Standard Process Research Articles

Producing antifriction babbitt В83 layer by gas-dynamic cold spraying

The technological processing of antifriction layer from Babbitt by gas-dynamic cold spraying was carried out on the DIMET-403. The coating was sprayed on plain bearings for marine low- and medium-speed diesel engines, turbines, and shaft lines. Technical requirements for antifriction layer materials, standard technological processes of preparation, spraying, heat treatment, and quality control are also considered.

OSAIRIS: Lessons Learned From the Hospital-Based Implementation and Evaluation of an Open-Source Deep-Learning Model for Radiotherapy Image Segmentation

Several studies report the benefits and accuracy of using autosegmentation for organ at risk (OAR) outlining in radiotherapy treatment planning. Typically, evaluations focus on accuracy metrics, and other parameters such as perceived utility and safety are routinely ignored. Here, we report our finding from the implementation and clinical evaluation of OSAIRIS, an open-source AI model for radiotherapy image segmentation that was carried out as part of its development into a medical device. The device contours OARs in the head and neck and male pelvis (referred to as the prostate model), and is designed to be used as a time-saving workflow device, alongside a clinician. Unlike standard evaluation processes, which heavily rely on accuracy metrics alone, our evaluation sought to demonstrate the tangible benefits, quantify utility and assess risk within a specific clinical workflow. We evaluated the time-saving benefit this device affords to clinicians, and how this time-saving might be linked to accuracy metrics, as well as the clinicians' assessment of the usability of the OSAIRIS contours in comparison to their colleagues' contours and those from other commercial AI contouring devices. Our safety evaluation focused on whether clinicians can notice and correct any errors should they be included in the output of the device.We found that OSAIRIS affords a significant time-saving of 36% (5.4 ± 2.1 minutes) when used for prostate contouring and 67% (30.3 ± 8.7 minutes) for head and neck contouring. Combining editing time data with accuracy metrics, we found the Hausdorff distance best correlated with editing-time, outperforming dice, the industry-standard, with a Spearman correlation coefficient of 0.70, and a Kendall coefficient of 0.52. Our safety and risk-mitigation exercise showed that anchoring bias is present when clinicians edit AI-generated contours, with the effect seemingly more pronounced for some structures over others. Most errors, however, were corrected by clinicians, with 72% of the head and neck errors 81% of the prostate errors removed in the editing step. Notably, our blinded clinician contour rating exercise showed that gold standard clinician contours are not rated more highly than the AI-generated contours.We conclude that evaluations of AI in a clinical setting must consider the clinical workflow in which the device will be used, and not rely on accuracy metrics alone, in order to reliably assess the benefits, utility and safety of the device. The effects of human-AI inter-operation must be evaluated to accurately assess the practical usability and potential uptake of the technology, as demonstrated in our blinded clinical utility review. The clinical risks posed by the use of the device must be studied and mitigated as far as possible, and our ‘Mystery Shopping’ experiment provides a template for future such assessments.

Advanced biomaterials for regenerative medicine and their possible therapeutic significance in treating COVID-19: a critical overview.

The potential of biomaterials in medical sciences has attracted much interest, especially in promoting tissue regeneration and controlling immune responses. As COVID-19 pandemic broke out, there was an increased interest in understanding more about how biomaterials could be employed to fight this dreaded disease, especially in the context of regenerative medicine. Out of the numerous regenerative medicine possibilities, stem cells and scaffolding (grafting) technology are two major areas in modern medicines and surgery. Mesenchymal stem cells are useful in tissue repair, tailored therapy and treating COVID-19. Using biomaterials in COVID-19 treatment is intricate that needs multi- and cross-disciplinary research. Cell-based therapy and organ transplant pose immunological rejection challenge. Immunomodulation enhanced, tumorigenicity decreased, inflammation addressed and tissue damage restricted bioengineered stem cells need clinical insights and validation. Advanced stem cell based therapies should ideally be effective, safe and scalable. Cost and scalability shall dictate the dawn of technoeconomically feasible regenerative medicine. A globally standard and uniform approval process could accelerate translational regenerative medicine. Researchers, patient advocacy organisations, the regulators and the biopharmaceutical stakeholders need to join hands for easy navigation of regulatory measures and expeditious market entry of regenerative medicine. This article summarises advances in biomaterials for regenerative medicine, and their possible therapeutic benefits in managing infectious diseases like COVID-19. It highlights the significant recent developments in biomaterial design, scaffold construction, and stem cell-based therapies to treat tissue damage and COVID-19 linked immunological disregulation. It also highlights the potential contribution of biomaterials towards creating novel treatment strategies to manage COVID-19.

The translation and validation of the surgical anxiety questionnaire into the modern standard Arabic language: results from classical test theory and item response theory analyses

BackgroundPreoperative anxiety is commonly found in patients who are waiting for surgery and can lead to negative surgical outcomes. Understanding the sources of surgical anxiety allows healthcare providers to identify at-risk patients and implement psychosocial interventions such as counseling, relaxation techniques, and cognitive‒behavioral therapy to minimize anxiety. Few comprehensive psychiatric measures are available to assess preoperative anxiety in Arabic.ObjectiveOur study aimed to translate, adapt, and validate the Surgical Anxiety Questionnaire (SAQ) into the modern standard Arabic language, also known as Fusha al-Asr Arabic.MethodsTo translate the questionnaire, the research team used the gold standard process of forward translation by two independent translators along with back translation evaluation by four trained medical doctors. A cross-sectional study was conducted using an online survey completed by 208 Arabic speakers (mean age 38 years, 44% women) from four countries. Psychometric analyses, which included internal consistency, test-retest reliability, convergent validity, confirmatory factor analysis, and item response analysis, were performed. Convergent validity tests were performed against the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 2-item Scale (GAD-2), Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-2), Perceived Stress Scale 4 (PSS-4), and Arabic version of the Visual Analog Scale for anxiety (VAS-A).ResultsThe mean SAQ of our sample was 19.38 ± 12.63 (possible range 0–68). The Arabic SAQ translation demonstrated excellent internal consistency, with McDonald’s omega and a Cronbach’s alpha of approximately 0.90. The test-retest reliability was also high, with an intraclass coefficient of 0.94. The SAQ showed strong convergent validity against the GAD-2 (r = 0.94, p < 0.01). The SAQ also showed weak-moderate correlations with the PHQ-2 (r = 0.26, p < 0.01), PSS-4 (r = 43, p < 0.01), and VAS-A (r = 0.36, p < 0.01) scores. The original three-factor structure was supported by confirmatory factor analysis, confirming the original structure reported in the original English language version. The results for fitness indices showed acceptable preliminary results (CFI/TLI approximately 0.90), and deleting some items improved the model fit (CFI/TLI > 0.90, RMSEA < 0.08). We suggest retaining the original factorial solution until further validation studies can be conducted. The item response theory (IRT) results identified no items that were excessively difficult or subject to guessing. The multidimensional IRT provided evidence that the SAQ items form a multidimensional scale assessing surgical anxiety that fits the classical model reasonably well.ConclusionThe SAQ has demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity; thus, it is a trustworthy and valid tool for evaluating preoperative anxiety in Arabic speakers. Future research could benefit from using the SAQ in both surgical and psychiatric research.

Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH): A Clinical and Pathological Grading System Based on the Presence of Hemophagocytosis

Abstract Introduction/Objective Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a heterogeneous group of disorders resulting from uncontrolled immune activation leading to severe hyperinflammation. The syndrome can be primary (genetic) or secondary to infections, malignancies, or autoimmune diseases. The diagnosis of HLH is challenging due to its nonspecific clinical presentation and the overlap with other conditions. This study aims to establish a reliable diagnostic approach for HLH by evaluating the accuracy of bone marrow histomorphological criteria in diagnosing the disease. Methods/Case Report We conducted a retrospective analysis of clinical and pathological data from patients diagnosed with HLH over a 12year period and included 38 patients with suspected HLH. A grading system for hemophagocytosis was developed based on the extent and frequency of hemophagocytic activity observed in bone marrow biopsies. Hemophagocytosis is categorized into four grades: Grade 0 indicates its absence, Grade 1 describes mild hemophagocytosis with less than 2 histiocytes containing hemophagocytosis per slide, Grade 2 denotes moderate hemophagocytosis with 3 to 5 histiocytes per slide, and Grade 3 signifies severe hemophagocytosis with more than 5 histiocytes per slide. Clinical data, comprising laboratory parameters and treatment outcomes, were analyzed in relation to the histologic grading of hemophagocytosis. Results (if a Case Study enter NA) Among the cases, grade 1 had 1 resolved case, 4 cases meeting 2 criteria all resolved, and 13 cases meeting 4 or more criteria resulted in 5 deaths and 8 resolutions. Grade 2 included 10 cases, with 2 meeting 2 criteria and resolving, and 8 meeting 4 or more criteria resulting in 5 deaths and 3 resolutions. Grade 3 comprised 10 cases, with 3 meeting 3 criteria and resolving, 3 meeting 5 or 7 criteria resulting in 1 death and 2 resolutions each, and 4 meeting 6 or 8 criteria resulting in 2 deaths and 2 resolutions each. Conclusion In our retrospective analysis of bone marrow biopsies from 38 patients with suspected HLH, our results indicate that the presence and extent of hemophagocytosis strongly suggest HLH. Implementing these criteria significantly improved diagnostic accuracy, reducing misdiagnosis rates and enabling timely therapy initiation. This study underscores the value of bone marrow histomorphological criteria in diagnosing HLH and stresses their importance in the standard diagnostic process for suspected HLH cases.

