Violaceols function as actin inhibitors inducing cell shape elongation in fibroblast cells.

Asami, Yukihiro,Jang, Jae-Hyuk,Oh, Hyuncheol,Sohn, Jae Hak,Kim, Jong Won,Moon, Dong Oh,Kwon, Osong,Kawatani, Makoto,Osada, Hiroyuki,Kim, Bo Yeon,Ahn, Jong Seog Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and A 2012 Bioscience, biotechnology, and biochemistry Vol.76 No.8

<P>Violaceol-I and -II were isolated from a fractionated library of marine-derived fungal metabolites. These compounds increased the calcium ion concentration inside the cell and caused F-actin aggregation in rat fibroblast 3Y1 cells within 3 h resulting in cell shape elongation. Calcium chelator BAPTA-AM (1,2-bis(2-aminophenoxy)ethane-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid tetrakis (acetoxymethyl ester) inhibited violaceol-I and -II induced F-actin aggregation in 3Y1 cells, and hence violaceol-I and -II act in a calcium dependent manner. Violaceol-I and -II inhibited G-actin polymerization in vitro in a dose-dependent manner and strongly associated with G-actin, at dissociation equilibrium constants of 1.44 ?? 10(-8) M and 2.52 ?? 10(-9) M respectively. Here we report the identification of a novel function of violaceol-I and -II as actin inhibitors. Violaceol-I and -II induced cell shape elongation through F-actin aggregation in 3Y1 fibroblasts. These compounds may give researchers new insights into the role of actin in tumorigenesis and lead to the development of additional anti-tumor drugs.</P>

Two-stage Complete Deroofing Fistulotomy Approach for Horseshoe Fistula: Successful Surgery Leaving Continence Intact

Asami Usui,Gentaro Ishiyama,Akihiko Nishio,Maiko Kawamura,Yukiko Kono,Yuji Ishiyama 대한대장항문학회 2021 Annals of Coloproctolgy Vol.37 No.3

Purpose: Surgery of the horseshoe fistula is challenging due to its complex configuration and sphincter muscle involve- ment. Complete deroofing fistulotomy for horseshoe fistula is highly curative with the eradication of all fistulous lesions but has been discredited for its high incontinence rate. It was replaced with the more conservative Hanley’s procedure leaving the lateral tracts intact, despite its issue of recurrence. Our study aimed to report the outcomes of a procedure di- viding complete deroofing fistulotomy for horseshoe fistula into 2 stages to avoid impairment of sphincter function. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 139 patients who underwent surgery for horseshoe fistula using the 2-stage com- plete deroofing fistulotomy method between 2014 and 2017. The first surgery deroofed the lateral tracts with an arch-like incision severing the anococcygeal ligament. The primary lesion was also drained and curetted. A seton was placed in the primary tract which was laid open in the second surgery after the lateral wound had partially healed. Results: Recurrence was observed in 12 patients. All were superficial recurrences except for 1, in which recurrence was confirmed in the primary lesion. Those with blind intersphincteric upward extensions had a significantly higher recurrence rate. Furthermore, patients who resided far from the hospital and could not make visits for frequent wound inspections also had a significantly higher recurrence rate. No patient had any continence issues at the end of the follow-up period. Conclusion: Managing horseshoe fistula with the 2-stage deroofing fistulotomy approach allows for eradication of the fis- tula tract without compromising anal sphincter function.

Error Analysis on Distribution-based Frequency Estimator

Asami Ishizaka,Masuhiro Nitta,Kiyotaka Kato 제어로봇시스템학회 2010 제어로봇시스템학회 국제학술대회 논문집 Vol.2010 No.10

Frequency estimation is a useful technology for analyzing oscillatory phenomena. In these days, there is a demand for rapid and highly accurate frequency estimator. Though various frequency estimation methods have been proposed, most of them can not respond to the demand. An algebraic approach is succeeded in achieving the demand but it requires a lot of multiple integrations due to eliminating differential operations. The present paper proposes a frequency estimator of a sinusoidal signal based on the notion of distribution theory. Then the estimator is realized by single integrations. The proposed method relaxes the complexity of multiple integrations into single integrations but the integration is theoretically evaluated over the infinite interval (-∞,∞). The paper firstly reduces the infinite interval to a finite observation interval [0,T] and secondly approximates the integration by a numerical integration. The authors introduce Gaussian function as a test function and perform an error analysis to ensure the accuracy of the frequency estimator. As a result of the error analysis, the suitable conditions of the Gaussian function are clarified. Under the derived conditions, the authors confirmed that the proposed frequency estimator brings out enough the estimation performance.

