The internet as an occupation : The relation between the disabled person and the internet according to data in newspapers

「新聞の記事の中で出現する障害者とインターネットのかかわりは,作業療法における作業の概念でとらえるとどのような特性があるのか」という研究疑問を設定し,障害者のインターネット利用状況に関する枠組み作りを試みた.今回の研究では,全国紙の新聞1紙を対象とし,データとして検出した記事の類似した内容をまとめ,KJ法の考え方を用いて,共通した概念を抽出する方法で行った.この手順は,KJ法を基に開発されたコンピュータープログラムであるISOP-KJ法を補助的に使用した.その分析の結果,6つの大きなカテゴリーを抽出した.インターネットの活用は,作業療法でいう,作業療法として追及していく「作業」を強力に実現していく手段であり,目的にもなり得るという仮説を形成できた.インターネットを利用しての「自己維持活動」,「仕事」,「遊び」,「社会参加」は,「コンピュータによって形成される身体的な接触のない状態で情報伝達が生じる環境」の結果生じる作業といえるので,「バーチャル作業(virtual occupation)」と定義できると考えた. ““The internet can be very helpful if it is fully made use of by the disabled person."This statementmay be true, but the questions arise in what ways, in what fields and to what extent it can be useful.Inorder to obtain answers to those questions, we undertook research through a technique similar to the KJ-method, by collecting related articles from a certain nationally-circulated newspaper as data. Finally, thisdata verified that the internet makes it possible for the disabled to take part in social activities more easilyand willingly and to improve their activities in daily life, both their productive activities and their leisureactivities. We believe that we can define the activities produced by utilizing the internet as a virtualoccupation

The antioxidant N-acetyl cysteine suppresses lidocaine-induced intracellular reactive oxygen species production and cell death in neuronal SH-SY5Y cells

Analysis of cell apoptosis by FACS. Levels of cell apoptosis were measured using an Annexin V-FITC Apoptosis Detection Kit (BioVision, Milpitas, CA, USA), according to the manufacturer’s instructions. For these analyses, SH-SY5Y cells were seeded into 6-well plates (3 × 105 cells/well) and incubated overnight. The following day, cells were treated with the indicated concentrations of the appropriate drug(s) for varying lengths of time and harvested by centrifugation at 1200 rpm for 3 min. The culture supernatants were discharged, and the resulting pellets were resuspended in a mixture comprised of 500 μl binding buffer, 5 μl Annexing V-FITC, and 5 μl propidium iodide (PI; 50 μg/ml) for 5 min at room temperature in the dark and analyzed using a FACSCalibur flow cytometer (BD Biosciences, San Jose, CA, USA). (PDF 2009 kb

Efficacy and Safety of External-beam Radiation Therapy for Unresectable Primary or Local Recurrent Cholangiocarcinoma

Background/Aim: Treatment options for unresectable cholangiocarcinoma are limited. The aim of the study was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of definitive external-beam radiation therapy (EBRT) for patients with unresectable cholangiocarcinoma. Patients and Methods: Patients with unresectable primary cholangiocarcinoma, or local recurrent cholangiocarcinoma after primary surgery, without distant metastasis who received definitive EBRT (≥45 Gy) between January 2006 and December 2020 at our Institution were analyzed retrospectively. EBRT was basically performed using conventional fractionation (1.8-2 Gy per fraction). Prophylactic nodal irradiation was not performed. Results: A total of 21 consecutive patients were analyzed: 7 primary and 14 recurrent cases. The median age was 70 (range=38–85) years at initiation of EBRT. A median dose of 54 (range=45-60) Gy comprising 1.8 (range=1.8-3) Gy per fraction was administered to the primary/recurrent local tumor site. The median follow-up period was 21.6 months. The 2-year overall survival, cause-specific survival, progression-free survival, and local recurrence-free rates were 35.7, 35.7, 16.1, and 32.7%, respectively. Long-term local control (>2 years after EBRT) was achieved in 19.0%. Grade 3 toxicities related to EBRT were observed in 4.8% (duodenum hemorrhage). No grade 4 or higher toxicities were observed. Conclusion: Definitive EBRT for unresectable cholangiocarcinoma was feasible and achieved long-term local control in a subset of patients. As the avoidance of local recurrence may lead to the benefits of prolonging biliary patency and subsequently alleviating the need for an invasive procedure for biliary drainage, EBRT could be one sustainable therapeutic option for patients with unresectable cholangiocarcinoma

Suppression of mitochondrial oxygen metabolism mediated by the transcription factor HIF-1 alleviates propofol-induced cell toxicity

A line of studies strongly suggest that the intravenous anesthetic, propofol, suppresses mitochondrial oxygen metabolism. It is also indicated that propofol induces the cell death in a reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent manner. Because hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) is a transcription factor which is involved in cellular metabolic reprogramming by modulating gene expressions of enzymes including glycolysis pathway and oxygen utilization of mitochondria, we examined the functional role of HIF-1 activity in propofol-induced cell death. The role of HIF-1 activity on oxygen and energy metabolisms and propofol-induced cell death and caspase activity was examined in renal cell-derived RCC4 cells: RCC4-EV cells which lack von Hippel-Lindau protein (VHL) protein expression and RCC4-VHL cells, which express exogenous VHL, and in neuronal SH-SY5Y cells. It was demonstrated that HIF-1 is involved in suppressing oxygen consumption and facilitating glycolysis in cells and that the resistance to propofol-induced cell death was established in a HIF-1 activation-dependent manner. It was also demonstrated that HIF-1 activation by treatment with HIFα-hydroxylase inhibitors such as n-propyl gallate and dimethyloxaloylglycine, alleviated the toxic effects of propofol. Thus, the resistance to propofol toxicity was conferred by HIF-1 activation by not only genetic deletion of VHL but also exposure to HIFα-hydroxylase inhibitors

Support for UNRWA's survival

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) provides life-saving humanitarian aid for 5·4 million Palestine refugees now entering their eighth decade of statelessness and conflict. About a third of Palestine refugees still live in 58 recognised camps. UNRWA operates 702 schools and 144 health centres, some of which are affected by the ongoing humanitarian disasters in Syria and the Gaza Strip. It has dramatically reduced the prevalence of infectious diseases, mortality, and illiteracy. Its social services include rebuilding infrastructure and homes that have been destroyed by conflict and providing cash assistance and micro-finance loans for Palestinians whose rights are curtailed and who are denied the right of return to their homeland

Model Order Reduction of an Induction Motor Using a Cauer Ladder Network

In this article, a method for motor model order reduction is developed using the Cauer ladder network (CLN). The analyzed domain is decomposed into stator and mover domains, where the multiport CLN of each domain is constructed independently of the other. The two domains are connected through electromagnetic field modes at the boundary. The boundary condition is derived from the coordinate transformation. The reduced model accurately reconstructs the induction motor property affected by slot harmonics

Matrix Formulation of the Cauer Ladder Network Method for Efficient Eddy-Current Analysis

A matrix formulation of the Cauer ladder network (CLN) method is derived using the finite-element method to clarify the mathematical aspects of the CLN method. The CLN method directly yields orthogonal expansions of electric and magnetic fields that ensure the equivalence of the Cauer network to the eddy-current field. The CLN method is as exact as the Padé approximation via the Lanczos (PVL) process but more efficiently provides the circuit parameters and the orthogonal expansion than the PVL