Ogata-mura Wood, Donald C
2012., 20120915, 2012, 2012-09-15, 20120101, Volume:
7
eBook
Following the Second World War, a massive land reclamation project to boost Japan's rice production capacity led to the transformation of the shallow lagoon of Hachirogata in Akita Prefecture into a ...seventeen-thousand-hectare expanse of farmland. In 1964, the village of Ogata-mura was founded on the empoldered land inside the lagoon and nearly six hundred pioneers from across the country were brought to settle there. The village was to be a model of a new breed of highly mechanized, efficient rice agriculture; however, the village's purpose was jeopardized when the demand for rice fell, and the goal of creating an egalitarian farming community was threatened as individual entrepreneurialism took root and as the settlers became divided into political factions that to this day continue to struggle for control of the village. Based on seventeen years of research, this book explores the process of Ogatamura's development from the planning stages to the present. An intensive ethnographic study of the relationship between land reclamation, agriculture, and politics in regional Japan, it traces the internal social effects of the village's economic transformations while addressing the implications of national policy at the municipal and regional levels.
This volume examines one of Rome's most influential churches: the principal basilica dedicated to St Paul. Nicola Camerlenghi traces nearly two thousand years of physical transformations to the ...church, from before its construction in the fourth century to its reconstruction following a fire in 1823. By recounting this long history, he restores the building to its rightful place as a central, active participant in epochal political and religious shifts in Rome and across Christendom, as well as a protagonist in Western art and architectural history. Camerlenghi also examines how buildings in general trigger memories and anchor meaning, and how and why buildings endure, evolve, and remain relevant in cultural contexts far removed from the moment of their inception. At its core, Saint Paul's exemplifies the concept of building as a process, not a product: a process deeply interlinked with religion, institutions, history, cultural memory, and the arts. This study also includes state-of-the-art digital reconstructions synthesizing a wealth of historical evidence to visualize and analyze the earlier (now lost) stages of the building's history, offering glimpses into heretofore unexamined parts of its long, rich life.
Regulation of the first committed step of peptidoglycan precursor synthesis by MurA‐enzyme homologs has recently taken center stage in many different bacteria. In different low‐GC Gram‐positive ...bacteria, regulation of this step has been shown to be regulated by phosphorylation of homologs of the IreB/ReoM regulatory protein by PASTA‐domain Ser/Thr‐protein kinases. In this issue, Mascari, Little, and Kristich determine this regulatory pathway and its links to resistance to cephalosporin β‐lactam antibiotics in the major human pathogen, Enterococcus faecalis (Efa). Unbiased genetic selections identified MurAA (MurA‐family homolog) as the downstream target of IreB regulation in the absence of the IreK Ser/Thr‐protein kinase. Physiological and biochemical approaches, including determination of MICs to ceftriaxone, Western blotting of MurAA cellular amounts, isotope incorporation into peptidoglycan sacculi, and thermal‐shift binding assays of purified proteins, demonstrated that unphosphorylated IreB, together with proteins MurAB (MurZ‐family homolog), and ReoY(Efa) negatively regulate MurAA stability and cellular amount by the ClpCP protease. Importantly, this paper supports the idea that ceftriaxone stimulates phosphorylation of IreB, which leads to increased cellular MurAA amount and precursor pathway flux required for E. faecalis cephalosporin resistance. Overall, findings in this paper significantly contribute to understanding variations of this central regulatory pathway in other low‐GC Gram‐positive bacteria.
Rappresentare la forma della città significa fissare la consistenza fisica di una realtà riferita ad un determinato tempo, tramite percorsi di conoscenza di autori che nel corso dei secoli hanno ...cercato di ricostruire la forma complessa della città, rappresentandola dall’alto, simulando un punto di osservazione senz’altro privilegiato e, per molti secoli, del tutto ideale. Venezia e Parma vengono selezionate per raccontare la storia dell’immagine urbana attraverso autori che hanno registrato graficamente dall’alto, tra gli altri elementi, i limiti di confine tra natura e artificio. Il racconto parallelo e compartivo si articola attraverso la lettura delle piante prospettiche di Jacopo de’ Barbari per Venezia (1500) e di Paolo Ponzoni per Parma (1572). Viene infatti adottata, in questo periodo, una rappresentazione iconografica urbana particolare, la “prospettiva planimetrica”, ricavata da una planimetria eseguita a seguito di un rilievo geometrico, in modo che il perimetro delle mura e la trama viaria apparissero in tutta la loro completezza; gli edifici sono invece raffigurati con la prospettiva, descritta da un punto di vista situato ad altezza variabile sopra l’orizzonte. La crescente attenzione dei cartografi e dei disegnatori nei confronti della città si collega al nuovo tipo di organizzazione statale che considera la città come un’entità funzionale racchiusa all’interno delle mura, la cui vista dall’alto consente di comprenderne la consistenza e le peculiarità.
