LCA in Japan: policy and progress

A summary of the current Japanese activities related to Life Cycle Assessment are presented with a specific comparison of Life Cycle Impact Assessment in relation to European tendencies. Japanese organizations involved in LCA, recent legislation impacting LCA activities and LCA case studies are also tabulated. The LCA priorities of policy makers and industrialists are discussed in comparison and compared to those in the United States. Projects within the Life Cycle Assessment Society of Japan and the Man-Earth Project are highlighted including the construction of a public LCI data base and the prediction of 21st century environmental crise

PreFlap: From Photoacoustic Tomography Images to Vascular Mapping Sheets for Improved Preoperative Flap Evaluation

Objective: Advancements in technology have improved image acquisition and processing in the field of medical imaging, giving medical doctors the tools to implement effective medical care. In plastic surgery, despite advances in anatomical knowledge and technology, problems in preoperative planning for flap surgery remain. Methods: In this study, we propose a new protocol to analyze three-dimensional (3D) photoacoustic tomography images and generate two-dimensional (2D) mapping sheets that can help surgeons identify perforators and the perfusion territory during preoperative planning. The core of this protocol is PreFlap, a new algorithm that converts 3D photoacoustic tomography images into 2D vascular mapping images. Conclusion: Experimental results demonstrate that PreFlap can improve preoperative flap evaluation, thus can greatly saving surgeons' time and improving surgical outcomes

Improvement in freezing phenomenon of Parkinson's disease after DL-threo-3, 4-dihydroxyphenylserine.

A 77-year-old man with Parkinson's disease of long standing, under treatment with L-DOPA and benserazide, was administered DL-threo-3, 4-dihydroxyphenylserine (DL-threo-DOPS), a precursor of norepinephrine, for 10 days. With this administration the patient's freezing phenomenon was remarkably improved, and his dysarthria also showed improvement. When DL-threo-DOPS was suspended, the frozen gait returned on the third day to almost the former level, even though he continued to receive L-DOPA and benserazide. After administration of DL-threo-DOPS, the CSF level of 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (MHPG), a major metabolite of norepinephrine, was 127.5% of the pretreatment level. These observations suggest that DL-threo-DOPS can pass through the blood-brain barrier and change to norepinephrine, and that DL-threo-DOPS may be beneficial in the treatment of the freezing phenomenon of Parkinson's disease.</p

Solubility of artificial proteins with random sequences

AbstractA library of artificial random proteins of 141 amino acid residues of which 95 are random and which includes the 20 kinds of amino acids was prepared. Out of the 25 identified random proteins, 5 were soluble in the cell lysate, indicating that about 20% of the random proteins expressed in Escherichia coli are expected to be soluble. The soluble random proteins RP3–42 and RP3–45 and insoluble RP3–70 were purified. The solubility of the purified form is the same as that in the cell lysate

Efficacy of tumor-targeting Salmonella typhimurium A1-R in combination with anti-angiogenesis therapy on a pancreatic cancer patient-derived orthotopic xenograft (PDOX) and cell line mouse models.

The aim of the present study was to examine the efficacy of tumor-targeting Salmonella typhimurium A1-R treatment following anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy on VEGF-positive human pancreatic cancer. A pancreatic cancer patient-derived orthotopic xenograft (PDOX) that was VEGF-positive and an orthotopic VEGF-positive human pancreatic cancer cell line (MiaPaCa-2-GFP) as well as a VEGF-negative cell line (Panc-1) were tested. Nude mice with these tumors were treated with gemcitabine (GEM), bevacizumab (BEV), and S. typhimurium A1-R. BEV/GEM followed by S. typhimurium A1-R significantly reduced tumor weight compared to BEV/GEM treatment alone in the PDOX and MiaPaCa-2 models. Neither treatment was as effective in the VEGF-negative model as in the VEGF-positive models. These results demonstrate that S. typhimurium A1-R following anti-angiogenic therapy is effective on pancreatic cancer including the PDOX model, suggesting its clinical potential

Scale space calibrates present and subsequent spatial learning in Barnes maze in mice

Animals are capable of representing different scale spaces from smaller to larger ones. However, most laboratory animals live their life in a narrow range of scale spaces like home-cages and experimental setups, making it hard to extrapolate the spatial representation and learning process in large scale spaces from those in conventional scale spaces. Here, we developed a 3-meter diameter Barnes maze (BM3), then explored whether spatial learning in the Barnes maze (BM) is calibrated by scale spaces. Spatial learning in the BM3 was successfully established with a lower learning rate than that in a conventional 1-meter diameter Barnes maze (BM1). Specifically, analysis of exploration strategies revealed that the mice in the BM3 persistently searched certain places throughout the learning, while such places were rapidly decreased in the BM1. These results suggest dedicated exploration strategies requiring more trial-and-errors and computational resources in the BM3 than in the BM1, leading to a divergence of spatial learning between the BM1 and the BM3. We then explored whether prior learning in one BM scale calibrates subsequent spatial learning in another BM scale, and found asymmetric facilitation such that the prior learning in the BM3 facilitated the subsequent BM1 learning, but notvice versa. Thus, scale space calibrates both the present and subsequent BM learning. This is the first study to demonstrate scale-dependent spatial learning in BM in mice. The couple of the BM1 and the BM3 would be a suitable system to seek how animals represent different scale spaces with underlying neural implementation. Significance Statement Animals are capable of representing different scale spaces. However, whether scale space calibrates goal-directed spatial learning remains unclear. The Barnes maze is a well-established experimental paradigm to evaluate spatial learning in rodents. Here, we developed a larger scale 3-meter diameter Barnes maze (BM3) then compared various navigation features in mice between the BM3 and a conventional 1-meter diameter Barnes maze (BM1). We demonstrated that spatial learning on the BM3 was established, but required more trial-and-error and computational resources than in the BM1, prompting mice to visit certain places persistently. Such learning experiences in the BM3 facilitated subsequent spatial learning in the BM1, but not vice versa. These results suggest that scale space calibrates present and subsequent spatial learning