Multi-Touch Tabletop System Using Infrared Image Recognition for User Position Identification.

A tabletop system can facilitate multi-user collaboration in a variety of settings, including small meetings, group work, and education and training exercises. The ability to identify the users touching the table and their positions can promote collaborative work among participants, so methods have been studied that involve attaching sensors to the table, chairs, or to the users themselves. An effective method of recognizing user actions without placing a burden on the user would be some type of visual process, so the development of a method that processes multi-touch gestures by visual means is desired. This paper describes the development of a multi-touch tabletop system using infrared image recognition for user position identification and presents the results of touch-gesture recognition experiments and a system-usability evaluation. Using an inexpensive FTIR touch panel and infrared light, this system picks up the touch areas and the shadow area of the user's hand by an infrared camera to establish an association between the hand and table touch points and estimate the position of the user touching the table. The multi-touch gestures prepared for this system include an operation to change the direction of an object to face the user and a copy operation in which two users generate duplicates of an object. The system-usability evaluation revealed that prior learning was easy and that system operations could be easily performed.

Rapid Multi-Residue Analysis of Pesticides in Pulses by LC-MS/MS.

Rapid multi-residue analysis of pesticides in pulses was developed using LC-MS/MS. Pesticide residues in 5 g of homogenized pulses were extracted with 30 mL of acetonitrile and salted out with 4 g of anhydrous magnesium sulfate and 2 g of sodium chloride in the presence of citrate buffer in a disposable tube. The resulting residues were extracted with 30 mL of acetonitrile, and co-extractives were removed on a handmade four-layer column, consisting of a layer of Z-Sep/C18 (20 mg/50 mg) dry particles on top of a three-layer, custom-made (pre-packed) column (lower bed: 60 mg of PSA, middle bed: 30 mg of GC, and top bed: 60 mg of C18) packed in a 10 mm internal diameter polypropylene column (3 mL). The developed method showed good recoveries of pesticides in soybean, lentil, white kidney bean and garbanzo. According to the method validation guideline of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan, recovery tests were conducted in soybeans fortified with 107 kinds of pesticides at the levels of 0.01 and 0.1 µg/g, respectively. At each concentration 2 samples were extracted on 5 separate days. Pesticides in the test solution were determined by LC-MS/MS using scheduled MRM. As regards the trueness of this method for 107 pesticides in soybeans, 97 pesticides were in the range of 70-120% with satisfactory repeatability and within-run reproducibility. This new method is expected to be applicable for routine examination of pesticide residues in soybeans.

A shift in sphingolipid composition from C24 to C16 increases susceptibility to apoptosis in HeLa cells.

Sphingolipids, major lipid components of the eukaryotic plasma membrane, have a variety of physiological functions and have been associated with many diseases. They have also been implicated in apoptosis. Sphingolipids are heterogeneous in their acyl chain length, with long-chain (C16) and very long-chain (C24) sphingolipids being predominant in most mammalian tissues. We demonstrate that knockdown of ELOVL1 or CERS2, which catalyze synthesis of C24 acyl-CoAs and C24 ceramide, respectively, drastically reduced C24 sphingolipid levels with a complementary increase in C16 sphingolipids. Under ELOVL1 or CERS2 knockdown conditions, cisplatin-induced apoptosis significantly increased. Enhanced sensitivity to cisplatin-induced apoptosis exhibited close correlation with increases in caspase-3/7 activity. No significant alterations in sphingolipid metabolism such as ceramide generation were apparent with the cisplatin-induced apoptosis, and inhibitors of ceramide generation had no effect on the apoptosis. Apoptosis induced by UV radiation or C6 ceramides also increased in ELOVL1 or CERS2 knockdown cells. Changes in the composition of sphingolipid chain length may affect susceptibility to stimuli-induced apoptosis by affecting the properties of cell membranes, such as lipid microdomain/raft formation.

ELOVL1 production of C24 acyl-CoAs is linked to C24 sphingolipid synthesis.

Very long-chain fatty acids (VLCFAs) exert a variety of cellular functions and are associated with numerous diseases. However, the precise pathway behind their elongation has remained elusive. Moreover, few regulatory mechanisms for VLCFAs synthesis have been identified. Elongases catalyze the first of four steps in the VLCFA elongation cycle; mammals have seven elongases (ELOVL1-7). In the present study, we determined the precise substrate specificities of all the ELOVLs by in vitro analyses. Particularly notable was the high activity exhibited by ELOVL1 toward saturated and monounsaturated C20- and C22-CoAs, and that it was essential for the production of C24 sphingolipids, which are unique in their capacity to interdigitate within the membrane as a result of their long chain length. We further established that ELOVL1 activity is regulated with the ceramide synthase CERS2, an enzyme essential for C24 sphingolipid synthesis. This regulation may ensure that the production of C24-CoA by elongation is coordinated with its utilization. Finally, knockdown of ELOVL1 caused a reduction in the activity of the Src kinase LYN, confirming that C24-sphingolipids are particularly important in membrane microdomain function.