Fukuoka: Adapting to climate change through urban green space and the built environment?

This paper profiles Fukuoka City in Kyushu, Japan. We focus on the city's local climate change adaptation policies, and in particular the role of urban and greenspace planning in facilitating adaptation actions within Fukuoka. Fukuoka is a humid subtropical city which is currently experiencing significant population and economic growth. It has also made comparatively rigorous advances in climate adaptation, in a country context where local governments have been criticised for focusing more on mitigation. Fukuoka hence may yield lessons for other rapidly urbanising subtropical Asian cities. We illustrate that Fukuoka has a long tradition of science-policy connection towards the creation of a liveable urban environment. This creates a favourable research and policy infrastructure for adaptation, in particular mitigation of heat risk. This is evidenced in consideration of climate issues within the city's greenspace plans since the 1990s, and in an extensive body of underpinning applied research from local institutions into urban thermal environments in particular. Fukuoka's green terraced ACROS building has come to symbolise adaptation via the built environment, and has been followed by the emergence of further green roofs and through citizen and private sector involvement in smaller-scale greening actions. We caution that challenges remain around connecting different sections of local governments, and in maintaining climate and environmental imperatives in the face of ongoing development and expansion pressures

Ring Gap Structure around Class I Protostar WL 17

WL 17 is a Class I object and was considered to have a ring-hole structure. We analyzed the structure around WL 17 to investigate the detailed properties of WL 17. We used ALMA archival data, which have a higher angular resolution than previous observations. We investigated the WL 17 system with the 1.3 mm dust continuum and 12CO and C18O (J = 2-1) line emissions. The dust continuum emission showed a clear ring structure with inner and outer edges of ~11 and ~21 au, respectively. In addition, we detected an inner disk of < 5 au radius enclosing the central star within the ring, the first observation of this structure. Thus, WL 17 has a ring-gap structure, not a ring-hole structure. We did not detect any marked emission in either the gap or inner disk, indicating that there is no sign of a planet, circumplanetary disk, or binary companion. We identified the base of both blue-shifted and red-shifted outflows based on the 12CO emission, which is clearly associated with the disk around WL 17. The outflow mass ejection rate is ~3.6x10^-7 Msun yr-1 and the dynamical timescale is as short as ~ 10^4 yr. The C18O emission showed that an inhomogeneous infalling envelope, which can induce episodic mass accretion, is distributed in the region within ~1000 au from the central protostar. With these new findings, we can constrain the planet formation and dust growth scenarios in the accretion phase of star formation.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Cell-Surface Protein Profiling Identifies Distinctive Markers of Progenitor Cells in Human Skeletal Muscle

SummarySkeletal muscle contains two distinct stem/progenitor populations. One is the satellite cell, which acts as a muscle stem cell, and the other is the mesenchymal progenitor, which contributes to muscle pathogeneses such as fat infiltration and fibrosis. Detailed and accurate characterization of these progenitors in humans remains elusive. Here, we performed comprehensive cell-surface protein profiling of the two progenitor populations residing in human skeletal muscle and identified three previously unrecognized markers: CD82 and CD318 for satellite cells and CD201 for mesenchymal progenitors. These markers distinguish myogenic and mesenchymal progenitors, and enable efficient isolation of the two types of progenitors. Functional study revealed that CD82 ensures expansion and preservation of myogenic progenitors by suppressing excessive differentiation, and CD201 signaling favors adipogenesis of mesenchymal progenitors. Thus, cell-surface proteins identified here are not only useful markers but also functionally important molecules, and provide valuable insight into human muscle biology and diseases

Predicting the course of hematopoietic neoplasm through oral bacterial examination

Many medical institutions have recently conducted studies on the relationship between patients with hematopoietic neoplasms and oral cavity. Statistical analysis of the bacterial populations was performed in this study to identify how oral microflora and health conditions （e.g., dental caries and periodontal diseases） affect the prognosis of patients with hematopoietic neoplasms. Patients undergoing inpatient treatment from January to December 2020 at the Department of Hematology at Showa University, Japan, who required perioperative oral management were included in the study. The oral health of the patients was examined at the initial dental visit, and oral bacterial samples were collected from the tongue, buccal mucosa, and palate of 47 patients who consented to participate after receiving an explanation about the study. Statistical analyses performed after dividing the subjects into two groups following the treatment course showed that Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and Gemella sanguinis were significantly more common in the poor-course group. However, no significant difference in bacterial examination results was noted among the four groups （myeloid neoplasm chemotherapy, myeloid neoplasm hematopoietic stem cell transplantation （HSCT）, lymphoid neoplasm chemotherapy, and lymphoid neoplasm HSCT groups） classified based on disease and treatment method. The detection rate of bacteria potentially causing infectious diseases at the initial dental examination tended to be higher in this study in the poor-course group. The findings of the current study suggest that early detection of pathogenic bacteria after commencing hematology treatment could predict the poor-course that may lead to mortality or severe infections

Comprehensive autoantibody profiling in systemic autoimmunity by a highly-sensitive multiplex protein array

Comprehensive autoantibody evaluation is essential for the management of autoimmune disorders. However, conventional methods suffer from poor sensitivity, low throughput, or limited availability. Here, using a proteome-wide human cDNA library, we developed a novel multiplex protein assay (autoantibody array assay; A-Cube) covering 65 antigens of 43 autoantibodies that are associated with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and polymyositis/dermatomyositis (PM/DM). The performance of A-Cube was validated against immunoprecipitation and established enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Further, through an evaluation of serum samples from 357 SSc and 172 PM/DM patients, A-Cube meticulously illustrated a diverse autoantibody landscape in these diseases. The wide coverage and high sensitivity of A-Cube also allowed the overlap and correlation analysis between multiple autoantibodies. Lastly, reviewing the cases with distinct autoantibody profiles by A-Cube underscored the importance of thorough autoantibody detection. Together, these data highlighted the utility of A-Cube as well as the clinical relevance of autoantibody profiles in SSc and PM/DM

Discovery of 12-mer peptides that bind to wood lignin.

天然リグニンに配列依存的に結合するペプチドを発見 －植物バイオマスの変換利用に期待－. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2016-04-11.Lignin, an abundant terrestrial polymer, is the only large-volume renewable feedstock composed of an aromatic skeleton. Lignin has been used mostly as an energy source during paper production; however, recent interest in replacing fossil fuels with renewable resources has highlighted its potential value in providing aromatic chemicals. Highly selective degradation of lignin is pivotal for industrial production of paper, biofuels, chemicals, and materials. However, few studies have examined natural and synthetic molecular components recognizing the heterogeneous aromatic polymer. Here, we report the first identification of lignin-binding peptides possessing characteristic sequences using a phage display technique. The consensus sequence HFPSP was found in several lignin-binding peptides, and the outer amino acid sequence affected the binding affinity of the peptides. Substitution of phenylalanine7 with Ile in the lignin-binding peptide C416 (HFPSPIFQRHSH) decreased the affinity of the peptide for softwood lignin without changing its affinity for hardwood lignin, indicating that C416 recognised structural differences between the lignins. Circular dichroism spectroscopy demonstrated that this peptide adopted a highly flexible random coil structure, allowing key residues to be appropriately arranged in relation to the binding site in lignin. These results provide a useful platform for designing synthetic and biological catalysts selectively bind to lignin

Numerical and experimental prediction of transitional characteristics of flow and heat transfer in an array of heated blocks

Three-dimensional numerical analysis, for transitional characteristics of fluid flow and heat transfer in periodic fully developed region of an array of the heated square blocks deployed along one wall of the parallel plates duct, is carried out by using Lam-Brernhorst low-Reynolds-number two equation turbulence model. Computations were performed for Prandtl number of 0.7, in the Reynolds number range of 200 to 2000 and for two sets of geometric parameters characterizing the array. The predicted transitional Reynolds number is lower than the value for the parallel plate duct and it decreases with increasing the height above the module. Experiments were also performed for pressure drop measurements and for flow visualization and the results were compared with the numerical predictions