Recent publications
Atherosclerotic diseases, like coronary artery disease (CAD), are recognized to be associated with oxidative stress and inflammation. Sestrin2 is a stress-inducible protein that has anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. We previously reported that plasma sestrin2 levels were high in patients with CAD. However, no study has shown their prognostic value in patients with CAD. We investigated the association between plasma sestrin2 levels and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) (cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, unstable angina, coronary revascularization, heart failure, or stroke) in 320 patients undergoing coronary angiography, of whom 191 had CAD. During a mean follow-up of 7.0 ± 4.2 years, 58 patients had MACE. Plasma sestrin2 levels were higher in patients with CAD than without CAD (median 16.4 versus 14.2 ng/mL, P < 0.05). Notably, patients with MACE had higher sestrin2 levels (19.5 versus 14.9 ng/mL) and more often had sestrin2 > 15.0 ng/mL (79% versus 49%) than those without MACE (P < 0.001). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed lower event-free survival in patients with sestrin2 > 15.0 ng/mL than in those with ≤ 15.0 ng/mL (P < 0.001). In multivariate Cox hazards analysis, sestrin2 level (> 15.0 ng/mL) was a significant predictor of MACE (hazard ratio: 2.44; 95%CI: 1.28-4.67), independent of CAD and atherosclerotic risk factors. Moreover, among 191 patients with CAD, sestrin2 level was also a significant predictor of MACE (hazard ratio: 2.51; 95%CI: 1.28-4.82), independent of the severity of CAD and coronary revascularization. Thus, high plasma levels of sestrin2 at baseline angiography were found to be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events in patients with CAD and patients undergoing coronary angiography.
This paper investigates the role of communication in improving coordination within robot swarms, focusing on a paradigm where learning and execution occur simultaneously in a decentralized manner. We highlight the role communication can play in addressing the credit assignment problem (individual contribution to the overall performance), and how it can be influenced by it. We propose a taxonomy of existing and future works on communication, focusing on information selection and physical abstraction as principal axes for classification: from low-level lossless compression with raw signal extraction and processing to high-level lossy compression with structured communication models. The paper reviews current research from evolutionary robotics, multi-agent (deep) reinforcement learning, language models and biophysics models to outline the challenges and opportunities of communication in a collective of robots that continuously learn from one another through local message exchanges, illustrating a form of social learning.
This article is part of the theme issue ‘The road forward with swarm systems’.
In recent syntactic literature, argument ellipsis has become a productive perspective of investigation for null arguments in natural language. Focusing on Japanese as the primary object of study, this paper aims to deepen our understanding of the underlying syntactic mechanism behind the derivation of argument ellipsis. The main empirical observation is that argument ellipsis and topicalization exhibit a striking parallelism with respect to the way they interact with wh-dependencies. Building on this observation, I argue that argument ellipsis is an instance of topic deletion, which involves movement of arguments to Spec,TopicP, and phonological deletion of the arguments under the identity of the topic in discourse. I show that the topic-deletion account of argument ellipsis offers a principled explanation for a variety of restrictions concerning what types of argument can or cannot undergo ellipsis. I also suggest that the proposed account enables a unified perspective on argument ellipsis and discourse pro-drop by analyzing them uniformly as instances of topic deletion, thereby shedding new light on the deep typological correlation that has been observed between them.
We show, for every positive integer n, there is an alternating knot having a boundary slope with denominator n. We make use of Kabaya’s method for boundary slopes and the layered solid torus construction introduced by Jaco and Rubinstein and further developed by Howie et al.
We examine a mechanism of the interannual variability of the realization frequency of the Madden‐Julian oscillation (MJO). The activity of boreal‐winter MJO realization is quantified by the number of MJO active days during the tracking of the real‐time multivariate MJO index. In active years of MJO realization (MJO‐A), multiple MJOs are initiated in the Indian Ocean (IO) and they propagate into the western Pacific (WP), but not so in inactive years (MJO‐IA). This contrast is explained by whether vertical moisture advection over the WP is disrupted or not. It is related to differences in boreal‐winter mean convection and circulations: MJO‐A (MJO‐IA) years are characterized by enhanced and suppressed (suppressed and enhanced) convection over the WP/IO and Maritime Continent (MC), respectively. This modulation results from combined effects of the El Niño‐Southern oscillation (ENSO) and quasi‐biennial oscillation (QBO). During moderate‐to‐strong El Niño, MJO is realized actively irrespective of QBO, if no additional convective suppression over the eastern IO and/or MC due to other forcing such as a positive Indian Ocean Dipole mode. During other ENSO phases, stronger QBO‐easterly phases favor MJO realization irrespective of ENSO. This QBO–MJO connection except for El Niño conditions is due to zonally heterogeneous QBO impacts that the seasonal mean static stability change near the tropopause over the WP alters the mean convective activity there. This zonal heterogeneity and ENSO phase‐dependency of QBO impacts is interpreted with a focus on vertical propagation of Kelvin wave structure over the MC, affected by both QBO winds and background Walker circulations.
