Tosio Kato (1917–1999)

Tosio Kato was born August 25, 1917, in Kanuma City, Tochigi-ken, Japan. His early training was in physics. He obtained a B.S. in 1941 and the degree of Doctor of Science in 1951, both at the University of Tokyo. Between these events he published papers on a variety of subjects, including pair creation by gamma rays, motion of an object in a fluid, and results on spectral theory of operators arising in quantum mechanics. His dissertation was entitled “On the convergence of the perturbation method”. Kato was appointed assistant professor of physics at the University of Tokyo in 1951 and was promoted to professor of physics in 1958. During this time he visited the University of California at Berkeley in 1954–55, New York University in 1955, the National Bureau of Standards in 1955–56, and Berkeley and the California Institute of Technology in 1957–58. He was appointed professor of mathematics at Berkeley in 1962 and taught there until his retirement in 1988. He supervised twenty-one Ph.D. students at Berkeley and three at the University of Tokyo. Kato published over 160 papers and 6 monographs, including his famous book Perturbation Theory for Linear Operators [K66b]. Recognition for his important work included the Norbert Wiener Prize in Applied Mathematics, awarded in 1980 by the AMS and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He was particularly well known for his work on Schrödinger equations of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics and his work on the Navier-Stokes and Euler equations of classical fluid mechanics. His activity in the latter area remained at a high level well past retirement and continued until his death on October 2, 1999

Population structure and genetic diversity characterization of a sunflower association mapping population using SSR and SNP markers

BACKGROUND: Argentina has a long tradition of sunflower breeding, and its germplasm is a valuable genetic resource worldwide. However, knowledge of the genetic constitution and variability levels of the Argentinean germplasm is still scarce, rendering the global map of cultivated sunflower diversity incomplete. In this study, 42 microsatellite loci and 384 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were used to characterize the first association mapping population used for quantitative trait loci mapping in sunflower, along with a selection of allied open-pollinated and composite populations from the germplasm bank of the National Institute of Agricultural Technology of Argentina. The ability of different kinds of markers to assess genetic diversity and population structure was also evaluated.Fil: Filippi, Carla Valeria. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Biotecnología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Aguirre, Natalia Cristina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Biotecnología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Rivas, Juan Gabriel. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Biotecnología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Zubrzycki, Jeremías Enrique. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Biotecnología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Puebla, Andrea. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Biotecnología; ArgentinaFil: Cordes, Diego. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Córdoba. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Manfredi; ArgentinaFil: Moreno, Maria V.. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Córdoba. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Manfredi; ArgentinaFil: Fusari, Corina M.. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Biotecnología; ArgentinaFil: Alvarez, Daniel. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Córdoba. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Manfredi; ArgentinaFil: Heinz, Ruth Amelia. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Biotecnología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Hopp, Horacio Esteban. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Biotecnología; ArgentinaFil: Paniego, Norma Beatriz. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Biotecnología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Lia, Verónica Viviana. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Biotecnología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Kasha or state selective behavior in the photochemistry of ortho-nitrobenzaldehyde?

The photochemistry of ortho-nitrobenzaldehyde dissolved in tetrahydrofuran was studied by means of femtosecond UV/Vis and IR spectroscopy. Comparison was made of the spectral and temporal signatures for similar to 400 nm and similar to 260 nm excitation. The 400 nm excitation promotes NBA to its lowest excited singlet state of n pi* character whereas for 260 nm an upper excited state of pi pi* character is addressed. On the picosecond time scale, the molecule undergoes hydrogen transfer, yielding a ketene intermediate, internal conversion recovering the starting material, and intersystem crossing. Time constants and yields of these processes are virtually not affected by the excitation wavelength. For 400 nm excitation a similar to 100 fs decay component seen in the 260 nm experiment is absent, indicating that this component is due to a pi pi* -> n pi* internal conversion. In contrast to its formation, the decay of the ketene intermediate is influenced by the excitation wavelength. This can be attributed to different amounts of vibrational excitation

The stability for the Cauchy problem for elliptic equations

We discuss the ill-posed Cauchy problem for elliptic equations, which is pervasive in inverse boundary value problems modeled by elliptic equations. We provide essentially optimal stability results, in wide generality and under substantially minimal assumptions. As a general scheme in our arguments, we show that all such stability results can be derived by the use of a single building brick, the three-spheres inequality.Comment: 57 pages, review articl

Mesaconate is synthesized from itaconate and exerts immunomodulatory effects in macrophages.

peer reviewedSince its discovery in inflammatory macrophages, itaconate has attracted much attention due to its antimicrobial and immunomodulatory activity1-3. However, instead of investigating itaconate itself, most studies used derivatized forms of itaconate and thus the role of non-derivatized itaconate needs to be scrutinized. Mesaconate, a metabolite structurally very close to itaconate, has never been implicated in mammalian cells. Here we show that mesaconate is synthesized in inflammatory macrophages from itaconate. We find that both, non-derivatized itaconate and mesaconate dampen the glycolytic activity to a similar extent, whereas only itaconate is able to repress tricarboxylic acid cycle activity and cellular respiration. In contrast to itaconate, mesaconate does not inhibit succinate dehydrogenase. Despite their distinct impact on metabolism, both metabolites exert similar immunomodulatory effects in pro-inflammatory macrophages, specifically a reduction of interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-12 secretion and an increase of CXCL10 production in a manner that is independent of NRF2 and ATF3. We show that a treatment with neither mesaconate nor itaconate impairs IL-1β secretion and inflammasome activation. In summary, our results identify mesaconate as an immunomodulatory metabolite in macrophages, which interferes to a lesser extent with cellular metabolism than itaconate

Precisely predictable Dirac observables

This work presents a "Clean Quantum Theory of the Electron", based on Dirac’s equation. "Clean" in the sense of a complete mathematical explanation of the well known paradoxes of Dirac’s theory, and a connection to classical theory, including the motion of a magnetic moment (spin) in the given field, all for a charged particle (of spin ½) moving in a given electromagnetic field. This theory is relativistically covariant, and it may be regarded as a mathematically consistent quantum-mechanical generalization of the classical motion of such a particle, à la Newton and Einstein. Normally, our fields are time-independent, but also discussed is the time-dependent case, where slightly different features prevail. A "Schroedinger particle", such as a light quantum, experiences a very different (time-dependent) "Precise Predictablity of Observables". An attempt is made to compare both cases. There is not the Heisenberg uncertainty of location and momentum; rather, location alone possesses a built-in uncertainty of measurement. Mathematically, our tools consist of the study of a pseudo-differential operator (i.e. an "observable") under conjugation with the Dirac propagator: such an operator has a "symbol" approximately propagating along classical orbits, while taking its "spin" along. This is correct only if the operator is "precisely predictable", that is, it must approximately commute with the Dirac Hamiltonian, and, in a sense, will preserve the subspaces of electronic and positronic states of the underlying Hilbert space. Audience: Theoretical Physicists, specifically in Quantum Mechanics. Mathematicians, in the fields of Analysis, Spectral Theory of Self-adjoint differential operators, and Elementary Theory of Pseudo-Differential Operator

Spectral theory of linear differential operators and comparison algebras

The main aim of this book is to introduce the reader to the concept of comparison algebra, defined as a type of C*-algebra of singular integral operators