Change

I started this blog a year ago. Small, but significant events have occurred about me in this year.

In December, Israeli has attacked Gaza again. The world repeats same processes over and over. On the other hand, the US President-elect Barack Obama promises that change is coming to America. Time Magazine named him as the person of the year 2008. The symbolic Kanji character for 2008 in Japan is "変", which means "change".

I hope to change my life for the betterment of my family in the next year.

Christmas

On Christmas Eve, we had a family Christmas party. Mari made a cheesecake.

Santa came to my house. Ken got "Tomy Plarail--Thomas the tank engine", which contains Thomas, freights, and plastic rails. He delighted and played with it at once. Ken believes in Santa Claus now.

Christmas party at daycare

Mari and I participated in the Christmas party at Ken's daycare.

Ken is always out of line. During chorus, he sat in the floor and watched his singing friends.
Then Ken took a role in a children's play "giant turnip", a folk tale in Russia. We watched it with little expecting, but Ken did it well. Although he fooled around too, we have never seen his team effort until now. Mari was moved and shed tears. Ken also sang Beethoven's Ninth Symphony together with his friends in the party.

After that, we cooked "tako-yaki (ball-shaped dumpling with octopus)" at our home. We got a tako-yaki cooker at the wedding of my cousin. It was my first experience of cooking tako-yaki, but I did it well. Ken had a lot of tako-yaki balls.

Phoo and shoe

"Sotheby's sets auction record for Pooh drawing"
A collection of original drawings from the "Winnie the Pooh" by A.A. Milne obtained around 1.3 million pounds (2 million dollars) at Sotheby’s auction.
On the other hand, it was reported that the former coach of the Iraqi national football team offered 100,000 dollars for the shoes aimed at President Bush, while Saudi citizen has offered 10 million dollars for them. The shoes appear to be far valuable than the original drawings for the Pooh.

After the incident, Bush joked to reporters, "I'm pretty good at ducking, as most of you know."
A few days ago, I played the online game "sock and awe" (http://www.sockandawe.com). This is a simple game to throw shoes to President Bush. I only hit 10 shoes him for 30 seconds. He showed his good ducking ability again.

Hearing aids

Humpty Dumpty and the messenger.

--I said it very loud and clear; I went and shouted in his ear.
But he was very stiff and proud; He said “You needn't shout so loud!”--




Photos are my hearing aids purchased from Widex Co Ltd. I attached small silver accessories on them. Sometimes children ask me what I am wearing in my ears. I usually reply them that I am using "alarm" aids. "These are alarm devices to let me know someone's lie, like this." I say and sound my hearing aids by producing feedback.

I wish to get babel fish rather than lie detector. Actually I desire hearing aids associated with iPod, but these are not applicable to my hearing.

Badminton game

On Nov 30, I participated in a badminton tournament held by Wako city. I debuted in the game as a doubles player with Mr. Y.
The opposing pair was high-school students. We tried hard and showed animosity against their youth, but lost the game. I failed to relax my shoulders and frequently hit air instead of shuttle.
In the next game, we faced a mixed pair. The girl was quite cute, but we defeated them completely. We got the first win in the official game.


Photos in the first game.
I look somewhat funny. I am not good at this sport yet, but it is a pleasure for me having a thing that provides me to feel my growth.

Sunshine International Aquarium

On Nov23, I and Ken went to the Sunshine International Aquarium in Ikebukuro. The aquarium has a mini zoo and we could watch several animals very closely in there. Mari went to a beauty salon in Shibuya where a friend of hers working.


(Left) Ken stared at hamsters for a long time. (Right) A sea lion caught balls thrown by spectators.


(Left) A ring-tailed lemur and a six-banded armadillo. Unlike three-banded armadillos, six-banded armadillos cannot roll up into a ball. (Right) A patagonian mara. It looks like a deer but is a species of large rodent.


(Left) Swimming fishes in a large circular glass tank. (Right) Ken lied in front of a tank watching arapaimas (pirarucus). He said that it was the best fish for him.


Burrow-inhabiting fishes. (Left) Yellow-head jawfishes. (Right) Splendid garden eels (Gorgasia preclara).


(Left) Ken and pelicans. (Right) Ken and a penguin-shaped, illuminated christmas decoration.

We spent many hours in the aquarium. Then we joined Mari in Ikebukuro and had dinner in a restaurant.

fMRI

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a recently developed neuroimaging technique that provides high resolution, noninvasive reports of neural activity. fMRI is based on the changes in blood flow and oxygenation (i.e., hemodynamics) in response to neural activity in the brain.

Since fMRI has relatively wide availability, it has become a popular tool for imaging of brain function. For example, researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Haifa provided a biological basis for gender differences in language using this technique.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18262207
The researchers measured brain activity in 31 boys and 31 girls aged 9 to 15 and showed that areas of the brain associated with language work harder in girls than in boys during language tasks.

Using fMRI, an amazing technology has reported in the Dec 11 issue of Neuron.
"Visual Image Reconstruction from Human Brain Activity using a Combination of Multiscale Local Image Decoders "
http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(08)00958-6

Researchers from ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Japan have developed a neuroimaging technology that can reconstruct arbitrary visual images from fMRI signals of human visual cortex. They succeeded in reconstructing what the test subjects were viewing, such as the letters "neuron", from their brain activity and displayed it on the monitor.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/cache/MiamiImageURL/B6WSS-4V4113M-P-8/0?wchp=dGLbVzb-zSkWz

The technology is quite amazing. In the future, it will be able to read one's thoughts or feelings directly from the brain. The researchers say, "More interesting are attempts to reconstruct subjective states that are elicited without sensory stimulation, such as visual imagery, illusions, and dreams."

Fixed-sum cash benefits

On Oct 30, Japan's Prime Minister Aso decided to use 2 trillion yen (20 billion dollar) as a government's economic stimulus package. He announced that Japan government will distribute 12,000 yen/person of cash benefit to all Japanese citizens. However, many people have doubts about the effect on economy.

A fake newspaper article reported that the Prime Minister decided to give 2 trillion yen cash to "a" person. According to the article, a junior partner in the coalition government opposed the plan and presented a counterproposal that 20 thousands winners selected by lot will get 100 millions yen/person.

I feel the later is attractive. If the government distributes 10 millions yen/person, about 200 thousands persons (about one per 500 citizens) can get the cash benefits. If it is assumed that a family consists of five persons, one for every 100 households will win the handouts.
That is better than the original plan, isn't that?

Hyakken

Hyakken Uchida was a Japanese prominent writer known for his elegant essays. I read a number of his essays and novels when I was in high school.
Do you like to eat doughnut hole? Hyakken liked to taste sort of like that, such as lotus root holes. He was also famous for being very difficult. I heard an anecdote about him when he was gifted a premium sake. He rebuked the donor that it will spoil his taste for his favorite sake. I thought that I want to find such my favorite things than having luxuries in life, although I do not like to be so difficult like him.

Photo is a bottle of umeshu. I bought it in Niigata in August. It is rich in aroma and sweet like honey.

Dark Water

A dead body was discovered in the water tank of a shopping center in Japan. The body was a man suspected to have committed suicide a month ago by jumping off from the building. All restaurants in the shopping center have been using the water even while the man had been in the tank.

Dark Water is a 2005 American drama-horror film. The film is a remake of a Japanese film based on the short story "Floating Water" in a horror anthology by Koji Suzuki, the author of "Ring". He commented that he got the idea of the story from an urban legend regarding dead body in water tank. Now it came to reality, and shocked a number of people who had used the restaurants. Fact is worse than fiction.

Doctors

In October, an emergent pregnant woman died after refusing admission from eight hospitals in Tokyo. As I was concerned in a previous entry (http://shinkammy.blogspot.com/2008/02/obstetrical-and-pediatric-problems.html), the maternity services did not work properly even for women who had regular prenatal checkups.

