1D/3D coupling analysis of engine cooling system

In this paper, the FLUENT and KULI soft wares were used to analyze the cooling performance on the radiating module of the cooling system for a heavy vehicle by 1D/3D coupling simulation. According to the analysis, the cooling performance of the existing engine cooling system for heavy vehicles is declined by the gap between the intercooler and radiator in the cooling system. Moreover, the structure of an integrated cooling system was proposed. The wind tunnel experiment model was built in the FLUENT software to analyze the original cooling system and the integrated cooling system by three-dimensional simulation. Then the obtained velocity matrix from 3D simulation was imported into the KULI software to compare the cooling performances of the original system and the integrated system. It was found that the cooling performance of the integrated cooling system is superior to that of the original cooling system

Autophagy genes of ATG5-ATG12 complex in response to exogenous stimulations in Litopenaeus vannamei

Autophagy plays an important role in resisting pathogens infection and environmental stress. However, there are few studies on autophagy and its regulation in Litopenaeus vannamei. In this study, the autophagy-related genes of ATG5-ATG12 complex (ATG5, ATG7, ATG10 and ATG12) were cloned and investigated on the response to exogenous stimulations in L. vannamei. Multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis of different species showed that four autophagy genes were conserved among different species. Tissue detection showed that the four autophagy genes were expressed in all tissues, and the expression level was the highest in the hepatopancreas in L. vannamei. Furthermore, the expression levels of the four autophagy genes were up-regulated significantly after stimulation with Vibrio harveyi and the virus analog poly(I:C) (p<0.05), and their peak values occurred at 24-48h. These results indicated that ATG5, ATG7, ATG10 and ATG12 may be involved in resisting pathogen infection in L.vannamei, which provided a basis for studying the molecular mechanism of autophagy in resistance to pathogen infection of L. vannamei

Platinum-based chemotherapy plus cetuximab first-line for Asian patients with recurrent and/or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck: Results of an open-label, single-arm, multicenter trial

Background The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy, safety, and pharmacokinetics of cisplatin-based chemotherapy plus cetuximab as first-line treatment in Chinese and Korean patients with recurrent and/or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN). Methods Patients (n = 68) received cetuximab weekly plus 3-week cycles of cisplatin/5-fluorouracil (5-FU) chemotherapy for up to 6 cycles. The primary endpoint was overall response rate. Results The overall response rate was 55.9%, including 2 complete responses (CRs). Median overall survival (OS) was 12.6 months and median progression-free survival (PFS) was 6.6 months. Grade 3/4 adverse events (AEs) were reported in 41 (60.3%) patients. The safety profile was in line with previous clinical experience. The pharmacokinetic profile was in line with that observed with cetuximab in white and Japanese patients. Conclusion The efficacy, safety, and pharmacokinetic findings from this study support the use of first-line platinum-based chemotherapy plus cetuximab in Chinese and Korean patients with recurrent and/or metastatic SCCHN (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01177956). © 2014 The Authors Head & Neck Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 37: 1081–1087, 201

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals &lt;1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data