RICE FLOWERING LOCUS T 1 (RFT1/FT-L3) is the closest homologue of Heading date 3a (Hd3a), which is thought to encode a mobile flowering signal and promote floral transition under short-day (SD) conditions. RFT1 is located only 11.5 kb from Hd3a on chromosome 6. Although RFT1 RNAi plants flowered normally, double RFT1-Hd3a RNAi plants did not flower up to 300 days after sowing (DAS), indicating that Hd3a and RFT1 are essential for flowering in rice. RFT1 expression was very low in wild-type plants, but there was a marked increase in RFT1 expression by 70 DAS in Hd3a RNAi plants, which flowered 90 DAS. H3K9 acetylation around the transcription initiation site of the RFT1 locus had increased by 70 DAS but not at 35 DAS. In the absence of Hd3a and RFT1 expression, transcription of OsMADS14 and OsMADS15, two rice orthologues of Arabidopsis APETALA1, was strongly reduced, suggesting that they act downstream of Hd3a and RFT1. These results indicate that Hd3a and RFT1 act as floral activators under SD conditions, and that RFT1 expression is partly regulated by chromatin modification.

Cases of sprue-like enteropathy associated with olmesartan have sporadically been encountered since it was first reported in 2012, and their most characteristic manifestation is severe diarrhea. We herein report the first case of sprue-like enteropathy manifesting as Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome due to vitamin B1 malabsorption with only minimally increased bowel movements. When patients are receiving olmesartan and they complain of nonspecific chronic gastrointestinal symptoms, it is important to consider changing the drugs before any serious malabsorption syndrome develops.

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ObjectivesWe examined whether problem-based learning tutorials using patient-simulated videos showing daily life are more practical for clinical learning, compared with traditional paper-based problem-based learning, for the consideration rate of psychosocial issues and the recall rate for experienced learning. MethodsTwenty-two groups with 120 fifth-year students were each assigned paper-based problem-based learning and video-based problem-based learning using patient-simulated videos. We compared target achievement rates in questionnaires using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and discussion contents diversity using the Mann-Whitney U test. A follow-up survey used a chi-square test to measure students’ recall of cases in three categories: video, paper, and non-experienced. ResultsVideo-based problem-based learning displayed significantly higher achievement rates for imagining authentic patients (p=0.001), incorporating a comprehensive approach including psychosocial aspects (p<0.001), and satisfaction with sessions (p=0.001). No significant differences existed in the discussion contents diversity regarding the International Classification of Primary Care Second Edition codes and chapter types or in the rate of psychological codes. In a follow-up survey comparing video and paper groups to non-experienced groups, the rates were higher for video (χ2=24.319, p<0.001) and paper (χ2=11.134, p=0.001). Although the video rate tended to be higher than the paper rate, no significant difference was found between the two. ConclusionsPatient-simulated videos showing daily life facilitate imagining true patients and support a comprehensive approach that fosters better memory. The clinical patient-simulated video method is more practical and clinical problem-based tutorials can be implemented if we create patient-simulated videos for each symptom as teaching materials.

TD can provide the same level of diagnostic accuracy as FD among general medicine outpatients for adults. The help of medical assistants and the utilization of physical examination devices might enable medical staff to provide TD care similar in quality to FD. TD could be a useful diagnostic tool when medical work force is limited (e.g., in remote areas, during natural disasters, and in at-home care).