MOLECULAR AND ECOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN \u3ci\u3eAUREOCOCCUS ANOPHAGEFFERENS\u3c/i\u3e AND ITS GIANT VIRUS

Viruses are increasingly being recognized as an important biotic component of all ecosystems including agents that control the rapid ecological events that are harmful algal blooms (HABS). Aureococcus anophagefferens is a pelagophyte which causes recurrent ecosystem devastating brown tide blooms along the east coast of the USA and has recently spread to China and South Africa. It has been suggested that a large virus (AaV) is possibly an important agent for demise of brown tide blooms. This observation is consistent with the recognition of a number of other giant viruses modulating algal blooms in marine systems. In this dissertation, we investigated both the molecular underpinnings of Aureococcus-AaV interactions and the dynamics of AaV and the associated viral community in situ. We determined the genome sequence and phylogenetic history of AaV using high throughput sequencing approach and revealed it’s intertwined evolutionary history with the host and other organisms. Building upon the available genome of AaV and its host, we took an RNA-seq approach to provide insights on the physiological state of the AaV-infected Aureococcus ‘virocell’ that is geared towards virus production. In situ activity of AaV was detected by targeted amplicon and high throughput community RNA sequencing (metatranscriptomics) from Quantuck Bay, NY, a site with recurrent brown tide blooms. AaV and associated giant algal viruses in the Mimiviridae clade were found to respond to environmental changes, indicating that this newly recognized phylogenetic group is an important contributor to the eukaryotic phytoplankton dynamics. Analyzing time series metatranscriptomics from two distinct coastal sites recovered diverse viruses infecting microeukaryotes (including AaV) as part of interacting networks of viruses and microeukaryotes. Results from these studies testify AaV as an important factor for brown tide bloom demise, reveals the molecular underpinnings of AaV-host interactions and establishes the ecological relevance of Mimivirus-like algal viruses. We also provide foundation for using metatranscriptomics as an important tool in marine virus ecology – capable of recovering associations among coexisting marine microeukaryotes and viruses

Debt Financed Migration to Consumption Smoothing: Tracing the Link between Migration and Food Security in Bangladesh

This dissertation is primarily focused on migration and food security linkages, more specifically the impact of migrants’ remittances on household food security, and the role of debt in financing migration. Using a multi-methods approach the dissertation focuses on the household level, but also sheds light on the related policy landscape linked to these resource issues. The dissertation consists of seven chapters, with four research finding chapters that are each self-contained and interdisciplinary. Each of these four chapters adds conceptually and empirically to the existing literature on migration and development. Chapters one and two provide the introduction and literature review. Chapter three presents the findings on the impact of remittances on household food security. Using different food security indicators and scientifically validated measurement tools, this research shows that households receiving remittances are better off than non-receiving households in terms of food security conditions. It also shows that cash remittances are spent to maintain adequate food consumption levels, and therefore improve the ability to acquire a sufficient quality and quantity of food to meet household members’ nutritional requirements. Moreover, remittances help to improve households’ access to important nutritional inputs, provide dietary diversity and allow the households to cope with shocks that threaten its food security status. Chapter four investigates the impact of remittances on households’ food security using quantitative models. Two Stage Least Square Instrumental Variable Method (2SLS-IV) and Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) are used for this study. Estimated results indicate that remittance influences the household’s food security conditions differently than other income sources. In general, remittances reduce food-related uncertainties and help the households to counterbalance food-related shocks and coping strategies. Moreover, remittances improve the dietary diversity which reflects the quality of diet and adequate micronutrient intake by the remittance receiving households. Overall, the results show that migration and the consequent remittances increase the probability of a household being food secured. Chapter five presents a study on debt-financed migration and related resource backwash (reverse resource flows) and suggests that although migration has become an essential livelihood strategy for households in rural Bangladesh, in order to finance migration household deplete significant resources, land and other precautionary assets (assets that protect against risk) in order to gain access to migration opportunities. This research shows that debt is a critical component of the migration system in Bangladesh. Although households adopt a migration strategy to counterbalance income uncertainty, the migration system itself creates extreme precarity as households become riddled with migration related debt. Tragically often it takes the entire migration episode to service the debt. Chapter six explores the policy landscape related to migrants’ remittances such as remittance infrastructure, public and private agents and institutions, microfinance institutions in the remittance market, and legal and regulatory frameworks relevant to remittance governance. This chapter demonstrates that remittance governance in Bangladesh is largely focused on shifting remittances away from informal channels to the formal banking system. To maximize the potential benefits of remittances it is necessary to direct individual and collective remittances toward productive investment and to use remittances to promote financial inclusion for marginal groups. Chapter seven concludes

