India\u27s senior citizen\u27s policy and an examination of the life of senior citizens in North Delhi

The paper investigates the ageing situation in India and the development of the government initiatives for the welfare of senior citizens. It also presents the initial results of a survey that the author conducted in 2011 in North Delhi. The main features related to ageing in India are \u27feminisation\u27, \u27rurality\u27 and \u27poverty\u27. The survey in North Delhi reveals the differences between the male and the female senior citizens, and the vulnerability of the latter, in particular. The social security coverage such as pensions and health insurance was found quite limited among the respondents

Adoption of High Performance Work Organization, trade unions and employment redundancy in India

Following Osterman’s research framework of High Performance Work Organizations (HPWOs), the author, using his data sets from the three surveys conducted in India in 2001 and in 2011-2012, examined the adoption and diffusion of HPWOs in India and the factors behind them. It was found that HPWOs spread in India between 2000 and 2011, showing the regional variations in the diffusion and the contributing factors behind the adoption. The opposition of the trade unions against the HPWOs would become less significant once a single HPWO practice was introduced in the workplace. While the HPWOs did not show any significant association, the analysis suggests that trade unions affect managerial decisions to a greater degree than India’s restrictive labor law against employment downsizing

Indian IT software engineers in Japan : a preliminary analysis

In this study, the work and life of Indian IT engineers in Japan engaged in software development were examined through a questionnaire survey. Findings were further supported by comparative analyses with Chinese and Korean software engineers.While Indian IT software engineers appeared rather satisfied with their life overall in Japan, they seemed rather dissatisfied with their work conditions including such things as fringe benefits, the working-time management of the company, levels of salary and bonuses, and promotion opportunities. It was made clear that profiles and perceptions of Indian engineers and those of Chinese and Koreans in Japan were different

The relationship between the Dark Triad traits and help-seeking attitude in high school students

Participants in previous studies on the Dark Triad of personality (Machiavellianism, Psychopathy, and Narcissism) have been mainly college students or older. In the present study, participants were 799 high school students, and the purpose was to identify the factor structure of the Dark Triad and examine differences according to sex, school year, and career direction. Additionally, we investigated the relationship between the Dark Triad and help-seeking attitudes. The results were in line with previous evidence, as the hierarchical factor structure of the Dark Triad was identified. Furthermore, negative influences of Machiavellianism and Psychopathy on help-seeking attitudes were found. On the other hand, there was a positive influence of Narcissism on help-seeking attitudes.Dark Triadとは，マキャベリアニズム，サイコパシー，自己愛傾向の3つの総称である。これまでのDark Triadに関する研究は，大学生以上を対象とした研究が主流である。本研究では，799名の高校生を対象に調査を実施し，Dark Triadの因子構造を確認するとともに，性別，学年，進路による差についても検討し，大学生以上を対象に行われた従来の研究の知見との比較を行うことを目的とした。また，合わせて援助要請との関連についても検討した。その結果，Dark Triadにおいては階層的な因子構造が高校生サンプルにおいても確認された。また，マキャベリアニズム，サイコパシーは援助要請に対してネガティブな関連がみられるのに対して，ナルシシズムはポジティブな関連がみられた

Pressure-induced defects in zirconates

Defects, e.g. vacancies and interstitials, play an important role on the physical properties of oxides, especially on their ionic transport. Those defects in oxides are generally controlled and analyzed as functions of dopant concentration, c, temperature, T, and oxygen chemical potential, O2, but not of total pressure, P. This is not surprising given that a molar volume, Vm, of solids is much smaller than that of gas phase by a factor of ≈1/1000. Meanwhile, under high pressure such as several GPa, the effect of total pressure on free energy, i.e. VmP, reaches 20~100 kJ/mol, which is high enough to affect the defect formation and migration in solids. In fact, pressure-induced phenomena are recently of great interest in solid state ionics. In this study, we focus on the pressure effects on the defect formation in some stabilized ZrO2 and acceptor-doped BaZrO3. For Y-stabilized ZrO2, reduction was found to be enhanced under high pressure. Figure 1 shows the lattice constant of 8YSZ electrochemically reduced under high pressure as a function of oxygen deficiency introduced. Under high pressure such as 1 to 6 GPa, 8YSZ was easily reduced even at 3VDC at 500°C. The oxygen deficiency reaches = 0.05. Unlike reduced CeO2 which shows lattice expansion, the reduced 8YSZ shows 0.5% smaller lattice constant. The lattice shrinkage was also confirmed by DFT calculations. This supports that applying high pressure, which in general enhances a reaction with negative volume change, enhances the reducing reaction of cubic ZrO2. Figure 2 shows the temperature dependence of electrical conductivity of reduced 8YSZ. The reduced 8YSZ appears to show mixed ionic and electronic conduction; major carrier is electrons. Acceptor-doped BaZrO3 was also subjected to high pressure on the order of GPa. Their defect equilibrium and proton conductivity will be also discussed. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Diuretic effect of cilazapril and dopamine system in the spontaneously hypertensive rat.

