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Background: Thailand’s population is currently the third most rapidly aging in the world, with an estimated 20 million ageing population by 2050. Sustainability of the family based long-term care model is challenged by the chronic burden on family caregivers and by smaller family sizes. We aimed to introduce a new service model, Community Integrated Intermediary Care (CIIC), TCTR20190412004, including free of charge intermediary care services at CIIC centers in the local community, to help older adults whose caregivers are temporarily unable to sustain care at home. Since Thai society upholds values of gratefulness, it is better to estimate willingness to use such an intermediary care service first, before introducing the service. Methods: A total of 867 pairs of senior citizens and their family caregivers were interviewed with structured-questionnaires in 2019. Descriptive analysis and binary logistic regression were applied to determine the predictors of family caregivers’ willingness to use the CIIC service, guided by Anderson’s model of health services use. Results: About 26.8% of elderly participants and 24.0% of family caregivers were willing to use an intermediary care service. The family caregiver determinants of predisposing factors (kinship: spouse caregivers, other relatives, maid or friends; job types: own business and private company staff), enabling factors (original community residents and monthly income ≤9000 baht), and need factors (caregiver burden total scores ≥24, taking leave for caregiving, and having diabetes), were found to be significantly associated with willingness to use the CIIC service. Conclusions: The baseline survey data noted that caregivers’ sociodemographic factors and burden determined their willingness to use the intermediary care service, although the dependency of care recipients was low in this study. This, nonetheless, indicated that there is need for a backup respite care to strengthen current family based long-term aging care in Thailand.

The LytR family of cell envelope-associated transcriptional attenuators in bacteria has been brought into focus of scientific interest on the expression of various virulence factors, as well as bacterial cell envelope maintenance. However, this protein of Streptococcus pyogenes has been only described as cell surface-associated protein, and its function is completely unknown. We created lytR mutant strains from two independent S. pyogenes strains to analyze the function of LytR. The protease assay in culture supernatant showed that lytR mutant had the higher cysteine protease activity than wild-type. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and western blotting analysis revealed that the amount of cysteine protease, SpeB in lytR mutant was more compared with that in wild-type. The level of speB mRNA in lytR mutant also increased compared with that of wild-type. The membrane integrity and potential in lytR mutant also were decreased compared with that of wild-type. Murine infection model showed that less survival was detected in mice inoculated with lytR mutant than that with wild-type, and the size of wound lesion of mice with lytR mutant was larger than that with wild-type. Our data suggest that the lytR regulates the expression of SpeB in S. pyogenes with relation to membrane integrity.

The virulence of Streptococcus pyogenes depends on proteins that are produced by this bacterium. The production of virulence proteins depends on environmental factors, and two-component regulatory systems are considered to be involved in sensing these factors. One of the environmental factors is acid stimuli. We established knockout strains in all speculated two-component regulatory sensor proteins of the M1 clinical strain of S. pyogenes and examined their relevance to acid stimuli. The parental strain and its derived knockout strains were cultured in a medium adjusted to pH 7.6 or 6.0, and their growth in broth was compared. The spy1622 sensor knockout strain showed significant growth reduction compared with the parental strain in broth at pH 6.0, suggesting that the Spy1622 two-component sensor protein is involved in sensing acid stimuli. To further examine the role of the Spy1622 two-component sensor protein in virulence, blood bactericidal assays and mouse infection model experiments were performed. We found that the spy1622 knockout strain was less virulent than the parental strain, which suggests that the Spy1622 two-component sensor protein could play an important role in virulence.

Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis isolates (n = 110) were analyzed by PCR to determine whether the gene encoding SICG, a homolog of Streptococcus pyogenes SIC, was present. Nineteen strains (17%) had this gene of which 11 (55%) were isolated from patients with invasive disease. All 19 strains possessed group G carbohydrate. Molecular characterization of emm type revealed that the majority of emm sequences were stG643 and stG2078. Only the N-terminal sequence of SICG was similar to that of SIC in S. pyogenes. Although we found no significant relationship between pathogenic severity and sicG possession, further investigation into the mechanism of SICG may elucidate the virulence in S. dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis infection.

Effect of gamma-irradiation on sprouting and rooting of garlic was investigated. Sprouting and rooting of garlic were inhibited by irradiation of bulbs at 2 months after harvest with doses more than 30 Gy. Four weeks-later irradiation requires higher doses to complete sprouting/rooting inhibition.

