The rapid development of the optical-cycle-level ultra-fast laser technologies may break through the bottleneck of the traditional ultra-intense laser i.e., Petawatt (PW, 10
W) laser currently and ...enable the generation of even higher peak-power/intensity lasers. Herein, we simulate an ultra-broadband concept for the realization of an Exawatt-class (EW, 10
W) high peak-power laser, where the wide-angle non-collinear optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (WNOPCPA) is combined with the thin-plate post-compression. A frequency-chirped carrier-envelope-phase stable super-continuum laser is amplified to high-energy in WNOPCPA by pumping with two pump-beamlets and injected into the thin-plate post-compression to generate a sub-optical-cycle high-energy laser pulse. The numerical simulation shows this hybrid concept significantly enhances the gain bandwidth in the high-energy amplifier and the spectral broadening in the post-compression. By using this concept, a study of a prototype design of a 0.5 EW system is presented, and several key challenges are also examined.
Sleep is required to maintain physiological functions and is widely conserved across species. To understand the sleep-regulatory mechanisms, sleep-regulating genes and neuronal circuits are studied ...in various animal species. In the sleep-regulatory neuronal circuits in Drosophila melanogaster, the dorsal fan-shaped body (dFB) is a major sleep-promoting region. However, other sleep-regulating neuronal circuits were not well identified. We recently found that arousal-promoting T1 dopamine neurons, interneurons of protocerebral bridge (PB) neurons, and PB neurons innervating the ventral part of the FB form a sleep-regulatory circuit, which we named "the PB-FB pathway". In the exploration of other sleep-regulatory circuits, we found that activation of FB interneurons, also known as pontine neurons, promoted arousal. We then found that FB interneurons had possible connections with the PB-FB pathway and dFB neurons. Ca2+ imaging revealed that FB interneurons received excitatory signals from the PB-FB pathway. We also demonstrated the possible role of FB interneurons to regulate dFB neurons. These results suggested the role of FB interneurons in sleep regulation.
As several home appliances, such as air conditioners, heaters, and refrigerators, were connecting to the Internet, they became targets of cyberattacks, which cause serious problems such as ...compromising safety and even harming users. We have proposed a method to detect such attacks based on user behavior. This method models user behavior as sequences of user events including operation of home IoT (Internet of Things) devices and other monitored activities. Considering users behave depending on the condition of the home such as time and temperature, our method learns event sequences for each condition. To mitigate the impact of events of other users in the home included in the monitored sequence, our method generates multiple event sequences by removing some events and learning the frequently observed sequences. For evaluation, we constructed an experimental network of home IoT devices and recorded time data for four users entering/leaving a room and operating devices. We obtained detection ratios exceeding 90% for anomalous operations with less than 10% of misdetections when our method observed event sequences related to the operation. In this article, we also discuss the effectiveness of our method by comparing with a method learning users' behavior by Hidden Markov Models.
Vancomycin is a glycopeptide antibiotic that is a primary treatment for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections. To enhance its clinical effectiveness and prevent nephrotoxicity, ...therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of trough concentrations is recommended.
Initial vancomycin dosing regimens are determined based on patient characteristics such as age, body weight, and renal function, and dosing strategies to achieve therapeutic concentration windows at initial TDM have been extensively studied. Although numerous dosing nomograms for specific populations have been developed, no comprehensive strategy exists for individually tailoring initial dosing regimens; therefore, decision making regarding initial dosing largely depends on each clinician's experience and expertise.
In this study, we applied a machine-learning (ML) approach to integrate clinician knowledge into a predictive model for initial vancomycin dosing. A dataset of vancomycin initial dose plans defined by pharmacists experienced in vancomycin TDM (i.e., experts) was used to build the ML model. Although small training sets were used, we established a predictive model with a target attainment rate comparable to those of experts, another ML model, and commonly used vancomycin dosing software. Our strategy will help develop an expert-like predictive model that aids in decision making for initial vancomycin dosing, particularly in settings where dose planning consultations are unavailable.
Abstract M87 is the best target for studying black hole accretion and jet formation. Reanalysis of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) public data at 230 GHz shows a core–knots structure at the center ...and jet features. We here compare this with the new results of GMVA at 86 GHz showing a spatially resolved central core. There are similarities and differences between the two. At 86 GHz, “two bright regions” are seen on the ring in the core. The “core–knot–west knot” triple structure in the 230 GHz image shows apparent appearance of two peaks similar to the “two bright regions” when convolved with the GMVA beam. This similarity suggests that both frequencies reveal the same objects in the core area. Protrusions are observed on both the south and north sides of the core at both frequencies, becoming prominent and winglike at 230 GHz. The 86 GHz image shows a triple ridge jet structure, while the 230 GHz image shows only a bright central ridge with two roots. Both frequencies show a shade between the core and the central ridge. To detect the faint features from the EHT2017 data, we found that the use of all baseline data is essential. Using all baseline data, including the ultrashort data, revealed the jet and faint structures. Without the ultrashort baselines, these structures were not detectable. The lack of detection of any faint structures other than the ring in the M87 data by the EHTC is presumably due to the exclusion of ultrashort baselines from their analysis.
