646 research outputs found
The Rise of Participatory Governance in China: Empirical Models, Theoretical Framework, and Institutional Analysis
Outstanding supercapacitive properties of Mn-doped TiO2 micro/nanostructure porous film prepared by anodization method.
Mn-doped TiO2 micro/nanostructure porous film was prepared by anodizing a Ti-Mn alloy. The film annealed at 300â°C yields the highest areal capacitance of 1451.3âmF/cm(2) at a current density of 3âmA/cm(2) when used as a high-performance supercapacitor electrode. Areal capacitance retention is 63.7% when the current density increases from 3 to 20âmA/cm(2), and the capacitance retention is 88.1% after 5,000 cycles. The superior areal capacitance of the porous film is derived from the brush-like metal substrate, which could greatly increase the contact area, improve the charge transport ability at the oxide layer/metal substrate interface, and thereby significantly enhance the electrochemical activities toward high performance energy storage. Additionally, the effects of manganese content and specific surface area of the porous film on the supercapacitive performance were also investigated in this work
Overall PSD and Fractal Characteristics of Tight Oil Reservoirs: A Case Study of Lucaogou Formation in Junggar Basin, China
Lucaogou tight oil reservoir, located in the Junggar Basin, Northwest of China, is one of the typical tight oil reservoirs. Complex lithology leads to a wide pore size distribution (PSD), ranging from several nanometers to hundreds of micrometers. To better understand PSD and fractal features of Lucaogou tight oil reservoir, the experiment methods including scanning electron microscope (SEM), rate-controlled mercury injection (RMI) and pressure-controlled mercury injection (PMI) were performed on the six samples with different lithology. The results indicate that four types of pores exist in Lucaogou tight oil reservoir, including dissolution pores, clay dominated pores, microfractures and inter-granular pores. A combination of PMI and RMI was proposed to calculate the overall PSD of tight oil reservoirs, the overall pore radius of Lucaogou tight oil reservoir ranges from 3.6 nm to 500”m. The fractal analysis was carried out based on the PMI data. Fractal dimension (Fd) values varied between 2.843 and 2.913 with a mean value of 2.88. Fd increases with a decrease of quartz content and an increase of clay mineral content. Samples from tight oil reservoirs with smaller average pore radius have stronger complexity of pore structure. Fractal dimension shows negative correlations with porosity and permeability. In addition, fractal characteristics of different tight reservoirs were compared and analyzed
The Efficacy of Chinese Herbal Medicine as an Adjunctive Therapy for Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Many published studies reflect the growing application of complementary and alternative medicine, particularly Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) use in combination with conventional cancer therapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but its efficacy remains largely unexplored. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of CHM combined with conventional chemotherapy (CT) in the treatment of advanced NSCLC. Publications in 11 electronic databases were extensively searched, and 24 trials were included for analysis. A sum of 2,109 patients was enrolled in these studies, at which 1,064 patients participated in CT combined CHM and 1,039 in CT (six patients dropped out and were not reported the group enrolled). Compared to using CT alone, CHM combined with CT significantly increase one-year survival rate (RR = 1.36, 95% CI = 1.15-1.60, p = 0.0003). Besides, the combined therapy significantly increased immediate tumor response (RR = 1.36, 95% CI = 1.19-1.56, p<1.0E-5) and improved Karnofsky performance score (KPS) (RR = 2.90, 95% CI = 1.62-5.18, p = 0.0003). Combined therapy remarkably reduced the nausea and vomiting at toxicity grade of III-IV (RR = 0.24, 95% CI = 0.12-0.50, p = 0.0001) and prevented the decline of hemoglobin and platelet in patients under CT at toxicity grade of I-IV (RR = 0.64, 95% CI = 0.51-0.80, p<0.0001). Moreover, the herbs that are frequently used in NSCLC patients were identified. This systematic review suggests that CHM as an adjuvant therapy can reduce CT toxicity, prolong survival rate, enhance immediate tumor response, and improve KPS in advanced NSCLC patients. However, due to the lack of large-scale randomized clinical trials in the included studies, further larger scale trials are needed. © 2013 Li et al.published_or_final_versio
Study of the decay
The decay is studied
in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of TeV
using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5
collected by the LHCb experiment. In the system, the
state observed at the BaBar and Belle experiments is
resolved into two narrower states, and ,
whose masses and widths are measured to be where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second
systematic. The results are consistent with a previous LHCb measurement using a
prompt sample. Evidence of a new
state is found with a local significance of , whose mass and width
are measured to be and , respectively. In addition, evidence of a new decay mode
is found with a significance of
. The relative branching fraction of with respect to the
decay is measured to be , where the first
uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and the third originates from
the branching fractions of charm hadron decays.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and
additional information, are available at
https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-028.html (LHCb
public pages
Measurement of the ratios of branching fractions and
The ratios of branching fractions
and are measured, assuming isospin symmetry, using a
sample of proton-proton collision data corresponding to 3.0 fb of
integrated luminosity recorded by the LHCb experiment during 2011 and 2012. The
tau lepton is identified in the decay mode
. The measured values are
and
, where the first uncertainty is
statistical and the second is systematic. The correlation between these
measurements is . Results are consistent with the current average
of these quantities and are at a combined 1.9 standard deviations from the
predictions based on lepton flavor universality in the Standard Model.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and
additional information, are available at
https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-039.html (LHCb
public pages
Multidifferential study of identified charged hadron distributions in -tagged jets in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV
Jet fragmentation functions are measured for the first time in proton-proton
collisions for charged pions, kaons, and protons within jets recoiling against
a boson. The charged-hadron distributions are studied longitudinally and
transversely to the jet direction for jets with transverse momentum 20 GeV and in the pseudorapidity range . The
data sample was collected with the LHCb experiment at a center-of-mass energy
of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.64 fb. Triple
differential distributions as a function of the hadron longitudinal momentum
fraction, hadron transverse momentum, and jet transverse momentum are also
measured for the first time. This helps constrain transverse-momentum-dependent
fragmentation functions. Differences in the shapes and magnitudes of the
measured distributions for the different hadron species provide insights into
the hadronization process for jets predominantly initiated by light quarks.Comment: All figures and tables, along with machine-readable versions and any
supplementary material and additional information, are available at
https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-013.html (LHCb
public pages
Modeling Renal Fibrosis in Zebrafish Using Aristolochic Acid I
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major global health problem that is characterized by a slow and progressive loss of kidney function. The endpoint of virtually all progressive renal diseases is fibrosis, characterized histologically by an excessive accumulation and deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM) disrupting the normal histo-architecture of the organ.
ï»żThe number of renal fibrosis patients doubled from 1990 to 2016 making it increasingly urgent to generate and validate models for a better understanding of the disease and to find potential novel therapies. Although they offer a high throughput screening capacity, in vitro models have limitedly been utilized due to the fact that they cannot recapitulate the complex interaction among various cell types. In contrast, rodents have been used extensively to model the disease and to elucidate the pathogenesis and underlying mechanisms of renal fibrosis. However, none of these in vivo models are suitable for screening of large compounds libraries owing to their high costs and labor-intensive procedures. Therefore, it would be very useful to be able to develop an animal model for therapy testing which is cost-efficient and mirrors well the characteristics of human renal fibrosis.
ï»żZebrafish (Danio rerio) are small vertebrates with highly conserved physiology to humans and with a high degree of conservation to the human genome also with respect to pharmaceutical drug targets. By combining these features with easy handling and speed, they have emerged as a cost-efficient and valid alternative for disease modeling and large-scale drug screening over the last decade. Recent studies also show that the zebrafish is a suitable and cost-effective model to study fibrosis.
Aristolochic acid (AA)-induced nephropathy in humans is characterized by progressive renal interstitial fibrosis and urothelial malignancy and has been observed after unintentional oral intake of Aristolochia species. Of interest, similar results as found in patients were observed in rats after chronic AA treatment. For instance, when rats were s.c. injected daily with 10 mg/kg AA, tubular necrosis associated with lymphocytic infiltrates and tubular atrophy surrounded by interstitial fibrosis was present at day 10 and day 35, respectively. Moreover, C57Bl/6J male mice subjected to daily i.p. administration of AA (3.5 mg/kg) already developed clear renal fibrosis from 5 days onwards.
ï»żWith the aim to explore the possibility to generate a zebrafish model of renal fibrosis, in this study the fibrogenic renal effect of aristolochic acid I (AAĐ) after immersion was assessed. Our results reveal that larval zebrafish at 15 dpf (days post-fertilization) exposed for 8 days to 0.5 ”M AAI showed clear signs of AKI (acute kidney injury). The damage resulted in the relative loss of the functional glomerular filtration barrier. Conversely, we did not observe any deposition of collagen, nor could we immunodetect α-SMA, a hallmark of myofibroblasts, in the tubules. In addition, no increase in gene expression of fibrogenesis biomarkers after whole animal RNA extraction was found. As zebrafish have a high capability for tissue regeneration possibly impeding fibrogenic processes, we also used a tertâ/â zebrafish line exhibiting telomerase deficiency and impaired tissue homeostasis. AAI-treated tertâ/â larvae displayed an increased sensitivity towards 0.5 ”M AAI. Importantly, after AAI treatment a mild collagen deposition could be found in the tubules. The outcome implies that sustained AKI induced by nephrotoxic compounds combined with defective tertâ/â stem cells can produce a fibrotic response. However, we further show that the limited time slot and overall induced toxicity dramatically limits the feasibility to deploy AAI as a chemical to set-up a renal fibrosis model in zebrafish.
Nothwitstanding the current outcome, it is anticipated that finding the right conditions to model renal fibrosis in zebrafish is a matter of time. In that respect, we have suggested a few alternative approaches, like the use of other fibrogenic compounds, and the overexpression of TGF-b1a by a mifepristone-inducible LexPR system. Possibly, also the use of a genetic ablation approach expressing nitroreductase in the nephron, in combination with chemical renal stress, could be advantageous.status: publishe
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