The effectiveness of the local potential approximation in the Wegner-Houghton renormalization group

The non-perturbative Wegner-Houghton renormalization group is analyzed by the local potential approximation in O(N) scalar theories in d-dimensions $(3\leq d\leq 4)$. The leading critical exponents \nu are calculated in order to investigate the effectiveness of the local potential approximation by comparing them with the other non-perturbative methods. We show analytically that the local potential approximation gives the exact exponents up to $O(\epsilon )$ in \epsilon-expansion and the leading in 1/N-expansion. We claim that this approximation offers fairly accurate results in the whole range of the parameter space of N and d. It is a great advantage of our method that no diverging expansions appear in the procedure.Comment: 13 pages, latex, 6 figure

Rapidly Converging Truncation Scheme of the Exact Renormalization Group

The truncation scheme dependence of the exact renormalization group equations is investigated for scalar field theories in three dimensions. The exponents are numerically estimated to the next-to-leading order of the derivative expansion. It is found that the convergence property in various truncations in the number of powers of the fields is remarkably improved if the expansion is made around the minimum of the effective potential. It is also shown that this truncation scheme is suitable for evaluation of infrared effective potentials. The physical interpretation of this improvement is discussed by considering O(N) symmetric scalar theories in the large-N limit.Comment: 17 pages including 13 figures, LaTeX, to appear in Prog. Theor. Phys., references adde

Sustainable Biological Ammonia Production towards a Carbon-Free Society

脱炭素・次世代エネルギーとしてのアンモニアの食品加工廃棄物からのバイオ生産プラットフォーム --脱炭素社会構築へのバイオテクノロジーによる貢献をめざして--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2021-09-06.A sustainable society was proposed more than 50 years ago. However, it is yet to be realised. For example, the production of ammonia, an important chemical widely used in the agriculture, steel, chemical, textile, and pharmaceutical industries, still depends on fossil fuels. Recently, biological approaches to achieve sustainable ammonia production have been gaining attention. Moreover, unlike chemical methods, biological approaches have a lesser environmental impact because ammonia can be produced under mild conditions of normal temperature and pressure. Therefore, in previous studies, nitrogen fixation by nitrogenase, including enzymatic ammonia production using food waste, has been attempted. Additionally, the production of crops using nitrogen-fixing bacteria has been implemented in the industry as one of the most promising approaches to achieving a sustainable ammonia economy. Thus, in this review, we described previous studies on biological ammonia production and showed the prospects for realising a sustainable society

Non-Trivial Ultraviolet Fixed Point in Quantum Gravity

The non-trivial ultraviolet fixed point in quantum gravity is calculated by means of the exact renormalization group equation in d-dimensions $(2\simeq d\leq4)$. It is shown that the ultraviolet non-Gaussian fixed point which is expected from the perturbatively $\epsilon$-expanded calculations in $2+\epsilon$ gravity theory remains in d=4. Hence it is possible that quantum gravity is an asymptotically safe theory and renormalizable in 2<d.Comment: 17 pages with 5 eps figures, to be published in Prog. Theor. Phy

Development of a yeast cell surface display method using the SpyTag/SpyCatcher system

生体内タンパク質ライゲーションを用いた新規細胞表層ディスプレイ法の開発 --新しい手法によるタンパク質工学の進展--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2021-05-28.Yeast cell surface display (YSD) has been used to engineer various proteins, including antibodies. Directed evolution, which subjects a gene to iterative rounds of mutagenesis, selection and amplification, is useful for protein engineering. In vivo continuous mutagenesis, which continuously diversifies target genes in the host cell, is a promising tool for accelerating directed evolution. However, combining in vivo continuous evolution and YSD is difficult because mutations in the gene encoding the anchor proteins may inhibit the display of target proteins on the cell surface. In this study, we have developed a modified YSD method that utilises SpyTag/SpyCatcher-based in vivo protein ligation. A nanobody fused with a SpyTag of 16 amino acids and an anchor protein fused with a SpyCatcher of 113 amino acids are encoded by separate gene cassettes and then assembled via isopeptide bond formation. This system achieved a high display efficiency of more than 90%, no intercellular protein ligation events, and the enrichment of target cells by cell sorting. These results suggested that our system demonstrates comparable performance with conventional YSD methods; therefore, it can be an appropriate platform to be integrated with in vivo continuous evolution

