Soybean protein fraction digested with neutral protease preparation, "Peptidase R", produced by Rhizopus oryzae, stimulates innate cellular immune system in mouse

ArticleInternational Immunopharmacology. 9(7-8):931-936 (2009)journal articl

A Water Maser and Ammonia Survey of GLIMPSE Extended Green Objects (EGOs)

We present the results of a Nobeyama 45-m water maser and ammonia survey of all 94 northern GLIMPSE Extended Green Objects (EGOs), a sample of massive young stellar objects (MYSOs) identified based on their extended 4.5 micron emission. We observed the ammonia (1,1), (2,2), and (3,3) inversion lines, and detect emission towards 97%, 63%, and 46% of our sample, respectively (median rms ~50 mK). The water maser detection rate is 68% (median rms ~0.11 Jy). The derived water maser and clump-scale gas properties are consistent with the identification of EGOs as young MYSOs. To explore the degree of variation among EGOs, we analyze subsamples defined based on MIR properties or maser associations. Water masers and warm dense gas, as indicated by emission in the higher-excitation ammonia transitions, are most frequently detected towards EGOs also associated with both Class I and II methanol masers. 95% (81%) of such EGOs are detected in water (ammonia(3,3)), compared to only 33% (7%) of EGOs without either methanol maser type. As populations, EGOs associated with Class I and/or II methanol masers have significantly higher ammonia linewidths, column densities, and kinetic temperatures than EGOs undetected in methanol maser surveys. However, we find no evidence for statistically significant differences in water maser properties (such as maser luminosity) among any EGO subsamples. Combining our data with the 1.1 mm continuum Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey, we find no correlation between isotropic water maser luminosity and clump number density. Water maser luminosity is weakly correlated with clump (gas) temperature and clump mass.Comment: Astrophysical Journal, accepted. Emulateapj, 24 pages including 24 figures, plus 9 tables (including full content of online-only tables

Candidal adherence to cultured human cells of varying origin

published_or_final_versio

Patterns of silver eel (Anguilla anguilla L.) sex ratio in a catchment

Changes in the numbers and size-class structure of European silver eels, Anguilla anguilla, in the River Fre´mur (France) were examined over a 9-year period after installation of downstream eel passes. The number of silver eels migrating downstream peaked in 1999, then decreased strongly and steadily after 2000, reaching relatively low levels. At the same time, a gradual shift in the silver eel sex ratio from a dominance of males (size from 270 to 442 mm, age from 3 to 6 years) to females (size from 366 to 1112 mm, age from 4 to 9 years) was recorded. Possible explanations for the escapement patterns observed are environmental sex determination and the installation of eel passes on the main hydraulic engineering structures in 1992 and 1996

A Water Maser and NH_3 Survey of GLIMPSE Extended Green Objects

We present the results of a Nobeyama 45 m H_(2)O maser and NH_3 survey of all 94 northern GLIMPSE extended green objects (EGOs), a sample of massive young stellar objects (MYSOs) identified based on their extended 4.5 μm emission. We observed the NH3(1,1), (2,2), and (3,3) inversion lines, and detected emission toward 97%, 63%, and 46% of our sample, respectively (median rms ~ 50 mK). The H_(2)O maser detection rate is 68% (median rms ~ 0.11 Jy). The derived H_(2)O maser and clump-scale gas properties are consistent with the identification of EGOs as young MYSOs. To explore the degree of variation among EGOs, we analyze subsamples defined based on mid-infrared (MIR) properties or maser associations. H_(2)O masers and warm dense gas, as indicated by emission in the higher-excitation NH_3 transitions, are most frequently detected toward EGOs also associated with both Class I and II CH_(3)OH masers. Ninety-five percent (81%) of such EGOs are detected in H_(2)O (NH_(3)(3,3)), compared to only 33% (7%) of EGOs without either CH_(3)OH maser type. As populations, EGOs associated with Class I and/or II CH3OH masers have significantly higher NH_3 line widths, column densities, and kinetic temperatures than EGOs undetected in CH_(3)OH maser surveys. However, we find no evidence for statistically significant differences in H_(2)O maser properties (such as maser luminosity) among any EGO subsamples. Combining our data with the 1.1 mm continuum Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey, we find no correlation between isotropic H_(2)O maser luminosity and clump number density. H_(2)O maser luminosity is weakly correlated with clump (gas) temperature and clump mass

Multimaterial Piezoelectric Fibres

Fibre materials span a broad range of applications ranging from simple textile yarns to complex modern fibre-optic communication systems. Throughout their history, a key premise has remained essentially unchanged: fibres are static devices, incapable of controllably changing their properties over a wide range of frequencies. A number of approaches to realizing time-dependent variations in fibres have emerged, including refractive index modulation1, 2, 3, 4, nonlinear optical mechanisms in silica glass fibres5, 6, 7, 8 and electroactively modulated polymer fibres9. These approaches have been limited primarily because of the inert nature of traditional glassy fibre materials. Here we report the composition of a phase internal to a composite fibre structure that is simultaneously crystalline and non-centrosymmetric. A ferroelectric polymer layer of 30 μm thickness is spatially confined and electrically contacted by internal viscous electrodes and encapsulated in an insulating polymer cladding hundreds of micrometres in diameter. The structure is thermally drawn in its entirety from a macroscopic preform, yielding tens of metres of piezoelectric fibre. The fibres show a piezoelectric response and acoustic transduction from kilohertz to megahertz frequencies. A single-fibre electrically driven device containing a high-quality-factor Fabry–Perot optical resonator and a piezoelectric transducer is fabricated and measured.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program, award number DMR-0819762)United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Griggs)United States. Army Research Office (Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, contract no. W911NF-07-D-0004

