Proactive or Reactive? Platform Governance Strategy in C2C Marketplace

In this paper, we present a case study of two major consumer-to-consumer marketplaces that adopt different platform governance strategies and examine how the users of each marketplace trust other users and the marketplace platforms. Our study was conducted in two steps: qualitative and quantitative research. As a first step, we conducted interviews with the directors of the two platforms. As the second step, we conducted user survey to assess the user perception of platform governance strategies. The preliminary finding from our interview with the operators of two major C2C marketplaces shows that the both operators acknowledge an effective governance system as the key factor of success, but adopt different approaches to ensure effectiveness. Two different strategies for platform governance are adopted: proactive and reactive. The preliminary finding from our user survey indicates that users perceive a reactive strategy as more effective compared to a proactive strategy

Nuclear spin relaxation at ultralow temperatures

Nuclear spin relaxation induced by hyperfine coupling is studied theoretically at positive and negative submicrokelvin temperatures. By avoiding the assumption of the high-temperature limit, adopted in conventional theories, we derive a formula in which the relaxation rate is expressed in terms of thermal averages of nuclear spin energies. The exchange interaction induces an asymmetry in the energy spectrum, which leads to relaxation rates that depend on whether the nuclear spin temperature is positive or negative. High-temperature expansion methods and Monte Carlo simulations are applied to explain the anomalous results by Hakonen et al. in rhodium qualitatively.Peer reviewe

Surgery for Sleep-Disordered Breathing

We evaluated the outcomes of nasal surgery for sleep-disordered breathing, including obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), respiratory effort-related arousal, and snoring. To reduce pharyngeal negative pressure during sleep, the nasal parasympathetic nerve was resected, and the nasal cavity was enlarged by submucosal inferior turbinectomy and septoplasty if necessary. Of the 45 severe OSAS patients, symptoms were significantly ameliorated in 67%. This low-invasiveness nasal operation effectively reduced excessive daytime sleepiness and bothersome snoring without any pharyngeal operation. In addition, no side effects have been reported to be associated with this treatment regimen

A new method for registrationbased medical image interpolation

Abstract—A new technique is presented for interpolating between grey-scale images in a medical data set. Registration between neighboring slices is achieved with a modified control grid interpolation algorithm that selectively accepts displacement field updates in a manner optimized for performance. A cubic interpolator is then applied to pixel intensities correlated by the displacement fields. Special considerations are made for efficiency, interpolation quality, and compression in the implementation of the algorithm. Experimental results show that the new method achieves good quality, while offering dramatic improvement in efficiency relative to the best competing method. Index Terms—Interpolation, reconstruction, registration. I

Patients After the Fontan Insights From Computational Fluid Dynamics

Reprints: Information about reprints can be found online a

Posterior Cervical Intramuscular Schwannoma Within the Trapezius Muscle: A Case Report

Schwannomas are benign soft tissue tumors derived from the Schwann cells of the peripheral nerves. An intramuscular schwannoma arising within the trapezius muscle in the posterior neck is rare. We report a case of a 31-year-old woman with an intramuscular schwannoma in the trapezius muscle. A painless and smooth-surfaced mass from 10 years ago was evident on palpation in the right posterior neck. Ultrasonography revealed an oval mass with clear borders and slight internal blood flow. No continuous hypoechoic lesions were noted at the tip of the mass. Magnetic resonance imaging of the neck revealed a mass in the right posterior cervical trapezius muscle with isointensity on T1-weighted imaging and heterointensity on T2-weighted imaging. Based on these findings, a schwannoma was suspected. Ultrasonography guided fine needle aspiration cytology revealed no significant findings. During surgery, a white-colored, encapsulated-tumor mass was found in the trapezius muscle. Histopathologically, hypocellular and hypercellular areas of fusiform cells were conspicuous, and nuclear palisading was observed in a part of the hypercellular region, confirming the diagnosis of schwannoma. To our knowledge, this is an extremely rare report of an intramuscular schwannoma within the trapezius muscle; herein, we report its clinical, radiological, and pathological features

Parotid Gland Non-Sebaceous Lymphadenoma: A Case Report

We here report a rare salivary gland tumor, a non-sebaceous lymphadenoma (NSLA), in the parotid gland with positive technetium-99m (99mTc) pertechnetate scintigraphy and cervical masses that was difficult to distinguish from malignant lymphoma preoperatively. A 65-year-old Japanese woman presented to our institution with a painless left parotid mass that had been gradually enlarging for three months. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging showed a solid mass (30 mm) in the tail of the left parotid gland with three swellings (each 10 mm) on the periphery of the parotid gland. A low grade malignant lymphoma was diagnosed by fine needle aspiration cytology. Gallium-67 scintigraphy showed mild positivity. On 99mTc pertechnetate scintigraphy, the mild accumulation remained after oral stimulation with a mixture of ascorbic acid and calcium pantothenate. The patient underwent superficial parotidectomy with removal of the cervical masses. Our findings in this patient suggest that 99mTc positivity may constitute a clue to the preoperative diagnosis of NSLA that has pathologically overlapping sites with Warthin tumor

