Case StudyBibAI: Tivùsat's Conversational AI for optimized customer supportHow Tivùsat improved the productivity of its customer service by 40% together with Sytel Reply and an AI assistant I declare that I have read and fully understood the Privacy Notice and I hereby express my consent to the processing of my personal data by Reply SpA for marketing purposes in particular to receive promotional and commercial communications or information regarding company events or webinars email and web applications) or traditional methods (e.g please click the confirmation link in the email that we have sent to you Manage a high volume of customer support requests reducing response times and optimizing operating costs the leading Italian free satellite platform offers access to national and international TV channels even in areas not covered by terrestrial digital TV Tivùsat manages a high volume of support requests during both the activation and post-activation phases of the service The high traffic of requests to operators has made customer service particularly demanding affecting waiting times and the resources used To improve the user experience and optimize support Tivùsat has decided to introduce an assistance system based on Conversational AI an AI assistant capable of providing technical support helping users to solve problems with the configuration and activation of the Tivùsat smart cards contained in the certified device BiBai interprets customer questions and offers a natural conversational experience with users thanks to an AI architecture based on two agents: one module interacts with the customer while a second one retrieves the most relevant information the integration with the company CRM allows you to personalize assistance having a history of interaction with the customer Thanks to continuous updates to the knowledge base based on the analysis of the conversations and feedback received the chatbot provides increasingly accurate and relevant answers The project started with the analysis and vectorization of the knowledge base with the reformulation of existing FAQs in a functional format for AI An AI model based on an LLM was then developed that interprets customer questions in natural language feeding on an ad hoc knowledge base and refining the accuracy of the answers through a targeted training phase.Subsequently BibAI's dual-agent architecture was implemented based on two distinct but complementary components The conversational agent is responsible for direct interaction with users managing the dialogue naturally and interpreting requests through NLP The information retrieval agent is responsible for querying the knowledge base and business sources to return precise and contextualized answers The integration with the company CRM has made it possible to track conversations and improve the personalization of the service.To support the solution a continuous monitoring and optimization flow has been activated based on the analysis of the data collected and on a constant training process ensuring ever higher performance over time The implementation of BibAI has made problem resolution faster and more efficient with a significant impact on the overall performance of customer service Reducing the number of necessary interactions and ensuring immediate resolution and response times With a reduction in the workload for human operators Tivùsat is the leading free satellite platform in Italy created to provide access to national and international TV channels even in areas not covered by digital terrestrial TV Tivùsat offers a wide range of high-quality content The platform ensures a reliable and inclusive viewing experience supporting the evolution of digital TV with cutting-edge technologies Tivùsat represents an essential solution for the distribution of TV signals across Italy Sytel Reply media and entertainment (TM & E) markets Sytel Reply's mission is to support customers throughout their technological and business innovation processes through the planning development and management of solutions for networking BSS and OSS and mobile applications within the TM & E service provider market Thanks to its deep expertise and experience Sytel Reply has a team of highly qualified professionals able to manage any end-to-end business and technological transformation program Please log in and check your service registration status.To cancel your subscription 1) === '|') document.write("&#"+unescape(l[i].substring(1))+";");else document.write(unescape(l[i]));} Including a spooky abandoned school and a terrifying tunnel With Halloween coming up soon, we thought we’d look at some of Japan’s most haunted places for our latest List of 7 We begin our journey in the country’s northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido.  Located between Sapporo and Asahikawa in central Hokkaido Bibai is known as a quiet and peaceful town yet it’s also home to one of Japan’s most famous haunted places Within the forest lies an abandoned circular building that used to be part of Shoto Elementary School Some people have claimed to have seen mysterious lights and shadow people surrounding the school Others say they’ve heard screams as well as a girl giggling.   An education center was first built on the grounds in 1906 After having its name changed several times the school was expanded in the 1950s when an influx of workers for the Mitsubishi coal mine arrived A drop in enrollment was the official reason given though this didn’t prevent rumors from spreading about something more sinister — namely the disappearance of a girl during a break in class.  Formed from hardened lava after Mount Fuji erupted in 864 CE a place where people once practiced ubasute — a form of senicide that involved abandoning an elderly person in a remote place It was subsequently associated with death and evil spirits A hauntingly beautiful destination with lush greenery and deep lava caves it has become known as one of Japan’s leading suicide spots in recent decades Okiku served as a maid in the service of the samurai Aoyama Tessan he hid one of his precious plates and blamed her for losing it He promised to overlook the matter if she became his lover Aoyama and his servants subsequently tortured Okiku before slashing her with his sword and throwing her in the well She then returned as an onryo (vengeful ghost).   A sealed-off entrance to the Old Inunaki Tunnel https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46028091 In a 2021 survey asking people to name Japan’s most terrifying location This is probably due to the fact that the tunnel and the surrounding area have been linked to a number of murder cases down the years robbed and tortured 20-year-old factory worker Kouichi Umeyama as they wanted to steal his car.   Umeyama was found burned to death, and the perpetrators were sentenced to life imprisonment. The tunnel has since been sealed using concrete blocks, but people claim that they can still hear his screams coming from inside. There’s also an urban legend about the so-called Inunaki village there’s a sign that reads: “The Constitution of Japan does not apply from this point onwards.” The inspiration for Raoul Silva’s deserted hideout in the James Bond movie Skyfall Hashima Island — commonly called Gunkanjima due to its battleship-like shape — was home to thousands of residents until the coal mine closed in 1974 Many of the buildings on the island were constructed by Korean and Chinese prisoners forced to work there in the 1930s and 1940s A number of the conscripted laborers died due to the harsh conditions — estimates range from around 100 to over 1,000 SAPPORO — A man in his 70s suffered injuries to his head and face after being attacked by a brown bear in the mountains of Bibai please disable the ad blocking feature and reload the page This website uses cookies to collect information about your visit for purposes such as showing you personalized ads and content By clicking “Accept all,” you will allow the use of these cookies Users accessing this site from EEA countries and UK are unable to view this site without your consent The man was thought to have sustained serious injuries but was reportedly able to speak when taken to hospital It is the first case of a person being injured by a bear in Hokkaido this year had gone into the mountains alone with a rifle to shoot deer Our weekly ePaper presents the most noteworthy recent topics in an exciting © 2025 The Japan News - by The Yomiuri Shimbun Spots Culture Did you know that there are many spots in Hokkaido where you can enjoy sculptures and objets d'art amidst the great outdoors we will introduce a number of artistic spots that will pique your curiosity and make you want to visit this autumn There are various craft workshops scattered throughout the forest which shows different faces depending on the season The vast grounds are lined with geometrically shaped mountains allowing visitors to enjoy a beautiful landscape where nature and art come together fountains and other facilities are open to brighten up Sapporo's refreshing summers they can