Consideration points in the decision making in chronic respiratory diseases.

Even though dynamic multidisciplinary team discussions are crucial for end-of-life care management and decisions concerning chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the details of the discussion contents remain poorly understood. This study aimed to identify essential considerations in decision-making for patients with chronic respiratory diseases to enhance a consensus-based approach. A qualitative content analysis of focus group conversations on published clinical case reports in the Japanese community about end-of-life care for patients with chronic respiratory disorders was conducted.

Analysis of veering during gait in blind individuals.

Background: Veering occurs during blind walking, which causes individuals to deviate from crosswalks or fall off platforms. Despite being linked to static postural control, the relationship between veering and gait function (gait variability and plantar pressure), which is presumed to be related to dynamic postural control, has yet to be fully understood.

Research Question: How do gait variability and plantar pressure affect veering?

Methods: This experiment involved a walking task in which 11 blind adults were instructed to walk along a straight path using a white cane.

Impact of corporal punishment on victims' future violent behavior in extracurricular sports.

Background: Over 500 cases of school-based corporal punishment (CP) are reported annually in Japan. A major feature of CP in Japanese schools is its high prevalence during extracurricular sports activities.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of having suffered a CP-related injury on victims' later use of CP in an athletics environment.

Effects of gene duplication, epistasis, recombination and gene conversion on the fixation time of compensatory mutations.

Gene duplication is one of the major mechanisms of molecular evolution. Gene duplication enables copies of a gene to accumulate mutations through functional redundancy. If a gene encodes a specific protein that interacts with other proteins, RNA, or DNA, the relaxation of selective constraints caused by gene duplication might contribute to the fixation of compensatory mutations that occur at the interacting sites.

Uptake of iron (III)-ethylenediamine-N, N, N', N'-tetraacetic acid complex by phosphatidylcholine lipid film. Part II. Effect of film curvature.

Mixed micelles formed in a ternary-solute aqueous solution of NaOH, iron (III)-ethylenediamine-N, N, N', N'-tetraacetic acid complex (Fe-EDTA) and 1,2-diheptanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidyl choline (DHPC) were studied and compared with the mixed adsorbed film reported in Part I of this series to clarify the effect of the curvature of molecular assemblies on the interactions between their Fe-EDTA and DHPC constituents. The critical micelle concentrations (CMCs), surface tension at the CMC, and solution pH were measured as functions of the mole fractions of NaOH and DHPC. Rigorous thermodynamic equations were derived, in which the overall proton dissociation equilibria of Fe-EDTA and DHPC were taken into consideration, and applied to experimental data to obtain phase diagrams of micelle formation and the micelle-adsorbed film equilibrium.

Uptake of iron (III)-ethylenediamine-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid complex by phosphatidylcholine lipid film: Part I. Effect of bulk pH.

We studied a ternary solutes aqueous solution of NaOH, iron (III)-ethylenediamine-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid complex (Fe-edta), and 1,2-diheptanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine (DHPC)/air interface system to clarify the interactions between iron complexes and lipids with a phosphatidylcholine head group. The solution surface tension and pH were measured as functions of the total molality of NaOH, Fe-edta and DHPC, and the mole fractions of NaOH and DHPC. Rigorous thermodynamic equations were derived, in which the overall proton dissociation equilibria of Fe-edta and DHPC were taken into consideration, and applied to experimental data to obtain phase diagram of adsorption.

Evaluating the Phylogenetic Status of the Extinct Japanese Otter on the Basis of Mitochondrial Genome Analysis.

The Japanese otter lived throughout four main Japanese islands, but it has not been observed in the wild since 1979 and was declared extinct in 2012. Although recent taxonomic and molecular phylogenetic studies suggest that it should be treated as an independent species, International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List considers it as subspecies of Lutra lutra. Therefore, the taxonomic status of this species needs to be resolved.

A model of compensatory molecular evolution involving multiple sites in RNA molecules.

Consider two sites under compensatory fitness interaction, such as a Watson-Crick base pair in an RNA helix or two interacting residues in a protein. A mutation at any one of these two sites may reduce the fitness of an individual. However, fitness may be restored by the occurrence of a second mutation at the other site.

A new subspecies identification and population study of the Asian small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus) in Malay Peninsula and southern Thailand based on fecal DNA method.

Three species of otter can be found throughout Malay Peninsula: Aonyx cinereus, Lutra sumatrana, and Lutrogale perspicillata. In this study, we focused on the A. cinereus population that ranges from the southern and the east coast to the northern regions of Malay Peninsula up to southern Thailand to review the relationships between the populations based on the mitochondrial D-loop region.

[Conceptual systems in bilinguals: evidence from category clustering].

This study provides evidence for the organization of bilingual conceptual representations in terms of second-language proficiency and the similarity between the two languages. Two bilingual groups (Japanese-English and Japanese-Korean) of participants were assigned a free recall task with a category list. The list consisted of 36 items from different levels of typicality, which were presented in the first or second language.

Models of compensatory molecular evolution: effects of back mutation.

Compensatory mutations are individually deleterious but appropriate combinations of mutants are harmless. For several models of compensatory molecular evolution, we consider the effects of back mutation. It is shown that the effects of back mutation on the rate of compensatory molecular evolution are weak.

Compensatory evolution in diploid populations.

Compensatory mutations are individually deleterious but harmless in appropriate combinations either at more than two sites within a gene or on separate genes. Considering that dominance effects of selection and heterodimer formation of gene products may affect the rate of compensatory evolution, we investigate compensatory neutral mutation models for diploid populations. Our theoretical analysis on the average time until fixation of compensatory mutations shows that these factors play an important role in reducing the fixation time of compensatory mutations if mutation rates are not low.