女性テレワーカーを対象とした情報機器作業における負担に関する研究

名古屋市立大学博士 (芸術工学)doctoral thesi

Surgical Punctal Occlusion; Combined Lacrimal Canaliculi Cauterization and Punctal Suturing for Severe Dry Eye

Purpose: To evaluate the treatment outcome of surgical punctal occlusion with combined canaliculi ablation and punctal suturing in patients with severe dry eye. Methods: Eleven eyes of seven patients were diagnosed with severe dry eye with decreased lacrimal secretion and were refractory to treatment with various eye drops and/or had repeatedly experienced loss of punctal plugs, and continued to experience subjective symptoms received surgical punctal occlusion. In 20 puncta, lacrimal canaliculi ablation was performed along the entire length of the lacrimal canaliculus where a diathermy needle could be inserted. After resection of the annulus fibrosus in the peri-punctal area, tight cross-stitch suturing of the puncta was performed with 8-0 absorbent thread. Visual acuity, corneal staining score according to the area (A) and density (D) classification, and Schirmer tear test (STT); tear break up time (tBUT); and subjective symptoms assessed by the University of North Carolina (UNC) and Dry Eye Management Scale were compared before and one year after surgery. Results: Recanalization occurred in 1/20 puncta (5.0% at month 5) in 1/11 eyes. Student’s t-test showed significant improvement at one year compared with preoperative values for LogMAR value (P = 0.019), corneal staining score A (P = 0.00003) and D (P = 0.0003), STT (P = 0.004), and subjective symptoms (P = 0.015). No change was shown in tBUT and no serious adverse event occurred. Conclusion: This improved, minimally invasive surgical procedure has a low recanalization rate and achieves both objective and subjective improvements at one year. Keywords: Cauterization; Dry Eye; Lacrimal Canaliculi; Lacrimal Puncta; Punctal Occlusio

Low resting energy expenditure in middle-aged and elderly hemodialysis patients with poor nutritional status

Due to high resting energy expenditure (REE) in maintenance hemodialysis patients, an increase in energy intake is usually recommended to improve their nutritional status. However, some patients appear to have poor appetite and low energy intake. In such patients low energy metabolism is expected. We hypothesized that inmaintenance hemodialysis patients there are two types of the energy metabolism, high and low. This study was aimed at finding the energy metabolism in maintenance hemodialysis patients, especially in those with poor nutritional status. Subjects were hemodialysis out-patients (34 males and20 females, meanage 59.1±10.7y). REE was measured by an indirect calorimeter. Protein intake was obtained from normalized protein catabolic rate (nPCR), and physical activity level (PAL) was obtained by time study. Nutritional status assessed by serum albumin concentration was poor (3.7±0.2g/dL) in spite of the adequate protein intake (1.1±0.3g/kg per day). Only11%ofthesubjectshadappropriate serum albumin concentration. Mean REE was 24.6 kcal/kg per day which was lower than that of healthy Japanese (26.5kcal/kg per day). REE and PAL positively correlated with serum albumin concentration (plt0.01). The results suggest that maintenance hemodialysis patients with poor nutritional status may have low REE

Screening for resistance against Pseudomonas syringae in rice-FOX Arabidopsis lines identified a putative receptor-like cytoplasmic kinase gene that confers resistance to major bacterial and fungal pathogens in Arabidopsis and rice

Approximately 20 000 of the rice-FOX Arabidopsis transgenic lines, which overexpress 13 000 rice full-length cDNAs at random in Arabidopsis, were screened for bacterial disease resistance by dip inoculation with Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 (Pst DC3000). The identities of the overexpressed genes were determined in 72 lines that showed consistent resistance after three independent screens. Pst DC3000 resistance was verified for 19 genes by characterizing other independent Arabidopsis lines for the same genes in the original rice-FOX hunting population or obtained by reintroducing the genes into ecotype Columbia by floral dip transformation. Thirteen lines of these 72 selections were also resistant to the fungal pathogen Colletotrichum higginsianum. Eight genes that conferred resistance to Pst DC3000 in Arabidopsis have been introduced into rice for overexpression, and transformants were evaluated for resistance to the rice bacterial pathogen, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. One of the transgenic rice lines was highly resistant to Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. Interestingly, this line also showed remarkably high resistance to Magnaporthe grisea, the fungal pathogen causing rice blast, which is the most devastating rice disease in many countries. The causal rice gene, encoding a putative receptor-like cytoplasmic kinase, was therefore designated as BROAD-SPECTRUM RESISTANCE 1. Our results demonstrate the utility of the rice-FOX Arabidopsis lines as a tool for the identification of genes involved in plant defence and suggest the presence of a defence mechanism common between monocots and dicots