Vegetation succession at the abandoned Ogushi sulfur mine, central Japan

We surveyed plant community development at the abandoned Ogushi sulfur mine. We found seven communities dominated by the following respective species: Deschampsia flexuosa, Miscanthus sinensis, shrub willow, Gaultheria miqueliana-Betula ermanii, Sasa senanensis-Betula ermanii, willow-Betula ermanii, and Sasa kurilensis-Abies veitchii. We examined the succession of these communities, in which younger communities of low height and ground cover contained seedlings of the successive communities that were taller and had higher ground cover. To understand the development of these different communities, we surveyed damage from mining pollution and effects of immature soils formed by landslides. The average pH (H(2)O) was 4.12, and aluminum concentrations were not sufficiently high to damage plant growth, except in areas where sulfur had been mined. The organic carbon and nitrogen content in soil samples were very low because of a delay in soil development caused by a large landslide in 1937. Hence, succession was positively correlated with the soil development stage. The delay in soil development after a large landslide influenced the seven successional steps of the plant communities, but mineral poisons at the abandoned Ogushi sulfur mine had no effect on succession.ArticleLANDSCAPE AND ECOLOGICAL ENGINEERING. 5(1):33-44 (2009)journal articl

ELEMENTARY PROCESS OF DEFORMATION OF AMORPHOUS METALS

A two-dimensional amorphous structure of atoms interacting with a central force potential has been constructed and deformed in pure shear in a computer with a periodic boundary condition. The stress-strain relation has shown lower elastic moduli and much higher flow stress (0.04～0.06μ_p) than the crystalline state. Elementary process of plastic deformation consists of chain-reacting collapses of holes (vacant spaces smaller than the ordinary vacancy) in the direction of the maximum shear line, which results in the slip nucleation and propagation in a macroscopic scale

Heavy Fermion Bound States for Diphoton Excess at 750GeV ∼\sim Collider and Cosmological Constraints ∼\sim

A colored heavy particle with sufficiently small width may form non-relativistic bound states when they are produced at the large hadron collider\,(LHC), and they can annihilate into a diphoton final state. The invariant mass of the diphoton would be around twice of the colored particle mass. In this paper, we study if such bound state can be responsible for the 750 GeV diphoton excess reported by ATLAS and CMS. We found that the best-fit signal cross section is obtained for the SU(2)$_L$ singlet colored fermion $X$ with $Y_X=4/3$. Having such an exotic hypercharge, the particle is expected to decay through some higher dimensional operators, consistent with the small width assumption. The decay of $X$ may involve a stable particle $\chi$, if both $X$ and $\chi$ are odd under some conserved $Z_2$ symmetry. In that case, the particle $X$ suffers from the constraints of jets + missing $E_T$ searches by ATLAS and CMS at 8 TeV and 13 TeV. We found that such a scenario still survives if the mass difference between $X$ and $\chi$ is above $\sim$ 30 GeV for $m_X \sim 375$ GeV. Even assuming pair annihilation of $\chi$ is small, the relic density of $\chi$ is small enough if the mass difference between $X$ and $\chi$ is smaller than $\sim$ 40 GeV

Comparative Evaluation of the Safety and Efficacy of Long-Term Use of Imidafenacin and Solifenacin in Patients with Overactive Bladder: A Prospective, Open, Randomized, Parallel-Group Trial (the LIST Study)

Objectives. Overactive bladder (OAB) is a chronic disease, but comparative trials of anticholinergics, which are commonly used for treatment of OAB, have generally been performed for up to 12 weeks only. There is no comparative study of a long-term intervention. Methods. We conducted a 52-week prospective randomized comparative study to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of two anticholinergics. Results. Forty-one Japanese patients with untreated OAB were randomly assigned to imidafenacin and solifenacin groups. There was no difference in OABSS and KHQ scores between the two groups, but the severity and incidence of adverse events caused by the anticholinergics showed increased differences between the groups with time. The severity of dry mouth and the incidence of constipation were significantly lower in the imidafenacin group (P = 0.0092 and P = 0.0013, resp.). Conclusions. This study is the first long-term trial to show differences in the properties of anticholinergics that were not detected in short-term studies. Since OAB is a chronic disease, we conclude that imidafenacin is preferable to solifenacin from a perspective of safety

