Optimal Monetary Policy in an Estimated Local Currency Pricing Model

We analyze fluctuations in inflation and the nominal exchange rate under optimal monetary policy with local currency pricing by developing two-country DSGE local currency pricing and producer currency pricing models. We estimate our models using Bayesian techniques with Japanese and US data, and calculate impulse response functions. Our estimation results show that local currency pricing is strongly supported against producer currency pricing. From the estimated parameters, we show that completely stabilizing consumer price index inflation is optimal from the viewpoint of minimizing welfare costs and that completely stabilizing consumer price index inflation is consistent with completely stabilizing the nominal exchange rate.local currency pricing, optimal monetary policy, CPI inflation, fixed exchange rate, Bayesian estimation

Tomato seedling physiological responses under different percentages of blue and red photon flux ratios using LEDs and cool white fluorescent lamps

Lamp spectral customization can be a strategy to achieve desirable plant characteristics when plants are grown under sole-source electric lighting. Vegetable transplants can be efficiently and economically grown under indoor-production systems with electrical lighting; however, species-specific light recipes have to be developed to improve plant growth, development and morphology, as well as to reduce electrical consumption. The objective of this study was to evaluate the growth and morphology of tomato transplants to a broad range of blue to red (B:R) photon flux (PF) ratios under LEDs and cool white fluorescent lamps (CWF). Tomato 'Komeett' and 'Beaufort' seedlings were grown in a climate control growth chamber. Using LEDs, seven light treatments with different blue (B), green (G) and red (R) PF ratios were used: 100R, 10B:90R, 20B:28G:52R, 30B:70R, 50B:50R, 75B:25R and 100B. In addition, a CWF treatment served as the control. Hypocotyl length of 'Komeett' decreased with the increase of percent B PF up to 75% B. Plant leaf area was 64-72% greater under treatments emitting both B and R PF than in the 100 B and 100 R treatments. Similarly, tomato 'Komeett' fresh mass, dry mass, leaf number and chlorophyll concentration was comparable among the treatments containing B and R PF and greater than in 100 B and 100 R treatments. However, plant compactness in the 30B:70R treatment was 42% greater than in the 10B:90R treatment. Anthocyanin concentration increased with the increase of percent B PF up to 75% B. Also, plants in 30B:70R and 50B:50R had 39% and 36% greater dry mass than in CWF, respectively. In addition, 30B:70R and 50B:50R LEDs had 172% greater growing efficacy (g kWh(-1)) than high output fluorescent lamps. The addition of G light did not have any effects on tomato physiological responses. `Beaufort' plant morphology and growth were severely affected by intumescences development and intumescence severity decreased under higher percentages of B PF. In summary, 30B:70R, 50B:50R were the best spectrums to produce tomato seedlings under LEDs tested here; however, plant quality under CWF, 10B:90R, 20B:28G:52R, and 75B:25R was also acceptable. Published by Elsevier B.V.USDA NIFA SCRI grant [2010-51181-21369]The authors would like to acknowledge Mark Kroggel and Neal Barto at the University of Arizona (CEAC) for their technical advice. This project was funded by USDA NIFA SCRI grant No: 2010-51181-21369

Infectious conjunctivitis caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from a bathroom

Background: The elucidation of the routes of transmission of a pathogen is crucial for the prevention of infectious diseases caused by bacteria that are not a resident in human tissue. The purpose of this report is to describe a case of suture-related conjunctivitis caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa for which we identified the transmission route using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Case presentation: A 38-year-old man, who had undergone surgery for glaucoma 2 years ago previously, presented with redness, discomfort, and mucopurulent discharge in the right eye. A 9–0 silk suture had been left on the conjunctiva. A strain of P. aeruginosa was isolated from a culture obtained from the suture, and the patient was therefore diagnosed with suture-related conjunctivitis caused by P. aeruginosa. The conjunctivitis was cured by the application of an antimicrobial ophthalmic solution and removal of the suture. We used PFGE to survey of the indoor and outdoor environments around the patient’s house and office in order to elucidate the route of transmission of the infection. Three strains of P. aeruginosa were isolated from the patient’s indoor environment, and the isolate obtained from the patient’s bathroom was identical to that from the suture. Conclusion: The case highlights the fact that an indoor environmental strain of P. aeruginosa can cause ocular infections

Achromobacter buckle infection diagnosed by a 16S rDNA clone library analysis : a case report

Background: In clinical settings, bacterial infections are usually diagnosed by isolation of colonies after laboratory cultivation followed by species identification with biochemical tests. However, biochemical tests result in misidentification due to similar phenotypes of closely related species. In such cases, 16S rDNA sequence analysis is useful. Herein, we report the first case of an Achromobacter-associated buckle infection that was diagnosed by 16S rDNA sequence analysis. This report highlights the significance of Achromobacter spp. in device-related ophthalmic infections. Case presentation: A 56-year-old woman, who had received buckling surgery using a silicone solid tire for retinal detachment eighteen years prior to this study, presented purulent eye discharge and conjunctival hyperemia in her right eye. Buckle infection was suspected and the buckle material was removed. Isolates from cultures of preoperative discharge and from deposits on the operatively removed buckle material were initially identified as Alcaligenes and Corynebacterium species. However, sequence analysis of a 16S rDNA clone library using the DNA extracted from the deposits on the buckle material demonstrated that all of the 16S rDNA sequences most closely matched those of Achromobacter spp. We concluded that the initial misdiagnosis of this case as an Alcaligenes buckle infection was due to the unreliability of the biochemical test in discriminating Achromobacter and Alcaligenes species due to their close taxonomic positions and similar phenotypes. Corynebacterium species were found to be contaminants from the ocular surface. Conclusions: Achromobacter spp. should be recognized as causative agents for device-related ophthalmic infections. Molecular species identification by 16S rDNA sequence analysis should be combined with conventional cultivation techniques to investigate the significance of Achromobacter spp. in ophthalmic infections

Axial-Vector Duality as a Mirror Symmetry

We study $N=2$ supersymmetric $SU(2)/U(1)$ and $SL(2,R)/U(1)$ gauged Wess-Zumino-Witten models. It is shown that the vector gauged model is transformed to the axial gauged model by a mirror transformation. Therefore the vector gauged model and the axial gauged model are equivalent as $N=(2,2)$ superconformal field theories. In the $SL(2,R)/U(1)$ model, it is known that axial-vector duality relates a background with a singularity to that without a singularity. Implications of the equivalence of these two models to space-time singularities are discussed.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX, KUNS 129

Oxidative Modification to Cysteine Sulfonic Acid of Cys111 in Human Copper-Zinc Superoxide Dismutase

Copper-zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD1) plays a protective role against oxidative stress. On the other hand, recent studies suggest that SOD1 itself is a major target of oxidative damage and has its own pathogenicity in various neurodegenerative diseases, including familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Only human and great ape SOD1s among mammals have the highly reactive free cysteine residue, Cys111, at the surface of the SOD1 molecule. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of Cys111 in the oxidative damage of the SOD1 protein, by comparing the oxidative susceptibility of recombinant human SOD1 modified with 2-mercaptoethanol at Cys111 (2-ME-SOD1) to wild-type SOD1. Wild-type SOD1 was more sensitive to oxidation by hydrogen peroxide-generating fragments, oligomers, and charge isomers compared with 2-ME-SOD1. Moreover, wild-type SOD1, but not 2-ME-SOD1, generated an upper shifted band in reducing SDS-PAGE even by air oxidation. Using mass spectrometry and limited proteolysis, this upper band was identified as an oxidized subunit of SOD1; the sulfhydryl group (Cys-SH) of Cys111 was selectively oxidized to cysteine sulfinic acid (Cys-SO2H) and to cysteine sulfonic acid (Cys-SO3H). The antibody raised against a synthesized peptide containing Cys111-SO3H reacted with only the Cys111-peroxidized SOD1 by Western blot analysis and labeled Lewy bodylike hyaline inclusions and vacuole rims in the spinal cord of human SOD1-mutated amyotrophic lateral sclerosis mice by immunohistochemical analysis. These results suggest that Cys111 is a primary target for oxidative modification and plays an important role in oxidative damage to human SOD1, including familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis mutants.This work was supported by Grants-in-aid for Scientific Research 17500242 and 19500313; a Hitech Research Center grant and the 21st Century Centers of Excellence program from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan; and in part by a Grant for the Research Group on Development of Novel Therapeutics for ALS from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan. The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked “advertisement” in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact

Brazilian Propolis Suppresses Angiogenesis by Inducing Apoptosis in Tube-Forming Endothelial Cells through Inactivation of Survival Signal ERK1/2

We recently reported that propolis suppresses tumor-induced angiogenesis through tube formation inhibition and apoptosis induction in endothelial cells. However, molecular mechanisms underlying such angiogenesis suppression by propolis have not been fully elucidated. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of ethanol extract of Brazilian propolis (EEBP) on two major survival signals, extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) and Akt, and to elucidate whether changes in these signals were actually involved in antiangiogenic effects of the propolis. Detection by western blotting revealed that EEBP suppressed phosphorylation of ERK1/2, but not that of Akt. Pharmacological inhibition by U0126 demonstrated that ERK1/2 inactivation alone was enough to inhibit tube formation and induce apoptosis. It was also shown that EEBP and U0126 similarly induced activation of caspase-3 and cleavage of poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) and lamin A/C, all of which are molecular markers of apoptosis. These results indicate that inhibition of survival signal ERK1/2, and subsequent induction of apoptosis, is a critical mechanism of angiogenesis suppression by EEBP

