Background: The effect of velamentous cord insertion (VCI) on perinatal outcomes in twin pregnancies is unclear due to conflicting findings. This retrospective study aimed to examine VCI prevalence and related risk factors in twin pregnancies and its association with adverse perinatal outcomes. Methods: Women with twin pregnancies who delivered between January 2012 and December 2021 in a single tertiary hospital were included. The participants were divided into dichorionic (DC) and monochorionic diamniotic (MCDA) groups, and their maternal and fetal characteristics and VCI rates were compared. Logistic regression models were used to identify risk factors for VCI and VCI-related perinatal outcomes. Results: Among the 694 twin pregnancies included in this study, the VCI rate was significantly higher in MCDA than in DC twins. Body mass index and MCDA twins were significant risk factors for VCI, whereas assisted reproductive technology pregnancy was a significant protective factor against VCI. In DC twins, VCI did not affect perinatal outcomes. Conclusion: In MCDA twins, VCI was a significant risk factor for fetal growth restriction, twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, and preterm birth at

We conducted a retrospective evaluation of the clinical outcomes and prognostic factors in patients with non-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (nmCRPC) treated with first-line androgen receptor signaling inhibitors (ARSI) in real-world clinical practice in Japan. Between 2012 and 2023, a total of 127 consecutive patients with nmCRPC received ARSI treatment. Overall survival (OS), metastatic-free survival (MFS), and prostate-specific antigen progression–free survival (PSA-PFS) from ARSI initiation were assessed using Kaplan–Meier methodology. Clinical factors associated with OS in nmCRPC were analyzed using the Cox proportional hazards model. Among the patients, 72, 26, 12, and 17 received enzalutamide (ENZ), abiraterone (ABI), apalutamide (APA), and darolutamide (DARO) as first-line therapy. The median OS and MFS for all patients were 79.0 and 42.0 months, respectively. Median PSA-PFS was 27.0, 20.0, 10.0, and 14.0 months for patients treated with ENZ, ABI, APA, and DARO, respectively (p = 0.33). Multivariate analysis revealed that a baseline PSA level ≥3.67 ng/ml at ARSI initiation was significantly associated with poorer OS (p = 0.002). ARSI demonstrated favorable efficacy in nmCRPC patients. There were no significant differences in clinical outcomes among different types of ARSI therapy for nmCRP. Elevated baseline PSA at ARSI initiation was significantly associated with poorer OS.

Background/Objectives: Women with subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) were reported to be at an increased perinatal risk. We aimed to investigate the relationship between SCH and perinatal outcomes in singleton pregnancies resulting from assisted reproduction technology (ART). Methods: We retrospectively examined the perinatal outcomes of ART singleton pregnancies in women who underwent thyroid function screening before conception and delivered at our hospital from January 2020 to July 2023. We defined SCH as thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels <2.5 mU/L and normal free T₄ levels. The patients were divided into three groups: normal thyroid function (group A), SCH without levothyroxine therapy (group B), and SCH with levothyroxine therapy (group C). The risks of preterm birth, preeclampsia, fetal growth restriction, manual placental removal, and blood loss at delivery were compared among the three groups. Results: Out of the 650 ART singleton deliveries, 581 were placed in group A, 34 in group B, and 35 in group C. The preterm birth rate at <34 weeks was significantly higher in group B and significantly lower in group C than in group A. The rate of preterm delivery at <34 weeks increased in correlation with TSH levels. Levothyroxine therapy was the significant preventive factor for preterm birth at <34 weeks. Conclusions: The preterm birth rate before 34 weeks was significantly higher in the SCH group. Levothyroxine therapy is a significant protective factor against preterm birth before 34 weeks. Universal screening for thyroid function and appropriate hormone therapy in pregnant women may help reduce perinatal risks, including preterm birth.

Cancer treatment is a significant focus in medicine owing to the increasing global incidence. Patients with advanced cancers that do not respond to conventional therapies have limited options and an unfavorable prognosis. Consequently, researchers are investigating complementary approaches to conventional treatments. One such approach is alkalization therapy, which aims to neutralize the acidic tumor microenvironment (TME) by increasing its pH level. The acidic TME promotes inflammation, tumor progression, and drug resistance. Alkalization therapy has been demonstrated to be effective for various cancers. In addition, natural products, such as triterpenoids, parthenolides, fulvic acid, Taxus yunnanensis, and apple pectin have the potential to alleviate symptoms, maintain physical fitness, and improve treatment outcomes of cancer patients through their anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anticancer properties. In this review, we focus on the effects of alkalization therapy and natural products on cancer. Furthermore, we present a case series of advanced cancer patients who received alkalization therapy and natural products alongside standard treatments, resulting in long-term survival. We posit that alkalization therapy together with the supplementation of natural products may confer benefits to cancer patients by mitigating the side effects of chemotherapy and complementing standard treatments. However, further research is warranted to validate these clinical findings.

In this work, zinc oxide (ZnO)/ granular activated carbon (GAC) composites at different ZnO concentration (0.25M-ZnO@GAC, 0.5M-ZnO@GAC, and 0.75M-ZnO@GAC) were prepared by an in-situ hydrothermal method and demonstrated synergistic photocatalytic degradation and ad-sorption of Rhodamine B (RhB). The thermal stability, morphological structure, elemental com-position, crystallographic structure, and textural properties of developed catalysts were charac-terized by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA/DTG), scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy dispersive-x-ray (SEM-EDS), x-ray diffraction (XRD), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis. Successful loading of ZnO onto GAC was confirmed by SEM-EDS and XRD analysis. The BET surface areas of GAC, 0.25M-ZnO@GAC, 0.5M-ZnO@GAC, and 0.75M-ZnO@GAC were 474 m2/g, 450 m2/g, 453 m2/g, and 421 m2/g, respectively. The decrease in GAC could be attributed to the successful loading of ZnO on the GAC surface. Notably, 0.5M-ZnO@GAC exhibited the best photocatalytic degradation efficiency of 82% and 97% under UV-A and UV-C light over 120 min, attributed to improved crystallinity and visible light absorption. The photocatalytic degradation parameters revealed that lowering the RhB concentration, raising the catalyst dosage and pH be-yond the point of zero charge (PZC) would favor the RhB degradation. Photocatalytic reusability was demonstrated over 5 cycles. Scavenger tests revealed that the hydroxyl radicals (•OH), su-peroxide radicals (O2−•), and photoinduced hole (h+) radicals play a major role during the RhB degradation process. Based on the TOC results, the RhB mineralization efficiency of 79.1% was achieved by 0.5M-ZnO@GAC. Additionally, GAC exhibited a strong adsorptive performance towards RhB with adsorption capacity and RhB removal of 487.1 mg/g and 99.5% achieved within 90 min equilibrium time. The adsorption characteristics were best described by pseu-do-second-order kinetics, suggesting chemical adsorption. This research offers a new strategy for the development of effective photocatalyst materials with potential for wider wastewater treat-ment applications.

Plant leaf area index (LAI) is a key characteristic affecting field canopy microclimate. In addition to traditional professional measuring instruments, smartphone camera sensors have been used to measure plant LAI. However, when smartphone methods were used to measure conifer forest LAI, very different performances were obtained depending on whether the smartphone was held at the zenith angle or at a 57.5° angle. To validate further the potential of smartphone sensors for measuring conifer LAI and to find the limits of this method, this paper reports the results of a comparison of two smartphone methods with an LAI-2000 instrument. It is shown that both methods can be used to reveal the conifer leaf-growing trajectory. However, the method with the phone oriented vertically upwards always produced better consistency in magnitude with LAI-2000. The bias of the LAI between the smartphone method and the LAI-2000 instrument was explained with regard to four aspects that can affect LAI: gap fraction, leaf projection ratio, sensor field of view (FOV), and viewing zenith angle (VZA). It was concluded that large FOV and large VZA cause the 57.5° method to overestimate the gap fraction and hence underestimate conifer LAI, especially when tree height is greater than 2.0 m. For the vertically upward method, the bias caused by the overestimated gap fraction is compensated for by an underestimated leaf projection ratio.

Spent coffee grounds (SCG) have great potential as a useful, value-added biological material. In this context, activated carbon (AC) was prepared from SCG by an activation process using H3PO4 at 600°C in air and used as an adsorbent for the azo dye AO7, a model molecule for dye colorants found in textile industry effluents. X-ray diffraction, SEM and BET revealed that the AC was predominantly amorphous, consisting of a powder of 20-100 µm particles with mesopores averaging 5.5 nm in pore size. Adsorption kinetics followed a pseudo-second-order law, while the Langmuir model best fitted experimental isotherm data (maximum capacity of 119.5 mg AO7 per AC g). Thermodynamic parameters revealed that adsorption was endothermic and spontaneous. All the characterizations indicated that adsorption occurred by physisorption via mainly - interactions. The best experimental removal efficiency optimized by means of a Box-Behnken design and response surface methodology was 98% for an initial AO7 concentration of 20 mg.L-1 at pH 7.5 with a dose of 0.285 g.L-1 of AC and a contact time of 40 min. These results clearly show that activated carbon prepared from SCG can be a useful material for efficiently removing organic matter from aqueous solutions.

Aim: This study aims to analyze the collaborative networks and identify key players in autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) research from 2000 to 2023. Using data from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection, I assess the structure and evolution of co-authorship networks to understand collaboration trends and influential researchers in the field.Method: I conducted a network analysis of co-authorship patterns in AIP research using Python (Version 3.10.5) in the PyCharm development environment (Software Version 2022.1.3). The analysis included macro-level indicators: network density, clustering coefficient, components, and average distance, as well as micro-level indicators: degree centrality, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality. These metrics were used to evaluate the connectivity, clustering, and key nodes within the network across three distinct periods: 2000-2009, 2010-2019, and 2020-2023.Result: The analysis revealed that the co-authorship network in AIP research evolved from a fragmented structure with limited collaboration in the early 2000s to a more interconnected but still dispersed network in recent years. Despite an increase in network density and a decrease in the number of disconnected components over time, the overall structure remains highly clustered, with many researchers operating within isolated groups. Key figures, such as Kazuichi Okazaki, Terumi Kamisawa, and Shigeyuki Kawa from Japan, consistently ranked high in centrality measures, highlighting their significant influence and leadership in the field. The findings suggest that while local collaborations are strong, broader international connections are still developing.Conclusion: This study provides a comprehensive overview of the collaborative landscape in AIP research, identifying central researchers and highlighting persistent fragmentation within the network. The prominent role of Japanese researchers in shaping the field underscores the importance of fostering greater international collaboration to bridge gaps between research clusters. Enhancing global partnerships could lead to more integrated and impactful research outcomes, ultimately advancing the understanding and management of autoimmune pancreatitis.

Aim: This study aims to analyze the structure and impact of research collaborations in colonoscopy from 2000 to 2023 by examining co-authorship networks. The goal is to understand the evolution of these networks, identify key contributors, and assess how collaborative relationships influence the field. Method: I conducted a comprehensive network analysis of co-authorship patterns using data from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database. The analysis included 41,213 articles related to colonoscopy published between 2000 and 2023. Using Python (Version 3.10.5) and PyCharm (Software Version 2022.1.3), we evaluated the networks through macro-level indicators (network density, clustering coefficient, number of components, average distance) and micro-level indicators (degree centrality, closeness centrality, betweenness centrality).Result: The analysis revealed a network with increasing but still fragmented collaboration over the years. The network density showed low proportions of realized connections relative to potential ones, with a high clustering coefficient indicating tight-knit groups when collaborations occurred. The number of components remained high, reflecting a fragmented structure. Prominent researchers such as Hassan, Cesare (Italy) and Dekker, Evelien (Netherlands) consistently emerged as central figures across different periods, demonstrating significant roles in facilitating connections between various research clusters.Conclusion: The study highlights a growing but fragmented collaborative landscape in colonoscopy research. Key researchers have played central roles in connecting different parts of the network, yet there remains substantial room for further integration. Strengthening collaborations across isolated groups could enhance the cohesiveness and impact of research in this field.

Aim: This study aims to analyze the collaborative structure of Intestinal Behçet’s Disease (IBD) research by examining co-authorship networks in publications indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection from 2000 to 2023. The goal is to identify key researchers, institutions, and collaboration patterns that have shaped the field over the past two decades. Method: This study utilized network analysis techniques to evaluate 484 publications related to IBD research indexed in the WoS Core Collection between 2000 and 2023. The analysis was conducted using Python (Version 3.10.5) in the PyCharm development environment (Software Version 2022.1.3). The co-authorship networks were assessed using macro-level indicators such as network density (the ratio of actual to possible connections), clustering coefficient (degree of node clustering), number of components (distinct connected subgroups), and average path length (average distance between nodes). Micro-level indicators including degree centrality (importance based on the number of connections), closeness centrality (proximity to other nodes), and betweenness centrality (frequency of a node on the shortest paths between others) were also analyzed.Result: From 2000 to 2009, the co-authorship network was highly fragmented with a low network density of 0.0114 and 84 distinct components, indicating limited collaboration. Key contributors during this period included Kim, Won Ho, and Cheon, Jae Hee (South Korea), who played central roles in connecting disparate research clusters. In the following decade (2010-2019), network density decreased slightly to 0.0086, and the number of components increased to 113, reflecting continued fragmentation despite growing research output. However, from 2020 to 2023, network density increased to 0.0171, and the number of components decreased to 73, indicating a trend towards greater integration and collaboration. Notable researchers in this period included Emmi, Giacomo (Italy), and Hatemi, Gulen (Turkey), who emerged as central figures, highlighting a shift in research leadership from Asia to Europe..Conclusion: The co-authorship network analysis of IBD research reveals an evolving collaborative landscape with increasing network density and decreasing fragmentation over time, particularly in the most recent period. From 2000 to 2019, Japanese and Korean researchers were prominent contributors, highlighting the significance of Asia in the global research arena. However, since 2020, researchers from Italy and Turkey have gained significant international prominence, suggesting a shift in the research focus from Asia to Europe. This transition may be attributed to changes in the incidence rates of IBD, where rapid increases were observed in Asian countries like Japan, Korea, and China until 2020, followed by stabilization or decline, while incidence rates have been increasing in European countries such as Italy and Turkey. These findings underscore the importance of expanding international collaborations to enhance the understanding of IBD. Fostering global partnerships could further advance the field, promoting more integrated and innovative research efforts, and addressing the shifting dynamics of IBD prevalence across regions.

