ABC-transporter blockage mediated by xanthotoxin and bergapten is the major pathway for chemosensitization of multidrug-resistant cancer cells.

Furanocoumarins derived from herbal and citrus extracts can act as antibacterial, antioxidant, immunomodulator, apoptotic, and selective anticancer agents, prompting a biological investigation to determine and predict their clinical therapeutic significance. Here, the cell cytotoxic effects of bergapten and xanthotoxin were analyzed alone and in combination with standard chemotherapeutics on three multidrug resistant cells and their nonresistant parental counterparts. The furanocoumarins modulatory effects on MDR1, BCRP, and MRP pump expression and function were investigated. Although quantitative real time PCR demonstrated that the MDR transcript level changes in a time dependent manner, flow cytometric analyses using fluorescent-labeled antibodies have indicated that bergapten and xanthotoxin had no significant effect on the protein levels. FACS analyses indicated that these prominent anticancer agents significantly blocked MDR1, BCRP, and MRP transporter function. Maximum furanocoumarin-mediated pump activity blockage in the MDR-resistant cells was quantified as 87% of normal and consequently, chemotherapeutic accumulation increased up to 2.7-fold and cytotoxicity tension increased 104-fold. MDR1 efflux kinetics also revealed that the maximum velocity and the pump affinity to daunorubicin were uncompetitively decreased. We conclude that bergapten and xanthotoxin are cytotoxic agents capable of preventing daunorubicin, mitoxantrone, and cisplatin binding to ABC-transporters and subsequently inhibiting their efflux out of cells and they may be a potential combination therapy for malignant cancers

Towards the Formalization of Fractional Calculus in Higher-Order Logic

Fractional calculus is a generalization of classical theories of integration and differentiation to arbitrary order (i.e., real or complex numbers). In the last two decades, this new mathematical modeling approach has been widely used to analyze a wide class of physical systems in various fields of science and engineering. In this paper, we describe an ongoing project which aims at formalizing the basic theories of fractional calculus in the HOL Light theorem prover. Mainly, we present the motivation and application of such formalization efforts, a roadmap to achieve our goals, current status of the project and future milestones.Comment: 9 page

Chalcogenide Glass-on-Graphene Photonics

Two-dimensional (2-D) materials are of tremendous interest to integrated photonics given their singular optical characteristics spanning light emission, modulation, saturable absorption, and nonlinear optics. To harness their optical properties, these atomically thin materials are usually attached onto prefabricated devices via a transfer process. In this paper, we present a new route for 2-D material integration with planar photonics. Central to this approach is the use of chalcogenide glass, a multifunctional material which can be directly deposited and patterned on a wide variety of 2-D materials and can simultaneously function as the light guiding medium, a gate dielectric, and a passivation layer for 2-D materials. Besides claiming improved fabrication yield and throughput compared to the traditional transfer process, our technique also enables unconventional multilayer device geometries optimally designed for enhancing light-matter interactions in the 2-D layers. Capitalizing on this facile integration method, we demonstrate a series of high-performance glass-on-graphene devices including ultra-broadband on-chip polarizers, energy-efficient thermo-optic switches, as well as graphene-based mid-infrared (mid-IR) waveguide-integrated photodetectors and modulators

Calculation of pressure drop inside condensing vertical pipes in new inlet pressures using a new modified three-fluid model

Using the new modified three-fluid model, the effect of variation of inlet pressure on predictions of pressure drop in the downward condensing annular flow of steam inside vertical pipes is studied. To achieve this, using the new modified three-fluid model and Stevanovic et al.’s correlation for the steam–liquid film interfacial friction coefficient, pressure drop is calculated in two new inlet pressures (i.e., 1.5 and 2.5 (MPa)), for which there is no available experimental data of pressure drop. The pressure drop predictions of the new modified three-fluid model and those of the Stevanovic et al.’s correlation are compared

Analysis of minimal and maximal pressures, uncertainty and spectral density of fluctuating pressures beneath classical hydraulic jumps

