Statistical double Lambda hypernuclear formation from Xi(-) absorption at rest in light nuclei

We investigate double Lambda hyperfragment formation from the statistical decay of double Lambda compound nuclei produced in the Xi(-) absorption at rest in the light nuclei C-12, N-14, and O-16. We examine the target and the Lambda Lambda bond energy dependence of the double Lambda hyperfragment formation probabilities, especially of those double hypernuclei observed in experiments. For the 12C (N-14) target, the formation probabilities of 6 He and 10 Be (B-13(Lambda Lambda)) are found to be reasonably large as they are observed in the KEK-E373 (KEK-E176) experiment. By comparison, for the O-16 target, the formation probability of Be-11(Lambda Lambda) is calculated to be small with Delta B-Lambda Lambda consistent with the Nagara event. We also evaluate the formation probability of H-5(Lambda Lambda) from a Xi(-)-He-6 bound state, H-7(Xi)

Statistical double Λ\Lambda hypernuclear formation from Ξ−\Xi^- absorption at rest in light nuclei

We investigate double $\Lambda$ hyperfragment formation from the statistical decay of double $\Lambda$ compound nuclei produced in the $\Xi^-$ absorption at rest in light nuclei, $^{12}\mathrm{C}$, $^{14}\mathrm{N}$ and $^{16}\mathrm{O}$. We examine the target and the $\Lambda\Lambda$ bond energy dependence of the double $\Lambda$ hyperfragment formation probabilities, especially of those double hypernuclei observed in experiments. For the $^{12}\mathrm{C}$ ($^{14}\mathrm{N}$) target, the formation probabilities of $^{6}_{\Lambda\Lambda}\mathrm{He}$ and $^{10}_{\Lambda\Lambda}\mathrm{Be}$ ($^{13}_{\Lambda\Lambda}\mathrm{B}$) are found to be reasonably large as they are observed in the KEK-E373 (KEK-E176) experiment. By comparison, for $^{16}\mathrm{O}$ target, the formation probability of $^{11}_{\Lambda\Lambda}\mathrm{Be}$ is calculated to be small with $\Delta B_{\Lambda\Lambda}$ consistent with the Nagara event. We also evaluate the formation probability of ${}^{5}_{\Lambda\Lambda}\mathrm{H}$ from a $\Xi^-$-${}^{6}\mathrm{He}$ bound state, ${}^{7}_{\Xi}\mathrm{H}$.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures (revision is made in v3

Rain-induced bioecological resuspension of radiocaesium in a polluted forest in Japan

放射性セシウムを含む真菌類の大型胞子の放出が森林環境での雨により増加することを発見 --降水によるバイオエアロゾル大気放出の新証拠--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2020-10-01.It is the conventional understanding that rain removes aerosols from the atmosphere. However, the question of whether rain plays a role in releasing aerosols to the atmosphere has recently been posed by several researchers. In the present study, we show additional evidence for rain-induced aerosol emissions in a forest environment: the occurrence of radiocaesium-bearing aerosols in a Japanese forest due to rain. We carried out general radioactive aerosol observations in a typical mountainous village area within the exclusion zone in Fukushima Prefecture to determine the impacts and major drivers of the resuspension of radiocaesium originating from the nuclear accident in March 2011. We also conducted sampling according to the weather (with and without rain conditions) in a forest to clarify the sources of atmospheric radiocaesium in the polluted forest. We found that rain induces an increase in radiocaesium in the air in forests. With further investigations, we confirmed that the fungal spore sources of resuspended radiocaesium seemed to differ between rainy weather and nonrainy weather. Larger fungal particles (possibly macroconidia) are emitted during rainy conditions than during nonrainy weather, suggesting that splash generation by rain droplets is the major mechanism of the suspension of radiocaesium-bearing mould-like fungi. The present findings indicate that radiocaesium could be used as a tracer in such research fields as forest ecology, meteorology, climatology, public health and agriculture, in which fungal spores have significance

The seasonal variations of atmospheric 134,137Cs activity and possible host particles for their resuspension in the contaminated areas of Tsushima and Yamakiya, Fukushima, Japan

