Cytotoxicity and Apoptosis Induction of 6,7-Dehydroroyleanone from Taiwania cryptomerioides Bark Essential Oil in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells.

The objective of the present study is to evaluate the cytotoxicity of Taiwania cryptomerioides essential oil and its phytochemical on the Hep G2 cell line (human hepatocellular carcinoma). Bark essential oil has significant cytotoxicity to Hep G2 cells, and S3 fraction is the most active fraction in cytotoxicity to Hep G2 cells among the six fractions. The diterpenoid quinone, 6,7-dehydroroyleanone, was isolated from the active S3 fraction by bioassay-guided isolation. 6,7-Dehydroroyleanone exhibited significant cytotoxicity in Hep G2 cells, and the efficacy of 6,7-dehydroroyleanone was better than the positive control, etoposide. Apoptosis analysis of Hep G2 cells with different treatments was characterized via flow cytometry to confirm the cell death situation. Etoposide and 6,7-dehydroroyleanone could induce the apoptosis in Hep G2 cells using flow cytometric assay. Results revealed 6,7-dehydroroyleanone from T. cryptomerioides bark essential oil can be a potential phytochemical to develop the anticancer chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of the human hepatocellular carcinoma.

Cross-Domain Transfer Learning for PCG Diagnosis Algorithm.

Cardiechema is a way to reflect cardiovascular disease where the doctor uses a stethoscope to help determine the heart condition with a sound map. In this paper, phonocardiogram (PCG) is used as a diagnostic signal, and a deep learning diagnostic framework is proposed. By improving the architecture and modules, a new transfer learning and boosting architecture is mainly employed. In addition, a segmentation method is designed to improve on the existing signal segmentation methods, such as R wave to R wave interval segmentation and fixed segmentation. For the evaluation, the final diagnostic architecture achieved a sustainable performance with a public PCG database.

Antiplatelet drug ticagrelor delays gastric ulcer healing in rats.

Adenosine diphosphate P2Y12 receptor antagonist clopidogrel is not sufficiently safe for the gastric mucosa in patients with high risk of peptic ulcer, since it may impair healing of gastric erosions. However, the safety of the novel P2Y12 receptor antagonist ticagrelor in the gastric mucosa has not been elucidated to date. The present study aimed to examine whether ticagrelor delays gastric ulcer healing and to elucidate the involved mechanisms. Gastric kissing ulcers were produced in rats by luminal application of acetic acid solution, and ticagrelor was administered at dose of 10 or 20 mg/kg/day orally for 7 days. On day 8 after ulcer induction, the ulcer size, mucosal epithelial cell proliferation of the ulcer margin, expression levels of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and signal transduction pathways for cell proliferation and angiogenesis were measured and compared between the ticagrelor-treated and untreated model groups. The results revealed that the ulcer size was significantly greater in the ticagrelor-treated group compared with the model group, while the mucosal epithelial cell proliferation of the ulcer margin was significantly decreased in the ticagrelor-treated group. In addition, ticagrelor significantly decreased the ulcer-stimulated expression levels of EGF, VEGF, phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), phosphorylated P38 mitogen-activated protein kinase and nuclear factor-κB P65 at the ulcer margin (P<0.05). These findings suggested that ticagrelor delayed gastric ulcer healing. Furthermore, the possible mechanisms underlying the effect of ticagrelor were associated with its functions of attenuating the expression levels of VEGF and EGF, as well as suppressing the phosphorylation activation of ERK1/2, P38 and nuclear factor-κB P65. Finally, the gastric epithelial cell proliferation and angiogenesis were also inhibited.

Multiplex congruence network of natural numbers.

Congruence theory has many applications in physical, social, biological and technological systems. Congruence arithmetic has been a fundamental tool for data security and computer algebra. However, much less attention was devoted to the topological features of congruence relations among natural numbers. Here, we explore the congruence relations in the setting of a multiplex network and unveil some unique and outstanding properties of the multiplex congruence network. Analytical results show that every layer therein is a sparse and heterogeneous subnetwork with a scale-free topology. Counterintuitively, every layer has an extremely strong controllability in spite of its scale-free structure that is usually difficult to control. Another amazing feature is that the controllability is robust against targeted attacks to critical nodes but vulnerable to random failures, which also differs from ordinary scale-free networks. The multi-chain structure with a small number of chain roots arising from each layer accounts for the strong controllability and the abnormal feature. The multiplex congruence network offers a graphical solution to the simultaneous congruences problem, which may have implication in cryptography based on simultaneous congruences. Our work also gains insight into the design of networks integrating advantages of both heterogeneous and homogeneous networks without inheriting their limitations.

Synthesis of magnetofluorescence Gd-doped CuInS2/ZnS quantum dots with enhanced longitudinal relaxivity.

In this paper, we describe the rapid microwave-assisted synthesis of Gd(3+)-doped CuInS2 (Gd:CIS) quaternary quantum dots (q-dots), which integrate the functions of optical fluorescence and magnetic resonance imaging. Through passivation of ZnS shells around Gd:CIS cores, high-quality and robust photostable Gd:CIS/ZnS core/shell q-dots with enhanced quantum yields were obtained. The intensity and peak-to-peak linewidth of the electron spin resonance (EPR) signal were found to vary depending on the Gd(3+) concentration of Gd:CIS/ZnS. Benefiting from the incorporation of paramagnetic Gd(3+) ions, the formed q-dots exhibited well-resolved and strong signals of electron paramagnetic resonance and provided significant contrast enhancement in T1-weighted images owing to the remarkably high longitudinal relaxivity (r1 = 55.90 mM(-1) s(-1)) and low r2/r1 ratio (1.42), which are significantly higher than those of commercially available T1 contrast agents. We expect that this facile one-pot synthetic strategy can be extended to the preparation of other Cu-based sulfide quaternary nanomaterials.

Chaos of elementary cellular automata rule 42 of Wolfram's class II.

In this paper, the dynamics of elementary cellular automata rule 42 is investigated in the bi-infinite symbolic sequence space. Rule 42, a member of Wolfram's class II which was said to be simply as periodic before, actually defines a chaotic global attractor; that is, rule 42 is topologically mixing on its global attractor and possesses the positive topological entropy. Therefore, rule 42 is chaotic in the sense of both Li-Yorke and Devaney. Meanwhile, the characteristic function and the basin tree diagram of rule 42 are explored for some finite length of binary strings, which reveal its Bernoulli characteristics. The method presented in this work is also applicable to studying the dynamics of other rules, especially the 112 Bernoulli-shift rules of the elementary cellular automata.

Geographical effect on small-world network synchronization.

We investigate the geographical effect on the synchronization of small-world oscillator networks. We construct small-world geographical networks by randomly adding links to one- and two-dimensional regular lattices, and we find that the synchronizability is a nonmonotonic function of both the coupling strength and the geographical distance of randomly added shortcuts. Our findings demonstrate that the geographical effect plays an important role in network synchronization, which may shed some light on the study of collective dynamics of complex networks.