STUDIES ON THE COLORATION OF TOMATO FRUITS

This study was carried out from 1957 to 1961 to thoroughly investigate how the coloration of tomato fruits is influenced by environmental condition and cultivating method, using 28 varieties at the Agricultural Faculty, Shinshu University. In addition, reserches on growth of plant and quality of fruits were made. 1. In analyzing pigments, the column chromatographic method was used, in which calcium carbonate and active aluminium oxide were used as adsorbents, and aceton, petroleum benzine and ethyl ether as solvents. 2. In determining the concentrations of pigments in the extracts, the extinction coefficients were measured for chlorophyll, xanthophyll, carotene and lycopene with wave length 660, 440, 448 and 470 mo respectively, using the 1 cm cell of BECKMANN DU spectrophotometer. The concentration of each pigment was estimated from the extinction coefficient obtained by means of the standard calibrated curve. 3. Chlorophyll, carotene and xanthophyll were detected in young fruits already five days after flowering, but these pigments decreased with the fruit growth. About 45 days after flowering, chlorophyll could no longer be detected. On the other hand, carotene and xanthophyll increased as chlorophyll disappeared and fruits matured. Lycopene was not present in fruits until 40 days after flowering, but appeared at the time of disappearance of chlorophyll and increased rapidly thereafter. Chlorophyll content was high in younger fruits, and carotene, lycopene and xanthophyll contents were high in mature fruits. 4. Among the 28 varieties, it was observed that the number of flowers increased in flower clusters of higher positions, but the setting rate of their fruits decreased. Accordingly, the coefficient of fruit set decreased in higher flower clusters. Varieties Shugyoku, Ponderosa and Aichi-tomato had more flowers than the others. Variety Shugyoku showed the highest fruit setting among the varieties observed, and its coefficient of fruit set for the first three flower clusters was 97.5 per cent. 5. Lycopene content was higher in Kikyoiku-Ichigo, Kiyosu-Nigo, and Furuyawase in 1958 and in Oogata-Akafuku and Oogata-Fukuju in 1959 than in the other varieties. Lycopene contents of varieties in 1959 were higher than those in 1958, while there were no difference in carotene and xanthophyll contents between the fruits produced in both years. 6. Chlorophyll, carotene and xanthophyll contents in exposed fruits were much higher than in shaded ones. Lycopene content from 40 days to 55 days after flowering was slightly higher in exposed fruits than in shaded ones, but that in fruits 60 days after flowering was much higher in shaded fruits than in exposed ones. 7. Young and mature exposed fruits were cut into upper and lower halves. Chlorophyll, carotene, xanthophyll and sugar contents in young fruits, and carotene and xanthophyll contents in mature fruits were much higher in the lower half than in the upper half, but in mature fruits, lycopene and sugar contents of the upper half were higher than in the lower half. 8. Immature and mature exposed fruits were divided into exposed and shaded sides. Chlorophyll, carotene and xanthophyll contents of immature fruits, and carotene and xanthophyll contents of mature fruits were much higher in the exposed side than in the shaded side, but lycopene content in mature fruits was higher in the shaded side than in the exposed side. 9. Microscopical observation on chlomoplasts revealed many yellow granular masses in the flesh of the outer part of the fruits and needle-shaped pink crystals of lycopene in the flesh cells of the flower-end and the core of the fruit. Especially, flesh of the core had the largest amount of lycopene. 10. Fruits covered with white vinyl bag had the largest amounts of chlorophyll, carotene, lycopene and xanthophyll among fruits covered with vinyl bags of various colors. Fruits covered with black vinyl bag had the smallest amount. 11. As for pigment contents, phosphorus deficient fruits contained less lycopene, carotene and xanthophyll, but nitrogen deficient fruits contained more lycopene than control fruits. 12. Fruits stored at 22℃ contained more, and those stored at 15℃ contained less, lycopene than those stored at other temperatures. 13. Lycopene content in fruits stored at 35℃ was small, but fruits subsequently stored at room temperature produced lycopene. 14. The respiration rate of fruits decreased from immature stage to green mature stage and increased from green mature stage to mature stage. The climacteric peak of respiration rate appeared when the whole fruit was colored and the respiration rate was decreased thereafter. 15. The pigment contents in fruits stored in carbon di-oxide were lower than those of fruits stored in oxygen.Article信州大学農学部紀要 3(3): 223-292(1964)departmental bulletin pape

Estimating Stochastic Volatility Models Using Daily Returns and Realized Volatility Simultaneously ( Revised in March 2008; Published in "Computational Statistics and Data Analysis", 53-6, 2404-2426. April 2009. )

Realized volatility, which is the sum of squared intraday returns over a certain interval such as a day, has recently attracted the attention of financial economists and econometricians as an accurate measure of the true volatility. In the real market,however, the presence of non-trading hours and market microstructure noise in transaction prices may cause the bias in the realized volatility. On the other hand, daily returns are less subject to the noise and therefore may provide additional information on the true volatility. From this point of view, we propose modeling realized volatility and daily returns simultaneously based on well-known stochastic volatility model. Using intraday data of Tokyo stock price index, we show that this model can estimate realized volatility biases and parameters simultaneously.We take a Bayesian approach and propose an efficient sampling algorithm to implement the Markov chain Monte Carlo method for our simultaneous model. The result of the model comparison between the simultaneous models using both naive and scaled realized volatilities indicates that the effect of non-trading hours is more essential than that of microstructure noise but still the latter has to be considered for better fitting. Our Bayesian approach has an advantage over the conventional two-step correction procedure in that we are able to take the uncertainty in estimation of both biases and parameters into account for the prediction and the evaluation of Value-at-Risk.

The Influence of Hormone Spray on the Growth and Pigment Content of Tomato Fruit

Experiments were carried out to measure the plant growth and the pigment and carbohydrate contents of fruits affected by hormone spray at Shinshu University Agricultural Faculty in 1959. Variety Aichi-tomato was used. Hormone used and their concentrations were para-chlorophenoxyacetic acid, 30 p. p. m.; gibberellin, 50 p. p. m. ; naphthaleneacetic acid, 50 p. p. m.; 2. 4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, 10 p. p. m. Aqueous solution of hormone was sprayed on each flower from flowering time of the first flower cluster to that of the 3rd flower cluster. The results are as follows. 1. Height of hormone sprayed plant taller than that of the control plant, but there was no difference between the control and the hormone sprayed plants in the number of leaves. 2. The number of flowers and fruits set in each flower cluster in hormone sprayed plots did not increase. However, the gibberellin sprayed plant had the largest and the2, 4-D sprayed plant the smallest total number of flowers and fruits set. The fruit set coefficient in the PCPA sprayed plot was the heighest of all. Plots sprayed with hormones except gibberellin were accelerated in fruit development more than the control, but the gibberellin sprayed fruits were smaller than those of the control, and its fruit development was checked. 3. The plants in PCPA and 2, 4-D sprayed plots produced seedless fruits as the results of parcenocarpy, but in the gibberellin and NAA sprayed plots produced seed containing fruits. Among the fruits containing seed, the larger the fruits, the more seeds were contained. 4. The fruit yield of the gibberellin sprayed plot was greater than that of control, but among the other hormone sprayed plots there was hardly any difference. The early yield was high in the PCPA and 2, 4-D sprayed plots, but not so high in the gibberellin plot. 5. Chlorophyll content of fruits sprayed with PCPA, NAA and 2, 4-D decreased, but carotene, lycopene and xanthophyll contents increased. In the gibberellin sprayed plot the disappearance of chlorophyll was late, and carotene and xanthophyll contents were less than those in the control. 6. Difference in sugar content of fruits between the hormone sprayed plots and the control was not significant, but both increased the sugar content as the fruit matured. Starch content of the fruit decreased in all plots as the fruit matured.Article信州大学農学部紀要 2(3): 151-160(1960)departmental bulletin pape

The PCR-Based Diagnosis of Central Nervous System Tuberculosis: Up to Date

Central nervous system (CNS) tuberculosis, particularly tuberculous meningitis (TBM), is the severest form of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.Tb) infection, causing death or severe neurological defects in more than half of those affected, in spite of recent advancements in available anti-tuberculosis treatment. The definitive diagnosis of CNS tuberculosis depends upon the detection of M.Tb bacilli in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). At present, the diagnosis of CNS tuberculosis remains a complex issue because the most widely used conventional “gold standard” based on bacteriological detection methods, such as direct smear and culture identification, cannot rapidly detect M.Tb in CSF specimens with sufficient sensitivity in the acute phase of TBM. Recently, instead of the conventional “gold standard”, the various molecular-based methods including nucleic acid amplification (NAA) assay technique, particularly polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay, has emerged as a promising new method for the diagnosis of CNS tuberculosis because of its rapidity, sensitivity and specificity. In addition, the innovation of nested PCR assay technique is worthy of note given its contribution to improve the diagnosis of CNS tuberculosis. In this review, an overview of recent progress of the NAA methods, mainly highlighting the PCR assay technique, was presented

Investigation of molecular mechanisms of diaphragmatic defects in the nitrofen-induced rat model of congenital diaphragmatic hernia

Developmental mutations that inhibit normal formation of extracellular matrix (ECM) in fetal diaphragms have been identified in congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). FRAS1-related extracellular matrix 1 (FREM1) plays a critical role in the development of the fetal diaphragm. It has been demonstrated that a deficiency of FREM1 can lead to CDH both in humans and mice. Furthermore, FREM1-deficient fetuses exhibit a decreased level of mesenchymal cell proliferation in their developing diaphragms. FRAS1 and FRAS1-related extracellular matrix 2 (FREM2), which encode important ECM proteins, are secreted by mesenchymal cells during diaphragmatic development. The FRAS1/FREM2 gene unit has been shown to form a ternary complex with FREM1, which plays a crucial role during formation of human and rodent diaphragms. The first objective of this work was to investigate the morphological changes in the normal and abnormal diaphragm in the nitrofen rat model. The pleura-peritoneal folds (PPFs) in the control group were triangular-shaped structures protruding out from the lateral body wall, whereas nitrofen-exposed fetuses had an abnormal PPF structure, characterized by the absence of the dorsally projecting point of the triangular PPF. The second objectives was to investigate the expression levels and distribution of FREM1, FRAS1 and FREM2 genes and their proteins in the normal and abnormal diaphragm. In nitrofen-exposed fetuses, relative mRNA expression of FREM1, FRAS1 and FREM2 were significantly reduced in developing diaphragms compared to controls. Confocal laser scanning microscopy revealed markedly diminished FREM1, FRAS1 and FREM2 immunofluorescence in diaphragmatic mesenchyme, which was associated with reduced proliferation of mesenchymal cells in nitrofen-exposed fetuses compared to controls. Our results suggest that decreased mesenchymal expression of FREM1, FRAS1 and FREM2 in the nitrofen-induced CDH model may cause failure of the FREM1/FRAS1/FREM2 gene complex, disturbing the formation of diaphragmatic ECM and thus contributing to the development of diaphragmatic defects in CDH

Optimal boundary control for steady motions of a self-propelled body in a Navier-Stokes liquid

Consider a rigid body ${\mathcal S} \subset {\mathbb R}^3$ immersed in an infinitely extended Navier-Stokes liquid and the motion of the body-fluid interaction system described from a reference frame attached to ${\mathcal S}$. We are interested in steady motions of this coupled system, where the region occupied by the fluid is the exterior domain $\Omega = {\mathbb R}^3 \setminus {\mathcal S}$. This paper deals with the problem of using boundary controls $v_*$, acting on the whole $\partial\Omega$ or just on a portion $\Gamma$ of $\partial\Omega$, to generate a self-propelled motion of ${\mathcal S}$ with a target velocity $V(x):=\xi+\omega \times x$ and to minimize the drag about ${\mathcal S}$. Firstly, an appropriate drag functional is derived from the energy equation of the fluid and the problem is formulated as an optimal boundary control problem. Then the minimization problem is solved for localized controls, such that supp $v_*\subset \Gamma$, and for tangential controls, i.e, $v_*\cdot n|_{\partial \Omega}=0$, where $n$ is the outward unit normal to $\partial \Omega$. We prove the existence of optimal solutions, justify the G\^ateaux derivative of the control-to-state map, establish the well-posedness of the corresponding adjoint equations and, finally, derive the first order optimality conditions. The results are obtained under smallness restrictions on the objectives $|\xi|$ and $|\omega|$ and on the boundary controls

