On-site Energy Management by Integrating Campus Buildings and Optimizing Local Energy Systems ‒ Case Study of the Campus in Finland

This research describes the potential study on the impact of energy improvements of existing campus buildings by on-site energy management and operational strategies. The focus buildings in the campus were mainly built in the 1960s, and therefore it is time to carry out renovation work. In conjunction with the renovations, the aim is to improve the energy efficiency of the buildings, and to develop the functionality of the properties to meet the current requirements. Thus, in this study, the potentials of on-site energy generation and sharing in the cluster of campus buildings in Finland were studied. By means of optimisation method, the optimal combined heat and power systems capacity distribution and operation mode for minimizing annual primary energy consumption were simulated. The results show that the integration of buildings has an advantage of 23% of primary energy reduction for on-site energy management as compared with the present situation. Consequently, integrating buildings and optimizing on-site energy management can be one of effective strategies for minimizing primary energy consumption. Furthermore, the study to improve operation strategies of building service systems considering current space use in the buildings clarified that up to 13% of total energy use reduction is expected. The research work also proposes a way of providing environmental information to increase awareness of building energy usage in the campus

What leads young adults to cohabitation?: the effects of family status

This thesis concerns the effects of family structure in childhood and adolescence on cohabitation in young adulthood as a first union. In the United States, cohabitation has become more common as a first union in recent decades, and over half of people cohabit before their first marriage. Prior studies show that family life experiences have significant effects on a child’s own family formation. This study examines the effects of family structure in childhood on young adults’ first union formation, focusing on the choice of cohabitation over marriage and singlehood. The results show that cohabitation is promoted by (1) reduced education, (2) experiencing parental cohabitation, (3) living in an alternative family growing up, and (4) experiencing higher number of family status changes. Male unemployment, welfare allowance, religion and religiosity, race/ethnicity, and parental education also had significant influence on young adults’ cohabitation

The socialization of nontraditional family formation: cohabitation and nonmarital childbirth among young adults

Many young adults today grew up in various family forms and experienced family status changes such as parental divorce, single-parenthood, and family reformation. The claim of socialization theory that parents' attitudes and behaviors are transmitted to their children is indicative of what happens when children make the transition into adulthood and start to form their own families. I use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine the association between parental family behaviors and young adult children's first union type and nonmarital childbirth. In this dissertation, I employ the life course perspective by considering the entire family structure history from birth through adolescence, and I also employ the ecological systems perspectives by exploring the influence of the family structures of neighbors and school peers above and beyond that of family of origin. This dissertation contributes to the socialization literature by testing duration effects, gender differences, and race-ethnic differences of socialization. It also contributes to the nonmarital childbirth literature by analyzing nonmarital childbearing in cohabitation and outside of a coresidential union. Results show that cohabitation and nonmarital childbirth are common among today's young adults, suggesting that a retreat from the conventional course of family formation is a macro-level trend. However, this dissertation confirms the importance of socialization processes on first family formation. I found that socialization occurs both inside and outside of the family, and that duration effects of socialization exist. Furthermore, I found socialization effects of neighborhood family structure on first union type across all race-ethnic groups. However, school peers' parental family behaviors showed opposite effects on first union type in early adulthood for Blacks and Hispanics, suppressing the effect in the total sample. As for nonmarital childbirth, the socialization explanation was supported in simple analyses, but financial hardship and opportunity costs also had explanatory power. Overall, this dissertation shows that socialization helps to better understand nontraditional family formation processes, while it also illuminates the importance of taking race and family type variations into consideration in analysis

Image Database System for Japanese KOSODE Garments on Japan Gigabit Networks

A new image database system of Japanese KOSODE garments supplied from The National Museum of Japanese History was constructed for the effective distribution and display of high definition and super high definition still images, with the aid of the image retrieval. The new system is characterized by the automatic generation of the index images used for the image matching in the image retrieval, and the use of JPEG2000 for handling super-high definition still images. The automatic index image generation reduced the generation time from 35 min. to 110 sec. The system performance was actually tested over IPv4/IPv6 on the Japan Gigabit Networks

Growth Responses of Blueberry Softwood Cuttings to Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Enrichment

Softwood cuttings of \u27Earlyblue\u27, \u27Spartan\u27, \u27Blueray\u27, and \u27Bluecrop\u27 cultivars of highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) and those of the wild species Oobasunoki (Vaccinium smallii) were planted in a moisture peat moss medium and were grown in growth chambers at ambient (current atmospheric concentration) or elevated (1, 000 mg l ^1) levels of carbon dioxide from the July 16 to November 14, 2002. The experiment was finished on April 8, 2003. The carbon dioxide enrichment had a definite positive effect on the growth of blueberry softwood cuttings. The effect was manifested in improved rooting and surviving ratios, earlier root induction, longer roots, and increased branch growth. It was concluded that carbon dioxide application is a feasible means for achieving faster and efficient propagation of highbush blueberry softwood cuttings.CO_2 enrichmenthighbush blueberrypropagationsoftwood cutting

