Study of assessment of knowledge and understanding for coping with sick days among patients with diabetes in community pharmacy: a cluster randomized controlled trial (SAKURA trial)

[Background] Awareness regarding coping with sick days among patients with diabetes is limited. Thus, we evaluated the effectiveness of sick-day education by community pharmacists among patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) using sick-day educational materials (sick-day cards). [Methods] A cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted. Pharmacists in the intervention group educated patients with T2D on coping with sick days (adjusting medication dosage and seeking medical advice) using sick-day cards compared with the usual counseling. Differences in questionnaire scores (“Anxiety”, “Intention”, “Attitude”, and “Knowledge” about sick days) before and after the intervention were compared between the groups. [Results] Overall, 318 patients with T2D (intervention, 119; control, 199) participated in this study, and 270 (intervention, 92; control, 178) patients were examined. There were no significant differences in “Anxiety”, “Intention”, or “Attitude” scores between the two groups, but “Knowledge” scores improved in the intervention group. For all intervention groups (92/92), a physician reviewed and approved medication and adjustment doses for sick days on the cards. [Conclusions] According to patients’ responses, sick-day education using teaching materials improved patient knowledge. This may help patients and their caregivers cope with sick days appropriately through medication dose adjustment and fluid intake. Research registration number: UMIN000043161 (February 1, 2021), https://center6.umin.ac.jp/cgi-open-bin/ctr/ctr.cgifunction=brows&action=brows&recptno=R000048124&type=summary&language=

Plasma S100A12 Levels and Peripheral Arterial Disease in End-Stage Renal Disease

Background: S100A12 is an endogenous ligand of the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE). Plasma S100A12 levels are high in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis (HD). Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is common in HD patients and is associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality rates in this population. To date, however, no study has specifically assessed the relationship between plasma S100A12 and PAD in HD patients. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 152 HD patients in our affiliated hospital. We investigated PAD history and patient characteristics and quantified plasma S100A12 levels in all participants. Results: HD patients with PAD (n = 26; 21.9 [13.6–33.4] ng/ml) showed significantly higher plasma S100A12 levels than HD patients without PAD (n = 126; 11.8 [7.5–17.6]ng/ml; p Conclusion: These results suggest that plasma S100A12 levels are strongly associated with PAD prevalence in ESRD patients undergoing HD

Ocular dominance affects magnitude of dipole moment: An MEG study

横浜栄共済病院脳卒中診療科・脳神経外科To investigate whether the ocular dominance affects laterality in the activity of the primary visual cortex, we examined the relationship between the ocular dominance and latency or dipole moment measured by checkerboard-pattern and magnetoencephalography in 11 right-handed healthy male participants. Participants with left-eye dominance showed a dipole moment of 21.5±6.1 nAm with left-eye stimulation and 16.1±3.6 nAm with right, whereas those with right-eye dominance showed a dipole moment of 18.0±5.2 and 21.5±2.7 nAm with left-eye and right-eye stimulation of the infero-medial quadrant visual field, respectively. Thus, the dipole moment was higher when the dominant eye was stimulated, which implies that ocular dominance is regulated by the ipsilateral occipital lobe. © 2010 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

Cryogenic deuterium target experiments with the GEKKO XII, green laser system

Copyright 1995 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Physics of Plasmas, 2(6), 2495-2503, 1995 and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.87121

Impurity emission characteristics of long pulse discharges in Large Helical Device

Line spectra from intrinsic impurity ions have been monitored during the three kinds of long-pulse discharges (ICH, ECH, NBI). Constant emission from the iron impurity shows no preferential accumulation of iron ion during the long-pulse operations. Stable Doppler ion temperature has been also measured from Fe XX, C V and C III spectra

Recent Results from LHD Experiment with Emphasis on Relation to Theory from Experimentalist’s View

he Large Helical Device (LHD) has been extending an operational regime of net-current free plasmas towardsthe fusion relevant condition with taking advantage of a net current-free heliotron concept and employing a superconducting coil system. Heating capability has exceeded 10 MW and the central ion and electron temperatureshave reached 7 and 10 keV, respectively. The maximum value of β and pulse length have been extended to 3.2% and 150 s, respectively. Many encouraging physical findings have been obtained. Topics from recent experiments, which should be emphasized from the aspect of theoretical approaches, are reviewed. Those are (1) Prominent features in the inward shifted configuration, i.e., mitigation of an ideal interchange mode in the configuration with magnetic hill, and confinement improvement due to suppression of both anomalous and neoclassical transport, (2) Demonstration ofbifurcation of radial electric field and associated formation of an internal transport barrier, and (3) Dynamics of magnetic islands and clarification of the role of separatrix

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements