Epidemiological study of the prevalence of rheumatic disorders in rural districts in Tottori Prefecture, Japan

Epidemiological evaluation of rural population samples of Misasa, Tomari and Kofu villages in Tottori Prefecture, Japan (Fig. 1), for occurance of rheumatic disorders was performed. This region has an annual rainfall of about 80 inches. The principal occupations are farming, and fishery in part. 1. One thousand six hundreds and twenty-seven persons, age 30 and over were investigated by clinical and serological means. In this preliminary communication the prevalence of probable and definite rheumatoid arthritis, accoding to defined by the A.R.A. criteria, was 1.04% and low back pain-sciatic pain, arthralgia and painful shoulder (cervical spondylosis and so on) were 8.4, 8.9 and 7.1% respectively (Table 2 and 4). 2. Serum samples from residents in Misasa- and Tomari-districts were obtained and rheumatoid factor was tested by means of RA-test (Hyland Laboratories). The incidence of positive test was 3.2% in 407 males and 5.0% in 715 females, but there is no significant difference between the two. Concerning the effect of age, there was a general tendency for the proportion of positive test to be greatest in the older age groups (Fig. 2). 3. Serum uric acid concentrations of 230 males and 395 females were measured by the modified method of Folin-Wu (latron-kit-method). The mean serum uric acid concentration (with standard deviation) was found to be 4.02±0.18mg. per 100ml. for males and 3.38±0.13mg. per 100ml. for females (Fig. 3 and 4), and the differecne between the two was significant. The author found no gouty patient in this papulation survey

On climatology in Misasa Spa - Summary for past ten years

Misasa Spa is well known as the most radioactive hot springs in Japan (maximum Rn content: 2330×10(-10) curie/l) and it has been applied to the management of neuralgia, rheumatic diseases, gastrointestinal disorders, etc. In this paper the climatological factors in Misasa Spa during the last decade (1956～1965) are summarized. The main features are as following: 1. The atmospheric temperature attains highest above 30℃ during the last ten days in July and the　first ten days in August. In winter the temperature goes down below 0℃. during the last ten days in January and the first ten days in February. Owing to the high humidity, however, it is not felt so cold. 2. The amount of precipitation is more than 2,000 mm or so through the year. 3. The westwards wind is prevailing. The wind grade of 2～3 are observed most frequently. 4. Approximately 150 days of the year are clear fairly clear. 5. It is proved unexpectedly that it is rich in or the ultraviolet radiation even in winter. The results pointed above may suggest that the therapeutical period is optimal between March and October

The effect of temporal information among events on Bayesian causal inference in rats

A temporal relationship between events of potential cause and effect is critical to generate a causal relationship because the cause has to be followed by the effect. The present study investigated the role of temporal relationships between events in causal inference in rats via Pavlovian pairings. In Experiment 1a, Subjects in Group Successive received training trials whereby Event 1 (tone or light) was followed by Events 2 (light or tone) and 3 (sucrose solution), whereas those in Group Simultaneous received simultaneous pairings of Events 1 and 2, and Events 1 and 3. During testing, a lever was inserted into the experimental chamber, where subjects were allowed to press the lever which produced the occurrence of Event 2 without reward. By measuring nose-poke responses during the presentation of Event 2, assumingly based on the prediction of occurrence of sucrose solution, subjects in Group Successive showed a relatively lower response rate than did those in Group Simultaneous. In Experiment 1b, this difference was not observed if subjects received the presentations of Event 2 which was irrelevant to their lever pressing during testing. These results suggest that rats can differentiate their response based on the elemental temporal information even when the integrated temporal map was the same, and implied that rats use temporal information as well as conditional probability based on causal Bayesian network account

Conditioned flavor preference and the US postexposure effect in the house musk shrew (Suncus murinus)

The house musk shrew (Suncus murinus) is the only species of insectivore that can be used as a laboratory animal and is an interesting subject in terms of evolutional and comparative aspects. The present study on the learning faculties of shrews examines the possibility of acquiring a conditioned flavor preference and the effects of US postexposure. Subjects were allowed to a drink sucrose solution with flavor A and tap water with flavor B during training. Two extinction tests were administered after every four conditioning trials, and a significant preference for flavor A was observed. After each test, the animals were divided into two groups. Subjects in Group US were presented with a sucrose solution without flavor, while those in Group Water were given tap water. After these trials, all subjects received choice tests where they were presented with water containing the two flavors. The preference ratio was lower in Group US than in Group Water, suggesting a postexposure effect. The findings were discussed in terms of habituation to the US

Maturation processes and structures of small secreted peptides in plants

In the past decade, small secreted peptides have proven to be essential for various aspects of plant growth and development, including the maintenance of certain stem cell populations. Most small secreted peptides identified in plants to date are recognised by membrane-localized receptor kinases, the largest family of receptor proteins in the plant genome. This peptide-receptor interaction is essential for initiating intracellular signalling cascades. Small secreted peptides often undergo post-translational modifications and proteolytic processing to generate the mature peptides. Recent studies suggest that, in contrast to the situation in mammals, the proteolytic processing of plant peptides involves a number of complex steps. Furthermore, NMR-based structural analysis demonstrated that post-translational modifications induce the conformational changes needed for full activity. In this mini review, we summarise recent advances in our understanding of how small secreted peptides are modified and processed into biologically active peptides and describe the mature structures of small secreted peptides in plants