Fujio Cho Legacy Lecture Notes

The Fujio Cho legacy lecture was created in 2013 as part of UK Institute of Research for Technology Development (IR4TD)’s True Lean Systems program to assist industrial clients to transform their organizations to a True Lean organization by effectively using principles and tools of Toyota Production System (TPS). During the years 1987-1994, Cho and Saito worked together to layout the foundation of the now well-established Toyota-University of Kentucky relationship on R&D, True Lean Systems, and production engineering, housed in IR4TD, the Toyota endowed Institute established in 2007 with the support from the Commonwealth of Kentucky under the research competitiveness trust fund. In 2019, this collaboration celebrated its 25th anniversary by recognizing True Lean Systems program serving over 30,000 people in eighteen different countries worldwide and 48 states nationally. The idea of Fujio Cho Legacy Lecture Notes (FCLLN) was suggested to honor his wisdom and vision which are vital to maintain IR4TD/True Lean Systems program. FCLLN is written to provide philosophical and cultural background of TPS and Goroku, which are mentioned in the Fujio Cho legacy lecture. However, the human side of TPS, Hitozukuri, the manufacturing side of TPS, Monozukuri, and their interaction are not easily explained during an hour-long Cho lecture. Therefore, FCLLN plays into that role for attendees of IR4TD/True Lean Systems’ certification, and general audiences who are interested in TPS and are familiar with the concepts of Hitozukuri and Japanese Monozukuri culture. FCLLN covers a total of ten chapters: Chapter I. Introduction Chapter II. Toyota Production System and Goroku Chapter III. TPS and Wisdom Chapter IV. TPS and Empathetic Listening Chapter V. TPS as Unique Product of Japanese Culture Chapter VI. Deductive Science and Inductive TPS Chapter VII. Top-Down Power-Driven System vs. Bottom-up Kaizen System Chapter VIII. Cho Goroku on Service Chapter IX. Eastern Philosophy, Mother Teresa, and TPS Chapter X. Finally, the West and the East came together under the same principlehttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/ir4td_textbooks/1000/thumbnail.jp

Genetic variation of putative core gene in hepatitis C virus.

Genetic variation of hepatitis C virus was assessed. We prepared RNA fractions from 21 patients' sera which were positive for hepatitis C virus RNA, synthesized their cDNAs, and amplified fragments, 406 base pairs, encoding a putative core protein, by polymerase chain reaction. One of them, N 15, was cloned and sequenced. N 15 showed 92.4% homology at the nucleotide level and 97.0% homology at the amino acid level compared with HC-J 1 which is the first isolated clone in Japan and similar to that isolated in USA. By restriction fragment length polymorphisms analysis, 14 out of 21 patients (66.7%) showed the same pattern as N 15. No patients showed the pattern of HC-J 1. We could not find a correlation between the genetic variation and clinical features of hepatitis C virus infection. These results indicate that the region, which encodes the core protein and is believed to be relatively conserved in hepatitis C virus genome, has several variations at the nucleotide level, and the major part of hepatitis C virus in Okayama district is different from HC-J 1 and the USA clone.</p

Lamivudine treatment in patients with HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma--using an untreated, matched control cohort.

Lamivudine is widely used to treat patients with hepatitis B. However, the outcomes in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treated with lamivudine have not been established. This study was conducted to evaluate the outcomes of lamivudine treatment for patients with HCC using an untreated, matched control group. Thirty patients with controlled HCC orally received lamivudine. As controls, 40 patients with HCC who were not treated with lamivudine and matched for clinical features were selected. The lamivudine-treated and untreated groups were compared with respect to changes in liver function, HCC recurrence, survival, and cause of death. In the lamivudine-treated group, there was significant improvement in the Child-Pugh score at 24 months after starting treatment, while no improvement was observed in the untreated group. There was no significant difference in the cumulative incidence of HCC recurrence and survival between the groups. However, there was a significant difference in the cumulative incidence of death due to liver failure (P= 0.043). A significant improvement in liver function was achieved by lamivudine treatment, even in patients with HCC. These results suggest that lamivudine treatment for patients with HCC may prevent death due to liver failure. Further prospective randomized studies using a larger number of patients are required.</p

Relationship between Response to Interferon Therapy and Detection of Hepatitis C Virus RNA by Differential Flotation Centrifugation

We purified an apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) endonuclease from mouse ascites sarcoma (SR-C3H/He) cells. The enzyme showed nicking activity on acid-depurinated DNA but not on untreated, intact DNA. It also showed priming activity for DNA polymerase on both acid-depurinated and bleomycin-damaged DNA. The priming activity on bleomycin-damaged DNA was two times higher than that on an acid-depurinated DNA. The enzymatic properties indicate that the enzyme is a class II AP endonuclease having DNA 3' repair diesterase activity. The purified enzyme has a molecular weight of 39,000 as determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The optimal pH for AP endonuclease activity was 8.0 in 50 mM Tris-HCl buffer. The AP endonuclease activity depended on divalent cation such as Mg2+ and Co2+ ions, and was inhibited by 2 mM EDTA with no addition of the divalent cation. An appropriate concentration of sodium or potassium salt stimulated the activity. Partial digestion of the AP endonuclease with Staphylococcus aureus V8 protease produced 4 major peptide fragments which may be used for protein sequencing.</p

Relationship of serum markers of hepatitis B and C virus replication in coinfected patients.

To evaluate viral interference between hepatitis B and C, we studied coinfected patients serologically and molecular biologically. Twenty-seven patients positive for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody, were classified into Groups BC-L and BC-H according to DNA-polymerase activity (less or greater than 100 cpm, respectively). Patients with hepatitis B or C alone were also enrolled as controls. HCV-RNA was detected more often in Group BC-L than in Group BC-H. Genotype 1b of HCV was determined in 75% of Group BC-H, 87.5% of Group BC-L, and 70.7% of hepatitis C-only patients. Activity of DNA-polymerase in coinfected patients was lower in patients positive for HCV-RNA as compared with those negative. HBsAg titers tended to be lower in coinfected patients than in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV) alone. In conclusion, in coinfection, HBV may suppress the replication of HCV and HCV appears to reduce the expression of HBsAg and probably suppresses HBV replication.&#60;/P&#62;</p