Cancer stem-like cell (CS-like cell) is considered to be responsible for recurrence and drug resistance events in breast cancer, which makes it a potential target for novel cancer therapeutic strategy. The FDA approved flubendazole, has been widely used in the treatment of intestinal parasites. Here, we demonstrated a novel effect of flubendazole on breast CS-like cells. Flubendazole inhibited breast cancer cells proliferation in dose- and time-dependent manner and delayed tumor growth in xenograft models by intraperitoneal injection. Importantly, flubendazole reduced CD44high/CD24low subpopulation and suppressed the formation of mammosphere and the expression of self-renewal related genes including c-myc, oct4, sox2, nanog and cyclinD1. Moreover, we found that flubendazole induced cell differentiation and inhibited cell migration. Consistently, flubendazole reduced mesenchymal markers (β-catenin, N-cadherin and Vimentin) expression and induced epithelial and differentiation marker (Keratin 18) expression in breast cancer cells. Mechanism study revealed that flubendazole arrested cell cycle at G2/M phase and induced monopolar spindle formation through inhibiting tubulin polymerization. Furthermore, flubendazole enhanced cytotoxic activity of conventional therapeutic drugs fluorouracil and doxorubicin against breast cancer cells. In conclusion, our findings uncovered a remarkable effect of flubendazole on suppressing breast CS-like cells, indicating a novel utilization of flubendazole in breast cancer therapy.

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Composite materials have seen widespread use in the aerospace industry and are becoming increasingly popular in the automotive industry due to their high strength and low weight characteristics. The increasing usage of composite materials has resulted in the need for more effective techniques for nondestructive testing (NDT) of composite structures. Of these techniques, digital shearography is one the most sensitive and accurate methods for NDT. Digital shearography can directly measure strain with high sensitivity when combined with different optical setups, phase-shift techniques, and algorithms. Its simple setup and less sensitivity to environmental disturbances make it particularly well suited for practical NDT applications. This paper provides a review of the phase measurement technique and recent developments in digital shearographic NDT. The introduction of new techniques has expanded the range of digital shearography applications and made it possible to measure larger fields and detect more directional or deeper defects. At the same time, shearography for different materials is also under research, including specular surface materials, metallic materials, etc. Through the discussion of recent developments, the future development trend of digital shearography is analyzed, and the potentials and limitations are demonstrated.

Abstract. Digital shearography has demonstrated great potential in direct strain measurement and, thus, has become an industrial tool for nondestructive testing (NDT), especially for NDT of delaminations and detection of impact damage in composite materials such as carbon fiber reinforced plastics and honeycomb structures. The increasing demand for high measurement sensitivity has led to the need for real-time monitoring of a digital shearographic phase map. Phase maps can be generated by applying a temporal, or spatial, phase shift technique. The temporal phase shift technique is simpler and more reliable for industry applications and, thus, has widely been utilized in practical shearographic inspection systems. This paper presents a review of the temporal phase shift digital shearography method with different algorithms and the possibility for real-time monitoring of phase maps for NDT. Quantitative and real-time monitoring of full-field strain information, using different algorithms, is presented. The potentials and limitations for each algorithm are discussed and demonstrated through examples of shearographic testing. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

Digital shearography based on Michelson interferometers suffers from the disadvantage of a small angle of view due to the structure. We demonstrate a novel digital shearography system with a large angle of view. In the optical arrangement, the imaging lens is in front of the Michelson interferometer rather than behind it as in traditional digital shearography. Thus, the angle of view is no longer limited by the Michelson interferometer. The images transmitting between the separate lens and camera are accomplished by a 4f system in the new style of shearography. The influences of the 4f system on shearography are also discussed.