Proceedings of the Japan Academy. Series B, Physical and Biological Sciences

Since the large-volume press with a double-stage multianvil system was created by the late Professor Naoto Kawai, this apparatus (Kawai-type multianvil apparatus or KMA) has been developed for higher-pressure generation, in situ X-ray and neutron observations, deformation experiments, measurements of physical properties, synthesis of high-pressure phases, etc., utilizing its large sample volume and capacity in stable and homogeneous high temperature generation compared to those of competitive diamond anvil cells...

Self-incompatibility (SI) is a mechanism for preventing self-fertilization in flowering plants. SI is controlled by a single S-locus with multiple haplotypes (S-haplotypes). When the pistil and pollen share the same S-haplotype, the pollen is recognized as self and rejected by the pistil. This review introduces our research on Brassicaceae and Solanaceae SI systems to identify the S-determinants encoded at the S-locus and uncover the mechanisms of self/nonself-discrimination and pollen rejection. The recognition mechanisms of SI systems differ between these families...

I. Watanabe et al. isolated approximately 30 strains of RNA phages from various parts of Japan. To isolate RNA phages, they assessed the infection specificity of male Escherichia coli and RNase sensitivity. They found that the isolated strains of RNA phages could be serologically separated into three groups. Furthermore, most of them were serologically related, and the antiphage rabbit serum prepared by one of these phages neutralized most of the other phages. The only serologically unrelated phage was the RNA phage Qβ, which was isolated at the Institute for Virus Research, Kyoto University, in 1961...

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This study summarizes current trends and future directions in projection mapping technologies. Projection mapping seamlessly merges the virtual and real worlds through projected imagery onto physical surfaces, creating an augmented reality environment. Beyond traditional applications in advertising, art, and entertainment, various fields, including medical surgery, product design, and telecommunications, have embraced projection mapping. This study categorizes recent techniques that address technical challenges in accurately replicating desired appearances on physical surfaces through projected imagery into four groups: geometric registration, radiometric compensation, defocus compensation, and shadow removal...

The current understanding of the mechanism of core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe), one of the most energetic events in the universe associated with the death of massive stars and the main formation channel of compact objects such as neutron stars and black holes, is reviewed for broad readers from different disciplines of science who may not be familiar with the object. Therefore, we emphasize the physical aspects than the results of individual model simulations, although large-scale high-fidelity simulations have played the most important roles in the progress we have witnessed in the past few decades...

The chemical characterization of the heaviest elements at the farthest reach of the periodic table (PT) and the classification of these elements in the PT are undoubtedly crucial and challenging subjects in chemical and physical sciences. The elucidation of the influence of relativistic effects on their outermost electronic configuration is also a critical and fascinating aspect. However, the heaviest elements with atomic numbers Z ≳ 100 must be produced at accelerators using nuclear reactions of heavy ions and target materials...

From the biota beneath the sea ice in Lake Saroma, which is adjacent to Sea of Okhotsk, a diatom culture of Saroma 16 was isolated. Strutted processes and a labiate process in Saroma 16 were characteristic of those in Thalassiosira nordenskioeldii. Similarity search analysis showed that the 826-bp rbcL-3P region sequence of this strain was 100% identical to multiple sequences registered as T. nordenskioeldii in a public database. The 4305-bp PCR-amplified mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene (COI)-5P region of Saroma 16 included a 1060-bp open reading frame (ORF), which was interrupted by 934-bp and 2311-bp introns that included frame-shifted ORFs encoding reverse-transcriptase (RTase)-like proteins...

With the clinical success of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), cancer immunotherapy has become an important pillar of cancer treatment in various types of cancer. However, more than half of patients fail to respond to ICIs, even in combination, uncovering a limited window of clinical responses. Therefore, it is essential to develop more effective cancer immunotherapies and to define biomarkers for stratifying responders and nonresponders by exploring the immunological landscape in the tumor microenvironment (TME)...

In 1932, Mizushima and Higasi reported the dependence of the dipole moments of 1,2-dichloroethane on both temperature and solvent in the Proceedings of the Imperial Academy, Japan. This report was followed by their first proposal of the existence of conformers that exchanged by internal rotation about a C-C single bond based on experimental data. Their monumental work marked the beginning of the essential concept of conformation in modern stereochemistry. Their proposal was later confirmed by the direct observation of the anti and gauche conformers of 1,2-dichloroethane by Raman spectroscopy, and further supported by other experimental and theoretical methods...

This study examined the effect of combining visual and olfactory cues to attract oriental fruit flies (OFFs). Six different colored light-emitting diodes (LEDs) served as a visual attractant and methyl eugenol served as olfactory bait to lure male flies. An internet of things (IoT)-based pest monitoring system, consisting of sensor nodes, a gateway, and automatic counting traps, was deployed in the field to automatically collect environmental data and pest counts. The results of the calibrated experiments indicated that green, yellow, or red LEDs exhibited better performance in attracting flies than white, purple, or blue LEDs or no LEDs...

Changes in expression levels of drug efflux pump genes, mexB and mexY, and porin gene oprD in Pseudomonas aeruginosa were investigated in this study. Fifty-five multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa (MDRP) strains were compared with 26 drug-sensitive strains and 21 strains resistant to a single antibiotic. The effect of the efflux inhibitor Phe-Arg-β-naphthylamide on drug susceptibility was determined, and gene expression was quantified using real-time quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction...

Significant progress has been achieved in the field of solid-state biosensors over the past 50 years. Various sensing devices with high-density integration and flexible configuration, as well as new applications for clinical diagnosis and healthcare, have been developed using blood, serum, and other body fluids such as sweat, tears, and saliva. A high-density array of ion-sensitive field effect transistors was developed by exploiting the advantages of advanced semiconductor technologies and commercialized in combination with an enzymatic primer extension reaction as a DNA sequencer in 2011...

Kimura's discovery of z-term in the polar motion (Astron. J. 22, 107 (1902) and Astron. Nachr. 158, 233 (1902)) was recognized as an epoch-making scientific achievement for modern Japan, opening its doors to the world in 1868. Although Kimura served as the chair of the International Latitude Service during 1922-1934 and made efforts to interpret the z-term, it was unsuccessful. The physical interpretation of the z-term was given decades later by Wako (PASJ, 22, 525 (1970)). This article highlights Kimura's additional contributions that led to the interpretation by Wako...

The Great Kanto Earthquake that occurred in the southern part of Kanto district, Japan, on September 1, 1923, was reported to have triggered numerous landslides (over 89,080 slope failures over an area of 86.32 km2 ). This study investigated the relationship between the landslide occurrence caused by this earthquake and geomorphology, geology, soil, seismic ground motion, and coseismic deformation. We found that a higher landslide density was mainly related to a larger absolute curvature and a higher slope angle, as well as to several geological units (Neogene plutonic rock, accretionary prism, and metamorphic rocks)...

The tremendous tidal force that is linked to the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the center of our galaxy is expected to strongly subdue star formation in its vicinity. Stars within 1'' from the SMBH thus likely formed further from the SMBH and migrated to their current positions. In this study, spectroscopic observations of the star S0-6/S10, one of the closest (projected distance from the SMBH of ≈0''.3) late-type stars were conducted. Using metal absorption lines in the spectra of S0-6, the radial velocity of S0-6 from 2014 to 2021 was measured, and a marginal acceleration was detected, which indicated that S0-6 is close to the SMBH...

This review mainly highlights our studies on the synthesis of one-handed helical polymers with a static memory of helicity based on the noncovalent helicity induction with a helical-sense bias and subsequent memory of the helicity approach that we developed during the past decade. Apart from the previous approaches, an excess one-handed helical conformation, once induced by nonracemic molecules, is immediately retained ("memorized") after the complete removal of the nonracemic molecules, accompanied by a significant amplification of the asymmetry, providing novel switchable chiral materials for chromatographic enantioseparation and asymmetric catalysis as well as a highly sensitive colorimetric and fluorescence chiral sensor...

Biomedical advances of external-beam radiotherapy (EBRT) with improvements in physical accuracy are reviewed. High-precision (±1 mm) three-dimensional radiotherapy (3DRT) can utilize respective therapeutic open doors in the tumor control probability curve and in the normal tissue complication probability curve instead of the one single therapeutic window in two-dimensional EBRT. High-precision 3DRT achieved higher tumor control and probable survival rates for patients with small peripheral lung and liver cancers...

Studying the central dogma at the single-cell level has gained increasing attention to reveal hidden cell lineages and functions that cannot be studied using traditional bulk analyses. Nonetheless, most single-cell studies exploiting genomic and transcriptomic levels fail to address information on proteins that are central to many important biological processes. Single-cell proteomics enables understanding of the functional status of individual cells and is particularly crucial when the specimen is composed of heterogeneous entities of cells...

Catalytic asymmetric direct-type aldol reactions of ketones with aldehydes are a perennial puzzle for organic chemists. Notwithstanding the emergence of a myriad of chiral catalysts to address the inherent reversibility of the aldol products, a general method to access acyclic α-chiral ketones from prochiral aryl ketones has remained an unmet synthetic challenge. The approach outlined herein is fundamentally different to that used in conventional catalysis, which typically commences with an α-proton abstraction by a Brønsted base...