Anticancer activity of subfractions containing pure compounds of Chaga mushroom (Inonotus obliquus) extract in human cancer cells and in Balbc/c mice bearing Sarcoma-180 cells

The Chaga mushroom (Inonotus obliquus) has been used in folk medicine to treat cancers. However, limited information exists on the underlying anticancer effects of the major component of I. obliquus in vivo. We hypothesize that the pure compounds (3β-hydroxy-lanosta-8,24-dien-21-al, inotodiol and lanosterol, respectively) separated from I. obliquus would inhibit tumor growth in Balbc/c mice bearing Sarcoma-180 cells (S-180) in vivo and growth of human carcinoma cells in vitro. To test this hypothesis, the growth inhibition of each subfraction isolated from I. obliquus on human carcinoma cell lines (lung carcinoma A-549 cells, stomach adenocarcinoma AGS cells, breast adenocarcinoma MCF-7 cells, and cervical adenocarcinoma HeLa cells) was tested in vitro. Then, after S-180 implantation, the mice were fed a normal chow supplemented with 0, 0.1 or 0.2 mg of subfraction 1, 2 or 3 per mouse per day. All of the subfractions isolated from I. obliquus showed significant cytotoxic activity against the selected cancer cell lines in vitro. Subfraction 1 was more active than subfraction 2 and subfraction 3 against the A549, AGS and MCF-7 cancer cell lines in vitro. In in vivo results, subfraction 1 isolated from I. obliquus at concentrations of 0.1 and 0.2 mg/mouse per day significantly decreased tumor volume by 23.96% and 33.71%, respectively, as compared with the control. Subfractions 2 and 3 also significantly inhibited tumor growth in mice bearing S-180 as compared with the control mouse tumor. Subfraction 1 isolated from I. obliquus showed greater inhibition of tumor growth than subfractions 2 and 3, which agrees well with the in vitro results. The results suggest that I. obliquus and its compounds in these subfractions isolated from I. obliquus could be used as natural anticancer ingredients in the food and/or pharmaceutical industry

BOSS Great Wall: morphology, luminosity, and mass

Context. Galaxy superclusters are the largest systems in the Universe that can give us information about the formation and evolution of the cosmic web.Aims. We study the morphology of the superclusters from the BOSS Great Wall (BGW), a recently discovered very rich supercluster complex at the redshift z = 0.47.Methods. We have employed the Minkowski functionals to quantify supercluster morphology. We calculate supercluster luminosities and masses using two methods. Firstly, we used data about the luminosities and stellar masses of high stellar mass galaxies with log(M-*/h(-1) M-circle dot) >= 11.3. Secondly, we applied a scaling relation that combines morphological and physical parameters of superclusters to obtain supercluster luminosities, and obtained supercluster masses using the mass-to-light ratios found for local rich superclusters.Results. The BGW superclusters are very elongated systems, with shape parameter values of less than 0.2. This value is lower than that found for the most elongated local superclusters. The values of the fourth Minkowski functional V-3 for the richer BGW superclusters (V-3 = 7 and 10) show that they have a complicated and rich inner structure. We identify two Planck SZ clusters in the BGW superclusters, one in the richest BGW supercluster, and another in one of the poor BGW superclusters. The luminosities of the BGW superclusters are in the range of 1-8x10(13) h(2) L-circle dot, and masses in the range of 0.4-2.1x10(16) h(1) M-circle dot. Supercluster luminosities and masses obtained with two methods agree well.Conclusions. The BGW is a complex of massive, luminous and large superclusters with very elongated shape. The search and detailed study, including the morphology analysis of the richest superclusters and their complexes from observations and simulations can help us to understand formation and evolution of the cosmic web

Ambient-aware continuous care through semantic context dissemination

Background: The ultimate ambient-intelligent care room contains numerous sensors and devices to monitor the patient, sense and adjust the environment and support the staff. This sensor-based approach results in a large amount of data, which can be processed by current and future applications, e. g., task management and alerting systems. Today, nurses are responsible for coordinating all these applications and supplied information, which reduces the added value and slows down the adoption rate. The aim of the presented research is the design of a pervasive and scalable framework that is able to optimize continuous care processes by intelligently reasoning on the large amount of heterogeneous care data. Methods: The developed Ontology-based Care Platform (OCarePlatform) consists of modular components that perform a specific reasoning task. Consequently, they can easily be replicated and distributed. Complex reasoning is achieved by combining the results of different components. To ensure that the components only receive information, which is of interest to them at that time, they are able to dynamically generate and register filter rules with a Semantic Communication Bus (SCB). This SCB semantically filters all the heterogeneous care data according to the registered rules by using a continuous care ontology. The SCB can be distributed and a cache can be employed to ensure scalability. Results: A prototype implementation is presented consisting of a new-generation nurse call system supported by a localization and a home automation component. The amount of data that is filtered and the performance of the SCB are evaluated by testing the prototype in a living lab. The delay introduced by processing the filter rules is negligible when 10 or fewer rules are registered. Conclusions: The OCarePlatform allows disseminating relevant care data for the different applications and additionally supports composing complex applications from a set of smaller independent components. This way, the platform significantly reduces the amount of information that needs to be processed by the nurses. The delay resulting from processing the filter rules is linear in the amount of rules. Distributed deployment of the SCB and using a cache allows further improvement of these performance results

The Metagenome of an Anaerobic Microbial Community Decomposing Poplar Wood Chips

This study describes the composition and metabolic potential of a lignocellulosic biomass degrading community that decays poplar wood chips under anaerobic conditions. We examined the community that developed on poplar biomass in a non-aerated bioreactor over the course of a year, with no microbial inoculation other than the naturally occurring organisms on the woody material. The composition of this community contrasts in important ways with biomass-degrading communities associated with higher organisms, which have evolved over millions of years into a symbiotic relationship. Both mammalian and insect hosts provide partial size reduction, chemical treatments (low or high pH environments), and complex enzymatic ‘secretomes’ that improve microbial access to cell wall polymers. We hypothesized that in order to efficiently degrade coarse untreated biomass, a spontaneously assembled free-living community must both employ alternative strategies, such as enzymatic lignin depolymerization, for accessing hemicellulose and cellulose and have a much broader metabolic potential than host-associated communities. This would suggest that such a community would make a valuable resource for finding new catalytic functions involved in biomass decomposition and gaining new insight into the poorly understood process of anaerobic lignin depolymerization. Therefore, in addition to determining the major players in this community, our work specifically aimed at identifying functions potentially involved in the depolymerization of cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin, and to assign specific roles to the prevalent community members in the collaborative process of biomass decomposition. A bacterium similar to Magnetospirillum was identified among the dominant community members, which could play a key role in the anaerobic breakdown of aromatic compounds. We suggest that these compounds are released from the lignin fraction in poplar hardwood during the decay process, which would point to lignin-modification or depolymerization under anaerobic conditions

Predictors of disease worsening defined by progression of organ damage in diffuse systemic sclerosis: a European Scleroderma Trials and Research (EUSTAR) analysis.

Objectives Mortality and worsening of organ function are desirable endpoints for clinical trials in systemic sclerosis (SSc). The aim of this study was to identify factors that allow enrichment of patients with these endpoints, in a population of patients from the European Scleroderma Trials and Research group database. Methods Inclusion criteria were diagnosis of diffuse SSc and follow-up over 12\ub13 months. Disease worsening/organ progression was fulfilled if any of the following events occurred: new renal crisis; decrease of lung or heart function; new echocardiography-suspected pulmonary hypertension or death. In total, 42 clinical parameters were chosen as predictors for the analysis by using (1) imputation of missing data on the basis of multivariate imputation and (2) least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression. Results Of 1451 patients meeting the inclusion criteria, 706 had complete data on outcome parameters and were included in the analysis. Of the 42 outcome predictors, eight remained in the final regression model. There was substantial evidence for a strong association between disease progression and age, active digital ulcer (DU), lung fibrosis, muscle weakness and elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) level. Active DU, CRP elevation, lung fibrosis and muscle weakness were also associated with a significantly shorter time to disease progression. A bootstrap validation step with 10 000 repetitions successfully validated the model. Conclusions The use of the predictive factors presented here could enable cohort enrichment with patients at risk for overall disease worsening in SSc clinical trial

Autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxias

Autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxias (ARCA) are a heterogeneous group of rare neurological disorders involving both central and peripheral nervous system, and in some case other systems and organs, and characterized by degeneration or abnormal development of cerebellum and spinal cord, autosomal recessive inheritance and, in most cases, early onset occurring before the age of 20 years. This group encompasses a large number of rare diseases, the most frequent in Caucasian population being Friedreich ataxia (estimated prevalence 2–4/100,000), ataxia-telangiectasia (1–2.5/100,000) and early onset cerebellar ataxia with retained tendon reflexes (1/100,000). Other forms ARCA are much less common. Based on clinicogenetic criteria, five main types ARCA can be distinguished: congenital ataxias (developmental disorder), ataxias associated with metabolic disorders, ataxias with a DNA repair defect, degenerative ataxias, and ataxia associated with other features. These diseases are due to mutations in specific genes, some of which have been identified, such as frataxin in Friedreich ataxia, α-tocopherol transfer protein in ataxia with vitamin E deficiency (AVED), aprataxin in ataxia with oculomotor apraxia (AOA1), and senataxin in ataxia with oculomotor apraxia (AOA2). Clinical diagnosis is confirmed by ancillary tests such as neuroimaging (magnetic resonance imaging, scanning), electrophysiological examination, and mutation analysis when the causative gene is identified. Correct clinical and genetic diagnosis is important for appropriate genetic counseling and prognosis and, in some instances, pharmacological treatment. Due to autosomal recessive inheritance, previous familial history of affected individuals is unlikely. For most ARCA there is no specific drug treatment except for coenzyme Q10 deficiency and abetalipoproteinemia

Pooled analysis of WHO Surgical Safety Checklist use and mortality after emergency laparotomy

Background The World Health Organization (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist has fostered safe practice for 10 years, yet its place in emergency surgery has not been assessed on a global scale. The aim of this study was to evaluate reported checklist use in emergency settings and examine the relationship with perioperative mortality in patients who had emergency laparotomy. Methods In two multinational cohort studies, adults undergoing emergency laparotomy were compared with those having elective gastrointestinal surgery. Relationships between reported checklist use and mortality were determined using multivariable logistic regression and bootstrapped simulation. Results Of 12 296 patients included from 76 countries, 4843 underwent emergency laparotomy. After adjusting for patient and disease factors, checklist use before emergency laparotomy was more common in countries with a high Human Development Index (HDI) (2455 of 2741, 89.6 per cent) compared with that in countries with a middle (753 of 1242, 60.6 per cent; odds ratio (OR) 0.17, 95 per cent c.i. 0.14 to 0.21, P <0001) or low (363 of 860, 422 per cent; OR 008, 007 to 010, P <0.001) HDI. Checklist use was less common in elective surgery than for emergency laparotomy in high-HDI countries (risk difference -94 (95 per cent c.i. -11.9 to -6.9) per cent; P <0001), but the relationship was reversed in low-HDI countries (+121 (+7.0 to +173) per cent; P <0001). In multivariable models, checklist use was associated with a lower 30-day perioperative mortality (OR 0.60, 0.50 to 073; P <0.001). The greatest absolute benefit was seen for emergency surgery in low- and middle-HDI countries. Conclusion Checklist use in emergency laparotomy was associated with a significantly lower perioperative mortality rate. Checklist use in low-HDI countries was half that in high-HDI countries.Peer reviewe

Controls on explosive-effusive volcanic eruption styles

One of the biggest challenges in volcanic hazard assessment is to understand how and why eruptive style changes within the same eruptive period or even from one eruption to the next at a given volcano. This review evaluates the competing processes that lead to explosive and effusive eruptions of silicic magmas. Eruptive style depends on a set of feedbacks involving interrelated magmatic properties and processes. Foremost of these are magma viscosity, gas loss, and external properties such as conduit geometry. Ultimately, these parameters control the speed at which magmas ascend, decompress and outgas en route to the surface, and thus determine eruptive style and evolution