460 research outputs found
データ同化手法を用いた多種生体内データの統合による生体内システム再構築の研究
京都大学0048新制・課程博士博士(情報学)甲第18699号情博第549号新制||情||97(附属図書館)31632京都大学大学院情報学研究科知能情報学専攻(主査)教授 阿久津 達也, 教授 鹿島 久嗣, 教授 石井 信学位規則第4条第1項該当Doctor of InformaticsKyoto UniversityDFA
Two different features of discharge of equatorial upper ocean heat content related to El Nino events
Adult hookworms (Necator spp.) collected from researchers working with wild western lowland gorillas
Background: In general, studies on the diversity of strongylid nematodes in endangered host species are complicated as material obtained by non-invasive sampling methods has limited value for generic and species identification. While egg morphology barely allows assignment to family, the morphology of cultivated infective third stage larvae provides a better resolution at the generic level but cannot be used for exact species identification. Morphology-based taxonomic approaches greatly depend on the examination of adult worms that are usually not available. Methods: Hookworm parasites in two European researchers, who participated in gorilla research in the Central African Republic, were expelled after anthelmintic treatment to the faeces, collected and morphologically examined. A male worm discharged naturally from a wild bonobo (Pan paniscus) in Congo was also examined for comparison. Results: Two species of Necator were identified in researchers' faecal material: Necator americanus (Stiles, 1902) and N. gorillae Noda & Yamada, 1964; the latter species differed in having a smaller body, smaller buccal cavity and shorter spicules with spade-shaped membranes situated distally. Males of N. gorillae also possessed unusual cuticular thickenings on the dorsal side of the prebursal region of the body. These characters, shared with the male worm from the bonobo, correspond well to the description of N. gorillae described from gorillas in Congo. Conclusions: Based on the morphology of the hookworms recovered in this study and previous molecular analyses of larvae developed from both humans and western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) from this locality, we conclude that the researchers became infected with gorilla hookworms during their stay in the field. This is the first report of infection with a Necator species other than N. americanus in humans
Expansion of retinal nerve fiber bundle narrowing in glaucoma: An adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopy study
Purpose: To investigate longitudinal changes in the retinal nerve fiber bundle in eyes with primary open angle glaucoma using adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopy. Methods: A prospective observational case series. Fourteen eyes from 12 patients with primary open angle glaucoma that exhibited retinal nerve fiber layer defects on fundus photography were imaged with adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopy over time. Results: The expansion of retinal nerve fiber bundle narrowing was observed on adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopy in 8 eyes (57.1%) over a period of 1.44 ± 0.42 years. Retinal nerve fiber bundle narrowing expanded horizontally in 2 eyes and vertically in 6 eyes. In 3 eyes, changes in the retinal nerve fiber layer were only detectable on adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopy images. Conclusions and Importance: The expansion of retinal nerve fiber bundle narrowing was observed using adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopy. Accordingly, this tool may be a useful tool for detecting glaucoma-related changes in retinal nerve fibers in a short time
Adaptive training of vibration-based anomaly detector for wind turbine condition monitoring
Adaptive training of a vibration-based anomaly detector for wind turbine condition monitoring system (CMS) is carried out to achieve high-performance detection from the early stages of monitoring. Machine learning-based wind turbine CMSs are required to collect large-scale data to yield reli-able predictions. Existing studies in this area have postulated that both data for training a monitoring system and those during the operation of the system are obtained from identical devices. In addition, constant monitoring of data is desirable, but in practice, the data can be observed periodically (e.g., several tens of seconds of data are observed every two hours). In this case, collecting sufficient data is time consuming, making it difficult to conduct accurate predictions at the early stage of the CMS operation. To address this problem, a small amount of vibration data observed at a target wind turbine is utilized to adapt the anomaly detector that is trained on relatively large-scale vibration signals obtained from other wind turbines. In the present study, maximum a posteriori (MAP) adaptation is applied to a Gaussian mixture model (GMM)-based anomaly detector. Experimental comparisons using vibration data from the gearbox in the ex- perimental environment and those used in the wind turbine demonstrated that MAP-based GMM adaptation yielded an improvement in anomaly detection accuracy even when only a small amount of data is observed at the target gearbox
Clarithromycin expands CD11b+Gr-1+ MDSC-like cells
Macrolides are used to treat various inflammatory diseases owing to their immunomodulatory properties; however, little is known about their precise mechanism of action. In this study, we investigated the functional significance of the expansion of myeloid-derived suppressor cell (MDSC)-like CD11b+Gr-1+ cells in response to the macrolide antibiotic clarithromycin (CAM) in mouse models of shock and post-influenza pneumococcal pneumonia as well as in humans. Intraperitoneal administration of CAM markedly expanded splenic and lung CD11b+Gr-1+ cell populations in naïve mice. Notably, CAM pretreatment enhanced survival in a mouse model of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced shock. In addition, adoptive transfer of CAM-treated CD11b+Gr-1+ cells protected mice against LPS-induced lethality via increased IL-10 expression. CAM also improved survival in post-influenza, CAM-resistant pneumococcal pneumonia, with improved lung pathology as well as decreased interferon (IFN)-γ and increased IL-10 levels. Adoptive transfer of CAM-treated CD11b+Gr-1+ cells protected mice from post-influenza pneumococcal pneumonia. Further analysis revealed that the CAM-induced CD11b+Gr-1+ cell expansion was dependent on STAT3-mediated Bv8 production and may be facilitated by the presence of gut commensal microbiota. Lastly, an analysis of peripheral blood obtained from healthy volunteers following oral CAM administration showed a trend toward the expansion of human MDSC-like cells (Lineage−HLA-DR−CD11b+CD33+) with increased arginase 1 mRNA expression. Thus, CAM promoted the expansion of a unique population of immunosuppressive CD11b+Gr-1+ cells essential for the immunomodulatory properties of macrolides
Metagenomic analysis of bacterial species in tongue microbiome of current and never smokers
Cigarette smoking affects the oral microbiome, which is related to various systemic diseases. While studies that investigated the relationship between smoking and the oral microbiome by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing have been performed, investigations involving metagenomic sequences are rare. We investigated the bacterial species composition in the tongue microbiome, as well as single-nucleotide variant (SNV) profiles and gene content of these species, in never and current smokers by utilizing metagenomic sequences. Among 234 never smokers and 52 current smokers, beta diversity, as assessed by weighted UniFrac measure, differed between never and current smokers (pseudo-F = 8.44, R² = 0.028, p = 0.001). Among the 26 species that had sufficient coverage, the SNV profiles of Actinomyces graevenitzii, Megasphaera micronuciformis, Rothia mucilaginosa, Veillonella dispar, and one Veillonella sp. were significantly different between never and current smokers. Analysis of gene and pathway content revealed that genes related to the lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis pathway in Veillonella dispar were present more frequently in current smokers. We found that species-level tongue microbiome differed between never and current smokers, and 5 species from never and current smokers likely harbor different strains, as suggested by the difference in SNV frequency
Dry pleurisy complicating solitary pulmonary nodules caused by Mycobacterium avium: a case report
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