Evaluation of constructed wetlands by wastewater purification ability and greenhouse gas emissions.

Domestic wastewater is a significant source of nitrogen and phosphorus, which cause lake eutrophication. Among the wastewater treatment technologies, constructed wetlands are a promising low-cost means of treating point and diffuse sources of domestic wastewater in rural areas. However, the sustainable operation of constructed wetland treatment systems depends upon a high rate conversion of organic and nitrogenous loading into their metabolic gaseous end products, such as N2O and CH4. In this study, we examined and compared the performance of three typical types of constructed wetlands: Free Water Surface (FWS), Subsurface Flow (SF) and Vertical Flow (VF) wetlands. Pollutant removal efficiency and N2O and CH4 emissions were assessed as measures of performance. We found that the pollutant removal rates and gas emissions measured in the wetlands exhibited clear seasonal changes, and these changes were closely associated with plant growth. VF wetlands exhibited stable removal of organic pollutants and NH3-N throughout the experiment regardless of season and showed great potential for CH4 adsorption. SF wetlands showed preferable T-N removal performance and a lower risk of greenhouse gas emissions than FWS wetlands. Soil oxidation reduction potential (ORP) analysis revealed that water flow structure and plant growth influenced constructed wetland oxygen transfer, and these variations resulted in seasonal changes of ORP distribution inside wetlands that were accompanied by fluctuations in pollutant removal and greenhouse gas emissions.     

Association of Ligamentum Flavum Hypertrophy with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Progression—Comparative Microarray Gene Expression Analysis

The role of the ligamentum flavum (LF) in the pathogenesis of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is not well understood. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), we investigated the degrees of LF hypertrophy in 18 patients without scoliosis and on the convex and concave sides of the apex of the curvature in 22 patients with AIS. Next, gene expression was compared among neutral vertebral LF and LF on the convex and concave sides of the apex of the curvature in patients with AIS. Histological and microarray analyses of the LF were compared among neutral vertebrae (control) and the LF on the apex of the curvatures. The mean area of LF in the without scoliosis, apical concave, and convex with scoliosis groups was 10.5, 13.5, and 20.3 mm², respectively. There were significant differences among the three groups (p < 0.05). Histological analysis showed that the ratio of fibers (Collagen/Elastic) was significantly increased on the convex side compared to the concave side (p < 0.05). Microarray analysis showed that ERC2 and MAFB showed significantly increased gene expression on the convex side compared with those of the concave side and the neutral vertebral LF cells. These genes were significantly associated with increased expression of collagen by LF cells (p < 0.05). LF hypertrophy was identified in scoliosis patients, and the convex side was significantly more hypertrophic than that of the concave side. ERC2 and MAFB genes were associated with LF hypertrophy in patients with AIS. These phenomena are likely to be associated with the progression of scoliosis.     

Signal Detection Performance of Overlapped FFT Scheme with Additional Frames Consisting of Non-continuous Samples in Indoor Environment

Overlapped FFT has been proposed as a signal detection scheme in dynamic spectrum access to reduce the variance of the noise and improve the detection probability. However, the improvement of the detection probability in the conventional overlapped FFT is bounded with the upper limit of the overlap ratio. This paper proposes a new overlapped FFT scheme using additional frames. In the proposed scheme, in addition to the original FFT frames, new frames that consist of multiple subframes with non-continuous samples are constructed and included. It can realize the increase of the number of the FFT frames and the improvement of the detection probability compared with the conventional scheme. Numerical results through computer simulation show that the proposed scheme improves the detection probability by up to 0.07. On indoor channel models the proposed scheme also improves the detection probability. In addition, it is clarified that as the delay spread increases the detection probability reduces due to the correlation between the frames.     

Two Step Timing Synchronization Scheme for OFDM Signal in General Purpose Processor Based Software Defined Radio Receiver

Software defined radio (SDR) is a technology that allows a single terminal to support various kinds of wireless systems by changing its software to reconfigure itself. A general purpose processor (GPP) based SDR receiver platform named Sora has been recently developed by Microsoft. In the GPP based SDR receiver, timing synchronization of an OFDM signal consumes a significant amount of computational resources in the GPP. In this paper, a timing synchronization scheme which uses delayed correlation and matched filtering for the GPP based SDR platform is evaluated. The two stage timing synchronization scheme reduces the computational complexity by limiting the timing range of matched filtering. The proposed scheme reduces the amount of data transmission between the memory and the GPP of the SDR platform. It is shown through an experiment that the proposed scheme reduces the number of cycles for timing synchronization by up to 30 %.     

Analysis of locality of early-stage maturation in confluent state of human retinal pigment epithelial cells

Retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells were cultured on the laminin-coated and plain surfaces. The measurement of local nucleus density in non-stratified region, which correlated with formation of tight junction, is the indicator of the maturation, and the parameters can be applied to the evaluation of the early-stage maturation of RPE cells in culture.     

