Experience with 241 sporotrichosis cases in Chiba/Japan

Between 1965 and 1991, 241 cases of sporotrichosis have been seen in the Department of Dermatology at Chiba University Hospital. Children under the age of 12 and patients older than 40 years had a higher rate of infection. Most affected were the upper extremities, followed by lesions of the face. One hundred twenty-four patients (51.5%) were farmers. The decrease in the number of patients observed since 1983 is attributed mainly to a drop in the percentage of the local population involved in agriculture. There was no correlation between the number of infections and the amount of precipitation, as had been suggested earlier. The patients were treated with potassium iodide and in some cases with additional thermotherapy.     

Enrichment of bacteria possessing catechol dioxygenase genes in the rhizosphere of Spirodela polyrrhiza: A mechanism of accelerated biodegradation of phenol

The bacterial community structure in bulk water and in rhizosphere fractions of giant duckweed, Spirodela polyrrhiza, was quantitatively and qualitatively investigated by PCR-based methods using 6 environmental water samples to elucidate the mechanisms underlying selective accumulation of aromatic compound-degrading bacteria in the rhizosphere of S. polyrrhiza. S. polyrrhiza selectively accumulated a diverse range of aromatic compound-degrading bacteria in its rhizosphere, regardless of the origin of water samples, despite no exposure to phenol. The relative abundances of the catechol 1,2-dioxygenase (C12O) gene (C12O DNA) and catechol 2,3-dioxygenase (C23O) gene (C23O DNA) were calculated as the ratios of the copy numbers of these genes to the copy number of 16S rDNA and are referred to as the rhizosphere effect (RE) value. The RE values for C12O DNA and C23O DNA were 1.0 × 10¹–9.3 × 10³ and 1.7 × 10²–1.5 × 10⁴ times as high, respectively, in rhizosphere fractions as in bulk water fractions, and these higher values were associated with a notably higher sequence diversity of C12O DNA and C23O DNA. The RE values during phenol degradation were 3.6 × 10⁰–4.3 × 10² and 2.2 × 10⁰–1.7 × 10², respectively, indicating the ability of S. polyrrhiza to selectively accumulate aromatic compound-degrading bacteria in its rhizosphere during phenol degradation. The bacterial communities in the rhizosphere fractions differed from those in the bulk water fractions, and those in the bulk water fractions were notably affected by the rhizosphere bacterial communities. S. polyrrhiza released more than 100 types of phenolic compound into its rhizosphere as root exudates at the considerably high specific release rate of 1520 mg TOC and 214 mg phenolic compounds/d/g root (wet weight). This ability of S. polyrrhiza might result in the selective recruitment and accumulation of a diverse range of bacteria harboring genes encoding C12O and C23O, and the subsequent accelerated degradation of phenol in the rhizosphere.     

Microbiological quality of fermented milk produced by repeated-batch culture

Using a starter culture containing Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris and Acetobacter orientalis, repeated-batch culture for fermented-milk production was carried out for 14 d. The pH decreased to approximately 4.3 and the milk solidified stably when the mixing ratio of fermented-milk to fresh milk was set at a level as high as 10%. The microbial population gradually changed as the culture progressed, and the cell densities of lactic and acetic acid bacteria finally leveled off to constant values. The quality of the fermented-milk became almost constant with respect to the changes in the cell densities of the lactic and acetic acid bacteria. Escherichia coli was then inoculated into the fermented-milk to simulate household contamination. E. coli was washed out with the progress of the repeated-batch culture, and thus showed no adverse effects on the fermented-milk production.     

Synergetic improvement strategy on thermoelectric performance of CuAlO2 compacts

We fabricated Sr and Ca-doped CuAlO₂ compacts from the mixed powder of CuO, Cu₂O, Al₂O₃, and SrO or CaO by multi-pass hot pressing followed by spark plasma sintering (SPS). The XRD results showed the reaction of CuO, Cu₂O and Al₂O₃ was rather complete and only CuAlO₂ single phase was formed when the additive amount of SrO or CaO was appropriate. Multi-pass hot pressing increased the relative density and the usage of plate-like Al₂O₃ as reaction raw material enhanced the orientation degree. In spite of performance improvement conflicts through elemental doping, density increase and orientation improvement, the measurement on the thermoelectric performance indicated that the electrical resistivity, Seebeck coefficient, power factor, dimensionless figure of merit (ZT) were improved to varying degrees through the synergetic action of elemental doping, density increase, and orientation control. The highest power factor and ZT of the Ca-doped CuAlO₂ compacts reached 1.54?×?10^?4 W?m^?1 K^?2 and 0.015 at 973?K, respectively. The thermoelectric performance was higher than those of CuAlO₂ at the same temperature in published work before.     

cyclops encodes a nodal-related factor involved in midline signaling

Ventral structures in the central nervous system are patterned by signals emanating from the underlying mesoderm as well as originating within the neuroectoderm. Mutations in the zebrafish, Danio rerio, are proving instrumental in dissecting these midline signals. The cyclops mutation leads to a loss of medial floor plate and to severe deficits in ventral forebrain development, leading to cyclopia. Here, we report that the cyclops locus encodes the nodal-related protein Ndr2, a member of the transforming growth factor type beta superfamily of factors. The evidence includes identification of a missense mutation in the initiation codon and rescue of the cyclops phenotype by expression of ndr2 RNA, here renamed "cyclops." Thus, in interaction with other molecules implicated in these processes such as sonic hedgehog and one-eyed-pinhead, cyclops is required for ventral midline patterning of the embryonic central nervous system.     

Studies on tack of pressure–sensitive adhesive tapes

It has been found that tack values of pressure-sensitive adhesives are dependent on the surface energies for adherends. The parabolic curves with maxima are obtained from the plots of tack values versus critical surface tensions for the substrates. The maximum occurs at the region where the two surface tensions are almost similar. On the other hand, tack is measured as a dynamic value indicated as the force necessary to deform the adhesive mass. To explain why the tack values is controlled by the surface character of the adherend, a mechanism is proposed for adhesive bond breaking. Primarily, bonding occurs by wetting the surface with adhesive. When the adhesive bond breaks by external force, unbonding proceeds from the viscoelastic deformation of the adhesive mass around the wetted spots on the surface of the adherend. As the total area of wetted spots is determined by surface energy, the tack value is dependent on the critical surface tension of the adherend.