Ionic Liquid Electrospray Thruster with Two-Stage Electrodes On Glass Substrate

2023 IEEE 36th International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), 15-19 Jan. 2023.This paper reports ion emission of an ionic liquid electrospray thrustor with two-stage electrodes made on glass substrate having through hole for low-cost micro/nano satellites. By using the two-stage electrodes, one for ion extraction and the other for acceleration, high and stable ion emission and propulsion force is obtained. The emitter array was fabricated on a silicon wafer and the electrodes were fabricated on both sides of a glass substrate. The ion emission test was conducted, and the emission current was observed successfully. Almost no ions were collected on the accelerator electrode and reached to the collector electrode, which demonstrates the advantage of the two-stage configuration

A Novel, Tumor-Induced Osteoclastogenesis Pathway Insensitive to Denosumab but Interfered by Cannabidiol

Bone metabolism is strictly regulated, and impaired regulation caused by hormonal imbalances induces systemic bone loss. Local bone loss caused by tumor invasion into bone is suggested to be induced by the generation of cytokines, which affect bone metabolism, by tumor cells. The major cause of systemic and local bone losses is excess bone resorption by osteoclasts, which differentiate from macrophages by receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-B ligand (RANKL) or tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). We previously found a novel pathway for tumor-induced osteoclastogenesis targeting osteoclast precursor cells (OPCs). Tumor-induced osteoclastogenesis was resistant to RANKL and TNF-alpha inhibitors. In the present study, we confirmed that exosomes derived from oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cells induced osteoclasts from OPCs. We also showed that the depletion of exosomes from culture supernatants of OSCC cells partially interfered with osteoclastogenesis, and cannabidiol, an innoxious cannabinoid without psychotropic effects, almost completely suppressed tumor-induced osteoclastogenesis. Osteoclastogenesis and its interference by cannabidiol were independent of the expression of nuclear factor of T cell c1 (NFATc1). These results show that osteoclastogenesis induced by OSCC cells targeting OPCs is a novel osteoclastogenic pathway independent of NFATc1 expression that is partially caused by tumor-derived exosomes and suppressed by cannabidiol

Redox potentials of primary electron acceptor quinone molecule (QA)− and conserved energetics of photosystem II in cyanobacteria with chlorophyll a and chlorophyll d

In a previous study, we measured the redox potential of the primary electron acceptor pheophytin (Phe) a of photosystem (PS) II in the chlorophyll d–dominated cyanobacterium Acaryochloris marina and a chlorophyll a–containing cyanobacterium, Synechocystis. We obtained the midpoint redox potential (Em) values of −478 mV for A. marina and −536 mV for Synechocystis. In this study, we measured the redox potentials of the primary electron acceptor quinone molecule (QA), i.e., Em(QA/QA−), of PS II and the energy difference between [P680·Phe a−·QA] and [P680·Phe a·QA−], i.e., ΔGPhQ. The Em(QA/QA−) of A. marina was determined to be +64 mV without the Mn cluster and was estimated to be −66 to −86 mV with a Mn-depletion shift (130–150 mV), as observed with other organisms. The Em(Phe a/Phe a−) in Synechocystis was measured to be −525 mV with the Mn cluster, which is consistent with our previous report. The Mn-depleted downshift of the potential was measured to be approximately −77 mV in Synechocystis, and this value was applied to A. marina (−478 mV); the Em(Phe a/Phe a−) was estimated to be approximately −401 mV. These values gave rise to a ΔGPhQ of −325 mV for A. marina and −383 mV for Synechocystis. In the two cyanobacteria, the energetics in PS II were conserved, even though the potentials of QA− and Phe a− were relatively shifted depending on the special pair, indicating a common strategy for electron transfer in oxygenic photosynthetic organisms

Age‐related changes in blood pressure and heart rates of patients with Parkinson's disease

Abstract This study evaluated yearly changes in systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and heart rates (HR) for patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Data were collected for the last 10 years from medical records of 28 PD patients and 30 non‐PD patients with other neurological disorders. Age‐related changes in each group were analyzed by year using mean values of SBP, DBP, and HR obtained at their bi‐monthly visits. In results, PD patients had a gradual decrease in SBP with longer disease duration, and mean SBP significantly decreased from Year 7–11 compared to the mean values for Year 1 (p < .001 or p < .01). In non‐PD patients, mean SBP significantly increased from Year 4–11 compared to the mean values for Year 1 (p < .001 or p < .01). This is the first study to report age‐related changes of BP in individual patients with PD over 10 years