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Background: Vascular fibrosis is a universal phenomenon associated with aging, and oxidative stress plays an important role in the genesis of vascular damage in line with the aging process. However, whether antioxidants can ameliorate vascular fibrosis remains unclear. Objectives: The present study was to determine antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) could ameliorates aortic fibrosis in aging wild-type C57BL/6 mice. Methods: The aortas were harvested from both 12-week and 60-week wild-type mice. The 60-week mice were treated with and without the NAC for 12 weeks starting at the age of 48 weeks. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and Masson's trichrome staining of aortic samples were performed, and the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), RNA expression of GAPDH, TNF-α, MCP-1, IL-6, IL-10, IL-4, SIRT-1, SIRT-3, FOXO-1, and macrophage polarization were determined. Results: There is a positive relationship between collagen deposition and the M1/M2 macrophage ratio in the aortic wall of aged wild-type C57BL/6 mice. The higher collagen area percentage in the aortas of 60-week-old mice than in 12-week-old mice was reversed by NAC. NAC could not impact the total number of macrophages, but partly promoted M2 macrophage polarization. By performing qRT-PCR using aortic samples from these mice, we identified that SIRT-1, SIRT-3, FOXO-1 could be somehow responsible for aging-related fibrosis. Conclusions: NAC ameliorates aortic fibrosis in aging wild type mice partly by promoting M2 macrophage polarization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutant non-small cell lung cancer can benefit significantly from EGFR tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (TKIs) treatment, but almost every patient will inevitably develop resistance. The transformation to small cell lung cancer (SCLC) has been described as an EGFR-TKI resistance often associated with aggressive clinical course and poor prognosis. In this study, we report an unexpected favorable response to etoposide and cisplatin (EP) from an EGFR-mutant patient who developed SCLC transformation at disease progression after the administration of erlotinib with a progression-free survivalof 7.7 months. At disease progression (PD) after erlotinib, rebiopsy showed typical SCLC histology accompanied by positive expressions of CD56, TTF-1, CK7, and synaptophysin. Subsequently, he was switched to standard SCLC treatment regimen EP in combination with erlotinib due to the retention of EGFR 19 del and achieved PR four cycles after the treatment. His disease progressed again 7.7 months after the initiation of EP treatment, with an enlargement of both primary and metastatic lesions. Collectively, this case illustrated the transformation from adenocarcinoma to SCLC and the subsequent durable benefit from standard treatment for SCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is every company's goal to gain the most from investments in advertising. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that sustained spending in advertising is needed to maintain high levels of sales, the concept of marketing persistence suggests that short-term advertising campaigns can have long-lasting impacts on sales. This study offers a first glimpse of the long-term effect of television advertising on sales in China through the use of a marketing-persistence model. Significant marketing persistence was found in sales of consumer durables, whereas there were mixed results in sales of nondurables. Based on the findings, implications for long-term marketing resource deployment are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triterpenoids possess a wide range of biological effects. Here, the cytotoxic activities of 55 triterpenes and derived glycosides against BEL-7404 and SGC-7901 cells were assessed, and structure-activity relationships were analysed accordingly. Nine of them effectively inhibited the two cell lines. In particular, compounds 49 and 52 inhibited BEL-7404 cells as efficiently as 5'-fluorouracil (IC50 values 0.46 and 1.48, respectively). Moreover, we found that compounds 49 and 52 induced apoptosis in BEL-7404 cells. Indeed, DNA fragmentation assay showed a time-dependent degradation of DNA after treatment of cells with compounds 49 and 52. In addition, Bax gene expression levels were increased after treatment with these compounds, in a concentration-dependent manner. Taken together, our findings suggested that compounds 49 and 52 induce apoptosis in BEL-7404 cells by upregulating the Bax gene without affecting Bcl-2 gene expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cocaine is a type of drug that functions to increase the availability of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain. However, cocaine dependence or abuse is highly related to an increased risk of psychiatric disorders and deficits in cognitive performance, attention, and decision-making abilities. Given the chronic and persistent features of drug addiction, the progression of abstaining from cocaine often evolves across several states, such as addiction to, moderate dependence on, and swearing off cocaine. Hidden Markov models (HMMs) are well suited to the characterization of longitudinal data in terms of a set of unobservable states, and have increasingly been used to uncover the dynamic heterogeneity