Improving the Prioritization Process of UXO Lao

Prioritization of clearance activities continues to be a central issue in the unexploded ordnance (UXO) sector in Laos. Although the government set a policy on prioritization, it has not functioned well as a guide for operators to prioritize their tasks. The majority of operators tended to prioritize their operations based on their past experiences. This has resulted in uncertainty about how to prioritize clearance operations and has led to a strong demand from stakeholders for greater transparency. UXO Lao, the national clearance operator, has implemented a trial to introduce a clear planning and prioritization process for operations in order to increase transparency and accountability. This article explains how the Laos National Unexploded Ordnance Programme (UXO Lao) identified issues with the planning and prioritization process, and how UXO Lao has improved upon them

Mine Action and South-South Cooperation: Case of JICA and CMAC

South-South cooperation has been pursued across various fields of international development. However, there has been a paucity of efforts to promote South-South cooperation in mine action. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Cambodia Mine Action Centre (CMAC) have been at the forefront of expanding South-South and global cooperation by leveraging CMAC\u27s extensive experience and expertise accumulated over its thirty years’ of operation. This article delves into the motives and mechanisms behind JICA’s and CMAC\u27s joint efforts to foster this collaboration

Mobile Technologies: UXO Lao\u27s Easy Sketch Map

Established in 1996, the Lao National Unexploded Ordnance Programme (UXO Lao) promotes risk education and clears land for agriculture, community purposes (e.g., schools, hospitals, temples and water supplies) and other development activities. UXO Lao is working in the nine most impacted Lao provinces nationwide. Although recent changes occurred to UXO Lao’s survey procedure, the program continues mapping out contaminated areas throughout the country

Stochastic behavior of outcome of Schur-Weyl duality measurement

We focus on the measurement defined by the decomposition based on Schur-Weyl duality on $n$ qubits. As the first setting, we discuss the asymptotic behavior of the measurement outcome when the state is given as the permutation mixture $\rho_{mix,n,l}$ of the state $| 1^{l} \, 0^{n-l} \rangle := | 1 \rangle^{\otimes l} \otimes |0\rangle^{\otimes (n-l)}$. In contrast, when the state is given as the Dicke state $|\Xi_{n,l}\rangle$, the measurement outcome takes one deterministic value. These two cases have completely different behaviors. As the second setting, we study the case when the state is given as the tensor product of the permutation mixture $\rho_{mix,k,l}$ and the Dicke state $| \Xi_{n-k,m-l} \rangle$. We derive various types of asymptotic distribution including a kind of central limit theorem when $n$ goes to infinity.Comment: The second part of the revised version. The first and third parts are submitted as new items. 45 pages, 5 figure

Electrofusion of Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Islet Cells for Diabetes Therapy: A Rat Model

膵島細胞と間葉系幹細胞の融合細胞を用いた糖尿病治療実験に成功 -新しい重症糖尿病治療法の開発に期待-. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2013-05-29.Islet transplantation is a minimally invasive treatment for severe diabetes. However, it often requires multiple donors to accomplish insulin-independence and the long-term results are not yet satisfying. Therefore, novel ways to overcome these problems have been explored. Isolated islets are fragile and susceptible to pro-apoptotic factors and poorly proliferative. In contrast, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are highly proliferative, anti-apoptotic and pluripotent to differentiate toward various cell types, promote angiogenesis and modulate inflammation, thereby studied as an enhancer of islet function and engraftment. Electrofusion is an efficient method of cell fusion and nuclear reprogramming occurs in hybrid cells between different cell types. Therefore, we hypothesized that electrofusion between MSC and islet cells may yield robust islet cells for diabetes therapy. We establish a method of electrofusion between dispersed islet cells and MSCs in rats. The fusion cells maintained glucose-responsive insulin release for 20 days in vitro. Renal subcapsular transplantation of fusion cells prepared from suboptimal islet mass (1, 000 islets) that did not correct hyperglycemia even if co-transplanted with MSCs, caused slow but consistent lowering of blood glucose with significant weight gain within the observation period in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. In the fusion cells between rat islet cells and mouse MSCs, RT-PCR showed new expression of both rat MSC-related genes and mouse β-cell-related genes, indicating bidirectional reprogramming of both β-cell and MSCs nuclei. Moreover, decreased caspase3 expression and new expression of Ki-67 in the islet cell nuclei suggested alleviated apoptosis and gain of proliferative capability, respectively. These results show that electrofusion between MSCs and islet cells yield special cells with β-cell function and robustness of MSCs and seems feasible for novel therapeutic strategy for diabetes mellitus

