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Aims: Are nurses adapting to the mechanized nursing practice environment? Is it possible for nurses to collaborate with technology to provide care to patients? The aim of the study is to investigate what nurses feel about using technology in nursing practice. Background: Preventing patients from falling is one of the nursing tasks that can be helped by using technology, such as sensors. However, little is known about how nurses experience and feel the use of technological beds for monitoring functionality within clinical nursing practice. Especially it is indicated that alarm fatigue makes nurses and patients fatigued and induces a dissonance between nurses and technology. Objective: To clarify the experiences of nurses in clinical practice following the introduction of a bed with monitoring and fall prevention technology (technology bed). Methods: We interviewed 12 nurses working at a hospital about their nursing practice experiences with the technology bed. Results: The content of the interview was classified into three categories: ‘providing a safe environment’, ‘limitation of entry into machine care scenes’, and ‘nurses’ dilemmas’; with eight themes describing nursing practice: (1) strategies of fall prevention, (2) decrease in nurses’ burden, (3) not good at using technology (all tools must be easy to use), (4) inefficiency such as over-engineering, (5) patients feel annoyed by frequent visits from nurses, (6) limitations of utilization from a nursing perspective, (7) nurse resistance to equipment introduction and (8) ethical issues. Conclusion: Although technology beds could effectively prevent falls, many nurses face an ethical dilemma in using these beds. It would be important for nurses to recognize the role of technology, embrace it, and raise awareness of collaborating with technology to eliminate a dissonance between technology and nurses.

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KOSENs not only try to increase students’ engineering abilities and literacy, which is the ability to use knowledge and skills, but also their competency, which we consider is the ability to apply knowledge and skills to any problem that might arise outside the walls of school. So the present study analyzes the relationship between a teacher’s evaluation of students’ self-assessment by “Daifuku-cho,” which is used for teacher-and-student interaction in PE class, and their competency improvement using PROG test scores. The result confirmed that students’ daily self-reflection and teachers’ feedback on them are important, and the outcome of their daily self-reflection can quantitatively show the growth in their competency. In particular, we report that the interaction between students and their teacher through the use of “Daifuku-cho” enhanced their learning and also that by comparing what the students wrote in “Daifukucho,” their grades and the results of PROG test, we suggest that the better students reflected themselves using “Daifuku-cho,” the more their competency developed.

The efficacy and renal safety of low-dose/high-frequency (LDHF) dosing and high-dose/low-frequency (HDLF) dosing of bisphosphonates (BPs) are comparable in patients with normal kidney function but might be different in patients with late-stage chronic kidney disease (CKD). This study aimed to compare the efficacy and renal safety of two different dosage regimens of a BP, alendronate (ALN), in stage 4 CKD using a rat model. Male, 10-week-old Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to either 5/6 nephrectomy or sham surgery. The animals received subcutaneous administration of vehicle (daily) or ALN in LDHF dosage regimen (LDHF-ALN: 0.05 mg/kg/day) or HDLF dosage regimen (HDLF-ALN: 0.70 mg/kg/2 weeks). Medications commenced at 20 weeks of age and continued for 10 weeks. Micro-computed tomography, histological analysis, infrared spectroscopic imaging, and serum and urine assays were performed to examine the efficacy and renal safety of the ALN regimens. Both LDHF-ALN and HDLF-ALN increased bone mass, improved micro-structure, and enhanced mechanical properties, without causing further renal impairment in CKD rats. Histologically, however, HDLF-ALN more efficiently suppressed bone turnover, leading to more mineralized trabecular bone, than LDHF-ALN in CKD rats, whereas such differences between LDHF-ALN and HDLF-ALN were not observed in sham rats. Both LDHF-ALN and HDLF-ALN showed therapeutic effects on high bone turnover osteoporosis in CKD stage 4 rats without causing further renal impairment. However, as HDLF-ALN more efficiently suppressed bone turnover than LDHF-ALN in late-stage CKD, HDLF-ALN might be more appropriate than LDHF-ALN for fracture prevention in high bone turnover osteoporosis patients with late-stage CKD.

Radiation phenomena are usually observed during fracture of quartz-bearing rocks. Since quartz is a piezoelectric material, the associated electrical processes such as the electrification of fracture surface and the flight of electrons between fracture surfaces should be important for radiation during fractures. In this article, supposing that travelling electrons between crack surfaces cause the radiation, we experimentally investigate X-ray emission in a vacuum and visible-light emission in the atmosphere during rock and mineral fracture and verify the consistency of both emissions. The number of electrons in flight between surfaces during fracture that result in X-ray is estimated and the comparison with the number of photons in visible light suggests that one electron repeatedly collides with N2 molecules. The estimated number of collisions resulting in a visible-light emission is slightly less than the expected upper limit. This is reasonable because the collision would cause the light emission not always in the wavelengths of visible light. Moreover, the number of electrons resulting in X-rays is comparable with the number of electrons resulting in the emission of radio waves during fracture obtained in previous studies. Thus, we conclude that the radiations during fracture can be attributed to the flight of electrons between fracture surfaces. Finally, we evaluate the feasibility of observing the X-ray emission in planetary exploration and the radio waves and the visible light in natural earthquakes and find that these radiations are observable.

Because of its proximity and the large size of its black hole, M87 is one of the best targets for studying the launching mechanism of active galactic nucleus jets. Currently, magnetic fields are considered to be an essential factor in the launching and accelerating of the jet. However, current observational estimates of the magnetic field strength of the M87 jet are limited to the innermost part of the jet or to HST-1. No attempt has yet been made to measure the magnetic field strength in between. We aim to infer the magnetic field strength of the M87 jet out to a distance of several thousand $r_s$ by tracking the distance-dependent changes in the synchrotron spectrum of the jet from high-resolution very long baseline interferometry observations. In order to obtain high-quality spectral index maps, quasi-simultaneous observations at 22 and 43 GHz were conducted using the KVN and VERA Array (KaVA) and the VLBA. We compared the spectral index distributions obtained from the observations with a model and placed limits on the magnetic field strengths as a function of distance. The overall spectral morphology is broadly consistent over the course of these observations. The observed synchrotron spectrum rapidly steepens from $\alpha_{22-43 GHz}$ ~ -0.7 at ~ 2 mas to $\alpha_{22-43 GHz}$ ~ -2.5 at ~ 6 mas. A spectral index model in which nonthermal electron injections inside the jet decrease with distance can adequately reproduce the observed trend. This suggests the magnetic field strength of the jet at a distance of 2 - 10 mas (~ 900 $r_s$ - ~ 4500 $r_s$ in the deprojected distance) has a range of $B=(0.3 - 1.0 G)(z/2 mas)^{-0.73}$. Extrapolating to the EHT scale yields consistent results, suggesting that the majority of the magnetic flux of the jet near the black hole is preserved out to ~ 4500 $r_s$ without significant dissipation., Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

Bisphosphonates (BPs) have been shown to reduce the incidence of vertebral fractures during the first year or two of glucocorticoid (GC) treatments and are therefore recommended as a first-line treatment for GC-induced osteoporosis (GIO). However, there are theoretical concerns about the long-term use of BPs in low-turnover osteoporosis caused by chronic GC therapy.We analyzed the trabecular microarchitecture, bone metabolism, and material strength of iliac crest bone biopsy samples from 10 female patients with rheumatoid arthritis who received an average of 6.7 years of BP therapy for GIO (GIOBP group), compared with those of 10 age- and bone mineral density (BMD)-matched non-rheumatoid arthritis postmenopausal women (reference group).Patients in the GIOBP group had a significantly greater fracture severity index, as calculated from the number and the extent of vertebral fractures compared with the reference patients. Micro-computed tomography analysis showed that the degree of mineralization and trabecular microarchitecture were significantly lower in the GIOBP group than in the reference patients. Patients in the GIOBP group exhibited lower bone contact stiffness, determined by micro-indentation testing, than in the reference group. The contact stiffness of the bone was negatively correlated with the fracture severity index and the daily prednisolone dosage. Immunohistochemistry and serum bone turnover markers showed decreased osteoclastic activity, impaired mineralization, and an increased fraction of empty lacunae in the GIOBP group.Our findings indicate that patients receiving long-term BP for GIO are still at high risk for fragility fractures because of poor bone quality.

Background Bisphosphonates (BPs) have been shown to reduce the incidence of vertebral fractures during the first year or two of glucocorticoid (GC) treatments and are therefore recommended as a first-line treatment for the prevention and treatment of GC-induced osteoporosis (GIO). However, there are theoretical concerns about the long-term use of BPs in low-turnover osteoporosis caused by chronic GC therapy. Methods We analyzed the trabecular microarchitecture, bone metabolism, and material strength of bone biopsy samples from the iliac crest of female patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) receiving an average of 6.7 years of BP therapy for GIO (GIOBP group, n = 10), compared with those of age- and bone mineral density (BMD)-matched non-RA postmenopausal women with no history of anti-osteoporosis medication use (reference group, n=10). Results Patients in the GIOBP group had a significantly greater fracture severity index, as calculated by the sum of the Genant visual semiquantitative grading scores of vertebral fractures (T4-L5) compared with the reference patients. Micro-computed tomography analysis showed that the degree of mineralization and trabecular microarchitecture were significantly lower in the GIOBP group than in the BMD-matched reference patients. Patients in the GIOBP group exhibited lower bone contact stiffness, determined by micro-indentation testing, than in the reference group. The contact stiffness of the bone was negatively correlated with the fracture severity index and the daily prednisolone dosage. Immunohistochemistry and serum bone turnover markers showed decreased osteoclastic activity, impaired mineralization, and an increased fraction of empty lacunae in the GIOBP group. Conclusions Our findings indicate that patients with RA receiving long-term BP for GIO are still at high risk for fragility fractures because of poor bone quality.

