Evaluation of fatigue in young female adults due to repeated exposure to heat in summer and cold in winter.

Purpose: The magnitude of fatigue (MF) from psychological and physiological responses during repeated exposure to heat in summer and during repeated exposure to cold in winter was evaluated to test two hypotheses on fatigue models. The first hypothesis is that exposure time (ET, min) would be a factor determining the MF and the second hypothesis is that the same fatigue models as a function of the number of exposure repetitions (NR) could be applied to both repeated exposure to heat in summer and cold in winter.

Methods: In summer, eight young adult female subjects with clothing insulation (I, clo) of 0.

Tag-assisted liquid-phase peptide synthesis using hydrophobic benzyl alcohols as supports.

A soluble tag-assisted liquid-phase peptide synthesis was successfully established based on simple hydrophobic benzyl alcohols, which can be easily prepared from naturally abundant materials. Excellent precipitation yields can be obtained at each step, combining the best properties of solid-phase and liquid-phase techniques. This approach can also be applied efficiently to fragment couplings, allowing chemical synthesis of several bioactive peptides.

Feasibility evaluation of a new irradiation technique: three-dimensional unicursal irradiation with the Vero4DRT (MHI-TM2000).

The Vero4DRT (MHI-TM2000) is a newly designed unique image-guided radiotherapy system consisting of an O-ring gantry. This system can realize a new irradiation technique in which both the gantry head and O-ring continuously and simultaneously rotate around the inner circumference of the O-ring and the vertical axis of the O-ring, respectively, during irradiation. This technique creates three-dimensional (3D) rotational dynamic conformal arc irradiation, which we term '3D unicursal irradiation'.

Development of outdoor thermal index indicating universal and separate effects on human thermal comfort.

The purpose of this study is to propose a new outdoor thermal index that simultaneously indicates universal and separate effects. The value indicating universal effect in this index consists of the summation of air temperature and the effective temperature differences by air velocity, longwave radiation, solar radiation, and humidity. This paper describes the theoretical construction of this newly derived index to compare with previous indices.

Initial validations for pursuing irradiation using a gimbals tracking system.

Our newly designed image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) system enables the dynamic tracking irradiation with a gimbaled X-ray head and a dual on-board kilovolt imaging subsystem for real-time target localization. Examinations using a computer-controlled three-dimensionally movable phantom demonstrated that our gimbals tracking system significantly reduced motion blurring effects in the dose distribution compared to the non-tracking state.

Effects of ambient temperature steps on thermal comfort requirements.

The purpose of this study was to determine the thermal comfort requirements for steps in temperature. Thirty male subjects were exposed for 50 min to a 34 or 37 degrees C condition, and then quickly transferred to a cooler environment of 31, 28, 25, and 22 degrees C for 50 min. Mean skin temperature was continuously measured, and the subjects reported their thermal sensation and comfort sensation every 2 min.