Non-selective Evaporation of Ethanol-Water Binary Mixture within Heated Capillary

In the study, the evaporation of ethanol-water binary mixture within heated capillary is experimentally and numerically investigated. It was found that the ratio of the evaporation rates of ethanol and water equals the ratio of their initial concentrations in the mixture. This observation contradicts the commonly accepted view of selective evaporation, where the ratio of ethanol-to-water evaporation rates is expected to be considerably higher than the concentration ratio owing to the higher volatility of ethanol. We term this novel phenomenon as non-selective evaporation. Subsequently, through numerical study, it was discovered that the changes in component concentration induced by the ethanol preferential evaporation appear solely in the limited area, referred to as the diffusion layer, near the meniscus. When the diffusion layer is fully developed, the evaporation process will transition from selective evaporation stage to non-selective evaporation stage. Due to the short duration of the selective evaporation stage in current study, the evaporation process exhibits distinct characteristics of non-selective. Moreover, by considering the coupled effects of convection and diffusion, an analytical model was proposed, and the criteria related with Pe number were established to determine whether the evaporation process of binary mixture exhibits selective or non-selective characteristics

Red recombination enables a wide variety of markerless manipulation of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus genome to generate recombinant virus

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) is a member of the genera Alphacoronavirus that has been associated with acute watery diarrhea and vomiting in swine. Unfortunately, no effective vaccines and antiviral drugs for PEDV are currently available. Reverse genetics systems are crucial tools for these researches. Here, a PEDV full-length cDNA clone was constructed. Furtherly, three PEDV reporter virus plasmids containing red fluorescent protein (RFP), Nano luciferase (Nluc), or green fluorescence protein (GFP) were generated using Red recombination with the GS1783 E. coli strain. These reporter-expressing recombinant (r) PEDVs showed similar growth properties to the rPEDV, and the foreign genes were stable to culture up to P9 in Vero cells. Using the Nluc-expressing rPEDV, the replication of PEDV was easily quantified, and a platform for rapid anti-PEDV drug screening was constructed. Among the three drugs, Bergenin, Umifenovir hydrochloride (Arbidol), and Ganoderma lucidum triterpenoids (GLTs), we found that GLTs inhibited PEDV replication mainly after the stage of virus “Entry”. Overall, this study will broaden insight into the method for manipulating the PEDV genome and provide a powerful tool for screening anti-PEDV agents

Efficacy and safety of a NiTi CAR 27 compression ring for end-to-end anastomosis compared with conventional staplers: A real-world analysis in Chinese colorectal cancer patients

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a new nickel-titanium shape memory alloy compression anastomosis ring, NiTi CAR 27, in constructing an anastomosis for colorectal cancer resection compared with conventional staples. METHODS: In total, 234 consecutive patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer receiving sigmoidectomy and anterior resection for end-to-end anastomosis from May 2010 to June 2012 were retrospectively analyzed. The postoperative clinical parameters, postoperative complications and 3-year overall survival in 77 patients using a NiTi CAR 27 compression ring (CAR group) and 157 patients with conventional circular staplers (STA group) were compared. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences between the patients in the two groups in terms of general demographics and tumor features. A clinically apparent anastomotic leak occurred in 2 patients (2.6%) in the CAR group and in 5 patients (3.2%) in the STA group (p=0.804). These eight patients received a temporary diverting ileostomy. One patient (1.3%) in the CAR group was diagnosed with anastomotic stricture through an electronic colonoscopy after 3 months postoperatively. The incidence of postoperative intestinal obstruction was comparable between the two groups (p=0.192). With a median follow-up duration of 39.6 months, the 3-year overall survival rate was 83.1% in the CAR group and 89.0% in the STA group (p=0.152). CONCLUSIONS: NiTi CAR 27 is safe and effective for colorectal end-to-end anastomosis. Its use is equivalent to that of the conventional circular staplers. This study suggests that NiTi CAR 27 may be a beneficial alternative in colorectal anastomosis in Chinese colorectal cancer patients

Clinical factors of post-chemoradiotherapy as valuable indicators for pathological complete response in locally advanced rectal cancer

OBJECTIVES: Pathological complete response has shown a better prognosis for patients with locally advanced rectal cancer after preoperative chemoradiotherapy. However, correlations between post-chemoradiotherapy clinical factors and pathologic complete response are not well confirmed. The aim of the current study was to identify post-chemoradiotherapy clinical factors that could serve as indicators of pathologic complete response in locally advanced rectal cancer. METHODS: This study retrospectively analyzed 544 consecutive patients with locally advanced rectal cancer treated at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center from December 2003 to June 2014. All patients received preoperative chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were performed to identify post-chemoradiotherapy clinical factors that are significant indicators of pathologic complete response. RESULTS: In this study, 126 of 544 patients (23.2%) achieved pathological complete response. In multivariate analyses, increased pathological complete response rate was significantly associated with the following factors: post-chemoradiotherapy clinical T stage 0-2 (odds ratio=2.098, 95% confidence interval=1.023-4.304, p=0.043), post-chemoradiotherapy clinical N stage 0 (odds ratio=2.011, 95% confidence interval=1.264-3.201, p=0.003), interval from completion of preoperative chemoradiotherapy to surgery of >;7 weeks (odds ratio=1.795, 95% confidence interval=1.151-2.801, p=0.010) and post-chemoradiotherapy carcinoembryonic antigen ≤2 ng/ml (odds ratio=1.579, 95% confidence interval=1.026-2.432, p=0.038). CONCLUSIONS: Post-chemoradiotherapy clinical T stage 0-2, post-chemoradiotherapy clinical N stage 0, interval from completion of chemoradiotherapy to surgery of >;7 weeks and post-chemoradiotherapy carcinoembryonic antigen ≤2 ng/ml were independent clinical indicators for pathological complete response. These findings demonstrate that post-chemoradiotherapy clinical factors could be valuable for post-operative assessment of pathological complete response

