Complexity of Body Movements during Sleep in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Recently, measuring the complexity of body movements during sleep has been proven as an objective biomarker of various psychiatric disorders. Although sleep problems are common in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and might exacerbate ASD symptoms, their objectivity as a biomarker remains to be established. Therefore, details of body movement complexity during sleep as estimated by actigraphy were investigated in typically developing (TD) children and in children with ASD. Several complexity analyses were applied to raw and thresholded data of actigraphy from 17 TD children and 17 children with ASD. Determinism, irregularity and unpredictability, and long-range temporal correlation were examined respectively using the false nearest neighbor (FNN) algorithm, information-theoretic analyses, and detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA). Although the FNN algorithm did not reveal determinism in body movements, surrogate analyses identified the influence of nonlinear processes on the irregularity and long-range temporal correlation of body movements. Additionally, the irregularity and unpredictability of body movements measured by expanded sample entropy were significantly lower in ASD than in TD children up to two hours after sleep onset and at approximately six hours after sleep onset. This difference was found especially for the high-irregularity period. Through this study, we characterized details of the complexity of body movements during sleep and demonstrated the group difference of body movement complexity across TD children and children with ASD. Complexity analyses of body movements during sleep have provided valuable insights into sleep profiles. Body movement complexity might be useful as a biomarker for ASD.     

Synthesis of a secretoglobin 3A2 type C (98–139) fragment by Dawson’s native chemical ligation

A secretoglobin 3A2 type C (98–139) peptide was synthesized by native chemical ligation between ¹¹⁵Ile and ¹¹⁶Cys residues using Dawson’s linker. The peptide-N-acyl-benzimidazolinone-glycine amide, a C-terminal thioesters precursor, was provided from 3-amino-4-(methylamino)benzoic acid. In addition, an N-terminal cysteine fragment, the (116–139) peptide, was prepared by ordinary Fmoc-solid phase peptide synthesis. Native chemical ligation of the (98–115) fragment with the Dawson’s linker and the (116–139) peptide smoothly proceeded to give SCGB3A2 type C (98–139) peptide.     

Platinum Nanoflowers on Scratched Silicon by Galvanic Displacement for an Effective SALDI Substrate

We report a new and facile method for synthesizing 3D platinum nanoflowers (Pt Nfs) on a scratched silicon substrate by electroless galvanic displacement and discuss the applications of the Pt Nfs in surface‐assisted laser desorption/ionization‐mass spectrometry (SALDI‐MS). Surface scratching of n‐type silicon is essential to induce Pt Nf growth on a silicon substrate (to obtain a Pt Nf silicon hybrid plate) by the galvanic displacement reaction. The Pt Nf silicon hybrid plate showed excellent SALDI activity in terms of the efficient generation of protonated molecular ions in the absence of a citrate buffer. We propose that the acidity of the Si? OH moieties on silicon increases because of the electron‐withdrawing nature of the Pt Nfs; hence, proton transfer from the Si? OH groups to the analyte molecules is enhanced, and finally, thermal desorption of the analyte ions from the surface occurs. Signal enhancement was observed for protonated molecular ions produced from a titania nanotube array (TNA) substrate on which Pt nanoparticles had been photochemically deposited. Moreover, surface modification of the Pt Nf silicon hybrid plate by perfluorodecyltrichlorosilane (FDTS) (to obtain an FDTS‐Pt Nf silicon hybrid plate) was found to facilitate soft SALDI of labile compounds. More interestingly, the FDTS‐Pt Nf silicon hybrid plate acts 1) as a high‐affinity substrate for phosphopeptides and 2) as a SALDI substrate. The feasibility of using the FDTS‐Pt Nf silicon hybrid plate for SALDI‐MS has been demonstrated by using a β‐casein digest and various analytes, including small molecules, peptides, phosphopeptides, phospholipids, carbohydrates, and synthetic polymers. The hybridization of Pt Nfs with a scratched silicon substrate has been found to be important for achieving excellent SALDI activity.     

