Interfacial Bond Properties of Underwater Concrete Coated with Bisphenol A Epoxy Resins.

This study investigated changes in the interfacial properties of epoxy-coated concrete exposed to various conditions, regarding the epoxy type, coating equipment, and exposure environment and period. The measured coating thickness and pull-off bond strength exhibited diverse trends, depending on the exposure period and conditions. In the real sea (RS) environment, the average bond strengths for bisphenol A (BPA) (E1), BPA with zinc powder (E2), and BPA with cresyl glycidyl ether (E3) were 1.26, 1.93, and 1.92 MPa, respectively. The coating method did not significantly affect the measured coating thickness and strength values. The conventional roller (D1) exhibited the highest thickness variation, with a value of 214.45 µm. The RS condition significantly increased the coating thickness (34% to 158%) compared to the tap water (TW) condition. The exposure conditions had little impact on bond strength except for E3, which showed an increased strength (2.71 MPa) over 7-91 days, especially under RS conditions, while E2 remained constant at approximately 1.82 MPa. This study offers insights into factors influencing marine concrete coating performance and discusses limitations and future work.

Endothelin-1- and isoproterenol-induced differential protein expression and signaling pathway in HL-1 cardiomyocytes.

It is well known that the two chemical compounds endothelin-1 (ET-1) and isoproterenol (ISO) can individually induce cardiac hypertrophy through G protein-coupled receptors in cardiomyocytes. However, the cardiac hypertrophy signaling pathway activated by ET-1 and ISO is not well defined. Therefore, we investigated the protein expression profile and signaling transduction in HL-l cardiomyocyte cells treated with ET-1 and ISO. Following separation of the cell lysates by using 2-DE and silver staining, we identified 16 protein spots that were differentially expressed as compared to the controls. Of these 16 spots, three changed only after treatment with ET-1, whereas four changed only after treatment with ISO, suggesting that these two stimuli could induce different signaling pathways. In order to reveal the differences between ET-1- and ISO-induced signaling, we studied the different events that occur at each step of the signaling pathways, when selected biocomponents were blocked by inhibitors. Our results indicated that ET-1 and ISO used different pathways for phosphorylation of glycogen synthase kinase-3ß (GSK3ß). ET-1 mainly used the mitogen-activated protein kinase and phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/AKT pathways to activate GSK3ß, whereas under ISO stimulation, only the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/AKT pathway was required to trigger the GSK3ß pathway. Furthermore, the strength of the GSK3ß signal in ISO-induced cardiac hypertrophy was stronger than that in ET-1-induced cardiac hypertrophy. We found that these two agonists brought about different changes in the protein expression of HL-1 cardiomyocytes through distinct signaling pathways even though the destination of the two signaling pathways was the same.

Vesicovaginal fistula repair using a transurethral pointed electrode.

The most common cause of vesicovaginal fistulasis injury to the bladder at the time of surgery. The operation most frequently responsible for vesicovaginal fistula formation is hysterectomy. The first successful transvaginal approach to vesicovaginal fistula repair was reported by Sims in 1838. Although many surgical procedures exist, there is no best approach for all patients with vesicovaginal fistula. However, it is an essential surgical principle that the fistulous tract and scar should be excised completely. Here we report our technique using a transurethral pointed electrode for the treatment of multiple, small vesicovaginal fistulas and its outcome.

Growing trend of CE at the omics level: the frontier of systems biology.

In a novel attempt to comprehend the complexity of life, systems biology has recently emerged as a state-of-the-art approach for biological research in contrast to the reductionist approaches that have been used in molecular cell biology since the 1950s. Because a massive amount of information is required in many systems biology studies of life processes, we have increasingly come to depend on techniques that provide high-throughput omics data. CE and CE coupled to MS have served as powerful analytical tools for providing qualitative and quantitative omics data. Recent systems biology studies have focused strongly on the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. The increasing number of clinical research papers on drug discovery and disease therapies reflects this growing interest among scientists. Since such clinical research reflects one of the ultimate purposes of bioscience, these trends will be sustained for a long time. Thus, this review mainly focuses on the application of CE and CE-MS in diagnosis as well as on the latest CE methods developed. Furthermore, we outline the new challenges that arose in 2008 and later in elucidating the system-level functions of the bioconstituents of living organisms.

Proteasome inhibition induces neurite outgrowth through posttranslational modification of TrkA receptor.

The ubiquitin-proteasome pathway regulates many biological processes, including protein degradation, receptor endocytosis, protein sorting, subnuclear trafficking and neuronal differentiation. While proteasome inhibition is known to induce neurite outgrowth, the signaling mechanisms that mediate these effects have not been defined. In this study, we investigated the underlying mechanisms that link proteasome inhibition with neurite generation. We found that the proteasome inhibitors, MG132 and lactacystin, induced neurite outgrowth and also activated extracellular signal-regulated kinase/mitogen activated protein kinase and phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/AKT pathways. These proteasome inhibitors also induced phosphorylation and ubiquitination of TrkA receptors, indicating that proteasome inhibition activates the major pathways of TrkA signaling. However, in contrast to nerve growth factor stimulation, which induces internalization of surface TrkA receptors, proteasome inhibitor-induced neurite outgrowth did not require TrkA receptor internalization. These results indicate that the ubiquitin-proteasome system regulates neurite formation through posttranslational modification of TrkA receptors.

CE at the omics level: towards systems biology--an update.

This review provides an updated overview of recent developments and applications of CE based on previously published reports in the field of omic research. The increased number of published articles on omics shows that the field is growing and attracting the attention of many life science researchers. Due to developments in the omics sciences, many researchers have been studying systems biology, in which biological events in organisms are systematically interpreted through the combination of complex measurements from various methods resulting in high-throughput data. Given the challenges of such complex forms of analysis, CE is a strong candidate for generating omics data useful for acquiring the qualitative and quantitative knowledge necessary for systems-level investigation. By emphasizing CE for systems biology, this review will discuss and focus on the applicability of CE to systems-based analytical data at the genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic levels from 2005 to the present.