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In environmental education, there have been many studies on learning multimedia, but the media used tends to be limited to the use of conventional media. In this study, we investigate the feasibility of Kamiholo, a combination between hologram and Kamishibai for environmental education in elementary school to improve the students' learning outcomes. To avoid bias and increase objectivity, the learning outcomes of Kamiholo utilization will be compared with those of conventional Kamishibai utilization. The experiments in the control and experimental groups both show good results. However, there is a significant difference in the improvement of the student achievement when learning using Kamiholo based on the N-Gain, where the N-Gain value of Kamiholo and Kamishibai are 0.69 and 0.49, respectively. Overall, we have successfully demonstrated the advantages of our new multimedia by combining holograms and Kamishibai for environmental education. more...

The 13th Symposium on Polar Science/Ordinary sessions [OA] Antarctic meteorites, Thu. 17 Nov.

So far, no studies investigated the association between pharmacist intervention and rehabilitation outcomes. The aim of study was to establish whether the pharmacist-led deprescribing intervention affects rehabilitation outcomes. This retrospective, observational, single-center, cohort study included consecutive geriatric patients (n = 448) with pharmacist-led intervention between 2017 and 2019. Participants were divided based on pharmacist-led deprescribing and non deprescribing interventions during hospitalization. Demographic data, laboratory data, the Functional Independence Measure were (FIM) analyzed between the groups. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed to analyze the relationship between pharmacist-led deprescribing and FIM total gain. The primary outcome was FIM total gain. The rate of pharmacist intervention during the study period was 92.4%. A multiple linear regression analysis of FMI-T gain, adjusting for confounding factors, revealed that the pharmacist-led deprescribing intervention was independently correlated with FMI-T gain. Particularly, the use of dyslipidemia drugs, antipsychotic drugs, hypnotics, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs significantly decreased during hospitalization. The pharmacist-led deprescribing intervention was independently and significantly associated with FIM-T gain. The pharmacist-led deprescribing intervention improved functional recovery in a rehabilitation setting. more...

The bioactivity of anodized near-β TiNbSn alloy with low Young's modulus prepared in sulfuric acid electrolytes was examined to explore the osseointegration mechanism with a focus on the role of anodic oxide. Hydroxyapatite (HA) precipitated on the surface of anodic oxide following immersion in Hank's solution, and precipitation accelerated with increase in the sulfuric acid concentration of the electrolyte. HA is formed on the surface of as-anodized oxide without subsequent annealing or hot water (HW) treatment. This outcome differs from that of a previous study using anodized TiNbSn alloy prepared in acetic acid electrolytes requiring for subsequent HW treatment. It was found that the oxide anodized in sulfuric acid electrolyte contains a large amount of internal pores and is highly crystallized thick TiO2, whereas the same prepared in the acetic acid electrolyte is low crystalline thin TiO2 containing a small amount of pores. The present anodized TiNbSn alloy is preferred for maintaining the low Young's modulus of the alloy and eliminating the subsequent treatment to increase the Young's modulus. A model to rationalize the bioactivity of the present anodic oxide is proposed based on the series of studies. It is concluded that the sulfuric acid electrolyte is favorable for both HA formation and low Young's modulus, and the bioactivity is attributed to the anodic TiO2 that facilitates incorporation of bone ingredients. more...

The effect of romosozumab is affected by previous osteoporosis treatment. Here we showed that the duration of the previous treatment just before romosozumab affects the therapeutic effect of romosozumab. Using denosumab and oral bisphosphonates for more than 1 year attenuates the effect of romosozumab.As an anti-sclerostin antibody, romosozumab suppresses bone resorption and stimulates bone formation. We investigated whether the effectiveness of 12 months of romosozumab treatment depended on the duration of previous treatment with teriparatide, denosumab, or oral bisphosphonates.In total, 259 osteoporosis patients received subcutaneous injections of romosozumab (210 mg) every 4 weeks during 2019 and 2020. This study was designed as a pre-post comparison. The end points were the percent changes of bone mineral density (BMD) after 12 months of romosozumab treatment. The patients were divided into seven groups depending on the type and duration of previous treatment before starting romosozumab as follows: non-previous treatment group, change from teriparatide used for 1 year or less/more than 1 year, change from denosumab used for 1 year or less/more than 1 year, and change from oral bisphosphonates used for 1 year or less/more than 1 year.The effects of previous treatment with teriparatide on the effectiveness of 12-month romosozumab did not clearly depend on the duration of treatment (p 0.05). In contrast, the effects of previous treatments with denosumab or oral bisphosphonates on the effectiveness of 12-month romosozumab depended on the previous treatment duration, which was reflected by the differences in percent change of the spine BMD (both p 0.05), however, there were no significant differences in the percent change of the total hip BMD (both p 0.05).The duration of the previous treatment affected the effectiveness of romosozumab. Using denosumab and oral bisphosphonate for more than 1 year attenuated the effect of romosozumab. more...

Chemosynthetic organisms flourish around deep-sea hydrothermal vents where energy-rich fluids are emitted from metal sulfide chimneys. In contrast to actively venting chimneys, the nature of microbial life in extinct chimneys without fluid venting remains largely unknown. Here, the occurrence of ultra-small cells in silica-filled grain boundaries inside an extinct chimney is demonstrated by high-resolution bio-signature mapping. The ultra-small cells are associated with extracellularly precipitated Cu2O nanocrystals. Single-gene analysis shows that the chimney interior is dominated by a member of Pacearchaeota known as a major phylum of DPANN. Genome-resolved metagenomic analysis reveals that the chimney Pacearchaeota member is equipped with a nearly full set of genes for fermentation-based energy generation from nucleic acids, in contrast to previously characterized Pacearchaeota members lacking many genes for nucleic acid fermentation. We infer that the ultra-small cells associated with silica and extracellular Cu2O nanocrystals in the grain boundaries are Pacearchaeota, on the basis of the experimentally demonstrated capability of silica to concentrate nucleic acids from seawater and the presence of Cu-exporting genes in a reconstructed Pacearchaeota genome. Given the existence of ~3-billion-year-old submarine hydrothermally deposited silica, proliferation of microbial life using silica-bound nucleic acids might be relevant to the primitive vent biosphere. more...

Understanding the nature of the mysterious pseudogap phenomenon is one of the most important issues associated with cuprate high-$T_c$ superconductors. Here, we report $^{17}$O nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) studies on two planar oxygen sites in stoichiometric cuprate YBa$_2$Cu$_4$O$_8$ to investigate the symmetry breaking inside the pseudogap phase. We observe that the Knight shifts of the two oxygen sites are identical at high temperatures but different below $T_{\rm nem} \sim$ 185 K, which is close to the pseudogap temperature $T^{\ast}$. Our result provides a microscopic evidence for intra-unit-cell electronic nematicity. The difference in quadrupole resonance frequency between the two oxygen sites is unchanged below $T_{\rm nem}$, which suggests that the observed nematicity does not directly stem from the local charge density modulation. Furthermore, a short-range charge density wave (CDW) order is observed below $T \simeq$ 150 K. The additional broadening in the $^{17}$O-NMR spectra because of this CDW order is determined to be inequivalent for the two oxygen sites, which is similar to that observed in case of nematicity. These results suggest a possible connection between nematicity, CDW order, and pseudogap., 14 pages, 5 figures more...

We fabricated polymer blends of recycled-PC (PC) and recycled-PET (PET) using high-shear processing technology. We also assessed its structure, morphology, and physical properties. Results of DSC measurements show that Tg of PC and Tc of PET shifted to higher temperatures by kneading under high-shear conditions. Results show further that the Tm of PET shifted to a lower temperature. Moreover, compatibilization progressed. TEM observations show that the PET domain was not confirmed completely under the kneading condition of 1 000 min−1/10 s or more. Compatibilization progressed. Tensile test results show that the PET ratio of 30 wt% (1 000 min−1/10 s) has higher breaking strain than neat PC does. Chemical resistance test results obtained by good solvent of PC demonstrated that blending of PET makes PC elution difficult. more...

The microstructure and surface chemistry of titanium dioxide on TiNbSn alloy, prepared by anodic oxidation in acetic acid electrolytes and subsequent hot water (HW) treatment, have been studied to determine the effect of HW treatment on bioactivity. HW treatment promotes TiO 2 formation and photo-induced properties were observed on the anodic oxide. Cross-section energy dispersive spectroscopy analysis of the implanted anodic TiNbSn treated with HW revealed the penetration of the constituent elements of bone, Ca and P, into TiO 2 , which was attributed to the high bonding strength between the bone and the implanted alloy. It is proposed that the high bioactivity observed as a result of HW treatment can be ascribed to the evolution of a crystallized anodic oxide TiO 2 , which promotes incorporation of the primary ingredients of a bone in the oxide. more...

To evaluate the association betweenData were collected from 40 patients with grade II and III gliomas who underwent both magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) andA threshold of MGMT promoter methylation of 1% was significantly associated with tumour/normal tissue (T/N) ratio. The T/N ratio in samples with MGMT promoter methylation ≥1% was higher than that in samples with MGMT promoter methylation1%, and the difference was statistically significant (p=0.011). Reliable prediction of MGMT promoter methylation (1% versus ≥1%) was possible using the T/N ratio under the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve with a sensitivity and specificity of 75% each (cut-off value=1.6: p=0.0226, area under the ROC curve [AUC]=0.76172). Conversely, the T/N ratio had no association with IDH mutation (p=0.6). The ROC curve revealed no reliable prediction of IDH mutation using the T/N ratio (p=0.606, AUC=0.60577). more...

Environmental literacy is a person’s ability to understand and interpret environmental conditions. Based on the understanding and interpretation, the person can decide to maintain, restore, and improve environmental conditions. The goal of environmental literacy is to develop a generation having awareness of and care about the environment, knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivation, and commitment to work individually and collectively to find solutions to environmental problems. This important ability needs to be instilled from an early age because character education in children is long term. This study research uses the literature review method with data collected from books, official reports, organizational websites, and research reports published in national and international online journals. This study aims to examine and describe the steps in instilling early literacy in learning activities in Kindergarten using Kamishibai as learning media. The results of this literature analysis show that instilling environmental literacy using Kamishibai can be integrated in the 2013 Curriculum and can foster students’ awareness of their environment. more...

Individual dose estimates calculated by Dosimetry System 2002 (DS02) for the Life Span Study (LSS) of atomic bomb survivors are based on input data that specify location and shielding at the time of the bombing (ATB). A multi-year effort to improve information on survivors' locations ATB has recently been completed, along with comprehensive improvements in their terrain shielding input data and several improvements to computational algorithms used in combination with DS02 at RERF. Improvements began with a thorough review and prioritization of original questionnaire data on location and shielding that were taken from survivors or their proxies in the period 1949-1963. Related source documents varied in level of detail, from relatively simple lists to carefully-constructed technical drawings of structural and other shielding and surrounding neighborhoods. Systematic errors were reduced in this work by restoring the original precision of map coordinates that had been truncated due to limitations in early data processing equipment and by correcting distortions in the old (WWII-era) maps originally used to specify survivors' positions, among other improvements. Distortion errors were corrected by aligning the old maps and neighborhood drawings to orthophotographic mosaics of the cities that were newly constructed from pre-bombing aerial photographs. Random errors that were reduced included simple transcription errors and mistakes in identifying survivors' locations on the old maps. Terrain shielding input data that had been originally estimated for limited groups of survivors using older methods and data sources were completely re-estimated for all survivors using new digital terrain elevation data. Improvements to algorithms included a fix to an error in the DS02 code for coupling house and terrain shielding, a correction for elevation at the survivor's location in calculating angles to the horizon used for terrain shielding input, an improved method for truncating high dose estimates to 4 Gy to reduce the effect of dose error, and improved methods for calculating averaged shielding transmission factors that are used to calculate doses for survivors without detailed shielding input data. Input data changes are summarized and described here in some detail, along with the resulting changes in dose estimates and a simple description of changes in risk estimates for solid cancer mortality. This and future RERF publications will refer to the new dose estimates described herein as "DS02R1 doses." more...

Various polymer alloys have been examined to achieve performance beyond that of single polymers. Polyamide 6 (PA6) has extraordinary mechanical properties, impact absorbability, and high heat resistance necessary for exterior and interior automotive applications. Nevertheless, some materials and their combinations can exhibit inferior physical properties. This paper describes a novel polymer blend with PA6, fabricated using high-shear rotational processing. Modulated differential scanning calorimetry (M-DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) elucidated thermal properties and morphologies of PA6 blends. Tensile and Izod tests revealed their mechanical properties. Results show that novel PA6 blends are useful for automotive applications. more...

The nominal stress–strain relationships of industrial rubber materials under multiaxial deformation are essential for precisely determining the constitutive laws of those materials. This paper proposes a new method for precisely estimating the nominal stress–stretch relationships of carbon-black-filled styrene butadiene rubbers (SBRs) under uniaxial tension, pure shear, and equibiaxial tension by using an in-plane biaxial tensile tester. The proposed method employs sheet-shaped rubber samples with notches for the pure-shear and equibiaxial tension tests to mitigate the influence of non-uniform deformation around the clamps. Finite element analysis and biaxial tensile tests were performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. Performance evaluations based on both numerical calculations and experiments revealed that the proposed method enabled the precise calculation of the nominal stress–stretch relationship for uniform deformation from a tensile load and deformation of the reference area defined at the center of the samples. more...

Lead pollution has increased over the past four centuries with industrialisation, urbanisation, and the use of motor vehicles. In Japan, lead concentrations in human bones of the Edo period (AD 1603–1867) from urban areas were found to be higher than those from suburban areas. Because most wild geese breed in the subarctic zone and winter in the temperate zone, it is to be expected that lead concentrations in archaeological goose bones from domestic individuals would be higher than those from wild individuals because of the difference in their life cycle. In this study, we measured and compared lead concentrations in bones of geese, other birds (duck, chicken, heron, and crow), mammals (dog, cat, pig/wild boar, and deer), and in a human tooth, all from the Kenmin-kan Atochi site, Japan (Edo period). We found that lead pollution affected not only humans but also animals and that environmental lead pollution was widespread in the town. One of the goose bones analysed, a broken and healed ulna, showed a lead concentration approximately twice as high as the other goose bones. In addition, the lead concentration in a duck bone was much higher than in those of wild birds or mammals, which suggests that the duck had lived in an urban environment for a long time. The results suggest that analysis of lead concentrations can detect potential domestic animals that were exposed to environmental lead pollution, such as in the Roman period in Europe and in the Edo period in Japan. By accumulating comparative studies, the analysis of lead concentrations in archaeological goose bones is expected to become a reliable indicator of domestic geese under conditions of environmental lead contamination. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. more...

A medial meniscus posterior root tear (MMPRT) may increase the tibiofemoral contact pressure by decreasing the tibiofemoral contact area. Meniscal dysfunction induced by posterior root injury may lead to the development of osteoarthritic knees. Repair of a MMPRT can restore medial meniscus (MM) function and prevent knee osteoarthritis progression. Several surgical procedures have been reported for treating a MMPRT. However, these procedures are associated with several technical difficulties. Here, we describe a technique to stabilize a torn MM posterior root using the FasT-Fix more...

Diacetyl causes an unwanted buttery off-flavor in lager beer. It is spontaneously generated from α-acetolactate, an intermediate of yeast's valine biosynthesis released during the main beer fermentation. Green lager beer has to undergo a maturation process lasting two to three weeks in order to reduce the diacetyl level below its taste-threshold. Therefore, a reduction of yeast's α-acetolactate/diacetyl formation without negatively affecting other brewing relevant traits has been a long-term demand of brewing industry. Previous attempts to reduce diacetyl production by either traditional approaches or rational genetic engineering had different shortcomings. Here, three lager yeast strains with marked differences in diacetyl production were studied with regard to gene copy numbers as well as mRNA abundances under conditions relevant to industrial brewing. Evaluation of data for the genes directly involved in the valine biosynthetic pathway revealed a low expression level of Sc-ILV6 as a potential molecular determinant for low diacetyl formation. This hypothesis was verified by disrupting the two copies of Sc-ILV6 in a commercially used lager brewers' yeast strain, which resulted in 65% reduction of diacetyl concentration in green beer. The Sc-ILV6 deletions did not have any perceptible impact on beer taste. To our knowledge, this has been the first study exploiting natural diversity of lager brewers' yeast strains for strain optimization. more...

Background Medial meniscus posterior root tear (MMPRT) results in joint overloading and degenerative changes in the knee. Favorable clinical outcomes have been reported after transtibial pullout repair of MMPRT. To date, however, in vivo tibial rotational changes before and after root repair remain poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate postoperative changes in tibial rotation following MMPRT pullout repair. Hypothesis Pathological external rotation in the knee-flexed position is caused by MMPRT and is reduced after transtibial pullout repair. Patients and methods Fifteen patients who underwent MMPRT pullout repair and 7 healthy volunteers were included. Magnetic resonance imaging examinations were performed in the 10° and 90° knee-flexed positions. The angles between the surgical epicondylar axis and a line between the medial border of the patellar tendon and the apex of the medial tibial spine were measured. Baseline was defined as a line lying at a right angle to the other, and a value was positive and negative when the tibia rotated internally and externally, respectively. Results In the volunteer's normal knees, tibial internal rotation was +1.00° ± 3.27° at 10° flexion and +4.14° ± 3.46° at 90° flexion. In the MMPRT preoperative knees, tibial internal rotation was +1.07° ± 3.01° at 10° flexion and +1.27° ± 2.96° at 90° flexion. In the postoperative knees, tibial internal rotation was +1.60° ± 2.85° at 10° flexion and +4.33° ± 2.89° at 90° flexion. Discussion This study demonstrates discontinuity of the MM posterior root may induce a pathological external rotation of the tibia during knee flexion and that MMPRT pullout repair reduces the pathological external rotation of the tibia in the knee-flexed position. Level of evidence III, comparative retrospective study. more...

