A natural predominant flavanone naringenin, especially abundant in citrus fruits, has a wide range of pharmacological activities. The search for antiproliferative agents that reduce skin carcinoma is a task of great importance. The objective of this study was to analyze the anti-proliferative and apoptotic mechanism of naringenin using MTT assay, DNA fragmentation, nuclear condensation, change in mitochondrial membrane potential, cell cycle kinetics and caspase-3 as biomarkers and to investigate the ability to induce reactive oxygen species (ROS) initiating apoptotic cascade in human epidermoid carcinoma A431 cells. Results showed that naringenin exposure significantly reduced the cell viability of A431 cells (p<0.01) with a concomitant increase in nuclear condensation and DNA fragmentation in a dose dependent manner. The intracellular ROS generation assay showed statistically significant (p<0.001) dose-related increment in ROS production for naringenin. It also caused naringenin-mediated epidermoid carcinoma apoptosis by inducing mitochondrial depolarization. Cell cycle study showed that naringenin induced cell cycle arrest in G0/G1 phase of cell cycle and caspase-3 analysis revealed a dose dependent increment in caspase-3 activity which led to cell apoptosis. This study confirms the efficacy of naringenin that lead to cell death in epidermoid carcinoma cells via inducing ROS generation, mitochondrial depolarization, nuclear condensation, DNA fragmentation, cell cycle arrest in G0/G1 phase and caspase-3 activation.

Piperine is a nitrogenous pungent substance exhibiting multifunctional pharmacological properties. However, the mechanism underlying its anticancer potential is not well elucidated in human oral squamous carcinoma (KB) cell line. The anticancer potential of piperine was evaluated through potent biomarkers viz. reactive oxygen species (ROS), cellular apoptosis, and loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP). In addition, cell cycle kinetics and caspases-3 activity were also carried out to confirm anticancer activity of piperine. Results showed that various concentrations (25-300 μM) of piperine exposure reduced the cell viability of KB cells significantly (P < 0.01). Piperine induced significant (P < 0.01) dose-related increment in ROS production and nuclear condensation. Moreover, piperine stimulated cell death by inducing loss of MMP, and caspase-3 activation. Cell cycle study revealed that piperine arrested the cells in G2/M phase and decreased the DNA content. Findings of this study suggest the efficacy of piperine in inducing cell death via the decrease in MMP and ROS liberation followed by caspase-3 activation and cell cycle arrest. Further assessment of the anticancer potency of piperine is needed for anticancer drug development.

In this paper results of detailed analysis of phenomenon of elastic guided wave sensing using fibre optic strain sensors based on Bragg gratings (FBGs) and piezoelectric transducers (PZT) are presented. Attention in this research is focused on possibility of symmetric and antisymmetric guided wave mode sensing with the possibility of mode separation. For this purpose pairs of sensors located on the top and bottom surface is utilized. Moreover, mode index was introduced in order to distinguish fundamental symmetric and anti-symmetric wave modes. Authors compare sensitivity of elastic wave sensing performed by FBG sensor with one based on PZT. Piezoelectric transducers are very popular in applications related to elastic wave generation and sensing in structural health monitoring and on the other hand FBG strain sensors are utilized more and more in elastic wave sensing purpose. Research was conducted for the case of aluminum panel.

A semi-analytical method is proposed in this study to estimate tube wall temperature versus time for Waste Heat Recovery Units (WHRU) and fired heaters in a typical LNG plant. The results are used to estimate Safety Time to avoid failure of tubes. Safety time estimation is crucial for control loop design of equipment in the operating plant. Two case studies are presented based on real control loop design data for an LNG plant. The results show that for both case studies, process safety time for control loop is less than the tubes safety time. Therefore the control system is capable of safely stopping the equipment from operation without tube failure or degrading of the process fluid. The proposed semi-analytical method is capable of calculating the Safety Time for WHRUs and fired heaters in an economical way while the method offers a reasonable accuracy due to its analytical nature. The proposed method can be used in Fundamental Engineering and Evaluation Designs (FEEDs), Hazard and Operability studies (HAZOPs) and Hazard Identification (HAZID) studies for LNG plants and power plants.