Ethics is fragile,goodness is not

This paper first illustrates what kind of ethical issues arise from the new information, communication and automation technology. It then argues that we may embrace the popular idea that technology is ethically neutral or even ambivalent without having to close our eyes to those issues and in fact, that the ethical neutrality of technology makes them all the more urgent. Finally, it suggests that the widely ignored fact of normal responsible behaviour offers a new and fruitful starting point for any future thinking about such issues.     

Crosstalk between Nutrition,Insulin, Juvenile Hormone,and Ecdysteroid Signaling in the Classical Insect Model,Rhodnius prolixus

The rigorous balance of endocrine signals that control insect reproductive physiology is crucial for the success of egg production. Rhodnius prolixus, a blood-feeding insect and main vector of Chagas disease, has been used over the last century as a model to unravel aspects of insect metabolism and physiology. Our recent work has shown that nutrition, insulin signaling, and two main types of insect lipophilic hormones, juvenile hormone (JH) and ecdysteroids, are essential for successful reproduction in R. prolixus; however, the interplay behind these endocrine signals has not been established. We used a combination of hormone treatments, gene expression analyses, hormone measurements, and ex vivo experiments using the corpus allatum or the ovary, to investigate how the interaction of these endocrine signals might define the hormone environment for egg production. The results show that after a blood meal, circulating JH levels increase, a process mainly driven through insulin and allatoregulatory neuropeptides. In turn, JH feeds back to provide some control over its own biosynthesis by regulating the expression of critical biosynthetic enzymes in the corpus allatum. Interestingly, insulin also stimulates the synthesis and release of ecdysteroids from the ovary. This study highlights the complex network of endocrine signals that, together, coordinate a successful reproductive cycle.     

Dipotassium Glycyrrhizinate on Melanoma Cell Line: Inhibition of Cerebral Metastases Formation by Targeting NF-kB Genes-Mediating MicroRNA-4443 and MicroRNA-3620—Dipotassium Glycyrrhizinate Effect on Melanoma

Glycyrrhizic acid (GA), a natural compound isolated from licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra), has exhibited anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor effects in vitro. Dipotassium glycyrrhizinate (DPG), a dipotassium salt of GA, also has shown an anti-tumor effect on glioblastoma cell lines, U87MG and T98G. The study investigated the DPG effects in the melanoma cell line (SK-MEL-28). MTT assay demonstrated that the viability of the cells was significantly decreased in a time- and dose-dependent manner after DPG (IC₅₀ = 36 mM; 24 h). DNA fragmentation suggested that DPG (IC₅₀) induced cellular apoptosis, which was confirmed by a significant number of TUNEL-positive cells (p-value = 0.048) and by PARP-1 [0.55 vs. 1.02 arbitrary units (AUs), p-value = 0.001], BAX (1.91 vs. 1.05 AUs, p-value = 0.09), and BCL-2 (0.51 vs. 1.07 AUs, p-value = 0.0018) mRNA compared to control cells. The proliferation and wound-healing assays showed an anti-proliferative effect on DPG-IC₅₀-treated cells, also indicating an inhibitory effect on cell migration (p-values < 0.001). Moreover, it was observed that DPG promoted a 100% reduction in melanospheres formation (p-value = 0.008). Our previous microRNAs (miRs) global analysis has revealed that DPG might increase miR-4443 and miR-3620 expression levels. Thus, qPCR showed that after DPG treatment, SK-MEL-28 cells presented significantly high miR-4443 (1.77 vs. 1.04 AUs, p-value = 0.02) and miR-3620 (2.30 vs. 1.00 AUs, p-value = 0.01) expression compared to control cells, which are predicted to target the NF-kB, CD209 and TNC genes, respectively. Both genes are responsible for cell attachment and migration, and qPCR revealed significantly decreased CD209 (1.01 vs. 0.54 AUs, p-value = 0.018) and TNC (1.00 vs. 0.31 AUs, p-value = 2.38 × 10⁻⁶) mRNA expression levels after DPG compared to untreated cells. Furthermore, the migration of SK-MEL-28 cells stimulated by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) was attenuated by adding DPG by wound-healing assay (48 h: p-value = 0.004; 72 h: p-value = 7.0 × 10⁻⁴). In addition, the MMP-9 expression level was inhibited by DPG in melanoma cells stimulated by TPA and compared to TPA-treated cells (3.56 vs. 0.99 AUs, p-value = 0.0016) after 24 h of treatment. Our results suggested that DPG has an apoptotic, anti-proliferative, and anti-migratory effect on SK-MEL-28 cells. DPG was also able to inhibit cancer stem-like cells that may cause cerebral tumor formation.     

Mechanism and kinetics of sulfamethoxazole photocatalytic ozonation in water

The photocatalytic ozonation of sulfamethoxazole (SMT) has been studied in water under different experimental conditions. The effect of gas flow rate, initial concentration of ozone, SMT and TiO₂ has been investigated to establish the importance of mass transfer and chemical reaction. Under the conditions investigated the process is chemically controlled. Both, SMT and TOC kinetics have been considered. Fast and slow kinetic regime of ozone reactions have been observed for SMT and TOC oxidation, respectively. Application of different inhibitors allows for the establishment of reaction mechanism involving direct ozonation, direct photolysis, hydroxyl radical reactions and photocatalytic reactions. Rate constants of the direct reaction between ozone and protonated, non-protonated and anionic SMT species have been determined to be 1.71 × 10⁵, 3.24 × 10⁵ and 4.18 × 10⁵ M⁻¹ s⁻¹, respectively. SMT quantum yield at 313 nm was found to be 0.012 moles per Einstein at pH 5 and 0.003 moles per Einstein at pHs 7 and 9. Main contributions to SMT removal were direct ozone reaction, positive hole oxidation and hydroxyl radical reactions. For TOC removal, main contributions were due to positive hole oxidation and hydroxyl radical reactions.     

Effect of cooking on total vitamin C contents and antioxidant activity of sweet chestnuts (Castanea sativa Mill.)

In this work the total vitamin C contents (ascorbic acid + dehydroascorbic acid) and antioxidant activity of raw and cooked chestnuts was evaluated. The vitamin C contents of raw chestnuts varied significantly between the different cultivars (cv) studied and it varied from 400 mg/kg dry weight (cv Lada) to 693 mg/kg dry weight (cv Martaínha). The different cultivars behave differently during the cooking process concerning the loss of vitamin C. A significant decrease in the vitamin C content of the chestnuts was observed, 25–54% for the boiling process and 2–77% for the roasting process. Boiled and roasted chestnuts can be good sources of vitamin C since it may represent 22.4%, 16.2%, 26.8% and 19.4%, respectively, of the recommended dietary intake for an adult man and woman. The cooking process significantly changed the antioxidant activity of the chestnuts. A difference was observed between the cultivars during the cooking processes, concerning the antioxidant activity. For the raw chestnuts the variation in vitamin C content of the chestnuts explains 99% of the antioxidant activity variation but for the roasted and boiled chestnuts this percentage significantly decreases to 51% and 88%, respectively. Although a high antioxidant activity is still present in the cooked chestnuts, the cause for this antioxidant activity is less dependent on the vitamin C content of the chestnuts, probably due to the conversion of ascorbic acid to dehydroascorbic acid. The increase in gallic acid during the cooking process, presumably transferred from the peels to the fruit, also contributes to the high antioxidant activity observed for the cooked chestnuts.     

Comment on "In vivo flow cytometry reveals a circadian rhythm of circulating tumor cells"

Dear Editor, Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are instrumental in hematogenous metastasis and are widely studied using liquid biopsy methods.     

Generation and Selection of Abductive Explanations for Non-Omniscient Agents

Among the non-monotonic reasoning processes, abduction is one of the most important. Usually described as the process of looking for explanations, it has been recognized as one of the most commonly used in our daily activities. Still, the traditional definitions of an abductive problem and an abductive solution mention only theories and formulas, leaving agency out of the picture. Our work proposes a study of abductive reasoning from an epistemic and dynamic perspective. In the first part we explore syntactic definitions of both an abductive problem in terms of an agent’s information and an abductive solution in terms of the actions that modify the agent’s information. We look at diverse kinds of agents, including not only omniscient ones but also those whose information is not closed under logical consequence and those whose reasoning abilities are not complete. In the second part, we look at an existing logical framework whose semantic model allows us to interpret the previously stated formulas, and we define two actions that represent forms of abductive reasoning.     

On the structure of balanced and other principal representations of SISO systems

A new matrix Wcowhich can be considered as a cross-Gramian matrix which contains information about both controllability and observability is defined for single-input, single-output, linear systems. Using this matrix, the structural properties of linear systems are studied in the context of principal component analysis. The matrix Wcocan be used in obtaining balanced and other principal representations without computation of the controllability and the observability Gramians. The importance of this matrix in model-order reduction is highlighted.