Introduction of Frictional and Turning Function for Pedestrian Outflow with an Obstacle

In this paper, two important factors which affect the pedestrian outflow at a bottleneck significantly are studied in detail to analyze the effect of an obstacle set up in front of an exit. One is a conflict at an exit when pedestrians evacuate from a room. We use floor field model for simulating such behavior, which is a well-studied pedestrian model using cellular automata. The conflicts have been taken into account by the friction parameter. However, the friction parameter so far is a constant and does not depend on the number of the pedestrians conflicting at the same time. Thus, we have improved the friction parameter by the frictional function, which is a function of the number of the pedestrians involved in the conflict. Second, we have newly introduced the cost of turning of pedestrians at the exit. Since pedestrians have inertia, their walking speeds decrease when they turn, and the pedestrian outflow decreases. The validity of the extended model, which includes the frictional function and the turning function, is verified by both a mean field theory and experiments. In our experiments, the pedestrian flow increases when we put an obstacle in front of an exit. The analytical results clearly explains the mechanism of the effect of the obstacle, i.e., the obstacle blocks pedestrians moving to the exit and decreases the average number of pedestrians involved in the conflict. We have also found that an obstacle works more effectively when we shift it from the center since pedestrians go through the exit with less turning

Ultrasonographic evaluation of leg muscle and fatty tissue thickness in postoperative patients with gastrointestinal disease

術後の健康回復の促進に向けた看護ケアの基礎的資料を得るため,超音波診断装置(周波数は7.5MHz)を用いて,開腹による胃あるいは大腸手術を受けた患者を対象に,手術経過に伴う下肢の筋組織厚および皮下脂肪厚の変化を明らかにした.術前,術後離床日,術後10日目,術後20日目の合計4回,下肢の大腿直筋上,大腿二頭筋上,長指伸筋上,ヒラメ筋上にプローブを当て,組織厚を測定した.開腹による胃または大腸手術を行なった患者のうち,合計4回の測定結果が得られた16名を分析対象とした.4箇所の測定部位の筋組織厚および皮下脂肪厚をそれぞれ合計し,筋組織厚総和および皮下脂肪厚総和を算出し,術前値との比較を行なった.その結果,下肢の筋組織厚総和は,術後離床日,術後10日目,術後20日目に有意な減少を認めた.一方,下肢の皮下脂肪厚総和は,術後には有意な減少を認めず,ほとんど変化しないことが明らかになった.胃手術群と大腸手術群の比較においては,胃手術群は,術後10日目から術後20日目にさらに減少し,回復の傾向を示さなかったが,大腸手術群は,術後10日目から術後20日目に下肢の筋組織厚が回復の傾向を示した.よって,開腹術後患者,特に胃手術患者に対して,より細やかな看護観察と栄養評価,および食事摂取量を増やす看護介入の必要性が示唆された.In order to obtain basic data for use in postoperative nursing care intended to promote the recovery of patients after surgery, the authors examined postoperative changes in lower limb muscular tissue thickness and subcutaneous fat thickness by ultrasonography (7.5 MHz) in patients who underwent open surgery of the stomach or large intestine. The ultrasound probe was placed on the skin above the following muscles: quadriceps femoris, biceps femoris muscle, extensor digitorum longus, and soleus. Measurements were taken on 4 occasions: before surgery, and on the 1st, 10th and 20th day after postoperative mobilization. Of all patients who underwent open surgery of the stomach or large intestine, 16 patients were selected for analysis and ultrasonic measurements. Muscular tissue and subcutaneous fat thicknesses at each of the four sites of measurement were totaled to yield measures of total muscular tissue and total subcutaneous fat. Postoperative and preoperative parameters were then compared. The total lower limb muscular tissue thickness at each of the 4 postoperative measurement points was significantly less than the preoperative thickness, whereas the total lower limb subcutaneous fat thickness showed no significant decrease after surgery and remained almost unchanged from the preoperative value. Comparing patients undergoing different types of surgery, leg muscular tissue thickness showed a tendency to recover on the 10th and 20th day after surgery in the colorectal surgery group, while the gastric surgery group showed further decreases in this parameter on the 10th and 20th day, with no trend towards recovery evident over the timeframe investigated. These results suggest the necessity of active nursing intervention for patients after open gastric surgery.G

Curriculum Development to Promote the Ability to Live in Society-Social and Vocational Independence through a Special Support Class at Junior High School