Knowledge of extreme pressures and fluctuations within stilling basins is of the utmost importance, as they may cause potential severe damages. It is complicated to measure the fluctuating pressures of hydraulic jumps in real-scale structures. Therefore, little information is available about the pressure fluctuations in the literature. In this paper, minimal and maximal pressures were analyzed on the flat bed of a stilling basin downstream of an Ogee spillway. Attention has been focused on dimensionless pressures related to the low and high cumulative probabilities of occurrence (P*0.1% and P*99.9%), respectively. The results were presented based on the laboratory-scale experiments. These parameters for the relatively high Froude numbers have not been investigated. The total standard uncertainty for the dimensionless mean pressures (P*m) was obtained around 1.87%. Spectral density analysis showed that the dominant frequency in the classical hydraulic jumps was about 4 HZ. Low-frequency of pressure fluctuations indicated the existence of large-scale vortices. In the zone near the spillway toe, P*0.1% reached negative values of around -0.3. The maximum values of pressure coefficients, namely |CP0.1%|max and CP99.9%max, were achieved around 0.19 and 0.24, respectively. New original expressions were proposed for P*0.1% and P*99.9%, which are useful for estimating extreme pressures

Trichomoniasis in pregnant women in South-East Iran:Diagnosis, frequency and factors affecting

Objective: Trichomonas vaginalis is considered to be the most prevalent cause of non-viral sexuallytransmitted infections globally and is a major healthissue in developing countries. Since this flagellateprotozoan parasite is associated with vaginitis,urethritis, cervicitis, and also pregnancy is one of thefactors affecting trichomoniasis in women. Our aim isto identify the prevalence of trichomoniasis and theassociated risk factors in pregnant women in the agegroup of 17-40 in the city of Zahedan (Southeast of Iran).Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on514 pregnant women who had referred to a midwifery clinicin Zahedan. Direct microscopic examination and Dorsetegg medium culture were used to detect T. vaginalis inpregnant women. The demographic and personal records,along with the associated risk factors were collected usinga questionnaire and then analyzed using the Frequency tocalculate the age average, chi-square test, independentt-test with SPSS software version 20.Results: The results showed that in 514 pregnantwomen, by the direct method, both the direct and culture methods and only culture method, 29(5.64),24(4.67), and 24(4.67) were reported positivesample for T. vaginalis, respectively. According tothis result, there were significant differences betweentrichomoniasis and history of STI (OR=12,6; 95CI=3,9-40,6) and previous abortion (OR = 6.840, CI:2.906-16.100) and vaginal discharge (OR= 2.9; 95CI= 1.2-7.1)and antenatal care (OR=0.2; 95CI= 0.1-0.7) in thestudied infected pregnant women (p<0.05).Conclusion: This study has raised several importantpoints that could contribute to the research on infectiousdiseases of pregnancy were also discussed. This dataproves that trichomoniasis during pregnancy should beconsidered an important health issue. Furthermore,by using parasitological diagnostic tests in pregnantwomen, the complications of trichomoniasis can beprevented for both the mother and the fetus © 2021, Turk Hijyen ve Deneysel Biyoloji Dergisi. All Rights Reserved

Antiviral effects of azithromycin: A narrative review

Viral infections have a great impact on human health. The urgent need to find a cure against different viruses led us to investigations in a vast range of drugs. Azithromycin (AZT), classified as a macrolide, showed various effects on different known viruses such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), Zika, Ebola, Enterovirus (EVs) and Rhinoviruses (RVs), and Influenza A previously; namely, these viruses, which caused global concerns, are considered as targets for AZT different actions. Due to AZT background in the treatment of known viral infections mentioned above (which is described in this study), in the early stages of COVID-19 (a new zoonotic disease caused by a novel coronavirus called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)) development, AZT drew attention to itself due to its antiviral and immunomodulatory effects as a valuable candidate for COVID-19 treatment. AZT usage instructions for treating different viral infections have always been under observation, and COVID-19 is no exception. There are still debates about the use of AZT in COVID-19 treatment. However, eventually, novel researches convinced WHO to announce the discontinuation of AZT use (alone or in combination with hydroxychloroquine) in treating SARS-CoV-2 infection. This research aims to study the structure of all of the viruses mentioned above and the molecular and clinical effects of AZT against the virus