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Yosuke Wada,1,2 Kensaku Shojima,1 Kayoko Tamaki,1 Takara Mori,1,3 Hiroshi Kusunoki,1,4 Masaaki Onishi,5 Shotaro Tsuji,5,6 Ryota Matsuzawa,7 Koutatsu Nagai,7 Kyoko Sano,8 Kana Hashimoto,9 Masashi Goto,10 Yasuyuki Nagasawa,1 Ken Shinmura1,10 1Department of General Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Hyogo Medical University, Nishinomiya, Japan; 2Roppou Clinic, Toyooka, Hyogo, Japan; 3Amagasaki Medical COOP Honden Clinic, Amagasaki, Hyogo, Japan; 4Department of Internal Medicine, Osaka Dental University, Hirakata, Japan; 5Department of Orthopedic Surgery, School of Medicine, Hyogo Medical University, Nishinomiya, Japan; 6Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Tatsuno City Hospital, Tatsuno, Japan; 7Department of Physical Therapy, School of Rehabilitation, Hyogo Medical University, Kobe, Japan; 8Takarazuka Rehabilitation Hospital, Takarazuka, Japan; 9School of Pharmacy, Hyogo Medical University, Kobe, Japan; 10Department of General Medicine and Community Health Science, Hyogo Medical University, Sasayama Medical Center, Tambasasayama, JapanCorrespondence: Ken Shinmura, Department of General Internal Medicine, Hyogo Medical University, 1-1 Mukogawa-cho, Nishinomiya, Hyogo, 663-8501, Japan, Tel +81-798-45-6865, Fax +81-798-45-6977, Email ke-shimmura@hyo-med.ac.jpPurpose: This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between timed up-and-go (TUG) test time and changes in frailty status in a longitudinal cohort study of rural Japanese older adults.Patients and Methods: This prospective cohort study included 545 community-dwelling older adults. Initial and 2-year follow-up surveys were conducted. We compared the number of the Japanese version of the Cardiovascular Health Study components during the follow-up period and classified the participants into three groups: the favorable change, unchanged as prefrail, and unfavorable change groups. Associations between changes in frailty status and TUG time in the first survey were examined. The predictive ability of the TUG test was determined using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.Results: The favorable change group comprised 315 individuals (57.8%), the unchanged as prefrail group 105 (19.2%), and the unfavorable change group 125 (22.9%). TUG time was associated with the favorable and unfavorable changes after adjustment for covariates (OR 0.79, 95% CI 0.68– 0.92, P=0.001 and OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.09– 1.49, P=0.002). The ROC curve of TUG time as a predictor of unfavorable changes showed an area under the curve of 0.59. A cut-off point of TUG was calculated as 6.3 s with 49.6% sensitivity and 66.0% specificity.Conclusion: TUG time in the first survey was significantly associated with changes in frailty status 2 years later. However, its predictive value as a stand-alone test is limited and has the potential to predict future changes in the frailty status in older adults in combination with other tests.Keywords: frailty, cardiovascular health study, older adults, physical function, timed up-and-go test

Takao Arai,1 Shoichi Ohta,1 Masaki Onishi,2 Miyu Taniguchi,1 Junya Tsurukiri,1 Kenichiro Kumasaka,1 Katsuhiro Nagata,1 Kensuke Suzuki,3 Ken Harigae,4 Tetsuo Yukioka1 1Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Trauma and Emergency Center, Hachioji Medical Center, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo, Japan; 2National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tokyo, Japan; 3Faculty of Medical Science, Nippon Sport Science University, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan; 4Emergency Department, Hino Municipal Hospital, Hino, Tokyo, Japan Purpose: It is difficult for emergency physicians to plan and execute a disaster medical response drill while conducting their daily work activities. Readily available drill preparation manuals are therefore essential, alongside assessment methods to ensure quality. Here, we propose email text analysis as a manual assessment method, and investigate its validity. Methods: The preparation status of two similar large-scale disaster medical response drills were compared. All email texts exchanged during the preparation stage were analyzed, and frequently appearing words (quality element) and word counts (quantity element) were compared between Drill 1, which was organized without a manual, and Drill 2, organized with a manual. Results: Word frequency analysis revealed that the key components of the manual (visualization of necessary work, preparation of documents in a certain format, and clarification of aims of the drill) contributed to the effectiveness of the preparation process for Drill 2. Furthermore, work volume during the preparation for Drill 2 was decreased by 41.9% from that during the preparation for Drill 1. Conclusion: Preparation of a high-quality manual is crucial so that emergency physicians can plan and execute a disaster medical response drill. Email text analysis can serve as an objective method assessing the quality of manuals. Keywords: disaster medicine, textual analysis, database, quality assessment

