On the Evaluation of a Huggable Interface to Mediate Remote Affective Communication

Art and Design Research for the Future: Innovation and Art & Design ; September 26, 2017Conference: Tsukuba Global Science Week 2017Date: September 25-27, 2017Venue: Tsukuba International Congress CenterSponsored: University of Tsukub

Lumbar Spinal Stenosis Has a Negative Impact on Quality of Life Compared with Other Comorbidities: An Epidemiological Cross-Sectional Study of 1862 Community-Dwelling Individuals

Lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) is common in the elderly. However, there have been few reports on its impact on quality of life (QoL) in community-dwelling individuals. The purpose of this study was to clarify how symptomatic LSS affects QoL at the community level. A total of 1862 people (697 males and 1165 females, most subjects were between 40 and 85 y.o.) agreed to participate and were interviewed. The presence of symptomatic LSS was assessed by a specially designed questionnaire. The Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) was also administered. In addition, the presence of comorbid conditions that affect QoL, such as osteoarthritis of the knee and hip, cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, or respiratory disease, was also analyzed. The prevalence of symptomatic LSS gradually increased with age. Furthermore, the presence of symptomatic LSS had a strong negative effect on all 8 physical and mental domains and the physical component summary (PCS) (OR: 1.547–2.544) but not the mental component summary (MCS). In comparison with comorbid conditions, LSS had a much stronger negative impact on health-related QoL (HR-QoL). The current study confirmed that the presence of symptomatic LSS might have a strong negative influence on HR-QoL in the community setting

ポリマー混入による新素材繊維補強モルタルの高強度・高靱性化

金沢大学工学部研究課題/領域番号:03750407, 研究期間(年度):1991出典：研究課題「ポリマー混入による新素材繊維補強モルタルの高強度・高靱性化」課題番号03750407（KAKEN：科学研究費助成事業データベース（国立情報学研究所）） （https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/ja/grant/KAKENHI-PROJECT-03750407/）を加工して作

微小硬度試験の非破壊試験としてのセメント系材料への適用性

金沢大学理工研究域地球社会基盤学系セメントペーストの微視的構造とその特性を微小硬度測定により検討を行った。セメントペーストの特性は微小硬度値それ自体の値と負荷荷重を変化させて微小硬度を測定したときの圧痕の寸法の寸法効果特性を表すパラメータn値およびK_L値を用いて評価を行った。ここに,n値は寸法効果傾向を表すと同時に,組織の均質性にも関連したパラメータであり,K_L値は単位寸法の圧痕を作るのに必要な荷重という意味を持つ。セメントペーストに微小硬度法を適用した場合,荷重を大きくするとより大きな微小硬度値が得られ,金属材料の微小硬度の変化の傾向とは逆であった。水セメント比が0.40以下のセメントペーストでは材令の進行にともなう両パラメータの変化はわずかであるが,水セメント比の大きい場合およびシリカフュームを混入したセメントペーストではそれらのパラメータに顕著な変化が認められ,またその変化の傾向が異なっていた。これは両者においてセメントペーストの内部組織の形成過程に相違があることを示唆しており,組織の変化が顕著となって現れる代表寸法が両者において相違することに対応しているようである。またn値を均質性の面から見ると,シリカフュームの混入による組織の均質化により,n値が2からの偏差が小さくなる方に系が変化したと考えられる。以上のように,微小硬度の圧痕の寸法効果特性の変化の傾向を2つの材料パラメータで解析する手法は非常に有効であり,それらのパラメータの変化の傾向はセメントペーストの内部組織の変化の特徴を反映していることが明らかとなった。また,強度と微小硬度の間には良好な相関性が認められたが,その相関性も微小硬度測定荷重に依存していた。この強度と硬度の相関性の相違も圧痕の寸法効果により定量的に評価されたセメントペーストの微視的構造の特徴から説明することが可能であった。研究課題/領域番号:08750573, 研究期間(年度):1996出典：研究課題「 微小硬度試験の非破壊試験としてのセメント系材料への適用性」課題番号08750573（KAKEN：科学研究費助成事業データベース（国立情報学研究所）） （https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/ja/grant/KAKENHI-PROJECT-08750573/）を加工して作

画像解析によるガラス繊維-セメントペースト界面領域の微視的構造の解明

金沢大学工学部研究課題/領域番号:01750454, 研究期間(年度):1989出典：研究課題「画像解析によるガラス繊維-セメントペースト界面領域の微視的構造の解明」課題番号01750454（KAKEN：科学研究費助成事業データベース（国立情報学研究所）） （https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/ja/grant/KAKENHI-PROJECT-01750454/）を加工して作

Comparison of Value Set Based on DCE and/or TTO Data: Scoring for EQ-5D-5L Health States in Japan

