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Full list of authors: Kawauchi, K.; Murgas, F.; Palle, E.; Narita, N.; Fukui, A.; Hirano, T.; Parviainen, H.; Ishikawa, H. T.; Watanabe, N.; Esparaza-Borges, E.; Kuzuhara, M.; Orell-Miquel, J.; Krishnamurthy, V; Mori, M.; Kagetani, T.; Zou, Y.; Isogai, K.; Livingston, J. H.; Howell, S. B.; Crouzet, N.; de Leon, J. P.; Kimura, T.; Kodama, T.; Korth, J.; Kurita, S.; Laza-Ramos, A.; Luque, R.; Madrigal-Aguado, A.; Miyakawa, K.; Morello, G.; Nishiumi, T.; Rodriguez, G. E. F.; Sanchez-Benavente, M.; Stangret, M.; Teng, H.; Terada, Y.; Gnilka, C. L.; Guerrero, N.; Harakawa, H.; Hodapp, K.; Hori, Y.; Ikoma, M.; Jacobson, S.; Konishi, M.; Kotani, T.; Kudo, T.; Kurokowa, T.; Kusakabe, N.; Nishikawa, J.; Omiya, M.; Serizawa, T.; Tamura, M.; Ueda, A.; Vievard, S.--This is an Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited., Context. The NASA space telescope TESS is currently in the extended mission of its all-sky search for new transiting planets. Of the thousands of candidates that TESS is expected to deliver, transiting planets orbiting nearby M dwarfs are particularly interesting targets since they provide a great opportunity to characterize their atmospheres by transmission spectroscopy. Aims. We aim to validate and characterize the new sub-Neptune-sized planet candidate TOI-2136.01 orbiting a nearby M dwarf (d = 33.36 ± 0.02pc, Teff = 3373 ± 108 K) with an orbital period of 7.852 days. Methods. We use TESS data, ground-based multicolor photometry, and radial velocity measurements with the InfraRed Doppler (IRD) instrument on the Subaru Telescope to validate the planetary nature of TOI-2136.01, and estimate the stellar and planetary parameters. We also conduct high-resolution transmission spectroscopy to search for helium in its atmosphere. Results. We confirm that TOI-2136.01 (now named TOI-2136b) is a bona fide planet with a planetary radius of Rp = 2.20 ± 0.07R⊕ and a mass of Mp = 4.7−2.6+3.1 M⊕. We also search for helium 10830 Å absorption lines and place an upper limit on the equivalent width of, The MEarth Project acknowledges funding from the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, the National Science Foundation under grants AST-0807690, AST-1109468, AST-1616624 and AST-1004488 (Alan T. Waterman Award), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Grant No. 80NSSC18K0476 issued through the XRP Program, and the John Templeton Foundation. Based on observations obtained with the Samuel Oschin 48-inch Telescope at the Palomar Observatory as part of the Zwicky Transient Facility project. Z.T.F. is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. AST-1440341 and a collaboration including Caltech, IPAC, the Weizmann Institute for Science, the Oskar Klein Center at Stockholm University, the University of Maryland, the University of Washington, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron and Humboldt University, Los Alamos National Laboratories, the TANGO Consortium of Taiwan, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. Operations are conducted by COO, IPAC, and UW. Our data reductions benefited from PyRAF and PyFITS that are the products of the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA for NASA. G.M. has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 895525. R.L. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, through project PID2019-109522GB-C52, and the Centre of Excellence “Severo Ochoa” award to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709). J.K. gratefully acknowledge the support of the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA; DNR 2020-00104). This work is partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP21K20376, JP21K13975, JP21H00035, JP21K20388, JP20K14518, JP20K14521, JP19K14783, JP18H05439, JP17H04574, by Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows Grant Number JP20J21872, by JST CREST Grant Number JPMJCR1761, by Astrobiology Center PROJECT Research AB031014, by Astrobiology Center SATELLITE Research project AB022006, and the Astrobiology Center of National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) (Grant Number AB031010). M.T. is supported by MEXT/JSPS KAKENHI grant Nos. 18H05442, 15H02063, and 22000005. Some of the observations in the paper made use of the High-Resolution Imaging instrument Alopeke obtained under Gemini LLP Proposal Number: GN/S-2021A-LP-105. Alopeke was funded by the NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program and built at the NASA Ames Research Center by Steve B. Howell, Nic Scott, Elliott P. Horch, and Emmett Quigley. Alopeke was mounted on the Gemini North (and/or South) telescope of the international Gemini Observatory, a program of NSF’s OIR Lab, which is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation, on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), National Research Council (Canada), Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (Chile), Mnisterio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (Argentina), Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações e Comunicações (Brazil), and Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (Republic of Korea).

Full list of authors: Fukui, A.; Korth, J.; Livingston, J. H.; Twicken, J. D.; Osorio, M. R. Zapatero; Jenkins, J. M.; Mori, M.; Murgas, F.; Ogihara, M.; Narita, N.; Pallé, E.; Stassun, K. G.; Nowak, G.; Ciardi, D. R.; Alvarez-Hernandez, L.; Béjar, V. J. S.; Casasayas-Barris, N.; Crouzet, N.; de Leon, J. P.; Esparza-Borges, E.; Soto, D. Hidalgo; Isogai, K.; Kawauchi, K.; Klagyivik, P.; Kodama, T.; Kurita, S.; Kusakabe, N.; Luque, R.; Madrigal-Aguado, A.; Rodriguez, P. Montanes; Morello, G.; Nishiumi, T.; Orell-Miquel, J.; Oshagh, M.; Parviainen, H.; Sánchez-Benavente, M.; Stangret, M.; Terada, Y.; Watanabe, N.; Chen, G.; Tamura, M.; Bosch-Cabot, P.; Bowen, M.; Eastridge, K.; Freour, L.; Gonzales, E.; Guerra, P.; Jundiyeh, Y.; Kim, T. K.; Kroer, L. V.; Levine, A. M.; Morgan, E. H.; Reefe, M.; Tronsgaard, R.; Wedderkopp, C. K.; Wittrock, J.; Collins, K. A.; Hesse, K.; Latham, D. W.; Ricker, G. R.; Seager, S.; Vanderspek, R.; Winn, J.; Bachelet, E.; Bowman, M.; McCully, C.; Daily, M.; Harbeck, D.; Volgenau, N. H., We report the discovery of one super-Earth- (TOI-1749b) and two sub-Neptune-sized planets (TOI-1749c and TOI-1749d) transiting an early M dwarf at a distance of 100 pc, which were first identified as planetary candidates using data from the TESS photometric survey. We have followed up this system from the ground by means of multiband transit photometry, adaptive optics imaging, and low-resolution spectroscopy, from which we have validated the planetary nature of the candidates. We find that TOI-1749b, c, and d have orbital periods of 2.39, 4.49, and 9.05 days, and radii of 1.4, 2.1, and 2.5 R ⊕, respectively. We also place 95% confidence upper limits on the masses of 57, 14, and 15 M ⊕ for TOI-1749b, c, and d, respectively, from transit timing variations. The periods, sizes, and tentative masses of these planets are in line with a scenario in which all three planets initially had a hydrogen envelope on top of a rocky core, and only the envelope of the innermost planet has been stripped away by photoevaporation and/or core-powered mass-loss mechanisms. These planets are similar to other planetary trios found around M dwarfs, such as TOI-175b,c,d and TOI-270b,c,d, in the sense that the outer pair has a period ratio within 1% of 2. Such a characteristic orbital configuration, in which an additional planet is located interior to a near 2:1 period-ratio pair, is relatively rare around FGK dwarfs. © 2021. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved., Funding for the TESS mission is provided by NASA's Science Mission Directorate. We acknowledge the use of public TESS data from pipelines at the TESS Science Office and at the TESS Science Processing Operations Center (SPOC). Resources supporting this work were provided by the NASA High-End Computing (HEC) Program through the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division at Ames Research Center for the production of the SPOC data products. This research has made use of the Exoplanet Follow-up Observation Program website, which is operated by the California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under the Exoplanet Exploration Program. This paper includes data collected by the TESS mission that are publicly available from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). This paper is based on observations made with the MuSCAT3 instrument, developed by the Astrobiology Center and under financial supports by JSPS KAKENHI (JP18H05439) and JST PRESTO (JPMJPR1775), at Faulkes Telescope North on Maui, HI, operated by the Las Cumbres Observatory. Based on observations obtained with the Samuel Oschin 48 inch Telescope at the Palomar Observatory as part of the Zwicky Transient Facility project. Z.T.F. is supported by the National Science Foundation under grant No. AST-1440341 and a collaboration including Caltech, IPAC, the Weizmann Institute for Science, the Oskar Klein Center at Stockholm University, the University of Maryland, the University of Washington, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron and Humboldt University, Los Alamos National Laboratories, the TANGO Consortium of Taiwan, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. Operations are conducted by COO, IPAC, and UW. This work is partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant Nos. JP17H04574, JP18H01265, and JP18H05439, Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows grant No. JP20J21872, JST PRESTO grant No. JPMJPR1775, and a University Research Support Grant from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). This work is also partly financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness through grants PGC2018-098153-B-C31 and PID2019-109522GB-C53. J.K. gratefully acknowledges the support of the Swedish National Space Agency (DNR 2020-00104). G.M. has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 895525. M.T. is supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant Nos.18H05442, 15H02063, and 22000005., With funding from the Spanish government through the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation SEV-2017-0709.

Accepted: 2018-02-18, 資料番号: SA1180403000

Full list of authors: Delrez, L.; Murray, C. A.; Pozuelos, F. J.; Narita, N.; Ducrot, E.; Timmermans, M.; Watanabe, N.; Burgasser, A. J.; Hirano, T.; Rackham, B., V; Stassun, K. G.; Van Grootel, V.; Aganze, C.; Cointepas, M.; Howell, S.; Kaltenegger, L.; Niraula, P.; Sebastian, D.; Almenara, J. M.; Barkaoui, K.; Baycroft, T. A.; Bonfils, X.; Bouchy, F.; Burdanov, A.; Caldwell, D. A.; Charbonneau, D.; Ciardi, D. R.; Collins, K. A.; Daylan, T.; Demory, B-O; Guenther, N.; de Wit, J.; Dransfield, G.; Fajardo-Acosta, S. B.; Fausnaugh, M.; Fukui, A.; Furlan, E.; Garcia, L. J.; Gnilka, C. L.; Chew, Y. Gomez Maqueo; Gomez-Munoz, M. A.; Harakawa, H.; Heng, K.; Hooton, M. J.; Hori, Y.; Ikoma, M.; Jehin, E.; Jenkins, J. M.; Kagetani, T.; Kawauchi, K.; Kimura, T.; Kodama, T.; Kotani, T.; Krishnamurthy, V; Kudo, T.; Kunovac, V; Kusakabe, N.; Latham, D. W.; Littlefield, C.; McCormac, J.; Melis, C.; Mori, M.; Murgas, F.; Palle, E.; Pedersen, P. P.; Queloz, D.; Ricker, G.; Sabin, L.; Schanche, N.; Schroffenegger, U.; Seager, S.; Shiao, B.; Sohy, S.; Standing, M. R.; Tamura, M.; Theissen, C. A.; Thompson, S. J.; Triaud, A. H. M. J.; Vanderspek, R.; Vievard, S.; Wells, R. D.; Winn, J. N.; Zou, Y.; Zuniga-Fernandez, S.; Gillon, M.--This is an Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited., Context. In the age of JWST, temperate terrestrial exoplanets transiting nearby late-type M dwarfs provide unique opportunities for characterising their atmospheres, as well as searching for biosignature gases. In this context, the benchmark TRAPPIST-1 planetary system has garnered the interest of a broad scientific community. Aims. We report here the discovery and validation of two temperate super-Earths transiting LP 890-9 (TOI-4306, SPECULOOS-2), a relatively low-activity nearby (32 pc) M6V star. The inner planet, LP 890-9 b, was first detected by TESS (and identified as TOI-4306.01) based on four sectors of data. Intensive photometric monitoring of the system with the SPECULOOS Southern Observatory then led to the discovery of a second outer transiting planet, LP 890-9 c (also identified as SPECULOOS-2 c), previously undetected by TESS. The orbital period of this second planet was later confirmed by MuSCAT3 follow-up observations. Methods. We first inferred the properties of the host star by analyzing its Lick/Kast optical and IRTF/SpeX near-infrared spectra, as well as its broadband spectral energy distribution, and Gaia parallax. We then derived the properties of the two planets by modelling multi-colour transit photometry from TESS, SPECULOOS-South, MuSCAT3, ExTrA, TRAPPIST-South, and SAINT-EX. Archival imaging, Gemini-South/Zorro high-resolution imaging, and Subaru/IRD radial velocities also support our planetary interpretation. Results. With a mass of 0.118 ± 0.002 M⊙, a radius of 0.1556 ± 0.0086 R⊙, and an effective temperature of 2850 ± 75 K, LP 890-9 is the second-coolest star found to host planets, after TRAPPIST-1. The inner planet has an orbital period of 2.73 d, a radius of 1.320 −0.027+0.053 R⊕, and receives an incident stellar flux of 4.09 ± 0.12 S⊕. The outer planet has a similar size of 1.367 −0.039+0.055R⊕ and an orbital period of 8.46 d. With an incident stellar flux of 0.906 ± 0.026 S⊕, it is located within the conservative habitable zone, very close to its inner limit (runaway greenhouse). Although the masses of the two planets remain to be measured, we estimated their potential for atmospheric characterisation via transmission spectroscopy using a mass-radius relationship and found that, after the TRAPPIST-1 planets, LP 890-9 c is the second-most favourable habitable-zone terrestrial planet known so far (assuming for this comparison a similar atmosphere for all planets). Conclusions. The discovery of this remarkable system offers another rare opportunity to study temperate terrestrial planets around our smallest and coolest neighbours. © L. Delrez et al. 2022., Funding for the TESS mission is provided by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. We acknowledge the use of public TESS data from pipelines at the TESS Science Office and at the TESS Science Processing Operations Center. This research has made use of the Exoplanet Follow-up Observation Program website, which is operated by the California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under the Exoplanet Exploration Program. Resources supporting this work were provided by the NASA High-End Computing (HEC) Program through the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division at Ames Research Center for the production of the SPOC data products. This paper includes data collected by the TESS mission that are publicly available from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the FP/2007-2013 ERC grant agreement no 336480, and under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grants agreements no 679030 & 803193/BEBOP); from an Action de Recherche Concertée (ARC) grant, financed by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, from the Balzan Prize Foundation, from the BELSPO/BRAIN2.0 research program (PORTAL project), from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC; grants no ST/S00193X/1, ST/00305/1, and ST/W000385/1), and from F.R.S-FNRS (Research Project ID T010920F). This work was also partially supported by a grant from the Simons Foundation (PI: Queloz, grant number 327127), as well as by the MERAC foundation (PI: Triaud). TRAPPIST is funded by the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (Fond National de la Recherche Scientifique, FNRS) under the grant PDR T.0120.21, with the participation of the Swiss National Science Fundation (SNF). This work is partly supported by MEXT/JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP15H02063, JP17H04574, JP18H05439, JP18H05442, JP19K14783, JP21H00035, JP21K13975, JP21K20376, JP22000005, Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows Grant Number JP20J21872, JST CREST Grant Number JPMJCR1761, the Astrobiology Center of National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) (Grant Numbers AB031010, AB031014), and Social welfare juridical person SHIYUKAI (chairman MASAYUKI KAWASHIMA). This paper is based on data collected at the Subaru Telescope, which is located atop Maunakea and operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). We wish to recognise and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Maunakea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. This paper is based on observations made with the MuSCAT3 instrument, developed by the Astrobiology Center and under financial supports by JSPS KAKENHI (JP18H05439) and JST PRESTO (JPMJPR1775), at Faulkes Telescope North on Maui, HI, operated by the Las Cumbres Observatory. Some of the observations in the paper made use of the High-Resolution Imaging instrument Zorro obtained under Gemini LLP Proposal Number: GN/S-2021A-LP-105. Zorro was funded by the NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program and built at the NASA Ames Research Center by Steve B. Howell, Nic Scott, Elliott P. Horch, and Emmett Quigley. Zorro was mounted on the Gemini North (and/or South) telescope of the international Gemini Observatory, a program of NSF s OIR Lab, which is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), National Research Council (Canada), Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (Chile), Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (Argentina), Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações e Comunicações (Brazil), and Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (Republic of Korea). We acknowledge funding from the European Research Council under the ERC Grant Agreement n. 3 37591-ExTrA. This work has been carried out within the framework of the NCCR PlanetS supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation. This work is based upon observations carried out at the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional at the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir (OAN-SPM), Baja California, México. We warmly thank the entire technical staff of the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional at San Pedro Mártir for their unfailing support to SAINT-EX operations. Research at Lick Observatory is partially supported by a generous gift from Google. L.D. is an F.R.S.-FNRS Postdoctoral Researcher. M.G. and E.J. are F.R.S.-FNRS Senior Research Associates. V.V.G. is an F.R.S.-FNRS Research Associate. B.V.R. thanks the Heising-Simons Foundation for support. Y.G.M.C. acknowledges support from UNAM-PAPIIT IG-101321. B.-O.D. acknowledges support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (PP00P2-163967 and PP00P2-190080). M.N.G. acknowledges support from the European Space Agency (ESA) as an ESA Research Fellow. A.H.M.J.T acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no 803193/BEBOP), from the MERAC foundation, and from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC; grants no ST/S00193X/1, ST/00305/1, and ST/W000385/1). E.D. acknowledges support from the innovation and research Horizon 2020 program in the context of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie subvention 945298. V.K. acknowledges support from NSF award AST2009343. This publication benefits from the support of the French Community of Belgium in the context of the FRIA Doctoral Grant awarded to M.T., With funding from the Spanish government through the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation SEV-2017-0709.

We thank Dr. S. Hoyer from the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM) in France for the helpful discussions. We also thank the anonymous reviewer for the helpful comments and suggestions. This work was supported by the Erasmus+ grant number 2017-1-CZ01-KA203-035562, by the VEGA grant of the Slovak Academy of Sciences number 2/0031/18, by an ESA PRODEX grant under contracting with the ELTE University, by the GINOP number 2.3.2-15-2016-00003 of the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office, and by the City of Szombathely under agreement number 67.177-21/2016. This paper includes data collected with the TESS mission, obtained from the MAST data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). Funding for the TESS mission is provided by the NASA Explorer Program. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC, https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium).Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. This article is based on observations made with the MuSCAT2 instrument, developed by ABC, at Telescopio Carlos Sanchez operated on the island of Tenerife by the IAC in the Spanish Observatorio del Teide. This work was partly financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness through grant number PGC2018098153-B-C31. This work was partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant numbers JP17H04574, JP18H01265 and JP18H05439, and JST PRESTO grant number JPMJPR1775. This work was partly supported by Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows, grant number JP20J21872. TP acknowledges support from the Slovak Research and Development Agency - the contract No. APVV-20-0148. MT was supported by MEXT/JSPS KAKENHI grant numbers 18H05442, 15H02063, and 22000005. AC acknowledges financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the `Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa' award for the Instituto de Astrophysics of Andalusia (SEV-2017-0709). We acknowledge funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement number 694513., Up to now, WASP-12b is the only hot Jupiter confirmed to have a decaying orbit. The case of WASP-43b is still under debate. Recent studies preferred or ruled out the orbital decay scenario, but further precise transit timing observations are needed to definitively confirm or refute the period change of WASP-43b. This possibility is given by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) space telescope. In this work, we used the available TESS data, multicolour photometry data obtained with the Multicolor Simultaneous Camera for studying Atmospheres of Transiting exoplanets 2 (MuSCAT2) and literature data to calculate the period change rate of WASP-43b and to improve its precision, and to refine the parameters of the WASP-43 planetary system. Based on the observed-minus-calculated data of 129 mid-transit times in total, covering a time baseline of about 10 yr, we obtained an improved period change rate of (P)over dot = -0.6 +/- 1.2 ms yr(-1) that is consistent with a constant period well within 1 sigma. We conclude that new TESS and MuSCAT2 observations confirm no detection of WASP-43b orbital decay., Erasmus+ grant 2017-1-CZ01-KA203-035562, VEGA grant of the Slovak Academy of Sciences 2/0031/18, ESA PRODEX grant, ELTE University, National Research, Development & Innovation Office (NRDIO) - Hungary 2.3.2-15-2016-00003, City of Szombathely 67.177-21/2016, National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) NAS 5-26555, Gaia Multilateral Agreement, Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness PGC2018098153-B-C31, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT) Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) JP17H04574 JP18H01265 JP18H05439, JST PRESTO grant JPMJPR1775, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT) Japan Society for the Promotion of Science JP20J21872, Slovak Research and Development Agency APVV-20-0148, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT) Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) 18H05442 15H02063 22000005, State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the 'Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa' award for the Instituto de Astrophysics of Andalusia SEV-2017-0709, European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program 694513

We report the development of MuSCAT3, a four channel simultaneous imager installed on the 2m Faulkes Telescope North at Haleakala Observatory on Maui, Hawai’i. MuSCAT3 has a capability of 4-color simultaneous imaging in g (400–550 nm), r (550–700 nm), i (700–820 nm), and zs (820–920 nm) bands with four independent 2048×2048 pixel CCDs, each having a field of view of 9.1×9.1 arcmin2 with a pixel scale of 0.27 arcsec per pixel. The development of MuSCAT3 started from September 2019, and MuSCAT3 achieved its first light on September 28th, 2020. The Las Cumbres Observatory started science operations of MuSCAT3 since November 4th, 2020, although a part of its capabilities are still limited.

Over four thousands of exoplanets have been found to date. To understand the formation mechanisms of these diverse exoplanets, it is essential to unveil the detailed physical properties of these exoplanets by various methods, including high-precision transit photometry from the ground. So far two observing techniques have succeeded in achieving high-precision photometry from the ground; one is defocusing and the other is using optical diffusers. Diffusers spread light from stars over many pixels and stabilize the top-hat like point spread function (PSF), reducing systematic noises in photometric observations. In addition to it, diffusers enable us to use longer exposure times, which reduces atmospheric scintillation noises. We have developed diffuser units and installed them to the optical three-band imager MuSCAT. Each diffuser unit can store two types of diffusers with different opening angles, which allows us to change the strength of scatter of light from stars. We installed the diffuser units to MuSCAT in July 2019 and carried out on-sky examination. We observed out of transit (oot) phase of 11 planet-hosting stars alternatively with the following three configurations: with diffusers, without diffusers and with onfocus, and without diffusers and with defocus. From these observations, we confirmed that diffusers stabilized PSF and peak counts of stars. Throughput of the diffusers are measured to be about 93%. In addition, with diffusers, we succeeded in observing 55 Cnc, which is too bright (V=5.4) to observe without diffusers. We achieved the photometric precisions of 426, 641, and 783 ppm per 1 minute, or 188, 221, and 196 ppm per 5 minutes, in g', r', and zs-band, respectively.

Full list of authors: Kemmer, J.; Stock, S.; Kossakowski, D.; Kaminski, A.; Molaverdikhani, K.; Schlecker, M.; Caballero, J. A.; Amado, P. J.; Astudillo-Defru, N.; Bonfils, X.; Ciardi, D.; Collins, K. A.; Espinoza, N.; Fukui, A.; Hirano, T.; Jenkins, J. M.; Latham, D. W.; Matthews, E. C.; Narita, N.; Pallé, E.; Parviainen, H.; Quirrenbach, A.; Reiners, A.; Ribas, I.; Ricker, G.; Schlieder, J. E.; Seager, S.; Vanderspek, R.; Winn, J. N.; Almenara, J. M.; Béjar, V. J. S.; Bluhm, P.; Bouchy, F.; Boyd, P.; Christiansen, J. L.; Cifuentes, C.; Cloutier, R.; Collins, K. I.; Cortés-Contreras, M.; Crossfield, I. J. M.; Crouzet, N.; de Leon, J. P.; Della-Rose, D. D.; Delfosse, X.; Dreizler, S.; Esparza-Borges, E.; Essack, Z.; Forveille, Th.; Figueira, P.; Galadí-Enríquez, D.; Gan, T.; Glidden, A.; Gonzales, E. J.; Guerra, P.; Harakawa, H.; Hatzes, A. P.; Henning, Th.; Herrero, E.; Hodapp, K.; Hori, Y.; Howell, S. B.; Ikoma, M.; Isogai, K.; Jeffers, S. V.; Kürster, M.; Kawauchi, K.; Kimura, T.; Klagyivik, P.; Kotani, T.; Kurokawa, T.; Kusakabe, N.; Kuzuhara, M.; Lafarga, M.; Livingston, J. H.; Luque, R.; Matson, R.; Morales, J. C.; Mori, M.; Muirhead, P. S.; Murgas, F.; Nishikawa, J.; Nishiumi, T.; Omiya, M.; Reffert, S.; Rodríguez López, C.; Santos, N. C.; Schöfer, P.; Schwarz, R. P.; Shiao, B.; Tamura, M.; Terada, Y.; Twicken, J. D.; Ueda, A.; Vievard, S.; Watanabe, N.; Zechmeister, M., We present the confirmation and characterisation of GJ 3473 b (G 50-16, TOI-488.01), a hot Earth-sized planet orbiting an M4 dwarf star, whose transiting signal (P = 1.1980035 ± 0.0000018 d) was first detected by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Through a joint modelling of follow-up radial velocity observations with CARMENES, IRD, and HARPS together with extensive ground-based photometric follow-up observations with LCOGT, MuSCAT, and MuSCAT2, we determined a precise planetary mass, Mb = 1.86 ± 0.30 M·, and radius, Rb = 1.264 ± 0.050 R·. Additionally, we report the discovery of a second, temperate, non-transiting planet in the system, GJ 3473 c, which has a minimum mass, Mc sin i = 7.41 ± 0.91 M·, and orbital period, Pc = 15.509 ± 0.033 d. The inner planet of the system, GJ 3473 b, is one of the hottest transiting Earth-sized planets known thus far, accompanied by a dynamical mass measurement, which makes it a particularly attractive target for thermal emission spectroscopy. © 2020 ESO., CARMENES is an instrument at the Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman de Calar Alto (CAHA, Almeria, Spain). CARMENES was funded by the German Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), the European Union through FEDER/ERF FICTS-2011-02 funds, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Landessternwarte Konigstuhl, Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai, Insitut fur Astrophysik Gottingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobiologia and Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman), with additional contributions by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, the German Science Foundation through the Major Research Instrumentation Programme and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Research Unit FOR2544 "Blue Planets around Red Stars", the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Niedersachsen, and by the Junta de Andalucia. Part of this work was funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion via projects PID2019-109522GB-C51/2/3/4 and AYA2016-79425C3-1/2/3-P, (MEXT/)JSPS KAKENHI via grants 15H02063, JP17H04574, 18H05442, JP18H01265, JP18H05439, 19J11805, JP19K14783, and 22000005, JST PRESTO via grant JPMJPR1775, FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC, PTDC/FIS-AST/32113/2017) via grant UID/FIS/04434/2019, FEDER - Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional through COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizacao (POCI-010145-FEDER-032113), the FONDECYT project 3180063, Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia through national funds and by FEDER through COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizacao by these grants: UID/FIS/04434/2019; UIDB/04434/2020; UIDP/04434/2020; PTDC/FIS-AST/32113/2017 & POCI-01-0145-FEDER-032113; PTDC/FISAST/28953/2017 & POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028953. and the International Graduate Program for Excellence in Earth-Space Science. Part of the data analysis was carried out on the Multi-wavelength Data Analysis System operated by the Astronomy Data Center, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. Funding for the TESS mission is provided by NASA's Science Mission directorate. We acknowledge the use of public TESS Alert data from pipelines at the TESS Science Office and at the TESS Science Processing Operations Center. This research has made use of the Exoplanet Follow-up Observation Program website, which is operated by the California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under the Exoplanet Exploration Program. Resources supporting this work were provided by the NASA High-End Computing Program through the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division at Ames Research Center for the production of the SPOC data products. This paper includes data collected by the TESS mission, which are publicly available from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes. This work makes use of observations from the LCOGT network. The analysis of this work has made use of a wide variety of public available software packages that are not referenced in the manuscript: Exo-Striker (Trifonov 2019), astropy (Astropy Collaboration 2018), scipy (Virtanen et al. 2020), numpy (Oliphant 2006), matplotlib (Hunter 2007), tqdm (da Costa-Luis 2019), pandas (The pandas development team 2020), seaborn (Waskom et al. 2020), lightkurve (Lightkurve Collaboration 2018) and PyFITS (Barrett et al. 2012).

arXiv:2004.10508v1, et al., We report on photometric and spectroscopic observations and analysis of the 2019 superoutburst of TCP J21040470+4631129. This object showed a 9 mag superoutburst with early superhumps and ordinary superhumps, which are the features of WZ Sge-type dwarf novae. Five rebrightenings were observed after the main superoutburst. The spectra during the post-superoutburst stage showed Balmer, He I, and possible sodium doublet features. The mass ratio is derived as 0.0880(9) from the period of the superhump. During the third and fifth rebrightenings, growing superhumps and superoutbursts were observed, which have never been detected during a rebrightening phase among WZ Sge-type dwarf novae with multiple rebrightenings. To induce a superoutburst during the brightening phase, the accretion disk needs to have expanded beyond the 3 : 1 resonance radius of the system again after the main superoutburst. These peculiar phenomena can be explained by the enhanced viscosity and large radius of the accretion disk suggested by the higher luminosity and the presence of late-stage superhumps during the post-superoutburst stage, plus by more mass supply from the cool mass reservoir and/or from the secondary because of the enhanced mass transfer than those of other WZ Sge-type dwarf novae., N. Narita is supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP18H01265 and JP18H05439, and JST PRESTO Grant Number JPMJPR1775. M. Tamura is supported by MEXT/JSPS KAKENHI Grant Nos. 18H05442, 15H02063, and 22000005. P. A. Dubovsky, T. Medulka, and I. Kudzej acknowledge support by NSF AST-1751874 and the Cottrell scholarship from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement and by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the contract No. APVV-15-0458. A. Zubareva, A. Belinski, A. Dodin, M. Burlak, N. Ikonnikova, E. Mishin, and S. Potanin acknowledge the support from the Program of development of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (Leading Scientific School “Physics of stars, relativistic objects and galaxies”). E. P. Pavlenko, O. I. Antonyuk, and Ju. V. Bbabina acknowledge support by the RSF grant 19-72-10063.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.-- Full list of authors: Jordán, Andrés; Hartman, J. D.; Bayliss, D.; Bakos, G. Á.; Brahm, R.; Bryant, E. M.; Csubry, Z.; Henning, Th.; Hobson, M.; Mancini, L.; Penev, K.; Rabus, M.; Suc, V.; de Val-Borro, M.; Wallace, J.; Barkaoui, K.; Ciardi, David R.; Collins, K. A.; Esparza-Borges, E.; Furlan, E.; Gan, T.; Benkhaldoun, Z.; Ghachoui, M.; Gillon, M.; Howell, S.; Jehin, E.; Fukui, A.; Kawauchi, K.; Livingston, J. H.; Luque, R.; Matson, R.; Matthews, E. C.; Osborn, H. P.; Murgas, F.; Narita, Norio; Palle, E.; Parvianen, H.; Waalkes, W. C., The relative rarity of giant planets around low-mass stars compared with solar-type stars is a key prediction from the core-accretion planet formation theory. In this paper we report on the discovery of four gas giant planets that transit low-mass late K and early M dwarfs. The planets HATS-74Ab (TOI 737b), HATS-75b (TOI 552b), HATS-76b (TOI 555b), and HATS-77b (TOI 730b) were all discovered from the HATSouth photometric survey and follow-up using TESS and other photometric facilities. We use the new ESPRESSO facility at the VLT to confirm systems and measure their masses. We find that these planets have masses of 1.46 ± 0.14 MJ, 0.491 ± 0.039 MJ, 2.629 ± 0.089 MJ, and ${1.374}_{-0.074}^{+0.100}\,$ MJ, respectively, and radii of 1.032 ± 0.021 RJ, 0.884 ± 0.013 RJ, 1.079 ± 0.031 RJ, and 1.165 ± 0.021 RJ, respectively. The planets all orbit close to their host stars with orbital periods ranging from 1.7319 days to 3.0876 days. With further work, we aim to test core-accretion theory by using these and further discoveries to quantify the occurrence rate of giant planets around low-mass host stars. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society., Development of the HATSouth project was funded by NSF MRI grant NSF/AST-0723074, operations have been supported by NASA grants NNX09AB29G, NNX12AH91H, and NNX17AB61G, and follow-up observations have received partial support from grant NSF/AST-1108686. A.J. acknowledges support from FONDECYT project 1210718, and ANID—Millennium Science Initiative—ICN12_009. J.H. acknowledges partial support from the TESS GI Program, programs G011103 and G022117, through NASA grants 80NSSC19K0386 and 80NSSC19K1728. L.M. acknowledges support from the Italian Minister of Instruction, University and Research (MIUR) through FFABR 2017 fund. L.M. acknowledges support from the University of Rome Tor Vergata through "Mission: Sustainability 2016" fund. K.P. acknowledges support from NASA ATP grant 80NSSC18K1009. M.R. acknowledges support from the Universidad Católica de lo Santísima Concepción grant DI-FIAI 03/2021. R.L. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, through project PID2019-109522GB-C52/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, and the Centre of Excellence "Severo Ochoa" award to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709). Based in part on observations collected at the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere under ESO program 0103.C-0449(A). Part of this work has been carried out within the framework of the National Centre of Competence in Research PlanetS supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation. ECM acknowledges the financial support of the SNSF. This work makes use of observations from the LCOGT network. Part of the LCOGT telescope time was granted by NOIRLab through the Mid-Scale Innovations Program (MSIP). MSIP is funded by NSF. This paper is partly based on observations made with the MuSCAT3 instrument, developed by the Astrobiology Center and under financial supports by JSPS KAKENHI (JP18H05439) and JST PRESTO (JPMJPR1775), at Faulkes Telescope North on Maui, HI, operated by the Las Cumbres Observatory. This work is partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant No. JP20K14518. Some of the Observations in the paper made use of the High-Resolution Imaging instrument(s) `Alopeke (and/or Zorro). `Alopeke (and/or Zorro) was funded by the NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program and built at the NASA Ames Research Center by Steve B. Howell, Nic Scott, Elliott P. Horch, and Emmett Quigley. Data were reduced using a software pipeline originally written by Elliott Horch and Mark Everett. `Alopeke (and/or Zorro) was mounted on the Gemini North (and/or South) telescope of the international Gemini Observatory, a program of NSF's OIR Lab, which is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), National Research Council (Canada), Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (Chile), Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (Argentina), Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovaçóes e Comunicaçóes (Brazil), and Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (Republic of Korea). We acknowledge the use of the AAVSO Photometric All-Sky Survey (APASS), funded by the Robert Martin Ayers Sciences Fund, and the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France. TRAPPIST-South is a project funded by the Belgian F.R.S.-FNRS under grant PDR T.0120.21, with the participation of the Swiss FNS. The research leading to these results has received funding from the ARC grant for Concerted Research Actions, financed by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. EJ and MG are F.R.S.-FNRS Senior Research Associates. This work is partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant No. JP18H05439, JST CREST grant No. JPMJCR1761, the Astrobiology Center of National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS; grant No. AB031010). This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC, https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium). Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. This research has made use of the NASA Exoplanet Archive, which is operated by the California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under the Exoplanet Exploration Program. This research has made use NASA's Astrophysics Data System Bibliographic Services.

