Epoxidized natural rubber/dicarboxylic acid self-vulcanized blends

Curing behaviour as well as mechanical properties of binary blends of epoxidized natural rubber (ENR) and dodecanedioic acid (DA) were investigated for development of self-vulcanizable elastomer blends. Cross-linking reaction at 180 °C of reactive functional rubber containing 25 and 10 mol% epoxide groups was followed by rheology. The properties of the cured materials were studied by dynamic mechanical analysis, stress-strain experiments, and DSC measurements. It was shown that a specific ratio ENR/DA gave rise to optimum mechanical properties. This ratio decreases together with the epoxidation level of the rubber. DSC measurements revealed that the glass transition temperature of the cured material increases nonlinearly at high concentrations of cross-linking agent. By comparing cross-linking with DA and reaction with monofunctional lauric acid, this behaviour was attributed to polar interactions due to free carboxylic groups of pending diacid grafts.     

Microtubule Destabilizing Sulfonamides as an Alternative to Taxane-Based Chemotherapy

Pan-Gyn cancers entail 1 in 5 cancer cases worldwide, breast cancer being the most commonly diagnosed and responsible for most cancer deaths in women. The high incidence and mortality of these malignancies, together with the handicaps of taxanes—first-line treatments—turn the development of alternative therapeutics into an urgency. Taxanes exhibit low water solubility that require formulations that involve side effects. These drugs are often associated with dose-limiting toxicities and with the appearance of multi-drug resistance (MDR). Here, we propose targeting tubulin with compounds directed to the colchicine site, as their smaller size offer pharmacokinetic advantages and make them less prone to MDR efflux. We have prepared 52 new Microtubule Destabilizing Sulfonamides (MDS) that mostly avoid MDR-mediated resistance and with improved aqueous solubility. The most potent compounds, N-methyl-N-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl-4-methylaminobenzenesulfonamide 38, N-methyl-N-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl-4-methoxy-3-aminobenzenesulfonamide 42, and N-benzyl-N-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl-4-methoxy-3-aminobenzenesulfonamide 45 show nanomolar antiproliferative potencies against ovarian, breast, and cervix carcinoma cells, similar or even better than paclitaxel. Compounds behave as tubulin-binding agents, causing an evident disruption of the microtubule network, in vitro Tubulin Polymerization Inhibition (TPI), and mitotic catastrophe followed by apoptosis. Our results suggest that these novel MDS may be promising alternatives to taxane-based chemotherapy in chemoresistant Pan-Gyn cancers.     

TP53 Targeted Deep Sequencing of Cell-Free DNA in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Using Low-Quality Serum: Concordance with Tumor Mutation

Circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is emerging as a potential tumor biomarker. CfDNA-based biomarkers may be applicable in tumors without an available non-invasive screening method among at-risk populations. Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and residents of the Asian cancer belt are examples of those malignancies and populations. Previous epidemiological studies using cfDNA have pointed to the need for high volumes of good quality plasma (i.e., >1 mL plasma with 0 or 1 cycles of freeze-thaw) rather than archival serum, which is often the main available source of cfDNA in retrospective studies. Here, we have investigated the concordance of TP53 mutations in tumor tissue and cfDNA extracted from archival serum left-over from 42 cases and 39 matched controls (age, gender, residence) in a high-risk area of Northern Iran (Golestan). Deep sequencing of TP53 coding regions was complemented with a specialized variant caller (Needlestack). Overall, 23% to 31% of mutations were concordantly detected in tumor and serum cfDNA (based on two false discovery rate thresholds). Concordance was positively correlated with high cfDNA concentration, smoking history (p-value = 0.02) and mutations with a high potential of neoantigen formation (OR; 95%CI = 1.9 (1.11–3.29)), suggesting that tumor DNA release in the bloodstream might reflect the effects of immune and inflammatory context on tumor cell turnover. We identified TP53 mutations in five controls, one of whom was subsequently diagnosed with ESCC. Overall, the results showed that cfDNA mutations can be reliably identified by deep sequencing of archival serum, with a rate of success comparable to plasma. Nonetheless, 70% non-identifiable mutations among cancer patients and 12% mutation detection in controls are the main challenges in applying cfDNA to detect tumor-related variants when blindly targeting whole coding regions of the TP53 gene in ESCC.     

