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By using human genomic DNA as a template to clone protection of telomere 1 (POT1) promoter gene segments and construct the POT1 promoter luciferase report gene vector (pGL3‑Control‑POT1‑promoter), the association between POT1, and the regulation of telomerase and telomere length was investigated. In the present study, two recombinant luciferase report gene vectors were constructed, which included different regions of the POT1 promoter. The plasmids were transformed into DH5α and the positive clones were obtained. The two plasmids termed as pGL3‑Control‑POT1‑promoter‑1 and pGL3‑Control‑POT1‑promoter‑2, were confirmed using restriction enzyme analysis and sequencing. They were separately and transiently transfected into four types of human tumor cells (A549, H460, HepG2 and HeLa). The transcriptional activities of the POT1 promoter were verified using the dual‑luciferase assay. The relative expression of POT1 and human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), and telomere length were analyzed using quantitative polymerase chain reaction in the four types of non‑transfected tumor cells. Using SPSS software, correlations between POT1 promoter activity, and POT1 expression, hTERT expression and telomere length were analyzed. Two POT1 promoter fragments (POT1‑promoter‑1 and ‑2) were successfully constructed into the pGL3‑Control luciferase report gene vector. POT1‑promoter‑1 exhibited significantly stronger transcription activity compared with POT1‑promoter‑2. The results of the partial correlation and linear regression analyses were similar: POT1 promoter activity was identified to be significantly and positively correlated with POT1 expression and telomere length (partial correlation coefficients, both P<0.05; linear regression, both P<0.01). However, POT1 promoter activity and hTERT expression were significantly negatively correlated (both P<0.05). The results obtained in the present study suggest that the POT1 promoter influences telomere length. Furthermore, these data indicated that POT1 promoter activity and POT1, as well as telomere length, may be a useful biomarker for tumor detection and future patient prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overexpression of the survivin gene contributes to tumorigenesis; it has been recognized as an important target for cancer therapy. In the present study, survivin expression was suppressed using recombinant plasmid mediated short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) that were constructed to target exonic or intronic sequences of the survivin gene. In addition, a negative control shRNA was constructed. HeLa cells were transfected with specific shRNA constructs and the blocking efficiency of each shRNA was assessed at the mRNA and protein levels; and the five shRNA constructs with higher blocking efficiency were selected. Cell apoptosis was assessed by flow cytometry (FCM) following Annexin V-fluorescein isothiocyanate/propidium iodide double staining. Hoechst staining was used to detect the morphological diversity of the nuclei in apoptotic cells. The results demonstrated that survivin expression was effectively reduced by the transfection of shRNAs in HeLa cells. In addition, the apoptotic rates of the shRNA-treated groups were significantly increased compared with the negative control group according to the FCM results. The nuclei of HeLa cells exhibited apoptotic characteristics in the shRNA-treated groups as identified by Hoechst staining. Survivin-targeting shRNAs effectively downregulated the expression of the gene and markedly increased the apoptotic rate of HeLa cells. Data from the present study also indicated that the intron-specific shRNA demonstrate a high efficiency of inhibition of survivin expression and were able to induce cell apoptosis of HeLa cells through RNAi, potentially providing novel target sites for tumor therapy. In conclusion, the present study suggests that intron-specific blocking of survivin by RNAi may provide a tool for anticancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given two strings X and Y and a constraining string P, a string Z is called a constrained longest common subsequence of X and Y with respect to P if Z is the longest common subsequence of X and Y such that P is a subsequence of Z. In this paper, we propose an O(r x min{mN, nM})-time algorithm for solving this problem, where m, n and r are the lengths of X, Y and P, respectively, and M and N are the number of runs of the run-length-encoded strings of X and Y, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to construct a fast-acting, eukaryotic expression vector in eukaryotic cells based on transmembrane-tumor necrosis factor-α (TM-TNF-α) structure. Two types of recombinant eukaryotic expression vectors were constructed, pcDNA3.1-TM-enterokinase-TNF-α and pcDNA3.1-TM-Factor Xa-TNF-α, according to the TNF-α transmembrane segments. Following