Rapid decomposition of asbestos and with various additives

The toxicity of asbestos is widely known, and various methods are being investigated to decompose asbestos into harmless compounds. The authors previously reported that asbestos-cement composites, a general waste material including asbestos, can be decomposed into harmless substances by adding small amounts of CaCl2 and then heating to 700℃ [1-3]. Recycling decomposed asbestos as a raw ingredient for cement is crucial in using this result industrially. However, compounds including chlorine form in decomposed asbestos, preventing of use in production of cement. The authors investigated additives other than CaCl2 in decomposition, and found that reagent-grade asbestos can be decomposed by adding 5mass% of additive and heating for 15 seconds at a low temperature of 900℃

Rapid decomposition of asbestos and with various additives

The toxicity of asbestos is widely known, and various methods are being investigated to decompose asbestos into harmless compounds. The authors previously reported that asbestos-cement composites, a general waste material including asbestos, can be decomposed into harmless substances by adding small amounts of CaCl2 and then heating to 700℃ [1-3]. Recycling decomposed asbestos as a raw ingredient for cement is crucial in using this result industrially. However, compounds including chlorine form in decomposed asbestos, preventing of use in production of cement. The authors investigated additives other than CaCl2 in decomposition, and found that reagent-grade asbestos can be decomposed by adding 5mass% of additive and heating for 15 seconds at a low temperature of 900℃

Star Formation Timescales of the Halo Populations from Asteroseismology and Chemical Abundances

We combine asteroseismology, optical high-resolution spectroscopy, and kinematic analysis for 26 halo red giant branch stars in the \textit{Kepler} field in the range of $-2.5<[\mathrm{{Fe}/{H}}]<-0.6$. After applying theoretically motivated corrections to the seismic scaling relations, we obtain an average mass of $0.97\pm 0.03\,\mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ for our sample of halo stars. Although this maps into an age of $\sim 7\,\mathrm{Gyr}$, significantly younger than independent age estimates of the Milky Way stellar halo, we considerer this apparently young age is due to the overestimation of stellar mass in the scaling relations. There is no significant mass dispersion among lower red giant branch stars ($\log g>2$), which constrains a relative age dispersion to $<18\%$, corresponding to $<2\,\mathrm{Gyr}$. The precise chemical abundances allow us to separate the stars with [{Fe}/{H}]$>-1.7$ into two [{Mg}/{Fe}] groups. While [$\alpha$/{Fe}] and [{Eu}/{Mg}] ratios are different between the two subsamples, [$s$/Eu], where $s$ stands for Ba, La, Ce, and Nd, does not show a significant difference. These abundance ratios suggest that the chemical evolution of the low-Mg population is contributed by type~Ia supernovae, but not by low-to-intermediate mass asymptotic giant branch stars, providing a constraint on its star formation timescale as $100\,\mathrm{Myr}<\tau<300\,\mathrm{Myr}$. We also do not detect any significant mass difference between the two [{Mg}/{Fe}] groups, thus suggesting that their formation epochs are not separated by more than 1.5 Gyr.Comment: 44 pages. accepted versio

Amendment of the Japanese Consensus Guidelines for Autoimmune Pancreatitis, 2013 II. Extrapancreatic lesions, differential diagnosis

Published online: 25 March 2014ArticleJOURNAL OF GASTROENTEROLOGY. 49(5):765-784 (2014)journal articl

Independent association of HLA-DPB1*02:01 with rheumatoid arthritis in Japanese populations

ObjectiveRheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized with joint destructions; environmental and genetic factors were thought to be involved in the etiology of RA. The production of anti-citrullinated peptide antibodies (ACPA) is specifically associated with RA. DRB1 is associated with the susceptibility of RA, especially ACPA-positive RA [ACPA(+)RA]. However, a few studies reported on the independent associations of DPB1 alleles with RA susceptibility. Thus, we investigated the independent association of DPB1 alleles with RA in Japanese populations.MethodsAssociation analyses of DPB1 were conducted by logistic regression analysis in 1667 RA patients and 413 controls.ResultsIn unconditioned analysis, DPB1*04:02 was nominally associated with the susceptibility of ACPA(+)RA (P = 0.0021, corrected P (Pc) = 0.0275, odds ratio [OR] 1.52, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.16–1.99). A significant association of DPB1*02:01 with the susceptibility of ACPA(+)RA was observed, when conditioned on DRB1 (Padjusted = 0.0003, Pcadjusted = 0.0040, ORadjusted 1.47, 95%CI 1.19–1.81). DPB1*05:01 was tended to be associated with the protection against ACPA(+)RA, when conditioned on DRB1 (Padjusted = 0.0091, Pcadjusted = 0.1184, ORadjusted 0.78, 95%CI 0.65–0.94). When conditioned on DRB1, the association of DPB1*04:02 with ACPA(+)RA was disappeared. No association of DPB1 alleles with ACPA-negative RA was detected.ConclusionThe independent association of DPB1*02:01 with Japanese ACPA(+)RA was identified

Phylogeography of Ostreopsis along West Pacific Coast, with Special Reference to a Novel Clade from Japan

BACKGROUND: A dinoflagellate genus Ostreopsis is known as a potential producer of Palytoxin derivatives. Palytoxin is the most potent non-proteinaceous compound reported so far. There has been a growing number of reports on palytoxin-like poisonings in southern areas of Japan; however, the distribution of Ostreopsis has not been investigated so far. Morphological plasticity of Ostreopsis makes reliable microscopic identification difficult so the employment of molecular tools was desirable. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDING: In total 223 clones were examined from samples mainly collected from southern areas of Japan. The D8-D10 region of the nuclear large subunit rDNA (D8-D10) was selected as a genetic marker and phylogenetic analyses were conducted. Although most of the clones were unable to be identified, there potentially 8 putative species established during this study. Among them, Ostreopsis sp. 1-5 did not belong to any known clade, and each of them formed its own clade. The dominant species was Ostreopsis sp. 1, which accounted for more than half of the clones and which was highly toxic and only distributed along the Japanese coast. Comparisons between the D8-D10 and the Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region of the nuclear rDNA, which has widely been used for phylogenetic/phylogeographic studies in Ostreopsis, revealed that the D8-D10 was less variable than the ITS, making consistent and reliable phylogenetic reconstruction possible. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This study unveiled a surprisingly diverse and widespread distribution of Japanese Ostreopsis. Further study will be required to better understand the phylogeography of the genus. Our results posed the urgent need for the development of the early detection/warning systems for Ostreopsis, particularly for the widely distributed and strongly toxic Ostreopsis sp. 1. The D8-D10 marker will be suitable for these purposes