Background
Maternal time constraints lead to a lack of vegetable provision to children. Mothers use homemade meal strategies under time constraints; however, these strategies have not been well investigated.
Aim
This study aimed to classify the homemade meal strategies used by mothers under time constraints and to examine their association with the provision of vegetable dishes.
Methods
We conducted an online cross-sectional survey of 400 mothers of preschool children in Japan. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to classify homemade meal strategies. The Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal–Wallis test were used to compare the subscale scores by the demographic characteristics and provision of vegetable dishes, and logistic regression was used to predict the provision of vegetable dishes based on the subscales and adjusted for demographic characteristics.
Results
A 13-item scale comprising three subscales (“planning meals and shopping ahead,” “use of convenience foods,” and “batch cooking”) was developed. Full-time employed mothers had higher scores for “use of convenience foods” and “batch cooking” than did unemployed mothers. “Batch cooking” was positively related to the provision of vegetable dishes more than seven times a week after adjusting for maternal demographic characteristics, whereas “use of convenience foods” was negatively related. “Planning meals and shopping ahead” was not associated with the provision of vegetable dishes.
Conclusions
The results of this study suggest that batch cooking is a recommended strategy under time constraints and that education on nutritional considerations when using convenience foods is required.
Small GTPases of the Ras superfamily are critical regulators of diverse cellular processes. While cross-talk between their signaling pathways has been documented in animals, similar mechanisms remain unexplored in plants, where small GTPases have undergone unique evolutionary diversification. Here, we identify REAP1/AtSWAP70 as a novel effector in Arabidopsis thaliana that interacts with the active forms of both canonical RAB5 and the plant-specific RAB5, ARA6. Remarkably, REAP1 also binds to active ROP7, a plant-unique Rac-type GTPase, via its DH domain. REAP1 localizes to endosomes and facilitates ROP7 recruitment from the plasma membrane, a process dependent on RAB5 activity. Genetic analyses reveal that the RAB5-REAP1-ROP7 signaling cascade is essential for gametogenesis, impacting pollen viability and development. This study provides the evidence of functional cross-talk between RAB and ROP signaling in plants, unveiling a novel layer of regulatory complexity in plant GTPase signaling during plant reproduction.
A bstract
This paper presents measurements of top-antitop quark pair ( t t ¯ ) production in association with additional b -jets. The analysis utilises 140 fb − 1 of proton–proton collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. Fiducial cross-sections are extracted in a final state featuring one electron and one muon, with at least three or four b -jets. Results are presented at the particle level for both integrated cross-sections and normalised differential cross-sections, as functions of global event properties, jet kinematics, and b -jet pair properties. Observable quantities characterising b -jets originating from the top quark decay and additional b -jets are also measured at the particle level, after correcting for detector effects. The measured integrated fiducial cross-sections are consistent with t t ¯ b b ¯ predictions from various next-to-leading-order matrix element calculations matched to a parton shower within the uncertainties of the predictions. State-of-the-art theoretical predictions are compared with the differential measurements; none of them simultaneously describes all observables. Differences between any two predictions are smaller than the measurement uncertainties for most observables.
This chapter presents an overview of the practice and research that I, the author, am currently engaged in, and the background and motivation that led me there. I currently work on movement/dance education using a somatic approach and conducting research related to it. I have been interested in physical movement since childhood, and dancing has always been a part of my life. An injury led me to look at the movement of my own body, which triggered my interest in academic research. Since my first academic research in 2009, my perspective on “movement” has changed in various ways as my “body perspective” has been transformed. Through practice and research, I have come to realize that focusing on the movements of the body—the subject of our feelings, thoughts, and actions—helps us to consider the fact of our existence and our living. Looking back on my research to date, each study has been conducted with a different approach in terms of person (first/second/third person), method (quantitative/qualitative), and perspective (part/whole). By shifting back and forth between these different approaches, I learned that we can change what we see. Through these experiences, I now realize that my research on or through the body and movements is always based on my own body, that is the body of the researcher.
