High capacity cathode materials for Li-S batteries

To enhance the stability of sulfur cathode for a high energy lithium-sulfur battery, sulfur-activated carbon (S-AC) composite was prepared by encapsulating sulfur into micropores of activated carbon using a solution-based processing technique. In the analysis using the prepared specimen of S-AC composite by the focused ion beam (FIB) technique, the elemental sulfur exists in a highly dispersed state inside the micropores of activated carbon, which has a large surface area and a narrow pore distribution. The S-AC composite was characterized through X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method, selected area electron diffraction (SAED), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetry analysis (TGA), and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). A lithium-sulfur cell using the S-AC composite has a high first discharge capacity over 800 mA h g -1 S even at a high current density such as 2C (3200 mA g -1 S) and has good cycleability around 500 mA h g-1 S discharge capacity at the 50th cycle at the same current density. © 2013 The Royal Society of Chemistry

Asian Society of Gynecologic Oncology International Workshop 2014

published_or_final_versio

E-Government in Russia : Plans, Reality, and Future Outlook

Peer reviewe

MicroRNA-375 plays a dual role in prostate carcinogenesis

Background: Prostate cancer (PCa), a highly incident and heterogeneous malignancy, mostly affects men from developed countries. Increased knowledge of the biological mechanisms underlying PCa onset and progression are critical for improved clinical management. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) deregulation is common in human cancers, and understanding how it impacts in PCa is of major importance. MiRNAs are mostly downregulated in cancer, although some are overexpressed, playing a critical role in tumor initiation and progression. We aimed to identify miRNAs overexpressed in PCa and subsequently determine its impact in tumorigenesis. Results: MicroRNA expression profiling in primary PCa and morphological normal prostate (MNPT) tissues identified 17 miRNAs significantly overexpressed in PCa. Expression of three miRNAs, not previously associated with PCa, was subsequently assessed in large independent sets of primary tumors, in which miR-182 and miR-375 were validated, but not miR-32. Significantly higher expression levels of miR-375 were depicted in patients with higher Gleason score and more advanced pathological stage, aswellaswithregionallymph nodesmetastases. Forced expression of miR-375 in PC-3 cells, which display the lowest miR-375 levels among PCa cell lines, increased apoptosis and reduced invasion ability and cell viability. Intriguingly, in 22Rv1 cells, which displayed the highest miR-375 expression, knockdown experiments also attenuated the malignant phenotype. Gene ontology analysis implicated miR-375 in several key pathways deregulated in PCa, including cell cycle and cell differentiation. Moreover, CCND2 was identified as putative miR-375 target in PCa, confirmed by luciferase assay. Conclusions: A dual role for miR-375 in prostate cancer progression is suggested, highlighting the importance of cellular context on microRNA targeting.Research Center of Portuguese Oncology Institute - Porto (CI-IPOP 4–2012) and by the Federal funds through Programa Operacional Temático Factores de Competitividade (COMPETE) with co-participation from the European Community Fund (FEDER) and by the National funds through Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnología (FCT) under the projects EXPL/BIM-ONC/0556/2012. FQV and JRC were or are supported by FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia grants (SFRH/BD/70564/2010 and SFRH/BD/71293/2010, respectively)

A 10 year follow-up study after Roux-Elmslie-Trillat treatment for cases of patellar instability

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A retrospective study concerning patients presenting with patella instability, treated using a Roux-Elmslie-Trillat reconstruction operation and followed up for 10 years following surgery, is presented.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Pre-operative and follow-up radiographic evaluation included the weight-bearing anteroposterior and merchant views. Evaluation was carried out using the Insall-Salvati index, sulcus and congruence angle. The Roux-Elmslie-Trillat reconstruction operation was performed on 18 patients. The clinical evaluation at follow-up was performed using the Knee-Society-Score (KSS) and Tegner-Score.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Subjective results of the operation were classed as excellent or good in 16 of the 18 patients ten years after surgery; persistent instability of the patella was recorded in only one of the 18 patients. The majority of patients returned to the same level of sporting activity after surgery as they had participated in before injury.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The Roux-Elmslie-Trillat procedure could be recommended in cases presenting with an increased q-angle, trochlea dysplasia or failed soft tissue surgery. In the present study the majority of patients report a return to previous sporting activity ten years after surgery.</p