Breast cancer is one of the most prevalent malignancies in women, and approximately 75-80% of patients with advanced breast cancer develop bone metastasis. Expression of the cancer-associated carbohydrate antigen sialyl-Tn (STn) in breast cancer is associated with a poor prognosis; however, involvement of STn in the development of metastatic bone lesions remains unclear. We investigated whether STn expression on breast cancer cells influences intraosseous tumor growth and bone response in mice models of skeletal colonization. STn-positive (STn+) breast cancer cells were generated by stable transfection of an expression vector encoding ST6GaLNAc I into the breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231. Parental MDA-MB-231 cells not expressing STn antigen were used as STn-negative (STn-) breast cancer cells. Contrary to expectations, STn expression attenuated the development of destructive bone lesions in the in vivo mice models. An in vitro study demonstrated that STn expression impaired adhesion of MDA-MB-231cells to bone marrow stromal cells. This finding in vitro was also confirmed by another breast cancer cell line MCF-7. Cell adhesion to fibronectin and type I collagen was also impaired in STn+ MDA-MB-231 cells compared to that in STn- MDA-MB-231 cells, suggesting integrin dysfunction. Given that the integrin β1 subunit is the main carrier of the STn epitope, it is likely that changes in glycan structure impaired the adhesive capacity of β1 integrin in the bone environment, leading to attenuation of tumor cell engraftment. In conclusion, breast cancer cells expressing STn antigen had less capacity for skeletal colonization, possibly due to impaired adhesive capability.

Osteomyelitis is characterized by progressive inflammatory bone destruction accompanied by severe pain and disability. However, with the exception of antibiotic therapies, there is no established therapy to protect the bone from infectious osteolysis. The anti-receptor activator of nuclear factor-kB ligand (RANKL) monoclonal antibody (anti-RANKL Ab) is a potential drug based on its proven effectiveness in preventing joint bone erosion in rheumatoid arthritis; however, the efficacy and adverse effects of anti-RANKL Ab in osteomyelitis remain to be investigated. In this study, we investigated the effects of anti-mouse RANKL Ab on acute osteomyelitis and compared them with those of zoledronic acid (ZA) using a murine model. Mice were inoculated with bioluminescent Staphylococcus aureus (Xen 29) on their left femur and then treated with ZA, anti-RANKL Ab, or phosphate-buffered saline as control. A 21-day longitudinal observational study using microcomputed tomography showed that both anti-RANKL Ab and ZA had an osteoprotective effect against infectious osteolysis. However, it was also demonstrated through bioluminescence imaging that ZA delayed the spontaneous reduction of bacterial load and through histology that it increased the amount of necrotic bone, while anti-RANKL Ab did not. Findings from histopathological and in vitro studies suggest that an intense inflammatory response around the necrotic bone could induce osteoclasts in a RANKL-independent manner, leading to the removal of necrotic bone, even after administration of the anti-RANKL Ab therapy. Collectively, anti-RANKL Ab may exert an osteoprotective effect without hampering the removal of the necrotic bone, which serves as a nidus for infection in osteomyelitis.

