An Examination of Factors Affecting Japanese Tourism in Hawaii

The Japanese tourist market is a crucial component of the Hawaii tourism economy due to both market size and higher per capita expenditures in comparison with other key markets for the state. Over the past decade, annual Japanese tourist arrivals have decreased significantly off a peak in 1997. This study examines various supply and demand factors, which may be influencing Japanese tourist arrivals to Hawaii using regression analysis. Results show that five of eight variables significantly influence the monthly Japanese tourist numbers to Hawaii: monthly total Japanese overseas tourists, available air seats, average room rates, available room units, and change in security checking procedure. Meanwhile, three variables were not found to be significant influencers: mean monthly exchange rate ($/100 Yen), anti-smoking law, and airline fuel surcharges. These results do not support the anecdotes and conjectures about the decreasing number of Japanese tourists to Hawaii

An Examination of Factors Affecting Japanese Tourism in Hawaii

The Japanese tourist market is a crucial component of the Hawaii tourism economy due to both market size and higher per capita expenditures in comparison with other key markets for the state. Over the past decade, annual Japanese tourist arrivals have decreased significantly off a peak in 1997. This study examines various supply and demand factors, which may be influencing Japanese tourist arrivals to Hawaii using regression analysis. Results show that five of eight variables significantly influence the monthly Japanese tourist numbers to Hawaii: monthly total Japanese overseas tourists, available air seats, average room rates, available room units, and change in security checking procedure. Meanwhile, three variables were not found to be significant influencers: mean monthly exchange rate ($/100 Yen), anti-smoking law, and airline fuel surcharges. These results do not support the anecdotes and conjectures about the ecreasing number of Japanese tourists to Hawaii

A Novel Analytic Measure for the Water Maze Utilizing the Concept of Entropy

Pressure in various organs and body parts, such as blood vessels, heart, brain, eyes, bladder and GI tracts, is an important indication of health. Long term, continuous pressure monitoring is critically needed for a number of applications. When combined with existing neuro-prosthetics devices, they may provide better solutions to many neural disorders. First efforts toward a long term implantable pressure-monitoring system were initiated more than forty years ago. However, a reliable, safe and implantable pressure sensor for long-term applications is not yet commercially available. This paper attempts to reveal the design challenges associated with the development of a long-term implantable pressure sensor

Improved hematopoietic differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells via estrogen receptor signaling pathway

Additional file 2: Table S1. Temporal changes (%) of ER-Îą and hematopoietic phenotypes during hiPSC-derived hematopoietic differentiation

Genetic enhancement of behavioral itch responses in mice lacking phosphoinositide 3-kinase-γ (PI3Kγ)

Phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3Ks) are important for synaptic plasticity and various brain functions. The only class IB isoform of PI3K, PI3Kγ, has received the most attention due to its unique roles in synaptic plasticity and cognition. However, the potential role of PI3Kγ in sensory transmission, such as pain and itch has not been examined. In this study, we present the evidence for the first time, that genetic deletion of PI3Kγ enhanced scratching behaviours in histamine-dependent and protease-activated receptor 2 (PAR-2)-dependent itch. In contrast, PI3Kγ-deficient mice did not exhibit enhanced scratching in chloroquine-induced itch, suggesting that PI3Kγ selectively contributes to certain types of behavioal itch response. Furthermore, PI3Kγ-deficient mice exhibited normal acute nociceptive responses to thermal and mechanical noxious stimuli. Behavioral licking responses to intraplantar injections of formalin and mechanical allodynia in a chronic inflammatory pain model (CFA) were also not affected by PI3Kγ gene deletion. Our findings indicate that PI3Kγ selectively contributes to behavioral itching induced by histamine and PAR-2 agonist, but not chloroquine agonist

Elevated RalA activity in the hippocampus of PI3K gamma knock-out mice lacking NMDAR-dependent long-term depression

Phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3Ks) play key roles in synaptic plasticity and cognitive functions in the brain. We recently found that genetic deletion of PI3K gamma, the only known member of class IB PI3Ks, results in impaired N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor-dependent long-term depression (NMDAR-LTD) in the hippocampus. The activity of RalA, a small GTP-binding protein, increases following NMDAR-LTD inducing stimuli, and this increase in RalA activity is essential for inducing NMDAR-LTD. We found that RalA activity increased significantly in PI3K gamma knockout mice. Furthermore, NMDAR-LTD-inducing stimuli did not increase RalA activity in PI3K gamma knockout mice. These results suggest that constitutively increased RalA activity occludes further increases in RalA activity during induction of LTD, causing impaired NMDAR-LTD. We propose that PI3K gamma regulates the activity of RalA, which is one of the molecular mechanisms inducing NMDAR-dependent LTD.open1

Water Vapor Adsorption Capacity of Thermally Fluorinated Carbon Molecular Sieves for CO 2

The surfaces of carbon molecular sieves (CMSs) were thermally fluorinated to adsorb water vapor. The fluorination of the CMSs was performed at various temperatures (100, 200, 300, and 400°C) to investigate the effects of the fluorine gas (F2) content on the surface properties. Fluorine-related functional groups formed were effectively generated on the surface of the CMSs via thermal fluorination process, and the total pore volume and specific surface area of the pores in the CMSs increased during the thermal fluorination process, especially those with diameters ≤ 8 Å. The water vapor adsorption capacity of the thermally fluorinated CMSs increased compared with the as-received CMSs, which is attributable to the increased specific surface area and to the semicovalent bonds of the C–F groups

Impaired learning and memory in CD38 null mutant mice

CD38 is an enzyme that catalyzes the formation of cyclic ADP ribose and nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate, both of which are involved in the mobilization of Ca2+ from intracellular stores. Recently, CD38 has been shown to regulate oxytocin release from hypothalamic neurons. Importantly, CD38 mutations are associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and CD38 knockout (CD38(-/-)) mice display ASD-like behavioral phenotypes including deficient parental behavior and poor social recognition memory. Although ASD and learning deficits commonly co-occur, the role of CD38 in learning and memory has not been investigated. We report that CD38(-/-)mice show deficits in various learning and memory tasks such as the Morris water maze, contextual fear conditioning, and the object recognition test. However, either long-term potentiation or long-term depression is not impaired in the hippocampus of CD38(-/-)mice. Our results provide convincing evidence that CD38(-/-)mice show deficits in various learning and memory tasks including spatial and non-spatial memory tasks. Our data demonstrate that CD38 is critical for regulating hippocampus-dependent learning and memory without modulating synaptic plasticity.open1

Relationship between METS-IR and thyroid cancer incidence in Korea: a nationwide population-based study

BackgroundSeveral previous studies found a positive relationship between metabolic syndrome (MetS) and thyroid cancer (TC) risk. However, there is no research that has studied the relationship between the metabolic score for insulin resistance (METS-IR), a novel surrogate marker for IR, and TC incidence. Thus, we designed this retrospective cohort study to evaluate the relationship between the incidence of TC and METS-IR.MethodWe analyzed a cohort of 314,321 Korean adults aged over 40 years who participated in the National Health Screening Program from 2009 to 2010. The individuals were divided into four groups based on METS-IR quartiles. Follow-up was until the diagnosis of TC or death, or until December 31, 2019, if neither. The relationship between METS-IR and TC incidence was analyzed using the Cox proportional-hazards model with multi-variable adjustments.ResultsA total of 4,137 participants (1.3%) were diagnosed with TC during a mean follow-up of 9.5 ± 1.5 years. The population with Q1 METS-IR scores showed higher disease-free probabilities than those with Q4 METS-IR scores (p <0.001). The hazard ratio (95% confidential interval) for TC incidence in Q2, Q3, and Q4 METS-IR value were 1.14 (1.05 to 1.25), 1.21 (1.11 to 1.33), and 1.30 (1.18 to 1.42) compared with Q1 of METS-IR, respectively. The incidence of TC tended to increase with increasing METS-IR values in the total population, especially the male population in the restricted cubic spline. In subgroup analysis, the TC risk was more pronounced in the subgroups under 65 and with a BMI < 25 kg/m2.ConclusionMETS-IR was positively correlated with TC incidence in Korea