Aim: This study aims to analyze the evolution of co-author networks in Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) research from 2000 to 2023, using data from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection. The objective is to provide a structural overview of researcher collaborations in this specialized field, highlighting key contributors and the impact of international cooperation. Method: I conducted a co-author network analysis on 19,463 GERD -related articles indexed in the WoS Core Collection between 2000 and 2023. Using Python (Version 3.10.5) within the PyCharm development environment (Software Version 2022.1.3), I assessed macro-level indicators including network density, clustering coefficient, number of components, and average distance. Micro-level indicators such as degree centrality, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality were also evaluated to understand the roles of individual researchers in the network.Result: The GERD co-authorship network exhibited a sparse structure with low network density, indicating limited realized collaborations compared to potential connections. The clustering coefficient was consistently high across the analyzed periods, suggesting that researchers frequently formed tight-knit groups. The network was fragmented into numerous components, with significant disconnection between groups. Degree centrality highlighted key researchers such as Dent, J., and Shaheen, N.J., who had extensive collaborative reach. In contrast, closeness and betweenness centrality identified strategic intermediaries like Bredenoord, A.J. and Kahrilas, P.J., who facilitated connections across otherwise isolated segments of the network.Conclusion: The co-authorship network analysis revealed a persistently fragmented landscape in GERD research, with considerable room for enhancing collaboration among researchers. Identifying key contributors and understanding their roles within the network can guide future efforts to foster more integrated and comprehensive research collaborations. This study underscores the importance of strategic networking and partnership development in advancing GERD research and optimizing the field's collaborative potential.

Drug development is a lengthy process with a high failure rate. Increasingly, machine learning is utilized to facilitate the drug development processes. These models aim to enhance our understanding of drug characteristics, including their activity in biological contexts. However, a major challenge in drug response (DR) prediction is model interpretability as it aids in the validation of findings. This is important in biomedicine, where models need to be understandable in comparison with established knowledge of drug interactions with proteins. drGAT, a graph deep learning model, leverages a heterogeneous graph composed of relationships between proteins, cell lines, and drugs. drGAT is designed with two objectives: DR prediction as a binary sensitivity prediction and elucidation of drug mechanism from attention coefficients. drGAT has demonstrated superior performance over existing models, achieving 78\% accuracy (and precision), and 76\% F1 score for 269 DNA-damaging compounds of the NCI60 drug response dataset. To assess the model's interpretability, we conducted a review of drug-gene co-occurrences in Pubmed abstracts in comparison to the top 5 genes with the highest attention coefficients for each drug. We also examined whether known relationships were retained in the model by inspecting the neighborhoods of topoisomerase-related drugs. For example, our model retained TOP1 as a highly weighted predictive feature for irinotecan and topotecan, in addition to other genes that could potentially be regulators of the drugs. Our method can be used to accurately predict sensitivity to drugs and may be useful in the identification of biomarkers relating to the treatment of cancer patients.

Aim: This study aims to analyze the structure of the co-authorship network in Budd-Chiari syndrome (BCS) research from 2000 to 2023 using data from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection. The objective is to identify key researchers, evaluate the collaborative dynamics, and understand the evolution of scientific contributions in this field. Method: This study utilized network analysis techniques to evaluate 2,877 publications related to BCS research indexed in the WoS Core Collection between 2000 and 2023. The analysis was conducted using Python (Version 3.10.5) in the PyCharm development environment (Software Version 2022.1.3). The co-authorship networks were assessed using macro-level indicators such as network density (the ratio of actual to possible connections), clustering coefficient (degree of node clustering), number of components (distinct connected subgroups), and average path length (average distance between nodes). Micro-level indicators including degree centrality (importance based on the number of connections), closeness centrality (proximity to other nodes), and betweenness centrality (frequency of a node on the shortest paths between others) were also analyzed.Result: The results revealed a highly fragmented network structure in the early years (2000-2009), characterized by low network density (0.0017) and a large number of disconnected components (533). Key researchers such as Aurelie Plessier and Dominique Valla emerged as central figures in terms of degree and closeness centrality. In the 2010-2019 period, the network showed slight improvements, with density decreasing to 0.0016 but an increase in the number of components to 645, indicating persistent fragmentation. From 2020 to 2023, the network demonstrated increased cohesiveness with a density of 0.0032 and a reduction in components to 376. Influential researchers in the final period included Virginia Hernandez-Gea and Valerie Paradis, who played pivotal roles in connecting disparate research clusters.Conclusion: The co-authorship network analysis of BCS research over the past two decades highlights a gradual yet incomplete evolution towards greater collaboration and integration among researchers. While the network's cohesiveness has improved, significant fragmentation remains, suggesting that further efforts are needed to enhance global and interdisciplinary collaboration. Addressing these challenges is crucial for fostering a more connected and productive research community that can advance the understanding and management of BCS.

Aim: This study aims to analyze the evolution of co-author networks in Single-Balloon Enteroscope (SBE) research from 2000 to 2023, using data from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection. The objective is to provide a structural overview of researcher collaborations in this specialized field, highlighting key contributors and the impact of international cooperation. Method: I conducted a co-author network analysis on 149 SBE-related articles indexed in the WoS Core Collection between 2000 and 2023. Using Python (Version 3.10.5) within the PyCharm development environment (Software Version 2022.1.3), I assessed macro-level indicators including network density, clustering coefficient, number of components, and average distance. Micro-level indicators such as degree centrality, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality were also evaluated to understand the roles of individual researchers in the network.Result: The analysis revealed that the co-author networks in SBE research have evolved over the studied period, with varying degrees of connectivity and collaboration. From 2000 to 2009, the network showed moderate clustering but high fragmentation, with a few key researchers like Nista, Enrico C., and Spada, Cristiano playing central roles. In the 2010-2019 period, network density decreased, indicating expansion in the author pool but less frequent co-authorships. However, the clustering coefficient remained high, suggesting localized collaboration. Central figures such as Itoi, Takao emerged as influential in bridging network gaps. In the most recent period (2020-2023), network density moderately increased, reflecting improved collaboration. Key contributors included Tanisaka, Yuki, and Ryozawa, Shomei, who enhanced connectivity within the network. Despite these advancements, the network remained fragmented with isolated components throughout all periods. Conclusion: The co-author networks in SBE research have shown an overall increase in collaboration over the past two decades, with key contributors playing pivotal roles in connecting disparate groups. However, the persistent fragmentation suggests a need for more integrated efforts to enhance international collaboration. Understanding these network dynamics can inform future strategies for fostering global cooperation and advancing SBE research.

Aim: To elucidate the international network structures and evolution of collaborations in capsule endoscopy research from 2000 to 2023 by analyzing co-authorship networks. Method: This study analyzed co-authorship patterns in capsule endoscopy research articles published from 2000 to 2023 using data from the Web of Science (WoS). I employed Python (version 3.10.5) in the PyCharm development environment (version 2022.1.3) to conduct a network analysis using social network analysis principles. The analysis included macro-level metrics (network density, clustering coefficient, components, and average path length) and micro-level metrics (degree centrality, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality) to assess collaboration intensity, key contributors, and network cohesion. Result: The co-authorship network analysis revealed evolving collaboration patterns over three distinct periods (2000-2009, 2010-2019, and 2020-2023). Initially, the network exhibited low density and high fragmentation, with key contributors such as Guido Costamagna and Jonathan A. Leighton prominently positioned. Over time, the network expanded with increased density and clustering, though it remained fragmented. In recent years, the network showed increased cohesion with reduced components and notable contributors like Anastasios Koulaouzidis and Xavier Dray, reflecting the growing importance of international collaborations, particularly involving researchers from Japan, Italy, and Israel. Conclusion: The study highlights the dynamic nature of international collaborations in capsule endoscopy research, with increasing connectivity and influential contributors playing pivotal roles in advancing the field. These findings underscore the value of international cooperation in enhancing diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in capsule endoscopy, pointing to future opportunities for deeper collaboration and integration.

Glaucoma is one of the primary causes of blindness worldwide. Canal opening surgery, a type of minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) applied in cases of mild to moderate glaucoma, has gained increasing popularity in recent years due to its efficacy in reducing intraocular pressure, its safety profile, the simplicity of its technique, and the reduced likelihood of compromised vision. Nevertheless, the existing body of histopathological studies remains insufficient for a comprehensive understanding of post-surgical wound healing. Consequently, debates persist among researchers regarding the mechanism through which Schlemm’s canal opening surgery reduces intraocular pressure, as well as the surgical techniques that may impact the outcomes and the factors influencing surgical success. As the history of MIGS is relatively short and lacks sufficient systemic reviews or meta-analysis evaluating the influence of individual factors, this review was conducted to illuminate disparities in the researchers’ opinions at the current stage of research.

The double burden of malnutrition (DBM) is escalating in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including in Rwanda, most notably in urbanizing areas. The 2019-2020 Rwanda Demographic Health Survey (DHS) revealed 33% of children under 5 are stunted while 42% of women in urban areas are overweight or obese. This coexistence has contributed to a surge in non-communicable diseases (NCDs), particularly in secondary cities. Using the World Health Organization’s (WHOs) “double-duty action” (DDA) concept, this study aims to identify and evaluate interventions with double-duty potential in Rwanda, focusing on the districts of Rusizi and Rubavu. Guided by Hawkes et al.’s conceptual framework for identifying DDA entry points, a desk review of national policies pinpointed 4 programs with DDA potential: early childhood development (ECD) centers, the school feeding program, farmer field schools (FFS), and the provision of nutrition-sensitive direct support. In-person interviews with key stakeholders assessed their implementation and a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis informed context-specific recommendations for their improvement. Recommendations include targeting beliefs surrounding nutrition, improving trainings for community educators, enhancing parent – particularly father – involvement, and close follow-up. These findings offer actionable strategies for governments and nutrition stakeholders and may benefit similar interventions in other rapidly urbanizing LMICs.

Adaptation to climate change is being addressed in many domains. This means that there are multiple perspectives on adaptation; often with differing visions resulting in disconnected responses and outcomes. Combining singular perspectives into coherent, combined perspectives that include multiple needs and visions can help to deepen the understanding of various aspects of adaptation and provide more effective responses. Such combinations of perspectives can help to increase the range and variety of adaptation measures available for implementation or avoid maladaptation compared with adaptations derived from a singular perspective. The objective of this paper is to present and demonstrate a framework for structuring the local adaptation responses using the inputs from multiple perspectives. The adaptation response framing has been done by: (i) contextualizing climate change adaptation needs; (ii) analyzing drivers of change; (iii) characterizing measures of adaptation; and (iv) establishing links between the measures with a particular emphasis on taking account of multiple perspectives. This framework was demonstrated with reference to the management of flood risks in a case study Can Tho, Vietnam. The results from the case study show that multiple perspective framing of adaptation responses enhance the understanding of various aspects of adaptation measures, thereby leading to flexible implementation practices.

Cars are a highly inefficient mode of urban transport with significant negative impacts. Electric vehicles make it possible to eliminate direct CO2 emissions (though the total over a vehicle’s entire life cycle greatly offsets the advantages) but leave unchanged – or even aggravate – all the other negative effects on the quality of urban environments. Three visions for urban transport were presented: automobility, multimodality and accessibility. The first dominates North American cities, the second European one. The anomalies of these two visions have been examined. The automobility cities cannot manage the congestion and the attempts are self- defeating. The anomalies of multimodality city are related to the public space consumption for mobility and the impossibility to plan spatial proximity. The sustainable vision, that resolve the anomalies, is represented by the accessibility city in the Triple Access System (TAS) version which, however, still has a long way to go to be accepted and implemented.

Fires in houses are inevitable and they cause loss of life and major repair costs for the damage structure and contents. There is a clear need to prevent its ignition and spread to adjacent areas. This article presents the steps taken, namely: contacts, data collection, tests, analysis and conclusions regarding the accident resulting from the outbreak and spread of a fire, on December 25, 2020, in a traditional Portuguese house in Arganil, Portugal. The owners and the court requested to carry out an expert opinion by a person with specialized technical-scientific knowledge, which led to this work as an expert. the work consists of carrying out observations and data analysis. Then, the observed and analysed data were laboratory tested in order to consistently identify characteristics that lead to the ignition and propagation of the fire. This work identified construction problems, materials used and heat sources that are responsible for the accident. The conclusions may be used to avoid future incidents or accidents with houses of same construction type.

Promoting the sustainable development of resource-based cities is of great significance to the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin. Combining the environmental status and economic development, we objectively evaluate the ecological safety level of resource-based cities in the Yellow River Basin, compare and analysis the main factors affecting the ecological safety of different resource-based cities, and formulate precise and differentiated ecological safety protection measures in river basins to achieve high-quality development. Taking the Yellow River Basin as an example, this paper analyses the ecological level of the Yellow River Basin based on the theory of sustainable development, calculates the ecological safety level of 30 resource-based cities in the Yellow River Basin from 2006 to 2020 by TOPSIS model, and makes convergence analysis by classification. Through the DID empirical test of sustainable development planning policy on ecological safety factors, distinguish the development characteristics of different resource-based cities. The results show that: (1) the ecological safety level of resource-based cities in the Yellow River Basin is generally developing well, and there are differences among different types of resource-based cities; (2) the kinetic energy of sustainable development of resource-based cities in the Yellow River Basin is mainly industrial transformation, and the power of science and technology is insufficient; (3) local governments pay limited attention to environmental protection, and the sustainable development planning of resource-based cities in 2013 mainly promotes the adjustment of industrial structure of resource-based cities.

