Anaerobic digestion of cattle manure, corn silage and sugar beet pulp mixtures after thermal pretreatment and kinetic modeling study

WOS: 000504834400007In this study, biogas production was investigated from cattle manure (CM), corn silage (CS) and sugar beet pulp (SBP) mixtures under mesophilic conditions. In anaerobic digestion (AD), CM, CS and SBP were mixed in different ratios and the optimum mixture ratio was determined as 2:1:1, w/w/w respectively. In this mixture, biogas production was 180.5 mL/g TS. After the optimum mixing ratios of CM, CS and SBP were determined, thermal pretreatments were applied to this mixture ratio. Thermal pretreatments were performed at 100, 120, 150 and 180 degrees C with 10, 20, 30, 60 and 120 min for each temperature. Considering biogas production after thermal pretreatment, the best thermal pretreatment time was determined as 60 min for all pretreatment temperatures. The highest biogas yield was 362.1 mL/g TS in the reactor which is pretreated at 180 degrees C for 60 min. After thermal pretreatment at 180 degrees C for 60 min, the SCOD value in the reactor increased by 124.6% compared to the control. This reactor produced 100.6% higher biogas production compared to the control. In addition, the solubilization of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin in this reactor was 38.2%, 32.9% and 23.2%, respectively. Cumulative biogas production (CBP) fitted to modified Gompertz and modified Bertalanffy models.Sivas Cumhuriyet University Scientific Research Projects Unit (CUBAP) [M-665]This research was supported by the Sivas Cumhuriyet University Scientific Research Projects Unit (CUBAP) under grant no M-665. The authors wish to thank this institution for their support

Sclerosing epithelioid mesenchymal neoplasm of the pancreas\ua0-\ua0a proposed new entity

We have encountered pancreatic tumors with unique histologic features, which do not conform to any of the known tumors of the pancreas or other anatomical sites. We aimed to define their clinicopathologic features and whether they are characterized by recurrent molecular signatures. Eight cases were identified; studied histologically and by immunohistochemistry. Selected cases were also subjected to whole-exome sequencing (WES; n\u2009=\u20094), RNA-sequencing (n\u2009=\u20096), Archer FusionPlex assay (n\u2009=\u20095), methylation profiling using the Illumina MethylationEPIC (850k) array platform (n\u2009=\u20096), and TERT promoter sequencing (n\u2009=\u20095). Six neoplasms occurred in females. The mean age was 43 years (range: 26-75). Five occurred in the head/neck of the pancreas. All patients were treated surgically; none received neoadjuvant/adjuvant therapy. All patients are free of disease after 53 months of median follow-up (range: 8-94). The tumors were well-circumscribed, and the median size was 1.8\u2009cm (range: 1.3-5.8). Microscopically, the unencapsulated tumors had a geographic pattern of epithelioid cell nests alternating with spindle cell fascicles. Some areas showed dense fibrosis, in which enmeshed tumor cells imparted a slit-like pattern. The predominant epithelioid cells had scant cytoplasm and round-oval nuclei with open chromatin. The spindle cells displayed irregular, hyperchromatic nuclei. Mitoses were rare. No lymph node metastases were identified. All tumors were positive for vimentin, CD99 and cytokeratin (patchy), while negative for markers of solid pseudopapillary neoplasm, neuroendocrine, acinar, myogenic/rhabdoid, vascular, melanocytic, or lymphoid differentiation, gastrointestinal stromal tumor as well as MUC4. Whole-exome sequencing revealed no recurrent somatic mutations or amplifications/homozygous deletions in any known oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes. RNA-sequencing and the Archer FusionPlex assay did not detect any recurrent likely pathogenic gene fusions. Single sample gene set enrichment analysis revealed that these tumors display a likely mesenchymal transcriptomic program. Unsupervised analysis (t-SNE) of their methylation profiles against a set of different mesenchymal neoplasms demonstrated a distinct methylation pattern. Here, we describe pancreatic neoplasms with unique morphologic/immunophenotypic features and a distinct methylation pattern, along with a lack of abnormalities in any of key genetic drivers, supporting that these neoplasms represent a novel entity with an indolent clinical course. Given their mesenchymal transcriptomic features, we propose the designation of "sclerosing epithelioid mesenchymal neoplasm" of the pancreas