Search results for: stem cell gradient

Authors: Mohammad Ghahramani, Fahimeh Saei Manesh

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Winning a soccer game is based on thorough and deep analysis of the ongoing match. On the other hand, giant gambling companies are in vital need of such analysis to reduce their loss against their customers. In this research work, we perform deep, real-time analysis on every soccer match around the world that distinguishes our work from others by focusing on particular seasons, teams and partial analytics. Our contributions are presented in the platform called “Analyst Masters.” First, we introduce various sources of information available for soccer analysis for teams around the world that helped us record live statistical data and information from more than 50,000 soccer matches a year. Our second and main contribution is to introduce our proposed in-play performance evaluation. The third contribution is developing new features from stable soccer matches. The statistics of soccer matches and their odds before and in-play are considered in the image format versus time including the halftime. Local Binary patterns, (LBP) is then employed to extract features from the image. Our analyses reveal incredibly interesting features and rules if a soccer match has reached enough stability. For example, our “8-minute rule” implies if 'Team A' scores a goal and can maintain the result for at least 8 minutes then the match would end in their favor in a stable match. We could also make accurate predictions before the match of scoring less/more than 2.5 goals. We benefit from the Gradient Boosting Trees, GBT, to extract highly related features. Once the features are selected from this pool of data, the Decision trees decide if the match is stable. A stable match is then passed to a post-processing stage to check its properties such as betters’ and punters’ behavior and its statistical data to issue the prediction. The proposed method was trained using 140,000 soccer matches and tested on more than 100,000 samples achieving 98% accuracy to select stable matches. Our database from 240,000 matches shows that one can get over 20% betting profit per month using Analyst Masters. Such consistent profit outperforms human experts and shows the inefficiency of the betting market. Top soccer tipsters achieve 50% accuracy and 8% monthly profit in average only on regional matches. Both our collected database of more than 240,000 soccer matches from 2012 and our algorithm would greatly benefit coaches and punters to get accurate analysis.

Keywords: soccer, analytics, machine learning, database

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Authors: Bahattin Duzgun, Adem Kocyigit, Demet Tatar, Ahmet Battal

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Tin oxide thin films are semiconductor materials highly transparent and with high mechanical and chemical stability, except for their interactions with oxygen atoms at high temperature. Many dopants, such as antimony (Sb), arsenic (As), fluorine (F), indium (In), molybdenum and (Mo) etc. have been used to improve the electrical properties of tin oxide films. Among these, Sb and F are found to be the most commonly used dopants for solar cell layers. Also Tin oxide tin films investigated and characterized by researchers different film deposition and analysis method. In this study, tin oxide thin films are deposited on glass substrate by spin coating technique and characterized by FTIR and AFM. FTIR spectroscopy revealed that all films have O-Sn-O and Sn-OH vibration bonds not changing with layer effect. AFM analysis indicates that all films are homogeneity and uniform. It can be seen that all films have needle shape structure in their surfaces. Uniformity and homogeneity of the films generally increased for increasing layers. The results found in present study showed that doubly doped SnO2 thin films is a good candidate for solar cells and other optoelectronic and technological applications.

Keywords: doubly doped, spin coating, FTIR analysis, AFM analysis

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Authors: Melba D. Horton

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Algae are identified as an alternative source of biofuel because of their ubiquitous distribution in aquatic environments. Diatoms are unique forms of algae characterized by silicified cell walls which have gained prominence in various technological applications. Polk County is home to a multitude of ponds and lakes but has not been explored for the presence of diatoms. Considering the condition of the waters brought about by predominant phosphate mining activities in the area, this research was conducted to determine if endemic diatoms are present and explore their potential for low-cost mass production. Using custom-built photobioreactors, water samples from various lakes provided by the Polk County Parks and Recreation and from nearby ponds were used as the source of diatoms together with other algae obtained during collection. Results of the initial culture cycles were successful, but later an overgrowth of other algae crashed the diatom population. Experiments were conducted in the laboratory to tease out some factors possibly contributing to the die-off. Generally, the total biomass declines after two culture cycles and the causative factors need further investigation. The lipid yield is minimum; however, the high frustule production after die-off adds value to the overall benefit of the harvest.

Keywords: diatoms, algae, biofuel, lipid, photobioreactor, frustule

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Authors: Yong Ho Jeon, Youn Mi Lee, Yong Yoon Lee

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Effects of cold plasma treatment on various plant seed germination were studied. The seeds of hot pepper, cucumber, tomato and arabidopsis were exposed to plasma and the plasma was generated in various devices. The germination speed was evaluated compared to an unexposed control. A positive effect on germination speed was observed in all tested seeds but the effects strongly depended on the type of the used plasma device (Argon-DBD, surface-DBD or MARX generator), time of exposure (6s~10min or 1~10shots) and kind of seeds. The SEM images showed that arrays of gold particles along the cell wall were observed on the surface of cucumber seeds showed a germination-accelerating effect by plasma treatment, which was the same as untreated. However, when treated with the high dose plasma, gold particles were not arrayed at the seed surface, it seems that due to the surface etching. This may suggest that the germination is not promoted by etching or damage of surface caused by the plasma treatment. Seedling growth improvement was also observed by indirect plasma treatment. These lead to an important conclusion that the effect of charged particles on plasma play the essential role in plant germination and indirect plasma treatment offers new perspectives for large scale application.

Keywords: cold plasma, cucumber, germination, SEM

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Authors: Kakali Roy, Sahana P. Raju, Subhra Dhar, Sandipan Dhar

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Introduction: Xeroderma pigmentosa (XP) is a rare inherited (autosomal recessive) disease resulting from impairment in DNA repair that involves recognition and repair of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) induced DNA damage in the nucleotide excision repair pathway. Which results in increased photosensitivity, UVR induced damage to skin and eye, increased susceptibility of skin and ocular cancer, and progressive neurodegeneration in some patients. XP is present worldwide, with higher incidence in areas having frequent consanguinity. Being extremely rare, there is limited literature on XP and associated complications. Here, the clinico-pathological experience (spectrum of clinical presentation, histopathological findings of malignant skin lesions, and progression) of managing 8 cases of XP is presented. Methodology: A retrospective study was conducted in a pediatric tertiary care hospital in eastern India during a ten-year period from 2013 to 2022. A clinical diagnosis was made based on severe sun burn or premature photo-aging and/or onset of cutaneous malignancies at early age (1st decade) in background of consanguinity and autosomal recessive inheritance pattern in family. Results: The mean age of presentation was 1.2 years (range of 7month-3years), while three children presented during their infancy. Male to female ratio was 5:3, and all were born of consanguineous marriage. They presented with dermatological manifestations (100%) followed by ophthalmic (75%) and/or neurological symptoms (25%). Patients had normal skin at birth but soon developed extreme sensitivity to UVR in the form of exaggerated sun tanning, burning, and blistering on minimal sun exposure, followed by abnormal skin pigmentation like freckles and lentiginosis. Subsequently, over time there was progressive xerosis, atrophy, wrinkling, and poikiloderma. Six patients had varied degree of ocular involvement, while three of them had severe manifestation, including madarosis, tylosis, ectropion, Lagopthalmos, Pthysis bulbi, clouding and scarring of the cornea with complete or partial loss of vision, and ophthalmic malignancies. 50% (n=4) cases had skin and ocular pre-malignant (actinic keratosis) and malignant lesions, including melanoma and non melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) like squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and basal cell carcinoma (BCC) in their early childhood. One patient had simultaneous occurrence of multiple malignancies together (SCC, BCC, and melanoma). Subnormal intelligence was noticed as neurological feature, and none had sensory neural hearing loss, microcephaly, neuroregression, or neurdeficit. All the patients had been being managed by a multidisciplinary team of pediatricians, dermatologists, ophthalmologists, neurologists and psychiatrists. Conclusion: Although till date there is no complete cure for XP and the disease is ultimately fatal. But increased awareness, early diagnosis followed by persistent vigorous protection from UVR, and regular screening for early detection of malignancies along with psychological support can drastically improve patients’ quality of life and life expectancy. Further research is required on formulating optimal management of XP, specifically the role and possibilities of gene therapy in XP.

Keywords: childhood malignancies, dermato-pathological findings, eastern India, Xeroderma pigmentosa

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Authors: Eddy Neuhaus, Hanif Shirinzadeh, Cigdem Karaaslan, Elif Ince, Hande Gurer-Orhan, Sibel Suzen

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Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidative stress can cause fatal damage to essential cell structures, including DNA. It is known that use of antioxidants could be advantageous in the prevention of various diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases and neurodegenerative disorders. Since antioxidant properties of the indole ring-containing melatonin (MLT) has been described and evaluated, MLT-related compounds such as MLT metabolites and synthetic analogues are under investigation to determine which exhibit the highest activity with the lowest side-effects. Owing to indole and hydrazones appealing physiological properties and are mostly found in numerous biologically active compounds a series of indole-7-carbaldehyde hydrazone derivatives were synthesized, characterized and in vitro antioxidant activity was investigated by evaluating their reducing effect against oxidation of a redox-sensitive fluorescent probe. Cytotoxicity potential of all indole-based MLT analogues was investigated both by lactate dehydrogenase leakage assay and by MTT assay. This work was supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) Research and Development Grant 112S599.

Keywords: melatonin, antioxidant activity, indole, hydrazone, oxidative stress

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Authors: Cinthia Campoverde, Mateo Benavidez, Victor Arias, Milton Torres

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This article evaluates and compares three propagation models: the Okumura-Hata model, the Ericsson 9999 model, and the SUI model. The inclusion of vegetation attenuation in the area is also taken into account. These mathematical models aim to predict the power loss between a transmitting antenna (Tx) and a receiving antenna (Rx). The study was conducted in the open areas of the Livestock Department at the Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo (ESPOCH) University, located in the city of Riobamba, Ecuador. The necessary parameters for each model were calculated, considering LTE technology. The transmitting antenna belongs to the mobile phone company ”TUENTI” in Band 2, operating at a frequency of 1940 MHz. The reception power data in the area were empirically measured using the ”Network Cell Info” application. A total of 170 samples were collected, distributed across 19 radius, forming concentric circles around the transmitting antenna. The results demonstrate that the Okumura Hata urban model provides the best fit to the measured data.

Keywords: propagation models, reception power, LTE, power losses, correction factor

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Authors: Van Tang Nguyen, Jennette A. Sakoff, Christopher J. Scarlett

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Phyllanthus amarus (P. amarus) has been used as a traditional herbal plant for the treatment of chronic ailments such as hepatitis, diabetes and cancer. The objectives of this study were to determine the physicochemical properties, antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of crude P. amarus extracts and fractions using MTT and CCK-8 assays for cytotoxic evaluation. The outcomes indicated that P. amarus methanol (PAM) extract had lower residual moisture (7.40%) and water activity (0.24) and higher contents of saponins, phenolics, flavonoids and proanthocyanidins (1657.86 mg escin equivalents, 250.45 mg gallic acid equivalents, 274.73 mg rutin equivalents and 61.22 mg catechin equivalents/g dried extract, respectively) than those of P. amarus water (PAW) extract, resulting antioxidant activity of PAM extract was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than that of PAW extract, PAM fractions and phyllanthin (a major compound in P. amarus). Cytotoxic activity of PAM extract for cancer cell lines of MiaPaCa-2 (pancreas), HT29 (colon), A2780 (ovarian), H460 (lung), A431 (skin), Du145 (prostate), BE2-C (neuroblastoma), MCF-7 (breast), MCF-10A (normal breast), and U87, SJ-G2, SMA (glioblastoma) was higher than those of PAW extract and PAM fractions. Therefore, we can conclude that the PA extracts are a potential source for the development of natural antioxidant products and/or novel anticancer drugs.

