Let M be a closed oriented 3-manifold equipped with an Euler structure e and an acyclic representation of its fundamental group. We define a twisted self-linking homology class of the diagonal of the two-point configuration space of M with respect to e. This twisted self-linking homology class appears as an obstruction in the Chern–Simons perturbation theory. When the representation is the maximal free abelian representation $\rho_0$, we prove that our self-linking class is a properly defined “logarithmic derivative” of the Reidemeister–Turaev torsion of $(M,\rho_0,e)$ equipped with the given Euler structure.

Although B vitamins have been shown to play beneficial roles in bone health, the effects of vitamin B1 in humans are still unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effects of vitamin B1 supplementation on middle-aged and older adults. This single-armed trial study included community-dwelling adults in Japan and used a pre- and post-test design. The participants were given 28.0 mg of vitamin B1 supplementation per day for 1 month in addition to their daily usual diet. The effect of this treatment on bone turnover markers and metabolism was evaluated at baseline and after 1 month. Forty-two participants were enrolled (mean age, 58.6 ± 10.4 years; 36 women). The vitamin B1 levels in whole blood increased significantly from baseline after vitamin B1 supplementation. The level of serum tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase 5b (TRACP 5b), a bone resorption marker, reduced significantly (378 ± 135 vs. 335 ± 120 mU/dL, p < 0.001), while the level of N-terminal propeptide of type I procollagen (P1NP), a marker specific to bone formation, did not change. Moreover, the serum phosphorus and parathyroid hormone (PTH) concentrations did not change, whereas the corrected serum calcium concentrations increased and vitamin D concentrations decreased. The serum TRACP 5b levels decreased after vitamin B1 supplementation in the middle-aged and older adults. Further definitive trials are needed to determine the efficacy of vitamin B1 in improving bone health.

The clean energy transition is complicated by material constraints that threaten national security. Idealized proposals for a rapid decarbonization via a greatly accelerated diffusion of solar, wind, battery and other technologies entails massive amounts of critical raw materials (CRM). These CRM include copper, aluminum, cobalt, lithium, graphite, rare earths, and other minerals and metals. In the international debate, CRM are also referred to as “critical minerals,” “critical strategic minerals,” “battery minerals,” “energy transition metals,” and various other terms. The International Energy Agency (IEA) aggressively supports decarbonization, but also warns that zero-carbon scenarios imply that the energy sector's overall demand for CRM could sextuple by 2040. Japan aims for net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050, and India's net-zero target is two decades later. But like all countries, their CRM supply chains are at present unable to satisfy ambitious goals for deploying solar, wind, battery storage, power transmission, and green hydrogen. Multilateral cooperation is imperative to address the growing challenges of CRM, especially their price volatility, security of supply, and Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues. Building a sustainable and diversified global supply chain is crucial to building security in clean energy. One step in this direction was seen in September 2021, when Japan, India and other members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or QUAD, signed an agreement for cooperation in procuring rare earths. This paper discusses potential additional cooperation between India and Japan, for bolstering both countries' CRM supply security.

We examine three tools that can enhance coordination success in a repeated multiple-choice coordination game. Gradualism means that the game starts as an easy coordination problem and moves gradually to a more difficult one. The Endogenous Ascending mechanism implies that a gradual increase in the upper bound of coordination occurs only if coordination with the Pareto superior equilibrium in a stage game is attained. The Endogenous Descending mechanism requires that when the game’s participants fail to coordinate, the level of the next coordination game be adjusted such that the game becomes simpler. We show that gradualism may not always work, but in such instances, its effect can be reinforced by endogeneity. Our laboratory experiment provides evidence that a mechanism that combines three tools, herein termed the “Gradualism with Endogenous Ascending and Descending (GEAD)” mechanism, works well. We discuss how the GEAD mechanism can be applied to real-life situations that suffer from coordination failure.

