Electrode Cap with Electrical Insulator and Related Methods

A resistance spot welding system includes an electrode with a cap that includes a tip having an outer surface that defines a pocket, and an electrical insulator positioned within the pocket. A method of manufacturing the electrode includes forming a pocket in the outer surface of the tip of the electrode cap, and positioning the electrical insulator within the pocket. A method of resistance spot welding includes positioning a first metal sheet and a second metal sheet between two electrodes where at least one of the two electrodes includes the cap with the electrical insulator. A weld nugget joining a first metal sheet with a second metal sheet includes a center region surrounded by an outer region, and a thickness of the center region is less than a thickness of the outer region

Electrode with Tip Life Improvement and Related Methods

A resistance spot welding system includes an electrode with a cap that includes a cap body having a tip, a body cavity defined within the cap body, and a tip cavity defined within the cap body that extends from the body cavity towards the tip. A method of manufacturing the electrode includes forming a body cavity within a cap body of the electrode, and forming a tip cavity within the cap body of the electrode such that the tip cavity extends from the body cavity towards a tip of the cap body. In other aspects, a resistance spot welding system includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and an external cooling unit that is configured to inject a coolant adjacent to at least one of the first electrode and the second electrode during welding

Senescence-associated lncRNAs indicate distinct molecular subtypes associated with prognosis and androgen response in patients with prostate cancer

Cellular senescence has been considered as a hallmark of aging. In this study, we aimed to establish two novel prognostic subtypes for prostate cancer patients using senescence-related lncRNAs. Nonnegative matrix factorization algorithm was used to identify molecular subtypes. We completed analyses using software R 3.6.3 and its suitable packages. Using SNHG1, MIAT and SNHG3, 430 patients in TCGA database were classified into two subtypes associated with biochemical recurrence (BCR)-free survival and subtype 2 was prone to BCR (HR: 19.62, p < 0.001). The similar results were observed in the GSE46602 and GSE116918. For hallmark gene set enrichment, we found that protein secretion and androgen response were highly enriched in subtype 1 and G2M checkpoint was highly enriched in subtype 2. For tumor heterogeneity and stemness, homologous recombination deficiency and tumor mutation burden were significantly higher in subtype 2 than subtype 1. The top ten genes between subtype 2 and subtype 1 were CUBN, DNAH9, PTCHD4, NOD1, ARFGEF1, HRAS, PYHIN1, ARHGEF2, MYOM1 and ITGB6 with statistical significance. In terms of immune checkpoints, only CD47 was significantly higher in subtype 1 than that in subtype 2. For the overall assessment, no significant difference was detected between two subtypes, while B cells score was significantly higher in subtype 1 than subtype 2. Overall, we found two distinct subtypes closely associated with BCR-free survival and androgen response for prostate cancer. These subtypes might facilitate future research in the field of prostate cancer

Laser Ablation of Electrode to Extend RSW Electrode Life and Save Production Cost

This invention presents an RSW electrode cost saving solution for resistance spot welding of aluminums, including apparatus with automation, ablation process and method. It is achieved by cleaning with a laser ablation process that minimizes the metal removal amount each time compared to a current mechanical electrode dressing method (Laser ablation 0.02mm vs electrode dressing 0.2mm). To make it effective and reproductive, the laser ablation process is preferably performed on the welding electrode prior to serious electrode sticking. RSW on various aluminum grades and joint stacks have been tested and validated in a lab scale, it has shown that the electrode life with laser ablation lasts at least 10 times longer in total than that of current electrode dressing method

Quality Improvement of Self-Piercing Riveting of High Strength Aluminum Alloys

Described are metal products including metal alloy substrates joined by self-piercing rivets, and methods and apparatus for joining metal alloy substrates using self-piercing rivets. For high-strength metal alloy substrates, the disclosed joining techniques involve retrogressing portions of the metal alloy substrates, such as by heating using a laser heating source, a conductive heating source, or an inductive heating source, to produce crack-free joined metal products

Chemical Vapor Deposition of High-Quality Large-Sized MoS2 Crystals on Silicon Dioxide Substrates

Large???sized MoS2 crystals can be grown on SiO2/Si substrates via a two???stage chemical vapor deposition method. The maximum size of MoS2 crystals can be up to about 305 ??m. The growth method can be used to grow other transition metal dichalcogenide crystals and lateral heterojunctions. The electron mobility of the MoS2 crystals can reach ???30 cm2 V???1 s???1, which is comparable to those of exfoliated flakes.ope

A deep learning model adjusting for infant gender, age, height, and weight to determine whether the individual infant suit ultrasound examination of developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH)