The central complex is one of the major brain regions that control sleep in
Drosophila
. However, the circuitry details of sleep regulation have not been elucidated yet. Here, we show a novel ...sleep-regulating neuronal circuit in the protocerebral bridge (PB) of the central complex. Activation of the PB interneurons labeled by the
R59E08-Gal4
and the PB columnar neurons with
R52B10
-
Gal4
promoted sleep and wakefulness, respectively. A targeted GFP reconstitution across synaptic partners (t-GRASP) analysis demonstrated synaptic contact between these two groups of sleep-regulating PB neurons. Furthermore, we found that activation of a pair of dopaminergic (DA) neurons projecting to the PB (T1 DA neurons) decreased sleep. The wake-promoting T1 DA neurons and the sleep-promoting PB interneurons formed close associations.
Dopamine 2-like receptor
(
Dop2R
) knockdown in the sleep-promoting PB interneurons increased sleep. These results indicated that the neuronal circuit in the PB, regulated by dopamine signaling, mediates sleep-wakefulness.
Cotesia kariyai (Ck) larvae implanted into the body cavity of the Mythimna separata (armyworm) larvae get melanized and encapsulated after adhesion by hemocytes called hyperspread cells (HSCs). The ...present study showed that HSCs could not adhere to the implanted Ck larvae in armyworm larvae after injection of Ck polydnavirus (CkPDV) + venom (V), thus melanization and encapsulation could not occur. A C‐type lectin called Mys‐IML of the host armyworm larvae was considered to be involved in the recognition of foreign substances which always expressed in hemocytes. The CkPDV DNA encodes a C‐type lectin called Cky811 that has high amino acid homology to Mys‐IML. HSCs did not adhere when CkPDV + V was mixed with the hemolymph of armyworm larvae on glass slides and incubated in vitro, but the addition of anti‐Cky811 antibody enabled HSCs to adhere. The messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of Mys‐IML in armyworm larvae injected with CkPDV + V became undetectable by 6 h. On the contrary, Cky811 mRNA was well expressed in the hemocytes of armyworm larvae injected with CkPDV + V from 0.5 to 6 h. Cky811 protein was also detected in the crude extracts from Ck venom gland + Ck venom reservoir, suggesting that these proteins regulate foreign substance recognition by the armyworm within 0.5 h. These results suggest that CkPDV + V suppresses mRNA expression of Mys‐IML, and that Cky811 protein expressed in hemocytes regulates foreign substance recognition of Mys‐IML, resulting in inhibition of the downstream reaction steps: HSCs adhesion, melanization, and encapsulation.
Expression of Cky811, a C‐type lectin encoded by Cotesia kariyai polydnavirus, in hemocytes of the host Mythimna separata inhibit foreign substances recognition by Mys‐IML, a C‐type lectin of the host. This prevents the hyperspread cells of M. separata larvae from attaching to the foreign substance and inhibits their downstream reactions of melanization and encapsulation. This ensures that the eggs and larvae of C. kariyai are not eliminated from the M. separata body cavity.
Research Highlights
Cky811, encoded by polydnavirus of Cotesia kariyai, inhibits foreign substance recognition by Mys‐IML in Mythimna separata. This prevents the host's hyperspread cells from attaching to the foreign substance and inhibits melanization and encapsulation.
Abstract
Summary
: Similarity searches of amino acid sequences against the public metagenomic data can provide users insights about the function of sequences based on the environmental distribution ...of similar sequences. However, a considerable reduction in the amount of data or the accuracy of the result was necessary to conduct sequence similarity searches against public metagenomic data, because of the vast data size more than Terabytes. Here, we present an ultra-fast service for the highly accurate amino acid sequence similarity search, called PZLAST, which can search the user’s amino acid sequences to several Terabytes of public metagenomic sequences in ∼10–20 min. PZLAST accomplishes its search speed by using PEZY-SC2, which is a Multiple Instruction Multiple Data many-core processor. Results of PZLAST are summarized by the ontology-based environmental distribution of similar sequences. PZLAST can be used to predict the function of sequences and mine for homologs of functionally important gene sequences.
Availability and implementation
PZLAST is freely accessible at https://pzlast.riken.jp/meta without requiring registration.
Supplementary information
Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Black-hole accretion systems are known to possess several distinct modes (or spectral states), such as low/hard state and high/soft state. Since the dynamics of the corresponding flows is distinct, ...theoretical models were separately considered for each state. We here propose a unified model based on our new, global, two-dimensional radiation-magnetohydrodynamic simulations. By controlling a density normalization we could for the first time reproduce three distinct modes of accretion flow and outflow with one numerical code. When the density is large (model A), a geometrically thick, very luminous disk forms, in which photon trapping takes place. When the density is moderate (model B), the accreting gas can effectively be cooled by emitting radiation, thus generating a thin disk, i.e., a soft-state disk. When the density is too low for radiative cooling to be important (model C), a disk becomes hot, thick, and faint; i.e., a hard-state disk. The magnetic energy is amplified within the disk up to about twice, 30%, and 20% of the gas energy in models A, B, and C, respectively. Notably, the disk outflows with helical magnetic fields, which are driven either by radiation-pressure force or magnetic-pressure force, are ubiquitous in any accretion modes. Finally, our simulations are consistent with the phenomenological
$\alpha$
-viscosity prescription; that is, the disk viscosity is proportional to the pressure.
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