In-house Generator Research Articles

Distinct Molecular Alterations in Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) Arising in a Non-Fibrotic Liver Compared to a Cirrhotic Liver

Abstract Introduction/Objective HCC is known to more likely develop in a cirrhotic liver than a non-cirrhotic liver, irrespective of etiology, with TP53 and CTNNB1 being the most frequent driver mutations in this group. Whether there are distinctive molecular pathways for HCCs developing in the non-cirrhotic liver is not known. This study evaluated whether there is any difference in the mutational profile of HCCs arising in a non-fibrotic liver compared to a cirrhotic liver. Methods/Case Report Clinicopathologic and in-house next generation sequencing (NGS) data from HCC cases sequenced between 1/1/18-6/30/23 were reviewed. Cases from a targeted precision NGS panel were excluded. Results were correlated with publicly available data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Results (if a Case Study enter NA) 29 cases were available for review; 24 patients had background cirrhosis at the time of diagnosis, while 5 patients had no evidence of fibrosis. 21 of 24 patients (88%) patients in the cirrhosis group had a variant in TP53 and/or CTNNB1 that was considered to be disease associated or probably disease associated, whereas only 1 of 5 patients (20%) in the non-fibrotic group had a variant detected in one of these genes (Fisher’s exact: p < 0.01). BAP1 and ARID1A variants were detected in two patients in the non-fibrotic group. TP53 and CTNNB1 were generally mutually exclusive (86% of cases), however, 3 patients harbored both TP53 and CTNBB1 variants; interestingly all 3 had background cirrhosis and HCV infection. All 6 poorly differentiated tumors occurred in cirrhotic livers and were found to have TP53 variants (Figure 1). TCGA data (N = 210) similarly showed that patients with intermediate fibrosis or established cirrhosis (N = 138) were more likely than patients without background fibrosis (N = 72) to harbor TP53 or CTNNB1 variants (64% vs 42%; Chi-squared: p < 0.01; Figure 2). Aside from TP53 and CTNNB1, the most common variants seen in the TCGA non-fibrotic group were in TTN (22), ALB (10), FREM2 (9), LRP1B (9), and MUC16 (9). Conclusion Both in-house and TCGA data showed that TP53 and/or CTNNB1 variants were more likely to be seen in HCC cases arising in a cirrhotic liver compared to a non-fibrotic liver. This data suggests there may be unique and less-well characterized molecular pathways involved in the neoplastic progression of HCC in a non-fibrotic liver.

Design and implementation of smart integrated hybrid Solar-Darrieus wind turbine system for in-house power generation

This paper presents the design and development of an integrated hybrid Solar-Darrieus wind turbine system for renewable power generation. The Darrieus wind turbine's performance is meticulously assessed using the SG6043 airfoil, determined through Q-blade simulation, and validated via comprehensive CFD simulations. The study identifies SG6043 as the optimal airfoil, surpassing alternatives. CFD simulations yield specific coefficients of power (0.2366) and moment (0.0288). The paper also introduces a hybrid prototype, showcasing of 10 W photovoltaic module and improved turbine performance with the SG6043 airfoil. The focus extends to an optimized hybrid PV solar-wind system seamlessly integrated with IoT technology for remote monitoring. Addressing weather challenges, the research suggests blade shape optimizations via Q-blade and an IoT-based solution leveraging the ESP32 Wi-Fi module. Theoretical results project electrical energy generation ranging from 0.88 kW on March 14, 2023, to 0.06 kW on February 20, 2023. Darrieus wind turbines, experiencing increased blade drag, require less lift to operate. Experimental and theoretical results converge well, affirming the model's reasonable assumptions. Beyond advancing renewable energy technologies, this research sets the stage for future investigations aimed at enhancing the efficiency and capabilities of hybrid wind-solar PV systems.

Impact of tissue biomarker testing by in-house platform on result times in metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.

49 Background: Biomarker testing for actionable mutations is standard of care for patients diagnosed with metastatic non-small cell, non-squamous cell lung cancer. However, testing via third-party laboratories can take weeks to result, leading to treatment decision delays identified at our own institution. Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of metastatic non-small cell, non-squamous cell lung cancer patients treated at Orlando Regional Medical Center before (6/1/2021-5/31/2022) as well as after (1/1/2023-5/31/2023) the initiation of in-house next generation sequencing (NGS) tissue testing using Genexus. Endpoints included average and median time to result of plasma and tissue NGS both before and after initiation of in-house molecular testing. An independent two sample t-test was conducted with p<0.05 considered significant. Results: A total of 49 and 18 patients were included pre and post initiation of in house NGS, respectively. For patients with tissue testing, the average time from collection to result was 31.3 versus 13.9 days (p<0.01), median 29 versus 7 days. For patients who underwent plasma testing (n=49, n=10), average time from collection to result was 13.3 versus 9.6 days (p=0.38), median 9 versus 9 days. Conclusions: Time to comprehensive tissue testing result significantly decreased after the commencement of in-house NGS. Rapid turnaround time allows clinicians to select appropriate first-line treatment without delay in care. Further efforts are needed to expedite molecular testing in all stages of non-small cell lung cancer and evaluate sequential versus concurrent plasma and tissue testing.

Energy supply scheduling in manufacturing systems using Quantum Annealing

Optimizing a manufacturing company's in-house energy demand amidst fluctuating electricity prices and uncertainties in renewable energy supply as well as volatile manufacturing planning situations is a challenging task. To tackle this issue, a novel approach is developed for scheduling the energy supply in manufacturing systems with the objective of reducing energy costs. The approach employs Quantum Annealing to determine the optimal mix of in-house generation, purchased electricity, and energy storage. The effectiveness and scalability of the approach are demonstrated through the validation using two simplified use cases, showcasing its potential in solving complex energy supply optimization problems.

An experimental and kinetic modeling study on the low-temperature oxidation of oxymethylene ether-2 (OME-2) by means of stabilized cool flames

Oxymethylene ethers have received much attention in recent years as a high-potential alternative for fossil-based fuels. These alternative fuels produced via carbon capture and utilization technologies driven by renewable energy can contribute to the solution of environmental issues in the short term. In this study, the low-temperature oxidation chemistry of oxymethylene ether-2 was investigated by combining experimental and kinetic modeling work. New experimental data were acquired from stabilized, ozone-seeded oxymethylene ether-2/dimethyl ether/oxygen premixed cool flames in a heated stagnation plate burner. Two fuel-lean equivalence ratios were investigated, i.e., ϕ = 0.3 and ϕ = 0.5. The observed and quantified reaction products were methoxymethyl formate, methyl formate, methanol, formaldehyde, CO and CO2. A new detailed kinetic model based on first principles was constructed for the pyrolysis and oxidation of oxymethylene ether-2 with the in-house developed automatic kinetic model generation code Genesys. Compared to an earlier study by De Ras et al. (Combustion and Flame, 2022), additional species and reactions were added to describe the low-temperature oxidation chemistry with more detail, in addition to an update of several thermodynamic and kinetic parameters based on new quantum chemical calculations. The newly developed kinetic model is able to predict the experimental observations of the stabilized cool flames satisfactorily and can reproduce ignition delay times from the literature on average within the experimental uncertainty margin. Rate of production and sensitivity analyses were performed for different reaction conditions to unravel the important decomposition pathways during low-temperature oxidation. It is concluded that oxymethylene ether-2 is a highly reactive fuel, and this without fuel-specific chain branching reactions significantly contributing to the low-temperature oxidation chemistry.

Development of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy-methods for rapid element quantification in alloy particles in technical cleanliness analysis

In today's industrial production, technical cleanliness with respect to eliminating particle contamination is a major factor in guaranteeing safe and high-quality products. Metal particles need to be avoided in particular, due to their hard and conductive nature. By characterizing the particle composition as accurately as possible, the corresponding source material is more likely to be identified, in order to target the origin of the contamination efficiently.If particles are generated through mechanical processes the microstructure can be damaged, possibly changing the sample composition and consequently hampering the identification of the source material. Therefore, we studied the representativeness of in-house generated aluminum reference particles to their source bulk material applying quantitative element analysis. The used multivariate quantification models for ten aluminum alloy elements were specially designed for particle characterization.Validation and limit of quantification calculations showed the functionality and applicability in the calibrated alloy element concentration ranges for particles down to a size of 45 μm.In this study the representativeness of particle samples to their bulk material could be shown for the entire size range analyzed (>1000–45 μm) using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). The LIBS measurements were complemented by microstructure analysis of the investigated materials, showing no damage to specific phases. The combination of these analyses enables an improved transferability of particle analysis to the possible bulk material as well as the easy in-house generation of internal reference particles of different chemical composition.

Automatic Creation of High-bandwidth Memory Architectures from Domain-specific Languages: The Case of Computational Fluid Dynamics

Numerical simulations can help solve complex problems. Most of these algorithms are massively parallel and thus good candidates for FPGA acceleration thanks to spatial parallelism. Modern FPGA devices can leverage high-bandwidth memory technologies, but when applications are memory-bound designers must craft advanced communication and memory architectures for efficient data movement and on-chip storage. This development process requires hardware design skills that are uncommon in domain-specific experts. In this article, we propose an automated tool flow from a domain-specific language for tensor expressions to generate massively parallel accelerators on high-bandwidth-memory-equipped FPGAs. Designers can use this flow to integrate and evaluate various compiler or hardware optimizations. We use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as a paradigmatic example. Our flow starts from the high-level specification of tensor operations and combines a multi-level intermediate representation–based compiler with an in-house hardware generation flow to generate systems with parallel accelerators and a specialized memory architecture that moves data efficiently, aiming at fully exploiting the available CPU-FPGA bandwidth. We simulated applications with millions of elements, achieving up to 103 GFLOPS with one compute unit and custom precision when targeting a Xilinx Alveo U280. Our FPGA implementation is up to 25× more energy efficient than expert-crafted Intel CPU implementations.

Vat photopolymerization 3D printed microfluidic devices for organ-on-a-chip applications.

Organs-on-a-chip, or OoCs, are microfluidic tissue culture devices with micro-scaled architectures that repeatedly achieve biomimicry of biological phenomena. They are well positioned to become the primary pre-clinical testing modality as they possess high translational value. Current methods of fabrication have facilitated the development of many custom OoCs that have generated promising results. However, the reliance on microfabrication and soft lithographic fabrication techniques has limited their prototyping turnover rate and scalability. Additive manufacturing, known commonly as 3D printing, shows promise to expedite this prototyping process, while also making fabrication easier and more reproducible. We briefly introduce common 3D printing modalities before identifying two sub-types of vat photopolymerization - stereolithography (SLA) and digital light processing (DLP) - as the most advantageous fabrication methods for the future of OoC development. We then outline the motivations for shifting to 3D printing, the requirements for 3D printed OoCs to be competitive with the current state of the art, and several considerations for achieving successful 3D printed OoC devices touching on design and fabrication techniques, including a survey of commercial and custom 3D printers and resins. In all, we aim to form a guide for the end-user to facilitate the in-house generation of 3D printed OoCs, along with the future translation of these important devices.

A framework for the bi-level optimization of a generic transport aircraft fuselage using aeroelastic loads

The aeroelastic loads and design processes at the German Aerospace Center, Institute of Aeroelasticity in the framework of multi-disciplinary optimization are constantly evolving. New developments have been made in the in-house model generation tool ModGen, which allow us to create detailed fuselage models for preliminary design. As a part of the subsequent developments to integrate the fuselage structure in our aeroelastic design process, a new framework for optimizing the fuselage structure has been developed. The process is based on a bi-level optimization approach which follows a global–local optimization methodology to simplify a large optimization problem. A sub-structuring procedure is used to define stiffened panels as independent structures for local optimization. The panels are sized with stress and buckling constraints with consideration of several aeroelastic load cases. Furthermore, in this paper, we present a physical sub-structure grouping process which enables reduced number of panel optimizations and saves considerable computational effort with little compromise in the solution accuracy.

Smoking and Its Prognostic Effect on Survival in Patients with TP53 Mutated MDS

INTRODUCTION: Smoking is an established risk factor for myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). While smoking has been shown to be correlated with TP53 mutation in multiple solid malignancies, and TP53 mutated MDS has been shown to have poorer survival, there is a paucity of data on the prognostic effect of smoking on survival in patients with TP53 mutated MDS. To further characterize this, we performed a retrospective study to investigate the relationship between smoking and survival in patients with TP53 mutated MDS. METHODS: After IRB approval, a total of 127 patients with MDS who were treated at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital from January 2016 to February 2020 were included in the study. All diagnoses were reviewed by a hematopathologist and TP53 mutation status was confirmed by in-house next generation sequencing. Patient data was collected from the date of MDS diagnosis until death or date of last follow up. Ever-smokers were defined as any patient with a history of tobacco smoking or current smokers, while non-smokers were defined as those with no history of tobacco smoking as documented in the electronic medical record. Data was also collected on revised international prognostic scoring system (R-IPSS) scores. Univariate associations were compared between variables of interest and smoking status. The Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used to assess difference between continuous variables and the chi-squared test was used to assess difference between categorical variables. RESULTS: Median overall survival (mOS) for the entire study cohort was 2.63 years (95% CI 2.10-4.29). In patients with TP53 mutations (n=35) we saw no survival difference between ever-smokers (0.64 years; 95% CI 0.30-1.19) and non-smokers (0.79 years; 95% CI 0.49-not reached), p=0.96. Overall, smokers had a shortened mOS (2.22 years; 95% CI 1.31-3.06) compared to never-smokers (4.30 years; 95% CI 2.62-7.61), trending towards significance with p=0.053. After stratification by smoking status, Caucasian smokers showed significantly reduced mOS (2.22 years; 95% CI 1.19-3.38) compared to non-smokers (5.65 years; 95% CI 3.23-7.8; p<0.05). Analysis looking at patients with high/very high risk R-IPSS scores also showed reduced survival for ever-smokers (0.64 years; 95% CI 0.53-0.88) compared to non-smokers (0.97 years; 95% CI 0.49-not reached), trending towards significance with p=0.06. For the whole cohort, high and very high risk IPSS-R scores (mOS 0.64; 95% CI 0.56-0.97) showed significantly reduced mOS compared to low and intermediate scores (mOS 4.49; 95% CI 2.8-7.74) with p<0.001. TP53 mutated MDS also showed decreased survival with mOS 0.64 years (95% CI 0.5-0.97) compared to mOS 4.49 years (95% CI 2.8-7.74) for wild type TP53 with p<0.001. CONCLUSION: We found no survival difference between ever-smokers and non-smokers in patient with TP53 mutated MDS. However, we did find a convincing trend towards poorer survival in ever-smokers compared to non-smokers in all patients, with a statistically significant reduction in survival in the Caucasian subgroup. Although there was no survival difference in the TP53 mutated cohort, the overall survival difference in the cohort as a whole suggests that smoking may play a role in more aggressive disease. Given the short survival time for TP53 mutated MDS, further studies with higher power may be required to distinguish survival differences. Future studies should also assess the impact of smoking on other cytogenetic and molecular subgroups of patients. Figure 1View largeDownload PPTFigure 1View largeDownload PPT Close modal

Experimental evaluation of low-displacement compression ignited engines operating with hydroxy gas as a supplementary gaseous fuel

A large proportion of annual production of worldwide greenhouses gases results from the use of internal combustion engines. This experimental work evaluates the influence of dual-fuel operation on the overall emissions of a low-displacement compression-ignition engine based on operational conditions such as torque, rotational speed, and load. Hydroxy gas is used as a supplementary gaseous fuel while using pure diespel or palm oil biodiesel as baseline fuels. The CO, CO2, NOx, and HC emissions levels were carefully characterized through experimental measurements and statistical analysis. The influence of hydroxy enrichment was also examined on the engine's fuel consumption. The study incorporates an in-house hydroxy generator to store and supply the gas in the intake air system using an electrolyzer. The results demonstrated that the ANOVA analysis provides accurate predictions compared to experimental measurements with less than 5% relative error. The use of hydroxy reduces the SFC by up to 25%, which represents an economic advantage of dual-fuel operation, additionally it decreases CO, HC, and CO2 emissions. However, with hydroxy enrichment, NOx emissions levels escalate at medium and high loads. Overall, hydroxy enrichment demonstrates to be a robust alternative from an environmental and economic perspective. Future research will be focused on evaluating the biodiesel – hydroxy dual operation, broadening the spectrum of biodiesel concentration percentages, and selecting different raw materials for biofuel production.

