Enhancing Accountability in the EU Budgetary Process: Still the Decade of NPM?

( Tomohiro Fukuda ) 한국EU학회 2022 Asia-Pacific Journal of EU Studies Vol.20 No.2

This paper analyzes EU financial management reform and discusses its contribution to accountability and legitimacy in European governance. By examining the underlying scheme and consequences of the reform and interinstitutional relations in the negotiations over the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), this article describes the relative success of reform after the Treaty of Lisbon (ToL). The MFF was originally introduced as a softgovernance arrangement in the New Public Management reform. But the ToL modified the status of the MFF, strengthening the negotiating leverage of the European Parliament in multiannual budgetary process, which caused a strenuous interinstitutional battle. However, the community institutions engaged in constructive discussions on MFF 2021-2027, and the European Commission’s attempt to enhance inclusiveness resulted in punctual adoption. Throughout the reform, the Commission secured process appropriateness and enhanced political accountability, upholding throughput legitimacy.

An indoor thermal environment design system for renovation using augmented reality

Tomohiro Fukuda,Kazuki Yokoi,Nobuyoshi Yabuki,Ali Motamedi 한국CDE학회 2019 Journal of computational design and engineering Vol.6 No.2

The renovation projects of buildings and living spaces, which aim to improve the thermal environment, are gaining importance because of energy saving effects and occupants’ health considerations. However, the indoor thermal design is not usually performed in a very efficient manner by stakeholders, due to the limitations of a sequential waterfall design process model, and due to the difficulty in comprehending the CFD simulation results for stakeholders. On the other hand, indoor greenery has been introduced to build-ings as a method for adjusting the thermal condition. Creating a VR environment, which can realistically and intuitively visualize a thermal simulation model is very time consuming and the resulting VR envi-ronment created by 3D computer graphics objects is disconnected from the reality and does not allow design stakeholders to experience the feelings of the real world. Therefore, the objective of this research is to develop a new AR-based methodology for intuitively visualizing indoor thermal environment for building renovation projects. In our proposed system, easy-to-comprehend visualization of CFD results augment the real scenes to provide users with information about thermal effects of their renovation design alternatives interactively. Case studies to assess the effect of indoor greenery alternatives on the thermal environment are performed. In conclusion, integrating CFD and AR provides users with a more natural feeling of the future thermal environment. The proposed method was evaluated feasible and effective.

Current new challenges in the management of ulcerative colitis

Tomohiro Fukuda,Makoto Naganuma,Takanori Kanai 대한장연구학회 2019 Intestinal Research Vol.17 No.1

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract. Although the cause of UC is postulatedto be multifactorial in nature, including genetic predisposition, epithelial barrier defects, dysregulation of immune responses,and environmental factors, the specific pathogenesis of UC is still incompletely understood. In the treatment of UC so far, amethod of suppressing immunity and treating it has been mainstream. Immunosuppressant drugs, including thiopurines(azathioprine or 6-mercaptopurine), anti-tumor necrosis factor-α (anti-TNF-α) antibody (infliximab and adalimumab), andcalcineurin inhibitor, can be used in treat patients with corticosteroid-dependent and/or corticosteroid-refractory moderateto-severe UC. Recently, in addition to such a conventional therapeutic agent, golimumab, which is the first transgenic humanmonoclonal anti-TNF-α antibody to be fabricated, anti α-4/β-7 integrin antibody, and Janus kinase inhibitor have been reportedto novel immunosuppressant therapy. Furthermore, other treatments with unique mechanisms different from immunosuppression,have also been suggested, including fecal microbiota transplantation and Indigo naturalis, which is a Chinese herbalmedicine. We compared the features and efficacy of these new treatments. In this issue, the features and treatment options forthese new treatments is reviewed. (Intest Res 2019;17:36-44)

Influence of the new Ultrasonic scaler with brightener and fluid abrasive on the root surface and comparison of it with air and conventional ultrasonic scaler

