Global and local mixing determinations for steel converter analysis

The steel converter is one of the major multiphase industrial reactors in which mixing plays an important role. The molten steel in the converter is mixed with the slag by introducing a gas that is blown over the liquid phases (called top blowing), under the liquid phases (bottom blowing) or using top and bottom blowing at the same time (combined blowing). Many chemical reactions that are controlled by the mixing and temperature magnitudes take place inside the converter. All the processes take about 14 min, the first 3 min being for the addition of materials. A 1/10 length scale down of a cold model of a 250-ton capacity industrial converter was employed to carry out the present study. A conductivimetric method was used to carry out the study of the mixing in the reactor. In this study, the mixing in the bath was determined for the three blowing types by conductimetry and the behaviour of the system was modelized.     

Improvement and induction property of radiation-responsive promoter through DNA shuffling of 5′-flanking regions of the human p21 gene

A promoter that augments gene expression in response to stimulation of ionizing radiation would be a desired tool for radiogenetic therapy, a combination of radiotherapy and gene therapy. Although various promoters occurring naturally or artificially have been used for researches, one showing higher reactivity to ionizing radiation is desirable. In the present study, we attempted to improve a radiation-responsive promoter of the p21 through a technique called DNA shuffling. A library of DNA fragments was constructed by re-ligation of randomly digested promoter fragments and improved promoters were chosen out of the library. We repeated this process twice to obtain a promoter showing 2.6-fold better reactivity to ionizing radiation compared with its parent, p21 promoter after 10 Gy γ-ray irradiation. Nucleotide sequence analyses revealed that the obtained promoter was densely packed with some of the cis-acting elements including binding sites for p53, NF-κB, NRF-2, AP-1 and NF-Y more than p21 promoter. In addition, it was shown that its induction by ionizing radiation was dependent upon p53 status of a cell line, suggesting that the promoter retained properties of the p21 promoter. This technique is simple and efficient to improve a promoter responsive to other stimulus of interest besides IR.     

A Highly Potent and Cellularly Active β‐Peptidic Inhibitor of the p53/hDM2 Interaction

New and improved : The incorporation of a 6‐chlorotryptophan (6‐Cl‐Trp) into a β‐peptide (M)‐3₁₄ helix leads to a high‐affinity hDM2 inhibitor, as demonstrated by fluorescence fluctuation analysis at single molecule resolution. When conjugated to penetratin, the newly derived hDM2 binder specifically inhibits tumour cell growth in vitro.

     

金属有机框架材料MIL-53(Al)-F127对双酚A的吸附性能

采用一步溶剂热法制备具有介孔结构金属有机框架材料MIL-53(Al)-F127，用扫描电子显微镜(SEM)、透射电子显微镜(TEM)、X射线衍射仪(XRD)、傅里叶红外变换光谱仪(FTIR)、全自动比表面积及孔隙度分析仪(BET)等手段表征其形貌和结构，探究其对双酚A(BPA)的吸附性能并与微孔结构的MIL-53(Al)对比，研究了吸附剂的含量、pH以及温度对其吸附性能的影响。结果表明，介孔结构金属有机框架材料MIL-53(Al)-F127对双酚A具有良好的吸附性能；在pH值为6、温度为30℃条件下MIL-53(Al)-F127在20 min左右达到最大平衡吸附量为27.2 mg/g，去除率达到92%。其吸附动力学模型拟合结果，符合准二级动力学曲线。     

Refinement of primary carbides in AISI DC 53 cold work tool steel by thin section copper permanent mould casting and water atomization

In this study, as alternative methods to conventional production methods involving thin section copper permanent mould casting (fast solidification) and water atomization (rapid solidification) of AISI DC 53 cold work tool steel have been investigated. Thin slabs obtained by copper mould casting was homogenized at 1150 °C for one hour and then hot rolling was be applied. After hot rolling, conventional heat treatment have been applied to thin slabs. The same heat treatment procedure have been performed for a commercially available AISI DC 53 which is manufactured by thick section ingot casting and rolling. In order to investigate also the effect of rapid solidification on AISI DC 53 tool steel, steel powder was produced by water atomization technique. Experiments have revealed that thin steel slabs in permanent copper mould and rapidly solidified tool steel powder by water atomization have a more refined primary M₇C₃ carbides than commercially available steel.     

The challenges of COVID-19 control policies for sustainable development of business: Evidence from service industries

Such large-scale disruptions as the pandemic increase the uncertainty and risk related to business. Therefore, the business continuity management (BCM) has become an essential technical solution for enterprise emergency response. Since the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 has spread worldwide at an alarming rate causing many threats to sustainable development of the business sector. The decline in consumer demand has hugely impacted service industries, such as wholesale and retail sales, tourism. Enterprise production and operations have faced severe challenges. In this study, we develop a risk factor analysis of BCM under the presence of COVID-19 in China. Based on a statistical survey of 940 enterprises in Hangzhou City, China, this study employs ordinal logistic regression to explore the hindering effect of risk factors introduced by the epidemic on business performance. Then, the interpretive structure model (ISM) is applied to analyze the hierarchical structure of the factors under examination. The key factors influencing the enterprise production and operation during COVID-19 outbreak significantly differ across the sub-sectors of the service industry. Therefore, this paper assesses the resilience of the productive technologies and business models of different industries amid the pandemic. This paper proposes epidemic prevention and control strategy focusing on investment and government regulation to ensure sustainable business development.     

3D Semantic Deep Learning Networks for Leukemia Detection

White blood cells (WBCs) are a vital part of the immune system that protect the body from different types of bacteria and viruses. Abnormal cell growth destroys the body’s immune system, and computerized methods play a vital role in detecting abnormalities at the initial stage. In this research, a deep learning technique is proposed for the detection of leukemia. The proposed methodology consists of three phases. Phase I uses an open neural network exchange (ONNX) and YOLOv2 to localize WBCs. The localized images are passed to Phase II, in which 3D-segmentation is performed using deeplabv3 as a base network of the pre-trained Xception model. The segmented images are used in Phase III, in which features are extracted using the darknet-53 model and optimized using Bhattacharyya separately criteria to classify WBCs. The proposed methodology is validated on three publically available benchmark datasets, namely ALL-IDB1, ALL-IDB2, and LISC, in terms of different metrics, such as precision, accuracy, sensitivity, and dice scores. The results of the proposed method are comparable to those of recent existing methodologies, thus proving its effectiveness.     

Analysing the roles of CEO's financial literacy and financial constraints on Spanish SMEs technological innovation

Drawing on human capital and upper echelons theories, this study analyses how CEO's financial literacy influences a firm's technological innovation and investigates the mediating role of alleviating financial constraints of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the former relationship. We develop and test hypotheses applying a Structural Equation Model to a sample of 310 Spanish SMEs. The results show that CEO's financial literacy exerts both a direct and an indirect impact, through alleviating financial constraints, on a firm's technological innovation.     

P53基因质粒联合反义c-myc基因质粒对人膀胱癌细胞T24生长的影响

目的 探讨P53基因质粒联合反义c-myc基因质粒对人膀胱癌细胞T24增殖及凋亡的作用。方法 将可在真核细胞表达P53蛋白的质粒pCEP4P53和表达反义c-myc基因的质粒pGEP4ASCMHC以染试剂Fu-GENE6为介导,同时转染到入膀胱癌细胞T24中,经MTT检测、软琼脂集落生长、琼脂糖电泳等方法分析实验结果。结果P53基因质粒联合反义c-myc基因质粒较单一基因质粒能更显著地抑制癌细胞的增长,并能引起癌细胞的凋亡;FuGENE6有助于提高质粒DNA的转染效率。结论 pCEP4P53基因质粒和反义c-myc基因质粒pCEP4AS-CMH的协同作用,大大地促进了肿瘤细胞的凋亡,为人膀胱癌的基因治疗提供了新途径。     

MIL-53(Fe)金属有机骨架材料对刚果红的高效吸附

通过水热法制备规则外形的MIL-53(Fe)金属有机骨架材料(MOF),并通过傅里叶红外光谱(FT-IR)、X射线衍射(XRD)、扫描电镜(SEM)和透射电镜(TEM)对材料进行表征。以刚果红作为目标物,研究所制得的MOF材料对其的吸附行为。结果表明,MIL-53(Fe)对刚果红的吸附动力学符合准二级动力学,吸附模型符合Langmuir吸附模型。MIL-53(Fe)材料对刚果红的最大吸附量为1 482 mg/g,是可望用于去除染料废水刚果红的高效吸附材料。