Humanin (HN) is a small mitochondrial-encoded peptide with neuroprotective properties. We have recently shown protection of retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) cells by HN in oxidative stress; however, the effect of HN on endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress has not been evaluated in any cell type. Our aim here was to study the effect of HN on ER stress-induced apoptosis in RPE cells with a specifi...

The lymphocyte migration inhibitor FTY720 attenuates experimental hypertensive nephropathy. Infiltration with lymphocytes is found in both immune and nonimmune chronic kidney diseases. In a rat model of immune-initiated progressive glomerulosclerosis, selective inhibition of lymphocyte infiltration by FTY720 showed significant beneficial effects on renal fibrosis. To test whether this translate...

Given a family {hn}n∈ZΩ+ of vectors in a Hilbert space H we characterize the existence of a family of commuting contractions T = {Tω}w∈Ω on H having regular dilation and such that hn = T h0, n ∈ Z+. The theorem is a multi-dimensional analogue for some well-known operator moment problems due to Sebestyén in case |Ω| = 1 or, recently, to Găvruţă and Păunescu in case |Ω| = 2. Let H be a complex Hi...

A Somos 4 sequence is a sequence (hn) of rational numbers defined by the quadratic recursion hm+2 hm−2 = λ1 hm+1 hm−1 + λ2 h 2 m for all m ∈ Z for some rational constants λ1, λ2. Elliptic divisibility sequences or EDSs are an important special case where λ1 = h 2 2, λ2 = −h1 h3, the hn are integers and hn divides hm whenever n divides m. Somos (4) is the particular Somos 4 sequence whose coeffi...

Let Hn be the hypercube {0, 1} n, and let Hn,p denote the same graph with Bernoulli bond percolation with parameter p = n−α. It is shown that at α = 1/2 there is a phase transition for the metric distortion between Hn and Hn,p. For α < 1/2, asymptotically there is a map from Hn to Hn,p with constant distortion (depending only on α). For α > 1/2 the distortion tends to infinity as a power of n. ...

The aim of this article is to prove the following theorem. Theorem: Let p be in (1,∞), Hn,m a group of Heisenberg type, R the vector of the Riesz transforms on Hn,m. There exists a constant Cp independent of n and m such that for every f ∈ L (Hn,m) C p e ‖f‖Lp(Hn,m) ≤ ‖|Rf |‖Lp(Hn,m) ≤ Cpe‖f‖Lp(Hn,m). It has been proved by F. Lust-Piquard that the operator norm of R does not depend on n (see [L...

Purpose Automated planning techniques aim to reduce manual time and inter-operator variability without compromising the plan quality which is particularly challenging for head-and-neck (HN) cancer radiotherapy. The objective of this study was evaluate performance an a priori-multicriteria optimization algorithm on cohort HN patients. Methods A total 14 nasopharyngeal carcinoma (upper-HN) “middl...

In the present case control study mRNA expression of the GSTP1 gene, encoding a phase II enzyme that detoxifies via glutathione conjugation, was investigated using semiquantitative PCR followed by SSCP for 49 confirmed head and neck (HN) cancer and 49 control samples. It was found that GSTP1 was upregulated in significantly higher number of cancers (OR 4.2, 95% CI 1.2- 15.3). Grade wise correla...

Enteral nutrients contain the amounts of sodium (Na) above the estimated requirements (600 mg/d in Japan); however, some patients receiving enteral nutrition suffer from hyponatremia (HN) [serum Na level <135 mEq/L]. HN is the most common electrolyte disorder,1 and is associated with an increased risk of death in both an ambulatory setting and hospitalization even though the severity is mild.2,...