Incidence of apoptotic bodies in membrana granulosa of the patients participating in an in vitro fertilization program

Vagal primary afferent neurons have their cell bodies located in the nodose (inferior) and jugular (superior) vagal ganglia and send terminals into the nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS) which lies in the dorsomedial medulla. The presence of glutamate (Glu)-containing neurons in the rat nodose ganglion was investigated using immunohistochemistry. Glu-immunoreactivity on nodose sections was found in neuronal perikarya and nerve fibers, but not in non-neuronal elements such as Schwann cells and satellite cells. Both immunoreactive and non-immunoreactive ganglion cells were observed. The immunoreactive ganglion cells amounted to about 60% of the nodose population. No specific intraganglionic localization was observed for the non-immunoreactive cells. Immunoreactive perikarya were slightly smaller than the non-immunoreactive ones, but no relationship was found between size and staining intensities of immunoreactive neurons. The present data indicate that immunodetectable Glu is present in a large population of vagal afferent neurons. They therefore add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that Glu may be the main neurotransmitter released by vagal afferent terminals within the nucleus tractus solitarii.     

Some thoughts about the hydrogen civilization and the culture development

Civilization is defined as an aggregate achievement of inventions for realizing lofty human ideas, and culture is defined as the intellectual side. The realization of human ideas is the sustainable development (SD), and one of these pillars is the energy system. The main current of the human energy carriers has made the transition from coal to petroleum, and from petroleum to natural gas. This trend means the transition from the fuels with a larger ratio of carbon to those with a larger ratio of hydrogen. Ultimately, the main energy current will be converged to hydrogen. The hydrogen civilization is about to emerge today. The centripetal force acting upon every fuel toward hydrogen has an intellectual analogy to Brownian motion, which is one of the main topics of the concerned complexity science. Moreover, Ashby's requisite variety law indicates that the civilization must wear the cloth of the culture in order to build up the endlessly sustainable civilization.     

Structural,Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Thin Metal Films and Adsorbate–Substrate Systems Studied by XAFS and XMCD

Thin metal films often exhibit interesting properties that are essentially different from the bulk ones. XAFS (X-ray absorption fine structure) and XMCD (X-ray magnetic circular dichroism) techniques are quite suitable to investigate structural, thermal and magnetic properties of thin metal films. In this proceeding, we will present following two topics concerning structural and magnetic properties of adsorbates on thin metal films. The first one is the adsorption geometry of SO₂ on a 1-monolayer (ML) Pd thin film grown on a Ni(111) single crystal. It was found by S K-edge XAFS that SO₂ is lying flat on 1-ML Pd/Ni(111). This result is not similar to the bulk Pd surface but to the bulk Ni one. This finding indicates significant modification of the electronic structure of the 1-ML Pd film compared to the bulk one. The second topic is the magnetic moment induced on CO adsorbed on Ni epitaxial films grown on Cu(001). The O K-edge XMCD results revealed that in the perpendicularly magnetized 10-ML Ni film the orbital moment of CO is parallel to the substrate Ni magnetization, while it is antiparallel in the in-planar magnetized 6-ML and thick (>100 ML) films. The origin of the induced orbital moment at CO is discussed.     

Core loss in amorphous cut cores with air gaps

The effects of air gaps on the high-frequency core loss in cut cores made of amorphous ribbons are discussed and methods to reduce the core loss in them are proposed. It has been found that the high-frequency core loss in amorphous cut cores with air gaps increases strikingly with increasing air-gap length. The increase in the core loss due to air gaps is remarkable in high-frequency and low-induction range. Measurement of leakage magnetic flux as well as analysis of the flux distribution and the eddy current in an amorphous core with the finite-element method suggests that the increase in the core loss due to air gaps observed in the amorphous cores can be attributed to the in-plane eddy current loss generated by the leakage flux perpendicular to ribbon surfaces. Suppression of the leakage flux normal to ribbon surfaces by using semicircular cores and reduction in width of ribbons of which cores are made decreases the high-frequency core loss in amorphous cut cores with air gaps     

Protease immobilization onto porous chitosan beads

Water-insoluble proteases were prepared by immobilizing papain, ficin, and bromelain onto the surface of porous chitosan beads with any length of spacer by covalently fixation. The activity of the immobilized proteases was found to be still high toward small ester substrate, N-benzyl-L -arginine ethyl ester (BAEE), but rather low toward casein, a high-molecular-weight substrate. The relative activity of the immobilized proteases with spacer gave an almost constant value for the substrate hydrolysis within the surface concentration region studied. The values of the Michaelis constant K_m and the maximum reaction velocity V_m for free and immobilized proteases on the porous chitosan beads are estimated. The apparent K_m values were larger for immobilized proteases than for the free ones, while V_m values were smaller for the immobilized proteases. The pH, thermal, and storage stability of the immobilized proteases were higher than those of the free ones. The initial enzymatic activity of the immobilized protease maintained almost unchanged without any elimination and inactivation of proteases, when the batch enzyme reaction was performed repeatedly, indicating the excellent durability.