Melatonin Inhibits Osteoclastogenesis and Osteolytic Bone Metastasis: Implications for Osteoporosis

Osteoblasts and osteoclasts are major cellular components in the bone microenvironment and they play a key role in the bone turnover cycle. Many risk factors interfere with this cycle and contribute to bone-wasting diseases that progressively destroy bone and markedly reduce quality of life. Melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxy-tryptamine) has demonstrated intriguing therapeutic potential in the bone microenvironment, with reported effects that include the regulation of bone metabolism, acceleration of osteoblastogenesis, inhibition of osteoclastogenesis and the induction of apoptosis in mature osteoclasts, as well as the suppression of osteolytic bone metastasis. This review aims to shed light on molecular and clinical evidence that points to possibilities of melatonin for the treatment of both osteoporosis and osteolytic bone metastasis. It appears that the therapeutic qualities of melatonin supplementation may enable existing antiresorptive osteoporotic drugs to treat osteolytic metastasis.     

Effects of Impact Inertia and Surface Characteristics on Deposited Polymer Droplets in Microcavities

Microflow visualization and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) are complementarity performed to study the evolution of a single poly(ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) droplet ejected from a piezoelectric ink-jet printhead and the equilibrium film characteristic of the droplet deposition in a microfabricated cavity. The verified CFD code is further applied to investigate the influences of contact angles thetas_s of the PEDOT droplet/air interface and the PEDOT droplet/cavity sidewall interface as well as droplet impact velocity Vd on the transient deposition process in the micro cavity. Impact inertia was studied by varying the droplet Weber number from 30.3 to 42.6. The surface characteristics are explored by choosing thetas_s of 10deg, 30deg, 50deg, 70deg, 90deg, and 110deg. The influences of impact inertia are also examined by increasing Vd from 2.0 to 12.0 m/s at 2.0 m/s interval. The computed results are found in good agreement with the experimental ones. For the first time, critical Weber numbers have been found relating to the ability of the droplet to wet the side walls and fill a microcavity with a uniform film. The results are also new in terms of the identifications of the critical contact angle (thetas_s)_C and critical impact velocity (Vd)_c. At (thetas_s)_C and at and beyond (Vd)_c, the formation of an intact flat film in the cavity is fulfilled.     

Discovering timely information in MANETs

Timely information refers to information whose ‘most recent’ or ‘latest’ instance is most valuable. In mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), multiple instances of a piece of timely information may be produced by different nodes at different points in time. The problem is to discover the ‘latest’ instance among all existing instances. Within the context of MANETs, timely information discovery is fundamentally different from the existing resource/service discovery problem whose goal is to discover either any instance or a subset of instances which satisfy a local query constraint that can be specified and evaluated using only local attributes of each individual node. In contrast, the timely information discovery problem imposes the global (timeliness) constraint which should best be evaluated when all the instances are considered to determine the latest instance. The complication of discovering timely information arises from the existence of multiple instances of the information, which are produced at different points in time by different nodes in the network, and the need to collect all these instances to decide the latest instance. For MANETs, the lack of infrastructure supports, frequent topology changes, and potential packet loss in wireless communications further challenge the problem of timely information discovery. This paper describes a self-organizing, peer-to-peer based approach, termed ALADIN, to discovering timely information in MANETs. In ALADIN, nodes that produce instances of the timely information are peers who self-organize an adaptive and distributed ‘search infrastructure’ to facilitate the discovery of the latest instance. A simulation study shows that ALADIN is scalable without incurring network-wide flooding in the case of large-scale networks and popular timely information, and yields a high chance of discovering the latest instance in the presence of mobility.     

Promotion of generation of hydrogen by splitting of water by CNT over Pt/TiO2 catalysts

The generation of hydrogen over CNT/Pt/TiO2 catalysts by the splitting of water under irradiation with UV light is studied. The maximum rate of evolution of hydrogen was 2300 micromolg(-1)h(-1) on 0.06 wt% Pt/TiO2 (sol-gel) and reached a stable value of approximately 2000 micromolg(-1)h(-1) when the Pt loading exceeded at a Pt loading of over 0.06 wt%. Single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were applied to enhance the hydrogen generation activity. The evolution rate of hydrogen on 0.06 wt% Pt/0.02 wt% SWCNT-TiO2 (sol-gel) was 3836 micromolh(-1)g(-1). 0.1 M NaCI yielded more hydrogen than any other tested salt. The XRD spectra show that the crystal lattices of commercial TiO2 (ST-21) and self-made TiO2 (sol-gel method) are of the anatase form. However, the TEM images and other catalytic activity data show that the SWCNTs act as wires for the transmission of electrons.     

Determination of retardation parameters of multiple-order wave plate using a phase-sensitive heterodyne ellipsometer

To characterize the linear birefringence of a multiple-order wave plate (MWP), an oblique incidence is one of the methods available. Multiple reflections in the MWP are produced, and oscillations in the phase retardation measurement versus the oblique incident angle are then measured. Therefore, an antireflection coated MWP is required to avoid oscillation of the phase retardation measurement. In this study, we set up a phase-sensitive heterodyne ellipsometer to measure the phase retardations of an uncoated MWP versus the oblique incident angle, which was scanned in the x-z plane and y-z plane independently. Thus, the effect on multiple reflections by the MWP is reduced by means of subtracting the two measured phase retardations from each other. As a result, a highly sensitive and accurate measurement of retardation parameters (RPs), which includes the refractive indices of the extraordinary ray n(e) and ordinary ray n(o), is obtained by this method. On measurement, a sensitivity (n(e),n(o)) of 10(-6) was achieved by this experiment setup. At the same time, the spatial shifting of the P and S waves emerging from the MWP introduced a deviation between experimental results and the theoretical calculation.     