Mr. Nikai, the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, said the issue is not a political but is due to moral of doctors. Additionally, the Prime Minister Aso attributed the issue to doctors themselves. He also said that they lack in a common sense. These statements made a lot of doctors upset.

Doctors have different opinions over whether their number should be increased. Many of them worry about their situations and oppose the policy. They insist that improving their working conditions is more crucial rather than increasing the number. Indeed, increased dentists in 1970s led a serious issue of excess dentists in Japan.

In contrast to the shortage of medical doctor, the issue of excess postdoc is not a matter of public concern. In August, the members of "the waste destruction project team" of the Liberal Democratic Party singled out the project "promotion of career-path diversity for postdocs" as a wasteful, useless one. They mocked postdocs that foisting incapable doctors on businesses will bother and inconvenience many employers. Postdocs ought to establish their career path by themselves.

According to OECD Education at a Glance 2008 (http://www.oecd.org/edu/eag2008), a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the total expenditure of Japan on education was 3.4% of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2005. Japan ranked bottom in 28 OECD member countries.
At the same time, OECD Health Data 2008 (http://www.oecd.org/health/healthdata) shows that total health spending of Japan accounted for 8.2% of GDP in 2005. The value was lower than the OECD average and ranked 21st among those of 30 OECD countries.

Mt. Fuji

When the sky is clear, I can see Mt. Fuji from my laboratory. See the photo, the mountain in the distance is that at sunset.

In Japan, one can see Mt. Fuji in a wide area. I used to watch it at Omiya station during commuting from Niigata to Hachioji. I could see it more clearly in a few places in Hachioji, but mostly other mountains obstructed the view.

Korejanai robo

"Korejanai robo" is a handmade wooden robot made by ZariganiWorks Co.,Ltd. It looks like a fake Gundam, but it won a 2008 Good Design Award in Japan.
http://www.g-mark.org/search/Detail?id=34900&sheet=outline&lang=en

What is Korejanai? Please imagine following scenes in your mind. A parents buy their son a Gundam toy for Christmas. But it is not Gundam but a fake robot. Their son is disappointed and crys, "KOREJANAI (This is Not what I wanted) !"

The concept of this toy is as follows."It is the time to teach your son that life is not a box of chocolates. He cannot always get everything he wants without any effort."

I guess Ken should learn it. Perhaps I'd better buy Ken the robot for Christmas.

Mammoth genome

Sequencing the nuclear genome of the extinct woolly mammoth
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v456/n7220/full/nature07446.html

Scientist from the USA and Russia reported genome-wide sequence of woolly mammoth in Nature on Nov 20. The researchers determined 3.3 billion (80%) of the 4.17 billion bases of sequence from two mammoth specimens. The divergence between the two specimens is 1.5-2.0 Myr. The estimated divergence rate between mammoth and African elephant is half of that between human and chimpanzee.

It is a step forward to resurrecting a mammoth. Gon, a Stone age boy of a Japanese anime, often eats round slices of mammoths together with his family. Many Japanese wished to eat it, but it was obviously impossible. How soon will I be able to eat mammoth steak?

Gon and a mammoth slice.
http://pierrot.jp/title/gon/gon/gon-mv.jpg

Moon

Ken asked me to give him the moon. I told him that is impossible, but he did not agree with me. "You can pick it by a rail, dad." he said.

I am unable to pick the moon for him. Alternatively, I give him my moonlike head.

Resurrect extinct animals

"Production of healthy cloned mice from bodies frozen at -20 degrees C for 16 years"
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18981419

Dr Wakayama and colleagues, Japanese scientists at RIKEN research institute, produced cloned mice from frozen carcasses. These dead mice had been kept frozen at -20 degrees C for 16 years without any cryoprotective treatment. Freezing inevitably causes cell burst and DNA damage inside. Using a modified cloning method by nucleus transfer, the team succeeded in producing healthy mice from the cloned embryos.

