STK295900, a Dual Inhibitor of Topoisomerase 1 and 2, Induces G<inf>2</inf> Arrest in the Absence of DNA Damage

STK295900, a small synthetic molecule belonging to a class of symmetric bibenzimidazoles, exhibits antiproliferative activity against various human cancer cell lines from different origins. Examining the effect of STK295900 in HeLa cells indicates that it induces G2 phase arrest without invoking DNA damage. Further analysis shows that STK295900 inhibits DNA relaxation that is mediated by topoisomerase 1 (Top 1) and topoisomerase 2 (Top 2) in vitro. In addition, STK295900 also exhibits protective effect against DNA damage induced by camptothecin. However, STK295900 does not affect etoposide-induced DNA damage. Moreover, STK295900 preferentially exerts cytotoxic effect on cancer cell lines while camptothecin, etoposide, and Hoechst 33342 affected both cancer and normal cells. Therefore, STK295900 has a potential to be developed as an anticancer chemotherapeutic agent. © 2013 Kim et al

Bond Strength Evaluation in Dissimilar Materials

Diffusion bonding is a useful joining technique that allows similar and dissimilar materials to be bonded together in near net shape. Although modelling of the diffusion bonding process has been done to predict the bonding parameters needed to achieve parent metal mechanical properties (1,2), the possibility still exists that defects will be present in the bonded plane. There are three classes of defects that can be formed, with voids being the most common and heavily studied ones (3–8). Contamination of the bond line is a serious defect and the effect on NDE interrogation has been discussed previously by the authors (8) and others (3). A “kissing bond” is another type of defect which is difficult to detect and is the focus of this paper. It is the purpose of this work to find an NDE technique that can evaluate the bond strength uniquely, regardless of the class of defect, without any information about the bonding conditions

Patients’ preferences over care settings for minor illnesses and injuries

ObjectivesTo identify consumers' preferences over care settings, such as physicians' offices, emergency rooms (ERs), urgent care centers, retail clinics, and virtual physicians on smartphones, for minor illnesses.Data sourcesA survey conducted between 9/27/16 and 12/7/16 emailed to all University of California, Irvine employees.Study designParticipants were presented with 10 clinical scenarios and asked to choose the setting in which they wanted to receive care. We estimated multinomial conditional logit regression models, conditioning the choice on out-of-pocket costs, wait time, travel time, and chooser characteristics.Data collection5451 out of 21&nbsp;037 employees responded.Principal findingsOut-of-pocket costs and wait time had minimal impact on patient's preference for site of care. Choices were driven primarily by the clinical scenario and patient characteristics. For chronic conditions and children's well-visits, the doctor's office was the preferred choice by a strong majority, but for most acute conditions, either the ER (for high severity) or urgent care clinics (for lower severity) were preferred to the office setting, particularly among younger patients and those with less education.ConclusionsPatients have several alternatives to traditional physicians' offices and ERs. The low impact of out-of-pocket costs suggests that insurers interested in encouraging increased utilization of alternatives would need to consider substantial changes to benefit structure