We report 63Cu-NMR/NQR on the bi-layered high- T c copper oxide Ba 2 CaCu 2 O 4 F 2 , which is expected to be a Mott insulator in an ideal case of a nominal content of fluorine, and less fluorinated Ba 2 CaCu 2 O 4 ( F 1.6 O 0.4 ) to clear the doping mechanism in apical-fluorine multilayered system Ba 2 Ca n - 1 Cu n O 2 n F 2 , where n is the number of the layers in a unit cell. In the case of n = 3 and, especially, n = 4 , the origin of carrier doping has been attributed to a self-doping mechanism based on the nominal stoichiometry; electrons are transferred between the inner CuO 2 plane (IP) and the outer one (OP), keeping Cu + 2 on average. It is revealed that Ba 2 CaCu 2 O 4 F 2 is an underdoped superconductor with hole carriers, doped by an inevitable deviation from the nominal content of apical fluorines. This result suggests that hole carriers are doped in the same manner for the case of n = 3 and 4, and that we should reconsider the self-doping mechanism as the carrier source in the apical-fluorine system. more...

Genomic instability has been suggested as a mechanism by which exposure to ionizing radiation can lead to cancer in exposed humans. However, the data from human cells needed to support or refute this idea are limited. In our previous study on clonal lymphocyte populations carrying stable-type aberrations derived from A-bomb survivors, we found no increase in the frequency of sporadic additional aberrations among the clonal cell populations compared with the spontaneous frequency in vivo. That work has been extended by using multicolor FISH (mFISH) to quantify the various kinds of chromosome aberrations known to be indicative of genomic instability in cloned T lymphocytes after they were expanded in culture for 25 population doublings. The blood T cells used were obtained from each of two high-dose-exposed survivors (1 Gy) and two control subjects, and a total of 66 clonal populations (36 from exposed and 30 from control individuals) were established. For each clone, 100 metaphases were examined. In the case of exposed lymphocytes, a total of 39 additional de novo stable, exchange-type aberrations [translocation (t) + derivative chromosome (der)] were found among 3600 cells (1.1%); the corresponding value in the control group was 0.6% (17/3000). Although the ratio (39/3600) obtained from the exposed cases was greater than that of the controls (17/3000), the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.101). A similar lack of statistical difference was found for the total of all structural chromosome alterations including t, der, dicentrics, duplications, deletions and fragments (P = 0.142). Thus there was no clear evidence suggesting the presence of chromosome instabilities among the clonally expanded lymphocytes in vitro from A-bomb survivors. more...

Supporting both WCDMA with HSDPA and GSM/GPRS/EDGE, the 9.3 times 9.3 mm2 SoC fabricated in triple-Vth 65 nm CMOS, has three CPU cores and 20 separate power domains. Unused power domains can be powered down to reduce the leakage power. Partial clock activation scheme especially focused on music playback scene dynamically stops a PLL and clock trees when not necessary and reduces power consumption from 33.6 mW to 19.6 mW. IP-MMU translates virtual address to physical address for 18 hardware-IPs and virtual address space can be allocated when necessary and can be freed after its operation, reducing external memory by 43 MB. Video performance of D1 (720 times 520) size with 30 frames per second for MPEG/AVC decoding and encoding can be achieved under mixed virtual and physical address usage. more...

A recent report on multilayered superconductors establishes unique constant T c although the number of inner CuO 2 plane (IP) increases. Many hypotheses proposed that the irreversibility field ( B irr ) and critical current density ( J c ) are depends on the crystal structures. We have measured the J c and B irr of the HgBa 2 Ca n −1 Cu n O 2n+2+ δ sample containing n = 6–15 phases to investigate the effect of the number of IP’s on the B irr and J c and its pinning properties. The rate of fall of J c increases and irreversible lines (IL’s) shift to lower temperatures with increasing the number of IP’s, which suggests that anisotropy increases with n . The IL settled in between those for Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O y with high anisotropy value and YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 with less anisotropy value. The double logarithmic plot of irreversibility field versus [1 − ( T / T c )] analysis suggests that the flux line melting model is adopted. The flux pinning force density F p (≈ J c B ) exhibits scaling behavior when the magnetic field B is normalized by the irreversibility field B irr . Analysis of the normalized pinning force reveals that a surface pinning mechanism is dominant and reduced magnetic field b max = 0.2 agree with surface pinning mechanism with closely spaced pins. more...

Ba 2 CaCu 2 O 4 (O 2− y F y ) (F-0212), a new high- T c superconductor (HTSC) including fluorine at an apical site, is an attractive material for application because it shows a highest T c of 108 K and has thin spacing between conduction layers that is favorable for high critical current density ( J c ) and irreversibility field ( B irr ). The polycrystalline samples of F-0212 were synthesized under high pressure. A doping state was controlled from under doping ( T c = 82 K) to slightly-over doping ( T c = 106 K) via optimally-doping ( T c = 108 K). From the DC magnetization hysteresis loops, we determined the intragrain J c and B irr using Bean’s critical state model. The J c and B irr properties of F-0212 were found to improve rapidly as the doping state changes from under doping to slightly-over doping to via optimally doping state. The irreversibility lines for the optimally- and slightly-over doped F-0212 are higher than optimally-doped Bi-2212. However, they are much lower than that of Cu-1212 (Y-123) though the spacing of F-0212 is thinner than that of Cu-1212. This indicates that property of the spacing is important to enhance B irr as well as its thickness. An anisotropy factor for under doped F-0212 was estimated to 118 from a 3D–2D crossover field of about 0.28 T. more...

Ba 2 Ca n −1 Cu n O 2 n (O 1− y ,F y ) 2 [F(2 y )-02( n − 1) n ], homologous series with F-substitution at apical oxygen site possess a thinner, 7.4 A, charge reservoir layer (CRL) and a strong interlayer vortex coupling was expected in these systems. We measured the vortex melting lines of high pressure synthesized Ba 2 Ca 3 Cu 4 O 8 (O 1− y F y ) 2 (2 y = 2.0) multilayered system with 2 inner planes (IP) of CuO 2 layers and Ba 2 Ca 1 Cu 2 O 4 (O 1− y F y ) 2 (2 y = 1.4, 1.6 and 2.0) bilayer system with no IP; using fundamental and third harmonic susceptibility response carried out onto preferentially oriented crystallites at very low ac field amplitude and applied dc fields up to 12 T. These experimental melting lines are described by the commonly accepted theory of two-fluid model. We observed 3D to 2D crossover in heavily underdoped F(2.0)-0212 sample, whereas such a vortex lattice crossover is not evident in F(2.0)-0234 sample; and explained on the basis of heavily underdoped and self doped states. more...

Resveratrol, a polyphenolic phytoalexin, has free-radical scavenging activity and we found that it induces chromosomal aberrations, micronuclei, and sister chromatid exchanges in vitro. We synthesized its analogue 4-hydroxy-trans-stilbene (4-OH) and found that it has the same in vitro clastogenic activities as resveratrol, suggesting that the 4′ hydroxy group of resveratrol is responsible for the effect. We fed resveratrol and 4-OH to young adult ICR mice at 0, 0.2, 2, or 20 ppm in their standard powder diet for 6 months and investigated the antioxidative effects. Half of each group was given 3000 ppm potassium bromate (KBrO3) in water for the last week to cause oxidative damage. Body weight gain tended to increase in males at 0.2 ppm resveratrol or 4-OH, and in females at 2 ppm 4-OH. Micronucleus (MN) analysis in bone marrow erythrocytes showed that the KBrO3 tendency to induce MN was not prevented by the dietary resveratrol or 4-OH, which themselves did not induce MN under the present conditions. In this pilot study, resveratrol and 4-OH showed no obvious effect, either beneficial or adverse, at doses that are feasible in daily life for humans. more...

Twelve high schools in Japan (of which six are in Fukushima Prefecture), four in France, eight in Poland and two in Belarus cooperated in the measurement and comparison of individual external doses in 2014. In total 216 high-school students and teachers participated in the study. Each participant wore an electronic personal dosimeter 'D-shuttle' for two weeks, and kept a journal of his/her whereabouts and activities. The distributions of annual external doses estimated for each region overlap with each other, demonstrating that the personal external individual doses in locations where residence is currently allowed in Fukushima Prefecture and in Belarus are well within the range of estimated annual doses due to the terrestrial background radiation level of other regions/countries. © 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd. more...

We report systematic Cu-NMR studies on five-layered cuprates from under-doped HgBa2Ca4Cu5O12+δ (Hg-1245(UD)) to slightly overdoped Tl-1245(OVD), and compare with optimally-doped Hg-1245(OPT). In the under-doped Hg-1245(UD), antiferromagnetism (AFM) has been found to take place at TN = 290 K, exhibiting a large antiferromagnetic moment of 0.67–0.69 μB at three inner planes (IP’s). These values are comparable to that reported for non-doped cuprates, suggesting that the IP’s may be in a nearly non-doped regime. Most surprisingly, the AFM order is also detected with MAFM(OP) = 0.1 μB even at two outer planes (OP’s) that are responsible for the onset of superconductivity (SC) with Tc = 72 K. The high-Tc SC at Tc = 72 K can uniformly coexist on a microscopic level with the AFM at OP’s. This is the first microscopic evidence for the uniformly mixed phase of AFM and SC on a single CuO2 plane. Although, the AFM/SC mixed CuO2 planes are significantly separated by three non-doped AFM layers, the onset of AFM does not prevent the occurrence of SC with the high value of Tc = 72 K. more...

