Clinical Characteristics and Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events in Diabetic and Non-Diabetic Patients with Vasospastic Angina [Response to Letter]

Hiroki Teragawa, Yuko Uchimura, Chikage Oshita, Yu Hashimoto, Shuichi Nomura Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, JR Hiroshima Hospital, Hiroshima, JapanCorrespondence: Hiroki Teragawa, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, JR Hiroshima Hospital, 3-1-36 Futabanosato, Higashi-ku, Hiroshima, 732-0057, Japan, Tel +81 82 262 1171, Fax +81 82 262 1499, Email [email protected]

Thermohydrodynamics in Quantum Hall Systems

A theory of thermohydrodynamics in two-dimensional electron systems in quantizing magnetic fields is developed including a nonlinear transport regime. Spatio-temporal variations of the electron temperature and the chemical potential in the local equilibrium are described by the equations of conservation with the number and thermal-energy flux densities. A model of these flux densities due to hopping and drift processes is introduced for a random potential varying slowly compared to both the magnetic length and the phase coherence length. The flux measured in the standard transport experiment is derived and is used to define a transport component of the flux density. The equations of conservation can be written in terms of the transport component only. As an illustration, the theory is applied to the Ettingshausen effect, in which a one-dimensional spatial variation of the electron temperature is produced perpendicular to the current.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur

Association Study of Two Cannabinoid Receptor Genes, CNR1 and CNR2, with Methamphetamine Dependence

Several studies have suggested that the endocannabinoid system plays significant roles in the vulnerability to psychiatric disorders including drug abuse. To examine the possible association of the CNR1 and CNR2 genes, which encode cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2, with methamphetamine dependence, we investigated three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs806379, rs1535255, rs2023239) in intron 2 of the CNR1 gene and a nonsynonymous SNP, Q63R, in the CNR2 gene. The study samples consisted of 223 patients with methamphetamine dependence and 292 age- and sex- matched controls. There were no significant differences between the patients and controls in genotypic or allelic distribution of any SNP of the CNR1 and CNR2 genes. We also analyzed the clinical features of methamphetamine dependence. Rs806379 of the CNR1 gene showed a significant association with the phenotype of latency of psychosis after the first consumption of methamphetamine. Patients with the T allele or T-positive genotypes (T/T or A/T) may develop a rapid onset of psychosis after methamphetamine abuse. The present study suggests a possibility that genetic variants of the CNR1 gene may produce a liability to the complication of psychotic state after abuse of methamphetamine; however, our findings need to be confirmed by future replications

Association Between 5HT1b Receptor Gene and Methamphetamine Dependence

Several lines of evidence implicate serotonergic dysfunction in diverse psychiatric disorders including anxiety, depression, and drug abuse. Mice with a knock-out of the 5HT1b receptor gene (HTR1B) displayed increased locomotor response to cocaine and elevated motivation to self-administer cocaine and alcohol. Previous genetic studies showed significant associations of HTR1B with alcohol dependence and substance abuse, but were followed by inconsistent results. We examined a case-control genetic association study of HTR1B with methamphetamine-dependence patients in a Japanese population. The subjects were 231 patients with methamphetamine dependence, 214 of whom had a co-morbidity of methamphetamine psychosis, and 248 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. The three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), rs130058 (A-165T), rs1228814 (A-700C) and rs1228814 (A+1180G) of HTR1B were genotyped. There was no significant difference in allelic and genotypic distributions of the SNPs between methamphetamine dependence and the control. Genetic associations of HTR1B were tested with several clinical phenotypes of methamphetamine dependence and/or psychosis, such as age at first abuse, duration of latency from the first abuse to onset of psychosis, prognosis of psychosis after therapy, and complication of spontaneous relapse of psychotic state. There was, however, no asscocation between any SNP and the clinical phenotypes. Haplotype analyses showed the three SNPs examined were within linkage disequilibrium, which implied that the three SNPs covered the whole HTR1B, and distribution of estimated haplotype frequency was not different between the groups. The present findings may indicate that HTR1B does not play a major role in individual susceptibility to methamphetamine dependence or development of methamphetamine-induced psychosis

Neuroprotective natural antibodies to assemblies of amyloidogenic peptides decrease with normal aging and advancing Alzheimer's disease

A number of distinct beta-amyloid (Abeta) variants or multimers have been implicated in Alzheimer's disease (AD), and antibodies recognizing such peptides are in clinical trials. Humans have natural Abeta-specific antibodies, but their diversity, abundance, and function in the general population remain largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate with peptide microarrays the presence of natural antibodies against known toxic Abeta and amyloidogenic non-Abeta species in plasma samples and cerebrospinal fluid of AD patients and healthy controls aged 21-89 years. Antibody reactivity was most prominent against oligomeric assemblies of Abeta and pyroglutamate or oxidized residues, and IgGs specific for oligomeric preparations of Abeta1-42 in particular declined with age and advancing AD. Most individuals showed unexpected antibody reactivities against peptides unique to autosomal dominant forms of dementia (mutant Abeta, ABri, ADan) and IgGs isolated from plasma of AD patients or healthy controls protected primary neurons from Abeta toxicity. Aged vervets showed similar patterns of plasma IgG antibodies against amyloid peptides, and after immunization with Abeta the monkeys developed high titers not only against Abeta peptides but also against ABri and ADan peptides. Our findings support the concept of conformation-specific, cross-reactive antibodies that may protect against amyloidogenic toxic peptides. If a therapeutic benefit of Abeta antibodies can be confirmed in AD patients, stimulating the production of such neuroprotective antibodies or passively administering them to the elderly population may provide a preventive measure toward AD

Robotic Wireless Sensor Networks

In this chapter, we present a literature survey of an emerging, cutting-edge, and multi-disciplinary field of research at the intersection of Robotics and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) which we refer to as Robotic Wireless Sensor Networks (RWSN). We define a RWSN as an autonomous networked multi-robot system that aims to achieve certain sensing goals while meeting and maintaining certain communication performance requirements, through cooperative control, learning and adaptation. While both of the component areas, i.e., Robotics and WSN, are very well-known and well-explored, there exist a whole set of new opportunities and research directions at the intersection of these two fields which are relatively or even completely unexplored. One such example would be the use of a set of robotic routers to set up a temporary communication path between a sender and a receiver that uses the controlled mobility to the advantage of packet routing. We find that there exist only a limited number of articles to be directly categorized as RWSN related works whereas there exist a range of articles in the robotics and the WSN literature that are also relevant to this new field of research. To connect the dots, we first identify the core problems and research trends related to RWSN such as connectivity, localization, routing, and robust flow of information. Next, we classify the existing research on RWSN as well as the relevant state-of-the-arts from robotics and WSN community according to the problems and trends identified in the first step. Lastly, we analyze what is missing in the existing literature, and identify topics that require more research attention in the future