Synergistic Effects of Flavonoids on Cell Proliferation in Hepa-1c1c7 and LNCaP Cancer Cell Lines

ABSTRACT:  Fruits and vegetables contain a variety of phytochemicals, including flavonoids, which have antioxidant and anticancer properties. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the antiproliferative effects and synergistic interactions of a variety of flavonoids in Hepa-1c1c7, a mouse liver cancer cell line, and LNCaP, a human prostate cancer cell line. Aglycone flavonoids, such as quercetin, kaempferol, and naringenin (at 12.5 to 50 μM), inhibited cancer cell proliferation in both cell lines in a dose dependent manner without cytotoxicity. In contrast, glycone flavonoids (rutin, quercetrin, and naringin) did not inhibit cell growth. Significant synergistic antiproliferative effects were demonstrated in both cancer cell lines when flavonoids were provided in combination treatments. These results suggest that combinations of flavonoids, which are naturally present in whole fruits and vegetables, are more effective in cancer cell growth inhibition than the individual flavonoids.     

Calcium-phosphate derived from mineralized algae for bone tissue engineering applications

In this work, several routes are described towards obtaining pure inorganic phases derived from Coralline officinallis red algae. The scanning electron microscopy studies have shown that it becomes possible not only to eliminate the undesired organic phase, but also to preserve or tailor the red algae typical microporosity. X-ray diffraction analysis was used to investigate the phase content of the red algae before and after performing the different treatment routes. Hydroxyapatite nanocrystallites were obtained after converting the coralline calcium carbonate skeleton by means of combining thermal and chemical routes. These results were confirmed by Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopic analysis. The processing routes herein described are very promising in order to design bioceramics of algae origin that might find useful applications as bone fillers and tissue engineering scaffolds.     

A history of changes to the criminal personality in the DSM.

There is much confusion now surrounding the diagnoses of Antisocial Personality Disorder and Psychopathy. Some individuals still refer to the two as the same diagnosis with different names, even though there is a consensus in the psychology field that the two are distinct disorders. Part of this confusion is likely to be the result of the overlap in the diagnostic criteria: both diagnoses are associated with a history of antisocial behavior. However, it is also very possible that this confusion in the literature is a result of consistent name and criteria changes for the “criminal personality” in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. To make sense of the confusion surrounding the two different diagnoses, the evolution of Antisocial Personality Disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is examined in this paper. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Drinking motives and college students: Further examination of a four-factor model.

The purposes of this study were to examine the reliability and validity of a 4-factor model of the Drinking Motives Measure and to assess year in school and ethnic differences on different types of motives. Data were collected on 441 volunteer college students. Results indicated that fit indices for the 4-factor model were acceptable; fit indices were also better for the 4-factor model than they were for alternative models. Freshman students and students of color had higher scores on the Conformity motives subscale than senior and White students did, respectively. Additionally, differences in the correlation between Conformity motives and alcohol use existed based on year in school, such that the relationship was significantly smaller for freshmen than it was for other students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of a Direct Competitive Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for the Detection of Fluoroquinolone Residues in Shrimp

Rabbit polyclonal antibodies were generated against norfloxacin, purified, and used as the basis of a direct competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the screening of fluoroquinolones in shrimp. The developed method used a simple ethanol/acetic acid solvent extraction, which resulted in a 1.0-ng-norfloxacin/g limit of detection (based on the analysis of known negative and fortified shrimp samples). Norfloxacin extraction efficiencies were evaluated at two fortification concentrations and were greater than 70%, with an intra-assay variation less than 30%. The assay displayed greater than 10% cross reactivity against enro-, cipro-, sara-, and difloxacin. Incurred and known negative shrimp samples were analyzed and compared to the results obtained from an independent liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometric method. All three instances in which fluoroquinolones were present at concentrations near or above the assay limit of detection (1.0 to 17 ng/g) were identified as positive by the newly developed assay, demonstrating the usefulness of this assay as a screening tool.     

Randomized trial of a decision aid for BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation carriers: Impact on measures of decision making and satisfaction.

