Assessment of Appalachian Hardwood Residue Properties and Potentials for Bioenergy Utilization

Logging residue specimens of yellow-poplar and red oak were collected from 15 previously harvested sites across West Virginia. Sites were selected with respect to the varying soil compositions based on a USDA soil survey as well as to the average annual precipitation regions. Wood specimens were then analyzed for their physical, chemical, and thermal properties. Results indicated that logging residues of yellow-poplar and red oak were dried in nature to 7.4 - 39% MC. Yellow-poplar sapwood-specific gravity reduced by 15 and 26.5% on average after 2 and 3 yr of ground contact, respectively. Red oak sapwood-specific gravity was lower than its heartwood by 26.6, 25.3, and 8.2% for the 2005, 2006, and 2007 harvest years, respectively. Chemical analysis showed higher extractives and lignin contents for decayed wood samples collected in 2005 harvested sites. Heating value showed no significant difference between sapwood and heartwood residues of undecayed and decayed material. Our analysis on the potential sugars available showed that about 85 - 90% of 1.02 billion kg of sugars derivable from wood residues in West Virginia could be fermented to ethanol or butanol

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Modeling Production of Longline Yarding Operations in Coastal British Columbia

Two Madil 046 skyline yarders, rigged as slackline systems and equipped with Ballenger motorized carriages, were studied by field crews from the University of British Columbia - Forest Operations Group for approximately six months at sites on the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. A continuous turn element time study, using handheld data recorders was employed to collect data throughout the study. Mean cycle times for the two operations ranged from 11.5 to 13.5 minutes per cycle. Delays contributed at least 20 percent of the cycle time for both operations and were primarily caused by carriage related problems. Average piece size differed by more than 56 percent and created significant differences in overall system productivity. While average cycle time for the two systems differed by at least two minutes, the system with the longer cycle time had higher mean production due to the larger volume per piece and per cycle. The study results strongly suggest that maximizing volume per cycle is critical to maintaining productivity and minimizing costs, even though cycle time may be increased. In this case, one system was able to capitalize on larger average piece size to significantly improve hourly production, even though cycle times for this yarder were higher. More effort is needed during operations to monitor volume (or weight) per cycle and consistently maintain the maximum volume per cycle for existing conditions