Disturbances in the ocular surface microbiome by perioperative antimicrobial eye drops

We aimed to elucidate the effects of antimicrobial eye drops used in the perioperative period of ophthalmic surgery on the ocular surface microbiome by metagenomic analysis. Twenty-eight eyes from 15 patients (mean age 74.1 years) with no history of eye drop use within 3 months before cataract surgery were included in this study. Gatifloxacin eye drops were used in all patients in the perioperative period. The antimicrobial eye drops were started 3 days before surgery. They were discontinued after conjunctival sac specimen collection for 2 weeks after the surgery. Conjunctival sac specimens were collected to investigate the alterations in the ocular surface microbiome by meta-16S analysis targeting the V3-V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. Principal coordinate analysis showed that the bacterial composition tended to be different before and 2 and 4 weeks after surgery. Individual observations on six eyes showed that the bacterial composition at 12 weeks after surgery was closer to that before surgery than to that at 4 weeks after surgery in two eyes, while the bacterial composition in the remaining four eyes was different at various time points. Before surgery, Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, and Bacteroidetes were predominant; however, 2 weeks after surgery, the proportion of Proteobacteria increased and that of Firmicutes decreased. A similar trend was noticed 4 weeks after surgery, although antibacterial eye drops had been discontinued 2 weeks after surgery. The Shannon–Weaver coefficient showed a decreasing trend at 2-, 4-, and 12-weeks post operation compared to that before operation. The diversity of the microbiome decreased significantly at 2- and 4-weeks after surgery when compared to that before surgery (p < 0.05). The ocular surface microbiome is easily disrupted by antimicrobial eye drops, and it needs recovery time. In such cases, the ocular surface microbiome is presumed to contain many antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. In some cases, it may not recover, and a new microbiome is formed

Introduction of thickened food for patient with dysphagia after surgical treatment for tumor in oral cavity

口腔腫瘍術後患者は,程度に差はあるが,嚥下･摂食障害をきたしやすい｡その経口摂取開始初期の栄養について,患者が満足して,より快適に摂取でき,経口のみで栄養が満たされるような食事を工夫した｡そのためには,食べやすさを増すためにトロメリンでとろみをつけ, また,食べ残しがないように患者の嗜好を取り入れた｡そして,この嗜好を取り入れたとろみ食を, 口腔腫瘍術後患者一例に提供した｡その結果, とろみ食は,食べやすく,全量摂取でき,良好な栄養状態を維持し,口内の移植皮弁へのトラブルもなく有効であるという結果が得られた｡また,患者が意欲や自信を持つという精神面への効果も見られた｡Following an operation to remove a tumor in the oral cavity, a patient with dysphagia who had received IVH and intubation feeding for 21 days, was given food thickened with proceeded starch and dextrin (Tromelin). The patient acceptance was good and he could chew and swallow safely and easily than if given ordinary food. The psychological and emotional effects of such postoperational care are also discussed

Studies on Expression of Aldehyde Dehydrogenase in Normal and Cancerous Tissues of Thyroids

Recently published articles have reported the controversial data regarding expression of aldehyde dehydrogenase isozyme 1A1 (ALDH1A1), a potential candidate marker for normal and cancer stem cells (CSCs), in thyroid tissues. These data prompted us to re-evaluate expression of ALDH1A1 in normal and cancerous thyroid tissues by 2 different means. The first method was immunohistochemistry with 2 different anti-ALDH1A1 antibodies from distinct companies. Following validating the integrity of these 2 antibodies by Western blotting with ALDH-expressing and nonexpressing cancer cell lines and immunohistochemistry with breast and colon tissues, we report here significant and comparable expression of ALDH1A1 in both normal and cancerous thyroid tissues with both antibodies. Next, relative expression levels of ALDH isozymes were evaluated by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), revealing that ALDH1A1 was the most highly expressed isozyme followed by ALDH9A1 and relative expression patterns of isozymes were very similar in normal and cancerous tissues. All these data demonstrate that thyroid cells of normal and cancer origins do express ALDH1A1 and to a lesser extent 9A1. Further study will be necessary to study functional significance of ALDH1A1 in the function and behaviors of thyroid normal and cancer stem cells