Showing papers by "Waseda University published in 2018"

ESPNet: End-to-end speech processing toolkit

Abstract: This paper introduces a new open source platform for end-to-end speech processing named ESPnet. ESPnet mainly focuses on end-to-end automatic speech recognition (ASR), and adopts widely-used dynamic neural network toolkits, Chainer and PyTorch, as a main deep learning engine. ESPnet also follows the Kaldi ASR toolkit style for data processing, feature extraction/format, and recipes to provide a complete setup for speech recognition and other speech processing experiments. This paper explains a major architecture of this software platform, several important functionalities, which differentiate ESPnet from other open source ASR toolkits, and experimental results with major ASR benchmarks.

Prospects for Observing and Localizing Gravitational-Wave Transients with Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA

Abstract: We present possible observing scenarios for the Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA gravitational-wave detectors over the next decade, with the intention of providing information to the astronomy community to facilitate planning for multi-messenger astronomy with gravitational waves. We estimate the sensitivity of the network to transient gravitational-wave signals, and study the capability of the network to determine the sky location of the source. We report our findings for gravitational-wave transients, with particular focus on gravitational-wave signals from the inspiral of binary neutron star systems, which are the most promising targets for multi-messenger astronomy. The ability to localize the sources of the detected signals depends on the geographical distribution of the detectors and their relative sensitivity, and 90% credible regions can be as large as thousands of square degrees when only two sensitive detectors are operational. Determining the sky position of a significant fraction of detected signals to areas of 5– 20 deg2 requires at least three detectors of sensitivity within a factor of ∼2 of each other and with a broad frequency bandwidth. When all detectors, including KAGRA and the third LIGO detector in India, reach design sensitivity, a significant fraction of gravitational-wave signals will be localized to a few square degrees by gravitational-wave observations alone.

Enterotypes in the landscape of gut microbial community composition

Abstract: Population stratification is a useful approach for a better understanding of complex biological problems in human health and wellbeing. The proposal that such stratification applies to the human gut microbiome, in the form of distinct community composition types termed enterotypes, has been met with both excitement and controversy. In view of accumulated data and re-analyses since the original work, we revisit the concept of enterotypes, discuss different methods of dividing up the landscape of possible microbiome configurations, and put these concepts into functional, ecological and medical contexts. As enterotypes are of use in describing the gut microbial community landscape and may become relevant in clinical practice, we aim to reconcile differing views and encourage a balanced application of the concept.

ESPnet: End-to-End Speech Processing Toolkit

Abstract: This paper introduces a new open source platform for end-to-end speech processing named ESPnet. ESPnet mainly focuses on end-to-end automatic speech recognition (ASR), and adopts widely-used dynamic neural network toolkits, Chainer and PyTorch, as a main deep learning engine. ESPnet also follows the Kaldi ASR toolkit style for data processing, feature extraction/format, and recipes to provide a complete setup for speech recognition and other speech processing experiments. This paper explains a major architecture of this software platform, several important functionalities, which differentiate ESPnet from other open source ASR toolkits, and experimental results with major ASR benchmarks.

Search for dark matter and other new phenomena in events with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum using the ATLAS detector

Abstract: Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb−1 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected in 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are required to have at least one jet with a transverse momentum above 250 GeV and no leptons (e or μ). Several signal regions are considered with increasing requirements on the missing transverse momentum above 250 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model predictions. The results are translated into exclusion limits in models with pair-produced weakly interacting dark-matter candidates, large extra spatial dimensions, and supersymmetric particles in several compressed scenarios.

Carbon Nanotubes and Related Nanomaterials: Critical Advances and Challenges for Synthesis toward Mainstream Commercial Applications

Abstract: Advances in the synthesis and scalable manufacturing of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) remain critical to realizing many important commercial applications. Here we review recent breakthroughs in the synthesis of SWCNTs and highlight key ongoing research areas and challenges. A few key applications that capitalize on the properties of SWCNTs are also reviewed with respect to the recent synthesis breakthroughs and ways in which synthesis science can enable advances in these applications. While the primary focus of this review is on the science framework of SWCNT growth, we draw connections to mechanisms underlying the synthesis of other 1D and 2D materials such as boron nitride nanotubes and graphene.

