Reciprocal response of nitrogen for enhancing growth and proximate compositions of marine microalga Tetraselmis sp. under low saline conditions

326-332The present investigation was aimed to study reciprocal response of nitrogen to enhance the cell multiplication and proximate balance from marine microalgae Tetraselmis sp. under low saline conditions. The strain has been isolated from Yellow Sea, South Korea and the algae were cultured in the different nitrogen concentrations (0N, 1N & 2N) under low saline conditions (15, 20 and 25 psu).The results revealed that the Tetraselmissp. have significantly higher (P 0.001) optical density, cell density, biomass concentration and total lipid in moderate nitrogen concentration (1N) under 25psu of salinity condition. However, the total protein and carbohydrate were significantly higher (P < 0.001) in the high nitrogen concentration (2N) under 20 psu of salinity. The present study reveals that the combined effects made a huge impact on growth and biochemical variation in the microalgae

Process Algebraic Approach to the Schedulability Analysis and Workload Abstraction of Hierarchical Real-Time Systems

Real-time embedded systems have increased in complexity. As microprocessors become more powerful, the software complexity of real-time embedded systems has increased steadily. The requirements for increased functionality and adaptability make the development of real-time embedded software complex and error-prone. Component-based design has been widely accepted as a compositional approach to facilitate the design of complex systems. It provides a means for decomposing a complex system into simpler subsystems and composing the subsystems in a hierarchical manner. A system composed of real-time subsystems with hierarchy is called a hierarchical real-time system This paper describes a process algebraic approach to schedulability analysis of hierarchical real-time systems. To facilitate modeling and analyzing hierarchical real-time systems, we conservatively extend an existing process algebraic theory based on ACSR-VP (Algebra of Communicating Shared Resources with Value-Passing) for the schedulability of real-time systems. We explain a method to model a resource model in ACSR-VP which may be partitioned for a subsystem. We also introduce schedulability relation to define the schedulability of hierarchical real-time systems and show that satisfaction checking of the relation is reducible to deadlock checking in ACSR-VP and can be done automatically by the tool support of ERSA (Verification, Execution and Rewrite System for ACSR). With the schedulability relation, we present algorithms for abstracting real-time system workloads

The telomere maintenance mechanism spectrum and its dynamics in gliomas

Background : The activation of the telomere maintenance mechanism (TMM) is one of the critical drivers of cancer cell immortality. In gliomas, TERT expression and TERT promoter mutation are considered to reliably indicate telomerase activation, while ATRX mutation and/or loss indicates an alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT). However, these relationships have not been extensively validated in tumor tissues. Methods : Telomerase repeated amplification protocol (TRAP) and C-circle assays were used to profile and characterize the TMM cross-sectionally (n = 412) and temporally (n = 133) across glioma samples. WES, RNA-seq, and NanoString analyses were performed to identify and validate the genetic characteristics of the TMM groups. Results : We show through the direct measurement of telomerase activity and ALT in a large set of glioma samples that the TMM in glioma cannot be defined solely by the combination of telomerase activity and ALT, regardless of TERT expression, TERT promoter mutation, and ATRX loss. Moreover, we observed that a considerable proportion of gliomas lacked both telomerase activity and ALT. This telomerase activation-negative and ALT negative group exhibited evidence of slow growth potential. By analyzing a set of longitudinal samples from a separate cohort of glioma patients, we discovered that the TMM is not fixed and can change with glioma progression. Conclusions : This study suggests that the TMM is dynamic and reflects the plasticity and oncogenicity of tumor cells. Direct measurement of telomerase enzyme activity and evidence of ALT should be considered when defining TMM. An accurate understanding of the TMM in glioma is expected to provide important information for establishing cancer management strategies.This research was supported by the Bio & Medical Technology Development Program of the National Research Foundation (NRF), funded by the Ministry of Science & ICT (NRF-2018M3A9H3021707), and the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (HI21C0239)

Effects of Color and Serial-Position of Words on L2 Vocabulary Recall and Retention

This study investigated the effects of word color, serial-position, and their interaction on L2 learners’ recall and retention of words. Adopting a repeated-measure design, this study presented 19 Korean middle school students with low frequency English words and pseudo words under each of the four conditions: [.Order .Color], [.Order +Color], [+Order .Color], and [+Order +Color]. Their vocabulary recall and retention were measured by immediate and delayed free recall tasks, along with written retrospective protocols. Overall the results of this study supported the effects of color, serial-position and their interaction on immediate recall and partly on retention. The participants’ immediate recall test scores were higher when some words in the list were marked in color ([+Color] conditions) and the further analyses of individual words showed that those colored words were recalled and retained more frequently and foremost than non-colored ones. It was also found that words in first and last positions resulted in high recall and retention, with stronger primacy effect of the first position than recency effect of the last position. Yet, when color was added, the recency effect turned out to be stronger than primacy effect. Finally, written retrospective protocols confirmed that the participants actually paid attention to color and serial-position of words while processing the presented words

Natural Products as New Approaches for Treating Bladder Cancer: From Traditional Medicine to Novel Drug Discovery

Bladder cancer (BC) is a heterogeneous disease that a tumor develops in the bladder lining and in some cases, the bladder muscle. Chemotherapy and immunotherapy are commonly used to treat bladder cancer. However, chemotherapy can cause burning and irritation in the bladder while BCG immunotherapy, which is the main type of intravesical immunotherapy for bladder cancer, can also cause burning in the bladder and flu-like symptoms. Thus, drugs originating from natural products have attracted much attention due to the reports that they have anti-cancer properties with low adverse effects. In this study, eighty-seven papers that dealt with natural products preventing or treating bladder cancer were reviewed. The studies were classified into the following mechanism: 71 papers on cell death, 5 papers on anti-metastasis, 3 papers on anti-angiogenesis, 1 paper on anti-resistance, and 7 papers on clinical trials. Most of the natural products that induced apoptosis up-regulated proteins such as caspase-3 and caspase-9. Regarding anti-metastasis, MMP-2 and MMP-9 are regulated frequently. Regarding anti-angiogenesis, HIF-1α and VEGF-A are down-regulated frequently. Nevertheless, the number of papers regarding anti-resistance and clinical trial are too few, so more studies are needed. In conclusion, this database will be useful for future in vivo studies of the anti-bladder cancer effect of natural products, in the process of selecting materials used for the experiment

Ulvophyte Green Algae Caulerpa lentillifera: Metabolites Profile and Antioxidant, Anticancer, Anti-Obesity, and In Vitro Cytotoxicity Properties

Marine algae have excellent bioresource properties with potential nutritional and bioactive therapeutic benefits, but studies regarding Caulerpa lentillifera are limited. This study aims to explore the metabolites profile and the antioxidant, anticancer, anti-obesity, and in vitro cytotoxicity properties of fractionated ethanolic extract of C. lentillifera using two maceration and soxhlet extraction methods. Dried simplicia of C. lentillifera was mashed and extracted in ethanol solvent, concentrated and evaporated, then sequentially partitioned with equal volumes of ethyl acetate and n-Hexane. Six samples were used in this study, consisting of ME (Maceration&mdash;Ethanol), MEA (Maceration&mdash;Ethyl Acetate), MH (Maceration&mdash;n-Hexane), SE (Soxhletation&mdash;Ethanol), SEA (Soxhletation&mdash;Ethyl Acetate), and SH (Soxhletation&mdash;n-Hexane). Non-targeted metabolomic profiling was determined using LC-HRMS, while antioxidant, anti-obesity, and anticancer cytotoxicity were determined using DPPH and ABTS, lipase inhibition, and MTT assay, respectively. This study demonstrates that C. lentillifera has several functional metabolites, antioxidant capacity (EC50 MH is very close to EC50 of Trolox), as well as anti-obesity properties (EC50 MH &lt; EC50 orlistat, an inhibitor of lipid hydrolyzing enzymes), which are useful as precursors for new therapeutic approaches in improving obesity-related diseases. More interestingly, ME, MH, and SE are novel bioresource agents for anticancer drugs, especially for hepatoma, breast, colorectal, and leukemia cancers. Finally, C. lentillifera can be a nutraceutical with great therapeutic benefits

