Ablative Radiotherapy Reprograms the Tumor Microenvironment of a Pancreatic Tumor in Favoring the Immune Checkpoint Blockade Therapy

The low overall survival rate of patients with pancreatic cancer has driven research to seek a new therapeutic protocol. Radiotherapy (RT) is frequently an option in the neoadjuvant or palliative settings for pancreatic cancer treatment. This study explored the effect of RT protocols on the tumor microenvironment (TME) and their consequent impact on anti-programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1) therapy. Using a murine orthotopic pancreatic tumor model, UN-KC-6141, RT-disturbed TME was examined by immunohistochemical staining. The results showed that ablative RT is more effective than fractionated RT at recruiting T cells. On the other hand, fractionated RT induces more myeloid-derived suppressor cell infiltration than ablative RT. The RT-disturbed TME presents a higher perfusion rate per vessel. The increase in vessel perfusion is associated with a higher amount of anti-PD-L1 antibody being delivered to the tumor. Animal survival is increased by anti-PD-L1 therapy after ablative RT, with 67% of treated animals surviving more than 30 days after tumor inoculation compared to a median survival time of 16.5 days for the control group. Splenocytes isolated from surviving animals were specifically cytotoxic for UN-KC-6141 cells. We conclude that the ablative RT-induced TME is more suited than conventional RT-induced TME to combination therapy with immune checkpoint blockade.     

Effect of microwave heating time on the gel properties of chicken myofibrillar proteins and their formation mechanism

The present work was conducted to illustrate the mechanism of gel formation of myofibrillar proteins (MPs) under different microwave heating times. The results showed that the denaturation enthalpy (ΔH) of the MPs significantly decreased when the heating time increased from 3 to 9 s and then completely disappeared as the heating time progressed, indicating that the MPs gradually denatured and subsequently aggregated with increasing heating time, which was further verified by the changes in the secondary structure, electrophoretic bands, and gel properties (e.g., water holding capacity and textural profiles) of the MPs. Microstructural images indicated that the MP gel formed under 12 s had the most compact network, indicating that extended microwave heating time could induce quality deterioration of MP gels. Moreover, the hydrophobic forces, electrostatic forces, and disulphide bonds of the MPs gradually intensified with increasing microwave heating time, suggesting that both non-covalent and covalent bonds could promote molecular denaturation and subsequent aggregation of MPs. In addition, correlation analysis revealed that the changes in the molecular conformation of MPs induced by different microwave heating times could effectively regulate the formation of MP gels and their related properties.     

Numerical study of entropy generation in Darcy-Forchheimer (D-F) Bödewadt flow of CNTs

Three-dimensional Bödewadt flow (fluid rotates at a large enough distance from the stationary plate) of carbon nanomaterial is examined. Single walled and multi walled CNTs are dissolved in water and gasoline oil baseliquids. Darcy-Forchheimer porous medium is considered. Stationary disk is further stretched linearly in radial direction. Heat transfer effect is examined in presence of radiation and convection. Effect of viscous dissipation is accounted. Entropy generation rate is studied. By using adequate transformation (von Kármán relations), the flow field equations (PDEs) are transmitted into ODEs. Solutions to these ODEs are constructed via implementation of shooting method (bvp4c). In addition to Entropy generation rate, Bejan number, heat transfer rate (Nusselt number), skin friction and temperature of fluid are examined through involved physical parameters. Axial component of velocity intensifies with increment in nanoparticles volume fraction and ratio of stretching rate to angular velocity parameter while it decays with higher porosity parameter. Higher nanoparticles volume fraction and porosity parameter lead to decay in radial as well as tangential component of velocity. However it enhances with higher ratio of stretching rate to angular velocity parameter. Temperature of fluid directly varies with higher ratio of stretching rate to angular velocity parameter, radiation parameter, Eckert number, Biot number and nanoparticles volume fraction. Rate of Entropy generation is reduced with higher estimations of porosity parameter, nanoparticles volume fraction and radiation parameter. Skin friction coefficient decays with higher porosity parameter and ratio of stretching rate to angular velocity parameter. Intensification in porosity parameter, nanoparticles volume fraction and Biot number leads to higher Nusselt number. Prominent impact is shown by multiple-walled CNTs with gasoline oil basefluid than single-walled CNTs with water basefluid.     