AbstractBackgroundThe valuation study of the five-level version of the EuroQol five-dimensional questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L) involved composite time trade-off (cTTO) and a discrete choice experiment (DCE). The DCE scores must be anchored to the quality-of-life scale from 0 (death) to 1 (full health). Nevertheless, the characteristics of the statistical methods used for converting the EQ-5D-5L DCE results by using TTO information are not yet clearly known.ObjectivesTo present the Japanese DCE value set of the EQ-5D-5L and compare three methods for converting latent DCE values.MethodsThe survey sampled the general population at five locations in Japan. 1098 respondents were stratified by age and sex. To obtain and compare the value sets of the EQ-5D-5L, the cTTO and DCE data were analyzed by a linear mixed model and conditional logit, respectively. The DCE scores were converted to the quality-of-life scale by anchoring to the worst state using cTTO, mapping DCE onto cTTO, and a hybrid model.ResultsThe data from 1026 respondents were analyzed. All the coefficients in the cTTO and DCE value sets were consistent throughout all the analyses. Compared with the cTTO algorithm, the mapping and hybrid methods yielded very similar scoring coefficients. The hybrid model results, however, produced a lower root mean square error and fewer health states with errors exceeding 0.05 than did the other models. The DCE anchored to the worst state overestimated the cTTO scores of almost all the health states.ConclusionsJapanese value sets based on DCE were demonstrated. On comparing the observed cTTO scores, we found that the hybrid model was slightly superior to the simpler methods, including the TTO model

Connective Tissue Growth Factor Gene Expression in Tissue Sections From Localized Scleroderma, Keloid, and Other Fibrotic Skin Disorders

Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) is a novel peptide that exhibits platelet-derived growth factor-like activities and is produced by skin fibroblasts after activation with transforming growth factor-β. Coordinate expression of transforming growth factor-β followed by CTGF during wound repair suggests a cascade process for control of tissue regeneration. We recently reported a significant correlation between CTGF mRNA expression and histologic sclerosis in systemic sclerosis. To confirm the relation between CTGF and skin fibrosis, we investigated CTGF gene expression in tissue sections from patients with localized scleroderma, keloid, and other sclerotic skin disorders using nonradioactive in situ hybridization. In localized scleroderma, the fibroblasts with positive signals for CTGF mRNA were scattered throughout the sclerotic lesions with no preferential distribution around the inflammatory cells or perivascular regions, whereas the adjacent nonaffected dermis was negative for CTGF mRNA. In keloid tissue, the fibroblasts positive for CTGF mRNA were diffusely distributed, especially in the peripheral expanding lesions. In scar tissue, however, the fibroblasts in the fibrotic lesions showed partially positive signals for CTGF mRNA. In eosinophilic fasciitis, nodular fasciitis, and Dupuytren's contracture, CTGF mRNA was also expressed partially in the fibroblasts of the fibrotic lesions. Our findings reinforce a correlation between CTGF gene expression and skin sclerosis and support the hypothesis that transforming growth factor-β plays an important role in the pathogenesis of fibrosis, as it is the only inducer for CTGF identified to date

Using spin to understand the formation of LIGO's black holes

With the detection of four candidate binary black hole (BBH) mergers by the Advanced LIGO detectors thus far, it is becoming possible to constrain the properties of the BBH merger population in order to better understand the formation of these systems. Black hole (BH) spin orientations are one of the cleanest discriminators of formation history, with BHs in dynamically formed binaries in dense stellar environments expected to have spins distributed isotropically, in contrast to isolated populations where stellar evolution is expected to induce BH spins preferentially aligned with the orbital angular momentum. In this work we propose a simple, model-agnostic approach to characterizing the spin properties of LIGO's BBH population. Using measurements of the effective spin of the binaries, which is LIGO's best constrained spin parameter, we introduce a simple parameter to quantify the fraction of the population that is isotropically distributed, regardless of the spin magnitude distribution of the population. Once the orientation characteristics of the population have been determined, we show how measurements of effective spin can be used to directly constrain the underlying BH spin magnitude distribution. Although we find that the majority of the current effective spin measurements are too small to be informative, with LIGO's four BBH candidates we find a slight preference for an underlying population with aligned spins over one with isotropic spins (with an odds ratio of 1.1). We argue that it will be possible to distinguish symmetric and anti-symmetric populations at high confidence with tens of additional detections, although mixed populations may take significantly more detections to disentangle. We also derive preliminary spin magnitude distributions for LIGO's black holes, under the assumption of aligned or isotropic populations

安定処理土における凍結融解に対する抵抗性と微視的構造について

金沢大学理工研究域環境デザイン学系In the regions of the cold weather, the deterioration of the subbase in roads by freezing-thawing action is often observed. Although the durability of stabilized soils is considered to be important, the evaluation of the resistibility of stabilized soils against freezing-thawing cycles has been little established in general. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the resistibility of the various stabilized soils against freezing-thawing cycles in terms of the compressive strength of the stabilized soils undergoing freezing-thawing cycles. The relationship between the resistibility against the freeezing-thawing cycles and the microstructure in the stabilized soils is discussed on the basis of the pore size distributions