Grafting Neural Stem and Progenitor Cells Into the Hippocampus of Juvenile, Irradiated Mice Normalizes Behavior Deficits

The pool of neural stem and progenitor cells (NSPCs) in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus is reduced by ionizing radiation. This explains, at least partly, the learning deficits observed in patients after radiotherapy, particularly in pediatric cases. An 8 Gy single irradiation dose was delivered to the whole brains of postnatal day 9 (P9) C57BL/6 mice, and BrdU-labeled, syngeneic NSPCs (1.0 × 105 cells/injection) were grafted into each hippocampus on P21. Three months later, behavior tests were performed. Irradiation impaired novelty-induced exploration, place learning, reversal learning, and sugar preference, and it altered the movement pattern. Grafting of NSPCs ameliorated or even normalized the observed deficits. Less than 4% of grafted cells survived and were found in the dentate gyrus 5 months later. The irradiation-induced loss of endogenous, undifferentiated NSPCs in the dentate gyrus was completely restored by grafted NSPCs in the dorsal, but not the ventral, blade. The grafted NSPCs did not exert appreciable effects on the endogenous NSPCs; however, more than half of the grafted NSPCs differentiated. These results point to novel strategies aimed at ameliorating the debilitating late effects of cranial radiotherapy, particularly in children

Formulae Based on Biomathematics to Estimate the Standard Value of Fetal Growth of Japanese

We devised biomathematics-based formulae to estimate the standard values of fetal growth of Japanese after 22 weeks' gestation. The growth rates of bi-parietal diameter (BPD), abdominal circumference (AC), femur length (FL), and estimated fetal body weight (EFBW) at the time of gestation were assumed to be proportional to the product of the value at the time and the rest value of an unknown maximum value, respectively. The EFBW was also assumed to follow a multiple logistic function of BPD, AC and FL to fit the standard values of Japanese fetuses published by the Japan Society of Ultrasonics in Medicine. The Mann-Whitney test was used for statistical analysis. The values as a function of gestational day, t, were as follows: BPD(t)=99.6/(1+exp (2.725−0.01837＊t)) (mm); AC(t)=39.7/(1+exp (2.454−0.01379＊t)) (cm); FL(t)=79.6/(1+exp (2.851−0.01710＊t)) (mm); EFBW(t)=8045.1/(1+exp (6.028−0.06582＊BPD(t)−0.1469＊AC(t)+ 0.07377＊FL(t))) (g). EFBW as a function of BPD, AC and FL was as follows: EFBW=8045.1/(1+exp (4.747+ 0.02584＊BPD+0.1010＊AC−0.1416＊FL)) (g). When the BPD, AC and FL were at −2 standard deviation (SD), −1SD, mean and + 2SD, the EFBW values calculated by the formula were statistically closer to the standard values than conventional formulas with p-values of 4.871×10−7, 4.228×10−7, 9.777×10−7 and 0.028, respectively. The formulae based on biomathematics might be useful to estimate the fetal growth standard values

Position and Attitude Estimation from a Image Sequence of a Circle

A method to estimate the position and attitude of a helicopter with respect to the landing site from a image sequence of a heliport is presented. The method use the circle of the heliport marking as the visual cue. The projection of the circle on the successive image taken by on board camera will change, therefore a Kalman filter can be build for the recursive estimation. The method needs to know just there is a circle ; The size of the circle is not necessary. The result of the experiment on the synthetic data shows the method works well under several assumotions

介護施設高齢者の栄養摂取と活動機能

Malnutrition and dehydration in old person are common and are associated with frailty, sarcopenia and poor health outcomes. Relationship between the amounts of energy and water intake and physical function was examined in care home residents. Each amount was positively associated with body weight, BMI, the ability to reach the restroom timely and physical activity, and negatively associated with care-needs levels under long-term care insulance and the rate to use diaper. Thus, nutrition and hydration play an important role in preserving physical function and independence in care home residents

イトトンボ ノ ヒコウ カイセキ

Free flights of a damselfly, Ceriagrion melanurum Selys, are filmed with a high speed video camera and analyzed on a personal computer based image processing system. The observed characteristics of the flight are : 1) The flight speed is rather low. lt ranges from 0.4m/s to 0.9m/s in our experiments. 2) The inclinations of the stroke planes are small. It is 10～15 deg for the forewing and 0～30 deg for the hindwing. 3) The flapping amplitude of the wing is almost twice as large as that of a dragonfly for the fore and hindwing respectively. 4) The phase difference between fore and hind pairs of wings is about -100 deg. lt is 60～90 deg in the flight of a dragonfly. We use the Fourier analysis to make clear the beating mechanism of wings ; the flapping motion can be expressed by the first harmonic of a Fourier expansion series, while the higher harmonics were needed to simulate the feathering motion of the wing

Wess-Zumino term for AdS superstring

We examine a bilinear form Wess-Zumino term for a superstring in anti-de Sitter (AdS) spaces. This is composed of two parts; a bilinear term in superinvariant currents and a total derivative bilinear term which is required for the pseudo-superinvariance of the Wess-Zumino term. The covariant supercharge commutator containing a string charge is also obtained.Comment: 14 pages, To appear in Phys. Rev. D. References added and minor change

Postural change for supine position does not disturb toddlers\u27 nap

This study examined whether forced postural change from prone to supine during toddlers’ nap, a preventative measure taken in Japan for sudden unexplained death in childhood (SUDC), disturbs toddlers’ sleep. When the "Back to Sleep" campaign (BSC) was introduced to Japan in 1996, its recommendations were also applied to infants aged 1 year old and over with the expectation that the BSC recommendations may also contribute to a decrease in the occurrence rate of SUDC. Since then, Japanese nurseries have routinely conducted sleeping position checks and positional adjustments of toddlers every 5–10 min during naps. A total of 52 toddlers (age 18.4 ± 3.3 months, means ± SD) were continuously monitored for 8 h during daytime at nursery schools for wake-sleep status and body position (prone, supine and lateral) with actigraphs and 3-orthogonal-axis accelerometers. Out of the 52 toddlers, 24 toddlers adopted prone positions during naps, which were adjusted by nursery staff back to supine. When nursery staff manually changed the toddlers position from prone to supine, the toddlers either did not wake or woke only briefly (3.1 ± 4.9 min) and returned to sleep soon after the positional change. Our study indicates that manual change of toddlers’ sleeping position from prone to supine, a potential SUDC prevention method, does not disturb toddlers’ sleep during their naps

ラジオシティホウ ニオケル ゼロ3カクケイ オモチイタ メッシュブンカツ

This paper proposes an effective method for generating a mesh for the radiosity calculation. The proposed method introduces "the zero triangle" -an imaginary triangle with an area of zero-to circumvent the creation of the T-vertices. The method also restricts the element shape to the triangle. These greatly simplify the meshing process, which results in reducing the processing time. The quality of images rendered by the proposed method is comparable to the one by the adaptive meshing algorithm