Evaluation of cropping method for perennial ratoon rice: Adaptation of SALIBU to triple-cropping in Vietnam.

: Generally, the yield of ratoon rice is at most 50% of the main crop. However, a cropping method "SALIBU" achieved more yield than the main crop and enables the perennial cropping. Although the SALIBU method is implementing 10 additional management practices to conventional method in Indonesia, the effect of each management practice is unclear.

Locally measured USLE K factor expands sustainable agricultural land in Palau.

From the viewpoint of sustainability, annual soil erosion should be controlled below an erosion level. Palau is an island in the Micronesia region of the western Pacific Ocean. The island receives heavy rainfall and has steep slopes, so 80% of the land is categorized within the most fragile rank (T factor = 1) in soil erosion.

Methane emissions in triple rice cropping: patterns and a method for reduction.

The Mekong Delta paddies are known as hotspots of methane emission, but these emissions are not well studied. We analyzed methane emission patterns based on monitoring data from typical triple rice cropping paddies collected over 5 years. We found that the total emissions in a crop season doubled in the second crop, tripled in the third crop, and reset after the annual natural flood of the Mekong River.

Rice plants reduce methane emissions in high-emitting paddies.

Rice is understood to enhance methane emissions from paddy fields in IPCC guidelines. However, rice actually has two opposite functions related to methane: i) emission enhancement, such as by providing emission pathways (aerenchyma) and methanogenetic substrates; and ii) emission suppression by providing oxygen pathways, which suppress methanogenesis or enhance methane oxidation. The overall role of rice is thus determined by the balance between its enhancing and suppressing functions.

Involvement of cross-linked ribosomal protein S19 oligomers and C5a receptor in definitive erythropoiesis.

We performed a series of experiments under a working hypothesis that cross-linked oligomers of ribosomal protein S19 (RP S19) play an essential role in definitive erythropoiesis as a ligand of the C5a receptor of erythroblasts and macrophages. We found molecules functionally and immunologically indistinguishable from RP S19 oligomers in the extracellular fluid of porcine and guinea pig bone marrow. When an increased hematopoietic state was induced in guinea pigs by bloodletting, the bone marrow RP S19 oligomer concentration was concomitantly increased.

Asialoerythropoietin exerts stronger angiogenic activity than erythropoietin via its binding affinity to tissue.

Purpose: Although erythropoietin (EPO) is known to express angiogenic and cardioprotective effects, it also induces hypertension, polycythemia, and platelet activation, which may cause serious adverse effects in patients with cardiovascular diseases. We compared the angiogenic effects of EPO and its nonerythropoietic derivative, asialo-EPO (AEPO).

Methods: Lower limb ischemia was induced in ICR and C57/BL mice.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) and complete right bundle branch block (RBBB) are independently associated with increased hemoglobin levels in apparently healthy subjects.

Objective: The associations between atrial fibrillation (AF) or complete right bundle branch block (RBBB) and other laboratory tests have not been examined sufficiently in healthy populations.

Methods: These associations were examined with multivariable logistic regression analyses using data from 6,381 apparently healthy subjects including 46 subjects with AF and 100 subjects with RBBB.

Results: The mean age, body mass index (BMI), hemoglobin, the prevalence of male sex and a history of coronary heart disease (CHD) were significantly higher in subjects with AF or RBBB than without.

Erythropoietin, but not asialoerythropoietin or carbamyl-erythropoietin, attenuates monocrotaline-induced pulmonary hypertension in rats.

Erythropoietin (EPO) has long been utilized for the treatment of renal anemia. The erythropoietin receptor (EPOR) is also expressed in the cardiovascular and central nervous systems in addition to an erythroid lineage, to provide an organoprotective role against several types of cellular stress. Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a poor prognostic disease caused by primary and secondary pulmonary vascular injury.

Hypocellularity and insufficient expression of angiogenic factors in implanted autologous bone marrow in patients with chronic critical limb ischemia.

The aim of this study was to identify the clinical parameters of absolutely poor-prognosis patients with chronic critical limb ischemia (AP-CLI). Sixteen no-option CLI patients with arteriosclerosis obliterans: ASO (nine) and non-ASO patients (seven) treated with bone marrow-mononuclear cell implantation (BMI) were analyzed. There were three AP-CLI patients (all ASO).

Establishment of culturing system for ex-vivo expansion of angiogenic immature erythroid cells, and its application for treatment of patients with chronic severe lower limb ischemia.

Angiogenesis therapy by bone marrow-mononuclear cell implantation (BMI) has been utilized. We found that erythroid cells played an essential role in angiogenesis by BMI. We then tried to establish a novel cell therapy by implantation of ex vivo expanded immature erythroblasts cultured from hematopoietic stem/precursor cells.

Improved cardiac function after sirolimus-eluting stent placement in diabetic patients by pioglitazone: combination therapy with statin.

Background: Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPAR-gamma) agonists are used as anti-diabetic drugs, and their pleiotrophic action has been reported to improve endothelial function leading to cardioprotective effects. In this study we evaluated the long-term effect of pioglitazone on cardiac function in diabetic patients after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) by drug-eluting stent (DES).

Methods And Results: We investigated 54 diabetic patients who received PCI using a sirolimus-eluting stent.

Imatinib mesilate inhibits neointimal hyperplasia via growth inhibition of vascular smooth muscle cells in a rat model of balloon injury.

Restenosis is a major problem in percutaneous catheter intervention (PCI) for coronary artery stenosis in patients with acute myocardial infarction. Coronary restenosis arises from intimal hyperplasia, i.e.

Multiple bilateral coronary-biventricular fistulas with elevated left ventricular end-diastolic pressure.

Arterioventricular fistulas are relatively rare abnormalities and the etiology may be congenital or traumatic. We report a case of a 51-year-old woman in which all three coronary arteries emptied into both ventricles via multiple small fistulas resulting in elevated left ventricular end-diastolic pressure.

Electron transport in a pi-stacking molecular chain.

We have investigated the electronic structure and transport properties of a pi-stacking molecular chain which is covalently bonded to a H/Si(100) surface, using the first-principles density functional theory approach combined with Green's function method. The highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) dispersion is remarkably reduced, but remains noticeable ( approximately 0.1 eV), when a short pi-stacking styrene wire is cut from an infinitely long wire and sandwiched between metal electrodes.

[Prognostic factors for critical limb ischemia after autologous bone marrow implantation].

Objectives: Autologous bone marrow implantation (BMI) is effective to treat critical limb ischemia, but the long-term prognosis is not clear. The outcome of BMI treatment for ischemic legs was investigated related to the clinical background of the patient, and short-term effects of BMI. The end event was defined as unexpected lower limb amputation.

Serum erythropoietin level as a marker of limb ischemia.

Bone marrow implantation (BMI) has been utilized for the treatment of limb ischemia, however, serum markers have not yet been reported to express the degree of limb ischemia. We analyzed the serum levels of several cytokines including erythropoietin (EPO) in the treated legs and the contralateral ones in 11 patients with limb ischemia treated with BMI. The EPO level in the pre-treated legs in the 5 patients with arteriosclerosis obliterans revealed a good correlation with ankle-brachial pressure index.

Guidewire-induced coronary artery perforation treated with transcatheter delivery of subcutaneous tissue.

In three cases of small coronary artery perforation by guidewires during percutaneous coronary intervention, coronary leakage continued despite prolonged balloon inflation and reversal of heparin. Subcutaneous tissue was selectively delivered to perforated vessels by means of microcatheters in a successful attempt to stop leakage. This method appears to be extremely effective for treating guidewire-induced perforations of distal coronary arteries.