Hokkaido University of Science

Over the past decade it has become apparent that the atmosphere is a significant pathway for the transport of many natural and pollutant materials from the continents to the ocean. The atmospheric input of many of these species can have an impact (either positive or negative) on biological processes in the sea and on marine chemical cycling. For example, there is now evidence that the atmosphere may be an important transport path for such essential nutrients as iron and nitrogen in some regions. In this report we assess current data in this area, develop global scale estimates of the atmospheric fluxes of trace elements, mineral aerosol, nitrogen species, and synthetic organic compounds to the ocean; and compare the atmospheric input rates of these substances to their input via rivers. Trace elements considered were Pb, Cd, Zn, Cu, Ni, As, Hg, Sn, Al, Fe, Si, and P. Oxidized and reduced forms of nitrogen were considered, including nitrate and ammonium ions and the gaseous species NO, NO 2 , HNO 3 , and NH 3 . Synthetic organic compounds considered included polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs), DDTs, chlordane, dieldrin, and hexachlorobenzenes (HCBs). Making this assessment was difficult because there are very few actual measurements of deposition rates of these substances to the ocean. However, there are considerably more data on the atmospheric concentrations of these species in aerosol and gaseous form. Mean concentration data for 10° × 10° ocean areas were determined from the available concentration data or from extrapolation of these data into other regions. These concentration distributions were then combined with appropriate exchange coefficients and precipitation fields to obtain the global wet and dry deposition fluxes. Careful consideration was given to atmospheric transport processes as well as to removal mechanisms and the physical and physicochemical properties of aerosols and gases. Only annual values were calculated. On a global scale atmospheric inputs are generally equal to or greater than riverine inputs, and for most species atmospheric input to the ocean is significantly greater in the northern hemisphere than in the southern hemisphere. For dissolved trace metals in seawater, global atmospheric input dominates riverine input for Pb, Cd, and Zn, and the two transport paths are roughly equal for Cu, Ni, As, and Fe. Fluxes and basin‐wide deposition of trace metals are generally a factor of 5‐10 higher in the North Atlantic and North Pacific regions than in the South Atlantic and South Pacific. Global input of oxidized and reduced nitrogen species are roughly equal to each other, although the major fraction of oxidized nitrogen enters the ocean in the northern hemisphere, primarily as a result of pollution sources. Reduced nitrogen species are much more uniformly distributed, suggesting that the ocean itself may be a significant source. The global atmospheric input of such synthetic organic species as HCH,PCBs, DDT, and HCB completely dominates their input via rivers.

<p>Aerosol radiative forcing plays an important role in the attribution of past climate changes, estimates of future allowable carbon emissions, and the assessment of potential geoengineering solutions. Substantial progress made over the past 40 years in observing, understanding, and modelling aerosol processes helped quantify aerosol radiative forcing, but uncertainties remain large.</p><p>In spring 2018, under the auspices of the World Climate Research Programme's Grand Science Challenge on Clouds, Circulation and Climate Sensitivity, thirty-six experts gathered to take a fresh and comprehensive look at present understanding of aerosol radiative forcing and identify prospects for progress on some of the most pressing open questions. The outcome of that meeting is a review paper, Bellouin et al. (2019), accepted for publication in Reviews of Geophysics. This review provides a new range of aerosol radiative forcing over the industrial era based on multiple, traceable and arguable lines of evidence, including modelling approaches, theoretical considerations, and observations. A substantial achievement is to focus on lines of evidence rather than a survey of past results or expert judgement, and to make the open questions much more specific.</p><p>This talk will present the key messages and arguments of the review and identify work that show promise for improving the quantification of aerosol radiative forcing.</p>

Vascular plants appeared ~410 million years ago, then diverged into several lineages of which only two survive: the euphyllophytes (ferns and seed plants) and the lycophytes. We report here the genome sequence of the lycophyte Selaginella moellendorffii (Selaginella), the first nonseed vascular plant genome reported. By comparing gene content in evolutionarily diverse taxa, we found that the transition from a gametophyte- to a sporophyte-dominated life cycle required far fewer new genes than the transition from a nonseed vascular to a flowering plant, whereas secondary metabolic genes expanded extensively and in parallel in the lycophyte and angiosperm lineages. Selaginella differs in posttranscriptional gene regulation, including small RNA regulation of repetitive elements, an absence of the trans-acting small interfering RNA pathway, and extensive RNA editing of organellar genes.

