The Borromean halo nucleus 6He has been studied by a kinematically complete measurement of Coulomb and nuclear breakup into α + 2n on Pb and C targets at 70 MeV/nucleon. Fully quantum-mechanical ...four-body breakup calculations reproduce the energy and angular differential cross sections below Erel∼1 MeV for both targets. The model used here reproduces the 6He ground-state properties as well as α-n and n-n scattering data and predicts an average opening angle 〈θnn〉 of 68∘ between the two halo neutrons. However, the model underestimates the breakup cross sections for higher Erel, indicating a possible contribution from the inelastic breakup. Alternatively, we examine the empirically modified calculations that reproduce the energy-differential cross sections for a wide range of scattering angles for both targets. The extracted B(E1) peaks at Erel∼1.4 MeV and amounts to 1.6(2) e2fm2 for Erel ≤ 20 MeV, resulting 〈θnn〉 = 56−10+9 degrees. In either interpretation, the current results show evidence of the dineutron spatial correlation in 6He.
Objectives: To investigate the disruption of neural circuits in the frontal lobes and limbic structures in late-life depressed patients compared with healthy controls, and to examine the correlation ...between the degree of microstructural abnormalities of white matter and clinical symptom severity in late-life depression. Methods: Thirteen patients with late-life depression and matched control subjects underwent diffusion tensor imaging. Fractional anisotropy (FA), an index of the integrity of white matter tracts, was determined in the white matter of frontal, temporal, and occipital brain regions and the corpus callosum. Results: A significant reduction was found in white matter FA values of widespread regions of the frontal and temporal lobes of depressed patients. Also, there was some evidence suggesting that white matter FA values of the inferior frontal brain region are inversely related to severity of depression. Conclusions: These results suggest the possible loss of integrity within frontal and temporal white matter fibre tracts and implicate the orbitofrontal circuit in symptom severity in late-life depression.
To estimate the health-promoting effects of
(previously
) strain Shirota (LcS) that reached the lower gastrointestinal tract alive, we investigated the characteristics of gut microbiome, organic acid ...profiles, defecatory symptoms and serum viral antibody indexes of healthy Japanese adults between the group in whom live LcS was detected or not from stool. The β-diversity index of the gut microbiome constituted a significant difference between the live-LcS-detected-group (LLD) and the live-LcS-not-detected-group (LLnD). In the LLD, the
, and
counts were significantly higher, and the succinate concentration was significantly lower than that in the LLnD. The serum herpes simplex virus (HSV) immunoglobulin (Ig)M antibody index in the LLD tended to be lower than that of the LLnD in HSV IgG-positive subjects. Of the LLD, those in the fermented milk products containing LcS (FML)-high-frequency-group (FML-HF) and those in the FML-low-frequency-group (FML-LF) had different gut microbiome and organic acid profiles. However, the pattern of differences between FML-HF and FML-LF was dissimilar those between LLD and LLnD. In contrast, among subjects with FML-LF, those in the group with LLD in stool (LF-LLD) and those in the LLnD in stool (LF-LLnD) showed a similar pattern of differences in their gut microbiome and organic acid profiles as those in the LLnD and LLD. The LLD and LF-LLD commonly had lower caloric and carbohydrate intakes from the diet than their respective control groups. In this study, we found that the presence of live LcS in stool is associated with a healthy gut environment and inhibition of the reactivation of latently infected viruses in the host. However, these health-promoting effects on the host were not related to the frequency of FML intake. Furthermore, dysbiosis of the gut microbiome and diet including caloric intake was related to the viability of ingested LcS in the gut.
Accumulation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) is associated with age- and diabetes-related disease. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effects of metformin or pioglitazone on ...serum pentosidine levels, a well-defined AGE, in type 2 diabetes.
66 Japanese patients were enrolled in this 6 months open-label study. In the metformin (n=22), the pioglitazone (n=22), and the control (optimal diet therapy, sulfonylurea and/or insulin) groups (n=22), serum levels of HbA (1c) and pentosidine were measured at baseline and 6 months after each treatment.
HbA (1c) and pentosidine levels were not different at baseline among 3 groups, and HbA(1c) was significantly decreased at 6 months in each group. In the metformin and the pioglitazone groups, serum pentosidine levels were significantly decreased at 6 months after treatments (p=0.039 and p=0.031, respectively). Percent changes in pentosidine levels in the metformin and the pioglitazone groups were significantly lower than that in the control group (p=0.012 and p=0.019, respectively).
6 months treatments with metformin or pioglitazone in clinical doses decreased serum pentosidine levels which resulted in greater %change of serum pentosidine levels than the control group, suggesting that these agents may prevent the diabetic complications associated with AGEs accumulation.
Size control of monodispersed particles must normally be performed during the very short nucleation period, because the final particle number is determined by the end of the nucleation and it does ...not change until the end of the particle growth. On the other hand, the shape control is mainly performed by adsorption of shape controllers during the growth period, although in some cases the crystal structure of the nuclei may have essential influence on the morphology of the grown particles. The internal structure of each particle is often strongly affected by the action of shape controllers. This article deals with the fundamental mechanisms of the nucleation, growth, and structural formation of monodispersed nano‐ and micro‐particles, leading to the control of their size, shape, and internal structure.
Most of monodispersed particles are still prepared in exceedingly dilute systems because of the problem of coalescence, and thus the share of the ideal materials is still extremely small in the whole market of general particulate products. This article deals with the fundamental mechanisms of the nucleation, growth, and structural formation of monodispersed nano‐ and micro‐particles, leading to the control of their size, shape, and internal structure.
The J-PARC Main Ring (MR) is currently working on upgrading the machine power reach to 750 kW by increasing the beam repetition rate from 0.4 Hz to 0.78 Hz. This new operation mode is referred as "1 ...Hz" operation. The Fast eXtraction (FX) system in MR needs to upgrade to realize 1 Hz operation, and the improvement will be completed in 2021. The present FX Low-Field Septa (FX LF-Septa) which are conventional ones will be replaced with the new septa which is induced eddy current type (FX Eddy-Septa). The first FX Eddy-Septa system, which included the magnets and short pulse power supply (PS), was constructed in 2014. We have been studying the FX Eddy-Septa system to evaluate the stability of the output pulsed current and magnetic gap field since 2014. In winter of 2018, the 1 Hz operation test by using the two Main-chargers was conducted without any problem. The stability of the output pulsed current was 10 ppm. The leakage field was measured along the circulating beam line, and we found that the level of leakage field was still larger than our requirement. The PS has still several issues which must be solved. The switching time of the Main-charger to the Sub-charger must be reduced, the jitter of time lag between two discharge triggers must be eliminated, and the disagreement between the two current monitor systems must be solved.
Type 1 diabetes mellitus is known to be associated with reduced bone mass and increased bone fractures. This is thought to be due to a decrease in osteoblastic bone formation rather than an increase ...in osteoclastic bone resorption, but the precise mechanism is unknown. In this study, we examined whether or not high glucose or advanced glycation end-products (AGEs), which play key roles in the pathogenesis and complications of diabetes, affect the differentiation of osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells. First, MC3T3-E1 cells were incubated in media containing either 22 mM glucose, 22 mM mannitol, 300 microg/ml AGE2, or 300 microg/ml AGE3. Each of these agents alone did not affect the mineralization of the cells by von Kossa staining and Alizarin red staining. However, high glucose but not mannitol or AGEs markedly increased mRNA expression of AGE receptor (RAGE) by real-time PCR. Next, we examined the combined effects of high glucose and AGEs on the differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cells. The combination of 22 mM glucose and 300 microg/ml AGE2 significantly inhibited the mineralization of MC3T3-E1 cells, and 22 mM glucose in combination with either 300 microg/ml AGE2 or AGE3 apparently decreased osteocalcin mRNA expression. These results suggest that high glucose or AGEs alone might have no effect on osteoblastic differentiation, but their combination could additionally or synergistically inhibit osteoblastic mineralization through glucose-induced increase in RAGE expression.
Our recent data suggest that noradrenaline (NA) regulates expression of Per1 mRNA in rat C6 cells, as a model of brain astrocytes, by two distinct NA-mediating pathways. Although C6 cells possess ...potential astrocyte-type characteristics, we hypothesize that astrocytes located in a distinct tissue or organ play specific roles consistent with their own unique functions in response to the surrounding environment. We have herein found in primary rat spinal astrocytes using real-time RT-PCR that NA induced robust transient increases in Per1, Cry1, Cry2 and Bmal1 mRNA expression. Cry1, Cry2 and Bmal1 expressions induced by NA were attenuated by transfection of Per1 small interference RNA (siRNA). The effect of NA on Per1 expression was partially blocked by either prazosin (a selective antagonist of alpha 1-adrenoceptor) or ICI118551 (a selective antagonist of beta 2-adrenoceptor), and completely blocked by the combination of both antagonists. Treatment with H89 (a protein kinase A PKA inhibitor), SP600125 (a c-Jun N-terminal kinase JNK inhibitor), or PD98059 (an extracellular signal-regulated kinase ERK inhibitor), partially inhibited NA-induced Per1 mRNA expression, and the combination of these three inhibitors inhibited expression to nearly a non-stimulated level. Furthermore, NA phosphorylated not only ERK but also JNK1, an effect that was detected by western blotting. These actions were inhibited only by prazosin, and not by ICI118551. In addition, we found that NA induced phosphorylation of transcription-related proteins such as cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) and c-Jun. These phosphorylation processes were regulated through distinct pathways: CREB phosphorylation was dependent on the PKA and JNK pathways but c-Jun phosphorylation was mediated by the ERK and JNK pathways. These results suggest that Per1 plays a key role in noradrenergic regulation on clock gene expression in spinal astrocytes and activation of alpha 1 and beta 2 adrenoceptors are of importance in regulation of Per1 mRNA expression via PKA/JNK-CREB and ERK/JNK-c-Jun cascades.
Direct current measurements were conducted from April 2003 to March 2004 to investigate the current variability of the Kuroshio near the separation point from the western boundary. During the study ...period, the main stream of the Kuroshio flowed northeastward in the upper layer slightly offshore from the array of four mooring systems, while a southwestward current was observed in the intermediate layer on the coastal side of the array. Analyses based on the velocity and temperature measurement of the mooring meter array revealed eddy‐to‐mean kinetic and mean‐to‐eddy potential energy conversion in both the upper and intermediate layers. Downstream‐propagating waves detected as significant extended empirical orthogonal functions (EEOFs) are predominant over velocity fluctuations of periods shorter than 50 days, explaining 67% of the total variance. The five apparent wave groups have periods of 7–18 days, wavelengths of 220–380 km, and phase velocities of 22–30 cm s−1, respectively, similar to the values reported in previous studies of upstream regions. Although the phase velocity at a given wavelength in the Kuroshio is lower than that in the Gulf Stream, the dispersion tendency (i.e., that phase velocity increases with decreasing period and wavelength) is the same for both currents. The relatively low phase velocity of the Kuroshio is considered to reflect its relatively low background velocity. Data regarding growth rate, vertical phase lags, and energetics suggest that kinetic energy in this region is transferred from small to large scales mainly via eddies resulting from baroclinic instability, which is possibly related to synoptic‐scale path variability and the penetration of areas of high kinetic energy into the Kuroshio Extension.
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