FT-IR Microspectrometry Reveals the Variation of Membrane Polarizability due to Epigenomic Effect on Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian cancer, as well as other cancers, is primarily caused by methylation at cytosines in CpG islands, but the current marker for ovarian cancer is low in sensitivity and failed in early-stage detection. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy is powerful in analysis of functional groups within molecules, and infrared microscopy illustrates the location of specific groups within single cells. In this study, we applied HPLC and FT-IR microspectrometry to study normal epithelial ovarian cell line immortalized ovarian surface epithelium (IOSE), two epithelial ovarian cell lines (A2780 and CP70) with distinct properties, and the effect of a cancer drug 5-aza-2''-deoxycytidine (5-aza) without labeling. Our results reveal that inhibition of methylation on cytosine with 5-aza initiates the protein expression. Furthermore, paraffin-adsorption kinetic study allows us to distinguish hypermethylated and hypomethyated cells, and this assay can be a potential diagnosis method for cancer screening.     

Characteristics of flow field near sea bottom in a combined wave and current motion

Abstract

A reasonable time‐invariant eddy viscosity model is proposed to describe turbulent flow over a rough sea bottom in a combined wave‐current system. The linearized governing equations are solved for the wave and current kinematics both inside and outside the wave boundary layer. The results of velocity profile, friction factor and apparent roughness in a wave‐current motion are presented. The friction factors are shown to be consistent with previous theoretical results for the limiting cases of pure wave and pure current motions. Present results are compared favorably with the available data.     

Coping knowledge boundaries between information system and business disciplines: An intellectual capital perspective

Information system development can be considered a collaboration between users and developers. The inability to leverage the localized knowledge embedded in these two stakeholders hinders software development work to achieve high performance. Exploring the ways to counter this difficulty is then critical. This study applies an intellectual capital perspective to address the issues around spanning the knowledge boundary between developers and users. Our findings highlighted how important effective knowledge boundary spanning is to both product and project quality. Furthermore, three dimensions of intellectual capital increased the degree to which knowledge boundary spanning was effective.     

Feasibility evaluation of fermentative biomass-derived gas production from condensed molasses in a continuous two-stage system for commercialization

The excessive burning of fossil fuels is one of the main sources of emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) which causes the greenhouse effect. The effect could be resulted in climate changes and disorder of our ecosystem. Thus, bioenergy developments will play important roles to help decreasing CO₂ emission for better global environment in the future. In the domain of biohydrogen production, biomass including: cellulose, wastewater and agricultural waste are the main resources to maintain feedstock demand. Developing sustainable energy with sustainable feedstock sources like sugary wastewater by using two-stage biomass-derived gas production system might bring great economic profits to business. In this study, the system will be chosen to testify its sustainability when producing the sugary wastewater to renewable source energy. The commercial potential analysis is derived from the internal rate of return (IRR). The novelty finding of this study, as the result showed, found out that the energy recovery is 1.12 times higher than single stage. According to the IRR analysis with the calculated years of 15 years, the IRR is 32.47% that means the system can payback within 3.19 years. Therefore, the feasibility of commercialization potential of biomass-derived gas production system can be verified.     

Effect of midblock on the morphology and properties of blends of ABA triblock copolymers of PDLA-mid-block-PDLA with PLLA

A method to overcome the brittleness of poly (l-lactic acid) (PLLA) by kinetically trapping a continuous low T_g amorphous phase is presented. This morphology is accomplished by exploiting the significant difference in the crystallization temperatures of PLLA vs its stereocomplex with the poly (d-lactic acid) (PDLA) isomer. In our studies, the D isomer is the end block of a triblock copolymer with a configuration of the form PDLAn–Soft Blockm–PDLAn. As demonstrated in this study, when blended with PLLA, the obtained morphology, and improvement in the sample toughness and flexibility, strongly depend on the miscibility of the midblock in the triblock copolymer with the matrix PLLA. The difference in the chemical nature of the midblock clearly affected the stereocomplex crystallization between the PDLA end blocks, the PLLA matrix polymer, and the morphology formed. It is found that the miscible midblock gives rise to a soft continuous amorphous phase while in the case of an immiscible midblock, a glassy phase separated amorphous phase is formed. Dramatically different physical properties can be obtained for various PLLA/triblock copolymer blends giving access to tough, yet flexible, semicrystalline PLLA blends.     

Morphology,mechanical, and rheological behavior of microcellular injection molded EVA–clay nanocomposites

Ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA)/montmorillonite (MMT) nanocomposites diluted from master batch (50 wt.%) with EVA and EVAgMA was used in this study. The organoclay EVA nanocomposites were then injection molded by conventional and microcellular methods. Nitrogen was used as the blowing agent. The effect of organoclay content and MA grafted EVA on the morphology and the mechanical and rheological properties of the EVA–clay nanocomposites were then investigated. The results showed that the mechanical properties (tensile and impact) increased as the clay content increased. Cell size decreased as the clay loading increased. The EVAgMA nanocomposites had better mechanical properties than the EVA nanocomposites. XRD results showed that the EVAgMA nanocomposites have an exfoliated layered structure while the EVA nanocomposites are intercalated. Rheological results showed the viscosity is clay loading dependent and that the shear thinning effect occurs at high shear rates.     

One‐Step Fast Synthesis of Li4Ti5O12 Particles Using an Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet

A one‐step process to fabricate crystalline Li₄Ti₅O₁₂(LTO) particles directly from solution using an atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) is reported. This process uses Ti and Li ions‐containing salt solutions as the precursor, which is ultrasonically nebulized and then transported to the downstream of the APPJ using a carrier gas. With an extremely short contact time (<0.1 s) between the precursor droplets and the plasma jet, crystalline LTO can be fabricated in one step without additional rinse and postannealing steps. The LTO particle size can be effectively controlled using a preheater, the precursor solution composition and concentration, and the carrier gas flow rate. By properly adjusting the operating condition, particles of diameters from 100 nm to few μm with various morphologies can be obtained. When used as an electrode material, the resulting LTO powders fabricated under selected conditions show specific capacities over 100 mAh/g even at 50 C rate.     

Thermo- and pH-Responsive Polymersomes of Poly(α,β-N-substituted-DL-aspartamide)s

Materials that can respond to multiple stimuli, such as temperature and pH changes, are of considerable interest for applications in drug delivery systems. Notably, α,β-[poly(2-hydroxyethyl)-DL -aspartamide] is a potentially useful material for such applications. This study investigated the temperature and pH responsiveness of polymers structurally similar to α,β-[poly(2-hydroxyethyl)-DL -aspartamide], namely, poly(α,β-N-substituted-DL -aspartamide)s, in aqueous media. These polymers were derived from polysuccinimide (PSI), which was first synthesized via acid-catalyzed bulk polycondensation of L -aspartic acid (L-ASP) in the presence of 85% o-phosphoric acid under N2. Two primary amino alcohols, 4-aminobutanol (4AB) and 6-aminohexanol (6AH), were then respectively utilized to modify PSI to form poly (α,β-N-substituted-DL -aspartamide)s via aminolysis. Different ratios of these two amino alcohols were used to modify the polymer to produce a series of copolymers with lower critical solution temperatures ranging from 53–28°C when dispersed in aqueous media. Moreover, the properties of the poly(α,β-N- substituted-DL -aspartamide)s in aqueous solution were affected by pH changes. The morphology of the particles formed by these amphiphilic polymers was observed using scanning electronic microscopy and transmission electronic microscopy, and the particles were found to be polymersomes with shell and hollow core structures and diameters of 0.5–1 μm. Other properties of this series of self-assembly copolymers were also characterized. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012     

Commercial application scenario using patent analysis: Fermentative hydrogen production from biomass

The main purpose of this study is to use patent analysis to investigate scenarios for future commercial applications of dark fermentation or anaerobic fermentation using biomass or organic matter as feedstock materials. The first step in this study includes a patent search procedure and patent content interpretation, in which 29 technology patents were identified from the US patent database and divided into five groups in accordance with the scope of their technical applications. The following five scenarios of commercial applications of biomass fermentation for hydrogen production were established through a combination of group applications: screening and cultivation of hydrogen-producing bacteria, biomass waste sources, biomass energization application, value enhancement of waste or wastewater treatment systems, and the application of a multi-functional hydrogen production system integrated with other technologies.