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To determine the optimal voluntary waiting period to first service after calving for maximizing the lifetime productivity of cows in a dairy herd, we simulated the changes in lifetime productivity due to increasing the number of days from calving to first service. We also assessed the effects of changes in the maximum number of ser- vices within a lactation, maximum number of calvings, and calf sale prices on lifetime productivity. We evaluated lifetime productivity as lifetime average productivity, that is, the sum of daily revenues from milk and calf sales from first calving to culling. The lifetime productivity at ≤65 days to first service was low because of the low concep- tion rate during early lactation. In addition, lifetime productivity at ≥185 days to first service decreased as the number of days to first service increased. The number of days to first service for maximum lifetime productivity decreased as the maximum number of calvings increased. Furthermore, the decrease in lifetime productivity associated with decreasing the maximum number of services within a lactation from five to four was greater than that when the maximum number of calvings was decreased from six to five. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a new approach to treat the electronic structure of a molecule in solution. Unlike the hybrid-type method, such as the reference interaction site model self-consistent-field theory, the new approach describes not only the electronic structure of solute but also solute–solvent interactions in terms of the quantum chemistry based on the Hartree–Fock frozen density formulation. In the treatment, the quantum effect due to solvent, including exchange repulsion, is projected on to the solute Hamiltonian using the spectral representation method. The solvent distribution around the solute is handled by the integral equation theory of liquids. As illustrative applications of the approach, the electronic and solvation structure of noble atoms, neon and argon, in liquid neon are studied. We also investigate the electronic structure of an excess electron in liquid helium. The preliminary results demonstrate that the quantum-mechanical effect on the electronic and solvation structure of the solute due to solvent molecules is successfully represented by the new method. © 2003 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Because lactation periods in dairy cows lengthen with increasing total milk production, it is important to predict individual productivities after 305 days in milk (DIM) to determine the optimal lactation period. We therefore examined whether the random regression (RR) coefficient from 306 to 450 DIM (M2) can be predicted from those during the first 305 DIM (M1) by using a RR model. Methods: We analyzed test-day milk records from 85,690 Holstein cows in their first lactations and 131,727 cows in their later (second to fifth) lactations. Data in M1 and M2 were analyzed separately by using different single-trait RR animal models. We then performed a multiple regression analysis of the RR coefficients of M2 on those of M1 during the first and later lactations. Results: The first-order Legendre polynomials were practical covariates of RR for the milk yields of M2. All RR coefficients for the additive genetic (AG) effect and the intercept for the permanent environmental (PE) effect of M2 had moderate to strong correlations with the intercept for the AG effect of M1. The coefficients of determination for multiple regression of the combined intercepts for the AG and PE effects of M2 on the coefficients for the AG effect of M1 were moderate to high. The daily milk yields of M2 predicted by using the RR coefficients for the AG effect of M1 were highly correlated with those obtained by using the coefficients of M2. Conclusion: Milk production after 305 DIM can be predicted by using the RR coefficient estimates of the AG effect during the first 305 DIM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We employ molecular dynamics simulations and the reference interaction site model (RISM) integral equation theory to study the solvation structure and solvation thermodynamics of the transfer process from water to a water−urea mixture. Simple positive and negative ions together with uncharged species of the same size are used as crude models for the hydrophilic and hydrophobic groups of a protein. We find that urea preferentially solvates positively charged species. The solvation free energies obtained indicate that larger solutes favor the transfer from water to a water−urea mixture. The decomposition of the transfer free energy into the energetic and entropic terms shows that the energetic part is much larger than the entropic one and tends to dominate the transfer process, supporting the direct mechanism of urea-denaturation. In addition, the effect of urea on the water liquid structure is discussed from the viewpoint of solvation entropy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supramolecular