Membranes for spontaneous separation of pedestrian counter flows

Designing efficient traffic lanes for pedestrians is a critical aspect of urban planning as walking remains the most common form of mobility among the increasingly diverse methods of transportation. Herein, we investigate pedestrian counter flows in a straight corridor, in which two groups of people are walking in opposite directions. We demonstrate, using a molecular dynamics approach applying the social force model, that a simple array of obstacles improves flow rates by producing flow separations even in crowded situations. We also report on a developed model describing the separation behavior that regards an array of obstacles as a membrane and induces spontaneous separation of pedestrians groups. When appropriately designed, those obstacles are fully capable of controlling the filtering direction so that pedestrians tend to keep moving to their left (or right) spontaneously. These results have the potential to provide useful guidelines for industrial designs aimed at improving ubiquitous human mobility.Comment: Manuscript accepted for publication in Europhysics Letter

Differential regulations of abscisic acid-induced desiccation tolerance and vegetative dormancy by group B3 Raf kinases in liverworts

Phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) plays a key role in stomata closure, osmostress acclimation, and vegetative and embryonic dormancy. Group B3 Raf protein kinases (B3-Rafs) serve as positive regulators of ABA and osmostress signaling in the moss Physcomitrium patens and the angiosperm Arabidopsis thaliana. While P. patens has a single B3-Raf called ARK, specific members of B3-Rafs among six paralogs regulate ABA and osmostress signaling in A. thaliana, indicating functional diversification of B3-Rafs in angiosperms. However, we found that the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha, belonging to another class of bryophytes, has three paralogs of B3-Rafs, MpARK1, MpARK2, and MpARK3, with structural variations in the regulatory domains of the polypeptides. By reporter assays of the P. patens ark line and analysis of genome-editing lines of M. polymorpha, we found that these B3-Rafs are functionally redundant in ABA response, with respect to inhibition of growth, tolerance to desiccation and expression of stress-associated transcripts, the majority of which are under the control of the PYR/PYL/RCAR-like receptor MpPYL1. Interestingly, gemmae in gemma cups were germinating only in mutant lines associated with MpARK1, indicating that dormancy in the gametophyte is controlled by a specific B3-Raf paralog. These results indicated not only conservation of the role of B3-Rafs in ABA and osmostress response in liverworts but also functional diversification of B3-Rafs, which is likely to have occurred in the early stages of land plant evolution

Efficacy of Mucosal Cutting Biopsy for the Histopathological Diagnosis of Gastric Submucosal Tumors

Background: Gastrointestinal stromal tumors occur frequently. Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) is performed commonly for diagnosis. However, the success rate of histological diagnosis is insufficient when the submucosal tumor (SMT) is small. Recently, another technique, mucosal cutting biopsy (MCB) has been reported. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of MCB. Method: Between January 2012 and August 2018, MCB and EUS-FNA were performed 16 and 31 times for diagnosing gastric SMT. The diagnostic rate, the rate of successful immunohistochemistry, and the safety were reviewed. Difficult locations for EUS-FNA were also evaluated. Results: The mean SMT sizes measured on MCB and EUS-FNA were 21.2 and 36.2 mm. The diagnostic rates of MCB and EUS-FNA were almost the same (88 vs. 81%), but successful immunohistochemistry was significantly higher in the MCB group (93 vs. 59%, p = 0.03). In the subgroup of SMTs < 20 mm, the successful histological diagnosis rate from EUS-FNA was relatively low. There were no complications. Failures of EUS-FNA were more frequent in the middle third of the stomach. Conclusions: MCB was an effective procedure for diagnosing gastric SMT, especially in the case of small SMTs located at the middle third of the stomach

Synchronized Periodic Ca2+ Pulses Define Neurosecretory Activities in Magnocellular Vasotocin and Isotocin Neurons

The electrical activity of magnocellular neurosecretory cells (NSCs) is correlated with the release rates of neurohypophysial hormones. NSCs may control their secretory activity in a cooperative manner by changing their electrical activity in response to changes in the internal milieu. In the present study, we applied confocal Ca2+ imaging to a sagittally hemisected rainbow trout brain to simultaneously monitor the neuronal activity of a number of NSCs. We found that NSCs in vitro showed synchronized pulsatile elevations of intracellular Ca2+ levels at regular intervals. Double immunostaining of vasotocin (VT) and isotocin (IT) after the confocal imaging clarified that each of the VT and IT neuronal populations showed a distinct pattern of periodic Ca2+ pulses. Simultaneous cell-attached patch recordings ensured that individual Ca2+ pulses were associated with a phasic burst firing. Depolarizing stimuli by increasing the extracellular K+ concentration from 5 to 7-9 mM reversibly shortened the interpulse intervals in both VT and IT neurons. Interpulse intervals but not durations of pulses were shortened by hypo-osmotic stimuli and prolonged by hyperosmotic stimuli, consistent with the osmoregulatory function of teleost NSCs. We therefore hypothesize that NSCs use intervals of synchronized periodic burst discharges to fit the levels of secretory activity to physiological requirements

The Inheritance of Jumping Activity in Reciprocal Cross of Two Subspecies of Mice

The objective of this study was to describe the nature of the inheritance of jumping as a behavioral trait and to analyze quantitatively the jumping height as a measure of vigor in two subspecies of mice. Two subspecies of mice, Yonakuni wild mouse (Y) and CF#1 laboratory mouse (C), were used as the parental types. Reciprocal mating between these two subspecies was made to produce subsequently the first and second generations. The first generation was F1 (YC) resulting from Y male x C female, and F1’ (CY) from C male x Y female. The second generation F2 (YCYC) was from mating F1 x F1 and F2’ (CYCY) from F1’ x F1’. Individuals were treated with a set of direct current shock apparatus at six weeks of age to evoke jumping. The results showed that the ratio between jumping and non jumping mice (J: NJ) for C was 0%:100% (0:1), which means that all C did not jump throughout the experiment, whereas Y was 68%:32% (2:1); and the F1 and F2 showed 65%:35% (2:1) and 51%:49% (1:1), respectively. All F1’ and F2’ individuals jumped as indicated by the ratio 100%:0% (1:0) for both these two genetic groups. Of the jumped mice, average height of the first three jumping observed for pooled sexes in Y, F1, F2, F1’, and F2'' were 19.3 cm, 19.3 cm, 18.0 cm, 19.9 cm and 16.4 cm, respectively. The distribution of jumping height showed a tendency to be a normal distribution. The jumping activity and jumping height may be affected by some major genes and polygenes, respectively. Keywords : Jumping Inheritance, Reciprocal Cross, Subspecies of Mic