Full list of authors: Cui, Yu-Zhu; Hada, Kazuhiro; Kino, Motoki; Sohn, Bong-Won; Park, Jongho; Ro, Hyun-Wook; Sawada-Satoh, Satoko; Jiang, Wu; Cui, Lang; Honma, Mareki; Shen, Zhi-Qiang; Tazaki, Fumie; An, Tao; Cho, Ilje; Zhao, Guang-Yao; Cheng, Xiao-Peng; Niinuma, Kotaro; Wajima, Kiyoaki; Zhang, Ying-Kang; Kawaguchi, Noriyuki; Algaba, Juan-Carlos; Koyama, Shoko; Hirota, Tomoya; Yonekura, Yoshinori; Sakai, Nobuyuki; Xia, Bo; Jiang, Yong-Bin; Yu, Lin-Feng; Gou, Wei; Hwang, Ju-Yeon; Jiang, Yong-Chen; Sun, Yun-Xia; Jung, Dong-Kyu; Kim, Hyo-Ryoung; Kim, Jeong-Sook; Kobayashi, Hideyuki; Lee, Jee-Won; Lee, Jeong-Ae; Zhang, Hua; Li, Guang-Hui; Xu, Zhi-Qiang; Li, Peng; Oh, Jung-Hwan; Oh, Se-Jin; Oh, Chung-Sik; Oyama, Tomoaki; Roh, Duk-Gyoo; Shibata, Katsunori-M.; Guo, Wen; Zhao, Rong-Bing; Zhong, Wei-Ye; Wang, Jin-Qing; Yang, Wen-Jun; Yan, Hao; Yeom, Jae-Hwan; Li, Bin; Li, Xiao-Fei; Yuan, Jian-Ping; Dong, Jian; Chen, Zhong; Akiyama, Kazunori; Asada, Keiichi; Byun, Do-Young; Hagiwara, Yoshiaki; Hodgson, Jeffrey; Jung, Tae-Hyun; Kim, Kee-Tae; Lee, Sang-Sung; Yi, Kunwoo; Liu, Qing-Hui; Liu, Xiang; Lu, Ru-Sen; Nakamura, Masanori; Trippe, Sascha; Wang, Na; Wang, Xue-Zheng; Zhang, Bo, The East Asian Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Network (EAVN) is a rapidly evolving international VLBI array that is currently promoted under joint efforts among China, Japan and Korea. EAVN aims at forming a joint VLBI Network by combining a large number of radio telescopes distributed over East Asian regions. After the combination of the Korean VLBI Network (KVN) and the VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA) into KaVA, further expansion with the joint array in East Asia is actively promoted. Here we report the first imaging results (at 22 and 43 GHz) of bright radio sources obtained with KaVA connected to Tianma 65-m and Nanshan 26-m Radio Telescopes in China. To test the EAVN imaging performance for different sources, we observed four active galactic nuclei (AGN) having different brightness and morphology. As a result, we confirmed that the Tianma 65-m Radio Telescope (TMRT) significantly enhances the overall array sensitivity, a factor of 4 improvement in baseline sensitivity and 2 in image dynamic range compared to the case of KaVA only. The addition of the Nanshan 26-m Radio Telescope (NSRT) further doubled the east-west angular resolution. With the resulting high-dynamic-range, high-resolution images with EAVN (KaVA+TMRT+NSRT), various fine-scale structures in our targets, such as the counter-jet in M87, a kink-like morphology of the 3C 273 jet and the weak emission in other sources are successfully detected. This demonstrates the powerful capability of EAVN to study AGN jets and to achieve other science goals in general. Ongoing expansion of EAVN will further enhance the angular resolution, detection sensitivity and frequency coverage of the network. © 2021 National Astronomical Observatories, CAS and IOP Publishing Ltd., TMRT is operated by Shanghai Astronomical Observatory. NSRT is operated by Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory. KVN is a facility operated at by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute. VERA is a facility operated at National Astronomical Observatory of Japan in collaboration with associated universities in Japan. This work is supported by The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI). Y.C. is supported by the Japanese Government (MEXT) Scholarship. This work is supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP18K03656 (M.K.), JP18H03721 (K.N., K.H. and M.K.), JP19H01943 (K.H., F.T. and Y.H.) and JP18KK0090 (K.H. and F.T.). K.H. is supported by the Mitsubishi Foundation (grant number 201911019). J.P. is supported by an EACOA Fellowship awarded by the East Asia Core Observatories Association, which consists of the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, the Center for Astronomical Mega-Science, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute. J.P. and I.C. acknowledge the financial support from the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea via Global Ph.D. Fellowship Grant 2014H1A2A1018695 and 2015H1A2A1033752, respectively. S.T. acknowledges support from the NRF via Grant 2019R1F1A1059721. This work is supported by the Major Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, Grant Nos. 11590780 and 11590784), the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KJCX1-YW-18), the Scientific Program of Shanghai Municipality (08DZ1160100) and Key Laboratory for Radio Astronomy, CAS. W.J. acknowledges support from NSFC (Grant No. 11803071). L.C. is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2018YFA0404602), the CAS 'Light of West China' Program (Grant No. 2018-XBQNXZ-B-021), the NSFC (Grant Nos. U2031212 and 61931002) and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the CAS (Grant No. 2017084). J.C.A. acknowledges support from Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) FRGS/1/2019/STG02/UM/02/6. R.S. Lu is supported by the Max Planck Partner Group of the MPG and the CAS and acknowledges the support by the Key Program of the NSFC (Grant No. 11933007) and the Research Program of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, CAS (Grant No. ZDBS-LY-SLH011)., With funding from the Spanish government through the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation SEV-2017-0709.

Background: Johnsen scores are commonly used for scoring testicular biopsy, and are needed for testicular sperm extraction (TESE). However, pathologists need much experience to make histopathological evaluations of testes. Therefore, we considered that a tool for determining Johnsen scores automatically using AI could be used in place of traditional Johnsen scoring to support pathologists’ evaluations. Methods: 275 patients with obstructive or non-obstructive azoospermia who underwent testicular sperm extraction (TESE) were included in this study. We obtained testicular tissues for the 275 patients and were able to make 264 haematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained glass microscope slides. Slides were examined under an optical microscope (X400). In addition, we cut out of parts of the histopathology images of (5·0 X 5·0 cm) for expansion of Johnsen’s characteristic areas with seminiferous tubules. We defined four labels: Johnsen score 1-3, 4-5, 6-7, and 8-10 to distinguish Johnsen scores in clinical practice. All images were uploaded to the Google Cloud AutoML vision platform. We obtained a dataset of 7155 images at magnification X400 and a dataset of 9822 expansion images for the 5·0 X 5·0 cm cutouts. Performance of the algorithm was assessed by average precision (positive predictive value), precision, and recall. Findings: For the X400 magnification image dataset, the average precision (positive predictive value) of the algorithm was 82·6%, precision was 80·31%, and recall was 60·96%. For the expansion image dataset (5·0 X 5·0 cm), the average precision of the algorithm was 99·5%, precision was 96·29%, and recall was 96·23%. Interpretation: This is the first report of an AI-based algorithm for predicting Johnsen scores. It was created through an automated deep learning approach needing no coding experience. Funding: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Declaration of Interests: All authors have no competing interests to declare. Ethics Approval Statement: The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Omori Hospital, School of Medicine, Toho University (approval No. M20103).

Full list of authors: Cho, Ilje; Zhao, Guang-Yao; Kawashima, Tomohisa; Kino, Motoki; Akiyama, Kazunori; Johnson, Michael D.; Issaoun, Sara; Moriyama, Kotaro; Cheng, Xiaopeng; Algaba, Juan-Carlos; Jung, Taehyun; Sohn, Bong Won; Krichbaum, Thomas P.; Wielgus, Maciek; Hada, Kazuhiro; Lu, Ru-Sen; Cui, Yuzhu; Sawada-Satoh, Satoko; Shen, Zhiqiang; Park, Jongho; Jiang, Wu; Ro, Hyunwook; Yi, Kunwoo; Wajima, Kiyoaki; Lee, Jee Won; Hodgson, Jeffrey; Tazaki, Fumie; Honma, Mareki; Niinuma, Kotaro; Trippe, Sascha; An, Tao; Zhang, Yingkang; Lee, Jeong Ae; Oh, Se-Jin; Byun, Do-Young; Lee, Sang-Sung; Kim, Jae-Young; Oh, Junghwan; Koyama, Shoko; Asada, Keiichi; Wang, Xuezheng; Cui, Lang; Hagiwara, Yoshiaki; Nakamura, Masanori; Takamura, Mieko; Hirota, Tomoya; Sugiyama, Koichiro; Kawaguchi, Noriyuki; Kobayashi, Hideyuki; Oyama, Tomoaki; Yonekura, Yoshinori; Kim, Jongsoo; Hwang, Ju-Yeon; Jung, Dong-Kyu; Kim, Hyo-Ryoung; Kim, Jeong-Sook; Oh, Chung-Sik; Roh, Duk-Gyoo; Yeom, Jae-Hwan; Xia, Bo; Zhong, Weiye; Li, Bin; Zhao, Rongbing; Wang, Jinqing; Liu, Qinghui; Chen, Zhong.--This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited., Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the Galactic Center supermassive black hole (SMBH), is one of the best targets in which to resolve the innermost region of an SMBH with very long baseline interferometry (VLBI). In this study, we have carried out observations toward Sgr A* at 1.349 cm (22.223 GHz) and 6.950 mm (43.135 GHz) with the East Asian VLBI Network, as a part of the multiwavelength campaign of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) in 2017 April. To mitigate scattering effects, the physically motivated scattering kernel model from Psaltis et al. (2018) and the scattering parameters from Johnson et al. (2018) have been applied. As a result, a single, symmetric Gaussian model well describes the intrinsic structure of Sgr A* at both wavelengths. From closure amplitudes, the major-axis sizes are ∼704 ± 102 μas (axial ratio ∼${1.19}_{-0.19}^{+0.24}$) and ∼300 ± 25 μas (axial ratio ∼1.28 ± 0.2) at 1.349 cm and 6.95 mm, respectively. Together with a quasi-simultaneous observation at 3.5 mm (86 GHz) by Issaoun et al. (2019), we show that the intrinsic size scales with observing wavelength as a power law, with an index ∼1.2 ± 0.2. Our results also provide estimates of the size and compact flux density at 1.3 mm, which can be incorporated into the analysis of the EHT observations. In terms of the origin of radio emission, we have compared the intrinsic structures with the accretion flow scenario, especially the radiatively inefficient accretion flow based on the Keplerian shell model. With this, we show that a nonthermal electron population is necessary to reproduce the source sizes. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society., I.C. and J.P. are supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) via a Global PhD Fellowship grant (NRF-2015H1A2A1033752 and NRF-2014H1A2A1018695, respectively). I.C. acknowledges financial support by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (grants PID2019-108995GB-C21) and the Junta de Andalucía (grant P18-FR-1769). G.-Y.Z. and T.J. are supported by the Korea Research Fellowship Program through the NRF (NRF-2015H1D3A1066561). I.C. and G.-Y.Z. acknowledge financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the "Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa" award to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709). K.A. is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through grants AST-1440254, AST-1614868, and AST-2034306. This work is partially supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant Nos. JP18K03656 (M.K.), JP18H03721 (K.N., M.K., K.H.), JP18K13594 (T.K.), JP18KK0090 (K.H.), JP19H01943 (K.H.), JP21H01137 (K.H., M.K.), and the Mitsubishi Foundation grant No. 201911019 (K.H.). J.-C.A. acknowledges support from the Malaysian Fundamental Research grant Scheme (FRGS) FRGS/1/2019/STG02 /UM/02/6. M.D.J. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation (AST-1716536, AST-1935980) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF-5278). X.-P.C. and B.-W.S. are supported by Brain Pool Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (2019H1D3A1A01102564). R.-S.L. is supported by the Max Planck Partner Group of the MPG and the CAS and acknowledges the support by the Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant No. 11933007) and Research Program of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, CAS (grant No. ZDBS-LY-SLH011). J.P. acknowledges financial support through the EACOA Fellowship awarded by the East Asia Core Observatories Association, which consists of the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Center for Astronomical Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute. S.T. acknowledges financial support from the NRF via Basic Research grant 2019R1F1A1059721. This work was also supported in part by MEXT SPIRE, MEXT as "Priority Issue on post-K computer" (Elucidation of the Fundamental Laws and Evolution of the Universe) and as "Program for Promoting Researches on the Supercomputer Fugaku" (High-energy astrophysical phenomena in black holes and supernovae). J.S.K. (grant Nos. 2016R1A5A1013277 and 2020R1A2C1007219) and J.O. (grant No. 2021R1A6A3A01086420) has been supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the NRF funded by the Ministry of Education.

Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) astrometry using the phase-referencing technique remains an open issue for the quantitative characterization of the observing conditions to achieve a feasible parallax precision of 10 micro-arcseconds (μas). To address this issue, we evaluated the astrometric performance of the VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA) through the parallax measurements of five distant star-forming regions under good observing conditions of close separations (${0{^{\circ}_{.}}5}$–${1{_{.}^{\circ}}3}$) and high elevations (≥50°). Their parallaxes measured 89–200 μas, corresponding to distances of 5–11 kpc with an error of 11–20 μas. Furthermore, we investigated the contributions to the position error budget and concluded that the tropospheric residual contribution is the dominant error source. We also confirmed that the astrometric error propagation strongly depends on the term $\Delta \sec Z$, which stands for the difference between $\sec Z$ of the target and its reference source, where Z is the zenith angle during the observations. We found that for a source pair with a $\Delta \sec Z$ less than 0.01 (for example, a set of a close separation of $\le {{0{^{\circ}_{.}}5}}$ and a high elevation of ≥50°), we can achieve the parallax precision of 10 μas using a typical monitoring program comprising 10 observing epochs over a span of two years.

Cross-dimerization of a conjugated diene with a substituted alkene catalyzed by in situ reduction of an air-stable Ru(II) catalyst precursor has been achieved. Reaction of 2,3-dimethylbutadiene with styrene is catalyzed by [Ru(acac)2(η4-1,5-COD)] (2a) (5 mol %) with BuLi (10 mol %) at 50 °C for 6 h in hexane, giving the cross-dimers in 99% yield ((E)-4,5-dimethyl-1-phenylhexa-1,4-diene (3a)/(E)-4,5-dimethyl-1-phenylhexa-2,4-diene (3b)/isomers = 84/9/7). Because neither 2a nor BuLi separately catalyzes the cross-dimerization and reduction of 2a with BuLi in the presence of naphthalene produces [Ru(η6-naphthalene)(η4-1,5-COD)] (1a), the active species in this catalysis is considered to be a Ru(0) compound. Interestingly, this in situ reduction method of Ru(II) using BuLi can be applied to the cross-dimerization using an ester such as methyl acrylate. Alternatively, an air-stable Ru(II) complex having a labile arene ligand such as [RuCl2(η6-anisole)]2 (5c) (5 mol %) with Na2CO3 (40 mol %) in the presence of ...

Purpose To investigate the incidence, etiology, treatment indications, and outcomes regarding infertile male patients in Japan. Methods Between April, 2014 and March, 2015, the authors contacted 47 clinical specialists in male infertility who had been certified by the Japan Society for Reproductive Medicine. The participating clinicians were sent a questionnaire regarding information on their infertile patients, according to etiology and the number and success rates of male infertility operations that had been performed in their practice. Results Thirty-nine specialists returned the questionnaire and provided information regarding 7268 patients. The etiology of infertility included testicular factors, sexual disorders, and seminal tract obstruction. During the study year, the clinicians performed varicocelectomies, testicular sperm extractions (TESEs), and re-anastomoses of the seminal tract. The rate of successful varicocelectomies was >70%. The sperm retrieval rates with conventional TESE and microdissection TESE were 98.3% and 34.0%, respectively, while the patency rates with vasovasostomy and epididymovasostomy were 81.8% and 61.0%, respectively. Conclusion Surgical outcomes for infertile male patients are favorable and can be of great clinical benefit for infertile couples. To achieve this, urologists should work in collaboration with gynecological specialists in order to optimize the treatment of both partners.

In this proceeding paper, we introduce the recent results of Galactic maser astrometry by mainly focusing on those obtained with Japanese VLBI array VERA. So far we have obtained parallaxes for 86 sources including preliminary results, and combination with the data obtained with VLBA/BeSSeL provides astrometric results for 159 sources. With these most updated results we conduct preliminary determinations of Galactic fundamental parameters, obtaining R0 = 8.16 ± 0.26 kpc and Θ0 = 237 ± 8 km/s. We also derive the rotation curve of the Milky Way Galaxy and confirm the previous results that the rotation curve is fairly flat between 5 kpc and 16 kpc, while a remarkable deviation is seen toward the Galactic center region. In addition to the results on the Galactic structure, we also present brief overviews on other science topics related to masers conducted with VERA, and also discuss the future prospect of the project.

