Questionnaire survey on the conceptual framework, optimal evaluation, and support measures for children's language disorders in Japan using the Delphi method.

Objectives: To compile the opinions of native Japanese speakers on the conceptual framework, optimal evaluation, and support measures for children with language disorders to devise materials on which a consensus can be formed.

Design: A quantitative descriptive study using the Delphi method.

Setting: Using the Delphi method, 43 clinicians with at least 15 years of experience working professionally with children's language disorders in Japan were surveyed three times via a web-based questionnaire.

A Communication-Efficient Secure Routing Protocol for IoT Networks.

This paper proposes a secure routing protocol based on an ad hoc on-demand distance vector to simultaneously achieve communication efficiency and security. Many studies have discussed secure protocols. However, conventional protocols tend to exhibit low communication efficiencies owing to the long packets required by digital signatures, specifically in large-scale networks.

Clinical evaluation of an authorized medical equipment based on high performance liquid chromatography for measurement of serum voriconazole concentration.

Background: Therapeutic drug monitoring for voriconazole is recommended for its optimum pharmacotherapy. Although the feedback of the measurement result of serum voriconazole concentration by outsourcing needs a certain time (days within a 1 week), there was no medical equipment for the measurement available in clinical practice. Recently, a medical equipment based on high performance liquid chromatography, named LM1010, has been developed and authorized for clinical use.

Image Captioning Using Motion-CNN with Object Detection.

Automatic image captioning has many important applications, such as the depiction of visual contents for visually impaired people or the indexing of images on the internet. Recently, deep learning-based image captioning models have been researched extensively. For caption generation, they learn the relation between image features and words included in the captions.

A case of recovery from aphasia following dose reduction of cefepime by bayesian prediction-based therapeutic drug monitoring.

Cefepime is known to exert bactericidal activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Cefepime-induced neurotoxicity, most likely caused by increased exposure, has recently become a major concern in clinical practice; therefore, appropriate dose reduction of cefepime should be applied with respect to patients with low cefepime clearance (mostly eliminated by the kidneys). Here, we report a case in which Bayesian prediction-based therapeutic drug monitoring (Bayes-TDM) was effectively used to reduce the dose of cefepime in a patient with pneumonia to prevent neurotoxic complications.

Development and evaluation of a vancomycin dosing nomogram to achieve the target area under the concentration-time curve. A retrospective study.

Although the superiority of vancomycin dosing based on area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) over that based on trough concentration has been reported, a dosing strategy to achieve the target AUC has yet to be developed. The objective of this study was to develop a convenient useable nomogram for vancomycin dosing to obtain the target AUC (400 μg h/mL). The nomogram was pharmacokinetically developed in a retrospective manner.

Continuous high-dose infusion of doripenem in a pneumonia patient infected by carbapenem-resistant : a case report.

Background: Despite the high mortality of patients with sepsis and carbapenem-resistant bacteria infection, appropriate antimicrobial therapies are yet to be established. Here, we have reported the case of a patient with pneumonia that subsequently developed by carbapenem-resistant infection and was treated with a continuous high-dose infusion of doripenem.

Case Presentation: We started a continuous intravenous infusion of doripenem 3 g/day although the 59-year-old woman (body weight, 45 kg) had developed septic acute kidney injury, followed by continuous renal replacement therapy (the effluent flow rate was 650 mL/h).

Dosimetric investigation of breath-hold intensity-modulated radiotherapy for pancreatic cancer.

Purpose: To experimentally investigate the effects of variations in respiratory motion during breath-holding (BH) at end-exhalation (EE) on intensity-modulated radiotherapy (BH-IMRT) dose distribution using a motor-driven base, films, and an ionization chamber.

Methods: Measurements were performed on a linear accelerator, which has a 120-leaf independently moving multileaf collimator with 5-mm leaf width at the isocenter for the 20-cm central field. Polystyrene phantoms with dimensions of 40 × 40 × 10 cm were set on a motor-driven base.

siRNA-mediated silencing of PD-1 ligands enhances tumor-specific human T-cell effector functions.

Adoptive cell therapy using tumor-specific T cells is a promising strategy for treating patients with malignancy. However, accumulating evidences have demonstrated that optimal function of tumor-reactive T cells is often attenuated by negative regulatory signal(s) delivered through receptors, such as cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4), programmed death 1 (PD-1), and their cognate ligands. Although systemic blocking of these molecules needs careful attention on the risk of uncontrolled immune activation, selective inhibition of negative signals in tumor-specific T cells by their genetic modification is an attractive approach to overcome immunological suppression in cancer patients.

Application of an electrochemical NAD+ recycling system involving a string-like carbon fiber to an enzyme reactor.

A string-like carbon fiber was found to be very suitable as a working electrode material for direct electrochemical oxidation of β-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide reduced form (NADH), and direct use of it for an enzyme reactor was possible. The electrochemical NAD+ recycling system was applied to glucose dehydrogenase (GDH) and to the recombinant formate dehydrogenase (RFDH) reactors. The maximum oxidation current value increased to 3.

The blood group P1 synthase gene is identical to the Gb3/CD77 synthase gene. A clue to the solution of the P1/P2/p puzzle.

Blood group P1/P2 is a glycolipid antigen system for which the genetic mechanism has not yet been clarified. We analyzed the potential of the cloned Gb3/CD77 synthase to synthesize P1 antigen, because Gb3/CD77 and P1 share a common structure, Galalpha1,4Galbeta1,4Glc (NAc)-. L cell transfectants with Gb3/CD77 synthase cDNA expressed marginal levels of P1 on the cell surface but contained high levels of P1 in the cytoplasm.

