Ubiquitous Environment Control System: An Internet-of- Things–Based Decentralized Autonomous Measurement and Control System for a Greenhouse Environment

A low-cost and flexible system for environmental measurement and control in greenhouses based on decentralized autonomous technics, Ubiquitous Environment Control System (UECS), was proposed in 2004. The UECS is composed of autonomous nodes as the minimum units of measurement and control. The nodes can connect with each other through Ethernet or Wi-Fi and can communicate information regardless of manufacturer or model. To realize automation and efficiency of protected horticultural production, two consortia for UECS development and extension were established. During the last 10 years, the UECS has been used to apply environment control in large-scale greenhouses and plant factories. The stability and utility of the UECS have been demonstrated and verified in these practical cultivations. Current research and development are being carried out to install information and communication technology (ICT) systems to improve productivity in existing small- to medium-scale greenhouses in Japan. The flexibility and concept of the UECS have been very effective to enable sophisticated environmental control technology to be applied to small- and medium-scale greenhouses. In this chapter, self-fabricated UECS, the renewal of old environmental control systems using the UECS, and Sub-GHz radio band use for communicating UECS nodes among distributed greenhouses are discussed

Selective Effects of Emi1 Depletion in Cancer

Background: To improve the effectiveness of chemo- and radiotherapy only in cancer tissue is important for avoiding side effects. Results: Emi1 depletion enhanced the sensitivity of anticancer reagents and X-ray irradiation in cancer cells. Conclusion: Emi1 siRNA would be a useful new modality for enhancing the effect of chemo- and radiotherapy in various tumors. Significance: This work provides new insights regarding synergistic effect of Emi1 knockdown in combination therapies

EXTENDED TANGENTIAL-SUBLOADING SURFACE MODEL FOR GENERAL LOADING BEHAVIOR OF SOILS : APPLICATION TO NONPROPORTIONAL LOADINGS

The conventional elastoplastic model premising that the interior of yield surface is a purely elastic domain is incapable of describing the plastic deformation by the rate of stress inside the yield surface. Thus, it is inapplicable to the description of cyclic loading behavior. Besides, the traditional elastoplastic model is independent of the stress rate component tangential to the yield surface. Therefore, it predicts an unrealistically high stiffness modulus for nonproportionalloading process deviating significantly from proportional one. The extended tangential-subloading surface model proposed by Hashiguchi and Tsutsumi (2001) would be capable of describing the cyclic loading behavior and the inelastic strain rate induced by the stress rate component tangential to the subloading surface. In this article, the extended tangential-subloading surface model is applied to the prediction of deformation behavior of sands subjected to various loading ranging from proportional to cyclic nonproportionalloading. The validity is verified by comparing with the various test data. Then, it is revealed that the incorporation of the strain rate due to the stress rate component tangential to the subloading surface is of importance for the description of nonproportional loading behavior

Heterochromatin domain number correlates with x-ray and carbon-ion radiation resistance in cancer cells.

Although it is known that cancer cells can develop radiation resistance after repeated exposures to X rays, the underlying mechanisms and characteristics of this radiation-induced resistance of cancer cells are not well understood. Additionally, it is not known whether cells that develop X-ray resistance also would develop resistance to other types of radiation such as heavy-ions including carbon ions (C-ion). In this study, we established X-ray resistant cancer cell lines by delivering repeated exposures to X rays, and then assessed whether the cells were resistant to carbon ions. The mouse squamous cell carcinoma cell line, NR-S1, was X irradiated six times with 10 Gy, and the X-ray resistant cancer cells named X60 and ten subclones were established. Significant X-ray resistance was induced in four of the subclones (X60, X60-H2, X60-A3 and X60-B12). The X60 cells and all of the subclones were resistant to carbon ions. The correlation analysis between radioresistance and morphological characteristics of these cells showed that X-ray (R = 0.74) and C-ion (R = 0.79) resistance correlated strongly with the number of heterochromatin domains. Moreover, the numbers of γ-H2AX foci remaining in irradiated X60 cells and radioresistant subclones X60-A3 and X60-H2 were lower than in the NR-S1 cells after X-ray or C-ion irradiation, indicating that X60 cells and the radioresistant subclones rapidly repaired the DNA double-strand breaks compared with NR-S1 cells. Our findings suggest that the underlying causal mechanisms of X-ray and C-ion radiation resistance may overlap, and that an increase in heterochromatin domain number may be an indicator of X-ray and C-ion resistance