Glass-filled polyurethane in manufacturing

© 2017, Allerton Press, Inc. The physicomechanical and operational properties of glass-filled polyurethane obtained by long fiber injection molding (LFI) and fiber composite spraying (FCS) are investigated. It is clear that glass-filled polyurethane may be used in producing components with different surface texture (dashboard, door trim, armrests) in the auto industry

Government regulation of small and medium entrepreneurship under the influence of value-time benchmarks

© 2015, Mediterranean Center of Social and Educational Research. All rights reserved. The article describes the role of regional infrastructure provision in small and medium entrepreneurship development in the Republic of Tatarstan. It covers and analyses efforts of republic’s government in small businesses support. Statistical data reflecting positive dynamics of measures implemented is given

Development trends of entrepreneurial activity in the Republic of Tatarstan

© 2015, Mediterranean Center of Social and Educational Research. All rights reserved. The article discusses the current state of small business. Authors identify small businesses’ development trends within the framework of endogenous approach. The article discloses the key challenges and problems of current status of the business sector based on asymmetric structure

Investigation of physical-mechanical and performance properties of glass fiber reinforced polyurethane materials used in the machine building industry

© Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd. The paper presents the investigation of physical-mechanical and performance properties of the glass fiber reinforced polyurethane (PUR) materials made using the long fiber injection process. It was found that glass fiber reinforced polyurethane could be used to manufacture interior parts with different surface textures (instrument panels, door trim, armrests)

The invariance as a feature of business systems' infrastructural innovative development

The article reveals the notion of "invariance" and enables the invariance model application within the formation of infrastructural security of innovative development. Furthermore, it uncovers the nature of compensatory mechanism of infrastructural security of innovative development formation

Social media marketing as an effective instrument of the promotion of social business-project in social entrepreneurial activity

The article deals with the concept of entrepreneurship from the point of view of different scientists, as well as the importance of marketing in social entrepreneurship, and in particular social media marketing (SMM) as an effective instrument for the promotion of social business ideas. Also it considers the trends of realization of social projects in various scopes of activity. The most popular are the following areas of business: pre-school education of children; employment support to people being in a difficult life situation; improving the quality and availability of medical services and improving the quality of life of people from socially vulnerable categories of the population. During the development of this topic the main advantages and disadvantages of SMM have been formulated. The stages of construction of the system of promoting a social business project within the framework of SMM are also considered: defining the target segment of consumers within the social media community; compiling the "semantic core" of social group; constructing a mental (intellectual) interaction map within the community in a social network; drawing and realizing a content plan for the efficiency of interaction with customers within a social network; carrying out a statistical analysis of the community; introducing interactive forms of communication with the users for maintaining the communicative constituent of the promotion; monitoring and continuous improving communication within the social network

Hepatic stellate cells - Regional stem cells of the liver or a component of microenvironment?

For years, it is debated about the nature and localization of stem cell of the liver. In recent years, a particular interest is paid to hepatic stellate cells. According to the conducted researches, these cells are actively involved in restoring of hepatocytes population by different liver damages and they have a number of properties specific to stem cells. It should be noted that hepatic stellate cells are able to maintain viability in culture and differentiate into hepatocyte direction under certain conditions in vitro. Interestingly, hepatic stellate cells may themselves create such conditions for progenitor cells in vivo, as well as in vitro. This is achieved thanks to the hepatic stellate cells secretion of the extracellular matrix proteins, a complex of growth factors and establishment of direct intercellular contacts. Stellate cells, localized in perisinusoidal space, are also influenced by the surrounding hepatocytes and endothelial cells. Thus, perisinusoidal space is a kind of dynamic system, in which hepatocytes and endothelial cells determine the "resting" state of stellate cells, and the latter, if necessary, can be activated and participate in restoration of the liver cell populations. Based on these data, the researchers suggest that the hepatic perisinusoidal space - a niche of hepatic stellate cells, regional stem cells of the liver

Isolation and cultivation of myofibroblasts from rats' liver using explantation method

During liver fibrosis development connective tissue is produced by myofibroblasts that could originate from two hepatic populations: hepatic stellate cells and portal fibroblasts. A marker of myofibroblasts is the expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA). Distinctive feature of myofibroblasts, derived from hepatic stellate cells, is the preservation of the hepatic stellate cells marker expression - desmin. The processes of activation, proliferation and cells trans-differentiation into myofibroblasts are closely related to the activity of transcription factor NF-kB and its inhibitor IkBα. The aim of our work was to obtain a culture of hepatic myofibrobasts, to study their origin, phenotype, relations between NF-kB and IkBα expression and the processes of activation and cells trans-differentiation into myofibroblasts. For this purpose we isolated heterogeneous population of cells from rat liver by the method of explantation. Almost all the cells had desmin and α-SMA expression. On this basis, we suppose that these myofibroblasts were hepatic stellate cells derivatives, and singular desmin-negative cells originated from portal fibroblasts. Thus, hepatic stellate cells have major potential to activation, growth, proliferation and transdifferentiation into myofibroblasts in comparison to portal fibroblasts. Activated state of the cells was confirmed by stable expression of NF-kB and its inhibitor IkBα in all the cells throughout the whole experiment

Endogenous secretion of vascular endothelial growth factor by multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells derived from human third molar dental follicles

Human stem cells secretome is currently a very hot area of research. We report that multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells isolated from human third molar dental follicles (MMSC-TMDF), are able to secrete high levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) when cultured in vitro. Due to the fact that VEGF is a well known angiogenic and neuroprotective factor, the use of MMSC-TMDF is promising for the development of stem cell therapy of various degenerative human diseases

Applications in Regenerative and Predictive Medicine

Work in the laboratories of the authors is funded by FEDER funds through the Operational Programme Competitiveness Factors—COMPETE and national funds by FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC/BTM-SAL/29297/2017, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029297, PTDC/MED-FAR/29391/2017, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029391, IF/01182/2015 and UIDB/04539/2020). iNOVA4Health-UID/Multi/04462/2013, a program financially supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia/Ministério da Educação e Ciência, through national funds and co-funded by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement, is acknowledged. Guida Bento is the recipient of a Ph.D. fellowship from the Foundation for Science and Technology (PD/BD/114119/2015). AKS and AAR were funded by the subsidy allocated to Kazan Federal University for the state assignment in the sphere of scientific activities. Kazan Federal University was supported by the Russian Government Program of Competitive Growth.Despite being a biological waste, human urine contains a small population of cells with self-renewal capacity and differentiation potential into several cell types. Being derived from the convoluted tubules of nephron, renal pelvis, ureters, bladder and urethra, urine-derived stem cells (UDSC) have a similar phenotype to mesenchymal stroma cells (MSC) and can be reprogrammed into iPSC (induced pluripotent stem cells). Having simple, safer, low-cost and noninvasive collection procedures, the interest in UDSC has been growing in the last decade. With great potential in regenerative medicine applications, UDSC can also be used as biological models for pharmacology and toxicology tests. This review describes UDSC biological characteristics and differentiation potential and their possible use, including the potential of UDSC-derived iPSC to be used in drug discovery and toxicology, as well as in regenerative medicine. Being a new cellular platform amenable to noninvasive collection for disease stratification and personalized therapy could be a future application for UDSC.publishersversionpublishe