Anticancer Activity of Linalool Terpenoid: Apoptosis Induction and Cell Cycle Arrest in Prostate Cancer Cells

Purpose: To evaluate the anticancer activity of linalool against human prostate cancer (DU145) cells.Methods: The anticancer activity of linalool against DU145 cancer cells was evaluated by 3-(4, 5- dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Flow cytometry, using propidium iodide and Annexin V-FITC, was applied to study apoptosis and cell cycle phase distribution. Inverted light microscopy was used to study the effect of linalool on cell morphology and apoptotic body formation in DU145 cells while gel electrophoresis was employed to evaluate the effect of linalool on DNA fragmentation.Results: Linalool induced a dose-dependent as well as time-dependent growth inhibitory effect on DU145 prostate cancer cells. It induced sub-G1 phase growth arrest which led to increase in sub-G0/G1 cell population after treatment with increasing doses of linalool. DNA ladder appeared to be more evident with increasing linalool concentration. However, no DNA fragments were observed in the control groups. It was observed that 4.36, 11.54, 21.88 and 15.54 % of the cells underwent early apoptosis after treatment with 0 (no linalool treatment), 20, 40, and 80 μM of linalool, respectively. Compared to control cells, linalool treatment resulted in the appearance of cell shrinkage along with membrane blebbing which are characteristic features of cell apoptosis.Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that linalool can be developed as a plant-based chemotherapeutic agent against prostate cancerKeywords: Prostate cancer, Linalool, Chemotherapy, Cell cycle, Apoptosis, DNA fragmentation, Sub- G1 phase growt

Slow cooling and efficient extraction of C-exciton hot carriers in MoS2 monolayer

In emerging optoelectronic applications, such as water photolysis, exciton fission and novel photovoltaics involving low-dimensional nanomaterials, hot-carrier relaxation and extraction mechanisms play an indispensable and intriguing role in their photo-electron conversion processes. Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides have attracted much attention in above fields recently; however, insight into the relaxation mechanism of hot electron-hole pairs in the band nesting region denoted as C-excitons, remains elusive. Using MoS2 monolayers as a model two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide system, here we report a slower hot-carrier cooling for C-excitons, in comparison with band-edge excitons. We deduce that this effect arises from the favourable band alignment and transient excited-state Coulomb environment, rather than solely on quantum confinement in two-dimension systems. We identify the screening-sensitive bandgap renormalization for MoS2 monolayer/graphene heterostructures, and confirm the initial hot-carrier extraction for the C-exciton state with an unprecedented efficiency of 80%, accompanied by a twofold reduction in the exciton binding energy

Compensation defects in annealed undoped liquid encapsulated Czochralski InP

As-grown undoped n-type semiconducting and annealed undoped semi-insulating (SI) liquid encapsulated Czochralski (LEC) InP has been studied by temperature dependent Hall measurement, photoluminescence spectroscopy, infrared absorption, and photocurrent spectroscopy. P-type conduction SI InP can frequently be obtained by annealing undoped LEC InP. This is caused by a high concentration of thermally induced native acceptor defects. In some cases, it can be shown that the thermally induced n-type SI property of undoped LEC InP is caused by a midgap donor compensating for the net shallow acceptors. The midgap donor is proposed to be a phosphorus antisite related defect. Traps in annealed SI InP have been detected by photocurrent spectroscopy and have been compared with reported results. The mechanisms of defect formation are discussed. © 1999 American Institute of Physics.published_or_final_versio

Formation of P In defect in annealed liquid-encapsulated Czochralski InP

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy measurements have been carried out on liquid-encapsulated Czochralski-grown undoped InP wafers, which reproducibly become semi-insulating upon annealing in an ambient of phosphorus at 800-900°C. The measurements reveal a high concentration of hydrogen complexes in the form V InH 4 existing in the material before annealing in agreement with recent experimental studies. It is argued that the dominant and essential process producing the semi-insulating behavior is the compensation produced by an EL 2-like deep donor phosphorus antisite defect, which is formed by the dissociation of the hydrogen complexes during the process of annealing. The deep donor compensates acceptors, the majority of which are shallow residual acceptor impurities and deep hydrogen associated V In and isolated V In levels, produced at the first stage of the dissociation of the V InH 4 complex. The high concentration of indium vacancies produced by the dissociation are the precursor of the EL 2-like phosphorus antisite. These results show the importance of hydrogen on the electrical properties of InP and indicate that this largely results from low formation energy of the complex V InH 4 in comparison with that of an isolated V In. © 1998 American Institute of Physics.published_or_final_versio

Simulation of dynamic loading in centrifuge modeling for suction bucket foundations

Suction bucket foundations are widely used in the offshore platform for the exploitation of the offshore petroleum and natural gas resources in the Bohai Bay of China. During winter seasons, ice sheets formed in Bohai Bay will impose strong impact and result in strong vibration on the platform. The measured frequency of the structural vibration of the platforms is 0.8 similar to 1.0 Hz. This paper describes a dynamic loading device developed on the geotechnical centrifuge at Tsinghua University and its application in modeling suction bucket foundation under the equivalent ice-induced vibration loadings

Genome-wide copy number variation study in anorectal malformations

Anorectal malformations (ARMs, congenital obstruction of the anal opening) are among the most common birth defects requiring surgical treatment (2-5/10 000 live-births) and carry significant chronic morbidity. ARMs present either as isolated or as part of the phenotypic spectrum of some chromosomal abnormalities or monogenic syndromes. The etiology is unknown. To assess the genetic contribution to ARMs, we investigated single-nucleotide polymorphisms and copy number variations (CNVs) at genome-wide scale. A total of 363 Han Chinese sporadic ARM patients and 4006 Han Chinese controls were included. Overall, we detected a 1.3-fold significant excess of rare CNVs in patients. Stratification of patients by presence/absence of other congenital anomalies showed that while syndromic ARM patients carried significantly longer rare duplications than controls (P = 0.049), non-syndromic patients were enriched with both rare deletions and duplications when compared with controls (P = 0.00031). Twelve chromosomal aberrations and 114 rare CNVs were observed in patients but not in 868 controls nor 11 943 healthy individuals from the Database of Genomic Variants. Importantly, these aberrations were observed in isolated ARM patients. Gene-based analysis revealed 79 genes interfered by CNVs in patients only. In particular, we identified a de novo DKK4 duplication. DKK4 is a member of the WNT signaling pathway which is involved in the development of the anorectal region. In mice, Wnt disruption results in ARMs. Our data suggest a role for rare CNVs not only in syndromic but also in isolated ARM patients and provide a list of plausible candidate genes for the disorder.postprin

Quantum anti-Zeno effect without wave function reduction

We study the measurement-induced enhancement of the spontaneous decay (called quantum anti-Zeno effect) for a two-level subsystem, where measurements are treated as couplings between the excited state and an auxiliary state rather than the von Neumann's wave function reduction. The photon radiated in a fast decay of the atom, from the auxiliary state to the excited state, triggers a quasi-measurement, as opposed to a projection measurement. Our use of the term "quasi-measurement" refers to a "coupling-based measurement". Such frequent quasi-measurements result in an exponential decay of the survival probability of atomic initial state with a photon emission following each quasi-measurement. Our calculations show that the effective decay rate is of the same form as the one based on projection measurements. What is more important, the survival probability of the atomic initial state which is obtained by tracing over all the photon states is equivalent to the survival probability of the atomic initial state with a photon emission following each quasi-measurement to the order under consideration. That is because the contributions from those states with photon number less than the number of quasi-measurements originate from higher-order processes.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Interrogating Institutionalized Establishments: Urban-Rural Inequalities in China’s Higher Education

postprin

Observation of a ppb mass threshoud enhancement in \psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p}) decay

The decay channel $\psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p})$ is studied using a sample of $1.06\times 10^8$ $\psi^\prime$ events collected by the BESIII experiment at BEPCII. A strong enhancement at threshold is observed in the $p\bar{p}$ invariant mass spectrum. The enhancement can be fit with an $S$-wave Breit-Wigner resonance function with a resulting peak mass of $M=1861^{+6}_{-13} {\rm (stat)}^{+7}_{-26} {\rm (syst)} {\rm MeV/}c^2$ and a narrow width that is $\Gamma<38 {\rm MeV/}c^2$ at the 90% confidence level. These results are consistent with published BESII results. These mass and width values do not match with those of any known meson resonance.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Chinese Physics

Mitochondrial fission determines cisplatin sensitivity in tongue squamous cell carcinoma through the BRCA1-miR-593-5p-MFF axis

Cisplatin has been widely employed as a cornerstone chemotherapy treatment for a wide spectrum of solid neoplasms; increasing tumor responsiveness to cisplatin has been a topic of interest for the past 30 years. Strong evidence has indicated that mitochondrial fission participates in the regulation of apoptosis in many diseases; however, whether mitochondrial fission regulates cisplatin sensitivity remains poorly understood. Here, we show that MFF mediated mitochondrial fission and apoptosis in tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC) cells after cisplatin treatment and that miR-593-5p was downregulated in this process. miR-593-5p attenuated mitochondrial fission and cisplatin sensitivity by targeting the 3’ untranslated region sequence of MFF and inhibiting its translation. In exploring the underlying mechanism of miR-593-5p downregulation, we observed that BRCA1 transactivated miR-593-5p expression and attenuated cisplatin sensitivity in vitro. The BRCA1-miR-593-5p-MFF axis also affected cisplatin sensitivity in vivo. Importantly, in a retrospective analysis of multiple centers, we further found that the BRCA1-miR-593-5p-MFF axis was significantly associated with cisplatin sensitivity and the survival of patients with TSCC. Together, our data reveal a model for mitochondrial fission regulation at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels; we also reveal a new pathway for BRCA1 in determining cisplatin sensitivity through the mitochondrial fission program.published_or_final_versio