Novel prenylated and geranylated aromatic compounds isolated from Polysphondylium cellular slime molds

We have studied the diversity of secondary metabolites of cellular slime molds to utilize them as new biological resources for natural product chemistry. From the methanol extract of fruiting bodies of Polysphondylium tenuissimum, we obtained five prenylated and geranylated aromatic compounds, Pt-1-5 (1-5). An additional aromatic compound, Ppc-1 (6), was isolated from Polysphondylium pseudo-candidum. The structures of these compounds were determined by spectral analysis, and synthetic routes to 4, 5, and 6 were developed. Compound 5 showed the glucose consumption-promotive activity on 3T3-L1 cells.     

Formation of artificial micro‐pits on Al alloy with the photon rupture method and the localized corrosion behavior of the formed pits

An in situ artificial micro‐pit fabrication method with an area selective electrochemical measurement technique was applied to investigate the effect of the geometry of artificially formed pits on their localized corrosion behavior in anodized 1000 series aluminum. This technique enables the fabrication of artificial micro‐pits with different aspect ratios (pit depth/pit diameter) in solutions. The aspect ratios of the fabricated artificial micro‐pits in this experiment could be varied from 0.13 to 1.83 by controlling the irradiation time of the focused pulsed YAG laser beam. By applying a constant potential to the final laser‐beam‐irradiated spot in chloride environments, localized dissolution occurred only at the laser beam irradiated area, because the anodic oxide film acted as an insulator. The corrosion current and charge increase with increasing aspect ratio at any applied potential. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of initial surface conditions on field crystallization of anodic aluminum oxide films determined by synchrotron X‐ray diffraction

X‐ray diffraction measurements were performed using synchrotron radiation at the SPring‐8 facility and electrochemical techniques to investigate the effect of polishing methods and storage conditions on the crystal structure of air‐formed oxide films and anodic oxide films formed on highly pure aluminum. Storage in an N₂ environment hinders local film breakdown during anodizing, and it was established that the X‐ray diffraction measurements showed the presence of a γ‐Al₂O₃ in the anodic oxide film formed on mechanically polished (MP) specimens. Formation of γ‐Al₂O₃ during anodizing was inhibited by electropolishing because of the removal of the work‐hardened layer that was formed on the MP by electro‐polishing. The X‐ray diffraction results do not show clear differences in the influence of the polishing method on the crystal structure of air formed oxide film. This is due to the very fast oxidation rate of the air‐formed oxide film and very long storage times for the X‐ray measurements. The anodic oxide film formed on aluminum, which has a very flat surface, shows color and the color depended on grain orientation. The electrochemical impedance of the MP specimen is slightly lower than that of the mechanically and then electrochemically polished specimen at the middle frequency range. This impedance difference may be due to formation of γ‐Al₂O₃ in the amorphous anodic oxide film and the thickness of the film. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A note on the convergence of martingales in Banach function spaces

We shall give a necessary and sufficient condition for uniformly integrable martingales to converge in the norm topology in a Banach function space. This yields a new characterization of the probabilisticA _p -condition introduced by Izumisawa and Kazamaki [4].     

Evaluation of ionic pollutants of acid fog and rain using a factor analysis and back trajectories.

Fog and rain water samples were collected at the same time in the Akita Hachimantai mountain range in northern Japan from June to September in 1998 and 1999. The various ion concentrations in these samples were analyzed, and the fog droplet sizes were measured for each fog event. As the fog droplet size increased, the ion concentration decreased. The slope of log-log plots of the concentration versus the droplet size differed with the kind of ion. In order to characterize the air pollutant, moreover, these data were quantitatively analyzed by an oblique rotational factor analysis. We found that three factors were extracted as the air pollutant source: (NH4)2SO4, acids (HNO3 + H2SO4) and sea-salt. Combining the factor analysis with the 72 h back-trajectory at 850 hPa level, we found that the contribution of each factor varied with the transport pattern of air masses.