A Novel LRRK2 Variant p.G2294R in the WD40 Domain Identified in Familial Parkinson’s Disease Affects LRRK2 Protein Levels

Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) is a major causative gene of late-onset familial Parkinson’s disease (PD). The suppression of kinase activity is believed to confer neuroprotection, as most pathogenic variants of LRRK2 associated with PD exhibit increased kinase activity. We herein report a novel LRRK2 variant—p.G2294R—located in the WD40 domain, detected through targeted gene-panel screening in a patient with familial PD. The proband showed late-onset Parkinsonism with dysautonomia and a good response to levodopa, without cognitive decline or psychosis. Cultured cell experiments revealed that p.G2294R is highly destabilized at the protein level. The LRRK2 p.G2294R protein expression was upregulated in the patient’s peripheral blood lymphocytes. However, macrophages differentiated from the same peripheral blood showed decreased LRRK2 protein levels. Moreover, our experiment indicated reduced phagocytic activity in the pathogenic yeasts and α-synuclein fibrils. This PD case presents an example wherein the decrease in LRRK2 activity did not act in a neuroprotective manner. Further investigations are needed in order to elucidate the relationship between LRRK2 expression in the central nervous system and the pathogenesis caused by altered LRRK2 activity.     

Preparation of soluble TiCl3 catalysts by reduction of TiCl4 with Grignard reagents and their use for copolymerization of ethylene with propylene

Summary Preparations of soluble TiCl₃ catalysts by reduction of TiCl₄ with some types of Grignard reagents were carried out in halogenated hydrocarbon solvents by using appropriate ethers as donor. The soluble TiCl₃·MgX₂·ether complex catalysts and triisobutylaluminum as co-catalyst showed high activities for the copolymerization of ethylene with propylene. It was first found that the soluble TiCl₃·MgX₂·ether complex catalysts enhance the activities for the copolymerizations in the same manner as solid titanium catalysts supported on MgCl₂ which show high activities for homopolymerizations of olefin monomers. The copolymers obtained possessed low crystallinities. Also, the copolymers seem to contain microblock sequences and have outstandingly high tensile strength and elongation at break compared to copolymers by the conventional VOCl₃/Al(Et)_1.5Cl_1.5 catalyst system.     

Structural characterization of 1,2-polybutadiene by 13C-n.m.r. spectroscopy: 2. Sequence distribution of 1,2-unit in hydrogenated polybutadienes

The configurational sequences of 1,2-unit in a series of hydrogenated syndiotactic 1,2-polybutadienes were determined in relation to the sequence distribution of 1,2- and 1,4-units on the basis of the ¹³C-n.m.r. signal assignment of the methyl carbons. The observed triad distributions of 1,2- and 1,4-units and configurational distributions of the 1,2-unit are in good agreement with the calculated distributions from transition probabilities. The number average sequence lengths of the 1,2-unit and the 1,2-unit in the racemic addition are 5.7 to 8.0 and 4.1 to 5.4, respectively. From the extrapolation of the plot of the number average sequence length against the crystallinity of the starting 1,2-polybutadienes, the minimum sequence length for crystallization is estimated to be 3.7 for the 1,2-unit in the racemic addition.     

Optical computing: introduction by the feature editors

This feature issue of Applied Optics: Information Processing contains 19 papers on Optical Computing. Many of these papers are expanded versions of presentations given at the Optical Society of America's Sixth Topical Meeting on Optical Computing held in Salt Lake City, Utah, in March 1995. This introduction provides a brief historical account of the series of optical computing meetings and a brief review of the papers contained in this special issue.     

Optical implementation of visible gray-image morphology with the visual-area-coding technique

We present a novel scheme of visible gray-image morphology with the visual-area-coding technique (VACT). The VACT is a technique of digitized analog-optical computing in which data are converted into visible coded patterns and processed with the visible form. Because the achievable operations in the VACT are identical to those of mathematical morphology, mathematical morphology is adapted to gray-image morphology with the VACT. Computer simulation and optical experiments of the several operations in mathematical morphology verify the correctness of the proposed technique. The processing capacity of the proposed method is estimated in terms of the space-bandwidth product.     

Design and implementation of a vehicle interface protocol using an IEEE 1394 network

A wide variety of in-vehicle devices such as camera sensors, navigation systems, telematics and communication equipments have been incorporated into a vehicle to realize Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) applications. Because an efficient standardized network is required, ITS Data Bus (IDB) has been discussed to carry high-speed multimedia data for audio, video and other real-time ITS applications. For connecting devices in a standardized manner, the IDB network has architecture with a gateway called vehicle interface which is located between automaker’s proprietary network and the standardized IDB network. IEEE 1394 (also known as iLink or FireWire), which can transport multimedia data for consumer electronics, is a good candidate for IDB network. In this paper, we analyze the issues for existing AV/C protocol (application layer protocol over IEEE 1394) to comprise the IDB network. In addition, we designed and implemented the vehicle interface protocol as a higher layer of IEEE 1394 to address the AV/C protocol issues for realizing the whole IDB network architecture.     

Simultaneous bipedal locomotion based on haptics for teleoperation

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes a novel, simultaneous bipedal locomotion method using haptics for remote operation of biped robots. In general, traditional biped walking methods require very high computational power and advanced controllers to perform the required task. However, in this proposed method, a master exoskeleton attached to the human’s lower body is used to obtain the trajectory and haptic information to generate the trajectory of the slave biped robot in real time. Lateral motion of the center of mass of the biped is constrained in this experiment. Also, it is considered that no communication delay is presented in between the two systems in this experiment, and they are not discussed in this paper. Since a direct motion transmission is used in the proposed method, this method is quite straight forward and a simultaneous walking can be realized at the same time with high performance. Also, it does not require an exact dynamic model of the biped or specific method to plan the trajectory. The gait pattern of the biped is directly determined by that of the human. Also, the operator can feel the remote environment through the exoskeleton robot. Results obtained from the experiments validate the proposed method.     

Synthesis of polyamide-hydroxyapatite nanocomposites

Simultaneous one-pot syntheses of PA66 and HAp were carried out by extracting H₂O and CO₂ from PA66 monomers and HAp raw materials, respectively, resulting in the formation of a polyamide (PA) 66-hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanocomposite. During the process, a spherical nano-sized HAp particle was precipitated following dissolution of micro-sized CaHPO₄・2H₂O. The PA66 monomers were subsequently adsorbed onto the generated HAp product. Some of the adsorbed PA66 monomers formed a bound polymer on HAp, and an increase in the adhesiveness of the PA66-HAp interface was observed as the polymerization progressed. During this process, the synthesis of a nanocomposite from a micro-sized raw material and creation of an autonomous strong interface between the matrix and filler was achieved. In addition, the shape of the resultant HAp was controllable and could be modified to needle shape by the addition of F⁻ and Mg²⁺ ions to the raw material. HAp could also be changed to plate shape via octa-calcium phosphate (OCP). Notably, during the synthesis, the filler shape of the nanocomposite could be controlled to 0D (particle), 1D (needle), and 2D (plate).     

Investigation of electron trapping behavior in n-channel organic thin-film transistors with ultrathin polymer passivation on SiO2 gate insulator

Electron trapping behavior at the interface between N,N′-ditridecyl-3,4,9,10-perylene tetracarboxylic diimide (PTCDI-C13) film and thermal SiO₂ was investigated by utilizing ultrathin poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) gate passivation layers. From the capacitance–voltage analysis for the PTCDI-C13/PMMA/SiO₂ interface, it is found that the electron tunneling appeared with PMMA thinner than 0.8 nm, and that the thickness of the gate passivation layer should be at least 1 nm for preventing injection-type hysteresis in the capacitance–voltage curve. The effective electron mobility of organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) based on PTCDI-C13 with SiO₂ gate insulator was increased by suppressing shallow-level interface traps on SiO₂ with the PMMA layer, which can be partially accounted for by the multiple trap and release model. In this work, the thickness and the density of the PMMA layers were precisely controlled with a simple spin-coating process. Even 1.3-nm thick PMMA layer caused the improvements of the electron mobility and the air stability of the n-channel conduction.     

Direct control of fractal pattern generation on an optical fractal synthesizer

We propose a method for direct control of position, rotation, and scaling of fractal patterns generated on an optical fractal synthesizer. In this method we introduce an iterated-function-system mother function to produce control parameters for arbitrary fractal patterns. We implemented the method experimentally and verified the effectiveness of the method.