Questionnaire Survey for Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients in Japan; A Web-Based Japan, Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Patients Survey.

Background/aims: The prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in Japan has been increasing. We aimed to clarify the symptoms of patients with IBD in Japan using an internet-based questionnaire survey.

Methods: Overall, 805 patients with IBD were asked to complete an internet-based questionnaire addressing their history of disturbances in daily activities, prevalence of fecal urgency, incontinence, and treatment preferences.

Anisotropic light-matter coupling and below-threshold excitation dynamics in an organic crystal microcavity.

Organic semiconductors are promising candidates as platforms for room temperature polaritonic devices. An issue for practical implementation of organic polariton devices is the lowering of condensation threshold. Here we investigate anisotropic light-matter coupling characteristics in an organic crystal microcavity showing strong molecular orientation.

Pyruvate kinase deletion as an effective phenotype to enhance lysine production in Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC13032: Redirecting the carbon flow to a precursor metabolite.

Various attempts have been made to enhance lysine production in Corynebacterium glutamicum. Pyruvate kinase (PYK) defect is one of the strategies used to enhance the supply of oxaloacetic acid (OAA), a precursor metabolite for lysine biosynthesis. However, inconsistent effects of this mutation have been reported: positive effects of PYK defect in mutants having phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) desensitized to feedback inhibition by aspartic acid, while negative effects in simple PYK gene (pyk) knockout mutants.

Effect of pyruvate kinase gene deletion on the physiology of ATCC13032 under biotin-sufficient non-glutamate-producing conditions: Enhanced biomass production.

The effect of pyruvate kinase gene () deletion on the physiology of ATCC13032 was investigated under biotin-sufficient, non-glutamate-producing conditions. In a complex medium containing 100 g/L glucose, a defined deletion mutant, strain D1, exhibited 35% enhancement in glucose consumption rate, 37% increased growth and a 57% reduction in respiration rate compared to the wild-type parent. Significant upregulation of phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) carboxylase and downregulation of PEP carboxykinase activities were observed in the D1 mutant, which may have prevented over-accumulation of PEP caused by the deletion.

Reactions of difunctional electrophiles with functionalized aryllithium compounds: remarkable chemoselectivity by flash chemistry.

Flash chemistry using flow microreactors enables highly chemoselective reactions of difunctional electrophiles with functionalized aryllithium compounds by virtue of extremely fast micromixing. The approach serves as a powerful method for protecting-group-free synthesis using organolithium compounds and opens a new possibility in the synthesis of polyfunctional organic molecules.

Mechanism of increased respiration in an H+-ATPase-defective mutant of Corynebacterium glutamicum.

We previously reported that a spontaneous H(+)-ATPase-defective mutant of Corynebacterium glutamicum, F172-8, derived from C. glutamicum ATCC 14067, showed enhanced glucose consumption and respiration rates. To investigate the genome-based mechanism of enhanced respiration rate in such C.

Illumination uniformity of an edge-lit backlight with emission angle control.

Viewing range of a liquid crystal display can be controlled by a liquid crystal device inserted between a light source and a light-guide of an edge-lit backlight unit. Here, we propose an output coupler with a vertical optical window through which light is extracted from a light-guide. Rays with large propagation angles and those with small angles have a comparable probability of hitting this window.

Peculiar protein-protein interactions of the novel endoplasmic reticulum membrane protein Rcr1 and ubiquitin ligase Rsp5.

Overproduction of the ER membrane protein Rcr1 makes Saccharomyces cerevisiae resistant to Congo red by reducing the chitin content through a unknown mechanism. By both co-immunoprecipitation and yeast two-hybrid experiments, specific interaction between Rcr1 and the ubiquitin ligase Rsp5 was found. This binding was largely mediated by a singular VPEY sequence in Rcr1 in addition to PPSY, the consensus ligand motif of the WW domains.

A novel endoplasmic reticulum membrane protein Rcr1 regulates chitin deposition in the cell wall of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Congo red binds to the cell wall and inhibits the growth of yeast. In a screening for multicopy suppressor genes of Congo red hypersensitivity of erd1Delta mutant, we found that a previously uncharacterized gene, YBR005w, makes most of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains resistant to Congo red. This gene was named RCR1 (resistance to Congo red 1).

A Rho GDP-dissociation inhibitor is involved in cytokinesis of Dictyostelium.

Homology searches toward the EST databases of Dictyostelium discoideum identified two putative Rho GDP-dissociation inhibitors (RhoGDIs), RhoGDI1 and RhoGDI2. In this study, the roles of RhoGDI1 in cytokinesis were examined. The RhoGDI1-null Dictyostelium strains produced by homologous recombination were viable but generated multinucleate giant cells in suspension culture, suggesting that RhoGDI1 is involved in cytokinesis.