Whole-genome association study for fatty acid composition of oleic acid in Japanese Black cattle.

Fatty acid composition, especially oleic acid (C18:1), plays an important role in the eating quality of meat in Japanese Black cattle. Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify loci associated with C18:1 in the intramuscular fat of the trapezius muscles in Japanese Black cattle using the Illumina BovineSNP50 BeadChip whole genome single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) assay. We also evaluated the relationship between C18:1 and three fatty acid synthesis genes, fatty acid synthase (FASN), stearoyl-CoA desaturase and sterol regulatory element-binding protein-1. In this experiment, we applied a mixed model and Genomic Control approach using selective genotyping to perform a genome-wide association study. A total of 160 animals (80 animals with higher values and 80 animals with lower values), selected from 3356 animals based on corrected phenotype, were genotyped using the Illumina BovineSNP50 BeadChip and three fatty acid synthesis genes, and the quality of these SNPs was assessed. In this study, a total of 38 955 SNPs, which included SNPs in the three fatty acid synthesis genes, were used, and the estimated inflation factor was 1.06. In the studied population, a total of 32 SNPs, including the FASN gene, had significant effects, and in particular 30 SNPs of all significant SNPs were located between 49 and 55 Mbp on chromosome 19. This study is one of the first genome-wide association studies for fatty acid composition in a cattle population using the recently released Illumina BovineSNP50 BeadChip.

Nutrient balance in a paddy field with a recycling irrigation system.

We studied nutrient balance in a paddy field that had a recycling irrigation system and evaluated the effect of the irrigation system on nutrient balance during the irrigation period, from April to August 2002. Chemical fertilizer was the main input of phosphorus; the soil absorbed about 56% of it. The amount of nitrogen supplied by the irrigation system was higher than in a representative paddy field, and the amount of nitrogen fertilizer used was decreased because the irrigation water was partly reused. About 20% of applied nitrogen was lost by denitrification. The net outflows of phosphorus and nitrogen were -0.37 and -3.98 kg ha(-1), respectively. These results indicate that our study paddy field performed well in removing phosphorus and nitrogen compounds from runoff water. A recycling irrigation system can be considered an effective way of reducing the amounts of water and fertilizer used and reducing the outflow nutrients.

Context-specific adaptation of pursuit initiation in humans.

PURPOSE: To determine if multiple states for the initiation of pursuit, as assessed by acceleration in the "open-loop" period, can be learned and gated by context. METHODS: Four normal subjects were studied. A modified step-ramp paradigm for horizontal pursuit was used to induce adaptation. In an increasing paradigm, target velocity doubled 230 msec after onset; in a decreasing paradigm, it was halved. In the first experiment, vertical eye position (+/-5 degrees ) was used as the context cue, and the training paradigm (increasing or decreasing) changed with vertical eye position. In the second experiment, with vertical position constant, when the target was red, training was decreasing, and when green, increasing. The average eye acceleration in the first 100 msec of tracking was the index of open-loop pursuit performance. RESULTS: With vertical position as the cue, pursuit adaptation differed between up and down gaze. In some cases, the direction of adaptation was in exact accord with the training stimuli. In others, acceleration increased or decreased for both up and down gaze but always in correct relative proportion to the training stimuli. In contrast, multiple adaptive states were not induced with color as the cue. CONCLUSIONS: Multiple values for the relationship between the average eye acceleration during the initiation of pursuit and target velocity could be learned and gated by context. Vertical position was an effective contextual cue but not target color, implying that useful contextual cues must be similar to those occurring naturally, for example, orbital position with eye muscle weakness.

Cross-axis adaptation of pursuit initiation in humans.

PURPOSE: The initial acceleration of pursuit in the open-loop period is under adaptive control and undergoes motor learning. The current study was undertaken to examine the hypothesis that the direction of pursuit initiation can also be adaptively modified. METHODS: Four neurologically and ophthalmologically normal subjects participated in the experiment. A modified step-ramp paradigm was used to induce cross-axis adaptation, in which a ramp target changed its direction orthogonally just after the target crossed the center. Four direction changes were tested in separate experiments: left to up, left to down, down to left, and up to left. During a 30-minute adaptation session, the target moved in one of two randomly chosen directions (right to left or up to down) at one of two randomly chosen speeds (15.6 or 22.3 deg/sec), but the target changed orthogonally in only one direction. A linear regression fit to the initial 100-msec segment of the pursuit trace was used to determine the direction of pursuit initiation. RESULTS: In all cases, an adaptive change in pursuit initiation was gradually induced in the direction called for by the training paradigm. Adaptation was usually completed (90 degrees shift) within the 30-minute training session but declined quickly to an approximate 30 degrees -shift after training. The latency and vectorial amplitude of the initial acceleration remained unchanged. The adaptation was specific for the direction but not the velocity of the target. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that the direction of pursuit initiation is under adaptive control, as has been shown for saccadic eye movements and the vestibulo-ocular reflex.

Adaptive changes in dynamic properties of human disparity-induced vergence.

PURPOSE: Vergence eye movements undergo adaptive recalibration in response to a training stimulus in which the initial disparity is changed just after vergence begins (the double-step paradigm). In the present study the changes in the dynamic properties of convergence, speed and acceleration, were examined by using this double-step paradigm, before and after adaptation. METHODS: Four normal subjects participated. Three-dimensional visual stimuli were provided by a head-mounted display with two liquid crystal diode (LCD) panels. To induce adaptation, a double step of disparity was used: an initial step from distances of 2 to 1 m was followed by a second step to distances of 0.7 m ("increasing paradigm") or 1.4 m ("decreasing paradigm") after a constant period of 0.2 seconds. The dynamic properties of vergence were compared before and after 30 minutes of training with these paradigms. RESULTS: Peak velocity of convergence became significantly greater (increasing paradigm) or smaller (decreasing paradigm) after 30 minutes' training. Changes in the dynamic properties of convergence were also obvious in phase-plane (velocity versus position) and main sequence (peak velocity versus amplitude) plots. Further analysis revealed that adaptive increases in vergence velocity were accomplished by an increase in the duration of the acceleration period, whereas adaptive decreases were induced by a decrease in the maximum value of acceleration. CONCLUSIONS: The pattern of change in the dynamic characteristics of vergence after adaptation was similar to that of saccades and the initiation of pursuit eye movements, suggesting common neural mechanisms for adaptive changes in the open-loop control of eye movements.

Antibody reactivity with porcine zona pellucida.

A comparative study on anti-zona antibody activities in the sera from clinically defined categories of patients registered at the WHO Reference Bank for Reproductive Immunology was performed at five different laboratories with different detection methods. Considerably higher incidences of positive reactions were detected by immunofluorescence on porcine zonae in infertile women (16.3%) than in control subjects (7.1%). A similar proportion of positives was found by radioimmuno-binding assay (RIBA) using porcine zona antigen preparation in the infertile group (13.0%) but not in the female control group (0%), giving an indication of the specificity of this test. It is noteworthy that high incidences of positives were observed by RIBA with sera from male subjects with unexplained sterility, vasectomy and aspermatogenesis. A test system of passive hemagglutination reaction (PHAR) using purified porcine zona substance as antigen gave a low but slightly higher incidence of positives in infertile (3.1%) than in control sera (0.9%). No positive reactions were observed with infertile and control sera by another PHAR or by radioimmunoassay using an antigen preparation common to the two test systems. Anti-zona activities in these sera were therefore seen to vary, depending largely upon the detection systems and the antigen preparations.

Effects of localized lesions in the lateral suprasylvian cortex on convergence eye movement in cats.

We evaluated the effects of electrolytic lesions in the extrastriate cortical area on the amplitudes and velocities of vergence eye movements in six alert cats that were trained to track a target moving in depth. Bilateral or unilateral lesions in the lateral suprasylvian (LS) cortex reduced the amplitudes and velocities of vergence eye movements, but the positive correlation between them was maintained. Furthermore, unilateral lesions changed the symmetry of eye movements. Movements of the left eye were decreased by lesions in the right LS cortex, resulting in asymmetric vergence eye movement with right eye predominance, and vice versa. These results support the hypothesis that the LS cortex plays an essential role in controlling vergence eye movement.

Detection of anti-zona pellucida activities in human sera by the passive hemagglutination reaction.

A simple method of detecting anti-zona activities in human sera has been developed by passive hemagglutination reaction ( PHAR ) using bovine erythrocytes as indicator cells coated with purified porcine zona substance. By this test, 8 of 88 serum samples (9.1%) from infertile women gave positive reactions, whereas only 1 of 90 control sera (1.1%). A positive immunofluorescence (IF) assay confirmed the results of the PHAR in seven of the eight positive samples. Positive PHAR and IF on porcine zonae were abolished after adsorption with porcine erythrocytes, but IF on human zonae was retained by four of eight serum samples, indicating the presence of anti-zona autoantibodies in these infertile sera that were directed to an antigen(s) proper to human zonae.

Foveal translocation with scleral imbrication in patients with myopic neovascular maculopathy.

PURPOSE: To report our surgical results of foveal translocation with scleral imbrication in patients with myopic neovascular maculopathy. DESIGN: Noncomparative, interventional, consecutive case series. METHODS: Ten eyes of 10 myopic patients with subfoveal neovascular membranes that had undergone foveal translocation with scleral imbrication were recruited for this retrospective study. Inclusion criteria were myopia 6.0 diopters or greater in refractive error (or axial length 26.5 mm or longer), subfoveal choroidal neovascularization, and preoperative best-corrected visual acuity of 20/100 or worse. None of these eyes had undergone prior laser photocoagulation or submacular surgery. The main outcome measures were surgical complications and postoperative visual function. RESULTS: Postoperatively, visual acuity had improved more than 3 lines in the logarithm of minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) measurement in all eyes. The mean preoperative, postoperative best, and final visual acuity were 0.12, 0.59, and 0.51, respectively. Of the 10 eyes, six achieved a postoperative final visual acuity of 20/40 or better. The mean postoperative foveal displacement was 0.78 disk diameter (range, 0.3--1.3 disk diameter). Two patients underwent a reoperation because of insufficient foveal displacement. Furthermore, one of these two patients required a third operation to reduce an excessive retinal fold involving the fovea induced by the second surgery. Of the 10 patients, two noted transient diplopia. This complaint, however, resolved over time as suppression developed. Although unintentional iatrogenic retinal tears formed intraoperatively in two eyes, these were successfully treated without serious complications. Postoperatively, mild retinal pigment epithelial changes were observed in all cases, but none led to significant deterioration of visual acuity during the follow-up period. All patients but one were followed for a minimum of 6 months. CONCLUSIONS: In eyes with myopic neovascular maculopathy, foveal translocation with scleral imbrication may be useful in improving visual acuity. Further refinements in surgical technique and assessment of the long-term complications will be needed to make this procedure safer and more useful.

Dysfunctional regulation of the development of monocyte-derived dendritic cells in cancer patients.

Dendritic cells (DCs) are highly effective antigen (Ag)-presenting cells (APCs) that are required for the initiation of the immune response. DCs derived from cancer patients have been shown to be defective in several phenotypic and functional properties. However, little is known about the capacity of monocytes derived from cancer patients to differentiate into DCs. Herein, we examined the differentiation of monocyte-derived DCs in cancer patients. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that monocytes derived from cancer patients cultured with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) plus interleukin-4 (IL-4) exhibited lower levels of CD11c, CD40, CD86, and HLA-DR expression as compared with those of monocyte-derived DCs from healthy volunteers. Furthermore, the capacities of DCs derived from cancer patients' monocytes to stimulate allogeneic T cell responses and to migrate in response to regulated-on-activation normal T cells expressed and secreted (RANTES) were impaired in comparison with those of monocyte-derived DCs from healthy volunteers. However, the two cell types had similar pinocytotic capacities for fluorescein isothiocyanate labeled-dextran (FITC-DX) and lucifer yellow (LY). These results suggest that monocytes from cancer patients may be defective in the capacity to develop into DCs.

Bcl-2, Bcl-xL and c-FLIP(L) potentially regulate the susceptibility of human peripheral blood monocyte-derived dendritic cells to cell death at different developmental stages.

We examined the susceptibility of human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs) to spontaneous and CD95-mediated cell death at different developmental stages. Time course experiments revealed that the susceptibility of mature dendritic cells (mDCs) to spontaneous cell death was significantly lower than that of immature dendritic cells (iDCs) in a long-term culture under cytokine-free conditions, and the treatment with GM-CSF rescued these cells from spontaneous cell death at the late culture period. iDCs and mDCs expressed similar levels of CD95 whereas both cell types were relatively resistant to CD95-mediated cell death. Antigen (Ag)-specific and nonspecific cognate interaction with T cells failed to cause cell death of iDCs and mDCs. iDCs constitutively expressed transcripts and intracellular products of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL, but not cellular FLICE-inhibitory protein(long (c-FLIP(L)), while the increased expressions of Bcl-2, Bcl-xL and c-FLIP(L) were observed in mDCs. These results suggest that the selective expressions of Bcl-2, Bcl-xL and c-FLIP(L) may be involved in the difference in the susceptibility to cell death between iDCs and mDCs.

Gene specific assay to differentiate strains of pseudorabies virus.

