Clinical and Experimental Cell Therapy in Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD), a chronic neurodegenerative disorder, is characterized as a movement disorder with resting tremor, dyskinesia, gait disturbance, etc. The main pathology is based on the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra of the midbrain. These motor symptoms can be treated by dopaminergic drugs, but over time, the drug’s effect has less efficacy, and side effects develop such as involuntary movements. As there is no gold standard long-term treatment for this condition, there is a strong need to develop new drugs and therapies. The clinical and experimental findings of successful intrastriatal transplantation of fetal mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons into the brains of patients with PD have been well established. The development of human stem cell technology including embryonic stem (ES) cells or induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells opened a new field called clinical cell therapy, especially for PD. In this chapter, we cover the scientific progress of the clinical and experimental trials of cell therapy for patients with PD. It also contains the recent advances in the clinical application of stem cells including neural stem cells, mesencephalic stem cell, ESC, and iPS cells and unsolved problems in the clinical setting. The combination of gene therapy and gene-manipulated stem cell application in PD therapy will be the most discussed in this area

Characteristics of vertical velocities estimated from drop size and fall velocity spectra of a Parsivel disdrometer

Vertical air velocities were estimated from drop size and fall velocity spectra observed by Parsivel disdrometers during intensive field observations from 13 June to 3 August 2016 around Mt. Jiri (1915ma.s.l.) in the southern Korean Peninsula. Rainfall and wind velocity data measured by Parsivel disdrometers and ultrasonic anemometers, respectively, were analyzed for an orographic rainfall event associated with a stationary front over Mt. Jiri on 1 July 2016. In this study, a new technique was developed to estimate vertical air velocities from drop size and fall velocity spectra measured by the Parsivel disdrometers and investigate characteristics of up-/downdrafts and related microphysics on the windward and leeward sides of the mountain. To validate results from this technique, vertical air velocities between the Parsivel disdrometers and anemometers were compared at different locations and were shown in quite good agreement with each other. It was shown that upward motion was relatively more dominant on the windward side and even during periods of heavy rainfall. In contrast, downward motion was more dominant on the leeward side during nearly the same periods of heavy rainfall. Occurrences of upward and downward motion were digitized as percentage values as they are divided by a total count of occurrences during the entire period. On the windward (leeward) side, the percentages of upward (downward) motion were much larger than those of downward (upward) motion. The mean rainfall intensity on the leeward side was stronger than on the windward side, suggesting that most of the rainfall on the leeward side was relatively more affected by the downward motion. With the estimated vertical air velocities, histogram characteristics of rainfall parameters were also examined between the windward and leeward sides

THE EFFECT OF RESISTANCE AND ENDURANCE EXERCISE TRAINING ON MUSCLE PROTEOME EXPRESSION IN HUMAN SKELETAL MUSCLE

To investigate the effect of resistance and endurance training on muscle proteome expression, samples of vastus lateralis from 10 physically active young men were analysed by 2-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). Differential patterns of protein expression were determined after 4 weeks of endurance or resistance exercise training. Following endurance exercise training, carbonic anhydrase III immunoglobulin heavy chain, myosin heavy chain 1, titin, chromosome 12, and fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase 2 were up-regulated while pyruvate kinase 3 isoform, ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase, and phosphoglucomutase were down-regulated. After the 4 weeks of resistance exercise training, five proteins, apolipoprotein A-IV precursor, microtubule-actin cross linking factor 1, myosin light chain, growth hormone inducible transmembrane protein, and an unknown protein were up-regulated and pyruvate kinase 3 isoform, human albumin, and enolase 3 were down-regulated. We conclude that endurance and resistance exercise training differently alter the expression of individual muscle proteins, and that the response of muscle protein expression may be associated with specific myofibre adaptations to exercise training. Proteomic studies represent one of the developing techniques of metabolism which may substantially contribute to new insights into muscle and exercise physiology

Flow Characteristics Around Step-Up Street Canyons with Various Building Aspect Ratios

We investigate the flow characteristics around step-up street canyons with various building aspect ratios (ratio of along-canyon building length to street-canyon width, and upwind building height to downwind building height) using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. Simulated results are validated against experimental wind-tunnel results, with the CFD simulations conducted under the same building configurations as those in the wind-tunnel experiments. The CFD model reproduces the measured in-canyon vortex, rooftop recirculation zone above the downwind building, and stagnation point position reasonably well. We analyze the flow characteristics, focusing on the structural change of the in-canyon flows and the interaction between the in- and around-canyon flows with the increase of building-length ratio. The in-canyon flows undergo development and mature stages as the building-length ratio increases. In the development stage (i.e., small building-length ratios), the position of the primary vortex wanders, and the incoming flow closely follows both the upstream and downstream building sidewalls. As a result, increasing momentum transfer from the upper layer contributes to a momentum increase in the in-canyon region, and the vorticity in the in-canyon region also increases. In the mature stage (i.e., large building-length ratios), the primary vortex stabilizes in position, and the incoming flow no longer follows the building sidewalls. This causes momentum loss through the street-canyon lateral boundaries. As the building-length ratio increases, momentum transfer from the upper layer slightly decreases, and the reverse flow, updraft, and streamwise flow in the in-canyon region also slightly decrease, resulting in vorticity reduction

