SCOP, a novel gene product expressed in a circadian manner in rat suprachiasmatic nucleus

AbstractTo elucidate the mechanism of the circadian rhythm, genes differentially expressed during subjective day and night in the rat suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), a circadian oscillator in mammals, were surveyed by a differential display method. We isolated a novel gene, scop (SCN circadian oscillatory protein), that was expressed in a circadian manner in the SCN. SCOP protein is predominantly expressed in the brain and has domains including a pleckstrin homology domain, leucine-rich repeats, a protein phosphatase 2C-like domain and a glutamine-rich region. The structural feature of SCOP protein suggests its role in the intracellular signaling in the SCN

Discriminatory Analysis of Discharged Gas and Heavy Oils in the Sea

Gas and heavy oils discharged into the sea were discriminated using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), gas chromatography (GC-FID) and infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The GC-MS focused on the determination of the biomarkers, such as hopanes, norhopanes and triaromatic steranes, which were detected from heavy oil, but were hardly observed from gas oil. The discriminative analysis using GC-FID of the methylnaphthalenes showed a discrimination with a ratio of ((2-methylnaphthalene)+(1-methylnaphthalene))/tridecane. The ratios for the gas oils were less than 1.0, but those for the heavy oils were 1.0 or higher. These oils were distinguished in comparison to the FT-IR data from three peaks at 811, 742 and 723 cm-1 which were assigned to the CH bending modes for 2 and 4 hydrogens and a methylene framework, respectively. The order for the heavy oil was 723 < 742 < 811 cm-1, while that for the gas oil was 742 < 811< 723 cm-1. Moreover, the absorption intensity at 1603 cm-1 for the heavy oil was higher than that for the gas oil. An absorption at 475 cm-1 (out-of-plane ring vibration) was also observed for the heavy oil, but not for the gas oil. In combination of the GC results with the FT-IR, 2-methylnaphthalene and 1-methylnaphthalene were contained in greater amounts in the heavy oil than in the gas oil, which were derived from the light cycle oil. Thus, the heavy oils discharged from ships and drifted on the seashore were discriminated from the original heavy oils and the gas oils.Key words: Heavy oil, Gas oil, Identification, Methylnaphthalene, Hopan

Health effects of immediate telework introduction during the COVID-19 era in Japan: A cross-sectional study

[Background] Telework has been widely discussed in several fields; however, there is a lack of research on the health aspects of teleworking. The current study was conducted to determine the health effects of teleworking during an emergency statement as evidence for future policy development. [Method] This was a cross-sectional study in which we administered an online questionnaire to 5, 214 general workers (response rate = 36.4%) from June 2020 to August 2020. Based on working methods during the pandemic, workers were categorized into the office group (n = 86) and telework group (n = 1597), and we characterized their demographics, changes in lifestyle, telework status, physical symptoms, and mental health. [Results] The results showed that the workers’ residence, marital status, management positions, and employee status affected the choice of the work method. During the emergency, teleworkers experienced more changes in their habits than office workers. In terms of exercise habits, 67.0% of the individuals belonging to the office-telework (OT) group exercised less. Approximately half of the teleworkers were satisfied with their telework, and those in the OT group were less satisfied with their telework than those in the telework-telework (TT) group, and they reported an increase in both working hours and meeting hours. Work-family conflict was more pronounced in the TT group than in the two other groups. Only 13.2% of individuals did not experience any stress in the past 30 days, and all three groups showed varying degrees of anxiety and depressive tendencies. In addition, all teleworkers experienced adverse physical symptoms before and after the emergency. [Conclusion] Health issues associated with teleworking should be given adequate attention

Non-perturbative Effect on Thermal Relic Abundance of Dark Matter

We point out that thermal relic abundance of the dark matter is strongly altered by a non-perturbative effect called the Sommerfeld enhancement, when constituent particles of the dark matter are non-singlet under the SU(2)_L gauge interaction and much heavier than the weak gauge bosons. Typical candidates for such dark matter particles are the heavy wino- and higgsino-like neutralinos. We investigate the non-perturbative effect on the relic abundance of dark matter for the wino-like neutralino as an example. We show that its thermal abundance is reduced by 50% compared to the perturbative result. The wino-like neutralino mass consistent with the observed dark matter abundance turns out to be 2.7 TeV < m < 3.0 TeV.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure