Some Properties of Multicolored-Branch Graphs

A multicolored-branch graph is such a linear graph that the branches of the graph are partitioned into several sets, and a certain color is assigned to the branches belonging to each of the sets. The assignment is called a coloring. The degree of interference of loops or cutsets in such a graph is deffned to be the minimum number of indenpedent loops or cutsets respectively containing all the colors. The maximum of the degree of interference taken over all the possible colorings is studied. Theorems concerning the colorings to give the maximum in a two-colored-branch graph are derived. Moreover, the maximum of the degree of interference is shown to be equal to the topological degree of freedom and to the maximum distance between a pair of trees in the graph. The degree of interference is also related to the rank of a certain submatrix of the fundamental loop or cutset matrix. An upper bound and a lower bound on the degree of interference in a three-colored-branch graph are given

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

Flow Cytometric Assessment of Neutrophil Oxidative Metabolism in Chronic Granulomatous Disease on Small Quantities of Whole Blood: Heterogeneity in Female Patients

A rapid and sensitive flow cytometric assay is presented for the quantitative estimation of the oxidative metabolic activity of individual polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) on less than 100 td of whole blood. This procedure is a simplified version using whole blood of the method of Bass et al (J. Immunol. 130:1910, 1983) that estimated the metabolic burst activity of phorbol myristate acetate (PMA)-stimulated individual PMN as the intracellular generation of a fluorescence product by a flow cytometric assay. With this method, almost all the PMN from normal subjects responded to PMA as a single cell population generating bright intracellular fluorescence. PMN from a boy with chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), could not respond to PMA with any increase of their fluorescence intensity. His mother had two distinct PMN populations one functionally normal and the other defective, indicating a random lyonization in the carrier mother and the X-linked recessive mode of inheritance. In two female patients with CGD from unrelated families, their PMN responded to PMA, as a whole, with a minimal increase in the fluorescence intensity, but the metabolic defects in their PMN were not so complete as seen in a classical X-linked CGD boy. But, PMN from two female sibling patients from the other family responded to PMA as a single uniform cell population with a weak but definite fluorescence intensity. However, the genetic background of these female patients with CGD remains unclear, since PMN dysfunction could not be identified in their mothers with this method.This work was supported in part by a grant (No. 58440046) from the Ministry of Education of Japan

Identification of a novel arthritis-associated osteoclast precursor macrophage regulated by FoxM1

Osteoclasts have a unique bone-destroying capacity, playing key roles in steady-state bone remodeling and arthritic bone erosion. Whether the osteoclasts in these different tissue settings arise from the same precursor states of monocytoid cells is presently unknown. Here, we show that osteoclasts in pannus originate exclusively from circulating bone marrow-derived cells and not from locally resident macrophages. We identify murine CX3CR1hiLy6CintF4/80+I-A+/I-E+ macrophages (termed here arthritis-associated osteoclastogenic macrophages (AtoMs)) as the osteoclast precursor-containing population in the inflamed synovium, comprising a subset distinct from conventional osteoclast precursors in homeostatic bone remodeling. Tamoxifen-inducible Foxm1 deletion suppressed the capacity of AtoMs to differentiate into osteoclasts in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, synovial samples from human patients with rheumatoid arthritis contained CX3CR1+HLA-DRhiCD11c+CD80−CD86+ cells that corresponded to mouse AtoMs, and human osteoclastogenesis was inhibited by the FoxM1 inhibitor thiostrepton, constituting a potential target for rheumatoid arthritis treatment.Hasegawa T., Kikuta J., Sudo T., et al. Identification of a novel arthritis-associated osteoclast precursor macrophage regulated by FoxM1. Nature Immunology 20, 1631 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-019-0526-7

Hot debris dust around HD 106797

Photometry of the A0 V main-sequence star HD 106797 with AKARI and Gemini/T-ReCS is used to detect excess emission over the expected stellar photospheric emission between 10 and 20 micron, which is best attributed to hot circumstellar debris dust surrounding the star. The temperature of the debris dust is derived as Td ~ 190 K by assuming that the excess emission is approximated by a single temperature blackbody. The derived temperature suggests that the inner radius of the debris disk is ~ 14 AU. The fractional luminosity of the debris disk is 1000 times brighter than that of our own zodiacal cloud. The existence of such a large amount of hot dust around HD 106797 cannot be accounted for by a simple model of the steady state evolution of a debris disk due to collisions, and it is likely that transient events play a significant role. Our data also show a narrow spectral feature between 11 and 12 micron attributable to crystalline silicates, suggesting that dust heating has occurred during the formation and evolution of the debris disk of HD 106797.Comment: Accepted to ApJ Letters, 8 pages, 2 figure

The Far-Infrared Surveyor (FIS) for AKARI

The Far-Infrared Surveyor (FIS) is one of two focal plane instruments on the AKARI satellite. FIS has four photometric bands at 65, 90, 140, and 160 um, and uses two kinds of array detectors. The FIS arrays and optics are designed to sweep the sky with high spatial resolution and redundancy. The actual scan width is more than eight arcmin, and the pixel pitch is matches the diffraction limit of the telescope. Derived point spread functions (PSFs) from observations of asteroids are similar to the optical model. Significant excesses, however, are clearly seen around tails of the PSFs, whose contributions are about 30% of the total power. All FIS functions are operating well in orbit, and its performance meets the laboratory characterizations, except for the two longer wavelength bands, which are not performing as well as characterized. Furthermore, the FIS has a spectroscopic capability using a Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS). Because the FTS takes advantage of the optics and detectors of the photometer, it can simultaneously make a spectral map. This paper summarizes the in-flight technical and operational performance of the FIS.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures, and 2 tables. Accepted for publication in the AKARI special issue of the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japa

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京都大学0048新制・論文博士医学博士乙第3877号論医博第793号新制||医||261(附属図書館)6118UT51-54-H177(主査)教授 濱島 義博, 教授 太藤 重夫, 教授 奥田 六郎学位規則第5条第2項該当Kyoto UniversityDA