A DNA microarray is a very useful tool for detecting multiple bacteria simultaneously, because it can be used to analyze the characteristics of various bacterial genes on one glass slide. This study was mainly performed to establish an assay protocol using a DNA microarray for detecting three food-borne bacteria (Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis, Yersinia enterocolitica, and Bacillus cereus) in fresh vegetables. To create the DNA microarray for detecting these three species of food-borne bacteria, four previously designed oligonucleotide probes corresponding to the 16S rRNA sequences of each food-borne bacterium were spotted onto a single glass slide. Bean sprouts and lettuce were used as representative fresh vegetables. Diluted cultures of the three bacteria were inoculated into the juices obtained from the fresh vegetables, and the inoculum was cultured with Soybean-Casein Digest broth to amplify the targeted bacterial 16S rRNA. RNAs extracted from the cultures were fluorescently labeled and hybridized to the DNA microarray. All three bacteria could be specifically detected in the fresh vegetable samples using this assay protocol. This DNA microarray provides a convenient approach for the simultaneous detection of food-borne bacteria in fresh vegetables in combination with conventional culture methods.

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A procedure to evaluate directly the local deformation properties of sand specimens was developed by using a transparent membrane and adding colored sand particles to the original ones. By combining it with indirect observation based on the image analysis of the membrane deformation, their comparison was made. The local deformation properties of a dense Toyoura sand specimen that was evaluated by the indirect observation during the liquefaction process in cyclic triaxial test up to a double amplitude axial strain of 5% were consistent with those evaluated by the direct observation, except for the regions near the top and bottom ends of the specimen.

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The aim of this study was to develop phylogenetic oligonucleotide probes for screening common foodborne bacteria. Twenty oligonucleotide probes were designed by aligning representative 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequences from 64 species of common foodborne bacteria and other bacteria. To confirm the specificity of each probe simultaneously, a DNA microarray that the 20 probes were immobilized on a glass slide was prepared. RNAs extracted from 13 species of foodborne bacteria were fluorescently labeled and hybridized on the DNA microarray. The 16S rRNAs showed a unique hybridization pattern in combination with the designed oligonucleotide probes, leading to 16S rDNA phylogenetic analysis of their sequences. Probe EC001 for Escherichia coli spp. and Shigella spp., probe SSP003-L for Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Enteritidis and Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium, probe YE002 for Yersinia enterocolitica and probe BC001 for Bacillus cereus group were particularly useful for screening these foodborne bacteria. DNA microarray is useful as a procedure for evaluating the multiple designed probes. The selected probes can be readily applied to screening of foodborne bacteria using hybridization methods, such as fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), bead array hybridization and so on.

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Previous studies suggest that propofol and sevoflurane anaesthesia in rats may have variable effects on the proteome. Brains from untreated rats and rats anaesthetised with intravenous propofol infusion or inhaled sevoflurane were collected at various time points post-anaesthesia and subjected to global protein expression profiling using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Significant changes in protein spot intensity (i.e. expression) between the propofol and sevoflurane groups demonstrated clear similarities and differences in proteomic regulation by these anaesthetics. The proteins regulated were broadly classified into groups involved in cytoskeletal/neuronal growth, cellular metabolism, signalling, and cell stress/death responses. Proteins concerned with cell death and stress responses were down-regulated by both agents, but the anaesthetics had variable effects on proteins in the other groups. Importantly, proteins such as Ulip2 and dihydropyrimidinaselike-2 were regulated in opposite directions by propofol and sevoflurane. Moreover, the timecourse of regulation of proteins varied depending on the agent used. These data suggest different underlying mechanisms of proteomic regulation. We found that sevoflurane anaesthesia had more pronounced effects, on a wider range of proteins, and over an apparently longer duration than propofol. Thus, sevoflurane could be considered a more disruptive anaesthetic agent. Our findings show that protein expression is regulated differentially according to the anaesthetic agent and the method of delivery support and extend our previous observations of differential genomic regulation by anaesthetics in the brain. This study highlights the power of proteomic studies in assessing the effects of certain anaesthetics on the integrity of neuronal structure and function.

