Development of a virtual flood experience system and its suitability as a flood risk communication tool

Preventing late evacuation has been a challenge in Japan's flood management. Our hypothesis is that people often have little idea about how dangerous a flood can be and thus do not understand the importance of early evacuation. To help them realize the possible risk of flooding, we developed the Virtual Flood Experience System (VFES) using virtual reality (VR) technology. This tool is also expected to improve flood risk communication and flood evacuation training. We evaluated the realness of a virtual flood reconstructed by VFES and conducted an evacuation behaviour experiment using VFES. This paper reports an overview of VFES, including the results of the evaluation and experiment conducted in Aga Town, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. The results confirmed that VFES can successfully reconstruct the flood conditions caused by Typhoon No.19 in 2019 and quantitatively record the difference in evacuation behaviour and the time required to select appropriate evacuation behaviour between individuals with knowledge of flood risk and those without, indicating its high potential as an effective risk commutation tool capable of providing virtual flood experiences and assisting behavioural psychology experiments.</p

Antiviral effect of alkaloids-free Ephedra Herb extract on respiratory syncytial virus infection

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of respiratory tract infection in children. Despite decades of efforts, no effective therapies are available. We recently reported that extracts of Ephedra Herb and Cinnamon Bark interacted with the G attachment protein of RSV to inhibit infectivity. The present in vitro study aimed to investigate the antiviral effect of ephedrine alkaloids-free Ephedra Herb extract (EFE), which is characterized by free of harmful effects of ephedrine alkaloids in Ephedra Herb, on experimental RSV infection. Infection of RSV into A549 cells simultaneously with EFE resulted the significant reduction of RSV RNA, viral protein, and viral titers after the incubation of the cells. We found that RSV attachment to the cell surface was inhibited both in the presence of EFE and when RSV particles were pre-treated with EFE. We also found that EFE specifically interacted with the central conserved domain of RSV G protein by surface plasmon resonance, demonstrating that specific binding of G protein to the cellular receptor was inhibited by EFE. Another mechanism was found in which a higher concentration of EFE inhibited the viral load immediately after the viral entry into host cells, suggesting the inhibition of viral RNA replication. These results demonstrate that EFE worked against RSV infection through multiple antiviral mechanisms, a unique feature of this crude drug extract

Atomic structures and functional implications of the archaeal RecQ-like helicase Hjm

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Pyrococcus furiosus </it>Hjm (<it>Pfu</it>Hjm) is a structure-specific DNA helicase that was originally identified by <it>in vitro </it>screening for Holliday junction migration activity. It belongs to helicase superfamily 2, and shares homology with the human DNA polymerase Θ (PolΘ), HEL308, and <it>Drosophila </it>Mus308 proteins, which are involved in DNA repair. Previous biochemical and genetic analyses revealed that <it>Pfu</it>Hjm preferentially binds to fork-related Y-structured DNAs and unwinds their double-stranded regions, suggesting that this helicase is a functional counterpart of the bacterial RecQ helicase, which is essential for genome maintenance. Elucidation of the DNA unwinding and translocation mechanisms by <it>Pfu</it>Hjm will require its three-dimensional structure at atomic resolution.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We determined the crystal structures of <it>Pfu</it>Hjm, in two apo-states and two nucleotide bound forms, at resolutions of 2.0–2.7 Å. The overall structures and the local conformations around the nucleotide binding sites are almost the same, including the side-chain conformations, irrespective of the nucleotide-binding states. The architecture of Hjm was similar to that of <it>Archaeoglobus fulgidus </it>Hel308 complexed with DNA. An Hjm-DNA complex model, constructed by fitting the five domains of Hjm onto the corresponding Hel308 domains, indicated that the interaction of Hjm with DNA is similar to that of Hel308. Notably, sulphate ions bound to Hjm lie on the putative DNA binding surfaces. Electron microscopic analysis of an Hjm-DNA complex revealed substantial flexibility of the double stranded region of DNA, presumably due to particularly weak protein-DNA interactions. Our present structures allowed reasonable homology model building of the helicase region of human PolΘ, indicating the strong conformational conservation between archaea and eukarya.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The detailed comparison between our DNA-free <it>Pfu</it>Hjm structure and the structure of Hel308 complexed with DNA suggests similar DNA unwinding and translocation mechanisms, which could be generalized to all of the members in the same family. Structural comparison also implied a minor rearrangement of the five domains during DNA unwinding reaction. The unexpected small contact between the DNA duplex region and the enzyme appears to be advantageous for processive helicase activity.</p

Facilitating a functional use of requesting of a child with mental retardation: in a case under errand condition

In this study, it was attempted to facilitate a functional use of vocal requesting of a child with mental retardation under errand situation. Errand situation was defined that a trainer (director) asked to the children to take a certain object from another trainer (supplier). And the functional use of requesting was also defined that the child emitted a rejecting response such as “ That ’s not it ” when the supplier offered a incorrect object to the child’s response. Results showed that the child could be able to use vocal responses as mand just after the intensive training where the child ’s errand behavior was reinforced by a object, instead of verbal praise and edible, that the child handed to the director. The results were discussed in terms of the stimulus value of the director’s request (discriminative stimulus).departmental bulletin pape

