Gender difference in the relationships between vision and hearing impairments and negative well-being.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the association of hearing impairment, vision impairment and their combination (dual sensory impairment) with negative well-being such as depression, subjective poor health and the reduced functional ability in community-dwelling older adults, and to determine whether any association varies by gender. METHODS: Between 2005 and 2006, we objectively examined vision and hearing impairment (using best-corrected visual acuity and pure-tone audiometric test) in 843 people aged 65 years and older (351 males, 492 females) in a rural Japanese town. Through a home visit interview survey using a structured questionnaire, we also collected information on depression (the five-item Geriatric Depression Scale), subjective poor health, and reduced functional activity (the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology's Index of Competence). RESULTS: We observed gender differences in the association between sensory impairment and depression. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that hearing impairment in males (adjusted odds ratio: 2.22, 95% confidence interval; 1.07-4.61) and vision impairment in females (1.91, 1.14-3.21) were related to depression. Vision impairment and dual sensory impairment were also associated with subjective poor health and reduced functional activity in both sexes. CONCLUSIONS: Sensory impairment is significantly associated with negative well-being in older persons, and its association with depression may differ between males and females

Two new species of Exobasidium causing Exobasidium diseases on Vaccinium spp. in Japan

Abstract Two new Exobasidium species on Vaccinium spp. in Japan are described and discussed. Exobasidium kishianum, which causes Exobasidium leaf blight on I/. hirtum var. pubescens and V. smallii, is characterized by its ellipsoid to ovoid basidiospores with (0-)1-3 septa. Its systemic infection is also observed. Exobasidium inconspicuum, cansing Exobasidium leaf blister on V. hirtum vat. pubescens, is characterized by its obovoid or ellipsoid to oval basidiospores with 0-4 septa. Mode of germination of the basidiospores is by germ tube in both species

On the stability of a superspinar

The superspinar proposed by Gimon and Horava is a rapidly rotating compact entity whose exterior is described by the over-spinning Kerr geometry. The compact entity itself is expected to be governed by superstringy effects, and in astrophysical scenarios it can give rise to interesting observable phenomena. Earlier it was suggested that the superspinar may not be stable but we point out here that this does not necessarily follow from earlier studies. We show, by analytically treating the Teukolsky equations by Detwiler's method, that in fact there are infinitely many boundary conditions that make the superspinar stable, and that the modes will decay in time. It follows that we need to know more on the physical nature of the superspinar in order to decide on its stability in physical reality.Comment: 5 page

Effects of nuclear matter and composition in core-collapse supernovae and long-term proto-neutron star cooling

We study the influence of hot and dense matter in core-collapse supernovae by adopting up-to-date nuclear equation of state (EOS) based on the microscopic nuclear many-body frameworks. We explore effects of EOS based on the Dirac Brueckner Hartree-Fock theory through comparisons with those based on the variational method. We also examine effects of the differences in the composition of nuclei and nucleons by using the same EOS by the variational method but employing two different treatments in computations of nuclear abundances. We perform numerical simulations of core-collapse supernovae adopting the three EOSs. We also perform numerical simulations of the long-term evolution over 70 s of the proto-neutron star cooling. We show that impacts by different modeling of composition are remarkable as in those by different treatments of uniform matter in the gravitational collapse, bounce, and shock propagation. The cooling of proto-neutron star and the resulting neutrino emission are also affected by the compositional difference even if the same treatment in computing uniform matter of EOS.Comment: 33 pages, 23 figures, 1 table, submitted to Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (PTEP

Волонтерство как социальный институт

Работа выполнена при поддержке РГНФ в рамках проекта №14-03-00072

Prognostic impact of clinical course-specific mRNA expression profiles in the serum of perioperative patients with esophageal cancer in the ICU: a case control study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We previously reported that measuring circulating serum mRNAs using quantitative one-step real-time RT-PCR was clinically useful for detecting malignancies and determining prognosis. The aim of our study was to find crucial serum mRNA biomarkers in esophageal cancer that would provide prognostic information for post-esophagectomy patients in the critical care setting.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We measured serum mRNA levels of 11 inflammatory-related genes in 27 post-esophagectomy patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). We tracked these levels chronologically, perioperatively and postoperatively, until the two-week mark, investigating their clinical and prognostic significance as compared with clinical parameters. Furthermore, we investigated whether gene expression can accurately predict clinical outcome and prognosis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Circulating mRNAs in postoperative esophagectomy patients had gene-specific expression profiles that varied with the clinical phase of their treatment. Multivariate regression analysis showed that upregulation of IL-6, VWF and TGF-β1 mRNA in the intraoperative phase (p = 0.016, 0.0021 and 0.009) and NAMPT and MUC1 mRNA on postoperative day 3 (p < 0.01) were independent factors of mortality in the first year of follow-up. Duration of ventilator dependence (DVD) and ICU stay were independent factors of poor prognosis (p < 0.05). Therapeutic use of Sivelestat (Elaspol^®, Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.) significantly correlated with MUC1 and NAMPT mRNA expression (p = 0.048 and 0.045). IL-6 mRNA correlated with hypercytokinemia and recovery from hypercytokinemia (sensitivity 80.9%) and was a significant biomarker in predicting the onset of severe inflammatory diseases.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Chronological tracking of postoperative mRNA levels of inflammatory-related genes in esophageal cancer patients may facilitate early institution of pharamacologic therapy, prediction of treatment response, and prognostication during ICU management in the perioperative period.</p

Japanese VLBI Network observations of radio-loud narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies

We performed phase-reference very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations on five radio-loud narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s) at 8.4 GHz with the Japanese VLBI Network (JVN). Each of the five targets (RXS J08066+7248, RXS J16290+4007, RXS J16333+4718, RXS J16446+2619, and B3 1702+457) in milli-Jansky levels were detected and unresolved in milli-arcsecond resolutions, i.e., with brightness temperatures higher than 10^7 K. The nonthermal processes of active galactic nuclei (AGN) activity, rather than starbursts, are predominantly responsible for the radio emissions from these NLS1s. Out of the nine known radio-loud NLS1s, including the ones chosen for this study, we found that the four most radio-loud objects exclusively have inverted spectra. This suggests a possibility that these NLS1s are radio-loud due to Doppler beaming, which can apparently enhance both the radio power and the spectral frequency.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in PAS