Characteristics of Perceived Stress and Salivary Levels of Secretory Immunoglobulin A and Cortisol in Japanese Women With Premenstrual Syndrome

Background: Several studies have demonstrated the associations between Premenstrual Syndrome and perceived stress, and no studies quantifying stress based on biochemical parameters have been conducted. Objectives: The objective of this study was to examine the changes in biochemical parameters of stress and measured perceived stress during the menstrual cycle of women with premenstrual syndrome. Patients and Methods: A longitudinal observational study was conducted in 2010 in the Kansai region of Japan. Thirteen women with premenstrual syndrome and 11 controls, all with regular menstrual cycles, participated in this study. Salivary secretory immunoglobulin A (S-IgA) and cortisol levels were measured as biochemical parameters, and scores on the Stress Check List KM (SCL-KM) (Cronbach’s α in this study ranged from 0.76 to 0.84) were used to indicate perceived stress through two complete menstrual cycles. Before stress measurements were taken, premenstrual, menstrual and postmenstrual phases were confirmed based on records of basal body temperature across two menstrual cycles. Data analysis was performed using the Student’s t-test, analysis of variance with repeated measures, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient, as appropriate. Results: Both the postmenstrual S-IgA concentration and secretion rate were significantly lower in the group with premenstrual syndrome than in controls (P < 0.05). Premenstrual S-IgA concentrations were significantly higher than postmenstrual levels in the group with premenstrual syndrome (P < 0.05). No significant differences in cortisol levels were seen in either group during any phase. Premenstrual and postmenstrual phase SCL-KM scores were significantly higher in the group with premenstrual syndrome than in controls (P < 0.05). No significant changes in the SCL-KM scores were observed among menstrual cycle phases in either group. Postmenstrual S-IgA levels were negatively correlated with the SCL-KM score (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The stress due to psychosomatic changes in the menstrual cycle is associated with premenstrual syndrome. Measures of S-IgA, rather than cortisol or subjective responses to stress, may be most closely associated with PMS

Changes of Yield Stress of Sand During Undrained Cyclic Loading

In this study, the yield locus of sand being subjected to several cycles of undrained loading was investigated by using the triaxial testing device capable of measuring the acoustic emission, AE, of soil. The AE measurement indicates that the undrained shear on isotropically consolidated sand changes the shape of yield locus so as to have more kinematic hardening type of yield locus. More importantly, a change occurred in the size of yield locus, and the undrained loading has reduced the size of yield locus. Subsequent undrained cyclic loadings further reduced the size of yield locus so that there were some additional yielding during the cyclic loadings which accompanied gradual accumulations of pore water pressures

Nonquasiparticle states in the half-metallic ferromagnet simulated by the two-band Hubbard model

The density-matrix renormalization group method is used to study the three-band zigzag ladder model that simulates the electronic state of the t 2g-orbital system of the double string of the edge-shared CrO 6 octahedra in the half-metallic ferromagnet K2Cr 8O16. The saturated ferromagnetism caused by the double-exchange mechanism is thereby demonstrated. We also use the Lanczos exact-diagonalization technique on small clusters to study the two Hubbard chains coupled with the ferromagnetic exchange interaction, whereby we consider the nonquasiparticle states in the half-metallic ferromagnet that appear in the single-particle spectral function.Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japa

Spin and mass excitations in the doped multiple spin exchange model on a triangular lattice: 3He on graphite

Using an exact-diagonalization technique on small clusters, we calculate the spin and density excitation spectra as well as the temperature dependence of the specific heat for the triangular-lattice t-J model with the multiple-spin exchange interactions, whereby we consider the low-energy excitations of the two-dimensional liquid 3He adsorbed on graphite. We find that, for a relevant set of the parameter values, the spectral weight for the spin excitations is concentrated on a very low-energy region, while that of the density excitations extends over a wide energy range, indicating the clear separation of their energy scales. The double-peak structure in the temperature dependence of the specific heat is also obtained. © 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd.Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan/18028008Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan/18043006Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan/18540338Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan/19014004JSPS Research Fellowship for Young Scientist

Família defensiva de peptídeos antimicrobianos em Urochloa.

O capim-braquiária é muito utilizado no Brasil, principalmente no cerrado, como forrageira devido a sua alta adaptabilidade a variados solos, como solos ácidos ou pobres em nutrientes; e apresenta alta cobertura e produção de biomassa. Os peptídeos antimicrobianos são moléculas proteicas pequenas produzidas por todos os seres vivos como parte do sistema imune inato para combater infecções e patógenos. Peptídeos antimicrobianos vegetais possuem um amplo espectro de atividades antimicrobianas contra fitopatógenos e a grande maioria deles é ativa contra fungos, enquanto alguns são inibidores de bactérias e insetos herbívoros. Deste modo, o objetivo deste trabalho foi verificar e identificar a presença de peptídeos antimicrobianos da família das defensinas em U. decumbens por meio da comparação entre as sequências do transcriptoma da planta contra as sequências de aminoácidos de peptídeos antimicrobianos. O transcriptoma da planta foi fornecido pela EMBRAPA Gado de Corte (Campo Grande, MS), obtido pela extração de RNA de plantas expostas a condições de estresse (com alumínio) e sem estresse (sem alumínio). As sequências dos peptídeos antimicrobianos foram baixadas do banco de dados online CAMP e foram formatadas em FASTA em um banco local no computador da FCBA, UFGD. Foi utilizado o blast local para fazer o alinhamento entre os 164.920 transcritos únicos da U. decumbens e as 5.906 sequências de peptídeos antimicrobianos. Deste alinhamento obteve-se 3.161 similaridades com 251 peptídeos diferentes. Para a análise dos resultados utilizou-se o MySQL, separando-os em famílias de acordo com a classificação do banco de dados CAMP e selecionando um grupo amostral para a construção das árvores filogenéticas. A partir desta análise, obteve-se 261 similaridades com 52 peptídeos diferentes dentro da família das defensinas. A maioria dos peptídeos antimicrobianos identificados possui atividade antifúngica ou antimicrobiana, e são de origem vegetal o que condiz com os transcritos da gramínea

Weak formulation for singular diffusion equation with dynamic boundary condition

In this paper, we propose a weak formulation of the singular diffusion equation subject to the dynamic boundary condition. The weak formulation is based on a reformulation method by an evolution equation including the subdifferential of a governing convex energy. Under suitable assumptions, the principal results of this study are stated in forms of Main Theorems A and B, which are respectively to verify: the adequacy of the weak formulation; the common property between the weak solutions and those in regular problems of standard PDEs.Comment: 23 page

High statistics calculations of quenched QCD spectrum using various quark sources

We present the results for the hadron spectrum calculated on 400 configurations using point source, wall source and 8-cubic sources, in quenched QCD with Wilson fermions at $\beta=6.0$ and $K=0.155$ on a $24^3 \times 54$ lattice. The results for the ground state masses obtained with three types of quark sources agree well with each other. Masses of the first excited states appear consistent with experimental values within large errors.Comment: 3 pages, 2 postscript figures, to appear in the Proceedings of LATTICE 93, Dallas, USA; preprint UTHEP-26