When Accurate Information Harms People

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered the generation of a large amount of information not just directly about the virus but also about its various societal impacts. This paper describes the atmosphere that the pandemic has created in the Japanese society and examines the information spread about infection clusters. Besides misinformation and disinformation, the paper highlights another problem in information dissemination during this pandemic. Regardless of the legitimate intention of reporting this type of information, people reacted by blaming or discriminating against those who were associated with clusters. The information on infection clusters has brought to the surface the privacy issues and has brought attention to emerging issues that concern information and media literacy. Understanding how people interact with information in a particular social or cultural setting, not just from an objective but also from an emotional perspective, becomes more important for enhancing people’s information literacy

Detection of vanadyl-nitrogen interaction in organs of the vanadyl-treated rat: electron spin echo envelope modulation study

AbstractESEEM spectroscopy was applied for the first time to organs of an animal, viz. the kidney and liver of the rat treated with vanadyl sulfate. The aim of this study is to investigate the in vivo coordination structure of vanadyl ions administrated, and to gain information concerning the insulin-mimic activity of vanadium. ESEEM measurements for kidney and liver performed at 77 K have established nitrogen coordination to a certain percentage of vanadyl ion in the organs. The rotios of nitrogen-coordinating vanadyl ion were estimated as 70–80% in the liver, and 50–55% in the kidney. Isotropic portions of the 14N HFC were estimated as |Aiso| ∼ 5.0 MHz for liver, and ∼ 5.2 MHz for kidney, indicating that the coordinating nitrogen is an amino nitrogen. Coordination of the Lys ϵ-amine or the N-terminal α-amine of a protein or (a peptide) to vanadyl ion in vivo is suggested

Experimental study of sulfur isotope exchange between S0(4)(2-) and H(2)S (aqueous) at 400℃ and 1000 bars water pressure

Experimental procedures used in this study are the same as those developed by Sakai and Dickson (1978). 0.005 M Na(2)S(2)O(3) solutions were heated to 400℃ under 1000 bar water pressure in a gold bag of Dickson gold-bag equipment (Fig. 1). At an elevated temperature Na(2)S(2)O(3) quickly and completely decomposed into 1:1 mixture of SO(4)(2-) and H(2)S (eq. (1)) and subsequent isotope exchange (eq. (2)) was monitored by consecutively withdrawing aliquots of solution for chemical and isotopic analyses at desired time intervals. For the preparation of SO(2) for isotope analyses, 2 to 5 mg BaSO(4) was thoroughly mixed with silica glass powder of 10 times the BaSO(4) in weight and heated to 1400℃ or so in sealed, evacuated silica glass tubings (see Fig. 2 and equation (4)). The technique is a modification of Holt and Engelkemeir (1971). The (18)O/(16)O ratios of SO(2) thus formed stayed constant by exchange with silica glass powder (Fig. 3). Numerical data of the three runs performed in this study are summarized in Tables 1 to 3. In runs 2 and 3, a small aliquot of (34)S- enriched H(2)SO(4) was added into the starting solution and thus equilibrium was approached from above the quilibrium value (see Fig. 4). When isotope exchange occurs between two molecules, X and Y, the reaction rate, r, is related to the extent of exchange, F, at given time, t, by equation (17), where X and Y indicate concentrations of given species, α(e), α(o) and α denote the　fractionation factor at equilibrium, at time　t=0 and at an arbitrary time t, and F = (α - α(o))/(α(e) - α(0)) or the extent of isotope exchange. Assuming the exchange rate is of the first order with respect to both X and Y and to the β'th power of hydrogen ion activity, a(H)(+), eq. (17) reduces to eq. (19), where k(1) denotes the rate constant. If X, Y and pH of solution stayed constant during the run, the half-time, t(1/2), of the exchange reaction can be obtained graphically as shown in Fig. 5. The t(1/2) for runs 1, 2, and 3 are determined to be 5.8, 5.5 and 6.1 hrs, respectively. Introducing F=0.5 and t=t(1/2) into eq. (19), we obtain eq. (20) which is graphically shown in Fig. 6 using the data by the present work and those by Sakai and Dickson(1978). The numerical values of log k(1) + 0.16 may be obtained by extrapolating the lines to pH=0 and, from these values, the rate constant, k(1) , may be calculated for temperatures of 300° and 400℃. From these two values of k(1) and from the Arrhenius plot, the activation energy of the exchange reaction was calculated to be 22 kcal/mole, a much smaller value than 55 kcal/mole obtained by Igumnov (1977). The value of β is found to be 0.29 at 300℃ and 0.075 at 400℃, although the physico-chemical nature of β is not clear to the present authors. Using these values, eq. (24), where C is a constant, is derived which would enable us to calculate the t(1/2) of any system of known ΣS and pH. However, as we do not know yet how β varies with different systems, eq. (24) is applicable only to limited systems in which temperature, total sulfur contents and pH are similar to those of the present study. Fig. 7 illustrates how t(1/2) varies with pH and total sulfur content at 300° and 400℃ and predicts t(1/2) for some solutions obtainable by hydrothermal reactions of seawater with various igneous rocks. The average equilibrium fractionation factor at 400℃ obtained by this study is 1.0153, in good accord with 1.0151 given by Igumnov et al. (1977). Theoretical fractionation factors between SO(4)(2-) and H(2)S have been calculated by Sakai (1968) , who gives too high values compared to the experimental data obtained by this and other researchers (Fig. 9). In the present study, the reduced partition function ratio (R.P.F.R.) of SO(4)(2-) was recalculated using two sets of the vibrational frequencies of SO(4)(2-) (shown in Table 5) and the valence force fields of Heath and Linnett (1947), which reproduces the observed frequencies of SO(4)(2-) better than Urey-Bradley force field used by Sakai (1968). The results of new calculation are shown in Table 6. This table also includes the R.P.F.R. of H(2)S which was calculated by Thode et al. (1971). Using these new R.P.F.R. of SO(4)(2-) and H(2)S, the fractionation factors between SO(4)(2-) and H(2)S were calculated and are listed in the last column of Table 6 and plotted in Fig. 9. Fig. 9 indicates that the new calculation gives values more shifted from the experimental values than before. The major sulfate ions in our solution at 300° and 400℃ exist as NaSO(4)(-) (Sakai and Dickson, 1978; see also Table 4 of this paper) and, therefore, the measured fractionation factors are those between NaSO(4)(-) and H(2)S. The discrepancy between the theory and experiments may, at least, be partially explained by this fact, although other more important reasons, which are not known to us at the moment, may also exist

