Electronic evaluation for video commercials by impression index

How to evaluate the effect of commercials is significantly important in neuromarketing. In this paper, we proposed an electronic way to evaluate the influence of video commercials on consumers by impression index. The impression index combines both the memorization and attention index during consumers observing video commercials by tracking the EEG activity. It extracts features from scalp EEG to evaluate the effectiveness of video commercials in terms of time–frequency-space domain. And, the general global field power was used as an impression index for evaluation of video commercial scenes as time series. Results of experiment demonstrate that the proposed approach is able to track variations of the cerebral activity related to cognitive task such as observing video commercials, and help to judge whether the scene in video commercials is impressive or not by EEG signals.     

Antiosteoporotic flavonoids from Podocarpium podocarpum

A novel bi-isoflavonoid, podocarnone (1), together with five known flavonoids, namely genistein (2), afzelin (3), astragalin (4), luteolin (5) and pratensein (6), were isolated from the whole plants of Podocarpium podocarpum (DC.) Yang and Huang for the first time. The structure of podocarnone (1) was elucidated by detailed spectroscopic analyses, including 1D and 2D NMR techniques. All the isolated compounds were evaluated for their proliferative effects on osteoblasts derived from neonatal rat calvaria and inhibitory effects on multinucleated osteoclasts from rat marrow cells so as to explore the antiosteoporotic activity of these components. Podocarnone (1) exhibited potent stimulatory effects on osteoblastic proliferation and ALP (alkaline phosphatase) activity, and significantly inhibited the activity of osteoclastic TRAP (tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase) in the low concentration range of 10^?12–10^?14 mol/L, which were equivalent to the activity of genistein (2) in the concentration range of 10^?7–10^?9 mol/L. The other five known flavonoids also showed varied degrees of antiosteoporotic activities, and structure–activity relationship analysis revealed the number of phenolic rings contained in these structures maybe responsible for the antiosteoporosis property.     

Phenylpropanoid constituents from the seeds of Lithocarpus pachylepis

Five phenylpropanoids including one new compound balanophonin A (1), one new natural compound balanophonin B (2) were isolated from the seeds of Lithocarpus pachylepis for the first time. Their structures were elucidated by various spectroscopic techniques (UV, IR, MS, CD, 1D and 2D NMR). All compounds were evaluated for their anti-inflammatory activities on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced nitric oxide (NO) production in RAW 264.7.     

Flavonoids from the bark and stems of Cassia fistula and their anti-tobacco mosaic virus activities

Two new flavonoids, fistulaflavonoids B and C (1–2), together with five known flavonoids (3–7) were isolated from the bark and stems of Cassia fistula. Their structures were determined by means of HRESIMS, extensive 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic studies and chemical evidences. The anti-tobacco mosaic virus (anti-TMV) activity of the isolated flavonoids was also evaluated. The results showed that compounds 1 and 2 showed high anti-TMV activity with inhibition rate of 28.5% and 31.3%, which is higher than that of Ningnanmycin (24.7%). Compounds 4–7 showed modest anti-TMV activity with inhibition rate of 18.5%, 22.7%, 16.4%, and 15.3%, respectively.     

Trinorsesquiterpenoids from Inula racemosa

Four trinorsesquiterpenoids (1–4) were isolated from the roots of Inula racemosa and the structures of two new compounds, (4R,5S,10S)-5-hydroxy-11,12,13-trinoreudesm-6-en-8-one (1) and (4R,5R,10R)-4,15-epoxy-11,12,13-trinoreudesman-8-one (3), were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analysis. Furthermore, the structure of compound 2a should be revised as (4R,5R,10S)-5-hydroxy-11,12,13-trinoreudesm-6-en-8-one (2) and compound 2 showed antiproliferative activity against A549, HepG2, and HT1080 cell lines with IC50 values of 3.71, 5.94, and 3.95 μg/mL, respectively.     

