Vertical Distribution of Plant Species with Binucleate or Trinucleate Pollen Influenced by Ultraviolet Radiation and Temperature.

The number of pollen nuclei was determined on 133 species distributed along the slope of mountain, and the number of species with trinucleate pollen had a tendency to increase at high altitudes more than at low altitudes. From the relation between the number of pollen nuclei and the strength of the environmental stress, species with trinucleate pollen were statistically concluded to distribute under the higher stress of UV radiation or temperature than the case of species with binucleate pollen, and the distribution in trinucleate species was closely related to temperature more than UV radiation. Various physiological and biochemical characters in trinucleate pollen, which have been suggested to be effective to avoid UV radiation stress, seem to be in the same situation also to temperature stress.Article信州大学理学部紀要 24(2): 1-12(1990)departmental bulletin pape

Effect of shin'iseihaito on lung colonization of pneumococcus in murine model

Background: Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) causes various serious diseases including sinusitis, pneumonia, and meningitis. One serious problem observed recently with pneumococcal therapy is attenuation of the antibiotic effect because of the emergence of antibiotic-resistant pneumococcus. Shin’iseihaito, a traditional Japanese medicine based on ancient Chinese medicine, has been used for treatment of otolaryngeal diseases in Japan. The objective of this study was to examine the anti-infectious effects of shin’iseihaito and its related mechanism.Materials and Methods: We evaluated the beneficial effect of shin’iseihaito extract (SSHT) against pneumococcus-infected murine model. The colonization of bacteria, blood and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) killing activity, the levels of inflammatory cytokine and IgA were investigated.Results: The pneumococcus from blood was not found in both SSHT-treated mice and untreated mice. However, the pneumococcal colonization of lung was significantly (p<0.05) lower after SSHT administration compared with untreated mice. Blood bactericidal assay showed that no significant difference (p=0.07) was observed in the anti-bacterial effect between SSHT-treated mice and untreated mice. However, BAL bactericidal assay showed that the survival rate of pneumococcus using the BAL from SSHT-treated mice was significantly (p<0.05) lower than that using the BAL from untreated mice. We also found increased levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, and IgA in pneumococcus-infected mice treated with SSHT.Conclusions: SSHT decreased the colonization rate after pneumococcal infection and up-regulated BAL bactericidal activity through modulation of inflammatory cytokines and IgA. Our data also suggest SSHT may be useful for the treatment of pneumococcal infection.Keywords: shin'iseihito, Streptococcus pneumoniae, murine model, inflammatory cytokine, Ig

MOIRCS Deep Survey. VII: NIR Morphologies of Star-forming Galaxies at Redshift z~1

We investigate rest-frame near-infrared (NIR) morphologies of a sample of 139 galaxies with M_{s} >= 1 x 10^{10} M_{sun} at z=0.8-1.2 in the GOODS-North field using our deep NIR imaging data (MOIRCS Deep Survey, MODS). We focus on Luminous Infrared Galaxies (LIRGs), which dominate high star formation rate (SFR) density at z~1, in the sample identified by cross-correlating with the Spitzer/MIPS 24um source catalog. We perform two-dimensional light profile fitting of the z~1 galaxies in the Ks-band (rest-frame J-band) with a single component Sersic model. We find that at z~1, ~90% of LIRGs have low Sersic indices (n<2.5, similar to disk-like galaxies) in the Ks-band, and those disk-like LIRGs consist of ~60% of the whole disk-like sample above M_{s} >= 3 x 10^{10} M_{sun}. The z~1 disk-like LIRGs are comparable or ~20% small at a maximum in size compared to local disk-like galaxies in the same stellar mass range. If we examine rest-frame UV-optical morphologies using the HST/ACS images, the rest-frame B-band sizes of the z~1 disk-like galaxies are comparable to those of the local disk-like galaxies as reported by previous studies on size evolution of disk-like galaxies in the rest-frame optical band. Measuring color gradients (galaxy sizes as a function of wavelength) of the z~1 and local disk-like galaxies, we find that the z~1 disk-like galaxies have 3-5 times steeper color gradient than the local ones. Our results indicate that (i) more than a half of relatively massive disk-like galaxies at z~1 are in violent star formation epochs observed as LIRGs, and also (ii) most of those LIRGs are constructing their fundamental disk structure vigorously. The high SFR density in the universe at z~1 may be dominated by such star formation in disk region in massive galaxies.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ. Catalog data will be available at http://astr.tohoku.ac.jp/MODS/wiki/index.php soo

Assembly of Massive Galaxies in a High-z Protocluster

We present the results of wide-field deep JHK imaging of the SSA22 field using MOIRCS instrument equipped with Subaru telescope. The observed field is 112 arcmin^2 in area, which covers the z=3.1 protocluster characterized by the overdensities of Ly Alpha emitters (LAEs) and Ly Alpha Blobs (LABs). The 5 sigma limiting magnitude is K_{AB} = 24.3. We extract the potential protocluster members from the K-selected sample by using the multi-band photometric-redshift selection as well as the simple color cut for distant red galaxies (DRGs; J-K_{AB}>1.4). The surface number density of DRGs in our observed fields shows clear excess compared with those in the blank fields, and the location of the densest area whose projected overdensity is twice the average coincides with the large-scale density peak of LAEs. We also found that K-band counterparts with z_{phot} = 3.1 are detected for 75% (15/20) of the LABs within their Ly Alpha halo, and the 40 % (8/20) of LABs have multiple components, which gives a direct evidence of the hierarchical multiple merging in galaxy formation. The stellar mass ofLABs correlates with their luminosity, isophotal area, and the Ly Alpha velocity widths, implying that the physical scale and the dynamical motion of Ly Alpha emission are closely related to their previous star-formation activities. Highly dust-obscured galaxies such as hyper extremely red objects (HEROs; J-K_{AB}>2.1) and plausible K-band counterparts of submillimeter sources are also populated in the high density region.Comment: 21pages, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journa

