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Background Blood pressure (BP) variability has reportedly been a risk factor for various clinical events. To clarify the influence of BP visit‐to‐visit variability on adverse events in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation, a post hoc analysis of the J‐RHYTHM Registry was performed. Methods and Results Of 7406 outpatients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation from 158 institutions, 7226 (age, 69.7±9.9 years; men, 70.7%), in whom BP was measured 4 times or more (14.6±5.0 times) during the 2‐year follow‐up period or until occurrence of an event, constituted the study group. SD and coefficient of variation of BP values were calculated as BP variability. Thromboembolism, major hemorrhage, and all‐cause death occurred in 110 (1.5%), 121 (1.7%), and 168 (2.3%) patients, respectively. When patients were divided into quartiles of systolic BP‐SD (P =0.015 for thromboembolism; HR, 2.60, 95% CI, 1.36–4.97, P =0.004 for major hemorrhage; and HR, 1.85, 95% CI, 1.11–3.07, P =0.018 for all‐cause death) after adjusting for components of the CHA 2 DS 2 ‐VASc score, warfarin and antiplatelet use, atrial fibrillation type, BP measurement times, and others. These findings were consistent when BP‐coefficient of variation was used instead of BP‐SD. Conclusions Systolic BP visit‐to‐visit variability was significantly associated with all adverse events in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation. Further studies are needed to clarify the causality between BP variability and adverse outcomes in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation. Registration URL: https://www.umin.ac.jp/ctr/ ; Unique Identifier: UMIN000001569.

We analysed associations between exposure to nightlife businesses and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 PCR test results at a tertiary hospital in Tokyo between March and April 2020. A nightlife group was defined as those who had worked at or visited the businesses. We included 1517 individuals; 196 (12.9%) were categorised as the nightlife group. After propensity score matching, the proportion of positive PCR tests in the nightlife group was significantly higher than that in the non-nightlife group (nightlife, 63.8%; non-nightlife, 23.0%; P < 0.001). An inclusive approach to mitigate risks related to the businesses needs to be identified.

Background To clarify the influence of hypertension and blood pressure ( BP ) control on thromboembolism and major hemorrhage in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation, a post hoc analysis of the J‐ RHYTHM Registry was performed. Methods and Results A consecutive series of outpatients with atrial fibrillation was enrolled from 158 institutions. Of 7937 patients, 7406 with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (70.8% men, 69.8±10.0 years) were followed for 2 years or until an event occurred. Hypertension was defined as a systolic BP ≥140 mm Hg, a diastolic BP ≥90 mm Hg, a history of hypertension, and/or antihypertensive drug use. Hypertension was an independent risk factor for major hemorrhage (hazard ratio 1.52, 95% CI 1.05–2.21, P =0.027) but not for thromboembolism (hazard ratio 1.05, 95% CI 0.73–1.52, P =0.787). When patients were divided into quartiles according to their systolic BP at the time closest to the event or at the end of follow‐up (Q1, CI 1.75–4.74, P CI 1.02–2.53, P =0.041) after adjustment for components of CHA 2 DS 2 ‐ VAS c score, warfarin use, and antiplatelet use. A systolic BP of ≥136 mm Hg was an independent risk factor for thromboembolism and major hemorrhage. Conclusions BP control appears to be more important than a history of hypertension and baseline BP values at preventing thromboembolism and major hemorrhage in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation. Clinical Trial Registration URL : http://www.umin.ac.jp/ctr . Unique identifier: UMIN 000001569.

We have developed an animal model of learning and memory impairment associated with activation of microglia in the mouse brain. Injection of lipopolysaccharide into the CA1 region of the mouse hippocampus resulted in an increased production of inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin-1β. Immunostaining for interleukin-1β revealed an increase in the signal at 6 hr after lipopolysaccharide injection. Immunopositive cells for interleukin-1β were colocalized with those immunopositive for CD11b. When subacute lipopolysaccharide treatment (20 μg/2 μl/injection, bilaterally for 5 consecutive days) was performed, long-term activation of microglia and learning and memory deficits as evaluated using a step-through passive avoidance test were observed in the wild-type mice. Gene expression of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor NR1 and NR2A subunits was also decreased by the lipopolysaccharide treatment. In contrast, activation of microglia and the associated behavioral deficits were not observed in mice lacking interleukin-1α and -1β following the subacute lipopolysaccharide treatment, together with little change in the gene expression of NR1 and NR2A subunits. However, the subacute lipopolysaccharide treatment produced almost similar changes in those parameters in the tumor necrosis factor-α knockout mice as in the wild-type animals. The injection of interleukin-1β neutralizing antibody with lipopolysaccharide for 5 consecutive days resulted in the improvement of lipopolysaccharide-induced learning and memory deficits. These findings suggest that the expression of interleukin-1 plays an important role in lipopolysaccharide-induced activation of microglia and the associated functional deficits in learning and memory.

This letter describes a radiometric technique to evaluate the turbidity (suspended solids concentration, SSC) of terrestrial waters (e.g. irrigation canals, creeks, ponds, streams and small rivers) using a hand-held spectropolarimeter. A field experiment was conducted using a container of water with different turbidity levels. The intensity and degree of polarization of sunlight reflected from the water were measured in visible, near and short-wave infrared bands. The intensity of the reflected light and its non-polarized component were divided by the incident sunlight intensity to derive the radiant coefficient (Q, %), and the non-polarized radiant coefficient (Qnp, %), respectively. The Q and Qnp in several wavelength bands were regressed against measured values of SSC. The multiple regression model using multi-band Qnp is superior to a similar model using multi-band Q because the Qnp model does not need viewing angles as explanatory variables, whereas the model using Q requires these angles. A result from preliminary testing in real streams is also presented.

Atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor of the brain is a rare embryonal tumor of infancy which has become more widely recognized due to specific immunostaining now more routinely available. These tumors still carry a poor prognosis and no standard therapy is currently available. However, the recent development of aggressive multimodality strategies seems to be associated with improved survival rates. In this chapter, we provide a review of our current knowledge on the demographics and epidemiology, pathology, and molecular characteristics. We review each individual therapeutic modality used (surgery, conventional chemotherapy, high-dose chemotherapy with stem cell rescue, intrathecal chemotherapy, and radiation) and the contribution of each to outcome when available. We provide an overview of the most recent therapeutic trials published and discuss the future options in development.

For the development of new materials by SR technology, a new beamline was designed at the BL-7 of New SUBARU. This beamline consists of two branch lines, which are provided with an incident beam from a 3 m undulator by switching the first mirror. One of them is a high photon-flux beamline with a multilayered-mirror monochromator for the study of SR-process (BL7A) and another is a high-resolution beamline with a varied line spacing grating monochromator for the evaluation of nano-structure characteristics by SR-spectroscopy (BL7B). The useful range of emitted photons from 50 to 800 eV is covered at both beamlines.

We investigated the wind-up phenomenon of the flexor reflex in adult and aged rats. The sural nerve was stimulated at C-fiber strength and reflex activity was recorded from the semitendinosus muscle. The wind-up rate, the increment rate of the C-fiber response (i.e. activity from 100 to 600 ms after stimulation) by successive stimuli (five train pulses), was decreased exponentially with increasing stimulus intervals from 3 to 20 s. The time constant of the decay for the aged rats was 9.2±3.2 s (mean±SD), which was significantly longer than for the adult rats (6.4±2.9 s). The findings indicate that the effects of C-fiber activation on the spinal nociceptive pathways attenuate more slowly in aged rats as compared with adult rats.

The utilization of hyper-thermal neutrons, which have an energy spectrum with a Maxwellian distribution at a higher temperature than room temperature (300 K), was studied in order to improve the thermal neutron flux distribution at depth in a living body for neutron capture therapy. Simulation calculations were carried out using a Monte Carlo code 'MCNP-V3' in order to investigate the characteristics of hyper-thermal neutrons, i.e. (i) depth dependence of the neutron energy spectrum, and (ii) depth distribution of the reaction rate in a water phantom for materials with 1/ nu neutron absorption. It is confirmed that hyper-thermal neutron irradiation can improve the thermal neutron flux distribution in the deeper areas in a living body compared with thermal neutron irradiation. When hyper-thermal neutrons with a 3000 K Maxwellian distribution are incident on a body, the reaction rates of 1/ nu materials such as 14N, 10B, etc. are about twice that observed for incident thermal neutrons at 300 K, at a depth of 5 cm. The limit of the treatable depth for tumours having 30 ppm 10B is expected to be about 1.5 cm greater by utilizing hyper-thermal neutrons at 3000 K compared with the incidence of thermal neutrons at 300 K.

Aim: To examine the methods used to estimate nurse staffing levels in acute care settings with Diagnosis Related Groups, which in Japan are called the Diagnosis Procedure Combination (DPC). Methods: For estimating staffing requirements, the study used four DPC groups: (1) acute or recurrent myocardial infarction (AMI) with stenting, (2) angina pectoris with coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), (3) sub-arachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) with clipping surgery, and (4) cerebral infarction with carotid endarterectomy (CEA). Registered nurses with more than 3-year nursing experience in nine university hospitals in the Tokyo metropolitan area completed self-report questionnaires in order to obtain nursing care time and care intensity per each DPC. The concordance rate was measured by Kendall's coefficient of concordance. The relationship between the care time and the care intensity was examined by a time series graph per DPC. Care intensity consisted of professional judgement, mental effort for helping patients, professional skill, physical effort for providing activities of daily living support, and nurse stress, based on the Hsiao and colleagues' model of resource-based relative value scale. Results: Twenty-five nurses in nine university hospitals answered for a hypothetical typical patient with AMI and with CABG, and 28 nurses in nine university hospitals answered for a hypothetical typical patient with SAH and with CEA. Kendall's coefficient of concordance was 0.896 for AMI, 0.855 for CABG, 0.848 for SAH, 0.854 for CEA. The time series data of the care time and the care intensity items showed different patterns for each DPC. Conclusion: The DPC for cardiovascular and cerebral surgical procedures can be used for estimating nurses' workload.

In this study, we report on multimode surface plasmon excitation on metallic diffraction gratings where the grating pitch is much larger than standard grating coupling surface plasmon excitation technique. With the gratings, multimode surface plasmons can be excited at the same time in the wavelength region using a white light source irradiation on the gratings. The grating coupling surface plasmon excitation was also studied by comparing with the theoretical surface plasmon dispersion curves.

Focused ion beam chemical vapor deposition is used to fabricate diamond like carbon (DLC) nanostructures on silicon substrate using phenanthrene gas source at an acceleration voltage of 30 kV. Observations show decreasing DLC linewidth with increasing ion beam scan speed. This is attributed to the Gaussian profile of Ga+ ion beam.

In this paper, the mold repair resolution for UV nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) by focused-ion-beam (FIB) etching and deposition is presented. A narrow line was fabricated on quartz mold by 30 kV Ga+ FIB etching at 0.4 pA. UV-NIL was carried out using the fabricated mold onto Si substrate coated with UV-NIL resin PAK-01 (Toyo Gosei Co.). The narrow line was imprinted on the PAK-01 coated Si substrate by UV-NIL. The line pattern with 28 nm width was successfully imprinted. The protrusion-defect on the quartz mold was repaired by 30 kV Ga+ FIB etching and the hollow-defect by FIB deposition using tetraethoxysilane [Si (OC2H5)4] as a source gas. Results demonstrate that these defective molds can be repaired by FIB etching and deposition.

We report a 60-year-old man who after undergoing surgical repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm with a bifurcated graft subsequently developed a proximal anastomotic pseudoaneurysm, which was successfully treated by embolisation with n-butyl cyanoacrylate.

Multi-level programming is demonstrated with 43 nm-node NAND floating-gate megabit cells for the first time, by thinning an inter-gate dielectric film to less than 13 nm. 43 nm-node cobalt-silicide control-gate and copper bit-line technologies are developed to achieve low resistances of the word lines and bit lines.

A novel SRAM scheme is proposed that can reduce the active leakage power by two orders of magnitude. In the low voltage region of less than 1 V, the VTH, V/sub TH/, is lowered to less than 0.2 V and the leakage power of memory cells becomes a dominant issue. By dynamically dropping the supply voltage of un-accessed cells row by row, the cell leakage can be reduced exponentially through the drain induced barrier lowering (DIBL) effect. Additionally, to lower the leakage from bit-line through transfer gates of memory cells, un-accessed word lines are applied with a negative voltage together with a reduced swing write technique. The basic advantage is verified by measurement and the effectiveness in future generations is discussed by simulations.