Recently, several studies have reported regarding reproductive cloning of endangered species.
Scientists at Advanced Cell Technology, a biotechnology company in Massachusetts, first reported the cloning of an endangered animal in 2001. They cloned a gaur, an Indian wild cattle, using nuclei of skin cells frozen for eight years. However, the cloned gaur, named noah, died from an infection two days after its birth. After Noah, a number of endangered animals have cloned by same nucleus transfer techniques. These studies used cryoprotected cells for the cloning, whereas Wakayama's team enabled using nuclei from dead and degraded cells. Their study will open the way to "resurrect" extinct animals, such as mammoths.

In Australia, scientists at the Australian Museum attempted to resurrect Tasmanian tiger (thylacine), a wolf-like marsupial, from the specimens. However, since the DNA retains too less quality, they forced to give up the attractive project. In a recent report, researchers from the Australia and USA isolated a transcriptional enhancer element from the specimens and resurrected the functions in transgenic mice (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18493600). A professor in the team says that their work proved possible to study the functions of genes from extinct species, although cloning of a thylacine is still a long way off.

In Japan, Japanese toki (Japanese crested ibis) has become extinction in 2003. Since the tissues and cells from the last one were frozen for preservation, it appears to be easier to resurrect this extinct bird than other extinct animals.

Theoretically, the techniques are applicable to reproductive cloning of humans. In 1991, a frozen 5,300-year-old Neolithic man was discovered in the Austrian Alps. On the other hand, bodies of some presidents of Communist governments, such as Vladimir Lenin, Kim Il-sung and Mao Zedong, were embalmed after their death. Although it would be difficult to obtain intact DNA from these preserved corpses, the study by Wakayama's team might stimulate some scientists of resurrecting them.

Chrysanthemum flowers

Photo is chrysanthemum flowers.

Japan has two national flowers: spring sakura (Japanese cherry) and autumn kiku (chrysanthemums). The former represents transient beauty and later implicates modesty and patience.

Recently, one of the most successful music producers in Japan arrested for alleged fraud. A decade ago, he had around 10 billions yen (100 millions dollar), but he is now on a charge of defrauding an investor of 500 million yen regarding copyrights transfer.

He might be cherry blossoms. I looked the chrysanthemum flowers in a new light.

Newly formed University

The newly formed University that I got hired had been waited its approval by the Council for University Establishment.
On Oct 31, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) officially approved the establishment. Therefore, my next position seems to be guaranteed.

On the other hand, my laboratory will move in early December. I am only one who will stay in a lab at Wako city. But it is difficult to continue my research there. I feel isolated from my lab, and I failed to isolate some genes that I have tried cloning. I have little time to accomplish it.

Ken's birthday

Ken became four on Oct 27.

One year ago, he was too young to recognize his birthday. Now that is a special day for him and he looked forward the day.
At the night, he saw a whole cake for his birthday. He delighted and danced with joy. But he had only a little and went to his bed.



He wanted a bike for his birthday present. So the next day we went to buy it, but that was too heavy for him to ride. Alternatively we gave him a scooter, but he was afraid to ride it too.

He is using a diaper at night yet. I told him that four-years-old boy usually do not pee in the diaper. That may have pressured him; he wetted his bed for a fourth straight day in the daycare.

He had a cake at Mari's parent's house too. The birthday of Chi-baa, his grandmother, had come on Oct 30. But he had no thought for someone else's birthday but himself.

Sticky tape and X rays

In the Oct 23 issue of Nature, the cover picture shows the X-ray image of a human finger taken with peeling tape as the X-ray source. Researchers at UCLA reported that peeling sticky tape (i.e. Scotch tape) in a vacuum generated X-rays.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v455/n7216/abs/nature07378.html

The amazing streaming video is here.
http://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/x-rays

The sticky tape emits X rays only in a vacuum. But you can get a flash of light (namely, triboluminescence) when you peeled it in a dark room.