希土類酸化物、水酸化物およびそれらの固溶体の溶解度に関する実験的研究

京都大学新制・課程博士博士(工学)甲第23576号工博第4931号新制||工||1770(附属図書館)京都大学大学院工学研究科原子核工学専攻(主査)教授 佐々木 隆之, 教授 横峯 健彦, 准教授 小林 大志学位規則第4条第1項該当Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering)Kyoto UniversityDFA

Great Expectations and the Ballad of the Road: Simple Annals of the Poor

Charles Dickens (1802-1870), thequintessential Victorian author has depicted variousrecurrent social evils of the 19th century England. InGreat Expectations particularly, he has shown how thepoor orphan young boy Pip, deeply unhappy with hiswretched domestic life, aspires for a better life andposition in the society by any means. Though in adifferent way, Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhay (1896-1950), one of the luminaries of Bengali literature and aneminent early 20th century writer, has also exhibited thestruggle of the orphan young adolescent Apu picturingthe domestic and social realities of the Bengali rural andurban society of the 1920s and 1930s in his well-knownback to back novels The Ballad of the Road (PatherPanchali) and its sequel The Unvanquished (Aparajito).Both these novelists have simultaneously portrayed theoutward impoverished life of common class people, andthe layered sensitibity and human emotions in them,especially in the thoroughly growing ordinary childcharacters like Pip, Apu and others. They have alsomade poverty a character itself, a condition thatrepresents the stark realities of life of the then Englishand Bengali societies respectively. But at the same time,they seem to be far different from each other in dealingwith poverty and their attitudes to life and reality.Therefore, this comparative study aims to criticallyanalyse these novels and explore how differently theseauthors have conveyed their ideology of ‘realism’

Histological studies on the mechanisms for the regulation of glucagon-like peptides(GLPs) in the chicken small intestine （ニワトリ小腸におけるグルカゴン様ペプチド（GLPs）の分泌制御機構に関する組織学的研究）

信州大学(Shinshu university)博士（農学）ThesisMohammad Moniruzzaman Monir . Histological studies on the mechanisms for the regulation of glucagon-like peptides(GLPs) in the chicken small intestine （ニワトリ小腸におけるグルカゴン様ペプチド（GLPs）の分泌制御機構に関する組織学的研究）. 信州大学, 2014, 博士論文. 博士（農学）, 甲第48号, 平成26年3月20日授与.doctoral thesi

Solubility of Mixed Lanthanide Hydroxide and Oxide Solid Solutions

The solubilities of different multicomponent lanthanide oxide (Ln₂O₃) solid solutions including binary (Ln₁ and Ln₂ = La, Nd, Eu, or Tm), ternary (Ln₁, Ln₂, and Ln₃ = La, Nd, Eu, or Tm), and higher systems (Ln = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, and Lu) were studied after aging for four weeks at 60°C. Our recent study revealed that the phase transformations in binary ((La, Nd) and (La, Eu)) and ternary (La, Nd, Eu) systems are responsible for the formation of (La, Nd)(OH)₃, (La, Eu)(OH)₃, and (La, Nd, Eu)(OH)₃ solid solutions, respectively. The variations in the mole fractions of La³⁺, Nd³⁺, and Eu³⁺ in the sample solutions of these hydroxide solid solutions indicated that a thermodynamic equilibrium might account for the apparent La, Nd, and Eu solubilities. Conversely, the binary and ternary systems containing Tm₂O₃ as the heavy lanthanide oxide retained the oxide-based solid solutions, and their solubility behaviors were dominated by their congruent dissolutions. In the higher multicomponent system, the X-ray diffraction patterns of the solid phases, before and after contact with the aqueous phase indicated the formation of a stable oxide solid solution and their solubility behavior was explained by its congruent dissolution

日本人男性における歩数と脳小血管病との関連

Stroke. 2020 Dec;51(12):3584-3591.滋賀医科大学令和2年

Implementing supervisory control maps with PLC

The supervisory control theory of Discrete-Event Systems (DES) can be used to construct a supervisor for any event-driven system in which the state space is discrete. To implement supervisors we propose to use Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), which are widely used in industrial applications. In our work, we develop a new conversion algorithm which directly transforms a supervisor represented by a finite automaton to a Ladder Logic Diagram (LLD). To demonstrate the correctness of our proposed approach and discuss the issues that may arise in modeling and development of DES supervisors, we design supervisors for a boiler control system using supervisory control theory of Ramadge and Wonham, convert DES supervisors to PLC controllers using our conversion technique, and verify by setting a virtual plant setup using a PLC simulation software that the converted LLD can be executed by the PLC and that the original behavior of the DES supervisors under PLC implementation can be achieved

EVALUATION OF POLYUNSATURATED FATTY ACIDS AND β-GLUCAN CONTAINING DIET ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND CONDITION FACTOR OF PABDAH CATFISH, OMPOK PABDA (HAMILTON, 1822)

Nutritionally balanced diet and selection of appropriate species for culturing environment are important criteria in aquaculture. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and β-glucan containing diet (PBG) on growth performance, feed utilization, length-weight relationship, and condition factor of Pabdah catfish, Ompok pabda. In this study, squid extracted phospholipid and mushroom powder were used as the source of PUFAs and β-glucan, respectively, and formulated two isonitrogenous diets such as basal or control (CON) diet and PBG diet with maintaining 30% protein levels. During the study period, similar physicochemical conditions of water such as temperature, pH, and dissolved oxygen (DO) were 26.5 ± 2 °C, 7.4 ± 0.2, and 6.7 ± 0.5 ppm, respectively were maintained in each cistern. The results showed that final mean body weight, final mean length gain, food conversion ratio (FCR), specific growth rate (SGR), food conversion efficiency (%), hepato somatic index (HSI), kidney index (KI), and viscerosomatic index (VSI) were significantly (P<0.01 and P<0.05) higher in fish fed the PBG diet than that of fish fed the CON diet. The coefficient of determination showed a significant relationship (R2 = 0.956) between the length and weight of the treatment group. The length-weight relationship and relative condition factor (K) of Ompok pabda were significantly (P<0.05) affected by the PBG diet. The present study shows that the experimental diet more effective and achieves better growth performance, feed utilization, length-weight relationship, and condition factor of Ompok pabda.

Infection by a Giant Virus (AaV) Induces Widespread Physiological Reprogramming in Aureococcus anophagefferens CCMP1984 – A Harmful Bloom Algae

While viruses with distinct phylogenetic origins and different nucleic acid types can infect and lyse eukaryotic phytoplankton, “giant” dsDNA viruses have been found to be associated with important ecological processes, including the collapse of algal blooms. However, the molecular aspects of giant virus–host interactions remain largely unknown. Aureococcus anophagefferens virus (AaV), a giant virus in the Mimiviridae clade, is known to play a critical role in regulating the fate of brown tide blooms caused by the pelagophyte Aureococcus anophagefferens. To understand the physiological response of A. anophagefferens CCMP1984 upon AaV infection, we studied the transcriptomic landscape of this host–virus pair over an entire infection cycle using a RNA-sequencing approach. A massive transcriptional response of the host was evident as early as 5 min post-infection, with modulation of specific processes likely related to both host defense mechanism(s) and viral takeover of the cell. Infected Aureococcus showed a relative suppression of host-cell transcripts associated with photosynthesis, cytoskeleton formation, fatty acid, and carbohydrate biosynthesis. In contrast, host cell processes related to protein synthesis, polyamine biosynthesis, cellular respiration, transcription, and RNA processing were overrepresented compared to the healthy cultures at different stages of the infection cycle. A large number of redox active host-selenoproteins were overexpressed, which suggested that viral replication and assembly progresses in a highly oxidative environment. The majority (99.2%) of annotated AaV genes were expressed at some point during the infection cycle and demonstrated a clear temporal–expression pattern and an increasing relative expression for the majority of the genes through the time course. We detected a putative early promoter motif for AaV, which was highly similar to the early promoter elements of two other Mimiviridaemembers, indicating some degree of evolutionary conservation of gene regulation within this clade. This large-scale transcriptome study provides insights into the Aureococcus cells infected by a giant virus and establishes a foundation to test hypotheses regarding metabolic and regulatory processes critical for AaV and other Mimiviridae members