Identification of equol-7-glucuronide-4'-sulfate, monoglucuronides and monosulfates in human plasma of 2 equol producers after administration of kinako by LC-ESI-MS

Equol is a product formed during the biotransformation of the naturally occurring isoflavone daidzein by intestinal bacteria. The role of equol in the prevention of several hormone-dependent diseases such as prostate cancer and osteoporosis as well as vasomotor symptoms has been extensively investigated. Equol primarily occurs in the form of major metabolites such as glucuronides and sulfates, while intact equol has been detected at only ca. 1% in human plasma. However, to date, conjugated metabolites have been evaluated by measuring the free equol obtained after selective enzymatic hydrolysis. Thus, the precise types of conjugates circulating in vivo and the position(s) of the conjugation sites on the equol skeleton have yet to be clarified. Our study describes the identification of polar equol metabolites in the plasma of 2 equol-producers obtained at 8 hours after consuming 50 g of kinako (approximately 37 mg of daidzein). The structural identification of these conjugated metabolites in plasma was performed by comparison to the LC-ESI-MS n and 1H-NMR spectral data of the corresponding chemically synthesized compounds. The results of the LC-ESI-MS/MS analysis indicated that the main conjugated metabolite in plasma was (S)-equol-7-glucuronide-4'-sulfate along with lower amounts of 7- and 4'-monoglucuronides as well as 7- and 4'-monosulfates.

Complete Genome Sequence of Plant Growth-Promoting Bacillus pumilus TUAT1

Bacillus pumilus TUAT1 was isolated from soil in a university research field. Strain TUAT1 has the ability to promote the growth of plants, including that of rice, and has been commercialized as a biofertilizer. Here, we sequenced and annotated the genome of TUAT1 to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying its plant growth promotion.

Mathematical modeling for the prediction of cerebral white matter lesions based on clinical examination data

Cerebral white matter lesions are ischemic symptoms caused mainly by microangiopathy; they are diagnosed by MRI because they show up as abnormalities in MRI images. Because patients with white matter lesions do not have any symptoms, MRI often detects the lesions for the first time. Generally, head MRI for the diagnosis and grading of cerebral white matter lesions is performed as an option during medical checkups in Japan. In this study, we develop a mathematical model for the prediction of white matter lesions using data from routine medical evaluations that do not include a head MRI. Linear discriminant analysis, logistic discrimination, Naive Bayes classifier, support vector machine, and random forest were investigated and evaluated by ten-fold cross-validation, using clinical data for 1,904 examinees (988 males and 916 females) from medical checkups that did include the head MRI. The logistic regression model was selected based on a comparison of accuracy and interpretability. The model variables consisted of age, gender, plaque score (PS), LDL, systolic blood pressure (SBP), and administration of antihypertensive medication (odds ratios: 2.99, 1.57, 1.18, 1.06, 1.12, and 1.52, respectively) and showed Areas Under the ROC Curve (AUC) 0.805, the model displayed sensitivity of 72.0%, and specificity 75.1% when the most appropriate cutoff value was used, 0.579 as given by the Youden Index. This model has shown to be useful to identify patients with a high-risk of cerebral white matter lesions, who can then be diagnosed with a head MRI examination in order to prevent dementia, cerebral infarction, and stroke.

Estimation of genetic parameters for farrowing traits in purebred Landrace and Large White pigs

Genetic parameters were estimated for six reproductive traits related to farrowing events in Landrace and Large White pigs; total number born (TNB), number born alive (NBA), number stillborn (NSB), total litter weight at birth (LWB), mean litter weight at birth (MWB), and gestation length (GL). We analyzed 62,534 farrowing records for 10,637 Landrace dams and 49,817 farrowing records for 8,649 Large White dams. Estimated heritabilities of TNB, NBA, NSB, LWB, MWB, and GL by single‐trait repeatability model analyses were 0.12, 0.12, 0.08, 0.18, 0.19, and 0.29, respectively, in Landrace, and 0.12, 0.10, 0.08, 0.18, 0.16, and 0.34, respectively, in Large White. Genetic correlation between NBA and NSB was unfavorable: 0.20 in Landrace and 0.33 in Large White. Genetic correlations of GL with the other five traits were weak: from −0.18 with NSB to −0.03 with NBA in Landrace, and from −0.22 with NSB to −0.07 with NBA in Large White. LWB had a highly favorable genetic correlation with NBA (0.74 in both breeds), indicating the possibility of using LWB for the genetic improvement of NBA.

Phylogeny of the spider mite sub-family Tetranychinae (Acari: Tetranychidae) inferred from RNA-Seq data

Phylogenetic trees of spider mites were previously obtained using 18S and 28S rRNA genes. Because some of the bootstrap values were relatively low, these trees were unable to completely resolve the phylogeny. Here, we obtained RNA-Seq data for the 72 known species (73 strains) of spider mites to analyze the phylogeny of the sub-family Tetranychinae. The data were de novo assembled into a total alignment length of 790,047 bases corresponding to 264,133 amino acid residues in 652 genes. The sequence dataset was 200 times larger than the data used in the previous study. The new trees were much more robust and more clearly defined the clades of the tribes and the genera of the sub-family Tetranychinae. The tribe Tetranychini was polyphyletic because a monophyletic clade of Eurytetranychini was placed inside it. The six genera from which two or more species were sampled appeared to be monophyletic, but four genera (Schizotetranychus, Eotetranychus, Oligonychus and Tetranychus) appeared to be polyphyletic. These results strongly support the previous molecular inference of the polyphyletic tribes and genera, although the molecular phylogeny of the sub-family Tetranychinae does not fully agree with the current morphology-based taxonomy. The taxonomy of the sub-family Tetranychinae should be revised according to the molecular relationships revealed by this study.

Decreased regional cerebral blood flow in patients with diphenylarsinic acid intoxication

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Diphenylarsinic acid (DPAA) intoxication caused by drinking contaminated well water was found in Kamisu, Japan. The symptoms indicated cerebellar-brainstem and temporo-occipital involvement. However, it remains unclear how it affects the human brain. To elucidate the effect of DPAA on the human brain, we analyzed cerebral blood flow (CBF) data after the drinking of DPAA-contaminated water was stopped and investigated the correlation between DPAA exposure level and CBF by single-photon emission computed tomography (CBF-SPECT).

METHODS

The DPAA-exposed inhabitants (n = 78) were divided into 35 symptomatic and 43 asymptomatic subjects and compared with 38 healthy controls. The DPAA concentration in nails or hair and well water was measured using a high-performance liquid chromatography system and coupled plasma mass spectrometry after adequate extraction treatment. CBF-SPECT data, obtained within 1 year after the drinking of contaminated well water was stopped, were analyzed by statistical parametric mapping. We also examined the relationship between variations in CBF-SPECT signals and variations in DPAA concentrations in the hair or nails of the subjects.

RESULTS

Compared with control subjects, CBF in symptomatic DPAA-exposed subjects was significantly lower in the occipital lobe, including the cuneus and inferior occipital gyri. The DPAA concentration in the nails or hair of subjects was inversely and significantly related to their CBF.

CONCLUSION

These data suggest that CBF-SPECT may be useful as a clinical marker to infer the effect of accumulated DPAA on the brain.

Differential interference contrast microscopy for cells using hard x-ray holography

We propose a differential interference contrast method for cells using hard x-ray Gabor holography and knife-edge filtering in the spatial frequency domain, without relying on beam shearing. A phase object is holographically recorded and reconstructed by computer. Interference between the wavefronts of zeroth order weighted by e^jπ/2 in the positive frequency region produces a dark image. Similarly, interference between the wavefronts of the zeroth order weighted by e^j3π/2 in the negative frequency region produces a bright image. By adding these two intensity distributions, good quality phase-contrast images of 8-μm-diameter polystyrene beads and human HeLa cells were obtained.

