Melanin causes melasma, freckles, age spots, and chloasma. Anti-melanogenic agents can prevent disease-related hyperpigmentation. In the present study, the dose-dependent tyrosinase inhibitory ...activity of Avenanthramide (Avn)-A-B-C was demonstrated, and 100 µM Avn-A-B-C produced the strongest competitive inhibition against inter-cellular tyrosinase and melanin synthesis. Avn-A-B-C inhibits the expression of melanogenesis-related proteins, such as TRP1 and 2. Molecular docking simulation revealed that AvnC (−7.6 kcal/mol) had a higher binding affinity for tyrosinase than AvnA (−7.3 kcal/mol) and AvnB (−6.8 kcal/mol). AvnC was predicted to interact with tyrosinase through two hydrogen bonds at Ser360 (distance: 2.7 Å) and Asn364 (distance: 2.6 Å). In addition, AvnB and AvnC were predicted to be skin non-sensitizers in mammals by the Derek Nexus Quantitative Structure–Activity Relationship system.
In oat ingredients, flavonoids and phenolic acids are known to be the most important phenolic compounds. In phenolic compounds, wide-ranging biological responses, including antioxidative, ...anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, and anti-cancer properties, were reported. Avenanthramide C (Avn C), a component of the phenolic compound of oats, has been reported to be highly antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, but its role in an anti-atherosclerosis response is unknown. The aim of this research was to assess the effect of Avn C on expression of MMP-9 on TNF-α-activated human arterial smooth-muscle cells (HASMC) and signaling involved in its anti-atherosclerosis activity. HASMC cells are known to produce inflammatory cytokines involving IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α during arteriosclerosis activity. Avn C specifically reduced IL-6 secretion in HASMC cells. Furthermore, we investigated whether Avn C could inhibit NF-κB nuclear protein translocation. Avn C suppressed nuclear protein translocation of NF-κB in TNF-α-stimulated HASMCs. The MMP-9 enzyme activity and expression are controlled through the MAPKs signaling path during the Avn C treatment. We confirmed that the levels of wound healing (
-value = 0.013, *
< 0.05) and migration (
-value = 0.007, **
< 0.01) are inhibited by 100 ng/ml TNF-α and 100 μM Avn C co-treated. Accordingly, Avn C inhibited the expression of MMP-9 and cell migration through the MAPK/NF-κB signaling pathway in TNF-α-activated HASMC. Therefore, Avn C can be identified and serve as disease prevention material and remedy for atherosclerosis.
Ever since the introduction of high bandwidth memory (HBM DRAM) and its succeeding line-ups, HBM DRAM has been heralded as a prominent solution to tackle the memory wall problem. However, despite ...continual memory advancements the advent of high-end systems, including supercomputers, hyper-scale data centers and machine learning accelerators, are expediting requirements for higher-performance memory solutions. To accommodate the increasing system-level demands, we introduce HBM3 DRAM, which employs multiple new features and design schemes. Techniques such as an on-die ECC engine, internal NN-DFE I/O signaling, TSV auto-calibration, and layout optimization based on machine-learning algorithms are implemented to efficiently control timing skew margins and SI degradation trade-offs. Furthermore, reduced voltage swings allow for improved memory bandwidth, density, power efficiency and reliability.
The use of pyrodevices in the aerospace industry has been increasing because of their ability to implement separation missions with a small weight, for example, space launchers, spacecrafts, and ...missiles. During operation, pyrodevices generate pyroshock, which causes failures of electronic devices. Recently, a pyroshock simulation method using laser shock has been developed to evaluate the risk of pyroshock before flight mission. However, depending on the structure, the laser shock showed some difficulty simulating pyroshock in the low-frequency regime accompanying vibration. Therefore, in this study, we developed a hybrid method of numerical modal analysis and laser shock-based experimental simulation to visualize the pyroshock propagation in all the relevant frequency regimes. For the proof of concept of the proposed method, we performed experiments of explosive bolt-induced shock and pyrolock-induced shock in the open-box-type tension joint and compared the hybrid simulation results with actual pyroshock. From the results, we obtained the simulated time-domain signal with an averaged peak-to-peak acceleration difference (PAD) of 11.2% and the shock response spectrum (SRS) with an averaged mean acceleration difference (MAD) of 28.5%. In addition, we were able to visualize the simulation results in the temporal and spectral domains to compare the pyroshock induced by each pyrodevice. A comparison of the simulations showed that the pyrolock had an impulse level of 1/12 compared to the explosion bolt. In particular, it was confirmed that the pyrolock-induced shock at the near field can cause damage to the electronic equipment despite a smaller impulse than that of the explosive bolt-induced shock. The hybrid method developed in this paper demonstrates that it is possible to simulate pyroshock for all the frequency regimes in complex specimens and to evaluate the risk in the time and frequency domain.
We investigate the evolution of Au thin films to nanoparticles caused by plasma ion bombardment and report their validity as a catalyst on the growth of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The Au thin films ...having 1–50Å thickness ranges were precisely prepared by electron beam deposition. The plasma ion bombardments with the plasma power from 5 to 15W were performed at 500°C for 10min under 1.33×102Pa of Ar to investigate the effects of plasma power on the surface structures. It is interesting that the mean size of Au nanoparticles increased as plasma power gets high in the thinner film cases, which might be the results of sputtering and surface diffusion-related aggregation. On the contrary, the mean particle size of the thicker films decreased at lower plasma power regime due to the sputtering, then, increased again at the highest plasma power, which might be caused by the diffusion-induced aggregation of the films. Finally, to investigate the catalytic ability of the thin film-induced Au nanoparticles, we grew CNTs by a thermal chemical vapor deposition with a methane source. It was found that the Au nanoparticles obtained from the plasma-treated 5Å thick films act as an efficient catalyst for the growth of single-walled CNTs.
•We report the evolution of Au thin films to nanoparticles by plasma treatment.•The mean size of Au nanoparticles increased with increasing plasma power.•The nanoparticle size increases by sputtering and diffusion-induced aggregation.•The plasma-treated 5 Å thick films act as an efficient catalyst for SWNTs growth.
3D crosstalk is a critical problem in the 3D display field. It appears as the double image and deteriorates the 3D image quality. This paper proposes an image processing algorithm that compensates 3D ...crosstalk. The proposed algorithm controls the gray level in the pixel area where 3D crosstalk occurs. 3D crosstalk compensation algorithm is implemented and verified on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) merged in 3D PDP. The experimental results indicate an enhancement of 3D image quality by reducing 3D crosstalk 1 .
Non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) comprises 75-85% of all lung cancers, and approximately 25% of all NSCLC patients develop brain metastasis. There are no reliable markers for predicting in which ...patients this metastasis will occur. DCUN1D1, also known as squamous cell carcinoma-related oncogene, is associated with tumor progression and poor outcomes in NSCLC. The objective of this study was to investigate the role of DCUN1D1 expression in cases of brain metastasis due to NSCLC.
Primary tumor samples from a total of 71 cases of NSCLC, either with (n=40) or without (n=31) brain metastasis, were evaluated for DCUN1D1 expression by immunohistochemistry analysis.
DCUN1D1 expression was detected in 16 patients (23%) and tended to correlate with T classification (15% of T1-2 tumors vs. 30% of T3-4 tumors, p=0.083). DCUN1D1 expression was significantly associated with tumor stage. It was observed in none of the patients with stage I disease, 10% of those with stage II disease, and 29% with stage III disease (p=0.009). In addition, 14 of 16 DCUN1D1-positive patients resulted in brain metastasis (p=0.01). The odds ratio of brain metastasis for patients with DCUN1D1 expression was 3.112 (p=0.009).
DCUN1D1 expression may play a role in tumor progression and development of brain metastasis in patients with NSCLC. Evaluation of DCUN1D1 expression may provide assistance in identifying those patients who are at higher risk for brain metastasis.
A D2D (Device-to-Device) communication system needs to cope with inter-cell interference and other types of interferences between cellular network and D2D links. As a result, macro user equipments, ...particularly those located near a cell edge, will suffer from serious link performance degradation. We propose a novel interference avoidance mechanism assisted by the SRN (Shared Relay Node) in this letter. The SRN not only performs data re-transmission as a typical type-II relay, but has several newly defined features to avoid interference between cellular network and D2D links. The superb performance by the proposed scheme is evaluated through extensive system level simulations.
For the systematic SAR study on mansonone F, a series of C6 and C9 analogs of mansonone F have been synthesized and their anti-MRSA activities were evaluated. Most of the analogs exhibited good or ...excellent anti-MRSA activities. In particular, the 6-
n-butyl mansonone F showed fourfold higher antibacterial activities compared to that of vancomycin.
For the systematic SAR study on mansonone F, a series of C6 and C9 analogs of mansonone F have been synthesized and their anti-MRSA activities were evaluated. Most of the analogs exhibited good or excellent anti-MRSA activities. In particular, the 6-
n-butylmansonone F showed fourfold higher antibacterial activities compared to that of vancomycin.
In this study, we evaluated the changes of the properties of TiO2 thin films conducted to O2 plasma treatment at various plasma powers. The XPS analysis showed that the concentration of oxygen ...vacancies in the TiO2 thin films was reduced by the O2 plasma treatment. In the GIXRD analysis, it was confirmed that as the O2 plasma treatment progressed, the anatase peak intensity of TiO2 increased and a new anatase peak was detected. In addition, according to HR-TEM analysis the crystallinity became excellent. The AFM analysis showed that the roughness of the as-deposited TiO2 thin film and O2 plasma-treated TiO2 thin film were almost the same. The I–V analysis showed that the leakage current density of the 800 W O2 plasma-treated TiO2 thin film (∼10−4A/cm2) was 100 times lower than that of the as-deposited TiO2 thin film (∼10−2A/cm2). The dielectric constant of the O2 plasma-treated TiO2 thin films was approximately 24–25, which is higher than that of the as-deposited TiO2 thin film (k∼17) because of the anatase structure.