First lift-off and flight performance of a tailless flapping-wing aerial robot in high-altitude environments.

Flapping flight of animals has captured the interest of researchers due to their impressive flight capabilities across diverse environments including mountains, oceans, forests, and urban areas. Despite the significant progress made in understanding flapping flight, high-altitude flight as showcased by many migrating animals remains underexplored. At high-altitudes, air density is low, and it is challenging to produce lift.

Photostability Enhancement of Dual-Luminophore Pressure-Sensitive Paint by Adding Antioxidants.

Antioxidants were applied to a dual-luminophore pressure-sensitive paint (PSP), and the effects on photodegradation caused by exposure to excitation light were studied. Three types of antioxidants that are commonly used for the photostability enhancement of polymers were added to a dual-luminophore PSP, and degradation rates and pressure/temperature sensitivities were investigated by coupon-based tests. One-hour-long aging tests were performed in a pressure chamber with a continuous excitation light source under dry air and argon atmospheres at 100 kPa and 20 °C.

Practical Fast-Response Anodized-Aluminum Pressure-Sensitive Paint Using Chemical Adsorption Luminophore as Optical Unsteady Pressure Sensor.

We developed and evaluated an anodized-aluminum pressure-sensitive paint (AA-PSP) with new formulations of free-base porphyrin, H2TCPP, as an optical unsteady pressure sensor. The luminophore H2TCPP has quite a short fluorescent lifetime (2.4 ns on the condition of the AA-PSP).

Computational study on aeroacoustic fields of a transitional supersonic jet.

Aeroacoustic fields of a supersonic free jet at the Mach and Reynolds numbers of 2.1 and 70 000, respectively, of the transitional conditions are computationally investigated by large-eddy simulations. The supersonic transitional jets of different shear layer thicknesses without disturbances and those of the fixed shear layer thickness with disturbances are computationally investigated, and the effects of the shear layer thickness and the disturbance are discussed.

The proteasome inhibitor bortezomib inhibits the growth of canine malignant melanoma cells in vitro and in vivo.

Canine malignant melanomas are highly aggressive and fatal neoplasms. In the present report, 21 drugs that target specific signalling pathways were screened for their growth inhibitory activity on three canine malignant melanoma cell lines. The proteasome inhibitor bortezomib inhibited the growth of these cell lines.

FilGAP, a Rho/Rho-associated protein kinase-regulated GTPase-activating protein for Rac, controls tumor cell migration.

Tumor cells exhibit two interconvertible modes of cell motility referred to as mesenchymal and amoeboid migration. Mesenchymal mode is characterized by elongated morphology that requires high GTPase Rac activation, whereas amoeboid mode is dependent on actomyosin contractility induced by Rho/Rho-associated protein kinase (ROCK) signaling. While elongated morphology is driven by Rac-induced protrusion at the leading edge, how Rho/ROCK signaling controls amoeboid movement is not well understood.

Diabetes-associated changes and role of N epsilon-(carboxymethyl)lysine in big ET-1-induced coronary vasoconstriction.

Using perfused hearts from streptozotocin-induced long-term diabetic rats, we studied the coronary vasoconstrictor effect of the endothelin-1 (ET-1) precursor big ET-1 and also whether this response was modulated by N(epsilon)-(carboxymethyl)lysine (CML; a representative advanced glycation end product that is implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetic vasculopathy). The big ET-1-induced vasoconstriction (a) developed more rapidly (i.e.

Chronic treatment with losartan (angiotensin II type 1 receptor antagonist) normalizes enhanced acetylcholine-induced coronary vasoconstriction in isolated perfused hearts of type 2 diabetic OLETF rats.

We previously reported that isolated perfused hearts from streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats exhibited increases in the sensitivity of the coronary vasoconstriction induced by acetylcholine (ACh) infusion (versus age-matched controls) (Kamata et al., 2008). Here, we examined the ACh-induced coronary vasoconstriction in perfused hearts taken from Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) rats, a type 2 diabetes model, at the chronic stage of diabetes (38-40 weeks old).

Effect of N-epsilon-(carboxymethyl)lysine on coronary vasoconstriction in isolated perfused hearts from control and streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) derived from glucose are implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetic vascular disease. However, their direct modulatory effects on coronary vascular tone remain unclear. We previously reported that coronary vasoconstriction was induced by acetylcholine (ACh) infusion of the isolated perfused rat heart and that sensitivity was greater in perfused hearts from streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats than in those from age-matched controls (Kamata et al.

Effect of long-term streptozotocin-induced diabetes on coronary vasoconstriction in isolated perfused rat heart.

The primary goal of this study was to investigate the effect of long-term (9 months) streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes on the coronary vasoconstrictor responses to vasoactive agents such as high K(+), acetylcholine (ACh), endothelin-1 (ET-1), and the calcium-channel activator Bay K 8644. For this, we used isolated rat hearts perfused at constant flow rate. Each of the four agents caused dose-dependent increases in perfusion pressure in isolated hearts from age-matched control and STZ-induced diabetic rats.