The Effects of Comprehensive Exercise Program on the Adjustments of Standing Balance in Community-Dwelling Elderly Persons

The objective of this study was to assess the effect of comprehensive exercise program widely accepted as a community-based physical intervention for the prevention of falling in the elderly persons on their controlling standing balance. Twenty-six community-dwelling elderly persons (13 males and females; 69.8 ± 2.8 years old) participated in this study. Daily exercise was comprised of walking for more than 30 min, stretching, muscle strengthening and balance exercise without exercise equipments. The intervention was continued for three months. Indicators of standing balance related to static balance, dynamic balance and postural response were measured before and after the intervention. As an effect of the intervention on static balance, the sway of center of pressure (COP) in the static stance significantly increased. In the dynamic balance, significant improvements were observed in one leg standing time, the 10-m gait time, functional reach. Additionally, the maximal movable length of COP which subjects can move voluntarily to right and left significantly increased. In the postural response, the integrated electromyography (IEMG) induced by postural response for sudden postural perturbation significantly decreased in the lower leg muscles. Since less muscular activities were sufficient to maintain posture, it was suggested that postural response was elicited more efficiently following the intervention. This study suggested that the comprehensive exercise program, which has been widely introduced as community-based interventions for the prevention of falling, have extensive effects on the control of standing balance covering static balance, dynamic balance and postural response in the elderly persons.     

On the structure of the monotone asymmetric travelling salesman polytope I: hypohamiltonian facets

The monotone asymmetric travelling salesman polytope P?ⁿ_T is defined to be the convex hull of the incidence vectors of all hamiltonian circuits and all subsets of these in a complete diagraph of order n. We prove that certain hypohamiltonian diagraphs G=(V,E), i.e. diagraphs which are not hamiltonian but such that G–υ is hamiltonian for all υ?V, induce facets x(E)?n–1 of P?ⁿ_T. This result indicates that P?ⁿ_T has very complicated facets and that it is very unlikely that an explicit complete characterization of P?ⁿ_T can ever be given.     

Measurement of Cu K-shell and Ag L-shell ionization cross sections by low-energy positron impact

Inner shell ionization cross sections by low-energy positron impact have been measured. Development of an x-ray detector with thin Si(Li) crystals has enabled the first measurements of the absolute cross sections for the positron impacts in the energy range below 30 keV. Threshold behavior of the measured cross sections for the Cu K shell and Ag L shell are compared with the theoretical results of Gryzinski and Kowalski [Phys. Lett. A 183, 196 (1993)]] and Khare and Wadehra [Can. J. Phys. 74, 376 (1996)]]. Good agreement has been found for the Cu K shell, while the experimental values for the Ag L shell were found to be smaller than the corresponding theoretical results.     

The Stability of the Non-Equilibrium Steady States

We show that the non-equilibrium steady state (NESS) of the free lattice Fermion model far from equilibrium is macroscopically unstable. The problem is translated to that of the spectral analysis of the Liouville Operator. We use the method of positive commutators to investigate it. We construct a positive commutator on the lattice Fermion system, whose dispersion relation is (k)=cosk–.     

Development of 1,3a,6a-triazapentalene-labeled enterobactin as a fluorescence quenching sensor of iron ion

1,3a,6a-Triazapentalene (TAP)-labeled enterobactin was developed as an iron ion sensor. 3-Acetylated-TAP was successfully introduced to the catechol ring of enterobactin, a well-recognized siderophore secreted by various Gram-negative bacteria. The fluorescence of TAP-labeled enterobactin decreased gradually as the amount of Fe³⁺ ion as an additive was increased, and 1.2 equiv of Fe³⁺ ion completely quenched the fluorescence. In clear contrast, when other metal ions were used, the fluorescence of TAP-labeled enterobactin remained even at 5.0 equiv.     

Procyanidins are potent inhibitors of LOX-1: a new player in the French Paradox

Lectin-like oxidized LDL receptor-1 (LOX-1) is an endothelial receptor for oxidized LDL (oxLDL) and plays multiple roles in the development of cardiovascular diseases. We screened more than 400 foodstuff extracts for identifying materials that inhibit oxLDL binding to LOX-1. Results showed that 52 extracts inhibited LOX-1 by more than 70% in cell-free assays. Subsequent cell-based assays revealed that a variety of foodstuffs known to be rich in procyanidins such as grape seed extracts and apple polyphenols, potently inhibited oxLDL uptake in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells expressing LOX-1. Indeed, purified procyanidins significantly inhibited oxLDL binding to LOX-1 while other ingredients of apple polyphenols did not. Moreover, chronic administration of oligomeric procyanidins suppressed lipid accumulation in vascular wall in hypertensive rats fed with high fat diet. These results suggest that procyanidins are LOX-1 inhibitors and LOX-1 inhibition might be a possible underlying mechanism of the well-known vascular protective effects of red wine, the French Paradox.     

Surfactant gel adsorption of platinum(II), (IV) and palladium(II) as chloro-complexes and kinetic separation of palladium from platinum using EDTA.

A micellar solution of cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) can separate into two phases due to a temperature change or to the addition of salts. Platinum(II), (IV) and palladium(II) reacted with chloride ions to form stable anionic complexes of PtCl4(2-), PtCl6(2-) and PdCl4(2-), respectively, and were adsorbed onto the CPC gel phase. The CPC phase plays the role of an ion-exchange adsorbent for the anionic complexes. By such a procedure, the precious metals of platinum and palladium could be separated from base metals such as copper, zinc and iron. The kinetic separation was performed by a ligand exchange reaction of the palladium(II) chloro-complex with EDTA at 60 degrees C. The anionic palladium(II)-EDTA complex could not bind the opposite charged CP+ and was desorbed from the CPC phase. In the aqueous phase, the recovery of palladium(II) by the double-desorption was 101.1 +/- 1.2%. The platinum(II) and (IV) chloro-complexes were stable for at least 30 min and remained in the CPC phase.     

Behavioral effects of ketamine and toxic interactions with psychostimulants

Background  

The anesthetic drug ketamine (KT) has been reported to be an abused drug and fatal cases have been observed in polydrug users. In the present study, considering the possibility of KT-enhanced toxic effects of other drugs, and KT-induced promotion of an overdose without making the subject aware of the danger due to the attenuation of several painful subjective symptoms, the intraperitoneal (i.p.) KT-induced alterations in behaviors and toxic interactions with popular co-abused drugs, the psychostimulants cocaine (COC) and methamphetamine (MA), were examined in ICR mice.