トルコ、アナトリア高原、トゥズ湖とコンヤ盆地における過去２４，０００年間の湖水位変動と扇状地の形成

Alluvial fans developed and lake levels fluctuated several times according to the climatic changes during the last 24,000 years. Alluvial fans developed in Lake Tuz in the cold, pluvial periods of increasing discharge during the Holocene around 5000 yr BP. and after 3500 yr BP. Lake expansion occurred at 23 ka., 18-20 ka., 14-15 ka., and 11ka. over the last 24,000 years in the Konya Basin. These expansions, shown by the raised lake terraces and beach ridges, were mainly due to cold and pluvial climatic changes. The lake level rose in the colder climate during marine oxygen isotope stage 2 and the Younger Dryas period. The lake level reached its highest level of 1013 to 1014 m during the last Glacial maximum before 18 ka

CAGRA: Highly Parallel Graph Construction and Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search for GPUs

Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search (ANNS) plays a critical role in various disciplines spanning data mining and artificial intelligence, from information retrieval and computer vision to natural language processing and recommender systems. Data volumes have soared in recent years and the computational cost of an exhaustive exact nearest neighbor search is often prohibitive, necessitating the adoption of approximate techniques. The balanced performance and recall of graph-based approaches have more recently garnered significant attention in ANNS algorithms, however, only a few studies have explored harnessing the power of GPUs and multi-core processors despite the widespread use of massively parallel and general-purpose computing. To bridge this gap, we introduce a novel parallel computing hardware-based proximity graph and search algorithm. By leveraging the high-performance capabilities of modern hardware, our approach achieves remarkable efficiency gains. In particular, our method surpasses existing CPU and GPU-based methods in constructing the proximity graph, demonstrating higher throughput in both large- and small-batch searches while maintaining compatible accuracy. In graph construction time, our method, CAGRA, is 2.2~27x faster than HNSW, which is one of the CPU SOTA implementations. In large-batch query throughput in the 90% to 95% recall range, our method is 33~77x faster than HNSW, and is 3.8~8.8x faster than the SOTA implementations for GPU. For a single query, our method is 3.4~53x faster than HNSW at 95% recall

Residential proximity to major roads and adverse birth outcomes: a hospital-based study

Background: Exposure to air pollution has been demonstrated to increase the risk of preterm birth and low birth weight (LBW). Although evidence has accumulated on characteristics associated with increased risk of air pollution-related health effects, most studies have been conducted in the adult population and evidence on reproductive outcomes is limited. We examined whether socio-economic position (SEP) and parental characteristics (parental behavior and co-morbidity) modified the relationship between air pollution and adverse birth outcomes. Methods: Data were extracted from a perinatal hospital database based in Shizuoka, Japan. We restricted the analysis to mothers who delivered live-born single births from January 1997 to December 2010 (n = 16,615). Each birth was assigned proximity to major roads. Multivariate adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated for the outcomes of preterm birth and term LBW. We stratified subjects by individual/area-level SEP and parental characteristics. We then measured interactions on the additive scale between the respective factors and exposure. Results: Lower SEP at both individual and area levels was associated with the increased occurrence of adverse birth outcomes. Living within 200 m from a major road increased the risk of preterm birth by 1.5 times (95% CI: 1.3-1.9) and LBW by 1.2 times (95% CI: 0.9-1.6). Mothers with lower individual SEP defined by household occupation experienced higher ORs for term LBW (OR = 3.1, 95% CI: 1.2-8.2) compared with those with higher individual SEP. In contrast, mothers who lived in the highest area-level SEP region (i.e., affluent areas) showed slightly higher point estimates compared with those who lived in middle or poor areas. In addition, maternal diabetic and hypertensive status modified the association between proximity and preterm birth, while maternal smoking status modified the association between proximity and term LBW. Conclusions: The present study demonstrated that air pollution is an independent risk factor for adverse birth outcomes. Mothers with lower individual SEP and mothers living in higher SEP region may be susceptible to the adverse effect of air pollution. Maternal diabetic, hypertensive, and smoking status may also increase susceptibility to this air pollution-related health effect

Trends of preterm birth and low birth weight in Japan: a one hospital-based study

Background: The proportions of preterm birth (PTB, ie., delivered before 37 gestational weeks) and low birth weight (LBW, ie., birth weight less than 2500 g at delivery) have been rising in developed countries. We sought to examine the factors contributing to the rise in Japan, with particular focus on the effects of obstetric interventions. Methods: We used a database maintained by one large regional hospital in Shizuoka, Japan. We restricted the analysis to mothers who delivered live singleton births from 1997 to 2010 (n = 19,221). We assessed the temporal trends in PTB and LBW, then divided the study period into four intervals and compared the proportions of PTB and LBW. We also compared the newborns’ outcomes between the intervals. Results: PTB, in particular medically indicated PTB, increased considerably. The increase was largely explained by changes in caesarean sections. The neonatal outcomes did not worsen, and instead the Apgar scores and proportions requiring neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission improved. In particular, the risks of NICU admission in the interval from 2007 to 2010 were decreased among all births [odds ratio (OR): 0.84; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.75, 0.95] and medically indicated births (OR: 0.44; 95% CI: 0.29, 0.68) compared with the interval from 1997 to 2000. Conclusions: Despite the increases in PTB as well as LBW, the present study suggests benefits of obstetric interventions. Rather than simple categorization of PTB or LBW, indicators such as perinatal mortality or other outcomes may be more appropriate for evaluation of perinatal health in developed countries

Type A thymoma : a rare cause of neoplastic cardiac tamponade with long-term survival

Background: The prognosis of thymoma with cardiac tamponade is generally poor. Most of the reported thymomas with cardiac tamponade were type B or type AB (mixed thymoma), and cardiac tamponade due to type A thymoma, which has a better prognosis compared to type B thymoma, is extremely rare. Case presentation: We encountered a case of cardiac tamponade in a 71-year-old male. He visited our emergency department due to exacerbation of fatigue and dyspnea on exertion that lasted for two weeks. Chest imaging revealed a large amount of pericardial fluid and a contrast-enhanced tumor with calcification in the anterior mediastinum. The patient underwent thoracoscopic tumor biopsy and pathological examinations revealed type A thymoma. In this case, long-term disease-free survival (7.5 years) was achieved by multidisciplinary treatment (preoperative chemotherapy, surgical excision, and postoperative radiation therapy), in accordance with the histological type. Conclusions: This case indicates that neoplastic cardiac tamponade, even in elderly patients, should not necessarily be regarded as a terminal cancer and requires a systematic investigation for underlying causes

Transient and permanent gene transfer into the brain of the teleost fish medaka (Oryzias latipes) using human adenovirus and the Cre-loxP system

AbstractIn this study, we demonstrated that human type-5 adenovirus infected the brain of the teleost fish, medaka (Oryzias latipes), in vivo. Injection of adenoviral vector into the mesencephalic ventricle of medaka larvae induced the expression of reporter genes in some parts of the telencephalon, the periventricular area of the mesencephalon and diencephalon, and the cerebellum. Additionally, the Cre-loxP system works in medaka brains using transgenic medaka carrying a vector containing DsRed2, flanked by loxP sites under control of the β-actin promoter and downstream promoterless enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP). We demonstrated that the presence of green fluorescence depended on injection of adenoviral vector expressing the Cre gene and confirmed that EGFP mRNA was transcribed in the virus-injected larvae

PNLH related to Aspergillus infection

Aspergillus nodules (AN) are an unusual form of chronic pulmonary aspergillosis. On the other hand, pulmonary nodular lymphoid hyperplasia (PNLH) is classified as a reactive pulmonary lymphoproliferative disorder. A 65-year-old male was referred to our hospital due to a nodule in the left upper lobe. Histologically, a mixture of prominent lymphoid follicular formation, and hyaline necrosis were observed. Grocott staining revealed morphological forms of Aspergillus spp. in the necrosis. The final clinical diagnosis was suspected AN histologically consistent with PNLH. This case suggests that there may be PNLH cases in which local infection with Aspergillus contributes to its pathophysiology