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Nanofibers (NFs) are potential candidates as filter materials for affinity separation owing to their high liquid permeability based on their high porosity. Multiple and complex processes were conventionally performed to immobilize proteins for modifying NF surfaces. A simple method must be developed to immobilize proteins without impairing their biological activity. Herein, we succeeded in fabricating NFs with a core of cellulose acetate and a shell of hydrophilic polyvinyl alcohol immobilized with staphylococcal recombinant protein A by a one-step process based on core-shell electrospinning. A total of 12.9 mg/cm3 of antibody was captured in the fiber shell through high affinity with protein A immobilized in an aqueous environment of the hydrogel. The maximum adsorption site and dissociation constant evaluated by the Langmuir model were 87.8 µg and 1.37 µmol/L, respectively. The fiber sheet withstood triplicate use. Thus, our NF exhibited high potential as a material for membrane chromatography. View Full-Text, source:https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/18/9857

The quantification of amino acids, peptides and proteins are important in fundamental science to understand intravital event, as well as in applied fields such as biological, medical, and pharmaceutical sciences.Py-Tags (Py0, Py6 and Py12) are primary amine-reactive isotope-labelled tagging reagents. Py-Tags can selectively and efficiently react with the primary amino group which has more than a two-carbon chain from the alpha-carbon of the target sample by the reaction of pyrylium salts with nucleophiles under alkaline conditions, thereby increasing the mass by 175.15, 181.17, and 187.19 Da, respectively, and generating positive ions.We used Py-Tags to label not only the amino acids but also peptides with a lysine residue(s), fragment peptides with a lysine(s), digested proteins, and intact proteins. All Py-Tag-labelled peptide sets showed similar mass differences. Thus, we could easily analyze expression ratio by single measurement. Furthermore, the ratio of the measured ion intensities was representative of the relative amount of each material., source:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1387380618301945

We report on a method for analyzing the variant of coronavirus genes using autoencoder. Since coronaviruses have mutated rapidly and generated a large number of genotypes, an appropriate method for understanding the entire population is required. The method using autoencoder meets this requirement and is suitable for understanding how and when the variants emarge and disappear. For the over 30,000 SARS-CoV-2 ORF1ab gene sequences sampled globally from December 2019 to February 2021, we were able to represent a summary of their characteristics in a 3D plot and show the expansion, decline, and transformation of the virus types over time and by region. Based on ORF1ab genes, the SARS-CoV-2 viruses were classified into five major types (A, B, C, D, and E in the order of appearance): the virus type that originated in China at the end of 2019 (type A) practically disappeared in June 2020; two virus types (types B and C) have emerged in the United States and Europe since February 2020, and type B has become a global phenomenon. Type C is only prevalent in the U.S. and is suspected to be associated with high mortality, but this type also disappeared at the end of June. Type D is only found in Australia. Currently, the epidemic is dominated by types B and E.

Using an autoencoder-based analysis to classify genomes of SARS-CoV-2 coronaviruses, we found a cluster consisting only of a specific genotype with two mutations in the helicase. This virus genotype, called C-type SARS-CoV-2, was almost exclusively prevalent in the United States from March to July 2020. This type of virus, characterized by a pair of the C17747T (P504L) and A17858G (Y541C) mutations on the nsp13 gene, had never been highly prevalent at any other time or in any other part of the world. In the U.S., Washington State was the center of the epidemic, and the C-type viruses, along with the viruses with wild-type helicase, seemed to have aroused the pandemic. In Washington State, USA, the CoViD-19 epidemic during the first two months of the year, starting at the end of February 2020, was mainly caused by the type-C virus. During this period, the infection spread rapidly; from May onwards, the number of viruses with wild-type helicases became higher than that of type-C viruses, and no type-C viruses have been collected since early July. The involvement of the helicase in this COVID-19 disease was discussed.

The role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in how microbiota influence the host intestinal immune system is not fully understood. We compared the expression profiles of miRNAs and mRNAs in lamina propria leukocytes (LPL) in the large intestines of germ-free (GF) and specific pathogen-free (SPF) mice. Microarray analysis revealed different expression profiles of miRNAs and mRNAs between GF and SPF mice. Quantitative real time-PCR (qRT-PCR) showed that the level of miR-200 family members was significantly higher in SPF mice than in GF mice. In silica prediction followed by qRT-PCR suggested that Bcl11b, Ets1, Gbp7, Stat5b, and Zeb1 genes were downregulated by the miR-200 family. Western blotting revealed that the expression of BCL11B and ETS-1, but not ZEB1, in large intestinal LPL was significantly lower in SPF mice than in GF mice. Interleukin (IL)-2 production in cultured LPL upon stimulation with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate and ionomycin for 24 h was significantly lower in SPF mice than in GF mice. Conventionalization of GF mice substantially recapitulated SPF mice in terms of the expression of miR200 family members and their target genes and IL-2 production in large intestinal LPL. Considering that BCL11B and ETS-1 reportedly function as transcription factors to activate the Il2 gene, we propose that the presence of gut commensals suppresses IL-2 production in large intestinal LPL, at least in part through post-transcriptional downregulation of Bcl11b and Ets1 genes by miR-200 family members. (C) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Prior neuroimaging studies have supported the idea that the human insular cortex plays an important role in processing and representing internal bodily states, also termed "interoception." According to recent theoretical studies, interoception includes several aspects such as attention and accuracy. However, there is no consensus on the laterality and location of the insula to support each aspect of interoception. Thus, we aimed to identify the anatomical insular subdivisions involved in interoceptive attention and accuracy; we examined 28 healthy volunteers who completed the behavioral heartbeat counting task and interoceptive attention paradigm using functional magnetic resonance imaging. First, interoceptive attention induced significant activation in the bilateral frontal operculum, precentral gyrus, middle insula, middle cingulate cortex, and supplementary motor area. Then, we compared the activation in anatomically predefined insular subdivisions during interoceptive attention. The highest activation of the middle short gyrus was noted within the insular cortex, followed by the anterior short gyrus and posterior short gyrus, while no significant hemispheric differences were observed. Finally, the interoceptive accuracy index, measured using the heartbeat counting task, strongly correlated with the activity of the right dorsal anterior insula/frontal operculum. These findings suggest that interoceptive attention is associated with the bilateral dorsal mid-anterior insula, which supports the processing and representation of bodily signals. In contrast, the more dorsal anterior portion of the right insula plays a key role in obtaining accurate interoception.

Although visual and auditory inputs are initially processed in separate perception systems, studies have built on the idea that to maintain spatial information these modalities share a component of working memory. The present study used working memory navigation tasks to examine functional similarities and dissimilarities in the performance of updating tasks. Participants mentally updated the spatial location of a target in a virtual array in response to sequential pictorial and sonant directional cues before identifying the target's final location. We predicted that if working memory representations are modality-specific, mixed-modality cues would demonstrate a cost of modality switching relative to unimodal cues. The results indicate that updating performance using visual unimodal cues positively correlated with that using auditory unimodal cues. Task performance using unimodal cues was comparable to that using mixed modality cues. The results of a subsequent experiment involving updating of target traces were consistent with those of the preceding experiments and support the view of modality-nonspecific memory.