We present observations of two bright M dwarfs (TOI-1634 and TOI-1685: $J=9.5-9.6$) hosting ultra-short period (USP) planets, identified by the TESS mission. The two stars are similar in temperature, mass, and radius ($T_\mathrm{eff}\,\approx\,3500$ K, $M_\star\,\approx\,0.45-0.46\,M_\odot$, and $R_\star\approx 0.45-0.46\,R_\odot$), and the planets are both super-Earth-sized ($1.25\,R_\oplus, Comment: 29 pages, 21 figures, 4 tables; AJ in press

We present new transit observations of the hot Jupiter WASP-74 b ($T_\mathrm{eq} \sim$ 1860 K) using the high-resolution spectrograph HARPS-N and the multi-colour simultaneous imager MuSCAT2. We refine the orbital properties of the planet and its host star, and measure its obliquity for the first time. The measured sky-projected angle between the stellar spin-axis and the planet's orbital axis is compatible with an orbit well-aligned with the equator of the host star ($\lambda = 0.77\pm0.99 \mathrm{deg}$). We are not able to detect any absorption feature of H$\alpha$, or any other atomic spectral features, in its high-resolution transmission spectra due to low S/N at the line cores. Despite previous claims regarding the presence of strong optical absorbers such TiO and VO gases in the atmosphere of WASP-74 b, the new ground-based photometry combined with a reanalysis of previously reported observations from the literature shows a slope in the low-resolution transmission spectrum steeper than expected from Rayleigh scattering alone., Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. 12 pages, 8 figures, 5 tables

Non-destructive examination of human brain tissues and several kinds of brain tumours using near-infrared (1064 nm) excited Fourier transform (NIR-FT) Raman spectroscopy is reported. The spectra from normal but edematous grey and white matter were similar to those of normal rat grey and white matter reported previously. The brain tumours investigated (glioma grade II and III, two acoustic neurinomas and central neurocytoma) gave Raman spectra essentially the same as to that of grey matter. Histological examination of glioma grade III revealed extracellular PAS-positive materials, which have a band at 856 cm−1 due to polysaccharides. One of the neurinoma contained a carotenoid which exhibited two resonance Raman peaks at 1157 and 1524 cm−1; another neurinoma did not contain the carotenoid. The appearance of a strong Raman peak at 960 cm−1 suggested that the central neurocytoma of choroid plexus was calcified.

Recent spatial resolution and sensitivity improvements of field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) are enormous. The analytical technique especially at low landing voltage (LV) is now heavily used in the pursuit of further understanding nano materials because of surface sensitivity. [1,2] We demonstrate application of LVFE-SEM analysis coupled with large detection area EDS and a new technique called soft X-ray emission spectroscopy (SXES). The electron beam deceleration method is one way to have the necessarily small beam diameter and high probe current required of high resolution imaging even at LV. The deceleration method is here applied for high spatial resolution or chemical/bonding analysis on LVFE-SEM.

The 1064-nm excited Fourier transform (FT) Raman spectra have been measured in situ for various foods in order to investigate the potential of near-infrared (NIR) FT-Raman spectroscopy in food analysis. It is demonstrated here that NIR FT-Raman spectroscopy is a very powerful technique for (1) detecting selectively the trace components in foodstuffs, (2) estimating the degree of unsaturation of fatty acids included in foods, (3) investigating the structure of food components, and (4) monitoring changes in the quality of foods. Carotenoids included in foods give two intense bands near 1530 and 1160 cm−1 via the pre-resonance Raman effect in the NIR FT-Raman spectra, and therefore, the NIR FT-Raman technique can be employed to detect them nondestructively. Foods consisting largely of lipids such as oils, tallow, and butter show bands near 1658 and 1443 cm−1 due to C=C stretching modes of cis unsaturated fatty acid parts and CH2 scissoring modes of saturated fatty acid parts, respectively. It has been found that there is a linear correlation for various kinds of lipid-containing foods between the iodine value (number) and the intensity ratio of two bands at 1658 and 1443 cm−1 ( I1658/ I1443), indicating that the ratio can be used as a practical indicator for estimating the unsaturation level of a wide range of lipid-containing foods. A comparison of the Raman spectra of raw and boiled egg white shows that the amide I band shifts from 1666 to 1677 cm−1 and the intensity of the amide III band at 1275 cm−1 decreases upon boiling. These observations indicate that most α-helix structure changes into unordered structure in the proteins constituting egg white upon boiling. The NIR FT-Raman spectrum of old-leaf (about one year old) Japanese tea has been compared with that of its new leaf. The intensity ratio of two bands at 1529 and 1446 cm−1 ( I1529/ I1446), assignable to carotenoid and proteins, respectively, is considerably smaller in the former than in the latter, indicating that the ratio is useful for monitoring the changes in the quality of Japanese tea.

Raman spectroscopy, which has been employed extensively to study the structure and function of biological materials for the last two decades, also has considerable potential as a diagnostic and analytical tool in medicine. However, the medical application of Raman spectroscopy has been limited to some special topics such as lens research because most morbid materials emit strong fluorescence and are weak with respect to laser illumination. Fluorescence and decomposition, two major drawbacks of Raman spectroscopy which must be circumvented, have made its medical applications difficult.

