The Quiescent Cellular State is Arf/p53-Dependent and Associated with H2AX Downregulation and Genome Stability

Cancer is a disease associated with genomic instability and mutations. Excluding some tumors with specific chromosomal translocations, most cancers that develop at an advanced age are characterized by either chromosomal or microsatellite instability. However, it is still unclear how genomic instability and mutations are generated during the process of cellular transformation and how the development of genomic instability contributes to cellular transformation. Recent studies of cellular regulation and tetraploidy development have provided insights into the factors triggering cellular transformation and the regulatory mechanisms that protect chromosomes from genomic instability

Leaf-Movement-Based Growth Prediction Model Using Optical Flow Analysis and Machine Learning in Plant Factory

Productivity stabilization is a critical issue facing plant factories. As such, researchers have been investigating growth prediction with the overall goal of improving productivity. The projected area of a plant (PA) is usually used for growth prediction, by which the growth of a plant is estimated by observing the overall approximate movement of the plant. To overcome this problem, this study focused on the time-series movement of plant leaves, using optical flow (OF) analysis to acquire this information for a lettuce. OF analysis is an image processing method that extracts the difference between two consecutive frames caused by the movement of the subject. Experiments were carried out at a commercial large-scale plant factory. By using a microcomputer with a camera module placed above the lettuce seedlings, images of 338 seedlings were taken every 20 min over 9 days (from the 6th to the 15th day after sowing). Then, the features of the leaf movement were extracted from the image by calculating the normal-vector in the OF analysis, and these features were applied to machine learning to predict the fresh weight of the lettuce at harvest time (38 days after sowing). The growth prediction model using the features extracted from the OF analysis was found to perform well with a correlation ratio of 0.743. Furthermore, this study also considered a phenotyping system that was capable of automatically analyzing a plant image, which would allow this growth prediction model to be widely used in commercial plant factories

Detection of diurnal variation of tomato transcriptome through the molecular timetable method in a sunlight-type plant factory

The timing of measurement during plant growth is important because many genes are expressed periodically and orchestrate physiological events. Their periodicity is generated by environmental fluctuations as external factors and the circadian clock as the internal factor. The circadian clock orchestrates physiological events such as photosynthesis or flowering and it enables enhanced growth and herbivory resistance. These characteristics have possible applications for agriculture. In this study, we demonstrated the diurnal variation of the transcriptome in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) leaves through molecular timetable method in a sunlight-type plant factory. Molecular timetable methods have been developed to detect periodic genes and estimate individual internal body time from these expression profiles in mammals. We sampled tomato leaves every 2 h for 2 days and acquired time-course transcriptome data by RNA-Seq. Many genes were expressed periodically and these expressions were stable across the 1st and 2nd days of measurement. We selected 143 time-indicating genes whose expression indicated periodically, and estimated internal time in the plant from these expression profiles. The estimated internal time was generally the same as the external environment time; however, there was a difference of more than 1 h between the two for some sampling points. Furthermore, the stress-responsive genes also showed weakly periodic expression, implying that they were usually expressed periodically, regulated by light–dark cycles as an external factor or the circadian clock as the internal factor, and could be particularly expressed when the plant experiences some specific stress under agricultural situations. This study suggests that circadian clock mediate the optimization for fluctuating environments in the field and it has possibilities to enhance resistibility to stress and floral induction by controlling circadian clock through light supplement and temperature control

ESD Protection Design Optimization Using a Mixed-Mode Simulationand

Abstract -This paper presents a new optimization method of ESD protection design using a mixed-mode ESD simulation with a calibrated model based on DC and TLP characteristics. As a result, the influence of power bus line resistance on ESD protection design is clarified using the calibrated model for each device used in ESD protection circuit. ESD surge flows into an internal circuit easily as the value of the power bus line resistance increases even if the ESD tolerance of a power clamp element is high enough

Study of hadron interactions in a lead-emulsion target

Topological and kinematical characteristics of hadron interactions have been studied using a lead-emulsion target exposed to 2, 4 and 10 GeV/c hadron beams. A total length of 60 m $\pi^-$ tracks was followed using a high speed automated emulsion scanning system. A total of 318 hadron interaction vertices and their secondary charged particle tracks were reconstructed. Measurement results of interaction lengths, charged particle multiplicity, emission angles and momenta of secondary charged particles are compared with a Monte Carlo simulation and appear to be consistent. Nuclear fragments emitted from interaction vertices were also detected by a newly developed emulsion scanning system with wide-angle acceptance. Their emission angle distributions are in good agreement with the simulated distributions. Probabilities of an event being associated with at least one fragment track are found to be greater than 50% for beam momentum $P > 4$ GeV/c and are well reproduced by the simulation. These experimental results validate estimation of the background due to hadron interactions in the sample of $\tau$ decay candidates in the OPERA $\nu_{\mu} \to \nu_{\tau}$ oscillation experiment.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure

Anomaly Investigation using Telemetry Data of Horyu-2 for Single Event Latch-up

This paper describes anomaly investigation using telemetry data of Hoyu-2. Horyu-2 is a satellite launched to 680km sun-synchronous orbit in May 2012. The satellite suffered many anomalies, during which the satellite could not respond to commands. Based on Fault Tree Analysis and ground experiments using radio-isotope or an accelerator, the anomaly cause was inferred to be due to single event latch-up on one of two microprocessors. After each anomaly, the satellite recovered. In one occasion, the satellite kept data that proved the anomaly was indeed caused by SEL. Besides the two microprocessors, the satellite functions normally showing little degradation after 2.5 years in orbit

Serum Antibody Against NY-ESO-1 and XAGE1 Antigens Potentially Predicts Clinical Responses to Anti–Programmed Cell Death-1 Therapy in NSCLC

Introduction: Programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) inhibitors effectively treat NSCLC and prolong survival. Robust biomarkers for predicting clinical benefits of good response and long survival with anti-PD-1 therapy have yet to be identified; therefore, predictive biomarkers are needed to select patients with benefits. Methods: We conducted a prospective study to explore whether serum antibody against NY-ESO-1 and/or XAGE1 cancer-testis antigens predicted primarily good clinical response and secondarily long survival with anti-PD-1 therapy for NSCLC. The serum antibody was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and tumor immune microenvironment and mutation burden were analyzed by immunohistochemistry and next-generation sequencing. Results: In the discovery cohort (n = 13), six antibody-positive NSCLC cases responded to anti-PD-1 therapy (two complete and four partial responses), whereas seven antibody-negative NSCLC cases did not. Antibody positivity was associated with good response and survival, regardless of tumor programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression, mutation burden, and CD8+ T-cell infiltration. In the validation cohort (n = 75), 17 antibody-positive NSCLC cases responded well to anti-PD-1 therapy as compared with 58 negative NSCLC cases (objective response rate 65% versus 19%, p = 0.0006) and showed significantly prolonged progression-free survival and overall survival. Antibody titers highly correlated with tumor reduction rates. In the multivariate analysis, response biomarkers were tumor programmed death ligand 1 expression and antibody positivity, and only antibody positivity was a significantly better predictive biomarker of progression-free survival (hazard ratio = 0.4, p = 0.01) and overall survival (hazard ratio = 0.2, p = 0.004). Conclusions: Our results suggest that NY-ESO-1 and/or XAGE1 serum antibodies are useful biomarkers for predicting clinical benefits in anti-PD-1 therapy for NSCLC and probably for other cancers

Clinical Study Status of Systemic Oxidative Stress during Therapeutic Hypothermia in Patients with Post-Cardiac Arrest Syndrome

Therapeutic hypothermia (TH) is thought to be due to the downregulation of free radical production, although the details of this process remain unclear. Here, we investigate changes in oxidative stress and endogenous biological antioxidant potential during TH in patients with post-cardiac arrest syndrome (PCAS). Nineteen PCAS patients were enrolled in the study. Brain temperature was decreased to the target temperature of 33 ∘ C, and it was maintained for 24 h. Patients were rewarmed slowly (0.1 ∘ C/h, <1 ∘ C/day). The generation of reactive oxygen metabolites (ROMs) was evaluated in plasma samples by d-ROM test. Plasma antioxidant capacity was measured by the biological antioxidant potential (BAP) test. Levels of d-ROMs and BAP levels during the hypothermic stage (33 ∘ C) were suppressed significantly compared with pre-TH induction levels ( < 0.05), while both d-ROM and BAP levels increased with rewarming (33-36 ∘ C) and were correlated with brain temperature. Clinical monitoring of oxidative stress and antioxidant potential is useful for evaluating the redox state of patients undergoing TH after PCAS. Additional therapy to support the antioxidant potential in the rewarming stage following TH may reduce some of the observed side effects associated with the use of TH