Measurement of low-energy antiproton detection efficiency in BESS below 1 GeV

An accelerator experiment was performed using a low-energy antiproton beam to measure antiproton detection efficiency of BESS, a balloon-borne spectrometer with a superconducting solenoid. Measured efficiencies showed good agreement with calculated ones derived from the BESS Monte Carlo simulation based on GEANT/GHEISHA. With detailed verification of the BESS simulation, the relative systematic error of detection efficiency derived from the BESS simulation has been determined to be $\pm$5%, compared with the previous estimation of $\pm$15% which was the dominant uncertainty for measurements of cosmic-ray antiproton flux.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure

Precise Measurement of Cosmic-Ray Proton and Helium Spectra with the BESS Spectrometer

We report cosmic-ray proton and helium spectra in energy ranges of 1 to 120 GeV and 1 to 54 GeV/nucleon, respectively, measured by a balloon flight of the BESS spectrometer in 1998. The magnetic-rigidity of the cosmic-rays was reliably determined by highly precise measurement of the circular track in a uniform solenoidal magnetic field of 1 Tesla. Those spectra were determined within overall uncertainties of +-5 % for protons and +- 10 % for helium nuclei including statistical and systematic errors.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Mapping and pyramiding of two major genes for resistance to the brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens [Stål]) in the rice cultivar ADR52

The brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens (Stål), is one of the most serious and destructive pests of rice, and can be found throughout the rice-growing areas of Asia. To date, more than 24 major BPH-resistance genes have been reported in several Oryza sativa ssp. indica cultivars and wild relatives. Here, we report the genetic basis of the high level of BPH resistance derived from an Indian rice cultivar, ADR52, which was previously identified as resistant to the whitebacked planthopper (Sogatella furcifera [Horváth]). An F2 population derived from a cross between ADR52 and a susceptible cultivar, Taichung 65 (T65), was used for quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis. Antibiosis testing showed that multiple loci controlled the high level of BPH resistance in this F2 population. Further linkage analysis using backcross populations resulted in the identification of BPH-resistance (antibiosis) gene loci from ADR52. BPH25 co-segregated with marker S00310 on the distal end of the short arm of chromosome 6, and BPH26 co-segregated with marker RM5479 on the long arm of chromosome 12. To characterize the virulence of the most recently migrated BPH strain in Japan, preliminary near-isogenic lines (pre-NILs) and a preliminary pyramided line (pre-PYL) carrying BPH25 and BPH26 were evaluated. Although both pre-NILs were susceptible to the virulent BPH strain, the pre-PYL exhibited a high level of resistance. The pyramiding of resistance genes is therefore likely to be effective for increasing the durability of resistance against the new virulent BPH strain in Japan

Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Activation in Glioblastoma through Novel Missense Mutations in the Extracellular Domain

BACKGROUND: Protein tyrosine kinases are important regulators of cellular homeostasis with tightly controlled catalytic activity. Mutations in kinase-encoding genes can relieve the autoinhibitory constraints on kinase activity, can promote malignant transformation, and appear to be a major determinant of response to kinase inhibitor therapy. Missense mutations in the EGFR kinase domain, for example, have recently been identified in patients who showed clinical responses to EGFR kinase inhibitor therapy. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Encouraged by the promising clinical activity of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) kinase inhibitors in treating glioblastoma in humans, we have sequenced the complete EGFR coding sequence in glioma tumor samples and cell lines. We identified novel missense mutations in the extracellular domain of EGFR in 13.6% (18/132) of glioblastomas and 12.5% (1/8) of glioblastoma cell lines. These EGFR mutations were associated with increased EGFR gene dosage and conferred anchorage-independent growth and tumorigenicity to NIH-3T3 cells. Cells transformed by expression of these EGFR mutants were sensitive to small-molecule EGFR kinase inhibitors. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest extracellular missense mutations as a novel mechanism for oncogenic EGFR activation and may help identify patients who can benefit from EGFR kinase inhibitors for treatment of glioblastoma

Measurements of atmospheric muon spectra at mountain altitude

We report new measurements of the atmospheric muons at mountain altitude. The measurement was carried out with the BESS detector at the top of Mt. Norikura, Japan. The altitude is 2,770 m above sea level. Comparing our results and predictions given by some interaction models, a further appropriate model has been investigated. These studies would improve accuracy of atmospheric neutrino calculations.Comment: Mean momentum in Table 1 was correcte

Measurements of Cosmic-ray Low-energy Antiproton and Proton Spectra in a Transient Period of the Solar Field Reversal

The energy spectra of cosmic-ray low-energy antiprotons and protons have been measured by BESS in 1999 and 2000, during a period covering the solar magnetic field reversal. Based on these measurements, a sudden increase of the antiproton to proton flux ratio following the solar magnetic field reversal was observed, and it generally agrees with a drift model of the solar modulation.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, revised version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Annexin A2 Expression in the Aerogenous Spread of Pulmonary Invasive Mucinous Adenocarcinoma with Gastric Lineage

Spread through air spaces (STAS) is a unique form of lung cancer progression associated with a worse prognosis. However, the mechanisms underlying STAS and the associated proteins remain unclear. Annexin A2 (ANX A2), which is a membrane-binding protein involved in cell adhesion, is known to promote cancer invasion. In this report, we describe the immunohistochemical analysis of ANX A2 expression in an invasive mucinous adenocarcinoma (IMAC) resected from a 63-year-old man in whom the tumor cells had detached from the alveolar wall and exhibited STAS. At the detachment site, we observed cytoplasmic ANX A2 positivity on the basal side and in the exfoliative gap, as well as reduced collagen IV positivity expression. This biomarker pattern suggested an IMAC with gastric lineage. We hypothesize that ANX A2 is secreted from the basal sides of tumor cells and induces tumor cell detachment by degrading the basement membrane. A further comparison of this case with an IMAC with nongastric lineage suggested the following probabilities: (1) ANX A2 likely contributes to STAS in a manner that is dependent on its subcellular localization. (2) Both the subcellular localization of ANX A2 and the detachment site depend on tumor cell characteristics, including the biomarker immunophenotype

Involvement of Annexin A2 Expression and Apoptosis in Reverse Polarization of Invasive Micropapillary Carcinoma of the Breast

Invasive micropapillary carcinoma (IMPC) is characterized by pseudopapillary tumor-cell clusters with a reverse polarity (RP) floating in lacunar spaces, with aggressive biological characteristics. The RP prevention is considered to inhibit IMPC, but its pathogenic mechanisms remain unclear. Annexin A2 (ANX A2), a cell-polarity protein, is known to be involved in lumenogenesis. ANX A2 expression is immunohistochemically examined, as well as both epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) and mucin-1 glycoprotein (MUC-1), the gold-standard markers for luminal differentiation, in the background tumor components of a case of IMPC. The following findings were noticed: (1) Apoptosis was scattered with peripheral apoptotic vacuolar change; (2) EMA and MUC-1 expressions were found, rimming the peripheral apoptotic vacuoles (including the contact surface with neighboring tumor cells), and these positions corresponded to the ones with a distinct ANX A2 positivity; and (3) partially detached tumor cells showed distinct positivity of three proteins at the stroma-facing surface, which is consistent with a RP. Taken together, frequent apoptosis in tumor cells with membranous accumulation of ANX A2 is considered to be indispensable for the reverse polarization of IMPC, and that secondary necrosis following apoptosis induces the cell-polarity disorder and creates detached tumor cells with a RP

Improving CPU utilization of interleaving generation parallel evolutionary algorithm with precedence evaluation of tentative solutions and their suspension

This paper proposes a new mechanism to improve the CPU efficiency of parallel evolutionary algorithms (PEAs). The proposed method is based on interleaving generation evolutionary algorithm (IGEA) that was proposed in a previous study. Whereas PEA generates offspring after all individuals are evaluated, IGEA generates offspring of which all parents have been determined before other evaluations are completed. The proposed method introduced a precedence evaluation of tentative offspring and their suspension mechanism into IGEA. In particular, while IGEA generates offspring of which all parents have been determined, the proposed method tentatively generates offspring when one of two parents has been determined and then begins their evaluations. The evaluation of unnecessary offspring is suspended when the other parent of tentative offspring is determined. We compare the proposed method with the original IGEA and a simple PEA to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed method. This paper considers two replacement schemes of PEAs, $(\lambda , \lambda )$ -PEA and $(\lambda +\lambda )$ -PEA. The experimental results reveal that the proposed method has higher CPU utilization than the original IGEA and the simple PEA on both schemes

Analyzing Double Image Illusion through Double Indiscernibility and Lattice Theory

The figure-ground division plays a fundamental role in all image perceptions. Although there are a lot of studies about extraction of a figure such as detection of edges or grouping of texture, there are few discussions about a relationship between obtained figure and ground. We focused on double image illusions having two complementary relationships be- tween figure and ground and analyzed them. We divided the double image illusions according to two different interpretations and using these divisions we extracted and analyzed their logical structures by lattices derived from rough sets that we had developed. As a result we discovered unusual logical structures in double image illusions