Change of Migration Behavior and Expansion of Commuting Areas from Kono Village, Fukui Prefecture

Kono Village is located in the middle of Fukui Prefecture and is a small fishery settlement facing with the Japan Sea. A national law established in 1960 defined Kono Village as one of many depopulated villages. Is the 'depopulation' still going on in these decades? Will this process continue in the future? Focusing on the change in the behavior of residents' migration and the expansion of commuting areas of workers and high school students, this paper examines these questions. Our findings are as follows: (1) The decrease in population has become very slow since 1975. (2) Migration behavior has changed drastically from old generations to young ones: the change from < out-moving from Kono> to < staying in Kono> is clearly recognized. Most of the graduates from Kono Middle School in 1963 migrated into the other municipalities in Fukui Prefecture and the metropolitan regions to enter higher schools or labor markets. On the other hand, many graduates in 1987 chose to live in Kono: they could find their jobs in the out-village area within Fukui Prefecture. (3) About three decades ago , although most matured and aged residents worked in Kono , the younger people migrated from Kono to find work and to study in schools. The residents working at the outside of Kono recently have substantially exceeded in number those working in Kono. Consequently, the commuting area extends over the surrounding cities such as Takefu, Sabae, Tsuruga, and Fukui. (4) Kono has an elementary and a middle school, but no high school nor any other higher educational institutes. The children living in Kono enter high schools in the outside of Kono. A few decades ago, most high school students of Kono moved to the urban areas in Fukui Prefecture, because commuting from Kono to those areas was almost impossible. Today, high school students who study in Takefu or Sabae can commute to their schools everyday. These changes have been caused by the following factors: (a) Enough employment opportunity in the surrounding region: cities nearby Kono which include the local centers of this region have steadily developed industries and increased opportu- nity of employment, although the fishery and manufacturing industries , which were the main economic activities in Kono, have been declining. Most of the residents' jobs are found in the surrounding cities. This contributes to decrease the out-migration of younger people from Kono. (b) Advancing motorization: this has greatly helped to enlarge the commuting area from Kono. Not only the major and minor roads through Kono have been improved and widened , but also automobiles have been quickly coming into wide use. (c) Accessibility to the central cities: Kono is located within a thirty-minute drive to Takefu and a sixty-minute drive to Fukui. It is easy to commute to the central cities which can give enough work places to the residents of the surrounding regions. These central cities are relative- ly small or medium-sized but provide higher educational opportunities. (d) Desire to live in the native village, Kono: Our survey reveals that most male residents want to stay in their mother village, Kono. As long as their living needs are fulfilled, the residents do not like to migrate from Kono. It is clear that Kono has the possibility not only to delete a negative image such as 'a depopulated village,' but also to offer a comfortable life in the beautiful natural environment which has easy access to the local central cities

A microscopic model for helical twisting power by the optical isomers of an octahedral metal complex

A computational approach to the evaluation of helical twisting powers (HTP) of chiral metal complexes of [Ru(blade) 2 (backbone)] type is presented. The dopant contains helically attached &apos;&apos;blade&apos;&apos; ligands and an elongated &apos;&apos;backbone&apos;&apos; ligand, and some remarkably powerful examples have been reported. In this work, the observed HTP is interpreted in terms of a microscopic interaction of a dopant and host molecules with atomistic details. For this purpose, the stable structure of a triad system comprising a dopant and two host molecules was obtained by geometry optimization using Gaussian03. As a result, the host molecules interacted attractively with the dopant, being twisted in the same direction as observed experimentally. Interaction energy was assessed as a function of the dihedral angle between the two host molecules, leading to a quadratic dependence with a minimum at the equilibrium twisting angle of À32 . Based on this, the expression was derived, in which helical twisting power was given in terms of the equilibrium twisting angle of a pair of strongly interacting host molecules

Lymphocyte Responses to Chymotrypsin- or Trypsin V-Digested β-Lactoglobulin in Patients with Cow's Milk Allergy

<p/> <p>Chymotrypsin- or trypsin V- (a mixture of trypsin and chymotrypsin) digested β-lactoglobulin (BLG) peptides were prepared and were confirmed to have much less immunoglobulin (lg)G and lgE reactivity compared with intact BLG by IgG inhibition enzymelinked immunosorbent assay and IgE dot blotting. The lymphocyte responses to intact BLG and these peptides were examined using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 10 patients with cow's milk allergy. The PBMCs from most patients had lower lymphocyte responses to chymotrypsin- and trypsin V-digested BLG peptides than those to intact BLG. However, PBMCs from one and two patients retained significant proliferative responses to both peptides and to only the former peptide, respectively. Interferon-c production stimulated by chymotrypsin-digested peptides was still detectable in all five patients tested. Chymotrypsindigested BLG reduced lgE reactivity but still induced some lymphocyte responses.</p

Use of fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) pulse sequences for differential diagnosis of hepatic hemangiomas and hepatic cysts

Fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) imaging of hepatic hemangiomas (10 patients, 16 lesions) and hepatic cysts (8 patients, 10 lesions) was performed. All hemangiomas were hypointense on T1-weighted images and hyperintense on T2-weighted images. With Gd-DTPA (0.1 mmol/kg), all hemangiomas were enhanced but not all cysts. It was necessary to perform contrast enhanced imaging to differentiate hepatic hemangiomas from hepatic cysts. However, on FLAIR imaging, hepatic hemangiomas were strongly hyperintense and 9 of the 10 hepatic cysts were isointense. One of the hepatic cysts was slightly hyperintense. FLAIR images were useful in differential diagnosis of hepatic hemangiomas and hepatic cysts without using Gd-DTPA.</p

