Cordyceps militaris Grown on Germinated Soybean Induces G2/M Cell Cycle Arrest through Downregulation of Cyclin B1 and Cdc25c in Human Colon Cancer HT-29 Cells

Cordyceps militaris (CM) is an insect-borne fungus that has been used in traditional Chinese medicine because of its wide range of pharmacological activities. In this paper, we studied CM grown on germinated soybean (GSC) and investigated the possible mechanisms underlying antiproliferative effect of GSC on HT-29 human colon cancer cells. In comparison with CM extracts and germinated soybean (GS) BuOH extracts, BuOH extracts of GSC showed remarkable inhibitory and antiproliferative effects on HT-29 colon cancer cells. After GSC treatment, HT-29 cells became smaller and irregular in shape. High G2/M phase cell populations were observed in the GSC-treated group. The levels of cyclin B1 and Cdc25 in the GSC-treated group were lower than those in the control group. These findings suggest that GSC BuOH extracts might act as an effective anti-proliferative agent by inducing G2/M cell cycle arrest in colon cancer cells

Indoor Positioning by LED Visible Light Communication and Image Sensors

High power white LEDs are expected to replace the existing lighting technologies in near future which are also suggested for visible light communication (VLC). We proposed an algorithm for high precision indoor positioning using lighting LEDs, VLC and image sensors. In the proposed algorithm, four LEDs transmitted their three-dimensional coordinate information which were received and demodulated by two image sensors near the unknown position. The unknown position was then calculated from the geometrical relations of the LED images created on the image sensors. We described the algorithm in details. Simulation of the proposed algorithm was done and presented in this paper. This technique did not require any angular measurement which was needed in contemporary positioning algorithms using LED and image sensor. Simulation results showed that the proposed system could estimate the unknown position within the accuracy of few centimeters. Positioning accuracy could be increased by using high resolution image sensors or by increasing the separation between the image sensors.DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v1i2.16

Transfer learning for predicting source terms of principal component transport in chemically reactive flow

The objective of this study is to evaluate whether the number of requisite training samples can be reduced with the use of various transfer learning models for predicting, for example, the chemical source terms of the data-driven reduced-order model that represents the homogeneous ignition process of a hydrogen/air mixture. Principal component analysis is applied to reduce the dimensionality of the hydrogen/air mixture in composition space. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are used to tabulate the reaction rates of principal components, and subsequently, a system of ordinary differential equations is solved. As the number of training samples decreases at the target task (i.e.,for T0 > 1000 K and various phi), the reduced-order model fails to predict the ignition evolution of a hydrogen/air mixture. Three transfer learning strategies are then applied to the training of the ANN model with a sparse dataset. The performance of the reduced-order model with a sparse dataset is found to be remarkably enhanced if the training of the ANN model is restricted by a regularization term that controls the degree of knowledge transfer from source to target tasks. To this end, a novel transfer learning method is introduced, parameter control via partial initialization and regularization (PaPIR), whereby the amount of knowledge transferred is systemically adjusted for the initialization and regularization of the ANN model in the target task. It is found that an additional performance gain can be achieved by changing the initialization scheme of the ANN model in the target task when the task similarity between source and target tasks is relatively low.Comment: 41 pages, 14 figure

Real-time routing protocols for (m,k)-firm streams based on multi-criteria in wireless sensor networks

© 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York. Even though some velocity based routing protocols for (m,k)-firm stream have been recently proposed in multimedia wireless sensor networks, there are still many perspective parameters to be considered for forwarding procedure. Moreover, since they are not correlated with each other, multi-criteria system for forwarding is desirable to select next hop. However, current existing protocols apply these parameters sequentially without any prioritization. To address this issue, in this paper, we propose two (m,k)-firm specific routing protocols based on fuzzy interference system and analytical hierarchical process in conjunction with the gray relational analysis. In each protocol, delivery ratio, energy, speed, (m,k)-firm stream requirement as well as current stream status are used to select the best appropriate next hop while considering given node’s constraints. Through the simulation results, we demonstrate that the proposed scheme gracefully maintains (m,k)-firm requirement while extending the network lifetime. Finally, superiority of the proposed approach to existing velocity based routing protocols is also proven through diverse simulation scenarios

Error Rate Analysis of Amplitude-Coherent Detection over Rician Fading Channels with Receiver Diversity

Amplitude-coherent (AC) detection is an efficient detection technique that can simplify the receiver design while providing reliable symbol error rate (SER). Therefore, this work considers AC detector design and SER analysis using M-ary amplitude shift keying (MASK) modulation over Rician fading channels. More specifically, we derive the optimum, near-optimum and a suboptimum AC detectors and compare their SER to the coherent, noncoherent and the heuristic AC detectors. Moreover, the analytical SER of the heuristic detector is derived using two different approaches for single and multiple receiving antennas. One of the derived expressions is expressed in terms of a single integral that can be evaluated numerically, while the second approach gives a closed-form analytical expression for the SER, which is also used to derive a simple formula for the asymptotic SER at high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). The obtained analytical and simulation results show that the SER of the AC and coherent MASK detectors are comparable, particularly for high values of the Rician K-factor, and small number of receiving antennas. Moreover, the obtained results show that the SER of the optimal AC detector is equivalent to that of the coherent detector. However, the optimal AC detector complexity is prohibitively high, particularly at high SNRs. In most of the scenarios, the heuristic AC detector significantly outperforms the optimum noncoherent detector, except for the binary ASK case at low SNRs. Moreover, the obtained results show that the heuristic AC detector is immune to phase noise, and thus, it outperforms the coherent detector in scenarios where system is subject to considerable phase noise

