Current trends and issues of COVID-19 in Tokushima

Since the first positive case of COVID-19 in Tokushima Prefecture was confirmed on February 25, 2020, a total of more than 160,000 positive cases have been reported in the past three years. Tokushima prefectural government established the “Tokushima Prefecture COVID-19 Hospitalization Coordination Headquarters” on April 1, 2020. Coordination of hospitalization at priority medical institutions that respond to hospitalization, admission to accommodation treatment facilities, home treatment, etc., and with the cooperation of related organizations including Tokushima Prefectural Medical Association, Tokushima Prefectural Nursing Association, Tokushima Prefectural Pharmacists Association, etc., we have been responding with “All Tokushima” for more than three years. We report on the outline presented at the 266th Tokushima Medical Society “Joint Symposium“ Current Status and Countermeasures for COVID-19”” on February 12, 2023

A Rare Case of Idiopathic Spinal Cord Herniation Treated by DuraGen® Collagen Matrix Graft

We report a rare case of idiopathic spinal cord herniation (ISCH) with a history of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leakage. ISCH is a protrusion of the spinal cord through a dural defect. Thin constructive interference in steady-state (CISS) images clearly demonstrated the herniated cord in the present case. The myelopathy worsened and the patient underwent surgery for reduction of herniated spinal cord; the dural defect was filled by placing collagen matrix graft (DuraGen®) between the inner and outer dural layers. The patient’s symptoms have improved without relapse for 8 months since surgery. This method may be a good surgical option for cases of spinal cord herniation

Effects of interferon-α and γ on development of LAK activity from mononuclear cells in breast cancer patients

We examined the effect of recombinant IFN-α and IFN-γ on induction of LAK cells from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNCs) in 7 pre-operative breast cancer patients and 4 healthy volunteers. Significant LAK activity was developed from PBMNCs of pre-operative breast cancer patients and healthy volunteers after incubation for 4 days with IL-2 (presence of IL-2 vs. absence of IL-2). Incubation of PBMNCs of pre-operative breast cancer patients with 1000 U/ml of IFN-α for 4 days suppressed the LAK activity significantly (P<0.05). By contrast, incubation of PBMNCs of pre-operative patients with 1000 U/ml of IFN-γ for 4 days increased the LAK activity significantly (P<0.05). Significant cytotoxicity againstMCF-7 cells (estrogen receptor positive human breast cancer cell line) was developed from PBMNCs of pre-operative breast cancer patients at 20:1and 40:1E/T ratios after incubation for 4days with IL-2 (absence of IL-2vs. 20:1or40:1, P<0.05, P<0.05), whereas PBMNCs of healthy volunteers did not. Stimulation of LAK cells with IFN-γ produced a significant augmentation of cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 (P<0.05), while IFN-α suppressed the cytotoxicity significantly (P<0.05). These findings suggested that combined stimulation by IFN-γ and IL-2 might be a reasonable treatment for breast cancer patients

Control and visualization system for managed self-organization network.

Abstract-We propose the managed self-organizing network concept considering the unexpected network changes caused by the future applications, and implement the control and visualization system for it. In the managed self-organizing network, multiple virtual networks are accommodated on a single optical infrastructure. Each virtual network is controlled based on self-organizing mechanism by attractor selection algorithm that models behavior where living organisms adapt to unknown changes in their surrounding environments. On the other hand, the physical resource management server dynamically manages the resource allocation for each virtual network to optimize the utilization of total network resources. Our implemented system efficiently visualizes the behavior of managed self-organizing network with time variability, and network filtering and clustering functions are implemented for visualization of large and multiple virtual networks. Index Terms-managed self-organizing network, network virtualizatio

Cold Dark Matter detection in SUSY models at large tan(beta)

We study the direct detection rate for SUSY cold dark matter (CDM) predicted by the minimal supersymmetric standard model with universal boundary conditions and large values for tan(beta). The relic abundance of the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), assumed to be approximately a bino, is obtained by including its coannihilations with the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP), which is the lightest s-tau. The cosmological constraint on this quantity severely limits the allowed SUSY parameter space, especially in the case the CP-even Higgs has mass of around 114 GeV. We find that for large tan(beta) it is possible to find a subsection of the allowed parameter space, which yields detectable rates in the currently planned experiments.Comment: Changes in text and figure

