Cold Air Mass Analysis of the Record-Breaking Cold Surge Event over East Asia in January 2016

An extreme cold surge event caused record-breaking low temperatures in East Asia during 20-25 January 2016. The planetary- and synoptic-scale feature of the event is investigated quantitatively using the isentropic cold air mass analysis with a threshold potential temperature of 280 K. Because cold air mass is an adiabatically conservative quantity, it is suitable for tracing and examining the extreme cold surges. We further introduced a metric named mean wind of cold air mass, which divides the factor of cold air mass evolution into convergence and advection parts. The new metric allowed us to trace the evolution of the cold air mass with dynamic consistency for a period of more than a week.  A thick cold air mass built up over southern Sakha by a convergent cold air mass flow during 16-18 January. It migrated westward and reached Lake Baikal. On 20 January, an intense Siberian High developed, with an eastward-moving mid-upper-level ridge, producing a strong surface pressure gradient over the coastal regions of the Asian continent. This ridge and a cutoff low to the adjacent east formed a northerly flow in the mid-upper troposphere. The resultant southward flow through the troposphere blew the cold air mass over 480 hPa in thickness to the subtropical region of East Asia, causing strong cold surges there on 24 and 25 January.  The abnormality of the event is further quantified using extreme value theory. The cold air mass gradually became rare along the path of the cold air mass from Lake Baikal to eastern China, which experienced as thick a cold air mass as once in 200 years. The cold air mass itself shows little change in thickness. Therefore, the migration of a cold air mass over 540 hPa in thickness from northern Siberia is the major cause of this cold surge extreme

Indicators and trends of polar cold airmass

Trends and variations in the amount of cold airmass in the Arctic and the Northern Hemisphere are evaluated for the 60 year period, 1959–2018. The two indicators are (1) polar cold air mass (PCAM), which is the amount of air below a potential temperature threshold, and (2) negative heat content (NHC), which includes a weighting by coldness. Because the metrics of coldness are based on multiple layers in the atmosphere, they provide a more comprehensive framework for assessment of warming than is provided by surface air temperatures alone. The negative trends of PCAM and NHC are stronger (as a % per decade) when the threshold is 245 K rather than 280 K, indicating that the loss of extremely cold air is happening at a faster rate than the loss of moderately cold air. The loss of cold air has accelerated, as the most rapid loss of NHC has occurred in recent decades (1989–2018). The spatial patterns of the trends of PCAM and NHC provide another manifestation of Arctic amplification. Of the various teleconnection indices, the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation shows the strongest correlations with the spatially integrated metrics of moderate coldness. Several Pacific indices also correlate significantly with these indicators. However, the amount of extremely cold air mass does not correlate significantly with the indices of internal variability used here.publishedVersio

Phase Equilibrium in the Er-Fe-O System at 1100℃

Phase equilibrium was established in the Er-Fe-O system at 1100℃ by altering the oxygen partial pressure from -log(Po_2/atm)= 15.00 to 0, allowing construction of a phase diagram at 1100℃ for the system Er_20_3-Fe-Fe_2O_3. In the system, two ternary compounds, ErFeO_3 and Er_3Fe_50_12, were deemed stable and had nonstoichiometric composition, whereas ErFe_20_4 was not found to be stable. The present result was different from that of previous studies at 1200 ℃, in which ErFe_20_4 was stable along with the above two ternary compounds. Lattice constants of ErFeO_3 and Er_3Fe_50_12, prepared in air by a quenching method, were determined and compared with previous values, and showed slight differences. The Gibbs energy changes of the reactions in the Fe-0 system, Fe + 1/2 O_2 = FeO, 3 FeO + 1/2 0_2 = Fe_30_4, and 2/3 Fe_30_4 + 1/6 0_2 = Fe_20_3, were determined, and the obtained values were compared with the previous values. The Gibbs energy changes of the reactions, Fe + 1/2 Er_20_3 + 3/4 0_2 = ErFe0_3, and 3 ErFeO_3 + 2/3 Fe_3O_4 + 1/6 0_2 = Er_3Fe_50_12, were calculated from the oxygen partial pressures in equilibrium

F-molding: A New Production Method for Largely Aspherical Mirrors of Cordierite

Cordierite is a rigid low thermal expansion coefficient ceramic equivalent to that of low thermal expansion glass but with voids due to forming with raw material powder. To overcome this problem, we propose Flexible Molding (F-molding) as our new fabrication method. With F-molding, the raw material powder is converted to liquid slurry, which is poured into a resin mold, solidified, and directly formed into near net design of a mirror. The mold prepared from F-molding is an effective tool for processing multiple volumes of identical structures such as those used in segmented mirror designs. We introduce details of our fabrication method in F-molding mirror and report its measurement results of optical performances with a 270mm diameter sample

Dynamic finite element analysis and moving particle simulation of human enamel on a microscale

Background: The study of biomechanics of deformation and fracture of hard biological tissues involving organic matrix remains a challenge as variations in mechanical properties and fracture mode may have time-dependency. Finite element analysis (FEA) has been widely used but the shortcomings of FEA such as the long computation time owing to re-meshing in simulating fracture mechanics have warranted the development of alternative computational methods with higher throughput. The aim of this study was to compare dynamic two-dimensional FEA and moving particle simulation (MPS) when assuming a plane strain condition in the modeling of human enamel on a reduced scale. Methods: Two-dimensional models with the same geometry were developed for MPS and FEA and tested in tension generated with a single step of displacement. The displacement, velocity, pressure, and stress levels were compared and Spearman[U+05F3]s rank-correlation coefficients R were calculated (p<0.001). Results: The MPS and FEA were significantly correlated for displacement, velocity, pressure, and Y-stress. Conclusions: The MPS may be further developed as an alternative approach without mesh generation to simulate deformation and fracture phenomena of dental and potentially other hard tissues with complex microstructure.Yamaguchi S., Coelho P.G., Thompson V.P., et al. Dynamic finite element analysis and moving particle simulation of human enamel on a microscale. Computers in Biology and Medicine 55, 53 (2014); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2014.10.005

Estimation of Shor\u27s Circuit for 2048-bit Integers based on Quantum Simulator

Evaluating exact computational resources necessary for factoring large integers by Shor algorithm using an ideal quantum computer is difficult because simplified circuits were used in past experiments, in which qubits and gates were reduced as much as possible by using the features of the integers, though 15 and 21 were factored on quantum computers. In this paper, we implement Shor algorithm for general composite numbers, and factored 96 RSA-type composite numbers up to 9-bit using a quantum computer simulator. In the largest case, $N=511$ was factored within 2 hours. Then, based on these experiments, we estimate the number of gates and the depth of Shor\u27s quantum circuits for factoring 1024-bit and 2048-bit integers. In our estimation, Shor\u27s quantum circuit for factoring 1024-bit integers requires $2.78 \times 10^{11}$ gates, and with depth $2.24 \times 10^{11}$, while $2.23 \times 10^{12}$ gates, and with depth $1.80 \times 10^{12}$ for 2048-bit integers

Histone deacetylase inhibitor (SAHA) and repression of EZH2 synergistically inhibit proliferation of gallbladder carcinoma

医薬保健研究域医学系Polycomb group protein EZH2, frequently overexpressed in malignant tumors, is the catalytic subunit of polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2). PRC2 interacts with HDACs in transcriptional silencing and relates to tumor suppressor loss. We examined the expression of HDAC isoforms (HDAC 1 and 2) and EZH2, and evaluated the possible use of HDAC inhibitor suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) and EZH2 repressor for gallbladder carcinoma. We used 48 surgically resected gallbladders and cultures of human gallbladder epithelial cells (HGECs), gallbladder carcinoma (TGBC2TKB), and cholangiocarcinoma (HuCCT-1 and TFK-1) cell lines for examination. Immunohistochemically, EZH2 was overexpressed in gallbladder carcinoma, especially poorly differentiated carcinoma, but not in normal epithelium. In contrast, HDAC1/2 were expressed in both carcinoma and normal epithelium in vivo. This pattern was verified in cultured cells; EZH2 was highly expressed only in TGBC2TKB, whereas HDAC1/2 were expressed in HGECs and TGBC2TKB. Interestingly, SAHA treatment caused significant cell number decline in three carcinoma cells, and this effect was synergized with EZH2 siRNA treatment; however, HGECs were resistant to SAHA. In TGBC2TKB cells, the expression of EZH2 and HDAC1/2 were decreased by SAHA treatment, and p16INK4a, E-cadherin, and p21were simultaneously activated; however, no such findings were obtained in HGECs, suggesting that the effect of SAHA depends on the EZH2-mediated tumor suppressor loss. In conclusion, this study suggests a possible mechanism by which carcinoma cells but not normal cells are sensitive to SAHA and indicates the efficacy of this new anticancer agent in combination with EZH2 repression in gallbladder carcinoma. © 2009 Japanese Cancer Association

Prevalence of and risk factors for post-intensive care syndrome: Multicenter study of patients living at home after treatment in 12 Japanese intensive care units, SMAP-HoPe study

Few studies have examined the epidemiology of post-intensive care syndrome in Japan. This study investigated the mental health and quality of life of patients living at home in Japan after intensive care unit (ICU) discharge. Additionally, we examined whether unplanned admission to the ICU was associated with more severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depressive symptoms. An ambidirectional cohort study was conducted at 12 ICUs in Japan. Patients who stayed in the ICU for > 3 nights and were living at home for 1 year afterward were included. One year after ICU discharge, we retrospectively screened patients and performed a mail survey on a monthly basis, including the Impact of Event Scale—Revised (IER-S), the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS), and the EuroQOL—5 Dimension (EQ-5D-L) questionnaires. Patients’ characteristics, delirium and coma status, drugs used, and ICU and hospital length of stay were assessed from medical records. Descriptive statistics and multilevel linear regression modeling were used to examine our hypothesis. Among 7,030 discharged patients, 854 patients were surveyed by mail. Of these, 778 patients responded (response rate = 91.1%). The data from 754 patients were analyzed. The median IES-R score was 3 (interquartile range [IQR] = 1‒9), and the prevalence of suspected PTSD was 6.0%. The median HADS anxiety score was 4.00 (IQR = 1.17‒6.00), and the prevalence of anxiety was 16.6%. The median HADS depression score was 5 (IQR = 2‒8), and the prevalence of depression was 28.1%. EQ-5D-L scores were lower in our participants than in the sex- and age-matched Japanese population. Unplanned admission was an independent risk factor for more severe PTSD, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Approximately one-third of patients in the general ICU population experienced mental health issues one year after ICU discharge. Unplanned admission was an independent predictor for more severe PTSD symptoms

Employment status and its associated factors for patients 12 months after intensive care: Secondary analysis of the SMAP-HoPe study

BackgroundReturning to work is a serious issue that affects patients who are discharged from the intensive care unit (ICU). This study aimed to clarify the employment status and the perceived household financial status of ICU patients 12 months following ICU discharge. Additionally, we evaluated whether there exists an association between depressive symptoms and subsequent unemployment status.MethodsThis study was a subgroup analysis of the published Survey of Multicenter Assessment with Postal questionnaire for Post-Intensive Care Syndrome for Home Living Patients (the SMAP-HoPe study) in Japan. Eligible patients were those who were employed before ICU admission, stayed in the ICU for at least three nights between October 2019 and July 2020, and lived at home for 12 months after discharge. We assessed the employment status, subjective cognitive functions, household financial status, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and EuroQOL-5 dimensions of physical function at 12 months following intensive care.ResultsThis study included 328 patients, with a median age of 64 (interquartile range [IQR], 52–72) years. Of these, 79 (24%) were unemployed 12 months after ICU discharge. The number of patients who reported worsened financial status was significantly higher in the unemployed group (p<0.01) than in the employed group. Multivariable analysis showed that higher age (odds ratio [OR], 1.06; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03–1.08]) and greater severity of depressive symptoms (OR, 1.13 [95% CI, 1.05–1.23]) were independent factors for unemployment status at 12 months after ICU discharge.ConclusionsWe found that 24.1% of our patients who had been employed prior to ICU admission were subsequently unemployed following ICU discharge and that depressive symptoms were associated with unemployment status. The government and the local municipalities should provide medical and financial support to such patients. Additionally, community and workplace support for such patients are warranted