Sample records for takeda yasunobu okuma

  1. Verification of ARES transport code system with TAKEDA benchmarks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Liang; Zhang, Bin; Zhang, Penghe; Chen, Mengteng; Zhao, Jingchang; Zhang, Shun; Chen, Yixue

    2015-10-01

    Neutron transport modeling and simulation are central to many areas of nuclear technology, including reactor core analysis, radiation shielding and radiation detection. In this paper the series of TAKEDA benchmarks are modeled to verify the critical calculation capability of ARES, a discrete ordinates neutral particle transport code system. SALOME platform is coupled with ARES to provide geometry modeling and mesh generation function. The Koch-Baker-Alcouffe parallel sweep algorithm is applied to accelerate the traditional transport calculation process. The results show that the eigenvalues calculated by ARES are in excellent agreement with the reference values presented in NEACRP-L-330, with a difference less than 30 pcm except for the first case of model 3. Additionally, ARES provides accurate fluxes distribution compared to reference values, with a deviation less than 2% for region-averaged fluxes in all cases. All of these confirms the feasibility of ARES-SALOME coupling and demonstrate that ARES has a good performance in critical calculation.

  2. Farnesoid X receptor induces Takeda G-protein receptor 5 cross-talk to regulate bile acid synthesis and hepatic metabolism.

    PubMed

    Pathak, Preeti; Liu, Hailiang; Boehme, Shannon; Xie, Cen; Krausz, Kristopher W; Gonzalez, Frank; Chiang, John Y L

    2017-06-30

    The bile acid-activated receptors, nuclear farnesoid X receptor (FXR) and the membrane Takeda G-protein receptor 5 (TGR5), are known to improve glucose and insulin sensitivity in obese and diabetic mice. However, the metabolic roles of these two receptors and the underlying mechanisms are incompletely understood. Here, we studied the effects of the dual FXR and TGR5 agonist INT-767 on hepatic bile acid synthesis and intestinal secretion of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) in wild-type, Fxr -/- , and Tgr5 -/- mice. INT-767 efficaciously stimulated intracellular Ca 2+ levels, cAMP activity, and GLP-1 secretion and improved glucose and lipid metabolism more than did the FXR-selective obeticholic acid and TGR5-selective INT-777 agonists. Interestingly, INT-767 reduced expression of the genes in the classic bile acid synthesis pathway but induced those in the alternative pathway, which is consistent with decreased taurocholic acid and increased tauromuricholic acids in bile. Furthermore, FXR activation induced expression of FXR target genes, including fibroblast growth factor 15, and unexpectedly Tgr5 and prohormone convertase 1/3 gene expression in the ileum. We identified an FXR-responsive element on the Tgr5 gene promoter. Fxr -/- and Tgr5 -/- mice exhibited reduced GLP-1 secretion, which was stimulated by INT-767 in the Tgr5 -/- mice but not in the Fxr -/- mice. Our findings uncovered a novel mechanism in which INT-767 activation of FXR induces Tgr5 gene expression and increases Ca 2+ levels and cAMP activity to stimulate GLP-1 secretion and improve hepatic glucose and lipid metabolism in high-fat diet-induced obese mice. Activation of both FXR and TGR5 may therefore represent an effective therapy for managing hepatic steatosis, obesity, and diabetes. © 2017 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

  3. Single Microwave-Photon Detector using an Artificial Lambda-type Three-Level System

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-01-11

    Single microwave-photon detector using an artificial Λ-type three- level system Kunihiro Inomata,1∗†, Zhirong Lin,1†, Kazuki Koshino,2, William D...three- level system Kunihiro Inomata,1∗† Zhirong Lin,1† Kazuki Koshino,2 William D. Oliver,3,4 Jaw-Shen Tsai,1 Tsuyoshi Yamamoto,5 Yasunobu Nakamura...single-microwave-photon detector based on the deterministic switching in an artificial Λ-type three- level system implemented using the dressed states of a

  4. Indoor radiocaesium contamination in residential houses within evacuation areas after the Fukushima nuclear accident

    PubMed Central

    Yoshida-Ohuchi, Hiroko; Kanagami, Takashi; Satoh, Yasushi; Hosoda, Masahiro; Naitoh, Yutaka; Kameyama, Mizuki

    2016-01-01

    Indoor contaminants were investigated from July 2013 to January 2015 within ninety-five residential houses in five evacuation zones, Iitate village, Odaka district, and the towns of Futaba, Okuma, and Tomioka. A dry smear test was applied to the surface of materials and structures in rooms and in the roof-space of houses. We found that 134Cs and 137Cs were the dominant radionuclides in indoor surface contamination, and there was a distance dependence from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (FDNPP). For surface contamination in Iitate village (29–49 km from the FDNPP), 24.8% of samples exceeded the detection limit, which is quite a low value, while in Okuma (<3.0 km from the FDNPP), 99.7% of samples exceeded the detection limit and surface contamination levels exceeded 20 Bq/cm2 (the value was corrected to March 2011). In residential houses in Okuma, Futaba, and Tomioka, closer to the FDNPP than those in Odaka district and Iitate village, surface contamination was inversely proportional to the square of the distance between a house and the FDNPP. In the houses closest to the FDNPP, the contribution of surface contamination to the ambient dose equivalent rate was evaluated to be approximately 0.3 μSv/h. PMID:27212076

  5. Lubiprostone: RU 0211, SPI 0211.

    PubMed

    2005-01-01

    Lubiprostone [RU 0211, SPI 0211] is a bicyclic fatty acid that acts as a chloride channel opener, increasing intestinal water secretion. Lubiprostone, an orally-administered formulation, is one of a series of functional fatty acid compounds discovered by Dr Ryuji Ueno, and is currently undergoing development for the treatment of constipation, constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-C) and postoperative ileus with Sucampo Pharmaceutical's. Lubiprostone activates a specific chloride channel (CLC2) on cells lining the gut, thereby naturally increasing intestinal fluid secretion. The increased fluid level softens the stool, promotes spontaneous bowel movements, and reduces abdominal discomfort/pain and bloating. The chloride channel is a protein that controls cell membrane transport of chloride ion. Lubiprostone acts on the ClC-2 chloride channel, which is located in the apical intestinal membrane. In November 2004, Takeda Pharmaceuticals entered into a collaboration and licensing agreement for Lubiprostone with Sucampo Pharmaceuticals for the treatment of chronic constipation and constipation-predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome (c-IBS). Under the terms of the agreement, Takeda received the right to market the product in the US and Canada, while Sucampo reserved the co-promotion rights for these countries. Takeda's wholly-owned US subsidiary, Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America Inc., will sell lubiprostone once the product is approved by the US FDA. Takeda will also receive an option for marketing rights in other territories, including Japan and Europe. Takeda and Sucampo agreed on the exclusive manufacturing and supply of Lubiprostone by R-Tech Ueno, Ltd, a member of the Sucampo Group. Sucampo has the potential to receive up to dollar US 210 million in initial and milestone payments, some of which are contingent upon the successful achievement of several milestones. Takeda will fund a major part of development costs not only for chronic constipation

  6. Preliminary data on ASP2215: tolerability and efficacy in acute myeloid leukemia patients.

    PubMed

    Thom, Claire

    2015-09-01

    Claire Thom speaks to Gemma Westcott, Commissioning Editor: Claire Thom joined Astellas in 2013 as the Therapeutic Area Head for Oncology in Global Development. In that role, she also serves as the STAR leader for Oncology for Astellas. Prior to Astellas, she spent 12 years with Takeda. Her last position was Senior Vice President, Portfolio Management, Drug Development Management and Medical Informatics and Strategic Operations within the Medical Division (the Division within Millennium responsible for oncology clinical drug development within Takeda). During her 4 years at Millennium, at various times, she had responsibility within the Medical Division for leading portfolio management, business operations (medical finance, annual and mid-range financial planning, space planning and operations, headcount resourcing, development goals process), clinical development operations (clinical operations, programming, data management, statistics, medical writing, clinical outsourcing), drug development management (project management), medical informatics (technology support for the division) and the strategic project management office for the division. Prior to joining Millennium, Claire Thom spent 18 months working in Osaka, Japan, during which she was responsible for developing the oncology strategy for Takeda that culminated in the acquisition of Millennium. Before going to Japan, she held positions of varying responsibility within the Takeda US development organization including the management of regulatory affairs, safety, biometrics and data management, clinical research and quality assurance. Claire Thom has particular expertise in organizational design and efficiency; she has successfully worked through integrations across multiple functions and redesigned business processes. She has a PharmD from University of Illinois (IL, USA) and over 20 years of pharmaceutical experience including positions in medical affairs and new product planning (over 11 years at Searle

  7. Dengue vaccines: Are they safe for travelers?

    PubMed

    Halstead, Scott B; Aguiar, Maira

    2016-01-01

    The four dengue viruses (DENV) circulate among nearly one-half of the world's population in tropical and semitropical countries imposing a huge morbidity burden on travelers. Sanofipasteur has developed a tetravalent live-attenuated vaccine, Dengvaxia, recently approved by the World Health Organization and licensed in four dengue-endemic countries. An additional two dengue vaccines, developed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), USA and Takeda, are entering phase III testing. Dengvaxia is composed of four yellow fever 17D-DENV chimeras, the NIAID vaccine contains three mutagenized DENV and one DENV2/4 chimera while the Takeda vaccine contains an attenuated DENV 2 and three DENV 2-DENV chimeras. Which of these vaccines might be useful in protecting travelers against dengue infections and disease? Dengvaxia requires three doses administered over the course of one year but in addition has safety signals suggesting that susceptible individuals should not be vaccinated. The NIAID vaccine is promising as a travel vaccine as a single dose fully protected susceptible adults against live dengue 2 virus challenge. The protective efficacy and safety of the Takeda vaccine remain to be demonstrated. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Identifying the Right Disease Targets to Develop Better Drugs, Faster | NIH MedlinePlus the Magazine

    MedlinePlus

    ... Association Foundation for the NIH Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus The Partners Government NIH Industry AbbVie Bristol-Myers ... Pfizer Sanofi Takeda Non-Profit Organizations Alliance for Lupus Research Foundation for HIH Lupus Research Institute Rheumatology ...

  9. 78 FR 17207 - Granting of Request for Early Termination of the Waiting Period Under the Premerger Notification...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-03-20

    .... 20130471 G Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited; Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited; Sun Pharmaceutical.... Martin, Ph.D.; Gilead Sciences, Inc.; John C. Martin, Ph.D. 20130547 G Jindal Poly Films Limited; Exxon... Norbert W. Bischofberger, Ph.D.; Gilead Sciences, Inc.; Norbert W. Bischofberger, Ph.D. 20130611 G...

  10. Drug evaluation: TAK-475--an oral inhibitor of squalene synthase for hyperlipidemia.

    PubMed

    Burnett, John R

    2006-09-01

    Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd is developing TAK-475, a squalene synthetase inhibitor from a series of 4,1-benzoxazepine-3-acetic acid derivatives, for the potential oral treatment of hyperlipidemia. By March 2005, TAK-475 was undergoing phase III clinical trials in the US and Europe.

  11. Uterine-Specific Knockout of Tsc-2: A Mouse Model for Lymphangioleiomyomatosis

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-10-01

    Burlingame, Califor- nia ), anti-phospho-S6 (Ser 235/236), anti-S6 and 1:5000 anti- glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH; Cell Sig- naling...Olson S, Nguyen TA. Hydronephrosis and urine retention in estrogen-implanted athymic nude mice. Vet Pathol. 2009;46(3): 505 –508. 40. Leavitt WW, Takeda

  12. ERK5 signaling gets XIAPed: a role for ubiquitin in the disassembly of a MAPK cascade

    PubMed Central

    Klein, Aileen M; Cobb, Melanie H

    2014-01-01

    Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades are tightly controlled through a series of well-characterized phospho-regulatory events. In this issue, Takeda et al (2014) identify the inhibitor of apoptosis protein, XIAP, as a key regulator of ERK5 activation via uncoupling of upstream kinase activity by non-degradative ubiquitination. PMID:25012518

  13. The Science of Reading, 1994.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ikeda, Shinichi, Ed.; And Others

    1994-01-01

    This collection of the 1994 issues of the Japanese-language journal "The Science of Reading" presents 21 articles on a variety of questions dealing with reading. Most articles in the collection have summaries in English. Articles in the April issue are: "Efforts to Enliven the School Library" (M. Takeda); "A Mistake in Comprehending a Literary…

  14. [Historical research of cinchona cultivation in Japan (Part 2). Useful tropical plants introduced from Java and India in the early Meiji era].

    PubMed

    Nagumo, Seiji; Sasaki, Yohei; Takido, Michio

    2010-01-01

    In the early Meiji era, Takeaki Enomoto made a proposal to the government that cinchona and coffee seedlings be introduced to Japan. In response, the Meiji government dispatched Masatsugu Takeda of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to Java and India from March to August 1878 for the purpose of investigating useful plants of tropical origin and introducing them to Japan. This paper clarifies the route to those destinations and the plants obtained locally. Using the seeds obtained from India during his travels, the cultivation of cinchona was attempted in 1882 for the first time in Japan. In Ogasawara, coffee cultivation was conducted, again for the first time in Japan, using coffee seeds brought back from Java. The cultivation of coffee was successful and served as the foundation of the Ogasawara coffee that exists to this day. Takeda also introduced a number of books and materials related to useful tropical plants available as a result of his travels, which contributed to the promotion of new industries and businesses in the Meiji era.

  15. Measuring the contour of a wavefront using the Irradiance Transport Equation (ITE)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Castillo-Rodríguez, Luis; Granados-Agustín, Fermín; Fernández-Guasti, Manuel; Cornejo-Rodríguez, Alejandro

    2006-01-01

    The Irradiance Transport Equation (ITE), found by Teague, had been used in optics with different applications. One of the field where had been used is in optical testing, for example, with the method developed by Takeda. In this paper following the idea of using different optical and mathematical analysis method, theorical and experimental results are presented.

  16. JPRS Report, Science & Technology, Japan, 27th Aircraft Symposium, Part 3

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1991-02-14

    Kaoru Wakairo, et al.] Aircraft-Mounted Optical Data Bus (3): Bus Control Software, Performance Evaluation Test [Mitsumi Mayanägi, Minoru...Article by Hiroyasu Kawahara, Kaoru Wakairo, and Akira Watanabe, National Aerospace Laboratory; Tomoyuli Udagawa, Kengo Takeda, and Noboru Shobayashi...89 pp 518-521 [Article by Tadao Uchida, Mitsumi Mayanagi, Minoru Takizawa, Toshiharu Inagaki, Koki Hozumi, and Kazutoshi Ishikawa , National

  17. Improvement of Binary Analysis Components in Automated Malware Analysis Framework

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2017-02-21

    analyze malicious software (malware) with minimum human interaction. The system autonomously analyze malware samples by analyzing malware binary program...AFRL-AFOSR-JP-TR-2017-0018 Improvement of Binary Analysis Components in Automated Malware Analysis Framework Keiji Takeda KEIO UNIVERSITY Final...currently valid OMB control number . PLEASE DO NOT RETURN YOUR FORM TO THE ABOVE ORGANIZATION. 1. REPORT DATE (DD-MM-YYYY)      21-02-2017 2. REPORT

  18. Safety and immunogenicity of one versus two doses of Takeda's tetravalent dengue vaccine in children in Asia and Latin America: interim results from a phase 2, randomised, placebo-controlled study.

    PubMed

    Sáez-Llorens, Xavier; Tricou, Vianney; Yu, Delia; Rivera, Luis; Tuboi, Suely; Garbes, Pedro; Borkowski, Astrid; Wallace, Derek

    2017-06-01

    months apart, with analyses that take into account baseline age and dengue serostatus. Takeda Vaccines. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Evaluation of the angiotensin II receptor blocker azilsartan medoxomil in African-American patients with hypertension.

    PubMed

    Johnson, Wallace; White, William B; Sica, Domenic; Bakris, George L; Weber, Michael A; Handley, Alison; Perez, Alfonso; Cao, Charlie; Kupfer, Stuart; Saunders, Elijah B

    2017-07-01

    The efficacy and safety of azilsartan medoxomil (AZL-M) were evaluated in African-American patients with hypertension in a 6-week, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, for which the primary end point was change from baseline in 24-hour mean systolic blood pressure (BP). There were 413 patients, with a mean age of 52 years, 57% women, and baseline 24-hour BP of 146/91 mm Hg. Treatment differences in 24-hour systolic BP between AZL-M 40 mg and placebo (-5.0 mm Hg; 95% confidence interval, -8.0 to -2.0) and AZL-M 80 mg and placebo (-7.8 mm Hg; 95% confidence interval, -10.7 to -4.9) were significant (P≤.001 vs placebo for both comparisons). Changes in the clinic BPs were similar to the ambulatory BP results. Incidence rates of adverse events were comparable among the treatment groups, including those of a serious nature. In African-American patients with hypertension, AZL-M significantly reduced ambulatory and clinic BPs in a dose-dependent manner and was well tolerated. © The Authors and Takeda Development Centers, Americas, Inc and Takeda Pharmaceuticals International. The Journal of Clinical Hypertension published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  20. Ixazomib for Relapsed or Refractory Multiple Myeloma: Review from an Evidence Review Group on a NICE Single Technology Appraisal.

    PubMed

    Armoiry, Xavier; Connock, Martin; Tsertsvadze, Alexander; Cummins, Ewen; Melendez-Torres, G J; Royle, Pam; Clarke, Aileen

    2018-03-26

    Ixazomib is an oral proteasome inhibitor used in combination with lenalidomide plus dexamethasone (IXA-LEN-DEX) and licensed for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. As part of a single technology appraisal (ID807) undertaken by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence, the Evidence Review Group, Warwick Evidence was invited to independently review the evidence submitted by the manufacturer of ixazomib, Takeda UK Ltd. The main source of clinical effectiveness data about IXA-LEN-DEX came from the Tourmaline-MM1 randomized controlled trial in which 771 patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma received either IXA-LEN-DEX or placebo-LEN-DEX as their second-, third-, or fourth-line treatment. Takeda estimated the cost effectiveness of IXA-LEN-DEX using a de-novo partitioned-survival model with three health states (pre-progression, post-progression, and dead). In their first submission, this model was used to estimate the cost effectiveness of IXA-LEN-DEX vs. bortezomib plus dexamethasone (BORT-DEX) in second-line treatment, and of IXA-LEN-DEX vs. LEN-DEX in third-line treatment. To estimate the relative clinical performance of IXA-LEN-DEX vs. BORT-DEX, Takeda conducted network meta-analyses for important outcomes. The network meta-analysis for overall survival was found to be flawed in several respects, but mainly because a hazard ratio input for one of the studies in the network had been inverted, resulting in a large inflation of the claimed superiority of IXA-LEN-DEX over BORT-DEX and a considerable overestimation of its cost effectiveness. In subsequent submissions, Takeda withdrew second-line treatment as an option for IXA-LEN-DEX. The manufacturer's first submission comparing IXA-LEN-DEX with LEN-DEX for third-line therapy employed Tourmaline-MM1 data from third- and fourth-line patients as proxy for a third-line population. The appraisal committee did not consider this reasonable because randomization in Tourmaline-MM1 was stratified

  1. Field and Laboratory Studies of Radiocesium Transfers in Soil-Water Environment at Fukushima Prefecture

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nanba, K.; Zheleznyak, M.; Konoplev, A.; Wakiyama, Y.; Golosov, V.; Wada, T.; Tsukada, H.

    2015-12-01

    The systematic monitoring studies of radiocesium concentrations in suspended sediments and water of the Abukuma River, the largest river of Fukushima prefecture, and its tributaries at the vicinity of Fukushima city have started in Fukushima University at the end of 2011. The scale of these field studies was extended after establishment in 2013 new Institute of Environmental Radioactivity at Fukushima University which posses the comprehensive laboratory base. The field measurements of hydrochemical water parameters and concentrations of radiocesium in water and sediments are provided in the rivers of northern coastal zone of Fukushima province with the most comprehensive program for Niida River basin. The radiocesium dynamics is studied in Sakashita Reservoir and heavily contaminated irrigation ponds of Okuma town in the vicinity of FDNPP, Takanokura Reservoir, Inawashiro Lake, Hibara Lake. Comparative analysis is provided for radiocaesium wash-off parameters and distribution coefficient in rivers and surface runoff on Fukushima and Chernobyl contaminated areas for the first years after the accidents. It is found that radiocaesium distribution coefficient in rivers of Fukushima is essentially higher (1-2 orders of magnitude) than correspondent values for rivers and surface runoff of the Chernobyl zone. Normalized dissolved wash-off coefficients for watersheds of Fukushima are at least 1 order of magnitude lower correspondent values for Chernobyl zone. Normalized particulate wash-off coefficients are comparable for Fukushima and Chernobyl. Presented are results of the investigation of radiocesium vertical distribution in soils of the close-in area of the FDNPP: Okuma town and Niida River basin. It is shown that radiocesium dispersion in undisturbed forest and grassland soils at Fukushima contaminated area is significantly faster as compared to the Chernobyl 30-km zone during the first three years after the accidents.

  2. (14)C levels in the vicinity of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant prior to the 2011 accident.

    PubMed

    Xu, Sheng; Cook, Gordon T; Cresswell, Alan J; Dunbar, Elaine; Freeman, Stewart P H T; Hastie, Helen; Hou, Xiaolin; Jacobsson, Piotr; Naysmith, Philip; Sanderson, David C W; Tripney, Brian G; Yamaguchi, Katsuhiko

    2016-06-01

    A 50-year-old Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) from Okuma, ∼1 km southwest of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant, was cored and each annual ring was analysed for (14)C. The (14)C specific activity values varied from 330.4 Bq kg(-1) C in the tree ring formed in 1971 to 231.2 Bq kg(-1) C in the 2014 ring. During the periods 1971-1976 and 2011-2014, the (14)C specific activities are indistinguishable from the ambient background values. However, compared with the ambient atmospheric levels, the (14)C specific activities between 1977 and 2010 are significantly elevated, clearly indicating (14)C discharges from the reactors during their normal operations. In addition, the specific activities are positively correlated with the annual electricity generation values. The excess (14)C specific activities were <36 Bq kg(-1) C, corresponding to an additional annual effective dose of <2 μSv via the food ingestion pathway in the study location. The primary wind direction is east-southeast/southeast with a frequency of ∼30%, in comparison to ∼20% frequency for the direction of the site under study (north-northeast/northeast). This would tend to indicate a similar magnitude of additional effective dose and consequently no significant radiological impact of atmospheric (14)C discharges from the FDNPP during the entire period of normal operations. Additionally, no (14)C pulse in activity can be observed in the year 2011 ring. This might be caused by a limited (14)C release from the damaged reactors during the accident or that the prevailing wind during the short period of release (11th-25th March 2011) was not in the direction of Okuma. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. New Insights into the Hendra Virus Attachment and Entry Process from Structures of the Virus G Glycoprotein and Its Complex with Ephrin-B2

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-11-05

    organization of measles virus fusion complexes. J Virol 83: 10480–10493. 24. Bishop KA, Hickey AC, Khetawat D, Patch JR, Bossart KN, et al. (2008...its receptor, sialyllactose. Structure 13: 803–815. 38. Colf LA, Juo ZS, Garcia KC (2007) Structure of the measles virus hemagglutinin. Nat Struct Mol...Biol 14: 1227–1228. 39. Hashiguchi T, Kajikawa M, Maita N, Takeda M, Kuroki K, et al. (2007) Crystal structure of measles virus hemagglutinin provides

  4. The Use of Filariae as a Therapeutic Agent for Hypersensitivity Diseases

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-12-01

    come into contact with the allergen. These cytokines activate innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) and help dendritic cells (DCs) polarize a Th2 environment...Experimental Allergy 40:299-306 58. Filbey KJ, Grainger JR, Smith KA, Boon L, van Rooijen N, et al. 2014. Innate and adaptive type 2 immune cell ...105. Kamijo S, Takeda H, Tokura T, Suzuki M, Inui K, et al. 2013. IL-33–mediated innate response and adaptive immune cells contribute to maximum

  5. Investigation of Hematologic and Pathologic Response to Decompression.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1978-05-10

    in tadpole and very young kangaroos . Am. J. Physiol. 120:59—74 , 1937. 12. D’ C’~~~’ B.G. and Swanson , H. Bubble free decompression of blood samples...1955. 24. Takeda , Y. Studies of the metabol i~~ 5 and distribution of fibrino— gen in healthy men with autologous I-labe led fibrinogen. J. Clin...this connective tissue protein. However , the metabolism of bone collagen is affected by hormonal control (l0; 3l) and vitamin influences (3 ;ll). It

  6. Molecular Mechanism of Selectivity among G Protein-Coupled Receptor Kinase 2 Inhibitors

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Thal, David M.; Yeow, Raymond Y.; Schoenau, Christian

    2012-07-11

    G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are key regulators of cell physiology and control processes ranging from glucose homeostasis to contractility of the heart. A major mechanism for the desensitization of activated GPCRs is their phosphorylation by GPCR kinases (GRKs). Overexpression of GRK2 is strongly linked to heart failure, and GRK2 has long been considered a pharmaceutical target for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Several lead compounds developed by Takeda Pharmaceuticals show high selectivity for GRK2 and therapeutic potential for the treatment of heart failure. To understand how these drugs achieve their selectivity, we determined crystal structures of the bovine GRK2-G{beta}{gamma} complexmore » in the presence of two of these inhibitors. Comparison with the apoGRK2-G{beta}{gamma} structure demonstrates that the compounds bind in the kinase active site in a manner similar to that of the AGC kinase inhibitor balanol. Both balanol and the Takeda compounds induce a slight closure of the kinase domain, the degree of which correlates with the potencies of the inhibitors. Based on our crystal structures and homology modeling, we identified five amino acids surrounding the inhibitor binding site that we hypothesized could contribute to inhibitor selectivity. However, our results indicate that these residues are not major determinants of selectivity among GRK subfamilies. Rather, selectivity is achieved by the stabilization of a unique inactive conformation of the GRK2 kinase domain.« less

  7. First record of the hermit crab genus Cestopagurus Bouvier, 1897 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Anomura: Paguridae) from the South Pacific Ocean and description of a new species.

    PubMed

    Komai, Tomoyuki; Tsuchida, Shinji; Clark, Malcolm R

    2014-09-14

    A fifth species of the pagurid genus Cestopagurus Bouvier, 1897, is described and illustrated on the basis of a single male specimen collected at a depth of 499 m from Hinepuia submarine volcano in the Kermadec Arc, New Zealand. The new species, C. hinepuia, appears similar to C. puniceus Komai & Takeda, 2005 known from waters off Japan, but the different armature of chelipeds distinguishes the new species. It is the first representative of the genus recorded from the South Pacific Ocean. A key for identification of species of the genus is presented. 

  8. Estimation of thyroid equivalent doses during evacuation based on body surface contamination levels in the nuclear accident of FDNPS in 2011

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ohba, Takashi; Hasegawa, Arifumi; Kohayakawa, Yoshitaka; Kondo, Hisayoshi; Suzuki, Gen

    2017-09-01

    To reduce uncertainty in thyroid dose estimation, residents' radiation protection behavior should be reflected in the estimation. Screening data of body surface contamination provide information on exposure levels during evacuation. Our purpose is to estimate thyroid equivalent doses based on body surface contamination levels using a new methodology. We obtained a record of 7,539 residents/evacuees. Geiger-Mueller survey meter measurement value in cpm was translated into Bq/cm2 according to the nuclides densities obtained by measuring clothing from two persons by germanium γ-spectrometer. The measurement value of body surface contamination on head was adjusted by a natural removal rate of 15 hours and radionuclides' physical half-life. Thyroid equivalent dose of 1-year-old children by inhalation was estimated by two-dimensional Monte Carlo simulation. The proportions of evacuees/residents with measurement value in cpm of Namie and Minamisoma groups were higher than those of other groups during both periods (p<0.01, Kruskal-Wallis). During 12-14 March period, 50 and 95 percentiles of thyroid equivalent doses by inhalation were estimated as 2.7 and 86.0 mSv, respectively, for Namie group, and 4.2 and 17.2 mSv, respectively, for Minamisoma group, 0.1 and 1.0 mSv, respectively, for Tomioka/Okuma/Futaba/Naraha group, and 0.2 and 2.1 mSv, respectively, for the other group. During 15- 17 March period, 50 and 95 percentiles of thyroid equivalent doses by inhalation were 0.8 and 15.7 mSv, respectively, for Namie group, and 1.6 and 8.4 mSv, respectively, for Minamisoma group, 0.2 and 13.2 mSv, respectively, for Tomioka/Okuma/Futaba/Naraha group, and 1.2 and 12.7 mSv, respectively, for the other group. It was indicated that inhalation dose was generally higher in Namie and Minamisoma groups during 12-14 March than those during 15-17 March might reflect different self-protective behavior to radioactive plumes from other groups.

  9. Technology evaluation: C242-DM1, ImmunoGen Inc.

    PubMed

    Smith, S

    2001-04-01

    C242-DM1 is a tumor-activated immunotoxin under development by GlaxoSmithKline plc (formerly SmithKline Beecham plc), under licence from ImmunoGen Inc, as a potential treatment for colon tumor. It consists of a colon cancer-specific humanized antibody, C242, conjugated to the maytansine derivative DM1. In preclinical studies, C242-DM1 caused complete tumor regression in animal models of both human pancreatic and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) at non-toxic doses. C242-DM1 has also been evaluated in an immunoconjugate combination with J-591 (Cornell University). The J591-DM1 immunoconjugate demonstrated effective, antigen-specific delivery of a highly cytotoxic drug to PSMA-positive Pca cells in vitro and in vivo with low systemic toxicity. Results from studies in monkeys showed that C242-DM1 had no significant toxicity or side effects, when administered at doses higher than those that were previously shown to completely eradicate human colon tumors in mice [271420]. ImmunoGen acquired the right to evaluate, and an option to license, technology related to maytansines from Takeda. In February 1999, ImmunoGen and SmithKline Beecham signed a US $45 million development and commercialization agreement for C242-DM1 [313493]. In August 1997, Immunogen received an SBIR grant to advance development of huC242-DM1 [258356]. EP-00425235, held by ImmunoGen, covers conjugated forms of ansamitocin (maytansine) derivatives. Takeda holds several patents for the production of ansamitocin and its analogs, the first one being JP-53124692.

  10. Three Dimensional Speckle Imaging Employing a Frequency-Locked Tunable Diode Laser

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Cannon, Bret D.; Bernacki, Bruce E.; Schiffern, John T.

    2015-09-01

    We describe a high accuracy frequency stepping method for a tunable diode laser to improve a three dimensional (3D) imaging approach based upon interferometric speckle imaging. The approach, modeled after Takeda, exploits tuning an illumination laser in frequency as speckle interferograms of the object (specklegrams) are acquired at each frequency in a Michelson interferometer. The resulting 3D hypercube of specklegrams encode spatial information in the x-y plane of each image with laser tuning arrayed along its z-axis. We present laboratory data of before and after results showing enhanced 3D imaging resulting from precise laser frequency control.

  11. Bile acids deoxycholic acid and ursodeoxycholic acid differentially regulate human β-defensin-1 and -2 secretion by colonic epithelial cells.

    PubMed

    Lajczak, Natalia K; Saint-Criq, Vinciane; O'Dwyer, Aoife M; Perino, Alessia; Adorini, Luciano; Schoonjans, Kristina; Keely, Stephen J

    2017-09-01

    Bile acids and epithelial-derived human β-defensins (HβDs) are known to be important factors in the regulation of colonic mucosal barrier function and inflammation. We hypothesized that bile acids regulate colonic HβD expression and aimed to test this by investigating the effects of deoxycholic acid (DCA) and ursodeoxycholic acid on the expression and release of HβD1 and HβD2 from colonic epithelial cells and mucosal tissues. DCA (10-150 µM) stimulated the release of both HβD1 and HβD2 from epithelial cell monolayers and human colonic mucosal tissue in vitro In contrast, ursodeoxycholic acid (50-200 µM) inhibited both basal and DCA-induced defensin release. Effects of DCA were mimicked by the Takeda GPCR 5 agonist, INT-777 (50 μM), but not by the farnesoid X receptor agonist, GW4064 (10 μM). INT-777 also stimulated colonic HβD1 and HβD2 release from wild-type, but not Takeda GPCR 5 -/- , mice. DCA stimulated phosphorylation of the p65 subunit of NF-κB, an effect that was attenuated by ursodeoxycholic acid, whereas an NF-κB inhibitor, BMS-345541 (25 μM), inhibited DCA-induced HβD2, but not HβD1, release. We conclude that bile acids can differentially regulate colonic epithelial HβD expression and secretion and discuss the implications of our findings for intestinal health and disease.-Lajczak, N. K., Saint-Criq, V., O'Dwyer, A. M., Perino, A., Adorini, L., Schoonjans, K., Keely, S. J. Bile acids deoxycholic acid and ursodeoxycholic acid differentially regulate human β-defensin-1 and -2 secretion by colonic epithelial cells. © FASEB.

  12. [Application of Mass Spectrometry to the Diagnosis of Cancer--Chairman's Introductory Remarks].

    PubMed

    Yatomi, Yutaka

    2015-09-01

    In this symposium, the latest application of mass spectrometry to laboratory medicine, i.e., to the early diagnosis of cancer, was introduced. Dr. Masaru YOSHIDA, who has been using metabolome analysis to discover biomarker candidates for gastroenterological diseases, presented an automated early diagnosis system for early stages of colon cancer based on metabolome analysis and using a minute amount of blood. On the other hand, Dr. Sen TAKEDA, who has developed a new approach by employing both mass spectrometry and machine-learning for cancer diagnosis, presented a device for the clinical diagnosis of cancer using probe electrospray ionization (PESI) and machine-learning called the dual penalized logistic regression machine (dPLRM).

  13. A new species of Fizesereneia Takeda & Tamura, 1980 (Crustacea: Brachyura: Cryptochiridae) from the Red Sea and Oman.

    PubMed

    Van Der Meij, Sancia E T; Berumen, Michael L; Paulay, Gustav

    2015-03-16

    A new species of cryptochirid crab, Fizesereneia panda van der Meij, is described and illustrated based on specimens collected from the scleractinian corals Lobophyllia cf. hemprichii and L. cf. corymbosa from the Farasan Banks, Farasan Islands, and the reefs off Thuwal in the Saudi Arabian Red Sea, and from Symphyllia recta from reefs in the Gulf of Oman. This is the second cryptochirid species with the Red Sea as type locality. It can be separated from its congeners by the subrectangular carapace, raised midline and the complete division of the carapace depressions, and reddish black colour pattern of these concavities in live specimens. This new species is the seventh assigned to Fizesereneia. A DNA barcode for the new species has been deposited in GenBank.

  14. Computer modeling of in terferograms of flowing plasma and determination of the phase shift

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Blažek, J.; Kříž, P.; Stach, V.

    2000-03-01

    Interferograms of the flowing gas contain information about the phase shift between the object and the reference beams. The determination of the phase shift is the first step in getting information about the inner distribution of the density in cylindrically symmetric discharges. Slightly modified Takeda method based on the Fourier transformation is applied to determine the phase information from the interferogram. The least squares spline approximation is used for approximation and smoothing intensity profiles. At the same time, cubic splines with their end-knots conditions naturally realize “hanning windows” eliminating unwanted edge effects. For the purpose of numerical testing of the method, we developed a code that for a density given in advance reconstructs the corresponding interferogram.

  15. SAMP8 mice as a neuropathological model of accelerated brain aging and dementia: Toshio Takeda's legacy and future directions.

    PubMed

    Akiguchi, Ichiro; Pallàs, Mercè; Budka, Herbert; Akiyama, Haruhiko; Ueno, Masaki; Han, Jingxian; Yagi, Hideo; Nishikawa, Tomohumi; Chiba, Yoichi; Sugiyama, Hiroshi; Takahashi, Ryoya; Unno, Keiko; Higuchi, Keiichi; Hosokawa, Masanori

    2017-08-01

    Senescence accelerated mice P8 (SAMP8) show significant age-related deteriorations in memory and learning ability in accordance with early onset and rapid advancement of senescence. Brains of SAMP8 mice reveal an age-associated increase of PAS-positive granular structures in the hippocampal formation and astrogliosis in the brain stem and hippocampus. A spongy degeneration in the brain stem appears at 1 month of age and reaches a maximum at 4-8 months. In addition, clusters of activated microglia also appear around the vacuoles in the brain stem. β/A4(Aβ) protein-like immunoreactive granular structures are observed in various regions and increase in number markedly with age. Other age-associated histological changes include cortical atrophy, neuronal cell loss in locus coeruleus and lateral tegmental nuclei, intraneuronal accumulation of lipopigments in Purkinje cells and eosinophilic inclusion bodies in thalamic neurons. A blood-brain barrier dysfunction and astrogliosis are also prominent with advancing age in the hippocampus. These changes are generally similar to the pathomorphology of aging human brains and characterized by their association with some specific glioneuronal reactions. As for the hallmarks of Alzheimer brains, tau morphology has not yet been confirmed regardless of the age-related increase in phosphorylated tau in SAMP8 mice brains, but early age-related Aβ deposition in the hippocampus has recently been published. SAMP8 mice are, therefore, not only a senescence-accelerated model but also a promising model for Alzheimer's disease and other cognitive disorders. © 2017 Japanese Society of Neuropathology.

  16. Structure of the inhibitory region of troponin by site directed spin labeling electron paramagnetic resonance

    PubMed Central

    Brown, Louise J.; Sale, Ken L.; Hills, Ron; Rouviere, Clement; Song, Likai; Zhang, Xiaojun; Fajer, Piotr G.

    2002-01-01

    Site-directed spin labeling EPR (SDSL-EPR) was used to determine the structure of the inhibitory region of TnI in the intact cardiac troponin ternary complex. Maeda and collaborators have modeled the inhibitory region of TnI (skeletal 96–112: the structural motif that communicates the Ca2+ signal to actin) as a kinked α-helix [Vassylyev, D., Takeda, S., Wakatsuki, S., Maeda, K. & Maeda, Y. (1998) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95, 4847–4852), whereas Trewhella and collaborators have proposed the same region to be a flexible β-hairpin [Tung, C. S., Wall, M. E., Gallagher, S. C. & Trewhella, J. (2000) Protein Sci. 9, 1312–1326]. To distinguish between the two models, residues 129–145 of cardiac TnI were mutated sequentially to cysteines and labeled with the extrinsic spin probe, MTSSL. Sequence-dependent solvent accessibility was measured as a change in power saturation of the spin probe in the presence of the relaxation agent. In the ternary complex, the 129–137 region followed a pattern characteristic of a regular 3.6 residues/turn α-helix. The following region, residues 138–145, showed no regular pattern in solvent accessibility. Measurements of 4 intradomain distances within the inhibitory sequence, using dipolar EPR, were consistent with an α-helical structure. The difference in side-chain mobility between the ternary (C⋅I⋅T) and binary (C⋅I) complexes revealed a region of interaction of TnT located at the N-terminal end of the inhibitory sequence, residues 130–135. The above findings for the troponin complex in solution do not support either of the computational models of the binary complex; however, they are in very good agreement with a preliminary report of the x-ray structure of the cardiac ternary complex [Takeda, S. Yamashita, A., Maeda, K. & Maeda, Y. (2002) Biophys. J. 82, 832]. PMID:12239350

  17. Industry update: what is new in the field of therapeutic delivery?

    PubMed

    Harris, Elaine

    2018-02-01

    The present industry update covers the period 1-30 November 2017. Sources of information include company press releases, regulatory and patent agencies' notices, scientific literature and various news websites. A number of companies reported positive clinical trial results for therapeutic candidates enabled by different delivery strategies including Vascular Therapies, Adapt and Altemia. November also saw the announcement of some significant collaborations and acquisitions; Cerenis Therapeutics acquired Lypro Biosciences, which gives them access to a proprietary drug delivery nanotechnology platform, NanoDisk ® , and Takeda announced a collaboration with Portal Instruments to develop a needle-free delivery device for its biological therapeutics. From a patenting perspective, Allergan's strategy of transferring the rights of some of their patents to Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe has drawn scrutiny (and criticism) from US Senators.

  18. Vedolizumab: first global approval.

    PubMed

    Poole, Raewyn M

    2014-07-01

    Vedolizumab [Entyvio(®) (US, Europe)], a humanized monoclonal antibody α4β7 integrin receptor antagonist, has been developed by Millennium Pharmaceuticals (d/b/a Takeda Pharmaceuticals International) for the treatment of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. Vedolizumab has received its first global approval for the treatment of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease in the US, for use in adult patients with moderate-to-severe disease who have had an inadequate response, loss of response or intolerance to one or more standard therapies (corticosteroids, immunomodulators or tumour necrosis factor-α inhibitor) or demonstrated dependence on corticosteroids. Vedolizumab has since been approved for ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease in the EU, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. This article summarizes the milestones in the development of vedolizumab leading to its first approval for the treatment of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.

  19. Donated chemical probes for open science

    PubMed Central

    Ackloo, Suzanne; Arrowsmith, Cheryl H; Bauser, Marcus; Baryza, Jeremy L; Blagg, Julian; Böttcher, Jark; Bountra, Chas; Brown, Peter J; Bunnage, Mark E; Carter, Adrian J; Damerell, David; Dötsch, Volker; Drewry, David H; Edwards, Aled M; Edwards, James; Elkins, Jon M; Fischer, Christian; Frye, Stephen V; Gollner, Andreas; Grimshaw, Charles E; IJzerman, Adriaan; Hanke, Thomas; Hartung, Ingo V; Hitchcock, Steve; Howe, Trevor; Hughes, Terry V; Laufer, Stefan; Li, Volkhart MJ; Liras, Spiros; Marsden, Brian D; Matsui, Hisanori; Mathias, John; O'Hagan, Ronan C; Owen, Dafydd R; Pande, Vineet; Rauh, Daniel; Rosenberg, Saul H; Roth, Bryan L; Schneider, Natalie S; Scholten, Cora; Singh Saikatendu, Kumar; Simeonov, Anton; Takizawa, Masayuki; Tse, Chris; Thompson, Paul R; Treiber, Daniel K; Viana, Amélia YI; Wells, Carrow I; Willson, Timothy M; Zuercher, William J; Knapp, Stefan

    2018-01-01

    Potent, selective and broadly characterized small molecule modulators of protein function (chemical probes) are powerful research reagents. The pharmaceutical industry has generated many high-quality chemical probes and several of these have been made available to academia. However, probe-associated data and control compounds, such as inactive structurally related molecules and their associated data, are generally not accessible. The lack of data and guidance makes it difficult for researchers to decide which chemical tools to choose. Several pharmaceutical companies (AbbVie, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Janssen, MSD, Pfizer, and Takeda) have therefore entered into a pre-competitive collaboration to make available a large number of innovative high-quality probes, including all probe-associated data, control compounds and recommendations on use (https://openscienceprobes.sgc-frankfurt.de/). Here we describe the chemical tools and target-related knowledge that have been made available, and encourage others to join the project. PMID:29676732

  20. Hope or hype in the treatment of schizophrenia - what's the role of the physician?

    PubMed

    Bressan, Rodrigo A; Grohs, Geder E M; Matos, Gabriela; Shergill, Sukhi

    2018-01-01

    According to the experience of people with schizophrenia, their psychiatrists' attitude towards the outcome of their illness is lacking in hope, which directly affects mutual faith in treatment. Here we discuss the scientific basis of hope and show its instrumental role in optimising the best treatment strategies for schizophrenia. Declaration of interest R.A.B has received honoraria for educational input and non-financial support from Ache; honoraria for educational input from Lundbeck; grants, honoraria for educational input and non-financial support from Janssen; all outside the submitted work. G.E.M.G. has received honoraria for educational input and non-financial support from Janssen outside the submitted work. G.M. reports support from Janssen-Cilag, outside the submitted work, and is an employee at Janssen-Cilag. S.S. has received grants and honoraria for educational input from EnVivo Pharmaceuticals, Takeda, AbbVie and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, outside the submitted work.

  1. An industry update: the latest news in therapeutic delivery.

    PubMed

    Harris, Elaine

    2017-11-01

    The present industry update covers the period 1-31 July 2017. Information was sourced primarily from company press releases, regulatory and patent agencies, scientific literature and various news websites. There was positive approval news this month for GlaxoSmithKline for its new self-injecting treatment for systemic lupus erythematosus but less positive news for Ocular Therapeutix, a new drug application for its treatment for postoperative ocular pain, DEXTENZA™ was rejected for a second time. Endo Pharmaceuticals agreed to withdraw its opioid formulation Opana ® Er due to abuse concerns. Collaborations for novel therapeutic delivery research were announced this month by Takeda and BioSurfaces, Catelent and Rutgers University, Lilly and Purdue University and Titan Pharmaceuticals with Walter Reed and the Southwest Research Institute. A number of companies announced significant financing deals to allow for the clinical development of products with enhanced delivery options including Sebacia and Diasome.

  2. Reciprocal interactions between bile acids and gut microbiota in human liver diseases.

    PubMed

    Ikegami, Tadashi; Honda, Akira

    2018-01-01

    The gut microbiota (GM) play a central role in their host's metabolism of bile acids (BAs) by regulating deconjugation, dehydroxylation, dehydrogenation, and epimerization reactions to generate unconjugated free BAs and secondary BAs. These BAs generated by the GM are potent signaling molecules that interact with BA receptors, such as the farnesoid X receptor and Takeda G-protein-coupled receptor 5. Each BA has a differential affinity to these receptors; therefore, alterations in BA composition by GM could modify the intensity of receptor signaling. Bile acids also act as antimicrobial agents by damaging bacterial membranes and as detergents by altering intracellular macromolecular structures. Therefore, BAs and the GM reciprocally control each other's compositions. In this review, we discuss the latest findings on the mutual effects of BAs and GM on each other; we also describe their roles in the pathophysiology of liver disease progression and potential therapeutic applications of targeting this cross-talk. © 2017 The Japan Society of Hepatology.

  3. Vedolizumab as a Treatment for Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.

    PubMed

    Ha, Christina; Kornbluth, Asher

    2014-12-01

    The management of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis has become increasingly complex. With the current utilization of immunosuppressive therapies earlier in the disease course for patients presenting with moderate to severe disease, there is a great need for additional biologic agents targeting inflammatory mediators other than anti-tumor necrosis factor-α (anti-TNF) agents. Although anti-TNF agents have positively impacted the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, many patients can lose their response or develop intolerance to these agents over time through the formation of antidrug antibodies. Furthermore, a sizeable percentage of patients are primary nonresponders to anti-TNF drugs. Vedolizumab (Entyvio, Takeda Pharmaceuticals), a monoclonal antibody to the α4β7 integrin, inhibits gut lymphocyte trafficking and has been demonstrated to be an effective and safe agent for the treatment of both Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. This article reviews the clinical trial evidence and rationale for the use of vedolizumab in moderate to severe Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

  4. Vedolizumab as a Treatment for Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis

    PubMed Central

    Ha, Christina

    2014-01-01

    The management of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis has become increasingly complex. With the current utilization of immunosuppressive therapies earlier in the disease course for patients presenting with moderate to severe disease, there is a great need for additional biologic agents targeting inflammatory mediators other than anti-tumor necrosis factor-α (anti-TNF) agents. Although anti-TNF agents have positively impacted the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, many patients can lose their response or develop intolerance to these agents over time through the formation of antidrug antibodies. Furthermore, a sizeable percentage of patients are primary nonresponders to anti-TNF drugs. Vedolizumab (Entyvio, Takeda Pharmaceuticals), a monoclonal antibody to the α4β7 integrin, inhibits gut lymphocyte trafficking and has been demonstrated to be an effective and safe agent for the treatment of both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. This article reviews the clinical trial evidence and rationale for the use of vedolizumab in moderate to severe Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. PMID:27524947

  5. Ground Motion Studies for Large Future Accelerator

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Takeda, Shigeru; Oide, Katsunobu

    1997-05-01

    The future large accelerator, such as TeV linear collider, should have extremely small emittance to perform the required luminosity. Precise alignment of machine components is essential to prevent emittance dilution. The ground motion spoils alignment of accelerator elements and results in emittance growth. The ground motion in the frequency range of seismic vibration is mostly coherent in the related accelerator. But the incoherent diffusive or Brownian like motion becomes dominant at frequency region less than seismic vibration [1, 2, 3]. Slow ground motion with respect to the machine performance is discussed including the method of tunnel construction. Our experimental results and recent excavated results clarify that application of TBMs is better excavating method than NATM (Drill + Blast) for accelerator tunnel to prevent emittance dilution. ([1] V. Shiltsev, Proc. of IWAA95 Tsukuba, 1995. [2] Shigeru Takeda et al., Proc. of EPAC96, 1996. [3] A. Sery, Proc. of LINAC96, 1996.)

  6. World Antibody-Drug Conjugate Summit, October 15-16, 2013, San Francisco, CA.

    PubMed

    Klinguer-Hamour, Christine; Strop, Pavel; Shah, Dhaval K; Ducry, Laurent; Xu, April; Beck, Alain

    2014-01-01

    The World Antibody-Drug Conjugate (WADC) Summits organized by Hanson Wade are currently the largest meetings fully dedicated to ADCs. The first global ADC Summit was organized in Boston in October 2010. Since 2011, two WADC are held every year in Frankfurt and San Francisco, respectively. The 2013 WADC San Francisco event was structured around plenary sessions with keynote speakers from AbbVie, Agensys, ImmunoGen, Immunomedics, Genentech, Pfizer and Seattle Genetics. Parallel tracks were also organized addressing ADC discovery, development and optimization of chemistry, manufacturing and control (CMC) issues. Discovery and process scientists, regulatory experts (US Food and Drug Administration), academics and clinicians were present, including representatives from biotechnology firms (Concortis, CytomX Therapeutics, Glykos, Evonik, Igenica, Innate Pharma, Mersana Therapeutics, Polytherics, Quanta Biodesign, Redwood Bioscience, Sutro Biopharma, SynAffix), pharmaceutical companies (Amgen, Genmab, Johnson and Johnson, MedImmune, Novartis, Progenics, Takeda) and contract research or manufacturing organizations (Baxter, Bayer, BSP Pharmaceuticals, Fujifilm/Diosynth, Lonza, Pierre Fabre Contract Manufacturing, Piramal, SAFC, SafeBridge).

  7. Curidium Medica, plc.

    PubMed

    Caffo, Nathan A

    2008-05-01

    Curidium Medica, plc is a personalized medicine company intent on developing targeted medicines and their associated companion diagnostics to treat patients more effectively and safely. Through the use of its proprietary gene-expression analysis tool, Homomatrix ® , Curidium aims to reveal different patient subgroups characterized by distinct underlying disease mechanisms. This is anticipated to lead to the identification of diagnostics to subclassify patients within heterogeneous disease populations and improved therapies for different patient subgroups, ultimately resulting in the development of personalized medicines using companion diagnostics and targeted treatments. The company's initial focus on diseases of the CNS has resulted in the identification of a blood diagnostic tool, PsychINDx™, which classifies patients with schizophrenia/bipolar disorder into four subgroups. PsychINDx may have the potential to improve the treatment of patients with schizophrenia/bipolar disorder. Curidium aims to continue to use this approach to improve patient treatments in a variety of therapeutic areas and heterogeneous diseases. The first such additional application using Homomatrix has been initiated within a strategic research alliance with Takeda (Osaka, Japan) in the area of major depressive disorder.

  8. Donated chemical probes for open science.

    PubMed

    Müller, Susanne; Ackloo, Suzanne; Arrowsmith, Cheryl H; Bauser, Marcus; Baryza, Jeremy L; Blagg, Julian; Böttcher, Jark; Bountra, Chas; Brown, Peter J; Bunnage, Mark E; Carter, Adrian J; Damerell, David; Dötsch, Volker; Drewry, David H; Edwards, Aled M; Edwards, James; Elkins, Jon M; Fischer, Christian; Frye, Stephen V; Gollner, Andreas; Grimshaw, Charles E; IJzerman, Adriaan; Hanke, Thomas; Hartung, Ingo V; Hitchcock, Steve; Howe, Trevor; Hughes, Terry V; Laufer, Stefan; Li, Volkhart Mj; Liras, Spiros; Marsden, Brian D; Matsui, Hisanori; Mathias, John; O'Hagan, Ronan C; Owen, Dafydd R; Pande, Vineet; Rauh, Daniel; Rosenberg, Saul H; Roth, Bryan L; Schneider, Natalie S; Scholten, Cora; Singh Saikatendu, Kumar; Simeonov, Anton; Takizawa, Masayuki; Tse, Chris; Thompson, Paul R; Treiber, Daniel K; Viana, Amélia Yi; Wells, Carrow I; Willson, Timothy M; Zuercher, William J; Knapp, Stefan; Mueller-Fahrnow, Anke

    2018-04-20

    Potent, selective and broadly characterized small molecule modulators of protein function (chemical probes) are powerful research reagents. The pharmaceutical industry has generated many high-quality chemical probes and several of these have been made available to academia. However, probe-associated data and control compounds, such as inactive structurally related molecules and their associated data, are generally not accessible. The lack of data and guidance makes it difficult for researchers to decide which chemical tools to choose. Several pharmaceutical companies (AbbVie, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Janssen, MSD, Pfizer, and Takeda) have therefore entered into a pre-competitive collaboration to make available a large number of innovative high-quality probes, including all probe-associated data, control compounds and recommendations on use (https://openscienceprobes.sgc-frankfurt.de/). Here we describe the chemical tools and target-related knowledge that have been made available, and encourage others to join the project. © 2018, Müller et al.

  9. Sm-Nd, Rb-Sr, and Mn-Cr Ages of Yamato 74013

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nyquist, L. E.; Shih, C.- Y.; Reese, Y.D.

    2009-01-01

    Yamato 74013 is one of 29 paired diogenites having granoblastic textures. The Ar-39 - Ar-40 age of Y-74097 is approximately 1100 Ma. Rb-Sr and Sm-Nd analyses of Y-74013, -74037, -74097, and -74136 suggested that multiple young metamorphic events disturbed their isotopic systems. Masuda et al. reported that REE abundances were heterogeneous even within the same sample (Y-74010) for sample sizes less than approximately 2 g. Both they and Nyquist et al. reported data for some samples showing significant LREE enrichment. In addition to its granoblastic texture, Y-74013 is characterized by large, isolated clots of chromite up to 5 mm in diameter. Takeda et al. suggested that these diogenites originally represented a single or very small number of coarse orthopyroxene crystals that were recrystallized by shock processes. They further suggested that initial crystallization may have occurred very early within the deep crust of the HED parent body. Here we report the chronology of Y-74013 as recorded in chronometers based on long-lived Rb-87 and Sm-147, intermediate- lived Sm-146, and short-lived Mn-53.

  10. Pharmacology of Ramelteon, a Selective MT1/MT2 Receptor Agonist: A Novel Therapeutic Drug for Sleep Disorders

    PubMed Central

    Miyamoto, Masaomi

    2009-01-01

    An estimated one-third of the general population is affected by insomnia, and this number is increasing due to more stressful working conditions and the progressive aging of society. However, current treatment of insomnia with hypnotics, gamma-aminobutyric acid A (GABAA) receptor modulators, induces various side effects, including cognitive impairment, motor disturbance, dependence, tolerance, hangover, and rebound insomnia. Ramelteon (Rozerem; Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Osaka, Japan) is an orally active, highly selective melatonin MT1/MT2 receptor agonist. Unlike the sedative hypnotics that target GABAA receptor complexes, ramelteon is a chronohypnotic that acts on the melatonin MT1 and MT2 receptors, which are primarily located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, the body's “master clock.” As such, ramelteon possesses the first new therapeutic mechanism of action for a prescription insomnia medication in over three decades. Ramelteon has demonstrated sleep-promoting effects in clinical trials, and coupled with its favorable safety profile and lack of abuse potential or dependence, this chronohypnotic provides an important treatment option for insomnia. PMID:19228178

  11. Topology changes in a water-oil swirling flow

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Carrión, Luis; Herrada, Miguel A.; Shtern, Vladimir N.

    2017-03-01

    This paper reveals the flow topology hidden in the experimental study by Fujimoto and Takeda ["Topology changes of the interface between two immiscible liquid layers by a rotating lid," Phys. Rev. E 80, 015304(R) (2009)]. Water and silicone oil fill a sealed vertical cylindrical container. The rotating top disk induces the meridional circulation and swirl of both fluids. As the rotation strength Reo increases, the interface takes shapes named, by the authors, hump, cusp, Mt. Fuji, and bell. Our numerical study reproduces the interface geometry and discloses complicated flow patterns. For example at Reo = 752, where the interface has the "Mt. Fuji" shape, the water motion has three bulk cells and the oil motion has two bulk cells. This topology helps explain the interface geometry. In addition, our study finds that the steady axisymmetric flow suffers from the shear-layer instability for Reo > 324, i.e., before the interface becomes remarkably deformed. The disturbance energy is concentrated in the water depth. This explains why the instability does not significantly affect the interface shape in the experiment.

  12. 90Sr specific activity of teeth of abandoned cattle after the Fukushima accident - teeth as an indicator of environmental pollution.

