Abnormal metabolism of polyunsaturated fatty acids and phospholipids in diabetic glomeruli

Studies were done on changes in phospholipid content and fatty acid composition of phospholipids and on the role of the acylation pathway in synthesis of phospholipids in the development of abnormal fatty acid composition in the glomeruli of rats 2 and 10 mo after induction of diabetes with streptozotocin. The proportions of individual phospholipids in the glomeruli of rats were not changed 2 mo after induction of diabetes, but the proportion of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) decreased and that of sphingomyelin increased 10 mo after induction of diabetes. In contrast, in liver the proportion of PE was increased and that of phosphatidylcholine was decreased. These results showed that changes of individual phospholipids in glomeruli were time-dependent and tissue-specific. Two mo after induction of diabetes, the main change in the phospholipid fatty acid composition of diabetic glomeruli was a decrease in arachidonic acid (AA); the main change in serum free fatty acids (FFA) was an increase in linoleic acid (LA) and a decrease in AA. Ten mo after induction of diabetes, the main changes in the phospholipid fatty acid composition of glomeruli were an increase in LA and a decrease in AA; the main change of the serum FFA composition was a decrease in AA. Thus, the fatty acid composition of glomerular phospholipids was not directly correlated to that of the serum in diabetic rats. Acyl-CoA synthetase and acyltransferase activities increased in diabetic glomeruli with either AA or LA as substrate, but activity toward LA increased more at 2 mo after induction of diabetes. Acyl-CoA synthetase activity increased in diabetic glomeruli with LA as substrate, but that did not change with AA as substrate at 10 mo after induction of diabetes. Furthermore, acyltransferase activity decreased in diabetic glomeruli with AA as substrate, although that did not change with LA as substrate at 10 mo after induction of diabetes.     

Spatial distribution of silica fillers in phase-separated rubber blends investigated by three-dimensional elemental mapping

The distribution of nano-sized silica in binary rubber blends is characterized by scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) tomography combined with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX). 3D distribution of silica is visualized by STEM-EDX tomography with the tilt-series of silicon elemental maps, while the phase-separated morphologies of polyisoprene rubber (IR) and styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) are visualized by STEM-tomography in high-angle-annular-dark field (HAADF) mode. The combination of STEM-EDX and STEM-HAADF tomography enables us to determine the distribution of silica between the two rubber phases quantitatively even with high contents of silica up to 70 phr (weight parts per hundred rubber). It is found that silica is preferentially distributed in the SBR phase, but it is also distributed in the IR phase when the IR fraction in the total rubber components is higher than 40 wt%. The preferential distribution of silica in the SBR phase improves the dispersion of the IR domains. This is the first use of this technique for a multicomponent polymer system, showing the advantage to characterize the complicated multicomponent polymer composite morphologies.     

Revolving Vernier Mechanism Controls Size of Linear Homomultimer

A new kind of the Vernier mechanism that is able to control the size of linear assembly of DNA origami nanostructures is proposed. The mechanism is realized by mechanical design of DNA origami, which consists of a hollow cylinder and a rotatable shaft in it connected through the same scaffold. This nanostructure stacks with each other by the shape complementarity at its top and bottom surfaces of the cylinder, while the number of stacking is limited by twisting angle of the shaft. Experiments have shown that the size distribution of multimeric assembly of the origami depends on the twisting angle of the shaft; the average lengths of the multimer are decamer, hexamer, and tetramer for 0°, 10°, and 20° twist, respectively. In summary, it is possible to affect the number of polymerization by adjusting the precise shape and movability of a molecular structure.     

Power savings and enhancement of gray‐scale capability of LCD TVs with an adaptive dimming technique

Abstract— The luminance of a backlight unit for an LCD TV is adaptively and locally dimmed along with the input video signal in order to reduce the power consumption and also to improve the picture quality. By adopting the zero‐dimensional (0D), 1D, and 2D adaptive dimming techniques, a sample movie having 8.0% post‐gamma average picture levels (APL) could be displayed using 83%, 71%, and 50% of the original backlight power, respectively. For an adoption of the 2D dimming, an LED backlight is preferable. The adaptive‐dimming technique also allows the differential aging characteristics between the LED components and temperature dependence of color and luminance to be overcome. From simulations of a reduction in power consumption, it was found that 40 × 40 pixels is a unit of the local dimming, 30 frames for the sampling period, 24 dimming steps, and an equal‐signal‐step method for determining the dimming factor have been found to be appropriate. The gray‐scale capability of low‐luminance images can also be improved by dimming the backlight luminance and expanding the input signal. By using an LCD TV having an 8‐bit capability, an 11‐bit‐equivalent gray‐scale expression was experimentally proven.     

Detection of light-absorbing iron oxide particles using a modified single-particle soot photometer

Copyright © 2016 American Association for Aerosol Research     

Investigation of radiation-induced surface activation effect in austenitic stainless steel under ultraviolet and γ-ray irradiations

The radiation-induced surface activation (RISA) effect will be applied to the core design in supercritical light water reactor (SCWR) in order to achieve a high performance with excellent economy and safety. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the RISA effect in the candidate fuel cladding materials in SCWR such as PNC1520. The change of weldability due to RISA effect and the related microstructure analysis were performed in oxidized PNC1520 and 304 stainless steel with various oxidization periods. The phases contained in the surface oxide layer of the present specimen were identified as Fe₂CrO₄, γ-Fe₂O₃, and Fe₂O₃. The lifetime of 13.8 days for wettability improving factor was confirmed in the ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. Meanwhile, the long life of 13.8 days and short life of 0.8 days for wettability improving factors were identified in the γ-ray irradiation. Based on the fact that the band gap energies of Fe₂CrO₄, γ-Fe₂O₃, and Fe₂O₃ were, respectively, 2.1, 2.0, and 2.2 eV, and the photo energies of UV and γ-ray irradiation were 4.48 eV and 13.3 MeV, it is therefore clarified that the hydrophilization on the oxide layer is ascribed to the RISA effect.     

Synergistic effect of Pt or Pd and perovskite oxide for water gas shift reaction

The water gas shift (WGS) reaction over Pt and Pd catalysts supported on various perovskite oxides has been investigated at 573 K without catalyst pretreatment. The Pt and Pd catalysts on LaCoO₃ support showed high catalytic activity. Interaction between Pt or Pd and the support is considered to promote the WGS reaction: Pt/LaCoO₃ had high initial activity but deactivated immediately; Pd/LaCoO₃ was less active than Pt/LaCoO₃, but had superior stability. Catalysts were characterized using XRD, STEM, XPS, and H₂-temperature programmed reduction (TPR). Results of this study showed that reduction of the support decreased the CO conversion on Pt/LaCoO₃. On the other hand, Pd/LaCoO₃ showed stable activity for the WGS reaction. Therefore, Pd was added to Pt/LaCoO₃ for stabilizing the catalyst activity, and 0.5 wt.% Pd/1 wt.% Pt/LaCoO₃ catalyst showed higher activity and stability.     

Milk-alkali syndrome complicated by acute renal insufficiency]

A case of the "Burnett" syndrome complicated by acute renal insufficiency is reported. Hemodialysis and normalization of the diet helped in the end to eliminate both the milk-alkali syndrome and renal insufficiency.     

Shape space estimation by higher-rank of SOM

The aim of this study is to develop an estimation method for a shape space. In this work, “shape space” means a nonlinear subspace formed by a class of visual shapes, in which the continuous change in shapes is naturally represented. By using the shape space, various operations dealing with shapes, such as identification, classification, recognition, and interpolation can be carried out in the shape space. This paper introduces an algorithm based on a generative model of shapes. A higher-rank of the self-organizing map (SOM²) is used to implement the shape space estimation method. We use this method to estimate the shape space of artificial contours. In addition, we present results from a simulation of omnidirectional camera images taken from mobile robots. Our technique accurately predicts changes in image properties as the robot’s attitude changes. Finally, we consider the addition of local features to our method. We show that the inclusion of local features solves the correspondence problem. These results suggest the potential of our technique in the future.