Assembly of Hollow Carbon Nanospheres on Graphene Nanosheets and Creation of Iron–Nitrogen-Doped Porous Carbon for Oxygen Reduction

Abstract: Triblock copolymer micelles coated with melamine-formaldehyde resin were self-assembled into closely packed two-dimensional (2D) arrangements on the surface of graphene oxide sheets. Carbonizing these structures created a 2D architecture composed of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sandwiched between two monolayers of sub-40 nm diameter hollow nitrogen-doped carbon nanospheres (N-HCNS). Electrochemical tests showed that these hybrid structures had better performance for oxygen reduction compared to physically mixed rGO and N-HCNS that were not chemically bonded together. Further impregnation of the sandwich structures with iron (Fe) species followed by carbonization yielded Fe1.6-N-HCNS/rGO-900 with a high specific surface area (968.3 m2 g–1), a high nitrogen doping (6.5 at%), and uniformly distributed Fe dopant (1.6 wt %). X-ray absorption fine structure analyses showed that most of the Fe in the nitrogen-doped carbon framework is composed of single Fe atoms each coordinated to four N atoms. The best Fe1.6-N...

Controlled Chemical Vapor Deposition for Synthesis of Nanowire Arrays of Metal–Organic Frameworks and Their Thermal Conversion to Carbon/Metal Oxide Hybrid Materials

Abstract: Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) can serve as high-surface-area templates to generate hierarchically ordered nanoporous carbon electrodes for high-performance supercapacitor devices. Here we describe a simple chemical approach to synthesize dense three-dimensional (3D) arrays of core–shell ZnO@ZIF-8 and Co(CO3)0.5(OH)·0.11H2O@ZIF-67 nanowires on a conductive carbon cloth. Annealing the core–shell structures at high temperatures converted the MOF shell into a composite of nanoporous carbon (NC) mixed with conductive metal oxides. The conformal nature of the MOF-coating process generates a NC film with continuous conductive paths from the outer surfaces of the nanowires down to the flexible carbon electrode. Carbonization of ZIF-67 transforms the material into conductive sp2 type carbon mixed with Co3O4 nanostructures. Because Co3O4 is a faradic metal oxide with a high theoretical capacitance, these Co3O4/NC hybrid heterostructure arrays are a promising candidate material for use in an electrochemical superc...

Performance of missing transverse momentum reconstruction with the ATLAS detector using proton-proton collisions at s√ = 13 TeV

Abstract: The performance of the missing transverse momentum ( ETmiss ) reconstruction with the ATLAS detector is evaluated using data collected in proton-proton collisions at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV in 2015. To reconstruct ETmiss , fully calibrated electrons, muons, photons, hadronically decaying τ-leptons , and jets reconstructed from calorimeter energy deposits and charged-particle tracks are used. These are combined with the soft hadronic activity measured by reconstructed charged-particle tracks not associated with the hard objects. Possible double counting of contributions from reconstructed charged-particle tracks from the inner detector, energy deposits in the calorimeter, and reconstructed muons from the muon spectrometer is avoided by applying a signal ambiguity resolution procedure which rejects already used signals when combining the various ETmiss contributions. The individual terms as well as the overall reconstructed ETmiss are evaluated with various performance metrics for scale (linearity), resolution, and sensitivity to the data-taking conditions. The method developed to determine the systematic uncertainties of the ETmiss scale and resolution is discussed. Results are shown based on the full 2015 data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.2fb-1 .

Search for Higgs boson pair production in the γ γ bb¯ final state with 13 TeV pp collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment

Abstract: A search is performed for resonant and non-resonant Higgs boson pair production in the $ \upgamma \upgamma b\overline{b} $ final state. The data set used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{−1}$ of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. No significant excess relative to the Standard Model expectation is observed. The observed limit on the non-resonant Higgs boson pair cross-section is 0.73 pb at 95% confidence level. This observed limit is equivalent to 22 times the predicted Standard Model cross-section. The Higgs boson self-coupling (κ$_{λ}$ = λ$_{HHH}$/λ$_{HHH}^{SM}$ ) is constrained at 95% confidence level to −8.2 < κ$_{λ}$ < 13.2. For resonant Higgs boson pair production through $ X\to HH\to \upgamma \upgamma b\overline{b} $ , the limit is presented, using the narrow-width approximation, as a function of m$_{X}$ in the range 260 GeV < m$_{X}$ < 1000 GeV. The observed limits range from 1.1 pb to 0.12 pb over this mass range.

