Microperforated leaf blotting on polyvinylidene difluoride and nylon membranes to analyze spatial distribution of endogenous and viral gene expression in plant leaves

Leaf blotting to detect proteins and investigate their spatial distribution in leaves has so far mainly been used to detect viral coat proteins that accumulate abundantly in infected leaves, but rarely to detect endogenous plant proteins. We improved the method for detecting endogenous proteins. We found that microperforating leaves with bundled pins before blotting, then pressing leaves with a rolling pin onto polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membranes enabled even blotting of sap. This microperforated leaf blotting (mPLB) was also suitable for use with nylon membranes to detect leaf RNA. The mPLB revealed that accumulation of two endogenous proteins, calmodulin-like rgs-CaM and actin, was respectively positively and negatively associated with that of viral coat protein in tobacco leaves infected with cucumber mosaic virus (CMV). When a tobacco plant primed with benzothiadiazole was inoculated with CMV, mPLB showed that the infection was restricted to some areas of the leaf, and that in these areas the mRNA encoding tobacco pathogenesis-related protein 1, an indicator of salicylic acid-mediated immune responses, was induced. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of mPLB for investigating the spatial distribution of endogenous and viral gene expression in leaves

Significance of Stabilometry for Assessing Postoperative Body Sway in Patients with Cervical Myelopathy

[Study Design] Prospective study. [Purpose] To examine the changes in body sway using stabilometry in patients who underwent cervical laminoplasty for cervical myelopathy. [Overview of Literature] Although the patients of cervical myelopathy complain body sway there are few report to examine body sway objectively. [Methods] Patients who received treatment for cervical myelopathy between October 2010 and February 2013 were included. Twenty-one patients underwent cervical laminoplasty (myelopathy group). Body sway was assessed using stabilometry, wherein patients stood on a stabilometer with their eyes closed for 30 seconds. The Romberg ratio, outer peripheral area (OPA) with eyes closed (cm2), and total locus length per unit area (L/A) with eyes closed (/cm) were examined. Examinations were performed preoperatively (at baseline) and at 8 weeks postoperatively. Examination results of patients in the myelopathy group were compared with those of 17 healthy individuals (control group). Clinical symptoms were evaluated using the Japanese Orthopaedic Association scale score (JOA score) and the timed up and go (TUG) test. [Results] In the myelopathy and control groups, the mean baseline Romberg ratio, OPA, and L/A were 2.3±1.2, 8.9±5.5 cm2, and 14.2±5.3/cm and 1.4±1.0, 4.3±2.8 cm2, and 23.7±10.1/cm, respectively. Eight weeks after laminoplasty, only L/A showed significant improvement from baseline in the myelopathy group (23.2±10.1 to 16.8±7.9; p=0.03). The Romberg ratio and OPA showed improvement in the myelopathy group, but the changes were not statistically significant. JOA scores and TUG test results in this group significantly improved from baseline to 8 weeks after laminoplasty (12.7 to 13.4 and 10.8 to 8.0 seconds, respectively; both p<0.05). [Conclusions] L/A is a useful parameter for measuring body sway to assess the recovery of body sway after laminoplasty

Ossified Metaplastic Spinal Meningioma Without Psammomatous Calcification : A Case Report

Meningiomas constitute approximately 25% of primary spinal cord tumors, and 1% to 5% are calcified. Ossification is a rare event and the etiology of ossification in meningiomas is not well known. We present the case of a 29-year-old female with a rare case of ossified thoracic spinal metaplastic meningioma. The tumor was successfully resected, and pathology confirmed ossified metaplastic meningioma. On histopathological examination, only mature bone tissue and tumor cells were present in the region containing no psammoma bodies, suggesting that the tumor cells had transitioned to mature osteocytes

Screening of bacterial DNA in bile sampled from healthy dogs and dogs suffering from liver- or gallbladder-associated disease

Although the biliary system is generally aseptic, gallbladder microbiota has been reported in humans and some animals apart from dogs. We screened and analyzed the bacterial deoxyribonucleic acid in canine gallbladders using bile sampled from 7 healthy dogs and 52 dogs with liver- or gallbladder-associated disease. PCR screening detected bacteria in 17.3% of diseased dogs (9/52) and none in healthy dogs. Microbiota analysis of PCR-positive samples showed that the microbial diversity differed between liver- and gallbladder-associated disease groups. Thus, a specific bacterial community appears to occur at a certain frequency in the bile of diseased dogs

A realidade aumentada e virtual como métodos de ensino / Augmented and virtual reality as teaching methods

O presente documento discorre sobre a evolução do aprendizado e como os métodos de ensino tem mudado para se adaptar a uma realidade digital. Também discute o uso da Realidade Aumentada (RA) e da Realidade Virtual (RV) como ferramentas facilitadoras do processo de ensino e aprendizagem em um cenário interdisciplinar e apresenta experiências recentes como os aplicativos FDT-VR e Mohr2DVR, utilizados no ensino em disciplinas de engenharia, e o projeto Conquistando o Espaço, que foi idealizado por membros da comunidade acadêmica da Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC) e consiste em um software educacional baseado em realidades aumentada e virtual

Identification of two novel breast cancer loci through large-scale genome-wide association study in the Japanese population

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have successfully identified about 70 genomic loci associated with breast cancer. Owing to the complexity of linkage disequilibrium and environmental exposures in different populations, it is essential to perform regional GWAS for better risk prediction. This study aimed to investigate the genetic architecture and to assess common genetic risk model of breast cancer with 6,669 breast cancer patients and 21,930 female controls in the Japanese population. This GWAS identified 11 genomic loci that surpass genome-wide significance threshold of P < 5.0 × 10−8 with nine previously reported loci and two novel loci that include rs9862599 on 3q13.11 (ALCAM) and rs75286142 on 21q22.12 (CLIC6-RUNX1). Validation study was carried out with 981 breast cancer cases and 1,394 controls from the Aichi Cancer Center. Pathway analyses of GWAS signals identified association of dopamine receptor medicated signaling and protein amino acid deacetylation with breast cancer. Weighted genetic risk score showed that individuals who were categorized in the highest risk group are approximately 3.7 times more likely to develop breast cancer compared to individuals in the lowest risk group. This well-powered GWAS is a representative study to identify SNPs that are associated with breast cancer in the Japanese population

Recent Results from LHD Experiment with Emphasis on Relation to Theory from Experimentalist’s View

he Large Helical Device (LHD) has been extending an operational regime of net-current free plasmas towardsthe fusion relevant condition with taking advantage of a net current-free heliotron concept and employing a superconducting coil system. Heating capability has exceeded 10 MW and the central ion and electron temperatureshave reached 7 and 10 keV, respectively. The maximum value of β and pulse length have been extended to 3.2% and 150 s, respectively. Many encouraging physical findings have been obtained. Topics from recent experiments, which should be emphasized from the aspect of theoretical approaches, are reviewed. Those are (1) Prominent features in the inward shifted configuration, i.e., mitigation of an ideal interchange mode in the configuration with magnetic hill, and confinement improvement due to suppression of both anomalous and neoclassical transport, (2) Demonstration ofbifurcation of radial electric field and associated formation of an internal transport barrier, and (3) Dynamics of magnetic islands and clarification of the role of separatrix