Energy landscape analysis of neuroimaging data

Computational neuroscience models have been used for understanding neural dynamics in the brain and how they may be altered when physiological or other conditions change. We review and develop a data-driven approach to neuroimaging data called the energy landscape analysis. The methods are rooted in statistical physics theory, in particular the Ising model, also known as the (pairwise) maximum entropy model and Boltzmann machine. The methods have been applied to fitting electrophysiological data in neuroscience for a decade, but their use in neuroimaging data is still in its infancy. We first review the methods and discuss some algorithms and technical aspects. Then, we apply the methods to functional magnetic resonance imaging data recorded from healthy individuals to inspect the relationship between the accuracy of fitting, the size of the brain system to be analyzed, and the data length.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Japan’s Changing ODA Policy Towards China

Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) towards China has come to a crossroads at the start of the new millennium. It was more than twenty years ago, at the end of 1978, that the then prime minister Ohira said the government of Japan would offer ODA to China. By the tax year of 1999 Japan had provided China with loans of 2,453.5 billion Japanese yen (US$21.52 billion) and grant aid of 118.5 billion yen (US$1.04 billion), together with technical co-operation of 116.3 billion yen (US$1.02..

Japan’s Changing ODA Policy Towards China

Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) towards China has come to a crossroads at the start of the new millennium. It was more than twenty years ago, at the end of 1978, that the then prime minister Ohira said the government of Japan would offer ODA to China. By the tax year of 1999 Japan had provided China with loans of 2,453.5 billion Japanese yen (US$21.52 billion) and grant aid of 118.5 billion yen (US$1.04 billion), together with technical co-operation of 116.3 billion yen (US$1.02..

Japan’s Changing ODA Policy Towards China

Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) towards China has come to a crossroads at the start of the new millennium. It was more than twenty years ago, at the end of 1978, that the then prime minister Ohira said the government of Japan would offer ODA to China. By the tax year of 1999 Japan had provided China with loans of 2,453.5 billion Japanese yen (US$21.52 billion) and grant aid of 118.5 billion yen (US$1.04 billion), together with technical co-operation of 116.3 billion yen (US$1.02..

Japon-Chine : un tournant dans l’Aide publique au développement

Le programme japonais d’Aide publique au développement (APD) à destination la Chine a atteint un tournant au début du nouveau millénaire. C’est il y a plus de vingt ans, à la fin de 1978, que le Premier ministre japonais Ohira décida d’intégrer la Chine au programme japonais d’APD. Au terme de l’année budgétaire 1999, le Japon avait accordé à la Chine des prêts d’un montant total de 2 453,5 milliards de yens, des subventions d’un montant de 118,5 milliards, et offert une coopération technique..

被疑者の弁護人依頼権に関する考察 : 接見交通権および取調べ立会い権を中心として

博士（法学）神戸大

An efficient early-pooling protocol for environmental DNA metabarcoding

Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding, a method that applies high-throughput sequencing and universal primer sets to eDNA analysis, has been a promising approach for efficient, comprehensive biodiversity monitoring. However, significant money-, labor-, and time-costs are still required for performing eDNA metabarcoding. In this study, we assessed the performance of an “early-pooling” protocol (a protocol based on 1st PCR tagging) to reduce the experimental costs of library preparation for eDNA metabarcoding. Specifically, we performed three experiments to investigate the effects of 1st PCR-tagging and 2nd PCR-indexing protocols on the community composition revealed by eDNA metabarcoding, the effects of post-1st PCR exonuclease purification on tag jumping (corresponds to index hopping in 2nd PCR indexing), and the effects of the number of PCR replicates and the eDNA template volume on the number of detected OTUs. Analyses of 204 eDNA libraries from three natural aquatic ecosystems and one mock eDNA sample showed that (i) 1st PCR tagging does not cause clear biases in the outcomes of eDNA metabarcoding, (ii) post-1st PCR exonuclease purification reduces the risk of tag jumping, and (iii) increasing the eDNA template volume may increase the number of detected OTUs and reduce variations in the detected community compositions, similar to increasing the number of 1st PCR replicates. Our results show that an early-pooling protocol with post-1st PCR exonuclease purification and an increased amount of the DNA template reduces the risk of tag jumping, the costs for consumables and reagents (except for many tagged 1st PCR primers), and the handling time in library preparation, and produces similar results to a 2nd PCR-indexing protocol. Therefore, once a target metabarcoding region is selected and a set of tagged-1st PCR primers is prepared, the early-pooling protocol provides a cost, labor, and time-efficient approach for processing a large number of samples

Clinical features and outcomes of in-hospital cardiac arrest in code blue events: a retrospective observational study

BackgroundIn-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) is a critical medical event with outcomes less researched compared to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. This retrospective observational study aimed to investigate key aspects of IHCA epidemiology and prognosis in patients with Code Blue activation.MethodsThis retrospective observational study enrolled patients with Code Blue events in our hospital between January 2010 and October 2019. Participant characteristics, including age and sex, and IHCA characteristics, including the time of cardiac arrest, witnessed event, bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), initial shockable rhythm, vital signs at 1 and 6 h before IHCA, survival to hospital discharge (SHD), and the cardiac arrest survival postresuscitation in-hospital (CASPRI) score were included in univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses with SHD as the primary endpoint.ResultsFrom the 293 Code Blue events that were activated during the study period, 81 participants were enrolled. Overall, the SHD rate was 28.4%, the median CPR duration was 14 (interquartile range, 6–28) min, and the rate of initial shockable rhythm was 19.8%. There were significant intergroup differences between the SHD and non-SHD groups in the CPR duration, shockable rhythm, and CASPRI score on univariate logistic regression analysis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the CASPRI score was the most accurate predictive factor for SHD (OR = 0.98, p = 0.006).ConclusionsThe CASPRI score is associated with SHD in patients with IHCA during Code Blue events. Therefore, the CASPRI score of IHCA patients potentially constitutes a simple, useful adjunctive tool for the management of post-cardiac arrest syndrome