Iron (Fe) nano-polycrystalline metal obtained by sintering reduced iron nanoparticles from iron oxide was applied to an axial flux generator. When the thickness of the core material is 1/10, it has ...the same ability of the power generation as when Fe bulk is used as the core. We can also reduce the iron loss (hysteresis loss and eddy current loss), which enables the construction of thin and axial flux generators with light weight. We investigated the magnetization property of the core inductor at the direct current and found that Fe nanoparticles were produced from iron oxide particles by high voltage pulse or laser ablation in liquids. Core inductors with these materials were fabricated. It has been clarified from measurements of the core inductor magnetization that the relative permeability of the sintered Fe nanopolycrystalline was one million.
Precise measurement of neutrino–nucleus interactions with an accelerator neutrino beam is highly important for current and future neutrino oscillation experiments. To measure muon-neutrino ...charged-current interactions with nuclear-emulsion-based hybrid detector, muon track matching among the detectors are essential. We describe the design and performance of a newly developed scintillation tracker for the muon track matching in the neutrino–nucleus interaction measurement with nuclear emulsion detectors. The muon tracks are reconstructed using the scintillation tracker and another detector called Baby MIND, then, they are matched with the tracks in nuclear emulsion detectors.
The scintillation tracker consists of four layers of horizontally and vertically aligned scintillator bars, covering an area of 1m×1m. In the layer, 24mm-wide plastic scintillator bars are specially arranged with deliberate gaps between each other. By recognizing the hit pattern of the four layers, a precise positional resolution of 2.5mm is achieved while keeping the number of readout channels as small as 256. The efficiency of the track matching is evaluated to be more than 97% for forward-going muons, and the positional and angular resolutions of the scintillation tracker are 2.5mm and 20–40mrad respectively. The results demonstrate the usefulness of the design of the scintillation tracker for the muon track matching in the nuclear-emulsion-based neutrino–nucleus interaction measurements.
Objective
This study aimed to examine the relationships between eating together and subjective health, frailty, food behaviors, food accessibility, food production, meal preparation, alcohol intake, ...socioeconomic factors and geography among older Japanese people who live alone.
Design
A cross-sectional, multilevel survey was designed. The questionnaire was distributed by post and self-completed by participants.
Setting
The sample was drawn from seven towns and cities across Japan.
Participants
A geographic information system was used to select a representative sample of older people who lived alone based on their proximity to a supermarket. Recruitment for the study was conducted with municipal assistance.
Measurements
A logistic regression analysis was performed that adjusted for the respondent’s age, socioeconomic status and proximity to a supermarket using stepwise variable analyses. The dependent variable was whether the respondent ate together more or less than once a month.
Results
In total, 2,196 older people (752 men and 1,444 women) completed the questionnaire (63.5% response rate). It was found that 47.1% of men and 23.9% of women ate together less than once a month. Those who ate together less than once a month had a significantly lower rate of subjective health, food diversity and food intake frequency than those who ate together more often. A stepwise logistic analysis showed that the factors most strongly related to eating together less than once a month were not having any food shopping assistance (men: OR = 3.06, women: OR = 2.71), not receiving any food from neighbors or relatives (men: OR = 1.74, women: OR = 1.82), daily alcohol intake (women: OR = 1.83), frailty (men: OR = 0.48) and income (men: OR = 2.16, women: OR = 1.32).
Conclusion
Eating together is associated with subjective health and food intake. Factors that affect how often older Japanese people who live alone eat together include food accessibility, daily alcohol intake, frailty and a low income.
We have developed a dedicated front-end electronics board for a high-pressure xenon gas time projection chamber for a neutrinoless double-beta decay search. The ionization signal is read out by ...detecting electroluminescence photons with silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). The board reads out the signal from 56 SiPMs and records the waveforms at 5 MS/s with a wide dynamic range up to 4000 photons/200 ns. The SiPM bias voltages are provided by the board. Fine adjustment of the bias voltage for each channel is realized while keeping the dc coupling readout constant, which is indispensable for readout of microsecond-long pulses or at high rate environment. Additional analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) measure one photon-equivalent dark current for calibration and monitoring of the SiPM. The obtained performance satisfies the requirement for a neutrinoless double-beta decay search.
Background: Few cross-national studies have compared the relationship between socio-economic status (SES) and health among East Asian countries. This study elucidates the relationship between SES and ...self-rated health (SRH) in four societies of East Asia: China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Methods: We used the data from the East Asian Social Survey 2006, which consists of nationally representative samples from each of the four countries. Logistic regression analysis of SRH was performed using four standardized SES indices (income, education, occupation and class identification) as explanatory variables to compare the degree of association of each SES index with SRH. Results: A total of 8120 respondents in the age range of 20-69 years were analysed. Overall, social gradients in health were observed in the East Asian societies. In China, South Korea and Taiwan, three of the four SES indices showed a statistically significant association for both male and female groups. In Japan, except class identification, no other SES index showed a significant relationship with SRH. With regard to the differences between the SES indices, class identification exhibited the strongest association with SRH, while occupational class displayed the weakest association. Conclusion: Our study results indicate that Japan has low levels of health inequality compared to other East Asian countries. Furthermore, an index of occupational classes may be insufficient to explain health inequalities in East Asia.
Objectives
This aim of this study was to describe the association between shopping difficulty and food accessibility for elderly people living alone in Japan.
Design
A cross-sectoral, multilevel ...survey was designed to measure shopping difficulty from a food accessibility perspective. The questionnaire was distributed by mail.
Setting
The sample was drawn from seven towns and cities across Japan.
Participants
A geographic information system was used to select the sample: it identified the proximity of elderly people living alone to a supermarket. In total, 2,028 elderly people (725 men and 1,303 women) responded to the questionnaire.
Measurements
The binary dependent variables were shopping is easy/shopping is difficult. A logistic regression analysis adjusting for age and area of residence and using stepwise variable analyses was performed.
Results
The response rate was 58.6%. Overall, 14.6% of elderly men and 21.7% of elderly women consider shopping difficult. The stepwise logistic analysis showed that the food accessibility factors strongly related to shopping difficulty are infrequent car use (women: OR = 6.97), walking difficulties (men: OR = 2.81, women: OR = 3.48), poor eyesight (men: OR = 2.26, women: OR = 1.75), not cooking lunch by oneself (men: OR = 1.63, women: OR = 1.72), not having anyone to help with food shopping (women: OR = 1.45) and living over 1 km away from a supermarket (men: OR = 2.30, women: OR = 2.97).
Conclusion
The study concludes that elderly people’s assessment of shopping difficulty is related to their food accessibility. Important food accessibility aspects include car or motorbike ownership, walking continuously for 1 km, poor eyesight, and having cooking skills and having someone to help with shopping. These physical activity restrictions have a greater influence on shopping difficulty than do either income or proximity to a supermarket.
In the course of infection and intense endotoxemia processes, induction of a catabolic state leading to weight loss is observed in mice and humans. However, the late effects of acute inflammation on ...energy homeostasis, regulation of body weight and glucose metabolism are yet to be elucidated. Here, we addressed whether serial intense endotoxemia, characterized by an acute phase response and weight loss, could be an aggravating or predisposing factor to weight gain and associated metabolic complications. Male Swiss Webster mice were submitted to 8 consecutive doses of lipopolysaccharide (10 mg/kg LPS), followed by 10 weeks on a high-fat diet (HFD). LPS-treated mice did not show changes in weight when fed standard chow. However, when challenged by a high-fat diet, LPS-treated mice showed greater weight gain, with larger fat depot areas, increased serum leptin and insulin levels and impaired insulin sensitivity when compared to mice on HFD only. Acute endotoxemia caused a long-lasting increase in mRNA expression of inflammatory markers such as TLR-4, CD14 and serum amyloid A (SAA) in the adipose tissue, which may represent the key factors connecting inflammation to increased susceptibility to weight gain and impaired glucose homeostasis. In an independent experimental model, and using publicly available microarray data from adipose tissue from mice infected with Gram-negative bacteria, we performed gene set enrichment analysis and confirmed upregulation of a set of genes responsible for cell proliferation and inflammation, including TLR-4 and SAA. Together, we showed that conditions leading to intense and recurring endotoxemia, such as common childhood bacterial infections, may resound for a long time and aggravate the effects of a western diet. If confirmed in humans, infections should be considered an additional factor contributing to obesity and type 2 diabetes epidemics.
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