Asthma in the elderly and aging societies in Asia Pacific

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airway with airway hyperresponsiveness and constriction. Asthma occurs globally and affects people of all ages. The world’s population is increasingly becoming older. They are also facing increase in non-communicable diseases including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Global facts for asthma (from asthma facts [1] and key messages [2]) ••�Some 235-300 million people currently suffer from asthma. The prevalence of asthma has increased following transition to a modern, urban lifestyle [3, 4]. ••Globally, 250,000 people die of asthma every year. ••�Asthma deaths are related to lack of proper treatment. ••�In Japan, 90 % of deaths from asthma occur in people 60 years and over [5]

Micromechanical modeling of tension stiffening in FRP-strengthened concrete elements

This article presents a micromodeling computational framework for simulating the tensile response and tension-stiffening behavior of fiber reinforced polymer–strengthened reinforced concrete elements. The total response of strengthened elements is computed based on the local stress transfer mechanisms at the crack plane including concrete bridging stress, reinforcing bars stress, FRP stress, and the bond stresses at the bars-to-concrete and fiber reinforced polymer-to-concrete interfaces. The developed model provides the possibility of calculating the average response of fiber reinforced polymer, reinforcing bars, and concrete as well as the crack spacing and crack widths. The model, after validation with experimental results, is used for a systematic parameter study and development of micromechanics-based relations for calculating the crack spacing, fiber reinforced polymer critical ratio, debonding strength, and effective bond length. Constitutive models are also proposed for concrete tension stiffening and average response of steel reinforcing bars in fiber reinforced polymer–strengthened members as the main inputs of smeared crack modeling approaches

植物・地理分類研究 Vol. 55, No. 1 (表紙, 目次, 奥付)

表紙, 目次, 表紙写真の説明, contents, 編集委員会, 奥

Evolution of Asthma Concept and Effect of Current Asthma Management Guidelines

Concept of asthma has changed from symptom-complex or airway hypersensitivity to airway inflammation and airway remodeling. Based on this concept asthma management guidelines (JGL) has been developed in Japan. Death from asthma has decreased drastically since the publication of the guidelines, although it is still high in elderly population. Further works are expected for "zero-death" from asthma and for tighter control of airway inflammation and resultant airway remodeling

Development of an activity of daily living scale for patients with COPD: the Activity of Daily Living Dyspnoea scale.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Patients with COPD often experience restriction in their activities of daily living (ADL) due to dyspnoea. This type of restriction is unique to patients with COPD and cannot be adequately evaluated by the generic ADL scales. This study developed an ADL scale (the Activity of Daily Living Dyspnoea scale (ADL-D scale)) for patients with COPD and investigated its validity and internal consistency. METHODS: Patients with stable COPD were recruited and completed a pilot 26-item questionnaire. Patients also performed the Incremental Shuttle Walk Test (ISWT), and completed the St. George\u27s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) and Medical Research Council (MRC) dyspnoea grade. RESULTS: There were 83 male participants who completed the pilot questionnaire. Following the pilot, eight items that were not undertaken by the majority of subjects, and three items judged to be of low clinical importance by physical therapists were removed from the questionnaire. The final ADL-D scale contained 15 items. Scores obtained with the ADL-D scale were significantly correlated with the MRC dyspnoea grades, distance walked on the ISWT and SGRQ scores. The ADL-D scores were significantly different across the five grades of the MRC dyspnoea grade. The ADL-D scale showed high consistency (Chronbach\u27s alpha coefficient of 0.96). CONCLUSIONS: The ADL-D scale is a useful scale for assessing impairments in ADL in Japanese male patients with COPD