Langue littéraire – langue standard: une nécessaire révision terminologique de la langue roumaine

The purpose of this paper is to analyse two linguistic terms, limbă literară (literary language) and limbă standard (standard language), which illustrate a particular type of terminological instability in Romanian linguistics: throughout times, they have been used either in a hyponymy/hypernymy relation, or in an equivalence one. We first provide a short history of the usage of the two terms from the ’50s onwards, and then we concentrate on the situation encountered today in linguistic papers, but also in school curricula and textbooks. As a result of our analysis, we advocate for a terminological revision of the two terms: while limbă literară is the only appropriate term for Old Romanian (early 16th – late 18th centuries), limbă standard is now used (and has been for a while) as its synonym, highlighting the standardization process that Romanian has undergone (starting from the 19th century), and should be registered as such in dictionaries.

Development of an exposure assessment industrial model for Bacillus cereus in rice matrix containing insect chitosan.

An exposure assessment model for industrial use has been developed by using kinetic data from inactivation and growth of Bacillus cereus spores. It can provide a valuable tool for estimating the concentration of B. cereus after a storage period of 24 h at a specified temperature (20 °C) and for an estimation of the percentage of contaminated portions according to the input data of the model. This model considers a rice-derived product that has undergone a standard cooking process at 95 °C for 20 min. According to the results, the presence of chitosan affects the final microbial load after storage, potentially serving as an additional control measure in the event of cold chain abuse or break. Chitosan's antimicrobial properties likely play a role in reducing microbial growth during storage, thereby contributing to enhanced food safety. In practical terms, this suggests that incorporating chitosan into food products, especially those susceptible to microbial contamination like rice derivatives, could help mitigate risks associated with temperature abuse or cold chain disruptions. By acting as a protective barrier against microbial proliferation, chitosan offers a preventive measure to maintain product quality and safety throughout the supply chain. Considering two scenarios, 104 or 107 as initial contamination the model estimated that the 55 and 100% of portions would be respectively contaminated, according to a Performance Criteria of 4 log reductions.

Construction and application of standard system for the preservation of pathogenic microorganism resources

Standards are the technical support for economic activities and social development. The construction and standardization of the pathogenic microorganism preservation standard system is an important technical foundation for the high-quality development of preservation work. Establishing a pathogenic microorganism resource standard system is also important to the national biosafety standards. Through the standardization of pathogenic microbial resource preservation, we can ensure the effective management and sustainable utilization of pathogenic microbial resources, promote the transformation of resources, and serve as an important new element of new productivity to assist the innovative development of biosafety science and technology. This article elaborates and analyzes the establishment background, construction framework, standardization process, and application effects of the standard system for preserving pathogenic microbial resources, providing stronger support for further improving the standard system and promoting the standardization of pathogenic microbial resource preservation.

Degradation Modeling and RUL Prediction of Hot Rolling Work Rolls Based on Improved Wiener Process.

Hot rolling work rolls are essential components in the hot rolling process. However, they are subjected to high temperatures, alternating stress, and wear under prolonged and complex working conditions. Due to these factors, the surface of the work rolls gradually degrades, which significantly impacts the quality of the final product. This paper presents an improved degradation model based on the Wiener process for predicting the remaining useful life (RUL) of hot rolling work rolls, addressing the critical need for accurate and reliable RUL estimation to optimize maintenance strategies and ensure operational efficiency in industrial settings. The proposed model integrates pulsed eddy current testing with VMD-Hilbert feature extraction and incorporates a Gaussian kernel into the standard Wiener process to effectively capture complex degradation paths. A Bayesian framework is employed for parameter estimation, enhancing the model's adaptability in real-time prediction scenarios. The experimental results validate the superiority of the proposed method, demonstrating reductions in RMSE by approximately 85.47% and 41.20% compared to the exponential Wiener process and the RVM model based on a Gaussian kernel, respectively, along with improvements in the coefficient of determination (CD) by 121% and 19.76%. Additionally, the model achieves reductions in MAE by 85.66% and 42.61%, confirming its enhanced predictive accuracy and robustness. Compared to other algorithms from the related literature, the proposed model consistently delivers higher prediction accuracy, with most RUL predictions falling within the 20% confidence interval. These findings highlight the model's potential as a reliable tool for real-time RUL prediction in industrial applications.

Water-soluble organic selenometabolites of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) green biomass-derived fractions

BackgroundTolerance of plants towards selenium, a non-essential microelement for higher plants, is a key issue when designing either the indirect (selenium-depletion from highly seleniferous soils) or directed (selenized feed production) enrichment of selenium in forages. Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), the well-known forage crop of the Fabaceae family, has been gaining considerable interest due to its application as a green manure, as a cover crop, or in soil remediation by nitrogen fixation. ObjectiveThe goal of our study was to assess into which selenocompounds alfalfa plants biotransform the excess selenium uptake from the soil. Selenocompounds (other than selenomethionine and inorganic forms) accumulated in the fiber and the so-called brown juice by-product fractions of processed alfalfa biomass were targeted. MethodologyInductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry assisted multidimensional (strong anion exchange, strong cation exchange, reversed phase) orthogonal chromatographic purification was applied to supply Se-containing fractions in adequately high purity for electrospray high-resolution mass spectrometry (used for the first time for this matrix) analyses. ResultsAs a total, 30 selenocompounds (with isomers) were described, showing the abundance of the derivatives of selenohexose, selenohomolanthionine, and 2,3-dihydroxypropionic acid. Out of the 30 selenocompounds, 15 could be assigned the elemental composition, and the tentative structure of five compounds including among others deamino-2-oxo-selenohomolanthionine, deamino-hydroxy-selenohomolanthionine, and the dimer of 2,3-dihydroxypropionyl-selenohomocysteine could be presented. ConclusionsThe studied fractions arising from the standard alfalfa processing technology contained a wide variety of selenocompounds whose origin can be either the plant’s inherent Se metabolism or the processing technology itself. The importance of negative mode data acquisition has been highlighted, as out of the 30 compounds, 16 could be detected exclusively in this electrospray ionization mode.

Online Plain Language Tool and Health Information Quality

Complex and ineffective health communication is a critical source of health inequity and occurs despite repeated policy directives to provide health information that is easy to understand and applies health literacy principles. To evaluate the effectiveness of the Sydney Health Literacy Lab Health Literacy Editor, an easy-to-use online plain language tool that supports health information providers to apply health literacy guidelines to written health information. This randomized clinical trial, conducted online in Australia from May 2023 to February 2024, included a convenience sample of health information providers with no previous experience using the Health Literacy Editor. Analysts were blinded to study group. Participants were randomized 1:1 to the intervention or control group. Participants in the intervention group were provided access to the Health Literacy Editor and a 30-minute online training program prior to editing 3 prespecified health texts. The Health Literacy Editor gives objective, real-time feedback on words and sentences. Control participants revised the texts using their own standard health information development processes. The preregistered primary outcome was the text school grade reading score (using a validated instrument, the Simple Measure of Gobbledygook). Secondary outcomes were text complexity (percentage of text using complex language), use of passive voice (number of instances), and subjective expert ratings (5-point Likert scale corresponding to items on the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool). A total of 211 participants were randomized, with 105 in the intervention group and 106 in the control group. Of 181 participants in the intention-to-treat analysis (mean [SD] age, 41.0 [11.6] years; 154 women [85.1%]), 86 were in the intervention group and 95 in the control group. Texts revised in the intervention group had significantly improved grade reading scores (mean difference [MD], 2.48 grades; 95% CI, 1.84-3.12 grades; P < .001; Cohen d, 0.99), lower text complexity scores (MD, 6.86; 95% CI, 4.99-8.74; P < .001; Cohen d, 0.95), and less use of passive voice (MD, 0.95 instances; 95% CI, 0.44-1.47 instances; P < .001; Cohen d, 0.53) compared with texts revised in the control group in intention-to-treat analyses. Experts rated texts in the intervention group more favorably for word choice and style than those in the control group (MD, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.25-0.63; P < .001; Cohen d, 0.63), with no loss of meaning or content. In this randomized clinical trial, the Health Literacy Editor helped users simplify health information and apply health literacy guidelines to written text. The findings suggest the tool has high potential to improve development of health information for people who have low health literacy. As an online tool, the Health Literacy Editor is also easy to access and implement at scale. ANZCTR Identifier: ACTRN12623000386639.