synthesis emerged recently as a new formalism to devise complex architectures held through noncovalent forces. Much of the research endeavor has been devoted to the use of H-bonds as the alphabet for chemical information encoding, and the structures expressed have spanned the range of dimensions and shapes, from discrete to infinite networks. Here we describe the synthesis and characterization of a G∧C base bearing two C12 alkyl chains, which undergoes a solvent-controlled multistep hierarchical self-assembly process into lamellar prolate nanospheroids. These assemblies were characterized by AFM, SEM, TEM, XRD, and SAXS, and a mechanism for their formation is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explain the molecular mechanism of the effect of urea and glycerol cosolvents on the partial molar volume (PMV) change associated with the pressure denaturation of staphylococcal nuclease (SNase) protein recently observed in experiments. Native and denatured conformations of SNase are produced by using molecular dynamics simulations in water, and the PMV is obtained from the integral equation theory of molecular liquids called 3D-RISM, which is based on statistical mechanics. The PMV of the native SNase in water predicted by 3D-RISM theory is in good agreement with experiment. The PMV changes associated with pressure denaturation in water and in water−urea and water−glycerol mixtures are qualitatively reproduced. By analyzing the results obtained, we found two interesting cosolvent effects on the PMV:  (1) both urea and glycerol cosolvents increase the PMVs of both native and denatured SNase compared to those in water and (2) both urea and glycerol cosolvents increase the PMV of denatured SNase more than that of native SNase. We also showed that these two observations can be explained in terms of the thermal volume, which is related to the packing effect of solvent molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are conducting a 5-km long-term atmospheric regional reanalysis for Japan with assimilating conventional observations (RRJ-Conv). RRJ-Conv is produced with a one-way double-nesting system consisting of a nonhydrostatic regional model and a local ensemble transform Kalman filter (LETKF), which is driven by the Japanese 55-year reanalysis (JRA-55). The assimilated data are limited to long-term available data, specifically surface in-situ pressure observations, upper-air radiosonde observations, and tropical cyclone center positions. This paper overviews the performance of RRJ-Conv for 20 years from July 2001 to June 2021, mainly focusing on precipitation and exploring added values to JRA-55. RRJ-Conv is confirmed to maintain long-term consistency of analysis quality. Compared to JRA-55, RRJ-Conv reduces biases in central pressures of tropical cyclones, maintaining position reproducibility. RRJ-Conv represents detailed spatial distributions of monthly precipitation, extreme values for daily precipitation, and their interannual variation more realistically than JRA-55. The improvements to JRA-55 are demonstrated for some extreme events, involving a tropical cyclone, Baiu front and East Asian winter monsoon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents the impacts of evaporative cooling from raindrops on precipitation over western Japan associated with the Baiu front during a heavy rainfall event from 5 to 8 July 2018. We conducted analyses of the dynamic and thermodynamic features of the stationary Baiu front using the Japanese 55-year reanalysis. During this period, large amounts of water vapor were continuously transported to the stationary Baiu front, supporting the record-breaking rainfall. The 299K isentropic surface was identified as the frontal surface. Along the isentropic surface, warm moist air adiabatically ascended, became saturated at an altitude of approximately 500 m, and initiated active precipitation systems. We found that the diabatic cooling near the tip of the frontal surface played an important role in retaining the position of the frontal surface and stalling its northward retreat. Additionally, numerical sensitivity experiments were conducted to examine the impacts of evaporative cooling and topography on heavy rainfall formation using a cloud-resolving non-hydrostatic numerical model (the Japan Meteorological Agency Non-Hydrostatic Model: JMA-NHM) with a horizontal resolution of 3 km. A heavy precipitation area extending from the Chugoku region to central Kinki was simulated regardless of whether the terrain was flattened or not. Precipitation formed primarily as a result of updrafts above a frontal surface at a potential temperature of 300 K. This precipitation area shifted northward by more than 100 km when raindrop evaporation was excluded from the experiment. Raindrop evaporation suppressed the northward retreat of the frontal surface by maintaining cold airmass amounts below the frontal surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local fronts formed near the