Effective disposition of reinforcer in a computer-based instruction for a child with mental retardation

This study was conducted to examine how to dispose a reinforcer for responses in order to make effective learning in a computer-based instruction for a child with mental retardation. The child was assigned easy tasks, and was required to click on one of two stimuli. The tasks were programed by HTML and javascript. Reinforcer for correct responses was a animated character, which was preferred by the child, with HIRAGANA letters of "SONOTORI (Correct)". Present study, two types of presentation of the reinforcer were examined using reversal design. One was that the reinforcer was printed on a sheet of paper and was presented in front of the display by the experimenter (condition A). Another was that the reinforcer was automatically appeared on the display as a results of the child's correct responding (condition B). Results showed that the rate of correct responding under condition B was higher than that under condition A when the difficult task was assigned. Furthermore, off-task behavior, such as right-clicking over stimulus other than task-related stimuli, scrolling a stimulus on display, and so on, was frequently occurred under the condition A regardless of task difficulty. These results suggested that the effectiveness of a reinforcer would be affected by disposition of that stimulus. In a computer-based instruction, the reinforcer should appear on the computer-device.departmental bulletin pape

Facilitating on-task behaviors in a computer-based instruction for a child with mental retardation: using an element of reinforcer of off-task behaviors for that of on-task behaviors

This study was conducted to examine how to facilitate on-task behaviors in a computer-based instruction for a child with mental retardation. The child frequently showed such off-task behaviors as putting his mouse cursor over the items on task-bar，right-clicking, and so on. These behaviors were considered to be reinforced by the stimuli being generated by the behaviors themselves. That is，mouse over described above yielded sliding in the live thumbnail on display (under the case of windows vista)，and right-clicking，sliding in the right-click-menu. In this study,this reinforcing element（slide-in the stimulus as a result of mouse over）was contingent on the task-related correct responding.The child was required to click on one of two stimuli depending upon sample stimulus（conditional discrimination)．Reinforcer for correct responding was an animated cartoon，which was preferred by the child，with HIRAGANA letter of "SONOTORI（Correct)". Present study，two types of reinforcement were examined using reversal design. One was that the reinforcer described above appeared on the display just after child's correct responding（Fixed condition)．Another was that the reinforcer described above， except the animated cartoon, appeared on the display. The animated cartoon was slid in froｍ the left side of the display when the child out his mouse cursor over the HITAGANA letters，and was slid out if the child kept mouse cursor away from that stimulus（Variable condition)． Results showed that the correct responding was higher under Variable condition than that under Fixed condition. Futhermore，the occurrence of off-task behavior was lower under Variable condition than that under Fixed condition. Results were discussed in terms of positive behavior intervention and functional equivalence among these behaviors.departmental bulletin pape

Room-temperature plasticity of a nanosized GaN crystal

GaN wurtzite crystal is commonly regarded as eminently brittle. However, our research demonstrates that nanodeconfined GaN compressed along the M direction begins to exhibit room-temperature plasticity, yielding a dislocation-free structure despite the occurrence of considerable, irreversible deformation. Our interest in M-oriented, strained GaN nanoobjects was sparked by the results of first-principles bandgap calculations, whereas subsequent nanomechanical tests and ultrahigh-voltage (1250 kV) transmission electron microscopy observations confirmed the authenticity of the phenomenon. Moreover, identical experiments along the C direction produced only a quasi-brittle response. Precisely how this happens is demonstrated by molecular dynamics simulations of the deformation of the C- and M-oriented GaN frustum, which mirror our nanopillar crystals

Suppression of TopBP1 function increases the efficacy of chemotherapeutic treatments by enhancing the induction of apoptosis

福岡歯科大学2020年

MLH1-mediated recruitment of FAN1 to chromatin for the induction of apoptosis triggered by O6-methylguanine

O6 -Methylguanines (O6 -meG), which are produced in DNA by the action of alkylating agents, are mutagenic and cytotoxic, and induce apoptosis in a mismatch repair (MMR) protein-dependent manner. To understand the molecular mechanism of O6 -meG-induced apoptosis, we performed functional analyses of FANCD2 and FANCI-associated nuclease 1 (FAN1), which was identified as an interacting partner of MLH1. Immunoprecipitation analyses showed that FAN1 interacted with both MLH1 and MSH2 after treatment with N-methyl-N-nitrosourea (MNU), indicating the formation of a FAN1-MMR complex. In comparison with control cells, FAN1-knockdown cells were more resistant to MNU, and the appearances of a sub-G1 population and caspase-9 activation were suppressed. FAN1 formed nuclear foci in an MLH1-dependent manner after MNU treatment, and some were colocalized with both MLH1 foci and single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) created at damaged sites. Under the same condition, FANCD2 also formed nuclear foci, although it was dispensable for the formation of FAN1 foci and ssDNA. MNU-induced formation of ssDNA was dramatically suppressed in FAN1-knockdown cells. We therefore propose that FAN1 is loaded on chromatin through the interaction with MLH1 and produces ssDNA by its exonuclease activity, which contributes to the activation of the DNA damage response followed by the induction of apoptosis triggered by O6 -meG.福岡歯科大