Magnetocaloric Effects in Metamagnetic Shape Memory Alloys

Recently, metamagnetic shape memory alloys have attracted much attention as candidates for the rare-earth free magnetic refrigerants. These materials undergo the martensitic transformation (MT) at around room temperature accompanied by a significant entropy change. The application of the magnetic field at the low-temperature martensitic phase realizes the magnetic field-induced martensitic transformation (MFIMT). Through the MFIMT, the materials show an unconventional magnetocaloric effect (MCE), which is called inverse magnetocaloric effect (IMCE). In this chapter, the direct measurement system of MCE in pulsed-high-magnetic fields is introduced. With taking the advantage of the fast field-sweep rate of pulsed field, adiabatic measurements of MCE are carried out at various temperatures. Using this technique, the IMCEs of the metamagnetic shape memory alloys NiCoMnIn and NiCoMnGa are directly measured as adiabatic temperature changes in pulsed fields. From the experimental data of MCE for NiCoMnIn, the entropy of spin system in the austenite phase is estimated through a simple mean-field model. By the combination of MCE, magnetization and specific heat measurements, the electronic, lattice and magnetic contributions to the IMCE are individually evaluated. The result for NiCoMnIn demonstrates that lattice entropy plays the dominant role for IMCE in this material

Irinotecan Hydrochloride (CPT-11) in Dialysis Patients with Gastrointestinal Cancer

We investigated changes in drug disposition and toxicities with CPT-11 in 15 dialysis patients with gastrointestinal cancers to clarify whether CPT-11 could be administered safely in such patients. For comparison, the same parameters were also investigated in 10 cancer patients not undergoing dialysis. Items investigated included (1) plasma concentrations of SN-38, SN-38G and CPT-11 at 0, 1, 12, 24, 36, 48 and 72h after administration, together with a comparison of mean AUC values for 3 dose levels of CPT-11 (50, 60 and 70mg/m2) in dialysis patients and controls;and (2) occurrence of adverse events. Several findings emerged from this study:(1) No significant difference was observed in the AUC for SN-38 or CPT-11 between the dialysis and control groups;(2) The AUC for SN-38G at each dose was significantly higher in dialysis patients;and (3) Grade 1-4 leucopenia was observed in 11 of the dialysis patients. One patient developed grade 4 leucopenia and died due to sepsis. Anorexia, diarrhea, nausea, alopecia and interstitial pneumonia occurred in 6 dialysis patients. We found changes in drug dispositions of CPT-11, SN-38 and SN-38G in dialysis patients, suggesting that hepatic excretion, especially that of SN-38G, was increased. No significant difference in occurrence of adverse events was observed between the 2 groups. This indicates that CPT-11 can be administered safely in patients on dialysis.</p

Insulin regulates Presenilin 1 localization via PI3K/Akt signaling.

Recently, insulin signaling has been highlighted in the pathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Although the association between insulin signaling and Tau pathology has been investigated in several studies, the interaction between insulin signaling and Presenilin 1 (PS1), a key molecule of amyloid beta (Abeta) pathology, has not been elucidated so far. In this study, we demonstrated that insulin inhibited PS1 phosphorylation at serine residues (serine 353, 357) via phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signal pathway and strengthened the trimeric complex of PS1/N-cadherin/beta-catenin, consequently relocalizing PS1 to the cell surface. Since our recent report suggests that PS1/N-cadherin/beta-catenin complex regulates Abeta production, it is likely that insulin signaling affects Abeta pathology by regulating PS1 localization

Basic fibroblast growth factor promotes the generation of microtubule-associated protein 2-positive cells from microglia

We recently demonstrated that microglia as multipotential stem cells give rise to microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2)-positive and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)-positive cells and that microglia-derived MAP2-positive cells possess properties of functional neurons. In this study, we investigated the role of fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling in the molecular mechanism underlying the generation of microglia-derived MAP2-positive and GFAP-positive cells. Real-time quantitative PCR analyses demonstrated that mRNA levels of a family of three FGF receptors, Fgfr1-3, were upregulated in microglia treated with 70% fetal bovine serum (FBS). Immunocytochemical analyses demonstrated that basic FGF (bFGF) promoted the generation of microglia-derived MAP2-positive and GFAP-positive cells, and the FGF receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor SU5402 and the MEK inhibitor PD98059 both inhibited this process. Western blot analyses demonstrated that bFGF increased phosphorylated ERK1/2 levels without altering total ERK1/2 levels. These results suggest that bFGF promotes the generation of microglia-derived MAP2-positive and GFAP-positive cells via FGF receptors and the ERK-MAP kinase pathway

Human induced pluripotent stem cells generated from a patient with idiopathic basal ganglia calcification

Idiopathic basal ganglia calcification (IBGC) is a rare neurodegenerative disease, characterized by abnormal calcium deposits in basal ganglia of the brain. The affected individuals exhibit movement disorders, and progressive deterioration of cognitive and psychiatric ability. The genetic cause of the disease is mutation in one of several different genes, SLC20A2, PDGFB, PDGFRB, XPR1 or MYORG, which inheritably or sporadically occurs. Here we generated an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line from an IBGC patient, which is likely be a powerful tool for revealing the pathomechanisms and exploring potential therapeutic candidates of IBGC

Toric Sasaki-Einstein manifolds and Heun equations

Symplectic potentials are presented for a wide class of five dimensional toric Sasaki-Einstein manifolds, including L^{a,b,c} which was recently constructed by Cvetic et al. The spectrum of the scalar Laplacian on L^{a,b,c} is also studied. The eigenvalue problem leads to two Heun's differential equations and the exponents at regular singularities are directly related to toric data. By combining knowledge of the explicit symplectic potential and the exponents, we show that the ground states, or equivalently holomorphic functions, have one-to-one correspondence with integral lattice points in the convex polyhedral cone. The scaling dimensions of the holomorphic functions are simply given by scalar products of the Reeb vector and the integral vectors, which are consistent with R-charges of BPS states in the dual quiver gauge theories.Comment: 26 pages, no figures; references added; v3: revised version, to appear in Nuclear Physics