The need for compatibility between Pseudorabies vaccination and disease eradication measures has caused the production and release of diverse Pseudorabies virus (PRV) vaccine strains with altered genetic makeups due to the deletion of specific genes. These genes code for antigens used as differential serologic markers. By use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR), it is possible to determine, in a rapid and sensitive way, if a given PRV strain has a "wildtype" genotype, or if instead it carries a deletion for a specific gene. A sequence of 217 bp was selected as an amplification target within the gene of the essential glycoprotein 50 (gp50). Another sequence of 173 bp was selected in the joint area of glycoprotein 63 (gp63) and glycoprotein I (gI) genes. Under optimal amplification conditions, the simultaneous use of both PCR tests allowed us to differentiate specifically gI negative strains from several other wild type PRV strains, utilizing cell culture-propagated virus, acutely and latently infected neural tissue of mice and pigs as source of DNA targets. This kind of test will be useful for the rapid identification of PRV strains detected in tissues from individual animals, especially in cases of single reactors occurring in vaccinated herds. At the same time, the gene-defined PCR test will be useful for the evaluation of vaccines in their ability to prevent latency, by permitting unequivocal differentiation between vaccine and challenge virus strains.

Influence of vaccination route on the efficacy of Aujeszky's disease deletion-mutant vaccine.

In order to compare the effect of the route of immunization on the efficacy of a modified live Aujeszky's disease (AD) vaccine, which had deletions in both thymidine kinase (TK-) and glycoprotein gIII genes (gpIII-), 20 six-week-old pigs were vaccinated by either the intramuscular (IM) (n = 10) or subcutaneous (SC) (n = 10) route. All the animals, including five non-vaccinated control animals, were challenged with virulent AD virus 22 days after vaccination. Four of five non-vaccinated animals died within 12 days after challenge. Although none of vaccinated animals died, three of animals in the SC group exhibited clinical signs, and average daily gains in the SC group were depressed. The animals in the IM group were not found to shed challenge virus, but those in the SC group shed the virus up to 9 days. Virus neutralizing antibody titers in the vaccinated animals were low or non-detectable by 21 days after vaccination. A glycoprotein gII (gpII) screening ELISA detected gpII antibody in all animals in the IM group. While, only 30% of animals in the SC group were positive by the same test. The results of this study indicate that TK-, gpIII modified live AD virus vaccine is effective against challenge with virulent AD virus; however, vaccination by the SC route reduced vaccine efficacy in comparison with IM route.

Scenario analysis for reduction of effluent load from an agricultural area by recycling the run-off water.

We reviewed rates of nitrogen (N) removal in paddy fields and wetlands. Then we developed a numerical model to simulate N flow in an agricultural paddy field area and analyzed scenarios for recycling the agricultural run-off, including field drainage, from an agricultural area with an irrigation/drainage system. In it, we considered N removal in paddy fields, a regulating reservoir, and canals. The review showed that the rate constant for N removal in paddy fields and wetlands was 0.025 m/d under natural conditions and 0.01 m/d under dark conditions. The scenario analysis of recycling paddy field run-off within the model area indicated that a large amount of the effluent load occurred during the transplanting period and that recycling could reduce the effluent N load. The effluent N load would be equal to the inflowing N load at a 48% recycling rate. In this scenario, paddy fields accounted for most of the reduction in the effluent N load, and the mean removal rates per unit area of paddy field and regulating reservoir were 53.6 g ha(-1)d(-1) and 222.6 g ha(-1)d(-1) , respectively.

[Quantitative evaluation of nystagmus by an image-analysis system].

PURPOSE: We attempted to apply a newly developed image-analysis system for measurement and analysis of nystagmus. METHOD: Eye movements were recorded by digital video through a head-mounted charge coupled device (CCD) camera. The recorded movie was converted into black and white in order to detect the area of the pupil. Horizontal and vertical eye positions were determined by calculating the centroid of the pupil. Torsional angle was calculated using the iris striate pattern around the pupillary margin. RESULTS: The parameters (amplitude, cycle, etc.) of nystagmus were calculated easily by the new image-analysis system from the recorded images. As examples, the foveation period was measured accurately in a case of jerky-type congenital nystagmus. Very regular cycles of intorsional attack period were revealed in a case of superior oblique myokymia. A case of cork-screw-like nystagmus showed a characteristic combination of large and small cycles unassociated with torsion. CONCLUSION: This image-analysis system was useful for quantitative analysis of nystagmus, and especially for measurement of torsion. Detailed waveforms and specific rhythms of nystagmus, which could not be recognized by observation, were demonstrated by this system.