Preparation and imaging of intravascular high-frequency transducer

Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging is by far the most favorable imaging modality for coronary artery evaluation. IVUS transducer design and fabrication, a key technology for intravascular ultrasound imaging, has a significant impact on the performance of the imaging results. Herein, a 35-MHz side-looking IVUS transducer probe was developed. With a small aperture of 0.40 mm × 0.40 mm, the transducer exhibited a very wide -6 dB bandwidth of 85% and a very low insertion loss of -12 dB. Further, the in vitro IVUS imaging of a porcine coronary artery was performed to clearly display the vessel wall structure while the corresponding color-coded graph was constructed successfully to distinguish necrotic core and fibrous plaque via image processing. The results demonstrated that the imaging performance of the optimized design transducer performs favorably

Clinical features and surgical outcomes of high grade pleomorphic xanthoastrocytomas: a single-center experience with a systematic review

PurposeHigh grade pleomorphic xanthoastrocytomas (HGPXAs) are very rare and their management and prognostic outcomes remain unclear. To better understand the disease, we aimed to evaluate the risk factors for progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS), and propose a treatment protocol based on cases from our institute and cases from the literature.MethodsThe authors reviewed the clinical data of 26 patients with HGPXAs who underwent surgical treatment in Department of Neurosurgery of Beijing Tiantan Hospital between August 2014 and September 2021. We also searched the PubMed database using the keywords “anaplastic” combined with “pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma(s)” between January 1997 and October 2022. Risk factors for PFS and OS were evaluated in the pooled cases.ResultsThe authors’ cohort included 11 males and 15 females with a mean age of 36.7 ± 20.3 years (range: 5.5-71 years). Gross-total resection (GTR) and non-GTR were achieved in 17 (65.4%) and 9 (34.6%) patients, respectively. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy were administered to 22 and 20 patients, respectively. After a mean follow-up of 20.5 ± 21.2 months (range: 0.5-78.1 months), 7 patients suffered tumor recurrence and 6 patients died with a mean OS time of 19.4 ± 10.8 months (range: 8-36 months). In the literature between January 1997 and October 2022, 56 cases of HGPXAs were identified in 29 males and 27 females with a mean age of 29.6 ± 19.6 years (range; 4-74 years). Among them, 24 (44.4%) patients achieved GTR. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy was administered to 31 (62%) patients and 23 (46%) patients, respectively. After a median follow-up of 31.4 ± 35.3 months (range: 0.75-144 months), the mortality and recurrence rates were 32.5% (13/40) and 70% (28/40), respectively. Multivariate Cox regression model demonstrated that non-GTR (HR 0.380, 95% CI 0.174-0.831, p=0.015), age≥30 (HR 2.620, 95% CI 1.183-5.804, p=0.018), no RT (HR 0.334,95% CI 0.150-0.744, p=0.007) and no CT (HR 0.422, 95% CI 0.184-0.967, p=0.042) were negative prognostic factors for PFS. Non-GTR (HR 0.126, 95% CI 0.037-0.422, p=0.001), secondary HGPXAs (HR 7.567, 95% CI 2.221-25.781, p=0.001), age≥30 (HR 3.568, 95% CI 1.190-10.694, p=0.023) and no RT (HR 0.223,95% CI 0.073-0.681, p=0.008) were risk factors for OS.Conclusion:High grade pleomorphic xanthoastrocytomas are very rare brain tumors. Children and younger adults have better clinical outcome than elderly patients. Secondary HGPXAs had worse OS than primary HGPXAs. Complete surgical excision plus RT and CT is recommended for this entity. The frequency of BRAF mutations in HGPXAs is 47.5% (19/40) in this study, however, we do not find the connections between BRAF mutations and clinical outcomes. Future studies with larger cohorts are necessary to verify our findings

High frequency ultrasound transducer for nondestructive testing based on PMNT ceramics with high piezoelectricity = 基于高压电性PMNT陶瓷的无损检测高频超声换能器

The Smdoped Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O30.30PbTiO3(PMN0.30PT) ceramic has very large piezoelectric response (d33~1 300 pC/N) that can be comparable with the PMN0.30PT single crystal,but it has higher consistency and lower cost than piezoelectric single crystal. Aiming at the industrial application of high frequency ultrasonic nondestructive testing, a highfrequency ultrasonic transducer with a center frequency of greater than 30.5 MHz is designed and fabricated based on Smdoped PMN0.30PT ceramics in this paper. The performance of the transducer was characterized by the ultrasonic pulse echo method, and its sound field is tested. The ultrasonic imaging of the microstructure of small plastic parts is carried out by using the prepared highfrequency ultrasonic transducer. The results show that the highfrequency ultrasonic transducer based on Smdoped PMN0.30PT ceramic has excellent imaging performance and is suitable for the industrial preparation of high frequency ultrasonic nondestructive testing imaging

Upcycling the anaerobic digestion streams in a bioeconomy approach: A review

10.1016/j.rser.2021.111635Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews15111163

doi:10.1155/2011/203537 Research Article Sparse Regularization-Based Reconstruction for Bioluminescence Tomography Using a Multilevel Adaptive Finite Element Method

which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Bioluminescence tomography (BLT) is a promising tool for studying physiological and pathological processes at cellular and molecular levels. In most clinical or preclinical practices, fine discretization is needed for recovering sources with acceptable resolution when solving BLT with finite element method (FEM). Nevertheless, uniformly fine meshes would cause large dataset and overfine meshes might aggravate the ill-posedness of BLT. Additionally, accurately quantitative information of density and power has not been simultaneously obtained so far. In this paper, we present a novel multilevel sparse reconstruction method based on adaptive FEM framework. In this method, permissible source region gradually reduces with adaptive local mesh refinement. By using sparse reconstruction with l1 regularization on multilevel adaptive meshes, simultaneous recovery of density and power as well as accurate source location can be achieved. Experimental results for heterogeneous phantom and mouse atlas model demonstrate its effectiveness and potentiality in the application of quantitative BLT. 1

Regulating properties of Cu2ZnSn(S, Se)4 absorber layer via the extra tiny Mg2+

Abstract Extra cation incorporations have been proved to enhance the properties of Cu2ZnSn(S, Se)4 materials, and help to obtain high‐efficiency solar cells. In this work, the authors study the influence of the extra tiny Mg2+ doping on the properties of Cu2ZnSn(S, Se)4 films. Through tuning the amount of Mg into the precursor solution, the crystallization, morphology, light absorption, and electrical properties all have been improved and can reach the optimum at 3% Mg‐doping, which is in favour of high‐performance CZTSSe devices. The authors’ finding also demonstrates Mg element can be regarded as the new candidate for extra cation incorporations

New Insights on Drought Stress Response by Global Investigation of Gene Expression Changes in Sheepgrass (Leymus chinensis)

Water is a critical environmental factor that restricts the geographic distribution of plants. Sheepgrass [Leyrnus chinensis, (Trin.) Tzvel] is an important forage grass in the Eurasia Steppe and a close germplasm for wheat and barley. This native grass adapts well to adverse environments such as cold, salinity, alkalinity and drought, and it can survive when the soil moisture may be less than 6% in dry seasons. However, little is known about how sheepgrass tolerates water stress at the molecular level. Here, drought stress experiment and RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) was performed in three pools of RNA samples (control, drought stress, and rewatering). We found that sheepgrass seedlings could still survive when the soil water content (SWC) was reduced to 14.09%. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) analysis showed that 7320 genes exhibited significant responses to drought stress. Of these DEGs, 2671 presented opposite expression trends before and after rewatering. Furthermore, 680 putative sheepgrass-specific water responsive genes were revealed that can be studied deeply. Gene ontology (GO) annotation revealed that stress-associated genes were activated extensively by drought treatment. Interestingly, cold stress-related genes were up-regulated greatly after drought stress. The DEGs of MAPK and calcium signal pathways, plant hormone ABA, jasmonate, ethylene, brassinosteroid signal pathways, cold response CBF pathway participated coordinatively in sheepgrass drought stress response. In addition, we identified 288 putative transcription factors (TFs) involved in drought response, among them, the WRKY, NAG, AP2/ERF, bHLH, bZIP, and MYB families were enriched, and might play crucial and significant roles in drought stress response of sheepgrass. Our research provided new and valuable information for understanding the mechanism of drought tolerance in sheepgrass. Moreover, the identification of genes involved in drought response can facilitate the genetic improvement of crops by molecular breeding

Avoided population exposure to extreme heat under two scenarios of global carbon neutrality by 2050 and 2060

To mitigate global warming and the resulting climate risk, many countries have accelerated the optimization of industrial structures and mixture of energy type in an attempt to achieve carbon neutrality by the second half of the 21st century. Here, we present the first assessment of the quantitative benefits of population exposure to extreme heat (defined by the heat index) during 2040–2049 under two scenarios of global carbon neutrality by 2060 and 2050, i.e. moderate green (MODGREEN) and strong green (STRGREEN) recovery scenarios, relative to the baseline scenario of Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) 2–4.5. Global mean extreme heat days increase by 12.1 d yr ^−1 (108%) during 2040–2049 under the SSP2-4.5 scenario relative to the historical period (1995–2014). The aggravating extreme heat events could be mitigated by as much as 12% and 18% during 2040–2049 under the MODGREEN and STRGREEN scenarios, respectively. Following the changes in extreme heat days, global population exposure to extreme heat is mitigated by 27.3 billion person-days (7%) in the MODGREEN scenario and 39.9 billion person-days (11%) in the STRGREEN scenario during 2040–2049 relative to the SSP2-4.5 scenario. Such benefits from these low-carbon policies are larger in regional hotspots, including India and Northern Africa, which have experienced high population growth and have extremely limited medical infrastructure. Moreover, an early carbon neutrality (2050 vs 2060) could avoid 12.6 billion person-days exposure to extreme heat during 2040–2049. Our results provide an important scientific support for governments to drive early policymaking for climate change mitigation

Experimental study on differences in clivus chordoma bone invasion: an iTRAQ-based quantitative proteomic analysis.

Although a bone tumor, significant differences in the extent of bone invasion exist in skull base chordoma, which directly affect the extent of surgical resection, and have an impact on its prognosis. However, the underlying mechanism of the phenomenon is not clearly understood. Therefore, we used an iTRAQ-based quantitative proteomics strategy to identify potential molecular signatures, and to find predictive markers of discrepancy in bone invasion of clivus chordoma. According to bone invasive classification criteria, 35 specimens of clivus chordoma were calssified to be either endophytic type (Type I) or exophytic type (Type II). An initial screening of six specimens of endophytic type and six of exophytic was performed, and 250 differentially expressed proteins were identified. Through the GO and IPA analysis, we found evidence that the expression of inflammatory activity-associated proteins up-regulated in endophytic type, whereas the expression of cell motility-associated proteins up-regulated in exophytic ones. Moreover, TGFβ1 and mTOR signal pathway seemed to be related with bone invasion. Thus, TGFβ1, PI3K, Akt, mTOR, and PTEN were validated in the following 23 samples by immune histochemistry and Western blot. The expression levels of TGFβ1 and PTEN were significantly lower in the endophytic type than in the exophytic ones. It was found that TGFβ1 may play an important role in its bone invasion. The mechanisms may be related with conducting an increased inflammatory cell response and a decline in cytoskeletal protein expression. PTEN is confirmed to be associated with the degree of bone invasion. The PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway might be associated with the bone invasion, but still needs a larger sample size to be verified These results, for the first time, not only demonstrate the biological changes that occur in different growth patterns from the perspective of proteomics, but also provide novel markers that may help to reveal the mechanisms behind clivus chordomas