The immune system in patients with cancer often fails to control tumour growth because of deficient immunogenicity of tumour cells. Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides (Gl-PS) are believed to have anti-tumour effects by boosting host immune function. Additionally, Gl-PS may have some direct effects on tumour cells in the activation of lymphocytes, thus enhancing the immunogenicity of tumour cells. We tested the effects of Gl-PS in lymphocyte activation by incubating Gl-PS with a tumour cell line deficient in antigen presentation. Our study showed that Gl-PS can promote B16F10 melanoma cells to induce lymphocyte proliferation, CD69 and FasL expression and IFN-c production, indicating that Gl-PS can improve the nature of B16F10 cells to activate lymphocytes. Furthermore, H-2D b [a major histocompatibility (MHC) class I molecule], and B7-1 and B7-2 (two prominent co-stimulatory molecules expressed on B16F10 cells) were enhanced by Gl-PS, suggesting that these molecules may at least partially be involved in the process of Gl-PS on B16F10 cells to activate lymphocytes.The concept of immunosurveillance was first presented in 1957 and supported by the evidence of tumour-specific antigens [1]. However, the immune system in patients with cancer often fails to control tumour growth because of deficient immunogenicity of the tumour cells. Tumour cells use various strategies to evade the recognition by the host immune system. Mechanisms, such as MHC class I down-regulation, antigen loss, antigen modulation or the expression of inhibitory molecules, may explain the failure of an endogenous immune response in tumour control [2]. A major goal of immunotherapy is to generate an effective cell-mediated immune response with active or adoptive immunotherapy. It is clearly important to enhance immunogenicity of malignant tumour cells for induction of anti-tumour responses; however, attempts to activate a specific immune response against malignancies have been tried with only limited success.Ganoderma lucidum (Gl) has been widely used in China for centuries to promote longevity and improve vigour without appreciable adverse effects [3]. Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides (Gl-PS), extracts from Gl, have multiple biological activities. Over the past two decades, numerous studies have demonstrated the immunomodulatory and antitumour activities of Gl-PS [4-6]. The anti-tumour effect of Gl-PS is believed to be mediated primarily by immune mechanisms. Gl-PS can increase cytokine production, improve dendritic cell maturation and function [7], improve cytokine-induced killer cell (CIK) function [5], improve cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) function [8], and inhibit the growth of vascular endothelial cell and the induction of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in human lung cancer cell [9]. Gl-PS can also enhance the function of immunological effector cells in immunosuppressed mice [10]. In addition, recent research has shown that Gl-PS can reverse multidrug resistance (MDR) by down-regulating the expression of MDR-1 and MDR-assoc...

B16F10-CS suppressed lymphocyte proliferation and perforin and granzyme B production in lymphocytes after induction with phytohemagglutinin, as well as lymphocyte proliferation in the mixed lymphocyte reaction. This suppression may be associated with elevated levels of immunosuppressive IL-10, TGF-β1 and VEGF in B16F10-CS. Gl-PS had antagonistic effects on the immunosuppression induced by B16F10-CS, suggesting the potential for Gl-PS in cancer immunotherapy.

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The plate fin heat exchanger is a compact heat exchanger applied in many industries because of its high thermal performance. To enhance the heat transfer of plate fin heat exchanger further, three new kinds of wavy plate fins, namely perforated wavy fin, staggered wavy fin and discontinuous wavy fin, are proposed and investigated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The effects of key design parameters, including that of waviness aspect ratios, perforation diameters, staggered ratios and breaking distance are investigated, respectively, with Reynolds number changes from 500 to 4500. It is found that due to the swirl flow and efficient mixing of the fluid, the proposed heat transfer enhancement techniques all have advantages over the traditional wavy fin. At the same time, serration is beneficial to reduce the friction factor, and the breaking technique can reduce heat transfer area. Through the performance evaluation criteria, the staggered wavy fin has an advantage over the small waviness aspect ratio; with increasing waviness aspect ratio, this predominance is gradually surpassed by the perforated wavy fin, and the advantage of the discontinuous fin is the smallest and almost invariable. A maximum performance evaluation criteria (PEC) as high as 1.24 can be obtained for the perforated wavy fin at the waviness aspect ratio γ = 0.45.

