No abstract

Instead of compressing biomass into briquettes, this study considers the compression of biochar. Densification is necessary for biochar to increase bulk density for convenience of handling, transportation, and storage. Response surface methodology was employed, and briquetting of biochar from corn stover was carried out in this study to investigate the effects of moisture content (at levels of 16, 17.6, 20, 22.4, and 24%), pressure (at levels of 21.5, 25, 30, 35, and 38.5 MPa), and residence time (at levels of 4, 6.4, 10, 13.6, and 16 s), on crushing resistance, dimensional stability of briquettes, and specific energy consumption of briquetting. The results showed that the effects of the variables on each evaluation index were significant (P < 0.01), the influence order was obtained, and the regression models are set up. The optimum condition for the briquetting process was moisture content of 18.5%, pressure of 38.5 MPa, and residence time of 4 s, giving mean values of the briquette crushing resistance of 49.9 N, dimensional stability of 93.8%, and specific energy consumption of briquetting of 4.41 MJ/t, respectively. The errors between the predicted values and the experimental values are all less than 5%.

No abstract

Lymphoma is accompanied by the impairment of multiple immune functions. Cytokines play an important role in a variety of immune-related functions and affect the tumor microenvironment. However, the exact regulatory mechanisms between them remain unclear. This study aimed to explore the cytokines expression and function in Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), and mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). We performed a transcriptome integration analysis of 14 lymphoma datasets including 240 Hodgkin's lymphoma, 891 diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, 216 mantle cell lymphoma, and 64 health samples. The results showed that multiple immune functions and signal pathway damage were shared by all three types of lymphoma, and these functions were related to cytokines. Furthermore, through co-expression network and functional interaction network analysis, we identified CXCL14 as a key regulator and it affects cell chemotaxis and migration functions. The functional experiment showed that CXCL14 knockdown inhibited cell migration in MCL cell lines. This study suggested that high expression of CXCL14 may aggravate MCL via promoting cell migration. Our findings provide novel insights into the biology of this disease and would be helpful for the pathogenesis study and drug discovery of lymphomas.