62 research outputs found
Evaluation of therapeutic effects and serious complications following endoscopic obliterative therapy with Histoacryl
Takahiro Sato, Katsu YamazakiDepartment of Gastroenterology, Sapporo Kosei General Hospital, Sapporo, JapanBackground and aims: Our aim was to evaluate the utility of endoscopic obliterative therapy with Histoacryl for gastric varices and to investigate the incidence of serious complications.Methods: Endoscopic obliterative therapy with Histoacryl was performed on 129 gastric variceal patients. Sixty-five patients had cardiofornical varices, and 64 had fundal varices. Forty-five of 129 patients were emergency cases and the other 84 patients were prophylactic cases. Endoscopic therapy was performed under fluoroscopy using 70% Histoacryl (Histoacryl diluted with 5% Lipiodol).Results: Endoscopic hemostasis of gastric varices was successful in 45/45 (100%) emergency cases. The recurrence rate of gastric varices was 17/120 (14.2%) among patients whose variceal eradication was achieved. Additional treatment was successfully performed in all recurrent cases. The incidence of serious complications was 4/129 (3.1%), including two cases of splenic infarction, one case of pulmonary embolism, and one case of an inflammatory tumor of pancreatic tail. The two patients with splenic infarction improved with conservative medical treatment. The patient with pulmonary embolism showed no respiratory symptoms, and died of liver failure. The patient with the pancreatic tumor, which was diagnosed as an inflammatory tumor, was treated surgically.Conclusions: Endoscopic obliterative therapy with Histoacryl is a useful and relatively safe method for treatment of bleeding gastric varices. Nonetheless, careful attention must be paid to avoid potentially serious complications.Keywords: cyanoacrylate, endoscopic obliterative therapy, gastric varices, Histoacry
Search for a stochastic background of 100-MHz gravitational waves with laser interferometers
This letter reports the results of a search for a stochastic background of
gravitational waves (GW) at 100 MHz by laser interferometry. We have developed
a GW detector, which is a pair of 75-cm baseline synchronous recycling
(resonant recycling) interferometers. Each interferometer has a strain
sensitivity of ~ 10^{-16} Hz^{-1/2} at 100 MHz. By cross-correlating the
outputs of the two interferometers within 1000 seconds, we found h_{100}^2
Omega_{gw} < 6 times 10^{25} to be an upper limit on the energy density
spectrum of the GW background in a 2-kHz bandwidth around 100 MHz, where a flat
spectrum is assumed.Comment: Accepted by Phys.Rev.Lett.; 10 pages, 4 figure
Current status of Japanese detectors
Current status of TAMA and CLIO detectors in Japan is reported in this
article. These two interferometric gravitational-wave detectors are being
developed for the large cryogenic gravitational wave telescope (LCGT) which is
a future plan for detecting gravitational wave signals at least once per year.
TAMA300 is being upgraded to improve the sensitivity in low frequency region
after the last observation experiment in 2004. To reduce the seismic noises, we
are installing new seismic isolation system, which is called TAMA Seismic
Attenuation System, for the four test masses. We confirmed stable mass locks of
a cavity and improvements of length and angular fluctuations by using two SASs.
We are currently optimizing the performance of the third and fourth SASs. We
continue TAMA300 operation and R&D studies for LCGT. Next data taking in the
summer of 2007 is planned.
