Experimental cruise for sea spray generation in MR18-05C

The Tenth Symposium on Polar Science/Ordinary sessions: [OM] Polar Meteorology and Glaciology, Wed. 4 Dec. / Entrance Hall (1st floor) , National Institute of Polar Researc

Variants at HLA-A , HLA-C , and HLA-DQB1 Confer Risk of Psoriasis Vulgaris in Japanese

Psoriasis vulgaris (PsV) is an autoimmune disease of skin and joints with heterogeneity in epidemiologic and genetic landscapes of global populations. We conducted an initial genome-wide association study and a replication study of PsV in the Japanese population (606 PsV cases and 2,052 controls). We identified significant associations of the single nucleotide polymorphisms with PsV risk at TNFAIP3-interacting protein 1and the major histocompatibility complex region (P = 3.7 × 10−10 and 6.6 × 10−15, respectively). By updating the HLA imputation reference panel of Japanese (n = 908) to expand HLA gene coverage, we fine-mapped the HLA variants associated with PsV risk. Although we confirmed the PsV risk of HLA-C*06:02 (odds ratio = 6.36, P = 0.0015), its impact was relatively small compared with those in other populations due to rare allele frequency in Japanese (0.4% in controls). Alternatively, HLA-A*02:07, which corresponds to the cysteine residue at HLA-A amino acid position 99 (HLA-A Cys99), demonstrated the most significant association with PsV (odds ratio = 4.61, P = 1.2 × 10–10). In addition to HLA-A*02:07 and HLA-C*06:02, stepwise conditional analysis identified an independent PsV risk of HLA-DQβ1 Asp57 (odds ratio = 2.19, P = 1.9 × 10–6). Our PsV genome-wide association study in Japanese highlighted the genetic architecture of PsV, including the identification of HLA risk variants

Measurements of snow depth and sea ice thickness by electromagnetic-induction measurements observed by Japan and Australia in the Antarctic Ocean.

第2回極域科学シンポジウム/第34回気水圏シンポジウム 11月17日（木） 統計数理研究所 セミナー室

A nationwide, multi-center, retrospective study of symptomatic small bowel stricture in patients with Crohn\u27s disease.

BACKGROUND:Small bowel stricture is one of the most common complications in patients with Crohn\u27s disease (CD). Endoscopic balloon dilatation (EBD) is a minimally invasive treatment intended to avoid surgery; however, whether EBD prevents subsequent surgery remains unclear. We aimed to reveal the factors contributing to surgery in patients with small bowel stricture and the factors associated with subsequent surgery after initial EBD.METHODS:Data were retrospectively collected from surgically untreated CD patients who developed symptomatic small bowel stricture after 2008 when the use of balloon-assisted enteroscopy and maintenance therapy with anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) became available.RESULTS:A total of 305 cases from 32 tertiary referral centers were enrolled. Cumulative surgery-free survival was 74.0% at 1 year, 54.4% at 5 years, and 44.3% at 10 years. The factors associated with avoiding surgery were non-stricturing, non-penetrating disease at onset, mild severity of symptoms, successful EBD, stricture length < 2 cm, and immunomodulator or anti-TNF added after onset of obstructive symptoms. In 95 cases with successful initial EBD, longer EBD interval was associated with lower risk of surgery. Receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed that an EBD interval of ≤ 446 days predicted subsequent surgery, and the proportion of smokers was significantly high in patients who required frequent dilatation.CONCLUSIONS:In CD patients with symptomatic small bowel stricture, addition of immunomodulator or anti-TNF and smoking cessation may improve the outcome of symptomatic small bowel stricture, by avoiding frequent EBD and subsequent surgery after initial EBD

Characteristics of heat balance during the snowmelt season in Ny-Alesund, Spitsbergen Island (scientific paper)

Heat balance observations were carried out at Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen Island during the snowmelt seasons in 1993 and 1994 in order to understand characteristics of heat balance at high latitude by comparing heat balance components at the snow surface before and after snowmelt initiation. In the snowmelt period, air temperature was higher than that in the pre-snowmelt period. Mean air temperature in the snowmelt period was about +3&acd;4℃, and daily minimum temperature never fell below 0℃. Water vapor pressure was also higher than that in the pre-period. Albedo of the snow surface was relatively high, and remained higher than 0.65 even in the snowmelt period. The main snowmelt heat source was net radiation in both years. Net radiation in the snowmelt period was about 20Wm^ larger than that in the pre-snowmelt period; however, the shortwave radiation budget was almost constant. Heat loss by the longwave radiation budget in the snowmelt period was less than that in the pre-period and consequently net radiation increased. The reason for the decrease of heat loss by the longwave radiation budget was the increase of atmospheric radiation accompanied by a decrease in solar radiation