In an era marked by swift technological progress, the pivotal role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly evident across various sectors, including local governments. These governmental bodies are progressively leveraging AI technologies to enhance service delivery to their communities, ranging from simple task automation to more complicated engineering endeavours. While more and more local governments are adopting AI, it is imperative to understand the functions, implications, and consequences of AI. Despite the growing importance of this domain, a significant gap persists within the scholarly discourse. This study strives to bridge this void by exploring the applications of AI technologies within the context of local government service provision and using this inquiry to generate lessons and best practices for similar smart city initiatives. Through a comprehensive grey literature review, we analysed 262 real-world AI implementations across 170 local governments worldwide. The findings underscore several key points: (a) There has been a consistent upward trajectory in the adoption of AI by local governments over the last decade; (b) Local governments from China, the US, and the UK are at the forefront of AI adoption; (c) Among local government AI technologies, Natural Language Processing and Robotic Process Automation emerge as the most prevalent ones; (d) Local governments primarily deploy AI across 28 distinct services; (e) Information management, back-office work, and transportation and traffic management are leading domains in terms of AI adoption. This study enriches the extant body of knowledge by providing an overview of existing AI applications within the sphere of local governance. It offers insights for smart city policymakers and decision-makers considering the adoption, expansion, or refinement of AI technologies in urban service provision. Additionally, it underscores the importance of using these insights to guide the successful integration and optimisation of AI in future smart city projects, ensuring they meet the evolving needs of communities.

Promoting green development has become an important way to optimize the ecological and economic structure and promote sustainable development. The Yangtze River Economic Belt is an important economic corridor in China, and it remains to be examined whether the implementation of environmental regulations has enhanced the green total factor productivity (GTFP) of cities. This paper calculates the green total factor productivity of 107 cities within the Yangtze River Economic Belt by using the super-efficient SBM model and the GML index with Chinese city panel data from 2007-2019 and measures the intensity of environmental regulations through textual analysis. The bidirectional fixed-effects model constructed in this paper suggests an inverted U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and GTFP, which is confirmed by a series of robustness tests. Green technology innovation and advanced industrial structure play a mechanism role in this. In regions with lower levels of green technology and industrial structure, the inverted U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and green total factor productivity is more significant. In addition, the phenomenon of GTFP rising and then falling because of environmental regulation is more obvious in cities in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River and outside the urban agglomerations. Therefore, when formulating environmental regulation policies, it is necessary to balance the relationship between economic development and environmental protection and harmonize the environment and economic development of the entire Yangtze River Basin.

The Metaverse of Things (MoT) is an advanced technology that has the potential to revolutionise urban living in the present era. This article explores the advantages, uses, and transformative outcomes of MoT in smart cities. The covered subjects encompass sustainability, urban planning, citizen participation, infrastructure management, and various more. MoT integrates the Internet of Things (IoT) with metaverse technologies. The ultimate objective is to develop virtual environments that are highly interactive, interconnected, and immersive while maintaining a high level of fidelity to reality. The IoT utilises virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and other digital technologies to gather data, facilitate communication, and automate certain processes, thereby enhancing several elements of urban living. It is all a component of the metaverse. The IoT will bring about a profound transformation in the way cities gather and utilise data to enhance services and optimise efficiency. Cities that can efficiently distribute this data can enhance public safety, optimise energy usage, regulate traffic, and manage waste properly. MoT apps that utilise immersive technologies and the IoT can be used to generate more intelligent and captivating cityscapes. The implementation of MoT can greatly enhance the quality of life for residents of smart cities through improvements in transportation, healthcare, education, and community engagement. The study's author examined how smart cities utilise the IoT to enhance the daily experiences of their inhabitants. This study examines the technical structure, possible advantages, and difficulties of implementing MoT in urban settings, aiming to enhance the resilience, responsiveness, and adaptability of cities. The findings emphasise the importance of robust legislative frameworks, stringent security requirements, and well-developed infrastructure to facilitate the extensive use of MoT technology. These factors are crucial for establishing a highly interconnected and efficient urban environment.

The influence of technology corporations on the development of smart cities can generate corporate-centric models of governance. Thus, it is relevant to examine which governance models help to promote sustainability. Based on a rapid review on the governance of smart cities, this paper aims to evaluate the merits and drawbacks of various governance models adopted by diverse smart city initiatives. It contends that top-down models often prioritize corporate-centric governance structures, potentially neglecting sustainability concerns. Nonetheless, our findings indicate that top-down approaches can mitigate corporate-centric tendencies by integrating citizen participation into their visions and strategies. Hybrid models offer the advantage of governmental leadership but may lean towards a triple-helix model, with limited citizen involvement. Conversely, bottom-up models represent quadruple-helix collaborations with active citizen engagement.

Synanthropic flora (weeds, spontaneously developed plants) are plants that accompany humans, appearing as a result of anthropopressure as well as after its cessation. The potential of synanthropic flora in shaping green areas usually brings many measurable benefits that depend on land management in cities. The study aimed to determine the preferences and attitudes of adults towards synanthropic flora in settlement units. The article presents survey results from 447 city residents. The obtained results were statistically analyzed using the k-means clustering method to identify segments of respondents with similar attitudes and preferences toward synanthropic flora. Mann-Whitney U tests were employed to determine statistical differences in the demographic variables among the analyzed clusters of respondents. Additionally, multiple regression analysis was performed to identify the opinions and attitudes towards synanthropic flora, that may influence their greater acceptance in the vicinity of residential areas. The results obtained in multiple regression allow for the statement that the respondent’s evaluation of the level of support for the introduction of more synanthropic vegetation into urban greenery (Yw) grows with the increase of acceptance of synanthropic plants occurrence in surroundings. Respondents’ opinions on the subject of the presence of synanthropic plants were studied using such variables concerning: synanthropic vegetation found in turfgrasses has a positive impact on the visual attractiveness of a site (X1), synanthropic plant communities present themselves better than others (X2), presence of synanthropic vegetation in an estate improves the quality of life in that location (X3), introduction of synanthropic flora into estate arrangements is a positive (X4), support for the use of synanthropic flora for educational purposes - as elements of playgrounds or in the form of environmental workshops (X5). Residents’ acceptance of synanthropic flora in green areas is at a relatively high level.

As technology advances, people are increasingly adopting IoT (Internet of Things) devices in smart cities. These devices are equipped with sensors that are connected everywhere, from energy infrastructure and transportation to telecommunications, health and human services, waste management, public safety, and more. People want to access sensor data anytime and everywhere to make better decisions and improve their lives. To achieve this, a sensor integration model has been developed where multiple sensors are integrated under one gateway to manage and share sensor data. However, effective sharing of sensor data requires data security, privacy, confidentiality, fairness, effective architectural design, and low communication and computation costs. These issues need to be addressed in the sensor integration model in smart cities. Existing storage models face challenges in managing sensor data effectively. To overcome these issues and hurdles, a data storage framework leveraging blockchain technology has been proposed within the sensor integration model. This framework ensures data security, privacy, confidentiality, and a fair and transparent financial model, all while minimizing communication and computation costs.

Reducing GHG emissions is a crucial challenge in urban areas, characterized by high energy consumption and reduced exposure to nature. In this context, the urban green system could play a pivotal role. In the literature, scholars analyzed both the ability of species-specific and layout-specific green infrastructures to increase carbon sequestration and the best location sites of new green infrastructures, to increase the provision of overall ecosystem services. There is a lack of studies helping green urban planners and designers choose where and which green infrastructure to implement, based on vegetation species-specific performance and local carbon emissions of city components. This paper uses tree inventory data from a medium-sized city in central Italy (Perugia) to develop a spatial analysis of the urban parks' performance in carbon sequestration. Then, the method evaluates the carbon emission of a public city building to generate a spatialized balance between buildings’ demand and trees’ supply, to support local decisions about the best locations for new green infrastructures and the choice between species. The paper contributes to GIS-based tools that vary the recommended location sites and species for new green infrastructures based on the demanded ecosystem service.

Questions：SAP in mountainous cities of China serve as crucial carriers for species and wild food, constituting potential green infrastructure. These patches should be recognized as locally specific resources. This study investigates the transformation characteristics of the landscape patterns of SAP, along with their elements, across urban-rural gradients, providing foundational support for the planning of conservation and utilization strategies. Location: Yongchuan area of Chongqing in southwest China. Methods: The study investigated urban-rural gradient-based transformation of SAP. A four-direction transect space was selected and divided into uniform sample squares. Fragstats 4.3 calculated the landscape index of SAP, and Spearman correlation coefficients in SPSS were used to evaluate the influence of landform and artificial factors on agroforestry patch transformation. Results: 1) Patch area (PA), Plaque density (PD), and CLUMPY of SAP systematically transform, showing increased SAP areas and higher connectivity with greater distance from the city, resulting in reduced patch fragmentation. However, Edge density (ED) and Largest plaque index (LPI) exhibit irregular transformation patterns. 2) With increased distance from the city, woodland patch area and connectivity increase, leading to decreased fragmentation, dispersal, and lower fractal dimensions. Conversely, Cultivated land follows the opposite trend. garden land patch area, fractal dimension, fragmentation, and dispersal all increase, while connectivity decreases. 3) Landscape pattern transformations of SPA are significantly influenced by artificial factors. Woodland patches are influenced similarly by landform and artificial factors. In contrast, cultivated land and garden land patches are more significantly impacted by artificial factors. Conclusions: SAP exhibit differentiated conservation and utilization measures across urban-rural gradients. Small patches located far from urban centers may benefit from systematic conservation measures to prevent further fragmentation and erosion in peri-urban areas.

Japanese plum tree (Prunus salicina Lindl.) is mainly cultivated in temperate areas of China and some European countries. Certain amounts of wood (from pruning works) are generated every year from this crop of worldwide commercial significance. The main objective of this work was to value this agricultural woody residue, for which the chemical composition of pruning wood extracts from six Japanese plum cultivars was investigated, and the antiproliferative activity of extracts and pure phenolics present in those extracts was measured. For the chemical characterization, total phenolic content and DPPH radical-scavenging assays and HPLC‒DAD/ESI‒MS analyses were performed, the procyanidin (‒)-ent-epicatechin-(2α→O→7,4α→8)-epicatechin (5) and the propelargonidin (+)-epiafzelechin-(2β→O→7,4β→8)-epicatechin (7) being the major components of the wood extracts. Some quantitative differences were found among plum cultivars, and the content of proanthocyanidins ranged from 1.50 (cv. ‘Fortune’) to 4.44 (cv. ‘Showtime’) mg/g of dry wood. Regarding the antitumoral activiy, eight wood extracts and four phenolic compounds were evaluated in MCF-7 cells after 48 h of induction, showing the wood extract from cv. ‘Songold’ and (‒)-annphenone (3) the best antiproliferative activity (IC50: 424 ppm and 405 ppm, respectively).

The sustainable development of resource-based cities has long been a focal point for both governmental policies and academic research. A wealth of academic literature identifies the 'resource curse' as a critical barrier to sustainable development in these urban areas. Despite extensive studies, a consensus on effective strategies to circumvent or resolve this challenge remains elusive. Recent empirical data reveals a noticeable pattern of economic growth differentiation in China's resource-based cities. Why do some resource-based cities experience economic decline while others achieve sustainable economic growth? Therefore, this paper analyzes the reasons for the divergence of economic growth in resource cities from the perspective of heterogeneity. The results of the study show that the phenomenon of the resource curse is conditional, and the heterogeneity of demo-graphic changes, geographic location and institutional environment has a significant impact on the economic growth of resource cities. These factors are investigated to elucidate the observed diversification and heterogeneity in the economic growth of resource-based cities. Building upon this analysis, the paper proposes a framework for differentiated sustainable development pathways tailored to the unique contexts of these cities. This approach not only contributes to the current understanding of the 'resource curse' but also offers novel insights for future research aiming to adopt a more nuanced and context-specific perspective in examining sustainable urban development.

This paper explores how smart cities can cope with land subsidence and liquefaction in the context of rapid urbanization in Japan. Since the 1960s, liquefaction has become an important topic in geotechnical engineering, and great efforts have been made to evaluate the resistance of soil to liquefaction. There is currently a lack of machine learning applications specifically for smart cities in areas such as geological hazards. This study uses two machine learning techniques, artificial neural networks and ensemble learning, to obtain a prediction model with high performance in predicting the bearing layer depth to improve the accuracy of geo-engineering surveys. The model was developed by analyzing actual survey data from 433 locations in Setegaya, Tokyo, by using artificial neural networks (ANNs) and bagging, respectively. The results show that machine learning has great advantages in predicting the bearing layer depth. In addition, compared with a single model such as artificial neural networks, the prediction performance of ensemble learning can be improved by about 20%. Both interdisciplinary approaches can help predict address risks and thus promote sustainable urban development, highlighting the potential of smart cities in the future.

Wastewater genomic surveillance is an efficient and economic approach to track infectious diseases and can help detect unusual epidemiological events. The current study uses this approach for the first time in Morocco to monitor the epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza A, B and RSV virus infections during the third wave of COVID-19 caused by the Omicron variant. The virome was concentrated from wastewater collected from two sewer sheds of two cities, Agadir and Inezgane, using the PEG/NaCl method. The viral copy number was determined using qRT-PCR. All 26 samples in both cities were tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 at various viral loads. For Influenza A virus, two samples were tested positive in Inezgane. The estimated SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA copy numbers observed were then used to estimate the number of infected individuals using the SEIR model. The number of viral copies of SARS-CoV-2 for Agadir and Inezgane varied from 82932 ± 15479 to 507865 ± 58759 copies/L and 61244 ± 8552 to 497506 ± 18061 copies/L, respectively. The estimated number of cases correlates positively with the number of reported cases. Next Generation Sequencing showed that samples contain the following two variants: BA.1 and BA.2 that have been detected in clinical samples. This study demonstrates the effectiveness and feasibility of wastewater genomic surveillance in monitoring pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 in Morocco.

