An essential oil and its major constituent isointermedeol induce apoptosis by increased expression of mitochondrial cytochrome c and apical death receptors in human leukaemia HL-60 cells

An essential oil from a lemon grass variety of Cymbopogon flexuosus (CFO) and its major chemical constituent sesquiterpene isointermedeol (ISO) were investigated for their ability to induce apoptosis in human leukaemia HL-60 cells because dysregulation of apoptosis is the hallmark of cancer cells. CFO and ISO inhibited cell proliferation with 48 h IC50 of approximately 30 and 20 microg/ml, respectively. Both induced concentration dependent strong and early apoptosis as measured by various end-points, e.g. annexinV binding, DNA laddering, apoptotic bodies formation and an increase in hypo diploid sub-G0 DNA content during the early 6h period of study. This could be because of early surge in ROS formation with concurrent loss of mitochondrial membrane potential observed. Both CFO and ISO activated apical death receptors TNFR1, DR4 and caspase-8 activity. Simultaneously, both increased the expression of mitochondrial cytochrome c protein with its concomitant release to cytosol leading to caspase-9 activation, suggesting thereby the involvement of both the intrinsic and extrinsic pathways of apoptosis. Further, Bax translocation, and decrease in nuclear NF-kappaB expression predict multi-target effects of the essential oil and ISO while both appeared to follow similar signaling apoptosis pathways. The easy and abundant availability of the oil combined with its suggested mechanism of cytotoxicity make CFO highly useful in the development of anti-cancer therapeutics.     

Blockchain based secure,efficient and coordinated energy trading and data sharing between electric vehicles

Cluster Computing - In this study, a secure and coordinated blockchain based energy trading system for Electric Vehicles (EVs) is presented. The major goals of this study are to provide secure and...     

Paternity tests support a diallelic self‐incompatibility system in a wild olive (Olea europaea subsp. laperrinei,Oleaceae)

Self‐incompatibility (SI) is the main mechanism that favors outcrossing in plants. By limiting compatible matings, SI interferes in fruit production and breeding of new cultivars. In the Oleeae tribe (Oleaceae), an unusual diallelic SI system (DSI) has been proposed for three distantly related species including the olive (Olea europaea), but empirical evidence has remained controversial for this latter. The olive domestication is a complex process with multiple origins. As a consequence, the mixing of S‐alleles from two distinct taxa, the possible artificial selection of self‐compatible mutants and the large phenological variation of blooming may constitute obstacles for deciphering SI in olive. Here, we investigate cross‐genotype compatibilities in the Saharan wild olive (O. e. subsp. laperrinei). As this taxon was geographically isolated for thousands of years, SI should not be affected by human selection. A population of 37 mature individuals maintained in a collection was investigated. Several embryos per mother were genotyped with microsatellites in order to identify compatible fathers that contributed to fertilization. While the pollination was limited by distance inside the collection, our results strongly support the DSI hypothesis, and all individuals were assigned to two incompatibility groups (G1 and G2). No self‐fertilization was observed in our conditions. In contrast, crosses between full or half siblings were frequent (ca. 45%), which is likely due to a nonrandom assortment of related trees in the collection. Finally, implications of our results for orchard management and the conservation of olive genetic resources are discussed.     

An Adaptive Hybrid OLAP Architecture with optimized memory access patterns

OLAP (On-Line Analytical Processing) is an approach to efficiently evaluate multidimensional data for business intelligence applications. OLAP contributes to business decision-making by identifying, extracting, and analyzing multidimensional data. The fundamental structure of OLAP is a data cube that enables users to interactively explore the distinct data dimensions. Processing depends on the complexity of queries, dimensionality, and growing size of the data cube. As data volumes keep on increasing and the demands by business users also increase, higher processing speed than ever is needed, as faster processing means faster decisions and more profit to industry. In this paper, we are proposing an Adaptive Hybrid OLAP Architecture that takes advantage of heterogeneous systems with GPUs and CPUs and leverages their different memory subsystems characteristics to minimize response time. Thus, our approach (a) exploits both types of hardware rather than using the CPU only as a frontend for GPU; (b) uses two different data formats (multidimensional cube and relational cube) to match the GPU and CPU memory access patterns and diverts queries adaptively to the best resource for solving the problem at hand; (c) exploits data locality of multidimensional OLAP on NUMA multicore systems through intelligent thread placement; and (d) guides its adaptation and choices by an architectural model that captures the memory access patterns and the underlying data characteristics. Results show an increase in performance by roughly four folds over the best known related approach. There is also the important economical factor. The proposed hybrid system costs only 10 % more than same system without GPU. With this small extra cost, the added GPU increases query processing by almost 2 times.     

Expressed Sequence Tags for Bovine Muscle Satellite Cells,Myotube Formed-Cells and Adipocyte-Like Cells

Background

Muscle satellite cells (MSCs) represent a devoted stem cell population that is responsible for postnatal muscle growth and skeletal muscle regeneration. An important characteristic of MSCs is that they encompass multi potential mesenchymal stem cell activity and are able to differentiate into myocytes and adipocytes. To achieve a global view of the genes differentially expressed in MSCs, myotube formed-cells (MFCs) and adipocyte-like cells (ALCs), we performed large-scale EST sequencing of normalized cDNA libraries developed from bovine MSCs.

Results

A total of 24,192 clones were assembled into 3,333 clusters, 5,517 singletons and 3,842contigs. Functional annotation of these unigenes revealed that a large portion of the differentially expressed genes are involved in cellular and signaling processes. Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) functional analysis of three subsets of highly expressed gene lists (MSC233, MFC258, and ALC248) highlighted some common and unique biological processes among MSC, MFC and ALC. Additionally, genes that may be specific to MSC, MFC and ALC are reported here, and the role of dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase2 (DDAH2) during myogenesis and hemoglobin subunit alpha2 (HBA2) during transdifferentiation in C2C12 were assayed as a case study. DDAH2 was up-regulated during myognesis and knockdown of DDAH2 by siRNA significantly decreased myogenin (MYOG) expression corresponding with the slight change in cell morphology. In contrast, HBA2 was up-regulated during ALC formation and resulted in decreased intracellular lipid accumulation and CD36 mRNA expression upon knockdown assay.

Conclusion

In this study, a large number of EST sequences were generated from the MSC, MFC and ALC. Overall, the collection of ESTs generated in this study provides a starting point for the identification of novel genes involved in MFC and ALC formation, which in turn offers a fundamental resource to enable better understanding of the mechanism of muscle differentiation and transdifferentiation.     

Production of Napiergrass as a Bioenergy Feedstock Under Organic Versus Inorganic Fertilization in the Southeast USA

Napiergrass (Pennisetum purpureum Schum.) is a high-yielding perennial biomass crop that is well adapted to the Southeast USA where poultry litter is readily available. This research was conducted to compare biomass production and nutrient utilization of napiergrass fertilized with either poultry litter or inorganic fertilizer. Each spring, approximately 100 kg ha^?1 of N, 40 kg ha^?1 P, and 90 kg ha^?1 K were applied as poultry litter or equivalent inorganic fertilizer. Biomass was harvested each winter after senescence. For the first 2 years, dry matter yield did not differ among treatments, but in the third and fourth years, yields declined in all treatments and were lowest in the unfertilized treatment. Biomass N concentration and N removal were greatest in the inorganic treatment. In general, N removal exceeded the amount applied, suggesting that higher application rates may be necessary to maintain yields. Biomass P concentration and total P uptake were greatest in the litter fertilized treatment, demonstrating that napiergrass can remove some of the excess P from applied litter. Soil cores were taken periodically to assess changes in soil properties. After 2 years of production, soil pH in the surface layer (0–15 cm) was lower in the inorganic treatment than in the other treatments. After 4 years, total soil C had increased by an average of 3,180 kg ha^?1 though fertilizer treatments did not differ. Yield declined in all treatments after 4 years and N supplementation is recommended for production in upland fields.     

Rat model of fractionated (2 Gy/day) 60 Gy irradiation of the liver: long-term effects

The liver is considered a radiosensitive organ. However, in rats, high single-dose irradiation (HDI) showed only mild effects. Consequences of fractionated irradiation (FI) in such an animal model have not been studied so far. Rats were exposed to selective liver FI (total dose 60 Gy, 2 Gy/day) or HDI (25 Gy) and were killed three months after the end of irradiation. To study acute effects, HDI-treated rats were additionally killed at several time points between 1 and 48 h. Three months after irradiation, no differences between FI and HDI treatment were found for macroscopically detectable small “scars” on the liver surface and for an increased number of neutrophil granulocytes distributed in the portal fields and through the liver parenchyma. As well, no changes in HE-stained tissues or clear signs of fibrosis were found around the portal vessels. Differences were seen for the number of bile ducts being increased in FI- but not in HDI-treated livers. Serum levels indicative of liver damage were determined for alkaline phosphatase (AP), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), gamma-glutamyltransferase (γGT) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). A significant increase of AP was detected only after FI while HDI led to the significant increases of AST and LDH serum levels. By performing RT-PCR, we detected up-regulation of matrix metalloproteinases, MMP-2, MMP-9, MMP-14, and of their inhibitors, TIMP-1, TIMP-2 and TIMP-3, shortly after HDI, but not at 3 month after FI or HDI. Overall, we saw punctual differences after FI and HDI, and a diffuse formation of small scars at the liver surface. Lack of “provisional clot”-formation and absence of recruitment of mononuclear phagocytes could be one explanation for scar formation as incomplete repair response to irradiation.     

Identification of specific IgE binding proteins in Castor bean (Ricinus communis) pollen obtained from different source materials

Allergenic components of Ricinus communis pollen obtained from different stages of inflorescence, different time intervals, different years and places were studied by immunoblot analysis. Proteins separated by SDS-PAGE and transferred to NC were identified using pooled sera from 15 skin and RAST positive patients. The IgE binding components in M.W. range of 14 to 70 kD were identified. The protein fractions of 70, 66, 64, 60, 50, 45, 36, 22 and 14 kD are the most prominent allergenic bands. Six samples collected during same pollination season from the same place showed similar allergenic profile. Of the samples collected from different stages of inflorescence, pollen of immature buds showed only three bands as compared to 18 from mature buds and flowers. Variability was seen in the IgE binding components of pollen stored for different years and obtained from different geographic regions of India. The IgE binding pattern of fifteen sera were heterogenous. The number of bands identified by different sera varied from 3 to 18. Two protein components of 66 and 36 kD were recognised by 14 (93.3%) of the 15 sera studied. The result suggests that there exists variations in the specific IgE binding pattern in pollen samples of Castor Bean, obtained from difference source materials.     

Probiotic Therapy (BIO-THREE) Mitigates Intestinal Microbial Imbalance and Intestinal Damage Caused by Oxaliplatin

Probiotics and Antimicrobial Proteins - Gastrointestinal mucositis associated with the use of chemotherapeutic drugs can seriously affect the quality of life of patients. In this study, a probiotic...