Neuroprotective Properties of Rutin Hydrate against Scopolamine-Induced Deficits in BDNF/TrkB/ERK/CREB/Bcl2 Pathways.

: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an age-related degenerative brain disorder characterized by a progressive decline in cognitive function and memory. This study aimed to evaluate whether rutin hydrate (RH) has neuroprotective effects in an AD-like learning and memory impairment rat model induced by scopolamine (SCO). The rats were administered with RH (100 mg/kg) and SCO (1.

The study on the first women doctors in Korea, AHN Soo-kyung, KIM Young-heung, and KIM Hae-ji.

This study examined three women, AHN Soo-kyung, KIM Youngheung and KIM Hae-ji, who were officially licensed as doctors for the first time in Joseon. I wanted to find a new "starting point" of women's medicine history by scrutinizing their home environment, medical classes, graduation and medical license, and life after becoming doctors. The parents of KIM Young-heung and KIM Hae-ji might have been enlightened and Christians.

LacI-Family Transcriptional Regulator DagR Acts as a Repressor of the Agarolytic Pathway Genes in A3(2).

Actinobacteria utilize various polysaccharides in the soil as carbon source by degrading them via extracellular hydrolytic enzymes. Agarose, a marine algal polysaccharide composed of D-galactose and 3,6-anhydro-L-galactose (AHG), is one of the carbon sources used by A3(2). However, little is known about agar hydrolysis in A3(2), except that the regulation of agar hydrolysis metabolism is strongly inhibited by glucose as in the catabolic pathways of other polysaccharides.

Surface Analysis of Amorphous Carbon Thin Film for Etch Hard Mask.

When the aspect ratio of a high aspect ratio (HAR) etching process is greatly increased, an amorphous carbon layer (ACL) hard mask is required for dynamic random-access memory (DRAM). To improve the durability of an etch hard mask, an understanding of the plasma deposition mechanisms and the deposited film properties associated with the plasma conditions and atomic structure, respectively, is required. We performed a series of plasma depositions, material characterizations and dry-etching to investigate the effect of the deposition process condition on the surface characteristics of an ACL film to be used as a dry etch hard mask in an HAR etch process.

Paclitaxel-loaded chitosan oligosaccharide-stabilized gold nanoparticles as novel agents for drug delivery and photoacoustic imaging of cancer cells.

Polymer nanoparticles have gained significant attention as potential drug carriers for anticancer agents and molecular imaging. Biocompatible gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were synthesized using chitosan oligosaccharide (COS) as a reducing and stabilizing agent and were subsequently loaded with paclitaxel (PTX) to demonstrate their use in drug delivery and photoacoustic imaging (PAI) of MDA-MB-231 cells. Paclitaxel-loaded chitosan oligosaccharide-stabilized gold nanoparticles (PTX-COS AuNPs) were spherical in shape with an average particle size of 61.

Doxorubicin-loaded fucoidan capped gold nanoparticles for drug delivery and photoacoustic imaging.

Polymer nanoparticles are emerging as a useful tool for a wide variety of biomedical and therapeutic applications. The present study demonstrates the multifunctional doxorubicin-loaded fucoidan capped gold nanoparticles (DOX-Fu AuNPs) for drug delivery and photoacoustic imaging (PAI). Biocompatible AuNPs were synthesized using a naturally occurring fucoidan (Fu) as a capping and reducing agent.

Cytotoxic Induction and Photoacoustic Imaging of Breast Cancer Cells Using Astaxanthin-Reduced Gold Nanoparticles.

Astaxanthin, a kind of photosynthetic pigment, was employed for gold nanoparticle formation. Nanoparticles were characterized using Ulteraviolet-Visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction, and the possible presence of astaxanthin functional groups were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The cytotoxic effect of synthesized nanoparticles was evaluated against MDA-MB-231 (human breast cancer cells) using a tetrazolium-based assay, and synthesized nanoparticles exhibited dose-dependent toxicity.

Resistive Switching Behavior in Organic-Inorganic Hybrid CH3 NH3 PbI3-x Clx Perovskite for Resistive Random Access Memory Devices.

The CH3 NH3 PbI3- x Clx organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite material demonstrates remarkable resistive switching behavior, which can be applicable in resistive random access memory devices. The simply designed Au/CH3 NH3 PbI3- x Clx /FTO structure is fabricated by a low-temperature, solution-processable method, which exhibits remarkable bipolar resistive switching and nonvolatile properties.

One-Pot Conversion of Carbohydrates into Pyrrole-2-carbaldehydes as Sustainable Platform Chemicals.

A practical conversion method of carbohydrates into N-substituted 5-(hydroxymethyl)pyrrole-2-carbaldehydes (pyrralines) was developed by the reaction with primary amines and oxalic acid in DMSO at 90 °C. Further cyclization of the highly functionalized pyrralines afforded the pyrrole-fused poly-heterocyclic compounds as potential intermediates for drugs, food flavors, and functional materials. The mild Maillard variant of carbohydrates and amino esters in heated DMSO with oxalic acid expeditiously produced the pyrrole-2-carbaldehyde skeleton, which can be concisely transformed into the pyrrole alkaloid natural products, 2-benzyl- and 2-methylpyrrolo[1,4]oxazin-3-ones 8 and 9, lobechine 10, and (-)-hanishin 11 in 23-32% overall yields from each carbohydrate.

A chain extension method for apocarotenoids; lycopene and lycophyll syntheses.

The novel C5 benzothiazolyl (BT) sulfone containing an acetal group was prepared as a building block for the chain-extension of apocarotenoids. The double Julia-Kocienski olefination of the BT-sulfone with C10 2,7-dimethyl-2,4,6-octatrienedial and deprotection of the resulting acetal groups efficiently produced C20 crocetin dial. The higher homologues of C30 and C40 apocarotenoids were prepared from C20 crocetin dial by the repeated application of the Julia-Kocienski olefination of the C5 BT-sulfone and hydrolysis.

Sulfone-mediated syntheses of crocetin derivatives: regioselectivity of highly functionalized building blocks.

New C5 sulfone building blocks containing a masked polar end group have been devised for the efficient synthesis of carotenoids with polar termini. Chemoselectivity or the regiochemical issue of the highly functionalized units has been carefully addressed depending on the soft or hard nature of electrophiles. These building blocks have been successfully applied to the syntheses of crocetin derivatives, crocetin dial and the novel crocetin dinitrile.

A pepper MSRB2 gene confers drought tolerance in rice through the protection of chloroplast-targeted genes.

Background: The perturbation of the steady state of reactive oxygen species (ROS) due to biotic and abiotic stresses in a plant could lead to protein denaturation through the modification of amino acid residues, including the oxidation of methionine residues. Methionine sulfoxide reductases (MSRs) catalyze the reduction of methionine sulfoxide back to the methionine residue. To assess the role of this enzyme, we generated transgenic rice using a pepper CaMSRB2 gene under the control of the rice Rab21 (responsive to ABA protein 21) promoter with/without a selection marker, the bar gene.

Bis-sulfonic acid ionic liquids for the conversion of fructose to 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural.

Homogenous bis-sulfonic acid ionic liquids (1 mol equiv.) in DMSO (10 mol equiv.) at 100 °C efficiently mediated the conversion of D-fructose into 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural in 75% isolated yield, which was roughly a 10% increment compared to the case of the mono-sulfonic acid ionic liquids.

Thermal modeling and measurement of junctions in photovoltaic packages.

This study reports the direct thermal observation of the junction temperature and determination of the thermal resistance in a commercial solar cell package under actual operating conditions. A thermal transient method was the key method that was utilized for the thermal characterization of the device. Sunlight directed into the solar cell package was found to increase significantly the heat generation inside the solar cell package.

Determining partial differential cross sections for low-energy electron photodetachment involving conical intersections using the solution of a Lippmann-Schwinger equation constructed with standard electronic structure techniques.

A method for obtaining partial differential cross sections for low energy electron photodetachment in which the electronic states of the residual molecule are strongly coupled by conical intersections is reported. The method is based on the iterative solution to a Lippmann-Schwinger equation, using a zeroth order Hamiltonian consisting of the bound nonadiabatically coupled residual molecule and a free electron. The solution to the Lippmann-Schwinger equation involves only standard electronic structure techniques and a standard three-dimensional free particle Green's function quadrature for which fast techniques exist.

Selective deoxygenation of allylic alcohol: stereocontrolled synthesis of lavandulol.

Selective deoxygenation of allylic alcohol can be successfully carried out by the formation of alkoxyalkyl ether (EE or MOM), followed by Pd(dppe)Cl(2)-catalyzed reduction with LiBHEt(3). (+)-S-Lavandulol has been efficiently synthesized by the application of this protocol to the diol derived from the Pb(OAc)(4)-promoted oxidative ring-opening of (-)-R-carvone. This deoxygenation method is general and selective for allylic alcohols.

On the determination of partial differential cross sections for photodetachment and photoionization processes producing polyatomic molecules with electronic states coupled by conical intersections.

A formalism is derived for the computation of partial differential cross sections for electron photodetachment and photoionization processes that leave the residual or target molecule in electronic states that are strongly coupled by conical intersections. Because the electronic states of the target are nonadiabatically coupled, the standard adiabatic states approach of solving the electronic Schrödinger equation for the detached electron at fixed nuclear geometries and then vibrationally averaging must be fundamentally modified. We use a Lippmann-Schwinger equation based approach, which leads naturally to a partitioning of the transition amplitude into a Dyson orbital like part plus a scattering correction.

Replication of cucumber mosaic virus RNA 1 in cis requires functional helicase-like motifs of the 1a protein.

The cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) encoded 1a protein contains an NTPase/helicase-like domain. To investigate whether various helicase motifs were required for efficient replication and to establish whether CMV RNA 1 could be replicated efficiently in cis, we constructed deletion mutations in helicase motifs I, III and VI and analyzed their effects on CMV RNA replication in tobacco. CMV replication was not detectable for any of the three helicase mutants, indicating that the helicase domain is crucial for efficient CMV replication.

On the determination of intensities for electron photodetachment and photoionization spectra involving states coupled by conical intersections: total integral cross sections for polyatomic molecules.

The formal underpinning is derived for the computational determination of electron photodetachment and photoionization total integral cross sections for molecules in which the residual species, which can be a neutral or an ion, has states that are strongly coupled by conical intersections. The theory takes full account of the requisite antisymmetry of all the electrons and the potential nonorthogonality of the orbital for the scattering electron to the occupied molecular orbitals of the residual. The breakdown of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation requires significant modifications to the standard adiabatic state theory.

RiceArrayNet: a database for correlating gene expression from transcriptome profiling, and its application to the analysis of coexpressed genes in rice.

Microarray data can be used to derive understanding of the relationships between the genes involved in various biological systems of an organism, given the availability of databases of gene expression measurements from the complete spectrum of experimental conditions and materials. However, there have been no reports, to date, of such a database being constructed for rice (Oryza sativa). Here, we describe the construction of such a database, called RiceArrayNet (RAN; http://www.

Genome analysis and characterization of a tobacco mosaic virus isolate infecting balsam (Impatiens balsamina).

The complete RNA genomic sequence of a tobacco mosaic virus isolate infecting Impatiens balsamina, designated as TMV-IM, has been determined. The genomic sequence and the predicted gene products of TMV-IM were similar to those of other members of the genus Tobamovirus. The CP ORF of TMV-IM showed sequence identities of 95.

Ring-expansion protocol: preparation of synthetically versatile dihydrotropones.

A ring-expansion protocol that consisted of the 1,2-addition of various enolate nucleophiles to 6-trimethylsiloxy-2-cyclohexene-1-one (1) and the NaIO(4)-promoted oxidative ring opening of the resulting diols 2, followed by an intramolecular Knoevenagel condensation, furnished versatile dihydrotropones 6. Maintaining Z-configuration in the oxidative ring-opening products 3 is crucial for the success of the ring-expansion strategy. Dihydrotropones 6 are ripe for further elaborations such as oxidation to tropones 8 and Diels-Alder reaction with the Danishefsky's diene 10 to afford polycyclic compounds 12.

Centroid neural network with a divergence measure for GPDF data clustering.

An unsupervised competitive neural network for efficient clustering of Gaussian probability density function (GPDF) data of continuous density hidden Markov models (CDHMMs) is proposed in this paper. The proposed unsupervised competitive neural network, called the divergence-based centroid neural network (DCNN), employs the divergence measure as its distance measure and utilizes the statistical characteristics of observation densities in the HMM for speech recognition problems. While the conventional clustering algorithms used for the vector quantization (VQ) codebook design utilize only the mean values of the observation densities in the HMM, the proposed DCNN utilizes both the mean and the covariance values.

Weighted centroid neural network for edge preserving image compression.

An edge preserving image compression algorithm based on an unsupervised competitive neural network is proposed. The proposed neural network, the called weighted centroid neural network (WCNN), utilizes the characteristics of image blocks from edge areas. The mean/residual vector quantization (M/RVQ) scheme is utilized in this proposed approach as the framework of the proposed algorithm.