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Anime tourism has received great interest from academics and practitioners worldwide. Despite this growing attention, comprehensive literature reviews on anime tourism remain scarce. This study conducted a scoping review based on Arksey and O'Malley framework to map the scope and trends of existing research on anime tourism. The research questions were formulated using the PCC (Population, Concept, and Context) mnemonic as the theoretical foundation. Based on predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria, 36 English-language peer-reviewed articles published up to and including 2023 were selected from online databases. The findings are presented in two parts: descriptive and thematic analyses. The descriptive analysis revealed that most studies employed qualitative approaches, were East Asia-focused, and visitor-oriented, with anime location tourism (traveling to sites that appear in anime) emerging as the dominant subject. The thematic analysis identified seven key research themes: conceptual characteristics, destination image, visitors' motivations, visitor activities, destination marketing, relationships with copyright holders, and impacts on tourist destinations. The study contributes by visually mapping the research trends in anime tourism studies and highlights significant research gaps, including conceptual ambiguities, methodological biases, and limited theoretical integration. Finally, it provides implications for advancing anime tourism research and destination marketing strategies.

Traveling to locations featured in anime has become a significant tourism behavior as the number and popularity of Japanese anime works have increased. The widespread phenomenon of anime-induced tourism has called for destination marketing that welcomes anime fans. This study focuses on the dyadic relationship between destination marketers and anime production teams, who hold definitive discretion over copyrights in anime-induced tourism. Using the concept of joint dependence derived from the theoretical assumptions of resource dependency theory, this research investigates how organizations with imbalanced power relations choose to collaborate. By comparing three qualitative cases that distinctly demonstrate temporal structural changes in anime tourism, this study reveals that joint dependence facilitates interorganizational cooperation through domain consensus between destination marketers and anime production teams. The current study makes a significant theoretical contribution to the fields of interorganizational relations, destination marketing studies, and anime-induced tourism research. Additionally, it provides highly practical insights into tourism development strategies for destination marketers and anime production companies.

In Japan, many academics and practitioners have focused on anime-induced tourism as one of the new alternative forms of tourism in the 21st century. Many fans have visited locations that have appeared in anime as film-induced tourists. Regarding the behavior of anime-induced tourists, many tend to be willing to contribute to the destinations they visit as eco-oriented volunteers, different from purely film-induced tourists. Therefore, anime-induced tourists possess a complex character that entails both an interest in film-induced tourism and volunteer tourism, which may conceptually be opposed to one another. This study reveals anime’s potential as a driver of new volunteer tourism and theoretically contributes to tourism research by redefining anime-induced tourism by relying on the concept of film-induced voluntourism. Using a comparative case study of the behavior of anime-induced volunteer tourists at three destinations, this study found that while anime-induced volunteer tourists have a feeling of gratitude for their host communities with a vacationer’s mindset, they can realize positive outcomes, including economic benefits and problem solutions by engaging in cleaning-up activities at the destinations they visit. In conclusion, this study clarifies that anime tourism is one of the significant alternative forms of tourism that can achieve community development associated with film-induced voluntourists, resolving the negative effects of film-induced tourism and volunteer tourism.

Traveling to sites appearing in anime works, commonly known as anime pilgrimages, has become prominent over the past two decades. Previous studies have shown that anime pilgrims exhibit strong destination loyalty, including positive word-of-mouth and site-enhancement activities. However, few studies have identified the causal mechanisms between destination loyalty of anime pilgrims and their antecedents. Based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) hypothesis, this study developed a hypothetical model to determine how place attachment mediates the causal link between visual media-induced destination attractiveness and destination loyalty in anime pilgrimage. Using online survey data from anime pilgrims in Japan (n = 365), this study analyzed the proposed model through structural equation modeling (SEM) and identified two main findings. First, place attachment as a second-order factor consists of two dimensions: place personal attachment and place social bonding. Second, place attachment has a significant mediating role in the relationship between destination attractiveness and anime pilgrims’ loyalty. This study offers theoretical and managerial contributions for advancing tourism research and destination marketing in the context of visual media-induced tourism.

Hot cracking in fully austenitic stainless steel welds is mainly caused by plastic strain accumulated while the weld cools through the brittle temperature range (BTR). This study proposes a simple mechanical model to estimate the plastic strain increment in the BTR and to clarify the effects of heat input and plate size (thickness and width). In the model, the BTR plastic strain increment is expressed as the sum of three terms: thermal contraction strain, bending strain due to a non-uniform temperature field, and an additional term caused by external restraint. Hot cracking is judged by whether the BTR plastic strain increment exceeds the critical strain. The model is applied to a restrained plate hot cracking test and a side-bead cracking test. For the side-bead test, we formulate the crack-driving bending moment per unit weld length and derive a simple relation between crack-tip curvature and local plate width. Using this relation, the critical-strain criterion is converted into a critical curvature. The critical curvature provides a practical index to compare cracking sensitivity for different geometries and heat inputs in welded structures.

As congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections are the leading non-genetic cause of sensorineural hearing loss and significant neurological disabilities in children, the development of CMV vaccines should be given the highest public health priority. Although MF59-adjuvanted glycoprotein B (gB) vaccine (gB/MF59) is safe and immunogenic, its efficacy in terms of protection from natural infection was around 50 % in clinical trials. Although gB/MF59 induced high antibody titers, anti-gB antibodies contributed little to the neutralization of infection. Recent studies have found that non-neutralizing functions, including antibody-dependent phagocytosis of virions and virus-infected cells, are likely to play important roles in pathogenesis and vaccine design. Previously, we isolated human monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) that reacted with the trimeric form of gB ectodomain and found that preferential epitopes for neutralization were present on Domains (Doms) I and II of gB, while there were abundant non-neutralizing antibodies targeting Dom IV. In this study, we analyzed the phagocytosis activities of these MAbs and found the following: 1) MAbs effective for phagocytosis of the virions targeted Doms I and II, 2) the MAbs effective for phagocytosis of the virions and those of virus-infected cells were generally distinct, and 3) the antibody-dependent phagocytosis showed little correlation with neutralizing activities. Taking account of the frequency and levels of neutralization and phagocytosis, incorporation of the epitopes on Doms I and II into developing vaccines is considered desirable for the prevention of viremia.

Background Local recurrence after surgical resection is a major clinical challenge in patients with advanced head and neck cancer (HNC). We previously reported using transfer of a flap treated with dendritic cells (DCs) (“immuno-flap”) as a novel cancer immunotherapy in a rat model of HNC. However, several problems, such as the improvement of DC yield and the verification of DC tracking, remained to be solved. Methods The initial DC production protocol was revisited, and the specific mechanism of the antitumor effect associated with functional DCs was investigated. Results The yield and the purity of potent DCs were improved, and an in vivo tracking experiment revealed that, when injected into the skin flap, the DCs migrated to local lymph nodes within 24 h. In an in vivo long-term protection model in which DCs were injected into the skin flap weekly for 4 weeks, no strong antitumor effect on HNC tumor progression was observed, but a remarkable pathological effect was verified. Moreover, an enzyme-linked immunospot assay demonstrated that more CD8 + T cells positive for PD-1, CD40LIG, and TNF-α expression and producing interferon γ specific to SCC-158 tumor cells were identified in tumors and spleens from rats treated using immuno-flaps. Conclusions These results indicate that immuno-flap transfer to prevent local recurrence in patients with HNC has potential for clinical application given the improved yield and quality of antitumor DCs.

Although respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine development initiatives have existed for half a century, no candidate has been approved for application at all ages from neonates to children. Developing an effective and safe RSV vaccine for pediatric use is challenging owing to RSV-associated disease and vaccine-enhanced disease (VED). We aimed to design an RSV vaccine, KD-409, by structurally incorporating the F ectodomain and G protein central conserved domain without the CX3C chemokine motif and test its efficacy and safety. KD-409 formed rosette particles or trimmers. KD-409 immunization of mice mainly induced anti-RSV F protein IgG. The induced anti-F antibodies had a higher IgG2a/IgG1 ratio than pre-fusion F, suggesting that they induced Th1-dominant immunity. Active and passive immunities were assessed by analyzing the viral titers in BALB/c mice intranasally challenged with RSV after intramuscular KD-409 immunization and pups derived from mothers who were intramuscularly vaccinated with KD-409 twice, respectively. KD-409 was more effective than post-fusion F and had a lower minimum effective dose than pre-fusion F. Thus, KD-409 demonstrated great potential as a novel RSV vaccine candidate, outperforming existing RSV F-based candidates. Our findings provide a promising strategy to overcome RSV-associated acute lower respiratory infections without the risk of VED associated with traditional approaches.

The testing of pathological biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), such as amyloid beta and tau, is time-consuming, expensive, and invasive. Here, we used 3xTg-AD mice to identify and validate putative novel blood transcriptome biomarkers of AD that can potentially be identified in the blood of patients. mRNA was extracted from the blood and hippocampus of 3xTg-AD and control mice at different ages and used for microarray analysis. Network and functional analyses revealed that the differentially expressed genes between AD and control mice modulated the immune and neuroinflammation systems. Five novel gene transcripts (Cdkn2a, Apobec3, Magi2, Parp3, and Cass4) showed significant increases with age, and their expression in the blood was collated with that in the hippocampus only in AD mice. We further assessed previously identified candidate biomarker genes. The expression of Trem1 and Trem2 in both the blood and brain was significantly increased with age. Decreased Tomm40 and increased Pink1 mRNA levels were observed in the mouse blood. The changes in the expression of Snca and Apoe mRNA in the mouse blood and brain were similar to those found in human AD blood. Our results demonstrated that the immune and neuroinflammatory system is involved in the pathophysiologies of aging and AD and that the blood transcriptome might be useful as a biomarker of AD.

Online hemodiafiltration (OHDF) for renal replacement therapy has two modes: pre- (pre-OHDF) and post-dilution OHDF (post-OHDF). To elucidate the precise differences between the two modes, a clinical study was performed using the same polysulfone hemodiafilters in the same patients. Eight patients were treated with ABH ™ -22PA for 6 weeks: 3 weeks of pre-OHDF (with substitution volumes of 24, 36, and 48 L) and 3 weeks of post-OHDF (6, 8, and 10 L). The reduction ratios of urea, uric acid (UA), creatinine (CRE), inorganic phosphorus (iP), beta-2-microglobulin (β 2 -MG), and alpha-1-microglobulin (α 1 -MG) were evaluated. The removal amounts of β 2 -MG, α 1 -MG, and albumin were also evaluated by analyzing the spent dialysis fluids. The types and numbers of adverse events (AEs) and device malfunctions were recorded. The reduction ratios of urea, UA, CRE, iP, and β 2 -MG were comparable among all conditions, while that of α 1 -MG tended to be slightly higher in post-OHDF than in pre-OHDF. The removal amounts of α 1 -MG and albumin in pre-OHDF and post-OHDF were significantly greater with the maximum substitution volume than with the minimum volume. However, the selective removal indices, which were obtained by dividing the amount of α 1 -MG removed by the albumin level, tended to be slightly higher in pre- than in post-OHDF. No device-related AEs or device malfunctions occurred in either mode. No significant differences in inflammatory responses, evaluated by high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, were observed. This study provides removal performance and safety data regarding the application of ABH-22PA for pre- and post-OHDF.