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Abstract Cisplatin (CDDP)-induced nephrotoxicity is a common dose-limiting toxicity, and diuretics are often administered to prevent nephrotoxicity. However, the efficacy and optimal administration of diuretics in preventing CDDP-induced nephrotoxicity remain to be established. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of combining furosemide and mannitol to prevent CDDP-induced nephrotoxicity. This was a post-hoc analysis of pooled data from a multicenter, retrospective, observational study, including 396 patients who received one or two diuretics for CDDP-based chemotherapy, compared using propensity score matching. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify risk factors for nephrotoxicity. There was no significant difference in the incidence of nephrotoxicity between the two groups (22.2% vs. 28.3%, P = 0.416). Hypertension, CDDP dose ≥ 75 mg/m2, and no magnesium supplementation were identified as risk factors for nephrotoxicity, whereas the use of diuretics was not found to be a risk factor. The combination of furosemide and mannitol showed no advantage over a single diuretic in preventing CDDP-induced nephrotoxicity. The renal function of patients receiving CDDP-based chemotherapy (≥ 75 mg/m2) and that of those with hypertension should be carefully monitored. Magnesium supplementation is important for these patients.

The sensor response of pressure-sensitive conductive elastomers using polymeric materials can be adjusted by altering the type and quantity of fillers used during manufacturing. Another method involves modifying the surface shape of the elastomer. This study investigates the sensor response by altering the surface shape of an electrode using a readily available pressure-sensitive conductive elastomer. By employing an oxygen-free copper electrode with a flat surface (with surface roughness parameters Ra = 0.064 μm and Rz = 0.564 μm) as a baseline, we examined the sensor system’s characteristics. Electrodes were fabricated with triangular wave concavo-convex surfaces, featuring tip angles of 60, 90, and 120°. Improved sensor responses were observed with electrodes having tip angles of 60 and 90°. Additionally, even with varying conductive properties of elastomers, the conductance of the elastomer sensor increased similarly when using an electrode with a 90° tip angle. This study demonstrates the potential for expanding the applications of conductive elastomer sensors, highlighting the noteworthy improvement in sensor response and performance achieved by altering the surface shape of electrodes used with commercially available conductive elastomers.

It is shown that only inherently safe design measure, which is defined in ISO 12100 as protective measure which either eliminates hazards or reduces the risks associated with hazards by changing the design or operating characteristics of the machine without the use of guards or protective devices, can eliminate hazards or reduce the severity of risks. However, mechanical designers actually apt to use safe guards and other measures because they do not have concrete design methods to apply them. In the consequence the machine does not have adequate inherently safe design measures. This paper proposes the process of scheme design for newly designed machinery to adhere adequate inherently safe design measures and other safe measures. Scheme design process consists of four stages, required specification definition, function definition, component and mechanism choice and structure design. These four stages are in order of consideration. The 14 items of inherently safe design measures those are classified according to their contents are shown in ISO12100. And each of them is suitably assigned to each stage of design process according to its content. Each stage study is narrowed down and clarified by this assignment. This process is proceeded in the matrix table to get adequate and less omission design by comparing and evaluating various ideas that can be thought of. By this proposal, front loading design process is implemented and the machinery design will obtain adequate inherently safe design measures and other safety methods.

Citrus mosaic virus (CiMV) is one of the causal viruses of citrus mosaic disease in satsuma mandarins (Citrus unshiu). Prompt detection of trees infected with citrus mosaic disease is important for preventing the spread of this disease. Although rabbit monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) exhibit high specificity and affinity, their applicability is limited by technical difficulties associated with the hybridoma-based technology used for raising these mAbs. Here, we demonstrate a feasible CiMV detection system using a specific rabbit mAb against CiMV coat protein. A conserved peptide fragment of the small subunit of CiMV coat protein was designed and used to immunize rabbits. Antigen-specific antibody-producing cells were identified by the immunospot array assay on a chip method. After cloning of variable regions in heavy or light chain by RT-PCR from these cells, a gene set of 33 mAbs was constructed and these mAbs were produced using Expi293F cells. Screening with the AlphaScreen system revealed eight mAbs exhibiting strong interaction with the antigen peptide. From subsequent sequence analysis, they were grouped into three mAbs denoted as No. 4, 9, and 20. Surface plasmon resonance analysis demonstrated that the affinity of these mAbs for the antigen peptide ranged from 8.7 × 10-10 to 5.5 × 10-11 M. In addition to CiMV, mAb No. 9 and 20 could detect CiMV-related viruses in leaf extracts by ELISA. Further, mAb No. 20 showed a high sensitivity to CiMV and CiMV-related viruses, simply by dot blot analysis. The anti-CiMV rabbit mAbs obtained in this study are envisioned to be extremely useful for practical applications of CiMV detection, such as in a virus detection kit.

We investigated whether supplementation with the barley line BARLEYmax (Tantangara; BM), which contains three fermentable fibers (fructan, β-glucan, and resistant starch), modifies the microbiota in cecal and distal colonic digesta in addition to short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) production more favorably than supplementation with a high-β-glucan barley line (BG012; BG). Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 3 groups that were fed an AIN-93G-based diet that contained 5% fiber provided by cellulose (control), BM or BG. Four weeks after starting the respective diets, the animals were sacrificed and digesta from the cecum, proximal colon and distal colon were collected and the SCFA concentrations were quantified. Microbiota in the cecal and distal colonic digesta were analyzed by 16S rRNA sequencing. The concentrations of acetate and n-butyrate in cecal digesta were significantly higher in the BM and BG groups than in the control group, whereas the concentration of total SCFAs in cecal digesta was significantly higher only in the BM group than in the control group. The concentrations of acetate and total SCFAs in the distal colonic digesta were significantly higher only in the BM group than in the control group. The abundance of Bacteroidetes in cecal digesta was significantly higher in the BM group than in the control group. In contrast, the abundance of Firmicutes in cecal digesta was significantly lower in the BM and BG groups than in the control group. These results indicated that BM increased the concentration of total SCFAs in the distal colonic digesta. These changes might have been caused by fructan and resistant starch in addition to β-glucan. In conclusion, fermentable fibers in BM reached the distal colon and modified the microbiota, leading to an increase in the concentration of total SCFAs in the distal colonic digesta, more effectively compared with the high-β-glucan barley line (BG).

In the steel/casting industries, a liquid container transport is carried out by an overhead traveling crane or a trolley. The operation of the overhead traveling crane is carried out both operation by the experience operator and operation by automated transportation in order to prevent quality deterioration due to the overflow and involvement in a hostile environment. In particular, the overhead crane transportation by the operator, which is allowed to select freely pathway, is needed from the point of freedoms of the operation. This paper presents a design of a liquid container transport control system with an overhead traveling crane, which is allowed to operate by an inexperienced operator easily. The presented control system is designed as to suppress both the rod vibration and the sloshing (liquid vibration) without measuring the sloshing. The presented control system is two DOFs controller, the feed-forward controller is based on two notch filter, and the feedback controller is based on the H2/H∞ controller design method using LMI. The derived controller is performed a controller order reduction in consideration with practical use. Some experiments are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed design of control system.

Central nervous system diseases cause the gait disorder. Early rehabilitation of a patient with central nervous system disease is shown to be benefit. However, early gait training is difficult because of muscular weakness and those elderly patients who lose of leg muscular power. In the patient's walking training, therapists assist the movement of patient's lower limbs and control the movement of patient's lower limbs. However the assistance for the movement of the lower limbs is a serious hard labor for therapists. Therefore, research into and development of various gait rehabilitation devices is currently underway to identify methods to alleviate the physical burden on therapists. In this paper, we introduced the about gait rehabilitation devices in central nervous system disease.