La place du Japon

A rapid description of Japan's geographical position provides an explanation for her territorial disputes and her traditional isolation. Japan's history is summarised in four stages, each of which brought her into contact with new countries and contributed to the formation of her national identity.Japan's present international relations are characterised by the fact that she belongs to the Western world, by the importance for her of the United States and Western Europe, and by the part which she is called upon to play in the Asia-Pacific region. The particular conditions which determine her thinking in matters of security explain the limits placed upon the development of her defensive capacity and her interest in the progress of international negotiations on disarmament.Japan is aware of the responsibilities imposed upon her by her economic power with respect to the stability and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region. To the essential economic relations that she maintains with the United States, the countries of the EEC and the newly industrialised economies along the Asian rim of the Pacific must be added her cooperation with the countries of the Third World in recognition of the real interdependence which unites the nations

Magnetic and transport properties of CeT2Al10(T= Fe, Ru, Os) under pressure

The results of electrical resistivity ρ measurements for CeT2Al10 (T = Fe, Ru, Os) under pressure are reported. The abrupt increase was observed at T0 ~ 27 K for CeRu2Al10 and 29 K for CeOs2Al10 at ambient pressure. By applying pressure, T0 for CeRu2Al10 and CeOs2Al10 suddenly disappeared at 4 GPa and 2 GPa, respectively. Although the ground state of CeRu2Al10 is metal at ambient pressure, ρ at low temperatures increased and the ground state became semiconductor at 2 GPa. The increase in ρ suppressed above 3 GPa and the ground state became metal above 5 GPa. Magnetic contribution to CeRu2Al10 above 4 GPa shows maximum, which seems to be attributed to Kondo coherence. These systematical change in ρ(T) was also observed in CeFe2Al10 and CeOs2Al10. From the pressure dependence of the temperature of the maximum, we suggests that CeFe2Al10 and CeOs2Al10 is corresponding to 3.2 GPa and 1.3 GPa of CeRu2Al10

Feasibility pilot study of a Japanese teaching kitchen program

BackgroundThis pilot study examined the feasibility of a new lifestyle modification program involving a “Teaching Kitchen” in Japan. Our goal was to explore (1) feasibility of the program; (2) acceptability for class frequency (weekly vs. bi-weekly); and (3) changes in biometrics, dietary intakes, and lifestyle factors.MethodsA total of 24 employees with obesity in a Japanese company were recruited. Participants were randomly divided into two groups (weekly or bi-weekly group), each attending the program consisting of four two-hour classes (lectures on nutrition, exercise, mindfulness, and culinary instructions). Participants were observed for changes in dietary intakes, biometrics, and health related quality of life over the subsequent 3 months. We tested the between-group differences in changes using linear mixed-effect models.ResultsThe program completion rates were 83.3% in total (91.7% for weekly group and 75.0% for bi-weekly group). From baseline to post-intervention, significant decreases were observed in weight (p < 0.001), body mass index (p < 0.001), diastolic blood pressure (p = 0.03), body fat mass (p < 0.001), and dietary intakes in total fat (p = 0.03) and sodium (p = 0.008) among 17 participants who were available for measurements. Improvements in biometrics remained significant 1 month after the intervention (all p ≤ 0.03 in 14 participants). Participants' health related quality of life was significantly improved in bodily pain, general health, vitality, and mental component score (all p ≤ 0.047).ConclusionsThe new Japanese Teaching Kitchen program is feasible with high program completion rates in Japanese office workers with obesity. While this was a small feasibility study, significant multiple improvements in dietary intakes, biometrics, and health related quality of life suggest that this line of inquiry warrants further exploration to address obesity and obesity-related diseases in Japan

The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection

DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19疾患感受性遺伝子DOCK2の重症化機序を解明 --アジア最大のバイオレポジトリーでCOVID-19の治療標的を発見--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-10.Identifying the host genetic factors underlying severe COVID-19 is an emerging challenge. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 2, 393 cases of COVID-19 in a cohort of Japanese individuals collected during the initial waves of the pandemic, with 3, 289 unaffected controls. We identified a variant on chromosome 5 at 5q35 (rs60200309-A), close to the dedicator of cytokinesis 2 gene (DOCK2), which was associated with severe COVID-19 in patients less than 65 years of age. This risk allele was prevalent in East Asian individuals but rare in Europeans, highlighting the value of genome-wide association studies in non-European populations. RNA-sequencing analysis of 473 bulk peripheral blood samples identified decreased expression of DOCK2 associated with the risk allele in these younger patients. DOCK2 expression was suppressed in patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis (n = 61 individuals) identified cell-type-specific downregulation of DOCK2 and a COVID-19-specific decreasing effect of the risk allele on DOCK2 expression in non-classical monocytes. Immunohistochemistry of lung specimens from patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia showed suppressed DOCK2 expression. Moreover, inhibition of DOCK2 function with CPYPP increased the severity of pneumonia in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by weight loss, lung oedema, enhanced viral loads, impaired macrophage recruitment and dysregulated type I interferon responses. We conclude that DOCK2 has an important role in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of severe COVID-19, and could be further explored as a potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target

Correlation between some physical properties of titanium dioxide particles and their photocatalytic activity for some probe reactions in aqueous systems

Nanocrystalline anatase titanium(IV) oxide (TiO2) particles were synthesized by hydrothermal crystallization in organic media (HyCOM) followed by calcination at various temperatures up to 1273 K, and they were characterized by analysis of surface adsorption of the substrates, as well as by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Brunauer−Emmet−Teller (BET) surface area measurements. These HyCOM TiO2 samples were used for three kinds of photocatalytic reactions:  mineralization of acetic acid (AcOH) in aerated aqueous suspensions, dehydrogenation of 2-propanol (2-PrOH) by in situ platinized powders, and silver-metal deposition from silver ions (Ag+) in deaerated aqueous suspensions of bare TiO2 samples. Dependence of the photocatalytic activities on calcination temperature (Tc) and on the amount of adsorbed substrates in each reaction and correlations with the physical properties of HyCOM TiO2 were examined. In the case of mineralization of AcOH, the activitiy of each sample was almost proportional to the amount of surface-adsorbed AcOH in the dark, and the uncalcined (as-prepared) HyCOM TiO2 showed the highest activity, which was monotonically reduced with Tc, that is, with decrease in the amount of surface-adsorbed AcOH. On the other hand, in the case of silver-metal deposition, the photocatalytic activity was enhanced by calcination at higher temperature, despite the simultaneous decrease in the amount of surface-adsorbed Ag+ in the dark. Overall, the effects of calcination on the photocatalytic activities for several reaction systems strongly suggested that photocatalytic activity depends on two significant factors, adsorbability and recombination probability, corresponding to the specific surface area and crystallinity, respectively, and that the balance of these two factors determines the Tc dependence