A micro ultrasonic motor using a micro-machined cylindrical bulk PZT transducer

In this paper, a micro ultrasonic motor using a micro-machined bulk piezoelectric transducer is introduced. The cylindrical shaped bulk piezoelectric transducer, a diameter of 0.8 mm and a height of 2.2 mm, was developed as stator transducer for traveling wave type ultrasonic motor. The transducer was made of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) bulk ceramics, and formed by micro machining, Ni plating and laser beam cutting process. Using this stator transducer, we have fabricated a cylindrical micro ultrasonic motor, a diameter of 2.0 mm and a height of 5.9 mm. We have also evaluated some characteristics and succeeded in driving the micro ultrasonic motor.</p

Non-restorative Sleep Caused by Autonomic and Electroencephalography Parameter Dysfunction Leads to Subjective Fatigue at Wake Time in Shift Workers

Sleep is a physiological state that plays important role in the recovery of fatigue. However, the relationship between the physiological status of sleep and subjective fatigue remains unknown. In the present study, we hypothesized that the non-recovery of fatigue at wake time due to non-restorative sleep might be ascribed to changes in specific parameters of electroencephalography (EEG) and heart rate variability (HRV) in poor sleepers. Twenty healthy female shift-working nurses participated in the study. Subjective fatigue was assessed using the visual analog scale (VAS) at bedtime and wake time. During sleep on the night between 2 consecutive day shifts, the EEG powers at the frontal pole, HRV based on electrocardiograms, and distal-proximal gradient of skin temperature were recorded and analyzed. The results indicated that the subjects with high fatigue on the VAS at wake time exhibited (1) a decrease in deep non-rapid eye movement (NREM) (stageN3) sleep duration in the first sleep cycle; (2) a decrease in REM latency; (3) a decrease in ultra-slow and delta EEG powers, particularly from 30 to 65 min after sleep onset; (4) a decrease in the total power of HRV, particularly from 0 to 30 min after sleep onset; (5) an increase in the very low frequency component of HRV; and (6) a smaller increase in the distal-proximal gradient of skin temperature, than those of the subjects with low fatigue levels. The correlational and structural equation modeling analyses of these parameters suggested that an initial decrease in the total power of HRV from 0 to 30 min after sleep onset might inhibit the recovery from fatigue during sleep (i.e., increase the VAS score at wake time) via its effects on the ultra-slow and delta powers from 30 to 65 min after sleep onset, stageN3 duration in the first sleep cycle, REM latency, and distal-proximal gradient of skin temperature. These findings suggest an important role of these physiological factors in recovery from fatigue during sleep, and that interventions to modify these physiological factors might ameliorate fatigue at wake time

Clinical characteristics, management strategies and outcomes of patients with recurrent venous thromboembolism in the real world

There is a paucity of data on management strategies and clinical outcomes after recurrent venous thromboembolism (VTE). In a multicenter registry enrolling 3027 patients with acute symptomatic VTE, the current study population was divided into the following 3 groups: (1) First recurrent VTE during anticoagulation therapy (N = 110); (2) First recurrent VTE after discontinuation of anticoagulation therapy (N = 116); and (3) No recurrent VTE (N = 2801). Patients with first recurrent VTE during anticoagulation therapy more often had active cancer (45, 25 and 22%, P < 0.001). Among 110 patients with first recurrent VTE during anticoagulation therapy, 84 patients (76%) received warfarin at recurrent VTE with the median prothrombin time-international normalized ratio (PT-INR) value at recurrent VTE of 1.6, although patients with active cancer had a significantly higher median PT-INR value at recurrent VTE compared with those without active cancer (2.0 versus 1.4, P < 0.001). Within 90 days after recurrent VTE, 23 patients (20.9%) during anticoagulation therapy and 24 patients (20.7%) after discontinuation of anticoagulation therapy died. Active cancer was a major cause of recurrent VTE during anticoagulation therapy as a patient-related factor, while sub-optimal intensity of anticoagulation therapy was a major cause of recurrent VTE during anticoagulation therapy as a treatment-related factor, particularly in patients without active cancer

First Data Release of the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program

The Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) is a three-layered imaging survey aimed at addressing some of the most outstanding questions in astronomy today, including the nature of dark matter and dark energy. The survey has been awarded 300 nights of observing time at the Subaru Telescope and it started in March 2014. This paper presents the first public data release of HSC-SSP. This release includes data taken in the first 1.7 years of observations (61.5 nights) and each of the Wide, Deep, and UltraDeep layers covers about 108, 26, and 4 square degrees down to depths of i~26.4, ~26.5, and ~27.0 mag, respectively (5sigma for point sources). All the layers are observed in five broad bands (grizy), and the Deep and UltraDeep layers are observed in narrow bands as well. We achieve an impressive image quality of 0.6 arcsec in the i-band in the Wide layer. We show that we achieve 1-2 per cent PSF photometry (rms) both internally and externally (against Pan-STARRS1), and ~10 mas and 40 mas internal and external astrometric accuracy, respectively. Both the calibrated images and catalogs are made available to the community through dedicated user interfaces and database servers. In addition to the pipeline products, we also provide value-added products such as photometric redshifts and a collection of public spectroscopic redshifts. Detailed descriptions of all the data can be found online. The data release website is https://hsc-release.mtk.nao.ac.jp/.Comment: 34 pages, 20 figures, 7 tables, moderate revision, accepted for publication in PAS

The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection

DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19疾患感受性遺伝子DOCK2の重症化機序を解明 --アジア最大のバイオレポジトリーでCOVID-19の治療標的を発見--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-10.Identifying the host genetic factors underlying severe COVID-19 is an emerging challenge. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 2, 393 cases of COVID-19 in a cohort of Japanese individuals collected during the initial waves of the pandemic, with 3, 289 unaffected controls. We identified a variant on chromosome 5 at 5q35 (rs60200309-A), close to the dedicator of cytokinesis 2 gene (DOCK2), which was associated with severe COVID-19 in patients less than 65 years of age. This risk allele was prevalent in East Asian individuals but rare in Europeans, highlighting the value of genome-wide association studies in non-European populations. RNA-sequencing analysis of 473 bulk peripheral blood samples identified decreased expression of DOCK2 associated with the risk allele in these younger patients. DOCK2 expression was suppressed in patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis (n = 61 individuals) identified cell-type-specific downregulation of DOCK2 and a COVID-19-specific decreasing effect of the risk allele on DOCK2 expression in non-classical monocytes. Immunohistochemistry of lung specimens from patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia showed suppressed DOCK2 expression. Moreover, inhibition of DOCK2 function with CPYPP increased the severity of pneumonia in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by weight loss, lung oedema, enhanced viral loads, impaired macrophage recruitment and dysregulated type I interferon responses. We conclude that DOCK2 has an important role in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of severe COVID-19, and could be further explored as a potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target

The Hyper Suprime-Cam SSP survey: Overview and survey design

Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) is a wide-field imaging camera on the prime focus of the 8.2-m Subaru telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. A team of scientists from Japan, Taiwan, and Princeton University is using HSC to carry out a 300-night multi-band imaging survey of the high-latitude sky. The survey includes three layers: the Wide layer will cover 1400 deg2 in five broad bands (grizy), with a 5 σ point-source depth of r ≈ 26. The Deep layer covers a total of 26 deg2 in four fields, going roughly a magnitude fainter, while the UltraDeep layer goes almost a magnitude fainter still in two pointings of HSC (a total of 3.5 deg2). Here we describe the instrument, the science goals of the survey, and the survey strategy and data processing. This paper serves as an introduction to a special issue of the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, which includes a large number of technical and scientific papers describing results from the early phases of this survey

Overcoming Decreased Lipid Accumulation Under Light/Dark Conditions by Selective Breeding of Oil-Rich Chlamydomonas Mutants

Microalgae are promising biofuel producers due to their high ability to produce oil photosynthetically. The oleaginous green alga Chlamydomonas sp. JSC4 is a hopeful candidate that shows high growth potential together with high oil content through activation of the starch-to-lipid biosynthesis switching mechanism. However, oil accumulation of JSC4 is significantly decreased under light/dark conditions, which is inevitable in large-scale outdoor cultivation. To overcome this critical obstacle, this study aimed to obtain a mutant strain with high oil content under light/dark conditions. Selective breeding of oil-rich Chlamydomonas mutant was performed by combining heavy ion beam mutagenesis and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). JSC4 cells seeded on agar plates were exposed to 50 Gy of the carbon ion beams (12C5+, 220 MeV) accelerated by an AVF cyclotron at TIARA, QST. Mutant cells were cultured under light/dark conditions, followed by FACS-based screening for oil-rich cells using BODIPY fluorescence and chlorophyll fluorescence as the indicators of oil and cell size, respectively. Consequently, an oil-rich mutant strain KOR1 was obtained