The plant elicitor peptides (Peps), a family of damage/danger-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs), are perceived by two receptors, PEPR1 and PEPR2, and contribute to plant defense against pathogen attack and abiotic stress. Here, we show that the Peps-PEPR signaling pathway functions in stomatal immunity by activating guard cell anion channels in The mutant plants lacking both and () displayed enhanced bacterial growth after being sprayed with pv () DC3000, but not after pathogen infiltration into leaves, implicating PEPR function in stomatal immunity. Indeed, synthetic Arabidopsis Peps (Peps) effectively induced stomatal closure in wild-type but not mutant leaves, suggesting that thePeps-PEPR signaling pathway triggers stomatal closure. Consistent with this finding, patch-clamp recording revealed Pep1-induced activation of anion channels in the guard cells of wild-type but not mutant plants. We further identified two guard cell-expressed anion channels, SLOW ANION CHANNEL1 (SLAC1) and its homolog SLAH3, as functionally overlapping components responsible for Pep1-induced stomatal closure. The double mutant, but not or single mutants, failed to respond to Pep1 in stomatal closure assays. Interestingly, disruption of (), an essential gene for abscisic acid-triggered stomatal closure, did not affect the Pep1-induced anion channel activity and stomatal response. Together, these results illustrate a DAMP-triggered signaling pathway that, unlike the flagellin22-FLAGELLIN-SENSITIVE2 pathway, triggers stomata immunity through an OST1-independent mechanism.

Anisotropic wrinkling which utilizes the anisotropic nature of liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) is demonstrated as a means of physical self-assembly to produce periodic microstructures. Through the plasma treatment on the molecularly aligned LCP film surface, one-dimensionally ordered wrinkle pattern was spontaneously formed on glass substrates without employing external thin-film deposition or prestrain control of the system. Experimental results indicate that the directionality of the wrinkle pattern can be tailored by the structural ordering of LCP molecules in the bilayer system of a hard skin layer on a soft substrate. Studies on process variables, such as the plasma treatment time and the film thickness, were conducted to figure out the effect on the wrinkling morphology. Due to its spatial periodicity over a large area and undemanding requirement of the process, this approach can be a candidate for the microfabrication in various applications.

Most of the current tumor vaccines successfully elicit strong protection against tumor but offer little therapeutic effect against existing tumors, highlighting the need for a more effective vaccine strategy. Vaccination with tumor antigen-presenting cells can induce antitumor immune responses. We have previously shown that NKT-licensed B cells prime cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) with epitope peptide and generate prophylactic/therapeutic antitumor effects. To extend our B cell vaccine approach to the whole antigen, and to overcome the MHC restriction, we used a nonreplicating adenovirus to transduce B cells with antigenic gene. Primary B cells transduced with an adenovirus-encoding truncated Her-2/neu (AdHM) efficiently expressed Her-2/neu. Compared with the moderate antitumor activity induced by vaccination with adenovirus-transduced B cells (B/AdHM), vaccination with a-galactosylceramide-loaded B/AdHM (B/AdHM/aGalCer) induced significantly stronger antitumor immunity, especially in the tumor-bearing mice. The depletion study showed that CD4 1 cells appeared to be necessary for the induction of antibody and CTL responses. Our results demonstrate that, with the help of NKT cells, antigen-transduced B cells efficiently induce innate immunity as well as a wide range of adaptive immunity against the tumor, suggesting that they could be used to develop a novel cellular vaccine. '

A 32 inch Two‐dimensionally Integrated Fluorescent Lamp (TIFL), the largest size in the world, has been developed at the first time. It is integrated into a backlight unit without using double brightness enhancement film (DBEF). The luminance of a TIFL backlight unit is 12500 nits at 140 watts of power consumption and its luminous efficacy is 55 lumens/watt at very high correlated color temperature. The color coordinate is 0.261/0.287 on the LCD. The usage of TIFL simplifies backlight assembly process and removes expensive optical sheets. As a result, LCD TVs employing TIFL will rapidly expand its market share in the large size TV application.

Stiction in large area imprint lithography was studied by a microtribological approach. As imprinting area is expanded, fine aligning movement can be hindered by the adhesion or in-plane friction between the mold and the substrate. In this study, an analytical model for stiction force in the alignment process was proposed and evaluated by measuring the friction force between two plates mediated by a thin liquid film. Experimental verification was conducted for various geometries and surface conditions. Analytic and experimental results demonstrated that the meniscus force induced from surface tension was the most critical parameter affecting stiction in an alignment process.