Adiponectin and adiponectin receptors (AdipoRs) have been found to play significant roles in the etiology of obesity-related chronic disease. Their discovery has been a long and complicated path, ...with many challenges. Developing methods to unravel the molecular secrets has been an informative process in itself. However, with both functional and genetic studies confirming adiponectin as a therapeutic target adipokine, many roles and interactions with certain other biomolecules have been clearly defined. We have found that decreased high molecular weight (HMW) adiponectin plays a crucial and causal role in obesity-linked insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome; that AdipoR1 and AdipoR2 serve as the major AdipoRs in vivo; and that AdipoR1 activates the AMP kinase (AMPK) pathway and AdipoR2, the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα) pathway in the liver, to increase insulin sensitivity and decrease inflammation. Further conclusions are that decreased adiponectin action and increased monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) form a vicious adipokine network causing obesity-linked insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome; PPARγ upregulates HMW adiponectin and PPARα upregulates AdipoRs; that dietary osmotin can serve as a naturally occurring adiponectin receptor agonist; and finally, that under starvation conditions, MMW adiponectin activates AMPK in hypothalamus, and promotes food intake, and at the same time HMW adiponectin activates AMPK in peripheral tissues, such as skeletal muscle, and stimulates fatty-acids combustion. Importantly, under pathophysiological conditions, such as obesity and diabetes, only HMW adiponectin was decreased; therefore, strategies to increase only HMW adiponectin may be a logical approach to provide a novel treatment modality for obesity-linked diseases, such as insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. It is hoped that these data will be helpful in developing treatments to counteract the destructive, expensive and painful effects of obesity.
Background
Patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection have a risk of reactivation after chemotherapy. All patients undergoing chemotherapy should be screened for HBV infection. No large-scale ...studies have been conducted to examine HBV screening practice in Japan.
Methods
We analyzed health insurance claims equivalent data linked with a nationwide hospital-based cancer registry. Patients diagnosed with cancer in 2014, who were aged 20 years and older and those who underwent systemic anticancer treatment in 2014–15 were included. We assessed the HBV screening rates by the HBsAg or anti-HBc tests, HBV-DNA tests, and entecavir prescriptions. Multiple logistic regression models were used to identify factors related to the receipt of screening.
Results
Of 177,597 patients (mean SD age, 65.6 12.2 years), 82.6% and 12.9% patients had a solid tumor and hematologic malignancy, respectively. Among them, 88.1%, 6.3%, and 5.5% received cytotoxic chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and anti-CD20 antibodies, respectively. Overall, 70.6% of patients were screened. The positive predictor of HBV screening was receiving anti-CD20 antibodies odds ratio (OR); 2.23, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.06–2.41,
p
< 0.001 and negative predictors were age ≥ 85 (OR 0.76, 95% CI 0.71–0.81), age 75–84 (OR 0.77, 95% CI 0.75–0.79) and targeted therapy (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.67–0.72). Among the screened patients, 13.2% were tested for HBV-DNA, and 1.49% were prescribed entecavir.
Conclusions
The HBV screening rate in Japan is higher than in other countries. Further improvement of the HBV screening rate is needed to prevent reactivation and avoidable deaths of patients with HBV infection.
Background
Decreases in cardiorespiratory fitness among breast cancer patients have often been reported in previous studies, affecting patients’ health and survival. Peak oxygen uptake (
V
˙
O
2peak
...) is the gold standard for assessing cardiorespiratory fitness and is inversely correlated with cardiovascular disease among women with breast cancer. Some previous studies have reported that aerobic exercise and proper diet positively influence
V
˙
O
2peak
. However, almost all studies have been conducted in the Western countries, and few studies are investigating on Asian women who have lower BMI compared with Western ones.
Purpose
Investigating the effects of a combined exercise and diet program among Japanese cancer patients undergoing therapy on
V
˙
O
2peak
.