enjoy cross-country skiing and sledding amid a blanket of snow making this a park that is attractive in every season Four buildings were constructed in the first half of the 20th century and each one displays outstanding works of art and crafts from Japan and around the world that brightened the era You can enjoy art while immersing yourself in a space that exudes history This is an art plaza where all people living today can spend their time freely and in their own way You can spend time surrounded by nature while enjoying various artworks such as the "Water Plaza" which consists of the white marble sculptures "Tensei" and "Ten" and the "Trifoglio Square" with its eye-catching marble sculpture "Ten" lying down as if welcoming children With the majestic Hidaka Mountains as a backdrop with century-old elm trees and clear streams The familiar flowers that make up Rokkatei Confectionery Co. Ltd.'s floral wrapping paper are grown here and the shop and cafe "Roku'café" is also open for business There is also the "Sakamoto Naoyuki Memorial Hall," which exhibits sketches of flowers and artwork depicting the mountains of Hokkaido the "Silo 50th Anniversary Memorial Hall," which displays cover illustrations from the children's poetry magazine "Silo" pasted all over the walls and ceiling and the "Mano Masami Art Gallery." built in 2001 by the sculptor Shigenari Onishi come face to face with the artworks scattered throughout the grounds and stroll through the otherworldly world of Shigechan have created an "outdoor sculpture park where people and nature come together," with a total of 58 sculptures arranged around the lakeside Please take a stroll around the sculptures and enjoy the harmony between nature and sculptural art and was selected as one of the "Top 100 Hometown Cultures." It is made up of the "North Block," a natural recreational area for citizens with an observation terrace and tennis courts and the "South Block," an artistic landscape that makes use of the remains of a quarry with exposed sheer rock faces It features a highly artistic space that cannot be found anywhere else where natural stone formations are fused with artwork This huge object was created jointly by sculptor Toshi Nagasaki Hisao Kuwabara of the Monbetsu Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Monbetsu citizens as part of a project called the "Drift Ice Art Festival" held in 1983 It has become a popular photo spot for tourists visiting Monbetsu This gallery exhibits artworks in the underground concourse connecting Odori Station and Bus Center-mae Station on the Sapporo Municipal Subway one of the regional characteristics of Sapporo is used as a venue for local artists to exhibit promoting Sapporo's culture and arts both in and out of the city [7 minutes walk from Sapporo Station] Enjoy hot springs A comfortable stay at the 605-room "Sapporo Hotel by Granbell" [Updated for 2025] A complete guide to accessing Daiwa House Premist Dome (Sapporo Dome) and nearby hotels "So cute it's unfair" - Feel the healing power of a sleeping miniature horse [Information on the early opening on April 25th] Sapporo Odori's newest attraction Floor details and highlights of "4PLA" opening in summer 2025 A hotel in the center of Sapporo with a superb sauna and large public bath Experience the warmth that is unique to Hokkaido at "Danyuki Sapporo" [2025 Edition] 7 recommended cherry blossom spots in the Kitami and eastern Hokkaido areas Enjoy cherry blossom viewing in the great outdoors Seasonal “news” of Hokkaido can be checked by category You can check the information of your “town” in one place Events” held throughout the province are easy to find and can be saved This page has been automatically translated by Google Translate service Your browser does not support JavaScript, or it is disabled．Please check the site policy for more information National Report Hokkaido—A data center here that uses snow to cool down its heated servers is now using the snowmelt to farm eels Around 1,700 elvers brought in by plane from Kobe were released into tanks at a facility of White Data Center (WDC) on Feb WDC plans to market the adult fish as “the first eel cultured in Hokkaido.” The company’s goal is to use as an energy source the heavy snowfalls that cause problems for Bibai residents every winter It started the data center business in April last year and construction of a large building will begin for full-scale operation in fiscal 2022 The company plans to take advantage of snow collected from streets to cut air-conditioning costs and reduce carbon dioxide emissions while cooling servers and networking equipment that operate around the clock The process increases the snowmelt’s temperature to 33 degrees so the warmed liquid can be used for growing eels which plans to secure revenue via indoor culturing of agricultural and fishery products until the data center business goes into full-scale operation The company picked eels and tree ear mushrooms as the first products because they can be shipped after short cultivation cycles A Kobe-based company called Kobe Unagi Tansui is providing the elvers and farming techniques WDC set up a farming facility for 6,000 eels with Bibai city’s assistance Water temperatures in tanks there will be kept at 27 degrees all year and filtered snowmelt will be used to help determine if the eel’s taste and growth speed improve The eels will be grown for seven months to at least 250 grams before shipment An annual shipment target of 300,000 eels has been set for 2023 The eels are expected to be sold nationwide and offered for local school meals a WDC director and chairman of the Bibai Nature Energy Research Association which has been studying how to use snow as cooling energy for 25 years with officials from the city “The northernmost region where eels live in the wild is Aomori Prefecture,” he said “Eel farming has not been carried out in Hokkaido We want to market Hokkaido-produced eels cultured in a hygienic indoor environment.” Weather agency: Japan to face severe cold and snow this winter Method lets more females enter the male-dominated farmed eel world How eels best a tall waterfall may offer a clue for their survival Information on the latest cherry blossom conditions Please right click to use your browser’s translation function.) A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II In-house News and Messages No reproduction or republication without written permission A data center in Japan's North Island of Hokkaido is using its waste heat to run an eel farm The White Data Center (WDC) in the city of Bibai has imported 1700 elvers (young eels) and will farm them in tanks at the data center The data center is cooled with melted snow gathered in winter and used all year round supported by Japan's NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) research body to demonstrate that snow could be stored in winter and used all year round to cool a data center The project saved around 20 percent of the data center energy bill, and White Data Center has now been spun out as a commercial project on a 3.6-hectare plot of land bought by one of the project's partners WDC aims to operate a zero CO2 emission data center The data center site has a heap of snow gathered in the winter which cools the data center via antifreeze circulating in a pipe running from the heap to the data center The center currently runs 20 racks of servers, according to a Government press release but a second data center is already planned to open later this year which is an ideal temperature for farming and aquaculture WDC explored various agricultural options for this heat As WDC enters a commercial phase, it has chosen eels and mushrooms as the first products, according to a report in Asahi Shimbun Both can be harvested after a short period of cultivation Eels in particular are a major food staple in Japan where a massive eel-farming industry has ramped up to some 250,000 tons per year in the last 40 years In November WDC set up a farming facility supported by Bibai City The tanks will be kept at 27°C all year round using the cooling system's output WDC expects to ship in around 300,000 eels which will be grown on-site for seven months till they reach a commercial weight of 250g In February a shipment of 1,700 elvers was flown in from Kobe the eels will be sold nationwide and included in local school meals They will be the first eels cultivated in Hokkaido “The next data center we plan to build will be ten times the size of the current one," said WDC President & CEO Ijichi Shinichi in the government release we’re experimenting with vegetable cultivation and fish and seafood farming in greenhouses using waste heat produced by the servers during winter We plan to turn this into a reality as the data center grows in scale.” And data centers are also teaming up with fish farms elsewhere. In Norway, Green Mountain is using its waste warm water in a lobster farm and has also heated a trout farm Data Centre Dynamics Ltd (DCD), 32-38 Saffron Hill, London, EC1N 8FH Email. [email protected]DCD is a subsidiary of InfraXmedia The dates displayed for an article provide information on when various publication milestones were reached at the journal that has published the article activities on preceding journals at which the article was previously under consideration are not shown (for instance submission Science of the Total EnvironmentCitation Excerpt :Nanoscale LCMs are organic compounds with diphenyl or dicyclohexane skeleton structures These compounds are an integral part of the manufacture of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) used in a variety of electronic devices The increasing production and turnover of electronic products have led to a significant rise in the use of LCMs raising concerns about their environmental and health impacts (Huang et al. various LCMs have been detected in raw wastewater and municipal landfill leachate with concentrations up to 16.8 Given that LCMs are likely to encounter artificial light sources such as UV disinfection systems used in water and wastewater treatment this exposure could substantially influence their fate and ecological risks (Ge et al. which highlights the need for research into the photochemical transformation of LCMs in aquatic media Fluorinated LCMs (FLCMs) are a type of LCM that have fluorine atoms in their molecular structures and have become a primary LCM material due to their excellent properties of good stability Environment InternationalCitation Excerpt :Among them eighty-seven LCMs were classified as persistent and bioaccumulative (P&B) chemicals (Li et al. Although the major LCMs manufacturers declared that LCMs have little or no toxic effects on organisms several studies based on experiments or predictions have found some acute and chronic toxicity of LCMs (Ge et al. As predicted by the ecological structure activity relationship program and m-TEP) have acute and chronic toxicity to fish All content on this site: Copyright © 2025 Elsevier B.V. AD Leave a rating/comment#SculptureBack to ArticlesSHARE Bibai City in Hokkaido conducted the world’s first demonstration experiment in the use of snow to cool data servers The city is now making efforts to extend these research results to commercialization of snow-cooled servers in data centers and it is expected that these efforts will promote the regional revitalization of Japan's snow country No article or any part there of may be reproduced without the express permission of the Cabinet Office. Copyright inquiries should be made through this form Sapporo Station, the gateway to Sapporo. “Myomu”, created by world-renowned sculptor Kan Yasuda, is installed in this place where several hundred thousand people come and go each day. He talked to us about sculptures and the city, and about the outdoor sculpture park “Arte Piazza Bibai” in his hometown—the city of Bibai Get off at Sapporo Station and walk into the atrium connecting to Ekimae-dori which runs through the city from north to south and you are greeted by a sculpture with smooth curves illuminated by natural light This sculpture named “Myomu” by Kan Yasuda is a symbol of the station and there are always people gathered around it “There are hardly any other examples in the world of a marble sculpture of such size and weight being placed indoors and right in the center of a station where hundreds of thousands of commuters pass through each day But I was adamant that my sculpture would not hinder the flow of people the area around ‘Myomu’ is always bustling with people waiting for someone or taking a rest and children pass through its hole for fun The children in particular are straightforward—when they see the sculpture I have exhibited it in many parts of the world but the reactions of the children are always the same.” Arte Piazza Bibai also echoes daily with the joyful voices of children There are over 40 of Kan Yasuda’s works positioned all over the vast 70,000 m2 site As for the distance between one sculpture and the next they are said to be kept just far enough apart for you to forget the last sculpture you saw Pass around looking at all the sculptures scattered around the site and serve as a place to inspire them in a way which will support them throughout their lives I have been uncompromising as I continue to this day to create this space as my life’s work.” where nature and the sculptures are in perfect harmony the moment of “coming back to one’s sense of self” is an experience hard to find He received a master’s degree in sculpture from Tokyo University of the Arts and moved to Italy in 1970 on a fellowship from the Italian Government He studied under Professor Pericle Fazzini at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome Afterwards he set up his studio in Pietrasanta in northern Italy creating sculptures from marble and bronze Two words suffice to define Kan Yasuda's artistic aesthetic: minimalism former head of the Artistic and Cultural Endowments' Office As if a minimalist haiku has been transcribed into marble or bronze Kan's extraordinary pieces seem to create sacred space around them; the subtlety and the philosophical and metaphysical aspects of his work speak loudly in keeping with animistic Shinto's sacred sites ringed with plaited straw Shimenawa Landscapes and observers are drawn in to these sculptures posing within them or viewing their surroundings through the structures and their apertures seems entirely natural are erected in public places where visitors are not merely viewers but inter-actors However, since July 1992 this global player has been well represented in Hokkaido in a superb collection of his works at Bibai, a somewhat nowhere town on the Ishikari River plain between Sapporo and Asahikawa The textured rectangle enclosing the smooth sphere invite physical exploration.The gentle curves of the metal pieces provide windows onto the world and on sunny days are warm to the touch To encounter a Kan piece is to meet a mystery while their surfaces entice physical connection on consulting a catalogue is it clear that names have been ascribed similar names applying to different sculptures as if teasing the viewer with symbolic names such as: Dragon that merely create an echo of the form and tantalize the viewer Kan was born in rural Hokkaido in 1945; he studied for a master's degree in sculpture at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music graduating in 1969 Kan has lived for several decades in a studio-home at Pietrasanta the culmination of his life's work is in a superb display in his hometown of Bibai putting that town firmly on the map amongst outdoor art fans and has been described justifiably as “a place to find inner peace” by art critic Shibahashi Tomoo At Arte Piazza Bibai one finds a well-maintained old-fashioned wooden school building (Sakae Elementary School) in beautifully kept park-like grounds that simply beckons to passersby provides year-round opportunities for strolling or play and picnics It's hard not to get physical around a Kan Yasuda sculpture; children love to play on them.In the grounds eye-teasing white marble sculptures Unlike Japan's three most famous strolling gardens (Kenroku-en, Kairoku-en and Koraku-en) Arte Piazza Bibai invites unfettered wandering both literally and imaginatively; yes there are trails Certain pathways lead off into woodland bringing surprise encounters with sculptures; others lead out into open lawn spaces from which pieces rise Cool marbles and warm dark bronze shapes invite visitors to recline and sky gaze Inside the lovingly maintained old school there are pieces on which children love to climb smooth-surfaced marble shapes invite touch the juxtaposition of artistic pieces and the evolving natural beauty of the surrounding hills and forest invites reflection on the harmonious relationship between the unchanging solidity of the sculptures and the ephemeral seasonal nature of their surroundings Close your eyes and you here the sounds of a mountain stream Take a train from Sapporo to Bibai Station (about 40 minutes) the Bibai IC of the Hokkaido Expressway is just five minutes away from the Arte Piazza The site has indoor and outdoor areas, a shop, and a coffee shop. Outdoor access is year round, but the opening times of the indoor facilities are limited. For details and timings check the Arte Piazza Bibai website (www.artepiazza.jp) which also offers a virtual visit to the site Placed as much to view as to touch; a cool seat on a hot summer's day Sounkyo Onsen: A scenic hot spring resort in Hokkaido's Daisetsuzan National Park Sounkyo Onsen is a picturesque hot spring resort that captivates visitors with its stunning natural beauty and rejuvenating waters Biei Blue Pond, Hokkaido lies a natural gem of striking beauty: the Blue Pond Susukino: Sapporo's vibrant entertainment district Susukino stands as Japan's largest entertainment district north of Tokyo Nightlife in Japan: Going out, seeing and drinking Temples and shrines in Japan Markets in Japan Onsen, Hot Springs and Public Baths Family Travel Parks and Gardens Outdoor Activities Museums and Galleries View more Sign up and be the first to hear our news and special