Snakin-1 (SN-1) is a small cysteine-rich plant antimicrobial peptide with broad spectrum antimicrobial activity which was isolated from potato (Solanum tuberosum).Here, we carried out the expression of a recombinant SN-1 in the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris, along with its purification and characterization. A DNA fragment encoding the mature SN-1 was cloned into pPIC9 vector and introduced into P. pastoris.A large amount of pure recombinant SN-1 (approximately 40 mg/1L culture) was obtained from a fed-batch fermentation culture after purification with a cation exchange column followed by RP-HPLC. The identity of the recombinant SN-1 was verified by MALDI-TOF MS, CD and 1 H NMR experiments. All these data strongly indicated that the recombinant SN-1 peptide had a folding with six disulfide bonds that was identical to the native SN-1. Our findings showed that SN-1 exhibited strong antimicrobial activity against test microorganisms and produced very weak hemolysis of mammalian erythrocytes. The mechanism of its antimicrobial action against Escherichia coli was investigated by both outer membrane permeability assay and cytoplasmic membrane depolarization assay. These assays demonstrated that SN-1 is a membrane-active antimicrobial peptide which can disrupt both outer and cytoplasmic membrane integrity. This is the first report on the recombinant expression and purification of a fully active 3 SN-1 in P. pastoris.4

We use 47 gravitational wave sources from the Third LIGO–Virgo–Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector Gravitational Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC–3) to estimate the Hubble parameter H(z), including its current value, the Hubble constant H 0. Each gravitational wave (GW) signal provides the luminosity distance to the source, and we estimate the corresponding redshift using two methods: the redshifted masses and a galaxy catalog. Using the binary black hole (BBH) redshifted masses, we simultaneously infer the source mass distribution and H(z). The source mass distribution displays a peak around 34 M ⊙, followed by a drop-off. Assuming this mass scale does not evolve with the redshift results in a H(z) measurement, yielding H 0 = 68 − 8 + 12 km s − 1 Mpc − 1 (68% credible interval) when combined with the H 0 measurement from GW170817 and its electromagnetic counterpart. This represents an improvement of 17% with respect to the H 0 estimate from GWTC–1. The second method associates each GW event with its probable host galaxy in the catalog GLADE+, statistically marginalizing over the redshifts of each event’s potential hosts. Assuming a fixed BBH population, we estimate a value of H 0 = 68 − 6 + 8 km s − 1 Mpc − 1 with the galaxy catalog method, an improvement of 42% with respect to our GWTC–1 result and 20% with respect to recent H 0 studies using GWTC–2 events. However, we show that this result is strongly impacted by assumptions about the BBH source mass distribution; the only event which is not strongly impacted by such assumptions (and is thus informative about H 0) is the well-localized event GW190814.

An underwater acoustic camera enclosed in a pressure-resistant case was constructed to observe underwater marine animals. This enabled the measurement of the size, shape, and behavior of living marine animals in the detection range up to 240 cm. The transducer array of the acoustic camera was driven by 3.5 MHz ultrasonic signals, and B-mode acoustic images were obtained. Observations were conducted for captive animals in a water tank and for natural animals in a field. The captive animals, including fish, squid and jellyfish, were observed, and a three-dimensional internal structure of animals was reconstructed using multiple acoustical images. The most important contributors of acoustic scattering were the swimbladder and vertebra of bladdered fish, and the liver and reproductive organs of invertebrate animals. In a field experiment, the shape, size, and swimming behavior of wild animals were observed. The possibilities and limitations of the underwater acoustic camera for fishery applications were discussed.

Studies on picture memory have shown that people can recognize quite a large number of pictures (e.g., Haber, 1970;Nickerson, 1965;Shepard, 1967). In these studies and many other picture memory studies to date, either colored pictures or black-and-white pictures have often been used, but few have compared the recognition performance between the two. Therefore, it is not known whether or not colors affect recognition performance for pictures. The present study deals with this issue.There are a few studies which indirectly suggest a possible effect of colors on picture recognition. Studies on word memory have shown that words were recalled better when they were presented in color than when presented in black and white (Bousfield, Esterson, & Whitmarsh, 1957;Denis, 1976). Boynton and Dolensky (1979) reported that colors improved the performance of the sorting and recognition of books. Watkins and Schiano (1982) also reported that imagining colors on black-and-white drawings in the study phase improved recognition performance when the imagined colors were the same as those of the colored drawings in the test phase.On the other hand, in an experiment that compared recall performance between words and drawings, Paivio, Rogers, and Smythe (1968) found that colors had no incidental effect on the recall of the drawings. Concerning memory for colors of drawings, Park and Mason (1982) found this to be poorer than that for position, and claimed that the encoding of Abstract: Investigations were conducted into the effectiveness of color in picture recognition memory. In the study phase, half of the pictures were presented in color and the other half in black and white. In the test phase, half were presented in the same color mode as the study pictures and the other half in the other mode. In immediate and 1-week-delayed tests, the recognition performance was highest when color pictures were used in both the study and test phases. The recall for the color mode of the study pictures, however, was not as good, even with the color pictures. This suggests that the effectiveness of color in picture recognition is not necessarily due to the memory for colors in the pictures themselves, but is probably due to the distinctiveness of features highlighted by the colors. We also found that in the recall performance for the color mode it was more difficult to detect the deletion of colors than to detect their addition.

Adaptation to the space environment can sometimes pose physiological problems to International Space Station (ISS) astronauts after their return to earth. Therefore, it is important to develop healthcare technologies for astronauts. In this study, we examined the feasibility of using hair follicles, a readily obtained sample, to assess gene expression changes in response to spaceflight adaptation. In order to investigate the gene expression changes in human hair follicles during spaceflight, hair follicles of 10 astronauts were analyzed by microarray and real time qPCR analyses. We found that spaceflight alters human hair follicle gene expression. The degree of changes in gene expression was found to vary among individuals. In some astronauts, genes related to hair growth such as FGF18, ANGPTL7 and COMP were upregulated during flight, suggesting that spaceflight inhibits cell proliferation in hair follicles.