Aerobic Exercise Ameliorates Cancer Cachexia-Induced Muscle Wasting through Adiponectin Signaling

Cachexia is a multifactorial syndrome characterized by muscle loss that cannot be reversed by conventional nutritional support. To uncover the molecular basis underlying the onset of cancer cachectic muscle wasting and establish an effective intervention against muscle loss, we used a cancer cachectic mouse model and examined the effects of aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise successfully suppressed muscle atrophy and activated adiponectin signaling. Next, a cellular model for cancer cachectic muscle atrophy using C2C12 myotubes was prepared by treating myotubes with a conditioned medium from a culture of colon-26 cancer cells. Treatment of the atrophic myotubes with recombinant adiponectin was protective against the thinning of cells through the increased production of p-mTOR and suppression of LC3-II. Altogether, these findings suggest that the activation of adiponectin signaling could be part of the molecular mechanisms by which aerobic exercise ameliorates cancer cachexia-induced muscle wasting.     

‘Lipase and protease production of dairy Penicillium sp. on milk‐protein‐based solid substrates’

The lipolytic and proteolytic activity of Penicillium camemberti PC TT033 and Penicillium roqueforti PR G3, cultured on the whey solids or simulated cheese media, were compared under several pH reaction conditions. Lipolytic activity was higher when both strains had been cultured on the whey medium than on the simulated cheese medium, whereas proteolytic activity was less influenced by the culture medium. The relationship between the reaction pH and these enzyme activities was dependent on the culture medium, which suggested that the expression level and balance of isozyme rely on the culture substrate.     

Development of Selective TGR5 Ligands Based on the 5,6,7,8-Tetrahydro-5,5,8,8-tetramethylnaphthalene Skeleton

TGR5, a G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), plays an important role in several physiological functions. TGR5 activation through bile acids induces an increase in energy expenditure. Therefore, synthetic TGR5 ligands could be useful for the treatment of obesity or dyslipidemia. In this study, we designed and synthesized a set of TGR5 ligands with a 5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-5,5,8,8-tetramethylnaphthalene (TMN) skeleton, and evaluated their TGR5 agonistic activity. We also investigated the selectivity of the synthesized compounds for TGR5 relative to the farnesoid X receptor (FXR) and retinoic acid receptor (RAR). Our results show that compound 4 b [N-(2-chlorophenyl)-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-5,5,8,8-tetramethyl-2-naphthalenecarboxamide] exhibited potent TGR5 agonist activity with an IC₅₀ value of 8.4 nM without significant cytotoxicity. In addition, compound 4 b showed only slight agonistic activity toward FXR and RAR at 1 μM treatment. These data indicate that compound 4 b is a selective TGR5 agonist, and could be a promising therapeutic agent for dyslipidemia.     

Effective Characterization of DNA Ligation Kinetics by High-Resolution Melting Analysis

High-resolution melting (HRM) analysis has been improved and applied for the first time to quantitative analysis of enzymatic reactions. By using the relative ratios of peak intensities of substrates and products, the quantitativity of conventional HRM analysis has been improved to allow detailed kinetic analysis. As an example, the ligation of sticky ends through the action of T4 DNA ligase has been kinetically analyzed, with comprehensive data on substrate specificity and other properties having been obtained. For the first time, the kinetic parameters (k_obs and apparent K_m) of sticky-end ligation were obtained for both fully matched and mismatched sticky ends. The effect of ATP concentration on sticky-end ligation was also investigated. The improved HRM method should also be applicable to versatile DNA-transforming enzymes, because the only requirement is that the products have T_m values different enough from the substrates.     

An application of Markov potential theory to Markovian decision processes

The aim of this paper is to identify the denumerable stochastic systems which have an optimal strategy, namely, to give general sufficient conditions of the existence of an optimal strategy for denumerable Markovian decision processes. The aim is accomplished by using Markov potential theory and showing the range of the validity of a method to find an optimal strategy called Howard's technique. Since Markov potential theory helps to characterize the properties of evaluations of strategies on such processes, it plays an important role to find the sufficient conditions mentioned above

For Markov potential theory, new concepts are introduced such as absorbable chains, quasi-potentials, etc., and using them, sufficient conditions for the existence of a solution of the equation x = f+Px are generalized to the one's for cyclic chains and multi-chains

The results obtained in this paper are as follows : if a system represents a strong Markov chain for any strategy, then there exists an optimal strategy with respect to the total or the mean expected earnings, and for any stochastic system there exists an optimal strategy with respect to the discounted total expected earnings.     

Two-degrees-of-freedom dead-beat control system with robustness

This paper deals with the design of a two-degrees-of-freedom (TDF) dead-beat controller with both optimal robustness and minimum settling time. Based on the parametrization of all stabilizing TDF controllers, optimal robustness and minimum-time control are achieved simultaneously. The minimum-time dead-beat control is constructed for arbitrary real-rational reference input. At the same time, optimal robustness is achieved under the constraint that the error between reference input and output asymptotically vanishes for any plant perturbation that does not violate the internal stability. It is proved that under the same robustness criterion, irrespective of its length of settling time, the optimal robustness of the TDF system is always superior to that of the one-degree-of-freedom (ODF) system as long as its settling time is finite, and they become identical only when the settling time of the ODF system goes to infinity. A numerical example is given to illustrate the theoretical results.     

The evaluation of the extended transmission power consumption (ETPC) model to perform communication type processes

In energy-aware information systems, it is critical to discuss how to select a server for each request from clients in order to not only achieve performance objectives but also reduce the total power consumption of a system. In order to design and evaluate the server selection algorithm, it is critical to define the power consumption model of a server to perform processes. In our previous studies, the transmission power consumption (TPC) model of a server is proposed to perform transmission processes. In the TPC model, the electric power consumption of cooling devices is assumed to be constant. Cooling devices like fans consume the electric power in a server. Thus, the total power consumption of a server depends on not only computation and communication devices but also cooling devices. In this paper, we propose the extended TPC (ETPC) model to take into account the power consumption of cooling devices. We validate the TPC and ETPC models by measuring the power consumption and transmission time of a server.     

Fabrication of fluorine-terminated diamond-like carbon thin film using a hyperthermal atomic fluorine beam

Surface modification of diamond-like carbon (DLC) film was performed using a hyperthermal atomic fluorine beam on the purpose of production of hydrophobic surface by maintaining the high hardness of DLC film. By the irradiation of atomic fluorine beam of a 1.0 × 10²⁰ atoms/cm², the contact angle of a water drop against the DLC surface increased from 73° to 111°. The formation of CF₃, CF₂ and CF bonding on the modified DLC surface was confirmed from the measurements of X-ray photoelectron spectra and near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectra. Irradiation of hyperthermal atomic fluorine beam was concluded to produce insulator fluorine-terminated DLC film, which has high F content on the surface, by the taking of the use of neutral atomic beam as a fluorine source.     

Incorporation of Alpha‐Linolenic Acid and Enhancement of n‐3 Fatty Acids in Nile Tilapia: a Factorial Design

A 2² factorial design (two factors at two levels, in triplicate) was performed to investigate the influence of factors A (time of treatment, 15 and 30 days) and B (chia oil content in a supplemented diet, at 2.1 and 4.2 %) in three responses of interest referring to: (a) the incorporation of alpha‐linolenic acid (LNA) in lipids of Nile tilapia fillet; (b) the enhancement of n‐3 fatty acids; and (c) the decrease in the omega‐6/omega3 (n‐6/n‐3) ratio in fish. Factors A and B were significant in the three regression models obtained and the interaction AB was a significant contributor to the LNA and n‐6/n‐3 ratio. Analysis of variance suggested three significant and predictive mathematical models. Response surfaces analyses from designs indicated higher LNA and n‐3 contents and a lower n‐6/n‐3 ratio using both factors A and B in the higher levels (30 days of treatment and 4.2 % of chia oil in the diet for fish) chosen for this study.