The total coordinate ring of a normal projective variety

The total coordinate ring TC(X) of a normal variety is a generalization of the ring introduced and studied by Cox in connection with a toric variety. Consider a normal projective variety X with divisor class group Cl(X), and let us assume that it is a finitely generated free abelian group. We define the total coordinate ring of X to be TC(X) = oplus_{D} H^0 (X, O_X (D)), where the sum as above is taken over all Weil divisors of X contained in a fixed complete system of representatives of Cl(X). We prove that for any normal projective variety X, TC(X) is a UFD, this is a corollary of a more general theorem that is proved in the paper. (Berchtold and Haussen proved the unique factorization for a smooth variety independently.) We also prove that for X, the blow up of P^2 along a finite number of collinear points, TC(X) is Noetherian. We also give an example that TC(X) is not Noetherian but oplus_n H^0 (X, O(nD)) is Noetherian for any Weil divisor D.Comment: This is the final version that will appear in the Journal of Algebra. 11 pages. LaTe

Effect of plantar cutaneous inputs on center of pressure during quiet stance in older adults

AbstractBackground/ObjectiveWe investigated the effect of plantar cutaneous inputs on the postural sway during quiet standing in older adults.MethodsEight healthy elderly individuals (age 72.3 ± 4.4 years) stood on a force platform for 30 seconds without and with mechanical facilitation of sensation from the forefoot (a small coin-shaped object under the sole), and their eyes closed. Ellipse area and mean velocity of center of pressure, rambling and trembling trajectories in the anterior–posterior (AP) and medial–lateral directions were analyzed.ResultsThe ellipse area in the stimulation condition was significantly reduced as compared to the control condition. Significant decreases were also observed in the stimulation condition for the velocity of the center of pressure in both AP and medial–lateral directions and for velocity of the trembling trajectory in the AP direction.ConclusionThe findings indicate that mechanical facilitation of sensation on the plantar soles enhanced postural stability in older adults. The results show that plantar cutaneous inputs provide information that leads to reduced postural sway in healthy older adults. This could have implications in clinical and rehabilitative areas

A BIOMECHANICAL STUDY ON “MASTER’S RACE WALKING”: FOCUSING ON BENT KNEE REGULATION

The master’s sport became popular including race walking. In master’s athletes, especially elderly of more than 70 or 80 years of age, feels difficulty to keep the rule of “Bent Knee”. The present study demonstrated the difficulty of keeping the rule of “Bent Knee” using the elderly race walker of 82 years of age and younger one. The experiment in laboratory test showed that the race walking course should be carefully checked the flatness because it is hard to walk the slope course more than 5 degrees even in case of normal walk both in young and elderly walk racer. It should be paid more care for elderly race walker for their safety and the more developing the number of elderly race walker. The rule of race walking relating the Bent Knee should be considered independently from the present rule for the benefit of the master’s race walker

Joint Bandwidth Assignment and Routing for Power Saving on Large File Transfer with Time Constraints

The increase in network traffic in recent years has led to increased power consumption. Accordingly, many studies have tried to reduce the energy consumption of network devices. Various types of data have become available in large quantities via large high-speed computer networks. Time-constrained file transfer is receiving much attention as an advanced service. In this model, a request must be completed within a user-specified deadline or rejected if the requested deadline cannot be met. Some bandwidth assignment and routing methods to accept more requests have been proposed. However, these existing methods do not consider energy consumption. Herein, we propose a joint bandwidth assignment and routing method that reduces energy consumption for time-constrained large file transfer. The bandwidth assignment method reduces the power consumption of mediate node, typically router, by waiting for requests and transferring several requests at the same time. The routing method reduces the power consumption by selecting the path with the least predicted energy consumption. Finally, we evaluate the proposed method through simulation experiments

Crystal structure of an acetylesterase from Talaromyces cellulolyticus and the importance of a disulfide bond near the active site

AbstractCarbohydrate esterase catalyzes the de-O or de-N-acylation of substituted saccharides in plant cell walls and thus has great potential for industrial biomass saccharification. We recently identified the putative carbohydrate esterase family 3 (CE3) from Talaromyces cellulolyticus. Here, we prepared the recombinant catalytic domain of the enzyme and crystallized it. The crystal structure was determined to 1.5Å resolution. From the structural analysis, it was elucidated that a n-octyl-β-d-glucopyranoside bound to near the catalytic triad (Ser10, Asp179 and His182) and was buried in the active site cavity. Site-directed mutagenesis showed that the N-terminal disulfide bond located near the catalytic triad is involved in the activity and structural stability of the enzyme

Surgery Outcomes for Pulmonary Metastases from Renal Cell Carcinoma

Pulmonary metastatic resection is a standard therapy for renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Although patients with pulmonary metastases who do not undergo any treatment have poor prognoses, it has been reported that resection for pulmonary metastases yields good clinical outcomes. We investigated the prognoses of the 10 Japanese patients (eight males, two females) who underwent a surgical resection of pulmonary metastasectomy from RCC at our institution between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2020 and analyzed the prognostic factors. We determined the prognoses and calculated the 5-year overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) rates. To identify prognostic factors, we compared the median DFS duration for each factor. Elderly patients (median age, 75.5 years) were more predominant compared to previous studies, and all 10 patients underwent a complete resection. The 5-year DFS rate was 30.5% (95%CI: 0.045-0.63) and the 5-year OS rate was 80% (95%CI: 0.20-0.97). The following factors were associated with better prognosis: female, disease-free interval≥36 months, and metastases size<12 mm. These results indicate that complete resection for pulmonary metastases from RCC resulted in good clinical outcomes, particularly for patients with better prognostic factors

A Rare Presentation of Invasive Aspergillosis: An Asymptomatic Man with an Abscess Localized to a Parietal Pleura

Aspergillosis is an infection caused by Aspergillus species, and it manifests in various clinical presentations. We describe the case of a 73-year-old man with a small area of thickening on the thoracic wall detected by computed tomography. Surgical resection confirmed the diagnosis of an Aspergillus abscess. We report this case in view of the rarity of Aspergillus abscess localized to a parietal pleura without any signs of lung parenchymal involvement. After a thorough literature review, we consider this could be the first report of this manifestation. Accumulation of similar cases will be necessary to help spread recognition of this condition

A ZigBee/Wi-Fi Cooperative Channel Control Method and Its Prototyping

Coexistence between ZigBee and Wi-Fi technologies, which operate within the same frequency band, is increasing with the widespread use of the IoT (Internet of Things). ZigBee devices suffer significant decrease in the sink arrival rate of packets in the presence of Wi-Fi interference. To overcome this problem, many channel control methods have been proposed. These existing methods switch only ZigBee channels to avoid interference with Wi-Fi. In contrast, we propose a cooperative channel control method for improving ZigBee packet arrival rate by controlling both the Wi-Fi and ZigBee channels. Specifically, the proposed method not only controls ZigBee devices and channels but also requests a temporary pause in the use of specific Wi-Fi channels. Finally, we show the effectiveness of the proposed method from the viewpoints of ZigBee’s packet arrival rate and applications’ satisfaction using computer simulations. In addition, the effective action of the proposed method is also demonstrated by experiments with prototyping