Tributyltin Inhibits Neural Induction of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Tributyltin (TBT), one of the organotin compounds, is a well-known environmental pollutant. In our recent study, we reported that TBT induces mitochondrial dysfunction, in human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) through the degradation of mitofusin1 (Mfn1), which is a mitochondrial fusion factor. However, the effect of TBT toxicity on the developmental process of iPSCs was not clear. The present study examined the effect of TBT on the differentiation of iPSCs into the ectodermal, mesodermal, and endodermal germ layers. We found that exposure to nanomolar concentration of TBT (50 nM) selectively inhibited the induction of iPSCs into the ectoderm, which is the first step in neurogenesis. We further assessed the effect of TBT on neural differentiation and found that it reduced the expression of several neural differentiation marker genes, which were also downregulated by Mfn1 knockdown in iPSCs. Taken together, these results indicate that TBT induces developmental neurotoxicity via Mfn1-mediated mitochondrial dysfunction in iPSCs

Differential Proliferation Rhythm of Neural Progenitor and Oligodendrocyte Precursor Cells in the Young Adult Hippocampus

Oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) are a unique type of glial cells that function as oligodendrocyte progenitors while constantly proliferating in the normal condition from rodents to humans. However, the functional roles they play in the adult brain are largely unknown. In this study, we focus on the manner of OPC proliferation in the hippocampus of the young adult mice. Here we report that there are oscillatory dynamics in OPC proliferation that differ from neurogenesis in the subgranular zone (SGZ); the former showed S-phase and M-phase peaks in the resting and active periods, respectively, while the latter only exhibited M-phase peak in the active period. There is coincidence between different modes of proliferation and expression of cyclin proteins that are crucial for cell cycle; cyclin D1 is expressed in OPCs, while cyclin D2 is observed in neural stem cells. Similar to neurogenesis, the proliferation of hippocampal OPCs was enhanced by voluntary exercise that leads to an increase in neuronal activity in the hippocampus. These data suggest an intriguing control of OPC proliferation in the hippocampus

フクゴウ ウンドウゴ カイフクキ ニオケル ケツアツ ノ スイイ

It is well known that systolic blood pressure (SBP) elevate but diastolic blood pressure (DBP) do not elevate during dynamic exercise and in statlc isometrlc exercise DBP show respectable elevation. However，changes in SBP and DBP in recovery phase after exercise is unclear.In this study we measured SBP and DBP by auscultatory recording method during recovery phase for 10 minutes. Resting blood pressure was determined immediately before exercise. The exercise was a dynamic (pedaling at 50% Heart rate reserve) and static (10% and 20% of Maximal Voluntary Contraction: MVC) combined exercise for five minutes. Blood pressure was measured for last 45 seconds during the exercise. In recovery phase blood pressure was measured every two minutes until 10 minutes after exercise. There were significant correlations between resting and exercise SBP and DBP, respectively. And also there were significant negative correlations between lncrease from resting SBP to execise SBP and resting SBP and between increase from resting DBP to exercise DBP and resting DBP. There, however，were no relationship between %HRreserve as a exercise intensity and resting SBP and DBP, respectively. These results indicate that a person who is in higher blood pressure reach higher blood pressure in exercise，however in recovery phase after exercise blood pressure become lower than resting blood pressure as a effect of exercise

Surface Photovoltage Monitoring of Heavy Metal Contamination on Silicon During Chemical Cleaning in IC Manufacturing

The principles and application examples of recently refined，computerized surface photovoltage (SPV) method are described. The SPV method was used to optimize cleaning efficiency and to monitor \u27in-line\u27 heavy metal contamination and charge during critical processing steps for Statistical Process Control (SPC). Examples of the optimization of various cleaning steps，effects of the purity of virgin and reused chemicals， and the surface topology on cleaning efficiency will be given together with examples of SPC monitoring of real problems in processing lines. Cleanliness of incoming chemicals is not always a limiting factor and often is not related to the cleanliness of chemicals at the point of use (in the cleaning station). This new method is capable of waferscale，non- contact mapping of metal contaminants in the bulk and on the surface with sensitivities as high as 10¹⁰atoms cm-³

Anodic Oxidation of Narrow Region of Silicon Substrate

Anodic oxide films were formed on comparatively small area of silicon substrates. Constant current mode of anodization has been used for oxidation，but during oxidation processes，the current density has been changed to go through one or more stepped transitions either step-up or step-down before the completion of the processes. This modified mode of constant current anodization showed to be effective in reducing the interface state density of a silicon/silicon-oxide system. Among the various stepped transitions in the modified mode of constant current anodization，step-down transition of current density was found to be optimum in reducing the interface-state density. The structure and composition of SiO₂/Si interface regions for both large-area oxide and narrow-area oxide were also investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The composition of SiO₂/Si interface of narrowarea oxide showed less stoichiometry than that of large-area oxide

ヒロウ コンパイ ニ イタル シンチョウ タンシュク サイクル ウンドウ ガ カタイ サントウキン ノ シュウシュク トクセイ オヨビ ソンショウ シヒョウ ニ オヨボス エイキョウ

The repeated heel-raiseis a typical stretch-shortening cyc1e (SSC) exercise. The exercise is not only performed in resistance training but also used for evaluating muscular strength in c1inical settings. The present study was undertaken to investigate the effect of repeated heel-raise exercise to a volitional exhaustion on contractile properties of the triceps surae muscle and parameters reflecting muscle injury. Five Healthy university students with no orthopedic disorders served as subjects. Each subject performed two exercises. ln SSC condition，the subjects repeated the SSC exercise every 2 seconds to volitional exhaustion. ln the IS0 condition，they repeated the same number of an isometric exercise as that of the SSC exercise. In the SSC condition，the subjects exhausted after repeating the exercise 28.6 times. At exhaustion，maximal torque developing capacity decreased significantly and the decrease was accompanied by a tendency of a lower median power frequency of the EMG signals. A significantly higher lactate concenlration was also observed. On the other hand，the ISO exercise induced no significant changes in these parameters. In the SSC condition，the decreased maximal torque developing capacity at exhaustion remained one hour and even one day following the exhausting exercise. The circumference of the lower extremity became larger significantly at exhaustion as compared with the pre-exercise values and remained higher one hour and one day after the exercise. The pressure threshold for pain in the medial head of the gastrocnemius muscle and the muscle-tendon junction of the triceps surae muscle became significantly lower compared with pre-exercise value one hour or one day following the exercise. Muscle pain evaluated using visual analog scale f1uctuated and the higher value was observed at exhaustion and one day after SSC exercise. ln the ISO condition，no significant changes in these parameters were observed. The results of the present study indicated that the SSC exercise had more profound effects on contractile properties， myo-electrical signals and injury-related parameters than the ISO exercise. Furthermore, the results suggest that，even in a relatively small number of repetitions，repeated heel-raise, at ypical SSC exercise，induces as light muscle injury

Superconductivity in Sr2_2RuO4_4 Mediated by Coulomb Scattering

We investigate the superconductivity in Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ on the basis of the three-dimensional three-band Hubbard model. We propose a model with Coulomb interactions among the electrons on the nearest-neighbor Ru sites. In our model the intersite Coulomb repulsion and exchange coupling can work as the effective interaction for the spin-triplet paring. This effective interaction is enhanced by the band hybridization, which is mediated by the interlayer transfers. We investigate the possibility of this mechanism in the ground state and find that the orbital dependent spin-triplet superconductivity is more stable than the spin-singlet one for realistic parameters. This spin-triplet superconducting state has horizontal line nodes on the Fermi surface.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

ALMA High-resolution Multiband Analysis for the Protoplanetary Disk around TW Hya

We present a high-resolution (2.5 au) multiband analysis of the protoplanetary disk around TW Hya using ALMA long baseline data at Bands 3, 4, 6, and 7. We aim to reconstruct a high-sensitivity millimeter continuum image and revisit the spectral index distribution. The imaging is performed by combining new ALMA data at Bands 4 and 6 with available archive data. Two methods are employed to reconstruct the images; multi-frequency synthesis (MFS) and the fiducial image-oriented method, where each band is imaged separately and the frequency dependence is fitted pixel by pixel. We find that the MFS imaging with the second order of Taylor expansion can reproduce the frequency dependence of the continuum emission between Bands 3 and 7 in a manner consistent with previous studies and is a reasonable method to reconstruct the spectral index map. The image-oriented method provides a spectral index map consistent with the MFS imaging, but with a two times lower resolution. Mock observations of an intensity model were conducted to validate the images from the two methods. We find that the MFS imaging provides a high-resolution spectral index distribution with an uncertainty of $<10$~\%. Using the submillimeter spectrum reproduced from our MFS images, we directly calculated the optical depth, power-law index of the dust opacity coefficient ($\beta$), and dust temperature. The derived parameters are consistent with previous works, and the enhancement of $\beta$ within the intensity gaps is also confirmed, supporting a deficit of millimeter-sized grains within the gaps.Comment: 17pages, 12 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa