Dissecting university press releases : Direct announcements and news coverage

Why some depressive patients perform suicidal acts and others do not.

Authors

Authors

HERBARIUM PLANT SPECIMENS AND THEIR HERBARIUM HOLDINGS Natural history collections around the globe represent a dormant source of taxonomic and biogeographic information, as it is estimated that one to three billion specimens are included in such collections (Soberon 1999; Ariño 2010). In the case of botanical collections, the worldwide distribution of specimens across herbaria is often uneven and biased by colonialism, with most specimens housed in the global North, and in many cases resulting in a reverse latitudinal relationship between plant diversity present in nature and the location of the herbaria housing it (Park et al. 2023). As an example, Yong (2013) reviewed holdings of common and type specimens and concluded that the type specimens’ accumulation in China is less than the world average. The number of type specimens is an important reflection of botanical accumulation in a country, and the number of specimens and their origins are therefore very important in a globalized framework. Accordingly, efforts to catalogue and digitize collections, and to make them globally accessible, are important tasks for herbaria. HERBARIA IN JAPAN AND THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO (TI) HERBARIUM In Japan, 74 herbaria are registered in Index Herbariorum (Thiers 2024), accounting for more than 13 million plant specimens. Herbaria in Japan date from the 19th century, with the first herbarium founded in Japan being the University of Tokyo’s (TI) herbarium (Herbarium of the University of Tokyo 2021) established in 1877. The herbarium holds a collection of more than 1,800,000 specimens of vascular plants, corresponding to ca. 14% of the total botanical collection of Japan. Although there is no complete survey of the number of specimens in the collection, it is estimated that the TI herbarium holds 20,000 type specimens, corresponding to 1% of the total number in the collection. Within the type specimens, only a fraction of the collection is digitized and available online, including 3,793 type specimens of angiosperms (and 1,743+ type specimens from other groups newly photographed in the last year). Regarding the ferns and lycophytes, the TI herbarium holds 35 families, including more than 300,000 specimens, comprising 1068+ type specimens (with 321 confirmed holotypes, 127 isotypes, and 510 syntypes), which are now being databased. The TI herbarium fern and lycophyte type collection includes plants from Japan, and important collections from Korea, Manchuria, Taiwan, and many Southeast Asian countries. Collections from outside Japan were mainly gathered by Japanese botanists that were assigned to expeditions in those countries, as Japan’s national power increased rapidly after the Meiji restoration (1869–1889). For example, Takiya Kawakami, originally from the Hokkaido University, actively worked on collecting plants from Taiwan; Hiroshi Hara worked on the Himalayan flora; Takenoshin Nakai worked on the Korean flora and collected medicinal plants from Indonesia and Ceylon (Sri Lanka); and Bunzo Hayata made a huge contribution to Taiwan’s flora. The specimens collected hold not only information on the taxonomic diversity, but also reflect historic events between Japan and these adjacent countries, thus proper curation of these materials is of great importance. The TI herbarium also holds unique collections, including many fern specimens collected from Seram Island (Indonesia), South America’s Andes collections by Fumio Maekawa, and Brazil’s Amazon collections by Masayuki Takeuchi. THE HIDDEN POTENTIAL OF THE TI HERBARIUM AND FUTURE PROSPECTS The TI herbarium collection is an important resource of natural history information, but its potential is still hindered by its incomplete databasing. In the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) database, the Tracheophyta data from Japan currently consists of 3,503,623 herbarium specimens (GBIF.org 2024). Most of the data is from the TNS herbarium (500,060 specimens, National Museum of Nature and Science 2024), Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Natural History (318,574 specimens, Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Natural History 2024) and Nagano Environmental Conservation Research Institute (170,889 specimens, Nagano Prefecture 2023). The University of Tokyo's TI herbarium data only contains 40,382 specimens, not including any ferns or lycophytes, restricting access to the collection for researchers abroad. The TI herbarium mission now is to properly catalogue and make that information available, especially to those based in regions from where the plants were originally collected. Since 1981, many scientists have contributed to the cataloguing of the type specimens in the TI herbarium, with some of this data made available online. However, it is estimated that this database covers less than 10% of the collection, and does yet not include the ferns or lycophytes. We see the development of an open-access database for the TI herbarium as of utmost importance, as the herbarium represents an important historical and biodiversity account for East Asia.

How I became a biochemist

T 26th International Symposium of the Sapporo Cancer Seminar was held at Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan, on July 21–23, 2006. More than 120 researchers from various countries participated in the meeting (Fig. 1). The weather was fine every day, and the participants enjoyed walks around the university campus and dining at Chara Restaurant and Kirin Beer Garden. The symposium consisted of seminars presented by leading researchers from Japan and overseas in the field of innate immunity. Oral presentations were given by 12 researchers and poster presentations were given by 21 researchers. The symposium was organized by Dr Tsukasa Seya (Hokkaido University, Japan), as the chairman, and committee members Drs Misako Matsumoto, Hirofumi Sawa, Tokiyoshi Ayabe, and Roberto Cattaneo. Ms Saoko Kume was particularly involved in the organization of this meeting.

