落ちそむる梧桐(あおぎり)の葉 : 稲賀恵四郎（南畝, 1865-1901）の漢詩

The heart of this piece is a series of annotated translations of kanshi (poems in Chinese) by Inaga Keishirō (Nanpo, 1865–1901), an educator and amateur poet from Tottori prefecture. Eighty-six of Nanpo’s poems were rediscovered in 2000. The translators have deciphered the holograph poem texts and placed the poetry in context. Their introductory essay offers a biography of the poet and an outline of Meiji kanshi practice, and comments on developments in the world of kangaku. Kanshi during this period experienced its final flowering, remaining popular despite the trend toward modernity and Westernization and Japan’s gradual retreat from its Sinitic traditions. The kanshi renaissance of the Meiji era produced a large volume of appealing and lively poetry and reflected kanshi’s broadened demographic appeal. Several factors were at work, including educational reform and growth in the literacy rate, the reopening of contacts with China, expansion of the media, and a conservative reaction against modernization that set in during the 1880s. Much of Nanpo’s verse, like late Edo kanshi generally, displays a distinctively Japanese flavor; Chinese allusions are infrequent, as are conspicuous efforts to imitate past poets. His kanshi tend to be more conventional than novel or political in theme; in tone, the poems range from grave or melancholy to contented, even jocular. The introduction concludes with an analysis of Nanpo’s poetic style, topoi, diction, and his poetic persona. Despite the profusion of socio-political changes occurring around them, many kanshi poets in Meiji Japan remained content with traditional themes, even while giving the occasional nod to modernity. Nanpo was among these poets, who outnumbered the better known modernists of the kanshi world

Molecular assembly of the ternary granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor receptor complex

Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) is a hematopoietic cytokine that stimulates the production and functional activity of granulocytes and macrophages, properties that have encouraged its clinical use in bone marrow transplantation and in certain infectious diseases. Despite the importance of GM-CSF in regulating myeloid cell numbers and function, little is known about the exact composition and mechanism of assembly of the GM-CSF receptor complex. We have now produced soluble forms of the GM-CSF receptor alpha chain (sGMRalpha) and beta chain (sbetac) and utilized GM-CSF, the GM-CSF antagonist E21R (Glu21Arg), and the betac-blocking monoclonal antibody BION-1 to define the molecular assembly of the GM-CSF receptor complex. We found that GM-CSF and E21R were able to form low-affinity, binary complexes with sGMRalpha, each having a stoichiometry of 1:1. Importantly, GM-CSF but not E21R formed a ternary complex with sGMRalpha and sbetac, and this complex could be disrupted by E21R. Significantly, size-exclusion chromatography, analytical ultracentrifugation, and radioactive tracer experiments indicated that the ternary complex is composed of one sbetac dimer with a single molecule each of sGMRalpha and of GM-CSF. In addition, a hitherto unrecognized direct interaction between betac and GM-CSF was detected that was absent with E21R and was abolished by BION-1. These results demonstrate a novel mechanism of cytokine receptor assembly likely to apply also to interleukin-3 (IL-3) and IL-5 and have implications for our molecular understanding and potential manipulation of GM-CSF activation of its receptor.Mcclure, Barbara J ; Hercus, Timothy R ; Cambareri, Bronwyn A ; Woodcock, Joanna M ; Bagley, Christopher J ; Howlett, Geoff J ; Lopez, Angel