Estradiol-17 beta (E2) regulates transcription of estrogen-responsive genes via estrogen receptors (Esr). In many teleost species, choriogenin (chg), vitellogenin (vtg) and esr genes are transactivated by E2 in the liver. This study aimed i) to compare expression properties of all subtypes of these genes (chg: chgH alpha, chgH beta, chgL; vtg: vtgAs, vtgC; esr: esr1a, esr1b, esr2a, esr2b) in response to estrogen stimulation, and ii) to confirm how each of four Esr subtypes is involved in the transcriptional regulation of these estrogen-responsive genes in cutthroat trout hepatocytes. In hepatocytes in primary culture, all chg and vtg subtype mRNA levels, and those of esr1a, were increased by E2 treatment (10(-6) M) at 24 and 72 h post initiation (hpi), but esr1b, esr2a and esr2b mRNA levels were not. Treatment of hepatocytes with various concentrations of E2 (10(-11)-10(-6) M) induced dose-dependent increases in the levels of all chg and vtg subtype mRNAs at 24 and 72 hpi. At both time points, the lowest dose that induced a significant increase in the expression levels of mRNAs (LOEC) for E2 differed among the genes; LOECs were estimated as 10(-11) M for chgHa at 24 hpi, as 10 -9 M for vtgC at 72 hpi, and as 10(-19) M for other mRNAs at both 24 and 72 hpi. Meanwhile, the levels of esrla mRNA exhibited a dose-dependent increase at 24 and 72 hpi, but the LOEC shifted from 10(-9 )M at 24 hpi to 10(-7) M at 72 hpi because of a decrease in mRNA levels at treatment groups exposed to high concentrations of E2. All Esr subtypes transactivated chg, vtg and esrl a promoters in the presence of E2 in vitro. The activation levels indicated that promoter activity of chgHa > vtgAs > chgH5 > chgL > vtgC > esr1a when mediated by Esr1a, chgHO > chgHa > chgHL > vtgAs > vtgC > esr1a by Esr1b, chgHO > chgL > chgHa > vtgAs > vtgC > esr1a by Esr2a, and chgHO > chgHa > vtgAs > chgL > vtgC > esr1a by Esr2b. Collectively, different

The whelk Neptunea arthritica (Buccinidae) is a common fishery species in Hokkaido, northern Japan. Although ecological information is needed for fisheries management, there is only one paper examining the foraging ecology of this species and it reported that N. arthritica preyed mainly on the invasive mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis. To date, no studies have examined utilization of native prey species by this whelk. Here, we report the findings of a study on the native prey utilization by N. arthritica in an area where M. galloprovincialis is not present. We conducted line transect sampling every month from May 2018 to May 2019 on the western coast of Hakodate Bay, southwestern Hokkaido, Japan. Prey items were composed mostly of gastropods (72%), followed by bivalves (24%) and only a small amount of carrion (<4%). Overlapping spatial distributions were observed among size classes of N. arthritica, while the prey utilization varied with body size. Small individuals (<30 mm in shell height) preyed mainly on the small colloniid gastropod Homalopoma sangarense, while larger individuals (>40 mm) preyed mainly on two tegulid gastropods (C,hlorostoma lischkei and Omphalius rusticus) and two venerid bivalves (Rotothaca euglypta and Ruditapes philippinarum). There were positive size relationships between whelk body size and prey size for prey categories (Vetigastropoda, Caenogastropoda and Bivalvia) and even for the same prey species (H. sangarense, O. rusticus and P. euglypta). These results suggest that N. arthritica is a predator of mobile gastropods, especially during its early life stage, in areas without the invasive Mediterranean mussel. It is possible that the foraging strategy of N. arthritica may differ quite markedly between areas with and without the invasive mussel.

Under future climate regimes, the risk of typhoons accompanied by heavy rains is expected to increase. Although the risk of disturbance to forest stands by strong winds has long been of interest, we have little knowledge of how the process is mediated by storms and precipitation. Using machine learning, we assess the disturbance risk to cool-temperate forests by typhoons that landed in northern Japan in late August 2016 to determine the features of damage caused by typhoons accompanied by heavy precipitation, discuss how the process is mediated by precipitation as inferred from the modelling results, and delineate the effective solutions for forest management to decrease the future risk in silviculture. In the results, we confirmed two types of behaviours in the model: one represents the same process as that of forest disturbance by strong wind, which has been widely studied, and another represents a unique process mediated by storms and precipitation that has not been previously investigated. Specifically, the ridges that received strong wind from the front side had the highest risk of disturbance. Precipitation increased the probability of disturbance in forest stands, and its effect was dependent on the dominant species composition. Our hypothesis regarding treefall mediated by storms and precipitation is that rainwater flows into the gaps around the tree root systems during sway and the introduction of rainwater below the root-soil plate decreases the root anchorage. The species-specific vulnerability to rainfall may depend on the volume of lateral roots. Modelling the disturbance risk helped us to examine the kinds of factors that were related to exposure and vulnerability that should be managed to effectively decrease the risk of disturbance by typhoons during future uncontrollable hazards. It is recommended to avoid silviculture on the ridges of plateaus considering the high risk estimated in this area. In addition, species with dense lateral roots would be s

