Japan: coastal communities, a tsunami is coming!

Local fishers played an important role in keeping rural coastal economies alive after the worst tsunami in Japan’s history

Extracting and Mathematical Identifying Form of Stationary Noise in X-ray Images

Image noise may prevent proper diagnostic X-ray imaging. This study is aimed at developing new noise rejection methods using a mathematical model that describes the form of X-ray image noise. Stationary noise is one type of noise found in X-ray images. Stationary noise is nonstochastic and appears independent of the radiographic factors. In this paper, we verify methods for identifying stationary noise using a polynomial regression model, and extracting such noise from X-ray images obtained from a CR system. The results of this study demonstrate that stationary noise can be extracted with high precision using a particular low-pass filter frequency. We found that a regression model for greater than second-degree polynomials can be applied for roughly identifying stationary noise. However, the fitting accuracy of the regression curve is not significantly improved in terms of the amount of multiplication required when increasing the degree of the polynomial regression model

Elucidation of the symbiotic mechanism and its evolutional significance on the red algal symbiont in foraminifer

科学研究費助成事業(科学研究費補助金)研究成果報告書：基盤研究(C)2008-2010課題番号：2057008

Activin in the Brain Modulates Anxiety-Related Behavior and Adult Neurogenesis

Activin, a member of the transforming growth factor-β superfamily, is an endocrine hormone that regulates differentiation and proliferation of a wide variety of cells. In the brain, activin protects neurons from ischemic damage. In this study, we demonstrate that activin modulates anxiety-related behavior by analyzing ACM4 and FSM transgenic mice in which activin and follistatin (which antagonizes the activin signal), respectively, were overexpressed in a forebrain-specific manner under the control of the αCaMKII promoter. Behavioral analyses revealed that FSM mice exhibited enhanced anxiety compared to wild-type littermates, while ACM4 mice showed reduced anxiety. Importantly, survival of newly formed neurons in the subgranular zone of adult hippocampus was significantly decreased in FSM mice, which was partially rescued in ACM4/FSM double transgenic mice. Our findings demonstrate that the level of activin in the adult brain bi-directionally influences anxiety-related behavior. These results further suggest that decreases in postnatal neurogenesis caused by activin inhibition affect an anxiety-related behavior in adulthood. Activin and its signaling pathway may represent novel therapeutic targets for anxiety disorder as well as ischemic brain injury

Crystal structure of 1-benzoyl-2,7-dimethoxy-8-(3,5-dimethylbenzoyl) naphthalene: Head-to-head fashioned molecular motif for accumulating weak non-classical hydrogen bonds

Title compound, 1-benzoyl-2,7-dimethoxy-8-(3,5-dimethylbenzoyl)naphthalene, an unsymmetrically substituted aromatic diketone compound having non-coplanarly accumulated aromatic rings structure, has been synthesized and its crystal structure has been determined by X-ray crystallography. The asymmetric unit of title compound contains two independent conformers. For each conformer, the two aroyl groups are non-coplanarly situated against the naphthalene ring plane and oriented in an opposite direction. The 3,5-dimethylbenzoyl group leans more than the non-substituted benzoyl group on the other peri-position of the naphthalene ring. The characteristics in the single molecular crystal structure of this unsymmetrical compound show unique relationship with two symmetrically substituted homologues, namely 1,8-dibenzoyl-2,7-dimethoxynaphthalene and 2,7-dimethoxy-1,8-bis(3,5-dimethylbenzoyl) naphthalene. Dihedral angles between 3,5-dimethylbenzene ring and naphthalene ring of 2,7-dimethoxy-1,8-bis(3,5-dimethylbenzoyl)naphthalene are larger than those between benzene ring and naphthalene ring of 1,8-dibenzoyl-2,7-dimethoxynaphthalene. Dihedral angle between 3,5-dimethylbenzoyl group and naphthalene ring in title compound is close to those of symmetrical homologue having two 3,5-dimethylbenzoyl groups. In the similar manner, dihedral angle between non-substituted benzoyl group and naphthalene ring in title compound is also close to those of symmetrical homologue bearing two non-substituted benzoyl groups. On the other hand, the crystal packing of title compound has rather similar feature with 2,7-dimethoxy-1,8-bis(3,5-dimethylbenzoyl)naphthalene. Two compounds have common crystalline molecular structural motif of head-to-head fashioned intermolecular interaction of 3,5-dimethylbenzoyl moieties. It is interpreted that the interactions between (sp3)C–H and π orbital preferentially govern the molecular packing motif. Molecular structure feature of title compound and the symmetrically 3,5-dimethylbenzoylated homologue strongly manifests that accumulation of weak non-classical hydrogen bonds play a crucial role in determination of the crystal packing rather than sole function of stronger non-classical hydrogen bond and π…π stacking