Intracerebroventricular administration of mouse leptin does not reduce food intake in the chicken

Recently, it has been suggested that leptin plays an important role in regulation of food intake and metabolism in rats and mice, however, the effect of central administration of leptin on food intake in chicks has not been reported. We have investigated the anorexigenic effect of leptin administered by intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injection in chicks using mouse leptin, which shows 97% homology to chicken leptin. Three experiments were conducted. After being deprived of food for 3 h, male broiler chicks were administered leptin by i.c.v. injection at dose levels of 0, 0.2, 1.0 and 5.0 microg (Experiment 1) or 0, 2.5 and 5.0 microg (Experiment 2). The birds were allowed free access to the diet for 2 h (Experiment 1) and 24 h (Experiment 2) after treatment. Male Single Comb White Leghorn chicks were used in Experiment 3 and were treated in the same manner as in Experiment 1. In all experiments, central administration of mouse leptin did not influence food intake in the time periods examined. It appears that either mouse leptin does not bind to the chicken leptin receptor or in the chicken brain the leptin receptor may be absent.     

Optimal dispersion management for a wavelength division multiplexedoptical soliton transmission system

Soliton's frequency shift arising from the pulse collision between wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) channels in an optical transmission line may be reduced by dispersion management technique. The reduction mechanism is due to a cancellation between the shifts in normal and anomalous dispersion fibers. With a proper management of the dispersion, the effect of lumped amplifiers on the frequency shift may also be canceled out. In this paper, we give a detailed analysis of the frequency shift in dispersion managed systems, and explain the reduction mechanism of the shift. We then propose optimal dispersion management schemes by means of minimizing the frequency shift. We also present a statistical analysis of the collision induced timing jitter for a two-channel WDM system     

Immunostimulatory effects of water extract from bulbus arteriosus in tuna in vitro

Immunostimulating effects of water extract from bulbus arteriosus in tuna were examined and found to enhance IgM production by human hybridoma HB4C5 cells. When tuna bulbus arteriosus extract was heated, the IgM production-stimulating activity was decreased or lost. To identify the active substance, the extract was partially purified by anion-exchange chromatography, and proteins contained in positive fractions were analyzed by LC-MS/MS. The positive fractions contained lactate dehydrogenase, triosephosphate isomerase, enolase, and haemoglobin. Each of these four proteins was verified to enhance IgM production by HB4C5 cells with the commercially available purified proteins, suggesting that all of these four proteins are active substances in the extract. The immunostimulatory effect of these proteins was also examined on mouse primary spleen lymphocytes in vitro. Lactate dehydrogenase enhanced IgA, IgG, and IgM production and triosephosphate isomerase enhanced IgA and IgG production. In particular, lactate dehydrogenase had the strongest Ig production-stimulating effect on HB4C5 cells and on mouse primary lymphocytes. Thus, fish viscera may serve as an important raw material for the enhancement of the acquired immune system, once processed.     

Optimisation of two-stage Raman converter based on phosphosilicatecore fibre: modelling and experiment

Parameter optimisation of a two-stage Raman converter based on phosphosilicate-core fibre is presented. The optimal operational regime is determined and its tolerance against variations of laser parameters is examined. Results of numerical modelling are in a good agreement with experimental data     

Optimal Total Planning for Incinerator Plants in an Urban Area

This paper proposes optimal total planning for incinerator plants (IPs) in a typical urban area, which includes a method of determining the number of plants and the capacities of the IPs. Burnable municipal refuse is disposed of sanitarily by high‐temperature incineration at the IPs. At the same time, power generation from waste (PGW) is being performed at many IPs to recover energy. At present, the amount of energy generated by PGW is greater than that of wind power or photovoltaic power generation. However, PGW has a limited generation efficiency and low generation output due to the smaller capacity of IPs. To overcome the above weakness, highly efficient PGW is necessary with total integration and scaling up of IPs. Regarding total integration and scaling up, operation in larger areas is favorable from the point of view of refuse volume and collection. In the planning stage, both the cost of IPs and refuse collection, which is important for refuse disposal, should be taken into account comprehensively. Optimal total planing for IPs can be performed in two stages. First, the disposal capacity G_k of an IP versus the number of plants K is decided by constraints. G_k is about the same for all K because of maintenance and refuse collection, and is greater than 300 tons per day in steps of 100 tons per day. G_k should be decided not only by refuse volume but also by cessation of operation at plants due to maintenance or faults. Second, the cost of each value of K is calculated based on the construction and operating costs of the IPs, income from selling the energy of PGW, and refuse collection costs. Therefore, the value of K with the minimum cost is selected as the optimal number of IPs. A numerical simulation of an area with a population of 3 million indicates that the optimal plant number is 4. At present there are eight or nine IPs in cities of 3 million people. The above cost reduction effect will be about 15% from the present value. Considering the situation of aging IPs, a decreasing trend in refuse volume, and the stringent financial conditions of local governments, the proposed method is very effective and realistic.     

Inhibitory effect of chlorophyll c2 from brown algae,Sargassum horneri,on degranulation of RBL-2H3 cells

The anti-allergic effect of alcohol extracts from edible seaweeds was evaluated by the degranulation of a rat basophilic leukemia cell line (RBL-2H3). Extracts prepared from the brown algae Sargassum horneri, Ecklonia cava and Ecklonia kurome, inhibited the degranulation of RBL-2H3 cells, whereas those from green algae and red algae did not. The active substance in S. horneri was purified and identified as chlorophyll c2, a major pigment in brown algae. The purified chlorophyll c2 preparation also suppressed the degranulation of RBL-2H3 cells. In contrast, chlorophyll a and b did not affect cell degranulation. Therefore, chlorophyll c2 from brown algae might be useful for the prevention or mitigation of allergic symptoms.