Ulvophyte Green Algae <i>Caulerpa lentillifera</i>: Metabolites Profile and Antioxidant, Anticancer, Anti-Obesity, and In Vitro Cytotoxicity Properties

Marine algae have excellent bioresource properties with potential nutritional and bioactive therapeutic benefits, but studies regarding Caulerpa lentillifera are limited. This study aims to explore the metabolites profile and the antioxidant, anticancer, anti-obesity, and in vitro cytotoxicity properties of fractionated ethanolic extract of C. lentillifera using two maceration and soxhlet extraction methods. Dried simplicia of C. lentillifera was mashed and extracted in ethanol solvent, concentrated and evaporated, then sequentially partitioned with equal volumes of ethyl acetate and n-Hexane. Six samples were used in this study, consisting of ME (Maceration—Ethanol), MEA (Maceration—Ethyl Acetate), MH (Maceration—n-Hexane), SE (Soxhletation—Ethanol), SEA (Soxhletation—Ethyl Acetate), and SH (Soxhletation—n-Hexane). Non-targeted metabolomic profiling was determined using LC-HRMS, while antioxidant, anti-obesity, and anticancer cytotoxicity were determined using DPPH and ABTS, lipase inhibition, and MTT assay, respectively. This study demonstrates that C. lentillifera has several functional metabolites, antioxidant capacity (EC50 MH is very close to EC50 of Trolox), as well as anti-obesity properties (EC50 MH 50 orlistat, an inhibitor of lipid hydrolyzing enzymes), which are useful as precursors for new therapeutic approaches in improving obesity-related diseases. More interestingly, ME, MH, and SE are novel bioresource agents for anticancer drugs, especially for hepatoma, breast, colorectal, and leukemia cancers. Finally, C. lentillifera can be a nutraceutical with great therapeutic benefits

The telomere maintenance mechanism spectrum and its dynamics in gliomas

Background The activation of the telomere maintenance mechanism (TMM) is one of the critical drivers of cancer cell immortality. In gliomas, TERT expression and TERT promoter mutation are considered to reliably indicate telomerase activation, while ATRX mutation and/or loss indicates an alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT). However, these relationships have not been extensively validated in tumor tissues. Methods Telomerase repeated amplification protocol (TRAP) and C-circle assays were used to profile and characterize the TMM cross-sectionally (n = 412) and temporally (n = 133) across glioma samples. WES, RNA-seq, and NanoString analyses were performed to identify and validate the genetic characteristics of the TMM groups. Results We show through the direct measurement of telomerase activity and ALT in a large set of glioma samples that the TMM in glioma cannot be defined solely by the combination of telomerase activity and ALT, regardless of TERT expression, TERT promoter mutation, and ATRX loss. Moreover, we observed that a considerable proportion of gliomas lacked both telomerase activity and ALT. This telomerase activation-negative and ALT negative group exhibited evidence of slow growth potential. By analyzing a set of longitudinal samples from a separate cohort of glioma patients, we discovered that the TMM is not fixed and can change with glioma progression. Conclusions This study suggests that the TMM is dynamic and reflects the plasticity and oncogenicity of tumor cells. Direct measurement of telomerase enzyme activity and evidence of ALT should be considered when defining TMM. An accurate understanding of the TMM in glioma is expected to provide important information for establishing cancer management strategies.N

Fast fashion, fashion brands & sustainable consumption

The phenomenon of fast fashion chains is due to the way this business model manages its production chain and supplies. Combining the quick response to the agile, lean retailing and leagile processes, it is possible to deliver products to retail outlets in a few weeks, in response to growing consumer demand for new goods. The excessive consumption of fast fashion is also due to social media involves issues such as sustainability in fashion consumption and work practices within companies and their suppliers. On the other hand, the awareness of the concern with the consequences of this consumption gives rise to new ways of consuming and producing fashion causing less impact both environmental and social