The investigation of the porosity scale effect and elastic anisotropy in Bashkirian limestones

The article presents the methodology of the representative elementary volume definition for 1 m long whole core segments. Scientific articles focused on factors controlling elastic properties are analysed. Terms of additivity and nonadditivity for physical properties of rocks are discussed. The algorithm of core sampling including drilling out of three perpendicular core samples for estimation of elastic anisotropy was used. Porosity values of 1 m long whole core fragment evaluated in two ways using original core samples in the first approach and core samples having volume 133 cm3 in the second way have been compared. Peculiarities of scale effect of porosity in core samples of limestones are analysed.

The investigation of the scale effect on porosity in Bashkirian limestones

The article presents the methodology of the representative elementary volume definition for two 1 m long whole core segments. Scientific articles focused on practical methods of representative volume calculations using various physical parameter fluctuations have been studied. Porosity values of every whole core fragment evaluated in two ways using the 7.3 cm diameter core samples in the first approach and the 3 cm diameter core samples in the second one have been compared. Particularities of the scale effect occurring in core samples and depending on core size and porosity type have been analyzed. The cause of porosity increase in big core samples has been determined. The reason due to which porosity changes are explained by fracture porosity occurring in core samples having big volumes has been found. The comparison between neutron log porosity and core porosity has been made. Reasons of similarities or differences of core and log data have been established.

Querying the Semantic Web via Rules

The problem of querying RDF data is a central issue for the development of the Semantic Web. The query language SPARQL has become the standard language for querying RDF since its W3C standardization in 2008. However, the 2008 version of this language missed some important functionalities: reasoning capabilities to deal with RDFS and OWL vocabularies, navigational capabilities to exploit the graph structure of RDF data, and a general form of recursion much needed to express some natural queries. To overcome those limitations, a new version of SPARQL, called SPARQL 1.1, was released in 2013, which includes entailment regimes for RDFS and OWL vocabularies, and a mechanism to express navigation patterns through regular expressions. Nevertheless, there are useful navigation patterns that cannot be expressed in SPARQL 1.1, and the language lacks a general mechanism to express recursive queries. This chapter is a gentle introduction to a tractable rule-based query language, in fact, an extension of Datalog with value invention, stratified negation, and falsum, that is powerful enough to define SPARQL queries enhanced with the desired functionalities focussing on a core fragment of the OWL 2 QL profile of OWL 2.

Tractable Fragments of Datalog with Metric Temporal Operators

We study the data complexity of reasoning for several fragments of MTL - an extension of Datalog with metric temporal operators over the rational numbers. Reasoning in the full MTL language is PSPACE-complete, which handicaps its application in practice. To achieve tractability we first study the core fragment, which disallows conjunction in rule bodies, and show that reasoning remains PSPACE-hard. Intractability prompts us to also limit the kinds of temporal operators allowed in rules, and we propose a practical core fragment for which reasoning becomes TC0-complete. Finally, we show that this fragment can be extended by allowing linear conjunctions in rule bodies, where at most one atom can be intensional (IDB); we show that the resulting fragment is NL-complete, and hence no harder than plain linear Datalog.

Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4 Is a Target Protein of Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate

Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a major active ingredient in green tea, has various health benefits. It affects glucose metabolism, but the mechanism is not well understood. This study aimed to identify targets of EGCG related to glucose metabolism. The core fragment of EGCG is a flavonoid. The flavonoid scaffold was used as a substructure to find proteins cocrystallized with flavonoids in the Protein Data Bank. The proteins identified were screened in PubMed for known relationships with diabetes. Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4; PDB 5J3J) was identified following this approach. By molecular docking, the interactions of EGCG and DPP4 were assessed. To test the stability of the interactions between EGCG and DPP4, molecular dynamics simulation for 100 ns was performed using Desmond software. In vitro, the concentration of EGCG required to inhibit DPP4 activity by 50% (the IC50 value) was 28.42 μM. These data provide a theoretical basis for intervention in glucose metabolism with EGCG.

High hole mobility in room temperature discotic liquid crystalline tetrathienoanthracenes

Tetrathienoanthracene (TTA), a new discotic core fragment, is explored that shows a remarkably high hole mobility (μh) of 4.22 cm2 V−1 s−1 at room temperature when used in space-charge limited current (SCLC) devices.

Formal enantioselective synthesis of nhatrangin A

A new and straightforward synthesis of the C1–C7 core fragment of nhatrangin A was achieved in 14 steps from achiral 3-hydroxybenzaldehyde, without the need of chiral reagents or enzymatic resolution to introduce the chiral centers.

The complexity of disjunction in intuitionistic logic

We study procedures for the derivability problem of fragments of intuitionistic logic. Intuitionistic logic is known to be PSPACE-complete, with implication being one of the main contributors to this complexity. In fact, with just implication alone, we still have a PSPACE-complete logic. We study fragments of intuitionistic logic with restricted implication and develop algorithms for these fragments which are based on the proof rules. We identify a core fragment whose derivability is solvable in linear time. Adding disjunction elimination to this core gives a logic which is solvable in co-NP. These sub-procedures are applicable to a wide variety of logics with rules of a similar flavour. We also show that we cannot do better than co-NP whenever disjunction elimination interacts with other rules.

Sustained transgene expression from sleeping beauty DNA transposons containing a core fragment of the HNRPA2B1-CBX3 ubiquitous chromatin opening element (UCOE)

Background DNA transposon-based vectors are effective nonviral tools for gene therapy and genetic engineering of cells. However, promoter DNA methylation and a near-random integration profile, which can result in transgene integration into heterochromatin, renders such vectors vulnerable to transcriptional repression. Therefore, to secure persistent transgene expression it may be necessary to protect transposon-embedded transgenes with anti-transcriptional silencing elements. Results We compare four different protective strategies in CHO-K1 cells. Our findings show robust protection from silencing of transgene cassettes mediated by the ubiquitous chromatin-opening element (UCOE) derived from the HNRPA2B1-CBX3 locus. Using a bioinformatic approach, we define a shorter HNRPA2B1-CBX3 UCOE core fragment and demonstrate that this can robustly maintain transgene expression after extended passaging of CHO-K1 cells carrying DNA transposon vectors equipped with this protective feature. Conclusions Our findings contribute to the understanding of the mechanism of HNRPA2B1-CBX3 UCOE-based transgene protection and support the use of a correctly oriented core fragment of this UCOE for DNA transposon vector-based production of recombinant proteins in CHO-K1 cells.

Customized one-step preparation of sgRNA transcription templates via overlapping PCR Using short primers and its application in vitro and in vivo gene editing

Overlap extension polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a powerful technology for DNA assembly. Based on this technology, we synthesized DNA templates, which were transcribed into sgRNA in vitro, and further detected their efficiency of purified sgRNAs with Cas9 nuclease. The sgRNAs synthesized by this approach can effectively cleave the DNA fragments of interest in vitro and in vivo. Compared with the conventional method for generating sgRNA, it does not require construction of recombinant plasmids and design of primers to amplify sgRNA core fragment. Only several short primers with overlapped sequences are needed to assemble a DNA fragment as the template of sgRNA. This modified and simplified method is highly applicable and less time-consuming.