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Resting-state (rs) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have revealed dysfunctional thalamocortical functional connectivity (FC) in schizophrenia. However, the relationship between thalamocortical FC and cognitive impairment has not been thoroughly investigated. We hypothesized that aberrant thalamocortical FC is related to attention deficits in schizophrenia. Thirty-eight patients with schizophrenia and 38 matched healthy controls underwent rs-fMRI and task fMRI while performing a Flanker task. We observed decreased left thalamic activation in patients with schizophrenia using task fMRI to determine the thalamic seed. A seed-based analysis using this seed was performed in the whole brain to assess differences in thalamocortical FC between the groups. Significantly worse performance was observed in the patient group. The rs-fMRI analysis revealed significantly increased FC between the left thalamus seed and the occipital cortices/postcentral gyri in patients when compared to controls. In the patient group, significant positive correlations were observed between the degree of FC from the left thalamus to the bilateral occipital gyri, which correspond to the visual cortex, and the Flanker effect. No significant correlation was detected in the control group. These results indicate that aberrant FC between the left thalamus and the visual cortex is related to attention deficits in schizophrenia.

Pain is a widely neglected symptom in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), even though it may be common and have a significant impact on the quality of life.The aim of this study was to determine the frequency and characteristics of pain and its treatment in ALS patients.A multicenter cross-sectional study.Eighty patients with ALS from eight hospitals.Data on demographics, functional status, and pharmacological treatment were collected. The Barthel Index (BI) was used to assess functional status. Pain was measured using the 0-5-point Wong-Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale.Pain was reported by 53.8% of ALS patients, and 36.3% reported receiving pain medication. Opioids were the drugs most commonly used to treat pain. The differences in pain frequency according to functional status were not statistically significant (p = 0.38). The pain intensity in patients whose functional status was total dependence (BI 0-20, 2.5 ± 1.2) was significantly worse than that in those with better functional status (BI 21-60, 1.4 ± 0.7; BI 61-99, 1.4 ± 0.5; p 0.01).Our study indicates that all patients with ALS have the potential to suffer from pain, the intensity of which increases with decreased functional status.

Motivation The aim of precision medicine is to harness new knowledge and technology to optimize the timing and targeting of interventions for maximal therapeutic benefit. This study explores the possibility of building AI models without precise pixel-level annotation in prediction of the tumor size, extrathyroidal extension, lymph node metastasis, cancer stage and BRAF mutation in thyroid cancer diagnosis, providing the patients’ background information, histopathological and immunohistochemical tissue images. Results A novel framework for objective evaluation of automatic patient diagnosis algorithms has been established under the auspices of the IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging 2017— A Grand Challenge for Tissue Microarray Analysis in Thyroid Cancer Diagnosis. Here, we present the datasets, methods and results of the challenge and lay down the principles for future uses of this benchmark. The main contributions of the challenge include the creation of the data repository of tissue microarrays; the creation of the clinical diagnosis classification data repository of thyroid cancer; and the definition of objective quantitative evaluation for comparison and ranking of the algorithms. With this benchmark, three automatic methods for predictions of the five clinical outcomes have been compared, and detailed quantitative evaluation results are presented in this paper. Based on the quantitative evaluation results, we believe automatic patient diagnosis is still a challenging and unsolved problem. Availability and implementation The datasets and the evaluation software will be made available to the research community, further encouraging future developments in this field. (http://www-o.ntust.edu.tw/cvmi/ISBI2017/). Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Summary: Recent successes in tumor immunotherapies have highlighted the importance of tumor immunity. However, most of the work conducted to date has been on T cell immunity, while the role of B cell immunity in cancer remains more elusive. In this study, immunogenetic repertoire profiling for tumor-infiltrating B and T cells in gastric cancers was carried out to help reveal the architecture of B cell immunity in cancer. Humoral immunity in cancer was shown to involve oligoclonal expansions of tumor-specific and private B cell repertoires. We find that B cell repertoires in cancer are shaped by somatic hypermutation (SHM) either with or without positive selection biases, the latter of which tended to be auto-reactive. Importantly, we identified sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) as major functional B cell antigens among gastric tumors. Furthermore, natural anti-sulfated GAG antibodies discovered in gastric cancer tissues showed robust growth-suppressive functions against a wide variety of human malignancies of various organs. : Katoh et al. profile immunoglobulin repertoires of tumor-infiltrating B cells, identifying sulfated glycosaminoglycan as a major functional B cell antigen in tumors. Repertoire profiling for tumor-infiltrating B cells may pave the way to the development of therapeutic antibodies. Keywords: repertoire sequence, immunogenetics, tumor immunity, tumor-infiltrating B cell, sulfated glycosaminoglycan, therapeutic antibody, gastric cancer

A treatment of MCl2 (M = Zn, Ni, Co, Mg) with the indicator chrome pure blue BX (Na2cpb) yielded new coordination polymers, {[M(H2O)6][M(cpb)2(H2O)2]·(H2O)9}n (M = Zn (1), Ni (2), Co (3)) and {[Mg(H2O)6][Mg(cpb)2(H2O)2]·(H2O)6}n (4). These compounds, which are crystallographically isostructural, show helical 1D nanotube structures.

Beta-blockers are used to treat cats with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM). However, there are various hemodynamic responses to beta-blockers. This retrospective study aimed to explore the relationship between the response to carvedilol and the presence of geometric abnormalities. Medical records were reviewed for 16 cats diagnosed with HOCM. Cats were divided into two groups based on the velocity of the left-ventricular outflow-tract after carvedilol treatment (responder: eight cats, non-responder: eight cats). Baseline intergroup comparison revealed that anterior mitral valve leaflet length and diastolic left-ventricular posterior-wall thickness were significantly greater in the non-responder group. Longer anterior mitral valve leaflet and thicker left-ventricular posterior-wall may cause poor response to carvedilol. Thus, these properties may predict a lack of response to carvedilol therapy.

Obinutuzumab is a novel glycoengineered, type-II anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody that was recently developed to treat follicular lymphoma (FL), the most prevalent subtype of indolent B-cell lymphoma. Several intensely hypermetabolic lesions (SUVmax: 40) were identified in the post-mediastinal and paraaortic lymph nodes by 18F-FDG-PET maximum-intensity projection images of a 58-year-old man who presented with systemic lymphadenopathy. A biopsy at the time of laparotomy definitively diagnosed grade 1 FL. The patient was given the recommended standard premedication, comprising acetaminophen (1000 mg), diphenhydramine (50 mg), and dexamethasone (20 mg), and then started on six cycles of obinutuzumab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisolone (CHOP). However, the patient developed severe hypotension and dyspnea about 15 min after starting obinutuzumab. It was difficult to differentiate between a possible allergic reaction and infusion-related reaction. A pleural effusion was drained to reduce the tumor burden, after which a single course of CHOP was started. Rituximab (R) was added 10 days later without incident, and the patient completed six cycles of the R-CHOP therapy without adverse events. We conclude that R-CHOP was safe for administration to patients who react to infused obinutuzumab. Such patients should be carefully monitored during R infusion, given the risk of cross-reactivity.

