Plant zygote cells exhibit tip growth, producing a hemisphere-like tip. To understand how this hemisphere-like tip shape is formed, we revisited a viscoelastic–plastic deformation model that enabled us to simultaneously evaluate the shape, stress and strain of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) zygote cells undergoing tip growth. Altering the spatial distribution of cell wall extensibility revealed that cosine-type distribution and growth in a normal direction to the surface create a stable hemisphere-like tip shape. Assuming these as constraints for cell elongation, we determined the best-fitting parameters for turgor pressure and wall extensibility to computationally reconstruct an elongating zygote that retained its hemisphere-like shape using only cell contour data, leading to the formulation of non-dimensional growth parameters. Our computational results demonstrate the different morphologies in elongating zygotes through effective non-dimensional parameters.

The invertebrate indices for assessing water quality have not been widely developed in tropical regions where invertebrate diversity is generally high and severe water quality degradation is ongoing. We compared the applicability of six existing invertebrate indices using the dataset from 23 Indonesian streams and developed a new index by modifying an existing one using Threshold Indicator Taxa Analysis (TITAN). Analyses using general linear models (GLMs) revealed that among the six existing indices, the biological monitoring working party (BMWP)-based scoring system for Thailand streams (BMWP THAI) exhibited the strongest negative relationship with phosphate (PO4-P) concentration, a proxy for stream water quality. Based on the results of TITAN, five taxa were added to develop a modified invertebrate index, namely BMWP IDN, by assigning taxon scores in accordance with the responses to the water quality gradient. The relationship between the BMWP IDN and PO4-P concentration was found to be stronger than any of the existing invertebrate indices, indicating the superiority of the new index. Therefore, the extraction of uncovered sensitive taxa was important for modifying the existing index, and this study can contribute to improving the invertebrate index for assessing water quality of Indonesian streams.

Plant postures are affected by environmental stimuli. When the gravitational direction changes, the Arabidopsis thaliana mutants myosin xif xik (xif xik) and atp-binding cassette b19 (abcb19) exhibit aberrantly enhanced organ bending. Whether their phenotypes are due to the same mechanism is unknown. We characterized the primary root postures of these mutants. Their roots exhibited enhanced gravitropic bending with the same root-tip angles. The wavy roots of vertically grown plants were quantitatively evaluated using four indices. The straightness index (root base-to-tip length to total root-length ratio) was similar for xif xik and abcb19, and it slightly decreased for xif xik abcb19. The curvature index was similar for abcb19 and xif xik abcb19, but it decreased for xif xik, suggesting the ABCB19 deficiency caused the roots to curve more sharply. Combination of these indices for quantitative analyses of root postures may distinguish between similar wavy-root phenotypes and clarify genetic relationships.

In Japan, the discipline of food culture studies has developed since the 1970s under the initiative of Naomichi Ishige. Ishige's works have been referenced widely, but no one has attempted a critical reading of his writings. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to trace his life and contributions to the development of Asian food culture studies. Ishige's first contribution was to identify the commonality in Asian food cultures, tightly connected to rice and umami. Second, Ishige greatly contributed to institutionalising an interdisciplinary dialogue on food cultures in Japan and Asia. In fact, food culture studies are a product of food modernity because their disciplinary development has been conditioned by an increasing globalisation of food systems and the collapse of modern family systems since the 1970s and 1980s. Third, this paper analyses Ishige's food philosophy. Unlike Asian food culture studies in general, which mainly focuses on the genealogy of specific foods and dietary practices before modernisation, Ishige was also a careful observer of food modernity. His food philosophy, backed by long-term civilisational perspectives, was full of balanced ideas about how to cope with the loss of family meals, economic inequalities, and the rise of nutritional sciences during his period.

An attempt has been made to synthesize nitrogenous clay minerals hydrothermally from silica-alumina gels in the presence of amino acids, namely glycine and lysine. The products have been characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, by analyses for C and N contents, and by their infrared spectra.

Amino acid-montmorillonites have been prepared under hydrothermal conditions of 200–250°C and 1000 atm. Above 250°C the amino acids were degraded to ammonium ions, and ammonium-micas were obtained. Syntheses without the addition of amino acids to gels yielded kaolinite.

