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This work presents an in-depth experimental study aimed at assessing the impact of natural weathering on the behavior of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bottles. To this end, several analytical techniques were employed, including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) to examine molecular changes, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to study morphology, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) to assess thermal properties, and tensile and compression tests to evaluate mechanical properties. The results obtained reveal significant changes in HDPE exposed to natural weathering. FTIR analysis enabled us to identify that the 1IDPE bottles had been subjected to an oxidation process initiated b) the absorption of solar radiation during natural weathering treatments, while SEM analysis showed the presence of holes resulting from the detachment of material fragments after exposure, TGA analysis confirms the impact of natural exposure time on the decrease in the average molecular weight and chemical degradation of HDPE macromolecules, through a reduction in the initial degradation temperature and the maximum thermodegradation temperature. However, tensile and compressive tests showed a reduction in the mechanical strength of HDPE after exposure to natural conditions, with notable variations depending on environmental conditions, making the material damaged. These results enabled us to calculate the damage caused by three damage laws. These results offer important insights into the mechanisms of HDPE degradation under the influence of natural climatic factors, paving the way for the development of more resistant and durable packaging materials in the face of variable environmental conditions. Highlights * The objective of this study is to analyze and describe the effects of natural weathering on high-density polyethylene bottles. This involves evaluating the deterioration of physicochemical, mechanical, and morphological properties. Additionally, three damage laws aBe employed to assess the extent of damage inflicted by this material. * Analytical techniques were used, including SEM, FT1R, and TGA, tensile and compressive test. KEYWORDS damage, FTIR, HDPE bottles, natural weathering, SEM, TGA, 1 | INTRODUCTION Growing demand in sectors such as packaging, automotive and construction has led to an exponential increase in global plastics consumption since the 1950s. (1,2) Packaging plays an [...]

Dictation is a traditional technique for both teaching and testing overall language ability and listening comprehension. In a dictation, a passage is read aloud by the teacher and examinees write down what they hear. Due to the peculiar form of dictations, psychometric analysis of dictations is challenging. In a dictation, there is no clear boundary between the items and every word in the text is potentially an item. This makes the analysis of dictations with classical and modern test theories rather difficult. In this study, we suggest a procedure to make dictations analyzable with psychometric models. Our strategy entailed using several independent short passages instead of a single long passage. The number of mistakes in each passage was counted and entered into the analysis. Rasch model analysis was then applied to the passage scores (mistakes). Our findings showed that dictations fit the Rasch model very well and it is possible to measure examinees' ability on an interval scale using dictations.

Archivo histórico de Kipus: Revista Andina de Letras y Estudios Culturales, 2004.

Background Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a widespread malignancy globally, yet effective therapeutic approaches for advanced, metastatic, and chemo-resistant cases remain limited. In this study, we knocked out CRC cell line HCT 116 for two autophagy genes (ATG5 and ATG7), then we conducted a transcriptomic analysis on those isogenic cell lines. which revealed an upregulation of Krϋppel-like factor 3 (KLF3) expression, that was biologically validated. Methods In this study, we performed CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing on HCT 116 followed with transcriptomics analysis on HCT 116 KO cells for ATG5 and ATG7. Various bioinformatics analyses were performed to investigate the KLF3/8 with autophagy and affected functional pathways, and immune genes related to the different types. Validation of expression in different cell lines were done using qPCR and Western blot. Results To further investigate the role of autophagy genes in CRC, we utilized publicly available data and web-based tools. Our analysis showed a marked correlation between KLF3/KLF8 and the expression of autophagy genes in CRC, denoting that its upregulation is likely to be a compensatory mechanism. We also examined the co-expression of autophagy genes and KLF3/KLF8 with multiple markers of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and significant positive correlations were observed. Moreover, KLF8 expression was upregulated at the mRNA level in the metastatic cell lines LoVo and SK-CO-1, compared to HCT 116. Interestingly, KLF3/KLF8 expression was high in MSS molecular subtype of CRC as shown in HCT 116 cell line knocked in with MLH gene as well as they were negatively correlated with crucial immune-infiltrating cells such as CD8+ cells, indicating their potential as a negative biomarker for response to immunotherapy. Conclusion Our study proposes that a synergistic approach involving the inhibition of KLF8 and autophagy holds a potential therapeutic target for effectively tackling metastatic CRC cells, especially in cases characterized by deficient mismatch repair (MMR).