In the Shakespearean theatre, the removal of dead bodies from the stage was a theatrical necessity, owing to the absence of a curtain between the stage and the auditorium. Despite the many non-realistic conventions accepted in the theatre, the disposal of corpses had to be carried out in such a way as not to disrupt the reality of the fictional world. An analysis of certain kinds of intriguing situations, such as suicide scenes, reveals how efficiently Shakespeare and his contemporaries utilized the stage hangings, the upper gallery, and the stage trap so as to avoid the necessity of bringing on bearers for the corpses at the ends of the scenes. Only at the end of the play, when the logic of the fictional world stops functioning, could the spectacle of a corpse getting up and leaving the stage have been accepted by the audience.

How did Renaissance theatre create its powerful effects with so few resources? In The Shakespearean Stage Space, Mariko Ichikawa explores the original staging of plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries to build a new picture of the artistry of the Renaissance stage. Dealing with problematic scenes and stage directions, Ichikawa closely examines the playing conditions in early modern playhouses to reveal the ways in which the structure of the stage was used to ensure the audibility of offstage sounds, to control the visibility of characters, to convey fictional locales, to create specific moods and atmospheres and to maintain a frequently shifting balance between fictional and theatrical realities. She argues that basic theatrical terms were used in a much broader and more flexible way than we usually assume and demonstrates that, rather than imposing limitations, the bare stage of the Shakespearean theatre offered dramatists and actors a variety of imaginative possibilities.

The LytR family of cell envelope-associated transcriptional attenuators in bacteria has been brought into focus of scientific interest on the expression of various virulence factors, as well as bacterial cell envelope maintenance. However, this protein of Streptococcus pyogenes has been only described as cell surface-associated protein, and its function is completely unknown. We created lytR mutant strains from two independent S. pyogenes strains to analyze the function of LytR. The protease assay in culture supernatant showed that lytR mutant had the higher cysteine protease activity than wild-type. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and western blotting analysis revealed that the amount of cysteine protease, SpeB in lytR mutant was more compared with that in wild-type. The level of speB mRNA in lytR mutant also increased compared with that of wild-type. The membrane integrity and potential in lytR mutant also were decreased compared with that of wild-type. Murine infection model showed that less survival was detected in mice inoculated with lytR mutant than that with wild-type, and the size of wound lesion of mice with lytR mutant was larger than that with wild-type. Our data suggest that the lytR regulates the expression of SpeB in S. pyogenes with relation to membrane integrity.

When he is tricking his father about his brother’s alleged treachery, in King Lear, 2.1, Edmund calls towards the tiring-house facade. It then takes Gloucester and his servants three and a half lines to arrive after Edgar has begun to make his exit.

In his article, ‘Passing over the Stage’, Allardyce Nicoll concluded that to ‘pass over the stage’ meant to enter the yard, ascend and cross the platform, and then return to, and exit from, the yard.1 This essay still seems to exert some influence despite a practical difficulty.2 Plays performed at private playhouses as well as those performed at public playhouses provide entry stage directions that include ‘passing over the stage’ or the like. It would not have been easy for actors to use the indoor theatres’ pit, with its seated audience, in the same way that they could have used the yard in the amphitheatres. There is no evidence that either of these sorts of theatre had any access up to the stage from the yard or the pit, while it seems likely that in some theatres the edge of the stage was fenced with low rails. At least three plays, including one performed at a public playhouse, provide stage directions which imply that the actors used stage doors when they passed ‘over the stage’.

As we have discussed in Chapter 1, it is almost certain that the stages of most Elizabethan playhouses had three entryways, that is, two flanking doors and a central doorway or aperture. In the preceding chapters we have considered, in an ad hoc way, particular examples of the use of stage doors, but we have postponed a discussion of the conventions and ideas that governed their use. The question now needs to be addressed. Most entrances and exits were made through the flanking doors, and the central opening was used for special occasions. In addition to the question of how the actors would have known which door to use, and how they could have registered the aptness of any particular door for a particular entry or exit, the likely choreography of the moves to or from the doors raises a number of intriguing possibilities for the original staging. First we should deal with the use of the flanking doors.

It seems most likely that in Elizabethan public playhouses the action usually took place at front-stage to allow the audience positioned on three or four sides of the stage to see and hear best.1 Whether the stage was very deep or comparatively shallow, an actor who made his exit from the front of the stage would need some time to complete his exit and get out of sight through one of the doors in the tiring-house facade. Shakespeare and most of his fellow playwrights, men of the theatre not least in their understanding of the size of the stages their plays were acted on, were fully aware of this fact. Even in those cases where the moves of exiting characters are not clearly built into the accompanying dialogue, a certain amount of time would have been allowed for the actors to complete their exits. The number of lines delivered by other characters while those making their exits were walking towards one of the stage doors give us the basis for calculating the amount of time the exits were expected to take.

Hamlet, 2.2, which is a very long scene and contains various events, ends with Hamlet’s soliloquy. Towards the end of the scene, he dismisses all the other onstage characters, that is, Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and the players. The Q2 text at this point reads as follows: Ham. … Good my Lord will you see the players well bestowed; doe you heare, let them be well vsed, … Pol. My Lord, I will vse them according to their desert. Ham. Gods bodkin man, much better, vse euery man after his desert, & who shall scape whipping, vse them after your owne honor and dignity, the lesse they deserue the more merrit is in your bounty. Take them in. Pol. Come sirs. Ham. Follow him friends, weele heare a play to morrowe; dost thou heare me old friend, can you play the murther of Gonzago? Play. I my Lord. Ham. Weele hate to morrowe night, you could for neede study a speech of some dosen lines, or sixteene lines, which I would set downe and insert in’t, could you not? Play. I my Lord. Ham. Very well, followe that Lord, & looke you mock him not.

It is almost certain that there were three openings in the tiring-house facade of most Elizabethan playhouses including Shakespeare’s Globe: that is, two flanking doors and an opening of some sort between them. Unfortunately, details of the design of the central opening are not known with any certainty. The central opening served as the discovery space which is required in Shakespearean and non-Shakespearean plays. Therefore its physical features and conditions must have been fit for ‘discoveries’. (1) Presumably, there was a recess behind it. (2) It could be covered with hangings. (3) It was larger than the other two openings in the frons scenae, and might be closed with double doors. (4) Most importantly, unlike the flanking doorways, it was a special entryway because of its central locality. In addition to ‘discoveries’, several other kinds of situation might have benefited from the use of this special entryway. My purpose here is to suggest some kinds of situation where characters might have made arrivals and departures through the central opening.

I began this book by questioning the Elizabethan theatrical meanings of ‘enter’ and ‘exit’/‘exeunt’. The entries in Alan C. Dessen and Leslie Thomson’s Dictionary of Stage Directions, of course, include these most frequently used stage directions, and the explanations of their usages are enlightening, illustrating several types of common locutions attached to ‘enter’ or ‘exit’/‘exeunt’. 1 But, regrettably, the Dictionary does not define the meanings of these terms themselves. I should like to close this book by giving a brief summary of what we have found about the basic meanings and matters of ‘enter’ and ‘exit’/‘exeunt’.

Recognition that Shakespeare allowed roughly four lines to an actor to walk the distance from the front-line of the stage in the centre of the playhouse back to the tiring-house suggests that the same time was needed for an enterer to move in the opposite direction. Shakespeare and his fellow playwrights made full use of entry and exit times. Each entrance or exit, of course, involves some variables — such as the rapidity of the enterer’s or the exiter’s walking, the actual distance covered, and the speed at which the accompanying lines are spoken. Using a four-line length as the standard, this chapter considers how Elizabethan entrances and exits could be related to the accompanying lines. My purpose is, as always, to suggest possible forms of original staging that we easily fail to notice when reading plays.

In Julius Caesar, 2.3, after checking his letter to Caesar, Artemidorus says, ‘Heere will I stand, till Caesar passe along, / And as a Sutor will I giue him this’ (F1, TLN 1138-9; 2.3.11-12). But he exits shortly after, and re-enters at the opening of 3.1, probably following the procession of Caesar and his train.1 This is a nice example of how thoroughly players’ entrances and exits were accepted as theatrical conventions. There were no curtains between the stage and the auditorium in Elizabethan theatres.2 Playwrights and players not only routinely handled entrances and exits, but they also used these movements to bring about various effects. ‘Enter’ and ‘exit’/‘exeunt’ are the most fundamental terms in the Elizabethan theatrical vocabulary. They warrant careful study.

This paper proposes a visual servo control method for exploring motion of eye-in-hand robot to recognize a three-dimensional object. Optimal motion is based on the strategy in which the position estimation precision of the feature points gets improved when the feature points move widely, and the optimal robot motion provides the widest transitions of the feature points per unit robot motion, so that the robot should be controlled to purse such motion. In addition, this paper describes the way to reduce a large number of calculation efforts. The validity of our approach is confirmed in the several experimental results.