A large quantity of radionuclides was released by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in March 2011, and those deposited on ground and vegetation could return to the atmosphere through resuspension processes. Although the resuspension has been proposed to occur with wind blow, biomass burning, ecosystem activities, etc., the dominant process in contaminated areas of Fukushima is not fully understood. We have examined the resuspension process of radiocesium (134,137Cs) based on long-term measurements of the atmospheric concentration of radiocesium activity (the radiocesium concentration) at four sites in the contaminated areas of Fukushima as well as the aerosol characteristic observations by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the measurement of the biomass burning tracer, levoglucosan.The radiocesium concentrations at all sites showed a similar seasonal variation: low from winter to early spring and high from late spring to early autumn. In late spring, they showed positive peaks that coincided with the wind speed peaks. However, in summer and autumn, they were correlated positively with atmospheric temperature but negatively with wind speed. These results differed from previous studies based on data at urban sites. The difference of radiocesium concentrations at two sites, which are located within a 1 km range but have different degrees of surface contamination, was large from winter to late spring and small in summer and autumn, indicating that resuspension occurs locally and/or that atmospheric radiocesium was not well mixed in winter/spring, and it was opposite in summer/autumn. These results suggest that the resuspension processes and the host particles of the radiocesium resuspension changed seasonally. The SEM analyses showed that the dominant coarse particles in summer and autumn were organic ones, such as pollen, spores, and microorganisms. Biological activities in forest ecosystems can contribute considerably to the radiocesium resuspension in these seasons. During winter and spring, soil, mineral, and vegetation debris were predominant coarse particles in the atmosphere, and the radiocesium resuspension in these seasons can be attributed to the wind blow of these particles. Any proofs that biomass burning had a significant impact on atmospheric radiocesium were not found in the present study

A community intervention trial of multimodal suicide prevention program in Japan: A Novel multimodal Community Intervention program to prevent suicide and suicide attempt in Japan, NOCOMIT-J

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To respond to the rapid surge in the incidence of suicide in Japan, which appears to be an ongoing trend, the Japanese Multimodal Intervention Trials for Suicide Prevention (J-MISP) have launched a multimodal community-based suicide prevention program, NOCOMIT-J. The primary aim of this study is to examine whether NOCOMIT-J is effective in reducing suicidal behavior in the community.</p> <p>Methods/DesignThis study is a community intervention trial involving seven intervention regions with accompanying control regions, all with populations of statistically sufficient size. The program focuses on building social support networks in the public health system for suicide prevention and mental health promotion, intending to reinforce human relationships in the community. The intervention program components includes a primary prevention measures of awareness campaign for the public and key personnel, secondary prevention measures for screening of, and assisting, high-risk individuals, after-care for individuals bereaved by suicide, and other measures. The intervention started in July 2006, and will continue for 3.5 years. Participants are Japanese and foreign residents living in the intervention and control regions (a total of population of 2,120,000 individuals).</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The present study is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the community-based suicide prevention program in the seven participating areas.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>UMIN Clinical Trials Registry (UMIN-CTR) UMIN000000460.</p

Exposures of children to neonicotinoids in pine wilt disease control areas

Neonicotinoid insecticides that have been on the market since 1992 have been used globally including in Japan. Because they are sprayed over forests and agricultural areas, inadvertent toxicity in nontarget insects (especially honey bees) and humans is a matter of public concern. However, information on exposure levels and potential health impacts of neonicotinoids in children living around sprayed areas is scarce. Thus, we determined neonicotinoid exposure levels in children living in communities where thiacloprid was used to control pine wilt disease. A total of 46 children (23 males and 23 females) were recruited for the present study, and informed written consent was obtained from their guardians. Urine specimens were collected before, during, and after insecticide spraying events; and atmospheric particulate matter was also collected. Concentrations of thiacloprid and 6 other neonicotinoid compounds were determined in urine samples and in atmospheric particulate matter specimens using liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry. In urine specimens, thiacloprid concentrations were <0.13 mu g/L and were detectable in approximately 30% of all samples. Concentrations of the other neonicotinoids, N-dm-acetamiprid, thiamethoxam, dinotefuran, and clothianidin, were 18.7, 1.92, 72.3, and 6.02 mu g/L, respectively. Estimated daily intakes of these neonicotinoids were then calculated from urinary levels; although the estimated daily intakes of the neonicotinoids were lower than current acceptable daily intake values, the children were found to be exposed to multiple neonicotinoids on a daily basis. Environ Toxicol Chem 2019;38:71-79. (c) 2018 SETA

