Road junction configurations and the severity of traffic accidents in Japan

In many countries, 40–60% of the traffic accidents occur at junctions, making the reduction of junction accidents paramount to achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals. In Japan, the road safety guidelines specify the proximity between junctions and non-perpendicular angles at junctions as the two main risk factors behind junction accidents, yet their impact remains understudied. Using binomial logistic regression models, this study investigates the impact of junction intervals and junction angles on the severity of traffic accidents. The study found that, in general, (1) shorter intervals between adjacent junctions helps reduce the risk of serious accidents, which is the opposite of the current road safety guidelines in Japan, and (2) results from the junction angle analysis were mixed but there was no evidence that the roads should meet at a right angle to reduce traffic accidents. Some types of accidents also returned a non-linear curve, e.g., vehicle-to-vehicle collisions at four-armed junctions involving a driver aged 65 years and over have the highest risk of fatal/serious accidents when adjacent junctions were 32 m apart, and the risk reduces at a shorter or longer interval. These results suggest that the current road safety guidelines require updating to improve road safety around junctions

Gene Expression Profiling of Bronchoalveolar Lavage Cells Preceding a Clinical Diagnosis of Chronic Lung Allograft Dysfunction.

BackgroundChronic Lung Allograft Dysfunction (CLAD) is the main limitation to long-term survival after lung transplantation. Although CLAD is usually not responsive to treatment, earlier identification may improve treatment prospects.MethodsIn a nested case control study, 1-year post transplant surveillance bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid samples were obtained from incipient CLAD (n = 9) and CLAD free (n = 8) lung transplant recipients. Incipient CLAD cases were diagnosed with CLAD within 2 years, while controls were free from CLAD for at least 4 years following bronchoscopy. Transcription profiles in the BAL cell pellets were assayed with the HG-U133 Plus 2.0 microarray (Affymetrix). Differential gene expression analysis, based on an absolute fold change (incipient CLAD vs no CLAD) >2.0 and an unadjusted p-value ≤0.05, generated a candidate list containing 55 differentially expressed probe sets (51 up-regulated, 4 down-regulated).ResultsThe cell pellets in incipient CLAD cases were skewed toward immune response pathways, dominated by genes related to recruitment, retention, activation and proliferation of cytotoxic lymphocytes (CD8+ T-cells and natural killer cells). Both hierarchical clustering and a supervised machine learning tool were able to correctly categorize most samples (82.3% and 94.1% respectively) into incipient CLAD and CLAD-free categories.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that a pathobiology, similar to AR, precedes a clinical diagnosis of CLAD. A larger prospective investigation of the BAL cell pellet transcriptome as a biomarker for CLAD risk stratification is warranted

An Unorthodox Introduction to QCD

These are lecture notes presented at the 2017 CTEQ Summer School at the University of Pittsburgh and the 2018 CTEQ Summer School at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez. The title is a reference to hep-th/0309149 and introduces perturbative QCD and its application to jet substructure from a bottom-up perspective based on the approximation of QCD as a weakly-coupled, conformal field theory. Using this approach, a simple derivation of the Sudakov form factor with soft gluon emission modeled as a Poisson process is presented. Topics of the identification and discrimination of quark- versus gluon-initiated jets and jet grooming are also discussed.Comment: 16 pages, 18 figures. Comments welcome!, v2: updated to include both lectures from the 2018 CTEQ schoo

Bern-Kosower Rule for Scalar QED

We derive a full Bern-Kosower-type rule for scalar QED starting from quantum field theory: we derive a set of rules for calculating $S$-matrix elements for any processes at any order of the coupling constant. Gauge-invariant set of diagrams in general is first written in the worldline path-integral expression. Then we integrate over $x(\tau)$, and the resulting expression is given in terms of correlation function on the worldline $\left< x(\tau) x(\tau') \right>$. Simple rules to decompose the correlation function into basic elements are obtained. Gauge transformation known as integration by parts technique can be used to reduce the number of independent terms before integration over proper-time variables. The surface terms can be omitted provided the external scalars are on-shell. Also, we clarify correspondence to the conventional Feynman rule, which enabled us to avoid any ambiguity coming from the infinite dimensionality of the path-integral approach.Comment: 38pages, 18 Postscript figures, uses epsf.st

