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Objectives: We evaluated the applicability of a machine learning based Low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) estimation method and the influence of the characteristics of the training datasets. Methods: Three training datasets were chosen from training datasets: health check-up participants at the Resource Center for Health Science (N = 2664), clinical patients at Gifu University Hospital (N = 7409), and clinical patients at Fujita Health University Hospital (N = 14842). Nine different machine learning models were constructed through hyperparameter tuning and 10-fold cross-validation. Another test dataset of another 3711 clinical patients at Fujita Health University Hospital was selected as the test set used for comparing and validating the model against the Friedewald formula and the Martin method. Results: The coefficients of determination of the models trained on the health check-up dataset produced coefficients of determination that were equal to or inferior to those of the Martin method. In contrast, the coefficients of determination of several models trained on clinical patients exceeded those of the Martin method. The means of the differences and the convergences to the direct method were higher for the models trained on the clinical patients' dataset than for those trained on the health check-up participants' dataset. The models trained on the latter dataset tended to overestimate the 2019 ESC/EAS Guideline for LDL-cholesterol classification. Conclusion: Although machine learning models provide valuable method for LDL-C estimates, they should be trained on datasets with matched characteristics. The versatility of machine learning methods is another important consideration.

Objectives High concentrations of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) are a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. We validated the efficacy of the Martin method is useful in the estimation of LDL-C concentrations was validated in Japanese populations and derived a modified Martin method for easy laboratory information system applications. Methods We created 3 subject groups, including 2664 health check-up participants registered with the Resource Center for Health Science, 29,806 clinical patients (A) in the Gifu University Hospital, and 113,716 clinical patients (B) in the Fujita Health University Hospital. Each method to estimate serum LDL-C concentrations (Friedewald formula, Martin method and modified Martin method) was validated by correlation analysis with serum LDL-C concentrations measured using a direct method Results The correlation coefficients with the direct method in terms of the Friedewald formula, Martin method, and modified Martin method were 0.963, 0.972 and 0.970 in the health check-up participants; 0.946, 0.962 and 0.961 in clinical patients A; and 0.961, 0.979 and 0.978 in clinical patients B, respectively. Concordance ratios with using the direct method in the Friedewald formula, Martin method and modified Martin method were 82.8%, 85.5% and 85.3% in the health check-up participants; 76.4%, 80.5% and 80.2% in clinical patients A; and 76.1%, 82.6% and 82.6% in clinical patients B, respectively. Conclusion Our results show that the Martin and modified Martin methods display good performance in terms of the estimation of LDL-C concentrations among triglyceride concentrations of a wide range, and they may thus be useful for estimating LDL-C concentrations.

Background: Patients with Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) have high rates of depression and decreased physical function. In addition, the physical function has been reported to decline in patients with depression. However, there is no clear relationship between depression and physical function in patients with CVD. Moreover, the effects of the combination of depression and decreased physical function on prognosis are unclear. This study was performed to clarify the relationship between depression and physical function, in the prognosis of patients with CVD.

本稿では、外部環境、政策、組織編成、組織過程という要素を適合させることが組織のパフォーマンスの向上につながることを表す「自治体組織の適合モデル」と、その自治体組織における適合状態を維持するための変革形態である「職務的変革」と「政策的変革」を提示している。「職務的変革」は、行政職員が中心となって行う変革形態であり、既存の政策や組織編成をもとにして、より効率的な職務遂行体制を構築していくために実施する。一方、「政策的変革」は、トップ・マネジメントが関わるなかで、政策や組織編成を大幅に見直す変革形態であり、政策課題や行政ニーズのあり方が変化した際などに実施していくことになる。今日の自治体組織は、「職務的変革」と「政策的変革」の2つを組み合わせることで、外部環境の変化に対応していくことが可能になると考える。, 研究ノート・資料(Note), CONTENTSの英文タイトル表記に誤りあり (誤)theoritical → (正)theoretical

A high performance model Stirling engine, in which the heater, regenerator and cooler as a whole is formed by hundreds of porous metal sheets, is identified for theoretical analysis to facilitate the future scale-up design. The reciprocating flow and heat transfer both in the heat exchanger and in the full engine is simulated by a dynamic mesh Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method, and is validated by analytical solutions and experimental data. An optimization method is also developed to incorporate the entropy generation caused by flow friction and irreversible heat transfer. The results show that relatively high indicated power of 33.4 W is obtained, corresponding to a specific power of 1.88 W/cm3 and a thermal efficiency of 43.9%, which are attributable to the extremely small flow friction loss and excellent heat transfer characteristics in the regular shaped microchannels, as well as to the compact heat exchanger design that significantly reduces the dead volume. Given the same operating conditions, the optimized porous-sheets regenerator has a significantly lower total loss of available work while maintaining even higher thermal effectiveness in comparison with the optimized conventional wire mesh regenerator.

The effects of changes in culling parity of cows and diet composition on economic and environmental outputs in Japanese beef cow–calf production systems were deterministically analyzed using a herd model simulation. The model simulated the annualized net revenue as an economic indicator and the overall environmental index derived from a life cycle assessment (LCA) as an environmental indicator. Biological factors (survivability, growth, reproduction, and feed requirements) and economic factors (returns from sales of live calves and cows’ carcasses and production costs) were included in the model. The model also included modified feed formulation methods, allowing us to analyze the effect of reductions in environmental loads caused by the change in diet compositions. The results of the present study indicated that later culling was economically and environmentally optimal under the current production system, which suggested that the selection of economically optimal culling parity of cows could result in environmentally optimization of the beef cow–calf production system. The difference in feed composition derived from the difference in feed formulation methods did not affect the determination of optimal culling parity, whereas the use of modified feed formulation methods could reduce environmental loads at a higher rate than that of economic benefits. However, the reduction rate of the environmental impact was much higher in the case of selection of the optimal culling parity than in the case of use of modified feed formulation methods, which stressed the importance of choosing the optimal culling parity of cows both from the economic and environmental points of view.

[Purpose] This study aimed to determine the effects of increased amount of physical therapy exercise on improvements in the walking ability of patients with stroke. [Subjects and Methods] The subjects were selected from patients with stroke who were hospitalized in the convalescent rehabilitation ward, and included 91 patients who received physical therapy for 2.5-3 exercise sessions per day during 2005-2006 (PT3unit group), and 86 patients who received physical therapy for 4.5-6 exercise sessions per day during 2010-2015 (PT6unit group). The functional independence measure (FIM) score evaluates the walking ability of patients during hospital admission, 2 and 4 weeks after admission, and at discharge. The FIM score was stratified according to the degree of lower limb motor paralysis and subsequently compared between groups. [Results] Among the patients with complete paralysis and severe paralysis, the FIM-Walking scores at 4 weeks after admission and at discharge were significantly higher in the PT6unit group than in the PT3unit group. No significant differences were found between the PT6unit and PT3unit groups for patients with mild and moderate paralysis. [Conclusion] Higher amounts of physical therapy exercise contributed to improvements in the walking ability of patients with complete and severe lower limb paralysis.

同志社大学大学院総合政策科学研究科関係者が自らの研究にどのようにして取り組んでいるのかレポートした。, Interviews with past students, an interviewee Yoko Irie and Yohei Kato, 研究活動報告(Research and Activity Report), Contentsのタイトル表記に誤りあり (誤)Syouhei → (正)Yohei, インタビュアー:大空正弘

Full-length cDNA that encodes feline α₁-microglobulin (Feα₁m)-bikunin was obtained from a feline liver and cloned using an oligo-capping method. The Feα₁m-bikunin cDNA was found to contain 1284 nucleotides, and Feα₁m was found to include an open reading frame encoding a polypeptide of 201 amino acids. The deduced amino acid sequence of Feα₁m showed varying amino acid identity when compared with the published sequences of the related α₁-m of other species, ranging from 71.1 to 82.1%. Feα₁m mRNA expression was confirmed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and real-time PCR analysis in the cerebrum, cerebellum, lung, heart, liver, spleen, pancreas, kidney, adrenal gland, and testicle. The highest Feα₁m mRNA level was found in the liver.

Eighteen of the 34 species of the fan palm genus Livistona (Arecaceae) are restricted to Australia and southern New Guinea, east of Wallace’s Line, an ancient biogeographic boundary between the former supercontinents Laurasia and Gondwana. The remaining species extend from SE Asia to Africa, west of Wallace’s Line. Competing hypotheses contend that Livistona is (a) ancient, its current distribution a relict of the supercontinents, or (b) a Miocene immigrant from the north into Australia as it drifted towards Asia. We have tested these hypotheses using Bayesian and penalized likelihood molecular dating based on 4 Kb of nuclear and chloroplast DNA sequences with multiple fossil calibration points. Ancestral areas and biomes were reconstructed using parsimony and maximum likelihood. We found strong support for the second hypothesis, that a single Livistona ancestor colonized Australia from the north about 10–17 Ma. Spread and diversification of the genus within Australia was likely favoured by a transition from the aseasonal wet to monsoonal biome, to which it could have been preadapted by fire-tolerance.

