The peak-end rule is used to explain how people make retrospective hedonic evaluations. This study advances our understanding of its mechanism by identifying the different effects of the rule on such evaluations over short and long retention intervals. The results of two experiments show that (i) respondents constructed their retrospective hedonic evaluations on the basis of the peak and end affects only over a short retention interval, not over a long one; and (ii) respondents relied on episodic information to construct their evaluations over a short retention interval, whereas they relied on both semantic and episodic information to construct their evaluations over a long retention interval. Our study also suggests that the "watershed" between short and long retention intervals is likely to lie between 3 and 7 weeks.

Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is the major and most potent polyphenol compound of green tea that has been shown to have anticancer effects against various types of cancers. In this study, in addition to the EGCG compound, a synthetic derivative, the peracetate of EGCG (EGCG-P), was used to investigate the inhibitory effects on growth of androgen-independent prostate cancer in vivo. The advantage of EGCG-P is that it may act as a prodrug, leading to higher bioavailability than EGCG itself. The aim of our study was to compare the differences between EGCG and EGCG-P on their inhibitory effect on androgen-independent prostate cancer, CWR22R, xenograft model in nude mice. The mice were administrated daily with solvent dimethyl sulfoxide, EGCG, and EGCG-P separately through intraperitoneal injection for 20 days. Tumor volume and body weight of nude mice were recorded daily. Serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels were also measured before and after the treatment. The effects of both EGCG and EGCG-P on tumor cell proliferation were assessed by immunohistochemical (IHC) method using antibodies against Ki-67 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen. The apoptotic effect was evaluated by IHC against B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma-2 and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick-end labeling assay by in situ apoptosis detection kit. Moreover, the potential suppression of angiogenesis by EGCG and EGCG-P on prostate cancer was examined by IHC against CD31. Our results revealed that treatment of EGCG and EGCG-P compounds suppressed the growth of CWR22R xenografts without causing any detectable side effects in nude mice. The suppression of growth of the tumor was correlated with the decrease of serum PSA level together with the reduction in tumor angiogenesis and an increase in apoptosis on prostate cancer cells. The results showed that treatment of EGCG and EGCG-P inhibited tumor growth and angiogenesis while promoting apoptosis of the prostate cancer cells in vivo. Our results suggest that EGCG-P may be a more stable and useful compound for increasing the therapeutic anticancer effects in androgen-independent prostate cancer.

1The loss of proteoglycan (PG) is regarded as one of the early signs of osteoarthritis (OA), 2 thus observing the progress of PG loss would be useful for the early detection of OA. In 3 this study, high-frequency ultrasound was used to monitor and analyze the trypsin-4 induced progressive degeneration in articular cartilage. Full-thickness cartilage-bone 5 specimens (n = 10) prepared from normal bovine patellae were digested using 0.25% 6 trypsin solution for different periods of time to evaluate the dynamic of the digestion 7 process. The trypsin penetration front was observed in M-mode image, which was 8 acquired using a nominal 50 MHz focused transducer. The transient speed of the 9 digestion process was estimated from the image. The digestion fraction, which represents 10 the ratio of the digestion depth to the total cartilage thickness, was estimated from 11 ultrasound data and histology sections. With ultrasound, the digestion fraction observed 12 in the 10 specimens ranged from 64 to 99%, and was correlated to that measured by 13 histology (R 2  0.63, p<0.05). It was found that the digestion speed decreased nonlinearly 14 with depth from 0.61 ± 0.16 m/s (mean ± SD) in the superficial zone to 0.04 ± 0.02 15 m/s in a region located at 70% of the cartilage thickness in depth. The relationship 16 between the digestion depth and the exposure duration in trypsin could be described 17 using a 3 rd order polynomial function. The full-thickness of digested and undigested 18 tissues was also measured using caliper, estimated from ultrasound data and histology 19 sections, and compared. These findings indicate that ultrasound could provide useful 20 information about the trypsin-induced progressive PG depletion in articular cartilage. 21Therefore, ultrasound represents a useful tool to evaluate the dynamic of models of OA in 22 vitro in cartilage specimens in a research environment, and this would ultimately help the 23 in-vitro examination of articular cartilage for research related to model of OA from the 24 early stages of tissue degradation. 25

Interest in exploring the use of seawater as the mixing water for preparing concrete is increasing due to the lack of freshwater in some coastal regions and remote islands, where seawater is more accessible. However, up to now, the mechanism of the accelerating effect of seawater on the hydration of portland cement (PC) remains unclear. In this study, alite, a major clinker phase in PC, was hydrated with common salt solutions (NaCl, Na2SO4, and MgCl2) in seawater to explore the mechanism of acceleration. The heat release peaks of the salt-added systems shifted to an earlier hydration time with a higher peak value, which indicated the faster hydration rate of alite pastes compared to the deionized (DI) water system. The addition of the single salts was found to increase the concentration of Ca species in solutions, contributing to the increased formation of calcium–silicate–hydrates (C–S–H) and portlandite at early ages. In the Na2SO4 system, gypsum was the new hydration product, while brucite was formed in MgCl2 systems, which caused the sharp decrease of Mg species in the solution. The morphology of the early formed C–S–H was changed with the addition of the salts, and the C–S–H were characterized as thinner and longer fibers. At later ages, the incorporation of the single salts lowered the polymerization degree of C–S–H, but no noticeable morphological change was observed.

No abstract