Medical benefits for workmen under social insurance in Japan

Japan was the first Asian country to introduce social insurance measures and she has expanded them during the last few decades. The first social insurance law was passed in 1922 dealing with worker's health insurance in general. It was followed by many schemes of social insurance. National Health Insurance in 1938, Seamen's Insurance in 1939, Employees' Pension Insurance in 1941 and so forth. After World War II the new Constitution was enacted by which the Japanese Government was made responsible for the provision of medical care services for the whole nation. At present approximately the whole population is covered by either one or more of the various social insurance schemes. The main social insurance programs are shown in Figure 1 and Table 1. Most of these insurance schemes are compulsory under Japanese law. Since it would be too difficult and complicated to explain all of these forms of social insurance in detail, we will discuss only about two schemes directly related to medical care services for the workers; namely, the Health Insurance Scheme for non. occupational diseases and disorders (sickness or injury off the job) and Workmen's Compensation Insurance for occupational diseases and disorders (sickness or injury on the job).</p

Multicanonical Monte Carlo Calculation of the First-order Phase Transition of Lennard-Jones Fluids

The liquid-solid phase transition was investigated by the multicanonical Monte Carlo method for a bulk Lennard-Jones fluid system that consists of 256 argon particles. The reliability of the multicanonical weight factor we determined was confirmed by the flatness of the histogram obtained by the multicanonical Monte Carlo production run. The first-order phase transition between solid and liquid phase was observed around 130 K from the change in thermodynamic properties as a function of temperature. Besides, the small change between two solid structures was also observed at 60 K from the radial distribution function, from the heat capacity and from conventional canonical Monte Carlo calculation at 60 K. Neither of them is not f. c. c. structure which is known as the most stable

A New Scale-Up Approach Through the Evaluation of Stress History Within a Twin-Screw Extruder

The development of any new product manufactured by extrusion requires initial testing at the laboratory level. Once the behaviors of the product and process are understood, the operation is scaled-up to an industrial grade procedure. Scale-up/down is used in a wide variety of markets such as food processing, food packaging, tubing, and pharmaceutical industries. Product quality is critical to the success of all these applications, but is often made difficult when compounding with additives, fillers, pigments, plasticizers, and other supplemental ingredients. Product quality is achieved when the constituents are well mixed. Stress is a critical parameter in accomplishing good mixing. Through the use of polymeric stress beads, a methodology has been developed to measure residence stress distributions in real time. The methodology has enabled the analysis of both model and industrial grade extruders. Evaluation of both processes has led to the creation of a new scale-up approach for dispersive mixing. The new scale-up rule based on percent drag flow was shown to be a more accurate dispersive mixing scale-up approach for a range of operating conditions compared to the current industry standard

Enhancement of the antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte-inducing ability in the PMDC11 leukemic plasmacytoid dendritic cell line via lentiviral vector-mediated transduction of the caTLR4 gene.

The aim of the present study was to enhance the efficiency of leukemia immunotherapy by increasing the antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte-inducing ability of leukemia cells. The leukemic plasmacytoid dendritic cell line PMDC05 containing the HLA-A02/24 antigen, which was previously established in our laboratory (Laboratory of Hematology and Oncology, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Niigata University, Niigata, Japan), was used in the present study. It exhibited higher expression levels of CD80 following transduction with lentiviruses encoding the CD80 gene. This CD80-expressing PMDC05 was named PMDC11. In order to establish a more potent antigen-presenting cell for cellular immunotherapy of tumors or severe infections, PMDC11 cells were transduced with a constitutively active (ca) toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) gene using the Tet-On system (caTLR4-PMDC11). CD8(+) T cells from healthy donors with HLA-A02 were co-cultured with mutant WT1 peptide-pulsed PMDC11, lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated PMDC11 or caTLR4-PMDC11 cells. Interleukin (IL)-2 (50 IU/ml) and IL-7 (10 ng/ml) were added on day three of culture. Priming with mutant WT1 peptide-pulsed PMDC11, LPS-stimulated PMDC11 or caTLR4-PMDC11 cells was conducted once per week and two thirds of the IL-2/IL-7 containing medium was replenished every 3-4 days. Immediately prior to the priming with these various PMDC11 cells, the cultured cells were analyzed for the secretion of interferon (IFN)-γ in addition to the percentage and number of CD8(+)/WT1 tetramer(+) T cells using flow cytometry. caTLR4-PMDC11 cells were observed to possess greater antigen-presenting abilities compared with those of PMDC11 or LPS-stimulated PMDC11 cells in a mixed leukocyte culture. CD8 T cells positive for the WT1 tetramer were generated following 3-4 weeks of culture and CD8(+)/WT1 tetramer+ T cells were markedly increased in caTLR4-PMDC11-primed CD8(+) T cell culture compared with PMDC11 or LPS-stimulated PMDC11-primed CD8(+) T cell culture. These CD8(+) T cells co-cultured with caTLR4-PMDC11 cells were demonstrated to secrete IFN-γ and to be cytotoxic to WT1-expressing target cells. These data suggested that the antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL)-inducing ability of PMDC11 was potentiated via transduction of the caTLR4 gene. The present study also suggested that caTLR4-PMDC11 cells may be applied as potent antigen-presenting cells for generating antigen-specific CTLs in adoptive cellular immunotherapy against tumors and severe viral infections

