Recent transcriptome analyses have shown that long non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) play prevalent roles in transcriptional regulation. We have reported that promoter-associated ncRNAs (pancRNAs) activate the partner gene expression via local epigenetic changes. Here, we identify thousands of genes under the pancRNA-mediated transcriptional regulation in five mammalian species in common. In the mouse, 1) pancRNA-partnered genes show tissue-specific expression pattern, 2) expression of pancRNAs significantly enriched H3K4me3 and H3K27ac marks towards the partner gene expression, 3) H3K4me1 marks the pancRNA-partnered genes regardless of their expression level, and 4) C- or G-skewed motifs were exclusively overrepresented between -200 and -1 bp relative to the transcription start sites of pancRNA-partnered genes. More importantly, the comparative transcriptome analysis among five different mammalian species using a total of 25 counterpart tissues showed that overall pancRNA expression profile exhibited extremely high species-specificity compared to that of mRNA, suggesting that a significant number of pancRNAs contributed to the enhancement of a set of partner genes' expression in a sequence-specific manner. We conclude that the gain and/or loss of gene-activation-associated pancRNA repertories, caused by formation or disorganization of the genomic GC-skewed structure, finely shapes tissue-specific pattern of gene expression according to a given species.

The water mites are distributed widely through ponds, lakes and mountain streams. In part of their life cycle, larvae of water mites typically attach on adult aquatic insects including hemipterans, odonates, coleopterans, trichopterans, ephemeropterans, plecopterans and dipterans. Most of the information on hostparasite interactions comes from studies of lentic mites and insects, while relatively little is known about the relationships between lotic mites and insects. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the host-parasite interactions between lotic water mite larvae and host insects in mountain streams. We investigate mite attachment on aquatic insects collected at mountain streams in Kanagawa and Shizuoka Prefectures, Japan. Aquatic insects were collected by light-trap and hand-sweeping from May to August 2008. Aquatic insects were identified to species or genus. The parasitic nature of mite larvae on aquatic insects was examined. The distribution of water mite larvae on host insects was analyzed using the Chi Square Test. As a result, a total of 1716 specimens of aquatic insects representing Megaloptera, Trichoptera, Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Diptera were collected. Mites were associated with 31.2% of the total number of aquatic insects. Mite larvae in the genus Stygothrombium were associated with Plecoptera. Protzia larvae were associated with Trichoptera and Diptera. Stygomomonia larvae were associated with Trichoptera. Protzia larvae showed a preference for abdomen of Wormaldia sp. [Trichoptera] (P<0.0001, χ²= 133.3631). Protzia larvae however, showed a preference for prothorax of Antocha sp. [Diptera] (P<0.01, χ²=18.3077). Stygomomonia larvae showed a preference for mesothorax and abdomen of Stenopsyche marmorata [Trichoptera] (P<0.0001, χ²=1147.857). From these results, it is considered that mite larvae show certain host preferences for aquatic insects as well as site preferences for the body parts of host insects.

High heat-resistant Al-Fe-V-Si and Al-Fe-V-Si-X rapidly solidified powder metallurgy (RS P/M) alloys have been developed under well-controlled high purity argon gas atmosphere. The (at. %) RS P/M alloy exhibited high elevated-temperature strength exceeding 300 MPa and good ductility with elongation of 6 % at 573 K. Reduction of partical pressure in P/M processing atmosphere led to improvement in mechanical properties of the powder-consolidated alloys under elevated-temperature service conditions. Ti addition to the Al-Fe-V-Si conduced to enhancement of the strength at room temperature. The tensile yeild strength and ultimate strenght were 545 MPa and 722 MPa, respectively.

In recent years, PCB drills with smaller diameters less than 0.1 mm are used and thus there are growing needs for ultra-fine grained cemented carbides. However, ultra-fine WC powder usually causes extraordinary grain growth during sintering which weakens mechanical strength of ultra-fine grained cemented carbides. So we examined several kinds of WC powders to make new ultra-fine grained cemented carbides having superior performance. We found that direct carburized WC powder is very good as a WC raw material. The PCB drills made of the developed ultra-fine grained cemented carbides have higher hardness, toughness and stiffness than conventional ones.