The design and development of an innovative simulator for an open loop system for extracting energy from flooded coal mines

Water source heat pumps, in comparison to air-to-air heat pumps, have significant advantage for heating or cooling applications due to the relatively regulated temperature of most water resources. In the UK, similar to many other countries, disused coal mines have untapped potential for low cost green energy due to the flooding of coal mines with water at reasonable warm temperature due to the availability of geothermal energy at different depths. This allows to use water source heat pumps in locations away from rivers and seas for heating and cooling applications. Extracting energy from flooded coal mines using water heat pumps with open loop systems is still relatively a new concept, but can provide much heating capacity due to eliminating the time needed for heat transfer between the external environment and the heating loop in case of closed loop systems. The use of real systems to conduct research could be an expensive task or impractical to users of the application such as the residents of the served building. On the other hand, computer simulation includes significant assumptions that might not be accurate in many real situations. In this paper, the authors have developed a small scale simulator to help in understanding such energy systems and to conduct research in this field for the benefit of researchers, educators and students within the applied and renewable energy field. The paper describes the detailed design, the complete prototype and initial assessment of the system using infrared thermography and temperature monitoring. The results show that the system has been found successful in conveying the concept of extracting energy from coal mines and to characterize the general performance

Non-line-of-sight reconstruction via structure sparsity regularization

Non-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging allows for the imaging of objects around a corner, which enables potential applications in various fields such as autonomous driving, robotic vision, medical imaging, security monitoring, etc. However, the quality of reconstruction is challenged by low signal-noise-ratio (SNR) measurements. In this study, we present a regularization method, referred to as structure sparsity (SS) regularization, for denoising in NLOS reconstruction. By exploiting the prior knowledge of structure sparseness, we incorporate nuclear norm penalization into the cost function of directional light-cone transform (DLCT) model for NLOS imaging system. This incorporation effectively integrates the neighborhood information associated with the directional albedo, thereby facilitating the denoising process. Subsequently, the reconstruction is achieved by optimizing a directional albedo model with SS regularization using fast iterative shrinkage-thresholding algorithm. Notably, the robust reconstruction of occluded objects is observed. Through comprehensive evaluations conducted on both synthetic and experimental datasets, we demonstrate that the proposed approach yields high-quality reconstructions, surpassing the state-of-the-art reconstruction algorithms, especially in scenarios involving short exposure and low SNR measurements.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Funnel plots of publication bias for OS of all patients.

<p>Funnel plots of publication bias for OS of all patients.</p

Ribavirin Inhibits the Activity of mTOR/eIF4E, ERK/Mnk1/eIF4E Signaling Pathway and Synergizes with Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Imatinib to Impair Bcr-Abl Mediated Proliferation and Apoptosis in Ph+ Leukemia

<div><p>The eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E), which is the main composition factor of eIF4F translation initiation complex, influences the growth of tumor through modulating cap-dependent protein translation. Previous studies reported that ribavirin could suppress eIF4E-controlled translation and reduce the synthesis of onco-proteins. Here, we investigated the anti-leukemic effects of ribavirin alone or in combination with tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib in Philadelphia chromosome positive (Ph+) leukemia cell lines SUP-B15 (Ph+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia cell line, Ph+ ALL) and K562 (chronic myelogenous leukemia cell line, CML). Our results showed that ribavirin had anti-proliferation effect; it down-regulated the phosphorylation levels of Akt, mTOR, 4EBP1, and eIF4E proteins in the mTOR/eIF4E signaling pathway, and MEK, ERK, Mnk1 and eIF4E proteins in ERK/Mnk1/eIF4E signaling pathway; reduced the expression of Mcl-1 (a translation substrates of eIF4F translation initiation complex) at protein synthesis level not mRNA transcriptional level; and induced cell apoptosis in both SUP-B15 and K562. 7-Methyl-guanosine cap affinity assay further demonstrated that ribavirin remarkably increased the eIF4E binding to 4EBP1 and decreased the combination of eIF4E with eIF4G, consequently resulting in a major inhibition of eIF4F complex assembly. The combination of ribavirin with imatinib enhanced antileukemic effects mentioned above, indicating that two drugs have synergistic anti-leukemic effect. Consistent with the cell lines, similar results were observed in Ph+ acute lymphoblastic primary leukemic blasts; however, the anti-proliferative role of ribavirin in other types of acute primary leukemic blasts was not obvious, which indicated that the anti-leukemic effect of ribavirin was different in cell lineages.</p></div

Characteristics of studies included in the meta-analysis.

