A Comparison of National Banks in Japan and the United States between 1872 and 1885

In 1872, Japan established a national banking system modeled closely on that in existence in the United States at the time. The experience of the two countries with national banking was very different, however. The paper documents that the Japanese national banking system was smaller, less highly leveraged, and did less financial intermediation than the U.S. system. The paper describes the national banking legislation in the two countries and presents evidence on their different banking experiences. It then argues that, for the most part, the differences were not due to subtle differences in the banking legislation in the two countries. Rather, it argues that the differences were due to Japan's lesser degree of experience with banks and less developed banking institutions when the system was adopted. There also was more concern with establishing banknotes of national banks as a replacement for government-issued paper currency in Japan.

Nanosecond pump-probe device for time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography developed at SACLA

X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) have opened new opportunities for timeresolved X-ray crystallography. Here a nanosecond optical-pump XFEL-probe device developed for time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography (TRSFX) studies of photo-induced reactions in proteins at the SPring-8 Angstrom Compact free-electron LAser (SACLA) is reported. The optical-fiber-based system is a good choice for a quick setup in a limited beam time and allows pump illumination from two directions to achieve high excitation efficiency of protein microcrystals. Two types of injectors are used: one for extruding highly viscous samples such as lipidic cubic phase (LCP) and the other for pulsed liquid droplets. Under standard sample flow conditions from the viscous-sample injector, delay times from nanoseconds to tens of milliseconds are accessible, typical time scales required to study large protein conformational changes. A first demonstration of a TR-SFX experiment on bacteriorhodopsin in bicelle using a setup with a droplet-type injector is also presented.112Ysciescopu

A Comparison of National Banks

In 1872, Japan established a national banking system modeled closely on that in existence in the United States at the time. The experience of the two countries with national banking was very different, however. The paper documents that the Japanese national banking system was smaller, less highly leveraged, and did less financial intermediation than the U.S. system. The paper describes the national banking legislation in the two countries and presents evidence on their different banking experiences. It then argues that, for the most part, the differences were not due to subtle differences in the banking legislation in the two countries. Rather, it argues that the differences were due to Japan’s lesser degree of experience with banks and less developed banking institutions when the system was adopted. There also was more concern with establishing banknotes of national banks as a replacement for government-issued paper currency in Japan

Stimulation of the sigma-1 receptor by DHEA enhances synaptic efficacy and neurogenesis in the hippocampal dentate gyrus of olfactory bulbectomized mice.

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is the most abundant neurosteroid synthesized de novo in the central nervous system. We previously reported that stimulation of the sigma-1 receptor by DHEA improves cognitive function by activating calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII), protein kinase C and extracellular signal-regulated kinase in the hippocampus in olfactory bulbectomized (OBX) mice. Here, we asked whether DHEA enhances neurogenesis in the subgranular zone of the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) and improves depressive-like behaviors observed in OBX mice. Chronic treatment with DHEA at 30 or 60 mg/kg p.o. for 14 days significantly improved hippocampal LTP impaired in OBX mice concomitant with increased CaMKII autophosphorylation and GluR1 (Ser-831) phosphorylation in the DG. Chronic DHEA treatment also ameliorated depressive-like behaviors in OBX mice, as assessed by tail suspension and forced swim tests, while a single DHEA treatment had no affect. DHEA treatment also significantly increased the number of BrdU-positive neurons in the subgranular zone of the DG of OBX mice, an increase inhibited by treatment with NE-100, a sigma-1 receptor antagonist. DHEA treatment also significantly increased phosphorylation of Akt (Ser-473), Akt (Ser-308) and ERK in the DG. Furthermore, GSK-3β (Ser-9) phosphorylation increased in the DG of OBX mice possibly accounting for increased neurogenesis through Akt activation. Finally, we confirmed that DHEA treatment of OBX mice increases the number of BrdU-positive neurons co-expressing β-catenin, a downstream GSK-3βtarget. Overall, we conclude that sigma-1 receptor stimulation by DHEA ameliorates OBX-induced depressive-like behaviors by increasing neurogenesis in the DG through activation of the Akt/GSK-3β/β-catenin pathway