POLYCAPROLACTONE AND POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE NANOFIBER GRAFTS FOR ANTERIOR CRUCIATE LIGAMENT TISSUE APPLICATIONS

The present study hypothesizes that the produced graft from two different polymers (PCL&PET) with aligned-bimodal and unaligned-unimodal fibers can mimic the properties of healthy and injured ACL rabbit tissue, respectively. To observe if the created graft is useful to replicate the conditions for ACL restoration, primary fibroblasts taken from rabbit’s ACL tissue were seeded on two different types of scaffolds: aligned fibers, which represent healthy ACL tissue, and unaligned, which represent injured ACL tissue. After cell seeding, the evaluation of cell proliferation and DNA were evaluated in 3-time points from day 0 to day 7

Genetic manipulations with the AXL gene in bladder cancer cells using CRISPR-Cas9 system

The TAM family of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs), composed of AXL, TYRO3, and MER, substantially influences various biological processes during tissue homeostasis (Lemke, 2013). A growing focus within cancer research is centred around the AXL RTK and its ligand GAS6, as abnormal activations and overexpression of the former appear to be linked to cancer progression, poor prognosis, metastasis, and lesser sensitivity to anti-cancer therapies (Lemke, 2013; Wieman et al., 2005). Mediated in a concentration-dependent manner, GAS6 is a ligand not only for AXL but for TYRO3 and MER as well, although its binding affinity is 3- to 10-fold stronger for AXL specifically (Weinger et al., 2009; Wu et al., 2014). AXL is critical in conferring resistance to conventional and targeted cancer treatment (Auyez et al., 2021). It accomplishes this by activating multiple downstream intracellular signalling routes, including AKT, MEK/ERK, and NF-κB, when it binds to GAS6 (Antony & Huang, 2017; Ekman et al., 2010). These pathways collectively create an anti-apoptotic environment, enhancing cellular survival and tumour invasiveness. Additionally, AXL has been implicated in the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a process essential for cancer metastasis and progression (Antony & Huang, 2017). AXL undergoes a series of post-translational modifications involving proteolytic enzymes like ADAM10 and ADAM17 (Miller et al., 2016; Lu et al., 2017). These enzymes cleave AXL to create its soluble form (sAXL), which can dampen AXL activation by interacting with GAS6 and an intracellular domain (Lu et al., 2017). This mechanism also presents how cancer cells evade therapies targeting the BRAF/MAPK pathway (Rankin & Giaccia, 2016). Elevated sAXL levels in plasma have been correlated with cancer progression to advanced stages in different tumour types, suggesting its potential utility as a biomarker (Martínez- Bosch et al., 2022; Flem-Karlsen et al., 2020). However, a significant gap exists in our understanding, particularly concerning the effect of the inactivation of AXL on its downstream effectors in urinary bladder cancer cell lines . This thesis aims to fill this gap using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology, a novel approach in this field, and inactivating the AXL gene. This will allow us to generate bladder cancer cell lines without AXL, providing a unique opportunity to study its role. This study will also explore the influence of AXL expression on mesenchymal cells. We plan to quantify the expression levels of sAXL in conditioned media obtained from our genetically engineered bladder cancer cell lines. Subsequent analyses will assess the influence of the deactivation on the expression of AXL's nuclear and soluble forms and further AXL's phosphorylation through Western blotting techniques. This thesis aims to shed new light on the complexity of AXL signalling in urinary bladder cancer by employing cutting-edge genome editing technologies. The experience and knowledge gained from this could significantly improve our understanding of cancer biology and potentially guide the development of more effective therapeutic strategies

INVESTIGATION OF STOPE WALL CONVERGENCE-BASED BEHAVIOR FOR NARROW VEIN OREBODIES

Despite the fact that it involves geological complexities like inconsistent vein properties, shear zones, and varied lithological width, narrow-vein mining is an ancient underground mining technique that is currently gaining importance due to the depletion of surface mines. Narrow vein mining targets tabular orebodies known as veins, single or in complex systems that are essential for yielding various minerals like gold and tin. In this thesis, it is suggested that the behavior in deep, hard rock, narrow vein mines is primarily plastic instead of brittle, as the current design tools assume. This is primarily because production demands force stopes to be elongated, leading to stope walls that are significantly longer along the strike than their width. In order to check this hypothesis numerical modeling tool RS2 was used, also, the influence of stress ratio (K=1; K=1.5; K=2; K=2.5), and different stope width (from 1m to 10m) were analyzed. The stope walls deformation and damage increase with mining depth and in-situ stress, as shown by the figures and RS2 simulations. When K=1.5, 1/= 0.15, depth = 65 m, stope wall closure was equal to 0.00210022 m; 1/= 0.4, depth = 750 m, walls converged inside of stope by 0.054073 m; 1/=0.6, depth = 1500 m, the closure of walls was 0.118056 m. Also, it was concluded that the behavior of stope walls changes with changing stress circumstances; greater depth and K values cause displacement to increase and strength to decrease, respectively, resulting in considerable stress damage. The graph indicates that larger stopes often encounter less wall convergence and it shows that the closure percentage increases as the effective stress ratio (K) increases, underscoring the critical role of stress conditions affecting wall stability and the significance of taking both stope width and stress conditions into account when controlling wall displacement in mines

ENHANCING AMBIENT ASSISTED LIVING WITH MULTI-MODAL VISION AND LANGUAGE MODELS: A NOVEL APPROACH FOR REAL-TIME ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR DETECTION AND EMERGENCY RESPONSE

The global demographic forecast predicts a surge to over 1.9 billion individuals by 2050, escalating the demand for efficient healthcare delivery, particularly for the elderly and disabled, who frequently require caregiving due to prevalent mental and physical health issues. This demographic trend underscores the critical need for robust long-term care services and continuous monitoring systems. However, the efficacy of these solutions is often compromised by caregiver overload, financial constraints, and logistical challenges in transportation, necessitating advanced technological interventions. In response, researchers have been refining ambient assisted living (AAL) environments through the integration of human activity recognition (HAR) utilizing advanced machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) techniques. These methods aim to reduce emergency incidents and enhance early detection and intervention. Traditional sensor-based HAR systems, despite their utility, suffer from significant limitations, including high data variability, environmental interference, and contextual inadequacies. To address these issues, vision language models (VLMs) enhance detection accuracy by interpreting scene contexts via caption generation, visual question answering (VQA), commonsense reasoning, and action recognition. However, VLMs face challenges in real-time application scenarios due to language ambiguity and occlusions, which can degrade the detection accuracy. Large language models (LLMs) combined with text-to-speech (TTS) and speech-to-text (STT) technologies can facilitate direct communication with the individual and enable real-time interactive assessments of a situation. Integrating real-time conversational capabilities via LLM, TTS, and STT into VLM framework significantly improves the detection of abnormal behavior by leveraging a comprehensive scene understanding and direct patient feedback, thus enhancing the system's reliability. A qualitative evaluation showed high system usability results in a subjective questionnaire during real-time experiments with participants. A quantitative evaluation of the developed system demonstrated high performance, achieving detection accuracy and recall rates of 93.44\% and 95\%, respectively, and a specificity rate of 88.88\% in various emergency scenarios before interaction. After the interaction stage, the performance was boosted to 100\% accuracy due to increased context from user's responses. Furthermore, the system not only effectively identifies emergencies but also provides contextual summaries and actionable recommendations to caregivers and patients. The research introduces a multimodal framework that combines VLMs, LLMs, TTS, and STT for real-time abnormal behavior detection and assistance. This study aims to develop a comprehensive framework that overcomes traditional HAR and AAL limitations by integrating instructions-driven VLM, LLM, human detection, TTS, and STT modules to enhance emergency response efficiency in home environments. This innovative approach promises substantial advancements in the field of AAL by providing timely and context-aware detection and response in emergencies

TRANSITION FROM SECONDARY SCHOOL TO HIGHER EDUCATION: EXPLORING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ENGLISH PRIVATE TUTORING, AND ITS IMPLICATIONS IN KAZAKHSTAN

Since the beginning of 21st century, Private tutoring (PT) has grown significantly in popularity and prevalence. However, English private tutoring (EPT), a subcategory of PT, remains a relatively under-researched area, with limited empirical studies on EPT in Central Asia, including Kazakhstan. Therefore, this qualitative study aims to fill this gap by examining the EPT experiences of undergraduate students from Kazakhstan as they prepared for their high-stakes university entrance exams. Drawing on Benson’s (2011) four-dimensional model of language learning beyond the classroom, the study addresses two research questions: 1) How were the four dimensions (location, formality, locus of control and pedagogy) interpreted in the participants’ EPT experiences? 2) What are the participants’ views about the future of PT in Kazakhstan? The data were gathered from eight undergraduate students enrolled in a highly selective Kazakhstani university where English was used as the medium of instruction (EMI). This study utilized two qualitative research methods: narrative writing and individual semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study revealed that regarding the location of EPT, most participants preferred small group tutoring. Concerning the formality, the participants articulated the positive, indirect involvement of their parents and hiring a private tutor for their children as a means to relieve the burden on their shoulders as ‘responsibilized’ parents. Regarding the locus of control, the participants took EPT to enhance their chances of a place at one of the prestigious EMI universities. Participants admitted that they could not secure a place at that EMI university without having EPT. However, they articulated some disadvantages of EPT. The study’s findings have led to suggestions for pedagogical improvements and identified areas for future research, including the adoption of effective procedures to enhance fair access to highly selective universities and regulate the PT market in Kazakhstan and other regions. Keywords: Private tutoring, English private tutoring, higher education, Central Asia, qualitative stud

ACTION-DRIVEN TACTILE OBJECT EXPLORATION FOR SHAPE RECONSTRUCTION VIA OPTICAL TACTILE SENSORS

We introduce an action-driven tactile exploration system using novel optical tactile sensors integrated into the gripper of a robot arm. These sensors consist of multiple silicone layers, with one layer featuring alternating yellow and red patterns. When this layer deforms — typically by stretching and reducing in thickness—the colored patterns shift. These changes are captured by an onboard camera and analyzed using a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) algorithm. The gripper for the sensor was specifically designed and 3D printed to ensure the sensors operate correctly. The colored part of the sensor was isolated from the external light. We tested the sensor’s effectiveness in edge detection and localization using four different geometric objects. We evaluated our system using a diverse collection of objects in both medium and large sizes

SCREENING FOR INHIBITORS OF ZEB1, A KEY REGULATOR OF EPITHELIAL TO MESENCHYMAL TRANSITION (EMT) IN BREAST CANCER CELLS.

Background: Breast cancer (BC) has an estimated new cases of about 2.3 million individuals and approximately 685,000 deaths in 2020, thereby making it the most common cause of mortality in women. Different subtypes of BC are categorized breast into three clinical subtypes based on the expression or lack of hormone receptors: progesterone (PR), estrogen (ER), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Her2). Despite the considerable progress made in the treatment of the various types of BC, more research is still needed to address some major obstacles in breast cancer treatment, especially those associated with poor prognosis and reduced survival rates among BC patients like chemoresistance and cancer metastasis; these processes are mediated by Zeb1, which is the key regulator of the EMT. Methods: Cell culture was used to propagate MCF7 cell lines and do transfection. Western blot was used to assess the effects on the markers of EMT such as Zeb1 and Cdh1. Cell cycle analysis using flow cytometry was used to examine candidate inhibitors of EMT after induction of Zeb1. Results: The induced MCF7 cells show a higher percentage of cell cycle arrests at the G1 phase than non-induced cells after treatment with candidate inhibitors. Conclusion: Out of the three PKC inhibitors tested midostaurin, auranofin, and resveratrol; resveratrol demonstrated a more significant impact on Zeb1-expressing cells than those without expression of Zeb1 by decreasing the percentage of cells at the G1 phase, hence, resveratrol might directly interfere with the activity of Zeb

APPLICATION OF MULTI-WALLED CARBON NANOTUBES IN SLOPE STABILIZATION

Landslides are a common phenomenon that every year causes economic and human losses around the world. It emerges in various geographical places worldwide because of diverse natural circumstances and triggering mechanisms, including precipitation, seismic events, and anthropogenic interventions. In the conventional methods, slopes are stabilized using different methods including application of lime, cement, and fly ash. However, each of these materials has their own shortages. In this study, the application of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) is investigated for slope stabilization. Extensive tests are conducted in the laboratory to obtain the index properties, compaction, soil water characteristics curve and unsaturated permeability of the soil for both scenarios of soil with and without MWCNT. Liquid limit and plastic limit of soil stabilized with MWCNT increased compared to soil without multi-walled carbon nanotubes and plasticity index decreased. The result from SWCC demonstrates that saturated volumetric water content and air entry value of the soil with MWCNT has increased compared to soil without MWCNT. The result from unsaturated permeability test demonstrated that the unsaturated permeability of soil stabilized with MWCNT has decreased. Different sets of numerical analysis were conducted using Seep/W and Slope/W to analyze the seepage and safety factor of slope with and without MWCNTs. The result from Seep/W analysis shows that the pore water pressure (PWP) in the slope without carbon nanotube is lower than PWP in the slope with MWCNT in the surface area. Moreover, it shows that the PWP in the surface area is increasing by passage of time during the rainy period and it is decreasing as the raining period stops. The result from slope /W analysis shows that factor of safety (FoS) of slopes without MWCNT. However, the FoS of slope MWCNT declines rapidly and with a high rate, while the FoS of slope with MWCNT only change slightly and remains safe compared to non-stabilized slope

AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER DETECTION USING MACHINE LEARNING

This article examines the visual preferences of autistic children in order to identify specific patterns, such as repetitive behavior, and focus on certain elements of the visual content, such as geometric shapes, etc. To analyze visual preferences, the research team collected the experimental data of two groups of children: those diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders and typically developing children. Based on the received data, a model was trained to detect autism with the usage of machine learning. In addition, the machine was safely tested on children and showed the possibility of detecting Autism Spectrum Disorders in 40% of children with autism. The study was conducted on a web platform specially designed for the young audience, which allows them to track the direction of their gaze. The obtained results also indicate that children with autism give visual preference to geometric shapes with dynamic scene changes. The implementation of this system will be useful for early detection of Autism Spectrum Disorders due to the wide accessibility of this web platform and its beneficence as a reliable screening tool. The aim of the research is to create an innovative software that will provide an opportunity to identify Autism Spectrum Disorder using machine learning

SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION, RELEASE PROFILE, AND CYTOTOXIC EVALUATION OF DOXORUBICIN-CONJUGATED ORGANOSILICA NANOPARTICLES.

Doxorubicin is an efficient drug used in cancer treatment that is associated with some serious side effects (in serious cases might lead to patients’ death). However, conjugating it with organosilica nanoparticles can solve this issue by allowing targeted drug delivery. In this research project, doxorubicin-conjugated organosilica nanoparticles were successfully synthesized. The in vitro release profile showed up to 64% release of the drug in the cancer cell environment. The in vitro toxicity studies were performed using MTT assay and after 72 hours treatment of human lung adenocarcinoma cells with drug conjugate it showed minimal viability of cancer cells