2,788 results match your criteria: "The Graduate University for Advanced Studies [SOKENDAI][Affiliation]"

Supersulfide catabolism participates in maladaptive remodeling of cardiac cells.

J Pharmacol Sci

August 2024

National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS), Okazaki, 444-8787, Japan; Exploratory Research Center on Life and Living Systems, NINS, Okazaki, 444-8787, Japan; SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Okazaki, 444-8787, Japan; Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, 812-8582, Japan. Electronic address:

The atrophic myocardium resulting from mechanical unloading and nutritional deprivation is considered crucial as maladaptive remodeling directly associated with heart failure, as well as interstitial fibrosis. Conversely, myocardial hypertrophy resulting from hemodynamic loading is perceived as compensatory stress adaptation. We previously reported the abundant presence of highly redox-active polysulfide molecules, termed supersulfide, with two or more sulfur atoms catenated in normal hearts, and the supersulfide catabolism in pathologic hearts after myocardial infarction correlated with worsened prognosis of heart failure.

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A novel diazabenzacenaphthenium photocatalyst, , with high photoredox abilities and visible-light absorption was designed and prepared in one step. Under visible-light irradiation, promoted the four-electron reduction of esters in the presence of ammonium oxalate as a "traceless reductant" to generate carbinol anion intermediates that underwent protonation with water to give the corresponding alcohols. The resulting carbinol anions also exhibited nucleophilic reactivity under the photocatalytic conditions to undergo a 1,2-addition to a second carbonyl compound, affording unsymmetric 1,2-diols.

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Speciation.

Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol

June 2024

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0334, USA

What drives the emergence of new species has fascinated biologists since Darwin. Reproductive barriers to gene flow are a key step in the formation of species, and recent advances have shed new light on how these are established. Genetic, genomic, and comparative techniques, together with improved theoretical frameworks, are increasing our understanding of the underlying mechanisms.

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Nano-/microstructures can be formed with the aid of small amounts of impurities during deposition with noble gas plasma irradiation, which is referred to as codeposition etching. This can be a new method for lithography-free semiconductor nanofabrication. Here, the codeposition etching method was employed with argon plasma and molybdenum (Mo) impurities on various semiconductors.

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Levels of dissolved oxygen in open ocean and coastal waters are decreasing (ocean deoxygenation), with poorly understood effects on marine megafauna. All of the more than 1000 species of elasmobranchs (sharks, skates, and rays) are obligate water breathers, with a variety of life-history strategies and oxygen requirements. This review demonstrates that although many elasmobranchs typically avoid hypoxic water, they also appear capable of withstanding mild to moderate hypoxia with changes in activity, ventilatory responses, alterations to circulatory and hematological parameters, and morphological alterations to gill structures.

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Fluorescent reporters that visualize phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate (PI4P) in living cells are indispensable to elucidate the roles of this fundamental lipid in cell physiology. However, currently available PI4P reporters have limitations, such as Golgi-biased localization and low detection sensitivity. Here, we present a series of fluorescent PI4P reporters based on the pleckstrin homology (PH) domain of oxysterol-binding protein-related protein 9 (ORP9).

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Article Synopsis
  • The Large Helical Device experiments revealed that heat pulses travel quickly and non-diffusively, with speed increasing as the pulse duration decreases.
  • There is a simultaneous movement of temperature gradients and turbulence, occurring over milliseconds, which fits the avalanche model's predictions.
  • These findings suggest that tighter, localized pulses lead to more instability in plasma, highlighting important considerations for maintaining steady-state conditions in future fusion reactors.
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Climate change is anticipated to have long-term and pervasive effects on marine ecosystems, with cascading consequences to many ocean-reliant sectors. For the marine fisheries sector, these impacts can be further influenced by future socio-economic and political factors. This raises the need for robust projections to capture the range of potential biological and economic risks and opportunities posed by climate change to marine fisheries.

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A decade ago, in 2013, and over the course of 4 summer months, three separate observations were reported that each shed light independently on a new molecular organization that fundamentally reshaped our perception of excitatory synaptic transmission (Fukata et al., 2013; MacGillavry et al., 2013; Nair et al.

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Applying lattice strain to thin films, a critical factor to tailor their properties such as stabilizing a structural phase unstable at ambient pressure, generally necessitates heteroepitaxial growth to control the lattice mismatch with substrate. Therefore, while homoepitaxy, the growth of thin film on a substrate made of the same material, is a useful method to fabricate high-quality thin films, its application to studying strain-induced structural phases is limited. Contrary to this general belief, here the quasi-homoepitaxial growth of Cs and Rb thin films is reported with substantial in-plane compressive strain.

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Alternative localization of HEME OXYGENASE 1 in plant cells regulates cytosolic heme catabolism.

Plant Physiol

July 2024

Department of General Systems Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan.

Heme, an organometallic tetrapyrrole, is widely engaged in oxygen transport, electron delivery, enzymatic reactions, and signal transduction. In plants, it is also involved in photomorphogenesis and photosynthesis. HEME OXYGENASE 1 (HO1) initiates the first committed step in heme catabolism, and it has generally been thought that this reaction takes place in chloroplasts.

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Sulfur metabolism as a new therapeutic target of heart failure.

J Pharmacol Sci

July 2024

National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS), Okazaki, 444-8787, Japan; Exploratory Research Center on Life and Living Systems, NINS, Okazaki, 444-8787, Japan; SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Okazaki, 444-8787, Japan; Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, 812-8582, Japan. Electronic address:

Article Synopsis
  • Sulfur-based redox signaling plays a crucial role in heart disease and heart failure, particularly through modifications of cysteine thiols that affect cardiac remodeling.
  • Recent findings highlight the importance of Cys persulfides and polysulfides, which have stronger redox activities than regular cysteine and significantly impact redox signaling and energy metabolism in heart cells.
  • Understanding the catabolism of polysulfides during stress conditions like ischemia could open up new therapeutic strategies for treating ischemic heart failure, suggesting that managing sulfur metabolism may enhance cardiac health post-infarction.
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Lipid droplet (LD) accumulation in hepatocytes is one of the major symptoms associated with fatty liver disease. Mitochondria play a key role in catabolizing fatty acids for energy production through β-oxidation. The interplay between mitochondria and LD assumes a crucial role in lipid metabolism, while it is obscure how mitochondrial morphology affects systemic lipid metabolism in the liver.

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Severe Bottleneck Impacted the Genomic Structure of Egg-Eating Cichlids in Lake Victoria.

Mol Biol Evol

June 2024

Department of Life Science and Technology, School of Life Science and Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan.

Within 15,000 years, the explosive adaptive radiation of haplochromine cichlids in Lake Victoria, East Africa, generated 500 endemic species. In the 1980s, the upsurge of Nile perch, a carnivorous fish artificially introduced to the lake, drove the extinction of more than 200 endemic cichlids. The Nile perch predation particularly harmed piscivorous cichlids, including paedophages, cichlids eat eggs and fries, which is an example of the unique trophic adaptation seen in African cichlids.

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Unraveling the dynamic slowdown in supercooled water: The role of dynamic disorder in jump motions.

J Chem Phys

May 2024

Institute for Molecular Science, Myodaiji, Okazaki, Aichi 444-8585, Japan and The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI), Myodaiji, Okazaki, Aichi 444-8585, Japan.

Article Synopsis
  • Rapid cooling of water below its melting point leads to a significant slowdown in its dynamics without obvious structural changes, posing a challenge to understand this phenomenon.
  • Molecular dynamics simulations reveal that the jump dynamics of water molecules behave differently than expected at lower temperatures, influenced by slow variables that disrupt regular motion, described as dynamic disorder.
  • As temperature decreases, jumping molecules become trapped in stable low-density regions, increasing the number of slow variables involved and resulting in even slower and more intermittent dynamics, which may eventually lead to a glass transition.
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Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) Measurements on Alkali Metal Superatoms of Ta-Atom-Encapsulated Si Cage.

J Phys Chem Lett

May 2024

Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, 3-14-1 Hiyoshi, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama 223-8522, Japan.

The silicon cage nanoclusters encapsulating a tantalum atom, termed Ta@Si, exhibit characteristics of alkali metal "superatoms (SAs)". Despite this conceptual framework, the precise structures of Ta@Si and Ta@Si remain unclear in quantum calculations due to three energetically close structural isomers: , , and structures. To identify the geometrical structure of Ta@Si SAs, structural analysis was conducted using extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) with a high-intensity monochromatic X-ray source, keeping anaerobic conditions.

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Topological insulators (TI) hold significant potential for various electronic and optoelectronic devices that rely on the Dirac surface state (DSS), including spintronic and thermoelectric devices, as well as terahertz detectors. The behavior of electrons within the DSS plays a pivotal role in the performance of such devices. It is expected that DSS appear on a surface of three dimensional(3D) TI by mechanical exfoliation.