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This study evaluated the effectiveness of ultrasound, color Doppler imaging and conventional radiography in monitoring the post-surgical healing of periapical lesions of endodontic origin. Fifteen patients who underwent periapical surgery for endodontic pathology were randomly selected. In all patients, periapical lesions were evaluated preoperatively using ultrasound, color Doppler imaging and conventional radiography, to analyze characteristics such as size, shape and dimensions. On radiographic evaluation, dimensions were measured in the superoinferior and mesiodistal direction using image-analysis software. Ultrasound evaluation was used to measure the changes in shape and dimensions on the anteroposterior, superoinferior, and mesiodistal planes. Color Doppler imaging was used to detect the blood-flow velocity. Postoperative healing was monitored in all patients at 1 week and 6 months by using ultrasound and color Doppler imaging, together with conventional radiography. The findings were then analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of the 3 imaging techniques. At 6 months, ultrasound and color Doppler imaging were significantly better than conventional radiography in detecting changes in the healing of hard tissue at the surgical site (P < 0.004). This study demonstrates that ultrasound and color Doppler imaging have the potential to supplement conventional radiography in monitoring the post-surgical healing of periapical lesions of endodontic origin. (J Oral Sci 52, 411-416, 2010)

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The main contribution of this paper is to present a work-optimal parallel algorithm for LZW decompression and to implement it in a CUDA-enabled GPU. Since sequential LZW decompression creates a dictionary table by reading codes in a compressed file one by one, it is not easy to parallelize it. We first present a work-optimal parallel LZW decompression algorithm on the CREW-PRAM (Concurrent-Read Exclusive-Write Parallel Random Access Machine), which is a standard theoretical parallel computing model with a shared memory. We then go on to present an efficient implementation of this parallel algorithm on a GPU. The experimental results show that our GPU implementation performs LZW decompression in 1.15 milliseconds for a gray scale TIFF image with 4096×3072 pixels stored in the global memory of GeForce GTX 980. On the other hand, sequential LZW decompression for the same image stored in the main memory of Intel Core i7 CPU takes 50.1 milliseconds. Thus, our parallel LZW decompression on the global memory of the GPU is 43.6 times faster than a sequential LZW decompression on the main memory of the CPU for this image. To show the applicability of our GPU implementation for LZW decompression, we evaluated the SSD-GPU data loading time for three scenarios. The experimental results show that the scenario using our LZW decompression on the GPU is faster than the others.

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The effect of Zn²⁺ to β₂-adrenergic receptor (β₂AR) is experimented in the solution containing Bronchodilator. From the immunohistochemical detection of β₂AR, the result shows the influence of Zn²⁺ on drug-receptor interaction in the Zn²⁺ containing solution on the human bronchial-epithelial cells. G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the membrane proteins which transmit extracellular signals into intercellular domain by binding of ligands. Artificial ligands are used as drugs and about 50% of current drugs targets GPCRs. Therefore, it is important to investigate the agents which are bound by GPCRs and the influence by the change of conditions on the binding. The effective ligands of GPCRs for the drugs are indicated less side effect. β₂AR is a kind of GPCRs, which has close relationship with the treatment of asthma. The bronchodilators are the ligands of β₂AR, which activate β₂AR and open the bronchi. However, one of disadvantages of the bronchodilators is that the bronchodilators act on the other receptor, β₁-adrenergic receptor, and can cause the serious heart troubles. Various factors have an influence on the interaction of β₂AR with drugs. Therefore, the experiments under the condition that drugs act on more selectively and effectively is valuable for the safe treatment.

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The realization of effective and low-cost drug discovery is imperative to enable people to easily purchase and use medicines when necessary. This paper reports a smart system for detecting iPSC-derived cancer stem cells by using conditional generative adversarial networks. This system with artificial intelligence (AI) accepts a normal image from a microscope and transforms it into a corresponding fluorescent-marked fake image. The AI system learns 10,221 sets of paired pictures as input. Consequently, the system’s performance shows that the correlation between true fluorescent-marked images and fake fluorescent-marked images is at most 0.80. This suggests the fundamental validity and feasibility of our proposed system. Moreover, this research opens a new way for AI-based drug discovery in the process of iPSC-derived cancer stem cell detection.

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We investigated effects of dim light irradiation (about 11 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹ photon flux density) of the root zone on the growth and development of leaf lettuce (Lactuca sativa ‘Okayama saradana’) plants under nutrient film technique (NFT) hydroponics with monochromatic light emitting diodes (LEDs) of five types with respective peak wavelengths (and colors) of 405 nm (violet), 465 nm (blue), 525 nm (green), 660 nm (red), and 735 nm (far-red). Shoot fresh weight and specific root length in the treatments of dim light irradiation of the root zone with violet, blue, and far-red LEDs were significantly lower than in the control (no irradiation of the root zone). Roots in these treatments developed thickly, probably because of suppressed lateral root initiation because sparsely distributed roots were observed in these treatments. Dim light irradiation of the root zone of leaf lettuce plants did not affect mass production, but it did affect root morphology.