the generation of these vectors, mouse embryonic 3T3 fibroblasts were transfected and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and western blotting analyses were used to analyze mTNF-α mRNA and protein expression levels, respectively, in total cellular protein extracts and extracellular fluid. The biological activity of TNF-α in the extracellular fluid was then measured using an MTT assay. The vectors were successfully constructed, and mRNA and fusion proteins were detected in the 3T3 cells. Among the fusion proteins, the one observed in pcDNA3.1-TM-FactorXa-TNF-α-transfected 3T3 cells remained as a transmembrane protein. In addition, treatment of L929 cells with TNF-α derived extracellular fluid samples from pcDN A3.1-TM-FactorXa-TNF-α-transfected 3T3 cells was associated with a dose-dependent reduction in in cell-specific activity. The results indicate that proteins expressed using pcDNA3.1-TM-FactorXa-TNF-α vectors form transmembrane proteins. In addition, the results indicate that, only when coupled with FactorXa activity, the extracellular region of TM-TNF-α forms s-TNF-α, and the controlled expression of the fusion protein is initiated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare multiple daily injection (MDI) therapy of bolus insulin aspart and basal insulin glargine with continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) with aspart in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). It was assessed whether MDI was capable of controlling glycemic index with a higher efficacy than CSII by preferential adjustment of basal insulin with a lower total daily insulin dosage in T2DM. Two hundred patients with T2DM were enrolled in the study and randomly assigned to CSII (n=100) and MDI (n=100; aspart immediately prior to each meal and glargine at bedtime) groups for 12 weeks of therapy. During the last week of each treatment period, the subjects wore a continuous glucose monitoring system for 2-3 days. The dosage of basal insulin was preferentially adjusted to control prior-meal blood glucose levels, and the characteristics of insulin dosage were analyzed. No statistically significant differences were observed between the two groups in hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), which dropped from 10-11% prior to therapy to 7-7.5% after 12 weeks. After 12 weeks, good glycemic level control was achieved in all patients in the MDI and CSII groups. A statistically significant difference in the dose of insulin between the CSII and MDI groups was observed (P<0.001). In conclusion, no significant differences were found between the two therapies in the incidence of hypoglycemia and HbA1c for the 12 weeks. The basal insulin dosage was significantly decreased in the MDI group compared with that in the CSII group, but the CSII group was superior to MDI group in decreasing fasting blood glucose and shortening the time required for hypoglycemia to meet the targeted level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An ordered tree is called a non-regular tree with a prescribed branching sequence (or non-regular tree for short) if its internal nodes have a prespecified degree sequence in preorder list. We define a concise representation, called right distance sequences to describe such trees. A coding tree helps us to systematically investigate the structural representation of non-regular trees. Consequently, we present a loopless algorithm to generate Gray-codes of non-regular trees using right distance sequences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Two spanning trees rooted at vertex r in a graph G are called independent spanning trees (ISTs) if for each vertex v in G, v ≠ r, the paths from vertex v to vertex r in these two trees are internally distinct. If the connectivity of G is k, the IST problem is to construct k ISTs rooted at each vertex. The IST problem has found applications in fault-tolerant broadcasting, but it is still open for general graphs with connectivity greater than four. In this paper, we shall propose a very simple algorithm for solving the IST problem on multidimensional torus networks. In our algorithm, every vertex can determine its parent for a specific independent spanning tree only depending on its own label. Thus, our algorithm can also be implemented in parallel systems or distributed systems very easily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Δ-interchange is a transformation which reverses the orientations of the arcs in a 3-cycle of a digraph. Let $${\fancyscript T}(S)$$ be the collection of tournaments that realize a given score vector S. An interchange graph of S, denoted by G( S), is an undirected graph whose vertices are the tournaments in $${\fancyscript T}(S)$$ and an edge joining tournaments $$T,T' \in {\fancyscript T}(S)$$ provided T′ can be obtained from T by a Δ-interchange. In this paper, we find a set of score vectors of tournaments for which the corresponding interchange