Fractional Wiener chaos: Part 1

In this paper, we introduce a fractional analogue of the Wiener polynomial chaos expansion. It is important to highlight that the fractional order relates to the order of chaos decomposition elements, and not to the process itself, which remains the standard Wiener process. The central instrument in our fractional analogue of the Wiener chaos expansion is the function denoted as Hα(x,y)\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$${\\mathcal {H}}_\\alpha (x,y)$$\\end{document}, referred to herein as a power-normalised parabolic cylinder function. Through careful analysis of several fundamental deterministic and stochastic properties, we affirm that this function essentially serves as a fractional extension of the Hermite polynomial. In particular, the power-normalised parabolic cylinder function with the Wiener process and time as its arguments, Hα(Wt,t)\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$${\\mathcal {H}}_\\alpha (W_t,t)$$\\end{document}, demonstrates martingale properties and can be interpreted as a fractional Itô integral with 1 as the integrand, thereby drawing parallels with its non-fractional counterpart. To build a fractional analogue of polynomial Wiener chaos on the real line, we introduce a new function, which we call the extended Hermite function, by smoothly joining two power-normalized parabolic cylinder functions at zero. We form an orthogonal set of extended Hermite functions as a one-parameter family and use tensor products of the extended Hermite functions as building blocks in the fractional Wiener chaos expansion, in the same way that tensor products of Hermite polynomials are used as building blocks in the Wiener chaos polynomial expansion.

Seismic imaging of deep‐seated gold deposit and host rocks through a reappraisal of legacy seismic data in the Fochville mining area, South Africa

AbstractReappraisal of legacy reflection seismic data has shown to deliver value in mineral exploration, particularly in brownfield settings. In this work, we demonstrate how the reappraisal and processing of legacy reflection seismic data can be advantageous in the mineral exploration industry. We use today's standard seismic processing tools to improve the imaging of deep and complex geological structures that host mineral deposits. The recovered and processed 25.3 km long legacy seismic profile in this study was acquired in 1983 by the Gold Division of Anglo‐American as part of the Witwatersrand Gold Fields exploration program. This study aims to improve the imaging of the Ventersdorp Contact Reef gold‐bearing horizon (termed reef), a world‐class gold deposit (2 m thick) situated at depths between ∼2400 and ∼4100 m below the ground surface near South Deep Gold Mine in Fochville, South Africa. The final processing results from the pre‐stack time and phase‐shift migration approaches clearly reveal a dipping reflection associated with the gold‐bearing horizon and major steeply dipping faults that crosscut and displace the deposit. The final results are integrated with borehole information, 1D synthetic modelling and aeromagnetic data to constrain the structural interpretation. In particular, 1D synthetic simulation and borehole data constrain the depth position of the gold deposit. The magnetic data provides additional constraints on the complex faulted blocks of the host rocks such as the intrusions that may have a direct impact on ore resources and evaluation. The mining companies, such as South Deep Gold Mine, operating closer to the seismic profiles can use this new structural information to update the current geological models and improve future mine planning and designs, thus providing some insight into the prospectivity of unmined ground.

