Runoff Model Development and Validation for Afforestation in Arid Land of Western Australia

Abstract: As a countermeasure against global warming, large scale afforestation of arid land has been done by fixing atmospheric CO 2 into plants. In arid land, however most of the rainwater is lost by runoff and evaporation. Effective use of rainwater is required for afforestation. Thus, we made an original runoff model to evaluate water distribution in a research area. In this study, we report determination of parameters in the original runoff model with Digital Elevation Model (DEM) to estimate water movement for the selection of afforestation place. From the comparison of actual and numerical results, the two sensitive parameters were decided and the characteristics of runoff water movement were elucidated hydrologically. Moreover, validation on expansion of mesh size for application of this model in large scale area was done. However, numerical results with large size mesh hadn't been approximated to small size mesh, because of roughness information of large size mesh. It was our assignment of future investigation. Keywords: Afforestation, DEM, Mesh size, Runoff, Simulation Introduction For the mitigation of global warming issue, a large scale afforestation of arid land has been promoted to fix atmospheric carbon on land which is not effectively used. Arid land area is huge in the world but the most important problem is lack of water for afforestation because of the small amount of rainfall and occurrence of runoff on soil surface. Most of runoff water is evaporated without using for plants, therefore, it is necessary to use runoff water effectively for arid land afforestation. The authors have demonstrated the improve the land condition for afforestation by introducing artificial technologies The purpose of this study is to estimate the distribution of runoff water by using the original runoff model for selection of the best afforestation places. In this report, two sensitive parameters in the original runoff model were decided to estimate water movement for the selection of afforestation place. Moreover, expansion of mesh size by using our model was validated to calculate in large scale area

Comparison of the clinical performance and usefulness of five SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests

We examined the usefulness of five COVID-19 antibody detection tests using 114 serum samples at various time points from 34 Japanese COVID-19 patients. We examined Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 from Roche, and four immunochromatography tests from Hangzhou Laihe Biotech, Artron Laboratories, Chil, and Nadal. In the first week after onset, Elecsys had 40% positivity in Group S (severe cases) but was negative in Group M (mild-moderate cases). The immunochromatography kits showed 40–60% and 0–8% positivity in Groups S and M, respectively. In the second week, Elecsys showed 75% and 50% positivity, and the immunochromatography tests showed 5–80% and 50–75% positivity in Groups S and M, respectively. After the third week, Elecsys showed 100% positivity in both groups. The immunochromatography kits showed 100% positivity in Group S. In Group M, positivity decreased to 50% for Chil and 75–89% for Artron and Lyher. Elecsys and immunochromatography kits had 91–100% specificity. Elecsys had comparable chronological change of cut-off index values in the two groups from the second week to the sixth week. The current SARS-CoV-2 antibody detection tests do not provide meaningful interpretation of severity and infection status. Its use might be limited to short-term epidemiological studies

マングローブ生態系における窒素循環解析 : 西南日本石垣島吹通川河口域のマングローブ林における事例研究

博士(理学)doctoral理工学研究科静岡大学甲第374号ET

Teaching Tuvan Language to Japanese Learners

One author of this article (Kaori Sawada) lived in the Republic of Tuva and studied Tuvan throat singing (xöömei) and Tuvan language from 2011 to 2017. She is an interpreter between Tuvan and Japanese languages, currently teaching Tuvan in Japan. The fans of Tuvan culture in Japan are holding their interests since 2011, however, the numbers of Japanese people making their efforts to study Tuvan language are few. The purpose of this article is to discuss the problems and the reactions of the students during the teaching practices of Tuvan language in Japan and to share our opinions, referring to this author’s experience of studying Tuvan language in the Tuvan State University, about the solution of the problems, effective systems and learning materials. The article also presents the outcomes of a survey of Japanese studying Tuvan language. The questionnaire-based survey was held in December 2017 on Facebook aimed to clarify some of the complexities faced by Japanese students of Tuvan. Of the 8 respondents, all were fans of xöömei and musicians who were highly interested in Tuvan culture. They could be seen as potential popularizers of Tuvan culture in Japan. The authors provide examples of difficulties the Japanese students of Tuvan can face and explain the reasons for these problems. The article concludes with a number of practical recommendations on how to make teaching Tuvan language to Japanese learners more efficient

Isolation and Characterization of Basidiomycetous Yeasts Capable of Producing Phytase under Oligotrophic Conditions

Phytic acid is an organic phosphorus source naturally produced by plants as phosphorus stock and can be an alternative to rock phosphate, which is a dwindling resource globally. However, phytic acid is insoluble, owing to its binding to divalent metals and is, thus, not readily bioavailable for plants and monogastric livestock. Therefore, the enzyme phytase is indispensable for hydrolyzing phytic acid to liberate free phosphates for nutritional availability, making the screening of novel phytase-producing microbes an attractive research focus to agriculture and animal feed industries. In the present study, a soil-extract-based culture medium was supplemented with phytic acid as the sole phosphorus source and oligotrophic phytase-producing strains, which had not been previously studied, were isolated. Four fungal strains with phytic acid, assimilation activities were isolated. They were found to produce phytase in the culture supernatants and phylogenetic analysis identified three strains as basidiomycetous yeasts (Saitozyma, Leucosporidium, and Malassezia) and one strain as an ascomycetous fungus (Chaetocapnodium). The optimal pH for phytase activity of the strains was 6.0–7.0, suggesting that they are suitable for industrial applications as feed supplements or fertilizer additives for farmland