A structural analysis of the water protons in a single crystal of Er(C(2)H(5)SO(4))(3).9H(2)O by NMR.

Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1979 .S286. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 40-07, page: . Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1979

Biochemical evidence for the interaction of regulatory subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase with IDA (Inter-DFG-APE) region of catalytic subunit

AbstractTo explore the structural basis required for the holoenzyme formation of cAMP-dependent protein kinase, we have prepared rabbit anti-peptide antibodies that can block the holoenzyme formation without affecting the catalytic activity of the enzyme. The antibodies were raised against a specific site in the catalytic (C)-subunit, termed IDA (Inter-DFG-APE) region, which lies between the kinase subdomains VII and VIII. Although the C-subunit immunoprecipitated with anti-IDA antibodies could not form a stable complex with regulatory (R)-subunit, it was still susceptible to inhibition by the R-subunit or by PKI, a specific inhibitor peptide containing a pseudosubstrate site. These results indicate that there exists an IDA regionmediated interaction between the R- and C-subunits, which is distinct from that mediated through the substrate site and substrate binding site. In accordance with this idea, association of synthetic IDA peptides with the R-subunit was directly demonstrated by resonance mirror analysis. The calculated association constants of IDA peptides were high enough to suggest a possible involvement of the IDA region in the initial step of holoenzyme formation

Involvement of Propionibacterium acnes in the Augmentation of Lipogenesis in Hamster Sebaceous Glands In Vivo and In Vitro

Propionibacterium acnes is considered to be involved in the aggravation of acne vulgaris, but it remains unclear whether P. acnes directly influences lipogenesis in sebaceous glands. In this study, we showed that a culture medium of P. acnes (acnes-CM) and formalin-killed P. acnes (F-acnes) prepared from P. acnes strains, JCM6473 and JCM6425, intracellularly augmented lipid droplet formation and triacylglycerol (TG) synthesis in undifferentiated and insulin-differentiated hamster sebocytes. Acnes-CM and F-acnes prepared from four clinical P. acnes strains elicited the same lipogenesis augmentation. The augmented TG production resulted from an increase in the diacylglycerol acyltransferase activity. Topical application of acnes-CM to the skin of hamster auricles every day for 4 weeks revealed that sebum accumulation was augmented in sebaceous glands and ducts. Furthermore, both acnes-CM and F-acnes increased the production of 15-deoxy-Δ12,14-prostaglandin J2 (15d-PGJ2), a cytochrome P450 (CYP)-linked sebaceous lipogenic factor, in differentiated sebocytes. A CYP inhibitor, SKF-525A, decreased the acnes-CM- and F-acnes-augmented production of TG and 15d-PGJ2. Thus, to our knowledge these results provide previously unreported evidence that P. acnes directly participates in the augmentation of sebaceous lipogenesis through a proposed mechanism in which an increase of 15d-PGJ2 production through the CYP pathway is closely associated with the enhancement of TG production

Association between Mammographic Breast Density and Lifestyle in Japanese Women

A high mammographic breast density is considered to be a risk factor for breast cancer. However, only a small number of studies on the association between breast density and lifestyle have been performed. A cross-sectional study was performed using a survey with 29 questions on life history and lifestyle. The breast density on mammography was classified into 4 categories following the BI-RADS criteria. The subjects were 522 women with no medical history of breast cancer. The mean age was 53.3 years old. On multivariate analysis, only BMI was a significant factor determining breast density in premenopausal women (parameter estimate, －0.403;p value, 0.0005), and the density decreased as BMI rose. In postmenopausal women, BMI (parameter estimate, －0.196;p value, 0.0143) and number of deliveries (parameter estimate, －0.388;p value, 0.0186) were significant factors determining breast density;breast density decreased as BMI and number of deliveries increased. Only BMI and number of deliveries were identified as factors significantly influencing breast density. BMI was inversely correlated with breast density before and after menopause, whereas the influence of number of deliveries on breast density was significant only in postmenopausal women in their 50 and 60s

The joint impact on being overweight of self reported behaviours of eating quickly and eating until full : cross sectional survey

Objective To examine whether eating until full or eating quickly or combinations of these eating behaviours are associated with being overweight

大学生の避妊および低用量ピルに関する意識

大学生の避妊および低用量ピルに関する意識を調査し、今後の性の教育・支援のあり方について考察した。秋田市内の大学生女子314人、男子401人を対象に、2001年10月～11月に調査を行い、以下の結果を得た。1)大学生の避妊の実行率は、全国レベルより低く、避妊方法はコンドームや膣外射精が多かった。2)避妊方法を選ぶ基準は、男女とも「避妊効果」が多く、次いで「男性主体」が多かった。3)避妊方法を知りたい学生は、性交経験のある学生に多かった。4)低用量ピルの認知度は学生の約40%であり、ピルの使用に賛成の学生は約25%で、性交経験のある学生に多かった。5)低用量ピル使用賛成の理由は「避妊効果が高い」であり、使用反対の理由は「副作用」であった。6)低用量ピルに関する情報を知りたい学生は多く、手段としてインターネットや雑誌を希望していた。以上のことから、性を肯定的に捉えた立場で「性交」を語り、望まない妊娠や性感染症を予防する方法を明確に伝え、対人関係的視点を盛り込んだ情報提供が必要であることが示唆された。This study was conducted to investigate knowledge of college undergraduates about the contraception and the oral contraceptive pill. The questionnaires were administered to the 314 female and 401 male college students of Akita city from October to November, 2001. The results were as follows: The number of Akita students who use the contraceptive method was lower compare to the national level. It was revealed that condoms are often used and some depend on ejaculation outside a vagina, a method which initiative is taken by males. The studennts who have experienced sexual intercourse hope to learn more about the contraception. About 40% of the students had knowledge of the Pill, and the 25% students of them were in favor of the contraceptive pill, giving its effectiveness as a reason while some students disagreed by pointing out its side effect. It was clarified that many students wish to learn about the low-dose oral contraceptive pill and they use the Internet or magazines as an information resource. All these results reflect that it is inportant to provide students with valid information in order to avoid unwanted pregrancy and the STD at the same time focusing on the \u27personal-relations-viewpoint\u27

Curated genome annotation of Oryza sativa ssp. japonica and comparative genome analysis with Arabidopsis thaliana

We present here the annotation of the complete genome of rice Oryza sativa L. ssp. japonica cultivar Nipponbare. All functional annotations for proteins and non-protein-coding RNA (npRNA) candidates were manually curated. Functions were identified or inferred in 19,969 (70%) of the proteins, and 131 possible npRNAs (including 58 antisense transcripts) were found. Almost 5000 annotated protein-coding genes were found to be disrupted in insertional mutant lines, which will accelerate future experimental validation of the annotations. The rice loci were determined by using cDNA sequences obtained from rice and other representative cereals. Our conservative estimate based on these loci and an extrapolation suggested that the gene number of rice is ~32,000, which is smaller than previous estimates. We conducted comparative analyses between rice and Arabidopsis thaliana and found that both genomes possessed several lineage-specific genes, which might account for the observed differences between these species, while they had similar sets of predicted functional domains among the protein sequences. A system to control translational efficiency seems to be conserved across large evolutionary distances. Moreover, the evolutionary process of protein-coding genes was examined. Our results suggest that natural selection may have played a role for duplicated genes in both species, so that duplication was suppressed or favored in a manner that depended on the function of a gene