Rising movements from bed comprise an important aspect of recovery from the bedridden state; however, they have not been sufficiently investigated using motion analysis studies. In particular, the ...effect of using the upper limb of the non-rising side before waist flexion on rising movements remains to be analyzed; this study aimed to clarify this effect. Accordingly, motion analyses were performed on rising movements under two constraint conditions, namely raising the upper limb of the non-rising side (upper limb use-condition) and keeping it in contact with the pelvis (upper limb non-use-condition); subsequently, the kinematics and kinematics parameters were compared. In comparison with the upper limb use-condition, in the upper limb non-use-condition, the distance traveled by the center of mass of the body (CoM trajectory, p < 0.01) increased while switching from the half-side-lying to on-hand postures, horizontal body movement (movement speed (Normalized time/total time), p < 0.01 and weight of center of body mass (CoM momentum in horizontal plane), p < 0.05) during the same period increased, and the half-side-lying time approached the peak value of the waist flexion angular velocity (Time lag between from half-side-lying to waist angler peak velocity, p < 0.05). The compensatory movement that occurred due to the upper limb non-use-condition denoted an increase in body momentum in the horizontal direction, rather than in the sagittal plane. Therefore, the upper limb on the non-rising side contributed to the smooth movement of the body in the horizontal direction. Moreover, this study demonstrated that asymmetrical rising movement in the diagonal direction is a characteristic movement wherein the horizontal movement of the body constitutes the main movement.
XL-Calibur is a hard X-ray (15-80 keV) polarimetry mission operating from a stabilised balloon-borne platform in the stratosphere. It builds on heritage from the X-Calibur mission, which observed the ...accreting neutron star GX 301 - 2 from Antarctica, between December 29th 2018 and January 1st 2019. The XL-Calibur design incorporates an X-ray mirror, which focusses X-rays onto a polarimeter comprising a beryllium rod surrounded by Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) detectors. The polarimeter is housed in an anticoincidence shield to mitigate background from particles present in the stratosphere. The mirror and polarimeter-shield assembly are mounted at opposite ends of a 12 m long lightweight truss, which is pointed with arcsecond precision by WASP – the Wallops Arc Second Pointer. The XL-Calibur mission will achieve a substantially improved sensitivity over X-Calibur by using a larger effective area X-ray mirror, reducing background through thinner CZT detectors, and improved anticoincidence shielding. When observing a 1 Crab source for tdaydays, the Minimum Detectable Polarisation (at 99% confidence level) is ∼2%·tday−1/2. The energy resolution at 40 keV is ∼5.9 keV. The aim of this paper is to describe the design and performance of the XL-Caliburmission, as well as the foreseen science programme.
Boronic acids are well known for their ability to reversibly interact with the diol groups found in sugars and glycoproteins. However, they are generally indiscriminate in their binding. Herein we ...describe the discovery of a group of heterocyclic boronic acids demonstrating unusually high affinity and selectivity for sialic acids (SAs or
-acetylneuraminic acid), which are sugar residues that are intimately linked with tumor growth and cancer progression. Remarkably, these interactions strengthen under the weakly acidic pH conditions associated with a hypoxic tumoral microenvironment.
competitive binding assays uncovered a significantly higher ability of 5-boronopicolinic acid, one of the derivatives identified in this work as a strong SA-binder, to interact with cell surface SA in comparison to a gold-standard structure, 3-propionamidophenylboronic acid, which has proven to be an efficient SA-binder in numerous reports. This structure also proved to be suitable for further chemical conjugation with a well-preserved SA-binding capability. These findings suggest an attractive alternative to other ongoing boronic acid based chemistry techniques aiming to achieve tumor-specific chemotherapies and diagnoses.
We present results from the first demonstration of a fully integrated SDN-controlled bandwidth-flexible and programmable SDM optical network utilizing sliceable self-homodyne spatial superchannels to ...support dynamic bandwidth and QoT provisioning, infrastructure slicing and isolation. Results show that SDN is a suitable control plane solution for the high-capacity flexible SDM network. It is able to provision end-to-end bandwidth and QoT requests according to user requirements, considering the unique characteristics of the underlying SDM infrastructure.
We investigated limiting factors of carrier lifetimes and their enhancement by post-growth processes in lightly-doped
p
-type 4H-SiC epitaxial layers (
N
A
∼ 2 × 10
14
cm
−3
). We focused on bulk ...recombination, surface recombination, and interface recombination at the epilayer/substrate, respectively. The carrier lifetime of 2.8
μ
s in an as-grown epilayer was improved to 10
μ
s by the combination of V
C
-elimination processes and hydrogen annealing. By employing surface passivation with deposited SiO
2
followed by POCl
3
annealing, a long carrier lifetime of 16
μ
s was obtained in an oxidized epilayer. By investigating carrier lifetimes in a self-standing
p
-type epilayer, it was revealed that the interface recombination at the epilayer/substrate was smaller than the surface recombination on a bare surface. We found that the V
C
-elimination process, hydrogen annealing, and surface passivation are all important for improving carrier lifetimes in lightly-doped
p
-type epilayers.
•The electrolyte flow and the cupric ion concentration fields have been simulated.•We examine how the difference in the circulation ways affects the flow pattern.•The flow pattern in the electrode ...gap is formed mainly by natural convection.•“Side inlet to top outlet” circulation forms vortex flows below the electrodes.
Both electrolyte flow and cupric ion concentration fields have been numerically calculated with the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model in an industrial-scale copper electrorefining cell. In this CFD model, both of the natural convection induced by the electrochemical reactions and the forced convection caused by the electrolyte circulation are taken into account. In order to examine how the difference in the ways of the electrolyte circulation affects the electrolyte flow pattern associated with the concentration field, three different ways of the electrolyte circulation, “bottom inlet to top outlet”, “top inlet to bottom outlet”, and “side inlet to top outlet”, have been modeled.
Calculation results have revealed that both “bottom inlet to top outlet” and “top inlet to bottom outlet” circulations have characteristic flow patterns that are locally formed near the inlet. On the other hand, “side inlet to top outlet” circulation forms the inherent two vortex tubes in the space below the electrodes. It is also found that the electrolyte flow patterns in the inter-electrode spaces are formed mainly by the natural convection, and they are insensitive to kinds of the electrolyte circulation way.
Summary
Osteoporosis and atherosclerosis frequently coexist in patients with pheochromocytoma. The presence of osteoporosis may predict that of atherosclerosis and vice versa in patients with PHEO. ...These findings have implications for the long-term management of the pheochromocytoma and its potential chronic complications.
Introduction
Pheochromocytoma (PHEO), a catecholamine-producing tumor, is often found incidentally, and it may be present for years before it is diagnosed. However, long-term exposure to catecholamines excess may induce chronic complications, such as osteoporosis and atherosclerosis. We aimed to evaluate concomitant osteoporosis and atherosclerosis in patients with PHEO.
Methods
Fifty-one patients with PHEO and 51 patients with a non-functional adrenal tumor were compared radiographically for the prevalence of vertebral fracture (VF), a typical osteoporotic fracture, and abdominal aortic calcification (AAC).
Results
In patients with PHEO, the prevalence of AAC was higher in those with VF (58%) than in those without (6%,
p
< 0.001). AAC was associated with VF after adjusting for age and sex (odds ratio, 1.53; 95% confidence interval, 1.07–2.46;
p =
0.003) in patients with PHEO. The degree of catecholamine excess correlated with the presence of VF and AAC (
p
= 0.007). The prevalence of VF was higher in patients with PHEO (37%) than those with non-functional AT (12%,
p
= 0.005), but the prevalence of AAC was comparable between the two groups (25% and 19%,
p
= 0.636). VF and AAC more frequently coexisted in patients with PHEO (22%) than in those with non-functional AT (2%,
p
= 0.003).
Conclusion
This study represents the first demonstration that osteoporosis and atherosclerosis frequently coexist in patients with PHEO. The presence of osteoporosis may predict that of atherosclerosis and vice versa in patients with PHEO. These findings have implications for the long-term management of the PHEO and its potential chronic complications.
Curcumin and its structurally related compounds (curcuminoids), the phenolic yellowish pigments of turmeric, display antioxidative, anticarcinogenic and hypocholesterolemic activities. In this study, ...we investigated the effects of dietary supplemented curcuminoids commercial grade curcumin: a mixture of curcumin (73.4%), demethoxycurcumin (16.1%) and bisdemethoxycurcumin (10.5%) on lipid metabolism in rats. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were assigned to three diet groups (n = 6) and fed a moderately high-fat diet (15 g soybean oil/100 g diet) for 2 wk. One diet group did not receive supplements (CONT), while the others were supplemented with 0.2 g curcuminoids/100 g diet (CUR0.2) or 1.0 g curcuminoids/100 g diet (CUR1.0). Liver triacylglycerol and cholesterol concentrations were significantly lower in CUR1.0 rats than in CONT rats. Plasma triacylglycerols in the VLDL fraction were also lower in CUR1.0 rats than in CONT rats (P < 0.05). Hepatic acyl-CoA oxidase activity of both the CUR0.2 and CUR1.0 rats was significantly higher than that of CONT rats. Furthermore, epididymal adipose tissue weight was significantly reduced with curcuminoid intake in a dose-dependent manner. These results indicate that dietary curcuminoids have lipid-lowering potency in vivo, probably due to alterations in fatty acid metabolism.
We present the first elastic, space division multiplexing, and multi-granular network based on two 7-core MCF links and four programmable optical nodes able to switch traffic utilising the space, ...frequency and time dimensions with over 6000-fold bandwidth granularity. Results show good end-to-end performance on all channels with power penalties between 0.75 dB and 3.7 dB.
Bone morphogenetic protein-3b (BMP-3b) is a member of the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) superfamily. BMP-3b regulates osteogenesis and has critical roles in developing embryos. BMP-3b is ...expressed not only in the bone and developing embryos but also in adipose tissues. However, the functions of BMP-3b in adipose tissue are still unknown.
BMP-3b expression was quantified in various adipose tissues and in the adipose-derived stromal-vascular fraction (SVF) and mature adipocyte fraction (AD.F) of mice. We also used 3T3-L1 preadipocytes to analyze the expression, function and molecular forms of BMP-3b. In order to determine the effects of BMP-3b on the adipogenesis of 3T3-L1 cells, BMP-3b siRNA-mediated knockdown and gene overexpression studies were performed, and a conditioned medium (CM) containing the BMP-3b protein was added to 3T3-L1 cell cultures. Adipocyte differentiation was evaluated by measuring the expression of adipogenic markers or by Oil Red O staining. The molecular form of BMP-3b that was secreted from the 3T3-L1 cells was analyzed by western blotting.
BMP-3b is expressed in all adipose tissues and is expressed at higher levels in preadipocytes than in mature adipocytes. In mesenteric adipose tissue, BMP-3b expression was increased in diet-induced obesity (DIO) mice as compared with that in control mice. BMP-3b was also expressed highly in 3T3-L1 cells. We showed that siRNA-mediated knockdown of endogenous BMP-3b expression in 3T3-L1 cells enhanced adipogenesis. Conversely, overexpressing BMP-3b inhibited adipocyte differentiation. We also showed that addition of CM containing the BMP-3b protein inhibited the differentiation of 3T3-L1 cells, and that this inhibitory effect was abolished by removing BMP-3b with an anti-BMP-3b antibody. Furthermore, BMP-3b was secreted from adipocytes as a unique non-covalent complex.
These data suggest that BMP-3b is secreted from adipocytes and is involved in adipocyte differentiation.
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