University of Kochi (高知県立大学, Kōchi Kenritsu Daigaku) is a public university in Kōchi, Kōchi Prefecture, Japan. The predecessor of the school was founded in 1944, and it was chartered as a university in 1949. In April 2011, the school changed its name from Kochi Women's University (高知女子大学, Kōchi Joshi Daigaku) and became coeducational.
Lung cancer is one of the malignancies for which new clinical evidence has accumulated most rapidly in recent years. In parallel with advances in systemic therapy, radiotherapy has also evolved substantially with the development of high-precision techniques such as stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), intensity-modulated radiotherapy, and particle therapy. These technological innovations, together with the introduction of immunotherapy and targeted therapies, have reshaped the role of radiotherapy within multidisciplinary treatment strategies for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This review summarizes current clinical practice and emerging perspectives in radiotherapy for NSCLC across disease stages. In early-stage disease, the established role of SBRT and the potential advantages of particle therapy as curative strategies for medically inoperable patients and for operable patients who refuse surgery are outlined. For locally advanced NSCLC, evolving treatment paradigms in the era of immunotherapy are reviewed, including concurrent chemoradiotherapy followed by consolidation immunotherapy, as well as ongoing efforts to reduce treatment-related toxicity through advances in radiotherapy techniques. In addition, the emerging role of radiotherapy as local consolidative therapy for oligometastatic stage IV NSCLC is highlighted, with attention to recent randomized trials and the challenges of patient selection. As treatment strategies for NSCLC continue to evolve rapidly, radiotherapy is expected to play an increasingly important role in multidisciplinary management. Further research is required to optimize treatment sequencing, identify patients most likely to benefit from radiotherapy, and refine its integration with modern systemic therapies. Radiotherapy remains a key component of multidisciplinary management for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This review summarizes current clinical evidence and the evolving roles of radiotherapy across disease stages, including early-stage, locally advanced, and oligometastatic NSCLC.
Studies on latitudinal diversity gradients (LDG) in Japan are restricted by either a relatively small number of sampling sites or are limited to a specific taxon. This study examined the LDG in marine benthos across 171 stations along the tidal flats of Japan spanning a latitudinal range from 24 degrees N to 45 degrees N. Published datasets of macrobenthic communities were obtained to determine the multi-scale variability of marine macrobenthos in 1106 census plots from Hokkaido to Okinawa. A total of 1271 taxa were identified. Mollusca was the dominant taxonomic group in our datasets with 36% of the total composition, followed by Malacostraca (28%), Annelida (20%), and other groups (16%). Gamma diversity was highly variable (2-132 species), with a station in Hokkaido having the lowest species and a station in Kyushu having the highest regional diversity. Decreasing trends were observed in all major taxonomic groups as they plotted against latitude. The analysis of species richness across the latitudinal gradient revealed a general decline in diversity from low to high latitudes, consistent with the expected LDG pattern. However, an unexpected peak in species diversity was also observed in mid-latitude regions (32 degrees N-34 degrees N), particularly in the Kyushu region, possibly due to its extensive tidal flats and its historical connectivity to the Eurasian Continent. Our findings provide new insights into the geographical patterns of macrobenthic diversity along Japanese coasts.
Abstract A meter-thick deposit preserved in five piston cores along the southern Kuril Trench provides evidence of an extensive turbidite, interpreted to result from a giant megathrust earthquake in the thirteenth century. The emplacement age of this thick turbidite is determined to be 719–672 years BP based on high-resolution age–depth models constructed from paleomagnetic secular variation data and anchored by a regionally correlated tephra layer and calibrated radiocarbon dates. When accounting for the uncertainty introduced by the smoothing of paleomagnetic data, the modeled age range expands to 752–620 years BP. Nevertheless, both age intervals closely match that of widespread seismogenic tsunami deposits along the Hokkaido coast, supporting the interpretation of a shared trigger of the 13th-century megathrust earthquake. Lateral correlations and volume estimates indicate the deposit extends 100–150 km along the trench axis, with a total volume exceeding 1,700 million m3. Magnetic fabric patterns, along with spatial variations in sedimentary structures and textures, indicate that the main turbidity current entered the trench via the Kushiro Canyon and propagated bilaterally along the trench axis. This study presents the first offshore evidence of a margin-scale turbidite from the > 7000 m-deep Kuril Trench, strengthening land–sea correlations for the 13th-century earthquake and demonstrating the broader applicability of PSV-based chronostratigraphy in ultra-deep trench environments globally.
We report on the cosmic ray mass composition measured by the Telescope Array Low-energy Extension (TALE) hybrid detector. The TALE detector consists of a fluorescence detector (FD) station with 10 FD telescopes located at the Telescope Array (TA) Middle Drum FD Station (itself made up of 14 FD telescopes), and a surface detector (SD) array of scintillators. The array consists of 40 SDs with 400 m spacing and 40 SDs with 600 m spacing. In this paper, we present results on the measurement of the depth of shower maxima (Xmax) in the energy range from 1016.5 eV to 1018.5 eV collected over five years of the TALE hybrid detector. The Xmax distributions were analyzed and compared with Monte Carlo simulations of proton, helium, nitrogen, and iron primaries, using the QGSJet II-04 hadronic interaction model. Our results indicate that the elongation rate of the mean Xmax, which is defined as the slope of KXmaxi versus cosmic ray energy, exhibits a break around 1017 eV. Up to this energy, the composition becomes increasingly heavy, characterized by a growing dominance of heavy nuclei and a steadily decreasing fraction of light primaries. Beyond this energy, the proton fraction increases significantly with energy. These findings suggest a transition from Galactic to extra-Galactic cosmic ray sources around the so-called second knee.
The increasing rate of CO2 emission and global warming are the prime causes for changing global climate. Biological C-sequestration using photosynthetic plants play significantly crucial roles to manage these problems. The present study focused to enhance the biomass growth-dependent carbon dioxide sequestration efficacy of Azolla pinnata by optimizing temperature, light intensity and CO2 concentration. To optimize the climatic factors for maximum growth, the A. pinnata was grown in tap water treated with 10
