Ground-level ozone (O3) pollution has been widely concerned in the world, particularly in the cities of Asia, including China. Elevated O3 concentrations have potentially influenced growth and nutrient cycling of trees in urban forest. The decomposition characteristics of urban tree litters under O3 exposure are still poorly known. Ginkgo biloba is commonly planted in the cities of northern Chi...

Understanding the impact of atmospheric dynamical variability on observed changes in stratospheric O3 is a key to understanding how O3 will change with future climate dynamics and trace gas abundances. In this paper we examine the linkage between interannual variability in total column O3 at northern high latitudes in March and lower-tomid stratospheric vortex O3 in the prior November. We find ...

Inhalation of ozone (O3), a gaseous air pollutant, causes lung injury, lung inflammation, and airway hyperresponsiveness. Macrophages, mast cells, and neutrophils contribute to one or more of these sequelae induced by O3 Furthermore, each of these aforementioned cells express chemokine (C-C motif) receptor-like 2 (Ccrl2), an atypical chemokine receptor that facilitates leukocyte chemotaxis. Giv...

Active surveillance of Vibrio parahaemolyticus infection among hospitalized patients in Calcutta, India, was initiated in January 1994. The incidence of cases of V. parahaemolyticus infection suddenly increased in February 1996 and has remained high since then. One hundred thirty-four strains of V. parahaemolyticus isolated from January 1994 to August 1996 were examined for serovar, the presenc...

Vibrio parahaemolyticus O3:K6 strains responsible for the increase in the number of cases of diarrhea in Calcutta, India, beginning in February 1996 and those isolated from Southeast Asian travelers beginning in 1995 were shown to belong to a unique clone characterized by possession of the tdh gene but not the trh gene and by unique arbitrarily primed PCR (AP-PCR) profiles (J. Okuda, M. Ishibas...

Background: Today, air pollution is one of the major problems in large cities including Isfahan. Methods: The objective of this study was to investigate the variations of ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO2), and particulate matter (PM10) concentrations in different months at three stations and also to explore ...

This article reviews the history of piezoelectric perovskites and forecasts future development trends, including Uchino's discoveries such as the Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 electrostrictor, Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 single crystal, (Pb, La)(Zr, Ti)O3 photostriction, and Pb(Zr, Ti)O3-Terfenol magnetoelectric composites. We discuss five key trends in the development of piezomaterials: performance to r...

Studies of children attending summer camps often have observed relationships between daily outdoor ozone (O3) concentrations and decreased lung function that are qualitatively similar to results seen in human chamber studies. The former studies, focusing on the pulmonary effects of O3 and associated pollutants on children under natural conditions of exposure, are potentially of great importance...