"Empirical Analysis of the National Treatment Obligation Under the WTO: The Case of Japanese Shochu "

The national treatment obligation, along with the most favored nation obligation, is an important principle of non-discrimination adopted by theWorld Trade Organization. It requires that foreign products be treated no less favorably than national products. This paper empirically examines the 1996 WTO recommendation that a Japanese distilled alcoholic beverage, shochu , be classed as a "directly competitive or substitutable product" with regard to other distilled drinks, and thus that not taxing similarly be in violation of its national treatment obligation. Demand estimates obtained from a random-coefficient discrete-choice model reveal that a substitution pattern of shochu is far more complicated than that presumed by the WTO. Upon the WTO recommendation, Japan made all distilled alcoholic beverages be taxable at the same level in 2000. Our simulation analysis indicates that the revised tax rates improved but did not maximize Japanese national welfare.

Kiloparsec-scale Radio Structures in Narrow-line Seyfert 1 Galaxies

We report the finding of kiloparsec (kpc)-scale radio structures in three radio-loud narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies from the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-centimeters (FIRST) of the Very Large Array (VLA), which increases the number of known radio-loud NLS1s with kpc-scale structures to six, including two gamma-ray emitting NLS1s (PMN J0948+0022 and 1H 0323+342) detected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The detection rate of extended radio emissions in NLS1s is lower than that in broad-line active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with a statistical significance. We found both core-dominated (blazar-like) and lobe-dominated (radio-galaxy-like) radio structures in these six NLS1s, which can be understood in the framework of the unified scheme of radio-loud AGNs that considers radio galaxies as non-beamed parent populations of blazars. Five of the six NLS1s have (i) extended radio luminosities suggesting jet kinetic powers of >~10^44 erg/s, which is sufficient to make jets escape from hosts' dense environments, (ii) black holes of >~10^7 solar mass, which can generate the necessary jet powers from near-Eddington mass accretion, and (iii) two-sided radio structures at kpc scales, requiring expansion rates of ~0.01c--0.3c and kinematic ages of >~10^7 years. On the other hand, most typical NLS1s would be driven by black holes of <~10^7 solar mass in a limited lifetime of ~10^7 years. Hence the kpc-scale radio structures may originate in a small window of opportunity during the final stage of the NLS1 phase just before growing into broad-line AGNs.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Origins of globular structure in proteins

AbstractSince natural proteins are the products of a long evolutionary process, the structural properties of present-day proteins should depend not only on physico-chemical constraints, but also on evolutionary constraints. Here we propose a model for protein evolution, in which membranes play a key role as a scaffold for supporting the gradual evolution from flexible polypeptides to well-folded proteins. We suggest that the folding process of present-day globular proteins is a relic of this putative evolutionary process. To test the hypothesis that membranes once acted as a cradle for the folding of globular proteins, extensive research on membrane proteins and the interactions of globular proteins with membranes will be required

Design of generic biosensors based on green fluorescent proteins with allosteric sites by directed evolution

AbstractProtein-engineering techniques have been adapted for the molecular design of biosensors that combine a molecular-recognition site with a signal-transduction function. The optical signal-transduction mechanism of green fluorescent protein (GFP) is most attractive, but hard to combine with a ligand-binding site. Here we describe a general method of creating entirely new molecular-recognition sites on GFPs. At the first step, a protein domain containing a desired molecular-binding site is inserted into a surface loop of GFP. Next, the insertional fusion protein is randomly mutated, and new allosteric proteins that undergo changes in fluorescence upon binding of target molecules are selected from the random library. We have tested this methodology by using TEM1 β-lactamase and its inhibitory protein as our model protein-ligand system. ‘Allosteric GFP biosensors’ constructed by this method may be used in a wide range of applications including biochemistry and cell biology

VLBI observations of the most radio-loud, narrow-line quasar SDSS J094857.3+002225

We observed the narrow-line quasar SDSS J094857.3+002225, which has the highest known radio loudness for a narrow-line Seyfert~1 galaxy (NLS1), at 1.7--15.4 GHz with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). This is the first very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) investigation for a radio-loud NLS1. We independently found very high brightness temperatures from (1) its compactness in a VLBA image and (2) flux variation among the VLBA observation, our other observations with the VLBA, and the Very Large Array (VLA). A Doppler factor larger than 2.7--5.5 was required to meet an intrinsic limit of brightness temperature in the rest frame. This is evidence for highly relativistic nonthermal jets in an NLS1. We suggest that the Doppler factor is one of the most crucial parameters determining the radio loudness of NLS1s. The accretion disk of SDSS J094857.3+002225 is probably in the very high state, rather than the high/soft state, by analogy with X-ray binaries with strong radio outbursts and superluminal jets such as GRS 1915+105.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in PAS