Equilibrium Study on Interactions between Proteins and Bile-Salt Micelles by Micellar Electrokinetic Chromatography

Interactions between proteins and bile-salt micelles were evaluated on the basis of the binding constants, which were obtained from the migration of proteins in micellar electrokinetic chromatography. The binding constants, Kb=[Pb]/ ([Pw][B]), where [Pb] is the concentration of a protein binding with a bile-salt, [Pw] free protein concentration, and [B] the concentration of bile salt present in the micelles, were successfully determined from the slope of a linear curve of the capacity factor (k′) of the protein against [B]. The binding constants were almost identical to those obtained by a gel- filtration method. The value of Kb increased with increasing the hydrophobicity of the bile salt or that of the protein

Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite 2 (GOSAT-2): mission overview

Abstract The Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite 2 (GOSAT-2) was launched in October 2018 as a successor to GOSAT (launched in 2009), the first satellite to specialize in greenhouse gas observations. Compared to the GOSAT sensors, the sensors of GOSAT-2 offer higher performance in most respects. The quality and quantity of data from observations are expected to be improved accordingly. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is better in both the SWIR and TIR bands of TANSO-FTS-2, which is the main sensor of GOSAT-2. This improvement ultimately enhances the accuracy of greenhouse gas concentration analysis. Furthermore, because of the improved SNR in the SWIR band, the northern limit at which data are obtainable in high-latitude regions of the Northern Hemisphere in winter, where observation data have remained unavailable because of weak signal strength, has moved to higher latitudes. As better data are obtained in greater quantities, progress in carbon cycle research for high-latitude regions is anticipated. Moreover, the improvement of SNR in the TIR band is expected to be considerable. Particularly, the resolutions of the vertical concentration distributions of CO2 and CH4 have been improved drastically. The first function introduced for GOSAT-2 that is not in GOSAT is an intelligent pointing mechanism: a cloud area avoidance function using the in-field camera of TANSO-FTS-2. This function can increase the amounts of observation data globally and can improve the accuracy of CO2 emissions estimation and measurements of uptake intensity. The effects are expected to be strong, especially for the tropics because cumulus clouds are the most common cloud type. The intelligent pointing system can avoid the clouds effectively. Another important benefit of TANSO-FTS-2 is that the wavelength range of Band 3 of SWIR has been expanded for measuring carbon monoxide (CO). Because CO originates from combustion, it is used to evaluate some effects of human activities in urban areas and biomass burning in fields. Particularly, black carbon-type aerosols can be measured by the sub-sensor, TANSO-CAI-2, to assess biomass burning along with CO2 and CO by TANSO-FTS-2

National trends in the outcomes of subarachnoid haemorrhage and the prognostic influence of stroke centre capability in Japan: retrospective cohort study

Objectives To examine the national, 6-year trends in in-hospital clinical outcomes of patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) who underwent clipping or coiling and the prognostic influence of temporal trends in the Comprehensive Stroke Center (CSC) capabilities on patient outcomes in Japan.Design Retrospective study.Setting Six hundred and thirty-one primary care institutions in Japan.Participants Forty-five thousand and eleven patients with SAH who were urgently hospitalised, identified using the J-ASPECT Diagnosis Procedure Combination database.Primary and secondary outcome measures Annual number of patients with SAH who remained untreated, or who received clipping or coiling, in-hospital mortality and poor functional outcomes (modified Rankin Scale: 3–6) at discharge. Each CSC was assessed using a validated scoring system (CSC score: 1–25 points).Results In the overall cohort, in-hospital mortality decreased (year for trend, OR (95% CI): 0.97 (0.96 to 0.99)), while the proportion of poor functional outcomes remained unchanged (1.00 (0.98 to 1.02)). The proportion of patients who underwent clipping gradually decreased from 46.6% to 38.5%, while that of those who received coiling and those left untreated gradually increased from 16.9% to 22.6% and 35.4% to 38%, respectively. In-hospital mortality of coiled (0.94 (0.89 to 0.98)) and untreated (0.93 (0.90 to 0.96)) patients decreased, whereas that of clipped patients remained stable. CSC score improvement was associated with increased use of coiling (per 1-point increase, 1.14 (1.08 to 1.20)) but not with short-term patient outcomes regardless of treatment modality.Conclusions The 6-year trends indicated lower in-hospital mortality for patients with SAH (attributable to better outcomes), increased use of coiling and multidisciplinary care for untreated patients. Further increasing CSC capabilities may improve overall outcomes, mainly by increasing the use of coiling. Additional studies are necessary to determine the effect of confounders such as aneurysm complexity on outcomes of clipped patients in the modern endovascular era