グロール化が一層進行するこれからの社会において，将来の就労を含む生活に向けた生活力の育成を目指し，教科「職業・家庭」に新たに社会生活に関する内容を加味した，教科「キャリアマネジメント」を教育課程に位置づけ，カリキュラム開発を行っている。評価の４観とキャリア教育における４つの基礎的・汎用的能力を用いた評価によって生徒の変容を見取り授業評価を行うことで，カリキュラムについて検討した結果，生徒や保護者，教員に対して一定の効果があった。今後は，学習過程とそれによって身につく資質・能力について整理することが課題である。With the ongoing globalization in society, it is necessary to develop a new type of curriculum to prepare today's students for their future lives, especially their careers. TI1e curriculum developed in this study places an emphasis on vocation and home life, and it includes a new subject-Career Management-which deals with social life. The lessons in each unit for this subject were evaluated using reference criteria and in terms of four career abilities. From these results, adjustments were made to the lesson content, and the effect of the new curriculum was measured. The curriculum was found to be effective for students, their parents, and teachers. It will be necessary in a future study to examine ways of developing the associated learning process and assess its effects with regard to promoting competencies

Relationship between physique and food avoidance in infants : A study conducted in a community setting in Japan

The relationship between food avoidance during infancy and the growth of Japanese infants in a community health setting has not been well evaluated. In order to assess the growth of infants who avoided either of the three major allergen foods in Japan, eggs, milk or wheat, we employed the results of 4 physical checkups recorded in maternity passbooks and administrated a questionnaire on allergic diseases, height and weight at birth to the guardians of 1,132 infants at the age of 3.5 years. Data was obtained from 890 subjects (78.6%) and 662 subjects (58.5%) who met the inclusion criteria were analyzed. The height, weight and body mass index percentile scores of each subject were calculated. Subjects who avoided either of the three foods at 3.5 years had lower weight percentile scores at 1.5 years, lower height and weight percentile scores at 3.5 years, and lower weight growth rates, compared with the subjects who did not avoid any of the three foods at 3.5 years (P=0.02, 0.03, 0.03, 0.01). The results suggested that there was a negative relationship between physique and food avoidance in infants, and that physical and nutritional assessments are important for food avoiders

CDK4/6 signaling attenuates the effect of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors in EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer

Background: Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations, such as exon 19 deletion and exon 21 L858R, are driver oncogenes of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) being effective against EGFR-mutant NSCLC. However, the efficacy of EGFR-TKIs is transient and eventually leads to acquired resistance. Herein, we focused on the significance of cell cycle factors as a mechanism to attenuate the effect of EGFR-TKIs in EGFR-mutant NSCLC before the emergence of acquired resistance. Methods: Using several EGFR-mutant cell lines, we investigated the significance of cell cycle factors to attenuate the effect of EGFR-TKIs in EGFR-mutant NSCLC. Results: In several EGFR-mutant cell lines, certain cancer cells continued to proliferate without EGFR signaling, and the cell cycle regulator retinoblastoma protein (RB) was not completely dephosphorylated. Further inhibition of phosphorylated RB with cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitors, combined with the EGFR-TKI osimertinib, enhanced G0/G1 cell cycle accumulation and growth inhibition of the EGFR-mutant NSCLC in both in vitro and in vivo models. Furthermore, residual RB phosphorylation without EGFR signaling was maintained by extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling, and the ERK inhibition pathway showed further RB dephosphorylation. Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that the CDK4/6-RB signal axis, maintained by the MAPK pathway, attenuates the efficacy of EGFR-TKIs in EGFR-mutant NSCLC, and targeting CDK4/6 enhances this efficacy. Thus, combining CDK4/6 inhibitors and EGFR-TKI could be a novel treatment strategy for TKI-naïve EGFR-mutant NSCLC

Efficacy of gilteritinib in comparison with alectinib for the treatment of ALK-rearranged non-small cell lung cancer

Gilteritinib is a multitarget tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), approved for the treatment of FLT3-mutant acute myeloid leukemia, with a broad range of activity against several tyrosine kinases including anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK). This study investigated the efficacy of gilteritinib against ALK-rearranged non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC). To this end, we assessed the effects of gilteritinib on cell proliferation, apoptosis, and acquired resistance responses in several ALK-rearranged NSCLC cell lines and mouse xenograft tumor models and compared its efficacy to alectinib, a standard ALK inhibitor. Gilteritinib was significantly more potent than alectinib, as it inhibited cell proliferation at a lower dose, with complete attenuation of growth observed in several ALK-rearranged NSCLC cell lines and no development of drug tolerance. Immunoblotting showed that gilteritinib strongly suppressed phosphorylated ALK and its downstream effectors, as well as mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor (MET) signaling. By comparison, MET signaling was enhanced in alectinib-treated cells. Furthermore, gilteritinib was found to more effectively abolish growth of ALK-rearranged NSCLC xenograft tumors, many of which completely receded. Interleukin-15 (IL-15) mRNA levels were elevated in gilteritinib-treated cells, together with a concomitant increase in the infiltration of tumors by natural killer (NK) cells, as assessed by immunohistochemistry. This suggests that IL-15 production along with NK cell infiltration may constitute components of the gilteritinib-mediated antitumor responses in ALK-rearranged NSCLCs. In conclusion, gilteritinib demonstrated significantly improved antitumor efficacy compared with alectinib against ALK-rearranged NSCLC cells, which can warrant its candidacy for use in anticancer regimens, after further examination in clinical trial settings