in progressive diseases or activities. However, the existence of outliers or influential points may misidentify the hidden states and distort the associated inference. In this study, we develop a Bayesian local influence procedure for HMMs with latent variables in the presence of missing data. The proposed model enables us to investigate the dynamic heterogeneity of multivariate longitudinal data, reveal how the interrelationships among latent variables change from one state to another, and simultaneously conduct statistical diagnosis for the given data, model assumptions, and prior inputs. We apply the proposed procedure to analyze a dataset collected by the UCLA center for advancing longitudinal drug abuse research. Several outliers or influential points that seriously influence estimation results are identified and removed. The proposed procedure also discovers the effects of treatment and individuals’ psychological problems on cocaine use behavior and delineates their dynamic changes across the cocaine-addiction states. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In psychological, social, behavioral, and medical studies, hidden Markov models (HMMs) have been extensively applied to the simultaneous modeling of heterogeneous observation and hidden transition in the analysis of longitudinal data. However, the majority of the existing HMMs are developed in a parametric framework without latent variables. This study considers a novel semiparametric HMM, which comprises a semiparametric latent variable model to investigate the complex interrelationships among latent variables and a nonparametric transition model to examine the linear and nonlinear effects of potential predictors on hidden transition. The Bayesian P-splines approach and Markov chain Monte Carlo methods are developed to estimate the unknown, a Bayesian model comparison statistic, is employed to conduct model comparison. The empirical performance of the proposed methodology is evaluated through simulation studies. An application to a data set derived from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The depths, which have been used to detect outliers or to extract a representative subset, can be applied to classification. We propose a resampling-based classification method based on the fact that resampling techniques yield a consistent estimator of the distribution of a statistic. The performance of this method was evaluated with eight contaminated models in terms of Correct Classification Rates (CCRs), and the results were compared with other known methods. The proposed method consistently showed higher average CCRs and 4% higher CCR at the maximum compared to other methods. In addition, this method was applied to Berkeley data. The average CCRs were between 0.79 and 0.85. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new compounds named fischeacid (1) and fischexanthone (2), together with eight known compounds, were obtained from the culture of a marine-derived fungus Neosartorya fischeri strain 1008F1. The structures of the new compounds were elucidated based on the spectroscopic data. Bioassays indicated that AGI-B4 (5) and 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid (10) showed potent inhibitory effect on the replication of tobacco mosaic virus, and AGI-B4 also possessed an inhibition of the cell proliferation of human gastric cancer cell line SGC-7901 and hepatic cancer cells BEL-7404. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new seco-neolignan glycoside, seco-dehydrodiconiferyl alcohol-4-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (1), together with eight known compounds, were obtained from the EtOH extract of the root bark of Ailanthus altissima. Their structures were elucidated based on the spectroscopic data. Three neolignan glycosides including 7,9,9′-trihydroxy-3,3′,5′-trimethoxy-8-O-4′-neolignan-4-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (5), sonchifolignan B (6) and citrusin B (7) exhibited moderate in vitro inhibitory effect on tobacco mosaic virus replication with IC50 values 0.30, 0.35 and 0.26 mmol L−1, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this study, two novel flavan derivatives, namely, rhusjavanins A and B, along with two known flavans 2,3-trans-3,4-trans-3,4,7,4'-tetrahydroxyflavan and 2,3-trans-3,4-cis-3,4,7,4'-tetrahydroxyflavan, have been isolated from the roots of Rhus javanica. The structures were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new phenolic glycoside, 4-O-β-D-apifuranosyl-(1 → 2)-β-D-glucopyranosyl-2-hydroxy-6-methoxyacetophenone (2) and 11 known compounds were isolated from the MeOH extract of the plant Celosia argentea. The structures of the compounds were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic analysis and chemical methods. Among the isolated compounds, stigmasterol (10) showed moderate inhibitory activities against SGC-7901 and BEL-7404 cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three new water-soluble compounds, pungens A-C, along with four known compounds including two phenol glycosides, one secoiso-flavanol and one phenol ether, have been isolated from the bark of Elaeagnus pungens. Among them, pungen C (7) (200 μg/ml) was tested in SGC-7901 and BEL-7404 tumor cell lines, and showed moderate cytotoxic activity. The structures of the new compounds were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic data and chemical evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three new constituents were obtained along with 10 known compounds from the seeds of Brucea javanica. The structures of these compounds were determined based on spectral and chemical evidence. These new compounds included a monoterpenoid glycoside and two sesquiterpenes. Bioactivity screening of these constituents showed that compounds 1, 3, 8, 9, and 13 with obvious activities in inhibiting multiplication of the Tobacco mosaic virus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new phenolic water-soluble constituents, involcranoside A (1) and involcranoside B (2) have been isolated along with five known phenolic compounds: 3,4-dimethoxyphenyl-O-β-D-gluco-pyranoside (3), picein (4), and 1,4-dihydroxy-3-methoxy-phenyl-4-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (5), leonuriside A (6) and 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzoic acid (7) from the branch bark of Davidia involucrata. Identification of their structures was achieved by 1D and 2D NMR experiments, including 1H-1H COSY, NOESY, HMQC and HMBC methods and FAB mass spectral data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three new caffeoyl galactoic acid derivatives, davidiosides A–C (1–3) together with four known caffeoyl derivatives such as: caffeic acid (4), methyl caffeate (5), chlorogenic acid (6), and methyl chlorogenate (7) were isolated from the leaves of Davidia involucrate. The new structures were determined by spectroscopic data and chemical evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new neolignan glycosides, davidioside A (1) and davidioside B (2), have been isolated along with six known compounds from the branch bark of Davidia involucrata. Identification of their structures was achieved by 1D and 2D NMR experiments, including 1H-1H COSY, NOESY, HMQC, and HMBC methods as well as FAB mass spectral data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New water-soluble phenylpropanoid constituents, ficuscarpanoside A, guaiacylglycerol 9-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, and erythro-guaiacylglycerol 9-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, along with known guaiacylglycerol, erythro-guaiacylglycerol, 4-methoxy guaiacylglycerol 7-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, and 3-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxy phenyl) propan-1,2-diol, have been isolated from the aerial roots of Ficus microcarpa. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of 1D and 2D NMR experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new adenosyl-alkaloid, ostrerine A (1), has been isolated along with an amino acid, tryptophan (2) and a ribonucleoside, 2′-deoxythymidine (3) from the Quanzhou marine mollusk, Ostrea rivularis , and the structures were elucidated by 1D and 2D NMR experiments, including 1 H- 1 H COSY, TOCSY, NOESY, HMQC, and HMBC methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new cerebroside, asperiamide A (1), and adenosine were produced from a marine fungus, identified as Asperillus sp ., collected in the Mei Zhou Gulf, China. Two-dimensional NMR methods, FAB-MS, were used to established the structure of the new compound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three new triterpenoid saponins, hylonosides III-V ( 1 - 3 ) have been isolated, along with three known oleanolic acid saponins ( 4 - 6 ), from the methanol extract of leaves of Ilex hylonoma . The structures were elucidated using a combination of homo- and hetero-nuclear 2D NMR techniques (COSY, TOCSY, NOESY, HMQC and HMBC) and negative FAB-MS. The new compounds were characterized as 3- O -β- d -glucopyranosyl-(1→4)-β- d -glucuronopyranosyl siaresinolic acid-28- O -β- d -glucopyranosyl ester ( 1 ), 3- O -β- d -glucopyranosyl-(1→4)-β- d -glucopyranosyl-(1→2)-β- d -glucuronopyranosyl siaresinolic acid-28- O -β- d -glucopyranosyl ester ( 2 ), 3- O -β- d -glucopyranosyl-(1→4)-β- d -glucopyranosyl-(1→2)-β- d -glucuronopyranosyl oleanolic acid-28- O -β- d -glucopyranosyl ester ( 3 ). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing pace of globalization has significantly affected our lives in many profound ways. One of the consequences of globalization is the rise of intermarriage, i.e., the marriage between couples of different nationalities or different social, economic, religious, or racial backgrounds. Since our understanding of intermarriage is limited, this paper attempts to shed lights on intermarriage by developing a formal model based on attribute exchange. After examining the motivation and micro and macro consequences of intermarriages, our model shows that different value systems regarding marital attributes among different groups drive individuals with attributes valued lower in their group to seek intermarriage. As a result, the essence of intermarriages is the movement of attributes from groups in which such attributes are relatively abundant to groups where the same attributes are relatively scarce. Thus, intermarriage makes individuals with attributes valued lower in their original groups better off. At the inter‐societal (or inter‐group) level, the equilibrium of intermarriage is determined by the relative scarcity of marital attributes in different groups (societies). In the long run, intermarriages converge different groups in terms of their value systems regarding marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]