Mitochondrial apoptosis induced by Chamaemelum nobile extract in breast cancer cells

Chamaemelum nobile (Asteraceae) commonly known as ‹Roman chamomile› is a medicinal plant used for numerous diseases in traditional medicine, although its anticancer activity is unknown. The present study was carried out to investigate the anticancer as well as apoptotic activity of ethyl acetate fraction of C. nobile on different cancerous cell lines. The cells were treated with varying concentrations (0.001-0.25 mg/mL) of this fraction for 24, 48 and 72 h. Apoptosis induced in MCF-7 cells following treatment with ethyl acetate fraction was measured using Annexin V/PI, flowcytometry and western blotting analysis. The results showed that C. nobile ethyl acetate fraction revealed relatively high antiproliferative activity on MCF-7 cells; however, it caused minimal growth inhibitory response in normal cells. The involvement of apoptosis as a major cause of the fraction-induced cell death was confirmed by annexin-V/PI assay. In addition, ethyl acetate fraction triggered the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway by decreasing the Bcl-2 as well as increasing of Bax protein expressions and subsequently increasing Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. Furthermore, decreased proliferation of MCF-7 cells in the presence of the fraction was associated with G2/M phase cell cycle arrest. These findings confirm that ethyl acetate fraction of C.nobile may contain a diversity of phytochemicals which suppress the proliferation of MCF-7 cells by inducing apoptosis. © 2016 by School of Pharmacy Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and Health Services

Study of zinc deficiency in pregnant women

Zinc is one of the elements necessary for growth and health in human. Some evidences indicate that the zinc deficiency is one of real difficulties for the public health in developed and developing countries. Since the pregnant women are more at risk by the zinc deficiency, and this can cause many problems, in this study we tried to find out the rate of zinc deficiency in pregnant women within the region. This research project was analytical-descriptive study which was done on the 400 pregnant women whom referred to Zahedan Ghods hospital. A questionnaire was set up for each case which contained the following items, mother age, pregnancy age, numbers of deliveries, education, and consumption of iron tablet during pregnancy. The serum zinc level in each mother in this project was determined by atomic absorption technique. Prevalence of zinc deficiency among the pregnant women was 49%. Statistical analysis indicated that zinc deficiency had correlation with mother age, term of pregnancy and iron consumption. But zinc deficiency showed no correlation with numbers of deliveries and education. © Iranian Journal of Public Health. All rights reserved

Analysis of a Bidirectional DC-DC Converter with High Voltage Gain

A novel bidirectional DC-DC converter with high conversion ratio is proposed in this paper. The proposed converter uses the three windings coupled-inductor to achieved high voltage conversion ratio. The primary side consist of a winding and secondary side consist of two windings, which these two windings are series to achieved high voltage gain.In the boost mode, a capacitor is parallel charged and series discharged by the coupled inductor. Thus, high step-up voltage gain can be achieved with an appropriate duty ratio. In the buck mode, a capacitor is series charged and parallel discharged by the coupled inductor. The bidirectional converter can have high step-down voltage gain.The stress voltage of main switches can be reduced, and efficiency can be improved. The operating principle and the steady-state analyses of the voltage gain are discussed. Finally, in 24V for low voltage, and 400V for high voltage, and 200W for output power, this converter is simulated in MATLAB

An evasion game model for duopoly competition

Based on the Bertrand and Cournot economic models, we develop an evasion game model for a duopoly market with two players competing on price and quantity. We show that if the total financial strength of first mover is greater than that of the second mover, and the first mover observes the second mover perfectly, our proposed optimal strategy can be followed by the first mover to remain the market leader ahead of all competition

Peningkatan Aktivitas Peserta Didik dalam Pembelajaran IPA Menggunakan Metode Demonstrasi di Kelas IV SD

The problem of how an increase in research activities of students in learning science by using the method of demonstration in class IV Unit Chief Gurung SDN 12 Kapuas Hulu. The general objective of the study to describe an increase in the activity of the students in learning science by applying the method of demonstration. Research procedures include the planning, implementation, observation and reflection. Data collection techniques used observation techniques and measurement techniques. Means of collecting data observation sheet. Based on observations, it is known that there is an increase in physical activity from baseline of 36% to 94% the second cycle of 58% with a high enough category, there is an increase in mental activity of learners from baseline 13.33% to 78.34% for the second cycle 65 , 01% with "high", and there is increased activity of learner emotional baseline 38.33% to 88.34% for the second cycle of 50.01% to the category of "high enough". It can be concluded that the application of the method of demonstration in learning science can enhance the activity of the fourth grade students of SDN 12 Unit Chief Gurung Kapuas Hulu

Asymptotic entanglement in 1D quantum walks with a time-dependent coined

Discrete-time quantum walk evolve by a unitary operator which involves two operators a conditional shift in position space and a coin operator. This operator entangles the coin and position degrees of freedom of the walker. In this paper, we investigate the asymptotic behavior of the coin position entanglement (CPE) for an inhomogeneous quantum walk which determined by two orthogonal matrices in one-dimensional lattice. Free parameters of coin operator together provide many conditions under which a measurement perform on the coin state yield the value of entanglement on the resulting position quantum state. We study the problem analytically for all values that two free parameters of coin operator can take and the conditions under which entanglement becomes maximal are sought.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in IJMPB. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1001.5326 by other author