5,5′-Di-4-pyridyl-2,2′-(p-phenyl­ene)di-1,3,4-oxadiazole

In the crystal structure of the title compound, C20H12N6O2, the mol­ecules are located on centres of inversion. The complete mol­ecule is almost planar, with a maximum deviation from the mean plane of 0.0657 (1) Å for the O atom. In the crystal, mol­ecules are stacked into columns elongated in the a axis direction. The centroid–centroid distances between the aromatic rings of the mol­ecules within the columns are 3.6406 (1) and 3.6287 (2) Å. Mol­ecules are additionally connected via weak inter­molecular C—H⋯N hydrogen bonding

Anti-cancer activity of Aster tataricus on SCC-9 human oral squamous carcinoma

Background: Oral squamous carcinoma is a head and neck cancer, which is one of the types of malignant cancers. Present study evaluates the anticancer activity of Aster tataricus (AT) on SCC-9 human oral squamous carcinoma.Materials and Methods: Ethanol extract of AT was prepared by a standard procedure of maceration. AT extract was used in different concentrations like 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, 320 and 640 μg/ml for the evaluation of its anticancer activity. Effect of AT extract on SCC9 cells were observed by microscope and cytotoxicity by 3-(4, 5-Dimethylthiazol-2-Yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide (MTT) assay. Moreover, clonogenic assay was used for the estimation of effect of AT extract on colony forming ability of SCC9 cells.Result: Result of the study suggested that treatment with AT extract causes cytotoxicity to SCC9 cancerous cells. In addition, AT extract treatment reduces clonogenic potential of SCC9 cell and it also inhibits the proliferation of cell significantly (p<0.001) in G2/M phase.Conclusion: Thus, given study concludes that AT extract effectively attenuates the growth of SCC-9 cancerous cells by the virtue of its cytotoxic and anti clonogenic activity.Keywords: Aster tataricus, 3-(4, 5-Dimethylthiazol-2-Yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide (MTT) assay, Human oral squamous carcinoma, SCC-

Detecting susceptibility genes for rheumatoid arthritis based on a novel sliding-window approach

With the recent rapid improvements in high-throughout genotyping techniques, researchers are facing a very challenging task of large-scale genetic association analysis, especially at the whole-genome level, without an optimal solution. In this study, we propose a new approach for genetic association analysis based on a variable-sized sliding-window framework. This approach employs principal component analysis to find the optimal window size. Using the bisection algorithm in window size searching, the proposed method tackles the exhaustive computation problem. It is more efficient and effective than currently available approaches. We conduct the genome-wide association study in Genetic Analysis Workshop 16 (GAW16) Problem 1 data using the proposed method. Our method successfully identified several susceptibility genes that have been reported by other researchers and additional candidate genes for follow-up studies

(μ-5-Carb­oxy-1H-imidazole-4-carboxyl­ato-κ4 N 1,O 5:N 3,O 4)bis­[amminesilver(I)]

In the title compound, [Ag2(C5H2N2O4)(NH3)2], each of the two AgI atoms is coordinated by two N atoms from an ammonia mol­ecule and a 5-carb­oxy-1H-imidazole-4-carboxyl­ate ligand in an almost linear geometry, and by one carboxyl­ate O atom with a weak inter­action. The Ag atoms are assembled into a linear tetra­mer through Ag⋯Ag inter­actions. Each Ag tetra­mer is linked by four 5-carb­oxy-1H-imidazole-4-carboxyl­ate ligands, forming a puckered chain. The complex involves a strong intra­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bond

4-Hydr­oxy-6-[(4-hydr­oxy-1-oxo-1,2-dihydro­phthalazin-6-yl)carbon­yl]phthalazin-1(2H)-one

In the crystal structure of the title compound, C17H10N4O5, the mol­ecules lie on twofold axes (through the ketone bridge C and O atoms). The dihedral angle between the two phthalazine rings is 52.25 (1)°. In the crystal, inter­molecular N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O inter­actions link the mol­ecules

Design and Performance Analysis of Urban Traffic Control Systems

This study aims to investigate the design and performance of different architectures for urban traffic control with consideration of variations and uncertainties in traffic flow. The architectures, which ranging from centralised, semi-centralised to decentralised, are applied to different road networks. Both macroscopic and microscopic flow models are developed and used to calculate the performance of the systems. The macroscopic model is capable of generating essential traffic dynamics, such as traffic queues’ spillover, formation and dissipation. The control systems’ are tested under varies traffic demand levels. The results suggest that the centralised systems generally can outperform the decentralised systems, and the most benefit gained in the centralised control comes from its setting of signal offsets. On the other hand, the microscopic flow model captures the movement of each individual vehicle and drivers' rerouting behaviour with respect to traffic conditions. The test results showed that the drivers' response to the traffic condition can help a decentralised system perform as well as a centralised system. This study brings a new insight into cooperative transport management, and contributes to the state-of-the-art of urban traffic system design

New definition of potential spicity by the least square method

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2018. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 123 (2018): 7351-7365, doi:10.1029/2018JC014306.A differentiable function whose contours are orthogonal to potential density (σ) contours does not exist. However, such a function, called potential spicity (π), can be defined in the least square sense; these two functions form a practically orthogonal coordinate system in potential temperature‐salinity (θ‐S) space. Thus, in addition to the classical potential temperature‐salinity (θ‐S) diagram, seawater properties can be studied in the potential density‐potential spicity (σ − π) diagram.Guangzhou Science and Technology Program key projects. Grant Number: 201804020056 National Natural Science Foundation of China. Grant Numbers: 41476167, 91752108 National Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China Grant Number: 2016A030311042; Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Grant Number: XDA11030302; Guangzhou Science and Technology Program; NSF of Guangdong Province, China2019-04-1

Stability Analysis of Axisymmetric Concave Slopes Based on Two-Dimensional Limit Equilibrium Approach considering Additional Shear Resistance

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.Axisymmetric concave slopes, one special type of three-dimensional (3D) slopes, may be encountered in mining and civil engineering practice. Analysis of 3D slopes is generally complex and mostly relies on complicated numerical simulations. This paper proposes an elastoplastic solution for determining the additional shear resistances due to spatial effects of axisymmetric concave slopes. By incorporating the extra antislide forces, this paper proposes a simplified two-dimensional (2D) limit equilibrium procedure for the stability analysis of axisymmetric concave slopes. Combined with an iteration algorithm, the procedure can obtain the factors of safety for axisymmetric concave slopes in a simple and efficient way. Comparisons of the results from the proposed method and the numerical software FLAC3D are performed to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method for practical applications. Finally, the effects of several key parameters on the stability of axisymmetric concave slopes are investigated through a parametric study.National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51578230

Inpatient care burden due to cancers in Anhui, China: a cross-sectional household survey

Raw dataset of inpatient cancer care costs and related variables studied. (XLSX 32 kb