Preparation and Characterization of Carbonized Polyacrylonitrile/Keratin Nanofiber Mat

Chao Hou,Jia Yu,Binjie Xin 한국섬유공학회 2023 Fibers and polymers Vol.24 No.11

With the continuous development of flexible wearable technology, there is an increasing demand for new sensors that can accurately monitor and record human motion. Fiber mats have emerged as a promising material for use in flexible sensors. In this study, a fibrous mat consisting of carbonized polyacrylonitrile/keratin was designed for monitoring human motions using electrostatic spinning, high temperature pre-oxidation, and carbonization processes. The fiber mat exhibits excellent mechanical strength and flexibility. By measuring changes in the sensor resistance of the carbonized polyacrylonitrile/keratin fiber mat, it is possible to monitors the flatness and curvature of the finger with high precision, offering a new solution for the development of flexible wearable products. The carbonized polyacrylonitrile/keratin-based fiber mat has the advantages of flexibility, fast response, and high accuracy, and is a novel and promising sensing material with broad application prospects in the field of wearable technology.

Characterization and Mechanism Analysis of Flexible UV Irradiated PAN-Based Carbon Fiber Membranes Prepared

Chao Hou,Miao Yu,Binjie Xin 한국섬유공학회 2023 Fibers and polymers Vol.24 No.12

To enhance the flexibility of electrostatically spun PAN-based carbon nanofiber films for wearable textile applications, this study aimed to prepare PAN nanofiber films by incorporating the 1173 photoinitiator. Subsequently, UV irradiation, pre-oxidation treatment, and high-temperature carbonization processes were employed to develop PAN nanofiber films with improved mechanical properties. The results indicated that UV irradiation treatment significantly promoted the degree of pre-oxidation reaction in PAN nanofiber membranes. Thermal performance characterization demonstrated that UV irradiation reduced the initiation temperature of the cyclization reaction and mitigated the concentration of exothermic phenomena. Raman spectra analysis revealed increased graphitization in the carbon nanofiber film following UV irradiation, as evidenced by a decrease in the ID/IG value to 0.908. This suggests that UV irradiation facilitated stable carbonization and enhanced the graphitization of the carbon fiber within PAN nanofiber films. Moreover, the stress–strain curve indicated that the breaking strength of the nanofiber film reached 1.45 MPa after 20 min of UV irradiation while maintaining an elongation at a break of 3.5%, demonstrating its remarkable strength and toughness. The resulting flexible carbon nanofiber film holds great potential for medical textiles, filtration membranes, flexible capacitors, and more applications.

Theoretical Study of the Reaction Mechanism for SiF₂ Radical with HNCO

Hou, Li-Jie,Wu, Bo-Wan,Kong, Chao,Han, Yan-Xia,Chen, Dong-Ping,Gao, Li-Guo Korean Chemical Society 2013 Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society Vol.34 No.12

The reaction mechanism of $SiF_2$ radical with HNCO has been investigated by the B3LYP method of density functional theory(DFT), while the geometries and harmonic vibration frequencies of reactants, intermediates, transition states and products have been calculated at the B3LYP/$6-311++G^{**}$ level. To obtain more precise energy result, stationary point energies were calculated at the CCSD(T)/$6-311++G^{**}$//B3LYP/$6-311++G^{**}$ level. $SiF_2+HNCO{\rightarrow}IM3{\rightarrow}TS5{\rightarrow}IM4{\rightarrow}TS6{\rightarrow}OSiF_2CNH(P3)$ was the main channel with low potential energy, $OSiF_2CNH$ was the main product. The analyses for the combining interaction between $SiF_2$ radical and HNCO with the atom-in-molecules theory (AIM) have been performed.

Laparoscopic hepatectomy for the treatment of Caroli’s disease: a case report

Chao-bo Chen,Wei-dong Hu,Wan-wen Zhao,Yan-yan Gu,Hong-wei Hou,Zheng Pan 대한외과학회 2018 Annals of Surgical Treatment and Research(ASRT) Vol.94 No.3

Caroli disease is a rare congenital disorder characterized by nonobstructive dilatation of intrahepatic ducts. In cases with symptomatic intrahepatic manifestations, treatment should correspond to the type with hepatic resection for localized disease and transplantation for diffuse forms. If possible, complete resection of the cysts can cure the symptoms and avoid the risk of malignancy. A 66-year-old woman presented to Wuxi Xishan People's Hospital with recurrent intermittent upper quadrant abdominal pain. Further examinations suggested the diagnosis of Caroli disease limited to the left hepatic lobe. She underwent laparoscopic hepatectomy. Pathological examination confirmed the diagnosis of Caroli disease, and no malignancy was found. There were no immediate complications and no long-term complications after one and one-half years of follow-up. Laparoscopic hepatectomy could be a feasible, safe treatment option for localized Caroli disease

Antitumor Effects of Hyperthermic CO₂ Pneumoperitoneum on Human Gastric Cancer Cells

Zhou, Hou-Min,Feng, Bo,Zhao, Hong-Chao,Zheng, Min-Hua Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2012 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.13 No.1

Aim: To elucidate the effects of hyperthermic $CO_2$ pneumoperitoneum on human gastric AGS cells. Methods: Based on a newly devised in vitro study model, we evaluated the anti-cancer effects of HT-$CO_2$ ($42-44^{\circ}C$ for 2-4h) on human gastric cancer cells, and also the corresponding mechanisms. Results: HT-$CO_2$ ($42-44^{\circ}C$ for 2-4h) severely inhibited cell proliferation as assessed by Cell Counting Kit-8 assay, while inducing apoptosis in a temperature- and time-dependent manner demonstrated by annexin-V/PI flow cytometry and morphological analysis (Hoechst/PI fluorescence). In addition, it was found that HT-$CO_2$ ($42-44^{\circ}C$ for 2-4h) promoted the up-regulation of Bax by western blotting. Significantly, it could also suppress gastric cancer cell invasion and metastasis by in vitro invasion and motility assay. Conclusion: In conclusion, HT-$CO_2$ had an efficacious cytotoxic effect on gastric cancer cells through Bax-induced mitochondrial apoptotic signaling. Our studies indicate that it may serve as a potential therapy for peritoneal carcinomatosis of gastric cancer. Further investigations in vivo using animal models are now urgently needed.

Study on the Lipolytic Function of GPR43 and Its Reduced Expression by DHA

Sun, Chao,Hou, Zengmiao,Wang, Li Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2009 Animal Bioscience Vol.22 No.4

G protein-coupled receptor 43 (GPR43) is a newly-discovered short-chain free fatty acid receptor and its functions remain to be defined. The objective of this study was to investigate the function of GPR43 on lipolysis. We successfully cloned the GPR43 gene from the pig (EU122439), and measured the level of GPR43 mRNA in different tissues and primary pig adipocytes. The expression level of GPR43 mRNA was higher in adipose tissue and increased gradually with adipocyte differentiation. Then we examined GPR43 mRNA level in different types, growth-stages and various regions of adipose tissue of pigs. The results showed that the expression level of GPR43 mRNA was significantly higher in adipose tissue of obese pigs than in lean pigs, and the expression level also gradually increased as age increased. We further found that the abundance of GPR43 mRNA level increased more in subcutaneous fat than visceral fat. Thereafter, we studied the correlation between GPR43 and lipid metabolism-related genes in adipose tissue and primary pig adipocytes. GPR43 gene had significant negative correlation with hormone-sensitive lipase gene (HSL, r = -0.881, p<0.01) and triacylglycerol hydrolase gene (TGH, r = -0.848, p<0.01) in adipose tissue, and had positive correlation with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor $\gamma$ gene ($PPAR_{\gamma}$, r = 0.809, p<0.01) and lipoprotein lipase gene (LPL, r = 0.847, p<0.01) in adipocytes. In addition, we fed different concentrations of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) to mice, and analyzed expression level changes of GPR43, HSL and TGH in adipose. The results showed that DHA down-regulated GPR43 and up-regulated HSL and TGH mRNA levels; GPR43 also had significant negative correlation with HSL (low: r = -0.762, p<0.01; high: r = -0.838, p<0.01) and TGH (low: r = -0.736, p<0.01; high: r = -0.586, p<0.01). Our results suggested that GPR43 is a potential factor which regulates lipolysis in adipose tissue, and DHA as a receptor of GPR43 might promote lipolysis through down-regulating the expression of GPR43 mRNA.

Tool wear state recognition under imbalanced data based on WGAN-GP and lightweight neural network ShuffleNet

Wen Hou,Hong Guo,Bingnan Yan,Zhuang Xu,Chao Yuan,Yuan Mao 대한기계학회 2022 JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol.36 No.10

The tool is an important part of machining, and its condition determines the operational safety of the equipment and the quality of the workpiece. Therefore, tool condition monitoring (TCM) is of great significance. To address the imbalance of the tool monitoring signal and achieve a lightweight model, a TCM method based on WGAN-GP and ShuffleNet is proposed in this paper. The tool monitoring data are enhanced and balanced using WGAN-GP, and the 1D signal data are converted into 2D grayscale images. The existing ShuffleNet is improved by adding a channel attention mechanism to construct the entire model. The tool wear state is recognized through experimental validation of the milling dataset and compared with those through other models. Results show that the proposed model achieves an accuracy of 99.78 % in recognizing the wear state of tools under imbalanced data while ensuring a light weight, showing the superiority of the method.

