Sprinkling water on the roof to reduce the indoor temperature is one way to improve the hot thermal environment. This method is particularly effective for steel roofs which offer poor thermal ...insulation, and which are often used for factories and warehouses. Based on measurements from experiments and actual roof sprinkler systems, this paper describes results concerning the following: (1) planning for and characteristics of a rotary sprinkler system with nozzles that sprinkle water over a circular area; (2) the potential of the intermittent and sequential sprinkling methods for saving water and efficient cooling, and the potential of the sprinkled water recovery system and rainwater utilization system; and (3) simulation of the running cost of the roof sprinkler system, and comparison with conventional space cooling. It is concluded that a roof sprinkler system is effective for indoor cooling provided that an appropriate water source is available.
Rat bone morphogenetic protein-3 (BMP-3) cDNA and BMP-3b cDNA were isolated from rat femur cDNA library by the RT-PCR method using degenerate oligonucleotide primers corresponding to human BMP-3. The ...deduced amino acid sequence of rat BMP-3 in the mature region reveals 2 amino acid changes compared to that of human BMP-3 (98% identity). The deduced BMP-3b amino acid sequence shows 81% similarity with the mature region of rat BMP-3 and only 37% similarity with the propeptide region. By Northern blot analysis, rat BMP-3b mRNA was detected in costa, costicartilage, femur, calvaria, trachea, aorta and brain. Among these tissues, BMP-3b transcripts were predominantly expressed in cerebellum. BMP-3 mRNA was found in femur, calvaria, trachea, lung and ovary. Although BMP-3b and BMP-3 are very closely related to each other, their transcripts are distributed in different tissues except that both are found in bone. The distribution pattern of BMP-3b mRNA suggests that BMP-3b plays an important role in the central nervous system as well as in bone formation and remodeling.
Abstract The author investigated the lotic aquatic insects in the Azusa River, in the Kamikochi Valley of Chubu Sangaku National Park. Among the 35 taxa collected, Baetis thermicus (Ephemeroptera), ...Cinygmula spp. (Ephemeroptera), and Epeorus aesculus (Ephemeroptera) were dominant.
BMP-3b (also termed GDF-10) is a novel BMP-3 related protein recently discovered in rat femur tissue by molecular cloning. In this paper, we have isolated cDNA and the gene for human BMP-3b and ...determined their structure. Cloned human BMP-3b cDNA with a size of 2632 base pairs encodes a 478 amino acid precursor protein sharing 83% identity with rat BMP-3b. The human BMP-3b gene is composed of 3 exons and spans approximately 13 kilobases of DNA. The 5′-flanking region carries no typical TATA box but G+C rich sequences. Southern blot analysis revealed that the BMP-3b gene is situated in a single locus of chromosome 10. By Northern analysis, human BMP-3b transcripts were detected primarily in femur, brain, lung, skeletal muscle, pancreas and testis.
Palsas (peaty permafrost mounds) are one of the typical periglacial landforms found in Arctic regions. In Japan, palsas are found only in the southern part of Hiragatake (43°37’N, 142°54’E, 1,720 m ...a.s.l.) in the Daisetsuzan National Park, Hokkaido. To clarify the species composition of aquatic insect communities in a palsa bog, I sampled aquatic insects in ponds from June to September in 2002. A total of 238 individual aquatic insects from 15 species belonging to 5 orders were collected. Among those species, Oligotricha hybridoides (Phryganeidae: Trichoptera), Agabis daisetsuzanus (Dytiscoidea: Coleoptera), Hydroporus konoi (Dytiscoidea), and Sialis sibirica (Sialidae: Megaloptera) were dominant in palsa ponds.
Newly-hatched nymphs of the rice grasshopper, Oxya yezoensis Shiraki (Orthoptera: Catantopidae) were reared on artificial diets. The artificial diets consisted of dry leaf powder from one of three ...Gramineae plants, dried brewers' yeast, milk casein, wheat germ powder, sucrose, β-sitosterol, Beck's salt mixture, ascorbic acid, vitamin B mixture, L-cysteine, sorbic acid, propionic acid, agar, and water. There were no significant differences in the nymphal period, percentage of adult emergence, adult weights, and the number of egg-pods laid per female between hoppers reared on the artificial diet and those reared on fresh rice seedlings. The present study is the first report on the successful rearing of the Catantopidae species on an artificial diet.
