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With the recent developments in robotics, the ability of robots to recognize their environment has significantly improved. However, the manner in which robots behave depending on a particular situation remains an unsolved problem. In this study, we propose a decision-making method for robots based on robot ethics. Specifically, we applied the two-level theory of utilitarianism, comprising SYSTEM 1 (intuitive level) for quick decisions and SYSTEM 2 (critical level) for slow but careful decisions. SYSTEM 1 represented a set of heuristically determined responses and SYSTEM 2 represented a rule-based discriminator. The decision-making method was as follows. First, SYSTEM 1 selected the response to the input. Next, SYSTEM 2 selected the rule that the robot’s behavior should follow depending on the amount of happiness and unhappiness of the human, robot, situation, and society. We assumed three choices for SYSTEM 2. We assigned “non-cooperation” to asocial comments, “cooperation” to when the amount of happiness was considered to be high beyond the status quo bias, and “withholding” to all other cases. In the case of choosing between cooperation or non-cooperation, we modified the behavior selected in SYSTEM 1. An impression evaluation experiment was conducted, and the effectiveness of the proposed method was demonstrated.

Site‐specific conditional inactivation technologies using Cre‐loxP or Flp‐FRT systems are becoming increasingly important for the elucidation of gene function and disease mechanism in vivo. A large number of gene knockout mouse models carrying complex conditional alleles have been generated by global community efforts and made available for biomedical researchers. The structures of conditional alleles in these mice are becoming increasingly complex and sophisticated, and so the validation of the genetic quality of these alleles is likewise becoming a laborious task for individual researchers. To ensure the reproducibility of conditional experiments, the researcher should confirm that loxP or FRT is integrated at the correct positions in the genome prior to start of the experiments. We report the successful design of universal PCR primers specific to loxP and FRT for the quick validation of conditional floxed and Flrted alleles. The primer set consists of forward and reverse primers complimentary to the loxP or FRT sequences with partial modifications at the 5ʹ end containing 6‐base restriction endonuclease recognition sites. The universal primer set was tested to detect genomic intervals between a pair of cis‐integrated loxP or FRT and was useful for quickly validating various floxed or Flrted alleles in conditional mice., The universal PCR primer set specific to loxP and FRT has been developed and can be used for quickly validating various floxed or Flrted alleles in conditional mice.

Menarche is delayed in patients with type 1 diabetic mellitus (T1DM) compared to non-diabetics. The purpose of this survey study was to define the age of onset of menarche in Japanese patients with T1DM, as well the secular trends in menarcheal age across the period of 1976-2020 and determine the effects of T1DM and disease management on that age. The study subjects (n = 155) were recruited from among Japanese T1DM patients who visited the outpatient clinic of the Department of Pediatrics, Osaka City University Hospital. The study subjects experienced menarche during 1976-2020. They were divided into the menarche-post-T1DM group (n = 117) and the menarche-pre-T1DM group (n = 38), in whom menarche occurred after or before the diagnosis of T1DM, respectively. The time of birth was also stratified into five decade/time bins extending from 1960s to 2000s. The subjects filled a questionnaire on menarche. Other clinical information was obtained from the medical records. The median age at menarche was 12.5 years (11.3-13.4) (25

The partition efficiency of the double-spaced coil for eccentric and toroidal coils on countercurrent chromatographic separation of proteins was evaluated using the small-scale cross-axis coil planet centrifuge (CPC) equipped with circular and elliptic cylindrical columns. Standard cytochrome c, myoglobin and lysozyme samples were used for separation with the 12.5% (w/w) polyethylene glycol 1000 and 12.5% (w/w) dibasic potassium phosphate system. In the circular column, the double-spaced eccentric coil yielded better peak resolution than the double-spaced toroidal coil, and the double-spaced eccentric coil yielded better peak resolution than the single-spaced eccentric coil. In the elliptic column, the double-spaced eccentric coil also produced better peak resolution than the double-spaced toroidal coil, but the single-spaced eccentric coil yielded better peak resolution than the double-spaced eccentric coil. The overall results indicated that the double-spaced eccentric coil for the circular column and the single-spaced eccentric coil for the elliptic column yielded better protein separation using the small-scale cross-axis CPC with aqueous two-phase solvent systems.

Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), a herniation of the abdominal contents through a defect or hypoplasia of the diaphragm, is a relatively common, severe congenital anomaly. Here we present the first case of two siblings with possibly isolated sac-type CDH and with a suspected genetic etiology. Although sibling recurrence of isolated CDH is rare, the incidence is higher than in the general population. Additionally, the second child had a more severe respiratory disorder than the first child. It is to be noted that siblings of children having isolated CDH are at risk for CDH, and prenatal evaluation should be considered individually.