Summary: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is characterized by lack of the estrogen (ER) receptor, progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2), and standard receptor-targeted therapies are ineffective. FOXC1, a transcription factor aberrantly overexpressed in many cancers, drives growth, metastasis, and stem-cell-like properties in TNBC. However, the molecular function of FOXC1 is unknown, partly due to heterogeneity of TNBC. Here, we show that although FOXC1 regulates many cancer hallmarks in TNBC, its function is varied in different cell lines, highlighted by the differential response to CDK4/6 inhibitors upon FOXC1 loss. Despite this functional heterogeneity, we show that FOXC1 regulates key oncogenes and tumor suppressors and identify a set of core FOXC1 peaks conserved across TNBC cell lines. We identify the ER-associated and drug-targetable nuclear receptor NR2F2 as a cofactor of FOXC1. Finally, we show that core FOXC1 targets in TNBC are regulated in parallel by the pioneer factor FOXA1 and the nuclear receptor NR2F2 in ER + breast cancer.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is considered one of the most common cancers worldwide. Despite advances in patient diagnosis, management, and risk stratification, 10%–20% of patients progress to castration-resistant disease. Our previous report highlighted a protective role of Dickkopf-3 (DKK3) in PCa stroma. This role was proposed to be mediated through opposing extracellular matrix protein 1 (ECM-1) and TGF-β signalling activity. However, a detailed analysis of the prognostic value of DKK3, ECM-1 and members of the TGF-β signalling pathway in PCa was not thoroughly investigated. In this study, we explored the prognostic value of DKK3, ECM-1 and TGFB1 using a bioinformatical approach through analysis of large publicly available datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas Program (TGCA) and Pan-Cancer Atlas databases. Our results showed a significant gradual loss of DKK3 expression with PCa progression (p < 0.0001) associated with increased DNA methylation in its promoter region (p < 1.63E-12). In contrast, patients with metastatic lesions showed significantly higher levels of TGFB1 expression compared to primary tumours (p < 0.00001). Our results also showed a marginal association between more advanced tumour stage presented as positive lymph node involvement and low DKK3 mRNA expression (p = 0.082). However, while ECM1 showed no association with tumour stage (p = 0.773), high TGFB1 expression showed a significant association with more advanced stage presented as advanced T3 stage compared to patients with low TGFB1 mRNA expression (p < 0.001). Interestingly, while ECM1 showed no significant association with patient outcome, patients with high DKK3 mRNA expression showed a significant association with favourable outcomes presented as prolonged disease-specific (p = 0.0266), progression-free survival (p = 0.047) and disease-free (p = 0.05). In contrast, high TGFB1 mRNA expression showed a significant association with poor patient outcomes presented as shortened progression-free (p = 0.00032) and disease-free survival (p = 0.0433). Moreover, DKK3, TGFB1 and ECM1 have acted as immune-associated genes in the PCa tumour microenvironment. In conclusion, our findings showed a distinct prognostic value for this three-gene signature in PCa. While both DKK3 and TGFB1 showed a potential role as a clinical marker for PCa stratification, ECM1 showed no significant association with the majority of clinicopathological parameters, which reduce its clinical significance as a reliable prognostic marker.

The fast development of vehicle technology and the appearance of 5G networks have brought new opportunities as well as challenges for vehicular fog computing. On the one hand, these advances would bring a safer, more efficient, and comfortable car onto our roads; but on the other, they open up huge security and privacy vulnerabilities. Current solutions typically offer inadequate security coverage, rendering vehicular networks susceptible to diverse attacks. We present a first holistic solution that combines entity authentication with privacy preservation in 5G-enabled vehicular fog computing. A novel feature obfuscation involves the vehicle request messages at an early stage and employs advanced cryptographic methods, rendering any potential attacks much more challenging while preventing even a Trusted Authority (TA) from inferring their underlying purpose. This scheme not only maximizes request communication, reduces interaction and computational overhead but also lessens the dependency on TA thus making it more scalable as well as resilient. Theoretical and simulation results show the merits of this protocol in reducing verification latency, and packet loss rate along with computation overheads as well as communication overhead. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed protocol against existing approaches to provide privacy and security for vehicular communications. The work thus adds to the body of knowledge taking vehicular communication in 5G capable networks a step forward enhancing secured and efficient operation ensuring more secure roads that deliver their contextual alerts setting new standards for safety levels within any existing vehicular network as well.

In the present research, ginger extracted compounds, namely; Gingerol {(1-[4′-hydroxy-3′-methoxyphenyl]-5-hydroxy-3-decanone} (1), Zingerone {(4-(4-Hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-2-butanone)} (2), and Shogoals {(E)-1-(4-Hydroxy-3- methoxyphenyl) dec-4-en-3-one)} (3) have been investigated as SARS-Cov-2 inhibitors. The interaction of extracted compounds with the virus's spikes may restrict the virus's reproduction or give time to the body's immune system to detect viruses, consequently producing appropriate antibodies. Gaussian 09 with a 6-311G (d, p) basis set, UCA FUKUI, MGL implement, DSV, and LigPlus software were utilized. The active sites for adsorption were identified using the total electron density (TED), FUKUI function, and Millikan charges. Furthermore, docking analysis clearly showed that the inhibition of viral replication depends on binding energy (Eb) and ligand efficiency (LE). A docking study revealed that the inhibition ability of the studied compounds on SARS-CoV-2 was in the order of 2 > 3 > 1.

The increase of plastic waste in the marine environment raises several ecological, human, and biological problems. In this work, an accelerated artificial aging study was conducted in seawater after immersing samples of high-density polyethylene bottles for several aging times and at three different temperatures. The deterioration of the mechanical properties of High density polyethylene (HDPE) under different aging conditions was investigated using tensile and compression tests. The absorption of seawater by the samples was analyzed using a gravimetric method and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR). Further surface analysis of the samples during accelerated aging was performed using a scanning electron microscope. The results show that HDPE loses its ductility and rigidity. FTIR analysis confirms the increase in crystallinity during aging. KEYWORDS accelerated aging in marine environment, compression tests, crystallinity rate, FTIR, SEM, tensile tests, 1 | INTRODUCTION Pollution of the world's oceans by plastics has been recognized as a serious problem. Improper disposal of plastic waste can lead directly or indirectly to the release [...]

One-dimensional nanostructures are generally cited as nanowires, nanofibers, nanotubes, and so on. The foremost prominent feature of these materials is their electrical conductivity, which, unlike classical physics, doesn't increase their resistance because the diameter decreases. Numerous properties of these materials like electrical conductivity, optical, magnetic, biological, and environmental their sensory have created many applications for them altogether industries. nanowires (NWs) propose potential impact on electronics, computing, memory, data storage, communications, manufacturing, health, medicine, national security, and other economic sectors as well. NWs offer excellent surface-to-volume ratio (interface phenomena), low defect density, high optical output, and controllable n-type conductivity, making them more appropriate and sensitive for sensing applications. NWs with their ultra-sensitive and real-time detection capabilities lend their applications in nano biosensors, chemical sensors, gas sensors, and electrochemical sensors. NWs have been used in improving the optical absorption as well as for the collection efficacy in photovoltaic devices. NWs having small size, low weight, low cost for mass production, and are also compatible with commercial planar processes for large-scale circuitry. In the paper, the authors are focusing to summarize the recent advances in NWs with their potential applications in various fields such as research, health, security, education, entertainment, and power generation.

Today, in diverse medical and clinical fields, including cancer treatment, nanoscience has evolved and evolved. Cancer and its forms, on the other hand, have been rumored and inclusive, and many individuals suffer from this fatal and lethal condition. Actually, even with the medicinal effect, current therapeutic approaches, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, etc., create symptoms that are inconvenient for patients. Scientists and scholars are also working to establish and, strengthen the options and methods of therapy to deal with this dangerous illness. Nanoscience and nanotechnology have been popular today, their different areas, including nanoparticles, are commonly used for a number of applications, especially for drug delivery and diagnostic products, and cases of imaging. Release mechanisms focused on nanotechnology have a profound effect on the release of cancer drugs. Biomaterials and bio-engineering developments are leading to novel approaches to nanoparticles that could offer a new way for cancer patients to improve. In the drug release method, Nano-technology has had a great effect on the selection of cancer cells, the release of a targeted drug, and the overcoming of traditional chemotherapy limitations. This article discusses the drug delivery to tumor tissue, a method that is more effective than traditional drug delivery methods, also many new nanoparticles have solved the problem of cell resistance to the drug, provided a new field in the treatment of cancer.

