Novel Soft Meals Developed by 3D Printing

Recently, 3D printing is being applied to various fields. 3D printing of foods has been developed; however, there are many challenges. To overcome the challenges, we have started a new research group named “Yonezawa Itadakimasu Research Group,” to focus on the development of 3D printing applications for manufacturing food. We have developed Novel jelly foods that are shaped by 3D printed molds. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printer for food manufacturing makes the 3D printed molds. First step of making 3D printing mold is to print a cast. Then, food grade silicone is poured into the cast to make a mold. This type of 3D printed mold can be used widely, such as making sweets, restaurant menus, and care foods by changing the design depending on the use of application. Secondly, we started to develop 3D food printers. This type of challenge to develop future foods by 3D printing technology may have a major impact on the care food because the looks of foods are important and will be improved by 3D printing

Spatio-temporal marine conservation planning to support high-latitude coral range expansion under climate change

Aim: Increasing sea-surface temperatures (SST) have resulted in poleward range expansions of scleractinian corals and declines in their core ranges. These changes may provide management opportunities for the long-term persistence of corals, but spatial prioritization rarely considers and anticipates these changes. We developed a spatio-temporal conservation plan that accommodates future coral range expansions based on projections of future SST. Our spatial planning approach is particularly useful in places with limited information about species distributions. Our aims were to (1) identify areas that consistently remain important for conservation through time and (2) determine the differences between priorities for conservation that account for potential coral range expansions and those that ignore them. Location: Japan. Methods: We developed spatial planning approaches using predicted coral habitat distributions for current conditions, the near future and the distant future. Using the Marxan conservation planning software, we designed conservation plans for scenarios that incorporated different types of spatial and temporal connections. Spatial connections are physical connections between adjacent and nearby areas, whereas temporal connections connect planning areas throughout time. Results: We found that protecting areas important for current and future coral habitat distributions is possible by prioritizing places that are consistently important through time. A spatially and temporally cohesive plan was accomplished with only a 14% increase in the overall reserve system costs, compared with reserve systems ignoring future coral habitat distributions. The attributes of priority areas (e.g. locations, outside boundary length and size) were substantially different when we varied the types of connections. Main conclusions: This study demonstrated that areas with highest conservation priority now will not necessarily be optimal when planning for future change, such as coral range expansions. Furthermore, we showed that incorporating spatio-temporal connections into spatial prioritization achieves objectives of simultaneously conserving corals in the current climate and facilitating their expansions as SST rises

Integrated planning for land-sea ecosystem connectivity to protect coral reefs

Coral reefs are threatened by human activities both on the land and in the sea. However, standard approaches for prioritizing locations for marine and terrestrial reserves neglect to consider connections between ecosystems. We demonstrate an integrated approach for coral reef conservation with the objective of prioritizing marine reserves close to catchments with high forest cover in order to facilitate ecological processes that rely upon intact land-sea protected area connections and minimize negative impact of land-based runoff on coral reefs. Our aims are to (1) develop and apply simple models of connections between ecosystems that require little data and (2) incorporate different types of connectivity models into spatial conservation prioritization. We compared how, if at all, the locations and attributes (e.g., costs) of priorities differ from an approach that ignores connections. We analyzed spatial prioritization plans that allow for no connectivity, adjacent connectivity in the sea, symmetric and asymmetric land-sea connectivity, and the combination of adjacent connectivity in the sea and asymmetric land-sea connectivity. The overall reserve system costs were similar for all scenarios. We discovered that integrated planning delivered substantially different spatial priorities compared to the approach that ignored connections. Only 11-40% of sites that were high priority for conservation were similar between scenarios with and without connectivity. Many coral reefs that were a high priority when we considered adjacent connectivity in the sea and ignored land-sea connectivity were assigned to low priorities when symmetric land-sea connectivity was included, and vice versa. Our approach can be applied to incorporate connections between ecosystems. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Characterization of Oligopeptides in Solanum lycopersicum Xylem Exudates

The xylem is the main pathway for the transport of water and molecules from roots to shoots. To date, it has been reported that secreted oligopeptides mediate root-to-shoot signaling, and some long-distance mobile oligopeptides have been detected in xylem exudates. However, the conservation of a number of oligopeptides and the overall features of peptide fragments contained in xylem exudates are poorly understood. Here, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of small proteins and peptides in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) xylem exudates and characterized the identified peptide fragments. We found that putative secreted proteins were enriched in xylem exudates compared with all proteins in the tomato protein database. We identified seven oligopeptides that showed common features of bioactive oligopeptides, including homologs of CLV3/ESR-related (CLE), C-TERMINALLY ENCODED PEPTIDE (CEP), and CASPARIAN STRIP INTEGRITY FACTOR (CIF) peptides. Furthermore, five of the identified oligopeptides were homologs of the soybean xylem exudate-associated oligopeptides that we previously reported. Our results suggest that oligopeptides in xylem exudates are conserved across plant species and provide insights into not only root-to-shoot signaling but also the maintenance of the xylem conduit

Cytopathological Findings of Secretory Carcinoma of the Salivary Gland and the Diagnostic Utility of Giemsa Staining

Secretory carcinoma is a salivary gland neoplasm first described as a mammary analogue secretory carcinoma by Skalova and redesignated as a secretory carcinoma in the 2017 World Health Organization Classification of Head and Neck Tumors. Secretory carcinoma diagnosis is reliant on specific cytological and histological findings and the detection of an ETV6-NTRK3 fusion gene. Here, we examined the clinical and cytopathological features of four cases of secretory carcinoma occurring in three males and a female, aged between 39 and 74 years. All four tumors involved the parotid gland, and were found to have the ETV6-NTRK3 fusion gene. Fine-needle aspiration-based cytology smears of all tumors displayed papillary and/or dendritic pattern clusters, some of which were associated with blood vessels. The neoplastic cells displayed enlarged nuclei with fine chromatin and small, distinct, single nucleoli. Furthermore, several neoplastic cells with a characteristic vacuolated cytoplasm were identified in each specimen. Giemsa staining revealed cytoplasmic vacuolation, intracytoplasmic metachromatic secretions and/or various sized metachromatic granules, and a background of metachromatic mucin in all four specimens. Given this, we conclude that these cytological findings, especially those of the Giemsa staining, might be helpful in the diagnosis of secretory carcinoma

Incorporating conservation zone effectiveness for protecting biodiversity in marine planning.

Establishing different types of conservation zones is becoming commonplace. However, spatial prioritization methods that can accommodate multiple zones are poorly understood in theory and application. It is typically assumed that management regulations across zones have differential levels of effectiveness ("zone effectiveness") for biodiversity protection, but the influence of zone effectiveness on achieving conservation targets has not yet been explored. Here, we consider the zone effectiveness of three zones: permanent closure, partial protection, and open, for planning for the protection of five different marine habitats in the Vatu-i-Ra Seascape, Fiji. We explore the impact of differential zone effectiveness on the location and costs of conservation priorities. We assume that permanent closure zones are fully effective at protecting all habitats, open zones do not contribute towards the conservation targets and partial protection zones lie between these two extremes. We use four different estimates for zone effectiveness and three different estimates for zone cost of the partial protection zone. To enhance the practical utility of the approach, we also explore how much of each traditional fishing ground can remain open for fishing while still achieving conservation targets. Our results show that all of the high priority areas for permanent closure zones would not be a high priority when the zone effectiveness of the partial protection zone is equal to that of permanent closure zones. When differential zone effectiveness and costs are considered, the resulting marine protected area network consequently increases in size, with more area allocated to permanent closure zones to meet conservation targets. By distributing the loss of fishing opportunity equitably among local communities, we find that 84-88% of each traditional fishing ground can be left open while still meeting conservation targets. Finally, we summarize the steps for developing marine zoning that accounts for zone effectiveness

Synthesis of Mesoporous Carbon Using a Fullerenol-based Precursor Solution via Nanocasting with SBA-15

Here, we demonstrate mesoporous carbons with different amounts of fullerene cage (MCF) by using a fullerenol-based precursor solution via a nanocasting method with SBA-15 mesoporous silica. The fullerene cages embedded in the frameworks are electrochemically active, showing high potential as an electrode material for an electric double-layer capacitor

The effect of applying alternate IPCC climate scenarios to marine reserve design for range changing species

Effectively protecting of biodiversity in the future relies on reserves that accommodate potential climate change impacts. Climate predictions are based on plausible ranges of greenhouse gas concentration scenarios from the IPCC, called Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs). It is unknown how different scenarios influence spatial prioritization, particularly for species that change their range due to climate change. Using corals in Japan, we explore differences in priorities under three RCPs (RCP8.5, 4.5, and 2.6), comparing three time frames (current conditions, near future, and distant future). We targeted three temperature zones representing different coral community types, determined from predictions of sea-surface temperature for three RCPs. Results showed that using one RCP prediction to design a reserve system does a poor job at meeting conservation targets for other RCPs, missing up to 100% of the targets. We emphasize the importance of focusing conservation investment in “no regrets” areas that are important under every RCP

The number of planning units that were selected more than 50 times out of 100 Marxan run in scenarios (1: equal, 2: highest, 3: average, 4: lowest zone effectiveness) with the different relative zone costs of partial protection zones to permanent closure zones of 25%, 50%, and 75%.

<p>This table shows the selection frequency of a planning unit out of 100 Marxan runs.</p