This report is very interesting. The research needs to be nominated for an Ig Nobel Prize!

Sunset

The sunset view from my laboratory.

Grant

I submitted a grant proposal to Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). I wrote the proposal for a small grant-in-aid for young scientists regarding my research on functions of a novel gene family.
The research is included in basic science, but I wrote it like an applied research. I heard that research in basic science is difficult to get a grant than that in applied science. Budget allocations tend to concentrate on applied research than on basic research in Japan.

Of course, I want to achieve breakthrough in basic research. But I have to get a grant anyway.

One missing vote

Today, Nov 4, is the general election day in the USA in 2008.
I found an interesting video to promote voting for Barack Obama.

"Obama's Loss Traced To Non-Voter"



In this video, single nonvoter tipped election to McCain-Palin ticket.
You can make your personalized version of the video with your name in it. I made it by the name of "Hillary Clinton".

I am not a voter in the USA and do not know well which candidate is better for Japan. But I question Sarah Palin's qualifications to be Vice-President in the USA.

In her first policy speech in Pittsburgh, Palin pledged to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). She said that the specific projects designated by Congress spend earmarks more than the shortfall to fully fund the IDEA.
"And where does a lot of that earmark money end up ?" she said. "You've heard about some of these pet projects they really don't make a whole lot of sense and sometimes these dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not."

In the speech, Palin also claimed early identification of a cognitive or other disorder, especially autism.
Here, human neurexins have been identified as a genetic risk factor for autism. A recent study reported that Drosophila neurexin is required for synapse formation in the adult central nerves system.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17498701
Furthermore, Drosophila researchers at the University of North Carolina demonstrated that neurexin has crucial roles in regulating the formation of synapses and in the proper development of active zones and regulating synaptic function in vivo.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17785181

Palin mocked Drosophila research, and is ridiculed by many Drosophilists.

iPS cell

I guess that the discovery of iPS cell will be nominated a Nobel Prize in the near future.

Recently, Dr. Yamanaka and colleagues succeeded in generating mouse iPS cells without viral vectors and reported the results in the Science.
(http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1164270v1)
Usually iPS cells are produced by induction of four genes, namely, Oct3/4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc, using retroviral vectors. However, the integration of viral sequences into the host genome increases the risk of tumorigenicity. The researchers showed that repeated transfection of a plasmid containing three genes (i.e. Oct3/4, Sox2, and Klf4) and a c-Myc expression plasmid into embryonic fibroblasts resulted in iPS cells without plasmid integration into genome.

On the other hand, Dr. Melton and colleagues reported in the Nature Biotechnology that valproic acid, a histone deacetylase inhibitor, enables reprogramming of primary human fibroblasts with only two factors, Oct4 and Sox2.
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18849973)
Maybe these remainder genes can be substituted by chemical compound(s) too.

In another report, Belmonte et al. succeeded in generating iPS cells from single adult human hairs.
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18931654)

Research on iPS cell is getting more and more competitive. For the discovery of HIV, Dr. Montagnier but not Dr. Gallo won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine. I believe that Dr. Yamanaka will win the Prize for the discovery of iPS cell.

An Indonesian friend of Mari

Ms. A, an Indonesian friend of Mari, will return her country in November with her family. She invited Mari to her farewell party at her home in Sendai. So, Mari, Ken and I went there on Oct 11.

We arrived at Sendai at lunchtime. She and her family greeted us with home-cooked Indonesian dishes. We had a chat with her friends over a good meal.



Ms. A and her husband Dr. P have two sons and a daughter. Ken became a good friend of their second child and played with him all day. They took a bath together and played in the water for a long time.

At the night, I wend drinking with a professor at my graduating University. I returned their home at midnight. They left the front door unlock for me.


The next day, Dr. P and I went to an osteopathic clinic and received acupuncture. I have pains in my neck and my lower back, but the acupuncture did not work well for me. We came back their home around noon. Ken and their sons were playing with a lot of acorns.



