ノン・サーベイ法による市町村産業連関表の作成と課題 －京都府内全26 市町村の「市内生産額」の推計から－

本稿の目的は、ノン・サーベイ法にて、京都府内全26 市町村の105 部門における「市内生産額」を算出し、市町村額の合計額と都道府県額との誤差を明らかにすること、ならびにその推計方法についての課題を抽出することにある。推計の結果、全市町村の市内生産額の合計額と府内生産額との差は、約541 億円で誤差率は0.3％となった。87 部門で府内生産額との間に誤差が生じており、うち7 部門については誤差率が2 桁となった。また、3 部門が「経済センサス」と「産業連関表」との非対応部門であることが分かった。本研究成果より、「経済センサス」を主に利用した按分方法は適当ではあるものの、普遍的な方法論が確立できているとはいえないということが指摘できる

Development and evaluation of a master-slave robot system for single-incision laparoscopic surgery

Single-incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS) brings cosmetic benefits for patients, but this procedure is more difficult than laparoscopic surgery. In order to reduce surgeons' burden, we have developed a master-slave robot system which can provide robot-assisted SILS as if it were performing conventional laparoscopic surgery and confirmed the feasibility of our proposed system. The proposed system is composed of an input device (master side), a surgical robot system (slave side), and a control PC. To perform SILS in the same style as regular laparoscopic surgery, input instruments are inserted into multiple incisions, and the tip position and pose of the left-sided (right-sided) robotic instrument on the slave side follow those of the right-sided (left-sided) input instruments on the master side by means of a control command from the PC. To validate the proposed system, we defined four operating conditions and conducted simulation experiments and physical experiments with surgeons under these conditions, then compared the results. In the simulation experiments, we found learning effects between trials (P = 0.00013 0.1), and the task time of our system was significantly shorter than the simulated SILS (P = 0.011 < 0.05). In the physical experiments, our system performed SILS more easily, efficiently, and intuitively than the other operating conditions. Our proposed system enabled the surgeons to perform SILS as if they were operating conventionally with laparoscopic techniques.ArticleINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER ASSISTED RADIOLOGY AND SURGERY. 7(2):289-296 (2012)journal articl

SMAD3 mediates the specification of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived epicardium into progenitors for the cardiac pericyte lineage

Understanding the molecular mechanisms of epicardial epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), particularly in directing cell fate toward epicardial derivatives, is crucial for regenerative medicine using human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived epicardium. Although transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) plays a pivotal role in epicardial biology, orchestrating EMT during embryonic development via downstream signaling through SMAD proteins, the function of SMAD proteins in the epicardium in maintaining vascular homeostasis or mediating the differentiation of various epicardial-derived cells (EPDCs) is not yet well understood. Our study reveals that TGF-β-independent SMAD3 expression autonomously predicts epicardial cell specification and lineage maintenance, acting as a key mediator in promoting the angiogenic-oriented specification of the epicardium into cardiac pericyte progenitors. This finding uncovers a novel role for SMAD3 in the human epicardium, particularly in generating cardiac pericyte progenitors that enhance cardiac microvasculature angiogenesis. This insight opens new avenues for leveraging epicardial biology in developing more effective cardiac regeneration strategies

A New MHD Code with Adaptive Mesh Refinement and Parallelization for Astrophysics

A new code, named MAP, is written in Fortran language for magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) calculation with the adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) and Message Passing Interface (MPI) parallelization. There are several optional numerical schemes for computing the MHD part, namely, modified Mac Cormack Scheme (MMC), Lax-Friedrichs scheme (LF) and weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) scheme. All of them are second order, two-step, component-wise schemes for hyperbolic conservative equations. The total variation diminishing (TVD) limiters and approximate Riemann solvers are also equipped. A high resolution can be achieved by the hierarchical block-structured AMR mesh. We use the extended generalized Lagrange multiplier (EGLM) MHD equations to reduce the non-divergence free error produced by the scheme in the magnetic induction equation. The numerical algorithms for the non-ideal terms, e.g., the resistivity and the thermal conduction, are also equipped in the MAP code. The details of the AMR and MPI algorithms are described in the paper.Comment: 44 pages, 16 figure

The supermassive black hole in the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 5252

We present results from HST/STIS long-slit spectroscopy of the gas motions in the nuclear region of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 5252. The observed velocity field is consistent with gas in regular rotation with superposed localized patches of disturbed gas. The dynamics of the circumnuclear gas can be accurately reproduced by adding to the stellar mass component a compact dark mass of MBH = 0.95 (-0.45;+1.45) 10E9 M(sun), very likely a supermassive black hole. Contrarily to results obtained in similar studies rotational broadening is sufficient to reproduce also the behaviour of line widths. The MBH estimated for NGC 5252 is in good agreement with the correlation between MBH and bulge mass. The comparison with the MBH vs sigma relationship is less stringent (mostly due to the relatively large error in sigma); NGC 5252 is located above the best fit line by between 0.3 and 1.2 dex, i.e. 1 - 4 times the dispersion of the correlation. Both the galaxy's and MBH of NGC 5252 are substantially larger than those usually estimated for Seyfert galaxies but, on the other hand, they are typical of radio-quiet quasars. Combining the determined MBH with the hard X-ray luminosity, we estimate that NGC 5252 is emitting at a fraction ~ 0.005 of L(Edd). In this sense, this active nucleus appears to be a quasar relic, now probably accreting at a low rate, rather than a low black hole mass counterpart of a QSO.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&

Molecular crowding creates an essential environment for the formation of stable G-quadruplexes in long double-stranded DNA

Large numbers of guanine-rich sequences with potential to form G-quadruplexes have been identified in genomes of various organisms. Such sequences are constrained at both ends by long DNA duplex with a complementary strand in close proximity to compete for duplex formation. G-quadruplex/duplex competition in long double-stranded DNA has rarely been studied. In this work, we used DMS footprinting and gel electrophoresis to study G-quadruplex formation in long double-stranded DNA derived from human genome under both dilute and molecular crowding condition created by PEG. G-quadruplex formation was observed in the process of RNA transcription and after heat denaturation/renaturation under molecular crowding condition. Our results showed that the heat denaturation/renaturation treatment followed by gel electrophoresis could provide a simple method to quantitatively access the ability of G-quadruplex formation in long double-stranded DNA. The effect of K+ and PEG concentration was investigated and we found that stable G-quadruplexes could only form under the crowding condition with PEG at concentrations near the physiological concentration of biomass in living cells. This observation reveals a physical basis for the formation of stable G-quadruplexes in genome and supports its presence under the in vivo molecular crowding condition

東日本大震災に係る復興関連予算の再評価

本稿の目的は、復興関連事業（488 事業）を分析し、復興予算を巡る問題の本質を明らかにすることにある。先行研究の成果と限界を踏まえ、事業を再分類した結果、復興事業予算額全体の 7.9％にあたる 143 事業が、被災地を対象とせず、復旧に属さず、防災の要素も含まない内容にあった。復興予算の本質的課題は、使途の適格化ではなく、予算計上の段階における会計区分の適正化にあるといえる。既存の一般会計および特別会計との整合性を十分に図ったうえでの新設特別会計であれば、事業の非効率は避けられたと考える

Hes1 regulates embryonic stem cell differentiation by suppressing Notch signaling

Embryonic stem (ES) cells display heterogeneous responses upon induction of differentiation. Recent analysis has shown that Hes1 expression oscillates with a period of about 3–5 h in mouse ES cells and that this oscillating expression contributes to the heterogeneous responses: Hes1-high ES cells are prone to the mesodermal fate, while Hes1-low ES cells are prone to the neural fate. These outcomes of Hes1-high and Hes1-low ES cells are very similar to those of inactivation and activation of Notch signaling, respectively. These results suggest that Hes1 and Notch signaling lead to opposite outcomes in ES cell differentiation, although they work in the same direction in most other cell types. Here, we found that Hes1 acts as an inhibitor but not as an effector of Notch signaling in ES cell differentiation. Our results indicate that sustained Hes1 expression delays the differentiation of ES cells and promotes the preference for the mesodermal rather than the neural fate by suppression of Notch signaling

The effect of the TRF2 N-terminal and TRFH regions on telomeric G-quadruplex structures

The sequence of human telomeric DNA consists of tandem repeats of 5′-d(TTAGGG)-3′. This guanine-rich DNA can form G-quadruplex secondary structures which may affect telomere maintenance. A current model for telomere protection by the telomere-binding protein, TRF2, involves the formation of a t-loop which is stabilized by a strand invasion-like reaction. This type of reaction may be affected by G-quadruplex structures. We analyzed the influence of the arginine-rich, TRF2 N-terminus (TRF2B), as well as this region plus the TRFH domain of TRF2 (TRF2BH), on the structure of G-quadruplexes. Circular dichroism results suggest that oligonucleotides with 4, 7 and 8 5′-d(TTAGGG)-3′ repeats form hybrid structures, a mix of parallel/antiparallel strand orientation, in K+. TRF2B stimulated the formation of parallel-stranded structures and, in some cases, intermolecular structures. TRF2BH also stimulated intermolecular but not parallel-stranded structures. Only full-length TRF2 and TRF2BH stimulated uptake of a telomeric single-stranded oligonucleotide into a plasmid containing telomeric DNA in the presence of K+. The results in this study suggest that G-quadruplex formation inhibits oligonucleotide uptake into the plasmid, but the inhibition can be overcome by TRF2. This study is the first analysis of the effects of TRF2 domains on G-quadruplex structures and has implications for the role of G-quadruplexes and TRF2 in the formation of t-loops