Gingival Fibroblasts as a Promising Source of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells efficiently generated from accessible tissues have the potential for clinical applications. Oral gingiva, which is often resected during general dental treatments and treated as biomedical waste, is an easily obtainable tissue, and cells can be isolated from patients with minimal discomfort.We herein demonstrate iPS cell generation from adult wild-type mouse gingival fibroblasts (GFs) via introduction of four factors (Oct3/4, Sox2, Klf4 and c-Myc; GF-iPS-4F cells) or three factors (the same as GF-iPS-4F cells, but without the c-Myc oncogene; GF-iPS-3F cells) without drug selection. iPS cells were also generated from primary human gingival fibroblasts via four-factor transduction. These cells exhibited the morphology and growth properties of embryonic stem (ES) cells and expressed ES cell marker genes, with a decreased CpG methylation ratio in promoter regions of Nanog and Oct3/4. Additionally, teratoma formation assays showed ES cell-like derivation of cells and tissues representative of all three germ layers. In comparison to mouse GF-iPS-4F cells, GF-iPS-3F cells showed consistently more ES cell-like characteristics in terms of DNA methylation status and gene expression, although the reprogramming process was substantially delayed and the overall efficiency was also reduced. When transplanted into blastocysts, GF-iPS-3F cells gave rise to chimeras and contributed to the development of the germline. Notably, the four-factor reprogramming efficiency of mouse GFs was more than 7-fold higher than that of fibroblasts from tail-tips, possibly because of their high proliferative capacity.These results suggest that GFs from the easily obtainable gingival tissues can be readily reprogrammed into iPS cells, thus making them a promising cell source for investigating the basis of cellular reprogramming and pluripotency for future clinical applications. In addition, high-quality iPS cells were generated from mouse GFs without Myc transduction or a specific system for reprogrammed cell selection

The Potential-Density Phase Shift Method for Determining the Corotation Radii in Spiral and Barred Galaxies

We have developed a new method for determining the corotation radii of density waves in disk galaxies, which makes use of the radial distribution of an azimuthal phase shift between the potential and density wave patterns. The approach originated from improved theoretical understandings of the relation between the morphology and kinematics of galaxies, and on the dynamical interaction between density waves and the basic-state disk stars which results in the secular evolution of disk galaxies. In this paper, we present the rationales behind the method, and the first application of it to several representative barred and grand-design spiral galaxies, using near-infrared images to trace the mass distributions, as well as to calculate the potential distributions used in the phase shift calculations. We compare our results with those from other existing methods for locating the corotations, and show that the new method both confirms the previously-established trends of bar-length dependence on galaxy morphological types, as well as provides new insights into the possible extent of bars in disk galaxies. Application of the method to a larger sample and the preliminary analysis of which show that the phase shift method is likely to be a generally-applicable, accurate, and essentially model-independent method for determining the pattern speeds and corotation radii of single or nested density wave patterns in galaxies. Other implications of this work are: most of the nearby bright disk galaxies appear to possess quasi-stationary spiral modes; that these density wave modes and the associated basic state of the galactic disk slowly transform over time; and that self-consistent N-particle systems contain physics not revealed by the passive orbit analysis approaches.Comment: 48 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

The Schmidt-Kennicutt Law of Matched-Age Star Forming Regions; Pa-alpha Observations of the Early-Phase Interacting Galaxy Taffy I

In order to test a recent hypothesis that the dispersion in the Schmidt-Kennicutt law arises from variations in the evolutionary stage of star forming molecular clouds, we compared molecular gas and recent star formation in an early-phase merger galaxy pair, Taffy I (UGC\ 12915/UGC\ 12914, VV\ 254) which went through a direct collision 20 Myr ago and whose star forming regions are expected to have similar ages. Narrow-band Pa-alpha image is obtained using the ANIR near-infrared camera on the mini-TAO 1m telescope. The image enables us to derive accurate star formation rates within the galaxy directly. The total star formation rate, 22.2 M_sun/yr, was found to be much higher than previous estimates. Ages of individual star forming blobs estimated from equivalent widths indicate that most star forming regions are ~7 Myr old, except for a giant HII region at the bridge which is much younger. Comparison between star formation rates and molecular gas masses for the regions with the same age exhibits a surprisingly tight correlation, a slope of unity, and star formation efficiencies comparable to those of starburst galaxies. These results suggest that Taffy I has just evolved into a starburst system after the collision, and the star forming sites are at a similar stage in their evolution from natal molecular clouds except for the bridge region. The tight Schmidt-Kennicutt law supports the scenario that dispersion in the star formation law is in large part due to differences in evolutionary stage of star forming regions.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journa