Background Inconsistency of treatment response in cats with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is well recognized. We hypothesized that the difference in response to beta-blockers may be caused by myocardial functional abnormalities. This study was designed to compare myocardial function in cats with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with and without response to beta-blockers. Twenty-one, client-owned, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy cats treated with carvedilol were analyzed. After carvedilol treatment, cats with decreased left ventricular outflow tract velocity were categorized as responders (n = 10); those exhibiting no response (no decrease in the left ventricular outflow tract velocity) were categorized as non-responders (n = 11). The cats were examined using layer-specific assessment of the myocardial function (whole, endocardial, and epicardial layers) longitudinally and circumferentially by two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography, before and after carvedilol treatment. Results The non-responder cats had a significantly higher age, end-diastolic left ventricular posterior-wall thickness, peak velocity of left ventricular outflow tract, and dose of carvedilol than the responders (p = 0.04, p p p p p = 0.006). According to the multivariate analysis, circumferential strain in the epicardial layer was the only independent correlate of treatment response with carvedilol. Conclusions Myocardial function, assessed by two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography, differed in cats with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with and without response to beta-blockers. The determination of layer-specific myocardial function may facilitate detailed pathophysiologic assessment and treatment response in cats with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSCs) have been suggested their benefits in regenerative medicine for various diseases. Lipomas, benign neoplasms in adipose tissue, have been reported as a potential source of stem cells. These lipoma-derived mesenchymal stem cells (LDSCs) may be useful for regenerative medicine. However, the detailed characteristics of LDSCs have not been fully elucidated. This study investigated the cellular proteomics and secretomes of canine LDSCs in addition to morphology and proliferation and differentiation capacities. Some LDSCs isolated from canine subcutaneous lipomas were morphologically different from ADSCs and showed a rounded shape instead of fibroblast-like morphology. The phenotype of cell surface markers in LDSCs was similar to those in ADSCs, but CD29 and CD90 stem cell markers were more highly expressed compared with those of ADSCs. LDSCs had noticeably high proliferation ability, but no significant differences were observed compared with ADSCs. In regard to differentiation capacity compared to ADSCs, LDSCs showed higher adipogenesis, but no differences were observed with osteogenesis. Cellular proteomic analysis using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis revealed that over 95% of protein spots showed similar expression levels between LDSCs and ADSCs. Secretome analysis was performed using iTRAQ and quantitative cytokine arrays. Over 1900 proteins were detected in conditioned medium (CM) of LDSCs and ADSCs, and 94.0% of detected proteins showed similar expression levels between CM of both cell types. Results from cytokine arrays including 20 cytokines showed no significant differences between CM of LDSCs and that of ADSCs. Our results indicate that canine LDSCs had variability in characteristics among individuals in contrast with those of ADSCs. Cellular proteomics and secretomes were similar in both LDSCs and ADSCs. These findings suggest that LDSCs may be suitable for application in regenerative medicine.

This paper introduces an arbitrary polynomial chaos expansion method for performing probabilistic power flow analysis in power systems. The proposed method is used for uncertainty analysis, expressing the uncertainty of a system as random variables with an arbitrary output distribution based on orthogonal polynomial expansion. This method is advantageous because of its calculation speed and accuracy. This study expresses probabilistic power flow in a power system with many uncertain power sources using linear combination polynomial expansion. The orthogonal polynomial system employed is generated by moment analysis from renewable energy output data, with the polynomial coefficients derived from a collocation method. Simulation of probabilistic power flow using the proposed method is applied to a 29-bus transmission network model including three renewable energies, and the calculation speed and accuracy are evaluated by changing the expansion order of the polynomial. In addition, the influence on the polynomial coefficient is assessed when the system topology is changed due to a line fault. Therefore, since the arbitrary polynomial chaos expansion method can represent complex networks by linear combination of orthogonal polynomial sets, calculation based on it is several hundred times faster than the conventional Monte Carlo method. The results demonstrate that the proposed method is very useful for analyzing the probabilistic power distribution and that third-order expansion is practically appropriate.

This paper presents a FPGA-based analog-digital hybrid real-time simulator (HRTS)with a new state space representation method. In the proposed method, electro-magnetic transient models with switches are represented by parallel ordinary differential equation (ODE)based on a block-diagonal decomposition of matrix. This paper also proposes a new update rule of state space form in order to accurately calculate with limited resources. The proposed method can be implemented with low costs of computation, and enables accurate computation with a less size fixed point of Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). We implemented a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG)based wind turbine model on the FPGA using the proposed method and connected it to the analog simulator via a current source. By comparing with MATLAB/Simulink references, the effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated.