Effect of a Heterogeneous Distribution of the Conductive Additives and Binder Domain on the Impedances of Lithium-Ion Battery Electrodes

The conductive carbon and binder are essential components of Lithium-ion battery electrodes. Their main task is to enhance the electrical connectivity and mechanical stability. Therefore, a homogeneous distribution of the carbon binder domain (CBD) throughout the electrode is desired. However, inhomogeneities can arise in the production process. At high drying rates of the wet coating, the CBD migrates to the surface of the electrode due to the drag of the evaporating solvent. This effect causes a gradient of the CBD through the thickness of the electrode. This process has two effects: (a) depletion of the CBD at the current collector, diminishing the electronic pathways and the adhesion of the electrode layer, and (b) accumulation of the CBD at the electrode surface, thus blocking pathways for Lithium transport. This is especially prominent in thick electrodes. Therefore, we investigate the effect of binder migration on the electrochemical performance of NMC622 electrodes of Lithium-ion batteries.In our simulations we use virtual electrode microstructures of NMC622 electrodes which are informed by tomography data. As it is challenging to resolve the CBD using tomographic techniques, it is distributed on a model-basis at the contact points of active material particles using an in-house structure generator[1].The valuable information derived from combining microstructure-resolved simulations with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) on symmetric cells is used to characterize the Lithium-ion transport in the electrode pore space, including the contributions of the CBD. Additionally, half-cell discharge simulations are also conducted to analyze the effect of CBD heterogeneity on electrode performance.Through our work, we demonstrate the significance of the CBD distribution and enable predictive simulations for future battery design.[1] Hein S. et al, J. Electrochem. Soc. 2020, 167 013546 Figure 1

Validation of a modeling methodology for wind turbine rotor blades based on a full-scale blade test

Abstract. Detailed 3D finite-element simulations are state of the art for structural analyses of wind turbine rotor blades. It is of utmost importance to validate the underlying modeling methodology in order to obtain reliable results. Validation of the global response can ideally be done by comparing simulations with full-scale blade tests. However, there is a lack of test results for which also the finite-element model with blade geometry and layup as well as the test documentation and results are completely available. The aim of this paper is to validate the presented fully parameterized blade modeling methodology that is implemented in an in-house model generator and to provide respective test results for validation purpose to the public. This methodology includes parameter definition based on splines for all design and material parameters, which enables fast and easy parameter analysis. A hybrid 3D shell/solid element model is created including the respective boundary conditions. The problem is solved via a commercially available finite-element code. A static full-scale blade test is performed, which is used as the validation reference. All information, e.g., on sensor location, displacement, and strains, is available to reproduce the tests. The tests comprise classical bending tests in flapwise and lead–lag directions according to IEC 61400-23 as well as torsion tests. For the validation of the modeling methodology, global blade characteristics from measurements and simulation are compared. These include the overall mass and center of gravity location, as well as their distributions along the blade, bending deflections, strain levels, and natural frequencies and modes. Overall, the global results meet the defined validation thresholds during bending, though some improvements are required for very local analysis and especially the response in torsion. As a conclusion, the modeling strategy can be rated as validated, though necessary improvements are highlighted for future works.

