Evaluation of baicalin in Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi using HPLC method

High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been evaluated for the determination of components in Scutellaria baicalensis georgi, primarily by the separation of baicalin. The samples were extracted at reflux by methanol, and the content of chlorogenic acid was analyzed by HPLC. A Diamonsil C18 column (4.6 mm x 150 mm, 5 μm) was used as the analytical column. The mobile phase was methanol, water and phosphoric acid (47:53:0.2). The detection wavelength was 280 nm to determine the content of baicalin. The baicalin showed linearity over the range of 0.12-1.2 μg. Its average recovery was 98.6% and RSD was 0.78%.KEY WORDS: High performance liquid chromatography, Scutellaria baicalensis georgi, BaicalinBull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2010, 24(1), 115-119

Fabrication of Nanostructured Electroforming Copper Layer by Means of an Ultrasonic-assisted Mechanical Treatment

AbstractElectroformed copper layer with nanostructure is obtained using a subsequent mechanical treatment under the conditions of ultrasonic vibration according to the demand of high performance material in aeronautics. The microstructure of the electroformed copper layer is observed by optical microscope (OM), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The tensile strength is evaluated with a tensile tester. It is found that bulk crystal of electroformed copper's surface layer is changed to nanocrystals (about 10 nm in size) after the ultrasonic-assisted mechanical treatment (UMT) but the whole monocrystalline structure still remains. The tensile strength exhibited by the new copper layer is two times better than the regular electroformed copper layer, while the fracture strain remains constant. In addition, the strengthening mechanism of UMT process is proved to be dislocation strengthening mechanism

Measurement of functional resilience of transport network:The case of the Beijing subway network

Resilience is an important concept for measuring a system\u27s ability to cope with various disruptions. This study proposes an application-oriented framework for measuring the dynamic functional resilience (FR) of a transport network responding to supply and demand disruptions without external interventions. On the conceptual side, three complementary capacity-related dimensions, namely, robustness, adaptability, and recoverability, are incorporated in the single FR framework from the perspective of physical laws. On the applied side, we suggest a measurement model given certain network indices and apply it to the Beijing subway network (BSN). The results indicate the measurement model can capture the dynamics of network performances, identify the time-varying bottlenecks, and predict the influence of the dynamic capacity expansions on network resilience. The findings are useful for policy-making regarding the dynamic design, operation, and reconstruction of the transport infrastructure

Evaluation on a Personalized Mobile Advertising System: a Comparative Approach

Along with the high proliferation of mobile phones and other mobile devices, research on the use of short messaging service&#;SMS&#; to access customers through their handheld devices has gained much attention, which is termed as mobile advertising. In order to make the best use of mobile advertising to benefit companies and customers becomes more emergent. One of the most important and successful factor that will bring more positive attitudes towards mobile advertising and induce customers to behave positively is personalization, which has been confirmed in many prior studies. Therefore, it’s necessary and essential for researchers to design an effective system capable of recommending personalized mobile advertising to mobile users. The purpose of this paper is to fulfill this task. We present such a kind of personalized mobile advertising system based on Bayesian Network. Then, we brought out a thorough evaluation of our system in a laboratory environment. Experimental results showed better performance of our system in furnishing personalized mobile advertising than conventional method (random advertising)

Adaptive Initialization Method Based on Spatial Local Information for k

k-means algorithm is a widely used clustering algorithm in data mining and machine learning community. However, the initial guess of cluster centers affects the clustering result seriously, which means that improper initialization cannot lead to a desirous clustering result. How to choose suitable initial centers is an important research issue for k-means algorithm. In this paper, we propose an adaptive initialization framework based on spatial local information (AIF-SLI), which takes advantage of local density of data distribution. As it is difficult to estimate density correctly, we develop two approximate estimations: density by t-nearest neighborhoods (t-NN) and density by ϵ-neighborhoods (ϵ-Ball), leading to two implements of the proposed framework. Our empirical study on more than 20 datasets shows promising performance of the proposed framework and denotes that it has several advantages: (1) can find the reasonable candidates of initial centers effectively; (2) it can reduce the iterations of k-means’ methods significantly; (3) it is robust to outliers; and (4) it is easy to implement

Dysfunction of cortical GABAergic neurons leads to sensory hyper-reactivity in a Shank3 mouse model of ASD.

Hyper-reactivity to sensory input is a common and debilitating symptom in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but the neural basis underlying sensory abnormality is not completely understood. Here we examined the neural representations of sensory perception in the neocortex of a Shank3B-/- mouse model of ASD. Male and female Shank3B-/- mice were more sensitive to relatively weak tactile stimulation in a vibrissa motion detection task. In vivo population calcium imaging in vibrissa primary somatosensory cortex (vS1) revealed increased spontaneous and stimulus-evoked firing in pyramidal neurons but reduced activity in interneurons. Preferential deletion of Shank3 in vS1 inhibitory interneurons led to pyramidal neuron hyperactivity and increased stimulus sensitivity in the vibrissa motion detection task. These findings provide evidence that cortical GABAergic interneuron dysfunction plays a key role in sensory hyper-reactivity in a Shank3 mouse model of ASD and identify a potential cellular target for exploring therapeutic interventions

Homozygous p.Ser267Phe in SLC10A1 is associated with a new type of hypercholanemia and implications for personalized medicine.

SLC10A1 codes for the sodium-taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide (NTCP), which is a hepatocellular transporter for bile acids (BAs) and the receptor for hepatitis B and D viruses. NTCP is also a target of multiple drugs. We aimed to evaluate the medical consequences of the loss of function mutation p.Ser267Phe in SLC10A1. We identified eight individuals with homozygous p.Ser267Phe mutation in SLC10A1 and followed up for 8-90 months. We compared their total serum BAs and 6 species of BAs with 170 wild-type and 107 heterozygous healthy individuals. We performed in-depth medical examinations and exome sequencing in the homozygous individuals. All homozygous individuals had persistent hypercholanemia (P = 5.8 × 10-29). Exome sequencing excluded the involvement of other BA metabolism-associated genes in the hypercholanemia. Although asymptomatic, all individuals had low vitamin D levels. Of six adults that were subjected to bone mineral density analysis, three presented with osteoporosis/osteopenia. Sex hormones and blood lipids were deviated in all subjects. Homozygosity of p.Ser267Phe in SLC10A1 is associated with asymptomatic hypercholanemia. Individuals with homozygous p.Ser267Phe in SLC10A1 are prone to vitamin D deficiency, deviated sex hormones and blood lipids. Surveillance of these parameters may also be needed in patients treated with drugs targeting NTCP.This project is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31471193, 81570539, 81370535, 91331204 and 31525014). S.X. acknowledges financial support from the Strategic Priority Research Program (XDB13040100) and Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences (QYZDJ-SSW-SYS009) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)

Apigenin Combined With Gefitinib Blocks Autophagy Flux and Induces Apoptotic Cell Death Through Inhibition of HIF-1α, c-Myc, p-EGFR, and Glucose Metabolism in EGFR L858R+T790M-Mutated H1975 Cells

Cancer cells are characterized by abnormally increased glucose uptake and active bio-energy and biosynthesis to support the proliferation, metastasis, and drug resistant survival. We examined the therapeutic value of the combination of apigenin (a natural small-molecule inhibitor of Glut1 belonging to the flavonoid family) and gefitinib on epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-resistant mutant non-small cell lung cancer, to notably damage glucose utilization and thus suppress cell growth and malignant behavior. Here, we demonstrate that apigenin combined with gefitinib inhibits multiple oncogenic drivers such as c-Myc, HIF-1α, and EGFR, reduces Gluts and MCT1 protein expression, and inactivates the 5′ adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling, which regulates glucose uptake and maintains energy metabolism, leading to impaired energy utilization in EGFR L858R-T790M-mutated H1975 lung cancer cells. H1975 cells exhibit dysregulated metabolism and apoptotic cell death following treatment with apigenin + gefitinib. Therefore, the combined apigenin + gefitinib treatment presents an attractive strategy as alternative treatment for the acquired resistance to EGFR-TKIs in NSCLC

Overexpressed transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) in lung adenocarcinoma harbours a new opportunity for therapeutic targeting

The specific biological function of transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) in pathogenesis of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) remains unclear. In this study, TRPV1 expression in tumor tissues, primary cells and cell lines of LUAD, as well as the mechanism mediating its hyperexpression were systematically studied. Multiple models and techniques were adopted to elucidate the relationship between TRPV1 hyperexpression and tumor recurrence and metastasis. Results showed that TRPV1 expression was increased in tumor tissues and primary tumor cells of LUAD patients. The increased expression was associated with worse overall survival outcome and raised HIF1α levels. TRPV1 expression in A549 and NCI-H292 cells was increased after pretreatment with cigarette smoke extract or spermine NONOate. Moreover, A549 cells with TRPV1 overexpression has enhanced tumor growth rates in subcutaneous grafted tumor models, and increased intrapulmonary metastasis after tail vein infusion in nude BALB/c nude mice. Mechanistically, TRPV1 overexpression in A549 cells promoted HIF1α expression and nuclear translocation by promoting CREB phosphorylation and activation of NOS1-NO pathway, ultimately leading to accelerated cell proliferation and stronger invasiveness. In addition, based on photothermal effects, CuS-TRPV1 mAb effectively targeted and induced apoptosis of TRPV1-A549 cells both in vivo and in vitro, thereby mitigating tumor growth and metastasis induced by xenotransplantation of TRPV1-A549 cells. In conclusion, TRPV1 hyperexpression in LUAD is a risk factor for tumor progression and is involved in proliferation and migration of tumor cells through activation of HIF1α. Our study also attempted a new strategy inhibiting the recurrence and metastasis of LUAD: by CuS-TRPV1 mAb precisely kill TRPV1 hyperexpression cells through photothermal effects