Anion-dominated Redox Reaction of a SAM of an Alkylthiolated Viologen Bearing a Covalently-attached Intramolecular Sulfonate Group on a Gold Electrode

The redox processes of the self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of alkylthiolated viologens on Au electrodes are largely determined by oxidation-state-dependent binding of electrolyte anions to the viologen moiety in an aqueous solution. In this paper, we give an answer to a question: what if the SAM-forming molecule has a covalently-attached intermolecular anionic site? We used the results of the voltammetric measurements for a SAM of a viologen with a covalently-attached sulfonate group, 1-(10-mercaptodecyl)-1′-(3-sulfonatopropyl)-4,4′-bipyridinium bromide (HS-C10-V-C3-SO3 − bromide salt), and examined the effect ofintramolecular ion binding on the redox behavior. We found the coexistence of two distinct types of redox couples: one with a viologen moiety, which binds always to the sulfonate group, and the other with a moiety, which catches and releases an electrolyte anion from the solution upon redox. We decipheredrather complicated behavior and discussed the implications

Evaluation of pharmaceutical lifesaving skills training oriented pharmaceutical intervention

Background: Many pharmacists are participating in team-based medical care in emergency hospitals. Therefore, there is a desperate need to improve the education system. In the present study, we provided a “pharmaceutical lifesaving skills training” to the students in their fifth and sixth year of the pharmaceutical school and evaluated the program’s impact on the students’ learning and confidence in their ability to perform pharmaceutical interventions for emergency patients. Methods: We conducted a pharmaceutical lifesaving skills training program with 12 participants who were in their fifth and six year of pharmaceutical school. We prepared a fictional scenario in which a patient with cardiac arrest has been rushed into a hospital. We measured the participants’ level of knowledge of pharmaceutical lifesaving procedures and participants’ confidence to perform pharmaceutical interventions before and after the training session. Using the data obtained from type II quantification method, we examined what elements in the content of the pharmaceutical lifesaving skill training attended by pharmacy students will affect the students’ confidence to perform pharmaceutical interventions. In addition, using the correspondence structural analysis, we examined which sections of the content of the pharmaceutical lifesaving skill training should be improved in the future. Results: When we evaluated the level of knowledge acquired in pharmaceutical lifesaving skills training, the post-training overall correct answer rate was significantly higher than the pre-training overall correct answer rate. And also, level of participants' confidence to perform pharmaceutical interventions similarly increased after pharmaceutical lifesaving skill training. The influence degree graph indicates that the items likely to have a major impact on the participants’ confidence to perform pharmaceutical interventions was “Selecting medicine”. According to the correspondence structural analysis graph based on the questionnaire survey, one item identified as an improvement required was “Selecting medicine”. Conclusions: Our high-performance patient simulator-based lifesaving skills training program not only increased the participants’ understanding of the training content but also increased their confidence in their ability to perform pharmaceutical interventions. Therefore, the pharmaceutical lifesaving skills training program we developed will contribute to the education of emergency care pharmacists who can perform pharmaceutical interventions for emergency patients

Experimental Results for Electron Bernstein Wave Heating in the Large Helical Device

Electron cyclotron heating (ECH) using electron Bernstein waves (EBWs) was studied in the large helical device (LHD). Oblique launching of the slow extraordinary (SX-) mode from the high field side and oblique launching of the ordinary (O-) mode from the low field side were adopted to excite EBWs in the LHD by using electron cyclotron (EC) wave antennas installed apart from the plasma surface. Increases in the stored energy and electron temperature were observed for both cases of launching. These launching methods for ECH using EBWs (EBWH) is promising for high-density operation in future helical fusion devices instead of conventional ECH by normal electromagnetic modes

Administration of Kampo medicine through a tube at an advanced critical care center

In emergency and critical care medical centers, tube administration is employed for patients who have difficulty swallowing oral drugs owing to decreased consciousness or mechanical ventilation. However, tube clogging due to drug injection is a concern. We compared the crushing method with the simple suspension method for the passage of amlodipine, an antihypertensive drug, in combination with rikkunshito, which has been used to treat upper gastrointestinal disorders such as functional dyspepsia and gastroesophageal reflux in emergency and critical care medical centers, to ascertain the effect of Kampo products on the passage of other drugs during tube administration. When the crushing method was employed, poorly water-soluble solid products were formed, while a uniformly dispersed suspension was obtained using the simple suspension method. In addition, the passage rate of amlodipine through the tube was 64% and 93% in the crushing and simple suspension methods, respectively, thereby indicating that the simple suspension method provided more favorable than the crushing method. The results of this study suggested that the passage rate of amlodipine for patients who received Kampo products concurrently was higher when the simple suspension method was used, and an appropriate drug amount might well be able to administered to patients using this method

Recent Results from LHD Experiment with Emphasis on Relation to Theory from Experimentalist’s View

he Large Helical Device (LHD) has been extending an operational regime of net-current free plasmas towardsthe fusion relevant condition with taking advantage of a net current-free heliotron concept and employing a superconducting coil system. Heating capability has exceeded 10 MW and the central ion and electron temperatureshave reached 7 and 10 keV, respectively. The maximum value of β and pulse length have been extended to 3.2% and 150 s, respectively. Many encouraging physical findings have been obtained. Topics from recent experiments, which should be emphasized from the aspect of theoretical approaches, are reviewed. Those are (1) Prominent features in the inward shifted configuration, i.e., mitigation of an ideal interchange mode in the configuration with magnetic hill, and confinement improvement due to suppression of both anomalous and neoclassical transport, (2) Demonstration ofbifurcation of radial electric field and associated formation of an internal transport barrier, and (3) Dynamics of magnetic islands and clarification of the role of separatrix

Impurity emission characteristics of long pulse discharges in Large Helical Device

Line spectra from intrinsic impurity ions have been monitored during the three kinds of long-pulse discharges (ICH, ECH, NBI). Constant emission from the iron impurity shows no preferential accumulation of iron ion during the long-pulse operations. Stable Doppler ion temperature has been also measured from Fe XX, C V and C III spectra

The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection

DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19疾患感受性遺伝子DOCK2の重症化機序を解明 --アジア最大のバイオレポジトリーでCOVID-19の治療標的を発見--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-10.Identifying the host genetic factors underlying severe COVID-19 is an emerging challenge. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 2, 393 cases of COVID-19 in a cohort of Japanese individuals collected during the initial waves of the pandemic, with 3, 289 unaffected controls. We identified a variant on chromosome 5 at 5q35 (rs60200309-A), close to the dedicator of cytokinesis 2 gene (DOCK2), which was associated with severe COVID-19 in patients less than 65 years of age. This risk allele was prevalent in East Asian individuals but rare in Europeans, highlighting the value of genome-wide association studies in non-European populations. RNA-sequencing analysis of 473 bulk peripheral blood samples identified decreased expression of DOCK2 associated with the risk allele in these younger patients. DOCK2 expression was suppressed in patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis (n = 61 individuals) identified cell-type-specific downregulation of DOCK2 and a COVID-19-specific decreasing effect of the risk allele on DOCK2 expression in non-classical monocytes. Immunohistochemistry of lung specimens from patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia showed suppressed DOCK2 expression. Moreover, inhibition of DOCK2 function with CPYPP increased the severity of pneumonia in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by weight loss, lung oedema, enhanced viral loads, impaired macrophage recruitment and dysregulated type I interferon responses. We conclude that DOCK2 has an important role in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of severe COVID-19, and could be further explored as a potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target

Comparison between polycrystalline Au and single-crystalline Au(1 1 1) electrodes as the substrate of a cationic organic monolayer based on their anion dependent redox activities

The structures of organic monolayers immobilized on a metal electrode and their functions depend on the substrate surface chemistry and morphology. A better defined crystalline flat electrode usually provides a structurally more ordered organic monolayer, although the use of a single-crystalline electrode costs more for mass production. Because the monolayer structures at both molecular and mesoscopic levels are critical to the functions of the modified electrode, in-depth experimental studies to clarify the relationship between the functions and the surface morphology of the electrode are crucial. In this work, we compared polycrystalline Au (poly-Au) and single-crystalline Au(1 1 1) electrodes as the substrates for a redox-active, self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of an alkyl-viologen thiol, 1-(10-mercaptodecyl)-1′-methyl-4,4′-bipyridinium dibromide (MeVC10-SH 2Br−). The voltammetric and electroreflectance measurements were performed at a mirror-polished poly-Au electrode and a flame-annealed single-crystalline Au(1 1 1) electrode after their surface modification with a MeVC10-SH monolayer. We found significant differences in the anion effects on the voltammetric behavior between the two substrates, especially in the dependence on anion hydrophobicity. The electroreflectance spectra revealed a tendency that a greater abundance of the viologen radical cation dimers at a Au(1 1 1) than that at a poly-Au. A considerable Br− adsorption at the SAM-modified Au(1 1 1) electrode was observed because of the loose packing of immobilized MeVC10-SH molecules. We discussed the origins of the contrasting behavior resulting from the difference of the surface