BACKGROUND Although many studies have examined the effects of air pollution on mortality, data limitations have resulted in fewer studies of both particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 and < 10 microm; PM coarse). We conducted a national, multicity time-series study of the...

Effect of mitragynine, an indole alkaloid isolated from Thai medicinal plant kratom (Mitrugym speciosu), on electrically stimulated contraction was studied in the guinea-pig ileum. Mitragynine (1 nM 3 PM) inhibited the ileum contraction elicited by electrical stimulation, and its pD2 value was 6.91 + 0.04 (n = 5). Morphine (1 nM 1 PM) also inhibited the electrically stimulated contraction in a ...

This study investigated the changes in the urinary hormone levels of female monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) after single-dose and long-term treatments with Pueraria mirifica (PM). The monkeys were separated into 3 groups (n=3) and orally treated with 10, 100, or 1,000 mg of PM in each group. Two series of experiments were performed. In the first series of experiments, the monkeys were orally trea...

OBJECTIVES The occurrence of polymyositis (PM) and dermatomyositis (DM) in the general population is largely unknown and unbiased data on clinical and laboratory features in PM/DM are missing. Here, we aim to identify and characterise every PM/DM patient living in southeast Norway (denominator population 2.64 million), 2003-2012. METHOD Due to the structure of the Norwegian health system, all...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the effect of ambient particulate matter on variation in childhood prevalence of asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema. METHODS Prevalences of asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema obtained in Phase One of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) were matched with city-level estimates of residential PM(10) obtained from a World Bank mode...

We present a method to accurately measure the group birefringence variation with temperature in high-birefringence polarization-maintaining (PM) fibers using a distributed polarization analyzer. By analyzing polarization cross-talk peaks purposely induced at both ends of a PM fiber, the temperature coefficient of group birefringence can be accurately obtained. We confirm the theoretical predict...

OBJECTIVE Hyperferritinemia is frequently accompanied by rapidly progressive (RP) interstitial lung disease (ILD) with polymyositis (PM)/dermatomyositis (DM). To clarify the mechanism of RP-ILD with hyperferritinemia, we investigated the associations between serum ferritin levels and various cytokines in patients with PM/DM. METHODS This retrospective study included 38 patients admitted to ou...

BACKGROUND Acute respiratory infections (ARI) are the leading cause of the global burden of disease and have been causally linked with exposure to pollutants from domestic biomass fuels in less-developed countries. We used longitudinal health data coupled with detailed monitoring of personal exposure from more than 2 years of field measurements in rural Kenya to estimate the exposure-response r...

Exposure to air pollution [particulate matter, particles <10 microm (PM(10))] causes a systemic inflammatory response that includes stimulation of the bone marrow (BM) and progression of atherosclerosis. Monocytes are known to play a key role in atherogenesis by migration into subendothelial lesions where they appear as foam cells. The present study was designed to quantify the BM monocyte resp...

Calcium signaling in fura-2 acetoxymethyl ester-loaded enteric glia was investigated in response to neuroligands; responses to AlP were studied in detail. Carbachol (1 mM), glutamate (100 jiM), norepinephrine (10 jiM), and substance P (1 pM) did not increase the intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca24 ],) in cultured enteric glia. An increasing percentage of glia responded to serotonin (4%; ...