Immunological Changes in Mesothelioma Patients and Their Experimental Detection

It is common knowledge that asbestos exposure causes asbestos-related diseases such as asbestosis, lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma (MM) not only in people who have handled asbestos in the work environment, but also in residents living near factories that handle asbestos. These facts have been an enormous medical and social problem in Japan since the summer of 2005. We focused on the immunological effects of asbestos and silica on the human immune system. In this brief review, we present immunological changes in patients with MM and outline their experimental detection. For example, there is over-expression of bcl-2 in CD4+ peripheral T-cells, high plasma concentrations of interleukin (IL)-10 and transforming growth factor (TGF)-ß, and multiple over-representation of T cell receptor (TcR)-Vß in peripheral CD3+ T-cells found in MM patients. We also detail an experimental long-term exposure T-cell model. Analysis of the immunological effects of asbestos may help our understanding of the biological effects of asbestos

エキスパートナースが大切にする実践

To clarify the practical approaches of nurses in cancer chemotherapy, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 nurses certified for cancer chemotherapy in Tokushima Prefecture. The interview data were classified into the following categories : [not neglecting any step, as failure is unacceptable], [accurately predicting the symptoms of chemotherapy, rather than simply waiting for patients to report them], [making efforts to fulfill patients' desire to live], [bearing a heavy responsibility for handling toxic drugs], and [playing a role in generalizing chemotherapy]. The results suggest that the practical approaches of nurses in cancer chemotherapy three features place importance on “achieving positive effects while minimizing risks”, “not narrowing down the scope of life”, and “reducing resistance to chemotherapy”

Detection of subependymal veins using high-resolution magnetic resonance venography

High-resolution magnetic resonance venography (HR-MRV) of intracranial subependymal veins using a two-dimensional Fourier-transform time-of-flight technique was performed on normal volunteers and clinical cases of cerebral disease. For the pulse sequence, fast-field-echo sequence was used with the following parameters: TR/TE/ flip angle = 34ms/12ms/50deg., 256 x 256 matrix, 1 mm effective slice thickness, 150mm field of view, and one signal acquisition. Sequential vertical coronal sections were taken against the skull base. The anterior septal vein, the medial atrial vein, the anterior caudate vein and thalamostriate vein were detected in all subjects. In all clinical cases, HR-MRV was equal in diagnostic capability to conventional cerebral angiography.</p

Lenvatinib for Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer

Background: Lenvatinib has been approved by regulatory agencies in Japan, the United States, and the European Union for treatment of radioiodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer (RR-DTC). Thyroid cancer, however, is a clinically diverse disease that includes anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC), the subtype associated with the highest lethality. Effective therapy for ATC is an unmet need. Patients and methods: This phase 2, single-arm, open-label study in patients with thyroid cancer, including ATC, RR-DTC, and medullary thyroid cancer was conducted from 3 September 2012 to 9 July 2015. Patients received lenvatinib 24 mg daily until disease progression or development of unacceptable toxicity. The primary endpoint was safety, and the secondary endpoint was efficacy, as assessed by progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and objective response rate. Results: At data cutoff, 17 patients with ATC were enrolled. All experienced >= 1 treatment-emergent adverse event (TEAE). The most frequent TEAEs were decreased appetite (82%), hypertension (82%), fatigue (59%), nausea (59%), and proteinuria (59%). Of note, only one patient required lenvatinib withdrawal because of a TEAE, and this TEAE was considered unrelated to lenvatinib. The median PFS was 7.4 months [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.7-12.9], the median OS was 10.6 months (95% CI: 3.8-19.8), and the objective response rate was 24%. Conclusion: In this study, lenvatinib demonstrated manageable toxicities with dose adjustments and clinical activity in patients with ATC. This clinical activity of lenvatinib warrants further investigation in ATC

Early-stage antibody kinetics after the third dose of BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccination measured by a point-of-care fingertip whole blood testing

Amid the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic, we aimed to demonstrate the accuracy of the fingertip whole blood sampling test (FWT) in measuring the antibody titer and uncovering its dynamics shortly after booster vaccination. Mokobio SARS-CoV-2 IgM & IgG Quantum Dot immunoassay (Mokobio Biotechnology R&D Center Inc., MD, USA) was used as a point-of-care FWT in 226 health care workers (HCWs) who had received two doses of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech) at least 8 months prior. Each participant tested their antibody titers before and after the third-dose booster up to 14-days. The effect of the booster was observed as early as the fourth day after vaccination, which exceeded the detection limit (>30,000 U/mL) by 2.3% on the fifth day, 12.2% on the sixth day, and 22.5% after the seventh day. Significant positive correlations were observed between the pre- and post-vaccination (the seventh and eighth days) antibody titers (correlation coefficient, 0.405; p<0.001). FWT is useful for examining antibody titers as a point-of-care test. Rapid response of antibody titer started as early as the fourth day post-vaccination, while the presence of weak responders to BNT162b2 vaccine was indicated