There is uncertainty surrounding the causal relationship between serum uric acid and hypertension. The aim was to investigate the association between serum uric acid and prevalence of hypertension in ...a general population of Japanese.
This was a population-based cross-sectional study using health check-up data of the residents of the Iki City, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. A total of 7,484 participants aged 30 years or older were included in this study. Serum uric acid was classified into four groups: group 1 (< 357 µmol/L (< 6 mg/dL)), group 2 (357 - 415 µmol/L (6 - 6.9 mg/dL)), group 3 (416 - 475 µmol/L (7 - 7.9 mg/dL)) and group 4 (≥ 476 µmol/L (≥ 8 mg/dL)). Hypertension was defined as blood pressure (BP) levels of ≥ 140/90 mm Hg or use of BP lowering medications.
Hypertension was observed among 3,467 participants (prevalence 46.3%). The prevalence of hypertension increased with elevation of serum uric acid levels: 42.8% in group 1, 55.0% in group 2, 57.6% in group 3 and 59.8% in group 4 (P < 0.001 for trend). This association was significant even after adjustment for other risk factors including age, sex, current smoking, current alcohol intake, obesity, diabetes, dyslipidemia, estimated glomerular filtration rate and proteinuria: odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) were 1.50 (1.28 - 1.77) for group 2, 1.58 (1.25 - 1.99) for group 3 and 1.89 (1.36 - 2.64) for group 4 compared with the reference group of group 1 (P < 0.001 for trend).
Serum uric acid was clearly associated with prevalence of hypertension in a general population of Japanese.
The hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) functions as a center to integrate various neuronal activities for regulating feeding behavior. Nesfatin-1, a recently discovered anorectic molecule, is ...localized in the PVN. However, the anorectic neural pathway of nesfatin-1 remains unknown. Here we show that central injection of nesfatin-1 activates the PVN and brain stem nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS). In the PVN, nesfatin-1 targets both magnocellular and parvocellular oxytocin neurons and nesfatin-1 neurons themselves and stimulates oxytocin release. Immunoelectron micrographs reveal nesfatin-1 specifically in the secretory vesicles of PVN neurons, and immunoneutralization against endogenous nesfatin-1 suppresses oxytocin release in the PVN, suggesting paracrine/autocrine actions of nesfatin-1. Nesfatin-1-induced anorexia is abolished by an oxytocin receptor antagonist. Moreover, oxytocin terminals are closely associated with and oxytocin activates pro-opiomelanocortin neurons in the NTS. Oxytocin induces melanocortin-dependent anorexia in leptin-resistant Zucker-fatty rats. The present results reveal the nesfatin-1-operative oxytocinergic signaling in the PVN that triggers leptin-independent melanocortin-mediated anorexia.
Angiopoietin-1 regulates vascular angiogenesis and stabilization, and is reported to promote bone formation by facilitating angiogenesis. To estimate the role of Ang1 in odontogenesis, we explored ...the distribution of Ang1 and the receptor, Tie2 in the mouse developing and mature first molar of the mandible. At embryonic day 18, when differentiation of odontoblasts begins, immunosignals for Ang1 were intensely detected in the basement membrane and the distal side, which faced the basement membrane of odontoblasts. In situ hybridization revealed that Ang1 was expressed in odontoblasts and ameloblasts facing the basement membrane. Tie2 was localized in the distal side of odontoblasts. After birth, Ang1 was detected in the predentin, whereas both Ang1 and Tie2 were colocalized in odontoblasts and odontoblast processes. These distributions were retained up to 8 weeks. In contrast to odontoblasts, ameloblasts, cementoblasts and osteoblasts expressed Ang1 but did not express Tie2. Colocalization of Ang1 and Tie2 in odontoblasts and selective expression of Tie2 in odontoblasts among cells responsible for calcified tissue formation suggested the involvement of autocrine signals of Ang1-Tie2 in dentinogenesis.
The unionid mussels Cristaria plicata, Nodularia douglasiae, and Sinanodonta spp. were widely distributed in the many ponds and rivers on the floodplain of the Tone River system in the Kanto region. ...In recent years, however, the population of C. plicata in particular has markedly declined, and there is concern about its extirpation in many local habitats. Consequently, C. plicata is designated as an endangered species on the red list of each prefecture in the Kanto region. On 11 March 2017, we collected C. plicata in the channel of the Watarase retarding basin. The shell length of collected samples was in the range of 180–300 mm. No individuals smaller than 180 mm were found. The results indicated that recruitment in this population was not successful in recent years. As there is little information on the locations currently inhabited by C. plicata in the Kanto region, the first step in the species’ restoration process is to confirm the records of occurrence from previous reports. In addition, genetic analysis of local populations is important because other species or subspecies of freshwater mussels, possibly including C. plicata ssp. have been repeatedly introduced for fisheries in the Kanto region from Lake Biwa in the Kansai region.
シリコントンネルトランジスタのオン電流を増大させる方法として、Al-N 複合不純物による等電子トラップを PN 接合中に導入する技術がある。理論的には Al と N とがペアになる局所構造が予言されているが、実験的には明らかではない。そこで本実験では Si 中の Al の局所構造をエックス線吸収微細構造(XAFS)測定によってその確認を試みた。Al に由来する XANES ...スペクトルが得られたが、局所構造解析のためにはより高濃度の Al-N 複合不純物の導入が必要である。
Kuju Volcano lies near Aso Caldera in central Kyushu. After a few hundred years of dormancy, a phreatic eruption began with the ejection of about 20,000 m
3 ash on 11 October 1995. A number of new ...vents have opened on a series of lines striking east–west on the eastern slope of Mt. Hossho, one of the domes of the Kuju complex, a few hundred meters from a pre-existing fumarolic area. After the eruption, there has been continuous steam emission from the new vents. There was the second ash eruption in December 1995. Before these eruptions, seismic events were rarely observed, either near the site of the new vents, or elsewhere under Kuju Volcano. In the nearly 2 years since the first eruption, several thousand earthquakes have been recorded. These events have been very horizontally concentrated just to the north of the new vents vertically between 800 m above sea level and 1000 m below sea level. Very few earthquakes have been located on the southern side of the new vents. There was clearly a strong high-frequency attenuation affecting the seismic waves which passed through the region beneath the new vents to the seismometers south of Mt. Hossho. This evidence possibly indicates a thermal fluid content beneath the new vents, suggesting that there is a seismic attenuating zone in the feeding area of the new vents. Nearly all the earthquake spectra were of dominantly high-frequency, but the percentage of earthquakes with predominantly low-frequency spectra increased at times of enhanced volcanic activity. Volcanic tremors were also observed around the times of peak activity. Slope distance measurements have been made since the eruption. The main results of these measurements are a contraction of more than 200 ppm in distances between Mt. Hossho and points further north. The significant distance changes occurred during seismic swarms. This indicated that the seismic activities influenced ground deformation, even though some of these swarms were 3 or 5 km from Mt. Hossho. The slope distance changes indicate that an area near the top of Mt. Hossho has been moving to the northeast.
The creep tests for welded joints with higher creep rate and lower strength weld metal and with lower creep rate and higher strength weld metal respectively which are subjected to transverse and ...longitudinal loads respectively have been carried out. In case of the joints subjected to transverse load, the creep strain is influenced not only by the magnitude of a gage length but also by the ratio of the weld metal width to the diameter of a specimen. The rupture strength is dominated fundamentally by the ratio of the weld metal strength to base metal strength, though there is an effect of the ratio of the weld metal width to the diameter of a specimen on the rupture strength of a welded joint with higher creep rate and lower strength weld metal. In case of the joints subjected to longitudinal load, the secondary creep rates are affected by the ratio of the weld metal width to the specimen width. The rupture strength is dominated not only by the rupture strength ratio of the weld metal to the base metal but also by the creep rate ratio of the weld metal to the base metal.
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