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A new chemical space was generated via C2‐functionalization of 3‐arylbenzofurans. Mannich reaction of 3‐arylbenzofurans with secondary amines and formaldehyde allowed for installation of aminomethyl unit at C2 position of benzofurans. A formyl group at C2 site introduced as a result of Vilsmeier‐Haack formylation of 3‐arylbenzofurans was employed as a reacting partner for three‐component Kabachnik‐Fields reaction with various amines and triethyl phosphite to give a wide variety of aminomethylphosphonates. Furthermore, several benzo[d]oxazoles and pyrrolo[1,2‐a]quinoxalines were prepared by using the formyl group. Biological screening of the synthesized compounds revealed that the benzofuran bearing a pyrrolo[1,2‐a]quinoxaline moiety (5b) most potently inhibited the viability of human blood cancer cells, but not solid tumor cells. Caspase activity assay, analysis of Annexin V‐positive cells, and Western blot analysis indicated that 5b‐induced death of human lymphoma U937 cells could result from its potential to induce the caspase‐dependent apoptotic death of blood cancer cells with inhibition of ERK activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kirsten rat sarcoma (KRAS) mutant cancers, which constitute the vast majority of pancreatic tumors, are characterized by their resistance to established therapies and high mortality rates. Here, we developed a novel and extremely effective combinational therapeutic approach to target KRAS mutant tumors through the generation of a cytotoxic oxidative stress. At high concentrations, vitamin C (VC) is known to provoke oxidative stress and selectively kill KRAS mutant cancer cells, although its effects are limited when it is given as monotherapy. We found that the combination of VC and the oxidizing drug arsenic trioxide (ATO) is an effective therapeutic treatment modality. Remarkably, its efficiency is dependent on chirality of VC as its enantiomer d‐optical isomer of VC (d‐VC) is significantly more potent than the natural l‐optical isomer of VC. Thus, our results demonstrate that the oxidizing combination of ATO and d‐VC is a promising approach for the treatment of KRAS mutant human cancers. What's new? A new combination therapy could effectively fight Kirsten rat sarcoma (KRAS)‐mutant cancers. Although KRAS mutations frequently crop up in human cancers, therapies targeting them have proved difficult to find. In our study, the authors tested a novel approach to kill the cancer cells by inducing oxidative stress with vitamin C and arsenic trioxide. The combo successfully killed cancer cells, with one surprising twist. When the researchers tested the therapy in a mouse xenograft model, they found that the tumor‐shrinking action depended on the chirality of the vitamin C molecule. The D isomer showed much greater efficacy than the naturally occurring L isomer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EPO analogues are representative glycoprotein drugs composed of heterogeneous, multiple antennary N‐glycans. NESP® and Aranesp® are hyperglycosylated EPO, marketed under the same international nonproprietary name as darbepoetin alfa. The multiple antennary N‐glycans are a key factor that increases the half‐life of the drug in the body, which is closely related to efficacy. Thus, control of N‐glycosylation is important in providing patients with consistent efficacy. This paper reports on the comprehensive characterization of N‐glycosylation of darbepoetin alfa products. The results of N‐glycan analysis of NESP® and Aranesp® showed difference in the ratio of N‐glycans containing N‐acetyllactosamine and O‐acetylated sialic acid. Although there were some differences, the overall N‐glycan structures and profiles were comparable. In particular, darbepoetin alfa products accounted for the largest proportion of tetra‐sialo N‐glycans, greater than 75%. This study increases understanding of N‐glycan profiles and structural information of darbepoetin alfa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effects of the Durunuri programme in Korea, a Making Work Pay policy initiated in 2012 that subsidises social insurance contributions of low‐wage workers in workplaces with fewer than 10 employees. Using a nationally representative sample of Korean low‐wage workers between the years 2010 and 2015, the study employs a difference‐in‐differences method to isolate the effect of the Durunuri programme on workers' subscription rate to the national pension and employment insurance programmes. Results indicated that, compared with ineligible low‐wage workers in workplaces with 10 or more but fewer than 30 employees, eligible low‐wage workers in workplaces with fewer than 10 employees were found to experience an increase in the odds of being subscribed to both the national pension and employment insurance programmes during the first, second and third year following implementation of the Durunuri programme. Policy implications as well as future policy modifications are further discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed life-threatening cancer in women. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has an aggressive clinical behavior, but the treatment of TNBC remains challenging. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as a potential target for the diagnosis, therapy and prognosis of breast cancer. However, the precise role of miRNAs and their targets in breast cancer remain to be elucidated. Here we show that miR-218 is downregulated and miR-129 is upregulated in TNBC samples and their expressions confer prognosis to patients. Gain-of-function and loss-of-function analysis reveals that miR-218 has a tumor suppressive activity, while miR-129 acts as an oncomir in breast cancer. Notably, miR-218 and miR-129 directly target Lamin B1 and Lamin A, respectively, which are also found to be deregulated in human breast tumors. Finally, we demonstrate Lamins as the major factors in reliable miR-218 and miR-129 functions for breast cancer progression. Our findings uncover a new miRNA-mediated regulatory network for different Lamins and provide a potential therapeutic target for breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We performed a standardized of control system in KSTAR. [•] EPICS based software framework is developed for the realization of various control systems. [•] The applicability of the framework is widened from a simple command dispatcher to the real time application. [•] Our framework supports the implementation of embedded IOC in FPGA board. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Beginning the first plasma discharging experiment of KSTAR since 2008, KSTAR performed the third plasma discharging experiment by 2010. During the experiment of three times, KSTAR OPerator Interface (OPI) programs have been developed for KSTAR operation by itself. OPI programs used in KSTAR were implemented by KSTAR widget plug-in Toolkit (KWT). The KWT means the plug-in library implemented by Qt-based user interface development software. The main purpose of developing the KWT library is to implement full automation libraries having interface with the automated EPICS channel access (CA) guaranteeing the flexibility for requirements of operators. In addition, it has advantages in minimizing human code error and maximizing utilization of the limited human resource. According to the increasing of control systems, a number of OPI servers connected to one EPICS gateway server caused the connection problem and increased the amount of the network data packets. To solve these problems, an algorithm of “CachedChannelAccess” for shared memory base was implemented into an inner logic of the KWT library. KSTAR control system monitoring (CSM) program is one of applications developed by using KWT library. The function of CSM program is to notify alarm to operators by checking health status of every server's network health status and resource (cpu, memory, network packets, disk usage rate and system/user defined process) usage state. Another application is a post-shot sequencing program which is activated after every shot is completed. This application is to display major plasma parameters and diagnostic data in chart form, to save this data to database, and to transfer a chart image file to a web server. This paper describes the technical details how to develop OPI applications which have high productivity using Qt on the EPICS-based control system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In vitro anti-resorptive activity, mechanism of action, pharmacokinetic profile and in vivo anti-resorptive activity of N 1,N 1-diisopropyl-N 2-(diphenylphosphoryl)-2-(4-nitrophenyl)acetamidine (1) were evaluated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Obesity is a growing global health problem that contributes to diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, dementia, and cancer. The increased consumption of saturated fats in a high-fat diet (HFD) contributes to obesity, neurodegenerative diseases, long-term memory loss, and cognitive impairment. We tested whether HFD influences adult hippocampal neurogenesis. Male C57BL/6 mice were divided into two groups and maintained on either a normal diet (ND) or HFD. Seven weeks of HFD significantly decreased the numbers of newly generated cells in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus without neuronal loss. HFD also increased the level of malondialdehyde (MDA) and decreased the level of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the hippocampus. The toxic effects of MDA were evaluated on neural progenitor cells (NPCs). MDA reduced the growth of NPCs, but BDNF treatment restored NPCs proliferation. The present data indicate that a HFD impairs hippocampal neurogenesis and NPCs proliferation through increased lipid peroxidation and decreased BDNF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: 2-Deoxy-d-glucose (2DG) is an analog of glucose that is effectively taken up by cells competing with normal glucose but cannot be further utilized to produce energy. It was previously reported that 2DG can mimic the beneficial effects of dietary restriction in experimental models of neurodegenerative disorders and cancer. In the present study, we report that pretreatment with 2DG increases the resistance of neural progenitor cells (NPC) to oxidative insults. 2DG significantly suppressed the proliferation of NPC, and high concentrations of 2DG were toxic to NPC. However, a treatment with a moderate concentration of 2DG protected the NPC against tBHP-induced oxidative stress suggesting that this chemical had hormetic action mimicking dietary restriction. Furthermore, we showed that the protective mechanism of 2DG involved the activation of AMP-activated protein kinase. Our findings demonstrate that 2DG can modulate the cellular responses to oxidative stress and confer cellular resistance in NPC by activating the metabolic regulator. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A concept is introduced in which two polymer dielectrics are made cooperative in acting as the gate insulator for organic thin-film transistors. The bilayer insulator consists of a thin polymer dielectric in contact with the active layer that can induce good electrical properties and a much thicker dielectric with good dielectric properties. These dielectrics are cooperative in combining the best each can offer for a high mobility and a negligible hysteresis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We implemented a shared memory based interface of MARTe with EPICS. [•] We implemented an EPICS module supporting device and driver support. [•] We implemented an example EPICS IOC and CSS OPI for evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The estrogen receptor (ER) plays an important role in breast cancer development and progression. Hypoxia has been shown to modulate the level of ERα expression, which is intimately associated with the biology of breast carcinomas. However, the effect of hypoxia on ERα-mediated transactivation is largely unknown. In this report, we have examined ligand-independent transcriptional activation of ERα by hypoxia. The hypoxia-induced ERα-mediated transcriptional response was inhibited by the ER antagonist ICI 182,780 as determined by transient expression of ERα and ER-responsive reporter plasmids in the HEK 293 cells. Hypoxic activation of ERα was dependent on the increased expression of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), as examined in HEK 293 cells under conditions of normoxia. These results indicate that hypoxia activates ERα in a ligand-independent manner, possibly through the interaction between HIF-1α and ERα. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

ITER requires extensive diagnostics to meet the demands for machine operation, protection, plasma control and physics studies. The interfaces between plant instrumentation and control (I&C) and the central control system follow mandatory rules described in the Plant Control Design Handbook (PCDH) [1] , while the design strategy for PCDH compliant plant I&C is covered in its guidelines and supported by hardware catalogues. During preliminary and final design review as well as factory and site acceptance testing it is therefore important to determine the maturity of the I&C design and its implementation to ensure its compliance with the PCDH and the diagnostics performance requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We measured the performance of MARTe by measuring response time and jitter. [•] We compared the performance of application with and without MARTe. [•] We compared the performance of MARTe application on different O/Ss. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objective: To conduct a meta-analysis of the literature on training programs that aimed to improve nurses' pressure injury management skills., Methods: Literature searches were conducted using Ovid-MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, and Korean databases. The search terms used were: (nurse* AND ((pressure OR decubitus) AND (ulcer* OR injur*)) OR bed sore OR bedsore OR decubitus) AND (program* OR training)). Random-effects models were used to calculate the standardized mean difference and odds ratios, with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to analyze the effects., Main Results: Initial searches yielded 1,067 studies. Of these, 23 met the selection criteria. Nurses' knowledge (standard mean difference, 1.23; 95% CI, 0.50-1.96; P < .001), visual discrimination ability (standard mean difference, 1.13; 95% CI, 0.88-1.38; P < .001), and clinical judgment (odds ratio, 1.52; 95% CI, 1.46-1.57; P < .001) improved after the programs., Conclusions: Pressure injury training programs can improve nurses' competency. The results from this study indicate that such programs may help improve nurses' knowledge, visual discrimination ability, and clinical judgment and can be considered continuing education programs. However, large-scale studies are needed to confirm this conclusion.

Purpose: This study was conducted to develop an empowering education program for Maternal-Fetal Intensive Care Unit (MFICU) nurses who provide intensive care to high-risk mother and fetus at hospitals, to test effects of the education program on nursing care confidence and nursing knowledge, and to examine program satisfaction., Methods: This study comprised of 2 phases: program development and evaluation. First, we have followed a process of program development to develop and refine an empowering education program for MFICU nurses through collaborative works among clinical obstetrics and gynecology doctors and nurses and academic nursing professors. Second, the empowering education program was provided to 49 nurses and evaluated from July 5 to 6, 2019. Levels of MFICU nursing care confidence and knowledge were measured., Results: The empowering education program included 18 hours of lectures, discussion, and Q & A, which continued for 2 days. This program significantly improved high-risk maternal-fetal nursing care confidence and knowledge of nurses. The program was well met with nurses' education need and goals, and found to be highly satisfactory., Conclusion: The empowering education program was observed to be effective in terms of improve nursing care confidence and knowledge of nurses in MFICU. It is proposed that this program should be open regularly for nurses to obtain and improve their clinical knowledge, confidence, and competency. Further study is needed to develop and run 2-levels of education such as basic and advanced levels based on nurses' clinical background and competency.