Surface Microtopography of Pyrophyllite: Photograph Collection

The surface microtopographies of pyrophyllite crystals from various localities has been investigated by using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with the Au-decoration technique. The pyrophyllite specimens investigated were collected from the southern Urals (Russia), California (USA), the north part of Vietnam, the southwestern part of Korean Peninsula and southwest Japan. Gold-decoration successfully revealed growth steps (～1 nm in height) on the crystal surfaces. Pyrophyllite specimens from schistose and massive ores exhibit characteristically parallel growth patterns with narrow step separation, whereas polygonal spiral growth patterns with wider step separation are observed on crystal surfaces of pyrophyllite in veins. The morphology of pyrophyllite crystals seems to reflect the growth processes under different conditions (temperature and/or supersaturation), e.g., parallel steps on the irregular particles, on the other hand, polygonal spiral steps on polygonal plates

Surface Microtopographs of Clay Minerals

By means of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and the gold-decoration technique, the surface microtopography of day minerals collected from various mode of occurrence were investigated. The clay minerals investigated exclusively exhibit many kinds of patterns on their crystal surfaces, such as growth, cleavage, aggregation patterns and so on

Spherulitic Textures Found in Pyrophyllite Ore Deposits, Shobara District, Southwest Japan: Photograph Collection

Spherulitic textures are commonly found in pyrophyllite ore deposits in Shobara district, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. Color photographs of the mode of occurrence, hand specimens and characteristic micro-textures are presented. The spherulitic textures occur mainly in the upper most horizon of the ore deposits, i.e., in pyrophyllite zone and weakly altered host rhyolitic rocks. The size of the spherulites is from few millimeters to several centimeters in diameter and the spherulites with several millimeters diameter is the most predominant. Color of the spherulites is also variable such as grey, dark blue, dark purple and greenish color. Under the microscope, the textures can be divided into two types, one is "radiation" and the other is "aggregation" types, respectively. The aggregation type is further subdivided into a) with fine grain rim and b) with coarse grain rim. The constituent minerals of the spherulite are feldspar, quartz, pyrophyllite, sericite, diaspore, hematite and goethite

JPN Guidelines for the management of acute pancreatitis: severity assessment of acute pancreatitis

This article addresses the criteria for severity assessment and the severity scoring system of the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Japan; now the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare (the JPN score). It also presents data comparing the JPN score with the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score and the Ranson score, which are the major measuring scales used in the United States and Europe. The goal of investigating these scoring systems is the achievement of earlier diagnosis and more appropriate and successful treatment of severe or moderate acute pancreatitis, which has a high mortality rate. This article makes the following recommendations in terms of assessing the severity of acute pancreatitis

Involvement of SIK3 in Glucose and Lipid Homeostasis in Mice

Salt-inducible kinase 3 (SIK3), an AMP-activated protein kinase-related kinase, is induced in the murine liver after the consumption of a diet rich in fat, sucrose, and cholesterol. To examine whether SIK3 can modulate glucose and lipid metabolism in the liver, we analyzed phenotypes of SIK3-deficent mice. Sik3−/− mice have a malnourished the phenotype (i.e., lipodystrophy, hypolipidemia, hypoglycemia, and hyper-insulin sensitivity) accompanied by cholestasis and cholelithiasis. The hypoglycemic and hyper-insulin-sensitive phenotypes may be due to reduced energy storage, which is represented by the low expression levels of mRNA for components of the fatty acid synthesis pathways in the liver. The biliary disorders in Sik3−/− mice are associated with the dysregulation of gene expression programs that respond to nutritional stresses and are probably regulated by nuclear receptors. Retinoic acid plays a role in cholesterol and bile acid homeostasis, wheras ALDH1a which produces retinoic acid, is expressed at low levels in Sik3−/− mice. Lipid metabolism disorders in Sik3−/− mice are ameliorated by the treatment with 9-cis-retinoic acid. In conclusion, SIK3 is a novel energy regulator that modulates cholesterol and bile acid metabolism by coupling with retinoid metabolism, and may alter the size of energy storage in mice

本学看護学部における3年次OSCEの実施と今後の課題

本報告は、2013年4月に開設した当看護学部において、2015年8月に3年生に対して初めて行ったOSCE (客観的臨床能力試験)の準備から実施までの総括である。一連の記録やマニュアル等から経過を振り返り、今後の改善点を検討した結果、学生の基礎技術の習熟に資する自主練習環境の整備、模擬患者の効果的な導入、評価者役や模擬患者役として実習病院や近隣機関の関係者が教育に参加できるような協力関係の構築が課題として示された

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