This paper describes an approach to integrate sensor networks with information systems using the so-called messaging network architecture. A messaging network is an overlay network with a rich set of message handling capabilities. The use of messaging network reduces the complexity and the maintenance burden of the integrated sensor information systems. Message mediation enables not only interoperation of various applications but also integration of a diversity of data set to produce useful information. The proposed approach naturally leads to an SOA-based sensor network design. The decomposition of a system into services has many advantages in developing secure scalable multi-tenant information systems. The requirements on a messaging network for sensor network systems are presented.

AIM: To examine human β-defensin-3 (hBD-3) expression in inflamed gastric mucosal tissues or MKN45 gastric cancer cells with or without H pylori infection for better understanding the innate immune response to H pylori. METHODS: We used reverse transcription-polymerase chain reactions and immunohistochemistry to examine hBD-3 expression in inflamed gastric mucosal tissues or MKN45 gastric cancer cells with or without H pylori. Effects of hBD-3 against H pylori were also evaluated. RESULTS: The mean mRNA expression of hBD-3 in H pylori-positive specimens was significantly higher than that in H pylori-negative specimens (P = 0.0002, Mann-Whitney). In addition, unlike uninfected samples, 8 of 15 (53.33%) infected mucosal samples expressed hBD-3 protein. H pylori dose-dependently induced mRNA expression of hBD-3 in MKN45 cells, an effect inhibited by adding anti-toll-like receptor (TLR)-4 antibody. HBD-3 protein completely inhibited H pylori growth. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that like hBD-2, hBD-3 may be involved in the pathophysiology of H pylori-induced gastritis.

This report will cover a 45K gate chip designed using a silicon compiler. A 11.5×11.8mm die contains a DSP that was available as a pre-designed cell.

A CMOS array providing a maximum of 20,000 logic gates or logic and memory will be described. Typical gate delays of 1.0ns and memory access time of 15ns have been obtained using a 1.5μ twin tub process.

A 65-year-old man was admitted to our hospital in September 1997 because of back pain and renal dysfunction. He was diagnosed as having multiple myeloma due to the presence of IgD lambda monoclonal gammopathy and diffuse infiltration of plasma cells in the bone marrow. The patient achieved a partial response to DMVM-IFN-alpha combination therapy. His condition worsened in December 1998, but was ameliorated by VAD therapy. The patient's left testis became enlarged in December 1999, and an orchiectomy was performed. The normal testicular cells had been entirely displaced by myeloma cells comprising typical plasma cells and large lymphoid cells. Pleural, mediastinal, spinal, and right testicular involvement with myeloma subsequently developed. Despite attempts to treat the patient with more than one type of combination therapy, his condition worsened progressively, and he died in June 2000. Reports of IgD myeloma with testicular involvement are rare. The histopathology of our patient's resected testis, i.e. the two myeloma cell-plasmacytoid and lymphoid cell components showing differential immunostaining, was unique.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2010 in Portland, Oregon, USA, August 1 – August 5, 2010.

An 83-year-old woman received a diagnosis of moderate aplastic anemia in November 1990. Immunosuppressive therapy consisting of anti-lymphocyte globulin combined with high-dose corticosteroids was effective until pancytopenia developed in August 1993. The patient was hospitalized again and recurrence of aplastic anemia was diagnosed on the basis of hematologic findings, including RBC 129 x 10(4)/microliter, Hb 5.5 g/dl, Ret 23,200/microliter, WBC 2,200/microliter with 27% neutrophils, platelets 2.2 x 10(4)/microliter, and hypoplastic bone marrow. Recombinant human granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) of 125 micrograms/day combined with recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO) of 6,000 U/day were started in November 1993. The doses of G-CSF and EPO were increased to 250 micrograms/day and 12,000 U/day, respectively. We stopped combination therapy in March 1995, after trilineage hematopoietic cell recovery had been achieved. Complete recovery in peripheral blood was sustained for more than 2 years despite the termination of G-CSF and EPO therapy. Combination therapy with G-CSF and EPO may be safe and effective for elderly patients with aplastic anemia when the choice of therapy is limited.

The European Union has banned chromium(VI) compounds in electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), such as chromate conversion coating films. Chromium(III) compounds are not banned. Using Raman spectroscopy without any preparation, we distinguished chromium(VI) oxide from chromium(III) oxide and chromium(III) hydroxide in chromate conversion coating films. Raman bands of chromium(VI) oxide were detected in films at around 1000 and 500 cm(-1), while chromium(III) compounds generated no bands in the region between 2000 and 200 cm(-1). The analysis took about 1 min, whereas the usual diphenylcarbazide-colorimetric method for analyzing chromium(VI) compounds takes about 10 h.

Ligation of B cell antigen receptor (BCR) with antigen or anti IgM leads to enter cells into the proliferation and differentiation to produce specific Ig. Protein tyrosine kinase (PTK) and CD 45 protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) both are involved in the early phase of BCR-mediated B cell signaling. We have investigated the role of p 21ras(ras) in B cell signal transduction using TNP-specific TA3 7.9 murine B cells. B cell stimulation with either TNP6-OVA(Ag) or anti-IgM resulted in rapid accumulation of GTP-bound(active) ras as well as induction of a number of tyrosine phosphorylated substrates. The accumulation of GTP-bound ras was blocked by the treatment with either PTK inhibitors(genistein) or PTP inhibitors(PAO), suggesting that BCR-mediated ras activation is regulated by both PTK and PTP including CD 45. As phosphorylation on tyrosine residues of Lyn, Fyn, and Blk protein tyrosine kinases occurred upon BCR stimulation, these PTKs may be candidates being involved in an induction of not only tyrosine phosphorylation of substrates but also p 21ras activation. Furthermore we found that rasGAP activity is suppressed following Ag stimulation, accompanied by the phosphorylation on tyrosine of rasGAP and its associated protein p 62. These data indicate that protein tyrosine kinases may alter rasGAP activity to induce p 21ras activation in B cells.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2004 in Savannah, Georgia, USA, August 1–5, 2004.

Using Raman spectroscopy without any preparation, we analyzed the brominated flame retardant, polybromodiphenyl ethers (PBDEs), which has been prohibited by the European Union. The typical Raman bands of PBDEs, which are clearly different from those of other brominated flame retardants, are from 100 to 300 cm(-1). In our analysis, the detection limit was about 100 ppm, and the analysis took about 1 min, whereas the usual method of solvent extraction using gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy takes 50 h.

