Characterization of Tunable Magnetic Sensor Using Bias Magnetic Field of a Hard Magnetic Film Magnetized by Pulsed-Magnetic Field

A tunable magnetoresistance (MR) sensor with variable sensitivity and measuring range is fabricated and characterized. The sensor has been fabricated using a combination of Ni-Fe soft magnetic film, Fe-Co-Sm hard magnetic film. The sensor is placed in a magnetizing coil for the process of magnetizing the hard magnetic film. The sensitivity and the measuring range of the sensor are tuned by bias magnetic field produced by the magnetic poles of the hard magnetic film. The sensitivity change was about 60%, and the measuring range change was about 30% in the tunable MR sensor from the experimental results. The bias magnetic field is controlled by changing amplitude of the pulsed magnetic field in the magnetizing for the hard magnetic film. The control power for one time tuning is about 18 mu Wh.ArticleIEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS. 49(7):3854-3857 (2013)journal articl

Comparison of Urinary Levels of 8-Hydroxy-2’-deoxyguanosine between Young Females with and without Depressive Symptoms during Different Menstrual Phases

This study aimed to clarify the association between depressive symptoms and a marker of oxidative stress-induced DNA damage in young females. Since the menstrual cycle may confound or modify this association, depressive symptoms and urinary levels of 8-hydroxy-2ʼ deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) were evaluated during each menstrual phase. A total of 57 female fourth-year students (aged 21.6±0.8) from a Japanese health science university were studied. The menstrual cycle was divided into 3 phases:menstrual (days 1 to 3 after the onset of menses);proliferative (days 13 to 15);and secretory (days 24 to 26). Depressive symptoms were assessed by the self-rating depression scale (SDS). Positive depressive symptoms were defined as a score of 53 or more during 2 different menstrual phases. The association between the presence of depressive symptoms and 8-OHdG levels adjusting for the menstrual cycle was examined by two-way analysis of variance with the menstrual cycle (menstrual, proliferative, and secretory phases) as the within-individual factor. The menstrual cycle did not show a significant correlation with urinary 8-OHdG levels. On the other hand, the menstrual cycle-adjusted 8-OHdG level was significantly higher in those with depressive symptoms (7.01ng/mL) than in those without them (3.98ng/mL). The ROC curve analysis showed that urinary 8-OHdG levels had reasonably high discriminative performance throughout all the menstrual cycles (0.73-0.81;all p＜0.05). These results indicated the presence of oxidative stress in subjects with depressive symptoms independent of the menstrual cycle

Complementary and alternative medicine use by visitors to rural Japanese family medicine clinics: results from the international complementary and alternative medicine survey

Abstract Background There is growing interest in the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) throughout the world, however previous research done in Japan has focused primarily on CAM use in major cities. The purpose of this study was to develop and distribute a Japanese version of the International Complementary and Alternative Medicine Questionnaire (I-CAM-Q) to assess the use of CAM among people who visit rural Japanese family medicine clinics. Methods Using a Japanese version of the International Complementary and Alternative Medicine Questionnaire (I-CAM-Q), a cross-sectional survey was conducted in three rural family medicine clinics. All patients and those accompanying patients who met inclusion criteria were eligible to participate. Data were entered into SPSS Statistics and analyzed for use by age, gender, and location. Results Of the 519 respondents who participated in the project, 415 participants reported CAM use in the past 12 months (80.0%). When prayer is excluded, the prevalence of CAM use drops to 77.3% in the past year, or 403 respondents. The most common forms of CAM used by respondents were pain relief pads (n = 170, 32.8%), herbal medicines/supplements (n = 167, 32.2%), and massage by self or family (n = 166, 32.0%). Female respondents, individuals with higher levels of education, and those with poorer overall health status were more likely to use CAM than respondents without these characteristics. Only 22.8% of CAM therapies used were reported to physicians by survey participants. Conclusions These data indicate that CAM use in rural Japan is common. The results are consistent with previous studies that show that Japanese individuals are more interested in forms of CAM such as pain relief pads and massage, than in mind-body forms of CAM like relaxation and meditation. Due to the high utilization of certain CAM practices, and given that most CAM users do not disclose their CAM use to their doctors, we conclude that physicians in rural Japan would benefit by asking about CAM use during patient interviews, and by familiarizing themselves with the potential benefits and risks of commonly used CAM modalities.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109545/1/12906_2013_Article_1938.pd