BACKGROUND: Manually-assisted coughing and mechanical insufflation-exsufflation (MI-E) are commonly used in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Few studies have compared cough peak flow (CPF) with manually-assisted coughing to other methods, such as MI-E + manually-assisted coughing. In addition, few studies have reported the reliability of the measured CPF values. This study aimed to compare CPF with different cough-assistance methods and to examine the reliability of CPF data. METHODS: The study included 12 subjects with DMD (mean age, 34 ± 8 y). CPF, CPF + manually-assisted coughing (assisted CPF), maximum insufflation capacity (MIC) + CPF (MIC-CPF), MIC + manually-assisted coughing (MIC+assisted CPF), MI-E (MI-E–CPF), and MI-E + assisted CPF were measured. A spirometer was used to compare CPF measurements obtained with each of the cough-assist techniques. The reliability of the measured CPF values was analyzed using Bland-Altman analysis. RESULTS: CPF was 59 ± 34 L/min, assisted CPF was 113 ± 32 L/min, MIC-CPF was 170 ± 30 L/min, MIC+assisted CPF was 224 ± 62 L/min, MI-E–CPF was 199 ± 40 L/min, and MI-E + assisted CPF was 240 ± 38 L/min. A fixed and proportional bias was found in the CPF measurements made with the peak flow meter and the spirometer. The average 95% CI in the difference between peak flow meter, MI-E, and CPF obtained using the spirometer were −7.45 to −1.95 and −1.45 to 4.95, respectively. Test for correlation was r = 0.54 (P CONCLUSION: MI-E + assisted CPF was the highest. The CPF measured with the peak flow meter suggested underestimation.

BackgroundAs a large number of digital histopathological images have been accumulated, there is a growing demand of content-based image retrieval (CBIR) in pathology for educational, diagnostic, or research purposes. However, no CBIR systems in digital pathology are publicly available.ResultsWe developed a web application, the Luigi system, which retrieves similar histopathological images from various cancer cases. Using deep texture representations computed with a pre-trained convolutional neural network as an image feature in conjunction with an approximate nearest neighbor search method, the Luigi system provides fast and accurate results for any type of tissue or cell without the need for further training. In addition, users can easily submit query images of an appropriate scale into the Luigi system and view the retrieved results using our smartphone application. The cases stored in the Luigi database are obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas with rich clinical, pathological, and molecular information. We tested the Luigi system by querying typical cancerous regions from four cancer types, and confirmed successful retrieval of relevant images.ConclusionsThe Luigi system will help students, pathologists, and researchers easily retrieve histopathological images of various cancers similar to those of the query image.

Case summary A 6-month-old female cat with a history of chronic regurgitation presented with weight loss. CT angiography (CTA) showed severe constriction of the oesophagus due to an aberrant right subclavian artery and Kommerell’s diverticulum. The cat was surgically treated and remained clinically normal. More than 1 year after surgery, the general condition of the cat was stable and body weight had increased. Relevance and novel information This case report describes the clinical findings and surgical management of a cat diagnosed with severe oesophageal constriction caused by an aberrant right subclavian artery with Kommerell’s diverticulum (markedly dilated origin of the aberrant right subclavian artery), which are rare vascular anomalies in veterinary medicine and specifically in cats. The Kommerell’s diverticulum compressed the oesophagus and contributed to the severe oesophageal constriction in this case. Preoperative CTA was useful in the diagnosis and treatment planning.

Case summary A 5-month-old intact female Scottish Fold cat was presented for cardiac evaluation. Careful auscultation detected a slight systolic murmur (Levine I/VI). The findings of electrocardiography, thoracic radiography, non-invasive blood pressure measurements and conventional echocardiographic studies were unremarkable. However, two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography revealed abnormalities in myocardial deformations, including decreased early-to-late diastolic strain rate ratios in longitudinal, radial and circumferential directions, and deteriorated segmental systolic longitudinal strain. At the follow-up examinations, the cat exhibited echocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy and was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy using conventional echocardiography. Relevance and novel information This is the first report on the use of two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography for the early detection of myocardial dysfunction in a cat with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; the myocardial dysfunction was detected before the development of hypertrophy. The findings from this case suggest that two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography can be useful for myocardial assessment when conventional echocardiographic and Doppler findings are ambiguous.

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate estimate equations for preventing adverse drug reactions (ADRs). We conducted five case-control studies to identify individual risk factors and subjective symptoms associated with the following five ADRs: drug-induced ischemic heart disease; renal damage; muscle disorder; interstitial pneumonia; and leucopenia. We performed logistic regression analysis and obtained eight regression equations for each ADR. We converted these to ADR estimate equations for predicting the likelihood of ADRs. We randomly selected 50 cases with non-individual ADRs from the Case Reports of Adverse Drug Reactions and Poisoning Information System (CARPIS) database of over 65000 case reports of ADRs, and assigned these cases to a validation case group. We then calculated the predictive probability for 50 cases using the eight estimate equations for each ADR. The highest probability for each ADR was set as the probability of each ADR. If the probability was over 50%, the case was interpreted as ADR-positive. We calculated and evaluated the sensitivity, specificity, and positive likelihood ratio of this system. Sensitivity of the estimate equations for muscle disorder and interstitial pneumonia were ≥90%. Specificity and positive likelihood ratios of estimate equations for renal damage, interstitial pneumonia and leucopenia were ≥80% and ≥5, respectively. Our estimate equations thus showed high validity, and are therefore helpful for the prevention or early detection of ADRs.

Objectives Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a primary disorder of the myocardium, is the most common cardiac disease in cats. However, determination of myocardial deformation with two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography in cats with various stages of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy has not yet been reported. This study was designed to measure quantitatively multidirectional myocardial deformations of cats with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Methods Thirty-two client-owned cats with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and 14 healthy cats serving as controls were enrolled and underwent assessment of myocardial deformation (peak systolic strain and strain rate) in the longitudinal, radial and circumferential directions. Results Longitudinal and radial deformations were reduced in cats with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, despite normal systolic function determined by conventional echocardiography. Cats with severely symptomatic hypertrophic cardiomyopathy also had lower peak systolic circumferential strain, in addition to longitudinal and radial strain. Conclusions and relevance Longitudinal and radial deformation may be helpful in the diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Additionally, the lower circumferential deformation in cats with severe hypertrophic cardiomyopathy may contribute to clinical findings of decompensation, and seems to be related to severe cardiac clinical signs. Indices of multidirectional myocardial deformations by two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography may be useful markers and help to distinguish between cats with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and healthy cats. Additionally, they may provide more detailed assessment of contractile function in cats with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

When an action does not relate to the speech, the speech may connect any action unrelated to the speech. In such case, a speech animation can be easily produced by choosing a suitable action from the data base containing actions captured beforehand.

Background Cancer microenvironment plays a vital role in cancer development and progression, and cancer-stromal interactions have been recognized as important targets for cancer therapy. However, identifying relevant and druggable cancer-stromal interactions is challenging due to the lack of quantitative methods to analyze whole cancer-stromal interactome. Results We present CASTIN (CAncer-STromal INteractome analysis), a novel framework for the evaluation of cancer-stromal interactome from RNA-Seq data using cancer xenograft models. For each ligand-receptor interaction which is derived from curated protein-protein interaction database, CASTIN summarizes gene expression profiles of cancer and stroma into three evaluation indices. These indices provide quantitative evaluation and comprehensive visualization of interactome, and thus enable to identify critical cancer-microenvironment interactions, which would be potential drug targets. We applied CASTIN to the dataset of pancreas ductal adenocarcinoma, and successfully characterized the individual cancer in terms of cancer-stromal relationships, and identified both well-known and less-characterized druggable interactions. Conclusions CASTIN provides comprehensive view of cancer-stromal interactome and is useful to identify critical interactions which may serve as potential drug targets in cancer-microenvironment. CASTIN is available at: http://github.com/tmd-gpat/CASTIN. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-016-3207-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

We demonstrated the usefulness of a hydroxamate-based colorimetric assay for predicting amide bond formation (through an aminoacyl-AMP intermediate) by the adenylation domain of nonribosomal peptide synthetases. By using a typical adenylation domain of tyrocidine synthetase (involved in tyrocidine biosynthesis), we confirmed the correlation between the absorbance at 490 nm of the l -Trp–hydroxamate–Fe 3+ complex and the formation of l -Trp– l -Pro, where l -Pro was used instead of hydroxylamine. Furthermore, this assay was adapted to the adenylation domains of surfactin synthetase (involved in surfactin biosynthesis) and bacitracin synthetase (involved in bacitracin biosynthesis). Consequently, the formation of various aminoacyl l -Pro formations was observed.

Objective The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of heart rate (HR) on myocardial function assessed by two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography (2D-STE) in healthy dogs. Animals Thirteen healthy beagle dogs. Methods Animals were anesthetized and HR was controlled with right atrial pacing. Myocardial function of each dog was assessed using 2D-STE at pacing rates of 120, 140, 160, and 180 bpm. Results All strain and strain rate variables in the longitudinal, circumferential, and radial directions were not significantly different between pacing rates. Peak early diastolic torsion rate at 180 bpm was significantly increased compared with that at 120 bpm (P = 0.003). Conclusion Torsion rate in early diastole was elevated at 180 bpm, which may reflect improved myocardial relaxation with higher HR. Changes in left ventricular torsion during tachycardia may play an important role in preserving stroke volume in the presence of shortened ejection and filling times.

Background Left ventricular torsional motion plays an important role for effective pump function. However, noninvasive clinical assessment of torsional deformations by two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography (2D-STE) in dogs with myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) has not been reported. Hypothesis Left ventricular torsion is determined by the native orientation of the helical myocardial fibers, such that it might provide better assessment of myocardial function than conventional methods. Animals Sixty-seven client-owned dogs with MMVD were classified into 3 classes based on the International Small Animal Cardiac Health Council classification and 16 weight- and age-matched healthy dogs. Methods Dogs were examined for myocardial deformations by 2D-STE and were evaluated for peak systolic rotation and rotation rate at each basal and apical view. Dogs also were evaluated for peak systolic torsion and torsion rate. Results Peak systolic torsion was higher in class II than in class I (P

In recent years, the number of vacant houses is increasing in Japan, as the population decline in local communities. In this context, there is an urgent need to develop smart socio-technical systems that enable effective use and management of vacant houses, thereby preventing them from having negative impacts on local communities. In this paper, we propose an approach to support community-centric use and management of vacant houses based on an integrated crowdsourcing platform. We describe our ongoing project in Kashiwa City, and argue for an open, inclusive, and community-centric distributed platform to cater for some of the important needs in the community.

Background There are some biomarkers for asthma diagnosis but they are often difficult in clinical use, particularly in pediatric cases. Periostin is an extracellular matrix protein, upregulated in response to IL-4 or IL-13. Serum periostin is expected to be used as a non-invasive biomarker for asthma diagnosis and management. Methods Twenty-eight children with asthma (BA) and 27 children without asthma (patients with pectus excavatum, etc. as control group) aged 6–16 years were included. Bronchial asthma was diagnosed according to International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaire. Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO), lung function, blood eosinophil counts, total immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels, and serum periostin levels were assessed. Results were compared between BA and controls. Asthma diagnostic accuracies were calculated using receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analyses. Results Serum periostin levels in the BA group were significantly higher than those in the control group [medians (with interquartile ranges), 134.0 (116.3–166.3) vs. 112.0 (97.0–132.0) ng/ml; p = 0.012]. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) for periostin, FeNO, and eosinophil counts were 0.70, 0.72, and 0.84, respectively. After the exclusion of controls with pectus excavatum, AUC for periostin, forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), and maximum mid-expiratory flow rate (MMF) were 0.75, 0.74, and 0.80, respectively. Conclusion Serum periostin levels were significantly higher in children with asthma. ROC AUC values for periostin were equivalent to conventional biomarkers, including FeNO levels and lung function testing, indicating the utility of serum periostin levels in diagnosing asthma in children.