Protein kinase C epsilon was chromatographically purified from rabbit brain to electrophoretic homogeneity. We identified the enzyme as the epsilon species of novel-type protein kinase C (nPKC ...epsilon), originally discovered and defined by cDNA cloning Ohno, S., et al. (1988) Cell 53, 731-741, on the basis of the following observations: (i) the enzyme reacts specifically with an antipeptidic antiserum to nPKC epsilon but not with antisera to any of the other molecular species of PKC thus far known; (ii) it exhibits enzymatic behavior essentially identical to that of a recombinant nPKC epsilon purified from transfected COS cells Konno, Y., et al. (1989) J. Biochem. 106, 673-678 and distinct from that of conventional PKC (alpha, beta I/II, and gamma) in its dependence on magnesium concentration and cofactors such as phospholipids, calcium, and phorbol ester; and (iii) it has an apparent molecular weight of 95.7K +/- 0.4K on SDS-PAGE, significantly greater than the other conventional and novel PKCs thus far identified. Notably, calcium exhibits a complex effect, both positive and negative, on the kinase activity of epsilon depending on the kind of substrate and the coexisting phospholipid, calling for a modification of the current notion that epsilon is a kinase unresponsive to calcium. The amount of epsilon species in the brain was estimated to be comparable to that of each conventional species, indicating that epsilon stands as one of the major PKC family members in brain. Furthermore, the enzyme shows a broader substrate spectrum than conventional PKC when examined with endogenous substrates, implying that it may cover a wider or different range of physiological functions.
In order to elucidate the species composition of aquatic insects in the lower reaches of the Hirose River, Miyagi Prefecture, aquatic insects were monitored once a month from April 2001 to January ...2002 at two stations (St.1: Hirosebashi, and St.2: Sendai-ohashi). The two sites were approximately 1.5 km apart, and St.1 was located upstream. A total of 2,862 aquatic insects from 43 taxa belonging 25 families were collected at the two stations. Among the 43 taxa collected, Drunella basalts (Ephemeroptera), Hydropsyche orientalis (Trichoptera) and Cincticostella {Cincticostella) elongatula (Ephemeroptera) were dominant in number, andD.basalts, Stenopsyche marmorata (Trichoptera) and C.(C.) elongatula were dominant in the standing crop. Although the taxon richness and total standing crop did not differ significantly between the two sites, total number of individuals was significantly lower in St.2 (p<0.01) as determinrd by unreplicated two-way ANOVA.
A protein kinase C-related cDNA encodes a novel phorbol ester receptor/protein kinase, nPKCε, clearly distinct from the four “conventional” PKCs Ohno, S., Akita, Y., Konno, Y., Imajoh, S., & Suzuki, ...K. (1988) Cell 53, 731–741. We purified nPKCε from COS cells transfected with nPKC cDNA and compared its enzymatic properties with a conventional PKC, PKCa. nPKCε was eluted from a hydroxyapatite column at a position coincident with type II PKC and thus was separated from type III PKC (PKCa), the only PKC expressed in COS cells. The protein kinase activity of nPKCε is activated by phospholipids and diacylglycerols (or phorbol esters) in a manner similar to conventional PKCs. However, the cofactor dependencies and substrate specificites were clearly different from PKCα. A phospholipid, cardiolipin, enhances the kinase activity three- to fourfold compared with phosphatidylserine. The optimum Mg2+ concentration (3 mM) is clearly different from those of conventional PKCs (10–20 mM). The activation of nPKCε by these cofactors is totally independent of Ca2+. Similar to conventional PKCs, nPKCe autophosphorylates serine and threonine residues, indicating the specificity of the kinase to these amino acid residues. However, it shows a clearly different substrate specificity against exogenous substrates in that myelin basic proteins rather than histone are good substrates. These properties of nPKCε permit clear discrimination of nPKCε from conventional PKCs.
Palsas (peaty permafrost mounds) are one of the typical periglacial landforms found in Arctic regions. In Japan, palsas are found only in the southern part of Hiragatake (43°37'N, 142°54' E, 1, ...720ma.s.l.) in the Daisetsuzan National Park, Hokkaido. To clarify the species composition of aquatic insect communities in a palsa bog, I sampled aquatic insects in ponds from June to September in 2002. A total of 238 individual aquatic insects from 15 species belonging to 5 orders were collected. Among those species, Oligotricha hybridoides (Phryganeidae: Trichoptera), Agabis daisetsuzanus (Dytiscoidea: Coleoptera), Hydroporus konoi (Dytiscoidea), and Sialis sibirica (Sialidae: Megaloptera) were dominant in palsa ponds.
PDF
