Diurnal and Nocturnal Behaviour of Airborne Cryptomeria japonica Pollen Grains and the Allergenic Species in Urban Atmosphere of Saitama, Japan

Qingyue Wang,Shinichi Nakamura,Senlin Lu,Daisuke Nakajima,Miho suzuki,Kazuhiko Sekiguchi,Makoto Miwa 한국대기환경학회 2013 Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment (AJAE) Vol.7 No.2

Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) pollinosis is the most popular pollinosis in Japan. It has been reported that Cryptomeria japonica pollen allergenic species are suspended as fine particles in the urban atmosphere. These allergenic fine particles are responsible for inducing asthma by breaking into the lower respiratory tract. It has also been found that pollinosis symptoms on the sufferers appear mainly at night-time by the results from epidemiological studies. However, the exact reason for these phenomena is not yet clarified. In this study, the diurnal and nocturnal behaviours of Cryptomeria japonica pollen grains and their allergenic species in the urban area of Saitama city of Kanto Plain were investigated. Airborne pollen grains and allergenic Cry j 1 concentrations in total suspended particulate matter (TSP)were investigated at two sampling sites, a heavy traffic road (roadside site) and at the balcony of the 10th floor of the Building of Research and Project of Saitama University (general urban site). The latter sampling site where located about 300 m away from the roadside site was used as a general urban site unaffected by automobile traffic. The airborne pollen counts were measured with a real-time pollen monitor. Cry j 1 particles were collected with two high volume air samplers, and these concentrations were measured by surface plasmon resonance method with a Biacore J system. The diurnal variation of the airborne pollen counts was similar to the trends of temperature and wind speed during the day-time;whereas its tendency with wind speed trend was not observed during the night-time. Airborne pollen counts were lower with northern wind than with southern wind because the pollen comes from the mountainous areas, and the mountains in the south are closer, about half the distance to the northern mountains. It is suggested that the peaks of airborne pollen counts during night-time in the sampling site occurred by transport of pollen grains released during day-time in the mountainous forest areas, located c.a. 100 km away from the sampling site. On the roadside site the allergenic Cry j 1 concentrations were higher than at the general urban site, nevertheless pollen grains counts were lower. These results suggested that worsening of pollinosis symptoms during nighttime in urban area was caused by transport of pollen grains during day-time in the mountainous forest areas. Moreover, pollen allergenic species become different morphology from pollen grain at roadside site, and the subsequent pollen grains re-suspension by automobile traffic.

Characterization of the Physical Form of Allergenic Cry j 1 in the Urban Atmosphere and Determination of Cry j 1 Denaturation by Air Pollutants

Qingyue Wang,Jun Morita,Xiumin Gong,Shinichi Nakamura,Miho Suzuki,Senlin Lu,Kazuhiko Sekiguchi,Takuya Nakajima,Daisuke Nakajima,Makoto Miwa 한국대기환경학회 2012 Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment (AJAE) Vol.6 No.1

In this study, we characterized the physical form of allergenic Cry j 1 in the urban atmosphere. Through an immunofluorescence antibody method, we showed that allergenic Cry j 1 exists as fine particles (‹1.1μm). To determine Cry j 1 concentrations and its particle size distribution, we used the ELISA method to confirm that most Cry j 1 exists as fine particles in the urban atmosphere and is found at high concentrations on fine day next to rainy day. Furthermore,we evaluated Cry j 1 denaturation by using the Biacore J system based on the surface plasmon resonence (SPR) principle and sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). We showed that the dissociation constant (KD) of Cry j 1 that has been exposed to urban polluted air is lower (1.76×10-14 M) than that of Cry j 1 (1.32×10-9-3.37×10-9 M) of original pollen grains that has not been exposed to air pollutants. Cry j 1 turns into low molecular weight proteins by reacting with various acidic solutions. In sum, we showed that allergenic Cry j 1exists as fine particles that can deposit in the lower respiratory tract. This finding clarifies the relationship between Japanese cedar pollinosis and air pollutants.

Ambient noise surface wave tomography of Quaternary structures derived from a high-density array in the central Hebei Depression, North China

Qingyu Wu,Qiushneg Li,Xiangyun Hu,Zhanwu Lu,Wenhui Li,Xiaoran Wang 한국지질과학협의회 2023 Geosciences Journal Vol.27 No.2

Internal structure imaging of the Earth, along with determining basin structure, can aid in evaluating potential seismic hazards. However, the high operating cost limits the current geophysical exploration methods; moreover, it is difficult to apply these techniques over a large area, which limits our understanding of the Quaternary structure and the development of earthquake prevention science. A combination of dense array observation technology and ambient noise surface wave tomography is being rapidly developed as a high-resolution urban detection method. Here, we report the ambient noise imaging results of a high-density array experiment. In the ambient noise surface wave tomography method (e.g., surface wave tomography; Eikonal tomography), the signal is assumed to be a single mode. However, several multimode signals were detected in this dataset. With the use of traditional methods to measure the dispersion, mode confusion occurs and the extracted dispersion curve jumps. To solve this problem, by combining the advantages of phase-matched filtering and dispersion compensation, we realized the automatic pickup of fundamental group velocity using reference phase velocity. From this, a Rayleigh wave group velocity map was obtained. The regional average phase velocity information was included in the inversion steps to reduce the uncertainty in the inversion of shear wave velocity. Finally, an S-wave velocity structure model was obtained within a depth of 500 m. The velocity structure was roughly layered and grew with depth. In the depth range of 240–320 m, obvious decreases in the S-wave velocity were observed. Compared with geothermal drilling data, this was speculated to be the reflection of a water-rich (confined water) sand layer. This study provides a technical approach for and a processing example of a high-density array, and its velocity model can be used as a reference for urban subsurface structure, underground space utilization, and earthquake disaster prevention and control.

SF3B4 as an early-stage diagnostic marker and driver of hepatocellular carcinoma

( Qingyu Shen ),( Suk Woo Nam ) 생화학분자생물학회(구 한국생화학분자생물학회) 2018 BMB Reports Vol.51 No.2

An accurate diagnostic marker for detecting early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (eHCC) is clinically important, since early detection of HCC remarkably improves patient survival. From the integrative analysis of the transcriptome and clinicopathologic data of human multi-stage HCC tissues, we were able to identify barrier-to-autointegration factor 1 (BANF1), procollagen-lysine, 2-oxoglutarate 5-dioxygenase 3 (PLOD3) and splicing factor 3b subunit 4 (SF3B4) as early HCC biomarkers which could be detected in precancerous lesions of HCC, with superior capabilities to diagnose eHCC compared to the currently popular HCC diagnostic biomarkers: GPC3, GS, and HSP70. We then showed that SF3B4 knockdown caused G1/S cell cycle arrest by recovering p27^kip1 and simultaneously suppressing cyclins, and CDKs in liver cancer cells. Notably, we demonstrated that aberrant SF3B4 overexpression altered the progress of splicing progress of the tumor suppressor gene, kruppel like factor 4 (KLF4), and resulted in non-functional skipped exon transcripts. This contributes to liver tumorigenesis via transcriptional inactivation of p27^Kip1 and simultaneous activation of Slug genes. Our results suggest that SF3B4 indicates early-stage HCC in precancerous lesions, and also functions as an early-stage driver in the development of liver cancer. [BMB Reports: Perspective 2018; 51(2): 57-58]

Catalytic performance of amino acid/phosphotungstic acid as bi-functional heterogeneous catalyst for biodiesel production

Qingyu Zhang,Xiaoling Duan,Siyi Tang,Cunwen Wang,Weiguo Wang,Weiliang Feng,Tielin Wang 대한환경공학회 2023 Environmental Engineering Research Vol.28 No.1

In this study, a series of acid-base bi-functional catalysts were prepared by mixing different amounts of basic amino acids (AAs) and phosphotungstic acid (PTA), which exhibited the excellent performance in catalyzing conversion of oleic acid (OA) for the biodiesel production. The physicochemical properties of the catalysts were characterized and analyzed using modern testing techniques and characterization methods such as XRD, FT-IR, XPS, SEM, TEM, and Hammett titration. The various influence parameters were optimized using the central composite design based the response surface methodology, where the maximum biodiesel yield of 97.0% was achieved at the MeOH/OA molar ratio of 5.9, the catalyst loading of 8%, reaction time of 6 h, and reaction temperature of 65℃. Furthermore, the stability and reusability of the prepared catalyst were also demonstrated. At last, the possible catalytic mechanism of the prepared catalyst was comprehensively described.