Measurement of the W-boson mass in pp collisions at s=7TeV with the ATLAS detector.

Abstract: A measurement of the mass of the $W$ boson is presented based on proton-proton collision data recorded in 2011 at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, and corresponding to 4.6 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity. The selected data sample consists of $7.8 \times 10^6$ candidates in the $W\rightarrow \mu u$ channel and $5.9 \times 10^6$ candidates in the $W\rightarrow e u$ channel. The $W$-boson mass is obtained from template fits to the reconstructed distributions of the charged lepton transverse momentum and of the $W$ boson transverse mass in the electron and muon decay channels, yielding \begin{eqnarray} m_W &=& 80370 \pm 7 \, (\textrm{stat.}) \pm 11 \, (\textrm{exp. syst.}) \pm 14 \, (\textrm{mod. syst.}) \, \textrm{MeV} &=& 80370 \pm 19 \, \textrm{MeV}, \end{eqnarray} where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second corresponds to the experimental systematic uncertainty, and the third to the physics-modelling systematic uncertainty. A measurement of the mass difference between the $W^+$ and $W^-$ bosons yields $m_{W^+}-m_{W^-} = -29 \pm 28$ MeV.

Sub-50 nm Iron–Nitrogen-Doped Hollow Carbon Sphere-Encapsulated Iron Carbide Nanoparticles as Efficient Oxygen Reduction Catalysts

Abstract: Sub-50 nm iron-nitrogen-doped hollow carbon sphere-encapsulated iron carbide nanoparticles (Fe3C-Fe,N/C) are synthesized by using a triblock copolymer of poly(styrene-b-2-vinylpyridine-b-ethylene oxide) as a soft template. Their typical features, including a large surface area (879.5 m2 g-1), small hollow size (≈16 nm), and nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon shell, and encapsulated Fe3C nanoparticles generate a highly active oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance. Fe3C-Fe,N/C hollow spheres exhibit an ORR performance comparable to that of commercially available 20 wt% Pt/C in alkaline electrolyte, with a similar half-wave potential, an electron transfer number close to 4, and lower H2O2 yield of less than 5%. It also shows noticeable ORR catalytic activity under acidic conditions, with a high half-wave potential of 0.714 V, which is only 59 mV lower than that of 20 wt% Pt/C. Moreover, Fe3C-Fe,N/C has remarkable long-term durability and tolerance to methanol poisoning, exceeding Pt/C regardless of the electrolyte.

Search for electroweak production of supersymmetric particles in final states with two or three leptons at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract: A search for the electroweak production of charginos, neutralinos and sleptons decaying into final states involving two or three electrons or muons is presented. The analysis is based on 36.1 fb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV proton–proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Several scenarios based on simplified models are considered. These include the associated production of the next-to-lightest neutralino and the lightest chargino, followed by their decays into final states with leptons and the lightest neutralino via either sleptons or Standard Model gauge bosons, direct production of chargino pairs, which in turn decay into leptons and the lightest neutralino via intermediate sleptons, and slepton pair production, where each slepton decays directly into the lightest neutralino and a lepton. No significant deviations from the Standard Model expectation are observed and stringent limits at 95% confidence level are placed on the masses of relevant supersymmetric particles in each of these scenarios. For a massless lightest neutralino, masses up to 580 GeV are excluded for the associated production of the next-to-lightest neutralino and the lightest chargino, assuming gauge-boson mediated decays, whereas for slepton-pair production masses up to 500 GeV are excluded assuming three generations of mass-degenerate sleptons.

Combination of the searches for pair-produced vectorlike partners of the third-generation quarks at s =13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract: A combination of the searches for pair-produced vectorlike partners of the top and bottom quarks in various decay channels (T -> Zt/Wb/Ht, B -> Zb/Wt/Hb) is performed using 36.1 fb(-1) of pp ...

Gut Microbiota-Derived Short Chain Fatty Acids Induce Circadian Clock Entrainment in Mouse Peripheral Tissue

Abstract: Microbiota-derived short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and organic acids produced by the fermentation of non-digestible fibre can communicate from the microbiome to host tissues and modulate homeostasis in mammals. The microbiome has circadian rhythmicity and helps the host circadian clock function. We investigated the effect of SCFA or fibre-containing diets on circadian clock phase adjustment in mouse peripheral tissues (liver, kidney, and submandibular gland). Initially, caecal SCFA concentrations, particularly acetate and butyrate, induced significant day-night differences at high concentrations during the active period, which were correlated with lower caecal pH. By monitoring luciferase activity correlated with the clock gene Period2 in vivo, we found that oral administration of mixed SCFA (acetate, butyrate, and propionate) and an organic acid (lactate), or single administration of each SCFA or lactate for three days, caused phase changes in the peripheral clocks with stimulation timing dependency. However, this effect was not detected in cultured fibroblasts or cultured liver slices with SCFA applied to the culture medium, suggesting SCFA-induced indirect modulation of circadian clocks in vivo. Finally, cellobiose-containing diets facilitated SCFA production and refeeding-induced peripheral clock entrainment. SCFA oral gavage and prebiotic supplementation can facilitate peripheral clock adjustment, suggesting prebiotics as novel therapeutic candidates for misalignment.

Exercise-Induced Oxidative Stress and the Effects of Antioxidant Intake from a Physiological Viewpoint

Abstract: It is well established that the increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) and free radicals production during exercise has both positive and negative physiological effects Among them, the present review focuses on oxidative stress caused by acute exercise, mainly on evidence in healthy individuals This review also summarizes findings on the determinants of exercise-induced oxidative stress and sources of free radical production Moreover, we outline the effects of antioxidant supplementation on exercise-induced oxidative stress, which have been studied extensively Finally, the following review briefly summarizes future tasks in the field of redox biology of exercise In principle, this review covers findings for the whole body, and describes human trials and animal experiments separately

Search for doubly charged Higgs boson production in multi-lepton final states with the ATLAS detector using proton-proton collisions at s=13TeV.

Abstract: A search for doubly charged Higgs bosons with pairs of prompt, isolated, highly energetic leptons with the same electric charge is presented. The search uses a proton–proton collision data sample at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV corresponding to 36.1 $$\text {fb}^{-1}$$ of integrated luminosity recorded in 2015 and 2016 by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. This analysis focuses on the decays $$H^{\pm \pm }\rightarrow e^{\pm }e^{\pm }$$ , $$H^{\pm \pm }\rightarrow e^{\pm }\mu ^{\pm }$$ and $$H^{\pm \pm }\rightarrow \mu ^{\pm }\mu ^{\pm }$$ , fitting the dilepton mass spectra in several exclusive signal regions. No significant evidence of a signal is observed and corresponding limits on the production cross-section and consequently a lower limit on $$m(H^{\pm \pm })$$ are derived at 95% confidence level. With $$\ell ^{\pm }\ell ^{\pm }=e^{\pm }e^{\pm }/\mu ^{\pm }\mu ^{\pm }/e^{\pm }\mu ^{\pm }$$ , the observed lower limit on the mass of a doubly charged Higgs boson only coupling to left-handed leptons varies from 770 to 870 GeV (850 GeV expected) for $$B(H^{\pm \pm }\rightarrow \ell ^{\pm }\ell ^{\pm })=100\%$$ and both the expected and observed mass limits are above 450 GeV for $$B(H^{\pm \pm }\rightarrow \ell ^{\pm }\ell ^{\pm })=10\%$$ and any combination of partial branching ratios.

