Videogame play (VGP) has been associated with numerous preferred and non-preferred effects. However, the effects of VGP on the development of microstructural properties in children, particularly ...those associated with negative psychological consequences of VGP, have not been identified to date. The purpose of this study was to investigate this issue through cross-sectional and longitudinal prospective analyses. In the present study of humans, we used the diffusion tensor imaging mean diffusivity (MD) measurement to measure microstructural properties and examined cross-sectional correlations with the amount of VGP in 114 boys and 126 girls. We also assessed correlations between the amount of VGP and longitudinal changes in MD that developed after 3.0±0.3 (s.d.) years in 95 boys and 94 girls. After correcting for confounding factors, we found that the amount of VGP was associated with increased MD in the left middle, inferior and orbital frontal cortex; left pallidum; left putamen; left hippocampus; left caudate; right putamen; right insula; and thalamus in both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. Regardless of intelligence quotient type, higher MD in the areas of the left thalamus, left hippocampus, left putamen, left insula and left Heschl gyrus was associated with lower intelligence. We also confirmed an association between the amount of VGP and decreased verbal intelligence in both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. In conclusion, increased VGP is directly or indirectly associated with delayed development of the microstructure in extensive brain regions and verbal intelligence.
•A novel perspective on soil microbial stoichiometric homeostasis and flexibility.•We analysed a large soil microbial C:N:P stoichiometry dataset (4,363 pairs).•Homeostasis or flexibility of C:N and ...C:P showed clear geographical patterns.•These patterns are maintained by microbial responses to soil nutrient status.
The soil microbial biomass (SMB) adapts to altered soil resources either by maintaining roughly constant stoichiometry to soil carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) availability or by shifting to the elemental balance in the soil. Although a shift from stoichiometric homeostasis to flexibility (or vice versa) may affect terrestrial C and nutrient dynamics, a holistic understanding of the global distribution of microbial stoichiometric homeostasis and flexibility patterns is lacking. We synthesised three existing soil and SMB C:N:P stoichiometric ratio datasets with newly collected data to create a dataset containing 4,363 records. We devised a novel method for interpreting these data, in which the scatter plot representing the SMB C:P/soil C:P (y-axis) to SMB C:N/soil C:N (x-axis) relationship is classified into four distinct patterns: (1) both C:N and C:P are in homeostasis (along the 1:1 line), (2) only C:P exhibits flexibility (line parallel to the x-axis), (3) only C:N exhibits flexibility (line parallel to the y-axis), and (4) both C:N and C:P exhibit flexibility (concentrated at a single point). Applying this model to the large dataset, we found that microbial stoichiometric homeostasis and flexibility exhibit geographical patterns related to biome type, soil type, and precipitation, and more specifically, that natural ecosystems exhibit Pattern 1, whereas agroecosystems exhibit Pattern 3. Our findings also indicate that the SMB C:P/soil C:P and the SMB C:N/soil C:N relationships can be expressed as a simple function and are maintained by different microbial responses to soil nutrient status. These findings improve our understanding of the relationships between terrestrial C and nutrient dynamics and microbial stoichiometric homeostasis and flexibility and will enable improved modelling of these relationships.
Quantum weak measurements, wavepacket shifts and optical vortices are universal wave phenomena, which originate from fine interference of multiple plane waves. These effects have attracted ...considerable attention in both classical and quantum wave systems. Here we report on a phenomenon that brings together all the above topics in a simple one-dimensional scalar wave system. We consider inelastic scattering of Gaussian wave packets with parameters close to a zero of the complex scattering coefficient. We demonstrate that the scattered wave packets experience anomalously large time and frequency shifts in such near-zero scattering. These shifts reveal close analogies with the Goos-Hänchen beam shifts and quantum weak measurements of the momentum in a vortex wavefunction. We verify our general theory by an optical experiment using the near-zero transmission (near-critical coupling) of Gaussian pulses propagating through a nano-fibre with a side-coupled toroidal micro-resonator. Measurements demonstrate the amplification of the time delays from the typical inverse-resonator-linewidth scale to the pulse-duration scale.
Electro-electrodialysis (EED) has been applied to the thermochemical water-splitting iodine-sulfur process for hydrogen production to enhance the hydrogen iodide (HI) component in the HI–I2–H2O ...mixture (HIx solution). In this work, the HIx solution concentration dependence of conductivity and transport number as the membrane-performance indexes of Nafion 212 and a styrene-grafted poly(ethylene-co-tetrafluoroethylene) (ETFE) membrane was investigated experimentally. From a theoretical analysis of measurements based on the new EED model, the effects of the H+ and I− contents and the diffusion coefficients of H+ and I− in the evaluated membranes on conductivity and transport number were as follows: HIx solution concentration dependence of the H+ and I− contents exhibited a significantly small or different variation in comparison with that of conductivity and transport number, indicating that the dominant factors for conductivity and transport number would not be the H+ and I− contents; thereby, the effect of the diffusion coefficients of H+ and I− should not be ruled out. In terms of the conductivity of Nafion 212, the diffusion coefficient of H+ is the dominant factor because the existence of I− was negligible, whereas in the case of the ETFE-St membrane, the effect of the diffusion coefficient of I− should be considered. The diffusion coefficient of I− could more strongly affect transport number for the evaluated membranes rather than the diffusion coefficient of H+, indicating that the H+ selectivity of the membranes could be determined relatively based on variations of I− behavior in the membranes.
•Membrane performance for HI concentration has been evaluated.•Concentration dependence of performance was mainly governed by ion diffusion.•Diffusion mechanism of proton and iodide ion in membrane was offered.
This paper describes the design and reports the test results of the world's most compact rotating gantry for a heavy-ion therapy system mounted with superconducting bending and focusing magnets. A ...rotating gantry is cylindrical irradiation equipment with magnets for beam transport and beam scanning that delivers energetic carbon ions at up to 430 MeV/u precisely to a tumor from any direction without changing the posture of the patient. However, because of the high magnetic rigidity of therapeutic carbon ions, the rotating gantry was too big to be installed at general hospitals. Therefore, the superconducting rotating gantry had been developed in collaboration with Yamagata University. In the project, to achieve further downsizing of the rotating gantry, the length of the scanning irradiation system is reduced and the magnetic field of the superconducting magnet is increased to 3.5 T from the 2.88 T of the first superconducting gantry installed in the National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (QST). As a result, the gantry is downsized to 2/3 of the first superconducting rotating gantry. This next-generation small superconducting rotating gantry has already been installed and is undergoing preclinical commissioning at Yamagata University.
PDF