graphs are hypercubes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To observe the short-term dynamic change in serum CXC chemokine ligand-10 (CXCL10) levels in patients with Graves' disease (GD) before and after iodine therapy and to analyze the relationship between CXCL10 levels and clinical disease indices. Methods: ELISA was used to determine serum levels of CXCL10 in 43 patients with GD shortly before radioiodine therapy and on days six, 14, and 60, post-therapy. Results: Patients with newly diagnosed GD showed significantly higher levels of serum CXCL10 compared with the control group (P < 0.01). The serum CXCL10 level increased slightly on day six after treatment of radioactive iodine (P<0.01). There was no significant statistical difference in serum CXCL10 levels pre-treatment and on day 14 post-treatment. A significant reduction in serum CXCL10 level was observed on day 60 (P<0.01). GD patients with exophthalmia showed higher serum CXCL10 level than GD patients without exophthalmia. No correlation was found between levels of CXCL10 and FT3, FT4 or TSH at any time point, but significant positive correlation was shown between thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPOAb) and CXCL10 (r=0.50, P<0.01). Conclusion: CXCL10 participates in the early inflammatory response after radioactive iodine therapy in patients with Graves' disease and shows a strong association with the autoimmune process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recursive circulant graph G(N,d) has N = cdm vertices labeled from 0 to N - 1, where d ⩾ 2, m ⩾ 1, and 1 ⩽ c < d, and two vertices x,y ∈ G(N,d) are adjacent if and only if there is an integer k with 0 ⩽ k ⩽ ⌈logd N⌉ - 1 such that x ± dk ≡ y (mod N). With the aid of recursive structure, such class of graphs has many attractive features and was considered as a topology of interconnection networks for computing systems. The design of multiple independent spanning trees (ISTs) has many applications in network communication. For instance, it is useful for fault-tolerant broadcasting and secure message distribution. In the previous work of Yang et al. (2009), we provided a constructing scheme to build k ISTs on G(cdm,d) with d ⩾ 3, where k is the connectivity of G(cdm,d). However, the proposed constructing rules cannot be applied to the case of d = 2. For the integrity of solving the IST problem on recursive circulant graphs, this paper deals with the case of G(2m,2) using a set of different constructing rules. Especially, we show that the heights of ISTs for G(2m,2) are lower than the known optimal construction of hypercubes with the same number of vertices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  Periodic Broadcasting schemes are cost- effective methods of implementation of Near Video on Demand systems. While the schemes enjoy the advantage of reducing the demand on server bandwidth, they suffer from the problem of insensitivity to the popularity of videos. However, the popularity of a video does not remain constant in the real world; it varies with time, social events, and so on. From a service provider’s viewpoint, given a set of popular videos and limited server bandwidth, it would be desirable to adjust the bandwidth allocated to each of the videos dynamically and seamlessly according to the level of its hotness. In this paper, we first re-formulate the Generalized Fibonacci Broadcasting as the Fixed-Length Segment- Scheduling problem and name the re-formulated scheme the Slotted Generalized Fibonacci Broadcasting (SGFB). We then propose a seamless channel transition enhancement on top of the SGFB scheme so that the service provider is capable of adjusting the channel allocation policy to make the most benefit out of the available bandwidth. The correctness of SGFB together with its performance analysis will be presented. Furthermore, we shall provide mathematical analysis to demonstrate its channel transition behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with a particular family of regular 4-connected graphs, called chordal rings. Chordal rings are a variation of ring networks. By adding two extra links (or chords) at each vertex in a ring network, the reliability and fault-tolerance of the network are enhanced. Two spanning trees on a graph are said to be independent if they are rooted at the same vertex, say, r, and for each vertex v ≠ r, the two paths from r to v, one path in each tree, are internally disjoint. A set of spanning trees on a given graph is said to be independent if they are pairwise independent. Iwasaki et al. [9] proposed a linear time algorithm for finding four independent spanning trees on a chordal ring. In this paper, we give a new linear time algorithm to generate four independent spanning trees with a reduced height in each tree. Moreover, a complete analysis of our improvements on the heights of independent spanning trees is also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]