Chemokines Up-Regulated in Epithelial Cells Control Senescence-Associated T Cell Accumulation in Salivary Glands of Aged and Sjögren’s Syndrome Model Mice

Immunosenescence is characterized by age-associated changes in immunological functions. Although age- and autoimmune-related sialadenitis cause dry mouth (xerostomia), the roles of immunosenescence and cellular senescence in the pathogenesis of sialadenitis remain unknown. We demonstrated that acquired immune cells rather than innate immune cells infiltrated the salivary glands (SG) of aged mice. An analysis of isolated epithelial cells from SG revealed that the expression levels of the chemokine CXCL13 were elevated in aged mice. Senescence-associated T cells (SA-Ts), which secrete large amounts of atypical pro-inflammatory cytokines, are involved in the pathogenesis of metabolic disorders and autoimmune diseases. The present results showed that SA-Ts and B cells, which express the CXCL13 receptor CXCR5, accumulated in the SG of aged mice, particularly females. CD4⁺ T cells derived from aged mice exhibited stronger in vitro migratory activity toward CXCL13 than those from young mice. In a mouse model of Sjögren’s syndrome (SS), SA-Ts also accumulated in SG, presumably via CXCL12-CXCR4 signaling. Collectively, the present results indicate that SA-Ts accumulate in SG, contribute to the pathogenesis of age- and SS-related sialadenitis by up-regulating chemokines in epithelial cells, and have potential as therapeutic targets for the treatment of xerostomia caused by these types of sialadenitis.     

Photocatalytic Synthesis of p-Anisaldehyde in a Mini Slurry-Bubble Reactor under Solar Light Irradiation

Dense photocatalyst slurry was employed for the synthesis of p-anisaldehyde under solar light irradiation. An Fe-modified rutile TiO ₂ (Fe-TiO _2, 34.5 m ²/g) photocatalyst was used as a visible-light-responsive photocatalyst. A conventional TiO ₂ (P25, 35 m ²/g) photocatalyst was also examined as a reference catalyst. XRD patterns and diffuse reflectance spectra showed that Fe-TiO ₂ consists of 100 % rutile phase and absorbs more visible light compared to P25, respectively. The catalyst powder was suspended in an ethyl acetate solution of p-methoxytoluene in the mini-reactor, with oxygen bubbling, under a solar simulator, visible light, and UV LEDs. p-anisaldehyde, as a reaction product, was analyzed by sampling using gas-chromatograph. Regardless of the light source, Fe-TiO ₂ always outperformed P25 in terms of both generation rates (GR) of p-anisaldehyde and energy requirements (ER). It was demonstrated that the highly dense Fe-TiO ₂ slurry was efficient for the synthesis under solar light owing to the small size of the reactor. The small amount of Pt and ZrO ₂ cocatalysts significantly enhanced the GR under solar light. By adopting a visible light responsive Fe-TiO ₂ photocatalyst, the mini slurry-bubble reactor under solar light achieved a high GR per catalyst mass (CM), which is one to two orders higher than that reported by most previous studies with high-power lamps.     

Effect of pitting corrosion on strength of web plates subjected to patch loading

Pitting corrosion is typical corrosion observed on coated hold frames in way of cargo holds of bulk carriers, which exclusively carry coal and iron ore. Extensive survey on the effect of pitting corrosion on structural strength under a wide variety of loading conditions is necessary to clarify the relationship between pitting intensity and residual strength in detail. In the present study, a series of tests has been conducted on structural models which consist of web, shell and face plates to investigate the effect of pitting corrosion on strength of web plates subjected to patch loading. In these tests, artificial pitting was made on the web plates and two equal concentrated loads have been applied vertically at the one third points of simply supported models. It was found that web crippling behavior is strongly affected by the pit distribution on the web plates. According to the FE-analyses following the experiment, ultimate strength of the web plates with pitting under patch loading is a little smaller than or almost the same as that of the web plates with uniform corrosion in terms of average thickness loss.     

Application of Near-Infrared Spectroscopy for Evaluation of Drying Stress on Lumber Surface: A Comparison of Artificial Neural Networks and Partial Least Squares Regression

This study aimed to examine the feasibility of evaluating the stress level at the surface of lumber during drying using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy combined with artificial neural networks (ANNs). Sugi (Cryptomeria japonica D. Don) lumber with an initial moisture content ranging from 41.1 to 85.8% was dried using a commercial drying schedule. An ANN model for predicting surface-released strain (SRS) was developed based on NIR spectra collected from the lumber during drying. The predictive ability of the ANN model was compared with a partial least squares (PLS) regression model.

The ANN model showed good correlation between laboratory-measured SRS and predicted SRS with an R ² of 0.79, a root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 0.0009, and a ratio of performance to deviation (RPD) of 1.81. The PLS regression model gave a lower R ² of 0.69, a higher RMSEP of 0.0010, and a lower RPD of 1.38 than the ANN model, suggesting that the predictive performance of the ANN model was superior to the PLS regression model. The SRS evolution during drying as predicted by the models showed a similar trend to the laboratory-measured one. The predicted elapsed times to reach maximum tensile SRS and stress reversal roughly coincided with the laboratory-measured times. These results suggest that NIR spectroscopy combined with multivariate analysis has the potential to predict the drying stress level on the lumber surface and the critical periods during drying, such as the points of maximum tensile stress and stress reversal.     

Capillary rise properties of porous mullite ceramics prepared by an extrusion method with various diameters of fiber pore formers

Porous mullite ceramics with unidirectionally oriented pores were prepared by an extrusion method using rayon fibers as the pore formers. Rayon fibers of 8.1, 9.6, 16.8, and 37.6 μm in diameter were used as the pore formers and were kneaded with alumina powder, kaolin clay, China earthen clay, and water to form pastes. These pastes were extruded into cylindrical tubes, dried, and fired at 1500 °C for 4 h. The apparent porosities ranged from 45.7 to 48.2 %. The pore size distributions showed a sharp peak at 9.4, 10.0, 15.6, and 30 μm with increasing fiber diameters. The height of the capillary rise was 1780, 1670, 1320, and 950 mm with increasing fiber diameter. The maximum capillary rise is much higher than previously reported. The contact angle and effective pore radius that determine the capillary rise ability were calculated by fitting the capillary rise curves using the Fries and Dreyer’s equation.     

Satellite data visualization system for education

It is important for environment protection to monitor changes in the environment by natural and human causes. It is also important to educate the next generation on the importance of the global environment issues. Recently, it has become possible to continually monitor the global environment using various satellite sensor data. But these satellite data are used for highly specialized analysis by experts in such fields, and the data cannot easily be used by non-experts. In this paper, we propose a satellite data visualization system for educational use. In the proposed system, a gray-scale 2-dimensional image is created from the satellite data. Next, a pseudo-color image is created from the gray-scale image to assist the comprehension of the data. A 3-dimensional data representation of the image is also created, to assist the comparison of the individual data. The aim of the created image is for educational use, and the image is created with emphasis on comprehension of the data, rather than presentation of data details. The aim of the proposed system is presenting the satellite data visually so that non-experts can easily understand. The target of this research is to apply the proposed system for natural science education and to improve the awareness of global environmental issues.     

Evaluating a behavioral demand response trial in Japan: evidence from the summer of 2013

This paper presents results from a behavioral demand response trial targeted to both grid and residential peak hours, in which weekly feedback via paper-based reports, real-time feedback via an in-home display, 30-minute tiered rate, and email prompts are adopted to almost 230 residential customers of a condominium in Funabashi, a city located in Greater Tokyo. Through a randomized experiment, we find that the peak saving impact during grid peak hours (1–4 pm, weekdays only) was 11.6 %, given that all the four interventions provided all at once. In addition, the results show that the variation in peak saving effects by household characteristics exists, and the variation differs among packages of peak saving interventions. Furthermore, we analyzed how much informational elements in weekly reports are considered as useful by residential customers. These results suggest that feedback-based approaches for peak saving can promote households’ energy conservation behavior.