Molecular Targeted Therapy for the Bone Loss Secondary to Pyogenic Spondylodiscitis Using Medications for Osteoporosis: A Literature Review

Pyogenic spondylodiscitis can cause severe osteolytic and destructive lesions in the spine. Elderly or immunocompromised individuals are particularly susceptible to infectious diseases; specifically, infections in the spine can impair the ability of the spine to support the trunk, causing patients to be bedridden, which can also severely affect the physical condition of patients. Although treatments for osteoporosis have been well studied, treatments for bone loss secondary to infection remain to be elucidated because they have pathological manifestations that are similar to but distinct from those of osteoporosis. Recently, we encountered a patient with severely osteolytic pyogenic spondylodiscitis who was treated with romosozumab and exhibited enhanced bone formation. Romosozumab stimulated canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling, causing robust bone formation and the inhibition of bone resorption, which exceeded the bone loss secondary to infection. Bone loss due to infections involves the suppression of osteoblastogenesis by osteoblast apoptosis, which is induced by the nuclear factor-κB and mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways, and osteoclastogenesis with the receptor activator of the nuclear factor-κB ligand-receptor combination and subsequent activation of the nuclear factor of activated T cells cytoplasmic 1 and c-Fos. In this study, we review and discuss the molecular mechanisms of bone loss secondary to infection and analyze the efficacy of the medications for osteoporosis, focusing on romosozumab, teriparatide, denosumab, and bisphosphonates, in treating this pathological condition.     

Phase behavior in liquid crystallization for diblock copolymers consisting of rubbery amorphous and side-chain liquid crystalline components

Phase behavior in liquid crystallization was studied for a series of liquid crystalline (LC) diblock copolymers consisting of rubbery amorphous and side-chain liquid crystalline components, poly(n-butyl acrylate) (PBA) and poly[11-(4′-cyanophenyl-4″-phenoxy)undecyl acrylate] (PLC), respectively, using a time-resolved small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) techniques, DSC and polarized optical microscopy (POM). The block copolymers used had three kinds of copolymer compositions, 44, 20 and 15 wt% of PLC compositions (BLC44, BLC20 and BLC15, respectively). BLC44 showed a smectic liquid crystalline structure. In the process of liquid crystallization for BLC44, the SAXS peak due to the microphase separation structure existing before liquid crystallization was changed continuously to be at a smaller angular side, and at almost the same time, a new peak appeared at a further smaller angular side and developed. The former peak disappeared with the development of liquid crystallization. The behavior of these SAXS peaks suggests that the microphase separation structure was changed discretely at the transition from isotropic to smectic and that two phases coexist in the early stage of the liquid crystallization. The coexistence of two peaks in the early stage of the liquid crystallization corresponded to the POM observation. In the isotropization process, coexistence of two phases was not observed. For BLC20 exhibiting a cylindrical structure in both isotropic and liquid crystalline states, the liquid crystalline structure was not smectic but probably nematic, and the spacing was changed continuously in liquid crystallization. No liquid crystallization was observed in SAXS, POM and DSC for BLC15. The orientation of smectic layers within lamellar domains was investigated using 2D-SAXS images. The smectic layer was aligned perpendicularly to the lamellar interface.     

A 7 ns 1 Mb BiCMOS ECL SRAM with shift redundancy

A 7-Mb BiCMOS ECL (emitter coupled logic) SRAM was fabricated in a 0.8 μm BiCMOS process. An improved buffer with a high-level output of nearly V_CC is adopted to eliminate the DC current in the level converter circuit, and the PMOS transistor has a wide operating margin in the level converter. The configurable bit organization is realized by using a sense-amplifier switch circuit with no access degradation. A wired-OR demultiplexer for the ×1 output, having the same critical path as the ×4 output circuit, allows for the same access time between the two modes. The ×1 or ×4 mode is electrically selected by the external signal. A simplified programming redundancy technology, shift redundancy, is utilized. Address programming is performed by cutting only one fuse in the shift redundancy. The RAM operates at the ECL-10K level with an access time of 7 ns. and the power dissipation at 50 MHz is 600 mW for the × mode     

Premixed flame propagating into a narrow channel at a high speed, part 2: Transient behavior of the properties of the flowing gas inside the channel

The behavior of a premixed flame propagating from a chamber into a narrow channel at a high speed was examined using high speed and instantaneous schlieren photography, ion current measurement with electrostatic probes, and temperature measurement with an optical method. From detailed measurements of flames passing through the channel, flame extinguishment in the channel, no matter whether transient or not, was found to occur due to quenching of the reacting gas by rapid turbulent mixing with cold fresh mixture at the downstream of the contraction region and by heat transfer to the cold channel walls. Extinguishment must occur when these heat losses exceed the heat released by the chemical reaction of the flowing mixture.     