Enzymes MurA and MurF, involved in bacterial cell wall synthesis, have been validated as targets for the discovery of novel antibiotics. A panel of plant-origin antibacterial diterpenes and synthetic ...analogs derived therefrom were investigated for their inhibitory properties on these enzymes from
and
. Six compounds were proven to be effective for inhibiting MurA from both bacteria, with IC
values ranging from 1.1 to 25.1 µM. To further mechanistically investigate the nature of binding and to explain the activity, these compounds were docked into the active site of MurA from
. The aromatic ring of the active compounds showed a T-shaped π-π interaction with the phenyl ring of Phe328, and at least one hydrogen bond was formed between the hydroxy groups and Arg120 and/or Arg91. The results disclosed here establish new chemical scaffolds for the development of novel entities targeting MurA as potential antibiotics to combat the threat of pathogenic bacteria, particularly resistant strains.
Increased mura defect rates as liquid-crystal display (LCD) sizes and resolutions increase have become an issue of the utmost concern for large LCD panel makers. To address this issue, an efficient ...optical mura compensation (referred to as a de-mura) system for large LCD panels is proposed in this work. More specifically, the following measures were implemented to ensure the operation of the system with high reliability and efficiency: (1) An elliptic paraboloid (EP) model was proposed to deal with the measurement error caused by the viewing-angle vignetting in the LCD panel during imaging. (2) A time-domain filter and other preprocessing algorithms were built into the firmware of a high-resolution monochrome camera. (3) To accurately compensate for luminance mura, a fourth-order polynomial was applied to generate luminance de-mura data. On this basis, a local linear interpolation model was established to generate the chromaticity de-mura data. (4) The parallel acceleration of the algorithm was achieved by using a combined central processing unit (CPU) multithreading-graphic processing unit (GPU) computing architecture. The experimental results show that the developed system and algorithm perform quite well, in terms of reliability and operational efficiency. The tact time (T.T) for 4K and 8K LCD panels was less than 20 and 25 s, respectively, which fully meets manufacturers' mass production requirements.
Description: Scheme of the riparian zone in the Mura-Drava-Danube Transboundary Biosphere Reserve–the largest riverine protected area in south-eastern Europe–covering a gradient of softwood, ...transition and hardwood forests. Softwood floodplain forests grow in the lower parts of floodplains, they are hygrophilous, regularly flooded forests dominated by willow and poplar, while hardwood floodplain forests occur in the higher parts of current or former floodplains, dominated by elm, ash, or oak. The average lying deadwood volume per forest type ranges from 55 m3ha−1 in hardwood forests to 94 m3ha−1 in softwood forests. As distance from the river edge increased, the volume of lying deadwood decreased, ranging from 0.7 to 990 m3ha−1 in total. Deadwood in fresher decay stages was found mainly at greater distances to the river, while advanced decay stages dominated close to the river.
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•With increasing distance from the river edge, both the occurrence and volume of lying deadwood in riparian forests of south-eastern Europe decreased significantly.•High stand basal area had a positive effect on the volume of lying deadwood, while extensive silvicultural management practices increased the occurrence probability of lying deadwood.•Moist and warm climatic conditions led to a larger amount of deadwood in advanced decay stages.
Riparian forests are among the most diverse terrestrial ecosystems, yet their biodiversity is increasingly threatened by habitat degradation, climate change, river regulation and invasive species. We investigated deadwood, widely recognized as an indicator for forest biodiversity, in riparian forests of the Mura-Drava-Danube Transboundary Biosphere Reserve. The Biosphere Reserve is a conservation area that spans five countries and three rivers located in south-eastern Europe. In detail, we analyzed the drivers of lying deadwood volume, occurrence and decay related to floodplain type, silvicultural management, and climatic conditions using regression models. Lying deadwood occurrence and volume significantly decreased as distance from the river edge increased, indicating that river dynamics likely play a role in deadwood accumulation in riparian forests. Deadwood volume was also positively influenced by stand basal area, a parameter that can be directly addressed by silvicultural management. Deadwood decay was affected positively by temperature and negatively by precipitation, highlighting the importance of climatic conditions on decay progression. However, in order to draw more accurate conclusions about the drivers and dynamics of deadwood in riparian forests, further monitoring efforts that consider river flooding and flow regime, deadwood transport and saproxylic organism activity in addition to forest management and site conditions, are needed.