A compositional data vector is a special type of multivariate observation in which the elements of the vector are non-negative and sum to a constant, usually taken to be unity. A compositional data does not have zero and only retains relative information. Furthermore, comparisons can only be made between compositional data of the same component. The relevant sample space is the standard simplex. A simplex space is a space that is a generalized form of a triangle. For compositional data, many of the operations defined in Euclidean space are meaningless. Microbiome analyzes have become popular in recent years. Operational Taxonomic Units (OTU) and Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs) used in microbiome analysis are one type of compositional data. The microbiome data are counts of different species within a sample and it is compositional. Although there is an order of bacterial abundance within a sample, there is no order of bacterial abundance between samples. Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, the major phyla in the colon, have been observed in humans worldwide. Gut microbiome analyses often use the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio and principal coordinates analysis (PCoA). Alpha and beta diversities are used as indicators of bacterial flora diversity. However, misinformation is pervasive in the human microbiome literature and analysis. There is a lot of misunderstanding regarding compositional data and its analysis. An attempt was made to demonstrate how to analyze using the “National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition (NIBIOHN JMD) (Public Data).” The results showed that PCoA did not work, and principal component analysis (PCA) was useful for analyzing the gut microbiome relative diversity.

Since the 1960s, the countries of sub-Saharan Africa have been affected by an urban crisis due to the demographic explosion in cities and the resulting land pressures. These have resulted in the proliferation of spontaneous housing areas which question the future of urban vegetation and its degree of inclusion in city planning. To analyze the state of knowledge on the research already carried out on the development of urban landscape, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, a literature review on urban forestry covering the period 1998-2022 was carried out in order to better orient future research works for a greater consideration to urban forestry and their contributions in combating the adverse effects of climate change. Out of a set of 110 scientific papers selected, 50 were considered relevant because of their direct link with urban forestry. From the analysis of this papers, a classification of the articles according to 05 themes was carried out. These are: management of green spaces in urban areas, functions of trees in an urban environment, development of urban forestry, characterization of urban tree flora and financing of urban forestry. Thus, “function of trees in an urban environment and the characterization of urban tree flora” are the most addressed respectively at 42% and 28%. “Financing urban forestry” is practically not addressed (2%). The analysis of the 50 selected articles reveals a significant geographic concentration of urban forestry research. Countries like South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana are more represented in the literature, while vast regions in Central and Western Africa (e.g., Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, and Niger) have minimal or no documented research on urban forestry. Future research should address these underrepresented themes, as they are crucial for the long-term sustainability of urban forestry projects. Particularly, research on financing mechanisms is essential to unlock sustainable funding sources for urban forestry, a critical barrier to its expansion.

In the context of rapid urbanization, the spatiotemporal patterns of socio-economic exposed to high seismic hazard in large cities lacks quantitative assessment, thus, it is difficult to understand the evolution of earthquake catastrophe risk there. In this paper, exposure change rate, and absolute and relatively exposure indices were proposed to quantitatively study the changes of spatiotemporal exposure to high seismic hazard in urban areas of large cities (i.e., permanent residents in urban areas more than 1 million) in Chinese mainland, using a set of multi-temporal population, GDP, and built-up datasets and a seismic hazard zoning map. The results show that, 64 out of 78 large cities are entirely or partially located in high seismically hazardous zones. Although the urban areas of large cities in high seismically hazardous zones (HSHUAs) cover only 1.73% (167177 km²) of mainland China, their share of population, GDP, and built-up land amounted to 18.14%, 30.24% and 24.55%, respectively, in 2015. Unprecedented urbanization has led to a dramatic exposure growth in HSHUAs between 1990 and 2015. The population, GDP, and built-up land in HSHUAs increased by 110 million people (with an average annual growth rate of 2.37%), 273.71 trillion USD(average annual growth rate of 11.15%), and 10593 km2 (average annual growth rate of 2.02%), respectively. HSHUAs experienced much faster population and GDP growth than the whole country, while relatively slower growth in built-up land. Exposure growth in HSHUAs also was varied for different types of large cities. Megacities had a higher proportion of increased GDP and population in HSHUAs, induced by industry and population agglomeration. Whereas, Type II large cities had a higher proportion of increased built-up land in HSHUAs, driven mainly by urban sprawl. Our analysis indicates that, for large cities under rapid urbanization, it is an urgent need to strengthen resilient urban planning, renewal and construction.

60\% of the global population is expected to be in cities by 2050. At the same time the climate is changing at an accelerated rate. In this short paper we discuss the conflation of these two phenomena and how it may change the cities of the future. We formulate this as an optimization problem that could help answer important questions such as where are they likely to be located? How are they to be powered? What would be their demand for mobility and how might this be met? How over or under ground might these cities be? This paper first looks at a historical paradigm of cities in the absence of the climate crisis and then proposes the new paradigm to look at cities of the future faced by the challenge of the climate change crisis.

Flavours of Glenroy (2013-4) was a socially engaged art research project focused on developing strategies to connect the diverse, mobile and transforming community of Glenroy through the theme of growing and distributing edible plants. The project was action research based, where artist researchers used creatively imagined mobile edible gardens to connect and engage with locals through project presentation and execution. The process of producing, presenting and conversing about edible gardening revealed Glenroy to be a transnational Australian dream suburb, reflecting the fluid globalising conditions of our cities. The project emphasized how social relations encouraged through art, has the capacity to transform social spaces, providing a platform to introduce new voices and narratives of a community and encourage inclusive participation in sustainable citizenship.

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) causes acute viral encephalitis in humans and reproductive disorders in pigs. JEV emerged during the 1870s in Japan and since that time, JEV has been transmitted exclusively throughout Asia, according to known reporting and sequencing records. A recent JEV outbreak occurred in Australia which affected commercial piggeries across different temperate southern Australian states and caused confirmed infections in humans. A total of 47 human cases and seven deaths were reported. The recent evolving situation of JEV needs to be reported due to its continuous circulation in endemic regions and spread to non-endemics areas. Here, we reconstructed the phylogeny and population dynamics of JEV using recent JEV isolates for the future perception of disease spread. Phylogenetic analysis shows the most recent common ancestor occurred about 3120 years ago (YA) (95% Highest posterior density [HPD], 2680 to 3715). Our results of the Bayesian skyline plot (BSP) demonstrates that JEV demography lacks fluctuations for the last two decades, but it shows that JEV genetic diversity has increased during the last ten years. This indicates the potential JEV replication in the reservoir host, which is helping it to maintain its genetic diversity, and to continue its dispersal into non-endemic areas. The continuous spread in Asia and recent detection from Australia further support these findings. Therefore, an enhanced surveillance system is needed along with precautionary measures such as regular vaccination and mosquito control to avoid future JEV outbreaks.

This investigation is part of a topical situation where wireless equipment is gradually being used for energy transfer, particularly for autonomous systems and the use of decarbonized en-ergies. A characteristic example of decarbonized autonomous use is linked to the substitution of thermal engine vehicles by electric vehicles (EVs) equipped with energy storage batteries. This response was considered in an ecological context of reducing air pollution and defending plane-tary biodiversity, which are currently vital. These EVs ultimately operate thanks to the wireless charging of their batteries when stationary or running. By changing long-established means of transport that have become a threat to biodiversity, it is necessary to ensure that innovative re-placement solutions protect this biodiversity. In addition, the construction of wireless power transfer (WPT) battery chargers for these EVs must offer an optimal ecology of clean energy saving. In such a context, the two concepts of One Health (OH) and Responsible Attitude (RA) will find their place in the design and control of WPT tools in EVs. This contribution aims to il-lustrate and analyze the roles of the green and non-wasteful OH and RA approaches in the de-sign and control of WPT embedded in EVs for the smart city (SC) environment. In the paper, WPT tools are first introduced. The design and control of EV battery charging tools are then examined. The biological effects on living tissues due to the electromagnetic field (EMF) radia-tion of WPT are analyzed. The phenomena and equations governing the design of WPT and the effects of EMF radiation are then exposed. The OH and RA approaches in the SC context are af-terward analyzed. The protection against the unsafe effects of WPT tools in the SC environment is consequently explored. The analyses followed in the paper are supported by examples of lit-erature.

In recent years, the introduction of electric vehicles as a means of transportation has been gradually growing in most developing and developed countries, especially in terms of energy efficiency, energy diversification, and environmental sustainability. While developed countries have been trying to keep up with electric vehicle usage and buying trends, most developing countries, especially African countries, are still riddled with severe power outages and electricity load shedding. The growing adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) has led to a corresponding increase in the availability of charging infrastructure, thereby exerting notable impacts on the power grids of most African countries. Recent evidence suggests that various charging strategies and grid integration approaches are being developed to mitigate the negative impacts of electric vehicle (EV) charging and enhance the advantages of integrating EVs with the grid. However, transportation researchers have struggled to develop applicable and sensible mitigation strategies to tackle this issue, which has seriously rendered the sustainability of electric vehicle usage in Africa in serious doubt. The primary aim of this research is to provide a conceptual theoretical framework based on previous and current literature reviews on electric vehicles to examine the challenges facing the adoption of electric vehicles in Africa. In addition, we explored the environmental and economic benefits of electric vehicles in Africa regarding urban sustainability and charging infrastructure on the existing transportation infrastructure in the African transportation network. This study contributes to the expanding body of literature on electric vehicles by emphasising the significance of incorporating sustainability principles in the adoption and usage of electric vehicles in Africa. It also examines the effects of electric vehicle usage on the existing transportation infrastructure.

From physics to the social sciences, information is now seen as a fundamental component of reality. However, a form of information seems still underestimated, perhaps precisely because it is so pervasive that we take it for granted: the information encoded in the very environment we live in. We still do not fully understand how information takes the form of cities, and how our minds deal with it in order to learn about the world, make daily decisions, and take part in the complex system of interactions we create as we live together. This paper addresses three related problems that need to be solved if we are to understand the role of environmental information: (1) the physical problem: how can we preserve information in the built environment? (2) The semantic problem: how do we make environmental information meaningful? And (3) the pragmatic problem: how do we enact environmental information in our daily lives? Attempting to devise a solution to these problems, we introduce a three-layered model of information in cities, namely environmental information in physical space, environmental information in semantic space, and the information enacted by interacting agents. We propose forms of calculating entropy in these different layers, and apply these measures to archetypal urban cases and simulated scenarios. Our results suggest that ordered spatial structures and diverse land use patterns encode information, and that aspects of physical and semantic information affect coordination in interaction systems.

Gender differences have been documented in the prevalence of psychological symptoms. Tic disorders and ASD are more common in male clinical samples, while selective mutism and trichotillomania are more common in female clinical samples. In a review of 84 published case studies of Japanese children, this study explores gender differences in the prevalence of four categories of symptoms and expressions made in therapy for tics, selective mutism, trichotillomania, and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Case studies were evaluated using both qualitative coding and statistical analysis. The findings were mostly consistent with epidemiological surveys and empirical research on adults. The gender differences in symptom prevalence and their expression can be summarized as differences in more direct aggression for boys versus indirect aggression for girls. The objective and progress in the therapy are to control impulsive energy for boys and to express energy for girls.

In this paper we analyse spatial variation in Japanese dialectal lexicon by assembling a set of methodologies using theories in variationist linguistics and GIScience, and tools used in historical GIS. Based on historical dialect atlas data, we calculate a linguistic distance matrix across survey localities. The linguistic variation expressed through this distance is contrasted with several measurements, based on spatial distance, utilised to estimate language contact potential across Japan, historically and at present. Further, administrative boundaries are tested for their separation effect. Measuring aggregate association within linguistic variation can contrast previous notions of dialect area formation by detecting continua. Depending on local geographies in spatial subsets, great circle distance, travel distance and travel times explain a similar proportion of the variance in linguistic distance despite the limitations of the latter two. While they explain the majority, two further measurements estimating contact have lower explanatory power: least cost paths modelling contact before the industrial revolution, based on DEM and seafaring, and a linguistic influence index based on settlement hierarchy. Historical domain boundaries and present day prefecture boundaries are found to have a statistically significant effect on dialectal variation. However, the interplay of boundaries and distance is yet to be identified. We claim that a similar methodology can address spatial variation in other digital humanities, given a similar spatial and attribute granularity.

The Western ‘discovery’ of Japanese cinema in the 1950s prompted scholars to articulate essentialist visions understanding its singularities as a result of its isolation from the rest of the World and its close links to local aesthetic and philosophical traditions. Recent approaches however, have evidenced the limitations of this paradigm of ‘national cinema’. Higson (1989) opened a critical discussion on the existing consumption, text andproduction-based approaches to this concept. This article draws on Higson´s contribution and calls into question traditional theorising of Japanese film as a national cinema. Contradictions are illustrated by assessing the other side of the ‘discovery’ of Japanese cinema: certain gendaigeki works that succeeded at the domestic box office while jidaigeki burst into European film festivals. The Taiyōzoku and subsequent Mukokuseki Action created a new postwar iconography by adapting codes of representation from Hollywood youth and western films. This article does not attempt to deny the uniqueness of this film culture, but rather seeks to highlight the need to reformulate the paradigm of national cinema in the Japanese case, and illustrate the sense in which it was created from outside, failing to recognise its reach transnational intertextuality.

Despite the lack of evidence that suggests hemodiafiltration (HDF) offers a better survival outcome than standard hemodialysis (HD), the number of patients initiating HDF in Japan continues to rise. This study examined the temporal change in the number of HDF incidents, evaluated factors associated with all-cause mortality, and compared the mortality risk and survival time of patient on HDF with patients receiving standard HD in three sets of 2-year cohorts. The primary analyses included the insurance claims data of 460 HDF patients and propensity score-matched 903 standard HD patients who initiated dialysis therapy between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2018. Patient follow-up was censored at the time of death or the end of the 2-year study period. The influence of comorbidities on all-cause mortality was investigated, and the survival outcomes between HDF and standard HD patient groups throughout cohorts were compared. The number of HDF patients was increasing throughout cohorts, but the proportions of mortality cases across cohorts slowly decreased. Dementia status increases the mortality risk of patients regardless of dialysis modality. The mortality risk among HDF patients with dementia was more significant than HD patients. Adjusting for all covariates, we observed that HDF patients had a reduced mortality risk and longer survival time than patients on standard HD. This study supports the notion that HDF reduces all-cause mortality compared with standard HD in an incident dialysis population in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan.

Background/Objectives: The global burden of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is increasing at an alarming rate. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality in MASLD patients, therefore, the therapeutic interventions for MASLD should improve coronary risk factors such as obesity, diabetes and dyslipidemia, in addition to improving liver function. The evidence on effect of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2is) which have beneficial pharmacological properties for MASLD, especially the long-term effects, on the progression of MASLD in Asian population is very limited. Methods: The retrospective longitudinal study was performed by using the medical records at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Kohnodai Hospital, Japan. We picked up patients with type 2 diabetes who had taken SGLT2is for at least 3 years or longer between April 1, 2014 and March 31, 2018. We collected the data on metabolic parameters, including blood tests and anthropometric parameters, and compared the data before and after the initiation of SGLT2is treatment. Results: During the observation period, 324 patients had taken SGLT2is for 3 years. The 3-year-SGLT2is treatment significantly reduced body weight, hemoglobin A1c, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, triglyceride and non-high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) and significantly increased HDL-C. Furthermore, this treatment significantly improved liver function and the markers for hepatic steatosis and hepatic fibrosis. Conclusions: Considering that the development of CVD determines the prognosis of MASLD patients, the long-term SGLT2is treatment may be an ideal therapy for MASLD patients.

The research aims to discover the natural occurrence of patulin (PAT) in selected citrus fruits from the central cities of Punjab and Pakistan's Northern cities. Total 2970 samples of twelve citrus fruits; kinnow, orange, grapefruits, bitter orange, mausami, red blood, pineapple, sweet orange, rough lime, sweet lime, kagzi lime and lemon were examined using liquid chromatography fitted with UV detector. The limit of detection (LOD) and quantification limit was 0.04 and 0.12 µg/kg, respectively. The results have shown that 56% of samples of citrus fruits from Punjab's central cities, Pakistan, were discovered to be infected from PAT. The elevated amounts of PAT ranging from 0.04 to 1150 µg/kg were found in citrus fruit samples from Multan cities. Furthermore, 31.7% of samples of citrus fruits from Northern cities of Pakistan were discovered to be infected with PAT, and the elevated amounts were found ranging from 0.04-320 µg/kg from Swat city. About 22.1% of samples of citrus fruits have levels of PAT greater than the suggested limits established by the European Union (EU). PAT's dietary intake levels ranged from 0.10-1.11 µg/kg bw/day from the central cities of Punjab, Pakistan, and 0.13-1.93 µg/kg bw/day were documented from Northern cities of Pakistan.

The research aims to discover the natural occurrence of patulin (PAT) in selected citrus fruits from the central cities of Punjab and Pakistan's Northern cities. Total 2970 samples of twelve citrus fruits; kinnow, orange, grapefruits, bitter orange, mausami, red blood, pineapple, sweet orange, rough lime, sweet lime, kagzi lime and lemon were examined using liquid chromatography fitted with UV detector. The limit of detection (LOD) and quantification limit was 0.04 and 0.12 µg/kg, respectively. The results have shown that 56% of samples of citrus fruits from Punjab's central cities, Pakistan, were discovered to be infected from PAT. The elevated amounts of PAT ranging from 0.04 to 1150 µg/kg were found in citrus fruit samples from Multan cities. Furthermore, 31.7% of samples of citrus fruits from Northern cities of Pakistan were discovered to be infected with PAT, and the elevated amounts were found ranging from 0.04-320 µg/kg from Swat city. About 22.1% of samples of citrus fruits have levels of PAT greater than the suggested limits established by the European Union (EU). PAT's dietary intake levels ranged from 0.10-1.11 µg/kg bw/day from the central cities of Punjab, Pakistan, and 0.13-1.93 µg/kg bw/day were documented from Northern cities of Pakistan

This publication aims to create 4K UHD video sequences with a specific focus on smart cities and transport. The created database will be accessible to all experts in the field and can be further used for research purposes. All reference video sequences will be transcoded into different quality settings. The resolution, compression standard, and bitrate will be changed. The work will aim to find out the best combination of video parameters from the measured values. Thanks to the overall evaluation, we will ensure for each single video sequence the quality with the best experience for the providers that will offer the service. The database will also be available with its objective and subjective ratings, with dynamicity information characterized by spatial and temporal information. After, It will be possible to compare the results of the subjective evaluation of a selected sample of our respondents with the work of other researchers who can evaluate with a different sample of evaluators.

A national green planning strategy has recently been introduced in the Italian urban planning sector, aimed at making all local initiatives undertaken nationwide consistent with each other. At a regional level, Friuli Venezia-Giulia has recently implemented a Landscaping Plan, which is of an urban planning and ecological nature at an intermediate level between national and local. This article describes the local green plan of Latisana, which has been entitled Ecopolitana, given that it is represents the experimental phase, at a regional level, of the possibilities offered by landscape planning and design. Specifically, it outlines the multi-disciplinary approach used, demonstrating how landscape planning can be compared to the sustainable development of cities, with specific regard to the agricultural sector. Regarding the agricultural sector, a low-intensity cropping model is also suggested, based on the principles of agroecology and landscape ecology, which has already been implemented in the historical rural landscape of Plasencis (UD) and developed through GIS analysis and remote sensing processes. Its aim is to be the starting point for the achievement of the goals set in the 2030 Agenda, and especially Goals 13 (Climate action) and 15 (Life on land), given the current scarcity of agroecological infrastructures in the area of Latisana (UD) and the high percentage of soil used for intensive cropping.

Silverleaf is an important trunk disease of fruit crops, like Japanese plum. It is known that Chondrostereum purpureum produces wood discoloration, leaves silvering and tree decline, however, the information about the effects on fruit production is scarce. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to determine C. purpureum pathogenicity on Prunus salicina and effects on physiology, fruit yield and quality, in Chile, in 2019 and 2020. Wood samples from affected plum trees were collected in the Chilean plum productive area. Fungi were isolated plating wood sections from the necrosis margin on culture media. Isolates colonies morphological and molecular characteristics accorded to C. purpureum (98%). Representative isolates were inoculated on healthy plum plants and after 65-d incubation, wood necrotic lesions and silver leaves were visible. Fungi were reisolated, fulfilling Koch’s postulates. To determine Silverleaf effects, water potential, and fruit yield and quality were measured in healthy and Silverleaf diseased plum plants cv. ‘Angeleno’. Water potential was altered on diseased trees, and their yield was reduced in 51% (2019) and 41% (2020), compared to fruit from healthy plants. Moreover, cover-colour, equatorial-diameter and weight were reduced, and fruit were softer, failing to meet the criteria to be properly commercialized and exported to demanding markets.

The concentration of cerebrospinal fluid total protein (CSF-TP) is important for the diagnosis of neurological emergencies. Recently, some Western studies have shown that the current upper reference limit of CSF-TP is quite low for older patients. However, little is reported about the concentration of CSF-TP in older Asian population. In this study, we retrospectively analyzed the CSF-TP concentrations in Japanese healthy older volunteers. CSF samples in 69 healthy Japanese volunteers (age range: 55–73 years) were collected by lumbar puncture, and the data of CSF were retrospectively analyzed. The mean (standard deviation) CSF-TP was 41.7 (12.3) mg/dL. The older group (≥ 65 years old) had higher CSF-TP concentration than the younger group (55–64 years old). The 2.5th percentile and 97.5th percentile of CSF-TP were estimated as 22.5 and 73.2 mg/dL, respectively, which were higher than the current reference range in Japan (10–40 mg/dL).

Urban environments face escalating challenges, e.g. due to uncontrolled urbanization, rapid population growth or climate changes, prompting the exploration of sustainable solutions for enhancing urban green spaces (UGS). For this reason, poplars (Populus L.), due to their rapid growth, wide range adaptability to environmental conditions and versatility of use, would have emerged as very promising. This comprehensive review synthesizes current knowledge regarding poplar's application in urban landscapes, emphasizing its multifaceted contributions and benefits. However, challenges arise from the variable lifespans of different poplar cultivars, necessitating strategic management approaches. Selecting cultivars based on growth rates, root system characteristics, and adaptability to urban conditions is pivotal. Adaptive replanting strategies, incorporating species with varying lifespans, offer solutions to maintain continual greenery in urban landscapes. Collaborative efforts between researchers, urban planners, and policymakers are essential for devising comprehensive strategies that maximize benefits while addressing challenges associated with their variable lifespans. In conclusion, harnessing poplar's potential in urban greenery initiatives requires a balanced approach that capitalizes on their benefits while mitigating challenges. Further research and adaptive strategies are crucial for sustained and effective utilization in creating resilient and vibrant urban landscapes.

South Africa’s internationally celebrated water legislation placed the responsibility for investing in water services at the door of the government. In recent years South Africa has struggled to invest adequately to keep up with growing demand for these services. The result is a suite of social, economic and environmental risks that are destabilising to the fiscus and the financial sector. This paper explored both operating and capital costs, and applied the ‘Beyond the Gap’ analysis to show that an additional 55% investment (R91 billion annually) is necessary to ensure South Africa meets its water policy goals. The analysis explores the factors that influence the investment amount and shows that a combination of policy choices and exogenous factors such as climate change could render the investment gap anywhere between 30% and 90% of the estimated current allocation to the water sector. The most significant savings are attributed to reducing the extent of “non-revenue water”, an energy transition away from coal, sharing of some water taps between (up to) five houses, reduced water allocations to agriculture, investments in invasive alien plant (IAP) clearing in water catchments above dams, and water demand management, capacity building and more efficient integration of different bulk water schemes. The study revealed important dependencies between capital and operating costs; where operating costs are ignored, the decay of water infrastructure is accelerated. Showing the contingency of investment needs on policy choices, places responsibility for attaining water policy goals and SDG 6 in the hands of a diverse set of actors. Quantifying the investment need also raises the critical question of how to raise the required investment. Recognising the need to balance risks to financiers with the widespread risks to households, companies and government when investment in water services is inadequate, South Africa is exploring a Monetary Architecture approach of inter-balance sheet relationships in an attempt to mobilise investment from new sources.

Adolescents spend an increasing amount of time on mobile phones. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between duration of mobile phone use and insomnia and depression in senior high school students. The cross-sectional study was conducted on 295 senior high school students in Japan. Mobile phones were owned by 98.6% of students; 58.6% of students used mobile phones for more than 2 h daily and 10.5% used them for 5 h daily. The risk of insomnia was significantly high in students who used mobile phones for 5 h or more (OR: 3.89 [95% CI: 1.21-12.49]). There was no significant association between depression and duration of mobile phone use. However, individuals who spent 120 min or more using mobile phones for social network services (OR: 3.63 [1.20-10.98]) and online chats (OR: 3.14 [1.42-6.95]) were at risk for depression. Excessive mobile phone use is associated with unhealthy sleep habits and insomnia. Moreover, the excessive use of the social network services and online chats are related to depression rather than duration of mobile phone use. Adolescents should use mobile phones appropriately to avoid sleep disturbances and the impairment of mental health.

Sustainability is pivotal in the urban transformation strategy in order to reach more resource-efficient, resilient and smarter cities. The goal of being a sustainable city should drive the decisions for city interventions. Nonetheless, impacts need to be quantified, lacking of standard and/or common methodologies that could be replicable across multiple cities. There exist many initiatives aiming at defining indicators and assessment procedures, but without convergence in the definition of terms and application methodologies, making complex its real implementation. Within mySMARTLife project (GA#731297), a KPI-driven evaluation framework is defined with the aim of covering the multiple pillars of a city (i.e. energy, mobility, citizens, economy) in a holistic way. This methodology also defines the concepts and terms to guide urban planners and/or experts at time of implementing the framework in a specific city. The evaluation framework has been deployed in the three cities of Nantes, Hamburg and Helsinki and some lessons learnt have been extracted, such as the necessity of providing a definition of measurement boundary to avoid interpretations. Thanks to a co-creation strategy, the main difficulties and issues from the cities have been taken into consideration for increasing the replicability.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is at the heart of the Smart City approach, which constitutes the next level of cities’ and communities’ development across the globe. Thereby, ICT serves as the gluing component enabling different domains to interact with each other and facilitating the management and processing of vast amounts of data and information towards intelligently steering the cities infrastructure and processes, engaging the citizens and facilitating new services and applications on various aspects of urban life - e.g. supply chains, mobility, transportation, energy, citizens’ participation, public safety, interactions between citizens and the public administration, water management, parking and many other use cases and domains. Hence, given the fundamental role of ICT in cities in the near future, it is of paramount importance to lay the ground for a sustainable and reliable ICT infrastructure, which can enable a city/community to respond in a resilient way to upcoming challenges whilst increasing the quality of life for its citizens. This paper constitutes a continuation of a series of research documents and standardization activities, which relate to the concept of Open Urban Platforms (OUP) and the way they serve as a blueprint for each city/community towards the establishment of an ICT backbone. Thereby, the current paper emphasizes on the aspects of sustainability and resilient ICT, whilst reporting on our latest activities and related developments in the research area.

The NP method was used to elucidate the contributions of vehicles and coal combustion to seasonal and long-term atmospheric PM-bound Pyr and 1-NP concentrations in Kanazawa, Kitakyushu, Shenyang, and Shanghai in the Western Pacific region from 1997 to 2021. Among the four cities, Kanazawa demonstrated the lowest Pyr concentration. The contribution of vehicles to Pyr before and after 2010 were 35% and 5%, respectively. The 1-NP concentration reduced by a factor of more than 1/10. These changes can be attributed to the emission control from vehicles. Kitakyushu revealed the second lowest Pyr and the lowest 1-NP concentrations. Coal combustion was found to be the main contributor to Pyr, while its contribution to 1-NP increased from 9% to 19%. The large contribution of coal combustion is attributed to iron manufactures. Shenyang demonstrated the highest atmospheric Pyr concentration with its largest seasonal change. Vehicles are the largest contributors to 1-NP. However, coal combustion, including winter coal heating, contributed 97% or more to Pyr and more than 14% to 1-NP. Shanghai revealed the second highest Pyr and 1-NP concentrations, but the former was substantially lower than in Shenyang. Coal combustion was the major contributor, but the contribution of vehicles to Pyr was larger before 2010 similar to Kanazawa.

