Sustainable Downtown Development for the Tsunami-Prepared Urban Revitalization of Regional Coastal Cities

Regional cities in Japan are facing a decline in the downtown area owing to urban expansion and a decrease in the population. Promoting downtown living is indispensable for the realization of downtown revitalization. Since many coastal cities originally developed outward from a port, their downtown areas are located near the coast and are at high risk of tsunamis. The purpose of this research is to reveal the effectiveness of dealing with the above two issues in parallel by evaluating the Deae-ru Saiwai estate, a public housing relocation project in downtown Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan that incorporates a tsunami evacuation facility with questionnaires and a GIS survey. Placing public housing in the downtown area shortens the distance to public facilities and improves the convenience of the surrounding environment for many residents. Installing the tsunami evacuation facility improves the feeling of reassurance of residents who would feel anxiety about immigration with regards to tsunamis. This research has clarified the synergistic effect of dealing with the daily and emergency issues in parallel for promoting downtown living. Planning downtown revitalization and disaster prevention concurrently, which has been separated so far, is a fundamental planning approach for urban revitalization in regional coastal cities

Quantitative estimation method for urban areas to develop compact cities in view of unprecedented population decline

In Japan, high economic growth after the war brought about disorderly urban sprawl. The government then enforced an "area division system," which divided city planning areas into "urbanization promotion areas" (UPA) and "urbanization control areas" (UCA). This system maintains the existing UPA size almost unconditionally and, in addition, aims to incorporate parts of UCA into UPA by the size corresponding to new housing demands, which is based on an incremental of the future population prediction. Therefore, there was no need for an objective judgment criterion to verify that the total size of the expanded UPA was suitable for the population size; there are also no related previous studies. Nevertheless, this was not recognized as a major problem when local government finances were abundant due to population increase. However, in Japan, the arrival of an era of unprecedented population decline is certain; maintaining a huge number of urban facilities at the current UPA size could seriously damage local government finance. Shrinking UPAs are an urgent issue and it is time to seriously discuss the appropriate UPA size for the size of the population. In this study, we developed a quantitative estimation method of UPA size, commensurate with population size, through regression analysis of the relationship between population and UPA size. This estimation method is based on the strong correlation between population and UPA size, therefore it can be used as a judgment criterion for local governments to reach appropriate UPA sizes when considering compact cities

Multiple-Subunit Genes of the Aromatic-Ring-Hydroxylating Dioxygenase Play an Active Role in Biphenyl and Polychlorinated Biphenyl Degradation in Rhodococcus sp. Strain RHA1

A gram-positive strong polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) degrader, Rhodococcus sp. strain RHA1, can degrade PCBs by cometabolism with biphenyl or ethylbenzene. In RHA1, three sets of aromatic-ring-hydroxylating dioxygenase genes are induced by biphenyl. The large and small subunits of their terminal dioxygenase components are encoded by bphA1 and bphA2, etbA1 and etbA2, and ebdA1 and ebdA2, respectively, and the deduced amino acid sequences of etbA1 and etbA2 are identical to those of ebdA1 and ebdA2, respectively. In this study, we examined the involvement of the respective subunit genes in biphenyl/PCB degradation by RHA1. Reverse transcription-PCR and two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analyses indicated the induction of RNA and protein products of etbA1 and ebdA1 by biphenyl. Single- and double-disruption mutants of etbA1, ebdA1, and bphA1 were constructed by insertional inactivation. The 4-chlorobiphenyl (4-CB) degradation activities of all the mutants were lower than that of RHA1. The results indicated that all of these genes are involved in biphenyl/PCB degradation. Furthermore, we constructed disruption mutants of ebdA3 and bphA3, encoding ferredoxin, and etbA4, encoding ferredoxin reductase components. The 4-CB degradation activities of these mutants were also lower than that of RHA1, suggesting that all of these genes play a role in biphenyl/PCB degradation. The substrate preferences of etbA1A2/ebdA1A2- and bphA1A2-encoded dioxygenases for PCB congeners were examined using the corresponding mutants. The results indicated that these dioxygenase isozymes have different substrate preferences and that the etbA1A2/ebdA1A2-encoded isozyme is more active on highly chlorinated congeners than the bphA1A2-encoded one

Association of serum adiponectin and myostatin levels with skeletal muscle in patients with obesity: A cross-sectional study.

BackgroundAdiponectin has been reported to be associated with lower skeletal muscle mass and skeletal strength and may be involved in skeletal muscle regulation along with myostatin. This study aims to evaluate the association between serum adiponectin and myostatin levels and identify independent factors using body composition and metabolic parameters in patients with obesity.MethodsOverall, 148 patients (age, 45.9 ± 14.3 years, body mass index, 37.2 ± 8.0 kg/m2) who initially visited the outpatient clinic of obesity between November 2013 and November 2019 were included. Body composition was measured using InBody 720 and dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. In addition, muscle strength, vascular function, and metabolic parameters were measured. Serum levels of adiponectin, leptin, myostatin, and irisin were measured from blood samples.ResultsThe serum adiponectin level was 2.9 μg/mL (1.7-4.1 μg/mL), and the serum myostatin level was 2398.4 pg/mL (1,777.1-2952.5 pg/mL). The stepwise regression analysis revealed less leg strength, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance, and C-reactive protein as an independent predictor of serum adiponectin levels based on the significance of the univariate analysis (R2 = 0.190, P ConclusionThe serum adiponectin level was associated with less muscle strength. Although serum myostatin was associated with a high appendicular lean mass, it is possible that myostatin was regulated by the percentage of body weight from appendicular lean mass