Three-dimensional simulation of green soybean infrared-assisted spouted bed drying.

BACKGROUND: The current study introduces a novel infrared-assisted spouted bed drying technique for the dehydration of green soybeans, which aims to enhance the drying quality and efficiency. The investigation involves an examination of the flow pattern in the spouted bed to obtain relevant data, followed by an optimization of the entire drying process. The drying process of green soybeans was simulated using SolidWorks and ANSYS Fluent software, based on the principles of computational fluid dynamics. RESULTS: The simulation test results showed that the simulation outcomes were consistent with the experimental data. The optimal conditions for the process of green soybean infrared-assisted spouted bed drying were found to be an inlet speed of 8 m/s and a temperature of 50 °C with the wavelength and power settings of the infrared board at 10 µm and 500 W, respectively. CONCLUSION: The simulation method selected in this article, based on gas-solid two-phase flow dynamics, is feasible for green soybean infrared-assisted spouted bed drying process. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

Safety and immunogenicity of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (CHESS-NMCID 2101): A multicenter prospective study.

Data on safety and immunogenicity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccinations in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients are limited. In this multicenter prospective study, HCC patients received two doses of inactivated whole-virion COVID-19 vaccines. The safety and neutralizing antibody were monitored. Totally, 74 patients were enrolled from 10 centers in China, and 37 (50.0%), 25 (33.8%), and 12 (16.2%) received the CoronaVac, BBIBP-CorV, and WIBP-CorV, respectively. The vaccines were well tolerated, where pain at the injection site (6.8% [5/74]) and anorexia (2.7% [2/74]) were the most frequent local and systemic adverse events. The median level of neutralizing antibody was 13.5 (interquartile range [IQR]: 6.9-23.2) AU/ml at 45 (IQR: 19-72) days after the second dose of vaccinations, and 60.8% (45/74) of patients had positive neutralizing antibody. Additionally, lower γ-glutamyl transpeptidase level was related to positive neutralizing antibody (odds ratio = 1.022 [1.003-1.049], p = 0.049). In conclusion, this study found that inactivated COVID-19 vaccinations are safe and the immunogenicity is acceptable or hyporesponsive in patients with HCC. Given that the potential benefits may outweigh the risks and the continuing emergences of novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 variants, we suggest HCC patients to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Future validation studies are warranted.

Divalent Yb-Doped Silica Glass and Fiber with High Quantum Efficiency for White Light Source.

The 4f135d-4f14 energy transition of Yb2+ ions can cover the whole white light wavelength, Yb2+-doped materials have thus been a hot research field. In order to obtain a white light source, many kinds of Yb2+-doped materials have been prepared. In this study, divalent Yb2+-doped silica fiber was fabricated using rod-in-tube technology. The fiber core of Yb2+-doped silica glass was prepared with high-temperature melting technology under vacuum conditions. The spectroscopic properties of the Yb2+-doped glass and fiber were studied. The experiments indicate that divalent Yb2+-doped glass has a high quantum efficiency and super-broadband fluorescence in the visible region with an excitation wavelength of 405 nm. In addition, the results suggest that Yb2+-doped fiber has a potential for application in visible fiber lasers and fiber amplification.

Safety and immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in Chinese patients with cirrhosis: a prospective multicenter study.