Image Mosaicing Using Multi-Modal Images for Generation of Tomato Growth State Map

Due to the aging and decreasing the number of workers in agriculture, the introduction of automation and precision is needed. Focusing on tomatoes, which is one of the major types of vegetables, we are engaged in the research and development of a robot that can harvest the tomatoes and manage the growth state of tomatoes. For the robot to automatically harvest tomatoes, it must be able to automatically detect harvestable tomatoes positions, and plan the harvesting motions. Furthermore, it is necessary to grasp the positions and maturity of tomatoes in the greenhouse, and to estimate their yield and harvesting period so that the robot and workers can manage the tomatoes. The purpose of this study is to generate a tomato growth state map of a cultivation lane, which consists of a row of tomatoes, aimed at achieving the automatic harvesting and the management of tomatoes in a tomato greenhouse equipped with production facilities. Information such as the positions and maturity of the tomatoes is attached to the map. As the first stage, this paper proposes a method of generating a greenhouse map (a wide-area mosaic image of a tomato cultivation lane). Using the infrared image eases a correspondence point problem of feature points when the mosaic image is generated. Distance information is used to eliminate the cultivation lane behind the targeted one as well as the background scenery, allowing the robot to focus on only those tomatoes in the targeted cultivation lane. To verify the validity of the proposed method, 70 images captured in a greenhouse were used to generate a single mosaic image from which tomatoes were detected by visual inspection.

Special Issue on Advanced Robotics in Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

The importance of primary industries, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, is obvious and needless to mention, however, the reduction of the working population and the aging problem make the situation of primary industry more sever. To compensate for the issues, the advanced technology in robotics has attracted attentions and expected the contributions in terms of productivity, cost effectiveness, pesticide-less, monitoring of the growth and harvesting, etc. Recently, robotic technologies are gradually being used in primary industry and their application area will expand more in the near future. This special issue’s objectives include collecting recent advances, automation, mechanization, research trends and their applications in agriculture, forestry and fisheries to promote a deeper understanding of major conceptual and technical challenges and facilitate spreading of recent breakthroughs in primary industries, and contribute to the enhancement of the quality of agricultural, forestry and fisheries robots by introducing the state-of-the-art in sensing, mobility, manipulation and related technologies.

In this special issue, twelve papers are included. The first paper by Noguchi is the survey paper of the state-of-the-art in the agricultural vehicle type robots and discusses the future scope of agriculture with robotics. The next three papers are on tomato-monitoring system, and Fukui et al. propose a tomato fruit volume estimation method using saliency-based image processing and point cloud and clustering technology, Yoshida et al. do the cutting point identification for tomato-harvesting using a RGBD sensor and evaluate in the real farm experiments, and Fujinaga et al. present an image mosaicking method of tomato yard based on the infrared images and color images of tomato-clusters in the large green house. The fifth paper by Sori et al. reports a paddy weeding robot in wet-rice field to realize the pesticide-free produce of rice, and the sixth paper by Shigeta et al. is about an image processing system to measure cow’s BCS (Body Condition Score) automatically before milking cows and analyzes the two months data by CNN (Convolutional Neural Network). The seventh paper by Inoue et al. reports on an upper-limb power assist robot with a single actuator to reduce the weight and cost. The assist machine supports the shoulder and elbow movements for viticulture operations and upper-limb holding for load transport tasks. In the next paper, Tominaga et al. show an autonomous robotic system to move between the trees without damaging them and to cut the weeds in the forest for the forest industry. The last four papers are for the fishery industry, and Komeyama et al. propose a methods for monitoring the size of fish, red sea bream (RSB) aquaculture by developing a stereo vision system to avoid the risks of physical injury and mental stress to the fish. Nishida et al. report on a hovering type underwater robot to measure seafloor for monitoring marine resources whose sensor can be replaced depending on missions as the open hardware system. Yasukawa et al. propose a vision system for an autonomous underwater robot with a benthos sampling function, especially, sampling-autonomous underwater vehicles (SAUVs) to achieve a new sampling mission. The last paper by Han et al. is for gait planning and simulation analysis of an amphibious quadruped robot in the field of fisheries and aquaculture.

