Effects of silvopastoral areas on dual-purpose cattle production at the semi-humid old agricultural frontier in Central Nicaragua

Tesis (Doctorado) -- CATIE. Escuela de Posgrado, Turrialba (Costa Rica), University of Wales, Bangor, UK, 2004Cattle production in humid lowland tropics has been criticised for its extensive management. Dual-purpose cattle production system has been preferred by small and medium sized farMON in such regions due to low capital and technical demands with low risk for farmers. In order to quantify the effects on production of silvopastoral areas in the dual-purpose cattle production system, relations between land use patterns and seasonal production and herd data were examined for 74 farMON in semi-humid regions of central Nicaragua. The study concluded that silvopastoral areas are largely utilized for cattle production with positive effects on milk production. Further studies are recommeded on stocking rates and change of sward composition, feasibility study on pasture improvement with use of fertilization and/or silvopastoral techniques, and availability and nutritional values of broadleaved plants in dry season

"Whole-body imaging of neural and muscle activity during behavior in hydra vulgaris: effect of osmolarity on contraction bursts"

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Yamamoto, W., & Yuste, R. "Whole-body imaging of neural and muscle activity during behavior in hydra vulgaris: effect of osmolarity on contraction bursts". Eneuro, (2020), doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0539-19.2020.The neural code relates the activity of the nervous system to the activity of the muscles to the generation of behavior. To decipher it, it would be ideal to comprehensively measure the activity of the entire nervous system and musculature in a behaving animal. As a step in this direction, we used the cnidarian Hydra vulgaris to explore how physiological and environmental conditions alters simple contractile behavior and its accompany neural and muscle activity. We used whole-body calcium imaging of neurons and muscle cells and studied the effect of temperature, media osmolarity, nutritional state and body size on contractile behavior. In mounted Hydra preparations, changes in temperature, nutrition state or body size did not have a major effect on neural or muscle activity, or on contractile behavior. But changes in media osmolarity systematically altered contractile behavior and foot detachments, increasing their frequency in hypo-osmolar media solutions and decreasing it in hyperosmolar media. Similar effects were seen in ectodermal, but not in endodermal muscle. Osmolarity also bidirectionally changed the activity of contraction burst neurons, but did not affect the network of rhythmic potential neurons in the ectoderm. These findings show osmolarity-dependent changes in the activity of contraction burst neurons and ectodermal muscle, consistent with the hypothesis that contraction burst neurons respond to media hypo-osmolarity, activating ectodermal muscle to generate contraction bursts. This dedicated circuit could serve as an excretory system to prevent osmotic injury. This work demonstrates the feasibility of studying an entire neuronal and muscle activity in a behaving animal.This work was supported by the NSF (CRCNS 1822550). MBL research was supported in part by competitive fellowship funds from the H. Keffer Hartline, Edward F. MacNichol, Jr. Fellowship Fund, The E. E. Just Endowed Research Fellowship Fund, Lucy B. Lemann Fellowship Fund, and Frank R. Lillie Fellowship Fund Fellowship Fund of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA

Practical Preparation of Epilactose Produced with Cellobiose 2-Epimerase from Ruminococcus albus NE1

A practical purification method for a non-digestible disaccharide, epilactose (4-O-beta-galactosyl-D-mannose), was established. Epilactose was synthesized from lactose with cellobiose 2-epimerase and purified by the following procedure: (i) removal of lactose by crystallization, (ii) hydrolysis of lactose by beta-galactosidase, (iii) digestion of monosaccharides by yeast, and (iv) column chromatography with Na-form cation exchange resin. Epilactose of 91.1% purity was recovered at 42.5% yield

A novel bleb-dependent polysaccharide export system in nitrogen-fixing Azotobacter vinelandii subjected to low nitrogen gas levels

The alginate biofilm-producing bacterium Azotobacter vinelandii aerobically fixes nitrogen by oxygensensitivenitrogenases. Here we investigated the bacterial response to nitrogen/oxygen gas mixtures. A. vinelandii cellswere cultured in nitrogen-free minimal media containing gas mixtures differing in their ratios of nitrogen and oxygen.The bacteria did not grow at oxygen concentrations >75 % but grew well in the presence of 5 % nitrogen/25 % oxygen.Growth of wild-type and alginate-deficient strains when cultured with 50 % oxygen did not differ substantially, indicatingthat alginate is not required for the protection of nitrogenases from oxygen damage. In response to decreasing nitrogenlevels, A. vinelandii produced greater amounts of alginate, accompanied by the formation of blebs on the cell surface. Theencystment of vegetative cells occurred in tandem with the release of blebs and the development of a multilayered exine.Immunoelectron microscopy using anti alginate-antibody revealed that the blebs contained alginate molecules. Bycontrast, alginate-deficient mutants could not form blebs. Taken together, our data provide evidence for a novel blebdependentpolysaccharide export system in A. vinelandii that is activated in response to low nitrogen gas levels. [IntMicrobiol 2013; 16(1):35-44

Identification and Characterization of Cellobiose 2-Epimerases from Various Aerobes

Cellobiose 2-epimerase (CE), found mainly in anaerobes, reversibly converts D-glucose residues at the reducing end of β-1,4-linked oligosaccharides to D-mannose residues. In this study, we characterized CE-like proteins from various aerobes (Flavobacterium johnsoniae NBRC 14942, Pedobacter heparinus NBRC 12017, Dyadobacter fermentans ATCC 700827, Herpetosiphon aurantiacus ATCC 23779, Saccharophagus degradans ATCC 43961, Spirosoma linguale ATCC 33905, and Teredinibacter turnerae ATCC 39867), because aerobes, more easily cultured on a large scale than anaerobes, are applicable in industrial processes. The recombinant CE-like proteins produced in Escherichia coli catalyzed epimerization at the C2 position of cellobiose, lactose, epilactose, and β-1,4-mannobiose, whereas N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, N-acetyl-D-mannosamine, D-glucose, and D-mannose were inert as substrates. All the CEs, except for P. heparinus CE, the optimum pH of which was 6.3, showed highest activity at weakly alkaline pH. CEs from D. fermentans, H. aurantiacus, and S. linguale showed higher optimum temperatures and thermostability than the other enzymes analyzed. The enzymes from D. fermentans, S. linguale, and T. turnerae showed significantly high k cat and K m values towards cellobiose and lactose. Especially, T. turnerae CE showed a very high k cat value towards lactose, an attractive property for the industrial production of epilactose, which is carried out at high substrate concentrations

スクールカウンセラーのどのような協働のあり方が担任教師の役に立つか : 小中学校の担任教師の語りに基づく検討

学位の種別: 課程博士審査委員会委員 : （主査）東京大学教授 高橋 美保, 東京大学教授 能智 正博, 東京大学教授 秋田 喜代美, 東京大学准教授 浅井 幸子, 東京大学教授 勝野 正章University of Tokyo(東京大学

Primary research on MGSAD023, a new homokogue of eIF4G

Abstruct MGSAD023 (Mouse Gene Similar to AD023; Genbank accession AK150749) and its human compartment (AD023; Genbank accession AF225422) are new two genes with unknown functions. They were derived from high-throughput cDNA sequence analysis of the mouse genome project and Human Genome Project (HGP)，respec- tively. MGSAD023 shows 88.6% identity to AD023 (NCBI Blast)，and we decided to use MGSAD023 as a temple to explore the functions of these two compartment genes. With the NCBI Conserved Domain Database (CDD) and the gap program in GCG se- quence analysis software，we found that the amino acids of MGSAD023 showed 58.3% similarity and 4l.2% identity to eIF4G and also showed a good match to the middle domain of eIF4G. We determined the transcription pattern of MGSAD023. RT-PCR results showed that MGSAD023 was expressed in all of the tissues checked，including cerebellum， cerebra，liver，kidney，tongue，testis，heart and spleen，without any significant differ- ences.The results of In Situ Hybridization (ISH) showed that there was a very strong signal of mRNA of MGSAD023 on the seminiferous tubular basement membrane， where spermatogonia A and B are located. In silico exploration revealed homologous genes in various species，i ncluding chimpanzee，rat，mice，dog，zebra fish，fruit fly， xenopus，and cattle. These results hint that MGSAD023 is a conserved gene. It may act as a translation factor during cellular mitosis，especially in spermatogonia

Cubic lead perovskite PbMoO3 with anomalous metallic behavior

A previously unreported Pb-based perovskite PbMoO$_3$ is obtained by high-pressure and high-temperature synthesis. This material crystallizes in the $Pm\bar{3}m$ cubic structure at room temperature, making it distinct from typical Pb-based perovskite oxides with a structural distortion. PbMoO$_3$ exhibits a metallic behavior down to 0.1 K with an unusual $T$-sub linear dependence of the electrical resistivity. Moreover, a large specific heat is observed at low temperatures accompanied by a peak in $C_P/T^3$ around 10 K, in marked contrast to the isostructural metallic system SrMoO$_3$. These transport and thermal properties for PbMoO$_3$, taking into account anomalously large Pb atomic displacements detected through diffraction experiments, are attributed to a low-energy vibrational mode, associated with incoherent off-centering of lone pair Pb$^{2+}$ cations. We discuss the unusual behavior of the electrical resistivity in terms of a polaron-like conduction, mediated by the strong coupling between conduction electrons and optical phonons of the local low-energy vibrational mode.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure