Catalytic Direct Oxidation of Methane to Methanol by Redox of Copper Mordenite

Expectations for industrial implementation of direct conversion of CH4 to CH3OH are growing with the increasing demand for energy-efficient chemical processes. In this study, catalytic production of CH3OH by direct oxidation of CH4 with O2 was performed using Cu zeolite catalysts in a CH4/O2/H2O flow reaction. Among the various Cu zeolites investigated, the Cu-MOR catalyst exhibited relatively high CH3OH production with a turnover number of 7.4 molCH3OH/molCu over 24 h (CH4 conversion: 0.011%). The catalytically active Cu species and catalytic cycle were investigated by in-situ simultaneous X-ray absorption and infrared spectroscopy. The results suggest that the key to the catalytic cycle over Cu-MOR is the redox of Cu(I)/Cu(II) species. Furthermore, H2O-adsorption-included dynamic Cu species are revealed to be catalytically active

Clinical outcome of patients with recurrent or refractory localized Ewing's sarcoma family of tumors: A retrospective report from the Japan Ewing Sarcoma Study Group

[Background] Patients with Ewing's sarcoma family of tumors (ESFT) who experience relapse or progression have a poor prognosis. [Aim] This study aimed to identify the prognostic and therapeutic factors affecting overall survival (OS) of patients with recurrent or refractory localized ESFT. [Methods and results] Thirty-eight patients with localized ESFT who experienced first relapse or progression between 2000 and 2018 were retrospectively reviewed. The 5-year OS rate of the entire cohort was 48.3% (95% confidence interval, 29.9%-64.5%). Multivariate analysis of OS identified time to relapse or progression, but not stem cell transplantation (SCT), as the sole independent risk factor (hazard ratio, 35.8; P = .002). Among 31 patients who received salvage chemotherapy before local treatment, 21 received chemotherapy regimens that are not conventionally used for newly diagnosed ESFT. The objective response rate to first-line salvage chemotherapy was 55.2% in the 29 evaluable patients. Time to relapse or progression was significantly associated with response to first-line salvage chemotherapy (P = .006). [Conclusions] The present study fails to demonstrate significant clinical benefit of SCT for recurrent or refractory localized ESFT. Recently established chemotherapy regimens may increase the survival rate of patients with recurrent or refractory localized ESFT while attenuating the beneficial effect of SCT

Improved stomach selectivity of gene expression following microinstillation of plasmid DNA onto the gastric serosal surface in mice

Stomach-selective gene transfer is a promising approach as a therapeutic strategy for refractory gastric diseases. In this study, we improved the stomach selectivity of gene expression following microinstillation of naked plasmid DNA (pDNA) onto the gastric serosal surface in mice. pDNA encoding firefly luciferase was used as a reporter gene. It was confirmed that the gene expression level in the stomach 6 h after gastric serosal surface microinstillation of pDNA was significantlyhigher than after intragastric, intraperitoneal and intravenous administration. Regarding selectivity ofgene expression, the gene expression level in the stomach after gastric serosal surfacemicroinstillation of 1 μg/1 μL (dose/volume) pDNA was 5.7 times higher than that in the spleen. In our previous study (30 μg/30 μL), the expression level in the stomach was 2.7 times higher than that in the spleen; therefore, the selectivity was 2.1 times higher in this study. When we investigated gene expression at various pDNA solution concentrations, the ratio of the gene expression level in the stomach to that in the spleen was the highest as 1 μg/1 μL of pDNA, which was considered the optimal concentration. Information in this study is useful for further development of target organ-selective gene delivery systems

Influenza A (H3N2) infection followed by anti-signal recognition particle antibody-positive necrotizing myopathy: A case report

A 60-year-old Japanese woman presented with subacute progressive muscle pain and weakness in her proximal extremities. She was diagnosed with influenza A (H3N2) infection a week before the onset of muscle pain. At the time of admission, she exhibited weakness in the proximal muscles of the upper and lower limbs, elevated serum liver enzymes and creatinine kinase, and myoglobinuria. She did not manifest renal failure and cardiac abnormalities, indicating myocarditis.Electromyography revealed myogenic changes, and magnetic resonance imaging of the upper limb showed abnormal signal intensities in the muscles, suggestive of myopathy. Muscle biopsy of the biceps revealed numerous necrotic regeneration fibers and mild inflammatory cell infiltration, suggesting immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy (IMNM). Necrotized muscle cells were positive for human influenza A (H3N2). Autoantibody analysis showed the presence of antibodies against the signal recognition particle (SRP), and the patient was diagnosed with anti-SRP-associated IMNM. She was resistant to intravenous methylprednisolone pulse therapy but recovered after administration of oral systemic corticosteroids and immunoglobulins. We speculate that the influenza A (H3N2)infection might have triggered her IMNM. Thus, IMNM should be considered as a differential diagnosis in patients with proximal muscle weakness that persists after viral infections

Model-based Reminiscence : Guiding Mental Time Travel by Cognitive Modeling

HAI \u2716: The Fourth International Conference on Human Agent Interaction Biopolis Singapore October 4 - 7, 2016autho

Cognitive Modeling of Life Story: Reconstructing Our Memories from a Photo Library

Assuming that photographs accumulated in a personal computer reflect life history of a user, a model of one’s autobiographical memory could be constructed. Such a model will be useful to support memory problems caused by such as aging. Based on this idea, we constructed an image recommender system including an ACT-R model. We build the model using the first author’s private photo library, consisting 3,202 photos. We run a simulation manipulating the activation noise of declarative chunks. As a result, we found strong influence of the noise on memory retrieval. When the noise level was low, the model retrieved a few memory items that occurred recently. On the other hand, when the noise level was high, the retrieval process was like random walk over a memory network. Repeated recalls of old photos occurred. The result suggests a condition of an ACT-R model enabling a travel into a distant past

Interactive Model-based Reminiscence Using a Cognitive Model and Physiological Indices

The 53rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Mathematical Psychology, and the 18th Annual Meeting of the International Conference on Cognitive Modelling will be held online as a virtual conference from July 20-31, 2020, with live Q&A sessions taking place from July 22-31, 2020.publishe

Catalytic Oxidation of Methane to Methanol over Cu-CHA with Molecular Oxygen

Direct oxidation of CH4 to CH3OH using O2 is challenging because of the high stability of CH4 and the relatively high reactivity of CH3OH. Here, Cu-CHA zeolites are tested for direct oxidation of CH4. Catalytic production of CH3OH in a CH4-O2-H2O flow reaction is improved using CHA type zeolites compared to other zeolites including MOR, BEA, MFI, and FAU zeolites reported previously. In situ X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) spectroscopy reveals that high catalytic activity of Cu-CHA is derived from its redox property, particularly, the high reducibility of Cu2+ involved in CH4 activation. The reaction gas concentrations are varied to find optimized reaction conditions on Cu-CHA. In addition, the reaction mechanism of the direct CH4 oxidation on a Cu-CHA is investigated based on not only the effects of gas concentrations but also the isotope gas effects using CD4, 18O2, and D2O. It is suggested that the rate-determining step is C-H activation of CH4, and the selectivity of CH3OH is determined by oxidation rate of CH3OH, which is affected by O2 and OH groups activation rate on Cu-CHA