Malignant brain tumors are the most common solid tumors in children. The overall prognosis for this group of patients is still poor, emphasizing the importance of more effective therapies. Betulinic acid (Bet A) has been described as a novel cytotoxic compound active against melanoma and neuroblastoma cells. Here we report that Bet A was active against medulloblastoma and glioblastoma cell line...

The basic principles of Bounded Exhaustive Testing (BET) are reviewed, as well as the concept of an Elusive Bug (EB). Initial work on the application of BET to EB's previously indicated that it provides a new and promising approach to this problem. A four-part BET/EB oriented test framework involving: fault model development, BET test generation design, failure model identification and automate...

The transcription factor T-bet regulates the production of interferon-γ and cytotoxic molecules in effector CD8 T cells, and its expression correlates with improved control of chronic viral infections. However, the role of T-bet in infections with differential outcome remains poorly defined. Here, we report that high expression of T-bet in virus-specific CD8 T cells during acute hepatitis B vir...

Despite the recognized role of the T-bet transcription factor in the differentiation of Th1 cells, T-bet-deficient mice can develop small numbers of IFN-gamma-producing CD4 T cells. Although these are not sufficient to allow normal handling of some pathogens, T-bet-deficient mice do resolve infection with the intracellular pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. In contrast, we report that expression ...

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is associated with pronounced fibrosis that contributes to chemoresistance, in part, through increased histone acetylation. Because bromodomain (BRD) and extra terminal domain (BET) proteins are "readers" of histone acetylation marks, we targeted BET proteins in PDAC cells grown in three-dimensional collagen. We show that treatment with BET inhibitors dec...

Monomorphic Pt octapod and tripod nanocrystals have been successfully synthesized by an iron nitrate modified polyol process, in which iron nitrate has been proven to be vitally important for slowing down the reduction rate of Pt precursors.

Wen-Xing Yang,1,2,* Ai-Xi Chen,3 Liu-Gang Si,4 Kaijun Jiang,5 Xiaoxue Yang,4 and Ray-Kuang Lee2 1Department of Physics, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, People’s Republic of China 2Institute of Photonics Technologies, National Tsing-Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan 3Department of Applied Physics, School of Basic Science, East China Jiaotong University, Nanchang 330013, People’s Republic...

In this paper, the authors describe the design and control of RHex, a power autonomous, untethered, compliant-legged hexapod robot. RHex has only six actuators—one motor located at each hip—achieving mechanical simplicity that promotes reliable and robust operation in real-world tasks. Empirically stable and highly maneuverable locomotion arises from a very simple clock-driven, openloop tripod ...

The transcription factor T-bet regulates the differentiation of CD4(+) T-helper type 1 (Th1) cells and represses Th2 lineage commitment. Since Th1 cells are crucial in the defense against pathogens, several studies addressed the role of T-bet in immunity to infection using T-bet knockout (T-bet(-/-)) mice. Nevertheless, it is still unclear whether T-bet is required for defense. Although vaccini...