Re-thinking of "Chintanakan Mai" (new thinking) : new perspective for understanding Lao PDR

To date, many previous studies have viewed "Chintanakan Mai" (New Thinking), which was introduced in 1986, as one of the most important factors required for understanding present-day Laos. They tend to see the year 1986 as a watershed in Lao history and divide the history after 1975 into two periods before and after 1986: a period of socialism and a period of reform or market economy, respectively. Therefore, they are likely to see the current changes in Laos as the result or achievement of the reform started in 1986. The year 1986 is always a starting point for understanding Laos today. However, I suggest a different perspective and attempt to re-examine "Chintanakan Mai." "Chintanakan Mai" is not a watershed in Lao history, but rather a temporary slogan to advance postwar reconstruction. In this paper, I try to establish a new perspective for understanding Laos today

Laos: Seeking a relationship with China (Japanese)

In recent years, following huge changes in the international politics of East Asia, Laos's geopolitical position has once again been spotlighted, with some even speaking of their expectations that the country's position will rise from being an inland country to being a bridge country. However, without assistance from other countries, it is extremely difficult for the country to run itself. Against this background, its relationship with China, which provides large amounts of financial aid and investment, is becoming the greatest issue for Laos today. A typical example of this is new urban construction projects in Vientiane City in exchange for aid for the construction of a sports stadium. Although deepening its relationship with China brings Laos benefits, it is also creating several very serious problems, such as land and environmental issues as well as Laos's acceptance of Chinese into the country. These problems are not all due to the deepening of the China-Laos relationship; there are also problems with the Laos Government's development policies. However, it is a fact that most of these problems have arisen as a result of Laos's deepening dependence on China. Because the current China-Laos relationship has been built from the beginning to be advantageous to China, it is enormously difficult for Laos to develop an equal relationship with China. However, while still continuing to maintain its bond with China, it is important that Laos not accept aid and investment randomly but instead determine what is beneficial for the country and its people. An especially important issue is how Laos should deal with China as a member of ASEAN. Whatever the case, Laos faces difficult steering in its diplomacy due to its geographical and historical remoteness.

Utilization of Chinese fast-growing trees and the effect of alternating lamination using mixed-species eucalyptus and poplar veneers

Over the past few decades, the sustainable forest area in China has increased remarkably, with 2400 million cubic meters of eucalyptus produced in 2018 in Guangxi which is the largest plantation area in China. In this study, the effect of alternating lamination using soft poplar veneers and hard eucalyptus veneers, on the mechanical properties of laminated veneer lumber (LVL), was examined. Eucalyptus and poplar veneers were imported from China to Japan to manufacture the LVL. For both eucalyptus and poplar veneers, the pith side (innerwood) sheets were lighter in density than the bark side (outerwood) sheets. The specific Young’s modulus of alternating LVL with hard eucalyptus veneers and soft poplar veneers was smaller than that of the mono-species LVL of eucalyptus and poplar. Strain distributions were obtained with the compression test by using the digital image correlation method. Normal strains showed that the hard eucalyptus layer behaved as a thin plate, whereas the soft poplar layer mitigated the movement of the hard eucalyptus layer. Alternating lamination decreased the variation in the elastic modulus of LVL made from fast-growing species. Therefore, the soft layers mitigated the movement of the hard layers, which had large variations in mechanical properties

Phonon Transmission Rate, Fluctuations, and Localization in Random Semiconductor Superlattices: Green's Function Approach

We analytically study phonon transmission and localization in random superlattices by using a Green's function approach. We derive expressions for the average transmission rate and localization length, or Lyapunov exponent, in terms of the superlattice structure factor. This is done by considering the backscattering of phonons, due to the complex mass density fluctuations, which incorporates all of the forward scattering processes. These analytical results are applied to two types of random superlattices and compared with numerical simulations based on the transfer matrix method. Our analytical results show excellent agreement with the numerical data. A universal relation for the transmission fluctuations versus the average transmission is derived explicitly, and independently confirmed by numerical simulations. The transient of the distribution of transmission to the log-normal distribution for the localized phonons is also studied.Comment: 36 pages, Late

Novel Reporter System Monitoring IL-18 Specific Signaling Can Be Applied to High-Throughput Screening

Very recently, the immunotherapies against cancer, autoimmune diseases, and infection have been feasible and promising. Thus, we have examined the possibility whether or not human gamma delta T cells can be applied for the novel immunotherapies. We previously established the cells stably maintaining NFkB-driven human secreted embryonic alkaline phosphatase (SEAP) expression. The cells can be used to determine the transcription activity of NFkB with high-standard dynamic range and accuracy. Because IL-18 is a kind of cytokines that enhances cytotoxicity and activity of human gamma delta T cells through NFkB activation, we have focused on the activity and signaling of IL-18. In this study, we modified the previous reporter cell that can determine the transcription activity of NFkB to express two subunits consisted of human IL-18 receptor. The modified cells secreted SEAP in response to treatment with human recombinant IL-18 in a concentration-dependent manner. We also observed the concentration-dependently enhancement of NFkB activity in the cells treated with mouse recombinant IL-18 although the affinity was lower compared to human recombinant IL-18. We also previously established the cells stably expressing and secreting human recombinant IL-18 and then validated whether or not the conditioned medium from the cells activate NFkB transcription activity using this assay. Our university has kept collecting many extracts from over 18,000 marine bacteria in our local sea around Omura bay-fungi, plants for Chinese herbal medicine, and so on-and also have kept gathering synthetic compounds from many Japanese chemists as drug libraries. Finally, in order to identify drugs mimicking IL-18 biological activity or possessing inhibitory effects on IL-18-induced NFkB, we demonstrated drug screening using number of extracts derived from marine bacteria and synthetic compounds

Diagnostic Performance of 11C-choline PET/CT and FDG PET/CT in Prostate Cancer

We compared 11C-choline and FDG PET/CT scan findings for the staging and restaging of prostate cancer. Twenty Japanese prostate cancer patients underwent 11C-choline and FDG PET/CT before (n=5) or after (n=15) treatment. Using a five-point scale, we compared these scanning modalities regarding patient- and lesion-based diagnostic performance for local recurrence, untreated primary tumor, and lymph node and bony metastases. Of the 20 patients, documented local lesions, and node and bony metastases were present in 11 (55.0%), 9 (45.0%), and 13 (65.0%), respectively. The patient-based sensitivity/specificity/accuracy/area under the receiver-operating-characteristic curve (AUC) values for 11C-choline-PET/CT for diagnosing local lesions were 90.9% /100%/ 95.0% / 1.0, whereas those for FDG-PET/CT were 45.5% /100%/ 75.0% / 0.773. Those for 11C-choline-PET/CT for node metastasis were 88.9% /100%/ 95.0% / 0.944, and those for FDG-PET/CT were 44.4%/100%/75.0%/0.722. Those for 11C-choline-PET/CT for bone metastasis were 84.6%/100%/90.0%/0.951, and those for FDG-PET/CT were 76.9% /100%/ 85.0% / 0.962. The AUCs for local lesion and node metastasis differed significantly (p=0.0039, p=0.011, respectively). The lesion-based detection rates of 11C-choline compared to FDG PET/CT for local lesion, and node and bone metastases were 91.7% vs. 41.7%, 92.0% vs. 32.0%, and 94.8% vs. 83.0% (p=0.041, p=0.0030, p<0.0001), respectively. 11C-choline-PET/CT is more useful for the staging and restaging of prostate cancer than FDG-PET/CT in Japanese men

Patterns of outgrowth of regenerating axons through spinal cord lesion

We found that bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) do not survive for long enough to serve as a scaffold for regenerating axons after transplantation in the injured spinal cord of rats. However, axonal regeneration was facilitated, possibly by trophic factors secreted from transplanted BMSCs. Regenerating axons were not associated with astrocytes, but surrounded by Schwann cells (SCs), and embedded in collagen fibril matrices just as the axons of peripheral nerves. Experiments involving the transplantation of SCs themselves indicated that, besides exogenous SCs, intrinsic SCs infiltrated the lesion and formed myelin sheaths on regenerating axons in the same manner as described with BMSC transplantation. The transplantation of olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) showed that OECs themselves enclosed regenerating axons in the same manner as SCs. No study has been carried out to address whether such Schwann-like cells were derived from transplanted OECs or intrinsic SCs. However, the possibility cannot be excluded that intrinsic SCs contributed to surround regenerating axons. Neural stem cells (NSCs) derived from iPS cells survived long-term, emanating numerous axons that extended over a long distance through the host spinal cord tissue. However, no myelination occurred on regenerating axons, and no behavioral improvement was observed. It would be difficult to manipulate iPS-derived NSCs to appropriately integrate them into the host spinal cord tissue. In this respect, iPS cells have crucial problems concerning whether they can be integrated appropriately into the host tissue. Muse cells (multilineage-differentiating stress-enduring cells) were separated as SSEA3-positive cells from BMSCs. Transplanted Muse cells survived long-term, but they were not as effective as non-Muse cells or BMSCs for the treatment of infarcted brains, suggesting that trophic factors from non-Muse cells and BMSCs are involved in those effects. These findings indicate that intrinsic SCs and trophic factors released from transplants may play important roles in nerve regeneration of the spinal cord. Differing from the generally believed pattern of regeneration, glial cells are not necessarily needed as the scaffolds for growing axons in the spinal cord