Some natural flavonoids are competitive inhibitors of Caspase-1, -3 and -7 despite their cellular toxicity

A common feature of both apoptosis and inflammation is the activation of caspases. Caspases are aspartate-directed cysteine proteases that have numerous cellular targets. It has been discovered that several flavonoids are inhibitors of caspases. Flavonoids are members of a family of polyphenolic compounds from plants that have many biological properties, one of which is the ability to induce cell death. Some flavonoids are selective inhibitors of particular caspases. Since some of the inhibitory flavonoids are nevertheless cytotoxic, these results suggest that flavonoid-induced cell death may be occurring through a non-classical apoptosis pathway that is not dependent on caspase activity.     

Single-ion-conducting nanocomposite polymer electrolytes based on PEG400 and anionic nanoparticles: Part 2. Electrical characterization

Molecular relaxation and polarization phenomena of twelve single-ion-conducting nanocomposite polymer electrolytes (nCPEs) are studied using Broadband Electrical Spectroscopy (BES). The electrolytes are obtained by combining PEG400 oligomers with increasing amounts of anionic nanofiller comprised of fluorinated-TiO₂ associated with Li⁺ cations (LiFT^®), resulting in [PEG400/(LiFT)_y] systems with 0 ≤ y ≤ 26.4. This new class of [PEG400/(LiFT)_y] electrolytes allows us to achieve a significant single-ion conductivity (1.1·10⁻⁵ S cm⁻¹ at 30 °C for n_Li/n_O = 0.113) without the addition of lithium salts. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest conductivity value reported for this class of electrolytes. This study, in conjunction with the results reported in Part 1, leads us to hypothesize a conduction mechanism in terms of two types of long-range charge-transfer processes. The first charge-transfer occurs at the interface between the filler nanoparticles and filler-PEG domains, while the second occurs through the PEG400 matrix with the assistance of polymer segmental motion. The measured Li⁺ transference numbers confirm that the studied materials are single-ion conductors.     

Survey on hierarchical routing schemes in?��flat�� distributed hash tables

The first generation of DHT designs offered a completely flat structure of the key space that is randomly partitioned among participating DHT nodes. That has certain advantages, for example, even distribution of workload among nodes. On the other hand, grouping keys under a single authority or achieving latency guarantees for queries is difficult. To address these shortcomings, various kinds of hierarchy have been proposed over recent years. The last generation is hierarchical DHTs (HDHTs) where nodes are organized onto layers; each next layer consists of supernodes for the previous layer. In this survey paper, we thoroughly go over the evolution of DHTs from pure flat to pre-hierarchical. Our focus is on hierarchical schemes in DHT routing. We argue that their application is not restricted within HDHT designs. We sequentially built a set of design principles; each provides a base for hierarchical routing schemes. In the extreme case, application these principles leads to HDHT designs.     

Ultrasound velocity and adiabatic compressibility of molten GdCl<Subscript>3</Subscript> and its solutions in potassium chloride

The ultrasound velocity in the melts of gadolinium chloride and its mixtures with potassium chloride is measured as a function of the temperature and composition, and their adiabatic compressibilities are calculated. A relation is established between the relative deviations of these properties from their values for hypothetic ideal solutions.     

Charge Photogeneration in Few‐Layer MoS2

The 2D semiconductor MoS₂ in its mono‐ and few‐layer form is expected to have a significant exciton binding energy of several 100 meV, suggesting excitons as the primary photoexcited species. Nevertheless, even single layers show a strong photovoltaic effect and work as the active material in high sensitivity photodetectors, thus indicating efficient charge carrier photogeneration. Here, modulation spectroscopy in the sub‐ps and ms time scales is used to study the photoexcitation dynamics in few‐layer MoS₂. The results suggest that the primary photoexcitations are excitons that efficiently dissociate into charges with a characteristic time of 700 fs. Based on these findings, simple suggestions for the design of efficient MoS₂ photovoltaic and photodetector devices are made.     

A microsatellite map of wheat

Hexaploid bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L. em. Thell) is one of the world's most important crop plants and displays a very low level of intraspecific polymorphism. We report the development of highly polymorphic microsatellite markers using procedures optimized for the large wheat genome. The isolation of microsatellite-containing clones from hypomethylated regions of the wheat genome increased the proportion of useful markers almost twofold. The majority (80%) of primer sets developed are genome-specific and detect only a single locus in one of the three genomes of bread wheat (A, B, or D). Only 20% of the markers detect more than one locus. A total of 279 loci amplified by 230 primer sets were placed onto a genetic framework map composed of RFLPs previously mapped in the reference population of the International Triticeae Mapping Initiative (ITMI) Opata 85 x W7984. Sixty-five microsatellites were mapped at a LOD >2.5, and 214 microsatellites were assigned to the most likely intervals. Ninety-three loci were mapped to the A genome, 115 to the B genome, and 71 to the D genome. The markers are randomly distributed along the linkage map, with clustering in several centromeric regions.     

Itraconazole maintenance treatment for histoplasmosis in AIDS: a prospective, multicenter trial

The expression of cytokeratins (CKs) in normal cervical epithelium, low grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL), high grade SILs and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) were analyzed using four different monoclonal antikeratin antibodies. In normal cervical epithelium, CK 18 showed strong immunoreactivity in basal and parabasal layers. CK 19 and 14 were expressed only in the basal layer while CK 13 was found selectively n the spinal cells. As the lesions progressed from low grade SIL to high grade SIL, immunoreactivity of CK 18, 19 and 14 in the basal cell compartment increased while the expression of CK 13 decreased. In SCC, as well-differentiated tumors showed decreased immunoreactivity for CK 18, 19 and 14 with CK 13 showing a strong and focal (localized) immunoreactivity. Undifferentiated carcinomas totally lacked CK 13 reactivity. Our findings therefore suggest that expression of CK 18, 19 and 14 may be directly related to tumor grade and CK 13 may be a marker of differentiation in cervical lesions.