Estimation of Targeted-Reaching-Positions by Around-Shoulder Muscle Activities and Images from an Action Camera for Trans-Humeral Prosthesis Control

For trans-humeral amputation, daily living tasks requiring bimanual coordination, such as lifting up a box, are most difficult, hence most urgent for a trans-humeral prosthesis to fulfill. However, in studies reported on trans-humeral prosthetic control, the states of the target objects, such as their size, relative pose and position, which are important for any real reaching and manipulation tasks, have not been taken into account. In our previous study, for a box lifting-up task, we investigated the possibility of using around-shoulder EMG (electromyogram), for identifying target-reaching-positions for the boxes with different configurations (relative pose and position). However, with only the around-shoulder EMG, it is impossible for the system to guide the prosthesis to hold or grasp target objects precisely and fast sufficiently. The purpose of this study is to explore the possibility of using both the image information from an action camera and around-shoulder EMG, to identify targeted-reaching-positions for various box configurations more accurately and more rapidly. Multinomial logistic regression was employed to realize both information integration of, and the target-reaching-position identification. A set of experiments were conducted. As a result, an average classification rate of 75.1% could be achieved for various box configurations

The ich1 gene of the mushroom Coprinus cinereus is essential for pileus formation in fruiting

The formation of the pileus in homobasidiomycete fungi is essential for sexual reproduction, because the pileus bears the hymenium, a layer of cells that includes the specialised basidia in which nuclear fusion, meiosis and sporulation occur. The developmental mutant ichijiku of Coprinus cinereus fails to develop a differentiated pileus at the apex of the primordial shaft, which is the basal part of the fruit-body primordia and formed in an early stage of fruit-body differentiation. Genetic analysis indicates that this phenotype is caused by a recessive mutation in a single gene (ich1). The ich1 gene was mapped to chromosome XII using restriction fragment length polymorphism markers and the marker chromosome method, and cloned by complementation using a chromosome-XII-specific cosmid library. The ich1 gene encodes a novel protein of 1,353 amino acids. The Ich1 amino-acid sequence contains nuclear targeting signals, suggesting that the Ich1 protein would function in the nucleus. Northern blot analysis indicates that the ich1 gene is specifically expressed in the pileus of the wild-type fruit-body. No ich1 mRNA was detected in the ichijiku mutant, consistent with loss of the promoter region of ich1 in the mutant genome. These data demonstrate that the ick1 gene product is essential for pileus formation.</p

Proposal of Single Sideband Modulation Scheme Using Frequency Domain Filtering

With the rapid development of wireless systems, the demand for frequency resources has been increasing in recent years. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the high-quality communication method that efficiently utilizes finite frequency resources. In this paper, Single Sideband 16 Pulse Amplitude Modulation (SSB 16PAM) scheme for the uplink communication is proposed. It transmits data in only Lower Sideband (LSB) without extra Hilbert components. Under Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel environment, Bit Error Rate (BER) performance of the proposed scheme is superior by 3 dB in terms of Carrier-to-Noise Ratio (CNR) to 256 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (256QAM) scheme with the same frequency efficiency and the same Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR). Our proposed scheme employs the original frequency domain filter on the transmitter side to form an ideal spectrum. The configuration of its process is almost similar to Single Carrier-Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA), moreover, half of the input data on the frequency domain is removed. The proposed frequency domain filter produces the SSBmodulated spectrum with a roll-off rate of zero without degrading the BER performance

Role of the hypoxia response pathway in lens formation during embryonic development of Xenopus laevis

AbstractThe RING finger ubiquitin ligase seven in absentia homolog 2 (Siah2) was identified in the R7 photoreceptor cells of Drosophila melanogaster, and it regulates the stability of prolyl hydroxylase domains (PHDs), with a concomitant effect on HIF-1α availability in the hypoxia response pathway. We previously reported that the hypoxia response pathway contributes to eye development during the embryonic development of Xenopus laevis. In this paper, the role of Siah2-mediated hypoxia response pathway in eye development of X. laevis embryos was further characterized. Xenopus Siah2 (xSiah2) mRNA was detected in lens tissue and xSiah2 overexpression caused a thickened lens placode, leading to loss of the optic lens. In embryos overexpressing xSiah2, lens marker gene transcription was reduced, suggesting that xSiah2 contributes to lens formation. xSiah2 overexpression decreased Xenopus PHD accumulation and increased Xenopus HIF-1α (xHIF-1α) accumulation. xHIF-1α degeneration with resveratrol restored the optical abnormality caused by xSiah2 overexpression, suggesting that the xSiah2-mediated hypoxia response pathway contributes to lens formation. Moreover, xSiah2 overexpression decreased endothelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related Notch signaling-responsive genes transcription during the invasion of the lens placode. Our results suggest that the hypoxia response pathway plays an important role in the regulation of the EMT via the Notch signaling pathway during lens formation

Cross-talk between IL-6 and TGF-β signaling in hepatoma cells

AbstractInterleukin-6 (IL-6) is a multifunctional cytokine that plays important roles in the immune system, hematopoiesis, and acute phase reactions. Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) also has pleiotropy including the production of acute phase proteins in hepatocytes. To elucidate the cross-talk between IL-6 and TGF-β signaling pathways in hepatic cells, we investigated the effects of TGF-β on IL-6-induced signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (STAT3) activation in a human hepatoma cell line, Hep3B. IL-6-induced activation of STAT3 activity and STAT3-mediated gene expression were augmented by TGF-β in Hep3B cells. We provide evidence that these activities were due to physical interactions between STAT3 and Sma- and MAD-related protein-3, bridged by p300. These results demonstrate a molecular mechanism of a cross-talk between STAT3 and TGF-β signaling pathways in hepatocytes

Complex Response Function of Magnetic Resonance Spectrometers

A vectorial analysis of magnetic resonance spectrometers, based on traveling wave resonators and including the reference arm and the automatic control of frequency, has been developed. The proposed model, valid also for stationary wave resonators, gives the response function of the spectrometer for any working condition, including scalar detectors with arbitrary response law and arbitrary excitation frequency. The purely dispersive and purely absorptive linear responses are discussed in detail for different scalar detectors. The developed approach allows for optimizing the performances of the spectrometer and for obtaining the intrinsic lineshape of the sample in a very broad range of working conditions. More complex setups can be modeled following the proposed scheme.Comment: PDF Acrobat 4.0 file, 15 pages, 2 figures, revised version with added reference and corrected typo

Polished rice as natural sources of cancer-preventing geranylgeranoic acid

Geranylgeranoic acid, a 20-carbon polyprenoic acid (all-trans 3,7,11,15-tetramethyl-2,4,6,10,14-hexadecatetraenoic acid) and its derivatives were previously developed as synthetic “acyclic retinoids” for cancer chemoprevention. Recently, we demonstrated the natural occurrence of geranylgeranoic acid in various medicinal herbs (Shidoji and Ogawa, 2004). In this present study, we present several lines of evidence to demonstrate that geranylgeranyl diphosphate taken in foods could be metabolized to GGA through geranylgeraniol and geranylgeranyl aldehyde via the following steps: 1) The conversion from geranylgeranyl diphosphate to geranylgeraniol was demonstrated to occur by the action of bovine intestinal alkaline phosphatase, with a Km of 46.1 µM. 2) Geranylgeraniol oxidase-mediated conversion of geranylgeraniol to geranylgeranyl aldehyde was revealed in rat liver homogenates, which activity was mainly localized in the mitochondrial fraction. The mitochondrial enzyme showed a Km of 92.9 µM. 3) The conversion of geranylgeranyl aldehyde to geranylgeranoic acid by geranylgeranyl aldehyde dehydrogenase in rat liver homogenates was absolutely dependent on exogenously added NAD+ or NADP+. The Km of the mitochondrial geranylgeranyl aldehyde dehydrogenase was 27.5 µM for geranylgeranyl aldehyde. Taken together, our data suggest that cancer preventive geranylgeranoic acid could be a physiological metabolite from commonly consumed foods

Age-related increase of autoantibodies to interleukin 1α in healthy Japanese blood donors

Although autoantibodies to interleukin-1α (IL-1α autoantibodies) are known to be present in sera of apparently healthy humans, their frequency of occurrence and significance are unclear. To determine the prevalence of detectable IL-1α autoantibodies in normal human blood, we screened the plasma of blood donors (6290 subjects : 3977 men and 2313 women, ages 16 to 64 yr) by a radioimmunoassay which we developed using a method that could detect over 5 ng/ml. Moreover, we investigated immunoglobulin class of IL-1α autoantibodies and also their function. IL-1α autoantibodies were detected in 14.6% of the 6290 donors. Their frequency was higher in males than females (16.6% vs.11.2%, p<0.01) and increased with age in both sexes. The proportion of subjects with a high IL-1α autoantibodies titers also increased with age. We showed that IL-1α autoantibodies were of the IgG class and that they had neutralizing function to IL-1α by receptor assay. Neutralizing activity was only shown in plasma with concentration of IL-1α autoantibodies, the level of which was over 1000 ng/ml. The affinity of the IL-1α autoantibodies in plasma was between 2.1 X 10-10and 1.2 X 10-9 M (mean 6.4 X 10-10M). Our results provide a basis for comparison with IL-1α autoantibodies prevalence between healthy states and disease states, and suggest that IL-1α autoantibodies may play a significant role in modulating the effects of excessive IL-1α at local site or in systemic regions