A Quantitative Study of Voiced Velar Nasalization in Japanese

This paper presents a corpus-based analysis of voiced velar nasalization (VVN) in the standard (Yamanote) dialect of Japanese, in which a voiced velar plosive /g/ becomes nasalized in prosodic-word-medial position. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first quantitative study of the phenomenon, and confirms the impressionistic observation reported in the previous literature; at the same time, our study finds that these generalizations are stochastic. Looking more closely at the determinants of this variation reveals intriguing ways in which phonological grammar and lexicon interact, as well as the role of frequency in shaping phonological variation. Outside of frequency, we also examine factors such as prosodic length, and the effects of the segmental context on VVN

Neural RNA-binding protein Musashi1 inhibits translation initiation by competing with eIF4G for PABP

Musashi1 (Msi1) is an RNA-binding protein that is highly expressed in neural stem cells. We previously reported that Msi1 contributes to the maintenance of the immature state and self-renewal activity of neural stem cells through translational repression of m-Numb. However, its translation repression mechanism has remained unclear. Here, we identify poly(A) binding protein (PABP) as an Msi1-binding protein, and find Msi1 competes with eIF4G for PABP binding. This competition inhibits translation initiation of Msi1's target mRNA. Indeed, deletion of the PABP-interacting domain in Msi1 abolishes its function. We demonstrate that Msi1 inhibits the assembly of the 80S, but not the 48S, ribosome complex. Consistent with these conclusions, Msi1 colocalizes with PABP and is recruited into stress granules, which contain the stalled preinitiation complex. However, Msi1 with mutations in two RNA recognition motifs fails to accumulate into stress granules. These results provide insight into the mechanism by which sequence-specific translational repression occurs in stem cells through the control of translation initiation

Two types of antigorite serpentinite controlling heterogeneous slow-slip behaviours of slab-mantle interface

It is known that plate boundaries in subduction zones show heterogeneous slip nature with strongly coupled seismogenic zones and various types of episodic tremor and slip (ETS) zones. In order to examine the petrological controls on the large-scale structure, we compared recent geophysical observations in the Shikoku area, southwest Japan with petrological models of the hanging wall mantle wedge. As a result, we found a close relationship between mineral assemblages in the mantle wedge and the characteristics of slow slip behaviour recorded in the Shikoku area: Short-term ETSs take place in the antigorite + olivine stability field and silent long-term slow slip events (SSEs) take place in the antigorite+brucite stability field. Based on observations of natural antigorite serpentinites, we propose a model that the dominant serpentinization reaction in the mantle wedge changes with increasing depth resulting in variable extents of pore fluid pressures along slip planes. The serpentinization reaction in the antigorite+brucite stability field (olivine + H2O → antigorite + brucite) proceeds at the expense of water. This is consistent with moderately elevated pore pressures inferred for long-term SSEs. The existence of weak brucite enhances the development of shear zones oblique to the main foliation. The resultant anastomosing network provides fluid pathways that may help reduce pore pressures on slip planes. In contrast, progress of the serpentinization reaction in the antigorite + olivine stability field (olivine + H2O + SiO2 → antigorite) results in a large amount of residual water that contributes to further increase pore fluid pressures on slip planes of short-term SSEs. Our results imply that understanding of serpentinization reactions and their contributions to fluid networks in mantle wedge is important in constructing quantitative 3-D models for strain evolutions along plate boundaries. © 2014 Elsevier B.V

Improvement in Frailty in a Patient With Severe Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease After Ninjin'yoeito Therapy: A Case Report

Frailty is a poor prognostic factor in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Although various studies have assessed the effects of conventional treatment with bronchodilators, nutritional support, and pulmonary rehabilitation for frailty in patients with COPD, none have addressed the effects of traditional Japanese medicine (Kampo medicine). Herein, we report the successful management of frailty using Ninjin'yoeito therapy in a 76-year-old patient with COPD. Despite being prescribed multiple bronchodilators, nutritional supplement therapy, patient education, and pulmonary rehabilitation, the patient exhibited unintentional weight loss, low energy, and low physical activity. Ninjin'yoeito was prescribed and these subjective symptoms began to improve 1 month after treatment initiation. In 6 months, the patient reported no frailty, had increased muscle mass, and had achieved an almost normal healthy state. Ninjin'yoeito has been associated with both physical effects, such as improvement in overall physical strength and appetite, and reduction in fatigue, and psychological effects, such as greater motivation and reduction of depression and anxiety symptoms. Physicians have usually treated COPD primarily with organ-specific treatments, such as bronchodilators; however, addressing both the physiological and psychological vulnerability has been difficult. This case report illustrates the potential usefulness of Ninjin'yoeito treatment for frailty in patients with COPD

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

Research and Design of a Routing Protocol in Large-Scale Wireless Sensor Networks

无线传感器网络，作为全球未来十大技术之一，集成了传感器技术、嵌入式计算技术、分布式信息处理和自组织网技术，可实时感知、采集、处理、传输网络分布区域内的各种信息数据，在军事国防、生物医疗、环境监测、抢险救灾、防恐反恐、危险区域远程控制等领域具有十分广阔的应用前景。 本文研究分析了无线传感器网络的已有路由协议，并针对大规模的无线传感器网络设计了一种树状路由协议，它根据节点地址信息来形成路由，从而简化了复杂繁冗的路由表查找和维护，节省了不必要的开销，提高了路由效率，实现了快速有效的数据传输。 为支持此路由协议本文提出了一种自适应动态地址分配算——ADAR（AdaptiveDynamicAddre...As one of the ten high technologies in the future, wireless sensor network, which is the integration of micro-sensors, embedded computing, modern network and Ad Hoc technologies, can apperceive, collect, process and transmit various information data within the region. It can be used in military defense, biomedical, environmental monitoring, disaster relief, counter-terrorism, remote control of haz...学位：工学硕士院系专业：信息科学与技术学院通信工程系_通信与信息系统学号：2332007115216

Accounting for the stochastic nature of sound symbolism using Maximum Entropy model

Sound symbolism refers to stochastic and systematic associations between sounds and meanings. Sound symbolism has not received much serious attention in the generative phonology literature, perhaps because most if not all sound symbolic patterns are probabilistic. Building on the recent proposal to analyze sound symbolic patterns within a formal phonological framework (Alderete and Kochetov 2017), this paper shows that MaxEnt grammars allow us to model stochastic sound symbolic patterns in a very natural way. The analyses presented in the paper show that sound symbolic relationships can be modeled in the same way that we model phonological patterns. We suggest that there is nothing fundamental that prohibits formal phonologists from analyzing sound symbolic patterns, and that studying sound symbolism using a formal framework may open up a new, interesting research domain. The current study also reports two hitherto unnoticed cases of sound symbolism, thereby expanding the empirical scope of sound symbolic patterns in natural languages

パーキンソン病原因遺伝子SNCAのexosomeを介した伝播分子制御機構の解明

金沢大学医薬保健研究域医学系エクソソームは種々の細胞から分泌される小胞であり、神経系においても新たな細胞間情報伝達手段であり、神経変性疾患においても病態との関連がと考えられている。また、パーキンソン病関連疾患である多系統萎縮症は主要原因分子α-シヌクレイン（α-syn）が本来発現していないオリゴデンドロサイトへ伝播・凝集体形成の解明が最大の疑問である。そこで、多系統萎縮症についてエクソソームを介した、α-synの伝播機構モデルを明らかにした。これは、Rpn1がエクソソームを介したα-synucleinの伝播と伝播先のグリア細胞での発現増強を誘導することに起因していた。さらに、Rpn1の機能促進分子の同定も行った。Exosome is not only signal small vesicle which is utilized as cell-cell communication in various cells but also in neuronal cells. Even in neurodegenerative diseases, it is considered to be related to the pathological condition. In addition, multisystem atrophy, which is a disease related to Parkinson\u27s disease, is the most doubtful as to elucidation of the propagation / aggregate formation to oligodendrocytes in which the main causative molecule α-synuclein (α-syn) is not originally expressed. Therefore, the propagation mechanism model of α-syn mediated by Exosome for multisystem atrophy was clarified. This was due to the fact that Rpn1 induces the exosome-mediated propagation of α-synuclein and the enhanced expression in glia cells at the transmission destination. Furthermore, functional promoting molecules of Rpn1 were also identified.研究課題/領域番号:15K06710, 研究期間(年度):2015-04-01 - 2018-03-3

RNA結合蛋白質Musashi1が介するmiRNA翻訳制御

Musashi1は神経幹細胞や前駆細胞に顕著に発現しているRNA結合蛋白質であり、近年種々の組織幹細胞にも高発現していることが分かってきた。種々の幹細胞を含むES細胞から分化させたEB細胞を用いてMussahi1の結合蛋白質としてLin28を同定し、これの二者が協調してlet-7 family のmiR98の生合成過程を核内において阻害促進することを明らかにした。また、Musashi1構造内に核移行シグナルを同定し、Musashi1によってLin28が核内に存在する確率を上昇しうることも示した。Musashi1 (Msi1) is an RNA-binding protein that is highly expressed in neural stem/progenitor cells (NS/PCs) as well as in other tissue stem cells. I showed that Msi1 works in concert with Lin28 to regulate post-transcriptional miRNA biogenesis in the cropping step, which occurs in the nucleus. Also, I found that Msi1 enhanced the localization of Lin28 to the nucleus and also inhibited the nuclear cropping step of another let-7 family miRNA, miR98.研究課題/領域番号:21700358, 研究期間(年度):2009-201