The Digital Museum Project for the documentation of Ikema Ryukyuan

The object of this presentation is to introduce a prototype of the Digital Museum Project in our attempt at the documentation of Ikema, one of the endangered dialects of Southern Ryukyuan, spoken on Miyakojima Island, Okinawa, Japan. The language is no longer acquired by younger people, and is spoken fluently only by people in their 60's or older. We have been studying one of the dialects of the language spoken in Nishihara since January 2006, and have made recordings of natural discourse and elicitation sessions totaling over 400 hours. The local people, especially the senior generations, are deeply concerned about the imminent disappearance of their language and culture, and have been making every effort to pass them on to younger generations. Their enthusiasm culminated in the creation of a vernacular musical titled Nishihara Muradate (The making of the Nishihara village), which depicts their migration to Nishihara from the Ikema Island, their ancestral island, some 130 years ago. It was performed in July 2007, at the 40th anniversary of the Meeting of the Ikema people, with more than a hundred people participating in the performance, was filmed and made into a DVD. Attempts at documenting the language are also being made by a nursery school principal, who has written fairy stories for children, scored traditional songs, and collected proverbs for raising children, all prepared bilingually in Ikema and the standard Japanese. In order to store the recordings we have made and to make the works created by local people accessible to the public, we are constructing a digital museum, a web-based four layered digital storage space. The first two layers are the exhibit space, open to the public and store the general introduction to the language and culture of Ikema, Nisihara Muradate, fairy tales for children, old songs, all subtitled in three languages: Ikema, the standard Japanese, and English. The exhibit space will serve as a forum for the local people in Nishihara, as well as for the people who have migrated to other parts of the world. The second two layers, the access to which is password protected, is for researchers specializing in Ryukyuans. The third layer stores transcribed recordings with translations, papers on Ikema and the related dialects. The fourth layer contains all the raw data, which are accessible only to our research group. We will make a demonstration of the prototype of the museum in this presentation

Origin of a novel protein-coding gene family with similar signal sequence in Schistosoma japonicum

BackgroundEvolution of novel protein-coding genes is the bedrock of adaptive evolution. Recently, we identified six protein-coding genes with similar signal sequence from Schistosoma japonicum egg stage mRNA using signal sequence trap (SST). To find the mechanism underlying the origination of these genes with similar core promoter regions and signal sequence, we adopted an integrated approach utilizing whole genome, transcriptome and proteome database BLAST queries, other bioinformatics tools, and molecular analyses.ResultsOur data, in combination with database analyses showed evidences of expression of these genes both at the mRNA and protein levels exclusively in all developmental stages of S. japonicum. The signal sequence motif was identified in 27 distinct S. japonicum UniGene entries with multiple mRNA transcripts, and in 34 genome contigs distributed within 18 scaffolds with evidence of genome-wide dispersion. No homolog of these genes or similar domain was found in deposited data from any other organism. We observed preponderance of flanking repetitive elements (REs), albeit partial copies, especially of the RTE-like and Perere class at either side of the duplication source locus. The role of REs as major mediators of DNA-level recombination leading to dispersive duplication is discussed with evidence from our analyses. We also identified a stepwise pathway towards functional selection in evolving genes by alternative splicing. Equally, the possible transcription models of some protein-coding representatives of the duplicons are presented with evidence of expression in vitro.ConclusionOur findings contribute to the accumulating evidence of the role of REs in the generation of evolutionary novelties in organisms\u27 genomes

Structure-activity relations of rosmarinic acid derivatives for the amyloid β aggregation inhibition and antioxidant properties

Amyloid-β aggregation inhibitors are expected to be therapeutic or prophylactic agents for Alzheimer\u27s disease. Rosmarinic acid, which is one of the main aggregation inhibitors derived from Lamiaceae, was employed as a lead compound and its 25 derivatives were synthesized. In this study,the structure-activity relations of rosmarinic acid derivatives for the amyloid-β aggregation inhibitory effect (MSHTS assay), antioxidant properties, and xanthine oxidase inhibition were evaluated. Among the tested compounds, compounds 16d and 19 were found to the most potent amyloid aggregation inhibitors. The SAR revealed that the necessity of the presence of the phenolic hydroxyl on one side of the molecule as well as the lipophilicity of the entire molecule. The importance of these structural properties was also supported by docking simulations

ナマ シラス ノ セイ ショク ニヨル カンセン ガ ウタガワレタ クジラ フクショクモンジョウチュウ ショウ ノ 1レイ

埼玉県在住の男性・64 歳.2012 年11 月初旬,近医で日本海裂頭条虫症の診断を受け,駆虫目的で本院消化器内科を紹介受診.外来で駆虫治療したところ,全長約250 cm の白色紐状で,全体的に肉厚感のある虫体を排出した.虫体は形態学的特徴より日本海裂頭条虫ではなく,クジラ複殖門条虫が強く疑われたため,遺伝子解析を行った.PCR によって増幅されたcytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 遺伝子(cox1)の全長塩基配列を解析したところ,既知のクジラ複殖門条虫の塩基配列と99%の相同性を示したことから,本症例はクジラ複殖門条虫症と確定した.該当患者は,便に白色紐状物が混入する2〜3 か月前に,生シラスを生食しており,これが感染源となった可能性が高いと考えられた.We have reported a case of infection with whale tapeworm,Diplogonoporus balaenopterae, in Dokkyo MedicalUniversity Hospital. The patient, a 64-year-old Japanesemale, living in Saitama Prefecture was admitted to our hospitalon Nov. 1st 2012, owing to pieces of tapeworm beingdischarged. He was treated with Biltricide® (20 mg/kg)and Magcorol P®( 100 g) in the hospital and he expelled atapeworm about 250 cm, in length along with the scolex afterabout 2 hours of treatment. Based on the morphologicalfeatures of the strobila and the scolex we strongly suspectedthat the tapeworm belongs to the genus Diplogonoporus.To identify the species of the discharged tapeworm, thecomplete cox1 gene was amplified by PCR and the nucleotidesequence was analyzed. The sequence showed 99 %homology against those from D. balaenopterae. From theseresults the patient was diagnosed as a diplogonoporiasiscaused by D. balaenopterae, whale tapeworm. We could notfind any proglottides of tapeworm nor eggs in stools whenwe performed follow up medical examinations three monthsafter treatment. Therefore it can be concluded that the patientwas cured of this disease. In most cases the infectionsource of the whale tapeworm to humans is reported ascoming from marine fish such as sardines and bonitos. Thepatient had frequently consumed various kinds of raw marinefish, and we suspect that the infection source can beattributed to eating raw whitebait

Stress assessment using hair cortisol of kangaroos affected by the lumpy jaw disease

The aim of this study was to objectively assess stress of kangaroos affected by lumpy jaw disease (LJD) using plasma and hair cortisol concentrations. The plasma and hair samples were collected from kangaroos with LJD and healthy controls. Collected hair samples were extracted with methanol after washing with isopropanol, following which they were processed with the cortisol enzyme immunoassay kit. The plasma cortisol concentration of LJD animals tended to be higher than that of the control. Ventral hair cortisol, but not dorsal hair, of LJD animals was significantly higher than that of the control. In conclusion, stress in kangaroos infected with LJD could be assessed by measuring ventral hair cortisol