Concentration and uptake of taurine in umbilical blood platelets.

The concentration and uptake of taurine in the umbilical and adult blood platelets were studied. Taurine was the most abundant free amino acid in both umbilical and adult blood platelets. The taurine concentration in umbilical blood platelets (2.30 pmoles/10(4) cells) was significantly lower than that of adult blood platelets (3.27 pmoles/10(4) cells) in contrast to the reverse relationship in taurine concentrations in umbilical and adult blood plasma. No other amino acid showed such significant difference in the concentrations between umbilical and adult blood platelets. Taurine uptake into umbilical blood platelets was temperature sensitive and sodium-dependent in a manner similar to that of adult blood platelets. The uptake conformed well to Hanes-plot. The Vmax of the uptake into adult blood platelets was about 3.6 times higher than that of umbilical blood platelets, but no significant difference was seen in the Km value between the two groups.</p

Deep Learning Predicts Rapid Over-softening and Shelf Life in Persimmon Fruits

In contrast to the progress in the research on physiological disorders relating to shelf life in fruit crops, it has been difficult to non-destructively predict their occurrence. Recent high-tech instruments have gradually enabled non-destructive predictions for various disorders in some crops, while there are still issues in terms of efficiency and costs. Here, we propose application of a deep neural network (or simply deep learning) to simple RGB images to predict a severe fruit disorder in persimmon, rapid over-softening. With 1,080 RGB images of ‘Soshu’ persimmon fruits, three convolutional neural networks (CNN) were examined to predict rapid over-softened fruits with a binary classification and the date to fruit softening. All of the examined CNN models worked successfully for binary classification of the rapid over-softened fruits and the controls with > 80% accuracy using multiple criteria. Furthermore, the prediction values (or confidence) in the binary classification were correlated to the date to fruit softening. Although the features for classification by deep learning have been thought to be in a black box by conventional standards, recent feature visualization methods (or “explainable” deep learning) has allowed identification of the relevant regions in the original images. We applied Grad-CAM, Guided backpropagation, and layer-wise relevance propagation (LRP), to find early symptoms for CNNs classification of rapid over-softened fruits. The focus on the relevant regions tended to be on color unevenness on the surface of the fruit, especially in the peripheral regions. These results suggest that deep learning frameworks could potentially provide new insights into early physiological symptoms of which researchers are unaware

How to plan and conduct Japanese history lesson aiming to promote historical inquiry: A case of “Sekkanseiji To Insei”

This study proposes the Japanese history lesson plan integrating active historical inquiry by student themselves. Historical inquiry has been regarded as an important strategy to history education fostering democratic citizenship. However, the previous studies in Japan did not seem to clarify the characteristics of historical inquiry and how to apply in the classroom because most of them focused only on the motivation of students. We established the three principles to develop the lesson plan; 1） Procedural concepts are shown to the students explicitly; 2） Various resources is necessary for making diverse historical resources; 3）various activities for promoting active learning by students should be prepared. After conducting the lessons, we found that students actively engaged the class and develop their own historical interpretation. At the end of study, we proposed the future possibilities for bigger reform of history curriculum

Optical Coherence Tomography Analysis of Attenuated Plaques Detected by Intravascular Ultrasound in Patients with Acute Coronary Syndromes

Background. Recent intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) studies have demonstrated that hypoechoic plaque with deep ultrasound attenuation despite absence of bright calcium is common in acute coronary syndrome. Such “attenuated plaque” may be an IVUS characteristic of unstable lesion. Methods. We used optical coherence tomography (OCT) in 104 patients with unstable angina to compare lesion characteristics between IVUS-detected attenuated plaque and nonattenuated plaque. Results. IVUS-detected attenuated plaque was observed in 41 (39%) patients. OCT-detected lipidic plaque (88% versus 49%, P < 0.001), thin-cap fibroatheroma (48% versus 16%, P < 0.001), plaque rupture (44% versus 11%, P < 0.001), and intracoronary thrombus (54% versus 17%, P < 0.001) were more often seen in IVUS-detected attenuated plaques compared with nonattenuated plaques. Conclusions. IVUS-detected attenuated plaque has many characteristics of unstable coronary lesion. The presence of attended plaque might be an important marker of lesion instability

Repression of factor VIII inhibitor development with apoptotic factor VIII-expressing embryonic stem cells

Development of factor VIII (fVIII)-neutralizing antibodies, called inhibitors, is a challenging problem in the management of hemophilia A patients. We explored the possibility of pretreatment with apoptotic fVIII-expressing embryonic stem (ES) cells to prevent the development of fVIII inhibitors. Murine ES cells integrated with the human F8 gene were differentiated into embryoid bodies, dissociated to a single cell suspension, subjected to hypo-osmotic shock to induce apoptosis, and intraperitoneally injected into hemophilia A mice. Inhibitors were induced by periodic intraperitoneal injections of recombinant human fVIII (rhfVIII). In the groups in which intraperitoneal injections of rhfVIII began at 1-3 weeks after pretreatment, the titers of inhibitors were significantly lower after the third administration of rhfVIII compared with that in the control group in which apoptotic Ainv18 ES cells (without the human F8 gene) were used for pretreatment, and continued to show lower levels until the sixth administration of rhfVIII. These results suggest that pretreatment with apoptotic hfVIII-expressing ES cells might be promising for the prevention of fVIII inhibitor development in hemophilia A patients

Development and validation of the 25â item Hikikomori Questionnaire (HQâ 25)

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146508/1/pcn12691_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146508/2/pcn12691.pd

Comparison of patient-specific intensity modulated radiation therapy quality assurance for the prostate across multiple institutions

AimTo evaluate the success of a patient-specific intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) quality assurance (QA) practice for prostate cancer patients across multiple institutions using a questionnaire survey.BackgroundThe IMRT QA practice involves different methods of dose distribution verification and analysis at different institutions.Materials and MethodsTwo full-arc volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) plan and 7 fixed-gantry IMRT plan with DMLC were used for patient specific QA across 22 institutions. The same computed tomography image and structure set were used for all plans. Each institution recalculated the dose distribution with fixed monitor units and without any modification. Single-point dose measurement with a cylindrical ionization chamber and dose distribution verification with a multi-detector or radiochromic film were performed, according to the QA process at each institution.ResultsTwenty-two institutions performed the patient-specific IMRT QA verifications. With a single-point dose measurement at the isocenter, the average difference between the calculated and measured doses was 0.5 ± 1.9%. For the comparison of dose distributions, 18 institutions used a two or three-dimensional array detector, while the others used Gafchromic film. In the γ test with dose difference/distance-to-agreement criteria of 3%−3 mm and 2%−2 mm with a 30% dose threshold, the median gamma pass rates were 99.3% (range: 41.7%–100.0%) and 96.4% (range: 29.4%–100.0%), respectively.ConclusionThis survey was an informative trial to understand the verification status of patient-specific IMRT QA measurements for prostate cancer. In most institutions, the point dose measurement and dose distribution differences met the desired criteria