Measurement of distance error in reaching movement of the human hand without using vision.

This paper deliberates the spatial cognitive ability of the moving distance of the human hand, which is measured by using motion capture. Before the movement begins, the subject is shown a standard length. Then, both horizontal and vertical blindfold hand movements were measured using the proposed protocol for six right handed subjects in order to investigate the cognitive ability of the moving distance of the human hand. The experimental results show that the average moving distances obtained in both directions were quite smaller than the standard length; an inverse "V" pattern in percentage result was observed only in the horizontal movement. The experimental result also demonstrated an interesting relationship between the hand moving distance and manipulability of the upper limb.

Synthetic cinnamylphenol derivatives as cancer chemopreventive agents.

Several substituted cinnamylphenol (1,3-diphenylpropene) derivatives were synthesized and tested for their inhibitory activities against in vitro Epstein-Barr virus early antigen activation induced by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate in Raji cells. The prenylated cinnamylphenols were found to show remarkably potent activity. Furthermore, prenylated cinnamylphenols (19 and 25) exhibited a marked inhibitory effect on mouse skin tumor promotion in an in vivo two-stage carcinogenesis test. These results indicate that some prenylated cinnamylphenols might be valuable as potential cancer chemopreventive agents (anti-tumor promoters).