    PubMed

    Koarai, Kazuma; Kino, Yasushi; Takahashi, Atsushi; Suzuki, Toshihiko; Shimizu, Yoshinaka; Chiba, Mirei; Osaka, Ken; Sasaki, Keiichi; Urushihara, Yusuke; Fukuda, Tomokazu; Isogai, Emiko; Yamashiro, Hideaki; Oka, Toshitaka; Sekine, Tsutomu; Fukumoto, Manabu; Shinoda, Hisashi

    2018-03-01

    90 Sr specific activity in the teeth of young cattle that were abandoned in Kawauchi village and Okuma town located in the former evacuation areas of the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP) accident were measured. Additionally, specific activity in contaminated surface soils sampled from the same area was measured. (1) All cattle teeth examined were contaminated with 90 Sr. The specific activity, however, varied depending on the developmental stage of the teeth during the FNPP accident; teeth that had started development before the accident exhibited comparatively lower values, while teeth developed mainly after the accident showed higher values. (2) Values of 90 Sr-specific activity in teeth formed after the FNPP accident were higher than those of the bulk soil but similar to those in the exchangeable fraction (water and CH 3 COONH 4 soluble fractions) of the soil. The findings suggest that 90 Sr was incorporated into the teeth during the process of development, and that 90 Sr in the soluble and/or leachable fractions of the soil might migrate into teeth and contribute to the amount of 90 Sr in the teeth. Thus, the concentration of 90 Sr in teeth formed after the FNPP accident might reflect the extent of 90 Sr pollution in the environment. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Study for Nuclear Structures of 22-35Na Isotopes via Measurements of Reaction Cross Sections

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Suzuki, Shinji

    2014-09-01

    T. Ohtsubo, M. Nagashima, T. Ogura, Y. Shimbara (Grad. Sch. of Sc., Niigata Univ.), M.Takechi, H. Geissel, M. Winkler (GSI), D. Nishimura, T. Sumikama (Dept. of Phys., Tokyo Univ. of Sc.), M. Fukuda, M. Mihara, H. Uenishi (Dept. of Phys., Osaka Univ.), T. Kuboki, T. Suzuki, T. Yamaguchi, H. Furuki, C. S. Lee, K. Sato (Dept. of Phys., Saitama Univ.), A. Ozawa, H. Ohnishi, T. Moriguchi, S. Fukuda, Y. Ishibashi, D. Nagae, R. Nishikiori, T. Niwa (Inst. of Phys., Univ. of Tsukuba), N. Aoi (RCNP), Rui-Jiu Chen, N. Inabe, D. Kameda, T. Kubo, M. Lantz, T. Ohnishi, K. Okumura, H. Sakurai, H. Suzuki, H. Takeda, S. Takeuchi, K. Tanaka, Y. Yanagisawa (RIKEN), De-Qing Fang, Yu-Gang Ma (SINAP), T. Izumikawa (RI Ctr., Niigata Univ.), and S. Momota (Fac. of Engn., Kochi Univ. of Tech.) Reaction cross sections (σR) for 22-35Na isotopes have been measured at around 240 MeV/nucleon. The σR for 22-35Na were measured for the first time. Enhancement in cross sections is clearly observed from the systematics for stable nuclei, for isotopes with large mass numbers. These enhancement can be mainly ascribed to the nuclear deformation. We will discuss the nuclear structure (neutron skin, nuclear shell structure) for neutron-excess Na isotopes. T. Ohtsubo, M. Nagashima, T. Ogura, Y. Shimbara (Grad. Sch. of Sc., Niigata Univ.), M.Takechi, H. Geissel, M. Winkler (GSI), D. Nishimura, T. Sumikama (Dept. of Phys., Tokyo Univ. of Sc.), M. Fukuda, M. Mihara, H. Uenishi (Dept. of Phys., Osaka Univ.), T. Kuboki, T. Suzuki, T. Yamaguchi, H. Furuki, C. S. Lee, K. Sato (Dept. of Phys., Saitama Univ.), A. Ozawa, H. Ohnishi, T. Moriguchi, S. Fukuda, Y. Ishibashi, D. Nagae, R. Nishikiori, T. Niwa (Inst. of Phys., Univ. of Tsukuba), N. Aoi (RCNP), Rui-Jiu Chen, N. Inabe, D. Kameda, T. Kubo, M. Lantz, T. Ohnishi, K. Okumura, H. Sakurai, H. Suzuki, H. Takeda, S. Takeuchi, K. Tanaka, Y. Yanagisawa (RIKEN), De-Qing Fang, Yu-Gang Ma (SINAP), T. Izumikawa (RI Ctr., Niigata Univ.), and S. Momota (Fac. of Engn

  14. Cost Comparison of Urate-Lowering Therapies in Patients with Gout and Moderate-to-Severe Chronic Kidney Disease.

    PubMed

    Mitri, Ghaith; Wittbrodt, Eric T; Turpin, Robin S; Tidwell, Beni A; Schulman, Kathy L

    2016-04-01

    following exception: 50.0% of febuxostat initiators were treated in the second-line setting; that is, they had baseline exposure to allopurinol, whereas only 4.2% of allopurinol initiators had baseline exposure to febuxostat. Unadjusted mean monthly cost was $1,490 allopurinol and $1,525 febuxostat (P = 0.809). GLM results suggest that first-line febuxostat users incurred significantly (P = 0.009) lower cost than allopurinol users ($1,299 vs. $1,487), whereas second-line febuxostat initiators incurred significantly (P = 0.001) higher cost ($1,751 vs. $1,487). Febuxostat initiators in both settings had significantly (P < 0.001) higher gout-specific cost, due to higher febuxostat acquisition cost. Increased gout-specific cost in the first-line febuxostat cohort was offset by significantly (P < 0.001) lower CVD ($288 vs. $459) and renal-related cost ($86 vs. $216). There were no significant differences in either renal or CVD costs (adjusted) between allopurinol initiators treated almost exclusively in the first-line setting and second-line febuxostat patients. Gout patients with concurrent CKD, initiating treatment with febuxostat in a first-line setting, incurred significantly less total cost than patients initiating allopurinol during the first exposure to each agent. Conversely, patients treated with second-line febuxostat following allopurinol incurred significantly higher total cost than patients initiating allopurinol. There was no significant difference in total cost between the agents across line of therapy. Although study findings suggest the potential for CVD and renal-related savings to offset febuxostat's higher acquisition cost in gout patients with moderate-to-severe CKD, this is the first such retrospective evaluation. Future research is warranted to both demonstrate the durability of study findings and to better elucidate the mechanism by which associated cost offsets occur. No outside funding supported this study. Turpin is an employee of Takeda

  15. Cannabidiol-2',6'-dimethyl ether as an effective protector of 15-lipoxygenase-mediated low-density lipoprotein oxidation in vitro.

    PubMed

    Takeda, Shuso; Hirayama, Akari; Urata, Shino; Mano, Nobutaka; Fukagawa, Keiko; Imamura, Midori; Irii, Ayumi; Kitajima, Satomi; Masuyama, Tomoko; Nomiyama, Mai; Tatei, Sachiko; Tomita, Saari; Kudo, Taichi; Noguchi, Momoko; Yamaguchi, Yasuhiro; Okamoto, Yoshiko; Amamoto, Toshiaki; Fukunishi, Yoshifumi; Watanabe, Kazuhito; Omiecinski, Curtis John; Aramaki, Hironori

    2011-01-01

    15-Lipoxygenase (15-LOX) is one of the key enzymes responsible for the formation of oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL), a major causal factor for atherosclerosis. Both enzymatic (15-LOX) and non-enzymatic (Cu(2+)) mechanisms have been proposed for the production of ox-LDL. We have recently reported that cannabidiol-2',6'-dimethyl ether (CBDD) is a selective and potent inhibitor of 15-LOX-catalyzed linoleic acid oxygenation (Takeda et al., Drug Metab. Dispos., 37, 1733-1737 (2009)). In the LDL, linoleic acid is present as cholesteryl linoleate, the major fatty acid esterified to cholesterol, and is susceptible to oxidative modification by 15-LOX or Cu(2+). In this investigation, we examined the efficacy of CBDD on i) 15-LOX-catalyzed oxygenation of cholesteryl linoleate, and ii) ox-LDL formation catalyzed by 15-LOX versus Cu(2+)-mediated non-enzymatic generation of this important mediator. The results obtained demonstrate that CBDD is a potent and selective inhibitor of ox-LDL formation generated by the 15-LOX pathway. These studies establish CBDD as both an important experimental tool for characterizing 15-LOX-mediated ox-LDL formation, and as a potentially useful therapeutic agent for treatment of atherosclerosis.

  16. On the seasonal transition from winter to spring in Europe and the "seasonal feeling" relating to "Fasnacht" in comparison with those in East Asia (Toward an interdisciplinary activity on climate and cultural understanding education)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kato, Kuranoshin; Kato, Haruko; Hamaki, Tatsuya

    2016-04-01

    As mentioned in the introduction of the EGU2016 abstract (Kato et al., submitted to CL5.06/AS4.9), there are many stages with rapid seasonal transitions in East Asia, resulting in the variety of "seasonal feeling". The seasonal cycle has been an important background for generation of the arts. On the other hand, around Germany located near the western edge of the Eurasian Continent, there are so many music or literature works in which the "May" is treated as the special season (comparison of the climate and songs on "spring" (or "May") between Japan and Germany was tried in a book by Kato, H. and K. Kato, although written in Japanese). The Japanese researchers on German Literature suggested that there are basically two seasons "winter" and "summer" around Germany, with the transitional stages of spring and autumn. The concepts of the battle between winter and summer, and driving winter away, and so on, around Germany seem to show rather different seasonal feelings from that around the Japan Islands (Oshio 1982; Miyashita 1982; Takeda 1980). A traditional event there called "Fasnacht" for driving winter away is held in March or slightly earlier stage (Takeda 1980; Ueda and Ebato 1988). Kato et al. (EGU2016, submitted to CL5.06/AS4.9) will report the synoptic climatological features on the seasonal transition from winter to spring in Europe based on the daily data, by comparing with that in East Asia. In this presentation, we will discuss on the climatological background for the "seasonal feeling" leading to such as the battle between winter and summer, driving winter away, including "Fasnacht", also by referring to some songs (children's songs, etc.). At the same time, the analysis results on the seasonal transition from winter to spring in Europe in comparison with those in East Asia by Kato et al. (EGU2016) will be also referred to. On the other hand, although it is around the end of March when the "wintertime pressure pattern" on the daily surface weather maps in

  17. Antidepressants in paediatric depression: do not look back in anger but around in awareness.

    PubMed

    Brent, David A; Gibbons, Robert D; Wilkinson, Paul; Dubicka, Bernadka

    2018-02-01

    In this paper, we summarise and critique a network meta-analysis (NMA) of antidepressant efficacy and tolerability for paediatric depression and an accompanying editorial. Although we agree that many of the extant studies are flawed, this meta-analysis showed clear efficacy of fluoxetine in the NMA, and for sertraline and escitalopram in pairwise analyses. Consequently, these papers underestimate the benefits of antidepressants for paediatric depression, and provide support for current practice guideline, which recommends the use of an antidepressant if the patient does not respond to psychotherapy. In these circumstances, fluoxetine should be the first choice, with escitalopram and sertraline as alternatives. Declaration of interest D.A.B. receives royalties from Guilford Press, has or will receive royalties from the electronic self-rated version of the C-SSRS from eResearch Technology, Inc., is on the editorial board of UpToDate, and is a reviewer for Healthwise. R.D.G. serves as an expert witness for the US Department of Justice, Pfizer, Wyeth and GSK; and is the founder of Adaptive Testing Technologies. P.W. receives personal fees from Lundbeck and Takeda. B.D. reports a licensing agreement with Lundbeck for a psychosocial treatment manual for depression. No other disclosures were reported.

  18. Anti-tumor efficacy of a novel CLK inhibitor via targeting RNA splicing and MYC-dependent vulnerability.

    PubMed

    Iwai, Kenichi; Yaguchi, Masahiro; Nishimura, Kazuho; Yamamoto, Yukiko; Tamura, Toshiya; Nakata, Daisuke; Dairiki, Ryo; Kawakita, Yoichi; Mizojiri, Ryo; Ito, Yoshiteru; Asano, Moriteru; Maezaki, Hironobu; Nakayama, Yusuke; Kaishima, Misato; Hayashi, Kozo; Teratani, Mika; Miyakawa, Shuichi; Iwatani, Misa; Miyamoto, Maki; Klein, Michael G; Lane, Wes; Snell, Gyorgy; Tjhen, Richard; He, Xingyue; Pulukuri, Sai; Nomura, Toshiyuki

    2018-06-01

    The modulation of pre-mRNA splicing is proposed as an attractive anti-neoplastic strategy, especially for the cancers that exhibit aberrant pre-mRNA splicing. Here, we discovered that T-025 functions as an orally available and potent inhibitor of Cdc2-like kinases (CLKs), evolutionally conserved kinases that facilitate exon recognition in the splicing machinery. Treatment with T-025 reduced CLK-dependent phosphorylation, resulting in the induction of skipped exons, cell death, and growth suppression in vitro and in vivo Further, through growth inhibitory characterization, we identified high CLK2 expression or MYC amplification as a sensitive-associated biomarker of T-025. Mechanistically, the level of CLK2 expression correlated with the magnitude of global skipped exons in response to T-025 treatment. MYC activation, which altered pre-mRNA splicing without the transcriptional regulation of CLKs, rendered cancer cells vulnerable to CLK inhibitors with synergistic cell death. Finally, we demonstrated in vivo anti-tumor efficacy of T-025 in an allograft model of spontaneous, MYC-driven breast cancer, at well-tolerated dosage. Collectively, our results suggest that the novel CLK inhibitor could have therapeutic benefits, especially for MYC-driven cancer patients. © 2018 Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Published under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.

  19. Maxillo-Mandibular Cemento-ossifying Fibroma: A Rare Case Report.

    PubMed

    Peravali, Ranjit Kumar; Bhat, H Hari Kishore; Reddy, Sreenatha

    2015-03-01

    Cemento-ossifying fibroma (COF) is a benign fibro osseous lesion of the jaws which has been described as a demarcated or rarely encapsulated neoplasm consisting of fibrous tissue and varying amounts of mineralized material resembling bone and/or cementum (Dinkar et al. in IJDA 2(4):45-47, 2010). Majority of lesions occur in the mandible and only few cases of COFs of the maxillary sinus and bilateral COFs of the mandible have been reported in literature (Dinkar et al. in IJDA 2(4):45-47, 2010; Tamiolakis et al. in Acta Stomatol Croat 39(3):319-321, 2005; Hamner et al. in Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol 26(4):579-587, 1968; Gunaseelan et al. in Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod 104:e21-e25, 2007). These lesions have a very low recurrence rate (Ertug et al. in Quintessence Int 35(10):808-810, 2004) and are generally treated by enucleation. In this paper we present a rare case of COF occurring in both the maxilla and mandible of the same patient. Only one such case (Takeda and Fujioka in Int J Oral Maxillofac Surg 16(3):368-371, 1987) has been reported in literature so far.

  20. Frontal-parietal synchrony in elderly EEG for visual search.

    PubMed

    Phillips, Steven; Takeda, Yuji

    2010-01-01

    Aging involves selective changes in attentional control. However, its precise effect on visual attention is difficult to discern from behavioural studies alone. In this paper, we employ a recently developed phase-locking measure of synchrony as an indicator of top-down/bottom-up control of attention to assess attentional control in the elderly. Fourteen participants (63-74 years) searched for a target item (coloured, oriented rectangular bar) among a display set of distractors. For the feature search condition, where none of the distractors shared a feature with the target, search time did not increase with display set size (two, or four items). For the conjunctive search condition, where each distractor shared either a colour or orientation feature with the target, search time increased with display size. Phase-locking analysis revealed a significant increase in high gamma-band (36-56 Hz) synchrony indicating greater bottom-up control for feature than conjunctive search. In view of our earlier study on younger (21-32 years) adults (Phillips and Takeda, 2009), these results suggest that older participants are more likely to use bottom-up control of attention, possibly triggered by their greater susceptibility to attentional capture, than younger participants. Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  1. Cannabidiol-2′,6′-dimethyl Ether as an Effective Protector of 15-Lipoxygenase-Mediated Low-Density Lipoprotein Oxidation in Vitro

    PubMed Central

    Takeda, Shuso; Hirayama, Akari; Urata, Shino; Mano, Nobutaka; Fukagawa, Keiko; Imamura, Midori; Irii, Ayumi; Kitajima, Satomi; Masuyama, Tomoko; Nomiyama, Mai; Tatei, Sachiko; Tomita, Saari; Kudo, Taichi; Noguchi, Momoko; Yamaguchi, Yasuhiro; Okamoto, Yoshiko; Amamoto, Toshiaki; Fukunishi, Yoshifumi; Watanabe, Kazuhito; Omiecinski, Curtis John; Aramaki, Hironori

    2014-01-01

    15-Lipoxygenase (15-LOX) is one of the key enzymes responsible for the formation of oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL), a major causal factor for atherosclerosis. Both enzymatic (15-LOX) and non-enzymatic (Cu2+) mechanisms have been proposed for the production of ox-LDL. We have recently reported that cannabidiol-2′,6′-dimethyl ether (CBDD) is a selective and potent inhibitor of 15-LOX-catalyzed linoleic acid oxygenation (Takeda et al., Drug Metab. Dispos., 37, 1733–1737 (2009)). In the LDL, linoleic acid is present as cholesteryl linoleate, the major fatty acid esterified to cholesterol, and is susceptible to oxidative modification by 15-LOX or Cu2+. In this investigation, we examined the efficacy of CBDD on i) 15-LOX-catalyzed oxygenation of cholesteryl linoleate, and ii) ox-LDL formation catalyzed by 15-LOX versus Cu2+-mediated non-enzymatic generation of this important mediator. The results obtained demonstrate that CBDD is a potent and selective inhibitor of ox-LDL formation generated by the 15-LOX pathway. These studies establish CBDD as both an important experimental tool for characterizing 15-LOX-mediated ox-LDL formation, and as a potentially useful therapeutic agent for treatment of atherosclerosis. PMID:21804214

  2. Immunogenicity and safety of one versus two doses of tetravalent dengue vaccine in healthy children aged 2-17 years in Asia and Latin America: 18-month interim data from a phase 2, randomised, placebo-controlled study.

    PubMed

    Sáez-Llorens, Xavier; Tricou, Vianney; Yu, Delia; Rivera, Luis; Jimeno, José; Villarreal, Ana Cecilia; Dato, Epiphany; Mazara, Sonia; Vargas, Maria; Brose, Manja; Rauscher, Martina; Tuboi, Suely; Borkowski, Astrid; Wallace, Derek

    2018-02-01

    Development of vaccines that are effective against all four dengue virus serotypes (DENV-1-4) in all age groups is important. Here, we present 18-month interim data from an ongoing study undertaken to assess the immunogenicity and safety of Takeda's tetravalent dengue vaccine (TDV) candidate over 48 months in children living in dengue-endemic countries. We undertook a phase 2, multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study at three sites in the Dominican Republic, Panama, and the Philippines. We randomly assigned children aged 2-17 years to receive either two TDV doses 3 months apart (group 1), one TDV dose (group 2), one TDV dose and a booster dose 1 year later (group 3), or placebo (group 4). We did the randomisation (1:2:5:1) using an interactive web response system stratified by age. The primary endpoint of this 18-month interim analysis was DENV serotype-specific antibody geometric mean titres (GMTs) in the per-protocol immunogenicity subset on days 1, 28, 91, 180, 365, 393, and 540. Secondary safety endpoints were the proportions of participants with serious adverse events and with virologically confirmed dengue in the safety set, and solicited and unsolicited adverse events in the immunogenicity subset. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02302066. Between Dec 5, 2014, and Feb 13, 2015, 1800 children were randomly assigned to group 1 (n=201), group 2 (n=398), group 3 (n=1002), and group 4 (n=199). 1794 participants received at least one dose of TDV or placebo (safety set), of whom 562 participated in the immunogenicity subset and 509 were included in the per-protocol set. Antibody titres remained elevated 18 months after vaccination in all TDV groups. At day 540, in groups 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively, DENV-1 GMTs were 476 (95% CI 286-791), 461 (329-647), 1056 (804-1388), and 92 (49-173); DENV-2 GMTs were 1212 (842-1744), 1242 (947-1628), 1457 (1182-1796), and 177 (93-337); DENV-3 GMTs were 286 (171-478), 298 (205

  3. Isotopic Pu, Am and Cm signatures in environmental samples contaminated by the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident.

    PubMed

    Yamamoto, M; Sakaguchi, A; Ochiai, S; Takada, T; Hamataka, K; Murakami, T; Nagao, S

    2014-06-01

    Dust samples from the sides of roads (black substances) have been collected together with litter and soil samples at more than 100 sites contaminated heavily in the 20-km exclusion zones around Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) (Minamisoma City, and Namie, Futaba and Okuma Towns), in Iitate Village located from 25 to 45 km northwest of the plant and in southern areas from the plant. Isotopes of Pu, Am and Cm have been measured in the samples to evaluate their total releases into the environment from the FDNPP and to get the isotopic compositions among these nuclides. For black substances and litter samples, in addition to Pu isotopes, (241)Am, (242)Cm and (243,244)Cm were determined for most of samples examined, while for soil samples, only Pu isotopes were determined. The results provided a coherent data set on (239,240)Pu inventories and isotopic composition among these transuranic nuclides. When these activity ratios were compared with those for fuel core inventories in the FDNPP accident estimated by a group at JAEA, except (239,240)Pu/(137)Cs activity ratios, fairly good agreements were found, indicating that transuranic nuclides, probably in the forms of fine particles, were released into the environment without their large fractionations. The obtained data may lead to more accurate information about the on-site situation (e.g., burn-up, conditions of fuel during the release phase, etc.), which would be difficult to get otherwise, and more detailed information on the dispersion and deposition processes of transuranic nuclides and the behavior of these nuclides in the environment. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Effect of Trelagliptin on Quality of Life in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Study Protocol.

    PubMed

    Ishii, Hitoshi; Suzaki, Yuki; Miyata, Yuko

    2017-12-01

    Long-term glycemic control in type 2 diabetes is critical to prevent or delay the onset of macrovascular and microvascular complications. Medication adherence is an integral component of type 2 diabetes management. Minimizing the dosing frequency of antidiabetic drugs may reduce treatment burden for patients and improve medication adherence. This study has been proposed to assess the reduction in treatment burden during 12 weeks' administration of trelagliptin, a weekly dosing dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor, compared with a daily dosing DPP-4 inhibitor in patients with type 2 diabetes. This is a multicenter, randomized, open-label, parallel-group, comparative study to be conducted at approximately 15 sites across Japan. A total of 240 patients are to be randomized 1:1 to receive trelagliptin or a daily DPP-4 inhibitor for 12 weeks. Efficacy and safety will be compared between the two groups. The primary endpoint is the change in total score for all items of the diabetes-therapy-related QOL questionnaire from treatment start to treatment end. The study will be conducted with the highest respect for the individual participants in accordance with the protocol, the Declaration of Helsinki, the Ethical Guidelines for Clinical Research, the ICH Consolidated Guideline for Good Clinical Practice, and applicable local laws and regulations. Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited. Japic CTI-173482.

  5. Bile Acid Signaling Pathways from the Enterohepatic Circulation to the Central Nervous System

    PubMed Central

    Mertens, Kim L.; Kalsbeek, Andries; Soeters, Maarten R.; Eggink, Hannah M.

    2017-01-01

    Bile acids are best known as detergents involved in the digestion of lipids. In addition, new data in the last decade have shown that bile acids also function as gut hormones capable of influencing metabolic processes via receptors such as FXR (farnesoid X receptor) and TGR5 (Takeda G protein-coupled receptor 5). These effects of bile acids are not restricted to the gastrointestinal tract, but can affect different tissues throughout the organism. It is still unclear whether these effects also involve signaling of bile acids to the central nervous system (CNS). Bile acid signaling to the CNS encompasses both direct and indirect pathways. Bile acids can act directly in the brain via central FXR and TGR5 signaling. In addition, there are two indirect pathways that involve intermediate agents released upon interaction with bile acids receptors in the gut. Activation of intestinal FXR and TGR5 receptors can result in the release of fibroblast growth factor 19 (FGF19) and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), both capable of signaling to the CNS. We conclude that when plasma bile acids levels are high all three pathways may contribute in signal transmission to the CNS. However, under normal physiological circumstances, the indirect pathway involving GLP-1 may evoke the most substantial effect in the brain. PMID:29163019

  6. Zizyphin modulates calcium signalling in human taste bud cells and fat taste perception in the mouse.

    PubMed

    Murtaza, Babar; Berrichi, Meryem; Bennamar, Chahid; Tordjmann, Thierry; Djeziri, Fatima Z; Hichami, Aziz; Leemput, Julia; Belarbi, Meriem; Ozdener, Hakan; Khan, Naim A

    2017-10-01

    Zizyphin, isolated from Zizyphus sps. leaf extracts, has been shown to modulate sugar taste perception, and the palatability of a sweet solution is increased by the addition of fatty acids. We, therefore, studied whether zizyphin also modulates fat taste perception. Zizyphin was purified from edible fruit of Zizyphus lotus L. Zizyphin-induced increases in [Ca 2+ ]i in human taste bud cells (hTBC). Zizyphin shared the endoplasmic reticulum Ca 2+ pool and also recruited, in part, Ca 2+ from extracellular environment via the opening of store-operated Ca 2+ channels. Zizyphin exerted additive actions on linoleic acid (LA)-induced increases in [Ca 2+ ]i in these cells, indicating that zizyphin does not exert its action via fatty acid receptors. However, zizyphin seemed to exert, at least in part, its action via bile acid receptor Takeda-G-protein-receptor-5 in hTBC. In behavioural tests, mice exhibited preference for both LA and zizyphin. Interestingly, zizyphin increased the preference for a solution containing-LA. This study is the first evidence of the modulation of fat taste perception by zizyphin at the cellular level in hTBC. Our study might be helpful for considering the synthesis of zizyphin analogues as 'taste modifiers' with a potential in the management of obesity and lipid-mediated disorders. © 2017 Société Française de Pharmacologie et de Thérapeutique.

  7. Asthma-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease overlap syndrome in Poland. Findings of an epidemiological study.

    PubMed

    Brzostek, Dorota; Kokot, Marek

    2014-12-01

    Recent years have seen an increased interest in asthma-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) overlap syndrome (ACOS). In 2012, Takeda Polska conducted a non-interventional epidemiological study aimed at identifying the typical phenotype of ACOS patients receiving pulmonary care. The study enrolled a total of 12,103 of smoking patients above 45 years of age (mean age: 61.5 years; mean duration of smoking: 28.4 pack-years). A total of 68.6% of patients represented the frequent-exacerbation phenotype (mean number of exacerbations during 12 months: 2.11), and 56.4% of patients from the group comprising 12,103 participants were hospitalized at least once during their lifetime due to a respiratory system disease (mean number: 3.82 ±3.76). The most commonly found asthma symptoms included paroxysmal dyspnoea with wheezing, and good response to inhaled steroids. The most frequently identified COPD-associated symptoms were: long-lasting reduction in forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) (< 80% after administering a bronchodilator) and chronic productive cough. Eighty-five percent of patients were diagnosed with concomitant diseases, predominantly arterial hypertension (62.9%) and metabolic diseases (metabolic syndrome, obesity, type 2 diabetes - 46.4% in total). A clinically severe course of ACOS and the presence of concomitant diseases should be regarded as factors justifying an individual selection of inhalation therapy which specifically takes into account anti-inflammatory treatment and patient safety.

  8. Potential use of bitter melon (Momordica charantia) derived compounds as antidiabetics: In silico and in vivo studies.

    PubMed

    Elekofehinti, Olusola Olalekan; Ariyo, Esther Opeyemi; Akinjiyan, Moses Orimoloye; Olayeriju, Olanrewaju Sam; Lawal, Akeem Olalekan; Adanlawo, Isaac Gbadura; Rocha, Joao Batista Teixeira

    2018-05-12

    Momordica charantia (bitter lemon) belongs to the cucurbitaceae family which has been extensively used in traditional medicines for the cure of various ailments such as cancer and diabetes. The underlying mechanism of M. charantia to maintain glycemic control was investigated. GLP-1 and DPP-4 gene modulation by M. charantia (5-20% inclusion in rats diet) was investigated in vivo by RT-PCR and possible compounds responsible for diabetic action predicted through in silico approach. Phytochemicalss previously characterized from M. charantia were docked into glucacon like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1r), dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP4) and Takeda-G-protein-receptor-5 (TGR5) predicted using Autodock Vina. The results of the in silico suggests momordicosides D (ligand for TGR5), cucurbitacin (ligand for GLP-1r) and charantin (ligand for DPP-4) as the major antidiabetic compounds in bitter lemon leaf. M. charantia increased the expression of GLP-1 by about 295.7% with concomitant decreased in expression of DPP-4 by 87.2% with 20% inclusion in rat's diet. This study suggests that the mechanism underlying the action of these compounds is through activation of TGR5 and GLP-1 receptor with concurrent inhibition of DPP4. This study confirmed the use of this plant in diabetes management and the possible bioactive compounds responsible for its antidiabetic property are charantin, cucurbitacin and momordicoside D and all belong to the class of saponins. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. [Dengue, zika, chikungunya and the development of vaccines].

    PubMed

    Kantor, Isabel N

    2018-01-01

    Dengue (DENV), zika (ZIKV) and chikungunya (CHIKV), three arbovirosis transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, have spread in recent decades in humid tropical and subtropical zones. Dengue is epidemic in subtropical areas of Argentina. DENV infection confers lasting immunity against the infecting serotype but increases the risk of serious disease upon reinfection by any of the other three. The recombinant tetravalent vaccine Dengvaxia® prevents severe dengue and hospitalization in seropositive subjects. In 2017, Dengvaxia was approved in Argentina, for ages 9 to 45, but is not included in the national vaccination calendar. Two other vaccines are in Phase III evaluation: one developed by NIAID / Instituto Butantan and the other by Takeda. ZIKV, a virus associated with microcephaly in newborns in Brazil, circulates since 2016 in Argentina. There is still not effective treatment nor vaccine with proven activity against ZIKV. There has been no active circulation of CHIKV in Argentina in 2017. Outbreaks of CHIKV fever have a complication: the development of chronic post-disease rheumatism. There are not approved vaccines for humans nor effective antiviral therapies. The seriousness of these virosis has contributed to a rapid progress in the knowledge of the infection processes and the immune response. For now, Aedes aegypti and A. albopictus vectors continue to expand, suggesting that the vaccine will be the most effective means of controlling these viruses. Here we summarize information about these arbovirosis in Argentina and Brazil and describe advances in the development and evaluation of vaccines.

  10. [Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya].

