Leveraging Environment and Climate Change Initiatives for Corporate Excellence

This paper reviews selected initiatives taken by Asian countries to comply with emerging global sustainability standards, reporting, and management systems, and tracks the response of Asian businesses to global environmental concerns, examines market based innovations including new regulations that augmented corporate excellence, and identifies future directions for business that lead low carbon society. It recommends governments and business to join forces in supporting low carbon initiatives, drawing upon market mechanisms through reconfiguring national environmental policies and strategies.climate change initiatives; global sustainability standards; low carbon initiatives; environmental policies

Museum Exhibitions of Fossil Specimens Into Commercial Products : Unexpected Outflow of 3D Models due to Unwritten Image Policies

Recent innovations and cost reductions in photogrammetry-based 3D modeling have enabled museum visitors to create 3D models based on photographs exhibited in galleries without breaking museum policies. While several museums make 3D museum data available on sharing platforms, museum visitors publish unofficial 3D data belonging to museum exhibits using a photogrammetry-based approach. This study shows that photogrammetry-based 3D models can be generated without breaking conventional photo policies (i.e., no use of flash and tripods) and that museum visitors can create commercial products based on these models. 3D models certainly enhance scientific value and promote broader and deeper interests in the natural sciences; however, the rights of owners of museum pieces are ambiguous with regard to the dissemination of unofficial data. This also makes information attributable to the original specimen unclear, which can potentially lead to revenue loss. We propose a set of best practices for museum photo policies covering the data use of visitor-generated 3D models of displayed objects

Detection of Torque Teno Virus DNA in Exhaled Breath by Polymerase Chain Reaction

To determine whether exhaled breath contains Torque teno virus (TTV) or not, we tested exhaled breath condensate (EBC) samples by semi-nested PCR assay. We detected TTV DNA in 35% (7/20) of EBC samples collected from the mouth of one of the authors, demonstrating that TTV DNA is excreted in exhaled breath with moderate frequency. TTV DNA was detected also in oral EBC samples from 4 of 6 other authors, indicating that TTV DNA excretion in exhaled breath is not an exception but rather a common phenomenon. Furthermore, the same assay could amplify TTV DNA from room air condensate (RAC) samples collected at distances of 20 and 40cm from a human face with 40 (8/20) and 35% (7/20) positive rates, respectively. TTV transmission has been reported to occur during infancy. These distances seem equivalent to that between an infant and its household members while caring for the infant. Taken together, it seems that exhaled breath is one of the possible transmission routes of TTV. We also detected TTV DNA in 25% (10/40) of RAC samples collected at a distance of more than 180cm from any human face, suggesting the risk of airborne infection with TTV in a room

カンゴショク カクホ テイチャク ヲ メザシタ ニッキン ジョウキン (ショクタク) カンゴショクイン ノ イギ : -Aビョウイン (ミンカン チュウショウ ビョウイン) ニ オケル トリクミ-

背景 2006年の診療報酬改定7:1入院基本料の新設による看護職員確保定着対策やワーク・ライフ・バランスの推進により,国内では看護職員の多様な雇用形態が普及してきた. なかでも夜勤を伴わない日勤常勤の勤務形態は, パート看護職員よりも待遇はよく, 夜勤以外においては正規職員とほぼ同様の業務を行うものである. A病院では, 2007年より嘱託職員として 「日勤常勤(嘱託)」 を導入し, この勤務形態である看護職員は2013年4月では18名で、 全看護職員の10.3%を占めている.目的 A病院で日勤常勤 (嘱託) として勤務している又は勤務していた看護職員の仕事と家庭に対する思いや意見から, 看護職員確保対策としての日勤常勤 (嘱託) の意義を検討する.方法 日勤常勤 (嘱託) である者5名, 日勤常勤(嘱託)を経て, 夜勤を伴う正規職員に転換した者3名の計8名に半構成的インタビューを行い, 内容をコード化し, サブカテゴリー, カテゴリーを見いだし質的帰納的に分析した.結果および考察 日勤常勤 (嘱託) は, 【パート看護職員との違い】として 〔パート看護職員とは違う役割と責任〕 を認識し, 〔常勤と同様の評価〕 〔常勤と同様の研修〕 を受け, 〔やりがい〕 と一方では 〔負担〕 を感じていた. その中で, 子育てをしながらこのまま【日勤常勤 (嘱託) として勤務を継続する】意思をもち, 経験を加味し賞与も含めた 〔収入増加〕 を魅力的に感じながら, 〔複数の日勤常勤 (嘱託) の支え〕 があった. また 〔夜勤への懸念〕 をもち, 機会を得て 〔家族との調整〕 ができればと考えていた. 日勤常勤(嘱託)は, パート看護職員よりもキャリアアップでき, また夜勤への勤務拡大につながる可能性が示唆され, パート看護職員から常勤への転換のワンステップとしてとらえた. 結論 A病院における日勤常勤 (嘱託) は, 看護職員確保定着対策面から意義がある.Background With the newly established 7:1 hospitalization basic fee (patient-to-nurse ratio of 7:1) introduced under the 2006 revision of the medical payment system in Japan, policies were promoted to secure a stable workforce of nursing staff and improve the work-life balance of nursing personnel. Consequently, this led to the spread of various employment patterns for nursing staff in Japan. Of these various hiring patterns, treatment of nursing staff working day shifts only, without inclusion of any night shifts, was better than that of part-time nursing staff. These nursing staff performed basically the same work as full-time nursing staff, with the exception of doing night shifts. In hospital A, "nursing staff working day shifts" were hired as temporary employees from 2007 on. Nursing staff hired under this status totaled 18 as of April 2013, accounting for 10.3% of all nursing staff.Aim To study the importance of employing temporary nursing staff to work day shifts as a means of securing a stable nursing workforce, by examining the thoughts and opinions that nursing staff have towards their jobs and families and who are either currently working day shifts or previously worked day shifts at hospital A.Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 8 nursing staff employees, 5 of whom worked day shifts only and 3 of whom had previously worked day shifts only and then switched to becoming full-time employees who were also required to work night shifts. Content was coded and broken dow

A novel high-throughput (HTP) cloning strategy for site-directed designed chimeragenesis and mutation using the Gateway cloning system

There is an increasing demand for easy, high-throughput (HTP) methods for protein engineering to support advances in the development of structural biology, bioinformatics and drug design. Here, we describe an N- and C-terminal cloning method utilizing Gateway cloning technology that we have adopted for chimeric and mutant genes production as well as domain shuffling. This method involves only three steps: PCR, in vitro recombination and transformation. All three processes consist of simple handling, mixing and incubation steps. We have characterized this novel HTP method on 96 targets with >90% success. Here, we also discuss an N- and C-terminal cloning method for domain shuffling and a combination of mutation and chimeragenesis with two types of plasmid vectors

Low immunogenicity of LNP allows repeated administrations of CRISPR-Cas9 mRNA into skeletal muscle in mice

筋ジストロフィーのゲノム編集治療を目指したLNP-mRNA輸送システムの開発. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2021-12-08.Nanotechnology for genome editing in multiple muscles simultaneously. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2021-12-08.Genome editing therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) holds great promise, however, one major obstacle is delivery of the CRISPR-Cas9/sgRNA system to skeletal muscle tissues. In general, AAV vectors are used for in vivo delivery, but AAV injections cannot be repeated because of neutralization antibodies. Here we report a chemically defined lipid nanoparticle (LNP) system which is able to deliver Cas9 mRNA and sgRNA into skeletal muscle by repeated intramuscular injections. Although the expressions of Cas9 protein and sgRNA were transient, our LNP system could induce stable genomic exon skipping and restore dystrophin protein in a DMD mouse model that harbors a humanized exon sequence. Furthermore, administration of our LNP via limb perfusion method enables to target multiple muscle groups. The repeated administration and low immunogenicity of our LNP system are promising features for a delivery vehicle of CRISPR-Cas9 to treat skeletal muscle disorders