The effectiveness of a Kampo e-learning course incorporated into the medical education curriculum: a possible solution to instructor shortages and time constraints.

Background: The shortage of instructors and time to teach traditional Japanese (Kampo) medicine (KM) limits students' understanding of its usefulness. We developed an e-learning course to solve this problem.

Methods: The Kampo e-learning course consists of 12 lessons on 10 essential Kampo formulas with related formulas, proper prescriptions, dosages, and adverse reactions, followed by review questions.

A phosphorylation-deficient mutant of , a homolog of , alters circadian sleep regulation by PDF neurons in .

Sleep behavior has been observed from non-vertebrates to humans. mutation in mice resulted in a notable increase in sleep and was identified as an exon-skipping mutation of the gene, conserved among animals. The skipped exon includes a serine residue that is phosphorylated by protein kinase A.

rdgB knockdown in neurons reduced nocturnal sleep in Drosophila melanogaster.

Recent studies revealed behaviorally defined sleep is conserved across broad species from insect to human. For evolutional analysis, it is critical to determine how homologous genes regulate the homologous function among species. Drosophila melanogaster shares numerous sleep related genes with mammals including Sik3, salt-inducible kinase 3, whose mutation caused long sleep both in mouse and fruit fly.

Interneurons of fan-shaped body promote arousal in Drosophila.

Sleep is required to maintain physiological functions and is widely conserved across species. To understand the sleep-regulatory mechanisms, sleep-regulating genes and neuronal circuits are studied in various animal species. In the sleep-regulatory neuronal circuits in Drosophila melanogaster, the dorsal fan-shaped body (dFB) is a major sleep-promoting region.

The regulation of circadian rhythm by insulin signaling in Drosophila.

Circadian rhythm is well conserved across species and relates to numerous biological functions. Circadian misalignment impairs metabolic function. Insulin signaling is a key modulator of metabolism in the fruit fly as well as mammals and its defects cause metabolic disease.

Biological functions of α2-adrenergic-like octopamine receptor in Drosophila melanogaster.

Octopamine regulates various physiological phenomena including memory, sleep, grooming and aggression in insects. In Drosophila, four types of octopamine receptors have been identified: Oamb, Oct/TyrR, OctβR and Octα2R. Among these receptors, Octα2R was recently discovered and pharmacologically characterized.

Insulin signaling in clock neurons regulates sleep in Drosophila.

Sleep relates to numerous biological functions, including metabolism. Both dietary conditions and genes related to metabolism are known to affect sleep behavior. Insulin signaling is well conserved across species including the fruit fly and relates to both metabolism and sleep.

Effects of D-amino acids on sleep in Drosophila.

Sleep and metabolism are closely related and nutritional elements such as sugars and amino acids are known to regulate sleep differently. Here we comprehensively investigated the effects of D-amino acids fed in the diet on the sleep of Drosophila melanogaster. Among 19 amino acids examined, both D-serine (Ser) and D-glutamine (Gln) induced a significant increase in sleep amount and the effect of D-Ser was the largest at the same concentration of 1% of the food.

Protocerebral Bridge Neurons That Regulate Sleep in .

The central complex is one of the major brain regions that control sleep in . However, the circuitry details of sleep regulation have not been elucidated yet. Here, we show a novel sleep-regulating neuronal circuit in the protocerebral bridge (PB) of the central complex.

A Randomized Trial of Home Blood-Pressure Reduction by Alcohol Guidance During Outpatient Visits: OSAKE Study.

Background: To evaluate the effectiveness of the nurse-led alcohol guidance to control home blood pressure (HBP) in the morning among male patients with hypertension during outpatient visits.

Methods: We enrolled 53 male patients with an HBP of ≥135/85 mm Hg with excessive drinking (alcohol ≥210 g/week or ≥60 g/day habitually) among outpatients in a randomized trial. Patients were assigned to a nurse-led alcohol guidance intervention or to the control.

Fruit Fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as an In Vivo Tool to Study the Biological Effects of Proton Irradiation.

The clinical superiority of proton therapy over photon therapy has recently gained recognition; however, the biological effects of proton therapy remain poorly understood. The lack of in vivo evidence is especially important. Therefore, the goal of this study was to validate the usefulness of Drosophila melanogaster as an alternative tool in proton radiobiology.

Fruit Fly, , as an Tool to Study the Biological Effects of Proton Irradiation.

The clinical superiority of proton therapy over photon therapy has recently gained recognition; however, the biological effects of proton therapy remain poorly understood. The lack of evidence is especially important. Therefore, the goal of this study was to validate the usefulness of as an alternative tool in proton radiobiology.

The clock components Period2, Cryptochrome1a, and Cryptochrome2a function in establishing light-dependent behavioral rhythms and/or total activity levels in zebrafish.