Objective: Genetic testing is increasingly part of routine clinical care for women with a family history of breast cancer. Given their substantially elevated risk for breast cancer, BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation carriers must make the difficult decision whether or not to opt for risk reducing mastectomy. To help BRCA1/2 carriers make this decision, the authors developed a computer-based interactive decision aid that was tested against usual care in a randomized controlled trial. Design: After the completion of genetic counseling, 214 female (aged 21-75) BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation carriers were randomized to Usual Care (UC; N = 114) or Usual Care plus Decision Aid (DA; N = 100) arms. UC participants received no additional intervention. DA participants were sent the CD-ROM DA to view at home. Main Outcome Measures: The authors measured final management decision, decisional conflict, decisional satisfaction, and receipt of risk reducing mastectomy at 1-, 6-, and 12-months postrandomization. Results: Longitudinal analyses revealed that the DA was effective among carriers who were initially undecided about how to manage their breast cancer risk. Within this group, the DA led to an increased likelihood of reaching a management decision (OR = 3.09, 95% CI = 1.62, 5.90; p     

The friend locator: supporting visitors at large-scale events

According to festival visitors, the best way to experience a music festival is to be together with friends. However, when at a crowded festival, visitors tend to lose each other especially when a lot of people are in motion. This paper reports upon findings made in an ethnographic field study that was carried out during Sweden’s largest music event, the Hultsfred Rock Festival. The study was part of an international research and development project, called the Wireless Festival, which focuses on solutions for large-scale events. The aim of our study was to determine who the typical visitor to the festival was, identify what was important for festival visitors and finally to observe the visitors use of mobile phones. Our findings imply the festival visitors’ need for a friend locator appliance. An early design solution for such appliance is discussed in relation to the findings made.     

On the optimization of heap leaching

Although heap leaching has become established as the technology for treatment of some copper, gold, and zinc minerals, as well as its extension to the treatment of other types of minerals such as saltpeter and mine tailings, little study has been made on the optimization of this technology. Usually the operation of heap leaching is carried out until the maximum recovery has been obtained, or until observing that the concentration in the output solution of the heap exhibits no further extraction. The present study makes an analysis to determine if these criteria present the best conditions from the economic standpoint. Two variables are examined including, (1) leaching time, and (2) height of the heap, at a copper mineral treatment plant. The results of the study showed that the design (height of the heap), and planning of the operation (operational time) were interactive factors, and that maximum recovery was not necessarily the best measure of operational efficiency based on economic considerations.     

Finding the most unusual time series subsequence: algorithms and applications

In this work we introduce the new problem of finding time seriesdiscords. Time series discords are subsequences of longer time series that are maximally different to all the rest of the time series subsequences. They thus capture the sense of the most unusual subsequence within a time series. While discords have many uses for data mining, they are particularly attractive as anomaly detectors because they only require one intuitive parameter (the length of the subsequence) unlike most anomaly detection algorithms that typically require many parameters. While the brute force algorithm to discover time series discords is quadratic in the length of the time series, we show a simple algorithm that is three to four orders of magnitude faster than brute force, while guaranteed to produce identical results. We evaluate our work with a comprehensive set of experiments on diverse data sources including electrocardiograms, space telemetry, respiration physiology, anthropological and video datasets. Eamonn Keogh is an Assistant Professor of computer science at the University of California, Riverside. His research interests include data mining, machine learning and information retrieval. Several of his papers have won best paper awards, including papers at SIGKDD and SIGMOD. Dr. Keogh is the recipient of a 5-year NSF Career Award for “Efficient discovery of previously unknown patterns and relationships in massive time series databases.” Jessica Lin is an Assistant Professor of information and software engineering at George Mason University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside. Her research interests include data mining and informational retrieval. Sang-Hee Lee is a paleoanthropologist at the University of California, Riverside. Her research interests include the evolution of human morphological variation and how different mechanisms (such as taxonomy, sex, age, and time) explain what is observed in fossil data. Dr. Lee obtained her Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Michigan in 1999. Helga Van Herle is an Assistant Clinical Professor of medicine at the Division of Cardiology of the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She received her M.D. from UCLA in 1993; completed her residency in internal medicine at the New York Hospital (Cornell University, 1993–1996) and her cardiology fellowship at UCLA (1997–2001). Dr. Van Herle holds a M.Sc. in bioengineering from Columbia University (1987) and a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from UCLA (1985)