Ise Shrines, Mikimoto Pearl Island.

Last weekend our friends drove us out of Shikoku to the main island, Honshyu, where we visited Mie Prefecture. Mie Prefecture is part of both, the Kinki Region and the Tokai Region. The prefecture is home to the Ise Shrines, Japan's most sacred Shinto shrines. Prefectural capital is Tsu City. The Formula One Grand Prix of Japan is held annually in Suzuka City. We visited Ise Shrines and a marvelous Mikimoto Pearl Island. I posted some of the pictures I`ve taken and images of the art pieces we`ve seen.

Ritsurin Park in Takamatsu.

Visiting Japanese parks is a lot of fun. There are three most beautiful landscape gardens in this country: Kenrokuen in Kanazawa, Kourakuen in Okayama, and Ritsurin in Takamatsu. After visiting first two, I decided to go to the remaining one, Ritsurin garden. The name Ritsurin koen literally means a public garden of chestnut coppice, though the chestnut trees were felled and the ground was cleared to give space for duck hunting in 1850. This garden was completed after one hundred years of construction. Ritsurin garden is the best garden to get a feel of the authentic Japanese garden of a Daimyo residence. It is designated as Special Scenic Beauty. Take a look at the pictures I have taken. This place is really worth visiting!

Malbork Castle.

This August I have visited a beautiful place in Poland: the biggest and most impressive gothic Teutonic castle in Europe, Malbork Castle. It dates back to 1275, the beginning of its construction; in 1300 the third wind of the castle was finished; in 1309 it became the Teutonic Order's capital. In 1997 The entire fortress complex was enlisted into the UNESCO list.
Here are some pictures made by me in the castle surroundings.

Okayama Kourakuen.

The place where I gave presentation of my paper was near Kourakuen. It is one of Japan's three most celebrated landscaped gardens as well as a national scenic beauty. One can enjoy flowers of each season planted in the garden and the solemn sight of Okayama Castle can be seen from the garden. It was built by Lord Tsunamasa Ikeda. I really enjoyed the place. Here are some pictures I have taken. Hope everybody likes them.

The Best Ophthalmology Paper Award.

I was given an award for the best ophtahlmological paper by Okayama University Faculty of Medicine and will be making presentation there on June 26th. The award was established by the founder of Department of Ophthalmology at Okayama University. The history of this respected University goes back to Meiji era when in the year of 1870 the Lord of Okayama sponsored a Medical Training Place there. The University as we know it was officially founded in May, 1949.

I will be pleased to speak about results of my studies, demonstrate confocal microscopy images, and share experience about using tools of quantitative colocalization analysis in the field of ophthalmology research. I am planning to make two identical presentation files employing PowerPoint and Keynote and then decide which one performs better.

Molecular Vision Published Our Paper.

Our paper entitled “Direct action of platelet activating factor (PAF) induces eosinophil accumulation and enhances expression of PAF receptors in conjunctivitis” has been published in Molecular Vision. You can see it at:
http://www.molvis.org/molvis/v11/a13/

It goes without saying that CoLocalizer Pro was used to quantify the degree of colocalization of antigens and make important conclusions.

Access to all Molecular Vision articles is free. For more information about Molecular Vision or for information about receiving announcements of all Molecular Vision articles, please visit the Molecular Vision web site:
http://www.molvis.org/molvis/

It`s been a pleasure to work with the Journal Team. Dr. Robert L. Church, Ph. D., was guiding our manuscript toward publication. Dr. Church was patient and insightful to present our paper from the best possible side.

We are working on new papers.

First CoLocalizer Pro paper appeared.

Cell & Tissue Research, a highly respected international journal with its focus at the areas of molecular, cell, and supracellular biology (Impact Factor 2.99, 2003) in its September issue has published my paper entitled “Dynamics of PAF-induced conjunctivitis reveals differential expression of PAF-receptor by macrophages and eosinophils” (Cell Tissue Res 2004, 317:265-277). This is the first paper that employs our CoLocalizer Pro software to explore the significance of the changes of the colocalization of antigens. It is my pleasure to mention that the reviewing process was quick and we felt that reviewers share our desire to bring the software to the scientific community worldwide. More papers will follow.