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In elucidating the spread of risk information through microblogging, it is important to understand the behaviors of numerous average users, in addition to the activities of authorities. We followed the transmission pathways of 10 actual widely spread tweets concerning several risk information topics, including natural disasters, nuclear disasters, and infectious diseases, and we identified the types of risk that affected retweeting by classifying each tweet based on Slovic’s risk perception model. Furthermore, we examined the types of users who did and did not retweet the information. Users with few connections in the form of followers (i.e., people who are following a user) or followees (people a user is following), or with a low ratio of mutual followers within their connections, had a tendency to retweet a large amount of risk information, regardless of the type of risk involved. On the other hand, users with a high ratio of mutual followers exhibited a greater tendency to retweet risk information when it was perceived as dreadful, though they did not retweet risk information much on the whole. These results suggest that there are two mechanisms by which risk information is spread within the Twitter network: information exchange and social sharing of personal reactions.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the reasons for nonreportable cell-free DNA (cfDNA) results in noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT), we retrospectively studied maternal characteristics and other details associated with the results. METHODS A multicenter retrospective cohort study in pregnant women undergoing NIPT by massively parallel sequencing (MPS) with failed cfDNA tests was performed between April 2013 and March 2017. The women's data and MPS results were analyzed in terms of maternal characteristics, test performance, fetal fraction (FF), z scores, anticoagulation therapy, and other details of the nonreportable cases. RESULTS Overall, 110 (0.32%) of 34 626 pregnant women had nonreportable cfDNA test results after an initial blood sampling; 22 (20.0%) cases had a low FF (

In this article, we investigated the expression of emotional responses to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake by analyzing the frequency of negative emotional terms in tweets posted on Twitter, one of the most popular social media platforms. We focused on differences in time-series variations and diurnal changes between two kinds of disasters: natural disasters (earthquakes and tsunamis) and nuclear accidents. The number of tweets containing negative emotional responses increased sharply shortly after the first huge earthquake and decreased over time, whereas tweets about nuclear accidents showed no correlation with elapsed time. Expressions of anxiety about natural disasters had a circadian rhythm, with a peak at midnight, whereas expressions of anger about the nuclear accident were highly sensitive to critical events related to the accident. These findings were discussed in terms of similarities and differences compared to earlier studies on emotional responses in social media.

Objective The purpose of this study is to compare the fetal fractions during non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) in singleton pregnancies according to gestational age and maternal characteristics to evaluate the utility of this parameter for the prediction of pregnancy complications including gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP). Study design This study was a multicenter prospective cohort study. The present data were collected from women whose NIPT results were negative. The relationships between the fetal fractions and the gestational age, maternal weight and height, and incidences of miscarriage, preterm delivery, and pregnancy complications including GDM, HDP and placental abruption were assessed. Results A total of 5582 pregnant women with verified NIPT negative results were registered in the study. The demographic characteristics of the study populations were statistically analyzed, and the women with HDP tended to have a low fetal fraction in samples taken during early gestation. The area under the curve (AUC) in a receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis was 0.608 for women with HDP. Conclusion A low fetal fraction on NIPT might be correlated with future HDP. However, predicting HDP during early pregnancy in women with a low fetal fraction might be difficult.

The safety and pharmacokinetics of capsinoids, physiologically active ingredients of CH-19 Sweet extract, were investigated in 16 healthy male volunteers following a single oral ingestion of CH-19 Sweet extract. The study subjects consumed soft gel capsules containing either capsinoids (15 or 30 mg/person) or placebo. Capsinoids were well tolerated, and no clinically significant changes in physical examinations, blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, electrocardiogram, hematology, blood chemistry, and urinalysis were observed at either the 15 or 30 mg dose. Body temperature tended to increase after the ingestion of capsinoids, but remained within the normal range. Plasma levels of capsinoids and their metabolite, vanillyl alcohol, were below the lower limit of quantitation. In addition, some study subjects showed increases in urinary excretion of 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol that, when compared to the group receiving the placebo, did not achieve statistical significance.

