Advantages of omics approaches for elucidating metabolic changes in diabetic peripheral neuropathy

Various animal and cell culture models of diabetes mellitus (DM) have been established and utilized to study diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). The divergence of metabolic abnormalities among these models makes their etiology complicated despite some similarities regarding the pathological and neurological features of DPN. Thus, this study aimed to review the omics approaches toward DPN, especially on the metabolic states in diabetic rats and mice induced by chemicals (streptozotocin and alloxan) as type 1 DM models and by genetic mutations (MKR, db/db and ob/ob) and high-fat diet as type 2 DM models. Omics approaches revealed that the pathways associated with lipid metabolism and inflammation in dorsal root ganglia and sciatic nerves were enriched and controlled in the levels of gene expression among these animal models. Additionally, these pathways were conserved in human DPN, indicating the pivotal pathogeneses of DPN. Omics approaches are beneficial tools to better understand the association of metabolic changes with morphological and functional abnormalities in DPN

Juvenile hormone acid O-methyltransferase in Drosophila melanogaster

Juvenile hormone (JH) acid O-methyltransferase (JHAMT) is the enzyme that transfers a methyl groupfrom S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) to the carboxyl group of JH acids to produce active JHs in thecorpora allata. While the JHAMT gene was originally identified and characterized in the silkwormBombyx mori, no orthologs from other insects have been studied until now. Here we report on thefunctional characterization of the CG17330/DmJHAMT gene in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.Recombinant DmJHAMT protein expressed in Escherichia coli catalyzes the conversion of farnesoic acidand JH III acid to their cognate methyl esters in the presence of SAM. DmJHAMT is predominantlyexpressed in corpora allata, and its developmental expression profile correlates with changes in the JHtiter. While a transgenic RNA interference against DmJHAMT has no visible effect, overexpression ofDmJHAMT results in a pharate adult lethal phenotype, similar to that obtained with application of JHanalogs, suggesting that the temporal regulation of DmJHAMT is critical for Drosophila development

Critical amino acids in human DNA polymerases η and κ involved in erroneous incorporation of oxidized nucleotides

Oxidized DNA precursors can cause mutagenesis and carcinogenesis when they are incorporated into the genome. Some human Y-family DNA polymerases (Pols) can effectively incorporate 8-oxo-dGTP, an oxidized form of dGTP, into a position opposite a template dA. This inappropriate G:A pairing may lead to transversions of A to C. To gain insight into the mechanisms underlying erroneous nucleotide incorporation, we changed amino acids in human Polη and Polκ proteins that might modulate their specificity for incorporating 8-oxo-dGTP into DNA. We found that Arg61 in Polη was crucial for erroneous nucleotide incorporation. When Arg61 was substituted with lysine (R61K), the ratio of pairing of dA to 8-oxo-dGTP compared to pairing of dC was reduced from 660:1 (wild-type Polη) to 7 : 1 (R61K). Similarly, Tyr112 in Polκ was crucial for erroneous nucleotide incorporation. When Tyr112 was substituted with alanine (Y112A), the ratio of pairing was reduced from 11: 1 (wild-type Polκ) to almost 1: 1 (Y112A). Interestingly, substitution at the corresponding position in Polη, i.e. Phe18 to alanine, did not alter the specificity. These results suggested that amino acids at distinct positions in the active sites of Polη and Polκ might enhance 8-oxo-dGTP to favor the syn conformation, and thus direct its misincorporation into DNA

チュウガクセイ ノ シャカイテキ シコウリョク ハンダンリョク ノ ハッタツ ニ カンスル ケンキュウ I : レキシテキ ブンヤ オ ジレイ トシタ チョウサ オ トオシテ

The objective of this study is to clarify developmental transformations in social perception through a developmental survey which focuses on social thinking abilities and judgment abilities in junior high school students. This survey and analysis, while assuming social thinking abilities and judgment abilities in the context of social sciences to be composed of the five elements of actual judgment abilities, inductive inference abilities, deductive reasoning abilities, social judgment abilities and critical thinking abilities, discussed the following two points. (1) Developmental tendencies in junior high school students’ social thinking abilities and judgment abilities; (2) the relationship of the several abilities which comprise social thinking abilities and judgment abilities. In the results of the analysis of data from junior high school students, it was observed that there was a tendency for deductive reasoning abilities, social judgment abilities and critical thinking abilities to rise in line with students’ progress through the school grades, with this extension being particularly marked between the second grade and third grade. The study found a sequential order in the degree of difficulty of the abilities, proceeding from inductive inference abilities and deductive reasoning abilities to social judgment and then from social judgment to critical thinking abilities, as well as mutual relationships between the different abilities

Development of the Career Awareness Scale for Junior High School Students

The purpose of this study was to develop the Career Awareness Scale for junior high school students. The four areas of career awareness which have been emphasized in Japanese career education consisted of interpersonal relationship, informational utilization, future planning, and decision-making. The Career Awareness Scale was developed based on these four areas. Reliability of this scale was supported by internal consistency (Cronbach's α), coefficients of congruence between component loadings from two samples, and coefficients of test-retest reliability. Validity of the scale was examined by teachers' evaluation of content validity of the items and correlations between the four areas and subscales of the Educational Personality Inventory for Career Guidance (EPIC). These results suggested that the Career Awareness Scale was appropriate and useful to measure effects of career education practices

Identity and time belief in university students

本研究では同一性を同一性達成度と同一性感覚(自己斉一性・連続性,対自的同一性,対他的同一性,心理社会的同一性)に分けて考えた.同一性達成度得点に基づいて,対象者を高群,申群,低群に分類し,同一性感覚の4つの下位尺度得点について3群問で比較検討した.さらに,同一性達成には時間的展望が関与していると考えられることから,時間的信念の2つの得点(展望主義得点,現在主義得点)について3群問で比較検討した.その結果,①心理社会的同一性下位尺度では3群間に差がみられ,高群が中群や低群よりも,中群が低群よりも有意に高かった.②自己斉一性・連続性,対自的同一性,対他的同一性の3下位尺度では,高群が中群や低群よりも有意に高かった.③時間的信念の展望主義得点では高群が中群や低群よりも有意に高かった.しかし,現在主義得点では3群間に有意差はみられなかった

The relationship between career awareness and communication contents with family or friends of junior high school students

本研究では中学生を対象に, 家族や友人とのコミュニケーション内容とキャリア意識4領域(人間関係形成, 情報活用, 将来設計, 意思決定)との関連について群間比較を通して検討した。その結果, 次の2点が明らかになった。①学校や進路に関する話を家族とする生徒ほど, 4領域のキャリア意識が高い。②学校や進路に関する話を友人とする生徒ほど, 人間関係形成, 情報活用, 意思決定のキャリア意識が高い。これらの結果は, 家族や友人とのコミュニケーションが職業選択の基盤となる能力・態度・知識等の自己評価, すなわちキャリア意識の発達に寄与する可能性を示唆する

Career Awareness and Identity Style of High School and Undergraduate Students

The purpose of this study was to investigate developmental differences of career awareness and the relationships between career awareness and identity styles. Participants were 255 tenth-graders, 221 eleventh-graders, 228 twelfth-graders, and 195 undergraduates. They completed the Career Awareness Scale for career maturity to measure four areas of career awareness; interpersonal relationship, information utilization, future planning, and decision-making. They also completed the Identity Style Inventory to measure two identity styles; informational and diffuse/avoidant. Developmental differences of career awareness were significant but not noteworthy. Eight canonical correlation analyses indicated that the four areas of career awareness were positively related to informational style and negatively related to diffuse/avoidant style. These results suggest that acquisition of abilities and attitudes necessary for resolving career developmental tasks facilitate vocational identity formation among late adolescents

Tightening arrangement of multiple comparison tests

Multiple comparison tests are one of statistical tests that often used in amount of psychological studies. But there are too many kinds of multiple comparison tests to make proper use of the tests. In this article, we redefined multiple comparison tests for interval scale data as "tightening reduplicative t-tests". There are three lights for tightening t-tests; 1) level of significance, 2) distribution, and 3) statistic. Based on the each view many kinds of multiple comparison tests are developed. By setting information on each view for tightening t-tests before in this article, it will become possible to make proper use of multiple comparison tests