Molecular dielectrophoresis of biopolymers

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) has found wide applications in manipulations of micrometer-sized particles such as biological cells. However, it has been considered less effective for nanometer-sized particles such as biological macromolecules where DEP effects may be overwhelmed by Brownian motion. Here, the authors use the fluid integrated circuit (FIC) concept to fabricate micrometer-sized electrodes, with which a very high-intensity, steady-state, high-frequency field, over 1×10⁶ V/m at 1 kHz to 10 MHz, is created. The observation of molecular DEP using avidin (68 kD) and other biopolymers is made, and it is found that DEP occurs at the field strength of 0.4-1.0×10⁶ V/m, which is substantially lower than DEP theory predicts. As applications of molecular DEP, a novel molecular patterning method and “dielectrophoretic chromatography” are proposed. In the latter, biopolymer solution is moved through a high-intensity field region created in a FIC, and the polymer is analyzed and/or separated by the difference in the DEP attraction     

Two cases of systemic lupus erythematosus associated with fatty liver and Basedow's disease

We present two cases of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) associated with both Basedow's disease and fatty liver. The first case is a 46-year-old Japanese female who was admitted because of high fever and general fatigue. She had been diagnosed as having Basedow's disease and treated with thiamazole for over 4 years. Since thiamazole-induced lupus was unlikely because of high titer anti-nuclear antibody and anti-DNA antibody and low levels of complements, a diagnosis of SLE was made. The upper abdominal ultrasound study and the specimen obtained by liver biopsy performed before initiating steroid therapy demonstrated marked fatty liver. SLE itself is considered as an etiology of fatty liver in this case. The second case was a 25-year-old Japanese female with SLE. She had been treated with prednisolone for 13 years and was complicated with Basedow's disease 10 years later. Fatty liver was also demonstrated in this patient on ultrasonography, and was thought to be resulted from long-term steroid hormone administration.     

Synthesis and characterization of polyamides based on natural monomers: l-lysine and l-aspartic acid

Nonpeptidic diamine-diacid type polyamides were prepared from natural α-amino acids, l-lysine and l-aspartic acid, under mild conditions. l-lysine carboxylic group was protected as a benzyl ester; l-aspartic acid amino group was protected as benzyloxycarbonyl (Z) or t-butyloxycarbonyl (BOC) derivatives. The activated ester method provided polyamides with protected amino and carboxyl side groups. The deprotection of these side groups revealed to be perfectly selective when the amino groups were protected as t-butyloxycarbonyl derivatives. Received: 20 February 1997/Revised: 8 April 1997/Accepted: 14 April 1997     

Recognition of words expressed by sign language using thermal-image processing

A basic method for recognizing sign language has been developed with thermal-image processing. In this method, a pair of traces of two hands, which corresponds to a word in Japanese sign language, is input into a computer as sequential coordinates with thermal-image processing. Then the word is recognized by finding the most similar pair of traces in the database to that expressing the word. Forty-seven Japanese words in sign language were recognized with 71% accuracy. This work was presented in part at the 11th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 23–25, 2006     

Genetic basis of human complement C8 alpha-gamma deficiency

Deficiency of the alpha-gamma subunit of the eighth component of complement (C8alpha-gammaD) is frequently associated with recurrent neisserial infections, especially meningitis caused by Neisseria meningitidis. We here report the molecular basis of C8alpha-gammaD in two unrelated Japanese subjects. Screening all 11 exons of the C8alpha gene and all 7 exons of the C8gamma gene and their boundaries by exon-specific PCR/single-strand conformation polymorphism demonstrated aberrant single-stranded DNA fragments in exon 2 of C8alpha gene in case 1 and in exons 2 and 9 of C8alpha gene in case 2. Nucleotide sequencing of the amplified DNA fragments in case 1 revealed a homozygous single-point mutation at the second exon-intron boundary, inactivating the universally conserved 5' splice site consensus sequence of the second intron (IVS2+1G-->T). Case 2 was a compound heterozygote for the splice junction mutation, IVS2+1G-->T, and a nonsense mutation at Arg394 (R394X). R394X was caused by a C to T transition at nucleotide 1407, the first nucleotide of the codon CGA for Arg394, leading to a stop codon TGA. No mutations were detected in the C8gamma gene by our method. Our results indicate that the pathogenesis of C8alpha-gammaD might be caused by heterogeneous molecular defects in the C8alpha gene.     

Estimation of the disaster building domain using RapidEye data to estimate the amount of disaster waste

To draw reconstruction plans following major earthquakes, such as the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, it is necessary to quickly estimate the amount of disaster waste. To this end, remote sensing data is used, which affects all subsequent processing. However, the digital number of each pixel of the remote sensing data represents the average land cover conditions. That is, the information provided by a pixel should be represented as a one‐pixel mixed class (‘mixel’) instead of a one‐pixel single class. In previous papers, we had proposed a method of land cover classification using Thailand Earth Observation System data of a stricken area. The land cover classification results were in good agreement with a manually classified map which referenced the geological map and aerial photograph. However, to detect collapsed buildings, a minimum 2‐m ground resolution is required. Therefore, we additionally proposed a method of land cover classification using RapidEye data. The ground resolution of RapidEye data was improved to 2‐m from 6.5‐m by the proposed method. These examination results suggested that the method is effective in the classification of land cover conditions using RapidEye data. Nevertheless, the disaster building domain was not yet estimated. In this paper, we therefore propose a method to estimate the disaster building domain using RapidEye data acquired before and after an earthquake. The effectiveness of this method is confirmed by evaluation results. © 2016 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.