BACKGROUND: Data on safety and immunogenicity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination in patients with compensated (C-cirrhosis) and decompensated cirrhosis (D-cirrhosis) are limited. METHODS: In this prospective multicenter study, adult participants with C-cirrhosis and D-cirrhosis were enrolled and received two doses of inactivated whole-virion COVID-19 vaccines. Adverse events were recorded within 14 days after any dose of vaccination, and serum samples of enrolled patients were collected and tested for SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies at least 14 days after the second dose. Risk factors for negative neutralizing antibody were analyzed. RESULTS: In total, 553 patients were enrolled from 15 centers in China, including 388 and 165 patients with C-cirrhosis and D-cirrhosis. The vaccines were well tolerated, most adverse reactions were mild and transient, and injection site pain (23/388 [5.9%] vs 9/165 [5.5%]) and fatigue (5/388 [1.3%] vs 3/165 [1.8%]) were the most frequently local and systemic adverse events in both the C-cirrhosis and D-cirrhosis groups. Overall, 4.4% (16/363) and 0.3% (1/363) of patients were reported Grades 2 and 3 alanine aminotransferase (ALT) elevations (defined as ALT > 2 upper limit of normal [ULN] but ≤ 5 ULN, and ALT > 5 ULN, respectively). The positive rates of COVID-19 neutralizing antibodies were 71.6% (278/388) and 66.1% (109/165) in C-cirrhosis and D-cirrhosis groups. Notably, Child-Pugh score of B and C levels was an independent risk factor of negative neutralizing antibody. CONCLUSIONS: Inactivated COVID-19 vaccinations are safe with acceptable immunogenicity in cirrhotic patients, and Child-Pugh score of B and C levels is associated with hyporesponsive to COVID-19 vaccination.

MiR-597-5p suppresses the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma via targeting transcriptional enhancer associate domain transcription factor 1 (TEAD1).

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver cancer with high incidence and mortality. MiR-597-5p is downregulated in tumor tissues of HCC compared with non-tumor tissues. However, its role in HCC is still unknown. This study aims to assess the function of miR-597-5p in HCC development and investigate the underlying mechanism. To perform gain- and loss-of-function studies, SK-HEP-1 cells and Huh-7 cells were transfected with miR-597-5p mimics and inhibitor, respectively. MiR-597-5p markedly reduced the cell viability and the expression of Ki-67 in HCC cells. MiR-597-5p also repressed the cell cycle progression of HCC cells and the protein levels of cyclin D1 and CDK2. Moreover, miR597-5p inhibited the migration and invasion of HCC cells and decreased MMP2 and MMP9 levels. Transcriptional enhancer associate domain transcription factor 1 (TEAD1) was identified as a target of miR-597-5p by luciferase reporter assay. TEAD1 and its downstream target genes, CTGF and CYR61, were downregulated by miR-597-5p in HCC cells. Furthermore, miR-597-5p was demonstrated to function in HCC progression by targeting TEAD1 via TEAD1 expression gain and loss. Our study demonstrates that miR-597-5p represses the proliferation, migration, and invasion of HCC cells through targeting TEAD1, which provides a therapeutic target for HCC treatment.

Safety and Immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines in Patients With Chronic Liver Diseases (CHESS-NMCID 2101): A Multicenter Study.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: We aimed to assess the safety and immunogenicity of inactivated whole-virion severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccines in patients with chronic liver diseases (CLD) in this study. METHODS: This was a prospective, multi-center, open-label study. Participants aged over 18 years with confirmed CLD and healthy volunteers were enrolled. All participants received 2 doses of inactivated whole-virion SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. Adverse reactions were recorded within 14 days after any dose of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, laboratory testing results were collected after the second dose, and serum samples of enrolled subjects were collected and tested for SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies at least 14 days after the second dose. RESULTS: A total of 581 participants (437 patients with CLD and 144 healthy volunteers) were enrolled from 15 sites in China. Most adverse reactions were mild and transient, and injection site pain (n = 36; 8.2%) was the most frequently reported adverse event. Three participants had grade 3 aminopherase elevation (defined as alanine aminopherase >5 upper limits of normal) after the second dose of inactivated whole-virion SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, and only 1 of them was judged as severe adverse event potentially related to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. The positive rates of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies were 76.8% in the noncirrhotic CLD group, 78.9% in the compensated cirrhotic group, 76.7% in the decompensated cirrhotic group (P = .894 among CLD subgroups), and 90.3% in healthy controls (P = .008 vs CLD group). CONCLUSION: Inactivated whole-virion SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are safe in patients with CLD. Patients with CLD had lower immunologic response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines than healthy population. The immunogenicity is similarly low in noncirrhotic CLD, compensated cirrhosis, and decompensated cirrhosis.

Safety and immunogenicity of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (CHESS2101): A multicenter study.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: The development of COVID-19 vaccines has progressed with encouraging safety and efficacy data. Concerns have been raised about SARS-CoV-2 vaccine responses in the large population of patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The study aimed to explore the safety and immunogenicity of COVID-19 vaccination in NAFLD. METHODS: This multicenter study included patients with NAFLD without a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection. All patients were vaccinated with 2 doses of inactivated vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. The primary safety outcome was the incidence of adverse reactions within 7 days after each injection and overall incidence of adverse reactions within 28 days, and the primary immunogenicity outcome was neutralizing antibody response at least 14 days after the whole-course vaccination. RESULTS: A total of 381 patients with pre-existing NAFLD were included from 11 designated centers in China. The median age was 39.0 years (IQR 33.0-48.0 years) and 179 (47.0%) were male. The median BMI was 26.1 kg/m2 (IQR 23.8-28.1 kg/m2). The number of adverse reactions within 7 days after each injection and adverse reactions within 28 days totaled 95 (24.9%) and 112 (29.4%), respectively. The most common adverse reactions were injection site pain in 70 (18.4%), followed by muscle pain in 21 (5.5%), and headache in 20 (5.2%). All adverse reactions were mild and self-limiting, and no grade 3 adverse reactions were recorded. Notably, neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 were detected in 364 (95.5%) patients with NAFLD. The median neutralizing antibody titer was 32 (IQR 8-64), and the neutralizing antibody titers were maintained. CONCLUSIONS: The inactivated COVID-19 vaccine appears to be safe with good immunogenicity in patients with NAFLD. LAY SUMMARY: The development of vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has progressed rapidly, with encouraging safety and efficacy data. This study now shows that the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine appears to be safe with good immunogenicity in the large population of patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

High-order orbital angular momentum generation in a helically twisted pig-nose-shaped core microstructured optical fibers.

We propose a helically twisted pig-nose-shaped core microstructured optical fiber (HPC-MOF) for orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode generation. It comprises seven air-hole rings hexagonally arranged with two air holes and one air-hole ring replaced, forming two cores in a line 3 µm from the fiber center and one ring-shaped core. The fiber is helically twisted along the rotation axis. In this fiber, supermodes in inner dual-core can be coupled to high-order modes in outer ring-core, yielding OAM ring-shaped modes at different certain wavelengths, and various OAM modes at different twist rates were investigated in this paper. We demonstrate the distinct coupling differences of symmetric and antisymmetric supermodes in inner dual-core when the supermode coupled to ring-core mode. A modal matching rule is presented to characterize the coupling differences, which is suitable for describing supermode coupling characteristics in HPC-MOFs. Compared to conventional methods, these properties indicate that the fiber can generate higher-order OAM modes and more easily integrate into all-fiber optical communication systems, with potential in OAM generators, light-controlling devices, and integrated optics applications.

Orbital-angular-momentum-amplifying helical vector modes in Yb3+-doped three-core twisted microstructure fiber.

A helical Yb3+-doped three-core microstructure fiber (YTMF) amplifier is proposed in this paper, so as to solve the problem of generation and transmission of the orbital angular momentum (OAM) beams. The fiber is composed of three Yb3+-doped cores with a regular triangle shape and a longitudinal helical structure. The experimental results show that the 1064nm laser can be amplified due to the fluorescence amplification characteristics of the doped material Yb3+. Furthermore, theoretical analysis indicates the modes in YTMF at 1064nm, which is located in the amplified wavelength, can support nine modes carrying OAM. Therefore, the related experiments were performed and verified that the transmission modes can respectively carry 1, 2, and 3-order OAM at 1064nm in different coupling cases. These excellent properties indicate that the combination of doped materials and helical fiber provide favorable conditions for the generation and amplification of OAM, which provides a basis for the further development of OAM beams in the field of quantum communication and dense space division multiplexing.

Multi-functional double rare-earth-doped ball sensor based on a hollow-core microstructure fiber.

In this Letter, we demonstrated an ∞-type multi-functional sensor through splicing double rare-earth-doped balls (REDBs) with a hollow-core microstructure fiber. Utilizing the different thermal expansion and thermo-optic coefficients of silica and rare earth, the interference of REDBs will be more sensitive to temperature. On both ends of the dual-ball, we spliced the anti-resonance fiber (ARF) to satisfy the broad waveband transmission. In addition, the special anti-resonance loss peak of the ARF can make the amplitude change of the signal more obvious. The experiments prove that a multi-functional sensor is capable of detecting versatile parameters, such as the illumination response, liquid concentration, and ambient temperature. In addition, the temperature sensitivity can reach 1 nm/°C, and the illumination response is obvious. We also analyze the concentration of P-Methylthiophenol, a substance harmful to human beings in the environment. Its resolution can reach 3.125E-5 mol/L. These results indicate that the sensor can be used in underground mine detection, environmental monitoring, and so on.

Sensitive real-time monitoring of refractive indices and components using a microstructure optical fiber microfluidic sensor.

Based on the surface plasmon resonance of metal and anti-resonant principles of hole-core microstructure optical fiber (MSF), in this Letter, we demonstrate a MSF microfluidic sensor that combines silver film and hole-core MSF to achieve the sensitive real-time monitoring of refractive indices and components. The large hole core is a common channel for guiding light and flowing measured liquid. Because of the interaction between light and continuous flow measured liquid, the component and refractive indices can be simultaneously monitored by the characteristic absorption wavelength and the surface plasmon resonant peak position, respectively. These results indicate that the MSF microfluidic sensor is an ideal multi-parameter measurement optical sensor.

Photonic crystal fiber for dispersion compensation.

The dispersion and mode characteristics in a dual-concentric-core photonic crystal fiber, based on pure silica, are simulated by the multipole method. The fiber exhibits very large negative dispersion due to anticrossing of two individual inner core and outer core modes. Near the wavelength of 1.55 microm, we could obtain narrowband dispersion-compensating fiber with dispersion values of -23,000 ps/km/nm, broadband dispersion-compensating fiber with dispersion values from -1000 ps/km/nm to -2500 ps/km/nm over a 200 nm range, and kappa values near 300 nm, which matched well with standard single mode fiber. It shows that even if there are some changes in the structure parameters during fabrication, these fibers can still maintain a fine dispersion-compensating property.

Optimization of fabrication parameters to produce chitosan-tripolyphosphate nanoparticles for delivery of tea catechins.

This work investigated the polyanion-initiated gelation process in fabricating chitosan-tripolyphosphate (CS-TPP) nanoparticles intended to be used as carriers for delivering tea catechins. The results demonstrated that the particle size and surface charge of CS-TPP nanoparticles could be controlled by fabrication conditions. For preparation of CS-TPP nanoparticles loaded with tea catechins, the effects of modulating conditions including contact time between CS and tea catechins, CS molecular mass, CS concentration, CS-TPP mass ratio, initial pH value of CS solution, and concentration of tea catechins on encapsulation efficiency and the release profile of tea catechins in vitro were examined systematically. The study found that the encapsulation efficiency of tea catechins in CS-TPP nanoparticles ranged from 24 to 53%. In addition, FT-IR analysis showed that the covalent bonding and hydrogen bonding between tea catechins and CS occurred during the formation of CS-TPP nanoparticles loaded with tea catechins. Furthermore, studies on the release profile of tea catechins in vitro demonstrated that the controlled release of tea catechins using CS-TPP nanoparticles was achievable.

Improved fully vectorial effective index method in photonic crystal fiber.

In the simulation of photonic crystal fibers, the fixed value of the normalized equivalent core radius (p/Lambda) in the fully vectorial effective index method is inaccurate. For what is believed to be the first time, the relation of p/Lambda with normalized frequency (Lambda/lambda) and hole-to-pitch ratio (d/Lambda) is obtained. The improved fully vectorial effective index method (IFVEIM) is proposed. The modal properties computed with the IFVEIM, such as the effective index and the total dispersion, are closely matched to those of the multipole method as well as to experimental values, and the errors of the effective index have been reduced by 2 to 3 orders of magnitude.