The Role of microRNAs in Development of Colitis-Associated Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most deadly cancer worldwide, and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is one of the critical factors in CRC carcinogenesis. IBD is responsible for an unphysiological and sustained chronic inflammation environment favoring the transformation. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) belong to a class of highly conserved short single-stranded segments (18–25 nucleotides) non-coding RNA and have been extensively discussed in both CRC and IBD. However, the role of miRNAs in the development of colitis-associated CRC (CAC) is less clear. The aim of this review is to summarize the major upregulated (miR-18a, miR-19a, miR-21, miR-31, miR-155 and miR-214) and downregulated (miR-124, miR-193a-3p and miR-139-5p) miRNAs in CAC, and their roles in genes’ expression modulation in chronic colonic-inflammation-induced carcinogenesis, including programmed cell-death pathways. These miRNAs dysregulation could be applied for early CAC diagnosis, to predict therapy efficacy and for precision treatment.     

Characteristics of tiger nut milk: effects of milling

A standard method for the extraction of tiger nut milk has been introduced. It has been shown that, although milling duration improves the yield of tiger nut milk solids and its nutrient composition, there is a quantifiable loss of nutrient in the pressing residue during milk extraction. Milling duration improved the colloidal stability of the milk against creaming during 16 h of storage. A higher milling intensity resulted in the aggregation of biological polymers which resulted in colloidal destabilisation. Milling improved the lightness and stability and reduced browning rate of the tiger nut milk during storage. This report is important for the production of tiger nut milk of consistent and comparable characteristics. Milling has been introduced as a processing method for the qualitative and quantitative modulation of the properties of tiger nut milk. It is recommended to develop further strategies to improve the colloidal stability of tiger nut milk as a beverage.     

Combination of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and nonlinear methods to analyze the copolymerization of phosphonic acid derivatives

We demonstrate in this study that the combination of modern inline monitoring methods [here: inline nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)] with simulations gains more exact and profound kinetic results than previously used methods like linearization without that combination. The ¹H-NMR spectroscopic data (more than 100 data points) are used to construct the copolymerization diagram. The reactivity ratios are obtained applying the van Herks nonlinear least square method. The examination of the radical copolymerization of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) with (2-{[2-(ethoxycarbonyl)prop-2-en-1-yl]oxy}ethyl) phosphonic acid (ECPPA) as important adhesive monomer used in dentistry yields reactivity ratios of r_HEMA = 1.83; r_ECPPA = 0.42. The copolymerization diagram reflects nonideal, non-azeotropic copolymerization. The sequence distribution of the obtained by Monte Carlo simulation indicates the generation of statistical copolymers. As an important finding, it is demonstrated that the repeating units responsible for etching and adhesion are arranged over the whole polymer chain, which is necessary to achieve proper functionality. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 48256.     

Long multifilament Bi-2223 Ag-sheathed superconducting tapes and solenoids

Multifilament Ag-sheathed BiPbSrCaCuO (2223) superconducting tapes containing 49 filaments were fabricated by the powder-in-tube route and the roll-anneal process. The transport critical current densityJ _c was 1.3×10⁴ A cm^–2 at 77 K and 7×10⁴ A cm^–2 at 4.2 K in self-field. A 12-m-long tape was used to construct superconducting solenoids (50, 28, and 14 mm internal diameters) generating dc fields 380–1070 G at 4.2 K. Measurements of the variation ofJ _c with field (0–1.6 T) and bend strain (0–5%) are used to explain the performance of the solenoids. The critical bend strain of tapes was about 1.5%.     

ENHANCING THE CREATIVITY OF REENGINEERING Techniques for Making IS More Creative

Industries in the US continue to lose ground in international competition. If IS is to help change that trend, it will have to become more creative. Creativity improvement programs are being introduced in other areas of the company— now is the time for IS organizations to follow suit.     