The data collected by Internet of Things (IoT) devices equipped with sensors enable smart home services such as monitoring of elderly, pets, and the indoor environment. Building an IoT system to collect data from individual households in the cloud requires measures to reduce communication latency and the amount of data transferred and protect privacy. Installing sensors in multiple indoor locations is necessary when collecting diverse data in an indoor environment. However, installing numerous sensors increases costs and makes it challenging to relocate them and obtain the necessary information. In this study, we indicate the effectiveness of an IoT system using a wheeled mobile robot implemented in a Robot Operating System (ROS). We attempt to demonstrate the effectiveness of sensor data collection using a robot by developing a prototype system that collects indoor environment information and performs analysis processing in a cloud via an edge server for a monitoring application of indoor carbon dioxide concentration. We also investigate the performance characteristics of ROS and ROS 2 communication between the sensor robot and the edge server and IoT communication between the edge server and the cloud server to identify technical issues in a smart home.
Background
Treatment of stimulant offenders in Japan is an urgent issue. One of the more recent support approaches for stimulant offenders in Japan is to understand and support them based on a self‐medication hypothesis; however, the effect of trust on substance abuse severity among incarcerated stimulant offenders has not been examined. Additionally, while accounting for gender differences is essential when providing support for them, these differences have not also been examined.
Purpose
To investigate gender differences in the effect of trust on substance abuse severity in a national sample of stimulant offenders in Japanese prisons.
Method
Data from 586 incarcerated stimulant offenders who answered a nationwide questionnaire were analyzed. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analyses were used to assess the association between trust and the severity of substance abuse.
Results
Compared with men, women reported lower trust in others; moreover, their distrust in others and substance abuse severity were greater. After controlling for confounding factors, multiple regression analyses were conducted separately for men and women, with trust as the independent variable and substance abuse severity as the dependent variable. The models for both men (R² = 0.180, p < 0.001) and women (R² = 0.236, p < 0.001) were significant. Trust in oneself influenced drug dependence severity for men (β = −0.183, p < 0.01), whereas distrust in others influenced drug dependence severity for women (β = 0.185, p < 0.05).
Conclusion
These findings suggest that gender differences must be considered when supporting stimulant offenders in prison.
Although glucosamine (GlcN) exhibits antitumor effects, its mechanism of action remains controversial. Additionally, its impact on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is not well understood. This study aimed to investigate the antitumor effects of GlcN and its underlying mechanism in a mouse HCC cell line, Hepa1-6. GlcN treatment significantly inhibited Hepa1-6 cell proliferation. Gene expression analysis revealed that GlcN upregulated Chop and Bax while downregulating Bcl2, indicating the involvement of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-induced apoptosis in the antiproliferative effects of GlcN. GlcN also increased the expression of FoxO1 and FoxO3, known tumor suppressors in various cancers. Furthermore, GlcN treatment elevated the levels of LC3II (an autophagy marker) and AMP-activated protein kinase activity, suggesting intracellular energy shortage. Indeed, GlcN treatment significantly suppressed glycolytic flux, lactate, and ATP production. Supplementing GlcN treatment with a high glucose concentration (20 mM) significantly attenuated its effect. We postulate that GlcN inhibits Hepa1-6 cell growth by inducing ER stress-induced apoptosis and autophagy and by inhibiting aerobic glycolysis (the Warburg effect), a key hallmark of cancer metabolism. Given that glucose transporter 2 (GLUT2), which is abundantly expressed in hepatocytes, has a high affinity for GlcN, these effects may result from GlcN competing with glucose for hepatocyte uptake by GLUT2. Our novel findings have potential implications for HCC treatment.
