Molecular phylogeny and evolution of <i>Parabasalia</i> with improved taxon sampling and new protein markers of actin and elongation factor-1α

Background: Inferring the evolutionary history of phylogenetically isolated, deep-branching groups of taxa—in particular determining the root—is often extraordinarily difficult because their close relatives are unavailable as suitable outgroups. One of these taxonomic groups is the phylum Parabasalia, which comprises morphologically diverse species of flagellated protists of ecological, medical, and evolutionary significance. Indeed, previous molecular phylogenetic analyses of members of this phylum have yielded conflicting and possibly erroneous inferences. Furthermore, many species of Parabasalia are symbionts in the gut of termites and cockroaches or parasites and therefore formidably difficult to cultivate, rendering available data insufficient. Increasing the numbers of examined taxa and informative characters (e.g., genes) is likely to produce more reliable inferences. Principal Findings: Actin and elongation factor-1a genes were identified newly from 22 species of termite-gut symbionts through careful manipulations and seven cultured species, which covered major lineages of Parabasalia. Their protein sequences were concatenated and analyzed with sequences of previously and newly identified glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and the small-subunit rRNA gene. This concatenated dataset provided more robust phylogenetic relationships among major groups of Parabasalia and a more plausible new root position than those previously reported. Conclusions/Significance: We conclude that increasing the number of sampled taxa as well as the addition of new sequences greatly improves the accuracy and robustness of the phylogenetic inference. A morphologically simple cell is likely the ancient form in Parabasalia as opposed to a cell with elaborate flagellar and cytoskeletal structures, which was defined as most basal in previous inferences. Nevertheless, the evolution of Parabasalia is complex owing to several independent multiplication and simplification events in these structures. Therefore, systematics based solely on morphology does not reflect the evolutionary history of parabasalids

IS-20 Atmospheric Science within a One Health Perspective

In the atmosphere, particulate matters exist as aerosols which may have essential functions for the earth system to health quality of the individuals. A field of atmospheric sciences associated with aerosols has been focusing mainly on their chemical and physical properties to characterize their role and effect for the climate system, ocean-atmosphere interaction, health-related issue, and more.It is well recognized that biological aerosols defined as “bioaerosols” to be present ubiquitously in the atmosphere, yet the scientific knowledge of their roles and functions are somewhat limited [1].Since the bioaerosols may have a significant effect on climate, health quality of human and livestock animals, and ecological system, it is of great importance to acquire further knowledge in many aspects. The bioaerosols such as bacteria, virus fungi, and their fragments are not well in-cooperated with the atmospheric science researches mainly due to the difficulty associated with detection of bioaerosols. Often the concentration of bioaerosols in the air is very low, which requires sampling of a large air mass. Furthermore, the current scientific communities still lack the multidisciplinary approaches to tackle airborne infection, allergen dispersion, the stability of the biological material and more in the atmosphere.Traditionally in both human and veterinary medical sciences, the bioaerosol investigations focused on understanding the infectivity of potential airborne infectious materials. For example, influenza, tuberculosis, mycoplasma, and other pathogenic ones to be examined. For example, the main focus points are finding strains which are more easily spread and the probability of infection to occur. Also, for the prevention of infectious diseases, understanding host susceptibility and immune response are also important focal points. However, in the real atmospheric condition, there are many substances in the air both gas and particulate phases. Thus understanding the mechanism of airborne infection requires not only the pathogen by itself, but it also needs to include some other co-existing airborne materials such as dust and air pollutants. Therefore, investigating the viability of bacteria with the effects of the particulate matters commonly found in the atmosphere as the co-existing material is important. Our research activities primarily focus on interactions between the bioaerosols and some other particulate matters such as dust and air pollutant in the atmosphere. This approach tries to evaluate the factors attributing the prolongation or reduction of the viability of bioaerosols. More specifically, understanding the critical factors to determine the viability of airborne pathogen, it may be easier to find solutions to control the airborne infection. Our work also focuses on emerging diseases such as Non-tuberculosis mycobacterium (NTM) clinical case in Japan [2].  In order to achieve global health, the one health approach can bridge the medical and environmental sciences as the multidisciplinary effort to safeguard human, animal, and environmental health.  