The multilayered cuprates of HgBa 2 Ca n −1 Cu n O y (Hg-system) and Ba 2 Ca n −1 Cu n O 2 n (O, F) (F-system) ( n = 5–9) have been synthesized under high-pressure to investigate the variation of T c . The a - and c -parameters showed reasonable behavior: as the n increases from 5 to 9 the a -parameter approached that of an infinite layer CaCuO 2 (IL) and the average interval of c (or c /2) was close to the c -parameter of the IL. All the samples showed high T c values of about 100 and 80 K for Hg- and F-system, respectively. In addition, the T c was almost constant for n ⩾ 5 for both systems. We have shown that the T c variations can be explained using inhomogeneous charge distribution model as follows. The high T c value is maintained because the charge reservoir layer supplies enough carriers for superconductivity to the adjacent CuO 2 planes (OP) even for large n . The T c is independent of n because the carrier concentration of OP is insensitive to n for large n . more...

The Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares (IPEN) manufactures192Ir and 60Co sealed sources used in industrial gamma radiography projectors. Most of these gamma projectors are also certified as Type B(U) packages. Before each source exchange, or in case of any irregularity verified by the user, these projectors are inspected at IPEN. The inspection of the projectors consists of verifying the general condition of the projector, monitoring the maximum radiation levels (MRL) on contact, monitoring the external non-fixed radioactive contamination of the projector, remote control and source guide tube, testing the exposure and retract movement to evaluate the projector–remote control–source guide tube assembly, and testing the source lock. Projectors that show problems regarding their general condition or in the remote control, or if they fail any of the 'GO–NO-GO' gauge tests, are not reloaded. After source reloading the MRL on contact and at 1 m are measured in order to comply with dangerous ... more...

Oxygen control is a very important factor to cuprate superconductors from the standpoint of Tc control. We investigate high oxygen pressure annealing effects on (Cu,C)Ba2Ca2Cu3Ox superconductors [(Cu,C)-1223] as one method of oxygen control. When an oxygen partial pressure was 1 MPa, (Cu,C)-1223 was decomposed at 450 °C. Its oxygen absorption rate under high oxygen pressure of 1 MPa was twice as fast as that of 1 atm O2 flow below 400 °C. more...

Recently, chicken egg yolk was recognized as an inexpensive antibody source, and the therapeutic usefulness of egg yolk immunoglobulin Y (IgY) in oral passive immunization has been investigated. Although multiple antibiotic treatments eradicate most Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infections, therapy fails in 10-15% of cases due to the development of drug resistance. Consequently, it is important that new, more broadly based therapies for the treatment of H. pylori infection should be identified. The present study evaluated the effect, on H. pylori infection, of IgY prepared from egg yolk of hens immunized with H. pylori urease (anti-HpU IgY). Seventeen asymptomatic volunteers diagnosed as H. pylori-positive by the 1 3 C-urea breath test (UBT) were orally administered anti-HpU IgY for 4 weeks. Four weeks later, UBT values were significantly decreased although no case showed H. pylori eradication. An H. pylori-positive 53-year-old female gastritis patient administered anti-HpU IgY plus lansoprazole for 8 weeks showed a decrease in serum pepsinogen (PG) I and UBT values as well as an increase in the PG I/II ratio. In conclusion, anti-HpU IgY may mitigate H. pylori-associated gastritis and partially attenuate gastric urease activity. Furthermore, anti-HpU IgY combined with antacids appears to ameliorate gastric inflammation. These encouraging results may represent a novel approach to the management of H. pylon-associated gastroduodenal disease. more...

It has been revealed that a graphite re-deposition layer is formed in a fusion plasma device and can trap fuel atoms when a carbon-based material is applied as a plasma facing component. However, there are not sufficient data for quantitative prediction of hydrogen and carbon behavior with the formation of the re-deposition layer under several plasma conditions. We produced a graphite re-deposition layer on quartz substrates by a sputtering method using hydrogen RF plasma. The re-deposition layer was approximately uniformly formed on the substrate located on the ground electrode, but in some experimental conditions no deposition was observed there. This is due to the effect of re-sputtering by the incident hydrogen ions. It was found that the layer formed on and around the ground electrode had a dense columnar structure and a packed fibrous structure, respectively. With varying RF power or hydrogen pressure, the H/C ratio changed between approximately 0.1 and 0.45, and is considerably larger than that for absorption into graphite bulk. This indicates that the formation of graphite re-deposition layer makes tritium inventory in a D-T fusion reactor to dramatically grow. The plasma parameters in each experimental condition were investigated by the Langmuir probe method. more...

