Development Of Core Layer Materials Using Particulate Filled Epoxy Composites [TK7870.15. T261 2008 f rb].

Kajian ke atas epoksi terisi pengisi partikulat ini adalah terdiri daripada enam peringkat. Bahagian pertama kajian ini melibatkan pengkajian mengenai kesan pengisi-pengisi partikulat: The research on epoxy filled with particulate fillers composites consist of six parts. The first part of the study is to investigate the effect of types particulate fillers

Written feedback on ESL student writers’ academic essays

This paper provides an analysis of written feedback on ESL student writers’ academic essays to shed light on how feedback acts as a communicative tool between the lecturer and students. The objective of this study is to explore the types and usefulness of written feedback on ESL student writers’ academic writing. First, it discusses the importance of feedback and the theoretical framework of the Speech Act Theory. The data for this study comprises written feedback and students’ interviews. The feedback was coded, and a model for analysis was developed based on two primary roles of speech: directive and expressive. Based on this analysis, the paper discusses the types of feedback from which students benefit the most, namely, directive-instruction feedback and expressive-disapproval feedback. The interview conducted as part of this study provided insightson how the students felt about each type of feedback. This study also suggests a possibility of developing a taxonomy of good feedback practices by considering the views of the giver and receiver of written feedback

Maintaining CD4/CD8 ratio and Th1-CTL subsets of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells in serum-free culture conditions

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells therapy is a promising strategy that significantly controlled the progress of cancer diseases. CAR-T cells could kill cancer cells through cellular immune response; therefore, CD8+ cytotoxic T cells are critical for CAR-T cell therapy. However, recent papers reported that CD4+ T helper cells were important for the response and maintenance of CAR-T cells in vivo. Here, we developed a serum-free CAR-T cell preparation process that maintained the T cell population and controlled the T cell subsets. The CD4+ and CD8+ T cell population in CAR-T cells were maintained at averagely 59.4 % and 34.6%, and the major T cell subsets were Th1 cells and cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), implying the potentially high cellular immune response. To verifying whether the prepared CAR-T cells were exhausted, the expression of several immune checkpoint markers was determined. Of interest, only less than 20% of CAR-T cells at endpoint were PD-1+ or CTLA4+, but more than 40% of CAR-T cells at the endpoint were TIM-3+, implying most CAR-T cells were not exhausted. These CAR-T cells produced more than 1 ng/mL of IFN-γ in the response to the antigen. Altogether, CAR-T cells could be prepared in our serum-free process in the controlling of T cell subsets, leading to potential high therapeutic potency. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

In vitro high expansion of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells in serum-free process conditions

Manufacturing process is an important and complex factor for preparing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells for therapy. Although serum was widely applied in the culture or expansion of T cells, the quality of serum could be varied from batch to batch, leading to the variation of T cell expansion and quality. In addition, the safety of pathogens from serum and Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Control (CMC) were required to be considered. To overcome the disadvantages of serum application in T cell culture, serum-free and xeno-free culture conditions were required. We intended to develop a rapid serum-free culture condition for the expansion of immune T cells ex vivo. In our optimized serum-free condition, CAR-T cells could be expanded to about 100-200 times to the initial cell number after 6-day culture and the cell viability of all specimens was above 98%. Of interest, the percentage of CAR+ population in all specimens was increases, and the T cell pollutions could be maintained at averagely about 35-40% of CD8+ T cells and averagely about 50-55% of CD4+ T cells after culture. Taken together, our conditions could be applied in the expansion of CAR-T cells for cell therapy to support the minimum requirement of blood or cell samples from patients and to maintain the T cell population. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Urethral diverticulum in pregnancy

AbstractUrethral diverticulum is rare in pregnancy. There is no clear guideline on the management of urethral diverticulum in pregnancy, but most cases were managed conservatively. We report a case of urethral diverticulum in a primigravida woman, who presented with anterior vaginal swelling at 14 weeks of gestation. She was managed conservatively and the cyst (approximately 8 cm × 13 cm) was aspirated during the early stage of labor. However her labor did not progress during the second stage, which resulted in an emergency cesarean section. She underwent diverticulectomy at 1 month postpartum because of the recurrence of the swelling and persistent discomfort. We believe that her dystocia may have been caused by factors other than the diverticulum. As previously described in literature, we concluded that, even in pregnant women with a large urethral diverticulum, vaginal delivery can still be considered with prior aspiration during the early stage of labor

Validation of Collection 6 MODIS land surface temperature product using in situ measurements

Land surface temperature (LST) is an important physical quantity at the land-atmosphere interface. Since 2016 the Collection 6 (C6) MODIS LST product is publicly available, which includes three refinements over bare soil surfaces compared to the Collection 5 (C5) MODIS LST product. To encourage the use of the C6 MODIS LST product in a wide range of applications, it is necessary to evaluate the accuracy of the C6 MODIS LST product. In this study, we validated the C6 MODIS LST product using temperature-based method over various land cover types, including grasslands, croplands, cropland/natural vegetation mosaic, open shrublands, woody savannas, and barren/sparsely vegetated. In situ measurements were collected from various sites under different atmospheric and surface conditions, including seven SURFRAD sites (BND, TBL, DRA, FPK, GCM, PSU, and SXF) in the United States, three KIT sites (EVO, KAL, and GBB) in Portugal and Namibia, and three HiWATER sites (GBZ, HZZ, and HMZ) in China. The spatial representativeness of the in situ measurements at each site was separately evaluated during daytime and nighttime using all available clear-sky ASTER LST products at 90m spatial resolution. Only six sites during daytime are selected as sufficiently homogeneous sites despite the usually high spatial thermal heterogeneity, whereas during nighttime most sites can be considered to be thermally homogeneous and have similar LST and air temperature. The C6 MODIS LST product was validated using in situ measurements from the selected homogeneous sites during daytime and nighttime: except for the GBB site, large RMSE values (> 2 K) were obtained during daytime. However, if only satellite LST with a high spatial thermal homogeneity on the MODIS pixel scale are used for LST validation, the best daytime accuracy (RMSE<1.3 K) for the C6 MODIS LST product is achieved over the BND and DRA sites. Except for the DRA site, the RMSE values during nighttime are<2 K at the selected homogeneous sites. Furthermore, the accuracy of the C6 MODIS LST product was compared with that of the C5 MODIS LST product during nighttime at the selected homogeneous sites. Except for the GBB site, there are only small differences (< 0.4 K) between the RMSE values for the C5 and C6 MODIS LST products

Effect of Heat Assisted Bath Sonication on the Mechanical and Thermal Deformation Behaviours of Graphene Nanoplatelets Filled Epoxy Polymer Composites

Graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) filled epoxy composites ranged from 0.2 to 5 vol.% were prepared in this study using simple heat assisted bath sonication for better GNP dispersion and exfoliation. The effects of GNP filler loading via heat assisted bath sonication on the mechanical properties and thermal deformation behaviour were investigated. Improvements on flexural strength and fracture toughness up to 0.4 vol.% filler loading were recorded. Further addition of GNP filler loading shows a deteriorating behaviour on the mechanical properties on the composites. The bulk electrical conductivity of the epoxy composites is greatly improved with the addition of GNP filler loading up to 1 vol.%. The thermal expansion of epoxy composites is reduced with the addition of GNP; however poor thermal stability of the composites is observed

Transcriptional regulation of SlPYL, SlPP2C, and SlSnRK2 gene families encoding ABA signal core components during tomato fruit development and drought stress

In order to characterize the potential transcriptional regulation of core components of abscisic acid (ABA) signal transduction in tomato fruit development and drought stress, eight SlPYL (ABA receptor), seven SlPP2C (type 2C protein phosphatase), and eight SlSnRK2 (subfamily 2 of SNF1-related kinases) full-length cDNA sequences were isolated from the tomato nucleotide database of NCBI GenBank. All SlPYL, SlPP2C, and SlSnRK2 genes obtained are homologous to Arabidopsis AtPYL, AtPP2C, and AtSnRK2 genes, respectively. Based on phylogenetic analysis, SlPYLs and SlSnRK2s were clustered into three subfamilies/subclasses, and all SlPP2Cs belonged to PP2C group A. Within the SlPYL gene family, SlPYL1, SlPYL2, SlPYL3, and SlPYL6 were the major genes involved in the regulation of fruit development. Among them, SlPYL1 and SlPYL2 were expressed at high levels throughout the process of fruit development and ripening; SlPYL3 was strongly expressed at the immature green (IM) and mature green (MG) stages, while SlPYL6 was expressed strongly at the IM and red ripe (RR) stages. Within the SlPP2C gene family, the expression of SlPP2C, SlPP2C3, and SlPP2C4 increased after the MG stage; SlPP2C1 and SlPP2C5 peaked at the B3 stage, while SlPP2C2 and SlPP2C6 changed little during fruit development. Within the SlSnRK2 gene family, the expression of SlSnRK2.2, SlSnRK2.3, SlSnRK2.4, and SlSnRK2C was higher than that of other members during fruit development. Additionally, most SlPYL genes were down-regulated, while most SlPP2C and SlSnRK2 genes were up-regulated by dehydration in tomato leaf