The relationship between histochemical enzyme activities of brain tumors and clinical features of the patients

Human brain turnors removed from 126 patients were histochemically examined and following results were obtained. 1. In general, alkaline phosphatase activity is decreased in poorly differentiated gliomas, but is not related to the tumor cell infiltration. 2. All the cases of alkaline phosphatase negative gliomas have poor reconvalescent course and most of the positive cases show good reconvalescence. 3. Alkaline phosphatase, leucine aminopeptidase and acid phosphatase activities are remarkable in fibroblastic meningioma, moderate or feeble in meningocytic meningioma, and negative in malignant meningioma. 4. The activities of alkaline phosphatase, &#946;-esterase, leucine aminopeptidase and acid phosphatase are decreased in most of meningocytic meningiomas when the duration of symptoms and signs is short. 5. Succinic dehydrogenase, malic dehydrogenase, isocitric dehydrogenase and &#946;-glucuronidase are strongly reactive in malignant meningioma; from strong to moderate in meningocytic meningioma and from moderate to feeble in fibroblastic meningioma. 6. There is a slight increasing tendency of the activities of succinic dehydrogenase, malic dehydrogenase, isocitric dehydrogenase in fibroblastic meningioma and p·glucuronidase for a short duration of symtoms and signs. 7. In the case of acoustic neurinomas the higher the alkaline phosphatase activity, the longer is the duration of symptoms and signs.</p

Effect of increasing salinity on biogas production in waste landfills with leachate recirculation: A lab-scale model study

AbstractThe effects of salinity on anaerobic waste degradation and microbial communities were investigated, in order to propose an appropriate leachate recirculation process in a waste landfill in a tropical region. A salt concentration of 21mScm−1 of electrical conductivity (EC) did not affect waste degradation, but a salt concentration of 35mScm−1 of EC inhibited CH4 generation. A higher salt concentration of 80mScm−1 of EC inhibited not only CH4 and CO2 generation, but also degradation of organic compounds. The bacterial and archaeal community compositions were affected by high salinity. High salinity can exert selective pressure on bacterial communities, resulting in a change in bacterial community structure. Ammonium caused strong, dominant inhibition of biogas production in the salt concentration range of this study. Quality control, especially of ammonium levels, will be essential for the promotion of waste biodegradation in landfills with leachate recirculation

A Parallel Pipeline Convolution for Perspective Projection in Real-Time Volume Rendering

This paper describes a convolution with a systolic array structure for perspective projection in real-time volume graphics based on the shear-warp method. In the original method, the further the ray proceeds, the more voxels are required to calculate the convolution. The increase in required voxels makes it difficult to implement the method in a VLSI-oriented architecture. We implement a 3D convolution using three serial 1D convolutions along the X, Y, and Z axes, which reduces the number of calculation units from M3 to 3M, where the convolution is calculated for the M3 area. The number of pipelines for the rays is V2 for V3 voxel datasets. If the hardware of a single pipeline can calculate the V rays, then each of the implemented pipelines is assigned to V theoretical pipelines (for V2 rays). The number of hardware pipelines should be much smaller than V theoretical pipelines in actual implementation. We folded the theoretical pipelines and reduced them to a certain number of hardware pipelines. We examined the relation between the folding process and its necessary time delay. The architecture can generate an image of a 2563 voxel dataset (V=256) at 30Hz with four pipelines. In addition, the architecture can be extended easily for 5123 (V=512) and 10243 (V=1024) datasets, with 32 pipelines and 256 pipelines. Our architecture has processing scalability.Engineering and Applied Science

Use of Recombinant Endolysin to Improve Accuracy of Group B Streptococcus Tests

Group B Streptococcus (GBS) causes serious neonatal infection via vertical transmission. The prenatal GBS screening test is performed at the late stage of pregnancy to avoid risks of infection. In this test, enrichment culture is performed, followed by GBS identification. Selective medium is used for the enrichment; however, Enterococcus faecalis, which is a potential contaminant in swab samples, can interfere with the growth of GBS. Such bacterial contamination can lead to false-negative results. Endolysin, a bacteriophage-derived enzyme, degrades peptidoglycan in the bacterial cell wall; it is a promising antimicrobial agent for selectively eliminating specific bacterial genera/species. In this study, we used the recombinant endolysin EG-LYS, which is specific to E. faecalis; the endolysin potentially enriched GBS in the selective culture. First, in the false-negative model (coculture of GBS and E. faecalis, which disabled GBS detection in the subsequent GBS identification test), EG-LYS treatment at 0.1 mg/ml improved GBS detection. Next, we used 548 vaginal swabs to test the efficacy of EG-LYS treatment in improving GBS detection. EG-LYS treatment (0.1 mg/ml) increased the GBS-positive ratio to 17.9%, compared to 15.7% in the control (phosphate-buffered saline [PBS] treatment). In addition, there were an increased number of GBS colonies under EG-LYS treatment in some samples. The results were supported by the microbiota analysis of the enriched cultures. In conclusion, EG-LYS treatment of the enrichment culture potentially improves the accuracy of the prenatal GBS screening test

Amelogenin Stimulates Bone Sialoprotein (BSP) Expression Through Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 Response Element and Transforming Growth Factorâ β1 Activation Element in the Promoter of the BSP Gene

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141420/1/jper1482.pd

Measurement of the Physical Properties during Laparoscopic Surgery Performed on Pigs by Using Forceps with Pressure Sensors

Objectives. Here we developed a unique training system, a patient specific virtual reality simulator, for laparoscopic renal surgery. To develop the simulator, it was important to first identify the physical properties of the organ. Methods. We recorded the force measured during laparoscopic surgery performed on pigs by using forceps with pressure sensors. Several sensors, including strain gauges, accelerometers, and a potentiometer, are attached to the forceps. Results. Throughout the experiment, we measured the reaction force in response to the forceps movement in real time. Conclusions. The experiment showed the possibility of digitizing these physical properties in humans as well

The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection

DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19疾患感受性遺伝子DOCK2の重症化機序を解明 --アジア最大のバイオレポジトリーでCOVID-19の治療標的を発見--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-10.Identifying the host genetic factors underlying severe COVID-19 is an emerging challenge. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 2, 393 cases of COVID-19 in a cohort of Japanese individuals collected during the initial waves of the pandemic, with 3, 289 unaffected controls. We identified a variant on chromosome 5 at 5q35 (rs60200309-A), close to the dedicator of cytokinesis 2 gene (DOCK2), which was associated with severe COVID-19 in patients less than 65 years of age. This risk allele was prevalent in East Asian individuals but rare in Europeans, highlighting the value of genome-wide association studies in non-European populations. RNA-sequencing analysis of 473 bulk peripheral blood samples identified decreased expression of DOCK2 associated with the risk allele in these younger patients. DOCK2 expression was suppressed in patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis (n = 61 individuals) identified cell-type-specific downregulation of DOCK2 and a COVID-19-specific decreasing effect of the risk allele on DOCK2 expression in non-classical monocytes. Immunohistochemistry of lung specimens from patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia showed suppressed DOCK2 expression. Moreover, inhibition of DOCK2 function with CPYPP increased the severity of pneumonia in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by weight loss, lung oedema, enhanced viral loads, impaired macrophage recruitment and dysregulated type I interferon responses. We conclude that DOCK2 has an important role in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of severe COVID-19, and could be further explored as a potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target