Participation in Sports Organizations and the Prevention of Functional Disability in Older Japanese: The AGES Cohort Study

Background: We sought to examine prospectively the difference in the association between incident functional disability and exercise with or without sports organization participation. Methods: The study was based on the Aichi Gerontological Evaluation Study (AGES) Cohort Study data. In October 2003, self-reported questionnaires were mailed to 29,374 non-disabled Japanese individuals aged 65 years or older. Of these, 13,310 individuals were introduced to the Study, and they were followed for 4 years. Analysis was carried out on 11,581 subjects who provided all necessary information for the analysis. Results: Analysis was carried out on incident functional disability by 4 groups of different combinations of performance of exercise and participation in a sports organization Active Participant (AP), Exercise Alone (EA), Passive Participant (PP) and Sedentary (S). Compared to the AP group, the EA group had a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.29 (1.02–1.64) for incident functional disability. No significant difference was seen with the PP group, with an HR of 1.16 (0.76–1.77). When a measure of social networks was added to the covariates, the HR of the EA group dropped to 1.27 (1.00–1.61), and significant differences disappeared. In contrast, it showed hardly any change when social support was added. Conclusion: The results suggested that, even with a regular exercise habit, incident functional disability may be better prevented when a person participates in a sports organization than when he/she does not. In addition, participation in a sports organization correlates positively with social networks, which may lead to a small decrease in incident functional disability

Pressurization facilitates adenovirus-mediated gene transfer into vein graft

AbstractWe investigated whether application of non-distending hydrostatic pressure facilitates gene transfer into vein grafts. An external jugular vein was placed in a chamber with 100 μl adenovirus solution at a titer of 1010 pfu/ml and was pressurized to up to 8 atm above ambient pressure for 10 min. Histochemical analysis demonstrated a positive transgene expression in all layers of the vessel wall. Gene transfer with 8 atm pressurization resulted in an approximately 50 times higher transgene expression than that without pressurization. Under 8 atm pressurization, the efficiency of gene transfer reached a plateau at 7.5 min. The application of hydrostatic pressure may improve the effectiveness of intraoperative genetic engineering of vein grafts

Assessment of Neutrophil Functional Activity following Prolonged Endurance Exercise

ntroduction: Neutrophils not only play an important role in host defense by migrating to the site of infection and producing reactive oxygen species (RO S), but also mediate pathological process in inflammatory tissue damage. Therefore, it is import ant not only to assess but also modulate neutrophil activities for disease prevention. We hav e reported that exhaustive exercise causes neutrophil priming (Suzuki et al. J. Appl. Physiol. , 81, 1213-1222, 1996) which might be associated wi th muscle damage (Suzuki et al. J. Appl. Physiol. , 87, 1360-1367, 1999), but antioxidant capacity is also activated following exercise (Suzuki et al. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. , 35, 348-355, 2003). In the present study, we examined the effects of endurance exercis e on neutrophil activation in relation with muscle damage (Sugama et al. EIR , 18, 115-126, 2012) and report the ex vivo findings based on a newly- developed neutrophil activity measurement system (S uzuki et al. Anticancer Res, 32, 2369-2376, 2012). Methods: Fourteen male triathletes participated in a duathlo n race consisted of 5 km of running, 40 km of cycling and 5 km of running. Venous blood sam ples were collected before, immediately after, 1.5 h and 3 h after the race. A mixture of blood an d luminol was layered on hydrogel (Mebiol Co., Kanagawa, Japan) in each tube and incubated for 60 min. The cell counts in the hydrogel were quantified as the migratory activity of neutrophils , whereas the ROS production was measured by luminol-dependent chemiluminescence. Serum concentr ation of myoglobin (Mb) as a marker of muscle damage and plasma reactive oxygen metabolite s (d-ROMs) as a marker of oxidative stress were also measured. Results: The migratory activity of neutrophils was significa ntly elevated immediately after exercise, further increased 1.5 h, and slightly decreased but remained significantly elevated 3 h after the race . ROS production of neutrophils was significantly ele vated 3 h after the race. Serum Mb concentration increased significantly after exercise and correlat ed positively with the migratory activity of neutrophils, suggesting that neutrophils could infi ltrate into the injured muscle. On the other hand, plasma d-ROMs tended to correlate with ROS producti on, indicating that exercise-induced oxidative stress can be explained at least in part by the ROS production from neutrophils. Conclusions: This new method for measuring neutrophil activitie s can be applied not only for assessing the status of inflammation and oxidative stress in exhaustive exercise, but also as a method for evaluating the efficacy of antioxidant and anti -inflammatory substances for reducing muscle damage