In recent years, pollinosis has been considered a “national disease” with the big social problems in urban areas of Japan. In this study, the airborne behavior of cedar pollen in the Kanto plain of Japan was observed by a real time pollen automatic measuring instrument during the 2014 pollination season. For calculating cedar pollen source contribution, the backward trajectory analysis was used...

BACKGROUND We previously reported that 'benifuuki' green tea containing O-methylated catechin significantly relieved the symptoms of perennial or seasonal rhinitis compared with a placebo green tea that did not contain O-methylated catechin in randomized double-blind clinical trials. In this study we assessed the effects of 'benifuuki' green tea on clinical symptoms of seasonal allergic rhiniti...

BACKGROUND Seasonal allergic rhinitis (SAR) induced by Japanese cedar pollen is a substantial problem in Japan. Omalizumab, a novel humanized monoclonal anti-immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibody, has already been proven to reduce symptoms associated with SAR. We investigated the safety and efficacy of omalizumab in the treatment of patients with Japanese cedar pollen-induced SAR compared to placebo....

BACKGROUND The Yellow Cat Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation (Early Cretaceous, Barremian?) of Utah has yielded a rich dinosaur fauna, including the basal therizinosauroid theropod Falcarius utahensis at its base. Recent excavation uncovered a new possible therizinosauroid taxon from a higher stratigraphic level in the Cedar Mountain Formation than F. utahensis. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FIND...

BACKGROUND Omalizumab, an anti-immunoglobulin E (IgE) monoclonal antibody, inhibits the binding of circulating IgE to mast cells and basophils, resulting in fewer episodes of airway inflammation, asthma symptoms and exacerbations in patients with severe allergic asthma. Treatment of patients with asthma using omalizumab increases serum total IgE (tIgE) levels. However, little is known about the...

WHIGHAM, D. F., and RICHARDSON, C. J. 1988. Soil and plant chemistry of an Atlantic white cedar wetland on the Inner Coastal Plain of Maryland. Can. J. Bot. 66: 568-576. Atlantic white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides (L.) BSP.) wetlands are widely distributed along the Atlantic coast, yet there is very little information on their nutrient dynamics. In this paper we present data on the chemical co...

The feeding preferences of the Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki, were tested in three separate experiments on 28 different wood species. Experiment 1 was a multiple-choice test designed to test relative preferences among 24 wood species commercially available in New Orleans, LA. Experiment 2 was a similar study designed to test relative preferences among 21 wood spe...

In Japan, Japanese cedar pollen dispersal is one of the major causes of pollinosis. Sydowia japonica is an ascomycetous fungus that grows exclusively on the male strobili of Japanese cedar, suggesting a possible mechanism for controlling pollen dispersal. To evaluate this possibility, eleven isolates of S. japonica were collected from around Japan and used as an inoculum to male strobili of Jap...

BACKGROUND Peak expiratory flow rates (PEF) are often used to confirm the diagnosis of occupational asthma. The records are usually analysed qualitatively, and this may lead to interobserver disagreement. In this study the diagnostic value of a qualitative assessment of change in PEF was compared with objective measures of change in PEF and the results of a specific inhalation challenge test wi...

CEDAR (Counter Example Driven Antichain Refinement) is a new symbolic algorithm for computing weakest strategies for safety games of imperfect information. The algorithm computes a fixed point over the lattice of contravariant antichains. Here contravariant antichains are antichains over pairs consisting of an information set and an allow set representing the associated move. We demonstrate how...