We left their home at 3 p.m. and dropped in the laboratory that I was in. I saw the same mess as when I was in the lab. We had a small talk with the professor and head back to our home.



On the way, I found a vending machine selling puddings. I had never seen such a strange machine so I bought a pudding immediately. That was a little expensive but was good.



We really had a good time in Sendai. We thank the family so much for their hospitality. We wish their successes in their new jobs in Indonesia. I had no time to see my brother, who is living in Sendai.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry

A Japanese and two American scientists shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein (GFP).
Dr. Osamu Shimomura, a Japanese citizen who works in the USA, isolated GFP from more than 10,000 jellyfishes. He discovered that the protein glowed bright green under irradiation of blue light. Dr. Martin Chalfie showed that the GFP can use as a bioluminescent tag in living cell. Dr. Roger Tsien created enhanced GFP and engineered a variety of GFP derivatives in different colors by single point mutations in the gene.

I saw a photo of agar plate that was drawn by a scene of San Diego beach with living bacteria expressing 8 different colors of fluorescent proteins. The image is very attractive.
(http://www.tsienlab.ucsd.edu/HTML/Images/IMAGE - PLATE - Beach.jpg)
At first, GFP appeared to be a useless protein discovered in a jellyfish. But it has greatly contributed to biology by utilizing as a marker for cells and cellular proteins. For instance, the expression of a unique combination of GFP variants, namely Brainbow, allows individual neuron tracking in brain tissue in the transgenic mice.
http://www.neuroscience-gateway.org/2007/071108/full/aba1794.shtml

By contrast, Dr. Douglas Prasher, the scientist who reported the cloning and the nucleotide sequence of GFP first, seems to have tough luck. According to a webnews, he no longer works in science. Sadly he lost his funding and failed to find a job in science. He is now driving a courtesy shuttle for a car dealership.
(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95545761)
He is left in the shadows of the luminescent light.

GFP needed about 30 years until the utility is widely recognized. Researchers in basic science are often decried for their spending of tax. Should I try to find another GFP ?

Nobel Prize in Physics

Two Japanese and an American were awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in particle physics.
Dr. Yoichiro Nambu, a US citizen born in Japan, is a professor in the University of Chicago. He won the prize for discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics. Japanese physicists Dr. Makoto Kobayashi and Dr. Toshihide Maskawa shared the other half of the prize for discovering the origin of the violation of CP symmetry, which predicted the existence of three another members of quarks in nature.

Twenty-years ago, I read a book by Dr. Nambu about quarks. That greatly enlightened me, although I had little knowledge in quantum physics. I am glad for hearing the news of his winning the award.

Dr. Maskawa commented about his award that he was rather happier when their theory was experimentally demonstrated. For outstanding theoretical physicists, the prize seems to be only a incidental consequence.

Sento-kun

Heijo-kyo (Heizei-kyo) is an ancient Capital of Japan. The Heijo-kyo was founded in Nara in 710 and it will mark the 1300th anniversary in 2010.

Nara city is planning to celebrate the anniversary now. Sento-kun is the official mascot character for the commemorative events. The character designed by Satoshi Yabuuchi, a sculptor and professor at the University of Tokyo, looks like an image of Buddha with antlers. Many people in Japan expressed negative opinions about the design of the mascot as "ugly" or "sacrilegious against Buddha". Most people had more favorable impression on Hiko-nyan, which is designed for 400th anniversary of Hikone City, rather than Sento-kun.
(Hiko-nyan: http://hikonyan.hikone-150th.jp)

Sento-kun has his family member, roku-bo (his brother) and roku-ji (his grandfather). They are adorable to me, but look somewhat like monsters.

