The introduction of ICT into education in educational settings has become increasingly common. Among these, the research and development of educational support robots have attracted attention. ...Conventional robots provide academic support through button operation by the learner. However, it has been reported that excessive requests for academic support can be problematic in environments in which learners can freely request academic support. To solve this problem, we developed a perplexion estimation method that estimates the state of perplexion from the learner’s facial expression. When educational support is provided using the proposed method, the robot can autonomously provide academic support. Simulation experiments demonstrated that the perplexion estimation method has the potential to accurately estimate the learner’s state. However, there is still no dedicated model for educational support robots that utilizes the perplexion estimation method. Therefore, this paper proposes an apprenticeship promotion model that integrates a learning support method based on cognitive apprenticeship theory and our perplexion estimation method. We then verified the learning effects of the robot equipped with the proposed model on the learner through participant experiments. The experimental results suggest that the robot equipped with the proposed model not only provides the same learning effect to university students as a conventional robot, but also can autonomously provide academic support at the optimal timing.
Mohs paste is useful for controlling exudates from wounds and infections and is used to treat patients with inoperable skin tumors. Unfortunately, Mohs paste is difficult to preserve because its ...viscosity and stickiness increase dramatically immediately after preparation, resulting in decreased usability. In this study, the combined use of cryopreservation and kneading was shown to improve long-term storage of Mohs paste. At 25°C, Mohs pastes solidified rapidly, and viscosity reached approximately 700 Pa·s 5 h after preparation. In contrast, cryopreservation at −20°C attenuated hardening of Mohs pastes, and kneading also decreased viscosity. The viscosity of Mohs pastes cotreated with cryopreservation and kneading after 7 months of storage was <70 Pa·s. In addition, tissue invasion with these stored pastes was similar to freshly prepared Mohs paste. Results suggest that the combination of cryopreservation and kneading permits Mohs paste to be stored over extended periods, which may increase the utility of the paste for clinical use.
Abstract
Objective
This study aimed to measure the level of psychological injury caused by work-related stress as well as the severity of depression among workers.
Method
First, we conducted an ...online survey and recruited 500 workers diagnosed with depression or adjustment disorder to investigate what type of stress they experienced within six months before onset. Second, we conducted another online survey and recruited 767 participants who experienced some form of work-related stress. All the participants were classified into four groups by whether or not they were diagnosed with depression and whether or not they quit their jobs due to work-related stress. We used the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) to measure psychological injury caused by work-related stressful events and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9 to assess the severity of depression.
Results
In study 1, 62.4% of workers diagnosed with depression or adjustment disorder experienced work-related stress within six months before onset. In study 2, the IES-R mean scores were 40.7 (SD = 23.1) for Group A (workers with depression and quit their jobs) and 36.67 (SD = 23.4) for Group B (workers with depression but stayed at their jobs), with both exceeding the cut-off point (24/25) of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), while the mean score of Group C (workers who did not have depression but quit their jobs because of work-related stress) was 20.74 (SD = 21.2), and it was 13.89 (SD = 17.4) for Group D (workers who had work-related stress but stayed at their jobs), with both of them below the cut-off point of PTSD. The total scores of IES-R of Group A and Group B were significantly higher than those of Group C and Group D(
p
< 0.001). There was a significant positive correlation between the scores of IES-R and PHQ-9 for all four groups (
r
= 0.708).
Conclusions
This study suggests that it is necessary to measure not only depressive symptoms but also the level of psychological injury resulting from stressful events in the workplace to assess workers with depression.