This study endeavours to introduce an inventive hierarchical coupling methodology for evaluating the flight capabilities of polymer micromachined flapping-wing nano air vehicles (FWNAVs) using advanced computational tools. Furthermore, our objective is to provide a practical demonstration of FWNAVs in both tethered and airborne scenarios. These dual objectives represent the distinctive and pioneering aspects of this research. Such FWNAVs, which are insect-inspired robots, have a 2.5-dimensional structure. An FWNAV comprises a micro piezoelectric drive system and a pair of micro thin flexible wings. The drive system includes a micro transmission and a piezoelectric bimorph actuator. The flight performance of the designed FWNAV is evaluated using a hierarchical coupling approach, where the whole system is decomposed into a micro wing and a micro piezoelectric drive system. The coupling between these parts is modelled as one-way coupling and that between the micro wings and the surrounding air is modelled as strong coupling. In the one-way coupling analysis, nonlinear structural dynamic analysis is conducted for the micro piezoelectric drive system, where the dynamic response is transmitted to the micro wings via the Dirichlet boundary condition. In the strong coupling analysis, strongly coupled fluid-structure interaction analysis is conducted for the micro wings and the surrounding air to consider their strong coupling. The optimisation of flight performance is conducted using fluid-structure interaction analysis to achieve sufficient lift force to support the weight of an FWNAV. The design of a tethered and flyable FWNAV with a size of 10mm or smaller is demonstrated. This FWNAV can be easily fabricated using polymer micromachining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, high-sensitivity photodetection has been demonstrated using an amorphous selenium (a-Se) based photodetector driven by nitrogen-doped diamond cold cathode. The emission current--applied voltage characteristics are compared between different lighting conditions, and their sensitivities are evaluated in terms of nominal quantum efficiency. The estimated nominal quantum efficiency was 10-40 for visible and up to 1000 for ultraviolet, proving a successful photodetection utilizing carrier multiplication in a-Se. PACS Nos.: 73.50.Pz, 73.61.Jc, 85.45.Db. Nous demontrons ici la photo-detection de haute sensibilite, en utilisant un photo-detecteur base sur du selenium amorphe (a-Se), entraine par une cathode froide de diamant dope a l'azote. Nous comparons sous differentes conditions les caracteristiques du courant d'emission versus le voltage applique et les sensibilites sont evaluees en fonction de l'efficacite quantique nominale. L'estime de l'efficacite quantique nominale est dans la fourchette 10-40 pour le visible et monte a 1000 pour l'UV, prouvant le succes de la photo-detection utilisant la multiplication des porteurs dans a-Se. [Traduit par la Redaction], 1. Introduction Amorphous selenium (a-Se) is a promising candidate for high-sensitivity photo imaging devices, because of its low thermal noise, high spatial resolution, as well as signal enhancement because of [...]

In this study, element-quality-based stiffening (EQBS) was developed as a method of maintaining mesh quality in the pseudoelastic mesh-moving technique. The proposed EQBS technique increases the stiffness of the element based on two element quality parameters, the element area and shape; this differs from techniques used in previous studies. Importantly, EQBS includes the previously proposed Jacobian-based stiffening (JBS) and minimum height-based stiffening (MHBS) techniques as a specific case. Therefore, it is quite general scenario of the selective stiffening of the mesh. The proposed EQBS technique was applied to the mesh-moving of a rectangular domain including a structure consisting of a square and a fin that undergo large translations and rotations. The proposed EQBS technique showed better performance than JBS on test problems with large translations and rotations applied to the structure. This is because EQBS considers the shear deformation of the element in addition to the tensile and compressive deformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis to evaluate the impact of production country and roasting degree on aroma, to characterize it, and study a volatile compound that maybe contributing to the aroma character in different type is discussed. Results concluded similarity between Guatemalan coffee aroma and Ethiopian coffee aroma.

The solid-phase microextraction technique is employed to analyze the presence of various headspace volatiles of freshly brewed Ethiopian arabica coffee. The results prove that 4-(4'-hydroxyphenyl)-2-butanone helps in the enhancement of the aroma of the arabica coffee.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been important to both minimize the risk of infection and restore daily life. As a typical example, mass gathering events, such as sporting events, are gradually becoming more common, thanks to the measures taken to contain COVID-19. Some pilot studies have been launched at governments' initiative to investigate the risk of infection without measures such as face masks and physical distancing at mass gathering events, but the ethics of these studies should be carefully considered. On the other hand, it is still beneficial to implement infection control measures at mass gathering events and, in parallel, to estimate the risk of infection with measures in place, especially under a lack of vaccination progress or the spread of mutant strains possibly resistant to vaccines. To help improve compliance with measures taken by spectators and organizers and to ensure their effectiveness, we have conducted quantitative evaluations of the implementation of such measures by monitoring CO2 concentrations, assessing the proportion of people wearing face masks and analysing human flow at the event. This approach allows us to share our observations with stakeholders and participants, enabling us to protect the culture of mass gathering events, minimize the risk of infection and restore a sense of well-being in daily life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A DEAE–dextran-MMA copolymer (DDMC)–paclitaxel (PTX) conjugate was prepared using PTX as the guest and DDMC as the host. The resistance of B16F10 melanoma cells to PTX was confirmed, while the DDMC–PTX conjugate showed excellent anticancer activity that followed the Hill equation. The robustness in the tumor microenvironment of the allosteric system was confirmed via BIBO stability. This feedback control system, explained via a transfer function, was very stable and showed the sustainability of the system via a loop, and it showed superior anti-cancer activity without drug resistance from cancer cells. The block diagram of this signal system in the tumor microenvironment used its loop transfer function G(s) and the dN(s) of the external force. This indicial response is an ideal one without a time lag for the outlet response. The cell death rate of DDMC–PTX is more dependent on the Hill coefficient n than on the Michaelis constant Km. This means that this supermolecular reaction with tubulin follows an “induced fit model”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central nervous system lomentosporiosis is a rare pathological condition in immunocompromised patients. We describe a fatal case of meningitis caused by Lomentospora prolificans (which was previously named Scedosporium prolificans), after an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo- HSCT). To our knowledge, no cases of Lomentospora meningitis following allo- HSCT have been reported previously. Particularly in neutropenic patients, it is important to consider L. prolificans when a fungal infection is suspected and antifungal agents are ineffective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]