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The current therapies to treat hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection are limited. Recently, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) systems, originally identified in bacteria and archaea, have been found to consist of an RNA-based adaptive immune system that degrades complimentary sequences of invading plasmids and viruses. Here, we studied the effects of the CRISPR/CRISPR-associated Cas9 system that was targeted to the surface antigen (HBsAg)-encoding region of HBV, both in a cell culture system and in vivo . The HBsAg levels in the media of the cells and in the sera of mice were analyzed by a quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The HBV DNA levels were assessed by quantitative PCR and HBsAg expression in mouse livers was assessed by an immunohistochemical assay. The amount of HBsAg secreted in the cell culture and mouse serum was reduced by CRISPR/Cas9 treatment. Immunohistochemistry analyses showed almost no HBsAg-positive cells in the liver tissue of CRISPR/Cas9-S1+X3-treated mice. The CRISPR/Cas9 system efficiently produced mutations in HBV DNA. Thus, CRISPR/Cas9 inhibits HBV replication and expression in vitro and in vivo and may constitute a new therapeutic strategy for HBV infection.

An initial study is proposed in order to evaluate the outcomes of ultrasonic vibration in friction stir welding of Al and Mg alloys for lap configuration. A novel ultrasonic assembly is designed and developed such that ultrasonic vibrations could be enforced along the welding direction into the weldment via the welding tool. Various sets of welding parameters are picked out for experimentation and thereafter optimum are evaluated. With ultrasonic assistance during pin and shoulder plunging, a substantial diminution in welding load, up to 30 and 19.75% are obtained while the noteworthy reduction in tool torque and input power is also perceived at optimum parameters. Additionally, lap shear tests result into an improvement of 37.88 and 39.24%, respectively, in context to failure load and weldment elongation. Macrostructure analysis portrays elimination of defects, enhanced material mixing, and broadening of the stirred zone with acoustic assistance.

This article develops an electromechanical-thermal model for semi-solid-state batteries using Software COMSOL Multi-physics. The battery’s three-dimensional structure is firstly simplified into a one-dimensional electrochemical model (P2D), which combines the solid heat transfer module and the solid mechanics module. The total power consumption of the battery, obtained from the P2D model, is used to calculate the battery temperature and the lithium concentration. Then, stress analysis of the anode active particles is conducted, and the battery temperature is fed back into both the electrochemical and mechanical models. To validate the model, constant current charge/discharge cycling experiments, as well as tests on the basic electrical parameters and temperature of the battery, are conducted. The electromechanical-thermal model developed in this study serves as an effective tool for simulating semi-solid-state lithium-ion batteries, which can predict the battery’s performance under various operating conditions. The simulation results from the numerical model are consistent with experimental data at low charge/discharge rates, while slightly larger discrepancies are observed at high charge/discharge rates, with the accuracy remaining over 90%. Further, the thermal expansion behavior of the batteries with silicon-carbon anodes during the charge-discharge process can be examined using the developed model.

Phenolic compounds in wastewater are highly biotoxic and harmful to the environment and human health. Due to the shortcomings of traditional treatment methods, the three-dimensional electrochemical reactors (3DERs) have been widely studied in phenol wastewater treatment due to their high efficiency, simple operation and low chemical addition. Particle electrodes are crucial, and TiO 2 -modified particle electrodes have been shown to contribute to the oxidation of pollutants. The TiO 2 –CeO 2 modified bamboo biochar particle electrodes (BCPEs) were newly prepared by sol–gel and calcination two-step method, and their surface microscopic morphologies, crystal structures, physical and chemical properties were determined by characterization. Electrochemical experiments showed that the mass transfer rate ( ν  = 15.47 × 10 –3 ) and the electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) of TiO 2 –CeO 2 modified BCPEs were larger than that of TiO 2 /BC and BCPEs. Optimal electrolysis conditions were obtained by the corresponding surface model: the Ti/Ce molar ratio of 10, current density (j) of 32 mA/cm 2 , the initial phenol concentration of 100 mg L −1 , and the phenol removal reached 83.02%. After 120 min electrolysis of phenol wastewater with an initial concentration of 100 mg L −1 at j = 30 mA/cm 2 in the 3DERs, the phenol removal reached 81.69%. The experimental results showed that the TO 2 –CeO 2 modified BCPEs realized the efficient treatment of phenol wastewater in the 3DERs. This study provides theoretical and technical support for the application of three-dimensional electrodes to the advanced treatment of phenol wastewater.

Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) is effective for local planning of automated vehicles, especially when there exist dynamical objects and multipe requirements. But it requires many computation resources for numerical optimization, which limits its practical application becase of the limited power of onboard unit. To extend the application range of the NMPC based local planner, the coupled nonlinear vehicle dynamics model is adopted based on the numerical analysis, which conversely requires much more discretization poits for acceptable accuracy. For better computation efficiency, Lagrange polynomials are used to discretize the vehicle dynamics model and objective function with less points and fine numerical accuracy. Furthermore, an adaptive strategy is designed to determine the order of Lagrange polynomials according to running state by numerical analysis of discretization error. Both acceleration effect and performance of the local planner designed by NMPC are validated by experimental tests under scenarios with multiple dynamical obstacles. The test results show that compared with the original one the accuracy and efficiency are improved by 74% and 60%, respectively.

Currently, regardless of the algorithm used, motion planners for dealing with dynamic obstructions need to rely on high‐precision sensors and high performance processors. The requirements for hardware increase as the density of dynamic obstructions in an area becomes higher. Additionally, motion planners are more prone to errors in complex environments. The Rapidly‐exploring Random Tree (RRT   ∗ ) algorithm only considers static obstructions and cannot effectively avoid densely populated regions of dynamic obstructions. This paper develops an improved RRT  ∗ algorithm that is capable of avoiding densely populated regions of dynamic obstructions. In this algorithm, the cost function of the traditional RRT   ∗ algorithm is modified based on the density of dynamic obstructions, allowing the planned path to bypass densely populated regions. The algorithm also introduces reasonable penalty terms to penalize segments that pass through densely populated regions, while maintaining asymptotic optimality of the traditional RRT   ∗ algorithm. Numerical experiments reveal that the improved RRT   ∗ algorithm is able to successfully avoid densely populated regions of dynamic obstructions with minimal time cost and exhibits better robustness during the path search process in comparison to the traditional RRT   ∗ algorithm. Thus, the improved RRT   ∗ algorithm possesses the ability to adapt to more complex areas for path planning.

Tao HY, Zhao CY, Wang Y, Sheng WJ, Zhen YS. Int J Nanomedicine. 2024;19:3805-3825. The authors have advised that they neglected to include a funding statement on page 3820 of the published paper. The funding statement should read as follows. Funding This research was funded by the CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (CIFMS) (2021-I2M-1-026). The authors apologize for this error.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of visual impairment on return to work for vocational rehabilitation (VR) consumers with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Individuals with TBI between the ages of 18 and 67 who received services from state-federal VR agencies were included in the sample. Hierarchical generalized linear modeling was used to identify factors that predict employment following TBI. Visual impairment caused by TBI (VI-TBI) was the primary independent variable of interest and competitive employment at case closure was the outcome measure. VI-TBI was negatively associated with obtaining employment. Other predictors of employment for those with TBI were also identified.

Ras mutations and overexpression of the Ras protein, p21Ras, are main causes of cancer development and progression, which has made the Ras gene and p21Ras important targets for therapy of Ras-driven cancers. We previously prepared recombinant adenovirus KGHV100 based on replication-defective adenovirus type 5, which could intracellularly express anti-p21Ras single chain fragment viable antibodies (scFv) and repress tumor growth in vitro and in vivo . However, the anti-tumor effects of this anti-p21Ras scFv were limited by short-term scFv expression due to a replication defect of KGHV100. To enhance the anti-tumor efficacy and safety of anti-p21Ras scFv, the present study constructed a dual-promoter-regulated recombinant adenovirus KGHV300 that carried anti-p21Ras scFv. In KGHV300, the expression levels of the essential replication genes E1a and E1b, were controlled by the human telomerase reverse transcriptase promoter and the hypoxia response element, respectively, and the anti-p21Ras scFv gene was controlled by the cytomegalovirus promoter. The conditional replication of KGHV300 and its antitumor efficacy were characterized in several tumor cell lines in vitro and in xenograft models of human breast cancer in nude mice. TCID50 assay demonstrated that KGHV300 could replicate in tumor cell lines but not in normal cell lines. 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2-H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay indicated that the growth of tumor cells was effectively inhibited by KGHV300 infection. In MDA-MB-231 tumor xenograft models, KGHV300 effectively and significantly inhibited tumor growth and induced apoptosis of tumor cells. We concluded that the recombinant adenovirus KGHV300 may be a more potent and safer antitumor therapeutic for Ras-driven cancer biotherapy.

We investigate the two-dimensional atom localization behaviors in a four-level atomic system via controlled spontaneous emission in a single decay channel. It is found that the detecting probability and precision of atom localization behaviors can be significantly improved via adjusting the system parameters. More importantly, the two-dimensional atom localization patterns reveal that the maximal probability of finding an atom within the sub-half-wavelength domain of the standing waves can reach unity when the corresponding conditions are satisfied. As a result, our scheme may be helpful in laser cooling or the atom nano-lithography via atom localization.