Improvement in skin color achieved by smoking cessation

It has been well known that habitual smoking accelerates premature skin ageing recognized as ‘smoker's face’. However, the effect of smoking cessation on the appearance of skin has not been elucidated. The aim of this study was to evaluate objectively the effect of smoking cessation on the skin's appearance. The stratum corneum carbonyl protein level and skin colour of the cheek and the hand were measured. The change before and during the smoking cessation treatment (0, 2, 4, 8 and 12 weeks), and the success or failure in smoking cessation, was compared and examined. Eighty‐four cases who had smoking cessation treatment were examined. The level of the stratum corneum carbonyl protein did not show any difference comparing before and after treatment for the smoking cessation success group and the failure group. The lightness of skin colour showed an upward tendency 4–12 weeks after starting the treatment in the success group and increased significantly compared with the failure group. The redness showed a significant decrease in comparison with before the treatment, and it also showed a significant decrease compared with the failure group. The yellowness did not show any clear tendency. Also, the haemoglobin showed a decreased tendency. Furthermore, multivariate statistical analysis showed a possibility that the lightness and haemoglobin could be changed by smoking cessation treatment. In conclusion, our study showed that an upward tendency of skin lightness was seen to correspond with a haemoglobin decrease accompanied by smoking cessation. If we can easily measure skin improvement as an effect of smoking cessation, it is thought to be a useful aid for smoking cessation support.     

Low cycle fatigue and ductile fracture for Japanese carbon steel piping under dynamic loadings

Dynamic fracture behavior of circumferentially cracked pipe is important to evaluate the structural integrity of nuclear piping from the viewpoint of the LBB concept under seismic conditions. Fracture tests have been conducted for Japanese carbon steel (STS410) circumferentially through-wall cracked pipes that are subjected to monotonic or cyclic bending loads at room temperature. In the monotonic-loading tests, the maximum load to failure increases slightly with increasing loading rate. The failure cycles can be expressed simply by ratio of the load amplitude to the plastic collapse load. Fracture analysis has been also conducted to model the pipe tests. A new equation for calculating ΔJ for a circumferentially through-wall cracked pipe subjected to bending has been proposed. The failure cycles under cyclic loads are satisfactorily evaluated using an elastic-plastic fracture mechanics parameter ΔJ.     

Right-handed rotation of an actin filament in an in vitro motile system

Muscle contraction occurs by mutual sliding between thick (myosin) and thin (actin) filaments. But the physical and chemical properties of the sliding force are not clear; even the precise direction of sliding force generated at each cross-bridge is not known. We report here the use of a recently developed in vitro motile assay system to show supercoiling of an actin filament in which the front part of the filament was fixed to a glass surface through cross-linked heavy-meromyosin and the rear part was able to slide on a track of heavy-meromyosin. A left-handed single turn of superhelix formed just before supercoiling, suggesting that the sliding force has a right-handed torque component that induces the right-handed rotation of an actin filament around its long axis. The presence of the torque component in the sliding force will explain several properties of the contractile system of muscle.     

On the Attainable Order of Collocation Methods for the Neutral Functional-Differential Equations with Proportional Delays

In this paper, we extend the recent results of H. Brunner in BIT (1997) for the DDE y′(t)= by(qt), y(0)=1 and the DVIE y(t)=1+∫₀ ^t by(qs)ds with proportional delay qt, 0<q≤1, to the neutral functional-differential equation (NFDE): and the delay Volterra integro-differential equation (DVIDE) : with proportional delays p _i t and q _i t, 0<p _i ,q _i ≤1 and complex numbers a,b _i and c _i . We analyze the attainable order of m-stage implicit (collocation-based) Runge-Kutta methods at the first mesh point t=h for the collocation solution v(t) of the NFDE and the `iterated collocation solution u _it (t)' of the DVIDE to the solution y(t), and investigate the existence of the collocation polynomials M _m (t) of v(th) or M^ _m (t) of u _it (th), t∈[0,1] such that the rational approximant v(h) or u _it (h) is the (m,m)-Padé approximant to y(h) and satisfies |v(h)−y(h)|=O(h ^{2 m +1}). If they exist, then we actually give the conditions of M _m (t) and M^ _m (t), respectively. Received September 17, 1998; revised September 30, 1999     

The use of positron emission tomography and [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose for functional imaging of muscular activity during exercise with a stride assistance system.

The aim of this study was to investigate the use of [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose and positron emission tomography (FDG PET) for quantitative evaluation of glucose metabolism in skeletal muscle during walking. Ten young males underwent FDG PET twice during walks, which were done with or without an automated stride assistance system (SAS). Walk ratios were significantly increased by the SAS in seven subjects. Regional glucose metabolism in muscles between the crista iliaca and the planta was clearly visualized in all ten subjects. Glucose utilization increased significantly in the tibialis posterior and medial gastrocnemius muscles of the seven subjects in whom walk ratios were increased by the SAS. FDG PET is useful for analysis of muscle activity during exercise and rehabilitation.