TFIIIC Localizes Budding Yeast ETC Sites to the Nuclear Periphery

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Rif1 controls DNA replication by directing Protein Phosphatase 1 to reverse Cdc7-mediated phosphorylation of the MCM complex

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The ASTRO-H X-ray Observatory

The joint JAXA/NASA ASTRO-H mission is the sixth in a series of highly successful X-ray missions initiated by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). ASTRO-H will investigate the physics of the high-energy universe via a suite of four instruments, covering a very wide energy range, from 0.3 keV to 600 keV. These instruments include a high-resolution, high-throughput spectrometer sensitive over 0.3-2 keV with high spectral resolution of Delta E < 7 eV, enabled by a micro-calorimeter array located in the focal plane of thin-foil X-ray optics; hard X-ray imaging spectrometers covering 5-80 keV, located in the focal plane of multilayer-coated, focusing hard X-ray mirrors; a wide-field imaging spectrometer sensitive over 0.4-12 keV, with an X-ray CCD camera in the focal plane of a soft X-ray telescope; and a non-focusing Compton-camera type soft gamma-ray detector, sensitive in the 40-600 keV band. The simultaneous broad bandpass, coupled with high spectral resolution, will enable the pursuit of a wide variety of important science themes.Comment: 22 pages, 17 figures, Proceedings of the SPIE Astronomical Instrumentation "Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray

Hitomi X-Ray Studies of Giant Radio Pulses from the Crab Pulsar

To search for giant X-ray pulses correlated with the giant radio pulses (GRPs) from the Crab pulsar, we performed a simultaneous observation of the Crab pulsar with the X-ray satellite Hitomi in the 2300 keV band and the Kashima NICT radio telescope in the 1.41.7 GHz band with a net exposure of about 2 ks on 2016 March 25, just before the loss of the Hitomi mission. The timing performance of the Hitomi instruments was confirmed to meet the timing requirement and about 1000 and 100 GRPs were simultaneously observed at the main pulse and inter-pulse phases, respectively, and we found no apparent correlation between the giant radio pulses and the X-ray emission in either the main pulse or inter-pulse phase. All variations are within the 2 fluctuations of the X-ray fluxes at the pulse peaks, and the 3 upper limits of variations of main pulse or inter-pulse GRPs are 22% or 80% of the peak flux in a 0.20 phase width, respectively, in the 2300 keV band. The values for main pulse or inter-pulse GRPs become 25% or 110%, respectively, when the phase width is restricted to the 0.03 phase. Among the upper limits from the Hitomi satellite, those in the 4.510 keV and 70300 keV bands are obtained for the first time, and those in other bands are consistent with previous reports. Numerically, the upper limits of the main pulse and inter-pulse GRPs in the 0.20 phase width are about (2.4 and 9.3) 10(exp 11) erg cm(exp 2), respectively. No significant variability in pulse profiles implies that the GRPs originated from a local place within the magnetosphere. Although the number of photon-emitting particles should temporarily increase to account for the brightening of the radio emission, the results do not statistically rule out variations correlated with the GRPs, because the possible X-ray enhancement may appear due to a >0.02% brightening of the pulse-peak flux under such conditions

Altered immunolocalization of FGF23 in murine femora metastasized with human breast carcinoma MDA-MB-231 cells

Introduction After the onset of bone metastasis, tumor cells appear to modify surrounding microenvironments for their benefit, and particularly, the levels of circulating fibroblast growth factor (FGF) 23 in patients with tumors have been highlighted. Materials and methods We have attempted to verify if human breast carcinoma MDA-MB-231 cells metastasized in the long bone of nu/nu mice would synthesize FGF23. Serum concentrations of calcium, phosphate (Pi) and FGF23 were measured in control nu/nu mice, bone-metastasized mice, and mice with mammary gland injected with MDA-MB-231 cells mimicking primary mammary tumors. Results and conclusions MDA-MB-231 cells revealed intense FGF23 reactivity in metastasized lesions, whereas MDA-MB-231 cells cultured in vitro or when injected into the mammary glands (without bone metastasis) showed weak FGF23 immunoreactivity. Although the bone-metastasized MDA-MB-231 cells abundantly synthesized FGF23, osteocytes adjacent to the FGF23-immunopositive tumors, unlike intact osteocytes, showed no FGF23. Despite significantly elevated serum FGF23 levels in bone-metastasized mice, there was no significant decrease in the serum Pi concentration when compared with the intact mice and mice with a mass of MDA-MB-231 cells in mammary glands. The metastasized femora showed increased expression and FGFR1 immunoreactivity in fibroblastic stromal cells, whereas femora of control mice showed no obvious FGFR1 immunoreactivity. Taken together, it seems likely that MDA-MB-231 cells synthesize FGF23 when metastasized to a bone, and thus affect FGFR1-positive stromal cells in the metastasized tumor nest in a paracrine manner