Low Integrated Area of Desaturation Index after Adaptive Servo-Ventilation Therapy is a Strong Indicator to Predict Fatal Cardiovascular Events in Heart Failure Patients

学位記番号：医博甲174

The Power of Identity in Hybrid Peacebuilding: Buddhist Monks in Post-Conflict Cambodia

This chapter connects the concept of identity to mid-space actors involved in hybrid peacebuilding. The power of identity draws attention to the process of framing and othering as important factors contributing to successful bridge-building across diverse actors during hybrid peacebuilding. Buddhist monks in post-conflict Cambodia are exemplar. How and why monks both succeeded and failed in their role as bridge-builders will be evaluated. Identity frames and networks of mid-space actors predisposes them to excel in particular fields and fail in others. The concept of identity is therefore an important way to explain why and how a mid-space actor may transform from being a bridge-builder into a spoiler during the process of hybrid peacebuilding

Dendritic Cells Promoted by Ginseng Saponins Drive a Potent Th1 Polarization

Dendritic cells (DC) play a pivotal role in the initiation of T-cell-mediated immune responses, making them an attractive cellular adjuvant for use in cancer vaccines. The interaction of T cells with DC is crucial for directing T cell differentiation towards the Th1, Th2 or Th17 type, and several factors determining the direction of the T cell polarization. IL-12 plays a central role in the immune system, not only by augmenting the cytotoxic activity of T cells and NK cells and regulating IFN-γ production, but also by the capacity of IL-12 to promote the development of Th1 cells. Therefore, it is important to identify factors that might affect the differentiation, maturation and function of DC. Ginseng is a medicinal herb widely used in Asian countries, and many of its pharmacological actions are attributed to the ginsenosides. Moreover, T-cadinol and calamenene are sesquterpenes isolated from the heartwood of Cryptomeria japonica being pharmacologically active substances. We investigated whether M1 and M4, end products of steroidal ginseng saponins metabolized in digestive tracts, as well as T-cadinol and calamenene can drive DC maturation from human monocytes in vitro. Human monocytes were cultured with GM-CSF and IL-4 for 6 days under standard conditions, followed by another 2 days in the presence of M1, M4, T-cadinol or calamenene. The expression levels of CD1a, CD80, CD83, CD86 and HLA-DR on M1-primed DC, M4-primed DC, T-cadinol-primed DC and calamenene-primed DC were enhanced with a concomitant decrease in endocytic activity. M1-primed DC, M4-primed DC, T-cadinol-primed DC or calamenene-primed DC enhanced the T cell stimulatory capacity in an allo MLR (allogeneic mixed lymphocyte reaction). Naïve T cells co-cultured with allogeneic M1-primed DC, M4-primed DC, T-cadinol-primed DC or calamenene-primed DC turned into typical Th1 cells, which produced large quantities of IFN-γ and released small amounts of IL-4 depending on IL-12 secretion. In the CTL assay (cytotoxic T-lymphocyte assay), the production of IFN-γ and 51Cr release on M4-primed DC was more augmented than of immature DC or TNF-α-primed DC. These results suggest that M1, M4, T-cadinol and calamenene appear to be a good factor to induce DC maturation, or even better in some respect, for the use in clinical DC therapy to induce strong Th1 type immune responses

afsS is a target of AfsR, a transcriptional factor with ATPase activity that globally controls secondary metabolism in Streptmyces coelicolor A3(2)

AfsR is a pleiotropic, global regulator that controls the production of actinorhodin, undecylprodigiosin and calcium-dependent antibiotic in Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2). AfsR, with 993 amino acids, is phosphorylated on serine and threonine residues by a protein serine/threonine kinase AfsK and contains an OmpR-like DNA-binding fold at its N-terminal portion and A- and B-type nucleotide-binding motifs in the middle of the protein. The DNA-binding domain, in-dependently of the nucleotide-binding domain, contributed the binding of AfsR to the upstream region of afsS that locates immediately 3′ to afsR and encodes a 63-amino-acid protein. No transcription of afsS in the ΔafsR background and restoration of afsS transcription by afsR on a plasmid in the same genetic background indicated that afsR served as a transcriptional activator for afsS. Interestingly, the AfsR binding site overlapped the promoter of afsS, as determined by DNase I protection assay and high-resolution S1 nuclease mapping. The nucleotide-binding domain contributed distinct ATPase and GTPase activity. The phosphorylation of AfsR by AfsK greatly enhanced the DNA-binding activity and modulated the ATPase activity. The DNA-binding ability of AfsR was independent of the ATPase activity. However, the ATPase activity was essential for transcriptional activation ofafsS, probably because the energy available from ATP hydrolysis is required for the isomerization of the closed complex between AfsR and RNA polymerase to a transcriptionally competent open complex. Thus, AfsR turns out to be a unique transcriptional factor, in that it is modular, in which DNA-binding and ATPase activities are physically separable, and the two functions are modulated by phosphorylation on serine and threonine residues

Many-to-Many Graph Matching: a Continuous Relaxation Approach

Graphs provide an efficient tool for object representation in various computer vision applications. Once graph-based representations are constructed, an important question is how to compare graphs. This problem is often formulated as a graph matching problem where one seeks a mapping between vertices of two graphs which optimally aligns their structure. In the classical formulation of graph matching, only one-to-one correspondences between vertices are considered. However, in many applications, graphs cannot be matched perfectly and it is more interesting to consider many-to-many correspondences where clusters of vertices in one graph are matched to clusters of vertices in the other graph. In this paper, we formulate the many-to-many graph matching problem as a discrete optimization problem and propose an approximate algorithm based on a continuous relaxation of the combinatorial problem. We compare our method with other existing methods on several benchmark computer vision datasets.Comment: 1

An AfsK/AfsR system involved in the response of aerial mycelium formation to glucose in Streptomyces griseus

In Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2), a protein serine/threonine kinase (AfsK) and its target protein (AfsR) control secondary metabolism. AfsK and AfsR homologues (AfsK-g and AfsR-g) from Streptomyces griseus showed high end-to-end similarity in amino acid sequence with the respective S. coelicolor A3(2) proteins, as determined by cloning and nucleotide sequencing. AfsK-g and a fusion protein between AfsK-g and thioredoxin (TRX–AfsK-g) produced in high yield as inclusion bodies in Escherichia coli were solubilized with urea, purified by column chromatography and then refolded to an active form by dialysis to gradually remove the urea. AfsR-g was also fused to glutathione S-transferase (GST–AfsR-g); the fusion product in the soluble fraction in E. coli was purified. Incubation of AfsK-g or TRX–AfsK-g in the presence of [γ-32P]ATP yielded autophosphorylated products containing phosphoserine and phosphothreonine residues. In addition, TRX–AfsK-g phosphorylated serine and threonine residues of GST–AfsR-g in the presence of [γ-32P]ATP. Disruption of chromosomal afsK-g had no effect on A-factor or streptomycin production, irrespective of the culture conditions. The afsK-g disruptants did not form aerial mycelium or spores on media containing glucose at concentrations higher than 1%, but did form spores on mannitol- and glycerol-containing media; this suggests that afsK-g is essential for morphogenesis in the presence of glucose. Introduction of afsK-g restored aerial mycelium formation in the disruptants. The phenotype of afsR-g disruptants was similar to that of afsK-g disruptants; introduction of afsR-g restored the defect in aerial mycelium formation on glucose-containing medium. Thus the AfsK/AfsR system in S. griseus is conditionally needed for morphological differentiation, whereas in S. coelicolor A3(2) it is conditionally involved in secondary metabolism

Le cycle de《Tristan et Yseut 》au Japan

departmental bulletin pape

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-based Far-Field Antenna Characterization System for Polarimetric Weather Radars

The use of phased array radars for the US weather radar network (NEXRAD) has been proposed in lieu of the current mechanically steered dish-based systems, owing to its many attractive features, e.g., electronic steering and fast update rates, and others. Scatterer identification (hydrometeors and non-hydrometeors), accurate estimation of rainfall rates, and determination of propagation effects is possible in weather radars through polarimetry. However, the existence of cross-polarization, and co-polarization mismatch in the H- and V-polarization radiation patterns introduces biases in the polarimetric weather radar products, which can adversely affect the accuracy of the estimates of byproducts, thus imposing strict antenna requirements on the co-polarization mismatch of no greater than 0.1 dB, and cross-polarization levels of no greater than about -45 dB. Since the radiation characteristics of phased arrays are inherently dependent on the scanning direction, it becomes even more challenging to meet these requirements. Furthermore, ensuring that each system in this large network meets the requirements becomes an additional challenge where accurate characterization and calibration will be critical. Clearly, the system and instrumentation used for characterization also need to meet or exceed the system level requirements to provide reliable weather-radar-based estimates. Given that radar and other communications systems require in-situ calibration, it is hypothesized that a UAV-based antenna measurement system is able to replace conventional outdoor ranges in virtue of its low cost and flexibility of operation. The proposed solution is a UAV-based in-situ antenna characterization system with the necessary RF instrumentation to perform accurate measurements of a typical weather radar, along with general guidelines and procedures to ensure optimal results. This solution attempts to provide a portable and cost-effective alternative to conventional outdoor antenna ranges, which can be deployed in multiple sites with few to no modifications. While previous works in the literature have had successful results in the use of UAVs for far-field (FF) antenna measurements in a variety of operating frequencies, no other work has currently shown the RF performance needed to meet the stringent requirements expected in an application such as polarimetric weather radars. It is shown in this work, that the characterization and calibration of real polarimetric weather radar systems is possible to a high degree of accuracy set forth by the most critical requirements, i.e., co-polarization mismatch no greater than 0.1 dB and cross-polarization levels below -45 dB