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Monolith was first used as a material for chromatographic separation two decades ago and solid-phase extraction over 10 years, and since then, separation science has undergone a dramatic change owing to advancements in analytical technology. Recently, monolith has been modified to suit various devices for the extraction and enrichment of analytes in any matrices of environmental, food, and biological analyses. This approach has contributed to miniaturization and automation for sample preparation, and it can reduce the time and cost requirements of sample preparation. Recently, numerous applications have been demonstrated for online and inline preconcentration coupled with monolith, and many kinds of devices have been designed and developed for offline devices. In this review, these applications and devices are listed and discussed in reference to other fields.

parts producer. Only full-time employees were invited to participate in the study. At four study sites, all full-time employees were invited. At three other sites, full-time employees who participated in health checkups within a certain period were invited. At one site, full-time employed men who had participated in health checkups were invited. At another site, all supervisors and managers were invited. A questionnaire was distributed by mail with a letter of invitation explaining the objectives and procedure of the study to a total of 29,417 eligible subjects between April 1996 and May 1998. The subjects were asked to complete the questionnaire at the worksite or at home and return it in a thick envelope with their written consent to participate to occupational health division. Information on their IDs was also collected for a future linkage with medical records. A total of 25,104 questionnaires were returned. The average response rate was 85%, ranging from 73% to 100% at most study sites, with an exception (43%) at one site. We excluded 3,026 responses from one study site collected during the health checkups between June 1997 and November 1997 because the questionnaire that was distributed during that period lacked a part of the JCQ scales due to an editorial mistake. In addition, 2,421 respondents were excluded because of at least one missing response for variables relevant to the study. Furthermore, a small number of respondents (n=135) who reported their occupation as farming or in a miscellaneous category were excluded from the following analyses. The data from 19,522 respondents (16,444 men and 3,078 women) were analyzed. Classification of occupationThe ISCO88 classifies and ranks occupations according to the levels of skills required and education needed to perform a particular occupation.11 Legislators and managers were ranked the highest, followed by professionals, technicians, clerks, service and sales workers, craft and related trade workers, and machine operators and assemblers. Laborers were ranked the lowest. Respondents were asked to briefly describe their job titles and their most important roles at work, as well as to select their occupation from a multiple-choice question. Based on the descriptions, a four-digit occupational code was entered from the ISCO88 by trained raters under the supervision of researchers (TH, NK). In this study, the first digit of the ISCO88 occupation code (except for military and agricultural/fishery occupations) was used to determine eight occupation categories: managers, professionals, technicians, clerks, service and sales workers, craft and related trade workers, machine operators and assemblers, and laborers. A thorough review of the respondent's description and coding revealed a problem with this procedure: a number of respondents who rated themselves as having managerial occupations (a section chief or a higher position) in the multiple-choice question regarding occupation did not mention their positions as managers in the description section. Thus, their occu...

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The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), the central circadian pacemaker in mammals, is a network structure composed of multiple types of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-ergic neurons and glial cells. However, the roles of GABA-mediated signaling in the SCN network remain controversial. Here, we report noticeable impairment of the circadian rhythm in mice with a specific deletion of the vesicular GABA transporter in arginine vasopressin (AVP)-producing neurons. These mice showed disturbed diurnal rhythms of GABAA receptor-mediated synaptic transmission in SCN neurons and marked lengthening of the activity time in circadian behavioral rhythms due to the extended interval between morning and evening locomotor activities. Synchrony of molecular circadian oscillations among SCN neurons did not significantly change, whereas the phase relationships between SCN molecular clocks and circadian morning/evening locomotor activities were altered significantly, as revealed by PER2::LUC imaging of SCN explants and in vivo recording of intracellular Ca2+ in SCN AVP neurons. In contrast, daily neuronal activity in SCN neurons in vivo clearly showed a bimodal pattern that correlated with dissociated morning/evening locomotor activities. Therefore, GABAergic transmission from AVP neurons regulates the timing of SCN neuronal firing to temporally restrict circadian behavior to appropriate time windows in SCN molecular clocks.

Job control and role ambiguity may be important predictors of long-term sick leave due to depressive disorders among male employees, independent of depressive symptoms and neuroticism.