Prescreening based on the presence of CT-scan abnormalities and biomarkers (KL-6 and SP-D) may reduce severe radiation pneumonitis after stereotactic radiotherapy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Purpose</p> <p>To determine the risk factors of severe radiation pneumonitis (RP) after stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for primary or secondary lung tumors.</p> <p>Materials and methods</p> <p>From January 2003 to March 2009, SBRT was performed on 117 patients (32 patients before 2005 and 85 patients after 2006) with lung tumors (primary = 74 patients and metastatic/recurrent = 43 patients) in our institution. In the current study, the results on cases with severe RP (grades 4-5) were evaluated. Serum Krebs von den Lungen-6 (KL-6) and serum Surfactant protein-D (SP-D) were used to predict the incidence of RP. A shadow of interstitial pneumonitis (IP) on the CT image before performing SBRT was also used as an indicator for RP. Since 2006, patients have been prescreened for biological markers (KL-6 & SP-D) as well as checking for an IP-shadow in CT.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Grades 4-5 RP was observed in nine patients (7.7%) after SBRT and seven of these cases (6.0%) were grade 5 in our institution. A correlation was found between the incidence of RP and higher serum KL-6 & SP-D levels. IP-shadow in patient's CT was also found to correlate well with the severe RP. Severe RP was reduced from 18.8% before 2005 to 3.5% after 2006 (<it>p </it>= 0.042). There was no correlation between the dose volume histogram parameters and these severe RP patients.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Patients presenting with an IP shadow in the CT and a high value of the serum KL-6 & SP-D before SBRT treatment developed severe radiation pneumonitis at a high rate. The reduction of RP incidence in patients treated after 2006 may have been attributed to prescreening of the patients. Therefore, pre-screening before SBRT for an IP shadow in CT and serum KL-6 & SP-D is recommended in the management and treatment of patients with primary or secondary lung tumors.</p

Development of a food frequency questionnaire to estimate habitual dietary intake in Japanese children

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) are used for epidemiological studies. Because of the wide variations in dietary habits within different populations, a FFQ must be developed to suit the specific group. To date, no FFQ has been developed for Japanese children. In this study, we developed a FFQ to assess the regular dietary intake of Japanese children. The FFQ included questions regarding both individual food items and mixed dishes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Children (3-11 years of age, n = 621) were recruited as subjects. Their parents or guardians completed a weighed dietary record (WDR) for each subject in one day. We defined FOOD to be not only as a single food item but also as a mixed dish. The dieticians conceptually grouped similar FOODs as FOOD types. We used a contribution analysis and a multiple regression analysis to select FOOD types.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We obtained a total of 586 children's dietary data (297 boys and 289 girls). In addition, we obtained 1,043 FOODs. Dieticians grouped into similar FOODs, yielding 275 FOOD types. A total of 115 FOOD types were chosen using a contribution analysis and a multiple regression analysis, then we excluded overlapping items. FOOD types that were eaten by fewer than 15 subjects were excluded; 74 FOOD types remained. We also added liver-based dishes that provided a high amount of retinol. A total of 75 FOOD types were finally determined for the FFQ. The frequency response formats were classified into four type categories: seven, eight, nine and eleven, according to the general intake frequency of each FOOD type. Information on portion size was obtained from the photographs of each listed FOOD type in real scale size, which was the average amount of the children's portion sizes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Using both a contribution analysis and a multiple regression analysis, we developed a 75-food item questionnaire from the study involving 586 children. The next step will involve the verification of FFQ reproducibility and validity.</p

Repeated freeze–thaw cycles reduce the survival rate of osteocytes in bone-tendon constructs without affecting the mechanical properties of tendons

Frozen bone-patellar tendon bone allografts are useful in anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction as the freezing procedure kills tissue cells, thereby reducing immunogenicity of the grafts. However, a small portion of cells in human femoral heads treated by standard bone-bank freezing procedures survive, thus limiting the effectiveness of allografts. Here, we characterized the survival rates and mechanisms of cells isolated from rat bones and tendons that were subjected to freeze–thaw treatments, and evaluated the influence of these treatments on the mechanical properties of tendons. After a single freeze–thaw cycle, most cells isolated from frozen bone appeared morphologically as osteocytes and expressed both osteoblast- and osteocyte-related genes. Transmission electron microscopic observation of frozen cells using freeze-substitution revealed that a small number of osteocytes maintained large nuclei with intact double membranes, indicating that these osteocytes in bone matrix were resistant to ice crystal formation. We found that tendon cells were completely killed by a single freeze–thaw cycle, whereas bone cells exhibited a relatively high survival rate, although survival was significantly reduced after three freeze–thaw cycles. In patella tendons, the ultimate stress, Young’s modulus, and strain at failure showed no significant differences between untreated tendons and those subjected to five freeze–thaw cycles. In conclusion, we identified that cells surviving after freeze–thaw treatment of rat bones were predominantly osteocytes. We propose that repeated freeze–thaw cycles could be applied for processing bone-tendon constructs prior to grafting as the treatment did not affect the mechanical property of tendons and drastically reduced surviving osteocytes, thereby potentially decreasing allograft immunogenecity