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The long noncoding RNA TINCR shows aberrant expression in human squamous carcinomas. However, its expression and function in gastric cancer remain unclear. We report that TINCR is strongly upregulated in human gastric carcinoma (GC), where it was found to contribute to oncogenesis and cancer progression. We also revealed that TINCR overexpression is induced by nuclear transcription factor SP1. Silencing TINCR expression inhibited cell proliferation, colony formation, tumorigenicity and apoptosis promotion, whereas TINCR overexpression promoted cell growth, as documented in the SGC7901 and BGC823 cell lines. Mechanistic analyses indicated that TINCR could bind to STAU1 (staufen1) protein, and influence KLF2 mRNA stability and expression, then KLF2 regulated cyclin-dependent kinase genes CDKN1A/P21 and CDKN2B/P15 transcription and expression, thereby affecting the proliferation and apoptosis of GC cells. Together, our findings suggest that TINCR contributes to the oncogenic potential of GC and may constitute a potential therapeutic target in this disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A direct solid sampling electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (SoS-ETAAS) method for ultratrace analysis of powdered niobium pentaoxide for Al, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni and Zn has been developed. The elements K, Mg, Na and Zn could be determined without any chemical modification. However, in the determination of the elements Al, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn and Ni, serious matrix-caused non-spectral interferences and background occurred which made their determination impossible. This problem was remedied by conversion of the niobium pentaoxide matrix into the thermally stable niobium carbide by using methane atmosphere during the pyrolysis stage. The development resulted in establishing an extraordinary powerful method for the analysis of niobium pentaoxide in term of limits of detection, accuracy, simplicity and analysis time. Quantification was performed using calibration curves measured with aqueous standard solutions. The accuracy was checked by comparing the results with those obtained by ETAAS in analysis of slurries and digests of the sample. Due to almost complete freedom of blank and high applicable sample amounts (up to 15 mg), extremely low limits of detection (0.5–2 ng/g) were achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the following polynomial congruences problem: given a prime p, and a set of polynomials $ f_1,\ldots,f_m \in {\Bbb F}_p[x_1,\ldots,x_n] $ of total degree at most d, solve the system $ f_1 = \cdots = f_m = 0 $ for solution(s) in $ {\Bbb F}^n_p $ . We give a randomized algorithm for the decision version of this problem. For a fixed number of variables, the sequential version of the algorithm has expected time complexity polynomial in d, m and log p; the parallel version has expected time complexity polylogarithmic in d, m and p, using a number of processors, polynomial in d, m and log p. The only point which prevents the algorithm from being deterministic is the lack of a deterministic polynomial time algorithm for factoring univariate polynomials over $ {\Bbb F}_p $ . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]