Association of Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte Antigen-4 Polymorphisms with Malignant Bone Tumors Risk: A Meta-analysis

Zhang, Chao,Hou, Wei-Hua,Ding, Xuan-Xi,Wang, Xiong,Zhao, Hui,Han, Xing-Wen,Wang, Wen-Ji Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2016 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.17 No.8

Background: Previous studies have assessed the association between the Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte Antigen-4(CTLA-4) polymorphism with the risk of malignant bone tumor, but the conclusions were inconsistent. We aimed to clarify association of cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 polymorphisms with malignant bone tumors risk by performing a meta-analysis. Materials and Methods: The databases including PubMed, EMBase databases and the Cochrane Library were searched to identify the eligible studies prior to January 30 2016. Odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (95%CI) were used to estimate the strengths of the association between the CTLA-4 polymorphism and the malignant bone tumor risks. The meta-analysis was performed by STATA 12.0. Results: Four individual studies with a total of 1003 cases with malignant bone tumor and 1162 controls were included in our meta-analysis. The results of meta-analysis on those data demonstrated that CTLA-4 +49G>A polymorphism was associated with the risk of Ewing's sarcoma and osteosarcoma strongly (A vs. G: OR=1.36, 95%CI:1.20-1.54, p=0.000; AA+AG vs. GG: OR=1.35, 95%CI:1.14-1.61, p=0.001; AA vs. GG: OR=2.24, 95%CI:1.67-2.99, p=0.000; AA vs. AG+GG: OR=2.00, 95%CI:1.53-2.62, p=0.000), but CTLA-4 -318C/T polymorphism was not associated with the risk of malignant bone tumor (C vs. T: OR=0.76, 95%CI:0.76-1.08, p= 0.262; CC+CT vs. TT: OR=0.70, 95%CI:0.41-1.20, p= 0.198; CC vs. TT: OR=0.69, 95%CI:0.40-1.19, p= 0.183; CC vs. CT+TT: OR=0.92, 95%CI:0.75-1.13, p= 0.419). Subgroup analysis showed that there are significantly positive correlations between CTLA-4 +49G>A polymorphism and increased risks of malignant bone tumors in large size of sample (A vs. G: OR=1.347, 95%CI: 1.172,1.548, p=0.000; AA vs. GG: OR=2.228, 95%CI: 1.608,3.085, p=0.000), Ewing's Sarcoma or Osteosarcoma (A vs. G: OR=1.361, 95%CI: 1.201,1.540, p=0.000; AA vs. GG: OR=2.236, 95%CI: 1.674,2.986, p=0.000), and PCR-RFLP or Sequencing(A vs. G: OR=1.361, 95%CI: 1.201,1.540, p=0.000; AA vs. GG: OR=2.236, 95%CI: 1.674,2.986, p=0.000), but CTLA-4 -318C/T polymorphism was not associated with the risk of malignant bone tumors in diagnosis, genotype method, and sample size (all p>0.05). Conclusions: CTLA-4 +49A/G variant was associated with an increased risk of developing the malignant bone tumors, such as Ewing's sarcoma and osteosarcoma. However, it failed to show the association between CTLA-4 -318C/T polymorphism and the risk of malignant bone tumors. Future large-scale studies remain to be done to confirm our conclusions.

The Evaluation of Drying Qualities of Tea Dryers in Taiwan

( Cheng-hou Chang ),( Suming Chen ),( Chao-yin Tsai ),( Kuo-chih Tung ) 한국농업기계학회 2018 한국농업기계학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.23 No.1

Tea drying is a necessary process of tea manufacturing to prevent deterioration, stabilize the tea quality, and to facilitate packaging and storage. Therefore, the tea dryer is an essential equipment for the tea industry; and the tea drying quality is an index to evaluate tea dryers. In this study, four types of tea dryers were used to conduct tea leaves drying experiments. Four tests of sensory evaluation, color analysis, soluble ingredients analysis and chemical composition analysis were used to evaluate the drying quality of the tea dryers. The experiment results showed that the vacuum roller dryer (VRD) in the overall tea drying qualities had a better evaluation, the next were low-humidity dryer (LHD) and multiple-layer conveyer dryer (MLD), the electric hot air dryer (HAD) was worst among all tea dryers. The comprehensive evaluation of tea drying qualities were investigated using area analysis of radar chart which were VRD (2.38) > LHD (2.15) > MLD(2.12) > HAD(2.06). Therefore, the vacuum drying with moderate stirring could improve qualities of tea drying. Based on the results of this study, tea farmers or makers can choose the proper dryer, and tea equipment manufacturers can improve and enhance the performance of tea dryers

Investigation of Microscale Laser Shock Flat Hole Clinching

Yaxuan Hou,Kexin Ding,Guoxin Lu,Chao Zheng,Zhong Ji 한국정밀공학회 2022 International Journal of Precision Engineering and Vol.23 No.9

This paper proposes an improved laser shock flat hole clinching process for joining ductile and brittle materials to obtain single-sided flat joints in microscale. A copper foil is clinched with a perforated sheet and a mechanical joining is achieved by this process. Experiments and numerical simulations are conducted for three thickness combinations of 50 μm/50 μm, 30 μm/50 μm and 20 μm/100 μm to investigate the joinability of this process. The results show that a step-by-step laser shock process with a low-energy pre-shock and a high-energy secondary shock can effectively join the copper foil and the perforated sheet. The three thickness combinations of the upper and lower sheets result in three clinching structures, namely stacked, intermediate and thinning joints. And the joint strength mainly depends on the thinner sheet in a successful joining even for the single joint or the double-joint.