This study contributes to establishing the payment function of fee-based homes for the elderly. Disclosure statements from such homes for the elderly in selected urban and suburban cities in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan—considered a typical prefecture with adjoining urban and suburban areas—were examined. The study compared the determinants of the amounts charged by the homes based on the distinct geographic features of urban and suburban areas. The hedonic price model was combined with a two-stage least squares regression to determine the determinants of lump-sum and monthly payments. We found that the factors that influence monthly payments in urban areas include distance to a park, distance to the coast, meals offered, number of care staff, and initial lump-sum payment. In contrast, factors such as room size, distance to a bus stop, distance to a park, and the number of night staff influence monthly payments in suburban areas. We conclude that the surrounding landscape has a greater influence on monthly payments in urban areas than in suburban areas. Moreover, in suburban areas, the number of night staff has a substantial impact on monthly payments. The results can help provide investment suggestions in certain cases depending on the amount of investment capital.
A strategy for creating potent and pan-genotypic stimulator of interferon genes (STING) agonists is described. Locking a bioactive U-shaped conformation of cyclic dinucleotides by introducing a transannular macrocyclic bridge between the nucleic acid bases leads to a topologically novel macrocycle-bridged STING agonist (MBSA). In addition to substantially enhanced potency, the newly designed MBSAs, exemplified by clinical candidate E7766 , exhibit broad pan-genotypic activity in all major human STING variants. E7766 is shown to have potent antitumor activity with long lasting immune memory response in a mouse liver metastatic tumor model. Two complementary stereoselective synthetic routes to E7766 are also described. 相似文献
The present study aimed to investigate the influence of radio frequency (RF) heating at 70 and 80 °C, in comparison with the traditional conventional heating. The RF heating technology was applied for maintaining the colour and textural quality as well as inactivating the enzymatic activity of polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and reducing the Escherichia coli growth in packaged fresh-cut peach samples. To evaluate this, 120 g of freshly cut peach fruit was placed in heat-resistant plastic bags, and 50 mL of sugar solution (12°Brix) was added to each bag and vacuum-packed for conventional heating and radio frequency (RF) heating. Our results demonstrated that the RF heating process could reduce the heating time by up to 83% at 70 and 80 °C as compared to conventional heating. Moreover, RF heating at 70 and 80 °C reduced the PPO enzymatic activity, which caused enzymatic browning, up to 85.46% and 93.5%, respectively, as compared to 40.86% reduction only for conventional heating. Furthermore, RF heating completely inhibited E. coli growth. Collectively, we demonstrated that RF heating is an emerging and promising technology for improving the quality of fresh-cut fruits such as peach during various storage conditions. The present study provides relatively novel information on the effectiveness of RF heating in maintaining the quality of fresh-cut peaches. In the future, we would like to investigate the effectiveness of RF heating on other agricultural products. 相似文献
ABSTRACTThe thermal-neutron capture cross-section (σ0) and resonance integral (I0) were measured for the 135Cs(n,γ)136Cs reaction by an activation method and mass spectrometry. Because of difficulty in the preparation of pure 135Cs samples, we used 135Cs contained as an impurity in a normally available 137Cs standard solution. An isotope ratio of 135Cs and 137Cs in a standard 137Cs solution was measured by mass spectrometry to quantify 135Cs. Cesium-135 impurity along with the 137Cs standard solution was irradiated at the hydraulic conveyer of the research reactor in the Institute for Integral Radiation and Nuclear Science, Kyoto University. Wires of Co/Al and Au/Al alloys were used as neutron monitors to measure thermal-neutron fluxes and epi-thermal Westcott’s indices at an irradiation position. A gadolinium filter was used to measure the σ0, and a value of 0.133 eV was taken as the cut-off energy. Gamma-ray spectroscopy was used to measure induced activities of 137Cs, 136Cs and monitor wires. On the basis of Westcott’s convention, the σ0 and I0 values were derived as 8.57 ± 0.25 barn, and 45.3 ± 3.2 barn, respectively. The value of σ0 obtained in the present study agreed within the limits of uncertainties with the past-reported value of 8.3 ± 0.3 barn. 相似文献
