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Social participation and mortality: does social position in civic groups matter?
BACKGROUND: Social participation is known to predict longevity. However, little is known about the effect of social participation according to an individual's position in civic groups. We evaluated the influence of social position on mortality, using data from a large cohort of Japanese older adults (the AGES cohort). METHODS: Of 14,804 individuals aged 65 years and older enrolled in the AGES, 14,286 individuals were followed up for approximately 5 years from 2003 to 2008. We performed inverse probability of treatment weighted (IPTW) Cox proportional hazards regression with multiple imputation of missing values to compute hazard ratios (HR) for all-cause mortality according to the individual's position in the community organization(s) to which they belonged. We examined participation in the following civic groups: neighborhood association/senior citizen club/fire-fighting team, religious group, political organization or group, industrial or trade association, volunteer group, citizen or consumer group, hobby group, and sports group or club. The values for IPTW were computed based on demographic variables, socioeconomic status, and self-reported medical condition. RESULTS: During 22,718 person-years of follow-up for regular members of community groups and 14,014 person-years of follow-up for participants in leadership positions, 479 deaths and 214 deaths were observed, respectively. Relative to regular members, crude HR for all-cause mortality for occupying leadership positions (e.g. president, manager, or having administrative roles) was 0.72 (95 % CI:0.62-0.85). The IPTW-HR was 0.88 (95 % CI: 0.79-0.99) for participants occupying leadership positions. CONCLUSIONS: Holding leadership positions in community organization(s) may be more beneficial to health than being regular members
Observations of the supernova remnant W28 at TeV energies
The atmospheric Cerenkov imaging technique has been used to search for
point-like and diffuse TeV gamma-ray emission from the southern supernova
remnant, W28, and surrounding region. The search, made with the CANGAROO 3.8m
telescope, encompasses a number of interesting features, the supernova remnant
itself, the EGRET source 3EG J1800-2338, the pulsar PSR J1801-23, strong 1720
MHz OH masers and molecular clouds on the north and east boundaries of the
remnant. An analysis tailored to extended and off-axis point sources was used,
and no evidence for TeV gamma-ray emission from any of the features described
above was found in data taken over the 1994 and 1995 seasons. Our upper limit
(E>1.5 TeV) for a diffuse source of radius 0.25deg encompassing both molecular
clouds was calculated at 6.64e-12 photons cm^-2 s^-1 (from 1994 data), and
interpreted within the framework of a model predicting TeV gamma-rays from
shocked-accelerated hadrons. Our upper limit suggests the need for some cutoff
in the parent spectrum of accelerated hadrons and/or slightly steeper parent
spectra than that used here (-2.1). As to the nature of 3EG J1800-2338, it
possibly does not result entirely from pi-zero decay, a conclusion also
consistent with its location in relation to W28.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
TeV observations of Centaurus A
We have searched for TeV gamma-rays from Centaurus A and surrounding region
out to +/- 1.0 deg using the CANGAROO 3.8m telescope. No evidence for TeV
gamma-ray emission was observed from the search region, which includes a number
of interesting features located away from the tracking centre of our data. The
3 sigma upper limit to the flux of gamma-rays above 1.5 TeV from an extended
source of radius 14' centred on Centaurus A is 1.28e-11 photons cm^-2 s^-1.Comment: 4 pages. Astroparticle Physics, accepted for publication. Some upper
limits overestimated by factor 2-4 in original version astro-ph/9901316. Now
correcte
Phase II Trial of Preoperative Chemotherapy with Docetaxel, Cisplatin and S-1 for T4 Locally Advanced Gastric Cancer
The standard treatment for T4 locally advanced gastric cancer is gastrectomy with D2 lymph node dissection followed by adjuvant chemotherapy with S-1 for 12 months; however, prognostic outcome in Stage IIIb has been insufficient. It is expected that survival is improved by preoperative treatment with a triplet regimen of docetaxel, cisplatin and S-1 (divided DCS therapy). A multicenter Phase II study has been conducted to evaluate the safety and efficacy of two courses of preoperative chemotherapy followed by gastrectomy. Fifty-five patients are required for this study. The primary endpoint of the study is pathological response rate of primary lesions. Secondary endpoints are overall survival, disease-free survival, R0 resection rate and adverse events
Search for VHE gamma rays from SS433/W50 with the CANGAROO-II telescope
SS433, located at the center of the supernova remnant W50, is a close
proximity binary system consisting of a compact star and a normal star. Jets of
material are directed outwards from the vicinity of the compact star
symmetrically to the east and west. Non-thermal hard X-ray emission is detected
from lobes lying on both sides. Shock accelerated electrons are expected to
generate sub-TeV gamma rays through the inverse-Compton process in the lobes.
Observations of the western X-ray lobe region of SS433/W50 system have been
performed to detect sub-TeV gamma-rays using the 10m CANGAROO-II telescope in
August and September, 2001, and July and September, 2002. The total observation
times are 85.2 hours for ON source, and 80.8 hours for OFF source data. No
significant excess of sub-TeV gamma rays has been found at 3 regions of the
western X-ray lobe of SS433/W50 system. We have derived 99% confidence level
upper limits to the fluxes of gamma rays and have set constraints on the
strengths of the magnetic fields assuming the synchrotron/inverse-Compton model
for the wide energy range of photon spectrum from radio to TeV. The derived
lower limits are 4.3 microgauss for the center of the brightest X-ray emission
region and 6.3 microgauss for the far end from SS433 in the western X-ray lobe.
In addition, we suggest that the spot-like X-ray emission may provide a major
contribution to the hardest X-ray spectrum in the lobe.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, to be published in Astroparticle Physic
CANGAROO-III Search for Gamma Rays from SN 1987A and the Surrounding Field
Optical images of SN 1987A show a triple ring structure. The inner (dust)
ring has recently increased in brightness and in the number of hot spots
suggesting that the supernova shock wave has collided with the dense
pre-existing circumstellar medium, a scenario supported by radio and X-ray
observations. Such a shocked environment is widely expected to result in the
acceleration of charged particles, and the accompanying emission of very high
energy gamma-rays. Here, we report the results of observations made in 2004 and
2006 which yield upper limits on the TeV gamma-ray flux, which are compared
with a theoretical prediction. In addition, we set upper limits on the TeV flux
for four high energy objects which are located within the same field of view of
the observation: the super-bubble 30 Dor C, the Crab-like pulsar PSR
B054069, the X-ray binary LMC X-1, and the supernova remnant N157B.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, Accepted for publication in Ap
Observation of Very High Energy Gamma Rays from HESS J1804-216 with CANGAROO-III Telescopes
We observed the unidentified TeV gamma-ray source HESS J1804-216 with the
CANGAROO-III atmospheric Cerenkov telescopes from May to July in 2006. We
detected very high energy gamma rays above 600 GeV at the 10 sigma level in an
effective exposure of 76 hr. We obtained a differential flux of
(5.0+/-1.5_{stat}+/-1.6_{sys})\times 10^{-12}(E/1 TeV)^{-\alpha}
cm^{-2}s^{-1}TeV^{-1} with a photon index \alpha of 2.69 +/- 0.30_{stat} +/-
0.34_{sys}, which is consistent with that of the H.E.S.S. observation in 2004.
We also confirm the extended morphology of the source. By combining our result
with multi-wavelength observations, we discuss the possible counterparts of
HESS J1804-216 and the radiation mechanism based on leptonic and hadronic
processes for a supernova remnant and a pulsar wind nebula.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures, Accepted in Ap
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