A review of PV solar energy system operations and applications in Dhofar Oman

&lt;abstract&gt; &lt;p&gt;Energy is seen as one of the most determinant factors for a nation's economic development. The Sun is an incredible source of inexhaustible energy. The efficiency of the conversion and application of Photovoltaic (PV) systems is related to the PV module's electricity generation and the location's solar potentials. Thus, the solar parameters of a region are important for feasibility studies on the application of solar energy. Although solar energy is available everywhere in the world, countries closest to the equator receive the greatest solar radiation and have the highest potential for solar energy production and application. Dhofar in Salalah-Oman is one of the cities in Oman with high temperatures all year round. The city has been reported to exhibit a maximum solar flux of about 1360 w/m&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; and a maximum accumulative solar flux of about 12,586,630 W/m&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; in March. These interesting solar potentials motivated the call for investment in solar energy in the region as an alternative to other non-renewable energy sources such as fossil fuel-powered generators. As a consequence, several authors have reported on the application of different solar energy in the different cities in Oman, especially in remote areas and various results reported. Therefore, the present review highlighted the achievements reported on the availability of solar energy sources in different cities in Oman and the potential of solar energy as an alternative energy source in Dhofar. The paper has also reviewed different PV techniques and operating conditions with emphasis on the advanced control strategies used to enhance the efficiency and performance of the PV energy system. Applications of standalone and hybrid energy systems for in-house or remote power generation and consumption in Dhofar were discussed. It also focused on the relevance of global radiation data for the optimal application of PV systems in Dhofar. The future potential for the full application of solar systems in the region was mentioned and future work was recommended.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/abstract&gt;

Optimization Techniques for Improving the Performance of Solar Photovoltaic System in Conjunction with Health Informatics and the Hospital Energy Management System

Energy savings, clean energy, savings in utility and energy governance tools are buzzwords in the healthcare industry. Healthcare sectors become largest consumer of energy in the modern world. Based on data of American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), a moderate hospital consume 2.5 times higher energy than commercial buildings. As a result, increased worries about energy costs and environmental issues, as well as the anticipation of rising energy prices in the future and the need to enhance the dependability of healthcare facilities, have led to a focus on in-house power generation systems and the importance of energy management in hospitals and their health care facilities. Solar power systems that are clean and ecologically friendly have grown in popularity as distributed power generation (DPG) systems in recent years. In this work, a Grid-tied Solar PV system incorporated with Battery energy storage technology is considered in conjunction with health informatics and the hospital Energy Management System reduces energy consumption cost and improves the reliability of the power supply to run all clinical equipment available in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and other premises. In this context, the Energy management controller utilised in the hospital Energy Management System will effectively use the electricity supplied by the Solar PV system while minimising grid demand and stabilising the voltage in the DC bus, which must be inverted into AC using an inverter to feed clinical loads. Furthermore the maximum power point tracking method is adopted, which enhances the quality of DC voltage generated by solar PV panels and feed to the DC bus. Sliding mode controller (SMC) is adopted in the inverter side and the quality of the inverted voltage is optimized using artificial bee colony (ABC) method. The proposed solar PV system in conjunction with health informatics and the hospital Energy Management System is developed and simulated in the MATLAB Simulink. The response of the suggested SMC and ABC techniques are compared and their outcomes are shown to confirm the performance of hospital energy management system.

Plasmonic Enhancement of Chiroptical Property in Enantiomers Using a Helical Array of Magnetoplasmonic Nanoparticles for Ultrasensitive Chiral Recognition.

Recognition of enantiomeric molecules is essential in pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. In this Article, a novel approach is introduced to monitor chiral molecules via a helical magnetic field (hB), where chiral-inactive magnetoplasmonic nanoparticles (MagPlas NPs, Ag@Fe3O4 core-shell NPs) are assembled into helical nanochain structures to be chiral-active. An in-house generator of hB-induced chiral NP assembly, that is, a plasmonic chirality enhancer (PCE), is newly fabricated to enhance the circular dichroism (CD) signals from chiral plasmonic interaction of the helical nanochain assembly with circularly polarized light, reaching a limit of detection (LOD) of 10-10 M, a 1000-fold enhancement as compared to that of conventional CD spectrometry. These enhancements were successfully observed from enantiomeric molecules, oligomers, polymers, and drugs. Computational simulation studies also proved that total chiroptical properties of helical plasmonic chains could be readily changed by modifying the chiral structure of the analytes. The proposed PCE has the potential to be used as an advanced tool for qualitative and quantitative recognition of chiral materials, enabling further application in pharmaceutical and biomedical sensing and imaging.

Characterization and Clinical Significance of EIF1AX Mutations and Co-Mutations in Cytologically Indeterminate Thyroid Nodules: A 5-Year Retrospective Analysis.

Mutations in the EIF1AX gene have been recently detected in a small percentage of benign and malignant thyroid lesions. We sought to investigate the prevalence and clinical significance of EIF1AX mutations and co-mutations in cytologically indeterminate thyroid nodules at our institution. A 5-year retrospective analysis was performed on thyroid nodules with a cytologic diagnosis of Bethesda category III or IV, which had undergone testing by our in-house next generation sequencing panel. Surgically resected nodules with EIF1AX mutations were identified, and mutation type and presence of co-mutations were correlated with histopathologic diagnosis. 41/904 (4.5%) cases overall and 26/229 (11.4%) surgically resected nodules harbored an EIF1AX mutation. The most common histologic diagnoses were follicular thyroid carcinoma and follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma. 11/26 (42.3%) of nodules had isolated EIF1AX mutation. Comutations were found in RAS (12/26; 46.2%), TERT (5/26; 19.2%) and TP53 (2/26; 7.7%). EIF1AX mutation alone conferred a 36.4% risk of malignancy (ROM) and 54.5% ROM or noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features (NIFTP), while the ROM was significantly higher in nodules with concurrent RAS (71.4%), TERT, TP53 and RAS+TERT (100%) mutations. EIF1AX mutations occur in benign and malignant follicular thyroid neoplasms. In our cohort, the majority of mutations occurred at the splice acceptor site between exons 5 and 6. Importantly, the coexistence of EIF1AX mutations with other driver pathogenic mutations in RAS, TERT and TP53 conferred a 100% ROM or NIFTP, indicating that such nodules require surgical removal.

Level-one house agent-based decentralized resilient energy management

From the past few years, distribution systems paradigm is shifting more toward adaptive clustering for energy management, where the clusters are dynamically formed with respect to available generation and load demand balancing. The need of adaptive agents to study this adaptive decentralized clustering is of a much need. This paper makes an attempt to describe the behavior of level-one house agent which is integrated with in-house renewable generation. Its behavioral results for the same are published under two different scenarios: firstly, when catering to its own load without considering other agent’s load curve, and secondly, when considering the other agent’s load demand, thus satisfying the inherent properties of Multi-Agent Systems.

Integration of Supply and Demand Side Management Using Renewable Power Sources: Application on an Air Separation Plant

Exploitation and implementation of renewable energy can substantially advance development, improve energy security, and alleviate the climate change problem. Integrating multiple renewable energy sources with grid power could potentially reduce the dependency on nonrenewable energy sources. However, because of the intermittent nature of the former, a tight integration between the supply and demand side management is necessary to facilitate uninterrupted power distribution and efficient energy consumption. This paper discusses an optimization framework that integrates supply and demand side management with application toward an energy-intensive cryogenic air separation process that is equipped with an in-house power generation system comprising multiple renewable and deterministic power sources as well as an energy storage system. The proposed framework integrates the power generation and purchase decisions along with the production complexities of the air separation plant (ASP). The optimal power generation schedule and the optimal production schedule provided by the proposed integration framework have been shown to minimize the total energy cost required to operate and meet the production requirement of the cryogenic ASP. An economic analysis is also performed to study the economic viability of including an in-house renewable source-based power generation and storage system with the ASP.

Exergy and CO&lt;SUB align="right"&gt;2 emission analysis of rotary hearth furnace-electric arc furnace routes of steelmaking

Model-based analysis of exergy and CO2 emission of an emerging steelmaking process through a rotary hearth furnace-electric arc furnace (RHF-EAF) system has been studied. Exergy indices of two RHF based processes yielding either iron nugget (ITmk3 process) or DRI (FASTMET process), operating with EAF are found to be either superior or comparable to a conventional steelmaking (BF-BOF) process. Net CO2 emissions through the RHF-EAF processes are found to be comparable to emissions from the BF-BOF process. Considerable improvement in main-product exergy efficiency and CO2 emission are observed on utilisation of RHF off-gases to in-house power generation.