Few periods in Japanese history are more fascinating than the seventh century. This was the period when Buddhism experienced its initial flowering in the country and the time when Asukadera, Kudara ...Odera, Kawaradera, and Yakushiji (the "Four Great Temples" as they were called in ancient texts) were built. Despite their enormous historical importance, these structures have received only limited attention in Western literature, primarily because they are now ruins. Focus has been placed instead on Horyuji, a beautifully preserved structure, but not a key temple of the period. Donald McCallum seeks in this volume to restore the four great temples to their proper place in the history of Japanese Buddhism and Buddhist architecture. Extraordinary archaeological discoveries in the past few decades in the Asuka-Fujiwara area provide the basis for the monumental task McCallum has set for himself. Three of the temples have been studied archaeologically, but one, Kudara Odera (the first royal temple in Japan), has until recently been known only through textual references—primarily those mentioning its nine-story pagoda, a format closely linked to the grandiose royal temples of China and Korea. A series of digs carried out between 1997 and 2001 at Kibi Pond yielded what are thought to be the remains of Kudara Odera. A platform, the appropriate size for a large pagoda, has been uncovered at the site, indicating the reliability of the textual sources. These results have necessitated a rethinking of early Buddhist architecture in Japan. The Four Great Temples gives the first detailed account in the English language of these excavations. In his detailed analyses of each of the four temples, McCallum considers historiographical issues, settings and layouts, foundations, tiles, relics, and icons and allows readers to follow their chronological evolution. A key feature is the interweaving of archaeological and documentary data to clarify numerous historical problems that have until now resisted plausible solutions. Although the focus is on temples, the book looks at broader political and religious developments that serve as a context for the study. It further makes an effort to unify data on great royal temples in China, Korea, and other parts of Japan, thereby providing cross-cultural insights into a matter that has frequently been discussed only in terms of a single region. The Four Temples is a masterful, multifaceted study that will fundamentally alter and enrich current understanding of Japan’s ancient Buddhist temples. It is sure to generate considerable discussion among scholars in the fields of Japanese and Asian history, art history, and Buddhist studies.
Although the production process of liquid crystal display model has been automated, the quality detection still depends on manual work. Mura defect is one of the common defects appearing in TFT-LCD ...modules. Since mura defect is not significantly different from the common background, it is difficult to detect. This paper presents a deep channel attention-based classification network (DCANet), which acts as a powerful feature extractor for object detectors, and proposes an antagonistic training algorithm based on convolution neural network. By the proposed training approach, the deep learning-based object detectors can achieve high accuracy even with a small number of training samples of mura defect. The experimental results show that compared to vanilla training method, the deep learning-based detectors trained by our proposed method could significantly improve their performance on mura defect detection with a few training samples. Even trained on only 600 samples, the mistake rate and miss rate are only 8.08% and 0.267% respectively, which can completely fulfill the enterprise’s requirements of 10% and 0.3%.
•A lightweight backbone network based upon dense blocks with channel attention (DCANet) is proposed and analyzed.•A data augment method of generate antagonistic sample is presented.•An antagonistic training framework is proposed to train deep learning-based object detectors.•Detailed study for the proposed backbone network and training algorithm.
The cytoplasmic steps of peptidoglycan synthesis represent an important targeted pathway for development of new antibiotics. Herein, we report the synthesis of novel 3-oxopyrazolidin-4-carboxamide ...derivatives with variable amide side chains as potential antibacterial agents targeting MurA enzyme, the first committed enzyme in these cytosolic steps. Compounds 15 (isoindoline-1,3-dione-5-yl), 16 (4-(1H-pyrazol-4-yl)phenyl), 20 (5-cyanothiazol-2-yl), 21 and 31 (5-nitrothiazol-2-yl derivatives) exhibited the most potent MurA inhibition, with IC50 values of 9.8–12.2 μM. Compounds 15, 16 and 21 showed equipotent inhibition of the C115D MurA mutant developed by fosfomycin–resistant Escherichia coli. NMR binding studies revealed that some of the MurA residues targeted by 15 also interacted with fosfomycin, but not all, indicating an overlapping but not identical binding site. The antibacterial activity of the compounds against E. coli ΔtolC suggests that inhibition of MurA accounts for the observed effect on bacterial growth, considering that a few potent MurA inhibitors could not penetrate the bacterial outer membrane and were therefore inactive as proven by the bacterial cell uptake assay. The most promising compounds were also evaluated against a panel of Gram-positive bacteria. Remarkably, compounds 21 and 31 (MurA IC50 = 9.8 and 10.2 μM respectively) exhibited a potent activity against Clostridioides difficile strains with MIC values ranging from 0.125 to 1 μg/mL, and were also shown to be bactericidal with MBC values between 0.25 and 1 μg/mL. Furthermore, both compounds were shown to have a limited activity against human normal intestinal flora and showed high safety towards human colon cells (Caco-2) in vitro. The thiolactone derivative (compound 5) exhibited an interesting broad spectrum antibacterial activity despite its weak MurA inhibition. Altogether, the presented series provides a promising class of antibiotics that merits further investigation.
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•15, 16 and 21 could equally inhibit wildtype and C115D MurA mutant developed by fosfomycin-resistant E. coli.•NMR studies revealed partial overlap between 15 and fosfomycin in binding to MurA.•21 and 31 were 2–8 folds more potent than vancomycin against some C. difficile clinical strains.•21 and 31 exhibited a bactericidal action and showed high stability in culture media and bacterial cell lysate.•21 and 31 exhibited restricted activity against representatives of the human normal microbiota.
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