Smut disease of sugarcane causes considerable yield losses and the use of resistant varieties is the best control practice. Our group identified a Japanese wild sugarcane with highly smut disease ...resistance named ‘Iriomote8’. In this study, we conducted QTL analysis for smut disease resistance using a mapping population derived from a resistant variety ‘Yaenoushie’, in which resistance is inherited from ‘Iriomote8’. We identified 4813 non-redundant markers using GRAS-Di technology and developed a linkage map of mapping parents. We evaluated smut disease resistance of the mapping population by the inoculation test. Consequently, a large number of clones did not show the disease symptoms and the distribution of smut disease incidence tended to be “L shaped”. Composite interval mapping detected an identical QTL for indices of smut disease incidence with a markedly high LOD score (26.6~45.6) at the end of linkage group 8 of ‘Yaenoushie’. This QTL explained approximately 50% of the cases of smut disease incidence. In the mapping population, there were no correlations between the indices of smut disease incidence and other agronomic traits. In conclusion, this QTL could be used for marker-assisted selection to significantly improve smut disease resistance without negative effects on other agronomic traits.
The risk factors for Mycobacterium avium complex lung disease (MAC-LD) are not well known. We hypothesized that low serum estradiol (E2) levels are related to MAC-LD as most patients with MAC-LD are ...postmenopausal women.
This cross-sectional study compared patients with MAC-LD and healthy controls. Study subjects were postmenopausal women aged 65 years or younger. Serum testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S), and E2 levels were measured and categorized as high or low based on median levels. We performed multivariate analysis, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, and age- and body mass index (BMI)-matched subgroup analysis to evaluate the association between low serum E2 levels and MAC-LD. Additionally, using blood samples obtained for other clinical studies, the levels of sex steroid hormones were compared between age- and BMI-matched MAC-LD and bronchiectasis female patients without non-tuberculosis mycobacterial infections (non-NTM BE).
Forty-two patients with MAC-LD and 91 healthy controls were included. The median E2 (2.20 pg/mL vs. 15.0 pg/mL, p < 0.001), testosterone (0.230 ng/L vs. 0.250 ng/L, p = 0.005), and DHEA-S (82.5 μg/dL vs. 114.0 μg/dL, p < 0.001) levels were lower in the MAC-LD group than in the control group. Multivariate analysis revealed that low serum E2 (adjusted odds ratio = 34.62, 95% confidence interval = 6.02-199.14) was independently related to MAC-LD, whereas low DHEA-S and testosterone were not. ROC analysis illustrated a strong relationship between low serum E2 levels and MAC-LD (area under the curve = 0.947, 95% confidence interval = 0.899-0.995). Even the age- and BMI-matched subgroup analysis of 17 MAC-LD patients and 17 healthy controls showed lower serum E2 in MAC-LD patients than in healthy controls. Additionally, serum E2 levels of 20 MAC-LD patients were lower than plasma E2 levels of 11 matched non-NTM BE patients (1.79 pg/mL vs. 11.0 pg/mL, p < 0.001).
Low serum E2 levels were strongly related to MAC-LD in postmenopausal women.
An in silico method for predicting percutaneous absorption of cosmetic ingredients was developed by using artificial neural network (ANN) analysis to predict the human skin permeability coefficient ...(log Kp), taking account of the physicochemical properties of the vehicle, and the apparent diffusion coefficient (log D). Molecular weight and octanol-water partition coefficient (log P) of chemicals, and log P of the vehicles, were used as molecular descriptors for predicting log Kp and log D of 359 samples, for which literature values of either or both of log Kp and log D were available. Adaptivity of the ANN model was evaluated in comparison with a multiple linear regression model (MLR) by calculating the root-mean-square (RMS) errors. Accuracy and robustness were confirmed by 10-fold cross-validation. The predictive RMS errors of the ANN model were smaller than those of the MLR model (log Kp; 0.675 vs 0.887, log D; 0.553 vs 0.658), indicating superior performance. The predictive RMS errors for log Kp and log D with the ANN model after 10-fold cross-validation analysis were 0.723 and 0.606, respectively. Moreover, we estimated the cumulative amounts of chemicals permeated into the skin during 24 hr (Q24hr) from the values of log Kp and log D by applying Fick’s law of diffusion. Our results suggest that this newly established ANN analysis method, taking account of the property of the vehicle, could contribute to non-animal risk assessment of cosmetic ingredients by providing a tool for calculating Q24hr, which is required for evaluating the margin of safety.
