Autoshaping in Japanese Monkeys (Macaca Fuscata)

Three Japanese monkeys were exposed to autoshaping and omission procedures. The Japanese momkeys seemed to be more sensitive to response-reinforcer contingency than to stimulus-reinforcer contingency. These results were compared with pigeons and squirrel monkeys in the previous reports

Suppression of nitric oxide production from nasal fibroblasts by metabolized clarithromycin in vitro

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Low-dose and long-term administration of 14-membered macrolide antibiotics, so called macrolide therapy, has been reported to favorably modify the clinical conditions of chronic airway diseases. Since there is growing evidence that macrolide antibiotic-resistant bacteria's spreaders in the populations received macrolide therapy, it is strongly desired to develop macrolide antibiotics, which showed only anti-inflammatory action. The present study was designed to examine the influence of clarithromycin (CAM) and its metabolized materials, M-1, M-4 and M-5, on free radical generation from nasal polyp fibroblasts (NPFs) through the choice of nitric oxide (NO), which is one of important effector molecule in the development of airway inflammatory disease <it>in vitro</it>.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>NPFs (5 × 10⁵cells/ml) were stimulated with 1.0 μg/ml lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in the presence of agents for 24 hours. NO levels in culture supernatants were examined by the Griess method. We also examined the influence of agents on the phosphorylation of MAPKs, NF-κB activation, iNOS mRNA expression and iNOS production in NPFs cultured for 2, 4, 8, and 12 hours, respectively.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The addition of CAM (> 0.4 μg/ml) and M-4 (> 0.04 μg/ml) could suppress NO production from NPFs after LPS stimulation through the suppression of iNOS mRNA expression and NF-κB activation. CAM and M-4 also suppressed phosphorylation of MAPKs, ERK and p38 MAPK, but not JNK, which are increased LPS stimulation. On the other hand, M-1 and M-5 could not inhibit the NO generation, even when 0.1 μg/ml of the agent was added to cell cultures.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The present results may suggest that M-4 will be a good candidate for the agent in the treatment of chronic airway inflammatory diseases, since M-4 did not have antimicribiological effects on gram positive and negative bacteria.</p

Discriminating Minimal SUGRA and Minimal Gauge Mediation Models at the Early LHC

Among various supersymmetric (SUSY) standard models, the gravity mediation model with a neutralino LSP and the gauge mediation model with a very light gravitino are attractive from the cosmological view point. These models have different scales of SUSY breaking and their underlying physics in high energy is quite different. However, if the sparticles' decay into the gravitino is prompt in the latter case, their collider signatures can be similar: multiple jets and missing transverse momentum. In this paper, we study the discrimination between these models in minimal cases at the LHC based on the method using the significance variables in several different modes and show the discrimination is possible at a very early stage after the discovery.Comment: 29 pages, 3 figures, captions improved, typos corrected, appendix added, version published in JHE

Frequent p53 Accumulation in the Chronically Sun-Exposed Epidermis and Clonal Expansion of p53 Mutant Cells in the Epidermis Adjacent to Basal Cell Carcinoma

p53 expression was studied immunohistochemically to identify a precursor lesion of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) in the epidermis adjacent to BCC. With two different anti-p53 antibodies of CM1 and DO7, p53 expression was frequently detected in the epidermis adjacent to BCCs arising on the face and in the normal epidermis with usual sun exposure. In the epidermis adjacent to BCC, stained cells were occasionally clustered in a small area, but no cluster was found in the normal epidermis with usual sun exposure. The expression was less frequent in the normal epidermis with rare sun exposure. Ten cases of normal skin with usual sun exposure, showing CM1 staining in the epidermis, were screened for p53 gene mutations with polymerase chain reaction-single- strand conformation polymorphism analysis using DNAs obtained from the epidermis. No mutation was detected in exons 2 to 10 of the p53 gene in these 10 cases. The epidermis flanking three BCCs that was stained with CM1, on the other hand, carried a missense mutation of C to G transversIon at a dipyrimidine site of codon 249. This alteration replaced arginine with threonine. The mutation of codon 249 was not detected in the three BCCs. Our results first suggest that ultraviolet light irradiating the skin in a daily life induces p53 accumulation in the epidermis and secondly that the frequent clonal expansion of p53 mutant cells occurs in the epidermis adjacent to BCCs. This clonal expansion of mutant p53 may provide a molecular basis for high risk of developing subsequent new skin cancers in patients with BCC

Effects of edges in spin-1/2 bond-alternating Heisenberg chains: Matrix-product variational approach

We make a matrix-product variational approach to spin-1/2 ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic bond-alternating chains with anisotropy on their ferromagnetic bonds, especially under the open boundary condition. The rich phase diagram containing the Haldane, large-D, and two types of Neel phases is well reproduced with only two variational parameters. The on-bond anisotropy has a significant effect on the ferromagnetic coupling between neighboring spins and induces novel edge states peculiar to spin-1/2 chains.Comment: Phys. Lett. A 334, No. 2-3, 220 (2004