Compression Molding and Novel Sintering Treatments for Alnico Type-8 Permanent Magnets in Near-Final Shape with Preferred Orientation

Economic uncertainty in the rare earth (RE) permanent magnet marketplace, as well as in an expanding electric drive vehicle market that favors permanent magnet alternating current synchronous drive motors, motivated renewed research in RE-free permanent magnets like “alnico,” an Al-Ni-Co-Fe alloy. Thus, high-pressure, gas-atomized isotropic type-8H pre-alloyed alnico powder was compression molded with a clean burn-out binder to near-final shape and sintered to density \u3e99% of cast alnico 8 (full density of 7.3 g/cm3). To produce aligned sintered alnico magnets for improved energy product and magnetic remanence, uniaxial stress was attempted to promote controlled grain growth, avoiding directional solidification that provides alignment in alnico 9. Successful development of solid-state powder processing may enable anisotropically aligned alnico magnets with enhanced energy density to be mass-produced

The relationship between Cho/NAA and glioma metabolism: implementation for margin delineation of cerebral gliomas

BACKGROUND: The marginal delineation of gliomas cannot be defined by conventional imaging due to their infiltrative growth pattern. Here we investigate the relationship between changes in glioma metabolism by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging ((1)H-MRSI) and histopathological findings in order to determine an optimal threshold value of choline/N-acetyl-aspartate (Cho/NAA) that can be used to define the extent of glioma spread. METHOD: Eighteen patients with different grades of glioma were examined using (1)H-MRSI. Needle biopsies were performed under the guidance of neuronavigation prior to craniotomy. Intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed to evaluate the accuracy of sampling. Haematoxylin and eosin, and immunohistochemical staining with IDH1, MIB-1, p53, CD34 and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) antibodies were performed on all samples. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the relationship between Cho/NAA and MIB-1, p53, CD34, and the degree of tumour infiltration. The clinical threshold ratio distinguishing tumour tissue in high-grade (grades III and IV) glioma (HGG) and low-grade (grade II) glioma (LGG) was calculated. RESULTS: In HGG, higher Cho/NAA ratios were associated with a greater probability of higher MIB-1 counts, stronger CD34 expression, and tumour infiltration. Ratio threshold values of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 appeared to predict the specimens containing the tumour with respective probabilities of 0.38, 0.60, 0.79, 0.90 in HGG and 0.16, 0.39, 0.67, 0.87 in LGG. CONCLUSIONS: HGG and LGG exhibit different spectroscopic patterns. Using (1)H-MRSI to guide the extent of resection has the potential to improve the clinical outcome of glioma surgery

Enhanced B7-H4 expression in gliomas with low PD-L1 expression identifies super-cold tumors.

BACKGROUND: Characterizing expression profiles of different immune checkpoint molecules are promising for personalized checkpoint inhibitory immunotherapy. Gliomas have been shown as potential targets for immune checkpoint inhibitors recently. Our study was performed to determine coexpression levels of two major B7 immune regulatory molecules programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) and B7-H4, both of which have been demonstrated to inhibit antitumor host immunity in gliomas. METHODS: We assessed tumor tissues from stage II-IV primary gliomas (n=505) by immunohistochemistry (IHC) for protein levels of both PD-L1 and B7-H4. Gene coexpression analysis assessing clusters based on extent of PD-L1/B7-H4 classifier genes expression were investigated in two transcriptome datasets (The Cancer Genome Atlas and Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas). In addition, levels of immune cell infiltrates were estimated with IHC and RNA-seq data for assessing the tumor immune microenvironment of PD-L1/B7-H4 subgroups. RESULTS: High expression of PD-L1 and B7-H4 in gliomas was 23% and 20%, respectively, whereas coexpression of two proteins at high levels was limited to 2% of the cases. Comparable results were seen in RNA-seq datasets where PD-L1 mRNA expression levels negatively correlated with that of B7-H4. Gene coexpression modules clustered within each grade of gliomas demonstrated lack of double-high modules (cluster with high expression of both PD-L1 and B7-H4 classifier genes). B7-H4 mRNA expression levels showed negative correlation with extent of immune cell infiltration and High-B7-H4 module gliomas (high B7-H4 but low PD-L1 classifier genes expression) had less tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). IHC assessment also showed few TILs and TAMs in High-B7-H4 subgroup gliomas. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of gliomas express PD-L1 or B7-H4, however, coexpression of both at high levels is minimal. The high-B7-H4 patients could be considered as \u27super-cold\u27 gliomas with significantly deficient in TILs, suggesting that B7-H4 might inhibit T-cell trafficking into the central nervous system. This study demonstrated that PD-L1 and B7-H4 may serve as mutually compensatory immune checkpoint molecules in gliomas for immune targeted or active-specific immunotherapy. The distinct B7-H4 pathways modulating T-cell function and immune evasion in glioma patients deserved to be further explored in the future during immunotherapy

