Thermal Properties of Liquid Iron at Conditions of Planetary Cores

Thermal properties of iron at high pressures (P) and temperatures (T) are essential for determining the internal structure and evolution of planetary cores. Compared to its solid counterpart, the liquid phase of iron is less studied and existing results exhibit large discrepancies, hindering a proper understanding of planetary cores. Here we use the formally exact urn:x-wiley:21699097:media:jgre21861:jgre21861-math-0019 thermodynamic integration approach to calculate thermal properties of liquid iron up to 3.0 TPa and 25000 K. Uncertainties associated with theory are compensated by introducing a T-independent pressure shift based on experimental data. The resulting thermal equation of state agrees well with the diamond anvil cell (DAC) data in the P-T range of measurements. At higher P-T it matches the reduced shock wave data yet deviates considerably from the extrapolations of DAC measurements, indicating the latter may require further examinations. Moreover, the calculated heat capacity and thermal expansivity are substantially lower than some recent reports, which have important ramifications for understanding thermal evolutions of planetary cores. Using Kepler-36b as a prototype, we examine how a completely molten core may affect the P-T profiles of massive exoplanets. By comparing the melting slope and the adiabatic slope along the iron melting line, we propose that crystallization of the cores of massive planets proceeds from the bottom-up rather than the top-down

A randomized controlled trial evaluating the effects of transversus abdominis plane block with compound lidocaine hydrochloride injection on postoperative pain and opioid consumption and gastrointestinal motility in patients undergoing gynecological laparotomy

IntroductionIncorporation of transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block into multimodal analgesia has been emphasized in Enhanced Recovery protocols (ERPs). However, benefit is limited in clinical practice. A potential explanation is the short duration of analgesia of standard local anesthetics. Herein, this randomized, double-blind, controlled trial evaluated whether TAPB with long-acting compound lidocaine hydrochloride injection reduces postoperative pain.Methods164 patients undergoing elective gynecological laparotomy under sevoflurane anesthesia randomly received ultrasound-guided TAP block with either saline, or ropivacaine, or compound lidocaine before anesthesia induction. The postoperative pain intensity (primary outcome) was evaluated by pain 11-point numerical rating scale. We also recorded sufentanil consumptions, time to first flatus, side-effects and hospital stay after surgery.ResultsWe reported that pain scores at rest at postoperative 3h in group 0.375% ropivacaine was lower than that in group saline [mean 2.4 (SD 1.2) vs. 3.0 (1.0), p = 0.036]. Compared with saline, 0.4% and 0.6% compound lidocaine caused lower pain scores at rest at postoperative 12h [2.8 (0.9) vs. 2.1 (0.9) and 2.0 (0.9), p = 0.016 and p = 0.006]. Sufentanil usage for the first postoperative 48h was lower in group 0.6% compound lidocaine than group saline [24.2 (5.4) vs. 45.6 (7.5) µg, p  < 0.001]. Time to first flatus and hospital stay after surgery was shortest and the incidence of postoperative nausea was lowest in patients receiving 0.6% compound lidocaine.ConclusionTAP block with 0.6% compound lidocaine hydrochloride injection attenuates postoperative pain, reduces opioid consumption, accelerates gastrointestinal function recovery, and shortens length of hospital stay in patients after gynecological laparotomy.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT04938882

Wireless Sensor Networks of Infrastructure Health Monitoring for High-Speed Railway

High-speed railways (HSRs) have been widely deployed all over the world in recent years and China has entered an era with both high investments and rapid expansion of HSR transport infrastructure. One of the most challenging issues is how to keep the security and safety of millions of HSR infrastructures. Meanwhile, the emerging sensing and wireless sensor network (WSN) technologies for infrastructure health monitoring (IHM) are being substituted for traditional tethered monitoring systems. This paper presents a two-layer architecture of WSN which will be appropriate for infrastructure health monitoring of HSR. The upper layer is named as tree access network and the lower layer is called star detection network. By adapting to the special characteristics of IHM network, we design a short network address and an optimized communication frame structure, which can satisfy the actual requirements and special characteristics of the IHM network. In order to implement a better transmission performance, we propose a novel transmission power based method which adopts the knowledge update mechanism to detect the optimization result. In the end, the details of address assignment and network construction are discussed, and the effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by a practical instance

A case report of rare complication of brucellosis infection: myocarditis and pneumonitis

The involvement of cardiovascular or respiratory complications in cases of brucellosis are extremely rare. Herein, a case of myocarditis and pneumonia with pericardial effusion, pleural effusion and biliteral pleural thickening with pleural adhesion in a 35-year-old female patient, is described. Using next-generation sequencing, the patient was differentially diagnosed with Brucella -related myocarditis and pneumonitis, and treatment with oral doxycycline, rifampicin, and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, along with intravenous gentamycin, was commenced. Following treatment, the patient was clinically improved. When a patient with brucellosis presents with chest pain, clinicians should be aware of this clinical manifestation. Next-generation sequencing may be used to identify pathogens and provide insights into the disease when appropriate cultures are negative

Effect of Loading Rate and Initial Strain on Seismic Performance of an Innovative Self-Centering SMA Brace

In order to improve the energy dissipation capacity and to reduce the residual deformation of civil structures simultaneously, this paper puts forwards an innovative self-centering shape memory alloy (SMA) brace that is based on the design concepts of SMA’s superelasticity and low friction slip. Seven self-centering SMA brace specimens were tested under cyclic loading, and the hysteresis curves, bond curves, secant stiffness, energy dissipation coefficient, equivalent damping coefficient, and the self-centering capacity ratio of these specimens were investigated, allowing us to provide an evaluation of the effects of the loading rate and initial strain on the seismic performance. The test results show that the self-centering SMA braces have an excellent energy dissipation capacity, bearing capacity, and self-centering capacity, while the steel plates remain elastic, and the SMA in the specimens that are always under tension are able to return to the initial state. The hysteresis curves of all of the specimens are idealized as a flag shape with low residual deformation, and the self-centering capacity ratio reached 89.38%. In addition, both the loading rate and the initial strain were shown to have a great influence on the seismic performance of the self-centering SMA brace. The improved numerical models combined with the Graesser model and Bouc–Wen model in MATLAB were used to simulate the seismic performance of the proposed braces with different loading rates and initial strains, and the numerical results are consistent with the test results under the same conditions, meaning that they can accurately predict the seismic performance of the self-centering SMA brace proposed here

Bioanalytical method development for the investigation of the role of pyridoxal isonicotinoyl hydrazone in isoniazid intoxication II.

Diploma thesis Abstract 52 Abstract Bioanalytical method development for the investigation of role of pyridoxal isonicotinoyl hydrazone in isoniazid intoxication II. Jana Charvátová Charles University in Prague Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Drug Control Heyrovského 1203, 500 05 Hradec Králové Keywords: isoniazid, vitamin B6, hydrazone, hydrophilic interaction chromatography HPLC/UV method was developed for analysis of isoniazid - INH, its main (acetylisoniazid - AcINH) and putative metabolites (pyridoxal isonicotinoyl hydrazone - PIH, pyridoxal isonikotinoyl hydrazone 5-phosphate - PIH5P), vitamins B6 (pyridoxine - PN, pyridoxal - PL and pyridoxal 5-phosphate - PLP) using ZIC-pHILIC stationary phase. The following parameters were modified to assess their impact on the retention of these compounds: composition of mobile phase, percentage content of organic solvent, buffer concentration, pH, flow rate of mobile phase and column temperature. The best available separation of the compounds was achieved using 10mM ammonium formate (pH 3) and ACN (40:60, v/v), flow rate 0.10 ml/min and column temperature 25 řC. Developed method was transferred to HPLC/ESI/MS. Experiments revealed that all analytes gave the higher signal in positive mode and the most abundant ions..

Evaluation of the clinical effects of non‐invasive prenatal screening for diseases associated with aneuploidy and copy number variation

