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The duognathous haemadipsid leeches of the genus Chtonobdella show a trans-oceanic distribution throughout the Indo-Pacific region. Although passive long-distance dispersal (LDD) of Chtonobdella leeches by birds has been suggested, little is known about the host–parasite relationships between avian hosts and Chtonobdella leeches. In the current study, we investigated Chtonobdella leech infestations of the eyes and other mucus membranes of migratory procellariiform seabirds, Pterodroma hypoleuca and Oceanodroma tristrami, captured at six locations in the Bonin Islands, Honshu and Okinawa Island, Japan. Analyses of the partial sequences of 18S rRNA, 28S rRNA, and mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and morphological examination of the specimens demonstrated that the Chtonobdella leeches belonged to Chtonobdella palmyrae, which is indigenous to Palmyra Atoll in the Northern Line Islands. A dominant COI sequence type was observed in samples from all six sites; therefore, C. palmyrae almost surely dispersed approximately 1000 km by infesting the eyes and mucus membranes of procellariiform seabirds. The host–parasite relationships between procellariiform seabirds and C. palmyrae provide explicit evidence of the LDD of duognathous haemadipsid leeches. The taxonomic status of Haemadipsa zeylanica ivosimae from the Volcano Islands is also briefly discussed.
To investigate the association between suicide death and serum cholesterol levels as measured at times close to suicide death.
Methods:
We conducted a nested case-control study of 41 cases of suicide deaths and 205 matched controls with serum total cholesterol (TC) levels till 3 years before suicide death in a large cohort of Japanese workers.
Results:
Individuals in the lowest versus highest tertile/predefined category of TC in a Japanese working population had a three- to four-fold greater risk of suicide death. Each 10 mg/dl decrement of average TC was associated with an 18% increased chance of suicide death (95% confidence interval, 2–35%). Similar results were found for TC levels at each year.
Conclusion:
These results suggest that a low serum TC level in recent past is associated with an increased risk of suicide death.
Static balloon atrial septostomy is a widely accepted intervention for children with CHD. Successful surgical palliation is creating increasing numbers of adult CHD patients who need subsequent left heart intervention requiring transseptal access. In these patients, the interatrial septum is usually thick and fibrotic because of a previous open heart surgery or catheter intervention, and conventional transseptal puncture may be unsuccessful. Static balloon atrial septostomy to access the left atrium may facilitate intervention via the interatrial septum in such situations. The purpose of this study was to investigate the usefulness and the safety of static balloon atrial septostomy, and the evolution of an iatrogenic atrial septal defect post procedure in adult CHD.
Methods
We retrospectively reviewed six procedures in five adults with CHD and collected demographic characteristics, details of the procedures, clinical outcome, and size changes of the iatrogenic atrial septal defect.
Results
The mean age at the time of the procedure was 35 years. The intended primary interventions were pulmonary vein isolation, stenting for pulmonary vein obstruction, and catheter ablation for focal atrial tachycardia. All static balloon atrial septostomies were effective, and the left heart interventions were successfully achieved via transseptal sheaths. There were no major complications associated with the static balloon atrial septostomy. There were no adverse clinical outcomes related to iatrogenic atrial septal defect, and the size of the defects regressed over time in all cases.
Conclusions
Static balloon atrial septostomy can be a safe and useful technique in adult CHD patients needing left heart procedures. The thick interatrial septum found in postoperative patients may reduce the risk of persistent iatrogenic atrial septal defect.
The characteristic features of a two-sign point vortex system in positive and negative temperature states are examined by massive numerical simulations using MDGRAPE-2. The temperature is determined by a density of states for a microcanonical ensemble consisting of randomly generated $10^7$ states. Since the density of states has a single peak, the system has negative temperature states. The distributions of vortices in time-asymptotic equilibrium states in positive and negative temperature are obtained by time-development simulations. In positive temperature, both-sign vortices mix with each other and neutralize. In negative temperature, part of the vortices condense and form clumps exclusively consisting of the same-sign vortices, while the other part of the vortices distribute uniformly outside the clumps. It is found that the vortices inside the clumps gain energy and the vortices outside the clumps lose energy to keep the total energy constant. This suggests the common and essential role of the background vortices in the energy-conserving system that assists the formation of the clumps as well as the crystallization and generation of the symmetric configuration observed in the non-neutral plasma experiments.