Hiroshima University

About: Hiroshima University is a education organization based out in Hiroshima, Japan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Cancer. The organization has 33602 authors who have published 69290 publications receiving 1495648 citations. The organization is also known as: Hiroshima Daigaku.

Seasonal changes in the contribution of root respiration to total soil respiration in a cool-temperate deciduous forest

Abstract: A trenching method was used to determine the contribution of root respiration to soil respiration. Soil respiration rates in a trenched plot (R trench) and in a control plot (R control) were measured from May 2000 to September 2001 by using an open-flow gas exchange system with an infrared gas analyser. The decomposition rate of dead roots (R D) was estimated by using a root-bag method to correct the soil respiration measured from the trenched plots for the additional decaying root biomass. The soil respiration rates in the control plot increased from May (240–320 mg CO2 m−2 h−1) to August (840–1150 mg CO2 m−2 h−1) and then decreased during autumn (200–650 mg CO2 m−2 h−1). The soil respiration rates in the trenched plot showed a similar pattern of seasonal change, but the rates were lower than in the control plot except during the 2 months following the trenching. Root respiration rate (R r) and heterotrophic respiration rate (R h) were estimated from R control, R trench, and R D. We estimated that the contribution of R r to total soil respiration in the growing season ranged from 27 to 71%. There was a significant relationship between Rh and soil temperature, whereas R r had no significant correlation with soil temperature. The results suggest that the factors controlling the seasonal change of respiration differ between the two components of soil respiration, R r and R h.

Proposal to reclassify the proteobacterial classes Deltaproteobacteria and Oligoflexia, and the phylum Thermodesulfobacteria into four phyla reflecting major functional capabilities

Abstract: The class Deltaproteobacteria comprises an ecologically and metabolically diverse group of bacteria best known for dissimilatory sulphate reduction and predatory behaviour. Although this lineage is the fourth described class of the phylum Proteobacteria, it rarely affiliates with other proteobacterial classes and is frequently not recovered as a monophyletic unit in phylogenetic analyses. Indeed, one branch of the class Deltaproteobacteria encompassing Bdellovibrio-like predators was recently reclassified into a separate proteobacterial class, the Oligoflexia. Here we systematically explore the phylogeny of taxa currently assigned to these classes using 120 conserved single-copy marker genes as well as rRNA genes. The overwhelming majority of markers reject the inclusion of the classes Deltaproteobacteria and Oligoflexia in the phylum Proteobacteria. Instead, the great majority of currently recognized members of the class Deltaproteobacteria are better classified into four novel phylum-level lineages. We propose the names Desulfobacterota phyl. nov. and Myxococcota phyl. nov. for two of these phyla, based on the oldest validly published names in each lineage, and retain the placeholder name SAR324 for the third phylum pending formal description of type material. Members of the class Oligoflexia represent a separate phylum for which we propose the name Bdellovibrionota phyl. nov. based on priority in the literature and general recognition of the genus Bdellovibrio. Desulfobacterota phyl. nov. includes the taxa previously classified in the phylum Thermodesulfobacteria, and these reclassifications imply that the ability of sulphate reduction was vertically inherited in the Thermodesulfobacteria rather than laterally acquired as previously inferred. Our analysis also indicates the independent acquisition of predatory behaviour in the phyla Myxococcota and Bdellovibrionota, which is consistent with their distinct modes of action. This work represents a stable reclassification of one of the most taxonomically challenging areas of the bacterial tree and provides a robust framework for future ecological and systematic studies.

The first fermi lat supernova remnant catalog

Abstract: To uniformly determine the properties of supernova remnants (SNRs) at high energies, we have developed the first systematic survey at energies from 1 to 100 GeV using data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). Based on the spatial overlap of sources detected at GeV energies with SNRs known from radio surveys, we classify 30 sources as likely GeV SNRs. We also report 14 marginal associations and 245 flux upper limits. A mock catalog in which the positions of known remnants are scrambled in Galactic longitude allows us to determine an upper limit of 22% on the number of GeV candidates falsely identified as SNRs. We have also developed a method to estimate spectral and spatial systematic errors arising from the diffuse interstellar emission model, a key component of all Galactic Fermi LAT analyses. By studying remnants uniformly in aggregate, we measure the GeV properties common to these objects and provide a crucial context for the detailed modeling of individual SNRs. Combining our GeV results with multiwavelength (MW) data, including radio, X-ray, and TeV, we demonstrate the need for improvements to previously sufficient, simple models describing the GeV and radio emission from these objects. We model the GeV and MW emission from SNRs in aggregate to constrain their maximal contribution to observed Galactic cosmic rays.

Technical design report for the upgrade of the ALICE inner tracking system

Abstract: ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is studying the physics of strongly interacting matter, and in particular the properties of the Quark–Gluon Plasma (QGP), using proton–proton, proton–nucleus and nucleus–nucleus collisions at the CERN LHC (Large Hadron Collider). The ALICE Collaboration is preparing a major upgrade of the experimental apparatus, planned for installation in the second long LHC shutdown in the years 2018–2019. A key element of the ALICE upgrade is the construction of a new, ultra-light, high- resolution Inner Tracking System (ITS) based on monolithic CMOS pixel detectors. The primary focus of the ITS upgrade is on improving the performance for detection of heavy-flavour hadrons, and of thermal photons and low-mass di- electrons emitted by the QGP. With respect to the current detector, the new Inner Tracking System will significantly enhance the determination of the distance of closest approach to the primary vertex, the tracking efficiency at low transverse momenta, and the read-out rate capabilities. This will be obtained by seven concentric detector layers based on a 50 μm thick CMOS pixel sensor with a pixel pitch of about 30×30 μm2. This document, submitted to the LHCC (LHC experiments Committee) in September 2013, presents the design goals, a summary of the R&D activities, with focus on the technical implementation of the main detector components, and the projected detector and physics performance.