offers Unusual data center has shown the viability of storing snow in winter and using it as a coolant in summer has been working on the White Datacenter Project a sustainability test site for using snow cooling in summer and venting off heat in the winter into greenhouses the data center is cooled by indirect air intake cooling Some of the townspeople decided it would be good to have snow in the hotter days of the summer and the Bibai Natural Energy Society and International Snow Club was formed The research group developed a system whereby the winter snow was heaped up into giant mounds and covered with chips of insulating material In summer the snow melts slowly and the cold water is used for air conditioning systems The White Datacenter Project was born from this the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (Nedo) a Japanese government R&D organization offered a five-year grant to investigate how snow removed from urban areas could be used to cool a data center a verification laboratory was opened: a single-story steel-frame data center covering 110.46 sq m and housing 20 racks of hardware The building is equipped with a cold air intake and snow cooling system a food production verification laboratory was built and this comprises a 155.52 sq m greenhouse In the latter half of last September a heat exchanger system under the snow mound was used to cool the data center Snow cooling maintained the ambient temperature of the building at 25C without the need for electric air cooling the indirect air cooling system had taken over and the exhaust heat was used to maintain temperatures in the agricultural buildings Even in midwinter a minimum temperature of 15C was maintained using server exhaust heat alone The initial results of the White Datacenter Project are encouraging (see PUE results table) Scaled up to a 3,000 rack facility and compared with data centers based in Tokyo the White Datacenter is expected to show improved HVAC charges The research team reckon this would be approximately 80 percent less than a traditional data center and 54 percent less than one with centrifugal chillers The test center is based in Sorachi Industrial Park in Bibai and it is hoped snow cooling will attract several companies to set up larger data centers on the 94 hectares (232 acres) site Data Centre Dynamics Ltd (DCD), 32-38 Saffron Hill, London, EC1N 8FH Email. [email protected]DCD is a subsidiary of InfraXmedia Environment InternationalCitation Excerpt :In humans blood or other tissues are indisputable proof of human absorption of CPs (Table 2) irrespective of lack of data on source and route(s) of uptake Calculations of uptake based on data on CPs in food 2021) are less confirmative in this aspect but do indicate uptake routes and body burdens and could constitute more than 90% of total estimated CP exposure (e.g but in toddlers dust ingestion may be more important and are in certain cases estimated to make up more than half of the total exposure (Fridén et al. Science of the Total EnvironmentCitation Excerpt :However to date there is no standardize procedure exists to exclusively remove external contamination from hair or nails Sample pretreatment and chemical extraction followed our previous studies with some modification (Chen et al. approximately 0.3 g of hair or nail sample were fortified with surrogate standard (10 ng of 13C10-1,5,5,6,6,10-hexachlorodecane) and soaked in HNO3/H2O2 (1:1 Hokkaido--A mammoth flock of white-fronted geese is adding to the spectacular view at a wetland here as they rest before heading for regions in the Russian Far East An estimated 49,000 of the geese were spotted on April 18 at the Miyajimanuma marsh Japan’s largest and northernmost stopover point for the migratory birds The birds will remain at the pond until early May putting on weight and storing extra fat to fuel their 2,000-kilometer journey to the next stopover--a lake in the Kamchatka Peninsula farther north Egg prices on the rise as 15 million birds culled amid avian flu scare Early bird hiking tour with breakfast offers best of Hiroshima Zoos hiding birds as avian flu spreads in North America Japan reports first bird flu outbreak of season Rare birds found at site of planned wind farm in Hokkaido Endangered African bird finally caught outside Tokyo Journal of Hazardous MaterialsCitation Excerpt :In general LCMs have properties similar to those of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and therefore studies focused on bioaccumulation and toxicity of these chemicals in the food chain are needed Studies reporting the occurrence of LCMs in various environmental compartments The reported concentration ranges of LCMs in various environmental matrices are illustrated in Fig Science of the Total EnvironmentCitation Excerpt :The study also investigated the partitioning behaviour of LCMs finding it to vary across different treatment stages but that there was a strong trend towards adsorption onto organic matter and biosolids during the treatment process This is consistent with the observation that most LCMs which persisted during wastewater treatment were primarily removed by sludge adsorption Both studies present additional compelling evidence of the anthropogenic sources of LCM contamination in the environment Water ResearchCitation Excerpt :The high recoveries obtained across the 3 spiked levels suggested the feasibility of the method which was further confirmed by the mean recoveries of the surrogate standards The matrix effects for target LCMs were calculated as the slope ratios of the matrix-matched calibration curve and pure solvent calibration curve at the same concentration (2∼50 ng) (Kuang et al. The resulting matrix effects for individual LCM were obtained in the range of 80.1 %∼120 % and relative standard deviation (RSD) values were below 14.2 % for all LCMs It’s said that snow gives you two options: shovel or make snow angels Now you have a third choice: cool your data center an artificial hill of snow is slowly creaking and settling gradually melting in the island’s mild summer climate The hill has been covered with a layer of grayish insulation But the hill’s owners don’t want to keep a pile of snow forever They just want to use the cold it produces as it melts An ice-cold pipe extends from the mound to a nearby building Data center technology meets the needs of the Asia Pacific region it carries the hopes of a small band of data center experts who believe that one future for data center cooling could rely on snow Even its summer days only reach 17 to 22°C (62.6 to 71.6°F) And while tourists may enjoy skiing and snowboarding it’s a headache for the city to keep the streets clear the city spends 400 million yen ($3.5m) shoveling the frozen precipitation up Because heaps of snow might not melt all year the city gathers it in dump trucks and removes it to dedicated snow melting sites until Professor Kobiyama Masa­yoshi of the Muroran Institute of Technology began experimenting with pipes of anti-freeze the Bibai Natural Energy Research Association looked into ways to make use of snow and found that its coldness or “snow cooling energy,” could actually be useful The group proposed cooling data centers with melting snow One source of inspiration seems to have been Lawson, a Japanese convenience store chain, which in 2012 introduced a self-contained snow-based cooling system for a store in northern Japan the store was equipped with a 100 cubic meter insulated container that was filled with cold snow Water running through pipes in the container was cooled by the snow and used in the air-conditioning system Professor Masayoshi developed that idea and, by 2014, a prototype known as the White Data Center was up and running backed by funding from Japan’s NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) The system cools data center servers using half the energy required by conventional techniques and uses a waste product with no environmental impact The White Data Center’s snow mountain has no associated CO2 emissions Even the trucks that gather the snow would have to do it whether or not the data center existed The antifreeze circulates between the snow mound and the data center where a secondary water circuit cools the servers which is gathered in a pile that also contains trash and mud from the streets The team simply runs a pipe through the heap which goes back through the heap after its journey through the data center no snow-cooling is needed as the ambient temperature is low enough to cool the servers unaided And the snow mound - covered with insulating material to preserve it - lasts all year More will be gathered next winter before this year’s heap has melted away and the White Data Center was not the only project on the island to use snow to cool data centers In Ishikari, 50 km away from Bibai, Kyocera Communication Systems has announced plans for a zero carbon data center solely powered by wind Construction on the “zero-emission” data center was announced in April 2019 with the facility due to come onstream in 2021 and be hooked up to renewable power facilities