Discovery and Optimization of Anti-Cancer Properties of Traditional Herbal Medicines Using Zebrafish-Human Tumor Xenografts

Cancer is one of the most well-known diseases around the world. It hurts everyone in some way, whether they have it themselves or they know someone that is diagnosed. But the problem is not just this brutal disease, the problem is its invasive treatments. The most common treatments for cancer have harmful and painful side-effects that occur in most cases. As a solution to invasive cancer treatments, this experiment is testing herbal medications Neem, Nilavembu, Ashwagandha and Tulsi as potential nontoxic cancer treatments. First, the maximum tolerable dosage for each herbal agent was found. This dosage was used for the toxicity trials as well as the anti-cancer trials. The mortality rate, heart rate and hatch rate of the zebrafish during five days of incubation in solution provided the toxicity data. To test the anti-cancer effects of these herbal agents, a zebrafish-human tumor xenograft model was used. The zebrafish embryos were treated with the maximum tolerable dosage of each solution for five days; when the embryos were three days old, they were injected with human prostate cancer cell and were allowed to incubate in the solution for another two days. After the treatment, the zebrafish were died with acridine orange and imaged under the confocal microscope. Neem, Nilavembu, Ashwagandha and Tulsi all had herbal induced cell death with little to no toxicity. Therefore, presenting a strong case that this study can move forward to be tested on a human model

WSO/UV: World Space Observatory/Ultraviolet

We summarize the capabilities of the World Space Observatory (UV) Project (WSO/UV). An example of the importance of this project (with a planned launch date of 2007/8) for the study of Classical Novae is given.Comment: 4 pages, To appear in the proceeedings of the "Classical Nova Explosions" conference, eds. M. Hernanz and J. Jose, AI

On the possible existence of short-period g-mode instabilities powered by nuclear burning shells in post-AGB H-deficient (PG1159-type) stars

We present a pulsational stability analysis of hot post-AGB H-deficient pre-white dwarf stars with active He-burning shells. The stellar models employed are state-of-the-art equilibrium structures representative of PG1159 stars derived from the complete evolution of the progenitor stars. On the basis of fully nonadiabatic pulsation computations, we confirmed theoretical evidence for the existence of a separate PG1159 instability strip in the $\log T_{\rm eff} - \log g$ diagram characterized by short-period $g$-modes excited by the $\epsilon$-mechanism. This instability strip partially overlaps the already known GW Vir instability strip of intermediate/long period $g$-modes destabilized by the classical $\kappa$-mechanism acting on the partial ionization of C and/or O in the envelope of PG1159 stars. We found that PG1159 stars characterized by thick He-rich envelopes and located inside this overlapping region could exhibit both short and intermediate/long periods simultaneously. we study the particular case of VV 47, a pulsating planetary nebula nucleus that has been reported to exhibit a series of unusually short pulsation periods. We found that the long periods exhibited by VV 47 can be readily explained by the classical $\kappa$-mechanism, while the observed short-period branch below $\approx 300$ s could correspond to modes triggered by the He-burning shell through the $\epsilon$-mechanism, although more observational work is needed to confirm the reality of these short-period modes. Were the existence of short-period $g$-modes in this star convincingly confirmed by future observations, VV 47 could be the first known pulsating star in which both the $\kappa$-mechanism and the $\epsilon$-mechanism of mode driving are simultaneously operating.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables. To be published in The Astrophysical Journa

Treatment of Hailey-Hailey Disease of the vulva: a retrospective case series

Background: Hailey-Hailey disease (familial benign chronic pemphigus) of the vulva is a rare autosomal dominant dermatosis characterized by malformation of desmosomes and bullae, particularly in intertriginous areas. Cases: We reviewed the cases of 5 women followed at a single academic institution over a period of 17 years. Of the 5 patients, 4 carried a diagnosis of Hailey-Hailey at the time of presentation to our institution, and one was diagnosed on biopsy. 3 were members of a family group. Initial treatment of choice was a topical steroid (betamethasone in 3, fluocinonide and hydrocortisone in 1 each), vulvar skin guidelines, tepid soaks, a skin protectant (A&D; ointment, zinc oxide) and additional treatment (crotamiton in 1, clotrimazole in 2, and Polysporin in 1). Final treatment regimens in 3 patients followed long term were zinc oxide/A&D; and betamethasone-clotrimazole ointment in all 3, nystatin-triamcinolone ointment in 2, oral minocycline in 1, oral fluconazole prn in 1, and topical tacrolimus in 1. Treatment courses were complicated by superimposed fungal infections, superimposed bacterial infections, and lichen simplex chronicus flares. These were treated with antifungals, topical clindamycin and metronidazole, and steroid-antifungal bursts, respectively. Three of five patients followed long term achieved successful remission with occasional flares. Discussion: Treatment of Hailey-Hailey disease must be tailored to the individual patient. Adherence to vulvar skin care guidelines is critical for the remission of Hailey-Hailey disease. Treatment is long-term and may be complicated by episodes of fungal and bacterial superinfection and lichen simplex chronicus

Can children's instructional gameplay activity be used as a predictive indicator of reading skills?

For children who may face reading difficulties, early intervention is a societal priority. However, early intervention requires early detection. While much research has approached the issue of identification through measuring component skills at single timepoints, an alternative is the utilisation of dynamic assessment. To this point, few initiatives have explored the potential for identification through progress data from play in digital literacy games. This study explored how well growth curves from progress data in a digital intervention can predict reading performance after gameplay compared to measuring component skills at a single timepoint (school entry). 137 six-year-old students played the digital Graphogame for 25 weeks. Latent growth curve analyses showed that variation in trajectories explained variation in literacy performance to a greater extent than risk status at school entry. Findings point to a potential for non-intrusive reading assessment in the application of a serious digital game in first grade

New Pulsating White Dwarfs in Cataclysmic Variables

The number of discovered non-radially pulsating white dwarfs (WDs) in cataclysmic variables (CVs) is increasing rapidly by the aid of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We performed photometric observations of two additional objects, SDSS J133941.11+484727.5 (SDSS 1339), independently discovered as a pulsator by Gansicke et al., and SDSS J151413.72+454911.9, which we identified as a CV/ZZ Ceti hybrid. In this Letter we present the results of the remote observations of these targets performed with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) during the Nordic-Baltic Research School at Moletai Observatory, and follow-up observations executed by NOT in service mode. We also present 3 candidates we found to be non-pulsating. The results of our observations show that the main pulsation frequencies agree with those found in previous CV/ZZ Ceti hybrids, but specifically for SDSS 1339 the principal period differs slightly between individual observations and also from the recent independent observation by Gansicke et al. Analysis of SDSS colour data for the small sample of pulsating and non-pulsating CV/ZZ Ceti hybrids found so far, seems to indicate that the r-i colour could be a good marker for the instability strip of this class of pulsating WDs.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter