Role of miR-143 and miR-146 in Risk Evaluation of Coronary Artery Diseases in Autopsied Samples

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a common and fatal cardiovascular disease. Among known CAD risk factors, miRNA polymorphisms, such as Has-miR-143 (rs41291957 C>G) and Has-miR-146a (rs2910164 G>A), have emerged as important genetic markers of CAD. Despite many genetic association studies in multiple populations, no study assessing the association between CAD risk and SNPs of miR-143 and miR-146 was documented in the Japanese people. Therefore, using the TaqMan SNP assay, we investigated two SNP genotypes in 151 subjects with forensic autopsy-proven CAD. After pathological observation, we used ImageJ software to assess the degree of coronary artery atresia. Moreover, the genotypes and miRNA content of the two groups of samples with atresia 10% were analyzed. The results showed that the CC genotype of rs2910164 was more frequent in patients with CAD than in controls, which was associated with the risk of CAD in the study population. However, Has-miR-143 rs41291957 genotype did not show a clear correlation with the risk of CAD

Search for the warm-hot intergalactic medium around A 2744 using Suzaku

We present the results from Suzaku satellite observations of the surrounding region of a galaxy cluster, A 2744, at z = 0.3. To search for oxygen emission lines from the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM), we analyzed X-ray spectra from two northeastern regions 2.2-3.3 and 3.3-4.4 Mpc from the center of the cluster, which offers the first test on the presence of a WHIM near the typical accretion shock radius (similar to 2 r(200)) predicted by hydrodynamical simulations. For the 2.2-3.3 Mpc region, the spectral fit significantly (99.2% significance) improved when we included O-VII and O-VIII lines in the spectralmodel. A comparable WHIM surface brightness was obtained in the 3.3-4.4 Mpc region and the redshift of the O-VIII line is consistent with z=0.3 with in errors. The present results support that the observed soft X-ray emission originated from the WHIM. However, considering both statistical and systematic uncertainties, OVIII detection in the northeast regions was marginal. The surface brightnesses of the O-VIII line in 10(-7) photons cm(-2) s(-1) arcmin(-2) for the 2.2-3.3 and 3.3-4.4 Mpc regions were measured to be 2.7 +/- 1.0 and 2.1 +/- 1.2, giving upper limits on the baryon overdensity of delta = 319(<442) and 284(<446), respectively. This is comparable with previous observations of cluster outskirts and their theoretical predictions. The future prospect for WHIM detection using the Athena X-IFU micro-calorimeter is briefly discussed here. In addition, we also derived the intracluster medium temperature distribution of A 2744 to detect a clear discontinuity at the location of the radio relic. This suggests that the cluster has undergone strong shock heating by mass accretion along the filament.Peer reviewe

Ambegaokar-Baratoff relations of Josephson critical current in heterojunctions with multi-gap superconductors

An extension of the Ambegaokar-Baratoff relation to a superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) Josephson junction with multiple tunneling channels is derived. Appling the resultant relation to a SIS Josephson junction formed by an iron-based (five-band) and a single-band Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) type superconductors, a theoretical bound of the Josephson critical current ($I_{\rm c}$) multiplied by the resistance of the junction ($R_{\rm n}$) is given. We reveal that such a bound is useful for identifying the pairing symmetry of iron-pnictide superconductors. One finds that if a measured value of $I_{\rm c}R_{\rm n}$ is smaller than the bound then the symmetry is $\pm s$-wave, and otherwise $s$-wave without any sign changes. In addition, we stress that temperature dependence of $I_{\rm c}R_{\rm n}$ is sensitive to the difference of the gap functions from the BCS type gap formula in the above heterojunction.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

＜Project Paper No.30＞ ４ 中小企業経営研究プロジェクト

第Ⅳ部　地域マネジメントの研究体

＜Project Paper No.19＞ 第1章 企業の社会的責任の本質

第1部　企業の社会性