Evaluation of a library of loxP variants with a wide range of recombination efficiencies by Cre

Sparse labeling of individual cells is an important approach in neuroscience and many other fields of research. Various methods have been developed to sparsely label only a small population of cells; however, there is no simple and reproducible strategy for managing the probability of sparse labeling at desired levels. Here, we aimed to develop a novel methodology based on the Cre-lox system to regulate sparseness at desired levels, and we purely analyzed cleavage efficiencies of loxP mutants by Cre. We hypothesized that mutations in the loxP sequence reduce the recognition efficiency by Cre, which enables the regulation of the sparseness level of gene expression. In this research, we mutagenized the loxP sequence and analyzed a library of loxP variants. We evaluated more than 1000 mutant loxP sequences, including mutants with reduced excision efficiencies by Cre ranging from 0.51% to 59%. This result suggests that these mutant loxP sequences can be useful in regulating the sparseness of genetic labeling at desired levels

Toward the Creation of Highly Active Photocatalysts That Convert Methane into Methanol

Methane exists abundantly around Japan as methane hydrate. As the effective use of such methane, the conversion of methane into methanol has recently attracted much attention. Photocatalytic reaction is one of the methods which convert methane into methanol without using much energy. However, it is indispensable to improve the photocatalytic activity for their practical use. Our group has attempted to improve the activity of mesoporous tungsten trioxide and titanium dioxide (m-WO3 and m-TiO2) photocatalysts, which convert methane into methanol, by loading the ultrafine metal clusters as cocatalyst on the photocatalysts. As a result, we have succeeded in loading ultrafine metal-cluster cocatalysts onto m-WO3 and m-TiO2 and thereby improving their photocatalytic activity. Our study also demonstrated that the kind of metal element suitable for each photocatalyst depends on the kind of the photocatalysts, and thereby it is important to select the metal clusters suitable for each photocatalyst for improving its photocatalytic activity

カキシメジ類を含む日本産Tricholoma属の資源探索とその利用可能性に関する研究

信州大学(Shinshu university)博士（農学）この博士論文は、次の学術雑誌論文を一部に使用しています。 / Mycoscience 62(5) :307-321(2021); doi:10.47371/mycosci.2021.06.002 OA (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) © 2021 The Mycological Society of Japan/ Mycologia 114(1) :190-202(2022); doi:10.1080/00275514.2021.2018889 © 2022 The Mycological Society of AmericaThesis青木　渉. カキシメジ類を含む日本産Tricholoma属の資源探索とその利用可能性に関する研究. 信州大学, 2023, 博士論文. 博士（農学）, 甲第100号, 令和05年03月20日授与.doctoral thesi

Growth and Fluctuations of Personal Income

Pareto's law states that the distribution of personal income obeys a power-law in the high-income range, and has been supported by international observations. Researchers have proposed models over a century since its discovery. However, the dynamical nature of personal income has been little studied hitherto, mostly due to the lack of empirical work. Here we report the first such study, an examination of the fluctuations in personal income of about 80,000 high-income taxpayers in Japan for two consecutive years, 1997 and 1998, when the economy was relatively stable. We find that the distribution of the growth rate in one year is independent of income in the previous year. This fact, combined with an approximate time-reversal symmetry, leads to the Pareto law, thereby explaining it as a consequence of a stable economy. We also derive a scaling relation between positive and negative growth rates, and show good agreement with the data. These findings provide the direct observation of the dynamical process of personal income flow not yet studied as much as for companies.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure