The Eichstädt meteorite, a historical fall in Bavaria from 1785 -revisited

第6回極域科学シンポジウム[OA] 南極隕石11月16日（月）　国立極地研究所１階交流アトリウ

News on the Machtenstein H5 ordinary chondrite

第6回極域科学シンポジウム[OA] 南極隕石11月16日（月）　国立極地研究所１階交流アトリウ

Changes in ponderosa pine forests of the Mt. Trumbull Wilderness

Ponderosa pine forests in the Mt. Trumbull Wilderness on the Arizona Strip have become dense with young trees and highly susceptible to catastrophic wildfire due to exclusion of the natural frequent-fire regime. As part of a broader regional ecological restoration study, the Mt. Trumbull Wilderness was sampled for fire scarred trees, vegetation, and fuels in 1997 and 1999. Reconstructed fire histories show that fires recurred about every 4.4 years prior to settlement, with larger fires burning every 9.5 years. Frequent fires ceased after 1863 in the Mt. Trumbull Wilderness, coincident with the time of Euro-American settlement around 1870, beginning a fire-free period that has lasted up to the present except for a few small fires and a larger 1989 wildfire. Current forests are dense, averaging approximately 1,200 trees/ha, and dominated by small trees. Throughout the wilderness, tree canopy cover averages over 65(percent) and tree basal area is high, 35- 36 m2/ha. Understory plant cover is about 20(percent) and understory species diversity averages 11.4 species/sample plot. Living and dead fuels, including plants, woody debris, and the forest floor, will easily support high-intensity wildfires. In contrast, the presettlement forest was relatively open, with tree density of approximately 62 trees/ha and basal area averaging 8.9 m2/ha, dominated by large ponderosa pine trees. In ecological terms, prospects are good for restoring the Mt. Trumbull Wilderness to emulate the ecological structure and fire disturbance regime of the presettlement reference condition. The current forest condition is perhaps least affected by recent degradation of any site in the Uinkaret Mountains. However, ecological information is only one component contributing to the debate over appropriate management values and practices in wilderness areas on public lands

The HST Cosmos Project: Contribution from the Subaru Telescope

The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) is a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) treasury project.The COSMOS aims to perform a 2 square degree imaging survey of an equatorial field in $I$(F814W) band, using the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Such a wide field survey, combined with ground-based photometric and spectroscopic data, is essential to understand the interplay between large scale structure, evolution and formation of galaxies and dark matter. In 2004, we have obtained high-quality, broad band images of the COSMOS field ($B, V, r^\prime, i^\prime,$ and $z^\prime$) using Suprime-Cam on the Subaru Telescope, and we have started our new optical multi-band program, COSMOS-21 in 2005. Here, we present a brief summary of the current status of the COSMOS project together with contributions from the Subaru Telescope. Our future Subaru program, COSMOS-21, is also discussed briefly.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the 6th East Asian Meeting on Astronomy, JKAS, 39, in pres

Arabidopsis KCBP interacts with AIR9 but stays in the cortical division zone throughout mitosis via its MyTH4-FERM domain

The preprophase band of microtubules performs the crucial function of marking the plane of cell division. Although the preprophase band depolymerises at the onset of mitosis, the division plane is 'memorized' by a cortical division zone to which the phragmoplast is attracted during cytokinesis. Proteins have been discovered that are part of the molecular memory but little is known about how they contribute to phragmoplast guidance. Previously, we found that the microtubule-associated protein AIR9 is found in the cortical division zone at preprophase and returns during cell plate insertion but is absent from the cortex during the intervening mitosis. To identify new components of the preprophase memory, we searched for proteins that interact with AIR9. We detected the kinesin-like calmodulin-binding protein, KCBP, which can be visualized at the predicted cortical site throughout division. A truncation study of KCBP indicates that its MyTH4-FERM domain is required for linking the motor domain to the cortex. These results suggest a mechanism by which minus-end-directed KCBP helps guide the centrifugally expanding phragmoplast to the cortical division site.Instituto de Biotecnologia y Biologia Molecula

Trajectory and orbit of the unique carbonaceous meteorite Flensburg

Stars and planetary system

Therapeutic androgen receptor ligands

In the past several years, the concept of tissue-selective nuclear receptor ligands has emerged. This concept has come to fruition with estrogens, with the successful marketing of drugs such as raloxifene. The discovery of raloxifene and other selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) has raised the possibility of generating selective compounds for other pathways, including androgens (that is, selective androgen receptor modulators, or SARMs)

The extraordinarily bright optical afterglow of GRB 991208 and its host galaxy

Observations of the extraordinarily bright optical afterglow (OA) of GRB 991208 started 2.1 d after the event. The flux decay constant of the OA in the R-band is -2.30 +/- 0.07 up to 5 d, which is very likely due to the jet effect, and after that it is followed by a much steeper decay with constant -3.2 +/- 0.2, the fastest one ever seen in a GRB OA. A negative detection in several all-sky films taken simultaneously to the event implies either a previous additional break prior to 2 d after the occurrence of the GRB (as expected from the jet effect). The existence of a second break might indicate a steepening in the electron spectrum or the superposition of two events. Once the afterglow emission vanished, contribution of a bright underlying SN is found, but the light curve is not sufficiently well sampled to rule out a dust echo explanation. Our determination of z = 0.706 indicates that GRB 991208 is at 3.7 Gpc, implying an isotropic energy release of 1.15 x 10E53 erg which may be relaxed by beaming by a factor > 100. Precise astrometry indicates that the GRB coincides within 0.2" with the host galaxy, thus given support to a massive star origin. The absolute magnitude is M_B = -18.2, well below the knee of the galaxy luminosity function and we derive a star-forming rate of 11.5 +/- 7.1 Mo/yr. The quasi-simultaneous broad-band photometric spectral energy distribution of the afterglow is determined 3.5 day after the burst (Dec 12.0) implying a cooling frequency below the optical band, i.e. supporting a jet model with p = -2.30 as the index of the power-law electron distribution.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 9 pages, 6 figures (Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 have been updated

The impact of point mutations in the human androgen receptor : classification of mutations on the basis of transcriptional activity

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Ablation of the androgen receptor from vascular smooth muscle cells demonstrates a role for testosterone in vascular calcification

Vascular calcification powerfully predicts mortality and morbidity from cardiovascular disease. Men have a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, compared to women of a similar age. These gender disparities suggest an influence of sex hormones. Testosterone is the primary and most well-recognised androgen in men. Therefore, we addressed the hypothesis that exogenous androgen treatment induces vascular calcification. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed expression of androgen receptor (AR) in the calcified media of human femoral artery tissue and calcified human valves. Furthermore, in vitro studies revealed increased phosphate (Pi)-induced mouse vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) calcification following either testosterone or dihydrotestosterone (DHT) treatment for 9 days. Testosterone and DHT treatment increased tissue non-specific alkaline phosphatase (Alpl) mRNA expression. Testosterone-induced calcification was blunted in VSMC-specific AR-ablated (SM-ARKO) VSMCs compared to WT. Consistent with these data, SM-ARKO VSMCs showed a reduction in Osterix mRNA expression. However, intriguingly, a counter-intuitive increase in Alpl was observed. These novel data demonstrate that androgens play a role in inducing vascular calcification through the AR. Androgen signalling may represent a novel potential therapeutic target for clinical intervention