Methods
Thirty-two Japanese women with breast cancer undergoing endocrine therapy (age; 50 ± 6 years, body weight; 59 ± 10 kg) were voluntarily assigned to either intervention group (
n
= 21) or control group (
n
= 11). The intervention group completed a 12-week combined exercise plus diet program, consisting of weekly aerobic exercise and maintaining a nutritionally well-balanced 1200 kcal/day diet. The control group was instructed to continue with their usual activities. Anthropometric indices and
V
˙
O
2peak
were measured at baseline and after the 12-week program.
Results
All 21 women completed the 12-week program. The
V
˙
O
2peak
significantly increased from 26.7 to 30.4 mL/kg/min (1.57–1.62 L/min) in the intervention group, while it remained unchanged (26.9–26.9 mL/kg/min) in the control group. Mean reduction of body mass index was − 2.1 in the intervention group (
P
< .001) and + 0.1 in the control group.
Conclusions
Our combined exercise plus diet program may contribute to improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness and body weight compared with control group.
Hybrids can express traits plastically, enabling them to occupy environments that differ from parental environments. However, there is insufficient evidence demonstrating how phenotypic plasticity in ...specific traits mediates hybrid performance. Two parental ecotypes of Imperata cylindrica produce F1 hybrids. The E‐type in wet habitats has larger internal aerenchyma than the C‐type in dry habitats. This study evaluated relationships between habitat utilisation, aerenchyma plasticity, and growth of I. cylindrica accessions. We hypothesize that plasticity in expressing parental traits explains hybrid establishment in habitats with various soil moisture conditions.
Aerenchyma formation was examined in the leaf midribs, rhizomes and roots of two parental ecotypes and their F1 hybrids in their natural habitats. In common garden experiments, we examined plastic aerenchyma formation in leaf midribs, rhizomes and roots of natural and artificial F1 hybrids and parental ecotypes and quantified vegetative growth performance.
In the natural habitats where soil moisture content varied widely, the F1 hybrids showed larger variation in aerenchyma formation in rhizomes than their parental ecotypes. In the common garden experiments, F1 hybrids showed high plasticity of aerenchyma formation in rhizomes, and their growth was similar to that of C‐type and E‐type under drained and flooded conditions, respectively.
The results demonstrate that F1 hybrids of I. cylindrica exhibit plasticity in aerenchyma development in response to varying local soil moisture content. This characteristic allows the hybrids to thrive in diverse soil moisture conditions.
Hybrids show a greater plasticity of aerenchyma formation than their parents, which allows them to adjust to a wide range of soil moisture levels, highlighting the importance of phenotypic plasticity.
•A heat pump using a Knudsen compressor is designed and demonstrated.•This heat pump is driven by thermal energy, and it is free from moving parts.•Experiments confirm heat transport with an output ...power of 3.09 W.•The output power tends to increase linearly as the temperature difference decreases.•The thermal efficiency of the proposed heat pump is analyzed.
A heat pump with low power consumption and a simple mechanical configuration is required to save energy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. We show the design and demonstration of a novel heat pump using a Knudsen compressor, referring this device as a Knudsen heat pump. Water is employed as a refrigerant. The motionless nature of the Knudsen heat pump is accomplished by using a Knudsen compressor to transport the refrigerant vapor from the evaporator to the condenser, and thermal energy alone supplies the needed power. We employ a simple single-stage Knudsen compressor powered by light from a halogen lamp as an energy source. Experiments confirmed heat transport from the evaporator to the condenser with an output power of 3.09 W. The output power tended to increase linearly as the temperature difference between the evaporator and condenser decreased. The pressure-enthalpy diagram of the proposed Knudsen heat pump cycle was shown, and the thermal efficiency of this heat pump was analyzed. The application of a multi-stage Knudsen compressor to improve the heat pump performance was also discussed. This heat pump is free from noise, vibration, and maintenance, and it can utilize low-quality energy, such as a solar energy, and it does not require any electrical input. These properties make the Knudsen heat pump a particularly significant technology in harsh environments such as space and desert.