    PubMed

    Kantor, Isabel N

    2016-01-01

    Arboviruses are transmitted by arthropods, including those responsible for the current pandemic: alphavirus (Chikungunya) and flaviviruses (dengue and Zika). Its importance increased in the Americas over the past 20 years. The main vectors are Aedes aegypti and A. albopictus. Dengue infection provides long lasting immunity against the specific serotype and temporary to the other three. Subsequent infection by another serotype determines more serious disease. There is a registered vaccine for dengue, Dengvaxia (Sanofi Pasteur). Other two (Butantan and Takeda) are in Phase III in 2016. Zika infection is usually asymptomatic or occurs with rash, conjunctivitis and not very high fever. There is no vaccine or specific treatment. It can be transmitted by parental, sexual and via blood transfusion. It has been associated with microcephaly. Chikungunya causes prolonged joint pain and persistent immune response. Two candidate vaccines are in Phase II. Dengue direct diagnosis is performed by virus isolation, RT-PCR and ELISA for NS1 antigen detection; indirect methods are ELISA-IgM (cross-reacting with other flavivirus), MAC-ELISA, and plaque neutralization. Zika is diagnosed by RT-PCR and virus isolation. Serological diagnosis cross-reacts with other flavivirus. For CHIKV culture, RT-PCR, MAC-ELISA and plaque neutralization are used. Against Aedes organophosphate larvicides (temephos), organophosphorus insecticides (malathion and fenitrothion) and pyrethroids (permethrin and deltamethrin) are usually employed. Resistance has been described to all these products. Vegetable derivatives are less expensive and biodegradable, including citronella oil, which microencapsulated can be preserved from evaporation.

  11. Confirmation of gastric tube bedside placement with the sky blue method.

    PubMed

    Imamura, Takashi; Maeda, Hajime; Kinoshita, Hidetoshi; Shibukawa, Yasuko; Suda, Kiyomi; Fukuda, Yutaka; Goto, Aya; Nagasawa, Katsutoshi

    2014-02-01

    The purpose was to review our experiences and determine if applying the sky blue method is reliable in confirming gastric tube (GT) placement in neonates. The study population consisted of 44 infants (55 placements) who were admitted to the Takeda General Hospital between April 2012 and March 2013 and who required GT exchange. The sky blue method using indigo carmine (IC) was indicated for planned tube exchange only. Diluted IC was injected into the gastric space via the old GT just before the tube exchange. The tube was exchanged using a standard method. Then, we checked whether the diluted IC could be collected through the new GT or not. The reasons for GT placement were a gestational age of < 35 weeks in 31 (56.4%), poor sucking or swallowing disorders in 17 (30.4%), and respiratory disorders in 7 (12.7%) of the 55 placements. GT placement using the sky blue method was considered successful in 52 placements (94.4%), with the remaining 3 placements (5.6%) considered to be failures due to the inability to obtain IC from the gastric space. No adverse events were observed during the tube exchange period. Based on the results, the sky blue method can be considered to be reliable method for the confirmation of GT placement. These results also suggest that the number of radiologic evaluations performed to confirm correct replacement of the GT in infants can be reduced in the future.

  12. Penicillin-binding protein 4 of Escherichia coli: molecular cloning of the dacB gene, controlled overexpression, and alterations in murein composition.

    PubMed

    Korat, B; Mottl, H; Keck, W

    1991-03-01

    The penicillin-binding protein 4 (PBP4), from Escherichia coli, a DD-carboxypeptidase/DD-endopeptidase, was purified in an enzymatically active form to homogeneity by affinity chromatography on 6-aminopenicillanic acid/Sepharose and heparin/Sepharose. Polyclonal antibodies raised against the pure protein were used to identify and isolate PBP4 overproducing clones from an E. coli expression library, which was established on the basis of a temperature-inducible runaway replication plasmid. Three positive clones were isolated, one of which carried the intact structural gene dacB that codes for PBP4, on a 1.9kb SmaI-EcoRI fragment, whereas the other two carried truncated forms of this gene. The direction of transcription was determined. The PBP4 overproducing strain, when grown in rich medium, tolerated 160-fold overexpression. After disrupting cells by sonication, the majority (80%) of the overproduced PBP4 was detected in the 100,000 X g supernatant. Southern blotting analysis using the cloned dacB gene as a probe revealed that, in contrast to that described by Takeda et al. (1981), the plasmid pLC18-38 of the Clarke-Carbon collection does not code for PBP4. The overall composition of murein, synthesized in vitro or in vivo by the PBP4 overproducing strain, as determined by high-performance liquid chromatography analysis, suggests that PBP4 is not involved in transpeptidation but exclusively catalyses a DD-carboxypeptidase and DD-endopeptidase reaction.

  13. In vitro comparison of two widely used surgical sealants for treating alveolar air leak.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Ruoyu; Bures, Maximilian; Höffler, Klaus; Jonigk, Danny; Haverich, Axel; Krueger, Marcus

    2014-12-01

    Controversies surrounding the efficacy of sealants against alveolar air leak (AAL) are abundant in the literature. We sought to test the widely used sealants, TachoSil (Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Osaka, Japan) and BioGlue (CryoLife Europa Ltd., Surrey, United Kingdom) in an in vitro model. Materials and After creation of a focal superficial defect (40 × 25 mm) in swine lungs (n=40), AAL was assessed with increasing inspired tidal volume (TVi). Upon sealant application in a randomized order, AAL was assessed in the same way until sealant burst. At TVi =400, 500, 600, and 700 mL, BioGlue achieved sealing in 19, 19, 16, and 14 tests, while TachoSil sealed in 19, 14, 4, and no test, respectively. The maximally tolerated pressure of BioGlue was higher than TachoSil (40.3 ± 3.0 vs. 36.0 ± 4.9 cm H2O, p=0.003). Cohesive and adhesive failures were found in 10 and 1 tests of BioGlue, respectively, while all burst failures of TachoSil were adhesive. Concerning elasticity, TachoSil allowed more expansion of the covered defect than BioGlue (6.3 ± 3.9 vs. 1.4 ± 1.0 mm, p<0.001). The tested sealants demonstrated high sealing efficacy. While BioGlue was superior in resisting higher ventilation pressure, TachoSil possessed better elasticity. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

  14. Self-duality and phase structure of the 4D random-plaquette Z2 gauge model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Arakawa, Gaku; Ichinose, Ikuo; Matsui, Tetsuo; Takeda, Koujin

    2005-03-01

    In the present paper, we shall study the 4-dimensional Z lattice gauge model with a random gauge coupling; the random-plaquette gauge model (RPGM). The random gauge coupling at each plaquette takes the value J with the probability 1-p and - J with p. This model exhibits a confinement-Higgs phase transition. We numerically obtain a phase boundary curve in the (p-T)-plane where T is the "temperature" measured in unit of J/k. This model plays an important role in estimating the accuracy threshold of a quantum memory of a toric code. In this paper, we are mainly interested in its "self-duality" aspect, and the relationship with the random-bond Ising model (RBIM) in 2-dimensions. The "self-duality" argument can be applied both for RPGM and RBIM, giving the same duality equations, hence predicting the same phase boundary. The phase boundary curve obtained by our numerical simulation almost coincides with this predicted phase boundary at the high-temperature region. The phase transition is of first order for relatively small values of p<0.08, but becomes of second order for larger p. The value of p at the intersection of the phase boundary curve and the Nishimori line is regarded as the accuracy threshold of errors in a toric quantum memory. It is estimated as p=0.110±0.002, which is very close to the value conjectured by Takeda and Nishimori through the "self-duality" argument.

  15. Characterization of the protective capacity and immunogenicity of the 69-kD outer membrane protein of Bordetella pertussis

    PubMed Central

    1990-01-01

    Immunization with the 69-kD outer membrane protein (OMP) of Bordetella pertussis protected neonatal mice against lethal respiratory challenge with B. pertussis 18323. Active immunization elicited a serum IgG anti- 69-kD OMP response at the time of challenge, with IgG anti-69-kD OMP antibodies detected in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid after challenge. Intravenous administration of BPE8, a monoclonal IgG1 anti-69-kD OMP, also protected young mice against B. pertussis challenge. Intravenously injected BPE8 was detected in the lungs of mice at the time of aerosol challenge, suggesting that the presence of specific antibody in the lungs may mediate protection. Thus the 69-kD OMP of B. pertussis is a protective antigen in mice that elicits specific serum antibody that can transude to the lung. The 69-kD OMP was detected in a preparation of a Takeda acellular vaccine by immunoblot analysis and a serum antibody response to the 69-kD OMP was observed in 18-mo-old children boosted with this preparation of Japanese acellular vaccine. Our results demonstrate that the B. pertussis 69-kD OMP is a protective antigen in animals, is immunogenic in humans, and is present in a preparation of acellular pertussis vaccine that is widely used in Japan. These findings indicate that the 69-kD OMP should be seriously considered as a candidate for inclusion in new formulations of antigenically defined acellular pertussis vaccines. PMID:2295882

  16. Flavonoid-rich extract of Chromolaena odorata modulate circulating GLP-1 in Wistar rats: computational evaluation of TGR5 involvement.

    PubMed

    Omotuyi, Olaposi Idowu; Nash, Oyekanmi; Inyang, Olumide Kayode; Ogidigo, Joyce; Enejoh, Ojochenemi; Okpalefe, Okiemute; Hamada, Tsuyoshi

    2018-02-01

    Chromolaena odorata is a major bio-resource in folkloric treatment of diabetes. In the present study, its anti-diabetic component and underlying mechanism were investigated. A library containing 140 phytocompounds previously characterized from C. odorata was generated and docked (Autodock Vina) into homology models of dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP)-4, Takeda-G-protein-receptor-5 (TGR5), glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1) receptor, renal sodium dependent glucose transporter (SGLUT)-1/2 and nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain (NOD) proteins 1&2. GLP-1 gene (RT-PCR) modulation and its release (EIA) by C. odorata were confirmed in vivo. From the docking result above, TGR5 was identified as a major target for two key C. odorata flavonoids (5,7-dihydroxy-6-4-dimethoxyflavanone and homoesperetin-7-rutinoside); sodium taurocholate and C. odorata powder included into the diet of the animals both raised the intestinal GLP-1 expression versus control ( p  < 0.05); When treated with flavonoid-rich extract of C. odorata (CoF) or malvidin, circulating GLP-1 increased by 130.7% in malvidin-treated subjects (0 vs. 45 min). CoF treatment also resulted in 128.5 and 275% increase for 10 and 30 mg/kg b.w., respectively. The results of this study support that C. odorata flavonoids may modulate the expression of GLP-1 and its release via TGR5. This finding may underscore its anti-diabetic potency.

  17. Repositioning Of Tak-475 In Mevalonate Kinase Disease: Translating Theory Into Practice.

    PubMed

    Marcuzzi, Annalisa; Loganes, Claudia; Celeghini, Claudio; Kleiner, Giulio

    2017-09-11

    Mevalonate Kinase Deficiency (MKD, OMIM #610377) is a rare autosomal recessive metabolic and inflammatory disease. In MKD, defective function of the enzyme mevalonate kinase (MK), due to a mutation in the MVK gene, leads to the shortage of mevalonate-derived intermediates, which results in unbalanced prenylation of proteins and altered metabolism of sterols. These defects lead to a complex multisystem inflammatory and metabolic syndrome. Although biologic therapies aimed at blocking the inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1 (IL-1) can significantly reduce inflammation, they cannot completely control the clinical symptoms that affects the nervous system. For this reason, MKD can still be considered an orphan drug disease. Cellular models for MKD can be obtained by biochemical inhibition of mevalonate-derived isoprenoids. Of note, these cells present an exaggerated response to inflammatory stimuli that can be reduced by treatment with zaragozic acid, an inhibitor of squalene synthase (SQS) able to increase the availability of isoprenoids intermediates upstream the enzymatic block. A similar action might be obtained by lapaquistat acetate (TAK-475, Takeda), a drug that underwent extensive clinical trials as a cholesterol lowering agent 10 years ago, with a good safety profile. Here we describe the preclinical evidence supporting the possible repositioning of TAK-475 from its originally intended use to the treatment of MKD and discuss its potential to modulate the mevalonate pathway in inflammatory diseases. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

  18. Which Dengue Vaccine Approach Is the Most Promising, and Should We Be Concerned about Enhanced Disease after Vaccination? There Is Only One True Winner.

    PubMed

    Halstead, Scott B

    2018-06-01

    The scientific community now possesses information obtained directly from human beings that makes it possible to understand why breakthrough-enhanced dengue virus (DENV) infections occurred in children receiving Sanofi Pasteur's Dengvaxia tetravalent live attenuated vaccine and to predict the possibility of breakthrough-enhanced DENV infections following immunization with two other tetravalent live attenuated vaccines now in phase III testing. Based upon recent research, Dengvaxia, lacking DENV nonstructural protein antigens, did not protect seronegatives because it failed to raise a competent T-cell response and/or antibodies to NS1. It is also possible that chimeric structure does not present the correct virion conformation permitting the development of protective neutralizing antibodies. A premonitory signal shared by the Sanofi Pasteur and the Takeda vaccines was the failure of fully immunized subhuman primates to prevent low-level viremia and/or anamnestic antibody responses to live DENV challenge. The vaccine developed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (National Institutes of Health [NIH]) has met virtually all of the goals needed to demonstrate preclinical efficacy and safety for humans. Each monovalent vaccine was comprehensively studied for reactogenicity and immunogenicity in human volunteers. Protective immunity in subjects receiving tetravalent candidate vaccines was evidenced by the fact that when vaccinated subjects were given further doses of vaccine or different strains of DENV the result was "solid immunity," a nonviremic and nonanamnestic immune response. Copyright © 2018 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; all rights reserved.

  19. Pre-bombardment crystallization ages of basaltic clasts from Antarctic howardites EET87503 and EET87513

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nyquist, L. E.; Shih, C.-Y.; Wiesmann, H.; Bansal, B. M.

    1994-01-01

    Igneous clasts of basaltic eucrites are found in both howardites and polymict eucrites. We have studied the Rb-Sr and Sm-Nd isotopic systematics of a number of such clasts, of metamorphic grades 1-6, using the classification of Takeda and Graham. Here, we report Rb-Sr, (147)Sm-(143)Nd, and (145)Sm-(142)Nd studies of clast, 53 from Antarctic howardite EET87503. Although there is no evidence of disturbance of trace element systematics by Antarctic weathering, the Rb-Sr and conventional Sm-Nd isotopic systematics are severely disturbed, which we ascribe to thermal metamorphism. The Ar-Ar age spectrum shows ages ranging from approximately 3.85-3.55 Ga in an unusual 'down stairstep'. The (146)Sm-(142)Nd systematics, however, show the presence of live (146)Sm(t(sub 1/2) = 103 Ma), with (146)Sm/(144)Sm = 0.0061 +/- 0.0007 at the time of crystallization. This result is very similar to that previously obtained for basaltic clast, 18 from howardite EET87513 (paired with EET87503), which has concordant Rb-Sr and Sm-Nd ages of approximately 4.5 Ga. Thus, the two clasts are nearly the same age, and we conclude further than the EET87503,53 clast crystallized within 33 +/- 19 Ma of the LEW86010 angrite by comparing initial (146)Sm/(144)Sm to that of the angrite. We suggest that disturbances in the isotopic systematics of EET87503,53 are consanguineous with pyroxene homogenization.

  20. Identification of Species in Tripterygium (Celastraceae) Based on DNA Barcoding.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Xiaomei; Li, Na; Yao, Yuanyuan; Liang, Xuming; Qu, Xianyou; Liu, Xiang; Zhu, Yingjie; Yang, Dajian; Sun, Wei

    2016-11-01

    Species of genus Tripterygium (Celastraceae) have attracted much attention owing to their excellent effect on treating autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. However, due to high market demand causing overexploitation, natural populations of genus Tripterygium have rapidly declined. Tripterygium medicinal materials are mainly collected from the wild, making the quality of medicinal materials unstable. Additionally, identification of herbal materials from Tripterygium species and their adulterants is difficult based on morphological characters. Therefore, an accurate, convenient, and stability method is urgently needed. In this wok, we developed a DNA barcoding technique to distinguish T. wilfordii HOOK. f., T. hypoglaucum (LÉVL.) HUTCH, and T. regelii SPRAGUE et TAKEDA and their adulterants based on four uniform and standard DNA regions (internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2), matK, rbcL, and psbA-trnH). DNA was extracted from 26 locations of fresh leaves. Phylogenetic tree was constructed with Neighbor-Joining (NJ) method, while barcoding gap was analyzed to assess identification efficiency. Compared with the other DNA barcodes applied individually or in combination, ITS2+psbA-trnH was demonstrated as the optimal barcode. T. hypoglaucum and T. wilfordii can be considered as conspecific, while T. regelii was recognized as a separate species. Furthermore, identification of commercial Tripterygium samples was conducted using BLAST against GenBank and Species Identification System for Traditional Chinese Medicine. Our results indicated that DNA barcoding is a convenient, effective, and stability method to identify and distinguish Tripterygium and its adulterants, and could be applied as the quality control for Tripterygium medicinal preparations and monitoring of the medicinal herb trade in markets.

  1. Efficacy and Safety of Vedolizumab in Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease Patients Stratified by Age.

    PubMed

    Yajnik, Vijay; Khan, Nabeel; Dubinsky, Marla; Axler, Jeffrey; James, Alexandra; Abhyankar, Brihad; Lasch, Karen

    2017-02-01

    The efficacy and safety of vedolizumab, a gut-selective α 4 β 7 integrin antibody, were demonstrated in the GEMINI 1 and GEMINI 2 clinical trials of adults aged 18-80 years. We investigated the efficacy and safety of vedolizumab in patients stratified by age from the GEMINI trials. Safety and efficacy, including clinical response, clinical remission, and corticosteroid-free remission, at week 6 and/or 52 were determined post hoc in patients aged <35, 35 to <55, and ≥55 years. At baseline, 353, 412, and 130 ulcerative colitis (UC) and 582, 443, and 90 Crohn's disease (CD) patients were aged <35, 35 to <55, and ≥55. Of these patients, 56 were aged ≥65 years (UC: 33, CD: 23). Trends favoring vedolizumab over placebo were observed for most efficacy endpoints irrespective of patient age; some variability between subgroups was observed. Safety profiles of vedolizumab and placebo were similar in all age groups. Vedolizumab-treated patients aged ≥55 had the lowest incidence of serious infections (0.9 per 100 person-years) and adverse events leading to hospitalization (14.8 per 100 person-years). There were no age-related differences in the incidence of adverse hematological events, malignancy, or death. The safety and efficacy of vedolizumab in patients with UC or CD were similar for all age groups. The number of patients in the oldest age group in these analyses was small; thus further studies of vedolizumab in larger cohorts of elderly patients are warranted. Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (d/b/a Takeda Pharmaceuticals International Co.).

  2. Behavior of accidentally released radiocesium in soil-water environment: Looking at Fukushima from a Chernobyl perspective.

    PubMed

    Konoplev, A; Golosov, V; Laptev, G; Nanba, K; Onda, Y; Takase, T; Wakiyama, Y; Yoshimura, K

    2016-01-01

    Quantitative characteristics of dissolved and particulate radiocesium wash-off from contaminated watersheds after the FDNPP accident are calculated based on published monitoring data. Comparative analysis is provided for radiocesium wash-off parameters and distribution coefficients, Kd, between suspended matter and water in rivers and surface runoff on Fukushima and Chernobyl contaminated areas for the first years after the accidents. It was found that radiocesium distribution coefficient in Fukushima rivers is essentially higher (1-2 orders of magnitude) than corresponding values for rivers and surface runoff within the Chernobyl zone. This can be associated with two factors: first, the high fraction of clays in the predominant soils and sediments of the Fukushima area and accordingly a higher value of the radiocesium Interception Potential, RIP, in general, and secondly the presence of water insoluble glassy particles containing radiocesium in the accidental fallout at Fukushima. It was found also that normalized dissolved wash-off coefficients for Fukushima catchments are 1-2 orders of magnitude lower than corresponding values for the Chernobyl zone. Normalized particulate wash-off coefficients are comparable for Fukushima and Chernobyl. Results of the investigation of radiocesium's ((134)Cs and (137)Cs) vertical distribution in soils of the close-in area of the Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP - Okuma town and floodplain of the Niida river are presented. The radiocesium migration in undisturbed forest and grassland soils at Fukushima contaminated area has been shown to be faster as compared to the Chernobyl 30-km zone during the first three years after the accidents. This may be associated with higher annual precipitation (by about 2.5 times) in Fukushima as compared to the Chernobyl zone, as well as the differences in the soil characteristics and temperature regime throughout a year. Investigation and analysis of Fukushima's radiocesium distribution in soils of Niida

  3. Assessment of the Target Engagement and D-Serine Biomarker Profiles of the D-Amino Acid Oxidase Inhibitors Sodium Benzoate and PGM030756.

    PubMed

    Howley, Eimear; Bestwick, Michael; Fradley, Rosa; Harrison, Helen; Leveridge, Mathew; Okada, Kengo; Fieldhouse, Charlotte; Farnaby, Will; Canning, Hannah; Sykes, Andy P; Merchant, Kevin; Hazel, Katherine; Kerr, Catrina; Kinsella, Natasha; Walsh, Louise; Livermore, David G; Hoffman, Isaac; Ellery, Jonathan; Mitchell, Phillip; Patel, Toshal; Carlton, Mark; Barnes, Matt; Miller, David J

    2017-11-01

    Irregular N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) function is one of the main hypotheses employed to facilitate understanding of the underlying disease state of schizophrenia. Although direct agonism of the NMDAR has not yielded promising therapeutics, advances have been made by modulating the NMDAR co-agonist site which is activated by glycine and D-serine. One approach to activate the co-agonist site is to increase synaptic D-serine levels through inhibition of D-amino acid oxidase (DAO), the major catabolic clearance pathway for this and other D-amino acids. A number of DAO inhibitors have been developed but most have not entered clinical trials. One exception to this is sodium benzoate which has demonstrated efficacy in small trials of schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease. Herein we provide data on the effect of sodium benzoate and an optimised Takeda compound, PGM030756 on ex vivo DAO enzyme occupancy and cerebellar D-serine levels in mice. Both compounds achieve high levels of enzyme occupancy; although lower doses of PGM030756 (1, 3 and 10 mg/kg) were required to achieve this compared to sodium benzoate (300, 1000 mg/kg). Cerebellar D-serine levels were increased by both agents with a delay of approximately 6 h after dosing before the peak effect was achieved. Our data and methods may be useful in understanding the effects of sodium benzoate that have been seen in clinical trials of schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease and to support the potential clinical assessment of other DAO inhibitors, such as PGM030756, which demonstrate good enzyme occupancy and D-serine increases following administration of low oral doses.

  4. Exposure to candesartan during the first trimester of pregnancy in type 1 diabetes: experience from the placebo-controlled DIabetic REtinopathy Candesartan Trials.

    PubMed

    Porta, M; Hainer, J W; Jansson, S-O; Malm, A; Bilous, R; Chaturvedi, N; Fuller, J H; Klein, R; Orchard, T; Parving, H-H; Sjølie, A-K

    2011-06-01

    The teratogenic consequences of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy are well described. However, the consequences of exposure during the first trimester are unclear, especially in diabetes. We report the experience from DIRECT (DIabetic REtinopathy and Candesartan Trials), three placebo-controlled studies designed to examine the effects of an ARB, candesartan, on diabetic retinopathy. Over 4 years or longer, 178 normotensive women with type 1 diabetes (86 randomised to candesartan, 32 mg once daily, and 92 assigned to placebo) became pregnant (total of 208 pregnancies). More than half of patients were exposed to candesartan or placebo prior to or in early pregnancy, but all discontinued it at an estimated 8 weeks from the last menstrual period. Full-term pregnancies (51 vs 50), premature deliveries (21 vs 27), spontaneous miscarriages (12 vs 15), elective terminations (15 vs 14) and other outcomes (1 vs 2) were similar in the candesartan and placebo groups. There were two stillbirths and two 'sick babies' in the candesartan group, and one stillbirth, eight 'sick babies' and one cardiac malformation in the placebo group. The risk for fetal consequences of ARBs in type 1 diabetes may not be high if exposure is clearly limited to the first trimester. Long-term studies in fertile women can be conducted with ARBs during pregnancy, provided investigators diligently stop their administration upon planning or detection of pregnancy. ClinicalTrials.gov DIRECT-Prevent 1 NCT00252733; DIRECT-Protect 1 NCT00252720; DIRECT-Protect 2 NCT00252694. The study was funded jointly by AstraZeneca and Takeda.

  5. Further Evidence for Geochemical Diversity, and Possible Bimodality, Among Cumulate Eucrites

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Warren, P. H.; Kallemeyn, G. W.

    1992-07-01

    We have used INAA, RNAA, and fused-bead analysis to determine the bulk compositions of numerous Antarctic eucrites (and also the LEW88516 SNC meteorite). Only a few of the most unusual eucrites can be discussed in the limited space here. Takeda et al. (1988) noted that Y791195 is a slowly cooled eucrite, with an equant, medium-grained texture, and pyroxene exsolution lamellae up to 10 micrometers across. In Y791195,81-3, we find lamellae up to 14 micrometers across. In this respect, Y791195 resembles RKPA80224, in which exsolution lamellae up to 12 micrometers across. We have previously discussed the evidence that RKPA80224 is a mildly accumulative rock that formed from an unusually low-mg parent melt. Our second analysis of RKPA80224 only partly confirms the unusually low incompatible trace element (ITE) content, but the Ce anomaly is consistently small (Ce/La = 0.90-1.02 x CI), and based on a weighted mean composition the implied parent melt is still unlike any noncumulate eucrite (see Fig. 1, which shows results from mass balance calculations modeling the sample as a mixture of cumulus px and plag, plus trapped melt). A parent melt similar to an extreme low-mg, variant of the "Nuevo Laredo Trend" would plausibly account for RKPA80224. The spectrum of possible parents for Y791195 is similar, even though its "true" Sm content is slightly obscured by weathering (Ce/La = 1.4 x CI). The [Sm] used in the figure is scaled to the highest CI-normalized REE concentration. Data of Mittlefehldt and Lindstrom (1991) indicate that except for exterior samples "showing extreme rustiness," Sm even in weathered eucrites is generally not altered beyond a few tens of pct. relative (sample size seems to account for more of the variation in [Sm] among interior, non-rusty samples). Even assuming a Sm content twice that assumed in the figure, the parent melt still must be well to the low-MgO/FeO, low-Sm side of all known eucrites. The LEW87002 eucrite is brecciated, but probably

  6. Ketamine: stimulating antidepressant treatment?

    PubMed

    Malhi, Gin S; Byrow, Yulisha; Cassidy, Frederick; Cipriani, Andrea; Demyttenaere, Koen; Frye, Mark A; Gitlin, Michael; Kennedy, Sidney H; Ketter, Terence A; Lam, Raymond W; McShane, Rupert; Mitchell, Alex J; Ostacher, Michael J; Rizvi, Sakina J; Thase, Michael E; Tohen, Mauricio

    2016-05-01

    SmithKline, and Sunovion Pharmaceuticals; royalties from American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc. Also, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP provided publication support to Parexel for preparation of a manuscript. Spouse employee and stockholder of Janssen Pharmaceuticals. R.W.L. Honoraria for speaking/advising/consulting, and/or received research funds: AstraZeneca, Brain Canada, Bristol Myers Squibb, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canadian Depression Research and Intervention Network, Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments, Canadian Psychiatric Association, Coast Capital Savings, Johnson and Johnson, Lundbeck, Lundbeck Institute, Pfizer, Servier, St. Jude Medical, Takeda University, Health Network Foundation, and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. R.M. Investigator Janssen trials of esketamine; 'paid-for' ketamine clinic operated by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust - fees used to support the Trust. M.J.O. Consultant: Sunovion and Acadia Pharmaceuticals. Full-time employee of U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. M.E.T. Advisory/Consultant: Alkermes, Allergan, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Cerecor inc., Eli Lilly & Co., Forest Laboratories, Gerson Lehrman Group, Fabre-Kramer Pharmaceuticals, Inc., GlaxoSmithKline, Guidepoint Global, H. Lundbeck A/S, MedAvante Inc., Merck and Co. Inc. (formerly Schering Plough and Organon), Moksha8, Naurex Inc., Neuronetics Inc., Novartis, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceuticals (Johnson & Johnson; Janssen), Otsuka, Pamlab, L.L.C. (Nestle), Pfizer (formerly Wyeth Ayerst Pharmaceuticals), Shire US Inc., Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc., Trius Therapeutical Inc. and Takeda. Grant support: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Alkermes, AssureRx, Avanir, Forest Pharmaceuticals, Janssen, National Institute of Mental Health, and Otsuka Pharmaceuticals. Speakers Bureau: None since June, 2010. Equity Holdings: MedAvante, Inc. Royalties: American Psychiatric Foundation, Guilford Publications, Herald House, W.W. Norton & Company

  7. Cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase protects the liver from inflammation and fibrosis by maintaining cholesterol homeostasis[S

    PubMed Central

    Liu, Hailiang; Pathak, Preeti; Boehme, Shannon; Chiang, John Y. L.

