Rapid and high-capacity MgO composites by salt-controllable precipitation for pre- combustion CO2 capture

Pre-combustion CO2 capture at intermediate temperatures can allow for more flexibility to control over CO2 emission in various industrial processes. For example, the pre-combustion capture can be applied for an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) due to the use of relatively mild operating temperatures and accessible heat sources. Efficient materials for CO2 capture and H2 production in water gas shift reactor can contribute to improving the overall reliability and efficiency in IGCC process. As a first step, we presented triple salt-promoted MgO composites (NaNaLi salts) by a precipitation method to enhance sorption capacity, rate, and stability. In the conventional precipitation method, a filtration step makes control and reproductivity of the salt composition difficult owing to the unknown residual salts. In this study, we developed a synthesis procedure of precipitation method to control the composition of salts as well as improve physical properties. As-prepared MgO exhibited excellent sorption capacities of 73.0 wt.% at 325 °C in pure CO2 and high sorption rate within 10 min. Stability of composites were evaluated under various gas and time condition and were superior to those of the other MgO-based sorbents reported. With a wet gas mixture (29% CO2, 3% H2O, and balance N2) for sorption and CO2 regeneration, the working capacity stabilized after 20 cycles at 23 and 4.6 wt% for 60/15 min and 10/5 min cycles, respectively. The enhancement and reduction of working capacity along cycles were explained based on liquid phase sintering, i.e., rearrangement, solid-reprecipitation, and densification. However, too long sorption time in the capacity evaluation is not practical because a fixed bed or fluidized bed has a difficulty of temperature control and a large bed size to control high volumes of gases. Therefore, further development is required for an advanced sorbent with high sorption rate and capacity in practical utilization. Therefore, as a second step, a facile method for sorbent with rapid and high-capacity CO2 capture was developed by incorporating additional metal ioninto salt-promoted MgO sorbents using a coprecipitation. At the same fast cycle (10min/5min), the cyclic sorption capacity of 12 wt.% was observed from the developed MgO composite by using wet mixture sorption (29 vol.% CO2, vol.% H2O and N2 balance) and CO2 regeneration. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Echocardiographic View Classification with Integrated Out-of-Distribution Detection for Enhanced Automatic Echocardiographic Analysis

In the rapidly evolving field of automatic echocardiographic analysis and interpretation, automatic view classification is a critical yet challenging task, owing to the inherent complexity and variability of echocardiographic data. This study presents ECHOcardiography VIew Classification with Out-of-Distribution dEtection (ECHO-VICODE), a novel deep learning-based framework that effectively addresses this challenge by training to classify 31 classes, surpassing previous studies and demonstrating its capacity to handle a wide range of echocardiographic views. Furthermore, ECHO-VICODE incorporates an integrated out-of-distribution (OOD) detection function, leveraging the relative Mahalanobis distance to effectively identify 'near-OOD' instances commonly encountered in echocardiographic data. Through extensive experimentation, we demonstrated the outstanding performance of ECHO-VICODE in terms of view classification and OOD detection, significantly reducing the potential for errors in echocardiographic analyses. This pioneering study significantly advances the domain of automated echocardiography analysis and exhibits promising prospects for substantial applications in extensive clinical research and practice

Sharing the initial experience of pan-cancer panel analysis in high-risk renal cell carcinoma in the Korean population

Abstract Background This study aimed to assess the feasibility of a pan-cancer panel assay for high-risk renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in the Korean population. We also analyzed the clinical and genetic factors contributing to metastasis in clear cell RCC. Methods Thirty-one patients with advanced RCC who underwent radical nephrectomy were analyzed. A 1.8 Mb multi-cancer panel (including 25 RCC-related genes, such as VHL, PBRM1, SETD2, and MET), comprising 181 target genes, 23 fusion genes, and 45 drug target lesions developed by Seoul National University Hospital, was used for this study. Results We extracted DNA from 30 of the 31 (96.7%) RCC specimens. Twenty-one patients (average age 63.3 ± 11.3 years) with clear cell RCC, 5 with papillary RCC, 3 with chromophobe RCC, and one patient, each with MiT family translocation carcinoma RCC and succinate dehydrogenase deficiency RCC, were analyzed. The sequencing depth was 430.8 ± 206.6 and 97 mutations (7.3 ± 2.7 mutations per patient) were detected. The most commonly mutated genes were VHL (46%), PBRM1 (30%), and BAP1, NOTCH4, and POLQ (23.33% each). Compared with TNM stage matched data from TCGA of clear cell RCC, VHL and PBRM1 are most common in both cohorts. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that tumor size (Hazard ratio = 2.47, p = 0.04) and PBRM1 (Hazard ratio = 28.69, p = 0.05) were related to metastasis in clear cell RCC. Conclusion The pan-cancer panel comprised of RCC-related genes is a feasible and promising tool to evaluate genetic alterations in advanced RCC. However, large-scale studies and a focus on the clinical utility of this cancer panels is needed

