Explore the vast range of titles available.

This paper studies the effects of annealing time on the specific heat enthalpy of polystyrene above the glass transition temperature. We extend the Tool–Narayanaswamy–Moynihan (TNM) model to describe the endothermic overshoot peaks through the dynamic mechanical spectra. In this work, we accept the viewpoint that the enthalpy recovery behavior of glassy polystyrene (PS) has a common structural relaxation mode with linear viscoelastic behavior. As a consequence, the retardation spectrum evaluated from the dynamic mechanical spectra around the primary Tg peak is used as the recovery function of the endothermic overshoot of specific heat. In addition, the sub-Tg shoulder peak around the Tg peak is found to be related to the structural relaxation estimated from light scattering measurements. The enthalpy recovery of annealed PS is quantitatively described using retardation spectra of the primary Tg, as well as the kinetic process of the sub-Tg relaxation process.

Introduction The systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) has emerged as a promising prognostic marker in various malignancies. However, its prognostic significance in patients with small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) remains unclear. In this study, we evaluated the prognostic impact of the SII in patients with SCLC after ICI use. Methods Of 62 patients with SCLC who received chemoimmunotherapy at our institution between September 2019 and July 2024, we retrospectively analyzed 36 patients who subsequently received ICI maintenance therapy following the initial chemoimmunotherapy treatment. The SII was calculated at the start of the second cycle of the ICI maintenance therapy. Patients were stratified into high (≥ 570) and low (< 570) SII groups. Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were compared between the groups using the Kaplan–Meier method and log-rank test. Multivariate analysis using the Cox proportional hazards model was performed to identify independent prognostic factors. Results The high SII group exhibited a significantly shorter OS (median 12.1 vs. 24.1 months, P  = 0.010) and PFS (median 5.2 vs. 8.1 months, P  = 0.026) than those in the low SII group. A multivariate analysis identified SII ≥ 570 as an independent negative prognostic factor for OS (hazard ratio 3.83, 95% confidence interval 1.38–10.6, P  = 0.010). Conclusions Elevated SII in the initial phase of ICI maintenance therapy was associated a with poor prognosis in patients with SCLC, supporting its utility as a prognostic biomarker in this setting. Therefore, prospective validation is required to confirm these findings.

Manga (Japanese comics) are popular worldwide. However, current e-manga archives offer very limited search support, i.e., keyword-based search by title or author. To make the manga search experience more intuitive, efficient, and enjoyable, we propose a manga-specific image retrieval system. The proposed system consists of efficient margin labeling, edge orientation histogram feature description with screen tone removal, and approximate nearest-neighbor search using product quantization. For querying, the system provides a sketch-based interface. Based on the interface, two interactive reranking schemes are presented: relevance feedback and query retouch. For evaluation, we built a novel dataset of manga images, Manga109, which consists of 109 comic books of 21,142 pages drawn by professional manga artists. To the best of our knowledge, Manga109 is currently the biggest dataset of manga images available for research. Experimental results showed that the proposed framework is efficient and scalable (70 ms from 21,142 pages using a single computer with 204 MB RAM).

This thesis explores a cultural history of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the second half of the nineteenth century. Particularly, I focus on a group of provincial liberal citizens, who dealt with the problems of growing urban society and in that process developed a forceful notion of 'civic community'. Their civic mission revolved around a new intellectual strand of liberalism, which reconsidered the ideas of the individual and the social and contemplated active citizenship. In Victorian cities, voluntary institutions and the popular press served to prepare the ground for liberal urban government. As the centre of an industrial district, Newcastle enjoyed a strong, progressive sense of community deriving from its achievements in science and technology. To express the sense of urban modernity, the practitioners of urban liberalism sought to design a free-flowing, transparent, clean and supposedly 'neutral' environment as a governable sphere of the city. Exhaustive, active constructions went hand in hand with the advancement of engineering technologies. Furthermore, urban elites were concerned with producing a 'public culture' as the essential agency of self-governing citizenship. Civic ritual and new urban institutions such as free libraries, art galleries and public parks acted to encourage a civic mentality, linking the anonymous individual with a virtuous, patriotic awareness of collective public life. In Newcastle, urban intellectuals explored an inclusive social imagery of 'the people' by turning to extra-urban traditional idioms of 'native' folk society and culture. History was also employed in service of various civic principles and practices, where urban inhabitants increasingly enjoyed the past as part of the public culture in order to make sense of progress and modernity. Even though what the provincial liberal intelligentsia produced did not fully discipline the masses, we may see that the public culture vitalized the norms of the civic community and endured well during the Victorian period.

Manga (Japanese comics) are popular worldwide. However, current e-manga archives offer very limited search support, including keyword-based search by title or author, or tag-based categorization. To make the manga search experience more intuitive, efficient, and enjoyable, we propose a content-based manga retrieval system. First, we propose a manga-specific image-describing framework. It consists of efficient margin labeling, edge orientation histogram feature description, and approximate nearest-neighbor search using product quantization. Second, we propose a sketch-based interface as a natural way to interact with manga content. The interface provides sketch-based querying, relevance feedback, and query retouch. For evaluation, we built a novel dataset of manga images, Manga109, which consists of 109 comic books of 21,142 pages drawn by professional manga artists. To the best of our knowledge, Manga109 is currently the biggest dataset of manga images available for research. We conducted a comparative study, a localization evaluation, and a large-scale qualitative study. From the experiments, we verified that: (1) the retrieval accuracy of the proposed method is higher than those of previous methods; (2) the proposed method can localize an object instance with reasonable runtime and accuracy; and (3) sketch querying is useful for manga search.