Radiophotoluminescence phenomenon in copper-doped aluminoborosilicate glass

Radiophotoluminescence phenomena have been widely investigated on various types of materials for dosimetry applications. We report that an aluminoborosilicate glass containing 0.005 mol% copper exhibits intense photoluminescence in the visible region induced by X-ray and γ-ray irradiation. The luminescence is assigned to the 3d⁹4s¹ → 3d¹⁰ transition of Cu⁺. The proportionality of the intensity of the induced photoluminescence to the irradiation dose was confirmed up to 0.5 kGy using ⁶⁰Co γ-ray irradiation. Based on the spectroscopic results, a potential mechanism was proposed for the enhancement of the photoluminescence. The exposure to the ionizing radiation generates electron-hole pairs in the glass, and the electrons are subsequently captured by the Cu²⁺ ions, which are converted to Cu⁺ and emit the luminescence. For the glass containing 0.01 mol% copper, the pronounced enhancement of the photoluminescence was not observed because the reverse reaction, ie, the capture of the holes by the Cu⁺ ions, becomes prominent. The photoluminescence induced by the irradiation was stably observed for the glasses kept at room temperature and even for the glasses heat-treated at 150°C. However, the induced photoluminescence could be eliminated by the heat treatment at a temperature at 500°C, and the glass returned to the initial pre-irradiation state. The Cu-doped aluminoborosilicate glass is a potential candidate for use in dosimetry applications.     

The analysis and comparison of two novel kinds of focusing elements as reflectors

In this article, two novel kinds of focusing elements as reflectors are analyzed and compared. One is the grooved Fresnel zone plate reflector with continuous phase‐correcting. The other called subzone paraboloid reflector, has the profile that consists of a series of paraboloids. Their diffraction efficiencies and bandwidths are described. The two elements still preserve the advantages of Fresnel zone plates, namely, low profile, high efficiency, and simple fabrication. Two dual‐reflector antennas using the proposed focusing elements as the main reflectors are simulated and the results show that these antennas have good radiation performances. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:101–108, 2015.     

An automated treatment planning strategy for highly noncoplanar radiotherapy arc trajectories

Radiation therapy is a technology-driven cancer treatment modality that has experienced significant advances over the last decades, due to multidisciplinary contributions that include engineering and computing. Recent technological developments allow the use of noncoplanar volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT), one of the most recent photon treatment techniques, in clinical practice. In this work, an automated noncoplanar arc trajectory optimization framework designed in two modular phases is presented. First, a noncoplanar beam angle optimization algorithm is used to obtain a set of noncoplanar irradiation directions. Then, anchored in these directions, an optimization strategy is proposed to compute an optimal arc trajectory. The computational experiments considered a pool of twelve difficult head-and-neck tumor cases. It was possible to observe that, for some of these cases, the optimized noncoplanar arc trajectories led to significant treatment planning quality improvements, when compared with coplanar VMAT treatment plans. Although these experiments were done in a research environment treatment planning software (matRad), the conclusions can be of interest for a clinical setting: automated procedures can simplify the current treatment workflow, produce high-quality treatment plans, making better use of human resources and allowing for unbiased comparisons between different treatment techniques.     

