Development of a Method for Peeling Off Paper from Celluloid Pictures for Animation Films.

During the storage of celluloid pictures for animation films over half a century, an interleave paper adhered to acrylic paint. The purpose of this study is to establish a methodology to cleanly remove the paper from the paint. A layered film, a replica of the celluloid pictures, adhered with paper was prepared and immersed in water or ethanol. The effect of these solvents on the peeling behavior was investigated using a peel test. The maximum peel force for the dry layered film in was distributed at ~0.5 N, independently of the peel speed. The peel force was significantly reduced after the layered film was immersed in pure water or ethanol. A morphological observation revealed that the dry paper was peeled off via the cohesive failure of the paper. After the layered film was immersed in pure water, the paper was also peeled off via cohesive failure. The layered film immersed in ethanol was peeled off at the paper/paint interface. To clear the effect of the volume change in the paint on peel behavior, the relative volume was determined via image analysis. The relative volume of paint was 1.56 in pure water and 1.37 in ethanol. It can be considered that the large difference in the volume of paint induces a large shear stress at the paint/paper interface.

Mechanical Properties and Reinforcement of Paper Sheets Composited with Carboxymethyl Cellulose.

The mechanical properties for paper sheets composited with glucose (Glc), methyl cellulose (MC), and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) were investigated. The paper composites were prepared by immersing paper sheets in aqueous solutions of these materials and drying at 100 °C for 30 min. The stress-strain curves for these paper composites were measured by a uniaxial tensile apparatus with a stretching speed of 2 mm/min. The breaking stress and strain for untreated paper were 24 MPa and 0.016, respectively. The paper composites demonstrated stress-strain curves similar to the untreated paper; however, the breaking point largely differed for these composites. The breaking strain and breaking stress for the Glc composite slightly decreased and those for the MC composite gradually increased with the concentration of materials composited. Significant increases in the mechanical properties were observed for the CMC composite. The breaking stress, breaking strain, and breaking energy for the 3 wt.% CMC composite were 2.0-, 3.9-, and 8.0-fold higher than those for untreated paper, respectively. SEM photographs indicated that the CMC penetrated into the inner part of the paper. These results strongly suggest that the mechanical improvement for CMC composites can be understood as an enhancement of the bond strength between the paper fibrils by CMC, which acts as a bonding agent. It was also revealed that the breaking strain, breaking stress, and breaking energy for the CMC composites were at maximum at the first cycle and decreased gradually as the immersion cycles increased.

Mouse Scarb2 Modulates EV-A71 Pathogenicity in Neonatal Mice.

Enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) is a human pathogen that causes hand, foot, and mouth disease, which can progress to severe neurological disease. EV-A71 infects humans via the human scavenger receptor B2 (hSCARB2). It can also infect neonatal mice experimentally. Wild-type (WT) EV-A71 strains replicate primarily in the muscle of neonatal mice; however, susceptibility lasts only for a week after birth. Mouse-adapted (MA) strains, which can be obtained by serial passages in neonatal mice, are capable of infecting both muscle and neurons of the central nervous system. It is not clear how the host range and tropism of EV-A71 are regulated and why neonatal mice lose their susceptibility during development. We hypothesized that EV-A71 infection in neonatal mice is mediated by mouse Scarb2 (mScarb2) protein. Rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) cells expressing mScarb2 were prepared. Both WT and MA strains infected mScarb2-expressing cells, but the infection efficiency of the WT strain was much lower than that of the MA strain. Infection by WT and MA strains in vivo was abolished completely in Scarb2-/- mice. Scarb2+/- mice, in which Scarb2 expression was approximately half of that in Scarb2+/+ mice, showed a milder pathology than Scarb2+/+ mice after infection with the WT strain. The Scarb2 expression level in muscle decreased with aging, which was consistent with the reduced susceptibility of aged mice to infection. These results indicated that EV-A71 infection is mediated by mScarb2 and that the severity of the disease, the spread of virus, and the susceptibility period are modulated by mScarb2 expression. IMPORTANCE EV-A71 infects humans naturally but can also infect neonatal mice. The tissue tropism and severity of EV-A71 disease are determined by several factors, among which the virus receptor is thought to be important. We show that EV-A71 can infect neonatal mice using mScarb2. However, the infection efficiency of WT strains via mScarb2 is so low that an elevated virus-receptor interaction associated with mouse adaptation mutation and decrease in mScarb2 expression level during development modulate the severity of the disease, the spread of virus, and the susceptibility period in the artificial neonatal mice model.

Ribosome-Engineered Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus Strain GG Exhibits Cell Surface Glyceraldehyde-3-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Accumulation and Enhanced Adhesion to Human Colonic Mucin.

Differences in individual host responses have emerged as an issue regarding the health benefits of probiotics. Here, we applied ribosome engineering (RE) technology, developed in an actinomycete study, to Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG). RE can effectively enhance microbial potential by using antibiotics to induce spontaneous mutations in the ribosome and/or RNA polymerase. In this study, we identified eight types of streptomycin resistance mutations in the LGG rpsL gene, which encodes ribosomal protein S12. Notably, LGG harboring the K56N mutant (LGG-MTK56N) expressed high levels of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) on the cell surface compared with the LGG wild type (LGG-WT). GAPDH plays a key role in colonic mucin adhesion. Indeed, LGG-MTK56N significantly increased type A human colonic mucin adhesion compared to LGG-WT in experiments using the Biacore system. The ability to adhere to the colon is an important property of probiotics; thus, these results suggest that RE is an effective breeding strategy for probiotic lactic acid bacteria.IMPORTANCE We sought to apply ribosome engineering (RE) to probiotic lactic acid bacteria and to verify RE's impact. Here, we showed that one mutant of RE Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG-MTK56N) bore a GAPDH on the cell surface; the GAPDH was exported via an ABC transporter. Compared to the wild-type parent, LGG-MTK56N adhered more strongly to human colonic mucin and exhibited a distinct cell size and shape. These findings demonstrate that RE in LGG-MTK56N yielded dramatic changes in protein synthesis, protein transport, and cell morphology and affected adherence to human colonic mucin.

Lactobacillus ingluviei C37 from chicken inhibits inflammation in LPS-stimulated mouse macrophages.

Probiotics are growing alternatives to antibiotics, and can contribute to the prevention and treatment of diseases and enhance livestock production. Lactobacillus (L.) ingluviei is a novel probiotic species with growth-enhancement effects; however, this species remains poorly understood, and there have been (to our knowledge) no studies focusing on its immunological effects. Here, we isolated L. ingluviei C37 (LIC37) from chicken and evaluated the bacterium's immunomodulatory properties to explore its probiotic potential. Real-time quantitative PCR and ELISA showed that in vitro exposure of inflammation-stimulated mouse peritoneal macrophages to heat-killed LIC37 led to decreases in tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin (IL)-6 levels and an increase in IL-10. These findings suggested that LIC37 exerts anti-inflammatory effects by modulating cytokine profiles. This species may be an attractive probiotic bacterial strain for use in animal production.

Force-inhibiting effect of Ser/Thr protein phosphatase 2A inhibitors on bovine ciliary muscle.

Ciliary muscle is a smooth muscle characterized by a rapid response to muscarinic receptor stimulation and sustained contraction. Although it is evident that these contractions are Ca(2+)-dependent, detailed molecular mechanisms are still unknown. In order to elucidate the role of Ser/Thr protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) in ciliary muscle contraction, we examined the effects of okadaic acid and other PP2A inhibitors on contractions induced by carbachol (CCh) and ionomycin in bovine ciliary muscle strips (BCM). Okadaic acid inhibited ionomycin-induced contraction, while it did not cause significant changes in CCh-induced contraction. Fostriecin showed similar inhibitory effects on the contraction of BCM. On the other hand, rubratoxin A inhibited both ionomycin- and CCh-induced contractions. These results indicated that PP2A was involved at least in ionomycin-induced Ca(2+)-dependent contraction, and that BCM had a unique regulatory mechanism in CCh-induced contraction.