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The mode of cytokine receptor activation is diverse. Here, the authors find that the marine-sponge derived lectin ThC, a bivalent sugar binding protein, activates human cytokine receptor MPL. This mode of action resembles the pathogenic activation of MPL by mutant molecular chaperon calreticulin in hematologic malignancies. N-glycan-mediated activation of the thrombopoietin receptor (MPL) under pathological conditions has been implicated in myeloproliferative neoplasms induced by mutant calreticulin, which forms an endogenous receptor-agonist complex that traffics to the cell surface and constitutively activates the receptor. However, the molecular basis for this mechanism is elusive because oncogenic activation occurs only in the cell-intrinsic complex and is thus cannot be replicated with external agonists. Here, we describe the structure and function of a marine sponge-derived MPL agonist, thrombocorticin (ThC), a homodimerized lectin with calcium-dependent fucose-binding properties. In-depth characterization of lectin-induced activation showed that, similar to oncogenic activation, sugar chain-mediated activation persists due to limited receptor internalization. The strong synergy between ThC and thrombopoietin suggests that ThC catalyzes the formation of receptor dimers on the cell surface. Overall, the existence of sugar-mediated MPL activation, in which the mode of activation is different from the original ligand, suggests that receptor activation is unpredictably diverse in living organisms.

The mode of cytokine receptor activation is diverse. Here, the authors find that the marine-sponge derived lectin ThC, a bivalent sugar binding protein, activates human cytokine receptor MPL. This mode of action resembles the pathogenic activation of MPL by mutant molecular chaperon calreticulin in hematologic malignancies. N-glycan-mediated activation of the thrombopoietin receptor (MPL) under pathological conditions has been implicated in myeloproliferative neoplasms induced by mutant calreticulin, which forms an endogenous receptor-agonist complex that traffics to the cell surface and constitutively activates the receptor. However, the molecular basis for this mechanism is elusive because oncogenic activation occurs only in the cell-intrinsic complex and is thus cannot be replicated with external agonists. Here, we describe the structure and function of a marine sponge-derived MPL agonist, thrombocorticin (ThC), a homodimerized lectin with calcium-dependent fucose-binding properties. In-depth characterization of lectin-induced activation showed that, similar to oncogenic activation, sugar chain-mediated activation persists due to limited receptor internalization. The strong synergy between ThC and thrombopoietin suggests that ThC catalyzes the formation of receptor dimers on the cell surface. Overall, the existence of sugar-mediated MPL activation, in which the mode of activation is different from the original ligand, suggests that receptor activation is unpredictably diverse in living organisms.

Background: Evaluation of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-strand break is important to elucidate the biological effect of ionizing radiations. The conventional methods for DNA-strandbreak evaluation have been achieved by Agarose gel electrophoresis and others using an electrical property of DNAs. Such kinds of DNA-strand break evaluation systems can estimate DNAstrand break, according to a molecular weight of DNAs. However, the conventional method needs pre-treatment of the sample and a relatively long period for analysis. They do not have enough sensitivity to detect the strand break products in the low-dose region.Materials and Methods: The sample is water, methanol and plasmid DNA solution. The plasmid DNA pUC118 was multiplied by using Escherichia coli JM109 competent cells. The resonance frequency and Q-value were measured by means of microwave dielectric absorptionspectroscopy. When a sample is located at a center of the electric field, resonance curve of the frequency that existed as a standing wave is disturbed. As a result, the perturbation effect to perform a resonance with different frequency is adopted.Results and Discussion: The resonance frequency shifted to higher frequency with an increase in a concentration of methanol as the model of the biological material, and the Q-value decreased. The absorption peak in microwave power spectrum of the double-strand break plasmid DNA shifted from the non-damaged plasmid DNA. Moreover, the sharpness of absorption peak changed resulting in change in Q-value. We confirmed that a resonance frequency shifted to higher frequency with an increase in concentration of the plasmid DNA.Conclusion: We developed a new technique for an evaluation of DNA damage. In this paper,we report the evaluation method of DNA damage using microwave dielectric absorption spectroscopy., source:https://www.jrpr.org/journal/view.php?doi=10.14407/jrpr.2016.41.4.339

This study offers a comparative analysis of user experience and levels of immersion in regards to screen based solutions for virtual museums and virtual reality based (VR) solutions with Head mounted displays (HMD). The aim of this study is to better inform design and research and development of virtual museums using real-time 3DCG for achieving an experience of presence and immersion for viewer that comparable to viewing experiences in an actual museum. We have developed a virtual museum that can be experienced both on a large screen display and also via VR on an HMD. Users can experience the viewing space where paintings, picture scrolls, and 3D-objects are placed in the virtual museum, and the virtual space by freely walking through the virtual environment (VE). The development environment used for the study is the Unity’s game engine, created in-game objects, and introduced output content for outputting as VR in Oculus. Then, Compare the results of the comparison experiment of the virtual museum conducted in Sweden and the comparison experiment of the virtual museum conducted in Japan in the previous research, and evaluate what is close to actual viewing.

Water-to-fish concentration ratio data review was carried out in this study (1) to confirm the original values used in transfer parameter summary reports, such as Atomic Energy Society, Japan, and (2) to compare the recommended CR data with newly reported values. We back-traced the references used in the parameter summary reports and found that the CR data did not change much from the values in 1960’s and 1970’s for both freshwater and marine fish. It should be noted that due to difficulty to find the original data in digital, not all of the original data in old publications were not confirmed, but because experts judged and provided these recommended data, these data should be reliable. New data survey resulted that not many data were available for I and Pu; for Cs reported values were almost the same as reported in summary reports.

Museums provide not only audio guides but also video guides. But the video guide production needs a lot of manpower. We have developed a museum guide creation system that facilitates the video guide production for the museums. The video guide creator uploads the script to the server, and the visitor accesses the script with a smartphone application and views it as a CG animation. We use an existing Content Management System - "Wordpress" for the script input. With this system, museum guide creators simply access the blog site by Wordpress and post an article which is in this case a scenario of a museum guide. As for the next step, we plan to make our museum guide creation system open to the public, and will allow many people to create and register movie guide scripts voluntarily just like the Wikipedia.

This paper describes an investigation into the acceptability of installing hydrogen dispensers in public areas based on risk assessments. Because gasoline dispenser risks have been widely accepted for many years, they were used as a benchmark in this study to analyze the risks of hydrogen dispensers. More specifically, we performed risk assessments for both hydrogen and gasoline dispensers and then compared and analyzed the results. We began the process by creating models for both hydrogen and gasoline dispensers that represented their various specifications and elements. Next, potential accident scenarios for each dispenser model were identified by failure mode effect analysis (FMEA) and hazard and operability study (HAZOP). The risks of each scenario were then qualitatively evaluated and the results were organized into risk matrices. By comparing the results of both hydrogen and gasoline dispensers with and without existing safety measures, the appropriateness of their safety measures were validated. Furthermore, by comparing the results of hydrogen and gasoline dispenser safety measures, it was confirmed that the risk levels of the two types were practically equivalent. Therefore, we concluded that the risks involved with installing hydrogen dispensers in public areas can be considered acceptable.

As the use of hydrogen as a vehicle fuel becomes increasingly popular, the development and construction of hydrogen fueling stations is significantly increasing as well. However, despite its potential benefits, the flammability of hydrogen creates great safety concerns. In this research, along with various other elements related to such stations, we focused on hydrogen dispensers that are in close vicinity to the general public and developed a simple method to evaluate safety distances. Jet fires, explosions, and flash fires were assumed as undesirable scenarios for evaluating safety distances to third parties. The tools used in our evaluation were an open-access software application and a widely used spreadsheet program that all engineers should be able to access readily. Applying our method to a model hydrogen dispenser, we obtained safety distances of 4.9 m for jet fires, 3.9 m for explosions, and 8.0 m for flash fires. The use of our method and the results obtained in this study contribute to facilitate decision-making when setting safety distances for hydrogen dispensers.

For realistic and comfortable museum experiences, a virtual museum which can be viewed with a head mounted display is developed. Based on an original screen-based virtual museum, virtual reality functions related to a head mounted display are implemented. Unity Game Engine and Oculus Systems are used for the implementation. Four aspects of "Freedom of operation", "Immersion", "Comfort of play", and "Picture quality" are examined to clarify which type of virtual museum would be suitable for any specific user's needs. As a result, a good evaluation was obtained for "Immersion".

We have been researching and developing virtual museums that can enable a user to appreciate artworks with much reality and less stress as if one is experiencing in actual museums. For this time, as a method to further increase the reality of the virtual museum, we developed a virtual museum using Head Mounted Display. We used Oculus Rift and Unity Game Engine to develop this VR museum. We also performed a comparison of the developed VR museum and the screen-based virtual museum in order to maximize the user experience of the virtual museum. Four aspects of "Freedom of operation". "Immersion", "Comfort of play", and "Picture quality" are examined to clarify which type of virtual museum would be suitable for any specific user's needs.

We have been studying and developing the real-time Computer Graphics (CG) based virtual museum where a user can walk through to appreciate artworks digitized in high-resolution. Our virtual museum also has a function to automatically create TV program-like CG animations using 3D CG models in the virtual space as it is so that the user can learn about individual works by watching the art shows. The CG animation is produced with TVML (TV program Making Language) engine implemented on the virtual museum. However, the current problem is that it requires a lot of work for a developer to write the complicated TVML scripts manually Therefore, this time we have developed a special tool to help the developer to prepare the TVML scripts easily. With this tool, the developer can produce the TVML-based art program simply by writing out a simple scenario on an ordinary text editor. In order to design this tool, TV art programs actually broadcasted are analyzed to determine the syntax of the simple scenario. Based on the analysis, we have developed the tool with TVML engine working on the Unity game Engine. We have also used this tool to imitate the broadcasted TV program to validate its usability.