The effects of floating islands planted with various hydrophytes for water quality improvement

This study was carried out for measurement of total nitrogen and total phosphorus removal effiency by each hydrophyte (Scirpus tabernaemontani, Iris pseudoacorus, Phragmites australis, Tyha angustifolia), control and All (Scirpus tabernaemontani, Iris pseudoacorus, Phragmites australis, Typha anfustifolia planted) 22 ℓ batch reactors. The highest total nitrogen removal efficiency was using 94.8% of All. The highest total phosphorus removal efficiency was 85.1% of Typha angustifolia. The effects of floating islands ont the changes in phytoplankton community structure were investigated in a small artificial pond. The floating islands planted with various emergent macrophytes coverd 35% of total water surface area of the pond. Total 17 genera and 25 species of phytoplankton were found in the pond, of which Dinophyceae was 1 genera and 1species, Cyanophyceae 1 genera and 1 species, Bacillariophycear 6 genera and 8 species, and Chlorophyceae 9 genera and 15 species. Dominant phytoplnaktons under floating islands were changes from Aphanizomenon sp. as a Cyanophycear for 56 days after the construction of floating islands on July 24, 2001. The changes of dominant phytoplanktons of the control without floating islands were similar to those under floating islands in July and August, but Aphanizomenon sp. was rapidly increased in the control sites in September. About 99% of the cell number of Aphanizomenon sp. was disappeared for a month after construction of floating islands. Our results showed that the floating islands could be a useful eco-technique for the control of water bloom by Cyanophyceae and Chlorophyceae in a pond ecosystem.Article信州大学山地水環境教育研究センター研究報告 2: 121-126(2004)departmental bulletin pape

The Devil in the Details: Simple and Effective Optical Flow Synthetic Data Generation

Recent work on dense optical flow has shown significant progress, primarily in a supervised learning manner requiring a large amount of labeled data. Due to the expensiveness of obtaining large scale real-world data, computer graphics are typically leveraged for constructing datasets. However, there is a common belief that synthetic-to-real domain gaps limit generalization to real scenes. In this paper, we show that the required characteristics in an optical flow dataset are rather simple and present a simpler synthetic data generation method that achieves a certain level of realism with compositions of elementary operations. With 2D motion-based datasets, we systematically analyze the simplest yet critical factors for generating synthetic datasets. Furthermore, we propose a novel method of utilizing occlusion masks in a supervised method and observe that suppressing gradients on occluded regions serves as a powerful initial state in the curriculum learning sense. The RAFT network initially trained on our dataset outperforms the original RAFT on the two most challenging online benchmarks, MPI Sintel and KITTI 2015

Observing in space and time the ephemeral nucleation of liquid-to-crystal phase transitions

The phase transition of crystalline ordering is a general phenomenon, but its evolution in space and time requires microscopic probes for visualization. Here we report direct imaging of the transformation of amorphous titanium dioxide nanofilm, from the liquid state, passing through the nucleation step and finally to the ordered crystal phase. Single-pulse transient diffraction profiles at different times provide the structural transformation and the specific degree of crystallinity (??) in the evolution process. It is found that the temporal behaviour of ?? exhibits unique 'two-step' dynamics, with a robust 'plateau' that extends over a microsecond; the rate constants vary by two orders of magnitude. Such behaviour reflects the presence of intermediate structure(s) that are the precursor of the ordered crystal state. Theoretically, we extend the well-known Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov equation, which describes the isothermal process with a stretched-exponential function, but here over the range of times covering the melt-to-crystal transformation. © 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited.open

Mesenchymal stem cells genetically engineered to express platelet-derived growth factor and heme oxygenase-1 ameliorate osteoarthritis in a canine model

Background Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are used for the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA), and MSC genetic engineering is expected to enhance cartilage repair. Here, we aimed to investigate the effect of MSCs overexpressing platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) or heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) in chondrocytes and synovial cells with an OA phenotype and assess the in vivo efficacy of intra-articular injections of these MSCs in canine OA models. Methods Canine adipose-derived MSCs were transfected with canine PDGF (PDGF-MSCs) or HO-1 (HO-1-MSCs) using lentiviral vectors. Canine chondrocytes or synovial cells were stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to mimic the inflammatory OA model and then co-cultured with MSCs, PDGF-MSCs, or HO-1-MSCs for 24 h and 72 h. The mRNA levels of pro-inflammatory, extracellular matrix-degradative/synthetic, or pain-related factors were measured after co-culture by real-time PCR. Furthermore, a surgery-induced canine OA model was established and the dogs were randomized into four groups: normal saline (n = 4), MSCs (n = 4), PDGF-MSCs (n = 4), and HO-1-MSCs (n = 4). The OA symptoms, radiographic OA severity, and serum matrix metallopeptidase (MMP)-13 levels were assessed before and 10 weeks after treatment, to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the modified MSCs. Results PDGF or HO-1 overexpression significantly reduced the expression of pro-inflammatory factors, MMP-13, and nerve growth factor elicited by LPS and increased that of aggrecan and collagen type 2 in chondrocytes (P < 0.05). In addition, the expression of aggrecanases was significantly downregulated in synovial cells, whereas that of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases was upregulated (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the co-cultured MSCs highly expressed genes that contributed to the maintenance of joint homeostasis (P < 0.05). In vivo studies showed that OA symptoms improved after administration of all MSCs. Also, PDGF-MSCs significantly improved limb function and reduced pain (P < 0.05). The results of the radiographic assessment and serum MMP-13 levels did not vary significantly compared to those of the control. Conclusions Genetically modifying PDGF and HO-1 in MSCs is an effective strategy for treating OA, suggesting that PDGF-MSCs can be novel therapeutic agents for improving OA symptoms