Automatic Disease Stage Classification of Glioblastoma Multiforme Histopathological Images Using Deep Convolutional Neural Network

Asami Yonekura,Hiroharu Kawanaka,V. B. Surya Prasath,Bruce J. Aronow,Haruhiko Takase 대한의용생체공학회 2018 Biomedical Engineering Letters (BMEL) Vol.8 No.3

In the field of computational histopathology, computer-assisted diagnosis systems are important in obtaining patientspecificdiagnosis for various diseases and help precision medicine. Therefore, many studies on automatic analysis methodsfor digital pathology images have been reported. In this work, we discuss an automatic feature extraction and disease stageclassification method for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) histopathological images. In this paper, we use deep convolutionalneural networks (Deep CNNs) to acquire feature descriptors and a classification scheme simultaneously. Further,comparisons with other popular CNNs objectively as well as quantitatively in this challenging classification problem isundertaken. The experiments using Glioma images from The Cancer Genome Atlas shows that we obtain 96:5% averageclassification accuracy for our network and for higher cross validation folds other networks perform similarly with a higheraccuracy of 98:0%. Deep CNNs could extract significant features from the GBM histopathology images with highaccuracy. Overall, the disease stage classification of GBM from histopathological images with deep CNNs is verypromising and with the availability of large scale histopathological image data the deep CNNs are well suited in tacklingthis challenging problem.

Serum lactate dehydrogenase is a possible predictor of platinum resistance in ovarian cancer

Asami Ikeda,Ken Yamaguchi,Hajime Yamakage,Kaoru Abiko,Noriko Satoh-Asahara,Kenji Takakura,Ikuo Konishi 대한산부인과학회 2020 Obstetrics & Gynecology Science Vol.63 No.6

ObjectiveThe need for tailoring ovarian cancer treatments to individual patients is increasing. This study aimed to evaluate theprognostic value of pretreatment laboratory test data for predicting the response and survival outcomes of platinumbasedchemotherapy in ovarian cancer. MethodsWe enrolled 270 patients with ovarian cancer diagnosed at the Kyoto Medical Center (n=120; group A) and KyotoUniversity (n=150; group B). Data on 9 blood parameters (neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio [NLR], platelet to lymphocyterate [PLR], C-reactive protein, lactate dehydrogenase [LDH], glucose, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein [HDL],low-density lipoprotein, and triglyceride levels), cancer pathology, cancer stage, cytoreduction outcomes, serumcancer antigen 125 levels, platinum-free interval (PFI), disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival were assessedretrospectively. ResultsNLR, PLR, LDH, and HDL were significantly different in advanced stage patients (P<0.001, <0.001, 0.029, and <0.001,respectively). The Kaplan-Meier curves revealed that high LDH level (≥250 U/L) was associated with reduced PFI(P=0.037 and 0.012) and DFS (P=0.007 and 0.002) in groups A and B, respectively. High NLR (≥4) was associated withreduced DFS in both groups (P=0.036 and 0.005, respectively). LDH showed higher area under the curve (AUC) valuesin predicting platinum resistance with a PFI of less than 6 months and 12 months (AUC=0.606 and 0.646, respectively)than NLR. In the multivariate analysis, LDH remained significant (P=0.019) after adjusting for the 9 blood parameters. ConclusionSerum LDH level may possibly predict platinum resistance and prognosis in ovarian cancer and may be useful whendeveloping precision medicine for individual patients.

