Molecular Targeting of the Oncoprotein PLK1 in Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia: RO3280, a Novel PLK1 Inhibitor,Induces Apoptosis in Leukemia Cells

Polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) is highly expressed in many cancers and therefore a biomarker of transformation and potential target for the development of cancer-specific small molecule drugs. RO3280 was recently identified as a novel PLK1 inhibitor; however its therapeutic effects in leukemia treatment are still unknown. We found that the PLK1 protein was highly expressed in leukemia cell lines as well as 73.3% (11/15) of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) samples. PLK1 mRNA expression was significantly higher in AML samples compared with control samples (82.95 ± 110.28 vs. 6.36 ± 6.35; p < 0.001). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that shorter survival time correlated with high tumor PLK1 expression (p = 0.002). The 50% inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) of RO3280 for acute leukemia cells was between 74 and 797 nM. The IC₅₀ of RO3280 in primary acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) and AML cells was between 35.49 and 110.76 nM and 52.80 and 147.50 nM, respectively. RO3280 induced apoptosis and cell cycle disorder in leukemia cells. RO3280 treatment regulated several apoptosis-associated genes. The regulation of DCC, CDKN1A, BTK, and SOCS2 was verified by western blot. These results provide insights into the potential use of RO3280 for AML therapy; however, the underlying mechanisms remain to be determined.     

Issues Related to the Use of Blood in Food and Animal Feed

Blood has traditionally been used as a high protein ingredient in both human food and animal feed, with resulting economic, environmental and nutritional benefits. However, potentially serious health and safety issues related to blood consumption, particularly the risk of pathogenic or harmful metabolic materials, the infectivity of prion diseases, and the presence of identified allergens such as bovine serum albumin (BSA), are causing many consumers to shy away from any product containing either animal blood or ingredients derived from animal blood. Thus, despite the significant volumes of blood produced by slaughterhouses, blood is currently underutilized as a food ingredient. This article reviews the use of animal blood as an ingredient in food intended for human consumption or for animal feed and discusses the related consumer concerns.     

Effect of high-voltage electrostatic field on quality of carrot juice during refrigeration

In the present study, carrot juice was used as the experimental material and stored in a 100 kV/m high-voltage electrostatic field (HVEF; E-group) which was used as a freshness-retention system. The changes in the biological properties were investigated relative to those juices which were stored in a common refrigerator (R-group) and controlled at the same temperature (4 °C). The results showed that the extent of color difference (ΔE), amount of total phenolics, tannins, and total plate counts of carrot juice were increased during the storage period, whereas the turbidity and amount of total carotenoids decreased under all treatment conditions. These factors remained relatively constant during storage in the E-group, whereas a significant difference (p < 0.05) was observed in the R-group. The HVEF treatment yielded better physicochemical properties and prolonged the shelf-life of the carrot juice. The application of HVEF at low temperature has the potential of imparting freshness and a high nutritional value to the products.     

Use of Soy Protein and Microbial Transglutaminase as a Binder in Low-sodium Restructured Meats

ABSTRACT: Pork sticks were prepared by mixing pork chucks with various amounts of bisulfite-treated soy protein and microbial transglutaminase (MTGase) to evaluate the potential of using soy protein as meat binders. According to tensile strength, the favorable conditions for binding the restructured pork chunks were 5% soy protein containing 0.2% NaHSO₃ and 20 unit MTGase/g, and the setting condition was 60 min at 40°C. The tensile strength and cooking yield of restructured pork sticks made with bisulfite-treated soy protein and MTGase were much higher than those of using salt, suggesting the high potential of using soy protein and MTGase as binders in products where NaCl reduction is desired.     

Resveratrol inhibits migration and invasion of human breast‐cancer cells

Metastasis is the primary cause of death from breast cancer. Cell migration and invasion play important roles in neoplastic metastasis. The insulin‐like growth factor (IGF‐1) stimulates cell migration through activation of PI‐3K/Akt signaling pathway. IGF‐1 induces the tumorigenicity of many types of cancer cells and is critical for metastatic cell spread in estrogen receptor (ER)‐negative breast‐cancer cells. Matrix metalloproteinase‐2 (MMP‐2) is a key enzyme in the degradation of extracellular matrices and its expression has been dysregulated in breast cancer invasion and metastasis. Resveratrol exhibited potential anticarcinogenic activities in several studies. However, the inhibitory effects of resveratrol on the expression of MMP‐2, migration and invasion of breast‐cancer cell have not been demonstrated yet. In the present study, we investigated the anti‐invasive mechanism of resveratrol in human breast cancer MDA‐MB 435cells. Here, we showed that IGF‐1 is a potent stimulant of the migration of ER‐negative human breast‐cancer cells. Resveratrol could inhibit IGF‐1‐mediated cell migration of MDA‐MB 435 in vitro. The inhibitory effect of resveratrol was mediated in part through the suppression of the activation of PI‐3K/Akt signaling pathway. Furthermore, IGF‐1‐mediated expression of MMP‐2 was significantly inhibited by resveratrol in concomitance with alteration of cell invasion.     

大尺寸TFT-LCD电视的彩色和图像增强

最近几年,薄膜晶体管液晶显示器(TFT-LCD)技术取得了快速而显著的进步,其性能超过了PDP、CRT以及投影显示。毫无疑问,TFT-LCD已经成为高清电视应用的最佳实现方案。本文将介绍进一步增强大尺寸LCD电视的彩色和图像性能的技术。     

Detection of OFDM Signals in Fast-Varying Channels With Low-Density Pilot Symbols

In fast-varying channels, an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing system needs to insert denser pilot symbols among transmitted symbols in tracking the variation of a channel. However, using denser pilot symbols reduces transmission throughput. In this paper, we propose a pseudopilot algorithm for data detection in fast-varying channels without increasing the pilot density. Our algorithm is based on a regressional model-based least-squares-fitting approach. Within a block of received symbols, we select some data symbols and regard them as pseudopilot symbols. The receiver considers all the possible patterns of the pseudopilots and associates each of them with a data sequence and a corresponding metric. The associated data sequence, whose metric is minimum, is selected as the detected data sequence. Our algorithm is not based on a decision-directed or decision-feedback architecture because the pseudopilots do not come from any detected symbols. The proposed algorithm needs to search all the possible patterns of the pseudopilots, and the complexity may increase with the number of pseudopilots and constellation size. To reduce the number of search, we further propose two modified approaches. The simulation results show that the performance of the proposed algorithms could approach a bit-error probability lower bound that is obtained by letting the receiver know the true values of the pseudopilots. Compared with the linear interpolation method, the proposed algorithm shows obvious improvement in fast-varying channels. The proposed modified approaches could also effectively reduce the number of search while maintaining the performance. We also give the complexity analysis of the proposed algorithm and an approach to determine the degree of the regression polynomial.     

Avalanche buildup time of an InP/InGaAsP/InGaAs APD at high gain

Under a high-gain operating condition, the presence of a multiplication process in the InGaAs(P) regions of an InP/InGaAsP/InGaAs avalanche photodiode (APD) having a structure of separated absorption and multiplication regions could lead to significant enhancement of the avalanche buildup time. As a result, the bandwidth of the device could be reduced considerably. The dependence of the avalanche multiplication factor and the intrinsic response time on the reverse bias voltage, the heterointerface field, the doping concentrations, and the width of the InP layer is examined in detail for the case in which hole injection is assumed. It is shown, for example, that for a fixed value of doping concentrations, reduction of the excess noise factor and enhancement of the gain-bandwidth product of the device can be achieved at the same time by a proper increase of the width of the InP layer     

Structural and Passivative Behaviors of Cu(In) Thin Film

This investigation prepares a low-resistivity and self-passivated Cu(In) thin film. The dissociation behaviors of dilute Cu-alloy thin films, containing 1.5–5at.%In, were prepared on glass substrates by a cosputter deposition, and were subsequently annealed in the temperature range of 200–600 °C for 10–30 min. Thus, self-passivated Cu thin films in the form In₂O₃/Cu/SiO₂ were obtained by annealing Cu(In) alloy films at an elevated temperature. Structural analysis indicated that only strong copper diffraction peaks were detected from the as-deposited film, and an In₂O₃ phase was formed on the surface of the film by annealing the film at an elevated temperature under oxygen ambient. The formation of In₂O₃/Cu/SiO₂ improved the resistivity, adhesion to SiO₂, and passivative capability of the studied film. A dramatic reduction in the resistivity of the film occurred at 500 °C, and was considered to be associated with preferential indium segregation during annealing, yielding a low resistivity below 2.92 μΩcm. The results of this study can be potentially exploited in the application of thin-film transistor–liquid crystal display gate electrodes and copper metallization in integrated circuits.     

Corrosion behavior of pure tin deposit under 55 °C/85 % RH reliability test

With recent moves to implement lead-free manufacturing in the electronics industry, more attention is being paid to the use of tin. One of greatest limitations regarding the reliability of tin is the undesirable development of tin whiskers. Many factors have been identified as being the cause of these whiskers, though tin corrosion has not. Three types of tin deposit grain structures have been developed in an effort to reduce the growth of whisker formations as type (A) with vertical and regular grain boundary; type (B) with horizontal and irregular grain boundary; and type (C) as a combination of both vertical (the top layer) and horizontal (the bottom layer) grain structures. We kept a series of samples in an oven for 1 year at 55 °C/85 % RH (relative humidity), and then used focused ion beam to examine the corrosion microstructure that occurred three types of deposit structures. We found the preferred path of corrosion to occur along the grain boundary and that tin oxide enlarges the volume of the deposit. In order to release the compressive stress that developed during corrosion, whiskers were formed as the grain structure being vertical. Corrosion developed in different locations of various deposits made of the three grain structures. We studied resulting in whisker growth, cracking and the development of internal oxide.