A new method for temperature compensation of electrical conductivity using temperature-fold dependency of fresh water

A new method for temperature compensation of electrical conductivity (EC) is proposed. A relationship between temperature and EC was investigated in detail by a simple experiment using natural and artificial fresh water. Results showed that the temperature dependency of EC varied from 0.03 to 0.02, with temperature increasing from 3°C to 35°C. This means that a traditional method for compensating for EC using a constant coefficient is invalid, so that a temperature-fold dependency must be taken into consideration to standardize EC to a common temperature.     

The Impact of Outpatient Chemotherapy-Related Adverse Events on the Quality of Life of Breast Cancer Patients

The objective of our study was to clarify the impact of adverse events associated with the initial course of outpatient chemotherapy on the quality of life of breast cancer patients. We conducted a survey to assess the quality of life in 48 breast cancer patients before and after receiving their first course of outpatient chemotherapy at Gifu Municipal Hospital. Patients completed the European Quality of Life 5 Dimensions and Quality of Life Questionnaire for Cancer Patients Treated with Anticancer Drugs before and after 1 course of outpatient chemotherapy. European Quality of Life 5 Dimensions utility value and Quality of Life Questionnaire for Cancer Patients Treated with Anticancer Drugs total score decreased significantly after chemotherapy (p<0.001 and p = 0.018, respectively). The mean scores for the activity, physical condition, and psychological condition subscales of the Quality of Life Questionnaire for Cancer Patients Treated with Anticancer Drugs decreased significantly after chemotherapy (p = 0.003, p<0.001, and p = 0.032, respectively), whereas the social relationships score increased significantly (p<0.001). Furthermore, in the evaluation of quality of life according to individual adverse events, the decrease in quality of life after chemotherapy in terms of the European Quality of Life 5 Dimensions utility value and the Quality of Life Questionnaire for Cancer Patients Treated with Anticancer Drugs total score was greater in anorexic patients than in non-anorexic patients (p = 0.009 and p<0.001, respectively). This suggests that anorexia greatly reduces quality of life. Our findings reveal that anticancer drug-related adverse events, particularly anorexia, reduce overall quality of life following the first course of outpatient chemotherapy in current breast cancer patients. These findings are extremely useful and important in understanding the impact of anticancer drug-related adverse events on quality of life.     

Early changes in parathyroid hormone response and proteoglycan synthesis of chick embryonic femur produced by exposure to 6-aminonicotinamide in ovo

The mechanism of induction of micromelia in 6-day-old chick embryo by 6-aminonicotinamide (6-AN) was investigated. Six-day-old chick embryo exposed to 6-AN did not show micromelia when tenfold excess of nicotinamide over 6-AN was co-administered. The ability of nicotinamide to prevent the induction of micromelia was partially offset after 4 hr of exposure to 6-AN and completely disappeared after 6 hr. The length of time necessary for the induction of micromelia was not affected by the concentration of 6-AN. These results indicate that exposure to 6-AN for only a short period of 6 hr is sufficient to commit the limb to micromelia and that cellular components involved in the induction of micromelia alter during this period. During this period, newly synthesized proteoglycan monomers typical of cartilage decreased in average molecular size, and isolated femora did not respond to parathyroid hormone (PTH) but to dibutyryl cyclic AMP to stimulate growth of cartilage in organ culture.     

Investigations on the surveys of office environments and the total evaluation method—IAQ-Index

1. 1. A comprehensive study was made to establish evaluation methods for better office environments.

2. 2. In our study, measurements of thermal, acoustic, lighting, airflow and air quality conditions in indoor environments were made as well as questionnaire to the occupants on the evaluations of indoor environments and the feeling of fatigue.

3. 3. We also made an attempt to rate the evaluation value based on concepts and standards to evaluate totally office environments in a view point of “the office environments where people can work healthy and vigorously”. The evaluation values were called IAQ-index.

Purification and characterization of 210,000-dalton inhibitor of calcium-activated neutral protease from rabbit skeletal muscle and its relation to 50,000-dalton inhibitor

An endogenous inhibitor of calcium-activated neutral protease (CANP), which was isolated from rabbit skeletal muscle with chemically drastic pretreatments, comprised major (high-molecular-weight form, HMW-inhibitor) and minor (low-molecular-weight form, LMW-inhibitor) components. HMW-inhibitor was purified to homogeneity using FPLC and preparative electrophoresis. The purified inhibitor appeared as a single protein with a molecular weight of 110,000 on SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and a molecular weight of 210,000 on gel filtration. It was therefore presumed that the inhibitor is a dimer protein under native conditions. It contained large amounts of glutamic acid, alanine, and proline, and small amounts of aromatic amino acids, showing an amino acid composition similar to that of LMW-inhibitor. HMW-inhibitor inhibited CANPs with both low (m-type) and high (mu-type) Ca2+-sensitivity but had no effect on any other proteases examined. It was demonstrated that the inhibition was due to the formation of a stoichiometric complex between rabbit mCANP and inhibitor subunit in the ratio of five to one. These results suggest that HMW-inhibitor might have several reactive sites per molecule and that LMW-inhibitor subunit might be a proteolytic fragment of HMW-inhibitor containing an active site.