Polymeric optical waveguides fabricated using a newly developed silicone resin have a low birefringence as well as low propagation loss and good environmental stability. Optical waveguide circuits ...including a directional coupler, an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) multi/demultiplexer, and a digital thermooptic (TO) switch are successfully realized using the silicone resin.
Methods for preventing medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ) in cancer patients who have received high-dose bisphosphonate (BP) or denosumab (Dmab) have not yet been established. Tooth ...extraction after starting medication has been believed to be a major risk factor for MRONJ, and therefore this procedure tends to be avoided. This study investigated the risk factors for MRONJ, with a special reference to the correlation between tooth extraction and development of MRONJ. One hundred and thirty-five cancer patients who were administrated high-dose BP or Dmab were enrolled in the study. Demographic factors, general condition, treatment factors, and dental findings were examined retrospectively using medical records and panoramic X-ray findings. The cumulative occurrence rate of MRONJ was calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method, and the correlation between these variables and development of MRONJ was analyzed by univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis. MRONJ developed in 18 of 135 patients. The 1-, 2-, and 3-year cumulative occurrence rates were 8.6%, 21.5%, and 29.2%, respectively. The duration of medication before first visit to the dental unit and the presence of a tooth with clinical symptoms were significantly correlated with the development of MRONJ. The rate of MRONJ occurrence in patients who had teeth with clinical symptoms, but who did not undergo tooth extraction, became higher 2 years later than that in patients who underwent extraction of teeth with symptoms, although not significant. Early dental examination and effective preventative care to avoid infection/inflammation are important for preventing MRONJ.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The KamLAND-Zen experiment has provided stringent constraints on the neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay half-life in ^{136}Xe using a xenon-loaded liquid scintillator. We report an improved search ...using an upgraded detector with almost double the amount of xenon and an ultralow radioactivity container, corresponding to an exposure of 970 kg yr of ^{136}Xe. These new data provide valuable insight into backgrounds, especially from cosmic muon spallation of xenon, and have required the use of novel background rejection techniques. We obtain a lower limit for the 0νββ decay half-life of T_{1/2}^{0ν}>2.3×10^{26} yr at 90% C.L., corresponding to upper limits on the effective Majorana neutrino mass of 36-156 meV using commonly adopted nuclear matrix element calculations.
The entire nucleotide sequences (6.8 kilobase pairs) of the bphABC genes and their products involved in the initial dioxygenation and ring-meta-cleavage of biphenyls and polychlorinated biphenyls ...were determined. The first bphA gene starts about a 100 base pairs downstream from the transcriptional initiation site. The bphA region, which encodes a cluster of enzymes including biphenyl dioxygenase catalyzing the initial catabolic step, consists of five open reading frames (ORFs). Five proteins corresponding to these ORFs in the molecular masses were detected by in vitro protein synthesis, of which four ORFs are very similar to the recently reported todC1C2BA genes coding for the corresponding enzymes catalyzing the initial dioxygenation reactions of toluene (Zylstra, G.J., and Gibson, D.T. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 14940-14946). The third open reading frame (ORF3) of the bphA region, missing its counterpart in the toluene dioxygenase gene cluster, was site-specifically deleted, and the resulting enzymatically active mutant reveals that this ORF3 is not mandatory for the catabolism of biphenyls. Thus the biphenyl degradation pathway and the responsible enzymes/genes are very similar to those of toluene degradation despite their discrete substrate specificity
Recent studies suggested short-term mortality after transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) was comparable between men and women. However, the gender-specific prognostic difference in the long-term ...follow-up after TEER is still unknown. To evaluate the impact of gender on long-term mortality after TEER for functional mitral regurgitation (FMR) using multicenter registry data. We retrospectively analyzed 1,233 patients (male 60.3%) who underwent TEER for FMR at 24 centers. The impact of gender on all-cause death and hospitalization for heart failure (HF) after TEER was evaluated using multivariate regression analysis and propensity score (PS) matching methods. During the 2-year follow-up, 207 all-cause death and 263 hospitalizations for HF were observed after TEER for FMR. Men had a significantly higher incidence of all-cause death than women (18.6% vs 14.1%, log-rank p = 0.03). After adjustment by multivariate Cox regression and PS matching, the male gender was significantly associated with a higher incidence of all-cause mortality after TEER than the female gender (hazard ratio 2.11, 95% confidence interval 1.42 to 3.14 in multivariate Cox regression; hazard ratio 1.89, 95% confidence interval 1.03 to 3.48 in PS matching). The gender-specific prognostic difference was even more pronounced after 1-year of TEER. On the contrary, there was no gender-related difference in hospitalization for HF after TEER. In conclusion, women with FMR had a better prognosis after TEER than men, whereas this was not observed in hospitalization for HF. This result might indicate that women with FMR are more likely to benefit from TEER.