&lt;p&gt;To assess the role of the kidney dopamine system on the diuretic state induced by angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, we examined the changes in urinary excretion and plasma level of dopamine, and kidney dopamine receptors in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) treated with cilazapril, an ACE inhibitor. We administered cilazapril 10 mg/kg orally to 13-week-old SHR daily for 21 days (CILAZA group). Systolic blood pressure was significantly decreased in the CILAZA group on Day 6 compared with that in vehicle-treated SHR (control group). The urine volume was three- to fivefold higher in the CILAZA group, and total urinary dopamine secretion was also increased compared with the control group. There was no significant difference in affinity and number of kidney dopamine receptors between the CILAZA and the control groups. In conclusion, the diuretic effect caused by cilazapril is partly mediated by inhibition of the water reabsorption via the increase of dopamine production in the kidney.&lt;/p&gt;</p

Fractal analysis of 4D dynamic myocardial stress-CT perfusion imaging differentiates micro- and macrovascular ischemia in a multi-center proof-of-concept study

Fractal analysis of dynamic, four-dimensional computed tomography myocardial perfusion (4D-CTP) imaging might have potential for noninvasive differentiation of microvascular ischemia and macrovascular coronary artery disease (CAD) using fractal dimension (FD) as quantitative parameter for perfusion complexity. This multi-center proof-of-concept study included 30 rigorously characterized patients from the AMPLIFiED trial with nonoverlapping and confirmed microvascular ischemia (n(micro) = 10), macrovascular CAD (n(macro) = 10), or normal myocardial perfusion (n(normal) = 10) with invasive coronary angiography and fractional flow reserve (FFR) measurements as reference standard. Perfusion complexity was comparatively high in normal perfusion (FDnormal = 4.49, interquartile range [IQR]:4.46-4.53), moderately reduced in microvascular ischemia (FDmicro = 4.37, IQR:4.36-4.37), and strongly reduced in macrovascular CAD (FDmacro = 4.26, IQR:4.24-4.27), which allowed to differentiate both ischemia types, p < 0.001. Fractal analysis agreed excellently with perfusion state (kappa = 0.96, AUC = 0.98), whereas myocardial blood flow (MBF) showed moderate agreement (kappa = 0.77, AUC = 0.78). For detecting CAD patients, fractal analysis outperformed MBF estimation with sensitivity and specificity of 100% and 85% versus 100% and 25%, p = 0.02. In conclusion, fractal analysis of 4D-CTP allows to differentiate microvascular from macrovascular ischemia and improves detection of hemodynamically significant CAD in comparison to MBF estimation

Multimodality imaging to identify lipid-rich coronary plaques and predict periprocedural myocardial injury: Association between near-infrared spectroscopy and coronary computed tomography angiography

BackgroundThis study compares the efficacy of coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) and near-infrared spectroscopy intravascular ultrasound (NIRS–IVUS) in patients with significant coronary stenosis for predicting periprocedural myocardial injury during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).MethodsWe prospectively enrolled 107 patients who underwent CCTA before PCI and performed NIRS–IVUS during PCI. Based on the maximal lipid core burden index for any 4-mm longitudinal segments (maxLCBI4mm) in the culprit lesion, we divided the patients into two groups: lipid-rich plaque (LRP) group (maxLCBI4mm ≥ 400; n = 48) and no-LRP group (maxLCBI4mm &lt; 400; n = 59). Periprocedural myocardial injury was a postprocedural cardiac troponin T (cTnT) elevation of ≥5 times the upper limit of normal.ResultsThe LRP group had a significantly higher cTnT (p = 0.026), lower CT density (p &lt; 0.001), larger percentage atheroma volume (PAV) by NIRS–IVUS (p = 0.036), and larger remodeling index measured by both CCTA (p = 0.020) and NIRS–IVUS (p &lt; 0.001). A significant negative linear correlation was found between maxLCBI4mm and CT density (rho = −0.552, p &lt; 0.001). Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified maxLCBI4mm [odds ratio (OR): 1.006, p = 0.003] and PAV (OR: 1.125, p = 0.014) as independent predictors of periprocedural myocardial injury, while CT density was not an independent predictor (OR: 0.991, p = 0.22).ConclusionCCTA and NIRS–IVUS correlated well to identify LRP in culprit lesions. However, NIRS–IVUS was more competent in predicting the risk of periprocedural myocardial injury

Long-term effect of feeding snacks at age 6 years on body mass index at ages 12 and 22 years

We investigated the effect of snacking habits in childhood on changes in body mass index (BMI) and high BMI in adolescence and adulthood. In total, 2141 Japanese children from the Ibaraki Children’s Cohort Study were evaluated at age 6 years (baseline), then at ages 12 and 22 years. We examined associations between snacking (scheduled times, when children wanted, and freely) at age 6 years and changes in BMI over time and the proportion of high BMI at ages 12 and 22 years, using time-dependent mixed-effects and logistic regression models. Compared with children who snacked at scheduled times, those provided snacks when they wanted experienced larger increases in BMI over time between ages 6 and 22 years (multivariable time-dependent effect: 0.03 kg/m2 for boys, p = 0.047; 0.04 kg/m2 for girls, p = 0.019). No differences were observed in children who snacked freely. A higher proportion of high BMI was found in boys who were provided snacks when they wanted compared with those who snacked at scheduled times. The multivariable odds ratio (95% confidence interval) was 1.52 (1.04–2.23) at age 12 years and 2.23 (1.12–4.45) at age 22 years. No differences were observed for girls at either age. Children who were provided snacks when they wanted showed larger increases in BMI over time compared with those who snacked at scheduled times. Boys who were provided snacks when they wanted showed the higher proportion of high BMI at follow-up