Triptolide Transcriptionally Represses HER2 in Ovarian Cancer Cells by Targeting NF- κ

Triptolide (TPL) inhibits the proliferation of a variety of cancer cells and has been proposed as an effective anticancer agent. In this study, we demonstrate that TPL downregulates HER2 protein expression in oral, ovarian, and breast cancer cells. It suppresses HER2 protein expression in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Transrepression of HER2 promoter activity by TPL is also observed. The interacting site of TPL on the HER2 promoter region is located between −207 and −103 bps, which includes a putative binding site for the transcription factor NF-κB. Previous reports demonstrated that TPL suppresses NF-κB expression. We demonstrate that overexpression of NF-κB rescues TPL-mediated suppression of HER2 promoter activity and protein expression in NIH3T3 cells and ovarian cancer cells, respectively. In addition, TPL downregulates the activated (phosphorylated) forms of HER2, phosphoinositide-3 kinase (PI3K), and serine/threonine-specific protein kinase (Akt). TPL also inhibits tumor growth in a mouse model. Furthermore, TPL suppresses HER2 and Ki-67 expression in xenografted tumors based on an immunohistochemistry (IHC) assay. These findings suggest that TPL transrepresses HER2 and suppresses the downstream PI3K/Akt-signaling pathway. Our study reveals that TPL can inhibit tumor growth and thereby may serve as a potential chemotherapeutic agent

An Overview of Regional Experiments on Biomass Burning Aerosols and Related Pollutants in Southeast Asia: From BASE-ASIA and the Dongsha Experiment to 7-SEAS

By modulating the Earth-atmosphere energy, hydrological and biogeochemical cycles, and affecting regional-to-global weather and climate, biomass burning is recognized as one of the major factors affecting the global carbon cycle. However, few comprehensive and wide-ranging experiments have been conducted to characterize biomass-burning pollutants in Southeast Asia (SEA) or assess their regional impact on meteorology, the hydrological cycle, the radiative budget, or climate change. Recently, BASEASIA (Biomass-burning Aerosols in South-East Asia: Smoke Impact Assessment) and the 7-SEAS (7- South-East Asian Studies) Dongsha Experiment were conducted during the spring seasons of 2006 and 2010 in northern SEA, respectively, to characterize the chemical, physical, and radiative properties of biomass-burning emissions near the source regions, and assess their effects. This paper provides an overview of results from these two campaigns and related studies collected in this special issue, entitled Observation, modeling and impact studies of biomass burning and pollution in the SE Asian Environment. This volume includes 28 papers, which provide a synopsis of the experiments, regional weatherclimate, chemical characterization of biomass-burning aerosols and related pollutants in source and sink regions, the spatial distribution of air toxics (atmospheric mercury and dioxins) in source and remote areas, a characterization of aerosol physical, optical, and radiative properties, as well as modeling and impact studies. These studies, taken together, provide the first relatively complete dataset of aerosol chemistry and physical observations conducted in the sourcesink region in the northern SEA, with particular emphasis on the marine boundary layer and lower free troposphere (LFT). The data, analysis and modeling included in these papers advance our present knowledge of source characterization of biomass-burning pollutants near the source regions as well as the physical and chemical processes along transport pathways. In addition, we raise key questions to be addressed by a coming deployment during springtime 2013 in northern SEA, named 7-SEASBASELInE (Biomass-burning Aerosols Stratocumulus Environment: Lifecycles and Interactions Experiment). This campaign will include a synergistic approach for further exploring many key atmospheric processes (e.g., complex aerosol-cloud interactions) and impacts of biomass burning on the surface-atmosphere energy budgets during the lifecycles of biomass burning emissions

THE EFFECTS OF PARTICLE SHAPE ON BOND STRENGTH IMPROVEMENT OF EPOXY- PARTICLE COATING COMPOSITES

ABSTRACT In this paper the effect of particle shape on the bond improvement of epoxy-particle coating composite is evaluated. In our previous studies, it has been shown that adding foreign particles in the epoxy may enhance the bond characteristics of coating. It has been found that the enhancement of bond for coating by adding foreign particles in epoxy may come from two reasons: one comes from the mechanical improvement by foreign particles and the other comes from the chemical reaction of foreign particles which yields a better binding material. In our previous study, the size of foreign particle influenced the degree of mechanical improvement has been concluded. However, how does the shape of foreign particles influence the bond improvement of coating remains a challenging topic. We used three kinds of foreign particles with similar mechanical behavior and similar size. They are a ASTM C778 standard sand (size of 778 µm), a river sand (size of 600 µm) and a silica sand (size of 600 µm). The shape of ASTM C778 standard sand close to a sphere, the shape for the river sand is most irregular and the shape of silica sand is between the former two. Experimental results show that under the same weight ratio of foreign particle/epoxy river sand shows a best improvement of bond strength and C788 standard sand shows a worst improvement among them. Other bond characteristics, the shear stiffness per unit embedded length and the critical debonding shear load per unit embedded length, have the similar trend as the bond strength. From these results, it is concluded that the wedge effect of irregular shape particle contributes a lot to the bond improvement. Electrochemical experiments were conducted to show the corrosion prevention capacity of coatings, results revealed that adding foreign particles inside the epoxy did not influence the corrosion capacity of coating

An investigation on the cutting force of milling Inconel 718

Inconel alloy has been widely used in industry but is difficult to machine due to its rapid change in cutting force during machining. This paper investigated the cutting force for milling Inconel 718 as conventional force model is unable to handle the above situation. Theorectical force model is first reviewed and two-phase experiments of slot milling based on dry cutting are designed to measure the cutting force and the specific cutting force. Experiments in phase I are designed based on Taguchi method with spindle speed, feedrate per cutting edge and depth of cut as experimental parameters. The results showed that the first two parameters play more important roles in the cutting force. A phase II exhaust experiments is designed with spindle speed set from 400 to 800 rpm while the feedrate per cutting edge is set from 0.04 to 0.08 mm/tooth. The results are concluded as the following. (i) There exists a strong size effect in milling Inconel 718 as the cutting force changed with the chip thickness. Specific cutting force is larger at small thickness of cut and become smaller when the thickness increases. (ii) A 2nd order non-linear cutting force model, which takes spindle speed N and feedrate fz into account, for milling Inconel 718 is derived from the measured data and represented as Ft(N, fz )= (13910 -3.1N - 109900fz - 0.0028N2 +23.9Nfz+434500fz2) xapxh. The derived force model compensates the inaccuracy of conventional force model

An investigation on the cutting force of milling Inconel 718

Inconel alloy has been widely used in industry but is difficult to machine due to its rapid change in cutting force during machining. This paper investigated the cutting force for milling Inconel 718 as conventional force model is unable to handle the above situation. Theorectical force model is first reviewed and two-phase experiments of slot milling based on dry cutting are designed to measure the cutting force and the specific cutting force. Experiments in phase I are designed based on Taguchi method with spindle speed, feedrate per cutting edge and depth of cut as experimental parameters. The results showed that the first two parameters play more important roles in the cutting force. A phase II exhaust experiments is designed with spindle speed set from 400 to 800 rpm while the feedrate per cutting edge is set from 0.04 to 0.08 mm/tooth. The results are concluded as the following. (i) There exists a strong size effect in milling Inconel 718 as the cutting force changed with the chip thickness. Specific cutting force is larger at small thickness of cut and become smaller when the thickness increases. (ii) A 2nd order non-linear cutting force model, which takes spindle speed N and feedrate fz into account, for milling Inconel 718 is derived from the measured data and represented as Ft(N, fz )= (13910 -3.1N - 109900fz - 0.0028N2 +23.9Nfz+434500fz2) xapxh. The derived force model compensates the inaccuracy of conventional force model

Establishment of Electronic Chart-based Stroke Registry System in a Medical System in Taiwan

To establish a prospective, real-time, self-sustainable stroke registry system, we incorporated a registry with an electronic chart to create an electronic chart-based stroke registry system in November 2006. The International Classification of Diseases Ninth Revision code (430–437) was used to auto-enroll stroke patients admitted to neurology departments. Clinical information was written by doctors, nursing information was recorded by nurses, and basic patient information was entered by administrative departments. Numerical data and the date and time of any studies were auto-downloaded from the hospital computer. In total, 212 items were auto-downloaded, including basic patient information, laboratory blood test and examination results, and the date and time of imaging and special intervention. The stroke scales (121 items, National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, Barthel index, and modified Rankin scale) were designed to be auto-adjusted to reduce incompatibility. The 95 items with pull-down options were used to specify the contents. This registry system can be time-, labor- and money-saving with secured data accuracy