Real options and technology management: Assessing technology migration options in wireless industry

The wireless industry is currently undergoing a major transition from second generation (2G) to third generation (3G) wireless technologies. The paper attempts to assess wireless technology migration options using the real options approach (ROA) to support the wireless network operators’ strategic decisions: to migrate or not, if so, which migration path to take. The preliminary result shows that the evolution of wireless network technologies between generations is desirable, but not within generations. Finally, from a strategic perspective, we should consider the possible challenges that may hinder migration. By identifying these challenges, we can be more watchful of transition pitfalls and can choose a better alternative.     

The Critical Temperature of Aluminum

The critical temperature, T _c, of metals is a fundamental point when vaporization due to high energy exchanges occurs. Although aluminum is a metal often studied as a benchmark for theories, its critical temperature is not known with a high degree of accuracy. Its determination by experiment is difficult as a result of its high value. This paper reviews the existing data and proposes new ones resulting from recent measurements of particular physical properties and recent theoretical approaches. These new estimates lead to the recommended value of T _c = (6700 ± 800) K.     

Solid/Liquid Separation of Pig Manure by Biological Flotation: Pilot-Scale Study

Many problems are associated with pig manure production like high biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, nitrogen, and phosphorus contents. Manure produces may be used in land spreading for agricultural purposes. Over application of liquid manure or runoff caused by precipitation contribute notably to surface or overland flow of phosphorus. In this study, the LISOX process is proposed for use in medium size farms, namely a 2,000-head swine farm. The LISOX process uses biological passive flotation, without any gas addition, to enable the flocs to rise to the surface. Results show that this technology is able to considerably reduce the solids content in the final effluent to 1.1±0.3% and reached solids content of 17.9±2.6% in the combined solid manure obtained at the end of the LISOX process. Total phosphorus (Pt) concentrations have been reduced from 1,234±428?mg/L to 146±46?mg/L in the final effluent, while a value of Pt of 20.6±7.9?g/kg has been obtained in the final solid fraction of the treated manure. The initial ammonium ion/total phosphorus ratio of 2.3±1.0 has been increased to respectively 16.4±4.6 and 17.6±5.4 after the primary and the secondary flotation, which is clearly much higher than the target value (NH4/Pt>7).     

Durability of rammed earth walls exposed for 20 years to natural weathering

This paper presents a study on the durability of different types of stabilised and unstabilised rammed earth walls. These rammed earth walls were constructed and exposed for 20 years to natural weathering, in a wet continental climate. None of these walls have shown complete collapse to date. A method to measure the rammed earth walls erosion by stereo-photogrammetry has been developed. The result shows that the mean erosion depth of the studied walls is about 2 mm (0.5% wall thickness) in the case of rammed earth wall stabilised with 5% by dry weight of hydraulic lime and about 6.4 mm (1.6% wall thickness) in the case of unstabilised rammed earth walls. The stabilisation enables to not use any plaster to protect the walls. In the case of the unstabilised rammed earth walls, an extrapolated lifetime longer than 60 years can be assessed. This shows a potential for the use of unstabilised rammed earth in the similar climatic conditions with this study. The method of stereo-photogrammetry used to measure the erosion of rammed earth walls on site may also help to calibrate and develop more pertinent laboratory test to assess the durability of rammed earth wall.     

Ensuring visibility in calibration-free path planning for image-based visual servoing

We consider the problem of planning a path for image-based eye-in-hand visual servoing applications, when using an uncalibrated camera. Recent developments in this field lead to analytical interpolation between two views of an unknown object, in the projective space. Literature also provides extensions of these approaches that account for the target visibility constraint. Unfortunately, these extensions require an (even weakly) calibrated camera, and involve iterative algorithms that are not proven to converge. In this paper, we propose a modification of an existing projective interpolation algorithm that guarantees the visibility of the observed target, while avoiding the use of any knowledge on the camera calibration parameters, nor on the observed object.     

Efficient compilation of array iterators for Lustre

In this paper, we present a compilation scheme along with optimizations for array iterators in the synchronous data flow language Lustre. We present the iterators (inspired from functional languages mechanisms such as map and foldl…) and show how to compile them into efficient imperative code that manipulates arrays and loops instead of inefficient code were arrays are expanded into independent variables.