Diet of the mesopelagic fish Notoscopelus japonicus (Family: Myctophidae) associated with the continental slope off the Pacific coast of Honshu, Japan

The diet of Notoscopelus japonicus, one of the dominant mesopelagic fishes in the transitional waters of the western North Pacific, was examined in 106 specimens collected over the continental slope off the Pacific coast of northern Japan during April and October 1996. The prey comprised mainly crustaceans, such as copepods, ostracods, euphausiids and amphipods. Euphausia pacifica was the dominant prey, representing 83.1% by number and 72.4% by wet weight of the total diet. Between April and October, there was no shift in prey species consumed, but prey size decreased significantly and prey number per fish stomach increased in October. These results indicate that, in October, N. japonicus consumed larger numbers of smaller E. pacifica, rather than shifting to other prey taxa. The pronounced importance of E. pacifica in the diet was ascribed to its co-occurrence with N. japonicus at night in the surface layer and during the daytime in the near-bottom layer

Efficient derivation of stable primed pluripotent embryonic stem cells from bovine blastocysts

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are derived from the inner cell mass of preimplantation blastocysts. From agricultural and biomedical perspectives, the derivation of stable ESCs from domestic ungulates is important for genomic testing and selection, genome engineering, and modeling human diseases. Cattle are one of the most important domestic ungulates that are commonly used for food and bioreactors. To date, however, it remains a challenge to produce stable pluripotent bovine ESC lines. Employing a culture system containing fibroblast growth factor 2 and an inhibitor of the canonical Wnt-signaling pathway, we derived pluripotent bovine ESCs (bESCs) with stable morphology, transcriptome, karyotype, population-doubling time, pluripotency marker gene expression, and epigenetic features. Under this condition bESC lines were efficiently derived (100% in optimal conditions), were established quickly (3-4 wk), and were simple to propagate (by trypsin treatment). When used as donors for nuclear transfer, bESCs produced normal blastocyst rates, thereby opening the possibility for genomic selection, genome editing, and production of cattle with high genetic value

Electron transfer and decay processes of highly charged iodine ions

In the present experimental work we have investigated multi-electron transfer processes in Iq+ (q = 10, 15, 20 and 25) + Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe collisions at 1.5q keV energy. Using the coincidence technique between charge-selected projectile and recoil ions, the branching ratios between Auger and radiative decay channels have been measured in decay processes of multiply excited states formed by multi-electron transfer collisions. By combining these ratios with the measured absolute cross sections for total and single electron transfer processes, the partial cross sections for various charge changing processes have been determined. It has been shown that, in all the multi-electron transfer processes investigated, the Auger decays are far dominant over the radiative decay processes and the branching ratios are clearly characterized by the average principal quantum number <n> of the initial excited states of projectile ions, estimated from the extended classical-over-barrier-model (ECBM). We could express the branching ratios in high Rydberg states formed in multi-electron transfer processes by using the decay probability of one Auger electron emission