Sound Attenuation in Magnetic Metals(Physics)

The anomalous sound attenuation due to spin fluctuations near the magnetic phase transition temperatures in itinerant magnets and the rare earth metals is theoretically studied. By applying Tsuneto and Kadanoff and Falko\u27s formulas, the attenuation coefficient is calculated. The calculated results explain the critical anomalies observed in magnetic metals such as Ni and Gd. By comparing the results with that for insulating magnets, the expression of the exchange striction is obtained. The effect of magnetic field on the critical attenuation is discussed

Short Range Order of Spins in Cu(NO_3)_22.5H_2O under Magnetic Field

In Cu(NO_3)_22.5H_2O, the Cu^ ions are coupled in almost isolated pairs by antiferromagnetic exchange interaction, and the pairs are considered to be linked in one-dimensional way by weak inter-pair exchange interaction. In an external magnetic field, the ground singlet of the pair crosses the lowest component of the excited triplet at about H=36kOe. In the vicinity of the point of level crossing, a large amount of the short range order of the spin component perpendicular to the field appears at sufficiently low temperatures. An anomaly found by Haseda et al. in their experiment of cooling by adiabatic magnetization of the crystal can be explained as the occurrence of this short range order

Subionospheric LF monitoring of ionospheric perturbations prior to the Tokachi-oki earthquake and a possible mechanism of lithosphere-ionosphere coupling

We first present the results of simultaneous monitoring of subionospheric LF propagation over two different paths prior to a very strong Tokachi-oki earthquake (near the east coast of Hokkaido Island on September 25, 2003) with magnitude 8.3. Nighttime amplitude fluctuations of the Japanese Time Standard Transmitter (JJY, 40 kHz) signal received at Moshiri (Japan, geographic coordinates 44°N, 142°E) and at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski, Russia (53°N, 158°E) were analyzed. As a possible precursory signature we observed synchronous intensification of quasi-periodic 16-day variations of the dispersion in the signals received at both observation stations before the earthquake. The strongest deviations observed as a rule were depletions of signal amplitude probably connected with an increase in loss in the ionosphere by the enhancement of turbulence. This is due to dissipation of internal gravity waves (IGW) at the lower ionospheric heights. A scenario of interconnection between seismo-activity, atmospheric gravity waves and planetary waves, is proposed to explain the observed association with strong earthquakes

Periods of Long Period Superlattices in Alloys

Domain sizes of long period superlattices in alloys are calculated by minimizing the ordering energy which mainly originates from the energy of conduction electrons. The domain size M thus obtained has a strong tendency to be fixed at integral numbers. This tendency explains the experimental results that the periods are fixed at M=2 in A_3B-type alloys, such as Au-Cd, Au-Zn, and Pd-Mn, independently of their electron-atom ratios. The anomalous dependence of M on the electron-atom ratio in the Ag-Mg alloy system is also explained

High phosphate diet reduces atherosclerosis formation in apolipoprotein E-deficient mice

Although higher serum phosphate level is a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases in general population as well as chronic kidney disease patients, it has not been clarified whether higher phosphate can affect atherosclerotic plaque formation. In this study, we investigated the effect of prolonged-intake of different concentrations of phosphate on atherosclerosis formation using apolipoprotein E-deficient mice. Apolipoprotein E-deficient mice were fed with high fat diet including 0.6%, 1.2% or 1.8% phosphate. After 20-week treatment, atherosclerotic plaque formation in aorta in 1.8% phosphate diet group was unexpectedly less than that in the other groups. To elucidate mechanisms of suppression of plaque formation by high phosphate diet, we hypothesized that high phosphate diet may modify a profile of monocytes/macrophages suppressing plaque formation. We confirmed that elevated peripheral monocytes (CD11b+, F4/80+ cell numbers) in apolipoprotein E-deficient mice were decreased by feeding with 1.8% P diet. In addition, ex vivo study indicated that high dose of phosphate induced macrophage apoptosis. These observations suggest that excess phosphate intake decreased atherosclerosis formation, at least in part, by changing the profile of peripheral monocytes or inducing apoptosis of macrophages in apolipoprotein E-deficient mice

