Guided Lock of a Suspended Optical Cavity Enhanced by a Higher Order Extrapolation

Lock acquisition of a suspended optical cavity can be a highly stochastic process and is therefore nontrivial. Guided lock is a method to make lock acquisition less stochastic by decelerating the motion of the cavity length based on an extrapolation of the motion from an instantaneous velocity measurement. We propose an improved scheme which is less susceptible to seismic disturbances by incorporating the acceleration as a higher order correction in the extrapolation. We implemented the new scheme in a 300-m suspended Fabry-Perot cavity and improved the success rate of lock acquisition by a factor of 30

アルツハイマー型認知症患者における前頭葉機能と介護負担の関係

AIM: Understanding of the relationship between caregiver burden and the degree of behavioural deficits in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) is relatively limited. Therefore, it is worthwhile to examine the correlations between the various relevant factors to improve the efficacy of care for patients with AD. The aim of this study was to investigate the specific contributions of frontal lobe dysfunction in AD patients to caregiver burden, while controlling for other predictor variables. METHODS: Participants included 30 pairs of caregivers and patients with AD. The Zarit Burden Interview and Frontal Assessment Battery were used to measure the caregiver burden and patients' frontal lobe function, respectively. To investigate the effects of frontal lobe dysfunction on caregiver burden, hierarchical regression equations with steps incorporating additional predictor variables were fitted. We also performed a correlation analysis between the individual subdomains of the Zarit Burden Interview and the predictor variables. RESULTS: Our study suggests that the degree of frontal lobe dysfunction in AD patients predicts their caregiver burden, when other factors of daily functional limitations and neuropsychiatric symptoms are controlled. Daily functional limitations and neuropsychiatric symptoms affected caregivers' psychosocial burden, whereas frontal lobe dysfunction affected caregivers' burden due to the increase in the dependency of the patients. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that to ameliorate the disabilities of patients and reduce caregiver burden, there is a need for interventions that focus on psychosocial burdens, as shown in previous studies, as well as on excessive dependency due to frontal lobe dysfunction.博士（医学）・甲第661号・平成29年3月15日© 2017 Japanese Psychogeriatric SocietyThis is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/psyg.12231, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/psyg.12231. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving

Fano 4-folds with nef tangent bundle in positive characteristic

In characteristic 0, the Campana-Peternell conjecture claims thatthe only smooth Fano variety with nef tangent bundle should be homogeneous.In this paper, we study the positive characteristic version of the CampanaPeternell conjecture. In particular, we give an affirmative answer for Fano4-folds with nef tangent bundle and Picard number greater than one

Variation in bradyrhizobial NopP effector determines symbiotic incompatibility with Rj2-soybeans via effector-triggered immunity

The soybean Rj2 gene encodes a TIR-NBS-LRR protein that confers resistance to nodulation by certain rhizobial strains. Here, the authors show that T3SS effector NopP is an avirulence protein that is necessary for Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens USDA 122 to trigger Rj2-dependent incompatibility

近赤外線スペクトロスコピィを用いた覚醒剤精神病と統合失調症の鑑別

Despite some slight differences in symptomatology, differential diagnosis of methamphetamine-induced psychosis (MAP) versus schizophrenia can be challenging because both disorders present a large overlap in their clinical symptoms. However, a recent study has shown that near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) performed during a cognitive task can be a powerful tool to differentiate between these two disorders. Here, we evaluated verbal fluency task performance during NIRS in 15 patients diagnosed with MAP and 19 with schizophrenia matched for age and sex. We used prefrontal probes and a 24-channel NIRS machine to measure the relative concentrations of oxyhaemoglobin every 0.1 s during the task. For each patient, the neurocognitive function and clinical psychopathology were evaluated using the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS), and the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS). Oxyhaemoglobin changes in the prefrontal cortex were significantly higher in the MAP group compared to those in the schizophrenia group, particularly in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In contrast, we found no significant difference in PANSS and BACS scores. Our findings suggest that NIRS measurement could be applied to differentiate patients with MAP from those with schizophrenia, even in cases where clinical symptoms are similar.博士（医学）・甲第645号・平成28年3月15日This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Positron emission tomography assessments of phosphodiesterase 10A in patients with schizophrenia

[Background and hypothesis] Phosphodiesterase 10A (PDE10A) is a highly expressed enzyme in the basal ganglia, where cortical glutamatergic and midbrain dopaminergic inputs are integrated. Therapeutic PDE10A inhibition effects on schizophrenia have been reported previously, but the status of this molecule in the living patients with schizophrenia remains elusive. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the central PDE10A status in patients with schizophrenia and examine its relationship with psychopathology, cognition, and corticostriatal glutamate levels. [Study design] This study included 27 patients with schizophrenia, with 5 antipsychotic-free cases, and 27 healthy controls. Positron emission tomography with [18F]MNI-659, a specific PDE10A radioligand, was employed to quantify PDE10A availability by measuring non-displaceable binding potential (BPND) of the ligand in the limbic, executive, and sensorimotor striatal functional subregions, and in the pallidum. BPND estimates were compared between patients and controls while controlling for age and gender. BPND correlations were examined with behavioral and clinical measures, along with regional glutamate levels quantified by the magnetic resonance spectroscopy. [Study results] Multivariate analysis of covariance demonstrated a significant main effect of diagnosis on BPND (p = .03). A posthoc test showed a trend-level higher sensorimotor striatal BPND in patients, although it did not survive multiple comparison corrections. BPND in controls in this subregion was significantly and negatively correlated with the Tower of London scores, a cognitive subtest. Striatal or dorsolateral prefrontal glutamate levels did not correlate significantly with BPND in either group. [Conclusions] The results suggest altered striatal PDE10A availability and associated local neural dysfunctions in patients with schizophrenia

A novel laser melting sampler for discrete, sub-centimeter depth-resolved analyses of stable water isotopes in ice cores

We developed a novel laser melting sampler (LMS) for ice cores to measure the stable water isotope ratios (δ18O and δD) as temperature proxies at sub-centimeter depth resolutions. In this LMS system, a 2 mm diameter movable evacuation nozzle holds an optical fiber through which a laser beam irradiates the ice core. The movable nozzle intrudes into the ice core, the laser radiation meanwhile melts the ice cylindrically, and the meltwater is pumped away simultaneously through the same nozzle and transferred to a vial for analysis. To avoid isotopic fractionation of the ice through vaporization, the laser power is adjusted to ensure that the temperature of the meltwater is always kept well below its boiling point. A segment of a Dome Fuji shallow ice core (Antarctica), using the LMS, was then demonstrated to have been discretely sampled with a depth resolution as small as 3 mm: subsequent analysis of δ18O, δD, and deuterium excess (d) was consistent with results obtained by hand segmentation within measurement uncertainties. With system software to control sampling resolution, the LMS will enable us to identify temperature variations that may be detectable only at sub-centimeter resolutions in ice cores

5-ALA/SFCのPGC-1α活性化を通じた炎症反応の軽減によるマウス急性移植片対宿主病モデル肝障害に対する改善効果

東京都立大