Inhibitory Effect of Homochlorcyclizine on Melanogenesis in α-Melanocyte Stimulating Hormone-stimulated Mouse B16 Melanoma Cells

Te-Sheng Chang,Chin-Tsun Chen 대한약학회 2012 Archives of Pharmacal Research Vol.35 No.1

The histamine receptor H1 antagonist homochlorcyclizine (HC) has been widely used as an antihistamine agent for the treatment of allergies. However, the effect of HC on skin pigmentation is not known. In the present study, we investigated the inhibitory effect of HC on melanogenesis in mouse B16 melanoma cells. Our results showed that HC inhibited melanogenesis in either α-melanocyte stimulating hormone (α-MSH)- or 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthin (IBMX)-stimulated B16 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Despite the strong inhibition of melanogenesis by HC, it was surprisingly found that HC did not reduce either cellular or melanosomal tyrosinase activity in α-MSH-stimulated B16 cells. In addition, HC also did not directly inhibit either murine or mushroom tyrosinase activity in the cell-free system. Moreover, western blotting and reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analyses respectively confirmed that HC did not downregulate levels of tyrosinase protein and its mRNA in α-MSH-stimulated B16 cells. These results clearly demonstrated that HC inhibits melanogenesis of B16 cells by a mechanism other than reduction of the cellular tyrosinase activity. From the present study, HC was proven to be a good candidate as a skin-whitening agent for treatment of skin hyperpigmentation, and this generic drug might be suitable for use in combination with other depigmenting agents due to its unique inhibition mechanism.

Inhibitory Effect of Danazol on Melanogenesis in Mouse B16 Melanoma Cells

Te-Sheng Chang,Jia-Jhen Lin 대한약학회 2010 Archives of Pharmacal Research Vol.33 No.12

In the present study, more than 200 generic drugs were screened to verify their applicability as a skin-lightening agent using mouse B16 melanoma cells. Of the numerous agents, danazol was found to inhibit melanogenesis in B16 cells in a dose-dependent manner with an IC50 value of 9.3 μM. In addition, danazol reduced cellular tyrosinase activity in B16 cells but did not directly inhibit the murine tyrosinase activity in the cell-free system. Western blotting analysis confirmed that danazol downregulated the levels of tyrosinase protein in B16 cells, and reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis revealed that danazol did not downregulate the levels of tyrosinase mRNA in the cells. These results indicate that danazol inhibits melanogenesis in B16 cells via reducing the tyrosinase activity by post-transcriptional regulation.

Electron Heating and Current Scaling in a Two-dimensional Electron System in Close Proximity to Nanoscale Scatterers

Yi-Ting Wang,Chun-Kai Yang,Sheng-Di Lin,Chi-Te Liang 한국물리학회 2014 THE JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY Vol.64 No.10

We have performed magneto-transport measurements on a two-dimensional electron system(2DES) which is in close proximity to nanoscaled scatterers. Weak localization, as evidenced bynegative magnetoresistance, is observed. In this work, we use the extracted phase coherence rateas a thermometer to measure the electron’s effective temperature Te in our 2DES when a highdriving current I flows through the device. We find that Te / I0.52, consistent with 1/ep T2in two dimensions, where 1/ep is the electron-phonon scattering rate. However, the phase coherencerate 1/ T, with a very small offset, is consistent with zero-temperature dephasing. Mostimportantly, our experimental results are in agreement with the fact that at low temperatures, thedominant phase-breaking mechanism is electron-electron scattering, not electron-phonon scattering. Therefore we are able to investigate both electron-electron scattering and electron-phonon scatteringwhich are, in most cases, difficult to study independently in the linear region. Our data showthat the electron heating effect is a very powerful tool for studying semiconductor devices.

Quality assessment of high performance concrete using digitized image elements

Sheng-Szu Peng,Her-Yung Wang,Yu-Te Chou,Edward H. Wang 사단법인 한국계산역학회 2012 Computers and Concrete, An International Journal Vol.10 No.4

The quality of high performance concrete largely depends on water cement ratio, porosity,material composition and mix methods. The uniformity of color, texture and compressive strengths are quality indicators commonly used to assess the overall characteristics of concrete mixes. The homogeneity and share of coarse aggregates play a key role in concrete quality and must be analyzed in a microscopic point of view. This research studies the quality of high performance concrete by taking drilled cores in both horizontal and vertical directions from a 1.0 m3 specimen. The coarse aggregate, expressed in digitized 100×116 dpi resolution images are processed based on brightness in colors through commercial software converted into text files. With the image converting to text format, the share of coarse aggregate is quantified leading to a satisfactory assessment of homogeneity – a quality index of high performance concrete. The compressive strengths of concrete and the shares of coarse aggregate of the samples are also compared in this research study to illustrate its correlation in concrete quality. It is concluded that a higher homogeneity of aggregate exists in the vertical plane than that of the horizontal planes of the high performance concrete. In addition, the concrete specimen showing denser particle packing has relatively higher compressive strengths. The research methodology provides an easy-to-use, direct measurement of high performance concrete when conducting quality assessment in the construction site.

Lack of Association between Pre-Operative Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 and the Risk of Post-Operative Delirium in Elderly Chinese Patients

Che-Sheng Chu,Chih-Kuang Liang,Ming-Yueh Chou,Yu-Te Lin,Chien-Jen Hsu,Chin-Liang Chu,Po-Han Chou 대한신경정신의학회 2016 PSYCHIATRY INVESTIGATION Vol.13 No.3

ObjectiveaaPostoperative delirium (POD) is a highly prevalent complex neuropsychiatric syndrome in elderly patients. However, its pathophysiology is currently unknown. Early detection and prevention of POD is important; therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the link between preoperative insulin growth factor 1 (IGF-1) levels in the serum and POD in the Chinese elderly patients. MethodsaaOne hundred and three patients who were undergoing an orthopedic operation took part in the study. Preoperative serum IGF-1 levels were measured. POD was determined daily using the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) and DSM-IV TR. Baseline serum IGF-1 levels were compared between patients who did and did not develop POD. Correlation coefficients were calculated to evaluate relationship between baseline characteristics and serum IGF-1 levels. The relationship between baseline biomarkers and delirium status was investigated using logistic regression analysis, adjusting for potential confounding variables. ResultsaaTwenty-three patients developed POD. The POD group had lower MMSE scores and higher CCI scores and proportions of acute admission. Preoperative serum IGF-1 levels were correlated with MMSE scores and age (MMSE: r=0.230, p<0.05; age: r=-0.419, p<0.001). Baseline serum IGF-1 levels did not differ between patients who did and did not develop POD, even after adjusting for potential confounding factors, MMSE score, and age. ConclusionaaNo association was found between preoperative IGF-1 levels and POD, suggesting that they are not direct biomarkers of the incidence of POD among the Chinese elderly population. Further research with larger sample sizes is warranted to clarify the relationship.

A New Switching Strategy for Field Oriented Control of Motor Driver Using Multi-Dimensional Feedback Quantization Modulation

Jwu-Sheng Hu,Keng-Yuan Chen,Chi-Him Tang,Te-Yang Shen 전력전자학회 2011 ICPE(ISPE)논문집 Vol.2011 No.5

This work proposes a new switching strategy for field oriented control of a motor driver to minimize the power of filtered error induced by finite bit resolution of the gating signal. It is shown that the conventional space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) is a special case of the proposed general switching strategy which has infinite bit resolution within one input period. Another special case, multi-dimensional feedback quantization modulator: MDFQM, is proposed and compared with SVPWM. The experiments in this study compared mean-square-error of motor speed, switching number of the three-phase voltage source inverter, and current waveforms. The experimental results show that MDFQM can reduce the switching number as well as the heat dissipation of the power transistors.

Low power consumption of plasmonics based color-image sensors

Keng Te LIN,Tzu-Yao LIN,Yu Sheng LAI,Yi Min CHI,Ting Wei CHU,Hsuen-Li CHEN 한국진공학회 2016 한국진공학회 학술발표회초록집 Vol.2016 No.8

Alpinate Oxyphyllae Fructus Inhibits IGFII-Related Signaling Pathway to Attenuate Ang II-Induced Pathological Hypertrophy in H9c2 Cardiomyoblasts

Chuan-Te Tsai,Yung-Ming Chang,Shu-Luan Lin,Yueh-Sheng Chen,Yu-Lan Yeh,Viswanadha Vijaya Padma,Chin-Chuan Tsai,Ray-Jade Chen,Tsung-Jung Ho,Chih-Yang Huang 한국식품영양과학회 2016 Journal of medicinal food Vol.19 No.3

Angiotensin II (Ang II) is a very important cardiovascular disease inducer and may cause cardiac pathological hypertrophy and remodeling. We evaluated a Chinese traditional medicine, alpinate oxyphyllae fructus (AOF), for therapeutic efficacy for treating Ang II-induced cardiac hypertrophy. AOF has been used to treat patients with various symptoms accompanying hypertension and cerebrovascular disorders in Korea. We investigated its protective effect against Ang II-induced cytoskeletal change and hypertrophy in H9c2 cells. The results showed that treating cells with Ang II resulted in pathological hypertrophy, such as increased expression of transcription factors NFAT-3/p-NFAT-3, hypertrophic response genes (atrial natriuretic peptide [ANP] and b-type natriuretic peptide [BNP]), and Gαq down-stream effectors (PLCβ3 and calcineurin). Pretreatment with AOF (60–100 μg/mL) led to significantly reduced hypertrophy. We also found that AOF pretreatment significantly suppressed the cardiac remodeling proteins, metalloproteinase (MMP9 and MMP2), and plasminogen activator, induced by Ang II challenge. In conclusion, we provide evidence that AOF protects against Ang II-induced pathological hypertrophy by specifically inhibiting the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) II/IIR-related signaling pathway in H9c2 cells. AOF might be a candidate for cardiac hypertrophy and ventricular remodeling prevention in chronic cardiovascular diseases.

On the direct insulator-quantum Hall transition in two-dimensional electron systems in the vicinity of nanoscaled scatterers

Liang, Chi-Te,Lin, Li-Hung,Kuang Yoa, Chen,Lo, Shun-Tsung,Wang, Yi-Ting,Lou, Dong-Sheng,Kim, Gil-Ho,Yuan-Huei, Chang,Ochiai, Yuichi,Aoki, Nobuyuki,Chen, Jeng-Chung,Lin, Yiping,Chun-Feng, Huang,Lin, Sh Springer 2011 Nanoscale research letters Vol.6 No.1

<P>A direct insulator-quantum Hall (I-QH) transition corresponds to a crossover/transition from the insulating regime to a high Landau level filling factor ν > 2 QH state. Such a transition has been attracting a great deal of both experimental and theoretical interests. In this study, we present three different two-dimensional electron systems (2DESs) which are in the vicinity of nanoscaled scatterers. All these three devices exhibit a direct I-QH transition, and the transport properties under different nanaoscaled scatterers are discussed.</P>

Neural and MTS Algorithms for Feature Selection

Su, Chao-Ton,Li, Te-Sheng 한국품질경영학회 2002 The Asian Journal on Quality Vol.3 No.2

The relationships among multi-dimensional data (such as medical examination data) with ambiguity and variation are difficult to explore. The traditional approach to building a data classification system requires the formulation of rules by which the input data can be analyzed. The formulation of such rules is very difficult with large sets of input data. This paper first describes two classification approaches using back-propagation (BP) neural network and Mahalanobis distance (MD) classifier, and then proposes two classification approaches for multi-dimensional feature selection. The first one proposed is a feature selection procedure from the trained back-propagation (BP) neural network. The basic idea of this procedure is to compare the multiplication weights between input and hidden layer and hidden and output layer. In order to simplify the structure, only the multiplication weights of large absolute values are used. The second approach is Mahalanobis-Taguchi system (MTS) originally suggested by Dr. Taguchi. The MTS performs Taguchi's fractional factorial design based on the Mahalanobis distance as a performance metric. We combine the automatic thresholding with MD; it can deal with a reduced model, which is the focus of this paper. In this work, two case studies will be used as examples to compare and discuss the complete and reduced models employing BP neural network and MD classifier. The implementation results show that proposed approaches are effective and powerful for the classification.