Development of refrigeration oil for use with R32

R32 has been applied as an air-conditioner refrigerant in Japan for a few years. Although its GWP is slightly higher than the limit of F-gas restriction, high COP is a key driving force for R32 system. Regarding refrigeration oil applied to R32, there are two main issues. First issue is miscibility with R32, because incumbent refrigeration oil for R410A is rather immiscible to R32. Second issue is lubricity. When refrigerant is miscible well with refrigeration oil, generally, dissolved refrigerant reduce viscosity of refrigerant-oil mixture. Lower viscosity results in, lower lubricity, and finally, it would cause wear of sliding parts, compressor durability shortage, insufficient sealing, or reduced COP. At the earlier stage, several refrigeration oils miscible with R32 have been proposed. However, we have experienced wearing problems on surface of a main shaft in R32 system with such refrigeration oils, for example. Those problems were not found in R410A systems. We assumed there is some different mechanism on sliding parts in R32 systems comparing with current refrigerant systems. We focused on viscosity of refrigerant – oil mixture, which could be correlated to lubricity. Then, we found that viscosity of R32 – refrigeration oil mixture is extremely lower than that of R410A – refrigeration oil. Together with results of wearing problem in sliding parts, which are not worn by fluid lubrication in general, we assumed that oil film is formed insufficiently on the surface due to the extreme low viscosity of the mixture. Our goal of development of refrigeration oil for R32 was reset to balance miscibility and lubricity, which is trade-off normally. Through various studies, finally, we found a new base oil to meet our goal, which makes us possible to achieve not only high viscosity of the mixture, but also good miscibility with R32. Its excellent characteristics on lubricity and miscibility are also confirmed by several compressor tests

A novel PI3K inhibitor iMDK suppresses non-small cell lung Cancer cooperatively with A MEK inhibitor

The PI3K–AKT pathway is expected to be a therapeutic target for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treatment. We previously reported that a novel PI3K inhibitor iMDK suppressed NSCLC cells in vitro and in vivo without harming normal cells and mice. Unexpectedly, iMDK activated the MAPK pathway, including ERK, in the NSCLC cells. Since iMDK did not eradicate such NSCLC cells completely, it is possible that the activated MAPK pathway confers resistance to the NSCLC cells against cell death induced by iMDK. In the present study, we assessed whether suppressing of iMDK-mediated activation of the MAPK pathway would enhance anti-tumorigenic activity of iMDK. PD0325901, a MAPK inhibitor, suppressed the MAPK pathway induced by iMDK and cooperatively inhibited cell viability and colony formation of NSCLC cells by inducing apoptosis in vitro. HUVEC tube formation, representing angiogenic processes in vitro, was also cooperatively inhibited by the combinatorial treatment of iMDK and PD0325901. The combinatorial treatment of iMDK with PD0325901 cooperatively suppressed tumor growth and tumor-associated angiogenesis in a lung cancer xenograft model in vivo. Here, we demonstrate a novel treatment strategy using iMDK and PD0325901 to eradicate NSCLC

Research Activities in the Department of Nursing

Research activity at the Department of Nursing is overviewed from the point of research topics, the theme of the projects admitted for grant from the Ministry of Education and Science of Japan, and expected research topics, trying to clarify the needs and challenges of the Department from multilateral aspects in future research activities. The Department of Nursing, Aino University is currently divided into the five areas and further into 12 fields. On the other hand, according to the Scientific Research Grant Program (2015 fiscal year), the research topics in nursing science is subdivided into the five areas; a) basic nursing, b) clinical nursing, c) lifelong developmental nursing, d) elderly nursing, and e) community health nursing

Development of Refrigeration Oil for Use With R32

R410A, which has a high GWP (global warming potential) of roughly 2000, is widely used in refrigeration systems today. Various low GWP alternative refrigerants have been investigated as part of the effort to stop global warming. One such refrigerant, R32, offers an alternative that improves system performance without the need for significant changes to current systems. Moreover, its GWP is roughly 1/3 that of R410A. R32 is thus a very promising candidate to replace R410A. However, current refrigeration oils designed for use with R410A have poor miscibility with R32. In this paper, we report on solutions to the miscibility problem and the characteristics of refrigeration oils for R32 systems

L-Glucose: Another Path to Cancer Cells

Cancerous tumors comprise cells showing metabolic heterogeneity. Among numerous efforts to understand this property, little attention has been paid to the possibility that cancer cells take up and utilize otherwise unusable substrates as fuel. Here we discuss this issue by focusing on l-glucose, the mirror image isomer of naturally occurring d-glucose; l-glucose is an unmetabolizable sugar except in some bacteria. By combining relatively small fluorophores with l-glucose, we generated fluorescence-emitting l-glucose tracers (fLGs). To our surprise, 2-NBDLG, one of these fLGs, which we thought to be merely a control substrate for the fluorescent d-glucose tracer 2-NBDG, was specifically taken up into tumor cell aggregates (spheroids) that exhibited nuclear heterogeneity, a major cytological feature of malignancy in cancer diagnosis. Changes in mitochondrial activity were also associated with the spheroids taking up fLG. To better understand these phenomena, we review here the Warburg effect as well as key studies regarding glucose uptake. We also discuss tumor heterogeneity involving aberrant uptake of glucose and mitochondrial changes based on the data obtained by fLG. We then consider the use of fLGs as novel markers for visualization and characterization of malignant tumor cells