Maker spaces can contribute significantly to the circular economy of cities: they demonstrate not only the economic potential of inner loop circularity, but also provide tangible evidence of spatial and social integration of production into the urban context. This paper presents findings from a typological analysis of 326 maker spaces in seven European cities, with a focus on selected exemplar case studies to reveal design characteristics, principles and opportunities for circular city development. The research shows that circular economy principles of ‘reduce-reuse-recyle’ are aligned with maker spaces such as repair cafés, secondhand shops and fab labs. In the context of cities, circularity is revealed by a spatial tightening of resource cycles that close the loops of product life cycles. Furthermore, urban maker spaces demonstrate social engagement and a relationship to local production which inherently includes maintenance, repair, reuse, and redistribution. This paper defines five maker typologies, presents exemplars of each from different urban contexts and posits hybrid design strategies for the transition to circular maker cities. Through the adoption of these findings into urban planning policy it is possible accelerate circular urban production and close the sustainability gap between small scale local and large scale regional manufacturing.

The goal of the paper is to investigate the expected participation and mentality of smart citizens in smart cities. The key question is the role of the human factor in smart environments globally studied through a research corpus of the mainstream summaries, trend reports, white papers and visions of business – governmental – university research co- operations. Foremost, a short review of the changing scholarly trends is presented as a theoretical framework. Concerning its key ideas, the corpus based findings are recapped and analysed by content networks and the most referred city strategies. Besides, a critical approach reveal further required factors and risks to investigate. The ultimate goal is to understand how the smart city landscape is shaped by citizen-based strategies, open data, empowerment and responsibility. Accordingly, the paper closes with theoretical, practical and metaphor-based recommendations to support the business and political decision making, and also, the emerging scholarly trends in the context of upcoming technological-structural changes.

Multilingual classrooms are becoming more common worldwide due to increasing mobility. Teaching foreign languages using the mother tongue in multilingual classrooms has become problematic; some of the significant concerns in Japanese language acquisition – such as the high contextuality of the language, vocabulary and kanji learning – make the direct teaching method confusing for many students, especially at the beginner and elementary levels. This article provides the preliminary results of a study carried out as a component of a more extensive empirical research project on instructional languages in classrooms teaching Japanese as a foreign language. It aims to gather, analyse and synthesise data from a survey conducted at a supranational level. The results of the first two sections of a questionnaire containing closed and open-ended questions were used for a quantitative analysis of the profile of Japanese language instructors with a focus on finding possible connections. The wide geographic distribution of the respondents (274 teachers from fifty-seven countries and regions) made it possible to collect data from a more representative sample and draw meaningful conclusions about the spread of multilingual classrooms that would be impossible in smaller-scale research. The study’s primary results show the proportion of multilingual classrooms among countries in different regions and across different educational stages, the distribution of Japanese language instructors in various educational stages depending on the highest level of formal education attained, and the proportion of part-time instructors working in different academic institutions.

Japanese encephalitis virus is a mosquito-borne member of the Flaviviridae family. JEV is the leading cause of viral encephalitis in Asia and is characterized by encephalitis, high lethality and neurological sequelae in survivors. The virus also causes severe disease in swine, which are an amplifying host in the transmission cycle, and in horses. US agricultural authorities have recently recognized the threat to the swine industry and initiated preparedness activities. Other mosquito-borne viruses exotic to the Western Hemisphere have been introduced and established in in recent years, including West Nile, Zika, and chikungunya viruses, and JEV has recently invaded continental Australia for the first time. These events amply illustrate the potential threat of JEV to US health security. Susceptible indigenous mosquito vectors, birds, feral and domestic pigs, and possibly bats, constitute the receptive ecological ingredients for spread of JEV in the US. Fortunately, unlike the other virus invaders mentioned above, an inactivated whole virus JE vaccine (IXIARO®) has been approved by the US Food & Drug Administration for human use in advance of a public health emergency, but there is no veterinary vaccine. This paper describes the risks and potential consequences of introduction of JEV in the US, the need to integrate planning for such an event in public health policy and the requirement for additional countermeasures, including antiviral drugs and an improved single dose vaccine that elicits durable immunity in both humans and livestock.

In this article, we have tried to answer the questions of how an entire city's fiction was created for the development of Japanese American internment camps and in which way contributions of sustainable crafts and even art could have interceded. To this aim, we have searched the literature and reviewed archives, primarily from the American West Coast. We have found that beyond adaptation to the circumstances, the visual representation of the city's settlement, founding, and daily activities, instead of typical panoptic or somber prisons’ imagery, are depicted in the selected images and that their use precisely fostered its sustainability. This leads us to deduce that a "city fiction" was necessary for such survival and endurance and that its artistic representation was primarily involved in the state's ideological apparatus. On the other hand, fissures subtly seethed the violence exerted in the camps by stealth and in a hidden fashion. We have concluded that artistic activity justified the city's fiction, together with other examples, highlighting the conditions of systemic violence and oppression for the inmates. In this framework, the artworks generated constitute a historical document of sustainability.

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a vaccine preventable disease caused by the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), which is primarily prevalent in Asia. JEV is a Flavivirus, classified into a single serotype with five genetically distinct genotypes (I, II, III, IV, and V). JEV genotype III (GIII) had been the most dominant strain and caused numerous out breaks in the JEV endemic countries until 1990. However, recent data shows the emergence of genotype I (GI) as a dominant genotype and it is gradually displacing GIII. The exact mechanism of this genotype displacement is still unclear. The virus can replicate in mosquito vectors and vertebrate hosts to maintain its zoonotic life cycle; pigs and aquatic wading birds act as an amplifying/reservoir hosts, and humans and equines are the dead end hosts. The important role of pigs as an amplifying host for JEV is well known. However, the influence of other domestic animals especially birds that live in high abundance and close proximity to human is not well studied. Here, we strive to briefly highlight the role of birds in JEV zoonotic transmission, discovery of birds as a natural reservoirs and amplifying host for JEV, species of birds susceptible to JEV infection, and the proposed effect of JEV on poultry industry in future perspective which have been neglected for a long times. We also discussed the recent in vitro and in vivo studies which show that the newly emerged GI viruses replicated more efficiently in bird-derived cells and ducklings/chicks than GIII, and an important role of birds in the JEV genotype shift from GIII to GI.

This paper proposes a novel concept within Quantum Natural Language Processing (QNLP) to encode the interpersonal metafunction of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), particularly tenor, into quantum circuits by treating Japanese honorifics seriously. Because of English language bias in the literature, the incorporation of nuanced aspects of interpersonal communication evident in languages, such as the aforesaid Japanese, remains under-developed and overlooked. Utilizing lambeq, monoidal categories, and string diagrams, this study extends lambeq’s quantum computing framework to capture not only grammar but also social context—specifically the roles and relationships that define interpersonal interactions in quantum circuits. This approach represents a significant step toward that end simply by defining the honorific type h in lambeq. This innovative strategy exposes the capability of quantum circuits to model the complex structures of language, moving beyond grammar and even semantics—the horizontal, textual dimension of language—to embrace the vertical, hierarchical dimension of human communication and social interaction. Through this lens, the paper underscores the potential of QNLP to transcend traditional linguistic analysis, advocating for a broader and more nuanced understanding of language that includes not only what is said but also the social persona of the interlocutors. An algorithm for parsing Japanese grammar into pregroup diagrams containing the h type is introduced along with a codebase for other researchers to use and to which to contribute. Lastly, a toy experiment is performed to demonstrate that the circuits generated from these pregroup diagrams are suitable for Quantum Machine Learning (QML) applications.

ChatGPT is gaining widespread acceptance for its ability to generate natural language sentences in response to various inputs and is expected to become a supplementary tool for diagnosing and determining treatment policies in clinical settings. ChatGPT was used to evaluate its ability to perform clinical inference and accuracy in answering questions on the 117th Japanese National Medical Licensing Examination held in February 2023. The exam questions were manually inputted into ChatGPT's window, and the accuracy of ChatGPT's responses was determined based on answers provided by a preparatory school. ChatGPT provided answers for 389 out of 400 questions, and its overall correct answer rate was 55.0%. The correct answer rate for 5-choice-1, 5-choice-2, and 5-choice-3 were 57.8%, 42.9%, and 41.2%, respectively. The highest correct answer rate was for the compulsory exam (67.0%), followed by the specific knowledge exam (54.1%) and the cross category exam (47.9%). The correct answer rate for non-image questions was 56.2% and for image questions, it was 51.5%. The study suggests that ChatGPT has potential to support healthcare professionals in clinical decision-making in Japanese clinical settings, but caution should be exercised in interpreting and using the answers generated by ChatGPT due to room for improvement in performance.

Seirogan, a wood creosote, is a nonprescription drug used to treat diarrhea. However, reports of its clinical use are rare. Here, we report on the efficacy of wood creosote (3 capsules daily) for the alleviation of diarrheal symptoms in 148 patients from 10 clinics in Japan. The wood creosote capsules were classified as remarkably effective (44 patients), effective (71 patients), and partially effective (13 patients) based on the degree of alleviation of diarrheal symptoms that were induced by a variety of causes. The antidiarrheal efficacy of the capsules did not differ between males and females, and young patients (21–30 years) showed greater improvement in diarrheal symptoms than did old patients (> 61 years). Although this report is based on the re-evaluation of old data that had been preserved by our company, the effectiveness and range of symptoms that were treatable with wood creosote has likely remained unchanged. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first public report on the clinical effectiveness of wood creosote capsules for the treatment of a wide range of diarrheal symptoms.

The consumption of insects in the Democratic Republic of Congo is an ancient practice. The taxonomic identification and characterization of “entomophagy” seem urgent in Kinshasa following the related anthropogenic pressures (demographic pressure, uncontrolled urbanization) leading to a food crisis. This study aims to assess the diversity of edible insects and their consumption by the population of Kinshasa. A total of 360 people were surveyed to identify the insect species consumed in Kinshasa, the ecosystems that provide them, and the preference for species in relation to ethnolinguistic groups, churches (faith) and household size. Three species of insects most consumed in Kinshasa are: Gonimbrasia jamesonii, Cirina forda and Brachytrupes membranaceus. 41.9% of these insects are consumed by the Kongo ethno-linguistic group, 23.6% by the Luba, 20.6% by the Ngala and 13.9% by the Swahili. Inhabitants of the communes of Kassa Vubu (57%), Maluku (54%), Masina (54%) and Mont-Ngafula (39%) mainly consume C. forda and G. jamesonii. Luba and Kongo ethnolinguistic groups mainly consume C. forda while the Swahili and Ngala consume G. jamesonii. Catholic, Revivalist Church, Kimbagu, Islam, Protestant and Johovah's Witness believers mainly consume C. forda and G. jamesonii. This study made it possible to understand the socio-cultural influence on the degradation (pressure) of biodiversity and; contributes to SDGs 2 and 12 by 2023..

Community engagement in climate action and adaptation planning is an essential prerequisite for overcoming existing and projected environmental injustices associated with the negative impacts of climate change. Diversity and inclusion of stakeholders are crucial for addressing equity both in the development and implementation of local climate plans. Our study attempts to evaluate and compare consideration of equity in climate action and climate adaptation plans of Michigan cities and its association with a diversity of stakeholders involved in the planning process. Data analysis is based on the content of eight municipal climate action and/or climate adaptation plans, related documents, and interviews with city planners along with community activists. Data derived from climate action and adaptation plans were also compared to the strategies outlined in the Tribal Climate Adaptation Menu, which integrates climate science and indigenous knowledge. The study concludes that municipalities that engage more diverse groups of stakeholders appear to be more attentive to social equity and more likely to offer specific climate action and adaptation measures focusing on vulnerable groups. Integration of indigenous knowledge could provide valuable insights for municipalities through collaboration with tribal communities and climate adaptation experts.

Intelligent cities or smart cities evolve bottom-up along with the digitisation and the creation of digital entities linked to human activities, physical space, and institutional settings of cities; but also, they progress top-down through smart city strategies and projects designed and implemented by public authorities. Yet, thirty-five years since the first use of the term “smart city” or “intelligent city” in the second half of the 1980s, and more than ten years of intense publications in this field, since 2009, there is still a great deal of fuzziness about the projects that make cities intelligent or smart. There is low awareness about the big differences between large, complex urban projects, such as ‘Zero Energy Districts’ or “Mobility-as-a-Service” and projects for automation of city infrastructures, such as smart city lighting, smart metering or finding a parking place. There is a widespread misconception that city intelligence or smartness, the core attribute of smart cities, can be achieved through automation of the city infrastructure. This paper focuses on projects that make cities intelligent or smart. Our intention is to show the complexity and effort needed to achieve this objective. It is an inquiry on projects and data from a large number of smart cities around the world. We analyse core properties of smart city projects, such as (a) interventions on the physical, social, and digital space of cities, (b) the relation to city sectors and ecosystems, (c) engagement of users and stakeholders in decision-making, and (c) impact through optimisation and innovation of city processes and routines. We discuss also projects we have designed and implemented in the framework of URENIO Research and ITI-CERTH. Our conclusions are two-fold. First, we propose a typology of smart city projects along 3 axes and 9 properties. Second, we argue that success and failure to achieve city smartness are mainly institutional. Most barriers to implementation are organisational, legal, and institutional. This can be explained by the social and institutional inertia of the urban system against new solutions, especially when innovation and radical change of existing routines take place. Change management should be a permanent companion of smart city projects implementation, and the modification of routines should be clearly defined and considered already at the design phase of projects.

Spatio-temporal aspects of data lead to critical information. Sensors capture data at all scales continually so it is imperative that useful information be extracted ubiquitously and regularly. Location plays a vital part by helping understand relations between datasets. It is crucial to link developmental works with spatial attributes and current challenge is to create an open platform that manages real-time sensor data and provides critical spatial analytics atop expert domain knowledge provided in the system. That is a two-faced problem where the solution tackles not only data from multiple sources but also runs data management platform, a spatial data infrastructure(SDI) as backbone framework able to harness sensor web(SW). The paper proposes development of such a globally shared open spatial expert system(ES), SmaCiSENS, a first of a kind geo-enabled knowledge based(KB) ES for multiple fields, smarter cities to climate modeling. SmaCiSENS is integration of SW and SDI with domain KB on data and problems, ready to infer solutions. The paper describes an architecture for semantic enablement for SW, SDI; connect interfaces, functions of SDI and SW, and sensor data application program interfaces (APIs) to better manage climate modeling, geohazard, global changes, and other vital areas of attention and action.

