Opening Windows to the World: Developing Children’s Intercultural Understanding through Picturebooks in Japan

This article deliberates on widening children’s horizons with picturebooks. The authors share with us their explorations in different Japanese settings: a preschool, a state primary school and an out-of-school picturebook read-aloud group, always with the aim to support a deeper understanding of aspects of the children’s own and others’ cultural identities

Myocardial positron emission computed tomographic images obtained with fluorine-18 fluoro-2-deoxyglucose predict the response of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy patients to beta-blockers

AbstractObjectivesThe aim of this study was to elucidate whether the response of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) patients to β-blockers can be predicted by positron emission tomography with fluorine-18 fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG-PET).BackgroundPatients with DCM often have a poor prognosis, and it is important to predict their response to β-blocker therapy, which may be effective in DCM. However, no accurate methods of predicting their response have been available.MethodsIn 22 DCM patients with reduced left ventricular (LV) systolic function, FDG-PET was performed. Uptake in the LV after glucose loading was evaluated based on the average global percent uptake of the injected dose (G%ID) and the coefficient of variance (CV) in 24 segments of the LV. Uptake during fasting was evaluated semiquantitatively on the basis of the total uptake score. The β-blocker was administered, and LV function was monitored by echocardiography. The histologic findings were assessed in the 18 patients who underwent endomyocardial biopsy.ResultsThe β-blocker was effective in the majority of patients whose G%ID after glucose loading was >0.7%, and the sensitivity and specificity of G%ID as a predictor of β-blocker efficacy were 83.3% and 90.0%, respectively. Percent CV did not predict efficacy. Four groups, defined on the basis of the FDG uptake score during fasting and G%ID after glucose loading, had distinctive histologic findings and outcomes.ConclusionsIt has been shown that FDG-PET is a good predictor for the effectiveness of β-blockers

Phase-Anchored SC-OFDM

Abstract-A new out-of-band power suppression method for single carrier (SC)-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is proposed in this letter. In the proposed method, by inserting two static "anchor symbols" at designated positions in every SC-OFDM block, phase continuity between SC-OFDM blocks is preserved and out-of-band power emissions are reduced without bit error rate (BER) performance degradation. Both experimental and simulation results indicate that reduction of out-of-band emissions up to 13dB can be achieved by using the proposed method