Design and optimization of a type-C tank for liquid hydrogen marine transport

As one of the most promising renewable energy sources, hydrogen has the excellent environmental benefit of producing zero emissions. A key technical challenge in using hydrogen across sectors is placed on its storage technology. The storage temperature of liquid hydrogen (20 K, or −253 °C) is close to absolute zero so the storage materials and the insulation layers are subjected to extremely stringent requirements against the cryogenic behaviour of the medium. In this context, this research proposed to design a large liquid hydrogen type-C tank with AISI (American Iron and Steel Institution) type 316 L stainless steel as the metal barrier, using Vapor-Cooled Shield (VCS) and Rigid Polyurethane Foams (RPF) as the insulation layer. A parametric study on the design of the insulation layer was carried out by establishing a thermodynamic model. The effects of VCS location on heat ingress to the liquid hydrogen transport tank and insulation temperature distribution were investigated, and the optimal location of the VCS in the insulation was identified. Research outcomes finally suggest two optimal design schemes: (1) when the thickness of the insulation layer is determined, Self-evaporation Vapor-Cooled Shield (SVCS) and Forced-evaporation Vapor-Cooled Shield (FVCS) can reduce heat transfer by 47.84% and 85.86% respectively; (2) when the liquid hydrogen evaporation capacity is determined, SVCS and FVCS can reduce the thickness of the insulation layer by 50% and 67.93% respectively

Bio-oil based biorefinery strategy for the production of succinic acid

Background: Succinic acid is one of the key platform chemicals which can be produced via biotechnology process instead of petrochemical process. Biomass derived bio-oil have been investigated intensively as an alternative of diesel and gasoline fuels. Bio-oil could be fractionized into organic phase and aqueous phase parts. The organic phase bio-oil can be easily upgraded to transport fuel. The aqueous phase bio-oil (AP-bio-oil) is of low value. There is no report for its usage or upgrading via biological methods. In this paper, the use of AP-bio-oil for the production of succinic acid was investigated

The clinicopathological factors associated with disease progression in Luminal a breast cancer and characteristics of metastasis: A retrospective study from a single center in China

Background/Aim: This study investigated the clinicopathological factors associated with outcomes in patients with Luminal A breast cancer. Patients and Methods: Retrospective analysis of the association of clinicopathological factors and breast cancer outcome in 421 patients with newly diagnosed Luminal-A breast cancer that were enrolled from January 2008 to December 2014. Clinicopathological data were analyzed to validate the relationship with disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests were used to analyze the value of clinicopathological factors (tumor size, node status and lymphovascular invasion), and subsequent Cox regression analysis revealed significant prognostic factors. Results: With a median of 61 months follow up, the 5-year DFS and 5-year OS rate were 98.3% and 99.3%. Cox multivariate regression analysis showed that clinical anatomic stage, tumor size, status of lymph nodes, lymphovascular invasion and systemic treatment are strong prognostic factors for clinical outcome in patients with Luminal-A breast cancer. Of all 413 patients with stage I-III breast cancer, 14 presented with metastasis (3.4%) during the follow up. Bone (6/14, 42.9%) was the most common site of metastasis followed by liver (5/14, 35.7%) and lung (4/14, 28.6%). The median survival time after metastasis was 20.4 months. Of all the sites of distant metastasis, liver metastasis was the only factor that affected survival time after metastasis (χ2=6.263, p=0.012). Conclusion: Patients with Luminal A breast cancer have excellent outcomes. Liver metastasis is an important factor compressing the survival time after distant metastasis presents

M gene reassortment in H9N2 influenza virus promotes early infection and replication: contribution to rising virus prevalence in chickens in China

