Change of glaciers in Spitsbergen Island since 1933 observed with surface photographs

Change of several glaciers in Spitsbergen Island was investigated using surface photographs taken in 1933 and afterward. All glaciers investigated decreased their thickness and area at their terminal parts in the period from 1933 to 2004

A Língua Materna como Instrumento Didático-Pedagógico no Ensino de Língua Adicional: o Caso de uma Escola de Idiomas de Foz do Iguaçu

Ainda que as inovações tecnológicas modifiquem a forma como nos comunicamos e atribuímos sentido no contexto educativo, o dilema quanto à inclusão ou exclusão da língua materna no processo de aquisição linguística continua a flutuar entre esses extremos. Visando relacionar a pesquisa ao nosso fazer pedagógico como professores-pesquisadores, o presente trabalho almejou analisar como a língua materna, referente à língua portuguesa, se insere na sala de aula virtual de inglês como língua adicional, contexto advindo da pandemia da COVID-19. Além disso, visamos contemplar as funções que a língua pode exercer nesse espaço de ensino-aprendizagem enquanto ferramenta didático-pedagógica, levando em consideração as visões dos docentes participantes. Para tanto, por meio de uma abordagem qualitativa, de caráter bibliográfico e interpretativista, examinamos gravações de aulas de dois professores em ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem, amparados na etnografia (MATTOS, 2011) e netnografia (KOZINETS, 2014), em uma escola de idiomas de Foz do Iguaçu/PR. Essa análise foi seguida da aplicação de questionários online, em vias de analisar como esses docentes concebem a língua materna em sala, considerando suas concepções metodológicas e linguísticas. As contemplações revelaram que, contrário ao posicionamento de bani-la do espaço de ensino, a língua materna atua como um recurso didático em diversas situações interativas, com o objetivo de garantir a compreensão do alunado pela tradução, igualmente atuante na gestão de sala de aula em questões temporais e afetivas. Portanto, a despeito da visão conflituosa dos docentes, expressas pelo questionário e desveladas nas observações, a língua materna se configurou como integrada à sala virtual de línguas, contribuindo para tornar o processo de aquisição mais significativo aos aprendizes de línguas adicionais

Studies on Antiandrogenic Agents. Synthesis of 16β-Ethyl-19-nortestosterone

金沢大学大学院医学系研究科　The mixture of enol acetates (II and III) of 16-acetyl-estrone-3-methyl ether underwent hydrogenolysis under high pressure (100kg/cm^2) of hydrogen in the presence of Raney Ni to form the 16β-ethyl-17β-ol compound (X) in high yield. The mechanism of hydrogenolysis was discussed. This facile and stereoselective introduction of 16β-ethyl and 17β-hydroxy groups was applied to the synthesis of 16β-ethyl-19-nortestosterone (TSAA-291,XIX), which shows strong antiandrogenic activity

Human airway trypsin-like protease in saliva

We first discovered human airway trypsin-like protease (HAT) in human mucoid sputum. Precursor HAT (47 kDa), a cell surface type II transmembrane serine protease, is proteolyzed to mature HAT (27 kDa). Hitherto, HAT has not been detected in other biological fluids except for human sputum. We aimed to clarify whether human saliva contains mature HAT. Trypsin-like protease was isolated from saliva of healthy volunteers by a method adopted for isolation of HAT from sputum using Boc-Phe-Ser-Arg-MCA as the substrate. Biochemical properties of purified protease were similar to those of recombinant HAT (rHAT). HAT concentration in saliva was measured by ELISA, and immunoreactive HAT : total protein ratio (ng/mg) in saliva samples from healthy subjects was similar to that in mucoid sputum. RT-PCR showed that HAT mRNA was expressed in human gingival epithelial cells but not in gingival fibroblasts. Both indirect immunofluorescence and western blotting using monoclonal antibody for α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA ; a myofibroblast marker) showed that HAT enhanced α-SMA fiber expression in gingival fibroblasts. These results indicate that both mucoid sputum and saliva from healthy subjects have similar concentrations of mature HAT, and HAT is related to certain physiological functions and pathological states of myofibroblasts in the oral cavity

Responses of regulatory and effector T-cells to low-dose interleukin-2 differ depending on the immune environment after allogeneic stem cell transplantation

