Research on Chaotic Firefly Algorithm and the Application in Optimal Reactive Power Dispatch

Firefly algorithm (FA) is a newly proposed swarm intelligence optimization algorithm. The original version of FA usually traps into local optima like many other general swarm intelligence optimization algorithm. In order to overcome this drawback, the chaotic firefly algorithm(CFA) is proposed. The methods of chaos initialization, chaos population regeneration and linear decreasing inertia weight have been introduced into the original version of FA so as to increase its global search mobility for robust global optimization. The CFA is calculated in Matlab and is examined on six benchmark functions. In order to evaluate the engineering application of the algorithm, the reactive power optimization problem in IEEE 30 bus system is solved by CFA. The outcomes show that the CFA has better performance compared to the original version of FA and PS

First Total Synthesis of a Naturally Occurring Iodinated 5′-Deoxyxylofuranosyl Marine Nucleoside

4-Amino-7-(5′-deoxy-β-D-xylofuranosyl)-5-iodo-pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidine 1, an unusual naturally occurring marine nucleoside isolated from an ascidan, Diplosoma sp., was synthesized from D-xylose in seven steps with 28% overall yield on 10 g scale. The key step was Vorbrüggen glycosylation of 5-iodo-pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidine with 5-deoxy-1,2-O-diacetyl-3-O-benzoyl-D-xylofuranose. Its absolute configuration was confirmed

Inhibitory Effects of Peptide Lunasin in Colorectal Cancer HCT-116 Cells and Their Tumorsphere-Derived Subpopulation

The involvement of cancer stem-like cells (CSC) in the tumor pathogenesis has profound implications for cancer therapy and chemoprevention. Lunasin is a bioactive peptide from soybean and other vegetal sources with proven protective activities against cancer and other chronic diseases. The present study focused on the cytotoxic effect of peptide lunasin in colorectal cancer HCT-116 cells, both the bulk tumor and the CSC subpopulations. Lunasin inhibited the proliferation and the tumorsphere-forming capacity of HCT-116 cells. Flow cytometry results demonstrated that the inhibitory effects were related to apoptosis induction and cell cycle-arrest at G1 phase. Moreover, lunasin caused an increase in the sub-GO/G1 phase of bulk tumor cells, linked to the apoptotic events found. Immunoblotting analysis further showed that lunasin induced apoptosis through activation of caspase-3 and cleavage of PARP, and could modulate cell cycle progress through the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21. Together, these results provide new evidence on the chemopreventive activity of peptide lunasin on colorectal cancer by modulating both the parental and the tumorsphere-derived subsets of HCT-116 cells

Low-level cadmium exposure induced hormesis in peppermint young plant by constantly activating antioxidant activity based on physiological and transcriptomic analyses

As one of the most toxic environmental pollutants, cadmium (Cd) has lastingly been considered to have negative influences on plant growth and productivity. Recently, increasing studies have shown that low level of Cd exposure could induce hormetic effect which benefits to plants. However, the underlying mechanisms of Cd-triggered hormesis are poorly understood. In this study, we found that Cd stress treatment showed a hormetic effect on peppermint and Cd treatment with 1.6 mg L-1 concertation manifested best stimulative effects. To explore the hormesis mechanisms of Cd treatment, comparative transcriptome analysis of peppermint young plants under low (1.6 mg L-1) and high (6.5 mg L-1) level of Cd exposure at 0 h, 24 h and 72 h were conducted. Twelve of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were selected for qRT-PCR validation, and the expression results confirmed the credibility of transcriptome data. KEGG analysis of DEGs showed that the phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and photosynthesis were important under both low and high level of Cd treatments. Interestingly, GO and KEGG analysis of 99 DEGs specifically induced by low level of Cd treatment at 72 h indicated that these DEGs were mainly involved in the pathway of phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and their functions were associated with antioxidant activity. The expression pattern of those genes in the phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway and encoding antioxidant enzymes during 72 h of Cd exposure showed that low level of Cd treatment induced a continuation in the upward trend but high level of Cd treatment caused an inverted V-shape. The changes of physiological parameters during Cd exposure were highly consistent with gene expression pattern. These results strongly demonstrate that low level of Cd exposure constantly enhanced antioxidant activity of peppermint to avoid oxidative damages caused by Cd ion, while high level of Cd stress just induced a temporary increase in antioxidant activity which was insufficient to cope with lasting Cd toxicity. Overall, the results presented in this study shed a light on the underlying mechanisms of the Cd-mediated hormesis in plant. Moreover, our study provided a safe method for the efficient utilization of mild Cd-contaminated soil as peppermint is an important cash plant

