Long-range nematic order and anomalous fluctuations in suspensions of swimming filamentous bacteria

We study the collective dynamics of elongated swimmers in a very thin fluid layer by devising long, filamentous, non-tumbling bacteria. The strong confinement induces weak nematic alignment upon collision, which, for large enough density of cells, gives rise to global nematic order. This homogeneous but fluctuating phase, observed on the largest experimentally-accessible scale of millimeters, exhibits the properties predicted by standard models for flocking such as the Vicsek-style model of polar particles with nematic alignment: true long-range nematic order and non-trivial giant number fluctuations.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Supplemental Material: 6 pages, 3 figure

Discriminatory Analysis of Discharged Gas and Heavy Oils in the Sea

Gas and heavy oils discharged into the sea were discriminated using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), gas chromatography (GC-FID) and infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The GC-MS focused on the determination of the biomarkers, such as hopanes, norhopanes and triaromatic steranes, which were detected from heavy oil, but were hardly observed from gas oil. The discriminative analysis using GC-FID of the methylnaphthalenes showed a discrimination with a ratio of ((2-methylnaphthalene)+(1-methylnaphthalene))/tridecane. The ratios for the gas oils were less than 1.0, but those for the heavy oils were 1.0 or higher. These oils were distinguished in comparison to the FT-IR data from three peaks at 811, 742 and 723 cm-1 which were assigned to the CH bending modes for 2 and 4 hydrogens and a methylene framework, respectively. The order for the heavy oil was 723 < 742 < 811 cm-1, while that for the gas oil was 742 < 811< 723 cm-1. Moreover, the absorption intensity at 1603 cm-1 for the heavy oil was higher than that for the gas oil. An absorption at 475 cm-1 (out-of-plane ring vibration) was also observed for the heavy oil, but not for the gas oil. In combination of the GC results with the FT-IR, 2-methylnaphthalene and 1-methylnaphthalene were contained in greater amounts in the heavy oil than in the gas oil, which were derived from the light cycle oil. Thus, the heavy oils discharged from ships and drifted on the seashore were discriminated from the original heavy oils and the gas oils.Key words: Heavy oil, Gas oil, Identification, Methylnaphthalene, Hopan

限局性強皮症患者における銅/亜鉛スーパーオキシドジスムターゼに対する新しい自己抗体

取得学位 : 博士（医学）, 学位授与番号 : 医博乙第1596号, 学位授与年月日 : 平成16年9月1日, 学位授与大学 : 金沢大

Complete mitochondrial genome sequences for Crown-of-thorns starfish Acanthaster planci and Acanthaster brevispinus

BACKGROUND: The crown-of-thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci (L.), has been blamed for coral mortality in a large number of coral reef systems situated in the Indo-Pacific region. Because of its high fecundity and the long duration of the pelagic larval stage, the mechanism of outbreaks may be related to its meta-population dynamics, which should be examined by larval sampling and population genetic analysis. However, A. planci larvae have undistinguished morphological features compared with other asteroid larvae, hence it has been difficult to discriminate A. planci larvae in plankton samples without species-specific markers. Also, no tools are available to reveal the dispersal pathway of A. planci larvae. Therefore the development of highly polymorphic genetic markers has the potential to overcome these difficulties. To obtain genomic information for these purposes, the complete nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial genome of A. planci and its putative sibling species, A. brevispinus were determined and their characteristics discussed. RESULTS: The complete mtDNA of A. planci and A. brevispinus are 16,234 bp and 16,254 bp in size, respectively. These values fall within the length variation range reported for other metazoan mitochondrial genomes. They contain 13 proteins, 2 rRNA, and 22 tRNA genes and the putative control region in the same order as the asteroid, Asterina pectinifera. The A + T contents of A. planci and A. brevispinus on their L strands that encode the majority of protein-coding genes are 56.3% and 56.4% respectively and are lower than that of A. pectinifera (61.2%). The percent similarity of nucleotide sequences between A. planci and A. brevispinus is found to be highest in the CO2 and CO3 regions (both 90.6%) and lowest in ND2 gene (84.2%) among the 13 protein-coding genes. In the deduced putative amino acid sequences, CO1 is highly conserved (99.2%), and ATP8 apparently evolves faster any of the other protein-coding gene (85.2%). CONCLUSION: The gene arrangement, base composition, codon usage and tRNA structure of A. planci are similar to those of A. brevispinus. However, there are significant variations between A. planci and A. brevispinus. Complete mtDNA sequences are useful for the study of phylogeny, larval detection and population genetics

High Prevalence of Sinusitis in Children with Henoch-Schönlein Purpura

We evaluated the prevalence and the types of infectious foci in oral as well as ear, nose, and throat diseases, and we examined incidence of renal involvement with active treatment for focal infection in children with Henoch-Schönlein Purpura. A total of 96 children who presented at Aichi Children's Health and Medical Center and were diagnosed as having HSP were evaluated for infectious foci in the ear, nose, throat, and oral cavities. Seventy-one of 96 children (74.0%) had some type of infectious lesion, such as sinusitis or tonsillitis, and the prevalence of sinusitis was the highest (51 cases, 53.7%). In 44 HSP patients without renal involvement at the first examination, the incidence of nephritis was lower (13.6%) than in previous reports (17–54%) due to our aggressive intervention for infectious foci

Exercise-Induced Post-Ischemic Left Ventricular Delayed Relaxation or Diastolic Stunning Is it a Reliable Marker in Detecting Coronary Artery Disease?

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to determine whether post-ischemic left ventricular (LV) delayed relaxation could be detected by using strain imaging (SI) derived from 2-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography in patients with stable effort angina.BackgroundRegional LV delayed relaxation during early diastole is a sensitive sign of acute myocardial ischemia and may persist beyond recovery of exercise-induced ischemia.MethodsRegional LV transverse strain changes during the first one-third of diastole duration (strain imaging diastolic index [SI-DI]) were determined at baseline and 5 and 10 min after the exercise test in 162 patients with stable effort angina. The ratio of SI-DI before and after exercise (SI-DI ratio) was used to identify regional LV delayed relaxation.ResultsA total of 117 patients had significant (≥50% of luminal diameter) coronary stenoses. The mean SI-DI decreased from 78.0 ± 9.7% to 27.6 ± 16.0% (p < 0.0001) in 191 territories perfused by coronary arteries with significant stenoses 5 min after the treadmill exercise, whereas it remained unchanged in 280 territories perfused by arteries with nonsignificant stenoses. Ten minutes after exercise, regional delayed relaxation was still observed in 85% of territories perfused by stenotic coronary arteries. An SI-DI ratio with a cutoff value of 0.74 had a sensitivity of 97% and a specificity of 93% to detect significant coronary stenosis in the receiver-operator characteristic curve.ConclusionsDetection of post-ischemic regional LV delayed relaxation or diastolic stunning after treadmill exercise using SI is a sensitive and reliable method for the detection of coronary artery disease