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In the past few years, the face mask has been recommended for the prevention of exposing others to COVID‐19. Wearing a face mask may have the potential to increase dyspnea and discomfort during exercise; however, controversy exists on whether wearing face masks during exercise affects exercise performance, perception, and mood in runners. We investigated the physiological and perceptual responses of healthy male adults who had experienced long‐distance running while exercising at different intensities. Nine healthy young adults who were long‐distance runners wearing surgical face mask conducted an incremental treadmill protocol. The protocol was three 6‐min stages (20%, 40%, and 60% of maximal heart rate, respectively). The rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and the feeling scale (FS) were measured. RPE was higher in mask condition than in unmask condition (No mask vs. Face mask, light; 8.22 vs. 8.78, p = 0.615, middle; 10.00 vs. 10.78, p = 0.345, high; 12.33 vs. 13.67, p = 0.044.), while FS was not different between conditions. The present study shows that wearing a mask may increase rating of perceived exertion and discomfort when the exercise intensity exceeds a certain threshold in healthy male adults who have experienced long‐distance running. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the basidiomycete Coprinus cinereus (C. cinereus), which shows a highly synchronous meiotic cell cycle, the meiotic prophase I cells demonstrate flap endonuclease-1 activity. To investigate its role during meiosis, we isolated a C. cinereus cDNA homolog of flap endonuclease-1 (CcFEN-1), 1377 bp in length with the open reading frame (ORF) encoding a predicted molecular mass of 51 kDa. At amino-acid residues Glu276–Pro345, a specific inserted sequence composed of 70 amino acids rich in polar forms was found to exist, without sequence identity to other eukaryotic FEN-1 or the polar amino acid rich sequences found in C. cinereus PCNA and C. cinereus DNA ligase IV, although the lengths and percentages of polar amino acids were similar. Northern hybridization analysis indicated CcFEN-1 to be expressed not only in the pre-meiotic S phase but also in meiotic prophase I. The roles of CcFEN-1 during meiosis are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses the association of a novel gain-of-function missense variant in PLCG2 with autoinflammation and hypergammaglobulinemia in a case of a male patient with spina bifida. Topics mentioned include the levels of C-reactive protein and serum amyloid A, the results of histopathology of nasal septum and immunophenotyping of peripheral blood mononuclear cells, and the clinical features of B cell dysfunctions.

We have proposed a new method for the exploration of organic functional molecules, using an exhaustive molecular generator combined without combinatorial explosion and electronic state predicted by machine learning and adapted for developing n‐type organic semiconductor molecules for field‐effect transistors. Our method first enumerates skeletal structures as much as possible and next generates fused ring structures using substitution operations for atomic nodes and bond edges. We have succeeded in generating more than 4.8 million molecules. We calculated the electron affinity (EA) of about 51 thousand molecules with DFT calculation and trained the graph neural networks to estimate EA values of generated molecules. Finally, we obtained the 727 thousand molecules as candidates that satisfy EA values over 3 eV. The number of these possible candidate molecules is far beyond what we have been able to propose based on our knowledge and experience in synthetic chemistry, indicating a wide diversity of organic molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel approach for developing a large area, high-spatial-resolution X-ray imaging detector is presented. This approach uses metal–organic vapor phase epitaxy grown thick single-crystal CdTe layers grown directly on Si substrates. The detector consists of a p-CdTe/n-CdTe/n+-Si heterojunction diode structure, where the n-CdTe and the p-CdTe layers are successively grown on the n+-Si substrate. An array of ($128\times128$) pixels was formed on the p-CdTe side, where each pixel is $60~\mu \text{m}^{\textsf {2}}$ in an 80- $\mu \text{m}$ pixel pitch. The detector array was bump bonded to a charge integration-type CMOS readout ASIC. The basic performance of this detector was evaluated by measuring the dark currents, the X-ray generation currents as well as taking the X-ray images of some objects. The results were promising which confirmed that the detector developed can be applied in high spatial resolution X-ray imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many organisms living along the coastlines synchronize their reproduction with the lunar cycle. At the time of spring tide, thousands of grass puffers (Takifugu alboplumbeus) aggregate and vigorously tremble their bodies at the water's edge to spawn. To understand the mechanisms underlying this spectacular semilunar beach spawning, we collected the hypothalamus and pituitary from male grass puffers every week for 2 months. RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis identified 125 semilunar genes, including genes crucial for reproduction (e.g., gonadotropin-releasing hormone 1 [ gnrh1 ], luteinizing hormone β subunit [ lhb ]) and receptors for pheromone prostaglandin E (PGE). PGE 2 is secreted into the seawater during the spawning, and its administration activates olfactory sensory neurons and triggers trembling behavior of surrounding individuals. These results suggest that PGE 2 synchronizes lunar-regulated beach-spawning behavior in grass puffers. To further explore the mechanism that regulates the lunar-synchronized transcription of semilunar genes, we searched for semilunar transcription factors. Spatial transcriptomics and multiplex fluorescent in situ hybridization showed co-localization of the semilunar transcription factor CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein δ (cebpd) and gnrh1 , and cebpd induced the promoter activity of gnrh1. Taken together, our study demonstrates semilunar genes that mediate lunar-synchronized beach-spawning behavior. [Display omitted] [Display omitted] • Time-series RNA-seq analysis identified 125 semilunar genes • Transcription of genes essential for reproduction shows semilunar rhythmicity • PGE 2 released into seawater triggers trembling in nearby individuals • Semilunar transcription factor cebpd regulates gnrh1 expression Grass puffers exhibit lunar spawning behavior. Chen et al. identify genes that exhibit a semilunar expression rhythm in the hypothalamus and pituitary of this fish, including genes required for reproduction, and ptger2 , encoding the receptor for the pheromone PGE 2 , which was shown to trigger lunar-synchronized beach-spawning behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DNA ligase I is thought to be essential for DNA replication, repair and recombination, at least in the mitotic cell cycle, but whether this is also the case during the meiotic cell cycle is still obscure. To investigate the role of DNA ligase I during the meiotic cell cycle, we cloned the Coprinus cinereus DNA ligase I cDNA (CcLIG1). Northern blotting analysis indicated that CcLIG1 is expressed not only in the premeiotic S-phase but also during the meiotic cell cycle itself. Especially, intense signals were observed in the leptotene and zygotene stages. Western blotting analysis indicated that CcLIG1 is expressed through the meiotic cell cycle and immunofluorescence also showed CcLIG1 protein staining in meiotic cells. Interestingly, the patterns was similar to that for the C. cinereus proliferating cell nuclear antigen gene (CcPCNA) and immunoprecipitation analysis suggested that CcPCNA binds to CcLIG1 in crude extracts of meiotic prophase I tissues. Based on these observations, relationships and roles during the meiotic cell cycle are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]