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Showing top 100 of 1,111 Stories

  1. Stormy Images: Elemental Kinetics in the Recent Films of Takashi Makino (2018–2021)

    Article • Studies in World Cinema

    This article examines the movements of the elements (water, air, fire, and earth) in the recent (2018–2021) films of Japanese experimental filmmaker Takashi Makino. It proposes that Makino’s unique style of filmmaking – which consists of layering thousands of moving images of the natural world on top of each other – expresses and encompasses elemental tensions between form and formlessness, clarity and obscurity, and identity and transformation. Taking the storm as an ecological force which foregrounds elemental kinetics, Makino’s films are analyzed in their capacity to disclose natural motion. This allows for a renewed conception of the elemental, understood as process and flow rather than individual units. An elemental politics of the storm emerges, which calls for the fostering of productive and complex movement rather than the stasis of conservation.

  2. medRxiv (Preprint)

    Article

    BMI and GNRI values before allo-HCST pre-treatment were independent predictors of the 5-year survival rates. Patients undergoing allo-HSCT may require nutritional interventions during pre-treatment to reduce the risk of sarcopenia, which affects their survival rates.

  3. Radiation-Induced Xerostomia and Cariogenic Dietary Habits

    Article

    Abstract Purpose Despite the availability of various prevention methods, dental caries continues to be an adverse effect of head and neck radiotherapy (RT). Since conventional approaches do not evaluate the post-treatment alterations in dietary behavior, we assessed the influence of radiation-induced xerostomia on post-RT cariogenic dietary habits. Methods Fifty-seven patients responded to the xerostomia questionnaire (XQ) and answered questions regarding daily cariogenic food and beverage (CFB) intake, daily teeth brushing, fluoride application, and subjective total taste acuity (STTA). They also underwent evaluations for the Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S), Saxon test, number of decayed-missing-filled teeth (DMFT), and the proportion of DMFT to the test teeth (DMFT rate). Clinical records were searched for information regarding RT modalities, including the median of the mean dose to the parotid glands, post-RT duration, submandibular gland resection, whole-neck irradiation, and the DMFT value and rate before RT. The patients were divided into low- and high-XQ groups based on the median XQ summary score of 47.5 for the two sample tests. Univariable and multivariable regression analyses were used to identify independent factors for CFB intake. Results Higher XQ scores were associated with a significantly greater frequency of CFB intake (P=0.020). Regression analysis also identified higher XQ scores (P=0.017) as an independent risk factor for frequent CFB intake. Conclusion Radiation-induced xerostomia enhanced CFB intake for oral comfort. Therefore, radiation caries management should target xerostomia-induced dietary habits in addition to oral hygiene and fluoride application.

  21. Aoyama

    Article • Stem Cells

  25. PIV

    Article • 54th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting

  29. DAWBeads: An Intuitive Musical Interface Using Floating Balloons

    Article • Adjunct Proceedings of the 35th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology

    DAWBeads is a system that uses ultrasonic levitation arrays to visualize rhythms using floating beads as a metaphor for musical elements and to combine sounds by manipulating the beads. DAWBeads allows users to manipulate sounds intuitively in 3D space, even without knowledge of music. Specifically, it realizes a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) system for amateurs to combine sounds or change pitches.

  46. Weaving in Greek and Japanese myths and their adaptations.

    Article • Gender, Costume, Textile, Technique

    Since ancient times the art and technology of weaving have been closely associated with women's gender and sexuality as well as with the telling of stories. In Greek mythology, Arachne is a young woman whose confidence in the artistry of her weaving offends Athena, the daughter of Zeus and goddess of wisdom and weaving. To punish this girl, the goddess turns her into a spider. Akaiko, on the other hand, is a minor character in the Japanese mythology who meets Emperor Yūryaku, and waits for him for eighty years, remaining unmarried and weaving. This chapter examines adaptations of these two stories of women weavers. "Araginu," a play written by Shiga Naoya in 1908, is based on the story of Arachne, but adds a young man as the love interest of a jealous goddess. Ariyoshi Sawako wrote three adaptations of the Akaiko story (a short story, a modern play, and a script for traditional dance) in late 1950s, each empowering the aged weaver Akaiko by giving her laughter: what was recorded as Akaiko's tears in the ancient texts was indeed her laughter directed at the equally aged emperor. Using feminist theories and comments (e.g. A.S. Byatt and Wakakuwa Midori), the essay clarifies the stark contrast between Shiga and Ariyoshi in their ways of handling women's art, gender and sexuality in their adaptations.

  47. PM-free magnetic-modulated dual-axis motor for automotive applications.

    Article • IET Electric Power Applications

    Novel PM-free magnetic-modulated dual-axis motor is proposed in this paper, and demonstrated its drive performance through the downsized prototype. The unique point of this proposed motor is that it is able to utilize wasted rotating magnetic field for inner-rotor magnetization with self-excited technique.

  48. Non-adjacent consonant sequence patterns in English target words during the first-word period

    Article • Journal of Child Language

    The goal of this study was to investigate nonadjacent consonant sequence patterns in target words during the first-word period in infants learning American English. In spontaneous speech of 18 participants, target words with a Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (C1VC2) shape were analyzed. Target words were grouped into nine types, categorized by place of articulation (labial, coronal, dorsal) of initial and final consonants (e.g., mom, labial-labial; mat, labial-coronal; dog, coronal-dorsal). The results indicated that some consonant sequences occurred much more frequently than others in early target words. The two most frequent types were coronal-coronal (e.g., dad) and labial-coronal (e.g., mat). The least frequent type was dorsal-dorsal (e.g., cake). These patterns are consistent with phonotactic characteristics of English and infants’ production capacities reported in previous studies. This study demonstrates that infants’ expressive vocabularies reflect both ambient language characteristics and their own production capacities, at least for consonant sequences in C1VC2 word forms.

  49. How tissue stiffness shapes heart development and evolution in fish.

    Article • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

    We discovered that the mechanical stiffness of heart tissue plays a crucial role in shaping how the heart develops and evolves. Using zebrafish and other fish species, we show that differences in tissue elasticity influence cell fate and the formation of cardiac structures, helping explain how new heart designs emerged during evolution. These findings highlight the importance of physical forces in building living organs.

  50. How not to sink into highly compressible sand?

    Article • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

    Let’s place a pile of sand on a table and slowly start lifting one side of the table. First, at a low tilted angle, the pile will remain a solid block, but if lifted high enough, the pile will destabilize and the sand will start flowing. This transition from solid-like to liquid-like properties under an increasing shear force is called the yielding transition. Now imagine that your grains of sand are very soft and compressible (imagine squishing a kitchen sponge), how would that affect the yielding transition? Our study shows that large deformability helps maintain a pile of sand solid under higher forces, at the condition that the grains are sufficiently pre-compressed. The underlying reason is that, instead of rearranging and flowing, soft grains prefer changing their shape, but only if they can hold on to their neighbors using friction.

  51. Transtiff: A Stick Interface with Various Stiffness by Artificial Muscle Mechanism

    Article • Adjunct Proceedings of the 35th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology

    In this study, we propose Transtiff which has a joint that changes its stiffness dynamically to a stick object that generally cannot bend. We use a piston mechanism that uses a small motor to compress the liquid in a flexible tube to control the stiffness of the joint.

  52. Morphic characterization theorems for formal languages using local and star languages

    Article • Fundamenta Informaticae

    New morphic characterizations in the form of a noted Chomsky-Schützenberger theorem are established for the classes of regular languages, of context-free languages and of languages accepted by chemical reaction automata in which local and star languages play a central role in collaborating with Dyck sets and Partially balanced languages.

  53. Side-sequenced vocabulary lessons

    Article • Pragmatics and Society

    This paper uses conversation analysis to describe the sequence in which participants in ordinary conversations are sidetracked from the current topic to engage in the repair of a word and display their orientation to asymmetrical linguistic knowledge between them. The participants frame themselves as being in a more knowledgeable and a less knowledgeable position, and this asymmetry provides an opportunity for learning. The analysis of audio recordings of 12 naturally occurring conversations between first and second language users of English reveals that such side-sequenced vocabulary lessons are initiated using at least three methods: partial questioning repeats, explicitly asking the meaning of the word that was just used, and other-directed word searches.

  54. Numerical Study on JP-10/Air Detonation and Rotating Detonation Engine

    Article • AIAA Journal

    Liquid Rotating Detonation Engine is one of the newest rocket engine for the near future propulsion system. This paper deals with revealing the phusical and engineering ptoblems, which has been difficulty with finding exprementally. This time we find out the thrust and specific impulse of LP-10/air RDE is 10% more than that of H2/air engines. Besides it is found out the quenching mechanism of JP-19/air detonation head.

  55. Boundaries of Speech Communities: Codes in Intercultural Communication

    Article • Journal of Intercultural Communication Research

    This study captures instances in which individuals’ views of appropriate conduct and cultural boundaries are undergoing change in intercultural interactions. It illustrates Japanese speakers’ experiences of encountering unfamiliar codes in problematic situations with English speakers in the United States, recognizing boundaries, negotiating contrasting codes, and revising their perceptions of codes and boundaries as a result of engaging in remedial episodes.

  56. The passive voice system in Japanese

    Article • Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today

    The book examines the passive voice system in Japanese, contributing to our further understanding of syntactic theory and the functioning of the passive voice cross-linguistically. The book also addresses the issue of interspeaker variability, the requirement of supportive context, and their implications for differences in individual grammars.

  57. Japanese Speakers' Use of "I'm Sorry"

    Article • Research on Language and Social Interaction

    This article first analyzes a Japanese speaker's practice of saying "I'm sorry" in a conversation with an English speaker and demonstrates that her use of the phrase expresses her mixed feelings of gratitude and indebtedness about putting a burden on her co-interactant. Then, it analyzes in-depth interviews and argues that English speakers' central assumption (consistency between words and feelings) and culturally salient meaning (admitting responsibility) of "I'm sorry" are different from those of Japanese speakers (discrepancy and acknowledging the suffering, respectively), English speakers may interpret the use of "I'm sorry" that does not reflect the speaker's feeling of responsibility in serious situations as being "insincere."

  58. Japanese Speakers' Remedial Episode Avoidance in Problematic Situations With “Americans”

    Article • Research on Language and Social Interaction

    Using in-depth interviews, I describe Japanese speakers' experiences of not engaging in a remedial episode to deal with problematic situations with native English speakers: Their views of the code elements and the boundaries were reinforced, and their stereotypes about the other group persisted. They did not engage in a remedial episode because of their lack of confidence in their ability to speak English, distant relationships with others, and perceptions of themselves and Americans as belonging to different groups. Their not doing so, in turn, resulted in confirming these 3 factors.

  59. Japanese and English Speakers’ Codes for Remedying Problematic Situations

    Article • Journal of Intercultural Communication Research

    This study describes speech codes used by Japanese and English speakers in remedying problematic situations. By analyzing in-depth interviews, the study reveals the Japanese-speaking participants’ use of a code in which offering detailed explanations can be a way to deny having caused another person discomfort, thus being incompatible with their meaning of “apology.” The English-speaking participants used a code in which offering and listening to explanations is a way to show that they care about the relationship and to seek forgiveness.

  60. Effects of discrepancy between vocal emotion and the emotional meaning of speech

    Article

    It is important to know the effects of a discrepancy between vocal emotion and emotion contained in the literal meaning of speech on the identification of speaker’s emotions. In the current study, two stimulus conditions were prepared: the “congruent condition,” where the emotional meaning of speech was compatible with the tone of voice and the “incongruent condition,” where the emotional meaning of speech was discrepant to the vocal emotions. Results indicated that identification of speaker’s emotion was successful even in the incongruent condition and suggest that Japanese participants infer the speaker’s intended emotion if it is incongruent to the emotional meaning of speech.

  62. Low Level Radio Frequency Control system used in a synchrotron radiation facility

    Article • Review of Scientific Instruments

    Low Level Radio Frequency control system (LLRF) is used to feed high power RF to accelerating cavities. In a synchrotron radiation facility, special type of cavity is used where electrical field uniformity is important. But high power RF warms up the cavity and degrades field uniformity. To solve this situation, frequency offset function is added to the LLRF.

  63. Health Impact of Overactive Bladder in Older Japanese Adults

    Article • BJUI Compass

    This cross-sectional study in Japan analyzed health utility values (HUVs) in older adults with overactive bladder (OAB). Results showed significant disease burden, particularly for moderate-to-severe OAB cases. The findings provide valuable data for health economic evaluations.

