Runaway and Resistance against and within Migration Infrastructures: The cases of Vietnamese migrant workers in Japan and Taiwan

The 13th Next-Generation Global Workshop第13回次世代グローバルワークショップテーマ: New Risks and Resilience in Asian Societies and the World 日程: 21-23 November, 2020 開催場所: ベトナム社会科学院(ハノイ)/Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences(No. 1 Lieu Giai street, Ba Dinh, Hanoi, Vietnam) ※Due to the COVID-19, the workshop will be held at ONLINE for overseas participants(not from Vietnam)/ONSITE for Vietnamese participants

Novel enzyme activities and functional plasticity revealed by recombining highly homologous enzymes

AbstractBackground: Directed evolution by DNA shuffling has been used to modify physical and catalytic properties of biological systems. We have shuffled two highly homologous triazine hydrolases and conducted an exploration of the substrate specificities of the resulting enzymes to acquire a better understanding of the possible distributions of novel functions in sequence space.Results: Both parental enzymes and a library of 1600 variant triazine hydrolases were screened against a synthetic library of 15 triazines. The shuffled library contained enzymes with up to 150-fold greater transformation rates than either parent. It also contained enzymes that hydrolyzed five of eight triazines that were not substrates for either starting enzyme.Conclusions: Permutation of nine amino acid differences resulted in a set of enzymes with surprisingly diverse patterns of reactions catalyzed. The functional richness of this small area of sequence space may aid our understanding of both natural and artificial evolution

Administration of Renin-Angiotensin System Inhibitor Affects Tumor Recurrence and Progression in Non-Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer Patients

Objective: To evaluate the effects of renin-angiotensin system inhibitors (RASIs) on tumor-recurrence and diseaseprogression in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) patients. Methods: From 2006-2015, 348 NMIBC patients at Siriraj Hospital were recruited for this study. Tumor-recurrence was identified after the transurethral resection of bladder cancer (TUR-BT) and pathological confirmation of NMIBC, while stage-progression was defined as muscularis-propria invasion after pathological review or metastases. Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess the recurrence-free survival (RFS) and progression-free survival (PFS) rates. Results: Of the 348 patients, 86 (24.7%) received RASIs at the first TUR-BT. The median age was 68 years, and it was significantly older for the RASI cohort. No differences in the tumor characteristics of the groups were found. The median follow-up periods for tumor-recurrence and stage-progression were 2.3 and 3.7 years, respectively. Forty percent of the patients experienced tumor-recurrence, with the no-RASI cohort experiencing a significantly higher tumor-recurrence rate (46% versus 22%, p<0.001). The 5-year RFS rates were 54% and 78% for the no-RASI and RASI cohorts, respectively (p=0.001). Stage-progression was observed in 6% of the patients. The 5-year PFS rates were 87% and 97% for the no-RASI and RASI cohorts, respectively. On univariate and multivariate analyses, a tumor size ≥3 cm and tumor multifocality were associated with recurrent bladder cancer (p<0.02). On the other hand, the administration of RASIs was associated with a reduced recurrence (p≤0.002). Conclusion: Our study suggests that RASI administration might be a potential factor to prevent bladder cancer recurrence. Further study is needed to evaluate the effects of RASIs

