Animals exhibit consistent individual differences in their movement: a case study on location trajectories of Japanese macaques

Researching individual recognition (IR) is essential to understand the life history and adaptive behavior of social animals. Investigation of possible IR clues may also help us build new hypotheses about how social animals distinguish between different individuals. This study investigates behavioral individuality in Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata), focusing on one specific trait that is movement. Using a recently developed tracking system based on Bluetooth® Low Energy beacons, we collected three-dimensional (3D) location data from five Japanese macaques living in a group cage. A non-parametric, neural network-based analysis of the data revealed the existence of consistent individual differences in extremely limited aspects of the movement data (2-min trajectory of 3D location). Our results support the validity of multimodal approaches in studying IR, beyond the typical single-frame face recognition method, both for researchers and animal agents

Insulin-producing cells derived from ‘induced pluripotent stem cells’ of patients with fulminant type 1 diabetes: vulnerability to cytokine insults and increased expression of apoptosis-related genes

Aims/Introduction: The present study was carried out to generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from patients with fulminant type 1 diabetes, and evaluate the cytokine‐induced apoptotic reactions of β‐like insulin‐producing cells differentiated from the iPSCs.Materials and Methods: iPSCs were generated from fibroblasts of patients with fulminant type 1 diabetes by inducing six reprogramming factors. Insulin‐producing cells were differentiated from the iPSCs in vitro. The proportion of cleaved caspase‐3‐positive or terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase 2′‐deoxyuridine, 5′‐triphosphate nick end labeling‐positive cells among insulin (INS)‐positive cells derived from fulminant type 1 diabetes iPSC and control human iPSC lines was evaluated under treatment with tumor necrosis factor‐α, interleukin‐1β and interferon‐γ. Ribonucleic acid sequencing was carried out to compare gene expressions in INS‐positive cells derived from fulminant type 1 diabetes iPSC and control human iPSC lines.Results: Two iPSC clones were established from each of three patients with fulminant type 1 diabetes. The differentiation of insulin‐producing cells from fulminant type 1 diabetes iPSC was confirmed by immunofluorescence analysis and KCl‐induced C‐peptide secretion. After treatment with pro‐inflammatory cytokines, these INS‐positive cells showed higher expression of cleaved caspase‐3 than those derived from control human iPSCs. Altered expression levels of several apoptosis‐related genes were observed in INS‐positive cells derived from the fulminant type 1 diabetes iPSCs by ribonucleic acid sequencing.Conclusions: We generated iPSCs from patients with fulminant type 1 diabetes and differentiated them into insulin‐producing cells. This in vitro disease model can be used to elucidate the disease mechanisms of fulminant type 1 diabetes

Beam and SKS spectrometers at the K1.8 beam line

High-resolution spectrometers for both incident beams and scattered particles have been constructed at the K1.8 beam line of the Hadron Experimental Facility at J-PARC. A point-to-point optics is realized between the entrance and exit of QQDQQ magnets for the beam spectrometer. Fine-pitch wire chamber trackers and hodoscope counters are installed in the beam spectrometer to accept a high rate beam up to 107 Hz. The superconducting kaon spectrometer for scattered particles was transferred from KEK with modifications to the cryogenic system and detectors. A missing-mass resolution of 1.9 ± 0.1 MeV/c2 (FWHM) was achieved for the ∑ peaks of (π±, K+) reactions on a proton target in the first physics run of E19 in 2010

Monitoring System for the Gold Target by Radiation Detectors in Hadron Experimental Facility at J-PARC

At the Hadron Experimental Facility in J-PARC, we inject a 30-GeV proton beam into a gold target to produce secondary particle beams required for various particle and nuclear physics experiments. The gold target is placed in a hermetic chamber, and helium gas is circulated in the chamber to monitor the soundness of the target. The radioactivity in helium gas is continuously monitored by gamma-ray detectors such as a germanium detector and a NaI(Tl) detector. Beam operations with those target-monitoring systems were successfully performed from April to June and October to December 2015, and from May to June 2016. In this paper, the details of the helium gas circulation system and gamma-ray detectors and the analysis results of the obtained gamma-ray spectra are reported

Monitoring System for the Gold Target by Radiation Detectors in Hadron Experimental Facility at J-PARC

At the Hadron Experimental Facility in J-PARC, we inject a 30-GeV proton beam into a gold target to produce secondary particle beams required for various particle and nuclear physics experiments. The gold target is placed in a hermetic chamber, and helium gas is circulated in the chamber to monitor the soundness of the target. The radioactivity in helium gas is continuously monitored by gamma-ray detectors such as a germanium detector and a NaI(Tl) detector. Beam operations with those target-monitoring systems were successfully performed from April to June and October to December 2015, and from May to June 2016. In this paper, the details of the helium gas circulation system and gamma-ray detectors and the analysis results of the obtained gamma-ray spectra are reported