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X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is among the most utilized analytical methods for nitrogen-doped carbon materials. Clarifying the assignments of nitrogen-doped carbon materials with different degrees of carbonization, which relates to conjugated systems, is essential to correlate structures with the performance of various applications, but such precise assignments were challenging. In this work, precise analyses were conducted to overcome the difficulty to assign the peaks of carbon materials with different degrees of carbonization, different edges, and various nitrogen-containing functional groups in graphene nanoribbons (GNRs), such as nitrile, pyridinic, primary with/without charges, secondary with/without charge, tertiary without charges (graphitic nitrogen), and quaternary nitrogen. Electrons donated from hydrogen and Madelung potentials showed a higher correlation to the peak shift of C1s and N1s XPS spectra than Mulliken charges on nitrogen. Zigzag edges showed a greater influence on the peak shift of tertiary amine (graphitic nitrogen) than armchair edges on XPS spectra. Besides, as the degree of carbonization is increased from aromatic compound-like structures to GNRs, the peak positions of C–N in C1s and N1s XPS spectra shifted to higher binding energies. This research proved that XPS could be applied to the precise structural analyses of nitrogen-containing carbon materials.

Pentagons in carbon materials have attracted attentions because of the potential high chemical reactivity, band gap control, and electrochemical activity. However, it is challenging to prepare a carbon film with high pentagon density because of the curvature and the high reactivity caused by the presence of pentagons, and it is also challenging to estimate the percentage of pentagons in carbon materials because of the limitation of current analytical techniques. In this work, the percentage of pentagons in carbon materials was experimentally estimated for the first time using experimental and calculated C1s X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and elemental analysis. Carbon films with 7% of pentagons (40% of pentagons compared to the raw material) with electrical resistivity of 1.1 × 104 Ω meter were prepared by heat treatment of corannulene at 873 K. On the other hand, fluoranthene and fullerene remained as non-film solid and powder without forming films at 873 K. Experimental and calculated Raman and IR spectra revealed the peaks of different types of pentagons. Decrement of pentagons in corannulene and fluoranthene heated at high temperatures can be explained mainly by the scission of C=C bond in pentagons, as suggested by the results of reactive molecular dynamics simulation (ReaxFF).

Naturally occurring fungi have been used in the traditional production of dried bonito, Katsuobushi, in Japan. In this study, we analyzed the fungal population present during Katsuobushi production. Amplicon sequence analysis of ITS1 indicated that Aspergillus spp. are predominant throughout the production process. In addition, culture-dependent analyzes identified three species Aspergillus chevalieri, Aspergillus montevidensis, and Aspergillus sydowii, based on sequencing of benA, caM, and rpb2 genes. A. chevalieri isolates were classified into teleomorphic and anamorphic strains based on morphological analysis. A. chevarieri was the dominant species throughout the production process, whereas A. montevidensis increased and A. sydowii decreased in abundance during Katsuobushi production. Our study will enhance the understanding of fungal species involved in traditional Katsuobushi production.

Congenital lobar emphysema is often associated with CHD in early infancy; however, the surgical strategy for this condition is still controversial. We report three successful cases of emphysematous lung lobectomy before the surgical repair of associated CHD. Aggressive lobectomy preceding cardiac interventions is advised when the management of congenital lobar emphysema is difficult.

We present a 31 gestational weeks’ premature baby whose fetal echocardiogram showed ectopia cordis, single ventricle and severe pulmonary stenosis. At 31 gestational weeks, an emergency caesarean section was performed, and his birth weight was 1756 g, SpO2 was 80% on 100% O2. Epicardial echocardiogram showed double inlet right ventricle, severe valvular pulmonary stenosis and no ductus arteriosus. The risk of surgery was very high, so we decided to perform balloon valvuloplasty by direct puncture of the heart. We punctured the apex of the ventricle using a 16-gauge needle under echo guidance, advanced the guidewire to the pulmonary artery and performed balloon valvuloplasty. Soon after the procedure, the cyanosis improved dramatically. This is the first report of a transcatheter procedure performed by direct puncture of the heart for ectopia cordis with complex congenital heart disease.

