Sample records for kako gijutsu seika

  1. Acute effect of oral flavonoid-rich dark chocolate intake on coronary circulation, as compared with non-flavonoid white chocolate, by transthoracic Doppler echocardiography in healthy adults.

    PubMed

    Shiina, Yumi; Funabashi, Nobusada; Lee, Kwangho; Murayama, Taichi; Nakamura, Koki; Wakatsuki, Yu; Daimon, Masao; Komuro, Issei

    2009-01-24

    To assess the effects of the oral intake of flavonoid-rich dark chocolate on coronary circulation, we measured coronary flow velocity reserve (CFVR) by noninvasive transthoracic Doppler echocardiography (TTDE) in healthy adult subjects. The study was a randomized, single-blind design conducted for 2 weeks in 39 healthy men (mean age 29.7+/-3.9 years, range 23-40 years). Subjects were randomly assigned a daily intake of either flavonoid-rich dark chocolate (Meiji Black Chocolate 45 g, Meiji Seika kaisya Ltd, including cacao polyphenol 550 mg/day, 200 kcal) or non-flavonoid white chocolate (Meiji White Chocolate 35 g, Meiji Seika kaisya Ltd, including cacao polyphenol 0 mg/day, 140 kcal) as a control. CFVR was recorded by TTDE, and assessed before and after 2 weeks of intake. At the same time, we also assessed serum asymmetric dimethylarginine, 8-isoprostanes, and malondialdehyde-modified low-density lipoprotein (MDA-LDL) as markers of oxidative stress. Flavonoid-rich dark chocolate consumption significantly improved CFVR (3.38+/-0.49 before intake, 4.28+/-0.85 after intake; p<0.01), whereas non-flavonoid white chocolate consumption did not (3.28+/-0.49 before intake, 3.16+/-0.49 after intake; p=0.44). All predictor variables were used as dependent variables in a multiple regression model of the incremental change in CFVR after 2 weeks of chocolate intake. Intake of dark (but not white) chocolate, MDA-LDL, triglyceride (TG) and heart rate (HR) significantly influenced the change of CFVR after 2 weeks of intake (p<0.01) according to the multiple regression formula: Y=1.01X(1)-0.005X(2)-0.003X(3)-0.017X4 (Y=change in CFVR after 2 weeks of chocolate intake, X1=intake of dark (but not white) chocolate, X2=MDA-LDL, X3=TG, X4=HR). Flavonoid-rich dark chocolate intake significantly improved coronary circulation in healthy adults, independent of changes in oxidative stress parameters, blood pressure and lipid profile, whereas non-flavonoid white chocolate had no such effects.

  2. The photosensitizer talaporfinum caused microvascular embolization for photodynamic therapy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Liming; Aizawa, Katsuo

    2005-07-01

    Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been evolving rapidly in the recent years. A second-generation Photosensitizer mono-1-aspartyl chlorine 6 (Talaporfin / Npe6 / ME2906, Japan Meiji Seika, Ltd.) has been sanctified for the lung cancer clinical PDT by the Japan Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. In this paper, Talaporfin was injected to the implant cancer of a mouse a Talaporfin dose of 5mg/kg through intravenous. After 6 hours, the fluorescence images of the mouse were observed with a microscope and a 664 nm diode laser. Effects of therapy were clarified using the different irradiation energies of the laser (50, 100, 200 J/cm2). Both in plasma and in cancer, the concentrations of Talaporfin were analyzed using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Authors find that the higher concentrations of Talaporfin in plasma, the better PDD effect. It is experimentally verified that local microvascular embolisms in the cancer are formed for photodynamic therapy after the Talaporfin injection and the laser irradiation.

  3. Probabilistic Evaluation of Anthropogenic Regulations In a Vegetated River Channel Using a Vegetation Dynamics Modeling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Miyamoto, Hitoshi