coast of the Kanto Plain, mainly in the cold season, called "coastal fronts", tend to be forecast on the inland side of their actual positions by the operational mesoscale Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP; with a horizontal grid spacing of 5 km) model at the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). In this study, we confirm a systematic NWP error through statistical validations of coastal fronts that occurred with southerly onshore winds during 2015 - 2018. Using a nonhydrostatic numerical model, we explore the relevant physical mechanisms through sensitivity experiments involving different horizontal resolutions, envelope orography, and physics parameterization schemes for three cases with typical errors. The operational NWP model was shown to have a systematic error, with local fronts being shifted consistently to the inland side of their actual positions when the forecast period exceeds 5 hours, regardless of precipitation. The sensitivity experiments suggested that the systematic error associated with coastal fronts may be caused primarily by an underestimation of the mountain barrier surrounding the Kanto Plain in the model. The northwestward distance error of coastal fronts, averaged over the three illustrative cases, can be reduced by 27 % and 37 % by increasing the horizontal resolution from 5 km to 2 km and 1 km, respectively, and can be eliminated almost entirely by using the envelope orography. Moreover, the evaporative cooling of precipitation shifts coastal fronts seaward. Most coastal fronts are thought to take the form of cold air trapped on the southeastern slope of the mountains surrounding the Kanto Plain, where the elevation angle of the frontal surface is roughly controlled dynamically. The local front shifts seaward when the ridgelines of the mountains become higher, or by the reduction of the elevation angle when the trapped air becomes colder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is often related to severe obesity and diabetes mellitus (DM). Clinical findings suggesting the benefits of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists for glycemic control of DM in PWS have been recently increasing. However, there are only a few reports describing the effects of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors for PWS. We present a diabetic female with PWS, whose glycemic control was deteriorated at the age of 19 but improved to a certain extent by introducing the GLP-1 analog liraglutide. At the age of 20, the SGLT2 inhibitor empagliflozin was administered. Subsequently, her HbA1c level and body weight markedly decreased. Improvement in both insulin resistance and secretion was observed during the subsequent six months. In addition to GLP-1 receptor agonists, SGLT2 inhibitors may be a potential approach for the management of DM in PWS, especially in young patients whose pancreatic insulin secretion capabilities are still preserved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographical distributions of heavy snowfall, especially in the Pacific Ocean side of Japan, have not been previously elucidated due to low occurrence frequency of heavy snowfall and limited number of snow observation points. This study investigates the characteristics of synoptic conditions for heavy daily snowfall from western to northeastern Japan in the present climate, analyzing high-resolution regional climate ensemble experiments with 5-km grid spacing. The Japanese 55-year Reanalysis (JRA-55) and the 10-ensemble members of the database for Policy Decision making for Future climate change (d4PDF) historical experiments are applied to the lateral boundary conditions of the regional climate model. Dynamical downscaling using d4PDF (d4PDF-DS) enabled us to evaluate much heavier snowfall events than those simulated by dynamical downscaling using JRA-55 (JRA55-DS). Over the Sea of Japan side, heavy snowfall occurs due to cold air outbreaks, while over the Pacific Ocean side, heavy snowfall is brought about by extratropical cyclones passing along the Pacific Ocean coast. A comparison between JRA55-DS and d4PDF-DS indicated that heavier snowfall can occur due to more developed extratropical cyclones and enhanced cold air damming in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The geographical distributions of extremely heavy snowfall are different between two typical synoptic conditions, i.e., cold air outbreaks and extratropical cyclones. The difference is much clearer in the extremely heavy snowfall events than in all snowfall events. Heavy daily snowfall occurs in January and February on the Pacific Ocean side, in December and January on the Sea of Japan side, and in November and March in high mountainous areas. Saturated water vapor pressure is largest around 0°C under the snowing conditions. Synoptic conditions from late fall to winter are closely related to preferable conditions for heavy snowfall over the mountainous areas where the surface air temperature is much less than 0°C in the heavy snowfall events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Only a few, principal, weather stations in Japanese prefectures have the daily humidity records required to calculate the temperature–humidity index (THI) as a dairy cow heat-stress indicator. We compared three heat-stress indices: (1) THI calculated from daily average temperature and daily relative humidity at a principal weather station (PTHI); (2) daily average temperature at each herd’s closest local weather station (TEMP); and (3) THI calculated from daily average temperature at each herd’s closest local weather station and daily relative humidity at the principal weather station (HTHI). We used daily records from 532 provincial weather stations and test-day records of milk production from Days 6 to 305 post-first-calving in Holsteins to compare the indices as indicators of heat-stress effects on milk yield and somatic cell score (SCS). The models used the BLUPF90 package to analyze the effects of herd– year, calving age, days in milk, and PTHI, TEMP, or HTHI. We estimated each model’s mean square error (MSE) and compared suitabilities among indices for each trait. TEMP heat-stress thresholds were 〜18°C (milk yield) and 15–20°C (SCS). The MSE of the HTHI model was the smallest, but no significant differences were found among the indices for milk yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used test-day records and daily records from provincial weather stations in Japan to evaluate heat tolerance (HT) in Holstein cows according to a random regression test-day model. Data were a total of 1,641,952 test-day records for heritability estimates and 17,245,694 test-day records for genetic evaluation of HT by using milk yield and somatic cell score (SCS) in Holstein cows that had calved for the first time in 2000 through 2015. Temperature–humidity index (THI) values were estimated by using average daily temperature and average daily relative humidity records from 60 provincial Japanese weather stations. The model contained herd–test-day, with lactation curves on days in milk within month–age group as a fixed effect. General additive genetic effect and HT of additive genetic effect were included as random effects. The threshold value of THI was set to 60. For milk yield, estimated mean heritabilities were lower during heat stress (THI = 78; 0.20 and 0.28) than when below the heat stress threshold (THI ≤ 60; 0.26 and 0.31). For SCS, heritability estimates (range 0.08–0.10) were similar under all heat stress conditions. Genetic trends of HT indicated that EBVs of HT are changing in an undesirable direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the influence of spatial resolution in numerical simulations on the duration of consecutive dry days (CDDs) and near-surface temperature over the central mountains in Japan, a regional climate model was used to conduct two experiments with horizontal resolutions of 5 and 20 km. Compared with observations, the spatial and temporal features of the CDDs were simulated well in the 5 km experiment, whereas in the 20 km simulation they were overestimated over the mountains and underestimated in the surrounding regions. The accuracy in the simulated CDDs affected the near-surface temperature in the model. In years with a difference of more than five days in the CDDs between the 5 and 20 km experiments, near-surface temperatures over the mountains were 0.2-0.3 K lower in the 5 km simulation compared with the 20 km simulation. This was due to the lower number of CDDs in 5 km simulation causing active cloud convection and reduced net radiation at the ground, resulting from a large decrease in the solar radiation at the ground. In addition, a land surface wetness controls a spatial heterogeneity of temperature difference between two experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

15N-labeled rosette nanotubes were synthesized and investigated using high-field solid-state NMR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, and electron microscopy. The results established the H-bond network involved in the self-assembly of the nanostructure as well as bound water molecules in the nanotube's channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microglia are activated quickly in response to external pathogens or cell debris and clear these substances via the inflammatory response. However, excessive activation of microglia can be harmful to host cells due to the increased production of reactive oxygen species and proinflammatory cytokines. Superoxide dismutase 2 (SOD2) is reportedly induced under various inflammatory conditions in the central nervous system. We herein demonstrated that activated microglia strongly express SOD2 and examined the role of SOD2, focusing on regulation of the microglial activity and the susceptibility of microglia to oxidative stress. When rat primary microglia were treated with LPS, poly(I:C), peptidoglycan, or CpG oligodeoxynucleotide, respectively, the mRNA and protein levels of SOD2 largely increased. However, an increased expression of SOD2 was not detected in the primary neurons or astrocytes, indicating that SOD2 is specifically induced in microglia under inflammatory conditions. The activated microglia showed high tolerance to oxidative stress, whereas SOD2 knockdown conferred vulnerability to oxidative stress. Interestingly, the production of proinflammatory cytokines was increased in the activated microglia treated with SOD2 siRNA compared with that observed in the control siRNA-treated cells. Pretreatment with NADPH oxidase inhibitors, diphenylene iodonium and apocynin, decreased in not only reactive oxygen species generation but also the proinflammatory cytokine expression. Notably, SOD2 knockdown largely potentiated the nuclear factor kBactivity in the activated microglia. Taken together, increased SOD2 conferred tolerance to oxidative stress in the microglia and decreased proinflammatory cytokine production by attenuating the nuclear factor kB activity. Therefore,SOD2might regulate neuroinflammation by controlling the microglial activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Accumulating evidence suggests that some long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are involved in certain diseases, such as cancer. The lncRNA, CCDC26, is related to childhood acute myeloid leukemia (AML) because its copy number is altered in AML patients. Results: We found that CCDC26 transcripts were abundant in the nuclear fraction of K562 human myeloid leukemia cells. To examine the function of CCDC26, gene knockdown (KD) was performed using short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs), and four KD clones, in which CCDC26 expression was suppressed to 1% of its normal level, were isolated. This down-regulation included suppression of CCDC26 intron-containing transcripts (the CCDC26 precursor mRNA), indicating that transcriptional gene suppression (TGS), not post-transcriptional suppression, was occurring. The shRNA targeting one of the two CCDC26 splice variants also suppressed the other splice variant, which is further evidence for TGS. Growth rates of KD clones were reduced compared with non-KD control cells in media containing normal or high serum concentrations. In contrast, enhanced growth rates in media containing much lower serum concentrations and increased survival periods after serum withdrawal were observed for KD clones. DNA microarray and quantitative polymerase chain reaction screening for differentially expressed genes between KD clones and non-KD control cells revealed significant up-regulation of the tyrosine kinase receptor, KIT, hyperactive mutations of which are often found in AML. Treatment of KD clones with ISCK03, a KIT-specific inhibitor, eliminated the increased survival of KD clones in the absence of serum. Conclusions: We suggest that CCDC26 controls growth of myeloid leukemia cells through regulation of KIT expression. A KIT inhibitor might be an effective treatment against the forms of AML in which CCDC26 is altered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

N-substituted pyrido[4,3-d]pyrimidines are heterocycles which exhibit the asymmetric hydrogen bonding codes of both guanine and cytosine at 60° angles to each other, such that the molecules self-organize unambiguously into a cyclic hexamer, assembled via 18 intermolecular hydrogen bonds. The synthesis is straightforward and can be concluded in six steps from the commercially available malononitrile dimer. X-ray crystallographic analysis of the supermacrocyclic structure shows an undulating disk with a ca. 10.5 Å cavity, the centers of which do not overlap sufficiently to describe a channel in the solid state. However, AFM, SEM, and TEM imaging in solution reveals the formation of 1D nanostructures in agreement with their self-assembly into rosette supermacrocycles, which then stack linearly to form rosette nanotubes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of lattice simulations using highly improved staggered quarks for twelve-flavor QCD with several bare fermion masses, we observe a flavor-singlet scalar state lighter than the pion in the correlators of fermionic interpolating operators. The same state is also investigated using correlators of gluonic interpolating operators. Combined with our previous study that showed twelve-flavor QCD to be consistent with being in the conformal window, we infer that the lightness of the scalar state is due to infrared conformality. This result shed some light on the possibility of a light composite Higgs boson ("technidilaton") in walking technicolor theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four heterocyclic compounds are presented which exhibit specific selfrecognition of identical Donor–Acceptor D–A Hbonding arrays, resulting in solidstate tapes with the same, but antiparallel functionalgroup distribution on opposite sides. A detailed Xraycrystallographic analysis of these supramolecular structures is described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]