Intravenous immunoglobulin for maintenance treatment of multifocal motor neuropathy: A multi-center, open-label, 52-week phase 3 trial

Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) therapy is currently the only established treatment in patients with multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN), and many patients have an IVIg‐dependent fluctuation. We aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of every 3 week IVIg (1.0 g/kg) for 52 weeks. This study was an open‐label phase 3 clinical trial, enrolling 13 MMN patients. After an induction IVIg therapy (0.4 g/kg/d for 5 consecutive days), maintenance dose (1.0 g/kg) was given every 3 weeks for 52 weeks. The major outcome measures were the Medical Research Council (MRC) sum score and hand‐grip strength at week 52. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01827072. At week 52, 11 of the 13 patients completed the study, and all 11 had a sustained improvement. The mean (SD) MRC sum score was 85.6 (8.7) at the baseline, and 90.6 (12.8) at week 52. The mean grip strength was 39.2 (30.0) kPa at the baseline and 45.2 (32.8) kPa at week 52. Two patients dropped out because of adverse event (dysphagia) and decision of an investigator, respectively. Three patients developed coronary spasm, dysphagia, or inguinal herniation, reported as the serious adverse events, but considered not related with the study drug. The other adverse effects were mild and resolved by the end of the study period. Our results show that maintenance treatment with 1.0 g/kg IVIg every 3 week is safe and efficacious for MMN patients up to 52 weeks. Further studies are required to investigate optimal dose and duration of maintenance IVIg for MMN

The neural correlates and clinical characteristics of psychosis in the frontotemporal dementia continuum and the C9orf72 expansion

Objective: This present study aims to address the gap in the literature regarding the severity and underlying neural correlates of psychotic symptoms in frontotemporal dementia with and without the C9orf72 gene expansion. Methods: Fifty-six patients with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (20 with concomitant amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and 23 healthy controls underwent neuropsychological assessments, detailed clinical interview for assessment of psychosis symptoms, brain MRI and genetic testing. Carers underwent a clinical interview based upon the neuropsychiatric inventory. Patients were assessed at ForeFront, the Frontotemporal Dementia Research Group at Neuroscience Research Australia or at the Brain and Mind Centre, between January 2008 and December 2013. An index of psychosis was calculated, taking into account the degree and severity of psychosis in each case. Voxel-based morphometry analyses were used to explore relationships between the psychosis index and grey matter changes. Results: Thirty-four percent of frontotemporal dementia patients showed psychotic features. C9orf72 expansion cases were more likely to exhibit psychotic symptoms than non-carriers (64% vs. 26%; p = 0.006), which were also more severe (psychotic index 23.1 vs. 8.1; p = 0.002). Delusions comprised persecutory, somatic, jealous and grandiose types and were present in 57% of C9orf72 carriers and 19% of non-carriers (p = 0.006). Auditory, visual or tactile hallucinations were present in 36% of C9orf72 carriers and 17% of non-carriers (p = 0.13). Increased psychotic symptoms in C9orf72 expansion carriers correlated with atrophy in a distributed cortical and subcortical network that included discrete regions of the frontal, temporal and occipital cortices, as well as the thalamus, striatum and cerebellum. Conclusions: This study underlines the need to consider and assess for psychotic symptoms in the frontotemporal dementia-amyotrophic lateral sclerosis continuum particularly in those with C9orf72 gene expansions. The network of brain regions identified in this study is strikingly similar to that identified in other psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, which suggests that treatment strategies in psychiatry may be beneficial for the management of psychotic symptoms in frontotemporal dementia

Convergence behaviour of deflated GMRES(m) algorithms on AP3000

GMRES(m) method, the restarted version of the GMRES (generalized minimal residual) method, is one of the major iterative methods for numerically solving large and sparse nonsymmetric problems of the form Ax=b . However, the information of some eigenvectors that compose the approximation disappears and then the good approximate solution cannot be obtained, because of this restart. Recently, in order to improve such a weak point, some algorithms which named MORGAN, DEFLATION and DEFLATED-GMRES algorithm, have been proposed. Those algorithms add the information of eigenvectors that can be obtained in the previous restart frequency. In this paper, we study those algorithms and compare their performances. From the numerical experiments on the distributed memory machine Fujitsu AP3000, we show that DEFLATED-GMRES( m, k ) method performs the good reduction of residual norms in these algorithms

コウダイガク タイド シャクド カイハツ ノ ココロミ

In this study, we developed novel psychological scale measuring students\u27 attitude toward their university （pro-university attitude）. Pro-university attitude was composed of two factors: affection for their university and desire for transferring to another university. Developed scale was turned out to have a high reliability and construct validity. Moreover, we examined the effects of （i） satisfaction with lectures, friendship and extracurricular activities and （ii） experience of learning about their university\u27s history on pro-university attitudes. The results showed that students who satisfied with their university or who passed the exam of the lecture about their university\u27s history formed high pro-university attitude. In accordance with these findings, possible educational methods supporting students who likely repeat a grade or drop out from university were discussed