Stall prevention effect of air separators incorporating radial vanes was investigated on a low-speed single-stage axial-flow fan. The survey results have clarified a possibility of effective and compact air separators of simplified structure equipped with radial vanes. To develop air separators of the kind having a simplified structure and reduced size, and for optimum layout and manufacturing simplicity, effects of several geometrical dimensions of the device on the stall prevention were experimentally surveyed. The conclusions are as follows; (1) Simplified radial vanes made of flat plates in place of curved vanes have shown strong stall-prevention effect comparable to those of the curved-vane type one. The most favorable ones showed no stall up to the fan shut-off conditions. (2) Radial heights of the recirculation passage within the air separator were found to show significant influences on the stall improvement. It should be larger than some critical value experimentally given in the study. (3) The whole axial length of the device, if reduced too much down below some value, gave rise to an abrupt loss in the effect. The axial length of the device should be larger than some critical value given experimentally in the study. (4) The optimum axial locations of the rotor-tip blade leading-edge within the device inlet opening were found to lie near the center of the width of the inlet opening, from both aspects of stall improvement and fan efficiency.

An interdisciplinary team (from Design, Community Development, Computer Science, and Rhetoric & Writing) created an interactive, updateable timeline showing the Evolution of Participatory Practices (EPP) in five disciplines over 50 years; the team members also documented and reflected on their own participatory practices. This Experience Report describes how the EPP timeline was created and what the team learned about interdisciplinary work in the process. It offers insights that may help other interdisciplinary groups overcome communication differences ranging from the simple (different vocabularies), to the complex (different definitions of shared terms), to the nearly invisible (the powerful, tacit epistemological assumptions underlying each discipline) by conceptualizing the work process in terms of an interdisciplinary rationality island and seeing the timeline as a boundary object. It also describes how making the process itself an object of study ensured that the reflective work necessary to effective teamwork got done.

Currently, multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) is considered to be one of the modulation schemes of UWB and is being actively investigated. It is necessary to provide low-cost receivers for consumers to receive wide support for the MB-OFDM system. Such receivers can be achieved by utilizing direct-conversion architecture. Direct-conversion architecture suffers from IQ imbalance. IQ imbalance causes intercarrier interference (ICI) in the demodulated signals. In this paper, a new scheme of IQ imbalance compensation using transmit diversity is proposed. This scheme enables the system to achieve frequency diversity and simultaneously compensates for the influence of IQ imbalance. It is shown that the performance of the proposed scheme is better than that of the conventional IQ imbalance compensation scheme.

Spatial distribution of transported sediment in channels with vegetation was investigated with attention focused on sediment sorting via field observation at the Kizu River. Results are summarized as follows.(1) Cross-sectional averaged bed elevation has not been changed in Kizu River. On the other hand, cross-sectional bed geometry has been changed dramatically because of the change of spatial distribution of transported sediment.(2) Sediment deposition near the boundary between vegetated area and non-vegetated area is much and the deposited sediment is overpass load.(3) Sediment deposition at the center of vegetated area is few and the deposited sediment is wash load.(4) Bed deformation in non-vegetated are caused principally by overpass load.(5) Downstream-fining of sediment size was observed in vegetated area located near main flow.

A hydrophilic form of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) was purified from N-methyl carbamate susceptible (SA) and highly N-methyl carbamate-resistant (N3D) strains of the green rice leafhopper (GRLH), Nephotettix cincticeps Uhler. Both of purified AChE from SA and N3D strains displayed the highest activities toward acetylthiocholine (ATCh) at pH 8.5. In the SA strain, the optimum concentrations for ATCh, propionylthiocholine (PTCh), and butyrylthiocholine (BTCh) were about 1 × 10−3, 2.5 × 10−3, and 1 × 10−3 M, respectively. However, in the N3D strain, substrate inhibition was not identified for ATCh, PTCh, and BTCh to 1 × 10−2 M. The Km value in the SA strain was 51.1, 39.1, and 41.6 μM and that in the N3D strain was 91.8, 88.1, and 85.2 μM for ATCh, PTCh, and BTCh, respectively. The Km value in the N3D strain indicated about 1.80-, 2.25-, and 2.05-fold lower affinity than that of the SA strain for ATCh, PTCh, and BTCh, respectively. The Vmax value in the SA strain was 70.2, 30.5, and 4.6 U/mg protein and that in the N3D strain was 123.0, 27.0, and 14.5 U/mg protein for ATCh, PTCh, and BTCh, respectively. The Vmax value in the N3D strain was 1.75- and 3.15-fold higher for ATCh and BTCh than that in the N3D strain. However, it was 1.13-fold lower for PTCh. The increased activity of AChE in the N3D strain is due to the qualitatively modified enzyme with a higher catalytic efficiency. The bimolecular rate constant (ki) for propoxur was 27.1 × 104 and 0.51 × 104 M−1 min−1 in the SA and N3D strain and that for monocrotophos was 0.031 × 104 and 2.0 × 104 M−1 min−1 in the SA and N3D strain. AChE from the N3D strain was 53-fold less sensitive than SA strain to inhibition by propoxur. In contrast, AChE from the N3D strain was 65-fold more sensitive to inhibition by monocrotophos than AChE from the SA strain. This indicated negatively correlated cross-insensitivity of AChE to propoxur and monocrotophos.

Heredity of modified acetylcholinesterase (AChE) of the green rice leafhopper (Nephotettix cincticeps Uhler) was assessed by crossing experiments between different strains and by analyzing AChE activity of individual insect heads to both metolcarb and N-propyl metolcarb. The green rice leafhopper which shows resistance to metolcarb was found to possess different AChE isozymes, which show negatively correlated cross-resistance to N-propyl metolcarb. However, each insect possessed only one type of AChE isozyme. By crossing experiments between different strains of the green rice leafhopper, at least seven different AChE phenotypes were observed. The method for analyzing AChE of individual insect was found to be a useful tool for the genetic analysis of organophosphorus and carbamate insecticide resistance of the green rice leafhopper.

Although monocrotophos showed strong inhibition to N-methyl carbamate resistant acetylcholinesterase in the green rice leafhopper, Nephotettix cincticeps, the toxicity was not so high to Nakagawara populations of the leafhopper. The different results between in vitro and in vivo experiments were thought to be caused by an increase of aliesterase activity in Nakagawara strains which are resistant to both organophosphorus insecticides and N-methyl carbamates. Thus, MC-R strain which has only N-methyl carbamate resistance gene was bred by introducing N-methyl carbamate resistance gene of Nakagawara-3-C strain to susceptible Shiraoka strain. Then monocrotophos showed negatively correlated cross resistance against N-methyl carbamates in Shiraoka and MC-R strains under both in vitro and in vivo conditions.

The stall-prevention effect of air separators incorporating radial vanes in place of the existing axial vanes was investigated on a low-speed, single-stage, lightly loaded axial-flow fan for effective and compact air separators of a simplified structure. From the survey, paying attention to several geometrical dimensions of the device, the following conclusions are obtained: (1) Simplified radial vanes made of flat plates could show strong stall-prevention effect comparable to those of the curved-vane type one. The most favorable ones showed no stall up to the fan shut-off conditions. (2) Radial heights of the recirculation passage within the air separator showed significant influences on the stall improvement. It should be larger than some critical size experimentally given in the study. (3) The axial length of the device should be larger than some critical size given experimentally in the study. Too much reduced axial length could give rise to an abrupt loss in the effect. (4) The optimum axial locations of the rotor-tip blade leading edge within the device inlet opening were found to lie near the center of the width of the inlet opening from both aspects of stall improvement and fan efficiency.

Currently, Multi-band OFDM (MB-OFDM) is considered as one of the modulation schemes of UWB and is actively invesgigated. It is necessary to provide low cost receivers for consumers in order to receive wide support for MB-OFDM system. Such receivers can be achieved by utilizing direct conversion architecture. The direct conversion architecture has been investigated for the purpose of cost minimization, miniaturization, and low power consumption of wireless receivers. However, the balance between the in-phase component and the quadrature-phase component of demodulated signals is lost when direct conversion architecture is used. This phenomenon is called IQ imbalance. IQ imbalance is one of the problems for the direct conversion receiver. IQ imbalance causes intercarrier interference (ICI) in the demodulated signals. In this paper, a new scheme of IQ imbalance compensation using transmit diversity is proposed. This scheme enables the system to achieve frequency diversity and compensate the influence of IQ imbalance at the same time. It is shown that the performance of the proposed scheme is better than the conventional IQ imbalance compensation scheme.

Geometric phase modulation is exerted in each arm of nulling interferometer. Experimental results reveal the feasibility of separate phase modulation of an arbitrary amount of radians (less than 2π) in nulling interferometer. The capability of the separate phase modulation will be useful for multi-element nulling interferometer to detect extrasolar planets.