Abstract Background To explore and compare the clinical effects of high‐resolution non‐invasive prenatal screening (NIPS‐Plus) for common/uncommon chromosomal aneuploidy and microdeletion/microduplication syndromes (MMS). Methods The current prospective study included a total of 25,380 pregnant women who performed NIPS‐Plus, and amniocentesis was performed on women with MMS with the screening results to diagnose patients with suspected MMS. Results There were 415 samples with positive results for NIPS‐Plus, included 275 with aneuploidy and 140 with MMS. After diagnosis by amniocentesis, 188 cases were confirmed as true positive, included46 cases of T21, 9 cases of T18, 1 case of T13, 34 cases of SCA, 41 cases of other chromosomal euploidy and 57 cases of MMS. In addition, no false negative cases were found, MMS was classified with 5 Mb with the cutoff value, and the PPV of different fragment size was counted, respectively. Conclusion We found that the corresponding PPV was 44.66% with the fragment of copy number variation (CNV) being less than or equal to 5 Mb, and when it was greater than 5 Mb, the PPV was 29.73%, which suggested that NIPS‐Plus was more suitable for screening the PPV of small fragment abnormalities. NIPS‐Plus has a good application effect in routine aneuploidy screening and had the best detection effect for T21; moreover, it performed well in screening of MMS and had better detection effect on MMS with CNV fragment length less than 5 Mb. Based on the current results, we suggested that NIPS‐Plus should be used as a comprehensive elementary prenatal screening method for all pregnant women, but for MMS caused by abnormal large fragment CNV, the detection method and efficiency still need to be improved

Protection Efficacy of Oral Bait Probiotic Vaccine Constitutively Expressing Tetravalent Toxoids against Clostridium perfringens Exotoxins in Livestock (Rabbits)

Clostridium perfringens is an opportunistic pathogen. Its main virulence factors are exotoxins, which are the etiological agents of enteritis necroticans and enterotoxemia caused in livestock (cattle, sheep, and rabbits). Here, we demonstrated effective immune protection for rabbits against α, β, and ε exotoxins of C. perfringens provided by an oral tetravalent bait probiotic vaccine delivering α, ε, β1, and β2 toxoids of C. perfringens. Results showed that the recombinant probiotic had good segregational stability and good colonization ability in the rabbit intestinal tract. Oral administration of the probiotic vaccine can effectively elicit significant levels of antigen-specific mucosa sIgA and sera IgG antibodies with exotoxin-neutralizing activity. Additionally, oral immunization with the probiotic vaccine effectively promoted lymphoproliferation and Th1/Th2-associated cytokine production. The protection rate of immunized rabbits with the probiotic vaccine was 80% after challenging rabbits with a combination of C. perfringens (toxinotypes A, C, and D) and exotoxin mixture, which was better than the 60% provided by a commercial inactivated C. perfringens A, C, and D trivalent vaccine. Moreover, obvious histopathological changes were observed in the intestinal tissues of rabbits in the commercial vaccine and PBS groups. The bait probiotic vaccine can provide effective protection against C. perfringens exotoxins, suggesting a promising C. perfringens vaccination strategy

Clinical and Molecular Analysis of ST11-K47 Carbapenem-Resistant Hypervirulent <i>Klebsiella pneumoniae</i>: A Strain Causing Liver Abscess

Klebsiella pneumoniae has been the predominant pathogen of liver abscess, but ST11-K47 carbapenem-resistant hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (CR-hvKP) has rarely been studied as the causative organism. We identified an ST11-K47 CR-hvKP (HvKp-su1) from the drainage fluid of a liver abscess in a Chinese man who was diagnosed with liver abscess combined with diabetes, pneumonia, pleural infection, abdominal abscess, and splenic abscess. HvKp-su1 was non-hypermucoviscous and lacked the magA and rmpA genes and pLVPK plasmid but exhibited high virulence, with a high mortality rate (90%) to wax moth larvae (G. mellonella), similar to the hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC43816 (91.67%). Whole-genome sequencing and bioinformatics analysis indicated that HvKp-su1 possesses a plasmid similar to a type of pLVPK-like plasmid (JX-CR-hvKP-2-P2), which is an uncommon plasmid in CR-hvKP. HvKp-su1 carried multiple resistance genes, including blaKPC-2. blaTEM-1, blaSHV-55, and blaCTX-M-65; hypervirulence genes such as aerobactin (iutA), salmochelin (iroEN), and yersiniabactin (ybtAEPQSTUX); and the type 3 fimbriae-encoding system (mrkACDF). Moreover, v_5377 and v_5429 (cofT, CFA/III (CS8)) located on plasmid 1 were simultaneously predicted to be virulence genes. After the long-term combination use of antibiotics, the patient successfully recovered. In summary, our study clarified the clinical and molecular characteristics of a rare ST11-K47 CR-hvKP (HvKp-su1), raising great concerns about the emergence of ST11-K47 CR-hvKP with multidrug resistance and hypervirulence, and providing insights into the control and treatment of liver abscess caused by ST11-K47 CR-hvKP