Neurobiology of Depression and Anxiety in Parkinson's Disease

Depression and anxiety are common in Parkinson's disease (PD) and have important consequences on quality of life. These have long been recognized as frequent accompanying syndromes of PD, and several reports suggest that these are the causative process or risk factors that are present many years before the appearance of motor symptoms. The neurochemical changes in PD involving dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin might be related to the pathophysiology of depression and anxiety, but this is still not clear. Several studies showed that anxiety in PD patients occurs earlier than depression, during premotor phase, suggesting that there may be a link between the mechanisms that cause anxiety and PD. Whereas a recent study reported that PD patients with depression and anxiety were associated with different demographic and clinical features

Measurement of the Rossiter--McLaughlin Effect in the Transiting Exoplanetary System TrES-1

We report a measurement of the Rossiter--McLaughlin effect in the transiting extrasolar planetary system TrES-1, via simultaneous spectroscopic and photometric observations with the Subaru and MAGNUM telescopes. By modeling the radial velocity anomaly that was observed during a transit, we determine the sky-projected angle between the stellar spin axis and the planetary orbital axis to be $\lambda = 30 \pm 21$ [deg]. This is the third case for which $\lambda$ has been measured in a transiting exoplanetary system, and the first demonstration that such measurements are possible for relatively faint host stars ($V \sim 12$, as compared to $V \sim 8$ for the other systems). We also derive a time of mid-transit, constraints on the eccentricity of the TrES-1b orbit ($e = 0.048 \pm 0.025$), and upper limits on the mass of the Trojan companions ($\lesssim$14 $M_{\oplus}$) at the 3$\sigma$ level.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables. Published in PASJ. Corrected typo

Passive immunisation of goldfish with the serum of those surviving a Cyprinid herpesvirus 2 infection after high temperature water treatment

Herpesviral haematopoietic necrosis of goldfish caused by cyprinid herpesvirus 2 (CyHV-2) can be controlled by raising water temperature to a virus non-permissive temperature of 34℃. Consequently, the goldfish can survive and acquire resistance to the disease; the underlying mechanism of acquired resistance, however, remains unclear. In this study, we investigated serological changes in the surviving goldfish, with a focus on their humoral immunity, and examined whether sera of the surviving goldfish conferred passive immunity to naive goldfish. Levels of the anti-CyHV-2 antibodies in 8 of the 9 survivors measured via ELISA were higher than those in control fish. Neutralising antibodies were detected in the sera of 2 survivors, but no direct correlation was observed between ELISA optical density value and neutralising antibody titer. Passive immunisation tests showed that recipients injected with the serum containing neutralising antibodies showed higher survival rates than the control group. The sera from 6 other survivors showed no effect on the recipient\u27s mortality regardless of anti-CyHV-2 antibody levels. These results suggest that neutralising antibodies can contribute to acquired immunity in survivors, and other protective factors, including cell-mediated immunity, may work in the survivors that show no detectable neutralising antibodies

Alleviation of Brain Hypoperfusion after Preventative Treatment with Lomerizine in an Elderly Migraineur with Aura

Previous studies of brain single-photon emission tomography (SPECT) showed changes of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in migraineurs during prodromes or headache attacks. Little is known about how successful medication of migraine prevention can reflect rCBF in migraineurs. We highlighted alternation of brain SPECT findings in a migraineur with aura before and after prophylactic treatment with lomerizine, a calcium channel blocker. A 70-year-old man with migraine developed visual disturbance frequently at walking exercise for the recent 3 months. After this visual attack, a mild-degree of throbbing headache occured occasionally. Brain SPECT using 99mTc-ethyl cysteinate dimer was performed at interictal time of migraine. Brain SPECT before lomerizine treatment revealed hypoperfusion in the frontal, parietal, and occipital regions. He was diagnosed with recurrence of migraine with aura (MA). Lomerizine (10 mg/day, po) was administered for 3 months. MA and visual aura without headache were dramatically improved. Migraine attacks and visual disturbance were not induced at exercise. At 3 months after lomerizine medication, brain SPECT showed remarkable increase of rCBF. These SPECT changes of our patient indicated that antimigraine mechanism of lomerizine could contribute to restoration of cerebral hypoperfusion

Development of Methods to Evaluate Several Levels of Uranium Concentrations in Drainage Water Using Total Reflection X-Ray Fluorescence Technique

As a country's law stipulates the effluent standard uranium concentration in drainage water, the uranium concentration must be determined when drainage water is released from a uranium handling facility, such as the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The maximum allowable limit for uranium release at each facility is defined taking into consideration the situation of the facility, such as 1/10 to 1/100 of this effluent standard value. Currently, the uranium concentration of drainage water is commonly determined by α-particle spectrometry, in which several liters of drainage water must be evaporated, requiring about half of a day followed by 2–3 h of measurements, due to the low specific radioactivity of uranium. This work proposes a new methodology for the rapid and simple measurement of several levels of uranium in drainage water by a total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) analysis. Using a portable device for TXRF measurements was found to enable measurements with 1/10 the sensitivity of the effluent standard value by 10 times condensation of the uranium-containing sample solution; a benchtop device is useful to measure uranium concentrations <1/100 of the effluent standard value. Therefore, the selective usage of methods by a portable and benchtop devices allows for screening and precise evaluation of uranium concentrations in drainage water

Measurement of the Spin-Orbit Angle of Exoplanet HAT-P-1b

We present new spectroscopic and photometric observations of the HAT-P-1 planetary system. Spectra obtained during three transits exhibit the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, allowing us to measure the angle between the sky projections of the stellar spin axis and orbit normal, \lambda = 3.7 +/- 2.1 degrees. The small value of \lambda for this and other systems suggests that the dominant planet migration mechanism preserves spin-orbit alignment. Using two new transit light curves, we refine the transit ephemeris and reduce the uncertainty in the orbital period by an order of magnitude. We find a upper limit on the orbital eccentricity of 0.067, with 99% confidence, by combining our new radial-velocity measurements with those obtained previously.Comment: 28 total pages, 4 figures, 4 tables, ApJ Accepte

Different Human Copper-Zinc Superoxide Dismutase Mutants, SOD1G93A and SOD1H46R, Exert Distinct Harmful Effects on Gross Phenotype in Mice

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a heterogeneous group of fatal neurodegenerative diseases characterized by a selective loss of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Creation of transgenic mice expressing mutant Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1), as ALS models, has made an enormous impact on progress of the ALS studies. Recently, it has been recognized that genetic background and gender affect many physiological and pathological phenotypes. However, no systematic studies focusing on such effects using ALS models other than SOD1G93A mice have been conducted. To clarify the effects of genetic background and gender on gross phenotypes among different ALS models, we here conducted a comparative analysis of growth curves and lifespans using congenic lines of SOD1G93A and SOD1H46R mice on two different genetic backgrounds; C57BL/6N (B6) and FVB/N (FVB). Copy number of the transgene and their expression between SOD1G93A and SOD1H46R lines were comparable. B6 congenic mutant SOD1 transgenic lines irrespective of their mutation and gender differences lived longer than corresponding FVB lines. Notably, the G93A mutation caused severer disease phenotypes than did the H46R mutation, where SOD1G93A mice, particularly on a FVB background, showed more extensive body weight loss and earlier death. Gender effect on survival also solely emerged in FVB congenic SOD1G93A mice. Conversely, consistent with our previous study using B6 lines, lack of Als2, a murine homolog for the recessive juvenile ALS causative gene, in FVB congenic SOD1H46R, but not SOD1G93A, mice resulted in an earlier death, implying a genetic background-independent but mutation-dependent phenotypic modification. These results indicate that SOD1G93A- and SOD1H46R-mediated toxicity and their associated pathogenic pathways are not identical. Further, distinctive injurious effects resulted from different SOD1 mutations, which are associated with genetic background and/or gender, suggests the presence of several genetic modifiers of disease expression in the mouse genome

Platoon-based traffic flow model for estimating breakdown probability at single-lane expressway bottlenecks

This study investigates the mechanism of traffic breakdown and establishes a traffic flow model that precisely simulates the stochastic and dynamic processes of traffic flow at a bottleneck. The proposed model contains two models of stochastic processes associated with traffic flow dynamics: a model of platoon formation behind a bottleneck and a model of speed transitions within a platoon. After these proposed models are validated, they are applied to a simple one-way, one-lane expressway section containing a bottleneck, and the stochastic nature of traffic breakdown is demonstrated through theoretical exercises

X-ray Fluorescence Analysis of Actinides Collected from Contaminated Water

At TEPCO\u27s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, contaminated water is treated after removing radionuclides. Fuel debris removal, which is commencing soon, may discharge water contaminated with actinides, such as uranium, neptunium, and plutonium, requiring screening prior to treatment. In this paper, we propose an actinide screening method based on X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis.In this method, actinides are collected on a chelating disk [1] containing iminodiacetic acid as a chelating agent, and their L-X rays are analyzed using an energy-dispersive XRF device. The Br Kβ, Rb Kα, and Sr Kα peaks overlap with the Lα peaks of U, Np, and Pu, which interferes with the analysis. Of these, the Br Kβ and Rb Kα peaks are located in the lower energy region of the U Lα peak and can be separated by peak fitting [2]. Furthermore, the Sr Kα peak is located between the Np Lα and Pu Lα peaks, hindering its separation by peak fitting owing to the proximity of the peaks. Therefore, before collecting the actinides in the sample solution on the chelating disk, Sr is removed by loading through a Sr Rad Disk [3], which adsorbs Sr well.First, simulated contaminated water containing Sr was mixed with same amount of 4 mol/L nitric acid and a solution containing 200 ng of U, Np, and Pu. This was loaded through a Sr Rad Disk. To the filtrate, 1 mol/L ammonium acetate were added, and pH was adjusted to 5.6. The chelating disk of 22.5 mm diameter was conditioned with methanol, 2 mol/L nitric acid, ultrapure water, and 0.1 mol/L ammonium acetate solution (pH 5.6). Actinides were collected on the disc by loading the sample solution through chelate discs.The XRF measurement of the disc was performed using an Epsilon 4 tabletop XRF spectrometer (PANalytical, Malvern Instruments, Spectris plc, England). The X-ray tube voltage and current were set to 50 kV and 0.3 mA, respectively, and the X-ray accumulation time for each spectral measurement was 300 s. In the measured XRF spectrum, the Lα peaks of U, Np, and Pu were clearly observed. In this presentation, we explain the features and benefits of this technique. This research project was conducted as a regulatory supporting research funded by the Secretariat of Nuclear Regulation Authority (S/NRA/R) in Japan.[1] T. Inui et al., X-ray spectrometry 40, 2011, 301–305.[2] H. Yoshii et al., Spectrochimica Acta B, 189, 2022, 106368.[3] LL. Smith et al., Radiochemical Acta 73, 1996, 165–170.European Conference on X-ray Spectrometry 202