Advances in Drug Design of Radiometal-Based Imaging Agents for Bone Disorders

Nuclear medicine bone imaging has been the optimum diagnosis for the detection of bone disorders because the lesion could be detectable before the appearance of symptomatic and radiographic changes. Over the past three decades, 99mTc-MDP and 99mTc-HMDP have been used as bone scintigraphic agents because of their superior biodistribution characteristics, although they are far from optimal from a chemical and pharmaceutical point of view. Recently, a more logical drug design has been proposed as a concept of bifunctional radiopharmaceuticals in which the carrier molecules (bisphosphonates) and radiometal chelating groups are separated within a molecule, specifically, 99mTc-mononuclear complex-conjugated bisphosphonate. Some of the 99mTc-mononuclear complex-conjugated bisphosphonate compounds showed superior biodistribution in preclinical studies. Moreover, the drug design concept could be applied to 68Ga PET bone imaging agents. These studies would provide useful information for the development of radiometal-based imaging and therapeutic agents for bone disorders such as bone metastases

Working Hours, Promotion and the Gender Gap in the Workplace

This paper presents a novel model of promotion within the firm which sheds new light on the interplay between working hours and the odds of subsequent promotion. The model's key feature is the coexistence of two different sources of asymmetric information: (i) the worker's cost of long working hours: and (ii) the worker's OJT ability (the worker's ability to accumulate valuable human capital on the job through learning by doing). The worker's cost of working long hours is known only to the worker, while the worker's OJT ability is accurately assessed only by the firm observing him/her on the job. Long working hours signal the worker's commitment to the firm, which determines the surplus produced when the worker is promoted. Thus, the firm provides the worker with managerial training only after observing the employee's hours worked, a signal of his/her commitment to the firm or lack thereof. The firm's decision to provide training also depends on its private information about the worker's OJT ability, which affects his/her future productivity if and when the worker gets promoted. Upon completion of training, the firm then promotes the worker. The model illuminates under what conditions, it is efficient for the firm to adopt the information revelation strategy – reveal its private information on the worker's OJT ability to him/her before the worker decides on whether to work long hours and signal his/her commitment. Using the model, we show that under a reasonable set of conditions, the firm may find it optimal to adopt the information revelation strategy for women but not for men, and derive an empirical testable hypothesis that the correlation between working hours and subsequent promotion will be stronger for women than for men. We analyze longitudinal personnel data from a large Japanese manufacturing firm and provide rigorous econometric evidence in support of the hypothesis

Teachers’ Consciousness and Behavior on Educational Responsibility in the Latter Half of 1940s in Japan: From the Viewpoint of the Continuity and Discontinuity between Prewar and Postwar Periods

Using long-forgotten articles and books, this paper described Japanese teaches’ consciousness and behavior in the latter half of 1940s. Until defeat of Japan at the end of WWII, almost all Japanese teachers taught children super militarism. There were a few that refused to do so and others that did so reluctantly. There have been some studies on the classification of teachers’ consciousness and behavior in this era, for example that by Hara and Nakauchi (1962), and another by Aoki(1946). In their classification, the biggest teacher group is called the “ordinary teacher” group. The basis of classification is the teachers’ consciousness of responsibility on education and the war. After Japan’s defeat, many “ordinary teachers” participated in teacher unions that were strongly Marxist. Thus, a certain degree of antagonism has existed between the teachers’ unions and the Ministry of Education on democratic education for some time now. However, the attitude of “ordinary teachers” as mere followers in school is the same as before

An Algorithm for Calculating Perimeter Length

The present paper proposes an algorithm for calculating accurately the perimeter length of a picture. The outline of the algorithm is as follows: for each cell or picture element (i,j) on the perimeter, a coefficient which corresponds to the minute perimeter length at the cell is assigned as a function of the situation of neighbor cells (i,j-l), (i-l,j) and (i-l,j-l), and the number of same situation connected along the perimeter. Then, the total perimeter length can be given as the sum of these coefficientso According to this methods, approximation accurate to 002 percent could be obtained in the blob patterns

An Outlook : Flower Industry in Japan

Since 1970 the Japanese flower market has shown a steady growth. After 1990 there has been a rapid increase of imported cut flowers and flower bulbs. After 1994 there has been a stagnation in auction sales. The increase in number of growers stopped after 1992. About 60% of Japanese households never buy flowers at all. The Japanese preference for flowers is the natural setting. Auction system is very popular : 95% of ornamental crops go through auction markets. Imported cut flowers account for 6-7% of domestic consumption, about 80% of import is also distributed by auction market. Major players in distribution are auction market ($5.3 billion, 300 auctions), wholesale company ($1.4 billion, 500 wholesalers) and flowers shops ($8.2 billion, 26,000 florists). Minor players are supermarkets ($0.9 billion) and importers ($0.2 billion). Supermarkets account for less than 10% of final consumption of ornamentals. Changes in auction systems since the end of the \u2780 are : the integration of small and medium sized auctions, modernisation with electronical (clock-system) and logistic technology and realignment in organisational structure. As the flower market was blooming in the middele of \u2780s, 200 major and big Japanese companies flocked into the flower industry. Unfortunately, most of new entries failed, partly because lack of knowledge and/or personnel in running flower business and partly because of low productivity/insufficient sales volume resulting in low profitability. Survivors in the middle of \u2790s are Kirin and Suntory. Kirin Agribio EC is presently one of the leading companies in floricultural industry. Fides, Barbaret & Blanc, SGP and Hiljo are now under control of Kirin and in the domestic market Kirin also bought companies and sets up joint ventures with a retail chain and a wholesale business. In contrast, Suntory focusses on breeding and the nursery sector. Since 1989 they have been trying to breed a \u27blue rose\u27 in cooperation with the Autralian company Floregene. Major chain stores like Daiei and Jusco have not been succesfull. Independent florists, however, made succesful efforts. Direct marketing has been dominated by JFTD. Information technology will enable us to get around the existing auction markets. Dealing through a real time video auction system, or setting price and quantity in advance via Internet and later obtaining fresh flowers of better quality is possible in the near future. In Japan three companies are planning to establish a virtual trading system as Tele Flower Auction in Holland. Aucnet, a leading satellite auction company in used car business in Japan, announced to expand their business into the flower market. Nippon Steel is experimenting with Electronic Commerce by fresh flowers. Flower Auction Japan is designing a logistic network system with full coverage of all retail and business customers across the country

Prediction of fetal acidemia in placental abruption

BACKGROUND: To determine the major predictive factors for fetal acidemia in placental abruption. METHODS: A retrospective review of pregnancies with placental abruption was performed using a logistic regression model. Fetal acidemia was defined as a pH of less than 7.0 in umbilical artery. The severe abruption score, which was derived from a linear discriminant function, was calculated to determine the probability of fetal acidemia. RESULTS: Fetal acidemia was seen in 43 survivors (43/222, 19%). A logistic regression model showed bradycardia (OR (odds ratio) 50.34, 95% CI 11.07 – 228.93), and late decelerations (OR 15.13, 3.05 – 74.97), but not abnormal ultrasonographic findings were to be associated with the occurrence of fetal acidemia. The severe abruption score was calculated for the occurrence of fetal acidemia, using 6 items including vaginal bleeding, gestational age, abdominal pain, abnormal ultrasonographic finding, late decelerations, and bradycardia. CONCLUSIONS: An abnormal FHR pattern, especially bradycardia is the most significant risk factor in placental abruption predicting fetal acidemia, regardless of the presence of abnormal ultrasonographic findings or gestational age

A New 100-GHz Band Front-End System with a Waveguide-Type Dual-Polarization Sideband-Separating SIS Receiver for the NRO 45-m Radio Telescope

We developed a waveguide-type dual-polarization sideband-separating SIS receiver system of the 100-GHz band for the 45-m radio telescope at the Nobeyama Radio Observatory, Japan. This receiver is composed of an ortho-mode transducer and two sideband-separating SIS mixers, which are both based on the waveguide technique. The receiver has four intermediate frequency bands of 4.0--8.0 GHz. Over the radio frequency range of 80--120 GHz, the single-sideband receiver noise temperatures are 50--100 K and the image rejection ratios are greater than 10 dB. We developed new matching optics for the telescope beam as well as new IF chains for the four IF signals. The new receiver system was installed in the telescope, and we successfully observed the 12CO, 13CO and C18O emission lines simultaneously toward the Sagittarius B2 region to confirm the performance of the receiver system. The SSB noise temperature of the system, including the atmosphere, became approximately half of that of the previous receiver system. The Image Rejection Ratios (IRRs) of the two 2SB mixers were calculated from the 12CO and HCO+ spectra from the W51 giant molecular cloud, resulting in > 20 dB for one polarization and > 12 dB for the other polarization.Comment: 10 pages, 13 figures, Accepted for publication in PASJ, version with high resolution figures is available via http://www.nro.nao.ac.jp/library/report/list.htm