The Improved Limb Atmospheric Spectrometer (ILAS) captured many polar stratospheric cloud (PSC) events in the Northern Hemisphere during the winter and early spring of 1997. Simultaneous measurements ...of nitric acid and aerosols by ILAS made it possible to infer PSC composition. The aerosol extinction coefficient and nitric acid data were compared with the theoretically predicted values for supercooled ternary solution (STS), nitric acid dihydrate (NAD), and nitric acid trihydrate (NAT) at thermodynamic equilibrium to classify PSC types. The observations showed that in 1997, both nitric‐acid‐containing solid and liquid PSCs formed over the Arctic during winter and early spring, until mid‐March. The STS PSCs were observed early in the PSC season, in mid‐January. Most of the PSCs observed late in the PSC season had features of nitric‐acid‐containing hydrates. An intensive analysis of the temperature histories suggested that most of the STS events observed in January had experienced the thermal conditions necessary for the formation of liquid PSCs. The nitric‐acid‐containing hydrates observed in March seemed not to have been influenced by any mountain‐induced lee waves. The process of nitric‐acid‐containing hydrate formation based on synoptic scale temperature change is discussed.
Methane (CH4) is one of the most important short-lived climate forcers for its critical roles in greenhouse warming and air pollution chemistry in the troposphere, and the water vapor budget in the ...stratosphere. It is estimated that up to about 8 % of global CH4 emissions occur from South Asia, covering less than 1 % of the global land. With the availability of satellite observations from space, variability in CH4 has been captured for most parts of the global land with major emissions, which were otherwise not covered by the surface observation network. The satellite observation of the columnar dry-air mole fractions of methane (XCH4) is an integrated measure of CH4 densities at all altitudes from the surface to the top of the atmosphere. Here, we present an analysis of XCH4 variability over different parts of India and the surrounding cleaner oceanic regions as measured by the Greenhouse gases Observation SATellite (GOSAT) and simulated by an atmospheric chemistry-transport model (ACTM). Distinct seasonal variations of XCH4 have been observed over the northern (north of 15° N) and southern (south of 15° N) parts of India, corresponding to the peak during the southwestern monsoon (July–September) and early autumn (October–December) seasons, respectively. Analysis of the transport, emission, and chemistry contributions to XCH4 using ACTM suggests that a distinct XCH4 seasonal cycle over northern and southern regions of India is governed by both the heterogeneous distributions of surface emissions and a contribution of the partial CH4 column in the upper troposphere. Over most of the northern Indian Gangetic Plain regions, up to 40 % of the peak-to-trough amplitude during the southwestern (SW) monsoon season is attributed to the lower troposphere ( ∼ 1000–600 hPa), and ∼ 40 % to uplifted high-CH4 air masses in the upper troposphere ( ∼ 600–200 hPa). In contrast, the XCH4 seasonal enhancement over semi-arid western India is attributed mainly ( ∼ 70 %) to the upper troposphere. The lower tropospheric region contributes up to 60 % in the XCH4 seasonal enhancement over the Southern Peninsula and oceanic region. These differences arise due to the complex atmospheric transport mechanisms caused by the seasonally varying monsoon. The CH4 enriched air mass is uplifted from a high-emission region of the Gangetic Plain by the SW monsoon circulation and deep cumulus convection and then confined by anticyclonic wind in the upper tropospheric heights ( ∼ 200 hPa). The anticyclonic confinement of surface emission over a wider South Asia region leads to a strong contribution of the upper troposphere in the formation of the XCH4 peak over northern India, including the semi-arid regions with extremely low CH4 emissions. Based on this analysis, we suggest that a link between surface emissions and higher levels of XCH4 is not always valid over Asian monsoon regions, although there is often a fair correlation between surface emissions and XCH4. The overall validity of ACTM simulation for capturing GOSAT observed seasonal and spatial XCH4 variability will allow us to perform inverse modeling of XCH4 emissions in the future using XCH4 data.
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