A novel symmetry in nanocarbons: pre-constant discrete principal curvature structure

Since the first-principles calculations in quantum chemistry precisely provide possible configurations of carbon atoms in nanocarbons, we have analyzed the geometrical structure of the possible carbon configurations and found that there exists a novel symmetry in the nanocarbons, i.e., the pre-constant discrete principal curvature (pCDPC) structure. In terms of the discrete principal curvature based on the discrete geometry for trivalent oriented graphs developed by Kotani, Naito, and Omori (Comput. Aided Geom. Design, $\bf{58}$, (2017), 24-54), we numerically investigated discrete principal curvature distribution of the nanocarbons, C$_{60}$, carbon nanotubes, C$_{120}$ (C$_{60}$ dimer), and C$_{60}$-polymers (peanut-shaped fullerene polymers). While the C$_{60}$ and nanotubes have the constant discrete principal curvature (CDPC) as we expected, it is interesting to note that the C$_{60}$-polymers and C$_{60}$ dimer also have the almost constant discrete principal curvature, i.e., pCDPC, which is surprising. A nontrivial pCDPC structure with revolutionary symmetry is available due to discreteness, though it has been overlooked in geometry. In discrete geometry, there appears a center axisoid which is the discrete analogue of the center axis in the continuum differential geometry but has three-dimensional structure rather than a one-dimensional curve due to its discrete nature. We demonstrated that such pCDPC structure exists in nature, namely in the C$_{60}$-polymers. Furthermore, since we found that there is a positive correlation between the degree of the CDPC structure and stability of the configurations for certain class of the C$_{60}$-polymers, we also revealed the origin of the pCDPC structure from an aspect of materials science.Comment: 18 page

Longitudinal observation of insulin secretory ability before and after the onset of immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced diabetes mellitus: A report of two cases

Immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced diabetes mellitus is a rare immune-related adverse event. This report illustrates clinical data and insulin secretory ability before and after the onset of immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced diabetes

Numerical Analysis of Stress Intensity Factors of a Crack in the Composite Patch Repair

The composite patch repair technology can be utilized to provide upgrades, such as higher design requirements and life extensions. However, in this case, failures easily happen on the edge interface between the substrate material and the restorative material, because of the incompatible of different properties. Failures such as flaws or cracks lying along the interface reduce the strength of the structure significantly. In this paper, the numerical solutions of hypersingular integro-differential equations are discussed in the analysis of three dimensional interfacial cracks subjected to general internal pressure,and the problem is formulated on the basis of the body force method.The stress intensity factors are given with varying material combinations. It is found that the stress intensity factors and are determined by the bi-materials constant alone, independent of elastic modulus ratio and Poisson\u27s ratio.25th International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference (ISOPE-2015), Kona, Big Island, Hawaii, USA, June 21-26, 201

Endosonography-Guided Pancreatic Duct Drainage for Chronic Pancreatitis: A Case Report and Review

A 50-year-old man was admitted to our department, complaining of epigastric pain and high fever. CT revealed a pseudocyst at the pancreatic head with upstream dilatation of the pancreatic duct (PD) and fluid collection surrounding the pancreas. Endosonography-guided PD drainage (ESPD) was performed because of unsuccessful ERCP. With a curved linear array echoendoscope, a 7.2 F catheter was placed in the PD. Laboratory data showed improvement in a few days and revealed disappearance of the fluid collection. Ten days after ESPD, a 7 F stent was placed in the PD via the puncture tract across the papilla of Vater followed by transpapillary replacement with a 10 F stent. CT showed a reduction in diameter of the PD and disappearance of the pseudocyst. ESPD is a feasible and useful procedure in selected patients with chronic pancreatitis showing stenosis of the main PD when transpapillary approach is impossible

Extracellular and Mixotrophic Symbiosis in the Whale-Fall Mussel Adipicola pacifica: A Trend in Evolution from Extra- to Intracellular Symbiosis

http://www.godac.jamstec.go.jp/darwin/cruise/natsushima/nt05-12/

Changes in CCN activity of ship exhaust particles induced by fuel sulfur content reduction and wet scrubbing

Maritime transport remains a large source of airborne pollutants, including exhaust particles that can act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). While primary diesel engine exhaust particles are generally considered hydrophobic, international regulations targeting a reduction of particulate emissions from ships may have secondary effects, and therefore influence how exhaust interacts within the atmosphere. The effect of international fuel sulfur content (FSC) regulations on the cloud forming abilities of exhaust particles was investigated using a marine test engine operating on compliant low FSC fuels, non-compliant high FSC distillate fuels and in conjunction with a marine wet scrubber (fresh- and seawater). Particle sizing and liquid droplet activation measurements reveal that compliance measures can have opposing effects on the CCN activity of exhaust particles. For a non-compliant, high FSC fuel, wet scrubbing leads to an increase in CCN activity but not to significant increases in CCN emission factors. However, switching to low FSC fuels resulted in emissions of highly hydrophobic particles, causing a significant reduction in CCN activity resulting in smaller CCN emission factors by at least one order of magnitude. Our observations are supported by chemical analysis of exhaust particles using scanning transmission X-ray microscopy and near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (STXM/NEXAFS) spectra. Potential implications of effects on ship exhaust particles for cloud and climate interactions due to different compliance measures are discussed