Comparison of Nitrate Contents for Reed Canarygrass and Orchardgrass in Large Amounts of Compound Fertilization

Reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea L.) could be an ideal candidate for manure application. We compared its growth, crude protein (CP) and nitrate N (NO3-N) content to that of orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) on different levels of nitrogen fertilization (3,10,15 and 20g N m-2, applied from May 15 to September 15 after each monthly cutting. The dry weight (DW) of reed canarygrass increased significantly with increasing amounts of N nitrogen on July, August and September. However, orchardgrass only showed a significant increase in yield on September. The concentration of CP of reed canarygrass was significantly lower than that of orchardgrass with 3 g N m-2 on June, July, August and 10 g N m-2 on August. In contrast to this, CP of reed canarygrass was significantly higher than that of orchardgrass with 15 g N m-2 on July and 20 g N m-2 on July and August. NO3-N content of reed canarygrass was significantly lower than that of orchardgrass with 3 g N m-2 and 10 g N m-2 on June, July and August. We had high NO3-N (\u3e 0.15% N as NO3-N was considered unsafe) with 15 g N m-2 and 20 g N m-2 in both forage species and with 10 g N m-2 in orchardgrass. Our results indicate that reed canarygrass accumulates less NO3-N than orchardgrass with applications of 3 g N m-2 and 10 g N m-2 per cutting

Nonstructural Carbohydrate Reserves of Temperate Perennial Grasses in Autumn Early Growth

The objective of this study was to determine levels of nonstructural carbohydrate reserves of four temperate perennial grasses: Orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.), Timothy (Phleum pratense L.), Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.), and Reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea L.) in their early growth stages during the cool autumn temperatures in northern Japan. At the time of sampling, all grasses were in their vegetative stage, and Reed canarygrass was not forming rhizomes. Fructosan concentration in reed canarygrass roots (8.04%) was 22 times that of the leaf blade (0.36%) and twice that of the stem (3.40%); the concentration in reed canarygrass root was the highest of the four grasses. Timothy stored fructosan in the root at a significantly higher concentration (1.65%) than did the orchardgrass (0.58%) and perennial ryegrass (0.83%). The concentration of fructosan in the timothy was the highest in the stem, the lowest in the leaf blade and intermediate in the root. On the other hand, orchardgrass and perennial ryegrass stored the highest amount of fructosan in the stem, the lowest amount in the root, and an intermediate amount in the leaf blade. In addition, the root dry weight and the ratio of the root dry weight to the total dry weight were significantly higher in reed canarygrass than in the other three grasses. Timothy was in second place surpassing orchardgrass and perennial ryegrass. We considered that winter survival is the highest in reed canarygrass and second highest in timothy over orchard grass and perennial ryegrass

Extracellular vesicles synchronize cellular phenotypes of differentiating cells

細胞外小胞が細胞の分化を同調させる現象の発見. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2021-10-01.Cells act in unison when next to each other. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2021-10-01.During embryonic development, cells differentiate in a coordinated manner, aligning their fate decisions and differentiation stages with those of surrounding cells. However, little is known about the mechanisms that regulate this synchrony. Here we show that cells in close proximity synchronize their differentiation stages and cellular phenotypes with each other via extracellular vesicle (EV)-mediated cellular communication. We previously established a mouse embryonic stem cell (ESC) line harbouring an inducible constitutively active protein kinase A (CA-PKA) gene and found that the ESCs rapidly differentiated into mesoderm after PKA activation. In the present study, we performed a co-culture of Control-ESCs and PKA-ESCs, finding that both ESC types rapidly differentiated in synchrony even when PKA was activated only in PKA-ESCs, a phenomenon we named ‘Phenotypic Synchrony of Cells (PSyC)’. We further demonstrated PSyC was mediated by EVs containing miR-132. PKA-ESC-derived EVs and miR-132-containing artificial nano-vesicles similarly enhanced mesoderm and cardiomyocyte differentiation in ESCs and ex vivo embryos, respectively. PSyC is a new form of cell-cell communication mediated by the EV regulation of neighbouring cells and could be broadly involved in tissue development and homeostasis

冬季北極域で観測された海塩組成分別

第6回極域科学シンポジウム[OM] 極域気水圏11月16日（月）　国立極地研究所１階交流アトリウ

Modern Contraceptive and Dual Method Use among HIV-Infected Women in Lusaka, Zambia

HIV-infected women in sub-Saharan Africa are at substantial risk of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Linkages between HIV and reproductive health services are advocated. We describe implementation of a reproductive health counseling intervention in 16 HIV clinics in Lusaka, Zambia. Between November 2009 and November 2010, 18,407 women on antiretroviral treatment (ART) were counseled. The median age was 34.6 years (interquartile range (IQR): 29.9–39.7), and 60.1% of women were married. The median CD4+ cell count was 394 cells/uL (IQR: 256–558). Of the women counseled, 10,904 (59.2%) reported current modern contraceptive use. Among contraceptive users, only 17.7% reported dual method use. After counseling, 737 of 7,503 women not previously using modern contraception desired family planning referrals, and 61.6% of these women successfully accessed services within 90 days. Unmet contraceptive need remains high among HIV-infected women. Additional efforts are needed to promote reproductive health, particularly dual method use

Estimation of bovine leukemia virus (BLV) proviral load harbored by lymphocyte subpopulations in BLV-infected cattle at the subclinical stage of enzootic bovine leucosis using BLV-CoCoMo-qPCR

Background: Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is associated with enzootic bovine leukosis (EBL), which is the most common neoplastic disease of cattle. BLV infection may remain clinically silent at the aleukemic (AL) stage, cause persistent lymphocytosis (PL), or, more rarely, B cell lymphoma. BLV has been identified in B cells, CD2+ T cells, CD3+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, γ/δ T cells, monocytes, and granulocytes in infected cattle that do not have tumors, although the most consistently infected cell is the CD5+ B cell. The mechanism by which BLV causes uncontrolled CD5+ B cell proliferation is unknown. Recently, we developed a new quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method, BLV-CoCoMo-qPCR, which enabled us to demonstrate that the proviral load correlates not only with BLV infection, as assessed by syncytium formation, but also with BLV disease progression. The present study reports the distribution of BLV provirus in peripheral blood mononuclear cell subpopulations isolated from BLV-infected cows at the subclinical stage of EBL as examined by cell sorting and BLV-CoCoMo-qPCR.Results: Phenotypic characterization of five BLV-infected but clinically normal cattle with a proviral load of > 100 copies per 1 × 105 cells identified a high percentage of CD5+ IgM+ cells (but not CD5- IgM+ B cells, CD4+ T cells, or CD8+T cells). These lymphocyte subpopulations were purified from three out of five cattle by cell sorting or using magnetic beads, and the BLV proviral load was estimated using BLV-CoCoMo-qPCR. The CD5+ IgM+ B cell population in all animals harbored a higher BLV proviral load than the other cell populations. The copy number of proviruses infecting CD5- IgM+ B cells, CD4+ cells, and CD8+ T cells (per 1 ml of blood) was 1/34 to 1/4, 1/22 to 1/3, and 1/31 to 1/3, respectively, compared with that in CD5+ IgM+ B cells. Moreover, the BLV provirus remained integrated into the genomic DNA of CD5+ IgM+ B cells, CD5- IgM+ B cells, CD4+ T cells, and CD8+ T cells, even in BLV-infected cattle with a proviral load of <100 copies per 105 cells.Conclusions: The results of the recent study showed that, although CD5+ IgM+ B cells were the main cell type targeted in BLV-infected but clinically normal cattle, CD5- IgM+ B cells, CD4+ cells, and CD8+ T cells were infected to a greater extent than previously thought.Facultad de Ciencias Veterinaria

Wet and dry deposition of mineral dust particles in Japan: factors related to temporal variation and spatial distribution