Conventional blood conservation techniques have been insufficient to decrease blood transfusion requirement in open-heart surgery. Blood conservation and erythropoietin administration were performed to avoid homologous blood transfusion. Intraoperative autotransfusion has been routinely used in cardiac operations with cardiopulmonary bypass in our hospital. To evaluate the effect of conservation techniques, 286 patients were divided into four groups. In group I (23 patients), autologous whole blood was drawn and saved one to two weeks before operation. In group II (50 patients), erythropoietin preparation was given subcutaneously once a week and autologous blood conservation was also performed in the same manner as group I. In group III (48 patients), intra-operative hemodilutional autologous blood transfusion was performed. In group IV, as a control group (165 patients), only intra-operative autotransfusion was used. Homologous blood transfusion was avoided in 83% of group I patients, in 90% of group II, in 82% of group III, and 29% of group IV. In addition, in group II the hemoglobin value at the time of discharge was significantly higher than those of other groups (p0.05-0.01). Thus, conventional blood conservation techniques plus subcutaneous administration of erythropoietin was very effective to increase the rate of "non-blood" open-heart surgery.

Cross-linking of the Ag receptor (AgR) induces intracellular signaling events in B cells, such as p21ras activation, that lead to their proliferation and differentiation. This event is accompanied by the tyrosine phosphorylation of the p21ras-associated GTPase-activating protein p120 ras.GAP, raising the possibility that AgR-stimulated p21ras activity is regulated by protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) and protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPases) in B cells. To test this possibility, we examined the effects of PTK and PTPase inhibitors on protein tyrosine phosphorylation and p21ras activation induced by AgR cross-linking in TNP-specific TA3 7.9 murine B lymphoma cells. Although AgR-induced protein tyrosine phosphorylation was inhibited by the PTK inhibitors genistein and herbimycin A, it was enhanced by exposure to the PTPase inhibitor phenylarsine oxide (PAO). Cross-linking of the AgR by Ag or F(ab')2 anti-IgM induced a rapid (within 5 min) two- to threefold increase in p21ras activation in 7.9 B cells. Interestingly, a second peak of p21ras activation was evident at approximately 40 min after stimulation. Genistein and herbimycin A and PAO each blocked AgR-stimulated p21ras activation. Similarly, Ag-induced p21ras activation was inhibited by pretreatment of 7.9 B cells with an anti-CD45 mAb (detects the 220-kDa B cell isoform of CD45). Moreover, p21ras activation was induced by Ag and F(ab')2 anti-IgM in CD45+ but not CD45- J558L microns 3 B cells. These data indicate that p21ras activation induced by AgR cross-linking in B cells is regulated by both PTK and CD45 PTPase activities.

Near-infrared excited Fourier transform Raman spectroscopy was applied in situ on intact rabbit cornea and sclera. High quality Raman spectra were obtained noninvasively from these tissues. The characteristic bands assigned to proline and hydroxyproline appeared in the region of 800-1000 cm-1. Raman spectra of purified type I collagen and other components of the cornea and sclera were also determined. The main elements of the spectra of the cornea and sclera originated from the collagen proteins, and other components such as proteoglycan contributed little. Near-infrared excited Fourier transform Raman spectroscopy can be used for biophysical study of the cornea and sclera in situ or in vivo.

A clinical study on a new carbapenem antibiotic, meropenem (MEPM), was carried out in acute pediatric infections. MEPM was administered to 8 patients including 3 patients with acute pneumonia, 2 with cervical lymphadenitis, 1 with acute tonsillitis, and 1 with cellulitis and 1 with sepsis. The overall efficacy rate was 100%. As an adverse reaction, diarrhea was observed in 1 patient. In clinical laboratory tests 1 patient was found to have S-GPT elevation which normalized after discontinuation of MEPM. MEPM appears to be effective and safe drug for pediatric acute infections.

A 61-year-old man was admitted to our hospital in April 18, 1988, with dyspnea and gingival bleeding. Physical examination revealed marked splenomegaly, and peripheral blood showed severe pancytopenia with 38% abnormal mononuclear cells. The abnormal cells were characterized by a hairy appearance under a phase contrast microscopy, and strong tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase activity. These cells reacted with CD19, CD25 and CD11c monoclonal antibodies by the immunostaining method. Bone marrow aspiration failed and bone marrow biopsy revealed diffuse proliferation of hairy cells (HC) with moderate fibrosis. In addition, the staining pattern of HC peroxidase is similar to that found in megakaryocyte series. He was diagnosed as HCL of the European-American type based on these findings. Interferon (IFN)-alpha was administered at a daily dosage of 3 x 10(6) IU by intramuscular injection. Although splenomegaly and hematological conditions improved gradually, he received splenectomy because of his incomplete hematological improvement. Normalization of peripheral blood cell counts and a marked decrease of HC in bone marrow were obtained. Tubuloreticular structure and tubular confronting cisternae were seen in peripheral mononuclear cells during IFN therapy.

Pharmacokinetic, bacteriological and clinical studies on cefdinir (CFDN), a newly developed oral cephalosporin, were performed on children with infections. The pharmacokinetics was examined in 3 patients. The peak plasma concentrations were 1.97 micrograms/ml, 0.84 microgram/ml and 1.67 micrograms/ml in the 3 patients. The 0 to 6 or 8-hour urinary excretion rates were 22.2%, 18.1%, and 32.7%, respectively. These results were similar to those in adult patients. Clinical response to CFDN was evaluated in 21 patients, 4 patients with pharyngitis (an efficacy rate of 100%), 7 with tonsillitis (85.7%), 1 with bronchitis (excellent), 1 with pneumonia (fair), 6 with scarlet fever (100%), 1 with staphylococcal scaled skin syndrome (good) and 1 with urinary tract infection (good). Thus, an overall efficacy rate of 90.5% was achieved. With regard to microbiological effect on pathogens, 14 of the 15 strains identified as pathogens were eradicated, with an eradication rate of 93.3%. The safety was evaluated in a total of 23 cases. Diarrhea, elevated eosinophil count and elevated S-GPT were observed in one patient each. The side effect and abnormalities in laboratory tests were not serious, however. It was concluded that CFDN, with its excellent antibacterial effect, was an efficacious and safe drug for the treatment of pediatric infections.

The characteristics of cell components in BALF were examined in three groups of 104 patients with bronchial asthma, classified by clinical symptoms. 1. The frequency of neutrophils in BALF was significantly higher in patients with hypersecretion type (Ib) and in cases with bronchiolar obstruction type (II) than in cases with simple bronchoconstriction type (Ia). 2. A significantly higher proportions of neutrophils in BALF was observed in atopic asthmatics with type Ib than in non-atopic asthmatics with type Ib. 3. More frequency with moderate or high grade of eosinophilia in BALF were observed in cases with type Ib, whether they were atopic or non-atopic type. 4. More frequency with moderate or high grade of neutrophilia in BALF were observed in atopic cases with Ib and in both atopic and non-atopic cases with II. 5. Cases with moderate and high grade of both eosinophilia and neutrophilia in BALF were more frequent in atopic cases with Ib. The results suggest followings--1) both eosinophils and neutrophils participate in hypersecretion of type Ib in atopic cases, and only eosinophils in non-atopic cases. 2) neutrophils participate in bronchiolar obstruction of type II, whether they are atopic or non-atopic cases.