ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) frequently results in several complications, including cerebral vasospasm, associated with high mortality. Although cerebral vasospasm is a major cause of brain damages after SAH, other factors such as inflammatory responses and oxidative stress also contribute to high mortality after SAH. Trehalose is a non_reducing disaccharide in which two glucose units are linked by a,a-1,1-glycosidic bond, and has been shown to induce tolerance to a variety of stressors in numerous organisms. In the present study, we investigated the effect of trehalose on cerebral vasospasm, inflammatory responses, and oxidative stress induced by blood in vitro and in vivo. METHODS: Enzyme immunoassay for eicosanoids, pro-inflammatory cytokines, and endothelin-1, and western blotting analysis for cyclooxygenase-2, inducible nitric oxide synthase, and inhibitor of NF-kappaB were examined in macrophage-like cells treated with hemolysate. After treatment with hemolysate andhydrogen peroxide, the levels of lipid peroxide and amounts of arachidonic acid release were also analyzed. Three hours after the onset of experimental SAH, 18 Japanese White rabbits received an injection of saline, trehalose, or maltose into the cisterna magna. Angiographic and histological analyses of the basilar arteries were performed. In a separate study, the femoral arteries from 60 SD rats were exposed to fresh autologous blood. At 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, and 20 days after treatment, cryosections prepared from the femoral arteries were histologically analyzed. RESULTS: When cells were treated with hemolysate, trehalose inhibited the production of several inflammatory mediators and degradation of the inhibitor of NF-kB and suppressed the lipid peroxidation. The reactive oxygen species-induced arachidonic acid release was also relieved in vitro. In the rabbit model, trehalose produced an inhibitory effect on vasospasm after the onset of experimental SAH, while maltose had only a moderate effect. When the rat femoral arteries exposed to blood were investigated for 20 days, the histological analysis revealed that trehalose suppressed vasospasm, inflammatory response, and lipid peroxidation. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that trehalose has suppressive effects on various pathological events after SAH, including vasospasm, inflammatory responses, and lipid peroxidation. Trehalose may be a new therapeutic approach for treatment of complications after SAH.

Flow coefficients v_{n} for n=2, 3, 4, characterizing the anisotropic collective flow in Au+Au collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=200  GeV, are measured relative to event planes Ψ_{n}, determined at large rapidity. We report v_{n} as a function of transverse momentum and collision centrality, and study the correlations among the event planes of different order n. The v_{n} are well described by hydrodynamic models which employ a Glauber Monte Carlo initial state geometry with fluctuations, providing additional constraining power on the interplay between initial conditions and the effects of viscosity as the system evolves. This new constraint can serve to improve the precision of the extracted shear viscosity to entropy density ratio η/s.

Back-to-back hadron pair yields in d+Au and p+p collisions at √s(NN)=200 GeV were measured with the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Rapidity separated hadron pairs were detected with the trigger hadron at pseudorapidity |η|<0.35 and the associated hadron at forward rapidity (deuteron direction, 3.0<η<3.8). Pairs were also detected with both hadrons measured at forward rapidity; in this case, the yield of back-to-back hadron pairs in d+Au collisions with small impact parameters is observed to be suppressed by a factor of 10 relative to p+p collisions. The kinematics of these pairs is expected to probe partons in the Au nucleus with a low fraction x of the nucleon momenta, where the gluon densities rise sharply. The observed suppression as a function of nuclear thickness, p(T), and η points to cold nuclear matter effects arising at high parton densities.

We present measurements of J/ψ yields in d+Au collisions at sqrt[s(NN)]=200  GeV recorded by the PHENIX experiment and compare them with yields in p+p collisions at the same energy per nucleon-nucleon collision. The measurements cover a large kinematic range in J/ψ rapidity (-2.2<y<2.4) with high statistical precision and are compared with two theoretical models: one with nuclear shadowing combined with final state breakup and one with coherent gluon saturation effects. In order to remove model dependent systematic uncertainties we also compare the data to a simple geometric model. The forward rapidity data are inconsistent with nuclear modifications that are linear or exponential in the density weighted longitudinal thickness, such as those from the final state breakup of the bound state.

Large parity-violating longitudinal single-spin asymmetries A(L)(e+)=-0.86(-0.14)(+0.30) and A(L)(e-)= 0.88(-0.71)(+0.12) are observed for inclusive high transverse momentum electrons and positrons in polarized p+p collisions at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt[s]= 500 GeV with the PHENIX detector at RHIC. These e± come mainly from the decay of W± and Z0 bosons, and their asymmetries directly demonstrate parity violation in the couplings of the W± to the light quarks. The observed electron and positron yields were used to estimate W± boson production cross sections for the e± channels of σ(pp → W+ X) × BR(W+ → e+ ν(e))= 144.1 ± 21.2(stat)(-10.3)(+3.4)(syst) ± 21.6(norm)  pb, and σ(pp → W- X) × BR(W- → e- ν[over ¯](e))= 31.7 ± 12.1(stat)(-8.2)(+10.1)(syst) ± 4.8(norm)  pb.

A non-destructive nitrogen (N) detector [Agriexpert PPW-3000 (PPW-3000)] is a useful device for rapid and non-destructive measurement of leaf N content. However, some studies find a poor correlation between the PPW-3000 reading and the actual leaf N content; the R(2) value of the approximate equation was low. To improve the accuracy of N estimation, we determined the approximate equation taking into account the leaf development stage (maturing and mature leaves) and leaf flush type (early and late leaves). For the leaf development stage, we determined approximate equations for maturing leaves (Y(a)), mature leaves (Y(b)), and "maturing+mature" leaves (Y(c)) in species having simultaneous leaf emergence. The resulting accuracy of Y(a), Y(b), and Y(c) was quite high. For leaf flush species, we determined approximate equations for early leaves (Y(1)), late leaves (Y(2)), and "early+late" leaves (Y(3)) in species having heterophyllous leaf emergence. The accuracy of Y(1) and Y(2) was relatively high, but that of Y(3) was low. We conclude that, when using a PPW-3000, we can determine an approximate equation for maturing and mature leaves jointly, but should treat early and late leaves separately.

Rho GTPases regulate fundamental processes including cell morphology and migration in various organisms. Guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) has a crucial role in activating small GTPase by exchange GDP for GTP. In fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, six members of the Rho small GTPase family were identified and reported to be involved in cell morphology and polarized cell growth. We identified seven genes encoding Rho GEF domain from genome sequence and analyzed. Overexpressions of identified genes in cell lead to change of morphology, suggesting that all of them are involved in the regulation of cell morphology. Although all of null mutants were viable, two of seven null cells had morphology defects and five of seven displayed altered actin cytoskeleton arrangements. Most of the double mutants were viable and biochemical analysis revealed that each of GEFs bound to several small G proteins. These data suggest that identified Rho GEFs are involved in the regulation of cell morphology and share signals via small GTPase Rho family.