Increased expression of kisspeptin and GnRH forms in the brain of scombroid fish during final ovarian maturation and ovulation

BACKGROUND: Kisspeptins (Kiss) are prime players in the control of reproductive function through their regulation of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) expression in the brain. The experimental scombroid fish, chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus) expresses two kiss (kiss1 and kiss2) and three gnrh (gnrh1, gnrh2, and gnrh3) forms in the brain. In the present study, we analyzed expression changes of kiss and gnrh mRNAs in the brain and corresponding GnRH peptides in the brain and pituitary during final ovarian maturation (FOM) and ovulation. METHODS: Female fish possessing late vitellogenic oocytes were injected with GnRH analogue to induce FOM and ovulation. Fish were observed for daily spawning activities and sampled one week post-injection at germinal vesicle migration (GVM), oocyte hydration, ovulation, and post-ovulatory time periods. Changes in relative mRNA levels of kiss and gnrh forms in the brain were determined using quantitative real-time PCR. Changes in GnRH peptides in the brain and pituitary were analyzed using time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay. RESULTS: Both kiss1 and kiss2 mRNA levels in the brain were low at late vitellogenic stage and increased significantly during the GVM period. However, kiss1 mRNA levels decreased during oocyte hydration before increasing again at ovulatory and post-ovulatory periods. In contrast, kiss2 mRNA levels decreased at ovulatory and post-ovulatory periods. Levels of gnrh1 mRNA in the brain increased only during post-ovulatory period. However, levels of gnrh2 and gnrh3 mRNAs were elevated during GVM and then, decreased during oocyte hydration before increasing again at ovulatory period. During post-ovulatory period, both gnrh2 and gnrh3 mRNA levels declined. Peptide levels of all three GnRH forms in the brain were elevated during GVM and oocyte hydration; their levels were significantly lower during late vitellogenic, ovulatory, and post-ovulatory periods. In contrast, pituitary GnRH peptide levels did not show any significant fluctuations, with the GnRH1 peptide levels being many-fold higher than the GnRH2 and GnRH3 forms. CONCLUSION: The results indicate increased expression of multiple Kiss and GnRH forms in the brain and suggest their possible involvement in the regulation of FOM and ovulation in captive female chub mackerel

The effect of cognitive behavioral therapy on future thinking in patients with major depressive disorder: A randomized controlled trial

BackgroundPessimistic thinking about the future is one of the cardinal symptoms of major depression. Few studies have assessed changes in pessimistic thinking after undergoing cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). A randomized clinical trial (RCT) was conducted with patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) to determine whether receiving a course of CBT affects pessimistic future thinking using a future thinking task.MethodsThirty-one patients with MDD were randomly assigned to either CBT (n = 16) or a talking control (TC) (n = 15) for a 16-week intervention. The main outcomes were the change in response time (RT) and the ratio of the responses for positive valence, measured by the future thinking task. Secondary outcomes included the GRID-Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II), the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS), and the word fluency test (WFT).ResultsRegarding the main outcomes, the CBT group showed reduced RT for the positive valence (within-group Cohen’s d = 0.7, p = 0.012) and negative valence (within-group Cohen’s d = 0.6, p = 0.03) in the distant future condition. The ratio of positive valence responses in both groups for all temporal conditions except for the distant past condition increased within group (distant future: CBT: Cohen’s d = 0.5, p = 0.04; TC: Cohen’s d = 0.8, p = 0.008; near future: CBT: Cohen’s d = 1.0, p < 0.001; TC: Cohen’s d = 1.1, p = 0.001; near past: CBT: Cohen’s d = 0.8, p = 0.005; TC: Cohen’s d = 1.0, p = 0.002). As for secondary outcomes, the CBT group showed greater improvement than the TC group regarding the need for social approval as measured by the DAS (p = 0.012).ConclusionPatients with MDD who received CBT showed a reduced RT for the positive and negative valence in the distant future condition. RT in the future thinking task for depressed patients may be a potential objective measure for the CBT treatment process. Because the present RCT is positioned as a pilot RCT, a confirmatory trial with a larger number of patients is warranted to elucidate the CBT treatment process that influences future thinking.Clinical trial registrationhttps://center6.umin.ac.jp/cgi-open-bin/icdr_e/ctr_view.cgi?recptno=R000021028, identifier UMIN000018155

Microsoft Excelにおける2次元フーリエ変換を用いた画像処理法の構築

Microsoft Excelを用いて2次元高速フーリエ変換を行い,空間周波数領域で画像処理する方法の構築を目的とした.検討には,処理対象画像として胸部骨シンチグラム像を,解析アプリケーションソフトにはMicrosoft Excel 2007とImage Jをそれぞれ用いた.なお,Microsoft Excelでの高速フーリエ変換は,処理時間を短縮するためマクロを構築した.その結果,Microsoft Excelでの処理画像は,核医学のデータ処理専用装置のそれとの間に殆ど差が認められなかった.これにより,我々が構築したMicrosoft Excelを用いた画像処理法は,十分に使用可能なことが証明された

骨梁の画像解析における数理形態フィルタの適用性の検討

骨粗鬆症の診断,予防,そして治療の導入には骨強度の計測が重要である.現在,骨強度の推定法のひとつとして,骨X線写真に写る骨梁像から画像処理による骨梁の構造解析を行い,骨梁の特徴量を求める手法が,種々試みられている.今回我々は,骨梁の特徴量として,骨梁の太さ,長さ,骨梁の面積,骨梁の本数を求める構造解析において,画像処理の過程で,画像の雑音を除去して図形パターンの特徴を2値化画像として抽出する数理形態フィルタの適用が有効であるか否かについて検討した.その結果,骨梁の2次元画像解析では,数理形態フィルタを適用することによって,雑音が除去され,骨梁の特徴が強調された画像を得ることが可能であった.また,特に骨梁の太さの解析では,Opening処理を行うことによって,踵骨骨密度との相関関係が改善されることがわかった

頭部SPECTにおけるステップと連続回転データ収集法の検討 : デジタルファントムによる検討

核医学検査における頭部SPECT検査を想定したステップ回転収集法と連続回転収集法による断層像のサンプリング角度の影響について，デジタルファントムを作成してシミュレーション解析による検討を行った．SPECTの連続回転収集法は，ステップ回転収集法のように検出器移動時の非データ収集というタイムロスが発生しない特徴があるが，標本化定理よりも大きなサンプリング角度を設定すると接線方向への画像歪が増加することが確認された．しかし，標本化定理に基づいたサンプリング角度を採用した場合は，連続回転収集法とステップ回転収集法によるSPECT像の画質がほぼ同等であることから，原理的に感度特性に優れた連続回転収集法を選択する方が良好な結果が得られると考えられた

TriAnnot: A Versatile and High Performance Pipeline for the Automated Annotation of Plant Genomes

In support of the international effort to obtain a reference sequence of the bread wheat genome and to provide plant communities dealing with large and complex genomes with a versatile, easy-to-use online automated tool for annotation, we have developed the TriAnnot pipeline. Its modular architecture allows for the annotation and masking of transposable elements, the structural, and functional annotation of protein-coding genes with an evidence-based quality indexing, and the identification of conserved non-coding sequences and molecular markers. The TriAnnot pipeline is parallelized on a 712 CPU computing cluster that can run a 1-Gb sequence annotation in less than 5 days. It is accessible through a web interface for small scale analyses or through a server for large scale annotations. The performance of TriAnnot was evaluated in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and general fitness using curated reference sequence sets from rice and wheat. In less than 8 h, TriAnnot was able to predict more than 83% of the 3,748 CDS from rice chromosome 1 with a fitness of 67.4%. On a set of 12 reference Mb-sized contigs from wheat chromosome 3B, TriAnnot predicted and annotated 93.3% of the genes among which 54% were perfectly identified in accordance with the reference annotation. It also allowed the curation of 12 genes based on new biological evidences, increasing the percentage of perfect gene prediction to 63%. TriAnnot systematically showed a higher fitness than other annotation pipelines that are not improved for wheat. As it is easily adaptable to the annotation of other plant genomes, TriAnnot should become a useful resource for the annotation of large and complex genomes in the future

運動パターンの違いがMR画像に及ぼす影響 : Radial Scanにおける検討

呼吸や血管の拍動などの周期的な動きがある被検体をMRI撮像する場合，画像再構成におけるk-スペースへのデータ充填法にRadial充填を使用すると動きによるボケ（モーションアーチファクト）を減少させることができる．本研究では，運動ファントムを使用してRadial充填の画像のアーチファクト低減効果を確認するとともに，Radial充填における動きの大きさや運動パターンの違いによるアーチファクトの出現特性について検証した．運動幅としては7㎜を超えると像のボケが大きくなり，アーチファクト低減効果は少ないと考えられた．また運動幅が大きい場合，運動距離が同じであっても運動周期に静止周期を含む場合では，ボケ発生の特性が異なることが確認できた．運動ファントムでモーションアーチファクトの検証実験を行う場合には，運動の大きさだけでなく対象の運動パターンを考慮して，実験を行わなければ，臨床上で現れる特性を再現できない可能性があるため注意が必要である