Study of the causes of higher mortality rates from chronic liver diseases in Tokushima Prefecture

Mortality rates from chronic liver diseases (CLD) such as liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma have been reported to be higher in Tokushima prefecture, although its causes remain unclear. To clarify the causes of CLD in Tokushima prefecture, we evaluated the positive rates of HBs antigen and anti-HCV antibody and the mortality rates from CLD in patients with liver diseases and blood donors after dividing the entire Tokushima prefecture into 8 district boundaries of health centers. In addition, to evaluate the causes of the higher frequency of CLD and the relationship between the development of CLD and viruses, medical examinations were performed in 2 mountain villages in Tokushima prefecture where the drift of population was limited and the mortality rates from CLD differed from each other. As a result, it was found that HCV infection was the major cause of the higher mortality rates from CLD in Tokushima prefecture. Although there were marked regional differences in the mortality rates from CLD, they were mainly due to different rates of HCV infection

Modulation effect in the differential rate for Supersymmetric Dark Matter detection

The modulation effect in the direct detection of supersymmetric Cold Dark Matter (CDM) particles is investigated. It is shown that, while normally the modulation effect in the total event rate is small, $\leq 5$, in some special cases it becomes much larger. It also becomes more pronounced in the differential event rate. It may thus be exploited to discriminate against background.Comment: 17 LATEX pages, 4 Tables, 4 PostScript Figures included. Phys. Rev. D, to be publishe

The modulation effect for supersymmetric dark matter detection with asymmetric velocity dispersion

The detection of the theoretically expected dark matter is central to particle physics cosmology. Current fashionable supersymmetric models provide a natural dark matter candidate which is the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). Such models combined with fairly well understood physics like the quark substructure of the nucleon and the nuclear form factor and the spin response function of the nucleus, permit the evaluation of the event rate for LSP-nucleus elastic scattering. The thus obtained event rates are, however, very low or even undetectable. So it is imperative to exploit the modulation effect, i.e. the dependence of the event rate on the earth's annual motion. In this review we study such a modulation effect in directional and undirectional experiments. We calculate both the differential and the total rates using symmetric as well as asymmetric velocity distributions. We find that in the symmetric case the modulation amplitude is small, less than 0.07. There exist, however, regions of the phase space and experimental conditions such that the effect can become larger. The inclusion of asymmetry, with a realistic enhanced velocity dispersion in the galactocentric direction, yields the bonus of an enhanced modulation effect, with an amplitude which for certain parameters can become as large as 0.46.Comment: 35 LATEX pages, 7 Tables, 8 PostScript Figures include

Searching for Supersymmetric Dark Matter - The Directional Rate and the Modulation Effect Due to Caustic Rings

The detection of the theoretically expected dark matter is central to particle physics and cosmology. Current fashionable supersymmetric models provide a natural dark matter candidate which is the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). The allowed parameter space of such models combined with fairly well understood physics (quark substructure of the nucleon and nuclear structure) permit the evaluation of the event rate for LSP-nucleus elastic scattering. The thus obtained event rates, which sensitively depend on the allowed parameter space parameters, are usually very low or even undetectable. So, for background reduction, one would like to exploit two nice features of the reaction, the directional rate, which depends on the sun's direction of motion and the modulation effect, i.e. the dependence of the event rate on the earth's annual motion. In the present paper we study these phenomena in a specific class of non isothermal models, which take into account the late in-fall of dark matter into our galaxy, producing flows of caustic rings. We find that the modulation effect arising from such models is smaller than that found previously with isothermal symmetric velocity distributions and much smaller compared to that obtained using a realistic asymmetric distribution with enhanced dispersion in the galactocentric direction.Comment: 31 LATEX pages, 2 tables and 1 figure included. Accepted for publication in Physical Review