Biliary sludge in dogs is dismissed commonly as an incidental finding. On the other hand, gallbladder mucocele is reported increasingly in dogs and can lead to biliary obstruction or gallbladder rupture. Cholestasis is suspected to play a role in development of sludge and mucoceles, though there are no data in dogs to support this. We investigated gallbladder emptying, a key factor in biliary flow, in dogs with mobile sludge, immobile sludge, or gallbladder mucocele and in healthy controls. Gallbladder ejection fraction estimated by ultrasonography was used as the index of gallbladder emptying. The ejection fraction at 60 min after eating was significantly decreased in all three abnormal groups. Moreover, all dogs with sludge or a mucocele had gallbladder distension. These changes were the greatest in the mucocele group. Thus, biliary stasis occurs not only in dogs with gallbladder mucocele but also in dogs with biliary sludge. Cholestasis may play a role in the pathogenesis or progression of these diseases in dogs.

We propose a new mechanism which can lead to ferromagnetism in Hubbard models containing triangles with different on-site energies. It is based on an effective Hamiltonian that we derive in the strong coupling limit. Considering a one-dimensional realization of the model, we show that in the quarter-filled, insulating case the ground-state is actually ferromagnetic in a very large parameter range going from Tasaki's flat-band limit to the strong coupling limit of the effective Hamiltonian. This result has been obtained using a variety of analytical and numerical techniques. Finally, the same results are shown to apply away from quarter-filling, in the metallic case.

This paper reports on a method to directly measure the contractile forces of cardiomyocytes using MEMS (micro electro mechanical systems)-based force sensors. The fabricated sensor chip consists of piezoresistive cantilevers that can measure contractile forces with high frequency (several tens of kHz) and high sensing resolution (less than 0.1 nN). Moreover, the proposed method does not require a complex observation system or image processing, which are necessary in conventional optical-based methods. This paper describes the design, fabrication, and evaluation of the proposed device and demonstrates the direct measurements of contractile forces of cardiomyocytes using the fabricated device.

This paper reports on a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based sensor for pulse wave measurement. The sensor consists of an air chamber with a thin membrane and a 300-nm thick piezoresistive cantilever placed inside the chamber. When the membrane of the chamber is in contact with the skin above a vessel of a subject, the pulse wave of the subject causes the membrane to deform, leading to a change in the chamber pressure. This pressure change results in bending of the cantilever and change in the resistance of the cantilever, hence the pulse wave of the subject can be measured by monitoring the resistance of the cantilever. In this paper, we report the sensor design and fabrication, and demonstrate the measurement of the pulse wave using the fabricated sensor. Finally, measurement of the pulse wave velocity (PWV) is demonstrated by simultaneously measuring pulse waves at two points using the two fabricated sensor devices. Furthermore, the effect of breath holding on PWV is investigated. We showed that the proposed sensor can be used to continuously measure the PWV for each pulse, which indicates the possibility of using the sensor for continuous blood pressure measurement.

Background: Vincristine induces gastrointestinal motility disorders in humans. Adverse gastrointestinal events are commonly observed in dogs receiving vincristine.Objectives: To evaluate gastric motility after vincristine administration in dogs and the prophylactic effect of a prokinetic agent, mosapride.Animals: Five healthy Beagle dogs. Methods: Five dogs received vincristine IV at a dosage of 0.75 mg/m 2 . The motility index (MI) of the antral contraction was ultrasonographically evaluated 30 minutes postfeeding before administration of vincristine and for 6 days after vincristine treatment. After a 6-week washout period, the dogs received vincristine with mosapride (2 mg/kg PO, q24h for 6 days), and the MI was re-evaluated. Adverse gastrointestinal events were evaluated according to the Veterinary Co-operative Group Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (VCOG-CTCAE).Results: After vincristine administration, a significant decrease (P < .05) in MI was observed on days 3 (6.64 ± 0.30) and 4 (8.02 ± 0.94), compared with pretreatment levels (10.00 ± 0.62). Gastrointestinal adverse events were observed in 4 dogs (grade 2 decreased appetite: 3 dogs; grade 1 vomiting: 2 dogs; and grade 1 diarrhea and grade 2 hematochezia: 1 dog). When mosapride citrate was administered with vincristine and for the next 5 days, no decrease in MI was observed. Furthermore, adverse gastrointestinal events occurred less frequently (grade 1 vomiting and grade 2 hematochezia in 1 dog each).Conclusions and Clinical Importance: Vincristine (0.75 mg/m 2 ) induces gastric hypomotility in dogs. Preventive administration of mosapride citrate (2.0 mg/kg PO, q24h) improves hypomotility and may decrease the adverse gastrointestinal effects of vincristine.

This paper reports on a method for evaluating the force-length relationship of adhering human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) on the substrate using a measurement system comprising of a micromachined movable plate and a piezoresistive force probe. The cells on the plate are stretched by pushing the movable plate with the piezoresistive cantilever, which is actuated by a piezo stage. The twitch forces and the applied stretch are measured quantitatively with the piezoresistive cantilever. The results demonstrated that the twitch forces of the hiPSC-CMs increased when a stretch was applied. This evaluation method improves the understanding of the intrinsic force-length relationship of hiPSC-CMs at the cellular scale.

ABSTRACT. Gastric motility is affected by several pathological conditions which may induce upper gastrointestinal clinical symptoms. The pathogenesis of canine gastric motility disorders is poorly understood because of methodological limitations. This study aimed at establishing a simple method for evaluating postprandial gastric motility in dogs. Gastric motility was ultrasonographically assessed in 7 healthy beagles using a technique previously described in humans. The motility index (MI), an indicator of gastric antral motility, was calculated by measuring the area of the gastric antrum in both a contracted and relaxed phase and by counting the number of contractions. The MI was measured every 30 min for 3 hr after feeding and compared with gastric emptying as assessed by a 13 C-octanoic acid breath test. The MI at 30 min had the lowest variability in the 7 dogs (mean ± SD, 9.77  0.42; coefficient of variance, 4.25%), and a significant correlation was observed with gastric emptying coefficient (R 2 =0.8126, P=0.005) and half-emptying time (R 2 =0.654, P=0.027). When atropine was administered, a significant decrease in the MI at 30 min was observed compared with the control (9.77  0.42 vs. 5.19  0.22, P=0.0003). In conclusion, evaluation of the MI at 30 min is suitable for assessing gastric motility and enables us to assess gastric motility simply in a short time. By using this method, further studies for the pathogenesis of canine gastric motility disorders are warranted.KEY WORDS: 13 C-octanoic acid breath test, canine, gastric motility, motility index, ultrasonography.J. Vet. Med. Sci. 73(9): 1133-1138, 2011 Gastric motility disorders are caused secondary by several diseases or drug administration and possibly related with the pathogenesis of upper gastrointestinal clinical symptoms such as anorexia, vomiting, abdominal pain, and emesis. Several methods for evaluating gastric motility in both humans and dogs have been described [25,29]. Gastric motor activity has 2 characteristic phases: fasting and the postprandial phase. Many of the previous studies have focused on the postprandial phase. Postprandial gastric motility is assessed either by quantifying gastric emptying time and/or gastric antral motility or by detecting the electrical excitement caused by gastric movement. Gastric emptying can be evaluated using scintigraphy [1,14], a 13 Coctanoic acid breath test [8,31], or radiopaque markers [18,27], whereas gastric antral motility is examined using force transducers [13] or abdominal ultrasonography [5,7,9,19].Of these methods, scintigraphy is considered the gold standard for evaluating gastric emptying in both humans and dogs [22,29]. However, it requires a specialized facility and exposure to radiation. The 13 C-octanoic acid breath test is an indirect method of assessing gastric emptying using a non-radioisotope-labeled substrate. The test involves monitoring the rate of 13 CO 2 in expired air following ingestion of a test meal mixed with 13 C-octanoic acid. The 13 C-octanoic acid breath test has ...

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