Optimizing women\u27s Morning Experience: Design of an interactive cosmetics\u27 organizer

Nowadays, wearing proper makeup is proved to be a powerful tool which can help women get benefit in their workplace. However, many employee women face a problem about making everything perfect done in the rush morning time, especially wearing makeup, which can result in a lot of negative effects not only in personal health but also in the family relationship. Suffering from poor morning experience might mass their beginning of the day and consequently ruing the whole day. Due to the boring and complex cosmetics organizers, the problem came to be more severe for them and make the makeup process neither effective nor enjoyable. This project aiming at optimizing their morning experience and offering a positive psychological suggestion when using the interactive cosmetics organizer. The organizer is designed to bring these women easier, more effective and delighter makeup experience which helps them to come over the stressed morning and to be well-prepared for a new day. The paper firstly evaluates that how the products affect the makeup process in the morning as well as analyzing users emotion activities throughout the whole process. And then it demonstrates the design process by figuring out how to create a comfortable environment and interaction between the product and users. The paper also addresses how emotional design and experience design works in this project which aimed at upgrading women workers\u27 makeup process and their morning experience and finally benefits their life

Representations of the Riemann zeta function: A probabilistic approach

In this paper, we give a short elementary proof of the well known Euler's recurrence formula for the Riemann zeta function at positive even integers and integral representations of the Riemann zeta function at positive integers and at fractional points by means of probabilistic approach. The proof is based on the moment generating function and the characteristic function of logistic and half-logistic distributions in probability theory

Preventing olanzapine-induced weight gain using betahistine: a study in a rat model with chronic olanzapine treatment

Olanzapine is the one of first line antipsychotic drug for schizophrenia and other serious mental illness. However, it is associated with troublesome metabolic side-effects, particularly body weight gain and obesity. The antagonistic affinity to histamine H1 receptors (H1R) of antipsychotic drugs has been identified as one of the main contributors to weight gain/obesity side-effects. Our previous study showed that a short term (2 weeks) combination treatment of betahistine (an H1R agonist and H3R antagonist) and olanzapine (O+B) reduced (−45%) body weight gain induced by olanzapine in drug-naïve rats. A key issue is that clinical patients suffering with schizophrenia, bipolar disease and other mental disorders often face chronic, even life-time, antipsychotic treatment, in which they have often had previous antipsychotic exposure. Therefore, we investigated the effects of chronic O+B co-treatment in controlling body weight in female rats with chronic and repeated exposure of olanzapine. The results showed that co-administration of olanzapine (3 mg/kg, t.i.d.) and betahistine (9.6 mg/kg, t.i.d.) significantly reduced (−51.4%) weight gain induced by olanzapine. Co-treatment of O+B also led to a decrease in feeding efficiency, liver and fat mass. Consistently, the olanzapine-only treatment increased hypothalamic H1R protein levels, as well as hypothalamic pAMPKα, AMPKα and NPY protein levels, while reducing the hypothalamic POMC, and UCP1 and PGC-1α protein levels in brown adipose tissue (BAT). The olanzapine induced changes in hypothalamic H1R, pAMPKα, BAT UCP1 and PGC-1α could be reversed by co-treatment of O+B. These results supported further clinical trials to test the effectiveness of co-treatment of O+B for controlling weight gain/obesity side-effects in schizophrenia with chronic antipsychotic treatment

Unique effects of acute aripiprazole treatment on the dopamine D2 receptor downstream cAMP-PKA and Akt-GSK3β signalling pathways in rats

Aripiprazole is a wide-used antipsychotic drug with therapeutic effects on both positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, and reduced side-effects. Although aripiprazole was developed as a dopamine D2 receptor (D2R) partial agonist, all other D2R partial agonists that aimed to mimic aripiprazole failed to exert therapeutic effects in clinic. The present in vivo study aimed to investigate the effects of aripiprazole on the D2R downstream cAMP-PKA and Akt-GSK3β signalling pathways in comparison with a D2R antagonist - haloperidol and a D2R partial agonist - bifeprunox. Rats were injected once with aripiprazole (0.75mg/kg, i.p.), bifeprunox (0.8mg/kg, i.p.), haloperidol (0.1mg/kg, i.p.) or vehicle. Five brain regions - the prefrontal cortex (PFC), nucleus accumbens (NAc), caudate putamen (CPu), ventral tegmental area (VTA) and substantia nigra (SN) were collected. The protein levels of PKA, Akt and GSK3β were measured by Western Blotting; the cAMP levels were examined by ELISA tests. The results showed that aripiprazole presented similar acute effects on PKA expression to haloperidol, but not bifeprunox, in the CPU and VTA. Additionally, aripiprazole was able to increase the phosphorylation of GSK3β in the PFC, NAc, CPu and SN, respectively, which cannot be achieved by bifeprunox and haloperidol. These results suggested that acute treatment of aripiprazole had differential effects on the cAMP-PKA and Akt-GSK3β signalling pathways from haloperidol and bifeprunox in these brain areas. This study further indicated that, by comparison with bifeprunox, the unique pharmacological profile of aripiprazole may be attributed to the relatively lower intrinsic activity at D2R

Unique effects of acute aripiprazole treatment on the dopamine D2 receptor downstream cAMP-PKA and Akt-GSK3β signalling pathways in rats

Aripiprazole is a wide-used antipsychotic drug with therapeutic effects on both positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, and reduced side-effects. Although aripiprazole was developed as a dopamine D2 receptor (D2R) partial agonist, all other D2R partial agonists that aimed to mimic aripiprazole failed to exert therapeutic effects in clinic. The present in vivo study aimed to investigate the effects of aripiprazole on the D2R downstream cAMP-PKA and Akt-GSK3β signalling pathways in comparison with a D2R antagonist - haloperidol and a D2R partial agonist - bifeprunox. Rats were injected once with aripiprazole (0.75mg/kg, i.p.), bifeprunox (0.8mg/kg, i.p.), haloperidol (0.1mg/kg, i.p.) or vehicle. Five brain regions - the prefrontal cortex (PFC), nucleus accumbens (NAc), caudate putamen (CPu), ventral tegmental area (VTA) and substantia nigra (SN) were collected. The protein levels of PKA, Akt and GSK3β were measured by Western Blotting; the cAMP levels were examined by ELISA tests. The results showed that aripiprazole presented similar acute effects on PKA expression to haloperidol, but not bifeprunox, in the CPU and VTA. Additionally, aripiprazole was able to increase the phosphorylation of GSK3β in the PFC, NAc, CPu and SN, respectively, which cannot be achieved by bifeprunox and haloperidol. These results suggested that acute treatment of aripiprazole had differential effects on the cAMP-PKA and Akt-GSK3β signalling pathways from haloperidol and bifeprunox in these brain areas. This study further indicated that, by comparison with bifeprunox, the unique pharmacological profile of aripiprazole may be attributed to the relatively lower intrinsic activity at D2R

One-Pot Synthesis of N-Rich Porous Carbon for Efficient CO2 Adsorption Performance

N-enriched porous carbons have played an important part in CO2 adsorption application thanks to their abundant porosity, high stability and tailorable surface properties while still suffering from a non-efficient and high-cost synthesis method. Herein, a series of N-doped porous carbons were prepared by a facile one-pot KOH activating strategy from commercial urea formaldehyde resin (UF). The textural properties and nitrogen content of the N-doped carbons were carefully controlled by the activating temperature and KOH/UF mass ratios. As-prepared N-doped carbons show 3D block-shaped morphology, the BET surface area of up to 980 m2/g together with a pore volume of 0.52 cm3/g and N content of 23.51 wt%. The optimal adsorbent (UFK-600-0.2) presents a high CO2 uptake capacity of 4.03 mmol/g at 0 ◦C and 1 bar. Moreover, as-prepared N-doped carbon adsorbents show moderate isosteric heat of adsorption (43–53 kJ/mol), acceptable ideal adsorption solution theory (IAST) selectivity of 35 and outstanding recycling performance. It has been pointed out that while the CO2 uptake was mostly dependent on the textural feature, the N content of carbon also plays a critical role to define the CO2 adsorption performance. The present study delivers favorable N-doped carbon for CO2 uptake and provides a promising strategy for the design and synthesis of the carbon adsorbents

Methylation levels at IGF2 and GNAS DMRs in infants born to preeclamptic pregnancies

BACKGROUND: Offspring of pregnancy complicated with preeclampsia are at high risk for hypertension, stroke and possibly obesity. The mechanisms behind the association of intrauterine exposure to preeclampsia and high risk of health problems in the later life remain largely unknown. The aims of the current investigation were to determine the changes in DNA methylation at IGF2 and GNAS DMR in offspring of preeclamptic pregnancy and to explore the possible mechanisms underlying the association between maternal preeclampsia and high risk for health problems in the later life of their offspring. RESULTS: Umbilical cord blood was taken from infants born to women of preeclampsia (n=56), gestational hypertension (n=23) and normal pregnancy (n=81). DNA methylation levels of IGF2 and GNAS DMR were determined by Massarray quantitative methylation analysis. Methylation levels at IGF2 DMR were significantly lower in preeclampsia than normal pregnancy. The average methylation level at IGF2 DMR was significantly correlated with preeclampsia even after birth weight, maternal age, gestational age at delivery and fetal gender were adjusted. The difference in methylation level was not significantly different between mild and severe preeclampsia. The methylation level at GNAS DMR was not significantly correlated with birth weight, maternal age, gestational age at delivery, fetal gender, preeclampsia or gestational hypertension. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded preeclampsia induced a decrease in methylation level at IGF 2 DMR, and this might be among the mechanisms behind the association between intrauterine exposure to preeclampsia and high risk for metabolic diseases in the later life of the infants

Baseline of Pollution of Heavy Metals and Physico-chemical Parameters in Surface Sediments from Quanzhou Bay, China, in 2006-2007

According to the monitoring results of the near-shore sediments of Quanzhou Bay in 2006-2007, we analyzed the near-shore depositional environmental quality of Quanzhou Bay and assessed it by the single-factor evaluation on the basis of corresponding standards of local marine functional areas. The results showed that the sediments from the inner part of Quanzhou Bay were polluted more seriously than that of the open part, which might be due to the increasing human activities in coastal areas. The main exceeding standard items are petroleum, Cu, Zn and Pb. In additions, the pollutions caused by sulfide and Cr are different in different regions. The contents of Hg and As are basically in according with the sedimentary quality standards of the corresponding marine functional areas. According the evaluating results, we also provided the corresponding measures to control the pollutions in sedimentary environment of Quanzhou Bay. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of National University of Singapore