Immobility-reducing Effects of Ketamine during the Forced Swim Test on 5-HT1A Receptor Activity in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex in an Intractable Depression Model

Ketamine has been clinically proven to ameliorate depression, including treatment-resistant depression. The detailed mechanism of action of ketamine in treatment-resistant depression remains unclear. We examined the effects of ketamine on the immobility times of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)-treated rats during the forced swim test, and we explored the mechanism by which ketamine acts in this model. We investigated the neuroanatomical site of action by microinjecting ketamine into the medial prefrontal cortex of rats. A significant reduction of the rats’ immobility during the forced swim test was observed after the intraperitoneal injection of ketamine in both saline- and ACTH-treated rats. The microinjection of ketamine into the medial prefrontal cortex also decreased immobility during the forced swim test in both saline- and ACTH-treated rats. The immobility-decreasing effect of intraperitoneally injected ketamine was blocked by administering WAY100635, a 5-HT1A receptor antagonist, into the medial prefrontal cortex. These findings contribute to the evidence that ketamine can be useful against treatment-resistant depressive conditions. The immobility-reducing effects of ketamine might be mediated by 5-HT1A receptor activity in the medial prefrontal cortex

Realized Stochastic Volatility Model with Skew-t Distributions for Improved Volatility and Quantile Forecasting

Forecasting volatility and quantiles of financial returns is essential for accurately measuring financial tail risks, such as value-at-risk and expected shortfall. The critical elements in these forecasts involve understanding the distribution of financial returns and accurately estimating volatility. This paper introduces an advancement to the traditional stochastic volatility model, termed the realized stochastic volatility model, which integrates realized volatility as a precise estimator of volatility. To capture the well-known characteristics of return distribution, namely skewness and heavy tails, we incorporate three types of skew-t distributions. Among these, two distributions include the skew-normal feature, offering enhanced flexibility in modeling the return distribution. We employ a Bayesian estimation approach using the Markov chain Monte Carlo method and apply it to major stock indices. Our empirical analysis, utilizing data from US and Japanese stock indices, indicates that the inclusion of both skewness and heavy tails in daily returns significantly improves the accuracy of volatility and quantile forecasts

Distinct Neuronal Lineages of the Ascidian Embryo Revealed by Expression of a Sodium Channel Gene

AbstractThe ascidian larva contains tubular neural tissue, one of the prominent anatomical features of the chordates. The cell-cleavage pattern and cell maps of the nervous system have been described in the ascidian larva in great detail. Cell types in the neural tube, however, have not yet been defined due to the lack of a suitable molecular marker. In the present work, we identified neuronal cells in the caudal neural tube of theHalocynthiaembryo by utilizing a voltage-gated Na+channel gene, TuNa I, as a molecular marker. Microinjection of a lineage tracer revealed that TuNa I-positive neurons in the brain and in the trunk epidermis are derived from the a-line of the eight-cell embryo, which includes cell fates to epidermal and neural tissue. On the other hand, TuNa I-positive cells in the more caudal part of the neural tissue were not stained by microinjection into the a-line. These neurons are derived from the A-line, which contains fates of notochord and muscle, but not of epidermis. Electron microscopic observation confirmed that A-line-derived neurons consist of motor neurons innervating the dorsal and ventral muscle cells. Isolated A-line blastomeres have active membrane excitability distinct from those of the a-line-derived neuronal cells after culture under cleavage arrest, suggesting that the A-line gives rise to a neuronal cell distinct from that of the a-lineage. TuNa I expression in the a-line requires signals from another cell lineage, whereas that in the A-line occurs without tight cell contact. Thus, there are at least two distinct neuronal lineages with distinct cellular behaviors in the ascidian larva: the a-line gives rise to numerous neuronal cells, including sensory cells, controlled by a mechanism similar to vertebrate neural induction, whereas A-line cells give rise to motor neurons and ependymal cells in the caudal neural tube that develop in close association with the notochord or muscle lineage, but not with the epidermal lineage