Association of solid fuel use with risk of stunting in children living in China

Stunting adversely affects physical and mental outcomes of children. It has not been examined whether household air pollution from solid fuel combustion is a risk factor for stunting in children. In a total of 41,439 children aged 6-17 across China, height was measured using a unified protocol. Multivariable linear regression models and logistic regression models were used to assess the associations of solid fuel use for cooking/heating with stunting in children. Adjusted for covariates, cooking/heating with solid fuel was significantly associated with a lower z-score for height for age and sex (β = −0.21 [−0.32 to −0.09] and −0.17 [−0.31 to −0.03], respectively) and an increased risk of stunting with an estimated ORs of 1.34 [1.07~1.68] and 1.37 [1.02~1.83], respectively. The risk of stunting associated with solid fuel use was statistically significant in high-age children. And the effect was greater on girls than on boys, though the difference was not statistically significant. Our study suggested that Chinese children living in households using solid fuel had a significantly higher risk of stunting than those living in households using cleaner fuel.     

X射线干涉光刻光束线关键光学元件热-结构耦合分析

为了保证上海光源X射线干涉光刻光束线的稳定性,减小热变形对实验结果的影响,对X射线干涉光刻光束线的3个关键光学元件——偏转镜、聚焦镜和精密四刀狭缝进行热-结构耦合分析。首先,计算偏转镜、聚焦镜和精密四刀狭缝所承载的功率密度;然后,建立其有限元模型;最后,获得光学元件的温度场和热变形的结果。结果表明,偏转镜和聚焦镜采用间接水冷方式可有效抑制热变形,冷却后的最大面形误差分别为7.2μrad和9.2μrad。精密四刀狭缝未冷却时,刀片组件温度介于271.56~273.27℃,刀口热变形为0.19 mm,直线导轨热变形为0.08 mm;经过铜辫子冷却后,刀片组件温度降至22.24~23.94℃,刀口热变形降至0.2μm,直线导轨热变形降至0.1μm;采用影像法和接触探头法测试后,刀口直线度、平行度和重复精度均满足技术要求。偏转镜、聚焦镜和精密四刀狭缝的热变形通过间接水冷和铜辫子的冷却方式可以得到很大程度的抑制,进而保证光斑质量。     

Models for solar radiation prediction based on different measurement sites

The modeling of solar radiation for forecasting its availability is a key tool for managing photovoltaic (PV) plants and, hence, is of primary importance for energy production in a smart grid scenario. However, the variability of the weather phenomena is an unavoidable obstacle in the prediction of the energy produced by the solar radiation conversion. The use of the data collected in the past can be useful to capture the daily and seasonal variability, while measurement of the recent past can be exploited to provide a short term prediction. It is well known that a good measurement of the solar radiation requires not only a high class radiometer, but also a correct management of the instrument. In order to reduce the cost related to the management of the monitoring apparatus, a solution could be to evaluate the PV plant performance using data collected by public weather station installed near the plant. In this paper, two experiments are conducted. In the first, the plausibility of the short term prediction of the solar radiation, based on data collected in the near past on the same site is investigated. In the second experiment, the same prediction is operated using data collected by a public weather station located at ten kilometers from the solar plant. Several prediction techniques belonging from both computational intelligence and statistical fields have been challenged in this task. In particular, Support Vector Machine for Regression, Extreme Learning Machine and Autoregressive models have been used and compared with the persistence and the k-NN predictors. The prediction accuracy achieved in the two experimental conditions are then compared and the results are discussed.     

Structures and properties of chicken myofibrillar protein gel induced by microwave heating

Structures and properties of myofibrillar protein gel prepared at different power (300–800 W) were evaluated. Amino acid analysis demonstrated that changes in microwave power did not alter primary structure of gel. However, an increase in microwave power could change higher structures of gel. As microwave power increased, α-helix content decreased and β-sheet content increased. Increased microwave power probably facilitated protein to unfold and expose the internal groups, causing surface hydrophobicity and the formation of disulphide bonds were enhanced, which indicated changes in tertiary and quaternary structures of protein. At 500 W, gel had the best ultrastructure where surface morphology, springiness and water holding capacity reached the optimum. Our findings suggested that microwave at an appropriate power (500 W) could change higher structures of myofibrillar protein gel to achieve desired processing and quality protein gel characteristics.