Isotropic pitch-based carbon fiber has been utilized for various applications such as thermal insulation materials for high-temperature furnace and additives for slide member, but the structure of the carbon fiber is still under debate. This is because the precursor pitch contains various aromatic compounds in addition to the complicated oxidation and carbonization reaction during production process of carbon fiber. In this work, oxidation processes of model compounds of pitch such as pyrene (sp2C H with zigzag-like edges), triphenylene (sp2C H with armchair edges), fluorene (pentagon with sp3CH2), and 9-methylanthracene (hexagon with sp3CH3) were analyzed using mass spectrometry, elemental analysis, infrared (IR), Raman, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) in addition to calculation such as molecular dynamic simulation with a reactive force field (ReaxFF) and simulation of IR, Raman, and XPS spectra (Gaussian09). Combination of calculations and experiments revealed that oxidation proceeded in the order of zigzag-like edges > sp3CH3 > sp2CH2 > armchair edges, and the quinone formed by oxidation worked as a precursor for a crosslinking reaction. It is expected that the results of this work, which revealed the origin of the crosslinking, could lead to improve properties as well as to estimate the detailed structures of isotropic pitch-based carbon fiber.

Edges of carbon materials have been known to work as active sites for various applications such as catalysts, adsorbent, and electrodes, but selecting precursors for carbon materials with controlled edges in the absence of metallic substrate is challenging. This work developed a method to select the superior precursors instantaneously using molecular dynamic simulation. This simulation predicted that hydrogen in precursors gasified and the hydrogen attacked the active sites in precursors upon carbonization, causing the decrement of active sites. Thus, it is essential to reduce the concentration of hydrogen in precursors and it is also necessary to introduce reactive functional groups near the active site to protect the active sites. We indeed synthesized the selected precursors such as diethynyl anthracene, diethynyl chrysene, divinyl naphthyridine, and divinyl phenanthroline and proved that edges in those precursors were maintained even after carbonization at 773 K using diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy with the aid of spectra simulated by density functional theory calculation. Especially, ca. 100% of edge structures of zigzag edges and armchair edges in diethynyl anthracene and diethynyl chrysene was maintained even after carbonization at 773 K.

Objective This study aims to investigate the changes in renal function and levels of urinary biomarkers before and after cardiac angiography in children with congenital heart disease (CHD). Setting Children with CHD are at a risk for kidney injury during contrast exposure in cardiac angiography. Outcome measures We measured urinary protein, albumin, N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase (NAG), β2-microglobulin (BMG), and liver-type fatty acid-binding protein (L-FABP) levels, as well as serum creatinine and cystatin C levels, before and after cardiac angiography in 33 children with CHD. Results No significant decrease was noted in either the creatinine-based or cystatin C-based estimated glomerular filtration rate at 24 hours after angiography compared with that before angiography. Urinary protein, NAG, BMG, and L-FABP levels were significantly increased at 24 hours after angiography, all of which returned to baseline levels at more than 7 days after angiography. An increase in urinary level of protein, albumin, NAG, or BMG was mostly associated with increased urinary L-FABP level. An increase in both urinary BMG and L-FABP, but not that in urinary L-FABP alone, was associated with increased levels of urinary protein and NAG, as well as the greater dose of contrast media. Conclusions Transient increases of kidney injury biomarkers following cardiac angiography are not necessarily associated with the impairment of renal function in a short time period; however, the increase in urinary protein, albumin, NAG, or BMG level may indicate greater stresses to the kidneys than the increase in urinary L-FABP alone in children with CHD.

