Raphides, needle-shaped calcium oxalate crystals in tissues of many plants, have been thought to play defensive roles against herbivores without detailed bioassays for their defensive roles and modes ...of function using purified raphides. In order to examine the defensive roles and modes of function of raphides in a clear experimental system, we performed bioassays giving the larvae of the Eri silkmoth, Samia ricini (Saturniidae), leaves of their host plant, the castor oil plant, Ricinus communis (Euphorbiaceae), painted with the raphides purified from kiwifruits, Actinidia deliciosa (Actinidiaceae), in presence or absence of cysteine protease, which often coincide with raphides in plant tissues. Raphides alone or cysteine protease alone showed only weak defensive activities around experimental concentrations. However, when raphides and cysteine protease coexisted, they synergistically showed very strong growth-reducing activities, and the mortality of caterpillars was very high. In contrast, amorphous calcium oxalate did not show synergism with cysteine protease on defensive activities, indicating that the needle-shape of raphides is essential for the synergism. The present study provides the first clear experimental evidence for the synergism between raphides and other defensive factors. Further, the study suggests that "the needle effect", which intensify the bioactivities of other bioactive factors by making holes to the barriers (cell membrane, cuticle, epithelium, the nuclear membrane, etc.) and facilitate the bioactive factors to go through them and reach the targets, is important in the defensive activities of raphides, and possibly in the allergy caused by raphides, and in the carcinogenic activities of other needle-shaped components including asbestos and plant derived silica needles.
Background: Optimal periprocedural oral anticoagulant (OAC) therapy before catheter ablation (CA) for atrial fibrillation (AF) and the safety profile of OAC discontinuation during the remote period ...(from 31 days and up to 1 year after CA) have not been well defined.Methods and Results: The RYOUMA registry is a prospective multicenter observational study of Japanese patients who underwent CA for AF in 2017–2018. Of the 3,072 patients, 82.3% received minimally interrupted direct-acting OACs (DOACs) and 10.2% received uninterrupted DOACs. Both uninterrupted and minimally interrupted DOACs were associated with an extremely low thromboembolic event rate. Female, long-standing persistent AF, low creatinine clearance, hepatic disorder, and high intraprocedural heparin dose were independent factors associated with periprocedural major bleeding. At 1 year after CA, DOAC was continued in 55.9% of patients and warfarin in 56.4%. The incidence of thromboembolic and major bleeding events for 1 year was 0.3% and 1.2%, respectively. Age ≥73 years, dementia, and AF recurrence were independently associated with major bleeding events. Univariate analyses revealed that warfarin continuation and off-label overdose of DOACs were risk factors for major bleeding after CA.Conclusions: High intraprocedural dose of heparin was associated with periprocedural major bleeding events. At 1 year after CA, over half of the patients had continued OAC therapy. Thromboembolic events were extremely low; however, major bleeding occurred in 1.2%. Age ≥73 years, dementia, and AF recurrence were independently associated with major bleeding after CA.
The nucleon(N)-Omega(Ω) system in the S-wave and spin-2 channel (S25) is studied from the (2+1)-flavor lattice QCD with nearly physical quark masses (mπ≃146MeV and mK≃525MeV). The time-dependent HAL ...QCD method is employed to convert the lattice QCD data of the two-baryon correlation function to the baryon-baryon potential and eventually to the scattering observables. The NΩ(S25) potential, obtained under the assumption that its couplings to the D-wave octet-baryon pairs are small, is found to be attractive in all distances and to produce a quasi-bound state near unitarity: In this channel, the scattering length, the effective range and the binding energy from QCD alone read a0=5.30(0.44)(−0.01+0.16)fm, reff=1.26(0.01)(−0.01+0.02)fm, B=1.54(0.30)(−0.10+0.04)MeV, respectively. Including the extra Coulomb attraction, the binding energy of pΩ−(S25) becomes BpΩ−=2.46(0.34)(−0.11+0.04)MeV. Such a spin-2 pΩ− state could be searched through two-particle correlations in p-p, p-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions.
Metamorphosis in the pupae of the Trypoxylus dichotomus was continuously observed at 9.4T until their emergence. A large liquid-like mass occupied most of the volume in the trunk, while the ...surrounding tissue already existed at the beginning of the observation period. As the mass shrunk, tissues such as flight muscle formed, whereas the reservoir became prolonged to form the intestinal tract. This implies that the liquid-like mass worked as the raw material for creating adult tissues.
