This paper presents a novel method for reconstructing the temperature distributions of water around a small heated sphere and predicting the heat generation rates of the sphere. This method is based on the temperature dependence of the absorbance of water at the wavelength of 1150 nm. Absorbance images at 1150 nm were obtained when a 1 mm diameter steel sphere located in water contained in a glass cell with a light path length of 10 mm was heated by a 760 kHz alternating magnetic field. Inverse Abel transform is applied to the line profiles of the absorbance, and radial temperature distributions are reconstructed. The heat generation rates calculated from these temperature distributions well agree with induction heating power levels.
Recognition of microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) initiates pattern-triggered immunity in host plants. Pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) and receptor-like cytoplasmic kinases (RLCKs) are the major components required for sensing and transduction of these molecular patterns. However, the regulation of RLCKs by PRRs and their specificity remain obscure. In this study we show that PBL27, an Arabidopsis ortholog of OsRLCK185, is an immediate downstream component of the chitin receptor CERK1 and contributes to the regulation of chitin-induced immunity in Arabidopsis. Knockout of PBL27 resulted in the suppression of several chitin-induced defense responses, including the activation of MPK3/6 and callose deposition as well as in disease resistance against fungal and bacterial infections. On the other hand, the contribution of PBL27 to flg22 signaling appears to be very limited, suggesting that PBL27 selectively regulates defense signaling downstream of specific PRR complexes. In vitro phosphorylation experiments showed that CERK1 preferentially phosphorylated PBL27 in comparison to BIK1, whereas phosphorylation of PBL27 by BAK1 was very low compared with that of BIK1. Thus, the substrate specificity of the signaling receptor-like kinases, CERK1 and BAK1, may determine the preference of downstream RLCKs.
We demonstrate a remote motor control system using a long-reach 10 Gbit/s Ethernet passive optical network (10G-EPON). Experiments show that the system can be used as optical access edge computing infrastructure for wide-area, low-latency applications.
Abstract Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in aqueous solution were performed for hexameric nanocubes of methylated (16) and demethylated (26) gear-shaped amphiphiles. To elucidate the difference between these nanocubes, the principal component analysis for the MD simulation results in aqueous solution and the normal mode analysis in the gas phase were also applied to the nanocube, 16 and 26. The structural fluctuation of the lowest-frequency motion on 26 is larger than that on 16 around the triple π stacking of 3-pyridyl groups. For the structural stability and fluctuation of the nanocube, interactions among the constituent gear-shaped molecules play more important roles than the solvophobic effect due to solvent molecules.
We performed ab initio path integral molecular dynamics (PIMD) simulations with a density functional theory (DFT) method to accurately predict hyperfine coupling constants (HFCCs) in the ethyl radical (CβH3-CαH2) and its Mu-substituted (muoniated) compound (CβH2Mu-CαH2). The substitution of a Mu atom, an ultralight isotope of the H atom, with larger nuclear quantum effect is expected to strongly affect the nature of the ethyl radical. The static conventional DFT calculations of CβH3-CαH2 find that the elongation of one Cβ-H bond causes a change in the shape of potential energy curve along the rotational angle via the imbalance of attractive and repulsive interactions between the methyl and methylene groups. Investigation of the methyl-group behavior including the nuclear quantum and thermal effects shows that an unbalanced CβH2Mu group with the elongated Cβ-Mu bond rotates around the Cβ-Cα bond in a muoniated ethyl radical, quite differently from the CβH3 group with the three equivalent Cβ-H bonds in the ethyl radical. These rotations couple with other molecular motions such as the methylene-group rocking motion (inversion), leading to difficulties in reproducing the corresponding barrier heights. Our PIMD simulations successfully predict the barrier heights to be close to the experimental values and provide a significant improvement in muon and proton HFCCs given by the static conventional DFT method. Further investigation reveals that the Cβ-Mu/H stretching motion, methyl-group rotation, methylene-group rocking motion, and HFCC values deeply intertwine with each other. Because these motions are different between the radicals, a proper description of the structural fluctuations reflecting the nuclear quantum and thermal effects is vital to evaluate HFCC values in theory to be comparable to the experimental ones. Accordingly, a fundamental difference in HFCC between the radicals arises from their intrinsic molecular motions at a finite temperature, in particular the methyl-group behavior.
In this paper, we present a short-time frequency estimation method that can handle multiple sinusoids simultaneously. Frequency estimation is a fundamental problem in audio analysis. For realizing high-temporal resolution, an approach based on a differential equation of a sinusoid, which is referred to as the sinusoidal constraint differential equation (SCDE), has been proposed. The SCDE-based method can efficiently and accurately estimate frequency even from a short-term signal. However, in terms of simultaneous estimation, up to two sinusoids have been considered so far. In this paper, we extend this approach to three or more sinusoids. Our experimental results show that our method outperformed existing methods based on the discrete Fourier transform.
Heart failure increases among the elderly; however, the influence of ambient temperature on cardiorenal function has not been well investigated. Patients (n = 110, mean age 82.9 years, 43 males) with stable heart failure and creatinine < 3.0 mg/dl were studied. Medical records, such as ejection fraction, B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) at each visit every 1-3 months were collected by the end-point for death, additional prescription to treat heart failure, or heart failure hospitalization. The ambient temperatures at each visit were obtained from the Japan Meteorological Agency. During the follow-up period (median 399 days and 7 visits), follow-up BNP showed a trend toward a positive correlation with the diurnal temperature range. After dividing into two groups by median baseline eGFR, follow-up BNP was positively correlated with minimum temperature (p = 0.039) and the diurnal temperature range (p = 0.007) in the Low-eGFR group but not in the High-eGFR group. Follow-up eGFR was negatively correlated with the ambient day temperature in both groups (p ≤ 0.002). Follow-up BNP was positively correlated with follow-up eGFR (p < 0.0001) only in the Low-eGFR group and not in the High-eGFR group, suggesting that BNP and eGFR increase in winter and BNP and eGFR decrease in summer in the Low-eGFR group. In conclusions, heart failure may be worsened by larger diurnal temperature range or in winter in patients with renal impairment. This population should be carefully managed in the clinic according to the ambient temperature.
