Expression of Neurotrophins and Their Receptors Tropomyosin-related kinases (Trk) under Tension-stress during Distraction Osteogenesis

The localization and expression of neurotrophins and their receptors during distraction osteogenesis was investigated in 72 male rat femurs (11 weeks old) to further clarify the concurrence of cellular and molecular events of new bone formation. After osteotomy, a 7-day lag phase was followed by distraction at the rate of 0.25 mm/12 h for 21 days (distraction phase), and a 7-day consolidation phase. The localization of neurotrophins (NGF, BDNF and NT-3) and their receptors tropomyosinrelated kinases (TRKA, TRKB and TRKC) by immunostaining showed positive staining in bone forming cells in each stage, although the presence and staining intensity varied by cell type and phase. The expressions of NGF, BDNF and NT-3 by real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR) showed that the peak of the mRNA expression of NGF occurred 10 days after distraction. NT-3 increased during bone extension, but decreased when distraction stopped. In contrast, BDNF continued to increase gradually throughout the distraction and consolidation phases. These findings suggest that neurotrophins and their receptors may play different roles in endochondral and intramembranous ossification in distraction osteogenesis. The tension stress caused by distraction may stimulate the expression of neurotrophins and their receptors, and promote osteogenesis

Substellar Companions to Evolved Intermediate-Mass Stars: HD 145457 and HD 180314

We report the detections of two substellar companions orbiting around evolved intermediate-mass stars from precise Doppler measurements at Subaru Telescope and Okayama Astrophysical Observatory. HD 145457 is a K0 giant with a mass of 1.9 M_sun and has a planet of minimum mass m_2sini=2.9 M_J orbiting with period of P=176 d and eccentricity of e=0.11. HD 180314 is also a K0 giant with 2.6 M_sun and hosts a substellar companion of m_2sin i=22 M_J, which falls in brown-dwarf mass regime, in an orbit with P=396 d and e=0.26. HD 145457 b is one of the innermost planets and HD 180314 b is the seventh candidate of brown-dwarf-mass companion found around intermediate-mass evolved stars.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in PAS

Advanced Tertiary Lymphoid Tissues in Protocol Biopsies are Associated with Progressive Graft Dysfunction in Kidney Transplant Recipients

移植腎の三次リンパ組織は腎予後と関連することを解明. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2021-11-02.[Background:] Tertiary lymphoid tissues (TLTs) are ectopic lymphoid tissues found in chronically inflamed organs. Although studies have documented TLT formation in transplanted kidneys, the clinical relevance of these TLTs remains controversial. We examined the impacts of TLTs on future graft function using our histological TLT maturity stages and the association between TLTs and Banff pathologic scores. We also analyzed the risk factors for the development of TLTs. [Methods:] Serial protocol biopsy samples (0-hour, 1-, 6-, and 12-months) without rejection were retrospectively analyzed from 214 patients who underwent living donor kidney transplantation. TLTs were defined as lymphocyte aggregates with signs of proliferation and their stages were determined by the absence (stage I) or presence (stage II) of follicular dendritic cells. [Results:] Only 4% of patients exhibited TLTs at the 0-hour biopsy. Prevalence increased to almost 50% at the 1-month biopsy and then slightly further for 12 months. The proportion of advanced stage II TLTs increased gradually, reaching 19% at the 12-month biopsy. Presence of stage II TLTs was associated with higher risk of renal function decline after transplantation compared to patients with no TLT or stage I TLTs. Stage II TLTs were associated with more severe tubulitis and interstitial fibrosis/tubular atrophy at 12 months and predicted poorer graft function independently from the degree of interstitial inflammation. Pre-transplantation rituximab treatment dramatically attenuated the development of stage II TLTs. [Conclusions:] TLTs are commonly found in clinically stable transplanted kidneys. Advanced stage II TLTs are associated with progressive graft dysfunction, independent of interstitial inflammation

Computations on Three Isomers of La@C 74

ABSTRACT: Density-functional theory calculations are presented for La@C 74 , where C 74 is either the IPR (isolated pentagon rule) cage or two cages with a pentagon-pentagon junction. Their relative thermodynamic production yields are evaluated using the calculated terms, and it is shown that the IPR-based endohedral prevails at relevant temperatures in agreement with the observation

Extremely High Energy Neutrinos, Neutrino Hot Dark Matter, and the Highest Energy Cosmic Rays

Extremely high energy (up to 10**(22) eV) cosmic neutrino beams initiate high energy particle cascades in the background of relic neutrinos from the Big Bang. We perform numerical calculations to show that such cascades could contribute more than 10% to the observed cosmic ray flux above 10**(19) eV if neutrinos have masses in the electron volt range. The required intensity of primary neutrinos could be consistent with astrophysical models for their production if the maximum neutrino energy reaches to 10**(22) eV and the massive neutrino dark matter is locally clustered. Future observations of ultra high energy cosmic rays will lead to an indirect but practical search for neutrino dark matter.Comment: 4 latex pages, 3 postscript figures included, uses revtex.sty and psfig.sty. Submitted to Physical Review Letter

A long-forgotten ‘dinosaur’ bone from a museum cabinet, uncovered to be a Japan\u27s iconic extinct mammal, Paleoparadoxia (Desmostylia, Mammalia)

Here, we report a new ‘discovery’ of a desmostylian fossil in the geological collection at a national university in Japan. This fossil was unearthed over 60 years ago and donated to the university. Owing to the original hand-written note kept with the fossil in combination with interview investigation, we were able to reach two equally possible fossil sites in the town of Tsuchiyu Onsen, Fukushima. Through the interviews, we learned that the fossil was discovered during construction of a debris flow barrier and that it was recognized as a ‘dinosaur’ bone among the locals and displayed in the Village Hall before/until the town experienced a fire disaster in 1954. As scientific findings, the fossil was identified to be a right femur of Paleoparadoxia (Desmostylia), which shows well-preserved muscle scars on the surface. The age was estimated to be 15.9 Ma or younger in zircon-dating. This study shows an excellent case that historical and scientific significances could be extracted from long-forgotten uncatalogued specimens as long as the original information is retained with the specimens

« La Tragédie du roi Christophe » du point de vue de l’histoire d’Haïti

This paper presents a multilingual study on, per single post of microblog text, (a) how much can be said, (b) how much is written in terms of characters and bytes, and (c) how much is said in terms of information content in posts by different organizations in different languages. Focusing on three different languages (English, Chinese, and Japanese), this research analyses Weibo and Twitter accounts of major embassies and news agencies. We first establish our criterion for quantifying \how much can be said" in a digital text based on the openly available Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the translated subtitles from TED talks. These parallel corpora allow us to determine the number of characters and bits needed to represent the same content in different languages and character encodings. We then derive the amount of information that is actually contained in microblog posts authored by selected accounts on Weibo and Twitter. Our results confirm that languages with larger character sets such as Chinese and Japanese contain more information per character than English, but the actual information content contained within a microblog text varies depending on both the type of organization and the language of the post. We conclude with a discussion on the design implications of microblog text limits for different languages