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Background: Small intestine carcinoma (SIC) cases in Japan have recently been treated with chemotherapy according to colorectal carcinoma classification, while papilla of Vater carcinoma (PVC) cases according to cholangiocarcinoma (CHC) classification. However, few research reports support the molecular genetic validity of these therapeutic choices. Patients and methods: Here, we investigated the clinicopathological and molecular genetic factors of SIC and PVC. We used the data from the Japanese version of The Cancer Genome Atlas. Additionally, molecular genetic data on gastric adenocarcinoma (GAD), colorectal adenocarcinoma (CRAD), pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), and CHC were also referred to. Results: This study consisted of tumor samples from 12 patients of SIC and three patients of PVC treated from January 2014 to March 2019. Among them, six patients had pancreatic invasion. t-Distributed stochastic neighbor embedding analysis showed that the gene expression pattern of SIC was similar not only to those of GAD and CRAD, but also to that of PDAC in the pancreatic invasion patients. In addition, PVC resembled the GAD, CRAD, and PDAC, rather than the CHC. The molecular genetic characteristics of the six patients with pancreatic invasion were: one had high microsatellite instability, two had a TP53 driver mutation, and three had tumor mutation burden values <1 mutation/Mb with no driver mutation. Conclusions: In this study, the extensive gene expression profiling of organ carcinomas newly suggests that SIC or PVC may resemble GAD, CRAD, and PDAC. In addition, the data demonstrate that pancreatic invasive patients may be classified into several subtypes using molecular genetic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture provides a wide range of ecosystem services and has the potential to contribute to biodiversity conservation. In Japan, many of the resources associated with agroecosystems are threatened by farmland abandonment. Identifying where and to what extent agricultural ecosystem services and farmland biodiversity are affected by farmland abandonment is essential for developing effective strategies to counter the potential loss of these services and the biological communities that support them. Our study aimed to examine how a set of indicators for ecosystem services and biodiversity linked to agroecosystems (proportions of land dedicated to rice production and other agricultural production, proportion of agricultural land on slopes potentially providing landscape aesthetics, proportion of villages promoting rural tourism, and densities of forest edges and irrigation ponds in agricultural land) are distributed at the municipal level across the Japanese Archipelago, and to analyze their spatial patterns in relation to the distribution of farmland abandonment. It was hypothesized that hotspots of agricultural ecosystem services and farmland biodiversity occur in areas at risk of farmland abandonment owing to shared drivers. The cluster analysis identified four distinct ecosystem service bundle types, two of them representing areas specializing in agricultural production, while the other two provided high levels of cultural services and habitats for diverse biological communities. The latter two bundles were located in hilly and mountainous areas and accounted for 58% of rice production, 27% of other agricultural production, 77% of landscape aesthetics, 77% of rural tourism, 64% of forest edges, and 87% of irrigation ponds in Japan. In support of the hypothesis, farmland abandonment was pronounced in these areas, with 64% of recently abandoned fields located where 44% of agricultural land was found. This spatial overlap suggests that substantial losses of ecosystem services and biodiversity may occur if current patterns of farmland abandonment continue. In order to prevent large-scale losses of agricultural ecosystem services and farmland biodiversity, measures to counteract the ongoing abandonment trends should prioritize hilly and mountainous areas, and future studies should further evaluate the multiple functions of agricultural areas to improve policies that aim to ensure sustainable development of rural areas in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to analyse the study abroad and transnational experiences of Japanese women between the 1860s and the 1920s. First, this article analyses the tendencies, periods, agents (both government-funded and privately-funded), aims and subjects studied in female study abroad in the four stages during this period from school history materials of individual institutions which supported female study abroad. In its later stages, female study abroad tended to strengthen the function of raising leaders of girls’ and women’s education, while in its early stages it tended to introduce a variety of Western culture and academic knowledge. Second, the article focuses on the forms of government- and privately-funded study abroad for women by tracing the study-abroad experience of two women educators in the early 20th century. Within governmentfunded study abroad, academic disciplines studied and students’ experiences were controlled by the government and focused on building a national female educational system. However, privatelyfunded study abroad possessed wider aims. It allowed female students to study various academic disciplines and introduced new international trends for promoting women’s social participation. Most female students who experienced study abroad became pioneers of female education and/or social activities in Japan as a result of their transnational experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of patients with pancreatic cancer (PC) is currently increasing in both Korea and Japan. The 5-year survival rate of patients with PC 13.0%; however, resection with minimal invasion (tumor size: ≤10 mm) increases the 5-year survival rate to 80%. For this reason, early detection is essential, but most patients with early-stage PC are asymptomatic. Early detection of PC has been reported to require screening of high-risk individuals (HRIs), such as those with a family history of PC, inherited cancer syndromes, intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm, or chronic pancreatitis. Studies on screening of these HRIs have confirmed a significantly better prognosis among patients with PC who were screened than for patients with PC who were not screened. However, to date in Japan, most patients with early-stage PC diagnosed in routine clinics were not diagnosed during annual health checks or by surveillance; rather, PC was detected in these patients by incidental findings during examinations for other diseases. We need to increase the precision of the PC screening and diagnostic processes by introducing new technologies, and we need to pay greater attention to incidental clinical findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A manganese-oxidizing fungus was isolated from a hot spring in Japan. The fungus was increasingly effective at oxidizing Mn(II) ions as the concentration of organic carbon sources in the growth medium was decreased. The fungus oxidized 50 ppm of Mn(II) ions within 160 h in a pH 7.3 medium at 25°C. The presence of carbon fiber shortened the time to 80 h, and promoted steady oxidation. The oxidation products were identified by XPS and XRD to be poorly crystallized and amorphous MnO2, both with and without the fiber. These results suggest that the fiber participates in kinetically limited oxidation. The fungus was entangled with and clung to the fibers, and the oxidized Mn species accumulated on the fungus. Similarly shaped polyethylene telephthalate fiber did not enhance the oxidation, nor was adhesion of the fungus observed. Although the mechanism is still unknown, the present work shows that removal of Mn from solution through the precipitation and accumulation of Mn-oxides on the fungus in the presence of carbon fiber is a promising improvement for water treatment. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: For patients with breast cancer treated with certain chemotherapy regimens, taste disorders associated with those regimens can negatively affect quality of life. OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated the effects of taste disorder-related education on meal satisfaction and sense of taste in Japanese women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy. METHODS: A sample of 53 newly diagnosed women with breast cancer scheduled for chemotherapy treatment were randomly assigned to the control or intervention (nurse-provided education about chemotherapy-associated taste disorders) group. Meal satisfaction and sense of taste were assessed using a visual analog scale. FINDINGS: The proportions of patients with meal dissatisfaction and impaired sense of taste were lower in the intervention group than in the control group. Although meal dissatisfaction and impaired sense of taste recovered in the intervention group two months after protocol completion, they did not recover in the control group. Providing education to women with breast cancer scheduled for chemotherapy treatment can affect patients' experience of treatment-associated taste disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]