Abnormal Cystatin C Levels in Two Patients with Bardet-Biedl Syndrome

Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by central obesity, mental impairment, rod-cone dystrophy, polydactyly, hypogonadism in males, and renal abnormalities. The causative genes have been identified as BBS1-14. In the Western countries, the prevalence of this disease ranges from 1/13,500 to 1/160,000, while only a few Japanese patients have been reported in the English-language literature. The incidence of renal dysfunction or anomalies in previous reports varies considerably ranging from ∼20% to universal occurrence. We here report that two Japanese patients who had BBS with normal BUN and creatinine levels had elevated levels of cystatin C, a sensitive marker of glomerular filtration rate. A urine albumin level increased only in the elder patient. Thus, cystatin C may be useful for detecting renal abnormalities in patients with an apparent normal renal function. Because this disease is diagnosed by accumulation of symptoms, such a sensitive marker might help early diagnosis of BBS

Characteristics of Growth of Activated Sludge Cultivated with Cow\u27s Milk

An activated sludge was cultivated with cow\u27s milk to prepare a sample to study a metabolism of organic substrate by activated sludge, and to compare characters of the sludge cultivated with cow\u27s milk with those cultivated with artificial sewage containing glucose, polypepton etc.. The characteristics of growth of the sludge were investigated as a preliminary test. It seems that our attempt was successful at least on finding the culture conditions enable to obtain a stable activated sludge by using cow\u27s milk as a substrate. It is necessary for the growth of activated sludge that initial load of cow\u27s milk per initial concentration of MLSS (F_o/M_o) exceeds 0.8-0.9 mL cow\u27s milk/gMLSS per day. When F_o/M_o exceeded about 1.5mL cow\u27s milk/gMLSS per day, SV_30 increased rapidly, filamentous microorganisms grew in the sludge, and SVI exceeded 200. An increase in MLSS with cultivation caused decrease of F_o/M_i (i : cultivation days), filamentous microorganisms disappeared and SVI decreased. The activated sludge is able to be utilized conveniently as a sample for the education of environmental science

Results of the search for inspiraling compact star binaries from TAMA300's observation in 2000-2004

We analyze the data of TAMA300 detector to search for gravitational waves from inspiraling compact star binaries with masses of the component stars in the range 1-3Msolar. In this analysis, 2705 hours of data, taken during the years 2000-2004, are used for the event search. We combine the results of different observation runs, and obtained a single upper limit on the rate of the coalescence of compact binaries in our Galaxy of 20 per year at a 90% confidence level. In this upper limit, the effect of various systematic errors such like the uncertainty of the background estimation and the calibration of the detector's sensitivity are included.Comment: 8 pages, 4 Postscript figures, uses revtex4.sty The author list was correcte

Observation results by the TAMA300 detector on gravitational wave bursts from stellar-core collapses

We present data-analysis schemes and results of observations with the TAMA300 gravitational-wave detector, targeting burst signals from stellar-core collapse events. In analyses for burst gravitational waves, the detection and fake-reduction schemes are different from well-investigated ones for a chirp-wave analysis, because precise waveform templates are not available. We used an excess-power filter for the extraction of gravitational-wave candidates, and developed two methods for the reduction of fake events caused by non-stationary noises of the detector. These analysis schemes were applied to real data from the TAMA300 interferometric gravitational wave detector. As a result, fake events were reduced by a factor of about 1000 in the best cases. The resultant event candidates were interpreted from an astronomical viewpoint. We set an upper limit of 2.2x10^3 events/sec on the burst gravitational-wave event rate in our Galaxy with a confidence level of 90%. This work sets a milestone and prospects on the search for burst gravitational waves, by establishing an analysis scheme for the observation data from an interferometric gravitational wave detector

Study of human uroplakin in various diseases of urinary tract

科学研究費補助金研究成果報告書研究種目: 基盤研究(C)研究期間: 2001～2002課題番号: 13671648研究代表者: 田中 努（滋賀医科大学・医学部・助手）研究代表者: 片岡 晃（滋賀医科大学・医学部・助手）研究分担者: 岡田 裕作（滋賀医科大学・医学部・教授）研究分担者: 吉貴 達寛（滋賀医科大学・医学部・助教授）研究分担者: 若林 賢彦（滋賀医科大学・医学部・講師）研究分担者: 金 哲将（滋賀医科大学・医学部・講師）研究分担者: 上仁 数義（滋賀医科大学・医学部・助手）研究分担者: 岡本 圭生（滋賀医科大学・医学部・助手