345 research outputs found
Theta lifts to certain cohomological representations of indefinite orthogonal groups
Howe and Tan (1993) investigated a degenerate principal series representation
of indefinite orthogonal groups and explicitly described its
composition series. They showed that there exists a unique unitarizable
irreducible submodule , which is isomorphic to a cohomological
representation. In this paper we construct orthogonal automorphic forms
belonging to as theta liftings of holomorphic
cusp forms by using the Borcherds' method. We will give a useful observation in
computing their Fourier expansions that enables us to give very precise
descriptions of the liftings specially belonging to . We will also
determine the cuspidal supports of the liftings, then confirm the square
integrability of those automorphic forms on orthogonal groups.Comment: 33 page
Effects of the increase in co-payments from 20 to 30 percent on the compliance rate of patients with hypertension or diabetes mellitus in the Employed Health Insurance System
Objectives: How to contain medical expenditures is a universal problem. The Japanese government has increased patient co-payments to control it. The purpose of this study is to clarify whether the increase in co-payments to 30 percent prevented patients with hypertension or diabetes mellitus from receiving necessary care in the Employee Health Insurance System.
Methods: The subjects were 211 patients with hypertension and 66 patients with diabetes mellitus who regularly visited physicians from October 2001 to March 2002 and were defined as a cohort that needed health care, and their medical indicators were examined between April and September 2002 (prestage) and between April and September 2003 (poststage).
Results: In the hypertensive patients with no complications, the compliance rate was 89.9 percent and 88.0 percent in the prestage, and poststage, respectively, showing no significant change. In the hypertensive patients with complications, the compliance rate was 90.5 percent and 92.1 percent in the prestage and poststage, respectively, showing no significant change. In the diabetic patients with complications, the compliance rate was 77.5 percent and 79.2 percent, in the prestage and poststage, respectively, with no significant change. In the diabetic patients with no complications, however, the compliance rate was 83.7 percent and 66.7 percent, in the prestage and poststage, respectively. A significant decrease was observed among diabetic patients without complications.
Conclusions: Increasing co-payments reduced necessary preventive care in diabetic patients without complications.</p
Inverse Correlation between Adiponectin and the Risk of Metabolic Syndrome in Middle-aged Japanese Male Workers
Despite a close association between adiponectin and both hypertension and type 2 diabetes, the relationship between adiponectin and metabolic syndrome has not yet been well-investigated. To examine and evaluate the association between serum adiponectin levels and metabolic syndrome based on Japanese diagnostic criteria, we analyzed adiponectin and anthropometric parameters in 869 male employees aged 40-59 who belonged to a health insurance society in Fukuoka Prefecture and who underwent annual health check-ups from August 2006 to July 2007. Two hundred and thirty-two of the 869 subjects (26.7%) were diagnosed with metabolic syndrome. The serum adiponectin levels were significantly higher in the non-metabolic syndrome group. In a multiple logistic regression analysis, the subjects in the top quartile of serum adiponectin (adjusted odds ratio:0.36;95% confidence interval:0.21-0.63) and the second (adjusted odds ratio:0.51;95% confidence interval:0.31-0.84) quartile had a significantly decreased risk for metabolic syndrome in comparison to the bottom quartile. The dose-response relationship between serum adiponectin levels and metabolic syndrome was significant (p for trend 0.0001) after adjusting for age, body mass index, smoking status, and drinking status. The current findings suggest that hypoadiponectinemia is inversely correlated with the risk of metabolic syndrome in middle-aged Japanese male workers.</p
Electronic-Structure-Driven Magnetic Ordering in a Kondo Semiconductor CeOs2Al10
We report the anisotropic changes in the electronic structure of a Kondo
semiconductor CeOsAl across an anomalous antiferromagnetic ordering
temperature () of 29 K, using optical conductivity spectra. The spectra
along the - and -axes indicate that a - hybridization gap emerges
from a higher temperature continuously across . Along the b-axis, on the
other hand, a different energy gap with a peak at 20 meV appears below 39 K,
which is higher temperature than , because of structural distortion. The
onset of the energy gap becomes visible below . Our observation reveals
that the electronic structure as well as the energy gap opening along the
b-axis due to the structural distortion induces antiferromagnetic ordering
below .Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Electronic inhomogeneity in EuO: Possibility of magnetic polaron states
We have observed the spatial inhomogeneity of the electronic structure of a
single-crystalline electron-doped EuO thin film with ferromagnetic ordering by
employing infrared magneto-optical imaging with synchrotron radiation. The
uniform paramagnetic electronic structure changes to a uniform ferromagnetic
structure via an inhomogeneous state with decreasing temperature and increasing
magnetic field slightly above the ordering temperature. One possibility of the
origin of the inhomogeneity is the appearance of magnetic polaron states.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Soluble CD26 is inversely Associated with Disease Severity in Patients with Chronic Eosinophilic Pneumonia