    2016-01-01

    Cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase (CYP7A1) plays a critical role in control of bile acid and cholesterol homeostasis. Bile acids activate farnesoid X receptor (FXR) and Takeda G protein-coupled receptor 5 (TGR5) to regulate lipid, glucose, and energy metabolism. However, the role of bile acids in hepatic inflammation and fibrosis remains unclear. In this study, we showed that adenovirus-mediated overexpression of Cyp7a1 ameliorated lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory cell infiltration and pro-inflammatory cytokine production in WT and TGR5-deficient (Tgr5−/−) mice, but not in FXR-deficient (Fxr−/−) mice, suggesting that bile acid signaling through FXR protects against hepatic inflammation. Nuclear factor κ light-chain enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB)-luciferase reporter assay showed that FXR agonists significantly inhibited TNF-α-induced NF-κB activity. Furthermore, chromatin immunoprecipitation and mammalian two-hybrid assays showed that ligand-activated FXR interacted with NF-κB and blocked recruitment of steroid receptor coactivator-1 to cytokine promoter and resulted in inhibition of NF-κB activity. Methionine/choline-deficient (MCD) diet increased hepatic inflammation, free cholesterol, oxidative stress, apoptosis, and fibrosis in CYP7A1-deficient (Cyp7a1−/−) mice compared with WT mice. Remarkably, adenovirus-mediated overexpression of Cyp7a1 effectively reduced hepatic free cholesterol and oxidative stress and reversed hepatic inflammation and fibrosis in MCD diet-fed Cyp7a1−/− mice. Current studies suggest that increased Cyp7a1 expression and bile acid synthesis ameliorate hepatic inflammation through activation of FXR, whereas reduced bile acid synthesis aggravates MCD diet-induced hepatic inflammation and fibrosis. Maintaining bile acid and cholesterol homeostasis is important for protecting against liver injury and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. PMID:27534992

  8. Reactive oxygen species upregulate expression of muscle atrophy-associated ubiquitin ligase Cbl-b in rat L6 skeletal muscle cells.

    PubMed

    Uchida, Takayuki; Sakashita, Yoshihiro; Kitahata, Kanako; Yamashita, Yui; Tomida, Chisato; Kimori, Yuki; Komatsu, Akio; Hirasaka, Katsuya; Ohno, Ayako; Nakao, Reiko; Higashitani, Atsushi; Higashibata, Akira; Ishioka, Noriaki; Shimazu, Toru; Kobayashi, Takeshi; Okumura, Yuushi; Choi, Inho; Oarada, Motoko; Mills, Edward M; Teshima-Kondo, Shigetada; Takeda, Shin'ichi; Tanaka, Eiji; Tanaka, Keiji; Sokabe, Masahiro; Nikawa, Takeshi

    2018-06-01

    Unloading-mediated muscle atrophy is associated with increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. We previously demonstrated that elevated ubiquitin ligase casitas B-lineage lymphoma-b (Cbl-b) resulted in the loss of muscle volume (Nakao R, Hirasaka K, Goto J, Ishidoh K, Yamada C, Ohno A, Okumura Y, Nonaka I, Yasutomo K, Baldwin KM, Kominami E, Higashibata A, Nagano K, Tanaka K, Yasui N, Mills EM, Takeda S, Nikawa T. Mol Cell Biol 29: 4798-4811, 2009). However, the pathological role of ROS production associated with unloading-mediated muscle atrophy still remains unknown. Here, we showed that the ROS-mediated signal transduction caused by microgravity or its simulation contributes to Cbl-b expression. In L6 myotubes, the assessment of redox status revealed that oxidized glutathione was increased under microgravity conditions, and simulated microgravity caused a burst of ROS, implicating ROS as a critical upstream mediator linking to downstream atrophic signaling. ROS generation activated the ERK1/2 early-growth response protein (Egr)1/2-Cbl-b signaling pathway, an established contributing pathway to muscle volume loss. Interestingly, antioxidant treatments such as N-acetylcysteine and TEMPOL, but not catalase, blocked the clinorotation-mediated activation of ERK1/2. The increased ROS induced transcriptional activity of Egr1 and/or Egr2 to stimulate Cbl-b expression through the ERK1/2 pathway in L6 myoblasts, since treatment with Egr1/2 siRNA and an ERK1/2 inhibitor significantly suppressed clinorotation-induced Cbl-b and Egr expression, respectively. Promoter and gel mobility shift assays revealed that Cbl-b was upregulated via an Egr consensus oxidative responsive element at -110 to -60 bp of the Cbl-b promoter. Together, this indicates that under microgravity conditions, elevated ROS may be a crucial mechanotransducer in skeletal muscle cells, regulating muscle mass through Cbl-b expression activated by the ERK-Egr signaling pathway.

  9. Sizing up the stars

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Boyajian, Tabetha S.

    For the main part of this dissertation, I have executed a survey of nearby, main sequence A, F, and G-type stars with the CHARA Array, successfully measuring the angular diameters of forty-four stars to better than 4% accuracy. The results of these observations also yield empirical determinations of stellar linear radii and effective temperatures for the stars observed. In addition, these CHARA-determined temperatures, radii, and luminosities are fit to Yonsei-Yale isochrones to constrain the masses and ages of the stars. These quantities are compared to the results found in Allende Prieto & Lambert (1999), Holmberg et al. (2007), and Takeda (2007), who indirectly determine these same properties by fitting models to observed photometry. I find that for most cases, the models underestimate the radius of the star by ~ 12%, while in turn they overestimate the effective temperature by ~ 1.5-4%, when compared to my directly measured values, with no apparent correlation to the star's metallicity or color index. These overestimated temperatures and underestimated radii in these works appear to cause an additional offset in the star's surface gravity measurements, which consequently yield higher masses and younger ages, in particular for stars with masses greater than ~ 1.3 [Special characters omitted.] . Alternatively, these quantities I measure are also compared to direct measurements from a large sample of eclipsing binary stars in Andersen (1991), and excellent agreement is seen within both data sets. Finally, a multi-parameter solution is found to fit color-temperature-metallicity values of the stars in this sample to provide a new calibration of the effective temperature scale for these types of stars. Published work in the field of stellar interferometry and optical spectroscopy of early-type stars are presented in Appendix D and E, respectively. INDEX WORDS: Interferometry, Infrared, Stellar Astronomy, Fundamental Properties, Effective Temperatures, Stellar Radii

  10. Testing iSpec for the determination of atmospheric parameters and abundances of δ Cephei and RR Lyrae

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Blanco-Cuaresma, S.; Anderson, R. I.; Eyer, L.; Mowlavi, N.

    2017-03-01

    Classical Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars are radially pulsating stars where the spectral type varies according to pulsation phase. Several studies used synthesis and the equivalent width method to determine the variations of effective temperature, surface gravity and metallicity for classical Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars (Luck and Andrievsky 2004; Kovtyukh et al. 2005; Andrievsky et al 2005; Luck et al 2008; Takeda et al. 2013; Fossati et al. 2014). We evaluated the applicability of iSpec (Blanco-Cuaresma et al. 2014 - http://www.blancocuaresma.com/s/), which has been extensively used with non-pulsating FGK stars, and derived atmospheric parameters as a function of phase for δ Cephei and RR Lyrae (the two prototypes stars for each class). The results showed that when we apply a non-adapted traditional spectroscopic method to pulsating stars, derived gravities do not seem to follow a physically logical evolution. Nevertheless, metallicity is globally stable and effective temperature variations globally agree with expectations from the radius variations indicated by the radial velocity variability. Max/min values and average results agree with the literature. In terms of broadening parameters, macroturbulent and projected rotation velocities are very difficult to disentangle even if their profiles are not exactly the same. Individual chemical abundances as function of phase are stable as it was expected (the chemical composition of the star should not vary). We plan to use this information to identify absorption lines that are reliable and stable (less affected by blending) during the whole pulsating cycle. This new line selection may help to improve the determination of atmospheric parameters and it could allow us to be more confident in the study of other less known Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars.

  11. Population pharmacokinetics-pharmacodynamics of vedolizumab in patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.

    PubMed

    Rosario, M; Dirks, N L; Gastonguay, M R; Fasanmade, A A; Wyant, T; Parikh, A; Sandborn, W J; Feagan, B G; Reinisch, W; Fox, I

    2015-07-01

    Vedolizumab, an anti-α(4)β(7) integrin monoclonal antibody (mAb), is indicated for treating patients with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD). As higher therapeutic mAb concentrations have been associated with greater efficacy in inflammatory bowel disease, understanding determinants of vedolizumab clearance may help to optimise dosing. To characterise vedolizumab pharmacokinetics in patients with UC and CD, to identify clinically relevant determinants of vedolizumab clearance, and to describe the pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic relationship using population modelling. Data from a phase 1 healthy volunteer study, a phase 2 UC study, and 3 phase 3 UC/CD studies were included. Population pharmacokinetic analysis for repeated measures was conducted using nonlinear mixed effects modelling. Results from the base model, developed using extensive phase 1 and 2 data, were used to develop the full covariate model, which was fit to sparse phase 3 data. Vedolizumab pharmacokinetics was described by a 2-compartment model with parallel linear and nonlinear elimination. Using reference covariate values, linear elimination half-life of vedolizumab was 25.5 days; linear clearance (CL(L)) was 0.159 L/day for UC and 0.155 L/day for CD; central compartment volume of distribution (V(c)) was 3.19 L; and peripheral compartment volume of distribution was 1.66 L. Interindividual variabilities (%CV) were 35% for CLL and 19% for V(c); residual variance was 24%. Only extreme albumin and body weight values were identified as potential clinically important predictors of CL(L). Population pharmacokinetic parameters were similar in patients with moderately to severely active UC and CD. This analysis supports use of vedolizumab fixed dosing in these patients. Clinicaltrials.gov Identifiers: NCT01177228; NCT00783718 (GEMINI 1); NCT00783692 (GEMINI 2); NCT01224171 (GEMINI 3). © 2015 Takeda Pharmaceuticals International Co published by John Wiley & Sons

  12. Radioactive contamination processes during 14-21 March after the Fukushima accident: What does atmospheric electric field measurements tell us?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Takeda, M.; Yamauchi, M.; Makino, M.; Owada, T.; Miyagi, I.

    2012-04-01

    Ionizing radiation from the radioactive material is known to increase atmospheric electric conductivity, and hence to decrease vertical downward atmospheric DC electric field at ground level, or potential gradient (PG). In the past, the drop of PG has been observed after rain-induced radioactive fallout (wet contamination) after nuclear tests or after the Chernobyl disaster. After the nuclear accident Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant (FNPP) that started 11 March 2011, the PG also at Kakioka, 150 km southwest from the FNPP, also dropped a by one order of magnitude. Unlike the past examples, the PG drop was two-stepped on 14 March and 20 March. Both correspond to two largest southward release of radioactive material according to the data from the radiation dose rate measurement network. We compare the Kakioka's PG data with the radiation dose rate data at different places to examine the fallout processes of both on 14 March and on 20 March. The former turned out to be dry contamination by surface wind, leaving a substantial amount of fallout floating near the ground. The latter turned out to be wet contamination by rain after transport by relatively low-altitude wind, and the majority of the fallout settled to the ground at this time. It is recommended that all nuclear power plant to have a network of PG observation surrounding the plant. Takeda, et al. (2011): Initial effect of the Fukushima accident on atmospheric electricity, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L15811, doi:10.1029/2011GL048511. Yamauchi, et al. (2012): Settlement process of radioactive dust to the ground inferred from the atmospheric electric field measurement, Ann. Geophys., 30, 49-56, doi:10.5194/angeo-30-49-2012.

  13. Alogliptin after acute coronary syndrome in patients with type 2 diabetes.

    PubMed

    White, William B; Cannon, Christopher P; Heller, Simon R; Nissen, Steven E; Bergenstal, Richard M; Bakris, George L; Perez, Alfonso T; Fleck, Penny R; Mehta, Cyrus R; Kupfer, Stuart; Wilson, Craig; Cushman, William C; Zannad, Faiez

    2013-10-03

    To assess potentially elevated cardiovascular risk related to new antihyperglycemic drugs in patients with type 2 diabetes, regulatory agencies require a comprehensive evaluation of the cardiovascular safety profile of new antidiabetic therapies. We assessed cardiovascular outcomes with alogliptin, a new inhibitor of dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4), as compared with placebo in patients with type 2 diabetes who had had a recent acute coronary syndrome. We randomly assigned patients with type 2 diabetes and either an acute myocardial infarction or unstable angina requiring hospitalization within the previous 15 to 90 days to receive alogliptin or placebo in addition to existing antihyperglycemic and cardiovascular drug therapy. The study design was a double-blind, noninferiority trial with a prespecified noninferiority margin of 1.3 for the hazard ratio for the primary end point of a composite of death from cardiovascular causes, nonfatal myocardial infarction, or nonfatal stroke. A total of 5380 patients underwent randomization and were followed for up to 40 months (median, 18 months). A primary end-point event occurred in 305 patients assigned to alogliptin (11.3%) and in 316 patients assigned to placebo (11.8%) (hazard ratio, 0.96; upper boundary of the one-sided repeated confidence interval, 1.16; P<0.001 for noninferiority). Glycated hemoglobin levels were significantly lower with alogliptin than with placebo (mean difference, -0.36 percentage points; P<0.001). Incidences of hypoglycemia, cancer, pancreatitis, and initiation of dialysis were similar with alogliptin and placebo. Among patients with type 2 diabetes who had had a recent acute coronary syndrome, the rates of major adverse cardiovascular events were not increased with the DPP-4 inhibitor alogliptin as compared with placebo. (Funded by Takeda Development Center Americas; EXAMINE ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00968708.).

  14. Orthopyroxene as a recorder of primitive achondrite petrogenesis: Major-, minor-, and trace-element systematics of orthopyroxene in Lodran. [Abstract only

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Papike, J. J.; Spilde, M. N.; Fowler, G. W.; Shearer, C. K.

    1994-01-01

    Considerable attention has been paid recently to the primitive achondrites because they may form a link between chondrites and more differentiated achondrite meteorites. A recent paper by Miyamoto and Takeda addresses the thermal history of lodranites Yamato 74357 and MAC 88177 as inferred from chemical zoning of pyroxene and olivine determined by electron microprobe analyses. Their results suggested that interstitial melt was present and then extracted. We have taken the analysis of Lodran-type meteorites one step further by incorporating the techniques of Electromagnetic Pulse/Wavelength Dispersive Spectroscopy (EMP/WDS) compositional imaging and scanning ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) analysis. Orthopyroxene in Lodran is strongly zoned in CaO, Al2O3, TiO2, and Cr2O3 within the last 10-30 microns from the grain boundaries. The rims are reversely zoned in Mg-Fe, exhibiting Mg enrichment, and compositions change from a fairly uniform Wo3En94 within the grains to Wo1En96 at the rims. CaO drops from 1.6 to 0.6 wt% and Al2O3, TiO2, and Cr2O3 exhibit similar depletions. MnO is fairly uniform throughout the grains at around 0.5 wt%. Olivine is also reversely zoned with respect to not only grain boundaries but also to fractures within the grains, giving many olivine grains a complex, patchy zoning pattern. Some of the core-rim trace-element systematics for orthopyroxene are illustrated. Because of the rather narrow zoned rims in Lodran orthopyroxene and the low trace-element abundances, it is difficult to clearly resolve the trace-element systematics. Nevertheless it is evident that the cores are enriched in the incompatible trace elements Ce, Nd, Dy, Er, Yb, Y, and Zr relative to the rims.

  15. Discovery of novel and potent small-molecule inhibitors of NO and cytokine production as antisepsis agents: synthesis and biological activity of alkyl 6-(N-substituted sulfamoyl)cyclohex-1-ene-1-carboxylate.

    PubMed

    Yamada, Masami; Ichikawa, Takashi; Ii, Masayuki; Sunamoto, Mie; Itoh, Katsumi; Tamura, Norikazu; Kitazaki, Tomoyuki

    2005-11-17

    To develop a new therapeutic agent for sepsis, screening of the Takeda chemical library was carried out using mouse macrophages stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to identify a new class of small-molecule inhibitors of inflammatory mediator production. The lead compound 5a was discovered, from which a series of novel cyclohexene derivatives I bearing a sulfamoyl and ester group were designed, synthesized and tested for their inhibitory activity against nitric oxide (NO) production. Derivatives I were synthesized by the coupling of sulfonyl chlorides and anilines with concomitant double bond migration in the presence of triethylamine, and phenyl ring substitution and modification of the ester and cyclohexene moieties were carried out. Among the compounds synthesized, ethyl (6R)-6-[N-(2-chloro-4-fluorophenyl)sulfamoyl]cyclohex-1-ene-1-carboxylate [(R)-(+)-5n, TAK-242] was found to exhibit the most potent suppressive activity for the production of not only NO but also inflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) induced by LPS-stimulated mouse macrophages with IC50 values of 1.8, 1.9 and 1.3 nM, respectively. It shows marked beneficial effects in vivo also. Intravenous administration of (R)-(+)-5n at doses of 0.1 mg/kg or more suppressed the production of NO and various cytokines [TNF-alpha, IL-6 and IL-1beta] in the mouse endotoxin shock model. Furthermore, it protected mice from death dose-dependently and all mice survived at a dose of 3 mg/kg. The minimum effective dose to protect mice from lethality in this model was 0.3 mg/kg, which was consistent with those for inhibitory effects on the production of NO and cytokines. Compound (R)-(+)-5n is currently undergoing clinical trials for the treatment of sepsis.

  16. Multiscale Modeling of Radioisotope Transfers in Watersheds, Rivers, Reservoirs and Ponds of Fukushima Prefecture

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zheleznyak, M.; Kivva, S.; Nanba, K.; Wakiyama, Y.; Konoplev, A.; Onda, Y.; Gallego, E.; Papush, L.; Maderych, V.

    2015-12-01

    floods of the next years. MOIRA -LAKE model of long term radioisotopes transfer in water, bottom sediment and fish was used for the assessments of the efficiency of the bottom sediment dredging for the remediation of the irrigation ponds at Okuma town.

  17. High resolution three-dimensional magnetization mapping in Tokachidake Volcano using low altitude airborne magnetic survey data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Iwata, M.; Mogi, T.; Okuma, S.; Nakatsuka, T.

    2016-12-01

    Tokachidake Volcano, central Hokkaido, Japan erupted in 1926, 1962 and 1988-1989 in the 20th century from the central part. In recent years, expansions of the edifice of the volcano at shallow depth and increases of the volcanic smoke in the Taisho crater were observed (Meteorological Agency of Japan, 2014). Magnetic changes were observed at the 62-2 crater by repeated magnetic measurements in 2008-2009, implying a demagnetization beneath the crater (Hashimoto at al., 2010). Moreover, a very low resistivity part was found right under the 62-2 crater from an AMT survey (Yamaya et al., 2010). However, since the station numbers of the survey are limited, the area coverage is not sufficient. In this study, we have re-analyzed high-resolution aeromagnetic data to delineate the three-dimensional magnetic structure of the volcano to understand the nature of other craters.A low altitude airborne magnetic survey was conducted in 2014 mainly over the active areas of the volcano by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to manage land slide risk in the volcano. The survey was flown at an altitude of 60 m above ground by a helicopter with a Cesium magnetometer in the towed-bird 30m below the helicopter. The low altitude survey enables us to delineate the detailed magnetic structure. We calculated magnetic anomaly distribution on a smooth surface assuming equivalent anomalies below the observation surface. Then the 3D magnetic imaging method (Nakatsuka and Okuma, 2014) was applied to the magnetic anomalies to reveal the three-dimensional magnetic structure.As a result, magnetization highs were seen beneath the Ground crater, Suribachi crater and Kitamuki crater. This implies that magmatic activity occurred in the past at these craters. These magma should have already solidified and acquired strong remanent magnetization. Relative magnetization lows were seen beneath the 62-2 crater and the Taisho crater where fumarolic activity is active. However a

  18. Cardiovascular Safety of Febuxostat or Allopurinol in Patients with Gout.

    PubMed

    White, William B; Saag, Kenneth G; Becker, Michael A; Borer, Jeffrey S; Gorelick, Philip B; Whelton, Andrew; Hunt, Barbara; Castillo, Majin; Gunawardhana, Lhanoo

    2018-03-29

    cardiovascular mortality were higher with febuxostat than with allopurinol. (Funded by Takeda Development Center Americas; CARES ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01101035 .).

  19. Gastroenterologists' Perceptions Regarding Ulcerative Colitis and Its Management: Results from a Large-Scale Survey.

    PubMed

    Lasch, Karen; Liu, Stephen; Ursos, Lyann; Mody, Reema; King-Concialdi, Kristen; DiBonaventura, Marco; Leberman, Julie; Dubinsky, Marla

    2016-10-01

    of the study as well as article processing charges and the open access fee for this publication were funded by Takeda Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (TPI).

  20. Effects of azilsartan compared to other angiotensin receptor blockers on left ventricular hypertrophy and the sympathetic nervous system in hemodialysis patients.

    PubMed

    Kusuyama, Takanori; Ogata, Hirohito; Takeshita, Hiroaki; Kohno, Hiroaki; Shimodozono, Shinichi; Iida, Hidetaka; Tsukazaki, Takashi

    2014-10-01

    Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events, and most patients with hypertension are administered antihypertensive drugs. However, not all patients achieve normal blood pressure levels. The new angiotensin receptor blocker azilsartan (Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Osaka, Japan) has been reported to have a strong hypotensive effect. Our study investigated the efficacy of azilsartan compared with other angiotensin receptor blockers. This study included 17 hypertensive patients on HD, who had been administered angiotensin receptor blockers, except for azilsartan, for more than 6 months before enrolling, and after enrollment, they were switched to azilsartan. Blood tests, Holter electrocardiogram, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, and echocardiography were performed at baseline and at the 6-month follow-up. The blood pressure from baseline to 6 months had significantly decreased (24-h systolic blood pressure from 150.9 ± 16.2 mm Hg to 131.3 ± 21.7 mm Hg, P = 0.008), awakening time systolic blood pressure from 152.1 ± 16.9 mm Hg to 131.7 ± 23.2 mm Hg, P = 0.01, sleep-time systolic blood pressure from 148.1 ± 19.7 mm Hg to 130.0 ± 20.1 mm Hg, P = 0.005). There was a significant reduction in serum noradrenaline levels as well as left ventricular mass index after switching to azilsartan (from 550.1 ± 282.9 pg/mL, to 351.7 ± 152.3 pg/mL, P = 0.002; from 117.0 ± 26.4 g/m(2) to 111.3 ± 23.9 g/m(2), P = 0.01, respectively). Azilsartan had a significantly stronger hypotensive effect than other angiotensin receptor blockers. Thus, the switch to azilsartan might improve prognosis of hemodialysis patients. We suggest that the strong anti-hypertensive effect of azilsartan originated from a combination of primary angiotensin receptor blocker class-effect and a stronger suppression of sympathetic nervous system. © 2014 The Authors. Therapeutic Apheresis and Dialysis © 2014 International Society for Apheresis.

  1. AMCP Partnership Forum: Driving Value and Outcomes in Oncology.

    PubMed

    2017-05-01

    arrangements. Addressing these challenges could lead to improving cancer treatment. The AMCP Partnership Forum titled "Driving Value and Outcomes in Oncology" and the development of this report were supported by AbbVie, Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, Foundation Medicine, IntrinsiQ Specialty Solutions, Janssen Oncology and Johnson and Johnson Health Systems, Eli Lilly and Company, National Pharmaceutical Council, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Sanofi, Takeda Oncology, and Xcenda.

  2. Bile Acids Increase Independently From Hypocaloric Restriction After Bariatric Surgery.

    PubMed

    Jahansouz, Cyrus; Xu, Hongliang; Hertzel, Ann V; Serrot, Federico J; Kvalheim, Nicholas; Cole, Abigail; Abraham, Anasooya; Luthra, Girish; Ewing, Kristin; Leslie, Daniel B; Bernlohr, David A; Ikramuddin, Sayeed

    2016-12-01

    To measure changes in the composition of serum bile acids (BA) and the expression of Takeda G-protein-coupled receptor 5 (TGR5) acutely after bariatric surgery or caloric restriction. Metabolic improvement after bariatric surgery occurs before substantial weight loss. BA are important metabolic regulators acting through the farnesoid X receptor and TGR5 receptor. The acute effects of surgery on BA and the TGR5 receptor in subcutaneous white adipose tissue (WAT) are unknown. A total of 27 obese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were randomized to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) or to hypocaloric diet (HC diet) restriction (NCT 1882036). A cohort of obese patients with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus undergoing vertical sleeve gastrectomy was also recruited (n = 12) as a comparison. After vertical sleeve gastrectomy, the level of BA increased [total: 1.17 ± 1.56 μmol/L to 4.42 ± 3.92 μmol/L (P = 0.005); conjugated BA levels increased from 0.99 ± 1.42 μmol/L to 3.59 ± 3.70 μmol/L (P = 0.01) and unconjugated BA levels increased from 0.18 ± 0.24 μmol/L to 0.83 ± 0.70 μmol/L (P = 0.009)]. With RYGB, there was a trend toward increased BA [total: 1.37 ± 0.97 μmol/L to 3.26 ± 3.01 μmol/L (P = 0.07); conjugated: 1.06 ± 0.81 μmol/L to 2.99 ± 3.02 μmol/L (P = 0.06)]. After HC diet, the level of unconjugated BA decreased [0.92 ± 0.55 μmol/L to 0.32 ± 0.43 μmol/L (P = 0.05)]. The level of WAT TGR5 gene expression decreased after surgery, but not in HC diet. Protein levels did not change. The levels of serum BA increase after bariatric surgery independently from caloric restriction, whereas the level of WAT TGR5 protein is unaffected.

  3. Identification and functional characterization of a Na+-independent neutral amino acid transporter with broad substrate selectivity.

    PubMed

    Segawa, H; Fukasawa, Y; Miyamoto, K; Takeda, E; Endou, H; Kanai, Y

    1999-07-09

    We have isolated a cDNA from rat small intestine that encodes a novel Na+-independent neutral amino acid transporter with distinctive characteristics in substrate selectivity and transport property. The encoded protein, designated L-type amino acid transporter-2 (LAT-2), shows amino acid sequence similarity to the system L Na+-independent neutral amino acid transporter LAT-1 (Kanai, Y., Segawa, H., Miyamoto, K., Uchino, H., Takeda, E., and Endou, H. (1998) J. Biol. Chem. 273, 23629-23632) (50% identity) and the system y+L transporters y+LAT-1 (47%) and KIAA0245/y+LAT-2 (45%) (Torrents, D., Estevez, R., Pineda, M., Fernandez, E., Lloberas, J., Shi, Y.-B., Zorzano, A., and Palacin, M. (1998) J. Biol. Chem. 273, 32437-32445). LAT-2 is a nonglycosylated membrane protein. It requires 4F2 heavy chain, a type II membrane glycoprotein, for its functional expression in Xenopus oocytes. LAT-2-mediated transport is not dependent on Na+ or Cl- and is inhibited by a system L-specific inhibitor, 2-aminobicyclo-(2,2,1)-heptane-2-carboxylic acid (BCH), indicating that LAT-2 is a second isoform of the system L transporter. Compared with LAT-1, which prefers large neutral amino acids with branched or aromatic side chains, LAT-2 exhibits remarkably broad substrate selectivity. It transports all of the L-isomers of neutral alpha-amino acids. LAT-2 exhibits higher affinity (Km = 30-50 microM) to Tyr, Phe, Trp, Thr, Asn, Ile, Cys, Ser, Leu, Val, and Gln and relatively lower affinity (Km = 180-300 microM) to His, Ala, Met, and Gly. In addition, LAT-2 mediates facilitated diffusion of substrate amino acids, as distinct from LAT-1, which mediates amino acid exchange. LAT-2-mediated transport is increased by lowering the pH level, with peak activity at pH 6.25, because of the decrease in the Km value without changing the Vmax value. Because of these functional properties and a high level of expression of LAT-2 in the small intestine, kidney, placenta, and brain, it is suggested that the

  4. Basement structure based on gravity anomaly in the northern Noto peninsula, Central Japan

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mizubayashi, T.; Sawada, A.; Hamada, M.; Hiramatsu, Y.; Honda, R.

    2012-12-01

    Upper crustal block structures are usually defined by using surface information, such as geological and morphological data. The northern Noto Peninsula, central Japan, is divided into four geological block structures from tectonic geomorphologic perspectives (Ota and Hirakawa, 1979). This division is based on the surface crustal movement. To image the geological blocks three-dimensionally, it is necessary to construct a subsurface structure model. Gravity survey can clarify the detailed subsurface structure with dense gravity measurement. From the detailed Bouguer anomalies in the northwestern Noto Peninsula, Honda et al. (2008) suggested that the rupture size of the 2007 Noto Hanto earthquake was constrained by the geological block structures. Hiramatsu et al. (2008) also suggested the active faults on the seafloor, such as the source fault of the 2007 Noto Hanto earthquake plays a major role for the formation of the geological block structures. In this study, we analyze subsurface density structure based on the Bouguer anomaly and estimate the distribution of basement depth in the northern Noto Peninsula. We focus the relationship among the basement depth, the block structures and the active faults on the seafloor and discuss the block movement in the northern Noto Peninsula. We compiled the data measured and published previously (Gravity Database of Southwest Japan, 2001; Geological survey of Japan, 2004; Geographical survey institute of Japan, 2006; The Gravity Research Group in Southwest Japan, 2001; Komazawa and Okuma, 2010; Hokuriku electric power Co. Ltd., undisclosed) and calculated Bouguer anomaly in the northern Noto Peninsula. Based on this Bouguer anomaly, we analyzed subsurface density structures along 13 northeastern-southwestern profiles and 35 northwestern-southeastern profiles with the interval of 2 km using the two dimensional Talwani's method (Talwani et al., 1959). In the analysis, we assumed a density structure with four layers: basement

  5. Antimicrobial resistance patterns of colonizing Streptococcus pneumoniae among young child-mother pairs in the rural highlands of the Peruvian Andes

    PubMed Central

    Howard, Leigh; Edwards, Kathryn; Griffin, Marie; Gil, Ana; Minaya, Gina; Mercado, Erik; Ochoa, Theresa; Lanata, Claudio; Grijalva, Carlos G

    2017-01-01

    tetracyclines was common despite very little reported use of these antibiotics in people. Additional studies should evaluate whether this high prevalence of resistance is a result of local prescribing practices or unintentional environmental exposures. ADDIN EN.REFLIST Disclosures K. Edwards, Novartis: Grant Investigator, Research grant. M. Griffin, MedImmune: Grant Investigator, Grant recipient. C. Lanata, Takeda: Scientific Advisor, Consulting fee. C. G. Grijalva, Pfizer: Consultant, Consulting fee.

