Soil respiration rates of seasonally frozen soils in Ny-Ålesund

The Tenth Symposium on Polar Science/Ordinary sessions : [OB] Polar Biology, Wed. 4 Dec. / Entrance Hall (1st floor) , National Institute of Polar Researc

Effects of mask fitness and worker education on the prevention of occupational dust exposure

To decrease the incidence of pneumoconiosis, we examined dust protective mask performance and its relation to pulmonary function as well as the effects of worker education on the proper wearing of masks. One hundred and seventy-eight workers from 15 factories subject to dust exposure participated in this study. All participants were interviewed to obtain relevant personal information and underwent both a mask leakage and a pulmonary function test. The mask leakage was expressed as a percentage, with under 10% leakage indicating that the dust protective mask worked efficiently. In addition, 23 workers from 2 factories were educated on how to wear masks properly. The average mask leakage was 24.3%, and 58% of workers wore ineffective masks. Though pulmonary function was almost normal, the percent vital capacity (%VC) tended to be lower depending on the mask leakage. Mask education, which was very easy and took only a short time, dramatically decreased average mask leakage from 32.1% to 10.5% (p0.001). Educating workers to wear masks properly might prevent the worsening of pulmonary function in response to dust exposure. Appropriate mask fitness by education could be useful in preventing the development of pneumoconiosis.</p

Anti-IL-6 Receptor Antibody Causes Less Promotion of Tuberculosis Infection than Anti-TNF-α Antibody in Mice

Objective. Our aim was to investigate the effects of IL-6 blockade on the progression of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) and compare them with those of TNF-α blockade in mice. Methods. Mice were intravenously infected with TB and injected with antibodies. Survival was monitored and histological and immunological studies were carried out. Results. All anti-IL-6R Ab-treated mice and 8 of 10 control mice survived until sacrificed 224 days after TB challenge, whereas anti-TNF-α Ab-treated mice all died between 120 and 181 days. Anti-IL-6R Ab-treated mice exhibited no significant differences in TB CFU in organs, including the lungs, and no deterioration in histopathology compared to control mice at 4 weeks. In contrast, anti-TNF-α Ab-treated mice exhibited increased TB CFU and greater progression of histopathological findings in organs than control mice. Spleen cells from anti-TNF-α Ab-treated mice had decreased antigen-specific response in IFN-γ release and proliferation assays. The results in anti-IL-6R Ab-treated mice suggest that spleen cell responses were decreased to a lesser degree. Similar results were obtained in IL-6 knockout (KO) mice, compared with TNF receptor 1 (TNFR1) KO and TNFR1/IL-6 double KO (DKO) mice. Conclusion. IL-6R blockade promotes the progression of TB infection in mice far less than TNF-α blockade

Risk Factors for Death among the Functionally Independent Elderly Living in Japan: A 3-Year Prospective Cohort Study

To examine risk factors for death in Japanese elderly men and women who live ordinary lives in a community, we performed a prospective cohort study in Kishimoto Town, Tottori Prefecture, Japan. In September 2001, the town population of the elderly who were 65 years and older and who lived functionally independently with or without family was 1383. We delivered questionnaires to them, and collected 1313 (94.9%) answers. Of the 1313, 29 were highly suggestive to dependent living. Subjects of the baseline survey consisted of 1284 independent elderly, excluding the 29. The subjects themselves reported answers to our questionnaire items concerning demographic variables (age, family), history of disease, homebound condition (place of daily activities), activity of daily living (walking, excreting), lifestyle (tobacco), psychology and mental status (subjective health), quality of life (domestic role) and physical status (body pain, experience of falling). They were followed-up for 3 years until August 2004. We examined correlations between their deaths during the follow-up (total number of deaths, 79: 49 men and 30 women) and potential factors for death using the Cox proportional hazard model. By the multivariate analysis of these variables, we observed that elderly men had four risk factors for death: age (hazard ratio and 95% con?dence interval; 1.09 and 1.04?1.14), subjective health (2.45 and 1.40?4.30), domestic role (2.21 and 1.22?4.01) and tobacco (1.96 and 1.10?3.48). Elderly women had two risk factors, age (1.13 and 1.07?1.20) and physical ability or skill in handling banking duties (one of competence indexes for elderly activities of daily living) (2.45 and 1.12?5.39). Most noticeably, in the present elderly Japanese living functionally independently, death was signi?cantly correlated with psychosocial factors (subjective health, domestic role) rather than physical factors (restriction of going outside due to incontinence)

Webサイトの健康食品情報の信頼性・信憑性について

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the reliability of Japanese websites providing health food information. We used the search engine "Google Japan". The search keyword was "health food", "health food and lifestyle-related disease", or "health food

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

Review Article : Feudalism or Absolute Monarchism?

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68809/2/10.1177_009770049001600304.pd