ウェルプレートヲカツヨウシタコウソハンノウノキョウザイカイハツトジュギョウジッセン

高校生物の教科書は、酵素反応の実験として、試験管などの実験器具を多用するものを紹介している。このような実験は、複数名の生徒が共同で行うため、内容の理解度や器具の操作習得などの点において、生徒にもたらす教育的効果に差を生じると考えられる。そこで、酵素反応のうち、アミラーゼ活性と温度およびpHの関係を調べる実験教材を、12ウェルプレートを用いてマイクロスケール化し、２人1組で実験を行う授業実践を行った。本教材は、通常実験と遜色のない結果を示し、また、反復実験を容易にした。授業実践を通して、マイクロスケール実験が生徒にとって有意義であることも示された。よって、高校の生物実験において本教材は有用であると考えられる。Enzymatic reactions are usually introduced using much laboratory glassware in high school biology textbooks, which results in a set of experimental equipment for each group with many students. These are presumed to cause a large gap among students in their comprehension of enzymatic functions and experimental techniques. Therefore, we have developed microscale teaching material to evaluate the dependence of amylase activity on temperature and pH environments with a 12-well plate that enables us to repeat experiments easily. The result of this experiment coincided with that of the ordinary one. Based on our practical lessons, we have shown that this experiment is more meaningful for students in their activities and understanding than the ordinary one. Consequently, we have confirmed that this material is useful for high school biology calsses

The role of ARX in human pancreatic endocrine specification

The in vitro differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) offers a model system to explore human development. Humans with mutations in the transcription factor Aristaless Related Homeobox (ARX) often suffer from the syndrome X-linked lissencephaly with ambiguous genitalia (XLAG), affecting many cell types including those of the pancreas. Indeed, XLAG pancreatic islets lack glucagon and pancreatic polypeptide-positive cells but retain somatostatin, insulin, and ghrelin-positive cells. To further examine the role of ARX in human pancreatic endocrine development, we utilized genomic editing in hESCs to generate deletions in ARX. ARX knockout hESCs retained pancreatic differentiation capacity and ARX knockout endocrine cells were biased toward somatostatin-positive cells (94% of endocrine cells) with reduced pancreatic polypeptide (rarely detected), glucagon (90% reduced) and insulin-positive (65% reduced) lineages. ARX knockout somatostatin-positive cells shared expression patterns with human fetal and adult δ-cells. Differentiated ARX knockout cells upregulated PAX4, NKX2.2, ISL1, HHEX, PCSK1, PCSK2 expression while downregulating PAX6 and IRX2. Re-expression of ARX in ARX knockout pancreatic progenitors reduced HHEX and increased PAX6 and insulin expression following differentiation. Taken together these data suggest that ARX plays a key role in pancreatic endocrine fate specification of pancreatic polypeptide, somatostatin, glucagon and insulin positive cells from hESCs

Finding abnormal events during the Iraq War monitored at Japan 8000km away from Iraq

Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Science, Kanazawa UniversityGraduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kanazawa UniversityMeteorological Research Institute JST Cooperative System for Supporting Priority ResearchMeteorological Research Institute JST Cooperative System for Supporting Priority ResearchGraduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kanazawa UniversityGraduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kanazawa UniversityGraduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kanazawa UniversityUnusual strong acidic rain recorded during the Iraq War in Japan Sea side 8000km away from Iraq. In order to monitor the seasonal change of pH, the rainwater was collected during the period from March 24th to September 24th, 2003 at Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. For comparison, the rainwater at Wakayama (the Pacific Ocean side) was collected, during the period from March 24th to April 30th, 2003. The pH, Eh, EC, and DO of the rainwater were measured in laboratory periodically. Filtered rain dusts were investigated by scanning electron microscope equipped with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (SEM-EDX), electron probe micro analyzer (EPMA), transmission electron microscope (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (ED-XRF), and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) analyses. In this study, the fluctuation of pH values and electrical conductivity (EC) of rainwater during this half-year period were measured to find abnormal events, such as the Iraq War effects. Since March 21st, 2003, Iraq plunged into the war. The more than 30 oil field fires in Rumaylah, Basrah, Mosul, and other oil fields near the borderline of Kuwait and Iran were reported in March and in April, 2003 in Japan. The first precipitation during the Iraq War was caught on March 24th, 2003. In the period from March 24th to April 5th, the notable low pH value of 3.4-4.4 and high EC value of 20-360ƒﾊS/cm were detected in Kanazawa. The acidic rain associated with WNW wind (2.7-4.1m/s) has continued to the first 10 days of April in Kanazawa, during the 9 oil fields were burning in Rumaylah, Iraq. In the same time, the upper current of air maps confirmed that the 5520-5700m lines cross over and spread on both Iraq and Japanese Honshu Island. It is considered that westerly wind crossed over both Iraq and Japan. The high EC values from March 24th to April 5th, 2003, suggest that high concentrations of water-soluble carbon particles and soot contained in the rainwater. In addition, the black powdery dusts were detected from the strong acidic rainwater on April 1st. The powdery dusts and carbon-bearing particles contained in the rainwater have characteristics different from that of the Asian aerosol particles (Kosa). The results suggest that both powdery dusts and carbon-bearing particles of rainwater have been produced by combustion of oil field in Iraq. Simulation data support the directly cycling by westerly wind indicating the influence of the Iraq War. Possible evidences provided in this paper, such as strong acidic rain and high EC values with nm-sized carbon soot at lapan Sea side, was the influence of the Iraq War. It was suggested that local events affect the global atmospheric environments. Smoke from oil field fires around Baghdad and other wartime pollution could create long-term health hazards

Transport of carbon-bearing dusts from Iraq to Japan during Iraq\u27s War

Rainwater collected during the period of February-April, 2003 in Kanazawa University and Hakui, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, was investigated by ion chromatography of the dissolved ions, and Scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy dispersive analyzer (SEM-EDX), electron microprobe analyzer (EPMA), transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) analyses of the filtered samples. The pH, Eh, EC, dissolved oxygen (DO) and depleted U (DU) of the rainwater were also measured. The results show a rare case with low pH value of rain and high value of electrical conductivity (EC) in the rainwater during certain period. The NO 3 -, SO 4 2- and NH 4 + concentrations on 26th March, show quite high values after oil field fires on 21st March 2003. The powdery dust and carbon-bearing nm sized particles contained in the rainwater have characteristics different from that of the Asian dust (Kosa). Since 21 March, 2003 the Iraq plunged into the war, the 9 oil field fires were reported on 25 March, 2003 in Rumaylah oil field near the borderline of Kuwait. The first precipitation was caught in Kanazawa on 24 March, 2003. The pH value of the rainwater indicated a strong acid rain (pH 3.6) with black powdery dusts. The acid rain on 27th March to 2nd April (pH 3.4-4.3; 5-17mm) associated with WNW wind (2.7-4.1m/s) has continued to the first 10 days of April in Kanazawa, during the 9 oil fields were burning in Iraq. The EC in rainwater collected from 24 March to 15 April, 2003, shows high concentrations of ions, suggesting high contents of water soluble-carbon particles and soot. In the meantime, it was the highest season of sandstorms at bare dried land in Iraq from the end of March to the beginning of April. Westerly wind blew around 5500m high, and the sandstorm with 2000m wide was transported by strong wind to Zagros 3000m high mountains. The hot wind hit the Zagros Mountains and easily to join and rise to Westerly wind high by a rising air current. The 234U/ 238U activity (around 0.2) in typical depleted uranium (DU) is quite low compared with that (around 1.0) in natural uranium. The contamination of DU from the Iraq conflict may be, if any, negligibly small on undetectable level. On the other hand, the powdery dusts and carbon-bearing particles of rainwater have been produced by combustion of oil field in Iraq and they are directly cycling in our planet by Westerly wind. Black carbon particles are a product of incomplete combustion, and are the principal light-absorbing atmospheric aerosol. The result reminds us of the scientific values of short-term atmospheric environment records during Iraq\u27s War. This has consequences for primary production of powdery dusts coming from Iraq to the atmosphere over half the globe away. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

マウス胸腺の抗体遺伝子転写細胞の分化

Immunoglobulin(Ig) heavy chain gene-transcribing cell diffrentiation was investigated in the thymus of BALB/c mice by the Realtime PCR for membrane-bound form IgM(IgM_m). The ratio of IgM_m to total IgM(IgM_t) was approximately 1 from fetus period to 14 days after the birth, and IgM transcriptions were almost processed to membrane-bound form. Then IgM_m transcriptions decreased and secretory form IgM(IgM_s), the difference between IgM_t and IgM_m, started being detected. It was concluded that thymus Ig gene-transcribing cells underwent the similar differential processes in which B cells developed from immature type having IgM_m to mature type secreting IgM_s, in secondary lymphoid tissues