Buddhist Temple Networks in Medieval Japan: Daigoji, Mt. Kōya, and the Miwa Lineage

The intellectual links between medieval esoteric temples and localized Shingon movements are still far from being well understood. Although a part of education at major monastic complexes such as Daigoji and Mt. Kōya, transmissions of esoteric theories were not uniform and varied depending on their recipients’ social status. A comparative reading of the Yugikyō transmissions imparted by the abbot Jikken of Kongōōin to his official disciple Dōhan and a lesser-known semi-itinerant priest, Rendōbō Hōkyō, from a local training hall at Mt. Miwa in Nara Prefecture shows that during the late twelfth to fourteenth centuries non-elite practitioners in medieval Japan, such as those associated with the local Miwa lineage, did not simply study the Yugikyō teachings but were actively involved in their dissemination. They used theories associated with this sutra as key parts of their own religious capital and transported them from large esoteric temples further afield to Japan’s countryside.

Relationship between initial peritoneal dialysis modality and risk of peritonitis

Peritonitis is a critical complication of peritoneal dialysis (PD). Investigators have reported the risk of peritonitis in patients on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) versus automated peritoneal dialysis (APD), but the available evidence is predominantly based on observational studies which failed to report on the connection type. Our understanding of the relationship between peritonitis risk and PD modality thus remained insufficient. We studied 285 participants who began PD treatment between 1997 and 2014 at three hospitals in Nara Prefecture in Japan. We matched 106 APD patients with 106 CAPD patients based on their propensity scores. The primary outcome was time to first episode of peritonitis within 3 years after PD commencement. In total, PD peritonitis occurred in 64 patients during the study period. Patients initiated on APD had a lower risk of peritonitis than did those initiated on CAPD in both the unadjusted and adjusted models. The hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for the primary endpoint were 0.30 (0.17–0.53) in the fully adjusted model including connection type. In the matched cohort, APD patients had a significantly lower risk of peritonitis than did CAPD patients (log-rank: p < 0.001, HR 0.32, 95% CI 0.16–0.59). The weighting-adjusted analysis of the inverse probability of treatment yielded a similar result (HR 0.35, 95% CI 0.18–0.67). In conclusion, patients initiated on APD at PD commencement had a reduced risk of peritonitis compared with those initiated on CAPD, suggesting APD may be preferable for prevention of peritonitis among PD patients.

A Study on Factors Affecting High Quality Fruit Tomato Production in a Greenhouse by Utilizing Low Cost Smart Agriculture Framework

In this paper, we present an examination of factors affecting the sweetness degree of fruit tomato by utilizing a low-cost smart agriculture framework. Japanese consumers are willing to pay a sky-high price for particularly high sweetness degree of tomato, known as fruit tomato. Japanese farmers would like to produce sustainable fruit tomato, yet only some of the veteran farmers with tens of years of experience or big industrialized farms can produce it. Small scale farmers still struggle to produce sustainable fruit tomato. Many of them would like to know what factors affecting the sweetness degree of tomato. This study aims to clarify factors affecting the sweetness degree production by using a low-cost smart agriculture framework installed in a fruit tomato farmer in Nara prefecture, a western part of Japan. The data used were automatic data gathered from the sensor network, i.e. temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure as well as CO2; and manually input cultivation records, namely, fertilizers (Ca, NO3), pH, EC (electrical conductivity), harvesting record (yield and sweetness degree) as well as cropping calendar. We gathered data from June 2017 to December 2019. We then conducted a statistical analysis using the R statistical computing language. We found that the most significant factor for a high sweetness degree of fruit tomato is the growing time, that is the longer the growing time, the higher the sweetness degree of fruit tomato. The growing time is likely to be affected by season, as in summer growing time is faster than in wintertime. Consequently, summer is not the best time to grow fruit tomato.

MO070APPROPRIATE INTERVAL BETWEEN TWO EGFR MEASUREMENTS FOR THE EVALUATION OF THE ASSOCIATION OF EGFR SLOPE WITH INCIDENCE OF RENAL EVENTS

Background and Aims In recent years, growing evidence has shown the prognostic utility of eGFR slope for the risk of end-staging renal disease (ESRD). Previous observational studies have assessed the association between renal events and eGFR slopes estimated by two measurements of eGFR but had great differences in the interval between two eGFR measurements. In this study, we thus aimed to determine the appropriate interval between two eGFR measurements to evaluate the association of eGFR slope with incidence of renal events. Method This is a retrospective cohort study in 203 chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients who visited Nara Prefecture General Medical Center, Japan between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2016 and in whom two or more than two measurements of eGFR levels were confirmed in medical records. eGFR slopes were estimated by using two measurements of eGFR at baseline and 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, or 3 years. We excluded patients with acute kidney injury, urologic malignancies, nephrotic syndrome with steroid treatment or collagen diseases. Outcome was renal events defined as a composite of ESRD and eGFR decline of &gt; 30%. C statistics were used to evaluate the association between eGFR slope and incidence of renal events. Results The median (interquartile range) age of study participants was 67 (56-77) years and 71 (37%) were male. The median (interquartile range) levels of baseline eGFR were 34 (21-48) mL/min/1.73m2 and diabetes was present in 80 (39%) participants. During the median follow-up period of 38 months, renal events occurred in 52 participants. Medial levels of eGFR slopes0.5, 1, 1,5, 2 and 3yr were -7.8, -3.6, -2.9, -0.9, -1.5 mL/min/1.73m2, respectively. C-statistics of eGFR slopes0.5, 1, 1,5, 2 and 3yr for renal events were 0.622, 0.691, 0.797, 0.858, 0.806, respectively (shown in Figure 1), and that of eGFR slope1.5yr was significantly higher than that of eGFR slope0.5yr and eGFR slope1yr (p&lt;0.001 and p=0.001, respectively). In stratified analysis, eGFR slope1.5yr had higher prognostic ability of renal events in patients with versus without diabetes, advanced CKD and proteinuria. C-statistics of renal events when considering baseline eGFR alone was 0.853 but combination use of baseline eGFR and eGFR slope1.5yr significantly increased c-statistics, to 0.913 (p=0.01). Conclusion eGFR slope for high prognostic ability of renal events may be needed to be calculated by at least 1.5-year interval between two eGFR measurements.