江西省水系连通及水美乡村建设试点县实施方案编制存在的问题及对策

为提高水系连通及水美乡村建设试点县实施方案编制质量，更好地参加全国竞争性立项，本文分析研究了江西省55个水系连通及水美乡村建设试点县实施方案和相应的专家评审意见，对实施方案编制过程中存在的符合性、完整性不够，实施范围情况调查不准等七个方面突出问题进行梳理剖析，并提出相应对策，可为实施方案编制提供参考。     

Development of a stakeholder identification and analysis method for human factors integration in work system design interventions – Change Agent Infrastructure

In any work system design intervention—for example, a physical workplace re-design, a work process change, or an equipment upgrade—it is often emphasized how important it is to involve stakeholders in the process of analysis and design, to gain their perspectives as input to the development, and ensure their future acceptance of the solution. While the users of an artifact or workplace are most often regarded as being the most important stakeholders in a design intervention, in a work-system context there may be additional influential stakeholders who influence and negotiate the design intervention's outcomes, resource allocation, requirements, and implementation. Literature shows that it is uncommon for empirical ergonomics and human factors (EHF) research to apply and report the use of any structured stakeholder identification method at all, leading to ad-hoc selections of whom to consider important. Conversely, other research fields offer a plethora of stakeholder identification and analysis methods, few of which seem to have been adopted in the EHF context. This article presents the development of a structured method for identification, classification, and qualitative analysis of stakeholders in EHF-related work system design intervention. It describes the method's EHF-related theoretical underpinnings, lessons learned from four use cases, and the incremental development of the method that has resulted in the current method procedure and visualization aids. The method, called Change Agent Infrastructure (abbreviated CHAI), has a mainly macroergonomic purpose, set on increasing the understanding of sociotechnical interactions that create the conditions for work system design intervention, and facilitating participative efforts.     

Sn-containing Si3N4-based composites for adaptive excellent friction and wear in a wide temperature range

Ceramic design based on reducing friction and wear-related failures in moving mechanical systems has gained tremendous attention due to increased demands for durability, reliability and energy conservation. However, only few materials can meet these requirements at high temperatures. Here, we designed and prepared a Sn-containing Si₃N₄-based composite, which displayed excellent tribological properties at high temperatures. The results showed that the friction coefficient and wear rate of the composites were reduced to 0.27 and 4.88 × 10^?6 mm³ N^?1 m^?1 in air at 800 °C. The wear mechanism of the sliding pairs at different temperatures was revealed via detailed analyses of the worn surfaces. In addition, the tribo-driven graphitization was detected on the wear surfaces and in the wear debris, and the carbon phase was identified by SEM, TEM, and Raman spectrum.     

Systematic optimization of corrosion,bioactivity, and biocompatibility behaviors of calcium-phosphate plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) coatings on titanium substrates

To optimize the corrosion, bioactivity, and biocompatibility behaviors of plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) coatings on titanium substrates, the effects of five process variables including frequency, current density, duty cycle, treatment time, and electrolyte Ca/P ratio were evaluated. In our systematic study, a Taguchi design of experimental based on an L16 orthogonal array was used. For this, the coatings characteristics such as the surface roughness, wettability, rutile to anatase and Ca/P ratios, and corrosion polarization resistance were investigated. After determining the optimum process variables for each response, the apatite forming ability in SBF (bioactivity behavior) and MG63 cell attachment and flattening (biocompatibility behavior) for two groups of coatings were examined. The first group was optimized based on the maximum corrosion polarization resistance and the variables were set as the frequency of 2000 Hz, the current density of 5 A/dm², the duty cycle of 30%, the treatment time of 5 min, and the Ca/P ratio of 0.65 at. % in the electrolyte. For the second group, the maximum surface roughness, greatest Ca/P ratio, and highest wettability as well as the minimum rutile to anatase ratio in coatings, could be obtained when the variables were set as the frequency of 10 Hz, the current density of 12.5 A/dm², the duty cycle of 50%, the treatment time of 12.5 min, and the Ca/P ratio of 1.70 at. % in the electrolyte. The results showed that while both groups of coatings indicated a significant apatite forming ability and can serve as bioactive coatings, a proper attachment and flattening of cells and consequently, the favorable biocompatibility properties were seen only in the first group.     

Compatible performance of low thermal conductivity and high infrared radiation of Sm2O3-HfO2 series ceramics applied for thermal protection coatings

Sm₂O₃-HfO₂ series ceramics were synthesized at high temperature using the solid-state reaction. The phase stability, thermo-physical and infrared emission properties of Sm₂Hf₂O₇ (SHO) and Sm₂Hf₂O₇-44.83 wt%HfO₂ (25S/H) composite ceramics were comparatively investigated. Furthermore, their calcium magnesium aluminosilicate (CMAS) corrosion was conducted at 1250°C for different times. The results reveal that both SHO and 25S/H ceramics have excellent phase stability at 1600°C as well as excellent sintering resistance. SHO still exhibits slightly lower thermal conductivity and lower hardness and Young's modulus, higher thermal expansion coefficient (CTE) and fracture toughness as well as higher infrared emittance (0.899 at 800°C) than 25S/H composite with the excessive HfO₂ inside. Both SHO and 25S/H ceramics react with CMAS to form a relatively compact reaction layer, which can effectively prevent the penetration of CMAS. These results preliminarily indicate that SHO ceramic can be proposed as an alternative material of the traditional YSZ for high-temperature thermal protective applications thanks to its compatible performance of low thermal conductivity and high infrared radiation, etc.     

Formation of single-crystalline BaTiO3 nanorods from glycolate by tuning the supersaturation conditions

We have studied peculiarities in the formation of single-crystalline barium titanate (BaTiO₃) nanorods from a glycolate-mediated complex via a single-step hydrothermal process under different supersaturation (S_R) conditions. X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed the formation of pure BaTiO₃ with an S_R of above 19. The tetragonality for the BaTiO₃ (c/a) reached 1.013 at S_R = 19–29 and dropped to 1.010 for S_R = 39. According to the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and XRD analyses, the rod-shaped particles exhibited single crystallinity and crystal growth along the [001] plane. With scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the morphological evolution from a plate-shaped intermediate precursor (S_R = 6–9) to a rod-shaped product with an aspect ratio of 6–9 (S_R = 19–29), and to non-polar material with an irregular structure (S_R = 39), was observed. The negative slope, linear dependence of the particles’ width and length on the supersaturation level in the range S_R = 19–39 was established for the first time. The replacement of the prevailing crystallization mechanism from in-situ topotactic transformation into dissolution-precipitation above S_R = 19 was observed. It was shown that with a simple regulation of the S_R, the structural and morphological characteristics of the obtained BaTiO₃ nanoparticle can be effectively tuned.     

Adaptation to Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Enhances Resistance of Oral Cancer Cells to Cisplatin by Up-Regulating Polymerase η and Increasing DNA Repair Efficiency

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response is an adaptive program to cope with cellular stress that disturbs the function and homeostasis of ER, which commonly occurs during cancer progression to late stage. Late-stage cancers, mostly requiring chemotherapy, often develop treatment resistance. Chemoresistance has been linked to ER stress response; however, most of the evidence has come from studies that correlate the expression of stress markers with poor prognosis or demonstrate proapoptosis by the knockdown of stress-responsive genes. Since ER stress in cancers usually persists and is essentially not induced by genetic manipulations, we used low doses of ER stress inducers at levels that allowed cell adaptation to occur in order to investigate the effect of stress response on chemoresistance. We found that prolonged tolerable ER stress promotes mesenchymal–epithelial transition, slows cell-cycle progression, and delays the S-phase exit. Consequently, cisplatin-induced apoptosis was significantly decreased in stress-adapted cells, implying their acquisition of cisplatin resistance. Molecularly, we found that proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) ubiquitination and the expression of polymerase η, the main polymerase responsible for translesion synthesis across cisplatin-DNA damage, were up-regulated in ER stress-adaptive cells, and their enhanced cisplatin resistance was abrogated by the knockout of polymerase η. We also found that a fraction of p53 in stress-adapted cells was translocated to the nucleus, and that these cells exhibited a significant decline in the level of cisplatin-DNA damage. Consistently, we showed that the nuclear p53 coincided with strong positivity of glucose-related protein 78 (GRP78) on immunostaining of clinical biopsies, and the cisplatin-based chemotherapy was less effective for patients with high levels of ER stress. Taken together, this study uncovers that adaptation to ER stress enhances DNA repair and damage tolerance, with which stressed cells gain resistance to chemotherapeutics.     

Evaluation of the PSMA-Binding Ligand 212Pb-NG001 in Multicellular Tumour Spheroid and Mouse Models of Prostate Cancer

Radioligand therapy targeting the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is rapidly evolving as a promising treatment for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. The PSMA-targeting ligand p-SCN-Bn-TCMC-PSMA (NG001) labelled with ²¹²Pb efficiently targets PSMA-positive cells in vitro and in vivo. The aim of this preclinical study was to evaluate the therapeutic potential of ²¹²Pb-NG001 in multicellular tumour spheroid and mouse models of prostate cancer. The cytotoxic effect of ²¹²Pb-NG001 was tested in human prostate C4-2 spheroids. Biodistribution at various time points and therapeutic effects of different activities of the radioligand were investigated in male athymic nude mice bearing C4-2 tumours, while long-term toxicity was studied in immunocompetent BALB/c mice. The radioligand induced a selective cytotoxic effect in spheroids at activity concentrations of 3–10 kBq/mL. In mice, the radioligand accumulated rapidly in tumours and was retained over 24 h, while it rapidly cleared from nontargeted tissues. Treatment with 0.25, 0.30 or 0.40 MBq of ²¹²Pb-NG001 significantly inhibited tumour growth and improved median survival with therapeutic indexes of 1.5, 2.3 and 2.7, respectively. In BALB/c mice, no signs of long-term radiation toxicity were observed at activities of 0.05 and 0.33 MBq. The obtained results warrant clinical studies to evaluate the biodistribution, therapeutic efficacy and toxicity of ²¹²Pb-NG001.     

Emerging Immunotherapy for Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Several immune checkpoint molecules and immune targets in leukemic cells have been investigated. Recent studies have suggested the potential clinical benefits of immuno-oncology (IO) therapy against acute myeloid leukemia (AML), especially targeting CD33, CD123, and CLL-1, as well as immune checkpoint inhibitors (e.g., anti-PD (programmed cell death)-1 and anti-CTLA4 (cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4) antibodies) with or without conventional chemotherapy. Early-phase clinical trials of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T or natural killer (NK) cells for relapsed/refractory AML showed complete remission (CR) or marked reduction of marrow blasts in a few enrolled patients. Bi-/tri-specific antibodies (e.g., bispecific T-cell engager (BiTE) and dual-affinity retargeting (DART)) exhibited 11–67% CR rates with 13–78% risk of cytokine-releasing syndrome (CRS). Conventional chemotherapy in combination with anti-PD-1/anti-CTLA4 antibody for relapsed/refractory AML showed 10–36% CR rates with 7–24 month-long median survival. The current advantages of IO therapy in the field of AML are summarized herein. However, although cancer vaccination should be included in the concept of IO therapy, it is not mentioned in this review because of the paucity of relevant evidence.