ObjectiveTo examine the correlation between specific indicators and the quality of hip joint ultrasound images in infants and determine whether the individual infant suit ultrasound examination for developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH).MethodWe retrospectively selected infants aged 0–6 months, undergone ultrasound imaging of the left hip joint between September 2021 and March 2022 at Shenzhen Children’s Hospital. Using the entropy weighting method, weights were assigned to anatomical structures. Moreover, prospective data was collected from infants aged 5–11 months. The left hip joint was imaged, scored and weighted as before. The correlation between the weighted image quality scores and individual indicators were studied, with the last weighted image quality score used as the dependent variable and the individual indicators used as independent variables. A Long-short term memory (LSTM) model was used to fit the data and evaluate its effectiveness. Finally, The randomly selected images were manually measured and compared to measurements made using artificial intelligence (AI).ResultsAccording to the entropy weight method, the weights of each anatomical structure as follows: bony rim point 0.29, lower iliac limb point 0.41, and glenoid labrum 0.30. The final weighted score for ultrasound image quality is calculated by multiplying each score by its respective weight. Infant gender, age, height, and weight were found to be significantly correlated with the final weighted score of image quality (P &lt; 0.05). The LSTM fitting model had a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.95. The intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) for the α and β angles between manual measurement and AI measurement was 0.98 and 0.93, respectively.ConclusionThe quality of ultrasound images for infants can be influenced by the individual indicators (gender, age, height, and weight). The LSTM model showed good fitting efficiency and can help clinicians select whether the individual infant suit ultrasound examination of DDH

Selective Oxidative Stress Induces Dual Damage to Telomeres and Mitochondria in Human T Cells

Oxidative stress caused by excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) accelerates telomere erosion and mitochondrial injury, leading to impaired cellular functions and cell death. Whether oxidative stress-mediated telomere erosion induces mitochondrial injury, or vice versa, in human T cells—the major effectors of host adaptive immunity against infection and malignancy—is poorly understood due to the pleiotropic effects of ROS. Here we employed a novel chemoptogenetic tool that selectively produces a single oxygen (1O2) only at telomeres or mitochondria in Jurkat T cells. We found that targeted 1O2 production at telomeres triggered not only telomeric DNA damage but also mitochondrial dysfunction, resulting in T cell apoptotic death. Conversely, targeted 1O2 formation at mitochondria induced not only mitochondrial injury but also telomeric DNA damage, leading to cellular crisis and apoptosis. Targeted oxidative stress at either telomeres or mitochondria increased ROS production, whereas blocking ROS formation during oxidative stress reversed the telomeric injury, mitochondrial dysfunction, and cellular apoptosis. Notably, the X-ray repair cross-complementing protein 1 (XRCC1) in the base excision repair (BER) pathway and multiple mitochondrial proteins in other cellular pathways were dysregulated by the targeted oxidative stress. By confining singlet 1O2 formation to a single organelle, this study suggests that oxidative stress induces dual injury in T cells via crosstalk between telomeres and mitochondria. Further identification of these oxidation pathways may offer a novel approach to preserve mitochondrial functions, protect telomere integrity, and maintain T cell survival, which can be exploited to combat various immune aging-associated diseases

Inhibition of TRF2 Accelerates Telomere Attrition and DNA Damage in Naïve CD4 T Cells During HCV Infection

T cells play a crucial role in viral clearance and vaccine responses; however, the mechanisms that regulate their homeostasis during viral infections remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the machineries of T-cell homeostasis and telomeric DNA damage using a human model of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. We found that naïve CD4 T cells in chronically HCV-infected patients (HCV T cells) were significantly reduced due to apoptosis compared with age-matched healthy subjects (HSs). These HCV T cells were not only senescent, as demonstrated by overexpression of aging markers and particularly shortened telomeres; but also DNA damaged, as evidenced by increased dysfunctional telomere-induced foci (TIF). Mechanistically, the telomere shelterin protein, in particular telomeric repeat binding factor 2 (TRF2) that functions to protect telomeres from DNA damage, was significantly inhibited posttranscriptionally via the p53-dependent Siah-1a ubiquitination. Importantly, knockdown of TRF2 in healthy T cells resulted in increases in telomeric DNA damage and T-cell apoptosis, whereas overexpression of TRF2 in HCV T cells alleviated telomeric DNA damage and T-cell apoptosis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report revealing that inhibition of TRF2 promotes T-cell telomere attrition and telomeric DNA damage that accelerates T-cell senescent and apoptotic programs, which contribute to naïve T-cell loss during viral infection. Thus, restoring the impaired T-cell telomeric shelterin machinery may offer a new strategy to improve immunotherapy and vaccine response against human viral diseases