We examined the associations of intakes of vegetables and carotenes with risk of prostate cancer in Japanese.
A total of 15,471 Japanese men participating in the Japan Collaborative Cohort study ...completed a questionnaire including food intake. Of them, 143 incident prostate cancers were documented. We examined the associations stated above by using Cox proportional hazard model.
Vegetable intake was not associated with the risk of prostate cancer, but so was dietary alpha-carotene intake. The multivariable hazard ratio (95%CI) in the secondary highest and highest quintiles of alpha-carotene intake was 0.50 (0.26-0.98) (P=0.043) and 0.46 (0.22-0.97) (P=0.041) (P for trend=0.224), respectively. Beta-carotene intake was not associated with the risk of prostate cancer.
Alpha-carotene intake was associated with lower risk of prostate cancer among Japanese.
The main challenge with cytomegalovirus (CMV) prophylaxis in IgG donor-positive/recipient-negative (D+/R–) kidney transplant recipients is late-onset CMV disease. We evaluated a novel protocol for ...the prevention of late-onset CMV infection and disease in D+/R− organ recipients.
Our prospective, observational, cohort study included 100 adult kidney transplant recipients. Prophylaxis with low-dose valganciclovir (450 mg/d, 3 times a week for 6 months) was administered to D+/R− recipients. Risk factors for CMV infection and disease were identified. Renal function and the outcomes of CMV infection and disease were compared between D+/R− (n = 15) and recipient-positive (R+; n = 81) organ recipients.
D+/R− recipients showed significant independent risk factors with high hazard ratios for CMV infection (2.04) and disease (10.3). The proportion of CMV infection in D+/R− and R+ recipients was 80% and 46% (P = .023), and that of CMV disease was 33% and 6.2% (P = .008), repectively. D+/R− recipients developed CMV infection and disease within 6 months after transplantation. However, both CMV infection- and disease-free survival rates beyond 1 year post-transplantation defined as late-onset were stable in D+/R− recipients. Moreover, serum creatinine levels at 1 year post-transplantation were comparable between D+/R− and R+ recipients (1.45 ± 0.71 vs 1.16 ± 0.35 mg/dL, P = .26).
Our novel protocol prevented late-onset CMV infection and disease beyond 1 year post-transplantation in D+/R− recipients.
•The main challenge with CMV prophylaxis for D+/R− recipients is late onset.•We aimed to acquire CMV IgG in D+/R− recipients for preventing late onset.•Valganciclovir with reduced dosage and frequency of dosing was administered.•Low-dose valganciclovir 3 times a week can effectively prevent late onset.•Our protocol may improve long-term outcomes in D+/R− kidney transplant recipients.
The β-decay half-lives of 55 neutron-rich nuclei 134−139Sn, 134−142Sb, 137−144Te, 140−146I, 142−148Xe, 145−151Cs, 148−153Ba, and 151−155La were measured at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory ...employing the projectile fission fragments of 238U. The nuclear level structure, which relates to deformation, has a large effect on the half-lives. The impact of newly measured half-lives on modeling the astrophysical origin of the heavy elements is studied in the context of r process nucleosynthesis. For a wide variety of astrophysical conditions, including those in which fission recycling occurs, the half-lives have an important local impact on the second (A ≈ 130) peak.
Conventional MR imaging typically yields normal images of the brain or indicates lesions in areas of high aquaporin expression in patients with neuromyelitis optica. Diffusional kurtosis imaging was ...applied in patients with neuromyelitis optica to determine whether this technique could detect alterations in diffusion and diffusional kurtosis parameters in normal-appearing white matter and to explore the relationship between diffusional kurtosis imaging and DTI parameters.
Thirteen patients with neuromyelitis optica and 13 healthy controls underwent MR imaging of the brain with conventional and diffusional kurtosis imaging sequences. Tract-based spatial statistics and region-of-interest-based analyses were conducted to identify differences between patients with neuromyelitis optica and controls through conventional DTI and diffusional kurtosis imaging parameters. The parameters were correlated to determine the potential relationship between them.
Compared with healthy controls, several diffusional kurtosis imaging and DTI parameters were altered in various fiber tracts of patients with neuromyelitis optica (P < .05). A significant decrease (P < .05) in radial kurtosis was observed in the corpus callosum and anterior corona radiata and left optic radiation. Differences (P < .1) in mean kurtosis were found in patients with neuromyelitis optica. We found a negative correlation between diffusional kurtosis imaging (radial kurtosis, axial kurtosis, mean kurtosis) and the corresponding DTI parameters (radial diffusivity, axial diffusivity, mean diffusivity). Positive correlations were found for radial kurtosis and mean kurtosis with fractional anisotropy.
This study demonstrated differences in conventional diffusion and diffusional kurtosis parameters, especially radial kurtosis, in the normal-appearing white matter of patients with neuromyelitis optica compared with healthy controls. Larger studies of patients with neuromyelitis optica should be performed to assess the potential clinical impact of these findings.
The fracture strength of δ-zirconium hydrides embedded in a zirconium matrix was determined at temperatures between 25°C and 250°C by ring tensile tests using Zircaloy-2 tubes. Essentially all of the ...present hydrides in the tubes were re-oriented in the radial direction by a temperature cycling treatment and then tensile stress was applied perpendicular to the hydrides to ensure that brittle fracture would occur at the hydrides. The hydrides failed in a brittle manner below 100°C where-as the zirconium matrix itself underwent ductile fracture without hydride cracking at temperatures above 200°C under plane stress condition. Brittle fracture of the hydrides continued to occur at temperatures up to 250°C under plane strain condition, suggesting that the upper limit temperature for hydride fracture, Tupper, was raised by the triaxial stress state under the plane strain condition. The apparent fracture strength of the hydrides, σhydridef, was determined at temperatures below Tupper from the measured fracture strength of the tubes, making a correction for the compressive transformation stress in the hydrides. σhydridef was about 710MPa at temperatures between 25°C and 250°C at both plane stress and plane strain conditions. The temperature dependency was very small in this temperature range. Tupper was almost equivalent to the cross-over temperature between σhydridef and the ultimate tensile strength (UTS), which suggests that, at temperatures above Tupper, the zirconium matrix would undergo ductile fracture before the stress in the hydride is raised above σhydridef, since UTS is smaller than σhydridef.
In this paper, we propose an LMI-based design method of a decentralised variable gain robust controller for large-scale interconnected systems with mismatched uncertainties. The mismatched ...uncertainties under consideration are composed of the matched part and the mismatched one, and the proposed decentralised robust controller consists of a state feedback with a fixed gain and one with a variable gain tuned by parameter adjustment laws. Sufficient conditions for the existence of the proposed decentralised variable gain robust controller are given in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Finally, a numerical example is illustrated to validate the proposed design procedure.
Using the high-resolution performance of the fragment separator FRS at GSI we have discovered 60 new neutron-rich isotopes in the atomic number range of 60 <= Z <= 78 . The new isotopes were ...unambiguously identified in reactions with a U 238 beam impinging on a Be target at 1 GeV/nucleon. The production cross-section for the new isotopes have been measured down to the pico-barn level and compared with predictions of different model calculations. For elements above hafnium fragmentation is the dominant reaction mechanism which creates the new isotopes, whereas fission plays a dominant role for the production of the new isotopes up to thulium.
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