Needs and prospects for public sector accounting reform: The Japanese experience

Why does the public sector accounting reform take so much time in Japan compared with other countries? The argument for the necessity for reform was made long ago, yet why have the desired results not been seen until now? The aim of this paper is to answer these questions and to find out key to possible effective reform. Based on the survey carried out in 2013 with 786 local authorities nationwide, the author tests the following two hypotheses and reports the empirical evidence to support them; H1: there are more examples of financial documents being utilized among local authorities that adopt double-entry bookkeeping compared to those that do not, and H2: the response toward financial documents differs depending on the size of the local authority. These empirical results suggest that in the provision of public sector accounting information of clear utility, the issue of adopting double-entry bookkeeping cannot be avoided, while considering the differences in practical burdens on local administrations, this must be looked at in tandem with a rule that differentiates between different sizes of administration

Hemosuccus Pancreaticus following a Puestow Procedure in a Patient with Chronic Pancreatitis

Hemosuccus pancreaticus is an unusual cause of gastrointestinal bleeding that occurs as a complication of chronic or acute pancreatitis. We report a case of extremely acute-onset hemosuccus pancreaticus occurring in a patient with chronic pancreatitis over a long-term follow-up after a Puestow procedure (side-to-side pancreaticojejunostomy). The patient was admitted to our hospital due to severe anemia and tarry stools indicative of gastrointestinal bleeding. Emergent endoscopy, including gastrointestinal fiberscopy and colon fiberscopy, showed no abnormal findings. Abdominal contrast-enhanced computed tomography and hemorrhagic scintigraphy did not detect a hemorrhagic lesion. Although interventional radiology was considered for diagnosis and treatment, conservative therapy seemed sufficient to affect hemostasis. Two weeks later, however, acute intestinal bleeding with hemodynamic shock occurred, and exploration was performed without delay. Intraoperative endoscopy through an incision of the reconstructed jejunal loop in the close proximal end revealed a site of active bleeding from the side-to-side anastomotic pancreatic duct. Following a longitudinal incision of the jejunal loop, a bleeding point was sutured and ligated on direct inspection. The patient showed a good postoperative course

Invasive Ductal Carcinoma Arising from an Ectopic Pancreas in the Gastric Wall: A Long-Term Survival Case

A case of invasive ductal carcinoma of an ectopic pancreas in the stomach in a 74-year-old woman is presented. A 4.0 cm gastric submucosal tumor (SMT) was resected surgically. Histologically, the tumor showed cystic tissue consisting of an ectopic pancreas with foci of a moderately differentiated tubular adenocarcinoma. In this tumor, small pancreatic tissues, acini, Langerhans islets, and ductular cells were detected in the gastric SMT. The patient has experienced long-term survival. The incidence of pancreatic cancer of an ectopic pancreas is rare, and the etiology of this disease is discussed in the literature

Enhancing Inverse Problem Solutions with Accurate Surrogate Simulators and Promising Candidates

Deep-learning inverse techniques have attracted significant attention in recent years. Among them, the neural adjoint (NA) method, which employs a neural network surrogate simulator, has demonstrated impressive performance in the design tasks of artificial electromagnetic materials (AEM). However, the impact of the surrogate simulators' accuracy on the solutions in the NA method remains uncertain. Furthermore, achieving sufficient optimization becomes challenging in this method when the surrogate simulator is large, and computational resources are limited. Additionally, the behavior under constraints has not been studied, despite its importance from the engineering perspective. In this study, we investigated the impact of surrogate simulators' accuracy on the solutions and discovered that the more accurate the surrogate simulator is, the better the solutions become. We then developed an extension of the NA method, named Neural Lagrangian (NeuLag) method, capable of efficiently optimizing a sufficient number of solution candidates. We then demonstrated that the NeuLag method can find optimal solutions even when handling sufficient candidates is difficult due to the use of a large and accurate surrogate simulator. The resimulation errors of the NeuLag method were approximately 1/50 compared to previous methods for three AEM tasks. Finally, we performed optimization under constraint using NA and NeuLag, and confirmed their potential in optimization with soft or hard constraints. We believe our method holds potential in areas that require large and accurate surrogate simulators.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figure

Fluorescence properties of amido-substituted 2,3-naphthalimides: Excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) fluorescence and responses to Ca2+ ions

2,3-Naphthalimide derivatives incorporating trifluoroacetamido (3a) and methansulfonamido (3b) functionalities at the 1-position were prepared and their intramolecular excited state proton transfer (ESIPT) fluorescence and responses to metal ions were investigated. Compound 3a displayed normal fluorescence in the amide form in toluene and MeCN and no response to metal cations in the corresponding amidate ion form. In contrast, compound 3b gave off dual emission assignable to normal and ESIPT fluorescence. Additionally, the amidate form of compound 3b displayed off-on fluorescence response to Ca2+

Pacemaker Inhibition During Cardioplegia in Open Heart Surgery

A 53-year-old patient underwent mitral valve replacement after implantation of permanent pacemaker. During cardioplegia in open heart surgery, we performed the inhibition of permanent pacemaker to obtain complete myocardial preservation and quiet heart, using stimulations of an external pulse generator. This procedure is considered available, when the patient who has had a permanent pacemaker undergoes open heart surgery more safely

pruR and PA0065 Genes Are Responsible for Decreasing Antibiotic Tolerance by Autoinducer Analog-1 (AIA-1) in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection is considered a high-risk nosocomial infection and is very difficult to eradicate because of its tolerance to antibiotic treatment. A new compound, autoinducer analog-1 (AIA-1), has been demonstrated to reduce antibiotic tolerance, but its mechanisms remain unknown. This study aimed to investigate the mechanisms of AIA-1 in the antibiotic tolerance of P. aeruginosa. A transposon mutant library was constructed using miniTn5pro, and screening was performed to isolate high tolerant mutants upon exposure to biapenem and AIA-1. We constructed a deletion mutant and complementation strain of the genes detected in transposon insertion site determination, pruR and PA0066-65-64, and performed killing assays with antibiotics and AIA-1. Gene expression upon exposure to biapenem and AIA-1 and their relationship to stress response genes were analyzed. High antibiotic tolerance was observed in Tn5-pruR and Tn5-PA0065 transposon mutants and their deletion mutants, ΔpruR and ΔPA0066-65-64. Complemented strains of pruR and PA0066-65-64 with their respective deletion mutants exhibited suppressed antibiotic tolerance. It was determined that deletion of PA0066-65-64 increased rpoS expression, and PA0066-65-64 affects antibiotic tolerance via the rpoS pathway. Additionally, antibiotics and AIA-1 were found to inhibit pruR and PA0066-65-64. This study proposed that pruR and PA0066-65-64 are members of the antibiotic tolerance suppressors