Expression, purification, and characterization of recombinant basic fibroblast growth factor in pichia pastoris

Wounds in the mouth, occurring after oral surgery, take time to heal. No ointment can be added to help with the healing process because mouth saliva will constantly wash it away. In order to combat this problem, we propose engineering a normal flora microbe to grow at the site of injury and secrete a recombinant growth factor to promote healing of the damaged tissue. Our goal is to have the yeast Pichia pastoris produce human basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), which aids in cellular proliferation. P. pastoris is a good choice for this application because not only is it considered generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the FDA, but it is a eukaryote that is able to perform posttranslational modifications and secrete large amounts of recombinant protein. Previous studies have shown that a strain of P. pastoris can be engineered to express bFGF from a methanol-sensitive promoter. The study also showed that the bFGF, which was purified from the yeast’s extracellular medium, was able to promote the growth of NIH/3T3 cells (mice fibroblasts). Because we needed the P. pastoris to express the bFGF in glucose –based tissue culture medium in the presence of mammalian cells, we expressed the bFGF from the constitutive promoter GAP promoter. Along with optimizing and characterizing expression of bFGF, we also investigated the effect of the recombinant protein on mammalian cell growth using both scratch ad MTS assays. In addition, the effects of the yeast being co-cultured with mammalian cells was studied. Our results provide a basis for how a recombinant protein can be clinically used to improve wound healing in the mouth using a yeast strain to produce and secrete a growth factor at the site of injury

The kinetics of the chlorination of copper in the thin film range

The kinetics of the chlorination of copper in the thin film range at room temperature was studied by using a wiped, rotating cylindrical copper cathode which was partially submerged in an electrolyte. Experiments were conducted at three different partial pressures: 1.00, 0.44 and 0.21 atm. of chlorine gas which was saturated with water vapor. The chlorination of copper was found to follow the logarithmic equation NAT= K ₁ In ( K ₂ t + 1.0 ) where W. is the weight of copper chloride formed per unit area during exposure time t. The constant K1 was found to be independent of the chlorine partial pressure while the constant K₂ was proportional to the square root of the chlorine partial pressure for the two pressure ranges 1.00 and 0.44 atm. The most satisfactory interpretation of the experimental data is the mutually-blocking pores mechanism in which the rate determining step is assumed to be the transport of chlorine across the chloride film through pores and paths of loosely arranged atoms

Miko Team: Deep Learning Approach for Legal Question Answering in ALQAC 2022

We introduce efficient deep learning-based methods for legal document processing including Legal Document Retrieval and Legal Question Answering tasks in the Automated Legal Question Answering Competition (ALQAC 2022). In this competition, we achieve 1\textsuperscript{st} place in the first task and 3\textsuperscript{rd} place in the second task. Our method is based on the XLM-RoBERTa model that is pre-trained from a large amount of unlabeled corpus before fine-tuning to the specific tasks. The experimental results showed that our method works well in legal retrieval information tasks with limited labeled data. Besides, this method can be applied to other information retrieval tasks in low-resource languages

New H∞ control design for polytopic systems with mixed time-varying delays in state and input

This paper concerns with the problem of state-feedback H∞ control design for a class of linear systems with polytopic uncertainties and mixed time-varying delays in state and input. Our approach can be described as follows. We first construct a state-feedback controller based on the idea of parameter-dependent controller design. By constructing a new parameter-dependent Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional (LKF), we then derive new delay-dependent conditions in terms of linear matrix inequalities ensuring the exponential stability of the corresponding closed-loop system with a H∞ disturbance attenuation level. The effectiveness and applicability of the obtained results are demonstrated by practical examples

A Structured SVM Semantic Parser Augmented by Semantic Tagging with Conditional Random Field

PACLIC 19 / Taipei, taiwan / December 1-3, 200

Design and Analysis of Ternary m-sequences with Interleaved Structure by d-Transform

Multilevel sequences find more and more applications in modern modulation schemes [4QPSK, 8QPSK,16QAM..]  for the 3G ,4G system air interface [1,2].Furthermore, in modern cryptography they are also widerly used. It is also interesting to point out that the length L of these sequences are composite numbers( L=NS),that means the sequence can be easily implemented by interleaving S subsequences, each of length S.Therefore, the methods to develop multilevel sequence with interleaved structure draw a lot of attentions [3, 4]. In this contribution, a method for design and analysis of ternary m-sequences with interleaved structure is presented, based on the d-transform, Which turns out to be a very effective and versal tool for this purpose. Simulations have been made to verify the theory. We first introduce d-transform and its properties and then work out the procedure to design an interleaving sequence in d-transform. Keywords: d-transform,q-ary sequences, interleaved sequence

The impact of knowledge management on innovation performance of small and medium enterprises – An empirical study in Lam Dong province

In the context of today’s globalization, Vietnamese enterprises, especially small and medium ones (SMEs), have to face with many challenges and have to innovate for survival and development. The global integration process also means that local enterprises have to compete with foreign enterprises with advanced knowledge and modern management skills. Therefore, in order to ensure sustainable development, local enterprises should be ready with knowledge management (KM) practices in order to achieve high efficiency and strong competitive advantages. This research is to explore the impact factors on the innovation performance of SMEs in Lam Dong province. Based on the previous model of Berraies et al. (2014), some factors of KM processes impacting on the innovation performance of Vietnamese SMEs are explored and evaluated. Measurement scales are inherited selectively to suit the context of this research. The analysis results of this study showed that the innovation performance of SMEs was affected by the knowledge creation process. This result pointed out the knowledge creation process was affected by some KM enabling factors, such as trust, collaboration, learning, reward, decentralization, formalization, IT support and T-shaped skills. From this result, some recommendations for improving the innovation performance of Vietnamese SMEs by KM approach are also suggested

БЕЗУСЛОВНО МОНОТОННЫЕ РАЗНОСТНЫЕ СХЕМЫ ВТОРОГО ПОРЯДКА АППРОКСИМАЦИИ НА РАВНОМЕРНЫХ СЕТКАХ ДЛЯ ГАММ А-УРАВНЕНИЯ

In this article we consider the initial boundary-value problem for the so-called Gamma equation, which can be derived by transforming the nonlinear Black – Scholes equation for option price into a quasi-linear parabolic equation for the second derivativeof option price, and for its exact solution the two-side estimates are obtained. By means of the regularization principle, the previous results are generalized to construct an unconditionally monotone finite-difference scheme (the maximum principle is satisfied without limitations on the relations between the coefficients and the grid parameters) of second-order approximation on uniform grids for this equation. With the help of the difference maximum principle, the two-side estimates for a difference solution are obtained using the arbitrary non-sign-constant input data of the problem. The a priori estimate in the maximum norm C is proved. It is interesting to note that the proven two-side estimates for the difference solution are fully consistent with the differential problem, and the maximal and minimal values of the difference solution do not depend onthe diffusion and convection coefficients. Computational experiments confirming the theoretical conclusions are given.В настоящей работе рассмотрена начально-краевая задача для так называемого Гамма-уравнения, которое может быть получено преобразованием нелинейного уравнения Блэка – Шоулза для опционной цены в квазилинейное параболическое уравнение для второй производной опционной цены, и получены двусторонние оценки для его точного решения. На основании принципа регуляризации полученные ранее результаты обобщаются на построение безусловно монотонных разностных схем (принцип максимума выполнен без ограничений на соотношения между коэффициентами и параметрами сетки) второго порядка локальной аппроксимации на равномерных сетках для данного уравнения. С помощью разностного принципа максимума получены двусторонние оценки для разностного решения при произвольных незнакопостоянных входных данных задачи. Доказана априорная оценка в норме С. Отметим, что доказанные двусторонние оценки разностного решения полностью согласованы с дифференциальной задачей и максимальное и минимальное значения разностного решения не зависят от коэффициентов диффузии и конвекции. Приведенные в работе вычислительные эксперименты подтверждают теоретические выводы

Assistive technologies for the older people: Physical activity monitoring and fall detection

The advancements in information and communications technologies (ICT) and micro-nano manufacturing lead to innovative developments of smart sensors and intelligent devices as well as related assistive technologies which have been directly contributing to improving the life quality, from early detection of diseases to assisting daily living activities. Physical activity monitoring and fall detection are two specific examples where assistive technologies with the use of smart sensors and intelligent devices may play a key role in enhancing the life quality, especially improving the musculoskeletal health which is an essential aspect of health and wellbeing; and it is more important for the older people. This paper presents and dis-cusses about how sensors and wearable devices, such as accelerometers and mobile phones, may be employed to promote the musculoskeletal health. Assistive technologies and methods for physical activity monitoring and fall detection are discussed, with the focus on the fall detection using mobile phone technology, and assessments of the loading intensity of physical activity in a non-laboratory environment. The possible research directions, challenges and potential collaborations in the areas of assistive technologies and ICT solutions for the older populations are proposed and addressed