Technique of Acetabular Roof Plasty Examined by Photo-elastic Experiment.

As factors governing the result of acetabular roof plasty, the position, length and congruity of the acetabular roof which has been formed has been pointed out to be important. In particular, with the passage of time after operation, a tendency often develops for the ossal roof to be absorbed. One of the causes of this tendency is said to be traced to the thickness of the acetabular roof. Thus, this author prepared 12 kinds of models patterned after 12 portions of bone which has been made by combining the normal acetabulum, the substantially thick acetabular roof, the acetabular roof of a medium thickness and thin acetabular roof with the femur with the normal angle of the femoral neck with the shaft, that with the coxa vara and that with the coxa valga. On these models, the author made two-dimensional photo-elastic experiments, giving each of them 10 kg of load. As a result, it was found that, while the compressive stress exerted on the normal acetabulum was 0.38 kg/min2, that on the substantially thick acetabular roof was 0.57 kg/mm2, that on the acetabular roof of a medium thickness was 0.76 kg/mm2 and that on the thin acetabular roof was 1.14 kg/mm2, demonstrating that, the thinner is the acetabular roof, significantly the greater is the compressive stress on it. As to the distribution of compressive stress on the portion below the femoral neck, while the normal femur had a compressive stress of 1.14 kg/mm2 on the inner margin and a tensile stress of 0.76 kg/mm2 on the outer margin, the femur with the coxa vara had a compressive stress of 1.71 kg/mm2 on the inner margin and a tensile stress of 1.14 kg/mm2 on the outer margin, showing that the latter kind of femur had much greater stress than the former. The femur with the coxa valga had a compressive stress of 0.76kg/mm2 on the inner margin and a tensile stress of 0.57 kg/mm2 on the outer margin, which shows that in either case this kind of femur had much less stress than the normal femur. Based on the result of these experiments, it may be said, as has been stressed by Kawamura et al. that in acetabular roof plasty of the normal femur, the most ideal method is to pile up plenty of bone chips on the ossal roof, and that, in the operation of subluxation accompanied by the coxa valgus, it is most important to make the angle of the femoral neck to the shaft normal or varus lest it should have reluxation.departmental bulletin pape

Polyakov loop and QCD thermodynamics from the gluon and ghost propagators

We investigate quark deconfinement by calculating the effective potential of the Polyakov loop using the non-perturbative propagators in the Landau gauge measured in the finite-temperature lattice simulation. With the leading term in the 2-particle-irreducible formalism the resultant effective potential exhibits a first-order phase transitions for the pure SU(3) Yang-Mills theory at the critical temperature consistent with the empirical value. We also estimate the thermodynamic quantities to confirm qualitative agreement with the lattice data near the critical temperature. We then apply our effective potential to the chiral model study and calculate the order parameters and the thermodynamic quantities. Unlike the case in the pure Yang-Mills theory the thermodynamic quantities are sensitive to the temperature dependence of the non-perturbative propagators, while the behavior of the order parameters is less sensitive, which implies the importance of the precise determination of the temperature-dependent propagators.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures; major update with new calculations and all figures improved significantl

Investigation of meson masses for real and imaginary chemical potential

We investigate chemical-potential ($\mu$) and temperature ($T$) dependence of scalar and pseudo-scalar meson masses for both real and imaginary $\mu$, using the Polyakov-loop extended Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model with three-flavor quarks. A three-flavor phase diagram is drawn in $\mu^2$-$T$ plane where positive (negative) $\mu^2$ corresponds to positive (imaginary) $\mu$. A critical surface is plotted as a function of light- and strange-quark current mass and $\mu^2$. We show that $\mu$-dependence of the six-quark Kobayashi-Maskawa-'t Hooft (KMT) determinant interaction originated in $U_\mathrm{A}(1)$ anomaly can be determined from lattice QCD data on $\eta'$ meson mass around $\mu =0$ and $\mu = i \pi T/3$ with $T$ slightly above the critical temperature at $\mu=0$ where the chiral symmetry is restored at $\mu=0$ but broken at $\mu =i \pi T/3$, if it is measured in future.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figure

Concentrations and size distributions of black carbon in the surface snow of Eastern Antarctica in 2011

The Tenth Symposium on Polar Science/Ordinary sessions: [OM] Polar Meteorology and Glaciology, Thu. 5 Dec. / 2F Auditorium , National Institute of Polar Researc

Effects of Intermediates between Vitamins K2 and K3 on Mammalian DNA Polymerase Inhibition and Anti-Inflammatory Activity

Previously, we reported that vitamin K3 (VK3), but not VK1 or VK2 (=MK-4), inhibits the activity of human DNA polymerase γ (pol γ). In this study, we chemically synthesized three intermediate compounds between VK2 and VK3, namely MK-3, MK-2 and MK-1, and investigated the inhibitory effects of all five compounds on the activity of mammalian pols. Among these compounds, MK-2 was the strongest inhibitor of mammalian pols α, κ and λ, which belong to the B, Y and X families of pols, respectively; whereas VK3 was the strongest inhibitor of human pol γ, an A-family pol. MK-2 potently inhibited the activity of all animal species of pol tested, and its inhibitory effect on pol λ activity was the strongest with an IC50 value of 24.6 μM. However, MK-2 did not affect the activity of plant or prokaryotic pols, or that of other DNA metabolic enzymes such as primase of pol α, RNA polymerase, polynucleotide kinase or deoxyribonuclease I. Because we previously found a positive relationship between pol λ inhibition and anti-inflammatory action, we examined whether these compounds could inhibit inflammatory responses. Among the five compounds tested, MK-2 caused the greatest reduction in 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA)-induced acute inflammation in mouse ear. In addition, in a cell culture system using mouse macrophages, MK-2 displayed the strongest suppression of the production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Moreover, MK-2 was found to inhibit the action of nuclear factor (NF)-κB. In an in vivo mouse model of LPS-evoked acute inflammation, intraperitoneal injection of MK-2 in mice led to suppression of TNF-α production in serum. In conclusion, this study has identified VK2 and VK3 intermediates, such as MK-2, that are promising anti-inflammatory candidates

A novel underuse model shows that inactivity but not ovariectomy determines the deteriorated material properties and geometry of cortical bone in the tibia of adult rats

Our goal in this study was to determine to what extent the physiologic consequences of ovariectomy (OVX) in bones are exacerbated by a lack of daily activity such as walking. We forced 14-week-old female rats to be inactive for 15 weeks with a unique experimental system that prevents standing and walking while allowing other movements. Tibiae, femora, and 4th lumbar vertebrae were analyzed by peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT), microfocused X-ray computed tomography (micro-CT), histology, histomorphometry, Raman spectroscopy, and the three-point bending test. Contrary to our expectation, the exacerbation was very much limited to the cancellous bone parameters. Parameters of femur and tibia cortical bone were affected by the forced inactivity but not by OVX: (1) cross-sectional moment of inertia was significantly smaller in Sham-Inactive rat bones than that of their walking counterparts; (2) the number of sclerostin-positive osteocytes per unit cross-sectional area was larger in Sham-Inactive rat bones than in Sham-Walking rat bones; and (3) material properties such as ultimate stress of inactive rat tibia was lower than that of their walking counterparts. Of note, the additive effect of inactivity and OVX was seen only in a few parameters, such as the cancellous bone mineral density of the lumbar vertebrae and the structural parameters of cancellous bone in the lumbar vertebrae/tibiae. It is concluded that the lack of daily activity is detrimental to the strength and quality of cortical bone in the femur and tibia of rats, while lack of estrogen is not. Our inactive rat model, with the older rats, will aid the study of postmenopausal osteoporosis, the etiology of which may be both hormonal and mechanical

Use of the index of pulmonary vascular disease for predicting long-term outcome of pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with congenital heart disease

AimsLimited data exist on risk factors for the long-term outcome of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) associated with congenital heart disease (CHD-PAH). We focused on the index of pulmonary vascular disease (IPVD), an assessment system for pulmonary artery pathology specimens. The IPVD classifies pulmonary vascular lesions into four categories based on severity: (1) no intimal thickening, (2) cellular thickening of the intima, (3) fibrous thickening of the intima, and (4) destruction of the tunica media, with the overall grade expressed as an additive mean of these scores. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between IPVD and the long-term outcome of CHD-PAH.MethodsThis retrospective study examined lung pathology images of 764 patients with CHD-PAH aged <20 years whose lung specimens were submitted to the Japanese Research Institute of Pulmonary Vasculature for pulmonary pathological review between 2001 and 2020. Clinical information was collected retrospectively by each attending physician. The primary endpoint was cardiovascular death.ResultsThe 5-year, 10-year, 15-year, and 20-year cardiovascular death-free survival rates for all patients were 92.0%, 90.4%, 87.3%, and 86.1%, respectively. The group with an IPVD of ≥2.0 had significantly poorer survival than the group with an IPVD <2.0 (P = .037). The Cox proportional hazards model adjusted for the presence of congenital anomaly syndromes associated with pulmonary hypertension, and age at lung biopsy showed similar results (hazard ratio 4.46; 95% confidence interval: 1.45–13.73; P = .009).ConclusionsThe IPVD scoring system is useful for predicting the long-term outcome of CHD-PAH. For patients with an IPVD of ≥2.0, treatment strategies, including choosing palliative procedures such as pulmonary artery banding to restrict pulmonary blood flow and postponement of intracardiac repair, should be more carefully considered

Omecamtiv mecarbil in chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, GALACTIC‐HF: baseline characteristics and comparison with contemporary clinical trials

Aims: The safety and efficacy of the novel selective cardiac myosin activator, omecamtiv mecarbil, in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) is tested in the Global Approach to Lowering Adverse Cardiac outcomes Through Improving Contractility in Heart Failure (GALACTIC‐HF) trial. Here we describe the baseline characteristics of participants in GALACTIC‐HF and how these compare with other contemporary trials. Methods and Results: Adults with established HFrEF, New York Heart Association functional class (NYHA) ≥ II, EF ≤35%, elevated natriuretic peptides and either current hospitalization for HF or history of hospitalization/ emergency department visit for HF within a year were randomized to either placebo or omecamtiv mecarbil (pharmacokinetic‐guided dosing: 25, 37.5 or 50 mg bid). 8256 patients [male (79%), non‐white (22%), mean age 65 years] were enrolled with a mean EF 27%, ischemic etiology in 54%, NYHA II 53% and III/IV 47%, and median NT‐proBNP 1971 pg/mL. HF therapies at baseline were among the most effectively employed in contemporary HF trials. GALACTIC‐HF randomized patients representative of recent HF registries and trials with substantial numbers of patients also having characteristics understudied in previous trials including more from North America (n = 1386), enrolled as inpatients (n = 2084), systolic blood pressure < 100 mmHg (n = 1127), estimated glomerular filtration rate < 30 mL/min/1.73 m2 (n = 528), and treated with sacubitril‐valsartan at baseline (n = 1594). Conclusions: GALACTIC‐HF enrolled a well‐treated, high‐risk population from both inpatient and outpatient settings, which will provide a definitive evaluation of the efficacy and safety of this novel therapy, as well as informing its potential future implementation