Ultrastructural Localization of Digitonin-Cholesterol Complex in the Adrenal Cortex

The ultrastructural localization of cholesterol was studied by digitonin reaction which has been used to identify the free cholesterol for electron microscopy. Digitonin-cholesterol complex revealed multi-layered cylindrical electron dense lamellae and concentric whorled lamellae. They were found in the cytoplasm closely attached to the plasma membrane in adrenocortical cells, and were also present in extracellular spaces around capillaries in the adrenal cortex. Some of them were present in lipid vacuoles and some of them are attached to the outer membrane of mitochondria. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the free cholesterol is the precursor of steroid hormone in the adrenal cortex. The fact that some mitochondria were surrounded by digitonin-cholesterol complex and these complexes had a close relation with lipid vacuoles, suggested to us that cholesterol might be stored in lipid vacuoles and they might move into mitochondria for the hydroxylation and the side chain cleaving to form pregnenolone in the steroid pathway

Development of Safety Measures of Bicycle Trafflc by Observation wffh Deep-Leamlng, Drive Recorder Data, Probe Blcycle wlth LIDAR, and Connected Simulators

This research outlines the development of evaluating safety measures for bicycle traffic using state-of-the-art technology, which was started since 2020 as a four-year project. The project is funded by the Commission on Advanced Road Technology in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism(MLIT). While Japan has a high bicycle modal share of 12% (2010), bicycle-related fatalities are relatively high among other countries in the IRTAD database (2019). Under these circumstances, since 2007, various measures for bicycle traffic measures have been implemented to improve the safe bicycle traffic environment, including the revision of the Road Traffic Act and the formulation of a national plan to promote bicycle use. However, serious accidents involving bicycles are remained in some specific cases. According to the government's traffic accident analysis results (2019), right-hook crash at signalized intersections are one of the most serious types of collision involving bicycles, along with accidents at unsignalized intersections involving vehicles turning left, rear-end collisions, and single vehicle accidents due to off-road deviation. In particular, proactive safety measures are required at signalized intersections along arterial roads, where electric personal mobility vehicles traveling at speeds of up to 20 km/h are expected to share with bicycles in the future. In order to evaluate safety measures for bicycle-vehicle crashes, this project set the following goals. 1) Identify factors influencing near-miss incidents and collisions through analysis of drive recorder data and accident statistical data. 2) Detailed analysis of traffic conditions from the cyclist's perspective using a probe bicycle equipped with a LiDAR sensor. 3) Development of an experimental environment using a connected simulator for evaluation of cooperative driving behavior. 4) Clarification of experimental conditions to evaluate different scenarios and conditions with and without intervention. 5) Proposal of effective interventions to improve crash cases based on experiments

Suspected Case of Combined Immunodeficiency Autopsy Case

An autopsy case of combined immunodeficiency of 3 year 11 months old boy is presented. He had stomatitis, chronic protracted diarrhea, fever, growth retardation which are characteristic symptomes in severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). IgA was low and IgG and IgM decreased towards the terminal stage. SK-SD skin reaction was negative and DNCB sensitized skin reaction was negative indicating the lack of delayed type of hypersensitivity. Compared to the typical case of primary immunodeficiency, the degree of abnormality of humoral and cellular immune functions is milder in this case. Autopsy revealed the remaining lymph nodes and histologically formation of lymphoid follicles was not distinct and lymphocyte depletion in thymic-dependent area was seen. These lesions varied in degrees depending on the location within the lymph nodes. Thymus weighed 2.2g and had Hassal\u27s corpuscles with calcification. These findings are somewhat different from the typical case of primary immunodeficiency. We consider this case as suspected case or borderline case of combined immunodeficiency by correlation of clinical and histopathological aspect. Generalized cytomegalic inclusion disease is this direct cause of death

Monitoring Observations of the Jupiter-Family Comet 17P/Holmes during 2014 Perihelion Passage

We performed a monitoring observation of a Jupiter-Family comet, 17P/Holmes, during its 2014 perihelion passage to investigate its secular change in activity. The comet has drawn the attention of astronomers since its historic outburst in 2007, and this occasion was its first perihelion passage since then. We analyzed the obtained data using aperture photometry package and derived the Afrho parameter, a proxy for the dust production rate. We found that Afrho showed asymmetric properties with respect to the perihelion passage: it increased moderately from 100 cm at the heliocentric distance r_h=2.6-3.1 AU to a maximal value of 185 cm at r_h = 2.2 AU (near the perihelion) during the inbound orbit, while dropping rapidly to 35 cm at r_h = 3.2 AU during the outbound orbit. We applied a model for characterizing dust production rates as a function of r_h and found that the fractional active area of the cometary nucleus had dropped from 20%-40% in 2008-2011 (around the aphelion) to 0.1%-0.3% in 2014-2015 (around the perihelion). This result suggests that a dust mantle would have developed rapidly in only one orbital revolution around the sun. Although a minor eruption was observed on UT 2015 January 26 at r_h = 3.0 AU, the areas excavated by the 2007 outburst would be covered with a layer of dust (<~ 10 cm depth) which would be enough to insulate the subsurface ice and to keep the nucleus in a state of low activity.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, ApJ accepted on December 29, 201

A Method for Similarity Search of Genomic Positional Expression Using CAGE

With the advancement of genome research, it is becoming clear that genes are not distributed on the genome in random order. Clusters of genes distributed at localized genome positions have been reported in several eukaryotes. Various correlations have been observed between the expressions of genes in adjacent or nearby positions along the chromosomes depending on tissue type and developmental stage. Moreover, in several cases, their transcripts, which control epigenetic transcription via processes such as transcriptional interference and genomic imprinting, occur in clusters. It is reasonable that genomic regions that have similar mechanisms show similar expression patterns and that the characteristics of expression in the same genomic regions differ depending on tissue type and developmental stage. In this study, we analyzed gene expression patterns using the cap analysis gene expression (CAGE) method for exploring systematic views of the mouse transcriptome. Counting the number of mapped CAGE tags for fixed-length regions allowed us to determine genomic expression levels. These expression levels were normalized, quantified, and converted into four types of descriptors, allowing the expression patterns along the genome to be represented by character strings. We analyzed them using dynamic programming in the same manner as for sequence analysis. We have developed a novel algorithm that provides a novel view of the genome from the perspective of genomic positional expression. In a similarity search of expression patterns across chromosomes and tissues, we found regions that had clusters of genes that showed expression patterns similar to each other depending on tissue type. Our results suggest the possibility that the regions that have sense–antisense transcription show similar expression patterns between forward and reverse strands

Hidrotic Ectodermal Dysplasia with Ichthyosiform Erythroderma-like Skin Changes -An Autopsy Case-

We present an autopsy case of 30-day-old female infant who had hidrotic ectodermal dyplasia with ichthyosiform erythroderma-like skin changes and low value of migration test of neutrophils. At the time of birth she had the abscence of hairs, eyelashes, eyebrows, dystrophic nails, erythema and hyperkeratosis with scales on whole body. Autopsy revealed the presence of eccrine glands and hyperkeratosis of the epidermis, thymic involution and papillary proliferation of squamous epithelium in esophagus and vagina. Aspiration pneumonia is the immediate cause of her death. The co-existence of ectodermal dysplasia and ichthyosiform-skin changes in this case provide an opportunity to study the relationship between congenital dysplasia and ichthyosiform erythroderma in their development. It might also be possible to correlate that relationship on common ground of immunological insufficiency

ユビサキ ノ チカラ ハッキ ニトモナウ ヒフ セッショク メンセキ ノ ヘンカ

"指先で発揮される力と, その力によって変化する物体との接触面積との関係を調べることにより, 指先の皮膚特性を明らかにし, かつ指先の接触面積情報が摘み力の制御機構に利用されている可能性について検討した。結果は以下に示すとおりである。(1)指先の力発揮に伴い, 接触面積は指数関数的な変化を示し, 性差, 年齢差はみられなかった。(2)各個人の最大接触面積に対する相対接触面積と力発揮との関係では, ほとんどすべての被検者が, ほぼ類似した指数関数的変化曲線を示した。(3)同一個人の5指間の相対接触面積と力発揮との関係では, きわめて類似した指数関数的変化曲線を示し, 特に拇指と人差指では, かなり一致したものであった。(4)これらの結果は, 摘み力の制御に接触面積情報が利用されている可能性を示唆するものであり, 個体間では10%&acd;20%の誤差はあるが, 相対接触面積に基づく力のスケールが存在する可能性が推察された。このスケールは, 個人内においては, ただひとつであり, どの指も同じスケールを利用している可能性が示唆された。