The Influence of Mixing Conditions of Reaction Medium on Protease-Catalyzed Peptide Synthesis: The Use of Sonication

Sonication was demonstrated to be a useful method mixing reactoin medium. A model reaction, Boc-Gly-OH + H-Phe-N₂H₂Ph → Boc-Gly-phe-N₂H₂Ph, was adopted to compare two mixing methods of medium, sonication and magnetic-stirring. Under biphasic system including 25% of organic solvent, sonication was preferable to magnetic-stirring for several cosolvents and showed being able to have some potentiality as mixing method. On the other hand another model reaction, Boc-Tyr (Bzl)-OH + H-Gly-N₂H₂Ph→Boc-Tyr (Bzl)-Gly-N₂H₂Ph, which had not been achieved by other investigators, was progressed by the new mixing method. This new method may form other certain reaction-field in the medium.Article信州大学農学部紀要 26(1・2): 21-26(1990)departmental bulletin pape

Black ginger extract increases physical fitness performance and muscular endurance by improving inflammation and energy metabolism

AbstractWe previously reported that polymethoxyflavones (PMFs) in black ginger (Kaempferia parviflora) extract (KPE) increased energy production by activating AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) in C2C12 myoblasts. We herein evaluated the effects of KPE on physical fitness performance and muscular endurance in mice. Male mice were orally administered KPE for 4 weeks, and then forced swimming test, open-field test, inclined plane test, and wire hanging test were performed. KPE significantly increased the swimming time, motility after swimming, and grip strength. IL-6 and TNF-α mRNA expression levels were decreased in the soleus muscle, whereas peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator (PGC)-1α and glycogen synthase mRNA expression levels, mitochondrial number, and glycogen content were increased. These results were in agreement with those obtained for KPE and PMFs in C2C12. Therefore, the activation of AMPK by PMFs may be one of the mechanisms by which KPE improves physical fitness performance and muscular endurance

An Estimation Method of Intellectual Concentration State by Machine Learning of Physiological Indices

Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Intelligent Human Systems Integration (IHSI 2019): Integrating People and Intelligent Systems, February 7-10, 2019, San Diego, California, USA.Although recent information society has improved the value of intellectual work productivity, its objective and quantitative evaluation has not been established. It is suggested that intellectual productivity can be indirectly evaluated by estimating intellectual concentration states when giving cognitive load. In this study, therefore, the authors have focused on physiological indices such as pupil diameter and heart rate which are supposed to be closely related to cognitive load in office work, and an estimation method of intellectual concentration states from the measured indices has been proposed. Multiple patterns of classification learning methods such as Decision Tree, Linear Discrimination, SVM, and KNN were employed as the estimation method. Based on the estimation method, an evaluation experiment was conducted where 31 male university students participated and the measured psychological indices were given to the classification learning estimators

An Experimental Study on Evaluating Glare in Blue Light Exposure

AHFE 2019 International Conference on Affective and Pleasurable Design, July 24-28, 2019, Washington D.C., USA.It is known that blue light exposure to the eyes improves our arousal level. It is expected that exposure of office workers to blue light can maintain their concentration on their intellectual work and it may improve efficiency of their work. When blue light is exposed enough to improve arousal, however, it may cause feeling of dazzling and disturb their concentration on the contrary. In this study, therefore, an experiment was conducted to reveal the condition where they don’t feel dazzling and their concentration is not disturbed, when changing the luminance and luminous area of blue light source. The participants performed cognitive tasks where blue light source was placed on their desks under one of four blue light conditions. As the result, it was found that the reasons why participants felt dazzling are asymmetrical intense light exposure and large luminous area

Dogs as Sentinels for Human Infection with Japanese Encephalitis Virus

Because serosurveys of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) among wild animals and pigs may not accurately reflect risk for humans in urban/residential areas, we examined seroprevalence among dogs and cats. We found that JEV-infected mosquitoes have spread throughout Japan and that dogs, but not cats, might be good sentinels for monitoring JEV infection in urban/residential areas

An Experimental Study on Relationship Between Intellectual Concentration and Personal Mental Characteristics

1st International Conference on Human Systems Engineering and Design (IHSED2018): Future Trends and Applications, October 25-27, 2018, CHU-Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, France.As a proposal of new diagnosis for mental diseases, this study focused on the relationship between intellectual concentration and personal mental characteristics. It is expected that the measurement of concentration characteristics may help the diagnosis of the mental disorders because the mental characteristics such as psychiatric disease, developmental disorder and behavioral feature are supposed to be closely related to their mental activity such as concentration. When analyzing the relationship, the characteristics of concentration are expressed as 36 feature values by analyzing answering time distribution of cognitive task, and the values of concentration were compressed to 5 main factors by principal component analysis. Then the combination of the factors and one of 36 parameters of mental characteristics were given to a decision tree analysis tool

Quantification of Extent of Muscle-skin Shifting by Traversal sEMG Analysis Using High-density sEMG Sensor