The p38 and NFκB signaling protein activation involved in glycitein protective effects on isoproterenol-treated H9c2 cardiomyoblast cells

Heart disease (HD) is greatly associated with gender and clinical evidence shows that increased serum norepinephrine levels are found in patients with HD. This study investigates the cardio-protective effect of glycitein, a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) from soy bean extract, on H9c2 cardiomyoblast cells treated with isoproterenol (ISO, a norepinephrine analog). The image data and results from western blotting showed that ISO treatment was capable of inducing cellular apoptosis, especially the mitochondrial dependent pathway. Glycitein treatment could suppress mitochondrial pro-apoptotic proteins expression including caspase-9 and caspase-3 in H9c2 treated with ISO. In contrast, several survival proteins were expressed in H9c2 cells treated with glycitein, such as phosphor (p)-Akt, p-Bad and Akt. We confirmed that the protective role of glycitein was partially mediated through the expression of p-38 and NFκB proteins by adding several pathway inhibitors.     

Combined rough sets with flow graph and formal concept analysis for business aviation decision-making

Although business aviation has been popular in the USA, Europe, and South America, however, top economies in East Asia, including Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, have been more conservative and lag behind in the development of business aviation. In this paper, we hope to discover possible trends and needs of business aviation for supporting the government to make decision in anticipation of eventual deregulation in the near future. We adopt knowledge-discovery tools based on rough set to analyze the potential for business aviation through an empirical study. Although our empirical study uses data from Taiwan, we are optimistic that our proposed method can be similarly applied in other countries to help governments there make decisions about a deregulated market in the future.     

Transmission spectral analysis models for the assessment of white-shell eggs and brown-shell eggs freshness

The Journal of Supercomputing - In this study, nondestructive full-spectrum testing was adopted to test the freshness of white-shell eggs and brown-shell eggs. Two hundred and forty each of Lohman...     

Collusion in Atomic Splittable Routing Games

We study how collusion affects the social cost in atomic splittable routing games. Suppose that players form coalitions and each coalition behaves as if it were a single player controlling all the flows of its participants. We investigate the following question: under what conditions would the social cost of the post-collusion equilibrium be bounded by the social cost of the pre-collusion equilibrium? We show that if (i) the network is “well-designed” (satisfying a natural condition), and (ii) the delay functions are affine, then collusion is always beneficial for the social cost in the equilibrium flows. On the other hand, if either of the above conditions is unsatisfied, collusion can worsen the social cost. Our main technique is a novel flow-augmenting algorithm to build equilibrium flows. Our positive result for collusion is obtained by applying this algorithm simultaneously to two different flow value profiles of players and observing the difference in the derivatives of their social costs. Moreover, for a non-trivial subclass of selfish routing games, this algorithm finds the exact equilibrium flows in polynomial time.     

Sr1−xPrxCo0.95Sn0.05O3−δ ceramic as a cathode material for intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cells

In this study, the physical properties of the Sr_1−xPr_xCo_0.95Sn_0.05O_3−δ ceramics were measured and their potential for use as a cathode material of intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFCs) was evaluated. A cubic phase was retained in all of the Sr_1−xPr_xCo_0.95Sn_0.05O_3−δ ceramics. Analysis of the temperature-dependent conductivity found the SrCo_0.95Sn_0.05O_3−δ and Sr_0.9Pr_0.1Co_0.95Sn_0.05O_3−δ ceramics exhibiting semiconductor-like behavior below 550 °C and metal-like behavior above the same temperature. The Sr_0.8Pr_0.2Co_0.95Sn_0.05O_3−δ and Sr_0.7Pr_0.3Co_0.95Sn_0.05O_3−δ ceramics, however, reported a metal-like conductivity in the whole temperature range. The electrical conductivities of the Sr_0.8Pr_0.2Co_0.95Sn_0.05O_3−δ ceramic at 500 °C and 700 °C read respectively 1250 S/cm and 680 S/cm, both of which were superior than those in most of the common perovskites. Single cells with a structure of NiO–Sm_0.2Ce_0.8O_2−δ (SDC)/SDC/Sr_0.8Pr_0.2Co_0.95Sn_0.05O_3−δ-SDC were built and characterized. Addition of SDC in Sr_0.8Pr_0.2Co_0.95Sn_0.05O_3−δ emerged to be a crucial factor reducing the ohmic resistance (R₀) and polarization resistance (R_P) of the cell by facilitating a better adhesion to and electrical contact with the electrolyte layer. The R₀ and R_P of the cell read respectively 0.068 Ω cm² and 0.0571 Ω cm² at 700 °C and 0.298 Ω cm² and 1.310 Ω cm² at 550 °C. With no microstructure optimization and hermetic sealing of the cells, maximum power density (MPD) and open circuit voltage (OCV) reached respectively 0.872 W/cm² and 0.77 V at 700 °C and 0.482 W/cm² and 0.86 V at 550 °C. It is evident that Sr_1−xPr_xCo_0.95Sn_0.05O_3−δ is a promising cathode material for IT-SOFCs.