GO-2D: identifying 2-dimensional cellular-localized functional modules in Gene Ontology

BACKGROUND: Rapid progress in high-throughput biotechnologies (e.g. microarrays) and exponential accumulation of gene functional knowledge make it promising for systematic understanding of complex human diseases at functional modules level. Based on Gene Ontology, a large number of automatic tools have been developed for the functional analysis and biological interpretation of the high-throughput microarray data. RESULTS: Different from the existing tools such as Onto-Express and FatiGO, we develop a tool named GO-2D for identifying 2-dimensional functional modules based on combined GO categories. For example, it refines biological process categories by sorting their genes into different cellular component categories, and then extracts those combined categories enriched with the interesting genes (e.g., the differentially expressed genes) for identifying the cellular-localized functional modules. Applications of GO-2D to the analyses of two human cancer datasets show that very specific disease-relevant processes can be identified by using cellular location information. CONCLUSION: For studying complex human diseases, GO-2D can extract functionally compact and detailed modules such as the cellular-localized ones, characterizing disease-relevant modules in terms of both biological processes and cellular locations. The application results clearly demonstrate that 2-dimensional approach complementary to current 1-dimensional approach is powerful for finding modules highly relevant to diseases

Effect of miR-181c-5p on vasculogenic mimicry in ovarian cancer stem-like cells and its mechanism

Objective To investigate the effect of miR-181c-5p on vasculogenic mimicry (VM) in ovarian cancer stem-like cells (OCS-LCs) and its mechanism. Methods OVCAR3 cells were induced into OCS-LCs by serum-free suspension culture. OVCAR3 cells were divided into groups A, B, and C and were transfected with NC-miR-181c-5p, siRNA-miR-181c-5p, and pRNA-miR-181c-5p, respectively. The sphere-forming experiment was used to assess the sphere formation ability of groups A, B, and C. RT-qPCR was used to measure the relative expression level of miR-181c-5p in cells of groups A, B, and C, and Western blot was used to measure the relative protein expression levels of Oct-4, Nanog, HIF-1α, and VEGF in cells of groups A, B, and C. CCK-8 assay was used to measure the viability of cells in groups A, B, and C, and the three-dimensional culture experiment was used to measure the angiogenesis rate of groups A, B, and C. Results OVCAR3 cells were successfully induced into OCS-LCs. RT-qPCR showed that group B had a significantly lower relative expression level of miR-181c-5p than group A, and group C had a significantly higher relative expression level than group A (t=2.25,8.68,P<0.05). The sphere-forming experiment showed that compared with group A, group B had significant decreases in sphere-forming cycle, and increases in maximum sphere diameter, and sphere-forming rate, and compared group A with group C, these indicators had the same changes (t=5.56-33.66,P<0.05). Western blot showed that compared with group A, group B had significant increases in the relative protein expression levels of Oct-4, Nanog, HIF-1α, and VEGF, and compared with group C, group A had significant increases in the relative expression levels of these proteins (t=4.51-56.15,P<0.05). CCK-8 assay showed that group B had a significantly higher cell viability than group A, and group C had a significantly lower cell viability than group A (F=97.70-281.80,P<0.05). The three-dimensional culture experiment showed that group B had a significant increase in angiogenesis rate compared with group A, and compared with group C, group A had a significant increase in angiogenesis rate (t=3.70,18.67,P<0.05). Conclusion This study shows that miR-181c-5p may inhibit VM formation in OCS-LCs by reducing the protein expression levels of HIF-1α and VEGF in cells