Functional association between the nef gene product and gag-pol region of HIV-1

AbstractNef gene function is diverse among virus isolates of primate immunodeficiency viruses. We found differential effects of nef mutation on the virus replication between two HIV-1 clones, NL432 and LAI. The nef mutation in NL432 affected the infectivity more severely compared with that in LAI, although the Nef functions of both clones were comparable. Analysis with a series of chimeric viruses between NL432 and LAI revealed that the gag-pol region was responsible for the differential effect of nef mutation. The functional association between Nef and gag-pol suggested that one of the potential targets of Nef was located within the gag-pol region

尺側手関節の変形性関節症の頻度とその発現に影響を及ぼす要因

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to identify the distribution of primary osteoarthritis (OA) in the ulnar aspect of the wrist, and analyze the factors correlated with OA at this site. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 1,128 cases of skeletally mature Japanese patients were collected over a 3-year period. We analyzed the posteroanterior and lateral wrist radiographs of these patients for the presence of primary OA in the ulnar aspect of the wrist, including the distal radioulnar (DRUJ), radiolunate, ulnolunate, lunotriquetral, triquetrohamate, lunohamate, and lunocapitate joints. All joints were examined for the frequency of primary OA. Multivariate logistic regression was used to investigate the factors correlated with the presence of degenerative arthritis in the ulnar aspect of the wrist joint. RESULTS: Primary OA of the ulnar wrist was identified in 145 out of 1,128 cases (12.8 %). Degenerative changes were most frequently identified in the DRUJ (12.3 %), followed by the ulnolunate joint (8.1 %). Variations in radial inclination (RI), carpal height ratio (CHR), and ulnar variance (UV) correlated with OA of the ulnar aspect of the wrist, with variations in UV showing the highest correlation. CONCLUSION: Primary OA of the ulnar wrist was most frequent in the DRUJ and second most frequent in the ulnolunate joint. UV correlated most with OA in the ulnar aspect of the wrist.博士（医学）・乙1328号・平成26年3月17日The definitive version is available at " http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00256-013-1665-9

A way of improving Reading Skills : through Collaborative work

本研究の目的は，英文読解において協働的問題解決学習を取り入れることで，内容理解を深めさせる授業を開発することである。授業実践では，物語文の行間を読む際に，推論発問の後で仲間の考えを聞くことで，問いを解決し，問いを新たに生むなど，理解を深める様子が見られた。また，時間いっぱい意見を交わすグループが増えた。さらに，翻訳する際に，心情を考えながら場面に適した言葉を使うようになった。The aim of this study was to develop effective English lessons through ‘collaborative problem solving.’ In reading activities, it is necessary for students to consider the background of the subject matter and their feelings about it. Through collaborative problem solving in groups, students are able to express their own points of view. Listening to the ideas of other students leads to obtaining a better understanding of the background of the subject matter and cultivating their feelings about it. These activities also help Japanese students develop richer expression in the Japanese language

Effect of Activating Metalinguistic Awareness on the Performance by Learners of English : Preliminary Research on Syntactic Intuition

外国語の学習においてメタ言語意識を活性化させることは重要だと考えられている。特に，日本のように限られた量のインプットしか与えられない環境においてはなおさらである。メタ言語意識は音韻的な側面，語彙的な側面，文構造や統語的な側面，語用論的な側面など多岐にわたるが，本稿では日本人中学生の統語的直観と品詞識別に関わる予備調査を行い，彼らの文法知識の一端を報告した。中学生にとっては難易度の高い英文中で，動詞を選ぶ課題と語の品詞を答えさせる課題を行い，その認識過程を言語化させた。その結果，統語的なメタ言語意識をもちつつある生徒はいるものの，多くの学習者は英文を読む際に語彙の意味に大きく依存する傾向があり，語彙に含まれる統語的な情報や知っている語や前後関係から文の構造を推測することが苦手であることがわかった。Activating metalinguistic awareness is thought to be significant in learning foreign languages. That is especially the case in Japanese schools, where very limited quantity of English is provided for learners. Metalinguistic awareness includes many aspects of language, such as phonology, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics. The present investigation focused on learners' syn1actic intuition, and two preliminary studies were conducted. In one, junior high school students were required to choose verbs while reading an extremely difficult text in English. In the second study, students were asked to identify the parts of speech of several words while they read another difficult text. The results indicated that the students depended too much on the meanings of words-not on syntactic information given in the context-when they read English passages

Experimental Survey on the Interaction of Scrambling with Focus Particles in Japanese

Contribution to Linguistic Evidence 202

Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor Regulates Energy Expenditure Through the Central Nervous System in Obese Diabetic Mice

It has been previously demonstrated that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) regulates glucose metabolism and energy expenditure in rodent diabetic models such as C57BL/KsJ-leprdb/leprdb (db/db) mice. Central administration of BDNF has been found to reduce blood glucose in db/db mice, suggesting that BDNF acts through the central nervous system. In the present study we have expanded these investigations to explore the effect of central administration of BDNF on energy metabolism. Intracerebroventricular administration of BDNF lowered blood glucose and increased pancreatic insulin content of db/db mice compared with vehicle-treated pellet pair-fed db/db mice. While body temperatures of the pellet pair-fed db/db mice given vehicle were reduced because of restricted food supply in this pair-feeding condition, BDNF treatment remarkably alleviated the reduction of body temperature suggesting the enhancement of thermogenesis. BDNF enhanced norepinephrine turnover and increased uncoupling protein-1 mRNA expression in the interscapular brown adipose tissue. Our evidence indicates that BDNF activates the sympathetic nervous system via the central nervous system and regulates energy expenditure in obese diabetic animals

NeISF: Neural Incident Stokes Field for Geometry and Material Estimation

Multi-view inverse rendering is the problem of estimating the scene parameters such as shapes, materials, or illuminations from a sequence of images captured under different viewpoints. Many approaches, however, assume single light bounce and thus fail to recover challenging scenarios like inter-reflections. On the other hand, simply extending those methods to consider multi-bounced light requires more assumptions to alleviate the ambiguity. To address this problem, we propose Neural Incident Stokes Fields (NeISF), a multi-view inverse rendering framework that reduces ambiguities using polarization cues. The primary motivation for using polarization cues is that it is the accumulation of multi-bounced light, providing rich information about geometry and material. Based on this knowledge, the proposed incident Stokes field efficiently models the accumulated polarization effect with the aid of an original physically-based differentiable polarimetric renderer. Lastly, experimental results show that our method outperforms the existing works in synthetic and real scenarios

Lymph node metastasis from colon carcinoma at 11 years after the initial operation managed by lymph node resection and chemoradiation: A case report and a review of the literature

AbstractINTRODUCTIONLymph node metastasis from colorectal cancer after a disease-free interval (DFI) of >5years is extremely rare, and occurs in <0.6% cases.PRESENTATION OF CASEA 60-year-old man underwent low anterior resection for sigmoid colon cancer. The lesion was an adenocarcinoma with no lymph node metastasis of Stage II. At 9years after the colectomy, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and was treated with radiation and hormonal therapies; at 11years, he exhibited suddenly elevated carcinoembryonic antigen levels. Computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography-CT revealed a 2.0-cm para-aortic lymph nodes swelling invading the small intestine. These lymph nodes and the affected segment of the small intestine were resected, and histopathology of the resected specimen confirmed a metastatic tumor. The patient was administered radiation therapy after 22 cycles of 5-fluorouracil, oxaliplatin and leucovorin. He however presented with a residual lesion in the para-aortic lymph node, but currently, he has been symptom free for 4years.DISCUSSIONA review of the literature indicates that the median survival of all previously reported patients is 12months, and that colon cancer with a long DFI might be a slow growing. One of these patients and our patient both had received radiation and/or hormonal therapy for another cancer, which probably impaired their immune systems, thus resulting in metastatic tumors.CONCLUSIONWe report a case of lymph node metastasis after a DFI of >5years and review relevant literature to assess the significance and possible reasons for delayed colorectal cancer metastases