Trials of Additional Effective Movements for Music Therapy Session for the Elderly

Authors have dealt with Shikoku division of Integrative Medicine Japan (IMG), and reported various activities such as music therapy. Currently, we have tried additional effective movements including the game of rock-paper-scissors (RPS), and the gesture of sign language (SL) to the music. RPS seems to be effective for cognitive and motor function exercises, as well as singing, speech, verbal communication, movements of extremities and so on. From SL and vocal communication, people can distinguish word, sentence, and discourse levels of integration. By Japanese SL to the music, people can understand the poem and rhythmical movements of finger and body

Foehnlike Wind with a Traditional Foehn Effect plus Dry-Diabatic Heating from the Ground Surface Contributing to High Temperatures at the End of a Leeward Area

A foehn wind is an important factor in the occurrence of many extreme high-temperature events in geographically complex regions. In this study, the authors verified the hypothesis that a foehnlike wind contributes to high temperatures at the end of the leeward (eastward) area using three difference approaches: field experiments, numerical experiments, and statistical analyses. According to the hypothesis, a foehnlike wind has the features of the sum of a traditional foehn effect with adiabatic heating, plus dry-diabatic heating from the ground surface along the fetch of the wind. Field experiments conducted at seven observational points on Nobi Plain, Japan, where a mesoscale westerly wind blew, revealed that the westerly wind clearly had the features of a traditional foehn effect in the western part of the Nobi Plain. In addition to field experiments, a simplified estimate using a simple mixed-layer model demonstrated that the wind was further heated by dry-diabatic heating (sensible heat supply) from the ground surface along the fetch (especially in urbanized areas in the eastern region of the Nobi Plain) of the wind. This diabatic heating effect along the fetch of the wind on the high temperature at the end of the leeward area was also supported by both additional numerical experiments and a statistical analysis. These results proved that the hypothesis is correct and indicated that ground conditions and the land use and land cover in the windward area were strongly related to air temperature at the end of the leeward area, where an extremely high temperature was observed

Optimal labeling condition of antibodies available for immunofluorescence endoscopy

Purpose: In recent years, labeled antibodies have been used for diagnostic imaging in many studies. In this study, we investigated the mode of binding in antibodies labeled with ICG derivatives newly developed for the diagnosis of microcarcinomas, and evaluated the optimal binding molar ratio between the labeling compounds and antibody. Methods: MUC1 antibody and ICG derivatives (ICG-ATT and ICG-sulfo-OSu) were used. ICG derivatives noncovalently bound to the antibody were removed with ethyl acetate, and the ratio of ICG derivatives covalently bound to the labeled antibody was confirmed. During purification of the labeled antibody, the amount of each labeling compound reacting with 1molecule of the antibody varied as follows: 4, 8, 16, and 32molar equivalents. Subsequently, the intensity of fluorescence was evaluated by spectroscopy and infrared fluoroscopy. Results : The ratio of residual ICG derivative labeling the antibody was 67.4% for ICG-ATT and 65.0% for ICG-sulfo-OSu. When fluorescent antibody labeled with ICG-ATT at anF/Pratio of 2.94or 4.18wasused, specific and clear fluorescent images of the antigen were obtained. When ICG-ATT-labeled antibody at an F/P ratio of 6.50 or 6.75 was used, the fluorescence intensity decreased and the fluorescent images of antigen became unclear. Conclusions: It was found that the ICG-ATT-labeled antibody was a more specific and sensitive marker than ICG-sulfo-OSu-labeled antibody, and that lower binding molar ratios of ICG-ATT were more useful for labeling the antibody

Asymptomatic case of congenital absence of the gallbladder

Congenital absence of the gallbladder is rare among biliary abnormalities, and its preoperative diagnosis has been considered very difficult. We encountered a patient with congenital absence of the gallbladder and suggest a possible preoperative diagnosis of the abnormality, as well as reviewing the literature

Latitudinal variation of vertical eddy diffusivity estimated from the distribution of overturns in the western part of the south Pacific Ocean

東京水産大学海洋環境学科東京水産大学海洋環境学科東京水産大学海洋環境学科東京水産大学大学院理学系研究科東京水産大学練習船東京水産大学練習船東京水産大学練習船東京水産大学練習船東京水産大学練習船東京水産大学海洋環境学

Kantis: A new Australopithecus site on the shoulders of the Rift Valley near Nairobi, Kenya

ケニア・ナイロビ郊外で初めて発見されたアウストラロピテクス. 京都大学プレスりリス. 2016-03-24.Most Plio-Pleistocene sites in the Gregory Rift Valley that have yielded abundant fossil hominins lie on the Rift Valley floor. Here we report a new Pliocene site, Kantis, on the shoulder of the Gregory Rift Valley, which extends the geographical range of Australopithecus afarensis to the highlands of Kenya. This species, known from sites in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and possibly Kenya, is believed to be adapted to a wide spectrum of habitats, from open grassland to woodland. The Kantis fauna is generally similar to that reported from other contemporaneous A. afarensis sites on the Rift Valley floor. However, its faunal composition and stable carbon isotopic data from dental enamel suggest a stronger C4 environment than that present at those sites. Although the Gregory Rift Valley has been the focus of paleontologists' attention for many years, surveys of the Rift shoulder may provide new perspective on African Pliocene mammal and hominin evolutio

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