  64. Controlling mechanical properties of microdroplets with DNA and salt

    Article • The Journal of Chemical Physics

    Biomolecular condensates are micrometer-sized, membraned-less cellular compartments whose structures exhibit a wide range of material properties. These properties, which often also change over time, are important for various biological functions. In this work, we generate microdroplets by mixing two types of polymers, polyethylene glycol and dextran. The droplets encapsulating large-sized DNA serve as a model system for biomolecular condensates. We observe a non-monotonic dependence of the physical properties of the droplets on the imposed ionic conditions. Our analysis suggests that this reflects the formation of a DNA network by trivalent ions, which affects the viscoelastic properties of the droplets.

  65. Pacing impairment - Rapid flaccidity of motor suppression in patients with cerebrovascular disorders

    Article • Neurorehabilitation

    Patients with cerebrovascular disorders (CVD) tend to exhibit ‘pacing impairment’, impulsive behaviour without controlling their movements. This study experimentally examined such hastiness with ‘square tracing task’. CVD patients showed rapid flaccidity of motor suppression. This phenomenon was not associated with any other specific neuropsychological symptoms or lesion site.

  66. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of ~1-year biological clock

    Article • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

    Circannual rhythms are approximately 1-year endogenous biological rhythms driven by the endogenous circannual clock. The existence of endogenous circannual rhythms has been demonstrated in various organisms, including plants, mollusks, insects, fish, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Thus, circannual rhythms are a fundamental property of living organisms and are crucial for life on Earth, from the equator to the poles. To understand its underlying mechanisms, medaka hypothalamic and pituitary transcriptomes were obtained monthly over 2 years, and analysis identified 3,341 seasonally oscillating genes. Medaka exhibited ~6-month free-running circannual rhythms under constant photoperiod and temperature conditions, and monthly transcriptomes under constant conditions identified 518 ‘circannual genes.’ Analysis of these circannual genes highlighted the involvement of cell proliferation and differentiation in circannual time-keeping.

  67. Development of lightweight and durable concrete deck slabs

    Article • Civil Engineering Design

    Lightweight orthotropic steel decks are widely used in urban expressways. However, fatigue cracks occur in the orthotropic steel deck. As a result, their maintenance cost has been increasing. Considering this problem, we have developed a deck slab using ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concrete (UHPFRC), as an alternative to the steel deck slab. The own weight of the UHPFRC deck slab is almost the same as that of an orthotropic steel deck slab.

  68. Interaction in Remote Peddling Using Avatar Robot by People with Disabilities

    Article • Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction

    "Avatar Work" is being implemented in society. Avatar Work allows people with disabilities who have difficulty leaving their homes to remotely engage in physical works such as customer services through avatar robots. In this context, the avatar robot cafe has been opened to provide passive customer service, responding to requests for café visitors and serving drinks. On the other hand, mobile proposal-based customer service, in which an avatar robot actively works and sells while moving around like a peddler, has not yet been realized.　In order to enable avatar work in a variety of occupations, we propose a mobile sales system using a mobile frozen drink machine and an avatar robot “OriHime”, focusing on mobile customer service like peddling.

  69. Can left ventricular hypertrophy on electrocardiography detect severe aortic valve stenosis?

    Article • PLOS One

    Severe aortic valve stenosis (AS) is increasing in the aging society and is a serious condition. However, approximately one-third of patients with severe AS are asymptomatic. Echocardiography is the most reliable method to detect AS, but it takes time and is costly. An electrocardiogram (ECG) for AS patients often demonstrates a left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) pattern in response to increased afterload, but traditional ECG criteria for LVH cannot necessarily reliably detect anatomical LVH. We found LVH on the ECG in elderly patients, who were ≥74 years old especially with DM, was closely associated with severe AS.

  72. Aristotle’s Uses of ἕνεκα

    Article • Phronesis

    I argue that Aristotle’s arguments in passages regarding chance in the Physics and in passages about ignorance in action in the Nicomachean and Eudemian Ethics presuppose two different uses of ‘for the sake (ἕνεκα) of something’, which are respectively able to explain the wish or thought of agents and the type or nature of what they actually do. In my view, however, this does not commit Aristotle, in the ‘ignorance’ passages from the two Ethics, to holding that the type or nature of what the agents actually do is for the sake of killing or wounding.

  73. Multiomics analysis revealed features of gut microbiome in secondary progressive multiple sclerosis

    Article • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

    Multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system, generally starts as relapsing-remitting form (RRMS), but often shifts into secondary progressive MS (SPMS). SPMS represents a more advanced stage of MS, characterized by accumulating disabilities and refractoriness to medications. We have revealed the microbial and functional characteristics of the gut microbiome in patients with SPMS for the first time.

  74. Changes in hepatocellular carcinoma

    Article • Liver Cancer

    We examined the changes in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) over the past 30 years and confirmed that the background has changed significantly. In the background, the proportion of HCCs with viral liver disease decreased, and liver function also improved.

  75. Risk perception and risk talk in light of the Fukushima nuclear crisis

    Article • Risk Analysis

    How do we all perceive risk? A particular person's view and interpersonal communication about a risk event, such as disasters or their aftermath, are known as risk talk. This can play a significant role in the formation of societal responses to risk events. As people formulate their risk opinions and speak to others, risk information can circulate through their social networks and contribute to the construction of their risk information environment.

  76. Video-assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery(VATS) for acute empyema

    Article • Thoracic surgery

    Although several studies have reported VATS for acute empyema, there is not ample evidence of indication and efficiency of VATS. Our study was made to clarify the clinical utility of VATS for acute empyema retrospectively. Subjects were consecutive 39 cases who underwent VATS for acute empyema at the Jikei University Katsushika Medical Center and the Jikei University Hospital from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2017.

  77. Analyses of prognostic factors in patients undergoing surgery for lung cancer.

    Article • Lung cancer

    Several studies have reported that various prognostic factors calculated from inflammation and nutrition status are useful for predicting the prognosis of malignant tumors. However, which prognostic factor is most closely correlated with prognosis remains unclear. We clarify the optimal prognostic factor that correlates most with the prognosis in lung cancer.

  78. Product appearance design that realizes innovation of meaning

    Article • Asia Pacific International Journal of Marketing

    Focusing on product color as a key visual design element, this study examines how changes in color influence the symbolic aspects of the product and innovation of meaning. By replacing context-bound colors while preserving form and material, traditional and contemporary cultural/usage contexts are layered, resulting in diversified symbolic meaning of the product.

  79. Left-Right asymmetry of embryonic cell movement

    Article • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

    Most animals exhibit external left-right (LR) symmetric appearance about the midline. However, this external bilateral symmetry switches to asymmetry in internal organizations of organs. Here, using chick embryos as a model system, we examined the initiation of LR symmetry breaking during embryonic development. Our biophysical approaches to quantify cellular flows inferred that LR symmetry breaking occurs before the formation of the node, a LR organizer, which serves as a signaling center for LR patterning-gene programs. Our work demonstrates that quantitative biophysical parameters can help unravel the initiation of LR symmetry breaking, suggesting an involvement of physical mechanisms in this critical biological patterning process.

  80. Design and Construction of a Highway Bridge Deck Slab using UHPFRC

    Article • Structural Engineering International

    Ultra-high-strength fibre-reinforced concrete (UFC) deck slabs are made up of UFC, which is a type of ultra-high performance fibre-reinforced cementitious composite (UHPFRC). UFC flat deck slabs have been used to replace existing RC deck slabs on the Moriguchi route (Route 12) of the Hanshin Expressway in Japan. This is the world's first use of UFC deck slabs on a main lane bridge with steel composite girders. As of 2024, UFC deck slabs have been used on four bridges on the Hanshin Expressway, for the purpose of replacing RC deck slabs constructed in the 1970s showing signs of deterioration, and for decks of newly constructed bridges that require lightweight construction. The UFC deck slab is a precast PC deck slab with PC steel wires arranged in two directions and no reinforcing bars (rebars) used in the deck slab itself. Experiments have shown that this deck slab is extremely light and has high performance compared to conventional deck slabs. This paper reports on the structure and design of the UFC flat deck slabs used for the S20 Bridge on the Moriguchi route (Route 12) of the Hanshin Expressway, along with the bridge construction and CO2 emissions from the construction, as the first instance of the use of UFC flat deck slabs for a main lane bridge of an expressway.

  81. Computational Study on Air Film Approach in Reentry Blackout Mitigation

    Article • AIAA Journal

    This study proposes a novel mitigation method for reentry blackouts using air film effects by computational science. A coupled approach with computational fluid dynamics and computational electromagnetic analysis revealed the plasma flow properties and the communication wave propagation. The gas injection system created the insulating air film layer on the surface of the test model. The injection gas flowed backward without ionization at a low temperature. This air film layer acted as a propagation window for communication due to the low plasma density. Thus, the effectiveness of the air film as a reentry blackout mitigation scheme was demonstrated.

  82. Detecting micro-meter-sized internal fatigue cracks in metals via synchrotron radiation X-ray CT

    Article • Materials Performance and Characterization

    It is crucial to understand the behaviors of micro-meter-sized internal fatigue cracks in metals in order to ensure safety and reliability in the long-term use of structures and equipment. The detection of these tiny cracks using conventional non-destructive approaches has been extremely difficult. To address this issue, we utilized synchrotron radiation multiscale X-ray computed tomography at SPring-8 in Japan, which enabled us to measure the initiation life and propagation rate of these small fatigue cracks inside materials.

  83. Low-dose GnRHa therapy for long-term management of adenomyosis with CVST from low-dose OCs.

    Article • Clinical and Experimental Obstetrics & Gynecology

    We report the case of a 38-year-old woman diagnosed with adenomyosis and administered low-dose oral contraceptives who subsequently developed cerebral venous and sinus thrombosis. After continuation of her symptoms of adenomyosis, she was treated with GnRHa draw-back therapy rather than total hysterectomy because she desired to preserve her uterus. To date, she has been successfully treated for 2.5 years with no complications.

  84. Photocatalytic trifluoromethylthiolation

    Article • Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry

    A photoredox-catalyzed trifluoromethylthiolation process of aromatic alkenes has been developed. A strongly reducing Ir photocatalyst and an electrophilic trifluoromethylthiolating reagent play key roles in the efficient generation of a trifluoromethansulfenyl radical (·SCF3). The well-designed photoredox system induces a single-step, regioselective installation of a CF3S and a hydroxy or an alkoxy group onto vicinal carbon atoms through redox-neutral processes. The present oxytrifluoromethylthiolation features mild reaction conditions without extra additives for the activation of the CF3S reagent, making the present protocol applicable to a wide variety of functionalized aromatic alkenes.

  85. Electrospun SrTiO3 nanofibers for photocatalytic hydrogen generation

    Article • Journal of Materials Research

    Homogenous strontium titanate (SrTiO3) nanofibers were prepared via the electrospinning of precursor solutions containing both strontium and titanium salts. Photocatalytic activities of these SrTiO3 nanofibers for hydrogen generation from water were examined and compared to that of SrTiO3 nanoparticles.

  86. English

    Article • AIP Conference Proceedings

    Whirling, in which a rotating workpiece is machined by rotating tools around the workpiece with an eccentricity between the centers of the workpiece and the tool rotations, has been generally performed in threading. The whiling mechanism is applied to polygon machinings in this study. In proposed machining, the ratio of workpiece rotation rate to tool rotation rate is set to be n : 1 to machine n polygon prism.

  87. Communication Leading to Subgroup Nash Equilibrium for Generalized Information

    Article • Fundamenta Informaticae

    In the analysis of game theoretical situations, the concept of Nash equilibrium plays central role. This paper proposes an extended notion of the Nash equilibrium for a strategic game with non-partitional information, called `subgroup Nash equilibriums', and addresses the problem how to reach the equilibrium by communication through messages according to network among players.

  88. Conflicting views on opposition to LULUs

    Article • Local Environment

    Local residents often oppose some types of facilities because of their negative side effects, even though they are claimed to be necessary for the public good. These facilities are known as locally unwanted-landuses, and local opposition to them is often referred to as not-in-mybackyard, usually with a pejorative connotation. However, some studies have challenged this conventional view of local opposition. Given these conflicting views, the present article explores how local mobilisation should be evaluated, focusing particularly on distributive justice. First, the study illuminates how different interpretations of distributive justice lead to difference in views on local opposition. Then, by comparing three waste disposal facility cases in Japan, a distinction between cost sharing and cost overlapping cases is illuminated. The study further develops discussions by pointing out the limits of using this distinction to evaluate local opposition movements and provides insights that can contribute to a fuller understanding of siting conflicts.