Loss of function in lysosomal arylsulfatase B (ARSB) leads to Maroteaux–Lamy syndrome, a form of the mucopolysaccharidoses. Mutations in ARSB, at least those characterized in detail, often destabilize and interfere with the folding of the ARSB protein, resulting in the loss of functional ARSB in lysosomes. Pharmacological chaperones, which are ligands that assist in protein folding by binding to folding intermediates in the endoplasmic reticulum, are proposed to be potential drug candidates for such protein misfolding diseases. However, small-molecule ligands for ARSB have not been widely studied and most of the known ligands are sulfate compounds, which are highly polar and do not readily cross the membrane. Since pharmacological chaperones must be able to enter the cell and the endoplasmic reticulum, a surrogate pharmacophore with membrane permeable properties is needed. In this study, we identified phenylboronic acid as an effective sulfate surrogate with membrane permeability, via competitive enzymatic assay against ARSB. Additionally, phenylboronic acids were more potent at neutral pH and less so at acidic pH, exhibiting a pH selective activity profile ideal for pharmacological chaperones. Subsequent structure-activity relationship studies identified more potent derivatives, and ARSB was protected from thermal denaturation in the presence of the derivatives, supporting direct binding of the phenylboronic acids. Although further studies will be required to determine if these phenylboronic acids could act as pharmacological chaperones for ARSB mutants, our finding of phenylboronic acid as a pH-selective surrogate pharmacophore for the aryl sulfate should be valuable for designing pharmacological chaperones for sulfatases in the future.
A bstract
A search is performed for light, spin-0 bosons decaying into two photons in the 66 to 110 GeV mass range, using 140 fb − 1 of proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV produced by the Large Hadron Collider and collected by the ATLAS detector. Multivariate analysis techniques are used to define event categories that improve the sensitivity to new resonances beyond the Standard Model. A model-independent search for a generic spin-0 particle and a model-dependent search for an additional low-mass Higgs boson are performed in the diphoton invariant mass spectrum. No significant excess is observed in either search. Mass-dependent upper limits at the 95% confidence level are set in the model-independent scenario on the fiducial cross-section times branching ratio into two photons in the range of 8 fb to 53 fb. Similarly, in the model-dependent scenario upper limits are set on the total cross-section times branching ratio into two photons as a function of the Higgs boson mass in the range of 19 fb to 102 fb.
The chloroplast (cp) genome is a widely used tool for exploring plant evolutionary relationships, yet its effectiveness in fully resolving these relationships remains uncertain. Integrating cp genome data with nuclear DNA information offers a more comprehensive view but often requires separate datasets. In response, we employed the same raw read sequencing data to construct cp genome-based trees and nuclear DNA phylogenetic trees using Read2Tree, a cost-efficient method for extracting conserved nuclear gene sequences from raw read data, focusing on the Aurantioideae subfamily, which includes Citrus and its relatives. The resulting nuclear DNA trees were consistent with existing nuclear evolutionary relationships derived from high-throughput sequencing, but diverged from cp genome-based trees. To elucidate the underlying complex evolutionary processes causing these discordances, we implemented an integrative workflow that utilized multiple alignments of each gene generated by Read2Tree, in conjunction with other phylogenomic methods. Our analysis revealed that incomplete lineage sorting predominantly drives these discordances, while introgression and ancient introgression also contribute to topological discrepancies within certain clades. This study underscores the cost-effectiveness of using the same raw sequencing data for both cp and nuclear DNA analyses in understanding plant evolutionary relationships.
In the prediction of non-isothermal field in urban district, it is an issue that the generation of inflow turbulence that reproduce velocity and temperature fluctuations in actual meteorological fields. In this study, we generated inflow turbulence considering the effects of atmospheric stability and meteorological disturbance based on a spatial filtering and rescaling method (Kawai, Tamura, 2020) using WRF-LES results. The inflow turbulence reproduced well the characteristics of convective boundary layer, vertical temperature flux and temperature fluctuation around the inversion layer.
Properties of the underlying-event in pp interactions are investigated primarily via the strange hadrons K S 0 , Λ and Λ ¯ , as reconstructed using the ATLAS detector at the LHC in minimum-bias pp collision data at s = 13 TeV. The hadrons are reconstructed via the identification of the displaced two-particle vertices corresponding to the decay modes "Equation missing" , Λ → π - p and Λ ¯ → π + p ¯ . These are used in the construction of underlying-event observables in azimuthal regions computed relative to the leading charged-particle jet in the event. None of the hadronisation and underlying-event physics models considered can describe the data over the full kinematic range considered. Events with a leading charged-particle jet in the range of 10 < p T ≤ 40 GeV are studied using the number of prompt charged particles in the transverse region. The ratio N ( Λ + Λ ¯ ) / N ( K S 0 ) as a function of the number of such charged particles varies only slightly over this range. This disagrees with the expectations of some of the considered Monte Carlo models.
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