Progress in developments of dry coal beneficiation

Abstract China’s energy supply heavily relies on coal and China’s coal resource and water resource has a reverse distribution. The problem of water shortages restricts the applications of wet coal beneficiation technologies in drought regions. The present situation highlights the significance and urgency of developing dry beneficiation technologies of coal. Besides, other countries that produce large amounts of coal also encounter serious problem of lack of water for coal beneficiation, such as American, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Turkey and India. Thus, dry coal beneficiation becomes the research hot-points in the field of coal cleaning worldwide in recent years. This paper systematically reviewed the promising research efforts on dry coal beneficiation reported in literature in last 5 years and discussed the progress in developments of dry coal beneficiation worldwide. Finally, we also elaborated the prospects and the challenges of the development of dry coal beneficiation

Domain-specific ReAct for physics-integrated iterative modeling: A case study of LLM agents for gas path analysis of gas turbines

This study explores the application of large language models (LLMs) with callable tools in energy and power engineering domain, focusing on gas path analysis of gas turbines. We developed a dual-agent tool-calling process to integrate expert knowledge, predefined tools, and LLM reasoning. We evaluated various LLMs, including LLama3, Qwen1.5 and GPT. Smaller models struggled with tool usage and parameter extraction, while larger models demonstrated favorable capabilities. All models faced challenges with complex, multi-component problems. Based on the test results, we infer that LLMs with nearly 100 billion parameters could meet professional scenario requirements with fine-tuning and advanced prompt design. Continued development are likely to enhance their accuracy and effectiveness, paving the way for more robust AI-driven solutions

Development and Physicochemical Index Analysis of Clear Grape Juice Made from 'Beta' in Cold Regions

In this study, a product of clear juice was developed with the grape berries of a resistant rootstock variety 'Beda' cultivated in cold regions. The product overcomed the shortcomings of 'low sugar and high acidity' in the original juice and enhanced the flavor feature inherent to the American Vitis grapes. The secondary utilization of the pomace after pressing fully reserved the nutritional and bioactive constituents of berry into the juice. The optimum process conditions for the phenolic extraction from grape pomace were obtained by single-factor tests, including ethanol concentration of 60%, material-liquid ratio of 1:25, extraction duration of 1.5 h and 3 extraction times. And the optimum formula for clear grape juice made from 'Beda' in cold regions was determined by single-factor and orthogonal tests, containing 45% original juice, 8.2% sugar, 0.035% citric acid, 0.4% phenolic extracts from grape skin pomace and 0.5% phenolic extracts from grape seed pomace. The clear grape juice had a deep ruby red color, the appropriate sweetness and acidity and an outstanding grape flavor. There were 3.27 mg/100 mL of vitamin C, 831.08 mg GAE/L of total phenolics, 25.37 mg CAE/L of flavan-3-ols and 15.75 mg CGE/L of anthocyanins as well as 3.71 mmol Trolox/L of DPPH radical scavenging capacity in the clear juice. Compared with the commercially available products of pure grape juice, the new clear juice decreased the proportion of pure juice, but also reduced the additive amount of sugar. At the same time, the addition of phenolic extracts from grape pomace made the clear juice exhibit higher nutritional and bioactive properties. The clear grape juice made from 'Beda' in cold regions would meet the current consumers demand for both quality and health

Identification of a cellular senescence-related-lncRNA (SRlncRNA) signature to predict the overall survival of glioma patients and the tumor immune microenvironment

Background: Gliomas are brain tumors that arise from glial cells, and they are the most common primary intracranial tumors with a poor prognosis. Cellular senescence plays a critical role in cancer, especially in glioma. In this study, we constructed a senescence-related lncRNA (SRlncRNA) signature to assess the prognosis of glioma.Methods: The Cancer Genome Atlas was used to collect SRlncRNA transcriptome profiles and clinical data about glioma. Patients were randomized to training, testing, and whole cohorts. LASSO and Cox regression analyses were employed to construct the SRlncRNA signature, and Kaplan–Meier (K-M) analysis was performed to determine each cohort’s survival. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were applied to verify the accuracy of this signature. Gene set enrichment analysis was used to visualize functional enrichment (GSEA). The CIBERSORT algorithm, ESTIMATE and TIMER databases were utilized to evaluate the differences in the infiltration of 22 types of immune cells and their association with the signature. RT–qPCR and IHC were used to identify the consistency of the signature in tumor tissue.Results: An SRlncRNA signature consisting of six long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) was constructed, and patients were divided into high-risk and low-risk groups by the median of their riskscore. The KM analysis showed that the high-risk group had worse overall survival, and the ROC curve confirmed that the riskscore had more accurate predictive power. A multivariate Cox analysis and its scatter plot with clinical characteristics confirmed the riskscore as an independent risk factor for overall survival. GSEA showed that the GO and KEGG pathways were mainly enriched in the immune response to tumor cells, p53 signaling pathway, mTOR signaling pathway, and Wnt signaling pathway. Further validation also yielded significant differences in the risk signature in terms of immune cell infiltration, which may be closely related to prognostic differences, and qRT–PCR and IHC confirmed the consistency of the expression differences in the major lncRNAs with those in the prediction model.Conclusion Our findings indicated that the SRlncRNA signature might be used as a predictive biomarker and that there is a link between it and immune infiltration. This discovery is consistent with the present categorization system and may open new avenues for research and personalized therapy

