Indoor environmental study and post occupancy evaluation in an office environment

1. 1. The objective of this paper is to investigate the indoor environment from the viewpoint of interaction between physical environment and the human responses. The field survey has been conducted over 1 year.

2. 2. A continuous measurement has been carried out for 1 week and distribution of variables have been measured for 1 day.

3. 3. The attitude of workers was investigated by a questionnaire.

4. 4. As the result, average luminance represented more than 1000 lx in the new building, in contrast with less tha 300 lx in the existing building.

5. 5. There was a significant difference of the occupants' response to the light environment between the two buildings.

6. 6. Measured thermal conditions are on the edge of the ASHRAE comfort envelope in summer, and in the neighborhood of the lower dry limit of the envelope in spring.

7. 7. The occupants' evaluations were remarkably changed before and after the moving. The office environment is better than that of the factory.

Co-amplification of EBNA-1 and PyLT through dhfr-mediated gene amplification for improving foreign protein production in transient gene expression in CHO cells

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology - Despite the relatively low transfection efficiency and low specific foreign protein productivity (qp) of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell-based transient...     

n-Dodecyl β-D-maltoside specifically competes with general anesthetics for anesthetic binding sites

We recently demonstrated that the anionic detergent sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) specifically interacts with the anesthetic binding site in horse spleen apoferritin, a soluble protein which models anesthetic binding sites in receptors. This raises the possibility of other detergents similarly interacting with and occluding such sites from anesthetics, thereby preventing the proper identification of novel anesthetic binding sites. n-Dodecyl β-D-maltoside (DDM) is a non-ionic detergent commonly used during protein-anesthetic studies because of its mild and non-denaturing properties. In this study, we demonstrate that SDS and DDM occupy anesthetic binding sites in the model proteins human serum albumin (HSA) and horse spleen apoferritin and thereby inhibit the binding of the general anesthetics propofol and isoflurane. DDM specifically interacts with HSA (K_d?=?40?μM) with a lower affinity than SDS (K_d?=?2?μM). DDM exerts all these effects while not perturbing the native structures of either model protein. Computational calculations corroborated the experimental results by demonstrating that the binding sites for DDM and both anesthetics on the model proteins overlapped. Collectively, our results indicate that DDM and SDS specifically interact with anesthetic binding sites and may thus prevent the identification of novel anesthetic sites. Special precaution should be taken when undertaking and interpreting results from protein-anesthetic investigations utilizing detergents like SDS and DDM.     

Emotional States Modulate the Recognition Potential during Word Processing

This study examined emotional modulation of word processing, showing that the recognition potential (RP), an ERP index of word recognition, could be modulated by different emotional states. In the experiment, participants were instructed to compete with pseudo-competitors, and via manipulation of the outcome of this competition, they were situated in neutral, highly positive, slightly positive, highly negative or slightly negative emotional states. They were subsequently asked to judge whether the referent of a word following a series of meaningless character segmentations was an animal or not. The emotional induction task and the word recognition task were alternated. Results showed that 1) compared with the neutral emotion condition, the peak latency of the RP under different emotional states was earlier and its mean amplitude was smaller, 2) there was no significant difference between RPs elicited under positive and negative emotional states in either the mean amplitude or latency, and 3) the RP was not affected by different degrees of positive emotional states. However, compared to slightly negative emotional states, the mean amplitude of the RP was smaller and its latency was shorter in highly negative emotional states over the left hemisphere but not over the right hemisphere. The results suggest that emotional states influence word processing.     

Effects of Cortisol and Dexamethasone on Insulin Signalling Pathways in Skeletal Muscle of the Ovine Fetus during Late Gestation

Before birth, glucocorticoids retard growth, although the extent to which this is mediated by changes in insulin signalling pathways in the skeletal muscle of the fetus is unknown. The current study determined the effects of endogenous and synthetic glucocorticoid exposure on insulin signalling proteins in skeletal muscle of fetal sheep during late gestation. Experimental manipulation of fetal plasma glucocorticoid concentration was achieved by fetal cortisol infusion and maternal dexamethasone treatment. Cortisol infusion significantly increased muscle protein levels of Akt2 and phosphorylated Akt at Ser473, and decreased protein levels of phosphorylated forms of mTOR at Ser2448 and S6K at Thr389. Muscle GLUT4 protein expression was significantly higher in fetuses whose mothers were treated with dexamethasone compared to those treated with saline. There were no significant effects of glucocorticoid exposure on muscle protein abundance of IR-β, IGF-1R, PKCζ, Akt1, calpastatin or muscle glycogen content. The present study demonstrated that components of the insulin signalling pathway in skeletal muscle of the ovine fetus are influenced differentially by naturally occurring and synthetic glucocorticoids. These findings may provide a mechanism by which elevated concentrations of endogenous glucocorticoids retard fetal growth.     

A simple process for the isolation of epithelial cells from bacteria-contaminated samples using anchoring molecules

A simple and efficient tool to isolate epithelial cells from bacteria-contaminated samples has been developed using two different microparticles functionalized with chemical molecules. The epithelial cells could be captured simply by biocompatible anchors for membranes (BAM), consisting of poly(ethylene glycol) functionalized with oleyl-chain-conjugated NHS (N-hydroxysuccinimide) on glass microparticles, whereas bacteria were adsorbed on 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (ATPS)-functionalized magnetic microparticles. In the case of samples highly contaminated with bacteria, epithelial cells were not isolated successfully by both of the single BAM- and antibody-functionalized microparticles. Therefore, serial isolation steps of these two different chemical functionalized microparticles were introduced. The concentration of bacteria was decreased dramatically by using APTS-functionalized magnetic particles prior to the isolation of epithelial cells by BAM microparticles. With these serial processes, successful isolation of epithelial cells was achieved from bacteria-contaminated epithelial samples. The applicability of this method was verified with bacteria-contaminated intestinal samples biopsied from a BALB/C mouse for primary cell cultivation.     

Hyperosmolarity enhanced susceptibility to renal tubular fibrosis by modulating catabolism of type I transforming growth factor‐β receptors

Hyperosmolarity plays an essential role in the pathogenesis of diabetic tubular fibrosis. However, the mechanism of the involvement of hyperosmolarity remains unclear. In this study, mannitol was used to evaluate the effects of hyperosmolarity on a renal distal tubule cell line (MDCK). We investigated transforming growth factor‐β receptors and their downstream fibrogenic signal proteins. We show that hyperosmolarity significantly enhances the susceptibility to exogenous transforming growth factor (TGF)‐β1, as mannitol (27.5 mM) significantly enhanced the TGF‐β1‐induced increase in fibronectin levels compared with control experiments (5.5 mM). Specifically, hyperosmolarity induced tyrosine phosphorylation on TGF‐β RII at 336 residues in a time (0–24 h) and dose (5.5–38.5 mM) dependent manner. In addition, hyperosmolarity increased the level of TGF‐β RI in a dose‐ and time‐course dependent manner. These observations may be closely related to decreased catabolism of TGF‐β RI. Hyperosmolarity significantly downregulated the expression of an inhibitory Smad (Smad7), decreased the level of Smurf 1, and reduced ubiquitination of TGF‐β RI. In addition, through the use of cycloheximide and the proteasome inhibitor MG132, we showed that hyperosmolarity significantly increased the half‐life and inhibited the protein level of TGF‐β RI by polyubiquitination and proteasomal degradation. Taken together, our data suggest that hyperosmolarity enhances cellular susceptibility to renal tubular fibrosis by activating the Smad7 pathway and increasing the stability of type I TGF‐β receptors by retarding proteasomal degradation of TGF‐β RI. This study clarifies the mechanism underlying hyperosmotic‐induced renal fibrosis in renal distal tubule cells. J. Cell. Biochem. 109: 663–671, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Hsa-miR-5195-3p对人宫颈癌细胞SiHa增殖、迁移与侵袭的影响

目的:探讨mi R-5195-3p对人宫颈癌细胞系Si Ha增殖、迁移与侵袭的影响。方法:采用qRT-PCR检测人宫颈癌细胞SiHa和正常上皮细胞HaCaT中mi R-5195-3p的表达水平。将mi R-5195-3p mimic转染至Si Ha细胞中构建外源性过表达细胞株,阴性对照组中则转染NC mimic,并用q RT-PCR验证转染效率;通过MTT和集落形成实验检测细胞增殖能力;划痕愈合实验检测细胞横向迁移能力; Transwell小室实验检测细胞纵向迁移能力和侵袭能力;采用qRT-PCR和Western blot检测E-cadherin、Vimentin与snail m RNA转录水平及蛋白表达水平。结果:宫颈癌细胞Si Ha中的mi R-5195-3p表达水平较HaCaT偏低(P 0. 05)。与阴性对照组相比,转染mi R-5195-3p mimic的SiHa细胞中mi R-5195-3p水平显著增高(P 0. 01);并且其体外增殖(P 0. 001),迁移(P 0. 001)与侵袭能力(P 0. 001)明显减弱;同时E-cadherin表达水平上调而Vimentin、snail表达水平下调。结论:过表达mi R-5195-3p可能通过阻碍EMT通路抑制宫颈癌细胞Si Ha的增殖,迁移与侵袭。