Investigation of Methods to Create Future Multimodal Emotional Data for Robot Interactions in Patients with Schizophrenia : A Case Study

Rapid progress in humanoid robot investigations offers possibilities for improving the competencies of people with social disorders, although this improvement of humanoid robots remains unexplored for schizophrenic people. Methods for creating future multimodal emotional data for robot interactions were studied in this case study of a 40-year-old male patient with disorganized schizophrenia without comorbidities. The qualitative data included heart rate variability (HRV), video-audio recordings, and field notes. HRV, Haar cascade classifier (HCC), and Empath API© were evaluated during conversations between the patient and robot. Two expert nurses and one psychiatrist evaluated facial expressions. The research hypothesis questioned whether HRV, HCC, and Empath API© are useful for creating future multimodal emotional data about robot–patient interactions. The HRV analysis showed persistent sympathetic dominance, matching the human–robot conversational situation. The result of HCC was in agreement with that of human observation, in the case of rough consensus. In the case of observed results disagreed upon by experts, the HCC result was also different. However, emotional assessments by experts using Empath API© were also found to be inconsistent. We believe that with further investigation, a clearer identification of methods for multimodal emotional data for robot interactions can be achieved for patients with schizophrenia

Characteristics of interactive communication between Pepper robot, patients with schizophrenia, and healthy persons

Background: Expressing enjoyment when conversing with healthcare robots is an opportunity to enhance the value of human robots with interactive capabilities. In clinical practice, it is common to find verbal dysfunctions in patients with schizophrenia. Thus, interactive communication characteristics may vary between Pepper robot, persons with schizophrenia, and healthy persons. Objective: Two case studies aimed to describe the characteristics of interactive communications, 1) between Pepper as a healthcare robot and two patients with schizophrenia, and 2) between Pepper as a healthcare robot and two healthy persons. Case Report: The “Intentional Observational Clinical Research Design” was used to collect data. Using audio-video technology, the conversational interactions between the four participants with the Pepper healthcare robot were recorded. Their interactions were observed, with significant events noted. After their interactions, the four participants were interviewed regarding their experience and impressions of interacting with the Pepper healthcare robot. Audio-video recordings were analyzed following the analysis and interpretation protocol, and the interview data were transcribed, analyzed, and interpreted. Discussion: There were similarities and differences in the interactive communication characteristics between the Pepper robot and the two participants with schizophrenia and between Pepper and the two healthy participants. The similarities were experiences of human enjoyment while interacting with the Pepper robot. This enjoyment was enhanced with the expectancy of the Pepper robot as able to entertain, and possessing interactive capabilities, indicating two-way conversational abilities. However, different communicating characteristics were found between the healthy participants’ impressions of the Pepper robot and the participants with schizophrenia. Healthy participants understood Pepper to be an automaton, with responses to questions often constrained and, on many occasions, displaying inaccurate gaze. Conclusion: Pepper robot showed capabilities for effective communication pertaining to expressing enjoyment. The accuracy and appropriateness of gaze remained a critical characteristic regardless of the situation or occasion with interactions between persons with schizophrenia, and between healthy persons. It is important to consider that in the future, for effective use of healthcare robots with multiple users, improvements in the areas of the appropriateness of gaze, response time during the conversation, and entertaining functions are critically observed

Comparison of Subjective Facial Emotion Recognition and “Facial Emotion Recognition Based on Multi-Task Cascaded Convolutional Network Face Detection” between Patients with Schizophrenia and Healthy Participants

Patients with schizophrenia may exhibit a flat affect and poor facial expressions. This study aimed to compare subjective facial emotion recognition (FER) and FER based on multi-task cascaded convolutional network (MTCNN) face detection in 31 patients with schizophrenia (patient group) and 40 healthy participants (healthy participant group). A Pepper Robot was used to converse with the 71 aforementioned participants; these conversations were recorded on video. Subjective FER (assigned by medical experts based on video recordings) and FER based on MTCNN face detection was used to understand facial expressions during conversations. This study confirmed the discriminant accuracy of the FER based on MTCNN face detection. The analysis of the smiles of healthy participants revealed that the kappa coefficients of subjective FER (by six examiners) and FER based on MTCNN face detection concurred (κ = 0.63). The perfect agreement rate between the subjective FER (by three medical experts) and FER based on MTCNN face detection in the patient, and healthy participant groups were analyzed using Fisher’s exact probability test where no significant difference was observed (p = 0.72). The validity and reliability were assessed by comparing the subjective FER and FER based on MTCNN face detection. The reliability coefficient of FER based on MTCNN face detection was low for both the patient and healthy participant groups

酸化型HMGB-1は間葉系幹細胞/間葉系細胞を介して大腸癌の転移性を促進する

High mobility group box-1 (HMGB1) is known to be a chemotactic factor for mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs), but the effect of post-translational modification on its function is not clear. In this study, we hypothesized that differences in the oxidation state of HMGB1 would lead to differences in the function of MSCs in cancer. In human colorectal cancer, MSCs infiltrating into the stroma were correlated with liver metastasis and serum HMGB1. In animal models, oxidized HMGB1 mobilized three-fold fewer MSCs to subcutaneous tumors compared with reduced HMGB1. Reduced HMGB1 inhibited the proliferation of mouse bone marrow MSCs (BM-MSCs) and induced differentiation into osteoblasts and vascular pericytes, whereas oxidized HMGB1 promoted proliferation and increased stemness, and no differentiation was observed. When BM-MSCs pretreated with oxidized HMGB1 were co-cultured with syngeneic cancer cells, cell proliferation and stemness of cancer cells were increased, and tumorigenesis and drug resistance were promoted. In contrast, co-culture with reduced HMGB1-pretreated BM-MSCs did not enhance stemness. In an animal orthotopic transplantation colorectal cancer model, oxidized HMGB1, but not reduced HMGB1, promoted liver metastasis with intratumoral MSC chemotaxis. Therefore, oxidized HMGB1 reprograms MSCs and promotes cancer malignancy. The oxidized HMGB1–MSC axis may be an important target for cancer therapy.博士（医学）・甲第874号・令和5年3月15

Evaluation of hemodynamic imaging findings of hypervascular hepatocellular carcinoma: comparison between dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging using radial volumetric imaging breath-hold examination with k-space-weighted image contrast reconstruction and dynamic computed tomography during hepatic arteriography

To compare the visualization of hemodynamic imaging findings of hypervascular hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) on dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) using radial volumetric imaging breath-hold examination with k-space-weighted image contrast reconstruction (r-VIBE-KWIC) versus dynamic computed tomography during hepatic arteriography (dyn-CTHA). We retrospectively reviewed the databases of preoperative DCE-MRI using r-VIBE-KWIC, dyn-CTHA, and postoperative pathology of resected specimens. Fourteen patients with 14 hypervascular HCCs underwent both DCE-MRI and dyn-CTHA. The imaging findings of the tumor and adjacent liver parenchyma were assessed on both modalities by two readers. The tumor enhancement time was also compared between the two modalities. On DCE-MRI/dyn-CTHA, early staining, peritumoral low-intensity or low-density bands, corona enhancement, and washout of HCC were observed in 14/14 (100%), 10/12 (83%), 11/14 (78%), and 4/14 (29%) patients, respectively. Pathologically, four HCCs with low-density bands on dyn-CTHA had no fibrous capsules. The median tumor enhancement time on DCE-MRI and dyn-CTHA was 24 (9-24) and 23 (8-35) s, respectively. The correlation coefficient between the two groups was 0.762 (P < 0.002). DCE-MRI using r-VIBE-KWIC has diagnostic potential comparable with that of dyn-CTHA in the hemodynamic evaluation of hypervascular HCC except for the washout phenomenon.ArticleJAPANESE JOURNAL OF RADIOLOGY.36(4):295-302(2018)journal articl

Defining Hypo-Methylated Regions of Stem Cell-Specific Promoters in Human iPS Cells Derived from Extra-Embryonic Amnions and Lung Fibroblasts

BACKGROUND: Human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are currently used as powerful resources in regenerative medicine. During very early developmental stages, DNA methylation decreases to an overall low level at the blastocyst stage, from which embryonic stem cells are derived. Therefore, pluripotent stem cells, such as ES and iPS cells, are considered to have hypo-methylated status compared to differentiated cells. However, epigenetic mechanisms of "stemness" remain unknown in iPS cells derived from extra-embryonic and embryonic cells. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We examined genome-wide DNA methylation (24,949 CpG sites covering 1,3862 genes, mostly selected from promoter regions) with six human iPS cell lines derived from human amniotic cells and fetal lung fibroblasts as well as two human ES cell lines, and eight human differentiated cell lines using Illumina's Infinium HumanMethylation27. A considerable fraction (807 sites) exhibited a distinct difference in the methylation level between the iPS/ES cells and differentiated cells, with 87.6% hyper-methylation seen in iPS/ES cells. However, a limited fraction of CpG sites with hypo-methylation was found in promoters of genes encoding transcription factors. Thus, a group of genes becomes active through a decrease of methylation in their promoters. Twenty-three genes including SOX15, SALL4, TDGF1, PPP1R16B and SOX10 as well as POU5F1 were defined as genes with hypo-methylated SS-DMR (Stem cell-Specific Differentially Methylated Region) and highly expression in iPS/ES cells. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We show that DNA methylation profile of human amniotic iPS cells as well as fibroblast iPS cells, and defined the SS-DMRs. Knowledge of epigenetic information across iPS cells derived from different cell types can be used as a signature for "stemness" and may allow us to screen for optimum iPS/ES cells and to validate and monitor iPS/ES cell derivatives for human therapeutic applications

Issues in the Development of Conversation Dialog for Humanoid Nursing Partner Robots in Long-Term Care

The purpose of this chapter is to explore the issues of development of conversational dialog of robots for nursing, especially for long-term care, and to forecast humanoid nursing partner robots (HNRs) introduced into clinical practice. In order to satisfy the required performance of HNRs, it is important that anthropomorphic robots act with high-quality conversational dialogic functions. As for its hardware, by allowing independent range of action and degree of freedom, the burden of quality exerted in human-robot communication is reduced, thereby unburdening nurses and professional caregivers. Furthermore, it is critical to develop a friendlier type of robot by equipping it with non-verbal emotive expressions that older people can perceive. If these functions are conjoined, anthropomorphic intelligent robots will serve as possible instructors, particularly for rehabilitation and recreation activities of older people. In this way, more than ever before, the HNRs will play an active role in healthcare and in the welfare fields

中鎖脂肪酸と糖質の併用摂取は癌関連骨格筋萎縮から保護する

Skeletal muscle volume is associated with prognosis of cancer patients. Maintenance of skeletal muscle is an essential concern in cancer treatment. In nutritional intervention, it is important to focus on differences in metabolism between tumor and skeletal muscle. We examined the influence of oral intake of glucose (0%, 10%, 50%) and 2% medium-chain fatty acid (lauric acid, LAA, C12:0) on tumor growth and skeletal muscle atrophy in mouse peritoneal metastasis models using CT26 mouse colon cancer cells and HT29 human colon cancer cells. After 2 weeks of experimental breeding, skeletal muscle and tumor were removed and analyzed. Glucose intake contributed to prevention of skeletal muscle atrophy in a sugar concentration-dependent way and also promoted tumor growth. LAA ingestion elevated the level of skeletal muscle protein and suppressed tumor growth by inducing tumor-selective oxidative stress production. When a combination of glucose and LAA was ingested, skeletal muscle mass increased and tumor growth was suppressed. Our results confirmed that although glucose is an important nutrient for the prevention of skeletal muscle atrophy, it may also foster tumor growth. However, the ingestion of LAA inhibited tumor growth, and its combination with glucose promoted skeletal muscle integrity and function, without stimulating tumor growth. These findings suggest novel strategies for the prevention of skeletal muscle atrophy.博士（医学）・甲第733号・令和2年3月16日© 2019 The Authors. Cancer Science published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Japanese Cancer Association. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial License(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes

[23-1]English Summaries of the Papers Contributed to Tonan Ajia Kenkyu (The Southeast Asian Studies) Vol.23, No.3 (Special Issue for Don Daeng : An Integrated Village Study in Northeast Thailand)

Tonan Ajia Kenkyu (The Southeast Asian Studies) = 東南アジア研究 (Japanese Journal of Southeast Asian Studies)[1]EDITOR'S NOTE … Hayao FUKUI[2]A Brief Look at the Village … Yoshihiro Kaida, Masuo Kuchiba[3]Typology of Rice Cultivation … Shuichi MIYAGAWA, Toshiro KURODA, Hiroyuki MATSUFUJI, Tomoo HATTORI[4]Instability of Rice culture … Yoshihiro KAIDA, Kazutoshi HOSHIKAWA, Yasuyuki KOHNO[5]POPULATION (I) … Hayao FUKUI[6]The Process of Emigration in Search of Good Land to Mo Nua Village, Udonthani Province … Yukio HAYASHI[7]An Economic Analysis of Endogenous Rural Economic Evolution and its Policy Implications … Hiroshi Tsujii[8]Kin Relationships and Kin Cooperation for Farming and Consumption … Masuo KUCHIBA, Takahiro TAKEMURA[9]Daily Activity Survey (1) … Satoshi KOIKE, Shinji SUWA, Haruo NOMA[10]Sharing of Merit and the Associated Social Relationships of Funeral Rites … Yukio HAYASHI[11]AN OVERVIEW ON NATURE, AGRICULTURE AND ECONOMY … Hayao FUKU