Ferrocene-quinoxaline Y-shaped chromophores as fascinating second-order NLO building blocks for long lasting highly active SHG polymeric films

The first example of a Y-shaped ferrocene quinoxaline derivative with a surprisingly high and stable second harmonic generation (SHG) response in composite polymeric films is reported. The interesting quadratic hyperpolarizability values of different substituted Y-shaped chromophores are also investigated in solution by the EFISH technique

A Review of Metallothionein Isoforms and their Role in Pathophysiology

The Metallothionein (MT) is a protein which has several interesting biological effects and has been demonstrated increase focus on the role of MT in various biological systems in the past three decades. The studies on the role of MT were limited with few areas like apoptosis and antioxidants in selected organs even fifty years after its discovery. Now acknowledge the exploration of various isoforms of MT such as MT-I, MT-II, MT-III and MT-IV and other isoforms in various biological systems

DNA microarray profiling of genes differentially regulated by the histone deacetylase inhibitors vorinostat and LBH589 in colon cancer cell lines

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Despite the significant progress made in colon cancer chemotherapy, advanced disease remains largely incurable and novel efficacious chemotherapies are urgently needed. Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) represent a novel class of agents which have demonstrated promising preclinical activity and are undergoing clinical evaluation in colon cancer. The goal of this study was to identify genes in colon cancer cells that are differentially regulated by two clinically advanced hydroxamic acid HDACi, vorinostat and LBH589 to provide rationale for novel drug combination partners and identify a core set of HDACi-regulated genes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>HCT116 and HT29 colon cancer cells were treated with LBH589 or vorinostat and growth inhibition, acetylation status and apoptosis were analyzed in response to treatment using MTS, Western blotting and flow cytometric analyses. In addition, gene expression was analyzed using the Illumina Human-6 V2 BeadChip array and Ingenuity^®Pathway Analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Treatment with either vorinostat or LBH589 rapidly induced histone acetylation, cell cycle arrest and inhibited the growth of both HCT116 and HT29 cells. Bioinformatic analysis of the microarray profiling revealed significant similarity in the genes altered in expression following treatment with the two HDACi tested within each cell line. However, analysis of genes that were altered in expression in the HCT116 and HT29 cells revealed cell-line-specific responses to HDACi treatment. In addition a core cassette of 11 genes modulated by both vorinostat and LBH589 were identified in both colon cancer cell lines analyzed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study identified HDACi-induced alterations in critical genes involved in nucleotide metabolism, angiogenesis, mitosis and cell survival which may represent potential intervention points for novel therapeutic combinations in colon cancer. This information will assist in the identification of novel pathways and targets that are modulated by HDACi, providing much-needed information on HDACi mechanism of action and providing rationale for novel drug combination partners. We identified a core signature of 11 genes which were modulated by both vorinostat and LBH589 in a similar manner in both cell lines. These core genes will assist in the development and validation of a common gene set which may represent a molecular signature of HDAC inhibition in colon cancer.</p

A Survey on Web Forum Crawling Techniques

Abstract This paper focuses on the study of web forum crawling problem which is an important task in web applications such as web mining and search engines. Due to the richness of the information contributed by millions of internet users every day, web forum sites have become precious deposits of information on the web. As a result, mining knowledge from forum sites has become more important and more significant. However, forum sites exist in different layouts or styles and they are powered by different software packages which makes forum crawling, a tedious task. In addition, large amount of duplicate pages and uninformative pages on forum sites also makes forum crawling task inefficient. In this paper, various forum crawling techniques and their comparisons has been discussed

The experiential aspect of rural home-stay among Chinese and Malay students using diary method

Tourism involving home-stays is one of the Malaysian government's key efforts to diversify its cultural tourism product. Tourists to the programme are adopted by their foster families experience a more traditional life in Malay villages. Using a diary method, this study examines the experiential aspects of home-stay holidays among domestic students in Kampung Lonek. A total of 19 diaries were content-analyzed using NVivo, which is a qualitative data analysis (QDA) computer software package produced by QSR International. Based on the findings, the home-stay experiential model is developed which explains the different phases of travel experience and their components. The on-site experience reveals three distinct dimensions: ‘environmental experience’, ‘activity, culture and knowledge experience’ and ‘human interaction experience’. The study discusses the differences between Chinese and Malay students in their home-stay experience. The article highlights its methodological, theoretical and managerial contributions