骨転移を有しない前立腺がん患者へのアンドロゲン除去療法による骨粗鬆症に対する経口ビスフォスフォネート製剤の予防効果について

We studied the short-term efficacy of alendronate, an oral bisphosphonates, on bone mineral density (BMD) during androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in 45 nonmetastatic prostate cancer patients at the beginning of ADT (treatment group). All received alendronate five mg daily from the initiation of ADT. Lumber BMD was evaluated by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, at baseline and after six months of treatment. Historical data on 24 patients with prostate cancer who received ADT without bisphosphonate administration were studied as controls (control group). BMD decreased in 13.9 and 45.8% of the patients in the treatment and control groups, respectively. Mean BMD changes in the lumber spine were +1.6 +/- 3.0% in the treatment group and -1.1 +/- 2.7% in the control group (p = 0.006). No pathological fractures occurred during the study period. No severe adverse effects were observed, but three patients could not continue alendronate treatment because of adverse events. Despite the short-term of this evaluation, our results showed that oral alendronate is an effective and safe treatment for preventing bone loss and increasing BMD in patients receiving ADT for prostate cancer.目的:アンドロゲン除去療法は骨塩減少とそれに伴う病的骨折の潜在的な危険因子である。点滴ビスフォスフォネート製剤はアンドロゲン除去療法を受けている前立腺がん患者に対する骨塩量の減少を予防することが示されているが経口ビスフォスフォネート製剤については評価されていない。今回, われわれは経口ビスフォスフォネート製剤の1つであるアレンドン酸を骨転移を有しない前立腺がん患者に投与して骨塩量を測定し短期間での効果を検討した。対象と方法:治療群として45人の骨転移を有しない前立腺がん患者について検討した。アレンドロン酸を1日5mg経口投与し治療前, 治療半年後に腰椎の骨塩量を測定し比較検討した。対照群として24人の骨転移を有しない前立腺がん患者についても同様に検討を行った。結果:骨塩量の減少は治療群で13.9%, 対照群で45.8%に見られた。腰椎における骨塩量の変化は治療群で平均1.6%, 対照群で-1.1%であった(p=0.006)。治療期間内において病的骨折は認められず, 有害事象として重篤なものは認めなかったが副作用のため3例が内服継続困難であった。結語:短期間の検討であるにもかかわらず経口ビスフォスフォネート製剤であるアレンドロン酸は前立腺がん患者に対するアンドロゲン除去療法による骨塩量減少を予防するのに有効で安全な治療法であることが示唆された。(著者抄録

Search for a stochastic background of 100-MHz gravitational waves with laser interferometers

This letter reports the results of a search for a stochastic background of gravitational waves (GW) at 100 MHz by laser interferometry. We have developed a GW detector, which is a pair of 75-cm baseline synchronous recycling (resonant recycling) interferometers. Each interferometer has a strain sensitivity of ~ 10^{-16} Hz^{-1/2} at 100 MHz. By cross-correlating the outputs of the two interferometers within 1000 seconds, we found h_{100}^2 Omega_{gw} < 6 times 10^{25} to be an upper limit on the energy density spectrum of the GW background in a 2-kHz bandwidth around 100 MHz, where a flat spectrum is assumed.Comment: Accepted by Phys.Rev.Lett.; 10 pages, 4 figure

First Results of Axion Dark Matter Search with DANCE

Axions are one of the well-motivated candidates for dark matter, originally proposed to solve the strong CP problem in particle physics. Dark matter Axion search with riNg Cavity Experiment (DANCE) is a new experimental project to broadly search for axion dark matter in the mass range of $10^{-17}~\mathrm{eV} < m_a < 10^{-11}~\mathrm{eV}$. We aim to detect the rotational oscillation of linearly polarized light caused by the axion-photon coupling with a bow-tie cavity. The first results of the prototype experiment, DANCE Act-1, are reported from a 24-hour observation. We found no evidence for axions and set 95% confidence level upper limit on the axion-photon coupling $g_{a \gamma} \lesssim 8 \times 10^{-4}~\mathrm{GeV^{-1}}$ in $10^{-14}~\mathrm{eV} < m_a < 10^{-13}~\mathrm{eV}$. Although the bound did not exceed the current best limits, this optical cavity experiment is the first demonstration of polarization-based axion dark matter search without any external magnetic field.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

Modeling Transceiver BER-OSNR Characteristic for QoT Estimation in Short-Reach Systems

A transceiver BER-OSNR model is validated and applied the Q-factor estimation for short-reach systems. Experiments using pluggable transceivers with commercial DSPs show that the modeling and estimation errors are less than 0.05 dB and 0.15 dB, respectively

Accuracy of Nonlinear Interference Estimation on Launch Power Optimization in Short-Reach Systems with Field Trial

We show that even the approximate formula of the Gaussian noise model is accurate enough for launch power optimization in short-reach systems. We compare simulation and field trial results using two fiber types, showing the estimation error of signal Q-factor is less than 0.02 dB