38 research outputs found
AFM-Detected Apoptotic Changes in Morphology and Biophysical Property Caused by Paclitaxel in Ishikawa and HeLa Cells
The apoptosis of cancer cells is associated with changes in the important cell properties including morphology, surface roughness and stiffness. Therefore, the changes in morphology and biophysical properties can be a good way of evaluating the anticancer activity of a drug. This study examined the effect of paclitaxel on the properties of Ishikawa and HeLa cells using atomic force microscopy (AFM), and the relationship between the changes in morphology and the biophysical properties and apoptosis was discussed. The viability and proliferation of the cells were analyzed using the methylthiazol tetrazolium (MTT) method and a TUNEL assay to confirm cellular apoptosis due to a paclitaxel treatment. AFM observations clearly showed the apoptotic morphological and biophysical changes in Ishikawa and HeLa cells. After the paclitaxel treatment, the cell membrane was torn and holed, the surface roughness was increased, and the stiffness was decreased. These changes were observed more apparently after a 24 h treatment and in Ishikawa cells compared to HeLa cells. The MTT and TUNEL assays results revealed the Ishikawa cells to be more sensitive to paclitaxel than HeLa cells and definite apoptosis occurred after a 24 h treatment. These results showed good agreement with the AFM results. Therefore, research on the morphological and biophysical changes by AFM in cancer cells will help to evaluate the anticancer activities of the drugs
Combination analysis of genome-wide association and transcriptome sequencing of residual feed intake in quality chickens
Study on the Current State of Textual Expression in Private University Charters in China: Based on Textual Analysis of the Charters of 105 Private Undergraduate Universities
Image fusion method based on simultaneous sparse representation with nonāsubsampled contourlet transform
The image fusion method based on sparse representation in the singleāscale image domain has produced better fusion results than the classic methods based on multiāscale analysis nowadays. However, due to the limited number of dictionary atoms, it is difficult to provide an accurate description for image details in the sparseārepresentationābased image fusion methods, and it requires a lot of time. A novel dictionary is constructed with nonāsubsampled contourlet transform and sparse representation by using the proposed simultaneous strategy. Then the novel dictionary could combine the sparsity attribute of the learning dictionary with a multiāscale feature of nonāsubsampled contourlet transform. Moreover, the simultaneous strategy is combined with this novel dictionary so that sparse coefficients can be represented with the same dictionary atoms and thus they can be compared in a reasonable and accurate way. Finally, the image fusion method along with this novel dictionary is proposed and named nonāsubsampled contourlet transform (NSCT)āsimultaneous sparse representation (SSR). Experimental results show that the proposed fusion method NSCTāSSR, with its more excellent fusion effect and better antiānoise capability, outperforms the existing fusion methods, which are based on both multiāscale domain and sparse representation in the singleāscale image domain
Genetic Variation Analysis in Wild and Cultured Subpopulations of Small Abalone Haliotis diversicolor
Microbial denitrification dominates nitrate losses from forest ecosystems
Denitrification removes fixed nitrogen (N) from the biosphere, thereby restricting the availability of this key limiting nutrient for terrestrial plant productivity. This microbially driven process has been exceedingly difficult to measure, however, given the large background of nitrogen gas (N-2) in the atmosphere and vexing scaling issues associated with heterogeneous soil systems. Here, we use natural abundance of N and oxygen isotopes in nitrate (NO3-) to examine dentrification rates across six forest sites in southern China and central Japan, which span temperate to tropical climates, as well as various stand ages and N deposition regimes. Our multiple stable isotope approach across soil to watershed scales shows that traditional techniques underestimate terrestrial denitrification fluxes by up to 98%, with annual losses of 5.6-30.1 kg of N per hectare via this gaseous pathway. These N export fluxes are up to sixfold higher than NO3- leaching, pointing to widespread dominance of denitrification in removing NO3- from forest ecosystems across a range of conditions. Further, we report that the loss of NO3- to denitrification decreased in comparison to leaching pathways in sites with the highest rates of anthropogenic N deposition