Analysis of a tobacco vector and its actions in china: the activities of japan tobacco

Japan Tobacco (JT) is the third largest tobacco company in the world, and China, the world's largest tobacco consumer, is one of the most important targets for JT. To provide information for tobacco control, we reviewed and analyzed JT and its tactics and strategies in the Chinese market mainly by systematic examination of documents which are made available in the University of California, San Francisco Legacy Tobacco Documents Library. As a result, JT has had a special interest to expand sales of its cigarettes in the Chinese market

Risk Management for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy in Elderly Patients: Questionnaire for Patients Undergoing Gastrointestinal Endoscopy

More elderly patients now undergo gastrointestinal endoscopy following recent advances in endoscopic techniques. In this study, we conducted a high-risk survey of endoscopies in Japan, using a questionnaire administered prior to upper gastrointestinal tract endoscopy (UGITE), and identified anticholinergic agents and glucagon preparations as high-risk premedication. We also evaluated the cardiovascular effects of anticholinergic agents and glucagon through measurements of plasma levels of human atrial natriuretic peptide (hANP) and human brain natriuretic peptide (hBNP). The subjects were 1480 patients who underwent UGITE. Nurses administered a pre-endoscopy questionnaire, questioning subjects regarding heart disease, hypertension, glaucoma, and urinary difficulties as risk factors for anticholinergic agents, and Diabetes mellitus as a risk factor for glucagon preparations. Evaluation of subjects divided into under 65 and over 65 age groups revealed that in subjects aged 65 and over, risk factors for anticholinergic agents were significantly more high than those for glucagon. Analysis of the cardiovascular effects of anticholinergic agents and glucagon, in the elderly patients showed that hANP levels were significantly higher following administration of anticholinergic agents, but the change was not significant for glucagon premedication. Taking a detailed history before UGITE with the aid of a questionnaire at the same time as informed consent is obtained, is extremely useful in terms of risk management and selection of the appropriate premedication

A Raman Lidar with a Deep Ultraviolet Laser for Continuous Water Vapor Profiling in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer

A Raman lidar with a deep ultraviolet laser was constructed to continuously monitor water vapor distributions in the atmospheric boundary layer for twenty-four hours. We employ a laser at a wavelength of 266 nm and detects the light separated into an elastic backscatter signal and vibrational Raman signals of oxygen, nitrogen, and water vapor. The lidar was encased in a temperature-controlled and vibration-isolated compact container, resistant to a variety of environmental conditions. Water vapor profile observations were made for twelve months from November 24, 2017, to November 29, 2018. These observations were compared with collocated radiosonde measurements for daytime and nighttime conditions

Quantum Circuit Distillation and Compression

Quantum coherence in a qubit is vulnerable to environmental noise. When long quantum calculation is run on a quantum processor without error correction, the noise often causes fatal errors and messes up the calculation. Here, we propose quantum-circuit distillation to generate quantum circuits that are short but have enough functions to produce an output almost identical to that of the original circuits. The distilled circuits are less sensitive to the noise and can complete calculation before the quantum coherence is broken in the qubits. We created a quantum-circuit distillator by building a reinforcement learning model, and applied it to the inverse quantum Fourier transform (IQFT) and Shor's quantum prime factorization. The obtained distilled circuit allows correct calculation on IBM-Quantum processors. By working with the quantum-circuit distillator, we also found a general rule to generate quantum circuits approximating the general $n$-qubit IQFTs. The quantum-circuit distillator offers a new approach to improve performance of noisy quantum processors.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl

Retroviral gp70 antigen in spontaneous mesangial glomerulonephritis of ddY mice

Retroviral gp70 antigen in spontaneous mesangial glomerulonephritis of ddY mice. We examined whether the retroviral envelope antigen, gp70, is a major nephritogenic antigen in ddY mice, a murine model of spontaneous mesangial glomerulonephritis associated with IgA and IgG deposition. Immunofluorescence microscopy revealed that the mesangial gp70 deposition increased with age in mice over 24 weeks old, as did the IgG and IgA deposits. Immunoelectron microscopy demonstrated the reaction products of gp70 superimposed on the electron dense deposits in the mesangial matrix. Various amounts of serum gp70 were detected in mice as young as 12 weeks without any apparent increase with age. There was no correlation between the serum level of gp70 and the extent of the glomerular gp70 deposition, whereas mice with heavier IgA deposition had higher mean levels of serum IgA. The absorption test demonstrated that significant amounts of serum gp70 composed immune complexes in 40 week-old ddY mice developing glomerulonephritis; however, this bound form of gp70 was not observed in 12 week-old mice without glomerulonephritis. Systemic examinations by immunofluorescence staining showed that gp70 was mainly localized in various lymphoid tissues. These findings suggest that the gp70 antigen, mostly derived from lymphoid cells, may circulate as immune complexes and accumulate in the mesangial area, thus contributing to the development of glomerulonephritis in these mice. In addition, the pathogenic role of the increased IgA production in these mice was discussed