Genistein-induced mir-23b expression inhibits the growth of breast cancer cells

Aim of the study: Genistein, an isoflavonoid, plays roles in the inhibition of protein tyrosine kinase phosphorylation, induction of apoptosis, and cell differentiation in breast cancer. This study aims to induce cellular stress by exposing genistein to determine alterations of miRNA expression profiles in MCF-7 cells. Material and methods: XTT assay and trypan blue dye exclusion assays were performed to examine the cytotoxic effects of genistein treatment. Expressions of miRNAs were quantified using Real-Time Online RT-PCR. Results: The IC50 dose of genistein was 175 μM in MCF-7 cell, line and the cytotoxic effect of genistein was detected after 48 hours. miR-23b was found to be up-regulated 56.69 fold following the treatment of genistein. It was found that miR-23b was up-regulated for MCF-7 breast cancer cells after genistein treatment. Conclusions: Up-regulated ex-expression of miR-23b might be a putative biomarker for use in the therapy of breast cancer patients. miR-23b up-regulation might be important in terms of response to genistein. © 2015, Termedia Publishing House Ltd. All rights reserved

Cor triatriatum sinister: two cases diagnosed in adulthood and a review of literature

Cor triatriatum sinister is a rare condition caused by a membrane within left atrium that separates pulmonary veins from mitral valve (10). While the condition is usually diagnosed at childhood, rare presentation during adulthood is observed when the membrane is incomplete. We report two cases of incomplete cor triatriatum sinister diagnosed during adulthood and review literature for this rare anomaly

High-responsivity graphene photodetectors integrated on silicon microring resonators.

Graphene integrated photonics provides several advantages over conventional Si photonics. Single layer graphene (SLG) enables fast, broadband, and energy-efficient electro-optic modulators, optical switches and photodetectors (GPDs), and is compatible with any optical waveguide. The last major barrier to SLG-based optical receivers lies in the current GPDs' low responsivity when compared to conventional PDs. Here we overcome this by integrating a photo-thermoelectric GPD with a Si microring resonator. Under critical coupling, we achieve >90% light absorption in a ~6 μm SLG channel along a Si waveguide. Cavity-enhanced light-matter interactions cause carriers in SLG to reach ~400 K for an input power ~0.6 mW, resulting in a voltage responsivity ~90 V/W, with a receiver sensitivity enabling our GPDs to operate at a 10-9 bit-error rate, on par with mature semiconductor technology, but with a natural generation of a voltage, rather than a current, thus removing the need for transimpedance amplification, with a reduction of energy-per-bit, cost, and foot-print

Phytoplankton composition related to the environmental conditions in the coastal waters of the Gulf of Erdek

1545-1559Seasonal changes of phytoplankton communities in the coastal waters of the Gulf of Erdek from November 2006 to August 2008 were examined in relation to some environmental variables and 95 species from 6 different algae groups were identified. In addition, two species were recorded for the first time in the Turkish coastal waters and one species for the Sea of Marmara. The maximum total phytoplankton abundance (1.99 × 105 cells L-1) were observed in May 2008, with Pseudo-nitzschia sp. being the most dominant species of that month (1.52 × 105 cells L-1). Both the Bray-Curtis diversity index and the Euclidean distance indicated that the upper and lower water layers were separated from each other at the stations, and the Spearman’s rank-correlation and CCA analyses also showed that environmental variables affected the abundance of species. Furthermore, according to the CCA diagram, especially the temperature and dissolved oxygen had a bigger impact on the distribution of species. The Shannon-Wiener diversity index (Hʹ) values were low when Pseudo-nitzschia sp., Prorocentrum micans, Gymnodinium sp. and Prorocentrum scutellum were dominant over other species in the sampling period

Toward an analog neural substrate for production systems

Symbolic, rule-based systems seem essential for modeling high-level cognition. Subsymbolic dynamical systems, in con-trast, seem essential for modeling low-level perception and ac-tion, and can be mapped more easily onto the brain. Here we review existing work showing that critical features of sym-bolic production systems can be implemented in a subsym-bolic, dynamical systems substrate, and that optimal tuning of connections between that substrate’s analog circuit elements accounts for fundamental laws of behavior in psychology. We then show that emergent properties of these elements are re-flected in behavioral and electrophysiological data, lending support to a theory about the physical substructure of produc-tions. The theory states that: 1) productions are defined by connection strengths between circuit elements; 2) conflict res-olution among competing productions is equivalent to optimal hypothesis testing; 3) sequential process timing is parallel and distributed; 4) memory allocation and representational binding are controlled by competing relaxation oscillators

Observation of Gate-Tunable Coherent Perfect Absorption of Terahertz Radiation in Graphene

We report experimental observation of electrically tunable coherent perfect absorption (CPA) of terahertz (THz) radiation in graphene. We develop a reflection-type tunable THz cavity formed by a large-area graphene layer, a metallic reflective electrode, and an electrolytic medium in between. Ionic gating in the THz cavity allows us to tune the Fermi energy of graphene up to 1 eV and to achieve a critical coupling condition at 2.8 THz with absorption of 99%. With the enhanced THz absorption, we were able to measure the Fermi energy dependence of the transport scattering time of highly doped graphene. Furthermore, we demonstrate flexible active THz surfaces that yield large modulation in the THz reflectivity with low insertion losses. We anticipate that the gate-tunable CPA will lead to efficient active THz optoelectronics applications. © 2016 American Chemical Society

Insulin degludec improves long-term glycaemic control similarly to insulin glargine but with fewer hypoglycaemic episodes in patients with advanced type 2 diabetes on basal-bolus insulin therapy.

The aim of the present study was to compare the long-term safety and efficacy of insulin degludec with those of insulin glargine in patients with advanced type 2 diabetes (T2D) over 78 weeks (the 52-week main trial and a 26-week extension). Patients were randomized to once-daily insulin degludec or insulin glargine, with mealtime insulin aspart ± metformin ± pioglitazone, and titrated to pre-breakfast plasma glucose values of 3.9-4.9 mmol/l (70-88 mg/dl). After 78 weeks, the overall rate of hypoglycaemia was 24% lower (p = 0.011) and the rate of nocturnal hypoglycaemia was 31% lower (p = 0.016) with insulin degludec in the extension trial set, while both groups of patients achieved similar glycaemic control. Rates of adverse events and total insulin doses were similar for both groups in the safety analysis set. During 18 months of treatment, insulin degludec + mealtime insulin aspart ± oral antidiabetic drugs in patients with T2D improves glycaemic control similarly, but confers lower risks of overall and nocturnal hypoglycaemia than with insulin glargine treatment

Electrically controlled terahertz spatial light modulators with graphene arrays

Gate-tunable high-mobility electrons on atomically thin graphene layers provide a unique opportunity to control electromagnetic waves in a very broad spectrum. In this paper, we describe an electrically-controlled multipixel terahertz light modulators. The spatial light modulator is fabricated using two large-area graphene layers grown by chemical vapor deposition and transferred on THz transparent and flexible substrates. Room temperature ionic liquid, inserted between the graphene, provides mutual gating between the graphene layers. We used passive matrix addressing to control local charge density thus the THz transmittance. With this device configuration, we were able to obtain 5×5 arrays of graphene modulator with 65% modulation between 0.1 to 1.5 THz. © 2016 IEEE