Toru Sato

Gamma-secretase is an intramembrane aspartyl protease complex that cleaves type I integral membrane proteins, including the amyloid beta-protein precursor and the Notch receptor, and is composed of presenilin, Pen-2, nicastrin, and Aph-1. Although all four of these membrane proteins are essential for assembly and activity, the stoichiometry of the complex is unknown, with the number of presenilin molecules present being especially controversial. Here we analyze functional gamma-secretase complex

A novel cleavage of beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP), referred to as epsilon-cleavage, occurs downstream of the gamma-cleavage and generates predominantly a C-terminal fragment (CTFgamma) that begins at Val-50, according to amyloid beta-protein (Abeta) numbering. Whether this cleavage occurs independently of, or is coordinated with, gamma-cleavage is unknown. Using a cell-free system, we show here that, although Abeta40 and CTFgamma 50-99 were the predominant species produced by membranes pr

The dynamical model of pion electroproduction developed by Sato and Lee [Phys. Rev. C $63,$ 055201 (2001)] has been extended to investigate the weak pion production reactions. With the conserved vector current hypothesis, the weak vector currents are constructed from electromagnetic currents by isospin rotations. Guided by the effective chiral Lagrangian method and using the unitary transformation method developed previously, the weak axial vector currents for $\ensuremath{\pi}$ production are c

Stratospheric turbulence is now observed by the Arecibo 430 MHz radar with an improved altitude resolution of 150 m. Turbulence is observed to occur in thin layers with a thickness usually less than the altitude resolution, and estimated to be about 50 m. A clear correlation is found between the power, wind shear and spectral width of the echoes. A simple method of estimating the energy dissipation rate and the eddy diffusivity is examined. Values of the order of 0.2 m2 s−1 are found for the edd

A fully automated data processing procedure has been developed for deriving the precipitation parameters from VHF Doppler radar spectra simultaneously with the background atmospheric parameters such as the mean wind velocity. The procedure has largely enhanced our capability in analyzing the data from continuous observations, which was hardly possible with human‐attained analysis. The accuracy of the derived parameters are quantitatively evaluated by means of numerical simulations. It is found t

The 430 MHz, 2 MW radar at the Arecibo Observatory is currently being used as a stratospheric‐troposheric (ST) radar. One of the problems in the automatic analysis of the signals come from the very large amplitude of the ground clutter echoes. The problem is agravated by the fading of these signals, which makes it difficult to discriminate them from the desired stratospheric returns. A parameter estimation technique that parameterizes the first three‐spectral moments corresponding to the desired

Signal peptide peptidase (SPP) is an intramembrane aspartyl protease that cleaves remnant signal peptides after their release by signal peptidase. SPP contains active site motifs also found in presenilin, the catalytic component of the gamma-secretase complex of Alzheimer's disease. However, SPP has a membrane topology opposite that of presenilin, cleaves transmembrane substrates of opposite directionality, and does not require complexation with other proteins. Here we show that, upon isolation

Canine pancreatitis is a relatively common disorder, and its mortality rate remains high. However, prognostic factors for pancreatitis based on evidence are limited. Moreover, the relationship between changes in C-reactive protein (CRP) concentration-an important prognostic factor for human patients with acute pancreatitis-and the prognosis of dogs with pancreatitis has not been widely studied. Therefore, we examined prognostic factors for canine pancreatitis during the first medical examination