Graphitic carbon nitride (g‐C 3 N 4 ) has recently emerged as an attractive photocatalyst for solar energy conversion. However, the photocatalytic activities of g‐C 3 N 4 remain moderate because of the insufficient solar‐light absorption and the fast electron–hole recombination. Here, defect‐modified g‐C 3 N 4 (DCN) photocatalysts, which are easily prepared under mild conditions and show much extended light absorption with band gaps decreased from 2.75 to 2.00 eV, are reported. More importantly, cyano terminal CN groups, acting as electron acceptors, are introduced into the DCN sheet edge, which endows the DCN with both n‐ and p‐type conductivities, consequently giving rise to the generation of p–n homojunctions. This homojunction structure is demonstrated to be highly efficient in charge transfer and separation, and results in a fivefold enhanced photocatalytic H 2 evolution activity. The findings deepen the understanding on the defect‐related issues of g‐C 3 N 4 ‐based materials. Additionally, the ability to build homojunction structures by the defect‐induced self‐functionalization presents a promising strategy to realize precise band engineering of g‐C 3 N 4 and related polymer semiconductors for more efficient solar energy conversion applications.

Solar‐driven reduction of dinitrogen (N 2 ) to ammonia (NH 3 ) is severely hampered by the kinetically complex and energetically challenging multielectron reaction. Oxygen vacancies (OVs) with abundant localized electrons on the surface of bismuth oxybromide‐based semiconductors are demonstrated to have the ability to capture and activate N 2 , providing an alternative pathway to overcome such limitations. However, bismuth oxybromide materials are susceptible to photocorrosion, and the surface OVs are easily oxidized and therefore lose their activities. For realistic photocatalytic N 2 fixation, fabricating and enhancing the stability of sustainable OVs on semiconductors is indispensable. This study shows the first synthesis of self‐assembled 5 nm diameter Bi 5 O 7 Br nanotubes with strong nanotube structure, suitable absorption edge, and many exposed surface sites, which are favorable for furnishing sufficient visible light‐induced OVs to realize excellent and stable photoreduction of atmospheric N 2 into NH 3 in pure water. The NH 3 generation rate is as high as 1.38 mmol h −1 g −1 , accompanied by an apparent quantum efficiency over 2.3% at 420 nm. The results presented herein provide new insights into rational design and engineering for the creation of highly active catalysts with light‐switchable OVs toward efficient, stable, and sustainable visible light N 2 fixation in mild conditions.

Designing organic components that can be used to construct porous materials enables the preparation of tailored functionalized materials. Research into porous materials has seen a resurgence in the past decade as a result of finding of self-standing porous molecular crystals (PMCs). Particularly, a number of crystalline systems with permanent porosity that are formed by self-assembly through hydrogen bonding (H-bonding) have been developed. Such systems are called hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks (HOFs). Herein we systematically describe H-bonding patterns (supramolecular synthons) and molecular structures (tectons) that have been used to achieve thermal and chemical durability, a large surface area, and functions, such as selective gas sorption and separation, which can provide design principles for constructing HOFs with permanent porosity.

This Executive Summary of the Global Strategy for the Diagnosis, Management and Prevention of COPD, Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) 2017 Report focuses primarily on the revised and novel parts of the document. The most significant changes include: (i) the assessment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease has been refined to separate the spirometric assessment from symptom evaluation. ABCD groups are now proposed to be derived exclusively from patient symptoms and their history of exacerbations; (ii) for each of the groups A to D, escalation strategies for pharmacological treatments are proposed; (iii) the concept of de-escalation of therapy is introduced in the treatment assessment scheme; (iv)non-pharmacological therapies are comprehensively presented and (v) the importance of co-morbid conditions in managing COPD is reviewed.