  6. Fenofibrate-associated changes in renal function and relationship to clinical outcomes among individuals with type 2 diabetes: the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) experience.

    PubMed

    Bonds, D E; Craven, T E; Buse, J; Crouse, J R; Cuddihy, R; Elam, M; Ginsberg, H N; Kirchner, K; Marcovina, S; Mychaleckyj, J C; O'Connor, P J; Sperl-Hillen, J-A

    2012-06-01

    National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the National Institute on Aging, and the National Eye Institute; by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; by General Clinical Research Centers and by the Clinical and Translational Science Awards. Abbott Laboratories, Amylin Pharmaceutical, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, Bayer HealthCare LLC, Closer Healthcare, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, King Pharmaceuticals, Merck, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Novo Nordisk, Omron Healthcare, sanofi-aventis US and Takeda Pharmaceuticals provided study medications, equipment or supplies.

  7. Allspice and Clove As Source of Triterpene Acids Activating the G Protein-Coupled Bile Acid Receptor TGR5

    PubMed Central

    Ladurner, Angela; Zehl, Martin; Grienke, Ulrike; Hofstadler, Christoph; Faur, Nadina; Pereira, Fátima C.; Berry, David; Dirsch, Verena M.; Rollinger, Judith M.

    2017-01-01

    Worldwide, metabolic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes have reached epidemic proportions. A major regulator of metabolic processes that gained interest in recent years is the bile acid receptor TGR5 (Takeda G protein-coupled receptor 5). This G protein-coupled membrane receptor can be found predominantly in the intestine, where it is mainly responsible for the secretion of the incretins glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and peptide YY (PYY). The aim of this study was (i) to identify plant extracts with TGR5-activating potential, (ii) to narrow down their activity to the responsible constituents, and (iii) to assess whether the intestinal microbiota produces transformed metabolites with a different activity profile. Chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) served as positive control for both, the applied cell-based luciferase reporter gene assay for TGR5 activity and the biotransformation assay using mouse fecal slurry. The suitability of the workflow was demonstrated by the biotransformation of CDCA to lithocholic acid resulting in a distinct increase in TGR5 activity. Based on a traditional Tibetan formula, 19 plant extracts were selected and investigated for TGR5 activation. Extracts from the commonly used spices Syzygium aromaticum (SaroE, clove), Pimenta dioica (PdioE, allspice), and Kaempferia galanga (KgalE, aromatic ginger) significantly increased TGR5 activity. After biotransformation, only KgalE showed significant differences in its metabolite profile, which, however, did not alter its TGR5 activity compared to non-transformed KgalE. UHPLC-HRMS (high-resolution mass spectrometry) analysis revealed triterpene acids (TTAs) as the main constituents of the extracts SaroE and PdioE. Identification and quantification of TTAs in these two extracts as well as comparison of their TGR5 activity with reconstituted TTA mixtures allowed the attribution of the TGR5 activity to TTAs. EC50s were determined for the main TTAs, i.e., oleanolic acid (2.2 ± 1.6 μM), ursolic

  8. Lack of replication of four candidate SNPs implicated in human male fertility traits: a large-scale population-based study.

    PubMed

    Sato, Youichi; Tajima, Atsushi; Tsunematsu, Kouki; Nozawa, Shiari; Yoshiike, Miki; Koh, Eitetsue; Kanaya, Jiro; Namiki, Mikio; Matsumiya, Kiyomi; Tsujimura, Akira; Komatsu, Kiyoshi; Itoh, Naoki; Eguchi, Jiro; Imoto, Issei; Yamauchi, Aiko; Iwamoto, Teruaki

    2015-06-01

    Scientific Research (C) (23510242) (to A.Ta.) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the European Union (BMH4-CT96-0314) (to T.I.), and the Takeda Science Foundation (to A.Ta.). None of the authors has any competing interests to declare. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  9. AMCP Partnership Forum: Managing Care in the Wave of Precision Medicine.

    PubMed

    2018-05-23

    definitions, thresholds, and standards to guide evidence generation in precision medicine. Second, current information silos are preventing the sharing of valuable data. Collaboration among stakeholders is needed to support better information sharing, awareness, and education of precision medicine for patients. The recommendations brought forward by this diverse group of experts provide a set of solutions to spur widespread use and application of precision medicine. Taken together, successful adoption and use of precision medicine will require input and collaboration from all sectors of health care, especially patients. DISCLOSURES This AMCP Partnership Forum and the development of the proceedings document were supported by Amgen, Foundation Medicine, Genentech, Gilead, MedImpact, National Pharmaceutical Council, Precision for Value, Sanofi, Takeda, and Xcenda.

  10. Kinetic restriction of simple gases in porous carbons: transition-state theory study.

    PubMed

    Nguyen, Thanh X; Bhatia, Suresh K

    2008-01-01

    The separation of simple gases such as N2, Ar, CO2, and CH4 is an industrially important problem, particularly for the mitigation of greenhouse emissions. Furthermore, these gases are widely accepted as standard probing gases for the characterization of the microstructure of porous solids. However, a consistent set of microstructural parameters of a microporous solid determined from the use of adsorption measurements of these different gases is not always achieved because of differences in their pore accessibility. This is a long-standing and poorly understood problem. Here, we present the calculated results of the crossing time of N2, Ar, CO2, and CH4 between two neighboring cages through a constricted window in a realistic structural model of saccharose char, generated from hybrid reverse Monte Carlo (HRMC) simulation (Nguyen, T. X.; Bhatia, S. K.; Jain, S. K.; Gubbins, K. E. Mol. Simul. 2006, 32, 567-577) using transition state theory (TST), as described in our recent work (Nguyen, T. X.; Bhatia, S. K. J. Phys. Chem. 2007, 111, 2212-2222). The striking feature in these results is that whereas very fast diffusion of carbon dioxide within the temperature range of 273-343 K, with crossing time on the molecular dynamics scale (10-4-10-6 s), leads to instantaneous equilibrium and no hysteresis on the experimental time scale, slower diffusion of Ar and N2 at the low temperature of analysis indicates an accessibility problem. These results rationalize the experimental results of hysteresis for N2 at 77 K and Ar at 87 K but not for CO2 at 273 K in Takeda 3 A carbon molecular sieves. Furthermore, it is shown that CH4 diffusion through narrow pore mouths can be hindered even at ambient temperature. Finally, we show that the use of pore size and wall thickness distributions extracted from the adsorption of Ar at 87 K using the finite wall thickness (FWT) model (Nguyen, T. X.; Bhatia, S. K. Langmuir 2004, 20, 3532-3535 and Nguyen, T. X.; Bhatia, S. K. J. Phys. Chem. B 2004

  11. PREFACE: The 16th International Symposium on Boron, Borides and Related Materials (ISBB 2008)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tanaka, Takaho

    2009-07-01

    supported by Tokyo University of Science, Suwa and foundations including, the Kajima Foundation, Foundation for Promotion of Material Science and Technology of Japan and Nippon Sheet Glass Foundation for Materials Science and Engineering, as well as companies including JFE Steel Corporation, Shincron Co, Ltd, Toyo Kohan Co, Ltd, Fukuda Metal Foil and Powder Co, Ltd, Japan New Metals Co, Ltd, H C Starck Ltd and Fritsch Japan Co, Ltd. Editors Chair Takaho Tanaka (National Institute for Materials Science, Japan) Vice chairs Koun Shirai (Osaka University, Japan) Kaoru Kimura (The University of Tokyo, Japan) Ken-ichi Takagi (Tokyo City University, Japan) Touetsu Shishido (Tohoku University, Japan) Shigeru Okada (Kokushikan University) Hideaki Itoh (Nagoya University,Japan) Katsumitsu Nakamura (Nihon University, Japan) Organizing committee of ISBB 2008 K Takagi Chairman (Tokyo City University) T Tanaka Program Committee Chairman (National Institute for Materials Science) K Kimura Secretary (The University of Tokyo) J Akimitsu (Aoyama University)K Shirai (Osaka University) H Itoh (Nagoya University)T Shishido (Tohoku University) K Nakamura (Nihon University)K Soga (Tokyo University of Science) K Nishiyama (Tokyo University of Science, Suwa)M Takeda (Nagaoka University of Technology) S Okada (Kokushikan University)Y Yamazaki (Toyo Kohan Co, Ltd) International Scientific Committee 0f ISBB (2008-2011) K Takagi Chairman (Japan) B Albert (Germany) J-F Halet (France) M Takeda (Japan) M Antadze (Georgia) H Hillebrecht (Germany) T Tanaka (Japan) J Bauer (France) W Jung (Germany) R Telle (Germany) I Boustani (Germany) K Kimura (Japan) M Trenary (USA) D Emin (USA) T Mori (Japan) O Tsagareishvili (Georgia) M Engler (Germany) P D Ownby (USA) H Werheit (Germany) N Frage (Israel) P Rogl (Austria) G Will (Germany) Yu Grin (Germany) S Shalamberidze (Georgia) O Yucel (Turkey) V N Gurin (Russia) N Shitsevalova (Ukraine) G Zhang (China)

  12. Psychological distress after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident: results of a mental health and lifestyle survey through the Fukushima Health Management Survey in FY2011 and FY2012.

    PubMed

    Yabe, Hirooki; Suzuki, Yuriko; Mashiko, Hirobumi; Nakayama, Yoko; Hisata, Mitsuru; Niwa, Shin-Ichi; Yasumura, Seiji; Yamashita, Shunichi; Kamiya, Kenji; Abe, Masafumi

    2014-01-01

    On 11 March 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake followed by a gigantic tsunami hit the Pacific coast of Northeast Japan (Tohoku) and damaged Tokyo Electric Power Company's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, causing a radiation hazard in the entire Fukushima Prefecture. The radiation dose exposed either externally and internally in Fukushima residents have been evaluated to be low so far and it is hardly believed that they may have any direct radiation risk on physical condition. The purpose of this report is, therefore, to describe results of a mental health and lifestyle survey intended to facilitate adequate care for residents who are at a higher risk of developing mental health problems after the complicated accident. The target population of this survey is the residents of evacuation zones including Hirono Town, Naraha Town, Tomioka Town, Kawauchi Village, Okuma Town, Futaba Town, Namie Town, Katsurao Village, Minamisoma City, Tamura City, Yamakiya district of Kawamata Town, and Iitate Village. The targeted population was 210,189 in fiscal year 2011 (FY2011) and 211,615 in fiscal year 2012 (FY2012). Questionnaires have been mailed since January 2012, and subsequently, January 2013, 10 and 22 months after the disaster. Among of them, children 63.4%, adults 40.7% for FY2011, and children 41.0%, adults 29.7% for FY2012 responded to the questionnaires mailed. Sociodemographic data showed that many evacuee households were separated after the disaster and had to move several times. K6 was used in this survey to estimate general mental health. The proportion (14.6% in FY2011 and 11.9% inFY2012) of adults who scored above the K6 cut-off (≥13) for general mental health was higher than usual, indicating severe mental health problems among evacuees. The proportion (21.6% in FY2011 and 18.3% inFY2012) of adults who scored above the cut-off (≥44) of PTSD checklist (PCL), reflecting traumatic symptoms, was almost equal to that of the workers after the 9.11 World

  13. PREFACE: Nanosafe 2012: International Conferences on Safe Production and Use of Nanomaterials

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tardif, François

    2013-04-01

    , FR) Co-chair: Georgios KATALAGARIANAKIS (EC, BE) Mélanie AUFFAN (CEREGE, FR) Jorge BOCZKOWSKI (INSERM, FR) Jean-Yves BOTTERO (CEREGE, FR) Jacques BOUILLARD (INERIS, FR) Derk BROUWER (TNO, NL) Marie CARRIERE (CEA, FR) Claude EMOND (U. MONTREAL, CA) Cassandra ENGEMAN (UCSB, USA) Eric GAFFET (CNRS, FR) François GENSDARMES (IRSN, FR) Alexei GRINBAUM (CEA, FR) Antje GROBE (U.STUTTGART, DE) Peter HOET (KUL, BE) Eric QUEMENEUR (CEA, FR) Olivier LE BIHAN (INERIS, FR) Robert MUIR (NANEUM, UK) Tinh NGUYEN (NIST, USA) Bernd NOWACK (EMPA, CH) Günter OBERDÖRSTER (U. ROCHESTER, USA) David PUI (U. MINNESOTA, USA) Michael RIEDIKER (IST, CH) Yves SAMSON (CEA, FR) Ken TAKEDA (U. TOKYO, JP) Olivier WITSCHGER (INRS, FR) The PDF contains a list of sponsor logos, the conference programme and planning documents.

  14. Molecular basis of non-syndromic hypospadias: systematic mutation screening and genome-wide copy-number analysis of 62 patients.

    PubMed

    Kon, M; Suzuki, E; Dung, V C; Hasegawa, Y; Mitsui, T; Muroya, K; Ueoka, K; Igarashi, N; Nagasaki, K; Oto, Y; Hamajima, T; Yoshino, K; Igarashi, M; Kato-Fukui, Y; Nakabayashi, K; Hayashi, K; Hata, K; Matsubara, Y; Moriya, K; Ogata, T; Nonomura, K; Fukami, M

    2015-03-01

    mild and severe hypospadias and that HSD3B2 mutations cause non-syndromic hypospadias as a sole clinical manifestation. Most importantly, this is the first report documenting possible oligogenicity of non-syndromic hypospadias. This study was funded by the Grant-in-Aid from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; by the Grant-in-Aid from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; by the Grants from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, from the National Center for Child Health and Development and from the Takeda Foundation. The authors have no competing interests to disclose. Not applicable. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  15. Diabetes area participation analysis: a review of companies and targets described in the 2008 - 2010 patent literature.

    PubMed

    Carpino, Philip A; Goodwin, Bryan

    2010-12-01

    emerging targets and v) the pharmacological rationale underlying several targets with the largest patent counts. Type 2 diabetes is a complex disease with many potential points of intervention for pharmacotherapy. A majority of anti-diabetic patent applications claim chemical matter for just eight targets which include five enzymes, a GPCR, a family of nuclear hormone receptors and a class of sodium-dependent glucose co-transporters (11β-HSD1, DGAT1, DPP IV, glucokinase, GPR119, PPAR-α, -δ, -γ, SGLT1 and SGLT2, and stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 (SCD1)). The major pharmaceutical companies are all pursuing some combination of these top eight targets. Several companies stand out for the breadth of new targets under investigation (e.g., F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Merck & Co., Pfizer, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Sanofi-Aventis).

  16. Peginesatide in patients with anemia undergoing hemodialysis.

    PubMed

    Fishbane, Steven; Schiller, Brigitte; Locatelli, Francesco; Covic, Adrian C; Provenzano, Robert; Wiecek, Andrzej; Levin, Nathan W; Kaplan, Mark; Macdougall, Iain C; Francisco, Carol; Mayo, Martha R; Polu, Krishna R; Duliege, Anne-Marie; Besarab, Anatole

    2013-01-24

    adverse events were similar in the treatment groups in the EMERALD studies. The cardiovascular safety of peginesatide was similar to that of the comparator ESA in the pooled cohort. Peginesatide, administered monthly, was as effective as epoetin, administered one to three times per week, in maintaining hemoglobin levels in patients undergoing hemodialysis. (Funded by Affymax and Takeda Pharmaceutical; ClinicalTrials.gov numbers, NCT00597753 [EMERALD 1], NCT00597584 [EMERALD 2], NCT00598273 [PEARL 1], and NCT00598442 [PEARL 2].).

  17. AMCP Partnership Forum: Improving Quality, Value, and Outcomes with Patient-Reported Outcomes.

    PubMed

    2018-03-01

    manufacturers should engage key stakeholders early and throughout the drug development process to ensure the most valid and representative PROs and patient populations will be included. To streamline the PRO collection process, participants suggested engaging pharmacists and other providers who may have more frequent interaction with patients. Participants also recommended that PRO collection and analysis should use common technology platforms, streamline components of clinician care to reduce workflow, and be integrated with claims data to provider payers a better understanding of patient health in real time. Finally, additional work should be done to develop patient-reported outcome measures that contain relevant measures for all healthcare stakeholders. While significant challenges remain in PRO development and adoption, participants agreed that greater use can only be achieved through collaboration and patient-centered care. The AMCP Partnership Forum titled "Improving Quality, Value, and Outcomes with Patient-Reported Outcomes" and the development of this proceedings report were supported by Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Novo Nordisk, Precision for Value, Premier, Sanofi, Takeda Pharmaceuticals USA, and Xcenda.

  18. Brentuximab vedotin or physician's choice in CD30-positive cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (ALCANZA): an international, open-label, randomised, phase 3, multicentre trial.

    PubMed

    Prince, H Miles; Kim, Youn H; Horwitz, Steven M; Dummer, Reinhard; Scarisbrick, Julia; Quaglino, Pietro; Zinzani, Pier Luigi; Wolter, Pascal; Sanches, Jose A; Ortiz-Romero, Pablo L; Akilov, Oleg E; Geskin, Larisa; Trotman, Judith; Taylor, Kerry; Dalle, Stephane; Weichenthal, Michael; Walewski, Jan; Fisher, David; Dréno, Brigitte; Stadler, Rudolf; Feldman, Tatyana; Kuzel, Timothy M; Wang, Yinghui; Palanca-Wessels, Maria Corinna; Zagadailov, Erin; Trepicchio, William L; Zhang, Wenwen; Lin, Hui-Min; Liu, Yi; Huebner, Dirk; Little, Meredith; Whittaker, Sean; Duvic, Madeleine

    2017-08-05

    patients in the physician's choice group. Peripheral neuropathy was seen in 44 (67%) of 66 patients in the brentuximab vedotin group (n=21 grade 2, n=6 grade 3) and four (6%) of 62 patients in the physician's choice group. One of the four on-treatment deaths was deemed by the investigator to be treatment-related in the brentuximab vedotin group; no on-treatment deaths were reported in the physician's choice group. Significant improvement in objective response lasting at least 4 months was seen with brentuximab vedotin versus physician's choice of methotrexate or bexarotene. Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc (a wholly owned subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd), Seattle Genetics Inc. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Vedolizumab for the Treatment of Adults with Moderate-to-Severe Active Ulcerative Colitis: An Evidence Review Group Perspective of a NICE Single Technology Appraisal.

    PubMed

    Essat, Munira; Tappenden, Paul; Ren, Shijie; Bessey, Alice; Archer, Rachel; Wong, Ruth; Lobo, Alan; Hoque, Sami

    2016-03-01

    As part of its single technology appraisal (STA) process, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) invited the manufacturer of vedolizumab (Takeda UK) to submit evidence of the clinical effectiveness and cost effectiveness of vedolizumab for the treatment of patients with moderate-to-severe active ulcerative colitis (UC). The Evidence Review Group (ERG) produced a critical review of the evidence for the clinical effectiveness and cost effectiveness of the technology, based upon the company's submission to NICE. The evidence was derived mainly from GEMINI 1, a Phase 3, multicentre, randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study of the induction and maintenance of clinical response and remission by vedolizumab (MLN0002) in patients with moderate-to-severe active UC with an inadequate response to, loss of response to or intolerance of conventional therapy or anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α. The clinical evidence showed that vedolizumab performed significantly better than placebo in both the induction and maintenance phases. In the post hoc subgroup analyses in patients with or without prior anti-TNF-α therapy, vedolizumab performed better then placebo (p value not reported). In addition, a greater improvement in health-related quality of life was observed in patients treated with vedolizumab, and the frequency and types of adverse events were similar in the vedolizumab and placebo groups, but the evidence was limited to short-term follow-up. There were a number of limitations and uncertainties in the clinical evidence base, which warrants caution in its interpretation--in particular, the post hoc subgroup analyses and high dropout rates in the maintenance phase of GEMINI 1. The company also presented a network meta-analysis of vedolizumab versus other biologic therapies indicated for moderate-to-severe UC. However, the ERG considered that the results presented may have underestimated the uncertainty in treatment effects, since fixed

  20. [A 50-year history of new drugs in Japan-the development and progress of anti-diabetic drugs and the epidemiological aspects of diabetes mellitus].

    PubMed

    Ozawa, Hikaru; Murai, Yuriko; Ozawa, Terutaka

    2003-01-01

    recombinant products prevailed throughout the 1990s. Human insulin analogues (i.e., Insulin lispro and Insulin aspart) appeared in 2001. These are applied for after-meal glycosmia owing to their ultrarapid onset of activity. Self-injection by DM patients was legalized in 1981. To make the infection technique sure and easy, cartridge (pen-type) and disposable kit-type needles were devised in the 1990s. 2) Oral hypoglycemic drugs: Instead of the exclusive parenteral usage of insulins, there was also demand for oral dosage forms. The first of the sulfonyrlurea (SU) group, BZ-55, was used for DM clinically in 1955 in Germany. But it was soon withdrawn because of its antibacterial action. This led to the development of various SU groups. Tolbutamide (1956), chlorpropamide (1959), acetohexamide (1964) and tolazamide (1961) were introduced to Japan as first-generation SUs. Then glyclopyramide (Kyorin, 1965), glybenclamide (1971), gliclazide (1984) and glimepiride (1999) appeared as the second-generation SUs. These were used orally for Type 2 diabetes. Biguanide (BG) group, phenformin HC1 (1959), metformin HC1 (1961) and buformin HC1 (1961) had also been in use by oral treatment of Type 2 diabetes. SU appears to act by increasing the sensitivity of b-cells, which secrete insulin. BG probably exerts by increasing glucose transport across the membranes of target organs. 3) New types of antidiabetic drugs: a-Glucosidase inhibitors (i.e., acarbose: Bayer, 1993; and voglibose: Takeda, 1994) act on hyperglycemia after meals by decreasing glucose absorption. Thiazolidinedione compounds, such as troglitazone (Sankyo, 1995) and pioglitazone HC1 (Takeda, 1994) act by increasing the insulin sensitivity of the target tissues. These are useful for Type 2 DM patients when SUs are ineffective. Nevertheless, troglitazone was discontinued in 2000 due to severe liver damage. Nateglinide (Ajinomoto Co., 1999), which is a D-phenylalanine derivative acting similar to SUs, is useful orally for after

  1. AMCP Partnership Forum: Advancing Value-Based Contracting.

    PubMed

    2017-11-01

    of a VBC for facilitating discussion with key policy makers and regulators; (b) determine strategies for advancing the development and utilization of performance benchmarks; (c) identify best practices in evaluating, implementing, and monitoring VBCs; and (d) develop action plans to mitigate legal and regulatory barriers to VBCs. More than 30 national and regional health care leaders representing health plans, integrated delivery systems, pharmacy benefit managers, employers, data and analytics companies, and biopharmaceutical companies participated. Speakers, panelists, and stakeholders attended the forum and explored the current environment for VBCs, identified challenges to the expansion of VBCs, offered potential solutions to those challenges, and developed an action plan for addressing selected challenges. The forum recommendations will be used by AMCP to establish a coalition of organizations to seek broader acceptance of VBCs in the marketplace and by policymakers. The recommendations will also help AMCP provide tools and resources to stakeholders in managing VBCs. This Partnership Forum was supported by Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Merck, the National Pharmaceutical Council, Novo Nordisk, Premier, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, RxAnte, Takeda, and Xcenda.

  2. Vedolizumab for Treating Moderately to Severely Active Crohn's Disease After Prior Therapy: An Evidence Review Group Perspective of a NICE Single Technology Appraisal.

    PubMed

    Rafia, Rachid; Scope, Alison; Harnan, Sue; Stevens, John W; Stevenson, Matt; Lobo, Alan

    2016-12-01

    As part of its single technology appraisal process, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) invited the manufacturer of vedolizumab (Takeda UK) to submit evidence of the clinical effectiveness and cost effectiveness of vedolizumab for the treatment of patients with moderate-to-severe, active Crohn's disease. The School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at the University of Sheffield was commissioned as the Evidence Review Group (ERG) and produced a critical review of the evidence of the clinical effectiveness and cost effectiveness of the technology, based upon the company's submission to NICE. The GEMINI II and III trials formed the main supporting evidence for the intervention. Both studies were phase III, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre trials designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of vedolizumab. They included patients who were naïve to tumour necrosis factor alpha antagonist (anti-TNF-α) therapy and patients who had an inadequate response to, loss of response to or intolerance of immunomodulators or anti-TNF-α agents. GEMINI II was designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of vedolizumab as an induction treatment (dosing at weeks 0 and 2, with assessment at week 6) and maintenance treatment (during weeks 6-52). In contrast, GEMINI III was designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of vedolizumab as an induction treatment only, with doses at weeks 0, 2 and 6, and assessment at weeks 6 and 10. In the absence of any direct head-to-head, randomised, controlled trials comparing vedolizumab with other relevant biologic therapies (adalimumab and infliximab) for the treatment of moderate-to-severe Crohn's disease, the company conducted a network meta-analysis, which compared vedolizumab, adalimumab, infliximab and placebo for the outcomes of clinical response, enhanced clinical response, clinical remission and discontinuation due to adverse events. The company model estimated the incremental

  3. Predicting Life Expectancy for Pirfenidone in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.

    PubMed

    Fisher, Mark; Nathan, Steven D; Hill, Christian; Marshall, Jade; Dejonckheere, Fred; Thuresson, Per-Olof; Maher, Toby M

    2017-03-01

    for Roche-Genentech and Boehringer Ingelheim and has received research funding from both companies. Hill was previously employed by InterMune UK until October 2014. Hill and Marshall are employees of MAP BioPharma, which has received funding from F. Hoffmann-La Roche for consulting services. Dejonckheere and Thuresson are employees of F. Hoffmann-La Roche. Maher has received grants, consulting fees, and speaker fees from GlaxoSmithKline and UCB, and grants from Novartis. He has also received consulting fees and speaker fees from AstraZeneca, Bayer, Biogen Idec, Boehringer Ingelheim, Cipla, Lanthio, InterMune International AG, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Sanofi-Aventis, and Takeda. Maher is supported by a National Institute for Health Research Clinician Scientist Fellowship (NIHR Ref: CS: -2013-13-017). Study concept and design were contributed by Fisher, Hill, Marshall, and Dejonckheere. Fisher, Nathan, and Thuresson collected the data, along with Hill and Marshall. Data interpretation was performed by Fisher, Maher, Nathan, and Dejonckheere. The manuscript was written primarily by Fisher, along with Maher and Dejonckheere, and revised by Fisher and Maher, along with the other authors.

  4. [Frontier of mycobacterium research--host vs. mycobacterium].

    PubMed

    Okada, Masaji; Shirakawa, Taro

    2005-09-01

    of M. tuberculosis and the development of novel therapy. Dr. Chiyoji Abe (Nippon Becton Dickinson Co.) reviewed the molecular basis of the resistance to anti-tuberculosis drugs. Most cases of resistance are related to simple nucleotide substitutions rather than to acquisition of new elements. Dr. Kiyoshi Takeda (Kyushu University) showed interesting finding. He analyzed whether Toll-like receptor (TLR)-mediated activation of innate immunity in host defense against mycobacterial infection. MyD88/TRIF double defi-indicating that innate immunity is involved in anti-mycobacterial infection. (1) SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) analysis in association with Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Taro SHIRAKAWA (Department of Health Promotion & Human Behavior, Kyoto University Medical School, and RIKEN SRC Center) Candidate gene approach was made on 18 SNPs in 11 genes in association with M. tuberculosis. Patients with multi-drug resistance against M. tuberculosis are also subjected. SNPs in NRAMP1 gene were associated with the disease, and drug resistance, its mechanisms remain unknown. (2) Search for genes susceptible to pulmonary Mycobacterium avium complex infection: Naoto KEICHO (Department of Respiratory Diseases, Research Institute, International Medical Center of Japan) Interaction among pathogens and host factors is important for development of infectious diseases. We are trying to identify host genetic factors involved in susceptibility to nonimmunocompromized pulmonary Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infection by candidate gene approach and genome-wide approach. Elucidation of functional significance of susceptibility gene polymorphisms will lead to a new strategy for control and prevention of the disease. (3) T cell immunity against Tuberculosis in host and the establishment of novel vaccine: Masaji OKADA (Clinical Research Center, National Hospital Organization Kinki-Chuo Chest Medical Center) T cell (CTL, Th1) immunity including granulysin play an important role in

  5. Estimating the Economic Impact of Adding Panobinostat to a U.S. Formulary for Relapsed and/or Refractory Multiple Myeloma: A Budget Impact and Cost-Benefit Model.

    PubMed

    Bloudek, Lisa; Roy, Anuja; Kish, Jonathan K; Siegel, David S; Jagannath, Sundar; Globe, Denise; Orloski, Laurie; Kuriakose, Emil T

    2016-08-01

    . Panobinostat-bortezomib-dexamethasone had a low cost per treated patient per month without progression, owing to the minimal increase in expenditure over existing bortezomib-based regimens and long median PFS, compared with median duration of treatment. Adding panobinostat to a plan formulary as a treatment option is expected to be cost neutral (and potentially cost saving in the context of new and more expensive treatment regimens). With a low cost per month without progression, panobinostat-bortezomib-dexamethasone represents good value for the money. Funding for this study was sponsored by Novartis, East Hanover, New Jersey. Bloudek and Kish are employees of Xcenda, a consulting company contracted by Novartis to conduct this analysis. Roy, Globe, and Kuriakose are employees of Novartis. Siegel is on the advisory boards and speaker's bureau of Celgene, Onyx/Amgen, Millennium/Takeda, and Novartis and is on the advisory boards of Merck. Jagannath is a consultant to Sanofi, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, and Celgene. Orloski is a contractor to Xcenda and provided medical writing support, which was funded by Novartis. Study design and concept were contributed by Bloudek, Roy, and Kish, assisted by Globe. Bloukek took the lead in data collection, along with Kish, and data interpretation was performed by Siegal, Jagannath, Globe, and Kuriakose. The manuscript was written primarily by Orloski, along with Roy and Kish, and revised by Roy, along with Siegal, Jagannath, Globe, Orloski, and Kuriakose.

  6. Orthopyroxenes as Recorders of Diogenite Petrogenesis: Nature and Causes of Intragrain Chemical Variability

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Papike, J. J.; Spilde, M. N.

    1993-07-01

    .g., (100) augite lamellae in an OPX host], and (3) relatively random variability (e.g., exsolution of spinel). Figure 1 (an OPX from Garland) provides evidence for smooth core-to-rim diffusion profiles. Iron and Mn increase while Mg and Cr decrease from core to rim. Also, Al remains relatively constant, Si decreases, and Ti shows an increase, near the grain edge, on the core-to-rim traverse. These chemical systematics were likely caused by a reaction between the cumulate OPX grain and trapped melt. The trapped melt was apparently enriched in Fe and Mn and depleted in Cr relative to OPX. In conclusion, postcrystallization resetting of cumulate grain chemical systematics must be carefully assessed before the data can be "inverted" to estimates of parental melt compositions. Acknowledgment: This research was supported by NASA grant NAGW-3347 and the Institute of Meteoritics. References: [1] Shearer C. K. et al. (1993) LPS XXIV, 1289-1290. [2] Lambert D. D. and Simmons E. C. (1987) Am. J. Sci., 287, 1-32. [3] Takeda H. et. al. (1979) Proc. 3rd Symp. Antarc. Met., 82-108. [4] Papike J. J. et. al. (1993) LPS XXIV, 1109-1110. Fig. 1 appears here in the hard copy.

  7. Probability of major depression diagnostic classification using semi-structured versus fully structured diagnostic interviews.

    PubMed

    Levis, Brooke; Benedetti, Andrea; Riehm, Kira E; Saadat, Nazanin; Levis, Alexander W; Azar, Marleine; Rice, Danielle B; Chiovitti, Matthew J; Sanchez, Tatiana A; Cuijpers, Pim; Gilbody, Simon; Ioannidis, John P A; Kloda, Lorie A; McMillan, Dean; Patten, Scott B; Shrier, Ian; Steele, Russell J; Ziegelstein, Roy C; Akena, Dickens H; Arroll, Bruce; Ayalon, Liat; Baradaran, Hamid R; Baron, Murray; Beraldi, Anna; Bombardier, Charles H; Butterworth, Peter; Carter, Gregory; Chagas, Marcos H; Chan, Juliana C N; Cholera, Rushina; Chowdhary, Neerja; Clover, Kerrie; Conwell, Yeates; de Man-van Ginkel, Janneke M; Delgadillo, Jaime; Fann, Jesse R; Fischer, Felix H; Fischler, Benjamin; Fung, Daniel; Gelaye, Bizu; Goodyear-Smith, Felicity; Greeno, Catherine G; Hall, Brian J; Hambridge, John; Harrison, Patricia A; Hegerl, Ulrich; Hides, Leanne; Hobfoll, Stevan E; Hudson, Marie; Hyphantis, Thomas; Inagaki, Masatoshi; Ismail, Khalida; Jetté, Nathalie; Khamseh, Mohammad E; Kiely, Kim M; Lamers, Femke; Liu, Shen-Ing; Lotrakul, Manote; Loureiro, Sonia R; Löwe, Bernd; Marsh, Laura; McGuire, Anthony; Mohd Sidik, Sherina; Munhoz, Tiago N; Muramatsu, Kumiko; Osório, Flávia L; Patel, Vikram; Pence, Brian W; Persoons, Philippe; Picardi, Angelo; Rooney, Alasdair G; Santos, Iná S; Shaaban, Juwita; Sidebottom, Abbey; Simning, Adam; Stafford, Lesley; Sung, Sharon; Tan, Pei Lin Lynnette; Turner, Alyna; van der Feltz-Cornelis, Christina M; van Weert, Henk C; Vöhringer, Paul A; White, Jennifer; Whooley, Mary A; Winkley, Kirsty; Yamada, Mitsuhiko; Zhang, Yuying; Thombs, Brett D

    2018-06-01

    original sponsor of the development of the PHQ-9, which is now in the public domain. Dr Chan is a steering committee member or consultant of Astra Zeneca, Bayer, Lilly, MSD and Pfizer. She has received sponsorships and honorarium for giving lectures and providing consultancy and her affiliated institution has received research grants from these companies. Dr Hegerl declares that within the past 3 years, he was an advisory board member for Lundbeck, Servier and Otsuka Pharma; a consultant for Bayer Pharma; and a speaker for Medice Arzneimittel, Novartis, and Roche Pharma, all outside the submitted work. Dr Inagaki declares that he has received grants from Novartis Pharma, lecture fees from Pfizer, Mochida, Shionogi, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, Daiichi-Sankyo, Meiji Seika and Takeda, and royalties from Nippon Hyoron Sha, Nanzando, Seiwa Shoten, Igaku-shoin and Technomics, all outside of the submitted work. Dr Yamada reports personal fees from Meiji Seika Pharma Co., Ltd., MSD K.K., Asahi Kasei Pharma Corporation, Seishin Shobo, Seiwa Shoten Co., Ltd., Igaku-shoin Ltd., Chugai Igakusha and Sentan Igakusha, all outside the submitted work. All other authors declare no competing interests. No funder had any role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis and interpretation of the data; preparation, review or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

  8. Solar Noble Gases in Polymict Ureilites and an Update on Ureilite Noble Gas Data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ott, U.; Lohr, H. P.; Begemann, F.

    1993-07-01

    /^21Ne)(sub)c ratio of the cosmogenic component, indicative of irradiation under very low shielding conditions, but otherwise abundances and abundance ratios for the momomict ureilites LEW 85328 and Acfer 277 appear quite "ordinary" when compared to other monomict ureilites [6,10]. References: [1] Wasson J. T. et al. (1976) GCA, 40, 1449-1458. [2] Berkley J. L. et al. (1980) GCA, 44, 1579-1597. [3] Takeda H. (1989) EPSL, 93, 181- 194. [4] Warren P. H. and Kallemeyn G. W. (1989) Meteoritics, 24, 233-246. [5] Clayton R. N. and Mayeda T. K. (1988) GCA, 52, 1313-1318. [6] Gobel R. et al. (1978) JGR, 83, 855-867. [7] Ott U. et al. (1984) Meteoritics, 19, 287-288. [8] Black D. C. (1972) GCA, 36, 347-375. [9] Ott U. et al. (1990) Meteoritics, 25, 396. [10] Schultz L. and Kruse H. (1989) Meteoritics, 24, 155-172. [11] Jaques A. L. and Fitzgerald M. J. (1982) GCA, 46, 893-900. [12] Grady M. M. and Pillinger C. T. (1988) Nature, 331, 321-323. Table 1, which appears here in the hard copy, shows noble gases in monomict ureilites Acfer 277 and LEW 85328 and polymict ureilite EET 87720. Fig. 1 appears here in the hard copy.

  9. The association between sperm sex chromosome disomy and semen concentration, motility and morphology.

    PubMed

    McAuliffe, M E; Williams, P L; Korrick, S A; Dadd, R; Perry, M J

    2012-10-01

    (1818) was not associated with abnormal semen parameters. A potential limitation of this study, as well as those currently in the published literature, is that it is cross-sectional. Cross-sectional analyses by nature do not lend themselves to inference about directionality for any observed associations; therefore, we cannot determine which variable is the cause and which one is the effect. Additionally, the use of WHO cutoff criteria for dichotomizing semen parameters may not fully define fertility status; however, in this study, fertility status was not an outcome we were attempting to assess. This is the largest study to date seeking to understand the association between sperm sex chromosome disomy and semen parameters, and the first to use multivariate modeling to understand this relationship. The findings are similar to those in the published literature and highlight the need for mechanistic studies to better characterize the interrelationships between sex chromosome disomy and standard indices of sperm health. This work was supported by grants from NIOSH (T42 OH008416) and NIEHS (R01 ES009718, P30 ES000002 and R01 ES017457). The authors declare no competing interests. At the time this work was conducted and the initial manuscript written, MEM was affiliated with the Environmental Health Department at the Harvard School of Public Health. Currently, MEM is employed by Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company. N/A.

  10. The association between sperm sex chromosome disomy and semen concentration, motility and morphology

    PubMed Central

    McAuliffe, M.E.; Williams, P.L.; Korrick, S.A.; Dadd, R.; Perry, M.J.

    2012-01-01

    total sex chromosome disomy were not associated with an increase in the odds of a man having abnormal semen parameters. In addition, autosomal chromosome disomy (1818) was not associated with abnormal semen parameters. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION A potential limitation of this study, as well as those currently in the published literature, is that it is cross-sectional. Cross-sectional analyses by nature do not lend themselves to inference about directionality for any observed associations; therefore, we cannot determine which variable is the cause and which one is the effect. Additionally, the use of WHO cutoff criteria for dichotomizing semen parameters may not fully define fertility status; however, in this study, fertility status was not an outcome we were attempting to assess. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS This is the largest study to date seeking to understand the association between sperm sex chromosome disomy and semen parameters, and the first to use multivariate modeling to understand this relationship. The findings are similar to those in the published literature and highlight the need for mechanistic studies to better characterize the interrelationships between sex chromosome disomy and standard indices of sperm health. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) This work was supported by grants from NIOSH (T42 OH008416) and NIEHS (R01 ES009718, P30 ES000002 and R01 ES017457). The authors declare no competing interests. At the time this work was conducted and the initial manuscript written, MEM was affiliated with the Environmental Health Department at the Harvard School of Public Health. Currently, MEM is employed by Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER N/A. PMID:22892419

  11. Budget Impact of Adding Ivabradine to Standard of Care in Patients with Chronic Systolic Heart Failure in the United States.

    PubMed

    Borer, Jeffrey S; Kansal, Anuraag R; Dorman, Emily D; Krotneva, Stanimira; Zheng, Ying; Patel, Harshali K; Tavazzi, Luigi; Komajda, Michel; Ford, Ian; Böhm, Michael; Kielhorn, Adrian

    2016-09-01

    treatment costs. The negative PMPM budget impact indicates that ivabradine is an affordable option for U.S. payers. This study was funded by Amgen. Patel is employed by Amgen; Kielhorn was employed by Amgen at the time of the study but is no longer affiliated with Amgen. Borer, Böhm, Ford, and Komajda have received scientific support, consultative fees, and/or speakers honoraria from Servier and Amgen in connection with SHIFT, the trial underlying this analysis. Borer also has received consultative fees from Celladon, Pfizer, ARMGO, Cardiorentis, Novartis, and Takeda USA. Kansal, Dorman, Krotneva, and Zheng are employees of Evidera, which was hired to assist with this study. Tavazzi has received research grants and consultation fees from Servier in connection with this study and has had advisory board memberships with Boston Scientific, Servier, Cardiorentis, Medtronic, St. Jude Medical, and CVie Therapeutics. Study concept and design were contributed by Dorman and Keilhorn, along with the other authors. Tavazzi, Komajda, Ford, BÖhm, and Borer oversaw collection of the data. Tavazzi, Komajda, Ford, BÖhm, and Borer (along with Karl Swedberg) formed the Executive Committee of SHIFT, the trial underlying this analysis. The manuscript was written by Kansal, along with the other authors, and revised by Borer and Patel, with assistance from the other authors.

  12. AMCP Partnership Forum: FDAMA Section 114-Improving the Exchange of Health Care Economic Data.

    PubMed

    2016-07-01

    & Co., National Pharmaceutical Council, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Precision for Value, Pfizer, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, U.S.A., and Xcenda. All sponsors participated in the forum and participated in revising and approving the manuscript.

  13. Seismic structure of the upper crust in the Albertine Rift from travel-time and ambient-noise tomography - a comparison

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jakovlev, Andrey; Kaviani, Ayoub; Ruempker, Georg

    2017-04-01

    5 km Low velocities surround the mountain range from western and southern sides and coincide with the location of the rift valley. The Rwenzori Mountains itself and the eastern rift shoulder are represented by increased velocities. At greater depths of 10 - 15 km some differences in the models care observed. Thus, beneath the Rwenzories the travel time tomography shows low S-velocities, whereas the ambient noise tomography exhibits high S-velocities. This can be possibly explained by the fact that the ambient noise tomography is characterized by higher vertical resolution. Also, the number of the rays used for tomographic inversion in the ambient noise tomography is significantly smaller. This study was partly supported by the grant of Russian Foundation of Science #14-17-00430. References: Barmin, M.P., Ritzwoller, M.H. & Levshin, A.L., 2001. A fast and reliable method for surface wave tomography, Pure appl. Geophys., 158, 1351-1375. Bensen G.D., Ritzwoller M.H., Barmin M.P., Levshin A.L., Lin F., Moschetti M.P., Shapiro N.M., Yang Y., 2001, A fast and reliable method for surface wave tomography. Geophys. J. Int. 169, 1239-1260, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-246X.2007.03374.x. Boué P., Poli P., Campillo M., Roux P., 2014, Reverberations, coda waves and ambient-noise: correlations at the global scale and retrieval of the deep phases. Earth planet. Sci. Lett., 391, 137-145. Briand X., Campillo M., Brenguier F., Boué P., Poli P., Roux P., Takeda T. AGU Fall Meeting. San Francisco, CA; 2013. Processing of terabytes of data for seismic noise analysis with the Python codes of the Whisper Suite. 9-13 December, in Proceedings of the , Abstract n°IN51B-1544. Koulakov, I. (2009), LOTOS code for local earthquake tomographic inversion. Benchmarks for testing tomographic algorithms, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am., 99, 194-214, doi:10.1785/0120080013.

  14. Han Chinese polycystic ovary syndrome risk variants in women of European ancestry: relationship to FSH levels and glucose tolerance.

    PubMed

    Saxena, R; Georgopoulos, N A; Braaten, T J; Bjonnes, A C; Koika, V; Panidis, D; Welt, C K

    2015-06-01

    associated with insulin (-0.16 ± 0.05, P = 0.0029) and glucose levels (-0.20 ± 0.05, P = 0.0002) 120 min after an oral glucose test. The study was large and contained replication cohorts, but was limited by a small number of controls in the Greek cohort and a small number of cases in the second Boston cohort. The second Boston group was identified using electronic medical record review, but was validated for the cardinal features of PCOS. This study demonstrates a cross-ethnic PCOS risk locus in FSHR in women of European ancestry with PCOS. The variant may influence FSH receptor responsiveness as suggested by the associated change in FSH levels. The relationship between a variant near RAB5B and SUOX and glucose stimulated insulin and glucose levels suggests an influence of one of these genes on glucose tolerance, but the absence of a relationship with PCOS points to potential differences in the international PCOS patient populations. The project was supported by Award Number R01HD065029 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Of Child Health & Human Development, Award Number 1 UL1 RR025758, Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center, from the National Center for Research Resources, award 1-10-CT-57 from the American Diabetes Association and the Partners Healthcare Center for Personalized Genetics Project Grant. C.K.W. is a consultant for Takeda Pharmaceuticals. NCT00166569. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  15. Evidence for Ultra-Energetic Particles in Jet from Black Hole

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    2006-06-01

    .-J.Röser, & R.Perley Jpeg | Tiff There have been two competing theories of how emissions arise from the particles -- the "Inverse-Compton" theory proposing that the emissions occur when jet particles scatter cosmic microwave background photons, and the "Synchrotron Radiation" theory postulating a separate population of extremely energetic electrons or protons that cause the high-energy emission. "The Yale team used the Spitzer Space Telescope to observe 3C273 because it is located in space and is more sensitive to faint infrared jet emission than any previous telescope," said Yasunobu Uchiyama, a team leader and former postdoctoral fellow at the Yale Center for Astronomy. Spitzer observations enabled the team, with collaborators at Stanford, University of Southampton, Goddard Space Flight Center, and the Brera Observatory in Milan, to determine the infrared spectrum for the first time and thus to realize its close connection to the X-ray emission. Sebastian Jester, now at the University of Southampton, led a complementary study that used the Chandra X-ray Observatory. This team, with collaborators at MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) in Cambridge, MA, and at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, obtained the first detailed study of energy distribution of X-rays from the jet, which also supported the synchrotron theory. Composite of 3C273's jet Composite of 3C273's jet, showing in which wavelength region the emission peaks: X-rays (observed with Chandra) in blue, optical light (observed with HST) in green, radio waves (observed with the VLA) in red. Yellow indicates that both optical and radio emission are strong. jpg | tif According to the researchers, while the lifetime of the X-ray producing particles is only about 100 years, the data indicate that the visibly brightest part of the jet has a length of about 100,000 light years. Since there would be insufficient time for the particles to

  16. Effect of an intensified multifactorial intervention on cardiovascular outcomes and mortality in type 2 diabetes (J-DOIT3): an open-label, randomised controlled trial.

    PubMed

    Ueki, Kohjiro; Sasako, Takayoshi; Okazaki, Yukiko; Kato, Masayuki; Okahata, Sumie; Katsuyama, Hisayuki; Haraguchi, Mikiko; Morita, Ai; Ohashi, Ken; Hara, Kazuo; Morise, Atsushi; Izumi, Kazuo; Ishizuka, Naoki; Ohashi, Yasuo; Noda, Mitsuhiko; Kadowaki, Takashi

    2017-12-01

    SmithKline, Kissei Pharmaceutical, Kowa Pharmaceutical, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma, Mochida Pharmaceutical, MSD, Novartis Pharma, Novo Nordisk, Ono Pharmaceutical, Pfizer, Sanwa Kagaku Kenkyusho, Shionogi, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, Taisho Toyama Pharmaceutical, and Takeda. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of interventions for the treatment of anogenital warts: systematic review and economic evaluation.

    PubMed

    Thurgar, Elizabeth; Barton, Samantha; Karner, Charlotta; Edwards, Steven J

    2016-03-01

    treatment. Podophyllotoxin 0.5% solution (Condyline(®), Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd; Warticon(®) solution, Stiefel Laboratories Ltd) was found to be the most effective topical treatment evaluated. Networks for other outcomes included fewer treatments, which restrict conclusions on the comparative effectiveness of interventions. In total, 84 treatment strategies were assessed using the economic model. Podophyllotoxin 0.5% solution first line followed by carbon dioxide (CO2) laser therapy second line if AGWs did not clear was most likely to be considered a cost-effective use of resources at a willingness to pay of £20,000-30,000 per additional quality-adjusted life-year gained. The result was robust to most sensitivity analyses conducted. Limited reporting in identified studies of baseline characteristics for the enrolled population generates uncertainty around the comparability of the study populations and therefore the generalisability of the results to clinical practice. Subgroup analyses were planned based on type, number and size of AGWs, all of which are factors thought to influence treatment effect. Lack of data on clinical effectiveness based on these characteristics precluded analysis of the differential effects of treatments in the subgroups of interest. Despite identification of 60 studies, most comparisons in the MTC are informed by only one RCT. Additionally, lack of head-to-head RCTs comparing key treatments, together with minimal reporting of results in some studies, precluded comprehensive analysis of all treatments for AGWs. The results generated by the MTC are in agreement with consensus opinion that ablative techniques are clinically more effective at completely clearing AGWs after treatment. However, the evidence base informing the MTC is limited. A head-to-head RCT that evaluates the comparative effectiveness of interventions used in clinical practice would help to discern the potential advantages and disadvantages of the individual treatments

  18. Identification and replication of prediction models for ovulation, pregnancy and live birth in infertile women with polycystic ovary syndrome.

    PubMed

    Kuang, Hongying; Jin, Susan; Hansen, Karl R; Diamond, Michael P; Coutifaris, Christos; Casson, Peter; Christman, Gregory; Alvero, Ruben; Huang, Hao; Bates, G Wright; Usadi, Rebecca; Lucidi, Scott; Baker, Valerie; Santoro, Nanette; Eisenberg, Esther; Legro, Richard S; Zhang, Heping

    2015-09-01

    large sample sizes. Younger age, lower baseline free androgen index and insulin, shorter duration of attempting conception, and higher baseline sex hormone-binding globulin significantly predicted at least one pregnancy outcome. The ROC curves (with AUCs of 0.66-0.76) and calibration plots and chi-square tests indicated stable predictive power of the identified variables (P-values ≥0.07 for all goodness-of-fit and validation tests). This is a secondary analysis. Although our primary objective was to confirm previously reported results and identify new predictors of ovulation and pregnancy outcomes among PPCOS-II participants, our approach is exploratory and warrants further replication. We have largely confirmed the predictors that were identified in the PPCOS-I trial. However, we have also revealed new predictors, particularly the role of smoking. While a history of ever smoking was not a significant predictor for live birth, a closer look at current, quit, and never smoking revealed that current smoking was a significant risk factor. The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Grants U10 HD27049, U10 HD38992, U10HD055925, U10 HD39005, U10 HD33172, U10 HD38998, U10 HD055936, U10 HD055942, and U10 HD055944; and U54-HD29834. Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine Grants 051277 and B201005. R.S.L. reports receiving consulting fees from Euroscreen, AstraZeneca, Clarus Therapeutics, and Takeda, and grant support from Ferring, Astra Zeneca, and Toba. K.R.H. reports receiving grant support from Roche Diagnostics and Ferring Pharmascience. G.C. reports receiving Honorarium and grant support from Abbvie Pharmaceuticals and Bayer Pharmaceuticals. M.P.D. holds equity from Advanced Reproductive Care Inc. and DS Biotech, receives fees from Advanced Reproductive Care Inc., Actamax, Auxogyn, ZSX Medical, Halt Medical, and Neomed, and receives grant support from Boehringer-Ingelheim, Abbott, and BioSante, Ferring Pharmaceuticals

  19. AMCP Partnership Forum: Enabling the Exchange of Clinical and Economic Information Pre-FDA Approval.

    PubMed

    2017-01-01

    , since PIE is a novel category of information. New legislation could provide a safe harbor and clarity that PIE does not violate preapproval promotion and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and its regulations. The AMCP Partnership Forum on Enabling the Exchange of Clinical and Economic Data Pre-FDA Approval and the development of this proceedings document were supported by AbbVie, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, Intarcia Therapeutics, Eli Lilly and Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, National Pharmaceutical Council, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Precision for Value, Sanofi, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, U.S.A., and Xcenda. All sponsors participated in the forum and in revising and approving the manuscript.

  20. Patterns of Statin Use in a Real-World Population of Patients at High Cardiovascular Risk.

    PubMed

    Lin, Iris; Sung, Jennifer; Sanchez, Robert J; Mallya, Usha G; Friedman, Mark; Panaccio, Mary; Koren, Andrew; Neumann, Peter; Menzin, Joseph

    2016-06-01

    interest in Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Neumann has served on advisory boards for Merck & Co, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Genentech, Novartis, Bayer AG, UCB, Sanofi US, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Cubist and serves as consultant for Boston Health Economics, Forrest, P urdue, and Smith and Nephew. This research has been presented in part at the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research, 20th Annual International Meeting, May 16-20, 2015, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. All authors contributed to the study design, protocol development, and results interpretation. Lin and Menzin were responsible for conducting the study analyses. All authors were involved in manuscript development and approved the submitted version.

  1. Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Meeting MTM Eligibility Criteria Based on Star Ratings Compared with the Medicare Modernization Act.

    PubMed

    Spivey, Christina A; Wang, Junling; Qiao, Yanru; Shih, Ya-Chen Tina; Wan, Jim Y; Kuhle, Julie; Dagogo-Jack, Samuel; Cushman, William C; Chisholm-Burns, Marie

    2018-02-01

    sensitivity analyses. Disparities were not completely explained by differences in patient characteristics based on the Blinder-Oaxaca approach. The multinomial logistic regression of each main analysis found significant adjusted relative risk ratios (RRR) between whites and blacks for 2009 (RRR = 0.459, 95% CI = 0.438-0.481); 2013 (RRR = 0.449, 95% CI = 0.434-0.465); and 2015 (RRR = 0.436, 95% CI = 0.425-0.446) and between whites and Hispanics for 2009 (RRR = 0.559, 95% CI = 0.528-0.593); 2013 (RRR = 0.544, 95% CI = 0.521-0.569); and 2015 (RRR = 0.503, 95% CI = 0.488-0.518). These findings indicate a significant reduction in racial and ethnic disparities when using star ratings eligibility criteria; for example, black-white disparities in the likelihood of meeting MTM eligibility criteria were reduced by 55.1% based on star ratings compared with MMA in 2013. Similar patterns were found in most sensitivity and disease-specific analyses. This study found that minorities were more likely than whites to be MTM-eligible under the star ratings criteria. In addition, MTM eligibility criteria based on star ratings would reduce racial and ethnic disparities associated with MMA in the general Medicare population and those with specific chronic conditions. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01AG049696. The content of this study is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Cushman reports an Eli Lilly grant and uncompensated consulting for Takeda Pharmaceuticals outside this work. The other authors have no potential conflicts of interest to report. Study concept and design were contributed by Wang and Shih, along with Wan, Kuhle, Spivey, and Cushman. Wang, Qiao, and Wan took the lead in data collection, with assistance from the other authors. Data interpretation was performed by Wang, Kuhle

  2. Report from the organizers Report from the organizers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kes, Peter

    2009-04-01

    conferences time is reserved for prize ceremonies. The recipients of the most important prize in low temperature physics, the Fritz London Memorial Prize 2008, were Yuriy M Bunkov (Institute Néel, Grenoble), Vladimir V Dmitriev, and Igor A Fomin (both Kapitza Institute, Moscow). They got the prize for their discovery and understanding of the 'phase coherent spin precession and spin superfluidity of 3He-B'. The Simon Prize 2008 of The Physical Society went to Yasunobu Nakamura and Jaw-Shen Tsai (NEC Laboratories, Tsukuba) for their 'pioneering demonstration of quantum coherent behaviour in a macroscopic object and for their subsequent explorations of quantum coherent physics in a series of novel superconducting devices'. The Nicholas Kurti European Science Prize (sponsored by Oxford Instruments) was awarded to Lieven Vandersypen (Delft University of Technology) for his 'ground-breaking work on the coherent control of nuclear and electron spins, with possible application to quantum information processing'. Finally, the first IUPAP Young Scientist Prizes in Low Temperature Physics went to Kostya Novoselov (University of Manchester) for his 'contribution in the discovery of graphene and for pioneering studies of its extraordinary properties', to Dai Aoki (Tohuko University, Sendai) for his 'discovery of novel heavy fermion superconductivity in actinide compounds', and to Viktor Tsepelin (Lancaster University) for 'the development of new experimental techniques and key discoveries in the fields of 3He crystals and quantum turbulence'. All prize recipients got the opportunity to present their work in an invited oral contribution. As is common practice nowadays all announcements, registrations, paper submissions and communications regarding program and practical matters were done electronically, either by email or via the internet. Nevertheless, the program book was still printed and handed out to all participants at registration and they received an electronic version on a USB

  3. REPORT FROM THE ORGANIZERS: The 25th International Conference on Low Temperature Physics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kes, Peter

    2009-03-01

    recipients of the most important prize in low temperature physics, the Fritz London Memorial Prize 2008, were Yuriy M Bunkov (Institute Neël, Grenoble), Vladimir V Dmitriev, and Igor A Fomin (both Kapitza Institute, Moscow). They got the prize for their discovery and understanding of the 'Phase Coherent Spin Precession and Spin Superfluidity of 3He-B'. The Simon Prize 2008 of The Physical Society went to Yasunobu Nakamura and Jaw-Shen Tsai (NEC Laboratories, Tsukuba) for their 'Pioneering demonstration of quantum coherent behaviour in a macroscopic object and for their subsequent explorations of quantum coherent physics in a series of novel superconducting devices'. The Nicholas Kurti European Science Prize (sponsored by Oxford Instruments) was awarded to Lieven Vandersypen (Delft University of Technology) for his 'Ground-breaking work on the coherent control of nuclear and electron spins, with possible application to quantum information processing'. Finally, the first IUPAP Young Scientist Prizes in Low Temperature Physics went to Kostya Novoselov (University of Manchester) for his 'Contribution in the discovery of graphene and for pioneering studies of its extraordinary properties', to Dai Aoki (Tohuko University, Sendai) for his 'Discovery of novel heavy fermion superconductivity in actinide compounds', and to Viktor Tsepelin (Lancaster University) for 'The development of new experimental techniques and key discoveries in the fields of 3He crystals and quantum turbulence'. All prize recipients got the opportunity to present their work in an invited oral contribution. As is common practice nowadays all announcements, registrations, paper submissions and communications regarding program and practical matters were done electronically, either by email or via internet. Nevertheless, the program book was still printed and handed out to all participants at registration and they received an electronic version on a USB stick as well. The stick also contained all the submitted

  4. Impact of a Patient Support Program on Patient Adherence to Adalimumab and Direct Medical Costs in Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psoriasis, Psoriatic Arthritis, and Ankylosing Spondylitis.

