High-affinity uptake of kynurenine and nitric oxide-mediated inhibition of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase in bone marrow-derived myeloid dendritic cells

Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO)-initiated tryptophan metabolism along the kynurenine (Kyn) pathway in some dendritic cells (DC) such as plasmacytoid DC regulates T-cell responses. It is unclear whether bone marrow-derived myeloid DC (BMDC) express functional IDO. The IDO expression was examined in CD11c+CD11b+ BMDC differentiated from mouse bone marrow cells using GM-CSF. CpG oligodeoxynucleotides (CpG) induced the expression of IDO protein with the production of nitric oxide (NO) in BMDC in cultures for 24 hr. In the enzyme assay using cellular extracts of BMDC, the IDO activity of BMDC stimulated with CpG was enhanced by the addition of a NO synthase (NOS) inhibitor, suggesting that IDO activity was suppressed by NO production. On the other hand, the concentration of Kyn in the culture supernatant of BMDC was not increased by stimulation with CpG. Exogenously added Kyn was taken up by BMDC independently of CpG stimulation and NO production, and the uptake of Kyn was inhibited by a transport system L-specific inhibitor or high concentrations of tryptophan. The uptake of tryptophan by BMDC was markedly lower than that of Kyn. In conclusion, IDO activity in BMDC is down-regulated by NO production, whereas BMDC strongly take up exogenous Kyn.journal articl

アジアの日本語幼稚園に通う幼児の異文化体験と異文化適応<教育科学>

Recently, the number of overseas resident businesspeople from Japan in Asian countries has been increasing. This study aims to examine methods to support childcare in families of such businesspeople and collect basic data for planning the content of education at Japanese kindergartens. A questionnaire survey was conducted with parents rearing young children (N = 360, 211 boys and 149 girls, mean age, 4 years and 10 months) attending Japanese kindergartens in Bangkok and Shanghai. The questionnaire included the following items: children’s experiences of different cultures, their feelings toward different cultures, and their cultural adaptation from the perspective of parents, as well as the types of parents’ involvement when children experienced cultural differences. The results indicated the following. Regardless of age, children did not have deep intercultural contacts, whereas they had shallow intercultural experiences such as having a meal at restaurants where local people gathered. On the other hand, they had many contacts with places and things related to Japanese people and Japanese language. These tendencies became weaker as the length of stay became longer. Furthermore, children felt cultural differences in languages, meals, life habits, and atmosphere of the cities. Such feelings were negative in general, though negative feelings became weaker as the length of stay became longer, except in the case of five-year-old children. Children’s positive orientation toward different cultures, which shows adaptation to different cultures, became significantly stronger as they have more intercultural experiences and their positive feelings toward different cultures became stronger. In five-year-old children, the length of stay was related to low adaptation to different cultures. The above results suggest that it would be important to provide educational support for children so that they could have positive intercultural contacts at Japanese kindergartens and in their homes, and they could recognize experiences of cultural differences positively. Furthermore, difficulties in education of five-year-old children in foreign cultures were also suggested. It would be important to establish cooperative systems between Japanese kindergartens and Japanese elementary schools, and between Japanese kindergartens and local kindergartens as well as local elementary schools.textapplication/pdfdepartmental bulletin pape

Upper Bound on the Decay τ→μγ from the Belle Detector

journal articl

Performance of artificial neural network system in prediction issues of earthquake engineering

Prediction is one of the most important issues of earthquake engineering. Empirical predictive relations are commonly played as basic rule in seismic hazard analysis. Such relations are generally expressed as mathematical functions connecting a strong motion parameter to the parameters characterising the earthquake source, the propagation path distance and the local site conditions. Regression analysis has been widely used among other analytical methods with different techniques during the past few decades, e.g. Gutenberg & Richter （1956）, McGuire （1978）, Joyner & Boore （1981）, and Molas & Yamazaki （1995）, etc.. Artificial neural networks were first applied to prediction issues of earthquake engineering by Emami et al. （1996）. The performance of this advanced system in various aspects of prediction of ground motion parameters is discussed and compared with traditional procedures throughout this paper

研究解説 : 数値気候モデルによる巻頭地方の都市気候解析 : 建物のalbedoの変化による影響

departmental bulletin pape

Mean values (SEM) of oxLDL, MMP9, ICAM1 and MCP1 determined before clamping (1), during clamping (5) and 15 minutes after declamping (9)

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Relationships between free radical levels during carotid endarterectomy and markers of arteriosclerotic disease"</p><p></p><p>International Journal of Medical Sciences 2007;4(3):124-130.</p><p>Published online 14 Apr 2007</p><p>PMCID:PMC1868659.</p><p>© Ivyspring International Publisher. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Reproduction is permitted for personal, noncommercial use, provided that the article is in whole, unmodified, and properly cited.</p> Stars denote significant differences compared to preclamp values. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01

Free radical production measured in vitro in blood samples from the internal jugular vein

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Relationships between free radical levels during carotid endarterectomy and markers of arteriosclerotic disease"</p><p></p><p>International Journal of Medical Sciences 2007;4(3):124-130.</p><p>Published online 14 Apr 2007</p><p>PMCID:PMC1868659.</p><p>© Ivyspring International Publisher. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Reproduction is permitted for personal, noncommercial use, provided that the article is in whole, unmodified, and properly cited.</p> Mean values ± SEM are given for OXANO values obtained before clamp, during clamp and at reperfusion. n = 13

Accessibility of ARPES for Three-dimensionally Architected Si{111}7×7 Facet Surfaces on Micro-patterned Si(110)

The creation of three-dimensional (3D) geometrical shapes with atomically ordered surfaces and the investigation of their physical properties are major steps contributing to the development of a new paradigm in surface science. We produced a 3D-patterned Si sample with atomically flat and reconstructed {111} facet surfaces, and investigated its structural and physical properties. To apply the conventional techniques in surface science to 3D samples with various oriented surfaces, instead of two-dimensional planar samples, an appropriate relationship between the crystallographic surface ordering on the 3D-architected surfaces and the angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) setup considering the configuration in 3D space is indispensable. The distinctive and complex low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) patterns reflecting the 3D-arranged facet surfaces showed the realization of atomically reconstructed facet surfaces on 3D-patterned Si. Surface states of the 3D-patterned Si{111} surfaces are mapped by ARPES by considering the 3D geometrical relationship. The selection of the appropriate alignment of the incident electron beam (light) for the target surfaces allows the clear observation of the band dispersion from the produced {111}7×7 facet surfaces in 3D space. Our demonstration of accessibility of ARPES technique could provide useful guidelines for new methodologies, giving a fundamental understanding of 3D-shape-induced novel functionalities.journal articl