The crucial role of nonverbal communication by gaze in social interactions has been highlighted. In this study, an eye robot having two degrees-of-freedom was developed as a communication robot, and the motion of the sight line of this robot in a standby state with an absence of communication with people was investigated. We compared and evaluated the impression provided by a robot and a person, who imitated the action of the robot, to observers and demonstrated that both the robot and person provided improved impression if the line of sight is stationary.

Developments in robotics have advanced the development of robots that can communicate with humans. However, a few robots are only capable of stereotypic responses, and this leads to barriers in smooth communication between humans and robots. In this study, in order to represent mood congruence effects, an episodic memory retrieval method is proposed based on a robot’s emotional values that represent its internal state. In the study, impression evaluation experiments were conducted to prove the effectiveness of the proposed method.

We studied the recognition of, interest in, and understanding of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells and regenerative medicine in a total of 2659 junior high school, senior high school, and university students. The number of valid responses received was 2396 (90.1%). We report the following seven observations [1]. More than 80% of students reported recognition of iPS cells, regenerative medicine, and Professor Shinya Yamanaka, and a similar number were interested in and supportive of regenerative medicine [2]. Regenerative medicine was viewed as a medical treatment option. However, females were more cautious regarding use of regenerative medicine as a treatment compared with males [3]. Approximately 90% of students were interested in the latest medical care. Among the new treatment methods, they more frequently selected those that they were more familiar with and perceived less invasive to be ideal [4]. Regarding organ or tissue donation in regenerative medicine, students focused more on the characteristics of the donors [5]. Approximately 90% were supportive of storing their own cells. However, approximately 50% of students supported storing iPS cells for use in regenerative medicine [6]. Most students were anxious regarding the side effects, safety, and treatment costs of regenerative medicine, but supported the need of education regarding regenerative medicine [7]. More than 70% of students thought that education of regenerative medicine was necessary for the public. These findings suggest the importance of social approach, in addition to medical approach such as research and development, to improve QOL in community by developing the public understanding of regenerative medicine through science communication and school education, for the establishment of systems to promote this field., Highlights • The recognition of induced pluripotent stem cells and regenerative medicine in students (n = 2396) were investigated. • More than 80% of students were interested in and supportive of regenerative medicine. • They answered side effects, safety, method of transplantation, and treatment cost, as both points of interest and anxiety. • We suggest that a social approach, in addition to a medical approach, is necessary to improve the QOL of the public.

The objective of this study was to identify factors affecting on errors in carbohydrate (CHO) content estimation during CHO counting. Thirty-seven type 1 diabetes patients and 22 of their parents and 28 physicians/dieticians were enrolled in this study. CHO counting was counted in “Carb”, with 1 Carb defined as 10 g of CHO. To evaluate the accuracy of CHO counting, 80 real-size photographs of cooked meals were presented to the subjects for Carb estimation. Carbs tended to be overestimated for foods containing relatively small amounts of Carbs. On the other hands, Carbs tended to be underestimated for foods with higher than 6 Carbs. Accurate estimation of the Carbs in food containing a large amount of rice was particularly difficult even in the subjects having the CHO counting experience. The Carb contents of high-calorie foods such as meats, fried foods, and desserts tended to be overestimated. This error was smaller in subjects having the CHO counting experience. In conclusion, misunderstanding of high-calorie dishes containing high amounts of CHO was observed in inexperienced subjects, indicating the efficacy of the current methodology of CHO counting. On the other hand it was difficult even for experienced subjects to assess the amount of seasoned rice, suggesting the need for a new methodology for accurate estimation.

Physical activity is recognized as effective for rehabilitation from dementia and more effective if combined with cognitive activity. In this study, two kinds of rehabilitation attempts using a humanoid robot that moved like a human body were made to help the physical activities of elderly people. In one attempt, the robot communicated by gesture and voice with the people and gave questions and hints for them to move as designated. In the other attempt, the robot, as a trainer, instructed multiple elderly persons to perform exercises.

Eur J Clin Invest 2012; 42 (12): 1287–1294 Abstract Background Although visceral obesity, a key abnormality in the metabolic syndrome, is an important risk for cardiovascular diseases, reduction in visceral fat is hard to achieve despite intensive efforts directed at lifestyle modification. The present study was designed to investigate whether ezetimibe, an inhibitor of intestinal cholesterol absorption through its binding to Niemann-Pick C1-like 1, reduces visceral fat in patients with metabolic syndrome. Materials and Methods Seventy-eight outpatients (63·7 ± 10·4 years old) with metabolic syndrome were enroled and randomly assigned to receive either ezetimibe (10 mg/day) or nothing for 6 months. Changes in visceral fat were assessed by computed tomography. Results Treatment with ezetimibe significantly improved lipid profiles. Visceral fat was decreased 7·2%, from 161·3 ± 58·6 cm2 to 148·4 ± 52·7 cm2 (P

Aims/Introduction: The daily basal insulin doses/body weight and the daily basal insulin doses/total daily insulin doses of Japanese type 1 diabetes mellitus patients are less than those of Western type 1 diabetes mellitus patients. It is known that Western meals are richer in fat than Japanese meals. We speculated that fat intake might be associated with basal insulin dose in type 1 diabetes mellitus patients. Materials and Methods: Forty-one outpatients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (20 males, 21 females, mean age 15.9) were enrolled. Variables investigated included: gender, SDS-BMI, HbA1c, duration of diabetes, therapy (MDI or CSII), insulin doses and meal contents. Meal contents were recorded for 3 days using a digital camera. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were performed for all subjects and each age group. Results: The mean daily basal insulin doses/total daily insulin doses was 0.35. In the multiple regression analysis among all subjects, when daily basal insulin doses/body weight was used as a dependent variable, fat energy ratio of the meal was obtained as an entered variable (P = 0.001). This tendency was particularly strong among the patients aged 14 or above (P

The molecular clock of neutral mutations, which represents linear mutation fixation over generations, is theoretically explained by genetic drift in fitness-steady evolution or hitchhiking in adaptive evolution. The present study is the first experimental demonstration for the molecular clock of neutral mutations in a fitness-increasing evolutionary process. The dynamics of genome mutation fixation in the thermal adaptive evolution of Escherichia coli were evaluated in a prolonged evolution experiment in duplicated lineages. The cells from the continuously fitness-increasing evolutionary process were subjected to genome sequencing and analyzed at both the population and single-colony levels. Although the dynamics of genome mutation fixation were complicated by the combination of the stochastic appearance of adaptive mutations and clonal interference, the mutation fixation in the population was simply linear over generations. Each genome in the population accumulated 1.6 synonymous and 3.1 non-synonymous neutral mutations, on average, by the spontaneous mutation accumulation rate, while only a single genome in the population occasionally acquired an adaptive mutation. The neutral mutations that preexisted on the single genome hitchhiked on the domination of the adaptive mutation. The successive fixation processes of the 128 mutations demonstrated that hitchhiking and not genetic drift were responsible for the coincidence of the spontaneous mutation accumulation rate in the genome with the fixation rate of neutral mutations in the population. The molecular clock of neutral mutations to the fitness-increasing evolution suggests that the numerous neutral mutations observed in molecular phylogenetic trees may not always have been fixed in fitness-steady evolution but in adaptive evolution., Author Summary Mutations that have little influence on biological function are referred to as neutral mutations and frequently appear in molecular phylogenetic analyses. The fixation of neutral mutations in populations has been attributed to genetic drift in fitness-steady evolutionary processes or hitchhiking in adaptive evolution. We examined the fitness-increasing evolution of Escherichia coli for thermal adaptation to observe the fixation dynamics of genome-wide mutations. In the adaptive evolution, all genomes in the population equally accumulated neutral mutations by replication errors. The infrequent occurrence of an adaptive mutation on one of the genomes by chance resulted in the fixation of the neutral mutations that had pre-accumulated in the same genome by hitchhiking. Via successive hitchhiking events, the neutral mutations were fixed in the population linearly over generations at the same rate as the spontaneous mutation accumulation rate in the genome. The molecular clock of neutral mutations thus functions even in adaptive evolution. The evolutionary period characterized by the accumulation of numerous neutral mutations observed in molecular phylogenetic trees may not be specific to neutral evolution but may occur in adaptive evolution as well.

Background: Helper T cells and T cell cytokines play central roles in allergic disorders including bronchial asthma. We reported enhanced IL-5 production by peripheral blood T cells of asthmatic patients. A transcription factor, GATA-3, has been implicated in IL-5 gene expression. This study was undertaken to clarify the role of GATA-3 in the upregulation of IL-5 synthesis in asthmatic patients. Method: Peripheral CD4+ T cells were transfected with an IL-5 promoter reporter construct as well as its mutants in the presence or absence of a GATA-3 expression vector. Messenger RNA expression level of GATA-3 in CD4+ T cells of asthmatic subjects was compared to that of healthy donors. Results: IL-5 promoter activity in CD4+ T cells was enhanced by overexpression of GATA-3, whereas it was diminished by the introduction of mutations in the putative GATA-3 binding sites. The GATA-3 expression level in CD4+ T cells of asthmatic patients was equivalent to that of healthy controls. Conclusion: The expression level of GATA-3 may not be an essential factor to cause IL-5 hyperproduction in bronchial asthma, though GATA-3 is crucially involved in IL-5 gene transcription in human peripheral CD4+ T cells.

Interleukin 4 (IL-4) is an important regulatory cytokine produced by activated T lymphocytes and mast cells, and regulates the growth and differentiation of cells such as B and T lymphocytes. In the present study, recombinant thioredoxin (Trx)-porcine IL-4 (pIL-4) fusion protein was prepared by Escherichia coli (E. coli), and by using this protein as an immunogen, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against pIL-4 were produced to establish a basis for a research on immune responses in pigs. Six stable hybridoma cell lines were successfully established and specific binding of each mAb to recombinant pIL-4 produced by E. coli and insect cells infected with recombinant baculovirus was shown by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and/or immunoblot analysis. Isotype analyses of these mAbs revealed that the subclass of 5 out of 6 mAbs was IgG1 and the rest was IgG2b. Further, assessment of their epitopes by competition binding assay indicated that the mAbs obtained in this study bound to 4 different epitopes. The recombinant proteins and mAbs produced in this study will be useful tools for the assessment of porcine immune system.

Background: Helper T cells and T cell cytokines are implicated in allergic disorders such as asthma and atopic dermatitis (AD). We reported enhanced interleukin-5 (IL-5) production by peripheral blood T cells of asthmatic patients. Production of cytokines, particularly IL-5 and IL-13, by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) obtained from bronchial asthma (BA) and AD patients was investigated in the present study. Methods: PBMC were cultured in the presence of either polyclonal activator, phorbol ester plus Ca2+ ionophore or Dermatophagoidesfarinae (Df) antigen. The resulting supernatants were assayed for IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13 by specific ELISAs. Results: IL-5 and IL-13 production in response to Df antigen is significantly higher in allergic groups compared to control subjects. IL-5 responses induced by Df antigen were strongly correlated with IL-13 responses. Conclusion: In spite of IL-13 gene proximity to IL-4 gene, IL-5 production was more strongly correlated to IL-13 production in the BA group, suggesting a common control mechanism that regulates the IL-5 and IL-13 gene.

Six years have passed since the publication of our Special Issue on Human-Robot Interaction Systems in 2011. Since then, artificial intelligence and robotics have developed rapidly, and the opportunities for human beings and robots to work together have increased. The objective of this special issue’s twelve articles is to activate and expand high-quality research.In the first article, Y. Tamura, T. Akashi, and H. Osumi propose a computational model of robot’s gaze. In the second article, S. Hoshino and K. Uchida propose an interactive motion planner for robot navigation in dynamic environments. In the third article, T. Iio, Y. Yoshikawa, and H. Ishiguro develop a conversational robotic system based on human response. In the fourth article, K. Sakai, F. Dalla Libera, Y. Yoshikawa, and H. Ishiguro propose a method for generating bystander robots’ actions that is based on an analysis of the relative probabilities of human responses to robot actions. In the fifth article, T. Matsumaru and M. Narita present a newly developed support system for learning calligraphy strokes. In the sixth article, E. Tamura, Y. Yamashita, T. Yamashita, E. Sato-Shimokawara, and T. Yamaguchi present a method of driving a car simply by gesturing. In the seventh article, A. Kurosu and T. Hashimoto develop an eye robot with two degrees of freedom. It is intended for use as a communication robot. In the eighth article, T. Hashimoto, Y. Munakata, R. Yamanaka, and A. Kurosu report on a method for retrieving episodic memories. In the ninth article, Y. Nishikawa, Y. Kagawa, and A. Okazaki develop a spiral movement robot for inpatients. In the tenth article, Y. Umesawa, K. Doi, and H. Fujimoto develop an interface device that creates kinaesthetic illusions by inducing vibrations in muscle tendons, vibrations that coordinate with dual-joint movements. In the eleventh article, R. Horio, N. Uchiyama, and S. Sano propose a human-operated biped robot for transporting objects over rough terrain or up steps. In the closing contribution, T. Sakuraba, N. Uchiyama, S. Sano, and T. Sakaguchi present the design of a spring-based regenerative brake, and they verify its effectiveness by driving a system that uses it.We thank the referees for their comprehensive reviews and the staff members of Fuji Technology Press, Ltd. for their encouragement and advice.

Trimeric and tetrameric TTFs 1 and 2 linked alternately by methylenedithio groups were synthesized. Cyclic voltammetry and spectroelectrochemistry indicated that the dicationic state of tetrameric ...

In order to evaluate the effects of the clinical practice of student nurses on the formation of their concept of nursing, we investigated it in two different student nurses before and after their clinical practices. In addition, we also investigated whether student nurse's concept of nursing was different from that of the nurse of hospital in which they had clinical practice., 今回我々は、看護学生の看護観の形成に影響する臨地実習の因子を明らかにするために、異なる病院において臨地実習を行っているニ校の看護学生について臨地実習前後における看護観を比較し、さらに各臨地実習施設の看護婦の看護観と看護学生の相違を検討した。