p38 Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase Regulates Oscillation of Chick Pineal Circadian Clock

Extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and p38 are members of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) family, and in some cases these kinases serve for closely related cellular functions within a cell. In a wide range of animal clock structures, ERK plays an important role in the circadian time-keeping mechanism. Here we found that immunoreactivity to p38 protein was uniformly distributed among cells in the chick pineal gland. On the other hand, a constant level of activated p38 was detected over the day, predominantly in the follicular and parafollicular pinealocytes that are potential circadian clock-containing cells. Chronic application of SB203580, a selective and reversible inhibitor of p38, to the cultured chick pineal cells markedly lengthened the period of the circadian rhythm of the melatonin release (up to 28.7 h). Noticeably, despite no significant temporal change of activated p38 level, a 4-h pulse treatment with SB203580 delayed the phase of the rhythm only when delivered during the subjective day. These results indicate a time-of-day-specific role of continuously activated p38 in the period length regulation of the chick pineal clock and suggest temporally separated regulation of the clock by two MAPKs, nighttime-activated ERK and daytime-working p38

THE INFLUENCE OF BASEBALL PITCHING ON THE HARDNESS OF THE FLEXOR PRONATOR MUSCLES - USING ULTRASOUND REALTIME TISSUE ELASTGRAPHY

The purpose of this study was to examine changes of the individual hardness of the flexor - pronator muscle group after pitching. The twelve normal male volunteers who had played baseball participated in this study. One hundred pitches were performed, and the individual flexor pronator muscles hardness were analyzed using ultrasound real time tissue elastgraphy (RTE) both before and after 100 pitching. The hardness of the flexor pronator muscles were not significant different between before and after pitching. However, hardness of the most hardened muscle was significantly different between before and after pitching. Therefore RTE is useful method to manage of the pitching counts in pitchers who performed athletic rehabilitation after throwing injuries

Adaptation-induced collective dynamics of a single-cell protozoan

We investigate the behavior of a single-cell protozoan in a narrow tubular ring. This environment forces them to swim under a one-dimensional periodic boundary condition. Above a critical density, single-cell protozoa aggregate spontaneously without external stimulation. The high-density zone of swimming cells exhibits a characteristic collective dynamics including translation and boundary fluctuation. We analyzed the velocity distribution and turn rate of swimming cells and found that the regulation of the turing rate leads to a stable aggregation and that acceleration of velocity triggers instability of aggregation. These two opposing effects may help to explain the spontaneous dynamics of collective behavior. We also propose a stochastic model for the mechanism underlying the collective behavior of swimming cells

Genetics of Endometrial Cancers

Endometrial cancers exhibit a different mechanism of tumorigenesis and progression depending on histopathological and clinical types. The most frequently altered gene in estrogen-dependent endometrioid endometrial carcinoma tumors is PTEN. Microsatellite instability is another important genetic event in this type of tumor. In contrast, p53 mutations or Her2/neu overexpression are more frequent in non-endometrioid tumors. On the other hand, it is possible that the clear cell type may arise from a unique pathway which appears similar to the ovarian clear cell carcinoma. K-ras mutations are detected in approximately 15%–30% of endometrioid carcinomas, are unrelated to the existence of endometrial hyperplasia. A β-catenin mutation was detected in about 20% of endometrioid carcinomas, but is rare in serous carcinoma. Telomere shortening is another important type of genomic instability observed in endometrial cancer. Only non-endometrioid endometrial carcinoma tumors were significantly associated with critical telomere shortening in the adjacent morphologically normal epithelium. Lynch syndrome, which is an autosomal dominantly inherited disorder of cancer susceptibility and is characterized by a MSH2/MSH6 protein complex deficiency, is associated with the development of non-endometrioid carcinomas

Intrapulmonary lymph nodes: thin-section CT findings, pathological findings, and CT differential diagnosis from pulmonary metastatic nodules.

We compared the thin-section CT findings of 11 intrapulmonary lymph nodes with pathological findings and evaluated the possibility of CT scan differential diagnosis from pulmonary metastatic nodules. First, we retrospectively reviewed CT scan and pathological findings of intrapulmonary lymph nodes. The median size of these nodules was 6.2 mm. The nodules appeared round (n=3) or angular (n=8) in shape with a sharp border, and they were found below the level of the carina. The median distance from the nearest pleural surface was 4.6 mm, and 3 of the 11 nodules were attached to the pleura. On thin-section CT scan, linear densities extending from the intrapulmonary lymph nodes were frequently visualized, and were pathologically proven to be ectatic lymphoid channels. We then compared the thin-section CT findings of 8 metastatic nodules less than 1 cm in diameter with those of the 11 intrapulmonary lymph nodes. The median size of these nodules was 6.8 mm, and the median distance from the nearest pleural surface was 16 mm. All nodules appeared round in shape. None of the nodules had linear densities extending from the nodules. The linear densities on thin-section CT scan may be the most useful characteristic of intrapulmonary lymph nodes, when differential diagnosis from metastatic nodules is necessary.</p

Nationwide survey on quasi-moyamoya disease in Japan

Objectives: Moyamoya disease (MMD) is a unique occlusive disease of the bilateral internal carotid arteries with moyamoya vessels. Inherited or acquired disorders and conditions may present in conjunction with MMD. This condition is known as quasi-moyamoya disease. To identify the clinical features of quasi-MMD in Japan, a nationwide survey was conducted. Patients and methods: A questionnaire was mailed directly to 241 departments that had acknowledged treating quasi-MMD patients in the primary survey. We ascertained the sex, age, family history, clinical manifestation, radiological findings, treatments, course of the disease, and daily activity of the patients. Results: A total of 114 departments replied to the questionnaire. The data of 108 patients (66 female and 42 male; female to male ratio 1.57) were registered and analyzed. Mean age was 30.6 years old, with a peak in children. Seven patients (7 %) exhibited familial MMD. The initial clinical manifestation was motor weakness, followed by transient ischemic attack and headache. Their imaging study type included ischemic type in 64 patients (63.4 %), bleeding type in seven (6.9 %), and normal in 27 (26.7 %). Stenoocclusive lesion was seen in the internal carotid artery in more than half of the patients. Development of moyamoya vessels was mild in approximately 40 % of the patients. Almost all cases were accompanied by cerebral hypoperfusion. About half of them were unilateral lesion. Vascular reconstruction was employed for the approximately 60 % patients. The prognosis did not change significantly. Conclusion: Clinical features of quasi-MMD were revealed in the nationwide study. In quasi-MMD, unilateral lesion is dominant, and the development of moyamoya vessels and intracranial hemorrhage are less dominant

Breaking pairing-based cryptosystems using ηT\eta_T pairing over GF(397)GF(3^{97})

There are many useful cryptographic schemes, such as ID-based encryption, short signature, keyword searchable encryption, attribute-based encryption, functional encryption, that use a bilinear pairing. It is important to estimate the security of such pairing-based cryptosystems in cryptography. The most essential number-theoretic problem in pairing-based cryptosystems is the discrete logarithm problem (DLP) because pairing-based cryptosystems are no longer secure once the underlining DLP is broken. One efficient bilinear pairing is the $\eta_T$ pairing defined over a supersingular elliptic curve $E$ on the finite field $GF(3^n)$ for a positive integer $n$. The embedding degree of the $\eta_T$ pairing is $6$; thus, we can reduce the DLP over $E$ on $GF(3^n)$ to that over the finite field $GF(3^{6n})$. In this paper, for breaking the $\eta_T$ pairing over $GF(3^n)$, we discuss solving the DLP over $GF(3^{6n})$ by using the function field sieve (FFS), which is the asymptotically fastest algorithm for solving a DLP over finite fields of small characteristics. We chose the extension degree $n=97$ because it has been intensively used in benchmarking tests for the implementation of the $\eta_T$ pairing, and the order (923-bit) of $GF(3^{6\cdot 97})$ is substantially larger than the previous world record (676-bit) of solving the DLP by using the FFS. We implemented the FFS for the medium prime case (JL06-FFS), and propose several improvements of the FFS, for example, the lattice sieve for JL06-FFS and the filtering adjusted to the Galois action. Finally, we succeeded in solving the DLP over $GF(3^{6\cdot 97})$. The entire computational time of our improved FFS requires about 148.2 days using 252 CPU cores. Our computational results contribute to the secure use of pairing-based cryptosystems with the $\eta_T$ pairing