Sampling, identification and sensory evaluation of odors of a newborn baby’s head and amniotic fluid

For baby odor analyses, noninvasive, stress-free sample collection is important. Using a simple method, we succeeded in obtaining fresh odors from the head of five newborn babies. These odors were chemically analyzed by two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC x GC-MS), and compared with each other or with the odor of amniotic fluid from the baby\u27s mother. We identified 31 chemical components of the volatile odors from neonate heads and 21 from amniotic fluid. Although 15 of these components were common to both sources, there was an apparent difference in the GC x GC patterns between the head and amniotic fluid odors, so the neonate head odor might be individually distinct immediately after birth. Therefore, we made artificial mixtures of the major odor components of the neonate head and maternal amniotic fluid, and used psychological tests to examine whether or not these odors could be distinguished from each other. Our data show that the artificial odor of a neonate head could be distinguished from that of amniotic fluid, and that the odors of artificial head odor mixtures could be correctly discriminated for neonates within an hour after birth and at 2 or 3 days of age

Surrounding Gastric Mucosa Findings Facilitate Diagnosis of Gastric Neoplasm as Gastric Adenoma or Early Gastric Cancer

Background and Aim. It is difficult to master the skill of discriminating gastric adenoma from early gastric cancer by conventional endoscopy or magnifying endoscopy combined with narrow-band imaging, because the colors and morphologies of these neoplasms are occasionally similar. We focused on the surrounding gastric mucosa findings in order to determine how to discriminate between early gastric cancer and gastric adenoma by analyzing the characteristics of the gastric background mucosa. Methods. We retrospectively examined 146 patients who underwent endoscopic submucosal dissection for gastric neoplasm between October 2009 and January 2015. The boundary of atrophic gastritis was classified endoscopically according to the Kimura-Takemoto classification system. Of 146 lesions, 63 early gastric cancers and 21 gastric adenomas were ultimately evaluated and assessed. Results. Almost all gastric adenomas were accompanied by open-type gastritis, whereas 47 and 16 early gastric cancers were accompanied by open-type and closed-type gastritis, respectively (p = 0.037). Conclusions. The evaluation of the boundary of atrophic gastritis associated with gastric neoplasms appears to be useful for discrimination between early gastric cancer and gastric adenoma. When gastric neoplasm is present in the context of surrounding localized gastric atrophy, gastric cancer is probable but not certain

The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection

DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19疾患感受性遺伝子DOCK2の重症化機序を解明 --アジア最大のバイオレポジトリーでCOVID-19の治療標的を発見--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-10.Identifying the host genetic factors underlying severe COVID-19 is an emerging challenge. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 2, 393 cases of COVID-19 in a cohort of Japanese individuals collected during the initial waves of the pandemic, with 3, 289 unaffected controls. We identified a variant on chromosome 5 at 5q35 (rs60200309-A), close to the dedicator of cytokinesis 2 gene (DOCK2), which was associated with severe COVID-19 in patients less than 65 years of age. This risk allele was prevalent in East Asian individuals but rare in Europeans, highlighting the value of genome-wide association studies in non-European populations. RNA-sequencing analysis of 473 bulk peripheral blood samples identified decreased expression of DOCK2 associated with the risk allele in these younger patients. DOCK2 expression was suppressed in patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis (n = 61 individuals) identified cell-type-specific downregulation of DOCK2 and a COVID-19-specific decreasing effect of the risk allele on DOCK2 expression in non-classical monocytes. Immunohistochemistry of lung specimens from patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia showed suppressed DOCK2 expression. Moreover, inhibition of DOCK2 function with CPYPP increased the severity of pneumonia in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by weight loss, lung oedema, enhanced viral loads, impaired macrophage recruitment and dysregulated type I interferon responses. We conclude that DOCK2 has an important role in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of severe COVID-19, and could be further explored as a potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target

Location of a defect in a concrete block by a non-destructive technique

This paper describes a method to estimate the position of a crack in a concrete block using several vibration pick-ups. An array of vibration pick-ups is attached on the concrete block, and a vibration pulse is forced by using a small hammer. If there is a crack, a reflection wave is generated from the position of the crack. Therefore, conventional methods to estimate the position of vibration source seems to be useful for this purpose. However, since the concrete block is elastic, there are three wave propagation modes; the surface wave mode, the primary wave mode and the secondary wave mode. Since the necessary primary wave mode is not significant in magnitude, we cannot estimate the position by the conventional methods. To increase the S/N, we had already proposed a method to eliminate the first-coming surface wave. However, the method was insufficient to achieve a higher S/N. Therefore, this paper proposes a new method to achieve a better location of a crack. Some experiments were carried out, and good results were obtained