세계화된 관점에서 본 미학과 예술의 발달 : 커티스 L. 카터(Curtis L. Carter)와의 인터뷰

Qingyu Han 한국융합인문학회 2019 한국융합인문학 Vol.7 No.4

A Novel Impedance Measurement Method for Three-Phase Power Electronic Systems

Qingyu Dou,Zeng Liu,Jinjun Liu,Weihan Bao 전력전자학회 2015 ICPE(ISPE)논문집 Vol.2015 No.6

Power electronic systems could be unstable due to the interaction between converters. Impedance-based stability analysis is an effective approach to predict stability and to provide design criteria. Therefore significant are impedance measurement techniques, which have been well established for DC systems, but need to be improved for AC systems nevertheless. This paper proposes a novel AC impedance measurement method which injects bipolar pulse at current zero-crossing point. Compared with existing methods, it enhances accuracy and reduces distortion. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the novel method.

Exploring the Characteristics of High-Speed Rail and Air Transportation Networks in China: A Weighted Network Approach

Qingyu Qi,Oh Kyoung Kwon 인하대학교 정석물류통상연구원 2021 JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LOGISTICS AND TRADE Vol.19 No.2

This study explores the characteristics of high-speed rail (HSR) and air transportation networks in China based on the weighted complex network approach. Previous related studies have largely implemented unweighted (binary) network analysis, or have constructed a weighted network, limited by unweighted centrality measures. This study applies weighted centrality measures (mean association [MA], triangle betweenness centrality [TBC], and weighted harmonic centrality [WHC]) to represent traffic dynamics in HSR and air transportation weighted networks, where nodes represent cities and links represent passenger traffic. The spatial distribution of centrality results is visualized by using ArcGIS 10.2. Moreover, we analyze the network robustness of HSR, air transportation, and multimodal networks by measuring weighted efficiency (WE) subjected to the highest weighted centrality node attacks. In the HSR network, centrality results show that cities with a higher MA are concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta; cities with a higher TBC are mostly provincial capitals or regional centers; and cities with a higher WHC are grouped in eastern and central regions. Furthermore, spatial differentiation of centrality results is found between HSR and air transportation networks. There is a little bit of difference in eastern cities; cities in the central region have complementary roles in HSR and air transportation networks, but air transport is still dominant in western cities. The robustness analysis results show that the multimodal network, which includes both airports and high-speed rail stations, has the best connectivity and shows robustness.

Characteristics of Interface States in One-dimensional Composite Photonic Structures

Qingyue Zhang,Weitao Mao,Qiuling Zhao,Maorong Wang,Xia Wang,Wing Yim Tam 한국광학회 2022 Current Optics and Photonics Vol.6 No.3

Based on the transfer-matrix method (TMM), we report the characteristics of the interface states in one-dimensional (1D) composite structures consisting of two photonic crystals (PCs) composed of binary dielectrics A and B, with unit-cell configurations ABA (PC I) and BAB (PC II). The dependence of the interface states on the number of unit cells N and the boundary factor x are displayed. It is verified that the interface states are independent of N when the PC has inversion symmetry (x = 0.5). Besides, the composite structures support the formation of interface states independent of the PC symmetry, except that the positions of the interface states will be varied within the photonic band gaps. Moreover, the robustness of the interface states against nonuniformities is investigated by adding Gaussian noise to the layer thickness. In the case of inversion symmetry (x = 0.5) the most robust interface states are achieved, while for the other cases (x ≠ 0.5) interface states decay linearly with position inside the band gap. This work could shed light on the development of robust photonic devices.

Effect of preparation of organic ferroelectric P(VDF-TrFE) nanostructure on the improvement of tennis performance

Qingyu Wang Techno-Press 2023 Advances in nano research Vol.14 No.4

Organic ferroelectric material found vast application in a verity of engineering and health technology fields. In the present study, we investigated the application of the deformable organic ferroelectric in motion measurement and improving performance in tennis players. Flexible ferroelectric material P(VDF-TrFE) could be used in wearable motion sensors in tennis player transferring velocity and acceleration data to collecting devises for analyzing the best pose and movements in tennis players to achieve best performances in terms of hitting ball and movement across the tennis court. In doing so, ferroelectric-based wearable sensors are used in four different locations on the player body to analyze the movement and also a sensor on the tennis ball to record the velocity and acceleration. In addition, poses of tennis players were analyzed to find out the best pose to achieve best acceleration and movement. The results indicated that organic ferroelectric-based sensors could be used effectively in sensing motion of tennis player which could be utilized in the optimization of posing and ball hitting in the real games.