The 5′-AT-rich half-site of Maf recognition element: a functional target for bZIP transcription factor Maf

The Maf family of proteins are a subgroup of basic region-leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factors, which recognize a long palindromic DNA sequence [TGCTGAC(G)TCAGCA] known as the Maf recognition element (MARE). Interestingly, the functional target enhancer sequences present in the αA-crystallin gene contain a well-conserved half-site of MARE rather than the entire palindromic sequence. To resolve how Maf proteins bind to target sequences containing only MARE half-sites, we examined their binding activities using electrophoretic gel mobility shift assays as well as in vitro and in vivo reporter assays. Our results indicate that the 5′-flanking region of the MARE half-site is required for Maf proteins to bind both in vitro and in vivo. The critical 5′-flanking sequences for c-Maf were determined by a selection and amplification binding assay and show a preference for AT-rich nucleotides. Furthermore, sequence analysis of the regulatory regions of several target genes also suggests that AT-rich sequences are important. We conclude that Maf can bind to at least two types of target sequences, the classical MARE (palindrome type) and a 5′-AT-rich MARE half-site (half-site type). Our results provide important new insights into the DNA binding and site selection by bZIP transcription factors

Effect of Day Length, Supplemental Lighting Strength, Shading Period and Minimum Night Temperature on Occurrence of Abnormal Inflorescence in Gypsophila paniculata ‘Altair’

As occurrence of abnormal inflorescence in Gypsophila paniculata ‘Altair’ is caused by environmental conditions, effects of day length, supplemental lighting strength, shading period and minimum night temperature on occurrence of abnormal inflorescence were investigated. Abnormal inflorescence was classified into four types : normal, pattern 1 (Short-flower stalk), pattern 2 (Coalescent two-flower stalk) and pattern 3 (Looping and irregular-flower stalk). Neither of 12h, 16h, 20h or 24h day length by fluorescent lamp, nor 24h by incandescent lamp affected occurrence of abnormal inflorescence. Effects of four levels of light intensity (fluorescent lamp : PPFD 1μmol・m−2・s−1, incandescent lamp : PPFD 3μmol・m−2・s−1, metal halide lamp : PPFD 14μmol・m−2・s−1 and high-pressure sodium lamp : PPFD 48μmol・m−2・s−1) were examined in 16h photoperiod. Occurrence of abnormal inflorescence was not affected by different light intensities, neither was it affected by shading period. Occurrence of abnormal inflorescence at 15°C was however significantly reduced compared to that at 8°C. In particular, patterns 2 and 3 at 15°C were significantly reduced compared to those at 8°C. There was a strong negative correlation between average night temperature from starting the treatment to flower budding (7.1°C, 9.0°C, 9.2°C, 11.6°C and 16.4°C) and incidence of pattern 3 (13.1%, 8.7%, 7.1%, 1.1% and 0.7%). Therefore, as average night temperature increased, occurrence of abnormal inflorescence decreased. The results show that low night temperature may be the main factor inducing occurrence of abnormal inflorescence.シュッコンカスミソウ‘アルタイル’の形態異常花序の発生には環境要因が関与していると考えられたので，日長，補光強度，遮光時期および最低夜温が形態異常花序発生に及ぼす影響を調査した．形態異常程度は４種類のパターン (０：正常，１：茎が短いもの，２：２本の茎が癒着，3：ひどく湾曲し変形したもの) に分類し，その影響を受けた小花の割合を求めた．蛍光灯による日長処理（12時間，16時間，20時間，24時間）や白熱灯による日長処理（自然日長，24時間）は形態異常花序発生率に影響を及ぼさなかった．蛍光灯（PPFD 1μmol・m-2・s-1），白熱灯（PPFD 3μmol・m-2・s-1），メタルハライドランプ（PPFD 14μmol・m-2・s-1），高圧ナトリウムランプ（PPFD 48μmol・m-2・s-1）を用いて16時間の補光を行った．異なる光源による光強度でも形態異常発生率に一定の傾向は認められなかった．遮光時期を変えても形態異常発生率に一定の傾向は認められなかった． 最低夜温を15℃に上げると８℃区と比較して15℃区の形態異常発生は大きく減少した．特にパターン２と３の発生率は大幅に低下した．各実験の処理開始から発蕾までの平均夜温（7.1℃，9.0℃，9.2℃，11.6℃，16.4℃）と，パターン３の形態異常発生率（13.1%，8.7%，7.1%，1.1%，0.7%）との間に高い負の相関（R2＝0.849）が認められ，処理開始から発蕾までの平均夜温が高いほど形態異常発生率は低下した．以上のことから，形態異常花序発生には夜間の温度が大きく関与しているのではないかと推察された

Stress Analysis of Soil Beneath Wheel for Planetary Rover by Using Discrete Element Method

Modeling the interaction between rover's wheel and soft terrain is of great importance in predicting or evaluating wheel performance for lunar and planetary rovers. The current wheel-soil interaction models predict or evaluate wheel performance under certain conditions. However, most of them do not consider the soil flow and deformation, and thus, they cannot capture the physical phenomena of wheel-soil interaction. Developing a new model that includes such physical phenomena contributes to the improvement of prediction accuracy. To develop such a model, it is necessary to analyze soil flow and deformation beneath the wheel. This study analyzes the stress distributions in the soil and soil flow fields beneath the grouser wheel by performing experiments using the discrete element method (DEM) with the particle simulation tool "Sir partsival". In addition to the single wheel simulation, two simple test simulations - an angle of repose test and a shear test - are performed to confirm the soil flow fields and stress distributions in the soil. In the field of fluid dynamics, (shear) stress generally exists along high gradients of flow velocity. These two tests confirm if the soil stress shows the same trend. The wheel simulations are performed under several slip conditions to investigate their influences on soil flow characteristics. The shape of the soil flow region - the shape of the slip line - can be divided into two patterns depending on the slip conditions. The stress increases along the slip line in all simulations. The findings of this study contribute to understanding the relationship between soil velocity field and stress distribution in the soil

Soil Flow Analysis for Planetary Rovers Based on Particle Image Velocimetry and Discrete Element Method

Planetary rovers commonly have grouser wheels to improve locomotion performance on deformable terrains such as the surfaces of the Moon or Mars. The biggest difference between the wheel with grousers and without grousers is soil behavior underneath the wheel since the grousers shovel the sand. Hence, analyzing soil flow gives us beneficial information on wheel-soil interaction. The detailed investigation for micro-scale soil behavior and gravity effect, which are difficult to see in the laboratory test, contributes to further understanding of wheel-soil interaction mechanics. This paper presents a two-dimensional discrete element method (DEM) simulation to analyze soil flow beneath the grouser wheel. The soil flow in the simulation is validated by comparing it with that of the measurements, which is visualized by particle image velocimetry (PIV). The comparison results are discussed from four perspectives: 1) wheel slip ratio, 2) traces formed behind the wheel travels, 3) entrance and leaving angles of the grousers, 4) soil velocity field. The results indicate that DEM could describe the soil deformation. This work would contribute to further investigations of the state inside the soil by using developed DEM simulation

GATA-6 DNA binding protein expressed in human gastric adenocarcinoma MKN45 cells

AbstractA cDNA for the GATA-6 (GATA-GT1) DNA binding protein was cloned from a library of the human gastric adenocarcinoma cell line MKN45. The deduced amino acid sequence (449 residues) indicates that the primary structure of human GATA-6 is highly homologous to that of the rat protein. The potential phosphorylation site for protein kinases (A and C), and histidine and alanine clusters are conserved. Whereas the rat H+/K+-ATPase α and β subunit genes have two and three GATA protein binding sites in their promoter regions, respectively, the human α subunit gene has only one binding site [Maeda, M., Kubo, K., Nishi, T. and Futai, M. (1996) J. Exp. Biol. 199, 513–520]. We cloned the 5′-upstream region of the human H+/K+-ATPase β subunit gene by genome walking and found that it also has a single GATA protein binding site near the TATA ☐. The GATA sites of the human α and β subunit genes are recognized by the zinc finger domain of human GATA-6. The conservation of the GATA protein binding sites suggests that they are important for the gene regulation of the human and rat H+/K+-ATPase

Surgical resection for advanced bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw associated with fibrous dysplasia: a case report

Bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (BRONJ) is an adverse drug reaction represented by destruction and/or death of bone. Fibrous dysplasia (FD) is a rare bony disorder characterised by abnormal fibro-osseous tissue that has lowered resistance to infection. Effective treatments for BRONJ that follows FD are unclear. Here, we report that advanced BRONJ associated with FD was successfully treated by surgical resection. A 69-year-old woman, whose left maxillary bone showed a ground glass appearance on computed tomography (CT) images, was taking alendronate. At 1 year after teeth within the abnormal bone were extracted, exposed bone was observed in the extraction sites and CT images revealed separated sequestrums. Under the clinical diagnosis of Stage 2 BRONJ with FD, we performed not only sequestrectomy but also a partial resection of the FD. Thereafter, the healing was uneventful without recurrence. In conclusion, our case suggests that surgical resection is useful for advanced BRONJ associated with FD

Content-based image retrieval for brain MRI: An image-searching engine and population-based analysis to utilize past clinical data for future diagnosis

AbstractRadiological diagnosis is based on subjective judgment by radiologists. The reasoning behind this process is difficult to document and share, which is a major obstacle in adopting evidence-based medicine in radiology. We report our attempt to use a comprehensive brain parcellation tool to systematically capture image features and use them to record, search, and evaluate anatomical phenotypes. Anatomical images (T1-weighted MRI) were converted to a standardized index by using a high-dimensional image transformation method followed by atlas-based parcellation of the entire brain. We investigated how the indexed anatomical data captured the anatomical features of healthy controls and a population with Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA). PPA was chosen because patients have apparent atrophy at different degrees and locations, thus the automated quantitative results can be compared with trained clinicians' qualitative evaluations. We explored and tested the power of individual classifications and of performing a search for images with similar anatomical features in a database using partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and principal component analysis (PCA). The agreement between the automated z-score and the averaged visual scores for atrophy (r = 0.8) was virtually the same as the inter-evaluator agreement. The PCA plot distribution correlated with the anatomical phenotypes and the PLS-DA resulted in a model with an accuracy of 88% for distinguishing PPA variants. The quantitative indices captured the main anatomical features. The indexing of image data has a potential to be an effective, comprehensive, and easily translatable tool for clinical practice, providing new opportunities to mine clinical databases for medical decision support

New dimeric flavans from gambir, an extract of Uncaria gambir

Three new dimeric flavans, catechin-(4 alpha -&#62; 8)-ent-epicatechin (7), gambirflavan D1 (8), and gambirflavan D2 (9), were isolated from gambir (an extract from the leaves and young twigs of Uncaria gambir), and their structures were determined based on spectroscopic and chemical data.</p

Numerical studies on the structure of the cosmic ray electron halo in starburst galaxies

The structure of the cosmic ray electron halo of a starburst galaxy depends strongly on the nature of galactic wind and the configuration of the magnetic field. We have investigated these dependencies by solving numerically the propagation of electrons originating in starburst galaxies, most likely in supernova remnants. The calculations are made for several models for the galactic winds and for the configuration of the magnetic fields for comparison with observations. Our simulation of a quasi-radio halo reproduces both the extended structure of ~ 9 kpc and the subtle hollow structure near the polar region of the radio halo that are observed in the starburst galaxy NGC 253. These findings suggest the existence of strong galactic wind in NGC 253.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Proceeding of the conference "The multi messenger approach to high energy gamma ray sources", Barcelona, July 200

Roles of Porphyromonas gulae proteases in bacterial and host cell biology

Porphyromonas gulae, an animal-derived periodontal pathogen, expresses several virulence factors, including fimbria, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and proteases. We previously reported that its invasive efficiency was dependent on fimbriae types. In addition, P. gulae LPS increased inflammatory responses via toll-like receptors. The present study was conducted to investigate the involvement of P. gulae proteases in bacterial and host cell biology. Porphyromonas gulae strains showed an ability to agglutinate mouse erythrocytes and also demonstrated co-aggregation with Actinomyces viscosus, while the protease inhibitors antipain, PMSF, TLCK and leupeptin diminished P. gulae proteolytic activity, resulting in inhibition of haemagglutination and co-aggregation with A. viscosus. In addition, specific proteinase inhibitors were found to reduce bacterial cell growth. Porphyromonas gulae inhibited Ca9-22 cell proliferation in a multiplicity of infection- and time-dependent manner. Additionally, P. gulae-induced decreases in cell contact and adhesion-related proteins were accompanied by a marked change in cell morphology from well spread to rounded. In contrast, inhibition of protease activity prevented degradation of proteins, such as E-cadherin, beta-catenin and focal adhesion kinase, and also blocked inhibition of cell proliferation. Together, these results indicate suppression of the amount of human proteins, such as gamma-globulin, fibrinogen and fibronectin, by P. gulae proteases, suggesting that a novel protease complex contributes to bacterial virulence