Global reaction route mapping (GRRM), a fully-automated search for all important reaction pathways relevant to a given purpose, on the basis of quantum chemical calculations enables systematic elucidation of complex chemical reaction mechanisms. However, GRRM had previously been limited to very simple systems. This is mainly because such calculations are highly demanding even in small systems when a brute-force sampling is considered. Hence, we have developed two independent but complementary methods: anharmonic downward distortion following (ADDF) and artificial force induced reaction (AFIR) methods. ADDF can follow reaction pathways starting from local minima on the potential energy surface (PES) toward transition structures (TSs) and dissociation channels. AFIR can find pathways starting from two or more reactants toward TSs for their associative reactions. In other words, ADDF searches for A → X type isomerization and A → X + Y type dissociation pathways, whereas AFIR finds A + B → X (+ Y) type associative pathways. Both follow special paths called the ADDF path and the AFIR path, and these tend to pass through near TSs of corresponding reaction pathways, giving approximate TSs. Such approximate TSs can easily be re-optimized to corresponding true TSs by standard geometry optimizations. On the basis of these two methods, we have proposed practical strategies of GRRM. The GRRM strategies have been applied to a variety of chemical systems ranging from thermal- and photochemical-reactions in small systems to organometallic- and enzyme-catalysis, on the basis of quantum chemical calculations. In this perspective, we present an overview of the GRRM strategies and some results of applications. Their practical usage for systematic prediction is also discussed.

Nanometal materials play very important roles in solar-to-chemical energy conversion due to their unique catalytic and optical characteristics. They have found wide applications from semiconductor photocatalysis to rapidly growing surface plasmon-mediated heterogeneous catalysis. The recent research achievements of nanometals are reviewed here, with regard to applications in semiconductor photocatalysis, plasmonic photocatalysis, and plasmonic photo-thermocatalysis. As the first important topic discussed here, the latest progress in the design of nanometal cocatalysts and their applications in semiconductor photocatalysis are introduced. Then, plasmonic photocatalysis and plasmonic photo-thermocatalysis are discussed. A better understanding of electron-driven and temperature-driven catalytic behaviors over plasmonic nanometals is helpful to bridge the present gap between the communities of photocatalysis and conventional catalysis controlled by temperature. The objective here is to provide instructive information on how to take the advantages of the unique functions of nanometals in different types of catalytic processes to improve the efficiency of solar-energy utilization for more practical artificial photosynthesis.

Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) regulates many aspects of cellular function. A member of the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase (MAPKKK) family, TAK1, was previously identified as a mediator in the signaling pathway of TGF-beta superfamily members. The yeast two-hybrid system has now revealed two human proteins, termed TAB1 and TAB2 (for TAK1 binding protein), that interact with TAK1. TAB1 and TAK1 were co-immunoprecipitated from mammalian cells. Overproduction of TAB1 enhanced activity of the plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 gene promoter, which is regulated by TGF-beta, and increased the kinase activity of TAK1. TAB1 may function as an activator of the TAK1 MAPKKK in TGF-beta signal transduction.

A polymer gel is a soft and wet material capable of undergoing large deformation. A deformed gel, in turn, changes its chemical potential, behaving as an energy transducer. Thus, a polymer gel shows a variety of stimuli-responsive actions, responding to external environmental changes. In this article unique electrical, thermal, and chemical responses of polymer gels are described. Recently observed frictional specificities of gels are also briefly introduced.

The nuclear lamins function in the regulation of replication, transcription, and epigenetic modifications of chromatin. However, the mechanisms responsible for these lamin functions are poorly understood. We demonstrate that A- and B-type lamins form separate, but interacting, stable meshworks in the lamina and have different mobilities in the nucleoplasm as determined by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). Silencing lamin B1 (LB1) expression dramatically increases the lamina meshwork size and the mobility of nucleoplasmic lamin A (LA). The changes in lamina mesh size are coupled to the formation of LA/C-rich nuclear envelope blebs deficient in LB2. Comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) analyses of microdissected blebs, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and immunofluorescence localization of modified histones demonstrate that gene-rich euchromatin associates with the LA/C blebs. Enrichment of hyperphosphorylated RNA polymerase II (Pol II) and histone marks for active transcription suggest that blebs are transcriptionally active. However, in vivo labeling of RNA indicates that transcription is decreased, suggesting that the LA/C-rich microenvironment induces promoter proximal stalling of Pol II. We propose that different lamins are organized into separate, but interacting, microdomains and that LB1 is essential for their organization. Our evidence suggests that the organization and regulation of chromatin are influenced by interconnections between these lamin microdomains.

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) is a microbial process in which NH4 (+) is oxidized to N2 gas with NO2 (-) as an electron acceptor. The anammox process is mediated by bacterial members affiliated with the phylum Planctomycetes, which are ubiquitously detected from anoxic natural and man-made ecosystems and a key player in the global nitrogen cycle. In the past two decades, phylogenetically different anammox bacteria have been recognized in natural and synthetic ecosystems (i.e. 'Candidatus Kuenenia', 'Candidatus Brocadia', 'Candidatus Jettenia', 'Candidatus Anammoxoglobus' and 'Candidatus Scalindua' genera), and the geographic distributions of these anammox bacteria indicate that they have genus-specific or species-specific habitats. Recently, we revealed the physiological characteristics of 'Ca. Jettenia' in addition to 'Ca. Kuenenia', 'Ca. Brocadia' and 'Ca. Scalindua', and, as a result, it is possible to compare the physiological characteristics of the anammox bacteria and discuss their niche partitioning. Therefore, we summarize the current knowledge of anammox bacterial ecology and physiology in this review to assess the potential ecological niche partitioning of anammox bacteria in natural and synthetic ecosystems.

Biological connective tissues, such as cartilage and corneal stroma, are essentially hydrogels consisting of fibrous collagen and proteoglycans. Little is known of the surface properties of the hydrogel, although we observe fascinating tribological behavior in biological soft tissues, such as extremely low friction between animal cartilages. We consider that the role of the solvated polymer network existing in the extracellular matrix as a gel state is critically important in the specific frictional behavior of cartilages. In order to elucidate the general tribological features of a solvated polymer matrix, the friction of various kinds of hydrogels has been investigated, and very rich and complex frictional behaviors are observed. The friction force and its dependence on the load differ with the chemical structure of the gels, surface properties of the opposing substrates, and the measurement conditions, which are totally different from those of solids. Most importantly, the coefficient of friction of gels, , varies over a wide range and exhibits very low values (≈ 10-10), which cannot be obtained from the friction between two solid materials. A repulsion-adsorption model has been proposed to explain the gel friction, which says that the friction is due to lubrication of a hydrated layer of polymer chains when the polymer chain of the gel is non-adhesive (repulsive) to the substrate, and the friction is due to elastic deformation of the adsorbed polymer chain when it is adhesive to the substrate.

Climate warming accelerates the timing of flowering and insect pollinator emergence, especially in spring. If these phenological shifts progress independently between species, features of plant-pollinator mutualisms may be modified. However, evidence of phenological mismatch in pollination systems is limited. We investigated the phenologies of a spring ephemeral, Corydalis ambigua, and its pollinators (bumble bees), and seed-set success over 10-14 years in three populations. Although both flowering onset and first detection of overwintered queen bees in the C. ambigua populations were closely related to snowmelt time and/or spring temperature, flowering tended to be ahead of first pollinator detection when spring came early, resulting in lower seed production owing to low pollination service. Relationships between flowering onset time, phenological mismatch, and seed-set success strongly suggest that phenological mismatch is a major limiting factor for reproduction of spring ephemerals. This report demonstrates the mechanism of phenological mismatch and its ecological impact on plant-pollinator interactions based on long-term monitoring. Frequent occurrence of mismatch can decrease seed production and may affect the population dynamics of spring ephemerals.

Yamagishi's (1986a) experiment, which tested hypotheses derived from the structural goal/expectation approach to the problem of social dilemmas, was replicated using North American subjects. The results of the current experiment, using 48 same-sex, four-person groups, replicated the major findings of the original study. In addition, American subjects had a higher level of trust and cooperated more in the absence of a sanctioning system than did Japanese subjects. On the other hand, the predicted difference between American and Japanese subjects in the contribution to the provision of a sanctioning system did not emerge.

