Morbillivirus Receptors and Tropism: Multiple Pathways for Infection

Morbilliviruses, which include measles virus (MeV), canine distemper virus, and rinderpest virus, are among the most important pathogens in their respective hosts and cause severe syndromes. Morbilliviruses are enveloped viruses with two envelope proteins, one of which is hemagglutinin (H) protein, which plays a role in binding to cellular receptors. During morbillivirus infection, the virus initially targets lymphoid cells and replicates efficiently in the lymph nodes. The principal cellular receptor for morbillivirus is signaling lymphocyte activation molecule (SLAM, also called CD150), which is exclusively expressed on immune cells. This feature reflects the strong lymphoid cell tropism and viral spread in the infected body. Morbillivirus infection, however, affects various tissues in the body, including the lung, kidney, gastrointestinal tract, vascular endothelium, and brain. Thus, other receptors for morbilliviruses in addition to SLAM might exist. Recently, nectin-4 has been identified as a novel epithelial cell receptor for MeV. The expression of nectin-4 is localized to polarized epithelial cells, and this localization supports the notion of cell tropism since MeV also grows well in the epithelial cells of the respiratory tract. Although two major receptors for lymphoid and epithelial cells in natural infection have been identified, morbillivirus can still infect many other types of cells with low infectivity, suggesting the existence of inefficient but ubiquitously expressed receptors. We have identified other molecules that are implicated in morbillivirus infection of SLAM-negative cells by alternative mechanisms. These findings indicate that morbillivirus utilizes multiple pathways for establishment of infection. These studies will advance our understanding of morbillivirus tropism and pathogenesis

Effective Augmentation of Creativity-Involving Productivity Consequent to Spontaneous Selectivity in Knowledge Acquisition

The results of many studies have suggested that we actively select information from the environment. However, the functional consequences of such selectivity in knowledge acquisition remain unclear, even though it is a vital factor in determining the characteristics of our future knowledge and cognition. We hypothesized that spontaneous selectivity in knowledge acquisition results in effective augmentation of productivity, especially in creativity-demanding task. To test this, we conducted experiments in which subjects acquired novel compositional words during their rapid presentation, evaluated memory confidence rates for the acquired words, and then produced essays based on these words. First, in experiment 1, we showed that the level of confidence in the recognition memory for the words positively related with the length of the essays (a measure of creativity-involving productivity in quantity). Additionally, we found that the semantic distance from the essay to the components of the compositional word (a measure of creative-productivity in quality) was farther for the word with higher memory confidence than for the word with lower memory confidence, suggesting creative leaps when writing the former. While this result supported our hypothesis, it might also reflect better memory that was independent of spontaneous selection. Thus, in a different subject group, we conducted a similar experiment (experiment 2) in which two of the 20 compositional words were presented more often (five times per block) to force memorization. Again, consistent with our hypothesis, essays based on spontaneously memorized words (presented once per block) were significantly longer than those produced using the forcedly memorized words. Therefore, better memory per se did not explain the higher productivity. Instead, these results suggested that the higher creativity-involving productivity was consequent to spontaneous selectivity in the knowledge acquisition. Additionally, we propose a possible mechanism for the observed results based on the results of a neural network simulation. In this simulation, we found that novel information that was assigned to locations more easily accessible to the entire network was better assimilated and therefore selectively acquired. Based on this simulation, we moderately suggest that spontaneously acquired knowledge effectively confers productivity because it effectively activates large parts of the neural networks

Acute bout of exercise downregulates thioredoxin-interacting protein expression in rat contracting skeletal muscles

We previously reported that in rat skeletal muscle, disuse (i.e., decreased muscle contractile activity) rapidly increases thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP), which is implicated in the reduced glucose uptake. Accordingly, we sought herein to (a) determine the effect of exercise (i.e., increased muscle contractile activity) on muscle TXNIP protein expression, and (b) elucidate the mechanisms underlying the changes of TXNIP protein expression in response to exercise. Rat epitrochlearis and soleus muscles were dissected out after an acute bout of 3-hr swimming (without weight loading) or 3-hr treadmill running (15% grade at 9m/min). In a separate protocol, the isolated epitrochlearis and soleus muscles were incubated for 3 hr with AMP-dependent protein kinase activator AICAR. Immediately after the cessation of the 3-hr swimming, the TXNIP protein was decreased in epitrochlearis but not in soleus muscle. Conversely, 3-hr treadmill running decreased the TXNIP protein in soleus but not in epitrochlearis muscle. TXNIP protein was decreased concomitantly with reduced postexercise muscle glycogen, showing that a decrease in TXNIP protein expression occurs in muscles that are recruited during exercise. In addition, 3-hr incubation with AICAR decreased TXNIP protein in both isolated epitrochlearis and soleus muscles. Our results suggest that (a) an acute bout of exercise downregulates TXNIP protein expression in rat contracting skeletal muscles, and (b) the reduction in TXNIP protein expression in contracting muscles is probably mediated by AMPK activation, at least in part

持続可能な都市発展における先端技術普及の役割

筑波大学 (University of Tsukuba)201

持続可能な都市発展における先端技術普及の役割

この博士論文は内容の要約のみの公開（または一部非公開）になっています筑波大学 (University of Tsukuba)201

環境家計簿を用いた環境配慮行動の推進 : 環境問題の認識と情報交換に着目して

本稿は，環境に配慮した行動の実践において，情報交換を中心とした他者との関わりが個人に与える影響を定量的に明らかにすることを目的とした。分析では，環境家計簿を活用した個人のライフスタイルの改善を目指す団体とその会員を対象とした。各会員は，入会した経緯や世帯状況などには差があったものの，2016年時点ではさまざまな行動を実践していた。これらの会員は，環境家計簿の作成や，それを通した情報交換に大きく影響を受けていた。特に，自身の世帯のエネルギー消費量（CO2排出量）を数値として認識することと，それを他の会員と比較することが，会員それぞれにとって削減の意欲に繋がっていた。また，各自の取組み紹介を元にした情報交換により，効果を数値的に確かめた省エネ行動や設備の導入を行った。その結果，各会員が入会当初よりもCO2排出量を削減したことが，環境家計簿を用いた定量的な分析から明らかになった

Fogarty catheter for OLV of a neonate

Here, we report two cases involving a neonate and child in which a slip joint section was used to thread a Fogarty catheter into the endotracheal tube for one-lung ventilation (OLV). Both the neonate and infant required OLV, and were placed under general anesthesia. A Fogarty catheter was used for OLV. The Fogarty catheter was passed into the intraluminal side of the endotracheal tube through a slip joint section. OLV was maintained successfully without severe air leakage or Fogarty catheter displacement. The neonate had been intubated pre-operatively with a 3.5-mm inner diameter endotracheal tube, and we used that tube. These cases indicate that the technique can be applied to pre-operatively intubated patients and does not require surgeons to exchange endotracheal tubes. Use of the slip joint section technique facilitates Fogarty catheter fixation without additional dead space

Large Reduction in the aa-axis Knight Shift on UTe2_2 with TcT_{\rm c} = 2.1 K

Spin susceptibility in the superconducting (SC) state was measured in the higher-quality sample of uranium-based superconductor UTe$_2$ by using Knight-shift measurements for a magnetic field $H$ along all three crystalline axes. In the higher-quality sample, the SC transition temperature $T_{\rm c}$ is about 2.1 K, and the residual electronic term in the specific heat is almost zero. The NMR linewidth becomes narrower and is almost half of that in the previous sample with $T_{\rm c} \sim 1.6$ K when $H \parallel a$ and $c$. Although the Knight-shift behavior was not so different from the previous results for $H \parallel b$, and $c$, a large reduction in Knight shift along the $a$ axis was observed, in contrast with the previous $a$-axis Knight shift result. We discuss the origin of the difference between the previous and present results, and the possible SC state derived from the present results.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, including supplemental material