Keywords: antioxidant, cytotoxicity, Phyllanthus amarus, physicochemical

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Authors: Noorizal Huang, Christian Girsang, Mohamad Razi Mansoor

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Shallow gas seepage was first spotted at a central processing platform offshore Malaysia in 2010, acknowledged as Platform T in this paper. Frequent monitoring of the gas seepage was performed through remotely operated vehicle (ROV) baseline survey and a comprehensive geophysical survey was conducted to understand the characteristics of the gas seepage and to ensure that the integrity of the foundation at Platform T was not compromised. The origin of the gas back then was unknown. A soil investigation campaign was performed in 2016 to study the origin of the gas seepage. Two boreholes were drilled; a composite borehole to 150m below seabed for the purpose of soil sampling and in-situ testing and a pilot hole to 155m below the seabed, which was later converted to a fit-for-purpose relief well as an alternate migration path for the gas. During the soil investigation campaign, dissipation tests were performed at several layers which were potentially the source or migration path for the gas. Five (5) soil samples were segregated for headspace test, to identify the gas type which subsequently can be used to identify the origin of the gas. Dissipation tests performed at four depth intervals indicates pore water pressure less than 20 % of the effective vertical stress and appear to continue decreasing if the test had not been stopped. It was concluded that a low to a negligible amount of excess pore pressure exist in clayey silt layers. Results from headspace test show presence of methane corresponding to the clayey silt layers as reported in the boring logs. The gas most likely comes from biogenic sources, feeding on organic matter in situ over a large depth range. It is unlikely that there are large pockets of gas in the soil due to its homogeneous clayey nature and the lack of excess pore pressure in other permeable clayey silt layers encountered. Instead, it is more likely that when pore water at certain depth encounters a more permeable path, such as a borehole, it rises up through this path due to the temperature gradient in the soil. As the water rises the pressure decreases, which could cause gases dissolved in the water to come out of solution and form bubbles. As a result, the gas will have no impact on the integrity of the foundation at Platform T. The fit-for-purpose relief well design as well as adopting headspace testing can be used to address the shallow gas issue at Platform T in a cost effective and efficient manners.

Keywords: dissipation test, headspace test, excess pore pressure, relief well, shallow gas

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Authors: Nadali Babaeian Jelodar, Chan Lai Keng, Arvind Bhatt, Laleh Bordbar, Leow E Shuen, Kamaruzaman Mohamed

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Recently artemisinin (the endoperoxide sesquiterpene lactone) has received considerable attention because of its antimalarial activity. It is isolated from the aerial part of the Artemisia annua L. Artemisinin is very difficult to synthesise also its production by mean of cell, tissue or organ cultures is very low. Presently, only its extraction from A. annua L. plants remains the only source of the drug. The reported yield of artemisinin from leaves of A. annua L. is very low and unstable, with yields typically less than 1% of leaf dry weight. To increase the percentage of artemisinin, researchers have been engaged in developing new varieties. A review concerning the breeding of A. annua L. is presented. The aim of this review is to bring together most of the available scientific research papers about the breeding conducted on the genus A. annua L., which is currently scattered across various publications. Through this review the authors hope to attract the attention of breeders throughout the world to focus on the unexplored potential of A. annua L. species. Also the future scope of this plant has been emphasized with a view of the importance of breeding of A. annua L. for increasing of artemisinin content. By releasing of new cultivar of A. annua L. and cultivation of this plant offers the opportunity to optimize yield and achieve a uniform, high quality product.

Keywords: Artemisia annua L., breeding, artemisinin, cultivation, medicinal plant

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Authors: Sadi-Guettaf Hassiba, Hadj-Bekkouche Fatima

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Dexamethasone (Dex) is a synthetic glucocorticoid that is used in therapy. However prolonged treatments with high doses are often required. This causes side effects that interfere with the activity of several endocrine systems, including the gonadotropic axis. The aim of our study is to determine the effect of Dex on testicular function in prepubertal Wistar rats. Newborn Wistar rats are submitted to intraperitoneal injection of Dex (1μg of Dex dissolved in NaCl 0.9% / 5g bw) for 20 days and then sacrificed at the age of 40days. A control group received NaCl 0.9%. The rat is weighed daily. The plasmatic levels of testosterone, LH and FSH were measured by radioimmunoassay. A histo-morphometric study was performed on sections of testis. Treated groups showed a significant decrease in body weight (p < 0.05), testis weight (p < 0.05) and plasma levels of testosterone (p < 0.05), of LH (P < .05) and FSH (p> 0.05). There is a reduction of seminiferous tubules average diameter and also of the seminiferous epithelium thickness with an increasing of lumen tubular. The diameter of the Leydig cells and Sertoli cell nucleus is also significantly reduced. Spermatogenesis is blocked at the stage round spermatid unlike witnesses or elongated spermatid stage is found. These results suggest that Dex administered during neonatal life influences testicular activity in the long term.

Keywords: dexamethasone, FSH, LH, rat, testis, testosterone

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Authors: Abdallah M. Fayed

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The study area is located in south Darb El Arbaieen, western desert of Egypt. It occupies the area between latitudes 22° 00/ and 22° 30/ North and Longitudes 29° 30/ and 30° 00/ East, from southern border of Egypt to the area north Bir Kuraiym and from the area East of East Owienat to the area west Tushka district, its area about 2750 Km2. The famous features; southern part of Darb El Arbaieen road, G Baraqat El Scab El Qarra, Bir Dibis, Bir El Shab and Bir Kuraiym, Interpretation of soil stratification shows layers that are related to Quaternary and Upper-Lower Cretaceous eras. It is dissected by a series of NE-SW striking faults. The regional groundwater flow direction is in SW-NE direction with a hydraulic gradient is 1m / 2km. Mathematical model program has been applied for evaluation of groundwater potentials in the main Aquifer –Nubian Sandstone- in the area of study and Remote sensing technique is considered powerful, accurate and saving time in this respect. These techniques are widely used for illustrating and analysis different phenomenon such as the new development in the desert (land reclamation), residential development (new communities), urbanization, etc. The major issues concerning water development objective of this work is to determine the new development areas in western desert of Egypt during the period from 2003 to 2015 using remote sensing technique, the impacts of the present and future development have been evaluated by using the two-dimensional numerical groundwater flow Simulation Package (visual modflow 4.2). The package was used to construct and calibrate a numerical model that can be used to simulate the response of the aquifer in the study area under implementing different management alternatives in the form of changes in piezometric levels and salinity. Total period of simulation is 100 years. After steady state calibration, two different scenarios are simulated for groundwater development. 21 production wells are installed at the study area and used in the model, with the total discharge for the two scenarios were 105000 m3/d, 210000 m3/d. The drawdown was 11.8 m and 23.7 m for the two scenarios in the end of 100 year. Contour maps for water heads and drawdown and hydrographs for piezometric head are represented. The drawdown was less than the half of the saturated thickness (the safe yield case).

Keywords: remote sensing, management of aquifer systems, simulation modeling, western desert, South Darb El Arbaieen

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Authors: Desta Gebretekle Shiferaw, Balakrishna Kalluraya

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Oxadiazoles and their derivatives with thioether functionalities represent a new and exciting class of physiologically active heterocyclic compounds. Several molecules with these moieties play a vital role in pharmaceuticals because of their diverse biological activities. This paper describes a new class of 1,3,4- oxadiazole-2-thioethers with acetophenone, coumarin, and N-phenyl acetamide residues (S-alkylation), with the hope that the addition of various biologically active molecules will have a synergistic effect on anticancer activity. The structure of the synthesized title compounds was determined by the combined methods of IR, proton-NMR, carbon-13-NMR, and mass spectrometry. Further, all the newly prepared molecules were assessed against their antioxidant activity. Furthermore, four compounds were assessed for their molecular docking interactions and cytotoxicity activity. The synthesized derivatives have shown moderate antioxidant activity compared to the standard BHA. The IC50 of the tilted molecules (11b, 11c, 13b, and 14b) observed for in vitro anti-cancer activities were 11.20, 15.73, 59.61, and 27.66 g/ml at 72-hour treatment time against the A549 cell lines, respectively. The tested compounds' biological evaluation showed that 11b is the most effective molecule in the series.

Keywords: antioxidant activity, cytotoxicity activity, molecular docking, 1, 3, 4-Oxadiazole-2 thioether derivatives

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Authors: Wael I. Alnahhal

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It is a major challenge to build a bridge superstructure that has long-term durability and low maintenance requirements. A solution to this challenge may be to use new materials or to implement new structural systems. Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites have continued to play an important role in solving some of persistent problems in infrastructure applications because of its high specific strength, light weight, and durability. In this study, the concept of the hybrid FRP-concrete structural systems is applied to a bridge superstructure. The hybrid FRP-concrete bridge superstructure is intended to have durable, structurally sound, and cost effective hybrid system that will take full advantage of the inherent properties of both FRP materials and concrete. In this study, two hybrid FRP-concrete bridge systems were investigated. The first system consists of trapezoidal cell units forming a bridge superstructure. The second one is formed by arch cells. The two systems rely on using cellular components to form the core of the bridge superstructure, and an outer shell to warp around those cells to form the integral unit of the bridge. Both systems were investigated analytically by using finite element (FE) analysis. From the rigorous FE studies, it was concluded that first system is more efficient than the second.

Keywords: bridge superstructure, hybrid system, fiber reinforced polymer, finite element analysis

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Authors: Bjorn-Ole Meyer, Dominik Marti, Peter E. Andersen

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A multimodal imaging system, combining spectrally resolved multiphoton microscopy (MPM) and optical coherence microscopy (OCM) is demonstrated. MPM and OCM are commonly integrated into multimodal imaging platforms to combine functional and morphological information. The MPM signals, such as two-photon fluorescence emission (TPFE) and signals created by second harmonic generation (SHG) are biomarkers which exhibit information on functional biological features such as the ratio of pyridine nucleotide (NAD(P)H) and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) in the classification of cancerous tissue. While the spectrally resolved imaging allows for the study of biomarkers, using a spectrometer as a detector limits the imaging speed of the system significantly. To overcome those limitations, an OCM setup was added to the system, which allows for fast acquisition of structural information. Thus, after rapid imaging of larger specimens, navigation within the sample is possible. Subsequently, distinct features can be selected for further investigation using MPM. Additionally, by probing a different contrast, complementary information is obtained, and different biomarkers can be investigated. OCM images of tissue and cell samples are obtained, and distinctive features are evaluated using MPM to illustrate the benefits of the system.

Keywords: optical coherence microscopy, multiphoton microscopy, multimodal imaging, two-photon fluorescence emission

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Authors: Lei Zhang, Wen-jun Ruan, Hao Wang, Peng-Xin Wang

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The source of the jet noise is generated by rocket exhaust plume during rocket engine testing. A domain decomposition approach is applied to the jet noise prediction in this paper. The aerodynamic noise coupling is based on the splitting into acoustic sources generation and sound propagation in separate physical domains. Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is used to simulate the supersonic jet flow. Based on the simulation results of the flow-fields, the jet noise distribution of the sound pressure level is obtained by applying the Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings (FW-H) acoustics equation and Fourier transform. The calculation results show that the complex structures of expansion waves, compression waves and the turbulent boundary layer could occur due to the strong interaction between the gas jet and the ambient air. In addition, the jet core region, the shock cell and the sound pressure level of the gas jet increase with the nozzle size increasing. Importantly, the numerical simulation results of the far-field sound are in good agreement with the experimental measurements in directivity.

Keywords: supersonic gas jet, Large Eddy Simulation(LES), acoustic noise, Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings(FW-H) equations, nozzle size

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Authors: M. A. Hasnat, M. Amirul Islam, M. A. Rashed, Jamil. Safwan, M. Mahabubul Alam

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Symmetric (Cu–Pt|Nafion|Pt–Cu) and asymmetric(Pt|Nafion|Pt–Cu) assemblies were fabricated to study the nitrate reduction processes at the cathode. The electrocatalytic nitrate reduction reactions were performed in these assemblies in order to investigate the prerequisite for the enhanced catalytic activity, electrochemical cell durability as well as preferable product selectivity resulting from the reduction of nitrate at the cathode. It has been observed for the symmetric assembly that Cu particles were oxidized on the anode surface under an applied potential and the resulting copper ions migrated to the cathode surface through the Nafion membrane, which deposited as copper oxide on the cathode surface. The formation of this copper oxide covering layer on the Pt–Cu cathode surface is attributed as the reason for the deactivation of the cathode that governed the reduced nitrate reduction along with increasing nitrite selectivity. These problems were addressed and resolved with the asymmetric design of the electrocatalytic reactor, where enhanced hydrogen evolution activates the surface by eroding the CuO over layer as well as speeding up the slow rate determining hydrogenation reactions.

Keywords: membrane, nitrate, electrocatalysis, voltammetry, electrolysis

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Authors: Xu Tao, Yilun Xu, Dingwei Xiang, Yaofei Sun

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Urban community is constitute the entire city and its management ‘cell’, let ‘cells’ with growth and self-regeneration capacity and persistence, to allow the city with infinite vigor and vitality of the source; with toughness community mankind's adaptation to the basic unit of social risk, toughness of the city from the community to create a point of building is urban toughness of top-down construction mode of supplement, is of positive significance on the toughness of the urban construction. Based on the basic concept of resilience, this paper reviews the research on the four main areas of the study of urban resilience (i.e., the engineering toughness, ecological resilience, economic resilience, and social resilience, etc.). Studies and comments and summarizes the basic characteristic and main content of the four kind of toughness. Based on, from the city - community level and community level for building community resilience, including the level of urban community and create a Unicom, inclusiveness and openness of the community; community-level lifted from the four angles of the engineering community toughness, ecological toughness, resilience, social resilience, mainly including enhanced the toughness of the infrastructure, green infrastructure of toughness, resilience, social network and social relations, building with a sense of belonging, inclusive, multicultural community. Finally, summarize and prospect the resilience of the community.

Keywords: resilience, community resilience, urban resilience, construction strategies

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Authors: Navid Zanganeh, Hafez Balavi, Farbod Sharif, Mahla Zabet, Marzieh Bakhtiary Noodeh

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Cerium oxide (CeO2) also known as cerium dioxide or ceria is a pale yellow-white powder with various applications in the industry from wood coating to cosmetics, filtration, fuel cell electrolytes, gas sensors, hybrid solar cells and catalysts. In this research, attempts were made to synthesize and characterization of CeO2 nano-particles via sol-gel method. In addition, the effect of aging time on the size of particles was investigated. For this purpose, the aging times adjusted 48, 56, 64, and 72 min. The obtained particles were characterized by x-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmitted electron microscopy (TEM), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET). As a result, XRD patterns confirmed the formation of CeO2 nanoparticles. SEM and TEM images illustrated the nano-particles with cluster shape, spherical and a nano-size range which was in agreement with XRD results. The finest particles (7.3 nm) was obtained at the optimum condition which was aging time of 48 min, calcination temperature at 400 ⁰C, and cerium concentration of 0.004 mol. Average specific surface area of the particles at optimum condition was measured by BET analysis and recorded as 47.57 m2/g.

Keywords: aging time, CeO2 nanoparticles, size distribution, sol-gel

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Authors: A. Vijayendra Chary, R. Hemalatha

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Background: Vitamin D is a potent modulator of the immune system and is involved in regulating cell proliferation and differentiation. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to increased severity of asthma in children. Asthma has dramatically increased in past decades, particular in developing countries and affects up to 20% of the population. IgE and its receptors, CD23 (FcεRII) and CD 21, play an essential role in all allergic conditions. Methods: A case control study was conducted on asthma and age and sex matched control children. 25 hydroxyvitamin D3 was quantified by HPLC; CD23; and CD21 expression on B cells were performed by flow cytometry. Total Histamine, total IGE and IL-5 and IFN-γ cytokines were determined by ELISA in blood samples of bronchial asthma (n=45) and control children (n=45). Results: The mean ± SE of vitamin D was significantly (p<0.05) low in asthma children (13.6±0.54 ng/mL) than in controls (17.4 ± 0.37 ng/mL). The mean (%) ± SE of CD23 and CD21 expression on B cells were significantly (p<0.01) high in asthma (1.02±0.09; 1.67± 0.13), when compared to controls (0.24±0.01; 0.94±0.03) respectively. The mean± SE of Serum IgE and blood histamine levels in asthma children (354.52 ± 17.33 IU/mL; 53.27 ± 2.54 nM/mL) were increased (P<0.05) when compared to controls (183.12±17.62 IU/mL 39.34±4.16 nM/mL) respectively and IFN-γ (Th1 cytokine) was lower (P<0.01) (16.37±1.27 pg/mL) than in controls (43.34±6.21 pg/mL). Conclusion: Our study provides evidence that low vitamin D levels are associated with increased IgE receptors CD23 and CD21 on B cells. In addition, there was preferential activation of Th2 (IL-5) and suppression of Th1 (IFN-γ) cytokines in children with asthma.

Keywords: bronchial asthma, CD23, IgE, vitamin D

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Authors: Yanqin Chen, Chao Jiang, Chongdu Cho

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This research presents the three-dimensional mechanical characteristics of a commercial gas diffusion layer by experiment and simulation results. Although the mechanical performance of gas diffusion layers has attracted much attention, its reliability and accuracy are still a major challenge. With the help of simulation analysis methods, it is beneficial to the gas diffusion layer’s extensive commercial development and the overall stress analysis of proton electrolyte membrane fuel cells during its pre-production design period. Therefore, in this paper, a three-dimensional constitutive model of a commercial gas diffusion layer, including its material stiffness matrix parameters, is developed and coded, in the user-defined material model of a commercial finite element method software for simulation. Then, the model is validated by comparing experimental results as well as simulation outcomes. As a result, both the experimental data and simulation results show a good agreement with each other, with high accuracy.

Keywords: gas diffusion layer, proton electrolyte membrane fuel cell, stiffness matrix, three-dimensional mechanical characteristics, user-defined material model

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Authors: Mariia V. Efremova, Iana O. Tcareva, Anastasia D. Blokhina, Ivan S. Grebennikov, Anastasia S. Garanina, Maxim A. Abakumov, Yury I. Golovin, Alexander G. Savchenko, Alexander G. Majouga, Natalya L. Klyachko

Abstract:

During last decades magnetite nanoparticles (NPs) attract a deep interest of scientists due to their potential application in therapy and diagnostics. However, magnetite nanoparticles are toxic and non-stable in physiological conditions. To solve these problems, we decided to create two types of hybrid systems based on magnetite and gold which is inert and biocompatible: gold as a shell material (first type) and gold as separate NPs interfacially bond to magnetite NPs (second type). The synthesis of the first type hybrid nanoparticles was carried out as follows: Magnetite nanoparticles with an average diameter of 9±2 nm were obtained by co-precipitation of iron (II, III) chlorides then they were covered with gold shell by iterative reduction of hydrogen tetrachloroaurate with hydroxylamine hydrochloride. According to the TEM, ICP MS and EDX data, final nanoparticles had an average diameter of 31±4 nm and contained iron even after hydrochloric acid treatment. However, iron signals (K-line, 7,1 keV) were not localized so we can’t speak about one single magnetic core. Described nanoparticles covered with mercapto-PEG acid were non-toxic for human prostate cancer PC-3/ LNCaP cell lines (more than 90% survived cells as compared to control) and had high R2-relaxivity rates (>190 mМ-1s-1) that exceed the transverse relaxation rate of commercial MRI-contrasting agents. These nanoparticles were also used for chymotrypsin enzyme immobilization. The effect of alternating magnetic field on catalytic properties of chymotrypsin immobilized on magnetite nanoparticles, notably the slowdown of catalyzed reaction at the level of 35-40 % was found. The synthesis of the second type hybrid nanoparticles also involved two steps. Firstly, spherical gold nanoparticles with an average diameter of 9±2 nm were synthesized by the reduction of hydrogen tetrachloroaurate with oleylamine; secondly, they were used as seeds during magnetite synthesis by thermal decomposition of iron pentacarbonyl in octadecene. As a result, so-called dumbbell-like structures were obtained where magnetite (cubes with 25±6 nm diagonal) and gold nanoparticles were connected together pairwise. By HRTEM method (first time for this type of structure) an epitaxial growth of magnetite nanoparticles on gold surface with co-orientation of (111) planes was discovered. These nanoparticles were transferred into water by means of block-copolymer Pluronic F127 then loaded with anti-cancer drug doxorubicin and also PSMA-vector specific for LNCaP cell line. Obtained nanoparticles were found to have moderate toxicity for human prostate cancer cells and got into the intracellular space after 45 minutes of incubation (according to fluorescence microscopy data). These materials are also perspective from MRI point of view (R2-relaxivity rates >70 mМ-1s-1). Thereby, in this work magnetite-gold hybrid nanoparticles, which have a strong potential for biomedical application, particularly in targeted drug delivery and magnetic resonance imaging, were synthesized and characterized. That paves the way to the development of special medicine types – theranostics. The authors knowledge financial support from Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (14.607.21.0132, RFMEFI60715X0132). This work was also supported by Grant of Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation К1-2014-022, Grant of Russian Scientific Foundation 14-13-00731 and MSU development program 5.13.

Keywords: drug delivery, magnetite-gold, MRI contrast agents, nanoparticles, toxicity

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Authors: Gizachew Belay Adugna

Abstract:

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) shows rapid development as an emerging photovoltaic material; however, the fast device degradation due to the organic nature, mainly hole transporting material (HTM) and lack of robust and reliable upscaling process for photovoltaic module hindered its commercialization. Herein, HTM molecules with/without fluorine-substituted cyclopenta[2,1-b;3,4-b’]dithiophene derivatives (HYC-oF, HYC-mF, and HYC-H) were developed for PSCs application. The fluorinated HTM molecules exhibited better hole mobility and overall charge extraction in the devices mainly due to strong molecular interaction and packing in the film. Thus, the highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 19.64% with improved long stability was achieved for PSCs based on HYC-oF HTM. Moreover, the fluorinated HYC-oF demonstrated excellent film processability in a larger-area substrate (10 cm×10 cm) prepared sequentially with the absorption perovskite underlayer via a scalable bar coating process in ambient air and owned a higher PCE of 18.49% compared to the conventional spiro-OMeTAD (17.51%). The result demonstrates a facile development of HTM towards stable and efficient PSCs for future industrial-scale PV modules.

Keywords: perovskite solar cells, upscaling film coating, power conversion efficiency, solution processing

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Authors: Viviana Manzulli, Luigina Serrecchia, Adelia Donatiello, Valeria Rondinone, Sabine Zange, Alina Tscherne, Antonio Parisi, Antonio Fasanella

Abstract:

Anthrax is a zoonotic disease that affects a wide range of animal species (primarily ruminant herbivores), and can be transmitted to humans through consumption or handling of contaminated animal products. The etiological agent B.anthracis is able to survive in unfavorable environmental conditions by forming endospore which remain viable in the soil for many decades. Furthermore, B.anthracis is considered as one of the most feared agents to be potentially misused as a biological weapon and the importance of the disease and its treatment in humans has been underscored before the bioterrorism events in the United States in 2001. Due to the often fatal outcome of human cases, antimicrobial susceptibility testing plays especially in the management of anthrax infections an important role. In Italy, animal anthrax is endemic (predominantly found in the southern regions and on islands) and is characterized by sporadic outbreaks occurring mainly during summer. Between 2012 and 2017 single human cases of cutaneous anthrax occurred. In this study, 90 diverse strains of B.anthracis, isolated in Italy from 2001 to 2017, were screened to their susceptibility to sixteen clinically relevant antimicrobial agents by using the broth microdilution method. B.anthracis strains selected for this study belong to the strain collection stored at the Anthrax Reference Institute of Italy located inside the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale of Puglia and Basilicata. The strains were isolated at different time points and places from various matrices (human, animal and environmental). All strains are a representative of over fifty distinct MLVA 31 genotypes. The following antibiotics were used for testing: gentamicin, ceftriaxone, streptomycin, penicillin G, clindamycin, chloramphenicol, vancomycin, linezolid, cefotaxime, tetracycline, erythromycin, rifampin, amoxicillin, ciprofloxacin, doxycycline and trimethoprim. A standard concentration of each antibiotic was prepared in a specific diluent, which were then twofold serial diluted. Therefore, each wells contained: bacterial suspension of 1–5x104 CFU/mL in Mueller-Hinton Broth (MHB), the antibiotic to be tested at known concentration and resazurin, an indicator of cell growth. After incubation overnight at 37°C, the wells were screened for color changes caused by the resazurin: a change from purple to pink/colorless indicated cell growth. The lowest concentration of antibiotic that prevented growth represented the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC). This study suggests that B.anthracis remains susceptible in vitro to many antibiotics, in addition to doxycycline (MICs ≤ 0,03 µg/ml), ciprofloxacin (MICs ≤ 0,03 µg/ml) and penicillin G (MICs ≤ 0,06 µg/ml), recommend by CDC for the treatment of human cases and for prophylactic use after exposure to the spores. In fact, the good activity of gentamicin (MICs ≤ 0,25 µg/ml), streptomycin (MICs ≤ 1 µg/ml), clindamycin (MICs ≤ 0,125 µg/ml), chloramphenicol(MICs ≤ 4 µg/ml), vancomycin (MICs ≤ 2 µg/ml), linezolid (MICs ≤ 2 µg/ml), tetracycline (MICs ≤ 0,125 µg/ml), erythromycin (MICs ≤ 0,25 µg/ml), rifampin (MICs ≤ 0,25 µg/ml), amoxicillin (MICs ≤ 0,06 µg/ml), towards all tested B.anthracis strains demonstrates an appropriate alternative choice for prophylaxis and/or treatment. All tested B.anthracis strains showed intermediate susceptibility to the cephalosporins (MICs ≥ 16 µg/ml) and resistance to trimethoprim (MICs ≥ 128 µg/ml).

Keywords: Bacillus anthracis, antibiotic susceptibility, treatment, minimum inhibitory concentration

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Authors: Wenxing Chen, Guangying Chen, Yin Lu, Shile Huang

Abstract:

Cryptotanshinone (CPT), a fat-soluble tanshinone from Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge, has been demonstrated to inhibit mTOR pathway, resulting in inhibition of cancer cell proliferation. However, the molecular mechanism how CPT acts on mTOR is unknown. Here, cancer cells expressing rapamycin-resistant mutant mTOR are also sensitive to CPT, while phosphorylation of AMPK and TSC2 was activated, suggesting that CPT inhibition of mTOR maybe due to activating upstream of mTOR, AMPK, but not directly binding to and inhibiting mTOR. Further results indicated that Compound C, inhibitor of AMPK, could partially reversed CPT inhibition effect on cancer cells, and dominant-negative AMPK in cancer cells conferred resistance to CPT inhibition of 4EBP1 and phosphorylation of S6K1, as well as sh-AMPK. Furthermore, compared with MEF cells with AMPK positive, MEF cells with AMPK knock out are less sensitive to CPT by the findings that 4E-BP1 and phosphorylation of S6K1 express comparatively much. Furthermore, downexpression of TSC2 slightly recovered expression of 4EBP1 and phosphorylation of S6K1, while co-immunoprecipitation of TSC2 did not affect expression of TSC1 by CPT. Collectively, the above-mentioned results suggest that CPT inhibited mTOR pathway mostly was due to activation of AMPK-TSC2 pathway rather than specific inhibition of mTOR and then induction of subsequent lethal cellular effect.

Keywords: cryptotanshinone, AMPK, TSC2, mTOR, cancer cells

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Authors: Keivan Jamshidi, Afshin Zahedi

Abstract:

Acrylamide (ACR) has been shown to cause neurotoxic effects in humans and neurotoxic, genotoxic, reproductive, and carcinogenic effects in laboratory animals. To investigate the nephrotoxic effect of Acrylamide (ACR), 50 adult male rats (Wistar, approximately 250 g) housed in polycarbonate boxes as 5 per each, and randomly assigned in 5 groups including 4 exposure groups as A, B, C, and D groups of rats (10 rats per exposure group., total) and were exposed to 0.5, 5, 50, 100 mg/kg ACR per day×11days i.p. respectively. The remaining 10 rats were housed in group (E) as control group. Control rats received daily i.p. injections of 0.9% saline (3ml/kg). On day 12, four rats, were randomly selected, perfused , dissected and proper samples were collected from their kidneys. Results of histopathological studies based on H&E technique did show no morphologic changes in kidneys of rats belong to groups A, B and E, while moderate to severe morphologic changes including glomerular hypercellularity, global pattern of proliferative glomerulonephritis, occupation of capsular space, tubular cell swelling and hyaline cast formation, were observed in different stained sections obtained from the kidneys of rats belong to group, C, and D. This finding, beside neurotoxic, reproductive and carcinogenic effects, seems to indicate for the first time another important aspect of toxic effect of ACR, i.e., acute nephrotoxicity.

Keywords: acrylamide, nephrotoxicity, glomerulonephritis, rats

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Authors: Nishank Raisinghani

Abstract:

Efficiently predicting drug response remains a challenge in the realm of drug discovery. To address this issue, we propose four model architectures that combine graphical representation with varying positions of multiheaded self-attention mechanisms. By leveraging two types of multi-omics data, transcriptomics and genomics, we create a comprehensive representation of target cells and enable drug response prediction in precision medicine. A majority of our architectures utilize multiple transformer models, one with a graph attention mechanism and the other with a multiheaded self-attention mechanism, to generate latent representations of both drug and omics data, respectively. Our model architectures apply an attention mechanism to both drug and multiomics data, with the goal of procuring more comprehensive latent representations. The latent representations are then concatenated and input into a fully connected network to predict the IC-50 score, a measure of cell drug response. We experiment with all four of these architectures and extract results from all of them. Our study greatly contributes to the future of drug discovery and precision medicine by looking to optimize the time and accuracy of drug response prediction.

Keywords: drug discovery, transformers, graph neural networks, multiomics

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Authors: Justo Rodriguez, Daming Chen, Amador M. Guzman

Abstract:

The detection, treatment, and control of rapidly propagating, deadly viruses such as COVID-19, require the development of inexpensive, fast, and accurate devices to address the urgent needs of the population. Microfluidics-based sensors are amongst the different methods and techniques for detection that are easy to use. A micro analyzer is defined as a microfluidics-based sensor, composed of a network of microchannels with varying functions. Given their size, portability, and accuracy, they are proving to be more effective and convenient than other solutions. A micro analyzer based on the concept of “Lab on a Chip” presents advantages concerning other non-micro devices due to its smaller size, and it is having a better ratio between useful area and volume. The integration of multiple processes in a single microdevice reduces both the number of necessary samples and the analysis time, leading the next generation of analyzers for the health-sciences. In some applications, the flow of solution within the microchannels is originated by a pressure gradient, which can produce adverse effects on biological samples. A more efficient and less dangerous way of controlling the flow in a microchannel-based analyzer is applying an electric field to induce the fluid motion and either enhance or suppress the mixing process. Electrokinetic flows are characterized by no less than two non-dimensional parameters: the electric Rayleigh number and its geometrical aspect ratio. In this research, stable and unstable flows have been studied numerically (and when possible, will be experimental) in a T-shaped microchannel. Additionally, unstable electrokinetic flows for Rayleigh numbers higher than critical have been characterized. The flow mixing enhancement was quantified in relation to the stretching and folding that fluid particles undergo when they are subjected to supercritical electrokinetic flows. Computational simulations were carried out using a finite element-based program while working with the flow mixing concepts developed by Gollub and collaborators. Hundreds of seeded massless particles were tracked along the microchannel from the entrance to exit for both stable and unstable flows. After post-processing, their trajectories, the folding and stretching values for the different flows were found. Numerical results show that for supercritical electrokinetic flows, the enhancement effects of the folding and stretching processes become more apparent. Consequently, there is an improvement in the mixing process, ultimately leading to a more homogenous mixture.

Keywords: microchannel, stretching and folding, electro kinetic flow mixing, micro-analyzer

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Authors: L. Major, J. M. Lackner, M. Dyner, B. Major

Abstract:

Development of new generation bio- tribological, multilayer coatings, opens an avenue for fabrication of future high- tech functional surfaces. In the presented work, nano- composite, Cr/CrN+[Cr/ a-C:H implanted by metallic nanocrystals] multilayer coatings have been developed for surface protection of medical tools. Thin films were fabricated by a hybrid Pulsed Laser Deposition technique. Complex microstructure analysis of nano- multilayer coatings, subjected to mechanical and biological tests, were performed by means of transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Microstructure characterization revealed the layered arrangement of Cr23C6 nanoparticles in multilayer structure. Influence of deposition conditions on bio- tribological properties of the coatings were studied. The bio-tests were used as a screening tool for the analyzed nano- multilayer coatings before they could be deposited on medical tools. Bio- medical tests were done using fibroblasts. The mechanical properties of the coatings were investigated by means of a ball-on-disc mechanical test. The microhardness was done using Berkovich indenter. The scratch adhesion test was done using Rockwell indenter. From the bio- tribological point of view, the optimal properties had the C106_1 material.

Keywords: bio- tribological coatings, cell- material interaction, hybrid PLD, tribology

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Authors: Nicolas Lopez-Villalobos, Dorian J. Garrick, Hugh T. Blair

Abstract:

Many dairy goat farmers of New Zealand milk herds of mixed breed does. Simultaneous evaluation of sires and does across breed is required to select the best animals for breeding on a common basis. Across-breed estimated breeding values (EBV) and estimated producing values for 208-day lactation yields of milk (MY), fat (FY), protein (PY) and somatic cell score (SCS; LOG2(SCC) of Saanen, Nubian, Alpine, Toggenburg and crossbred dairy goats from 75 herds were estimated using a test day model. Evaluations were based on 248,734 herd-test records representing 125,374 lactations from 65,514 does sired by 930 sires over 9 generations. Averages of MY, FY and PY were 642 kg, 21.6 kg and 19.8 kg, respectively. Average SCC and SCS were 936,518 cells/ml milk and 9.12. Pure-bred Saanen does out-produced other breeds in MY, FY and PY. Average EBV for MY, FY and PY compared to a Saanen base were Nubian -98 kg, 0.1 kg and -1.2 kg; Alpine -64 kg, -1.0 kg and -1.7 kg; and Toggenburg -42 kg, -1.0 kg and -0.5 kg. First-cross heterosis estimates were 29 kg MY, 1.1 kg FY and 1.2 kg PY. Average EBV for SCS compared to a Saanen base were Nubian 0.041, Alpine -0.083 and Toggenburg 0.094. Heterosis for SCS was 0.03. Breeding values are combined with respective economic values to calculate an economic index used for ranking sires and does to reflect farm profit.

Keywords: breed effects, dairy goats, milk traits, test-day model

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