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水素原子の原子軌道をマルチメディア技術（静止画および動画）を用いて種々の表示方法（等値曲面, 擬三次元, 等高線, 断面図）で可視化するとともに, 対応する力学的振動についても同様に可視化した. 可視化結果を, CD-R (Compact Disk Recordable) に格納した. ランダム呼び出し可能な媒体の機能を使用して, 可視化データを任意に組合せて表示して対比させることにより, 節（節面）などの波の特徴を認識し, 原子軌道の波動性の理解を深めるよう工夫した.

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Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) microscopy is a magnetic resonance imaging technique with an enhanced spatial resolution. In this study, fresh ovaries of mature rats immersed in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) were examined by NMR microscopy. Histological sections corresponding to NMR microimages were prepared, and components in ovaries were identified in microimages by comparison with light microscopic images. Signal intensities of antral follicles, corpora lutea (CL), stroma, adjacent fat tissue and PBS were measured in images with different echo times (TE) and analyzed. As TE increased, signal intensities decreased in CL and connective tissue including the stroma, while those in PBS and follicles changed less. Fat showed significantly high signals compared with other components at each TE. Stroma showed significantly low signals than other components except PBS and follicles at TE of 5 msec. There were no significant differences among CL, follicles and PBS at TE of 5 msec. At TE of 20 msec, however, there were significant differences in signal intensities between each components in the rank order fat > PBS > follicles > CL > stroma. Significant regression of signal intensity was seen on TE in follicles, CL and stroma. NMR microscopy is considered to be a useful tool to investigate the physiological function of rat ovaries.

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In the diagnosis of dental occlusion, it is necessary to quantitatively measure interocclusal contacts and transfer them to a computer model. In this aspect, three-dimensional computer models of upper and lower dental casts play a significant role. In this study, we proposed a new method to measure occlusal interaction by using a microfocus X-ray CT technique. Measurement accuracy was determined as ±0.03 mm in comparison with a coordinate measuring machine. A superimposition procedure for two sets of three-dimensional dental cast models was also established. Using the same dental cast, the standard deviation between the two sets of models was ±0.015 mm—which was defined as measurement precision. Between an optical laser scanner and the microfocus X-ray CT system, the standard deviation measured between the two models was ±0.05 mm. Data were acquired when upper and lower dental casts mounted on the bite impression were scanned, and then occlusal interaction, contacts, and distance distribution between the casts were visualized by a colored map on the cast models. Within the limitations of the current study, it was successfully demonstrated that microfocus X-ray CT was well poised for quantitative measurement of occlusal interaction.

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We propose a method that uses three-dimensional data to directly determine the pores (holes) in the skeleton of a spherical radiolarian. Our goal is to automatically determine both the number and the distribution of the pores. We used a set of grid points on a spherical surface to approximate the skeletal structure, which was obtained from a micro X-ray CT scan. Next, we counted the number of pores by using an algorithm for counting clusters on a grid. Finally, we used Voronoi tessellation to determine the distribution of the pores. For noisy data, a smoothing filter was applied before the procedure. We applied our method to three real data sets, and the results showed that our method worked well.

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九州大学農学部発行の研究紀要について，紙媒体のデータから電子データに変換し，データベース化を行い，全文データを提供する。この全文データはPDF（Portable Document Format）形式で作成している。多量にある研究紀要を電子化遡及する手段として，短期間に処理できるひとつの方法ではないかと思われる。そこで処理の方法の一例として紹介する。

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Bridge lifecycle has several stages including planning, design, fabrication, erection, service, maintenance, and demolition In the existing bridge database management systems, the information Of each stage is not efficiently used on other stages, which results in waste in time and efforts. In this research, a new type of bridge lifecycle management system is developed to overcome this problem. The system integrates geographic information, design data, and inspection data in a user-friendly multimedia environment Several examples are discussed on the efficient usage of the system at each stage of the lifecycle.

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Some reports have shown that electroconvulsive shock therapy is effective for treating refractory neuropathic pain. However, its mechanism of action remains unknown. This study analyzes changes in protein expression in the brainstems of neuropathic pain model rats with or without electroconvulsive stimulation (ECS). A neuropathic pain model rat is produced by chronic constrictive injury (CCI) of the sciatic nerve. An ECS was administered to rodents once daily for 6 days after the CCI operation. After ECS, the latency to withdrawal from thermal stimulation was significantly increased. The expression of several proteins was changed after CCI. Ten proteins that increased after CCI then had decreased expression levels (close to control) after ECS, and 8 proteins that decreased after CCI then had increased expression levels (close to control) after ECS. In conclusion, ECS improved thermal hypersensitivity in a rat CCI model. Proteomic analysis showed that altered expression levels of proteins in the brainstem of CCI model rats returned to close to control levels after ECS, including many proteins associated with pain. This trend suggests an association of ECS with improved hypersensitivity, and these results may help elucidate the mechanism of this effect.

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