A layered cuprate film, (Cu,C)Ba2Can−1CunOx (n=1; (Cu,C)-1201), consisting of the charge reservoir block and the infinite layer was prepared by sputtering BaCu0.75Ox target on a (1 0 0) SrTiO3 substrate. The effects of the substrate temperature (Ts) and CO2 concentration (Cco2) in the discharge gas on the crystallinity of the films were systematically examined. The (Cu,C)-1201 film oriented along c-axis formed on the (1 0 0) SrTiO3 substrate. The φ-scan X-ray measurement of the films showed four-fold symmetry. The Cco2 and Ts strongly affected the crystallinity of the (Cu,C)-1201 film. The deposition conditions for a (Cu,C)-1201 film with a single-crystalline phase were as follows: discharge gas, Ar+CO2 (C co 2 =2–8 vol %); Ts 520–560°C and gas pressure, 1.33 Pa. Oxygen annealing of the (Cu,C)-1201 films in a sputtering chamber at near 15 Pa during the cooling process down to 100°C generated uncompensated electrical charges (holes), resulting in low resistivity. Metallic conduction down to 50 K was observed for a film deposited in Ar+CO2 gas (C co 2 =3 vol %); at a Ts of 530°C. more...

The role of Streptococcus mutans in the development of dental caries is well recognized. Important virulence factors include the glucosyltransferases (gtf), essential for production of glucans. We evaluated the anticariogenic effects of orally administered chicken anti-cell-associated (CA) Gtf antibodies in desalivated rats. The animals were infected with S. mutans MT8148R and treated with chicken anti-CA-Gtf egg yolk antibodies (IgY) or nonimmune egg yolk powder. Smooth surface lesions were significantly lower in the anti-CA-Gtf-treated group in comparison to the control groups. Sulcal surface caries was also decreased and of less severity. Our study suggests that chicken anti-CA-Gtf antibodies may have promise as a prophylaxis for high caries risk patients. more...

The role of the oxygen content in influencing the structure and physical properties of double layered manganites La2−2xSr1+2xMn2O7+δ with x∼0.5, has been investigated by means of X-ray diffraction, resistivity and magnetization measurements. The variation in the oxygen content causes the same physical effect as the Sr concentration, leading to a change in carrier density. In particular, the magnetic behavior seems to be influenced more with a change of the oxygen content than by that of Sr concentration. We will display the oxygen content-dependence on the magnetic and transport properties and discuss the role of the oxygen content in the double layered manganites with x∼0.5. more...

A (Cu,C)Ba 2 Ca 2 Cu 3 O x superconductor [(Cu,C)-1223)] is synthesized under GPa order pressure condition. Due to the high oxidizing condition, an as-prepared sample becomes overdoped with T c at about 70 K. The T c rises up to 120 K (an optimal doped state) by reduction of oxygen. Details of oxygen behavior in reduction annealing has not been investigated yet. In this paper, we clarified the relationship between oxygen contents and T c . We also investigate control of reversible oxygen contents by annealing under both 1 atm and high pressure using an O 2 -HIP apparatus in a (Cu,C)-1223 superconductor and annealing effects in a (Cu,C)Ba 2 Ca 3 Cu 4 O x superconductor [(Cu,C)-1234]. more...

Thin films of the infinite-layer (IL) compound, Sr1−xCaxCuO2−δ (x = 0, 0.3 and 0.4), have been prepared by off-axis radio-frequency (rf) magnetron sputtering on SrTiO3 (100) and KTaO3 (100). The c-axis lattice parameter of the IL phase shrinks with the increase of the substrate temperature and with the decrease of oxygen partial pressure, whereas the a-axis lattice parameter expands accordingly. This behaviour suggests the availability of the incorporation of oxygen vacancies in the CuO2 planes and the mechanism of electron doping. For the lower doping level, for example, when the doping level is less than 0.08, the temperature dependence of resistivity shows insulating or semiconducting behaviour. On the other hand, the large amount of in-plane oxygen deficiencies will also lead to a high degree of disorder in the CuO2 planes, especially when the in-plane oxygen vacancies are larger than 10%. This will result in a variable range hopping transport mechanism. Moreover, we have demonstrated that electrons can be doped in the IL phase by reducing the oxygen content. more...