Control of postprandial hyperglycaemia by galactosyl maltobionolactone and its novel anti-amylase effect in mice.

The ability to control carbohydrate digestion is useful in the treatment of diabetes mellitus and obesity. In the present study, we examined whether recently developed 4(2)-O-beta-D-galactosyl maltobionolactone (LG2O) having anti-amylase activity is able to control postprandial blood glucose concentration in mice. In addition, we tried to determine how LG2O regulates carbohydrate delivery in the gut lumen by conducting in vivo and in vitro studies.

Molecular basis for the p phenotype. Identification of distinct and multiple mutations in the alpha 1,4-galactosyltransferase gene in Swedish and Japanese individuals.

p phenotype individuals lack both P(k) (Gb3) and P (Gb4) glycolipid antigens of the P blood group system. To explore the molecular basis for this phenotype, DNA sequences of Gb3 synthase (alpha1, 4-galactosyltransferase; alpha1,4Gal-T) in six p phenotype individuals from Japan and Sweden were analyzed. A missense mutation P251L and a nonsense mutation W261stop in three and one Japanese indivuiduals, respectively, and missense mutations M183K and G187D in one each of two Swedish p individuals were found, indicating that p individuals from Japan and Sweden have distinct and multiple homozygous point mutations in the coding region.

Coagulation and vascular abnormalities in Crow-Fukase syndrome.

Coagulation and vascular abnormalities were studied in 4 patients with Crow-Fukase syndrome (CFS or POEMS) to understand the pathophysiology. Fibrinogen, fibrinopeptide A, and thrombin-antithrombin complexes (TAT) increased in sera during active phase of CFS. In nerves of 2 untreated cases, the endothelium of small vessels was immunohistochemically stained with antithrombin III antibody, which indicates the existence of TAT.

Central nervous system lesions in rats infected with Friend murine leukemia virus-related PVC441: ultrastructural and immunohistochemical studies.

Newborn F344 rats were injected intraperitoneally with PVC441 virus, a neuropathogenic variant of Friend murine leukemia virus, and developed paraparesis of hind limbs 35-40 days after infection. Immunohistochemical study using monoclonal anti-PVC441 antibody revealed that in the central nervous system endothelial cells but not neuronal or glial cells were infected with PVC441 virus. The major pathological changes were myelin vacuolation and oligodendrocyte degeneration in the white matter at the white-gray border zone.

Regenerative capacity of mdx mouse muscles after repeated applications of myo-necrotic bupivacaine.

We injected bupivacaine (BPVC), which produces muscle fiber necrosis, repeatedly into the soleus muscles of mdx mice, which represent a model of human Duchenne muscular dystrophy, over a 12-month period. Cytological and morphometric analysis revealed that the regenerative capacity of repeatedly BPVC-injected mdx muscles was almost equal to that of the saline-injected mdx muscles. At 9 months of age the endomysial collagen content of mdx muscles was 4.

Effect of long-term therapy with nipradilol on esophageal varices in patients with compensated cirrhosis. Results of a multicenter open study.

The effect of long-term administration of nipradilol (NIP, Hypadil Kowa, CAS 81486-22-8), a beta-blocker with a vasodilatory action, on esophageal varices was studied in 66 patients with compensated liver cirrhosis. Administration of NIP (6-12 mg/d) for 3-12 months produced progressive improvement of endoscopic findings over time (30% for C, 25% for F, and 40% for the R-C sign after 12 months). At the last examination (mean: 9 +/- 4 months), the improvement rates were 16.

Instability of F-actin in the absence of ATP: a small amount of myosin destabilizes F-actin.

The effects of the neutral salt concentration, pH, and coexistence of myosin on the denaturation of F-actin without ATP at low temperature were studied using the DNase I inhibition assay. The percent denaturation of F-actin gradually increased with a decrease in pH from 8.0 to 5.

[Incidence of hepatitis C in chronic liver diseases following tattooing].

The seroprevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) was investigated in 16 tattooed men with chronic liver diseases using the Ortho-Chiron HCV antibody ELISA system. In 11 out of the 16 men, the result was positive, which was significantly higher as compared with that of presumably healthy blood donors in the Tokyo area, i. e.

Estimation of denaturation of actin in the actin-myosin complex treated with various conditions by DNAase I inhibition assay.

1. Experiments were conducted to evaluate whether DNAase I (EC 3.1.

[Biliary excretion and clinical efficacy of T-3262 (tosufloxacin tosilate) administered in the treatment of cholecystitis].

T-3262 (tosufloxacin tosilate), a new oral pyridone carboxylic acid agent, was investigated for its biliary excretion and clinical efficacy and safety to evaluate its usefulness in the treatment of cholecystitis. T-3262 was administered to a total of 4 healthy volunteers for 2 days at a dose of 150 mg every 8 hours, and A-, B- or C-bile were collected using the MELTZER-LYON method at 10-11 hours after the final administration. Bile concentrations of T-3262 in 3 cases were 0.

Clinical and pathophysiological aspects of fatty liver of unknown etiology in modern Japan.

Recently, fatty liver of unknown etiology has been increasing in number among relatively younger persons in Japan. The tendency is very likely related to drastic reformation of the standard of living with the height of economic prosperity due to industrial advances in Japan at present. On the basis of our own 392 patients with fatty liver of unknown etiology, in whom fatty liver could be confirmed laparoscopically and bioptically, clinical and pathophysiological aspects of fatty liver of unknown etiology have been into consideration.