Sento-kun (left), Roku-bo (middle) and Roku-ji (right)
http://www.uwamuki.com/j/newsJ.html.data/1.1jan/CIMG2623-3.jpg
Roku-bo
http://www.uwamuki.com/j/newsJ.html.data/1.1jan/rokubo/rokubo.html

Choro-chan

My name is Choro-chan. I'm not Kyoro-chan, a famous mascot for Morinaga Choco-Ball.

(kyoro-chan: http://www.morinaga.co.jp/member_kyoro/download/kabegami/images/3_832.jpg)

Melamine

Melamine, a nitrogen-rich organic compound, is commonly used to produce melamine resin and other industrial products. On September, milk and infant formula adulterated with melamine was discovered in China. Several companies in China illegally added the compound into milk to increase the apparent protein content. Melamine is thought to be non toxic, but it can cause fatal kidney failure when combined with cyanuric acid. More than 54,000 infants and children got sick after they had these tainted milk products.
The tainted milk powder has been used in the manufacture of numerous other products. In Japan, some food companies were forced to recall their products that contain milk imported from China. A number of countries imposed bans on Chinese milk products.

In 2007, melamine tainted pet foods caused death of a number of dogs and cats in the USA. Vegetable proteins contaminated with melamine were imported from China and used as ingredients in these pet foods. A portion of the tainted proteins was also used to produce farm animal feed and fish feed. These tainted products were recalled in North America, Europe and South Africa; however, animals fed the tainted feed had been processed into human food.

In Japan, melamine contamination was found not only in the milk products but also in egg powder and fried chicken imported from China. The melamine contamination may be widespread in Chinese food products.

Tainted rice

A rice distributor in Japan obtained government surplus of tainted rice from Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) and sold it to food companies as edible rice. The tainted rice (jiko-mai) contains poisonous fungi or pesticide residue and is not allowed in food products. Many food companies bought it from the distributor without knowing and had to recall their products.
Thus the tainted rice scandal has developed into a huge social problem. Ota, the minister of MAFF, explained that the tainted rice has no influence on human health. He also insisted that the ministry has no responsibility for the issue, but finally he was forced to resign to take the responsibility.

The poisonous fungi produce highly toxic mycotoxins. In Japan, the mycotoxin research has a history of over 100 years.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16025655
In 1891, Dr. Sakaki demonstrated that an ethanol extract from moldy yellow rice was fatal to experimental animals as a probable cause of acute cardiac beriberi. This led to a ban on the sale of yellow rice in Japan. Later studies demonstrated that the acute cardiac beriberi was due to the growth in rice of Penicillium citreoviride, which produced a highly toxic mycotoxin, citreoviridin.

In 1951, "yellow rice problem" occurred in Japan. The rice stocks imported from Thailand and Burma (Myanmar) contained yellow rice.
Dr. Tsunoda and his coworkers isolated two species of Penicillium associated with high toxicity, namely P. islandicum and P. citrinum, from the yellow rice grains. Dr. Uraguchi and other scientists revealed properties of the mycotoxins in detail including the induction of cancers.
Nevertheless, Japan Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (the predecessor of MAFF) intended to mix the yellow rice into edible rice to reduce the stocks. The ministry explained that the yellow rice has no influence on human health. However it caused a national public backlash and consequently the government gave up the plan.

In the early 1960s, aflatoxins, the most carcinogenic mycotoxins, were discovered in England after an outbreak of "turkey X disease". The toxin-producing fungus, Aspergillus flavus, was identified from moldy peanuts in the meal. Aflatoxins are also detectable in the yellow rice.

The MAFF repeated similar mistakes and made a serious problem for moldy rice again. Does the Ministry consist of turkeys? If so, why are they not afraid of aflatoxins?

Hanshin Tigers

Hanshin Tigers, a Japanese professional baseball team, lost the Central League pennant in 2008. At the point of August, Hanshin was more than 10 games ahead of the others; however, Yomiuri Giants came from behind and finally won the pennant.

Media praise it as a "legend", but it is ridiculous. The Yomiuri team collected many powerful players from other teams regardless of expense, like NY Yankees. Simply a cruiser failed to beat a battleship. I would cheer for the Hanshin during playoff (climax series).