Effect of Zinc on the Synthesis of Metallothionein in Tetrahymena pyriformis

論文(Article)departmental bulletin pape

Myocardial Infarction Induces Sympathetic Nervous Remodeling in Intermediolateral Nucleus

博士（医学）福島県立医科大

An efficient implementation of the block Gram--Schmidt method

The block Gram--Schmidt method computes the QR factorisation rapidly, but this is dependent on block size $m$. We endeavor to determine the optimal $m$ automatically during one execution. Our algorithm determines $m$ through observing the relationship between computation time and complexity. Numerical experiments show that our proposed algorithms compute approximately twice as fast as the block Gram--Schmidt method for some block sizes, and is a viable option for computing the QR factorisation in a more stable and rapid manner. References Bjorck, A., Numerical Methods for Least Squares Problems, SIAM, (1996). Elden, L., and Park, H., Block Downdating of Least Squares Solutions, SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl., 15:1018--1034 (1994). doi:10.1137/S089547989223691X Runger, G., and Schwind, M., Comparison of Different Parallel Modified Gram--Schmidt Algorithms, Euro-Par 2005, LNCS 3648:826--836 (2005). doi:10.1007/11549468_90 Katagiri, T., Performance Evaluation of Parallel Gram--Schmidt Re-orthogonalization Methods, VECPAR 2002, LNCS 2565:302--314 (2003). doi:10.1007/3-540-36569-9_19 Matrix Market, Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division, Information Technology Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA. http://math.nist.gov/MatrixMarket/ Matsuo, Y. and Nodera, T., The Optimal Block-Size for the Block Gram--Schmidt Orthogonalization, J. Sci. Tech, 49:348--354 (2011). Moriya, K. and Nodera, T., The DEFLATED-GMRES(m, k) Method with Switching the Restart Frequency Dynamically, Numer. Linear Alg. Appl., 7:569--584 (2000). doi:10.1002/1099-1506(200010/12)7:7/8<569::AID-NLA213>3.0.CO;2-8 Moriya, K. and Nodera, T., Usage of the convergence test of the residual norm in the Tsuno--Nodera version of the GMRES algorithm, ANZIAM J., 49:293--308 (2007). doi:10.1017/S1446181100012852 Liu, Q., Modified Gram--Schmidt-based Methods for Block Downdating the Cholesky Factorization, J. Comput. Appl. Math., 235:1897--1905 (2011). doi:10.1016/j.cam.2010.09.003 Saad, Y. and Schultz, M. H., GMRES: A Generalized Minimal Residual Algorithm for Solving Nonsymmetric Linear Systems, SIAM J. Sci. Stat. Comput., 7:856--869 (1986). doi:10.1137/0907058 Shiroishi, J. and Nodera, T., A GMRES($m$) Method with Two Stage Deflated Preconditioners, ANZIAM J., 52:C222--C236 (2011). http://journal.austms.org.au/ojs/index.php/ANZIAMJ/article/view/3984 Leon, S. J., Bjorck, A., and Gander, W., Gram--Schmidt Orthogonalization: 100 years and more, Numer. Linear Algebra Appl., 20:492--532 (2013). doi:10.1002/nla.1839 Stewart, G. W., Block Gram--Schmidt Orthogonalization, SIAM J. Sci. Comput., 31:761--775 (2008). doi:10.1137/070682563 Vanderstraeten, D., An Accurate Parallel Block Gram-Schmidt Algorithm without Reorthogonalization, Numer. Lin. Alg. Appl., 7:219--236 (2000). doi:10.1002/1099-1506(200005)7:4<219::AID-NLA196>3.0.CO;2-L Yokozawa, T., Takahashi, T., Boku, T. and Sato, M., Efficient Parallel Implementation of Classical Gram-Schmidt Orthogonalization Using Matrix Multiplication, (in Japanese) Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ), Computing System, 1:61--72 (2008)

Utility of phrenic nerve ultrasound in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder affecting the upper and lower motor neurons causing progressive weakness. It eventually involves the diaphragm which leads to respiratory paralysis and subsequently death. Phrenic nerve (PN) conduction studies and diaphragm ultrasound has been studied and correlated with pulmonary function tests in ALS patients. However, PN ultrasonography has not been employed in ALS. This study aims to sonographically evaluate the morphologic appearance of the PN of ALS patients. Thirty-eight ALS patients and 28 normal controls referred to the neurophysiology laboratory of two institutions were retrospectively included in the study. Baseline demographic and clinical variables such as disease duration, ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised score, and ALS region of onset were collected. Ultrasound was used to evaluate the PN cross-sectional area (CSA) of ALS and control subjects. The mean PN CSA of ALS patients were 1.08 ± 0.39 mm on the right and 1.02 ± 0.34 mm on the left. The PN CSA of ALS patients were significantly decreased compared to controls (p value < 0.00001). The PN CSA of ALS patients was not correlated to any of the demographic and clinical parameters tested. This study demonstrates that ALS patients have a smaller PN size compared to controls using ultrasonography

ポリカーボネートに対する熱分解制御によるノンハロゲン難燃化研究

取得学位：博士(工学)，学位授与番号：博甲第794号，学位授与年月日：平成18年3月22日,学位授与年：200