Genes encoding regulatory RNAs known as short RNAs (sRNAs) or non-coding sRNAs (ncRNAs), modulate physiological responses through different mechanisms, through RNA-RNA interaction or RNA-protein interaction. These molecules transcribed in trans and in cis relative to the target RNA. They are located between the coding regions of proteins, i.e., in the intergenic regions of the genome and show signals of promoters and termini sequences generally Rho-independent. The size of the ncRNAs genes ranges from ~ 50 to ~ 500 nucleotides and several transcripts are processed by RNase with smaller end products, which modulate physiological responses through different mechanisms, by RNA-RNA interaction or RNA-protein interactions and some interactions may be stabilized by the Hfq chaperone. The Riboswitches constitute another class of ncRNAs, located in the 5'UTR region of an mRNA that promote transcriptional regulation through their interaction with a linker molecule. Recently, in prokaryotes, CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) regions have described, which repeats of sequences of palindromic bases are. Each replicate consists of short segments of "spacer DNA" from exposures prior to a bacteriophage virus or exogenous plasmid. The CRISPR system consists of an immune system of resistance to exogenous molecules.

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) aberrant expression have been found in several types of cancer, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), but lncRNA mapped in transcribed ultraconserved regions (T-UCRs) are little explored. The T-UCRs uc.112, uc.122, uc.160 and uc.262 were evaluated in pediatric ALL and uc.112 expression was higher in T-ALL compared to patients with B-ALL and in patients with hyperdiploid karyotype. These findings suggest a potential role of this uc.112 in pediatric ALL and emphasize the need for further investigation of T-UCR in pediatric ALL.

Hypercholesterolemia accelerates atherosclerosis, and extensive research has been undertaken to ameliorate this abnormality. Plant sterols have been shown to inhibit cholesterol absorption and lower plasma cholesterol level since the 1950s. This ingredient has recently been reappraised as a food additive that can be taken daily in a preclinical period to prevent hypercholesterolemia, considering that cardiovascular-related diseases are the top cause of death globally even with clinical interventions. Intestinal cholesterol handling is still elusive, making it difficult to clarify the mechanism for plant sterol-mediated inhibition. Notably, although the small intestine absorbs cholesterol, it is also the organ that excretes it abundantly, via trans-intestinal cholesterol efflux (TICE). In this review, we show a model where the brush border membrane (BBM) of intestinal epithelial cells stands as the dividing ridge for cholesterol fluxes, making cholesterol absorption and TICE inversely correlated. With this model, we tried to explain the plant sterol-mediated inhibitory mechanism. As well as cholesterol, plant sterols diffuse into the BBM but are effluxed back to the lumen rapidly. We propose that repeated plant sterol shuttling between the BBM and lumen promotes cholesterol efflux, and plant sterol in the BBM may disturb the trafficking machineries that transport cholesterol to the cell interior.

We design an asymmetric nonlinear optical nanoantenna composed of a dielectric nanodisk and an adjacent nanobar. The proposed composite structure made of AlGaAs exhibits resonant response at both the fundamental and doubled frequencies. Being driven by the strong magnetic dipole resonance at the pump wavelength and a high-quality mode at the harmonic wavelength, the efficient second-harmonic radiation is generated predominantly along the vertical directions under the normally incident plane-wave excitation.

Considering the safety issues of Li ion batteries, all-solid-state polymer electrolyte has been one of the promising solutions. In this point, achieving a Li ion conductivity in the solid state electrolytes comparable to liquid electrolytes (>1 mS/cm) is particularly challenging. Employment of polyethylene oxide (PEO) solid electrolyte has not been not enough in this point due to high crystallinity. In this study, hybrid solid electrolyte (HSE) systems are designed with Li_1.3Al_0.3Ti_0.7(PO₄)₃(LATP), PEO and Lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF₆) or Lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI). Hybrid solid cathode (HSC) is also designed using LATP, PEO and lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO₂, LCO)—lithium manganese oxide (LiMn₂O₄, LMO). The designed HSE system displays 3.0 × 10⁻⁴ S/cm (55 ℃) and 1.8 × 10⁻³ S/cm (23 ℃) with an electrochemical stability as of 6.0 V without any separation layer introduction. Li metal (anode)/HSE/HSC cell in this study displays initial charge capacity as of 123.4/102.7 mAh/g (55 ℃) and 73/57 mAh/g (25 °C). To these systems, Succinonitrile (SN) has been incorporated as a plasticizer for practical secondary Li ion battery system development to enhance ionic conductivity. The incorporated SN effectively increases the ionic conductivity without any leakage and short-circuits even under broken cell condition. The developed system also overcomes the typical disadvantages of internal resistance induced by Ti ion reduction. In this study, optimized ionic conductivity and low internal resistance inside the Li ion battery cell have been obtained, which suggests a new possibility in the secondary Li ion battery development.

Achieving water security and availability for all is the main agenda of the UN-Sustainable Development Goals by the year 2030. To achieve the goal of water secure future in rapidly urbanizing cities, the sustainable water supplies are necessary. In the western part of India, the city of Surat is continuously growing and rapidly urbanized, which exerting massive pressure on groundwater water supply to meet increasing water demands. The study adopted the investigative approach, in which a total 33 groundwater samples were collected in and around the city from open, bore and dug wells and hand pumps. The selection of sampling sites was based on the land use signature, areas with a different depth of aquifers and different geological formations. After the hydrogeochemical analysis, the study evaluated the present state of the groundwater quality and determined the spatial distribution of groundwater quality parameters such as hardness, electrical conductivity, Cl −, pH, SO42-, and NO3 −  concentrations. An interpolation technique, known as ordinary kriging, was used to acquire the spatial distribution of parameters of groundwater quality parameters. The result showed that the groundwater quality falls under class I (>25%) and class II (25 to75%) category. The study recommends that the groundwater in the study area is not suitable for potable purposes, especially without any improved onsite water treatment facilities but it is appropriate for the irrigation purposes in City.

