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This retrospective analysis investigated the prognostic value of monitoring the response to imatinib using peripheral blood (PB) samples and the impact of the response on outcome in 133 patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). We divided the response into 3 categories according to the results of neutrophil (N)-FISH and BCR-ABL transcript levels in PB; more than a 3-log reduction [major molecular response (MMR)], between a 2-log and 3-log reduction or negative with N-FISH [complete cytogenetic response equivalent (CCyRe)], N-FISH positive or less than a 2-log reduction (non-CCyRe). The median follow-up was 5.46 years. At 5 years, the overall survival (OS) rate and progression-free survival (PFS) rate were 94.4 and 92.0%, respectively. The estimated rate of the CCyRe and MMR were 81.7 and 67.1%, respectively. 106 patients achieving the CCyRe had significantly better OS and PFS than 27 patients without achieving the CCyRe. Patients with MMR had significantly better survival free from death, progression, imatinib withdrawal and a loss of the CCyRe, than patients whose response level remained in the CCyRe without achieving MMR until 18 months. Our observation suggests that the response level of the CCyRe on PB serve as a prognostic indicator, and achieving MMR provides stable long-term survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Japan Water Research Center has adopted a research model for large water supply technology projects whereby participants from industry, water utilities, and academia work in close cooperation. Using this trilateral research framework, the JWRC has been pursuing the development of water supply technology from various angles for the last 20 years. Major topics have been new water purification technologies as exemplified by membrane filtration and pipeline technology directed at leakage prevention, earthquake proofing, and countermeasures against water quality deterioration in pipes. The current paper gives an overview of the research framework and major R & D projects implemented by the JWRC. Ongoing projects and future outlook are also mentioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an experiment comparing related two-person bargaining and multiperson market environments in Israel, Japan, the United States, and Yugoslavia, market outcomes converged to equilibrium every where, and there were no payoff-relevant differences among countries. However, bargaining outcomes were everywhere different from the equilibrium predictions (both in observed agreements and in the substantial frequency of observed disagreements), and substantial differences were observed among countries. Because of the way the experiment was designed, the fact that the market behavior is the same in all countries supports the hypothesis that the differences in bargaining behavior among countries are not due to differences in languages, currencies, or experiments but may tentatively be attributed to cultural differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the 2001 Japanese Economic Association-Nakahara Prize awarded to Professor Charles Yuji Horioka. His contributions to the field of economics in Japan.

Purpose: To propose a five-point scale for radiology report importance called Report Importance Category (RIC) and to compare the performance of natural language processing (NLP) algorithms in assessing RIC using head computed tomography (CT) reports written in Japanese., Materials and Methods: 3728 Japanese head CT reports performed at Osaka University Hospital in 2020 were included. RIC (category 0: no findings, category 1: minor findings, category 2: routine follow-up, category 3: careful follow-up, and category 4: examination or therapy) was established based not only on patient severity but also on the novelty of the information. The manual assessment of RIC for the reports was performed under the consensus of two out of four neuroradiologists. The performance of four NLP models for classifying RIC was compared using fivefold cross-validation: logistic regression, bidirectional long-short-term memory (BiLSTM), general bidirectional encoder representations of transformers (general BERT), and domain-specific BERT (BERT for medical domain)., Results: The proportion of each RIC in the whole data set was 15.0%, 26.7%, 44.2%, 7.7%, and 6.4%, respectively. Domain-specific BERT showed the highest accuracy (0.8434 ± 0.0063) in assessing RIC and significantly higher AUC in categories 1 (0.9813 ± 0.0011), 2 (0.9492 ± 0.0045), 3 (0.9637 ± 0.0050), and 4 (0.9548 ± 0.0074) than the other models (p < .05). Analysis using layer-integrated gradients showed that the domain-specific BERT model could detect important words, such as disease names in reports., Conclusions: Domain-specific BERT has superiority over the other models in assessing our newly proposed criteria called RIC of head CT radiology reports. The accumulation of similar and further studies of has a potential to contribute to medical safety by preventing missed important findings by clinicians., (© 2024. The Author(s).)