È noto che le precipitazioni invernali europee sono ben stimate nei dati di rianalisi e nelle simulazioni dai modelli dato che sono altamente correlate con modi con variabilità su larga scala e a bassa frequenza come l'oscillazione del Nord Atlantico (NAO) e l'oscillazione artica (AO). Dal momento che NAO e AO sono principalmente modi di variabilità invernale, la capacità di stimare le precipitazioni è più limitata nelle altre stagioni, soprattutto in estate, in cui (quando) le precipitazioni sono principalmente dovute alla convezione a mesoscala. La prima parte dello studio utilizza dati osservativi, dati di rianalisi e l'output del modello WRF (Weather Research and Forecast) per studiare i cambiamenti recenti negli eventi estremi di precipitazione giornaliera in Europa. Si è stato riscontrato che nelle stagioni estive e di transizione, sono più le regioni che hanno registrato un aumento di eventi di precipitazioni estreme rispetto a quelle che hanno registrato una tendenza al ribasso. Questo è coerente con le tendenze del riscaldamento globale con per via della relazione di Clausius-Clapeyron. è stato studiato anche il valore aggiunto dell'utilizzo di un modello ad alta risoluzione che consenta la convezione per stimare gli estremi delle precipitazioni. I risultati mostrano che WRF riesca a correggere il fallimento della rianalisi ERA-Interim per I risultati mostrano che WRF riesce, al contrario di ERA-Interim, a catturare le tendenze positive delle precipitazioni estreme europee sia in estate che nelle stagioni di transizione indicate dai dati osservativi (EOBS) e dalla letteratura precedente. D'altra parte, sono di più le aree in Europa che hanno registrato tendenze negative nelle precipitazioni estreme rispetto alle aree con tendenze positive. Questo si tratta di una conseguenza del recente trend positivo)della NAO negli ultimi decenni, che ha causato eventi NAO positivi più frequenti, riducendo le precipitazioni estreme in più regioni in Europa. D, European wintertime precipitation is known to be skilfully estimated in reanalysis data and model simulations since it is highly correlated with large scale, low frequency modes of variability, namely the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and Arctic Oscillation (AO). Since the NAO and AO are mainly a wintertime mode of variability, the skill of estimating precipitation becomes more limited in the other seasons, most importantly in the summer, in which precipitation is mainly a result of mesoscale convection. The first part of the study uses observational data, reanalysis data, and the output of Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model to study the recent changes of extreme daily precipitation events over Europe. It is found that in summer and transition seasons, more regions recorded an increase of extreme precipitation events than regions that recorded a decreasing trend. This is consistent with the global warming trends with Clausius-Clapeyron relation. The added value of using a high resolution, convection-permitting model to estimate precipitation extremes is deduced. The results show that WRF succeeds to correct the failure of ERA-Interim reanalysis to capture the positive trends of European extreme precipitation in summer and transition seasons that are indicated by the observational data (EOBS) and previous literature. On the other hand, more regions in Europe recorded negative extreme precipitation trends than regions with positive trends. This is found to be a consequence of the recent positive trend of the NAO over the past decades, causing more frequent positive NAO events, reducing extreme precipitation outbreaks to more regions in Europe. As the NAO and the highly correlated AO are changing, further investigations to the nature of the two oscillations are carried out. Reanalysis data and climate model simulations of historical and warm climates are used to show that the relation between the two oscillations changes with climate warming. The two modes ar