In 2013, I carried out a sample survey of women in Canberra regarding their personal networks to assess social ties from the viewpoint of “the community question” [Wellman 1979]. My analyses revealed the following three outcomes: (1) Canberra's urban planners invoked influential concepts like the garden city movement, the neighbourhood unit, and the Radburn system, all of which guided construction of new towns in the twentieth century. My data indicate that these urban-planning strategies did not affect the personal networks of Canberra women because most could move freely within the city using their own car. (2) Women's personal networks consisted mainly of friendship and kinship relationships. The primacy of neighbourhood relationships declined alongside an increase in social relationships that extended beyond neighbourhood ties and which connected dispersed locations across Canberra, including a neighbouring small city, Queanbeyan. Women who lived in remote places were more likely to be connected to friends and relatives than women who lived in the city. Additionally, friends were such a powerful source of social support that they almost matched relatives. Overall, the “community liberated” perspective was more consistent with the data than were either the “lost” or the “saved” perspectives. (3)

Inflammatory bowel disease is associated with a colonic dysfunction of smooth muscle contractility. In this study, we investigated an alteration of carbachol (CCh)-induced contractile responses in rat colon under inflammatory conditions. The inflammation was induced by an injection of trinitrobenzensulfonic acid (TNBS) into the colonic lumen, 3 days after the injection, hypertrophic of smooth muscle layer in colon was confirmed. Ring shaped-colon tissues were isolated from saline-treated control and TNBS-treated rats. These tissues were placed in physiological organ bath system and then, CCh-elicited isometric force developments were assessed. Treatment of CCh (0.1-30 µM) induced dose-dependent force responses in both types of tissue, but the responses were attenuated in the TNBS-treated rat. Maximal response in TNBS-treated rat was about 60 % of control. Pretreatment with muscarinic M2 receptor antagonist (methoctramin; 1 µM) was surpressed the CCh-induced response. Similar result was detected by pretreatment with muscarinic M3 receptor antagonist (4-DAMP; 1 µM). These inhibitory effects could not be distinguished between control and TNBS-treated rats. These results indicated that the reduction of the colon contraction in inflammatory rats was not involved in the dysfunction of muscarinic receptors. One of the key elements of contractile signaling pathway, association of protein kinase C (PKC) was considered. In control rat, pretreatment of the PKC inhibitor, calphostin C (1 µM) prevented the CCh-induced force development. But the inhibitory effect was not detected in TNBS-treated rat. Moreover, PKC activator (PDBu; 1µM)-induced enhancement of the force responses also detected only in controls. These results indicated that the reduction of the colon contraction in TNBS- indicated colitis model was caused by the inhibitory of the PKC activity. We suggest that the inflammatory bowel disease involves a dysfunction of PKC pathway.

SMTP-7, a fungal metabolite, is reported to have a high degree of availability for the ischemia–reperfusion (IR)-induced acute kidney injury (AKI) model. Cisplatin, a widely used anticancer drug, has serious side effects, such as AKI. Hence, we aimed to examine the effect of SMTP-7 on cisplatin-induced AKI in this study. Significant increases in blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and serum creatinine (Scr) were observed at 72 h after the intravenous infusion of cisplatin (20 mg/kg). Histologically, necrosis and dilatation (hyaline casts) as well as regeneration were observed in proximal tubules. SMTP-7 inhibited the elevation on BUN and Scr caused by cisplatin dose dependently. The efficacy of SMTP-7 was notable when the drug was administered on the day after cisplatin treatment, whereas the repeated administration of the drug did not result in an enhanced efficacy. Moreover, 10 mg/kg of SMTP-7 considerably ameliorated tubular necrosis and dilatation. The cisplatin treatment also caused an up-regulation of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) mRNA expression prior to the elevation of the levels of BUN and Scr. Administration of SMTP-7 (10 mg/kg) at 24 h after the cisplatin infusion alleviated the up-regulation of TNF-α mRNA expression. These findings suggest that SMTP-7 exhibits a renoprotective effect against cisplatin infusion based on the inhibition of the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α and may be expected a new effective drug for the treatment of cisplatin-induced AKI.

When biopolymer solutions come in contact with a coagulation bath containing a gelling factor such as ions, chemical crosslinkers, and pH conditioners, diffusion of the gelling factor through the contact interface into the polymer solutions induces gelation, which proceeds gradually in a direction along the diffusion of the gelling factor. In this directional gelation process, characteristic structures are frequently formed in the biopolymer gels. This review presents general features of the structure formation by the diffusion of the gelling factors and some specific examples for typical biopolymers.