Short-term effects of Theracurmin dose and exercise type on pain, walking ability, and muscle function in patients with knee osteoarthritis

The purpose of this study was to investigate the short-term of Theracurmin dose and exercise type on pain, walking ability, and muscle function in patients with knee osteoarthritis. Twenty-five patients with knee osteoarthritis randomly selected to Theracurmin intake (T) group and Theracurmin in combined with exercise (T+E) group. T group (n= 13) was taken orally a capsule of 700 mg, 3 times per day, (total 2,100 mg, 35 mg/kg-body weight). T+E group (n= 12) performed aerobic training of 30-min walking and weight training for increasing leg muscular strength. After treatment, the number of steps, muscle mass, range of motion of knee, and the muscle strength in flexion and extension significantly increased. The percent body fat, visual analogue scale, The Western Ontario and McMaster score, centers of pressure with closed eye, 10-m walking ability, stair ascending speed were significantly decreased after treatment. Although no difference observed between the T and T+E groups, the 4-week intake of Theracurmin with and without exercise appeared to be effective in reducing the pain and enhancing muscular and balancing function. Therefore, Theracurmin intake for early symptoms and additional exercise as symptoms alleviate might be an effective way of delaying and managing osteoarthritis, and additional studies investigating the effects of Theracurmin and exercise on osteoarthritis could be beneficial

Curcumin induces expression of 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase in gastric mucosal cells and mouse stomach in vivo: AP-1 as a potential target

15-Hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (15-PGDH) catalyzes the conversion of oncogenic prostaglandin E-2 to non-tumerigenic 15-keto prostaglandin E-2. In the present study, we found that curcumin, a yellow coloring agent present in the rhizome of Curcuma Tonga Linn (Zingiberaceae), induced expression of 15-PGDH at the both transcriptional and translational levels in normal rat gastric mucosal cells. By using deletion constructs of 15-PGDH promoter, we were able to demonstrate that activator protein-1 (AP-1) is the principal transcription factor responsible for regulating curcumin-induced 15-PGDH expression. Curcumin enhanced the expression of c-jun and cFos that are functional subunits of AP-1, in the nuclear fraction of cells. Silencing of c-jun suppressed curcumin-induced expression of 15-PGDH. Moreover, the chromatin immunoprecipitation assay revealed curcumin-induced binding of c-Jun to the AP-1 consensus sequence present in the 15-PGDH promoter. Curaimin increased phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and JNK. and pharmacologic inhibition of these kinases abrogated the curcumin-induced phosphorylation of clun and 15-PGDH expression. In contrast, tetrahydrocurcumin which lacks the alpha,beta-unsaturated carbonyl group failed to induce 15-PGDH expression, suggesting that the electrophilic carbonyl group of curcumin is essential for its induction of 15-PGDH expression. Curcumin restored the expression of 15-PGDH which is down-regulated by Helicobater pylori through suppression of DNA methyltransferase 1. In addition, oral administration of curcumin increased the expression of 15-PGDH and its regulators such as p-ERK1/2, p-JNK and c-Jun in the mouse stomach. Taken together, these findings suggest that curcumin-induced upregulation of 15-PGDH may contribute to chemopreventive effects of this phytochemical on inflammation-associated gastric carcinogenesis. (C) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Photometric and Spectroscopic Study of the Short-Period Algol EW Bo\"{o}tis with a δ\delta Sct Pulsator

In this paper, we present TESS photometry and high-resolution spectra of the short-period Algol EW Boo. We obtained double-lined radial velocities (RVs) from the time-series spectra and measured the effective temperature of the primary star as $T_{\rm{eff,1}}$ = 8560 $\pm$ 118 K. For the orbital period study, we collected all times of minima available for over the last 30 years. It was found that the eclipse timing variation of the system could be represented by a periodic oscillation of 17.6 $\pm$ 0.3 years with a semi-amplitude of 0.0041 $\pm$ 0.0001 d. The orbital and physical parameters were derived by simultaneously analyzing the TESS light and RV curves using the Wilson-Devinney (WD) binary star modeling code. The component masses and radii were showed over 3% precision: $M_{1}$ = 2.67 $\pm$ 0.08 M$_{\odot}$, $M_{2}$ = 0.43 $\pm$ 0.01 M$_{\odot}$, $R_{1}$ = 2.01 $\pm$ 0.02 R$_{\odot}$, and $R_{2}$ = 1.35 $\pm$ 0.01 R$_{\odot}$. Furthermore, multiple frequency analyses were performed for the light-curve residuals from the WD model. As a result, we detected 17 pressure-mode pulsations in the region of 40.15 - 52.37 d$^{-1}$. The absolute dimensions and pulsation characteristics showed that the $\delta$ Sct pulsator was the more massive and hotter primary star of the EW Boo.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in A

Fabrication of AlGaN/GaN Fin-Type HEMT Using a Novel T-Gate Process for Improved Radio-Frequency Performance

To increase the radio-frequency (RF) performance of AlGaN/GaN-based fin-type high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs), a novel T-gate process was developed and applied to fabricate a device with high RF performance. In a single lithography process, the applied T-gate process shows a technique for forming a T-gate using the reactivity difference of several photoresists. The fabricated device has a steep fin width (W-fin) of 130 nm, a fin height (H-fin) of 250 nm, and a gate length (L-G) of 190 nm. The device exhibits a low leakage current (I-off) of 6.6 x 10(-10) A/mm and a high I-on/I-off current ratio of 4.7 x 10(8). Moreover, the fabricated device achieved a high cut-off frequency (f(T)) of 9.7 GHz and a very high maximum oscillation frequency (f(max)) of 27.8 GHz. The f(max) value of the proposed device is 138% higher than that of GaN-based fin-type HEMTs without T-gate.1

New CCD Times of Minima of 17 Eccentric Eclipsing Binary Systems

We present a total of 28 CCD timings for 17 eccentric eclipsing binaries

A childhood case of spinal tuberculosis misdiagnosed as muscular dystrophy

Tuberculosis is primarily a pulmonary disease, but extra-pulmonary manifestations are not uncommon, especially in children and adolescents. Ten percent of extra pulmonary tuberculosis localizes to the bones and joints, and 56% of such cases affect the spine. We treated a childhood case of spinal tuberculosis misdiagnosed as muscular dystrophy in a patient without specific constitutional symptoms. We report this case because the patient had an unusual presentation of spinal tuberculosis