A recent publication regarding a March 2023 Google Scholar search found Japan unique in healthcare providers’ reaction to COVID-19 vaccines. According to one article, negative sentiment by healthcare providers toward vaccines defines the research in this area, with concerns about side effects outweighing worries regarding infection. This current study investigates the anomaly through a scoping review of “COVID-19, Japan, vaccine hesitancy” in six relevant databases: Cochrane COVID-19 Study Register, OVID, ProQuest, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. By following PRISMA guidelines, the intent is a more thorough examination of this unusual evalua-tion of COVID-19 vaccines by Japanese healthcare providers than offered by the March 2023 search. The finding is that of the 997 returns, only four were relevant for assessment inclusion. Of these four, three, published in Vaccines, support vaccine hesitancy in Japanese healthcare providers and their becoming more so regarding a subsequent dose of the vaccine. One article published in BMJ Open did not find this. Yet, the design of none of the studies was specific to investigating vaccine hesitancy in Japanese healthcare providers, making the conclusion questionable. Suggest-ed future research directions include investigating the primacy of those databases searched and the need for timeliness in examining COVID-19 anomalies.

Keywords: Endodontic microsurgery; Root canal treatment; Isthmus preparation; Short-term outcomes

One of the challenges with Japanese eel (Anguilla japonica) seedling production is the slow growth of leptocephali. This issue arises from a fundamental problem with the current methods for raising leptocephali. In essence, the balance between the amount of energy obtained from feeding and kinetic energy significantly differs from that in the natural environment. This slow growth results in a reduced size of metamorphosable leptocephalus and ultimately leads to smaller artificial glass eels. We hypothesize that this reduction in the size of artificial glass eels may be attributed to time-related stress during rearing. Therefore, we propose the "time-over theory" based on a series of phenomena.

Japanese Encephalitis (JE) is a disease caused by the Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV). JEV is an arbovirus that spreads primarily through the bite of a female Culex spp. mosquito. JE shows predominance over the Asia-pacific region and has the potential to spread globally with a higher rate of morbidity and mortality. JE, a neuro-invasive disease, initiates with mild fever which may lead to encephalitis with severe neurological sequelae in some cases. Efforts have been made to identify and select various target molecules essential in JEV progression, but until now, no licensed anti-JE drugs have been available. From a prophylactic point of view, a few licensed JE vaccines are available but various factors viz. high cost and different side effects imposed by them has narrowed their global use. With an average occurrence of >67,000 cases of JE annually, there is an urgent need to find a suitable antiviral drug to treat patients at the acute phase, as only supportive care is available to mitigate infection. This systematic review highlights the current status of efforts put in to develop antivirals against JE and the available vaccines along with their effectiveness. It also summarizes epidemiology, structure, pathogenesis, and potential drug targets that can be explored to develop a new range of anti-JEV drugs to combat JEV infection globally.

Japanese encephalitis is a zoonotic disease caused by Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV). It is mainly epidemic in Asia with an estimated 69,000 cases occurring per year. However, no approved agents are available for the treatment of JEV infection, and existing vaccines cannot resist various types of JEV strains. Drug repurposing is a new concept for finding new indication of existing drugs, and recently, it has been used to discover new antiviral agents. Identifying host proteins involved in the progress of JEV infection and using these proteins as targets are the center of drug repurposing for JEV infection. In this study, based on the gene expression data of JEV infection and the phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) data, we identified 286 genes participating in the progress of JEV infection using the systems biology methods. The enrichment analysis of these genes suggested that the genes identified by our methods were predominantly related to viral infection pathways and immune response-related pathways. We found that bortezomib which can target these genes may have potential effect on the treatment of JEV infection. Subsequently, we evaluated the antiviral activity of bortezomib using the JEV-infected mice model. The results showed that bortezomib can lower JEV-induced lethality in mice, alleviate suffering in JEV-infected mice and reduce the damage in brains caused by JEV infection. This work provides a new method for the development of antiviral agents.

Because we observed a reduced humoral immune response to the COVID-19 vaccine and subsequently discovered a lower susceptibility to COVID-19 in individuals carrying the ALDH2 rs671 variant, we hypothesized that rs671 is beneficial for cellular immunity against COVID-19. Using the IFN-γ enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay, we evaluated cellular immunity before and after COVID-19 vaccination in two subcohorts of a previously reported cohort. Subcohort 1 (26 participants) had six repeated observations at baseline and after one to three doses, whereas subcohort 2 (19 participants) had two observations, before and after the third dose. ELISPOT counts at six months after the second dose increased from baseline in carriers of the rs671 variant, but not in non-carriers. A positive effect of rs671 on ELISPOT counts was estimated using a mixed model, including the random effect of subcohort, repeated measures, and fixed effects of vaccine type, age, sex, height, lifestyle, steroid use, and allergic disease. There was no association between ELISPOT counts and specific IgG levels, suggesting a limitation in estimating protective potential by humoral response. There is lower humoral and higher cellular immunity against SARS-CoV-2 in rs671 variant carriers compared to non-carriers, providing a potential basis for optimizing preventive measures and drug discovery.

Understanding how humans perceive animals is important for biodiversity conservation, however, only a few studies about this issue were carried out in South America. We selected two Brazilian cities to assess people’s perceptions of birds: Bauru (São Paulo, Brazil) and Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais, Brazil). From the bird data we gathered, we developed a questionnaire and applied it between September 2020 and June 2021. The data obtained were analyzed by simple counts, Likert scale, and percentages. Also, open questions were placed on the Free Word Cloud Generator website. Our study confirmed that most respondents are aware of the importance of birds to ecological balance and that respondents had a generally positive attitude towards most of the bird species. However, they disliked exotic species such as the Domestic Dove and the House Sparrow, which are associated with disease, dirt, and disgust. Respondents also underestimated the number of birds that can live in urban areas and the song of birds is still a sense less explored and perceived by people. The concept of environmental perception seeks to cover aspects and understanding these human–biodiversity relationships is essential to successfully guide public policies, urban planning interventions, and environmental education activities.

Child-friendly tourism is a tourism concept that focuses on the welfare and needs of children as tourism actors. This concept is an important part of developing a sustainable tourism city because children are the future generation who will continue their role in maintaining the sustainability of the tourism industry. This article discusses the importance of child-friendly tourism in the development of a sustainable tourist city and provides some examples of best practices in creating a safe, comfortable and educational tourism environment for children. This article also discusses some of the challenges and opportunities in implementing the concept of child-friendly tourism, including how to involve children in decision-making and increase community participation in creating a better tourism environment for children. By adopting the concept of child-friendly tourism, tourist cities can build a sustainable tourism environment and preserve natural resources and local culture, while also providing positive and memorable tourism experiences for children and their families.

Low carbon cities are increasingly forming a distinct strand of sustainability literature. Models have been developed to measure the performance of low carbon cities. The purpose of this paper is to formulate a strategy-based model to evaluate current performance and predict future conditions of low carbon cities. It examines the dynamic interrelationships between key performance indicators (KPIs), induces changes to city plan targets and then instantly predicts the outcome of these changes. Designed generic and flexible, the proposed model shows how low carbon targets could be used to guide the transformation of low carbon cities under four strategies: (1) passive intervention, (2) problem solving, (3) trend modifying and (4) opportunity seeking. Further, the model has been applied to 17 cities and then tested on 5 cities: London, New York, Barcelona, Dubai and Istanbul. The paper concludes with policy implications to realign city plans and support low carbon innovation.

In accordance with regulations set forth by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport in Korea regarding the "Flame Retardant Performance of Building Finishing Materials and Fire Spread Prevention Structure," it is mandated that semi-noncombustible materials have a total heat emission less than 8 MJ/m². Consequently, our study aimed to determine the ideal quantity of flame-retardant treatment required to meet the fire safety standards for Korean larch and Japanese cedar, commonly used exterior materials in Korean construction. To this end, we investigated using a cone calorimeter to observe changes in the THR (Total Heat Released) based on the AFI (Amount of Flame-retardant Impregnation) in Korean larch and Japanese cedar. Our findings indicated that the AFI needed to satisfy the prescribed flame-retardant standard of 8 MJ/m² was THR 299 MJ/m² for Korean larch and THR 526 MJ/m² for Japanese cedar. As a result, we established optimal impregnation levels of flame retardant for both species.

Unhealthy diet can lead to the development of metabolic disorders, and studies have shown strong associations between those conditions and biomarkers, such as c-reactive protein (CRP) and adiponectin. Recently, marine algal biomaterials have been investigated extensively due to their health benefits. We report on associations between metabolic markers and bioactive nutrients from diet and Sujiaonori algal biomaterial (SBM), a natural adiponectin modulation inducer (NAMI) containing 60% of ulvan-rich fiber, in a sample of Japanese women. The study comprised dietary survey and intervention conducted in Kochi, Japan (2016-2017), involving 31 women who completed a dietary survey and provided biospecimen for CRP and adiponectin measurement using ELISA. Sixteen women received 3g SBM daily for one month and 15 others (controls) received 3g of corn starch. In SBM group, mean age was 23.06 (2.21) years [vs. 23.06 (1.55)], BMI was 21.11 (0.59) kg/m² [vs. 21.43 (0.60) in controls], and daily intake of n3-PUFA [3.83 (0.24) vs. 2.21 (0.33) mg/day; p=0.042] and total fiber [364.12 (2.45) vs. 48.13 (1.57) mg/day in controls; p=0.000] were markedly higher. Furthermore, CRP was inversely associated with total fiber, total n3-PUFA, SBM-n3PUFA, vitamin D and vitamin B6, whereas adiponectin was strongly and positively associated with SBM-fiber and total n3-PUFA. Thus ulvan-rich SBM supplement, which contains ulvan-rich fiber and n3-PUFA, might be beneficial in reducing metabolic risk.

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the relationship between objective chewing ability and nutritional status of Japanese community-dwelling elders. Design: Cross sectional study. Participants: In total, 509 community-dwelling elders living in the Tokyo metropolitan area participated in a comprehensive survey occurring in October 2013. Measurements: Basic characteristics referred to sex, age, and body mass index. Undernutrition was examined through serum albumin levels. Chewing ability was examined through a color-changeable xylitol gum. By evaluating color changes in the chewing gum. Nutritional intake was examined through the semi-quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire. Results: In the poor chewing ability group, all nutrient intake levels were significantly low, except for carbohydrates and all food groups intake levels were significantly low, except for cereals, confectionery, sugars, seasonings, and spices. Additionally, after adjusting for covariates, chewing ability showed a significant association with undernutrition. Conclusion: We concluded that chewing ability was closely associated with nutrient and different food groups intake as well as undernutrition among Japanese community-dwelling elders. Thus, in order to ensure a comprehensive nutritional management, nutritionists and dentists should collaborate when treating the same patients.

The practice of stormwater management has evolved from a singular focus on drainage to a multifaceted approach to support integrated urban development. By contributing to healthy, livable, ecological, and water sensitive cities, it is a key tool to promote Sustainable Development Goal 11 from neighborhood to metropolitan scales. A review of the knowledge base for stormwater management shows several attributes that favor an integrative approach to achieve co-benefits across several sectors. Functional areas of its contributions include drainage, flood control, flood plain management, water quality control, urban ecology, recreation, and city beautification. Legacy path dependance affects the potential to reform land use practices, while stormwater management practice is being affected by climate change, sea level rise, urbanization, inequality, and poor governance. Technical methods for stormwater management are well advanced, but integrative frameworks to address social, ecological and infrastructure needs are more challenging. The sensitivity of ecological issues is most evident in cities in coastal zones. Organizational initiatives are needed to counter neglect of essential maintenance and sustain flood risk reduction in cities. Stormwater management is related to other integrative tools, including IWRM, One Water, One Health, and integrated flood management, as well as the broader concept of urban planning. Stormwater capture and rainfall harvesting offer major opportunities to augment scarce water supplies. Nature-based solutions like low-impact development and the Sponge City concept show promise to transform cities. Major cities face challenges to sustain conveyance corridors for major flows and to store and treat combined sewer runoff. The neighborhood focus of stormwater management elevates the importance of participation and inclusion to advance environmental justice and strengthen social capital. Integrating organizational initiatives from local to city scale and funding improvements to stormwater systems are major challenges that require leadership from higher governance levels, although governments face resistance to change toward integration, especially in countries with poor land use and public works management systems. Finding solutions to neighborhood issues and the connectivity of water systems at larger scales requires complex approaches to urban planning and represent an important agenda for urban and water governance going forward.

The implementation of grey and green infrastructure is an effective mean to address urban flooding and nonpoint source pollution, but due to the complexity of the process and the diver-sity of benefits, there is a lack of measurement for their comprehensive benefits. Adopting a typ-ical university in Beijing as an example, this paper simulated the multidimensional benefits of the water quantity, water quality, and ecology of grey and green facility renovation by coupling the storm water management model (SWMM) and InfoWorks Integrated Catchment Manage-ment (ICM). Monetization methods and economical means were employed to characterize the comprehensive benefits. The results showed that grey and green infrastructure retrofitting re-duces the number of severe overflow nodes in the study area by 54.35%, the total overflow vol-ume by 22.17%, and the nonpoint source pollution level by approximately 80% under the heavy rain scenario and 60% under the rainstorm scenario. The annual benefits of grey and green infra-structure renovation reached ¥765,600/year, of this amount, ¥83,100/year is from hydrological regulation, ¥454,100/year is from nonpoint source pollution reduction, and ¥228,300/year is from ecological improvement. The benefits of green facilities were higher than those of grey facilities, and the combined benefits were negatively correlated with the rainfall level, with a total bene-fit–cost ratio of 1.19. The results provide methodological and data support for grey and green in-frastructure retrofitting within the context of sponge cities.