It is well-documented that macrophages have the functions to regulate antitumor immune response. Antitumor response can be launched by a series of events, starting with inflammation mediated by monocyte/macrophages, which stimulates natural killer and dendritic cells and finally activates the cytotoxic lymphoid system. Monocytes/macrophages may be the first line of defense in tumors. However, specific and nonspecific immunotherapy for human cancer has shown no success or limited success in clinical trials. Part of the reasons attribute to tumor-derived soluble factors that suppress functions of immune cells or induce apoptosis of these cells, including macrophages. Therefore, antagonism of the suppression on the macrophages is an important goal for tumor immunotherapy. To achieve this purpose, Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides (Gl-PS) with multiple bioactivities were used on mouse peritoneal macrophages incubating with culture supernatants of B16F10 melanoma cells (B16F10-CS). It was shown that the viability, phagocytic activity, NO production, TNF-α production and activity in peritoneal macrophages after activation by lipopolysaccharide were suppressed by B16F10-CS, while the suppressions were fully or partially antagonized by Gl-PS. In conclusion, B16F10-CS is suppressive to the viability, phagocytic activity, NO production, TNF-α production and activity in peritoneal macrophages while Gl-PS had the antagonistic effects against this suppression, suggesting this potential of Gl-PS to facilitate cancer immunotherapy.

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To reduce the exergy loss that is caused by the high-grade extraction steam of traditional heating mode of combined heat and power (CHP) generating unit, a high back-pressure cascade heating technology for two jointly constructed large-scale steam turbine power generating units is proposed. The Unit 1 makes full use of the exhaust steam heat from high back-pressure turbine, and the Unit 2 uses the original heating mode of extracting steam condensation, which significantly reduces the flow rate of high-grade extraction steam. The typical 2 × 350 MW supercritical CHP units in northern China were selected as object. The boundary conditions for heating were determined based on the actual climatic conditions and heating demands. A model to analyze the performance of the high back-pressure cascade heating supply units for off-design operating conditions was developed. The load distributions between high back-pressure exhaust steam direct supply and extraction steam heating supply were described under various conditions, based on which, the heating efficiency of the CHP units with the high back-pressure cascade heating system was analyzed. The design heating load and maximum heating supply load were determined as well. The results indicate that the average coal consumption rate during the heating season is 205.46 g/kWh for the design heating load after the retrofit, which is about 51.99 g/kWh lower than that of the traditional heating mode. The coal consumption rate of 199.07 g/kWh can be achieved for the maximum heating load. Significant energy saving and CO 2 emission reduction are obtained.Energies 2018, 11, 119 2 of 15 300 MW can even reach 0.98 MPa. However, the first-class heating networks are generally designed for a water supply temperature of approximately 120-130 • C. Because of climate change and energy saving of buildings, the actual operating temperature is usually approximately 90-100 • C [10,11]. The temperature of extracting steam is too high, which results in large amounts of exergy loss. On the other hand, the exhaust steam from the low pressure cylinder of turbine condenses into water by releasing large amount latent heat, which results in great cold source loss [12]. Therefore, making full use of the steam turbine's exhaust heat and reducing the throttling loss from the extracting steam is the key to further improving the efficiency of the CHP unit.Several improvements have been made to the traditional steam extraction heating method, including that of the steam turbine using dual-axis rotors and can be operated under all condensation, extraction, and back pressure conditions [13,14]. When the heat load during the heating period is high, the low pressure cylinder is removed, and the steam turbine operates on the high back pressure, which can increase the heating capacity by using all of the exhaust heat. However, a synchro-self-shifting (SSS) clutch must be installed to implement the changeover between different conditions, which is of much expensive. Besides, the power plant, coupled absorption heat...

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