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The Role of Momentum Partitioning in Covariance Ion Imaging Analysis.

J Phys Chem A

June 2024

Linac Coherent Light Source, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, United States.

We present results from a covariance ion imaging study, which employs extensive filtering, on the relationship between fragment momenta to gain deeper insight into photofragmentation dynamics. A new data analysis approach is introduced that considers the momentum partitioning between the fragments of the breakup of a molecular polycation to disentangle concurrent fragmentation channels, which yield the same ion species. We exploit this approach to examine the momentum exchange relationship between the products, which provides direct insight into the dynamics of molecular fragmentation.

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No distinct local cuisines among humpback whales: A population diet comparison in the Southern Hemisphere.

Sci Total Environ

June 2024

Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, Southern Ocean Persistent Organic Pollutants Program, Griffith University, 4111 Nathan, QLD, Australia.

Southern hemisphere humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae, SHHW) breeding populations follow a high-fidelity Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) diet while feeding in distinct sectors of the Southern Ocean. Their capital breeding life history requires predictable ecosystem productivity to fuel migration and migration-related behaviours. It is therefore postulated that populations feeding in areas subject to the strongest climate change impacts are more likely to show the first signs of a departure from a high-fidelity krill diet.

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Interactive parallel sex pheromone circuits that promote and suppress courtship behaviors in the cockroach.

PNAS Nexus

April 2024

Department of Earth System Science, Faculty of Science, Fukuoka University, 8-19-1 Nanakuma, Jonan-ku, Fukuoka 814-0180, Fukuoka, Japan.

Many animals use multicomponent sex pheromones for mating, but the specific function and neural processing of each pheromone component remain unclear. The cockroach is a model for studying sex pheromone communication, and an adult female emits major and minor sex pheromone components, periplanone-B and -A (PB and PA), respectively. Attraction and courtship behaviors (wing-raising and abdominal extension) are strongly expressed when adult males are exposed to PB but weakly expressed when they are exposed to PA.

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Chemical senses, including olfaction, pheromones, and taste, are crucial for the survival of most animals. There has long been a debate about whether different types of senses might influence each other. For instance, primates with a strong sense of vision are thought to have weakened olfactory abilities, although the oversimplified trade-off theory is now being questioned.

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A novel Lysinibacillus strain, designated KH24, was isolated from the gut of Siganus fuscescens, a herbivorous fish, which was captured off the coast of Okinawa, Japan. Strain KH24 is a rod-shaped, Gram-stain-positive, spore-forming, and motile bacterium that forms off-white colonies. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain KH24 showed the highest similarity (97.

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Transition condition between memories of vibration and flow in the memory effect of paste.

Phys Rev E

March 2024

Department of Space and Astronautical Science, School of Physical Science, SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-5210, Japan and Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Astronautical Exploration Agency, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-5210, Japan.

Because of its plasticity, a densely packed colloidal suspension, called a paste, remembers directions of its motion, such as vibration and flow. When it dries, primary desiccation cracks propagate in a direction perpendicular to the direction of its vibrational motion and parallel to the direction of its flow motion, which are memory effects of paste. Application of an oscillatory shear strain to a paste using a rheometer reveals that the transition from memory of vibration to that of flow is induced when the amplitude of the oscillatory shear strain exceeds a threshold value.

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As a widely used mental task for functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), the original color-word Stroop task has the advantage of being difficult to habituate, but also the disadvantage of being difficult to understand, especially for children. While the introduction of derived Stroop tasks offers highly promising countermeasures, changes in brain activity during these tests have not been well tested. We investigated the degree of habituation between the original and a derived Stroop task by measuring brain activity to obtain a better fNIRS task design.

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Live-cell fluorescence imaging and optogenetic control of PKA kinase activity in fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

Yeast

May 2024

Quantitative Biology Research Group, Department of Creative Research, Exploratory Research Center on Life and Living Systems (ExCELLS), National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki, Aichi, Japan.

The cAMP-PKA signaling pathway plays a crucial role in sensing and responding to nutrient availability in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. This pathway monitors external glucose levels to control cell growth and sexual differentiation. However, the temporal dynamics of the cAMP-PKA pathway in response to external stimuli remains unclear mainly due to the lack of tools to quantitatively visualize the activity of the pathway.

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