Outcomes of surgical treatment for upper urinary tract transitional cell carcinoma: Comparison of retroperitoneoscopic and open nephroureterectomy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objectives</p> <p>To determine the surgical and oncologic outcomes in patients who underwent retroperitoneoscopic nephroureterectomy (RNU) in comparison to standard open nephroureterectomy (ONU) for upper urinary tract transitional cell carcinoma (TCC).</p> <p>Patients and methods</p> <p>From April 2001 to January 2007, 60 total nephroureterectomy were performed for upper tract TCC at Siriraj Hospital. Of the 60 patients, thirty-one were treated with RNU and open bladder cuff excision, and twenty-nine with ONU. Our data were reviewed and analyzed retrospectively. The recorded data included sex, age, history of bladder cancer, type of surgery, tumor characteristics, postoperative course, disease recurrence and progression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The mean operative time was longer in the RNU group than in the ONU group (258.8 versus 190.6 min; p = 0. < 001). On the other hand, the mean blood loss and the dose of parenteral analgesia (morphine sulphate) were lower in the RNU group (289.3 versus 313.7 ml and 2.05 versus 6.72 mg; p = 0.868 and p = 0.018, respectively). There were two complications in each group. No significant difference in p stage and grade in both-groups (p = 0.951, p = 0.077). One patient with RNU had lymph node involvement, three in ONU. Mean follow up was 26.4 months (range 3–72) for RNU and 27.9 months (range 3–63) for ONU. No port metastasis occurred during follow up in RNU group. Tumor recurrence developed in 11 patients (bladder recurrence in 9 patients, local recurrence in 2 patients) in the RNU group and 14 patients (bladder recurrence in 13 patients, local recurrence in 1 patient) in the ONU group. No significant difference was detected in the tumor recurrence rate between the two procedures (p = 0.2716). Distant metastases developed in 3 patients (9.7%) after RNU and 2 patients (6.9%) after ONU. The 2 year disease specific survival rate after RNU and ONU was 86.3% and 92.5%, respectively (p = 0.8227).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Retroperitoneoscopic nephroureterectomy is less invasive than open surgery and is an oncological feasible operation. Thus, the results of our study supported the continued development of laparoscopic technique in the management of upper tract TCC.</p

Administration of Renin-Angiotensin System Inhibitor Affects Tumor Recurrence and Progression in Non-Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer Patients

Objective: To evaluate the effects of renin-angiotensin system inhibitors (RASIs) on tumor-recurrence and disease-progression in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) patients. Methods: From 2006-2015, 348 NMIBC patients at Siriraj Hospital were recruited for this study. Tumor-recurrence was identified after the transurethral resection of bladder cancer (TUR-BT) and pathological confirmation of NMIBC, while stage-progression was defined as muscularis-propria invasion after pathological review or metastases. Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess the recurrence-free survival (RFS) and progression-free survival (PFS) rates. Results: Of the 348 patients, 86 (24.7%) received RASIs at the first TUR-BT. The median age was 68 years, and it was significantly older for the RASI cohort. No differences in the tumor characteristics of the groups were found. The median follow-up periods for tumor-recurrence and stage-progression were 2.3 and 3.7 years, respectively. Forty percent of the patients experienced tumor-recurrence, with the no-RASI cohort experiencing a significantly higher tumor-recurrence rate (46% versus 22%, p<0.001). The 5-year RFS rates were 54% and 78% for the no-RASI and RASI cohorts, respectively (p=0.001). Stage-progression was observed in 6% of the patients. The 5-year PFS rates were 87% and 97% for the no-RASI and RASI cohorts, respectively. On univariate and multivariate analyses, a tumor size ≥3 cm and tumor multifocality were associated with recurrent bladder cancer (p<0.02). On the other hand, the administration of RASIs was associated with a reduced recurrence (p≤0.002). Conclusion: Our study suggests that RASI administration might be a potential factor to prevent bladder cancer recurrence. Further study is needed to evaluate the effects of RASIs

การใช้บันทึกแบบสนทนาเพื่อพัฒนาความสามารถทางการเขียนภาษาอังกฤษและความเต็มใจในการสื่อสารภาษาอังกฤษของผู้เรียน

Thesis (M.A., Teaching English as an International Language)--Prince of Songkla University, 201

Reliability of Structural Wall Shear Design for Tall Reinforced Concrete Core Wall Buildings