The role of organic compounds in the formation of clay minerals seems to be of considerable geochemical significance.

Isolated left-sided innominate artery, a rare congenital anomaly in which the left-sided innominate artery arises from the main pulmonary trunk, is usually diagnosed incidentally in children and adults. Limited reports exist on its prenatal diagnosis, with none comprehensively describing the associated perinatal haemodynamic changes. We report a case of prenatally diagnosed isolated left-sided innominate artery, describing the postnatal clinical course.

The initial flow past an impulsively started rotating and translating circular cylinder is asymptotically analysed using a Brinkman penalization method on the Navier–Stokes equation. In our previous study (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 929, 2021, A31), the asymptotic solution was obtained within the second approximation with respect to the small parameter, $\epsilon$, that is of the order of $1 / \lambda$. Here, $\lambda$ is the penalization parameter. In addition, the Reynolds number based on the cylinder radius and the translating velocity is assumed to be of the order of $\epsilon$. The previous study asymptotically analysed the initial flow past an impulsively started translating circular cylinder and investigated the influence of the penalization parameter $\lambda$ on the drag coefficient. It was concluded that the drag coefficient calculated from the integration of the penalization term exhibits a half-value of the results of Bar-Lev & Yang (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 72, 1975, pp. 625–647) as $\lambda \to \infty$. Furthermore, the derivative of vorticity in the normal direction was found to be discontinuous on the cylinder surface, which is caused by the tangential gradient of the pressure on the cylinder surface. The present study hence aims to investigate the variance on the drag coefficient against the result of Bar-Lev & Yang (1975). First, we investigate the problem of an impulsively started rotating circular cylinder. In this situation, the moment coefficient is independent of the pressure on the cylinder surface so that we can elucidate the role of the pressure to the hydrodynamic coefficients. Then, the problem of an impulsively started rotating and translating circular cylinder is investigated. In this situation, the pressure force induced by the unsteady flow far from the cylinder is found to play a key role on the drag force for the agreement with the result of Bar-Lev & Yang (1975), whereas the variance still exists on the lift force. To resolve the variance, an alternative formula to calculate the hydrodynamic force is derived, assuming that there is the pressure jump between the outside and inside of the cylinder surface. The pressure jump is obtained in this analysis asymptotically. Of particular interest is the fact that this pressure jump can cause the variance on the lift force calculated by the integration of the penalization term.

We apply Takesaki’s and Connes’s ideas on structure analysis for type III factors to the study of links (a short term of Markov kernels) appearing in asymptotic representation theory.

The topic of this article is the self-less self (selbst-lose Selbst) and more particularly this self in its connection with the problem of language. There exists a movement of the self-less self from itself toward itself. This movement also occurs as the liberation from language toward language; language reaches into the core of being self because our understanding of self and of the world is linguistically constituted. Similarly the fundamental conversion - as the occurence of the breakthrough (by means of the I-am-myself) to the truth of the self - is nothing else than an original word event. The self-less, the true self says at this moment: “I am myself by not being myself (Ich bin, indem ich nicht ich bin, ich).” In order to gain a better understanding we now start from the problem of language.

Post-operative pulmonary venous stenosis is a poor prognostic factor in single-ventricle haemodynamics. Implantation of a drug-eluting stent is a therapeutic option. However, due to their small size, they inevitably become inadequate as the patient grows. We present the first case, to the best of our knowledge, of the replacement of a small-diameter stent with a large-diameter stent during Fontan surgery.

Background: Approaches to the prescription behavior of broad-spectrum antibiotics, including preauthorization and prospective audit and feedback (PAF), are a focus of antimicrobial stewardship (ASP). However, preprescription behavior, such as blood-culture collection before empiric prescription, is understudied and merits more attention given its influence on the usage of broad-spectrum antibiotics. At the University of Tokyo Hospital, carbapenems are subject to PAF, which has resulted in a compensatory increase in piperacillin-tazobactam use. To evaluate the inherent preprescription behavior associated with a broad-spectrum antibiotic, we investigated the initial blood-culture collection practices upon hospitalization in patients who were continued on empiric piperacillin-tazobactam. Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted at the University of Tokyo Hospital, a tertiary-care hospital in Tokyo, Japan. Patients who were administered piperacillin-tazobactam on the day of hospitalization between April 2016 and December 2017 were included. Patients aged <=18 years and/or patients who discontinued piperacillin-tazobactam within two days were excluded. Only 1 admission per patient was kept for analysis. The medical records of 250 randomly selected patients were reviewed to obtain data on demographics, blood-culture collection, severity, specialties, and risk factors for multidrug-resistant organisms. A multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with blood-culture collection. Results: In total, 960 discrete patients fulfilled the study criteria. Of the randomly selected 250 patients, blood cultures were collected from 162 patients (64.8%), and microbial growth was observed in 30 cases (18.5%). Enterobacterales and anaerobes accounted for 73.3% of the microbial population. Gastroenterologists (94, 37.6%) and general surgeons (52, 20.8%) were the most common prescribers. Hepatobiliary (83, 33.2%), respiratory (58, 23.2%), and intra-abdominal infections (IAI; 34, 13.6%) were the major suspected diagnoses. Blood-culture collection was associated with the use of immunosuppressive agents (OR, 3.48; 95% CI, 1.49–8.99), intrabdominal infection (OR, 0.28; 95% CI, 0.12–0.67), systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria ≥ 2 (OR, 4.50; 95% CI, 2.25–9.42), and surgical specialty (OR, 0.33; 95% CI, 0.18–0.60). Conclusions: More than one-third of patients requiring hospitalization and empiric piperacillin-tazobactam did not undergo blood-culture collection. The finding that blood cultures were less likely to be obtained in patients with suspected IAI requiring hospitalization and by surgical specialties raises a concern regarding suboptimal evaluation. Further assessment of the appropriateness of blood-culture collection in the setting of broad-spectrum antibiotic prescription and tailored promotion of blood-culture collection to surgical specialties may be warranted.

Disclosures: S.K.: The author (during graduate school (PhD) was involved in antiviral research relevant to a neglected tropical disease and favipiravir. During this graduate school research, favipiravir was provided by FUJIFILM Toyama Chemical Co. Ltd

We report a case of a 6-year-old boy who developed intra-atrial re-entrant tachycardia after percutaneous atrial septal defect closure. Ablation was performed, and the circuit of tachycardia was identified. This was a rare complication caused by right atrial enlargement due to an atrial septal defect closure device.

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, a disease that causes transient contractile abnormalities mainly in the left ventricular apex, is rarely reported in children, especially in those with single-ventricle disease. A 4-year-old boy with a single right ventricle was transferred to our hospital following a severe seizure and was diagnosed with takotsubo cardiomyopathy by echocardiography. His cardiac function improved; however, he developed hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

This study investigated the incidence and risk factors of perioperative clinical seizure and epilepsy in children after operation for CHD. We included 777 consecutive children who underwent operation from January 2013 to December 2016 at Kanagawa Children’s Medical Center, Kanagawa, Japan. Perinatal, perioperative, and follow-up medical data were collected. Elastic net regression and mediation analysis were performed to investigate risk factors of perioperative clinical seizure and epilepsy. Anatomic CHD classification was performed based on the preoperative echocardiograms; cardiac surgery was evaluated using Risk Adjustment in Congenital Heart Surgery 1. Twenty-three (3.0%) and 15 (1.9%) patients experienced perioperative clinical seizure and epilepsy, respectively. Partial regression coefficient with epilepsy as the objective variable for anatomical CHD classification, Risk Adjustment in Congenital Heart Surgery 1, and the number of surgeries was 0.367, 0.014, and 0.142, respectively. The proportion of indirect effects on epilepsy via perioperative clinical seizure was 22.0, 21.0, and 33.0%, respectively. The 15 patients with epilepsy included eight cases with cerebral infarction, two cases with cerebral haemorrhage, and three cases with hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy; white matter integrity was not found. Anatomical complexity of CHD, high-risk cardiac surgery, and multiple cardiac surgeries were identified as potential risk factors for developing epilepsy, with a low rate of indirect involvement via perioperative clinical seizure and a high rate of direct involvement independently of perioperative clinical seizure. Unlike white matter integrity, stroke and hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy were identified as potential factors for developing epilepsy.