A Proposal of Color Image Processing Applications for Education

There are two main problems in the present style of education in which there are one teacher and many students in a class. The first problem is to improve communication between one teacher and many students in classes. The second problem is to realize personal education using IT systems. To solve the above two problems, we propose color image processing applications for education in this chapter. To improve communication between one teacher and many students, we realized automatic response analyzer that counts automatically students’ answers using color cards raised by students. The system is an easy-to-use simple system, which only consists of a PC, web cameras, and color cards. The recognition rate was 98% in brighter class and 93% in darker class. To realize automatic personal education, we realized two interactive IT systems using color image recognition. First, we realized color learning system with color analysis functions. Using the system, students can learn color distribution in 3D color space for their selected images. Second, we realized visual programming system that judges automatically the correctness of the graphical image output by student program. If the student’s output image is not correct, the system can point out the wrong part in the output image

Gesture imitation performance in community-dwelling older people: assessment of a gesture imitation task in the screening and diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment and dementia

Takasaki A., Hashimoto M., Fukuhara R., et al. Gesture imitation performance in community-dwelling older people: assessment of a gesture imitation task in the screening and diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Psychogeriatrics 24, 404 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1111/psyg.13086.Background: Gesture imitation, a simple tool for assessing visuospatial/visuoconstructive functions, is reportedly useful for screening and diagnosing dementia. However, gesture imitation performance in healthy older adults is largely unknown, as are the factors associated with lower performance. To address these unknowns, we examined the gesture imitation performance of a large number of community-dwelling older adults aged ≥65 years in Arao City, Kumamoto Prefecture (southern Japan). Methods: The examiner presented the participants with eight gesture patterns and considered it a success if they could imitate them within 10 s. The success rate of each gesture imitation was calculated for three diagnostic groups: cognitively normal (CN) (n = 1184), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (n = 237), and dementia (n = 47). Next, we reorganised the original gesture imitation battery by combining six selected gestures with the following scoring method: if the participants successfully imitated the gestures, immediately or within 5 s, two points were assigned. If they succeeded within 5–10 s, one point was assigned. The sensitivity and specificity of the battery were investigated to detect the dementia and MCI groups. Factors associated with gesture imitation battery scores were examined. Results: Except one complex gesture, the success rate of imitation in the CN group was high, approximately 90%. The sensitivity and specificity of the gesture imitation battery for discriminating between the dementia and CN groups and between the MCI and CN groups were 70%/88%, and 45%/75%, respectively. Ageing, male sex, and a diagnosis of dementia or MCI were associated with lower scores on the gesture imitation battery. Conclusion: Gesture imitation tasks alone may not be sufficient to detect MCI. However, by combining gestures with set time limits, gesture imitation tasks can be a low-burden and effective method for detecting dementia, even in community medicine, such as during health check-ups

A Case of Inoperable Duodenal Cancer Achieving Long-Term Survival after Multidisciplinary Treatment

A 50-year-old female became aware of skin yellowing and consulted another hospital where she was diagnosed intraoperatively with duodenal cancer because of lymph node metastases around the aorta. Endoscopy revealed type IIa + IIc cancer distal to the duodenal papilla, and biopsy allowed a diagnosis of well-differentiated adenocarcinoma. Computed tomography revealed a large number of lymph node metastases around the aorta and in the left supraclavicular cavity. The patient was given many regimens of chemotherapy, mainly containing S-1, and multidisciplinary treatment, and achieved long-term survival for 6 years and 1 month. This is a valuable case suggesting the usefulness of this therapeutic approach. In view of the fact that duodenal cancer is a relatively rare disease and the possibility that the incidence of this disease may increase in the future, it seems essential to collect additional data from multicenter prospective studies towards the goal of establishing a standard method of treatment for this disease

Magnifying Endoscopy with Blue Laser Imaging Improves the Microstructure Visualization in Early Gastric Cancer: Comparison of Magnifying Endoscopy with Narrow-Band Imaging

Backgrounds. Magnifying endoscopy with blue laser imaging (ME-BLI) for diagnosis of early gastric cancer (EGC) is as effective as magnifying endoscopy with narrow-band imaging (ME-NBI). However, there are different EGCs in microstructure visualization between ME-BLI and ME-NBI. This study aimed to clarify the pathological features of the EGCs, in which microstructure visualization was different between ME-NBI and ME-BLI. Methods. EGCs were classified into groups A (irregular microsurface pattern (MSP) in ME-BLI and absent MSP in ME-NBI), B (irregular MSP in two modalities), or C (absent MSP in two modalities), according to the vessel plus surface classification. We compared the pathological features of EGCs between the three groups. Results. 17, four, and five lesions could be evaluated in detail in groups A, B and C, respectively. Well-differentiated adenocarcinomas with shallow crypts were more frequent in group A than in group B (58.8 and 0%, resp.). The mean crypt depth of group A was significantly shallower than that of group B (56 ± 20, 265 ± 64 μm, resp., P=0.0002). Conclusions. ME-BLI could better visualize the microstructures of the EGCs with shallow crypts compared with ME-NBI. Therefore, ME-BLI could enable a more accurate diagnosis of EGC with shallow crypts

Clinical background factors as predictors of the efficacy of 5-aminosalicylic acid suppositories in patients with ulcerative colitis

Introduction: Although the efficacy of 5-aminosalicylic acid (ASA) suppositories for ulcerative colitis (UC) has been reported in many studies, many studies have also described poor adherence to 5-ASA suppository regimens. We aimed to identify the clinical background factors that influence adherence to 5-ASA suppositories to improve adherence and efficacy of the treatment. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 61 patients with active UC who were using 5-ASA suppositories. All patients underwent endoscopy and rectal biopsy for histological diagnosis prior to 5-ASA suppository treatment. The efficacy of 5-ASA suppository treatment was compared in relation to clinical background factors (sex, age, disease duration, disease type, clinical activity, Ulceratve colitis Endoscopic Index of Severity, histological activity, serum C-reactive protein level, concomitant use of immunomodulators, history of steroid use, and dose of oral 5-ASA). Results: The efficacy of 5-ASA suppositories was significantly related to low Lichtiger Colitis Activity Index (LCAI) scores and proctitis type prior to its use. In terms of sex, females tended to show higher efficacy. Multivariate logistic regression analysis using these three factors showed high predictive value for the efficacy of 5-ASA suppositories (AUC, 0.788; sensitivity, 87.2%; and specificity, 63.7%). Discussion/Conclusion: This study is the first to extract clinical background factors for predicting the efficacy of 5-ASA suppositories. The use of 5-ASA suppositories in patients who are expected to show efficacy will be effective in improving patient co-operation

The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection