Seafloor survey of Nishinoshima Island using an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

東京都小笠原諸島の無人の火山島である西之島は、2020年の大規模な噴火により陸上部分は溶岩や火山灰に覆われたことが明らかになっている一方、海中部分については調査が進んでおらず、溶岩や火山灰がどの程度まで広がっているか、また魚類や底生生物等がどのような状況になっているのか明らかでなかった。そこで、2021年7月、低コスト自律型海中ロボットシステムを用いて海中および海底の画像観測を実施した。強い潮流下での調査であったが、急峻な地形を含む海底の詳細な光学画像撮影に成功した。西之島北部の海底において火山灰が降り積もる平坦な地形が確認された。北東部の海底においては噴気が確認された。また、サメ等の大型魚から小型魚、タコ等の複数の遊泳生物が確認された。Nishinoshima Island is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Ogasawara Islands of Tokyo. While it is clear that the terrestrial part of the island was covered with lava and volcanic ash due to a large-scale eruption in 2020, the underwater part had not been surveyed yet, and it was unclear how far the lava and volcanic ash have spread and what the situation is for fish and benthic organisms. In July 2021, underwater and seafloor observations were carried out using a low-cost autonomous underwater vehicle system. Despite the strong currents, we succeeded in taking detailed optical images of the seafloor, including the steep topography. Volcanic ash was deposited on the seafloor in the northern part of Nishinoshima Island, and flat topography was observed. In the northeastern part of the seafloor, the fume emission was observed. In addition, several kinds of nektons, from large fish such as sharks to small fish and an octopus, were captured on HATTORI’s camera.departmental bulletin pape

Experiences on Spatial Transformations and Educational Program Changes at Krabbesholm Højskole in Denmark

Session: Global prospection of Art and Design researches : cross-linking of Academia, government and Industry by art and design ; September 18, 2016Conference: Tsukuba Global Science Week 2016 (TGSW2016)Date: September 17-19, 2016Venue: Tsukuba International Congress CenterSponsored: University of Tsukub

AUV Navigation with Particle Filter

特集1 海中工学研究センタ

Critical amino acids in human DNA polymerases η and κ involved in erroneous incorporation of oxidized nucleotides

Oxidized DNA precursors can cause mutagenesis and carcinogenesis when they are incorporated into the genome. Some human Y-family DNA polymerases (Pols) can effectively incorporate 8-oxo-dGTP, an oxidized form of dGTP, into a position opposite a template dA. This inappropriate G:A pairing may lead to transversions of A to C. To gain insight into the mechanisms underlying erroneous nucleotide incorporation, we changed amino acids in human Polη and Polκ proteins that might modulate their specificity for incorporating 8-oxo-dGTP into DNA. We found that Arg61 in Polη was crucial for erroneous nucleotide incorporation. When Arg61 was substituted with lysine (R61K), the ratio of pairing of dA to 8-oxo-dGTP compared to pairing of dC was reduced from 660:1 (wild-type Polη) to 7 : 1 (R61K). Similarly, Tyr112 in Polκ was crucial for erroneous nucleotide incorporation. When Tyr112 was substituted with alanine (Y112A), the ratio of pairing was reduced from 11: 1 (wild-type Polκ) to almost 1: 1 (Y112A). Interestingly, substitution at the corresponding position in Polη, i.e. Phe18 to alanine, did not alter the specificity. These results suggested that amino acids at distinct positions in the active sites of Polη and Polκ might enhance 8-oxo-dGTP to favor the syn conformation, and thus direct its misincorporation into DNA

インターネットを活用した自主グループ間の情報ネットワークの構築

『地域を基盤とする看護教育への変革』が平成19年度文部科学省「現代的教育ニーズ取組支援プログラム」に選定され、グループ支援ネットワークとして、島根県下の自主グループと学内に設置した地域連携ステーションとの情報ネットワークの構築に取り組んだ。インターネットを活用することで会員や一般への情報発信や情報交換に有効だった。しかし、ホームページへの入力操作に困難性を認めるなど支援も必要としていた。これらの課題解決を図りながらメリット・デメリットを考慮したインターネットの活用は、今後、自主グループの機能強化に有効な手段となることが期待される

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival