Low Doses of PFOA Promote Prostate and Breast Cancer Cells Growth through Different Pathways

Endocrine Disrupting Compounds (EDCs) are found in everyday products. Widely distributed throughout the environment, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are a specific class of EDCs that can accumulate in adipose tissue. Many of them induce adverse effects on human health—such as obesity, fertility disorders and cancers—by perturbing hormone effects. We previously identified many compounds with EDC activity in the circulation of obese patients who underwent bariatric surgery. Herein, we analyzed the effects of four of them (aldrin, BDE28, PFOA and PCB153) on two cancer cell lines of hormone-sensitive organs (prostate and breast). Each cell line was exposed to serial dilutions of EDCs from 10⁻⁶ M to 10⁻¹² M; cytotoxicity and proliferation were monitored using the IncuCyte^® technology. We showed that none of these EDCs induce cytotoxicity and that PFOA and PCB153, only at very low doses (10⁻¹² M), increase the proliferation of DU145 (prostate cancer) and MCF7 (breast cancer) cells, while the same effects are observed with high concentrations (10⁻⁶ M) for aldrin or BDE28. Regarding the mechanistic aspects, PFOA uses two different signaling pathways between the two lines (the Akt/mTORC1 and PlexinD1 in MCF7 and DU145, respectively). Thus, our study demonstrates that even at picomolar (10⁻¹² M) concentrations PFOA and PCB153 increase the proliferation of prostate and breast cancer cell lines and can be considered possible carcinogens.     

A Survey on IP Watermarking Techniques

Intellectual property (IP) block reuse is essential for facilitating the design process of system-on-a-chip. Sharing IP designs poses significant high security risks. Recently, digital watermarking emerged as a candidate solution for copyright protection of IP blocks. In this paper, we survey and classify different techniques used for watermarking IP designs. To this end, we defined several evaluation criteria, which can also be used as a benchmark for new IP watermarking developments. Furthermore, we established a comprehensive set of requirements for future IP watermarking techniques.     

Evaluation of rapeseed meals in broiler chicks: Effect of iodine supply and glucosinolate degradation by myrosinase or copper

In rapeseed meals (RSM) of a conventional (c) or a newly bred (n) variety 117 or 44 mmol glucosinolates and glucosinolate degradation products per kg dry matter were detected. Soaking meals in aqueous myrosinase or copper sulphate solution and subsequent drying reduced the content of antinutrients by more than 90%. Broiler chickens were fed (i) a glucosinolate-free diet, or this diet in which half the soybean meal was replaced by RSM of various origins and treatment; (ii) untreated cRSM; (iii) cRSM treated with myrosinase: (iv) cRSM treated with Cu (v) untreated nRSM; or (vi) nRSM treated with myrosinase. These diets were administered with or without supplementary iodine. Chickens receiving the iodine-deficient diets with myrosinase-treated RSM showed growth depression, incomplete feathering, leg injuries and severe goitre. In the serum T⁴ could not be detected. Giving myrosinase-treated RSM plus iodine, or giving other RSM diets irrespective of iodine administration, no growth depression was observed. RSM diets without iodine dosage markedly increased thyroid weight: there were no differences between the RSM variants. In contrast to the treatment with myrosinase, in the sera of the chickens fed on untreated RSM or RSM treated with copper T⁴ could be detected, suggesting that in iodine-deficient conditions differences in serum T⁴ concentration between RSM groups indicate a differing anti-thyroid activity. With iodine supplementation the RSM had a significant effect on thyroid weight. The largest thyroids (five-fold heavier) were in the animals with myrosinase-treated cRSM. The untreated cRSM and the nRSM trebled or doubled the thyroid weight, and the myrosinase-treated nRSM trebled it. The thyroid weight of chicks fed cRSM treated with copper did not differ significantly from the glucosinolate-free control. There was evidence that heating the myrosinase-treated RMS produced anti-thyroid compounds; these should be identified in further investigations.     

Correlation of phenolic acid content of maize to resistance toSitophilus zeamais,the maize weevil,in CIMMYT'S collections

The (E)-ferulic acid content of the grain of nine populations of land races of maize derived from CIMMYT's collections was found to be negatively correlated to susceptibility characteristics towards the maize weevilSitophilus zeamais. Correlation coefficients for six susceptibility parameters and (E)-ferulic acid content were significant and ranged from –0.58 to –0.79. A multiple regression analysis by the SAS forward procedure using the primary seed characteristics associated with susceptibility indicated that the ferulic acid content was the only significant factor in explaining variation in at least two susceptibility parameters: the Dobie index and adult preference. In 15 CIMMYT pools, correlations between four susceptibility parameters and (E)-ferulic acid content were also significant (–0.76 to –0.81). The results suggest that phenolic acid content is a leading indicator of grain resistance or susceptibility to insects and may represent a newly identified mechanism of resistance.     

Using Stochastic Differential Equation for Verification of Noise in Analog/RF Circuits

Today’s analog/RF design and verification face significant challenges due to circuit complexity, process variations and short market windows. In particular, the influence of technology parameters on circuits, and the issues related to noise modeling and verification still remain a priority for many applications. Noise could be due to unwanted interaction between the circuit elements or it could be inherited from the circuit elements. In addition, manufacturing disparity influence the characteristic behavior of the manufactured circuits. In this paper, we propose a methodology for modeling and verification of analog/RF designs in the presence of noise and process variations. Our approach is based on modeling the designs using stochastic differential equations (SDE) that will allow us to incorporate the statistical nature of noise. We also integrate the device variation due to 0.18μ m fabrication process in an SDE based simulation framework for monitoring properties of interest in order to quickly detect errors. Our approach is illustrated on nonlinear Tunnel-Diode and a Colpitts oscillator circuits.     

THE CONTRIBUTION OF DEXTRINS OF BEER SENSORY PROPERTIES PART II. AFTERTASTE

We investigated the possibility that dextrins could contribute to the aftertaste of beer by being broken down to sweet sugars by salivary α-amylase after beer Ingestion. The volume, pH and temperature of beer and saliva present in the oral cavity after swallowing were measured on several subjects and found adequate for the hydrolysis of beer dextrins by salivary amylase. The in vitro hydrolysis of a 6% dextrin solution and of commercial beers by pancreatic α-amylase yielded significant amounts of glucose and maltose in addition to maltotriose. Similarly, the hydrolysis of commercial beers by human saliva produced between 2.7 and 7.4 g/litre of sweet-tasting maltose and glucose, depending on the duration of the hydrolysis (30 sec to 2 min) and the amount of saliva added to 2.5 ml of beer (0.5 or 2 ml). This much sugar, because it is produced over a period of time, may not cause a detectable sweet taste but it might partially mask the bitter aftertaste of beer.     

Self-assembled monolayers for electrode fabrication and efficient threshold voltage control of organic transistors with amorphous semiconductor layer

In this paper we show that thiolated self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) can be used to anchor source–drain gold electrodes on the substrate, leading to excellent electrical performances of the organic field-effect transistor (OFET) on a par with those using a standard electrode process. Using an amorphous semiconductor and a gate dielectric functionalized with SAMs bearing different dipole moments, we demonstrate that we can tune the threshold voltage alone, while keeping nearly unchanged the other electrical properties (hole carrier mobility, I_on/I_off ratio, subthreshold swing). This differs from previous studies for which SAMs functionalization induced significant changes in all the OFET electrical performances. This result opens doors to design organic circuits using reproducible amorphous semiconductor based OFETs for which only the threshold voltage can be tuned on demand.