Effect of Plumbagin on growth inhibition and apoptosis of imatinib-resistant chronic myeloid leukemia

Development of a new inhibitor of BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase is necessary for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) because of increasing resistance and tolerance to Imatinid efforts. Herein, we reported Plumbagin can significantly inhibit the growth of CML. The results revealed that Plumbagin inhitbited TCCY and TCCY/T315I cells with IC50 values 3 μM and 2.1 μM, respectively. Plumbagin also showed anti-proliferative effects on both the wide type Ba/F3 and the BCR-ABL-transfected Ba/F3 cells with a range of IC50 from 3.2 to 3.8 μM. In addition, Plumbagin induced the apoptosis of CML cells. That would provide a new and potential drug as a chemotherapy medication in the treatment of Imatinid -resistant CML

Characterization of ZnO:Al deposited by co-sputtering for transparent conductive electrodes

Aluminum doped zinc oxide was prepared by magnetron sputtering methods at room temperature using a ZnO ceramic target doped 2%wt by Al2O3. The optical transmittance of the films is higher than 80% in the visible range. A direct bandgap type was reached by controlling deposition conditions; the bandgap value was in the range between 3.2 eV and 4.2 eV. Good electrical and optical properties were obtained for the films deposited by an appropriate co-sputtering of ZnO and Al targets. These films with a resistivity, about 1.3´10-2W.cm, and a transmittance, higher than 80%, can be applicable for transparent conducting electrodes

Design of a smart doorbell for a leader’s office with availability status notification and visitor recognition features

Smart doorbells have become a critical component of smart homes and modern offices. However, a smart doorbell, particularly designed for a leader’s office, has not been introduced. In this study, a smart doorbell is developed for a leader’s office. The system includes an application that allows availability status notification on the doorbell module and voice communication with the visitor from inside the office based on a private Wi-Fi network without an Internet connection to prevent the leader from potential privacy and security issues. It also features a live video capture of the visitor with face recognition by implementing a MobileNet model. In training and testing this model, 1,549 free face images of 125 people were augmented to generate training, validation, and testing datasets of 9,185, 2,500, and 5,000 face images, respectively. An additional authentication testing dataset of 1,068 AI-generated face images was also used to evaluate the system’s False Acceptance Rate (FAR). A high confidence level of 0.945 was selected for the developed MobileNet model to obtain zero FAR and high accuracy, recall, and F-score values of 0.960, 0.960, and 0.978, respectively. Therefore, the proposed doorbell could be used for an office leader, showing potential use for biometric authentication

Corticotropin-releasing Factor (CRF) and Urocortin Promote the Survival of Cultured Cerebellar GABAergic Neurons Through the Type 1 CRF Receptor

Corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) is known to be involved in the stress response and in some degenerative brain disorders. In addition, CRF has a role as a neuromodulator in adult cerebellar circuits. Data from developmental studies suggest a putative role for CRF as a trophic factor during cerebellar development. In this study, we investigated the trophic role for CRF family of peptides by culturing cerebellar neurons in the presence of CRF, urocortin or urocortin II. Primary cell cultures of cerebella from embryonic day 18 mice were established, and cells were treated for either 1, 5 or 9 days with Basal Medium Eagles complete medium alone or complete medium with 1 µM CRF, urocortin, or urocortin II. The number of GABA-positive neurons in each treatment condition was counted at each culture age for monitoring the changes in neuronal survival. Treatment with 1 µM CRF or 1 µM urocortin increased the survival of GABAergic neurons at 6 days in vitro and 10 days in vitro, and this survival promoting effect was abolished by treatment with astressin in the presence of those peptides. Based on these data, we suggest that CRF or urocortin has a trophic role promoting the survival of cerebellar GABAergic neurons in cultures

Safety and efficacy of fluoxetine on functional outcome after acute stroke (AFFINITY): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Background Trials of fluoxetine for recovery after stroke report conflicting results. The Assessment oF FluoxetINe In sTroke recoverY (AFFINITY) trial aimed to show if daily oral fluoxetine for 6 months after stroke improves functional outcome in an ethnically diverse population. Methods AFFINITY was a randomised, parallel-group, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial done in 43 hospital stroke units in Australia (n=29), New Zealand (four), and Vietnam (ten). Eligible patients were adults (aged ≥18 years) with a clinical diagnosis of acute stroke in the previous 2–15 days, brain imaging consistent with ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke, and a persisting neurological deficit that produced a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of 1 or more. Patients were randomly assigned 1:1 via a web-based system using a minimisation algorithm to once daily, oral fluoxetine 20 mg capsules or matching placebo for 6 months. Patients, carers, investigators, and outcome assessors were masked to the treatment allocation. The primary outcome was functional status, measured by the mRS, at 6 months. The primary analysis was an ordinal logistic regression of the mRS at 6 months, adjusted for minimisation variables. Primary and safety analyses were done according to the patient's treatment allocation. The trial is registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, ACTRN12611000774921. Findings Between Jan 11, 2013, and June 30, 2019, 1280 patients were recruited in Australia (n=532), New Zealand (n=42), and Vietnam (n=706), of whom 642 were randomly assigned to fluoxetine and 638 were randomly assigned to placebo. Mean duration of trial treatment was 167 days (SD 48·1). At 6 months, mRS data were available in 624 (97%) patients in the fluoxetine group and 632 (99%) in the placebo group. The distribution of mRS categories was similar in the fluoxetine and placebo groups (adjusted common odds ratio 0·94, 95% CI 0·76–1·15; p=0·53). Compared with patients in the placebo group, patients in the fluoxetine group had more falls (20 [3%] vs seven [1%]; p=0·018), bone fractures (19 [3%] vs six [1%]; p=0·014), and epileptic seizures (ten [2%] vs two [<1%]; p=0·038) at 6 months. Interpretation Oral fluoxetine 20 mg daily for 6 months after acute stroke did not improve functional outcome and increased the risk of falls, bone fractures, and epileptic seizures. These results do not support the use of fluoxetine to improve functional outcome after stroke

