Stress relaxation above and below the jamming transition

We numerically investigate stress relaxation in soft athermal disks to reveal critical slowing down when the system approaches the jamming point. The exponents describing the divergence of the relaxation time differ dramatically depending on whether the transition is approached from the jammed or unjammed phase. This contrasts sharply with conventional dynamic critical scaling scenarios, where a single exponent characterizes both sides. We explain this surprising difference in terms of the vibrational density of states (vDOS), which is a key ingredient of linear viscoelastic theory. The vDOS exhibits an extra slow mode that emerges below jamming, which we utilize to demonstrate the anomalous exponent below jamming.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

A Study on growth condition analysis of rice using drones

Kazuki, M., Atsushi, I., & Hiroyuki, H. (2017). A Study on growth condition analysis of rice. In Pan African Conference on Science, Computing and Telecommunications (PACT). Nairobi: Strathmore University. Retrieved from https://su-plus.strathmore.eduSelf-sufficiency of food is one of the most important target for Japan, however, because of decreasing the population of agriculture sector due to the progress of aging, it is difficult to realize this target. One of the main reasons of decreasing the population in agriculture is hard work in the field and requirement of experience. Our study focuses on supporting aging farmers, weekend farmers and new comers in the agriculture to reduce labor and cost, and providing system to compensate experience by using ICT. For this purpose, we are developing technology to evaluate growing condition of rice and vegetables in a field by using a drone and a multi-spectrum camera. By using this technology, it might be possible to reduce the hard work under the scorching sun and to support unexperienced young farmers. In this paper, we mention the outline of the technology that we used and the result of feasibility study to analyze growth condition of rice using drone. We measured normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and normalized difference red edge index (NDRE) from a drone and analyzed the data to estimate growth condition of rice. We found it was possible to find the area where growth is delaying and estimate heading day.International Institute of Engineering and Technology; IEE

A novel plant nuclear gene encoding chloroplast ribosomal protein S9 has a transit peptide related to that of rice chloroplast ribosomal protein L12

AbstractWe have cloned a novel nuclear gene for a ribosomal protein of rice and Arabidopsis that is like the bacterial ribosomal protein S9. To determine the subcellular localization of the gene product, we fused the N-terminal region and green fluorescent protein and expressed it transiently in rice seedlings. Localized fluorescence was detectable only in chloroplasts, indicating that this nuclear gene encodes chloroplast ribosomal protein S9. The N-terminal region of rice ribosomal protein S9 was found to have a high sequence similarity to the transit peptide region of the rice chloroplast ribosomal protein L12, suggesting that these transit peptides have a common lineage

Comparison of Nitrogen Budgets in Agricultural Watersheds

Poster Sessio

Neurovirulent strains of herpes simplex virus type 1 are not necessarily competent for reactivatable latency.

Ability of two neurovirulent strains (F and +GC (LPV) Miyama) of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) to establish and maintain reactivatable latency in trigeminal ganglia (TG) was compared after intranasal inoculation of mice. The +GC (LPV) Miyama strain showed a very low rate of virus reactivation in explant cultures of TG, while the F strain showed a high rate of reactivation. These data indicate that neurovirulent strains of HSV-1 are not always competent for reactivatable latency, although most virulent strains of HSV-1 thus far reported were competent for reactivatable latency.&#60;/P&#62;</p

Reactivatable latency of three avirulent strains of herpes simplex virus type 1 after intranasal inoculation in mice.

In order to elucidate the mechanism of latent infection of herpes simplex virus (HSV), reactivatable latency of three avirulent strains (SKO-1B, -GCr Miyama, SKa) of HSV type 1 was comparatively examined in a mouse latency model. The SKO-1B strain showed high rate of virus reactivation from explanted trigeminal ganglia without n-butyrate enhancement, while the other two strains showed a very low rate of virus reactivation in the absence of n-butyrate. In the presence of n-butyrate, however, the rate of the -GCr Miyama strain jumped to a comparable level with that of SKO-1B, although the rate of SKa remained at a low level. A more precise follow-up experiment changing the virus dose highlighted the difference of the ability to reactivate from the latent state between SKO-1B and -GCr Miyama. Virus titer in trigeminal ganglia during acute phase, infectivity to cell lines of neural origin, and susceptibility to acyclovir and phosphonoacetate were assayed to know the reasons for the variation in the ability of reactivatable latency among these strains. It was concluded that the reduced infectivity to neural cells, and limited ability of reactivatable latency shown by the SKa strain could mainly be attributed to the deficiency of thymidine kinase activity.&#60;/P&#62;</p

Hypermineralization of Hearing-Related Bones by a Specific Osteoblast Subtype

Auditory ossicles in the middle ear and bony labyrinth of the inner ear are highly mineralized in adult mammals. Cellular mechanisms underlying formation of dense bone during development are unknown. Here, we found that osteoblast-like cells synthesizing highly mineralized hearing-related bones produce both type I and type II collagens as the bone matrix, while conventional osteoblasts and chondrocytes primarily produce type I and type II collagens, respectively. Furthermore, these osteoblast-like cells were not labeled in a “conventional osteoblast”-specific green fluorescent protein (GFP) mouse line. Type II collagen-producing osteoblast-like cells were not chondrocytes as they express osteocalcin, localize along alizarin-labeled osteoid, and form osteocyte lacunae and canaliculi, as do conventional osteoblasts. Auditory ossicles and the bony labyrinth exhibit not only higher bone matrix mineralization but also a higher degree of apatite orientation than do long bones. Therefore, we conclude that these type II collagen-producing hypermineralizing osteoblasts (termed here auditory osteoblasts) represent a new osteoblast subtype. © 2021 The Authors. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR).Kuroda Y., Kawaai K., Hatano N., et al. Hypermineralization of Hearing-Related Bones by a Specific Osteoblast Subtype. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, 36, 8, 1535. https://doi.org/10.1002/jbmr.4320

Elucidation of HHEX in pancreatic endoderm differentiation using a human iPSC differentiation model

ヒトiPS細胞分化モデルを用いた膵内胚葉分化におけるHHEXの役割の解明. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-06-09.Identification of HHEX as a crucial factor in pancreatic endoderm differentiation using a human iPS cell differentiation model. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-06-15.For pluripotent stem cell (PSC)-based regenerative therapy against diabetes, the differentiation efficiency to pancreatic lineage cells needs to be improved based on the mechanistic understanding of pancreatic differentiation. Here, we aimed to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying pancreatic endoderm differentiation by searching for factors that regulate a crucial pancreatic endoderm marker gene, NKX6.1. Unbiasedly screening an siRNA knockdown library, we identified a candidate transcription factor, HHEX. HHEX knockdown suppressed the expression of another pancreatic endoderm marker gene, PTF1A, as well as NKX6.1, independently of PDX1, a known regulator of NKX6.1 expression. In contrast, the overexpression of HHEX upregulated the expressions of NKX6.1 and PTF1A. RNA-seq analysis showed decreased expressions of several genes related to pancreatic development, such as NKX6.1, PTF1A, ONECUT1 and ONECUT3, in HHEX knockdown pancreatic endoderm. These results suggest that HHEX plays a key role in pancreatic endoderm differentiation