On the adhesion and wear resistance of DLC films deposited on nitrile butadiene rubber:A Ti-C interlayer

To promote the adhesion strength between diamond-like carbon (DLC) films and nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) substrates, titanium-doped carbon (Ti-C) films prepared by dual-target magnetron sputtering under varied substrate bias voltages were used as an interlayer on the rough NBR. The surface topography and structure of Ti-C films were investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Raman spectra. Raman analysis indicates that the increase of substrate bias voltage leads to an increase of the number or the size of sp2 clusters in the Ti-C interlayer. The adhesion strength and tribological properties of DLC films coated on NBR substrate were scrutinized by a scratch tester and a ball-on-disk tribometer, respectively. It was found that DLC film with a Ti-C interlayer at a certain bias voltage exhibited superior wear resistance with a low coefficient of friction (CoF) during the sliding of 6000 laps. No clear damages in the coatings were observed from the wear tracks. Besides, the scratch test also revealed a reliable adhesion when the interlayer was prepared at −150 V, as confirmed by a scratch crack width of ~50 μm as compared to that of the pure DLC film increasing to ~ 120 μm. Therefore, a Ti-C interlayer could significantly enhance the adhesion and wear resistance of DLC thin films deposited on NBR

Barreras para la provisión de Atención Farmacéutica en farmacias de Tainan, Taiwán

Introducción: Los diferentes sistemas de salud necesitan ser eficientes, es decir, lograr los objetivos económicos, sociales y principalmente clínicos, por lo cual necesitan que se optimicen sus procesos, siendo el proceso de uso de medicamentos crucial para la recuperación y mantenimiento de la salud de los pacientes. La Atención Farmacéutica dirigida a los pacientes es una práctica profesional que contribuye a la optimización del uso de medicamentos y al logro de resultados clínicos; sin embargo, la provisión de la Atención Farmacéutica en farmacias presenta distintas barreras que requieren conocerse en cada realidad para poder formular estrategias que permitan superarlas. Objetivos: Determinar las barreras para la provisión de Atención Farmacéutica en farmacias de la provincia de Tainan, Taiwán. Material y métodos: Estudio observacional, descriptivo y transversal, realizado mediante una encuesta dirigida a 141 farmacéuticos que trabajan en la provincia de Tainan en Taiwán. Se elaboró una ficha de recolección de datos (cuestionario en escala Likert) basada en la información disponible de la literatura. Los resultados obtenidos se procesaron en el programa estadístico SPSS V.24. Resultados: Las barreras muy importantes para la provisión de Atención Farmacéutica son la falta de formación del público hacia los servicios farmacéuticos (95,7%), la falta de pago por el servicio (84,4%), la falta de tiempo (80,9%) y las barreras legales (74,5%); asimismo, las barreras no importantes fueron la actitud inadecuada del dueño de la farmacia hacia la atención farmacéutica (14,8%) y actitud inadecuada de los farmacéuticos (10,6%). Conclusión: Los barreras determinadas en el presente estudio requieren intervenciones desde el Estado, las universidades, los colegios profesionales de farmacéuticos así como de los pacientes. Las barreras encontradas son distintas a las descritas en estudios previos

Barreras para la provisión de Atención Farmacéutica en farmacias de Tainan, Taiwán

Introducción: Los diferentes sistemas de salud necesitan ser eficientes, es decir, lograr los objetivos económicos, sociales y principalmente clínicos, por lo cual necesitan que se optimicen sus procesos, siendo el proceso de uso de medicamentos crucial para la recuperación y mantenimiento de la salud de los pacientes. La Atención Farmacéutica dirigida a los pacientes es una práctica profesional que contribuye a la optimización del uso de medicamentos y al logro de resultados clínicos; sin embargo, la provisión de la Atención Farmacéutica en farmacias presenta distintas barreras que requieren conocerse en cada realidad para poder formular estrategias que permitan superarlas. Objetivos: Determinar las barreras para la provisión de Atención Farmacéutica en farmacias de la provincia de Tainan, Taiwán. Material y métodos: Estudio observacional, descriptivo y transversal, realizado mediante una encuesta dirigida a 141 farmacéuticos que trabajan en la provincia de Tainan en Taiwán. Se elaboró una ficha de recolección de datos (cuestionario en escala Likert) basada en la información disponible de la literatura. Los resultados obtenidos se procesaron en el programa estadístico SPSS V.24. Resultados: Las barreras muy importantes para la provisión de Atención Farmacéutica son la falta de formación del público hacia los servicios farmacéuticos (95,7%), la falta de pago por el servicio (84,4%), la falta de tiempo (80,9%) y las barreras legales (74,5%); asimismo, las barreras no importantes fueron la actitud inadecuada del dueño de la farmacia hacia la atención farmacéutica (14,8%) y actitud inadecuada de los farmacéuticos (10,6%). Conclusión: Los barreras determinadas en el presente estudio requieren intervenciones desde el Estado, las universidades, los colegios profesionales de farmacéuticos así como de los pacientes. Las barreras encontradas son distintas a las descritas en estudios previos

Co

Different loading rates of photocatalysts Co3O4/C3N4 were prepared by calcination method. Their photocatalytic performances were evaluated by the degradation of methyl blue under visible light irradiation. The results show that the introduction of Co3O4 significantly improves the optical absorption properties of C3N4, which is beneficial to the separation of photogenerated electrons and holes on the surface of catalyst. The prepared Co3O4/C3N4 for visible photocatalytic degradation of methyl blue has higher catalytic efficiency than that of pure C3N4 or pure Co3O4. The best cobalt loading rate was 30% when the concentration of methylene blue was 40 mg/L. Recycling rate of 30% Co3O4/C3N4 composite catalyst was studied. After 4 cycles, the degradation rate was only slightly decreased from 86.8% to 82.8%, indicating the catalyst with good photostability and repeatability.nbs

The nucleolar protein NIFK promotes cancer progression via CK1α/β-catenin in metastasis and Ki-67-dependent cell proliferation.

Nucleolar protein interacting with the FHA domain of pKi-67 (NIFK) is a Ki-67-interacting protein. However, its precise function in cancer remains largely uninvestigated. Here we show the clinical significance and metastatic mechanism of NIFK in lung cancer. NIFK expression is clinically associated with poor prognosis and metastasis. Furthermore, NIFK enhances Ki-67-dependent proliferation, and promotes migration, invasion in vitro and metastasis in vivo via downregulation of casein kinase 1α (CK1α), a suppressor of pro-metastatic TCF4/β-catenin signaling. Inversely, CK1α is upregulated upon NIFK knockdown. The silencing of CK1α expression in NIFK-silenced cells restores TCF4/β-catenin transcriptional activity, cell migration, and metastasis. Furthermore, RUNX1 is identified as a transcription factor of CSNK1A1 (CK1α) that is negatively regulated by NIFK. Our results demonstrate the prognostic value of NIFK, and suggest that NIFK is required for lung cancer progression via the RUNX1-dependent CK1α repression, which activates TCF4/β-catenin signaling in metastasis and the Ki-67-dependent regulation in cell proliferation

Analyses and Comparison of Imputation-Based Association Methods

Genotype imputation methods have become increasingly popular for recovering untyped genotype data. An important application with imputed genotypes is to test genetic association for diseases. Imputation-based association test can provide additional insight beyond what is provided by testing on typed tagging SNPs only. A variety of effective imputation-based association tests have been proposed. However, their performances are affected by a variety of genetic factors, which have not been well studied. In this study, using both simulated and real data sets, we investigated the effects of LD, MAF of untyped causal SNP and imputation accuracy rate on the performances of seven popular imputation-based association methods, including MACH2qtl/dat, SNPTEST, ProbABEL, Beagle, Plink, BIMBAM and SNPMStat. We also aimed to provide a comprehensive comparison among methods. Results show that: 1). imputation-based association tests can boost signals and improve power under medium and high LD levels, with the power improvement increasing with strengthening LD level; 2) the power increases with higher MAF of untyped causal SNPs under medium to high LD level; 3). under low LD level, a high imputation accuracy rate cannot guarantee an improvement of power; 4). among methods, MACH2qtl/dat, ProbABEL and SNPTEST perform similarly and they consistently outperform other methods. Our results are helpful in guiding the choice of imputation-based association test in practical application

Helicobacter pylori treatment and gastric cancer risk among individuals with high genetic risk for gastric cancer

ImportanceHelicobacter pylori treatment and nutrition supplementation may protect against gastric cancer (GC), but whether the beneficial effects only apply to potential genetic subgroups and whether high genetic risk may be counteracted by these chemoprevention strategies remains unknown. Objective To examine genetic variants associated with the progression of gastric lesions and GC risk and to assess the benefits of H pylori treatment and nutrition supplementation by levels of genetic risk. Design, Setting, and Participants This cohort study used follow-up data of the Shandong Intervention Trial (SIT, 1989-2022) and China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB, 2004-2018) in China. Based on the SIT, a longitudinal genome-wide association study was conducted to identify genetic variants for gastric lesion progression. Significant variants were examined for incident GC in a randomly sampled set of CKB participants (set 1). Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) combining independent variants were assessed for GC risk in the remaining CKB participants (set 2) and in an independent case-control study in Linqu. ExposuresH pylori treatment and nutrition supplementation. Main Outcomes and Measures Primary outcomes were the progression of gastric lesions (in SIT only) and the risk of GC. The associations of H pylori treatment and nutrition supplementation with GC were evaluated among SIT participants with different levels of genetic risk. Results Our analyses included 2816 participants (mean [SD] age, 46.95 [9.12] years; 1429 [50.75%] women) in SIT and 100 228 participants (mean [SD] age, 53.69 [11.00] years; 57 357 [57.23%] women) in CKB, with 147 GC cases in SIT and 825 GC cases in CKB identified during follow-up. A PRS integrating 12 genomic loci associated with gastric lesion progression and incident GC risk was derived, which was associated with GC risk in CKB (highest vs lowest decile of PRS: hazard ratio [HR], 2.54; 95% CI, 1.80-3.57) and further validated in the analysis of 702 case participants and 692 control participants (mean [SD] age, 54.54 [7.66] years; 527 [37.80%] women; odds ratio, 1.83; 95% CI, 1.11-3.05). H pylori treatment was associated with reduced GC risk only for individuals with high genetic risk (top 25% of PRS: HR, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.24-0.82) but not for those with low genetic risk (HR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.50-1.34; P for interaction = .03). Such effect modification was not found for vitamin (P for interaction = .93) or garlic (P for interaction = .41) supplementation. Conclusions and Relevance The findings of this cohort study indicate that a high genetic risk of GC may be counteracted by H pylori treatment, suggesting primary prevention could be tailored to genetic risk for more effective prevention

A New Measurement of the Intruder Configuration in 12Be

A new $^{11}$Be($d,p$)$^{12}$Be transfer reaction experiment was carried out in inverse kinematics at 26.9$A$ MeV, with special efforts devoted to the determination of the deuteron target thickness and of the required optical potentials from the present elastic scattering data. In addition, a direct measurement of the cross sections for the 0$_2^+$ state was realized by applying an isomer-tagging technique. The s-wave spectroscopic factors of 0.20(0.04) and 0.41(0.11) were extracted for the 0$_1^+$ and 0$_2^+$ states, respectively, in $^{12}$Be. Using the ratio of these spectroscopic factors, together with the previously reported results for the p-wave components, the single-particle component intensities in the bound 0$^+$ states of $^{12}$Be were deduced, allowing a direct comparison with the theoretical predictions. It is evidenced that the ground-state configuration of $^{12}$Be is dominated by the d-wave intruder, exhibiting a dramatic evolution of the intruding mechanism from $^{11}$Be to $^{12}$Be, with a persistence of the $N = 8$ magic number broken

Improving the Alignment Quality of Consistency Based Aligners with an Evaluation Function Using Synonymous Protein Words

Most sequence alignment tools can successfully align protein sequences with higher levels of sequence identity. The accuracy of corresponding structure alignment, however, decreases rapidly when considering distantly related sequences (<20% identity). In this range of identity, alignments optimized so as to maximize sequence similarity are often inaccurate from a structural point of view. Over the last two decades, most multiple protein aligners have been optimized for their capacity to reproduce structure-based alignments while using sequence information. Methods currently available differ essentially in the similarity measurement between aligned residues using substitution matrices, Fourier transform, sophisticated profile-profile functions, or consistency-based approaches, more recently