A Comparative Study of Data Gathering Procedures in Conjoint Measurement

An experiment is designed for testing validity and reliability of two data gathering procedures in conjoint measurement. Computer-interactive Adaptive Conjoint Analysis (ACA in short) and the conventional Full-Profile method (FP in short) are among those compared for predictive performance. After responding to four questionnaires, two data collection procedures each for two product categories (chocolate and soft drink), in a computer-assisted session, two hundred and six respondents picked up their most favorite brand(s) from a set of brands with relatively high shares in the market. For soft drink category, partworths of product attributes are estimated for price, manufacturer, brand category, and size of container. For chocolate, importance weights are estimated for price, maker, taste, and product form. Average correlation coefficients between parameter estimates derived from the different data collection procedures (ACA and FP) are quite high; 0.52 on the average for both product categories, mostly above 0.65 for individual respondents. Using parameter estimates, total utility scores could be calculated for the brands presented at the final stage of computer interview. Then, the first choice could be predicted and matched with the brand actually picked up by each respondent. "Batting Average" for FP method is 53.9%, which is fairly higher than 44.7% for ACA procedure in predicting the choice of chocolate. However, ACA with an average of 45.7% could hit the right cans of Cola, Tea, or Orange Juice better than FP only with an average of 40.4%. We recommend that researchers would better make use of ACA against FP, when there are many attributes and/or profiles, since interviewing with ACA is much easier than that with FP

CD153/CD30 signaling promotes age-dependent tertiary lymphoid tissue expansion and kidney injury

高齢者腎臓病を悪化させる原因細胞・分子の同定に成功. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2021-11-30.A new drug target for kidney disease. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2021-11-30.Tertiary lymphoid tissues (TLTs) facilitate local T- and B-cell interactions in chronically inflamed organs. However, the cells and molecular pathways that govern TLT formation are poorly defined. Here we identify TNF superfamily CD153-CD30 signaling between two unique age-dependent lymphocyte subpopulations, CD153⁺PD-1⁺CD4⁺ senescence-associated T (SAT) cells and CD30+T-bet+ age-associated B cells (ABCs), as a driver for TLT expansion. SAT cells, which produced ABC-inducing factors IL21 and IFNγ, and ABCs progressively accumulated within TLTs in aged kidneys after injury. Notably, in kidney injury models, CD153 or CD30 deficiency impaired functional SAT cell induction, which resulted in reduced ABC numbers and attenuated TLT formation with improved inflammation, fibrosis and renal function. Attenuated TLT formation after transplantation of CD153-deficient bone marrow further supported the importance of CD153 in immune cells. Clonal analysis revealed that SAT cells and ABCs in the kidneys arose from both local differentiation and recruitment from the spleen. In the synovium of aged rheumatoid arthritis patients, T peripheral helper/T follicular helper cells and ABCs also expressed CD153 and CD30, respectively. Together, our data reveal a previously unappreciated function of CD153-CD30 signaling in TLT formation and propose targeting CD153-CD30 signaling pathway as a therapeutic target for slowing kidney disease progression

Application of a Simplified Method of Chloroplast Enrichment to Small Amounts of Tissue for Chloroplast Genome Sequencing

Premise of the study: High-throughput sequencing of genomic DNA can recover complete chloroplast genome sequences, but the sequence data are usually dominated by sequences from nuclear/mitochondrial genomes. To overcome this deficiency, a simple enrichment method for chloroplast DNA from small amounts of plant tissue was tested for eight plant species including a gymnosperm and various angiosperms. Methods: Chloroplasts were enriched using a high-salt isolation buffer without any step gradient procedures, and enriched chloroplast DNA was sequenced by multiplexed high-throughput sequencing. Results: Using this simple method, significant enrichment of chloroplast DNA-derived reads was attained, allowing deep sequencing of chloroplast genomes. As an example, the chloroplast genome of the conifer Callitris sulcata was assembled, from which polymorphic microsatellite loci were isolated successfully. Discussion: This chloroplast enrichment method from small amounts of plant tissue will be particularly useful for studies that use sequencers with relatively small throughput and that cannot use large amounts of tissue (e.g., for endangered species)

Estimating radiation exposure of the brain of a physician with a protective flap in interventional radiology: A phantom study

近畿大学Kindai University博士（医学）主査：鶴﨑正勝 教授　　学内授与番号：医第1391号 Shota Hattori, Hajime Monzen, Mikoto Tamura, Hiroyuki Kosaka, Yasunori Nakamura, Yasumasa Nishimura "Estimating radiation exposure of the brain of a physician with a protective flap in interventional radiology: A phantom study"JOURNAL OF APPLIED CLINICAL MEDICAL PHYSICS, Volume23, Issue3 March 2022 https://doi.org/10.1002/acm2.13532 掲載doctoral thesi

Estimating radiation exposure of the brain of a physician with a protective flap in interventional radiology: A phantom study

主査：鶴﨑正勝 教授　　学内授与番号：医第1391号 Shota Hattori, Hajime Monzen, Mikoto Tamura, Hiroyuki Kosaka, Yasunori Nakamura, Yasumasa Nishimura "Estimating radiation exposure of the brain of a physician with a protective flap in interventional radiology: A phantom study"JOURNAL OF APPLIED CLINICAL MEDICAL PHYSICS, Volume23, Issue3 March 2022 https://doi.org/10.1002/acm2.13532 掲