owned by Kyocera in 2022 The plan was for 2MW each of wind and solar power to be available to the site which would also draw energy from a nearby third-party biomass plant The project is due to go live in the Ishikari Bay New Port industrial park which has a “100 percent renewable energy area” commitment that requires all companies who build in the area to power their facilities with renewable energy We haven’t found any more recent updates on the project and we suspect the pandemic may have put it off target but we’ve reached out to Kyocera to find out about progress We’ve also had reports that a third company brought the snow cooling idea to the more temperate main island of Japan data company Data Dock reportedly ran a sustainable data center using renewable power The area has an average temperature of 12°C (53.6°F) from February to December but the site is reported to have made use of it Sadly the Data Dock website seems to be down and its Facebook page has not been updated since 2019 so we suspect this chilly data center may have melted away Of the three Japanese snow-cooling projects we know of it seems it was the White Data Center which was successful enough to get commercialized the White Data Center company was established the commercial White Data Center began operations with approximately 20 racks of servers a 20-rack data center is in operation as an experimental facility,” a White Data Center spokesman told us by email with four unnamed companies using it or planning to use it: “Fees are lower than those of general data centers,” said our source at WDC And the company has ambitious growth plans: “We plan to begin construction of a new building with a capacity of 200 racks by the end of this year [2022].” While the experimental facility operated at 2kVA load per rack the new facility will have a higher power density of 5kVA per rack According to a government press release issued earlier this year WDC plans to operate a zero CO2 emission data center using renewable power from biomass generation plants “The next data center we plan to build will be ten times the size of the current one with 200 racks of servers running,” says WDC president & CEO Ijichi Shinichi in a statement There’s a side benefit to the facility too The president spoke about how the Center may develop we’re experimenting with vegetable cultivation and fish and seafood farming in greenhouses using waste heat produced by the servers during winter,” said Shinichi “We plan to turn this into a reality as the data center grows in scale.” it has chosen eels and mushrooms as the first products WDC has imported 1,700 elvers (young eels) which will grow to maturity in tanks at the data center The water cycle of the data center cooling system produces water at 33°C as the tanks can be kept at 27°C all year round with no heating costs WDC expects to ship in around 300,000 eels they will be sold nationwide and included in local school meals Operators elsewhere might be wondering if they can imitate it “It is difficult to imitate a place with snowfall alone in terms of revenue and expenditures,” said the WDC spokesperson we contacted “This is because there are surprisingly few places with the right conditions and stable collection of fuel needed for biomass power generation.” WDC has filed patents for snow cooling systems and heat utilization circulation systems because there simply aren’t many places which have enough winter snow and a combination of local data demand and renewable power Data Centre Dynamics Ltd (DCD), 32-38 Saffron Hill, London, EC1N 8FH Email. [email protected]DCD is a subsidiary of InfraXmedia Hokkaido — White-fronted geese take off from the Miyajimanuma wetland in Bibai Surrounded by rice paddies that provide a rich source of food Miyajimanuma is a stopover point on the birds’ migration route from Russia’s Far East The geese take flight en masse every day at around sunrise with their high-pitched calls filling the air According to Miyajimanuma Waterbird and Wetlands Center the number of migratory birds in the area had hit a peak of about 62,000 by last week Many of the geese have already started the journey south where they will spend winter in wetlands including Izunuma in Miyagi Prefecture Environmental ResearchCitation Excerpt :Chlorinated paraffins (CPs) or polychlorinated n-alkanes (Guida et al. CPs were recently considered a major environmental concern due to their high production volume (Gluge et al. 2022) and their persistent and bioaccumulative properties (Gluge et al. 2016) and are widely found nowadays in environmental long-term exposure to SCCPs and MCCPs has been associated with adverse health effects in human biomonitoring Environmental PollutionCitation Excerpt :CPs have been extensively used as additives in a wide range of industrial applications C10–C13) have been listed in Annex A of the Stockholm Convention in May 2017 due to their persistence SCCPs have been proved to increase the incidence of tumors and are considered as the category 2 carcinogens (Zhou et al. 2020); their production and utilization are strictly controlled globally (POPRC Journal of Hazardous MaterialsCitation Excerpt :In addition CP pollution was determined in coral communities of the South China Sea and varied slightly in concentrations and compositions in different seasons (Chen et al. high concentrations of CPs were detected in the mangrove sediments along the South China coast and their distribution was mainly affected by the local population scale and CP industries (Chen et al. Due to the pervasive existence of CPs in marine environments it is necessary to study their environmental processes where microbes play vital roles (Heath et al. Environmental PollutionCitation Excerpt :Thus the cyclic processes of SVOCs in forest systems are of great significance in understanding the environmental behavior of emerging contaminants Recent studies have reported on the occurrence of emerging contaminants in the TP to elucidate their environmental behavior (Du et al. the distribution and fate of short- and medium-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs and MCCPs) were evaluated in soils and mosses in the TP area during the period from 2010 to 2016 (Wu et al. For Japanese/Brazilian duel national Daniel Yonemura, competing in the World Baseball Classic 2026 will be a dream come true He will try to help Brazil advance to the tournament in the Tucson Arizona Qualifier at the Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium from March 2 to 6 where world No "I'm looking forward to it because it's the biggest opportunity of my life," Yonemura told the Yomiuri Shimbun I want to play to my strengths - my defensive utility," he said Visualizza questo post su Instagram Un post condiviso da Danny Yonemura 米村ダニエル英二 (@dannyyonemura) The league aims to promote "migration and settlement" in Hokkaido form a baseball community on the northern island and introduce baseball to local children The three participants played a 52-game schedule in the 2024 season The Black Diamonds finished second behind the Ishikari Red Phoenix and the Shibetsu Samurai Braves placed third The Bekkai Pilot Spirits will join the league in 2025 Despite being the older player on the Black Diamonds team at age 33 and joining as an interpreter and player posting a .421 batting average and a .530 on-base percentage Yonemura also helped Marilia win the XXIX Taça Brasil de Beisebol Adulto (Brazilian Adults Baseball Cup) The first-place finishers and the winners of an elimination game between the second and third-place finishers of each group will advance to the World Baseball Classic 2026 Sitemap Media Data Protection Contacts Avenue Général-Guisan, 45 CH-1009 Pully | Switzerland The WBSC is recognised as the sole competent authority in Baseball and Softball by the International Olympic Committee This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Employees of Nihon Rikagaku Industry Co.’s plant in Bibai produce chalks during its peak production season ahead of Japan’s new school year formulated mainly of calcium carbonate and powdered local scallop shells produces smooth writing and minimal powder on the hands production reaches to about 200,000 pieces per day and employees tirelessly engage in mixing chalk formula and water to form pastes with clay-like consistency before molding and drying the pieces The factory produces about 45 million pieces of chalk annually Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images Answer by Steve Wright coordinator of international events at Bibai City Hall in Hokkaido and I’m glad to have a chance to offer my ideas It’s been my good fortune to live in northern Japan since 1989 and I still feel as if every day is a learning experience My bride of the last 24 years and her parents are my main models for understanding married couples here but I have a few other close (married) friends so I’d like to talk a little about some main issues the husband-wife relationship in one country is often a very concentrated example of more general relations in that country What’s generally true in