Rapidly increasing solid-state mass-storage application areas are requiring low cost, high density flash memories with higher read and program throughputs. This paper describes a 3.3 V-only 64 Mb NAND flash memory fabricated using a 0.4 /spl mu/m single-metal CMOS technology. The read throughput of 40 MB/s is achieved by improving the random access time and by introducing a full-chip burst read. A typical program throughput of 5 MB/s corresponding to 180 ns/byte is achieved by using a narrow incremental step pulse programming (NISPP) technique. A staggered row decoder scheme relaxes layout limitations and improves the random access time.

The authors analyze an associative silicon retina, focusing on the relation between its structure and the error correcting capacity from the viewpoints of code and graph theories. They also investigate its applications to information processing in which image compression and reproduction, pattern recognition, and routing search are included. >

Summary form only given. As device feature size is reduced, minimizing power dissipation, crosstalk noise and propagation delay due to resistance-capacitance (RC) coupling becomes significant because of increased wiring capacitance, in particular, interline capacitance between metal lines on the same metal level. In order to mitigate the problem of RC delay and crosstalk, interlayer dielectrics (ILDs) with low-dielectric-constant (low-k) are required. Many kinds of low-k dielectrics can be obtained either organic or inorganic materials, dense or porous, and can be deposited by either chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or spin-on techniques. In addition, good electrical, chemical and thermal properties are required for these materials. To improve these properties, plasma treatment and dry etching of low-k dielectrics, plasma oxidation of porous ILDs and electron-beam curing of low-k dielectrics to prevent water absorption have been reported. However, synchrotron radiation (SR) etching has not been reported. Therefore, we carried out the SR exposure of SOG and successfully obtained photoexcited etching of SOG for the first time.

This study was designed to investigate the effects of environmental stress on metabolic derangements and the expression of diabetes phenotype in Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) rats, an animal model of human type 2 diabetes (NIDDM). Acute environmental stress, i.e., exposure to water with immobilization for 1 h, caused a transient increase in blood glucose with decreased insulin secretion, and the stress-induced hyperglycemia augmented with age. The increased glycemia was associated with increased plasma levels of catecholamines and corticosterone. Short-term stress, the same stress of 1 h/day for 10 days, caused a significant decrease of food intake, which led to weight reduction in OLETF rats, aged 50 weeks. Blood glucose and insulin responses in OGTT showed no change before or after the short-term stress, despite the weight reduction. In chronic stress experiments, i.e., exposure to the same kind of stress for 6 days/week from 8 to 75 weeks of age, stressed rats did not gain weight, compared to control rats. Blood HbA1c levels and the index of insulin resistance after a 4-h unfed period were significantly lower in stressed rats than in controls from 35 and 45 weeks of age on, respectively. The occurrence of diabetes, diagnosed by OGTT, was also significantly lower in the rats subjected to chronic stress than in controls. These results suggest that chronic stress from 8 weeks of age inhibited weight gain, probably due to changes in eating behavior, preventing the deterioration of insulin resistance in OLETF rats. Plasma leptin levels were not modulated by stress, and correlated with body weight in the rats under chronic stress and in controls. These results suggest that in type 2 diabetes, blood glucose derangement due to stress is presumably associated not only with changes in counterregulatory hormones involved in glucose metabolism, but also with stress-induced changes in eating behavior.

We have introduced "criticality" as a quantitative measure of the difficulty in digitally coding pictures for the purpose of analyzing picture quality statistically. Because picture quality in digital coding depends greatly on picture characteristics such as spatial details and motion, it is not easy to confirm how well a system performs from only a subjective assessment test, in which a limited number of test sequences are used. A definition of criticality is proposed and results of criticality measurement for SDTV and HDTV broadcast television programs are reported. Also proposed is a method to obtain the statistical distribution of picture quality for television programs in digital broadcasting. By measuring the frequency of occurrence of criticality and relating it to subjective picture quality, it becomes possible to obtain the statistical quality distribution of television programs in digital broadcasting.