Ultraflexible near-infrared organic photodetectors for conformal photoplethysmogram sensors

Abstract: Flexible organic optoelectronic devices simultaneously targeting mechanical conformability and fast responsivity in the near-infrared (IR) region are a prerequisite to expand the capabilities of practical optical science and engineering for on-skin optoelectronic applications. Here, an ultraflexible near-IR responsive skin-conformal photoplethysmogram sensor based on a bulk heterojunction photovoltaic active layer containing regioregular polyindacenodithiophene-pyridyl[2,1,3]thiadiazole-cyclopentadithiophene (PIPCP) is reported. The ultrathin (3 µm thick) photodetector exhibits unprecedented operational stability under severe mechanical deformation at a bending radius of less than 3 µm, even after more than 103 bending cycles. Deliberate optimization of the physical dimensions of the active layer used in the device enables precise on/off switching and high device yield simultaneously. The response frequency over 1 kHz under mechanically deformed conditions facilitates conformal electronic sensors at the machine/human interface. Finally, a mechanically stretchable, flexible, and skin-conformal photoplethysmogram (PPG) device with higher sensitivity than those of rigid devices is demonstrated, through conformal adherence to the flexuous surface of a fingerprint.

Hollow Porous Heterometallic Phosphide Nanocubes for Enhanced Electrochemical Water Splitting.

Abstract: Highly efficient earth-abundant electrocatalysts for both hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are of great importance for renewable energy conversion systems. Herein, hollow porous heterometallic phosphide nanocubes are developed as a highly active and robust catalyst for electrochemical water splitting via one-step phosphidation of a NiCoFe Prussian blue analogue. Through modulation of the composition of metals in the precursors, the optimal NiCoFeP exhibiting increased electrical conductivity and abundant electrochemically active sites, leading to high electrocatalytic activities and outstanding kinetics for both HER and OER, is successfully obtained. NiCoFeP shows low overpotentials of 273 mV for OER and 131 mV for HER at a current density of 10 mA cm-2 and quite low Tafel slopes of 35 mV dec-1 for OER and 56 mV dec-1 for HER.

One-Step Synthetic Strategy of Hybrid Materials from Bimetallic Metal–Organic Frameworks for Supercapacitor Applications

Abstract: This work reports a facile one-step method for the synthesis of new hybrid porous materials using bimetallic NiCo-MOF-74 as the starting precursor. By controlling the calcination atmosphere and temperature, the bimetallic NiCo-MOF-74 particles can be converted into a series of hybrid materials consisting of carbon, metal, and metal oxides. The direct carbonization of the bimetallic NiCo-MOF-74 particles at 800 °C under N2 atmosphere results in the formation of graphitic carbon/NixCo1−x composites (termed NC-800). In contrast, the heat treatment of NiCo-MOF-74 in air at 350 °C (termed NC-350) yields NixCo1−x/NixCo1−xO composites (with a small trace of carbon) as the product. When evaluated as electrode materials for supercapacitors, NC-800 and NC-350 exhibit high specific capacitances of 715 and 513 F g–1, respectively, at a high current density of 1 A g–1. Furthermore, these hybrid materials also show good cycling stability with no visible degradation in their specific capacitance after 2,500 cycles. The ...

Search for charged Higgs bosons decaying via H ± → τ ± ντ in the τ+jets and τ+lepton final states with 36 fb−1 of pp collision data recorded at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

Abstract: Charged Higgs bosons produced either in top-quark decays or in association with a top-quark, subsequently decaying via H$^{±}$ → τ$^{±}$ν$_{τ}$, are searched for in 36.1 fb$^{−1}$ of proton-proton collision data at $ \sqrt{s}=13 $ TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector. Depending on whether the top-quark produced together with H$^{±}$ decays hadronically or leptonically, the search targets τ+jets and τ+lepton final states, in both cases with a hadronically decaying τ-lepton. No evidence of a charged Higgs boson is found. For the mass range of $ {m}_{H^{\pm }} $ = 90–2000 GeV, upper limits at the 95% confidence level are set on the production cross-section of the charged Higgs boson times the branching fraction $ \mathrm{\mathcal{B}}\left({H}^{\pm}\to {\tau}^{\pm }{ u}_{\tau}\right) $ in the range 4.2–0.0025 pb. In the mass range 90–160 GeV, assuming the Standard Model cross-section for $ t\overline{t} $ production, this corresponds to upper limits between 0.25% and 0.031% for the branching fraction $ \mathrm{\mathcal{B}}\left(t\to b{H}^{\pm}\right)\times \mathrm{\mathcal{B}}\left({H}^{\pm}\to {\tau}^{\pm }{ u}_{\tau}\right) $ .