Investigation of drugs for the prevention of doxorubicin-induced cardiac events using big data analysis

Aim: Doxorubicin, an anthracycline anti-tumour agent, is an essential chemotherapeutic drug; however, the adverse events associated with doxorubicin usage, including cardiotoxicity, prevent patients from continuing treatment. Here, we used databases to explore existing approved drugs with potential preventative effects against doxorubicin-induced cardiac events and examined their efficacy and mechanisms. Methods: The Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), Library of Integrated Network-based Cellular Signatures (LINCS), and Food and Drug Administration Adverse Events Reporting System (FAERS) databases were used to extract candidate prophylactic drugs. Mouse models of doxorubicin-induced cardiac events were generated by intraperitoneal administration of 20 mg/kg of doxorubicin on Day 1 and oral administration of prophylactic candidate drugs for 6 consecutive days beginning the day before doxorubicin administration. On Day 6, mouse hearts were extracted and examined for mRNA expression of apoptosis-related genes. Results: GEO analysis showed that doxorubicin administration upregulated 490 genes and downregulated 862 genes, and LINCS data identified sirolimus, verapamil, minoxidil, prednisolone, guanabenz, and mosapride as drugs capable of counteracting these genetic alterations. Examination of the effects of these drugs on cardiac toxicity using FAERS identified sirolimus and mosapride as new prophylactic drug candidates. In model mice, mosapride and sirolimus suppressed the Bax/Bcl-2 mRNA ratio, which is elevated in doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity. These drugs also suppressed the expression of inflammatory cytokines Il1b and Il6 and markers associated with myocardial fibrosis, including Lgal3 and Timp1. Conclusion: These findings suggest that doxorubicin-induced cardiac events are suppressed by the administration of mosapride and sirolimus

Predictive value of expression of p16INK4A, retinoblastoma and p53 proteins for the prognosis of non-small-cell lung cancers

The predictive value of expression of p16INK4A, retinoblastoma (Rb) and p53 proteins for prognosis was evaluated in 76 patients with non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) that were potentially curatively resected between 1990 and 1995, using the results of immunostaining analyses of these proteins as reported in our previous study (Kinoshita et al, 1996). Of these NSCLCs, 22 (29%) lacked p16 protein expression and eight (11%) Rb protein, while 30 (39%) showed positive (altered) p53 protein expression. Survival of patients with p16-negative tumours was not significantly different from that of patients with p16-positive tumours (5-year survival rates 67% and 72% respectively, P = 0.8), nor was survival of patients with Rb-negative tumours significantly different from that of patients with Rb-positive tumours (5-year survival rates 42% and 69% respectively, P = 0.9). Moreover, survival of patients with p16/Rb-negative (either p16- or Rb-negative) tumours was not significantly different from that of patients with p16/Rb-positive (both p16- and Rb-positive) tumours (5-year survival rates 67% and 68% respectively, P = 0.7). In contrast, survival of patients with p53-positive (altered) tumours tended to be shorter than that of patients with p53-negative (unaltered) tumours (5-year survival rates 56% and 78% respectively, P = 0.06). In univariate analysis of potential prognostic factors, p16, Rb and p16/Rb proteins were not significant prognostic factors in the present cohort of potentially curatively resected NSCLCs. Altered p53 protein status tended to be a negative prognostic factor (P = 0.06 by the univariate analysis). These results indicate that loss of p16 protein alone, or in combination with loss of Rb protein, does not predict the clinical outcome of patients with resected NSCLCs. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaig

La cité scientifique de Tsukuba gagnée par l'obsolescence

Togo Tsukuhara, Hiroumi Ayabé The Scientific City of Tsukuba overcome by obsolescence A concentration of universities and research labs outside of Tokyo, Tsukuba became a kind of New Town with a population of close to 200,000. Its development saw the technological overheating phase of the 1980s, then its melt down during the economic crisis that followed. The fusion between fundamental and applied research in separate, small, entities now brings the entire image and future of Tsukuba into question.Concentration d'universités et de laboratoires de recherche hors de Tokyo, Tsukuba est devenue une sorte de ville nouvelle de près de 200 000 habitants. Son implantation a connu la phase d'emballement technologique des années 1980 puis son repli lors de la crise économique. La fusion entre recherche fondamentale et appliquée dans de petites unités disséminées remet en cause l'image et l'avenir de Tsukuba.Tsukuhara Tôgo, Ayabé Hiroumi. La cité scientifique de Tsukuba gagnée par l'obsolescence. In: Les Annales de la recherche urbaine, N°98, 2005. Les visages de la ville nouvelle. pp. 153-158