New type of anti-AIDS drug developed
Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd. and the Faculty of Medicine at Kagoshima University have jointly developed a new type of anti-AIDS drug called "TAK-779," which prevents entry of human-immunodeficiency virus (HIV) into host cells that are lymphocytes and macrophages.Conventional anti-AIDS drugs are classified into two types. One is to suppress the replication of the gene of HIV which has entered host cells. The other is to prevent the construction of protein containing a replicated gene. The current chemotherapy is the combined use of these two types of drugs, and has shown some effect to achieve suppression of viral replication in HIV-infected individuals.
However, it is difficult to completely cure AIDS, since HIV wisely continues to transform itself into variants resistant to these types of drugs. Therefore, the development of new anti-AIDS compounds with mechanisms completely different from conventional drugs has long been sought.
HIV enters the host cells through binding to the chemokine receptor CCR5 which is on the surface of host cells and plays the role of an entrance. In the cells, HIV is replicated and multiplies.
The newly developed "TAK-779" stops the multiplication of HIV by blocking CCR5 and preventing the entry of HIV into host cells. Besides, the blocking of CCR5 has shown no negative effect to the human body.
Takeda Chemical Industries and Kagoshima University will begin clinical trials with the new drug in the United States in August with its sales starting two years later at the earliest.
The details of the work with TAK-779 were reported in the May 11, 1999 edition of " Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A."
SPring-8 generates 2.4 GeV BCS gamma-ray beam
The Research Center for Nuclear Physics (RCNP) at Osaka University, the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) and the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI) jointly announced that they have succeeded in generating 2.4 GeV (gigaelectron volt) Backward-Compton scattering (BCS) gamma-ray (laser electron photon) beam, the world's maximum energy level ever recorded, by using a beam line BL33LEP of SPring-8 (Super Photon ring-8 GeV).SPring-8, one of the largest "third generation" synchrotron radiation facilities in the world, is operating at Harima Science Garden City in Hyogo Prefecture.
The BCS gamma-ray beam is a high-energy photon that is generated when laser photon collides with high-energy electron beam. The past record high of BCS gamma-ray beam was 1.5 GeV registered at the facility of Grenoble Anneau Accelerateur Laser (GRAAL) in France.
When the high-energy BCS gamma-ray beam is irradiated to an atomic nucleus, a variety of mesons are released. The close monitoring of movements of those released mesons clarifies the behaviors of "quark," a group of elementary particles that are the basic constituents of all hadrons (meson, proton, neutron, etc.) and exist in an atomic nucleus. Therefore, the achievement is expected to make major contributions to researches for nuclear physics.
[The photo is offered by JASRI]
Int'l Youth Match Racing Regatta in Wakayama
Wakayama Marina City Yacht Club will hold the "Royal Pines Cup International Youth Match Racing Regatta 1999", July 28 through 31, with the youth athletes, at the age of 20 or younger, participating from four countries. The race has entries of eight teams: two Australian teams, the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club and the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron from New Zealand and the King Harbor Yacht Club from the U.S., together with four teams from Japan.
The racing is held off the Wakayama Marina City (Wakayama City) to compete by twice going and returning in the 1.5 km course, using Elliot 5.9 meter's with three athletes.
During the same period of time of July 26 through 31, at Wakayama Marina City Yacht Club, the Japan Sailing Federation holds the "International Umpire Seminar", a seminar to obtain the certificate as an international umpire authorized by the International Sailing Federation. Mr. Graeme Owens from Australia, dispatched as a chief umpire from the International Sailing Federation to the International Youth Match Racing Regatta, is the instructor in the Seminar.
International Youth Village '99 in Mie
The Management and Coordination Agency, the Mie Prefectural Government and the National Assembly for Youth Development will hold the "International Youth Village (IYV) '99 in Mie" at Suzuka Youth Center in Suzuka City from July 28 to August 4.The objective of 'IYV' is for participating youth (generally 20-30 years old) to promote mutual understanding and friendship amongst youth of the participating countries, to foster youth leaders with international characteristics, to enhance participation in international society, and to make overseas youth have a correct understanding of Japan. This is accomplished through joint life and activities in the village.
The theme is "M.I.E.-Making International Equity~Putting last first through awaking and developing our co-existing society~ " The village will be operated by 160 people who are mostly young volunteers in Mie Prefecture.
Participants will be 150 people from 14 foreign countries (Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Greece, Jordan, South Korea, Russia, Thailand, Tonga, and Zimbabwe) and 150 from all over Japan.
Many groups will be formed. Each group will engage in discussions and workshops based on the topics prepared in advance, visit facilities/organizations related with the topics, and make presentation of the results.
The village will be open to the public on the afternoon July 31, and national songs, dances and foods are to be presented.
