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Patients with treatment-refractory depression (TRD) have significantly great losses in work productivity and employment. Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) is considered an approach for the treatment of TRD. However, the effectiveness of IPT in patients with TRD remains unclear. In this study, we report cases of TRD patients who underwent IPT after a detailed evaluation, along with their employment status. Of 112 patients who experienced 1-week examination administration for TRD at Kyorin University Hospital, which aimed to determine appropriate diagnosis and treatment approaches for each patient, four patients who met the criteria for major depressive disorder according to DSM-IV-TR and were determined suitable for IPT were included in this report. Two patients had moderate, one had mild, and one had remission levels of depressive symptoms according to the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale at the time of admission. All four patients completed the scheduled sessions of IPT (6–16 sessions) in the outpatient clinic and achieved remission. All four patients attained full-time employment within 6 months after receiving IPT. This study suggests that the appropriate selection of IPT might be effective for TRD patients, possibly leading to positive outcomes, including work productivity and employment status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Mood disorders cause significant work performance disability in sufferers and often lead to adverse employment outcomes in working individuals. The aim of this study was to explore factors associated with time to achieve employment through the occupational support program (OSP) for patients with mood disorders. Methods: The participants were patients admitted to the Kyorin university hospital from April 2016 to April 2019. Patients who met the criteria for major depressive disorder and depressive episode of bipolar I or II disorder according to DSM-5 and participated in the occupational therapy-based OSP for at least three sessions (one course) were included in this study. We collected demographic and clinical variables at the baseline of this study through medical records and OSP records; the variables included age, gender, diagnosis, scores of Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology and Global Assessment of Functioning, the number of times of participation in the OSP, word count of the transcription task in the OSP, typographical deficiency, fatigue status and mood status after the OSP. The primary outcome was set as the time to achieve the employment within 1 year after the discharge. Results: Of the 211 patients who participated in the OSP during the survey period, 49 participants met the criteria in this study. The results showed that 14 patients achieved and the other 35 patients did not achieve the employment within 1 year of discharge from the hospital. A multivariate cox regression analysis revealed that the word count of the transcription task in the OSP (HR = 1.03, 95% CI = 1.01–1.05, p = 0.016) and mood status after the OSP (HR = 2.77, 95% CI = 1.18–6.51, p = 0.019) were significantly associated with time to achieve the employment. Conclusion: In conclusion, this study suggested that work speed and mood response in the OSP could be significant predictors for achieving employment in patients with mood disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this work, the relationship between surface roughness of the membrane and membrane fouling was investigated with sodium alginate which is a kind of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and is regarded as a main foulant in membrane bioreactor (MBR). Cellulose acetate butyrate polymer which is superior in heat-resistance and mechanical strength was used as membrane material. The membranes having the gear-shaped structures of different heights on the outer surface were prepared by using the several spinnerets via thermally induced phase separation. The membrane having the higher projection on the outer surface showed higher antifouling property. The recovery of the permeability by backwashing also increased by the higher projection of the outer surface of the membrane. Although the membrane permeability decreased by adding calcium chloride into the alginate solution, the membrane with the higher projection also showed higher permeability and recovery by backwashing. The increase of the permeability and the recovery by backwashing was not owing to the increase of the outer surface area by the gear-shaped structure formation. From the observation of the membrane outer surface after filtration of sodium alginate and humic acid, it was revealed that foulants were accumulated in the valley between projections, while the top of the projection was clean. This is the reason for the higher antifouling property for the membrane with the higher projection structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The object of this study is to clarify the effect of membrane surface morphology on membrane fouling with sodium alginate (SA) which is a kind of natural organic matter (NOM) and is considered to be the main foulant in membrane water treatment. Cellulose acetate butyrate polymer which is superior in heat-resistance and mechanical strength was used as membrane material. Four kinds of membranes having different surface and cross-sectional structures were prepared via thermally induced phase separation and non-solvent induced phase separation. In the case of the filtration of 50mgL−1 SA solution from the outer surface to inner surface, the membrane having the dense outer surface showed higher permeability and higher recovery of permeability by backwashing. An addition of calcium chloride into the sodium alginate solution resulted in significant flux decline due to thick cake layer formed by cross-linking of sodium alginate. In this case, the membranes with the dense outer surface also showed higher permeability. Furthermore, it was found that membrane fouling with sodium alginate took place mainly on the outer surface rather than inside the membrane by measuring infrared absorption spectrum of the membrane after filtration of sodium alginate solution with and without calcium chloride. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ca2+ is important for plant growth and development as a nutrient and a second messenger. However, the molecular nature and roles of Ca2+-permeable channels or transporters involved in Ca2+ uptake in roots are largely unknown. We recently identified a candidate for the Ca2+-permeable mechanosensitive channel in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), named MCA1. Here, we investigated the only paralog of MCAI in Arabidopsis, MCA2. cDNA of MCA2 complemented a Ca2+ uptake deficiency in yeast cells lacking a Ca2+ channel composed of Midi and Cch1. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis indicated that MCA2 was expressed in leaves, flowers, roots, siliques, and stems, and histochemical observation showed that an MCA2 promoter::GUS fusion reporter gene was universally expressed in 10-d-old seedlings with some exceptions: it was relatively highly expressed in vascular tissues and undetectable in the cap and the elongation zone of the primary root. mca2-null plants were normal in growth and morphology. In addition, the primary root of mca2-null seedlings was able to normally sense the hardness of agar medium, unlike that of mca1-null or mca1-null mca2-null seedlings, as revealed by the two-phase agar method. Ca2+ uptake activity was lower in the roots of mca2-null plants than those of wild-type plants. Finally, growth of mca1-null mca2-null plants was more retarded at a high concentration of Mg2+ added to medium compared with that of mca1-null and mca2-null single mutants and wild-type plants. These results suggest that the MCA2 protein has a distinct role in Ca2+ uptake in roots and an overlapping role with MCA1 in plant growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plants can sense and respond to mechanical stimuli, like animals. An early mechanism of mechanosensing and response is speculated to be governed by as-yet-unidentified sensory complexes containing a Ca2+-permeable, stretch-activated (SA) channel. However, the components or regulators of such complexes are poorly understood at the molecular level in plants. Here, we report the molecular identification of a plasma membrane protein (designated Mca1) that correlates Ca2+ influx with mechanosensing in Arabidopsis thaliana. MCA1 cDNA was cloned by the functional complementation of lethality of a yeast mid1 mutant lacking a putative Ca2+-permeable SA channel component. Mca1 was localized to the yeast plasma membrane as an integral membrane protein and mediated Ca2+ influx. Mca1 also increased [Ca2+]cyt upon plasma membrane distortion in Arabidopsis. The growth of MCA1-overexpressing plants was impaired in a high-calcium but not a low-calcium medium. The primary roots of mca1-null plants failed to penetrate a harder agar medium from a softer one. These observations demonstrate that Mca1 plays a crucial role in a Ca2+-permeable SA channel system that leads to mechanosensing in Arabidopsis. We anticipate our findings to be a starting point for a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms of mechanotransduction in plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An Arabidopsis thaliana RD20 cDNA, which was isolated as one of drought-inducible genes, encodes a putative protein with a conserved EF-hand Ca2+-binding domain. The recombinant RD20 protein was shown to bind Ca2+. The transcription of RD20 gene was induced not only by drought but also by ABA and high salinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In plant cells, plastid DNA is transcribed by at least two types of RNA polymerase, plastid-encoded RNA polymerase (PEP) and nuclear-encoded RNA polymerase (NEP). PEP is homologous to eubacterial transcription machinery, but its regulatory subunit, sigma (σ) factor, is not encoded on the plastid DNA. We previously cloned the three nuclear-encoded sigma factor genes from Arabidopsis thaliana and designated them as sigA, sigB, and sigC. By means of RFLP mapping, sigA and sigB were mapped on chromosome I and sigC on the chromosome III. Based on comparison of the genomic structure of the three sig genes, intron sites in the 3′ half of the genes were shown to be identical between sigB and sigC but divergent in sigA, consistent with the phylogenetic relevance of the three gene products. A transient expression assay of GFP fusions in Arabidopsis protoplasts showed that the N-termini of all three sig gene products