The YKK Group as a global company in Poland

YKK to japońska grupa przedsiębiorstw przemysłu przetwórczego. Jest największym i najbardziej znanym w świecie producentem zamków błyskawicznych – ponad 90% globalnej podaży. Oprócz ekspresów firma produkuje pasmanterię i inne dodatki krawieckie, ale także elementy architektoniczne (drzwi, okna, żaluzje itd.), a nawet maszyny i urządzenia do ich wytwarzania. Struktura zarządzania ma charakter globalny, tzn. produkcja nadzorowana jest przez spółki biznesowe operujące w zakresie wymienionych wyrobów, przy uwzględnieniu wsparcia ze strony spółek dostarczających sprzęt i technologię. Obecnie YKK prowadzi działalność w 71 krajach w sześciu regionach geograficznych: 1. Ameryka Północna i Środkowa; 2. Ameryka Południowa; 3. Europa, Bliski Wschód i Afryka; 4. Chiny; 5. Azja; 6. Japonia. Pierwszym krajem europejskim, w którym wybudowano fabrykę YKK, była Holandia (1964 r.). Niezależna spółka YKK Poland powstała w 1996 r., a pierwszą fabrykę wybudowano w Mszczonowie (45 km od Warszawy) w 2001 r. Z perspektywy kilkunastu lat autor stwierdza, że był to dobry wybór. Sprzedaż na krajowy rynek polski wciąż rośnie i chociaż Polska nie jest już bazą eksportową dla przemysłu lekkiego na Europę Zachodnią, w dalszym ciągu pozostaje ważnym przyczółkiem ekspansji na Wschód. Poszerzyła się też struktura asortymentowa i nastąpiło wejście w nowe obszary działalności: branżę motoryzacyjną, meblarską i obuwniczą. Historia firmy YKK stanowi dobry przykład udanej inwestycji w Polsce i stanowi zachętę dla innych firm japońskich.The organizers of the conference wish to acknowledge the National Bank of Poland’s generous funding of this publication

Rhodium-Catalyzed Cascade Annulative Coupling of 3,5-Diarylisoxazoles with Alkynes

A rhodium-catalyzed cascade annulative coupling of 3,5-diarylisoxazoles with three equivalents of an alkyne proceeds smoothly in the presence of a Cu(II) oxidant, where the sequential construction of isoquinoline and naphtho[1,8- bc ]pyran frameworks connected by a biaryl linkage is achieved by a single operation. Most of the obtained polycyclic compounds exhibit visible fluorescence in both the solution and the solid state. The hexaphenylated isoquinoline-naphthopyran conjugate (R = Ph) as a representative product shows a green emission which can be turned off by making an isoquinolinium salt with an acid. The emission is also reversibly turned on by treatment with a base.Noguchi T., Nishii Y., Miura M.. Rhodium-Catalyzed Cascade Annulative Coupling of 3,5-Diarylisoxazoles with Alkynes. Synthesis (Germany) 51, 258 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0037-1610376

Priority Assessment of Software Requirements from Multiple Perspectives

The development of complex software systems involves collecting software requirements from various stakeholders. Often stakeholder perceptions conflict during the requirements elicitation phase. An effective technique to resolve such a conflict is needed. We presented a framework that prioritizes software requirements gathered from multiple stakeholders by incorporating inter-perspective relationships, which is not addressed by existing priority assessment techniques. We use a relationship matrix to analyze the impact between requirements and facilitate the integration process which assesses their priorities based on their relationships from multiple perspectives. It allows the development team to resolve conflicts effectively and concentrate their valuable time and resources on the critical few requirements from multiple perspectives that directly contribute to high customer satisfaction

Adverse effects of advanced glycation end products on embryonal development

We studied the effects of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), which are known to accumulate in patients with diabetes, autoimmune diseases, or those who smoke, on embryonal development. Pronuclear (PN) embryos were obtained by flushing the fallopian tubes of rats after superovulation and mating. The cleavage rate and blastocyst yield were evaluated at 24, 72, 96, and 120 h of culture. Glyoxal, an AGE-forming aldehyde, suppressed embryonal development at every stage from PN to blastocyst in a concentration-dependent manner. The cleavage rate of the embryo was also signifi cantly decreased by treatment with glyoxal at concentrations of 1 mM or higher. The blastocyst yield was significantly decreased by treatment with glyoxal at concentrations of 0.5 mM or higher. N-acetyl-L-cysteine (L-NAC) at 1 mM significantly suppressed the glyoxal-induced embryonal toxicity. BSA-AGEs at 5 microg/ml or higher concentration signifi cantly reduced the cleavage rate and blastocyst yield compared to those for BSA-treated embryos. L-NAC at 1 mM significantly suppressed BSAAGE-induced embryonal toxicity. Because AGEs are embryo-toxic, AGE contamination may influence the pregnancy rate of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer. AGEs, which are increased in women under pathological conditions, may also be involved in their infertility.</p

Rhodium-catalyzed annulative coupling of isothiazoles with alkynes through n-s bond cleavage

A Rh(III)-catalyzed annulative coupling of 3,5-diarylisothiazoles and alkynes is reported. The N–S bond in the isothi-azole ring acts as an internal oxidant to regenerate the Rh(III) species in combination with an external Cu(II) oxidant, and the corre-sponding 1:2 coupling products are obtained. The remarkable difference in the reaction outcome between isothiazoles and the relevant isoxazoles has been investigated by DFT calculations, revealing that the relative stability of the enolate intermediates dictates the product selectivity.Mihara G., Noguchi T., Nishii Y., et al. Rhodium-catalyzed annulative coupling of isothiazoles with alkynes through n-s bond cleavage. Organic Letters. 22(2), 661-665, (2020), 17 January 2020; ©2020 American Chemical Society. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.orglett.9b04437

Molecular Characterization of Superficial Layers of the Presubiculum During Development

The presubiculum, a subarea of the parahippocampal region, plays a critical role in spatial navigation and spatial representation. An outstanding aspect of presubicular spatial codes is head-direction selectivity of the firing of excitatory neurons, called head-direction cells. Head-direction selectivity emerges before eye-opening in rodents and is maintained in adulthood through neurophysiological interactions between excitatory and inhibitory neurons. Although the presubiculum has been physiologically profiled in terms of spatial representation during development, the histological characteristics of the developing presubiculum are poorly understood. We found that the expression of vesicular glutamate transporter 2 (VGluT2) could be used to delimit the superficial layers of the presubiculum, which was identified using an anterograde tracer injected into the anterior thalamic nucleus (ATN). Thus, we immunostained slices from mice ranging in age from neonates to adults using an antibody against VGluT2 to evaluate the VGluT2-positive area, which was identified as the superficial layers of the presubiculum, during development. We also immunostained the slices using antibodies against parvalbumin (PV) and somatostatin (SOM) and found that in the presubicular superficial layers, PV-positive neurons progressively increased in number during development, whereas SOM-positive neurons exhibited no increasing trend. In addition, we observed repeating patch structures in presubicular layer III from postnatal days 12. The abundant expression of VGluT2 suggests that the presubicular superficial layers are regulated primarily by VGluT2-mediated excitatory neurotransmission. Moreover, developmental changes in the densities of PV- and SOM-positive interneurons and the emergence of the VGluT2-positive patch structures during adolescence may be associated with the functional development of spatial codes in the superficial layers of the presubiculum

Machine learning-based segmentation of the rodent hippocampal CA2 area from Nissl-stained sections

The hippocampus is a center of learning, memory, and spatial navigation. This region is divided into the CA1, CA2, and CA3 areas, which are anatomically different from each other. Among these divisions, the CA2 area is unique in terms of functional relevance to sociality. The CA2 area is often manually detected based on the size, shape, and density of neurons in the hippocampal pyramidal cell layer, but this manual segmentation relying on cytoarchitecture is impractical to apply to a large number of samples and dependent on experimenters’ proficiency. Moreover, the CA2 area has been defined based on expression pattern of molecular marker proteins, but it generally takes days to complete immunostaining for such proteins. Thus, we asked whether the CA2 area can be systematically segmented based on cytoarchitecture alone. Since the expression pattern of regulator of G-protein signaling 14 (RGS14) signifies the CA2 area, we visualized the CA2 area in the mouse hippocampus by RGS14-immunostaining and Nissl-counterstaining and manually delineated the CA2 area. We then established “CAseg,” a machine learning-based automated algorithm to segment the CA2 area with the F1-score of approximately 0.8 solely from Nissl-counterstained images that visualized cytoarchitecture. CAseg was extended to the segmentation of the prairie vole CA2 area, which raises the possibility that the use of this algorithm can be expanded to other species. Thus, CAseg will be beneficial for investigating unique properties of the hippocampal CA2 area

Characterization of mouse switch variant antibodies by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

The amino acid sequences of mouse monoclonal antibodies have been characterized completely by mass spectrometry. Antibodies used in the present study were derived from mouse switch variant cell lines that produce four kinds of immunoglobulin Gs (IgGs). The amino acid sequences of these antibodies had not been estimated from the corresponding DNA sequence, so the sequences of IgGs derived from other strains were used as references in this study. Intra- and interchain disulfide bonds of the IgGs were reduced and carboxymethylated and the products were subjected to proteolytic digestion. The existence of N-linked oligosaccharides also was taken into account. The capabilities and limitations of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry and capillary liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry are discussed in the structural characterization of the antibodies. Based on our results, allotypes of the antibodies examined are discussed. This study shows that amino acid sequences of proteins, such as IgG, can be investigated without information about the corresponding DNA sequence if appropriate reference sequences derived from other strains can be used