The carbon balance of tropical peatlands was investigated using measurements of gaseous fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄) at several land-use types, including nondrained forest (NDF), ...drained forest (DF), drained regenerating forest (DRF) after clear cutting and agricultural land (AL) in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Soil greenhouse gas fluxes depended on land-use, water level (WL), microtopography, temperature and vegetation physiology, among which WL was the strongest driver. All sites were CH₄ sources on an annual basis and the emissions were higher in sites providing fresh litter deposition and water logged conditions. Soil CO₂ flux increased exponentially with soil temperature (T s) even within an amplitude of 4-5°C. In the NDF soil CO₂ flux sharply decreased when WLs rose above −0.2 and 0.1 m for hollows and hummocks, respectively. The sharp decrease suggests that the contribution of surface soil respiration (RS) to total soil CO₂ flux is large. In the DF soil CO₂ flux increased as WL decreased below −0.7 m probably because the fast aerobic decomposition continued in lower peat. Such an increase in CO₂ flux at low WLs was also found at the stand level of the DF. Soil CO₂ flux showed diurnal variation with a peak in the daytime, which would be caused by the circadian rhythm of root respiration. Among the land-use types, annual soil CO₂ flux was the largest in the DRF and the smallest in the AL. Overall, the global warming potential (GWP) of CO₂ emissions in these land-use types was much larger than that of CH₄ fluxes.
Solar heat shielding against solar radiation over the entire building envelope is one of the most effective measures for achieving air-conditioning energy savings and preventing heat-island ...phenomenon in warmer climate regions. For this purpose, we proposed a new heat-shielding film, which possesses a retro-reflective property and a wavelength-selection property, while having the same degree of transparency as that of transparent glass. The proposed film can be easily applied to a wide variety of buildings and architecture, including new and existing buildings. This film embodies an innovative heat-shielding technique that makes it possible to effectively return solar radiation toward the sky, while minimizing the secondary effects to other buildings, to the ground, and so on. In order to verify these effects, several aspects of quantitative evaluation are demonstrated.
The measurement results and concepts in this paper are referred to from the previous conference paper Inoue et al. 10.
Concentrated growth factor (CGF) is an autologous leukocyte- and platelet-rich fibrin biomaterial that has recently been used for bone healing therapy. Previous studies used fibrin membrane or CGF ...extract without fibrin without soluble factors in vitro. This study investigated the effects of CGF that contained soluble factors on cultured rat bone marrow (RBM) cells in vitro. Furthermore, the effects of CGF implanted in rat calvarial bone defects in vivo were also investigated.
CGF and platelet-poor plasma (PPP) gel, which both have fibrin networks, were prepared from rat blood. For the in vitro study, CGF and PPP gel were frozen, and thin sections approximately 30 μm thick were cut and coated onto the surfaces of cell disks. RBM cells were then harvested and cultured on the coated disks in serum-free medium. For the in vivo study, rat calvarial bone defects (3.8 mm in diameter) were created and implanted with CGF, PPP gel, or left unfilled.
In vitro, the actin stress fibers of RBM cells cultured on disks coated with CGF or PPP gel tended to extend more than cells cultured on uncoated disks. However, no significant difference was observed in terms of cell morphology between RBM cells cultured on CGF- and PPP gel-coated disks. Cell proliferation and osteoblastic differentiation were significantly higher in cells cultured on the CGF-coated disks than on the PPP gel-coated disks. In vivo, more new bone had formed in defects treated with CGF than in defects treated with PPP gel.
In this preliminary study, fibrin and soluble factors in CGF promoted initial cell stretching, proliferation, and osteoblastic differentiation of RBM cells in vitro and bone regeneration in rat calvarial bone defects in vivo.
Baryon–baryon potentials are obtained from 3-flavor QCD simulations with the lattice volume L≃4 fm, the lattice spacing a≃0.12 fm, and the pseudo-scalar-meson mass Mps=469–1171 MeV. The NN scattering ...phase-shifts and the mass of H-dibaryon in the flavor SU(3) limit are extracted from the resultant potentials by solving the Schrödinger equation. The NN phase-shifts in the SU(3) limit is shown to have qualitatively similar behavior as the experimental data. A bound H-dibaryon in the SU(3) limit is found to exist in the flavor-singlet JP=0+ channel with the binding energy of about 26 MeV for the lightest quark mass Mps=469 MeV. Effect of flavor SU(3) symmetry breaking on the H-dibaryon is estimated by solving the coupled-channel Schrödinger equation for ΛΛ–NΞ–ΣΣ with the physical baryon masses and the potential matrix obtained in the SU(3) limit: a resonant H-dibaryon is found between ΛΛ and NΞ thresholds in this treatment.
