Gut immune dysfunction through impaired innate pattern recognition receptor expression and gut microbiota dysbiosis in chronic SIV infection.

HIV targets the gut mucosa early in infection, causing immune and epithelial barrier dysfunction and disease progression. However, gut mucosal sensing and innate immune signaling through mucosal pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) during HIV infection and disease progression are not well defined. Using the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-infected rhesus macaque model of AIDS, we found a robust increase in PRRs and inflammatory cytokine gene expression during the acute SIV infection in both peripheral blood and gut mucosa, coinciding with viral replication. PRR expression remained elevated in peripheral blood following the transition to chronic SIV infection. In contrast, massive dampening of PRR expression was detected in the gut mucosa, despite the presence of detectable viral loads. Exceptionally, expression of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and TLR8 was downmodulated and diverged from expression patterns for most other TLRs in the gut. Decreased mucosal PRR expression was associated with increased abundance of several pathogenic bacterial taxa, including Pasteurellaceae members, Aggregatibacter and Actinobacillus, and Mycoplasmataceae family. Early antiretroviral therapy led to viral suppression but only partial maintenance of gut PRRs and cytokine gene expression. In summary, SIV infection dampens mucosal innate immunity through PRR dysregulation and may promote immune activation, gut microbiota changes, and ineffective viral clearance

Material processing using ultrashort light pulses with tilted front

Femtosecond laser writing in glass is controlled by the polarization plane azimuth and intensity front tilt of light pulse. Polarization dependent distribution of extraordinary modifications along the light propagation direction is observed

Explicit Formulae Showing the Effects of Texture on Acoustoelastic Coefficients

It is well known that crystallographic texture not only modifies the elastic constants of polycrystalline aggregates at (unstressed) natural states but also affects their acoustoelastic coefficients when the aggregates are stressed. While exact knowledge about the effects of texture on acoustoelastic coefficients has hitherto remained wanting, such effects are usually assumed to be negligible and are ignored in practical applications of acoustoelasticity (cf. [1] for example). Concerning this common practice, Thompson et al. [2] have urged caution: Care must be taken when [this] assumption is made since the influence of texture on acoustoelastic constants is stronger than its influence on elastic moduli or velocities

Revealing extraordinary properties of femtosecond laser writing in glass

Modification of transparent materials with ultrafast lasers has attracted considerable interest due to a wide range of applications including laser surgery, integrated optics, optical data storage, 3D micro- and nano-structuring [1].Three different types of material modifications can be induced with ultrafast laser irradiation in the bulk of a transparent material, silica glass in particular: an isotropic refractive index change (type 1); a form birefringence associated with self-assembled nanogratings and negative refractive index change (type 2) [2,3]; and a void (type 3). In fused silica the transition from type 1 to type 2 and finally to type 3 modification is observed with an increase of fluence. Recently, a remarkable phenomenon in ultrafast laser processing of transparent materials has been reported manifesting itself as a change in material modification by reversing the writing direction [4]. The phenomenon has been interpreted in terms of anisotropic plasma heating by a tilted front of the ultrashort laser pulse. Moreover a change in structural modification has been demonstrated in glass by controlling the direction of pulse front tilt, achieving a calligraphic style of laser writing which is similar in appearance to that inked with the bygone quill pen [5]. It has also been a common belief that in a homogeneous medium, the photosensitivity and corresponding light-induced material modifications do not change on the reversal of light propagation direction. More recently it have observed that in a noncentrosymmetric medium, modification of the material can be different when light propagates in opposite directions (KaYaSo effect) [6]. Non-reciprocity is produced by magnetic field (Faraday effect) and movement of the medium with respect to the direction of light propagation: parallel (Sagnac effect) or perpendicular (KaYaSo effect). Moreover a new phenomenon of ultrafast light blade, representing itself the first evidence of anisotropic sensitivity of isotropic medium to femtosecond laser radiation has been recently discovered [7]. We attribute these new phenomena to the anisotropy of the light-matter interaction caused by space-time couplings in ultrashort light pulses. This intrinsic spatio-temporal asymmetry of light opens an interesting opportunity in the control of photon flux interacting with a target submerged into condensed isotropic medium. We anticipate that the observed phenomena will open new opportunities in laser material processing, laser surgery, optical manipulation and data storage

