Locomotive syndrome presents a risk for falls and fractures in the elderly Japanese population

Abstract“Locomotive syndrome” is used to designate the condition of individuals with musculoskeletal disease who are highly likely to require nursing care. This article reviews screening, prevalence, causal and related factors, and the relationship between locomotive syndrome and falls and fractures in older adults with this syndrome. A few self-administered questionnaire tools are available to assess individuals for locomotive syndrome. Additionally, screening methods, including a physical functioning assessment, are appropriate for detailed discrimination of locomotive syndrome. The prevalence of locomotive syndrome is significantly higher in women than in men, and tends to increase markedly from 70 years of age. More severe locomotive syndrome is related to knee pain, osteoporosis, sarcopenia, and lumbar disease. The incidence of falling in locomotive syndrome is higher than the incidence for the older population in general. Locomotive training including squats and a unipedal standing exercise has been recommending to prevent locomotive syndrome. This training improves muscle strength and balance function for older people who have a risk for locomotive syndrome

The Benefits of Clamping the Renal Artery in Laparoscopic Partial Nephrectomy

The purpose of this study is to compare the performance of laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN) with and without clamping of the renal artery and to evaluate the impact of clamping on postoperative renal function. A total of 20 patients underwent LPN, 13 without and 7 with clamping of the renal artery. The 2 groups were compared with respect to complications, blood loss, operative time, mean tumor size, and incidence of positive margins. Renal function was evaluated by pre- and postoperative renal scintigraphy using 99mTechnetium-mercaptoacetyltriglycine (99mTc-MAG3). Intraoperative blood loss was significantly higher in the group without clamping than in the group with clamping (p0.04). In the group with clamping, the median warm ischemic time was 35min (range 25-40min). The serum creatinine values and the renal scintigraphy showed no influence on postoperative renal function with or without clamping. In the group without clamping, 2 cases were showed positive surgical margins. The procedure performed with clamping of the renal artery is superior to the procedure performed without clamping as it provides the advantages of controlling hemorrhaging without injury to renal function and prolonging the surgical time and allowing for more accurate resection of renal tumors.</p

Prognostic Factors Influencing Survival after ephroureterectomy for Transitional Cell Carcinoma of the Upper Urinary Tract

We analyzed the prognostic factors influencing survival after surgeries for upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma (UUT-UC) with longer follow-up periods than in previous studies. Between January 2000 and December 2004, 386 patients underwent nephroureterectomy for UUT-UC. The data for the 221 patients with UUT-UC were retrospectively reviewed. Nine variables were evaluated for association with the survival outcomes of cause-specific survival. The prognostic significance was tested univariately with the log-rank test. The simultaneous effects of multiple prognostic factors were estimated by multiple regression analysis using the Cox proportional hazards model. The median follow-up was 38.4 months. The 5-year over all survival was 62.3%. Significant prognostic factors for disease-specific survival rate on univariate analysis were pathological stage (p0.0001), tumor grade (p0.0324), and venous invasion (p0.0001). Multivariate analysis revealed that only venous invasion was significant for disease-specific survival rate (p0.0205). Venous invasion was the only independent prognostic factor in pathologically localized UUT-UC

Two Cases of Unilateral Ashy Dermatosis

Ashy dermatosis is a typically asymptomatic disease of unknown origin that causes symmetrical gray spots to appear on the trunk and extremities. We report 2 cases of ashy dermatosis with unilateral distribution. To our knowledge, only 5 cases of ashy dermatosis with unilateral lesion have been reported so far. Case 1: an 11-year-old woman presented with asymptomatic slate-gray pigmented plaques on the left trunk and left upper arm. The skin biopsy specimen demonstrated a mild lymphohistiocytotic infiltrate in the upper dermis with epidermal and dermal melanosis. Q-Switched ruby laser did not improve such lesions. Case 2: a 21-year-old man was referred to our hospital because of asymptomatic slate-gray pigmented plaques on the left trunk and left upper arm. Histopathological findings were compatible with a mild lymphocytic infiltration with melanin incontinence in the upper dermis. The mechanism that governs unilateral distribution of ashy dermatosis, including in our cases, remains unclear

A Non-Humanoid Robot in the “Uncanny Valley”: Experimental Analysis of the Reaction to Behavioral Contingency in 2–3 Year Old Children

Infants' sensitivity to social or behavioral contingency has been examined in the field of developmental psychology and behavioral sciences, mainly using a double video paradigm or a still face paradigm. These studies have shown that infants distinguish other individuals' contingent behaviors from non-contingent ones. The present experiment systematically examined if this ability extends to the detection of non-humanoids' contingent actions in a communicative context. We examined two- to three-year-olds' understanding of contingent actions produced by a non-humanoid robot. The robot either responded contingently to the actions of the participants (contingent condition) or programmatically reproduced the same sequence of actions to another participant (non-contingent condition). The results revealed that the participants exhibited different patterns of response depending on whether or not the robot responded contingently. It was also found that the participants did not respond positively to the contingent actions of the robot in the earlier periods of the experimental sessions. This might reflect the conflict between the non-humanlike appearance of the robot and its humanlike contingent actions, which presumably led the children to experience the uncanny valley effect

Measurement of Local Plastic Deformation in Aluminum Alloy by Means of X-ray 3D Imaging Technique

AbstractTo understand the local deformation behavior is very important for improvement of deformability in aluminum alloys which possess poor deformation limit in comparison with steels. However, measurement of local deformation in the interior of metal is not sufficiently carried out. In this study, the development of local plastic strain is measured by means of X-ray 3D imaging technique, i.e. high-resolution synchrotron X-ray microtomography. The marker tracking method, which is based on 3D image processing in volumetric image, is developed for obtaining local strains in 3D. Deformation behaviour is particularly different in individual grains. It was found that grains with different orientations deform maintaining harmony by shear deformation