The circadian clock generates behavioral rhythms to maximize an organism's physiological efficiency. Light induces the formation of these rhythms by synchronizing cellular clocks. In zebrafish, the circadian clock components Period2 (zPER2) and Cryptochrome1a (zCRY1a) are light-inducible, however their physiological functions are unclear.

Time from Semiosis: E-series Time for Living Systems.

We develop a semiotic scheme of time, in which time precipitates from the repeated succession of punctuating the progressive tense by the perfect tense. The underlying principle is communication among local participants. Time can thus be seen as a meaning-making, semiotic system in which different time codes are delineated, each having its own grammar and timekeeping.

Sweetness induces sleep through gustatory signalling independent of nutritional value in a starved fruit fly.

Starvation reduces sleep in various animal species including humans and fruit flies. Immediate hunger and the following insufficient nutritional status resulting from starvation may affect sleep and arousal differently. In order to clarify the mechanism underlying the relationship between diet and sleep, we analysed the sleep behaviour of Drosophila melanogaster that were either starved or fed with different types of sugars.

Genes and neural circuits for sleep of the fruit fly.

Sleep is a universal physiological state evolutionarily conserved among species, but the molecular basis for its regulation is still largely unknown. Due to its electroencephalogram criteria, sleep has long been investigated and described mostly in mammalian species. The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, has emerged as a genetic model organism for studying sleep.

Forward-genetics analysis of sleep in randomly mutagenized mice.

Sleep is conserved from invertebrates to vertebrates, and is tightly regulated in a homeostatic manner. The molecular and cellular mechanisms that determine the amount of rapid eye movement sleep (REMS) and non-REMS (NREMS) remain unknown. Here we identify two dominant mutations that affect sleep and wakefulness by using an electroencephalogram/electromyogram-based screen of randomly mutagenized mice.

The initiation of nocturnal dormancy in Synechococcus as an active process.

Background: Most organisms, especially photoautotrophs, alter their behaviours in response to day-night alternations adaptively because of their great reliance on light. Upon light-to-dark transition, dramatic and universal decreases in transcription level of the majority of the genes in the genome of the unicellular cyanobacterium, Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 are observed. Because Synechococcus is an obligate photoautotroph, it has been generally assumed that repression of the transcription in the dark (dark repression) would be caused by a nocturnal decrease in photosynthetic activities through the reduced availability of energy (e.

The NMDA Receptor Promotes Sleep in the Fruit Fly, Drosophila melanogaster.

Considerable evidence indicates that sleep is essential for learning and memory. Drosophila melanogaster has emerged as a novel model for studying sleep. We previously found a short sleeper mutant, fumin (fmn), and identified its mutation in the dopamine transporter gene.

Temporal organization of rest defined by actigraphy data in healthy and childhood chronic fatigue syndrome children.

Background: Accumulating evidence has shown a universality in the temporal organization of activity and rest among animals ranging from mammals to insects. Previous reports in both humans and mice showed that rest bout durations followed long-tailed (i.e.

Identification of a dopamine pathway that regulates sleep and arousal in Drosophila.

Sleep is required to maintain physiological functions, including memory, and is regulated by monoamines across species. Enhancement of dopamine signals by a mutation in the dopamine transporter (DAT) decreases sleep, but the underlying dopamine circuit responsible for this remains unknown. We found that the D1 dopamine receptor (DA1) in the dorsal fan-shaped body (dFSB) mediates the arousal effect of dopamine in Drosophila.

Dopamine modulates metabolic rate and temperature sensitivity in Drosophila melanogaster.

Homeothermal animals, such as mammals, maintain their body temperature by heat generation and heat dissipation, while poikilothermal animals, such as insects, accomplish it by relocating to an environment of their favored temperature. Catecholamines are known to regulate thermogenesis and metabolic rate in mammals, but their roles in other animals are poorly understood. The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, has been used as a model system for the genetic studies of temperature preference behavior.

Pan-neuronal knockdown of the c-Jun N-terminal Kinase (JNK) results in a reduction in sleep and longevity in Drosophila.

Sleep is a unique behavioral state that is conserved between species, and sleep regulation is closely associated to metabolism and aging. The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster has been used to study the molecular mechanism underlying these physiological processes. Here we show that the c-Jun N-terminal Kinase (JNK) gene, known as basket (bsk) in Drosophila, functions in neurons to regulate both sleep and longevity in Drosophila.

High calorie diet augments age-associated sleep impairment in Drosophila.

The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster is an established model used for aging and longevity studies and more recently for sleep studies. Mammals and Drosophila share various physiological, pathological, pharmacological and genetic similarities in these processes. In particular, sleep is essential for survival in both species and both have age-associated sleep quality alterations.