Isolation of Vibrio cholerae and Vibrio vulnificus from Estuarine Waters, and Genotyping of V. vulnificus Isolates Using Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification

Bacteria in the genus Vibrio are ubiquitous in estuarine and coastal waters. Some species (including Vibrio cholerae and Vibrio vulnificus) are known human pathogens causing ailments like cholera, diarrhea, or septicemia. Notably, V. vulnificus can also cause a severe systemic infection (known as vibriosis) in eels raised in aquaculture facilities. Water samples were periodically collected from the estuary of the Asahi River, located in the southern part of Okayama City, Japan. These samples were directly plated onto CHROMagar Vibrio plates, and colonies displaying turquoise-blue coloration were selected. Thereafter, polymerase chain reaction was used to identify V. cholerae and V. vulnificus. A total of 30 V. cholerae strains and 194 V. vulnificus strains were isolated during the warm season when the water temperature (WT) was higher than 20 degrees C. Concurrently, an increase in coliforms was observed during this period. Notably, V. vulnificus has two genotypes, designated as genotype 1 and genotype 2. Genotype 1 is pathogenic to humans, while genotype 2 is pathogenic to both humans and eels. The loop-mediated isothermal amplification method was developed to rapidly determine genotypes at a low cost. Of the 194 strains isolated, 80 (41.2%) were identified as genotype 1 strains. Among the 41 strains isolated when the WTs were higher than 28 degrees C, 25 strains (61.0%) belonged to genotype 1. In contrast, of the 32 strains isolated when the WTs were lower than 24 degrees C, 27 strains (84.4%) belonged to genotype 2. These results suggest that the distribution of the two genotypes was influenced by WT

Prediction of functional recovery after revascularization using quantitative gated myocardial perfusion SPECT: a multi-center cohort study in Japan

金沢大学医薬保健研究域医学系Backgrounds: Prediction of left ventricular functional recovery is important after myocardial infarction. The impact of quantitative perfusion and motion analyses with gated single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) on predictive ability has not been clearly defined in multi-center studies. Methods: A total of 252 patients with recent myocardial infarction (n = 74) and old myocardial infarction (n = 175) were registered from 25 institutions. All patients underwent resting gated SPECT using 99mTc-hexakis-2-methoxy-isobutyl isonitrile (MIBI) and repeated the study after revascularization after an average follow-up period of 132 ± 81 days. Visual and quantitative assessment of perfusion and wall motion were performed in 5,040 segments. Results: Non-gated segmental percent uptake and end-systolic (ES) percent uptake were good predictors of wall motion recovery and significantly differed between improved and non-improved groups (66 ± 17% and 55 ± 18%, p < 0.0001 for non-gated; 64 ± 16% and 51 ± 17% for ES percent uptake, p < 0.0001). The area under the curve of receiver operating characteristics curve for non-gated percent uptake, ES percent uptake, end-diastolic percent uptake and visual perfusion defect score was 0.70, 0.71, 0.61, and 0.56, respectively. Sensitivity and specificity of percent uptake were 68% and 64% for non-gated map and 80% and 52% for ES percent uptake map. An optimal threshold for predicting segmental improvement was 63% for non-gated and 52% for ES percent uptake values. Conclusion: Segmental 99mTc-MIBI uptake provided a useful predictor of wall motion improvement. Application of quantitative approach with non-gated and ES percent uptake enhanced predictive accuracy over visual analysis particularly in a multi-center study. © 2008 Springer-Verlag

ATR阻害は非相同末端結合および相同組換え修復と非依存的に5-FUを増感する

The anticancer agent 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is cytotoxic and often used to treat various cancers. 5-FU is thought to inhibit the enzyme thymidylate synthase, which plays a role in nucleotide synthesis and has been found to induce single- and double-strand DNA breaks. ATR Ser/Thr kinase (ATR) is a principal kinase in the DNA damage response and is activated in response to UV- and chemotherapeutic drug-induced DNA replication stress, but its role in cellular responses to 5-FU is unclear. In this study, we examined the effect of ATR inhibition on 5-FU sensitivity of mammalian cells. Using immunoblotting, we found that 5-FU treatment dose-dependently induced the phosphorylation of ATR at the autophosphorylation site Thr-1989 and thereby activated its kinase. Administration of 5-FU with a specific ATR inhibitor remarkably decreased cell survival, compared with 5-FU treatment combined with other major DNA repair kinase inhibitors. Of note, the ATR inhibition enhanced induction of DNA double-strand breaks and apoptosis in 5-FU-treated cells. Using gene expression analysis, we found that 5-FU induced the activation of the intra-S cell-cycle checkpoint. Cells lacking BRCA2 were sensitive to 5-FU in the presence of ATR inhibitor. Moreover, ATR inhibition enhanced the efficacy of the 5-FU treatment, independently of the nonhomologous end-joining and homologous recombination repair pathways. These findings suggest that ATR could be a potential therapeutic target in 5-FU-based chemotherapy.博士（医学）・甲第791号・令和3年3月15日© 2020 Ito et al. Published under exclusive license by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.This is an Open Access article under the CC BY license(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Research and Design of a Routing Protocol in Large-Scale Wireless Sensor Networks

无线传感器网络，作为全球未来十大技术之一，集成了传感器技术、嵌入式计算技术、分布式信息处理和自组织网技术，可实时感知、采集、处理、传输网络分布区域内的各种信息数据，在军事国防、生物医疗、环境监测、抢险救灾、防恐反恐、危险区域远程控制等领域具有十分广阔的应用前景。 本文研究分析了无线传感器网络的已有路由协议，并针对大规模的无线传感器网络设计了一种树状路由协议，它根据节点地址信息来形成路由，从而简化了复杂繁冗的路由表查找和维护，节省了不必要的开销，提高了路由效率，实现了快速有效的数据传输。 为支持此路由协议本文提出了一种自适应动态地址分配算——ADAR（AdaptiveDynamicAddre...As one of the ten high technologies in the future, wireless sensor network, which is the integration of micro-sensors, embedded computing, modern network and Ad Hoc technologies, can apperceive, collect, process and transmit various information data within the region. It can be used in military defense, biomedical, environmental monitoring, disaster relief, counter-terrorism, remote control of haz...学位：工学硕士院系专业：信息科学与技术学院通信工程系_通信与信息系统学号：2332007115216

Efficient spawning conditions of kuruma prawn Marsupenaeus japonicus to induce maturation

Text in Japanese with English abstract.Efficient spawning conditions through artificially induced maturation by unilateral eyestalk ablation were investigated for the kuruma prawn Marsupenaeus japonicus. After unilateral eyestalk ablation, 24℃ was the most efficient water temperature for spawning (rate, number of spawning times, and number of eggs) in the comparison of four water temperatures (20, 22, 24, and 26℃). Egg diameter tended to increase with decreasing water temperature. As a result of unilateral eyestalk ablation at different molting stages, the postmolt stage was better in spawning rate and survival until spawning. Based on these results, individuals that seemed to be in the postmolt stage were selected manually, subjected to eyestalk ablation, and reared at 24℃. Prawns were randomly split into two feeding groups of compound feed or live polychaete. Unilateral eyestalk ablation enabled spawning of the group consuming the compound feed. For both feeding groups, most individuals spawned on Day 10