Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam. stem bark inhibits melanogenesis through regulation of ROS, cAMP, and MAPK Pathways

Natural-based skin-lightening cosmeceutical products are attracting high popularity nowadays due to their relatively high bioavailability upon application. Artocarpus species have been highlighted with such potential, and our previous studies have reported that Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam. stem bark extract exhibited a potent anti-melanogenic activity by reducing melanin content and inhibiting cellular tyrosinase activity in B16F10 melanoma cells. Hence, this study aimed to identify the bioactive fraction from A. heterophyllus Lam. stem bark and determine its anti-melanogenic mechanisms in B16F10 melanoma cells. Our results showed that a fraction (H-3) demonstrated the most pronounced anti-melanogenic effect at 12.00 µg/mL by reducing melanin content to 22.86 ± 2.90% and inhibiting cellular tyrosinase activity at treatment concentration 33-fold lower than kojic acid, without being cytotoxic against B16F10 melanoma cells. Moreover, treatment with H-3 for 24 and 48 h substantially scavenged intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) of hydrogen peroxide-challenged B16F10 melanoma cells by 1.8 and 4.4%, respectively. Based on the microarray profiling and qPCR analysis, H-3 downregulated Creb3l1, Creb3l2, Creb3l3, Mitf, Tyr, Tyrp1, and Dct genes in B16F10 melanoma cells, whereas the expression of Map3k20, Mapk14 (p38), and Foxo3 genes was markedly increased. Altogether, these results demonstrated that H-3 exhibited its anti-melanogenic activity in B16F10 melanoma cells through scavenging ROS and concurrent inhibition of the cAMP and activation of the p38/MAPK signaling pathways. These findings indicate that H-3 has the potential to be used as a skin lightening cosmeceutical agent in the treatment of skin hyperpigmentation

Exploration of genetic algorithm in network coding for wireless sensor networks

Wireless network comprises of multiples nodes that work together to form a network. Each node in a wireless network communicates with one another by disseminating information packet among them. Source node and destination node are often far apart from each other, thus the information packet has to be transmitted to intermediate node(s) before it is able to be relayed to its destination. Network coding is introduced to combine several packets from different sources and broadcast the combined packet to several destinations in single transmission time slot. Each destination is capable to extract the intended information by decoding from a common packet. In short, network coding improves the throughput for wireless and wired networks but also causes side effects such as complexity of packets management and increases delay for coding opportunity. Hence, genetic algorithm is used to optimize the resources for network coding. Genetic algorithm will search for optimum routes to the destination according to the desired throughput with a desired multicast rate. In this paper, genetic algorithm is further enhanced in searching of optimum route for a packet. The simulation results show the enhanced genetic algorithm can adapt to various situations with different topologies with a better throughput and energy consumption compared to the store-and-forward method used in conventional wireless sensor network

A genetic algorithm for management of coding resources in VANET

This project aims to improve the throughput, energy consumption and overhead of vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) by optimising the network coding (NC) using Genetic Algorithm (GA). VANET shows a promising technology as it could enhance the traffic efficiency and promote traffic safety on the road systems. The conventional store-and-forward transmission protocol used in the intermediate node(s) simply stores the received packet and then send at a later time to the destination. However, the rapid changing in VANET topology has made the conventional store-and-forward approach inefficient to meet the throughput and reliability demand posed by VANET. Hence, NC is proposed to perform additional functions on the packet in the source or intermediate node(s). However, the chances to perform NC in wireless network is highly unlikely if the packet is not transmit to the potential NC node. Therefore, GA based network routing (GANeR) is embedded into network to search for shortest path from the source to the destination. It showed that the developed GANER in this work provides a better route with coding opportunities and reduces energy consumption in the network. The total energy consumed by GANER is 5.6% fewer than NC in wireless network transmission and forwarding structure (COPE)

HYBRID SIMULATION NETWORK FOR VEHICULAR AD HOC NETWORK (VANET)

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) plays a vital role in providing different means of traffic management and enables users to be better informed of traffic condition, promoting safer, coordinated and efficient use of transport network. Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET) shows promising reliability and validity in ITS. But, it poses challenges to researchers in designing protocol specifically for VANET as the deployment of VANET in real world will incur high cost. Therefore, simulation and non-physical testbed implementation have been widely adopted by the VANET research community in the development and assessment of the new or improved system and protocol of VANET. This paper presents a viable simulation platform for network development. Besides, a code cast or better known as network coding, a data packet transmission method has been developed and introduced into VANET protocol using the presented platform to assess and determine the potential of the introduced simulation platform

Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis from Salmonella: an unusual bacterium with unusual presentation

Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is a common cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with advanced cirrhosis and portal hypertension. While gram-negative rods and Enterococcus species are the common offending organisms, Salmonella has also been recognized as a rare and atypical offending organism. Atypical features of Salmonella SBP include both its occurrence in cirrhotic patients with immunosuppressive state and its lack of typical neutroascitic response. Diagnosis is often delayed as it requires confirmation from ascitic fluid culture. We report a case of Salmonella SBP occurring in a patient with decompensated cryptogenic cirrhosis with concurrent low-grade non-Hodgkin lymphoma and prior treatment with rituximab. Physicians should be aware of the atypical presentation, especially in cirrhotic patients who are immunosuppressed

Factors that affect the adoption of internet banking in Malaysia

This study identifies factors that induce consumers to adopt internet banking services. It analyses data from 200 respondents in Malaysia. The findings show that cost saving, risk and privacy, features availability and convenience are the key factors that influence consumers' internet banking usage. These findings should encourage banks to improve their internet banking systems and implement them in a more user-friendly way in order to increase the level of adoption of internet banking by consumers

Potential of incorporating evolutionary based network coding for information scavenging in intelligent public transportation

Intelligent transportation systems use wireless technology as a communication backbone for disseminating vital traffic information. In conventional store-and-forward of a wireless ad hoc network, data packets disseminated separately and independently with different transmission lows limit the overall network performances. Network coding is implemented to combine several packets from different sources and broadcast the combined packet to respective destinations in single transmission flow. Genetic algorithm (GA) is introduced to further optimise the resources for network coding by searching optimum transmission route. The simulation results show the GA can adapt to various topologies with a better throughput and energy consumption of 22.27 % fewer than store-and-forward and 16.33 % fewer than code based forwarding structure (COPE)

Macroline–Sarpagine Bisindole Alkaloids with Antiproliferative Activity from Alstonia penangiana

A methanol extract of the stem bark of the Malayan Alstonia penangiana provided seven new bisindole alkaloids, comprising six macroline-sarpagine alkaloids (angustilongines E-K, 1-6) and one macroline-pleiocarpamine bisindole alkaloid (angustilongine L, 7). Analysis of the spectroscopic data (NMR and MS) of these compounds led to the proposed structures of these alkaloids. The macroline-sarpagine alkaloids (1-6) showed in vitro growth inhibitory activity against a panel of human cancer cell lines, inclusive of KB, vincristine-resistant KB, PC-3, LNCaP, MCF7, MDA-MB-231, HT-29, HCT 116, and A549 cells (IC50 values: 0.02-9.0 μM). Copyright © 2019 American Chemical Society and American Society of Pharmacognosy