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Scientific research plays an important role in the achievement of a sustainable society. However, grasping the trends in sustainability research is difficult because studies are not devised and conducted in a top-down manner with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To understand the bottom-up research activities, we analyzed over 300,000 publications concerned with sustainability by using citation network analysis and natural language processing. The results suggest that sustainability science’s diverse and dynamic changes have been occurring over the last few years; several new topics, such as nanocellulose and global health, have begun to attract widespread scientific attention. We further examined the relationship between sustainability research subjects and SDGs and found significant correspondence between the two. Moreover, we extracted SDG topics that were discussed following a convergent approach in academic studies, such as “inclusive society” and “early childhood development”, by observing the convergence of terms in the citation network. These results are valuable for government officials, private companies, and academic researchers, empowering them to understand current academic progress along with research attention devoted to SDGs.

The constrained nature of Low power and Lossy Networks (LLNs) inevitably impacts fundamental networking tasks. The focus of our work is routing protocols, where the constraints of the network discourage the maintenance of large routing tables and the use of excessive control traffic, nonetheless optimizing for metrics such as delay and packet loss. In a previous work, we briefly introduced the Uniform Stress Routing protocol (USR), an approach inspired from the load distribution in trees. USR selects a limited set of relays at every node for all traffic forwarding, based on their ability to deliver traffic to the most solicited destinations, thus traffic directed to least solicited destinations will take suboptimal paths. This paper aims at further clarifying the concept of USR, then putting its performance to the test on Network Simulator 3. Experiments were conducted using the LR-WPAN module, and showed that USR allows a 13% decrease in control traffic, with no effect on the packet loss, but an increase in delays of 20%.

A 67-year-old woman underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopy to determine the cause of her prolonged epigastric pain. During the examination, a sharp-pointed foreign body was observed; the edge of the object had been embedded in the gastric wall. The object was removed via an endoscope, and the patients' symptoms improved immediately. Based on a dietary history and an electron microscope examination, we identified the object as a stem of mizuna, a potherb mustard. Our report indicates that commonly eaten leafy green vegetables can act as sharp-pointed foreign bodies with the potential to injure the upper gastrointestinal tract.

In this report, we describe a case of lipomatosis in the left parotid gland of an eight-year-old female Shetland sheepdog and review the relevant literature. Preoperative diagnosis of lipomatosis with Tru-Cut biopsy presented difficulties in this case. The postoperative diagnosis was based on the gross appearance of a non-infiltrative, circumscribed swollen mass in the parotid gland and the histological appearance of normal adipocytes that infiltrated into the parotid gland without involving surrounding structures. Additionally, flotation of the whole parotid gland in formalin solution together with well-maintained residual lobulation and a well-maintained configuration on the cut surface were identified as subsidiary characteristics of lipomatosis of the parotid gland. Lipomatosis of the parotid gland has been rarely reported in dogs and is a poorly understood condition.

We established a promising new experimental animal model with an orthotopic xenograft of esophageal cancer that successfully represents poor oral intake, a major clinical feature of esophageal cancer. The advantage of this model is that no surgical technique is required, only the injection of a cell suspension by a needle and syringe via the esophageal lumen from the mouth, which provides a high reproducibility of tumor implantation and a rapid progress of outcome. We propose that this model is useful to study cancer-related outcomes and for developing new therapies for esophageal cancer, and we expect it to make a contribution to clinical practice.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a heterogeneous disorder, and the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus is associated with both insulin secretion defect and insulin resistance. The primary metabolic defect leading to type 2 diabetes mellitus has been thought to be varied among populations, especially in Japanese and Caucasians. Here, we have done the genome-wide scan for type 2 diabetes mellitus using 102 affected Japanese sib-pairs to identify the genetic factors predisposing to type 2 diabetes mellitus. Nonparametric linkage analysis showed one suggestive evidence for linkage to 11p13-p12 [D11S905: two-point maximum LOD score (MLS) of 2.89 and multipoint MLS of 2.32] and one nominally significant evidence for linkage to 6q15-q16 (D6S462: two-point MLS of 2.02). Interestingly, the 11p13-p12 region was reported to be a susceptibility locus for Japanese type 2 diabetes mellitus with suggestive evidence of linkage, and D11S905 was within 5 cM to D11S935 with the highest MLS in the previous linkage analysis reported. The only overlapped susceptibility region with suggestive evidence of linkage for Japanese type 2 diabetes mellitus was D11S935-D11S905 among the three reports including this study. These results taken together suggest that a susceptibility gene for type 2 diabetes mellitus in Japanese will reside in 11p13-p12.

This paper describes a practical method that enables actual images to be converted so that they can be projected onto an immersive projection display (IPD) screen. IPD screens are particularly unique in that their angle of view is extremely wide; therefore, the images projected onto them need to be taken on a special format. In practice, however, it is generally very difficult to shoot images that completely satisfy the specifications of the targeting IPD environment due to cost, technical problems or other reasons. To overcome these problems, we developed a method to modify the images by abandoning geometrical consistency. We were able to utilize this method by assuming that the given image was shot according to a special projection model. Because this model differed from the actual projection model with which the image was taken, we termed it the pseudo-projection model. Since our method uses simple geometry, and can easily be expressed by a parametric function, the degree of modification or the time sequence for modification can readily be adjusted according to the features of each type of content. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Adrenal glands are usually not included objects of ordinary multi-phasic health testing system. Whereas, it is sometimes experienced that an adrenal abnormal lesion is detected during the health checkup unexpectedly. Between 1995 and 2002, we have examined 79, 051 people in our health care center and found only 5 adrenal abnormal-ities, 3 adrenal tumors, l calcification and 1 cystic lesion by abdominal utrasonographic (US) study.The frequency of detecting adrenal abnormalities in our center was about 0.015%. There were no difference of frequency between female and male and also their site of lesion.They have no symptoms and their laboratory data showed no special abnormalities. The mean size of four adrenal incidentalomas (except one calcification case), was 49 ± 14 mm (mean ± SD) . Among these 5 cases, case 1 showed unusually large (70 mm in diameter) cystic lesion, and was the first experience for us. This case had undergone precise examinations in the general hospital. The cystic lesion was not enhanced by contrast material in computed tomo-graphic (CT) study. Multiplaner magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) strongly suggested the mass was right adrenal origin, and it showed low intensity in T1 weighted and high intensity in T2 weighted method. The mass had a thin wall and a homogenous content. All these results suggested that the mass was an uncomplicated adrenal cyst except its size, therefore careful observation was decided to continue without doing any more invasive examinations.

We describe a tiled-projection display system whose entire image is composed of twenty four patches of projection, sixteen of which are used for front projection and eight for rear projection on the center area of the screen. We use eight pairs of projectors to project the stereoscopic images, the left-eye image, and the right-eye image. The screen consists of differently shaped surface elements that are the partial surfaces of objects such as planes, spheres, cylinders, and tori. The following three technologies were developed for the display system : (1) a digital camera based measurement of the position and color features of the pixels projected on the screen, (2) software to compute the geometry correction and color modulation for edge blending by using the measurement data, and (3) real time image processing hardware to enable arbitrary geometrical warping and color modulation for individual pixels.

We investigated whether low density lipoprotein (LDL) under oxidative stress might induce the release of fructose, glucose-6-phosphate and fructose-6-phosphate from perivascular cells, and also whether these substances might accelerate the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGE) from proteins in vitro. When vascular smooth muscle cells were incubated with LDL in Ham's F10 at 37 degrees C for 48 h. release of all these substances was increased dose-dependently by oxidized LDL. Fructose release was increased in a dose-dependent manner by glucose. Indomethacin (20 microM) significantly (P < 0.01) suppressed the release of fructose (25.4 +/- 15.7% of control) and hexose phosphates (29.4 +/- 4.0) with the inhibition of release of lactate dehydrogenase (35.5 +/- 4.9) as well as probucol, whereas an aldose reductase inhibitor, epalrestat, significantly (P < 0.001) inhibited only the fructose release (0.9 +/- 0.8). Release of fructose and hexose phosphates from vascular endothelial cells was also induced by oxidized LDL. AGE immunoreactivities and AGE-related fluorescence formed from proteins and glucose were significantly increased (P < 0.001) in the presence of small amounts of the cellular glucose metabolites (6.6%) with glucose (93.4%). These data suggest that release of potent AGE initiators, fructose and hexose phosphates, from perivascular cells induced by oxidized LDL may be an important phenomenon for vascular complications.

In the age of systems, the innovation occurs through building a socio-technological system. Therefore, the need for scientific basis of building desirable systems and managing them effectively is increasing and urgent. At the same time, the increasing complexity and uncertainty of the surrounding environment create serious hurdles in designing, constructing and managing systems. This paper proposes a new category of research for building a big socio-technological system, in order to resolve the difficulty of building systems and embedding it in the society. This new type of research includes the whole process of planning based on the completely rational ground and genuine viewpoint of social expectations. It also includes the estimation process of the real performance of systems after it was built in the society to enable the system to evolve in pace with the societal changes. The new research concept proposed here will hopefully form an essential part of innovation.

We studied the effects of glycated lipoproteins of low- and high-density (LDL and HDL) on platelets and vascular endothelial cells. After pretreatment for 5 minutes at 37 degrees C, the thrombin-induced synthesis of thromboxane B2 in washed platelets was significantly increased by glycated LDL as compared with native LDL (198.9 +/- 16.2 vs 90.3 +/- 29.4 ng/10(9) platelets, n = 8, p less than 0.01). Platelet aggregation was also increased by glycated LDL as compared with native LDL. After treatment with platelet-rich plasma for 5 hours at 37 degrees C, these values were suppressed by native HDL vs the control (buffer), but not by glycated HDL. Abnormalities in the release of 6-keto prostaglandin F1 alpha and lactate dehydrogenase from vascular endothelial cells were also induced by glycated LDL and/or HDL. These observations suggest that abnormalities induced in platelets and vascular endothelial cells by glycated lipoproteins may play an important role in the development of atherosclerosis in patients with diabetes mellitus.

We investigated the role of cyclin A in the cytotoxic effect of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) on cancer cell lines. Experiments were performed using gastric cancer chemosensitive NUGC3, and chemoresistant NUGC3/5FU/L established by repeated exposure to 5-FU. 5-FU inhibited cell growth of NUGC3 in a dose-dependent manner. Low concentrations of 5-FU did not inhibit cell growth of NUGC3/5FU/L, while high concentrations slightly inhibited cell growth. Examination of the cell cycle pattern of NUGC3 cells showed accumulation at S-phase at 10 micro M and at G1-S-phase at 100 micro M of 5-FU. Cell cycle pattern of NUGC3/5FU/L cells did not change 5-FU concentrations. 5-FU increased cyclin A mRNA level in NUGC3 cells but not NUGC3/5FU/L cells. In the presence of 100 micro M 5-FU, cyclin A protein level increased 2.6-fold in NUGC3 and 1.47-fold in NUGC3/5FU/L. 5-FU dose-dependently increased the percentage of cyclin A-positive NUGC3 cells, but not NUGC3/5FU/L cells. The percentage of cyclin A-positive cells in other 5-FU sensitive esophageal, colon and gastric cancer cell lines (T.Tn, LOVO, DLD-1, MKN-7), increased in the presence of 1 and 10 micro M 5-FU, while cyclin A-positive cells in 5-FU resitant hepatocellular and colon carcinoma cell lines (HCC50 and C-1), did not increase with the same treatment. Our results indicate that the cytotoxic effects of 5-FU in human cancer cell lines correlate with cyclin A and it may be used as a predictive factor for chemotherapy response.

Assuming the surgery under open magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment with manipulators, we developed the coordinate-integration module and the real-time functions that could display the manipulator's position on the volume data of MRI and could obtain the cross-section images of MRI at the manipulator's position. The small field of view from an endoscope is the problem in most of the minimally invasive surgeries with manipulators. Therefore, we propose an endoscopic surgery with manipulators under open MRI equipment. The coordinate-conversion parameters were calculated in the coordinate-integration module by calibration with an optical tracking system and markers. The delay of the manipulator-position display on the volume data was approximately within 0.5 second though it depended on the amount of the volume data. We could also obtain the cross-section images of MRI at the manipulator's position using the information from the coordinate-integration module. With these functions, we can cope with the change of the organ shape during surgery with the guidance based on the individual information. Furthermore, we can use the manipulator as an MRI probe to define cross-section position like an ultrasonic probe.

We propose a new concept of a unified system for supporting both surgical treatment and intrasurgical diagnosis of heart diseases, especially ischemic heart disease like myocardial infarction, under a magnetic-resonance-imaging (MRI) environment. In developing the system, we first designed and built a prototype of maneuverable manipulator as a subsystem. We then evaluated MR compatibility of the manipulator by moving its arm tip close to a phantom in the field of view of an open-configuration MR imager. No noticeable deformation, but some signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) deterioration, was observed in the MR images taken during evaluation. It is planned to combine the manipulator with other subsystems and function modules in order to construct an easy-to-use unified support system. This system will then be applied to treat a variety of diseases of organs and tissues in the human body.