Boosting RNA nanotherapeutics with V-ATPase activating non-inflammatory lipid nanoparticles to treat chronic lung injury

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are a promising platform for mRNA delivery. However, their use in inflammatory pulmonary diseases is limited by reactogenicity and suboptimal delivery. Here we develop a non-inflammatory LNP (NIF-LNP) by incorporating ursolic acid, identified from a natural product library, into a biodegradable, cationic phosphoramide-derived LNP formulation. NIF-LNPs exhibit a 40-fold enhancement in lung protein expression without causing significant reactogenicity compared to LNPs containing ALC-0315. Our CRISPR-KO mechanistic studies uncover that ursolic acid promote endosome acidification by activating the V-ATPase complex, acting as a central hub for endosomal trafficking of LNPs and inflammation control. Furthermore, we identify an intracellular circadian regulatory gene, NR1D1, encapsulated in NIF-LNPs, showing notable therapeutic efficacy in bronchopulmonary dysplasia and lung fibrosis. To enhance clinical feasibility, we have developed a lyophilized formulation that maintains stability for over 90 days and ensures efficient nebulization in preclinical male mouse, pup rat, and male dog models. Overall, this V-ATPase-activating atomized NIF-LNP presents a viable strategy for treating variable chronic inflammatory lung diseases

HOXA10 mediates epithelial-mesenchymal transition to promote gastric cancer metastasis partly via modulation of TGFB2/Smad/METTL3 signaling axis

Abstract Background Homeobox A10 (HOXA10) belongs to the HOX gene family, which plays an essential role in embryonic development and tumor progression. We previously demonstrated that HOXA10 was significantly upregulated in gastric cancer (GC) and promoted GC cell proliferation. This study was designed to investigate the role of HOXA10 in GC metastasis and explore the underlying mechanism. Methods Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to evaluate the expression of HOXA10 in GC. In vitro cell migration and invasion assays as well as in vivo mice metastatic models were utilized to investigate the effects of HOXA10 on GC metastasis. GSEA, western blot, qRT-PCR and confocal immunofluorescence experiments preliminarily analyzed the relationship between HOXA10 and EMT. ChIP-qPCR, dual-luciferase reporter (DLR), co-immunoprecipitation (CoIP), colorimetric m6A assay and mice lung metastasis rescue models were performed to explore the mechanism by which HOXA10 accelerated the EMT process in GC. Results In this study, we demonstrated HOXA10 was upregulated in GC patients and the difference was even more pronounced in patients with lymph node metastasis (LNM) than without. Functionally, HOXA10 promoted migration and invasion of GC cells in vitro and accelerated lung metastasis in vivo. EMT was an important mechanism responsible for HOXA10-involved metastasis. Mechanistically, we revealed HOXA10 enriched in the TGFB2 promoter region, promoted transcription, increased secretion, thus triggered the activation of TGFβ/Smad signaling with subsequent enhancement of Smad2/3 nuclear expression. Moreover, HOXA10 upregulation elevated m6A level and METTL3 expression in GC cells possible by regulating the TGFB2/Smad pathway. CoIP and ChIP-qPCR experiments demonstrated that Smad proteins played an important role in mediating METTL3 expression. Furthermore, we found HOXA10 and METTL3 were clinically relevant, and METTL3 was responsible for the HOXA10-mediated EMT process by performing rescue experiments with western blot and in vivo mice lung metastatic models. Conclusions Our findings indicated the essential role of the HOXA10/TGFB2/Smad/METTL3 signaling axis in GC progression and metastasis. </jats:sec

Advances in the Preparation of Carrier-Based Composite Photocatalysts and Their Applications

Photocatalytic technology offers significant advantages in addressing water pollution and energy regeneration challenges. Notably, photocatalytic CO2 reduction technology can convert CO2 into stable, efficient, and clean carbon compounds such as carbon monoxide, methane, ethylene, and other high-value compounds, providing a novel approach to mitigating the global energy crisis and maintaining the carbon balance. However, traditional semiconductor photocatalytic materials face limitations in photocatalytic degradation and reduction due to their low light energy utilization, severe photocorrosion, rapid photogenerated carrier recombination, and slow electron transport rates. Recent studies have shown that introducing various carrier materials can effectively address these issues. Carrier materials, with their unique properties, enhance semiconductor composite photocatalyst systems, promoting photogenerated carrier separation and improving light energy utilization. This review introduces different carrier materials used in photocatalyst fabrication, systematically explains the preparation strategies for carrier-based composite photocatalysts, and summarizes their applications. Finally, future developments in this field are discussed. This review aims to provide diverse strategies for designing carrier-based photocatalysts, leveraging the special effects of carrier materials to control semiconductor composite modes, interface behaviors, and energy band structures