Numerical Sensitivity Tests of Volatile Organic Compounds Emission to PM2.5 Formation during Heat Wave Period in 2018 in Two Southeast Korean Cities

A record-breaking severe heat wave was recorded in southeast Korea from 11 July to 15 August 2018, and the numerical sensitivity simulations of volatile organic compound (VOC) to secondarily generated particulate matter with diameter of less than 2.5 mu m (PM2.5) concentrations were studied in the Busan and Ulsan metropolitan areas in southeast Korea. A weather research and forecasting (WRF) model coupled with chemistry (WRF-Chem) was employed, and we carried out VOC emission sensitivity simulations to investigate variations in PM2.5 concentrations during the heat wave period that occurred from 11 July to 15 August 2018. In our study, when anthropogenic VOC emissions from the Comprehensive Regional Emissions Inventory for Atmospheric Transport Experiment-2015 (CREATE-2015) inventory were increased by approximately a factor of five in southeast Korea, a better agreement with observations of PM2.5 mass concentrations was simulated, implying an underestimation of anthropogenic VOC emissions over southeast Korea. The simulated secondary organic aerosol (SOA) fraction, in particular, showed greater dominance during high temperature periods such as 19-21 July, 2018, with the SOA fractions of 42.3% (in Busan) and 34.3% (in Ulsan) among a sub-total of seven inorganic and organic components. This is considerably higher than observed annual mean organic carbon (OC) fraction (28.4 +/- 4%) among seven components, indicating the enhancement of secondary organic aerosols induced by photochemical reactions during the heat wave period in both metropolitan areas. The PM2.5 to PM10 ratios were 0.69 and 0.74, on average, during the study period in the two cities. These were also significantly higher than the typical range in those cities, which was 0.5-0.6 in 2018. Our simulations implied that extremely high temperatures with no precipitation are significantly important to the secondary generation of PM2.5 with higher secondary organic aerosol fraction via photochemical reactions in southeastern Korean cities. Other possible relationships between anthropogenic VOC emissions and temperature during the heat wave episode are also discussed in this study

Sub-100-as timing jitter optical pulse trains from mode-locked Er-fiber lasers

We demonstrate sub-100-attosecond timing jitter optical pulse trains generated from free-running, 77.6-MHz repetition-rate, mode-locked Er-fiber lasers. At -0.002(\pm0.001) ps2 net cavity dispersion, the rms timing jitter is 70 as (224 as) integrated from 10 kHz (1 kHz) to 38.8 MHz offset frequency, when measured by a 24-as-resolution balanced optical cross-correlator. To our knowledge, this result corresponds to the lowest rms timing jitter measured from any mode-locked fiber lasers so far. The measured result also agrees fairly well with the Namiki-Haus analytic model of quantum-limited timing jitter in stretched-pulse fiber lasers.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Optics Letter

Engineering of Klebsiella oxytoca capable of simultaneous utilization of multiple sugars for the production of 2, 3- Butanediol

From various biomasses such as lignocellulose and microalgae, many kinds of monosaccharides including glucose, galactose, xylose, mannose, ribose, rhamnose, and fucose can be obtained. Among them, galactose and xylose are the major carbon sources except for glucose in nature, and both sugars can serve as additive for the production of desired chemicals in the glucose-based fermentation. However, in many microorganisms, the glucose hampers utilization of galactose and xylose until depletion of glucose owing to Carbon Catabolite Repression (CCR) mechanism, which has been a big hurdle for the development of bioprocess utilizing multiple carbon sugars. Here, we developed Klebsiella oxytoca capable of simultaneous utilization of three sugars including glucose, galactose and xylose for the fermentative production of 2,3-butanediol which is a vital platform compound, used as liquid fuel and chemical raw material. To eliminate CCR and utilize multiple sugars, the phosphotransferase system (PTS) which is the main transporter for glucose was disrupted, in which cells could uptake glucose through alternative pathway and the transport system for other sugars could be activated. To verify the removal of CCR by disruption of PTS, the engineered strain was cultivated with two or three sugars and, we found that the simultaneous consumption of galactose and xylose was achieved although glucose consumption rate was decreased a little. At the time point of complete consumption of glucose, most galactose was also consumed and, about 30 % of xylose was consumed before glucose depletion. Under the simultaneous utilization of galactose and xylose along with glucose, 2,3-butaneidol was also successfully produced as high as 0.3 g/g, which yield is similar as that in cultivation with glucose as a sole carbon source. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of CCR elimination in K. oxytoca and, we think that our strategy sheds new light on an engineering of K. oxytoca for commercial exploitation of biomass to produce value-added products

Bocavirus Infection in Hospitalized Children, South Korea

This study presents the first evidence of human bocavirus infection in South Korean children. The virus was detected in 27 (8.0%) of 336 tested specimens, including 17 (7.5%) of 225 virus-negative specimens, collected from children with acute lower respiratory tract infection