Assessment and Control of Health Risk Attributable to Drinking Water

ASAMI, Mari,AIZAWA, Takako,KUNIKANE, Shoichi,MAGARA, Yasumoto 영남대학교 환경문제연구소 2000 環境硏究 Vol.20 No.1

Control of health risk attributable to drinking water must achieve on a new stage toward new century. Microbial risk and chemical risk emerged from drinking water are estimated from survey of existing cases and analytical data of chemicals. The number of cases reported as accidental microbial and protozoa infected diseases occurred in recent 15 years all over Japan are reexamined and summed up to estimate microbial health risk due to drinking water. Approximately 35,300 cases are reported to be infected from water, especially from drinking water. This is calculated as 1.96 × 10-5 cases per year. Most of the outbreaks were emerged from small systems, such as private well or water tank while the number of patients infected through waterworks was over one third of the cases. Considering risk from chemicals, disinfection-by-products, DBPs, are generated in disinfection and oxidation processes, and they are of high general concern. A comparison of alternative disinfectants is presented with sum total of risk from DBPs and disinfection potential. Not only trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids produced in chlorination bromate is produced during ozonation of bromide-containing water. In case of ozonation of highly bromide-containing water, major portion of estimated cancer risk is accounted for bromate. Keys to minimize microbial risk and chemical risk from DBPs, lie in better rejection of micropollutants, multiple disinfection barrier and periodical inspection of water quality.

A Taxonomy of Spam and a Protection Method for Enterprise Networks

Tohru Asami,Takahiro Kikuchi,Kenji Rikitake,Hiroshi Nagata,Tatsuaki Hamai,Yoshinori Hatori 한국정보과학회 2002 한국정보과학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.2002 No.1

CRM646-A, a Fungal Metabolite, Induces Nucleus Condensation by Increasing Ca2+ Levels in Rat 3Y1 Fibroblast Cells

Yukihiro Asami,김순옥,장준필,고성균,김보연,Hiroyuki Osada,장재혁,안종석 한국미생물·생명공학회 2020 Journal of microbiology and biotechnology Vol.30 No.1

We previously identified a new heparinase inhibitor fungal metabolite, named CRM646-A, which showed inhibition of heparinase and telomerase activities in an in vitro enzyme assay and antimetastatic activity in a cell-based assay. In this study, we elucidated the mechanism by which CRM646-A rapidly induced nucleus condensation, plasma membrane disruption and morphological changes by increasing intracellular Ca2+ levels. Furthermore, PD98059, a mitogen-activated protein kinase (MEK) inhibitor, inhibited CRM646-A-induced nucleus condensation through ERK1/2 activation in rat 3Y1 fibroblast cells. We identified CRM646-A as a Ca2+ ionophore-like agent with a distinctly different chemical structure from that of previously reported Ca2+ ionophores. These results indicate that CRM646-A has the potential to be used as a new and effective antimetastatic drug.

Probabilistic Inference of Environmental Factors Via Time Series Analysis Using Mean-Field Theory of Ising Model

Atsushi Asami,Tatsuki Yamada,Yohei Saika 제어로봇시스템학회 2013 제어로봇시스템학회 국제학술대회 논문집 Vol.2013 No.10

We constructed a probabilistic modeling forecast variation of temperature using the time-series analysis based on statistical mechanics. In order to clarify availability of the present method, we estimated time evolution of squared error between predictive data and actual data on environmental factors, such as temperature. Using numerical simulation for climate statistics on temperature, we found that the present method was practically useful method via the mean-field theory of the Ising model to forecast environmental factors, although the accuracy of the present method was just inferior to that of the conventional method.

일본인 이주민의 운동자기효능감 측정을 위한 도구 고찰

아사미게이꼬(Asami, Keiko),채덕희(Chae, Duckhee) 전남대학교 간호과학연구소 2021 Nursing and Health Issues(NHI) Vol.26 No.2

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify current Japanese version of exercise self-efficacy instruments for measuring the exercise self-efficacy of Japanese immigrants in South Korea and evaluate their measurement properties. Methods: This study used a literature review on the measurement properties of exercise self-efficacy instruments. The PubMed, Embase, and CINAHL databases were searched from their inception to 19th July 2021 for related articles. Results: Two instruments were identified via the database search. Both were developed based using Bandura’s self-efficacy as the theoretical background. Overall, both instruments appeared to present adequate evidence for internal consistency and structural validity. Hypotheses testing for construct validity was verified for only one instrument. However, the test-retest lacked evidence for adequacy concerning the time interval. More importantly, content validity was not evaluated during the development of either instruments. Conclusion: We could not identify an instrument with sufficient validity and reliability to measure the exercise self-efficacy of Japanese immigrants in South Korea. In the future, the content validity of the two identified instruments must be evaluated by an expert panel and for and by the target population.