THE EXPRESSION OF HLA-G ANTIGEN IN DIFFERENT HUMAN TISSUES AND PLACENTAS AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF PREGNANCY

The distribution of HLA-G antigens in human tissues including placents was examined by immunohistochemical methods, using monoclonal antibody (Mab) specific to HLA-G antigen (87 G). Comparatively, class Ⅰ specific Mab, W 6/32 was also employed for the detection of the antigen. W 6/32 reacted with a wide variety of cells and tissues throughout the body, whereas Mab 87 G did not react at all with these W 6/32 reactive cells except for those of placental tissues. Mab 87 G reacted with extravillous cytotrophoblast cells such as cytotrophoblastic cell columns, cytotrophoblastic shell and invasive cytotrophoblast but not other parts of placentas throughout the pregnant periods. Essentially the same results were obtained with W 6/32 staining in placentas. These results indicate that HLA-G antigens are exclusively expressed in extravillous cytotrophoblast cells although we cannot rule out the possibility that undetectable amounts of the HLA-G antigen or its isoforms which cannot be recognized by the Mabs used in this study are synthesized in some other tissues

Distant-supervised Language Model for Detecting Emotional Upsurge on Twitter

De triggers som idag används i Autoliv BKIs laboratorium har till uppgift att synkronisera signalerna vid simulering av krock som en intern kvalitetskontroll av produktionen. De sköter utösning av airbags och start av höghastighetskameror. Då Autoliv har flera modeller av krockkuddar används idag olika triggers och man har därför som önskemål att utveckla ett nytt system som skulle kunna ersätta de nuvarande systemen och som kan användas vid samtliga kvalitetstest. Projektet resulterade i en testad prototyp som inkluderar hårdvara, mjukvara, samt CAD-ritningar till en färdig produkt

ニホン ジジョウ テキスト ニ コメタ ニホンゴ キョウイク ノ シテン ジュンビ キョウイク カテイ ニ オケル ニホン ジジョウ カラ

CJLC叢書No.7『日本語と日本文化－言葉から文化を学ぶ－』（2023）は、国費学部留学生の予備教育における「日本事情」科目のために開発されたテキストである。本テキストの作成にあたっては、「日本事情」授業を、固有名詞と事物の名称の提示に特化した語彙教育の場として位置付けたこと、さらに、初級から上級すべての日本語レベルの学習者にも使用できるものを目指したことが特筆に値する。巻末に挙げたおよそ1100語の語彙リストがそのまま「日本事情」における具体的な学習項目の提示にもなっており、この点もこれまでにはなかった試みである。「日本事情」というテキストのあり方の一試案を示すとともに、編纂の過程で検討を要した点や課題などを詳らかにすることにより、さまざまな日本語教育の教材を作成するうえでの参考となるような視点を示した

A Genome-Wide Association Study Identified AFF1 as a Susceptibility Locus for Systemic Lupus Eyrthematosus in Japanese

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that causes multiple organ damage. Although recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have contributed to discovery of SLE susceptibility genes, few studies has been performed in Asian populations. Here, we report a GWAS for SLE examining 891 SLE cases and 3,384 controls and multi-stage replication studies examining 1,387 SLE cases and 28,564 controls in Japanese subjects. Considering that expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) have been implicated in genetic risks for autoimmune diseases, we integrated an eQTL study into the results of the GWAS. We observed enrichments of cis-eQTL positive loci among the known SLE susceptibility loci (30.8%) compared to the genome-wide SNPs (6.9%). In addition, we identified a novel association of a variant in the AF4/FMR2 family, member 1 (AFF1) gene at 4q21 with SLE susceptibility (rs340630; P = 8.3×10−9, odds ratio = 1.21). The risk A allele of rs340630 demonstrated a cis-eQTL effect on the AFF1 transcript with enhanced expression levels (P<0.05). As AFF1 transcripts were prominently expressed in CD4+ and CD19+ peripheral blood lymphocytes, up-regulation of AFF1 may cause the abnormality in these lymphocytes, leading to disease onset

The thalamus and its subnuclei—a gateway to obsessive-compulsive disorder

Larger thalamic volume has been found in children with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and children with clinical-level symptoms within the general population. Particular thalamic subregions may drive these differences. The ENIGMA-OCD working group conducted mega- and meta-analyses to study thalamic subregional volume in OCD across the lifespan. Structural T-1-weighted brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans from 2649 OCD patients and 2774 healthy controls across 29 sites (50 datasets) were processed using the FreeSurfer built-in ThalamicNuclei pipeline to extract five thalamic subregions. Volume measures were harmonized for site effects using ComBat before running separate multiple linear regression models for children, adolescents, and adults to estimate volumetric group differences. All analyses were pre-registered (https://osf.io/73dvy) and adjusted for age, sex and intracranial volume. Unmedicated pediatric OCD patients (<12 years) had larger lateral (d = 0.46), pulvinar (d = 0.33), ventral (d = 0.35) and whole thalamus (d = 0.40) volumes at unadjusted p-values <0.05. Adolescent patients showed no volumetric differences. Adult OCD patients compared with controls had smaller volumes across all subregions (anterior, lateral, pulvinar, medial, and ventral) and smaller whole thalamic volume (d = -0.15 to -0.07) after multiple comparisons correction, mostly driven by medicated patients and associated with symptom severity. The anterior thalamus was also significantly smaller in patients after adjusting for thalamus size. Our results suggest that OCD-related thalamic volume differences are global and not driven by particular subregions and that the direction of effects are driven by both age and medication status

Freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae) from the rising sun (Far East Asia): phylogeny, systematics, and distribution

Freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae) is a diverse family with around 700 species being widespread in the Northern Hemisphere and Africa. These animals fulfill key ecological functions and provide important services to humans. Unfortunately, populations have declined dramatically over the last century, rendering Unionidae one of the world’s most imperiled taxonomic groups. In Far East Asia (comprising Japan, Korea, and Eastern Russia), conservation actions have been hindered by a lack of basic information on the number, identity, distribution and phylogenetic relationships of species. Available knowledge is restricted to studies on national and sub-national levels. The present study aims to resolve the diversity, biogeography and evolutionary relationships of the Far East Asian Unionidae in a globally comprehensive phylogenetic and systematic context.We reassessed the systematics of all Unionidae species in the region, including newly collected specimens from across Japan, South Korea, and Russia, based on molecular (including molecular species delineation and a COI + 28S phylogeny) and comparative morphological analyses. Biogeographical patterns were then assessed based on available species distribution data from the authors and previous reference works.We revealed that Unionidae species richness in Far East Asia is 30% higher than previously assumed, counting 43 species (41 native + 2 alien) within two Unionidae subfamilies, the Unioninae (32 + 1) and Gonideinae (9 + 1). Four of these species are new to science, i.e. Beringiana gosannensis sp. nov., Beringiana fukuharai sp. nov., Buldowskia kamiyai sp. nov., and Koreosolenaia sitgyensis gen. & sp. nov. We also propose a replacement name for Nodularia sinulata, i.e. Nodularia breviconcha nom. nov. and describe a new tribe (Middendorffinaiini tribe nov.) within the Unioninae subfamily. Biogeographical patterns indicate that this fauna is related to that from China south to Vietnam until the Mekong River basin. The Japanese islands of Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, Hokkaido, and the Korean Peninsula were identified as areas of particularly high conservation value, owing to high rates of endemism, diversity and habitat loss. The genetically unique species within the genera Amuranodonta, Obovalis, Koreosolenaia gen. nov., and Middendorffinaia are of high conservation concern