We estimated the latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) rate for foreign-born students at Keio University, Tokyo, Japan, using an interferon-γ release assay. The LTBI rate for students from countries ...with estimated tuberculosis incidence >100 cases/100,000 persons was high (10.0%). Universities should screen for LTBI in students from countries with high tuberculosis incidence.
The tuberculosis (TB) notification rate in Japan is gradually decreasing but has not yet achieved “pre-elimination,” defined by the World Health Organization. To effectively tackle, control, and ...eliminate TB, estimating and monitoring the annual risk of TB infection (ARI) using tuberculin skin testing (TST) to understand the dynamics of TB epidemiology are significantly important. However, studies estimating ARIs using TST are few considering that Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccination coverage is high in Japan. This was a single-center, cross-sectional study conducted between January 2011 and December 2018 in Tokyo area where interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) were performed in newly hired researchers of Keio University School of Medicine and healthcare workers of Keio University Hospital to determine TB infection. We estimated the prevalence of TB infection and ARI based on their IGRA results. Among the 3908 subjects, 83 (2.124%) had positive IGRA results. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that age was a significant risk factor for positive IGRA result (adjusted odds ratio, 1.046). The ARIs were 0.049%–0.156% between 1986 and 2004, midyears of TB infection, but have not significantly decreased over approximately two decades. To decrease the risk of TB infection, advanced strategies to control and eliminate TB in Tokyo area are significantly required.
A line blotting assay (LB) is currently used to detect myositis‐specific autoantibodies (MSAs) in patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs), because of its simplicity; however, the ...sensitivity and specificity of this assay is low. The aim of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of the commercial LB in detection of antinuclear matrix protein 2 (NXP2) antibody. Seventy‐seven serum samples from patients with IIMs, in which anti‐NXP2 antibodies were detected through immunoprecipitation and western blotting (IP‐WB) using K562 cell lysate, were enrolled. All samples were assessed by LB and IP‐WB using recombinant human NXP2 whole protein (rNXP2) produced by insect cells, and the positive rates of each assay were compared. Thirty‐two samples (41.6%) showed false‐negativity by LB, which includes 11 samples with negative results by IP‐WB using rNXP2. Relative intensities of IP‐WB using cell lysate were significantly higher in the samples with positive results by both LB and IP‐WB using rNXP2, compared to samples with positive by IP‐WB using rNXP2 but negative by LB. Three of 11 samples with negative results by both LB and IP‐WB using rNXP2 revealed high antibody titers. Further, differences in post‐transcriptional SUMOylation were observed between recombinant and natural NXP2 proteins. In conclusion, the LB showed low sensitivity for detection of anti‐NXP2 antibody, an effect exacerbated at low titers of anti‐NXP2 antibodies. Moreover, there appears to be differences in the reactivities of antibodies to recombinant and natural NXP2 proteins with different post‐transcriptional modifications.
This study aimed to establish and verify the validity of an acoustic simulation method during sustained phonation of the Japanese vowels /i/ and /u/. The study participants were six healthy adults. ...First, vocal tract models were constructed based on computed tomography (CT) data, such as the range from the frontal sinus to the glottis, during sustained phonation of /i/ and /u/. To imitate the trachea, after being virtually extended by 12 cm, cylindrical shapes were then added to the vocal tract models between the tracheal bifurcation and the lower part of the glottis. Next, the boundary element method and the Kirchhoff–Helmholtz integral equation were used for discretization and to represent the wave equation for sound propagation, respectively. As a result, the relative discrimination thresholds of the vowel formant frequencies for /i/ and /u/ against actual voice were 1.1–10.2% and 0.4–9.3% for the first formant and 3.9–7.5% and 5.0–12.5% for the second formant, respectively. In the vocal tract model with nasal coupling, a pole–zero pair was observed at around 500 Hz, and for both /i/ and /u/, a pole–zero pair was observed at around 1000 Hz regardless of the presence or absence of nasal coupling. Therefore, the boundary element method, which produces solutions by analysis of boundary problems rather than three-dimensional aspects, was thought to be effective for simulating the Japanese vowels /i/ and /u/ with high validity for the vocal tract models encompassing a wide range, from the frontal sinuses to the trachea, constructed from CT data obtained during sustained phonation.
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