CD133-Positive Cells Might Be Responsible for Efficient Proliferation of Human Meningioma Cells

Owing to lack of appropriate model systems, investigations of meningioma biology have come to a stop. In this study, we developed a comprehensive digestion method and defined a culture system. Using this method and system, primary meningioma cells in conditioned suspension medium and a hypoxic environment could be amplified in spheres and were passaged for more than ten generations. Meningioma sphere cells were positive for meningioma cell markers and negative for markers of neural cell types. Importantly, we found the cells expressed the stem cell marker, CD133, but not nestin. All of the tumor sphere cell populations showed a slower degree of cell proliferation than that of human glioma cells and fetal neural stem cells (NSCs). Further studies showed that the proliferative rate was positively correlated with CD133 expression. The higher the CD133 expression, the faster the cell proliferation. With the increase in cell generations, the cell proliferation rate gradually slowed down, and CD133 expression also decreased. Single CD133+ cells rather than CD133− cells could form spheres. Thus, the results above indicated that those cells expressing CD133 in spheres might be stem-like cells, which may be responsible for efficient amplification of human meningioma cells. Decreased expression of CD133 may lead to the failure of long-term passaging

One-stop stroke management platform reduces workflow times in patients receiving mechanical thrombectomy

Background and purposeClinical outcome in patients who received thrombectomy treatment is time-dependent. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the one-stop stroke management (OSSM) platform in reducing in-hospital workflow times in patients receiving thrombectomy compared with the traditional model.MethodsThe data of patients who received thrombectomy treatment through the OSSM platform and traditional protocol transshipment pathway were retrospectively analyzed and compared. The treatment-related time interval and the clinical outcome of the two groups were also assessed and compared. The primary efficacy endpoint was the time from door to groin puncture (DPT).ResultsThere were 196 patients in the OSSM group and 210 patients in the control group, in which they were treated by the traditional approach. The mean DPT was significantly shorter in the OSSM group than in the control group (76 vs. 122 min; P < 0.001). The percentages of good clinical outcomes at the 90-day time point of the two groups were comparable (P = 0.110). A total of 121 patients in the OSSM group and 124 patients in the control group arrived at the hospital within 360 min from symptom onset. The mean DPT and time from symptom onset to recanalization (ORT) were significantly shorter in the OSSM group than in the control group. Finally, a higher rate of good functional outcomes was achieved in the OSSM group than in the control group (53.71 vs. 40.32%; P = 0.036).ConclusionCompared to the traditional transfer model, the OSSM transfer model significantly reduced the in-hospital delay in patients with acute stroke receiving thrombectomy treatment. This novel model significantly improved the clinical outcomes of patients presenting within the first 6 h after symptom onset

CD133 (Prominin) Negative Human Neural Stem Cells Are Clonogenic and Tripotent

CD133 (Prominin) is widely used as a marker for the identification and isolation of neural precursor cells from normal brain or tumor tissue. However, the assumption that CD133 is expressed constitutively in neural precursor cells has not been examined

Histone deacetylase inhibitor, Scriptaid, alleviated neurological dysfunction after experimental intracerebral hemorrhage in mice

the data of about scriptaid alleviating neurological dysfunction after IC

Analysis of Factors Influencing Vibration Suppression of Spray Boom-Air Suspension for Medium and Small-Scale High-Clearance Sprayers

Medium and small-scale high-clearance sprayers are widely applied in medium and small-scale farms. Owing to power and load limitations, it is difficult to manage the complex system for suppressing spray boom vibration. This study was conducted to design a spray boom-air suspension system suitable for medium and small-size high-clearance sprayers by combining spray boom vibration suppression and the characteristics of air spring charging/discharging. Thus, this study aims to address the non-homogeneous distribution of spray triggered by the spray boom vibrations in medium and small high-clearance sprayers. The effects of different elastic elements on the vibration suppression effect of the spray boom were compared. According to the bench test, the dynamic response results of the spray boom under transient and sinusoidal excitations indicate that air spring is more conducive to vibration suppression than coil spring. The results obtained from the field experiments indicate that under the low solid soil condition, the spray boom air suspension should match a small additional air chamber with a volume of approximately 0.6 L, and the damping coefficient of the damper should be approximately 1792 N·s/m. In the case of the high firm soil, the spray boom air suspension should match a large additional air chamber with a volume of approximately 3.6 L, while the damping coefficient of the damper should be set to approximately 1316 N·s/m. The soil with low moisture content and high firmness are unfavorable to the vibration suppression of the spray boom. This study provides a reference for enhancing the vibration suppression of the spray boom-air suspension and improving the spray uniformity of the sprayer