Purpose Oncofertility is a subspecialty that is concerned with helping patients with cancer preserve their ability to have children in the future. For men, sperm banking is an established way to preserve fertility. The aim was to determine the prefreeze semen characteristics and reproductive outcomes according to cancer type for men who chose semen cryopreservation. Methods The records of 122 men with cancer who requested semen cryopreservation at the authors' hospital from 2006 to 2015 were reviewed. The mean patient age when the semen was cryopreserved was 33.6 years. Results The 122 men who banked sperm during the study period had the following types of cancer: testicular (44.3%), hematological (31.1%), digestive (8.2%), and other types (16.4%). The mean sperm concentration by cancer type was 30.5 × 106/mL for testicular, 45.0 × 106/mL for hematological, 40.5 × 106/mL for digestive, and 68.4 × 106/mL for the other types. The mean sperm motility by cancer type was 59.6% for testicular, 50.1% for hematological, 43.0% for digestive, and 44.8% for the other types. For 12 (9.8%) men who used the banked semen, there were five (41.7%) clinical pregnancies. Conclusion Semen cryopreservation is a simple procedure that can be accomplished quickly and can preserve fertility.

OBJECTIVES To develop a novel simple quantitative scoring model for predicting stone-free status after a flexible ureteroscopy lithotripsy procedure by standardizing the complexity of ureteral stone characteristics. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed 586 patients with renal or ureteral stones who underwent flexible ureteroscopy lithotripsy at Abiko Toho Hospital, Chiba, Japan, from 2015 to 2018. Multivariate regression was applied to examine the relationship between preoperative descriptors and stone-free status, and a nomogram was developed using significant predictors. Next, the individual components of the nomogram were assigned points to form a simple scoring system. The predictive performance of this new scoring system was compared with the STONE score at optimal cut-off values using receiver operating characteristic curve and area under the curve analyses. RESULTS Multivariate logistic regression findings showed that factors associated with stone-free status were length, Hounsfield unit and stone location. A nomogram prediction model was developed with an area under the curve value of 0.845, then consequently used to develop a new simple score system termed the T.O.HO. score consisting of three stone characteristics: (T)allness (1-5 points), (O)ccupied lesion (1-3 points) and (HO)unsfield units evaluation (1-3 points). The T.O.HO. score was significantly higher in stone remaining (7.66) than stone-free (5.27; P

We present the first astrometry catalog from the Japanese VLBI (very long baseline interferometer) project VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry). We have compiled all the astrometry results from VERA, providing accurate trigonometric annual parallax and proper motion measurements. In total, 99 maser sources are listed in the VERA catalog. Among them, 21 maser sources are newly reported while the rest of 78 sources are referred to previously published results or those in preparation for forthcoming papers. The accuracy in the VERA astrometry are revisited and compared with those from the other VLBI astrometry projects such as BeSSeL (The Bar and Spiral Structure Legacy) Survey and GOBELINS (the Gould's Belt Distances Survey) with the VLBA (Very Long Baseline Array). We have confirmed that most of the astrometry results are consistent with each other, and the largest error sources are due to source structure of the maser features and their rapid variation, along with the systematic calibration errors and different analysis methods. Combined with the BeSSeL results, we estimate the up-to-date fundamental Galactic parameter of $R_{0}=7.92\pm0.16_{\rm{stat.}}\pm0.3_{\rm{sys.}}$~kpc and $\Omega_{\odot}=30.17\pm0.27_{\rm{stat.}}\pm0.3_{\rm{sys.}}$~km~s$^{-1}$~kpc$^{-1}$, where $R_{0}$ and $\Omega_{\odot}$ are the distance from the Sun to the Galactic center and the Sun's angular velocity of the Galactic circular rotation, respectively., Comment: 35 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan

In deep neural networks, which have been gaining attention in recent years, the features of input images are expressed in a middle layer. Using the information on this feature layer, high performance can be demonstrated in the image recognition field. In the present study, we achieve image recognition, without using convolutional neural networks or sparse coding, through an image feature extraction function obtained when identity mapping learning is applied to sandglass-style feed-forward neural networks. In sports form analysis, for example, a state trajectory is mapped in a low-dimensional feature space based on a consecutive series of actions. Here, we discuss ideas related to image analysis by applying the above method.

A continuous survey of students’ Generic Skills (GSs) has been conducted since academic year of 2014 at National Institute of Technology, Sendai College (Sendai KOSEN). Five years have passed since the survey started, and the survey from students’ admission to their graduation at Sendai KOSEN has been completed. Our students’ growth characteristics of GSs in the educational curriculum at Sendai KOSEN became evident from this five-year continuous survey.. Based on the survey results, we propose a “students’ voluntary growth system of GSs.” Using this proposed method, students can be expected to enter a cycle of improving their own generic skills voluntarily and effectively.

We present the jet kinematics of the flat spectrum radio quasar (FSRQ) 4C +21.35 using time-resolved KaVA very long baseline interferometry array radio maps obtained from September 2014 to July 2016. During two out of three observing campaigns, observations were performed bi-weekly at 22 and 43 GHz quasi-simultaneously. At 22 GHz, we identified three jet components near the core with apparent speeds up to (14.4+/-2.1)c. The timing of the ejection of a new component detected in 2016 is consistent with a gamma-ray flare in November 2014. At 43 GHz, we found four inner jet (, 11 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables. To appear in MNRAS (submitted 2018 June 7; accepted 2019 March 28)

Recently, Internet of Things (IoT) approaches to apply actual environment because of selling low cost sensors or improving wireless technology. IEEE 802.11 is formulated for Wireless LAN. They are able to send big size of data. However, the standard has problem increasing energy consumption to use high throughput. On the other hand, IEEE 802.15.4 is formulated for low energy consumption and low cost. The standard mainly focus on Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). The standard is suitable to transmit small data. In this paper, we propose a method that wake-up the IEEE 802.11 device using IEEE 802.15.4 data transfer for low energy consumption of IEEE 802.11 devices. In this paper, we proposed method that selects wireless standards by data size for decrease energy consumption. If big size of data are sent, the method selects IEEE 802.11. On the other hand, if small size of data are sent, IEEE 802.15.4 is selected. Based on actual machine experiment results, it was confirmed that there is a breakeven point at 40 Kbyte and 50 Kbyte.

Background: Testicular microlithiasis is said to be characterized by calcific concretions within the seminiferous tubules. There have been reports suggesting a link between testicular microlithiasis and testicular dysfunction and tumors.

We made phase-referencing Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations of Galactic 22 GHz H2O maser sources with VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA). We measured the parallax dis-tances of G48.61+0.02, G48.99-0.30, G49.19-0.34, ON1, IRAS 20056+3350, IRAS 20143+3634, ON2N, and IRAS 20126+4104, which are located near the tangent point and the Solar circle. The angular ve-locity of the Galactic rotation at the LSR (i.e. the ratio of the Galactic constants) is derived using the measured parallax distances and proper motions of these sources. The derived value of Ω 0 = 28.8 ± 1.7 km s -1 kpc -1 is consistent with recent values obtained using VLBI astrometry but 10% larger than the International Astronomical Union (IAU) recommended value of 25.9 km s -1 kpc -1 = (220 km s -1 ) / (8.5 kpc).

Purpose Klinefelter syndrome (KS) (47, XXY) is the most common sex chromosome abnormality in humans. KS is characterized by gynecomastia, tall stature, small testes, low testosterone levels, learning disabilities, and behavioral problems. KS is also associated with infertility due to non‐obstructive azoospermia (NOA). The mechanism underlying NOA is still poorly understood, and although there is no current treatment, the use of microdissection testicular sperm extraction (micro‐TESE) followed by in vitro fertilization can result in successful conception. The generation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells derived from KS patients may be useful for studying the disease mechanism and identifying novel therapies. Methods Cells from a KS patient were transduced with Sendai viral vectors encoding four transcription factors, OCT4, SOX2, KLF4, and C‐MYC, and the transduced cells were analyzed for in vitro and in vivo pluripotency. Results KS patient‐derived iPS cells were successfully generated and shown to produce teratomas in the testes of SCID mice. In vitro differentiation of the iPS cells into cardiomyocyte‐like cells was confirmed by the presence of clusters of beating cells. Conclusions KS patient‐derived iPS cells that could differentiate into cardiomyocyte‐like cells were established.

We treated a 65-year-old Japanese man with a giant penile lymphedema due to chronic penile strangulation with a rubber band. He was referred to our hospital with progressive penile swelling that had developed over a period of 2 years from chronic use of a rubber band placed around the penile base for prevention of urinary incontinence. Under a diagnosis of giant penile lymphedema, we performed resection of abnormal penile skin weighing 4.8 kg, followed by a penile plasty procedure. To the best of our knowledge, this is only the seventh report of such a case worldwide, with the present giant penile lymphedema the most reported.

Objective To compare the efficacy and safety of amoxapine and vitamin B12 for treating retrograde ejaculation (RE). Materials and Methods Between May 2009 and November 2012, this open-label, randomized, crossover study enrolled 26 men suffering with RE at Department of Reproductive Medicine, Omori Hospital. Patients were randomly allocated into two groups (n=13 each). The amoxapine-B12 group received amoxapine (50 mg daily for 4 weeks, orally) followed (after a 1-week washout period) by vitamin B12 (500 μg three-times daily for 4 weeks). The B12-amoxapine group received the opposite regimen. All patients masturbated to ejaculation at least twice during each treatment period. The primary outcome was antegrade ejaculation of semen, as reported by the patient, on more than one occasion during either treatment period (defined as treatment success). Any adverse events were noted. Success rates were compared between treatments using Fisher’s exact test. Results One patient (B12-amoxapine group) withdrew for personal reasons (breakdown of marital relations); all other patients completed the study. Overall success rate was 88% (22/25). Success rate was higher for amoxapine than for vitamin B12 (80%, 20/25 vs 16%, 4/25; P