The significance of cathepsins, thrombin and aminopeptidase in diffuse interstitial lung diseases

To determine the significance of proteases in interstitial lung diseases, we examined the activity of cathepsins, thrombin, and aminopeptidase in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid from patients with these disorders. Significantly increased activities of cathepsin H and aminopeptidase were detected in BAL fluid from patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP), chronic eosinophilic pneumonia (CEP) and hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP). Significantly higher activity of cathepsin B was found in BAL fluid from patients with CEP. The activity of thrombin was significantly higher in patients with IPF and CEP. In patients with IPF, there were significant correlations between neutrophil number and the activity of cathepsin B, cathepsin H or aminopeptidase. In patients with COP and HP, the activity of the proteases was significantly higher in patients with higher number of lymphocytes than in those with lower number of lymphocytes. The present study suggests that the activity of the proteases is a useful marker in activity of the interstitial lung diseases, and may have a role in the pathogenesis of these disorders

The keratin-binding protein Albatross regulates polarization of epithelial cells

The keratin intermediate filament network is abundant in epithelial cells, but its function in the establishment and maintenance of cell polarity is unclear. Here, we show that Albatross complexes with Par3 to regulate formation of the apical junctional complex (AJC) and maintain lateral membrane identity. In nonpolarized epithelial cells, Albatross localizes with keratin filaments, whereas in polarized epithelial cells, Albatross is primarily localized in the vicinity of the AJC. Knockdown of Albatross in polarized cells causes a disappearance of key components of the AJC at cell–cell borders and keratin filament reorganization. Lateral proteins E-cadherin and desmoglein 2 were mislocalized even on the apical side. Although Albatross promotes localization of Par3 to the AJC, Par3 and ezrin are still retained at the apical surface in Albatross knockdown cells, which retain intact microvilli. Analysis of keratin-deficient epithelial cells revealed that keratins are required to stabilize the Albatross protein, thus promoting the formation of AJC. We propose that keratins and the keratin-binding protein Albatross are important for epithelial cell polarization

AYA-generation lung cancer in a patient presenting with spontaneous pneumothorax : A case report

Background : Surgery for young patients（i.e., <２０ years of age）with early-stage lung cancer is extremely rare. To the best of our knowledge, only a few cases of lung cancer initially presented with spontaneous pneumothorax. Here, we report a case of AYA（adolescent and young adult）-generation lung cancer in a patient who presented with spontaneous pneumothorax. Case : An １８-year-old male was admitted to our hospital for new-onset left pneumothorax. Chest computed tomography incidentally revealed a pure ground-glass nodule（pGGN）in the left lower lobe（S８）with a bulla near the nodule. While chest tube drainage improved his condition, pneumothorax recurred two weeks later, prompting surgical for video-assisted partial resection of the left lung. Intraoperative findings showed that the bulla and nodule were distant. Histopathologic analysis was consistent with a diagnosis of adenocarcinoma in situ with a bleb. Conclusion : This study highlights the importance of considering the possibility of lung cancer in patients with irregular chest shadows, even those less than２０years of age. Computed tomography plays an important role in the diagnosis of lung cancer in patients with spontaneous pneumothorax

Salivary Biomarkers May Be Useful to Assess Stress State in Patients with Lung Cancer Undergoing Chemotherapy

ABSTRAC