Comparing the value of bioproducts from different stages of anaerobic membrane bioreactors

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd The anaerobic digestion process in anaerobic membrane bioreactors is an effective way for waste management, energy sustainability and pollution control in the environment. This digestion process basically involves the production of volatile fatty acids and biohydrogen as intermediate products and methane as a final product. This paper compares the value of bioproducts from different stages of anaerobic membrane bioreactors through a thorough assessment. The value was assessed in terms of technical feasibility, economic assessment, environmental impact and impact on society. Even though the current research objective is more inclined to optimize the production of methane, the intermediate products could also be considered as economically attractive and environment friendly options. Hence, this is the first review study to correlate the idea into an anaerobic membrane bioreactor which is expected to guide future research pathways regarding anaerobic process and its bioproducts

Numerical investigation of viscous effects on the gap resonance between side-by-side barges

This paper presents a numerical study of the gap resonance between two side-by-side barges by using a multiphase Navier-Stokes equations model. In order to verify the multiphase flow model, it is firstly applied to simulate a two-dimensional gap resonance problem for two fixed boxes under various wave conditions. A comparison of the free surface elevations obtained on successively refined grids confirms the mesh convergence of numerical solutions. The calculated wave elevation response amplitude operators (RAOs) in the gap compare well with the experimental measurements. The multiphase flow model is further extended to calculate a three-dimensional gap resonance problem for two adjacent rectangular barges. The computed free surface RAOs in the gap also agree well with the experimental results. A close examination of the flow velocity and vorticity in the gap region at the piston resonant mode reveals that large amount of vortices are generated by the sharp corners of the two barges and shed downwards, which provide an effective mechanism to dissipate the flow kinematic energy and to reduce the wave elevation in the gap. On the contrary, rounded corners are not able to induce the same level amount of vortices to dampen the gap resonance. The effects of incident wave steepness on the viscous damping associated with the twin-barge system are highlighted

Early-phase circulating miRNAs predict tumor recurrence and survival of hepatocellular carcinoma patients after liver transplantation

published_or_final_versio

Clinical significance and therapeutic value of glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPx3) in hepatocellular carcinoma

AIMS: We aimed to investigate the clinical significance of GPx3 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and to characterize its tumor suppressive role. METHODS: HCC patients (113) who underwent hepatectomy were recruited to examine the clinical relevance of GPx3. The tumor suppressive role of GPx3 was studied by administration of recombinant GPx3 (rGPx3) or over-expression of GPx3 in HCC cells in vitro and in vivo. The therapeutic value of GPx3 for HCC was further investigated using human induced pluripotent stem cell derived mesenchymal stem cells (hiPSC-MSCs) as its delivery vehicle. RESULTS: Down-regulation of GPx3 significantly correlated with advanced tumor stage (P = 0.024), venous infiltration (P = 0.043) and poor overall survival (P = 0.007) after hepatectomy. Lower plasma GPx3 in HCC patients was significantly associated with larger tumor size (P = 0.011), more tumor nodules (P = 0.032) and higher recurrence (P = 0.016). Over-expression of GPx3 or administration of rGPx3 significantly inhibited proliferation and invasiveness of HCC cells in vitro and in vivo. Tumor suppressive activity of GPx3 was mediated through Erk-NFκB-SIP1 pathway. GPx3 could be delivered by hiPSC-MSCs into the tumor and exhibited tumor suppressive activity in vivo. CONCLUSIONS: GPx3 is a tumor suppressor gene in HCC and may possess prognostic and therapeutic value for HCC patients.published_or_final_versio

Identifying Ships From Radar Blips Like Humans Using a Customized Neural Network

An experienced helmsman can always distinguish ships from a pile of radar blips in scenarios such as nearshore waters and inland rivers with a single glance. To replicate this intelligence, a novel approach called MRNet based on deep convolutional networks is proposed. It employs a highly customized neural network to extract critical information from successive radar scans, ranging from low-level characteristics to high-level semantics. The feature fusion network of MRNet is also built with a Depthwise Separable Convolution-based network, which reduces parameter size and calculational usage while improving overfitting issues significantly. In the final prediction procedure, a method based on weighted-box fusion and a Scylla-IoU function is used to accelerate convergence. A marine radar image dataset, namely radar3000, was established to validate the proposed approach. In the corresponding experiments, the recall, identification accuracy, and precision of MRNet reached 0.9663, 0.9418, and 0.9267 respectively. On the other hand, the parameter size and calculational consumption were controlled to only 34.41M and 21.55G respectively. Compared with the commonly-used fractal algorithms and the YOLO series, the MRNet can be described as significantly superior in the application of recognizing ships from marine radar blips, especially in crowded scenarios, which is very similar to human eyes, and can be of great use to navigation and coastal surveillance

Overexpression of Nrdp1 in the Heart Exacerbates Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiac Dysfunction in Mice

BACKGROUND: Cardiac cell death and generation of oxidative stress contribute to doxorubicin (DOX)-induced cardiac dysfunction. E3 ligase Nrdp1 plays a critical role in the regulation of cell apoptosis, inflammation and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which may contribute to heart failure. However, the role of Nrdp1 in DOX-induced cardiac injury remains to be determined. METHODS AND RESULTS: We examined the effect of Nrdp1 overexpression with DOX treatment in rat neonatal cardiomyocytes and mouse heart tissue. Cardiomyocytes were infected with adenovirus containing GFP (Ad-GFP), Nrdp1 wild-type (Ad-Nrdp1) or the dominant-negative form of Nrdp1 (Ad-Dn-Nrdp1), then treated with DOX for 24 hr. DOX treatment increased cell death and apoptosis, with Ad-Nrdp1 infection enhancing these actions but Ad-Dn-Nrdp1 infection attenuating these effects. Furthermore, 5 days after a single injection of DOX (20 mg/kg, intraperitoneally), Nrdp1 transgenic mice (TG) showed decreased cardiac function and increased apoptosis, autophagy and oxidative stress as compared with wild-type (WT) mice (P<0.01). Survival rate was significantly lower in Nrdp1 TG mice than in WT mice 10 days after DOX injection (P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results were associated with decreased activation of Akt, extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling pathways. Nrdp1 may be a key mediator in the development of cardiac dysfunction after DOX treatment and associated with inhibition of Akt, ERK1/2 and STAT3. Nrdp1 may be a new therapeutic target in protecting against the cardiotoxic effects of DOX