Vapor-phase catalytic dehydration of 2,3-butanediol (2,3-BDO) to produce 3-buten-2-ol (3B2OL) was investigated over several monoclinic ZrO 2 (m-ZrO 2 ) catalysts modified with alkaline earth metal oxides (MOs), such as SrO, BaO, and MgO, to compare with the previously reported CaO/m-ZrO 2 . It was found that these modifiers enhanced the 3B2OL formation to the same level as CaO did by loading an appropriate MO content. Among all the tested catalysts, the BaO/m-ZrO 2 calcined at 800 °C with a low BaO content (molar ratio of BaO/ZrO 2 = 0.0452) shows the highest 2,3-BDO conversion (72.4%) and 3B2OL selectivity (74.4%) in the initial stage of 5 h at 350 °C. In order to characterize those catalysts, their catalytic activities, crystal structures, and basic properties were studied in detail. In X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) experiment, it was elucidated that highly dispersed M-O-Zr (M = Ca, Sr, and Ba) hetero-linkages were formed on the surface by loading these MOs onto m-ZrO 2 with an appropriate content and then calcining at 800 °C. It can be concluded that the M-O-Zr hetero-linkages generate the proper base-acid balance for the efficient formation of 3B2OL from 2,3-BDO.

Nitrogen-doped carbon materials such as graphene and activated carbon have been studied as solid base catalysts. However, active sites of carbon catalysts have long been ambiguous because of the presence of various functional groups. This work clarified the dependence of positions of nitrogen atoms in aromatic hydrocarbons on catalytic activities of well-known Knoevenagel condensation of benzaldehyde with ethyl cyanoacetate to produce ethyl cyanocinnamate (ECC) as one of the examples for catalytic reactions. Catalytic activities of 30 kinds of aromatic hydrocarbons composed of one, two, and three aromatic rings with zero, one, two, and three nitrogen atoms were compared. Phenazine with zigzag edges and pyridinium ion with quaternary nitrogen showed low catalytic activities. On the other hand, 1,10-phenanthroline with armchair edges showed a high ECC selectivity of 99.3% and a high ECC yield of 59.0%. Among various aromatic hydrocarbons carbonized on silica, 1,10-phenanthroline carbonized at 923 K exhibited the highest ECC selectivity of 89.5% and the highest ECC yield of 10.2% because of the highest percentage of 1,10-phenanthroline-like N after carbonization. We believe that this work can serve as a perfect example to examine the performance of carbon catalysts at a molecular level in the future.

Selective doping of nitrogen into carbon materials in the absence of catalysts is a key for various applications of carbon materials. It is well known that most nitrogen-containing raw materials generate unnecessary functional groups during carbonization. Many researchers have noticed the significance of the selective nitrogen doping, whereas only a few works have reported the selective doping. In addition, those few works used catalysts to synthesize nitrogen-doped carbon materials, but the presence of catalysts limits the applications of nitrogen-doped carbon materials. This study found an unusual aromatic compound, imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine (IP), which maintained 88 % of the functional groups of as-received IP even after carbonization at 673 K in the absence of catalysts, and the functional groups were further maintained up to 773 K. The percentage of remaining functional groups was revealed using our state-of-the-art techniques of simulated X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy combined with transition state calculation using density functional theory. The low carbonization temperature as well as selective doping of nitrogen was achieved because of the low activation energy of dehydrogenation reaction among IP molecules compared to the high activation energy of radical formation for scission of C–N bonding.

日常生活における快適性と省エネルギーのバランスをとるための基礎実験として，本論文は構造方程式モデリングを用いた分析結果について述べる．分析は，「体の各部位の温冷感が体全体の快適性にどのように影響を与えるか」に関するものであり，使用したデータは 22人の被験者が９条件のもので徐々に暖房したときの体感について 10分毎にアンケートに回答したものである．モデルの変数として，（1）ある時点での体感値，（2）ある時点とその前の時点での体感値，（3）ある時点の体感値とその前の時点からの差分，（4）ある時点でのその前の時点との差分，の４種類のモデルを構築したところ，次の３つの知見を得た：（1）４番目のある時点とその前の時点との差分に基づくモデルがもっともよいモデル適合度指標を得た，（2）尻と胸の温冷感の変化が体全体の快適性にもっとも影響を与えた，（3）疲労感は体の部位の温冷感とは相関をもたなかった．

It is necessary to estimate the risk for strategic decision of offshore software outsourcing projects. In this paper we propose an experimental risk estimation method based on questionnaire for externalizing the know-how of experienced project managers. Introducing three parts of questionnaire contents, this paper describes the estimation method and presents the implementation procedure. Focusing on five client companies, this paper reports five types of risk estimation methods considering the bias of respondents with different backgrounds, and discusses the Recall, Precision together with Accuracy of these estimation methods. This paper also applies the t-test and vector analysis to study the bias in vendor countries, software types, as well as client companies. Copyright © 2008 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

症例は51歳女性. 15年来の糖尿病歴があり, 1995年7月, 糖尿病性腎症により血液透析導入. 当初より上腸間膜動脈血栓症に対する空腸切除術後のためと考えられる断続的な下痢症を認め, インスリンによる血糖コントロールは不良であった.1996年8月10日頃から徐々に全身倦怠感が出現. その後, 歩行時のふらつきと軽度の構語障害が出現したため, 頭部CTを施行するも特に病変を認めなかった. 8月20日にはNa 125mEq/lと低Na血症を認めたため, 食塩の摂取を促した. 8月21日に頭部MRIを施行したところ, 橋中央部に低信号域を認めた. 他の臨床所見と併せてcentral pontine myelinolysis (CPM) と診断した. 8月24日入院. 少量のNa補充と止痢剤の強化, および除水と厳密な血糖コントロールにより緩徐なNa補正を行い, 著明な神経学的改善を認めた.低Na血症の主な原因として, 断続的な下痢症によるNaの喪失や食事摂取量低下によるNa不足, および不適切な基準体重設定や高血糖に起因した高浸透圧血症による水過剰などが考えられた. また通常組成 (Na; 140mEq/l) の透析液による予期せぬ急速なNa補正がCPMを発症, あるいは増長した可能性が考えられた. 透析患者では電解質異常が起こりやすく, さらに透析療法自体が急速な電解質補正になりうるため, 臨床的にCPMが疑われた場合は迅速な診断かつ慎重な対処が必要であると考えられた.

The aim of this study was to examine whether the frequent short-time hemodiafiltration (FSHDF) could remove beta2-microglobulin (beta2m), an amyloidogenic factor, more effectively compared with the conventional hemodiafiltration (CHDF). A uremic patient underwent FSHDF (each 90 min, 6 times/week) for 6 weeks after CHDF (each 4 h, 3 times/week) for 6 months. Pretherapeutic plasma concentrations of beta2m, small molecules, electrolytes and bicarbonate were measured every Monday for 4 weeks during CHDF and for 6 weeks during FSHDF. The body weight gain during these weeks was also determined. The time average concentrations in beta2m and blood urea nitrogen (TACbeta2m and TACBUN) were evaluated based on their concentrations in pre-, post- and intertherapeutic plasmas frequently collected for 1 week each during CHDF and FSHDF. The quantities of total protein, albumin and beta2m in the removed fluids for the same week were determined. The pretherapeutic concentration in beta2m was significantly lower (18.7 +/- 1.3 mg/l) during FSHDF than CHDF (32.4 +/- 2.8 mg/l). The TACbeta2m was decreased during FSHDF (from 23.5 to 13.7 mg/l), while the TACBUN did not change. The pretherapeutic bicarbonate concentration was higher and the gain of body weight per week was lower during FSHDF although the other parameters were not different. It is concluded that FSHDF therapy is more effective to decrease beta2m concentration and correct acidosis together with an adequate urea removal and clinical safety.

透析患者の社会復帰状態を把握し, 問題点を明らかにするため, 7施設で調査を実施した. 労働年齢の維持透析患者280名を対象に, 社会復帰状況を調査し, 心理テスト (Y-G性格検査, 日本版CMI, SDS, MAS) を施行した. 結果として, 166名 (59.3%) の者が社会復帰を果たしていた. 社会復帰を果たしていない者は87名 (31.0%) であった. そのうち16名の者が, 求職の意志すらなく, 就職活動をしていなかった. 今回の調査ではこの16名の中で, 調査に協力の得られた15名を非求職群とした. また就業の意志はあるが適当な職がなく, 社会復帰を果たせないでいる者は19名であった. この中から同様の理由で15名を求職群とした. まず, 非求職群と完全社会復帰群との間で社会復帰の妨げとなりうると考えられた社会的因子 (性別・年齢・透析期間・学歴・婚姻状態) を比較した. 次に完全社会復帰群の中から非求職群と求職群に対しては各々30名ずつの社会的因子に関してのマッチドコントロール群を抽出した. その上で各心理テストの結果を, 非求職群とそのコントロール群, 求職群とそのコントロール群との間で比較した. 結果として非求職群は, 完全社会復帰群に比し, 有意に男性, 配偶者のいない者の割合が多く, 比較的透析期間が短い者が多かった. 更に低学歴も社会復帰を妨げる因子のひとつになっている可能性も示唆された. また完全社会復帰群から抽出した社会的因子をマッチさせたコントロール群との比較では, 非求職群に神経症傾向・抑うつ傾向・不安傾向の高い者の占める割合が高かった.今回の調査で, これら不安が強かったり, 意欲に問題があると考えられる社会復帰を果たしていない透析患者に対し, 社会的サポートや心理面でのケアが必要性であると思われた.

To let a user know the user's personal trend on the user's computer, this paper proposes a method to explore and visualize one's personal trend on the premise that the Gnowsis semantic desktop is used. The proposed method classifies information items into four attention areas with a popularity change measure by using three indicators (direct attention score (DAS), indirect attention score (IAS) (using spreading activation) and popularity change (PC)). Comparing the proposed method with two existing tools (PIMO timeline and PIMO cloud) in the gnowsis, this paper describes the following advantages about the proposed method: (1) To deal with both touched concepts and neighbor concepts, (2) To consider frequency, (3) To consider trend, (4) To catch seven operations in the gnowsis. Moreover, from an experimental usage, which shows more than three subjects answered the proposed method provided good results in every question, this paper suggests the proposed method would be useful to show one's personal trend.

To analyze the causal relationship between comfort environment vote and thermal sensation votes (of face, chest, hands, buttocks, and soles of the foot), this paper presents how three methods work in experimentation: multiple regression analysis, conjoint analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM). The samples for the experimentation consisted of 1,584 (22 subjects x 9 conditions x 8 times) questionnaire data. Our main interest is whether there are any differences in the causal relationship among subjects, conditions or methods. Paying attention to preprocessing, we found the following: (1) the importance of each thermal sensation vote differed not only according to subject but also according to the analysis method; (2) SEM is the most suitable method to explain the causal relationship; and (3) the lower body is more important than the upper body in controlling thermal comfort.

To investigate the pathogenetic mechanisms of mesangial interposition (MI) in IgA nephropathy, we examined renal biopsy samples from 20 patients with IgA nephropathy. Electron microscopic morphometric analysis showed that cytoplasmic protrusion of mesangial cells (MCs) into endothelial cells (ECs) or capillary lumina, and widening of the lamina rara interna (LRI) were significantly more prominent in glomeruli with MI than in those without. Immunoelectron microscopy revealed that the ratio of positive endothelial staining with a polyclonal antibody against human platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) BB was significantly higher in capillary loops with MI than in those without. Enhanced capillary staining of fibronectin related to MI was not recognized. These results suggest that MI in IgA nephropathy is caused by factors such as enhancement of cytoplasmic extensibility of the MCs, widening of the LRI and chemotactic influence of PDGF-BB located in the glomerular ECs.