Japan's banking: The darkest hour before dawn: The future is in the hands of MoF

The current crisis in the financial system can only be solved quickly, and relatively easily, if the Ministry of Finance (MoF) acknowledged the need for injecting public funds into the system. MoF, however, also needs a political consensus on the issue. Any alternative, which relies heavily or exclusively on the strong banks, will be vehemently opposed by the healthy faction of the financial system. Any delay in solving the crisis through public funds will lead to a more expensive solution, with more casualties. A crisis feeling, therefore, seems to have developed recognizing that the status quo is untenable. As such, change, good or bad, is inevitable, and the next year will present the system with a very critical challenge, that may well prove to be the last opportunity for positive action. Again, positive action can only mean the use of public funds alongside private funds. The deflationary pressure on the economy continues to cause complications in resolving the banking crisis. Therefore, reversing deflation quickly is essential to helping the financial system deal with its problems. There are signs that the authorities are starting to act in the right direction, although the scope, size and timeliness of intervention remains to be seen

Quantitative Threshold Determination of Auditory Brainstem Responses in Mouse Models

The auditory brainstem response (ABR) is a scalp recording of potentials produced by sound stimulation, and is commonly used as an indicator of auditory function. However, the ABR threshold, which is the lowest audible sound pressure, cannot be objectively determined since it is determined visually using a measurer, and this has been a problem for several decades. Although various algorithms have been developed to objectively determine ABR thresholds, they remain lacking in terms of accuracy, efficiency, and convenience. Accordingly, we proposed an improved algorithm based on the mutual covariance at adjacent sound pressure levels. An ideal ABR waveform with clearly defined waves I–V was created; moreover, using this waveform as a standard template, the experimentally obtained ABR waveform was inspected for disturbances based on mutual covariance. The ABR testing was repeated if the value was below the established cross-covariance reference value. Our proposed method allowed more efficient objective determination of ABR thresholds and a smaller burden on experimental animals.Tanaka K., Ohara S., Matsuzaka T., et al. Quantitative Threshold Determination of Auditory Brainstem Responses in Mouse Models. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 24, 11393 (2023); https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241411393

女子短大生の4基本味に対する味覚感受性

女子短大生の鼓索神経支配領域の舌における味覚検査を甘味,塩味,酸味および苦味の4基本味について,濾紙ディスク法により行った。1)味の感受性は,これまでにもいわれているように個人差が大きいことが確認できた。2)味覚感度は,すべての測定部位を平均すると約86%の人が正常域にあった。味質別に比較すると,塩味に対しては約91%の人が正常域にあり,次いで,苦味が90%,甘味が88%,酸味が78%の順であった。一方,高度の味覚低下者は,すべての部位を平均すると約5%を占めた。味質別に比較すると,酸味が10.3%で高度の味覚低下者が最も多く,塩味が4.3%,苦味が3.4%,甘味が2.6%の順であった。3)舌尖部では,4味質に対する味覚感受性に有意差はみられなかった。しかし,舌縁部では,右側で酸味に対して鈍く,左側で塩味に対して敏感に有意差がみられた。このことは,舌縁部の左右では感受性が異なるということ,また,各味質に対する感受性が一般に提唱されている部位差とはやや異なることを示している。4)味覚検査を繰り返すと,感度が同じか,上昇する人が多く,学習効果が認められた

Antigen-specific cytokine profiles for pulmonary Mycobacterium avium complex disease stage diagnosis

IntroductionControlling pulmonary Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) disease is difficult because there is no way to know the clinical stage accurately. There have been few attempts to use cell-mediated immunity for diagnosing the stage. The objective of this study was to characterize cytokine profiles of CD4+T and CD19+B cells that recognize various Mycobacterium avium-associated antigens in different clinical stages of MAC.MethodsA total of 47 MAC patients at different stages based on clinical information (14 before-treatment, 16 on-treatment, and 17 after-treatment) and 17 healthy controls were recruited. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were cultured with specific antigens (MAV0968, 1160, 1276, and 4925), and the cytokine profiles (IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-2, IL-10, IL-13, and IL-17) of CD4+/CD3+ and CD19+ cells were analyzed by flow cytometry.ResultsThe response of Th1 cytokines such as IFN-γ and TNF-α against various antigens was significantly higher in both the on-treatment and after-treatment groups than in the before-treatment group and control (P < 0.01–0.0001 and P < 0.05–0.0001). An analysis of polyfunctional T cells suggested that the presence of IL-2 is closely related to the stage after the start of treatment (P = 0.0309-P < 0.0001) and is involved in memory function. Non-Th1 cytokines, such as IL-10 and IL-17, showed significantly higher responses in the before-treatment group (P < 0.0001 and P < 0.01–0.0001). These responses were not observed with purified protein derivative (PPD). CD19+B cells showed a response similar to that of CD4+T cells.ConclusionThere is a characteristic cytokine profile at each clinical stage of MAC

Taking Account of the User's View in 3D Multimodal Instruction Dialogue

While recent advancements in virtual reality technology have created a rich communication interface linking humans and computers, there has been little work on building dialogue systems for 3D virtual worlds. This paper proposes a method for altering the instruction dialogue to match the user's view in a virtual environment. We illustrate the method with the system MID-3D, which interactively instructs the user on dismantling some parts of a car. First, in order to change the content of the instruction dialogue to match the user's view, we extend the re#nement-driven planning algorithm by using the user's view as a plan constraint. Second, to manage the dialogue smoothly, the system keeps track of the user's viewpoint as part of the dialogue state and uses this information for coping with interruptive subdialogues. These mechanisms enable MID-3D to set instruction dialogues in an incremental way# it takes account of the user's view even when it changes frequently. 1 Introduction In a..