Serum proteomic profiling of dementia with Lewy bodies: diagnostic potential of SELDI-TOF MS analysis.

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is the second most common senile degenerative dementia after Alzheimer's disease (AD). The presentation of overlapping symptoms between these two disorders leads to difficulties in the determination of clinical entities. Serum samples were subjected to surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF MS) analysis in order to identify a diagnostic marker for DLB. Four putative protein peaks (m/z 3,883, 4,964, 7,761 and 10,534) were differentially expressed in DLB patients compared to AD patients and control subjects. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis of a multivariate logistic model of the combination of three peaks (m/z 3,883, 7,761 and 10,534) exhibited the highest discriminatory ability of DLB subjects from non-DLB subjects with a sensitivity of 83.3%, a specificity of 95.8%, a positive predictive value of 90.9% and a negative predictive value of 92.0%. SELDI-TOF MS profiling, therefore, has revealed a serum signature with high diagnostic potential for DLB.

Japanese responses to the defeat in World War II.

To learn about the defeat in World War II was a most intense shock to the Japanese. Various psychological responses developed, and some committed suicide. Defense mechanisms such as denial, negation, isolation, rationalization, intellectualization, and regression were observed. The conditions of the occupation were instrumental in letting the Japanese identify with the Occupation Forces in general and General MacArthur in particular, and identification with the aggressor soon became the most important defense mechanism to deal with the shock of the defeat. To learn about the defeat in a war is to be placed in an extreme condition which cannot be created experimentally. The crisis is extraordinary and the shock is immense. Furthermore, it is not a small number of people who are in such a condition; the residents is the defeated country offer a very unusual opportunity for understanding human beings in large numbers in a state of an intense shock. The purpose of this paper is to examine Japanese reactions and responses upon learning about the defeat in World War II in 1945.