Direct submission system and literature annotation of rice genes in Oryzabase

Oryzabase ("http://www.shigen.nig.ac.jp/rice/oryzabase/":http://www.shigen.nig.ac.jp/rice/oryzabase/) is a comprehensive rice science database ^1^. It houses a variety of genetic resources, relevant literatures, gene dictionary, DNA sequences, and basic information such as developmental biology and anatomy. In order to keep the gene dictionary up-to-date, literature annotation has been conducted manually since 1995. However as the publication of journal articles increases year by year after genomic sequences were released, it became more difficult to update the dictionary timely and in high quality without sufficient annotators. To overcome this difficulty, we applied machine learning and text-mining to extract known and unknown genes from journals. The machine extraction followed by manual annotation achieved promising results and increased efficiency in manual annotation. Furthermore a direct submission system where rice researchers can deposit new genes according to the standardized nomenclature ^2^ became operational in 2008. Recent advances will be introduced.

[1] Kurata, N. and Y. Yamazaki., Oryzabase, An Integrated Biological and Genome 
 Information Database for Rice. _Plant Physiology_ (2006) 140, 12-17 
[2] Susan R. McCouch, Gene Nomenclature System for Rice, Rice (2008) 1:72-8

A phased array tracking antenna for vehicles

An antenna system including antenna elements and a satellite tracking method is considered a key technology in implementing land mobile satellite communications. In the early stage of land mobile satellite communications, a mechanical tracking antenna system is considered the best candidate for vehicles, however, a phased array antenna will replace it in the near future, because it has many attractive advantages such as a low and compact profile, high speed tracking, and potential low cost. Communications Research Laboratory is now developing a new phased array antenna system for land vehicles based on research experiences of the airborne phased array antenna, which was developed and evaluated in satellite communication experiments using the ETS-V satellite. The basic characteristics of the phased array antenna for land vehicles are described

How does the throw of baseball pitchers distribute?

There has been no research examining the throw distribution of baseball pitchers. We investigated the throw distributions when a batter was absent and when the standing positions of batters were changed. Subjects were four baseball pitchers. All subjects were right-handed and pitched overhand from the mound to the target. Subjects threw under four conditions，1) Control(C) ;a batter was absent，2) Right Near (RN) ;a right batter stood near to the target，3) Right Far (RF);a right batter stood far from the target ，4) Left (L) ;a left batter stood. The throw distribution was evaluated by the shape of the ellipse of constant distance and coordinates at the throw position. Under condition C, the throw distributions of all subjects were ellipses and their major axes were inclined clockwise (from the pitchers view). These results suggest that the clockwise inclination of the throw distributions were due to the orbits of the right arms\u27 movements of the pitchers. In the condition RN，three subjects threw a ball lower compared to the other conditions and the upper right part of their ellipses which was observed under the other conditions was absent. The results in the condition RN might be due to the psychological conditions of the pitchers that they avoid hitting a batter by a pitch. It is considered that these results would be useful for baseball coaching

N-butyl 2-cyanoacrylate(hystoacryl)にて2期的に塞栓術を要した巨大腎動静脈奇形の1例

We report a case of huge renal arteriovenous malformation treated with superselective endovascular embolization in two treatments using N-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate (Hystoacryl).症例は40歳, 女性。膀胱タンポナーデを主訴に近医受診した。膀胱鏡にて右尿管口からの出血を認めた。造影3D-CT所見から右腎中央から下極に渡る3×4cmの巨大な腎動静脈奇形と診断した。造影にて早期から流出静脈が認められ, high flow typeと診断した。無水エタノールでの塞栓は無効であったため, N-butyl 2-cyanoacrylate(hystoacryl)を用いて, 2期的に塞栓術を施行した。術後, 3ヵ月後の腹部MRIではnidusの開存は認めず, 右腎の大部分の血流は保たれていた。顕微鏡的血尿も消失した。(著者抄録

Treatment strategies for well-differentiated liposarcomas and therapeutic outcomes

This study examined 45 patients with welldifferentiated liposarcoma who were surgically treated at our hospital (initial surgery in 41 patients and reoperation in 4). Only one patient had recurrence among patients who underwent initial surgery, and the recurrence was localised in the retroperitoneal space. For patients who underwent reoperation, the mean time between the initial surgery and the recurrence was 16.5 years. None of the 45 patients developed distant metastasis. It is important to preserve not only neurovascular bundles but also lower limb muscles in order to maintain ambulatory ability in the elderly patients. For well-differentiated liposarcomas of the limbs, it is important to establish a surgical margin beyond the marginal resection border and to perform muscle resection to the extent that would not greatly reduce the muscle strength

Atopic Dermatitis in Mouth Breathers

As mouth breathing is associated with asthma and otitis media, it may be associated with other diseases. Therefore, this population-based cross-sectional study evaluated the association of mouth breathing with the prevalences of various diseases in children. Preschool children older than 2 years were included. A questionnaire was given to parents/guardians at 13 nurseries in Tokushima City. There were 468 valid responses (45.2%). We defined a subject as a mouth breather in daytime (MBD) if they had 2 or more positive items among the 3 following items: “breathes with mouth ordinarily,” “mouth is open ordinarily,” and “mouth is open when chewing.” We defined subjects as mouth breathers during sleep (MBS) if they had 2 or more positive items among the following 3 items: “snoring,” “mouth is open during sleeping,” and “mouth is dry when your child gets up.” The prevalences of MBD and MBS were 35.5%and 45.9%, respectively. There were significant associations between MBD and atopic dermatitis (odds ratio [OR]: 2.4, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.4–4.2), MBS and atopic dermatitis (OR: 2.4, 95% CI: 1.3–4.2), and MBD and asthma (OR: 2.2, 95% CI: 1.2–4.0). After adjusting for history of asthma and allergic rhinitis; family history of atopic dermatitis, asthma, and allergic rhinitis; and nasal congestion; both MBD (OR: 2.6, 95% CI: 1.3–5.4) and MBS (OR: 4.1, 95% CI: 1.8–9.2) were significantly associated with atopic dermatitis. In preschool children older than 2 years, both MBD and MBS may be associated with the onset or development of atopic dermatitis