Silk protein of the larval caddisfly, Sienopsyche marmorata (trichoptera: stenopsychidae)(trichoptera: stenopsychidae)

Stenopsyche marmorata is one of the common caddisfly species inrivers and streamsin Japan which is distributed in East Palaearctic Region･ The larvae spin Silk fiber between stones on the bottom of Bowing water, the silk proteinofS･ marmorata would be one of the best sources of natural biopolymersthat could be used as materials for aquatic industrial purposes･ In order to analyze the basic characteristics towards further applications, we measured physical properties, thermal behaviorsand molecular confわrmation of the silk protein of larval S marmorata･ The wet weight of the larval body andthe silkgland of SOrata Were 543･5土5419and 44･7土17･9 mg, respectively, The water content of the liquid silk protein in the silkglands of the living larvae was 73.4土2.2%. The elongation atthe breaking point of the solid silk proteingland in dry state was 2･2%, whilethat of sampleinwet state was･ 6012%, suggestlngthe silk protein glands become soft and stretchable in wet conditions. FT-IR spectra of the silk protein film showed a major absorption band at 1650 cm-1 (Amide I band), which is attributed to the random coil molecular conformation. The silk fiber showed a major endothemiCpeak at 32loC onthe differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) curve, which position is slightly higher than the endothemic peak for the silk film, Suggesting an increaseinthe thermal stabilityfbr the silk fiber from caddisfly,Article信州大学山地水環境教育研究センター研究報告 6: 1-8(2010)departmental bulletin pape

Dimethyl sulfoxide-free cryopreservation solution containing trehalose, dextran 40, and propylene glycol for therapy with human adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stromal cells

We evaluated a dimethyl sulfoxide (Me2SO)-free cryopreservation solution to freeze human adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (hADSCs). In the first experiment, we compared the combined effects of 3% trehalose (3 T) and 5% dextran (5D) in lactated Ringer’s solution (LR) as a cryopreservation base solution containing 10% propylene glycol (PG). The cell viability of hADSCs immediately after thawing was significantly higher (p < 0.05) in LR supplemented with 3 T (LR-3 T) and with 3 T and 5D (LR-3 T-5D) than in LR. In the second experiment, we compared the cell characteristics of hADSCs freeze-thawed in LR-3 T-5D containing either 10% Me2SO or 10% PG. The cell viability, annexin V-positive ratio, colony-forming capacity, cell proliferation, cell surface antigen positivity, adipogenic differentiation, osteogenic differentiation, and genetic response to cytokine stimulation of hADSCs immediately after thawing were similar between the LR-3 T-5D containing 10% Me2SO and 10% PG. In the third experiment, we examined various concentrations of PG on the cell proliferative capacity of freeze-thawed hADSCs. The cell proliferative capacity of hADSCs frozen with LR-3 T-5D containing 2.5% to 5% PG was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than LR-3 T-5D containing 10% PG. Furthermore, the cell proliferative capacity of hADSCs frozen with LR-3 T-5D containing 4% PG was similar to that of fresh hADSCs. These results indicate that the combination of 3 T-5D in an LR solution as a basic solution is effective for post-thaw cell viability, and that the optimal concentration of PG to maintain the cell characteristics of hADSCs frozen with LR-3 T-5D is 2.5% to 5%, which is promising for cell therapy applications

Simple graphene chemiresistors as pH sensors: fabrication and characterization

We report the fabrication and characterization of a simple gate-free graphene device as a pH sensor. The graphene sheets are made by mechanical exfoliation. Platinum contact electrodes are fabricated with a mask-free process using focused ion beam, and then expanded by silver paint. Annealing is used to improve the electrical contact. The experiment on the fabricated graphene device shows that the resistance of the device decreases linearly with increasing pH values (in the range of 4-10)in the surrounding liquid environment. The resolution achieved in our experiments is approximately 0.3 pH in alkali environment. The sensitivity of the device is calculated as approximately 2 k\Omega /pH. The simple configuration, miniaturized size and the integration ability make graphene-based sensors promising candidates for future micro/nano applications

Flight density of aquatic insect fauna over river water surface in the middle reaches of the Shinano River, mainly among Caddisflies (Trichoptera).

We focused on the relative number of flying adult caddisflies on the river surface captured by sticky board traps with the aim of elucidating differences in the distribution pattern of caddisfly larvae along the slope in the middle reaches of the Shinano River. The individual number of adult caddisflies caught increased from April and decreased from October. Even in the same middle reaches of a river, there was a large difference geographically in the species captured. Hydroptila sp. was caught mainly downstream of the Taishyobashi Bridge, Psychomyia acutipennis (Ulmer 1908) in the vicinity of the Taishyobashi Bridge, and Stenopsyche marmorata Navás 1920 upstream of the Awasabashi Bridge. It is known that the slope of the Shinano River bed suddenly becomes less and the flow rate slower in the area from the Taishyobashi Bridge to the Awasabashi Bridge, and it was shown that the species composition and number of aquatic insects caught changes with the change in the slope of the river bed.ArticleZoosymposia.10:203-213(2016)journal articl