Authors

Authors

Incidence and Expected Probability of Liver Cirrhosis and Hepatocellular Carcinoma After Fontan Operation.

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 180:105-109 (1999) - doi:10.3354/meps180105 Acoustic measurements of zooplankton using a dual frequency echo sounder K. Miyashita*, I. Aoki** Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Minamidai, Nakano, Tokyo 164, Japan Present addresses: *Laboratory of Training Ship, Faculty of Fisheries, Hokkaido University, Minato, Hakodate, Hokkaido 041-8611, Japan. E-mail: miyashi@fish.hokudai.ac.jp **Department of Aquatic Bioscience, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Science, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan ABSTRACT: Two methods for acoustic estimation of zooplankton abundance using the difference in volume back-scattering strength (SV) at 2 frequencies between 38 and 200 kHz were examined in a situation where the biological composition was simple. Method 1 used the SV difference, and Method 2 used both SV difference and body length data from net samples. The high-pass sphere model and straight cylinder model were applied depending on dominant target species: when they were relatively small, such as copepods, the high-pass sphere model was used, and when adult krill were dominant the straight cylinder model was used to take the swimming angle of the adult krill into consideration. Acoustic estimates were compared with net samples. Using the high-pass sphere model, Method 1 provided plausible estimates of zooplankton size and biomass, and Method 2 provided better biomass estimates. Furthermore, it was shown that by using the straight cylinder model and swimming angle distribution, Method 1 can be applied to obtain estimations of the krill's size and biomass. KEY WORDS: Dual frequency method · Zooplankton · Echo sounder Full text in pdf format PreviousNextExport citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 180. Publication date: May 03, 1999 Print ISSN:0171-8630; Online ISSN:1616-1599 Copyright © 1999 Inter-Research.

Environmental engineering education in Japan

Desertification has been a universal issue since it was discussed at UNCOD (United Nations Conference on Desertification) in 1977. The word desertification is defined here as land and vegetation degradation at various parts of the world including humid region as well as arid and semi-arid regions. This symposium aimed at examining the present situation of those areas suffered from desertification and studying out preventive measures of this phenomenon. The following subjects were set up: 1. Climatic variation and desertification. 2. Water use and salinization. 3. Agro-pastoral land use and degradation of land. 4. Natural environment and change in land use. 5. Preventives of desertification and suggestions for environmental management. Submitted studies are as follows: [Climatic variation and desertification] Tanaka, M. (Meteorological Research Institute): Recent climatic change and increased aridity in the tropical regions. Iwasaki, K. (Hokkaido University): Climatic fluctuations and desertification in Australia. [Water use and salinization] Matsumoto, S. (The University of Tokyo): Water utilization and salts accumulation with the agricultural development in arid lands. Takamura, H. (Rissho University): Desertification in Zambia and some problems of ground-water rising in Qatar. [Agro-pastoral land use and degradation of land] Takeuchi, K. (The University of Tokyo): Vegetation-ecological discussion on the ‘desertification’ phenomena in the southern part of semi-arid Australia. Tase, N. (University of Tsukuba): Background of desertification and environmental management in the U. S. A. Tamura, T. (Tohoku University): Development of pseudo-semiarid landscape in humid tropical Africa. Yasuda, Y. (University of Hiroshima): A study of the mechanism about the continual devastation of forest in Ege Sea region. [Natural environment and change in land use] Fujii, H. (Hyogo University of Teacher Education): On adaptation to the change of natural environment in case of modern agro-pastoral system and traditional agro-pastoral system in West Africa. Fujiwara, K. (University of Hiroshima) and Sadakata, N. (Hokkaido University of Education): Rural development schemes and changes in land use in the semi-arid region of South India. Yamamoto, S. (University of Tsukuba): Some observations on the traditional agricultural systems adapted to the physical environment of the semi-arid region in Northeast Brazil. Goto, A. (Kanagawa University): Traditional agriculture-system in arid and semi-arid area.-The case study of Iran-. [Preventives of desertification and suggestions] Kohno, M. (Kansai University): Desertification and its recovering policy in China. Kobori, I. (Mie University): Desertification and desertification control. Tomita, K. (Japan International Cooperation Agency): Preventives of desertification. [Discussion Opener] Ichikawa, M. (Akikusa Gakuen Junior College): On the present situations and problems of the desertification in the world. Presented subjects were discussed almost to the full. There are few studies, however, based on original data and regional comparison remains to be discussed.

