Involvement of ��PIX in angiotensin II-induced migration of vascular smooth muscle cells

Angiotensin II (Ang II) stimulates migration of vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) in addition to its contribution to contraction and hypertrophy. It is well established that Rho GTPases regulate cellular contractility and migration by reorganizing the actin cytoskeleton. Ang II activates Rac1 GTPase, but its upstream guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) remains elusive. Here, we show that Ang II-induced VSMC migration occurs in a βPIX GEF-dependent manner. βPIX-specific siRNA treatment significantly inhibited Ang II-induced VSMC migration. Ang II activated the catalytic activity of βPIX towards Rac1 in dose- and time-dependent manners. Activity reached a peak at 10 min and declined close to a basal level by 30 min following stimulation. Pharmacological inhibition with specific kinase inhibitors revealed the participation of protein kinase C, Src family kinase, and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-K) upstream of βPIX. Both p21-activated kinase and reactive oxygen species played key roles in cytoskeletal reorganization downstream of βPIX-Rac1. Taken together, our results suggest that βPIX is involved in Ang II-induced VSMC migration.     

Circulant Double Coverings of a Circulant Graph of Valency Five

Enumerating the isomorphism classes of several types of graph covering projections is one of the central research topics in enumerative topological graph theory. A covering of G is called circulant if its covering graph is circulant. Recently, the authors [Discrete Math., 277, 73-85 （2004）1 enumerated the isomorphism classes of circulant double coverings of a certain type, called a typical covering, and showed that no double covering of a circulant graph of valency three is circulant. Also, in [Graphs and Combinatorics, 21,386 400 （2005）], the isomorphism classes of circulant double coverings of a circulant graph of valency four are enumerated. In this paper, the isomorphism classes of circulant double coverings of a circulant graph of valency five are enumerated.     

Optimal portfolio, consumption and retirement decision under a preference change

We investigate an optimal portfolio, consumption and retirement decision problem in which an economic agent can determine the discretionary stopping time as a retirement time with constant labor wage and disutility. We allow the preference of the agent to be changed before and after retirement. It is assumed that the agent's coefficient of relative risk aversion becomes higher after retirement. Under a constant relative risk aversion (CRRA) utility function, we obtain the optimal policies in closed-forms using martingale methods and variational inequality methods. We give some numerical results of the optimal policies. We also consider the relation between the level of disutility and the labor wage with the optimal retirement wealth level.     

Correlation between local mobility and mechanical properties of high‐speed melt‐spun nylon‐6 fibers

This article establishes the processing–microstructure–motion–property relationship of high‐speed melt‐spun nylon‐6 fibers. From solid‐state ¹H NMR T_1ρ (spin–lattice relaxation time in the rotating frame) relaxation studies, all nylon‐6 fibers spun at 4500–6100 m/min showed three‐component exponential decay with the time constants T_1ρ,I, T_1ρ,II, and T_1ρ,III, indicating that there existed three different motional phases. These phases were assigned to immobile crystalline, intermediate rigid amorphous, and mobile amorphous regions. The determination of the correlation time (τ_c) of the respective phases provided information about the local molecular mobility of each phase with respect to the spinning speed. As the spinning speed increased, τ_c of the crystalline region increased (4500–5200 m/min) and then reached a plateau. However, τ_c for the rigid amorphous region increased from 5200 m/min onward, indicating that the rigid amorphous chains were more oriented and constrained in the spinning speed range of 5500–6100 m/min. The drastic increase of the maximum thermal stress for all fibers from 5500 to 6100 m/min was coincident with the τ_c characteristics of the rigid amorphous region. The significant increase in tenacity and Young's modulus and the large decrease in elongation at break at 5500–6100 m/min were also in good agreement with the local molecular motion of the intermediate rigid amorphous phase in the nylon‐6 fibers. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 39: 993–1000, 2001     

Synthesis of E-alkenylsilanes with dithienosilole and their electrochemical and optical properties

A series of 2,6-bis(ethenylsilyl)-4,4-diphenyldithienosilole derivatives containing silylene-spacer were prepared by platinum-catalyzed hydrosilylation reaction. All the hydrosilylation proceeded regio- and stereoselectively to give solely β-(E)-adducts. The 2,6-bis(ethenylsilyl)-4,4-diphenyldithienosilole derivatives exhibit intense fluorescence emission and high quantum yields. The shoulder band of 9 in the emission spectrum was explained the intramolecular charge transfer from the electron-donating group (dimethylaminostyryl group) to electron-accepting group (dithienosilole moiety). These optical data are in good agreement with the results of theoretical calculations of model compounds at the level of B3LYP/6-31G(d,p).     

High‐resolution monotone schemes based on quasi‐characteristics technique

In this article, we consider a new technique that allows us to overcome the well‐known restriction of Godunov's theorem. According to Godunov's theorem, a second‐order explicit monotone scheme does not exist. The techniques in the construction of high‐resolution schemes with monotone properties near the discontinuities of the solution lie in choosing of one of two high‐resolution numerical solutions computed on different stencils. The criterion for choosing the final solution is proposed. Results of numerical tests that compare with the exact solution and with the numerical solution obtained by the first‐order monotone scheme are presented. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 17: 262–276, 2001