The paper makes a critical assessment of urban development in Nigeria against the backdrop of a rapidly changing population and growth rate. The Authors interrogated the effects of development control- mechanisms through the lenses of identified social anomalies in three selected pilot cities of Nigeria (Kaduna, Abuja FCT, and Lagos). Thematic areas examined include, the state of critical infrastructure, population dynamics, urban sprawl, city polarization, transportation, waste management systems, security/crime and economics. The Authors identified structural transformation of three Nigerian cities with focus on the causes and attendant consequences on urban development. The study found that urban growth has over-stretched the state of critical infrastructure in the cities and the mechanisms of development control seem ineffective in stemming unregulated growth, compromises and unplanned ‘development’. The paper noted that the impact of these developments has overstretched the state of critical infrastructure with far-reaching consequences. The authors conclude with some recommendations for strategic planning and sustainable development strategies aimed at mitigating the problems of urban development in Nigeria.

Children's screen time may affect their growth and development. However, different aspects of children and their parents that affect children's screen time has not been investigated in the Japanese context. This study aimed to explore the relationship between relevant factors affecting children's screen time based on their sleep, difficulties, and parental control, among Japanese elementary and junior high school students. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among parents in Japan. Data on screen time duration, parent-child background, strengths and difficulties, sleep variables, and parental control types were collected from 225 households. Path analysis revealed that high Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) scores (β = 0.167, p = 0.007), sleep duration (β = -0.282, p &lt; 0.001), and parental control (β = -0.205, p &lt; 0.001) were significantly related to children's screen time. Additionally, late parental bedtime negatively correlated with children's sleep duration (β = -0.326, p &lt; 0.001). The findings suggest that children's difficulties, sleep duration, and parental control are associated with children's screen time. This study, together with previous research, provides comprehensive insights to design interventions to decrease screen time in children in the Japanese context.

In tropical and subtropical climate regions, heat stress is one of the main causes of production losses in laying quails, aggravated by the antinutritional effects of the phytate in diet ingredients, which negatively affect the bioavailability of minerals, especially calcium and phosphorus. This situation results in a reduction in production and quality of eggs from commercial laying hens. Several nutritional strategies are utilized to reduce the adverse effects of high temperatures and antinutritional factors such as phytate. Among these strategies, the use of exogenous enzymes, such as phytase, stands out as a viable alternative. Phytase breaks down phytate molecules, optimizing the absorption of essential minerals and improving productive performance and egg quality under unfavorable conditions. In this context, this bibliographic review sought to produce a document demonstrating the beneficial effects of the phytase enzyme on the hydrolysis of the phytate molecule and the availability of calcium for Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica), and its implications in thermal stress due to heat.

Sado island in Niigata prefecture is among the first GIAHS designated sites in Japan and among developed countries worldwide. Recent studies have pointed out the need to incorporate culture and farmer opinions to further strengthen GIAHS inclusivity in rural farming. In connection to this, the study explored whether farmer visibility, which is highlighted by GIAHS designation, actually translates to farmers’ actual perception of GIAHS involvement. A survey was conducted among Sado island farmers to determine their knowledge and perception of their GIAHS involvement, in connection to their perspectives on youth involvement, Sado island branding, and tourism management. Results showed that 56.3% of Sado island farmers feel uninvolved or unsure towards GIAHS, which is in stark contrast with the prevalent farming method in the area which is special farming (complies with GIAHS regulations). Further analyses revealed that farmers who feel that GIAHS does not promote youth involvement, Sado island branding, and tourism management have higher predisposition to perceive themselves as uninvolved towards GIAHS. This study highlights the need for careful reevaluation and integration of farmer insights and needs to the current GIAHS implementation in Sado island and in other GIAHS as well.

The cyber physical systems of smart cities are facing increasingly severe attack situations, and traditional separate protection methods are difficult to effectively respond to. It is urgent to coordinate public security and network security protection. However, the integration of the two faces many challenges and is a very promising research field. The aim of this study is to investigate technical approaches for the synergy between public safety and cyber security. This paper proposes a smart city safety protection model inspired by the human immune mechanism. It was found that through a three line defense architecture similar to the human immune mechanism, and with the help of certain algorithms and functional middleware modules, public security and network security protection components can be dynamically combined to achieve collaboration. This work has verified through experiments a promising path to effectively resist complicated attack threats intertwined with public safety and cyber security factors.

In recent years, ozone (O3) pollution has been rapidly spreading, restricting further improvement of air quality in China. Investigating the interaction of O3 concentration and identifying their driven cities are important for the prevention and control of O3 pollution in China. However, the complex interaction between O3 pollution between the cities and their driven cities has not yet been revealed. In this study, we address this gap based on complex network methods. Specifically, an ozone relational network is constructed using an association calculation method. The driven nodes and spatial clusters were analyzed based on the maximum matching algorithm and the Louvain algorithm. The findings of the study reveal an aggregation phenomenon in the ozone network concerning distance. Furthermore, as the threshold Tc varies, the proportion of driven nodes exhibits a positive correlation. Moreover, a closer threshold value corresponds to a higher coincidence ratio of the driven nodes. The results provide scientific guidance for national O3 pollution prevention and regional synergy formatting. Furthermore, the introduced network-based approaches offer a mythological framework for the study of air pollution in key cities and clusters.

There is an overall scientific consensus that public space and, mainly, space with a high ecological index – most notably experienced in green areas – positively affects individual and collective well-being and urban dwellers’ physical and mental health. However, the ‘reality check’ indicates difficulties in translating the assumed benefits of green space into implementable interventions in urban environments. To examine such an ‘implementation gap’ on the case of Zurich seems valid, given that the ‘green urban agenda’ debate has been embedded in numerous Swiss policies (from the federal to the municipal levels). In narrow terms, the research first focuses on Zurich’s district 9 consisting of two neighborhoods (Altstetten and Albisrieden) – the area under ongoing densification yet with a variety of green spaces, to then elucidate four green space clusters and their 400-meter catchment areas in the mentioned district. The mixed-method approach has been applied at three analytical levels: 1) documentary analysis of multi-scale national policy toolkits, to identify the critical tenets associated with the ‘green urban agenda’, 2) assessment of green spaces in Zurich’s district 9 based on online available quantitative data and on-site observation, to determine their provision, types, size and mutual connectivity, and 3) analysis of four green space clusters within the mentioned district through on-site observation, to identify green space attributes and main activities. Through critical mutual examination of the identified ‘green urban agenda’ principles in the national policies, on the one hand, and green space attributes, on the other, the research findings reveal the extent of the convergence and/or divergence between the ‘green urban agenda’ policy trends and their implementation in practice.

This paper responds to the research question, “can urban farming help Nepali cities become more sustainable”? Especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, urban residents have begun to realize that food transported from long distances could not always be reliable. Urban farming can help produce fresh food locally and avoid long-distance transportation, and refrigeration. This practice also helps reduce greenhouse gases through plant carbon use efficiency (CUE). Urban farming not only helps city-dwellers towards achieving self-reliance in food production but also in vegetation carbon dynamics (VCD) while supporting the circular economy. Urban farming consists of edible landscapes, which can also be an aesthetic public space. As urban lands command higher prices than agricultural land, urban farming usually happens on residential yards, roofs, balconies, community gardens, and dedicated areas in public parks. Rainwater harvesting, and redirecting can help irrigate urban farms which can be part of rain gardens. The national census of 2021 (CBS 2022, p5) identifies that 66 percent of Nepal’s population live in urban areas. However, the World Bank (2018), shows that only 21 of Nepal’s population was projected to live in urban areas in 2021. It is not debatable that the urbanization process in Nepal is on the rise. Thus, urban agriculture can play an important role to supplement the residents’ food needs. Many cities in Nepal have already successfully adapted to urban farming where residents grow food on their building site, balconies, and rooftop often growing plants on pots, vases, and other types of containers. The UN-Habitat, with the support of European Union and local agencies, has published a rooftop farming training manual (2014) showing the feasibility of urban farming in Nepal.The paper discusses how Public Private Partnership (PPP) can promote urban agriculture and make the process more effective and attractive to urban farming households. It also analyzes how a PPP approach also facilitates the use of better technology, advisory support, and use of research extension activities. This paper draws on literature review, secondary data (e.g., from National Census Nepal 2021) and authors’ professional experiences related to best practices in the areas to analyze the benefits and challenges related to urban farming in Arizona, USA. The paper will provide recommendations for Nepali cities to maximize the benefit provided by urban farming. It is expected to be useful to Nepali policy makers, and government agencies, and nonprofit organizations which promote sustainability, and organic farming.

Authorities define cities – or human settlements in general – through imposing top-down rules in terms of whether buildings belong to cities. Emerging geospatial big data makes it possible to define cities from the bottom up, i.e., buildings determine themselves whether they belong to a city based on the notion of natural cities that is defined based on head/tail breaks, a classification and visualization tool for data with a heavy-tailed distribution. In this paper, we used 125 million building locations – all building footprints of America (mainland) or their centroids more precisely – to derive 2.1 million natural cities in the country (http://lifegis.hig.se/uscities/). These natural cities – in contrast to government defined city boundaries – constitute a valuable data source for city-related research.

Beginning in 2022, the Mpox outbreak, formerly known as monkeypox, has since spread to more than 100 countries and is now a global public health concern. This disease, caused by the Mpox virus, is usually mild, and most infected individuals recover within a few weeks without treatment. However, severe cases have been seen especially in children, pregnant women, or immunocompromised individuals. Antiviral medications such as brincidofovir, tecovirimat, and cidofovir were recently approved for Mpox; but these drugs are expensive and not easily obtainable. Therefore, identifying effective and low-cost drugs against Mpox and testing these through clinical trials remains a priority for global health. Drug repurposing is a well-known strategy for redeploying existing licensed drugs for newer indications, allowing for the shortest possible transition from bench to bedside. Recent in silico studies have determined the efficacy of minocycline, oleanolic acid, ursolic acid, and glycyrrhizinic acid against Mpox virus. Notably, oleanolic acid, ursolic acid, and glycyrrhizinic acid are some of the components of Japanese Kampo medicines, which are low-cost medicines prescribed daily in Japan. Thus, minocycline and Japanese Kampo medicines could potentially be used to treat Mpox.

This study aims to comparatively analyse the importance and performance of the health of Korean and Japanese adolescents during the prolonged coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Data were collected from 1,341 sampled Korean and Japanese adolescents in September 2021 through online and offline surveys. The collected data were analysed with frequency analysis, reliability testing, t-test, and importance-performance analysis (IPA). The following results were obtained. First, adolescents in the two countries perceive various factors about health as important during the COVID-19 pandemic, but their performance is weak compared to their perceived importance. Second, Korean adolescents had greater perceived importance for all factors of health perception compared to their Japanese counterparts. Third, the difference in performance between Korean and Japanese adolescents was especially evident for ‘hygiene management’, and there were significant differences in performance in ‘disease management’ and ‘physical activity’. Fourth, in quadrant 4 of the IPA matrix, there were similarities and differences in a particular factor of health perception between Korean and Japanese adolescents. Based on these results, we proposed measures to emphasise the importance of health and enhance performance among Korean and Japanese adolescents.

Aim: The aim of this study was to estimate the number of nurses who independently care for pa-tients with severe respiratory failure receiving mechanical ventilation (MV) or veno-venous ex-tracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO). Additionally, the study analyzed the actual role of nurses in the treatment of patients with MV and VV-ECMO. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study using postal surveys. The study included 725 Japanese intensive care units (ICUs). Descriptive statistics were conducted. Results: Among the 725 ICUs, we obtained 302 re-sponses (41.7%) and analyzed 282 responses. The median number of nurses per bed was 3.25. The median proportion of nurses who independently cared for patients with MV was 60% [IQR: 42.3-77.3]. The median proportion of nurses who independently cared for patients with VV-ECMO was 46.9 (35.7-63.3%) in the ICU experiencing VV-ECMO use. Concerning task-sharing, 33.8% of ICUs and nurses did not facilitate weaning from MV. Nurses always ti-trated sedatives in 44.5% of ICUs. Conclusion: Nurse staffing might be inadequate in all ICUs, es-pecially for severe respiratory failure. The proportion of competent nurses for caring for severe respiratory failure in ICUs should be considered when determining the work force of nurses.

It is important for enterprises to decide their environmental policies after carefully examining their future paths based on the relationship between the environment and the economy. This study focused on Japanese minimum administrative divisions (municipalities) and attempted to quantify the annual environmental efficiency of production activities within each division according to the theory of life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA). This study leverages the assessment theory LIME2, which is an endpoint-type LCIA method developed in 2010 that integrates environmental loads for certain impact categories, such as global warming and land use into a simple indicator by monetary unit. First, annual environmental impact assessments were conducted for all Japanese municipalities based on statistical information that was reliable, verifiable, and comparable. Next, the environmental efficiency of productivity for each division was conceptualized by dividing the gross domestic product by the environmental damage amounts as calculated above. Assessment results for each municipality were placed on a map of Japan in order to visualize the regionality of each indicator. The findings revealed in this study will aid public administrators in their decision-making process with respect to environmental policies.

In this research, we investigate the integration of an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) with a Digital Twin (DT) to enhance the cybersecurity of physical devices in cyber-physical systems. Using Eclipse Ditto as the DT platform and Snort as the IDS, we developed a near-realistic test environment that included a Raspberry Pi as the physical device and a Kali Linux virtual machine to perform common cyberattacks such as Hping3 flood attacks and NMAP reconnaissance scans. The results demonstrated that the IDS effectively detected Hping3-based flood attacks but showed limitations in identifying NMAP scans, suggesting areas for IDS configuration improvements. Furthermore, the study uncovered significant system resource impacts, including high CPU usage during SYN and ACK flood attacks and persistent memory usage after NMAP scans, highlighting the need for enhanced recovery mechanisms. This research presents a novel approach by coupling a Digital Twin with an IDS, enabling real-time monitoring and providing a dual perspective on both system performance and security. The integration offers a holistic method for identifying vulnerabilities and understanding resource impacts during cyberattacks. The work contributes new insights into the use of Digital Twins for cybersecurity and paves the way for further research into automated defense mechanisms, real-world validation of the proposed model, and the incorporation of additional attack scenarios. The results suggest that this combined approach holds significant promise for enhancing the security and resilience of IoT devices and other cyber-physical systems.