Molecular Adaptation of rbcL in the Heterophyllous Aquatic Plant Potamogeton

Heterophyllous aquatic plants show marked phenotypic plasticity. They adapt to environmental changes by producing different leaf types: submerged, floating and terrestrial leaves. By contrast, homophyllous plants produce only submerged leaves and grow entirely underwater. Heterophylly and submerged homophylly evolved under selective pressure modifying the species-specific optima for photosynthesis, but little is known about the evolutionary outcome of habit. Recent evolutionary analyses suggested that rbcL, a chloroplast gene that encodes a catalytic subunit of RuBisCO, evolves under positive selection in most land plant lineages. To examine the adaptive evolutionary process linked to heterophylly or homophylly, we analyzed positive selection in the rbcL sequences of ecologically diverse aquatic plants, Japanese Potamogeton.Phylogenetic and maximum likelihood analyses of codon substitution models indicated that Potamogeton rbcL has evolved under positive Darwinian selection. The positive selection has operated specifically in heterophyllous lineages but not in homophyllous ones in the branch-site models. This suggests that the selective pressure on this chloroplast gene was higher for heterophyllous lineages than for homophyllous lineages. The replacement of 12 amino acids occurred at structurally important sites in the quaternary structure of RbcL, two of which (residue 225 and 281) were identified as potentially under positive selection.Our analysis did not show an exact relationship between the amino acid replacements and heterophylly or homophylly but revealed that lineage-specific positive selection acted on the Potamogeton rbcL. The contrasting ecological conditions between heterophyllous and homophyllous plants have imposed different selective pressures on the photosynthetic system. The increased amino acid replacement in RbcL may reflect the continuous fine-tuning of RuBisCO under varying ecological conditions

地域包括ケアシステムにおける訪問看護ステーションの経営状況と事業所特性及び地域特性，経営管理との関連―全国と群馬県の比較―

目的：全国及び群馬県の訪問看護ステーション（以下，ST）の経営状況と事業所特性及び地域特性，経営管理との関連を明らかにし，比較検討する． 方法：全国2,000人及び群馬県163人のST管理者を対象とし，自記式質問紙調査を実施した．有効回答は全国473人，群馬県55人で，経営状況と各項目との関連はχ2検定及びKruskal-Wallis検定を，さらに経営状況を目的変数とするロジスティック回帰分析を行った． 結果：全国では，看護師常勤・看護師非常勤・事務職員非常勤の従業者数，1人1日平均訪問回数，北海道・東北地域，収支のモニタリングが黒字に関連していた．群馬県では関連がみられず，全国に比して赤字のST割合が多く，経営管理の得点が低かった． 結論：経営状況の改善には，ST規模の拡大やST管理者の収支のモニタリングに焦点を当てた行動の有効性が示唆された．群馬県では，経営管理に関する分析の強化が必要である．Objectives: The financial status of home-visit nursing stations (STs) was analyzed in relation to business office characteristics, local community characteristics and business management, and the results between Gunma Prefecture and all prefectures in Japan were compared. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire survey was completed by 163 ST managers in Gunma Prefecture and 2000 ST managers from all over Japan. Valid responses were collected from 55 managers from Gunma Prefecture and 473 managers from all over Japan. The association between management status with each variable was analyzed by the chisquare test and Kruskal-Wallis test. In addition, logistic regression analysis was carried out with the status of management as the dependent variable. Results: For STs all prefectures in Japan, profitable business (black-ink balance) was associated with the number of employees (full-time nurses, part-time nurses and part-time clerical staff), the mean number of care receiver homes visited daily by each nurse, the district (Hokkaido/Tohoku) and revenue/expenditure balance monitoring. In Gunma Prefecture, the percentage of red-ink operation STs was higher and the score for business management was lower than in all prefectures in Japan. Conclusions: These results suggest that management actions focusing on expansion of the scale of STs and on revenue/ expenditure balance monitoring by ST managers are effective in improving the status of management. In Gunma Prefecture, reinforcement of how to analyze business management is needed.原