Cost-effectiveness of a medication event monitoring system for tuberculosis management in Morocco

BACKGROUND: Digital health technologies have been used to enhance adherence to TB medication, but the cost-effectiveness remains unclear. METHODS: We used the real data from the study conducted from April 2014 to December 2020 in Morocco using a smart pillbox with a web-based medication monitoring system, called Medication Event Monitoring Systems (MEMS). Cost-effectiveness was evaluated using a decision analysis model including Markov model for Multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB from the health system perspective. The primary outcome was the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) per disability adjusted life-year (DALY) averted. Two-way sensitive analysis was done for the treatment success rate between MEMS and standard of care. RESULTS: The average total per-patient health system costs for treating a new TB patient under MEMS versus standard of care were $398.70 and$155.70, respectively. The MEMS strategy would reduce the number of drug-susceptible TB cases by 0.17 and MDR-TB cases by 0.01 per patient over five years. The ICER of MEMS was $434/DALY averted relative to standard of care, and was most susceptible to the TB treatment success rate of both strategies followed by the managing cost of MEMS. CONCLUSION: MEMS is considered cost-effective for managing infectious active TB in Morocco

Efficacy of vitamin and antioxidant supplements in prevention of cardiovascular disease: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials

Objective : To assess the efficacy of vitamin and antioxidant supplements in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Design : Meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Data sources and study selection : PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, Scopus, CINAHL, and ClinicalTrials.gov searched in June and November 2012. Two authors independently reviewed and selected eligible randomised controlled trials, based on predetermined selection criteria. Results : Out of 2240 articles retrieved from databases and relevant bibliographies, 50 randomised controlled trials with 294 478 participants (156 663 in intervention groups and 137 815 in control groups) were included in the final analyses. In a fixed effect meta-analysis of the 50 trials, supplementation with vitamins and antioxidants was not associated with reductions in the risk of major cardiovascular events (relative risk 1.00, 95% confidence interval 0.98 to 1.02; I-2=42%). Overall, there was no beneficial effect of these supplements in the subgroup meta-analyses by type of prevention, type of vitamins and antioxidants, type of cardiovascular outcomes, study design, methodological quality, duration of treatment, funding source, provider of supplements, type of control, number of participants in each trial, and supplements given singly or in combination with other supplements. Among the subgroup meta-analyses by type of cardiovascular outcomes, vitamin and antioxidant supplementation was associated with a marginally increased risk of angina pectoris, while low dose vitamin B-6 supplementation was associated with a slightly decreased risk of major cardiovascular events. Those beneficial or harmful effects disappeared in subgroup meta-analysis of high quality randomised controlled trials within each category. Also, even though supplementation with vitamin B-6 was associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular death in high quality trials, and vitamin E supplementation with a decreased risk of myocardial infarction, those beneficial effects were seen only in randomised controlled trials in which the supplements were supplied by the pharmaceutical industry.Conclusion There is no evidence to support the use of vitamin and antioxidant supplements for prevention of cardiovascular diseases.OAIID:oai:osos.snu.ac.kr:snu2013-01/102/0000052039/7SEQ:7PERF_CD:SNU2013-01EVAL_ITEM_CD:102USER_ID:0000052039ADJUST_YN:YEMP_ID:A077862DEPT_CD:806CITE_RATE:14.093FILENAME:Efficacy of vitamin and antioxidant supplements in prevention of cardiovascular disease.pdfDEPT_NM:의과학과EMAIL:[email protected]_YN:YCONFIRM:

Additive Value of B-Type Natriuretic Peptide on Rest 201Tl-Dipyridamole Stress 99mTc-Sestamibi Gated Myocardial SPECT in Patients with Normal Left Ventricular Systolic Function

We evaluated whether BNP has additive value to SPECT in patients with normal left ventricular (LV) systolic function. Data from 224 consecutive patients who underwent rest 201Tl-dipyridamole stress 99mTc-sestamibi gated SPECT and coronary angiography due to chest pain were analyzed. Patients with true positive SPECT showed significant higher BNP level than those with false positive defect (38.5 (19.0–79.8) versus 19.0 (9.3–35.8), P = .01). Patients with true negative SPECT also showed significantly lower BNP level than those with false negative SPECT (39.0 (23.0–77.0) versus 22.0 (15.0–43.0), P = .002). In multivariate analyses, elevated BNP level (using a cut-off value of 23.0 pg/mL) was the strongest and independent predictor of CAD in overall patients (OR 2.75, 95% CI: 1.50–5.023, P = .001) and patients with positive SPECT (OR 3.34, 95% CI: 1.51–7.37, P = .003). The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve for CAD in overall patients and patients with positive SPECT was 0.673 (95% CI: 0.603–0.743, P < .001) and 0.694 (95% CI: 0.602–0.786, P < .001), respectively. This study suggests that BNP level has additive diagnostic value to SPECT findings in predicting CAD in patients with normal LV systolic function