Using longitudinal data on teams and quality competition results, this study examines the impact of team and task familiarity on brewing excellence in the Japanese sake industry from 1956 to 2018. Sake production involves teamwork at every stage, but while some teams work together long term, others experience high turnover. The study highlights two factors: team familiarity, the collective experience of working together, and task familiarity, the individual experience of the task. High familiarity can strengthen team bonds and improve teamwork, but it can also limit the inflow of new knowledge and thus hinder innovation. This study uses data from national quality competitions and brewer lists, and considers the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 as an external shock to address endogeneity and estimate the causal relationship between familiarity and competition outcomes. The empirical results show that increases in both team and task familiarity are negatively associated with quality superiority.

Ticks prefer specific feeding sites on a host that are influenced by host–tick and tick–tick interactions. This study focused on the spatiotemporal distribution of ticks in Hokkaido sika deer, an important tick host in Hokkaido, Japan. Tick sampling was performed on the sika deer in the Shiretoko National Park between June and October 2022. Ticks were collected from 9 different body parts of the deer to compare their attachment site preferences. Interspecific and intraspecific relationships among ticks were examined using co-occurrence analysis. The collected ticks were nymphal and adult stages of 4 species: Ixodes ovatus, Ixodes persulcatus, Haemaphysalis japonica and Haemaphysalis megaspinosa. Seasonal variations in tick burden were observed, with I. persulcatus and I. ovatus peaking in June and declining towards October; H. japonica showing low numbers in July and August and increasing from September; and H. megaspinosa appearing from September onwards with little variation. Attachment site preferences varied among species, with a significant preference for the pinna in I. ovatus and I. persulcatus. Haemaphysalis japonica was mainly found on the body and legs between June and August, and shifted to the pinna from September. Haemaphysalis megaspinosa showed a general preference for areas other than the legs. Co-occurrence analysis revealed positive, negative and random co-occurrence patterns among the tick species. Ticks of the same genus and species exhibited positive co-occurrence patterns; I. ovatus showed negative co-occurrence patterns with Haemaphysalis spp. This study revealed the unique attachment site preferences and distinct seasonal distributions of tick species in the Hokkaido sika deer.

Although the relationship between dyslipidaemia (DL) and coronary artery disease (CAD) or between trace minerals intake and CAD is well known separately, the exact nature of this relationship remains unknown. We hypothesize that the relationship between trace mineral intake and CAD may differ depending on whether or not the individual has DL. The present study analysed the relationships among trace mineral intake, DL, and CAD in middle-aged and older adults living in Shika town, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan. This study included 895 residents following the exclusion of those with genetic risk carriers for familial hypercholesterolemia. Trace mineral intake was evaluated using the brief-type self-administered diet history questionnaire. Interactions were observed between DL and CAD with zinc (p = 0.004), copper (p = 0.010), and manganese intake (p < 0.001) in a two-way analysis of covariance adjusted for covariates such as sex, age, body mass index, and current smokers and drinkers. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that zinc (odds ratio (OR): 0.752; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.606, 0.934; p = 0.010), copper (OR: 0.175; 95% CI: 0.042, 0.726; p = 0.016), and manganese (OR: 0.494; 95% CI: 0.291, 0.839; p = 0.009) were significant independent variables for CAD in the dyslipidaemic group. The present results suggest that DL with a low trace mineral intake is associated with CAD. Further longitudinal studies are required to confirm this relationship.

We report a case of dilated cardiomyopathy-like hypertensive cardiomyopathy (HTN-CM) with polycystic kidney disease without family history when a 3-month-old boy developed bacteraemia secondary to a urinary tract infection. He was later confirmed as having autosomal recessive inheritance due to the proven PKHD1 gene mutation. The treatment consisted mainly of antihypertensive and anti-heart failure therapies and he was discharged on the 131st day. To prevent the development of heart failure in patients with HTN-CM due to autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD), it is important to improve the fetal diagnosis rate of ARPKD, detect hypertension early, and strictly control the blood pressure after birth.