Background: Unlike many North American and European countries, Japan has observed a continuous increase in cancer incidence over the last few decades. We examined the most recent trends in population-based cancer incidence and mortality in Japan. Methods: National cancer mortality data between 1958 and 2018 were obtained from published vital statistics. Cancer incidence data between 1985 and 2015 were obtained from high-quality population-based cancer registries maintained by three prefectures (Yamagata, Fukui, and Nagasaki). Trends in age-standardized rates (ASR) were examined using Joinpoint regression analysis. Results: For males, all-cancer incidence increased between 1985 and 1996 (annual percent change [APC] +1.1%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.7–1.5%), increased again in 2000–2010 (+1.3%; 95% CI, 0.9–1.8%), and then decreased until 2015 (−1.4%; 95% CI, −2.5 to −0.3%). For females, all-cancer incidence increased until 2010 (+0.8%; 95% CI, 0.6–0.9% in 1985–2004 and +2.4%; 95% CI, 1.3–3.4% in 2004–2010), and stabilized thereafter until 2015. The post-2000 increase was mainly attributable to prostate in males and breast in females, which slowed or levelled during the first decade of the 2000s. After a sustained increase, all-cancer mortality for males decreased in 1996–2013 (−1.6%; 95% CI, −1.6 to −1.5%) and accelerated thereafter until 2018 (−2.5%; 95% CI, −2.9 to −2.0%). All-cancer mortality for females decreased intermittently throughout the observation period, with the most recent APC of −1.0% (95% CI, −1.1 to −0.9%) in 2003–2018. The recent decreases in mortality in both sexes, and in incidence in males, were mainly attributable to stomach, liver, and male lung cancers. Conclusion: The ASR of all-cancer incidence began decreasing significantly in males and levelled off in females in 2010.

Traffic accidents involving Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) frequently occur at unsignalized intersections on Japanese community roads. To prevent such accidents, collision avoidance systems need to predict VRUs’ movements throughout the entire road network while explicitly handling uncertainty degraded by sparse observations and frequent route branching at intersections. Based on this motivation, this study proposes a Vehicle-to-Network (V2N)-based comprehensive safety framework for estimation of VRU movement and prediction of future intersection entry for community roads. The framework integrates estimation results provided from Roadside Edges and Vehicle Edges at a Central Server. In addition, road geometry from map information is incorporated as pseudo-observations into the estimation, and multiple route hypotheses are explicitly managed to represent route branching at intersections. For intersection-entry prediction, entry certainty is calculated by integrating a predicted distribution. For evaluation of the proposed framework, we conduct Monte Carlo simulations on simplified grid road networks. The results show that the proposed framework maintains conservative estimation under sparse observations and improves prediction when additional observation information from surrounding vehicles becomes available. Furthermore, a simulation-based case study using an actual community road-network geometry shows the feasibility of the proposed framework for cooperative collision avoidance on actual community roads.

Acclimation to high temperature increases plants’ tolerance of subsequent lethal high temperatures. Although epigenetic regulation of plant gene expression is well studied, how plants maintain a memory of environmental changes over time remains unclear. Here, we show that JUMONJI (JMJ) proteins, demethylases involved in histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3), are necessary for Arabidopsis thaliana heat acclimation. Acclimation induces sustained H3K27me3 demethylation at HEAT SHOCK PROTEIN22 ( HSP22 ) and HSP17.6C loci by JMJs, poising the HSP genes for subsequent activation. Upon sensing heat after a 3-day interval, JMJs directly reactivate these HSP genes. Finally, jmj mutants fail to maintain heat memory under fluctuating field temperature conditions. Our findings of an epigenetic memory mechanism involving histone demethylases may have implications for environmental adaptation of field plants. Acclimation to high temperature increases tolerance of heat shock in plants. Here the authors show that JUMONJI H3K27me3 demethylases are needed for heat acclimation in Arabidopsis and act at loci encoding HEAT SHOCK PROTEINS to facilitate induction upon heat stress.

The present study aimed to compare cancer incidence and trends in survival for children diagnosed in Japan and England, using population‐based cancer registry data. The analysis was based on 5192 children with cancer (age 0‐14 years) from 6 prefectural cancer registries in Japan and 21 295 children diagnosed in England during 1993‐2010. Differences in incidence rates between the 2 countries were measured with Poisson regression models. Overall survival was estimated using the Kaplan–Meier method. Incidence rates for Hodgkin lymphoma, renal tumors and Ewing sarcomas in England were more than twice as high as those in Japan. Incidence of germ cell tumors, hepatic tumors, neuroblastoma and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) was higher in Japan than in England. Incidence of all cancers combined decreased in Japan throughout the period 1993 to 2010, which was mainly explained by a decrease in registration of neuroblastoma in infants. For many cancers, 5‐year survival improved in both countries. The improvement in survival in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) was particularly dramatic in both countries. However, 5‐year survival remained less than 80% in 2005‐2008 in both countries for AML, brain tumors, soft tissue sarcomas, malignant bone tumors and neuroblastoma (age 1‐14 years). There were significant differences in incidence of several cancers between countries, suggesting variation in genetic susceptibility and possibly environmental factors. The decrease in incidence for all cancers combined in Japan was related to the cessation of the national screening program for neuroblastoma. The large improvement in survival in CML coincided with the introduction of effective therapy (imatinib). For many of childhood cancers, 5‐year survival improved in Japan and England. The improvement in survival in chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) was particularly dramatic in both countries.