X-Ray and Near-Infrared Observations of GX 339-4 in the Low/Hard State with Suzaku and IRSF

X-ray and near-infrared ($J$-$H$-$K_{\rm s}$) observations of the Galactic black hole binary GX 339--4 in the low/hard state were performed with Suzaku and IRSF in 2009 March. The spectrum in the 0.5--300 keV band is dominated by thermal Comptonization of multicolor disk photons, with a small contribution from a direct disk component, indicating that the inner disk is almost fully covered by hot corona with an electron temperature of $\approx$175 keV. The Comptonizing corona has at least two optical depths, $\tau \approx 1,0.4$. Analysis of the iron-K line profile yields an inner disk radius of $(13.3^{+6.4}_{-6.0}) R_{\rm g}$ ($R_{\rm g}$ represents the gravitational radius $GM/c^2$), with the best-fit inclination angle of $\approx50^\circ$. This radius is consistent with that estimated from the continuum fit by assuming the conservation of photon numbers in Comptonization. Our results suggest that the standard disk of GX 339--4 is likely truncated before reaching the innermost stable circular orbit (for a non rotating black hole) in the low/hard state at $\sim$1% of the Eddington luminosity. The one-day averaged near-infrared light curves are found to be correlated with hard X-ray flux with $F_{\rm Ks} \propto F_{\rm X}^{0.45}$. The flatter near infrared $\nu F_{\nu}$ spectrum than the radio one suggests that the optically thin synchrotron radiation from the compact jets dominates the near-infrared flux. Based on a simple analysis, we estimate the magnetic field and size of the jet base to be $5\times10^4$ G and $6\times 10^8$ cm, respectively. The synchrotron self Compton component is estimated to be approximately 0.4% of the total X-ray flux.Comment: 17pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ (Suzaku and MAXI Special Issue

Psychological and weight-related characteristics of patients with anorexia nervosa-restricting type who later develop bulimia nervosa

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Patients with anorexia nervosa-restricting type (AN-R) sometimes develop accompanying bulimic symptoms or the full syndrome of bulimia nervosa (BN). If clinicians could predict who might change into the bulimic sub-type or BN, preventative steps could be taken. Therefore, we investigated anthropometric and psychological factors possibly associated with such changes.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>All participants were from a study by the Japanese Genetic Research Group for Eating Disorders. Of 80 patients initially diagnosed with AN-R, 22 changed to the AN-Binge Eating/Purging Type (AN-BP) and 14 to BN for some period of time. The remaining 44 patients remained AN-R only from the onset to the investigation period. Variables compared by ANOVA included anthropometric measures, personality traits such as Multiple Perfectionism Scale scores and Temperament and Character Inventory scores, and Beck Depression Inventory-II scores.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In comparison with AN-R only patients, those who developed BN had significantly higher current BMI (p < 0.05) and maximum BMI in the past (p < 0.05). They also scored significantly higher for the psychological characteristic of parental criticism (p < 0.05) and lower in self-directedness (p < 0.05), which confirms previous reports, but these differences disappeared when the depression score was used as a co-variant. No significant differences were obtained for personality traits or depression among the AN-R only patients irrespective of their duration of illness.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The present findings suggest a tendency toward obesity among patients who cross over from AN-R to BN. Low self-directedness and high parental criticism may be associated with the development of BN by patients with AN-R, although the differences may also be associated with depression.</p

Support for UNRWA's survival

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) provides life-saving humanitarian aid for 5·4 million Palestine refugees now entering their eighth decade of statelessness and conflict. About a third of Palestine refugees still live in 58 recognised camps. UNRWA operates 702 schools and 144 health centres, some of which are affected by the ongoing humanitarian disasters in Syria and the Gaza Strip. It has dramatically reduced the prevalence of infectious diseases, mortality, and illiteracy. Its social services include rebuilding infrastructure and homes that have been destroyed by conflict and providing cash assistance and micro-finance loans for Palestinians whose rights are curtailed and who are denied the right of return to their homeland

Research on the Standardization of Disaster-preparedness and Crisis-management Systems of Local Governments

