Shikonin has anticancer activity, but it has not yet been applied into clinical use. In the present study, shikonin was prepared using liposomes. We aimed to examine several aspects of sh-L (shikonin-containing liposomes): preparation, angiogenic suppression and cellular uptake through self-fluorescence. Sh-L were prepared using soybean phospholipid and cholesterol to form the membrane and shik...

This work presents a determination method of rainfall types based on rainfall-induced slope instability to provide an effective approach for early warning different patterns failures/landslides. Firstly, 5808 scenarios are simulated with 11 kinds soil properties under 528 designed intensity-duration (I?D) conditions get the threshold curves failure and properties. Then through analysis when occ...

Thiols affect a variety of cell functions, an effect known as redox regulation. We show here that treatment (1-2 h) of cells with 0.1-5 mM N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) increases surface protein thiol expression in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. This effect is not associated with changes in cellular glutathione (GSH) and is also observed with a non-GSH precursor thiol N-acetyl-D-cysteine...

AIMS To evaluate the impact of second harmonic (SH) compared to fundamental mode (FM) imaging on the echocardiographic determination of ejection fraction (EF) and wall motion score index (WMSI), using MIBI gated SPECT as an independent reference. METHODS Sixty-two consecutive patients underwent an echocardiography study and a MIBI gated SPECT over 24 hours. EF was estimated visually (estimate...

OBJECTIVE Subclinical hypercortisolism (SH) is suggested to exert a deleterious effect on bone. This effect and the role of gonadal status in male subjects are not fully elucidated. We evaluated bone mineral density (BMD) and prevalence of vertebral fractures in eugonadal male subjects with adrenal incidentalomas (AI) and without SH. DESIGN This 12-month observational multicentre study was pe...

Oxidative stress and free radical production have been implicated in Alzheimer's disease, where low levels of the antioxidant vitamin C (ascorbate) have been shown to be associated with the disease. In this study, neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells were treated with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of ascorbate in order to elucidate the mechanism(s) of protection against oxidative stress afforded by ...

We investigate whether a shallow-dipping thrust fault is prone to waveslip interactions via surface-reflected waves affecting the dynamic slip. If so, can these interactions create faults that are opaque to radiated energy? Furthermore, in this case of a shallow-dipping thrust fault, can incorrectly assuming a transparent fault while using dislocation theory lead to underestimates of seismic mo...

Retinoic acid (RA) induces cell cycle arrest and differentiation of human neuroblastoma (NB) cells. Typically, NB cells differentiate along the neuronal lineage, but quiescent, "flat" cell types frequently have been described after treatment with differentiating agents. Two indistinguishable subclones of the cell line SK-N-SH, SK-N-SH-N (SH-N) and SK-N-SH-F (SH-F), display dramatically differen...

Abstract A small particle telescope based on two silicon detectors was flown on three NASA Shuttle-to-MIR missions and on the Russian orbital station MIR behind a shielding of about 10-20 g/cm2 in low Earth orbits at 51.6 degree inclination during 1996/98. The instrument was designed to measure count rates and dose rates as well as energy deposit spectra (in silicon) of the radiation inside the...