When Cytokinin, a Plant Hormone, Meets the Adenosine A2A Receptor: A Novel Neuroprotectant and Lead for Treating Neurodegenerative Disorders?

It is well known that cytokinins are a class of phytohormones that promote cell division in plant roots and shoots. However, their targets, biological functions, and implications in mammalian systems have rarely been examined. In this study, we show that one cytokinin, zeatin riboside, can prevent pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells from serum deprivation-induced apoptosis by acting on the adenosine A2A receptor (A2A-R), which was blocked by an A2A-R antagonist and a protein kinase A (PKA) inhibitor, demonstrating the functional ability of zeatin riboside by mediating through A2A-R signaling event. Since the A2A-R was implicated as a therapeutic target in treating Huntington’s disease (HD), a cellular model of HD was applied by transfecting mutant huntingtin in PC12 cells. By using filter retardation assay and confocal microscopy we found that zeatin riboside reversed mutant huntingtin (Htt)-induced protein aggregations and proteasome deactivation through A2A-R signaling. PKA inhibitor blocked zeatin riboside-induced suppression of mutant Htt aggregations. In addition, PKA activated proteasome activity and reduced mutant Htt protein aggregations. However, a proteasome inhibitor blocked both zeatin riboside-and PKA activator-mediated suppression of mutant Htt aggregations, confirming mediation of the A2A-R/PKA/proteasome pathway. Taken together, zeatin riboside might have therapeutic potential as a novel neuroprotectant and a lead for treating neurodegenerative disorders

Augmentation of the antibody response of Atlantic salmon by oral administration of alginate-encapsulated IPNV antigens.

The objective of the present study was to assess the effect of alginate-encapsulated infectious pancreatic necrosis virus antigens in inducing the immune response of Atlantic salmon as booster vaccines. One year after intraperitoneal injection with an oil-adjuvanted vaccine, post-smolts were orally boosted either by 1) alginate-encapsulated IPNV antigens (ENCAP); 2) soluble antigens (UNENCAP) or 3) untreated feed (control). This was done twice, seven weeks apart. Sampling was done twice, firstly at 7 weeks post 1st oral boost and the 2nd, at 4 weeks after the 2nd oral boost. Samples included serum, head kidney, spleen and hindgut. Serum antibodies were analyzed by ELISA while tissues were used to assess the expression of IgM, IgT, CD4, GATA3, FOXP3, TGF-β and IL-10 genes by quantitative PCR. Compared to controls, fish fed with ENCAP had a significant increase (p<0.04) in serum antibodies following the 1st boost but not after the 2nd boost. This coincided with significant up-regulation of CD4 and GATA3 genes. In contrast, serum antibodies in the UNENCAP group decreased both after the 1st and 2nd oral boosts. This was associated with significant up-regulation of FOXP3, TGF-β and IL-10 genes. The expression of IgT was not induced in the hindgut after the 1st oral boost but was significantly up-regulated following the 2nd one. CD4 and GATA3 mRNA expressions exhibited a similar pattern to IgT in the hindgut. IgM mRNA expression on the other hand was not differentially regulated at any of the times examined. Our findings suggest that 1) Parenteral prime with oil-adjuvanted vaccines followed by oral boost with ENCAP results in augmentation of the systemic immune response; 2) Symmetrical prime and boost (mucosal) with ENCAP results in augmentation of mucosal immune response and 3) Symmetrical priming and boosting (mucosal) with soluble antigens results in the induction of systemic immune tolerance

Assessing and Mapping Spatial Associations among Oral Cancer Mortality Rates, Concentrations of Heavy Metals in Soil, and Land Use Types Based on Multiple Scale Data

In this study, a deconvolution procedure was used to create a variogram of oral cancer (OC) rates. Based on the variogram, area-to-point (ATP) Poisson kriging and p-field simulation were used to downscale and simulate, respectively, the OC rate data for Taiwan from the district scale to a 1 km × 1 km grid scale. Local cluster analysis (LCA) of OC mortality rates was then performed to identify OC mortality rate hot spots based on the downscaled and the p-field-simulated OC mortality maps. The relationship between OC mortality and land use was studied by overlapping the maps of the downscaled OC mortality, the LCA results, and the land uses. One thousand simulations were performed to quantify local and spatial uncertainties in the LCA to identify OC mortality hot spots. The scatter plots and Spearman’s rank correlation yielded the relationship between OC mortality and concentrations of the seven metals in the 1 km cell grid. The correlation analysis results for the 1 km scale revealed a weak correlation between OC mortality rate and concentrations of the seven studied heavy metals in soil. Accordingly, the heavy metal concentrations in soil are not major determinants of OC mortality rates at the 1 km scale at which soils were sampled. The LCA statistical results for local indicator of spatial association (LISA) revealed that the sites with high probability of high-high (high value surrounded by high values) OC mortality at the 1 km grid scale were clustered in southern, eastern, and mid-western Taiwan. The number of such sites was also significantly higher on agricultural land and in urban regions than on land with other uses. The proposed approach can be used to downscale and evaluate uncertainty in mortality data from a coarse scale to a fine scale at which useful additional information can be obtained for assessing and managing land use and risk

Fame: a fault-pattern based memory failure analysis framework

A memory failure analysis framework is developed—the Failure Analyzer for MEmories (FAME). The FAME integrates the Memory Error Catch and Analysis (MECA) system and the Memory Defect Diagnostics (MDD) system. The fault-type based diagnostics approach used by MECA can improve the efficiency of the test and diagnostic algorithms. The fault-pattern based diagnostics approach used by MDD further improves the defect identification capability. The FAME also comes with a powerful viewer for inspecting the failure patterns and fault patterns. It provides an easy way to narrow down the potential cause of failures and identify possible defects more accurately during the memory product development and yield ramp-up stage. An experiment has been done on an industrial case, demonstrating very accurate results in a much shorter time as compared with the conventional way.

Flash Memory Built-In Self-Test Using March-Like Algorithms

[[abstract]]Flash memories are a type of non-volatile memory based on floating-gate transistors. The use of commodity and embedded flash memories are growing rapidly as we enter the system-on-chip (SOC) era. Conventional tests for flash memories are usually ad hoc-the test procedure is developed for a specific design. We propose improved March-like algorithms (i.e., March FT) for both bit-oriented and word-oriented flash memory; to cover the disturbance faults derived from the IEEE 1005 Standard, as well as conventional faults. A novel flash memory fault simulator is used to analyze and generate the test algorithms. In addition, we present BIST designs for two industrial flash memories. The area overhead is only about 3% for a medium-sized flash memory[[fileno]]2030243030019[[department]]資訊工程學

Fish size in unit of mass (g), Weekly feed intake (FI) per fish, weekly IPNV antigen dose per fish and weekly IPNV antigen (Ag) dose per unit of fish mass (dose/kg).

<p>Fish size in unit of mass (g), Weekly feed intake (FI) per fish, weekly IPNV antigen dose per fish and weekly IPNV antigen (Ag) dose per unit of fish mass (dose/kg).</p

Sequences of primers used in this study.

<p>D* direction of primer.</p><p>Sequences of primers used in this study.</p