Kidney and Urinary Tract Involvement in Kawasaki Disease

Kawasaki disease (KD) is a systemic vasculitis and can develop multiple organ injuries including kidney and urinary tract involvement. These disorders include pyuria, prerenal acute kidney injury (AKI), renal AKI caused by tubulointerstitial nephritis (TIN), hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), and immune-complex mediated nephropathy, renal AKI associated with either Kawasaki disease shock syndrome or unknown causes, acute nephritic syndrome (ANS), nephrotic syndrome (NS), renal tubular abnormalities, renal abnormalities in imaging studies, and renal artery lesions (aneurysms and stenosis). Pyuria is common in KD and originates from the urethra and/or the kidney. TIN with AKI and renal tubular abnormalities probably result from renal parenchymal inflammation caused by T-cell activation. HUS and renal artery lesions are caused by vascular endothelial injuries resulting from vasculitis. Some patients with ANS have immunological abnormalities associated with immune-complex formation. Nephromegaly and renal parenchymal inflammatory foci are detected frequently in patients with KD by renal ultrasonography and renal scintigraphy, respectively. Although the precise pathogenesis of KD is not completely understood, renal vasculitis, immune-complex mediated kidney injuries, or T-cell immune-regulatory abnormalities have been proposed as possible mechanisms for the development of kidney and urinary tract injuries

Siegert pseudostate perturbation theory: one- and two-threshold cases

Perturbation theory for the Siegert pseudostates (SPS) [Phys.Rev.A 58, 2077 (1998) and Phys.Rev.A 67, 032714 (2003)] is studied for the case of two energetically separated thresholds. The perturbation formulas for the one-threshold case are derived as a limiting case whereby we reconstruct More's theory for the decaying states [Phys.Rev.A 3,1217(1971)] and amend an error. The perturbation formulas for the two-threshold case have additional terms due to the non-standard orthogonality relationship of the Siegert Pseudostates. We apply the theory to a 2-channel model problem, and find the rate of convergence of the perturbation expansion should be examined with the aide of the variance $D= ||E-\sum_{n}\lambda^n E^{(n)}||$ instead of the real and imaginary parts of the perturbation energy individually

Municipal Wastewater Irrigation for Rice Cultivation

In scene of worrisome water shortage, municipal wastewater has been gradually accepted as an alternative water resource containing important nutrients for irrigation. Rice cultivation, which is one of the main crops feeding global population and requires plenty of water for its effective growth, has been often irrigated by municipal wastewater in many countries. While irrigation of municipal wastewater for rice cultivation must bring benefits for farmers mainly by increased yield with less amount of fertilizers, it also has potential to cause drawbacks to human health and the environment. This chapter discusses about these aspects based on scientific works and practical experiences of municipal wastewater irrigation for rice production as well as the introduction of our concept to cultivate rice for animal feeding with irrigation of treated wastewater, which can contribute to resource circulation between urban and rural areas. The feasibility study under this concept has demonstrated that the target value of rice yield can be achieved and protein‐rich rice preferable for animal feed can be harvested with irrigation of properly treated municipal wastewater