QTL analysis of measures of mouse home-cage activity using B6/MSM consomic strains

The activity of mice in their home cage is influenced greatly by the cycle of light and dark. In addition, home-cage activity shows remarkable time-dependent changes that result in a prominent temporal pattern. The wild-derived mouse strain MSM/Ms (MSM) exhibits higher total activity in the home cage than does C57BL/6 (B6), a commonly used laboratory strain. In addition, there is a clear strain difference in the temporal pattern of home-cage activity. This study aimed to clarify the genetic basis of strain differences in the temporal pattern of home-cage activity between MSM and B6. Through the comparison of temporal patterns of home-cage activity between B6 and MSM, the pattern can be classified into five temporal components: (1) resting phase, (2) anticipation phase, (3) 1st phase, (4) 2nd phase, and (5) 3rd phase. To identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) involved in these temporal components, we used consomic strains established from crosses between B6 and MSM. Five consomic strains, for Chrs 2T (telomere), 3, 4, 13, and 14, showed significantly higher total activity than B6. In contrast, the consomic strains of Chrs 6C (centromere), 7T, 9, 11, and 15 were less active than B6. This indicates that multigenic factors regulate the total activity. Further analysis showed an impact of QTLs on the temporal components of home-cage activity. The present data showed that each temporal component was regulated by different combinations of multigenic factors, with some overlap. These temporal component-related QTLs are important to understand fully the genetic mechanisms that underlie home-cage activity

Study on the way of educational practical training of special needs education in at the special needs class in the affiliated school, Hiroshima Univerisity

本研究は，附属学校の特別支援学級における教育実習において，実習終了後に行う公立特別支援学校での教育実習のさらなる充実を図り，学部の教育と附属の実習，公立特別支援学校での実習の連続性整備のためにプログラムの見直しや改善を図ると共に，そのあり方について検討する。附属東雲小学校・中学校は大学の特別支援教育学講座と連携し，教育実習の内容の検討や改善に向けての提言を受ける他，具体的な大学における取り組みとも連動するようにした。さらに，特別支援教育実習協議会を通して特別支援学校との連携を図り，実習校と学生へのアンケート調査によって課題を明らかにした。また，全国の附属学校特別支援学級の連絡協議会を活用し，教育実習における実情や課題を情報交換することで、情報の共有化を図り新たな知見も得た。このような取り組みを進めていく中で，実習の事前指導にあたり，公立特別支援学校との連携が不足していたことが課題としてあげられた。この課題を解決していくために，教育実習に対しての附属学校としての取り組みを改善すると共に，より具体的かつ実用的な指導や評価を行い，内容を引き継ぐシステムの構築が必要であることが明らかとなった。The purpose of this research is to improve the teaching practice at the public special support school which is carried out after completion of the educational practice of the attached school special support class and to improve the educational practice of the undergraduate school and the special special support school We reviewed the contents of teaching practice and examined improvement. Attached Shinonome Elementary School and Junior High School have a special support education course lecture of the Graduate school of pedagogy and a public education practice meeting with the public special support school, and from the questionnaire survey to each school and the student, lack of cooperation with the public special support school It was made clear that it was. In order to solve the problem, it is necessary to instruct teacher interns more practical guidance and evaluation, and to inherit the contents to the public special support school

マンガに描かれる女性の体形と日本人若年女性のボディイメージ

日本のマンガの持つ内容の広さ、豊かさ、洗練性および画像表現の自由度は、読む者のボディイメージに強い影響を与える可能性がある。マンガにおける若年女性の体形の描かれ方に関して、ジャンル別(男性向け一女性向け、成人向け-子供向け)の体形の特徴、物語上の役割や人物の性格が体形に及ぼす影響、作者の性別と作品のジャンルの関係について検討した。描かれた身体像は、現代日本の若年女性の標準体形と比較して、若年女子短期大学生らの視点から評価した。男性向けのマンガではやや細いウェストと大きなヒップを持った若年女性が描かれているのに対して、女性向けのマンガではウェスト・ヒップ共に細い若年女性が描かれていた。作品中の若年女性の役割や性格と体形の関係では、女性誌において女性性や母性がいずれも細い身体像と結びつき、また依存性が太いウェストと結びついていた。男性向けのマンガを男性が画いている一方、女性向けのマンガは女性が画いていた。これらの結果から、マンガにおいては非現実的な「やせ理想像」が、女性読者を対象として、女性マンガ家により作られていることが示された