Structure Effect on Antioxidant Activity of Catecholamines toward Singlet Oxygen and Other Reactive Oxygen Species in vitro

The reactivity of catecholamine neurotransmitters and the related metabolites were precisely investigated toward 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radicals and reactive oxygen species. Catecholamines reacted immediately with DPPH radicals, their reactivity being stronger than that of ascorbic acid as a reference. Superoxide scavenging activities of catecholamines determined by WST-1 and electron spin resonance (ESR) spin trapping methods were also high. Whereas tyrosine, the dopamine precursor showed no reactivity toward superoxide. The reactivity toward singlet oxygen was evaluated by observing specific photon emission from singlet oxygen. The results revealed that reactivity of catecholamines was markedly higher than that of sodium azide, and catechin as catechol reference. The reaction of catecholamines and singlet oxygen was further studied by ESR using 55-dimethyl-1-pyrroline N-oxide (DMPO) as a spin trapping reagent and rose bengal as photosensitizer. DMPO-OH signal of epinephrine was significantly small compared to other catecholamines, catechin, and 4-methylcatechol as a reference compound and was as small as that of tyrosine. The signal formation was totally dependent on singlet oxygen, and the presence of catechol compounds. These results indicated that epinephrine is the most potent singlet oxygen quencher than other catecholamines, and the secondary amino group in its alkyl side chain could play a role in unique singlet oxygen quenching property of epinephrine

EFFECT OF SHIN'ISEIHAITO ON LUNG COLONIZATION OF PNEUMOCOCCUS IN MURINE MODEL

Background: Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) causes various serious diseases including sinusitis, pneumonia, and meningitis. One serious problem observed recently with pneumococcal therapy is attenuation of the antibiotic effect because of the emergence of antibiotic-resistant pneumococcus. Shin’iseihaito, a traditional Japanese medicine based on ancient Chinese medicine, has been used for treatment of otolaryngeal diseases in Japan. The objective of this study was to examine the anti-infectious effects of shin’iseihaito and its related mechanism. Materials and Methods: We evaluated the beneficial effect of shin’iseihaito extract (SSHT) against pneumococcus-infected murine model. The colonization of bacteria, blood and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) killing activity, the levels of inflammatory cytokine and IgA were investigated. Results: The pneumococcus from blood was not found in both SSHT-treated mice and untreated mice. However, the pneumococcal colonization of lung was significantly (

Visceral-to-subcutaneous fat ratio is a possible prognostic factor for type 1 endometrial cancer

[Background] Associations have been observed between obesity defined by the body mass index (BMI) and the incidence of endometrial cancer. However, the impact of obesity on the prognosis of endometrial cancer is not yet clear. Recently, visceral fat has been considered to have a greater impact on malignant disease in obese patients than subcutaneous fat. In this study, we investigated the association between prognostic factors of type 1 and type 2 endometrial cancer and obesity parameters. [Methods] The impacts of clinical factors on the progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were analyzed retrospectively in 145 primary endometrial cancer patients. The factors included age, BMI, pathological findings, Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage, status of lymph node metastasis, and the amounts of visceral and subcutaneous fat obtained from computed tomography (CT) data. [Results] Only the visceral-to-subcutaneous fat ratio (V/S ratio) (cutoff value 0.5) corresponded to a significant difference in OS and PFS in type 1 endometrial cancer (p = 0.0080, p = 0.0053) according to the results of log-rank tests of Kaplan–Meier curves. The COX regression univariate analysis revealed that only the V/S ratio was a significant prognostic factor for PFS, but not OS (p = 0.033 and p = 0.270, respectively). [Conclusion] A V/S ratio > 0.5 is a possible factor for poor prognosis in type 1 endometrial cancer. Further research is needed to investigate the preventive and therapeutic effects of reducing visceral fat on the prognosis of this type of cancer

MOIRCS Deep Survey V: A Universal Relation for Stellar Mass and Surface Brightness of Galaxies

We present a universal linear correlation between the stellar mass and surface brightness (SB) of galaxies at 0.3<z<3, using a deep K-band selected catalog in the GOODS-North region. The correlation has a nearly constant slope, independent of redshift and color of galaxies in the rest-z frame. Considering unresolved compact galaxies, the tight correlation gives a lower boundary of SB for a given stellar mass; lower SB galaxies are prohibited over the boundary. The universal slope suggests that the stellar mass in galaxies was build up over their cosmic histories in a similar manner irrelevant to galaxy mass, as oppose to the scenario that massive galaxies mainly accumulated their stellar mass by major merging. In contrast, SB shows a strong dependence on redshift for a given stellar mass. It evolves as (1+z)^(-2.0~-0.8), in addition to dimming as (1+z)^4 by the cosmological expansion effect. The brightening depends on galaxy color and stellar mass. The blue population (rest-frame U-V<0), which is dominated by young and star-forming galaxies, evolves as ~(1+z)^(-0.8 +-0.3) in the rest-V band. On the other hand, the red population (U-V>0) and the massive galaxies (M_*>10^(10)M_sun) shows stronger brightening, (1+z)^(-1.5+-0.1). Based on the comparison with galaxy evolution models, we find that the phenomena are well explained by the pure luminosity evolution of galaxies out to z~3.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap