Minimal information for studies of extracellular vesicles 2018 (MISEV2018):a position statement of the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles and update of the MISEV2014 guidelines

The last decade has seen a sharp increase in the number of scientific publications describing physiological and pathological functions of extracellular vesicles (EVs), a collective term covering various subtypes of cell-released, membranous structures, called exosomes, microvesicles, microparticles, ectosomes, oncosomes, apoptotic bodies, and many other names. However, specific issues arise when working with these entities, whose size and amount often make them difficult to obtain as relatively pure preparations, and to characterize properly. The International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) proposed Minimal Information for Studies of Extracellular Vesicles (“MISEV”) guidelines for the field in 2014. We now update these “MISEV2014” guidelines based on evolution of the collective knowledge in the last four years. An important point to consider is that ascribing a specific function to EVs in general, or to subtypes of EVs, requires reporting of specific information beyond mere description of function in a crude, potentially contaminated, and heterogeneous preparation. For example, claims that exosomes are endowed with exquisite and specific activities remain difficult to support experimentally, given our still limited knowledge of their specific molecular machineries of biogenesis and release, as compared with other biophysically similar EVs. The MISEV2018 guidelines include tables and outlines of suggested protocols and steps to follow to document specific EV-associated functional activities. Finally, a checklist is provided with summaries of key points

Human papillomavirus-associated anal squamous intraepithelial lesions in men who have sex with men and transgender women living with and without HIV in Karachi Pakistan: Implications for screening and prevention

Background: Anal squamous intraepithelial lesions (ASIL), strongly related to human papilloma virus (HPV) infection, is more prevalent among men who have sex with men (MSM). However, no such data are available for Pakistan yet, and neither HPV vaccination nor anal-cytology screening is implemented in Pakistan. The purpose of this first ever study was to assess the prevalence of HPV-related anal cytological abnormalities among MSM and transgender women living with and without HIV infection in Pakistan.Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study from March 2016 to November 2017 at sexual health centers run by the Perwaaz Trust and the National AIDS Control Program in Karachi. The study enrolled MSM and transgender women aged greater-than-and-equal-to-18-years who reported anal sex in the preceding 6 months. We collected two anal samples for liquid-based cytology and HPV type testing by PCR, and socio-demographic and behavioral data were collected through face-to face interviews. ASIL and its associations with biological and behavioral risk factors were analyzed through Cox regression for prevalence ratios (PR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs).Results: Out of 271 qualifying participants, 79% were MSM and 21% transgender women. The mean age was 28.8 (± 8) years. Almost 35% (93/271) of the study population had ASIL detected, ASIL was significantly more common among participants living with HIV than in HIV negative ((50/118) 42.4%; vs. (43/153) 28.1%) (p ≤ 0.001). Among ASIL, 66% (61/93) had low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL), and 3.6% (3/93) had high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL). The overall, HPV16 positivity was 35.5% (33/93) among all abnormal anal lesions and all 3 HSIL were HPV16 positive, however, HPV16 positivity could show its association with ASIL detection in univariate model only (PRcrude: 2.11(1.39-3.18)). Moreover, any HR-HPV type (PR 3.04; 95% CI 1.75-5.26), concurrent sexually transmitted infection (STI) (2.13; (1.28-3.55)) and HIV + /HPV + coinfection (1.75; (1.07-2.88)) remained independently associated with ASIL in the multivariate model.Conclusions: Abnormal anal cytology among MSM and transgender is prevalent enough to consider optimal screening regimens. Further studies are required to see if periodic anal cytology can be made part of HIV care and treatment programs among MSM in Pakistan

Optimizing integrated reference cases in the OCTAVIUS project

Adding a carbon capture plant to a power plant reduces the efficiency of said power plant. In order to keep this drop in efficiency as small as possible, several optimisation studies are performed in the OCTAVIUS project. Based on the work of the European Benchmarking Task Force-EBTF within the CESAR, CAESAR, and DECARBit projects, two reference power plants are modelled in Ebsilon®Professional. The first is an 800 MWe coal case, the second a 430 MWe natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) case. For each power plant two separate capture plants are considered: one using 30 wt% MEA as solvent system, the other with CESAR1, a mixture of AMP and PZ as solvent system. This results in four different reference cases which are optimized by varying different process parameters and evaluating process modifications. In a second step, the integration of the capture plant into the power plant is evaluated. This is important especially for the coal fired power plant, where integration of waste heat from the capture plant or the CO2 compressor intercoolers can lead to a significant increase in overall efficiency. The configuration of intercoolers for the CO2 compressor is adapted to achieve the highest overall efficiency. For the natural gas combined cycle plant, integration is not that beneficial, since there is no heat sink available in the water steam cycle. In the end, the cost of electricity and cost of CO2 avoided is calculated for all four cases. While the CESAR1 solvent system in a conventional absorber-stripper scheme is less costly (almost 17%) than the MEA solvent system in a process with Lean Vapour Compression for the coal cases, the result is the opposite for the two NGCC cases though the difference is not substantial

Comparing frameworks for biomass prediction for the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation

NASA's Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) mission offers data for temperate and pan-tropical estimates of aboveground forest biomass (AGB). The spaceborne, full-waveform LiDAR from GEDI provides sample footprints of canopy structure, expected to cover about 4% of the land area following two years of operation. Several options are available for estimating AGB at different geographical scales. Using GEDI sample data alone, gridded biomass predictions are based on hybrid inference which correctly propagates errors due to the modeling and accounts for sampling variability, but this method requires at least two GEDI tracks in the area of interest. However, there are significant gaps in GEDI coverage and in some areas of interest GEDI data may need to be combined with other wall-to-wall remotely sensed (RS) data, such as those from multispectral or SAR sensors. In these cases, we may employ hierarchical model-based (HMB) inference that correctly considers the additional model errors that result from relating GEDI data to the wall-to-wall data. Where predictions are possible from both hybrid and HMB inference the question arises which framework to choose, and under what circumstances? In this paper, we make progress towards answering these questions by comparing the performance of the two prediction frameworks under conditions relevant for the GEDI mission. Conventional model-based (MB) inference with wall-to-wall TanDEM-X data was applied as a baseline prediction framework, which does not involve GEDI data at all. An important feature of the study was the comparison of AGB predictors in terms of both standard deviation (SD: the square root of variance) and root mean square error (RMSE: the square root of mean square error – MSE). Since, in model-based inference, the true AGB in an area of interest is a random variable, comparisons of the performance of prediction frameworks should preferably be made in terms of their RMSEs. However, in practice only the SD can be estimated based on empirical survey data, and thus it is important also to study whether or not the difference between the two uncertainty measures is small or large under conditions relevant for the GEDI mission. Our main findings were that: (i) hybrid and HMB prediction typically resulted in smaller RMSEs than conventional MB prediction although the difference between the three frameworks in terms of SD often was small; (ii) in most cases the difference between hybrid and HMB inference was small in terms of both RMSE and SD; (iii) the RMSEs for all frameworks was substantially larger than the SDs in small study areas whereas the two uncertainty measures were similar in large study areas, and; (iv) spatial autocorrelation of model residual errors had a large effect on the RMSEs of AGB predictors, especially in small study areas. We conclude that hybrid inference is suitable in most GEDI applications for AGB assessment, due to its simplicity compared to HMB inference. However, where GEDI data are sparse HMB inference should be preferred

Tensile, Fatigue and Creep Properties of Aluminum Heat Exhanger Tube Alloys for Temperatures from 293 K to 573 K (20°C to 300°C)

Since automotive heat exchangers are operated at varying temperatures and under varying pressures, both static and dynamic mechanical properties should be known at different temperatures. Tubes are the most critical part of the most heat exchangers made from aluminum brazing sheet. We present tensile test, stress amplitude-fatigue life, and creep–rupture data of six AA3XXX series tube alloys after simulated brazing for temperatures ranging from 293 K to 573 K (20 °C to 300 °C). While correlations between several mechanical properties are strong, ranking of alloys according to one property cannot be safely deduced from the known ranking according to another property. The relative reduction in creep strength with increasing temperature is very similar for all six alloys, but the general trends are also strong with respect to tensile and fatigue properties; an exception is one alloy that exhibits strong Mg-Si precipitation activity during fatigue testing at elevated temperatures. Interrupted fatigue tests indicated that the crack growth time is negligible compared to the crack initiation time. Fatigue lifetimes are reduced by creep processes for temperatures above approximately 423 K (150 °C). When mechanical properties were measured at several temperatures, interpolation to other temperatures within the same temperature range was possible in most cases, using simple and well-established equations

Minimal information for studies of extracellular vesicles 2018 (MISEV2018) : a position statement of the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles and update of the MISEV2014 guidelines

The last decade has seen a sharp increase in the number of scientific publications describing physiological and pathological functions of extracellular vesicles (EVs), a collective term covering various subtypes of cell-released, membranous structures, called exosomes, microvesicles, microparticles, ectosomes, oncosomes, apoptotic bodies, and many other names. However, specific issues arise when working with these entities, whose size and amount often make them difficult to obtain as relatively pure preparations, and to characterize properly. The International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) proposed Minimal Information for Studies of Extracellular Vesicles ("MISEV") guidelines for the field in 2014. We now update these "MISEV2014" guidelines based on evolution of the collective knowledge in the last four years. An important point to consider is that ascribing a specific function to EVs in general, or to subtypes of EVs, requires reporting of specific information beyond mere description of function in a crude, potentially contaminated, and heterogeneous preparation. For example, claims that exosomes are endowed with exquisite and specific activities remain difficult to support experimentally, given our still limited knowledge of their specific molecular machineries of biogenesis and release, as compared with other biophysically similar EVs. The MISEV2018 guidelines include tables and outlines of suggested protocols and steps to follow to document specific EV-associated functional activities. Finally, a checklist is provided with summaries of key points

Minimal information for studies of extracellular vesicles 2018 (MISEV2018): a position statement of the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles and update of the MISEV2014 guidelines

The last decade has seen a sharp increase in the number of scientific publications describing physiological and pathological functions of extracellular vesicles (EVs), a collective term covering various subtypes of cell-released, membranous structures, called exosomes, microvesicles, microparticles, ectosomes, oncosomes, apoptotic bodies, and many other names. However, specific issues arise when working with these entities, whose size and amount often make them difficult to obtain as relatively pure preparations, and to characterize properly. The International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) proposed Minimal Information for Studies of Extracellular Vesicles ("MISEV") guidelines for the field in 2014. We now update these "MISEV2014" guidelines based on evolution of the collective knowledge in the last four years. An important point to consider is that ascribing a specific function to EVs in general, or to subtypes of EVs, requires reporting of specific information beyond mere description of function in a crude, potentially contaminated, and heterogeneous preparation. For example, claims that exosomes are endowed with exquisite and specific activities remain difficult to support experimentally, given our still limited knowledge of their specific molecular machineries of biogenesis and release, as compared with other biophysically similar EVs. The MISEV2018 guidelines include tables and outlines of suggested protocols and steps to follow to document specific EV-associated functional activities. Finally, a checklist is provided with summaries of key points