Inter-meson Potentials in Dual Ginzburg-Landau Theory

We calculate inter-meson potentials numerically by solving classical equations of motion derived from Dual Ginzburg-Landau (DGL) Theory. Inter-meson potentials in DGL theory are shown to be similar to those of the string-flip model and well reproduce behaviors of the short-range interaction at the classical level. We also compare our results with those from lattice QCD Monte carlo calculations.Comment: 18 pages, latex, 8 figure

The 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydratases HACD1 and HACD2 exhibit functional redundancy and are active in a wide range of fatty acid elongation pathways

Differences among fatty acids (FAs) in chain length and number of double bonds create lipid diversity. FA elongation proceeds via a four-step reaction cycle, in which the 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydratases (HACDs) HACD1-4 catalyze the third step. However, the contribution of each HACD to 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydratase activity in certain tissues or in different FA elongation pathways remains unclear. HACD1 is specifically expressed in muscles and is a myopathy-causative gene. Here, we generated Hacd1 KO mice and observed that these mice had reduced body and skeletal muscle weights. In skeletal muscle, HACD1 mRNA expression was by far the highest among the HACDs. However, we observed only an similar to 40% reduction in HACD activity and no changes in membrane lipid composition in Hacd1-KO skeletal muscle, suggesting that some HACD activities are redundant. Moreover, when expressed in yeast, both HACD1 and HACD2 participated in saturated and monounsaturated FA elongation pathways. Disruption of HACD2 in the haploid human cell line HAP1 significantly reduced FA elongation activities toward both saturated and unsaturated FAs, and HACD1 HACD2 double disruption resulted in a further reduction. Overexpressed HACD3 exhibited weak activity in saturated and monounsaturated FA elongation pathways, and no activity was detected for HACD4. We therefore conclude that HACD1 and HACD2 exhibit redundant activities in a wide range of FA elongation pathways, including those for saturated to polyunsaturated FAs, with HACD2 being the major 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydratase. Our findings are important for furthering the understanding of the molecular mechanisms in FA elongation and diversity

Estimating the Best Time to View Cherry Blossoms Using Time-Series Forecasting Method

In recent years, tourist information collection using the internet has become common. Tourists are increasingly using internet resources to obtain tourist information. Social network service (SNS) users share tourist information of various kinds. Twitter, one SNS, has been used for many studies. We are pursuing research supporting a method using Twitter to help tourists obtain information: estimates of the best time to view cherry blossoms. Earlier studies have proposed a low-cost moving average method using geotagged tweets related to location information. Geotagged tweets are helpful as social sensors for real-time estimation and for the acquisition of local tourist information because the information can reflect real-world situations. Earlier studies have used weighted moving averages, indicating that a person can estimate the best time to view cherry blossoms in each prefecture. This study proposes a time-series prediction method using SNS data and machine learning as a new method for estimating the best times for viewing for a certain period. Combining the time-series forecasting method and the low-cost moving average method yields an estimate of the best time to view cherry blossoms. This report describes results confirming the usefulness of the proposed method by experimentation with estimation of the best time to view beautiful cherry blossoms in each prefecture and municipality