Direct Reprogramming and Induction of Human Dermal Fibroblasts to Differentiate into iPS-Derived Nucleus Pulposus-like Cells in 3D Culture

Intervertebral disc (IVD) diseases are common spinal disorders that cause neck or back pain in the presence or absence of an underlying neurological disorder. IVD diseases develop on the basis of degeneration, and there are no established treatments for degeneration. IVD diseases may therefore represent a candidate for the application of regenerative medicine, potentially employing normal human dermal fibroblasts (NHDFs) induced to differentiate into nucleus pulposus (NP) cells. Here, we used a three-dimensional culture system to demonstrate that ectopic expression of MYC, KLF4, NOTO, SOX5, SOX6, and SOX9 in NHDFs generated NP-like cells, detected using Safranin-O staining. Quantitative PCR, microarray analysis, and fluorescence-activated cell sorting revealed that the induced NP cells exhibited a fully differentiated phenotype. These findings may significantly contribute to the development of effective strategies for treating IVD diseases.     

Automated single nucleotide polymorphism typing using bead array in capillary tube

A low-cost and simple on-site technique for genotyping single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was developed. The technique is based on allele-specific primer PCR and the recently developed bead arrays in a single tip technique. The performance of the method was verified by genotyping four SNPs that correlate with cardiovascular diseases.     

On site experiments of the slanted soil treatment systems for domestic gray water.

In order to make a breakthrough for the acute problem of water shortage in the world, the key words "decentralization and re-use" are very important for new sustainable sanitation systems that will be developed. Therefore, we focused on a new treatments system called "a slanted soil treatment system" which combines a biotoilet system with a domestic grey water treatment system. Because this system is a low cost and compact system, the system can be easily introduced to homes in urban areas or in the suburbs of cities in many developing countries. In this study, we performed on site experiments carried out on Shikoku Island, Japan, for several years. We obtained the following results. The slanted soil treatment system could remove organic pollutants and total nitrogen and total phosphorus in grey water effectively. Furthermore, the system performance became high in the case of the high concentration of the influent water. The nitrification reaction and denitrification reaction were speculated to exist due to aerobic zones and anaerobic zones present in the slanted soil treatment system. The slanted soil treatment system could perform for approximately 3 years with zero maintenance. The plug flow model of 1st order reaction kinetics could describe the reaction in the slanted soil treatment system. However, it is necessary to improve the system to maintain the performance in all seasons.     

Use of real-time PCR to examine the relationship between ammonia oxidizing bacterial populations and nitrogen removal efficiency in a small decentralized treatment system 'Johkasou'.

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between ammonia oxidizing bacterial populations and biological nitrogen removal in a small on-site domestic wastewater treatment system "Johkasou". The population dynamics of ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in six full-scale advanced Johkasous was surveyed using real-time PCR assay over a period of one year. These Johkasous were selected to compare the AOB populations in different treatment performance. When the effluent NH4-N concentration was higher than 2 mg L(-1), it was difficult to meet the effluent standard of advanced Johkasous (T-N 10 mg L(-1)). In contrast, the nitrogen removal efficiency was hardly affected by nitrite oxidation and denitrification in these systems. In other words, ammonia oxidation was a rate-limiting step. Furthermore, we focused on the relationship between NH4-N loading per AOB cell and nitrogen removal. Real time PCR monitoring results demonstrated that it is important to regulate NH4-N loading per AOB cell below 210 pg cell(-1) day(-1) to meet the effluent standard of advanced Johkasou. It is considered that NH4-N loading per AOB cell is a useful parameter for determining suitable nitrogen loading and small decentralized system design.     

Staphylococcus aureus Infection-Related Glomerulonephritis with Dominant IgA Deposition

Since 1995, when we reported the case of a patient with glomerulonephritis with IgA deposition that occurred after a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection, many reports of MRSA infection-associated glomerulonephritis have accumulated. This disease is being systematized as Staphylococcus infection-associated glomerulonephritis (SAGN) in light of the apparent cause of infection, and as immunoglobulin A-dominant deposition infection-related glomerulonephritis (IgA-IRGN) in light of its histopathology. This glomerulonephritis usually presents as rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis or acute kidney injury with various degrees of proteinuria and microscopic hematuria along with an ongoing infection. Its renal pathology has shown several types of mesangial and/or endocapillary proliferative glomerulonephritis with various degrees of crescent formation and tubulointerstitial nephritis. IgA, IgG, and C₃ staining in the mesangium and along the glomerular capillary walls have been observed on immunofluorescence examinations. A marked activation of T cells, an increase in specific variable regions of the T-cell receptor β-chain-positive cells, hypercytokinemia, and increased polyclonal immune complexes have also been observed in this glomerulonephritis. In the development of this disease, staphylococcal enterotoxin may be involved as a superantigen, but further investigations are needed to clarify the mechanisms underlying this disease. Here, we review 336 cases of IgA-IRGN and 218 cases of SAGN.