    2015-04-01

    Vegetation overgrowth in fluvial floodplains, gravel beds, and sand bars has been a serious engineering problem for riparian management in Japan. From the viewpoints of flood control and ecological conservation, it would be necessary to predict the vegetation dynamics accurately for long-term duration. In this research, we have developed a stochastic model for predicting the vegetation dynamics in fluvial floodplains with emphasis on the interaction with flood impacts. The model consists of the following four components: (i) long-term stochastic behavior of flow discharge, (ii) hydrodynamics in a channel with floodplain vegetation, (iii) variation of riverbed topography, and (iv) vegetation dynamics on floodplains. In the vegetation dynamics model, the flood discharge (i) is stochastically simulated using a filtered Poisson process, one of the conventional approaches in hydrological time-series generation. The component for vegetation dynamics (iv) includes the effects of tree growth, mortality by floods, and infant tree recruitment. Vegetation condition has been observed mainly before and after floods since 2008 at a field site located between 23-24 km from the river mouth in Kako River, Japan. The Kako River has the catchment area of 1,730 km2 and the main channel length of 96 km. This site is one of the vegetation overgrowth sites in the Kako River floodplains. The predominant tree species are willows and bamboos. In the field survey, the position, trunk diameter and height of each tree as well as the riverbed materials were measured after several flood events to investigate their impacts on the floodplain vegetation community. This presentation tries to examine effects of anthropogenic river regulations, i.e., thinning and cutting-down, in the vegetated channel in Kako River by using the vegetation dynamics model. Sensitivity of both the flood water level and the vegetation status in the channel is statistically evaluated in terms of the different cutting

  4. [Development of analysis software package for the two kinds of Japanese fluoro-d-glucose-positron emission tomography guideline].

    PubMed

    Matsumoto, Keiichi; Endo, Keigo

    2013-06-01

    Two kinds of Japanese guidelines for the data acquisition protocol of oncology fluoro-D-glucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET)/computed tomography (CT) scans were created by the joint task force of the Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine Technology (JSNMT) and the Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine (JSNM), and published in Kakuigaku-Gijutsu 27(5): 425-456, 2007 and 29(2): 195-235, 2009. These guidelines aim to standardize PET image quality among facilities and different PET/CT scanner models. The objective of this study was to develop a personal computer-based performance measurement and image quality processor for the two kinds of Japanese guidelines for oncology (18)F-FDG PET/CT scans. We call this software package the "PET quality control tool" (PETquact). Microsoft Corporation's Windows(™) is used as the operating system for PETquact, which requires 1070×720 image resolution and includes 12 different applications. The accuracy was examined for numerous applications of PETquact. For example, in the sensitivity application, the system sensitivity measurement results were equivalent when comparing two PET sinograms obtained from the PETquact and the report. PETquact is suited for analysis of the two kinds of Japanese guideline, and it shows excellent spec to performance measurements and image quality analysis. PETquact can be used at any facility if the software package is installed on a laptop computer.

  5. Probability of major depression diagnostic classification using semi-structured versus fully structured diagnostic interviews.

    PubMed

    Levis, Brooke; Benedetti, Andrea; Riehm, Kira E; Saadat, Nazanin; Levis, Alexander W; Azar, Marleine; Rice, Danielle B; Chiovitti, Matthew J; Sanchez, Tatiana A; Cuijpers, Pim; Gilbody, Simon; Ioannidis, John P A; Kloda, Lorie A; McMillan, Dean; Patten, Scott B; Shrier, Ian; Steele, Russell J; Ziegelstein, Roy C; Akena, Dickens H; Arroll, Bruce; Ayalon, Liat; Baradaran, Hamid R; Baron, Murray; Beraldi, Anna; Bombardier, Charles H; Butterworth, Peter; Carter, Gregory; Chagas, Marcos H; Chan, Juliana C N; Cholera, Rushina; Chowdhary, Neerja; Clover, Kerrie; Conwell, Yeates; de Man-van Ginkel, Janneke M; Delgadillo, Jaime; Fann, Jesse R; Fischer, Felix H; Fischler, Benjamin; Fung, Daniel; Gelaye, Bizu; Goodyear-Smith, Felicity; Greeno, Catherine G; Hall, Brian J; Hambridge, John; Harrison, Patricia A; Hegerl, Ulrich; Hides, Leanne; Hobfoll, Stevan E; Hudson, Marie; Hyphantis, Thomas; Inagaki, Masatoshi; Ismail, Khalida; Jetté, Nathalie; Khamseh, Mohammad E; Kiely, Kim M; Lamers, Femke; Liu, Shen-Ing; Lotrakul, Manote; Loureiro, Sonia R; Löwe, Bernd; Marsh, Laura; McGuire, Anthony; Mohd Sidik, Sherina; Munhoz, Tiago N; Muramatsu, Kumiko; Osório, Flávia L; Patel, Vikram; Pence, Brian W; Persoons, Philippe; Picardi, Angelo; Rooney, Alasdair G; Santos, Iná S; Shaaban, Juwita; Sidebottom, Abbey; Simning, Adam; Stafford, Lesley; Sung, Sharon; Tan, Pei Lin Lynnette; Turner, Alyna; van der Feltz-Cornelis, Christina M; van Weert, Henk C; Vöhringer, Paul A; White, Jennifer; Whooley, Mary A; Winkley, Kirsty; Yamada, Mitsuhiko; Zhang, Yuying; Thombs, Brett D

    2018-06-01

    original sponsor of the development of the PHQ-9, which is now in the public domain. Dr Chan is a steering committee member or consultant of Astra Zeneca, Bayer, Lilly, MSD and Pfizer. She has received sponsorships and honorarium for giving lectures and providing consultancy and her affiliated institution has received research grants from these companies. Dr Hegerl declares that within the past 3 years, he was an advisory board member for Lundbeck, Servier and Otsuka Pharma; a consultant for Bayer Pharma; and a speaker for Medice Arzneimittel, Novartis, and Roche Pharma, all outside the submitted work. Dr Inagaki declares that he has received grants from Novartis Pharma, lecture fees from Pfizer, Mochida, Shionogi, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, Daiichi-Sankyo, Meiji Seika and Takeda, and royalties from Nippon Hyoron Sha, Nanzando, Seiwa Shoten, Igaku-shoin and Technomics, all outside of the submitted work. Dr Yamada reports personal fees from Meiji Seika Pharma Co., Ltd., MSD K.K., Asahi Kasei Pharma Corporation, Seishin Shobo, Seiwa Shoten Co., Ltd., Igaku-shoin Ltd., Chugai Igakusha and Sentan Igakusha, all outside the submitted work. All other authors declare no competing interests. No funder had any role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis and interpretation of the data; preparation, review or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

  6. Natural lactic acid bacteria population of tropical grasses and their fermentation factor analysis of silage prepared with cellulase and inoculant.

    PubMed

    Khota, Waroon; Pholsen, Suradej; Higgs, David; Cai, Yimin

    2016-12-01

    Natural lactic acid bacteria (LAB) populations in tropical grasses and their fermentation characteristics on silage prepared with cellulase enzyme and LAB inoculants were studied. A commercial inoculant Lactobacillus plantarum Chikuso 1 (CH), a local selected strain Lactobacillus casei TH14 (TH14), and 2 cellulases, Acremonium cellulase (AC) and Maicelase (MC; Meiji Seika Pharma Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan), were used as additives to silage preparation with fresh and wilted (6 h) Guinea grass and Napier grass. Silage was prepared using a laboratory-scale fermentation system. Treatments were CH, TH14, AC at 0.01% fresh matter, AC 0.1%, MC 0.01%, MC 0.1%, CH+AC 0.01%, CH+AC 0.1%, CH+MC 0.01%, CH+MC 0.1%, TH14+AC 0.1%, TH14+AC 0.01%, TH14+MC 0.1%, and TH14+MC 0.01%. Microorganism counts of Guinea grass and Napier grass before ensiling were 10 2 LAB and 10 6 aerobic bacteria; these increased during wilting. Based on morphological and biochemical characteristics, and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, natural strains from both grasses were identified as L. plantarum, L. casei, Lactobacillus acidipiscis, Leuconostoc pseudomesenteroides, Leuconostoc garlicum, Weissella confusa, and Lactococcus lactis. Lactobacillus plantarum and L. casei are the dominant species and could grow at lower pH and produce more lactic acid than the other isolates. Crude protein and neutral detergent fiber were 5.8 and 83.7% of dry matter (DM) for Guinea grass, and 7.5 and 77.1% of DM for Napier grass. Guinea grass had a low level of water-soluble carbohydrates (0.39% of DM). Guinea grass silage treated with cellulase had a lower pH and higher lactic acid content than control and LAB treatments. The 0.1% AC and MC treatments had the best result for fermentation quality. All high water-soluble carbohydrate (2.38% DM) Napier grass silages showed good fermentation quality. Compared with control and LAB-inoculated silage, the cellulase-treated silages had significantly higher crude protein content and

  7. [Disease mongering and bipolar disorder in Japan].

    PubMed

    Ihara, Hiroshi

    2011-01-01

    Frequently used in a pejorative sense, "disease mongering" connotes a widening of the diagnostic boundaries of illness. Pharmaceutical companies conduct disease awareness campaigns on the pretext of educating the public about the prevention of illness or the promotion of health. Encouraged by disease awareness advertisements, people gradually become filled with concern that they are ill and need medical treatment. As a result, pharmacotherapy is increasingly being applied to ever-milder conditions, leading to potentially unnecessary medication, wasted resources, and even adverse side effects. Among all fields of clinical medicine, psychiatry is undoubtedly the most vulnerable to the danger of disease mongering. In Japan, depression provides the most drastic example of the impact of disease awareness campaigns on the number of patients seeking treatment. Until the late 1990s, Japanese psychiatrists focused almost exclusively on psychosis and endogenous depression, the latter being severe enough to require conventional forms of antidepressants, known as tricyclic antidepressants, and even hospitalization. At this time, people's attitude toward depression was generally unfavorable. Indeed, the Japanese word for clinical depression, utubyo, has a negative connotation, implying severe mental illness. This situation, however, changed immediately after fluvoxiamine (Luvox-Fujisawa, Depromel-Meiji Seika), the first selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI) to receive approval in Japan, was introduced in 1999. In order to aid the drug's acceptance by the Japanese public, pharmaceutical companies began using the catchphrase kokoro no kaze, which literally means "a cold of the soul". Thus armed with this phrase, the pharmaceutical industry embarked on a campaign to lessen the stigma surrounding depression. According to national data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the number of patients with a diagnosis of mood disorder increased from 327,000 in 1999 to 591

  8. Coastal submergence at Ukishima-ga-hara adjacent to the Suruga Trough (eastern Nankai Trough), central Japan, inferred from diatoms and plant macrofossils

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sawai, Y.; Momohara, A.

    2017-12-01

    Five episodic submergence events during the past 3500 years were recognized at the Ukishima-ga-hara lowland, northern coast of Suruga Trough (eastern Nankai Trough). Coastal submergence in this region was originally reported by Osamu Fujiwara and his colleagues (e.g., Fujiwara et al., 2016) based mainly on changes in lithostratigraphy from a peaty layer that abruptly changed to a light-colored mud and results of microfossil analyses (pollen and diatoms from 57 and 13 samples, respectively). They attributed the submergence events to coseismic deformation associated with earthquakes in the Fujikawa-kako fault zone or Suruga Trough. Here I reevaluated the micropaleontology of this area using 200 samples from 15 cores to reconstruct the full history of coastal submergence during the last few thousand years. The submergence events were shown not by lithostratigraphy but clearly by changes in fossil diatom assemblages and plant macrofossils. For example, at about 2.3 m and 3.1 m below the ground surface, while aerophilic diatoms (such as Diadesmis contenta and Diploneis elliptica) dominate the underlying peaty layer, freshwater and brackish planktonic taxa (Aulacoseira and Thalassiosira) abound in the overlying layer. As many as five such changes in diatom assemblages were found in a 8-m core and radiocarbon ages constrain the age of the entire sequence to 3500 yr BP.

  9. Elastostatic effects around a magma reservoir and pathway due to historic earthquakes: a case study of Mt. Fuji, Japan

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hosono, Masaki; Mitsui, Yuta; Ishibashi, Hidemi; Kataoka, Jun

    2016-12-01

    We discuss elastostatic effects on Mt. Fuji, the tallest volcano in Japan, due to historic earthquakes in Japan. The 1707 Hoei eruption, which was the most explosive historic eruption of Mt. Fuji, occurred 49 days after the Hoei earthquake (Mw 8.7) along the Nankai Trough. It was previously suggested that the Hoei earthquake induced compression of a basaltic magma reservoir and unclamping of a dike-intruded region at depth, possibly triggering magma mixing and the subsequent Plinian eruption. Here, we show that the 1707 Hoei earthquake was a special case of induced volumetric strain and normal stress changes around the magma reservoir and pathway of Mt. Fuji. The 2011 Tohoku earthquake (Mw 9), along the Japan Trench, dilated the magma reservoir. It has been proposed that dilation of a magma reservoir drives the ascent of gas bubbles with magma and further depressurization, leading to a volcanic eruption. In fact, seismicity notably increased around Mt. Fuji during the first month after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, even when we statistically exclude aftershocks, but the small amount of strain change (< 1 μ strain) may have limited the ascent of magma. For many historic earthquakes, the magma reservoir was compressed and the magma pathway was wholly clamped. This type of interaction has little potential to mechanically trigger the deformation of a volcano. Thus, Mt. Fuji may be less susceptible to elastostatic effects because of its location relative to the sources of large tectonic earthquakes. As an exception, a possible local earthquake in the Fujikawa-kako fault zone could induce a large amount of magma reservoir dilation beneath the southern flank of Mt. Fuji.

  10. Sentence-Based Attentional Mechanisms in Word Learning: Evidence from a Computational Model

    PubMed Central

    Alishahi, Afra; Fazly, Afsaneh; Koehne, Judith; Crocker, Matthew W.

    2012-01-01

    When looking for the referents of novel nouns, adults and young children are sensitive to cross-situational statistics (Yu and Smith, 2007; Smith and Yu, 2008). In addition, the linguistic context that a word appears in has been shown to act as a powerful attention mechanism for guiding sentence processing and word learning (Landau and Gleitman, 1985; Altmann and Kamide, 1999; Kako and Trueswell, 2000). Koehne and Crocker (2010, 2011) investigate the interaction between cross-situational evidence and guidance from the sentential context in an adult language learning scenario. Their studies reveal that these learning mechanisms interact in a complex manner: they can be used in a complementary way when context helps reduce referential uncertainty; they influence word learning about equally strongly when cross-situational and contextual evidence are in conflict; and contextual cues block aspects of cross-situational learning when both mechanisms are independently applicable. To address this complex pattern of findings, we present a probabilistic computational model of word learning which extends a previous cross-situational model (Fazly et al., 2010) with an attention mechanism based on sentential cues. Our model uses a framework that seamlessly combines the two sources of evidence in order to study their emerging pattern of interaction during the process of word learning. Simulations of the experiments of (Koehne and Crocker, 2010, 2011) reveal an overall pattern of results that are in line with their findings. Importantly, we demonstrate that our model does not need to explicitly assign priority to either source of evidence in order to produce these results: learning patterns emerge as a result of a probabilistic interaction between the two clue types. Moreover, using a computational model allows us to examine the developmental trajectory of the differential roles of cross-situational and sentential cues in word learning. PMID:22783211

  11. Existing Approaches to Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Education and Training for Health Professionals: Findings from an Integrative Literature Review.

    PubMed

    Kako, Mayumi; Hammad, Karen; Mitani, Satoko; Arbon, Paul

    2018-04-01

    , depending on the participants' needs. Kako M , Hammad K , Mitani S , Arbon P . Existing approaches to chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) education and training for health professionals: findings from an integrative literature review. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2018;33(2):182-190.

  12. Cognitive and Behavioral Skills Exercises Completed by Patients with Major Depression During Smartphone Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial.

    PubMed

    Furukawa, Toshi A; Horikoshi, Masaru; Fujita, Hirokazu; Tsujino, Naohisa; Jinnin, Ran; Kako, Yuki; Ogawa, Sei; Sato, Hirotoshi; Kitagawa, Nobuki; Shinagawa, Yoshihiro; Ikeda, Yoshio; Imai, Hissei; Tajika, Aran; Ogawa, Yusuke; Akechi, Tatsuo; Yamada, Mitsuhiko; Shimodera, Shinji; Watanabe, Norio; Inagaki, Masatoshi; Hasegawa, Akio

    2018-01-11

    tasks, engaged in different types of activities, and also filled in more cognitive restructuring worksheets than the latter. Activities such as "test-drive a new car," "go to a coffee shop after lunch," or "call up an old friend" were found to be particularly rewarding. All cognitive restructuring strategies were found to significantly decrease the distress level, with "What would be your advice to a friend who has a similar problem?" found more helpful than some other strategies. The CBT program offered via smartphone and connected to the remote server is not only effective in alleviating depression but also opens a new avenue in gathering information of what and how each participant may utilize the program. The activities and strategies found useful in this analysis will provide valuable information in brush-ups of the program itself and of mobile health (mHealth) in general. Japanese Clinical Trials Registry UMIN CTR 000013693; https://upload.umin.ac.jp/cgi-open-bin/ctr_e/ ctr_view.cgi?recptno=R000015984 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6u6pxVwik). ©Toshi A Furukawa, Masaru Horikoshi, Hirokazu Fujita, Naohisa Tsujino, Ran Jinnin, Yuki Kako, Sei Ogawa, Hirotoshi Sato, Nobuki Kitagawa, Yoshihiro Shinagawa, Yoshio Ikeda, Hissei Imai, Aran Tajika, Yusuke Ogawa, Tatsuo Akechi, Mitsuhiko Yamada, Shinji Shimodera, Norio Watanabe, Masatoshi Inagaki, Akio Hasegawa. Originally published in JMIR Mental Health (http://mental.jmir.org), 11.01.2018.