Biological Reconstruction Using Liquid Nitrogen-Treated Tumor Bearing Bone

In general, a tumor prosthesis is used for reconstruction after removal of osteosarcoma. However, the durability of artificial materials becomes a problem in the long term, and many patients inevitably undergo revision due to loose or damaged prostheses. Moreover, preservation of articular surface is the key to maintain better limb function for long duration. Reconstruction of affected limbs using biological materials has been sought to overcome the aforementioned problems. In some countries, it is significantly difficult to obtain allograft as a biological reconstruction material because of socio-religious or cost problem. Thus, a biological reconstruction method has been developed in which the patient’s affected bone is treated and used for reconstruction. Especially in recycling treatment for affected autologous bone, liquid nitrogen treatment has several favorable characteristics. There is optimal morphological fit because the treated bone itself is one’s own, and bone strength is maintained after treatment. Satisfactory bone union and bone regeneration are expected to be achieved due to good osteoconduction and osteoinduction because proteins and enzymes are preserved in the bone

In silico analysis of inner ear development using public whole embryonic body single-cell RNA-sequencing data

The inner ear comprises four epithelial domains: the cochlea, vestibule, semicircular canals, and endolymphatic duct/sac. These structures are segregated at embryonic day 13.5 (E13.5). However, these four anatomical structures remain undefined at E10.5. Here, we aimed to identify lineage-specific genes in the early developing inner ear using published data obtained from single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) of embryonic mice. We downloaded 5000 single-cell transcriptome data, named ‘auditory epithelial trajectory’, from the Mouse Organogenesis Cell Atlas. The dataset was supposed to include otic epithelial cells at E9.5–13.5. We projected the 5000 ​cells onto a two-dimensional space encoding the transcriptional state and visualised the pattern of otic epithelial cell differentiation. We identified 15 clusters, which were annotated as one of the four components of the inner ear epithelium using known genes that characterise the four different tissues. Additionally, we classified 15 clusters into sub-regions of the four inner ear components. By comparing transcriptomes between these 15 clusters, we identified several candidates of lineage-specific genes. Characterising these new candidate genes will help future studies about inner ear development

Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders and Associated Factors in Teachers of Physically and Intellectually Disabled Pupils

Teachers in schools for physically and intellectually disabled pupils are assumed to have a risk of developing usculoskeletal disorders including the cervicobrachial and lower back regions. To date, however, studies concerning these issues are extremely limited. The present study aimed at clarifying the magnitude of the musculoskeletal disorders among the teachers, its work-relatedness and associated factors. First, we conducted self-administered questionnaires and medical checkups simultaneously for 126 female nursery school nurses to ascertain the validity of questions and answer options which we developed for epidemiologic research. Questions "haveyou had any pain or stiffness in your neck, shoulders or arms in the past month?" and "have you had any pain or stiffness in your lower back?", and an answer option "almost all day, everyday" were found to correlate well with the results of clinical examinations and difficulties in daily activities. Secondly, we analyzed self-administered questionnaires of 975 teachers working for physically and intellectually disabled pupils at municipal schools in a city. The questions and answer options which had been validated in the first study were used. In the males 16％ and 20％ complained "almost all day, everyday" of the cervicobrachial and lower back symptoms, respectively, and in the females 20％ and 16％ in that order. Adjusted odds ratios of both symptoms increased with an increase in objective scores which were obtained by the homogeneity analysis and were considered to reflect the quantity of nursing care burden on the teachers. In case of the cervicobrachial symptom females against males had a significantly higher odds ratio than unity. These results demonstrated that the musculoskeletal symptoms complained of highly by the teachers were work-related, and that the question and answer options we developed could be useful parameters in epidemiologic research for the symptoms now widely prevailing in various workplaces

PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECT OF TRAPEZE POSTURES ON RIGHTING FORCE IN SAILING

This study examined the effect of change of “Trapeze” postures in sailing on the horizontal force for righting the boat. Three healthy university sailors participated. The subjects were instructed to successively change their trapeze posture. The traction force of the wire was measured from which its horizontal component for righting the boat (FH) was computed. A distinct change of FH was observed when the subjects extend their legs during trapezing. From this result, it can be suggested that the change of the trapeze posture by extending the leg linked to expand the angle between the wire and mast, thereby contributing to the increase the resultant FH

Impact of System and Diagnostic Errors on Medical Litigation Outcomes: Machine Learning-Based Prediction Models

No prediction models using use conventional logistic models and machine learning exist for medical litigation outcomes involving medical doctors. Using a logistic model and three machine learning models, such as decision tree, random forest, and light-gradient boosting machine (LightGBM), we evaluated the prediction ability for litigation outcomes among medical litigation in Japan. The prediction model with LightGBM had a good predictive ability, with an area under the curve of 0.894 (95% CI; 0.893-0.895) in all patients' data. When evaluating the feature importance using the SHApley Additive exPlanation (SHAP) value, the system error was the most significant predictive factor in all clinical settings for medical doctors' loss in lawsuits. The other predictive factors were diagnostic error in outpatient settings, facility size in inpatients, and procedures or surgery settings. Our prediction model is useful for estimating medical litigation outcomes