( Tomohiro Iwami ),( Mitsuo Fukuda ),( Yuzo Ono ),( Yoshihide Noguchi ) 대한치주과학회 2005 대한치주과학회 학술대회자료집 Vol.2005 No.2

Cardiac Rehabilitation Increases Exercise Capacity with a Reduction of Oxidative Stress

Taira Fukuda,Miwa Kurano,Kazuya Fukumura,Tomohiro Yasuda,Haruko Iida,Toshihiro Morita,Yumiko Yamamoto,Nami Takano,Issei Komuro,Toshiaki Nakajima 대한심장학회 2013 Korean Circulation Journal Vol.43 No.7

Background and Objectives: Reactive oxygen species (ROS) mediate various signaling pathways that underlie vascular inflammation in atherogenesis and cardiovascular diseases. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) has a variety of multiple beneficial effects, including anti-inflam -matory effects. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of CR on ROS in patients with cardiovascular diseases. Subjects and Methods: The serum level of derivatives of reactive oxidative metabolites, an index of oxidative stress, was measured in 100 patients with cardiovascular diseases before, and, subsequently, 3 and 6 months after, CR. A biological antioxidant potential (BAP) test was applied to assess the antioxidant power of the serum. Results: The resting reactive oxidative metabolite levels decreased 3-6 months after CR {pre: 351±97 Carratelli unit (CARR U), 3 months:329±77 CARR U, 6 months: 325±63 CARR U, all p<0.01} with the increase of the percentage of the predicted values of V˙O 2 peak and the percentage of the predicted values of V˙O 2 at the anaerobic threshold (V˙O 2 AT ) and the decrease of the B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP). The BAP test and antioxidative/oxidative stress ratio increased 6 months after CR. The % changes of the antioxidative/oxidative stress ratio was positively correlated with the % changes of V˙O 2 AT , and negatively correlated with the % changes of the BNP. Conclusion: These results suggest that intensive supervised CR significantly improved exercise capacity, which may be attributable to an adaptive response involving more efficient oxidative metabolites or the increased capacity of endogenous anti-oxidative systems in pa -tients with cardiovascular diseases.

Automatic generation of synthetic datasets from a city digital twin for use in the instance segmentation of building facades

Zhang Jiaxin,Fukuda Tomohiro,Yabuki Nobuyoshi 한국CDE학회 2022 Journal of computational design and engineering Vol.9 No.5

The extraction and integration of building facade data are necessary for the development of information infrastructure for urban environments. However, existing methods for parsing building facades based on semantic segmentation have difficulties in distinguishing individual instances of connected buildings. Manually collecting and annotating instances of building facades in large datasets is time-consuming and labor-intensive. With the recent development and use of city digital twins (CDTs), massive high-quality digital assets of buildings have been created. These assets make it possible to generate high-quality and cost-effective synthetic datasets that can replace real-world ones as training sets for the supervised learning-based instance segmentation of building facades. In this study, we developed a novel framework that can automatically produce synthetic datasets from a CDT. An auto-generation system for synthetic street views was built by rendering city digital assets in a game engine, while the system auto-generated the instance annotations for building facades. The hybrid dataset HSRBFIA, along with various subsets containing different proportions of synthetic and real data, were used to train deep learning models for facade instance segmentation. In our experiments, two types of synthetic data (CDT-based and virtual-based) were compared, and the results showed that the CDT synthetic data were more effective in boosting deep learning training with real-world images compared with the virtual synthetic data (no real-world counterparts). By swapping a certain portion of the real data with the proposed CDT synthetic images, the performance could almost match what is achievable when using the real-world training set.

Diminished reality using semantic segmentation and generative adversarial network for landscape assessment: evaluation of image inpainting according to colour vision

Kikuchi Takuya,Fukuda Tomohiro,Yabuki Nobuyoshi 한국CDE학회 2022 Journal of computational design and engineering Vol.9 No.5

The objective of this research is to develop a method to detect and virtually remove representations of existing buildings from a video stream in real-time for the purpose of visualizing a future scenario without these buildings. This is done by using semantic segmentation, which eliminates the need to create three-dimensional models of the buildings and the surrounding scenery, and a generative adversarial network (GAN), a deep learning method for generating images. Real-time communication between devices enables users to utilize only portable devices equipped with a camera to visualize the future landscape onsite. As verification of the proposed method’s usefulness, we evaluated the complementation accuracy of the GAN and real-time performance of the entire method. The results indicated that the process is completed accurately when the area to be complemented is less than 15% of the view and that the process runs at 5.71 fps. The proposed method enables users to understand intuitively the future landscape and contributes to reducing the time and cost for building consensus.

Future landscape visualization using a city digital twin: integration of augmented reality and drones with implementation of 3D model-based occlusion handling

Kikuchi Naoki,Fukuda Tomohiro,Yabuki Nobuyoshi 한국CDE학회 2022 Journal of computational design and engineering Vol.9 No.2

The integration of augmented reality and drones allows past and future landscapes to be visualized from an aerial perspective. However, these visualizations still suffer from the occlusion problem, where the three-dimensional (3D) virtual model displayed in the real world is in front of a real-world object. Currently, city digital twins are essential for the sustainable development of cities and the development of detailed 3D models of cities. By visualizing the city digital twin, augmented reality can facilitate the participation of nonexpert citizens in the decision-making process of urban design, but research examples are limited. Here, using detailed city 3D models, we develop a digital-twin approach to outdoor augmented reality with occlusion handling for both first-person and bird’s-eye views. In a verification experiment, the occlusion handling accuracy of the prototype system was measured to be about 0.8 using intersection over union. The frame rate of the entire prototype system was about 30 fps, and the delay between the controller and the augmented reality device was about 3 s. The internet-based system architecture was developed to integrate augmented reality and drone systems. Our system allows multiple stakeholders involved in building construction projects to observe aerial perspectives of those projects, both on-site and off-site via an internet browser, using augmented reality with occlusion handling.

5-Aminosalicylic acid intolerance is associated with a risk of adverse clinical outcomes and dysbiosis in patients with ulcerative colitis

( Shinta Mizuno ),( Keiko Ono ),( Yohei Mikami ),( Makoto Naganuma ),( Tomohiro Fukuda ),( Kazuhiro Minami ),( Tatsuhiro Masaoka ),( Soichiro Terada ),( Takeshi Yoshida ),( Keiichiro Saigusa ),( Norim 대한장연구학회 2020 Intestinal Research Vol.18 No.1

Background/Aims: 5-Aminosalicylic acid (ASA) causes intolerance reactions in some patients. This study was performed to examine the prognosis of patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and 5-ASA intolerance, and to evaluate the potential interaction between 5-ASA intolerance and the intestinal microbiota. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of patients with UC who visited participating hospitals. The primary endpoint was to compare the incidence of hospitalization within 12 months between the 5-ASA intolerance group and the 5-ASA tolerance group. The secondary endpoint was to compare the risk of adverse clinical outcomes after the start of biologics between the 2 groups. We also assessed the correlation between 5-ASA intolerance and microbial change in an independently recruited cohort of patients with UC. Results: Of 793 patients, 59 (7.4%) were assigned to the 5-ASA intolerance group and 734 (92.5%) were assigned to the 5-ASA tolerance group. The admission rate and incidence of corticosteroid use were significantly higher in the intolerance than tolerance group (P<0.001). In 108 patients undergoing treatment with anti-tumor necrosis factor biologics, 5-ASA intolerance increased the incidence of additional induction therapy after starting biologics (P<0.001). The 5-ASA intolerance group had a greater abundance of bacteria in the genera Faecalibacterium, Streptococcus, and Clostridium than the 5-ASA tolerance group (P<0.05). Conclusions: In patients with UC, 5-ASA intolerance is associated with a risk of adverse clinical outcomes and dysbiosis. Bacterial therapeutic optimization of 5-ASA administration may be important for improving the prognosis of patients with UC. (Intest Res 2020;18:69-78)