Recent ground networks and satellite remote-sensing observations have provided useful data related to spatial and vertical distributions of mineral dust particles in the atmosphere. However, measurements of temporal variations and spatial distributions of mineral dust deposition fluxes are limited in terms of their duration, location, and processes of deposition. To ascertain temporal variations and spatial distributions of mineral dust deposition using wet and dry processes, weekly deposition samples were obtained at Sapporo, Toyama, Nagoya, Tottori, Fukuoka, and Cape Hedo (Okinawa) in Japan during October 2008–December 2010 using automatic wet and dry separating samplers. Mineral dust weights in water-insoluble residue were estimated from Fe contents measured using an X-ray fluorescence analyser. Wet and dry deposition fluxes of mineral dusts were both high in spring and low in summer, showing similar seasonal variations to frequency of aeolian dust events (Kosa) in Japan. For wet deposition, highest and lowest annual dust fluxes were found at Toyama (9.6 g m⁻² yr⁻¹) and at Cape Hedo (1.7 g m⁻² yr⁻¹) as average values in 2009 and 2010. Higher wet deposition fluxes were observed at Toyama and Tottori, where frequent precipitation (> 60% days per month) was observed during dusty seasons. For dry deposition among Toyama, Tottori, Fukuoka, and Cape Hedo, the highest and lowest annual dust fluxes were found respectively at Fukuoka (5.2 g m⁻² yr⁻¹) and at Cape Hedo (2.0 g m⁻² yr⁻¹) as average values in 2009 and 2010. The average ratio of wet and dry deposition fluxes was the highest at Toyama (3.3) and the lowest at Hedo (0.82), showing a larger contribution of the dry process at western sites, probably because of the distance from desert source regions and because of the effectiveness of the wet process in the dusty season. <br><br> Size distributions of refractory dust particles were obtained using four-stage filtration: > 20, > 10, > 5, and > 1 μm diameter. Weight fractions of the sum of > 20 μm and 10–20 μm (giant fraction) were higher than 50% for most of the event samples. Irrespective of the deposition type, the giant dust fractions generally decreased with increasing distance from the source area, suggesting the selective depletion of larger giant particles during atmospheric transport. Based on temporal variations of PM_c (2.5 < <i>D</i> < 10 μm), ground-based lidar, backward air trajectories, and vertical profiles of potential temperatures, transport processes of dust particles are discussed for events with high-deposition and low-deposition flux with high PM_c. Low dry dust depositions with high PM_c concentrations were observed under stronger (5 K km⁻¹) stratification of potential temperature with thinner and lower (< 2 km) dust distributions because the PM_c fraction of dust particles only survived after depletion of giant dust particles by rapid gravitational settling at the time they reach Japan. In contrast, transport through a thicker (> 2 km) dust layer with weak vertical gradient of potential temperature carry more giant dust particles to Japan. Because giant dust particles are an important mass fraction of dust accumulation, especially in the North Pacific, which is known as a high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll (HNLC) region, the transport height and fraction of giant dust particles are important factors for studying dust budgets in the atmosphere and their role in biogeochemical cycles

Analysis of interdiffusion between SmFeAsO0.92F0.08 and metals for ex situ fabrication of superconducting wire

We demonstrate the fabrication of superconducting SmFeAsO1-xFx (Sm-1111) wires by using the ex-situ powder-in-tube technique. Sm-1111 powder and a binder composed of SmF3, samarium arsenide, and iron arsenide were used to synthesize the superconducting core. Although the F content of Sm-1111 is reduced in the process of ex-situ fabrication, the binder compensates by sufficiently supplementing the F content, thereby preventing a decrease in the superconducting transition temperature and a shrinking of the superconducting volume fraction. Thus, in the superconducting Sm-1111 wire with the binder, the transport critical current density reaches the highest value of ~4000 A/cm2 at 4.2 K

Electronic structure of NiS_{1-x}Se_x

We investigate the electronic structure of the metallic NiS$_{1-x}$Se$_x$ system using various electron spectroscopic techniques. The band structure results do not describe the details of the spectral features in the experimental spectrum, even for this paramagnetic metallic phase. However, a parameterized many-body multi-band model is found to be successful in describing the Ni~2$p$ core level and valence band, within the same model. The asymmetric line shape as well as the weak intensity feature in the Ni~2$p$ core level spectrum has been ascribed to extrinsic loss processes in the system. The presence of satellite features in the valence band spectrum shows the existence of the lower Hubbard band, deep inside the $pd$ metallic regime, consistent with the predictions of the dynamical mean field theory.Comment: To be published in Physical Review B, 18 pages and 5 figure