Correction of Apparent Viscoelasticity of Skin Surface

The body structures under the skin surface, such as bones and tendon, have an influence on the stiffness evaluation observed from the surface. In this case, the observed stiffness should be called an apparent stiffness. To obtain the biomechanical properties of skin itself, the influence of body structure should be removed. This study deals with the correction method of apparent viscoelasticity which calculated from apparent biomechanical impedance. This method is applied to the measured result of the forearm and the right chest to confirm its effectiveness

Hydrostatic Compression Effects on Fifth-Group Element Superconductors V, Nb, and Ta Subjected to High-Pressure Torsion

In fifth-group element superconductors V, Nb, and Ta, the increase in superconducting transition temperature (Tc) was attempted by using both high-pressure torsion (HPT) and additional hydrostatic pressure (HP) compression. The former brings about the grain refinement and strain accumulation in the unit-cell level. The additional compression for severely strained superconductors triggers strengthening intergrain-contact and/or structural deformation in the unit-cell level. The manner of the appearance of the above two effects depends on the kind of elements: First, in V, there is no prominent effect of HPT, comparing to the hydrostatic compression effects on its non-strained material. Next, in Ta, the effect of strengthening intergrain-contact appears at small hydrostatic compression, resulting in temporal increase in Tc. Finally, Nb exhibits prominent increase in Tc by both effects and, in particular, the structural deformation in the unit-cell level promotes the increase in Tc. Thus, the accumulation of residual strain in the level of starting material can be a promising work to manipulate Tc under HP compression

Vestibular stimulation-induced facilitation of cervical premotoneuronal systems in humans.

It is unclear how descending inputs from the vestibular system affect the excitability of cervical interneurons in humans. To elucidate this, we investigated the effects of galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) on the spatial facilitation of motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) induced by combined pyramidal tract and peripheral nerve stimulation. To assess the spatial facilitation, electromyograms were recorded from the biceps brachii muscles (BB) of healthy subjects. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the contralateral primary motor cortex and electrical stimulation of the ipsilateral ulnar nerve at the wrist were delivered either separately or together, with interstimulus intervals of 10 ms (TMS behind). Anodal/cathodal GVS was randomly delivered with TMS and/or ulnar nerve stimulation. The combination of TMS and ulnar nerve stimulation facilitated BB MEPs significantly more than the algebraic summation of responses induced separately by TMS and ulnar nerve stimulation (i.e., spatial facilitation). MEP facilitation significantly increased when combined stimulation was delivered with GVS (p < 0.01). No significant differences were found between anodal and cathodal GVS. Furthermore, single motor unit recordings showed that the short-latency excitatory peak in peri-stimulus time histograms during combined stimulation increased significantly with GVS. The spatial facilitatory effects of combined stimulation with short interstimulus intervals (i.e., 10 ms) indicate that facilitation occurred at the premotoneuronal level in the cervical cord. The present findings therefore suggest that GVS facilitates the cervical interneuron system that integrates inputs from the pyramidal tract and peripheral nerves and excites motoneurons innervating the arm muscles

Schematic of the methodology and potential premotoneuronal pathways in the cervical cord.

<p>The wiring pattern is oversimplified for better understanding. Black and red solid lines represent direct (monosynaptic) connections, whereas purple and green dashed lines represent indirect (non-monosynaptic) connections no matter whether its effect is facilitatory or inhibitory. The pyramidal tract volleys (a red arrow) that are produced by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the contralateral motor cortex and the afferent volleys (a green arrow) that are produced by electrical stimulation of the ipsilateral ulnar nerve (NERVE) at the wrist converge onto a common cervical interneuron (IN) that projects to motoneurons (MNs) of the biceps brachii (BB) muscle, which results in extra facilitation of motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) in the BB. The TMS and NERVE are timed so that the pyramidal tract and afferent volleys simultaneously arrive at the upper cervical cord. The inputs produced by galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) through the bilateral mastoid processes also converge on the IN pool. FDI: first dorsal interosseous muscle, EMG: electromyogram.</p

The effects of galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) on ulnar nerve-induced facilitation of motor-evoked potentials in a single subject.

<p>Full-wave rectified and averaged electromyograms (EMGs) in the biceps brachii (BB) muscle after separate ulnar nerve stimulation (NERVE) at 1.0 × the motor threshold of the first dorsal interosseous muscle (<b>A</b>, <b>E</b>, <b>I</b>), separate transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the contralateral primary motor cortex at 1.1 × the active motor threshold of the BB (<b>B</b>, <b>F</b>, <b>J</b>), and the combination (COMB) of NERVE and TMS (<b>C</b>, <b>G</b>, <b>K</b>). These waveforms were obtained without GVS (left panels), during anodal GVS (middle panels), and during cathodal GVS (right panels) at 2.0 × the perceptual threshold of the head sway. The grey waveforms in <b>C</b>, <b>G</b>, and <b>K</b> represent the summation (SUM) of the averaged EMG waveforms after separate TMS and NERVE. The waveforms in <b>D</b>, <b>H</b>, and <b>L</b> represent the COMB waveforms with the SUM waveforms subtracted.</p

The effects of galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) on the firing probability of single motor units (MUs) after combined motor cortex and ulnar nerve stimulation.

<p><b>A</b>–<b>H</b> show the peristimulus time histograms (PSTHs) of a single MU in the biceps brachii (BB) muscle after separate ulnar nerve stimulation (NERVE) at 1.0 × motor threshold (MT) of the first dorsal interosseous muscle (<b>A</b>, <b>E</b>), separate transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) (<b>B</b>, <b>F</b>) over the contralateral primary motor cortex at 1.25 × active motor threshold of the BB, and combined stimulation (COMB) (<b>C</b>, <b>G</b>) in the control (<b>A</b>–<b>D</b>) and anodal GVS conditions (<b>E</b>–<b>H</b>). Each PSTH was obtained after 50 stimuli. The counts in these PSTHs were subtracted by the mean counts during a 50 ms prestimulus period. <b>D</b> and <b>H</b> show differential PSTHs after subtraction of the summed PSTHs after separate stimuli from the PSTHs of the COMB. The number of counts in each bin was normalized by the number of triggers. The vertical dashed line represents the onset of the excitatory peak in the PSTH after separate TMS. The superimposed waveforms in the upper right corner of each PSTH show the MU action potentials (n = 50) obtained from each stimulus trial. <b>I</b>–<b>L</b> indicate the peak counts of the MU firings in the differential PSTHs in the control and anodal GVS conditions obtained from 31 MUs that were investigated with the NERVE set at 1.0 × MT (<b>I</b>, <b>J</b>) and 20 MUs that were investigated with the NERVE set at 0.75 × MT (<b>K</b>, <b>L</b>). The error bars represent 1 standard deviation. The analysis window was set at a predefined period (1.0 ms duration) that started 1.0 ms after the onset of the TMS-induced excitatory peak in the PSTH. **<i>p</i> < 0.01.</p

Sesquiterpene and Acetogenin Derivatives from the Marine Red Alga Laurencia okamurai

In addition to 13 known compounds, four new bisabolane sesquiterpenes, okamurenes A&amp;#8211;D (1&amp;#8211;4), a new chamigrane derivative, okamurene E (5), and a new C12-acetogenin, okamuragenin (6), were isolated from the marine red alga Laurencia okamurai. The structures of these compounds were determined through detailed spectroscopic analyses. Of these, okamurenes A and B (1 and 2) are the first examples of bromobisabolane sesquiterpenes possessing a phenyl moiety among Laurencia-derived sesquiterpenes, while okamuragenin (6) was the first acetogenin aldehyde possessing a C12-carbon skeleton. Each of the isolated compounds was evaluated for the brine shrimp (Artemia salina) lethal assay and 7-hydroxylaurene displayed potent lethality with LD50 1.8 &amp;#956;M