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Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are activated in response to septic injury and have important roles in vertebrate and invertebrate immune systems. AMPs act directly against pathogens and have both wound healing and antitumor activities. Although coleopterans comprise the largest and most diverse order of eukaryotes and occupy an earlier branch than Drosophila in the holometabolous lineage of insects, their immune system has not been studied extensively. Initial research reports, however, indicate that coleopterans possess unique immune response mechanisms, and studies of these novel mechanisms may help to further elucidate innate immunity. Recently, the complete genome sequence of Tribolium was published, boosting research on coleopteran immunity and leading to the identification of Tribolium AMPs that are shared by Drosophila and mammals, as well as other AMPs that are unique. AMPs have potential applicability in the development of vaccines. Here, we review coleopteran AMPs, their potential impact on clinical medicine, and the molecular basis of immune defense.

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The RI beam factory at RIKEN Nishina Center needs high intensity of uranium ion beams. We constructed a new injector, RILAC2, which would provide several hundred times higher intensity. As a part of the RILAC2, we designed the low energy beam transport, LEBT, from the superconducting ECR ion source to the RFQ entrance. In this paper we present its requirements and problems, and show our design as the solutions to them. Especially we focus a technique of a pair of two solenoids to treat a rotational operation and a focusing operation independently. Based on this design, the LEBT was completed in March 2010. The RILAC2 will be operational this fall., Proceedings of the 1st International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2010, Kyoto, Japan

The next generation heavy ion accelerator facility, such as the RIKEN RIBF, requires great variety of high charged heavy ions with a magnitude higher beam intensity than currently achievable. In the last decade, performance of the ECR ion sources has been dramatically improved with increasing the magnetic field and RF frequency to enhance the density and confinement time of plasma. Furthermore, the effects of the key components (magnetic field configuration, gas pressure etc) on the ECR plasma have been revealed. Such basic studies give us how to optimize the ion source structure. Based on these studies and the technology, we successfully constructed the new 28GHz SC-ECRIS which has a flexible magnetic field configuration to enlarge the ECR zone and to optimize the field gradient at ECR point. In the test experiment, we obtained the direct evidence that the field gradient and the zone size strongly affect the beam intensity. It concludes that the gentler field gradient and large ECR zone size gives intense beam of highly charged heavy ions from ECR plasma. In this contribution, we report the systematic study of these effects on the beam intensity of highly charged heavy ions., Proceedings of the 1st International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2010, Kyoto, Japan

The RI beam factory at RIKEN Nishina Center needs high intensity of uranium ion beams. We have used so far the RFQ pre-injector upstream of the linac system, in which the extraction voltage of the ECR ion source is as low as 5.7 kV for the uranium beam. However, for much higher intensity beams from a newly developed superconducting ECR ion source, such a low voltage was expected to significantly increase their emittance due to the space charge effect. To reduce this effect, we prepared a new pre-injector line of 127 kV for uranium beams by placing the ion source on a high-voltage terminal. In this paper we present the design of the 127 kV medium energy beam transport, MEBT, and show the measured results through the line., Proceedings of the 1st International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2010, Kyoto, Japan

A new additional injector (RILAC2) is constructed at RIKEN Nishina Center in order to enable the independent operation of the RIBF experiments and super-heavy element synthesis. The RILAC2 consists of a 28 GHz superconducting ECR ion source, a low-energy beam transport with a pre-buncher, a four-rod RFQ linac, a rebuncher, three DTL tanks, and strong Q-magnets between the rf resonators for the transverse focusing. Very heavy ions with m/q of 7 such as ¹³⁶Xe²⁰⁺ and ²³⁸U³⁵⁺ will be accelerated up to the energy of 680 keV/u in the cw mode and be injected to the RIKEN Ring Cyclotron without charge stripping. The RFQ linac, the last tank of the DTL, and the bunchers have been converted from old ones in order to save the cost. Construction of the RILAC2 started at the end of the fiscal 2008. The RFQ and DTLs will be installed in the AVF cyclotron vault and be tested in March 2010. The ECR ion source and low-energy beam transport will be set on the RILAC2 in 2010 summer, and the first beam will be accelerated in 2010 autumn. We will present the details of the linac part of RILAC2 as well as the progress of construction which includes the result of high power test of resonators., Proceedings of the 1st International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2010, Kyoto, Japan

論説

Research on innovation provides fundamental insights for productive discourse on science and technology policy. However, there has been little analysis conducted in Japan on the innovation indicators using patent statistics. The indicators typically used to date such as research and development investment amount and the simple count of number of patents. Apparently, there is a need for more sophisticated indicators. This paper focuses on the importance of patents as a first step to construct more informative innovation indicator. We used Technology Trend Surveys published by the Japan Patent Office which select important patents using expert opinion, then considered possible indicators to identify important patents. The findings show that the number of citations received is effective as an indicator of the importance of patents, and that the number of inventors and the number of patents cited are also effective indicators. In the life sciences, however, the findings demonstrate that while the number of research papers cited (science linkage) in important patents tends to be high, a high science linkage does not necessarily serve as an indicator for identifying important patents.

Larval and juvenile rockfishes (Sebastes spp.) are difficult to identify using morphological characters. We developed a key based on sizes of restriction endonuclease fragments of the NADH dehydrogenase-3 and -4 (ND3/ND4) and 12S and 16S ribosomal RNA (12S/16S) mitochondrial regions. The key makes use of variation in the ND3/ND4 region. Restriction endonuclease Dde I variation can corroborate identifications, as can 12S/16S variation. The key, based on 71 species, includes most North American taxa, several Asian species, and Sebastolobus alascanus and Helicolenus hilgendorfi that are closely related to rockfishes. Fifty-eight of 71 rockfish species in our database can be distinguished unequivocally, using one to five restriction enzymes; identities of the remaining species are narrowed to small groups: 1) S. polyspinis, S. crameri, and S. ciliatus or variabilis (the two species could not be distinguished and were considered as a single species) ; 2) S. chlorostictus, S. eos, and S. rosenblatti; 3) S. entomelas and S. mystinus; 4)S. emphaeus, S. variegatus, and S. wilsoni; and 5) S. carnatus and S. chrysomelas.

Japanese industry has finally emerged from the prolonged economic slump and, partly helped by expanded tax incentives, companies have begun to accelerate research on and development of future technologies. In order to achieve this goal, Japan needs to secure and develop human resources for R&D. In this paper, we examine Britain's approach to the development of human resources through cooperation among business, government and academia, which has been praised as the "best practice" of its kind. Then, drawing on the case of Britain, we explore policy measures for developing human resources in science and technology which also promote technology transfer from universities to industry via people, thereby laying a foundation for competitiveness.

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