Effect of dietary fatty acid composition on the biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids in rat liver microsomes

A study was made of the influence of semisynthetic diets of low and high unsaturation on the fatty acid composition and desaturation-chain elongation enzymatic activity of the liver microsomal fractions of male Sprague-Dawley rats of different ages. Groups of rats were fed 5 or 20% coconut oil (CO), or a 5 or 20% mixture of corn and menhaden oils (3∶7) (CME) from weaning to 100 wk of age. Growth rate and food consumption were measured during this period in which animals were sacrificed at 36, 57, 77 and 100 wk of age. Both the level and composition of the dietary fat supplements produced marked effects on the fatty acid composition of the liver microsomal lipids. In general, the fatty acid composition of the microsomal fractions reflected that of the dietary fat and was more unsaturated with the higher level of fat fed. The rate of conversion of linoleic to arachidonic acid in assays performed in vitro with liver microsomal preparations from animals of the different groups also showed marked differences. The 6-desaturase-chain elongation activity was higher in the 5% than 20% group and corresponded to the essential fatty acid (EFA) status of the animals in these groups as represented by the triene-tetraene ratio of the microsomal lipid. The relationship of the 6-desaturase activity to fatty acid composition of the microsomal lipid indicated that if varied directly with the level of 20∶3ω9, 18∶1 and 16∶1 and was inhibited by arachidonic acid. The activity of the 6-desaturase enzyme system was lowest in the liver microsomal fraction obtained from the animals fed the CME diets and appeared to be suppressed by the high levels of 20∶5 and 22∶6 that accumulated in the microsomal lipid. Accordingly, the levels of arachidonic acid were lower in the microsomal lipid of these groups than those of the corresponding CO groups in spite of a greater abundance of linoleic acid in the diet. The data suggest that the activity of the 6-desaturase-chain elongation system is regulated by the fatty acid composition of the microsomal lipid as influenced by the composition of the dietary fat.     

Formation of phase structure and crystallization behavior in blends containing polystyrene–polyethylene block copolymers

The microphase separation structure in the molten state and the structure formation in crystallization from such ordered melt were investigated for the blends of polystyrene–polyethylene block copolymers (SE) with polystyrene homopolymer (PS) and polyethylene homopolymer (PE) and for the blends consisting of two kinds of SE with different copolymer compositions from each other, using synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering techniques (SAXS). The copolymer compositions of SE block copolymers employed were 0.34, 0.58 and 0.73 wt. fraction of PE, and their melt morphologies were cylindrical, lamellar and lamellar, respectively. Macrophase separation or the morphology change in the melt occurred depending on the molecular weight and the blend composition, as reported so far. In crystallization from such macrophase-separated and microphase-separated melts, the melt morphology was completely kept for all the blends. Crystallization behavior was also investigated for the blends. The crystallization within the spherical and cylindrical domains surrounded by glassy PS was not observed for SE/PS blends. In the crystallization from the macrophase-separated melt, two exothermal peaks were observed in the DSC measurements, while a single peak was observed for other blends. For the blends with PS, the degree of crystallinity was depressed and the apparent activation energy of crystallization was high, compared to those for the corresponding neat SE. For SE/PE and SE/SE blends, those were changed depending on the blend composition.     

Forming of aluminium alloy at temperatures just below melting point

In order to improve the mechanical properties of products, a forming process of a solid material at a temperature just below the melting point is proposed. The material is deformed at the semi-solid temperature due to the heat generation caused by plastic deformation. The tensile strength, elongation, hardness and toughness of the aluminium alloy (Al–7%Si–0.3%Mg) billet extruded at temperatures between 500 and 550 °C are compared with those of the billet extruded in the hot forming (450 °C) and the semi-solid (560 °C) temperatures. The billet temperature during forming is evaluated by the finite element simulation. The tensile strength and hardness of the billet extruded at 550 °C just below the solidus temperature are higher than those for a billet at 450 °C, and they are almost the same as those for a billet deformed at 560 °C in the semi-solid region. The elongation and toughness of the extruded billet at 550 °C are lower than those for a billet at 450 °C. The forming load at 550 °C is almost half of that at 450 °C. Cracking on the surface of the extruded billet occurs at a high punch speed. The calculated temperature when the solid billet is extruded in the semi-solid state agrees well with the experimental one at which the tensile and hardness are improved.     

What kind of floor am I standing on? Floor surface identification by a small humanoid robot through full-body motions

This study addresses a floor identification method for small humanoid robots that work in such daily environments as homes. The fundamental difficulty lays in a method to understand the physical properties of floors. To achieve floor identification with small humanoid robots, we used inertial sensors that can be easily installed on such robots, and dynamically selected a full-body motion that physically senses floors to achieve accurate floor identification. We collected a training data-set over 10 different kinds of common floors in home environments. We achieved 85.7% precision with our proposed method. We also demonstrate that our robot could appropriately change its locomotion behaviours depending on the floor identification results.     

Sensor Fusion System Using Recurrent Fuzzy Inference

In robotic and manufacturing systems, it is difficult to measure the state of systems accurately because of many uncertain factors and noise, and it is very important to estimate the state of systems. We must measure the phenomena of systems by multiple sensors and estimate the state of systems by acquiring information of sensors. However, we can not acquire all of sensor information synchronically, because each sensor has particular sensor information and measuring time. For estimating the state of systems by multiple sensors, a multi-sensor fusion system fusing various sensory information is needed. In this paper, we propose a Recurrent Fuzzy Inference (RFI) with recurrent inputs and apply it to a multi-sensor fusion system for estimating the state of systems. The membership functions of RFI are expressed by Radial Basis Function (RBF) with insensitive ranges. The shape of the membership functions can be adjusted by a learning algorithm. The learning algorithm is based on the steepest descent method and incremental learning which can add new fuzzy rules. The effectiveness of the multi-sensor fusion system using RFI will be shown through a numerical experiment of moving robot and estimation of surface roughness in grinding process.     

Interaction between zinc dialkyldithiophosphate and amine

This paper reports work on complex formation from ZDP and various aliphatic amines, and their equilibrium states in oil, adsorptivities and antiwear properties are investigated. Complex formation from ZDP and amine was proven by isolation and identification of solid crystals, and various complexes were found from mono- and diamines. The complex from monoamine has lower adsorptivity than free ZDP, while the poorer adsorptivity of ZDP/monoamine complex makes its antiwear property worse.