National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

About: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology is a government organization based out in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Catalysis & Thin film. The organization has 22114 authors who have published 65856 publications receiving 1669827 citations. The organization is also known as: Sangyō Gijutsu Sōgō Kenkyū-sho.

MENε/β noncoding RNAs are essential for structural integrity of nuclear paraspeckles

Abstract: Recent transcriptome analyses have shown that thousands of noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) are transcribed from mammalian genomes. Although the number of functionally annotated ncRNAs is still limited, they are known to be frequently retained in the nucleus, where they coordinate regulatory networks of gene expression. Some subnuclear organelles or nuclear bodies include RNA species whose identity and structural roles are largely unknown. We identified 2 abundant overlapping ncRNAs, MENe and MENβ (MENe/β), which are transcribed from the corresponding site in the multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) I locus and which localize to nuclear paraspeckles. This finding raises the intriguing possibility that MENe/β are involved in paraspeckle organization, because paraspeckles are, reportedly, RNase-sensitive structures. Successful removal of MENe/β by a refined knockdown method resulted in paraspeckle disintegration. Furthermore, the reassembly of paraspeckles disassembled by transcriptional arrest appeared to be unsuccessful in the absence of MENe/β. RNA interference and immunoprecipitation further revealed that the paraspeckle proteins p54/nrb and PSF selectively associate with and stabilize the longer MENβ, thereby contributing to the organization of the paraspeckle structure. The paraspeckle protein PSP1 is not directly involved in either MENe/β stabilization or paraspeckle organization. We postulate a model for nuclear paraspeckle body organization where specific ncRNAs and RNA-binding proteins cooperate to maintain and, presumably, establish the structure.

Effect of Structural Parameters on Superconductivity in Fluorine-Free LnFeAsO1-y (Ln = La, Nd)

Abstract: The crystal structure of LnFeAsO 1- y (Ln = La, Nd) has been studied by the powder neutron diffraction technique. The superconducting phase diagram of NdFeAsO 1- y is established as a function of oxygen content which is determined by Rietveld refinement. The small As–Fe bond length suggests that As and Fe atoms are connected covalently. FeAs 4 -tetrahedrons transform toward a regular shape with increasing oxygen deficiency. Superconducting transition temperatures seem to attain maximum values for regular FeAs 4 -tetrahedrons.

aLeaves facilitates on-demand exploration of metazoan gene family trees on MAFFT sequence alignment server with enhanced interactivity.

Abstract: We report a new web server, aLeaves (http://aleaves.cdb.riken.jp/), for homologue collection from diverse animal genomes. In molecular comparative studies involving multiple species, orthology identification is the basis on which most subsequent biological analyses rely. It can be achieved most accurately by explicit phylogenetic inference. More and more species are subjected to large-scale sequencing, but the resultant resources are scattered in independent project-based, and multi-species, but separate, web sites. This complicates data access and is becoming a serious barrier to the comprehensiveness of molecular phylogenetic analysis. aLeaves, launched to overcome this difficulty, collects sequences similar to an input query sequence from various data sources. The collected sequences can be passed on to the MAFFT sequence alignment server (http://mafft.cbrc.jp/alignment/server/), which has been significantly improved in interactivity. This update enables to switch between (i) sequence selection using the Archaeopteryx tree viewer, (ii) multiple sequence alignment and (iii) tree inference. This can be performed as a loop until one reaches a sensible data set, which minimizes redundancy for better visibility and handling in phylogenetic inference while covering relevant taxa. The work flow achieved by the seamless link between aLeaves and MAFFT provides a convenient online platform to address various questions in zoology and evolutionary biology.

Acid-Catalyzed Reactions on Flexible Polycyclic Aromatic Carbon in Amorphous Carbon

Abstract: Carbonization of d-glucose at 573−723 K followed by sulfonation produces a functionalized amorphous carbon material with acid catalytic activity as a solid-acid replacement for sulfuric acid. The carbon material contains phenolic hydroxyl, carboxylic acid, and sulfonic acid groups and exhibits high catalytic performance for liquid-phase acid-catalyzed reactions. Carbonization at higher temperature followed by sulfonation also results in amorphous carbon, but the resultant does not exhibit catalytic activity although the amorphous carbon has sufficient amount of sulfonic acid groups. Structural and active site analyses suggest that the marked difference in catalytic activity is due to the accessibility of reactants to sulfonic acid groups in the carbon structure.

From Metal–Organic Framework to Nitrogen-Decorated Nanoporous Carbons: High CO2 Uptake and Efficient Catalytic Oxygen Reduction

Abstract: High-surface-area N-decorated nanoporous carbons have been successfully synthesized using the N-rich metal–organic framework ZIF-8 as a template and precursor along with furfuryl alcohol and NH4OH as the secondary carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively. These carbons exhibited remarkable CO2 adsorption capacities and CO2/N2 and CO2/CH4 selectivities. The N-decoration in these carbons resulted in excellent activity for the oxygen reduction reaction. Samples NC900 and NC1000 having moderate N contents, high surface areas, and large numbers of mesopores favored the four-electron reduction pathway, while sample NC800 having a high N content, a moderate surface area, and a large number of micropores favored the two-electron reduction process.