Technical Analysis of the Large Capacity Grid-Connected Floating Photovoltaic System on the Hydropower Reservoir

Among the energy targets of the Vietnamese government, solar energy is expected to become the main source of renewable energy in the future. Solar energy is moving forward, with Vietnam outstripping Thailand and becoming the country that installed the largest capacity of solar power generation in Southeast Asia, reaching 16,362 MW in new installations in December 2021. In this study, we have experimentally analyzed and designed a capacity of 47.5 MW grid-connected photovoltaic plant mounted on the floatation system at Da Mi hydropower reservoir in Binh Thuan province. This was selected to be utilized as the first effort to develop the first large-capacity floating solar power plant on a hydroelectric reservoir in Vietnam. A detailed examination of the electrical analysis, including DC to DC converters, AC inverters to the transmission network, and PV module connectivity configurations, are in scope. The present research has the potential to make a contribution to the design of the DC electrical part, the AC electrical part, and the layout PV modules—Inverter—Floatation system—Floating bridge of FPV plants which are less described in the former articles. The performance of the plant after the first 2 years of operation has confirmed that it has met the expectations and exceeded the investor’s target, with the power output of the first 2 years being higher than the design by 102.58% to 105.59% and no serious damage has occurred to the equipment from 1 June 2019 to 31 August 2021

Valorization of starch nanoparticles on microstructural and physical properties of PLA ‐starch nanocomposites

International audienceStarch nanoparticles, synthesized from native starch through the hydrolysis approach, are considered as potential reinforcers to sustainable biodegradable nanocomposite with poly(lactic)acid. Some properties of nanocomposites are upgraded to expand their applications compared to poly(lactic) acid. As relevant, starch nanoparticles are spherically shaped with mainly distributive sizes under 80 nm. Especially, they are homogeneously dispersed in the matrix polymer at high content, resulting in improving the interfaces between matrix polymer and starch nanoparticles, thermal stability, and mechanical properties of nanocomposites

Performance prediction in UAV-terrestrial networks with hardware noise

To enhance the service quality of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the UAV-aided Internet of Things (IoT) systems could deploy a Deep Neural Network (DNN) for performance prediction for the users. Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is applied to such networks in order to improve spectrum efficiency, and results in improved quality of service at the ground users under the mobility of UAV. The outage and ergodic capacity requirements of the IoT users may not be satisfied due to some imperfect system parameters such as hardware noise. A DNN-based algorithm for performance prediction and the design of multiple antennas at the UAV under hardware noise is proposed. In this DNN-based UAV-NOMA, the central controller (server) collects system parameters periodically based on observing the state of IoT system and performs adjustments to the dynamic environment. The closed-form expressions for the outage probability and the ergodic capacity are derived to evaluate the performance of a group of IoT users. Our numerical results demonstrate that: i) In contrast to the traditional UAV-NOMA system, the UAV cannot know the performance at each IoT user in order to adjust the parameters (i.e. power allocation factors) before transmitting the signals to the devices; while the proposed DNN-based IoT system is capable of predicting the performance; ii) The performance of the IoT users can be significantly improved by integrating more antennas at the UAV and limiting levels of hardware noise; iii) By designing NOMA, the UAV-NOMA-based IoT system can increase the throughput to the tune of 40% compared with the benchmark (the orthogonal multiple access (OMA)-based IoT).Web of Science1111757511756

Radioprotective activity of curcumin-encapsulated liposomes against genotoxicity caused by Gamma Cobalt-60 irradiation in human blood cells

<p><b>Purpose:</b> While the radioprotective activity of curcumin against genotoxicity has been well established, its poor oral bioavailability has limited its successful clinical applications. Nanoscale formulations, including liposomes, have been demonstrated to improve curcumin bioavailability. The objective of the present work was (1) to prepare and characterize curcumin-encapsulated liposomes (i.e. size, colloidal stability, encapsulation efficiency, and payload), and (2) subsequently to evaluate their radioprotective activity against genotoxicity in human blood cells caused by Gamma Cobalt-60 irradiation.</p> <p><b>Materials and methods:</b> The curcumin-encapsulated liposomes were prepared by lipid-film hydration method using commercial phosphatidylcholine (i.e. Phospholipon^® 90G). The blood cells were obtained from healthy male donors (<i>n</i> = 3) under an approved ethics protocol. The cell uptake and the radioprotective activity of the curcumin-encapsulated liposomes were characterized by fluorescence microscopy and micronucleus assay, respectively.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> Nanoscale curcumin-encapsulated liposomes exhibiting good physical characteristics and successful uptake by the human blood cells were successfully prepared. The radioprotective activity of the curcumin-encapsulated liposomes was found to be dependent on the curcumin concentration, where an optimal concentration existed (i.e. 30 μg/mL) independent of the irradiation dose, above which the radioprotective activity had become stagnant (i.e. no more reduction in the micronuclei frequency).</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> The present results established for the first time the radioprotective activity of curcumin-encapsulated liposomes in human blood cells, which coupled by its well-established bioavailability, boded well for its potential application as a nanoscale delivery system of other radioprotective phytochemicals.</p