Modulating Temporal and Spatial Oxygenation over Adherent Cellular Cultures

Oxygen is a key modulator of many cellular pathways, but current devices permitting in vitro oxygen modulation fail to meet the needs of biomedical research. A microfabricated insert for multiwell plates has been developed to more effectively control the temporal and spatial oxygen concentration to better model physiological phenomena found in vivo. The platform consists of a polydimethylsiloxane insert that nests into a standard multiwell plate and serves as a passive microfluidic gas network with a gas-permeable membrane aimed to modulate oxygen delivery to adherent cells. Equilibration time is on the order of minutes and a wide variety of oxygen profiles can be attained based on the device design, such as the cyclic profile achieved in this study, and even oxygen gradients to mimic those found in vivo. The proper biological consequences of the device's oxygen delivery were confirmed in cellular models via a proliferation assay and western analysis of the upregulation of hypoxia inducible transcription factor-1α. These experiments serve as a demonstration for the platform as a viable tool to increase experimental throughput and permit novel experimental possibilities in any biomedical research lab

Enhancing Nanoparticle-Based Visible Detection by Controlling the Extent of Aggregation

Visible indication based on the aggregation of colloidal nanoparticles (NPs) is highly advantageous for rapid on-site detection of biological entities, which even untrained persons can perform without specialized instrumentation. However, since the extent of aggregation should exceed a certain minimum threshold to produce visible change, further applications of this conventional method have been hampered by insufficient sensitivity or certain limiting characteristics of the target. Here we report a signal amplification strategy to enhance visible detection by introducing switchable linkers (SLs), which are designed to lose their function to bridge NPs in the presence of target and control the extent of aggregation. By precisely designing the system, considering the quantitative relationship between the functionalized NPs and SLs, highly sensitive and quantitative visible detection is possible. We confirmed the ultrahigh sensitivity of this method by detecting the presence of 20 fM of streptavidin and fewer than 100 CFU/mL of Escherichia coli

Predicting the protein-protein interactions using primary structures with predicted protein surface

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many biological functions involve various protein-protein interactions (PPIs). Elucidating such interactions is crucial for understanding general principles of cellular systems. Previous studies have shown the potential of predicting PPIs based on only sequence information. Compared to approaches that require other auxiliary information, these sequence-based approaches can be applied to a broader range of applications.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>This study presents a novel sequence-based method based on the assumption that protein-protein interactions are more related to amino acids at the surface than those at the core. The present method considers surface information and maintains the advantage of relying on only sequence data by including an accessible surface area (ASA) predictor recently proposed by the authors. This study also reports the experiments conducted to evaluate a) the performance of PPI prediction achieved by including the predicted surface and b) the quality of the predicted surface in comparison with the surface obtained from structures. The experimental results show that surface information helps to predict interacting protein pairs. Furthermore, the prediction performance achieved by using the surface estimated with the ASA predictor is close to that using the surface obtained from protein structures.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This work presents a sequence-based method that takes into account surface information for predicting PPIs. The proposed procedure of surface identification improves the prediction performance with an <it>F-measure </it>of 5.1%. The extracted surfaces are also valuable in other biomedical applications that require similar information.</p

Mining Biological Pathways Using WikiPathways Web Services

WikiPathways is a platform for creating, updating, and sharing biological pathways [1]. Pathways can be edited and downloaded using the wiki-style website. Here we present a SOAP web service that provides programmatic access to WikiPathways that is complementary to the website. We describe the functionality that this web service offers and discuss several use cases in detail. Exposing WikiPathways through a web service opens up new ways of utilizing pathway information and assisting the community curation process