Initiating SGLT2 inhibitor therapy to improve renal outcomes for persons with diabetes eligible for an intensified glucose-lowering regimen: hypothetical intervention using parametric g-formula modeling

[Introduction] Sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors are now recommended in guidelines for persons with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and at risk of advanced kidney disease as part of the glucose-lowering regimen. [Research design and methods] To explore the optimal threshold at which to initiate SGLT2 inhibitor therapy, we conducted an observational study analyzed under a counterfactual framework. This study used the electronic healthcare database in Japan, comprising data from approximately 20 million patients at approximately 160 medical institutions. Persons with T2DM with an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) ≥ 30 mL/min/1.73 m2 in April 2014 were eligible. The primary end point was the composite of renal deterioration (>40% decline in eGFR) and the development of eGFR<30 mL/min/1.73 m2. We estimated the risk of the composite end point occurring over 77 months in different scenarios, such as early or delayed intervention with SGLT2 inhibitors for uncontrolled diabetes at different hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) thresholds. The parametric g-formula was used to estimate the risk of the composite end point, adjusting for time-fixed and time-varying confounders. [Results] We analyzed data from 36 237 persons (149 346 person-years observation), of whom 4679 started SGLT2 inhibitor therapy (9470 person-years observation). Overall, initiating SGLT2 inhibitor therapy was associated with a 77-month risk reduction in the end point by 1.3–3.7%. The largest risk reduction was observed within 3 months of initiation once the HbA1c level exceeded 6.5% (risk reduction of 3.7% (95% CI 1.6% to 6.7%)) compared with a threshold of 7.0% or higher. [Conclusions] Our analyses favored early intervention with SGLT2 inhibitors to reduce the renal end point, even for persons with moderately controlled HbA1c levels. Our findings also suggest caution against clinical inertia in the care of diabetes

Prevalence, recognition and management of chronic kidney disease in Japan: population-based estimate using a healthcare database with routine health checkup data

[Background] We aimed to update information on the prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Japan. We also explored whether CKD was properly recognized and managed. [Methods] We used data from annual health checkups in 2017, compiling records for 5 million persons. These included laboratory results and were linked to healthcare utilization records via personal identifiers. CKD was defined as an estimated glomerular filtration rate 95% sought medical services and 64.6% received laboratory tests within 180 days of the checkup. However, the diagnostic code suggestive of CKD was recorded in only 23.2% of patients and prescriptions for DM and HT were found in 31.2% (1590/5096) and 36.7% (8081/22 019) of comorbid persons, respectively. [Conclusions] The prevalence of CKD in Japan has increased over the past decade. However, recognition of CKD is likely suboptimal and there is room to improve the management of comorbid DM and HT

Intensive care unit versus high-dependency care unit admission on mortality in patients with septic shock: a retrospective cohort study using Japanese claims data

[Background] Septic shock is a common and life-threatening condition that requires intensive care. Intensive care units (ICUs) in Japan are classified into ICUs and high-dependency care units (HDUs), depending on presence of full-time certified intensivists and the number of assigned nurses. Compared with other developed countries, there are fewer intensive care beds and certified intensivists in Japan; therefore, non-intensivists often treat patients with septic shock in HDUs. It is unknown where we should treat patients with septic shock because no studies have compared the clinical outcomes between ICU and HDU treatment. This study aimed to elucidate which units should admit patients with septic shock by comparing mortality data and resource use between ICU and HDU admissions. [Methods] In this retrospective cohort study, we used a nationwide Japanese administrative database to identify adult patients with septic shock who were admitted to ICUs or HDUs between January 2010 and February 2021. The patients were divided into two groups, based on admittance to ICU or HDU on the day of hospitalization. The primary outcome was 30-day all-cause mortality adjusted for covariates using Cox regression analyses; the secondary outcomes were the length of ICU or HDU stay and length of hospital stay. [Results] Of the 10, 818 eligible hospitalizations for septic shock, 6584 were in the ICU group, and 4234 were in the HDU group. Cox regression analyses revealed that patients admitted to the ICUs had lower 30-day mortality (adjusted hazard ratio: 0.89; 95% confidence interval: 0.83–0.96; P = 0.005). Linear regression analyses showed no significant difference in hospital length of stay or ICU or HDU length of stay. [Conclusions] An association was observed between ICU admission and lower 30-day mortality in patients with septic shock. These findings could provide essential insights for building a more appropriate treatment system