The sulfated peptide phytosulfokine (PSK) is an intercellular signal that plays a key role in cellular dedifferentiation and proliferation in plants. Using ligand-based affinity chromatography, we purified a 120-kilodalton membrane protein, specifically interacting with PSK, from carrot microsomal fractions. The corresponding complementary DNA encodes a 1021-amino acid receptor kinase that contains extracellular leucine-rich repeats, a single transmembrane domain, and a cytoplasmic kinase domain. Overexpression of this receptor kinase in carrot cells caused enhanced callus growth in response to PSK and a substantial increase in the number of tritium-labeled PSK binding sites, suggesting that PSK and this receptor kinase act as a ligand-receptor pair.

Dispersed zinnia (Zinnia elegans) mesophyll cells cannot differentiate into tracheary elements (TEs) at low cell density conditions even if auxin and cytokinin are present in the medium, indicating the involvement of intercellular interactions during the initiation and/or subsequent progresses in TE differentiation. When zinnia cells were incubated at a low density (2.5 ؋ 10 4 cells mL ؊1 ) in TE-inductive medium in the presence of various concentrations of phytosulfokine (PSK)-␣, which was originally identified as an intercellular signal peptide involved in cell proliferation, TE differentiation was strongly stimulated in a dose-dependent fashion; more than 35% of the living cells differentiated into TEs by 5 d of culture in the presence of 10 nM PSK-␣. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and mass spectroscopy confirmed that cultured zinnia cells produce nanomolar levels of PSKs under inductive conditions. These results suggest that PSK-␣ is a factor responsible for TE differentiation of zinnia mesophyll cells.

Daptomycin is a lipopeptide antibiotic active against gram-positive organisms and recently approved for marketing in Japan. This study investigates the efficacy and safety of daptomycin in Japanese patients with skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) for regulatory filing in Japan. Overall, 111 Japanese patients with SSTI were randomized in this open-label, randomized, active-comparator controlled, parallel-group, multicenter, phase III study. Patients received intravenous daptomycin 4 mg/kg once daily or vancomycin 1 g twice daily for 7–14 days. Efficacy was determined by a blinded Efficacy Adjudication Committee. Among patients with SSTIs caused by MRSA, 81.8 % (95 % CI, 69.1–90.9) of daptomycin recipients and 84.2 % (95 % CI, 60.4–96.6) of vancomycin recipients achieved a successful clinical response at the test-of-cure (TOC) visit. The microbiological success rate against MRSA at the TOC visit was 56.4 % (95 % CI, 42.3–69.7) with daptomycin and 47.4 % (95 % CI, 24.4–71.1) with vancomycin. Daptomycin was generally well tolerated; most adverse events were of mild to moderate severity. The measurement of daptomycin concentration in plasma revealed that patients with mild or moderate impaired renal function showed similar pharmacokinetics profiles to patients with normal renal function. Clinical and microbiological responses, stratified by baseline MRSA susceptibility, suggested that patients infected with MRSA of higher daptomycin MIC showed a trend of lower clinical success with a P value of 0.052 by Cochran–Armitage test. Daptomycin was clinically and microbiologically effective for the treatment of MRSA-associated SSTIs in Japanese patients.

This study aimed to describe the postpartum experiences of older Japanese primiparas during the first month after childbirth. The participants were 21 primiparous women over 35 years of age who gave birth to a healthy child at three urban hospitals. Data were collected from July 2011 to April 2012 through a semi‐structured interview about postpartum experiences after discharge. Data were analysed using content analysis. We obtained Institutional Review Boards' approval and written informed consent from all participants prior to study initiation. Thirteen themes of postpartum experiences were extracted. The findings revealed that the mothers' experiences varied greatly and were highly personal. Also, participants described common experiences, unique child‐care support needs and the strengths of older primiparas. Understanding the postpartum experiences of older primiparas assists health‐care professionals to identify better ways to provide appropriate support.

The authors examined the use of social surrogates by shy people to expand their social network when entering a new environment, following Bradshaw's social surrogate hypothesis. The authors conducted a panel survey of 70 friendship pairs of students 7 months after they entered university. The results revealed that when a friend acted as a surrogate, the shy students extended their joint networks more. In contrast, not-shy students extended their networks regardless of whether a friend acted as a surrogate. These results indicate that even shy people can adjust indirectly to new social circumstances because they can expand their social networks by using a close friend as a surrogate.