We examined the inhibitory effect of two saponin preparations from Red ginseng, 20(R)- and 20(S)-ginsenoside-Rg3, in comparison with that of ginsenoside-Rb2, on lung metastasis produced by two highly metastatic tumor cells, B16-BL6 melanoma and colon 26-M3.1 carcinoma, in syngeneic mice. In an in vitro analysis, both saponin preparations showed a significant inhibition of adhesion to fibronectin (FN) and laminin (LM) by B16-BL6 melanoma. Similarly, they significantly inhibited the invasion of B16-BL6 cells into the reconstituted basement membrane (Matrigel)/FN in a dose-dependent manner. In an experimental metastasis model using B16-BL6 melanoma, consecutive intravenous (i.v.) administrations of 100 micrograms/mouse of 20(R)- or 20(S)-ginsenoside-Rg3 1, 2, 3 and 4 d after tumor inoculation led to a significant decrease in lung metastasis. The inhibitory effect of i.v. administration of both ginseng saponins on the tumor metastasis of B16-BL6 melanoma was also recognized in a low dose of 10 micrograms/mouse. The oral administration (p.o.) of both saponins (100-1000 micrograms/mouse) induced a significant decrease in lung metastasis of B16-BL6 melanoma. Moreover, both ginseng saponins were effective in inhibiting of lung metastasis produced by colon 26-M3.1 carcinoma. When 20(R)- or 20(S)-ginsenoside-Rg3 was orally administered consecutively after tumor inoculation in a spontaneous metastasis model using B16-BL6 melanoma, both of them significantly inhibited lung metastasis. In the experiment involving neovasculization by tumor cells in vivo, both mice groups given each saponin preparation after tumor inoculation exhibited a significant decrease in the number of blood vessels oriented toward the tumor mass, with no repression of tumor size. These findings suggest that both ginseng saponins, 20(R)- and 20(S)-ginsenoside-Rg3, possess an ability to inhibit the lung metastasis of tumor cells, and the mechanism of their antimetastatic effect is related to inhibition of the adhesion and invasion of tumor cells, and also to anti-angiogenesis activity.

Meteorites and their components have anomalous oxygen isotopic compositions characterized by large variations in 18O/16O and 17O/16O ratios. On the basis of recent observations of star-forming regions and models of accreting protoplanetary disks, we suggest that these variations may originate in a parent molecular cloud by ultraviolet photodissociation processes. Materials with anomalous isotopic compositions were then transported into the solar nebula by icy dust grains during the collapse of the cloud. The icy dust grains drifted toward the Sun in the disk, and their subsequent evaporation resulted in the 17O- and 18O-enrichment of the inner disk gas.

In late 2022, SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants have become highly diversified, and XBB is spreading rapidly around the world. Our phylogenetic analyses suggested that XBB emerged through the recombination of two cocirculating BA.2 lineages, BJ.1 and BM.1.1.1 (a progeny of BA.2.75), during the summer of 2022. XBB.1 is the variant most profoundly resistant to BA.2/5 breakthrough infection sera to date and is more fusogenic than BA.2.75. The recombination breakpoint is located in the receptor-binding domain of spike, and each region of the recombinant spike confers immune evasion and increases fusogenicity. We further provide the structural basis for the interaction between XBB.1 spike and human ACE2. Finally, the intrinsic pathogenicity of XBB.1 in male hamsters is comparable to or even lower than that of BA.2.75. Our multiscale investigation provides evidence suggesting that XBB is the first observed SARS-CoV-2 variant to increase its fitness through recombination rather than substitutions.

We review the characteristics of sea level variability at the coast focussing on how it differs from the variability in the nearby deep ocean. Sea level variability occurs on all timescales, with processes at higher frequencies tending to have a larger magnitude at the coast due to resonance and other dynamics. In the case of some processes, such as the tides, the presence of the coast and the shallow waters of the shelves results in the processes being considerably more complex than offshore. However, ‘coastal variability’ should not always be considered as ‘short spatial scale variability’ but can be the result of signals transmitted along the coast from 1000s km away. Fortunately, thanks to tide gauges being necessarily located at the coast, many aspects of coastal sea level variability can be claimed to be better understood than those in the deep ocean. Nevertheless, certain aspects of coastal variability remain under-researched, including how changes in some processes (e.g., wave setup, river runoff) may have contributed to the historical mean sea level records obtained from tide gauges which are now used routinely in large-scale climate research.