Instant and accurate evaluation of drug resistance in tumors before and during chemotherapy is important for patients with advanced colon cancer and is beneficial for prolonging their progression-free survival time. Here, the possible biomarkers that reflect the drug resistance of colon cancer were investigated using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) in vivo. SW480[5-fluorouracil(5-FU)-responsive] and SW480/5-FU (5-FU-resistant) xenograft models were generated and subjected to in vivo 1H-MRS examinations when the maximum tumor diameter reached 1–1.5 cm. The areas under the peaks for metabolites, including choline (Cho), lactate (Lac), glutamine/glutamate (Glx), and myo-inositol (Ins)/creatine (Cr) in the tumors, were analyzed between two groups. The resistance-related protein expression, cell morphology, necrosis, apoptosis, and cell survival of these tumor specimens were assessed. The content for tCho, Lac, Glx, and Ins/Cr in the tumors of the SW480 group was significantly lower than that of the SW480/5-FU group (P < 0.05). While there was no significant difference in the degree of necrosis and apoptosis rate of tumor cells between the two groups (P > 0.05), the tumor cells of the SW480/5-FU showed a higher cell density and larger nuclei. The expression levels of resistance-related proteins (P-gp, MPR1, PKC) in the SW480 group were lower than those in the SW480/5-FU group (P < 0.01). The survival rate of 5-FU-resistant colon cancer cells was significantly higher than that of 5-FU-responsive ones at 5-FU concentrations greater than 2.5 μg/mL (P < 0.05). These results suggest that alterations in tCho, Lac, Glx1, Glx2, and Ins/Cr detected by 1H-MRS may be used for monitoring tumor resistance to 5-FU in vivo.

Liquid Metal Battery (LMB) technology is a new research area born from a different economic and political climate that has the ability to address the deficiencies of a society where electrical energy storage alternatives are lacking. The United States government has begun to fund scholarly research work at its top industrial and national laboratories. This was to develop Liquid Metal Battery cells for energy storage solutions. This research was encouraged during the Cold War battle for scientific superiority. Intensive research then drifted towards high-energy rechargeable batteries, which work better for automobiles and other applications. Intensive research has been carried out on the development of electrochemical rechargeable all-liquid energy storage batteries. The recent request for green energy transfer and storage for various applications, ranging from small-scale to large-scale power storage, has increased energy storage advancements and explorations. The criteria of high energy density, low cost, and extensive energy storage provision have been met through lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries, and Liquid Metal Battery development. The objective of this research is to establish that Liquid Metal Battery technology could provide research concepts that give projections of the probable electrode metals that could be harnessed for LMB development. Thus, at the end of this research, it was discovered that the parameter estimation of the Li//Cd-Sb combination is most viable for LMB production when compared with Li//Cd-Bi, Li-Bi, and Li-Cd constituents. This unique constituent of the LMB parameter estimation would yield a better outcome for LMB development.

We have studied the effect of the series resistance on the heating of the cathode, which is based on carbon nanotubes and serves to realize the field emission of electrons into the vacuum. The experiment was performed with the single multi-walled carbon nanotube (MCNT) that was separated from the array grown by CVD method with thin-film Ni-Ti catalyst (nickel 4 nm/Ti 10 nm). The heating of the cathode leads to the appearance of a current of the thermionic emission. The experimental voltage current characteristic exhibited the negative resistance region caused by thermal field emission. This current increases strongly with increasing voltage and contributes to the degradation of the cold emitter. The calculation of the temperature of the end of the cathode is made taking into account the effect of the phenomenon that warms up and cools the cathode. We have developed a method for processing of the emission volt-ampere characteristics of a cathode, which relies on a numerical calculation of the field emission current and the comparison of these calculations with experiments. The model of the volt-ampere characteristic takes into account the CNT’s geometry, properties, its contact with the catalyst, heating and simultaneous implementation of the thermionic and field emission. The calculation made it possible to determine a number of important parameters, including the voltage and current of the beginning of thermionic emission, the temperature distribution along the cathode and the resistance of the nanotube. The phenomenon of thermionic emission from CNTs was investigated experimentally and theoretically. The conditions of this type emission occurrence were defined. The results of the study could form the basis of theory of CNT emitter’s degradation.

A numerical investigation utilizing water as the working fluid was conducted on a 2D closed loop pulsating heat pipe (CLPHP) using the CFD software AnsysFluent19.0. This computational fluid dynamics (CFD) investigation explores three instances where there is a consistent input of heat flux in the evaporator region, but the temperatures in the condenser region differ across the cases. In each case, the condenser temperatures are set at 10 ℃, 20 ℃, and 30 ℃ respectively. The transient simulation is conducted with uniform time steps of 10 s. Generally, the heat rejection medium operated at a lower temperature performs better than at a higher temperature. In this CFD study the thermal resistances gets decreased with the decreasing value of condenser temperatures and the deviation of 35.31% of thermal resistance gets decreased with the condenser region operated at the temperature of 10 ℃.