social relations becomes extremely true in a marriage the acceptable types of communication between husband and wife have unique patterns in Japan (These styles of communication have things in common with everywhere else of course.) Japanese are taught to accommodate rather than confront from an early age and the most successful marriages I’ve seen here are the ones where the husband and wife have settled in on a daily pattern where neither one ever gets in the other’s face You might think this fits with the stereotype of the docile subservient Japanese wife or even the disinterested Even when the public image is of the soft-spoken at home in private Japanese wives are hardly docile And working fathers who come home after midnight and leave before 7 the next morning may be too tired to develop any deep conversations with their families but that’s not to say that they share a mailing address and nothing else with their families Many Japanese spouses are wonderfully generous But show me a Japanese couple where either spouse can lightly toss off lines like “You’re wrong,” or “Why do you make such a mistake?” and I’ll show you a Japanese couple with not much of a future When I was teaching conversation classes all day (or all evening) one of my favorite homework assignments to give out was the question ‘I love you’ or ‘I respect you’?” My students would chew on this idea for a week and come back with some amazing responses But the one answer that came back over and over was that they felt they could never love their spouse if they didn’t first respect them I suppose there’s a bit of that in American marriages but it’s been my experience that all people (Japanese and non-Japanese alike) go through better and worse times in their lives and it’s much easier to respect them when they’re doing well than when things aren’t going so well So sometimes I felt bold enough to follow up on this question among those who didn’t respect their spouses more than a few reported that they loved their spouses anyway This kind of conversation class was psychotherapy for more than a few You’ll almost never hear a Japanese person tell his or her spouse you’ll almost never hear a Japanese parent tell his or her child But you’d be sadly mistaken if you took this to mean that Japanese don’t deeply So the chance to admit in front of others that they honestly did love their spouses was self-revelation (and often liberation) for many of my students even as a tangential aside is usually the preferred style among Japanese This goes back to their aversion to confront others But there is also a greater punch in compliments (and in insults) from forcing the recipients to think things through by themselves “What did he mean when he talked about my shoes?” “Why in the world would she mention this necktie in that context?” These are the sorts of things many of my Japanese friends stew about long after friends have gone their separate ways for the evening If you think you might like to use this technique yourself among Japanese fair warning: You’re playing with dynamite Get the slightest nuance wrong in a roundabout compliment and you can make an enemy I turned this on myself once in my family when I once won an important distinction on the job “You see what a wonderful father you have?” I asked my daughter She and my wife are still laughing at me for saying that to say something pleasant or unpleasant directly to a spouse is evidence of a successful marriage in Japan What is it that Japanese are doing instead of refusing to do that signals a healthy marital relationship I think the universals apply more than the particulars; what’s true in other cultures is probably even more significant here A successful marriage in Japan has two partners who are attentive to their significant others Most Japanese would much rather that you showed them how you felt than told them reaching for a packet of tissues when someone else sneezes—these little signs of attention you pay to someone else carry much more weight than anything you could ever say in Japan It’s deeply profound that Japanese will ask you to “treat our relationship well” rather than say  that it’s “nice to meet you” when you first meet If a Japanese person asks you to treat your relationship well This is why some actions most Americans take for granted strike Japanese as incredibly gallant or (mistakenly) as amorous hold a door once for a single Japanese of the gender you find more attractive Hold a door twice and you might start rumors More questions on Quora: Please view the main text area of the page by skipping the main menu. The page may not be displayed properly if the JavaScript is deactivated on your browser Japanese version Conceived as both a sculpture and a slide to play on, Isamu Noguchi’s “Black Slide Mantra” located in Odori Park embodies the artistic ideal of Noguchi A predecessor to this sculpture was created by Isamu Noguchi and Kan Yasuda and has become a testimony to the encounter and interaction of the two sculptors resulting from its dynamic geometric forms spread over a vast tract of earth Walking through these two contrasting parks visitors should be able to walk away with a deep impression of each space’s artistic qualities Please experience for yourself the conversation between these two artists that has extended through time and space in the form of the parks they created Today's print edition Home Delivery its administrative capital and by far its largest city with a population fast approaching 2 million It sprawls across a huge plain just inland from the mouth of the Ishikari River and from it a highway network extends outward looking on a map like disconnected and rather deranged spaghetti One loop and curl of note pursues a circuitous route that sees it heading both southwest toward Hokkaido's historic port city of Hakodate and northwest to the storied former fishing and cargo port of Otaru Another strand snakes its way roughly eastward from Sapporo and crosses the Hidaka Mountains on course for the wilder delights of eastern Hokkaido the road system's final major strand meanders from Sapporo through the wheat- and rice-growing region of the great Ishikari River floodplain en route for the zoo-famed city of Asahikawa the tip of northern Hokkaido — the other roving in graceful sweeps toward Monbetsu on the Sea of Okhotsk coast.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); to see Hokkaido from this still incomplete highway network is to pass through entrancing landscapes while missing the wonderful details — to see the forests there in abundance The thrill of high speed tends to suck us along the highway conduit and the complete absence of traffic lights encourages non-stop travel but the big question is where should one break this headlong rush And which of the many exit ramps deserves taking In a time of both misinformation and too much information quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing Your subscription plan doesn't allow commenting. To learn more see our FAQ Sponsored contents planned and edited by JT Media Enterprise Division Hokkaido--Hunters here are declining job offers to battle adversaries that are far superior in physical strength speed and stealth and have been likened to members of U.S The hunters say the daily pay of up to 10,300 yen ($66) is not worth risking their lives to tangle with brown bears Brown bears have increasingly been wandering into residential areas in Hokkaido And local authorities face a heightened urgency to hire hunters to keep the animals at bay or to kill them if they are threatening the lives of residents a town with a population of 4,785 in central Hokkaido local officials and hunters remain wide apart over the compensation issue the town hall set up a task force to deal with bears and requested cooperation from members of the Hokkaido hunters association’s Naie club each hunter would be paid 10,300 yen a day to conduct patrols during hours when brown bears are most active kill and dispose of the animals at an incineration facility saying the compensation is “too small” for an assignment that would likely extend beyond eight hours a day “It is not worth the trouble because confronting a bear will put our lives on the line,” Tatsuhito Yamagishi The hunters also said it would be difficult for them to swiftly respond to calls for service and two of the other four club members are in their 70s Yamagishi said the Naie government should pay the hunters a more reasonable amount to deal with bears because it is the town’s responsibility to keep the community safe He feels the town underestimates the danger of brown bears and they can see us hunters even when we cannot see them,” he said Yamagishi said the bears offer no clues on where and when they will attack “I know many hunters who were mauled in the face in a flash,” he said “Fighting a brown bear is like fighting a U.S Twenty brown bear sightings were reported in Naie in 2023 local hunters drove away a brown bear that had strayed onto a golf course near the town’s center The town decided on a payment size after asking nearby Sunagawa city about its arrangement with hunters there Naie Mayor Eiji Mitsumoto told The Asahi Shimbun the town will continue talks with the hunters to enlist their assistance “We want to gain their cooperation,” he said including a possible increase in the allowance.” Hunters elsewhere in Hokkaido have also refused to work with local authorities on bear-related activities because of the compensation amounts local hunters joined efforts to remove brown bears that frequently showed up in residential areas in summer 2018 Their two months of work entitled them to 10 million yen in compensation The village compiled a supplementary budget for the payment but the Shimamaki assembly rejected the proposal The angered hunters decided they would not help the village with its wildlife problems and they stayed away from bear-related activities for about two years the assembly later adopted an ordinance to pay a maximum 2.4 million yen annually for animal control efforts the village started paying 26,900 yen per hunter per dispatch “Since there are no unified guidelines for compensation it is not easy to determine what is the appropriate amount,” a Shimamaki official said individual clubs and officials in their jurisdictions decide on the financial arrangements but others get paid tens of thousands of yen,” said Satoshi Saito the local hunting club is paid about 5.06 million yen annually to remove brown bears The city raised the contract price by 1.28 million yen from fiscal 2023 after more animals were spotted within its limits The Ashibetsu municipal government in central Hokkaido pays 11,000 yen per hunter per dispatch These activities again put them in the natural habitat of brown bears More than 60 hunters were either killed or injured in Hokkaido by brown bears between fiscal 1962 and fiscal 2023 Brown bear attacks generally cause more serious injuries than those of the smaller Asian black bears which are found primarily on the main island of Honshu Data by the Environment Ministry showed that black bears injured 2,237 people and killed 40 in Japan from fiscal 1980 to fiscal 2020 a 70-year-old member of the Shimamaki club said he wants the public to understand that dealing with potentially harmful animals should result in decent pay and respect from the public “Hunters deserve respect because joining the effort means they will be exposed to life-threatening danger,” he said (This article was written by Yosuke Sasaki and Koki Furuhata.) Brown bears spotted in Hokkaido in the middle of winter Dog-killing bear ‘RT’ killed after 4 years of terror in Hokkaido town Hunter passes down lessons from horrific bear attack Urban areas no longer off-limits to bolder brown bears in Sapporo Hokkaido confirms cattle-attacking brown bear culled View upcoming auction estimates and receive personalized email alerts for the artists you follow It is a great honor for Christie’s to present Touching Time the first exhibition of monumental sculpture by Kan Yasuda in the United States Works are also on public view across the country with a concentration in Tokyo his work has been installed extensively in Italy his sculptures are featured at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and at the Fitzwilliam Museum his only show in the United States has been at the Eykyn Maclean Gallery in 2014 which included smaller scale works which was met with much success The absorbing forms of Yasuda’s sculpture reflect elements of the natural world which are designed to reflect the viewings experience The pieces are both monumental and domestic in scale They benefit from careful contemplation and contract with the machine age architecture of New York City against which they exert a powerful spiritual force Japanese version Spots Cherry Blossom・Autumn Leaves There are many cherry blossom spots in the northern Hokkaido area near Asahikawa where you can enjoy the outdoors while admiring the cherry blossoms There are facilities for walking and cycling as well as sports and playground equipment that even small children can enjoy we will introduce 10 cherry blossom and flower viewing spots in the northern Hokkaido area near Asahikawa that are perfect for this coming season you can see the Furano Basin and the Tokachi mountain range This scenic spot was selected as one of Japan's 100 most scenic spots in 1950 and is affectionately known by local residents as "Namakoyama." There is a park golf course and athletic facilities nearby Kaguraoka Park is located in a hilly area just south of JR Asahikawa Station it is a famous cherry blossom spot in the city where many Siberian wild cherry trees bloom all at once many people from inside and outside the city visit the park and the park is bustling with cherry blossom viewers Haboro Park Golf Course is a generally flat course with 18 holes and is a park golf course that can be enjoyed by beginners the Sakuraike Course is filled with cherry blossoms in full bloom in spring allowing you to enjoy park golf in a beautiful setting Palette Hills is a place of relaxation that makes use of the rich nature of Takasu Town From the observation deck you can get a panoramic view of the Daisetsuzan mountain range and in May the hills are decorated with cherry blossoms in full bloom during which time the Sakura Festival and Night Cherry Blossom Illumination events are held music events and other activities that make use of the natural environment are also held Shiokari Pass has long been known as a famous cherry blossom viewing spot the pass is covered with approximately 1,600 Ezoyama cherry trees Cherry trees are also planted on both sides of the 14km round trip road from Shiokari to Minamioka Forest Park and special JR trains are also operated there so Shiokari Pass is bustling with cherry blossom viewers The cycling road that runs through the city is lined with Ezo Yamazakura trees the warm weather tempts the buds to burst into full bloom You can enjoy walking or cycling through the tunnel of cherry blossoms that envelops the cycling road Sakurayama Park is a natural park known as one of the best cherry blossom viewing spots in the city the "Citizens' Cherry Blossom Festival" is held and the park is crowded with many cherry blossom viewers who enjoy barbecues while looking at the cherry blossoms there is also a park golf course and the Sakurayama Power Up running course is known as the best place in the Sorachi region to see cherry blossoms and azaleas including Somei Yoshino and Siberian cherry trees You can enjoy a panoramic view of the Sorachi Plain from the Space Carillon which plays beautiful melodies for every season and the "Hometown View Hill Observatory." you will find the rural landscape and flower gardens that spread out before you and then you will reach Nakafurano Forest Park you might even encounter a Hokkaido squirrel Murakamiyama Park opened as a park in May 1963 about 400 cherry trees and azaleas bloom in profusion all of which were planted to commemorate the establishment of the town in 1962 you can get a panoramic view of the town center and in front of you you can see the majestic Daisetsuzan mountain range Metrics details To report a rare case of extension of edema and hemorrhage from initial C4–5 spinal injury to the medulla oblongata A 68-year-old man with ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) had sustained tetraplegia after tumbling over a stone the patient was diagnosed with an acute C4–5 spinal cord injury without radiological abnormalities and was treated conservatively the patient had an ascending neurological deficit Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a marked swelling of the spinal cord above C4–5 extending to the medulla oblongata Retrospective radiological assessment revealed that the spine was unstable at the injury level because of discontinuities in both anterior and posterior longitudinal ligaments There was also signal intensity change within the retropharyngeal space at the C4–5 intervertebral disc This injured segment was highly vulnerable to post-injury dynamic stenosis and easily sustained secondary neural damage This case report emphasizes a careful radiological assessment of latent structural instability in patients with OPLL in order to detect and prevent deteriorative change in the spinal cord where secondary detrimental change due to latent structural instability occurred in the medulla oblongata of a patient with ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) following middle CSCI Reformatted CT revealing spinal canal stenosis accompanied with OPLL at the initial injury (a and b) MRI of the initial injury demonstrated the iso-signal intensity in the spinal cord on the T1-weighted image (a) and the low signal characteristics on the T2-weighted image at the C4–5 (b No structural injuries were initially identified retrospective MRI assessment revealed a high signal intensity area on the anterior aspect of the C4–5 with the T2-weighted image (b which indicated structural instability at this site the patient experienced increased dyspnea and transient loss of consciousness his neurological status