Poliovirus trafficking toward central nervous system via human poliovirus receptor-dependent and -independent pathway

In humans, paralytic poliomyelitis results from the invasion of the central nervous system (CNS) by circulating poliovirus (PV) via the blood–brain barrier (BBB). After the virus enters the CNS, it replicates in neurons, especially in motor neurons, inducing the cell death that causes paralytic poliomyelitis. Along with this route of dissemination, neural pathway has been reported in humans, monkeys, and PV-sensitive human PV receptor (hPVR/CD155)-transgenic (Tg) mice. We demonstrated that a fast retrograde axonal transport process is required for PV dissemination through the sciatic nerve of hPVR-Tg mice and that intramuscularly inoculated PV causes paralysis in a hPVR-dependent manner. We also showed that hPVR-independent axonal transport of PV exists in hPVR-Tg and non-Tg mice, indicating that several different pathways for PV axonal transport exist in these mice. Circulating PV after intravenous inoculation in mice cross the BBB at a high rate in a hPVR-independent manner. We will implicate an involvement of a new possible receptor for PV to permeate the BBB based on our recent findings

Environmental Taxes and Productivity: Lessons from Canadian Manufacturing

This paper investigates how environmental taxes affect manufacturing productivity by examining British Columbia’s revenue-neutral carbon tax. I develop a new hypothesis, the “Productivity Dividend Hypothesis,” to show that environmental taxes can positively affect productivity by recycling tax revenues to reduce corporate income taxes. This revenue-recycling increases investment and could raise productivity more than environmental taxes lower productivity by diverting resources from production. I evaluate this hypothesis using detailed confidential plant-level data. I find that the carbon tax lowers productivity, although this is offset to some extent by the revenue-recycling. For some plants, the policy generates a net gain in productivity.JEL Classification Codes: D22, H23, L6, Q5The author acknowledges generous funding from Productivity Partnership (PP) and Smart Prosperity Institute (SPI), supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/yamazaki-akio

Deformation of Palladium Plates by a Small Stress during Hydrogen Absorption and Desorption

We observed an unexpected bending of a horizontally held palladium plate at 150$^{\circ}$C under a small external shearing stress. The deformation was fastest at the nominal composition of PdH$_{{\rm 0.1-0.2}}$, which is in the $\alpha+\beta$ phase. We also observed that a plate warped back and forth during a cycle of absorption and desoprtion of hydrogen when it was hung vertically, which does not have a reasonable explanation.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figure

Experimental investigation of a control scheme for a tuned resonant sideband extraction interferometer for next-generation gravitational-wave detectors

LCGT plans to use tuned RSE as the optical configuration for its interferometer. A tuned RSE interferometer has five degrees of freedom that need to be controlled in order to operate a gravitational-wave detector, although it is expected to be very challenging because of the complexity of its optical configuration. A new control scheme for a tuned RSE interferometer has been developed and tested with a prototype interferometer to demonstrate successful control of the tuned RSE interferometer. The whole RSE interferometer was successfully locked with the control scheme. Here the control scheme and the current status of the experiment are presented

A novel approach for the endothelialization of xenogeneic decellularized vascular tissues by human cells utilizing surface modification and dynamic culture

Decellularized xenogeneic vascular grafts can be used in revascularization surgeries. We have developed decellularization methods using high hydrostatic pressure (HHP), which preserves the extracellular structure. Here, we attempted ex vivo endothelialization of HHP-decellularized xenogeneic tissues using human endothelial cells (ECs) to prevent clot formation against human blood. Slices of porcine aortic endothelium were decellularized using HHP and coated with gelatin. Human umbilical vein ECs were directly seeded and cultured under dynamic flow or static conditions for 14 days. Dynamic flow cultures tend to demonstrate higher cell coverage. We then coated the tissues with the E8 fragment of human laminin-411 (hL411), which has high affinity for ECs, and found that Dynamic/hL411showed high area coverage, almost reaching 100% (Dynamic/Gelatin vs Dynamic/hL411; 58.7 ± 11.4 vs 97.5 ± 1.9%, P = 0.0017). Immunostaining revealed sufficient endothelial cell coverage as a single cell layer in Dynamic/hL411. A clot formation assay using human whole blood showed low clot formation in Dynamic/hL411, almost similar to that in the negative control, polytetrafluoroethylene. Surface modification of HHP-decellularized xenogeneic endothelial tissues combined with dynamic culture achieved sufficient ex vivo endothelialization along with prevention of clot formation, indicating their potential for clinical use as vascular grafts in the future

