The objective of this study was to investigate the electrical impedance properties of rat lung and other tissues ex vivo using Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy. Rat lungs (both electroporated and naïve (untreated)), and mesenteric vessels (naïve) were harvested from male Sprague-Dawley rats; their electrical impedance were measured using a Solartron 1290 impedance analyzer. Mouse lung and heart samples (naïve) were also studied. The resistance (Real Z, ohm) and the reactance (Im Z, negative ohm)) magnitudes and hence the Cole-Cole (Real Z versus Im Z) plots are different for the electroporated lung and the naive lung. The results confirm the close relationship between the structure and the functional characteristic. These also vary for the different biological tissues studied. The impedance values were higher at low frequencies compared to those at high frequencies. This study is of practical interest for biological applications of electrical pulses, such as electroporation, whose efficacy depends on cell type and its electrical impedance characteristics.

The most suitable candidates for ECT were patients with few and small metastases on the lower limb treated with multiple electrode applications and ECT cycles.

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Aging and degradation of 345 kV ethylene propylene diene monomer EPDM transmission line insulators removed from service is presented. These suspension type insulators were installed in a New Hampshire coastal area in 1995 and were removed in 2000 after unexplained outages in that structure. The purpose of this paper is to better understand the aging and degradation mechanisms of EPDM insulators in service. The insulators showed severe chalking and discoloration and partial loss of hydrophobicity on the side facing the sun. The surface structural changes were studied in detail using advanced surface analysis techniques, such as ( ) attenuated total reflection Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy ATR-FTIR , ( ) Scanning Electron Microscopy SEM and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy ( ) XPS . For the first time, the significant differences in surface properties between ( ) ( ) the chalkedr r r r rdiscolored white and the other surfaces dark were studied quanti-( ) tatively. The Fourier Transform infrared FTIR absorption spectra showed a significant decomposition of the CH groups of the white surface, elucidating the effect of photo-oxidation on the EPDM polymer. The SEM micrographs showed the cracking of the surfaces. The XPS spectra showed the formation of various polar carboxyl groups and the presence of high surface energy compounds, such as silica, and silicates. This study provided valuable basic information on the changes in the surface properties of EPDM insulators during service in a coastal environment. Index Terms -EPDM transmission line insulators, aging, degradation, FTIR, SEM, XPS.1070-9878r r r r r04r r r r r$20.00 ᮊ 2004 IEEE 348 1070-9878r r r r r04r r r r r$20.00 ᮊ 2004 IEEE 1070-9878r r r r r04r r r r r$20.00 ᮊ 2004 IEEE

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Due to the lack of the three main receptors, triple negative breast cancer (tnBc) is refractive to standard chemotherapy. Hence, alternate therapies are needed. tnBcs utilize glycolysis, which heightens their growth, proliferation, invasiveness, chemotherapeutic resistance and poor therapeutic response. this calls for novel therapeutic strategies to target these metabolic vulnerabilities present in tnBc. electroporation-mediated chemotherapy, known as electrochemotherapy (ect) is gaining momentum as an attractive alternative. However, its molecular mechanisms need better understanding. towards this, label-free quantitative proteomics is utilized to gain insight into the anticancer mechanisms of ECT using electrical pulses (EP) and Cisplatin (CsP) on MDA-MB-231, human tnBc cells. the results indicate that ep + CsP significantly downregulated 14 key glycolysis proteins (including ENO1, LDHA, LDHB, ACSS2, ALDOA, and PGK1), compared to CsP alone. EP + csp caused a switch in the metabolism with upregulation of 34 oxidative phosphorylation pathway proteins and 18 tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle proteins compared to CsP alone, accompanied by the upregulation of proteins linked to several metabolic reactions, which produce tcA cycle intermediates. Moreover, ep + CsP promoted multiple pathways to cause 1.3-fold increase in the reactive oxygen species concentration and induced apoptosis. the proteomics results correlate well with cell viability, western blot, and qPCR data. While some effects were similar for EP, more comprehensive and long-lasting effects were observed for EP + csp, which demonstrate the potential of ep + csp against tnBc cells. Breast cancer is the second major cause of cancer death (after lung cancer) in women. Annually, one million new patients are estimated to be diagnosed with breast cancer 1. Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) contributes to about 15-20% of these cases. TNBC is a heterogeneous phenotype of the breast cancer, which lacks the expression of estrogen (ER), progesterone (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) receptors 2. It has an aggressive clinical course and poor prognosis 3 with a short 5 year survival and increased 3 year recurrence rates 4. There is a significantly increased likelihood of distant recurrence in TNBC (33.9%) compared to other breast cancers (20.4%) 3. Aggressive and metastatic behavior of TNBC with distinct molecular signature and absence of targeted therapies pose a major challenge in the treatment. Recent reports suggest that TNBC harbor alterations in their metabolism, which correlate with the increased growth, proliferation, invasiveness, chemotherapeutic resistance and poor therapeutic response 4-6. Particularly, TNBCs have elevated uptake and utilization of glucose and are highly dependent upon aerobic glycolysis 6,7 , while having disrupted mitochondrial function and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) 8,9. The altered metabolism makes TNBC highly vulnerable to the inhibition of glycolysis, signifying that metabolic manipulation could be an ...

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