Fan and SIDS

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is a syndrome characterized by the symptoms of sudden and unexplained death of an infant. Although studies have identified risk factors for SIDS, such as putting infants to bed on their stomachs, very little is known about the biological causes.

A study says that putting a fan in the room with sleeping babies may help reduce the risk of SIDS. The study showed that infants who slept in a bedroom with a fan had a 72% lower risk of SIDS compared to infants who slept in a bedroom without a fan. The study also found that opening a window in infant's room reduced the risk of SIDS by 36% compared to babies who slept in a room with closed windows.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-10/kp-uaf100108.php

The authors suppose that it decreases the chance of “rebreathing” exhaled air, but it seems that to help baby manage body temperature is more important to prevent SIDS.

Ponyo on the cliff

I know what is Ponyo now. I and Ken watched it last Sunday.
The story resembles to that of the Disney's film "Little Mermaid", but that has more nostalgic air, at least to me.
I asked Ken about the film. He told me that it scared him. Perhaps the scene of running Ponyo on the typhoon wave impacted him.
He asked me to let him watch it again. I will buy the DVD, because it amused me too.

Icewine

A friend in Canada sent me a bottle of icewine. He told me that icewine is a sort of dessert wine made from frozen grape. The grape left on the grapevine is harvested in winter and is pressed while it is frozen. The repeated freeze-thaw cycles on the vine allow removing water and concentrating sugar and other constituents. The icewine originally derived from German, but now Canada, particularly the Niagara, has become the largest icewine producer in the world.
Mari and I tasted the icewine right away. It is sweet and very delicious like honey. We are very grateful for his kindness.

Higan

Last week was higan, a week in autumnal equinox. Tuesday was the holiday called "syu-bun no hi (Autumnal Equinox Day)". I and Ken went to a park and played all day. We saw many cluster amaryllises.



Today I and Ken made "dango" (a sort of rice dumpling). In Japan, people traditionally watch autumn full moon and eat dango. This year, the best full moon night (Juugo-ya) was on Sep 14. Today it is near a new moon, and we had the dango without watching it.

I'm not like you.

On Sep 1, Japan Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda abruptly announced that he had decided to resign from his post. In the resignation speech, a reporter criticized him that his speech sounds like a someone else's problem. He replied to the reporter with an angry look that he is capable to see himself objectively. He continued, "I'm not like YOU !"

Two consecutive Prime Ministers resigned in two years. In two decades, a dozen Prime Ministers have not lasted long in office. Will the new prime minister Aso lead another short-lived government too ? I do not know. I have a life of my own and have to work for my family. Although I cannot anticipate a bright future, it is not a SEP (Somebody Else's Problem). I can see it, but I have no time to see myself objectively, unlike him.

I'm not like YOU !
(Anata-to-ha chigaun-desu!)

Looking through field glasses

In research, one is always forced to look objects through field glasses.
During looking the ocean through it, you may find sardines. But if you persist in the view, you will miss something exciting.

Previously I and coworkers identified a gene. We showed that the gene product has a function in a pathway; however, later studies using knockout mice revealed that this gene is important for another metabolic pathway and being responsible for a disease. We got sardines but missed a whale.

Now, I am trying to identify functions of novel genes. I would catch a big one this time without any bias.

Shingles

After the camp, I got shingles.
I know that the shingles is caused by varicella-zoster virus, which is known as chickenpox virus. I heard that the virus remains in the nerve cell bodies after the acute chickenpox in childhood, and it breaks out of there and travel down nerve axons under immunosuppressed conditions. Finally it causes viral infection of the skin in the region of the nerve and develops the characteristic skin rash.
Perhaps my immune system was weakened by fatigue. I got a painful shingles rash on my body, limited one side of my chest and my back.
I did not obtain medical care, but the rash and pain got better in a few weeks.

I felt very itching and tingle pain. I hope I never catch the disease again.