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This study aimed to determine whether the distance of gait training using a hybrid assistive limb (HAL) is related to the improvement of walking independence in patients with acute brain injury. This was an exploratory, observational study. Thirty patients having hemiplegia (functional ambulation category, FAC score ≤2) with acute stroke or after brain tumor surgery were included. Patients performed 4 sessions of gait training using HAL (60 min/session), 1–3 sessions/week, combined with conventional physical therapy. The gait distance achieved in the four training sessions using HAL was measured. FAC score was measured before and after intervention. Patients were divided into groups A, B, and C, for FAC score improvements of 0, 1, and ≥2, respectively. Gait distance was compared among groups using one-way analysis of variance. Gait distance in group C was significantly longer than that ingroup A [mean (standard deviation): 2527 (1725) m vs. 608 (542) m]. This study suggested that the gait distance achieved during training using the HAL may be a clinical indicator of the effectiveness of the HAL on gait training in patients with acute brain injury. Clinical trial registration number: UMIN000012764 R000014756.

A versatile method for the arylboration of internal alkynes with aryl chlorides or bromides and bis(pinacolato)diboron has been developed. This method tolerates various functional groups, including acetyl, methoxycarbonyl, cyano, and fluoro substituents, and affords a range of tri-substituted vinylboronates, which are highly useful intermediates for the synthesis of tetra-substituted ethenes, in high yield and regioselectivity.

Thermoelectric power generation modules for industrial applications often require an output of several tens of watts, and DC-DC converters used for power matching are required to have high conversion efficiency at low voltage input. In this study, we realize high conversion efficiency at low voltage and we investigate basic circuit performance in the laboratory experiment. In addition, since some of the thermoelectric generation modules have low voltage output characteristics, it is necessary to design high step-up ratio DC-DC converter. In view of the above, we report on the design and trial evaluation of the generated power conditioning system with the high step-up ratio DC-DC converter.

A method for the arylboration of 1-arylalkenes with bis(pinacolato)diboron and aryl chlorides or tosylates by cooperative Ni/Cu catalysis has been developed, which affords 2-boryl-1,1-diarylalkanes in high regio- and stereoselectivity. Under the applied conditions, this method is tolerant toward various functional groups, including silyl ether, alkoxycarbonyl, and aminocarbonyl moieties.

In this report, we study a simple circuit model for PWM-1-controlled DC-DC converter. The original circuit model is based on the PWM-1 voltage-mode-controlled DC-DC converter. However, in the original circuit, the number of dimensions of the circuit is more than two, which means that it is not easy to analyze the circuit dynamics rigorously. Therefore, we propose a simple circuit model, which is PWM-1 current-mode-controlled DC-DC converter. In this report, we investigate nonlinear phenomena in the proposed model.

This paper proposes a novel scheme to improve localization accuracy of facial key points in facial illustrations. The proposed scheme estimates the location of facial key points considering global structure of facial key points evaluated by RANSAC like scheme where local evaluation is performed with SURF and color features. Experimental results using a data set composed of facial illustrations show that the estimation error can be reduced to about 8.93 pixels per a key point.

11, KJ00009663519, 資料

A method for the arylboration of 1-arylalkenes with bis(pinacolato)diboron and aryl chlorides or tosylates by cooperative Ni/Cu catalysis has been developed, which affords 2-boryl-1,1-diarylalkanes in high regio- and stereoselectivity. Under the applied conditions, this method is tolerant toward various functional groups, including silyl ether, alkoxycarbonyl, and aminocarbonyl moieties.

We prepared DNA from the production waters of oil deposits and wellheads of the high- and hypertemperature Japanese oil wells #AR39 (depth, 1230 m; temperature, 74 °C; pressure, 2.92 MPa) and #SR123 (depth, 1687 m; temperature, 98 °C; pressure, 11.3 MPa) to detect indigenous bacterial and archaeal microorganisms. We used PCR to amplify the 16S rRNA genes of microbial communities and characterized them based on their sequences. A few species of microorganisms with high GC contents were detected in samples from oil deposits, whereas the microbial constituents and their GC contents were diverse in wellhead samples. A comparison of the composition of the microbial communities found that the predominant indigenous populations in the #SR123 oil deposit were Thermotoga hypogea-, Thermotoga petrophila- and Thermodesulfobacterium commune-like bacteria with a 61-63% GC content in their 16S rRNA gene sequences, and Archaeoglobus fulgidus-like archaea with a 65% GC content, whereas the major population in #AR39 comprised Thermacetogenium phaeum- and Fervidobacterium pennavorans-like bacteria and Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus-like archaea with a 60%, 60% and 61% GC content, respectively.

Many cases of neonatal toxic shock syndrome (TSS)-like exanthematous disease but few cases of menstrual TSS (mTSS) have been reported in Japan. We determined the prevalence of mucosal colonization with Staphylococcus aureus and of positive antibodies to TSS toxin 1 (TSST-1) among 209 healthy Japanese women in Tokyo. S. aureus isolates from mucosal sites were characterized with respect to TSST-1 production and resistance genotype. Antibody titers were determined for test subjects and for 133 Japanese and 137 Caucasian control women living in the United States. S. aureus was isolated from at least one site in 108 of 209 women (52%) in Tokyo. Of the 159 S. aureus isolates recovered, 14 (9%) were TSST-1 positive (12 unique strains). Twelve of 209 women (6%) were colonized with a TSST-1-producing strain; two (S. aureus were comparable in Japan and the United States, despite low seropositivity to TSST-1 in Japan. Environmental factors appear to be important in promoting the development of anti-TSST-1 antibodies, as there was a significant difference in titers between Japanese women living in Tokyo and those living in the United States. Most colonizing TSST-1-producing S. aureus strains in Japan were genotypically similar to mTSS strains found in the United States.

It has become common to use a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model for evaluation of transportation investment, recently. In this study, we apply Dynamic Spatial CGE model to the prediction of transportation demand. SCGE model has some advantages to use for the prediction of transportation demand compared to using four-step method. Firstly, we summarize the advantage of SCGE model from ex-post evaluation point of view and propose a methodology for ex-post evaluation of the prediction of transportation demand. And, we apply this method to estimate the transportation demand in Japan.

The breeding program for beef cattle in Japan has changed dramatically over 4 decades. Visual judging was done initially, but progeny testing in test stations began in 1968. In the 1980s, the genetic evaluation program using field records, so-called on-farm progeny testing, was first adopted in Oita, Hyogo, and Kumamoto prefectures. In this study, genetic trends for carcass traits in these 3 Wagyu populations were estimated, and genetic gains per year were compared among the 3 different beef cattle breeding programs. The field carcass records used were collected between 1988 and 2003. The traits analyzed were carcass weight, LM area, rib thickness, s.c. fat thickness, and beef marbling standard number. The average breeding values of reproducing dams born the same year were used to estimate the genetic trends for the carcass traits. For comparison of the 3 breeding programs, birth years of the dams were divided into 3 periods reflecting each program. Positive genetic trends for beef marbling standard number were clearly shown in all populations. The genetic gains per year for all carcass traits were significantly enhanced by adopting the on-farm progeny testing program. These results indicate that the on-farm progeny testing program with BLUP is a very powerful approach for genetic improvement of carcass traits in Japanese Wagyu beef cattle.

In this paper, a method is proposed to education of starting characteristics and stationary characteristics of three phase induction motors based on a direct numerical analysis. At first, a mathematical model is presented to three phase induction motors. Secondly, program codes in C language are shown to simulation studies with results obtained by the program codes. Finally, the results obtained in this paper are shown to the effectiveness of the proposed method to education of starting characteristics and stationary characteristics of various three phase induction motors.

Sumatra earthquake (that occurred on December, 2004.) had a devastating impact on both of the human damages and the physical damages, like physical assets and economy. Especially, economic damage by the catastrophe has spread not only stricken area but also not stricken area. However, it is difficult to assess the damage directly. So, the purpose of this study is to build spatial computable equilibrium (SCGE) model in order to estimate economic damages of Tsunami and applied this model for asses of the catastrophe. To be concrete, we build new SCGE in order to estimate economic damage by decreases of human resource, physical resources and Technology on stricken area.