Urban Transport Sustainability

The paper describes the possible direction of Asian EST, starting with an overview of recent trends and problems in transport systems within Asia, policy practices are also introduced. It was found that although the current situation and trend of transport in the Asian region presents a diverse picture stemming from geographical differences and levels of economic development, most Asian countries share similar concerns about transport-related problems, namely severe congestion, air and noise pollution,. Common patterns can be identified behind these problems, which include: a)large increases in traffic demand, resulting from rapid economic growth, urbanization, and motorisation, b)poor control of vehicle emissions and the absence of effective inspection and maintenance systems, c)lack of adequate and appropriate infrastructures, and d)poor coordination of transport and land-use policies. In the current situation, insufficient understanding of environmental deterioration mechanisms delay the implementation of necessary policy measures in many Asian countries. Each country should find the best way to achieve EST as fast as possible by learning from others’ experiences. Existing good examples within the region, such as intermediate public transport systems and electric road pricing, can provide a strong foundation for this purpose

Open science cyber-infrastructure framework for next generation disaster analytics

The open science movement is gaining popularity due to the stability of data storage and network technologies besides the availability of open data portal in many countries. However, a case study that focuses on the requirement and design of the cyber-infrastructure for open science is limited. This paper reports the assessment of existing infrastructure for disaster information management as an open science activity based on the Sendai Framework. A framework that combines the open data quality and the next generation repository system requirements based on a case study on the flood and forest fire management in Malaysia and Indonesia is proposed. This paper fills the gap between the focus on open data framework and the next generation repository system based on the requirements from a recent international collaboration on climate research studies

Design and Development of Interactive Environment of Addition/Subtraction Arithmetic Word Problem Using Part-Whole Relationship as Intermediate Representation of Figure

本研究では，1回の和差で答えを求めることができる算数文章題を対象として，そのような文章題が含んでいる一つの和と二つの差の関係を顕在化するためにしばしば用いられる部分全体図を，文章題と連動させて操作する活動を考案し，この活動を可能にするソフトウェアシステムを設計・開発した．この活動では，三文構成モデルに基づき三つの文で文章題を表し，それぞれを部分全体図の一つの全体と二つの部分に対応付けている．更に，このソフトウェアシステムを授業で実践的に利用し，学習効果を示唆する結果を得た

Clinicopathological characteristics of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis resulting in a totally locked-in state (communication Stage V)

In the present study, we performed a comprehensive analysis to clarify the clinicopathological characteristics of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) that had progressed to result in a totally locked-in state (communication Stage V), in which all voluntary movements are lost and communication is impossible. In 11 patients, six had phosphorylated TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (pTDP-43)-immunoreactive (ir) neuronal cytoplasmic inclusions (NCI), two had fused in sarcoma (FUS)-ir NCI, and three had copper/zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD1)-ir NCI. The time from ALS onset to the need for tracheostomy invasive ventilation was less than 24 months in ten patients. Regardless of accumulated protein, all the patients showed common lesions in the pallido-nigro-luysian system, brainstem reticular formation, and cerebellar efferent system, in addition to motor neurons. In patients with pTDP-43-ir NCI, patients with NCI in the hippocampal dentate granule neurons (DG) showed a neuronal loss in the cerebral cortex, and patients without NCI in DG showed a preserved cerebral cortex. By contrast, in patients with FUS-ir NCI, patients with NCI in DG showed a preserved cerebral cortex and patients without NCI in DG showed marked cerebral degeneration. The cerebral cortex of patients with SOD1-ir NCI was preserved. Together, these findings suggest that lesions of the cerebrum are probably not necessary for progression to Stage V. In conclusion, patients with ALS that had progressed to result in communication Stage V showed rapidly-progressed symptoms, and their common lesions could cause the manifestations of communication Stage V.ArticleACTA NEUROPATHOLOGICA COMMUNICATIONS.4:107(2016)journal articl

Immuno-chemotherapy of malignant lymphoma using OK-432, a streptococcal agent

Clinical trials of immuno-chemotherapy were conducted on malignant lymphoma patients. Patients during the period from 1972 through 1977 were allocated to two groups retrospectively according to the mode of treatment, i.e., chemotherapy alone (historical control group, 35 patients) and chemotherapy with OK-432 (treated group, 15 patients). Comparisons were made of the two groups, which were homogeneous with regard to induction chemotherapy, maintenance chemotherapy, stage and histologic type of disease. The treated group had a higher remission rate, and a longer remission duration and survival than the control groups, especially in patients with Hodgkin's disease but the difference was not statistically significant owing to the limited number of cases.</p

Kissing Aneurysm of the Distal Anterior Cerebral Artery: Preoperative CT Angiography and Surgical Management: A

We describe a patient with mirror-image aneurysms in the bilateral distal anterior cerebral artery (ACA). The larger aneurysm was clearly disclosed with digital subtraction angiography (DSA), but the smaller one could not be definitely identified. The bilateral aneurysms were confirmed with computed tomographic (CT) angiography, which showed the right ACA aneurysm to be hidden behind the left ACA aneurysm, likely buried in the cingulate gyrus. During surgery, the left ACA aneurysm was clipped first. The right ACA aneurysm was exposed by a small subpial resection of the cingulate gyrus, and the right ACA aneurysm, which strongly adhered to the surrounding tissue, was safely dissected. Multiple aneurysms associated with a distal ACA aneurysm are not rare. We conclude that further examination with CT angiography is important when kissing aneurysms are suggested by DSA

The role of ARX in human pancreatic endocrine specification

The in vitro differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) offers a model system to explore human development. Humans with mutations in the transcription factor Aristaless Related Homeobox (ARX) often suffer from the syndrome X-linked lissencephaly with ambiguous genitalia (XLAG), affecting many cell types including those of the pancreas. Indeed, XLAG pancreatic islets lack glucagon and pancreatic polypeptide-positive cells but retain somatostatin, insulin, and ghrelin-positive cells. To further examine the role of ARX in human pancreatic endocrine development, we utilized genomic editing in hESCs to generate deletions in ARX. ARX knockout hESCs retained pancreatic differentiation capacity and ARX knockout endocrine cells were biased toward somatostatin-positive cells (94% of endocrine cells) with reduced pancreatic polypeptide (rarely detected), glucagon (90% reduced) and insulin-positive (65% reduced) lineages. ARX knockout somatostatin-positive cells shared expression patterns with human fetal and adult δ-cells. Differentiated ARX knockout cells upregulated PAX4, NKX2.2, ISL1, HHEX, PCSK1, PCSK2 expression while downregulating PAX6 and IRX2. Re-expression of ARX in ARX knockout pancreatic progenitors reduced HHEX and increased PAX6 and insulin expression following differentiation. Taken together these data suggest that ARX plays a key role in pancreatic endocrine fate specification of pancreatic polypeptide, somatostatin, glucagon and insulin positive cells from hESCs

Intake of Radionuclides in the Trees of Fukushima Forests 4. Binding of Radioiodine to Xyloglucan

The 1, 4-linked glucans such as xyloglucan and amylose are known to form a complex with iodine/iodide ions and to also be precipitated with CaCl2 in the presence of iodine. Here, we show that iodine gas could be specifically incorporated into xyloglucan. Furthermore, we show that [125I]I2 gas is, over time, incorporated at high levels into the entire outer surface of poplar seedlings but that spraying seedlings with abscisic acid to close stomata decreases the incorporation of the gas. There was less incorporation of the gas in a transgenic poplar overexpressing xyloglucanase at the early stages when compared with a wild type. This shows that xyloglucan serves as a key absorber of iodine gas into a plant body. After individual leaves of cultured seedlings were exposed to the gas for 30 min, no radioiodine was emitted from those leaves over the following two weeks, indicating that no turnover occurs in radioiodine once it is bound to the polysaccharides in plant tissues. We conclude that forest trees could serve as one of the largest enormous capture systems for the radioiodine fallout following the nuclear power plant accident in Fukushima