672 research outputs found
An Investigation on the antimicrobial activity of some endemic plant species from Turkey
In this study performed on six endemic plant species, antimicrobial activity was observed in Campanula lyrata subsp.lyrata and Abies nordmanniana subsp. bornmuelleriana plants. The minimum inhibitoryconcentration of C. lyrata subsp. lyrata (leaf and flower) extract was found to be 29 mg/ml for Baccillus subtilis and 14.5 mg/ml for Staphylococcus aureus, and the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of Abies nordmanniana subsp. bornmuelleriana (leaf) extract was found to be > 314 mg/ml for B. subtilis and when minimum bacteriocidal concentration (MBC) results were evaluated, it was observed that the plant extracts had bacteriocidal effects. No antimicrobial activity was observed inthe other plant extracts, namely, Onosma bornmuelleri (leaf- flower), Dianthus balansae (leaf- flower), Alyssum pateri subsp. pateri (seed) and Scabiosa columbaria subsp. paphlagonica (leaf) extracts thatwere tested
Highlights from the Student Council Symposium 2011 at the International Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology and European Conference on Computational Biology
The Student Council (SC) of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) organized their annual symposium in conjunction with the Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) conference
Total Synthesis of Paracaseolide A
The total synthesis of paracaseolide A, a valuable cell-cycle progression inhibitor, was accomplished in 8 steps from known compounds, with 6.6% overall yield. The synthetic strategy creates strong potential for diversification
Past Achievements and Future Challenges in 3D Photonic Metamaterials
Photonic metamaterials are man-made structures composed of tailored micro- or
nanostructured metallo-dielectric sub-wavelength building blocks that are
densely packed into an effective material. This deceptively simple, yet
powerful, truly revolutionary concept allows for achieving novel, unusual, and
sometimes even unheard-of optical properties, such as magnetism at optical
frequencies, negative refractive indices, large positive refractive indices,
zero reflection via impedance matching, perfect absorption, giant circular
dichroism, or enhanced nonlinear optical properties. Possible applications of
metamaterials comprise ultrahigh-resolution imaging systems, compact
polarization optics, and cloaking devices. This review describes the
experimental progress recently made fabricating three-dimensional metamaterial
structures and discusses some remaining future challenges
Poor prognostic clinicopathologic features correlate with VEGF expression but not with PTEN expression in squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted in chromosome ten (PTEN), angiogenesis and clinicopathological parameters of squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We examined immunohistochemical expression of VEGF and PTEN and CD34 for microvessel density (MVD) in sections of formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded tissue blocks of 140 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx. The intensity of VEGF and PTEN staining and the proportion of cells staining were scored.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The tumor grade was not significantly related to PTEN expression, but it was to VEGF expression (p = 0.400; p = 0.015, respectively). While there was no significant relationship between PTEN expression and tumor size and cartilage invasion (p = 0.311, p = 0.128), there was a significant relationship between the severity of VEGF expression and tumor size (p = 0.006) and lymph node metastasis (p = 0.048) but not cartilage invasion (p = 0.129). MVD was significantly higher in high-grade tumors (p = 0.003) but had no significant relationship between MVD, lymph node metastasis, and cartilage invasion (p = 0.815, p = 0.204). There was also no significant relationship between PTEN and VEGF expression (p = 0.161) and between PTEN and VEGF expression and the MVD (p = 0.120 and p = 0.175, respectively).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Increased VEGF expression may play an important role in the outcome of squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx. PTEN expression was not related to VEGF expression and clinicopathological features of squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx.</p
Comparison of Three Targeted Enrichment Strategies on the SOLiD Sequencing Platform
Despite the ever-increasing throughput and steadily decreasing cost of next
generation sequencing (NGS), whole genome sequencing of humans is still not a
viable option for the majority of genetics laboratories. This is particularly
true in the case of complex disease studies, where large sample sets are often
required to achieve adequate statistical power. To fully leverage the potential
of NGS technology on large sample sets, several methods have been developed to
selectively enrich for regions of interest. Enrichment reduces both monetary and
computational costs compared to whole genome sequencing, while allowing
researchers to take advantage of NGS throughput. Several targeted enrichment
approaches are currently available, including molecular inversion probe ligation
sequencing (MIPS), oligonucleotide hybridization based approaches, and PCR-based
strategies. To assess how these methods performed when used in conjunction with
the ABI SOLID3+, we investigated three enrichment techniques: Nimblegen
oligonucleotide hybridization array-based capture; Agilent SureSelect
oligonucleotide hybridization solution-based capture; and Raindance
Technologies' multiplexed PCR-based approach. Target regions were selected
from exons and evolutionarily conserved areas throughout the human genome. Probe
and primer pair design was carried out for all three methods using their
respective informatics pipelines. In all, approximately 0.8 Mb of target space
was identical for all 3 methods. SOLiD sequencing results were analyzed for
several metrics, including consistency of coverage depth across samples,
on-target versus off-target efficiency, allelic bias, and genotype concordance
with array-based genotyping data. Agilent SureSelect exhibited superior
on-target efficiency and correlation of read depths across samples. Nimblegen
performance was similar at read depths at 20× and below. Both Raindance
and Nimblegen SeqCap exhibited tighter distributions of read depth around the
mean, but both suffered from lower on-target efficiency in our experiments.
Raindance demonstrated the highest versatility in assay design
Histone deacetylase controls adult stem cell aging by balancing the expression of polycomb genes and jumonji domain containing 3
Aging is linked to loss of the self-renewal capacity of adult stem cells. Here, we observed that human multipotent stem cells (MSCs) underwent cellular senescence in vitro. Decreased expression of histone deacetylases (HDACs), followed by downregulation of polycomb group genes (PcGs), such as BMI1, EZH2 and SUZ12, and by upregulation of jumonji domain containing 3 (JMJD3), was observed in senescent MSCs. Similarly, HDAC inhibitors induced cellular senescence through downregulation of PcGs and upregulation of JMJD3. Regulation of PcGs was associated with HDAC inhibitor-induced hypophosphorylation of RB, which causes RB to bind to and decrease the transcriptional activity of E2F. JMJD3 expression regulation was dependant on histone acetylation status at its promoter regions. A histone acetyltransferase (HAT) inhibitor prevented replicative senescence of MSCs. These results suggest that HDAC activity might be important for MSC self-renewal by balancing PcGs and JMJD3 expression, which govern cellular senescence by p16INK4A regulation
Review of experimental methods to determine spontaneous combustion susceptibility of coal – Indian context
This paper presents a critical review of the different techniques developed to investigate the susceptibility of coal to spontaneous combustion and fire. These methods may be sub-classified into the two following areas: (1) Basic coal characterisation studies (chemical constituents) and their influence on spontaneous combustion susceptibility. (2) Test methods to assess the susceptibility of a coal sample to spontaneous combustion. This is followed by a critical literature review that summarises previous research with special emphasis given to Indian coals
Carnosine inhibits carbonic anhydrase IX-mediated extracellular acidosis and suppresses growth of HeLa tumor xenografts
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