The hollow-site-stacked interfaces, in which Ti atoms locate on the hollow site of interfacial C atoms (cases III and IV), are more thermodynamically stable with larger work of adhesion, and interfacial fracture toughness. The center-site-stacked (cases I and II) and top-site-stacked (cases V and VI) interfaces have a decreasing interface adhesion as the order. The electronic Liproxstatin-1 solubility dmso structure of hollow-site-stacked interface (case IV) gives the evidence that atomic bonding exists between interfacial C, Si, and Ti atoms, and the C-Ti bonds exhibit more covalent

features than Si-Ti. The tilt direction of Ti atoms, namely the stacking style of Ti, has a subtle and secondary effect on the interface stability. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://0-dx.doi.org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1063/1.4775496]“
“Kiaa1867 (human Kirre, hKirre) has a critical role in brain development and/or maintenance of the glomerular slit diaphragm in kidneys. Murine homolog of this BIX 01294 in vivo gene, mKirre expressed in OP9 and AFT024 cells could support hematopoietic stem cells/hematopoietic progenitor cells (HSC/HPC) expansion in vitro. HKirre is also expressed in human FBMOB-hTERT

cell line and fetal liver fibroblast-like cells but its function has remained unclear. In this paper, we cloned a hKirre gene from human fetal liver fibroblast-like cells and established a stably overexpressing hKirre-AFT024 cell line. Resultant cells could promote self-renewal and ex vivo expansion of HSCs/HPCs significantly higher than AFT024-control cells transformed with mock plasmid. The Expanded human umbilical cord blood (hUCB) CD34(+) cells retained the capacity of multipotent differentiation as long as 8 weeks and successfully repopulated the bone marrow of sublethally irradiated NOD/SCID mice, which demonstrated the expansion of long-term primitive transplantable HSCs/HPCs. Importantly, hkirre could upregulate the expressions of Wnt-5A, BMP4, and SDF-1 and downregulate TGF-beta with other hematopoietic growth factors. By SDS-PAGE and Western Blot selleck inhibitor analysis, a similar to 89 kDa protein in total lysate of AFT024-hKirre was identified. Supernatants from AFT024-hkirre could also support

CD34(+)CD38(-) cells expansion. These results demonstrated that the AFT024-hKirre cells have the ability to efficiently expand HSCs/HPCs.”
“Smokeless tobacco use in the form of the betel quid is common in the Western Pacific Region, and yet few studies have determined the nicotine delivery of this habit. During a validation substudy, we randomly sampled 201 adults from a rural province of Cambodia and determined nonparametric (bootstrapped) confidence intervals (CIs) for salivary cotinine levels in tobacco users. We found that cotinine levels for daily betel quid use among women (95% CI = 218.6-350.0 ng/mL) were (1) similar to the levels for daily cigarette smoking in men (95% CI = 240.2-317.1 ng/mL) and (2) significantly higher than the levels for daily cigarette smoking in women (95% CI = 71.