This study evaluated the immunogenicity of the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine in a guinea pig model to refine preclinical assessment methods. 24 guinea pigs were divided into four groups for immunohistochemical, histopathological, and molecular analyses, including qRT-PCR and ELISA. The ELISA results revealed significant elevations in interleukin 2 (IL-2), interferon-gamma (IFN- ), and tuberculosis-specific antibodies in vaccinated guinea pigs, particularly γ notable after 6 weeks. Although lung cytokine levels remained unchanged, spleen gene expression showed significant differences in interleukin-17, interleukin-12, interleukin-1β, and C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 10 after 6 weeks. Immunohistochemistry revealed peak IL-2 expression at 8 weeks and significant IFN-γ and TNF-α expression at 6 weeks. This study confirmed the effectiveness of BCG vaccine in guinea pigs, providing crucial insights for future tuberculosis vaccine development and standardizing immune response indicators.
This study deals with replacement analysis of deteriorated equipment for improving productivity of production system. Frequent breakdown of the deteriorated equipment causes a situation that reduces productivity such as low product quality, process delay, and repair cost. However, the replacement of new equipment will be required a high initial investment cost, so it is important to analysis the economic feasibility. Therefore, we analyze the effect of the production system due to the aging effect of the equipment and the feasibility of equipment replacement based on the economic analysis. The process flow, working time, logistics movement, etc. are analyzed in order to build the simulation modeling for a ship and land switchboard production system. Using numerical examples, the economic feasibility analysis of equipment replacement through replacement of existing deteriorated equipment and additional arrangement of new facilities is performed.
Graphene fiber is considered as a potential material for wearable applications owing to its lightness, flexibility, and high electrical conductivity. After the graphene oxide (GO) solution in the liquid crystal state is assembled into GO fiber through wet spinning, the reduced graphene oxide (rGO) fiber is obtained through a reduction process. In order to further improve the electrical conductivity, herein, we report N, P, and S doped rGO fibers through a facile vacuum diffusion process. The precursors of heteroatoms such as melamine, red phosphorus, and sulfur powders were used through a vacuum diffusion process. The resulting N, P, and S doped rGO fibers with atomic% of 6.52, 4.43 and 2.06% achieved the higher electrical conductivities compared to that of rGO fiber while preserving the fibrious morphology. In particular, N doped rGO fiber achieved the highest conductivity of 1.11 × 104 S m−1, which is 2.44 times greater than that of pristine rGO fiber. The heteroatom doping of rGO fiber through a vacuum diffusion process is facile to improve the electrical conductivity while maintaining the original structure.