HISTORIC KANSAI: Goldfish-scooping competition in Yamatokoriyama City
By Junzo Tanaka Yamatokoriyama is a small city in Nara Prefecture but is proud of being Japan's largest producer of goldfish. On Wednesday every week, a goldfish auction house opens, and goldfish auctioned is shipped out to every corner of the nation.
Since the Edo period before Japan's modernization, Yamatokoriyama (called Koriyama in the Edo period) has been keeping the top post in goldfish production.
Some people wonder why goldfish has long been produced in the city, but there is a theory that goldfish production has something to do with the famous kabuki play Chushingura (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers), in which a group of 47 roshi (masterless samurai warriors) in the Ako clan avenged their lord's death and then were forced to commit suicide.
The popularity of the Ako roshi has been quite high, while the Tokugawa shogunate, which had to suppress them, has been playing a thankless part. A powerful figure in the then shogunate was a man called Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, the grand chamberlain of the fifth shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. Yoshiyasu's eldest son became the first lord of the Koriyama clan that governed Yamatokoriyama in the Edo period.
Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu was an able politician, and his family would have lived in peace at his former post in Yamanashi, if the Chushingura incident had not occurred. He died after the incident, and his son was ordered by the shogunate to move to Koriyama.
It is said that his retainer, who loved goldfish, carried the fish from Yamanashi to Koriyama, thus creating the origin of goldfish in Yamatokoriyama. If the son had not been transferred to Koriyama, goldfish would not have been widely produced in Yamatokoriyama. This is a story regarding relations between Chushingura and goldfish, although it is somewhat a farfetched one.
At present, Yamatokoriyama City holds a national competition of "kingyo-sukui," or goldfish-scooping to promote the goldfish industry in August each year. This year's competition will be held on August 22. About 4,000 people have expressed their intention to take part in it.
Kansai in Focus: Overseas transfer of temporary houses faces deadlock
Four years and a half have passed since the Great Hanshin Earthquake occurred in January 1995. A special permit for quake victims to live in prefabricated temporary housing units expired at the end of June, and full- scale work to remove these housing units has started in quake-stricken areas such as Kobe and Nishinomiya cities.The Hyogo Prefectural Government has made a plan of contributing reusable housing units to foreign countries that have need as free gift and has invited applications from abroad. Although the prefecture has received many applications, the "immigration of temporary housing units" now faces rough going, because foreign applicants are unable to secure fund to cover various costs, including transport expenses.
Despite these circumstances, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the United Nations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the Hyogo Prefectural Government have agreed to send temporary housing units to Kosovo to help returned refugees stay over the coldest season. With this, it is desired that the Hyogo prefectural plan will move ahead.
A total of 48,300 temporary housing units were built in the quake-stricken areas in and outside Hyogo Prefecture. Of them, about 22,000 units have been purchased by Hyogo Prefecture. As about 17,000 units are reusable even after their removal, the prefecture planned to offer them free of charge other than transport cost, to foreign countries with the intention of expressing thanks for their support after the disaster. The prefecture has so far received applications for about 370,000 units from 17 countries in Asia and Latin America and so forth, but only 3,000 units have so far been sent to China, and more than 20 units to Indonesia, the Philippines and Vanuatu.
The reason behind the slow progress of the plan except toward China is that it is difficult for countries wishing their transfer to raise fund to cover transport and other expenses ranging from 100,000 yen to 300,000 yen per unit. In the case of Vanuatu, Rotary Clubs on Shikoku Island paid such expenses and four units were sent to the South Pacific island last autumn. They are now used as elementary school facilities there.
Indonesia has wanted about 2,000 units delivered. Early this year, 10 and more units were sent there with cooperation from commerce and industry groups and trading companies. But, as no fund has since been gathered, remaining units are unable to be delivered. Good faith in the private sector is limited. Some countries, unable to pay various expenses, have given up their plan.
On July 16, the central government, upon request from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, decided to deliver 500 units in Hyogo Prefecture for refugees returned to Kosovo, and assist total costs such as transport expenses amounting to 240 million yen. This measure was taken exceptionally for Kosovo. But, disaster relief goods and good-will assistance goods always pose a problem of their transport expenses. Good faith should not be relied on in each disaster relief. Establishment of a special fund for the transportation of international relief goods to cover transport and other expenses is required.
Since the number of temporary housing units reusable domestically is very few, the problem about where they should be kept will emerge unless their reutilization overseas makes a progress, delaying the removal of those built in parks and the sports grounds at public schools, and leaving uninhabited housing units untouched for a long time.
At a baseball field, tennis courts and a grass public square in Naruohama Seaside Park in Nishinomiya City, almost uninhabited housing units have been left. Residents nearby say, "Temporary housing units have ended their role and we hope facilities such as a baseball field can be used again at an earliest possible date."
The only case of temporary housing unit problem tells that the earthquake disasters still have left many tasks, and that they cannot be resolved by the local community alone. (J)