Segment reassortment and base mutagenesis of influenza A viruses are the primary routes to the rapid evolution of high fitness virus genotypes. We recently described a predominant G57 genotype of avian H9N2 viruses that caused country-wide outbreaks in chickens in China during 2010-2013 which led to the zoonotic emergence of H7N9 viruses. One of the key features of the G57 genotype is the substitution of the earlier BJ/94-like M gene with the G1-like M gene of quail origin. We report here on the functional significance of the G1-like M gene in H9N2 viruses in conferring increased infection severity and infectivity in primary chicken embryonic fibroblasts and chickens. H9N2 virus housing the G1-like M gene, in place of BJ/94-like M gene, showed early surge in viral mRNA and vRNA transcription that were associated with enhanced viral protein production, and with early elevated release of progeny virus comprising largely spherical rather than filamentous virions. Importantly, H9N2 virus with G1-like M gene conferred extrapulmonary virus spread in chickens. Five highly represented signature amino acid residues (37A, 95K, 224N and 242N in M1 protein, and 21G in M2 protein) encoded by the prevalent G1-like M gene were demonstrated as prime contributors to enhanced infectivity. Therefore, the genetic evolution of M gene in H9N2 virus increases reproductive virus fitness, indicating its contribution to rising virus prevalence in chickens in China. Importance We recently described the circulation of a dominant genotype (G57) of H9N2 viruses in country-wide outbreaks in chickens in China, which was responsible through reassortment for the emergence of H7N9 viruses that cause severe human infections. A key feature of the G57 genotype H9N2 virus is the presence of quail origin G1-like M gene which had replaced the earlier BJ/94-like M gene. We found that H9N2 virus with G1-like M gene, but not BJ/94-like M gene, showed early surge in progeny virus production, more severe pathology and extrapulmonary virus spread in chickens. Five highly represented amino acid residues in M1 and M2 proteins derived from G1-like M gene were shown to mediate enhanced virus infectivity. These observations enhance what we currently know about the roles of reassortment and mutations on virus fitness and have implications for assessing the potential of variant influenza viruses that can cause rising prevalence in chickens

Molecular mechanisms for the adaptive switching between the OAS/RNase L and OASL/RIG-I pathways in birds and mammals:Adaptive exchanging of the OAS/RNase L and OASL/RIG-I pathway

Host cells develop the OAS/RNase L [2′–5′–oligoadenylate synthetase (OAS)/ribonuclease L] system to degrade cellular and viral RNA, and/or the OASL/RIG-I (2′–5′–OAS like/retinoic acid inducible protein I) system to enhance RIG-I-mediated IFN induction, thus providing the first line of defense against viral infection. The 2′–5′–OAS-like (OASL) protein may activate the OAS/RNase L system using its typical OAS-like domain (OLD) or mimic the K63-linked pUb to enhance antiviral activity of the OASL/RIG-I system using its two tandem ubiquitin-like domains (UBLs). We first describe that divergent avian (duck and ostrich) OASL inhibit the replication of a broad range of RNA viruses by activating and magnifying the OAS/RNase L pathway in a UBL-dependent manner. This is in sharp contrast to mammalian enzymatic OASL, which activates and magnifies the OAS/RNase L pathway in a UBL-independent manner, similar to 2′–5′–oligoadenylate synthetase 1 (OAS1). We further show that both avian and mammalian OASL can reversibly exchange to activate and magnify the OAS/RNase L and OASL/RIG-I system by introducing only three key residues, suggesting that ancient OASL possess 2–5A [px5′A(2′p5′A)n; x = 1-3; n ≥ 2] activity and has functionally switched to the OASL/RIG-I pathway recently. Our findings indicate the molecular mechanisms involved in the switching of avian and mammalian OASL molecules to activate and enhance the OAS/RNase L and OASL/RIG-I pathways in response to infection by RNA viruses

Depiction of immune heterogeneity of peripheral blood from patients with type II diabetic nephropathy based on mass cytometry