This work focuses on the damage of two thermoplastic materials; high density polyethylene "(HDPE)" and high impact polystyrene "(HIPS)". The contribution of this work is to determine the lifetime of these polymers by proposing a new static method, including different notches with different opening lengths instead of depth change, to predict the damage behavior of HDPE and HIPS. Three damage models were used to predict the lifetime of these polymers by a proposed simple method compared to the old complex methods. Chemical and microscopic analyses including Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were performed. The results indicated that the shape of the notch and the morphological nature of the polymer influence the mechanical behavior of these polymers. The proposed experimental factors (life fraction as a function of notches) are in very good agreement with the experimental results.

Objectives: The ability of mothers to accurately predict the presence of fever in their children using the tactile method is still controversial. This study evaluated the accuracy of Iraqi mothers’ tactile fever detection in children under 5 during COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and methods: Interviews were conducted with 200 mothers whose children were under the age of 5 years and who assumed they had fever. Each mother was then asked to touch her child’s body for fever evaluation, while an investigator observed them, recorded their responses, and documented the places of palpation. Thereafter, the investigator determined the child’s temperature using a non-contact temple thermometer (NCTT). Statistical analysis was conducted to compare the maternal tactile approach to NCTT and single site to multiple site palpation in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values. Results: The prevalence of fever in the study sample was 72%, as 144 of the 200 children involved were confirmed to have fever by NCTT. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of the maternal tactile method were 96.5%, 62.5%, 86.9%, and 87.5%, respectively. Multiple child body sites were palpated by 42.5% of mothers, whereas 57.5% palpated a single site, with the forehead being the most common palpated site (31%). Multiple site palpation had a significantly lower incorrect temperature assessment rate than single site palpation (3.5% vs. 27%, p = 0.00001). Additionally, the accuracy increased significantly when the mother palpated multiple sites (96.5% vs. 73%). Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that mothers’ use of tactile assessment is an effective screening tool when assessing their children’s fever; however, mothers’ fears can reduce the accuracy of this method, whereas instructing the mother to palpate multiple body parts can increase its reliability.

in recent years, most researchers are trying to seek out and develop effective and comparatively simple methods for producing nanostructures. In this regard, the methods of manufacturing self-regulated nanostructures with alternating arrays are given special attention. The anodization, which ends up within the formation of a porous metal oxide layer consisting of an everyday array of nanoporous, is one such method. The numerous applications of aluminum, research on the anodization has focused more on this metal. Anodic corundum may be a key sample material for creating nanostructures like nanowires, nanotubes. The anodic aluminum, which ends within the formation of porous alumina samples, is comparatively easy and ultimately leads to an array of high-density parallel nanoporous. During this paper, the final structure of porous anoxic alumina further because the growth mechanism of this layer within the presence of electrical field and therefore Penetration of Electrolyte species into the oxide layer, furthermore as explaining the expansion mechanism of porous oxide layer in steady state and hexagonal plasma membrane structure. Affecting the geometric parameters of the porous alumina structure like the pore diameter, the interpore distance, the wall thickness, and also Thickness of the Barrier Layer are discussed.

Sol-gel chemistry is currently applied as one of the most widely used methods for synthesis of nanoparticles. In this method hydrolysis and poly-condensation reactions occur when the gel precursors are mixed with water and catalyst. The further condensation of sol particles into a three-dimensional network produces a gel. There are several parameters that effect on gelation time such as the molar ratio of alkoxide to water, the rate of hydrolysis, the type and amount of catalyst used, initial concentration of precursors and the temperature of hydrolysis and drying. Encapsulated solvent can be removed from a gel by either evaporative drying or supercritical drying. Where the resulting solids are known as a xerogel and an aerogel, respectively. During the drying process due to the surface tension of the liquid, a capillary pressure gradient is built in the pore walls, which is able to collapse most part of the pore volume. The volume shrinkage may be prevented by supercritical drying. The strength, thermal stability, pore structure and morphology of aerogels are keys to success for wider applications such as catalyst supports, thermal and acoustic insulators and adsorbents. Among catalyst support materials, alumina became popular recently due to its highly thermal and chemical stability and higher porosity. In the present study, synthesis of alumina gel as a support for nano-catalysts through hydrolysis of aluminum tri-sec-butoxide (ASB) in ethanol was investigated. The gel synthesis was carried out at 32 and 60 °C with different concentrations of water and precursor and different types and amounts of acid as catalyst. Rate of gel formation, efficiency of hydrolysis and polymerization and amount of gel production were measured and discussed. Results showed that acid addition around 0.2 ml and water to ASB malar ratio of 2 at 60 °C maximized the amount of gel produced and minimized the gelation time. Then, the alumina gel that synthesized at optimum conditions was dried by two different methods, at atmospheric pressure and temperature and at supercritical conditions of carbon dioxide and the results of Scanning Electron Microscopy were compared.