The presence of tumour-associated lymphocytes confers a good prognosis in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: an immunohistochemical study of tissue microarrays

Background Tumour-associated lymphocytes (TALs) have been linked with good prognosis in several solid tumours. This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic significance of CD3, CD8 and CD20 positive lymphocytes in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Methods After histological re-evaluation of the tumours of 81 patients who underwent surgical resection for exclusively pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, tissue micro-arrays (TMA) were constructed and immunohistochemistry was performed for CD3, CD8 and CD20. The number of lymphocytes within specific tumour compartments (i.e. stromal and intratumoural) was quantified. X-tile software (Yale School of Medicine, CT, USA) was used to stratify patients into 'high’ and 'low’ for each of the lymphocytes stained and their association with survival. Receiver operating curves (ROC) were constructed to evaluate the association between the TALs, alone and in combination, with clinicopathological features. Results CD3 and CD8 positive lymphocytes were associated with grade of tumour differentiation. The presence of intratumoural CD3 positive cells was associated with improved survival (p = 0.028), and intratumoural and stromal CD3 in combination also correlated with improved survival (p = 0.043). When CD20 positive lymphocyte levels were high, survival improved (p = 0.029) and similar results were seen for CD20 in combination with intratumoural CD3 (p = 0.001) and stromal CD8 (p = 0.013). Conclusions This study has shown a correlation between the presence of TALs and survival in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Meta-Analysis of Genome-Wide Association Studies and Network Analysis-Based Integration with Gene Expression Data Identify New Suggestive Loci and Unravel a Wnt-Centric Network Associated with Dupuytren’s Disease

Dupuytren´s disease, a fibromatosis of the connective tissue in the palm, is a common complex disease with a strong genetic component. Up to date nine genetic loci have been found to be associated with the disease. Six of these loci contain genes that code for Wnt signalling proteins. In spite of this striking first insight into the genetic factors in Dupuytren´s disease, much of the inherited risk in Dupuytren´s disease still needs to be discovered. The already identified loci jointly explain ~1% of the heritability in this disease. To further elucidate the genetic basis of Dupuytren´s disease, we performed a genome-wide meta-analysis combining three genome-wide association study (GWAS) data sets, comprising 1,580 cases and 4,480 controls. We corroborated all nine previously identified loci, six of these with genome-wide significance (p-value < 5x10-8). In addition, we identified 14 new suggestive loci (p-value < 10−5). Intriguingly, several of these new loci contain genes associated with Wnt signalling and therefore represent excellent candidates for replication. Next, we compared whole-transcriptome data between patient- and control-derived tissue samples and found the Wnt/β-catenin pathway to be the top deregulated pathway in patient samples. We then conducted network and pathway analyses in order to identify protein networks that are enriched for genes highlighted in the GWAS meta-analysis and expression data sets. We found further evidence that the Wnt signalling pathways in conjunction with other pathways may play a critical role in Dupuytren´s disease

Postpartum depression in the Occupied Palestinian Territory:a longitudinal study in Bethlehem

BACKGROUND: Postpartum depression (PPD) affects women from different cultures around the world. No previous studies have investigated PPD among women in Palestine. Fertility rates in Palestine are among the highest in the world, hence even low rates of PPD could have considerable national impact. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of, and risk factors for, PPD among Palestinian mothers. METHODS: 101 mothers were recruited during the registration of their child’s birth (within 1 week) at the Bethlehem branch of the Ministry of Interior. Participants were assessed via a face to face interview, and were followed up 1 week, 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months later by telephone interview. Interviews included the Arabic Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), with PPD indicated by depressive symptoms (EPDS score ≥11) at ≥2 follow-up time points. Pearson’s correlation was calculated between repeated EPDS scores, and multivariable logistic regression was used to investigate risk factors for PPD. RESULTS: The prevalence of depressive symptoms was fairly constant (14–19%) over the follow-up period. Most depressive symptoms developed within 1 month of delivery; mothers with depressive symptoms at 3 months postpartum were highly likely to still have symptoms at 6 months. 27.7% (28/101) of women met our criteria for PPD. High parity (odds ratio (OR) 4.52 (95% CI 0.90, 22.8) parity 3+ versus primiparous), unplanned pregnancy (OR 2.44 (0.99, 6.01)) and sex of child not being the one desired (OR 5.07 (1.12, 22.9)) were associated with PPD, but these associations were attenuated in multivariable analysis. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of PPD in Palestine appears to be higher than in high income countries, but similar to the prevalence in other Middle Eastern countries. High parity and unplanned pregnancy were identified as risk factors for PPD, suggesting that fully meeting the need for family planning could reduce the incidence of PPD in the Palestinian population

EFFECTS OF FOOT PLACEMENT ON RESULTANT JOINT MOMENTS OF LOWER EXTREMITY JOINTS DURING SQUAT

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of foot placement (stance width and foot angle) on normalized sagittal- and frontal-plane resultant joint moments (NRJM) of the lower extremity joints during the squat. Forty-two participants were recruited: male (n = 21) and female (n = 21). Three-dimensional motion analysis and inverse dynamics analysis were conducted. There was a significant interaction between the stance width and foot angle on the NRJM in the sagittal plane, whereas there were significant main effects of the stance width, foot angle, and gender on the NRJM in the frontal plane