We hope that this special issue can contributes to find solutions in primary industries, agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

Vision System for an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle with a Benthos Sampling Function

We developed a vision system for an autonomous underwater robot with a benthos sampling function, specifically sampling-autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). The sampling-AUV includes the following five modes: preparation mode (PM), observation mode (OM), return mode (RM), tracking mode (TM), and sampling mode (SM). To accomplish the mission objective, the proposed vision system comprises software modules for image acquisition, image enhancement, object detection, image selection, and object tracking. The camera in the proposed system acquires images in intervals of five seconds during OM and RM, and in intervals of one second during TM. The system completes all processing stages in the time required for image acquisition by employing high-speed algorithms. We verified the effective operation of the proposed system in a pool.

Underwater Platform for Intelligent Robotics and its Application in Two Visual Tracking Systems

A hovering-type autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) capable of cruising at low altitudes and observing the seafloor using only mounted sensors and payloads was developed for sea-creature survey. The AUV has a local area network (LAN) interface for an additional payload that can acquire navigation data from the AUV and transmit the target value to the AUV. In the handling process of the state flow of an AUV, additional payloads can control the AUV position using the transmitted target value without checking the AUV condition. In the handling process of the state flow of an AUV, additional payloads can control the AUV position using the transmitted target value without checking the AUV condition. In this research, water tank tests and sea trials were performed using an AUV equipped with a visual tracking system developed in other laboratories. The experimental results proved that additional payload can control the AUV position with a standard deviation of 0.1 m.

Genetic diversity and recombination of enterovirus G strains in Japanese pigs: High prevalence of strains carrying a papain-like cysteine protease sequence in the enterovirus G population

To study the genetic diversity of enterovirus G (EV-G) among Japanese pigs, metagenomics sequencing was performed on fecal samples from pigs with or without diarrhea, collected between 2014 and 2016. Fifty-nine EV-G sequences, which were >5,000 nucleotides long, were obtained. By complete VP1 sequence analysis, Japanese EV-G isolates were classified into G1 (17 strains), G2 (four strains), G3 (22 strains), G4 (two strains), G6 (two strains), G9 (six strains), G10 (five strains), and a new genotype (one strain). Remarkably, 16 G1 and one G2 strain identified in diarrheic (23.5%; four strains) or normal (76.5%; 13 strains) fecal samples possessed a papain-like cysteine protease (PL-CP) sequence, which was recently found in the USA and Belgium in the EV-G genome, at the 2C–3A junction site. This paper presents the first report of the high prevalence of viruses carrying PL-CP in the EV-G population. Furthermore, possible inter- and intragenotype recombination events were found among EV-G strains, including G1-PL-CP strains. Our findings may advance the understanding of the molecular epidemiology and genetic evolution of EV-Gs.

The comparative anatomy of the folds, fossae, and adhesions around the duodenojejunal flexure in mammals

BACKGROUND

Anatomical knowledge of the duodenojejunal flexure is necessary for abdominal surgeries, and also important for physiologic studies about the duodenum. But little is known about the anatomy of this region in mammals. Here, we examined comparative anatomy to understand the anatomical formation of the duodenojejunal flexure in mammals.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The areas around the duonenojejunal flexure were ob-served in mouse, rat, dog, pig, and human, and the anatomical structures around the duodenojejunal junction in the animals were compared with those in human.

RESULTS

The superior and inferior duodenal folds, and the superior and inferior duodenal fossae were identified in all examined humans. In pig, the structures were not clearly identified because the duodenum strongly adhered to the retroperitoneum and to the mesocolon. In mouse, rat, and dog, only the plica duodenocolica, which is regarded as the animal counterpart of the superior duo-denal fold in human, was identified, and other folds or fossae were not observed, probably because the duodenum was not fixed to the parietal peritoneum in those animals. Transection of the plica duodenocolica could return the normally rotated intestine back to the state of non-rotation in rat.

CONCLUSIONS

This study showed the anatomical similarities and dissimilarities of the duodenojejunal flexure among the mammals. Anatomical knowledge of the area is useful for duodenal and pancreatic surgeries, and for animal studies about the duodenum. (Folia Morphol 2018; 77, 2: 286-292).