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Hearing improvement following stapes surgery is generally good; however, we sometimes encounter patients where hearing loss gradually progresses over the long term. In this study, we investigated the causes of hearing loss in these cases.A total of 30 ears from 23 patients, who underwent stapes surgery at Kitasato University Hospital from 2001 to 2021 and were followed up for ≥5 years, were included in the study. Changes in air conduction (AC) and bone conduction (BC) thresholds were measured, and hearing evaluation was performed by calculating the air-bone gap (ABG) at the mean of 4 frequencies. Cases with a postoperative ABG of ≤10 dB at 6 months after surgery were classified into the following groups according to their hearing changes at 5 years after surgery: Group A (no ABG increase of ≥10 dB and no AC threshold increase of ≥10 dB) and Group B (an ABG increase of ≥10 dB and an AC threshold increase of ≥10 dB). In groups A and B, we examined factors affecting long-term postoperative results. In addition, the patients who underwent reoperation were examined.The AC thresholds 6 months and 5 years after surgery decreased significantly compared with those before surgery (p 0.01); however, the BC thresholds 6 months and 5 years after surgery did not vary significantly from those before surgery (p 0.05). Group A included 16 ears from 13 patients (53.3%), and Group B included 3 ears from 3 patients (10.0%). There were no significant differences in age, sex, surgical method, piston type, piston length, presence of incudostapedial joint subluxation, computed tomography findings, and preoperative ABGs between groups A and B (p 0.05). A total of 6 reoperations were performed in 3 ears from 3 patients, and there were 5 operations with the platinotomy hole to be closed by bone regrowth and 3 operations with the narrowed long process of the incus.In 10.0% of the patients who underwent stapes surgery, the ABG improved 6 months after surgery; however, the AC threshold and ABG increased 5 years after surgery. Our findings suggested that piston displacement and the platinotomy hole to be closed by bone regrowth are possible causes of hearing loss in cases where hearing loss progresses in the long term after stapes surgery.

Streptococcus suis is an important zoonotic pathogen that causes major economic problems in the pig industry worldwide and serious infections in humans, including meningitis and septicemia. Here, we report the complete genome sequences of two strains isolated from asymptomatic pigs.

We report 16S rRNA amplicon sequence data from feces of 109 wild deer in Japan. The dominant bacterial taxa in fecal microbiota of wild deer hunted between village and mountainous areas and those living on Miyajima Island and in Nara Park were similar but differed in abundance.

We report 16S rRNA amplicon sequence data from feces from 58 wild boars, 60 feral raccoons, 9 wild Japanese badgers, 21 wild masked palm civets, and 8 wild raccoon dogs in Japan. The predominant bacterial taxa in the fecal microbiota were similar in part but varied among the animal species.

Introduction Cunninghamella bertholletiae although rarely causing mucormycosis, is responsible for the highest mortality among mucormycetes. The diagnosis of mucormycosis is challenged by the absence of specific biomarkers. Herein, we report a fatal case of C. bertholletiae infection and detection of its DNA in the serum by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Presentation of case A 23-year-old male with refractory osteosarcoma was admitted with multiple lung metastases. He was on oral voriconazole prophylaxis after pulmonary aspergillosis. He suffered from fever during temporary neutropenia following chemotherapy and showed several neurological and respiratory symptoms. Despite liposomal-amphotericin B administration, the symptoms rapidly progressed, and he died five days after the onset of neurological symptoms. We retrospectively evaluated the filamentous fungus isolated after his death from gastric juices. Based on the sequence of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region we identified the fungal isolate as C. bertholletiae. A 146-bp portion of the D1/D2 region was quantified by quantitative-PCR using DNA extracted from the serum. C. bertholletiae DNA load in the serum was 18.0 copies/μL on the day of onset of neurological symptoms, with the highest (101.0 copies/μL) on the day of his death. Discussion Detection of circulating DNA of mucormycetes in the blood would greatly enhance the diagnosis of mucormycosis. Rapid diagnosis might alleviate mortality due to mucormycosis. Conclusion The present case-report suggests that the quantification of C. bertholletiae DNA in the serum could be useful for the diagnosis and evaluation of mucormycosis pathogenesis in patients.

