Whole-body patterns of the range of joint motion in young adults: masculine type and feminine type

Background: Understanding the whole-body patterns of joint flexibility and their related biological and physical factors contributes not only to clinical assessments but also to the fields of human factors and ergonomics. In this study, ranges of motion (ROMs) at limb and trunk joints of young adults were analysed to understand covariation patterns of different joint motions and to identify factors associated with the variation in ROM. Methods: Seventy-eight healthy volunteers (42 males and 36 females) living on Okinawa Island, Japan, were recruited. Passive ROM was measured at multiple joints through the whole body (31 measurements) including the left and right side limbs and trunk. Results: Comparisons between males and females, dominant and non-dominant sides, and antagonistic motions indicated that body structures influence ROMs. In principal component analysis (PCA) on the ROM data, the first principal component (PC1) represented the sex difference and a similar covariation pattern appeared in the analysis within each sex. Multiple regression analysis showed that this component was associated with sex, age, body fat %, iliospinale height, and leg extension strength. Conclusions: The present study identified that there is a spectrum of “masculine” and “feminine” types in the whole-body patterns of joint flexibility. This study also suggested that body proportion and composition, muscle mass and strength, and possibly skeletal structures partly explain such patterns. These results would be important to understand individual variation in susceptibility to joint injuries and diseases and in one’s suitable and effective postures and motions

Bio-inspired domino reduction of nitroarenes by acrolein-amine conjugates in one-pot operation

© 2017 The Chemical Society of Japan.Biologically relevant amines react with acrolein to provide 3-formyl-3,4-dehydropiperidine (FDP) as the oxidative stress product, which has reduction potential via hydrogen transfer. This biogenic process was applied to the domino reduction of electron-deficient nitroarenes in one-pot operation, by simply mixing primary amine, acrolein, nitroarene, and calcium chloride. The reaction can be performed in a gram-scale without the use of hazardous metals

Hall coefficient of La1.88−y_{1.88-y}Yy_ySr0.12_{0.12}CuO4_4 (y=0,0.04y=0, 0.04) at low temperatures under high magnetic fields

The Hall coefficient in the low-temperature tetragonal phase and the mid-temperature orthorhombic phase of La$_{1.88-y}$Y$_y$Sr$_{0.12}$CuO$_4$ ($y=0, 0.04$) single crystals is measured under high magnetic fields up to 9 T in order to investigate the detailed behavior of the transport properties at low temperatures in the stripe phase. When the superconductivity is suppressed by high magnetic fields, the Hall coefficient has negative values in low temperatures, and the temperature region of the negative values spreads as increasing magnetic fields. This result indicates that the Hall coefficient in the stripe phase around $x=0.12$ is a finite negative value, not zero.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. to be published to Physical Review

Imino [4+4] cycloaddition products as exclusive and biologically relevant acrolein-amine conjugates are intermediates of 3-formyl-3,4-dehydropiperidine (FDP), an acrolein biomarker

© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. We demonstrated synthetically that the eight-membered heterocycles 2,6,9-triazabicyclo[3.3.1]nonanes and 1,5-diazacyclooctanes are the initial and exclusive products of the reaction, through an imino [4+4] cycloaddition, of biologically relevant amines with acrolein. The stabilities of the aminoacetals within the eight-membered heterocycles determined whether the product was subsequently transformed gradually into the 3-formyl-3,4-dehydropiperidine (FDP), which is widely used as an oxidative stress marker. The reactivity profiles discovered in this study suggested that some of the imino [4+4] cycloaddition products are reactive intermediates of FDP and contribute to the mechanisms underlying the oxidative stress response to acrolein

NMR Study on La and Tl-based High-T_c Cuprates (High Field Superconductors)

NMR study on three types of high-T_C cuprates TlBa_2CaCu_2O_ (Tl1212), La_Ba_xCuO_4 (LBCO) and (La_Y_y)_Ce_xCuO_4 (LYCCO) is reported. First the Knight shift in the superconducting state was investigated for the Zn-substituted TlBa_2Ca(Cu_Zn_z)_2O_, which belongs to the over-doped region. The temperature dependence of the Knight shift was successfully explained in terms of the partially closed d-wave model proposed by Kitaoka et al. The reduction in T_C by Zn-substitution was also consistent with Miyake\u27s theoretical calculation on the potential scattering of the unitarity limit in the d-wave superconductors. Next, the impurity effect on the anomalous suppression of the superconductivity in La_Ba_xCuO_4 (LBCO) around x≅1/8 was investigated by La-NMR and ultrasonic measurements. The transition temperatures of the magnetic order and of the structural phase transformation in Zn^ and Ce^-doped LBCO have shown that the main and direct force to the suppression in the superconductivity is the magnetic ordering, and that the role of the structural phase transformation is the enhancement of the suppression. Lastly, the new electron doped cuprate free from 4f-spins has been synthesized and studied by NMR. Observed spectra of ^Cu without quadrupolar splitting similar to other conventional electron-doped cuprates indicate that the doped carrier in this system is electron like

Highly Strengthened Superconducting Magnet for a 40 T Compact Hybrid Magnet(Magnet Technology)

A 16 T outer superconducting magnet for a 40 T compact hybrid magnet is investigated. A highly strengthened superconducting magnet with a 360 mm room temperature bore can be made using newly developed (Nb, Ti)_3Sn wires with Cu-Al_2O_3 reinforcing stabilizer. The coil weight is outstandingly reduced by as much as 70 %

A Reduction-Based Sensor for Acrolein Conjugates with the Inexpensive Nitrobenzene as an Alternative to Monoclonal Antibody

© 2016 The Author(s).Acrolein, a highly toxic α, β-unsaturated aldehyde, has been a longstanding key biomarker associated with a range of disorders related to oxidative stresses. One of the most promising methods for detecting acrolein involves the use of antibodies that can recognize the acrolein-lysine conjugate, 3-formyl-3, 4-dehydropiperidines (FDP), within oxidatively stressed cells and tissues from various disease states. We have uncovered here that FDP could reduce nitroarenes in high yields at 100 °C in the presence of excess CaCl 2 as a Lewis acid promoter. This unique transformation allowed for the development of a de novo method for detecting levels of FDPs generated from proteins in urine or blood serum samples. Thus we successfully converted a non-fluorescent and inexpensive 4-nitrophthalonitrile probe to the corresponding fluorescent aniline, thereby constituting the concept of fluorescent switching. Its sensitivity level (0.84 nmol/mL) is more than that of ELISA assays (3.13 nmol/mL) and is already equally reliable and reproducible at this early stage of development. More importantly, this method is cost effective and simple to operate, requiring only mixing of samples with a kit solution. Our method thus possesses potential as a future alternative to the more costly and operatively encumbered conventional antibody-based methods

Direct guanylation of amino groups by cyanamide in water: Catalytic generation and activation of unsubstituted carbodiimide by scandium(iii) triflate

Guanylation proceeded efficiently upon treatment of the various amines with cyanamide in the presence of catalytic amounts of scandium(III) triflate under mild conditions. The method did not require the guanylation reagents to be preactivated, and the reaction proceeded efficiently in water. The method, therefore, has practical utility for substrates that dissolve only in aqueous solutions, for example, peptides or pharmacologically important compounds. © Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart New York

Anomalous broadening of the spin-flop transition in the reentrant spin-glass phase of La2−x_{2-x}Srx_xCuO4_4 (x=0.018x=0.018)

The magnetization in a lightly doped La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ ($x=0.018$) single crystal was measured. Spin-flop transition was clearly observed in the hole doped antiferromagnetically ordered state under increasing magnetic fields perpendicular to the CuO$_2$ plane. In the spin-glass phase below 25K, the spin-flop transition becomes broad but the step in the magnetization curve associated with the transition remains finite at the lowest temperature. We show in this report that, at low temperature, the homogeneous antiferromagnetic order is disturbed by the re-distribution of holes, and that the spatial variance of the local hole concentration around $x=0.018$ increases.Comment: to be published to Physical Review