The objective of this study is to develop an available empowerment model for workplace health promotion (WHP) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and to evaluate its applicability and feasibility. Semi-structured interviews with employers and workers in SMEs were conducted to assess their actual requirements for support. The structure of our new empowerment model was discussed and established through several rounds of focus group meetings with occupational safety and health researchers and practitioners on the basis of results of our interviews. We developed a new participatory and action-oriented empowerment model based on needs for support of employers and workers in SMEs. This new model consists of three originally developed tools: an action checklist, an information guidebook, and a book of good practices. As the facilitators, occupational health nurses (OHNs) from health insurance associations were trained to empower employers and workers using these tools. Approximately 80 SMEs (with less than 300 employees) were invited to participate in the model project. With these tools and continued empowerment by OHNs, employers and workers were able to smoothly work on WHP. This newly developed participatory and action-oriented empowerment model that was facilitated by trained OHNs appears to be both applicable and feasible for WHP in SMEs in Japan.

To meet diversified health needs in workplaces, especially in developed countries, occupational safety and health (OSH) activities should be extended. The objective of this study is to develop a new multi-dimensional action checklist that can support employers and workers in understanding a wide range of OSH activities and to promote participation in OSH in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The general structure of and specific items in the new action checklist were discussed in a focus group meeting with OSH specialists based upon the results of a literature review and our previous interviews with company employers and workers. To assure practicality and validity, several sessions were held to elicit the opinions of company members and, as a result, modifications were made. The new multi-dimensional action checklist was finally formulated consisting of 6 core areas, 9 technical areas, and 61 essential items. Each item was linked to a suitable section in the information guidebook that we developed concomitantly with the action checklist. Combined usage of the action checklist with the information guidebook would provide easily comprehended information and practical support. Intervention studies using this newly developed action checklist will clarify the effectiveness of the new approach to OSH in SMEs.

It is important to reduce consumption of biomedical reagent, since some of them are quite expensive or some may cause environmental pollution. There have been reported on the biochemical micro-chips in the field of μ-TAS (micro total analysis systems), and they contributed to reduce the amount of sample liquids as well as reagent. However, most of the reagents are injected into the chip from outside through a tube. There is large dead volume in such operation. Therefore, here we propose a novel micro-injection port to minimize the dead volume. We employed a micro-valve which utilizes thermal sol-gel transformation of thermosensitive hydrogel. The valve is closed by heating the microelectrode. The three-dimensional microchannel structure is fabricated by the newly developed microfabrication technique employing the Ink-jet Rapid Prototyping Method. We succeeded in reducing consumption of reagent for more than 99% compared with the conventional operation.

We describe a 24-year-old pregnant woman complicated by cyclic neutropenia (CN), who was successfully treated with granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF). Her white blood cell (WBC) and neutrophil count fluctuated from 2,600 to 4,600/microl, and 26 to 2,530/microl, respectively. The peak neutrophil count gradually decreased as pregnancy advanced, resulting in the disappearance of its cyclicity. At 39 weeks of pregnancy when the neutrophil count became 84/microl, the patient was started on G-CSF and her neutrophil count increased to 1,550/microl on the fourth day after delivery. She delivered a healthy baby without any complications at 39 weeks of pregnancy.

Consciously or unconsciously, we are using many kinds of “cards” in our daily lives. Among them, credit card, cash card, driving license, etc., are as important as our wallets. To protect the card holder from malicious use of his/her cards, it is necessary to authenticate the card user. For this purpose, a common practice is to ask the user to provide some key information (usually password) known or possessed only by the true card holder. However, if the key information is leaked, the third party may still use the card easily. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new protocol for authenticating the card user. The basic idea is to re-shape the bio-image (e.g. photograph) of the true card holder, store it in the card, and reconstruct the original image when the card is used. By doing so, the human operator can identify the card user directly based on the reconstructed image, and the true card holder can be protected effectively.

