63 (42.0%) in hospitals performing <50 hepatectomies/year. The proportion of patients as ASA III was significantly higher in centers performing ≥50 hepatectomies/year (difference: 18.9%; p = 0.0213). In 81.1% of the cases, the primary tumor was in the rectum or sigmoid colon. In total, 40% of the patients underwent major hepatectomies. The surgical approach was open surgery in 87 (58.0%) patients. Resection margins were R0 in 78.5% of the patients. In total, 40 (26.7%) patients had complications after the liver resection and 36 (27.3%) had complications after the primary resection. One-hundred and thirty-two (89.3%) patients completed the therapeutic regime. (4) Conclusions: There were no differences in the surgical outcomes between the centers performing <50 and ≥50 hepatectomies/year. Further analysis evaluating factors associated with clinical outcomes and determining the best candidates for this approach will be subsequently conducted.Asociación Española de Cirujanos - (grant Research Projects 2020

Interpretable surface-based detection of focal cortical dysplasias:a Multi-centre Epilepsy Lesion Detection study

One outstanding challenge for machine learning in diagnostic biomedical imaging is algorithm interpretability. A key application is the identification of subtle epileptogenic focal cortical dysplasias (FCDs) from structural MRI. FCDs are difficult to visualize on structural MRI but are often amenable to surgical resection. We aimed to develop an open-source, interpretable, surface-based machine-learning algorithm to automatically identify FCDs on heterogeneous structural MRI data from epilepsy surgery centres worldwide. The Multi-centre Epilepsy Lesion Detection (MELD) Project collated and harmonized a retrospective MRI cohort of 1015 participants, 618 patients with focal FCD-related epilepsy and 397 controls, from 22 epilepsy centres worldwide. We created a neural network for FCD detection based on 33 surface-based features. The network was trained and cross-validated on 50% of the total cohort and tested on the remaining 50% as well as on 2 independent test sites. Multidimensional feature analysis and integrated gradient saliencies were used to interrogate network performance. Our pipeline outputs individual patient reports, which identify the location of predicted lesions, alongside their imaging features and relative saliency to the classifier. On a restricted 'gold-standard' subcohort of seizure-free patients with FCD type IIB who had T1 and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery MRI data, the MELD FCD surface-based algorithm had a sensitivity of 85%. Across the entire withheld test cohort the sensitivity was 59% and specificity was 54%. After including a border zone around lesions, to account for uncertainty around the borders of manually delineated lesion masks, the sensitivity was 67%. This multicentre, multinational study with open access protocols and code has developed a robust and interpretable machine-learning algorithm for automated detection of focal cortical dysplasias, giving physicians greater confidence in the identification of subtle MRI lesions in individuals with epilepsy

Outcomes from elective colorectal cancer surgery during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

This study aimed to describe the change in surgical practice and the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on mortality after surgical resection of colorectal cancer during the initial phases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Experimental determination of the critical loci for {n-C6H14 or CO2 + alkan-1-ol} mixtures. Evaluation of their critical and subcritical behavior using PC-SAFT EoS

Vapor–liquid critical locus (x, Tc, Pc) has been determined, in the whole range of mole fractions, for the systems {n-hexane + methanol, or +ethanol, or +propan-1-ol, or +butan-1-ol} and {CO2 + methanol, or +ethanol, or +propan-1-ol, or +butan-1-ol}. A comprehensive bibliographic review for the vapor–liquid equilibrium (VLE) and the critical locus of these systems has been performed, and they have been modelled with PC-SAFT EoS. The three parameters that characterize the segments of pure compounds have been rescaled from their critical point values. In all cases, the classical mixing rules and temperature-dependent binary interaction parameters kij(T) = k0 ij + k1 ijT have been used. The average deviations obtained for the n-hexane + alkan-1-ol binary mixtures are: for critical loci, mean relative deviation in critical temperature MRD(Tc) = 0.47% and in critical pressure MRD(Pc) = 3.38%; for VLE, mean relative deviation in bubble pressure MRD(P) = 2.90% and absolute deviation for the solvent mole fraction in the vapor phase yC6H14 = 0.031. The average deviations obtained for the CO2 + alkan-1-ol binary mixtures are MRD(Tc) = 1.91% and MRD(Pc) = 5.93%; MRD(P) = 7.07% and yCO2 = 0.022.The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support received from the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia of Spain (CTQ2005-02213), Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (CTQ2008-02037 and CTQ2011-24875) and Convenio La Caixa – Gobierno de Aragón.Peer reviewe