With the rapid development of nanotechnology in the recent decade, novel DNA and RNA delivery systems for gene therapy have become available that can be used instead of viral vectors. These non-viral vectors can be made of a variety of materials, including inorganic nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, liposomes, protein and peptide-based nanoparticles, as well as nanoscale polymeric materials. They have as advantages over viral vectors a decreased immune response, and additionally offer flexibility in design, allowing them to be functionalized and targeted to specific sites in a biological system with low cytotoxicity.gene therapy keeps hopes a life for the treatment of a wide range of diseases such as cancer, nano particles are now known as promising carriers for the effective and safe vectors of genes to specific cells or tissues. This could provide alternative therapies for conventional approaches that use viruses as gene carriers. The expression of genetic material such as DNA, RNA into cells and tissues has raised considerable hopes for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes. But getting nucleic acids into the cell also faces challenges. These challenges are less for non-virus carriers as a gene and drug vectors method than for viral or free vectors and are therefore considered less risky and more appropriate. of expanding nonverbal nano carriers, we will look at a few of these nano carriers, penicillin, PEI, PLGA, silica, block copolymer, Quantum dot, gold nano particles, and common carbon nano tubes. Problems include the use of nano particles such as polymer nano particles, liposomes, solid lipid particles, in targeted gene vectors will be investigated. Gene-based therapy is the intentional modulation of gene expression in specific cells to treat pathological conditions. This modulation is accomplished by introducing exogenous nucleic acids such as DNA, mRNA, small interfering RNA (siRNA), microRNA (miRNA) or antisense oligonucleotides. Given the large size and the negative charge of these macromolecules, their delivery is typically mediated by carriers or vectors. In this Review, we introduce the biological barriers to gene delivery in vivo and discuss recent advances in material sciences, nanotechnology and nucleic acid chemistry that have yielded promising non-viral delivery systems, some of which are currently undergoing testing in clinical trials. The diversity of these systems highlights the recent progress of gene-based therapy using non-viral approaches.

Background: The diagnosis of cancer, followed by lengthy treatment, poses a significant threat to patients' mental health. The current study aimed to examine the effectiveness of writing therapy on depression and anxiety of patients with leukemia. Methods: This study involved two groups in a randomized clinical trial. The statistical population of the current study comprised 384 patients of Baghdad Medical City, Iraq, who met the inclusion criteria, in 2019. A simple random sampling method was used to select a statistical sample of 110 individuals, who were then divided into experimental and control groups (55 members in each group). Data collection tools included Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was used in SPSS software for data analysis. Results: The writing therapy intervention approach reduced the anxiety (F = 67.864, P < 0.001) and depression (F = 54.218, P < 0.001) of patients with leukemia. In addition, none of the demographic variables of the study's participants had a significant relationship with the findings. Conclusion: Implementing the writing therapy intervention can improve the psychological symptoms of patients with leukemia.

This research aims to investigate the effect of different amounts of doping elements (magnesium and yttrium ions) on the hardness, elastic modulus, flexural strength, and transparency of alumina ceramics. For this purpose, different amounts of Mg2+ and Y3+ doped α-Al2O3 nanoparticles were synthesized via the co-precipitation method. The results revealed that the majority of Mg2+ and Y3+ doped α-Al2O3 nanoparticles have a particle size of 300–400 nm. Furthermore, the density and transparency (60% in-line transmittance at a wavelength of 5 μm, with a sample thickness of 2.4 mm) of the bulk materials prepared with doping of 100 ppm Mg2+and 400 ppm Y3+ (100M400Y) presented the best performance compared with other samples. Furthermore, the hardness and Young modulus of this sample were 28 GPa and 349 GPa, respectively. The flexural strength of the 100M400Y sample reached the highest value, 193 MPa, due to the smaller grain size and minimal porosity.