Boron is an essential micronutrient for plants, mainly because it is required for cross-linking of pectin at rhamnogalacturonan II regions in cell walls (Funakawa and Miwa, 2015). Soils in humid areas of the world tend to be deficient in boron, while soils in arid regions tend to accumulate too much. Boric acid can diffuse into cells, but plants also use boric acid importers and exporters to modulate boron levels, as there is a narrow window between deficiency and toxicity (Yoshinari and Takano, 2017). In high boron soils, the BOR4 transporter acts to exclude excess boron from roots. In low boron soils, both an importer, NIP5;1, a member of the aquaporin group of channels, and another exporter, BOR1, facilitate transfer of boron to the xylem. Both NIP5;1 and BOR1 are down-regulated post-transcriptionally when boron levels are high; BOR1 levels are reduced via ubiquitination and protein degradation, while NIP5;1 mRNA is degraded (Tanaka et al., 2016), as illustrated in the top panel of Figure 1. The highlighted article from Junpei Takano's group (Fukuda et al., 2018) took advantage of this post-transcriptional control of NIP5;1 to develop two biosensors for boron, as illustrated in the bottom panels of Figure 1. Junpei has worked on various aspects of plant nutrition since his Ph.D. studies at the University of Tokyo. He started to develop these boron biosensors when he was an assistant professor in Hokkaido University, and since 2016 has been a professor at Osaka Prefecture University (OPU). Co-first author Shinji Wakuta, a postdoc when the lab was at Hokkaido, generated the biosensors and carried out the initial experiments to analyze boron distribution and uptake. Toru Fujiwara, a professor at the University of Tokyo, heard about their results and asked to use these biosensors to validate their mathematical model for boron flow (Sotta et al., 2017). Therefore Makiha Fukuda, a postdoc in Fujiwara's lab, introduced the biosensors into some mutants Fujiwara's lab were studying. Since moving from Hokkaido was time consuming, Junpei asked Makiha if she would characterize the biosensors in BY2 cells and Arabidopsis. Jio Kamiyo, a graduate student in Junpei's lab at OPU, confirmed Shinji's results (always a good idea when moving labs) and together with Junpei established a method to measure relative boron levels. The first biosensor (Figure 1, bottom left) is comprised of the ubiquitin promoter, the NIP5;1 5′ UTR sequence, and a fluorescent reporter with a nuclear localization signal (proUBQ10:NIP5;1 5′UTR:NLS-3×mVenus). It was introduced into BY2 cells and the fluorescence intensity of the mVENUS reporter assessed at varying concentrations of boron. The biosensor had a physiologically relevant dynamic range (30–500 μm). In stably transformed Arabidopsis plants, the fluorescence intensity was strong when the boron concentration was low and gradually declined as the boron concentration increased (Figure 1, bottom left). They then examined roots using confocal microscopy. At low boron concentrations the fluorescence was stronger in epidermal, cortical, and endodermal cells than in the stele and, as expected, when the boron concentration increased, the fluorescence intensity declined in the epidermis, cortical, and endodermal cells, but not in the stele. From this they concluded that probably BOR1 and the Casparian strip help maintain high boron levels in the stele. The time resolution of the first biosensor was not ideal (taking several hours to start a decline in fluorescence intensity upon a change in boron concentration from low to high), so they designed the second biosensor (Figure 1, bottom right), replacing the Venus reporter with a Luciferase with a protein destabilization sequence added, so that the reporter protein would have a shorter half-life. The dynamic range of this reporter in transgenic Arabidopsis roots was 10–100 μm, and differences in the reporter intensity were detectable within 1 h after changing the boron concentration (from low to high, or high to low). Lastly, they introduced this Luciferase construct into Arabidopsis plants that are more tolerant to excess boron (Wakuta et al., 2016) because they express a weakly polar and stabilized variant of the BOR1 transporter (BOR1 K590A-GFP-HPT) that is not targeted for ubiquitination and degradation. Indeed, they showed that the weakly polar and stabilized variant exported boron and thereby reduced the intercellular boron concentration. What's next? The uNIP5;1-Venus sensor is useful for comparing the signal in a cell with the signal in neighboring cells, while the uNIP5;1-Luc sensor is useful for time courses. However, neither is suitable for reporting precise concentrations in a given cell, so they are working to make ratiometric sensors. They plan to study boron homeostasis and transport in other tissues, for example in pollen, where they are interested in measuring the boron concentration dynamically during pollen tube growth and in boron transport mutants. Other researchers will be able to use these biosensors to determine if phenotypes they are studying are influenced by boron concentration differences.

