Pharmacological activation of FOXO3 suppresses triple-negative breast cancer in vitro and in vivo

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most lethal form of breast cancer. Lacking effective therapeutic options hinders treatment of TNBC. Here, we show that bepridil (BPD) and trifluoperazine (TFP), which are FDA-approved drugs for treatment of schizophrenia and angina respectively, inhibit Akt-pS473 phosphorylation and promote FOXO3 nuclear localization and activation in TNBC cells. BPD and TFP inhibit survival and proliferation in TNBC cells and suppress the growth of TNBC tumors, whereas silencing FOXO3 reduces the BPD- and TFP-mediated suppression of survival in TNBC cells. While BPD and TFP decrease the expression of oncogenic c-Myc, KLF5, and dopamine receptor DRD2 in TNBC cells, silencing FOXO3 diminishes BPD- and TFP-mediated repression of the expression of these proteins in TNBC cells. Since c-Myc, KLF5, and DRD2 have been suggested to increase cancer stem cell-like populations in various tumors, reducing these proteins in response to BPD and TFP suggests a novel FOXO3-dependent mechanism underlying BPD- and TFP-induced apoptosis in TNBC cells

Negative tunneling magnetoresistance by canted magnetization in MgO/NiO tunnel barriers

The influence of insertion of an ultra-thin NiO layer between the MgO barrier and ferromagnetic electrode in magnetic tunnel junctions has been investigated by measuring the tunneling magnetoresistance and the X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). The magnetoresistance shows a high asymmetry with respect to bias voltage, giving rise to a negative value of -16% at 2.8 K. We attribute this to the formation of non-collinear spin structures in the NiO layer as observed by XMCD. The magnetic moments of the interface Ni atoms tilt from the easy axis due to exchange interaction and the tilting angle decreases with increasing the NiO thickness. The experimental observations are further support by non-collinear spin density functional theory

The rare decays B --> K(*) anti-K(*) and R-parity violating supersymmetry

We study the branching ratios, the direct CP asymmetries in $B\to K^{(*)}\bar{K}^{(*)}$ decays and the polarization fractions of $B\to K^{*}\bar{K}^{*}$ decays by employing the QCD factorization in the minimal supersymmetric standard model with R-parity violation. We derive the new upper bounds on the relevant R-parity violating couplings from the latest experimental data of $B\to K^{(*)}\bar{K}^{(*)}$, and some of these constraints are stronger than the existing bounds. Using the constrained parameter spaces, we predict the R-parity violating effects on the other quantities in $B\to K^{(*)}\bar{K}^{(*)}$ decays which have not been measured yet. We find that the R-parity violating effects on the branching ratios and the direct $CP$ asymmetries could be large, nevertheless their effects on the longitudinal polarizations of $B\to K^{*}\bar{K}^{*}$ decays are small. Near future experiments can test these predictions and shrink the parameter spaces.Comment: 31 pages with 10 figure

The effect of project based learning on level of content knowledge of pre-vocational subject

Project based learning (PoBL) offers promise as an instructional method that engaged student in school grounded through their experience with authentically learning. Findings from previous research shows results of positive effects on student such as create active, interesting and meaningful learning. The PoBL can be used as a teaching method in building 21st century skills. This article reports the effect of PoBL towards students’ level of knowledge in the Integrated Living Skills subject. This subject is a pre-vocational subject and has offers to students of lower secondary school education. The quasi experimental design was employed with the pre and post group design of two groups, the control group of 30 respondents and the treatment group of 33 respondents. The intervention executed took about eight weeks while the instruments used consist of a set of pre-test and post-test for one topic called Project Designs and Production in the subject. The finding shows that there is significant difference in mean scores between the treatment and control group. As a conclusion, the PoBL method can be practiced by teachers in the field of technical and vocational education as well as be made into a pedagogical practice besides traditional teaching in improving students’ level of knowledge

Lepton flavor violating Z-decays in supersymmetric see-saw model

In supersymmetric see-saw model, the large flavor mixings of sleptons induce the lepton flavor violating (LFV) interactions $\ell_I \bar\ell_J V$ ($V=\gamma, Z$), which give rise to various LFV processes. In this work we examine the induced LFV decays $Z\to\ell_I \bar\ell_J$. Subject to the constraints from the existing neutrino oscillation data and the experimental bounds on the decays $\ell_J\to\ell_I\gamma$, these LFV $Z$-decays are found to be sizable, among which the largest-rate channel $Z\to \tau \bar{\mu}$ can ocuur with a branching ratio of $10^{-8}$ and may be accessible at the LHC or GiagZ experiment.Comment: 8 pages,4 ps files, to appear in EPJ