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is the most prominent cause of chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal failure. However, the pathophysiology of DN, especially the risk factors for early onset remains elusive. Increasing evidence has revealed the role of the innate immune system in developing DN, but relatively little is known about early immunological change that proceeds from overt DN. Herein, this work aims to investigate the immune-driven pathogenesis of DN using mass cytometry (CyTOF). The peripheral blood mononuclear lymphocytes (PBMC) from 6 patients with early-stage nephropathy and 7 type II diabetes patients without nephropathy were employed in the CyTOF test. A panel that contains 38 lineage markers was designed to monitor immune protein levels in PBMC. The unsupervised clustering analysis was performed to profile the proportion of individual cells. t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) was used to visualize the differences in DN patients’ immune phenotypes. Comprehensive immune profiling revealed substantial immune system alterations in the early onset of DN, including the significant decline of B cells and the marked increase of monocytes. The level of CXCR3 was dramatically reduced in the different immune cellular subsets. The CyTOF data classified the fine-grained differential immune cell subsets in the early stage of DN. Innovatively, we identified several significant changed T cells, B cell, and monocyte subgroups in the early-stage DN associated with several potential biomarkers for developing DN, such as CTLA-4, CXCR3, PD-1, CD39, CCR4, and HLA-DR. Correlation analysis further demonstrated the robust relationship between above immune cell biomarkers and clinical parameters in the DN patients. Therefore, we provided a convincible view of understanding the immune-driven early pathogenesis of DN. Our findings exhibited that patients with DN are more susceptible to immune system disorders. The classification of fine-grained immune cell subsets in this present research might provide novel targets for the immunotherapy of DN

Exploring the nano-wonders: unveiling the role of Nanoparticles in enhancing salinity and drought tolerance in plants

Plants experience diverse abiotic stresses, encompassing low or high temperature, drought, water logging and salinity. The challenge of maintaining worldwide crop cultivation and food sustenance becomes particularly serious due to drought and salinity stress. Sustainable agriculture has significant promise with the use of nano-biotechnology. Nanoparticles (NPs) have evolved into remarkable assets to improve agricultural productivity under the robust climate alteration and increasing drought and salinity stress severity. Drought and salinity stress adversely impact plant development, and physiological and metabolic pathways, leading to disturbances in cell membranes, antioxidant activities, photosynthetic system, and nutrient uptake. NPs protect the membrane and photosynthetic apparatus, enhance photosynthetic efficiency, optimize hormone and phenolic levels, boost nutrient intake and antioxidant activities, and regulate gene expression, thereby strengthening plant’s resilience to drought and salinity stress. In this paper, we explored the classification of NPs and their biological effects, nanoparticle absorption, plant toxicity, the relationship between NPs and genetic engineering, their molecular pathways, impact of NPs in salinity and drought stress tolerance because the effects of NPs vary with size, shape, structure, and concentration. We emphasized several areas of research that need to be addressed in future investigations. This comprehensive review will be a valuable resource for upcoming researchers who wish to embrace nanotechnology as an environmentally friendly approach for enhancing drought and salinity tolerance

Distinct heat response molecular mechanisms emerge in cassava vasculature compared to leaf mesophyll tissue under high temperature stress

With growing concerns over global warming, cultivating heat-tolerant crops has become paramount to prepare for the anticipated warmer climate. Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), a vital tropical crop, demonstrates exceptional growth and productivity under high-temperature (HT) conditions. Yet, studies elucidating HT resistance mechanisms in cassava, particularly within vascular tissues, are rare. We dissected the leaf mid-vein from leaf, and did the comparative transcriptome profiling between mid-vein and leaf to figure out the cassava vasculature HT resistance molecular mechanism. Anatomical microscopy revealed that cassava leaf veins predominantly consisted of vasculature. A thermal imaging analysis indicated that cassava experienced elevated temperatures, coinciding with a reduction in photosynthesis. Transcriptome sequencing produced clean reads in total of 89.17G. Using Venn enrichment, there were 65 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 93 DEGs had been found highly specifically expressed in leaf and mid-vein. Further investigation disclosed that leaves enhanced pyruvate synthesis as a strategy to withstand high temperatures, while mid-veins fortified themselves by bolstering lignin synthesis by comprehensive GO and KEGG analysis of DEGs. The identified genes in these metabolic pathways were corroborated through quantity PCR (QPCR), with results aligning with the transcriptomic data. To verify the expression localization of DEGs, we used in situ hybridization experiments to identify the expression of MeCCoAMT(caffeoyl-coenzyme A-3-O-methyltransferase) in the lignin synthesis pathway in cassava leaf veins xylem. These findings unravel the disparate thermotolerance mechanisms exhibited by cassava leaves and mid-veins, offering insights that could potentially inform strategies for enhancing thermotolerance in other crops