Fundamental Frequency Estimation for Noisy Speech Using Entropy-Weighted Periodic and Harmonic Features

This paper proposes a robust method for estimating the fundamental frequency (F0) in real environments. It is assumed that the spectral structure of real environmental noise varies momentarily and its energy does not distribute evenly in the time-frequency domain. Therefore, segmenting a spectrogram of speech mixed with environmental noise into narrow time-frequency regions will produce low-noise regions in which the signal-to-noise ratio is high. The proposed method estimates F0 from the periodic and harmonic features that are clearly observed in the low-noise regions. It first uses two kinds of spectrogram, one with high frequency resolution and another with high temporal resolution, to represent the periodic and harmonic features corresponding to F0. Next, the method segments these two kinds of feature plane into narrow time-frequency regions, and calculates the probability function of F0 for each region. It then utilizes the entropy of the probability function as weight to emphasize the probability function in the low-noise region and to enhance noise robustness. Finally, the probability functions are grouped in each time, and F0 is obtained as the frequency with the highest probability of the function. The experimental results showed that, in comparison with other approaches such as the cepstrum method and the autocorrelation method, the developed method can more robustly estimate F0s from speech in the presence of band-limited noise and car noise

Factors associated with non-response to naldemedine for opioid-induced constipation in cancer patients: A subgroup analysis

Background Opioid-induced constipation (OIC) is one of the most common adverse events of opioid therapy and can severely reduce quality of life (QOL). Naldemedine is the orally available peripheral-acting μ-opioid receptor antagonist approved for OIC treatment. However in daily clinical practice, some cancer patients show insufficient control of OIC even while receiving naldemedine. Objective To identify factors associated with non-response to naldemedine in cancer patients. Methods This study retrospectively analyzed 127 cancer patients prescribed naldemedine at Seirei Hamamatsu General Hospital in Japan between November 2016 and June 2021. For the regression analysis of factors associated with OIC, variables were extracted manually from electronic medical records. Naldemedine had been prescribed by the attending physician after the presence of OIC had been defined with reference to Rome IV diagnostic criteria. Naldemedine was evaluated as “effective” in cases where the number of defecations increased at least once in the first 3 days after starting naldemedine. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with non-response to naldemedine. The data used were from the group of patients who received naldemedine in our previous study. Results Factors significantly associated with non-response to naldemedine included chemotherapy with taxanes within 1 month of evaluation of naldemedine effect (odds ratio [OR] = 0.063; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.007–0.568), and addition of or switching to naldemedine due to insufficient efficacy of prior laxatives (OR = 0.352, 95% CI = 0.129–0.966). Conclusion The identification of factors associated with non-response to naldemedine prescribed for OIC may help improve QOL among cancer patients

Factors associated with non-response to naldemedine for opioid-induced constipation in cancer patients: A subgroup analysis.

BackgroundOpioid-induced constipation (OIC) is one of the most common adverse events of opioid therapy and can severely reduce quality of life (QOL). Naldemedine is the orally available peripheral-acting μ-opioid receptor antagonist approved for OIC treatment. However in daily clinical practice, some cancer patients show insufficient control of OIC even while receiving naldemedine.ObjectiveTo identify factors associated with non-response to naldemedine in cancer patients.MethodsThis study retrospectively analyzed 127 cancer patients prescribed naldemedine at Seirei Hamamatsu General Hospital in Japan between November 2016 and June 2021. For the regression analysis of factors associated with OIC, variables were extracted manually from electronic medical records. Naldemedine had been prescribed by the attending physician after the presence of OIC had been defined with reference to Rome IV diagnostic criteria. Naldemedine was evaluated as "effective" in cases where the number of defecations increased at least once in the first 3 days after starting naldemedine. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with non-response to naldemedine. The data used were from the group of patients who received naldemedine in our previous study.ResultsFactors significantly associated with non-response to naldemedine included chemotherapy with taxanes within 1 month of evaluation of naldemedine effect (odds ratio [OR] = 0.063; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.007-0.568), and addition of or switching to naldemedine due to insufficient efficacy of prior laxatives (OR = 0.352, 95% CI = 0.129-0.966).ConclusionThe identification of factors associated with non-response to naldemedine prescribed for OIC may help improve QOL among cancer patients