The Tohoku Great earthquake and tsunami, which struck on March 11, 2011, along with the resulting nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant, inflicted major damage on Japan. The disaster has had an extremely huge impact on Japanese society, and interest among citizens and the government in creating a safe and secure society is currently at an all-time high. Many of the administrative offices of disaster-hit municipalities also sustained damage, with a large number of administrative officers among the casualties and operations throw into disarray. In order to overcome these circumstances, this disaster prompted local governments to provide each other with a range of support. However, they faced unprecedented circumstances and adequate systems were not in place on either the sides of those giving support or those receiving support, in many cases leading to a state of major confusion. Disaster support between local governments involves cooperative operations between the organizations involved. In order for different organizations to carry out these cooperative operations smoothly, it is essential for conditions to be put in place that will allow them to carry out disaster activities based on a shared awareness. In the U.S., we see progress being made in standardizing and unifying terminology, organizational forms and information systems under the Incident Command System (ICS). In Japan, however, the disaster-preparedness and crisis-management systems of local government are all different, which accounts in part for the confusion experienced during the Tohoku Great Earthquake and Tsunami. In this research, I analyze the current status of disaster-preparedness and crisis-management organizations and agencies of local governments in Japan, and propose an optimum model for standardizing these at the national level

The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection

DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19疾患感受性遺伝子DOCK2の重症化機序を解明 --アジア最大のバイオレポジトリーでCOVID-19の治療標的を発見--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-10.Identifying the host genetic factors underlying severe COVID-19 is an emerging challenge. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 2, 393 cases of COVID-19 in a cohort of Japanese individuals collected during the initial waves of the pandemic, with 3, 289 unaffected controls. We identified a variant on chromosome 5 at 5q35 (rs60200309-A), close to the dedicator of cytokinesis 2 gene (DOCK2), which was associated with severe COVID-19 in patients less than 65 years of age. This risk allele was prevalent in East Asian individuals but rare in Europeans, highlighting the value of genome-wide association studies in non-European populations. RNA-sequencing analysis of 473 bulk peripheral blood samples identified decreased expression of DOCK2 associated with the risk allele in these younger patients. DOCK2 expression was suppressed in patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis (n = 61 individuals) identified cell-type-specific downregulation of DOCK2 and a COVID-19-specific decreasing effect of the risk allele on DOCK2 expression in non-classical monocytes. Immunohistochemistry of lung specimens from patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia showed suppressed DOCK2 expression. Moreover, inhibition of DOCK2 function with CPYPP increased the severity of pneumonia in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by weight loss, lung oedema, enhanced viral loads, impaired macrophage recruitment and dysregulated type I interferon responses. We conclude that DOCK2 has an important role in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of severe COVID-19, and could be further explored as a potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target

The complete mitochondrial genomes of two Japanese endemic Satyrinae butterflies, Neope goschkevitschii and Lethe sicelis (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae)

Neope goschkevitschii and Lethe sicelis are endemic Satyrinae butterflies in mainland Japan, which belongs to the Palearctic realm. In this study, we determined the mitochondrial genomes of these two species. The total length of the mitochondrial genome was 15,286 bp and 15,196 bp for N. goschkevitschii and L. sicelis, respectively, and both mitochondrial genomes were extremely AT-rich. Phylogenetic analysis revealed each of these species was closely related to a member of the same genus, respectively

Sorafenib attenuates monocrotaline-induced sinusoidal obstruction syndrome in rats through suppression of JNK and MMP-9.

[Background & Aims]: Sinusoidal obstruction syndrome (SOS) is a drug-induced liver injury that occurs with oxaliplatin treatment and is associated with postoperative morbidity after hepatectomy. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of sorafenib in a monocrotaline (MCT)-induced model of SOS in rats. [Methods]: Rats were divided into groups treated with sorafenib (2 mg/kg) or vehicle, 36 h and 12 h before MCT (90 mg/kg) administration by gavage. Liver tissues and blood were sampled 48 h after MCT administration to evaluate SOS. Survival after hepatectomy was examined and immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy were performed to assess sinusoidal injury. [Results]: In the vehicle group, liver histology showed sinusoidal dilatation, coagulative necrosis of hepatocytes, endothelial damage of the central vein, and sinusoidal hemorrhage. In the sorafenib group, these changes were significantly suppressed, total SOS scores were significantly decreased, and the elevation of serum transaminase levels observed in the vehicle group was significantly reduced. Survival after hepatectomy was significantly higher in the sorafenib group compared to the vehicle group (45% vs. 20%, p = 0.0137). Immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy revealed a protective effect of sorafenib on sinusoidal endothelial cells at 6 h after MCT treatment. Sorafenib also attenuated the activity of metallopeptidase-9 (MMP-9) and phosphorylation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK). [Conclusions]: Sorafenib reduced the severity of MCT-induced SOS in rats through suppression of MMP-9 and JNK activity, resulting in improvement of survival after hepatectomy