We have been studying on estimating distribution of permittivity between measurement electrodes using capacitance and electric potential. Two arc electrodes were separated by long distance and there electrodes were surrounded by additional electrodes respectively. In past research work, we carried out numerical electric analysis for calculating the capacitance and electric potential using Finite Element Method (FEM) and compared with experimental and numerical results. The capacitance values were almost agreed with experimental and numerical results. However, the electric potential values were different between experimental and numerical results in conventional studies. In this paper, we proposed an equivalent circuit including the stray capacity and measurement method for capacitance, the electric potential in space between long distance electrodes was estimated. 相似文献
The lithiation of 5,5′‐dibromo‐2,2′‐bithiophene with one equivalent of an alkyllithium such as n‐BuLi or s‐BuLi was studied by varying the residence time in flow microreactors. With a short residence time, the product 2,2′‐bithiophene (3) derived from dilithiation was obtained preferentially and a significant amount of the starting material 5,5′‐dibromo‐2,2′‐bithiophene remained unchanged. An increase in the residence time caused a higher yield of the product 5‐bromo‐2,2′‐bithiophene derived from monolithiation with expense in the yields of 2,2′‐bithiophene and 5,5′‐dibromo‐2,2′‐bithiophene. The lithiation using MeLi gave the product 5‐bromo‐2,2′‐bithiophene preferentially even with a very short residence time. 相似文献
Numbers of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have increased rapidly worldwide. Plasma levels of full-length galectin-9 (FL-Gal9) and osteopontin (FL-OPN) as well as their truncated forms (Tr-Gal9, Ud-OPN, respectively), are representative inflammatory biomarkers. Here, we measured FL-Gal9, FL-OPN, Tr-Gal9, and Ud-OPN in 94 plasma samples obtained from 23 COVID-19-infected patients with mild clinical symptoms (CV), 25 COVID-19 patients associated with pneumonia (CP), and 14 patients with bacterial infection (ID). The four proteins were significantly elevated in the CP group when compared with healthy individuals. ROC analysis between the CV and CP groups showed that C-reactive protein had the highest ability to differentiate, followed by Tr-Gal9 and ferritin. Spearman’s correlation analysis showed that Tr-Gal9 and Ud-OPN but not FL-Gal9 and FL-OPN, had a significant association with laboratory markers for lung function, inflammation, coagulopathy, and kidney function in CP patients. CP patients treated with tocilizumab had reduced levels of FL-Gal9, Tr-Gal9, and Ud-OPN. It was suggested that OPN is cleaved by interleukin-6-dependent proteases. These findings suggest that the cleaved forms of OPN and galectin-9 can be used to monitor the severity of pathological inflammation and the therapeutic effects of tocilizumab in CP patients. 相似文献
In this study,the permeabilities of Berea and Otway sandstones were measured under different confining pressures,and porosity was investigated through mercury intrusion porosimetry(MIP).The total porosities of the Berea and Otway sandstones were approximately 17.4%and 25%,respectively.Pore size distributions of each sandstone were almost the same,but the pores in the Otway sandstone were slightly narrower.However,the permeability of the Otway sandstone was smaller than that of the Berea sandstone by one order of magnitude.Three-dimensional(3D)void geometry and geometrical properties of the void spaces relevant to flow were compared to obtain the relation between the permeability differences and porosities of the two sandstones.The 3D geometrical analysis using microfocus X-ray computed tomography(CT)was performed,and the pore geometries of both sandstones were compared using the 3D medial axis(3DMA)method.Pore and throat radii,pore coordination number,tortuosity,number of connecting paths,connecting path volume,and other factors were determined using 3DMA.The Otway sandstone was characterized by a small effective throat/pore radius ratio.Based on the fluid flow mechanism,the lower effective throat/pore radius ratio results in a lower permeability induced by the fluid energy loss,which means that the 3D geometrical shape of void spaces affects the permeability value. 相似文献