Stem Cell Therapy in Heart Disease: Limitations and Future Possibilities

Heart diseases are one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Despite major advances in drug and interventional therapies, surgical procedures, and organ transplantation, further research into new therapeutic options is still necessary. Stem cell therapy has emerged as one option for the treatment of a variety of heart diseases. Although a large number of clinical trials have shown stem cell therapy to be a promising therapeutic approach, the results obtained from these clinical studies are inconsistent, and stem cell-based improvements of heart performance and cardiac remodeling were found to be quite limited. Since the precise mechanisms underlying the therapeutic actions of stem cells are still under debate, researchers have developed a variety of strategies to improve and boost the potency of stem cells in repair. In this review, we summarize both the current therapeutic strategies using stem cells and future directions for enhancing stem cell potency

Adaptive Active Noise Control for Uncertain Secondary Pathes

Publication in the conference proceedings of EUSIPCO, Toulouse, France, 200

Analysis of background factors in marine accidents and incidents caused by watch-keeper drowsiness in Japan

The purpose of this study was to perform a feature extraction of sleep and lifecycle characteristics among watch-keepers involved in marine accidents and incidents. A questionnaire that included attributes of the watch-keeper, amount of sleep, problems related to sleep, fatigue, feeling hiyari-hatto incidents, and the Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) was administered to a sample of 7,750 watch-keepers (response rate - 21.3%). Watch:keepers have problems related to sleep, such as “once a month or more awaking while sleeping and cannot sleep afterwards”, “once a month or more awaking too early in the morning and cannot sleep afterwards”, “I have been told by my family and colleagues that I snore”, and “I had my breathing stopped while sleeping”. Some watchkeepers indicated “once a month or more feeling hiyari-hatto incidents” The analysis of cargo ships and tankers revealed there was a notable relationship between the situation of “once a month or more feeling hiyari-hatto incidents” and the influence of each “frequency of interrupted sleep”, “sleep delay”, “frequency of interrupted sleep” and ”early morning sleeplessness”. These results suggest that watch-keeper of each ship have problems related to sleep due to sleep and lifecycle characteristics.Проведено аналіз основних особливостей режиму праці, обумовлених несенням вахт на судах різних типів (суховантажі, танкери, прогулянкові судна та ін) за даними анкетування 7750 моряків. Встановлено, що вахтові офіцери відзначають наявність проблем, пов'язаних з різними видами порушень сну (недостатнє загальний час сну за добу, порушення регулярності у наданні часу для сну, позбавлення сну під час вантажних операцій, переривчастий сон та ін.) Показано наявність достовірної взаємозв'язку між характером сну і частотою інцидентів, що призводять до аварійності на флоті.Проведен анализ основных особенностей режима труда, обусловленных несением вахт на судах различных типов (сухогрузы, танкеры, прогулочные суда и др.) по данным анкетирования 7750 моряков. Установлено, что вахтенные офицеры отмечают наличие проблем, связанных с различными видами нарушений сна (недостаточное общее время сна за сутки, нарушение регулярности в предоставлении времени для сна, лишение сна во время грузовых операций, прерывистый сон и др.). Показано наличие достоверной взаимосвязи между характером сна и частотой инцидентов, приводящих к аварийности на флоте

Molecular Clouds as Cosmic Ray Laboratories

We will here discuss how the gamma-ray emission from molecular clouds can be used to probe the cosmic ray flux in distant regions of the Galaxy and to constrain the highly unknown cosmic ray diffusion coefficient. In particular we will discuss the GeV to TeV emission from runaway cosmic rays penetrating molecular clouds close to young and old supernova remnants and in molecular clouds illuminated by the background cosmic ray flux.Comment: to appear on Proceedings of 25th Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysic

Effect of Asian dust on pulmonary function in adult asthma patients in western Japan: A panel study

AbstractBackgroundAsian dust (AD) has become a major health concern. The concentration of AD is typically expressed in particulate matter less than 10 μm (PM10) and 2.5 μm (PM2.5). However, PM10 and PM2.5 consist of various substances besides AD. Light detection and ranging (LIDAR) systems can selectively measure the quantity of AD particles to distinguish non-spherical airborne particles from spherical airborne particles. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between pulmonary function in adult asthma patients and AD using LIDAR data.MethodsSubjects were 231 adult asthma patients who had their morning peak expiratory flow (PEF) measured from March to May 2012. A linear mixed model was used to estimate the association of PEF with sand dust particles detected by LIDAR.ResultsIncreases in the interquartile range of AD particles (0.018 km−1) led to changes in PEF of −0.42 L/min (95% confidence interval [CI], −0.85 to 0.01). An increase of 11.8 μg/m3 in suspended particulate matter and 6.9 μg/m3 in PM2.5 led to decreases of −0.17 L/min (−0.53 to 0.21) and 0.03 L/min (−0.35 to 0.42), respectively. A heavy AD day was defined as a day with a level of AD particles >0.032 km−1, which was the average plus one standard deviation during the study period, and six heavy AD days were identified. Change in PEF after a heavy AD day was −0.97 L/min (−1.90 to −0.04).ConclusionsHeavy exposure to AD particles was significantly associated with decreased pulmonary function in adult asthma patients

Detection of a new molecular cloud in the LHAASO J2108+5157 region supporting a hadronic PeVatron scenario

PeVatrons are the most powerful naturally occurring particle accelerators in the Universe. The identification of counterparts associated to astrophysical objects such as dying massive stars, molecular gas, star-forming regions, and star clusters is essential to clarify the underlying nature of the PeV emission, i.e., hadronic or leptonic. We present $^{12,13}$CO(J=2$\rightarrow$1) observations made with the 1.85~m radio-telescope of the Osaka Prefecture University toward the Cygnus OB7 molecular cloud, which contains the PeVatron candidate LHAASO J2108+5157. We investigate the nature of the sub-PeV (gamma-ray) emission by studying the nucleon density determined from the content of HI and H$_2$, derived from the CO observations. In addition to MML[2017]4607, detected via the observations of the optically thick $^{12}$CO(J=1$\rightarrow$0) emission, we infer the presence of an optically thin molecular cloud, named [FKT-MC]2022, whose angular size is 1.1$\pm$0.2$^{\circ}$. We propose this cloud as a new candidate to produce the sub-PeV emission observed in LHAASO J2108+5157. Considering a distance of 1.7 kpc, we estimate a nucleon (HI+H$_2$) density of 37$\pm$14 cm$^{-3}$, and a total nucleon mass(HI+H$_2$) of 1.5$\pm$0.6$\times$10$^4$ M$_{\odot}$. On the other hand, we confirm that Kronberger 82 is a molecular clump with an angular size of 0.1$^{\circ}$, a nucleon density $\sim$ 10$^3$ cm$^{-3}$, and a mass $\sim$ 10$^3$ M$_{\odot}$. Although Kronberger 82 hosts the physical conditions to produce the observed emission of LHAASO J2108+5157, [FKT-MC]2022 is located closer to it, suggesting that the latter could be the one associated to the sub-PeV emission. Under this scenario, our results favour a hadronic origin for the emission.Comment: Accepted for publication in PASJ (Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan). Accepted on 06-Mar-2023. 20 pages, 12 figures, 12 table