Attenuation of ischemic liver injury by prostaglandin E1 analogue, misoprostol, and prostaglandin I2 analogue, OP-41483

Workplace AIDS training is a recent addition to many corporations' occupational health agenda. However, little is known about the objectives, content, and practices of AIDS training programs. A survey of 126 workplace AIDS trainers was conducted to determine the impact of the trainer's organizational affiliation (in-house, consultant, union, etc.) and personal motives on training program objectives, content, and practices. Results indicate that the organizational affiliation of trainers is significantly related to training objectives, topics, and practices, whereas strong personal motives for becoming an AIDS trainer is significantly associated with an emphasis on more controversial content areas and training practices. Findings are discussed in terms of applicability to other values-oriented training topics, applications to practice, and future research needs.     

An application of the 2-nitrobenzenesulfenyl method to proteomic profiling of human colorectal carcinoma: A novel approach for biomarker discovery

In the development of novel biomarkers, the proteomic approach is advantageous because using it the cancer-associated proteins can be directly identified. We previously developed a 2-nitrobenzenesulfenyl (NBS) method to improve quantitative proteome analysis. Here, we applied this method to proteomic profiling of colorectal carcinoma (CRC) to identify novel proteins with altered expression in CRC. Each pair of tumor and normal tissue specimens from 12 CRC patients was analyzed, and approximately 5000 NBS-labeled paired peaks were quantified. Peaks with altered signal intensities (>1.5-fold) and occurring frequently in the samples (>70%) were selected, and 128 proteins were identified by MS/MS analyses as differentially expressed proteins in CRC tissues. Many proteins were newly revealed to be CRC related; 30 were reported in earlier studies of CRC. Six proteins that were up-regulated in CRC (ZYX, RAN, RCN1, AHCY, LGALS1, and VIM) were further characterized and validated by Western blot and immunohistochemistry. All six were found to be CRC-localized, either in cancer cells or in stroma cells near the cancer cells. These results indicate that the proteins identified in this study are novel candidates for CRC markers, and that the NBS method is useful in proteome mining to discover novel biomarkers.     

Intermittent administration of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) ameliorates glucose metabolism and prevents pancreatic exhaustion in diabetic mice

We previously demonstrated that repetitive administration of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) ameliorates glucose metabolism and energy expenditure in obese diabetic db/db mice. However, we have not evaluated in detail the effect of single or intermittent BDNF administration on glucose metabolism in a diabetic animal model. The objectives of this study were to examine the dose-response effect and dosing interval of BDNF administration in db/db mice and to evaluate the effect of intermittent BDNF administration on pancreatic function in db/db mice. We evaluated the dose-response effect of BDNF by single administration in db/db mice. First, single administration of BDNF greater than 70 mg/kg significantly reduced blood glucose concentration one day after administered, and the BDNF effect was maintained for 6 d. Next, the effects of BDNF administered twice a week at 4, 10, 25, and 62.5 mg/kg on blood glucose concentration, and the effects of BDNF administered once a week at 10, 20, 30, 50, and 70 mg/kg on blood glucose concentration were examined in db/db mice. In the intermittent treatment studies, BDNF dose-dependently ameliorated glucose metabolism by not only the twice-a-week administration but also the once-a-week administration. Lastly, because BDNF reduces the food intake of obese hyperphagic diabetic mice, the effects of BDNF administered once or twice a week on the blood glucose concentration and plasma and pancreatic insulin concentrations in db/db mice were compared with those of the vehicle under pair-fed conditions. Under pair-fed conditions, the intermittent administration of BDNF (25 mg/kg, twice a week, or 50 mg/kg, once a week) significantly reduced the blood glucose concentration and increased the plasma and pancreatic insulin concentrations compared with those in the pair-fed vehicle-treated db/db mice. This indicates that the prolonged hypoglycemic effect of BDNF is not simply due to the reduction of food intake. In conclusion, we demonstrated that the intermittent administration of BDNF ameliorates glucose metabolism and prevents pancreatic exhaustion in obese diabetic mice. These findings indicate that BDNF may have potential as a unique hypoglycemic agent for the treatment of diabetes at a fundamental level with good patient compliance.     

Lit-Sphere extension for artistic rendering

The Lit-Sphere model proposed by Sloan et al. (Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2001, pp. 143–150, 2001) is a method for emulating expressive artistic shading styles for 3D scenes. Assuming that artistic shading styles are described by view space normals, this model produces a variety of stylized shading scenes beyond traditional 3D lighting control. However, it is limited to the static lighting case: the shading effect is only dependent on the camera view. In addition, it cannot support small-scale brush stroke styles. In this paper, we propose a scheme to extend the Lit-Sphere model based on light space normals rather than view space normals. Owing to the light space representation, our shading model addresses the issues of the original Lit-Sphere approach, and allows artists to use a light source to obtain dynamic diffuse and specular shading. Then the shading appearance can be refined using stylization effects including highlight shape control, sub-lighting effects, and brush stroke styles. Our algorithms are easy to implement on GPU, so that our system allows interactive shading design.     

Stability estimation of PFM-type pulsed neural networks

This study aims at development of practical stability estimation method for PFM-type pulsed neural networks. We already derived a graphical analysis method for a single-unit PFM-type neural network. In this paper, we extend this method so that it can deal with stability estimation of networks with multi-unit PFM-type pulsed neurons by using the concept of Generalised Nyquist Stability Criterion. We also illustrate numerical examples that show the extended method is not excessively conservative but still effectively estimates the non-existence of limit cycles.     

Improvement of fracture properties of hydroxyapatite particle filled poly(l-lactide)/poly(ε-caprolactone) biocomposites using lysine tri-isocyanate

Effects of LTI addition on the mode I fracture energy of HA/PLLA/PCL were examined and the micro-structural modification due to LTI addition was investigated. Both the mode I energy release rate, G _in, and averaged fracture energy, E _f, are improved dramatically due to LTI addition. The reason is considered to be the improvements of the interfacial structure connecting HA particles with PLLA/PCL matrix and the miscibility between PLLA and PCL. These changes of blend morphology and interfacial structure reduce the stress concentration and lead to the ductile deformation and resulted in the increase of those fracture properties.