[en] Neurotransmitters are important in nervous and mental diseases because of their part in the pathogenesis of such diseases; at the same time, they play significant roles in the actions of effective therapeutic drugs. Studies of the mechanisms involved in the actions of such drugs not only generate useful methods to elucidate the pathogenesis of nervous and mental disorders but also serve as indispensable means of developing new drugs. In this field, investigations using both animal models of certain diseases and healthy animals are essential. Development of these animal models is urgently required. In this workshop, studies were presented of the mechanisms of action of major neuropsychotropic drugs such as anxiolytics, antidepressants, and antipsychotics, assessed in terms of the parts played by neurotransmitters and receptors. (Auth.)

[en] We discuss an A4 flavor symmetry model in the context of the split seesaw mechanism. The model leads to one keV sterile neutrino as the warm dark matter and two heavy right-handed neutrinos being responsible for leptogenesis to explain the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe. The A4 flavor symmetry predicts nearly tri-bimaximal mixing in the lepton sector. Combining the split seesaw mechanism with the flavor symmetry leads to an interesting correlation between the neutrino oscillation data and the cosmological constraint from X-ray observation.

[en] More abnormal CT findings were observed in nuclear schizophrenic patients (55%) than in the matchable controls with a statistically significant difference. According to the site of the brain, these were marked in the whole ventricle (especially the third ventricle) and in the cortex including the longitudinal fissure, frontal lobe, temporal lobe, and sylvian fissure (especially of the left hemisphere). There was no correlation between the cerebral ventricular enlargement and the patient's age, the duration of illness or drug dosage, suggesting that the enlargement may exist from the onset of the disease. Aging or taking drug(s) were also not responsible for the cortical atrophy. CT findings were associated mainly with negative symptoms. In particular, the association between abnormalities of the left hemisphere and psychiatric symptoms was marked. Direct measurements of CT images revealed significantly higher incidences only in the third ventricular enlargement in schizophrenic patients. These results suggest the possibility that subtypes of schizophrenia can be classified. (Namekawa, K.)

No abstract available

[en] We investigate fermion mass matrices of the cascade form which lead to the tri-bimaximal mixing in the lepton sector. The cascade neutrino matrix predicts a parameter-independent relation among the observables, which are the neutrino mixing angles and mass squared differences. The relation predicts that the atmospheric neutrino mixing angle is close to maximal. We also study phenomenological aspect of the cascade form in supersymmetric theory, which are lepton flavor violation and thermal leptogenesis. A dynamical realivation of the cascade mass matrix are also presented in U(1) flavor theory.

[en] The technique of jaw tracking can be used m volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) and intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). In this technique, jaw tracks apertures of the multi leaf collimator (MLC) during irradiation. It is reported that dose variation is occurred by the changing accuracy of MLC position in VMAT and IMRT. Though jaw moves dynamically in the irradiation by using this technique, the influence of the jaw position accuracy on dose variation is not examined. The purpose of this study is to verify the influence of jaw position accuracy on dose variation in VMAT using jaw tracking. We appended intentional errors on jaw position in digital image communication in medicine-radiation therapy (DICOM-RT) plans created using jaw tracking technique. These plans were irradiated on the phantom that was inserted ion chamber, and we measured dose variation by changing the intentional error. The dose variation in planning target volume (PTV) was enlarged by increasing the error, and agreed with the variation of a collimator scatter factor within 0.03%. In clinical case of oropharyngeal cancer, the maximum dose variations in parotid gland were 0.179% and 1.23% when the errors were 1 mm and 10 mm, respectively. Dose variation in parotid gland was larger than the variation in PTV and spinal cord because of increasing MLC transmission. The dose variation caused by jaw position error was smaller than it caused by MLC position error. So, we can keep the dose error slightly that is related to jaw position error in VMAT by maintaining jaw position accuracy correctly. (author)

[en] We propose that a hierarchical spectrum of sterile neutrinos (eV, keV, 10^13-15 GeV) is considered as the explanation for MiniBooNE and LSND oscillation anomalies, dark matter, and baryon asymmetry of the universe (BAU), respectively. The scenario can also realize the smallness of active neutrino masses by the seesaw mechanism. (orig.)

[en] We investigate the Higgs inflation and the Higgs portal dark matter with the right-handed neutrino. The dark matter and the right-handed neutrino in the Higgs inflation play important roles in explaining the recent experimental results of the Higgs and top masses, and the cosmic microwave background by BICEP2 at the same time. This inflation model predicts 805 GeV≲m_D_M≲1220 GeV for the DM mass, 1.05×10"1"4 GeV≲M_R≲2.04×10"1"4 GeV for the right-handed neutrino mass, and 8.42≲ξ≲12.4 for the non-minimal coupling within m_H=125.6±0.35 GeV for the Higgs and M_t=173.34±0.76 GeV for the top masses

[en] Highlights: • General information provision about eco-friendly coffee stimulates purchase. • Its impact is diminished by controlling the association with consumer’ demographics. • Verbal information provision increases sales in environmentally conscious areas. • There was no significant association with socioeconomic status of consumers. This study investigates the effect of the provision of information about environmentally friendly coffee on consumers’ actual purchasing behavior, focusing on the association of information provision with consumers’ environmentally conscious and socioeconomic status (education, income, and unemployment). A unique aspect of this study is that we utilized a dataset from a nationwide social experiment in Japan involving more than 10,000 vending machines serving brewed coffee. Although we found that in general, informing consumers about the product’s eco-friendliness stimulated consumers’ purchasing behavior, its significance was diminished after controlling the association between the information provision and consumers’ characteristics. In contrast, the sales of eco-friendly coffee significantly increased only when we provided verbal information to consumers in highly environmentally conscious regions, while there was no significant association with consumers’ socioeconomic status.

[en] We investigate the Friedberg-Lee (FL) symmetry and its promotion to include the μ-τ symmetry, and call this the twisted FL symmetry. Based on the twisted FL symmetry, two possible schemes are presented toward the realistic neutrino mass spectrum and the tri-bimaximal mixing. In the first scheme, we suggest the semi-uniform translation of the FL symmetry. The second one is based on the S₃ permutation family symmetry. The breaking terms, which are twisted FL symmetric, are introduced. Some viable models in each scheme are also presented. (orig.)