The Effectiveness of Revenue-Neutral Carbon Taxes

This paper investigates the effectiveness of carbon taxes in the manufacturing sector by examining British Columbia’s revenue-neutral carbon tax. We theoretically demonstrate that the magnitude of plants’ exposure to the policy monotonically increases with its emission intensity. Using detailed confidential plant-level data, we directly exploit the variations in plants’ emission intensity to isolate the emission effect of the policy. We find that the carbon tax lowers emission by 2 percent. Furthermore, we find that the policy had a positive output effect, suggesting that the carbon tax encouraged plants to produce more with less energies. These findings are possibly due to the revenue neutrality of the policy, especially through the reduction of the corporate income taxes. It incentivized plants to invest in both energy-saving and productivity-enhancing technologies.JEL Classification Codes: H23, Q5, L6Yamazaki acknowledges generous financial support from the Policy Research Center at the National Graduate Institutefor Policy Studies (GRIPS).http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/yamazaki-akio

Experimental investigation of a control scheme for a zero-detuning resonant sideband extraction interferometer for next-generation gravitational-wave detectors

Some next-generation gravitational-wave detectors, such as the American Advanced LIGO project and the Japanese LCGT project, plan to use power recycled resonant sideband extraction (RSE) interferometers for their interferometer's optical configuration. A power recycled zero-detuning (PRZD) RSE interferometer, which is the default design for LCGT, has five main length degrees of freedom that need to be controlled in order to operate a gravitational-wave detector. This task is expected to be very challenging because of the complexity of optical configuration. A new control scheme for a PRZD RSE interferometer has been developed and tested with a prototype interferometer. The PRZD RSE interferometer was successfully locked with the control scheme. It is the first experimental demonstration of a PRZD RSE interferometer with suspended test masses. The result serves as an important step for the operation of LCGT.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figrue

Difference in Rupture Risk Between Familial and Sporadic Intracranial Aneurysms An Individual Patient Data Meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: We combined individual patient data (IPD) from prospective cohorts of patients with unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIA) to assess to what extent patients with familial UIA have a higher rupture risk than those with sporadic UIA. METHODS: For this IPD meta-analysis we performed an Embase and Pubmed search for studies published up to December 1, 2020. We included studies that 1) had a prospective study design; 2) included 50 or more patients with UIA; 3) studied the natural course of UIA and risk factors for aneurysm rupture including family history for aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage and UIA; and 4) had aneurysm rupture as an outcome. Cohorts with available IPD were included. All studies included patients with newly diagnosed UIA visiting one of the study centers. The primary outcome was aneurysmal rupture. Patients with polycystic kidney disease and moyamoya disease were excluded. We compared rupture rates of familial versus sporadic UIA using a Cox proportional hazard regression model adjusted for the PHASES score and smoking. We performed two analyses: 1. only studies defining first-degree relatives as parents, children, and siblings and 2. all studies, including those in which first-degree relatives are defined as only parents and children, but not siblings. RESULTS: We pooled IPD from eight cohorts with a low and moderate risk of bias. First-degree relatives were defined as parents, siblings and children in six cohorts (29% Dutch, 55% Finnish, 15% Japanese), totalling 2,297 patients (17% familial, 399 patients) with 3,089 UIA and 7,301 person-years follow-up. Rupture occurred in 10 familial patients (rupture rate: 0·89%/person-year; 95% CI:0·45-1·59) and 41 sporadic patients (0·66%/person-year; 95% CI:0·48-0·89); adjusted HR for familial patients 2·56 (95% CI: 1·18-5·56). After adding also the two cohorts excluding siblings as first-degree relatives resulting in 9,511 patients the adjusted HR was 1·44 (95% CI: 0·86-2·40). CONCLUSION: The risk of rupture of UIA is two and a half times higher, with a range from a 1.2 to 5 times higher risk, in familial than in sporadic UIA. When assessing the risk of rupture in UIA, family history should be taken into account