Kyushu University

About: Kyushu University is a education organization based out in Fukuoka, Japan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Catalysis. The organization has 68284 authors who have published 135190 publications receiving 3055928 citations. The organization is also known as: Kyūshū Daigaku.

The Space Physics Environment Data Analysis System (SPEDAS)

Abstract: With the advent of the Heliophysics/Geospace System Observatory (H/GSO), a complement of multi-spacecraft missions and ground-based observatories to study the space environment, data retrieval, analysis, and visualization of space physics data can be daunting. The Space Physics Environment Data Analysis System (SPEDAS), a grass-roots software development platform ( www.spedas.org ), is now officially supported by NASA Heliophysics as part of its data environment infrastructure. It serves more than a dozen space missions and ground observatories and can integrate the full complement of past and upcoming space physics missions with minimal resources, following clear, simple, and well-proven guidelines. Free, modular and configurable to the needs of individual missions, it works in both command-line (ideal for experienced users) and Graphical User Interface (GUI) mode (reducing the learning curve for first-time users). Both options have “crib-sheets,” user-command sequences in ASCII format that can facilitate record-and-repeat actions, especially for complex operations and plotting. Crib-sheets enhance scientific interactions, as users can move rapidly and accurately from exchanges of technical information on data processing to efficient discussions regarding data interpretation and science. SPEDAS can readily query and ingest all International Solar Terrestrial Physics (ISTP)-compatible products from the Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF), enabling access to a vast collection of historic and current mission data. The planned incorporation of Heliophysics Application Programmer’s Interface (HAPI) standards will facilitate data ingestion from distributed datasets that adhere to these standards. Although SPEDAS is currently Interactive Data Language (IDL)-based (and interfaces to Java-based tools such as Autoplot), efforts are under-way to expand it further to work with python (first as an interface tool and potentially even receiving an under-the-hood replacement). We review the SPEDAS development history, goals, and current implementation. We explain its “modes of use” with examples geared for users and outline its technical implementation and requirements with software developers in mind. We also describe SPEDAS personnel and software management, interfaces with other organizations, resources and support structure available to the community, and future development plans.

jPOSTrepo: an international standard data repository for proteomes.

Abstract: Major advancements have recently been made in mass spectrometry-based proteomics, yielding an increasing number of datasets from various proteomics projects worldwide. In order to facilitate the sharing and reuse of promising datasets, it is important to construct appropriate, high-quality public data repositories. jPOSTrepo (https://repository.jpostdb.org/) has successfully implemented several unique features, including high-speed file uploading, flexible file management and easy-to-use interfaces. This repository has been launched as a public repository containing various proteomic datasets and is available for researchers worldwide. In addition, our repository has joined the ProteomeXchange consortium, which includes the most popular public repositories such as PRIDE in Europe for MS/MS datasets and PASSEL for SRM datasets in the USA. Later MassIVE was introduced in the USA and accepted into the ProteomeXchange, as was our repository in July 2016, providing important datasets from Asia/Oceania. Accordingly, this repository thus contributes to a global alliance to share and store all datasets from a wide variety of proteomics experiments. Thus, the repository is expected to become a major repository, particularly for data collected in the Asia/Oceania region.

Dietary risk factors for inflammatory bowel disease: a multicenter case-control study in Japan.

Abstract: To evaluate the role of dietary factors in the etiology of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), we conducted a multicenter hospital-based case-control study in a Japanese population. Cases were IBD patients aged 15 to 34 years [ulcerative colitis (UC) 111 patients; Crohn's disease (CD) 128 patients] within 3 years after diagnosis in 13 hospitals. One control subject was recruited for each case who was matched for sex, age, and hospital. A semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire was used to estimate preillness intakes of food groups and nutrients. All the available control subjects (n = 219) were pooled, and unconditional logistic models were applied to calculate odds ratios (ORs). In the food groups, a higher consumption of sweets was positively associated with UC risk [OR for the highest versus lowest quartile, 2.86; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.24 to 6.57], whereas the consumption of sugars and sweeteners (OR, 2.12; 95% CI, 1.08 to 4.17), sweets (OR, 2.83; 95% CI, 1.38 to 5.83), fats and oils (OR, 2.64; 95% CI, 1.29 to 5.39), and fish and shellfish (OR, 2.41; 95% CI, 1.18-4.89) were positively associated with CD risk. In respect to nutrients, the intake of vitamin C (OR, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.21 to 0.99) was negatively related to UC risk, while the intake of total fat (OR, 2.86; 95% CI, 1.39 to 5.90), monounsaturated fatty acids (OR, 2.49; 95% CI, 1.23 to 5.03) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (OR, 2.31; 95% CI, 1.12 to 4.79), vitamin E (OR, 3.23; 95% CI, 1.45 to 7.17), and n-3 (OR, 3.24; 95% CI, 1.52 to 6.88) and n-6 fatty acids (OR, 2.57; 95% CI, 1.24 to 5.32) was positively associated with CD risk. Although this study suffers from the shortcoming of recall bias, which is inherent in most retrospective studies (prospective studies are warranted to confirm the associations between diet and IBD risk), the present findings suggest the importance of dietary factors for IBD prevention.

Analgesic Effect of Morphine Glucuronides

Abstract: Pharmacological properties of morphine-3-glucuronide and morphine-6-glucuronide were studied in mice and compared with those of morphine. 1) The analgesic effect of morphine-6-glucuronide was 3 to 4 times as potent and approximately 2 times as long in duration as that of morphine when injected subcutaneously. Morphine-3-glucuronide, however, showed no analgesic effect even in a dose of 27.6mg/kg. 2) The analgesic effect of morphine-6-glucuronide was about 45 times as potent as that of morphine, when injected intracerebrally in mice, but morphine-3-glucuronide had no effect. 3) After intraperitoneal injection of morphine-6-glucuronide in rats, only conjugated morphine was detected in the brain by chromatographic examination but not free morphine. 4) Morphine-6-glucuronide was also antagonized by nalorphine though to slightly lesser degree than morphine. 5) Development of tolerance to morphine-6-glucuronide in analgesic effect was almost the same in degree as that to morphine. Cross tolerance between morphine-6-glucuronide and morphine was observed as well.