Evaluation of the feasibility of EUCAST RAST using antimicrobial disks available in Japan.

Background: In November 2018, the European Committee for Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) established rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing (RAST), which could be performed directly on positive blood culture samples. Although concentrations of antimicrobial agents in several antimicrobial disks available in Japan are different from those recommended by the EUCAST, the feasibility of EUCAST RAST using antimicrobial disks available in Japan remains to be evaluated.

Methods: Blood culture bottles spiked with 127 clinical isolates (65 Escherichia coli and 62 Klebsiella pneumoniae) were tested by RAST for cefotaxime (CTX), ceftazidime (CAZ), meropenem, and ciprofloxacin using antimicrobial disks available in Japan, and compared with a reference AST method using automated AST instrument (VITEK®2).

Variability in deer diet and plant vulnerability to browsing among forests with different establishment years of sika deer.

Increased ungulate browsing alters the composition of plant communities and modifies forest ecosystems worldwide. Ungulates alter their diet following changes in availability of plant species; however, we know little about how browse selection and plant community composition change with different stages of deer establishment. Here, we provide insight into this area of study by combining multiple approaches: comparison of the understory plant community, analysis of records of browsing damage, and DNA barcoding of sika deer feces at 22 sites in forests in northern Japan varying in when deer were first established.

Comparison of species, virulence genes and clones of Aeromonas isolates from clinical specimens and well water in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan.

Aims: To reveal the sources of Aeromonas infection in Okinawa Prefecture of Japan, the species, virulence genes and clones of strains isolated from clinical specimens and well water were compared.

Methods And Results: The properties of both isolates were investigated by sequencing of rpoD, detection of 10 virulence genes using PCR and genotyping with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. In all, 68 clinical and 146 well water strains of Aeromonas were isolated and the main species were A.

Aberrant Anterior Thalamic Radiation Structure in Bipolar Disorder: A Diffusion Tensor Tractography Study.

Disrupted white matter (WM) integrity in the anterior thalamic radiation (ATR) has been identified in individuals with bipolar disorder (BD). We explored whether structural WM aberration in the ATR could be visually evaluated by diffusion tensor tractography (DTT). The study comprised 114 participants, including 57 patients with BD and 57 healthy controls (HCs).

Regional brain volume reductions in major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder: An analysis by voxel-based morphometry.

Objectives: The present study investigated the usefulness of evaluating the existence of volume reduction in brain regions using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to dissociate major depressive disorder (MDD) from bipolar disorder (BD).

Methods/design: This study enrolled 92 individuals with MDD, 32 individuals with BD, and 43 healthy controls (HCs). We focused on gray matter volume (GMV) of the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC), subcallosal area (SCA), and hippocampus.

The zinc finger domain of RING finger protein 141 reveals a unique RING fold.

Human RING finger protein 141 (RFP141) is a germ cell-specific transcription factor during spermatogenesis. We synthesized a compact construct encoding the C-terminal zinc finger of RFP141 (RFP141C peptide). Herein we determined the solution structure of the RFP141C peptide by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).

Analysis of the presence or absence of atrophy of the subgenual and subcallosal cingulate cortices using voxel-based morphometry on MRI is useful to select prescriptions for patients with depressive symptoms.

Objective: We objectively evaluated the presence or absence of atrophy of the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) and the subcallosal anterior cingulate cortex (scACC), using new voxel-based morphometry (VBM) software employing Statistical Parametric Mapping software v8 and diffeomorphic anatomic registration through an exponentiated lie algebra. We prepared a database covering young-mature adulthood and investigated the clinical usefulness of the evaluation.

Subjects And Methods: One hundred seven patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), 74 patients with bipolar disorder (BD), and 240 healthy control subjects underwent 1.

Usefulness of visual evaluation of the anterior thalamic radiation by diffusion tensor tractography for differentiating between Alzheimer's disease and elderly major depressive disorder patients.

Background And Objective: Many surveys of neural integrity of the cerebral white matter with psychiatric diseases on diffusion tensor imaging have recently been performed, but these mainly utilize fractional anisotropy (FA) and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values, and the results were inconsistent and not fully applied clinically. In this study, we investigated the possibility of differentiating between Alzheimer's disease (AD) and elderly major depressive disorder (MDD) patients in whom early-stage symptoms are difficult to diagnose, by visually evaluating cerebral nerve fascicles utilizing diffusion tensor tractography. We also measured and evaluated FA and ADC values at the same time.

Identification of atrophy of the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, in particular the subcallosal area, as an effective auxiliary means of diagnosis for major depressive disorder.

Background: Despite being a very common psychiatric disorder, physicians often have difficulty making a diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD) because, without established diagnostic criteria, they have to depend on interviews with patients and observation to assess psychiatric symptoms. However, previous researchers have reported that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans identify morphological changes in the brains of patients with MDD, which inspired us to hypothesize that assessment of local changes in the brain using voxel-based morphometry would serve as an auxiliary diagnostic method for MDD. Therefore, we focused on the VSRAD(®) plus (voxel-based specific regional analysis system for Alzheimer's disease), a diagnostic support system for use in early Alzheimer's disease, which allowed us to identify regional atrophy in the brain easily based on images obtained from MRI scans.

Diagnosis of depression by MRI scans with the use of VSRAD - a promising auxiliary means of diagnosis: a report of 10 years research.

Objectives: This study was designed to evaluate the usefulness of assessing subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sACC) volume reduction by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as an objective auxiliary means of diagnosis of depression. The study was additionally designed to analyze the association of sACC volume reduction with the effectiveness of treatments for depression and other diseases presenting with similar symptoms, and to examine the possibility of using sACC volume reduction in the distinction between depression and bipolar disorder and determining optimum medication for these conditions.

Methods: Three-dimensional T1-weighted sagittal images, taken with Achieva 1.

Structural insights into the substrate specificity and function of Escherichia coli K12 YgjK, a glucosidase belonging to the glycoside hydrolase family 63.

Proteins belonging to the glycoside hydrolase family 63 (GH63) are found in bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes. Eukaryotic GH63 proteins are processing *-glucosidase I enzymes that hydrolyze an oligosaccharide precursor of eukaryotic N-linked glycoproteins. In contrast, the functions of the bacterial and archaeal GH63 proteins are unclear.

Crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of Escherichia coli K12 YgjK protein, a member of glycosyl hydrolase family 63.

Processing alpha-glucosidase I, which is classified into glycosyl hydrolase (GH) family 63, hydrolyzes an oligosaccharide precursor of eukaryotic N-linked glycoproteins. Recently, many bacteria have been reported to possess genes for proteins that are homologous to the GH family 63 glucosidases. In this paper, Escherichia coli K12 YgjK protein, a member of GH family 63, was overexpressed, purified and crystallized using the vapour-diffusion method.

The crystal structure of Thermoactinomyces vulgaris R-47 alpha-amylase II (TVA II) complexed with transglycosylated product.

Alphan alpha-amylase (TVA II) from Thermoactinomyces vulgaris R-47 efficiently hydrolyzes alpha-1,4-glucosidic linkages of pullulan to produce panose in addition to hydrolyzing starch. TVA II also hydrolyzes alpha-1,4-glucosidic linkages of cyclodextrins and alpha-1,6-glucosidic linkages of isopanose. To clarify the basis for this wide substrate specificity of TVA II, we soaked 4(3)-alpha-panosylpanose (4(3)-P2) (a pullulan hydrolysate composed of two panosyl units) into crystals of D325N inactive mutated TVA II.