An Innovative Understanding of Metal–Insulator–Metal (MIM)-Capacitor Degradation Under Constant-Current Stress

This paper provides a new understanding of metal-insulator-metal-capacitor-degradation behavior under a wide range of constant-current-stress conditions. It was found that capacitance degrades with stress, but the behavior of the degradation strongly depends on the stress-current density. At high stress levels, the capacitance increases logarithmically as the injection charge increases until dielectric breakdown occurs. At lower stress conditions, the degradation rate is proportional to the stress current and reverses after a certain period of time. A metal-insulator interlayer is observed using cross-sectional transmission-electron-microscopy micrographs, which possibly explains this reversal phenomenon.     

New Solution Approaches to the General Single- Machine Earliness-Tardiness Problem

This paper addresses the general single-machine earliness-tardiness problem with distinct release dates, due dates, and unit costs. The aim of this research is to obtain an exact nonpreemptive solution in which machine idle time is allowed. In a hybrid approach, we formulate and then solve the problem using dynamic programming (DP), while incorporating techniques from branch-and-bound (BB). This approach (DP-BB) has been proven to be effective in solving certain types of scheduling problems. We further propose a new adaptation of the approach to a general problem with a nonregular objective function. To address some shortcomings of DP-BB, we also apply a BB approach in which partial dynamic programming dominance (BB-PDP) is exploited. Computational experiments were conducted with randomly generated test instances in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the two approaches. The results clearly showed that our new approaches can solve all the instances with up to 40 jobs and most of the instances with 50 jobs, which outperforms those frequently used approaches in scheduling research.     

Hot-carrier degradation of submicrometer p-MOSFETs withthermal/LPCVD composite oxide

It is shown that while gate oxides containing thermal/LPCVD composite oxide have lower defect densities than gates using only thermal oxides, they are more susceptible to hot-carrier degradation. The hot-carrier-induced degradation of composite oxides is worse in p-channel MOSFETs than in n-channel MOSFETs. This sensitivity of p-channel MOSFETs is caused by higher electron trapping levels in LPCVD oxides. For 150-Å gate technology, the hot-carrier-degradation resistance of thermal/LPCVD composite gate oxides with a 70-Å or thicker thermal oxide layer approaches that of high-quality pure thermal oxide     

Development and characterization of a biocompatible OH-modified copolymer based on polyurethane

Different polyurethanes were synthesized by varying the diol as well as the diisocyanate components and chain extenders. Polyurethanes with OH-groups were obtained by photo- and thermoinitiation of the radical polymerization of hydroxy alkyl acrylates in the presence of the polyurethanes. The polymers were evaluated with respect to their biocompatibility by measuring the cell spreading, the rates of DNA- and protein synthesis and the swelling behaviour. The differences in the surfaces and the bulks between the selected basic polyurethane and the functionalized modification were determined and characterized by XPS, FTIR-ATR and ¹³C-FT-NMR-spectroscopy. The mechanical data of Tecoflex EG 60D® and Pellethane 2363–80AE® were compared with the data of the synthesized polyurethanes.     

Optimal mass transport for geometric modeling based on variational principles in convex geometry

In geometric modeling, surface parameterization plays an important role for converting triangle meshes to spline surfaces. Parameterization will introduce distortions. Conventional parameterization methods emphasize on angle-preservation, which may induce huge area distortions and cause large spline fitting errors and trigger numerical instabilities.To overcome this difficulty, this work proposes a novel area-preserving parameterization method, which is based on an optimal mass transport theory and convex geometry. Optimal mass transport mapping is measure-preserving and minimizes the transportation cost. According to Brenier’s theorem, for quadratic distance transportation costs, the optimal mass transport map is the gradient of a convex function. The graph of the convex function is a convex polyhedron with prescribed normal and areas. The existence and the uniqueness of such a polyhedron have been proved by the Minkowski-Alexandrov theorem in convex geometry. This work gives an explicit method to construct such a polyhedron based on the variational principle, and formulates the solution to the optimal transport map as the unique optimum of a convex energy. In practice, the energy optimization can be carried out using Newton’s method, and each iteration constructs a power Voronoi diagram dynamically. We tested the proposal algorithms on 3D surfaces scanned from real life. Experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and efficacy of the proposed variational approach for the optimal transport map.