Production Capacity Change in Industrial Sectors of Hachinohe City due to the 2011 Tohoku Tsunami

In this study, production capacity change was assessed for an inundation area due to the 2011 Tohoku tsunami. The study area was the coastal area of Hachinohe city, which was damaged and inundated by the earthquake and tsunami. Data for the activities of 10 industrial sectors were assembled from published information, newspaper articles, and public announcements. The results showed that the estimated amount of economic damage was approximately 101.9 billion yen because of the production capacity change in the industrial sectors of the area due to the earthquake and tsunami. The estimated amount was equivalent to approximately 84 % of the amount of the stock damage in the city. Time-series of production capacity rate in tsunami inundated area showed differences and showed slower recovery of production capacity rate from that of the earthquake affected area

Pathological Study of the Pituitary-adrenal System in the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats (SHR) - With Special Reference to the Corticotrophs by Immunohistochemical and Morphometrical Technique-

The pituitary gland, especially the corticotrophs, of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) at 4 weeks (prehypertensive stage) and 10 weeks of age (early hypertensive stage) was examined immunohistochemically and morphometrically. The corticotrophs (ACTH positive stained cells) were found sparsely in the anterior lobe and a few cells were observed in the area adjacent to the intermediate lobe. The corticotrophs appeared small and stellate in shape and extended their cytoplasm to the neighboring sinusoid. The total area and number of the corticotrophs in SHR was significantly greater than that in WKY at 4 weeks of age. Although the total number of corticotrophs in SHR at 10 weeks was also greater, the total area of these cells was not different from that of WKY. The average width of the zona fasciculata and reticularis in SHR was significantly greater than that of WKY at 4 weeks. These result suggest that there was increased activity of the pituitary-adrenal system in SHR just before their spontaneously developing hypertension

Surgical management of a giant atrial septal aneurysm

We experienced a very rare case of surgical management of a giant atrial septal aneurysm. It is an interesting case and is supported by preoperative, intraoperative, and pathology images

Seasonal Change of Lake Seduments with Water Movements and Climatic Changes in the North Basin of Lake Biwa

金沢大学大学院自然科学研究科Lake Biwa Environmantal Research InstitutePromoting Environmental Pesearch in Pan-Japan Sea Area : Young Researchers\u27 Network, Schedule: March 8-10,2006,Kanazawa Excel Hotel Tokyu, Japan, Organized by: Kanazawa University 21st-Century COE Program, Environmental Monitoring and Prediction of Long- & Short- Term Dynamics of Pan-Japan Sea Area ; IICRC(Ishikawa International Cooperation Research Centre), Sponsors : Japan Sea Research ; UNU-IAS(United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies)+Ishikawa Prefecture Government ; City of Kanazaw

Prediction of dinucleotide-specific RNA-binding sites in proteins

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Regulation of gene expression, protein synthesis, replication and assembly of many viruses involve RNA–protein interactions. Although some successful computational tools have been reported to recognize RNA binding sites in proteins, the problem of specificity remains poorly investigated. After the nucleotide base composition, the dinucleotide is the smallest unit of RNA sequence information and many RNA-binding proteins simply bind to regions enriched in one dinucleotide. Interaction preferences of protein subsequences and dinucleotides can be inferred from protein-RNA complex structures, enabling a training-based prediction approach.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We analyzed basic statistics of amino acid-dinucleotide contacts in protein-RNA complexes and found their pairing preferences could be identified. Using a standard approach to represent protein subsequences by their evolutionary profile, we trained neural networks to predict multiclass target vectors corresponding to 16 possible contacting dinucleotide subsequences. In the cross-validation experiments, the accuracies of the optimum network, measured as areas under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) graphs, were in the range of 65-80%.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Dinucleotide-specific contact predictions have also been extended to the prediction of interacting protein and RNA fragment pairs, which shows the applicability of this method to predict targets of RNA-binding proteins. A web server predicting the 16-dimensional contact probability matrix directly from a user-defined protein sequence was implemented and made available at: <url>http://tardis.nibio.go.jp/netasa/srcpred</url>.</p

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