Three patients with the chief complaints of dizziness while standing up or blackouts were diagnosed correctly as having the Shy-Drager syndrome at the Department of Otolaryngology. Both the electrocardiogram R-peak to R-peak interval and the Schellong test revealed disorders of the autonomic nervous system in each of these cases. Electronystagmography also demonstrated pathology of the oculomotor system and/or central vestibular system. Postural balance was also abnormal in one of the cases. Auditory brain-stem responses were normal in all three cases.

The cholinesterase activity at the motor end-plate of aged mice was investigated histochemically. A relative quantitative method was applied for studying the reaction at end-plates by utilizing varying concentrations of eserine. The number of end-plates reacting at a concentration of more than 5 X 10(-6) M eserine was reduced in aged diaphragm but increased in aged soleus muscle at 10(-5) M eserine in comparison with those in the young. It seems likely that there is an age-related change in cholinesterase activities in relation to muscle fiber types.

Blood from non-smoking donors was incubated with Althesin and the PO2 for half-saturation of haemoglobin at standard pH, PCO2 and temperature (P 50) was measured. The mean P 50 values of blood with blood concentrations of Althesin of 0.14 ml/dl and 0.42 ml/dl were greater (1.14 +/- 0.31 (SEM) mm Hg (P less than 0.005) and 2.22 +/- 0.35 (SEM) mm Hg (P less than 0.001), respectively) than that of control blood. These increases were dose-dependent (P less than 0.05). Erythrocyte 2,3-diphosphoglycerate (2,3-DPG) concentrations were not significantly different between the Althesin-treated and the control blood. Although a decrease in the affinity of haemoglobin for oxygen in vitro in the presence of Althesin was statistically significant, this would have no clinical significance if the drug was being used for the induction of anaesthesia only.

The voltage contrast mode of SEM (scanning electron microscope) operation is a powerful diagnostic tool of LSI devices which have very small geometry of metal wirings and transistors. However, a conventional SEM uses a high energy electron probe (10 to 30 keV) which gives rise to radiation damage and charging effects to the LSI devices under investigation. We developed a new SEM which uses a low energy electron probe (0.5 to 7 keV) to overcome these problems. The instrument uses a field emission gun to minimize the deterioration of spatial resolution at low beam energy, and has the facility of mounting a probe card to energize an LSI device on a silicon wafer. Power sources and input signals to energize the LSI device under investigation are controlled by a dedicated computer. The SEM has a voltage resolution of about 0.5 V and a spatial resolution of about 0.05 μm with the probe current of 0.05 nA at 1 keV. We have analyzed many failures of LSI memory and logic circuits with several hundred gates by util...

Tibial nerve of adult cats was cut at the level of the popliteal fossa and the epineurium of the cut ends was sutured immediately after the cutting with the aid of special rings. Vitamin B1, B6 and B12 complex (B1, 5mg/kg, B6, 5mg/kg and B12, 50γ/kg) were injected i. m. daily for about 80 days, and the effects on nerve regeneration were investigated and compared with components. Greater effects of vitamin B1, B6 and B12 complex than those of its components were as follows. 1) Gastrocnemius muscle tension. 2) Gastrocnemius muscle wt. ratio. 3) Nerve connection of the gastrocnemius muscle spindles and Golgi tendon organs. 4) Decubital ulcer and depilation (greater in decubital ulcer). In the soleus muscle tension and wt. ratio, no such superior effects were observed. The components of vitamin B complex (B1, B6 and B12) did not differ significantly in muscle tension, muscle wt. ratio, decubital ulcer and depilation.

Eight patients with ventricular extrasystoles are reported in whom coupling intervals of the extrasystoles to the proceding sinus beats were variable and in whom paired ventricular extrasystoles were occasionally seen. In all patients, paired ventricular extrasystoles were initiated only by comparatively late coupled ventricular extrasystoles. However, the interval between the first and the second of these paired extrasystoles was always much shorter than the coupling interval of this first extrasystole to the preceding sinus beat, so that the latter extrasystole often interrupted the T wave of the first one, indicating the R-on-T phenomenon. In two patients there was a gap between the ranges of coupling intervals for single extrasystoles and for the first ones of paired extrasystoles. These observations suggest the presence of longitudinal dissociation in the reentrant pathway as one of the causes of paired ventricular extrasystoles.