Recent advances in femtosecond laser writing inside transparent materials

Modification of transparent materials with ultrafast lasers has attracted considerable interest due to a wide range of applications including laser surgery, integrated optics, optical data storage, 3D microand nano-structuring [1].T Three different types of material modifications can be induced with ultrafast laser irradiation in the bulk of a transparent material, silica glass in particular: an isotropic refractive index change (type 1); a form birefringence associated with self-assembled nanogratings and negative refractive index change (type 2) [2,3]; and a void (type 3). In fused silica the transition from type 1 to type 2 and finally to type 3 modification is observed with an increase of fluence. Recently, a remarkable phenomenon in ultrafast laser processing of transparent materials has been reported manifesting itself as a change in material modification by reversing the writing direction [4]. The phenomenon has been interpreted in terms of anisotropic plasma heating by a tilted front of the ultrashort laser pulse. Moreover a change in structural modification has been demonstrated in glass by controlling the direction of pulse front tilt, achieving a calligraphic style of laser writing which is similar in appearance to that inked with the bygone quill pen [5]. It has also been a common belief that in a homogeneous medium, the photosensitivity and corresponding light-induced material modifications do not change on the reversal of light propagation direction. More recently it have observed that in a non-centrosymmetric medium, modification of the material can be different when light propagates in opposite directions (KaYaSo effect) [6]. Moreover a new phenomenon of ultrafast light blade, representing itself the first evidence of anisotropic sensitivity of isotropic medium to femtosecond laser radiation has been recently discovered [7]. We attribute these new phenomena to the anisotropy of the light-matter interaction caused by space-time couplings in ultrashort light pulses. We anticipate that the observed phenomena will open new opportunities in laser material processing, laser surgery, optical manipulation and data storage

Discovery of coesite and stishovite in HED meteorite

第3回極域科学シンポジウム/第35回南極隕石シンポジウム 11月29日（木） 国立国語研究所 2階講

Site-specific biotinylation of RNA molecules by transcription using unnatural base pairs

Direct site-specific biotinylation of RNA molecules was achieved by specific transcription mediated by unnatural base pairs. Unnatural base pairs between 2-amino-6-(2-thienyl)purine (denoted by s) and 2-oxo(1H)pyridine (denoted by y), or 2-amino-6-(2-thiazolyl)purine (denoted as v) and y specifically function in T7 transcription. Using these unnatural base pairs, the substrate of biotinylated-y (Bio-yTP) was selectively incorporated into RNA, opposite s or v in the DNA templates, by T7 RNA polymerase. This method was applied to the immobilization of an RNA aptamer on sensor chips, and the aptamer accurately recognized its target protein. This direct site-specific biotinylation will provide a tool for RNA-based biotechnologies

Changes in pollinator fauna affect altitudinal variation of floral size in a bumblebee-pollinated herb

Geographic trait variations are often caused by locally different selection regimes. As a steep environmental cline along altitude strongly influences adaptive traits, mountain ecosystems are ideal for exploring adaptive differentiation over short distances. We investigated altitudinal floral size variation of Campanula punctata var. hondoensis in 12 populations in three mountain regions of central Japan to test whether the altitudinal floral size variation was correlated with the size of the local bumblebee pollinator and to assess whether floral size was selected for by pollinator size. We found apparent geographic variations in pollinator assemblages along altitude, which consequently produced a geographic change in pollinator size. Similarly, we found altitudinal changes in floral size, which proved to be correlated with the local pollinator size, but not with altitude itself. Furthermore, pollen removal from flower styles onto bees (plant's male fitness) was strongly influenced by the size match between flower style length and pollinator mouthpart length. These results strongly suggest that C. punctata floral size is under pollinator-mediated selection and that a geographic mosaic of locally adapted C. punctata exists at fine spatial scale.ArticleECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION. 4(17):3395-3407 (2014)journal articl

Pressure Destabilizes Oxygen Vacancies in Bridgmanite

Bridgmanite may contain a large proportion of ferric iron in its crystal structure in the forms of FeFeO3 and MgFeO2.5 components. We investigated the pressure dependence of FeFeO3 and MgFeO2.5 contents in bridgmanite coexisting with MgFe2O4-phase and with or without ferropericlase in the MgO-SiO2-Fe2O3 ternary system at 2,300 K, 33 and 40 GPa. Together with the experiments at 27 GPa reported in Fei et al. (2020, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL086296), our results show that the FeFeO3 and MgFeO2.5 contents in bridgmanite decrease from 7.6 to 5.3 mol % and from 2 to 3 mol % to nearly zero, respectively, with increasing pressure from 27 to 40 GPa. Accordingly, the total Fe3+ decreases from 0.18 to 0.11 pfu. The formation of oxygen vacancies (MgFeO2.5 component) in bridgmanite is therefore dramatically suppressed by pressure. Oxygen vacancies can be produced by ferric iron in Fe3+-rich bridgmanite under the topmost lower mantle conditions, but the concentration should decrease rapidly with increasing pressure. The variation of oxygen-vacancy content with depth may potentially affect the physical properties of bridgmanite and thus affect mantle dynamics

Revealing new properties of light-matter interaction using ultrashort light pulses: from self-assembled nanostructures to hidden anisotropy of light beam

Interaction of intense ulrashort light pulses with transparent materials reveal new interesting properties and phenomena. Recent demonstrations of 3D nanoripple formation, nonreciprocal photosensitivity, ultrafast laser calligraphy and light blade effect due to hidden anisotropy of ultrafast laser beam are reviewed