Galaxy Morphologies Revealed with Subaru HSC and Super-Resolution Techniques II: Environmental Dependence of Galaxy Mergers at z~2-5

We super-resolve the seeing-limited Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) images for 32,187 galaxies at z~2-5 in three techniques, namely, the classical Richardson-Lucy (RL) point spread function (PSF) deconvolution, sparse modeling, and generative adversarial networks to investigate the environmental dependence of galaxy mergers. These three techniques generate overall similar high spatial resolution images but with some slight differences in galaxy structures, for example, more residual noises are seen in the classical RL PSF deconvolution. To alleviate disadvantages of each technique, we create combined images by averaging over the three types of super-resolution images, which result in galaxy sub-structures resembling those seen in the Hubble Space Telescope images. Using the combined super-resolution images, we measure the relative galaxy major merger fraction corrected for the chance projection effect, f_merg, for galaxies in the ~300 deg^2-area data of the HSC Strategic Survey Program and the CFHT Large Area U-band Survey. Our f_merg measurements at z~3 validate previous findings showing that f_merg is higher in regions with a higher galaxy overdensity delta at z~2-3. Thanks to the large galaxy sample, we identify a nearly linear increase in f_merg with increasing delta at z~4-5, providing the highest-z observational evidence that galaxy mergers are related to delta. In addition to our f_merg measurements, we find that the galaxy merger fractions in the literature also broadly align with the linear f_merg-delta relation across a wide redshift range of z~2-5. This alignment suggests that the linear f_merg-delta relation can serve as a valuable tool for quantitatively estimating the contributions of galaxy mergers to various environmental dependences. This super-resolution analysis can be readily applied to datasets from wide field-of-view space telescopes such as Euclid and Roman.Comment: 29 pages, 13 figures, 6 tables. Submitted to PASJ. Comments welcom

Investigation of thyroid cancer cases that were not detected in the Thyroid Ultrasound Examination program of the Fukushima Health Management Survey but diagnosed at Fukushima Medical University Hospital

The Great East Japan Earthquake, which occurred on March 11, 2011, and its subsequent Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, prompted implementation of the Thyroid Ultrasound Examination (TUE) program as a part of the Fukushima Health Management Survey. The purpose of this program is to support residents of Fukushima Prefecture, and to analyze the health effects of the released radionuclides. Regardless of relatively high participation rates and a well-planned diagnostic flow, it is conceivable that not all thyroid cancer cases can be detected by the TUE program. The aims of the present study were to identify and characterize these "outside" cases, targeting patients at Fukushima Medical University (FMU) Hospital. As of June 30, 2017, we have successfully identified 11 outside cases. These corresponded to 5.7% of the 194 subjects who were identified as having thyroid cancer or suspected thyroid cancer in the TUE program. Although the outside subjects of other institutes were not investigated, the present study may have identified the majority of outside subjects in Japan, considering that FMU Hospital treats a large number of thyroid cancer subjects. Furthermore, the characteristics of the 11 subjects were not different from those of the subjects identified in the TUE program. These findings confirm that the TUE program was able to identify subjects of thyroid cancer adequately and sufficiently

Psychosocial support for the examinees and their families during the secondary confirmatory examination: Analyses of support records at first visit

Background and Purpose The Thyroid Ultrasound Examination (TUE) program is conducted as part of the Fukushima Health Management Survey. Following the established criteria, examinees are called in for a secondary confirmation examination, which may induce high anxiety related to a thyroid cancer for both the examinees and their families. Therefore, Fukushima Medical University created the Thyroid Support Team to reduce anxiety. The purpose of this study is to analyze the psychosocial support for examinees and their families through two types of records, and to clarify the current issues and determine future directions of support. Materials and methods We analyzed 223 records of support for the first visit of examinees who attended the secondary confirmatory examination, conducted at Fukushima Medical University from September 2018 to March 2019. Results During the first visit, frequent topics and questions brought up by the examinees and their families were about the "Thyroid Ultrasound Examination (TUE) program" and "Examination findings". The Thyroid Support Team members assisted them by "Responding to questions", "Confirming the doctor's explanation" and "Providing information". The percentage of people with high anxiety decreased in both examinees and their family members after the examination. The level of anxiety was lower among those who had already taken the secondary confirmatory examination. Family members' anxiety was significantly higher than that of the examinees, and anxiety levels were highly correlated between examinees and their families. Conclusion The psychosocial support for examinees and their families was important in reducing their anxiety. Currently there are changes in social conditions and various opinions concerning the TUE. Thus, careful explanation and the need for decision-making supports for the examinees and their families increased. Also, we should take into account the aging of the examinees and expanding the available psychosocial support

A prospective compound screening contest identified broader inhibitors for Sirtuin 1

Potential inhibitors of a target biomolecule, NAD-dependent deacetylase Sirtuin 1, were identified by a contest-based approach, in which participants were asked to propose a prioritized list of 400 compounds from a designated compound library containing 2.5 million compounds using in silico methods and scoring. Our aim was to identify target enzyme inhibitors and to benchmark computer-aided drug discovery methods under the same experimental conditions. Collecting compound lists derived from various methods is advantageous for aggregating compounds with structurally diversified properties compared with the use of a single method. The inhibitory action on Sirtuin 1 of approximately half of the proposed compounds was experimentally accessed. Ultimately, seven structurally diverse compounds were identified

Operation of a P300-based brain-computer interface by patients with spinocerebellar ataxia

Objective: We investigated the efficacy of a P300-based brain-computer interface (BCI) for patients with spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA), which is often accompanied by cerebellar impairment. Methods: Eight patients with SCA and eight age- and gender-matched healthy controls were instructed to input Japanese hiragana characters using the P300-based BCI with green/blue flicker. All patients depended on some assistance in their daily lives (modified Rankin scale: mean 3.5). The chief symptom was cerebellar ataxia; no cognitive deterioration was present. A region-based, two-step P300-based BCI was used. During the P300 task, eight-channel EEG data were recorded, and a linear discriminant analysis distinguished the target from other nontarget regions of the matrix. Results: The mean online accuracy in BCI operation was 82.9% for patients with SCA and 83.2% for controls; no significant difference was detected. Conclusion: The P300-based BCI was operated successfully not only by healthy controls but also by individuals with SCA. Significance: These results suggest that the P300-based BCI may be applicable for patients with SCA. Keywords: BCI, BMI, P300, Visual stimuli, Spinocerebellar ataxi