We calculated the rational Khovanov homology of some class of pretzel knots, by using the spectral sequence constructed by P. Turner. Moreover, we determined the Rasmussen's s-invariant of almost of pretzel knots with three pretzels., 15 pages, 4 Postscript figures

Among various control methods, model predictive control (MPC) is one of the major control strategies and has many successful applications. This paper presents an automatic tuning method for MPC using particle swarm optimization (PSO). One of the challenges in MPC is how control parameters can be tuned for various target plants, and the use of PSO for automatic tuning is one of the solutions. The MPC tuning problem is formulated as an optimization problem and PSO is applied as the optimization technique. PSO is one of the metaheuristic methods which are known to seek a global optimum at a relatively high ratio and with no use of a gradient. The numerical results for simple examples show the effectiveness of the proposed PSO-based automatic tuning method. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 178(1): 40–49, 2012; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.21188

The Yonaguni Knoll IV hydrothermal vent field (24°51′N, 122°42′E) is located at water depths of 1370–1385 m near the western edge of the southern Okinawa Trough. During the YK03–05 and YK04–05 expeditions using the submersible Shinkai 6500, both hydrothermal precipitates (sulfide/sulfate/carbonate) and high temperature fluids (Tmax = 328°C) presently venting from chimney-mound structures were extensively sampled. The collected venting fluids had a wide range of chemistry (Cl concentration 376–635 mmol kg−1), which is considered as evidence for sub-seafloor phase separation. While the Cl-enriched smoky black fluids were venting from two adjacent chimney-mound structures in the hydrothermal center, the clear transparent fluids sometimes containing CO2 droplet were found in the peripheral area of the field. This distribution pattern could be explained by migration of the vapor-rich hydrothermal fluid within a porous sediment layer after the sub-seafloor phase separation. The collected hydrothermal precipitates demonstrated a diverse range of mineralization, which can be classified into five groups: (i) anhydrite-rich chimneys, immature precipitates including sulfide disseminations in anhydrite; (ii) massive Zn-Pb-Cu sulfides, consisting of sphalerite, wurtzite, galena, chalcopyrite, pyrite, and marcasite; (iii) Ba-As chimneys, composed of barite with sulfide disseminations, sometimes associated with realgar and orpiment overgrowth; (iv) Mn-rich chimneys, consisting of carbonates (calcite and magnesite) and sulfides (sphalerite, galena, chalcopyrite, alabandite, and minor amount of tennantite and enargite); and (v) pavement, silicified sediment including abundant native sulfur or barite. Sulfide/sulfate mineralization (groups i–iii) was found in the chimney–mound structure associated with vapor-loss (Cl-enriched) fluid venting. In contrast, the sulfide/carbonate mineralization (group iv) was specifically found in the chimneys where vapor-rich (Cl-depleted) fluid venting is expected, and the pavement (group v) was associated with diffusive venting from the seafloor sediment. This correspondence strongly suggests that the subseafloor phase separation plays an important role in the diverse range of mineralization in the Yonaguni IV field. The observed sulfide mineral assemblage was consistent with the sulfur fugacity calculated from the FeS content in sphalerite/wurtzite and the fluid temperature for each site, which suggests that the shift of the sulfur fugacity due to participation of volatile species during phase separation is an important factor to induce diverse mineralization. In contrast, carbonate mineralization is attributed to the significant mixing of vapor-rich hydrothermal fluid and seawater. A submarine hydrothermal system within a back-arc basin in the continental margin may be considered as developed in a geologic setting favorable to a diverse range of mineralization, where relatively shallow water depth induces sub-seafloor phase separation of hydrothermal fluid, and sediment accumulation could enhance migration of the vapor-rich hydrothermal fluid.

Recently there has been a great deal of research on using mobility in sensor networks to assist their sensing tasks. In this paper, we propose a policy-based session control protocol for Multi-Robot Sensor Networks (MRSNs) called Billiards. In a MRSN, all messages are transported by the physical motion of participants (mobile nodes) in the network. When a large volume of data or continuous data is required to be transferred, there exists a problem determining how the data is fragmented and how the mobile nodes are formed for carrying the data to the destination. To overcome the issues, we propose a suitable method of session control which is determined based on a state of surrounding mobile nodes such as number, maximum-velocity and buffer-size. Billiards also takes a system policy of delay minimization into consideration. In this paper, we describe the protocol and model of Billiards and analyze the model. We evaluated the performance of Billiards utilizing mobile robots which are equipped with MICA2 mote and comparing with non optimized method. The experimental results demonstrate that Billiards achieves less delay than non optimized method at every velocity and buffer-size of each robot.

Objectives The objective of our study was to quantitatively measure systolic torsional deformations in cats with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and in controls. Animals Twenty-six client-owned cats with HCM and 14 healthy cats. HCM cats were categorized based on their symptoms (asymptomatic and symptomatic) and with or without left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (obstructive and non-obstructive). Methods The cats were examined for myocardial deformations using two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography and were evaluated for peak systolic rotation and the rotation rate at each basal and apical view. Cats were also evaluated for the peak systolic torsion and torsion rate. Results The peak systolic apical rotation and torsion were higher in asymptomatic and symptomatic cats with HCM than in control cats. Also, the peak systolic apical rotation, apical rotation rate, torsion, and torsion rate were higher in cats with obstructive HCM than in control cats. Conclusions Myocardial torsional deformations assessed by two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography may be useful for evaluating compensatory myocardial function of HCM.

Introduction Determine the usefulness of dyssynchrony indices derived from two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography for the detection of mechanical dyssynchrony in a canine model of left bundle branch block. Animals Ten healthy beagles. Materials and Methods Segmental, time–radial strain curves were obtained using two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography. The maximum difference and standard deviation of the time to peak radial strain for six predefined segments (MaxD-TpSR and 6SD-TpSR) were calculated, together with the left ventricular dyssynchrony by radial strain (DysSR), before and after ablation of the left bundle branch block. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed using dogs after ablation as positive controls. Results After ablation, all dogs showed multiple peaks in at least one segment on the time–radial strain curve, while all dyssynchrony indices increased significantly (MaxD-TpSR from 16.25 ± 16.04 [mean ± standard deviation] to 44.4 ± 26.18 ms, 6SD-TpSR from 7.59 ± 7.40 to 19.62 ± 11.91 ms, and DysSR from 4.20 ± 2.12 to 10.87± 2.92%, p

Despite extensive studies on clinical indices for the selection of patient candidates for cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), approximately 30% of selected patients do not respond to this therapy. Herein, we examined whether CRT simulations based on individualized realistic three-dimensional heart models can predict the therapeutic effect of CRT in a canine model of heart failure with left bundle branch block. In four canine models of failing heart with dyssynchrony, individualized three-dimensional heart models reproducing the electromechanical activity of each animal were created based on the computer tomographic images. CRT simulations were performed for 25 patterns of three ventricular pacing lead positions. Lead positions producing the best and the worst therapeutic effects were selected in each model. The validity of predictions was tested in acute experiments in which hearts were paced from the sites identified by simulations. We found significant correlations between the experimentally observed improvement in ejection fraction (EF) and the predicted improvements in ejection fraction (P

Recently, the installation of the battery for the power system has been expected to be one of action plans for the system stabilization against the voltage fluctuation caused by the system disturbance under the penetration of the renewable energy sources. This study proposes a new optimal battery assignment method considering the voltage stability under the penetration of the renewable energy sources. This study considers power flow conditions that the power supply from the renewable energy sources connecting to one node is disrupted, but the other sources supply the rated power. Then, an optimal battery assignment and operation problem whose objective is maximization of the voltage stability for all nodes in the system against any renewable energy supply disruption in the system is formulated. This study proposes to apply an optimization method using the tabu search and the differential evolution in order to solve the formulated problem. The effectiveness of the proposed method is confirmed through numerical experiments with IEEJ EAST 10-machine system model.

We present a video annotation system called ``AnnoTone', which can embed various contextual information describing a scene, such as geographical location. Then the system allows the user to edit the video using this contextual information, enabling one to, for example, overlay with map or graphical annotations. AnnoTone converts annotation data into high-frequency audio signals (which are inaudible to the human ear), and then transmits them from a smartphone speaker placed near a video camera. This scheme makes it possible to add annotations using standard video cameras with no requirements for specific equipment other than a smartphone. We designed the audio watermarking protocol using dual-tone multi-frequency signaling, and developed a general-purpose annotation framework including an annotation generator and extractor. We conducted a series of performance tests to understand the reliability and the quality of the watermarking method. We then created several examples of video-editing applications using annotations to demonstrate the usefulness of Annotone, including an After Effects plug-in.