Akinori Takahashi, Laboratory of Applied Zoology, Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8589, Japan. Present address: Department of Polar Science, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, National Institute of Polar Research, Itabishi, Tokyo 173-8515, Japan. Maki Kuroki, Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Nakano, Tokyo 164-8639, Japan. Present address: Department of Polar Science, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, National Institute of Polar Research, Itabishi, Tokyo 173-8515, Japan. Yasuaki Niizuma and Yutaka Watanuki (correspondence), Laboratory of Applied Zoology, Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8589, Japan. E-mail: ywata@res.agr.hokudai.ac.jp

This proceedings consists of the peer-reviewed papers from the 8th IGRSM International Conference and Exhibition on Geospatial & Remote Sensing & GIS (IGRSM 2016), which was organised by the Institution of Geospatial and Remote Sensing Malaysia (IGRSM) on 13-14 April 2016 at the Berjaya Times Square Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The conference, with the theme Geospatial on the Go, aimed to facilitate the dissemination of knowledge, and the sharing of expertise and experience in geospatial sciences, in all aspects of its applications. It also aimed to build linkages between industry and local and international professionals in this field.The co-organisers of the conference were Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Science & Technology Research Institute for Defence (STRIDE), National Space Agency (ANGKASA), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP), Malaysian Rubber Board (LGM), Forestry Department Peninsular Malaysia (JPSM), National Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM), Malaysian Centre for Geospatial Data Infrastructure (MaCGDI), Malaysian Civil Defence Department (JPAM), Department of Agriculture (DOA), Ornet Sdn. Bhd. and Smart Digital International Sdn. Bhd. The conference's silver sponsor was Antaragrafik Systems Sdn. Bhd.Some of the highlights of the conference included:• A pre-conference talk on Impact of Geographical Factors on Cross-Country Movement During Crisis Situations by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Marian Rybansky, Department of Military Geography and Meteorology, University of Defence, Czech Republic• Officiation by YB Datuk Seri Panglima Madius Tangau, Minister of Science, Technology & Innovation• Keynote presentations by:– Hjh. Norizam Che Noh, Director, MaCGDI, Malaysia: Addressing Current Challenges and Formulating Future Strategies for the National Geospatial Community– Prof. Dr. Yukihiro Takahashi, Director, Space Mission Center, Hokkaido University, Japan: Next-Generation Remote Sensing With Micro-Satellite– Assoc. Prof. Dr. Reza Ehsani, Citrus Research & Education Center (CREC), University of Florida, US: The Rise of Small UAVs: Applications, Opportunities and Challenges• Oral and poster presentations from 88 speakers, from both Malaysia (55) and abroad (33), covering areas of technology trends, infrastructure and urban planning, land use / land cover mapping, disaster management, and environmental monitoring• 2016 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of IGRSM, which included the award of certificates of election to the first 74 members who are eligible to use the title Geospatialist (Gs), comprising of 3 Distinguished Fellows, 4 Fellows and 67 Professional Members• Special sessions on:– Hexagon Ignite by Hexagon Geospatial and Antaragrafik Systems Sdn. Bhd.– Industry Outreach, with presentations by Ground Data Solutions R&D Sdn. Bhd., Oracle Corporation, Alam Sekitar Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. (ASMA), National Space Agency (ANGKASA), Hexagon Geospatial and Antaragrafik Systems Sdn. Bhd., Digital Globe, and Geospatial Media & Communications.Two awards were presented during the conference's closing ceremony:• Best Paper Award: Gs. Dr. Hamdan Omar, Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM): Malaysia: Quantifying Rate of Deforestation and CO2 Emission in Peninsular Malaysia Using Palsar Imageries• Best Student Paper Award: Maher Aburas, University Putra Malaysia (UPM), Malaysia: Landscape Analysis of Urban Growth Patterns in Seremban, Malaysia Using Spatio-Temporal DataThe success of the IGRSM 2016 was due to commitments of authors, keynote speakers, session chairpersons, the organising and technical programme committees, student volunteers from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), and many others of various roles. We would like to thank all exhibitors and contributors, namely Antaragrafik Systems Sdn. Bhd., Ground Data Solutions R&D Sdn. Bhd.; Bumitouch PLMC Sdn. Bhd.; E.J. Motiwalla; Geospatial Media and Communications Sdn. Bhd.; MaCGDI; Geoscience & Digital Earth Centre (INSTeG), UTM; Remote Sensing of Environment and Disaster Laboratory (RSED), University of Tokyo; Space Mission Center, Hokkaido University; and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Simulation Laboratory, STRIDE.Assoc. Prof. Gs. Dr. Abdul Rashid Mohamed ShariffChairman8th IGRSM International Conference on Geospatial & Remote Sensing (IGRSM 2016)PresidentInstitution of Geospatial and Remote Sensing Malaysia (IGRSM), 2014-2016