<p>Characteristics of studies included in the meta-analysis.</p

Flow diagram of study selection.

<p>Flow diagram of study selection.</p

Preclinical Short-term and Long-term Safety of Human Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have become a promising therapeutic method. More safety data are needed to support clinical studies in more diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the short- and long-term safety of human bone marrow–derived MSCs (hBMMSCs) in mice. In the present study, we injected control (saline infusion only), low (1.0 × 10 6 /kg), medium (1.0 × 10 7 /kg), and high (1.0 × 10 8 /kg) concentrations of hBMMSCs into BALB/c mice. The safety of the treatment was evaluated by observing changes in the general condition, hematology, biochemical indices, pathology of vital organs, lymphocyte subsets, and immune factor levels on days 14 and 150. In the short-term toxicity test, no significant abnormalities were observed in the hematological and biochemical parameters between the groups injected with hBMMSCs, and no significant damage was observed in the major organs, such as the liver and lung. In addition, no significant differences were observed in the toxicity-related parameters among the groups in the long-term toxicity test. Our study also demonstrates that mice infused with different doses of hBMMSCs do not show abnormal immune responses in either short-term or long-term experiments. We confirmed that hBMMSCs are safe through a 150-day study, demonstrating that this is a safe and promising therapy and offering preliminary safety evidence to promote future clinical applications of hBMMSCs in different diseases

Forest plots of pooled HRs and 95% CIs for OS assessing the prognostic value of <i>SRSF2</i> mutations in the cohort of MDS patients.

<p>Forest plots of pooled HRs and 95% CIs for OS assessing the prognostic value of <i>SRSF2</i> mutations in the cohort of MDS patients.</p

Prognostic value of <i>SRSF2</i> mutations in patients with de novo myelodysplastic syndromes: A meta-analysis

<div><p>Background</p><p>The recent application of gene-sequencing technology has identified many new somatic mutations in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Among them, <i>serine and arginine rich splicing factor 2</i> (<i>SRSF2</i>) mutations belonging to the RNA splicing pathway were of interest. Many studies have already reported the potential prognostic value of <i>SRSF2</i> mutations in MDS patients, with controversial results. Therefore, a meta-analysis was performed to investigate their prognostic impact on MDS.</p><p>Methods</p><p>Databases, including PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane Library, were searched for relevant studies published up to 14 October 2016. Overall survival (OS) was selected as the primary endpoint, and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) transformation was the secondary endpoint. We extracted the corresponding hazard ratios (HRs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for OS and AML transformation from multivariate Cox proportional hazards models. The combined HRs with their 95% CIs were calculated using fixed or random effect models.</p><p>Results</p><p>A total of 10 cohort studies, covering 1864 patients with de novo MDS and 294 patients with <i>SRSF2</i> mutations, were included in the final meta-analysis. Our results indicated that <i>SRSF2</i> mutations had an adverse prognostic impact on OS (p<0.0001) and AML transformation (p = 0.0005) in the total population. Among the MDS patients with low or intermediate-1 risk defined according to the International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS), <i>SRSF2</i> mutations predicted a shorter OS (p = 0.009) and were more likely to transform to AML (p = 0.007).</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>This meta-analysis indicates an independent, adverse prognostic impact of <i>SRSF2</i> mutations on OS and AML transformation in patients with de novo MDS. This also applies to the subgroup of low- or intermediate-1-IPSS risk MDS. The identification of mutations in <i>SRSF2</i> can improve current risk stratification and help make treatment decisions.</p></div

Forest plots of pooled HRs and 95% CIs for OS assessing the prognostic value of <i>SRSF2</i> mutations in MDS patients after adjusting for age in COX multivariable models.

<p>Forest plots of pooled HRs and 95% CIs for OS assessing the prognostic value of <i>SRSF2</i> mutations in MDS patients after adjusting for age in COX multivariable models.</p