数種植物におけるアンモニウムイオン及び硝酸イオンの吸収速度の比較

Absorption rares of ammonium ion(NH4+) and nitrate ion(NO3-) for 24 hours were compared using two absorption solutions, which were a single salt solution of ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) and a complete nutrient solution containing NH4NO3. Test plants were Oryza sativa (Rice), Hordeum vulgare (Barley), Lactuca sativa (Lettuce), Cucumis sativus (Cucumber), Daucus carota (Carrot), Brassica pekinesis (Chinese cabbage), Spinacia oleracea (Spinach) and Raphanus sativus (Radish). From the absorption characteristics of NH4+ and NO3- between a single salt solution of NH4NO3 and a complete nutrient solution containing NH4NO3, the test plants were classified into goup 1(rice,barley and lettuce), which absorbed NH4+ more rapidly than NO3- in both absorption solutions, group 2(cucumber and carrot), which absorbed NH4+ slightly more than NO3- in the single salt solution of NH4NO3, the tendency of which was reversed in the complete nutrient solution containing NH4NO3, and goup 3(Chinese cabbage,spinach and radish), which absorbed NO3- clealy more than NH4+ in the complete nutrient solution, whereas the absorption of NH4+ or NO3- was almost equal in the single salt solution of NH4+NO3-. The above classisication of plants could be explained by the balance of a repressive or competitive characteristics of NH4+ absorption mainly as sociated with a capacity for absorption of calcium ion(Ca2+) and magnesium ion(Mg2+), and the relative root affinity to NO3- that can be evaluated by the relative absorption of NO3- to mono-phosphate ion(H2PO4-) in plant roots. The group 1 plants are the so-called acid tolerant plants, which appeared to be tolerant to NH4+, and showed a marked pH decreased during the 24 hours of the absorption experiments in those plants. By contrast, the group 3 plant seemed to prefer NO3- and divalent alkaline earth cations to the other nutrients in the complete nutrient solution containing NH4No3, and the pH decrease during each absorption experiment was small.硝酸アンモニウム2.5mMの単塩溶液（以下、硝安単塩溶液）及び2.5mMの硝酸アンモニウムを窒素源とする完全培地（以下、硝安完全培地）を吸収溶液とし、アンモニア態窒素及び硝酸態窒素について24時間の吸収実験を行った。実験材料はイネ、オオムギ、レタス、キュウリ、ニンジン、ハクサイ、ホウレンソウ、ダイコンであった。硝安単塩溶液及び硝安完全培地における両形態窒素の吸収特性から、試験植物は次のように分類できた。（1）イネ、オオムギ、レタス：何れの吸収溶液からでも、硝酸態窒素に比較して常にアンモニア態窒素を速やかに吸収する植物群、（2）キュウリ、ニンジン：硝安単塩溶液ではアンモニア態窒素を速やかに吸収するが、硝安完全培地ではこの傾向が逆転し、硝酸態窒素の吸収がやや速やかになる植物群、（3）ハクサイ、ホウレンソウ、ダイコン：硝安単塩溶液では両形態の窒素の吸収速度はほぼ等しいが、硝安完全培地では明らかに硝酸態窒素の吸収が速やかになる植物群。上記の分類は、それぞれの培地におけるアンモニア態窒素の吸収と拮抗する他のイオンの吸収特性、換言すれば、NO3-/NH4+吸収比、あるいは、Ca2+とMg2+の合計吸収速度、または、植物根の硝酸態窒素に対する相対的な根の親和性、つまり、NO3-/H2PO4-吸収比によって説明できた。すなわち、第1群は1価陽イオン、特に、アンモニウムイオンに対する根の親和性は大きいが硝酸態窒素に対する根の親和性は小さく、また、耐酸性、耐アンモニア性の大きい植物と考えられ、24時間の吸収時間中の培地pHの低下は著しかった。これに対して、第3群は硝安完全培地中では硝酸態窒素、2価陽イオンに対する根の親和性の大きい植物であり、また第2群は、アンモニア態及び硝酸態窒素、ならびに、2価陽イオンに対する根の親和性などが第1群と第3群の中間の植物であった

Modulation effects of the intact motor skills on the relationship between social skills and motion perceptions in children with autism spectrum disorder : A pilot study

Background: An individual with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has social skill, motor skill, and motion perception deficits. However, the relationship among them was not clarified. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of motor skills on social skills and motion perception.Methods: Five typically developed children and fourteen children with ASD participated in our study. The N200 component, a brain activity indicating motion perception, was induced in mid-temporal (MT/V5) brain area by watching a random dot kine-matograph, and was recorded using a scalp electroencephalogram. Furthermore, the social responsiveness scale (SRS) indicating the social skill deficit, the developmental coordination disorder questionnaire (DCDQ) estimating the developmental coordination disorder (DCD), and the movement assessment battery for children second edition (MABC-2) indicating motor skills were recorded in the children with ASD. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the modulation effects of motor skills on the relationship between social skills and motion perception. The dependent variable was the N200 latency, and the inde-pendent variables were SRS, MABC-2, and combined MABC-2 and SRS.Results: The N200 latency was more delayed in children with ASD relative that in typically developed children. Intact balance ability modulated the relationship between social skills and N200 latency in children with ASD. Within the high balance ability, when the social skills worsened, the N200 latency was shortened. Conclusions: This is the first report that intact motor skills could modulate the relationship between social skills and motion perception.(c) 2022 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Peer reviewe

RNA-seq-based evaluation of bicolor tepal pigmentation in Asiatic hybrid lilies (Lilium spp.)

Background: Color patterns in angiosperm flowers are produced by spatially and temporally restricted deposition of pigments. Identifying the mechanisms responsible for restricted pigment deposition is a topic of broad interest. Some dicots species develop bicolor petals, which are often caused by the post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) of chalcone synthase (CHS) genes. An Asiatic hybrid lily (Lilium spp.) cultivar Lollypop develops bicolor tepals with pigmented tips and white bases. Here, we analyzed the global transcription of pigmented and non-pigmented tepal parts from Lollypop, to determine the main transcriptomic differences. Results: De novo assembly of RNA-seq data yielded 49,239 contigs (39,426 unigenes), which included a variety of novel transcripts, such as those involved in flavonoid-glycosylation and sequestration and in regulation of anthocyanin biosynthesis. Additionally, 1258 of the unigenes exhibited significantly differential expression between the tepal parts (false discovery rates 2-fold higher in the pigmented parts. Thus, LhMYB12 should be involved in the transcriptional regulation of the biosynthesis genes in bicolor tepals. Other factors that potentially suppress or enhance the expression of anthocyanin biosynthesis genes, including a WD40 gene, were identified, and their involvement in bicolor development is discussed. Conclusions: Our results indicate that the bicolor trait of Lollypop tepals is caused by the transcriptional regulation of anthocyanin biosynthesis genes and that the transcription profile of LhMYB12 provides a clue for elucidating the mechanisms of the trait. The tepal transcriptome constructed in this study will accelerate investigations of the genetic controls of anthocyanin color patterns, including the bicolor patterns, of Lilium spp

Adolescent Alcohol Use in Japan, 1996

We conducted the 1st nationwide survey on the use of alcohol by Japanese high school students. The survey design was a cross-sectional sampling survey. The targets of the survey were junior and senior high schools throughout Japan. Sample schools were selected by stratified cluster sampling. Self-administered anonymous questionnaires were sent to sample schools for all students to fill out. Among sampled schools, 65.6% and 67.0% of junior high schools and senior high schools responded, respectively. A total of 117,325 students responded and 115,814 questionnaires were subjected to analysis. The current drinking rate was defined as the percentage of students who had drank alcohol at least 1 day within the 30 day period before answering the questionnaire, starting at 26.0% for boys and 22.2% for girls in the 1st grade of junior high and increasing to 54.9% for boys and 43.4% for girls in the 3rd grade of senior high school. The experience rate of alcohol drinking on ceremonial occasions was much higher. The experience rates of drinking with peers, at parties, in bars and drinking alone increased with age. The cumulative experience rate of drinking with peers was dramatically increased in senior high school students. The most popular alcohol beverage was beer among boys, and sweet fruit-flavored liquor among girls. The most prevalent sources of alcohol for student drinkers were convenience stores, bars, liquor stores and vending machines. The results showed that adolescent drinking in Japan is quite widespread; this suggests that education toward the prevention of drinking should start in primary school. Adults around junior and senior high school students should take adolescent drinking seriously

Measurement of Potential Drop Distribution by Scanning the Closely Coupled Probes Sensor for Sensitive NDE of Shallow Surface Cracks

Highly sensitive nondestructive evaluation of shallow surface cracks is realized through the distributions of d-c potential drop obtained by scanning the closely coupled four-point-probes sensor around the crack. A methodology is developed for evaluating the depth and length of a three-dimensional surface crack from the potential drop profiles measured across and along the crack, where the experimental result is compared with the corresponding prediction of finite element analysis. The highly sensitive characteristic of the measured profiles is also extended to the potential drop imaging for identifying the location of cracks in a clear pictorial form. It is verified that the method is a powerful tool for characterizing very small fatigue cracks (sub-millimeter depth) on the surface of metallic structures

Reduced Nogo-P3 in adults with developmental coordination disorder (DCD)

Nogo-N2 is associated with the premotor cognitive process that precedes motor response (e.g., conflict monitoring), whereas Nogo-P3 is related to the inhibition of the actual motor response. We examined the influence of motor clumsiness of developmental coordination disorder (DCD) on components of the event-related potential in a Go/Nogo task. Participants were healthy adults (N = 81) that were classified into control and DCD groups based on the Movement Assessment Battery for Children Second Edition. We manipulated the difficulty in stopping a response by varying the frequency of Nogo stimuli in a response task into rare (20%) and frequent (80%) conditions, and Nogo-N2 and Nogo-P3 were calculated from electroencephalograms (EEGs) during the Go/Nogo tasks. The commission error rate in the rare condition was significantly higher in the DCD group than in the control group, indicating that motor clumsiness decreases task performance. There were no differences in Nogo-N2 between DCD and control groups. However, Nogo-P3 in the rare condition was reduced in the DCD group compared to the control group. These results suggest that the influence of motor clumsiness is limited to the cognitive process after the initiation of the actual motor response.Peer reviewe

EGassembler: online bioinformatics service for large-scale processing, clustering and assembling ESTs and genomic DNA fragments

Expressed sequence tag (EST) sequencing has proven to be an economically feasible alternative for gene discovery in species lacking a draft genome sequence. Ongoing large-scale EST sequencing projects feel the need for bioinformatics tools to facilitate uniform EST handling. This brings about a renewed importance for a universal tool for processing and functional annotation of large sets of ESTs. EGassembler () is a web server, which provides an automated as well as a user-customized analysis tool for cleaning, repeat masking, vector trimming, organelle masking, clustering and assembling of ESTs and genomic fragments. The web server is publicly available and provides the community a unique all-in-one online application web service for large-scale ESTs and genomic DNA clustering and assembling. Running on a Sun Fire 15K supercomputer, a significantly large volume of data can be processed in a short period of time. The results can be used to functionally annotate genes, to facilitate splice alignment analysis, to link the transcripts to genetic and physical maps, design microarray chips, to perform transcriptome analysis and to map to KEGG metabolic pathways. The service provides an excellent bioinformatics tool to research groups in wet-lab as well as an all-in-one-tool for sequence handling to bioinformatics researchers

Resuscitation of Preterm Infants with Reduced Oxygen Results in Less Oxidative Stress than Resuscitation with 100% Oxygen

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of the level of inhaled oxygen during resuscitation on the levels of free radicals and anti-oxidative capacity in the heparinized venous blood of preterm infants. Forty four preterm infants <35 weeks of gestation with mild to moderate neonatal asphyxia were randomized into two groups. The first group of infants were resuscitated with 100% oxygen (100% O2 group), while in the other group (reduced O2 group), the oxygen concentration was titrated according to pulse oximeter readings. We measured total hydroperoxide (TH) and redox potential (RP) in the plasma within 60 min of birth. The integrated excessive oxygen (∑(FiO2-0.21) × Time(min)) was higher in the 100% O2 group than in the reduced O2 group (p<0.0001). TH was higher in the 100% O2 group than in the reduced O2 group (p<0.0001). RP was not different between the 100% O2 and reduced O2 groups (p = 0.399). RP/TH ratio was lower in the 100% O2 group than in the reduced O2 group (p<0.01). We conclude that in the resuscitation of preterm infants with mild to moderate asphyxia, oxidative stress can be reduced by lowering the inspired oxygen concentration using a pulse oximeter