CLIO is a 100-m baseline length prototype detector for LCGT to investigate
interferometer performance in cryogenic condition. The key features of CLIO are
that it locates Kamioka underground site for low seismic noise level, and
adopts cryogenic Sapphire mirrors for low thermal noise level. The first
operation of the cryogenic interferometer was successfully demonstrated in
February of 2006. Current sensitivity at room temperature is close to the
target sensitivity within a factor of 4. Several observation experiments at
room temperature have been done. Once the displacement noise reaches at thermal
noise level of room temperature, its improvement by cooling test mass mirrors
should be demonstrated.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, Proceedings of GWDAW-1
Association Between Tooth Loss and Longitudinal Changes in B-Type Natriuretic Peptide Over 5 Years in Postmenopausal Women: The Nagahama Study
BACKGROUND: There is disparity between the sexes in cardiovascular diseases including heart failure (HF). This study aimed to investigate the effect of periodontal disease (PD) on plasma B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) concentration across sex, age, and menopausal status, as well as the interaction effect of MT and diabetes mellitus (DM) on BNP. METHODS: This large-scale prospective cohort study enrolled 7, 539 individuals with no myocardial infarctions or angina pectoris at baseline from the general Japanese population. The association between baseline number of missing teeth (MT) and the longitudinal changes in BNP over 5 years (ΔBNP) was evaluated according to sex and menopausal status. RESULTS: Among 7, 539 participants, 3, 190 were postmenopausal women with a mean age ± standard deviation of 61.1 ± 7.6 at baseline. Multivariate analysis revealed a positive association between MT and ΔBNP among postmenopausal women even after adjusting for covariates, including traditional HF risk factors (coefficient, 0.210; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.107 to 0.312; P 50. Including an interaction term (MT × DM) in the multivariate model revealed a positive interaction between MT and DM in ΔBNP among postmenopausal women (coefficient for interaction, 1.365; 95% CI, 0.902 to 1.827; P for interaction <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed a positive association between MT and ΔBNP, as well as a positive effect of the interactive association between MT and DM, among postmenopausal women. Our results suggest a sex difference of an adverse effect of PD on initial myocardial wall stress in the ventricles
Coincidence analysis to search for inspiraling compact binaries using TAMA300 and LISM data
Japanese laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors, TAMA300 and
LISM, performed a coincident observation during 2001. We perform a coincidence
analysis to search for inspiraling compact binaries. The length of data used
for the coincidence analysis is 275 hours when both TAMA300 and LISM detectors
are operated simultaneously. TAMA300 and LISM data are analyzed by matched
filtering, and candidates for gravitational wave events are obtained. If there
is a true gravitational wave signal, it should appear in both data of detectors
with consistent waveforms characterized by masses of stars, amplitude of the
signal, the coalescence time and so on. We introduce a set of coincidence
conditions of the parameters, and search for coincident events. This procedure
reduces the number of fake events considerably, by a factor
compared with the number of fake events in single detector analysis. We find
that the number of events after imposing the coincidence conditions is
consistent with the number of accidental coincidences produced purely by noise.
We thus find no evidence of gravitational wave signals. We obtain an upper
limit of 0.046 /hours (CL ) to the Galactic event rate within 1kpc from
the Earth. The method used in this paper can be applied straightforwardly to
the case of coincidence observations with more than two detectors with
arbitrary arm directions.Comment: 28 pages, 17 figures, Replaced with the version to be published in
Physical Review
Results of the search for inspiraling compact star binaries from TAMA300's observation in 2000-2004
We analyze the data of TAMA300 detector to search for gravitational waves
from inspiraling compact star binaries with masses of the component stars in
the range 1-3Msolar. In this analysis, 2705 hours of data, taken during the
years 2000-2004, are used for the event search. We combine the results of
different observation runs, and obtained a single upper limit on the rate of
the coalescence of compact binaries in our Galaxy of 20 per year at a 90%
confidence level. In this upper limit, the effect of various systematic errors
such like the uncertainty of the background estimation and the calibration of
the detector's sensitivity are included.Comment: 8 pages, 4 Postscript figures, uses revtex4.sty The author list was
correcte
The Japanese space gravitational wave antenna; DECIGO
DECi-hertz Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (DECIGO) is the future
Japanese space gravitational wave antenna. DECIGO is expected to open a new window of
observation for gravitational wave astronomy especially between 0.1 Hz and 10 Hz, revealing
various mysteries of the universe such as dark energy, formation mechanism of supermassive
black holes, and inflation of the universe. The pre-conceptual design of DECIGO consists of
three drag-free spacecraft, whose relative displacements are measured by a differential Fabry–
Perot Michelson interferometer. We plan to launch two missions, DECIGO pathfinder and pre-
DECIGO first and finally DECIGO in 2024
DECIGO pathfinder
DECIGO pathfinder (DPF) is a milestone satellite mission for DECIGO (DECi-hertz Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory) which is a future space gravitational wave antenna. DECIGO is expected to provide us fruitful insights into the universe, in particular about dark energy, a formation mechanism of supermassive black holes, and the inflation of the universe. Since DECIGO will be an extremely large mission which will formed by three drag-free spacecraft with 1000m separation, it is significant to gain the technical feasibility of DECIGO before its planned launch in 2024. Thus, we are planning to launch two milestone missions: DPF and pre-DECIGO. The conceptual design and current status of the first milestone mission, DPF, are reviewed in this article
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