Light-weight and flexible Ni-doped CuO (Ni:CuO) thin films grown using the cost-effective SILAR method for future technological requests

Products based on nanostructured flexible thin films, which are anticipated to make their way into our lifetimes in the near future. Therefore, nanostructured metal-oxide thin-film materials grown on flexible substrates are anticipated to meet emerging technological requests. In this article, we present a promising light-weight and flexible thin-film material using un-doped and Ni-doped CuO samples. Ni:CuO flexible thin-film materials were fabricated by using the cost-effective SILAR method on cellulose acetate substrates and the effects of both Ni doping and bending on the change in electrical and optoelectronic performances were investigated. It is observed that Ni doping has a great impact on the main physical properties of flexible CuO samples. The optical bandgap value of the un-doped CuO film improves with increasing Ni ratio in the growth bath. Also, sheet resistance values of the un-doped and Ni:CuO samples are a little affected due to bending of samples for bending radius ~ 20 mm. These flexible all solution-processed nanostructured CuO samples are promising candidates for use in future optoelectronic applications

Promoter methylation analysis of CDH1 and p14ARF genes in patients with urothelial bladder cancer

BACKGROUND/AIM: Urothelial bladder cancer arises from the accumulation of multiple epigenetic and genetic changes. We aimed to investigate the specificity and sensitivity of gene-specific promoter methylation of CDH1 and p14ARF genes in the early diagnosis of bladder cancer and compare those with other diagnostic tests in our population. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In the current study, 65 patients with urothelial bladder cancer and 35 controls without any history of cancer were recruited. Methylation profiles of CDH1 and p14ARF genes from tumor and urine samples were determined by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction method. RESULTS: Methylation of CDH1 and p14ARF genes in tumor samples was 95.4% and 78.5%, respectively. The methylation frequencies were found to be 68.8% for CDH1 gene and 72.9% for p14ARF gene in urine samples. Sensitivities of CDH1, p14ARF and urine cytology were found to be 67.4%, 72.1% and 34.9%, respectively, while their specificities were 93.9%, 63.6% and 93.9%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Aberrant promoter methylation of CDH1 and p14ARF genes can be used to detect urothelial bladder cancer. In low-grade tumors, when compared with urine cytology, combined methylation analysis of CDH1 and p14ARF genes may not increase the sensitivity to identify malignant cells in urine samples

Turkish Accession and Defining the Boundaries of Nationalism and Supranationalism: Discourses in the European Commission

The European Union in general and the European Commission in particular are characterised by supranational governance. The enlargement policy gives the Commission the opportunity to export and promote supranational norms and define the boundaries of Europe as a supranational polity through the conditionality of membership and intensive contact with the candidate countries. This article analyses the discourses of the Commission on Turkey and gives us insights into how well Turkey fits the supranational model in the eyes of Commission officials. It demonstrates how the boundaries of supranationalism are set and even challenged by the prospects of Turkey’s accession

Effects of salicylic acid on wheat salt sensitivity

Salicylic acid (SA), a plant phenolic compound, is now considered as a hormone-like endogenous regulator, and there is a great interest to clarify its role in the defence mechanisms against biotic and abiotic stressors. In this study, investigations on the effects of foliar-applied SA on salt sensitivity, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) generation and activities of antioxidant enzymes like peroxidase (POX) and catalase (CAT) in plant tissues under salt stress was performed. SA treatment significantly increased the fresh and dry weights in both root and shoots of wheat plants under salt stress. Similarly, POX and CAT activities were also augmented by SA treatment. While the highest POX activity was recorded at SA+120 mM NaCl, CAT activity also exhibited an increase compared to salt treatment without SA. In parallel to increasing antioxidative activity, SA treatment decreased H2O2 content when compared to plants growing under salt stress without SA. The results revealed that salt-induced deleterious effect in wheat seedlings were significantly alleviated by the SA treatment. SA can be used as a signal molecule to investigate plant defense to abiotic stress. After the application of SA, increasing tolerance of wheat seedlings to salt stress may be related to increases in antioxidative enzyme activitiy.Key words: Wheat, salicylic acid, antioxidative enzyme activities, peroxidase (POX), catalase (CAT), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) content

SIAM Data Mining Brings It to Annual Meeting

The Data Mining Activity Group is one of SIAM\u27s most vibrant and dynamic activity groups. To better share our enthusiasm for data mining with the broader SIAM community, our activity group organized six minisymposia at the 2016 Annual Meeting. These minisymposia included 48 talks organized by 11 SIAM members on - GraphBLAS (Aydın Buluç) - Algorithms and statistical methods for noisy network analysis (Sanjukta Bhowmick & Ben Miller) - Inferring networks from non-network data (Rajmonda Caceres, Ivan Brugere & Tanya Y. Berger-Wolf) - Visual analytics (Jordan Crouser) - Mining in graph data (Jennifer Webster, Mahantesh Halappanavar & Emilie Hogan) - Scientific computing and big data (Vijay Gadepally) These minisymposia were well received by the broader SIAM community, and below are some of the key highlights

The Oak Ridge Polycystic Kidney mouse: Modeling ciliopathies of mice and men

The Oak Ridge Polycystic Kidney (ORPK) mouse was described nearly 14 years ago as a model for human recessive polycystic kidney disease. The ORPK mouse arose through integration of a transgene into an intron of the Ift88 gene resulting in a hypomorphic allele (Ift88(Tg737Rpw)). The Ift88(Tg737Rp omega) mutation impairs intraflagellar transport (IFT), a process required for assembly of motile and immotile cilia. Historically, the primary immotile cilium was thought to have minimal importance for human health; however, a rapidly expanding number of human disorders have now been attributed to ciliary defects. Importantly, many of these phenotypes are present and can be analyzed using the ORPK mouse. In this review, we highlight the research conducted using the OPRK mouse and the phenotypes shared with human cilia disorders. Furthermore, we describe an additional follicular dysplasia phenotype in the ORPK mouse, which alongside the ectodermal dysplasias seen in human Ellis-van Creveld and Sensenbrenner's syndromes, suggests an unappreciated role for primary cilia in the skin and hair follicle

Molecular etiology of arthrogryposis in multiple families of mostly Turkish origin

BACKGROUND. Arthrogryposis, defined as congenital, joint contractures in 2 or more body areas, is a clinical sign rather than a specific disease diagnosis. To date, more than 400 different disorders have been described that present with arthrogryposis, and variants of more than 220 genes have been associated with these disorders; however, the underlying molecular etiology remains unknown in the considerable majority of these cases. METHODS. We performed whole exome sequencing (WES) of 52 patients with clinical presentation of arthrogryposis from 48 different families. RESULTS. Affected individuals from 17 families (35.4%) had variants in known arthrogryposis-associated genes, including homozygous variants of cholinergic gamma nicotinic receptor (CHRNG, 6 subjects) and endothelin converting enzyme-like 1 (ECELI, 4 subjects). Deleterious variants in candidate arthrogryposis-causing genes (fibrillin 3 [FBN3], myosin IXA [MY09A], and pleckstrin and Sec7 domain containing 3 [PSD3]) were identified in 3 families (6.2%). Moreover, in 8 families with a homozygous mutation in an arthrogryposis-associated gene, we identified a second locus with either a homozygous or compound heterozygous variant in a candidate gene (myosin binding protein C, fast type (MYBPC2] and vacuolar protein sorting 8 [VPS8], 2 families, 4.2%) or in another disease-associated genes (6 families, 12.5%), indicating a potential mutational burden contributing to disease expression. CONCLUSION. In 58.3% of families, the arthrogryposis manifestation could be explained by a molecular diagnosis; however, the molecular etiology in subjects from 20 families remained unsolved by WES. Only 5 of these 20 unrelated subjects had a clinical presentation consistent with amyoplasia; a phenotype not thought to be of genetic origin. Our results indicate that increased use of genome-wide technologies will provide opportunities to better understand genetic models for diseases and molecular mechanisms of genetically heterogeneous disorders, such as arthrogryposis. FUNDING. This work was supported in part by US National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) grant U54HG006542 to the Baylor-Hopkins Center for Mendelian Genomics, and US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) grant RO1NS058529 to J.R. Lupski.US NHGRI/NHLBI [U54HG006542]; US NINDSUnited States Department of Health & Human ServicesNational Institutes of Health (NIH) - USANIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke (NINDS) [R01NS058529]; CPRIT training Program [RP140102]; Medical Genetics Research Fellowship Program [T32 GM07526]; NATIONAL HUMAN GENOME RESEARCH INSTITUTEUnited States Department of Health & Human ServicesNational Institutes of Health (NIH) - USANIH National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) [U54HG006542] Funding Source: NIH RePORTER; NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF GENERAL MEDICAL SCIENCESUnited States Department of Health & Human ServicesNational Institutes of Health (NIH) - USANIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) [T32GM007526] Funding Source: NIH RePORTER; NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS AND STROKEUnited States Department of Health & Human ServicesNational Institutes of Health (NIH) - USANIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke (NINDS) [R01NS058529] Funding Source: NIH RePORTERWe thank the patients and their families who participated in this study. This work was supported in part by US NHGRI/NHLBI grant U54HG006542 to the Baylor-Hopkins Center for Mendelian Genomics and US NINDS grant R01NS058529 to J.R. Lupski. W.L. Charng is supported by CPRIT training Program RP140102, and T. Harel is supported by the T32 GM07526 Medical Genetics Research Fellowship Program