Effect of temperature on achene germination in five Mutisieae understory herbaceous species（Asteraceae）

We measured the final germination rates of achenes, the number of days needed to accomplish 50% of the final germination（T50）, and mortalities under various temperatures in the range 5 to 25℃for five understory peren-nial herbs（four species with large achenes of ca. 10 mg weight : Pertya robusta, P . triloba, P . rigidula and Ain-sliaea acerifolia var. subapoda, and one species with small achenes（1mg）: A. apiculata）to investigate variation of these traits. Achenes were collected in Ogawa and Mito in Ibaraki Prefecture, and in Iwakuni in Fukui Prefec-ture. T50 ranged from 35 to 76 days at 5℃and became shorter with increasing temperature. The final germina-tion rates of most samples were over 95%. Ainsliaea acerifolia had the longest T50（76 days）and the lowest final germination rate（86.1%）at 5℃, showing a dormant ability to some extent. Moreover, A. apiculata possessing small achenes showed a lower final germination rate（83%）at 25℃, and dormancy at higher temperatures. Fun-gal attack was thought to cause the death of achenes during the germination period, and mortalities increased with increasing temperature. However, there were no significant differences in final germination rates and T50s between two populations of P . robusta from Ogawa and Mito, though the Ogawa population had a higher mor-tality than the Mito population（27% vs. 18% at 25℃）. Mortalities were higher in P . triloba and P . rigidula than in the other species. There were intra- and interspecific variations of temperature dependency of achene mortal-ity during germination, and these variations may be one of the factors limiting the distribution of each species

Development of a Super-Small Solid Rocket Motor for OMOTENASHI

Background of the OMOTENASHI Mission. To be launched by NASA’s SLS Artemis 1 in the early 2020s, OMOTENASHI will be one of the 13 CubeSats launched as secondary payloads. With a size of 6U (113×239×366 mm) and a mass of CubeSat, it is the world’s smallest moon lander. Aims to land on the moon

人工被陰下での光合成特性と実生の生存からみたハルジオンの耐陰性

[論文

Effects of plasma-activated Ringer’s lactate solution on cancer cells: evaluation of genotoxicity

Abstract Background Non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma technologies form the core of many scientific advances, including in the electronic, industrial, and biotechnological fields. The use of plasma as a cancer therapy has recently attracted significant attention due to its cancer cell killing activity. Plasma-activated Ringer’s lactate solution (PAL) exhibits such activity. In addition to ROS, PAL contains active compounds or species that cause cancer cell death, but the potential mutagenic risks of PAL have not been studied. Results PAL has a low pH value and a high concentration of H2O2. H2O2 was removed from PAL using catalase and catalase-treated PAL with a pH of 5.9 retained a killing effect on HeLa cells whereas this effect was not observed if the PAL was adjusted to pH 7.2. Catalase-treated PAL at pH 5.9 had no significant effect on mutation frequency, the expression of γH2AX, or G2 arrest in HeLa cells. Conclusion PAL contains one or more active compounds or species in addition to H2O2 that have a killing effect on HeLa cells. The compound(s) is active at lower pH conditions and apparently exhibits no genotoxicity. This study suggested that identification of the active compound(s) in PAL could lead to the development of novel anticancer drugs for future cancer therapy