    PubMed

    Rubin, David T; Mittal, Manish; Davis, Matthew; Johnson, Scott; Chao, Jingdong; Skup, Martha

    2017-08-01

    12 months following the index date using t-tests. A total of 2,386 patients were included in the study and were allocated to the PSP (n = 1,199) and non-PSP (n = 1,187) cohorts. Baseline characteristics were similar between cohorts. During the follow-up period, adalimumab adherence was 14% greater in the PSP cohort than for the non-PSP cohort (67.0% vs. 58.8%; P < 0.001). The discontinuation rate for adalimumab was 14% lower in the PSP cohort compared with the non-PSP cohort (39.7% vs. 46.2%; P = 0.001). Univariate analyses showed that PSP patients had 23% lower 12-month medical costs (excluding costs for biologic treatment) than did non-PSP patients ($18,322 vs. $23,679; P = 0.003). Disease-related medical costs were 22% lower for PSP than for non-PSP patients ($8,001 vs. $10,202; P = 0.045). Total costs were 10% lower for PSP than for non-PSP patients ($35,741 vs. $39,713; P = 0.030). Patient enrollment in the PSP was associated with greater adherence, improved persistence, and reduced medical (all-cause and disease-related) and total health care costs for patients receiving adalimumab therapy. Design, study conduct, and financial support for this study were provided by AbbVie. AbbVie participated in the interpretation of data, review, and approval of the abstract. All authors contributed to the development of the publication and maintained control over the final content. Rubin has received consulting fees or research support from AbbVie, Amgen, Emmi, Genentech, Ironwood, Janssen, Pfizer, Prometheus, Shire, and Takeda. Skup and Mittal are employees and stockholders of AbbVie. Chao was an employee of AbbVie at the time of the study and may hold AbbVie stock. Johnson and Davis are employees of Medicus Economics, which received payment from AbbVie to participate in this research. Study concept and design were contributed by Rubin, Mittal, Chao, and Skup, along with Davis and Johnson. Davis and Johnson took the lead in data collection, with assistance from the other

  5. EDITORIAL: Welcome to the 2012 volume Welcome to the 2012 volume

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Garcia, Ephrahim

    2012-01-01

    , Los Angeles, USA Professor Y Matsuzaki, Nagoya University, Japan Professor W M Ostachowicz, Polish Academy of Sciences, Gdansk, Poland Dr K Peters, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA Professor M Shahinpoor, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA Dr H Sodano, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA Professor G Song, University of Houston, TX, USA Professor W J Staszewski, AGH University of Science and Technology, Kraków, Poland Professor N Takeda, University of Tokyo, Japan Professor Q Wang, University of Manitoba, Canada Professor N M Wereley, University of Maryland, College Park, USA Professor W J Wu, National Taiwan University, Taiwan I look forward to the continued success and prosperity of SMS in 2012!

  6. Silicate Inclusions in IAB Irons: Correlations Between Metal Composition and Inclusion Properties, and Inferences for Their Origin

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Benedix, G. K.; McCoy, T. J.; Keil, K.

    1995-09-01

    changes observed here indicate that the silicates were interacting with a single evolving metallic magma. We suggest that the requirement for a common system is more compatible with core formation [5,6] than with impact-melt pools [2,4]. References: [1] McCoy T. J. et al. (1993) Meteoritics, 28, 552-560. [2] Choi B.-G. et al. (1995) GCA, 59, 593-612. [3] Benedix G. K. et al. (1995) LPS XXVI, 99-100. [4] Wasson J. T. et al. (1980) Z. Naturforsch., 35a, 781-795. [5] Kracher A. (1982) GRL, 9, 412-415. [6] Kracher A. (1985) Proc. LPSC 15th, in JGR, 90, C689-C698. [7] Bunch T. E. et al. (1970) Contrib. Mineral. Petrol., 25, 297-340. [8] McCoy et al. (1995) Meteoritics, in preparation. [9] Scott E. R. D. and Bild R. W. (1974) GCA, 38, 1379-1391. [10] Takeda H. et al. (1993) Meteoritics, 28, 447.

  7. PREFACE: Nanosafe2010: International Conference on Safe Production and Use of Nanomaterials

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sentein, Carole; Schuster, Frédéric; Tardif, François

    2011-07-01

    . Rochester, USA)David PUI (U. Minnesota, USA)Eric QUEMENEUR (CEA, FR)Robert SCHALLER (EPFL, CH)Carole SENTEIN (CEA, FR)Ken TAKEDA (U. Tokyo, JP)Louis TREPIED (MINEFE, FR)Jacques VENDEL (IRSN, FR)Olivier WITSCHGER (INRS, FR) List of Participants AGUY SCordouan, FR ALLEMAN LEcole des Mines de Douai, FR ALPER MUniv. California Berkeley, US ALVES O LUNICAMP, BR AMDAOUD MUniv. Joseph Fourier, FR AMODEO TINERIS, FR AMYOTTE PDalhousie Univ., CA ARAKELIAN M CFundacion Argentina de Nanotecnologia, AR ARZAMASTSEVA ETomsk Polytechnic Univ., RU ASCHBERGER KEuropean Commission-JRC, IT ASHTON AJPCS, GB ASIMAKOPOULOU ACERTH/CPER, GR AUBLANT J-MLNE, FR AUDE-GARCIA CCEA, FR AUFFAN MCEREGE, FR AUGER ACEA, FR BAEK MSeoul Woman's Univ., KR BAEZA AUniv. Paris 7 Diderot, FR BAGUET DCEA, FR BARONE FIstituto Superiore di Sanità, IT BAU SINRS, FR BELLEVILLE PCEA, FR BENAZET SSNPE-Matériaux Energétiques, FR BERGER L-MFraunhofer Institute, DE BERGES MDGUV-IFA, DE BERNARD CNIST, US BERNARD DARKEMA, FR BERNE PCEA, FR BERRET J-FUniv. Paris 7 Diderot, FR BIGORGNE ECNRS, FR BILLAT BPMS, FR BLOCH DCEA, FR BOGDANOVIC-GUILLON AFreelance journalist, FR BOIVIN DRESPIREX France, FR BOLAND SUniv. Paris 7 Diderot, FR BOMBARDIER PFAURE QEI, FR BORASCHI DInstitute of Biomedical Technologies, IT BOTTERO J-YCEREGE, FR BRADLEY JLux Research, US BREGOLI LVeneto Nanotech, IT BRIGNON J-MINERIS, FR BROCHOT CIRSN, FR BROUWER DTNO Quality of Life, NL BUDIMAN TTSE-Systems, DE CABOCHE JEcole des Mines de Douai, FR CALLET GCEA, FR CALOGINE DINERIS, FR CAPONIGRO ALoreal, FR CARRIERE MCEA, FR CASSETTE SThales Research & Technology, FR CHARPENTIER DINERIS, FR CHEN C-CTaiwan Univ., TW CHEN LHealth Canada, CA CHEVALLET MCEA, FR CHOI S-JSeoul Woman's Univ., KR CHOU C-CChung Cheng University, TW CHUNG H-ESeoul Woman's Univ., KR CIMPAN MUniv. Bergen, NO CIOBANU NTU Munich, DE CLARK KInstitute for Work and Health, CH CONJEAUD HUniv. Paris 7 Diderot, FR COSTA PEREIRA CNational Health Institute, PT CROOKS MTSI, GB CUPERTINO DC

  8. PREFACE Preface

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Takahashi, Migaku; Saito, Hitoshi; Yoshimura, Satoru; Takanashi, Koki; Sahashi, Masashi; Tsunoda, Masakiyo

    2011-01-01

    IgarashiHitachi, CRL, JapanK TajimaAkita Univ., Japan H ItoKansai Univ., JapanM TakedaJAEA, Japan H IwasakiToshiba, JapanY TakemuraYokohama Nat'l Univ., Japan H KatoYamagata Univ., JapanM TanakaUniv. of Tokyo, Japan M KonotoAIST, JapanA TsukamotoNihon Univ., Japan H KubotaAIST, JapanS YabukamiTohoku Gakuin Univ., Japan Treasury Committee of ISAMMA 2010 M SahashiTohoku Univ., Japan, ChairS SaitoTohoku Univ., Japan K IshiyamaTohoku Univ., JapanT TanakaEhime Univ., Japan K NakagawaNihon Univ., JapanN TezukaTohoku Univ., Japan T OgawaTohoku Univ., Japan Executive Committee of ISAMMA 2010 M TakahashiTohoku Univ., Japan, ChairS SaitoTohoku Univ., Japan K TakanashiTohoku Univ., Japan, Vice-chairY SakurabaTohoku Univ., Japan K MiyakeTohoku Univ., JapanT ShimaTohoku Gakuin Univ., Japan T OgawaTohoku Univ., JapanN TezukaTohoku Univ., Japan S OkamotoTohoku Univ., JapanM TsunodaTohoku Univ., Japan M OoganeTohoku Univ., Japan We are grateful to all the participants for their valuable contributions and active discussions. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from 17 Japanese companies (ASAKA RIKEN CO., LTD, Fujikin Incorporated, Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd, Hitachi Metals, Ltd, IZUMI-TEC CO., LTD, Miwa Electric Industrial CO., LTD, MIWA MFG CO., LTD, NEOARK Corporation, Optima Corporation, PRESTO CO., LTD, SHOWA DENKO K.K., TAIYO YUDEN CO., LTD, TDK Corporation, TEIJIN LIMITED, Ube Material Industries, Ltd, ULVAC, Inc, and V TEX Corporation) and 7 foundations (SENDAI TOURISM & CONVENTION BUREAU, The Iwatani Naoji Foundation, Tohoku University Electro-Related Departments Global COE Program 'Center of Education and Research for Information Electronics Systems', The Murata Science Foundation, Research Foundation for Materials Science, Nippon Sheet Glass Foundation for Materials Science and Engineering, and Aoba Foundation for The Promotion of Engineering).

  9. PREFACE: Exploring surfaces and buried interfaces of functional materials by advanced x-ray and neutron techniques Exploring surfaces and buried interfaces of functional materials by advanced x-ray and neutron techniques

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sakurai, Kenji

    2010-12-01

    measurement. Advances in such technologies are bringing with them new opportunities in surface and buried interface science. In the not too distant future, we will publish a special issue or a book detailing such progress. Exploring surfaces and buried interfaces of functional materials by advanced x-ray and neutron techniques contents Lateral uniformity in chemical composition along a buried reaction front in polymers using off-specular reflectivity Kristopher A Lavery, Vivek M Prabhu, Sushil Satija and Wen-li Wu Orientation dependence of Pd growth on Au electrode surfaces M Takahasi, K Tamura, J Mizuki, T Kondo and K Uosaki A grazing incidence small-angle x-ray scattering analysis on capped Ge nanodots in layer structures Hiroshi Okuda, Masayuki Kato, Keiji Kuno, Shojiro Ochiai, Noritaka Usami, Kazuo Nakajima and Osami Sakata High resolution grazing-incidence in-plane x-ray diffraction for measuring the strain of a Si thin layer Kazuhiko Omote X-ray analysis of mesoporous silica thin films templated by Brij58 surfactant S Fall, M Kulij and A Gibaud Review of the applications of x-ray refraction and the x-ray waveguide phenomenon to estimation of film structures Kouichi Hayashi Epitaxial growth of largely mismatched crystals on H-terminated Si(111) surfaces Hidehito Asaoka Novel TiO2/ZnO multilayer mirrors at 'water-window' wavelengths fabricated by atomic layer epitaxy H Kumagai, Y Tanaka, M Murata, Y Masuda and T Shinagawa Depth-selective structural analysis of thin films using total-external-reflection x-ray diffraction Tomoaki Kawamura and Hiroo Omi Structures of Yb nanoparticle thin films grown by deposition in He and N2 gas atmospheres: AFM and x-ray reflectivity studies Martin Jerab and Kenji Sakurai Ga and As composition profiles in InP/GaInAs/InP heterostructures—x-ray CTR scattering and cross-sectional STM measurements Yoshikazu Takeda, Masao Tabuchi and Arao Nakamura Polarized neutron reflectivity study of a thermally treated MnIr/CoFe exchange bias system Naoki

  10. EDITORIAL: Welcome to the 2013 volume Welcome to the 2013 volume

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Garcia, Ephrahim

    2013-01-01

    and Technology, Kraków, Poland Professor N Takeda, University of Tokyo, Japan Professor D-H Wang, Chongqing University, China Professor Q Wang, University of Manitoba, Canada Professor N M Wereley, University of Maryland, College Park, USA Professor W J Wu, National Taiwan University, Taiwan We will continue to engage our community of researchers and encourage the development of new smart materials and structural systems and devices that rely on new and exciting, controllable electro-active elements.

  11. Welcome to the 2014 volume of Smart Materials and Structures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Garcia, Ephrahim

    2014-01-01

    last year after many years in service as Associate Editors. Associate Editors in 2013: Professor G Akhras, Royal Military College of Canada, Ontario, Canada Professor C Boller, University of Saarland, Saarbrücken, Germany Fraunhofer-Institut für Zerstörungsfreie Prüfverfahren, Dresden, Germany Professor J Cagnol, École Centrale Paris, France Professor G Carman, University of California-Los Angeles, USA Professor S-B Choi, Inha University, Incheon, Korea Professor S H Choi, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, USA Professor A Del Grosso, Università degli Studi di Genova, Italy Professor A Erturk, Georgia Institute of Technology, GA, USA Professor U Gabbert, Universität Magdeburg, Germany Professor A Güemes, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain Professor S Gopalakrishnan, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India Professor J Kim, Inha University, Incheon, Korea Professor K J Kim, University of Nevada, Reno, USA Professor S J Kim, Seoul National University, Korea Professor D Lagoudas, Texas A&M University, College Station, USA Professor R Lammering, Helmut-Schmidt-Universität/Universität der Bundeswehr Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany Professor C K Lee, National Taiwan University, Taiwan Professor W Li, University of Wollongong, Australia Professor W H Liao, Chinese University of Hong Kong, China Professor Y Liu, Harbin Institute of Technology, China Professor C S Lynch, University of California-Los Angeles, USA Professor S Masri, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA Professor W M Ostachowicz, Polish Academy of Sciences, Gdansk, Poland Professor K Peters, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA Professor M Shahinpoor, University of Maine, Orono, USA Professor H Sodano, University of Florida, Gainsville, USA Professor G Song, University of Houston, TX, USA Professor W J Staszewski, AGH University of Science and Technology, Kraków, Poland Professor N Takeda, University of Tokyo, Japan Professor D-H Wang, Chongqing University, China

  12. Special issue: diagnostics of atmospheric pressure microplasmas

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bruggeman, Peter; Czarnetzki, Uwe; Tachibana, Kunihide

    2013-11-01

    464004 [14] Sousa J S and Puech V 2013 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 46 464005 [15] Takeda K et al 2013 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 46 464006 [16] Vallade J and Massines F 2013 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 46 464007 [17] Wang C and Wu W 2013 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 46 464008 [18] Schröter S et al 2013 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 46 464009 [19] Rusterholtz D L et al 2013 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 46 464010 [20] Huang B-D et al 2013 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 46 464011 [21] Pothiraja R et al 2013 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 46 464012 [22] Marinov I et al 2013 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 46 464013 [23] Akishev Y et al 2013 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 46 464014 [24] Brandenburg R et al 2013 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 46 464015 [25] Houlahan T J Jret al 2013 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 46 464016 [26] Benedikt J et al 2013 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 46 464017 [27] McKay K et al 2013 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 46 464018 [28] Selected papers from the 2nd International Workshop on Microplasmas 2005 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 38 1633-759 [29] Special issue: 3rd International Workshop on Microplasmas 2007 Control. Plasma Phys. 47 3-128 [30] Cluster issue on Microplasmas: 4th International Workshop on Microplasmas 2008 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 41 1904001 [31] Microplasmas: scientific challenges and technological opportunities 2010 Eur. Phys. J. D 60 437-608 [32] Becker K H, Schoenbach K H and Eden J G 2006 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 39 R55 [33] Iza F, Kim G J, Lee S M, Lee J K, Walsh J L, Zhang Y T and Kong M G 2008 Plasma Process. Polym. 5 322-44 [34] Tachibana K 2006 Trans. Electr. Electron. Eng. 1 145-55 [35] Samukawa S et al 2012 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 45 253001

  13. Realizing Controllable Quantum States

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Takayanagi, Hideaki; Nitta, Junsaku

    -T[stmbol] superconducting thin films with special arrangements of antidots / R. Wöerdenweber, P. Dymashevski and V. R. Misko. Quantum tunneling of relativistic fluxons / K. Konno et al. -- 6. Quantum information processing in solid states. Qubit decoherence by low-frequency noise / K. Rabenstein, V. A. Sverdlov and D. V. Averin. A critique of two-level approximation / K. Savran and T. Hakioǧlu. Josephson arrays as quantum channels / A. Romito, C. Bruder and R. Fazio. Fighting decoherence in a Josephson qubit circuit / E. Collin et al. Fast switching current detection at low critical currents / J. Walter, S. Corlevi and D. Haviland. Asymmetric flux bias for coupled qubits to observe entangled states / Y. Shimazu. Interaction of Josephson qubits with strong QED cavity modes: dynamical entanglement transfer and navigation / G. Falci et al. Controlling decoherence of transported quantum spin information in semiconductor spintronics / B. Nikolic and S. Souma. Decoherence due to telegraph and 1/f noise in Josephson qubits / E. Paladino et al. Detection of entanglement in NMR quantum information processing / R. Rahimi, K. Takeda and M. Kitagawa. Multiphoton absorption and SQUID switching current behaviors in superconducting flux-qubit experiments / H. Takayanagi et al. -- 7. Quantum information theory. Quantum query complexities / K. Iwama. A construction for non-stabilizer Clifford codes / M. Hagiwara and H. Imai. Quantum pushdown automata that can deterministically solve a certain problem / Y. Murakami et al. Trading classical for quantum computation using indirection / R. van Meter. Intractability of the initial arrangement of input data on qubits / Y. Kawano et al. Reversibility of modular squaring / N. Kunihiro, Y. Takahashi and Y. Kawano. Study of proximity effect at D-wave superconductors in quasiclassical methods / Y. Tanuma, Y. Tanaka and S. Kashiwaya -- 8. Spintronics in band electrons. Triplet superconductors: exploitable basis for scalable quantum computing / K. S. Wood et al. Spin

  14. EDITORIAL: Focus on Dilute Magnetic Semiconductors FOCUS ON DILUTE MAGNETIC SEMICONDUCTORS

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chambers, Scott A.; Gallagher, Bryan

    2008-05-01

    Chisholm, J D Budai and D P Norton Role of charge carriers for ferromagnetism in cobalt-doped rutile TiO2 T Fukumura, H Toyosaki, K Ueno, M Nakano and M Kawasaki Ab-initio study of exchange constants and electronic structure in diluted magnetic group-IV semiconductors Silvia Picozzi and Marjana Ležaić Phase coherent transport in (Ga,Mn)As D Neumaier, K Wagner, U Wurstbauer, M Reinwald, W Wegscheider and D Weiss Hydrogen interstitials-mediated ferromagnetism in MnxGe1-x magnetic semiconductors Xin-Xin Yao, Shi-Shen Yan, Shu-Jun Hu, Xue-Ling Lin, Chong Han, Yan-Xue Chen, Guo-Lei Liu and Liang-Mo Mei Electronic structures of magnetic semiconductors FeCr2Se4 and Fe0.5Cu0.5Cr2Se4 B I Min, Seung Su Baik, H C Choi, S K Kwon and J-S Kang Investigation of pure and Co2+-doped ZnO quantum dot electronic structures using the density functional theory: choosing the right functional Ekaterina Badaeva, Yong Feng, Daniel R Gamelin and Xiaosong Li Magnetic properties of sol-gel-derived doped ZnO as a potential ferromagnetic semiconductor: a synchrotron-based study N R S Farley, K W Edmonds, A A Freeman, G van der Laan, C R Staddon, D H Gregory and B L Gallagher Local electronic structure of Cr in the II-VI diluted ferromagnetic semiconductor Zn1-xCrxTe M Kobayashi, Y Ishida, J I Hwang, G S Song, A Fujimori, C S Yang, L Lee, H-J Lin, D J Huang, C T Chen, Y Takeda, K Terai, S-I Fujimori, T Okane, Y Saitoh, H Yamagami, K Kobayashi, A Tanaka, H Saito and K Ando Lack of ferromagnetism in n-type cobalt-doped ZnO epitaxial thin films T C Kaspar, T Droubay, S M Heald, P Nachimuthu, C M Wang, V Shutthanandan, C A Johnson, D R Gamelin and S A Chambers XMCD studies on Co and Li doped ZnO magnetic semiconductors Thomas Tietze, Milan Gacic, Gisela Schütz, Gerhard Jakob, Sebastian Brück and Eberhard Goering Ferromagnetic semiconductors and the role of disorder B W Wessels An extensive comparison of anisotropies in MBE grown (Ga,Mn)As material C Gould, S Mark, K Pappert, R G Dengel, J Wenisch, R P

  15. Mapping fire effects on ash and soil properties. Current knowledge and future perspectives.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pereira, Paulo; Cerda, Artemi; Strielko, Irina

    2014-05-01

    scales and the future perspectives. References Finley, C.D., Glenn, N.F. (2010) Fire and vegetation type effects on soil hydrophobicity and infiltration in the sagebrussh-steppe: II. Hyperspectral analysis. Journal of Arid Environments, 74: 660-666. Fox, D.A., Maselli, F., Carrega, P. (2008) Using SPOT images and field sampling to map burn severity and vegetation factors affecting post-fire erosion risk. Catena, 75: 326-335. Gimeno-Garcia. E., Andreu., V., Rubio, J.L. (2004) Spatial patterns of soil temperatures during experiemntal fires. Geoderma, 118: 17-34. Hirobe, M., Tokushi, N., Wachrinrat, C., Takeda, H. (2003) Fire history influences on the spatial heterogeneity of soil nitrogen transformations in three adjacent stands in a dry tropical forest in Thailand. Plant and Soil, 249: 309-318. Kokaly, R.F., Rockwell, B.W., Haire, S.L., King, T.V.V. (2007) Characterization of post fire surface cover, soils, and burn severity at the Cerro Grande fire, New Mexico, using hyperspectral and multispectral remote sensing. Remote Sensing of the Environment, 106: 305-325. Lewis, S.A., Hudak, A.T., Ottmar, R.D., Robichaud, P.R., Lentile, L.B., Hood, S.M., Cronan, J.B., Morgan, P. (2012) Using hyperspectral imagery to estimate forest floor consumption from wildfire in boreal forests of Alaska. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 20: 255-271. Lewis, S.A., Robichaud, P.R., Frazier, B.E., Wu, J.Q., Laes, D.Y.M. (2008) Using hyperspectral imagery to predict post-wildfire soil repellency. Geomorphology, 98, 192-205. Miller, J.D., Yool, S. (2002) Mapping forest post-fire canopy consumption in several overstory types using multi-temporal Landsat TM and ETM data. Remote Sensing of the Environment, 82: 481-496. Outeiro, L., Aspero, F., Ubeda, X. (2008) Geostatistical methods to study spatial variability of soil cation after a prescribed fire and rainfall. Catena, 74: 310-320. Parsons, A., Robichaud, P.R., Lewis, S.A., Napper, C., Clark, J.T. (2010) Field guide for mapping post-fire soil

  16. The First 24 Years of Reverse Monte Carlo Modelling, Budapest, Hungary, 20-22 September 2012

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Keen, David A.; Pusztai, László

    2013-11-01

    structure of the plastic crystalline and liquid phases of CBr2Cl2: neutron diffraction and reverse Monte Carlo modellingSzilvia Pothoczki1, László Temleitner, Luis Carlos Pardo, Gabriel Julio Cuello, Muriel Rovira-Esteva and Josep Lluis Tamarit Insights into the determination of molecular structure from diffraction data using a Bayesian algorithmA Henao, M Rovira-Esteva, A Vispa, J Ll Tamarit, E Guardia and L C Pardo Nanostructure determination from the pair distribution function: a parametric study of the INVERT approachMatthew J Cliffe and Andrew L Goodwin Empirical potential structure refinement of semi-crystalline polymer systems: polytetrafluoroethylene and polychlorotrifluoroethyleneA K Soper, K Page and A Llobet spinvert: a program for refinement of paramagnetic diffuse scattering dataJoseph A M Paddison, J Ross Stewart and Andrew L Goodwin Inter-molecular correlations in liquid Se2Br2Hironori Shimakura, Yukinobu Kawakita, Koji Ohara, László Pusztai, Yuiko Wakisaka and Shin'ichi Takeda RMCgui: a new interface for the workflow associated with running Reverse Monte Carlo simulationsMartin T Dove and Gary Rigg

  17. Particle processing technology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sakka, Yoshio

    2014-02-01

    . Mater. 12 013001 [3] Sakka Y and Uchikoshi T 2010 KONA Powder Particle J. 28 74 (kona.or.jp/search/28_074.pdf) [4] Naguib M, Mashtalir O, Carle J, Presser V, Lu J, Hultman L, Gogotsi Y and Barsoum M W 2012 ACS Nano 6 1322 [5] Sakka Y and Suzuki T S 2005 J. Ceram. Soc. Japan 113 26 [6] Grasso S, Sakka Y and Maizza G 2009 Sci. Technol. Adv. Mater. 10 053001 [7] Nakao H, Tokonami S, Hamada T, Shiigi H, Nagaoka T, Iwate F and Takeda Y 2012 Nanoscale 4 6814 [8] Miyazawa K and Hotta K 2010 J. Cryst. Growth 312 2764 [9] Suehiro T, Xie R and Hirosaki N 2013 Indust. Eng. Chem. Res. 52 7453 [10] Zhu Q, Li J-G, Li X, Sun X and Sakka Y 2011 Sci. Technol. Adv. Mater. 12 055001 [11] Li J, Li J-G, Zhang Z, Wu X, Liu S, Li X, Sun X and Sakka Y 2012 Sci. Technol. Adv. Mater. 13 035007 [12] Kawamura F, Yusa H and Taniguchi T 2012 Appl. Phys. Lett. 100 251910 [13] Watanabe K and Taniguchi T 2011 Int. J. Appl. Ceram. Technol. 8 977 [14] Deng Z-Y, Ferreira J M F and Sakka Y 2008 J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 91 3825 [15] Uda M, Okuyama H, Suzuki T S and Sakka Y 2012 Sci. Technol. Adv. Mater. 13 025009 [16] Takeya H, Kato R, Wakahara T, Miyazawa K, Yamaguchi T, Ozaki T, Okazaki H and Takano Y 2013 Mater. Res. Bull. 48 343 [17] Wakahara T, D'Angelo P, Miyazawa K, Nemoto Y, Ito O, Tanigaki N, Bradley D D C and Anthopoulos T D 2012 J. Am. Chem. Soc. 134 7204 [18] Wiecinska P, Sakka Y, Suzuki T S, Uchikoshi T, Mizerski T and Szafran M 2013 J. Ceram. Soc. Japan 121 89 [19] Kawakita M, Uchikoshi T, Kawakita J and Sakka Y 2009 J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 92 984 [20] Hu C, Sakka Y, Grasso S, Nishimura T, Guo S and Tanaka H 2011 Scr. Mater. 64 765 [21] Hu C, Sakka Y, Nishimura T, Guo S, Grasso S and Tanaka H 2011 Sci. Technol. Adv. Mater. 12 044603 [22] Kakisawa H and Sumitomo T 2011 Sci. Technol. Adv. Mater. 12 064710 [23] Grasso S, Hu C F, Maizza G, Kim B N and Sakka Y 2011 J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 94 1405 [24] Grasso S, Kim B N, Hu C F, Maizza G and Sakka Y 2010 J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 93 2460 [25] Zhang H B, Kim B N, Morita K

  18. PREFACE: Physics approaches to protein interactions and gene regulation Physics approaches to protein interactions and gene regulation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nussinov, Ruth; Panchenko, Anna R.; Przytycka, Teresa

    2011-06-01

    the same time reversibility and diversity in their interactions. Interestingly, as is shown in the paper by Mészáros et al, even though some disordered regions and proteins have a tendency to fold upon binding, the structures of their complexes still reveal their inherent flexibility. Indeed, disordered proteins and their complexes have certain properties which distinguish them from proteins with well-defined structures. This is evident from the papers by Lobanov and Galzitskaya, and Mészáros et al, which show that such characteristic features of disordered proteins allow their successful computational prediction from the sequence alone. Computational prediction of protein disorder has been used in another study by Takeda et al where the authors investigate the role of disorder in the function of a specific actin capping protein. The paper presents normal mode analysis with the elastic network model to examine the mechanisms of intrinsic flexibility and its biological role in actin function. Analysis of the underlying mechanisms and key factors in protein recognition might be essential for the prediction of protein-protein interactions. The papers by Tuncbag et al and Hashimoto et al demonstrate how incorporating the physico-chemical properties of binding interfaces and their atomic details obtained from protein crystal structures might be used to increase the accuracy of predicted protein-protein interactions and provide data on relative orientations of interacting proteins and on the locations of binding sites. Moreover, analysis of protein-protein interactions might require further fine-tuning for different types of assemblies, like that shown in the example of homooligomers by Hashimoto et al. Studies of protein-protein interactions at the molecular level have contributed considerably to understanding the principles of large-scale organization of the cellular interactome. Using graph theory as a unifying language, many characteristic properties of bimolecular