A high-speed solenoid-type pulsed valve is applied to a water-fuelled magnetron sputtering thruster, which can lead a compact and neutralizer-free electric propulsion device by generating a thrust due to the ejection of the sputtered target material, in order to minimize the size of the gas feeding system. The pulsed valve is opened for approximately 5 msec and the gaseous water is introduced into the source via a gas line connected to the source. A dc high voltage is firstly applied between the cathode and the anode; then the discharge is sustained for the period in which a gas pressure enough for the discharge is maintained and a change in the discharge mode is observed during the discharge pulse. To investigate the impact of the mode change on the thrust generation, a temporally resolved measurement of the force is equivalently performed by installing a pulsed voltage power supply and by changing the pulse width of the discharge voltage. The results show the temporal reduction of the thrust-to-power ratio during a pulsed discharge due to the nonlinear correlation between ion energy and sputtering yield. It is suggested that the use of a pulsed valve would be useful for downsizing of the electric propulsion system, while an optimization to properly control the gas flow rate is needed for further development.

We introduce the notion of completed $F$-crystals on the absolute prismatic site of a smooth $p$-adic formal scheme. We define a functor from the category of completed prismatic $F$-crystals to that of crystalline étale $\mathbf {Z}_p$-local systems on the generic fiber of the formal scheme and show that it gives an equivalence of categories. This generalizes the work of Bhatt and Scholze, which treats the case of a mixed characteristic complete discrete valuation ring with perfect residue field.

This paper reports a complete secondary analysis of Jeon and Yamashita’s (2022) systematic review to build the second language (L2) model of the simple view of reading (SVR). The same meta-analytic methodologies were maintained, with the exception of applying meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM). This study successfully replicated some of the aggregated correlations but not others, owing to (a) the recoding of the original raw data to recreate a dataset and (b) the motivated change in sample selection from a longitudinal study for MASEM. The MASEM results extended previous findings that L2 comprehension skills contribute more to L2 reading comprehension than L2 decoding skills, and together explain a large amount of variance in L2 reading comprehension. The SVR model with metalinguistic skills showed their contribution to L2 decoding and comprehension skills, but no direct impact on L2 reading comprehension, supporting the parsimonious structure of SVR in L2.

It is uncertain whether dietary intake of mushrooms rich in dietary fibre and several antioxidants is associated with a lower risk of dementia. We sought to examine prospectively the association between mushroom intake and the risk of disabling dementia. We performed a prospective study involving 3750 people aged 40 to 64 years residing in three communities who participated in an annual cardiovascular risk survey from 1985 to 1999. Cases of incident disabling dementia were surveyed from 1999 to 2020. We calculated the hazard ratios (HR) and 95 % CI for incident total dementia according to mushroom intake among participants with or without a history of stroke. During a mean 16·0 years’ follow-up in 3739 eligible participants, 670 people developed disabling dementia. For women, mushroom intake was inversely associated with the risk of total dementia and the association was confined to dementia without a history of stroke. The multivariable HR (95 % CI) for total dementia in women were 0·81 (0·62, 1·06) for mushroom intake of 0·1–14·9 g/d and 0·56 (0·42, 0·75) for mushroom intake above 15·0 g/d (Pfor trend = 0·003) compared with no intake. The corresponding HR (95 % CI) for dementia without a history of stroke were 0·66 (0·47, 0·93) and 0·55 (0·38, 0·79) (Pfor trend = 0·01). In men, no associations were observed between mushroom intake and the risk of disabling dementia. Among Japanese women, dietary mushroom intake was associated with a lower risk of disabling dementia.

The central parsec of AGN is a key region for the launching of winds, and near-infrared interferometry is a unique tool for its study. With GRAVITY at the VLT interferometer, we can now spatially resolve not just the hot dust continuum on milliarcsecond ‘torus’ scales through imaging but also the broad-line region (BLR) on microarcsecond scales through spectro-astrometry. We have mapped the kinematics of the BLR in seven nearby AGN, measured sizes of the hot dust for seventeen AGN, and reconstructed dust images for two AGN. BLR kinematics has allowed us to measure the BLR size and supermassive black hole mass independent of reverberation mapping. The ongoing GRAVITY+ upgrade will greatly enhance the sensitivity and sky coverage of GRAVITY, and first results demonstrate its power for AGN science at z∼2 and beyond.