High-dose methotrexate (Hd-MTX) therapy has recently been applied to the treatment of adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) based on pediatric protocols; however, its effectiveness for adult ALL ...has not yet been confirmed in a rigorous manner. We herein conducted a randomized phase III trial comparing Hd-MTX therapy with intermediate-dose (Id)-MTX therapy. This study was registered at UMIN-CTR (ID: C000000063). Philadelphia chromosome (Ph)-negative ALL patients aged between 25 and 64 years of age were enrolled. Patients who achieved complete remission (CR) were randomly assigned to receive therapy containing Hd-MTX (3 g/m
) or Id-MTX (0.5 g/m
). A total of 360 patients were enrolled. The CR rate was 86%. A total of 115 and 114 patients were assigned to the Hd-MTX and Id-MTX groups, respectively. The estimated 5-year disease-free survival rate of the Hd-MTX group was 58%, which was significantly better than that of the Id-MTX group at 32% (P=0.0218). The frequencies of severe adverse events were not significantly different. We herein demonstrated the effectiveness and safety of Hd-MTX therapy for adult Ph-negative ALL. Our results provide a strong rationale for protocols containing Hd-MTX therapy being applied to the treatment of adult ALL.
•A novel heat pump system using a multi-stage Knudsen compressor (KC) is proposed.•The heat pump is driven by thermal energy, and it is suitable for heat recovery.•A 1D model to predict the ...performance of the heat pump is developed.•Number of stages and area of KC to achieve a practical performance are evaluated.
A novel heat pump system is proposed using a multi-stage Knudsen compressor in the cycle between the evaporator and condenser. The proposed Knudsen heat pump is driven by thermal energy, and it is able to utilize waste heat. There are no moving parts in a Knudsen compressor, leading to several advantages, including a lack of vibration and noise, and high durability. In this study, the configuration necessary to achieve a performance such that it can be used as a practical heat pump (output power ≥1 kW, temperature difference ≥6 K) is considered. The performance of this heat pump is predicted by a one-dimensional analytical model coupled with a simple experimental result. This method is based on our previously constructed method to predict the performance of a multi-stage Knudsen compressor, and the evaporation and condensation and the time variations of temperature in the evaporator and condenser are newly considered. A heat pump with a 30-stage Knudsen compressor using glass-fiber filters with an area of 4.00 m2 is predicted to generate an output power of 1.27 kW and a temperature difference of 6.00 K.
In adult hippocampus, neural progenitor cells give rise to neurons throughout life, and the neurogenesis is modulated by various intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Recent reports showed that lesion of ...septal cholinergic nuclei projecting to hippocampus suppressed the survival of newborn cells in the dentate gyrus (DG) of hippocampus. Here, we studied whether pharmacological treatment to activate or inhibit the cholinergic system could modulate adult hippocampal neurogenesis. 5′-Bromo-2′-deoxyuridine (BrdU) was injected to label dividing cells before the drug treatment. Immunohistochemical analysis was performed in normal rats chronically treated with an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor donepezil or a muscarinic acetylcholine receptor blocker scopolamine for four weeks. Donepezil increased, but scopolamine decreased, the number of BrdU-positive cells in the DG as compared with the control. Neither drug altered the percentage of BrdU-positive cells that were also positive for a neuronal marker neuronal nuclei, nor net population of proliferative cells labeled with proliferating cell nuclear antigen. We also found that donepezil enhanced, and scopolamine suppressed, the expression level of phosphorylated cAMP response element binding protein (CREB), which is related to cell survival, in the DG. These results indicate that donepezil enhances and scopolamine suppresses the survival of newborn cells in the DG via CREB signaling without affecting neural progenitor cell proliferation and the neuronal differentiation. This is the first evidence that pharmacological manipulation of the cholinergic system can modulate adult hippocampal neurogenesis.
Abstract
Reinforced concrete structures in a salt-damaged environment are deteriorated by salt damage due to the influence of salt. As a repair measure, repair materials with salt adsorption ...performance and rebar rust prevention performance are used for inorganic materials. However, products with these added to organic materials are used for various purposes, which are used for various applications as repair materials. Unfortunately, there are few examples of its use becoming possible expected that measures against salt damage will be taken in various applications which have developed a “salt-adsorbing epoxy resin repair material” in which a salt-adsorbing agent is added to epoxy resin, which is an organic material. In addition, this research presented the salt adsorption effect and the corrosion inhibition effect on steel bars applied to each repair application.
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