Genome-Wide Association Analysis with Gray Matter Volume as a Quantitative Phenotype in First-Episode Treatment-Na?ve Patients with Schizophrenia

Reduced Gray matter (GM) volume is a core feature of schizophrenia. Mapping genes that is associated with the heritable disease-related phenotypes may be conducive to elucidate the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. This study aims to identify the common genetic variants that underlie the deficits of GM volume in schizophrenia. High-resolution T1 images and whole genome genotyping data were obtained from 74 first-episode treatment-naïve patients with schizophrenia and 51 healthy controls in the Mental Health Centre of the West China Hospital, Sichuan University. All participants were scanned using a 3T MR imaging system and were genotyped using the HumanHap660 Bead Array. Reduced GM volumes in three brain areas including left hOC3v in the collateral sulcus of visual cortex (hOC3vL), left cerebellar vermis lobule 10 (vermisL10) and right cerebellar vermis lobule 10 (vermisR10) were found in patients with schizophrenia. There was a group by genotype interaction when genotypes from genome-wide scan were subsequently considered in the case-control analyses. SNPs from three genes or chromosomal regions (TBXAS1, PIK3C2G and HS3ST5) were identified to predict the changes of GM volume in hOC3vL, vermisL10 and vermisR10. These results also highlighted the usefulness of endophenotype in exploring the pathogenesis of neuropsychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia although further independent replication studies are needed in the future.     

Overexpression of MTA3 Correlates with Tumor Progression in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

The objective of the current study was to investigate the expression pattern and clinicopathological significance of MTA3 in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The expression profile of MTA3 in NSCLC tissues and adjacent noncancerous lung tissues was detected by immunohistochemistry. MTA3 was overexpressed in 62 of 108 (57.4%) human lung cancer samples and correlated with p-TNM stage (p<0.0001), nodal metastasis (p = 0.0009) and poor prognosis (p<0.05). In addition, the depletion of MTA3 expression with small interfering RNAs inhibited cell growth and colony formation in the A549 and H157 lung cancer cell lines. Moreover, MTA3 depletion induced cell cycle arrest at the G1/S boundary. Western blotting analysis revealed that the knockdown of MTA3 decreased the protein levels of cyclin A, cyclin D1 and p-Rb. These results indicate that MTA3 plays an important role in NSCLC progression.     

Discovery Analysis of TCGA Data Reveals Association between Germline Genotype and Survival in Ovarian Cancer Patients

Background

Ovarian cancer remains a significant public health burden, with the highest mortality rate of all the gynecological cancers. This is attributable to the late stage at which the majority of ovarian cancers are diagnosed, coupled with the low and variable response of advanced tumors to standard chemotherapies. To date, clinically useful predictors of treatment response remain lacking. Identifying the genetic determinants of ovarian cancer survival and treatment response is crucial to the development of prognostic biomarkers and personalized therapies that may improve outcomes for the late-stage patients who comprise the majority of cases.

Methods

To identify constitutional genetic variations contributing to ovarian cancer mortality, we systematically investigated associations between germline polymorphisms and ovarian cancer survival using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas Project (TCGA). Using stage-stratified Cox proportional hazards regression, we examined 650,000 SNP loci for association with survival. We additionally examined whether the association of significant SNPs with survival was modified by somatic alterations.

Results

Germline polymorphisms at rs4934282 (AGAP11/C10orf116) and rs1857623 (DNAH14) were associated with stage-adjusted survival ( = 1.12e-07 and 1.80e-07, FDR  = 1.2e-04 and 2.4e-04, respectively). A third SNP, rs4869 (C10orf116), was additionally identified as significant in the exome sequencing data; it is in near-perfect LD with rs4934282. The associations with survival remained significant when somatic alterations.

Conclusions

Discovery analysis of TCGA data reveals germline genetic variations that may play a role in ovarian cancer survival even among late-stage cases. The significant loci are located near genes previously reported as having a possible relationship to platinum and taxol response. Because the variant alleles at the significant loci are common (frequencies for rs4934282 A/C alleles = 0.54/0.46, respectively; rs1857623 A/G alleles = 0.55/0.45, respectively) and germline variants can be assayed noninvasively, our findings provide potential targets for further exploration as prognostic biomarkers and individualized therapies.