Galectin-1はヒト口腔扁平上皮癌細胞のアノイキスを抑制する

In order to determine the factors that relate to anoikis of the human oral squamous cell carcinoma (hOSCC) cells, we tried to search the proteins using the HSC-3 cell with metastaticity and the HSC-2 cells without metastaticity. The HSC cells were cultured in a dish coated with poly-HEMA to prevent cell adhesion, and then the degree of cell death was examined. The ratio of cell death for HSC-2 cells was significantly higher than that for HSC-3 cells, and the result of TUNEL staining showed that the cell death was apoptosis. The level of anoikis in HSC-2 cells was notably higher than that in HSC-3 cells. The expression level of TrkB, caveolin-1, and galectin-3 genes that are known as factors related to anoikis was investigated by RT-PCR. There was no significant difference in the gene expression between HSC-2 and HSC-3 cells. Galectin-1 was found by the proteome analysis and the protein was expressed more strongly in the HSC-3 cells as compared with the HSC-2 cells. A similar result was obtained in the amount of the mRNA expression. The anoikis of HSC-3 cells was caused strongly by the addition of lactose that inhibits the binding of galectin-1 to the cell membrane. When recombinant-galectin-1 was added to the medium, the level of anoikis in HSC-2 cells was decreased significantly. From these results, it was suggested that galectin-1 is the factor that suppresses anoikis in hOSCC cells

Five-year quality of life assessment after carbon ion radiotherapy for prostate cancer

The aim of this study was to prospectively assess 5-year health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of patients treated with carbon ion radiotherapy (C-ion RT) for clinically localized prostate cancer. A total of 417 patients received carbon ion radiotherapy at a total dose of 63–66 Gray-equivalents (GyE) in 20 fractions over 5 weeks, and neoadjuvant and adjuvant androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) were administered for intermediate and high-risk patients. A HRQOL assessment was performed at five time points (immediately before the initiation of C-ion RT, immediately after, and at 12, 36 and 60 months after completion of C-ion RT) using Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT) questionnaires. FACT-G and FACT-P scores were significantly decreased; however, the absolute change after 60 months was minimal. The transient decreases in the Trial Outcome Index (TOI) score returned to their baseline levels. Use of ADT, presence of adverse events, and biochemical failure were related to lower scores. Scores of subdomains of FACT instruments indicated characteristic changes. The pattern of HRQOL change after C-ion RT was similar to that of other modalities. Further controlled studies focusing on a HRQOL in patients with prostate cancer are warranted

Significant impact of biochemical recurrence on overall mortality in patients with high-risk prostate cancer after carbon-ion radiotherapy combined with androgen deprivation therapy

BACKGROUNDWhether biochemical recurrence (BR) is a significant predictive factor of mortality after definitive radiation therapy for prostate cancer remains unknown. The aim of the current study was to investigate the relation between BR and overall mortality (OAM) in high-risk prostate cancer patients who were treated with carbon-ion radiotherapy (CIRT) and had long-term follow-up in 2 prospective trials.METHODSIn the 2 phase 2 clinical trials, which involved 466 prostate cancer patients who received 63.0 to 66.0 Gy of CIRT (relative biological effect) in 20 fractions between 2000 and 2007, 324 patients who were deemed to be at high risk on the basis of the modified D\u27Amico classification criteria and received CIRT along with androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) were examined. The OAM rate was adjusted for the ADT duration, and multivariate analyses using a Cox proportional hazards model were performed for OAM with BR as a time-dependent covariate.RESULTSThe median follow-up period was 107.4 months, and the 5- and 10-year OAM rates after adjustments for the ADT duration were 7.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 4.0%-9.4%) and 23.9% (95% CI, 16.4%-26.2%), respectively. A multivariate analysis revealed that the presence of BR (hazard ratio, 2.82; 95% Cl, 1.57-5.08; P = .001) was one of the predictive factors for OAM. On the other hand, the duration of ADT had no impact on OAM.CONCLUSIONSBR after CIRT combined with ADT is an independent predictive factor for OAM in high-risk prostate cancer patients. The results of this study could be applied to other high-dose radiation therapies