National Institute of Technology, Miyakonojo College

Amyloid β (Aβ) and α-synuclein (α-syn) have traditionally been recognized as the major causative proteins in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD), respectively. However, AD and PD share many common pathogenic mechanisms and exhibit overlapping pathological features. Furthermore, multiple studies have reported the coexistence of Aβ and α-syn within the same pathological regions in individual patients, suggesting that such pathological coexistence is involved in disease progression and pathogenesis. However, the detailed mechanisms by which Aβ and α-syn influence each other and modulate their aggregation dynamics remain unclear. We previously established a method to observe the aggregation processes of Aβ and α-syn in two and three dimensions by utilizing the affinity between quantum dots (QDs) and amyloid aggregates, using fluorescence microscopy and confocal laser scanning microscopy. In this study, we used QD imaging, thioflavin T (ThT) fluorescence assays, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to evaluate in detail how Aβ42 and α-syn affect each other's aggregation behaviors. We found that 1 μM Aβ42 monomers did not affect the aggregation of 20 μM α-syn, whereas 1 μM Aβ42 oligomers significantly promoted 20 μM α-syn aggregation. In contrast, 1-10 μM α-syn inhibited the aggregation of 20 μM Aβ42 in a concentration-dependent manner, with α-syn polymers showing a stronger inhibitory effect than α-syn monomers. Taken together, these results demonstrate an asymmetry in their mutual effects on aggregation under the experimental conditions examined in this study: Aβ42 oligomers promote α-syn aggregation, whereas α-syn inhibits Aβ42 aggregation, particularly in its polymeric form.

In this paper, we have revisited the gradient-flow in information geometry from the perspective of Weyl symmetry. The gradient-flow equations are derived from the proposed action which is invariant under Weyl’s gauge transformations. In Weyl integrable geometry, we have related Amari’s [Formula: see text]-connections in information geometry to the Weyl invariant connection on the Riemannian manifold equipped with the scaled metric.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the extent and depth to which beauty related to national and local lands was perceived in architect Yoshiro Taniguchi’s descriptions of “National Beauty” and “Local Beauty” in the historical background before and after the chaotic end of the war. Taniguchi’s important perspective on the beauty of the land and hometown is that the situation of beauty and ugliness, which appeared on the outside as the object of landscape, was taken as a major matter of mental expression of the inner world of the human being projected onto it.

This study investigates the influence of solution treatment of Shirasu-based materials on their adsorption ability of carbon dioxide. Various concentrations of calcined Shirasu-based materials were treated in aqueous ammonia solution, and the adsorption ability of the treated materials significantly increased with decreasing the concentration. The material with the highest adsorption ability (0.41 mmol-CO2g[Formula: see text]) shows comparable ability to conventional solid absorbent materials. From the result of DRIFT spectra of the samples after adsorption of carbon dioxide, it is suggested that carbon dioxide molecules are physically adsorbed on bridging protonic acid sites and single protonic site of the treated Shirasu-based materials, and the adsorption amount of carbon dioxide on both the sites increases with decreasing the concentration of the sample treated in aqueous ammonia solution. The amount of adsorbed water on Shirasu-based materials also influences the adsorption ability to carbon dioxide, and the ability tends to increase with decreasing the amount of adsorbed bulk-like water.

Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) is a peripheral T-cell malignancy with a poor prognosis. We conducted a retrospective study across six institutions in Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan, to assess the efficacy of tucidinostat in patients with relapsed/refractory ATL who had not undergone transplantation. Between October 2021 and July 2023, 24 patients aged 41 to 88 years (median, 73.4 years) who had undergone prior therapies, including intensive chemotherapy (79.2%) and mogamulizumab immunotherapy (79.2%), received tucidinostat. Objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) were evaluated as key outcomes. ORR and DCR reached 54.2% and 91.7%, respectively. The median PFS was 3.95 months, and OS was 8.04 months, which were not inferior to the results of a phase IIb study. The influential factors for PFS were age ≥ 75 years and high soluble IL-2 receptor (sIL-2R) levels above 5000 U/mL at the start of treatment. Favorable patients without these factors achieved a PFS of 11.4 months. Treatment-related adverse events were mainly hematologic but were managed over the course of treatment. Our findings indicate that tucidinostat provides survival benefits in patients with relapsed/refractory ATL in clinical practice and highlight key clinical factors for better outcomes.

Calcium alginate hydrogel is one of the most widely used materials for drug-carrier beads used in drug-delivery systems. In this study, we developed a new method to improve the encapsulation efficiency of ingredients, such as medicines, in calcium alginate hydrogel beads. In the gold standard method, the hydrogel beads are prepared in the liquid phase. In contrast, in the new method, to enhance the encapsulation efficiency, the hydrogel beads are prepared in the gas phase using a water-repellent surface. In brief, a droplet of sodium alginate aqueous solution is rolled on a water-repellent surface with CaCl2 powder, a cross-linking agent. This process leads to the direct attachment of CaCl2 powder to the droplet, resulting in the formation of spherical hydrogel beads with high mechanical strength and higher encapsulation efficiency than beads prepared by previous methods. The hydrogel beads exhibit similar permeability for glucose, a model for low-molecular-weight medicines, to those prepared by previous methods. These results show that the new method is promising for the preparation of calcium alginate hydrogel beads for drug-delivery systems.

In this paper, our aim is to extend our earlier work [Ahmed et al. in Eur. Phys. J. C 76:280, 2016], investigating an axisymmetric plasma flow with angular momentum onto a spherical black hole. To accomplish that goal, we focus on the case in which the ideal magnetohydrodynamic approximation is valid, utilizing certain conservation laws which arise from particular symmetries of the system. After formulating a Hamiltonian of the physical system, we solve the Hamilton equations and look for critical solutions of (both in and out) flows. Reflecting the difference from the Schwarzschild spacetime, the positions of sonic points (fast magnetosonic point, slow magnetosonic point, Alfvén point) are altered. We explore several kinds of flows including critical, non-critical, global, magnetically arrested and shock induced. Lastly, we analyze the shock states near a specific quantum corrected Schwarzschild black hole and determine that quantum effects do not favor shock states by pushing the shock location outward.

RA is sometimes complicated by interstitial lung disease (ILD) with a poor prognosis. A single-nucleotide variant (SNV) in MUC5B was associated with ILD in European RA patients. However, associations of this SNV were not found in Japanese RA patients, because its frequency in Japanese populations is very low. We investigated the associations of candidate SNVs including the MUC5B variant with ILD in Japanese RA. Genotyping of MUC5B rs35705950, MUC2 rs7934606, MAD1L1 rs12699415 and PPFIBP2 rs6578890 in Japanese RA patients was conducted for association analyses. MUC5B rs35705950 was associated with usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) (P = 0.0039, Pc = 0.0156, odds ratio [OR] 10.66, 95% CI 2.05-55.37) or ILD (P = 0.0071, Pc = 0.0284, OR 7.33, 95% CI 1.52-35.44) in Japanese RA under the allele model. MUC2 rs7934606 was associated with UIP (P = 0.0072, Pc = 0.0288, OR 29.55, 95% CI 1.52-574.57) or ILD (P = 0.0037, Pc = 0.0148, OR 22.95, 95% CI 1.27-416.13) in RA. Haplotype analyses suggested the primary association of MUC5B rs35705950 with UIP in Japanese RA. No significant association of MAD1L1 rs12699415 or PPFIBP2 rs6578890 with UIP, nonspecific interstitial pneumonia, or ILD in RA was observed. MUC5B rs35705950 is associated with, and might be involved in the pathogenesis of ILD, especially UIP, in Japanese RA.

Abstract The armature coil of the superconducting synchronous motor for electric aircraft requires a current of 1,000 A or more. However, a single superconducting tape at liquid nitrogen temperatures is insufficient for this operating current. Therefore, the armature coil should be composed of multi-strand parallel conductors. If the coil is constructed from parallel conductors, the inductance balance between the parallel conductors will be collapsed, so the current distributions will be non-uniform. As a solution for this issue, the uniform current distribution can be achieved by the transposition technique that changes the order in which tapes are stacked. Our previous research has developed the transposition method for the 2 n -strand parallel conductors (n = 1, 2, 3, and so on). However, some of the superconducting synchronous motors are actually designed using a number of parallel conductors other than 2 n . This study focused on the three- and the six-strand parallel conductors. We analytically clarified the unique transposition configuration for the three-strand parallel conductors that achieves uniform current distribution, and the transposition configuration for the six-strand parallel conductors by combining the transposition configuration for the three- and two-strand parallel conductors. As a result, the current distribution ratio became less than ±5% when the number of turns of the double pancake coil was a multiple of six by applying the transposition.

To verify whether members of the phylum Candidatus Patescibacteria parasitize archaea, we applied cultivation, microscopy, metatranscriptomic, and protein structure prediction analyses on the Patescibacteria-enriched cultures derived from a methanogenic bioreactor. Amendment of cultures with exogenous methanogenic archaea, acetate, amino acids, and nucleoside monophosphates increased the relative abundance of Ca. Patescibacteria. The predominant Ca. Patescibacteria were families Ca. Yanofskyibacteriaceae and Ca. Minisyncoccaceae, and the former showed positive linear relationships (r2 ≥ 0.70) Methanothrix in their relative abundances, suggesting related growth patterns. Methanothrix and Methanospirillum cells with attached Ca. Yanofskyibacteriaceae and Ca. Minisyncoccaceae, respectively, had significantly lower cellular activity than those of the methanogens without Ca. Patescibacteria, as extrapolated from fluorescence in situ hybridization-based fluorescence. We also observed that parasitized methanogens often had cell surface deformations. Some Methanothrix-like filamentous cells were dented where the submicron cells were attached. Ca. Yanofskyibacteriaceae and Ca. Minisyncoccaceae highly expressed extracellular enzymes, and based on structural predictions, some contained peptidoglycan-binding domains with potential involvement in host cell attachment. Collectively, we propose that the interactions of Ca. Yanofskyibacteriaceae and Ca. Minisyncoccaceae with methanogenic archaea are parasitisms.IMPORTANCECulture-independent DNA sequencing approaches have explored diverse yet-to-be-cultured microorganisms and have significantly expanded the tree of life in recent years. One major lineage of the domain Bacteria, Ca. Patescibacteria (also known as candidate phyla radiation), is widely distributed in natural and engineered ecosystems and has been thought to be dependent on host bacteria due to the lack of several biosynthetic pathways and small cell/genome size. Although bacteria-parasitizing or bacteria-preying Ca. Patescibacteria have been described, our recent studies revealed that some lineages can specifically interact with archaea. In this study, we provide strong evidence that the relationship is parasitic, shedding light on overlooked roles of Ca. Patescibacteria in anaerobic habitats.