Backgrounds: CD26, a multifunctional T cell surface glycoprotein, is a type II transmembrane protein containing only six amino acid residues in its cytoplasmic region. In addition to its membrane form, CD26 exists in plasma in a soluble form (sCD26), which is thought to be the extracellular domain of the molecule cleaved from the cell surface. Recent studies indicated CD26 have an important role in the pathogenesis of asthma, known as Th2 like disease. The function of CD26 in the esosinophlic lung disease is not well understood.Methods: Serum sCD26 was determined by enzyme-linked Immunosorbent assay in patients with acute eosinophilic pneumonia, chronic eosinophilic pneumonia (CEP), and sarcoidosis, and in healthy volunteers, to establish its value for discriminating between disease entities and as marker of disease activity.Results: Soluble CD26 was signifi cantly reduced in CEP and was related to disease severity. In particular, sCD26 was inversely correlated with arterial oxygen tension in CEP.Conclusion: Serum levels of sCD26 might appear to be useful as a new marker of CEP disease activity
Hyperleptinemia is associated with hypertension in Japanese males
Leptin is a hormone which is predominantly secreted by adipose tissue. Recent studies have shown that leptin increases arterial blood pressure. Although data from available animal studies clearly indicate an association between leptin and hypertension, results of human studies have been less definitive. We conducted a case-control study to examine the association between serum leptin levels and hypertension in 111 hypertensive subjects and 222 male controls, using conditional logistic regression analyses. Mean serum leptin levels were found to be marginally higher in the case subjects than in the control subjects (3.3 ng/ml versus 3.0 ng/ml), however, conditional logistic regression analysis revealed that subjects in the highest quartile had a significantly increased risk of hypertension compared with those in the lowest quartile, even after adjusting for drinking status and diabetes mellitus (adjusted OR, 2.11;95% CI, 1.01-4.39). Our findings suggest that leptin plays an important role in the development of hypertension.</p
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Expansion and conversion of human pancreatic ductal cells into insulin-secreting endocrine cells
Pancreatic islet β-cell insufficiency underlies pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus; thus, functional β-cell replacement from renewable sources is the focus of intensive worldwide effort. However, in vitro production of progeny that secrete insulin in response to physiological cues from primary human cells has proven elusive. Here we describe fractionation, expansion and conversion of primary adult human pancreatic ductal cells into progeny resembling native β-cells. FACS-sorted adult human ductal cells clonally expanded as spheres in culture, while retaining ductal characteristics. Expression of the cardinal islet developmental regulators Neurog3, MafA, Pdx1 and Pax6 converted exocrine duct cells into endocrine progeny with hallmark β-cell properties, including the ability to synthesize, process and store insulin, and secrete it in response to glucose or other depolarizing stimuli. These studies provide evidence that genetic reprogramming of expandable human pancreatic cells with defined factors may serve as a general strategy for islet replacement in diabetes. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.00940.00
Newly Generated 3D Schwann-Like Cell Spheroids From Human Adipose-Derived Stem Cells Using a Modified Protocol
Peripheral nerve injury (PNI) is a relatively frequent type of trauma that results in the suffering of many patients worldwide every year. Schwann cells (SCs) are expected to be applied in cell therapy because of their ability to promote peripheral nerve regeneration. However, the lack of clinically renewable sources of SCs hinders the application of SC-based therapies. Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) have generated great interest in recent years because of their multipotency and ease of harvest, and they have already been verified to differentiate into Schwann-like cells (SLCs) in vitro. However, the efficiency of differentiation and the functions of SLCs remain unsatisfactory. We newly generated three-dimensional (3D) SLC spheroids from ADSCs using a modified protocol with human recombinant peptide (RCP) petaloid μ-piece. Morphological analysis, gene expression analysis by qRT-PCR, ELISA measurement of the secretion capabilities of neurotrophic factors, and neurite formation assay were performed to evaluate the functions of these 3D SLCs in vitro. Motor function recovery was measured in a sciatic nerve injury mouse model to analyze the nerve regeneration-promoting effect of 3D SLCs in vivo. The differentiation efficiency and the secretion of neurotrophic factors were enhanced in 3D SLCs compared with conventional SLCs. 3D SLCs could more effectively promote neurite growth and longer neurite extension in a neuron-like SH-SY5Y model. Additionally, 3D SLCs had a better therapeutic effect on nerve regeneration after transplantation into the sciatic nerve injury mouse model. These findings demonstrated that the potential of ADSC-derived SLCs to promote nerve regeneration could be significantly increased using our modified differentiation protocol and by assembling cells into a 3D sphere conformation. Therefore, these cells have great potential and can be used in the clinical treatment of PNI
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