Earticle

Promising evidence suggests that amyloid beta peptide (Aβ), a key mediator in age-dependent neuronal and cerebrovascular degeneration, activates death signalling processes leading to neuronal as well as non-neuronal cell death in the central nervous system. A major cellular event in Aβ-induced apoptosis of non- neuronal cells, including cerebral endothelial cells, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, is mitochondrial dysfunction. The apoptosis signalling cascade upstream of mitochondria entails Aβ activation of neutral sphingomyelinase, resulting in the release of ceramide from membrane sphingomyelin. Ceramide then activates protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), a member in the ceramide- activated protein phosphatase (CAPP) family. PP2A dephosphorylation of Akt and FKHRL1 plays a pivotal role in Aβ- induced Bad translocation to mitochondria and transactivation of Bim. Bad and Bim are pro-apoptotic proteins that cause mitochondrial dysfunction characterized by excessive ROS formation, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) damage, and release of mitochondrial apoptotic proteins including cytochrome c, apoptosis inducing factor (AIF), endonuclease G and Smac. The cellular events activated by Aβ to induce death of non-neuronal cells are complex. Understanding these apoptosis signalling processes will aid in the development of more effective strategies to slow down age- dependent cerebrovascular degeneration caused by progressive cerebrovascular Aβ deposition.

The HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein gp120 plays a vital role in the entry of the virus into the host cells. The crucial role of the glycoprotein suggests gp120 as potential drug target for the future antiviral therapies. Identification of the binding mode of small drug like compounds has been an important goal in drug design. In the current study we attempt to propose binding mode of indole derivatives in the binding pocket of gp120. These derivatives are reported to inhibit HIV-1 by acting as attachment inhibitors that bind to gp120 and prevent the gp120-CD4 interaction and thus inhibit the infectivity of HIV-1. To elucidate the molecular basis of the small molecules interactions to inhibit the glycoprotein function we employed the molecular docking simulation approach. This study provides insights to elucidate the binding pattern of indole-based gp120 inhibitors and may help in the rational design of novel HIV-1 inhibitors with improved potency.

Prevailing role of intracellular amyloid β (iAβ) in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) initiation and progression attracts more and more attention in recent years. To address whether iAβ induces early alterations of electrophysiological properties in cultured human primary neurons, we delivered iAβ with adenovirus and measured the electrophysiological properties of infected neurons with whole-cell recordings. Our results show that iAβ induces an increase in neuronal resting membrane potentials, a decrease in K+ currents and a hyperpolarizing shift in voltage-dependent activation of K+ currents. These results suggest the electrophysiological impairments induced by iAβ may be responsible for its neuronal toxicity.

The ion exchange resins were synthesized from 1-aza-18-crown-6 macrocyclic ligand attached to styrene (2th petroleum in 4th class hazardous material) divinylbenzene (DVB) copolymer with crosslinks of 1%, 6%, and 15% by substitution reaction. These synthetic resins were confirmed by chlorine content, elementary analysis, surface area, and IR-spectrum. The object of this study was to seperate the metal ion absorbed in reinforcement water fire extinguishing agent. As the results of the effects of pH, equilibrium arrival time, and crosslink of synthetic resin on metal ion adsorption for resin adsorbent, the metal ions were showed high adsorption at pH 3 or over and adsorption equilibrium of metal ions was about 2 hours. In addition, adsorption selectivity for the resin in water was the order of Al (III) > Ni (II) > Sm (III) ions, adsorbability of the metal ions was in the crosslinks order of 1%, 6%, and 15%.

In these days, production and management of various digital contents increased because of growing internet users. Now the digital contents production system is producing video which is based on keywords and contents. This paper proposes the sensibility-based contents management system which can analyze and manage contents of video production system. Due to the sensibility-based multimedia contents management system, it is possible to analyze and manage sensibility contents what users want. As a result, by building a database, we can provide intelligent and meaningful services. In addition, contrary to low grade's contents-based production system, we can cope actively with users' demands.

The chemokine receptor CCR1 a GPCR super family protein contains seven transmembrane domains. It plays an important role in rheumatoid arthritis, organ transplant rejection, Alzheimer’s disease and also causes inflammation. Because of its role in disease processes, antagonism of CCR1 became an attractive therapeutic target. In the current study, we have taken a novel series of recently reported CCR1 antagonist of 1-(4-Phenylpiperazin-1-yl_-2-(1H- Pyrazol-1-yl) ethanone derivatives and performed a HQSAR analysis. The model was developed with Atom (A) and bond (B) parameters and with different set of atom counts to improve the model. The results of HQSAR showed good predictive ability in terms of r2 (0.904) and q2 (0.590) with 0.710 as standard error of prediction and 0.344 as standard error of estimate. The contribution map depicted the atom contribution in inhibitory effect. Compound-14 which was reported to be a highly active compound showed positive atom contribution in three R groups (R3. R5a and R2b) in inhibitory effect, which could be the reason why this compound is highly active compound whereas, the lowest active compound-6 showed negative contribution to inhibitory effect.

Silicon nanowires were detached and obtained from silicon nanowire arrays on silicon substrate using a ultrasonomethod. Silicon nanowire arrays on silicon substrate were prepared with an electroless metal assisted etching of p -type silicon. The etching solution was an aqueous HF solution containing silver nitrate. SEM observation shows that wellaligned nanowire arrays perpendicular to the surface of the silicon substrate were produced. After sonication of silicon nanowire array, an individual silicon nanowire was confirmed by FESEM. Optical characteristics of SiNWs were measured by FT-IR spectroscopy. The surface of SiNWs are terminated with hydrogen.

The syntheses of 9,9'-spiro-9-silabifluorene as well as 1,1-dichloro-1-silafluorene and 1,1-dimethyl-1- silafluorene through the formation of 2,2'-dibromobiphenyl have been emphasized with good yields. Their fluorescence spectra are obtained using photoluminescence spectrometer and assumed to be the precursors of the development of polymers.

In this note, we are concerned with a class of semi-linear elliptic pdes with exponential nonlinearity in a bounded domain. Here, the nonlinearity is more or less growing exponentially with power p. We consider the problem under two types of Dirichlet boundary condition. We give existence and non-existence of solutions for those problems and some asymptotics.

Well defined 1-dimentional (1-D) photonic crystals of polystyrene replicas have been successfully obtained by removing the porous silicon from the free-standing rugate porous silicon/phenylmethylpolysiloxane composite film. Rugate porous silicon was prepared by an electrochemical etching of silicon wafer in HF/ethanol mixture solution. Exfoliated rugate porous silicon was obtained by an electropolishing condition. A composite of rugate porous silicon/ phenylmethylpolysiloxane composite film was prepared by casting a toluene solution of phenylmethylpolysiloxane onto the top of rugate porous silicon film. After the removal of the template by chemical dissolution, the phenylmethylpolysiloxane castings replicate the photonic features and the nanostructure of the master. The photonic phenylmethylpolysiloxane replicas are robust and flexible in ambient condition and exhibit an excellent reflectivity in their reflective spectra. The photonic band gaps of replicas are narrower than that of typical semiconductor quantum dots.