Along the west coast of the United States, reinforced concrete core wall systems are commonly selected as seismic force resisting systems for tall buildings. During strong ground shaking, core wall systems are intended to dissipate energy by yielding of coupling beams, followed by flexural yielding at the wall base. Although the wall behavior is governed by flexure, the wall design is often governed by shear, as the walls experience high shear demands, usually up to the ACI318-11 code limiting shear stress of 8∙√(f'c ) psi over a significant wall height. The high shear demands are due to a lack of redundancy in tall buildings, as the wall lengths are limited to the perimeter of the elevator core.Design of tall buildings is typically conducted using performance-based design procedures recommended by Los Angeles Tall Buildings Structural Design Council (LATBSDC, 2014) or Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center Tall Buildings Initiative (PEER TBI, 2010). Provisions in these two documents recommend shear design per acceptance criterion Fuc ≤ κi ϕ Fn,e, where Fuc is 1.5 times the mean shear demand resulting from a suite of ground motions, Fn,e is the nominal strength computed from expected material properties, κi is the risk reduction factor based on risk categories, and ϕ is the uncertainty in Fn,e. The 1.5 factor applied to the mean shear demand is referred to as the demand factor, γ. Although shear failure can be fatal due to its sudden and brittle nature, the reliability of this shear design acceptance criterion has not yet been thoroughly researched. To assess seismic reliability of structural wall shear design acceptance criterion, dispersion in structural responses, specifically for shear demands, must be quantified. Dispersion in structural responses (referred to as engineering demand parameters, EDPs) primarily results from three sources, namely, record-to-record (RTR) variability, modeling and/or model parameter uncertainties, and design uncertainties. To study how these uncertainties contribute to dispersion in tall building EDPs, eleven input random variables (expected to be the most relevant) were selected. Specifically, uncertainties in scaled ground motions, unconfined and confined concrete compressive strengths, reinforcing steel yield strength, shear modulus, coupling beam strength, seismic mass, dead and live gravity loads, damping, and shear wall design variations were considered. A series of 20 and 30-story nonlinear models for reinforced-concrete core wall systems were built and Monte Carlo simulations were utilized to assign values for random variables and to perform nonlinear response history analyses. Analyses were performed at five seismic hazard levels corresponding to return periods of 25, 43, 475, 2495, and 4975 years, until an adequate convergence in dispersion measure was reached. Selected EDPs (base shear, roof drifts, coupling beam rotations, and structural wall boundary element axial strains) were evaluated and statistical parameters were quantified. Results show that dispersion in EDPs was the largest for coupling beam rotations and shear wall axial strains. Total dispersion, measured in coefficient of variation, ranged between 0.15 and 0.85, considering all EDPs at all five hazard levels. The relative contributions from RTR variability and model parameter/design uncertainties accounted for 72-98% and 2-28% of the total dispersion, respectively. Fitted probability distributions were either normal or lognormal for all EDPs and using correlated random variables for model parameter uncertainties resulted in changes in dispersion of -6% to 5% compared with using independent random variables.Using the measured dispersion values, the current recommendations in Los Angeles Tall Buildings Structural Design Council (LATBSDC, 2014) were reviewed for shear design of structural walls in tall reinforced-concrete core wall buildings (Fuc ≤ κi ϕFn,e). Both closed-form solutions using full distribution methods and Monte Carlo simulation results were used to assess reliability of the current shear design acceptance criterion. Statistical parameters were established for shear demand by using measured dispersion values from nonlinear response history analyses of tall reinforced-concrete core wall buildings, and experimental test results from shear-controlled walls were used to establish statistical parameters for shear capacity. A range of reliability results were computed for various shear demand and capacity statistical parameters. The current shear design acceptance criterion using γ=1.5 and ϕ=1.0 resulted in 94.2% reliability for structural walls with f’c &lt; 8ksi and 96.5% reliability for structural walls with f’c ≥ 8ksi. Minimum values for the demand factor, γ, are tabulated for various risk categories defined per ASCE7-10.Results suggest that the use of ϕ=1.0, along with appropriate expected material properties, produce an acceptable probability of failure. Per Pacific Earthquake Engineering Center Tall Buildings Initiative (PEER TBI, 2010), the recommended use of ϕ=0.75 appears excessively conservative. However, due to a lack of experimental tests on possible shear strength degradation in walls that yield in flexure, limitations on curvature ductility or plastic rotation demands are recommended in the plastic hinge regions. Moreover, since this study is based on variations of results from two prototype tall core wall buildings; to reduce the potential conservatism in the current guidelines, a comprehensive reliability study including a larger population of tall buildings is further needed to calibrate γ and ϕ factors