Development of ultra-small lightweight optical range sensor system

Abstract -We have developed a 2-D laser range sensor suitable for mobile robot platforms. The sensor features compactness, lightweight, high precision and low power consumption, and provides the wide scan angle with high resolution, which is very important for environment recognition by mobile robots. The basic technology for measuring the distance between the sensor and objects are; using amplitude modulation of light waves and detecting the phase difference between transmitted and the received one. This paper explains the specification of the proto-type sensor, the method of distance measurement and examples of experimental results

ワカテ ショウニ ゲカイ ノ ECFMG certificate シュトク エノ チョウセン : ベイコク ショウニ ゲカ リンショウ リュウガク オ メザシテ

Recently, many Japanese pediatric surgeons undertake clinical training abroad, especially in the United States of America (USA) which is one of the most attractive country for advanced clinical training. Since the Japanese government introduced a 2-year mandatory residency program in 2004, it has become more and more important for busy Japanese residents to spent time efficiently in order to achieve ECFMG (Educational Commission For Foreign Medical Graduates) certification. ECFMG certification requires residents to pass both Step 1 and 2 of the United States Medical License Examination (USMLE). It is especially difficult to pass step2 CS (Clinical Skills) for many Japanese who are unfamiliar with the English language. For example, one of authors started to study for the USMLE in the 6th grade of the Japanese Medical School (MS4), passed step1 and step2 CK (Clinical Knowledge) during the 2-year mandatory intensive rotating residency program, and passed Step2 CS on the 3rd attempt during the general surgery residency program. This shows that a Japanese examinee can pass the ECFMG certificate even during a busy rotating residency program

フクブ ショクドウ チョウフクショウ ニ タイシ フククウキョウカ テキシュツジュツ オ シコウ シタ １レイ

A 9-year-old boy was admitted to the hospital for close exploration of cystic tumor of the esophagus ventral detected in the abdominal contrast CT scan during the investigation of hematuria. Upper gastrointestinal fluoroscopic and endoscopic examination with ultrasonography showed a cystic tumor with the diameter of 2cm and smooth surface in the abdominal esophagus. Laparoscopic surgery was performed under the diagnosis of abdominal esophageal duplication cyst. At surgery, the soft and well-defined mass was present in the abdominal esophagus ventral and continuous with the esophagus wall. Histopathological study showed the cystic wall was lined with the pseudostratified ciliated epithelium and subepithelial muscle layer. These findings indicated abdominal esophageal duplication cyst. He was discharged on postoperative day 8 with good postoperative course. Abdominal esophageal duplication cyst is a rare disease. Laparoscopic surgery, which has not seen attempted before this case, seems to be a useful treatment of abdominal esophageal duplication cyst

ショウニ ノ タンカン カクチョウガタ スイ タンカン ゴウリュウ イジョウ セツジョレイ ニ ハツガン カンレン イデンシ HDAC ガ コウハツゲン シテイタ 1レイ

Pancreaticobiliary maljunction（PBM）is the congenital malformation that the junction of the pancreatic and bile ducts is located outside of the duodenal wall anatomically, so sphincter function preventing to mix the bile and pancreatic juice does not act. In PBM, the mutual reflux of bile and pancreatic juice induces various diseases and becomes the cause of biliary tract cancer generation. PBM is divided into PBM with the biliary dilatation and PBM without the biliary dilatation. From the perspective of carcinogenesis, surgery to separate the pancreatic juice and bile by excision of extrahepatic biliary tract and hepaticojejunostomy is commonly performed in the former, the treatment of the latter is controversial, for instance ; the only cholecystectomy should be performed and excision of extrahepatic biliary tract is unnecessary or excision of extrahepatic biliary tract and hepaticojejunostomy should be done. In addition, histone acetylation and histone deacetylation is one of the important regulatory mechanism of gene transcription, the error of the balance between histone acetyltransferase（HAT）and histone deacetylase（HDAC）leads to carcinogenesis. In other words, HDAC has a carcinogenic potential. Overexpression of HDAC was found in the both resected gallbladder and bile duct mucosa of infant PBM patient with the biliary dilatation performed the excision of extrahepatic biliary tract and hepaticojejunostomy in our department. Appropriate treatment for PBM has not been established yet, but even infant case with PBM has carcinogenesis potential just like this case. In conclusion, further accumulation of cases including PBM without the biliary dilatation was thought to be essential though the excision of extrahepatic biliary tract and hepaticojejunostomy still seems to be required for infant PBM patient with the biliary dilatation

Dramatic Dietary Shift Maintains Sequestered Toxins in Chemically Defended Snakes

Unlike other snakes, most species of Rhabdophis possess glands in their dorsal skin, sometimes limited to the neck, known as nucho-dorsal and nuchal glands, respectively. Those glands contain powerful cardiotonic steroids known as bufadienolides, which can be deployed as a defense against predators. Bufadienolides otherwise occur only in toads (Bufonidae) and some fireflies (Lampyrinae), which are known or believed to synthesize the toxins. The ancestral diet of Rhabdophis consists of anuran amphibians, and we have shown previously that the bufadienolide toxins of frog-eating species are sequestered from toads consumed as prey. However, one derived clade, the Rhabdophis nuchalis Group, has shifted its primary diet from frogs to earthworms. Here we confirm that the worm-eating snakes possess bufadienolides in their nucho-dorsal glands, although the worms themselves lack such toxins. In addition, we show that the bufadienolides of R. nuchalis Group species are obtained primarily from fireflies. Although few snakes feed on insects, we document through feeding experiments, chemosensory preference tests, and gut contents that lampyrine firefly larvae are regularly consumed by these snakes. Furthermore, members of the R. nuchalis Group contain compounds that resemble the distinctive bufadienolides of fireflies, but not those of toads, in stereochemistry, glycosylation, acetylation, and molecular weight. Thus, the evolutionary shift in primary prey among members of the R. nuchalis Group has been accompanied by a dramatic shift in the source of the species’ sequestered defensive toxins

Screening for resistance against Pseudomonas syringae in rice-FOX Arabidopsis lines identified a putative receptor-like cytoplasmic kinase gene that confers resistance to major bacterial and fungal pathogens in Arabidopsis and rice

Approximately 20 000 of the rice-FOX Arabidopsis transgenic lines, which overexpress 13 000 rice full-length cDNAs at random in Arabidopsis, were screened for bacterial disease resistance by dip inoculation with Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 (Pst DC3000). The identities of the overexpressed genes were determined in 72 lines that showed consistent resistance after three independent screens. Pst DC3000 resistance was verified for 19 genes by characterizing other independent Arabidopsis lines for the same genes in the original rice-FOX hunting population or obtained by reintroducing the genes into ecotype Columbia by floral dip transformation. Thirteen lines of these 72 selections were also resistant to the fungal pathogen Colletotrichum higginsianum. Eight genes that conferred resistance to Pst DC3000 in Arabidopsis have been introduced into rice for overexpression, and transformants were evaluated for resistance to the rice bacterial pathogen, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. One of the transgenic rice lines was highly resistant to Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. Interestingly, this line also showed remarkably high resistance to Magnaporthe grisea, the fungal pathogen causing rice blast, which is the most devastating rice disease in many countries. The causal rice gene, encoding a putative receptor-like cytoplasmic kinase, was therefore designated as BROAD-SPECTRUM RESISTANCE 1. Our results demonstrate the utility of the rice-FOX Arabidopsis lines as a tool for the identification of genes involved in plant defence and suggest the presence of a defence mechanism common between monocots and dicots

Huge splenic epidermoid cyst with elevation of serum CA19-9 level

A 30-year-old female was referred to our hospital for further examination of liver dysfunction. A huge, soft mass was noted in her left upper quadrant on physical examination. Abdominal ultrasonography and computed tomography revealed a huge cystic tumor of 20 cm in the hilus of the spleen. Serum CA19-9 was 491 U/ml, and splenectomy was performed under suspicion of a malignant cystic tumor. The inner surface of the cyst was lined by squamous epithelial cells that were immunohistochemically positive for CA19-9. Serum CA19-9 level was normalized after the surgery. Our case of a very rare, huge epidermoid cyst of the spleen suggests that measurement of the serum CA19-9 level is useful for evaluating therapeutic efficacy of a splenic epidermoid cyst

Characteristics and risk factors for typhoid fever after the tsunami, earthquake and under normal conditions in Indonesia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although typhoid transmitted by food and water is a common problem in daily life, its characteristics and risk factors may differ in disaster-affected areas, which reinforces the need for rapid public health intervention. Surveys were carried out post-tsunami in Banda Aceh, post-earthquake in Yogyakarta, and under normal conditions in Bandung, Indonesia. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the risk factors with the dependent variable of typhoid fever, with or without complications.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Characteristic typhoid fever with complications was found in 5 patients (11.9%) affected by the tsunami in Aceh, 8 (20.5%) after the earthquake in Yogyakarta, and 13 (18.6%) in Bandung. After the tsunami in Aceh, clean water (OR = 0.05; 95%CI: 0.01-0.47) and drug availability (OR = 0.23; 95%CI: 0.02-2.43) are significant independent risk factors, while for the earthquake in Yogyakarta, contact with other typhoid patients (OR = 20.30; 95%CI: 1.93-213.02) and education (OR = 0.08; 95%CI: 0.01-0.98) were significant risk factors. Under normal conditions in Bandung, hand washing (OR = 0.07; 95%CI: 0.01-0.50) and education (OR = 0.08; 95%CI: 0.01-0.64) emerged as significant risk factors.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The change in risk factors for typhoid complication after the tsunami in Aceh and the earthquake in Yogyakarta emphasizes the need for rapid public health intervention in natural disasters in Indonesia.</p

Characterization of pullulanase (PUL)-deficient mutants of rice (Oryza sativa L.) and the function of PUL on starch biosynthesis in the developing rice endosperm

Rice (Oryza sativa) allelic sugary1 (sug1) mutants defective in isoamylase 1 (ISA1) accumulate varying levels of starch and phytoglycogen in their endosperm, and the activity of a pullulanase-type of a debranching enzyme (PUL) was found to correlate closely with the severity of the sug1 phenotype. Thus, three PUL-deficient mutants were generated to investigate the function of PUL in starch biosynthesis. The reduction of PUL activity had no pleiotropic effects on the other enzymes involved in starch biosynthesis. The short chains (DP ≤13) of amylopectin in PUL mutants were increased compared with that of the wild type, but the extent of the changes was much smaller than that of sug1 mutants. The α-glucan composition [amylose, amylopectin, water-soluble polysaccharide (WSP)] and the structure of the starch components (amylose and amylopectin) of the PUL mutants were essentially the same, although the average chain length of the B2-3 chains of amylopectin in the PUL mutant was ∼3 residues longer than that of the wild type. The double mutants between the PUL-null and mild sug1 mutants still retained starch in the outer layer of endosperm tissue, while the amounts of WSP and short chains (DP ≤7) of amylopectin were higher than those of the sug1 mutant; this indicates that the PUL function partially overlaps with that of ISA1 and its deficiency has a much smaller effect on the synthesis of amylopectin than ISA1 deficiency and the variation of the sug1 phenotype is not significantly dependent on the PUL activities

RiceFOX: A Database of Arabidopsis Mutant Lines Overexpressing Rice Full-Length cDNA that Contains a Wide Range of Trait Information to Facilitate Analysis of Gene Function

Identification of gene function is important not only for basic research but also for applied science, especially with regard to improvements in crop production. For rapid and efficient elucidation of useful traits, we developed a system named FOX hunting (Full-length cDNA Over-eXpressor gene hunting) using full-length cDNAs (fl-cDNAs). A heterologous expression approach provides a solution for the high-throughput characterization of gene functions in agricultural plant species. Since fl-cDNAs contain all the information of functional mRNAs and proteins, we introduced rice fl-cDNAs into Arabidopsis plants for systematic gain-of-function mutation. We generated >30,000 independent Arabidopsis transgenic lines expressing rice fl-cDNAs (rice FOX Arabidopsis mutant lines). These rice FOX Arabidopsis lines were screened systematically for various criteria such as morphology, photosynthesis, UV resistance, element composition, plant hormone profile, metabolite profile/fingerprinting, bacterial resistance, and heat and salt tolerance. The information obtained from these screenings was compiled into a database named ‘RiceFOX’. This database contains around 18,000 records of rice FOX Arabidopsis lines and allows users to search against all the observed results, ranging from morphological to invisible traits. The number of searchable items is approximately 100; moreover, the rice FOX Arabidopsis lines can be searched by rice and Arabidopsis gene/protein identifiers, sequence similarity to the introduced rice fl-cDNA and traits. The RiceFOX database is available at http://ricefox.psc.riken.jp/