To overcome severe donor shortage, Japanese doctors over the years have developed innovative strategies to maximize organs transplanted per brain death donor and expanded the donor pool using living ...donors. They also used living and marginal organs and drastically improved living donor lung, liver, pancreas and kidney transplantations. Moreover, they initiated ABO blood type incompatible liver transplantation advancements and succeeded in overcoming the blood type barrier in kidney and liver transplantations. Similar efforts are underway for pancreas transplantation. Furthermore, Japanese doctors have developed a nonaggressive step to achieve immunosuppression following organ transplantation by carefully monitoring donor‐specific hyporesponsiveness and infectious immunostatus. However, the institution of amendments to allocation systems and the intensification of efforts to decrease living donor morbidity and to increase the number of brain death donors have remained important issues needing attention. Overall, the strategies Japan has adopted to overcome donor shortage can provide useful insights on how to increase organ transplantations.
This minireview provides an overview of transplantation in Japan, highlighting innovative strategies to maximize organ use, and in particular efforts to expand the donor pool using donors after cardiac death and ABO‐incompatible donors.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
We performed compression tests at low temperatures under various strain rates for Ni-rich Ti-Ni alloys. Thermal activation theory for the habit plane motion with a thermal activation energy of ...~0.5 eV successfully reproduced both the examined temperature and strain-rate dependences of the transformation stress hysteresis. This indicates that the thermal activation process of the habit plane motion underlies the dramatic increase in the transformation hysteresis at lower temperatures in this system. These findings are critical to elucidate the physical impact of the thermal activation nature on the transformation hysteresis and to consider the feasibility of low-temperature operation of shape-memory functions.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Interferon-β-1b (IFNβ-1b) has been used to prevent exacerbation of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) including optic-spinal multiple sclerosis (OSMS) in Japan. We encountered 2 patients ...with OSMS with unexpectedly severe exacerbation soon after the initiation of IFNβ-1b therapy. The experience urged us to retrospectively review the patients with RRMS who had been treated with IFNβ-1b to identify similar cases.
At neurologic departments of 9 hospitals, the medical records of 56 patients with RRMS were reviewed to identify those who showed severe exacerbation soon after the initiation of IFNβ-1b therapy.
Of 56 patients with RRMS, we identified 7 who experienced severe exacerbation (exacerbation with increased scores of Expanded Disability Status Scale ≧7.0) within 90 days of the initiation of IFNβ-1b therapy. In all 7 patients, the exacerbations after the initiation of IFNβ-1b therapy were more severe than those experienced by the individual patients before the use of IFNβ-1b, and seemed to have occurred unexpectedly in a short time after the initiation of INFβ-1b therapy. A retrospective analysis revealed that all 7 patients had antibodies toward aquaporin 4, and the clinical features of all 7 patients after the exacerbation were consistent with those of neuromyelitis optica (NMO) spectrum.
Our study suggests that IFNβ-1b may trigger severe exacerbation in patients with the NMO spectrum. In INFβ-1b therapy, cases in NMO spectrum should be carefully excluded.
3D point clouds from terrestrial laser scanners (TLS) are used in a variety of fields and applications. To acquire high-quality point clouds that have enough point density, small scanning errors, and ...no lack of points in important regions, appropriate scan planning, including determination of scanner positions and scan conditions, is required. Currently, planning is supported by knowledge and experience of skilled workers, and it is difficult to ensure the quality of acquired point clouds. In this study, we propose a system for visualization of point clouds to support the acquisition of high-quality point clouds using TLS. The system allows the user to see and check the quality of scanned TLS point clouds and unscanned regions intuitively by superimposing the point clouds onto the real world using a mixed reality (MR) device. In addition, the system supports finding the next best scanner position for additional laser scans based on predicted scan quality visualization to acquire higher-quality points or fill the unscanned regions.
Background: Interferon- beta -1b (IFN beta -1b) has been used to prevent exacerbation of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) including optic-spinal multiple sclerosis (OSMS) in Japan. We ...encountered 2 patients with OSMS with unexpectedly severe exacerbation soon after the initiation of IFN beta -1b therapy. The experience urged us to retrospectively review the patients with RRMS who had been treated with IFN beta -1b to identify similar cases. Methods: At neurologic departments of 9 hospitals, the medical records of 56 patients with RRMS were reviewed to identify those who showed severe exacerbation soon after the initiation of IFN beta -1b therapy. Results: Of 56 patients with RRMS, we identified 7 who experienced severe exacerbation (exacerbation with increased scores of Expanded Disability Status Scale greater than or equal to 7.0) within 90 days of the initiation of IFN beta -1b therapy. In all 7 patients, the exacerbations after the initiation of IFN beta -1b therapy were more severe than those experienced by the individual patients before the use of IFN beta -1b, and seemed to have occurred unexpectedly in a short time after the initiation of INF beta -1b therapy. A retrospective analysis revealed that all 7 patients had antibodies toward aquaporin 4, and the clinical features of all 7 patients after the exacerbation were consistent with those of neuromyelitis optica (NMO) spectrum. Conclusions: Our study suggests that IFN beta -1b may trigger severe exacerbation in patients with the NMO spectrum. In INF beta -1b therapy, cases in NMO spectrum should be carefully excluded.
Living‐donor lobar lung transplantation (LDLLT) is indicated for rapidly deteriorating patients, and the total volume of two lower lobe grafts must be sufficient for the recipient. To rescue patients ...with small lobar grafts, we performed five LDLLTs sparing native upper lobes. This strategy was used when upper lobes or segments were preoperatively less impaired. There were no hospital deaths. Extracorporeal circulation time and operative time were similar to those of conventional LDLLTs. The length of intensive care unit stay was also similar. Late complications attributed to the spared lungs were airway infection in one recipient and pneumothorax in two but they were successfully managed. All recipients were discharged without supplemental oxygen. The spared lung volumes measured by volumetry did not change after LDLLT. Lung perfusion scintigraphy performed at 1 year showed remaining perfusion in the spared lungs, although much less than in the grafts. These results suggested that the spared lobes kept adequate space in the thoracic cavity and kept functioning to a limited extent. The new lobar‐sparing strategy appears feasible and effective in LDLLT using small grafts for selected patients when the upper lobes or segments are less impaired.
Data from this case series show that a new “lobar‐sparing” strategy appears feasible and effective in living donor lobar lung transplantation using small grafts when the upper lobes or segments are less impaired.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Laser scanning technology is useful to create accurate three-dimensional models of indoor environments for applications such as maintenance, inspection, renovation, and simulations. In this paper, a ...detection method of indoor attached equipment such as windows, lightings, and fire alarms, from TLS point clouds, is proposed. In order to make the method robust against to the lack of points of equipment surface, a footprint of the equipment is used for detection, because the entire or a part of the footprint boundary shapes explicitly appear as the boundary of base surfaces, i.e. walls for windows, and ceilings for lightings and fire alarms. In the method, first, base surface regions are extracted from given TLS point clouds of indoor environments. Then, footprint boundary points are detected from the region boundary points. Finally, target equipment is detected by fitting or voting using given target footprint shapes. The features of our method are footprint boundary point extraction considering occlusions, shape fitting with adaptive parameters based on point intervals, and robust shape detection by voting from multiple footprint boundary candidates. The effectiveness of the proposed method is evaluated using TLS point clouds.
Cytokeratin 5 (CK5) is a marker for pulmonary squamous cell carcinoma; however, CK5 is sometimes present in pulmonary adenocarcinoma (ADC), and there is insufficient information regarding the ...clinicopathological features of CK5‐positive ADC. We aimed to explore the clinicopathological characteristics of CK5‐positive ADC using immunohistochemistry. We prepared the following two cohorts: a resected cohort containing 220 resected tumours for primarily studying the detailed morphological characteristics, and a tissue microarray (TMA) cohort containing 337 samples for investigating the associations of CK5 expression with other protein expressions, genetic and prognostic findings. CK5‐positive ADC was defined to have ≥ 10% tumour cells and presence of CK5‐positive tumour cells in the resected and TMA cohorts, respectively. CK5‐positive ADCs were identified in 91 (16.3%) patients in the combined cohort. CK5‐positive ADCs had male predominance (P = 0.012), smoking history (P = 0.001), higher stage (P < 0.001), histological high‐grade components (P < 0.001), vascular invasion (P < 0.001), mucinous differentiation (P < 0.001), spread through airspaces (P < 0.001), EGFR wild‐type (P < 0.001), KRAS mutations (P < 0.001), ALK rearrangement (P < 0.001) and ROS1 rearrangement (P = 0.002). In the resected cohort, more than half the CK5‐positive ADCs (19 cases, 65.5%) showed mucinous differentiation; the remaining cases harboured high‐grade components. In the TMA cohort, CK5‐positive ADCs correlated with TTF‐1 negativity (P = 0.002) and MUC5B, MUC5AC and HNF4alpha positivity (P < 0.001, 0.048, < 0.001). Further, CK5‐positive ADCs had significantly lower disease‐free and overall survival rates than CK5‐negative ADCs (P < 0.001 for each). Additionally, multivariate analysis revealed that CK5 expression was an independent poor prognostic factor. CK5‐positive ADCs showed aggressive clinical behaviour, with high‐grade morphology and mucinous differentiation.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Efficient road edge extraction from point clouds acquired by Mobile Laser Scanning (MLS) is an important task because the road edge is one of the main elements of high definition maps. In this paper, ...we present a scanline-based road edge extraction method using a bend angle of scanlines from MLS point clouds. Scanline-based methods have advantages in that computational cost is low, it is easy to extract accurate road edges, and they are independent of driving speed of MLS compared to methods using unorganized points. In contrast, there are some problems with these methods where the extraction accuracy becomes low at curb cuts and intersections. The extraction accuracy becomes low caused by the scanning noise and small occlusion from weeds and fallen leaves. In addition, some parameters should be adjusted according to the mounting angle of the laser scanner on the vehicle. Therefore, we present a scanline-based road edge extraction method which can solve these problems. First, the points of the scanline are projected to a plane in order to reduce the influence of the mounting angle of the laser scanner on the vehicle. Next, the bend angle of each point is calculated by using filtered point clouds which are not vulnerable to small occlusions around the curb such as weeds. Then, points with a local maximum of bend angle and close to trajectories are extracted as seed points. Finally, road edges are generated by tracking based on bend angle of scanlines and smoothness of road edges from the seed points. In the experiments, our proposed methods achieved a completeness of over 95.3%, a correctness of over 95.0%, a quality of over 90.7%, and RMS difference less than 18.7 mm in total.
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