Abstract
WINERED is a novel near-infrared (NIR) high-resolution spectrograph (HRS) that pursues the highest possible sensitivity to realize high-precision spectroscopy in the NIR as in the optical ...wavelength range. WINERED covers 0.9–1.35
μ
m (
z
,
Y
, and
J
-bands) with three modes (Wide mode and two Hires modes) at the maximum spectral resolutions of
R
= 28,000 and
R
= 70,000. For fulfilling the objective, WINERED is designed with an unprecedentedly high instrument throughput (up to 50% at maximum including the quantum efficiency of the array) that is three times or more than other existing optical/NIR HRSs. This is mainly realized by a combination of non-white pupil and no fiber-fed configuration in optical design, the moderate (optimized) wavelength coverage, and the high-throughput gratings. Another prominent feature of WINERED is “warm” instrument despite for infrared (IR) observations. Such non-cryogenic (no cold stop) IR instrument finally became possible with the combination of custom-made thermal-cut filter of 10
−8
class, 1.7
μ
m cutoff HAWAII-2RG array, and a cold baffle reducing the direct thermal radiation to the IR array into the solid angle of
f
/2. The thermal background is suppressed below 0.1 photons pixel
−1
s
−1
even in the wide band of 0.9–1.35
μ
m under the environment of 290 K. WINERED had been installed to the 3.58 m New Technology Telescope at La Silla Observatory, ESO, since 2017. Even with the intermediate size telescope, WINERED was confirmed to provide a limiting magnitude (for SNR = 30 with 8 hr. integration time) of
J
= 16.4 mag for the Wide mode and
J
= 15.1 mag for the Hires mode, respectively, under the natural seeing conditions. These sensitivities are comparable to those for the existing NIR-HRSs attached to the 8–10 m class telescopes with AO. WINERED type spectrographs may become a critical not only for the currently on-going extremely large telescopes to reduce the developing cost and time but also for smaller telescopes to extend their lives with long programs.
Studies on automatic dialogue systems, which allow people and computers to communicate with each other using natural language, have been attracting attention. In particular, the main objective of a ...non-task-oriented dialogue system is not to achieve a specific task but to amuse users through chat and free dialogue. For this type of dialogue system, continuity of the dialogue is important because users can easily get tired if the dialogue is monotonous. On the other hand, preceding studies have shown that speech with humorous expressions is effective in improving the continuity of a dialogue. In this study, we developed a computer-based humor discriminator to perform user- or situation-independent objective discrimination of humor. Using the humor discriminator, we also developed an automatic humor generation system and conducted an evaluation experiment with human subjects to test the generated jokes. A t-test on the evaluation scores revealed a significant difference (P value: 3.5×10
-5
) between the proposed and existing methods of joke generation.
A 44-year-old man developed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia during immunochemotherapy consisting of carboplatin, paclitaxel, and pembrolizumab for non-small cell lung cancer. Low-grade ...fever, followed by mild hypoxemia, and febrile neutropenia, were observed, and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) was administered until the recovery of neutropenia, when he developed a high fever, severe hypoxemia, and hypotension accompanied by consolidation in the bilateral lungs. His conditions promptly improved after treatment including hydrocortisone and the primary and metastatic tumors remained regressed for 10 months without further treatment. Post-COVID-19 organizing pneumonia during cancer immunochemotherapy can be aggravated by immune-checkpoint inhibitors and G-CSF.
We report the first detection of C2 (0,0) and CN (0,0) absorption bands in the interstellar medium. The detection was made using the near-infrared (0.91-1.35 m) high-resolution (R = 20,000 and ...68,000) spectra of Cygnus OB2 No. 12 collected with the WINERED spectrograph mounted on the 1.3 m Araki telescope. The A-X (1,0) bands of C2 and CN were detected simultaneously. These near-infrared bands have larger oscillator strengths, compared with the A-X (2,0) bands of C2 and CN in the optical. In the spectrum of the C2 (0,0) band with R = 68,000, three velocity components in the line of sight could be resolved and the lines were detected up to high rotational levels (J″ ∼ 20). By analyzing the rotational distribution of C2, we could estimate the kinetic temperature and gas density of the clouds with high accuracy. Furthermore, we marginally detected weak lines of 12C13C for the first time in the interstellar medium. Assuming that the rotational distribution and the oscillator strengths of the relevant transitions of 12C2 and 12C13C are the same, the carbon isotope ratio was estimated to be 12C/13C = 50-100, which is consistent with the ratio in the local interstellar medium. We also constrained the oscillator strength ratio of the C2 (0,0) and (1,0) bands, for which there exists a discrepancy between theoretical calculations and experimental results. This unique constraint obtained from astronomical observation will contribute to improving the accuracy of the oscillator strength measurement, which will lead to further advancements of the C2 excitation model and allow the physical conditions of clouds to be derived.
Apolipoprotein (apo) A-II is the second major apo of high-density lipoproteins, yet its pathophysiological roles in the development of atherosclerosis remain unknown. We aimed to examine whether apo ...A-II plays any role in atherogenesis and, if so, to elucidate the mechanism involved.
We compared the susceptibility of human apo A-II transgenic (Tg) rabbits to cholesterol diet-induced atherosclerosis with non-Tg littermate rabbits. Tg rabbits developed significantly less aortic and coronary atherosclerosis than their non-Tg littermates, while total plasma cholesterol levels were similar. Atherosclerotic lesions of Tg rabbits were characterized by reduced macrophages and smooth muscle cells, and apo A-II immunoreactive proteins were frequently detected in the lesions. Tg rabbits exhibited low levels of plasma C-reactive protein and blood leukocytes compared with non-Tg rabbits, and high-density lipoproteins of Tg rabbit plasma exerted stronger cholesterol efflux activity and inhibitory effects on the inflammatory cytokine expression by macrophages in vitro than high-density lipoproteins isolated from non-Tg rabbits. In addition, β-very-low-density lipoproteins of Tg rabbits were less sensitive to copper-induced oxidation than β-very-low-density lipoproteins of non-Tg rabbits.
These results suggest that enrichment of apo A-II in high-density lipoprotein particles has atheroprotective effects and apo A-II may become a target for the treatment of atherosclerosis.
Abstract Background The improvement in flowability and adhesion of starch powder (SP) is essential for using starch as an excipient for lactose intolerant patients. In this study, we attempted to ...evaluate the usefulness of hydroxypropylcellulose with molecular weight 80,000 (HPC-80) in the preparation of the starch granules (SG) as a substitute for excipient lactose. Methods Hydroxypropylcellulose with molecular weight 30,000 (HPC-30) and HPC-80 were used as binders to prepare the SG, and defined as HPC-30-SG and HPC-80-SG, respectively. Mean particle size (D50) was measured according to the Method, Optical Microscopy of Particle Size Determination in Japanese Pharmacopoeia, Eighteenth Edition, and storage stability were evaluated by measuring of the physical properties after vortexing the granules for 180 s (physical impact). The product loss rate was calculated from the weight change of the various excipients before and after the one dose packaging (ODP). Results The D50 of SP (30 µm) was smaller than that of the lactose powder (115 µm). The granulation with 0.75–3% HPC-30 and HPC-80 increased the particle size of SP, and the D50 in 1.5% HPC-30-SG (255 µm) and HPC-80-SG (220 µm) were higher than that of lactose. The excipient was removed from the heat seal of the ODP, and upon visual inspection, a large amount of starchy material was observed to be adhering to the paper in the SP. On the other hand, the low recovery rate in SP was attenuated by the granulation with HPC-30 and HPC-80. In the both HPC-30 and HPC-80, the improvement in recovery rate reached a plateau at 1.5%, and the levels of recovery rate was similar to that of lactose. The recovery rate in the 0.75–3% HPC-30-SG and 0.75% HPC-80-SG were decreased by the physical impact, however, the recovery rate and amount of 1.5% and 3% HPC-80-SG were not affected by the physical impact, and these levels were similar to that of lactose. Conclusions The use of HPC-80 as a binder of SG was found to produce a higher quality granule product than conventional HPC-based SG. This finding is useful in streamlining the preparation of starch-based powdered medicine in clinical applications.
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