The Presence of Borrelia valaisiana-Related Genospecies in Ticks and a Rodent in Taiwan

Chun-Man Huang,Hsi-Chieh Wang,Ying-Chun Lin,Shih-Hui Chiu,Ying-Shun Kao,Pei-Lung Lee,Hsiu-I Wang,Ruei-Chen Hung,Huang-I Chan,Ho-Sheng Wu,Chuen-Sheue Chiang,Jung-Jung Mu 한국미생물학회 2010 The journal of microbiology Vol.48 No.6

A field survey was conducted to investigate the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) in six counties of Taiwan. Spirochetes were successfully isolated from one rodent ear sample out of 485 rodent ears and 53live, fed tick (Ixodes granulatus) samples. The spirochetes were confirmed to be B. burgdorferi s.l. by real-time PCR. In addition, 23 of 113 tick samples were tested positive for Borrelia DNA according to real-time PCR. The Borrelia isolate from the rodent and the 23 Borrelia DNA samples from the ticks were identified as B. valaisiana-related genospecies by phylogenetic analysis based on flagellin gene sequences. These findings suggest that the Borrelia valaisiana-related strains are maintained in a zoonotic cycle between tick vectors and reservoir hosts in Taiwan.

Bacterial Diversity in the Sediment from Polymetallic Nodule Fields of the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone

Chun-Sheng Wang,Li Liao,Hong-Xiang Xu,Xue-Wei Xu,Min Wu,Li-Zhong Zhu 한국미생물학회 2010 The journal of microbiology Vol.48 No.5

The Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCFZ) is located in the northeastern equatorial Pacific and contains abundant polymetallic nodules. To investigate its bacterial diversity, four libraries of 16S rRNA genes were constructed from sediments of four stations in different areas of the CCFZ. In total, 313 clones sequenced from the 4 libraries were assigned into 14 phylogenetic groups and 1 group of 28 unclassified bacteria. High bacterial diversity was predicted by the rarefaction analysis. The most dominant group overall was Proteobacteria, but there was variation in each library: Gammaproteobacteria was the most dominant group in two libraries, E2005-01 and ES0502, while Alphaproteobacteria and Deltaproteobacteria were the most dominant groups in libraries EP2005-03 and WS0505, respectively. Seven groups, including Alphaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Deltaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes, were common to all four libraries. The remaining minor groups were distributed in libraries with different patterns. Most clones sequenced in this study were clustered with uncultured bacteria obtained from the environment, such as the ocean crust and marine sediment, but only distantly related to isolates. Bacteria involved in the cycling of metals, sulfur and nitrogen were detected, and their relationship with their habitat was discussed. This study sheds light on the bacterial communities associated with polymetallic nodules in the CCFZ and provides primary data on the bacterial diversity of this area.

Carboxymethyl Flavonoids and A Monoterpene Glucoside from Selaginella moellendorffii

Hong-Sheng Wang,Ling Sun,Yue-Hu Wang,Ya-Na Shi,Gui-Hua Tang,Fu-Wei Zhao,Hong-Mei Niu,Chun-Lin Long,Ling Li 대한약학회 2011 Archives of Pharmacal Research Vol.34 No.8

A new dihydroflavone, 5-carboxymethyl-7,4'-dihydroxyflavonone (1), and its glucoside 5-carboxymethyl-7,4'-dihydroxyflavonone-7-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (2), and one new monoterpene glucoside, (4Z,6E)-2,7-dimethyl-8-hydroxyocta-4,6-dienoic acid 8-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (3), were isolated from the whole plants of Selaginella moellendorffii. Their structures were determined by spectroscopic methods and chemical transformation. Compound 2 was evaluated for the ability to enhance glucose consumption in normal and insulin-resistant L6 muscle cells induced by high concentrations of insulin and glucose. Glucose consumption in insulin-resistant cells (but not in normal cells) was increased 15.2 ± 3.3% (p < 0.01) by compound 2 at a concentration of 0.1 μM in the presence of insulin (1 nM).

MSP58 Knockdown Inhibits the Proliferation of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma in Vitro and in Vivo

Xu, Chun-Sheng,Zheng, Jian-Yong,Zhang, Hai-Long,Zhao, Hua-Dong,Zhang, Jing,Wu, Guo-Qiang,Wu, Lin,Wang, Qing,Wang, Wei-Zhong,Zhang, Jian Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2012 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.13 No.7

Esophageal carcinoma (EC) is one of the most aggressive cancers with a poor prognosis. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying esophageal cancer progression is a high priority for improved EC diagnosis and prognosis. Recently, MSP58 was shown to behave as an oncogene in colorectal carcinomas and gliomas. However, little is known about its function in esophageal carcinomas. We therefore examined the effects of MSP58 knockdown on the growth of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cells in vitro and in vivo in order to gain a better understanding of its potential as a tumor therapeutic target. We employed lentiviral-mediated small hairpin RNA (shRNA) to knock down the expression of MSP58 in the ESCC cell lines Eca-109 and EC9706 and demonstrated inhibition of ESCC cell proliferation and colony formation in vitro. Furthermore, flow cytometry and western blot analyses revealed that MSP58 depletion induced cell cycle arrest by regulating the expression of P21, CDK4 and cyclin D1. Notably, the downregulation of MSP58 significantly inhibited the growth of ESCC xenografts in nude mice. Our results suggest that MSP58 may play an important role in ESCC progression.

Extracting Clone Genealogies for Tracking Code Clone Changes

Chun-Hui Wang,Ying Tu,,Li-Ping Zhang,Dong-Sheng Liu 보안공학연구지원센터 2016 International Journal of Security and Its Applicat Vol.10 No.3

Software system’s clones are usually two aspects influence on software maintenance and management. One is some clones are effective and can reuse. The other is some clones are unsafe and need revise or reconfiguration. The reason is that the changes of code clones are different. How to determine the clones' attribute of effective or unsafe, it need to track clone changes in the evolution versions of a software system. We firstly find the clones and clone groups in multiple versions of a software system using a clone detector FCD, and construct the mapping of every adjacent version basing on the similarity of code clones, then extract clone genealogies in the software system. The clone genealogies’ results are efficient and can help us analysis the code clone changes and get the attribute about effective and unsafe.

Hygrothermal effects on dynamic instability of a laminated plate under an arbitrary pulsating load

Wang, Hai,Chen, Chun-Sheng,Fung, Chin-Ping Techno-Press 2013 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.48 No.1

This paper studies the static and dynamic characteristics of composite plates subjected to an arbitrary periodic load in hygrothermal environments. The material properties of composite plates are depended on the temperature and moisture. The governing equations of motion of Mathieu-type are established by using the Galerkin method with reduced eigenfunction transforms. A periodic load is taken to be a combination of axial pulsating load and bending stress in the example problem. The regions of dynamic instability of laminated composite plates are determined by solving the eigenvalue problems based on Bolotin's method. The effects of temperature rise and moisture concentration on the dynamic instability of laminated composite plates are investigated and discussed. The influences of various parameters on the instability region and dynamic instability index are also investigated. The numerical results reveal that the influences of hygrothermal effect on the dynamic instability of laminated plates are significant.

The induction of apoptosis by a newly synthesized diosgenyl saponin through the suppression of estrogen receptor-α in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells.

Chun, Jaemoo,Han, Lina,Xu, Mei Ying,Wang, Bo,Cheng, Mao Sheng,Kim, Yeong Shik Pharmaceutical Society of Korea 2014 Archives of Pharmacal Research Vol.37 No.11

<P>Estrogen receptor (ER)-α is an important therapeutic target in the clinical treatment of breast cancer. A potential down-regulator of ER-α, diosgenyl α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(12)-[β-D-xylopyranosyl-(14)]-α-L-arabinopyranoside is a newly synthesized diosgenyl saponin named compound 22. This study evaluated the in vitro mechanism of compound 22 as an anticancer agent for breast cancer. Our results indicated that compound 22 selectively inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis in ER-positive MCF-7 cells, compared with ER-negative MDA-MB-231 and MCF-10A cells. Western blot analysis showed that compound 22 decreased the expression of procaspase-3, procaspase-8, and survivin; and increased the expression of Fas ligand and cleaved PARP1 in MCF-7 cells, indicating that compound 22-induced apoptosis was mediated by the extrinsic pathway. This apoptosis was associated with the suppression of ER-α protein and mRNA expression and the inhibition of ER-DNA binding to the estrogen responsive element. Moreover, ER-α mediated gene expression such as c-Myc and cyclin D1 was reduced, and the activation of p38 and ERK 1/2 was significantly decreased after treatment with compound 22 in MCF-7 cells. Taken together, these results demonstrate that compound 22 down-regulates ER-α expression and induces apoptosis through the extrinsic pathway, suggesting that compound 22 may be effective in the treatment of ER-positive breast cancer.</P>

Limiting the Number of Open Projects to Shorten the NPD Schedule

Wang, Miao-Ling,Yang, Chun-I,Chang, Sheng-Hung Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers 2011 Industrial Engineeering & Management Systems Vol.10 No.1

Many companies open multiple projects simultaneously due to market trends, which results in a crowding out effect because of limited resources. R&D engineers become overloaded and scheduling of product development is delayed resulting in timing misses and lost sales leads. The company in this case study (Company A), often opens up many projects simultaneously in order to respond to market needs quickly. The engineers are overloaded and, of course, the schedule is delayed. In order to identify problems, Company A began using Dr. Goldratt's Thinking Processes (TP) during new product development (NPD). When the analysis phase of TP was completed, Company A's core problem was identified as "the quantity of kick-off projects." Consequently, new rules and conditions and procedures were proposed for the opening, suspending, stopping, and closing of projects. Finally, the "Future Reality Tree" ensured that the proposed rules, conditions and procedures were set up as an available solution approved for practical application by executives. After a one-year trial run, the results showed that the Project Duration Rate was reduced by 53%, the Project Closed Rate was increased by 140% and the Project on Time Rate was increased from 10% to 68%. The above results give significant evidence of the benefits of the proposed methodology.

An optoelectrokinetic technique for programmable particle manipulation and bead-based biosignal enhancement.

Wang, Kuan-Chih,Kumar, Aloke,Williams, Stuart J,Green, Nicolas G,Kim, Kyung Chun,Chuang, Han-Sheng Royal Society of Chemistry 2014 Lab on a chip Vol.14 No.20

<P>Technologies that can enable concentration of low-abundance biomarkers are essential for early diagnosis of diseases. In this study, an optoelectrokinetic technique, termed Rapid Electrokinetic Patterning (REP), was used to enable dynamic particle manipulation in bead-based bioassays. Various manipulation capabilities, such as micro/nanoparticle aggregation, translation, sorting and patterning, were developed. The technique allows for versatile multi-parameter (voltage, light intensity and frequency) based modulation and dynamically addressable manipulation with simple device fabrication. Signal enhancement of a bead-based bioassay was demonstrated using dilute biotin-fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) solutions mixed with streptavidin-conjugated particles and rapidly concentrated with the technique. As compared with a conventional ELISA reader, the REP-enabled detection achieved a minimal readout of 3.87 nM, which was a 100-fold improvement in sensitivity. The multi-functional platform provides an effective measure to enhance detection levels in more bead-based bioassays.</P>

Synthesis of novel diosgenyl saponin analogues and apoptosis-inducing activity on A549 human lung adenocarcinoma

Wang, Bo,Chun, Jaemoo,Liu, Yang,Han, Lina,Wang, Yan-shi,Joo, Eun-Ji,Kim, Yeong-Shik,Cheng, Mao-sheng The Royal Society of Chemistry 2012 Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry Vol.10 No.44

<P>We synthesized a diosgenyl saponin bearing a unique disaccharide from the natural product β-hederin, together with twelve glycosylated derivatives and determined their cytotoxicity against five different human cancer cell lines. Most of them showed weak cytotoxicity, with the exception of compound <B>20</B>, diosgenyl α-<SMALL>L</SMALL>-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→2)-[α-<SMALL>L</SMALL>-arabinopyranosyl-(1→4)]-α-<SMALL>L</SMALL>-arabinopyranoside, which exhibited strong cytotoxicity against A549 cells. The cytotoxicity of <B>20</B> was associated with apoptotic cell death, which was characterized by morphological changes, chromatin condensation, DNA fragmentation, and phosphatidylserine externalization. Compound <B>20</B> induced apoptosis of A549 cells through a caspase-8-mediated extrinsic pathway and a caspase-9-mediated intrinsic pathway. In addition, phosphorylation of JNK increased but the phosphorylation of ERK decreased after treatment with <B>20</B>. These results provide a basic mechanism for the anticancer activity of <B>20</B>.</P> <P>Graphic Abstract</P><P>The diosgenyl trisaccharide greatly induces apoptosis in A549 cells, mainly through an extrinsic pathway. <IMG SRC='http://pubs.rsc.org/services/images/RSCpubs.ePlatform.Service.FreeContent.ImageService.svc/ImageService/image/GA?id=c2ob26579f'> </P>