Delineating the molecular landscape of different histopathological growth patterns in colorectal cancer liver metastases

BackgroundHistopathological growth patterns (HGPs) have shown important prognostic values for patients with colorectal cancer liver metastases, but the potential molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown.MethodsWe performed an exploratory analysis by conducting the RNA sequencing of primary colorectal lesions, colorectal liver metastatic lesions and normal liver tissues.FindingsWe found that desmoplastic HGPs of the metastatic lesions were significantly enriched in EMT, angiogenesis, stroma, and immune signaling pathways, while replacement HGPs were enriched in metabolism, cell cycle, and DNA damage repair pathways. With the exception of immune-related genes, the differentially expressed genes of the two HGPs from colorectal liver metastases were mostly inherited from the primary tumor. Moreover, normal liver tissue in the desmoplastic HGP subgroup was markedly enriched in the fibrinous inflammation pathway.ConclusionsWe surmised that HGPs are observable morphological changes resulting from the regulation of molecular expressions, which is the combined effect of the heterogeneity and remodeling of primary tumors seeds and liver soils

From California’s Extreme Drought to Major Flooding: Evaluating and Synthesizing Experimental Seasonal and Subseasonal Forecasts of Landfalling Atmospheric Rivers and Extreme Precipitation during Winter 2022/23

California experienced a historic run of nine consecutive landfalling atmospheric rivers (ARs) in three weeks’ time during winter 2022/23. Following three years of drought from 2020 to 2022, intense landfalling ARs across California in December 2022–January 2023 were responsible for bringing reservoirs back to historical averages and producing damaging floods and debris flows. In recent years, the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes and collaborating institutions have developed and routinely provided to end users peer-reviewed experimental seasonal (1–6 month lead time) and subseasonal (2–6 week lead time) prediction tools for western U.S. ARs, circulation regimes, and precipitation. Here, we evaluate the performance of experimental seasonal precipitation forecasts for winter 2022/23, along with experimental subseasonal AR activity and circulation forecasts during the December 2022 regime shift from dry conditions to persistent troughing and record AR-driven wetness over the western United States. Experimental seasonal precipitation forecasts were too dry across Southern California (likely due to their overreliance on La Niña), and the observed above-normal precipitation across Northern and Central California was underpredicted. However, experimental subseasonal forecasts skillfully captured the regime shift from dry to wet conditions in late December 2022 at 2–3 week lead time. During this time, an active MJO shift from phases 4 and 5 to 6 and 7 occurred, which historically tilts the odds toward increased AR activity over California. New experimental seasonal and subseasonal synthesis forecast products, designed to aggregate information across institutions and methods, are introduced in the context of this historic winter to provide situational awareness guidance to western U.S. water managers

A Neural Network-Based Method for Real-Time Inversion of Nonlinear Heat Transfer Problems

Inverse heat transfer problems are important in numerous scientific research and engineering applications. This paper proposes a network-based method utilizing the nonlinear autoregressive with exogenous inputs (NARX) neural network, which can achieve real-time identification of thermal boundary conditions for nonlinear transient heat transfer processes. With the introduction of the NARX neural network, the proposed method offers two key advantages: (1) The proposed method can obtain inversion results using only surface temperature time series. (2) The heat flux can be estimated even when the state equation of the system is unknown. The NARX neural network is trained using the Bayesian regularization algorithm with a dataset comprising exact surface temperature and heat flux data. The neural network takes current and historical surface temperature measurements as inputs to calculate the heat flux at the current time. The capability of the NARX method has been verified through numerical simulation experiments. Experimental results demonstrate that the NARX method has high precision, strong noise resistance, and broad applicability. The composition of the input data, the surface temperature measurement noise, and the boundary heat flux shape have been studied in detail for their impact on the inversion results. The NARX method is a highly competitive solution to inverse heat transfer problems

Behind the Non-Uniform Breakup of Bubble Slug in Y-Shaped Microchannel: Dynamics and Mechanisms

Bubble flow in confined geometries is a problem of fundamental and technological significance. Among all the forms, bubble breakup in bifurcated microchannels is one of the most commonly encountered scenarios, where an in-depth understanding is necessary for better leveraging the process. This study numerically investigates the non-uniform breakup of a bubble slug in Y-shaped microchannels under different flow ratios, Reynolds numbers, and initial bubble volumes. Overall, the bubble can either breakup or non-breakup when passing through the bifurcation and shows different forms depending on flow regimes. The flow ratio-Reynolds number phase diagrams indicate a power–law transition line of breakup and non-breakup. The bubble takes longer to break up with rising flow ratios yet breaks earlier with higher Reynolds numbers and volumes. Non-breakup takes less time than the breakup patterns. Flow ratio is the origin of non-uniform breakup. Both the Reynolds number and initial volume influence the bubble states when reaching the bifurcation and thus affect subsequent processes. Bubble neck dynamics are analyzed to describe the breakup further. The volume distribution after breaking up is found to have a quadratic relation with the flow ratio. Our study is hoped to provide insights for practical applications related to non-uniform bubble breakups