Association of clinical outcomes and the predictive value of T lymphocyte subsets within colorectal cancer patients

IntroductionTumor immunity is a hot topic in tumor research today, and human immunity is closely related to tumor progression. T lymphocyte is an important component of human immune system, and the changes in their subsets may influence the progression of colorectal cancer (CRC) to some extent. This clinical study systematically describes and analyzes the association of CD4+ and CD8+ T-lymphocyte content and CD4+/CD8+ T-lymphocyte ratio with CRC differentiation, clinical pathological stage, Ki67 expression, T-stage, N-stage, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) content, nerve and vascular infiltration, and other clinical features, as well as preoperative and postoperative trends. Furthermore, a predictive model is constructed to evaluate the predictive value of T-lymphocyte subsets for CRC clinical features.MethodsStrict inclusion and exclusion criterion were formulated to screen patients, preoperative and postoperative flow cytometry and postoperative pathology reports from standard laparoscopic surgery were assessed. PASS and SPSS software, R packages were invoked to calculate and analyze.ResultsWe found that a high CD4+ T-lymphocyte content in peripheral blood and a high CD4+/CD8+ ratio were associated with better tumor differentiation, an earlier clinical pathological stage, lower Ki67 expression, shallower tumor infiltration, a smaller number of lymph node metastases, a lower CEA content, and a lower likelihood of nerve or vascular infiltration (P < 0.05). However, a high CD8+ T-lymphocyte content indicated an unpromising clinical profile. After effective surgical treatment, the CD4+ T-lymphocyte content and CD4+/CD8+ ratio increased significantly (P < 0.05), while the CD8+ T-lymphocyte content decreased significantly (P < 0.05). Further, we comprehensively compared the merits of CD4+ T-lymphocyte content, CD8+ T-lymphocyte content, and CD4+/CD8+ ratio in predicting the clinical features of CRC. We then combined the CD4+ and CD8+ T-lymphocyte content to build models and predict major clinical characteristics. We compared these models with the CD4+/CD8+ ratio to explore their advantages and disadvantages in predicting the clinical features of CRC.DiscussionOur results provide a theoretical basis for the future screening of effective markers in reflecting and predicting the progression of CRC. Changes in T lymphocyte subsets affect the progression of CRC to a certain extent, while their changes also reflect variations in the human immune system

Future City Hydrogen: Reality or Utopia?: A techno-economical feasibility study of an optimal stand-alone Solar-Electrolyzer-Battery-FuelCell system for residential utilization

The population worldwide is growing rapidly which leads to an increase of the energy demand. Simultaneously, the established energy resources are being depleted and contribute negatively to the climate. The necessity for a sustainable and inexhaustible energy source, to deal with the increasing energy demand in an ecological friendly approach, will play a key role in the 21st century. One of the most predictable and inexhaustible renewable energy sources is the Sun. Nevertheless, changing weather conditions, like rain and clouds, winter and summer, result in daily and seasonal fluctuations. A reliable stand-alone solar system requires a profound storage method to tackle the daily and seasonal fluctuations that can potentially result in deficit or dumped energy.Generally, a battery bank is adopted in stand-alone solar systems, but the low energy density makes a battery bank not suitable as a seasonal storage method. A seasonal storage method can be implemented by the production and consumption of the chemical product hydrogen. Hydrogen has a high energy density compared to batteries (142 MJ/kg vs 0.95 MJ/kg), but the low round-trip efficiency prevents implementing hydrogen as a daily storage method. For a highly reliable and optimal sized stand-alone energy system, a combination of both a battery bank and the chemical product hydrogen are used as a profound storage method. The combined storage method can be used in timesof excess and deficit energy. This results in a so called stand-alone hybrid PV-Electrolyzer-Battery-FC energy system. In this final thesis project a stand-alone hybrid PV-Electolyzer-Battery-FC energy system is modelled and optimized to determine the current and future feasibility, both technologically and economically, for residential utilization. A simulation model of the hybrid energy system is designed in TRNSYS. The model is optimized by minimizing the loss of load probability (LLP) and levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for the stand-alone hybrid PV-Electolyzer-Batter-FC energy system at residential level in TRNOPT. Several cases are optimized based on the electrical, heat and mobility demand. The used optimization method is a combination of particle swarm optimization (PSO) and Hooke-Jeeves optimization algorithms implemented by GenOpt.It is established that the proposed stand-alone hybrid PV-Electrolyzer-Battery-FC is technically feasible for the fulfillment of the annual electrical demand of a typical Dutch household. The feasible system size consists of 19 PV modules, battery capacity of 25.5 kWh and a tank volume of 1.24 cubic meters for a LCOE of 1.04 /kWh. If the future prices of the main components can be reduced to 0.01 €/Wp for PV, 0.01 €/Wh for battery and 0.01 €/W for electrolyzer and fuel cell the hybrid system can potentially reach a LCOE of 0.28 €/kWh. Reduction of the prices can be realized by large scale production, large scale implementation and technology maturity. In the end, a LCOE of 0.17 €/kWh can be realized by renewable energy systems if these future prices are realized and the following conditions are met: (1) fully covered roof area by PV modules and (1) the production, consumption and storage of hydrogen should be centralized to scatter the infrastructure costs over all the consumers. This can induce a so called hydrogen economy in the future, whereby the hydrogen gas can be the sustainable link between the increasing energy demand and the depleting fossil fuels.Electrical Engineering | Sustainable Energy Technolog

Additional file 2: of Main drivers of health expenditure growth in China: a decomposition analysis

Expenditure per prevalent case by age group and disease in 1993 and 2012, China. This dataset illustrates the changes of expenditure per prevalent case by age group and disease during the period 1993 and 2012 in China constant in 1993 prices. (DOCX 41 kb