Search

In radiation therapy, patient setup is important for improving treatment accuracy. The six-axis couch semi-automatically adjusts the patient's position; however, adjusting the patient to twist is difficult. In this study, we developed and evaluated a virtual reality setup training tool for medical students to understand and improve their patient setup skills for radiation therapy. First, we set up a simulated patient in a virtual space to reproduce the radiation treatment room. A gyro sensor was attached to the patient phantom in real space, and the twist of the phantom was linked to the patient in the virtual space. Training was conducted for 24 students, and their operation records were analyzed and evaluated. The training's efficacy was also evaluated through questionnaires provided at the end of the training. The total time required for patient setup tests before and after training decreased significantly from 331.9 s to 146.2 s. As a result of the questionnaire regarding the usability of training to the trainee, most were highly evaluated. We found that training significantly improved students' understanding of the patient setup. With the proposed system, trainees can experience a simulated setup that can aid in deepening their understanding of radiation therapy treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 72‐year‐old man with productive cough and wheezing was referred to our institution for a growing mass shadow and central bronchiectasis in the right lower lobe on computed tomography. Based on the symptoms, elevated Aspergillus‐specific immunoglobulin E levels, and radiological findings, allergic bronchopulmonary mycosis (ABPM) was suspected according to the Japanese clinical diagnostic criteria. The patient refused bronchoscopic examination, and oral prednisolone (0.5 mg/kg/day) improved the symptoms; however, the mass shadow continued to grow. Subsequently, bronchoscopy revealed mucus plugs and an endobronchial tumour with a whitish surface. The tumour was surgically resected, and the pathological diagnosis was a coexistence of ABPM and pulmonary pleomorphic carcinoma. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of ABPM developing at the site of pulmonary pleomorphic carcinoma. Careful bronchoscopic examinations and histopathological evaluations of the surgical specimen led to a prompt and accurate diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foot rot disease caused by Diaporthe destruens (formerly Plenodomus destruens) has become a major concern for the production of sweet potato [ Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.] in Japan. A related fungus Diaporthe batatas , which causes dry rot disease of sweet potato, is native and is widespread in fields in Japan. The similar characteristics of these two pathogens pose a challenge for conventional disease diagnosis. Currently, there are no effective molecular measures for identifying and distinguishing D. destruens and D. batatas. Here, we demonstrate a real-time PCR assay that distinguishes and quantifies D. batatas and D. destruens from co-infected sweet potato. The assay was performed with various simulated DNA combinations of D. batatas and D. destruens ranging from 1:1 to 1:100000. The assay was also used with the ratios of D. batatas : D. destruens : sweet potato DNA ranging from 1:1:1 to 1:1:100000. These assays produced a specific amplification product for each of the pathogens, and quantified the fungal biomass over the entire range tested without detecting false positives. The assay was validated by using infected sweet potato collected from various fields; it showed sufficient sensitivity and specificity to quantify and distinguish D. batatas and D. destruens from these field samples. Thus, our real-time PCR assay would be a useful tool for diagnosis of D. batatas and D. destruens and is expected to provide the foundation for the design of integrated disease management strategies for foot rot disease in sweet potato. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The southern root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita , is a pest that decreases yield and the quality of sweetpotato [ Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.]. There is a demand to produce resistant cultivars and develop DNA markers to select this trait. However, sweetpotato is hexaploid, highly heterozygous, and has an enormous genome (∼3 Gb), which makes genetic linkage analysis difficult. In this study, a high-density linkage map was constructed based on retrotransposon insertion polymorphism, simple sequence repeat, and single nucleotide polymorphism markers. The markers were developed using F1 progeny between J-Red, which exhibits resistance to multiple races of M. incognita , and Choshu, which is susceptible to multiple races of such pest. Quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis and a genome-wide association study detected highly effective QTLs for resistance against three races, namely, SP1, SP4, and SP6-1, in the Ib01-6 J-Red linkage group. A polymerase chain reaction marker that can identify genotypes based on single nucleotide polymorphisms located in this QTL region can discriminate resistance from susceptibility in the F1 progeny at a rate of 70%. Thus, this marker could be helpful in selecting sweetpotato cultivars that are resistant to multiple races of M. incognita. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Pacific saury (Cololabis saira) has a short life span of 2 years and tends to exhibit marked population fluctuations. To examine the importance of sea surface temperature (SST) and mixed layer depth (MLD) as oceanographic factors for interannual variability of saury recruitment in early life history, we analyzed the relationship between abundance index (survey CPUE (catch per unit of effort)) of age‐1 fish and the oceanographic factors in the spawning and nursery grounds of the previous year when they were born, for the period of 1979–2006, in the central and western North Pacific. Applying the mixture of two linear regression models, the variability in the survey CPUE was positively correlated with previous year's winter SST in the Kuroshio Recirculation region (KR) throughout the survey period except 1994–2002. In contrast, the survey CPUE was positively correlated with the previous year's spring MLD (a proxy of spring chlorophyll a (Chl‐a) concentration) in the Kuroshio‐Oyashio Transition and Kuroshio Extension (TKE) during 1994–2002. This period is characterized by unusually deep spring MLD during 1994–1997 and anomalous climate conditions during 1998–2002. We suggest that saury recruitment variability was generally driven by the winter SST in the KR (winter spawning/nursery ground), or by the spring Chl‐a concentration (a proxy of prey for saury larvae) in the TKE (spring spawning/nursery ground). These oceanographic factors could be potentially useful to predict abundance trends of age‐1 saury in the future if the conditions leading to the switch between SST and MLD as the key input variable are elucidated further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In southern Japan, sweet potato weevils Euscepes postfasciatus (Fairmaire) are being eradicated using the sterile insect technique because of their damaging effects on sweet potato crops. However, the effect of irradiation on the dispersal and survival of this species needs to be evaluated., We observed the dispersal of normal and irradiated weevils for 21 days after their release in a sweet potato field during all four seasons, and estimated their survival using the Weibull function., Normal weevils generally moved further than irradiated weevils, and all weevils had greater dispersal distances in the summer than in the winter, with spring and autumn intermediate between these two extremes (summer: 0.23 m/day versus 0.29 m/day; winter: 0.15 m/day versus 0.07 m/day; spring: 0.20 m/day versus 0.17 m/day; autumn: 0.20 m/day versus 0.15 m/day, respectively)., Normal weevils had low variation in mean life expectancy (approximately 8 days throughout the year), whereas the life expectancy of irradiated weevils was drastically reduced in the summer (2.20 days)., The implications of these results for the efficiency of this eradication technique are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Gwna Group in Anglesey island and Lleyn peninsula, Wales consists of a latest Proterozoic volcano-sedimentary trench mélange, which has a complicated accretionary structure, and is poorly constrained by isotopic ages. The mélange contains oceanic-trench rocks including pillow basalts, cherts, mudstones and sandstones, which have not previously been interpreted as ocean plate stratigraphy (OPS). We reconstructed imbricated OPS at 5 localities in the coastal Lleyn peninsula. In order to constrain the depositional U–Pb age of the upper clastic sediments, detrital zircons, separated from 9 clastic sediments, were analyzed with a Nu AttoM single-collector inductively-coupled plasma-mass spectrometer. The ages indicate that there are two Gwna Groups (maximum depositional ages of: 1 at 608–601 Ma, and 2 at 564–539 Ma) that were deposited between the late Neoproterozoic and the Middle Cambrian contemporaneously with dated calc-alkaline arc magmatism and regional metamorphism in the Anglesey–Lleyn complex. The age spectra of the detrital zircons show a prominent peak at ca. 650–600 Ma, and several Proterozoic and Archean ages. To account for the older ages, we integrated our new isotopic data with published radiometric and fossil ages, and conclude that the clastic sediments at the top of the OPS were deposited in a trench on the western active margin of Avalonia when it was close to the Amazonian craton, and that the Gwna Group OPS began to be incorporated into an accretionary wedge in an active subduction zone in the latest Proterozoic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the authors propose the user evaluation support methods for IGA (Interactive Genetic Algorithm)-based 3D room layout generation. Although IGA is useful for applying the user preferences to the solution, IGA-based systems force users to evaluate a lot of individuals, causing the fatigue of operators. Therefore, we adopted the following methods in order to cope with the problem: (a) Prediction of user preferences with a conjoint analysis. (b) Individuals clustering with a self-organizing map. To make a 3D scene such as a furniture layout, the IGA-based 3D room layout system is very helpful because it requires easy 3D graphics and manipulation only. The authors have been developing a web-based system that optimizes 3D room layouts based on user preferences. Finally, we tested the usefulness of our system with the demonstration, and had positive outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]