Centenarians have a decreased susceptibility to ageing-associated illnesses, chronic inflammation and infectious diseases
. Here we show that centenarians have a distinct gut microbiome that is ...enriched in microorganisms that are capable of generating unique secondary bile acids, including various isoforms of lithocholic acid (LCA): iso-, 3-oxo-, allo-, 3-oxoallo- and isoallolithocholic acid. Among these bile acids, the biosynthetic pathway for isoalloLCA had not been described previously. By screening 68 bacterial isolates from the faecal microbiota of a centenarian, we identified Odoribacteraceae strains as effective producers of isoalloLCA both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, we found that the enzymes 5α-reductase (5AR) and 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3β-HSDH) were responsible for the production of isoalloLCA. IsoalloLCA exerted potent antimicrobial effects against Gram-positive (but not Gram-negative) multidrug-resistant pathogens, including Clostridioides difficile and Enterococcus faecium. These findings suggest that the metabolism of specific bile acids may be involved in reducing the risk of infection with pathobionts, thereby potentially contributing to the maintenance of intestinal homeostasis.
A spin‐wave analysis of magnetic Raman scattering in an antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the 2D Penrose lattice of C5v point symmetry is made. Following the Shastry–Shraiman perturbation scheme ...for a strongly correlated Hubbard model, fourth‐order effective Raman operators are obtained. Within the second‐order mechanism, there is one and only Raman active mode of E2 symmetry, yielding a spectral weight independent of light polarization. Considering the fourth‐order scatterings as well, activates A1 and A2 as well as E2 modes and therefore results in polarization‐dependent Raman spectra. With the use of linearly and circularly polarized lights, all the symmetry species can separately be extracted from observations. Though the linear spin‐wave theory, i.e., the harmonic oscillator approximation, is far from quantitative, the A2 and E2 Raman intensities are well describable with two magnon interactions. The Raman‐active A1 mode owes much to higher‐order magnon–magnon interactions as well.
Theoretical calculations of the magnetic Raman scattering on the 2D quasiperiodic Heisenberg antiferromagnets are reported. The Raman scattering intensity profile detects various magnetic excitations, including spin‐chirality fluctuations. The interactions between magnons play an important role in the magnetic Raman scattering process.
Chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) is a common neurosurgical condition and neurological condition improves after treatment in most patients. Recently more patients have poor prognosis because of aging ...of the population and presence of multiple comorbidities. The risk factors for poor prognosis, including postoperative delirium, were retrospectively evaluated to assess appropriate operative procedures. This study included 108 patients who underwent primary surgery from 2016 to 2017 at a single center. Operative procedures were drainage with or without irrigation. Functional outcome at discharge assessed the effect of various factors including postoperative delirium and operative procedure. Twenty-nine of 108 patients (27%) had worsened modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score at discharge, most with mobility disturbance or deteriorated cognitive function. Multivariate analysis found higher age (odds ratio OR = 5.13; 95% confidence interval CI = 1.0-1.14), poor pre-hospital mRS score (OR = 1.57; 95% CI = 1.0-2.46), and preoperative consciousness disturbance caused by CSDH (OR = 5.13; 95% CI = 1.27-20) were significant predictors of poor outcome. Operative procedure was not significantly related to functional outcome or recurrence, but irrigation was significantly related to postoperative delirium (OR = 4.83; 95% CI = 1.09-21.7). Patients with postoperative delirium were likely to require longer hospitalization stays (P = 0.028). Higher age, poor pre-hospital mRS, and preoperative consciousness disturbance caused by CSDH are the risk factors for poor recovery after CSDH. Irrigation is significantly likely to cause postoperative delirium and longer hospital stay.
We theoretically study the inverse Faraday effect, i.e., the optical induction of spin polarization with circularly polarized light, by particularly focusing on effects of band dispersions and Fermi ...surfaces in crystal systems with the spin-orbit interaction (SOI). By numerically solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation of a tight-binding model with the Rashba-type SOI, we reproduce the light-induced spin polarization proportional to E02/ω3 where E0 and ω are the electric-field amplitude and the angular frequency of light, respectively. This optical spin induction is attributed to dynamical magnetoelectric coupling between the light electric field and the electron spins mediated by the SOI. We elucidate that the magnitude and sign of the induced spin polarization sensitively depend on the electron filling. To understand these results, we construct an analytical theory based on the Floquet theorem. The theory successfully explains the dependencies on E0 and ω and ascribes the electron-filling dependence to a momentum-dependent effective magnetic field governed by the Fermi-surface geometry. Several candidate materials and experimental conditions relevant to our theory and model parameters are also discussed. Our findings will enable us to engineer the magneto-optical responses of matters via tuning the material parameters.
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