Effects of phytoestrogen on sexual development

Phytoestrogen is an estrogenic compound that occurs naturally in plants. The most common sources of phytoestrogen are soybean products, which contain high levels of isoflavones. This compound, which has structural similarity with estrogen, can act as an estrogen receptor agonist or antagonist. Animal studies provide evidence of the significant effects of phytoestrogen on sexual development, including altered pubertal timing, impaired estrous cycling and ovarian function, and altered hypothalamus and pituitary functions. Although human studies examining the effects of phytoestrogen on sexual development are extremely limited, the results of some studies agree with those of the animal studies. In this paper, we review the possible mechanism of phytoestrogen action and the evidence showing the effects of phytoestrogen on sexual development in animal and human studies

Towards diagnosis of rotator cuff tears in 3-D MRI using 3-D convolutional neural networks

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Mixed-State Entanglement and Quantum Teleportation through Noisy Channels

The quantum teleportation with noisy EPR state is discussed. Using an optimal decomposition technique, we compute the concurrence, entanglement of formation and Groverian measure for various noisy EPR resources. It is shown analytically that all entanglement measures reduce to zero when $\bar{F} \leq 2/3$, where $\bar{F}$ is an average fidelity between Alice and Bob. This fact indicates that the entanglement is a genuine physical resource for the teleportation process. This fact gives valuable clues on the optimal decomposition for higher-qubit mixed states. As an example, the optimal decompositions for the three-qubit mixed states are discussed by adopting a teleportation with W-stateComment: 18 pages, 4 figure

Clinical Approach to the Standardization of Oriental Medical Diagnostic Pattern Identification in Stroke Patients

In Korea, many stroke patients receive oriental medical care, in which pattern-identification plays a major role. Pattern-identification is Oriental Medicine's unique diagnostic system. This study attempted to standardize oriental medical pattern-identification for stroke patients. This was a community-based multicenter study that enrolled stroke patients within 30 days after their ictus. We assessed the patients' general characteristics and symptoms related to pattern-identification. Each patient's pattern was determined when two doctors had the same opinion. To determine which variables affect the pattern-identification, binary logistic regression analysis was used with the backward method. A total of 806 stroke patients were enrolled. Among 480 patients who were identified as having a certain pattern, 100 patients exhibited the Fire Heat Pattern, 210 patients the Phlegm Dampness Pattern, nine patients the Blood Stasis Pattern, 110 patients the Qi Deficiency Pattern, and 51 patients the Yin Deficiency Pattern. After the regression analysis, the predictive logistic equations for the Fire Heat, Phlegm Dampness, Qi Deficiency, and Yin Deficiency patterns were determined. The Blood Stasis Pattern was omitted because the sample size was too small. Predictive logistic equations were suggested for four of the patterns. These criteria would be useful in determining each stroke patient's pattern in clinics. However, further studies with large samples are necessary to validate and confirm these criteria

Average R\'{e}nyi Entropy of a Subsystem in Random Pure State

In this paper we examine the average R\'{e}nyi entropy $S_{\alpha}$ of a subsystem $A$ when the whole composite system $AB$ is a random pure state. We assume that the Hilbert space dimensions of $A$ and $AB$ are $m$ and $m n$ respectively. First, we compute the average R\'{e}nyi entropy analytically for $m = \alpha = 2$. We compare this analytical result with the approximate average R\'{e}nyi entropy, which is shown to be very close. For general case we compute the average of the approximate R\'{e}nyi entropy $\widetilde{S}_{\alpha} (m,n)$ analytically. When $1 \ll n$, $\widetilde{S}_{\alpha} (m,n)$ reduces to $\ln m - \frac{\alpha}{2 n} (m - m^{-1})$, which is in agreement with the asymptotic expression of the average von Neumann entropy. Based on the analytic result of $\widetilde{S}_{\alpha} (m,n)$ we plot the $\ln m$-dependence of the quantum information derived from $\widetilde{S}_{\alpha} (m,n)$. It is remarkable to note that the nearly vanishing region of the information becomes shorten with increasing $\alpha$, and eventually disappears in the limit of $\alpha \rightarrow \infty$. The physical implication of the result is briefly discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure

Heterologous expression of a tannic acid-inducible laccase3 of Cryphonectria parasitica in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A tannic acid-inducible and mycoviral-regulated laccase3 (<it>lac</it>3) from the chestnut blight fungus <it>Cryphonectria parasitica </it>has recently been identified, but further characterization was hampered because of the precipitation of protein products by tannic acid supplementation. The present study investigated the heterologous expression of the functional laccase3 using a yeast <it>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Laccase activity in the culture broth of transformants measured using a laccase-specific substrate suggested that the <it>lac</it>3 gene was successfully expressed and the corresponding protein product secreted into the culture media. In addition, activity staining and Western blot analysis of a native gel revealed that the enzyme activity co-existed with the protein product specific to anti-laccase3 antibody, confirming that the cloned <it>lac</it>3 gene is responsible for the laccase activity. When transformants were grown on plates containing tannic acid-supplemented media, brown coloration was observed around transformed cells, indicating the oxidation of tannic acid. However, the enzymatic activity was measurable only in the selective ura^-media and was negligible in nonselective nutrient-rich culture conditions. This was in part because of the increased plasmid instability in the nonselective media. Moreover, the protein product of <it>lac</it>3 appears to be sensitive to the cultured nonselective nutrient-rich broth, because a rapid decline in enzymatic activity was observed when the cultured broth of ura^-media was mixed with that of nonselective nutrient-rich broth. In addition, constitutive expression of the <it>lac</it>3 gene resulted in a reduced cell number of the <it>lac</it>3 transformants compared to that of vector-only transformed control. However, the presence of recombinant vector without <it>lac</it>3 induction did not affect the growth of transformants.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results suggest that expression of the <it>lac</it>3 gene has an inhibitory effect on the growth of transformed <it>S. cerevisiae </it>and that the controlled expression of <it>lac</it>3 is appropriate for the possible application of recombinant yeast to the treatment of phenolic compounds.</p