Human Resource Development in Africa

SMART Africa Manifesto was endorsed by all countries of African Union in 2014. African countries have cooperated to enable innovation, communication and advocacy, capacity building and resource mobilization through ICT. SMART Africa Steering Committee recommended that African space program proposal with Japan was implemented in cooperation with African Union on space developments for achieving Sustainable Development Goals continuously and synergistically in February 2018. The University of Tokyo and Japan Space Systems have cooperated to provide capacity building programs about micro-satellite developments and Earth observation satellite data analysis techniques to African young engineers. 2 optical cameras as a pseudo-multi-spectral were loaded on the planned Japanese 3U-size satellite, RWASAT-1. Those cameras were expected to acquire data for land degradation, deforestation, agriculture and other objects. Japan Space Systems has had training programs about Earth observation satellite data analyses with open and free GIS software and ASTER datasets. Using open and free software and datasets made participants analyze sustainably after the programs. When African young engineers have abilities to develop and operate micro-satellites and to analyze Earth observation satellite data, they also have abilities to expand and share their space technologies to African countries through SMART Africa for African developments in near future

Diagnostic value of ventilation/perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography for bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome in patients after lung transplantation

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the diagnostic value of function volume/morphological volume ratio calculated from ventilation/perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography in distinguishing the lungs with bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS) from the lungs without this syndrome after lung transplantation and to assess its relationship with spirometry parameters. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively identified 84 consecutive lung transplant recipients and 13 donors who underwent ventilation/perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography. Differences in the function volume/morphological volume ratio of unilateral lungs were tested for significance between the lungs with and without BOS. Receiver operating characteristics and correlations between function volume/morphological volume ratios of bilateral lungs and forced expiratory volume in 1 s, forced vital capacity, and total lung capacity were analyzed. RESULTS: The function volume/morphological volume ratios of ventilation and perfusion images of unilateral lungs were significantly lower in lungs with BOS (each P CONCLUSION: The function volume/morphological volume ratio enables a semiquantitative assessment of ventilation and perfusion lung functions and is useful for diagnosing BOS after lung transplantation

Cytotoxic Effects of Fucoidan Nanoparticles against Osteosarcoma

In this study, we analyzed the size-dependent bioactivities of fucoidan by comparing the cytotoxic effects of native fucoidan and fucoidan lipid nanoparticles on osteosarcoma in vitro and in vivo. In vitro experiments indicated that nanoparticle fucoidan induced apoptosis of an osteosarcoma cell line more efficiently than native fucoidan. The more potent effects of nanoparticle fucoidan, relative to native fucoidan, were confirmed in vivo using a xenograft osteosarcoma model. Caco-2 cell transport studies showed that permeation of nanoparticle fucoidan was higher than native fucoidan. The higher bioactivity and superior bioavailability of nanoparticle fucoidan could potentially be utilized to develop novel therapies for osteosarcoma

Radiation-Induced Degradation Mechanism of X-ray SOI Pixel Sensors with Pinned Depleted Diode Structure

The X-ray Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) pixel sensor named XRPIX has been developed for the future X-ray astronomical satellite FORCE. XRPIX is capable of a wide-band X-ray imaging spectroscopy from below 1 keV to a few tens of keV with a good timing resolution of a few tens of $\mu$s. However, it had a major issue with its radiation tolerance to the total ionizing dose (TID) effect because of its thick buried oxide layer due to the SOI structure. Although new device structures introducing pinned depleted diodes dramatically improved radiation tolerance, it remained unknown how radiation effects degrade the sensor performance. Thus, this paper reports the results of a study of the degradation mechanism of XRPIX due to radiation using device simulations. In particular, mechanisms of increases in dark current and readout noise are investigated by simulation, taking into account the positive charge accumulation in the oxide layer and the increase in the surface recombination velocity at the interface between the sensor layer and the oxide layer. As a result, it is found that the depletion of the buried p-well at the interface increases the dark current, and that the increase in the sense-node capacitance increases the readout noise.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in IEEE-TN