生涯スポーツ的見地から見たスポーツクラブの存続性に関する研究

Recently, lifelong sport is regarded as important in Japan. This advocation for lifelong sport was caused by the discussion on lifelong education at the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultual Organization in 1965. The lifelong sport mainly aims at the maintenance of sport activity through life. Thus, one sport clubs\u27 functions may give each member the opportunity to maintain sport activity in club. In this study some determinant factors for continuation of sport club and the characteristics of sport clubs which were maintained for many years were observed from the investigation of characteristics for sport clubs which were located at seven cities in Aichi Prefecture. Sport clubs were divided into two groups : group A consisted sport clubs which were maintain over 10 years ; group B, under 5 years. The results obtained in this study were statistically analized by means of X^2 test. The result were summarized as follows, 1) In group A, many clubs were essentially established by employees who served in the same company. 2) Sport events provided in group A were mainly popular sports in Japan. 3) Most clubs of group A have the definite purposes to develop skills, to win a game and so on. 4) The numbers of instructor in group A were higher than in group B. 5) More frequencies of practice were observed in group A. 6) Group A had higher skill levels than in group B. 7) The club finance and sport facilities were abundant in group A

スポーツクラブの存続性とクラブ員の参加度に関する研究

本研究を通して, 存続性・参加度を同時に満たしているクラブ群と満たしていないクラブ群とを比較検討した結果, 以下の集団特性が明らかになった。つまり, 存続性・参加度を同時に満たしているクラブ群は, 財政的に自己資金 (会費収入) と企業からの補助金で運営されているが, 満たしていないクラブ群は, 自己資金 (会費収入) だけで運営している。加入条件については, いずれのクラブ群も大多数が有してはいるが, 存続性・参加度を同時に満たしているクラブ群において職域的条件を規定しているのが特徴的である。補助金の内容と考え合わせると存続性・参加度を同時に満たしているクラブ群には, 職場を基盤として派生したクラブが多くなっている。種目構成としては, 存続性・参加度を同時に満たしているクラブ群が野球・バレーボールという種目を実施しているのに対し, 満たしていないクラブ群ではサッカーが多くなっている。競技レベルでは, 存続性・参加度を同時に満たしているクラブ群が, 満たしていないクラブ群より高くなっている。さらに, 存続性・参加度を同時に満たしているクラブ群は, 定期的練習を週単位で行っており, そのための施設としては公的・私的 (企業) 施設の利用が多く, 定期的な利用が可能である。それに対し, 満たしていないクラブ群では, 定期的練習の有る割合が低くなっている。施設利用については, 公的施設の利用が大部分であり, 定期的な利用については, 満たしているクラブ群より困難になっている。指導者については, 存続性・参加度を同時に満たしているクラブ群が, 満たしていないクラブ群より専任指導者を多く有しており, 報酬制度を確立しているクラブも見うけられる。以上の集団特性から, 存続性・参加度を同時に規定する要因として, (1) クラブ運営費の確立立法, (2) 種目構成, (3) 競技レベルの高さ, (4) 加入条件の存在, (5) 定期的練習の確保があげられる。As a policy for fixing daily sport activity in community people, sport clubs were established in most. Some sport clubs keep their function of club activities, however some sport clubs have disrupted. Functioning sport clubs may not only continue over a long period of time but also have a high rate of participation of members. The purpose of this study is to clarify the factors prescribing the club continuance and the participation of members. In this study, the clubs were divided into two groups on the basis of the results on club continuance and participation of members; good group (Continuance over 10 years and above 80% of participation of members) and poor group (Has less 5 years of continuance as sport club and under 40% of participation of members). The results of comparison with two groups were summarized as follows, 1) Good group operate at the expenses of members\u27 fee and funds. On the other hand, poor group operate at the expenses of only members\u27 fee. 2) Both good and poor group have their own entrance qualifications. However, most good group limited to the employee who work in the same company as a club member. 3) Most good group adopted baseball or volleyball as main club sport activity, however most members of poor group participated in soccer club. 4) Athletic level of good group were higher than that of poor group. 5) Good group practiced more regularly than the poor group

The Impact of Tofogliflozin on Physiological and Hormonal Function, Serum Electrolytes, and Cardiac Diastolic Function in Elderly Japanese Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

The sodium glucose transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor tofogliflozin is a glucose-lowering drug that causes the excretion of surplus glucose by inhibiting SGLT2. Because of tofogliflozin’s osmotic diuresis mechanism, patients’ serum electrolytes, body fluid levels, and cardiac function must be monitored. We retrospectively analyzed the cases of 64 elderly Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) who received tofogliflozin for 3 months. Their HbA1c, serum electrolytes (sodium, potassium, chloride), hematocrit, brain natriuretic peptide (cardiac volume load marker) and renin and aldosterone (RAA; an index of regulatory hormones involved in body fluid retention) were continuously monitored during the investigation period. Renal function and cardiac function (by echocardiography) were assessed throughout the period. HbA1c significantly decreased (β1=−0.341, p<0.0001, linear regression analysis [LRA]). Most of the hormonal, electrolyte, and physiological parameters were maintained throughout the study period. In these circumstances, E/e’ tended to decrease (β1=−0.382, p=0.13, LRA). Compared to the baseline, E/e’ was significantly decreased at 1 and 3 months (p<0.01, p<0.05). In the higher E/e’ group (E/e’≥10, n=34), E/e’ decreased significantly (β1=−0.63, p<0.05, LRA). ΔE/e’ was correlated with body-weight change during treatment (r=0.64, p<0.01). The 3-month tofogliflozin treatment improved glycemic control and diastolic function represented by E/e’ in T2DM patients, without affecting serum electrolytes, renal function, or RAA. No negative impacts on the patients were observed. Three-month tofogliflozin treatment lowered glucose and improved cardiac diastolic function

Alpha-CaMKII deficiency causes immature dentate gyrus, a novel candidate endophenotype of psychiatric disorders

Elucidating the neural and genetic factors underlying psychiatric illness is hampered by current methods of clinical diagnosis. The identification and investigation of clinical endophenotypes may be one solution, but represents a considerable challenge in human subjects. Here we report that mice heterozygous for a null mutation of the alpha-isoform of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (alpha-CaMKII+/-) have profoundly dysregulated behaviours and impaired neuronal development in the dentate gyrus (DG). The behavioral abnormalities include a severe working memory deficit and an exaggerated infradian rhythm, which are similar to symptoms seen in schizophrenia, bipolar mood disorder and other psychiatric disorders. Transcriptome analysis of the hippocampus of these mutants revealed that the expression levels of more than 2000 genes were significantly changed. Strikingly, among the 20 most downregulated genes, 5 had highly selective expression in the DG. Whereas BrdU incorporated cells in the mutant mouse DG was increased by more than 50 percent, the number of mature neurons in the DG was dramatically decreased. Morphological and physiological features of the DG neurons in the mutants were strikingly similar to those of immature DG neurons in normal rodents. Moreover, c-Fos expression in the DG after electric footshock was almost completely and selectively abolished in the mutants. Statistical clustering of human post-mortem brains using 10 genes differentially-expressed in the mutant mice were used to classify individuals into two clusters, one of which contained 16 of 18 schizophrenic patients. Nearly half of the differentially-expressed probes in the schizophrenia-enriched cluster encoded genes that are involved in neurogenesis or in neuronal migration/maturation, including calbindin, a marker for mature DG neurons. Based on these results, we propose that an "immature DG" in adulthood might induce alterations in behavior and serve as a promising candidate endophenotype of schizophrenia and other human psychiatric disorders

A machine learning model for predicting the lymph node metastasis of early gastric cancer not meeting the endoscopic curability criteria

The version of record of this article, first published in Gastric Cancer, is available online at Publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10120-024-01511-8.Background: We developed a machine learning (ML) model to predict the risk of lymph node metastasis (LNM) in patients with early gastric cancer (EGC) who did not meet the existing Japanese endoscopic curability criteria and compared its performance with that of the most common clinical risk scoring system, the eCura system. Methods: We used data from 4,042 consecutive patients with EGC from 21 institutions who underwent endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) and/or surgery between 2010 and 2021. All resected EGCs were histologically confirmed not to satisfy the current Japanese endoscopic curability criteria. Of all patients, 3,506 constituted the training cohort to develop the neural network-based ML model, and 536 constituted the validation cohort. The performance of our ML model, as measured by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), was compared with that of the eCura system in the validation cohort. Results: LNM rates were 14% (503/3,506) and 7% (39/536) in the training and validation cohorts, respectively. The ML model identified patients with LNM with an AUC of 0.83 (95% confidence interval, 0.76–0.89) in the validation cohort, while the eCura system identified patients with LNM with an AUC of 0.77 (95% confidence interval, 0.70–0.85) (P = 0.006, DeLong’s test). Conclusions: Our ML model performed better than the eCura system for predicting LNM risk in patients with EGC who did not meet the existing Japanese endoscopic curability criteria. Mini-abstract: We developed a neural network-based machine learning model that predicts the risk of lymph node metastasis in patients with early gastric cancer who did not meet the endoscopic curability criteria