Paving the Way for SQIsign: Toward Efficient Deployment on 32-bit Embedded Devices

The threat of quantum computing has spurred research into post-quantum cryptography. SQIsign, a candidate submitted to the standardization process of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, is emerging as a promising isogeny-based signature scheme. This work aimed to enhance SQIsign’s practical deployment by optimizing its low-level arithmetic operations. Through hierarchical decomposition and performance profiling, we identified the ideal-to-isogeny translation, primarily involving elliptic curve operations, as the main bottleneck. We developed efficient 32-bit finite field arithmetic for elliptic curves, such as basic operations, like addition with carry, subtraction with borrow, and conditional move. We then implemented arithmetic operations in the Montgomery domain, and extended these to quadratic field extensions. Our implementation offers improved compatibility with 32-bit architectures and enables more fine-grained SIMD acceleration. Performance evaluations demonstrated the practicality in low-level operations. Our work has potential in easing the development of SQIsign in practice, making SQIsign more efficient and practical for real-world post-quantum cryptographic applications.

Development and Comparison of Model-Based and Data-Driven Approaches for the Prediction of the Mechanical Properties of Lattice Structures

AbstractLattice structures have great potential for several application fields ranging from medical and tissue engineering to aeronautical one. Their development is further speeded up by the continuing advances in additive manufacturing technologies that allow to overcome issues typical of standard processes and to propose tailored designs. However, the design of lattice structures is still challenging since their properties are considerably affected by numerous factors. The present paper aims to propose, discuss, and compare various modeling approaches to describe, understand, and predict the correlations between the mechanical properties and the void volume fraction of different types of lattice structures fabricated by fused deposition modeling 3D printing. Particularly, four approaches are proposed: (i) a simplified analytical model; (ii) a semi-empirical model combining analytical equations with experimental correction factors; (iii) an artificial neural network trained on experimental data; (iv) numerical simulations by finite element analyses. The comparison among the various approaches, and with experimental data, allows to identify the performances, advantages, and disadvantages of each approach, thus giving important guidelines for choosing the right design methodology based on the needs and available data.

A Modified Bleaching Method for Multiplex Immunofluorescence Staining of FFPE Tissue Sections.

Multiplex immunofluorescence (mIF) staining plays an important role in profiling biomarkers and allows investigation of co-relationships between multiple biomarkers in the same tissue section. The Cell DIVE mIF platform (Leica Microsystems) employs an alkaline solution of hydrogen peroxide as a fluorophore inactivation reagent in the sequential staining, imaging, and bleaching protocol for use on FFPE sections. Suboptimal bleaching efficiency, degradation of tissue structure, and loss of antigen immunogenicity occasionally are encountered with the standard bleaching process. To overcome these impediments, we adopted a modified photochemical bleaching method, which utilizes an intense LED light exposure concurrent with the application of hydrogen peroxide. Repeated stain/bleach rounds with different antibodies were performed on breast tissue and other tissue sections. Residual signal after conventional bleaching and the modified technique were compared and tissue integrity and antigen immunogenicity were assessed. The modified technique effectively eliminates fluorescence signal from previous staining rounds and produces consistent results for multiple rounds of staining and imaging. With the modified method, photochemical treatments did not destroy tissue sub-cellular contents, and the tissue antigenicity was well preserved during the entire mIF process. Overall processing time was reduced from 36 to 30 hours in an mIF procedure with 8 rounds. With the conventional method, tissue quality was highly degraded after 8 rounds. The new technique allows reduced turn-around time, provides reliable fluorophore removal in mIF with excellent maintenance of tissue integrity, facilitating studies of the co-localization of multiple biomarkers in tissues of interest.

Establishment of mouse alveolar macrophage extraction standard and its application in the evaluation of efficacy in lung metastasis of colorectal cancer

Introduction: Alveolar macrophages (AM) are involved in the development and progression of a variety of lung diseases. It is of great significance to explore the pathogenesis of diseases and evaluate the efficacy of drugs. However, there is no standard process for extracting primary AM. Nitidine chloride is an alkaloid extracted from Zanthoxylum nitidum (Roxb.) DC., which has an anti-tumour pharmacological effect. However, there is no evidence that nitidine chloride has a direct effect on CRC cell lung metastasis. The purpose of this study was to establish a standard for the extraction of primary AM from mice and to investigate the pharmacodynamics of nitidine chloride in mice with lung metastases to colorectal cancer. Methods: The standard for the extraction of mouse primary AM by lavage was established. Western blot and PCR were used to detect the regulatory mechanism of nitidine chloride in the treatment of lung metastasis in mice by macrophage phenotype and glycolysis level. Results: The results showed that sufficient quantity and quality of primary AM could be obtained by optimising extraction steps, and AM obtained by this method could accurately reflect disease progression. At the same time, nitidine chloride can effectively reduce colorectal cancer lung metastasis in mice. From the mechanism, nitidine chloride can inhibit the expression of M2 macrophage markers and the levels of mRNA and proteins of the glycolysis-limiting enzyme. Conclusions: Our results show that primary AM that accurately reflect disease and assess pharmacological effects can be obtained using our established criteria. The inhibitory effect of nitidine chloride on colorectal cancer lung metastasis may be attributed to its regulation of macrophage phenotype and glycolysis.