  89. Beneficial effect of dietary fiber on hyperuricemia

    Article • International Journal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research

    Hyperuricemia is recognized as a lifestyle-related disease and the prevalence is increasing in many parts of the world. Dietary fiber has a suppressive effect for various lifestyle-related diseases, such as the dyslipidemia, diabetes, obesity, and hypertension, to some extent. We have shown that dietary fiber has a suppressive effect on serum uric acid concentration in experimental hyperuricemic rats (overproduction-type and underexcretion-type). This article explains the suppressive effect of dietary fiber on the different types of dietary hyperuricemia and the mechanisms concerned regarding aspects of digestion and absorption of dietary purines.

  90. The POT can protect longitudinal stent elongation caused by post-balloon dilatation.

    Article • Journal of Interventional Cardiology

    Longitudinal stent elongation is observed in perctaneous coronary intervention procedure, especially in post balloon dilatation following stenting. Risks and mecanisms about longitudinal stent elongation are not well elucidated. Then, we focused on the stent malapposition thought to be a factor of longitudinal stent elongation caused by post-balloon dilatation, and we also exmanined the effectiveness of proximal optimization technique (POT).

  91. Clinical characteristics of amniotic fluid embolism

    Article • Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research

    We performed a retrospective case study analysis of patients using medical records and autopsy records. The diagnosis of AFE was based on the presence of clinical symptoms using Clark's criteria and autopsy results. We analyzed patient records from a 29-year period in three hospitals affiliated with the Nippon Medical School in Japan.

  92. Regeneration od a bioengineered 3D integumentary organ system from iPS cells

    Article • Science Advances

    Natural skin structure has appendage organs such as hair follicle, dermis, sebaceous gland, and sweat gland and subcutaneous adipose tissue. These components play important roles to maintain homeostasis including moisturization, fat secretion and protect for noxious stimulations. This bioengineered 3D integumentary organ system was fully functional following transplantation into immunodeficient mice and could be properly connected to surrounding host tissues, such as the epidermis, arrector pili muscles and nerve fibres, without tumorigenesis.

  93. Waste and Distributive Justice in Asia

    Article

    Conflicts over waste disposal facility siting is a pressing issue not only in developed countries but also in fast-growing countries that face drastic waste increase and rapid urbanisation. How to address distributive justice has been one of the biggest concerns. This book examines what determines the influence of distributive justice in siting policy. In the 23 wards of Tokyo, one idea of distributive justice, known as "In-Ward Waste Disposal" (IWWD), emerged amid the ongoing garbage crisis in the early 1970s. IWWD was adopted as a significant principle, but its influence waxed and waned over time, until the idea was finally abandoned in 2003. To unravel causes and mechanisms behind the changing influence of IWWD, this book adopts a framework that considers not only ideational causes, but also the power struggles between rationally calculating actors, as well as the influence of external events and environments. By combining an in-depth case study with an integrative theoretical framework, this book tells a thought-provoking story of the changing influence of IWWD in a deep, comprehensive and consistent way. This book provides significant insights and lessons for both academics and practitioners.

  94. Development of lightweight portable neutron survey meter

    Article • Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology

    Lightweight portable neutron survey meter of only 2 kg was developed containing a mixed gas of methane gas and nitrogen gas without using polyethylene moderator. The energy response of this survey meter was evaluated with the mono-energetic neutron reference fields and continuous energy neutron reference fields together with the PHITS Monte Carlo calculation.

  95. Thermal convection suppression for DOSY experiment

    Article • Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry

    Diffusion ordered spectroscopy (DOSY) is used to determine the translational diffusion coefficients of molecules in solution. However, DOSY is highly susceptible to spurious spectral peaks resulting from thermal convection occurring in the NMR tube. Thermal convection therefore must be suppressed for accurate estimation of translational diffusion coefficients.

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