This study analyzed the technical efficiency of barley production by smallholder farmers in Meket district, Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia. A cross sectional data from a sample of 123 barley producers during the 2016/17 production season was collected by applying two stage random sampling. To address the objective of the study, both descriptive statistics and econometric models were used to analyze the data. The trans-log functional form of the production function simultaneously with single stage estimation approach was used to estimate the production of barley output and technical inefficiency factors. The estimated stochastic production frontier model indicated that input variables such as fertilizer, human labor and oxen power were the significant variables to increase the quantity of barley output while, barley seed had a negative effect. The estimated mean levels of technical efficiency of the sample farmers were about 70.9% which revealed that, presence of a room to increase their technical efficiency level on average by 29.1% with the existing resources. The discrepancy ratio gamma indicated that 63% of the total variation from the frontier comes due to technical inefficiency while, the remaining 37% comes due to factors outside the control of farmers. Among the hypothesized factors that affect technical inefficiency; education level, extension contact and number of barley plots significantly and negatively affected technical inefficiency score. Besides, practice of crop rotation, distance of residence from the nearest main market, total expenditure and soil fertility was found to have a positive and significant effect. Hence, emphasis should be given to decrease the inefficiency level of those more inefficient farm households via experience sharing among the farmers and usage of improved or certified barley seed. Besides to this, policies and strategies of the government should be directed towards increasing farmers’ education, improve the system of input distributions and institutional facilities.

Polyamides (PAs) are one of the most important engineering polymers; however, the difficulty in dissolving them hinders their applications. Formic acid (FA) is the most common solvent for PAs, but it has industrial limitations. In this contribution, we proposed a new solvent system for PAs by replacing a portion of the FA with urea and calcium chloride (FAUCa). Urea imparts the hydrogen bonding and calcium ion from the calcium chloride, as a Lewis acid was added to the system to compensate for the pH decrease due to the addition of urea. The results showed that the proposed solvent (FAUCa) could readily dissolve PAs, resulting in less decrease in the mechanical properties during the dissolution. The composite prepared using the FAUCa has almost the same properties like the one prepared using the FA solution. The solution was applied on a polyamide 66 fabric to make an all-polyamide composite coated-fabric, which then was characterized. The FAUCa solution had a higher viscosity than the one prepared using the neat FA solvent, which can be an advantage in the applications which needs higher viscosity like preparing the all-polyamide composite coated-fabric. A more viscouse solution makes a denser coating which will increase the water-/gas-tightness. In conclusion, using the FAUCa solvent has two merits: 1. replacement of 40 % of the FA with less harmful and environmentally-friendly chemicals and 2. enabling for the preparation of more viscouse solutions, which makes denser coating.

Maintenance of intestinal barrier integrity is crucial for preventing inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) onset and exacerbations. In this work we study the effect of a fixed combination of Lactobacillus reuteri and Lactobacillus acidophilus and herbal extracts in an in vitro inflammation experimental model. Caco-2 cell monolayer was exposed to INF-γ+TNF-α or to LPS; Trans Epithelial Electrical Resistance (TEER) and paracellular permeability were investigated. ZO-1 and occludin tight junctions (TJs) were also investigated by mean of immunofluorescence. The pre-treatment with the fixed combination of probiotics and herbal extracts prevented the inflammation-induced TEER decrease, paracellular permeability increase and TJs translocation. In summary the fixed combination of probiotics and herbal extracts investigated in this research was found to be an interesting candidate for targeting the re-establishment of intestinal barrier function in IBDs conditions.

The scheme to realize high speed (~250Gb/s) all-optical Boolean logic gates using semiconductor optica amplifiers with quantum-dot (QD-SOA) is introduced and analyzed in this review. Numerical simulation method was presented by solving the rate equation and taking into account nonlinear dynamics including carrier heating and spectral hole-burning. Binary phase shift keyed (BPSK) signal and on-off keyed signal are used to generate high speed all-optical logic gates. The applications based on all-optical logic gates such as, all-optical latches, pseudo random bit sequence (PRBS) generation and all-optical encryption, are also discussed in this review. Results show that the scheme based on QD-SOA is a promising method for the realization of high speed all-optical communication system in the future.

The lipid fraction of margarines and fast-food French-fries, two types of foods traditionally high in trans fatty acids (TFA), is assessed. TFA data reported worldwide during the last 20 years have been gathered, and show that some countries still report high TFA amounts in these products. The content of TFA was analysed in margarines (2 store and 4 premium brands) and French-fries from fast-food restaurants (5 chains). Margarines showed mean values of 0.68% and 0.43% (gTFA/100g fat) for store and premium brands, respectively. French-fries values ranged from 0.49% to 0.89%. All samples were lower than the 2% set by some European countries as the maximum legal content of TFA in fats, and contained less than 0.5g/serving, so they could also be considered “trans free products”. This work confirmed that the presence of TFA is not significant in the two analysed products and contributes to update food composition tables, key tools for epidemiological and nutrition studies.