Publications by authors named "Fumiko Aoki"

Background: Many small for gestational age (SGA) infants have catch-up growth during the first 2 years of life, but approximately 10% have no catch-up growth, and short stature continues into adulthood. Identification of risk factors for absence of catch-up growth at an early age may be useful for earlier diagnosis and earlier treatment.

Methods: This was a retrospective multicenter study.

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Myanmar transitioned to a civilian government in March, 2011. Although the democratic process has accelerated since then, many problems in the field of healthcare still exist. Since there is a limited overview on the healthcare in Myanmar, this article briefly describes the current states surrounding health services in Myanmar.

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Ultraviolet absorption (UV) and electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectra of enantiopure (Z)-8-methoxy-4-cyclooctenone (MCO) were measured in hexane to give a normal single UV absorption band at 298 nm, which is assigned to the carbonyl's pi*<--n transition. Unexpectedly, the ECD spectrum exhibited an apparent couplet pattern with vibrational fine structures. Obviously, the conventional CD exciton coupling mechanism cannot be applied to this bisignate CD signal observed for single-chromophoric MCO.

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Intracellular interferons (IFNs) exert biological functions similar to those of extracellular IFNs, but the signal transduction pathway triggered by the intracellular ligands has not been fully revealed. We investigated the signaling cascade by sequence-specific knockdown of signaling molecules by means of the RNA interference. Truncated IFN-beta gene was constructed so that the N-terminal secretory signal sequence was deleted (SD.

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The absolute asymmetric photoreaction (AAP) of racemic aliphatic amino acids, such as alanine (Ala) and leucine (Leu), by left- and right-handed circularly polarized light (l- and r-CPL) irradiation was investigated in aqueous solutions at various pHs, by using the Onuki-type polarizing undulator installed in an electron storage ring. The magnitude of the optical purity (op) generated and the enantiomer-enriching mechanism operative in the AAP were found to be entirely dependent on the ionic state (and thus pH) of the amino/carboxylic acid moieties. At pH 1, the op of Ala and Leu determined by circular dichroism (CD) spectral measurement gradually developed with CPL irradiation, according to Kagan's equation.

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