Using first-principles calculations, we examine the transition temperature $T_{\rm c}$ of superconductivity in sodium tungsten bronze ( Na$_x$WO$_3$, where $x$ is equal to or less than unity ). Although $T_{\rm c}$ is relatively low $T_{\rm c}(, Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

This paper proposes a visual inspection methodology for the ceiling element of a gymnasium utilizing a blimp robot with a Wi-Fi camera. In the proposed methodology, the blimp robot with the Wi-Fi camera inspects the damage location and captures the photographic image of the damage condition. The inspection blimp robots will be able to estimate the damage condition without any process of engineers’ on-site-inspection involved. To demonstrate the capabilities of such blimp robots, the visual inspections for the ceiling of a gymnasium and the actual bridge deck has been conducted. The results of the application to real structures indicate that the Wi-Fi camera on the blimp robot can estimate the damages from the captured image, and the proposed methodology will provide valuable information for the repair and maintenance decision making of damaged elements located on high attitude.

Lipoblastoma is a rare benign adipose tissue tumor that occurs mostly in infants and children. Histological diagnosis of lipoblastoma is sometimes difficult because it closely resembles other lipomatous tumors. The detection of PLAG1 gene rearrangement is useful for the diagnosis of lipoblastoma. Four PLAG1 fusion partner genes are known in lipoblastoma: HAS2 at 8q24.1, COL1A2 at 7q22, COL3A1 at 2q32, and RAB2A at 8q12. Herein, we describe a novel fusion gene in a case of lipoblastoma of left back origin. We identified a potential PLAG1 fusion partner using 5′ rapid amplification of cDNA ends, and sequence analysis revealed the novel fusion gene, BOC-PLAG1. The BOC-PLAG1 fusion transcript consists of the first exon of the BOC gene fused to exon 2 or exon 3 of the PLAG1 gene. PLAG1 expression was found to be 35.7 ± 2.1 times higher in the tumor specimen than in human adipocytes by qRT-PCR. As a result of the translocation, the constitutively active promoter of BOC leads to PLAG1 overexpression. The identification of the BOC-PLAG1 fusion gene will lead to more accurate diagnosis of lipoblastoma.

Background: Occupied lesions arising in the parapharyngeal space (PPS) are rare. Among these, venous malformations are particularly rare, and very few case reports have appeared. Methods: Two patients with venous malformations in the PPS were operated on by the same surgeon. Here, we report the patient and tumor characteristics, symptoms, preoperative examinations and diagnoses, treatment plans, intraoperative findings and refinements, histological diagnoses, and postoperative complications, in combination with a review of past reports. Results: The patients were two men aged 37 and 29 years who had persistent swelling and pain in the right parotid region. Imaging showed masses in the prestyloid compartment of the right PPS with maximum diameters of 69 and 54 mm, respectively. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) showed blood cell components only in both cases and no diagnosis could be made. Both cases were treated with surgery. The facial nerve was identified and preserved, and the soft lesion was removed using a transcervical-parotid approach. Post-operative histological diagnosis was venous malformation in both and no post-operative recurrence was seen. Conclusion: Venous malformations arising in the PPS are clearly distinguishable from major PPS tumors. The preoperative diagnosis and intraoperative refinements reported here were effective in these cases. Keywords: Parapharyngeal space, Venous malformation, Hemangioma, Surgical case

The authors\' research group has developed a noncontact type of sensors which directly measure the inter-story drift displacements of a building during a seismic event. Soon after that event, such seismically-induced drift displacement data would provide structural engineers with useful information to judge how the stories have been damaged. This paper presents a scheme of estimating the story cumulative plastic deformation ratios based on such measured drift displacement information toward the building safety monitoring. The presented scheme requires the data of story drift displacements and the ground motion acceleration. The involved calculations are rather simple without any detailed information on structural elements required: the story hysteresis loops are first estimated and then the cumulative plastic deformation ratio of each story is evaluated from the estimated hysteresis. The effectiveness of the scheme is demonstrated by utilizing the data of full-scale building model experiment performed at E-defense and conducting numerical simulations.

This paper proposes a damage assessment methodology for the non-structural elements, especially ceiling elements of a building, utilizing an inspection robot. The developed inspection robot equipped with a wireless camera and data processing function has a capability of providing valuable information for the repair and maintenance decision making of a damaged structure. The inspection robots will be able to estimate the damage condition without any process of engineers on-site-inspection involved. The robots also can gather the static data of the nonstructural elements from the sensor, which are distributed on the nonstructural elements. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the inspection robot, the robot is utilized to estimate the ceiling of a real structure damaged by the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake. And conceptual experiment is also conducted for the purpose of evaluating the proposed damage assessment methodology in cooperation with the smart sensor and the inspection robot. The proposed methodology will provide useful information to the maintenance and repair planning of a damaged structure.

We have developed a novel sensor that enables us to measure the relative story displacement of a building structure in real time. This lateral displacement sensor (LDS) is composed of a light-emitting diode (LED) array, which is fixed on the ceiling, and a position-sensitive detector (PSD) unit, which is placed on the floor. We optimized the LDS to achieve high accuracy in lateral displacement measurement. The accuracy was evaluated to be 60 µm by conducting shaking table tests. Two LDSs were implemented in an actual building equipped with an active variable stiffness (AVS) system, and the building was vibrated with seismic waveforms by an exciter placed on the rooftop. The seismic displacement of the second floor relative to the first floor was measured using the LDS. Furthermore, the inclination angle of the second floor could be measured using the LDS during the seismic vibration. Using the AVS system, we realized the residual displacement of the second floor without inducing damage to the building, and succeeded in real-time residual displacement measurement for the first time. These results indicate that the LDS is useful for the health diagnosis of a building structure. © 2011 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

We propose a novel sensor system for monitoring the structural health of a building. The system optically measures the relative-story displacement during earthquakes for detecting any deformations of building elements. The sensor unit is composed of three position sensitive detectors (PSDs) and lenses capable of measuring the relative-story displacement precisely, even if the PSD unit was inclined in response to the seismic vibration. For verification, laboratory tests were carried out using an Xθ-stage and a shaking table. The static experiment verified that the sensor could measure the local inclination angle as well as the lateral displacement. The dynamic experiment revealed that the accuracy of the sensor was 150 μm in the relative-displacement measurement and 100 μrad in the inclination angle measurement. These results indicate that the proposed sensor system has sufficient accuracy for the measurement of relative-story displacement in response to the seismic vibration.

We propose a novel sensor for directly measuring the relative displacement of a building structure. The sensor is composed of a laser light source and a phototransistor (PT) array. The PT array is immobilized on the floor together with a photo scattering plate made of glass, whereas the laser light source is separately immobilized on the ceiling. The photo scattering plate is placed in front of the PT array and distributes the laser beam on the multiple PTs. The relative displacement between the ceiling and the floor is estimated by the distribution of the PT output voltages, and the displacement is estimated with a resolution finer than the interval between the PTs. The accuracy of the relative displacement sensor (RDS) is experimentally assessed by conducting a shaking table test exhibiting several waves from harmonic sinusoidal waves to real seismic waves. We discuss the feasibility of real-time monitoring system utilizing this sensor. Copyright © 2010 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

This study presents the practical assessment of a relative story displacement sensing system verified through the forced vibration test on an actual three-story building. In the sensing system, we apply two noncontact-type sensors utilizing position sensitive detectors (PSDs) and phototransistor arrays (PTrs). They are installed between each adjacent pair of floors, and they can directly measure the relative story displacements. The basic features and their applicability are discussed by analyzing the measurement records from sensors. The results show the effectiveness of the sensing system under realistic conditions, and clarify the issues to be improved in its applications to the structural health monitoring system.

Recently, relative displacement measurement attracts much attention because of its capability for directly monitoring damages of a building structure. We have developed a noncontact-type relative displacement monitoring system by arranging a two-dimensional PSD paired with a LED array on each story, and investigated the feasibility of this system from the viewpoint of measurement accuracy.

This paper gives a survey of the original concept of incorporation of ‘artificial nonlinearity’ or ‘artificially added nonlinearity’ into structural control schemes aiming at reducing seismic response of structures, and then presents the significance of ‘artificial nonlinearity’ integrated into semiactive control schemes. The original concept, which covers the basic philosophy from passive type to active type of control, was proposed about 50 years ago. The recent development of control schemes based upon hysteretic energy dissipation is actually the realization of such a concept with the background of modern technologies. Compared with today's base isolation scheme, the significance of ‘artificial nonlinearity’ is discussed. Then, with main focus on semiactive control schemes, the effectiveness and significance of artificial nonlinearity are presented along with the philosophy of autonomous-decentralization. After demonstrating how the seismic responses depend upon the resulting ductility factors of bilinear hysteresis, the effect and significance of a controllable damper with variable slip-force levels are demonstrated. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper discusses a semiactive control strategy with MR dampers integrated for base-isolated buildings. In this proposed strategy, MR dampers are utilized as variable slip-force level dampers. By controlling only the magnitude of its slip-force, the damper can exhibit hysteresis in any seismic event, then working as an efficient variable friction damper and achieving a high level of energy dissipation. The proposed scheme controls the magnitude of the slip-force level of the MR damper based upon the measurement of absolute acceleration responses, taking into account a simply approximated yet useful relationship between the supply electric voltage and the set slip-force level. The proposed algorithm could be applied to a variety of isolation systems. Indeed, the employed algorithm can be applied to linear and friction isolation systems without changing any parameters involved in the algorithm. The performance resulting from the proposed control scheme is compared with those provided by employing the clipped optimal and skyhook damper-based semiactive control schemes, respectively, for the linear isolation and friction isolation systems. The results obtained from the proposed scheme demonstrate that this control algorithm can reduce the base displacement without increasing the base shear or the structural shear forces. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper presents a semiactive control strategy based on variable slip-force level dampers. The proposed scheme controls only the slip-force level of the friction damper in such a way that the damper exhibits bilinear hysteresis with a ductility factor equal to two regardless of the level of seismic excitation. With a constant ductility factor maintained in any seismic event, the damper behaves like a linear system in response to any seismic excitation. For implementation of this scheme in multistory buildings, an autonomous-decentralized type of control system is constructed. In such a control system, a number of subcontrol systems are present, each of which is controlled by the decentralizing or local controller utilizing local response information. The fundamental idea is first presented through the application of this control scheme to a single-degree-of-freedom structure. The extension of the scheme to a multistory building structure is then discussed. Finally, the feasibility of utilizing oil dampers for the proposed control strategy is experimentally examined.

This paper proposes a damage assessment methodology for the non-structural elements, especially the ceiling, in cooperation with the smart sensors and the inspection blimp robot with the Wi-Fi camera. The developed smart sensors use the infrared LEDs in sending the measured data to the inspection blimp robot. The inspection blimp robot integrated in the proposed system has a Wi-Fi camera and an infrared remote control receiver for receiving the data from the smart sensor. In the proposed methodology, the distributed smart sensors firstly detect the damage occurrence. Next, the inspection blimp robots can gather the data from the smart sensors, which transmit the measured data by using an infrared remote control receiver and LED signals. The inspection blimp robot also can inspect the damage location and captures the photographic image of the damage condition. The inspection blimp robot will be able to estimate the damage condition without any process of engineers’ on-site-inspection involved. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the inspection blimp robot, the blimp robot is utilized to estimate the aging ceiling of a real structure. For demonstrating the feasibility or possibility of the proposed damage assessment methodology in cooperation with the smart sensors and the inspection blimp robot, the conceptual laboratory experiment is conducted. The proposed methodology will provide valuable information for the repair and maintenance decision making of a damaged structure.