Finding Practical Parameters for Isogeny-based Cryptography

Isogeny-based schemes often come with special requirements on the field of definition of the involved elliptic curves. For instance, the efficiency of SQIsign, a promising candidate in the NIST signature standardisation process, requires a large power of two and a large smooth integer T to divide p 2 − 1 for its prime parameter p . We present two new methods that combine previous techniques for finding suitable primes: sieve-and-boost and XGCD-and-boost. We use these methods to find primes for the NIST submission of SQIsign. Furthermore, we show that our methods are flexible and can be adapted to find suitable parameters for other isogeny-based schemes such as AprèsSQI or POKE. For all three schemes, the parameters we present offer the best performance among all parameters proposed in the literature.

Reactions of Tetracyanoethylene with Aliphatic and Aromatic Amines and Hydrazines and Chemical Transformations of Tetracyanoethylene Derivatives

The significant synthetic potential and reactivity of tetracyanoethylene (TCNE) have captured the interest of numerous chemical communities. One of the most promising, readily achievable, yet least explored pathways for the reactivity of TCNE involves its interaction with arylamines. Typically, the reaction proceeds via tricyanovinylation (TCV); however, deviations from the standard chemical process have been observed in some instances. These include the formation of heterocyclic structures through tricyanovinyl intermediates, aliphatic dicarbonitriles through the cleavage of the C–C bond of a tetracyanoethyl substituent, complexation, and various pericyclic reactions. Therefore, the objective of this study is to review the diverse modes of interaction of TCNE with aromatic nitrogen-containing compounds and to focus the attention of the chemical community on the synthetic capabilities of this reagent, as well as the various biological and optical activities of the structures synthesized based on TCNE.

Techno-economic analysis and optimisation of Piperazine-based Post-combustion carbon capture and CO2 compression process for large-scale biomass-fired power plants through simulation

This study aims to investigate a cost-effective and energy-efficient amine-based post-combustion carbon capture (PCC) process for large-scale supercritical biomass-fired power plants (SC BFPP). Thus, we have quantified the energy and economic performance of the PCC process with different configurations and solvents. Three process configurations which included the standard configuration, the absorber intercooler (AIC) with the advanced flash stripper (AFS) and the AIC, AFS and side stream extraction (SSE) were simulated in Aspen Plus® V11 using 30 wt% and 40 wt% piperazine (PZ) as solvent. In addition to this, CO2 compression trains using the heat pump (HP) and supercritical CO2 cycle (s-CO2) were also simulated. Sensitivity analysis of the PCC process was carried out to investigate the impact of important parameters on the energy performance of the process. Furthermore, energy analysis shows that a minimum energy consumption of 2.78 GJ/tCO2 was achieved with the PCC process using 40 wt% PZ, a combination of the AIC, AFS and SSE for capture and s-CO2 for compression. This achieved a significant energy saving of 1.01 GJ/tCO2 compared with the standard PCC process using 30 wt% monoethanolamine that is used as the benchmark in this study. The economic analysis results showed that the minimum CO2 capture cost of 55.70 $/tCO2 was achieved using the AIC-AFS-SSE-sCO2 configuration and 40 wt% PZ as solvent. This represents a 19.5 % reduction in cost compared with the standard 40 wt% PZ process with a cost of 69.18 $/tCO2. The optimisation of the PZ-based PCC process was carried out to determine the optimal solvent concentration with the minimum carbon capture cost. It was found that the optimal PZ concentration for the PCC process based on standard and AFS configurations were 37.5 wt% and 32.5 wt%, respectively. The optimisation of the stripper pressure for the minimum carbon capture cost was conducted. As a result, compared with the standard PCC process using 40 wt% PZ, the energy consumption and CO2 capture cost of the optimised process at the suggested pressure of 7 bar were reduced by 41.6 % and 32.4 %, respectively.