Extended Measurement of the Cosmic-Ray Electron and Positron Spectrum from 11 GeV to 4.8 TeV with the Calorimetric Electron Telescope on the International Space Station.

Abstract: Extended results on the cosmic-ray electron + positron spectrum from 11 GeV to 4.8 TeV are presented based on observations with the Calorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) on the International Space Station utilizing the data up to November 2017. The analysis uses the full detector acceptance at high energies, approximately doubling the statistics compared to the previous result. CALET is an all-calorimetric instrument with a total thickness of 30 X_{0} at normal incidence and fine imaging capability, designed to achieve large proton rejection and excellent energy resolution well into the TeV energy region. The observed energy spectrum in the region below 1 TeV shows good agreement with Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) data. In the energy region below ∼300 GeV, CALET's spectral index is found to be consistent with the AMS-02, Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT), and Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE), while from 300 to 600 GeV the spectrum is significantly softer than the spectra from the latter two experiments. The absolute flux of CALET is consistent with other experiments at around a few tens of GeV. However, it is lower than those of DAMPE and Fermi-LAT with the difference increasing up to several hundred GeV. The observed energy spectrum above ∼1 TeV suggests a flux suppression consistent within the errors with the results of DAMPE, while CALET does not observe any significant evidence for a narrow spectral feature in the energy region around 1.4 TeV. Our measured all-electron flux, including statistical errors and a detailed breakdown of the systematic errors, is tabulated in the Supplemental Material in order to allow more refined spectral analyses based on our data.

Search for squarks and gluinos in final states with jets and missing transverse momentum using 36 fb-1 of s =13 TeV pp collision data with the ATLAS detector

Abstract: A search for the supersymmetric partners of quarks and gluons (squarks and gluinos) in final states containing hadronic jets and missing transverse momentum, but no electrons or muons, is presented ...

Search for long-lived charginos based on a disappearing-track signature in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract: This paper presents a search for direct electroweak gaugino or gluino pair production with a chargino nearly mass-degenerate with a stable neutralino. It is based on an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{−1}$ of pp collisions at $ \sqrt{s}=13 $ TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. The final state of interest is a disappearing track accompanied by at least one jet with high transverse momentum from initial-state radiation or by four jets from the gluino decay chain. The use of short track segments reconstructed from the innermost tracking layers significantly improves the sensitivity to short chargino lifetimes. The results are found to be consistent with Standard Model predictions. Exclusion limits are set at 95% confidence level on the mass of charginos and gluinos for different chargino lifetimes. For a pure wino with a lifetime of about 0.2 ns, chargino masses up to 460 GeV are excluded. For the strong production channel, gluino masses up to 1.65 TeV are excluded assuming a chargino mass of 460 GeV and lifetime of 0.2 ns.

Structural basis of the nucleosome transition during RNA polymerase II passage.

Abstract: Genomic DNA forms chromatin, in which the nucleosome is the repeating unit. The mechanism by which RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) transcribes the nucleosomal DNA remains unclear. Here we report the cryo-electron microscopy structures of RNAPII-nucleosome complexes in which RNAPII pauses at the superhelical locations SHL(-6), SHL(-5), SHL(-2), and SHL(-1) of the nucleosome. RNAPII pauses at the major histone-DNA contact sites, and the nucleosome interactions with the RNAPII subunits stabilize the pause. These structures reveal snapshots of nucleosomal transcription, in which RNAPII gradually tears DNA from the histone surface while preserving the histone octamer. The nucleosomes in the SHL(-1) complexes are bound to a "foreign" DNA segment, which might explain the histone transfer mechanism. These results provide the foundations for understanding chromatin transcription and epigenetic regulation.