The total population of Japan reached its peak in 2008 and has since experienced population decline. This trend has had a profound effect on many of the country's spheres of activity. The purpose of ...this article is to comprehensively review the existing literature, mainly published since the peak year, through the perspective of the impact of Japan's depopulation on its population geography and to present future research issues based on the obtained findings. Consequently, three new research issues are presented as the lessons learned from the country. First, since the population decline of a country is a very serious problem, population geographers need to devote much more attention to this issue. Second, new analytical methods suitable for examining depopulation need to be developed carefully but actively. Third, population geographers should proactively state policy implications based on research findings associated with population decline. This is a great opportunity to improve the position of the sub‐discipline in the countries whose populations have already started or are about to decline.
Asthma is a heterogeneous disease composed of various phenotypes. Periostin, a molecule inducible with interleukin (IL)-4 or IL-13 in bronchial epithelial cells, is a biomarker of “TH2-high” asthma. ...The objective of this study is to examine whether the serum periostin concentrations are correlated with the severity, specific phenotype(s), or comorbidity of asthma.
Serum concentrations of periostin were measured in 190 Japanese asthmatic patients and 11 healthy controls. The protocol was registered under UMIN 000002980 in the clinical trial registry.
The serum concentrations of periostin were significantly higher (P = 0.014) in asthmatics 70.0 (54.0–93.5) ng/ml than in healthy subjects 57.0 (39.0–63.0) ng/ml, though we found no correlation between serum periostin concentrations and treatment steps required to control asthma. To characterize “high-periostin” phenotype(s), the patients with asthma were divided among tertiles based on the serum concentrations of periostin. The high-periostin group was older at onset of asthma (P = 0.04), had a higher prevalence of aspirin intolerance (P = 0.04) or concomitant nasal disorders (P = 0.03–0.001), higher peripheral eosinophil counts (P < 0.001), and lower pulmonary function (P = 0.02–0.07). The serum concentrations of periostin were particularly high in asthmatic patients complicated by chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps and olfactory dysfunction. In contrast, neither atopic status, control status of asthma, nor quality of life were related with the “high-periostin” phenotype.
Elevated periostin concentrations in serum were correlated with a specific phenotype of eosinophilic asthma, late-onset and often complicated by obstructive pulmonary dysfunction and nasal disorders.
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Imaginary-time Nambu–Bethe–Salpeter (NBS) wave function is introduced to extend our previous approach for hadron–hadron interactions on the lattice. Scattering states of hadrons with different ...energies encoded in the NBS wave function are utilized to extract non-local hadron–hadron potential. “The ground state saturation”, which is commonly used in lattice QCD but is hard to be achieved for multi-baryons, is not required. We demonstrate that the present method works efficiently for the nucleon–nucleon interaction (the potential and the phase shift) in the S01 channel.
In many industrialized countries, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is recognized as an important disease that increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes, and metabolic ...syndrome. Most people with NAFLD are asymptomatic, and the disease is discovered incidentally during clinical laboratory tests. Present screening methods for NAFLD use ultrasound, and CT scans that are time-consuming, and a simple screening method for NAFLD is needed. In this study, we investigated whether serum miRNAs are associated with NAFLD and assessed the potential of serum miRNAs as a biomarker for NAFLD.
We assessed intrahepatic fat by ultrasound scan, and the serum levels of five miRNAs (miR-21, miR-34a, miR-122, miR-145, and miR-451), which help regulate cholesterol and fatty acid homeostasis in liver tissue, by real-time PCR in a cross-sectional sample of 403 participants who attended health examinations.
Serum levels of miRNAs, miR-21, miR-34a, miR-122, and miR-451 were higher in participants with NAFLD. The serum level of miR-122 was correlated with the severity of liver steatosis.
Serum levels of miRNAs, particularly miR-122, may be a useful biomarker for NAFLD.
•Serum levels of circulating miRNAs, miR-21, miR-34a, miR-122 and miR-451 are associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.•The serum level of miR-122 is correlated with the severity of liver steatosis.•This is the first report of cross-sectional analysis in general people of serum miRNAs.
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