changed to complete respiratory tetraplegia with neurological dysfunction at the C2 level The patient presented with a normal sensory condition of the face Neurological examination revealed normal function of the cranial nerves (a and b) MRI at the onset of acute respiratory arrest showed a marked swelling of the spinal cord above C2–3 as far as the medulla oblongata (arrows) T1-weighted image showed a high signal intensity in the cord from C4 to 2 (a) T2-weighted image revealed diffuse heterogeneous high signal intensity in the cord from C4 to the medulla oblongata (b) The patient was referred to our institute 4 weeks after injury He was managed conservatively because surgical intervention at such a late stage would be expected to provide little chance of any neurological improvement the patient and his family did not elect for surgery to be performed (a and b) MRI performed 3 months after the injury showed extensive gliosis from the inferior medulla oblongata to all sections of cervical spinal cord it revealed hypertrophic change in the ligamentum flavum at C4–5 indicating structural instability at this site (arrow) Lu et al9 reported the predictable risk factors for delayed apnea following middle to lower CSCI in the presence of diffuse and extensive cord lesions the initial spinal cord lesion was localized to the C4–5 segment and cardiopulmonary functions were normal all cervical spinal segments except C4–5 were fused by ossification of both anterior and posterior longitudinal ligaments any force applied to the cervical spine would be concentrated on the weak C4–5 segment in a similar situation of a fractured ankylosing spine the C4–5 segment of the spinal cord in our case was vulnerable to postinjury dynamic stenosis and easily sustained secondary neural damage They also documented that there was a completely necrotic lesion without any cell reaction in several cord segments as well as the initially damaged lesion They suggested that the spreading of the lesion might be induced by increased intramedullary pressure that resulted from an intra- and extramedullary circulatory disturbance the critical instability of the C4–5 segment associated with severe spinal stenosis caused by OPLL could have led to an acutely increased intramedullary pressure which permitted the extension of the spinal cord lesion The patient escaped from cranial nerve damage in spite of medulla oblongata involvement This may be explained because the involved lesion was located within only the inferior portion of the medulla oblongata that contains no the cranial nerve nuclei but only the spinal trigeminal nuclei there were discrepancies between the patient's neurological status and the MRI findings the apnea was not necessarily the result of the secondary involvement of the medulla oblongata but might simply result from the involvement of the C4 segment in which the phrenic nerves are located Neurologic deterioration after cervical spinal cord injury Deterioration following spinal cord injury: a multicenter study Progressive paralysis after bilateral facet dislocation of the cervical spine J Bone Joint Surg [Britain] 1992; 74: 219–223 Magnetic resonance imaging for the evaluation of patients with occult cervical spine injury Acute cervical spine trauma: correlation of MR Imaging findings with degree of neurologic deficit A randomized controlled trial of methylprednisolone or naloxone in the treatment of ascute spinal-cord injury Results of the Second National Acute Spinal Cord Injury Study The multimolecular cascade of spinal cord injury Review of the secondary injury theory of acute spinal cord trauma with emphasis on vascular mechanisms Delyed apnea in patients with mid-to lower cervical spinal cord injury Neurological complications of ankylosing spondylitis Fractures of the spine in diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis Acute fractures and dislocations of the cervical spine J Bone Joint Surg [America] 1979; 61: 1119–1142 Etiology and clinical course of missed spine fractures Traumatic spinal cord injury: a neuropathological study on the longitudinal spreading of the lesions Download references Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.sc.3101803 Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: a shareable link is not currently available for this article One of the most common received truths about Japan is that it lacks natural resources Lack of resources was one of the reasons Japan invaded Asia in the last century But there is one resource that is plentiful and which is becoming scarce in other regions: water there has been talk that Japan could export fresh water as a form of "security." Japan currently buys a lot of coal from Australia and usually have to fill up with sea water for ballast a risky solution since the water could contain living things that might upset marine ecology systems back in Australia But the ships could also fill up with fresh water — not necessarily drinking water but water that could be used in the mining of the coal being sent to Japan and Australia doesn't always have enough.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); It's estimated that 900 million people in the world do not have ready access to safe drinking water in recent years water supply agencies nationwide have been raising fees or proposing to raise fees on tap water Japanese version Though typically noted for its natural beauty and some of the country's finest ski slopes Hokkaido also boasts some of Japan's best cuisine The Hokkaido Fair in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park will feature many different dishes at more than 60 booths These tasty treats will include various types of seafood Some cuisine that is specific to the north will also be sold such as Bibai barbecue chicken and grilled kitami fish.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); locally brewed and imported draft beer will also be available for purchase The Hokkaido Fair takes place at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo from Oct. 4-6 (10 a.m. till 6 p.m.). Admission is free. For more information, visit www.hokkai-syokudo.co.jp/yoyogi.php (in Japanese) While the world of fashion does not come short of trends and fads most shoppers now are embracing styles and silhouettes that can transcend time Bibai Gaisano-Puyat, a mother of four children, birthed to her lifestyle brand Christiana Manila in 2016 her fashion needs "changed and contributed to founding Christiana." The brand name even came from the list of names she made for her second child but family life and the demands of motherhood changed both my day-to-day life and aesthetic vision," she told PhilSTAR L!fe Christiana Manila promises to make "everyday elegance effortless" by creating investment pieces that one will wear a lifetime "I keep in mind the timelessness of each piece—I want them to be able to wear a Christiana piece over and over again one that transcends trends and seasons," Bibai explained and feminine" ethos is reflected in each of their products Christiana has also expanded to home good items and jewelry Continue reading below to know more about the brand Filipinos deeply value their culture and heritage I think this influences the way I create clothes for the modern Filipina I keep in mind the timelessness of each piece—I want them to be able to wear a Christiana piece over and over again Another quality that Christiana values is modesty I also think Filipinas are generally modest I believe we can express our truest self by wearing age appropriate clothing Christiana values quiet confidence—in looking polished and put together If you focus on your core values as a brand thoughtfully designed pieces - you do not need to compete with others or make a lot of effort to stand out from the rest I always say that the people who understand your brand and believe in the same values will always support your brand The COVID-19 situation has made us all feel uncomfortable and anxious it was really a challenging time to navigate the business What kept me persevering is the daily wage sewers who are working for Christiana I wanted to sustain them most especially during that time That is why it led to opening the brand to new products that are considered "essentials"—such as masks and protective gear I also reached out to hospitals and NGO's to help provide protective gear for those who needed it I am so grateful because customers reached out and helped Christiana with the cause I realized that we can do a lot if we all focus our efforts and believe in the goodness of everyone I am grateful that Christiana provided a sense of relief to many during that uncertain time.  My vision for Christiana has always been about a woman who is self assured who embraces her femininity by wearing classic and well made clothes that fit her lifestyle making her feel good and look good I've always believed that fashion is an outward expression of who you truly are from the inside when done intentionally and thoughtfully it can transform your whole being.  She also dabbles in fashion styling on the side