CD4(+)Foxp3(+) regulatory T cells (Tregs) play a central role in the maintenance of immune tolerance after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Tregs promptly respond to low concentrations of IL-2 through the constitutive expression of high-affinity IL-2 receptors. It has been reported that low-dose IL-2 therapy increased circulating Tregs and improved clinical symptoms of chronic GVHD. Clinical studies of IL-2 therapy so far have mainly targeted patients in the chronic phase of transplantation when acute immune responses has subsided. However, the biological and clinical effects of exogenous IL-2 in an acute immune environment have not been well investigated. In the current study, we investigated the impact of exogenous IL-2 therapy on the post-transplant homeostasis of T cell subsets which influence the balance between GVHD and GVL in the acute phase, by setting the various immune environments early after HSCT in murine model. We initially found that 5,000 IU of IL-2 was enough to induce the active proliferation of Treg without influencing other conventional T cells (Tcons) when administered to normal mice. However, activated Tcons showed the response to the same dose of IL-2 in recipients after allogeneic HSCT. In a mild inflammatory environment within a threshold, exogenous IL-2 could effectively modulate Treg homeostasis with just limited influence to activated T cells, which resulted in an efficient GVHD suppression. In contrast, in a severely inflammatory environment, exogenous IL-2 enhanced activated T cells rather than Tregs, which resulted in the exacerbation of GVHD. Of interest, in an immune-tolerant state after transplant, exogenous IL-2 triggered effector T-cells to exert an anti-tumor effect with maintaining GVHD suppression. These data suggested that the responses of Tregs and effector T cells to exogenous IL-2 differ depending on the immune environment in the host, and the mutual balance of the response to IL-2 between T-cell subsets modulates GVHD and GVL after HSCT. Our findings may provide useful information in the optimization of IL-2 therapy, which may be personalized for each patient having different immune status

SARS-CoV-2 disrupts respiratory vascular barriers by suppressing Claudin-5 expression

臓器チップ技術を用いて新型コロナウイルスが血管へ侵入するメカニズムを解明 --Claudin-5発現抑制による呼吸器の血管内皮バリア破壊--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-09-22.A study using an organ-on-a-chip reveals a mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 invasion into blood vessels --Disruption of vascular endothelial barrier in respiratory organs by decreasing Claudin-5 expression--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-09-27.In the initial process of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infects respiratory epithelial cells and then transfers to other organs the blood vessels. It is believed that SARS-CoV-2 can pass the vascular wall by altering the endothelial barrier using an unknown mechanism. In this study, we investigated the effect of SARS-CoV-2 on the endothelial barrier using an airway-on-a-chip that mimics respiratory organs and found that SARS-CoV-2 produced from infected epithelial cells disrupts the barrier by decreasing Claudin-5 (CLDN5), a tight junction protein, and disrupting vascular endothelial cadherin–mediated adherens junctions. Consistently, the gene and protein expression levels of CLDN5 in the lungs of a patient with COVID-19 were decreased. CLDN5 overexpression or Fluvastatin treatment rescued the SARS-CoV-2–induced respiratory endothelial barrier disruption. We concluded that the down-regulation of CLDN5 expression is a pivotal mechanism for SARS-CoV-2–induced endothelial barrier disruption in respiratory organs and that inducing CLDN5 expression is a therapeutic strategy against COVID-19

anの数列の下二桁の数の規則性

本論文は，鳴門教育大学が採択された「徳島県高等教育機関連携型『ジュニアドクター発掘・ 養成講座』～社会を牽引する未来の科学技術者を徳島から育てよう～」に応募し，２年目に数学コースを選択した受講生対象の講座での学習を通して得られた結果について述べたものである。筆頭著者，第２著者，第３著者は２nの数列の下二桁の数の規則性を見出し，その数学的な証明を与え，更にその結果の一般化を行った。特にサイエンスカンファレンスのポスターセッションにおける質問を動機として，一般の自然数 a により与えられる数列 an の一般の p 進法の表記に対する規則性にまで拡張し た。In the lecture of mathematics course of the Junior Doctor Program of Naruto University of Education, the lead author, the second author and the third author studied a sequence of numbers 2n, and found the regularity property in the last two digits of these numbers. Thanks to comments received in the poster session of the Science Conference 2018, we found another two properties of the sequences; 1) one property, which is similar to the one found for the sequence 2n, holds for an(n≧2); 2) the other property, which is also similar to the one found for the sequence 2n, holds for an(n≧2) of p-positional notation. This paper describes the proofs of three properties of the sequences