Outbreak of Salmonella Braenderup Infection Originating in Boxed Lunches in Japan in 2008

There have been only 2 reports of a large-scale foodborne outbreak arising from Salmonella enterica serotype Braenderup infection worldwide. On August 9, 2008, an outbreak originating in boxed lunches occurred in Okayama, Japan. We conducted a cohort study of 786 people who received boxed lunches from a particular catering company and collected 644 questionnaires (response rate:82%). Cases were defined as those presenting with diarrhea (≧4 times in 24h) or fever (≧38℃) between 12 am on August 8 and 12 am on August 14. We identified 176 cases (women/men:39/137);younger children (aged＜10 years) appeared to more frequently suffer severe symptoms. Three food items were significantly associated with higher risk of illness;tamagotoji (soft egg with mixed vegetables and meat) (relative risk (RR):11.74, 95% confidence interval (CI):2.98-46.24), pork cooked in soy sauce (RR:3.17, 95% CI:1.24-8.10), and vinegared food (RR:4.13, 95% CI:1.60-10.63). Among them, only the RR of tamagotoji was higher when we employed a stricter case definition. Salmonella Braenderup was isolated from 5 of 9 sampled cases and 6 food handlers. It is likely that unpasteurized liquid eggs contaminated by Salmonella Braenderup and used in tamagotoji caused this outbreak

Smoking Cessation after Discharge among Japanese Patients with Established Ischemic Heart Disease: A Prospective Cohort Study

In this prospective cohort study for Japanese patients with established ischemic heart disease (IHD), the authors investigated the rate of success of smoking cessation 3 months after hospital discharge and its related factors. The subjects included 90 current smokers admitted for IHD. A total of 58 subjects (64%) had quit smoking for 3 months after being discharged. In comparison with subjects with acute myocardial infarction, those with stable angina (SA) showed a significantly lower frequency of smoking cessation (relative risk of resuming smoking (95% confidence interval):2.06 (1.09, 3.92), p=0.036). This relationship remained significant even after controlling for sex, age, and scores of the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (adjusted odds ratio:3.39 (1.01, 11.37), p=0.048). However, it became insignificant when hospital admission followed by emergency medical service (EMS) care was additionally adjusted (adjusted odds ratio:2.48 (0.36, 16.97), p=0.356). The smoking cessation rate in this study was identical to that observed in studies conducted in Japan prior to the recent social changes with regard to tobacco use. SA still appears to be a risk factor for smoking resumption after discharge. Experiencing EMS care would be an intermediate variable in this relationship.</p

Rheology of hexagonal close-packed(hcp) iron

The viscosity of hexagonal close-packed (hcp) Fe is a fundamental property controlling the dynamics of the Earth’s inner core. We studied the rheology of hcp-Fe using high-pressure and -temperature deformation experiments with in situ stress and strain measurements. Experiments were conducted using D111-type and deformation-DIA apparatuses at pressures of 16.3–22.6 GPa, temperatures of 423–923 K, and uniaxial strain rates of 1.52 × 10−6 to 8.81 × 10−5 s−1 in conjunction with synchrotron radiation. Experimental results showed that power-law dislocation creep with a stress exponent of n = 4.0 ± 0.3, activation energy of E* = 240 ± 20 kJ/mol, and activation volume of V* = 1.4 ± 0.2 cm3/mol is dominant deformation mechanism at >∼800 K, whereas a mechanism with power-law breakdown prevails at lower temperatures. An extrapolation of the power-law dislocation creep flow law based on homologous temperature scaling suggests the viscosity of hcp-Fe under inner core conditions is ≥∼1019 Pa s. If this power-law dislocation creep mechanism is assumed to be the dominant mechanism in the Earth’s inner core, the equatorial growth or translation mode mechanism may be the dominant geodynamical mechanism causing the observed inner core structure