functioned as chloroplast-targeting signals. We also constructed transgenic Arabidopsis lines harboring the sigA-promoter or the sigB-promoter uidA fusion. Both the sigA- and sigB-promoters were similarly activated at cotyledons, hypocotyls, rosette leaves, cauline leaves, sepals, and siliques but not at roots, seeds, or other flower organs. In addition, the two promoters were repeatedly activated in young seedlings under continuous light, possibly in an oscillated fashion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diacylglycerol kinase (DGK) synthesizes phosphatidic acid from diacylglycerol, an activator of protein kinase C (PKC), to resynthesize phosphatidylinositols. The structure of DGK has not been characterized in plants. We report the cloning of a cDNA, cATDGK1, encoding DGK from Arabidopsis thaliana. The cATDGK1 cDNA contains an open reading frame of 2184 bp, and encodes a putative protein of 728 amino acids with a predicted molecular mass of 79.4 kDa. The deduced ATDGK1 amino acid sequence exhibits significant similarity to that of rat, pig, and Drosophila DGKs. The ATDGK1 mRNA was detected in roots, shoots, and leaves. Southern blot analysis suggests that the ATDGK1 gene is a single-copy gene. The existence of DGK as well as phospholipase C suggests the existence of PKC in plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plants respond and adapt to environmental changes including drought, high salinity and low temperature. abscisic acid (ABA) plays important roles in these stress responses. A number of plant genes are induced by water stress, such as drought, high salinity and low temperature, and are thought to function in the stress tolerance and responses of the plant. At least four signal transduction pathways control these genes in Arabidopsis thaliana: two are ABA-dependent, and two are ABA-independent. A cis-acting element named DRE (Dehydration Responsive Element) is involved in one of the ABA-independent signal transduction pathways, and its DNA binding proteins have been characterized. Drought- and ABA-inducible MYC and MYB homologues are involved in ABA-responsive gene expression in arabidopsis. Roles of these cis and trans-acting factors in water stress responses are discussed. In addition, a number of genes for protein kinases, enzymes involved in phosphatidyl inositol metabolism (PI turnover) and transcription factors are also induced by water stress, and thought to be involved in the stress signal transduction cascades. Possible signaling processes in water stress response are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study aimed to clarify the effect of interactions between membranes and natural organic matter (NOM), which is considered to be the major membrane foulant in wastewater treatment processes. Sodium alginate (SA), humic acid (HA) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) were used as NOM models. Hollow fiber membranes were prepared using cellulose acetate butyrate polymer (CAB). Filtration experiments were carried out using SA, HA and BSA solutions and the membrane fouling behavior was examined. NOM adsorption on CAB membranes was measured by quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D), where NOM solutions were flowed across CAB spin-coated quartz crystal sensors and adsorbed. SA showed more severe permeate flux decline during the early stage of filtration and lower recovery of permeate flux after backwashing compared with HA. The severe flux decline for SA was due to pore-plugging and cake formation with high molecular weight components. The BSA solution, with no high molecular components, showed a gradual permeate flux decline and resulted in lower permeate flux after 240min filtration compared with HA. The gradual permeate flux decline with the BSA solution was due to ready adsorption of BSA on the CAB membrane. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Congenital myasthenic syndromes are caused by mutations in molecules expressed at the neuromuscular junction. Collagen Q (ColQ) makes a triple helical structure and anchors the catalytic subunit of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) to the synaptic basal lamina in the form of asymmetric AChE. Mutations in the collagen Q gene (COLQ) cause endplate AChE deficiency. As an initial step to develop a novel therapeutic strategy for endplate acetylcholinesterase deficiency, we expressed AChE species in cultured cells using retrovirus and adeno-associated virus (AAV). The retroviral vectors carried human ACHE and COLQ either in a single construct (EF1α-ACHE-IRES-COLQ) or in two separate constructs (EF1α-ACHE and EF1α-COLQ). We produced high-titer retroviruses using the PLAT-E retrovirus packaging cells. We also confirmed expression of asymmetric AChE in the PLAT-E cells. We infected NIH3T3 and confirmed expression of the transgenes by RT-PCR. The AAV vector carried human COLQ-IRES-EGFP downstream of the CMV promoter (pAAV-CMV-COLQ-IRES-EGFP). We produced recombinant AAV using HEK293 cells carrying pDF6 encoding the AAV6 capsid gene. We infected AAVHT1080 cells and confirmed expression of COLQ by RT-PCR and EGFP by flow cytometry. We are currently trying to achieve further higher expression levels of transgenes in cultured cells to make the current strategy applicable to an animal model. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]