a b s t r a c tWe discuss two methods by which high porosity silica aerogels can be engineered to exhibit global anisotropy. First, anisotropy can be introduced with axial strain (i.e. axial compression). In addition, intrinsic anisotropy can result during growth and drying stages and, suitably controlled, it can be correlated with preferential radial shrinkage in cylindrical samples. We have performed small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) to characterize these two types of anisotropy. We show that global anisotropy originating from either strain or shrinkage leads to optical birefringence and that optical cross-polarization studies are a useful characterization of the uniformity of the imposed global anisotropy.

BackgroundOverweight and obesity, due to a Westernized diet and lack of exercise, are serious global problems that negatively affect not only personal health, but national economies as well. To solve these problems, preventative-based approaches should be taken rather than medical treatments after the occurrence of disease. The improvement of individual life habits, through continuous care, is thus a paramount, long-term treatment goal. This study describes the effects of ubiquitous health care (uHealth care) or SmartCare services in the treatment of weight loss and obesity.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of SmartCare services on weight loss compared to the effects of existing outpatient treatments in obese patients with metabolic syndrome.MethodsMetabolic syndrome patients who met the inclusion/exclusion criteria were enrolled in the study and randomized into an intervention or control group. The intervention group was provided with remote monitoring and health care services in addition to the existing treatment. The control group was provided with only the existing treatment. Pedometers were given to all of the patients. Additionally, mobile phones and body composition monitors were provided to the intervention group while body weight scales were provided to the control group. The patients visited the hospitals at 12 and 24 weeks following the baseline examination to receive efficacy and safety evaluations.ResultsMean weight reduction from baseline to week 24 was measured as a primary efficacy evaluation parameter and was found to be 2.21 kg (SD 3.60) and 0.77 kg (SD 2.77) in the intervention and control group, respectively. The intervention group had a larger decrement compared to the control group (P<.001). Among the secondary efficacy evaluation parameters, body mass index (BMI) (P<.001), body fat rate (P=.001), decrement of waist measurement (P<.001), and diet habit (P=.012) improvement ratings from baseline to week 24 were found to be superior in the intervention group compared with the control group. The proportion of patients whose body weight decreased by ≥10%, lipid profiles, blood pressure, prevalence of metabolic syndrome, change in the number of metabolic syndrome elements, smoking rate, drinking rate, and physical activity were not statistically significant between the groups.ConclusionsThe efficacy of SmartCare services was confirmed as the intervention group that received both SmartCare services and the existing treatment had superior results compared with the control group that only received the existing treatment. Importantly, no specific problems with respect to safety concerns were observed. SmartCare service is thus an effective way to control the weight of obese patients with metabolic syndrome.Trial RegistrationClinicaltrials.gov NCT01344811; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01344811 (Archived by Webcite at http://www.webcitation.org/6alT2MmIB)

The discovery of superfluid 3 He in high porosity silica aerogels, and subsequent experimental and theoretical work, have led to a better general understanding of quasiparticle scattering from impurities in unconventional pairing systems. It is immensely helpful for understanding impurity effects in the case of superfluid 3 He that the structure of its order parameter is well-established. An overview of impurity effects is presented with emphasis on those experiments which have a quantitative interpretation in terms of theoretical models for homogeneous and inhomogeneous scattering. The latter can account successfully for most experimental results.

We report the results of high-frequency acoustic shear impedance measurements on superfluid 3 He confined in 98% porosity silica aerogel. Using 8.69 MHz continuous wave excitation, we measured the acoustic shear impedance as a function of temperature for the sample pressures of 28.4 and 33.5 bar. We observed the A-B transition on warming in zero magnetic field. Our observations show that the A and B phases in aerogel coexist in a temperature range of about 100 K in width. We propose that differences in the relative stability of the A and B phases arising from anisotropic scattering can account for our observations.

Discrepant incidence has been reported regarding the incidence of herb-induced liver injury (HILI). To address the growing worldwide concern of HILI, we evaluated the risk of HILI in a nationwide prospective study. Between April 2013 and January 2016, 1001 inpatients (360 males and 641 females) from 10 tertiary hospitals throughout South Korea were treated with herbal drugs and had their liver enzymes periodically measured. A total of six patients met the criteria for HILI with RUCAM scores ranging from 4 to 7. All these participants were women and developed the hepatocellular type of HILI. One HILI participant met the criteria for Hy’s law; however, none of six cases presented clinical symptoms related to liver injury. This is the first nationwide prospective study that estimated the extent of the incidence of HILI [total: 0.60%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.12–1.08; women: 0.95%, 95% CI 0.19–1.68] and described its features in hospitalized participants.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00204-017-2007-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

High resolution measurements of the specific heat of liquid 3He in the presence of a silver surface have been performed at temperatures near the superfluid transition in the pressure range of 1-29 bar. The surface contribution to the heat capacity is identified with Andreev bound states of quasiparticles that have a range of half a coherence length.

We present the first measurements of the attenuation of transverse sound in superfluid 3He-B. We use fixed path length interferometry combined with the magnetoacoustic Faraday effect to vary the effective path length by a factor of 2, resulting in absolute values of the attenuation. We find that attenuation is significantly larger than expected from the theoretical dispersion relation, in contrast with the phase velocity of transverse sound. We suggest that the anomalous attenuation can be explained by surface Andreev bound states.

Order parameter collective modes are the fingerprint of a condensed phase. The spectroscopy of these modes in superfluid 3 He and unconventional superconductors can provide key information on the symmetry of the condensate as well as the microscopic pairing mechanism responsible for the ground state and excitation energies. We report the discovery of a new collective mode in superfluid 3 He-B which we identify as an excited bound state of Cooper pairs. We use interferometry within an acoustic cavity that is very sensitive to changes in the velocity of transverse sound. Our measurements of sound velocity and mode frequency, together with the observation of acoustic birefringence indicate that this new mode is weakly bound with an excitation energy within 1% of the pair-breaking edge of 2∆. Based on the selection rules for coupling of transverse sound to a collective mode in 3 He-B, combined with the observation of acoustic birefringence near the collective mode frequency, we infer that the new mode is most likely a spin-triplet (S = 1), f -wave pair exciton (L = 3) with total angular momentum, J = 4. The existence of a pair exciton with J = 4 suggests an attractive, sub-dominant, f -wave pairing interaction in liquid 3 He. arXiv:0801.1497v1 [cond-mat.supr-con]