Nanoporous Silicified Phospholipids and Application to Controlled Glycolic Acid Release

This work demonstrates the synthesis and characterization of novel nanoporous silicified phospholipid bilayers assembled inorganic powders. The materials are obtained by silicification process with silica precursor at the hydrophilic region of phospholipid bilayers. This process involves the co-assembly of a chemically active phospholipids bilayer within the ordered porosity of a silica matrix and holds promise as a novel application for controlled drug release or drug containers with a high level of specificity and throughput. The controlled release application of the synthesized materials was achieved to glycolic acid, and obtained a zero-order release pattern due to the nanoporosity

Whole-exome sequencing in 168 Korean patients with inherited retinal degeneration

Background To date, no genetic analysis of inherited retinal disease (IRD) using whole-exome sequencing (WES) has been conducted in a large-scale Korean cohort. The aim of this study was to characterise the genetic profile of IRD patients in Korea using WES. Methods We performed comprehensive molecular testing in 168 unrelated Korean IRD patients using WES. The potential pathogenicity of candidate variants was assessed using the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics and the Association for Molecular Pathology variant interpretation guidelines, in silico prediction tools, published literature, and compatibility with known phenotypes or inheritance patterns. Results Causative variants were detected in 86/168 (51.2%) IRD patients, including 58/107 (54.2%) with retinitis pigmentosa, 7/15 (46.7%) with cone and cone-rod dystrophy, 2/3 (66.6%) with Usher syndrome, 1/2 (50.0%) with congenital stationary night blindness, 2/2 (100.0%) with Leber congenital amaurosis, 1/1 (100.0%) with Bietti crystalline dystrophy, 1/1 (100.0%) with Joubert syndrome, 9/10 (90.0%) with Stargardt macular dystrophy, 1/10 (10.0%) with vitelliform macular dystrophy, 1/11 (9.1%) with other forms of macular dystrophy, and 3/4 (75.0%) with choroideraemia. USH2A, ABCA4, and EYS were the most common causative genes associated with IRD. For retinitis pigmentosa, variants of USH2A and EYS were the most common causative gene mutations. Conclusions This study demonstrated the distribution of causative genetic mutations in Korean IRD patients. The data will serve as a reference for future genetic screening and development of treatment modalities for Korean IRD patients.This study was supported by the Korean Association of Retinal Degenera‑tion, by a Grant Number 2620170060 from the SNUH Research Fund, and by a grant of the Korea Research-Driven Hospital (Grant Number: HI14C1277) through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MHW), Republic of Korea. The funding bodies played no role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript

Component model synthesis using model updating with neural networks

A component model synthesis (CMS) has been explored by carrying out model updating with neural networks. Structural system identification was achieved by applying the degree of freedom (DOF)-based reduction method and the inverse perturbation method. Experimental vibration data were restored to a full finite element model to update the numerical model. The experimental data were obtained using the specific sensor location selection method. The system identification was improved using the system equivalent reduction-expansion process by carrying out proper orthogonal decomposition. The proposed CMS was applied for a tank bracket model by simplifying the bolt assembly. Top and bottom parts of the tank bracket were each constructed to have a modally equivalent model. The convolutional neural network was adopted by training the density, Young's modulus and contact properties to improve the computational efficiency.N

Do Larger Cities Experience Lower Crime Rates? A Scaling Analysis of 758 Cities in the U.S.

Do larger cities still suffer from higher crime rates? The scaling relationship between the number of crimes and the population size for the maximum of 758 cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants in the United States from 1999 to 2014 was analyzed. For the total group of cities, the relationship is superlinear for both violent and property crimes. However, for the subgroups of the top 12, top 24, and top 50 largest cities, the relationship changes to sublinear for both violent and property crimes. Results from the panel data analysis are in support of these findings. Along with population size, income per capita and population density also influence the outcome of crime counts. Implications from these findings will be discussed