Clinical Evaluation of Novel Natural Polysaccharides Sacran as a Skincare Material for Atopic Dermatitis Patients

Atopic dermatitis is a skin disease characterized by inflammation, pruritus, and chronic or relapsing eczematous lesions. Recently, ampholytic polysaccharide sacran has attracted a particular focus of attention as a novel biomaterial. In the present study, we investigated the effect of sacran solution on atopic dermatitis in the clinical study. Almost all of the average scores for atopic dermatitis symptoms of each patient treated with sacran solutions were improved. In addition, the scores of sleep disorder and itching were also significantly ameliorated by the sacran treatment for 4 weeks, compared with those of initial states. In immatured dermal skin model stimulated with 2,4-dinitrofluorobenzene (DNFB), the sacran treatment markedly down-regulated inflammatory cytokine and chemokine mRNA levels such as MCP-1, TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 mRNAs, compared with that of DNFB alone. Furthermore, a sacran solution significantly suppressed the mRNA expression of TNF-α and COX-2 in RAW264.7 cells, a murine macrophage-like cell line, stimulated with phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA). In RBL-2H3 cells, a rat basophilic leukemia cell line, a sacran solution significantly lowered β-hexosaminidase release, indicating the suppression of allergic response. These results suggest that a sacran solution may have the potential to improve atopic dermatitis through the impairment of production of inflammatory cytokine and chemokine mRNA.

Influence of Additive Gas on Electrical and Optical Characteristics of Non-equilibrium Atmospheric Pressure Argon Plasma Jet

Electrical and optical properties of an argon plasma jet were characterized. In particular, effects of an additive gas, namely nitrogen or oxygen, on these properties were studied in detail. The plasma jet was found to be of a glow-like discharge, which scarcely changed upon the injection of an additive gas, either directly or through a glass capillary. Optical emission spectroscopy characterization revealed that excited argon atoms were the predominant active species in this plasma jet. Metastable argon atoms were highly quenched, and N2（C3yIu） became the main energy carrier following nitrogen injection. When oxygen was added to the afterglow zone through a glass capillary, no significant quenching effect was observed and the number of oxygen atoms decreased with the increase in oxygen concentration. Finally, to demonstrate an application of this plasma jet, a high-density polyethylene surface was treated with argon, argon/nitrogen, and argon/oxygen plasmas.

Feasibility study of cyclodextrins as active pharmaceutical ingredients for the treatment of GM1-gangliosidosis

GM1-gangliosidosis is a rare lysosomal storage disorder characterized clinically by a wide range of variable neurovisceral,ophthalmological and dysmorphic features. Without enough functionalβ-galactosidase, GM1-gangliosides cannot be degraded in lysosomes, and accumulate to toxic levels in many tissues and organs, particularly in the brain. In spite of several approaches for the treatment of GM1-gangliosidosis.

Regulation of Vascular Development by CLE Peptide-receptor Systems

Cell division and differentiation of stem cells are controlled by non- cell-autonomous signals in higher organisms. The plant vascular meristem is a stem-cell tissue comprising procambial cells that produce xylem cells on one side and phloem cells on the other side. Recent studies have revealed that TDIF （tracheary element differentiation inhibitory factor）/CLE41/CLE44 peptide signal controls the procambial cell fate in a non-cell-autonomous manner. TDIF produced in and secreted from phloem cells is perceived by TDR/PXY, a leucine-rich repeat receptor kinase located in the plasma membrane of procambial cells. This signal suppresses xylem cell differentiation of procambial cells and promotes their proliferation. In addition to TDIF, some other CLE peptides play roles in vascular development. Here, we summarize recent advances in CLE signaling governing vascular development.