Averaging electromyographic activity prior to muscle synergy computation is a common method employed to compensate for the inter-repetition variability usually associated with this kind of physiological recording. Capturing muscle synergies requires the preservation of accurate temporal and spatial information for muscle activity. The natural variation in electromyography data across consecutive repetitions of the same task raises several related challenges that make averaging a non-trivial process. Duration and triggering times of muscle activity generally vary across different repetitions of the same task. Therefore, it is necessary to define a robust methodology to segment and average muscle activity that deals with these issues. Emerging from this need, the present work proposes a standard protocol for segmenting and averaging muscle activations from periodic motions in a way that accurately preserves the temporal and spatial information contained in the original data and enables the isolation of a single averaged motion period. This protocol has been validated with muscle activity data recorded from 15 participants performing elbow flexion/extension motions, a series of actions driven by well-established muscle synergies. Using the averaged data, muscle synergies were computed, permitting their behavior to be compared with previous results related to the evaluated task. The comparison between the method proposed and a widely used methodology based on motion flags, shown the benefits of our system maintaining the consistency of muscle activation timings and synergie

Pancreatic stellate cells derived from human pancreatic cancer demonstrate aberrant SPARC-dependent ECM remodeling in 3D engineered fibrotic tissue of clinically relevant thickness

Desmoplasia is a hallmark of pancreatic cancer and consists of fibrotic cells and secreted extracellular matrix (ECM) components. Various in vitro three-dimensional (3D) models of desmoplasia have been reported, but little is known about the relevant thickness of the engineered fibrotic tissue. We thus measured the thickness of fibrotic tissue in human pancreatic cancer, as defined by the distance from the blood vessel wall to tumor cells. We then generated a 3D fibrosis model with a thickness reaching the clinically observed range using pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs), the main cellular constituent of pancreatic cancer desmoplasia. Using this model, we found that Collagen fiber deposition was increased and Fibronectin fibril orientation drastically remodeled by PSCs, but not normal fibroblasts, in a manner dependent on Transforming Growth Factor (TGF)-β/Rho-Associated Kinase (ROCK) signaling and Matrix Metalloproteinase (MMP) activity. Finally, by targeting Secreted Protein, Acidic and Rich in Cysteine (SPARC) by siRNA, we found that SPARC expression in PSCs was necessary for ECM remodeling. Taken together, we developed a 3D fibrosis model of pancreatic cancer with a clinically relevant thickness and observed aberrant SPARC-dependent ECM remodeling in cancer-derived PSCs

Jasmonate-dependent plant defense restricts thrips performance and preference

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The western flower thrips (<it>Frankliniella occidentalis </it>[Pergande]) is one of the most important insect herbivores of cultivated plants. However, no pesticide provides complete control of this species, and insecticide resistance has emerged around the world. We previously reported the important role of jasmonate (JA) in the plant's immediate response to thrips feeding by using an <it>Arabidopsis </it>leaf disc system. In this study, as the first step toward practical use of JA in thrips control, we analyzed the effect of JA-regulated <it>Arabidopsis </it>defense at the whole plant level on thrips behavior and life cycle at the population level over an extended period. We also studied the effectiveness of JA-regulated plant defense on thrips damage in Chinese cabbage (<it>Brassica rapa </it>subsp. <it>pekinensis</it>).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Thrips oviposited more on <it>Arabidopsis </it>JA-insensitive <it>coi1-1 </it>mutants than on WT plants, and the population density of the following thrips generation increased on <it>coi1-1 </it>mutants. Moreover, thrips preferred <it>coi1-1 </it>mutants more than WT plants. Application of JA to WT plants before thrips attack decreased the thrips population. To analyze these important functions of JA in a brassica crop plant, we analyzed the expression of marker genes for JA response in <it>B. rapa</it>. Thrips feeding induced expression of these marker genes and significantly increased the JA content in <it>B. rapa</it>. Application of JA to <it>B. rapa </it>enhanced plant resistance to thrips, restricted oviposition, and reduced the population density of the following generation.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results indicate that the JA-regulated plant defense restricts thrips performance and preference, and plays an important role in the resistance of <it>Arabidopsis </it>and <it>B. rapa </it>to thrips damage.</p

Petrology of a new basaltic shergottite: Dhofar 378

Dhofar 378 is a new basaltic shergottite, consisting mainly of pyroxenes, plagioclase glass, phosphates, titanomagnetite, and mesostasis. It is one of the most ferroan shergottites and resembles the Los Angeles shergottite. Pyroxenes show remarkable chemical zoning from 0.4 of Mg/(Mg+Fe) to less than 0.1, and their REE patterns are depleted in light REE whereas the REE pattern of the bulk Dhofar 378 is flat. All plagioclase grains in the original lithology completely melted by an intense impact shock, and the plagioclase melts crystallized fibrous plagioclase to form the rims surrounding the plagioclase melts. Then, the melts quenched as plagioclase glass to form the cores. The shock stage of Dhofar 378 is higher than that of the Los Angeles shergottite. The degree of impact shock for Dhofar 378 may be about 55-75GPa and is the highest among all known martian meteorites