The duel at Yamazaki-Daira

The themes I have dealt with in my poems and stories are essential to all nations: struggle for life, love, and death. Those who have little knowledge of Japan or Asia, however, may have some difficulty in understanding them because of the external differences of custom and manners. Although I have tried to give as much information as possible within my works, I am afraid that it may have been insufficient. Taking this opportunity, I should like to give a brief explanation for my poems and stories. Legacy, which is closely related to The Duel at Yamazaki-daira, is my criticism toward those who live on the past and cannot accept new life and love. Especially in my country people tend to put too much emphasis on physical faithfulness. The mother in the poem, however, is really the cruellest adultress and betrayer, even though she did not have any physical relationship with her lover. The daughter may look promiscuous to an outsider, but she dedicates herself to her present lover like Olenka in Chekhov's The Darling, though unlike Olenka she has her own will and determination. It is actually the daughter who is faithful and has the strength to accept reality

Extremely long quasiparticle spin lifetimes in superconducting aluminium using MgO tunnel spin injectors

There has been an intense search in recent years for long-lived spin-polarized carriers for spintronic and quantum-computing devices. Here we report that spin polarized quasi-particles in superconducting aluminum layers have surprisingly long spin-lifetimes, nearly a million times longer than in their normal state. The lifetime is determined from the suppression of the aluminum's superconductivity resulting from the accumulation of spin polarized carriers in the aluminum layer using tunnel spin injectors. A Hanle effect, observed in the presence of small in-plane orthogonal fields, is shown to be quantitatively consistent with the presence of long-lived spin polarized quasi-particles. Our experiments show that the superconducting state can be significantly modified by small electric currents, much smaller than the critical current, which is potentially useful for devices involving superconducting qubits

Induction of tumor-specific acquired immunity against already established tumors by selective stimulation of innate DEC-205+ dendritic cells

Two major distinct subsets of dendritic cells (DCs) are arranged to regulate our immune responses in vivo; 33D1+ and DEC-205+ DCs. Using anti-33D1-specific monoclonal antibody, 33D1+ DCs were successfully depleted from C57BL/6 mice. When 33D1+ DC-depleted mice were stimulated with LPS, serum IL-12, but not IL-10 secretion that may be mediated by the remaining DEC-205+ DCs was markedly enhanced, which may induce Th1 dominancy upon TLR signaling. The 33D1+ DC-depleted mice, implanted with syngeneic Hepa1-6 hepatoma or B16-F10 melanoma cells into the dermis, showed apparent inhibition of already established tumor growth in vivo when they were subcutaneously (sc) injected once or twice with LPS after tumor implantation. Moreover, the development of lung metastasis of B16-F10 melanoma cells injected intravenously was also suppressed when 33D1+ DC-deleted mice were stimulated twice with LPS in a similar manner, in which the actual cell number of NK1.1+CD3− NK cells in lung tissues was markedly increased. Furthermore, intraperitoneal (ip) administration of a very small amount of melphalan (l-phenylalanine mustard; l-PAM) (0.25 mg/kg) in LPS-stimulated 33D1+ DC-deleted mice helped to induce H-2Kb-restricted epitope-specific CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) among tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes against already established syngeneic E.G7-OVA lymphoma. These findings indicate the importance and effectiveness of selective targeting of a specific subset of DCs, such as DEC-205+ DCs alone or with a very small amount of anticancer drugs to activate both CD8+ CTLs and NK effectors without externally added tumor antigen stimulation in vivo and provide a new direction for tumor immunotherapy

Reprogramming of Sheep Fibroblasts into Pluripotency under a Drug-Inducible Expression of Mouse-Derived Defined Factors

Animal embryonic stem cells (ESCs) provide powerful tool for studies of early embryonic development, gene targeting, cloning, and regenerative medicine. However, the majority of attempts to establish ESC lines from large animals, especially ungulate mammals have failed. Recently, another type of pluripotent stem cells, known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), have been successfully generated from mouse, human, monkey, rat and pig. In this study we show sheep fibroblasts can be reprogrammed to pluripotency by defined factors using a drug-inducible system. Sheep iPSCs derived in this fashion have a normal karyotype, exhibit morphological features similar to those of human ESCs and express AP, Oct4, Sox2, Nanog and the cell surface marker SSEA-4. Pluripotency of these cells was further confirmed by embryoid body (EB) and teratoma formation assays which generated derivatives of all three germ layers. Our results also show that the substitution of knockout serum replacement (KSR) with fetal bovine serum in culture improves the reprogramming efficiency of sheep iPSCs. Generation of sheep iPSCs places sheep on the front lines of large animal preclinical trials and experiments involving modification of animal genomes

Photonic quantum technologies

The first quantum technology, which harnesses uniquely quantum mechanical effects for its core operation, has arrived in the form of commercially available quantum key distribution systems that achieve enhanced security by encoding information in photons such that information gained by an eavesdropper can be detected. Anticipated future quantum technologies include large-scale secure networks, enhanced measurement and lithography, and quantum information processors, promising exponentially greater computation power for particular tasks. Photonics is destined for a central role in such technologies owing to the need for high-speed transmission and the outstanding low-noise properties of photons. These technologies may use single photons or quantum states of bright laser beams, or both, and will undoubtably apply and drive state-of-the-art developments in photonics

Mutations in STK11 gene in Czech Peutz-Jeghers patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS) is an autosomal dominant hereditary disease characterized by mucocutaneous pigmentation and gastrointestinal hamartomatous polyposis. The germline mutations in the serine/threonine kinase 11 (<it>STK11</it>) gene have been shown to be associated with the disease. Individuals with PJS are at increased risk for development of various neoplasms. The aim of the present study was to characterize the genotype and phenotype of Czech patients with PJS.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We examined genomic DNA of 8 individuals from five Czech families by sequencing analysis of <it>STK11 </it>gene, covering its promotor region, the entire coding region and the splice-site boundaries, and by multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) assay designed for the identification of large exonic deletions or duplications of <it>STK11 </it>gene.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found pathogenic mutations in <it>STK11 </it>gene in two families fulfilling the diagnostic criteria of PJS and in one of three sporadic cases not complying with the criteria. The patient with the frameshift mutation in <it>STK11 </it>gene developed aggressive gastric cancer. No other studied proband has developed a carcinoma so far.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results showed that a germline mutation of <it>STK11 </it>gene can be found not only in probands fulfilling the PJS diagnostic criteria, but also in some sporadic cases not complying with the criteria. Moreover, we observed a new case of aggressive gastric cancer in a young patient with a frameshift mutation of <it>STK11 </it>gene.</p

Clinical and morphological characteristics of head-facial haemangiomas

BACKGROUND: Haemangiomas of the head or face are a frequent vascular pathology, consisting in an embryonic dysplasia that involves the cranial-facial vascular network. Haemangiomas show clinical, morphological, developmental and structural changes during their course. METHODS: The clinical characteristics of head-facial haemagiomas were studied in 28 individuals (9 males and 19 females) admitted in our Hospital. Sixteen of these patients(n = 16) underwent surgery for the removal of the haemangiomas. All the removed tissues were transferred in experimental laboratories for the staining of microanatomical details, somatic and visceral nerve fibres, adrenergic and catecholaminergic nerve fibres. Beta-adrenergic receptors were died with a fluorescent method. All results were submitted to the quantitative analysis of images and statistical evaluation of the data. RESULTS: The morphological results revealed numerous micro-anatomical characteristics of the haemangiomatous vessels. The somatic and visceral nerve fibres were poor and located exclusively in the adventitial layer. There was a marked decrease of adrenergic nerve fibres in the haemangiomatous vessels. The fluorescence of catecholaminergic nerve fibres and the overall area of fluorescent structures were also decreased in haemangiomatous vessels. Beta adrenergic receptors are strongly decreased in haemangiomatous vessels. The morphometrical analysis of images and statistical evaluation of the data confirmed all our experimental results. CONCLUSION: The catecholaminergic innervation of the human haemangiomatous vessels comprises nerve fibres containing the main catecholaminergic neurotransmitters that are sympathetic in nature. These neurotransmitters are closely related to beta-adrenergic receptors. The sympathetic nervous system plays a key role in the control of the vascular bed flow and vascular motility in both normal and haemangiomatous vessels

Evolving Sensitivity Balances Boolean Networks

We investigate the sensitivity of Boolean Networks (BNs) to mutations. We are interested in Boolean Networks as a model of Gene Regulatory Networks (GRNs). We adopt Ribeiro and Kauffman’s Ergodic Set and use it to study the long term dynamics of a BN. We define the sensitivity of a BN to be the mean change in its Ergodic Set structure under all possible loss of interaction mutations. Insilico experiments were used to selectively evolve BNs for sensitivity to losing interactions. We find that maximum sensitivity was often achievable and resulted in the BNs becoming topologically balanced, i.e. they evolve towards network structures in which they have a similar number of inhibitory and excitatory interactions. In terms of the dynamics, the dominant sensitivity strategy that evolved was to build BNs with Ergodic Sets dominated by a single long limit cycle which is easily destabilised by mutations. We discuss the relevance of our findings in the context of Stem Cell Differentiation and propose a relationship between pluripotent stem cells and our evolved sensitive networks