A Novel System for Xylem Cell Differentiation in Arabidopsis thaliana

During vascular development, procambial and cambial cells give rise to xylem and phloem cells. Because the vascular tissue is deeply embedded, it has been difficult to analyze the processes of vascular development in detail. Here, we establish a novel in vitro experimental system in which vascular development is induced in Arabidopsis thaliana leaf-disk cultures using bikinin, an inhibitor of glycogen synthase kinase 3 proteins. Transcriptome analysis reveals that mesophyll cells in leaf disks synchronously turn into procambial cells and then differentiate into tracheary elements. Leaf-disk cultures from plants expressing the procambial cell markers TDRpro：GUS and TDRpro：YFP can be used for spatiotemporal visualization of procambial cell formation. Further analysis with the tdr mutant and TDIF （tracheary element differentiation inhibitory factor） indicates that the key signaling TDIF-TDR-GSK3s regulates xylem differentiation in leaf-disk cultures. This new culture system can be combined with analysis using the rich material resources for Arabidopsis including cell-marker lines and mutants, thus offering a powerful tool for analyzing xylem cell differentiation.

A Proposal of a Spline Filter that Achieves Both Robustness and Lower Compatibility

A spline filter is used to extract roughness profiles for the measurement of surface texture and is useful when sufficient sections before and after a primary profile could not be secured.This is because a spline filter could prevent the end effect,which is the fluctuation of output data that occurs around both ends of the primary profile and depends on the width of the weighting function of a filter.The spline filter is based on the calculation of an inverse matrix instead of the convolution of the weighting function of the filters.When input data include outliers,the output of a spline filter greatly fluctuates.To solve this problem,we propose a robust spline filter.However,output of the robust spline is not in agreement with that of the spline filter when input data do not include outliers.Thus,the robust spline filter has no lower compatibility.In this paper,the"Fast M-estimation Spline Filter(FMSF)"is proposed.FMSF uses the fast M-estimation method.FMGF performs robust to input data including outliers,and gives the same output as that of general spline filters to input data without outliers.The value estimated by this method is in agreement with that estimated by the least squares method if no outlier exists.In order to apply the fast M-estimation method to the spline filter,convolution of weight function is used instead of the inverse matrix.And the input geometry with shear and point-symmetric extensions is pre-processed to prevent the end effect.

A Proposal of Hyperbolic Fitting Method by Applying the Properties of Functions for Plateau Surface Analysis in ISO 13565-3

ISO 13565-3 provides an evaluation method for plateau structure surfaces used as sliding surfaces in machine tools and automobile engines.The evaluation method for plateau structure surfaces of ISO 13565-3 has problems,such as the processing procedure has an ambiguous basis,and the calculation method is not specified.The existing evaluation method that solves these problems requires the implementation of a difficult algorithm.In subsequent evaluation methods,these problems were resolved,and the implementation of complicated calculation algorithms became unnecessary.However,these methods use algorithms that do not conform to the evaluation method of ISO 13565-3.This lack of adherence to the ISO standard may hinder their application in the industrial world.Therefore,in this study,a new method that conforms to the evaluation method of ISO 13565-3 with a more concise algorithm was developed.We concluded that this proposed method can contribute to the formation of plateau surfaces and production control in the industrial world.

Verification of Characteristics of Gaussian Filter Series for Surface Roughness in ISO and Proposal of Filter Selection Guidelines

In surface roughness measurement,if spikes are included in the primary profile,a problem occurs wherein the Gaussian filter(GF)is unable to extract the shape components.To address this problem,the use of a robust filter is proposed.However,ISO16610-31:Gaussian regression filters(GRF)only provide a single method and a few examples,and does not specify the conditions under which the primary profile can be covered.Moreover,the data presented in the example on robustness in ISO16610-31 do not contain roughness components.In actual roughness measurements,no primary profile exists that does not include a roughness component.Because the characteristics of GRFs are unknown,it is not yet clear which filter should be used for which primary profile,and this is an issue that has been raised at ISO and JIS conferences.In addition,the establishment of filter selection guidelines is necessary at measurement sites.Therefore,this paper clarifies the characteristics of GF-series filters,summarizes the points to be considered when using them,and identifies the filter that should be selected according to different situations.Based on the results,a figure that visualizes the characteristics of filters and a flowchart regarding which filter should be used are created;these tools,to the best of the authors’knowledge,did not exist prior to this study.It is believed that these results will help fulfil the needs of measuring job sites and also aid in filter selection.