Formation of unipolar outflow and protostellar rocket effect\textit{protostellar rocket effect} in magnetized turbulent molecular cloud cores

Observed protostellar outflows exhibit a variety of asymmetrical features, including remarkable unipolar outflows and bending outflows. Revealing the formation and early evolution of such asymmetrical protostellar outflows, especially the unipolar outflows, is essential for a better understanding of the star and planet formation because they can dramatically change the mass accretion and angular momentum transport to the protostars and protoplanetary disks. Here, we perform the three-dimensional non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics simulations to investigate the formation and early evolution of the asymmetrical protostellar outflows in magnetized turbulent isolated molecular cloud cores. We find, for the first time to our knowledge, that the unipolar outflow forms even in the single low-mass protostellar system. The results show that the unipolar outflow is driven in the weakly magnetized cloud cores with the dimensionless mass-to-flux ratios of $\mu=8$ and $16$. Furthermore, we find the $\textit{protostellar rocket effect}$ of the unipolar outflow, which is similar to the launch and propulsion of a rocket. The unipolar outflow ejects the protostellar system from the central dense region to the outer region of the parent cloud core, and the ram pressure caused by its ejection suppresses the driving of additional new outflows. In contrast, the bending bipolar outflow is driven in the moderately magnetized cloud core with $\mu=4$. The ratio of the magnetic to turbulent energies of a parent cloud core may play a key role in the formation of asymmetrical protostellar outflows.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Prevalence and Imaging Characteristics of Palatine Tonsilloliths Detected by CT in 2,873 Consecutive Patients

Tonsilloliths are calcified structures that develop in tonsillar crypts. They are commonly detected in daily clinical practice. The prevalence of tonsilloliths was 16 to 24% in previous reports, but it is inconsistent with clinical experience. The aim of this study is to clarify the prevalence, number, and size distribution of tonsilloliths using computed tomography (CT) in a relatively large number of patients. Materials and Methods. We retrospectively reviewed the scans of 2,873 patients referred for CT examinations with regard to tonsilloliths. Results. Palatine tonsilloliths were found in 1,145 out of 2,873 patients (39.9%). The prevalence of tonsilloliths increased with age, and most commonly in patients of ages 50–69. The prevalence in the 30s and younger was statistically lower than in the 40s and older (P < 0.05). The number of tonsilloliths per palatine tonsil ranged from one to 18. The size of the tonsilloliths ranged from 1 to 10 mm. For the patients with multiple CT examinations, the number of tonsilloliths increased in 51 (3.9%) and decreased in 84 (6.5%) of the tonsils. Conclusions. As palatine tonsilloliths are common conditions, screenings for tonsilloliths during the diagnosis of soft tissue calcifications should be included in routine diagnostic imaging

Radial alignment of microtubules through tubulin polymerization in an evaporating droplet

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Keya, J. J., Kudoh, H., Kabir, A. M. R., Inoue, D., Miyamoto, N., Tani, T., Kakugo, A., & Shikinaka, K. Radial alignment of microtubules through tubulin polymerization in an evaporating droplet. Plos One, 15(4), (2020): e0231352, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0231352.We report the formation of spherulites from droplets of highly concentrated tubulin solution via nucleation and subsequent polymerization to microtubules (MTs) under water evaporation by heating. Radial alignment of MTs in the spherulites was confirmed by the optical properties of the spherulites observed using polarized optical microscopy and fluorescence microscopy. Temperature and concentration of tubulins were found as important parameters to control the spherulite pattern formation of MTs where evaporation plays a significant role. The alignment of MTs was regulated reversibly by temperature induced polymerization and depolymerization of tubulins. The formation of the MTs patterns was also confirmed at the molecular level from the small angle X-ray measurements. This work provides a simple method for obtaining radially aligned arrays of MTs.Fund receiver: Akira Kakugo Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Grant Nos. JP24104004 and 18H05423) and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) (Grant No. 18H03673) from kaken. NO - The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscrip

AIRE Functions As an E3 Ubiquitin Ligase

Autoimmune regulator (AIRE) gene mutation is responsible for the development of autoimmune-polyendocrinopathy-candidiasis ectodermal dystrophy, an organ-specific autoimmune disease with monogenic autosomal recessive inheritance. AIRE is predominantly expressed in medullary epithelial cells of the thymus and is considered to play important roles in the establishment of self-tolerance. AIRE contains two plant homeodomain (PHD) domains, and the novel role of PHD as an E3 ubiquitin (Ub) ligase has just emerged. Here we show that the first PHD (PHD1) of AIRE mediates E3 ligase activity. The significance of this finding was underscored by the fact that disease-causing missense mutations in the PHD1 (C311Y and P326Q) abolished its E3 ligase activity. These results add a novel enzymatic function for AIRE and suggest an indispensable role of the Ub proteasome pathway in the establishment of self-tolerance, in which AIRE is involved

Results of the search for inspiraling compact star binaries from TAMA300's observation in 2000-2004

We analyze the data of TAMA300 detector to search for gravitational waves from inspiraling compact star binaries with masses of the component stars in the range 1-3Msolar. In this analysis, 2705 hours of data, taken during the years 2000-2004, are used for the event search. We combine the results of different observation runs, and obtained a single upper limit on the rate of the coalescence of compact binaries in our Galaxy of 20 per year at a 90% confidence level. In this upper limit, the effect of various systematic errors such like the uncertainty of the background estimation and the calibration of the detector's sensitivity are included.Comment: 8 pages, 4 Postscript figures, uses revtex4.sty The author list was correcte

A prospective compound screening contest identified broader inhibitors for Sirtuin 1

Potential inhibitors of a target biomolecule, NAD-dependent deacetylase Sirtuin 1, were identified by a contest-based approach, in which participants were asked to propose a prioritized list of 400 compounds from a designated compound library containing 2.5 million compounds using in silico methods and scoring. Our aim was to identify target enzyme inhibitors and to benchmark computer-aided drug discovery methods under the same experimental conditions. Collecting compound lists derived from various methods is advantageous for aggregating compounds with structurally diversified properties compared with the use of a single method. The inhibitory action on Sirtuin 1 of approximately half of the proposed compounds was experimentally accessed. Ultimately, seven structurally diverse compounds were identified

Observation results by the TAMA300 detector on gravitational wave bursts from stellar-core collapses

We present data-analysis schemes and results of observations with the TAMA300 gravitational-wave detector, targeting burst signals from stellar-core collapse events. In analyses for burst gravitational waves, the detection and fake-reduction schemes are different from well-investigated ones for a chirp-wave analysis, because precise waveform templates are not available. We used an excess-power filter for the extraction of gravitational-wave candidates, and developed two methods for the reduction of fake events caused by non-stationary noises of the detector. These analysis schemes were applied to real data from the TAMA300 interferometric gravitational wave detector. As a result, fake events were reduced by a factor of about 1000 in the best cases. The resultant event candidates were interpreted from an astronomical viewpoint. We set an upper limit of 2.2x10^3 events/sec on the burst gravitational-wave event rate in our Galaxy with a confidence level of 90%. This work sets a milestone and prospects on the search for burst gravitational waves, by establishing an analysis scheme for the observation data from an interferometric gravitational wave detector

Origins of superior dynamic visual acuity in baseball players: superior eye movements or superior image processing.

Dynamic visual acuity (DVA) is defined as the ability to discriminate the fine parts of a moving object. DVA is generally better in athletes than in non-athletes, and the better DVA of athletes has been attributed to a better ability to track moving objects. In the present study, we hypothesized that the better DVA of athletes is partly derived from better perception of moving images on the retina through some kind of perceptual learning. To test this hypothesis, we quantitatively measured DVA in baseball players and non-athletes using moving Landolt rings in two conditions. In the first experiment, the participants were allowed to move their eyes (free-eye-movement conditions), whereas in the second they were required to fixate on a fixation target (fixation conditions). The athletes displayed significantly better DVA than the non-athletes in the free-eye-movement conditions. However, there was no significant difference between the groups in the fixation conditions. These results suggest that the better DVA of athletes is primarily due to an improved ability to track moving targets with their eyes, rather than to improved perception of moving images on the retina