High temperature oxidation tests of carbon/SiC/B4C composite made from mixed powders of coke (51.2 wt%), SiC (38.8 wt%) and B4C (10 wt%) were carried out in different atmospheres of dry air, dry oxygen and wet air at temperature range from 600 to 1400°C. The oxidation had three different behaviours depending on the oxidation temperature ranges of below 700°C, 800-1000°C and above about 1100°C. Below about 700°C oxidation was relatively suppressed due to probably B2O3 liquid phaseformed from B4C. At about 800-1000°C protective B2O3 layer vaporized easily, and dense and homogeneous protective oxide layer was difficult to form on the surface, and then active oxidation proceeded in dry oxygen atmosphere. Particularly in wet air condition oxidation became much more active at this temperature range and oxidation proceeded deeply into inner part of the sample, because denseprotective layer could not be formed. While above about 1100°C dense and uniform protective layer formed o thesurface and protected further oxidation. The protective oxide layer formed at about 1200°C was suggested to be SiO2 rich phase and was known remarkably stable for oxidation even in wet air at about 900°C.

High temperature oxidation tests from 600 to 1400°C were carried out for graphite/B4C/SiC/ZrB2 composite in different atmospheres such as dry air, dry oxygen and moist air with different moisture contents. From weight change, SEM observation, change of surface roughness and X-ray diffraction of the sample before and after the oxidation, it was found that the oxidation behaviour depends strongly on the nature of oxide layer formed on the surface by oxidation, and that the nature of the oxide layer depends on the temperature and time of oxidation, the oxygen partial pressure, and moisture content. The oxide layer was found to consist of mainly a B2O3-SiO2 glass phase, rich in B2O3 at low temperatures and rich in SiO2 at high temperatures. Active oxidation was observed at about 1100°C in dry air, at about 900°C in dry oxygen and moist air. Particularly, in the presence of moisture, oxidation proceeded extensively and sample was oxidized deeply from the surface to the inside through the less protective layer. An excellent protective layer formed at 1200°C oxidation and it protected the sample from further oxidation under all conditions examined.

To evaluate the predictive value for a response of interferon (IFN) and the effect of IFN on the metabolism of hepatic fibrosis, serum levels of 7S domain of type IV collagen (7S) were serially measured before and after 6 months of IFN treatment in 470 treated and 145 untreated patients with chronic hepatitis C. Serum initial 7S levels were closely correlated with hepatic fibrosis scores (r = 0.627, p0.001). Those levels in nonresponder were significantly higher than those in sustained and transient responders. Serum 7S levels decreased during and after treatment in all treated groups, but increased in the untreated group. The absolute changes in 7S levels at the end of IFN therapy did not correlate with the changes in ALT levels, but correlated negatively with the initial 7S levels (r = -0.678, p0.001) in the treated group. Serum 7S levels at the end of treatment increased temporarily in patients with lower pretreatment levels, but decreased in those with elevated initial levels. These results suggest that IFN treatment modulates serum 7S levels according to the pretreatment levels in chronic hepatitis C.

We investigated the effects of an L-type and N-type Ca 2+ channel blocker, cilnidipine, on neurally mediated chronotropic responses to clarify the anti-autonomic profile of cilnidipine in anesthetized dogs. Pretreatment with cilnidipine (0.3, 1.0 and 3.0 μg/kg, i.v.), which decreased mean blood pressure by 5 to 31 mm Hg, inhibited the changes in heart rate and plasma norepinephrine concentration induced by bilateral carotid artery occlusion, whereas it had no effect on vagal nerve stimulation-induced bradycardia. These results suggest that antihypertensive and antisympathetic doses of cilnidipine fail to influence chronotropic responses mediated by parasympathetic nerve activation in the in vivo canine heart.

Analogues of glutamic acid were synthesized and evaluated for their inhibitory activity toward glutamine synthetase (EC 6.3.1.2; GS). The title compound, 4-N-hydroxy-L-2,4-diaminobutyric acid (NH-DABA), showed a potent inhibitory activity against GS from both sheep brain and soybean. The inhibition is competitive with respect to glutamic acid and the Ki values of sheep brain GS and soybean GS for NH-DABA are 0.007 mmol and 0.021 mmol, respectively. The activity of inhibition is comparable to those of L-methionine sulfoximine and 2-amino-4-(hydroxymethyl-phosphinyl)butyric acid (phosphinothricin).